All in Broadway
Deeper cuts from the Bob Dylan songbook are roughly interpolated into “Girl from the North Country”, a new musical by Irish playwright and director Conor McPherson. Heavy on mood, this original Depression-era story offers a compelling look at a mélange of ordinary, forgotten people on the margins of low-rent society, but the effort is hampered by Mr. Dylan’s anachronistic songs and their poor integration into the plot. This one left me chilly and detached.
Belgian auteur Ivo van Hove presents a reimagined version of “West Side Story” for the 21st Century; employing his signature style of theatremaking, this production is thrilling and revelatory, breathing new life into a beloved classic with new choreography, precision cuts to the text, new orchestrations, a superb ensemble cast, and groundbreaking use of video and live filmmaking. The result marks a true summit of achievement in theatre-making and a highlight in a lifetime of theatergoing. It demands to be seen.
With the concept of “winter” an increasing memory, here is overview of all that’s coming to New York stages this spring!
Roundabout Theatre Company presents a sterling revival and Broadway debut of Charles Fuller’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Soldier’s Play”, a thrilling and tautly constructed military murder mystery set among the segregated barracks of an Army base in 1944 Central Louisiana. Kenny Leon directs a terrific ensemble, led by David Alan Grier and Blair Underwood, in one of the best productions Roundabout has presented in recent memory.
Laura Linney stars in an unnecessary and poorly adapted stage version of Elizabeth Stout’s acclaimed 2016 novel, “My Name is Lucy Barton”. Despite a grounded and forthright performance from one of the greatest actors of her generation, the play never satisfactorily justifies its existence.
“Jagged Little Pill”, the new Alanis Morissette musical, is a moving mood board collection of disparate images, sounds, and text in search of cohesion; commendably containing an original story touching on relevant themes of today, like drug addiction and sexual assault, the musical sounds great and is well-performed, but suffers from conceptual whiplash as if composed by a committee following focus group instructions.
Playwright Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance” is a an epic, novelistic, and enjoyably consumed two-part, six act, six and half hour long play that is a loose adaptation of E. M. Forster’s “Howards End” set among a contemporary group of gay men living in New York contending with the legacy of AIDS and what it means to be gay today. Flaws are overcome by the strength of the staging, and the play is humorous, heartbreaking, and deeply memorable. A must see.
Adrienne Warren gives a spell-binding, jaw-dropping, star turn in “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical”. There’s nothing earth-shattering about the show’s conception, construction, or execution—but not much that offends, either. “TINA”, among the best of its sub-genre of bio-musicals, is a rather unremarkable musical as far as the form is concerned but a terrific entertainment that tells a good story and does it well. See it for Adrienne Warren’s transcendent performance.
Here I give an overview of a trilogy of “the” plays that opened on Broadway over the past month: “The Great Society”, “The Height of the Storm” at Manhattan Theatre Club, and “The Rose Tattoo” at the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Following a sold-out run downtown, Jeremy O. Harris’ “Slave Play” is now on Broadway. At once hysterical and alarming, this trenchant satire of white fragility, identity politics, racism, psychotherapy, and a certain brand of its crunchy practitioners is a conversation piece to top them all. Thoughtfully written, constructed, and executed; thought-provoking, relevant, and a herald of what can be, “Slave Play” is a must-see of the season.
“Freestyle Love Supreme” is an abundantly joyful and amusing freestyle, improvisational, hip-hop comedy show created by Thomas Kail, Anthony Veneziale, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. A pricey enterprise given that it is, fundamentally, an improv show, lovers of wordplay will take great pleasure in the clever and witty rhymes that the rotating cast of rappers and beatboxers come up with on the spot based on audience suggestions, and cynics will see a well-marketed cash grab.
Prepare to have your mind blown by British mentalist and illusionist Derren Brown during his brilliantly suspenseful and thrilling one-man magic show: “Derren Brown: Secret”. Entertaining and enthralling, you might just emerge from the theatre a true believer.
