Paradise Lost

Fellowship for Performing Arts

Theatre Row

February 20, 2019

Photo courtesy of Fellowship for Performing Arts

The Fellowship for Performing Arts production of Paradise Lost is visually stunning and skillfully performed.  Tom Dulack’s writing, inspired by John Milton’s poem, conjures the Garden of Eden and the depths of hell.  Director Michael Parva has given creative space for six outstanding actors to develop captivating characters and bring this biblical story to life.

Lucifer (played by David Andrew Macdonald) loses his battle with God and falls from heaven.   With him are his Lieutenant, Beelzebub (played by Lou Liberatore), and thousands of fallen angels.  Lucifer comes up with a plan to regain his position.  He needs to enter Paradise and corrupt God’s creation.  Lucifer’s daughter/wife, Sin (played by Alison Fraser), holds the key to the gates of hell, and pushes Lucifer to enact his plan.  Lucifer visits Eve (played by Marina Shay) in her dreams.  Archangel Gabriel (played by Mel Johnson Jr.) warns Adam (played by Robbie Simpson) of Lucifer’s presence and power.  Eve is blind sighted by her lust for knowledge.  Adam is overtaken by his love for Eve.  They succumb to Lucifer’s plan.

Lou Liberatore & David Andrew Macdonald
Photo courtesy of Fellowshop for Perfroming Arts

David Andrew Macdonald portrays Lucifer with a menacing presence, while Lou Liberatore and Alison Fraser deliver the laughs that break the tension.  Robbie Simpson and Marina Shay embody the innocence of Adam and Eve.  Their enthusiasm and joy are genuine.  Their bond is sincerely depicted.  Mel Johnson Jr. grounds the scenes in the Garden of Eden, giving balance to the presence of Lucifer.  These six actors masterfully seize the audience’s attention.  Their skillful depiction of these character brings high value to the production.

Scenic design by Harry Feiner is magnificent.  It is brought to life through Phil Monat’s lighting and John Narun’s brilliant projection design.  Paradise Lost is playing at Theatre Row through March 1.

Domenick Danza

A Class Act

A Class Act

New World Stages

July 9, 2016

Photo courtesy of A Class Act

A Class Act, a new play by Norman Shabel, reveals the behind the scenes strategies, secrets, and scheming that take place when a large American chemical company is facing a class action suit worth tens of billions of dollars.  The plot includes blackmail, dirty secrets, fast paced legal jargon, decisions made with integrity, and heated and foulmouthed conference table negotiations.  It is the plot twist at the end that makes the story unique and worth watching.  Director Christopher Scott savors the moment of this unexpected punch and allows the audience to piece together what actually motivated the characters to take action.

After the General Corporation loses a class action suit in California, they face a national class action suit for the same wrong doings.  Toxic waste has poisoned the water and caused cancer and death to millions of innocent victims.  Yes, the premise is the same as what won Julia Roberts her Academy Award in Erin Brockovich, but in this play the line between the good guys and the bad guys is constantly blurred.  There are indications of themes that drove Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People that keep the tensions building to the end. 

Photo courtesy of A Class Act

David Marantz (as Edward Duchamp) delivers an impassioned monologue about the risks that large corporations take in developing products that improve the quality of lives of people around the world.  This moment levels the playing field by making the high profit bad guy into a valuable player in the progress of civilization  Mr. Marantz’s zeal lands this monologue with a genuine belief that brings the issue into an unrealized light.  Lou Liberatore (as Ben Donaldson) and Matthew DeCapua (as Frank Warsaw) have very strong scenes where the integrity of their characters is on the line, and they rise above the threat.  They both create honest moments with grit and determination that raise the stakes for the plot.  The fiery scenes between Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte (as Ignatio Perez) and Jenny Strassburg (as Dorothy Pilsner) keep the action moving.  Even though they are lawyers on the same side, their opposing tactical perspectives create conflict and quicken the pace of the play.  Their comradery strengthens through their differences and carries the action through to the conclusion.

The cast of A Class Act
Photo courtesy of A Class Act

The script is not structurally sound, yet it does a great job of dramatizing legal details in direct and understandable language.  Its authenticity is unquestionable, since playwright Norman Shabel is himself a lawyer.  If you like stories about high stakes legal proceedings, this is the play for you.  A Class Act will be playing at New World Stages through September 4.

Domenick Danza

Rocket to the Moon

Rocket to the Moon

The Peccadillo Theater Company

Theatre at St. Clement’s

March 7, 2015

Timeless script!  Outstanding acting!  Insightful directing!  That’s all there is to say about The Peccadillo Theater Company’s production of Clifford Odets’ Rocket to the Moon at the Theatre at St. Clement’s.

Photo courtesy of
The Peccadillo Theater Company

It’s 1938 and Dr. Ben Stark, D.D.S., is cajoled into taking an introspective look at his life.  He has been held in place by his wife of ten years.  She rules.  She controls.  She knows best.  His dental practice is not the fulfillment of his dreams that he expected.  Mr. Prince, Dr. Stark’s father-in-law, tells him that an affair with his pretty new secretary, Cleo, could give him a new perspective on life.  “Take a rocket to the moon!” says Mr. Prince, “Explode!”  The complexity of the plot begins as Cleo’s bleak personal life is juxtaposed against her lies and dreams of becoming a dancer.  When the affair between Dr. Stark and Cleo begins, she also starts dating Willy Wax, a famous dance director and wolf in his own right.  Meanwhile, Mr. Prince falls in love with Cleo, and offers her something no one else can, financial security. 

The entire production is amazing.  Director Dan Wackerman has a clear understanding of Odets’ themes and rhythms.  The cast is spectacular.  Ned Eisenberg plays Dr. Stark with warmth, optimism, and pathos.  Jonathan Hadary is witty and bitingly charming as the eccentric Mr. Prince.  Katie McClellan gives the role of Cleo a fire that burns through the character’s naiveté.  Larry Bull (as Phil Cooper, D.D.S.), Michael Keyloun (as Walter “Frenchy” Jensen, D.P.M.), and Lou Liberatore (as Willy Wax) create sharp characters with clarity and specific back stories that communicate a strong sense of the societal mores and taboos of the time period. 

Clifford Odets’ script illustrates how society reinforces the limitations men and women put on themselves.  The male characters struggle with their roles as providers in an economic depression.  The two female characters are strong depictions of how women were treated and encapsulated during that time period.  Dr. Stark’s wife Belle, sharply played by Marilyn Matarrese, is partner and controller, while Cleo is young, single and treated as nothing more than an object, a possession.  Their impassioned struggle to transcend the limitations put upon them by society is matched by how they in turn manipulate the men around them.  This view of society as an enforcer of restraint by imposing roles and restrictions transcends time.

Ned Eisenberg and Marilyn Matarrese in Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon
Photo courtesy of the Peccadillo Theater Company

The set and lighting by Harry Feiner transported me to the hot summer months of 1938.  The large open windows in the office waiting room created the sense that we were on the twelfth floor of an office building.  At one point in the third act Dr. Stark refers to his office as his prison.  This comparison made it clear to me why some of Mr. Feiner’s choices in the floor plan were made.  The details set the time period perfectly.  Amy C. Bradshaw’s costumes and Paul Huntley’s wigs were the icing on the cake in creating this crisp 1938 New York setting. 

Clifford Odets makes you ask yourself that if the mundane of your life is not important enough, why are you repeating it every day.  Why aren’t you seeking more?  Are society’s limits strong enough to keep you down?  It is amazing how a script so full of social commentary can be so personal, yet this is what makes it still valid to an audience today.  As Frenchy says of Dr. Stark, “His unhappiness is a dangerous habit of which he is not fully aware.”  Go see the play and be ready to take a deep, realistic look at yourself.

Domenick Danza