Review - "Belleville" - Yale Repertory Theatre

Catharsis Interruptus

If Aristotle had been among the members of the opening night audience for The Yale Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of Amy Herzog’s “Belleville,” he probably would have left the theater shaking his head and mumbling, “Read my Poetics, damnit!” That’s because this by and large artfully written and well-produced domestic tragedy, commissioned by the Rep, makes you care about the lead characters and then, instead of opting for some form of resolution that would allow for release of pent emotions, leaves you hanging…in French, no less.

This is a shame, for the first eighty or so minutes of this one-act play directed by Anne Kaufman are humorous, disturbing and at times riveting, as the married life of Zack (Greg Keller) and Abby (Maria Dizzia) is placed under a microscope and dissected.

Maria Dizzia as Abby

The young American couple is living in a section of Paris called Belleville (not much is made of this – they could just as easily be living in Sheboygan), renting a three-room apartment owned by Alioune (Gilbert Qwuor), originally from Dakar, and Amina (Pascale Armand). Abby is a frustrated actress currently teaching a yoga class to students who don’t show up and Zack is a doctor working for an unnamed organization seeking to mitigate AIDS in children. But all is not as it seems, as is evident from Herzog’s point of attack, which has Abby arriving home early to find Zack, who should be at work, satisfying himself by watching pornography.

Maria Dizzia as Abby and Greg Keller as Zack

As this exercise in domestic dysfunction proceeds, we come to understand that Abby is haunted by her parental past, and Dizzia’s portrayal of this young woman on the brink of a nervous breakdown is pitch-perfect, with body language telegraphing abrupt shifts of mood and dialogue delivery ranging from clipped sarcasm to controlled hysteria. As a balance to Dizzia’s mercurial performance, Keller gives us a husband fighting to maintain some equilibrium in his storm-tossed marriage.

Yet there are dragons hiding in the shadows, and the play’s emotional drive inevitably leads to their revelation, and this is where things start to fall apart, for there’s a certain hollowness at the core of the drama. For all the emotional sturm und drang, when all is revealed it seems both beside the point and just a tad unbelievable, as in, you mean to say you’ve been married to him for this long and never realized…?

Then there’s the inexplicable denouement – a dramatically false exit followed by the landlords cleaning up the apartment and speaking to each other in French. It’s a picture-perfect example of anti-climax, leaving the audience to stew in its own emotional juices.

“Belleville” satisfies on a number of levels but the sum experience is much like biting into a chocolate-covered cherry only to find the center holds nothing but air.

“Belleville” runs through Saturday, Nov. 12. For tickets or more information call 203-432-1234 or go to http://www.yalerep.org/.

Make sure to check out all of the reviews, theater news, casting calls, theater listings and general information about Theater at http://www.ctcritics.org/

For film reviews, go to http://susangranger.com/

Re-Imaging "Cabaret"

                                      Eric Scott Kincaid as The Emcee. Photo by Jim Schilling

When a Broadway musical gets transcribed to the big screen it inevitably gets “opened up,” that is, scenes with locations left to a theater audience’s imagination are shot on location; a trip merely alluded to in dialogue is filmed with the breeze ruffling the primary actors’ well-coifed hair. Consider “Cabaret,” the Kander and Ebb musical made into a Hollywood musical in 1972 – what was left in the shadows on Broadway was up there on the big screen for all to see.

However, when a venue such as MTC Mainstage decides to stage “Cabaret,” given the physical layout of the 45-seat theater, down-sizing is in order, but that may not be a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it may allow the essence of the musical to become manifest, shriven of unessential “production values.”

Kevin Connors, MTC’s co-founder and executive artistic director, recently spoke about the staging of this classic musical, which opens Friday, Nov. 4, at MTC. He first commented on the decision to produce a “big” musical, such as “Cabaret” at MTC, known more for its presentation of two- or three-character “chamber” musicals.

                                                                Kevin Connors

“This is our 25^th season,” Connors said, “and we wanted to do something ambitious, something outside the box for us. We wanted to take a ‘traditional’ musical and come at it in a different way, give it our own approach. By the very nature of our stage, everything we do here is very intimate.”

Take away all of the floss and fluff, Connors suggested, and the musical is really about seven characters, with primary focus on the somewhat fragile British songbird, Sally Bowles, and the naïve American, Cliff Bradshaw, who fall in love, and Fraulein Schneider, who runs a boarding house, and one of her tenants, Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit-shop owner…all set against the rise of the Nazi party.

“This all takes place in the early 1930s,” Connors said, “when Germany was going through a huge economic crisis -- not unlike what is going on now. There seemed to be a polarization of the very wealthy and the very poor. The middle class was disappearing. There was high unemployment; people were losing their jobs. On one end was the Communist party, with its own answer about how to fix this, and on the other end of the spectrum was the Nazi party, with its own answer. All of this is kind of bubbling beneath the surface, with the German people trying to maintain some semblance of everyday life.”

The proximity of the audience to the actors (eight, in this case) at MTC, Connors suggested, allows his production to really focuses on the conundrums the musical’s characters must deal with. What do they need to do to survive, what should they do in the face of incipient oppression and racism, what will they allow other people to do to keep German society from shattering? What are they willing to do to keep their hearts and somewhat shoddy, shaken souls intact?

                          Ryan Reilly as Cliff Bradshaw and Melissa Carlile-Price as Sally Bowles

                                          Photo by Regina Medwed/Capitol Photointeractive

“The whole convention of ‘Cabaret,’” Connors said, “is that it takes place in a club. Even in a big production, I never got the sense that the club was the size of, say, the Lido de Paris or the Casino de Paris, one of those big Las Vegas-like showrooms. It’s a club where people go to hang out and have a good time, and the relationships between these people are intimate, which to me says ‘smaller.’ It’s a place where people go to have a good time and leave their cares at the door, as the Emcee suggests in the opening number.”

Mention of the Emcee led to a discussion of character interpretation. Connors said that the Emcee in this production, played by Eric Scott Kincaid, is a bit closer to Joel Gray’s interpretation of the character than that of Alan Cunning, who appeared in the 1998 revival.

“I felt that the revival went in an uber-sexual direction,” Connors said. “They really took that element and pushed it, which was great, it really worked for that production. But given the intimacy of our theater I felt that our audience would be just a bit too close to make that work, so our Emcee has a little more ‘twinkle-in-the-eye’ sexuality.”

Given that most of MTC’s audience members will be familiar with the show, either in its stage or film version, Connors has also given some thought to audience expectations. He noted that everyone “thinks they know what Cabaret is about,” and focused on the musical’s signature song, the one that urges people to “Come to the cabaret,” to make his point.

“Everyone remembers that number, especially Liza Minnelli’s version, as such a ‘feel good’ number, but that is not what that number is about at all. It’s really a breakdown number for Sally.” In other words, she’s trying to save herself from tumbling into the abyss. “People associate the musical with wild, fun times in Berlin, but the show is really so much more substantive than that. It has a lot more dramatic underpinning than many people realize.”

Connors acknowledged that people will arrive at MTC with their own expectations, many of which may not gibe with what MTC is going to present, but he notes that “Everything we do here is a little bit different. I know that there’s a lot of curiosity about how we are gong to do this, to pull this off in a 45-seat theater. All I can say is, ‘Come and see.’”

What the audience will see, Connors suggested, is a powerful piece of theater, a study in human nature, a “well-documented slice of life.” He mentioned another of the show’s songs, “What Would You Do?,” and proposed that for him, it, rather than some of the show’s more familiar numbers, is the focus of the musical and it’s “message.”

“If you saw something going on around you that you thought was destructive,” Connors explained, “and you thought it was sending your entire world potentially spinning out of control, would you ignore it, would you go along with it or would you do what you could to stop it? The whole thing about ‘Cabaret’ is that in here life is beautiful, which means you can come in here and shut out what’s going on outside, but you can’t do that forever.” He paused and then added, “It’s a fascinating piece.”

“Cabaret” runs for three weekends from Nov. 4 through Nov. 20. For tickets or more information call 203-454-3883 or go to http://www.musictheatreofct.com/

Make sure to check out all of the reviews, theater news, casting calls, theater listings and general information about Theater at http://www.ctcritics.org/

For film reviews, go to http://susangranger.com/

Some Confusion about Hairspray at DCT

Just received an email from Hugh Hallinan at DCT. Here it is, in full:

Dear Geary, 

It has come to my attention that the current production of HAIRSPRAY produced by the Bridgeport Theatre Company that opened at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre this weekend has caused a bit of confusion among our loyal patrons. 

Let me quickly get to the point and tell you that HAIRSPRAY is not a Downtown Cabaret production.  Earlier this year, the Bridgeport Theatre Company (BTC) was forced to leave their former home at the Playhouse on the Green, and has since been utilizing the Cabaret Theatre space to mount their productions.  HAIRSPRAY is the first of these shows.  

My biggest concern with facilitating BTC's use of the Downtown Cabaret Theatre was the possibility that it would create confusion among our patrons who might understandably assume that any show at the Cabaret was a DCT production.  While I made many efforts to avoid this, there has nonetheless been some frustration among patrons attempting to book tickets for HAIRSPRAY through the DCT box office or downtowncabaret.org. 

I would like to extend my apologies to Cabaret patrons who have been confused, frustrated or inconvenienced by the lack of communication on my part.  While we welcome the Bridgeport Theatre Company to use our stage for their production of HAIRSPRAY, BTC is NOT affiliated with the Downtown Cabaret Theatre.  BTC is an independent community theatre group that is renting the Cabaret Theatre to perform their shows this season.  BTC has their own online box office at bridgeporttheatre.org, or call 800 838-3006.  It is NOT possible to book tickets for BTC performances on the Cabaret website or through the Cabaret box office.

Downtown Cabaret is a professional theatre company which means our productions are held to a higher standard. Our actors and creative team are not volunteers, they are paid for their work.  So although we and BTC are in the same community, there is a significant distinction between professional theatre and community theatre!

Please continue to support the Downtown Cabaret Theatre as you always have!  You are the reason we are still here after more than 30 years.  We will soon be announcing our 2012 concert lineup and have just kicked off our 30th Children's season to rave reviews.  Please check out all of our upcoming events on our new website at downtowncabaret.org

Call the box office next week and use promo code CONFUSION! to get a FREE ticket when you buy three regular priced tickets to select performances of our Children's Theatre shows or Cabaret Nights concert series.   Box office hours are 11am to 2pm Tuesday through Friday and 9am to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you as always for your continued support and again my apologies for the confusion.

Sincerely,

Hugh Hallinan

Executive Producer

Downtown Cabaret Theatre

It doesn't take much to read between the lines here.

Make sure to check out all of the reviews, theater news, casting calls, theater listings and general information about Theater at http://www.ctcritics.org/

For film reviews, go to http://susangranger.com/

"Priscilla"...and more

Trying to fight your way north on the Merritt or I-95 during rush hour? Bored out of your mind? Road rage rising? I have a palliative. It's the cast recording of Priscilla - Queen of the Desert.

The show recieved mixed reviews when it opened, but it's still running on Broadway. It's based on a 1994 Australian film starring Terence Stamp and deals with three drag queens who decide to set out for the Outback to find a new life. The score is Disco-driven and includes "I Love the Nightlife" and "I Will Survive." Just slip in the DVD, crank down the windows, crank up the volume, smile -- and blow some kisses -- as road warriors look your way. I'm thinking of finding an appropriate headdress to wear as I trek north -- perhaps something inspired by Carmen Miranda.

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Into the Stones?

Downtown Cabaret Theatre is reprising Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones Experience, a musical tribute to The Rolling Stones. Not exactly my cup of tea, but if you can't get any satisfaction, you might want to give it a shot - the venue is cabaret format, whuch means you can bring chicken wings, wine or pizza to enhance your theater experience. For more information, or tickets, call 203-576-1636, or go to http://www.dtcab.com/

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Fairfiel University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Wow -- there's a whole lot going on at the Quick Center in the next three months. Some highlights:

On November 4 and 5, re-live the classic Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" 1938 broadcast, with a Connecticut twist -- want to hear about aliens invading Westport or devouring denizens of Darien? It sounds like a hoot.

There are lectures and young artists on the schedule, as well as the National Acrobats of the People's Republic of China and Met Live in HD productions of Wagner's "Siegfried" (Nov. 13), Philip Glass's "Satyagraha" (Nov. 19), Handel's "Rodelinda," (Dec 9), and the world premiere of "The Enchanted Island" (Jan. 21).

A Miles Davis fan? Check out "The Miles Davis Experience" on Nov. 11 --

A John Malkovich fan? He's performing in "The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer" on Nov. 15 (What? You we're expecting him to do Peter Rabbit?)

There's also a lot of music -- The Ahn Trio will be performing on Dec. 4

The Ahn Trio

-- there's the Fairfield University Fall Jazz Concert (Gonzaga Auditorium) on Dec. 8 -- the New Haven Symphony Orchestra performs "A Victorian Christmas," also on Dec. 8, and Handel's "Messiah" on Dec. 15.

Plus...the Church Basement Ladies are back with "Away in the Basement" (Dec. 16).

For a full listing of all that's going on at the Quick Center, go to http://www.ctcritics.org/  Click on "Theater News" -- Quick Center -- Fall Season.

You'll also find reviews of plays and the latest casting calls at http://www.ctcritics.org/

"Horror!:...and more

Horror!

Are you a virgin?

In the parlance of the Rocky Horror Show, that's someone who has not seen the show, or the movie. I lost my virginity about 15 years ago down in New Jersey when I attended a midnight screening of the film. It was, to say the least, an experience or, given I'm a child of the 60's, a "happening."

For all of you virgins out there, you have the opportunity to correct this embarrassing situation by trucking on up to the Phoenix Theater Company in New Britain, where the Rocky Horrow Show is playing on weekends thru Oct. 29. Dress appropriately (I went as a monk!) in clothes you won't mind getting a bit soiled -- or wet. The Company will be handing out what they call "participation bags" (Don't ask -- Just go!)

What's it about? Well, there's this young couple and these space aliens, a castle and...oh, the hell with it. Just go...and enjoy. The show is being presented at Trinity-on-Main, 69 Main St., in New Britain. For tickets call 860-229-2072 or go to http://www.trinityonmain.org/

Want More Chills?

The Ivoryton Playhouse (celebrating its 100th anniversary) is offering The Woman in Black, by Stephen Mallatratt, based on the Susan Hill Novel, as its "treat" for Halloween.

Ian Lowe and Steve L. Barron - Photo by Anne Hudson

This is an old-fashioned ghost story (and a big hit in London -- it's been running for 23 years in the West End). Of course, it's set on an English moor, where Arthur Kripps, a young solicitor, arrives to settle an estate -- simple enough, but not quite. Oh, the horrors that the past enshrouds and the evil lurking in the most innocent of objects.

The play opens Nov. 2. Fort more information, call 860-767-7318 or go to http://www.ivorytonplayhouse.org/.

Want More Thrills?

Magic. Comedy. Romance. Adventure!

It's all here in Spencers Theatre of Illusion, which will be presented at Fairfield Univeristy's Quick Center on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The Spencers (Kevin and Cindy) are a husband and wife team who put on a show with a lot of elaborate stage illusions and audience particpation. Are they good? Well, they've been named "Performing Arts Entertainers of the Year" for six consecutive years and were recently named "International Magicians of the Year." Sounds good to me. The Quick Center's press release offers this: "They continue to redefine 'magic' for a new generation, delivering drama, spectacle, interaction, danger and personality with each unforgettable performance."

For tickets or more information call 203-254-4010 or go to http://www.quickceter.com/

A History of Theater in Fairfield

The Fairfield Museum and Historical Center has a new exhibit: BRAVO! A History of Theater in Fairfield County.

The installation includes some of Katherine Hepburn's old stage costumes, and a lot more. For more information go to www.fairfieldhistory.org/exhibitions/

Also, as part of the festival, Falcon Repertory Company, Inc., is co-producing a live exhibit and performance for the museum. Thinking Outside the Box is a festival of ten-minute plays that features local actors, directors and playwights. Rehearsals, which will take place from November through February, are open to the public, with performances scheduled for the beginning of March. For more information go to http://www.falconrep.com/.

A Hot Ticket...and more

One of the hottest tickets of this theater season is most likely going to be for Long Wharf’s production of “Krapp’s Last Tape,” starring Brian Dennehy. Tickets went on sale this past Saturday for the Nov. 29 – Dec 18 run. As might be expected from playwright Samuel Beckett, it’s a dark, one-act play that has Krapp celebrating his 69^th birthday by reviewing a tap made in his younger years and then making a tape to commemorate his 69^th year.

Brian Dennehy in the role of Krapp -
photo by Richerd Hein

Of Krapp, Beckett once wrote: "Krapp has nothing to talk to but his dying self and nothing to talk to him but his dead one." For tickets or more information you can call 203-787-4282 or go to http://www.longwharf.org/

Something quite interesting is going on over at Hamden High School. The school’s theater company, the Mainstage Ensemble, will be staging Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle for two weekends beginning Thursday, November 3. The play is a parable about a peasant girl from the Russian Caucus region who finds a baby that has been left behind during a revolt.

The play draws on both the biblical story of Solomon and Chinese myths as it focuses in on the nature of motherhood. The play is an interesting choice for a high school cast – should be interesting to see if the students can pull it off. For more info, call 407-2040 (extension 3102) or email the theatre at hhsmainstage@yahoo.com. More information can also be found at their website, http://www.hamdenmainstage.org/.

There are two productions of “Cabaret” opening on Friday, Nov. 4. One is at the Brookfield Theatre for the Arts, the other at MTC Mainstage in Westport. The Brookfield production has a full cast, while the MTC version has been scaled down to a cast of eight and has been “re-imagined” for the rather intimate venue. I’ll be sitting down with Kevin Connor’s, MTC’s executive artistic director, and the show’s director, to talk about what changes have been made to the classic musical – the interview will appear here early next week. In the interim, for tickets to the Brookfield production, call 203-775-0023; for tickets to the MTC production, call 203-454-3883.

Change of plans for Square One Theatre Company in Stratford. The play originally scheduled for a Nov. 4^th opening has been deep-sixed and in its place the venue will be offering A. R. Gurney’s “Ancestral Voices,” which will open Nov. 4 (lots of stuff happening that Friday!). For tickets, call 203-375-8778. Director and co-founder Tom Holehan explained via email that the cancellation was due to "a minor nightmare" having to do with "miscommunication between us and the leasing company."

Review: "Twelfth Night"

Why do some actors feel compelled to spew Shakespearean dialogue as if heavy hands were working their diaphragms as bellows? It does the play no good service, as is evident in the Westport Country Playhouse’s somewhat uneven production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” which recently opened under the direction of the Playhouse’s artistic director, Mark Lamos.

           

Such delivery – words ejected on a gush of air – does not allow for any intonation, inflection or nuance, and is one of the primary reasons why modern American audiences find Shakespeare “difficult.” It need not be so.

David Schramm and Jordan Coughtry

Photo by Photo by T. Charles Erickson

More experienced, or secure, actors, and there are several up there on the Playhouse’s stage, know how to “work” a Shakespearean line so that the music, or the humor, or the bite is made manifest. When these actors are on stage, the production seems to light up; when they are not, it becomes somewhat turgid.

Perhaps that is why the production seems a tad schizophrenic – it wants to be many different things all at once (consider Tilly Grimes’ costume design -- what era, pray tell, are we attempting to evoke here?). When Lamos allows the whimsy and playfulness inherent in the play to come forward, the actors seem to be charged. Body movement is more natural, interaction more engaging. There are many such moments and they often involve Sir Toby Belch (David Schramm), Feste (Darius De Haas), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Jordan Coughtry) and Maria (Donnetta Lavinia Grays). In fact, one of the high points of the first act involves these four as they taunt Malvolio (David Adkins), who is protesting their revelry. They bid him goodnight in song, the tune alluding to the Von Trapp children saying goodbye to guests in “The Sound of Music.”

           

Would that such playfulness suffused the production, but such is not the case. When ribaldry is on the menu, things work fine, and certain character set-pieces, especially Malvolio’s discovery and reading of a forged letter and his subsequent appearance in yellow stockings cross-gartered, are the equal of any I’ve seen in other productions of the play. However, the same cannot be said of the staging of the mistaken identity and love interest scenes, and this has to do with chemistry (and the aforementioned spewing of lines).

Mahira Kakkar and Lucas Hall
Photo by T. Charles Erickson

           

Earnest as they are, Mahira Kakkar as Viola, Lucas Hall as Orsino, Susan Kelechi Watson as Olivia and Rachid Sabitri as Sebastian simply do not generate any sparks as frustrated lovers, and the overt homosexual yearnings of Antonio (Paul Anthony Stewart) for Sebastian seem a total misreading of Shakespeare’s lines (and the spirit of the age in which they were written), a misreading that is reinforced in the final image of the play: the young lovers happily drifting off as Feste gestures towards Antonio who, bereft, sits on the sand and pines.

           

Oh, yes – the sand. It occupies stage left, a cascade of sand in which is embedded a smashed chandelier and an empty picture frame, with several beach balls thrown in for good measure. This part of Andrew Boyce’s scenic design looks like it was meant for a staging of an Ionesco play, however his use of gossamer curtains is artful, and Robert Wierzel’s lighting design is dead-on: moody when it needs to be and joyful as called for.

Watching this production of “Twelfth Night” is like watching a gosling attempt to take flight for the first time. It has the wings and it yearns to soar – it rises and you ache to see it take flight. But it doesn’t. It tries again, and it seems for a moment that it has broken free, but gravity wins.

           

“Twelfth Night” runs through Saturday, Nov. 5. For tickets or more information call 203-227-4177 or go to www.westportplayhouse.org.