Ben Peltz - Page 6

Norm Lewis is in a commercial for Cialis. Unfortunately, it doesn't begin with him singing 'I Got Plenty Of Nothing' and end with him singing 'Bess, You Is My Woman Now.'

Norm Lewis is in a commercial for Cialis. Unfortunately, it doesn't begin with him singing 'I Got Plenty Of Nothing' and end with him singing 'Bess, You Is My Woman Now.'

If you have a hankering to see a room full of grown-ups acting like those teenagers watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, then get thee to The Metropolitan Room, where Marilyn Maye is doing her traditional job of knocking 'em dead.

Even if the names Marc Kudisch and Jeffrey Denman are as foreign to you as the middle monikers of the three wise men, there's a wonderful familiarity to their on-stage personas as The Holiday Guys.  It's the kind of relaxed, off-the-cuff give and take that's been enjoyed for generations, whether packaged as Hope and Crosby, Allen and Rossi or Brooks and Reiner.

The subjectivity of the truth appears to be a running theme in the intriguing work of young playwright, Amy Herzog, who follows the recent success of After The Revolution and 4,000 Miles with a moving drama, The Great God Pan.

It's a rare performer that can generate so much affection from an audience by regarding them with unrestrained contempt, but Jackie Hoffman has cultivated a unique niche for herself in New York's lengthy history of comic actors who partner with their Jewish heritage acting as straight man.

It feels like familiar territory as soon as the lights go up on two people, mid-conversation, speaking in that jaunty rhythm of clipped communication; those overlapping thoughts and unfinished sentences where you can sense every dot of each ellipsis.

Set during one of the most tumultuous periods in our country's history, Paula Vogel weaves several intimate stories of soldiers, escaped slaves, would-be kidnappers and the country's first couple into a comforting evening of holiday storytelling, A Civil War Christmas.  Director Tina Landau, music director Andrew Resnick and a talented ensemble of eleven tread through episodes of tragedy, racism, frivolity and hopefulness in a display that hints at, while not exactly drawing parallels to, a traditional nativity pageant.

From The Jazz Singer to Fiddler On The Roof to Yentl and beyond, Jewish drama on the American stage has regularly explored the topic of youthful straying from traditional ways.  The newest example to hit Off-Broadway, based on Chaim Potok's 1972 novel, is Aaron Posner's My Name Is Asher Lev, a warm and humorous addition to the genre.

Yes, I'll say it.  The 1959 Broadway stage version of The Sound of Music is far superior to 1965 film adaptation.  Yeah, yeah, I know…  The Oscar-winning best picture has all that lovely Austrian and Bavarian scenery and those cute kids and, oh yeah, Julie Andrews as the young postulant, Maria, sent to serve as governess to the seven children of Naval Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp.  But it also has a watered-down screenplay by Ernest Lehman that cuts two of the best songs in Rodgers and Hammerstein's score and eliminates one of the most interesting aspects of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse's original book; the depiction of nice, likeable Austrians who, unaware of the full extent of Hitler's atrocities, argue against resistance of the German overthrow of their country.  The stage musical even includes an important scene, altered in the film, where a Nazi in uniform commits a selfless act of compassion that helps rescue the von Trapps.

If the world were a little more just and the general public's taste for musical theatre a lot more cerebral, news of a new Michael John LaChiusa musical would cause the same kind of box office frenzy that in the 1940s and 50s greeted announcements of Rodgers and Hammerstein's latest.  Or at least match the high expectations these days whenever another Stephen Sondheim revival is mounted.

Did somebody decide when I wasn't listening that this would be the season where all translations of classic plays must contain occasional forays into anachronistic contemporary language?  First came An Enemy of the People and Cyrano de Bergerac, and now Carol Rocamora's adaptation of Chekhov's Ivanov, being used in CSC's schizophrenically handsome/punkish production, would have us believing the playwright had his characters uttering the 19th Century Russian equivalents of “harangue,” “He's a real operator” and “Hope you choke.”

When it comes to television, the 37th President of the United States is best remembered for an unfortunate debate against John F. Kennedy and later for those infamous words, “I am not a crook.”  But it was a younger, more idealistic Richard Milhous Nixon who used television to warm American hearts and save his political skin by telling the story of a little cocker spaniel namEd Checkers and bringing new respectability to the words “Republican cloth coat.”

Playwright Richard Nelson first introduced audiences to the family of Apple siblings with That Hopey Changey Thing, which took place on election night 2010 and, by design, opened on that same night.  He pulled the same trick last year with Sweet and Sad, which opened and was set on the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

You know those people who can eat whatever they want and never gain a pound?  Charlie, the central character of Samuel D. Hunter's touching drama The Whale, isn't one of them.  Charlie's dietary habits declined in a sharp downward spiral after losing his lover under tragic circumstances.  He lives a reclusive existence in his Idaho home, teaching how to write basic essays from his laptop while spread across his couch, with his students able to hear his voice, but never see his face.  When he last used a scale, Charlie weighed in at 550 pounds.  He suspects to be close to 600 now.

I daresay that playwright Jon Kern probably found a previously untried twist in the old staple of “meeting cute” in a romantic comedy by having the central couple of his play be a suicide bomber on a mission to sacrifice himself, and take as many lives as possible with him, on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, and a fellow terrorist helping to achieve his goal as revenge against an American drone attack that killed her husband on her wedding day when the celebration was mistaken for a Taliban gathering.

The first 11 o'clock number of the evening came at around 8:05, when Marc Kudisch opened Town Hall's The Best of Broadway By The Year concert by caressing Lerner and Loewe's “If Ever I Would Leave You” with his rich, dramatic baritone and superlative musical acting skills.  It was a very appropriate opening since Kudisch, a regular participant throughout the concert series' twelve-season history, very much represents what these evenings have evolved into; a look at what Broadway could be in a commercially different environment.

The program for Transport Group's premiere production of director Daniel Fish's stage adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's essay, House For Sale, tells us that every performance is different, because each actor has apparently memorized the entire ninety minute piece and the sections of the text they perform each night are determined on the spot when the on-stage rows of lights display the color they've been assigned.  Unfortunately, audience members don't get programs until after the play is done, so if you're not aware that the original piece was written in one voice you have no idea that each ensemble member represents the same person and may wind up spending too much time trying to figure out what the blinking lights are supposed to mean.

Don't tell God, but for some people pop culture not even a century old can provide the same kind of spiritual inspiration and comfort as the ancient texts and traditions of organized religion.  Just ask Adelaide, the central character of Colman Domingo's wonderfully joyous, sweet and funny adventure, Wild With Happy.  No, wait, you can't.  Because she's dead when the play starts.

“We should not do a show more often,” quipped Ryan Silverman as he an Jill Paice took in the appreciative applause of the Town Hall audience before even singing a note of the Broadway musical they were expected to star in this season, Rebecca.  Host Scott Siegel had just recapped the story of the show's numerous delays, fake investors, missing funds and the fact that an estimated 150 theatre professions had either turned down work or stopped seeking immediate employment because of their expectation to be working on Broadway by Christmas.