Off-B'way Update: All-Star View from the Bridge; Irish Rep

Sam Rockwell, Marin Ireland, and 
Alfred Molina will star in an Off'B'way
production of A View from the Bridge
at LaMaMa.

An unusually starry production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge will play the legendary Off-Broadway La MaMa Theater this fall with preview performances beginning Nov. 27 before a Dec. 13 opening. Oscar winner Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) stars as Eddie Carbone, Obie winner and Tony nominee Marin Ireland (Queens) plays his wife Beatrice and Tony winner Alfred Molina (Art) will be Alfieri the narrator and Greek chorus. Neil Pepe of Atlantic Theater Company will direct. (Side note: Ireland's play Pre-Existing Condition will return for a run at the Greenwich House Theater opening Sept. 14.)

“Some of my earliest theatre memories are of coming to La MaMa as a kid and hanging out backstage while my mom was doing experimental theatre of the day. To now return to the Ellen Stewart Theatre with Arthur Miller's masterpiece with these remarkable collaborators feels like coming full circle," says Rockwell in a statement. "I started my own career downtown, and institutions like La MaMa have always inspired me—as an artist and as an audience member. They're the lifeblood of our culture, championing bold new voices and reminding us why the theatre matters. I've always considered myself incredibly lucky, and this opportunity feels like kismet.”

View concerns the longshoreman Eddie Carbone who comes to tragedy because of his unspoken passion for his teenaged niece. The play began life on Broadway as a one-act play on a double bill with Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays in 1955. He later expanded it to full length and an Off-Broadway revival starring Robert Duvall and Jon Voight ran for 780 performances. Subsequent Broadway productions starred Tony LoBianco (1983), Anthony LaPaglia (1997), Liev Schreiber (2010), and Mark Strong (2015). 

B'way Update: London Death of a Salesman to Transfer

Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke 
in Death of a Salesman.
Credit: Brinkhoff Mogenburg

Willy Loman will soon be returning to Broadway for the sixth time. A 2019 London production of Arthur Miller's great American play Death of a Salesman with a mostly black cast will be opening on Broadway during the 2022-23 season. Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Serious Money, The Piano Lesson) and Sharon D. Clarke (Caroline, or Change, Doctor Who) will repeat their roles as Willy and Linda. Pierce was nominated for an Olivier Award and Clarke won for this production when it transferred from the Young Vic to the West End. Clarke recently made her Broadway debut in a well-received revival of Caroline, or Change and is a front runner for this season's Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She is well-known to sci-fi fans for her recurring role as Grace who was killed by a nasty alien and made occasional re-appearances from the dead on Season 11 and 12 of Doctor Who.

Tony winner Andre de Shields (Hadestown) joins the cast as Willy's brother Ben and Khris Davis (Judas and the Black Messiah) will play the Lomans' wayward son Biff. Dates and a theater are to be announced. Miranda Cromwell will direct this NYC production after co-directing the London staging with Marianne Elliott (Angels in America). Together they won the Olivier Award for Best Direction. 

'Crucible' and 'Father' Join Broadway Spring Roster

Frank Langella will star in a play called
 The Father for the second time

Of course as soon as I post a Broadway/Off-Broadway calendar, two new shows announce openings in the spring--The Father with Frank Langella and the sixth Broadway production of The Crucible. The Father is not to be confused with the play of the same name by August Strindberg which also starred Langella in 1996. This one is a new play by French playwright Florian Zeller about a man suffering from dementia. It will be part of Manhattan Theater Club's season at the Friedman previewing March 22 and opening April 12. Arthur Miller's The Crucible previews Feb. 29 and opens on April 12 at a theater to be announced. Ben Whislaw plays John Proctor, Tony winner Sophie Okonedo will be his wife Elizabeth, and Ciarin Hinds is Deputy Governor Danforth. (I played Reverend Parris in college.) Ivo van Hove is directing so it will probably be set inside a wind tunnel or something with everyone dressed as mummies. Van Hove is one weird-ass director. I still remember his Streetcar Named Desire at New York Theatre Workshop where Elizabeth Marvel as Blanche DuBois dove into a bathtub fully clothed and emerged dripping wet and covered with suds, then went right back into the scene without a pause. It was like a Carol Burnett Show parody of an avant-garde production. (His Scenes from a Marriage was brilliant I will admit.) But van Hove's A View from the Bridge is also opening on Broadway this season and received raves during its London run. With the two Miller plays, Long Day's Journey, Fiddler on the Roof, and Color Purple, the season is like a retread of old times--which is also being done, the Harold Pinter play I mean. Broadway is becoming like a college course in Dramatic Literature with very little new work on display. Here's the updated calendar:

"The Misfits" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"

I recently viewed two old movies on cheap DVD, both revealing aspects of well-known authors. "The Misfits" was bought for $3 in the discount bin at a FYI video chain in an Albany mall while "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" was part of a multi-disc set called Great Cinema purchased for about $5 at Wal-Mart. The latter was a collection of film and TV specials whose copyrights must have run out. The same film, obviously a second or third generation copy, is also part of another cheap package called 100 Great Hollywood Films.

"The Misfits" was viewed mostly while on vacation in St. Martin. I had seen it in bits and pieces but never all the way through. It's a fascinating failure--the last complete film of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, one of the last films of a deteriorating Montgomery Clift, with a screenplay by Monroe's husband Arthur Miller, who may have been trying to save their crumbling marriage by offering his insecure wife a rare dramatic role. The story is sad and touching--a circle of loose-living cowboys and roustabouts crave the love of Rosalyn, a stunningly beautiful divorcee who's at a loose end in Reno after her break-up. She sets up housekeeping with the much older Gaylord, played by Gable. When the group rounds up a herd of wild mustangs to be sold for dog food, the tenderhearted Rosalyn has a hysterical fit. But in the end, Gaylord decides to set the horses free, seeing that their plight is similar to that of his own and the other human misfits.

Miller's symbolism is heavy-handed but John Huston's direction keeps the reality strong. What's really interesting is the parallels between the stars and their roles. Monroe is ill-equipped to express the complexities of Rosalyn's emotions, . She's described as a life force, a child-woman. Rosalyn was neglected by her parents and feels insecure about her amazing beauty, just as Monroe did.

Gable symbolizes the glamour of Old Hollywood and the romanticism of the Old West, now a dried up and more than a bit tired. He died not long after the filming finished. Clift who plays the punchdrunk rodeo rider Perch was on his last legs after a car crash ruined his exquisite good looks (see A Place in the Sun) and years of drug and alcohol abuse.

Supporting players Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter did not have tragic personal histories reflected in the stories of their characters. Wallach's Guido yearns for love after his wife died, but basically has given up on finding iot until he meets Rosalyn. You can see the lustful fire in Wallach's eyes when he looks at Monroe during the scene when they dance together.  I think I felt sorriest for Ritter's Isabel, a woman with six clocks in her house, none of which work.

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is based on Ernest Hemingway's short story. In addition to the plot of that brief vignette I read in high school, the filmmakers cram in every other element from the macho author's canon including the Spanish Civil War ("For Whom the Bell Tolls"), Spanish bullfights ("Death in the Afternoon," "The Sun Also Rises"), struggling young writers in Paris ("A Moveable Feast"), African big game hunting (several short stories, "The Garden of Eden," "True at First Light"). Peck stars as a Hemingway stand-in ruminating on his eventful, thrilling Technicolor past as he suffers feverishly from an infection while on a big game hunt. Susan Hayward is his current wife, Ava Gardner his dead true love, and Hildegarde Neil a bitchy European countess he almost marries. The melodrama is ridiculous and the chronology absurd. At one point Hayward bumps into a drunken Peck in Paris and says "Aren't you the author Mr. Harry Street I met near the Verdonne a couple of scenes ago?" Their previous meeting was only about 30 seconds and the whole Spanish Civil War took place since then. (He also runs into Gardner during that fracas as she is dying in a ambulance crash; what a coinky-dink as they used to say on "Laugh-In").

Of course he marries Hayward and that brings us up to date in Africa where a witch doctor arrives to help out. They don't even say which country in Africa they're supposed to be in. I can imagine the attraction of this 1952 feature was taking John and Jane Doe away from their humdrum grey little lives to the huge, color-saturated world of what they thought Hemingway represented. It presents the ridiculous notion that in order to be an author you have to travel the world, go big game hunting, attend bullfights, and  serve on the front lines of wars. Never mind about authors who examine the everyday as Miller did in many of his plays.The real Hemingway wrote about personal courage (which is an honest concern) and what I think of as false masculinity. I've read most of his work and that of Miller and I think Willie Loman is a more truthful depiction of humanity than Jake Barnes, the mangled hero of "The Sun Also Rises." Lady Brett Ashley always annoyed me, BTW. What a selfish woman.

The 3rd Annual David Desk Awards

For the past three years, I've listed my personal choices for the best theatrical work of the season. As a member of the Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, I do get to vote on all those awards as well as the Tonys. For eight years, I was a member of the Drama Desk nominating committee. But now I like to include what I would like to have seen nominated in various categories. So here they are the David Desk Awards for 2011-12. It's not meant as a criticism of the other awards, just my personal taste. I know it's a month after the Tonys, but so what? These are just for fun and reflect what I have seen during the season and it includes Broadway, Off and Off-Off on an equal footing. I have limited the number to six per category, but did not put in that many just to fill up a category if I did not feel there were six truly worthy candidates.

Play:

"The Big Meal" (Dan LeFranc)

“Blood and Gifts” (J.T. Rogers)

“By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” (Lynn Nottage)

“The Columnist” (David Auburn)

“The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…” (Tony Kushner)

“Sons of the Prophet” (Stephen Karam)

Musical:

“Lysistrata Jones”

"Newsies"

“Once”

Play Revival:

"Beyond the Horizon"

"Death of a Salesman"

“How I Learned to Drive”

“Wit”

Musical Revival:

“Follies”

“Porgy and Bess”

Actor (Play):

Simon Russell Beale, “Bluebird”

James Corden, “One Man, Two Guvnors”

Michael Cristofer, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…”

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Death of a Salesman"

Derek Jacobi, “King Lear” (BAM)

John Lithgow, “The Columnist”

Actress (Play):

Tracie Bennett, “End of the Rainbow”

Kathleen Chalfant, "Painting Churches"

Tyne Daly, “Master Class”

Sanaa Lathan, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”

Linda Lavin, “The Lyons”

Ellen McLaughlin, “Septimus & Clarissa”

Actor (Musical):

Danny Burstein, "Follies"

Jeremy Jordan, "Newsies"

Norm Lewis, “Porgy and Bess”

Varla Jean Merman (Jeffrey Roberson), “Lucky Guy”

Steve Kazee, “Once”

Actress (Musical):

Jan Maxwell, “Follies”

Audra McDonald, “Porgy and Bess”

Cristin Milioti, “Once”

Molly Ranson, "Carrie"

Elena Roger, "Evita"

Mary Testa, “Queen of the Mist”

Featured Actor (Play):

Oliver Chris, “One Man, Two Guvnors”

Peter Francis James, “The Lady from Dubuque”

James Earl Jones, "The Best Man"

Jefferson Mays, “Blood and Gifts”

Bernard White, “Blood and Gifts”

Featured Actress (Play):

Kimberly Hébert Gregory, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”

Adrienne C. Moore, “Milk Like Sugar”

Tonya Pinkins, “All’s Well That Ends Well,” “Hurt Village” and “Milk Like Sugar”

Wrenn Schmidt, "Beyond the Horizon"

Jeanine Serralles, “Maple and Vine”

Danielle Skraastad, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…”

Featured Actor (Musical):

Phillip Boykin, “Porgy and Bess”

Michael Cerveris, "Evita"

David Alan Grier, “Porgy and Bess”

Patrick Page, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”

Andrew Samonsky, “Queen of the Mist”

Featured Actress (Musical):

Lindsay Nicole Chambers, “Lysistrata Jones”

Judy Kaye, “Nice Work If You Can Get It”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “Ghost”

Melissa Van Der Schyff, “Bonnie & Clyde”

Lilias White, "The Best Is Yet to Come"

Director (Play):

Jo Bonney, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”

Sam Gold, "The Big Meal"

Michael Grief, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…”

Nicholas Hytner, “One Man, Two Guvnors”

Mike Nichols, "Death of a Salesman"

Bartlett Sher, “Blood and Gifts”

Director (Musical):

Jack Cummings III, “Queen of the Mist”

Diane Paulus, “Porgy and Bess”

Eric Schaeffer, “Follies”

John Tiffany, “Once”

Choreography:

Christopher Gattelli, "Newsies"

Dan Knechtges, “Lysistrata Jones”

Set Design:

David Gallo, “Hurt Village”

David Korins, “Chinglish”

Christopher Oram, "Evita"

Neil Patel, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”

Mark Wendland, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…”

Costume Design:

Gregg Barnes, “Follies”

ESosa, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark”

William Ivey Long, “Lucky Guy,” “The School for Lies”

David C. Woolard and Thomas Charles LeGalley, “Lysistrata Jones”

Lighting Design:

Neil Austin, "Evita"

Michael Gilliam, “Bonnie & Clyde”

Natasha Katz, “Once”

Brian Nason, "Beyond the Horizon"

Keith Parham, “Septimus & Clarissa”

Sound Design:

Clive Goodwin, “Once”

Matt Tierney, Ben Williams, “The Sun Also Rises (The Select)”

Unique Theatrical Experience:

"You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents' Divorce"