Four actors.  One set.  Hot topic.  Looking to get a production, vanilla gay playwright Danny (Jonathan Groff) has submitted his first play – Call A Spade “about an alcoholic black mother and her card sharp son trying to get out of the projects” to the Humana Festival and to everyone’s surprise it is accepted for a full scale, first class production.   It is supposedly “stirring”.

Sounds great to his best friend Trevor (Will Rogers) and lover Pete (Eddie Kaye Thomas).   Only problem is that Danny (thinking that no one would read it with his name attached)  has invented a black female playwright – Shaleeha G’ntamobi – that is difficult to pronounce but certainly caught the attention of the Humana Festival folk who selected it to be produced.

Afraid to fess up and lose everything he hires an actress, Emilie (Rutina Wesley) to take his place as the play proceeds to opening night and we discover that they are both bigots.  There are lots of cell phone conversations as Emile begins to take over and falls for Danny’s best friend the lanky Trevor which leads to a texting/sexting split-screen scene directed with soft porn panache by Walter Bobbie.

The dialogue is fierce and bristles like firecrackers let loose as the two combatants hit each other fast and furious with the “F-word”.   If all the “f-words” were taken out of the script I do believe the one hundred minute show would be shorter by at least ten minutes.  It becomes numbing.

The unit set by David Zinn is a marvel as it quickly changes locations keeping up with the rapid pace set by Mr. Bobbie, whose direction is sharp and lethal.  The acting is exceptional.

So why did I feel so disappointed?  The characters become increasingly unlikable and the resolution is unfulfilling.  Somehow I felt bombarded and cheated.  Also there is a noticeable gasp from the audience when the “N-word” finally rears its ugly head but no such response when the word “faggot” is thrown into the ring.

Jeff Talbott, author of THE SUBMISSION now running at the Lortel Theatre is the inaugural winner of The Laurents/Hatcher Award (as in Arthur Laurents and his lover Tom Hatcher).  He won and won big.  Fifty thousand dollars.  And one hundred thousand dollars going to the company that would mount the show within a year of winning the award.  MCC – Manhattan Class Company, being that company and the other winner.

Whether you think THE SUBMISSION is the winner it is touted to be is ultimately going to be up to you.

At the Lucille Lortel Theatre, through October 22^nd.   www.mcctheater.org

Photo:  Joan Marcus

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Marvell Rep presents

a staged reading of

a new comedy

A ROYAL MESS

by Oscar E. Moore

Adapted from “The King’s Mare” by Jean Canolle

directed by

Marc Geller

with

Jason Beaubien

Dan Domingues

Darrell Glasgow

Sharon Hunter

Jerry Matz

Michael McCoy

Colin Pritchard

Abby Royle

and Claire Warden

as Anne of Cleves

fourth wife of Henry VIII who did not speak English but managed to keep her head

Monday, September 26th and 7:30

The Playroom Theatre

151 West 46th Street

(between 6th and 7th Avenues)

8th floor

It’s FREE but seating is limited

To make a reservation go to:

https://web.ovationtix.com

/trs/cal/30515

www.marvellrep.com/A-Royal

-Mess.pdf.

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FOLLIES – the original production – was the last show that I ever auditioned for.  I was taxied downtown to a rehearsal studio with Ruth Mitchell, squeezed in between Kurt Peterson and another fellow that I didn’t care about. 

It was Kurt who was my nemesis.  He and I had been up for many of the same parts, many times, including Dick, in Dames At Sea, that I eventually did with Loni Ackerman at Shady Grove in 1969.  Loni and I became and still are best friends.  But Kurt always won out.   Including the part of the young John McMartin role of Ben in FOLLIES.

I remember being terrified – coming this close – singing “She Touched Me”, and Mr. Sondheim asking me what I had done in New York.  I froze.  I forgot.  And missed the opportunity of a lifetime.  Kurt got the part. 

It was forty years later that I spoke to Kurt about this.  He remembered me and my bow tie and assured me that the reason I lost out was because he bore a better resemblance to Mr. McMartin than I did.  Whatever.

And so now, all these years later, I get to review this newest incarnation of FOLLIES without any regrets or bitterness but with great admiration for this splendid production under the acute direction of Eric Schaeffer.

Regrets and bitterness permeate the lives of Sally and Buddy; Phyllis and Ben the central characters in James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s extremely moving, thought provoking and highly entertaining musical FOLLIES now at  the Marquis Theatre.

A modern theatre that has been distressed and transformed by scenic designer Derek McLane to replicate one that is decaying and about to be demolished and replaced by a parking lot where the demolished, drab, disillusioned and depressing lives of Sally (a spellbinding Bernadette Peters) and Buddy (a volcanic Danny Burstein); Ben (a commanding Ron Raines) and Phyllis (a comic spitfire and glamorous Jan Maxwell)

play out in between show stopping numbers that will enthrall and entertain you with one of Sondheim’s most masterful scores performed by a full orchestra – deservedly so.

Ghostlike and shimmering.  Fragile and haunting.  Memorable and aching.  Painful and ironic.  All of these words describe the experience of seeing this new FOLLIES.  A show that one MUST see.

The costumes by Gregg Barnes are some of his best designs ever.  The lighting by Natasha Katz captures the past and present beautifully.  Warren Carlyle’s choreography illuminates with wit and finesse.

And then there are all the show stoppers.  One following another that will bring thoughts of standing ovations over and over.

Elaine Paige in her defiant rendition of “I’m Still Here” – Terri White’s gleaming “Who’s That Woman” –  Jayne Houdyshell’s all out “Broadway Baby” – and the gorgeous “One More Kiss” shared by Rosalind Elias and Leah Horowitz, et al.

Then the stars – not to be outshone – get to sing with incandescent strength their songs that define and deepen their characterizations.  Ron Raines’ “Too Many Mornings” – Jan Maxwell’s vitriolic “Could I Leave You?” Danny Burstein’s brilliant “The-God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me-Blues” and Miss Bernadette Peter’s heartbreaking, almost unable to get the words out “Losing My Mind” – one of her finest ever portrayals.

There is so much to savor.  So many delectable performances beautifully staged that make FOLLIES shine anew.  See it.

www.folliesbroadway.com  Photo:  Joan Marcus

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Sally Mayes, consummate singer, gets to wear the pants and strut her inner jazz baby, riffing and skatting with the best of them in “Play It Cool” which has just opened at the Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row.  It is a not-to-be-missed performance. 

Ms. Mayes is giving a fantastic, full dimensional portrayal of a “Butch Dyke – that no one wants to see sing.”  She is the owner of Mary’s Hideaway – an underground gay jazz club off Sunset, Hollywood, circa 1953.  A “noir” period for gays and lesbians when you had to hide your true sexuality to get ahead and not be arrested or sent away to some mental institution.  She has put all that she owns on the line to forward the career of her lover and protégé Lena (Robyn Hurder) looking like a combination of Monroe and Betty Grable.

The upbeat, jazzy, original and tuneful score (Lyrics – Mark Winkler) and (Music mostly by Phillip Swann with some added music by Jim Andron, Michael Cruz, Marilyn Harris, Emilio Palame and Larry Steelman) is just plain terrific.

From the moment the three piece combo takes stage: David Libby (piano) Dan Fabricatore (bass) and Dan Gross (drums) giving us a taste of the score to follow you will immediately cast all your cares away and be transported to a land of jazz ecstasy.

With a book by Martin Casella & Larry Dean Harris that teeters between seriousness and high camp – the plot – a 50ish “Noir Hollywood” take on the comings and goings on at Mary’s Hideaway (a unit set nicely evocative by Thomas A. Walsh) is less than substantial and sometimes gets in the way of the glorious score which is beautifully interpreted by the cast of five and on stage combo.

Henry (a superb and sexy Michael F. McGuirk), a married cop on the take – who protects Mary’s Hideaway from being raided for a price because he loves jazz and has a “secret” is our “Noir Narrator” and hits just the right tone.

Into the bar arrives Eddie (Chris Hoch) a smarmy MGM talent scout who has met the new boy in town – would be singer jail bait Will (Michael Buchanan) in a men’s room and has brought him to the club so that they can get to know each other better.

The paper thin plot thickens with revelations that shouldn’t surprise many but nonetheless are very entertaining when the actors are singing the noteworthy harmonies and spot on arrangements by Joe Baker. 

Director Sharon Rosen hasn’t quite decided on the overall tone of the show with Act II being decidedly more serious, that again switches gears, reverting back to being “Noir”.

Some sprightly dance routines by Marc Kimelman add to this well intentioned albeit uneven entertainment.

Through Oct. 9^th.      www.playitcoolmusical.com  Photo:  Joan Marcus

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For those of you who missed it and for those of you who want to see it again

NOIR is back for four additional performances!

this time they’re at

The Players Theatre

115 MacDougal Street

performance dates and times are:

Sunday, 9/18 @ 4:00 pm

Monday, 9/19 @ 7:00 pm
Tuesday, 9/20 @ 7:00 pm
Thursday,  9/22 @ 7:00pm

NOIR

watch as four actors

with absolutely no set or props

create an entire film noir in 70 minutes!

Here are the facts, just the facts …

New York City, 1950 …

Andrews has left town ….

Klein is dead …

Lydecker is dead …

Betty … well she’s still alive  …  but someone’s beat the pretty off her

Detective Clay Holden has his first big chance … but this is one case that he may not want to solve.

Here’s what the critics are saying about Noir:

“Noir, written by Stan Werse and sublimely directed by Marc Gellertransports the audience back to New York City, 1950 … the actorsMichael McCoy, Andrew Dawson, Darrell Glasgow and Abby Royle do a terrific job … characterizations are sharp and richly layered. They take what could be stock characters and turn them into true individuals … Geller‘s direction and staging breathe fresh life into a familiar morality tale of loyalty and betrayal … Ashley Rose Horton‘s costume design is sumptuous and hits the bulls-eye in honoring the genre …. do not miss this play.”

NYTheatre.com

“… delightfully nasty … Audience members who’ve watched such films as The Maltese Falcon or Out of the Past — this is the crowd at whom Werse and shrewd director Marc Geller are pitching the sinister tale (with sinister Daniel Dungan lighting) — will think they’ve figured this one out. The beauty part is they may decipher some of it but not all.”

Theatremania.com

CRITIC’S PICK “… spoken with the right snap by the four-person cast …along with director Marc Geller, they take the material as seriously as a handgun pointed in their faces … Daniel Dungan‘s lighting, Jack Kennedy‘s sound, and Ashley Rose Horton‘s costumes create the appropriate dark and dangerous atmosphere.”

Backstage

“Director Marc Geller has done a skillful job evoking the dark, cynical, melodramatic and sometimes humorous atmosphere aided by a wonderful sound-scape by Jack Kennedy and lighting design by Daniel Dungan with some spot on costumes by Ashley Rose Horton … Geller knows the style and his gift for dead pan comedy pays off in spades here .”

Talk Entertainment

“Director Marc Geller gets fine performances from Michael McCoy(McQue), Andrew Dawson (Grimes), Darrell Glasgow (Holden) and Abby Royle as vamp Helen Lydecker. This old-style crime drama[dy] is funny, features fine actors, a solid plot and waves and waves of old noir atmosphere at every turn in the story. Playwright Werse has done a fine job of crafting a witty tribute to noir- style stories while, at the same time, writing a pretty good one himself.”

History News Network

Named a top fringe pick by NYC Fringe Guide

and now a part of the Fringe Encores Series

NOIR

as new play

by Stan Werse

directed by Marc Geller

with

Andrew Dawson

Darrell Glasgow

Michael McCoy

and

Abby Royle

as Helen Lydecker

lighting design Daniel Dungan

sound design Jack Kennedy

costume design Ashley Rose Horton

stage manager Adrianna Nicolé Perlman

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 Eric Liberman is a very talented actor who has kept in touch with yours truly and I wanted to share his latest information.  It’s funny that I am about to review a new novel by Mitchell Maxwell “Little Did I Know” which will be released October 5th on Prospecta Press as its lead character Sam August would be a wonderful role for Erik if the book is ever adapted for stage or screen.  He might just have some stiff competition, however, from the likes of Josh Grisetti, Noah Robbins and Adam Chanler-Berat…

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I still think Aja Nisenson is an exceptionally talented young woman despite her misguided foray entitled “Daja Vu” which is being produced as part of the NY Int’l Fringe Festival.  It is her newest one woman show.

Last June I saw her “Piccola Cosi” at the Triad and instantly became a fan of this most original performer who defies being categorized.   She can sing.  And be loony.  She’s innocently sexy, with a beauty that reminds one of Vivien Leigh.  “Piccola Cosi” dealt with her travels and travails in Italy as a young jazz singer and the men she met.

This newest cabaret act centers around her alter-ego “Daja Vu” (which sounds like a name that a drag queen might adopt) who is supposedly a world renowned chanteuse who has come to the Bowery Poetry Club (where three bucks will buy you a small bottle of eau ordinaire) to bring a little bit of France to us while flirting unabashedly with the audience as some ditzy star dressed in black and bling, crooning Piaf, Cole Porter, Bonnie Raitt, Gershwin and what must be her favorite tune Besame Mucho.

There is no jazz trio this time around but a lone pianist, David Gaines, who very nicely accompanies Aja through her hit and miss act.  A sixty plus minute act that has Aja mingling with the audience, calling on mother for advice, pulling various object from her bra, chewing wads of gum and singing a ditty draped on the bar opposite the stage that has the audience uncomfortably straining to see her, having to twist their bodies in the process

Aja Nisenson’s reincarnation is not fully developed yet and emits mixed signals as her disarming openness works against her newly created character.  Is she being serious or is this a satire or something in between?  Is she Aja or Daja Vu?  Fearless though she is, she hasn’t gone far enough.

She transcends the material (which she has penned) most of the time.  While Aja can sing with the best of them and has an extraordinary range she is also trying too hard to be outrageously funny when it really comes so naturally to her.  Her mime rendition of “If You Go Away” helped save the day.

Suggestion:  rethink “Daja Vu”.  Dust off your beret and restructure.  Your talent is worth being seen in the proper setting.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Be yourself and perhaps put “Daja Vu” up for adoption.  Bonne chance!

www.AjaNisenson.com

NOTE:  Kris Paltanavicius, the venue host, should start working on his own show.  He was a natural and hysterical as he introduced Aja explaining what to do if an emergency should occur.  Not once but twice as director Michael Aman has him repeat this mini stand up routine during the show.  The sped up version was even funnier.  He’s an undiscovered talent to watch.

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The teaser quote “Love and Murder at First Sight” is a promo from the film “Double Indemnity” but it can aptly apply to a new play by Stan Werse, NOIR, which is being presented as part of the NY Int’l Fringe Fest at the Connelly Theater.  Although of the same genre it is not in the same league.

Director Marc Geller has done a skillful job evoking the dark, cynical, melodramatic and sometimes humorous atmosphere aided by a wonderful sound-scape by Jack Kennedy and lighting design by Daniel Dungan with some spot on costumes by Ashley Rose Horton.

NOIR starts off brilliantly.  Gunshots.  A wailing sax.  Spotlight on McQue (a seriously blunt and wry Michael McCoy who captures just the right balance between cynicism and ironic camp) as he begins his staccato narration in this homage to the detective thrillers of the late forties and early fifties.  A combination of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Dragnet’s Joe Friday and characters found in the period black and white films such as  “Double Indemnity” .

Marc Geller knows the style and his gift for dead pan comedy pays off in spades here despite the failings of the convoluted script which rambles on a bit too much and too long, the playwright not deciding whether NOIR should be serious or serious fun.

Honest to a fault rookie cop Clay Holden (Darrell Glasgow) is the darling protégé of Norbert Grimes (Andrew Dawson) who is there to teach him the ropes for his first big case and tell endless stories that wander far from the plot at hand.

Clay meets up with Helen Lydecker (Abby Royle) a rich widow who sometimes sings and seduces him into rescuing her from a blackmailer who has some racy, incriminating photos.  He falls for her and her story.  Hard.  Smoldering embraces ensue.

According to Helen “You do what you have to do to survive.”  You’ll just have to see it to believe it.

www.noir-nyc.com www.fringenyc.org

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I wouldn’t presume to know or explain to you what Matthew George, a recent graduate of Yale, who has written “Cow Play”, wants his audience to take home with them except for us to see life’s larger picture and to be nicer to bovines.

He has written an intelligent play with three very interesting characters.  Julie (Willa Fitzgerald) a would be young actress from a wealthy family living in Connecticut falls in love with loquacious Mark (Alex Kramer) a grad student who has a passion for medieval history and the Bayeux Tapestry and is writing his thesis which he insists on sharing its many historical and meaningful details. 

While visiting the farm with Julie that his controlling brother Jed (Will Turner) now runs she is overcome by the smell of cow poop and the harsh treatment the cows receive under the rifle wielding man of few words.  And falls for him and one of his cows.

It is forty minutes into this two hour show and after a few false starts (Julie’s auditions as Lady Macbeth to cite just one which are fun) that we meet Antigone – cow #277 that Jed hands over to Julie to receive better care.  The play begins to take shape and make sense only to go off on some other tangents that equally confuse – namely the death of the brothers’ sister.

Antigone, the cardboard cow is completely lovable.  Her scenes with Julie are sweet.  Jed begins to open up and soften while Mark is off to France (paid for by Julie’s parents) to examine his beloved tapestry.  When Antigone comes down with a terminal illness and has to be shot it is Julie who does the shooting.  Even so, they correspond by writing beautiful and amusing letters to one another.

There are so many ideas being floated around with lots of unclear symbolism that it takes away from the relationships of the characters and the cow.  As if all these folk from Yale need to show us their worth – in excess – all at once. 

Charlie Polinger (Director) is also attending Yale.  He has superimposed an almost surrealistic style over the sometimes obtuse script making it all the more murky.  The production has the look and feel of a collegiate theatrical experience trying too hard.

There is a terrific scene is which Mark plays King and serf which is totally out of sync with the rest of the style of the play but which is a  great feat of acting and comedy.

“Cow Play” has a lot going for it.  Maybe too much so.  There are great projections by Adam Payne that enhance the show but clarity should come first.

 www.lessthanrent.org/cowplayfringe.html      www.fringenyc.org

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It’s a hit!  That hits you where it counts most.  In the funny bone.  The Legend of Julie-Taymor or The Musical That Killed Everybody! Book and Lyrics by Travis Ferguson – Music and Lyrics by Dave Ogrin is a fast and furious ninety minute romp with a delightful score that takes a bull’s eye aim and hits it dead center at the real life saga of Taymor’s “vision” for the Bono scored Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – from contract signing to preview to still running and making millions hit fiasco – and turns it into a Forbidden Broadway type musical feast.

If its creators have fashioned this razor sharp satirical musical in only six weeks as noted they should be hard at work on another as The Legend of Julie-Taymor is sure to have an extended life Off B’way in the near future.

Wearing a black fright wig the immensely talented Jennifer Barnhart portrays Julie Paymore in all her egomaniacal, power hungry, domineering glory.  Fresh from exile and with a Broadway hit under her belt – “The Lion Cub” her “vision” for a musical version of “Spider-Dude” will be unlike any other musical ever produced and cost a fortune.  To write the music the lead producer gets Bruno (a terrific, heavily accented Clint Carter) a rock concert star who insists that “she who must not be named” be the director.  The show is chock full of these delicious details.

Hot on their heels is reporter Lionel Weasel (Christopher Davis Carlisle) working at The Daily Rialto, secretly interviewing his mole in the show – Billy the stunt stand in for Spider-Dude (Barry Shafrin) to get the behind the scenes, back stabbing story.  The delays.  The injuries.  The debt.  The Geek chorus?

The props are all cardboard cutouts.  Perfect for the cartoon like production wonderfully directed and choreographed by Joe Barros. 

No one could make this story up.  It would be too unbelievable.  But the true saga of Spider-Man created a must see event for tourists worldwide.  Waiting to see who might be next to fall from the sky sold lots of tickets. 

The creative team has taken all this juicy material and run with it.  Making up some back stories to fill in the missing motives of all those involved and a terrific finale with a score that is tuneful, fun and inspired.  “Tweet,Tweet,Tweet” is a knockout number as is “The Greatest” that has Paymore manipulating an injured Billy as a marionette – brilliant! And “Julie’s Turn” that makes fresh an idea that has already been used to death.

Appearing in multiple roles Johnnie Moore, Michael Titone, Kiley L. McDonald, Lynn Craig and Shaun Rice all add to the hysterical mayhem.

But it is the tour-de-force performance of Jennifer Barnhart, a combination of Kathleen Turner, Janis Joplin and “she who must not be named” – a performer who has impeccable comic timing and a powerhouse voice that drives this show into the stratosphere, creating her own legend in the process.

It shouldn’t be missed.

www.LegendOfJulie.com        www.FringeNYC.org

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