OH, THE "L" WITH IT (A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

OH, THE "L" WITH IT

(A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Alphabet Soup)

Going to "L" in a handbasket today. This is going to be one "L" of a post. Sorry, I'll stop with the puns now. In this lineup, there's a spoof musical, a Lillian Hellman iconic masterpiece, an evening of tasty Pinter one-acts, the U.S. premiere of a contemporary-infused look at Henry VIII's last wife, Catherine Parr, a flawed, yet compelling new play that gives new meaning to the phrase "come over for dinner," and, finally, a musical so spectacular in its awfulness that it had to be seen to be believed. Let's begin.

THE LAST RESORT – The Mack, Charlottetown, PEI 

The Mack - Interior

August, 2010. Spoof and parody musicals and plays are hard to do. If you're doing a parody, there has to be enough elements of the original that warrant the parody treatment. If you're doing a spoof, the formula being spoofed must be present and recognizable. In both cases, the finished product must walk that fine line between going too far and not going far enough, and must be performed with honesty and without knowing winks to the audience. Some are successful, for example, the long ago and largely forgotten Summer Stock Murders, Ruthless!, and what could justifiably be considered the gold standard of spoofs and parodies, the Forbidden Broadway series, while others are not. The Last Resort, unfortunately, falls into the latter category. A spoof of Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries with a nod to The Mousetrap and part of the 2010 Charlottetown Festival, The Last Resort had all the required elements, but it just didn't come together. The score tried hard to be clever and witty, but instead was pedestrian and unmemorable. The writing had all the ingredients necessary for a spoof, but was written with the subtlety of a sledge hammer. There were moments when a fleeting smile crossed my face, but I never once laughed out loud. The acting was broad to the point of being irritating, and the uninspired direction at least avoided any onstage traffic jams. The show overstayed its welcome and should have ended by the interval. Judging from the number of empty seats for the beginning of Act Two, quite a few in the audience must have felt the same way. (The Mack, part of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, is a cabaret-style venue, with the audiences seated at tables. My tablemates escaped as soon as the lights came up after Act One.) I've seen worse, far worse, but The Last Resort truly just wasn't very good. For whatever inexplicable reason, it has had a modicum of success in its native Canada. – at The Mack, Charlottetown, PEI

Anne of Green Gables? Pshaw! Cows ice cream is reason enough to go to Prince Edward Island.

THE LITTLE FOXES – Friedman Theatre, New York 

Seriously...this cast!

Cynthia Nixon as Regina and Laura Linney as Birdie

April, 2017. Oh, those wacky Hubbards! This has been in my top 25 plays for decades. Lillian Hellman's masterpiece featuring 1900's most dysfunctional family is given the respect it deserves in this superb revival. Beautifully designed, with the rich attention to detail one expects from the MTC, right down to the peeling paint on the ceiling. A flawless cast one and all, but Richard Thomas' pitch-perfect Horace, Laura Linney's heartbreaking Birdie, and her Act 3 scene was a true tour-de-force, and Cynthia Nixon's icy and calculating Regina all deserve special mention. Nixon's line "I hope you die." was chilling to the core. An exquisitely layered performance. And to think Misses Linney and Nixon switched roles on alternate performances! This was Bob's first visit to the Hubbard's. What a terrific introduction! Now if we could only get directors to stop this nonsense of directing actors with their backs to the audience for long periods of time. Yes, I'm looking at you, Daniel Sullivan. This isn't in-the-round theatre. - at the Friedman Theatre, New York

Sidebar: And check this out. Two Birdies and two Reginas are better than one! Wish we'd been able to see both casts.

https://www.broadwaybox.com/daily-scoop/not-sure-which-the-little-foxes-cast-to-see-watch-this/

THE LOVER/THE COLLECTION – Comedy Theatre, London

The cast. From left: Timothy West, Gina McKee, Richard Coyle, Charlie Cox. What happens in beds is a central plot point in both plays.

January, 2008. Two tasty early Pinter one-acts, originally produced on television in the early 1960s, formed this evening about love and fidelity.  Darkly comic with spiffy acting, both were satisfying theatrical morsels.  Richard Coyle, from BBC's terrific series Coupling, was the reason we went, frankly, but the evening proved to be so much better than we anticipated. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate Pinter more. When I was twenty-one, I saw Pinter's Old Times on Broadway. I remember not either caring for or understanding the play, but marveled at the acting by Robert Shaw, Rosemary Harris, and Mary Ure. Well, who wouldn't? Reading Pinter wasn't much better, but this and a, frankly, terrifying revival of The Homecoming in 2008, sealed the Pinter deal for me. Nicely designed and wonderfully acted by Coyle, Gina McKee, Timothy West, and a twenty-five-year-old Charlie Cox. (Colleen, incidentally, was quite happy to see Cox since she had recently seen him onscreen in the film Stardust.) For the record, Mr. Cox is, well, quite delicious without clothes, a bonus Bob and I especially enjoyed sitting in the front row and directly in front of Cox. But I seriously digress. This was an unexpected treat. – at the Comedy Theatre, London.

The view from our front row seat. "Oi, mate, where's my cuppa, eh?"

THE LAST WIFE – TimeLine Theatre, Chicago

September, 2016. I'm usually not a big fan of updating plays that are firmly set in a specific historical period to modern times. There are exceptions, of course, and I found Kate Hennig's modern, engaging, and very human play about Henry VIII and his last wife Catherine/Katherine Parr, hence the play's title one, of those exceptions. Beautifully designed and directed with neat efficiency by Nick Bowling, history came alive in Timeline's intimate space. AnJi White's marvelous Kate was the centerpiece of the evening, assisted by a strong co-star turn by Steve Pickering as Henry, though, skilled as the performance was, I never had a true inkling of the horror that was Henry VIII in his last years, morbidly obese and suffering from chronic pain and deteriorating health. There was a lot of thrust and parry, and it was all very entertaining and often quite witty. Final preview with critics and blogger types in attendance. We liked it quite a lot. - at TimeLine Theatre

LE GRAND MORT – Traflagar Studios 2, London

A fully functioning kitchen, thank you very much, in this intimate space.

September, 2017. 3rd preview of Le Grand Mort's world premiere production. Written by the late Stephen Clark (he died in October, 2016) and directed by Christopher Renshaw in Trafalgar Studios very intimate Studio 2, this flawed, yet fascinating, study of emotions, death, and broken people trying to find a reason to keep on living in an unhappy world was frequently roaringly funny, sometimes tense with danger and potential violence, sometimes teetered towards unrepentant bad taste, and sometimes was unsure where it wanted to go. Blazingly acted by Julian Clary and James Nelson-Joyce, who, for the record, looked really good sans clothing, this was a true tour-de-force for both of these talented gentlemen. It never was going to be everybody's cup of tea. Some critics liked it; others didn't. I did. And, excuse me, but how many stars cook pasta puttanesca before your eyes in a fully-functional kitchen? I half expected Mr. Clary to pass out plates and cutlery to the audience and start pouring some wine. But, frankly, if Mr. Clary invites me to dinner, I think I'll pass. He's far too fond of shiny knives for my taste! And, no, you won't see this at your local community theatre anytime soon! - at Trafalgar Studios 2, London

THE LORD OF THE RINGS – Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Look at this cast size!

No. Just no.

Some hard-working covers went on that night.

The show itself may have been nonsense, but technically it was pretty damn brilliant.

January, 2008. Oh, dear Christ!  This monstrosity of a show was Colleen's intro to the West End. At her request, I hasten to add. Certainly not ours. Bloated, uninvolving, confusing, musically bereft, yet technically pretty amazing, this was just stunning in its pomposity and its unmitigated terribleness.   Hobbits everywhere. Running through the audience during the intervals! GACK! It wasn't that the hard-working cast wasn't talented; those poor British Equity folks just didn't have much to work with. Standout in a cast that numbered twenty-three speaking parts, twenty-two ensemble, and nine swings, yes, that's a cast of fifty-four (!!!), Canadian Michael Therriault, reprising his Toronto role (where this disaster originated) as Gollum/Smeagol, was truly a knockout and by far the best thing in the show. Oliver Award-winner for Mary Poppins, Laura Michelle Kelly turned in her umbrella to appear, for whatever reason, as Galadriel, the Lady of Lothlórien, and, well, should have stuck to flying about London and playing nanny. It was long; it was boring. It closed after a bit over a year and lost a crapload of money, as in over twelve million pounds. That's a lot of cash. Never a huge fan of LOTR to begin with, this did nothing to make me want to become a fan. – at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

From a spoof musical to the musical version of Middle Earth and Hobbits, from Chicago to New York to Canada to the UK. That's it for now! Ciao!

© 2019 Jeffrey Geddes