Michael Dale - Page 34

Jason Robert Brown was just 25 years old when his SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD took the stage of Off-Broadway's intimate WPA Theatre. As he played piano and led the handful of musicians in director Daisy Prince's production, a quartet of actors who all had big things ahead of them (Brooks Ashmanskas, Andrea Burns, Jessica Molaskey and Billy Porter) revealed the vivid collection of complex and approachable emotions expressed by the extraordinarily relatable collection of characters created by this young man's music and lyrics.

Perhaps some of the good people at Britain's Royal Court are in need of a hug these days.  This week New York playgoers welcomed two transfers of exceedingly violent productions from that celebrated London theatre.  But while, over at The Public, the bloody finish of David Ireland's CYPRUS AVENUE is played out in front of audiences, at the Minetta Lane, viewers of Dennis Kelly's solo piece GIRLS & BOYS only hear about its repulsive event.

On the surface, the plot of CYPRUS AVENUE is just a little too weird to take seriously, and that's one of the strengths of David Ireland's creepy drama, as director Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director of London's Royal Court, seamlessly transitions the piece from cerebral exploration to dark comedy to a sickeningly violent ending.

"The existence of queer people of color, particularly of African descent, has repeatedly been washed over, or forgotten altogether," writes Donja R. Love, whose SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS is receiving a handsome and well-acted production from Manhattan Theatre Club, via director Sahaam Ali.

If upon entering a theatre, the stage is populated by a young black man sleeping under a street lamp as another young black man quietly scrutinizes all in attendance, while the pre-show music plays Doris Day singing 'Que Sera, Sera,' it's a good sign that there are going to be some strong opinions expressed.

David Friedman and Peter Kellogg may be billed, respectively, as composer and bookwriter/lyricists of the rollickingly fun new musical comedy DESPERATE MEASURES, which has just moved from the intimate York Theatre to more spacious digs at New World Stages, but they can also add 'problem-solver' to their resumes.

Is there anything more charming than watching two older people falling in love? Well, perhaps. Like when the romance occurs, as instructed by playwright Charles Mee in his 2001 one-act, FIRST LOVE, in 'the world of Magritte.'

From the very beginning, one of the most important tenants of Joseph Papp's vision of free Shakespeare in Central Park has been the insistence the company of actors audiences see on stage will always reflect the extraordinary and powerful cultural diversity of New York City.

'We are women more willing to be vile receptacles then we are willing to be dead,' says a character identified as Item 2 in Eve Ensler's FRUIT TRILOGY, which is receiving its New York debut at the Lortel, courtesy of the Abingdon Theatre Company.

'Vassar. See yourself there,' a successful adult advises a high school student who has impressed him with her talent for writing poetry, but not with her low expectations for securing a spot in a good college.

Commencing in 1958, Chairman Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward was a 5-year plan to convert Communist China's largely agricultural economy into government-run farming collectives, freeing up resources for manufacturing and building infrastructure. It didn't end well.

From the mid-1960s through to the early years of this century, the musicals scored by the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb have exemplified Broadway pizzazz while exploring darker issues under the glitzy polish.

A younger playgoer knowing nothing about Mart Crowley's classic 1968 Off-Broadway comedy/drama The Boys in the Band except, perhaps, that its original run is regarded as an important landmark in depicting gay men on stage, might be shocked to witness the happenings these days at the Booth Theatre, which now houses the piece's premiere Broadway production.

The fact that Broadway hasn't seen fit to provide a role for Lois Smith in over twenty years can be regarded as one of the top arguments denouncing the popular assumption that Times Square is where you go to take in the best of New York theatre.

The setup would make a hell of a piece of theatrically-minded erotica. Call it Cat (On A Hot Tin Roof) and Mouse, as sexual sparks ignite when elegant playwright on the verge of stardom, Tennessee Williams, visits the home of shy aspiring playwright William Inge for a newspaper interview to promote the Chicago opening of what would be his landmark Broadway success, THE GLASS MENAGERIE.

There's an empty casket on display and a pants-less mourner screaming. 'What kinda fuckin' world is this?!' when the lights suddenly go up on Stephen Adly Guirgis' wild New York escapade, Our Lady of 121st Street.

Depending on how snobby you are about the belief that no American play can truly be said to have premiered until it has opened in New York, Paradise Blue, the ravishing new jazz noir drama by Dominique Morisseau is either the second or third installment in the playwright's trilogy set in her hometown of Detroit.

Ranking up there with MEDEA and OEDIPUS REX, Eugene O'Neill's family tragedy LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT would most likely make any playgoer's list of inappropriate classics to revive on Mother's Day weekend.

Playgoers in the know will arrive at any production of the 1937 West End smash ME AND MY GIRL already humming a bit of its legendary Act I closer 'The Lambeth Walk,' looking forward to a rousing showstopper where composer Noel Gay's peppy earworm is matched with co-bookwriter/lyricists L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber's jaunty lyric celebrating that part of London where 'everything's bright and breezy' and you can 'do as you darn well please-y.'

'How're you gonna cap off your prepubescent years?', a stony-faced teacher asks his competitive dance team members, shortly after winning a competition that saw one of their own suffer a season-ending injury.