ILLYRIA Previews

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 12:40pm

Previews start tonight for Richard Nelson's ILLYRIA at the Public! Who's going? I'll be there later this week.

[abbagirl]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 3:00pm

I'll be there tonight! :) Won the in-person free lotto, yaaay...

[LesWickedly]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 3:25pm

Let us know the runtime please! 

[abbagirl]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 3:53pm

Will do! The box office guy at the Public told me he thinks 90 mins, but obvs since it's a first preview they're not really sure...

[LesWickedly]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 9:15pm

Great! Excited for your thoughts!

[abbagirl]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 10:15pm

It started a tad late, but it ran about 1 hr 45...I enjoyed it, or most of it; the theatre history is fascinating, although it's only a small slice of the middle of Joe Papp's story...tis a play in 3 scenes, and the middle scene was my fave. Some lovely performances, if a bit slow to get going!

[Melanie73]

Posted: 10/22/17 at 11:57pm

Thanks for letting us know your thoughts so early!  I was just wondering, how was the lottery experience? How many people were able to get the free tickets?

Thanks!

[abbagirl]

Posted: 10/23/17 at 10:24am

It was one of the Public's free first previews, so the entire house was free; as a result they had a LOT of lotto tix to give away. :)

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/23/17 at 10:36am

As a side note: how cool is it that all 5 of the Public's theatre spaces are currently occupied? I'm sure it's not the first time, but I feel like I've never seen that happen before at the Public in the few years that I've been paying attention. Good to see them really making use of what they have!

[abbagirl]

Posted: 10/23/17 at 11:00am

Huh, I hadn't even realized that - that IS cool!

[broadway_show_fan]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 11:40am

bump - has anyone gotten free tickets through Today Tix or the Public's distribution? How are the TDF tix? I've sometimes been in some not such great seats at the Anspacher but $75 is more than I want to pay, and you can't beat free.

Updated On: 10/26/17 at 11:40 AM

[tresora]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 12:19pm

broadway_show_fan said: "bump - has anyone gotten free tickets through Today Tix or the Public's distribution? How are the TDF tix? I've sometimes been in some not such great seats at the Anspacher but $75 is more than I want to pay, and you can't beat free."

My friend won free tickets for the second preview on Tuesday. We sat in row E on the left side. For a theatre as large as Anspacher, since the actors were not using mics, I had a hard time hearing all of the lines from where we were sitting.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 12:27pm

tresora said: "My friend won free tickets for the second preview on Tuesday. We sat in row E on the left side. For a theatre as large as Anspacher, since the actors were not using mics, I had a hard time hearing all of the lines from where we were sitting."

 

Really? That's very surprising to me. I've always thought of the Anspacher as being fairly small. I was sitting around the same place as you when I saw Hamlet, which was also unmiced, and I didn't have any trouble hearing in the slightest (and I AM the sort of person who often has trouble understanding lines when the acoustics are bad) 

 

[Andy51]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 12:33pm

My friend won free tickets for the second preview on Tuesday. We sat in row E on the left side. For a theatre as large as Anspacher, since the actors were not using mics, I had a hard time hearing all of the lines from where we were sitting."

What did you think of the play otherwise?

 

[CarmenA3]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 12:52pm

tresora said: "For a theatre as large as Anspacher, since the actors were not using mics, I had a hard time hearing all of the lines from where we were sitting."

I also was at the first preview and also found the actors hard to hear at times.  It wasn't until we were leaving the theatre that we saw a notice saying the normal speaking volumes are done on purpose.  This was next to the free headset stand.  So if you think you may have issues, I would opt for getting one of the free headsets.  I did notice the hanging mics.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the play.  I liked the dynamic between Joe and Stuart (frenemies? :) )

The show has free "rush" tickets for each performance - given out starting 90 mins before the show.  Has anyone tried this?  I was at the in-person lottery for the first preview.

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 1:40pm

Thanks for the info about conversational speech. I think Nelson likes to do this with his plays. I remember the Apple and Gabriel plays being similarly conversational. I may opt for the hearing devices. I can always choose not to use them if I can hear okay without them. 

[dave1606]

Posted: 10/26/17 at 2:25pm

I saw this last night. For those asking about free tickets I saw a lady with an ipad near the box office. I have a feeling I could have gotten one had I not already had tickets going in as the theater was not full and there was no line.

I am a huge fan of Richard Nelson’s other work. The Apple Family Plays and The Gabriels are both among my favorite plays I have ever seen. Unfortunately, seeing my first of his that is a “historical” play as he puts it I’m not sure he was the best choice for this material.

I was in the second row and I had the same issues that others mentioned hearing the actors. I know it is supposed to be a “conversational” piece, but when you have characters giving key dialogue and another actor is talking over the other or you can’t hear because their back is to you, it becomes a bit frustrating.

Not to say that there weren’t parts that I did enjoy. The third act dinner scene reminded me a bit of the Gabriels and Apple family and there are some nice bits of subtle humor. (The music playing in central park was a great slow burn joke!)

I thought the acting was uniformly excellent. I think Nelson writes wonderful women even if this is more focused on the men I really loved all of the ladies (including ZOO leading actress Kristen Connolly!).  I thought John Magaro was excellent as Joe Papp.

I’d say if you aren’t familiar with NY at the time this takes place or Papp’s story it would be good to read up a bit before seeing this as there isn’t a lot of context or plot here. This is a slice of life at a particular time in Papp’s life. In short its an enjoyable enough evening, but I wish I was back with the Gabriels of the Apple family.

[tresora]

Posted: 10/29/17 at 12:17am

Andy51 said: "
My friend won free tickets for the second preview on Tuesday. We sat in row E on the left side. For a theatre as large as Anspacher, since the actors were not using mics, I had a hard time hearing all of the lines from where we were sitting."

What did you think of the play otherwise?"

I think this is just one of those plays where you either love it or you hate it. I am in the latter group. The enjoyment of Illyria is extremely dependent on whether you have historical context about Joe Papp's life in the 1958. Unfortunately, little is provided (what is provided is subtle or inaudible), making the play uncomfortably long and dry. The relationships between the characters are not clearly defined until the second scene (by far the most interesting), and some characters are unnecessary to the plot altogether.

 

[macnyc]

Posted: 10/29/17 at 10:34am

I caught the Saturday matinee, and I loved this play. I do agree with some of the drawbacks/negatives mentioned by the previous posters though.

I opted for the hearing assistive device and my friend did too. We were both glad we did. We could see fellow audience members leaning forward, struggling to hear, and I think the volume level of the natural speech here is even lower than in the Apple and Gabriel plays. My friend and I both said after the show that we hate to miss anything. If you don't mind not hearing lines here and there, you will be able to do without the devices, but I recommend their use for people like me.

I am a huge Nelson fan, and I love his naturalist staging and dialogue, and the feeling as audience members that we are flies on a wall, overhearing what's going on.

Yes, this isn't a sweeping overview of Papp's life and accomplishments. You're just getting glimpses of some of the pivotal events of Papp's life during that era. That may not work for all viewers, but I really liked that approach, despite having to figure out what's going on in certain spots.

A year or two ago I read Free for All about the life of Joe Papp (and really enjoyed it; I recommend it highly). So I was familiar with his life story and was able to piece together what was happening. I guess I forgot a lot, though, and was in the dark along with everyone else!

The takeaway for me is that everyone goes through rough patches, when all seems lost. Papp was at a low point in his career during the time frame depicted. And he was certainly not infallible and depended on his close friends to set him right. But they did, and he persevered, and his legacy today is solid. When you walk into the thriving Public Theater, with its lobby bustling with theatergoers, it's hard to imagine how easily the story could have gone the other way/ 

The women are well-written, as Dave says, above. It is indeed a show focused on the men, though, and it reflects the sexism of the era. The women are for childbirth and for serving food, at least on the surface, and the men shun the women's party that they were invited to, content to sit in Central Park after a show and pass around a flask and the rain begins to fall. I think that was actually my favorite scene.

After the show I started to wonder how close John Magaro's depiction of Papp actually came. (I think the actor was excellent.) I think it's tricky to play someone either living or pretty recently deceased. I would like to read an article detailing how Nelson researched Papp (maybe they knew each other, I don't know) and if Nelson consulted with people who knew Papp when directing Magaro in Papp's mannerisms, speech patterns, etc.
 

Updated On: 10/29/17 at 10:34 AM

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/31/17 at 11:03am

I pretty much hated this. It's dull and inert. Sure, the cast gives it their all but you really need to have some working knowledge of Joe Papp or the history of The Public to fully understand everything that's mentioned here. There's no drama; just people sitting around talking about things that should be far more interesting than how they're presented here.

 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 10/31/17 at 11:22am

Have you never seen a Richard Nelson play?

[Danielle49]

Posted: 10/31/17 at 11:53am

I knew nothing about Nelson's work (or Joe Papp) beforehand, but this was not my cup of tea. The actors did well with what they were given, but had the misfortune of being handed a poor script combined with poor direction. John Magaro, Rosie Benton, and Kristen Connolly in particular were very good.

I'm going to agree with those who said it was difficult to hear the actors most of the time - like I understand if Nelson's using conversational volume/language as a device but the reality is that 200 people still need to hear what's going on. They overlapped each other's dialogue often, making it even more difficult to decipher any context. I completely lost interest within a few minutes.

For anyone that knows a lot about the Public or Joe Papp and you want to see some free theater, there were a couple of empty rows when I went so you should have no problem getting free tickets beforehand. I won mine through TodayTix so that's also an option.

[daredevil]

Posted: 10/31/17 at 12:36pm

I am old enough to have followed the Papp-Moses controversy carefully at the time---all the references and names dropped in the play are familiar to me. As I watched the play Sunday afternoon, I was always interested, but the further away I get from it, the more disappointed I feel. 

A few points: much as I liked the actors and the ensemble feeling they created, they all seemed terribly similar---almost as if they had come from the same drama school. Very little variety in the tone of the piece--were those real life people so similar? 

As I considered it, each character seemed to have one affect: Vaughan: ambition; Papp: feistiness; Debuskey: friendship and support; Gersten: about the same. Of the women, you could say that Dewhurst and Peggy Papp were fairly well drawn, but the other two women seemed to me very underwritten.

Why was the Papp-Moses conflict dropped between the second and third scenes? . Did everyone in the audience understand that Papp had won out, and that a Judge had declared that te festival had the right to perform Shakespeare in Central Park for free, over Moses' objections? I found this frustrating, 

Here are some facts that might be helpful if you have not seen the play and are planning to.

T, refers to T Edward Hambleton, who ran the Pheonix Theater, an off Broadway classical theater that was at 12th street and second avenue (now a movie theater) and did a season of plays, mostly classical, It was the only not for profit of the era, and I guess, existed on money from Mr. Hambleton and ticket sales. The plays they did in that theater were of pretty high quality, before Vaughan took over in 58, Tyrone Guthrie directed a few classics there. By being appointed the resident director, it meant Vaughan could plan and direct at least four productions a year there, with a company of off Broadway actors whom he could choose.

George C Scott, the actor playing Jacques in the student attended production of As You Like It, was an amazing actor. In the fall of 57, the Festival was able to do a season at the Hecksher Theater (the first scene of  Illyria takes place in the back stage area of that theater)  and Scott came out of nowhere to play a galvanic Richard III, directed by Vaughan. As You Like It was the second production of that season,  Also in it were Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, playing two of the rustics. But Scott, drunk or not, was an amazing stage actor---for me his presence, so different from the easy going nature of the actors on stage at the Anspacher, was sorely missed. 

 

[broadway_show_fan]

Posted: 11/3/17 at 1:23pm

Bump - has anyone recently done the free tickets in the lobby? How hard is it to get them/what time do you have to get there? Where were your seat locations, and could you easily hear (since others have commented it can be difficult to hear)?

[Alfie6]

Posted: 11/3/17 at 2:29pm

I was actually at the box office yesterday picking up my tickets for Oedipus and inquired about the free line for this show. Apparently they don't get more than four or five people a day max, it is extremely dead and an easy ticket to grab if you show up there anytime.