Send in the Stars
Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch make ‘Night Music’
By Mark Peikert
What a difference a few months and two new cast members make. When I saw Trevor Nunn’s production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music last December, I was blown away by both Catherine Zeta-Jones—who ended up winning a Tony Award for her performance as actress Desirée Armfeldt—and Alexander Hanson, as her married former lover Fredrik. The rest of this elegiac musical about lust and love, set in turn-of-the-last-century Sweden, felt serviceable at best, and egregious at worst. Having just seen the show with Bernadette Peters stepping in for Zeta-Jones and Elaine Stritch replacing Angela Lansbury, I still maintain that the revival is less than sparkling, but for different reasons. Read more
Review: Shakespeare in the Park
Pacino shines in ‘Merchant’; ‘Winter’s Tale’ intoxicates
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice has meant very different things at very different times. It began its stage life with a comic Shylock in a false nose and evolved through the centuries into a drama of great pathos. But whether you see this play as a comedy or tragedy, Daniel Sullivan’s staging at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, starring Al Pacino as Shylock, is incisive and arresting. Read more
Summer Guide 2010: Theater
Marathon 2009
After 30 years, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s One-Act Play Festival is still going strong, with options ranging from the economy to a showdown between a nun and her most rebellious student. If unproven talent gets you down, the E.S.T. Festival is for you during the summer months.
May 22 through June 27, E.S.T., 549 W. 52nd St. (at 10th Ave.), 212-247-4982, www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org Read more
The Real Housewives of Brooklyn
When a play has so moving and complete an effect on audiences as Alan Brody’s Housewives of Mannheim, now at the 59E59 Theaters, news spreads fast. Many people have already seen this charming play when it was staged last year by the New Jersey Rep Company at Long Branch. Housewives, which is the first part of a trilogy, arrives in New York with its original cast. Read more
In Search of the American Dream
By Deirdre Donovan
If it were not for Lauren Yee’s insight, Ching Chong Chinaman would just be another play about Asian Americans. But Lee punctures the old stereotypes in her new work, staged by the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre at the West End Theatre, and gives us a portrait of super-assimilated Asians in search of a fresh corner of the American dream. Read more
A ‘Rink’ Worth Revisiting
By Deirdre Donovan
The Rink: The title doesn’t exactly roar down memory lane, does it? When The Rink opened on Broadway in February 1984, it was widely seen as a flop and flippantly referred to by critics as “The Rank.” Even so, the musical had first-rate talents in co-stars Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli, and skated on for 204 performances, including 29 previews. Rivera won her first Tony Award playing the Italian mom, and the Kander-Ebb music, if not the team’s best effort, had some likable melodies. Read more
Theater Thaw
By Deirdre Donovan
Setting aside the wonders of Broadway, The Gilbert & Sullivan Fest tucks in at City Center and the Off-Broadway scene is popping with a new play by Sam Shepard. Here’s a selective guide to some promising shows:
Off Broadway
59E59 Theaters: Just completing its popular “Brits Off Broadway” series Jan. 3, this up-and-coming arts complex has three productions waiting in the wings: Rough Sketch (opens Jan. 17), The Man in Room 306 (opens Jan. 20) and Happy Now? (opens Feb. 9). Want cutting-edge theater imported from all over the world? Interested in previewing shows that have gigs at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival? Prefer fresh contemporary works to retooled classics? This theater is your best bet. 59 E. 59th St., 212-753-5959. Read more
No Small Fry
By Deirdre Donovan
When the going gets tough, this teacher goes to the Comic Strip Live Theater. Jack Freiberger’s new solo show, They Call Me Mister Fry, is a love letter to teachers, based on the true story of his first year as a 5th-grade teacher in South Central Los Angeles. Written by and starring Freiberger, this work combines the optimism of Patch Adams with the gritty reality of an inner-city classroom. Read more
A Zippy ‘Zero’
By Deirdre Donovan
If it takes a star to play a star, then toss some stardust on Jim Brochu, who brilliantly shines in Zero Hour at St. Clement’s Theater. Starring and written by Brochu, this new solo work is a kind of homage to Zero Mostel, the legendary actor who left an indelible mark on American theater.
Brochu, who first met Mostel backstage in 1962 during the run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, learned first-hand that Mostel never minced words or tolerated fools.<!–more–> In spite of the actor’s lacerating tongue, however, Brochu had a deep admiration of Mostel. This show draws upon that genuine feeling.
A brilliant Jim Brochu captures famed actor Zero Mostel’s legendary arched eyebrow. Photo by Stan Barouh
Zero Hour invites you to be a time-traveler through a wide swath of the 20th century. We eavesdrop on stories of Mostel’s boyhood on the Lower East Side, where he acquired his nickname “Zero,” purportedly an average of his elementary school marks. His penchant for stand-up comedy was quickly noticed by theater personalities as he shuttled from the Borscht Belt to Manhattan’s upscale supper clubs in the 1940s. Beyond café society, his big break in New York was performing the lead in Ulysses in Nighttown, an adaptation of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. This was followed by his literally transforming role from human to hoofed pachyderm in Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. Success had landed with a heavy thud all right. But both acts would be topped by his incredible turns on Broadway in Forum and Fiddler on the Roof, which firmly cemented Mostel’s stardom in the 1960s.
Curiously, the most compelling scenes in Zero Hour are the evoking of Mostel’s “blacklist” years and his love-hate relationship with Jerome Robbins. Mostel, whose testimony before the House of Un-American Activities Committee was highly publicized and career damaging, found it difficult to forgive Robbins for divulging to the committee names of theater professionals. Nonetheless, we see here how Mostel eventually was forced to come to terms (sort of) with Robbins, when the director-choreographer saved Forum from being a Broadway flop in 1962.
Brochu knows he is treading on hallowed ground here. But this biographical show never overreaches. Wisely, he doesn’t attempt to outdo his inspiration. In fact, he basically plays his voluble role sitting behind a small desk—dressed in a nondescript shirt, neck scarf and pants—finessing a portrait of the naïve reporter who is interviewing him. Yet during those scenes when he is re-enacting key moments from Mostel’s career, Brochu will raise his eyebrows to an incredulous height, affect a dramatic pose and give us a crackling glimpse of one of the actor’s routines. Under the apt direction of Piper Laurie, this is a bioplay, not a rehashing of Mostel’s classic performances.
Along with praise for the piece, I must say that a bit more music or some actual footage of video recordings from Mostel’s original stage performances would add more zest to the evening. The set design by Josh Iacovelli is suitably ragtag and has that devil-may-care aura. But for all its Bohemian atmosphere, a fleeting glimpse of the real Zero Mostel on screen might serve as effective punctuation to this production.
Still, Brochu is as theatrically right as he can be here. And by being intelligently himself, Brochu gives us a mesmerizing portrait of Mostel.
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<em><strong>Zero Hour</strong></em>
Through Jan. 31
Theater at St. Clement’s
423 W. 46th St.
Tickets, $35 to $55, are available at 212-239-6200 or
<a href=”http://www.telecharge.com”>www.telecharge.com</a>
Making Her Mark at Miller
By Kevin Filipski
When George Steel left as executive director of Miller Theater in 2008 to head the Dallas Opera—he now is running New York City Opera—no one needed to look far for his replacement. Melissa Smey, the Miller’s general manager for eight years, became its new director, and she will continue programming the theater’s unusual mix of contemporary and baroque music, putting her own stamp on one of Manhattan’s most innovative venues. Read more
