Sunday, May 22, 2011

Theater Review: A Minister's Wife

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The Condensed Version of Candida with some Music to Boot
By Lauren Yarger
For some reason George Bernard Shaw’s play Candida, about a minister’s wife whose husband’s feelings for her are awakened when another suitor declares his love, continues to be produced by theater companies year after year.

The long story is rather boring in my opinion, but every time a theater season is announced, there it is. The latest is a musical version, A Minister’s Wife, playing at Lincoln Center, and this might be my favorite yet.

It’s still not a great show. There’s only so much you can do to improve the original material, but for this one, writer Austin Pendleton eliminates characters and scenes, heightens some romantic tension and increases James’ socialistic leanings in a welcome 90-minute timeframe. The story is married to an elegant, if sometimes a little too lengthy, musical score by Joshua Schmidt with lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen. It doesn’t hurt, either, that this version stars Mark Kudisch as the Rev. James Morell (who comes off a little darker and less pleasant than usual) and Bobby Steggert, very funny, as poet Eugene Marchbanks, who falls for his wife Candida (Kate Fry).

Conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, the show also features strong performances by Drew Gehling as James’ curate Alexander and Liz Baltes, giving nice layers and some humor to James’ besotted secretary Prosperine Garnett.

Timothy Splain conducts the four-piece orchestra housed behind a scrim of wallpaper doubling as the backdrop for Allen Moyer’s plush-but-tattered minister’s study. David Zinn designs the late 19th-century costumes.

In short, because I like abbreviated when it comes to Candida, I liked it more than I expected to. A Minister’s Wife plays through June 12, 2011 at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, 150 West 65th St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling 212-239-6200 or 800- 432-7250.

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Posted by Lauren Yarger at 4:06 PM

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.

In 2008 she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions (http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/) and is Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp http://www.curtainup.com/, a national theater web site based in New York and editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection, an online source for news and reviews (http://ctarts.blogspot.com/).

She also worked in arts management for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com/ and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country.

She is a freelance writer and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the CT Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, the Connecticut SPJ, the Connecticut Critics Circle and Christians in Theatre Arts.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.
Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Our Reviewing Policy

Our reviewer Lauren Yarger receives free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle and The Drama Desk, the two professional critics organizations with journalists covering NY theater. Journalistically, she provides an unbiased review and is under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows our readers want to know about (we review all Broadway shows and pertinent Off-Broadway shows), Masterworks purchases a ticket.

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