Off-B'way Review: Ulysses

The company of Ulysses.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The innovative theater collective Elevator Repair Service has tackled such literary giants as Fitzgerald (Gatz, its day-long version of The Great Gatsby), Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury) and Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises). The 35-year-old company is now taking on the greatest challenge in its history by brining to the stage what is generally regarded as one of the most confounding literary masterpieces, James Joyce’ Ulysses. The 1922 massive tome chronicles a single day—June 16, 1904—in Dublin, following the wanderings of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly and the young Stephen Dedalus, paralleling Homer’s epic The Odyssey. Joyce experiments with style and form, switches genres with each chapter and has the characters express their inner thoughts. We are told in an onstage intro that one critic famously said that not much happens in Ulysses, apart from everything you can possibly imagine. 

Is it even possible to stage such a work which relies so heavily on interior monologues and so little on plot in theatrical terms? Burgess Meredith directed an adaptation of the phantasmagoric Nightgown section (Bloom venturing into Dublin’s red-light district and his own imagination) Off-Broadway in 1958 starring Zero Mostel which was revived on Broadway in 1974. Here director John Collins and co-director Scott Shepherd are taking on the work as a whole, or at least an edited version. While some of the sections are bogged down in attempts to dramatize Joyce’s literary excesses and tend to drag, this adaptation does capture the vital energy of the author’s vivid characters, his deep themes of sexuality, religion and literature, and the emergence of Dublin itself as a life force.    

Off-B'way Review: Data

Sophia Lillis, Karan Brar, and Justin H. Min
in Data.
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

Matthew Libby’s Data could have easily become like one of those made-for-streaming spy thrillers in which attractive young techies steal vital software and wind up running through the streets of LA or London after bedding each other. But what the playwright delivers is a thoughtful, complex work exploring scary issues of government overreach and technological eradication of human rights. With the inflammatory national debate over immigration raging on our streets, Data is an important and gripping indictment of the Trump administration’s authoritarian policies and the digital industry’s complicity.

We begin innocently and almost comically with low-level programmers Maneesh and Jonah playing ping pong in the break room of the giant programming corporation Athena. They are interrupted by Riley who works on the higher-up Data Analytics team. At first Libby seems to be steering us into rom-com territory with the alpha-dog Jonah moving in on the aloof Riley—who isn’t interested—and Maneesh attempting to minimize his college relationship with her. (Libby confounds our expectations with dexterity, casually revealing Maneesh is gay and treating this information as a detail and not a vital plot development.) But as we learn more about the secret project Riley is working on and for which she wants to recruit Maneesh, the play takes on dark and dangerous dimensions. 

Book Review: Self-Help

(Borrowed from the NYPL on 40th St.): Lorrie Moore's early collection of short stories follows confused and unhappy women in frayed relationships. I liked the first one, How to Be an Other Woman best. Written in the second person, it follows a single woman navigating an affair with a married man as she tries to value herself and not sell herself so cheaply. The prose is fragmentary in places with short sections of no more than a paragraph, like a tightly edited indie film. The Kid's Guide to Divorce is brief and shattering as a young girl recounts a night with her mom, watching old movies and dancing. The final story, To Fill, is longer and almost a novella. Another depressed woman deals with an unfaithful husband, her ailing mother, and the urge to steal from her department-store sales job. Quirky and compassionate. I liked these better than the one in Bark, a later collection.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 4

Catwoman is about to steal Chad and Jeremy's
voices. Notice how they could just walk right
on stage with no one to to stop them.

The Cat's Meow/The Bats Kow Tow--This second season episode was chock full of real-life celebrities and 1960s cultural references. The main plot involves delicious Julie Newmar as the Catwoman stealing the voices of pop duo Chad and Jeremy who also appeared as essentially themselves on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. They broke up only two years later and Jeremy Clyde pursued an acting career. (He appeared on Broadway in A Patriot for Me, The Importance of Being Earnest opposite Wendy Hiller, and in the Downton Abbey movie.) Also appearing are comedian/talk show host Steve Allen as Allen Stevens, Hawaiian singer Don Ho in the window cameo, and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring as Jay Oceanbring (get it?) Catwoman and her crew are hiding out in Oceanbring's salon. The Dynamic Duo arrive and are attacked by Catwoman's henchman. Sebring delivers his only line, "Watch the antiques" as the combatants threaten to destroy his expensive furnishings. 

Sebring was a top hairstylist for Hollywood stars including Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He dated Sharon Tate. They remained friends after breaking up and Tate married Roman Polanski. He was murdered along with Tate by the followers of Charles Manson and was a character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Ho appears in the window as Batman and Robin are climbing down from the British Ambassador's office. (BTW, the British Ambassador's dialogue references both My Fair Lady and Winston Churchill.) Also appearing in this episode is Joe Flynn, best known as the petty, incompetent Capt. Binghampton on McHale's Navy, as the manager of a dance instruction studio, again a front for Catwoman's nefarious operations. For some reason, Flynn and Allen were unbilled. 

Sinners Shatters Oscar Nom Record

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in
Sinners, which now holds the
record for the most Oscar noms with 16.
Credit: Warner Brothers

Sinners, Ryan Coogler's vampire-horror film, broke the record for most Oscar nominations of any film with 16. The previous record of 14 was shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Nominations were announced by Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater on Thurs. morning Jan. 22. The awards will be presented on March 15 in a ceremony broadcast on ABC and Hulu, hosted by Conan O'Brien. Sinners' nominations include Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, Original Screenplay, and the newly created categories of Best Casting. 

One Battle After Another which has won the vast majority of pre-Oscar awards including the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, National Board of Review and film critics' awards from NY and LA, follows with 13. Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value have nine each. Surprisingly, the big-budget sequel Wicked: For Good and the George Clooney vehicle Jay Kelly were frozen out.

Conventional wisdom has it that Battle will continue its winning trajectory to Oscar's top prizes with Sinners copping the consolation prize of Original Screenplay for Coogler, its director. But Battle may have peaked too early and Sinners' top nominations grab could move the needle in its direction. Charges of underreprestentation of the African-American community among Oscar winners may also play a role in voters' minds. 

A complete list of the nominees follows: 

Off-B'way Review: An Ark

An Ark.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Billed as a “new play with mixed reality,” Simon Stephens’ An Ark begs the questions “Is it theater?” and “Does the technology make up for a lack of conflict, character or clear purpose?” Audience members remove their shoes (although the reason for this is never explained) and enter an open space at The Shed. Folding chairs surround a large, illuminated globe suspended above the center of the room. You are shown to a seat and instructed by the friendly staff to put on a headset with goggles. The headset allows you to see virtual versions of four empty chairs. When the “play” begins, four actors or rather their video images, enter, sit down and advise you not to panic. They then deliver a series of verbal sensory images and fragments of memories in the second person, repeatedly asking us to savor what it’s like to be alive. At one point, we can hear raindrops. Perhaps that’s why it's called An Ark? After about three-quarters of an hour, we have been taken through a lifetime’s worth of touching and sensing. The headsets come off, we reclaim our shoes and return home. 

The quartet of virtual performers have soothing voices and speak their lines like tender lullabies. Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton), Arinzé Kene, and Rosie Sheehy are all expert at keeping us calm and relaxed. It’s a thrill to see Sir Ian (or his avatar) who could make reciting the telephone book compelling and the other actors are proficient at conveying snippets of experience and feelings.

But what’s the point here? There is very little drama or conflict. The one moment of potential confrontation arrives when one of the characters (Kene) confesses he was at the wheel during an automobile accident resulting in the death of his passenger. Sheehy objects to his being present and he walks out of the frame in shame. He returns a few minutes later but with no change to his demeanor or evidence that the confession has changed him. This is the only hint at character development. Sarah Frankcom is listed as director, but her contribution is difficult to judge with so little action.

Audience members at An Ark.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The piece’s raison d’être seems to be that with the goggles, the characters appear to be talking directly and intimately to each individual audience member. The same experience could have been achieved in a movie theater or in one’s own home through streaming on your TV. So what makes this strange event theater with no live actors? Viola’s Room, a similar experiment with no people in the cast told its tale through sets, lighting and sound at The Shed a few months ago, and was more engrossing. Unlike An Ark, it had a story to tell.

Technology in service of riveting material can enhance the theatrical experience. But An Ark feels like an example of tech for its own sake.

The cast of An Ark:
Golda Rosheuvel, Ian McKellen, Rosie Sheehy,
Arinzé Kene.
Credit: Rachel-Louise Brown

Jan. 21—March 1. The Shed and Tin Drum at The Shed, 545 W. 30th St., NYC. Running time: 47 mins. with no intermission. theshed.org.

State of the Oscar Race

Timothee Chalamet is the frontrunner
for Best Actor in the Oscar race.

After the GGs, CCs, SAG and Independent Spirit noms, BAFTA long-list, and critics' awards from NY, LA and national groups, the Oscar race is solidifying. (Nominations will be announced on Jan. 22.) One Battle After Another is the favorite to win Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay (both by Paul Thomas Anderson). Sinners will probably take Original Screenplay. The leading actress and actor awards will probably go to Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) and Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme). Supporting Actor and Actress are up in the air since each major award has gone to a different person. In the Supporting Actress category, Amy Madigan of Weapons won the Critics Choice while Tayana Taylor of One Battle won the GG. Stellan Skarsgaard of Sentimental Value won the GG but Jacob Elrodi (Frankenstein's monster) took the CC. Benicio Del Toro was awarded the majority of the critics' groups' accolades. 

We saw Marty Supreme last night. Timothee was intense and charismatic as the narcissistic table-tennis hustler. There was also some interesting casting with Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, filmmaker Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Sarah Bernhardt, Penn Jillette (who I didn't even recognize), and David Mamet in supporting roles.

Oscar contenders seen:

Frankenstein (Netflix)

Nuremberg (Kaufman-Astoria)

Blue Moon (Kew Gardens Cinema)

One Battle After Another (Amazon Prime)

Train Dreams (Netflix)
Wicked: For Good (Regal Union Square in 3D, 4DX)

Hamnet (Kew Gardens Cinema)

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Amazon Prime)

Sentimental Value (Angelika Cinema)

Jay Kelly (Netflix)

Sinners (HBO Max)

Familiar Touch (Amazon Prime)

Marty Supreme (Kew Gardens Cinema)