NYDCC Awards Purpose, Maybe Happy Ending, Scott, Liberation Cast

Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in
Maybe Happy Ending,
Best Musical winner from the NYDCC.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and 
Evan Zimmerman

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose and Will Aronson and Hue Park's Maybe Happy Ending were voted Best Play and Best Musical of the 2024-25 season by The New York Drama Critics Circle on May 5. Purpose had won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Theater Critics Association's Steinberg Award earlier the same day. The 89th meeting of the Circle took place at the offices of Time Out New York and lasted three and a half hours. The group introduced two new categories this year with Best Individual Performance going to Andrew Scott for Vanya and Best Ensemble to the cast of Liberation. Special citations were awarded to Cole Escola, performer and playwright for Oh, Mary!, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and to David Greenspan for Lifetime Achievement. (There are rumors this production of Cats will transfer to Broadway next season, but nothing has been confirmed.) The awards will be presented on May 15 in a private ceremony at 54 Below. The Best Play prize includes a $2,500 check from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 23 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season is the nation's second-oldest playwriting award, after the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Adam Feldman of Time Out New York serves as President, Zach Stewart of Theatermania is Vice-President, and Helen Shaw of The New Yorker is treasurer.

In addition to Feldman, Stewart and Shaw, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are David Barbour, David Cote, Joe Dziemianowicz, Greg Evans, Rhoda Feng, David Finkle, Elysa Gardner, Robert Hofler, Sara Holdren, Charles Isherwood, Chris Jones, Soraya Nadia McDonald, Jackson McHenry, Johnny Oleksinski, Brittani Samuel, Frank Scheck, David Sheward, Tim Teeman, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Matt Windman. Emeritus members include Melissa Rose Bernardo, Brian Scott Lipton, Michael Sommers, Steven Suskin and Linda Winer. Four members (Cote, Evans, Holdren, and McDonald) voted by proxy and one member (Windman) attended via Zoom. All other voting members were present.

Off-B'way Reviews: A Streetcar Named Desire; Ghosts; Vanya

Sex plays a vital role in three classics works, now in revival Off-Broadway: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and, surprisingly, Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a solo adaptation called simply Vanya. How the directors and casts handle this hot topic determines the success or faltering of each show. 

Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Williams’ Streetcar has had a total of nine Broadway productions since its debut in 1947 as well as numerous film and TV incarnations. But few have matched, let alone eclipsed, the impact made by Marlon Brando as the brutal, charismatic Stanley Kowalski in the original and immortalized in Elia Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation which also elevated Vivien Leigh’s delicate, shattered Blanche DuBois to icon status. (Sadly all that remains of Jessica Tandy’s Broadway original is a recording of one scene. Her praised performance lives on only in memory and written reviews.) Rebecca Frecknall’s innovative Almeida Theater staging, now at BAM’s Harvey Theater after Olivier Award-winning engagements in London, has divided critics. But I found it perfectly captured Williams’ elemental battle between the primitive Stanley and the delusional Blanche.

Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

I was not as enthusiastic about Frecknall’s assault-and-battery approach to Cabaret which is still running on Broadway at the August Wilson. But her imaginative minimalist interpretation is more effective here. Stripped of scenery and accompanied by a deafening percussive score (composed by Angus MacRae and performed vigorously by Tom Penn), Williams’ immortal play becomes a combat ballet like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Figures from Blanche’s imagination such as her dead, gay husband (Jabez Sykes) and the messenger-of-death flower seller (Gabriela Garcia) insert themselves into the action in expressive dance movements. 

Film and TV hunk Paul Mescal is a commanding Stanley, holding his own against memories of Brando. He prowls and runs around set designer Madeleine Girling’s raised platform like a tiger, ready to pounce. But the production is dominated by Patsy Ferran’s

Anjana Vasan and Paul Mescal in
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

jittery, chatty Blanche. Barely holding herself together, her Blanche is teetering on the edge of hysteria at every moment, desperately staving off madness with alcohol, cigarettes, and flirtation. The sexual connection between her and Stanley is percolating beneath their every interaction, making his molestation of her inevitable. 

Anjana Vasan’s solid Stella (Stanley’s wife and Blanche’s sister) grounds the production and understudy Eduardo Ackerman (subbing for Dwane Walcott at the performance attended) delivered an embattled Mitch, torn between his attraction for Blanche and his revulsion at her promiscuous past. This Streetcar has primal force behind it but the new, uneven Ghosts does not.

I Wake Up Streaming, Part 1: Manhunt, Ripley, Gentleman, Franklin

A few weeks ago, I thought this title would be great for a podcast to review everything that's streaming now (A parody of the film I Wake Up Screaming). But I'm too lazy to set up a podcast, so I just jotted down my thoughts on what shows I'm viewing via the various platforms which have replaced cable.

Brandon Flynn and Tobias Menzies in
Manhunt. 

Manhunt (Apple TV): Tobias Menzies stars as Action Cabinet Secretary Edward Stanton persuing Abe Lincoln's killer John Wilkes Booth in this adaptation of a non-fiction book. I love historical series, but this one tries to cram too much into too short a space. The actual hunt for Booth and his accomplice David Herrold took place over 12 days, but so much happens in each day in this series it's ridiculous. For example, Dr. Mudd's slave Mary, gets a land grant, sets up a school, starts teaching and loses her land thanks to mean old President Andrew Johnson all in two days. It's still a fascinating look at a volatile time in our history.

Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn and Andrew Scott
in Ripley.
Credit: Netflix.

Ripley (Netflix): Andrew Scott, now plays the polar opposite of the sensitive screenwriter in All of Us Strangers. He is the sociopathic Tom Ripley in an elegant adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first of her five novels about killer-grifter with no scruples about murdering anyone who interferes with his pursuit of wealth and luxury. Previously filmed with Matt Damon and Jude Law, this series is filmed in black and white, much to the annoyance of certain young viewers. Not used to the subtlety of grey, they complained about the lack of color and dropped off after one or two episodes. Scott is perfect as the deadly Ripley. Steve Zaillian wrote and directed the entire series brilliantly, creating taut suspense worthy of Hitchcock. Gen-Zers and millennials don't know what they're missing. There are rumors Zaillian plans to adapt the remaining Ripley novels but Scott wants a break first. This will give me a chance to read the books first.