ALPHABET SOUP (11): FEATURING A RANDOM LETTER OF THE ALPHABET AND SOME SHOWS THAT BEGIN WITH THAT LETTER

ALPHABET SOUP (11)

FEATURING A RANDOM LETTER OF THE ALPHABET AND SOME SHOWS THAT BEGIN WITH THAT LETTER

L

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since I consulted the Blue London Coffee Mug for inspiration. But today I did, and it decided today's letter would be "L." Today: a stunningly-acted, critically-dismissed play about a legendary star; a pink-themed romp that evaporates into the air the second the final curtain comes down; one of the funniest plays ever; a once locally popular play, now forgotten; an acclaimed one-woman solo show; and finally, a star-studded train wreck.  

Ready? Let's begin.

LOOPED – Lyceum Theatre, New York

February, 2010. Third preview. Set in a sound studio in 1965, legendary star Tallulah Bankhead is called in to loop one line in what would be her final film, Die! Die! My Darling!. Up in the booth, a sound technician (Michael Mulheren) watches and a film editor (Brian Hutchinson) coaxes and flatters as Bankhead struggles to get the one line on tape. That's the basic premise. But, in reality, the evening was all about the great Tallulah as seen through the eyes of playwright Matthew Lombardo. In a tour-de-force performance by Valerie Harper, the iconic Bankhead came to crackling life with one-liners delivered with laser-focus zing mixed in with copious amounts of deliciously irreverent profanity and some surprisingly touching moments, especially the pain reflected in Harper's face as she recalls her critically-reviled portrayal of Blanche DuBois in a Florida revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. It's Harper's show and she commanded the stage like a true diva and, like Kathleen Turner in Lombardo's High the following year, gave the project a patina that elevated the play from being just another middling celebrity-driven vehicle. Harper gave the show, and her role, heart. The production was efficiently directed by Rob Ruggiero and William Ivey Long's dress for Harper was a stunner. The audience had a grand time; the critics less so. It would close after a short run of 27 previews and 33 performances. – at the Lyceum Theatre, New York

Sidebar: Kathleen Turner also played Tallulah Bankhead in a solo show called Tallulah. Bob and I saw it in Chicago when it made a stop at the Shubert in what was planned as a pre-Broadway tour. It closed for "rewrites" and that was that. Looped's creatives were a couple of rows behind us in the largely-empty mezzanine at the performance we attended. I gave what I hoped was a reassuring thumbs-up to them as we exited the theatre. Like I said, I liked it. Perhaps in a smaller house it would have fared better. Although post-Broadway productions have been mounted, I have searched high and low for the script. It doesn't appear to be published and a Google search for amateur rights comes up empty. Curious.

LEGALLY BLONDE – Palace Theatre, New York

May, 2007. Based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde, the musical, boldly shattered stereotypes and, in just under two and one-half hours, demonstrated that perky sorority blondes with an affinity for pink can go to Harvard Law, graduate at the top of her class, and get the guy, all the while remaining the elusive true-to-herself. Omigod, you guys! Too rad! But, too rad or not, Legally Blonde was like a confectioner's treat: sweet, tasty, and full of empty calories. And totally enjoyable. Creators Heather Hach (book), Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe (music and lyrics) gave their talented cast, including Laura Bell Bundy, Christian Borle (pre-Tony Award wins), Orfeh, Michael Rupert, Kate Shindle, Andy Karl (doubling in smallish roles), future Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford, Leslie Kritzer, and Submissions Only co-creator, writer, and actor Kate Wetherhead, lots to do. Directed and choreographed with flair by Jerry Mitchell, in his Broadway directorial debut, Legally Blonde moved like a well-oiled machine, and any parts in the show where it bogged down a bit were steamrolled over to the next segment. The book, all surface and no depth, pretty much adhered to the film, and the score, though energetic and tuneful, didn't leave a trace behind after a song's final note had been sung. The "gay or European" bit went on far too long and bordered on both condescending and offensive, and some of the jokes rankled, but when all is said and done, Legally Blonde was professional, well-crafted, fun, and the audience left the Palace Theatre happy, especially the gazillion teenaged girls in the audience. The musical got a mixed critical reaction, received no Tony love despite multiple nominations, and, even though it racked up a decent run of 595 performances, did not recoup its original investment. A great example of a "B" musical, Legally Blonde was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday evening. – at the Palace Theatre, New York

Sidebar: Legally Blonde may have closed on Broadway as a financial failure, but don't weep sad tears for it. It launched two successful and profitable touring companies, is an enormously popular title in the MTI catalog, and even generated one of those reprehensible "Jr." editions. Not bad for a show that doesn't have an especially memorable moment in it.

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED – Cort Theatre, New York

October, 2006. Preview performance. On its own, Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed is an extremely funny play, but seeing it onstage with the incomparable Julie White, in a Tony-winning, career-highlight comic masterpiece performance, had me and the entire audience at the Cort laughing so hard and so consistently, I feared that we would all wet our collective pants. This isn't an Odd Couple comedy, filled with rambunctious, yet endearing, characters spouting clever one-liners. This is a no-holds-barred, often expletive-laden, ferocious comedy that skewers the singularly American preoccupation with one's sexual orientation. Can you be both gay and a Hollywood heartthrob at the same time? Do you always have to abide by the "rules" to be happy and successful? There's a seriousness hovering over The Little Dog Laughed, but it never got in the way of the outrageously funny goings-on on the Cort stage. Scott Ellis knows his way around a comedy, and he directed the proceedings with precision. That Thing You Do's Tom Everett Scott made for a lovable, conflicted, would-be heartthrob. Roseanne and pre-Big Bang's Johnny Galecki was spot-on as a lovable, conflicted rent boy, who demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt, in a very brief, if-you-blinked-you-missed-it, full frontal nudity moment, that big things can come in small packages. For the record, Mr. Scott  acquitted himself honorably in this moment as well. No, I'm not being a complete perv. It's just that I was thirteen rows back on the correct side of the theatre to get the full, uh, benefit of this bit. Or big bit, as the case may be. STOP!!!! Ari Graynor as Galecki's sometimes girlfriend was the play's least developed character, and that's a handicap right off the bat, and, unfortunately, Ms. Graynor couldn't rise to the challenge, and her performance, though professional and competent, was disappointingly bland. The success or failure of The Little Dog Laughed depends on how well the actress playing the role of Diane fares, and Julie White owned the role, and, though never stealing focus away from other actors in scenes, she owned the stage as well. This is a mammoth role. It requires razor-sharp timing. It requires the skill to take a monologue and turn it into a spoken aria that brings down the house upon completion. Julie White had the timing and the skill and she was simply, wonderfully, totally magnificent. This was a performance on a par with Dorothy Loudon's in Noises Off, and that is meant as a sincere compliment of the highest order. Is this great theatrical literature? No. And perhaps in 2017, it may even be a bit dated. And with a less accomplished cast, it could seem less than stellar. But, at least in its Broadway outing, this was a comic triumph. I loved it. – at the Cort Theatre, New York

Sidebar: I saw White in an off-Broadway production of Teresa Rebeck's 2009 playThe Understudy playing a role similar to her role in The Little Dog Laughed. In this as well, her comic genius shone. She has also been the mistress of ceremonies several years running at Broadway Backwards. The theatre is fortunate to have her.

February, 2007. I knew Bob would love this show, so we went shortly before it closed. Zoe Lister-Jones, who originated the part of Ellen in The Little Dog Laughed's off-Broadway premiere in the winter of 2006, the role played by Ari Graynor in October, was back in the role and, frankly, was a welcome cast change. Familiarity with the show did not diminish the enjoyment and once again I, Bob, and our Cort mates laughed ourselves silly. And for the record, this time I was seated on the opposite side of the stage so during the big "reveal," as it were, Mr. Scott only displayed his backside while Mr. Galecki remained in full view. Sorry to dwell, but you just don't get naked bits in Barefoot in the Park. – at the Cort Theatre, New York

LUNCHING – New Broadway Theatre, Chicago

November, 1983. Alan Gross' 1977 comedy about two yuppie couples, whining about how, at 30, their lives were essentially over and filled with ennui, angst, and infidelity, was a huge hit back in the day. It came back in 1983 in a revised edition, and as a production, it was fine. I just didn't care. Blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine. Ugh. Steve and I went because one of his clients, Robert Neches was in it and we got comps. Set in Chicago and the suburbs and laden with local references, Lunching is one of those plays that, despite local popularity, never go anywhere and is not in the Samuel French, Dramatists, or Dramatic Publishing catalogs. Playwright Gross returned to the Chicago theatre scene in 2009 with a new play based on his childhood in suburban Skokie called High Holidays. It received a poorly-received production at Goodman Theatre's smaller space and, like Lunching, disappeared from sight. – at the New Broadway Theatre, Chicago

Sidebar: The New Broadway Theatre was located in the Jane Addams Hull House Center on North Broadway. A center for community service and home to several theatre companies, the building was sold and remodeled to become the trendy Lakeview Athletic Club.

LENA HORNE: THE LADY AND HER MUSIC – Blackstone Theatre, Chicago

 

 

May, 1984. Lena Horne's life and career were full of challenges, prejudices, discrimination, injustices, and racism. She was a beautiful black woman, too talented and too light-skinned to be easily slotted into Hollywood's preconceived notion of what a black woman should be on screen. But talent won out and by the time Horne decided to tell all onstage in her Tony-winning show, she had become a true legend. She took New York by storm; now it was Chicago's turn. The evening started off with a thrilling rendition of Cole Porter's "From This Moment On," and her commentaries on the songs gave an immediacy to the numbers she so delectably sang. Her stories about her life and career in an era of prejudice, racism and discrimination were told sometimes with humor or cynical reflection, sometimes with a quiet anger, sometimes with a sad resignation. The audience was with her 100%, but then, in Act Two, it all changed. At first the change was subtle…rants and complaints about her Broadway management (the producers for this tour were different) that, though funny at first, devolved into a spoiled diva's pout fest. Then, inexplicably, she turned on her predominantly white audience, as though every one of us was personally responsible for the pain, slights, and slurs she'd endured for much of her career. Fourteen hundred theatergoers instantly turned off. People started walking out, some vocally. And through it all, Horne had this self-satisfied smug look on her face. I get it. Discrimination and racism in any form is horrible. As a gay man, I've experienced it and the LGBT community is still experiencing it. People of color are still experiencing it. Minorities and women are still experiencing it. We're a country of deeply-rooted racism and prejudices, racism and prejudices celebrated and encouraged by the current administration. But, attacking your audience is neither the time nor the place to make a point, if that's what she was doing. Her stories were making their points on their own. We were all experiencing Horne's pain and frustration, as well as her happiness, but then.... The evening continued, but the joy was sucked out of the performance. I couldn't wait for it to end. – at the Blackstone Theatre, Chicago

Sidebar: I've only had two other experiences where I completely lost respect for a performer. One was Danny Kaye in Two by Two, to be discussed in a future post, and the other was Dionne Warwick after seeing her in concert during my ISU days. After what seemed like an interminable delay, Dionne Warwick took to the portable stage in ISU's Horton Field House, appeared totally disinterested, sang for exactly thirty-five minutes, then left the stage, never to return. The large audience was gobsmacked. Sure, we only paid $5.00 for the tickets, but back in 1969, that was a fair amount of money for a college student. The student press was less than kind, no explanation for the very short concert was offered, and I've never listened to a Dionne Warwick song by choice ever again.

LEGENDS! – Shubert Theatre, Chicago

October, 1986. What becomes a legend most? Well, certainly not Legends! On paper this looked like a can't-miss smash: Mary Martin and Carol Channing onstage…together!, a script by James Kirkwood, author of the fabulously funny P.S. Your Cat Is Dead! and Tony and Pultizer Prize winner for the book for A Chorus Line, and directed by Clifford Williams, the esteemed RSC associate director and director of Sleuth. How could this possibly fail? Oh, let me count the ways. When you write a comedy for two bona-fide legends of the theatre, you'd better make it funny and not rely on your two leading ladies to utilize every bit of every tool at their command to make the play the moderately funny evening it ended up being. It was terrible, all right, but not at all a waste of an evening since it gave the capacity audience a rare non-musical glimpse of two of the most beloved stars in theatre. The material let them down, but Carol Channing and Mary Martin did not let us down. Pros even when they had to put up with the nonsense that director Williams and writer Kirkwood put them through. As a harried agent trying to nail the deal to get the two life-long enemies to star in a, hopefully, career-resuscitating Broadway play, Gary Beach was manically funny, giving hints of his future Tony performance in The Producers. But then…sigh. We had a sassy black maid, all stereotype and seriously not very funny, gamely played by Annie-Joe. There was a male stripper scene. Why? And there was a oh-my-god-this-will-just-have-them-rolling-in-the-aisles scene involving hashish brownies that didn't have us rolling in the aisles. Now understand, there were laughs and some huge ones at that, and the audience gave their legends a heartfelt standing ovation at the bows, but in the end, everyone would have been better off if Kirkwood would have just contrived something along the lines of An Evening with Mary Martin and Carol Channing and let his stars do their respective things. Or have them read and sing the Chicago phone book. It would have been better. – at the Shubert Theatre, Chicago.

Legendary Sidebars: Legends! never made it to Broadway, despite rumors to the contrary and an annoucement to the contrary at the show's closing two months after its Chicago run. For reasons known only to their therapists, a production starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans was mounted in 2006 and it traipsed around the country to horrible reviews and shuttered without its proposed stop on Broadway. I didn't see it when it stopped off at the LaSalle Bank Theatre (formerly the Shubert). I didn't feel the need to put myself through that sort of torture. For the record, Legends! is handled by Samuel French in case anyone wants to mount a production. Please feel free NOT to invite me.

Required Reading: James Kirkwood's 1989 Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing should be required reading for anyone interested in the theatre. Recounting every moment of Legends! journey, it's catty, riotously funny, touching, sometimes sad, and thoroughly detailed, letting the reader in on all the happenings and perils of mounting a Broadway-bound play. Though Mary Martin and Carol Channing don't completely get off the hook, as it were, Kirkwood's affection for both ladies is evident, and when you finish the book, you wish the project had had a happier ending.

Until next time…

© 2017 Jeffrey Geddes

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!