Drama Desk Nominations Event Revised

Tyne Daly and Brian D'Arcy James are set to announce the nominations for Outer Critics Circle Awards Tuesday, April 26 at 11 am at the historic Algonquin Hotel, NYC. Mercedes Ruehl, who was previously announced as co-presenter for the nominations ceremony, had to decline due to personal reasons.

Outer Critics Circle will post award nominations in 23 categories and are the first major Broadway/Off-Broadway award nominees of the New York theater season.

Celebrating its 61st season of bestowing awards of excellence in the field of theater, the Outer Critics Circle with members affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and theatre publications in America and abroad.

The winners will be announced May 16 and the annual awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 26th at 4 pm at Sardi’s Restaurant.

TV, Hollywood Stars Join Drama Desk Panel Discussion

The Drama Desk will present a special Panel Discussion and Luncheon at Sardi’s on Friday, April 15 titled “Movie and TV Stars on Stage,” reflecting the current trend of casting film and TV stars in plays and musicals on the New York stage.

The Panelists include (in alphabetical order): Jim Belushi (Born Yesterday), Maxwell Caulfield (Cactus Flower), Margaret Colin (Arcadia), Stephen Kunken (High), Dan Lauria (Lombardi), John Larroquette (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), John Leguizamo (Ghetto Klown) and Annabella Sciorra (The MotherF**ker with the Hat).

The Panel Discussion will be moderated by Drama Desk member Robin Milling (Milling About, BlogTalk Radio, World Entertainment News Network).

The program will be held on the fourth floor of Sardi’s, 234 West 44th St., NYC. The luncheon will begin at 11:45 am and the Panel Discussion will start at 1 pm.

Tickets for Drama Desk members are $45 and for non-members, $55 (cash or check). Reservations are requested. RSVP: PJRJS@aol.com. When making your reservation, please specify your preference of salmon, chicken or pasta. Deadline for reservations is Wednesday, April 13.

Theater Review: A Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams

 Photo Caption (l-r): Robin Williams, Brad Fleischer and Glenn Davis. Photo: Carol Rosegg.

What We Have Here, Is a Failure to Communicate
By Lauren Yarger
It’s a beautiful topiary garden, with plants and animals lovingly sculpted by a creator in whom hope springs eternal. Or it is an Eden gone bad, destroyed by man’s greed, lust and stupidity and overseen by a cruel and uncaring creator.

The scene (designed by Derek McLane) is 2003 Baghdad in Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer-Prize nominated play A Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo starring Robin Williams in its Broadway premiere, but its message isn’t exactly clear.

Whether we’re witnessing the characters’ lack of ability to understand each other, their futile attempts to talk with God or the playwright’s own inability to get his message across, despite a lot of repetative dialogue, one thing becomes very clear: we have a big failure to communicate here.

Let’s start with the Tiger, played by a burly-bearded Williams. He’s hungry, but the stupid American Marines, Tom (Glenn Davis) and Kev (Brad Fleisher). on patrol in the zoo just taunt him while Tom shares stories of how he looted a toilet seat and a pistol, both made of gold, when he was part of the squad that raided the palace and killed the two sons of Saddam Hussein. He’s going to cash in and live easy when he goes back stateside.

The Tiger finally decides to use a communication technique that will get noticed: he bites off Tom’s hand. Kev shoots the Tiger and for the rest of the play, the animal wanders around the streets in a sort of purgatory pondering the meaning of life and wondering whether he had been wrong to be an atheist. For tigers, heaven and hell simply mean hungry or not hungry, he says.

But what if he was wrong? He had eaten two children, he admits, but he had thought the act was driven by primordial urge rather than cruelty. The regret he now feels brings a need for atonement. He tries to communicate with God by screaming and cursing and demanding to know where he is, but receives no answer. (My guess? God has earplugs in to tune out the bombardment of “F” and other curse words and strong sexual language that dominate the play’s dialogue throughout.)

The Tiger haunts Kev, who loses the gun in a night raid where he is unable to communicate with the Iraqis he’s interrogating (multiple roles are played by Necar Zadegan, Hrach Titizian and Sheila Vand throughout the play). The prolonged scene in which the family screams in Arabic at each other and at Kev is meant to show us how frightening and difficult relations are when we are unable to communicate. What it really does, however, is annoy.

Not much help bridging the communication gap is Musa (Arian Moayed), the creator of the once-beautiful topiary garden at the Husseins' palace, now employed by the US Military as an interpreter. He is haunted by his former boss, Uday Hussein (in a spot-on repulsive portrayal by Titizian), who carries the severed head of his brother.

Uday gloats about raping and torturing Musa’s little sister, whom the gardener had brought to the palace to admire his artistic creations.

Musa, urgently tries to communicate that he’s an artist, not a terrorist, even though he decides to trade the gold pistol for arms and kills Tom, leaving him where, you guessed it, he in purgatory/hell/or whatever this is supposed to be .

At one point the Tiger quips that he knows Dante. Of course he does, I thought not too long after. We’re sitting in one of the rings of hell right now waiting for something – anything positive– to happen in this play. But like those who enter the gate, we are forced to abandon all hope, just like all of these really, totally, unbelievably unlikable characters have.

And I so wanted to like the Tiger. Williams, whose name on the marquis is the primary reason the play has landed on Broadway (though I don’t have a clue how it ended up a Pulitzer finalist), executes the role adequately, but he hardly gets a chance to show what he can do. Director Moises Kaufman keeps him chained. Williams doesn’t sound or move like a tiger. In fact, if the characters didn’t tell us, in between many “F” words, that he was a tiger, we might not know and assume him to be a metaphor for the Iraqi people. Then again, in this play, maybe be is. I'm not sure. While I didn’t expect to see Williams’ trademark humor or improv skills, given the subject matter, allowing this talented actor to imbue the animal with some more personality would have been welcome.

One woman at intermission worriedly asked her companion, “What is this supposed to be? What is he supposed to represent?” She wasn’t alone with her questions. A number of people left either during the show or at intermission (the large number of school children apparently on class trips stayed, however, making me glad that the days of my going to the school and questioning why, of all the wonderful, educational shows on Broadway, they would choose this one, are over since my kids are grown).

Politically correct, the school officials would, no doubt, tell me it’s necessary for children to be broadminded in their approach to different cultures, to question America’s involvement in war, to entertain different thoughts about the afterlife. But is that what this play communicates? I’m not so sure.

The message I came away with was that man is driven by greed, stupidity and lust, that we are in control of our own fate and that eventually we will mess everything up because we’re driven by lust, stupidity and greed. And, by the way, there is no God who can help us out of the cycle whether we’re an innocent child or a vicious tiger.

I just didn't like wallowing around in that depressing message for two hours, however, because I know it’s not completely true. There are many caring people who reach out to and welcome those who are different. There also are a lot of brave – and smart – American soldiers serving in Iraq.

And lastly, there is a way out. The playwright’s story is an old one. It’s found in the fall of man in the bible. Cheer up, though. God does exist and has a plan so we don’t have to stay trapped hopeless in the fallen garden. The happy ending is called the Gospel.

Begal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo plays through July 3 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 West 46th St., NYC. For tickets, call 212-307-4100 or 800-755-4000.

Christians might also like to know:

• Violence and blood (with some of the coolest special effects for blood I have seen, though)
• Sexual dialogue
• Sexual activity
• Lord's name taken in vain

Theater Review: The Book of Mormon

South Park and Avenue Q Creators Convert Their Attention to the Mormons, and Heaven Help Us, It’s Funny
By Lauren Yarger
The crass humor of TV’s South Park and Broadway’s Avenue Q combine to resurrect a rare thing on the Great White Way lately – a really funny original musical -- with The Book of Mormon.

Reverent it’s not, despite the stained glass and temple-like trim on the proscenium (Scott Pask, set design) and if you are a Mormon, you will be offended, but the show isn’t the total Mormon or religion-bashing fest it could have been, given the kind of really crude humor of which Trey Parker (co-director with Casey Nicholaw, who also chorepgraphs), Robert Lopez and Matt Stone, writers of the book, music and lyrics, are capable. They take some shots, and cross the line of decency a few times, but mostly, they have the audience rolling in the aisles.

The opening number, in which a group of Mormons train in what to say as they ring doorbells to share their message is a hoot. The squeaky-clean, always smiling, shirt-and-tie-attired “elders” excitedly wait to hear where they will be sent on their required two-year mission experience (costume designs are by Ann Roth). Elder Price (Andrew Rannells), a sort of superstar Mormon, prays that God will send him to his favorite place in the world – Orlando -- but instead, finds himself on his way to a village in Uganda.

Worse, he finds himself paired with Elder Cunningham (a riotously funny Josh Gad) who isn’t a superstar Mormon. In fact, he’s a super needy, super nerdy and has a problem with telling lies. With his over-the-top, hyena-sounding chortle that makes you laugh each time he does, you can’t help but guiltily feel Elder Cunningham’s pain if you’re a Christian. You’ve met this guy at some church, Christian camp or youth group. He’s the one you desperately want to avoid because he’s so socially awkward and annoying while wanting to be your best friend, but at some point, since you’re a Christian, you ask, “What would Jesus do?” and you force yourself to be friendly. Come on, admit it. You know him…. Gad plays him to perfection.

The missions partners throw themselves into the work of converting the Africans, but the villagers have heard it all before. Missionaries come and go without really making a difference. What they really need help with, Nabulungi (Nikki M. James) tells them, is resisting the General (Brian Tyree Henry), who rules the village and who has ordered all virgin women to be circumcised (as is practiced in many African/Muslim nations).

Price, discouraged after not being able to influence the General, eventually decides to leave and Cunningham, fueled by Nabulungi’s belief that Mormonism might indeed hold some hope and her promise to make the villagers listen, agrees to stay and tell some of the stories. There’s one problem. He hasn’t actually read the Book of Mormon, so he uses his gift for stretching the truth to enhance it with some help from the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" sagas he loves so much to give the people what they want to hear.

Soon, baptismal waters are splashing and the Mormon President comes to commend the elders in person. The villagers welcome the respected Mormon leader with a theatrical presentation depicting the history of the founding of the religion as they understand it from Cunningham’s stories. This warped “Small-House-of-Uncle-Thomas-like” number complete with Joseph Smith, the golden plates of the Book of Mormon and Yoda, among other characters, is one of the funniest elements of the show.

Now, before you get the impression that this show is all fun, and appropriate for anyone, let’s talk about where the line may get crossed for you. As I have said, as a Mormon, you will be offended. The religion’s history is featured in a mocking way. In addition, Mormons in general are depicted as being oblivious to needs of others and incapable of facing truth in their own lives when it seems unpleasant. A whole song “Turn it Off” suggests that they turn off any less-than-happy thoughts like a light switch, including those about an abusive parent, a sibling with cancer or homosexual feelings. Elder McKinley (Rory O’Malley) obviously is repressing his gay desires throughout the show.

There’s also a musical number depicting “Spooky Mormon Hell” where they all fear they will go for having bad thoughts, or for committing a sin like stealing a donut.

In addition:
• Jesus is depicted as a blond who calls Cunningham a derogatory name. Never would happen.
• The crucifixion is depicted in a song as an example of “manning up.” It’s difficult to enjoy Christ’s suffering and the meaning behind it categorized this way.
• The villagers have an expression they use (think “Hakuna Matada” from the Lion King) when things don’t go the way they had planned. Translated, however, it means “F*** you, God.” This number goes on for quite a while with the ensemble singing this and gesturing with their middle fingers up to the heavens. Sorry, this isn’t funny in any language.

So while this is a very funny show, with excellent choreography, catchy tunes and two terrific leads (Rannells has a great singing voice and look for Gad to get a Tony nod), it’s not going to be for everyone.

I laughed a lot and before this show, would not have believed I could enjoy someone’s infestation by maggots, which the poor village doctor (Michael James Scott) sings about throughout the show, but then I have a sort-of-out-there sense of humor. I also was offended, particularly during the “F*** You, God” number, but I hardly went expecting this show to be a positive comment on Mormonism or religion. Truthfully, it wasn’t as scathing as I expected, knowing the style of the creators and being aware of an anti-Mormon sentiment in the Broadway community following the Proposition 8 vote in California and given growing anti-Christian/religion sentiment in today’s culture.

Join the flock at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 West 49th St., NYC Tickets are available at http://www.givenik.com/show_info.php/Masterworks/292/individual.

Christians might also like to know (in addition to the information already discussed):
• Show posts a Mature advisory
• Language
• We see a villager murdered
• Sexual dialogue
• Sexual moves

Theater Review: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. Photo by Ari Mintz

How Radcliffe Succeeds in This Business with a Little Trying
By Lauren Yarger
Another Hollywood star is packing them in on the Great White Way as Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame takes the stage as J. Pierrepont Finch in the 50th anniversary revival of the Tony and Pulitzer-Prize-Winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

“Isn’t he adorable?” and “Look, it’s Harry Potter!” fans in the audience say as Radcliffe shows that he has what it takes to be the leading man in a Broadway musical, even if he can’t rely on the magic in his wand. Instead, he appears to be relying on some hard work to prepare for the show and it has paid off in the form of his skillful execution of Rob Ashford’s (although overkill) choreography moves. The young sorcerer -- I mean actor -- appears to defy gravity with a few physical moves.

I’m happy the fans are cheering. Too often Hollywood stars come to the stage hoping their charm will carry them, and instead, it appears Radcliffe is trying very hard to do his best. His singing voice is adequate, if not as strong as we normally expect on a Broadway stage, but he’s not alone. Ashford, who also directs, has cast weaker vocals across the board. The result is that Radcliffe’s lack of vocal ability doesn’t stand out, but we never hear any of the tunes and lyrics by Frank Loesser given full justice. David Chase provides the musical direction and pleasant arrangements.

The story (book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstick and Willie Gilbert) follows Pierrepont as he climbs his way out of a window-washing job up the corporate ladder at World Wide Widgets with the help of a guide titled “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (voice narration for the book is provided by CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper). He quickly impresses the CEO’s secretary Miss Jones (Ellen Harvey), executive Mr. Gatch (Nick Mayo) and starts getting promoted.

Along the way, he also impresses a couple of secretaries, Smitty (an engaging Mary Faber) and Rosemary Pilkington (Rose Hemingway), who quickly decides that she’d like to be Mrs. J. Pierrepont Finch. “Ponty” doesn’t really notice Rosemary, though, so fixated is he on following his guide and finding just the right bits of information he needs to get ahead. He angers screw-up Bud Frump (a fun Christopher J. Hanke), who is the nephew of their boss, J.B. Biggley (John Larroquette, making a solid Broadway debut), and who doesn’t hesitate to call his mother to complain when Ponty gets the praise instead of him. Bud even tries to sabotage Ponty by placing him in a compromising position with Biggley’s mistress, Heddy LaRue (Tammy Blanchard) and by contributing a bad advertising idea when Ponty is made head of that department. Can Ponty get out of the mess, find true love and avoid the wrath of Board Chairman Wally Womper (Rob Bartlett)? I’ll bet you can succeed in answering that without even trying.

Derek McLane designs a set of varied-colored, multi-level honeycomb panels to create an environment for the worker bees of WWW, lighted by Howell Binkley, who also gives a nice spotlight touch to Ponty's successes up the corporate ladder.

Catherine Zuber creates the 1960s-style clothes, which are a mix of attractive and sometimes disappointing. One suit and hat combination on Radcliffe gives the appearance of a little boy playing dress up rather than a man headed for the board room and in a scene where all of the women show up for a party wearing the same dress, it’s hard to believe that even one would select such an unattractive get-up, never mind all of them.

Also disappointing is a rather sexist undertone to how the women are depicted. Rosemary has little ambition other than to be a devoted wife “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm.” The guys sing “A Secretary is Not a Toy” and the secretaries sing about wanting to be Cinderella. OK, this is the 1960s, so maybe that’s period, but we have to wonder why this type of show is being revived so often. There’s one dance number that is sexist and distasteful even by today’s standards. And there’s only one person of color – a chorus woman – in the show. Is this supposed to depict the state of corporate America in he ’60s (again is this really something worth reviving) or is this an unfortunate lack of 2011 diversity?

At any rate, the Harry Potter fans are applauding wildly. Radcliffe deserves their admiration for his efforts and Larroquette deserves it for some delightful comedic timing. He looks as though he succeeds at it without even trying.

The show plays at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available at http://www.givenik.com/show_info.php/Masterworks/273/individual.

Christians might also like to know:
• Minor Language
• God’s name taken in vain

Quick Hit Theater Review: Wittenberg

From L to R: Scott Greer (Faustus), Sean McNall (Hamlet)and Chris Mixon (Martin Luther. Photo by Sam Hough

Wittenberg
Off-Broadway at Pearl Theatre Company at NY City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th St., NYC
By David Davalos
Director: J.R. Sullivan

Summary: John Faustus (Scott Greer) and Martin Luther (Chris Mixon), professors at Wittenberg University in 1517, differ in their views on philosophy and theology and to prized pupil, young Prince Hamlet of Denmark (Sean McNall), about where to focus his studies (and loyalty). The two friends care for each other, and engage in a delightful exchange of banter. The philosopher reads the bible for its questions; the theologian reads it for its answers. They disagree too, on Faustus' sexual relationship with Helen (Joey Parsons), a former nun. Davalos' script is brilliantly witty with references to Shakespeare's Hamlet and includes touches of modern times (Hamlet carries a logo-bearing sports bag to his tennis match, for example) to emphasize that the arguments being made are just as relevant today.

Highlights: One of the most fun times I have spent at the theater recently. The script really is intelligent, humorous and a masterful piece of work blending all three stories in an imaginative and engaging way. All of the performances are excellent, with McNall showing skill as a physical actor. Greer's portrayal strikes just the right balance between the philosopher who takes things too far and the doctor who truly cares. Sullivan weaves the action and dialogue around images, like the familiar one of Hamlet gazing at a skull, that keep us smiling all the way through.

Lowlights: None. Catch this one if you can.

Information: The play runs through April 17 on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 with matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30. For ticket and other information, call 212-581-121 or visit http://www.citycenter.org./

Christians might also like to know:
•Drug usage
•God's name taken in vain
•Minor Language

Cori Thomas Wins Osborn New Play Award

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announces that Cori Thomas has won its 2011 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright. The award will be presented today at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ky.

The Osborn Award recognizes Thomas’ play, When January Feels Like Summer, which premiered in March 2010 at City Theatre in Pittsburgh (director Chuck Patterson, artistic director Tracy Brigden), supported in part by the Edgerton Foundation fund for new American plays. It received an initial reading there at the 2007 Momentum Festival, and was developed in part at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in 2008.

Thomas was born in New York to a Liberian diplomat and a Brazilian mother, but lived in seven countries before returning to the United States to attend school. She studied theater at Marymount Manhattan College. A lifetime member of the acting/writing ensemble of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City, her plays include: His Daddy; Pa’s Hat: Liberian Legacy and My Secret Language of Wishes.

She has been a finalist for a Juilliard Fellowship and the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Festival, and was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She recently received a commission from South Coast Repertory Theatre and The Sloan Foundation.

Her street-smart When January Feels Like Summer is a comic and touching tale of love, sex, redemption and the survival of the American Dream in the 21st century, amid the struggle with the polar attractions of identity and assimilation. Thomas stirs together a diverse group of urban dwellers on an atypically warm winter month: a middle-aged African American sanitation worker, an East Indian shopkeeper whose husband from a loveless marriage is in a coma, her brother in the midst of a transgender transformation, and two bright homeboys trying to understand everything from global warming to meeting girls. All are on a quest for the healing power of true love, a mythic journey presided over by the Hindu god Ganesh, lord of the removal of obstacles.

The Osborn Award is designed to recognize the work of an author who has not yet achieved national stature. Last year’s Osborn Award went to Jason Wells for Perfect Mendacity. Previous winners included Rebecca Gilman and Keith Glover.

The award was established in 1993 to honor the memory of Theatre Communications Group and American Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn. It carries a $1,000 prize, funded by the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association. Honorees are recognized in The Best Plays Theater Yearbook, edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, the annual chronicle of United States theater. Making the selection from plays nominated by ATCA members is the ATCA New Plays Committee, chaired by Wm. F. Hirschman, which also selects honorees for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.

ATCA was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities. The only national association of professional theater critics, it has several hundred members who work for newspapers, magazines, radi, TV and websites across the United States. ATCA is a national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

ATCA also presents the Francesca Primus Prize, funded by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, honoring contributions to the American theater by female artists who have not yet achieved national prominence. It makes recommendations for the Regional Theater Tony Award presented by the American Theatre Wing/Broadway League and votes on inductions into the Theater Hall of Fame.

For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.