SpongeBob SquarePants, The Broadway Musical

SpongeBob SquarePants

The Broadway Musical

Palace Theatre

Photo courtesy of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical

Tina Landau has taken the one-dimensional characters and elementary humor of a popular Nickelodeon cartoon and transformed it into a Broadway spectacular.  SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical is over the top fun!  Book writer Kyle Jarrow creates story arcs for each character as they hilariously struggle to achieve their goal.  The phenomenal cast personifies these under water creatures with strong physical and visual support by costume designer David Zinn and hair and wig designer Charles G. LaPointe.  The set, by David Zinn, explodes off the stage of the Place Theatre with imaginative shapes and vibrant color.

Danny Skinner, Ethan Slater, & Christina Sajous
Photo courtesy of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical

SpongeBob (played by Ethan Slater) starts his day at Bikini Bottom like any other.  We meet his friend Patrick Star (played by Danny Skinner), the cranky Squidward (played by Gavin Lee), Sandy Cheeks, the squirrel (played by Christina Sajous), Eugene Krabs, owner of the Krusty Krab where SpongeBob works (played by Brian Ray Norris), and his daughter Pearl (played by Jai’ Len Christine Li Josey).  They are all happy to face the day ahead, except Squidward of course.  Suddenly the ground shakes and there is a special report that a large and dangerous volcano, Mount Humungous, is ready to erupt and inevitably destroy Bikini Bottom.  Everyone goes into hysterics and is ready to follow the diabolical scheme of Sheldon Plankton (played by Wesley Taylor) and Karen the Computer (played by Catherine Ricafort) to flee for their lives, while unknowingly become hypnotized and under their power.  It is up to SpongeBob, Sandy, and Patrick to save the day.

Gavin Lee as Squidward
Photo courtesy of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical

The outstanding vocal characterizations and physical timing of the cast is fascinating.  It keeps the audience engaged throughout the show.  Ethan Slater is a phenomenon.  His amazing vocal range is only surpassed by his physical strength and dexterity.  Gavin Lee skillfully embodies the curmudgeonly Squidward.  He masterfully becomes one with his four-legged costume.  You can’t help but love and root for this downtrodden creature.  Danny Skinner is loveable as Patrick.  Christina Sajous is energetic and sharp as Sandy.  These four performers have a strong connection and genuine chemistry that builds as they face their outlandish and believable challenges.

Jai'Len Christine Li Josey as Pearl
Photo courtesy of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical

Jai’ Len Christine Li Josey is outstanding as Pearl.  She has a strong presence and powerful singing voice.  Brian Ray Taylor is a bold Eugene Krab, creating conflict and thankfully seeing the error of his ways in the end.  Wesley Taylor and Catherine Ricafort are positively evil.  Due to their amazing teamwork, their self-serving plan is raucously carried out with wicked detail and credible precision.   

SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway Musical is scheduled to close on September 16.  With choreography by Christopher Gattelli and a score composed by a long list of famous musicians, Tina Landau has created a wild and crazy fun night of imaginative theatre.  You have only a few weeks left to experience it.  Don’t miss out!

Domenick Danza

The Amateurs

The Amateurs

Vineyard Theatre

February 17, 2018

Photo courtesy of Vineyard Theatre

In his new play, The Amateurs, Jordan Harrison examines a number of compelling themes and concepts about the human experience throughout the ages.  There are many layers and points of entry in this new work.  The superb Vineyard Theatre production allows the audience to engage and journey through them all, and emerge with a broader view, a release, a purifications… or as they say in the play, a catharsis.

The play opens in the 1300s in the middle of a morality play.  A group of traveling players are portraying the seven deadly sins, when one falls ill with the black plaque.  He quickly dies and is left behind to be buried in a communal grave.  His sister, Hollis (played by Quincy Tyler Bernstine), is more affected by this than the rest of the traveling troupe.  Larking (played by Thomas Jay Ryan) continues to push his cast in getting ready to present their new play about Noah’s flood for the Duke.  When the players are visited by the ghost of their deceased colleague, the action of the play ceases and the playwright (played by Michael Cyril Creighton) enters to offer context to the dilemma and review a number of options for how to continue.  The ideas and questions he brings up are fully realized when the journey of the traveling players resumes.

Photo courtesy of Vineyard Theatre

Michael Cyril Creighton fills the twenty or so minute section as the playwright with depth, poignancy, impeccable timing, and serious humor.  He shares the character’s personal experiences of being bullied in middle school, learning to be afraid of AIDS in high school, and addresses the fact that Noah’s wife refuses to board the arc in the morality play.  He is joined in this middle section of the play by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, who steps out of her role as Hollis and shares with the audience an enlightened experience she once had while playing Mrs. Cratchit in a regional theatre production of A Christmas Carol.  She equally matches Mr. Creighton’s poignancy and humor.  This section frames the entire experience of the play and focuses the audience to view and understand the themes and messages.  These two actors masterfully bring to the fruition what this magnificent writing deserves.

The full cast of "The Amateurs"
Photo courtesy of Vineyard Theatre

The entire cast is amazing.  Kyle Beltran (as Brom), Greg Keller (as the Physic), Jennifer Kim (as Rona), and Thomas Jay Ryan (as Larking) bring richness and dry humor to this unprecedented play.  Director Oliver Butler finds the perfect pace that allows the impact of the themes to pop.  Scenic design by David Zinn and lighting design by Jen Schriever create a weighty atmosphere of encumbrance, mystery, and wonder.

Playwright Jordan Harrison examines the development of the individual identity as the root of the survival of humankind.  He clearly puts it out there that there are no safe places to hide from catastrophic events, such as the black plague, the great flood, the AIDS crisis, or anything else we might presently be facing.  He then sums it up in the succinct statement that “life is long.”  The Amateurs runs at the Vineyard Theatre through March 18.  It is definitely a MUST SEE! 

Domenick Danza

Fun Home

Fun Home

Circle in the Square

February 17, 2016

Photo courtesy of Fun Home

Fun Home is an emotional journey of growing up and facing life’s hidden truths. It is a tender and realistic view of the world at that time in life when certain truths that have been held back are brought out into the open.  It is the emotional triumph when you make sense of it all and are able to face life with hope and truer sense of yourself.  These are very big statements to make about a Broadway musical, yet to sit in the theatre and experience the lives of the characters unfold in a multi-dimensional manner is rare.  The story itself, based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, is funny, honest, and moving.  The book and lyrics by Lisa Kron are bold and riveting.  The music by Jeanine Tesori engulfs and engages you in the dichotomy of both the whimsy and stark realities of the characters and situation.

Beth Malone & Micheal Cerveris
Photo courtesy of Fun Home

The main character, Alison (played by Beth Malone), tell us in the first scene that she and her dad (played by Michael Cerveris) are gay and that he killed himself by stepping out in front of a speeding truck.  That very tragic proclamation is quickly forgotten as you follow the playful antics of Alison (played by Gabriella Pizzolo as a child) and her two brothers (played by Zell Stelle Morrow and Oscar Williams).  She comes out while in college (played at that age by Lauren Patten) and begins to face the darker truths of her family life.  The fact that we simultaneously see Alison played by three actors at specific phases of her life combined with the amazing writing and emotional score allows the story to peel away and be revealed one layer at a time.   This gives the

Judy Kuhn & Sydney Lucas (original cast)
Photo courtesy of Fun Home

perspective of Alison’s memory a dominant role in the narrative as facts open up and then folds back in non-chronological order.   The most heart-rending moment is by Judy Kuhn as Alison’s mother in the song “Days and Days.”  It is a courageous confession of the disappointments in her marriage and the hopes for her daughter.  Ms. Kuhn delivers it flawlessly.

The set design by David Zinn and lighting design by Ben Stanton are phenomenal.  The flow from one moment to the next is conceived and conveyed brilliantly.  The design is in the scheme as set pieces and furniture rise up from beneath the floor, then descend to reappear on the other side of the stage.  They utilize the capacity

Photo courtesy of Fun Home

and technology of the space with carefully crafted expertise.

Everything you heard and read about Fun Home is true.  It is sure to be running for a long while, yet don’t put off seeing it.  It is a work of theatre that needs to be experienced first-hand. 

Domenick Danza

The Humans

The Humans

Roundabout Theatre Company

The Helen Hayes Theatre

January 31, 2016

Photo courtesy of The Humans

The Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of The Humans has moved to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre.  The script, written by Stephen Karam, is brilliantly crafted with strong dramatic action that keeps the audience riveted.  Director Joe Mantello directed a seamless ninety minutes of action that enthralls, entertains, and excites.  The cast of five naturalistically delve into the underlying issues that bubble beneath the surface of continuous holiday conversation.  They then boomerang back with understanding that tenderly defines the family network that the play so aptly and realistically portrays. 

Brigid (played by Sarah Steele) invites her family for Thanksgiving dinner.  She has just moved into a new apartment in lower Manhattan that she shares with her boyfriend, Richard (played by Arian Moayed).  Her mother, Deirdre (played by Jayne Houdyshell), is constantly dropping remarks about Brigid and Richard not being married.  Her father, Erik (played by Reed Birney), has been having trouble sleeping and shares one of his disturbing nightmares.  Her sister, Aimee (played by Cassie Beck), is suffering from gastric colitis, has recently broken up with her longtime partner, and is being let go from her law firm.  Momo, her grandmother (played by Lauren Klein), is suffering from dementia and violent outbursts.  The “normal” family holiday stress drives the dinner conversation, revealing a few serious emotional scars.  The evening culminates in an announcement that shakes the foundation and security of this close family unit.

Sarah Steele, Arian Moayed, & Jayne Houdyshell
Photo courtesy of The Humans

This is a true ensemble piece with five strongly developed characters.  Each one carries a storyline of their own.  It is their careful and deliberate intertwining that makes the play engaging.  All the actors are fully committed and create a web of complex relationships that are realistic, truthful, and endearing.  The set, by David Zinn, is an ingenious split level design that effectively allows action to be viewed simultaneously.  The lighting, by Justin Townsend, and sound, by Fitz Patton, create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that builds as the play reaches its climax.  

Photo courtesy of The Humans

The Humans is performed without an intermission.  There is no late seating and the notice in the program says, “If you leave your seat for any reason during the performance, you will not be permitted to return.”  Rightly so.  The action of this play should not be interrupted once it begins… and should not be missed.  Get a ticket today!

Domenick Danza

Hir

Hir

Playwrights Horizons

December 12, 2015

Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

I read Taylor Mac’s play Hir last winter in American Theatre Magazine.  Hir refers to the pronoun used in place of him or her for a transgender person.  I remember it being bold and powerful, yet I knew that my first read only comprehended the surface level of meaning.  When I read that Kristin Nielsen was going to play the role of the mother, Paige, in the PlaywrightsHorizon production, I knew it was going to be great and that I had to see it.  I even paid full price for my ticket (usually I get tickets discounted on line from TDF).  The performance was worth three times what I paid for it.  Director Niegel Smith delves deeply into every detail of Mr. Mac’s amazing script and inspires the phenomenal cast of four to deliver truthful and visceral performances.

Kristine Nielsen and Tom Phelan
Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

Isaac (boldly played by Cameron Scoggins) returns home from three years in the Marines to find his family in crisis.  His father, Arnold (skillfully played by Daniel Oreskes), suffered a stroke, his sister, Max (brashly played by Tom Phelan) is in gender transition, and his mother, Paige (brilliantly played by Kristine Nielsen) has abandoned all of life’s structures and disciplines, disregarded the household chores, and allowed her home to fall into total chaos.  It is revealed that Isaac was dishonorably discharged due to drug abuse, and his father physically abused the family for years.  Isaac begins to organize and clean the house, against his mother’s wishes.  It is this action that sets off a frenzy of emotion and truth telling from which there is no turning back.

  

Cameron Scoggins, Kristine Nielsen, and Daniel Oreskes
Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

Gender roles are in constant flux, and frustration over the disillusionment that comes along with this flares up without warning.  It is a constant roller coaster of emotion, and the actors make it authentic and plausible.  Between Isaac’s service in Mortuary Affairs, where he cleaned up body parts of dead soldier after battle, Arnold’s holding and talking about his penis due to his diminished capacity, Max’s transition, and Paige’s enthusiasm for discussing Max’s transition and her “paradigm shift” in viewing the world, there is plenty of talk about body parts.  Mr. Mac brilliantly weaves these images into his dialogue making bold statements about honoring the dead and parts of the past into practically every scene. 

Kristine Nielsen
Photo courtesy of
 Playwrights Horizons

The set is a realistic “starter home” designed by David Zinn.  It is in total disarray at the opening of the first act.  Even the house curtain has a pattern that evokes chaos.  The set has a solid and low ceiling, yet lighting designer Mike Inwood brilliantly enhances every playing area.  His combination of actual ceiling fixtures and stage lighting is remarkable and effective.

This play is significant and truly incredible.  Mr. Mac’s voice is strong, his characters are real, and his writing style is unique.  The timing of all four actors is impeccable, their chemistry is fierce, and their physicality is sharp.  If you don’t get to see this production before it closes at Playwrights Horizons on January 3, pick up a copy of the script, read it, and have a “paradigm shift” of your own.  As Paige says, “Sometimes you spend your entire life preparing for something to be one way and right from the starts it’s another.”

Domenick Danza

The Flick

The Flick

Barrow Street Theatre

August 23, 2015

Photo courtesy of amazon.com

I came across The Flick, Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize winning script, in a few different bookstores and websites.  When I was in college, I worked as an usher in the Loews Oriental movie theater in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn with two of my very good friends.  Back in the day it was the place to be, so the concept of the play intrigued me.  I decided to buy a copy.  My first read of Annie Baker’s play did not deliver what I had hoped.  Why did it win the Pulitzer Prize?  With that question in mind I got a ticket to the remounted Off Broadway production at the Barrow Street Theatre, and found my answer.

The play opens on Avery’s (Aaron Clifton Moten) first day on his new job at the Flick, one of the last 35 millimeter, single screen movie houses in central Massachusetts.  Sam (Matthew Maher) is showing him the ropes.  Clearly there is not much skill in sweeping up popcorn and cleaning the soda machine, but for Sam this is a big deal.  Rose (Louisa Krause) is the projectionist, a high ranking position, love interest of Sam, and the cause of some mistrust between the boys.  All three actors are very well cast and create true moments to establish honest, relatable characters and relationships.

Louisa Krause and Aaron Clifton Moten
Photo courtesy of The Flick at Barrow Street Theatre

The play is long (3 hours, 15 minutes - with intermission).  At the end of the first act Ms. Baker gives us insight into Avery’s character, which clarifies his distanced behavior.  She skillfully holds back the truth of his experiences, then reveals it right before intermission.  This leaves the audience wanting more, which is a great feat after a one hour and forty minute first act.  She delivers a second act with depth and metaphor that ties everything together.  Life is like a celluloid film, where each frame is separated by darkness and shadow.  We are individuals, not identical like pixels in a digital movie.  Some things from the past need to be cherished and preserved as life progresses.

Aaron Clifton Moten, Mathew Maher, Louisa Krause
Photo courtesy of The Flick at Barrow Street Theatre

Since the play is set in a movie theatre, rows and rows of seats fill the stage facing the audience.  The set, by David Zinn, is extremely realistic, yet limits the playing area and inhibits the actors’ movement.  The rows of seats constantly separate them, forcing them to face away from one another when seated.  Is this a poor design decision or an ingenious physical obstacle that characters have to overcome in order to connect?  These are the kind of subtleties in the production and script’s concept that make it a strong work.  Is the play slowly paced, or is the pace representative of the shadow between the frames of a 35 millimeter film that enhances the experience?

What are the criteria for a script to win the Pulitzer Prize?  My first read of Annie Baker’s script make me wonder, and do some research (click for Pulitzer Prize Criteria / click for Pulitzer Prize Winners).  Seeing the play make me understand why it won, even though I think they could have picked up the pace of Act I.  See it and decide for yourself.

Domenick Danza