Stage Buzz

Stage Buzz Review by Byrne Harrison

Ars Gratia Artis. Art for art’s sake. Can there be a more noble goal, a loftier ambition? But can that sentiment support a theatre company today? In the case of the Integrity Players, the fictional company at the heart of David Bell’s The Play About the Naked Guy, produced by Emerging Artists Theatre and currently playing at Baruch Performing Arts Center, the answer is a resounding no.

Known more for staging obscure (in every sense of the word) dramas than for the size of their audiences, the Integrity Players are in dire straits. Most of their company has quit, leaving only artistic director Dan (Jason Schuchman), his pregnant wife Amanda (Stacy Mayer), and their token Equity actor Harold (Wayne Henry). They’re out of money. They’re about to lose their theatre space. Their only financial backer, Mrs. Anderson (Ellen Reilly), Amanda’s mother, is pulling the plug. While she was willing to humor her daughter, now she’s ready for the company to shut down, for Dan to disappear, and for her daughter to return to a life of privilege in Connecticut where she belongs.

All seems lost until a chance encounter between the closeted Harold and Eddie Russini (Christopher Borg), a slick and sleazy producer of extremely popular and extremely base shows catering to an audience less interested in live theatre than live nudes on stage. To give a sense, his most recent masterpieces are Naked Boys Running Around Naked and Drunk Frat Boys Making Porn. Eddie’s idea? To borrow the Integrity Players’ cavernous space at Baruch Performing Arts Center and stage his next big hit – a gay musical based on the life of Christ. Rather than reveal the title, I’ll let it be a surprise. Needless to say, the American Family Association would not approve.

Unsurprisingly, Dan is horrified by the idea. But egged on by her mother and the fact that she’s expecting a child, Amanda votes to give it a shot in hopes of a big payday. Harold, blinded by lust for Kit Swagger (Dan Amboyer) the porn star who is to play Jesus, votes in favor of Eddie’s scheme as well.

What follows is Dan’s nightmare and the audience’s delight.

Bell’s script is a hoot, full of peppy one-liners. There are plenty of hilarious jokes about the New York theatre scene; one about Marian Seldes in particular is awesome. The play, however, at nearly two hours is a little long for what should be a breezy farce, and despite Tom Wojtunik’s deft directing, drags from time to time.

Fortunately, the cast is excellent. In particular, Christopher Borg and Ellen Reilly own the stage when they are on it. Borg, even at his most sedate, plays Russini as a cross between Svengali and Norma Desmond. Reilly is Cruella De Vil wrapped in Martha Stewart. The two are wonderful to watch and their scenes together are terrific. Stacy Mayer, whose Amanda is a good girl just waiting to be corrupted, plays the wide-eyed innocent with great skill. Christopher Sloan and Chad Austin play Russini’s angertwink sidekicks, T. Scott and Edonis. T. Scott has built his gay persona around Jack McFarland, Sean Hayes’ character on Will & Grace (and it must be said that Sloan does one hell of Jack McFarland imitation) and Edonis is pretty, but shallow as a saucer and dumb as a bag of hair. Needless to say, both are pretty darn funny and do a wicked job skewering gay youth-obsessed culture.

After Borg and Reilly’s performances, my personal favorite is Wayne Henry’s uptight Harold, which Henry plays with a certain Tony Randall-like aplomb. His character is amusing, but heartbreakingly earnest about his love of acting. In one of the best scenes from the play, Harold passes that enthusiasm along to a suddenly serious Kit. Dan Amboyer has the snarly, strutting Kit Swagger (what a great name) down pat, but it’s at the end of the play when Kit, having been coached in the actor’s art by Harold, takes on Harold’s plummy speaking voice and cries out, “I have a new master! And his name is Uta Hagen!” that Amboyer really shines.

Jason Schuchman has the unfortunate job of playing straight man to a stage full of funny men. That’s not to say that he doesn’t do a good job at it, but in a farce the earnest characters are never the ones that stick in the mind. Despite that, Schuchman’s Dan does have some good zingers – he has one particularly funny joke about Actors’ Equity – but overall, he is the voice of reason and in a zany show like this, that leaves him the odd man out.

While Bell’s final judgment of artistic versus commercial success seems a little cynical at first, it’s worth noting that Naked Boys Singing continues to pack in the crowds, while stellar Off and Off-Off Broadway productions languish. If the Eddie Russinis of the world really are the future of theatre, at least Bell can make us laugh about it.

Directed by Tom Wojtunik
Stage Manager: Jennifer Marie Russo
Choreographer: Ryan Kasprzak
Costume Designer: David Withrow
Set Designer: Michael P. Kramer
Lighting Designer: Travis Walker
Composition Sound Designer: Ryan Homsey
Press Agent/Marketing Director: Katie Rosin
Properties Intern: Ellys R. Abrams
Stage Crew: Jamie Phelps, Terra Vetter, Julie Feltman
Sound Board Operator: Kevin Wilder

Featuring Christopher Borg (Eddie Russini), Christopher Sloan (T. Scott), Dan Amboyer (Kit), Ellen Reilly (Mrs. Anderson), Jason Schuchman (Dan), Stacy Mayer (Amanda), Wayne Henry (Harold), Chad Austin (Edonis).

Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue

February 9 – March 2
Mon. 7 PM; Friday 9:30 PM; Sat. 8 PM; Sun. 5 PM

Visit www.theatermania.com for tickets.

Stage Buzz Review by Byrne Harrison

The year is 1969. Vietnam is getting ugly. Students are rioting. Even in Claymont, a small town outside of Wilmington, change is in the air. For Dallas Hitchens, change means being kicked out of college, kicked out of his house, and moving in with his neighbors, the Greenglasses. For Neil Greenglass, it’s art, the possibility of attending Berkeley on a scholarship, and experiencing his first real crush . . . on the older, rebellious Dallas. Dallas encourages Neil’s artistic ability, he plays the big brother to him, and when his draft notice arrives, forces Neil to devise a drastic plan to keep Dallas close.

Written by Kevin Brofsky, Claymont could easily be dismissed as just another gay coming-of-age play. That would be a mistake, not only because it sells the play short, but also because Neil’s budding homosexuality is not the main point of the play. For Neil, that’s just one of many complications in his life – he’s unpopular, his father is an invalid, his family is poor, he’s artistic and misunderstood. His lesson is that life can be crushingly painful and unfair, but there is beauty, love and sacrifice – which might not sound like a good thing, but has rewards of its own.

The acting is generally good, though Wynne Anders as Dolores Hitchens, Dallas’ mom, and Rebecca Hoodwin as Neil’s Grandma, come dangerously close to caricature. Luckily, Hitchens and Hoodwin both know where to draw the line, and their characters- a Robert Harling-esque Southern chatterbox and an Old World bubbie, respectively- never quite go over-the-top. Jason Hare proves once again that he has a particular talent for playing teenagers. His Neil is almost so many things - gay, an artist, in love, free from high school – and Hare plays that sense of possibility so well. Stephen Sherman’s Dallas is an enigma. A young man who doesn’t want to go to war, he nonetheless sabotages every chance he has of staying out of it. Sherman does a fine job playing Dallas’ confusion at this self-destructive impulse and in keeping him from becoming just a charismatic rebel. Glory Gallo brings so much to the table as Shayna, Neil’s long-suffering mom. Her wonderfully nuanced performance is excellent and her scenes with Neil at the end of the play are at turns heartbreaking and amusing.

It is worth noting that this is Emerging Artists’ first production in Baruch Performing Arts Center. Now that the designers have a large, some might say cavernous, space in which to work, they are really getting an opportunity to show what they can do. Tim McMath’s set for Claymont doesn’t disappoint. It makes full use of the large space and captures the aesthetic of the late ‘60s suburbia without going overboard. It’s also a clever bit of staging having Dallas’ basement bedroom higher than the rest of the set. The actors make it work nicely by “descending” a flight of stairs then stepping up into the room. All in all, a nice effect.

While this production of Claymont seems to drag at times and generally feels overly long, it features good acting and a couple of really nice, touching moments.

Directed by Derek Jamison
Stage Manager: Jennifer Granrud
Set Designer: Tim McMath
Property Master: Stephanie Wiesner
Lighting Designer: Joyce Liao
Sound Designer: Ned Thorne
Costume Designer: Meredith Neal
Technical Director: Patrick T. Cecala II
Press Agent/Marketing Director: Katie Rosin
Properties Intern: Ellys R. Abrams
Stage Crew: Tera Vetter, Alison Carroll
Sound Board Operator: Jin Hamano

Featuring Aimee Howard (Sharon Letts), Glory Gallo (Shayna), Jason Hare (Neil), Rebecca Hoodwin (Grandma), Ron Bopst (Mr. Ramsey), Stephen Sherman (Dallas Hitchens), Wynne Anders (Dolores).

Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue

February 9 – March 2
Tues. and Fri. 7 PM; Sat. 2 PM; Sun. 8 PM

Visit http://www.theatermania.com for tickets.

Stage Buzz Review by Byrne Harrison

A backwater resort on the Chesapeake Bay. A shady businessman who promises quick, but not easy, money. A mysterious message, “The lady swims today.” All of these, combined with a handful of locals whose greed overwhelms their good sense and the women who threaten to ruin it all, are on display in H.G. Brown’s The Lady Swims Today at the TADA Theatre. This tight crime drama is a pleasure to watch.

The most striking feature of The Lady Swims Today is the most readily apparent, the marvelous set created by designer Joseph Spirito. It truly captures the feel of the bar of the down-on-its-luck Carney Hook Marina Motel and provides an excellent backdrop to showcase the locals: George (Gordon Silva), the bartender; Harley (Jack Rodgerson), a dockworker and wannabe piano player; and Mal (Rob Sheridan), a former contraband runner who is trying to make a respectable living running the motel with his wife, Beverly (Vivienne Leheny). George and Harley seem to fit the bar perfectly, a little worn and a bit seedy. Mal and Beverly fit in a little less; they’re the dressed up version of what the bar could be. There are also three outsiders at the motel: Joyce Stevens (Kate Udall), Beverly’s old friend, now a reporter; Alice (Kelli K. Barnett), Harley’s ‘dancer’ girlfriend; and the most out of his element, Eddie Hajazi (Robert Funaro), the midlevel hood who is looking for some payback. This payback involves piracy and could net over $2 million. But for it to work, he needs help.

The Lady Swims Today is a fun ride, slowly unfolding, unveiling complication after complication as it builds towards its conclusion. Director Stephen Sunderlin does an excellent job with the pacing, maintaining a coiled tension in most of the scenes that drives the action to a number of explosive moments, the best of which feature Eddie and Joyce, two characters who are much more alike than they’d care to admit.

The acting in this production is strong, though certain actors shine. Vivienne Leheny, in addition to being an excellent as Beverly, has a remarkable voice, clear as crystal whether in a whisper or a shout. Rob Sheridan’s Mal is a character clearly at war with himself. For his wife’s sake, he wants to keep clean, but every new day brings frustrations and setbacks. He clearly wants a moment of his old life back, even though that life also repulses him. Robert Funaro as Eddie is slick and in charge. Funaro occasionally comes across a little stiff, though he is excellent in the more dramatic moments or when interacting with the female characters. It’s clear that Eddie is a lady’s man; Funaro seems to have a great deal of fun playing with this aspect of his character.

With an engrossing story, excellent acting, and deft direction, The Lady Swims Today is an impressive thriller that is sure to entertain.

Written by H.G. Brown
Directed by Stephen Sunderlin
Scene Design: Joseph Spirito
Costume Design: Vanessa Leuck
Lighting Design: Brett Maughan
Stage Manager: Joanna Leigh Jacobsen
Assistant Stage Manager: Connie Baker
Assistant Director: Avriel Hillman
Fight Choreographer: Jim Bender
General Manager: Tom Smedes
Press Representative: Jim Randolph
Photographer: Roger Gaess
Web & Print Designer: Keith Paul

Featuring Gordon Silva (George Santos), Robert Funaro (Eddie Hajazi), Jack Rodgerson (Harley Davis), Rob Sheridan (Mal Peters), Vivienne Leheny (Beverly Sharon Peters), Kate Udall (Joyce Stevens), Kelli K. Barnett (Alice Bender)

TADA Theatre
15 W. 28th Street

Through Sunday October 21st. For tickets visit www.theladyswimstoday.com or call 212-352-3101

Stage Buzz Review by David Pasteelnick

Terrence McNally could be considered by some as the still-living patron saint of gay theater. While I imagine he would chafe at such a limiting honorific, the fact remains that his body of work contains many seminal works of modern gay theater – The Lisbon Traviata, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Corpus Christi, the book for the musical A Man of No Importance – and now he adds to that list with Some Men, performing at Second Stage Theatre through April 22.

A collection of interlinked vignettes, Some Men attempts to chart the different shapes that intimate male-male relationships have taken over various decades of the 20th Century and into the 21st. While by no means a perfect work, Some Men does serve as a theatrical weigh-station, noting where the gay community has been, where it is now and even to some extent where it may be heading.

The play is book-ended by a gay wedding taking place at the Waldorf-Astoria. Various generations of gay men, both coupled and single, arrive and offer observations on the proceedings. From this jumping off point, the action see-saws through time, providing snapshots of life in the ‘20s, ‘60s, ‘70s, etc. The problem with snapshots is that sometimes you don’t get a full idea of what is happening in the photo, or the emotion or message that the artist attempts to convey is not fully realized. This is the case in a few scenes such as one at a military funeral. More fully realized moments take place on a beach in the Hamptons, a restaurant dining room at the Waldorf, and my personal favorite – a bench in Central Park.

I had the good fortune to attend an earlier version of this work when it was performed at the Philadelphia Theatre Company last summer. The play has evolved considerably since then, and while I felt a few scenes lacked the punch they packed in the prior incarnation, the play holds together much better as a whole now. The cast is uniformly strong, with some standout moments by David Greenspan as a drag queen during the Stonewall riots, Michael McElroy as a Harlem Renaissance nightclub host, and Don Amendolia in a variety of scene stealing roles. Consideration must also be given to Kelly AuCoin and Romain Frugé whose moving portrayal of a couple at various stages of their relationship provides audiences with a crucial through-line that grounds the piece.

Director Trip Cullman, who has helmed several of my favorite Off-Broadway works, provides a sure hand to the proceedings, making a clear narrative out of what could have been a chaotic evening and keeping the pace brisk and engaging. He steers clear of mawkish sentimentality and never lets a joke hijack a scene. The simple (ornate chandeliers notwithstanding) and extremely flexible and functional set was designed by Mark Wendland. Linda Cho’s attractive and effective costumes play a vital part in keeping the proceedings coherent. Kevin Adam’s evocative and at times humorous lighting and John Gromada’s nostalgia-inducing sound design also do their part to make the overall evening extremely enjoyable.

Some Men may not be all men and it may not have reinvented gay theater, but it provides a brisk, effective, and at times moving tour of what it means and has meant for a man to love another man.

Written by Terrence McNally
Directed by Trip Cullman
Set Designer: Mark Wendland
Costume Designer: Linda Cho
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Sound Designer: John Gromada
Assistant Set Designer: Rachel Nemec
Assistant Costume Designer: Terese Wadden
Assistant Sound Designer: Bridget O’Connor
Production Stage Manager: Lori Ann Zepp
Stage Manager: Stephanie Gratton

Featuring Don Amendolia, Kelly AuCoin, Romain Frugé, David Greenspan, Jesse Hooker, Michael McElroy, Pedro Pascal, Randy Redd, and Frederick Weller.

Second Stage Theatre
307 W. 43rd Street

Through April 22nd