B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Glengarry Glen Ross; Deep Blue Sound

John Pirruccello and Kieran Culkin in
Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s savagely funny takedown of cutthroat Chicago real-estate salesmen, has been a magnet for male actors to prove their theatrical chops since it premiered on Broadway in 1984. The flashiest role, chief barracuda Ricky Roma, has attracted Joseph Mantegna, Liev Schreiber, Al Pacino, and Bobby Cannavale, resulting in Tonys for the first two and an Oscar nomination for the third for the 1993 movie version. Ironically, the main box office draw for the current, third Broadway revival of Glengarry is Kieran Culkin, Emmy winner for Succession and Oscar champ for A Real Pain, and he is the weak link in an otherwise strong ensemble. 

Culkin is no novice to the stage, having appeared to great advantage in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including This Is Our Youth and Suburbia, yet he seems out of his depth here. Roma is a shark of the first order, but Culkin plays him as a loud-mouthed guppy. We first meet Roma landing a malleable prospect (appropriately browbeaten John Pirruccello) in a Chinese restaurant (Scott Pask designed the realistic sets.) Rather than displaying Roma’s take-no-prisoners, charismatic sales spiel of Mamet double-talk, Culkin opts for quiet subtlety. In previous productions, Roma aggressively lands his mark and the final line of “Listen to what I’m telling you now” felt like the trap was sprung. Here, Culkin seems to be just chatting amiably with a random stranger. That could be a deliberate choice on the part of the actor and director (Patrick Marber in a low-key mode) to show a contrast between Roma’s cosy sales technique and his later profane, predatory behavior in the office after the intermission. But Culkin never achieves the alpha male status of previous Romas, despite some energetic limning in the second act.

Bob Odenkirk and Donald Webber, Jr.
in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Thus the balance of the play is thrown off and the focus shifts from Roma to the conflict between veteran slumping drummer Shelley Levine (deliciously desperate and blustering Bob Odenkirk) and the corporate functionary/office manager John Williamson (an unexpectedly forceful Donald Webber, Jr.). In previous productions, Williamson has been played as an emotionless drone, representing the soulless owners of the real-estate business, the unseen Mitch and Murray who symbolize the heartless corporate bureaucracy the nasty but individualist Roma stands against. Here, Webber plays Williamson as just as intensely invested in keeping his job as his supervisees. When the weaker Culkin as Roma challenges a now stronger Williamson, the threat is not especially effective. Culkin comes across as a tantrum-throwing student yelling at a teacher which is ironic since he berates Williamson as being a “child” unfit to work with “men.”

B'way/Off-B'way Update: Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, etc.

Elizabeth McGovern in Ava: The Secret
Conversations.
Credit: Jeff Lorch

Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey, Time and the Conways) returns to the New York Stage this summer in Ava: The Secret Conversations, which she also wrote. Based on a series of interviews legendary Hollywood star Ava Gardner held with writer Peter Evans, the production previously played Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse, and will begin previews at City Center's Stage I, July 30-Sept. 13, with an Aug. 7 opening. Aaron Costis Ganis (Blue Bloods) will play Evans. Tony nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagle (Hand to God, Present Laughter) directs. The interviews covered Gardner's storied film career which included The Killers, Show Boat, The Barefoot Contessa, Mogambo, On the Beach, and The Night of the Iguana, her marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, and her relationship with Howard Hughes. (Gardner's turbulent affair with George C. Scott and her romance with bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin are not mentioned in press materials.)

“I am beyond thrilled to bring ‘Ava: The Secret Conversations’ to New York,” McGovern said in a statement. “Gardner’s life was one of incredible complexity, and I feel so privileged to step into her world and share her story onstage at New York City Center this summer.”  McGovern will also be seen on screen this fall in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the final installment in the TV and film franchise.

Jackman and Schreiber Go Audible: Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber will headline two plays in repertory Off-Broadway from Audible and Together, the production company headed by Jackman and

Ella Beatty, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber,
Maggie Siff, and Justice Smith.

Tony and Oliver-winning producer Sonia Friedman. Jackman and Ella Beatty (Ghosts) will star in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes by Hannah Moscovitch (April 28--June 18) and Schreiber, Maggie Siff, and Justice Smith will co-star in Jen Silverman (The Roommate)'s adaptation of August Strindberg's Creditors (May 10--June 18). Both works will be directed by Ian Rickson and play the Minetta Lane Theater. Misconduct will feature Jackman as a novelist who becomes involved with a promising student (Beatty). Creditors (1888) is about a mysterious triangle at a seaside resort and was last seen in NYC at BAM in 2010 in a production directed by Alan Rickman.

Audible and Together will work with TDF to offer free tickets to 25% of the house at every performance to a range of community members who often experience barriers to attending theater such as seniors and students. In additions, 25% of tickets to every performance will be made available at $35 through a digital lottery and at the box office. Both plays will be recorded by Audible and made available at a later date.

Drag, Houses, and Our Class Lead Lortel Award Noms

Jujubee, Jan Sport, Alaska Thunderf*ck, and
Nick Laughlin in Drag: The Musical.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Let theater awards season begin with the Lortel nominations, the first prize-dispensing of the season. Drag: The Musical, Three Houses and Our Class received the most Lortel Award nominations for Off-Broadway with a total of six each. The nominations were read by Francis Jue (Yellow Face) and Krysta Rodriguez (Smash) on April 2. The awards will be presented on May 4 at NYU Skirball. The event is open to the public and tickets may be purchased at Tickets.nyu.edu and at the NYU Skirball box office. The awards are named for legendary producer Lucille Lortel. They are presented by the Off-Broadway League and the Lortel Theater with support from TDF. The nominations are determined and the winners voted on by a committee of representatives of unions, the Off-Broadway League, theater journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals. 70 productions from the 2024-25 season were considered eligible. A complete list of the nominees follows:

Outstanding Play
Here There Are Blueberries
Liberation
Sumo
The Antiquities
We Had a World

Outstanding Musical
Drag: The Musical
Medea: Re-Versed
The Big Gay Jamboree
Three Houses
We Live in Cairo

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Purpose, Last Call, Love Life

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill,
Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas 
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The family drama is making a dynamic comeback this theater season. Cult of Love, The Blood Quilt, We Had a World, and now Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose have taken the template of a family gathering where secrets are revealed and battle lines drawn to new heights. The production, directed with a sure hand by Phylicia Rashad, is now at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater after a successful run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. A powerful cast ignites the playwright’s intergenerational conflict within a prominent African-American family. 

Even though some of the plot devices are familiar, Jacobs-Jenkins breathes new life into them. One character spends a lot of time offering exposition in lengthly monologues to the audience, and, just as in Cult of Love, Second Stage’s earlier offering this season, a convenient heavy snowstorm keeps the combative characters from leaving the fray. Last season, Second Stage revived his Appropriate in which a white family must confront its history of racism. Here he shows the opposite side of the coin. The setting is the impressive Chicago home of the Jaspers (Todd Rosenthal designed the attractive set complete with many paintings and mementoes telling us important details about the residents.) Father Solomon or “Sonny” and mother Claudine were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and are still important members of the community and nationally famous. Sons Nazareth or “Naz,” a reclusive nature photographer, and Solomon Junior, a disgraced politician just out of jail for white-collar crime, are visiting. (Naz is the loquacious narrator, explaining the background for us.) Also in the house are Junior’s bitter wife Morgan, about to enter prison for charges related to her husband’s, and Aziza, a friend of Naz’s who is dazzled by his parents’ glorious reputations. 

Jon Michael Hill, Alana Arenas, Kara Young
and Glenn Davis in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

How these six come into conflict is the stuff of Jacobs-Jenkins’ drama. Both Naz and Junior have disappointed their demanding father. Junior and Morgan’s marriage is falling apart and that of Solomon and Claudine is showing cracks. Solomon’s past sexual indiscretions are beginning to resurface. The true nature of Naz and Aziza’s relationship is gradually brought to light, causing shock waves. The climate crisis, the racist prison system, the roadblocks and speed bumps against social justice erected by the Trump administration (though that name is never mentioned) all come in for full debate. And, of course, hidden agendas and secrets are revealed in an explosive dinner scene, staged with perfect building tension by Rahsad. Through the Jaspers’ struggles, Jacobs-Jenkins takes the temperature of the current African-American experience. He also leavens the proceedings by giving Solomon the unusual hobby of beekeeping which provides an important plot twist. Using humor and pathos Jacobs-Jenkins delineates the frustrations and ambiguities of the aftermath of the Civil Rights struggles and the current search for purpose.  

Book Review: Onlookers: Stories by Ann Beattie

(Taken out of the NYPL, 40th Street, Manhattan) Several books ago, I wrote that I could pen a parody of John Irving: bears or lions, transgender characters, somebody spending their growing up in Europe and winding up a writer. Now, I feel like I could do a satire of an Ann Beattie short story after having reading so many of them. A female narrator is at a crossroads. She's doing some kind of typical activity, like cleaning her house or visiting an elderly relative. Every moment of her day calls to mind a friend, relative or casual acquaintance which in turn calls to mind a plethora of eccentric but incredibly specific details like a favorite song, book, or keepsake. 

Onlookers, Beattie's latest collection, fits the bill. Six long short stories or short novellas chronicle the tribulations of a group of interrelated Charlottesville, Virginia residents in 2020. They're in a state of transition and uncertainty. Each is affected by the COVID pandemic, the 2017 Unite the Right march and counterprotest, Trump's presidency, and the controversy of Confederate statues. As with most of Beattie's work, there were times when there were so many characters I couldn't keep track of who was who--particularly in the last piece "The Bubble." 

At first it was about a worker in a nursing home, engaged to two different women in quick succession. Then the focus shifts to his older female co-worker who has a husband recovering from an injury, and two difficult sons, one of whom is mixed up with the torchbearers at the racist protest. Plus there is a girl working at the home making a graphic novel ridiculing the staff and patients. Then someone has a baby in the ladies room at alternative arts center and there seems to be another demonstration around the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, but it turns out to be a movie being filmed. Really confusing.

I liked the first story "Pegasus" and the third, "Nearby," because I could more or less follow them. In "Pegasus," a young writer is living with her fiancee's father, a retired doctor, while her intended is in Japan pursuing an acting job. She establishes a loving connection with her future father-in-law and the theme of chosen families in uncertain times is clear.

"Nearby" follows a literature professor as she helps one of her students pay for new tires on his dilapidated car and then witnesses yet another protest with her husband who is also in recovery. 

Some Beattie works such as the novel, My Life Starring Dara Falcon, I found difficult to get into because I couldn't identify with any of the loopy characters. Except for the eccentric "Bubble," I felt a connection with these Charlottesville people.

B'way Update: The Return of Scott Rudin

Banished producer Scott Rudin says 
he's gone through therapy, made apologies,
 and plans toreturn to Broadway.

According to the New York Times, producer Scott Rudin is planning a return to Broadway following a long absence due to his abusive behavior with subordinates. Rudin stepped away from producing on stage and film in 2021 after articles in the Hollywood Reporter and New York magazine alleged his verbal abuse, bullying, throwing objects, pushing assts. from a moving car, smashing a computer on an assistant's hand and firing an assistant for bringing him the wrong kind of muffin. He also resigned from the Broadway League and withdrew from the Broadway revival of The Music Man as well as from five A24 films including Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once, and  Alex Garland's Men. He has won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and 18 Tony Awards. Rudin states he has undergone therapy and apologized publicly and to certain individuals. 

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock
in Little Bear Ridge Road at Steppenwolf.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

In the Times article, Rudin states he plans to produce Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale, Grangeville) in the fall. The play will star Laurie Metcalf, following the play's premiere last year at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello. The play, set as most of Hunter's works are in Idaho, centers on an estranged aunt and nephew settling the estate of their brother and father at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic. In the spring, Rudin will reunite Metcalf and Mantello as star and director for David Hare's new play Montauk. A revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is planned for the 2026-27 season to star Nathan Lane and Metcalf with Mantello directing. Such a production with Lane, Metcalf and Mantello was announced in 2020, but the pandemic shut down theaters and another Salesman with Wendell Burton came to Broadway from London after the theaters re-opened. (Presumably, Metcalf will have more time for the stage now that The Conners is ending its seven-season run on ABC.)

Rudin also intends to present Cottonfield by Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park, Downstate) and directed by Robert O'Hara (Shit. Meet. Fan.) on Broadway in the fall of 2025. (Side note: The New York magazine article from 2021 says that Rudin pulled out of the Broadway production of Clybourne Park and two other Norris plays when the actor-playwright withdrew from a Rudin-produced HBO pilot.) There will also be an Off-Broadway production of Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by Andre Gregory, Shawn's co-star from My Dinner With Andre.

B'way/Off-Bway Reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray; Othello; The Jonathan Larson Project

Sarah Snook in The Picture of
Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

In a dazzling feat of technology and acting pyrotechnics, Sarah Snook of Succession fame  plays 26 characters and brings Oscar Wilde’s 1891 classic of gothic horror The Picture of Dorian Gray to vital life in the 21st Century. Adapter-director Kip Williams employs a small army of black-clad camera operators and a flotilla of flying video screens to create a modern update on this shattering morality tale. Not surprisingly, our era of shallow Instagram posts and click-bait is a perfect fit for Wilde’s story of the titular libertine whose portrait ages while he remains young and beautiful.

Williams’ ingenious staging combines live action with multiple video reflections emphasizing Wilde’s theme of deceptive pretty surfaces concealing inner corruption. The intricate video design is by David Bergman. When we first enter the Music Box Theater, we are greeted by a gigantic screen and an empty stage. Snook is first discovered way upstage being filmed. The actual actress is dwarfed by her cinematic reproduction. As she switches roles, she employs simple props like a paintbrush to denote the artist Basil Hallward and a cigarette for the hedonistic Lord Harry Wotton to puff. She is then fitted with a blonde wig in order to become the self-absorbed Dorian Gray and then something miraculous happens. Various versions of Snook as different characters appear on the screens and she interacts with herself, creating the illusion of a stage full of actors. This reinforces the theme of surface versus soul. 

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

As the evening progresses, the screens multiply, flying in and out of the action, creating a ballet of reality conflicting with reproduction. The action sometimes spills backstage and into the bowels of the theater, recreating a low dive. At one point, an entire dinner party is simulated as five Snooks dine with the genuine article (it’s hard to tell which is the real one.) Marg Howell’s sumptuous Victorian-era costumes come in handy here in distinctly differentiating the characters, and a special shout-out to hair and make-up supervisor Nick Eynaud. Snook’s acting is magnificent in conjuring up the spectrum of British society from the upper crust to the lower dregs. She’s especially moving in depicting Dorian’s conflict over his narcissistic indulgence and eventual guilt. She’s also hilariously inept as the actress Sybil Vane, Dorian’s love object, purposefully acting badly as Juliet.

Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Sybil is one of the few female roles and Snook’s easy leaping back and forth over the gender line emphasizes the queer sensibility of Wilde’s original. Lord Harry is obviously sexually attracted to Dorian and acting on the love that dare not speak its name is most likely among the many “sins” that Dorian commits during his pursuit of pleasure at all costs. 

Modern technology is also more directly interjected into this 19th century tale, but the contemporary flourishes do not feel forced. It seems like the most natural thing in the world for Lord Harry and his Billie Burke-like aunt to whip out their I-phones to text their snide witticisms on London society and for the stagehands to inject them with Botox as they sip tea. In one bravura sequence, Snook as Dorian alters his/her appearance through filters on an I-phone which is projected on one of the giant screens. Dorian literally changes before our very eyes. All these clicks and tweaks are executed by Snook while delivering Wilde’s scintillating prose, seemingly without taking a breathe. A mini-tour de force within a larger one.

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal 
in Othello.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

While Sarah Snook is believably performing two dozen characters, Denzel Washington is giving a showy, actor-ly accounting of the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello at the Barrymore while his above-the-title co-star Jake Gyllenhaal focuses on the inner workings of Othello’s nemesis Iago and shows us more of the character than the actor. Kenny Leon’s high-profile production is making the headlines because of its exorbitant ticket prices (the top ducat is nearly $1,000). The big query on many theatergoers’ minds is: is the revival really worth that much? That’s an individual question of taste and priority, but my take is this is a decent enough production which grips the audience and imparts the Bard’s intense depiction of jealousy. It’s not spectacular but it’s a satisfying evening.