Monday, January 9, 2012

Theater Review: Close Up Space

The Irony is that the Play Needs Some Editing . . .
By Lauren Yarger
How ironic would it be for a play with a proofreader's mark for a title about an editor who fine tunes literary works to be sorely in need of writing revision itself? This is the sad story for Molly Smith Metzler's Close Up Space presented Off-Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club.

Even stars David Hyde Pierce and Rosie Perez, both always fun to watch in action, can't help this incoherent, incredulous tale of an estranged father and daughter from Metzler (Elemeno Pea).  Here, the title involves a play on a proofreading mark that means to remove space between two words to avoid a change in meaning, like "closeup" instead of "close up." Editor's note, when you have to do this much explaining just to understand the title, there's a good chance the play won't make too much sense either.

Hyde Pierce is Paul, an editor at Tandem Books, a small Manhattan publishing house, who coped with the suicide of his wife by shipping their daughter, Harper (Colby Minifie), off to boarding school. The plan to keep her out of sight/out of mind didn't work, though, as evidenced by numerous letters Paul has received from the headmaster recounting Harper's bizarre, destructive behavior and reporting that she has been expelled. With expletive-filled venom and frustration, Paul corrects the grammar in the letters while projecting them on an overhead for nervous new-hire Bailey (Jessica DiGiovanni) who begins to wonder whether this literary internship really is worth the one credit she needs to graduate.

If that's not crazy enough work-place behavior for you, just wait. Inept, freeloading office manager Steve (Michael Chernus) has fallen on hard times and is camping out at the office overnight -- literally -- with a tent and a campfire. Paul isn't too happy to discover this, or that Steve has been feeding his fish (Editor's note: don't you dare stop reading -- no one in the theater could leave either. There's no intermission.)

The editor is even more upset, though, by the guilt he feels over being attracted to his number-one client: foul-mouthed, demanding, best-seller Vanessa Finn Adams (Perez) who has made it clear that she's interested in a romantic relationship even though Paul calls her work "boring chick poo." Some of Perez' dialogue is hard to catch, particularly if she is yelling at the top of her lungs. Other times, Vanessa is quoting classical dialogue for no real reason, convincing us that whatever we missed while she was yelling probably didn't matter any way.

Enter Harper, who screams for a long time at everyone in Russian (why, we're not exactly sure) about how she won't leave her homeland while tossing snowballs from a stash she carries around in a cooler, before eventually condescending to speak English with kindly Steve. Oddly, Paul never seems to wonder, as we do, whether his daughter is suffering from some of the mental issues affecting her mother before she went off meds and took her life, but I suppose that would be too logical a sequence of events for this play.

Instead, Harper launches on a bizarre campaign to get her father's attention by sending him obscure Russian poems and stealing all of the contents of his office, including her  new best-friend-in-less-than-an-hour Vanessa's hot new manuscript. Will the father who always has responded to his daughter with an ellipsis be able to fill in the meaningful words she needs to hear? Editor's note: let's hope they aren't in Russian or we'll never know.

The highlight here is Hyde Pierce. "Don't feed my fish, Steve" isn't a line that guarantees humor, but the skilled Hyde Pierce gets a laugh with it and others. Whenever he leaves the stage, however, the energy level goes with him, though the other actors admirably try to do what they can with their material. DiGiovanni, making her Off-Broadway debut, could have used some extra coaching from director Leigh Silverman to make Bailey's nervous reactions appear more believable, however.

Also not working here is the awkward scene where all the furniture from Paul's office "vanishes." Todd Rosenthall's handsome set simply is moved off into the side wing where it sits plainly visible while everyone on stage exclaims about how it is missing.

Editor's note: send this one back for a rewrite.

Close Up Space  is at New York City Center Stage I, 131 West 55thSt., NYC through Jan. 29. For tickets, call 212-581-1212.

Christians might also like to know:
-- Language (fairly strong)
-- God's name taken in vain

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Gracewell Prodiuctions

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Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger 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 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. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008- 2022 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.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

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.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

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