THIS IS THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF....AQUARIUS AND MORE!

THIS IS THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF....AQUARIUS AND MORE!

In the theatre, as in life, an esteemed pedigree does not always translate into magic. Likewise, in the theatre, as in life, an underrated or unknown pedigree can sometimes spin gold. Two of today's shows have impeccable credentials, yet delivered less than impeccable products.  One of today's playwrights has won two Tony Awards for plays that, at least in the case of the one profiled here, was more about a scintillating production than a scintillating play.  Another is a not-well-known play by one of our premier living playwrights.  Still another is a lesser effort by a prolific playwright who has yet to have true success on Broadway (and sadly, as it turns out, didn't do so well in television either, although I'm sure by the time the lawyers are through, she'll be able to dry her tears and heal her emotional wounds with a fair chunk of settlement money…just my thought). And, finally, two completely disparate plays that resonated long after their respective curtains came down. 

To start things off, however, I'd like to offer a work that, when it opened, had an unknown pedigree and became an instant and enduring part of our theatrical landscape.

"Let the sunshine in…"

"When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars…"

Hair: the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Make no mistake. Despite its scrappy-sounding description that implies something that was just sort of thrown together, this groundbreaking musical was anything but thrown together. Scenery by Robin Wagner, Lights by Jules Fisher, Costumes by Nancy Potts, Directed by Tom O'Horgan. No, this was definitely not a casual hippie hoe-down. What it was, and still is, was a remarkable piece of theatre that broadly, yet accurately, commented on the turbulent times of its inception, the late 1960s. This was the time of hippies, turning on and tuning out, free love, drugs, anti-establishmentarianism and the Vietnam war.  The show is both a playful and a searing indictment of the social and political climates of the day, especially critical of the Vietnam war.  (For the record, I was in college at the time and had a student deferment. My draft lottery number was 161. I don't remember when the lottery ended, but my number was never called.) Critically praised when it opened at the Biltmore Theatre in April, 1968, Hair ushered in the, as it turned out, rather short-lived spate of "rock" musicals, none of which achieved the fame and success of Hair. The score has its rock elements, but at its heart, it is a traditional theatre score, albeit with a more modern sound, with songs that comment and propel the storyline, character songs, and at least one drop-dead, knock-out ballad ("Easy to Be Hard"). (Do you need proof that at its heart, the score was a traditional one? Consider this: the Cowsills had huge hits with several of the show's songs.  The Cowsills, people!) Hair was fresh, it was exciting AND it had a NUDE scene at the end of Act One. Folks, that was huge. Musicals just didn't have nude scenes back then. It caused quite the stir. To show how much times have changed, when Bob and I saw the revival, I was so involved with the song and everything is so dimly lit anyway, I didn't notice for the longest time that this was the big nude moment and for all intents and purposes, I pretty much missed it.  Damn. It's both sad and a tribute to the talent of its creators that Hair is just as relevant today as it was 45 years ago.  Three programs, three separate productions, each approximately twenty years apart.

November, 1969. This touring production was locally-cast and had a long run at the Shubert. In keeping with its theme, the program states that this company is The Pottawatomie Tribe, Hair Confederacy. The bios tell us the astrological signs of the cast members (the Tribe).  I thought it was hokey then; I think it's hokey now.  Among the Tribe at the Shubert were Andre DeShields, who would later dazzle Broadway in The Wiz and other shows, and Joe Mantegna, before fame, film and "Criminal Minds." As a 19-year-old, this show made quite an impact. I was a somewhat naïve, sheltered college kid. It opened my eyes to a bigger, less-kind world. And I thought the physical production and the electrifying score rocked. Imagine, kids close to my age doing this for a living. I wanted to be one of them. - at the Shubert Theatre, Chicago

From the Shubert Playbill.  And ad for the Original Broadway Cast recording.  Yes, of course, it was a  LP!

November, 1988. This twentieth-anniversary production was mounted at the Vic Theatre in Lakeview in a rare use of this stunning venue as a legit playhouse.  Original producer Michael Butler produced this locally-cast and designed show. I remember enjoying this, but at 38, this just didn't have the same impact as it did when I was 19.  I felt that it was trying just too hard at times to be hip and/or shocking and at times seemed oddly quaint. This cast was called the Natoma Tribe. Yep, still doesn't work for me. If dim memory serves, this wasn't the huge smash Butler was hoping for and it had an unremarkable run. Notables in the cast included E. Faye Butler and a very young (a junior at Northwestern) Brian d'Arcy James (billed as Brian d. James) as Claude. Brian, of course, would become one of Broadway's leading men and one of the many wasted talents in the misguided TV series, "Smash." - at the Vic Theatre, Chicago

June, 2009.  No tribe names here, just The Company, in Diane Paulus' wonderful Tony-winning revival that made this 41-year-old show as fresh as the day it first premiered on Broadway.  Fresh and relevant. If the drugs, sex and rock-and-roll brought about more nostalgia than anything else, the anti-war message and the thumbing your collective nose at the Establishment seemed as timely as ever  With a cast that included Gavin Creel, Crissie Levy, Bryce Ryness and Will Swenson, the story was told and sung with great humor, terrific voices, and touching vulnerability.  We scored first row seats on the stage left side right in front of the stairs to the stage, which both delighted and terrified me. I'd never been a big fan of actor interaction with the audience, especially if touching was involved (all the fake "I love you" crap at Godspell a million years ago drove me up the wall) and I knew Hair was big on getting down with the audience. However, when Will Swenson wants to pay up-close and personal attention to you, well, you just gotta give in and share the love. (Sidebar: Will Swenson is one of the coolest straight men around.) Being so close to the stage stairs, we were among the first to join the cast onstage during the curtain call reprise of "Let the Sunshine In"  and danced (me dancing…alert the media!) and laughed and sang while the audience stood and sang with us.  Amazing. It was especially endearing to see Will Swenson dancing with his sons. And the best? Bob planted a great big kiss on me onstage at the Hirschfeld to the cheers of cast and audience!! Let the sunshine in, indeed! - at the Hirschfeld Theatre, New York 

March, 2012. Edward Albee certainly loves social gatherings. Witness Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Everything in the Garden and the quips and digs that occupy much of The Lady from Dubuque.  One of Albee's least-known plays, Dubuque received a critical spanking and a very short run when it first appeared on Broadway in 1980. This play about death and dying isn't the happiest show to see, and, frankly, it's not always the easiest show to follow, yet as performed by its fine cast, especially a superb Laila Robins, a cooly incandescent Jane Alexander, a wry and knowing Peter Francis James and a harrowing, gut-wrenching Michael Hayden, it had an undeniable hold over the capacity audience. I don't think it's among Albee's best, but opportunities to see Jane Alexander on stage are few and far between these days and that was the main reason we went to see this.  I'm glad we did. - at the Pershing Square Signature Center, New York

June, 2012.  Eugene O'Neill! Robert Falls! Nathan Lane! Brian Dennehy! Sold-out houses. Four hours and forty-five minutes. Three intermissions. I thought I was going die of boredom. I was ready to leave after the first act, but I couldn't convince Bob to jump ship. Characters I didn't care about accompanied by too many Pinter pauses and far too much screaming. Consistent acting, though none of the performances stood out. Dennehy mumbled and Lane tried and overall wasn't bad, but failed to inject any fire into his final act monologues. Production values were okay and it was all served up with the smug pretentiousness that sometimes creeps into Goodman shows. The critics may have loved it, but the people waiting for one of the last #36 buses of the evening certainly didn't, if overheard comments were any indication. Bleh. - at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago

January, 2012. While I wasn't surprised, I was still gratified that Matthew Rhys can do more than just "Brothers and Sisters." While the play was very well acted by Rhys, Adam Driver, Sarah Goldberg and Charlotte Parry, it left me cold and, frankly, quite bored. Lots of yelling and angst by very unpleasant characters. Yes, I know it's a classic and the cornerstone of "kitchen sink realism" that was the hallmark of trendy British theatre of the 1950s and I know I should have responded differently, but for me, it's a "why?" play. Why was it written? Why should I care about these whiny, self-absorbed people? When one of the most interesting things about the entire afternoon was watching Matthew Rhys change his shirt in half-light DL, that says something. And not just about Mr. Rhys' killer body. Sadly, because I really did admire the skill and professionalism of the four actors, I must give this a thumbs down. - at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York

June, 2009.  This is what I wrote shortly after seeing this Tony Award-winner for Best Play: "Tony, Emmy and Oscar winners among this exceptionally brilliant cast.  The ninety minutes flew by in this hysterical play that is much deeper than one thinks at first.  The ever-changing allegiances, the rapid fire change of emotions all make this play far more satisfying than Reza's "Art."  Beneath the laughter, there is great sadness in the marriages and lives of these four people.  But what laughs!  And what great lines.  I know I'm paraphrasing, but my two favorites?  "I don't drink and I deeply regret it."  "I don't have a sense of humor and I've no intention of acquiring one."  Priceless!" Jump forward a year or so. Bob and I are reading God of Carnage  as a possible directing project for him and both of us are thoroughly unimpressed with the script, which seems flat, uninteresting and not terribly funny. Is it possible that God of Carnage's awards and success were largely thanks to the flawless production by director Matthew Warchus, designers Mark Thompson and Hugh Vanstone, and actors Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden? Like Art, is this really more shadow than substance? Is my glowing, hot-off-the-press remarks the result of terrific acting and spot-on comic timing cleverly disguising a mediocre play? - at the Jacobs Theatre, New York

October, 2009. Like her later play, Seminar, I found this enjoyable while watching it, yet I couldn't tell you much about it as soon as the curtain fell.  The basic plot is this: an actor is hired to understudy a movie star in said movie star's Broadway debut. The harried stage manager is the understudy's ex-wife. Never seen or heard, but as much of a character as everyone else, is the pothead crew member who screws up light and set cues. The understudy hates the proliferation of movie stars in the theatre. The movie star is kind of pompous and full of himself. The ex-wife stage manager is frazzled and has several bones to pick with her ex. The pothead keeps screwing up. Everything is lively and fun and cute for a while, but then it gets old and then it just gets tiresome. Even at a short 90 minutes, this seemed long.  It would have seemed longer if it hadn't been for the talents of its three-person cast: Justin Kirk (the understudy), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (the move star) and the wonderful Julie White (the stage manager). I had the chance to chat with them briefly after the show as they were heading out to dinner. All of them were charming and Gosselaar is even better looking in person than onstage. - at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York

November, 2010. In the first few minutes of Arthur Kopit's Wings, aviator Emily Stilson suffers a stroke onstage. That's the catalyst. For the remainder of the short 70-minute play, we watch Emily as she struggles to recover. I read the play years ago and was lukewarm towards it.  As performed by the uber-talented Jan Maxwell and a superb supporting cast, I found it frightening, funny, moving, sad, happy and sometimes all of those emotions at the same time. I found myself getting deeply involved, yet, I was also strangely detached. I can't really describe it. A remarkable, emotional evening that I'll long remember. - at the Second Stage Theatre, New York

April, 2009. Wow! Who had any clue Schiller could be so vibrant and exciting?  Kudos to the adaptor, Peter Oswald!  Janet McTeer and Harriet Walker separately were stunning; together they were breathtaking.  After a bit of a slow start, I was hooked. As in totally.  Minimal in production; extravagant in acting talent, this was truly great theatre. Thrilling. - at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York

That's it for today.  Until next time....go see some live theatre!