Michael Dale - Page 36

Though the characters in bookwriter/lyricist Bill Russell and composer Janet Hood's sweet, funny and very entertaining new musical UNEXPECTED JOY are all women, there's a guy in the mix who still has a lot to say.

Despite only three Broadway credits, Marin Ireland must be regarded as one of the absolute best actors to regularly grace New York stages during this century. Through her steady work Off-Broadway (15 productions since 2001 and playing leading roles for several of the city's major non-profits) local audiences have seen her portrayals grow from young women of the past sporting underestimated brilliance (SABINA, THE RUBY SUNRISE) to emotionally frazzled contemporary types (MAPLE & VINE, REASONS TO BE PRETTY) and struggling survivors (KILL FLOOR, IRONBOND).

Escaping disillusionment through the comfort of alcohol while clinging to hopeless pipe dreams is rarely depicted with such crackling energy as it is in director George C. Wolfe's puzzling production of Eugene O'Neill's tragedy THE ICEMAN COMETH.

'Raise your hand if you've ever been underestimated,' instructs Program Director Stephanie Ybarra before every performance of Shakespeare's HENRY V, as performed by The Public Theater's Mobile Unit.

The title character of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan was burned at the stake nearly 500 years before the play premiered at Broadway's Garrick Theatre in December of 1923, but for many viewers there may have been a sense of topicality to the proceedings.

Czech-born British dramatist Tom Stoppard, whose densely intellectual plays may be the most potent argument known for America's need to step up its public education funding, was first noticed on these Atlantic shores in the 1960s for shining a spotlight on two minor Shakespearean characters in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.

'Now, if you want to sing along, you just go right ahead and sing,' the hostess of Broadway's newest musical advises her audience at the top of the show.  'And if you want to dance, go 'head, flail around!'

If, like this theatre reviewer, you've managed to survive the last twenty years without reading a word of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of Harry Potter novels, nor taking in a screening of any of the eight film adaptations, the most important thing to keep in mind about the Broadway transfer of the West End theatre sensation, HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD, is that the pair of plays making up the fantasy drama constitute a continuation of the saga and are not intended to stand on their own.

From SOUTH PACIFIC to THE KING AND I to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and now MY FAIR LADY, director Bartlett Sher has been spending the better part of this young century perfecting his method of mounting ravishing, emotionally stimulating productions of classic 20th Century musicals.

"When I was young I was taught by my grandmother to listen to the night," says the title character of Lynn Nottage's nobly lyrical drama of the ivory trade, MLIMA'S TALE.

The willingness to suspend disbelief is a long-standing tradition in live theatre, and as long as playwrights and directors firmly establish their boundaries of realism, it's reasonable for audience members to go along with them.

During the first half of the 20th Century, there was no artist as important to the development of American musical theatre from strictly light entertainment to a legitimate dramatic art form that addressed controversial issues and exposed the country's uglier norms than bookwriter and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.

While audiences gather at Lincoln Center to see Lerner and Lowe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's classic, there's a different kind of Pygmalion story being played out at Studio 54, where Mark Medoff's 1980 Tony winner for Best Play, Children of a Lesser God is receiving its first Broadway revival.

The current American president is never mentioned in bookwriter/lyricist Quiara Alegria Hudes and composer/lyricist Erin McKeown's lovely and touching chamber musical MISS YOU LIKE HELL.  But even though the piece has been in development well before anyone thought of the former reality TV star as a serious candidate, his presence is well-felt in their story of an undocumented Mexican-American mom who is facing deportation while trying to rebuild her relationship with her citizen daughter.

There's a theory, hopefully an accurate one, that the things that make you an outcast in high school are the things that make you awesome as an adult. And maybe that's why scenes in the buoyant new musical Mean Girls are often stolen by the Mathletes, the activist artist, the tap dancers and the kid who decided to attend the Halloween party as sexy Rosa Parks.

Magazine ads and television commercials may reach millions more, but perhaps the highest compliment I can pay Havana Club Rum's immersive theatre experience, AMPARO, is that it effectively guides visitors through a brief history of the company's trailblazing founding family, including generous tastes of both Cuban culture and their sugar cane libation, without ever feeling like a sales pitch.

Broadway's legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim will be making a guest appearance next season on Rachel Bloom's musical romantic comedy television series 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' in an episode which will premiere a song from his upcoming musical based on two films by Spanish director Luis Buñuel.

Older character men hungry for fresh scenery to chew will certainly look forward to the day when Shem Bitterman's The Stone Witch becomes available for regional and amateur productions.

It's been nearly three decades since the superb stage artist Glenda Jackson took her last opening night bow on Broadway, playing Lady Macbeth in 1988. Since then she's been working in the somewhat less scripted field of British politics, serving in Parliament for over twenty years.

As with the Broadway season's earlier pop concert extravaganza, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, this theatre critic readily admits to not exactly being an ideal arts journalist to authoritatively review the touring rock anthem/classical music fusion concert called Rocktopia that has made a stop at the Broadway Theatre. Though my knowledge of the highbrow oeuvre is perhaps slightly higher than a layperson's, my experience with classic rock power ballads rarely extends further than the snippets heard at baseball and hockey games or during the occasional car commercial.