B'way Update: Much Ado About Nothing

Hayley Atwell, Tom Hiddleston, and company
in Jamie Lloyd's staging of
Much Ado About Nothing.
Credit: Marc Brenner

Tony nominee Tom Hiddleston and Olivier nominee Hayley Atwell will recreate their starring roles in Jamie Lloyd's staging of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing transfers from London's West End to Broadway this coming fall for a limited-ten week engagement at a Shubert theater to be announced. Hiddleston collaborated with Lloyd previously on Harold Pinter's Betrayal which played Broadway and London. Atwell is making her Broadway debut. She appeared in Lloyd's staging of The Pride and received an Olivier nomination. 

Both stars are probably best known for their recurring roles in the Marvel Comics Universe film and TV franchise. Hiddleston has played Loki, the evil brother of Thor and Atwell portrayed Agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger and the Agent Carter TV series.

This will be the 16th Broadway production of the Bard's comedy of clashing wills between combatants Beatrice and Benedick. Previous stagings have starred John Gielgud and Margaret Leighton (1959), Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes (1972) and Derek Jacobi (Tony Award) and Sinead Cusack (1985). Memorable Central Park version were headlined by Kevin Kline and Blythe Danner in 1988 and by Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman in 2019. Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in a film version in 1993 opposite his then-wife Emma Thompson.

Off-B'way Review: The Dinosaurs

April Matthis, Mallory Portnoy,
Maria Elena Ramirez, and Elizabeth Marvel
in The Dinosaurs.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Jacob Perkins’ The Dinosaurs at Playwrights Horizons starts out like a straightforward depiction of a weekly support group modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous. (The play’s Sisters in Sobriety has some significant differences. Only women are allowed to participate and time rules for sharing individual stories and reflections are strictly enforced.) While the structure at first seems linear, gradually time shifts back and forwards as the members suddenly appear at different points in their struggle to deal with their demons. The sterling performances, Les Waters’ precise direction and Yuki Link’s sensitive lighting help us to clearly navigate the tides of Perkins’ constantly changing river of time. (The design team of dots created the realistic meeting space and Oana Botez’s costumes subtly tell us much about each character.) What emerges is a fluid portrait of women in crisis and how they support each other.

April Matthis, Kathleen Chalfant, and
Elizabeth Marvel in The Dinosaurs.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

It’s a compassionate profile of the recovery process. The title probably refers to the veterans in the program who pass on their coping mechanisms and wisdom. All but one of the characters have similar names—Jolly, Joan, Jane, Janet, Joane—suggesting they may be aspects of the same personality or that their stories are similar and they are all following paths towards sobriety. Rayna, the only one with a different monicker, enters at the beginning as a potential new member, chatting about cupcakes with early arrival Jane. But she leaves in a panic before the others arrive and then comes in and out as a visitor from the future but never completely joins in. It’s significant that she also goes by the nickname Buddy, indicating she can stand in for a variety of identities within the group. 

The time and character shifts can be a trifle confusing at first, but once the rhythm is established, we get to know the women’s stories, feelingly relayed by six brilliant actresses. April Matthis conveys unspoken depths as Jane who doesn’t get t tell her complete narrative but feels a connection to Rayna, played with similar reams of subtext by Keilly McQuail.  

Keilly McQuail in The Dinosuars.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Elizabeth Marvel is spiky and jagged as the tightly wound Joan, meticulously managing coffee and pastries while clinging desperately to sanity. Kathleen Chalfant as the aptly named Jolly is bubbly and full of compassion. Mallory Portnoy as Janet and Maria Elena Ramirez as Joane deliver shattering monologues on harrowing experiences which test their sobriety. Janet’s is a surrealistic dream and Joane’s reveals an uncomfortable family secret. Both are beautifully written and performers as is the whole of this sensitive play. 

Feb. 16—March 1. Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 15 mins. with no intermission. playwrightshorizons.org. 

Book Review: Anagrams

(Read on my phone on the Libby app.) At about 100 pages into Lorrie Moore's first novel, I said to myself, "What the hell is going on here?" There are four sections and the first three are short vignettes with three main characters, recurring in each section but with different relationships and circumstances. Then the final long, novella-length section is the "reality" of their shared situation (I guess). Then I remembered the title and realized what Moore was doing--rearranging the plots and characters like anagrams in a puzzle. I won't reveal too much of the multiple, shifting storylines, except they revolve around Benna, who is either an amateur nightclub singer or a community college professor of art history or poetry. Musician-singer Gerard may or may not be in love with her. Benna's friend Eleanor is the third point of a triangle or maybe she's not. 

I've enjoyed Moore's short stories and her other novel Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Here, the characters may like wordplay a bit too much. They are always making clever puns. But I did feel the emotions for which the jokes act as a shield. Benna, Gerard, Eleanor, and other characters Darrel and Louis are all desperately lonely with tragedies impacting them. Their aches comes across in their eccentric actions and Moore depicts them with compassion.

Off-B'way Review: The Monsters; High Spirits

Aigner Mizzelle and Okieriete Onaodowan
in The Monsters.
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

The two-actor cast of Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Monsters at the intimate Stage II at City Center in a Manhattan Theater Club production, go through quite a workout in its 90-minute running time, both physically and emotionally. So does the audience. Anyanwu’s tight and devastating script rings some familiar bells in the estranged-family division, but her script is honest and heartfelt. Her direction is well-paced and, with the aide of Cha See’s lighting, creatively transforms Andrew Boyce’s simple gym setting into a myriad of locales.

As the play opens, Big and Lil (short for Little) are disconnected African-American siblings, survivors of an abusive father. Big, whose real name is not revealed until the end of the play, is a champion mixed-martial arts fighter. His half-sister Lil (actual name: Josephine) attempts to resume their once close relationship after 15 years of silence. Gradually, their severed bond is knit back together as Big trains Lil in MMA. As she raises in the ring ranks, long buried resentments and secrets are revealed and their conflict erupts in a grueling grudge match. (Gerry Rodriguez is the masterful fight director.)

B'way Update: Galileo Musical

Raul Esparza in Galileo: A Rock Musical 
at Berkeley Rep.
Credit: Kevin Berne

According to Playbill.com, Galileo, a rock musical based on the life of the 17th century astronomer, will open on Broadway this fall after a run at the Berkeley Rep in 2024. Performances begin Nov. 10 at the Shubert Theater where Hell's Kitchen is running through Feb. 22. Opening is Dec. 6. The cast will be headed by Tony nominee Raul Esparza (Company), Jeremy Kushnier and Joy Woods. Tony winner Michael Mayer (American Idiot, Spring Awakening) directs. The book is by Emmy winner Danny Strong (Chess) with music and lyrics by Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak.

Book Review: The Pursuit of Love

(Borrowed from the Mid-town NYPL at 40th St.): Nancy Mitford's comic novel is funny and disconcerting. I found myself laughing hysterically at the antics of the heroine's eccentric landed-gentry family, but then recoiling at their disgusting traits. The patriarch Uncle Matthew is a violent, bigoted bully but he's so funny. Kind of like Archie Bunker with an upper-crust accent. Matthew dominates his family, beats his children, harbors racist attitudes towards all foreigners, yet he's riotously unfettered by the constraints of mannered society. He is described as a "cardboard ogre." The heroine, his daughter Linda, is totally amoral and self-absorbed, drifting from marriage to marriage, and finally ending as the kept mistress of a charming French Duke. She marries a Nazi-sympathizing Tory politician, then a Communist freedom fighter, neither of whom she really loves. She does throw herself into refugee service work while married to the radical, but as soon as she leaves him she spends her days in pre-war Paris shopping for clothes. 

Mitford based the characters on her own illustrious family and the book offers a fascinating look at life in England among the gentry between the wars. I did laugh out loud several times but also cringed as often. 

Off-B'way Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The cast of The 25th Annual
Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Credit: Joan Marcus

In a program interview, director-choreographer Danny Mefford reveals he never saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee before taking on its first-ever NYC revival playing now Off-Broadway at New World Stages. His virgin encounter with William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s adorable 2005 tuner about a crew of misfit kids vying for the top prize at the titular academic event, is a blessing. He sees the material with fresh eyes and delivers a sparkling, warm, and intimate production. The original production opened Off-Broadway at Second Stage and later transferred to Circle in the Square where it won two Tonys and played 1,138 performances. 

Sheinkin’s quirky book and Finn’s tuneful yet innovative songs combine compassion and humor so that we are laughing with the odd characters but never at them. Mefford’s staging is economical and swift, giving equal weight to all six tween spellers, three supervisory adults and the four audience members recruited to join the contestants. Teresa L. Williams’ colorful and funny school auditorium set, with the aide of David Weiner’s imaginative lighting, accommodates shifts in tone and flashback settings. Emily Rebholz’s delightfully off-kilter costumes delineate character. 

Jason Kravitz and Lilli Cooper in
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The excellent ensemble skillfully imparts their characters’ eccentricities and displays impressive musical liming (Carmel Dean is credited with the vibrant musical supervision and vocal arrangements). The six spellers are also quite believable as middle schoolers. Most impressive is Jasmine Amy Rogers whose shy Olive Ostrovsky, longing for a deeper connection with her distant parents, is the exact opposite of the bubbly cartoon Betty Boop Rogers played on Broadway last season. Her sweetly aching rendition of “My Friend the Dictionary” is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Kevin McHale exposes nasally-challenged William Barfée’s arrogance and his vulnerability. He shines in Mefford's hilarious staging of “Magic Foot,” William’s celebration of his secret spelling weapon. Justin Cooley is adorably off-kilter as self-doubting but ultimately self-affirming Leaf Coneybear, drowning in a sea of siblings. 

The cast of The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Philippe Arroyo is a riot as Chip Tolentino whose distracting hormones disastrously interfere with his spelling performance. Lana Rae Concepcion delightfully explodes as the high-achieving Marcy Park, finally giving weight to the idea that she doesn’t have to be the top at everything. Autumn Best is enchantingly desperate to please as Loraine Schwartzandgrubenuerre, a frazzled loner eager to be a winner for her two gay dads. Lilli Cooper, Jason Kravits and Matt Manuel bring depth to the spelling bee officials, each with their own neuroses and conflicts. 

This fun and fuzzy production originated at the Kennedy Center, now the center of a political storm. There are some new jokes about the controversy of the President’s involvement with the Center and the COVID pandemic, perhaps provided by Jay Reiss who is credited with “Additional Material.” The topical references add bite, but they are not the main reasons for this revival. It’s the charm, the compassion for outsider kids who enjoy learning and the snappy wit that makes this Bee buzz. 

Nov. 17—Sept. 6. New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., NYC. Running time: one hour and 45 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com.