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December 8 – I went to see Spring Awakening on Broadway and loved it. It’s been one of the ongoing dramas of the year – can
SA transfer from the Atlantic Theater Company to a Broadway house without losing its power? There are a few losses and a few gains. It’s of course not nearly as in-your-face as it was in a 200-seat house, but having a bit of distance from the stage definitely enhances Bill T. Jones’s choreography, which there’s a little more of on Broadway than off. There’s a new second-act opener, “The Guilty Ones,” and of course the adult characters are played by new actors, Christine Estabrook (it’s good to see her back onstage in NYC) and Stephen Spinella. Musically, while all the songs in the first act are distinct and pretty wonderful, the ballads in the second act tend to run together a bit. But then the second act has the full-tilt show-stopper “Totally Fucked.” It’s ironic that the most intense, fun, densely choreographed, energetic, crowd-blasting signature number in the show is one that will never ever be mentioned by name in the
New York Times, nor can it be performed on the Tony Awards broadcast. It was fascinating to see how it tore down the house on Broadway like few numbers I’ve ever seen – the show seems even more like a fantastic rock concert ensconced in the Eugene O’Neill – and got the audience so revved up that they responded hyperactively to the gay love scene that followed.
I have to say, I’m more and more impressed with Michael Mayer’s direction the more I think about it, especially the way he gets these young actors NOT to act. It would be easy and grotesque for them to make faces and melodramatize and overact (I’m thinking of the kids in Michael Greif’s production of
Landscape of the Body), but they don’t, and instead what pours out of them is the kind of depth and wisdom and gravity that kids have, which is what Wedekind’s play is really about. I really love this show and have been recommending it right and left. I was delighted that the press kit included the CD, which is a very good representation of the show. Many of the songs stand up fine without visuals, some are great mementos of the stage show, and others emerge strongly as songs on the CD that made no particular impression on me in the show (especially “The Mirror-Blue Night”).
At intermission I had a conversation with Jeff Richards, the publicist and co-producer, who was glumly informing anyone who would listen how review-dependent this show is, that the advance sales were negligible. I assured him he’d be singing a different song once the reviews came out, and yet even I was surprised at how strong and positive and thoughtful the reviews were. I also ran into Steven Sater, whom I met through a mutual friend 20 years ago and haven’t seen since then. He greeted me very warmly and we chatted a bit – I was hoping he would introduce me to the very handsome Duncan Sheik, who was standing nearby, but just then his mother came along and swept him up in a loving embrace.
December 16 – I don’t have much to say about Sarah Ruhl’s
The Clean House except that it struck me as the kind of undemanding bourgeois play that Lincoln Center Theater throws in every so often to please subscribers who complain about their usually stimulating and/or challenging offerings. It’s a total sit-com with characters who have exactly one trait upon which their lines and jokes revolve; the action is completely contrived from beginning to end, starting with a premise that is so lacking in credibility that it scarcely matters how the author shoves the stick figures around. As you can tell, it’s so totally NOT my cup of tea. I felt sorry for Jill Clayburgh having to play the kooky sister of Blair Brown, who plays an equally thankless role. John Dossett is handsome as ever, and Concetta Tomei’s understudy Marilyn Dodds Frank was perfectly fine. Vanessa Aspillaga is appealing as the housekeeper who doesn’t like to clean, but I found the role and the way the character’s used in the play to be exploitative and insufferable. This playwright won a MacArthur “genius grant” fellowship this year, and the play’s been done all over the country.
What-ever....
See previous entry here.
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