Theatre's Leiter Side herewith begins a new feature, all the 500-or-fewer-character excerpts for my reviews posted, month by month, on Show-Score.com. Each excerpt contains the
score I gave the show on that site, which corresponds, more or less to the thumbs up or down ratings posted with my reviews on Theatre's Leiter Side or the stars used for them on THEATER LIFE. All shows with scores of at least 85 are shown in green. Links to each review are provided with the excerpts.
The excerpts are organized as MUSICAL, REVIVALS, UNIQUE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE, and PLAYS.
The excerpts are organized as MUSICAL, REVIVALS, UNIQUE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE, and PLAYS.
MAY 2019
MUSICALS
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN: TALES REAL AND IMAGINED
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
45
Those without an
ear for these complex, difficult, melodically unfamiliar pieces may be less
than satisfied, especially as the dramatic sections they accompany are so
seriously lacking in anything comparable…The frequent appearance of
puppets…offers no surcease to the boring biography or its plodding
presentation…What they do is usually too imprecise to appreciate…There’s little
to commend in this misguided production, which has not the slightest iota of
dramatic interest or conflict.
OCTET
BROADWAY BLOG
60
Over the course of an
intermissionless hour and 45 minutes, Molloy’s frequently brilliant music …fails
to sustain interest without the support of an engrossing dramatic script…Some
songs are clearly marked “hymn”…but, after a while, the reliance on a cappella
gives them all a hymnal feeling… Aside from the choral passages, there’s little
interaction…, and only a bare minimum of context for knowing any of these
characters as people. Dramatic action is nil, suspense absent, and boredom
imminent.
REVIVALS
MAC BETH
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
45
It’s nearly
impossible…to tell one minor character from another, or for that matter, even
what the increasingly muddled play is about…If you’re ready to watch seven
young actresses whose nearly uniformly high-pitched voices barely differ from
one another shouting Shakespeare’s lines at Mach speed…, then Schmidt's
approach is for you. You may even not squirm as they turn the tragedy’s
characters into angst-ridden teenage girls, often completely missing the intent
of the lines.
UNIQUE THEATRICAL
EXPERIENCE
LUZIA
THEATER LIFE
90
Beautifully
produced, gorgeously costumed…extravaganza of clownery, acrobatics, dance, and special
effects…Employs remarkable acrobatic choreography…coordinated with…music, both
hand-clappingly rhythmic and hauntingly evocative… One can take or
leave…Cirque’s clowns…Even those who’ve seen similar acts…will marvel at the
audacious ways the familiar routines look fresher…than ever…Perhaps the most
unforgettable sight comes…when a slender contortionist demonstrates his
incredible…flexibility.
PLAYS
THE BIGOT
THEATER LIFE
45
‘The Bigot,’ “a dark comedy”…, is bighearted and topical but it’s also
so paint-by-the-numbers predictable that…you won’t need ESP to know how it
ends…One needn’t be Oscar Hammerstein II to call it as corny as Kansas in
August. Its characters are so one-dimensional they practically disappear when
they turn sideways. Without the generally solid performances of its four
actors, it would likely fly away on the next gust of wind…A dramatically
creaky, fitfully amusing, 90-minute soap opera.
KILLING TIME
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
50
While it
contains the seed of a promising drama, and a sharply crafted performance…, too
many of its 90 minutes do little more than mark time…Eden’s low-key, slow-paced
production, too rarely enlivened by humor, does little to ignite our concern.
Mill’s episodic play is simply too talky and desultory, large swaths of it
little more than Hester’s depressing soliloquies... If there’s any reason to
kill time at ‘Killing Time’ it’s
to see Brigit Forsyth’s believable portrait of a dying artist.
CAROLINE’S KITCHEN
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
85
The entire
cast carries out its rambunctious actions with remarkable comedic energy and
aplomb, always maintaining a grounding in reality no matter how farfetched or
bizarre their behavior…Don’t expect to find yourself caring much about any of
these inane creatures. They’re essentially cartoons, intended not to make you
feel or, despite the coating of social import…, even think…Its 90…minutes
should give you lots of comic meat to chew on. Just be careful not to choke on
all the funny parts.
SOCRATES
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
70
An
intelligent, well-acted, sometimes engrossing, sometimes sleep-inducing,
three-hour talkathon…‘Socrates’ is
a didactic drama, dramatizing situations we once read of in Plato, and
reminding us of why Socrates was such an iconic figure. But that doesn’t mean
it’s not also something of a theatrical slog, and that its drama is more in the
moment to moment exploration of ideas than in the pursuit of a traditional
dramatic arc…One might ask Nelson, does it really have to be so damned long?
LOCKDOWN
THEATER PIZZAZZ
75
‘Lockdown’ is essentially
preaching to the choir about what they already know from countless films and TV
shows…The chief problem presented is how difficult it is to for someone…to
earn parole. No answers are provided, though… Making the play as much about the
writer’s personal issues as those of the prisoners is problematic and tends to
split the play’s focus. Thomas also relies too heavily on monologues spoken
directly to the audience… Zenzi Williams… demonstrates a potent stage presence.
FRUITING BODIES
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
60
Mixes conventional and magic realism in a way that
sometimes suggests a mushroom trip. Not a particularly mind-blowing one,
though… While the tonal shifts make us question what’s real and what’s not, the
dramatic action and characters are rarely inviting enough to inspire making the
effort… All the performances are satisfactory but none rises above the script’s
most essential requirements, Nor does Shelley Butler’s bland, dully paced
direction go the extra mile.
THE RARE BIOSPHERE
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
70
It softens the blow with regard to just whose life and
circumstances it chooses to present…It’s impossible not to leave the theatre
wondering how to fix our…system…Plaza and…Owens are…convincing…This idealistic…
relationship, as well as the…reminders of the thematic connection to
the…biosphere, tends to tamp down the impact of what might otherwise be far more
tearjerkingly powerful material. Imperfect as it is, [it] deserves attention
for attending to so critical a social and political problem.
THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
https://slleiter.blogspot.com/2019/05/10-2019-2020-brothers-paranormal-seen.html
https://slleiter.blogspot.com/2019/05/10-2019-2020-brothers-paranormal-seen.html
60
A
conventional ghost story blended into a chunky, hard-to-swallow smoothie with
too many disparate ingredients…Over the course of two, overly long hours, a few
scenes provide the kind of superficial thrills we’re more used to in horror
movies…than in theatre…When the characters are left to themselves, without the
spectral intrusions, things can be dull and talky, with mostly colorless,
ploddingly-paced direction…and inconsistent performances (and Thai accents)
from the cast.
ENTER LAUGHING: THE MUSICAL
BROADWAY BLOG
80
A generally diverting (if
slightly problematic) show…David’s naivete inspires laughs but his ignorance
needs a natural comedian to make it seem plausible… In contrast to what I’d
heard, I found the book weaker than the score. Funny as it often is, the script
is simply too silly and overstated, while each of the 15 songs is musically
catchy, with cleverly entertaining lyrics… Whether or not you enter or leave
laughing, there’s enough comic material here to get your yocks off in between.
THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS
THEATER LIFE
95
Making
it all work to brilliant effect is…Corcoran’s remarkable set—which also turns
the surrounding walls into those of a Dublin slum…The unusually well-balanced
cast contains too many notable performances…so I’ll note only the stirring performance
of Maryann Plunkett as Bessie…Director Charlotte Moore…has made ‘The Plough and
the Stars’ a powerhouse of electrifying acting, helping each actor create
indelible verbal and physical images that resonate with feeling and meaning.
BLKS
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
50
Piles on
exaggerated situations but lacks a well-wrought plot, revels in broad sitcom
tropes, and uses boldly raunchy dialogue (with continual iterations of the
“n-word”)…Directed…with overly pumped up performances in which quiet moments of
human connection are only rarely to be found. Shouting too often substitutes
for conversation…Hyperactive staging employs a tiresomely revolving set…that
tries to keep pace with the multiple locales but succeeds only in drawing
attention to itself.
CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS
BROADWAY BLOG
60
Unexciting, emotionally
uninvolving…Despite its tragic arc, the play incorporates considerable humor;
this production, though, too rarely realizes those comical dimensions…Few
moments find the right balance between Shepard’s earthy realism and his poetic
demands. Natasha Katz’s exquisitely modulated lighting captures the shifting
moods much more effectively than the prosaic performances, which sometimes
makes it difficult to accept the reality behind the more theatrically
exaggerated scenes.
FERAL
BROADWAY BLOG
80
An air of primitive technique masks the great
sophistication of the town’s remarkably detailed features…The cameras cut from
close-ups to pans to zooms to tracking shots. We…observe the puppeteers
manipulating the…lamps to create a panoply of expertly executed…effects...Other
than Joe’s loss of boyhood innocence…, the work’s thematic points are never
clearly expressed…For anyone interested in puppetry done as devised theatre,
and less than an hour to spare,…definitely worth a look-see.
PROOF OF LOVE
THEATER LIFE
60
Played with noteworthy naturalness and humor
by Brenda Pressley…The play is never clear regarding to whom Constance is
talking...As she wanders about (often, it seems, just to break the monotony) or
sits in the incomprehensibly large, modern room,… unlike any ICU you’ve ever
seen, we hear in her discourse reflections of black-related conflicts regarding
proper linguistic and behavioral choices… Some of it clicks but most just
floats along.
HAPPY TALK
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
50
Intermittently
funny, mostly unsuccessful…A number of implausibilities…So many such contrivances stick in
one's critical throat it's impossible to swallow most of what happens in the
play… Throughout…, Eisenberg drops foreshadowing bricks that fall so loudly you
have a good idea of what’s coming almost as surely as if a gun had been
introduced. Nevertheless, when predictability becomes reality, your stomach
will churn from what the playwright’s twist of the dial requires Lorraine to
do.
POSTING LETTERS TO THE MOON
THEATRE’S LEITER SIDE
80
A
slight epistolary play, both amusing and touching…Within the interstices of the
letters, filled with obviously sincere terms of endearment that attest to their
mutual love, we hear of the kind of everyday activities and events that filled
Celia’s days, along with comments on the films in she was acting. Laughter
strikes now and then, especially when something off-color is discretely alluded
to...Most interesting…are the letters describing the filming of ‘Brief Encounter.’
