Monday, July 11, 2011

Theater Review: Master Class

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New Broadway Season Starts on a High Note
By Lauren Yarger
The 2011-2012 Broadway season started in a high note – literally and figuratively – with Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class starring a superb Tyne Daly.
The actress channels opera diva Maria Callas, who in the play, conducts a master vocal teaching class for students after her own career in the stage wanes. The popular Greek-born soprano who tackled Verdi’s Lady Macbeth when she was only 18 years old went on to wow the opera world in the 1950s. She isn’t quite ready to give up the spotlight, however, and the class becomes an amusing collection of vocal instruction mixed with the soprano’s thoughts about her own life and career.
She intimidates students Sharon Graham (Sierra Boggess), Sophie DePalma (Alexandra Silber) and Anthony Candolino (Garrett Sorenson) while bossing around  a stagehand (Clinton Brandhagen) and trying to remember the name of her pianist, Emmanuel Weinstock (an affable Jeremy Cohen), who struggles to provide accompaniment for the singers constantly interrupted by the diva’s ramblings and demands.
McNally combines humor, memoir and expertise about opera to create an engaging script which Daly uses to perfection in creating Callas. Dressed in a simple black pants suit (Martin Pakledinaz, costume design) she even looks like Callas (Paul Huntley, wig design). She tells us repeatedly that this session is NOT about her, then amusingly makes it obvious that it, of course, is all about her. She relives moments on stage and shares details from her marriage and an affair with Aristotle Onassis, at the time, the world’s richest man. Thomas Lynch’s set design, nicely lighted by designer David Lander, takes us smoothly from the master class into Callas’ memories (except for one glitch the day I attended where set pieces didn’t line up correctly and caused a toppling of props).
When she can tear herself away from her own thoughts long enough to focus on the students, Callas tries to help Sophie (showing too much leg and who gets stopped at the first note), Sharon (overdressed, who labors to perform Lady Macbeth in the  grueling session) and "Tony" (to whom everything is a joke) to find their own looks and to connect with the stories in the music they are singing. There are some life lessons in the wisdom she shares about performing in theater as well. 
McNally’s own expertise in opera comes through and we are treated to parts of operas as well Callas’ own voice (Jon Gottlieb, sound design). Sorenson, making his theatrical stage debut, has performed at the Met and numerous other opera companies. His tenor voice is a delight to hear. 
Good writing, excellent direction by Stephen Wadsworth and a diva-worthy performance from Daly harmonize to create a production that deserves a huge Bravo! 
Master Class has been extended through Sept. 4 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available by clicking here. 
Christians might also like to know:
·         Abortion
·         Language
·         Sexual dialogue
Posted by Lauren Yarger at 11:54 AM

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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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