Off-Broadway Review: Thank God for Jokes -- Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbilglia. Photo: Joan Marcus

Thank God for Jokes

By Mike Birbiglia

Directed by Seth Barrish

Lynn Redgrave Theater

By Lauren Yarger

What's It All About?

It's comedian Mike Birbiglia doing a standup at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre. It's 70 minutes of pure entertainment. Surrounded by chapel-looking stained glass windows (designed by Beowulf Boritt with Lighting Design by Aaron Copp and Davison Scandrett), Birbiglia talks about a number of topics, including jokes themselves. They're really more than just punch lines. By nature, they offend someone and express an opinion. In his laid-back manner, Birbiglia does both -- to continuous laughter from the packed-out house.

What are the Highlights? 

Moving easily between the serious and absurd, Birbiglia entertains, especially when he mercilessly tortures some latecomers and drills audience members about their past transgressions. The routine is well written and sharply presented. Birbiglia is a performer as well, having appeared in TV's "Orange is The New Black" and "Trainwreck" as well as films. His past acclaimed Off-Broadway shows were My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Solo Show, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Solo Show) and Sleepwalk With Me (Nightlife Award for Outstanding Comedian in A Major Performance, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Award nominations).

What Are the Lowlights?

Jesus and religion take a few hits for the team (but Mohammed is spared . . . after all look what happened to those cartoonists in France, he reminds us . . .) It's pretty moderate compared to some other shows, so don't let it stop you from purchasing a ticket.

More Information:

Thank God for Jokes plays at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre, 45 Bleecker St., NYC. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 4:30 pm. Tickets start at $56.50: thankgodforjokes.com; 866-811-4111.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

-- Sexual Dialogue

-- Language 

Broadway Theater Review: Disaster!

Star Power Not Enough to Guide This Ship Safely Past a Great White (way)
By Lauren Yarger
There's a Disaster! on Broadway this season.

It's a spoof of all those disaster movies that were popular in the 1970s -- "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," "Airport" and the like....  This story (conceived by Drew Geraci and popular Broadway musician Seth Rudestsky, who hosts shows about Broadway on Sirius Radio) takes place aboard the Barracuda, a floating casino cruise ship docked in the Hudson.

An odd assortment of characters (some tributes to roles in the real disaster movies) assemble for the grand opening despite the warnings of Professor Ted Scheider  (Rudetsky), a disaster expert, who warns of something terrible impending. He's right. Many times over. During the course of the evening, among many disasters, there's a tidal wave, an earthquake and even a school of piranha just for good measure among the hardships that must be overcome, all while singing classic tunes from the era that gave us disco.

Steve Marzullo music directs and Joseph Joubert does the arrangements and scoring for a slew of old favorites like "Without You," "I am Woman," Mockingbird" and the like -- all introduced in some corny way in the dialogue. The book is co-written by Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, who directs.

Talented Roger Bart plays the sleazy, no-good owner of the casino who cuts corners and tries to hide his shady money dealing in other ports, so to speak.  He's the love interest of the ship's singer, Jackie (Rachel York), who hopes he'll be a new dad for her twins, Lisa and Ben (both  played by Baylee Littrel. He throws a wig over his head to make the transition and even manages to sing a duet with himself.)

Also on board are Marianne (Kerri Butler) and the guy she left at the altar to purse a journalism career, Chad (Adam Pascal). Before long, sparks are reigniting. Or is that just the beginning of an inferno?

OK, wait a minute. Did I say Adam Pascal, Kerri Butler, Rachel York and Roger Bart?? Yes, I did. And that's not all the star power amazingly in this ridiculous show. Faith Prince plays Shirley, a Shelley-Winters type "I'll over-exert myself to save everyone" character with Kevin Chamberlin as her loving husband, Maury. Lacretta Nicole is a washed up disco diva (cue "Staying Alive"....) There's also a fairly large ensemble to play various characters and bop and gyrate (with a lot of sweeping hand movements) to JoAnn M. Hunter's awkward choreography.

So if you are a fan of any of those Broadway royals, or if you just really like music from that era, you'll probably enjoy this show (though you will be disappointed that "The Morning After" is no where to be heard and that Lisa sings Michael Jackson's "Ben" while carrying him from the ship instead of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" which might have made me laugh.

For me, forced humor just isn't my cup of tea. I had seen Disaster!'s Off-Broadway incarnation last season and thought it was fun in the way of silly humor, but it didn't cause me to chortle throughout (though some people did). Give me instead a good parody, or a delicious spoof like Something Rotten! where I laughed all the way through Shakespeare's rock concert in the park while thinking, "This is brilliant."

Taking Disaster! to Broadway seems like stretching the joke too far to me. Not safely protected by the intimate confines of a very small theater downtown and competing with full-scale musicals for $150 a seat, this show can't overcome the natural forces that can sink any ship trying to cruise The Great White Way. Yes, there were some sharks in this show too both on stage and in the seats where audience members at intermission ripped the show apart and declared Disaster! fully worthy of its name. The box office has been sluggishl, proof that not everything that works fairly well Off-Broadway can make the transfer uptown -- even if you have names like Seth Rudetsky and the other very talented stars attached to it.

The best part of this show is Jennifer Simard as Sister Mary Downey, a Debbie Downer of Nun (of course there has to be a guitar-playing nun. . .) who struggles with her past gambling addiction while trying to save souls aboard the floating casino.

"You're going to hell," she tells one sinner in a morose monotone. "Have a nice day."

She  is a hoot -- and the only lead to reprise her role from the Off-Broadway run, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for featured actress in a musical.

Disaster! is scheduled to play a limited run through July 3 at the Nederlander Theatre 208 West 41st St., NYC. Performance times vary. Tickets and information: disastermusical.com.

Additional credits:
Scenic Design by Tobin Ost, Costume Design by William Ivey Long, Wig and Hair Design Paul Huntley; Make Up Design by Anne Ford-Coates, Lighting Design by Jeff Croiter, Sound Design by Mark Menard.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

-- God's name taken in vain

-- Sexually suggestive moves

Full Disclosure: Maggie McDowell, the daughter of a close friend, is making her Broadway debut in the chorus of this production. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton Win 2016 Pulitzer

Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) and the company of Hamilton. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Lin-Mauel Miranda has been awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his blockbuster musical Hamilton, playing on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

The show has been the hottest ticket on Broadway since it transferred from its Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater last season. Hamilton, inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, retells the story of the nation's founding from he pint of view of Hamilton, an immigrant who created our national banking system and whose portrait still graces our $10 bill.

The show, which casts non whites in all of the roles of the Founding Fathers and Revolutionary characters except for King George III, has been wildly popular with young people, Miranda's catchy hip-hop score has made the soundtrack a bestseller.

For a review of the show when it was at the Public, click here.

For tickets (be prepared to wait a long while for them in New York) or for information about the upcoming national tour, click here.

Broadway Theater Review: Eclipsed

Akosua Busia and Lupita Nyong’o in ECLIPSED Off-Broadway at The Public Theater. Photo: Joan Marcus

History Made as Women Help Each Other Through the Horrors of War

By Lauren Yarger

While Eclipsed, a gripping story of women helping each other through the horrors of war, gives us a glimpse into situations thankfully most of us in the audience never have had to face, interestingly, it also brings to light the fact that women in the United States still have a way to go to achieve equality.

The play, written by Danai Gurira (whom fans of TV’s “The Walking Dead” will know as Michonne), marks the first time in Broadway history that a play has an all-female creative team (that’s writer Gurira and director Liesl Tommy) and an all female cast (all African-Americans as well – also a first).

Think about it. It’s 2016 and that is the first time that has happened? I am glad it has happened, but when you realize that Gurira and Tommy are quite in the minority if you run through writer and director credits on Broadway stages (or any theater stage for that matter), you realize we still have a road ahead before achieving parity. It’s sobering. And this Broadway transfer from a sold-out run at Off-Broadway’s Public Theatre probably wouldn’t have happened without the casting of a star -- Lupita Nyong’o, who won an Academy Award for her supporting role in “12 Years a Slave.”

Nyong’o is known only as The Girl – the fourth woman taken by a warlord in Liberia. She and the other “wives” are known only by their number – indicating the order in which they were taken. Wife #1 (Saycon Sengbloh) is a sort of mother figure to the other girls. She tries to keep peace between  #3 (Pascale Armand) , a young, immature girl who has become the sexual favorite of her captor and who finds herself with an unwanted child growing inside her, and #2 (Zainab Jah), who has gained a bit of independence by becoming a machine gun-wielding soldier herself.

When the other women are unable to keep The Girl hidden from their master/husband, he has his way with her. Once she becomes a wife, she joins in the life and rituals of their hut-like dwelling, where they sleep on the floor (Set Design by Clint Ramos, who also designs the costumes). When the Commanding Officer beckons, the docile women line up for selection,. Then the one he has picked goes off stage to do his will, returning shortly to wipe herself clean with a rag kept in a shared shallow basin full of water and their blood. The matter-of-fact way this happens is chilling.

In between sexual duties, the women help each other and sit enraptured as The Girl reads to them from a book about President Bill Clinton (his escapades with Monica Lewinsky -- whom the women assume is his Wife #2 -- and the country’s rather easy acceptance of that behavior are another reminder that women in the United States still have a way go to be treated as equals). They fight over cast off clothes brought to them by wife #2, who tries to recruit The Girl as a soldier, convincing her that the only real power comes through having a gun in your hand.

Trying to counter the horrible situation is Rita (Akosua Busia), who is seeking peace and an end to the civil wars that have torn her country apart. She visits the rebel camp and urges the women to try to remember who they are and the name their mothers gave to them. The truth is that most of them can’t even remember their mothers, never mind a time when they thought of themselves as a person.

Gurira’s play, which she wrote after traveling to Africa and interviewing actual war survivors, is deeply disturbing, but not enough some how. The women seem too complacent, too not shattered by their circumstances – even The Girl who is new to it. We feel outraged, but they don’t seem to – and perhaps that’s part of the purpose of the story – to show how dehumanizing the plight of the women is. We don’t experience enough of their journey, however, to comprehend it, though music and sounds by Broken Chord Collective help enhance the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the show has launched a far-reaching campaign to bring young women to the show The “10,000 Girls Campaign,” will distribute tickets to girls from the Tri-State area between ages 16 to 24 who would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience a Broadway show.

The National Urban League is a sponsor with Front Row Productions. Individuals and organizations may make a tax- eductible donation through the Broadway Education Alliance by visiting https://npo.justgive.org/BroadwayEducationAlliance. For more information visit www.tenthousandgirls.com.

Eclipsed plays through June 19 at the Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th St., NYC. Performances are Tickets are $59.50 - $99.50: http://eclipsedbroadway.com; 212- 239-6200.


Additional credits:

Hair,Wig and Makeup Design by Cookie Jordan; Lighting Design by Jennifer Schriever

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS

-- Language


-- Mature Themes

Full Disclosure: Good friend Pat Addiss is a producer of the show. This doesn't influence what I write, but I like to be up front about these things.

Off-Broadway Review: Nathan the Wise

Stark Sands and F. Murray Abraham. Photo by Richard Termine

Nathan the Wise
By Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Translated by Edward Kemp
Directed by Brian Kulick
Classic Stage Company

By Lauren Yarger

What's It All About?

What could be more contemporary than a play about the need for religious tolerance? How about an 18th century tale set in Jerusalem during the Crusades, which when originally penned by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (translated here by Edward Kemp) was banned by the church? 

F. Murray Abraham stars as Nathan the wise, a Jewish merchant living in Muslim-controlled Jerusalem (1192) alongside Christian soldiers of the Crusades. He has raised Rachel (Erin Neufer), a baby dropped at his doorstep, as his own daughter, but she was baptized a Christian -- a fact Daya (an entertaining Caroline Lagerfelt) finds it hard to keep to herself, even if the consequence might be death for Nathan. Meanwhile, Al Hafi (George Abud), treasurer to Sultan Saladin Austin Durant) introduces Nathan to his boss and that friendship just might save Nathan. Especially if he can answer the sultan's heartfelt question about which religion of the three in the region is the best. Meanwhile, a Knight Templar (Stark Sands) falls in love with Rachel, with potentially disastrous consequences for everyone. Shiva Kalaiselvan completes the cast as Saladin's sister, Sittah.

What are the Highlights?

Always fun to see Broadway vet F. Murray Abraham -- and Star Sands (Kinky Boots, American Idiot), for that matter -- on a New York Stage. Lagerfelt adds a much needed dose of humor.

What are the Lowlights?

It's kind of a predictable (in spite of the apparent plot twists and surprises). With two acts running just over two hours it seems a bit tedious, especially since there is a lot of retelling of action we already have seen.

Modern-attired actors begin the tale speaking a foreign language (which is lost on any of us who do not speak it -- as is Arabic writing that appears in projection on the backdrop which includes photos of war-ravaged Jerusalem -- but from modern days with satellite dishes visible.). They switch to intriguing costumes designed by Anita Tavich (with Arabic-looking writing on them) 

Set designer Tony Straiges also uses some rugs on a sand-colored floor to change scenes, or set up areas of action on the stage, but they sometimes seem in the way. Persian-looking lamps hanging overhead lend a nice touch.

Nathan the Wise plays through May 1 at Classic Stage Company, 136 East St., NYC. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7 pm; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are $60 on weeknights and $65 on weekends: www.classicstage.org; 212- 352-3101 / 866-811-4111; box-office.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

--God's name taken in vain

-- Extended Muslim prayer

You Are Invited to Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Thursday, April 14th, 2016
7:00 pm
The New School – University Center (UL 105)
63 Fifth Avenue
*Please note this event will not include a screening

SYNOPSIS

Please join us for a very special Q and A with Shanice Williams and Director Kenny Leon of The Wiz Live!

Moderated by BroadwayWorld.com's Richard Ridge of "Backstage with Richard Ridge!"

The evening’s discussion will focus on Shanice Williams’ breakout role and her incredible journey from a nationwide open casting call to portraying the iconic role of Dorothy LIVE on television. We will also hear from Director Kenny Leon on his experiences with this critically-acclaimed production and what goes into casting and producing a live musical television event of this magnitude.

To RSVP simply register with your email

https://members.sagfoundation.org/events/6349

Limited seats available. Seating is first come, first served, and not guaranteed.

Please direct any questions tonyrsvp@sagfoundation.org
and include “The Wiz Live” in the subject line.

Off-Broadway Review: Hold On to Me Darling

Hold On to Me Darling
By Kenneth Lonergan
Directed by Neil Pepe
Atlantic Theater Company 

By Lauren Yarger

What's It All about?

You can't go home again. at least not when you are super crossover singing sensation Strings McCrane (Timothy Olyphant). Summoned back to his rural Tennessee roots by the death of his mother, Strings longs for a feeling of belonging and a simple life that doesn't involve millions of dollars, recording contracts and concert tours. He just wants to settle down, and since the pompous superstar feels the world revolves around his every whim, he decides he will do just that -- with practically the first person who enters his hotel room,  massage therapist Nancy (an engaging Jenn Lyon). She is a big fan of Strings' music, so it's easy for her to abandon her faithful, but boring husband and twin kids to follow him to Beaumont, TN.  Make it happen, he tells his hapless assistant Jimmy (Keith Nobbs), a devoted fan (and maybe torch carrying romantic hopeful) who has been seeing to Strings' every needs for more than a decade.

Once home, Strings reconnects with his mother's close friend, a distant cousin, Essie (a nuanced Adelaide Clemens), who also succumbs to Strings' charms, but Nancy, who has big plans for String's fortune, stakes her claim and she and the country singer get hitched. Strings announces his intentions of buying a local feed store. He recruits brother Mitch (a dryly humorous Jonathan Hogan), who doesn't seem happy to be constantly reminded of his brother's success in the face of his own financial hardship, to partner with him in the easy, simple life of running the store.

Strings' plans for serenity don't go as planned, however. His decision to walk out of a movie contract and a concert tour have left him facing lawsuits threatening to take away his multiple millions --  a turn of events that doesn't go well with Nancy. Essie isn't exactly waiting in the wings. And the paparazi outside the feed store are making it possible for the brothers to rack up any sales to pay for this place, much to Mitch's growing alarm. Will no one realize they are messing up this whiny, self-involved singer's life?

What Are the Highlights?

The  play by Kenneth Lonergan (This is Our Youth, "Analyse This") was surprisingly interesting, uncluttered by cliche, and deeper than expected. Characters are well developed. Director Neil Pepe ( (Hands on a Hardbody, Speed-the-Plow) keeps Olyphant (whom you might know from TV's "Justified") defined. We need to not like him, but not hate him and balance is achieved. Lyon is fascinating as the wholesome innocent/manipulative fortune seeker and Clemens surprises as the seemingly dowdy forgotten cousin lacking self confidence blossoms into a beautiful, independent woman.

Walt Spangler's rotating set creates endless environs.

What Are the Lowlights?

None, I thoroughly enjoyed  all two hours and 45 minutes of it.

More information:

Hold On To Me Darling has been extended through April 17 at Atlantic Theatre's Linda Gross Theater, 336 West 20th St., NYC. Performances are Tuesday at 7 pm; Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm; Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm; Tickets are $66.50-$96.50: atlantictheater.org; 866-811-4111.

Additional credits:

Costume Design by Suttirat Larlarb, Lighting Design by Brian MacDevitt, Sound Design by David Van Tieghem, Dialects by Stephen Gabis

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

-- Language

-- God's name taken in vain