John & Jen

John & Jen

Keen Company
The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row

Sunday, February 15, 2015

John & Jen is the second production I have seen at Keen Company this season.  The first was Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods with Kathleen Chalfant and Paul Niebanck.  Expertly directed by Keen’s Artistic Director, Jonathan Silverstein, these productions have made me a big fan and follower of Keen Company.

Kate Baldwin and Conor Ryan in John & Jen
Photo courtesy of Keen Company

John & Jen is a heartfelt, two-character musical by Andrew Lippa (music and book) and Tom Greenwald (lyrics and book).  It tells the story of John and Jen, a brother and sister, how close they were growing up, how they grew apart, and how love and fears of letting go transfer through a generation.  I purposely do not want to tell any more about this unique musical so you can experience the journey first hand.  Personally, I was carried back to memories of my relationship between me and my youngest brother, and how that has transferred down to my young nephew.  It is clearly relatable story that should not be missed. 

Jen is magnificently played by Kate Baldwin.  I saw her in the Broadway production of Big Fish last season.  She was marvelous in that as well.  John is tenderly played by Conor Ryan.  He was previously seen in the Public Theatre production of The Fortress of Solitude.  Their chemistry is magical as we watch their characters grow up before our eyes.  Their transformation from childhood through puberty into adolescence and then young adulthood is seamless and magically crafted.

Director Jonathan Silverstein is gifted at finding the moments where the growth in the relationships between the characters intimately moves the action forward and allows the audience to ride through the story.  The musical staging is by Christine O’Grady.  Her movement fills the space and develops the characters with care, precision, and detail.

The set, by Steven C. Kemp, is a mixture of geometric structures that are utilized in various and imaginative ways.  It works very well as a unit set for this story that travels through decades of time and numerous settings.  It is painted in dark and intense colors that, unfortunately, do not allow the space to illuminate with the range of emotion the play spans.  Josh Bradford’s lighting is very well done, but hindered by the darkness of the set structures.

John & Jen is sure to be well received.  Go see it!  I am looking forward to returning to Keen Company for their next production.

Domenick Danza

The Iceman Cometh

The Iceman Cometh

BAM's Harvey Theatre
February 17, 2015

Photo courtesy of The Goodman Theatre

The last time I read Eugene O’Neil was in college, 35 years ago.  I’d heard many great things about the Goodman production of The Iceman Cometh when it played in Chicago in 2012.  I got on line to get tickets as soon as I read it was going to be at BAM’s Harvey Theatre.  I went into the theatre expecting four hours of deep, moving intensity.  I was ready.  I was prepared.  What I got was five hours, so I have to admit that the last unexpected hour was rough, but great and powerful.  Nathan Lane commanded the stage and led a cast of eighteen actors, all who did a tremendous job of bringing depth and detail to each character and created extraordinary moments exemplifying the human condition.

The first act opens in the dark, shadowy backroom of Hope’s Bar, filled with pain and despair.  Hickey, Nathan Lane’s character, enters, awakening them to the realization that they are stuck in their “pipedreams” waiting for tomorrow.  His desire to stir them into action is infectious.  Act II is olive green and red and bright.  An upright piano is on stage for the characters to play and sing together.  They start looking at themselves based on Hickey’s rant, stripping away one layer at a time.  There are a variety of responses to self-assessment characterized by the assorted group.  Some fight it.  Some give in with conditions.  Larry, played by Brian Dennehy, holds firm, grounding them all in skepticism and obstinacy.  Act III is bright as the stage opens up to show the entire bar.  The sunlight outside the door at the far end of the bar is warm, stark, and harsh.  The characters exit into the light after hesitating, struggling, and wrestling with their own selves.  In Act IV we are back to the dark disillusionment of the first act as we hear the detailed truth of Hickey’s story.  At the end Larry utters, “Thank God there is no hope,” as all the characters dance and celebrate the comfort of their own despair.

I was very caught up in the yearning for change that Hickey brought to the bleak setting.  I believed him.  I wanted each character to face their fear and overcome their past.  Have their “pipedream” of tomorrow become a reality for the present.  Whether it was Nathan Lane’s hutzpah or my ridiculous optimism, I forgot the Eugene O’Neil I studied so many years ago.  The journey of the play brought hope to the inhabitants of Hope’s Bar.  I fell for it… and fell even harder in the final act as the conditions of these character’s lives overwhelmed them and firmly held them down.

Nathan Line in The Iceman Cometh  -  Photo courtesy of The Goodman Theatre

The production is superbly directed by Robert Falls, the Artistic Director of The Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  He has a clear understanding of Eugene O’Neil’s intention and how to get the actors grounded in the reality of the situation and setting.  The sets, by Kevin Depinet, and lighting, by Natasha Katz, give the actors an amazing space to create, explore, and get lost in.

Powerful and moving.  Detailed and intense.  This production is not to be missed.  Go in prepared for a full five hours.  The three intermissions give you ample time to stretch and process the material.  Take it all in and let the journey of the play take you into the deepest part of the soul of Eugene O’Neil.     

Domenick Danza

Between Riverside and Crazy

Between Riverside and Crazy

Second Stage Theatre

February 20, 2015

      Photos courtesy of Second Stage Theatre

I finally saw Between Riverside and Crazy, and am sorry I waited so long.  I saw advertisements for months, and read a very good review when it played at The Atlantic Theater Company this past summer and fall.  I read that the Second Stage Theatre’s production was a well-produced continuation of that run with mostly the same cast.  I sat in the theatre, waiting for the show to start, listening to the peculiar meditation-style music and realizing that from where I was sitting I was not going to be able to see all the action of the play.  The set was an interior with multiple rooms that were not in full view from my seat in house left.  I felt joy and excitement when the lights dimmed, the music gained some bass and rhythm, and the set spun on turn table to reveal all three rooms of the apartment, bringing the action down stage center.  I was not the only one to applaud Walt Spangler’s realistic, dilapidated, high-ceiling rendition of a Riverside Drive apartment.  Before a word was spoken, this set pulled me into a realistic and stark world that prepared me for the genuine depiction of the human experience that was to come. 

Stephan McKinley Henderson, Victor Almanzar, and Ron Cephas Jones 

in "Between Riverside and Crazy." Photo: Carol Rosegg

 Act I started with sharp dialogue that defined the characters right off the bat.  The main conflict was introduced in scene two as the backstory of the main character, Pops, played flawlessly by Stephen McKinley Henderson, was revealed.  The action dramatically rose at the end of the first act as Oswaldo, played meticulously by Victor Almanzar, goes off his sobriety and gets violent.  I took a minute to reflect during the intermission and realized that I was deeply involved in the world of this play.  It was real and topical.  Each point of view of the conflict was expressed so clearly that I was able to see the push and pull within each of the characters as their struggle and debate kept the action of the play moving forward.  In the second act a new character was introduced that turned the plot around, caused the conflict to explode, then calm, then pounce voraciously.

The blurb I had read for months about this play says, “City Hall is demanding more than his signature, the landlord wants him out… the struggle to hold on to one of the last great rent stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive collides with old wounds…”  This made me think the play was about the gentrification of New York City.  It is not about that at all.  It is about integrity and pride, healing and second chances.  It is not about the apartment.  Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis (well known for his play The Motherf**ker with the Hat) skillfully crafted an edgy world full of grit and warmth.  Director Austin Pendleton peeled away every layer of that world with actors who delved into themselves and connected to one another with an amazing depth of reality and truth.

This is an important play... a must see!  Three cheers to Second Stage Theatre for mounting The Atlantic Theater Company’s production and keeping it alive.  

Domenick Danza