Broadway Blogs - Love, Loss and What I Wore and More...

Clothes Make The Woman Remember

I can't say I've ever really associated important events in my life with what I was wearing. Oh sure, I remember the powder beige tux I wore to my 1977 senior prom (my date picked it out) but since moving to New York I think it's safe to just assume I was wearing black whenever anything significant happened. Not so for the ladies of Love, Loss and What I Wore, a show that my female guest assures me gives an accurate portrayal of how women tend to hold important memories in the stitches of their apparel. And though such sentiments may be foreign to my nature (or perhaps nurture) I found the ninety-minute evening warm, funny (often hilarious), cleverly written and terrifically performed.

LL&WIW, if you don't mind the abbreviation, began life as Ilene Beckerman's best-selling memoir of "Gingy" who, through words and illustrations, writes her life history as recalled by the clothing she wore as a way of reminding her children that she wasn't always a mother. She was once a girl who had friends and did stupid things just like them. In adapting the book for the stage, sisters Nora and Delia Ephron have crafted a piece where five actresses are seated in a row, their scripts in front of them on lecterns, reading excerpts from Beckerman as well as stories contributed by their friends.

The excellent opening night ensemble consisted of Tyne Daly, Rosie O'Donnell, Katie Finneran, Samantha Bee and Natasha Lyonne, but the rotating company will feature a new collection of stars taking the stage every four weeks. While the text often has the cast ping-ponging their speeches back and forth (director Karen Carpenter does a great job of continually varying the tempo of the piece), Daly marvelously anchors the proceedings with her sole responsibility of playing six segments as Gingy. With a rack of posters beside her that carry Beckerman's book illustrations, Daly gracefully takes us through Gingy's rebellious childhood, three marriages, personal tragedy and somewhat lonely senior years with warmth and dry wisdom.

On the more raucous side, Rosie O'Donnell's brand of straightforward humor makes her stories of the humiliation of bra-shopping and the inconvenience of purse-wearing achingly funny while retaining sympathy for her character. But she also delivers sweet pathos in a self-written monologue about seeing her step-mother wearing a bathrobe strikingly similar to the one her deceased mother would wear.

Finneran, Bee and Lyonne mostly work together delivering short, snappy observations ("Never wear velvet before Rosh Hashana.") but they get also get individual chances to shine; particularly in Finneran's triumphant portrayal of a breast cancer survivor who finds a unique way to make herself feel in control.

And if you'll notice from the photo, costume designer Jessica Jahn has them all wearing black. Because as Rosie O'Donnell exasperatingly blurts out, "Can't we just stop pretending that anything is ever going to be the new black?"

Photo by Carol Rosegg: Tyne Daly, Rosie O'Donnell, Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran, and Natasha Lyonne.

The critically acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of William Shakespeare's HAMLET comes to Broadway for a strictly limited run of 12 weeks only.

The King of Denmark is dead. Consumed with grief, Prince Hamlet determines to avenge his father's apparent murder, with devastating consequences for his family and the Kingdom. Michael Grandage directs Jude Law as Hamlet in Shakespeare's iconic revenge tragedy.

HAMLET comes to Broadway following sold out runs in London's West End and a special engagement at Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Law is joined by the Donmar Theatre company of actors from London and Elsinore.

David Rooney, Variety: "The castle at Elsinore, in director Michael Grandage's stolid "Hamlet," is a towering mausoleum. Designer Christopher Oram has built monolithic marbled walls pierced by lofty windows through which Neil Austin pours shards of dungeon-like light. The austere stage pictures are arresting, as is the presence of sinewy Jude Law in a series of skinny knits and rumpled raincoats in grim shades from gray through black. However, the cohesiveness of the production's mostly monochromatic visual scheme is not matched by similar consistency of concept or emotional depth. It's an accessible presentation, but rarely exciting and even less often moving."

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: "His "Hamlet" generates little psychological tension, though. And it is remarkably lacking in the vivid, specific characterizations you expect of Shakespeare in performance."

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: "Grandage's Hamlet (* * * * out of four), which opened Tuesday at the Broadhurst Theatre, is pure enough to satisfy the most reactionary scholar. It's also as brave, beautiful and robustly exciting a reading of this play as you're likely to see."

Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press: "He rants. He rails. He seizes Shakespeare's most famous play by its well-known soliloquies and doesn't let go. The actor's turbocharged performance as the anguished Danish prince is not particularly subtle, but it's well-spoken and clear. And eminently watchable."

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: "CAN A MOVIE STAR on the stage transcend his film performances and even rise above the gossip pages? The answer is yes when it comes to Jude Law, who's giving a spine-tingling and richly layered performance in a new version of "Hamlet" that makes you forget about his past roles and bad-boy melodramas."

John Simon, Bloomberg News: "To all Jude Law fans, the Broadway revival of "Hamlet" starring him and courtesy of London's Donmar Warehouse is genially recommended. Others it will surely disappoint. Were it a car, it would most likely be recalled as a defective model."

David Sheward, Backstage: "While Law gives a muscular, intelligent performance in the most challenging role in world literature, the supporting cast and the director's concept barely register. That's a shame, because Law is a Hamlet to remember, bringing exciting physical life to each line and gesture. This dynamic film star proves he's more than just a pretty face as he invests Hamlet's quest for revenge with an intellectual vigor and an athletic attack."

Michael Feingold, The Village Voice: "Jude Law is an exciting and valuable actor. He brings a tremendous vital energy to the role of Hamlet, his choppy speech rhythms engaging in what sometimes seems like hand-to-hand combat with Shakespeare's metrics. He seems to be fighting, too, both the prince's melancholy and the sardonic humor with which Hamlet keeps trying to distance himself from events."

More Reviews to Come in the AM....