September 14, 2021 Update
— An in-person finale of Richard Nelson's Rhinebeck Panorama. . . the Atlantic Theater comes back to live performamces with a new play, The Last of the Love Letters, and Gingold Theatrical Group with a Shaw crowd pleaserMrs. Warren's Profession. . . .An on-screen treat, Angela's Ashes: the Musical.
It would be boorish not to be pleased by all the publicity showered on Waitress and Hadestown, the first musicals to come back to Broadway. Senator Chuck Schumer's attendance at the Waitress
opening and the fact that Sara Bareilles —the show's creator
and composer — will be starring through October 17th has
no doubt contributed to healthy ticket sales. Sadly, Nick
Cordero who played a major role in the Broadway production I
reviewed was a COVID victim. (Read my review here ) Here's hoping, that Hadestown, which I reviewed off-Broadway in 2016, and on Broadway in 2021 (Broadway Review Off-Broadway Review).will also continue to thrive.
While Broadway is indeed essential for the city's economic
well-beng, Off-Broadway theaters are where so many shows
begin life. These always adventurous theaters too have
suffered enormous losses and need attention and support to
keep the city's cultural heart beating.
Like the big Broadway houses, these small venues are
returning to live performances with strict safety
protocol in place. Some, especially the Irish Rep Theater
have actually used the lockdown to win new fans from far
away with previously presented plays inventively filmed for
the screen. Though they are opening the doors of their
140-seat theater again, their screened plays are still available
to rent inexpensively OnDemand. The Rep is tthe
perfect host tor the New York screen debut of the Pat
Moylan poroduction of the musical adaptation of Frank McCourt's
Pulitzer Prize winning memoir Angela's Ashes. My
comments on seeng the film's opening performance comfortably
seated at my dining table will follow my comments on
Off-Broadway plays that are or will soon be offering
plays for audiences to see in person. . All offer a chance
to go back to the theater in a less populated
settting.
What Happened?— The Michaels Abroad by Richard Nelson.
When the Michaels last shared a meal and conversation around a
table in Rhinebeck, the family matriarch Rose, a distinguished
choreogrspher, was dying of cancer. In the concluding play she's been
dead for six months, not from the cancer but COVID and the Michaels
family has been cleared to fly to France for a conference of her work.
The table around which they are gathered is the home of Rose's wife
Kate in France. As usual, the two hours are more about character than
plot. The table talk includes some dancing, but above all, these
characters are all living through the same present as all who are
watching.
Maryann Plunkett and her husband Jay O. Sanders, who've been
in every play , including the Zoom trilogy, are on board
for the finale. Their presence in the last of these
basically under-dramatized plays may have some of their many
fans conquer their Delta Variant nervousness.
For ticket information, go to https://www.huntertheaterproject.org/
The Last of the Love Letters If CurtainUp
were still in old "cover every new show coming to town"
mode, I'd certainly check out the world premiere of The Last of the Love Letters
at the Atlantic's Linda Gross Theater at 3336 West 20th Street.
It's a limited run engagement that began August 26th and
will end September 26th. Playwright
Ngozi Anyanwu also performs and Patricia McGregor directs
Playwright and player Ngozi Anyanwu is joined on stage by Daniel
J. Watts and Xavier Scott Evans, the former listed as "You No.2"
and the latter as "Person." They contemplate the thing they love
most and whether to stick it out or to leave it behind. To stay. Or to
go. That is the question. Sounds like a challenging choice.
Next up at the Atlantic is an intriguing new musical based on David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo,
with book and lyrics by Lindsay-Abaire, music by Jeanine Tesory.
Directed by Jessica Stone and starring the golden voiced Victoria Clark
as Kimberly, this sounds like a show with legs to take it to Broadway.
Still, there's nothing like seing it in a more intimate space . That
opportunity will be from November 5 to December 26, 2021.
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Just once every year Gingold Theatrical Group departs from its modus
operandi of play readings to put on a fully staged play at Theater Row.
And they're doing so now with a revival of Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession.
The play has had its share of outstanding thespians portray the main
characters. Director David Staller too has assembled a fine cast. Tony
Award winner Karen Ziemba stars as Mrs. Warren. She's supported by
Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Nicole King, Alvin Keith and Raphael
Nash Thompson. The limited engagement runs from October 12th to November
20th. To read the half dozen other productions of this play reviewed at
CurtainUp, see Playwrights Album chapter on Shaw here.
Angela's Ashes: The Musical enjoyed
a number of widely praised live productions in Ireland. Now the
filmed version is making its New York debut. Having that debut hosted by
the Irish Rep is an apt choice given their own history with Frank
McCourt. They successfully produced McCourt's revue The Irish and How they Got That Way,
and revived it after his death in 2009. Like the Rep's archive of past
live productions innovatively filmed for screen viewing, Angela's Ashes: The Musical
is also smartly filmed, making the Rep the premiere's perfect host.
However, unless things change, the Pat Moylan film will be available
only for its short run, unlike the ones produced by the Rep that can
still be accessed OnDemand.
To cut to the chase. . . Can the source book really work
as a musical? After all, anyone who's read McCourt's memoir about his
difficult Irish childhood, or seen the film adaptation that's still
available at Amazon Prime, may find it hard to imagine young Frank and
his impoverished family members singing an dancing.
I'll admit that I had my doubts. But that was before attending the first
performance courtesy of the laptop on my dinng room table.
Thanks to Thom Southerland innovative direction and Jacinta Whyte
and Eoin Cannon superb acting and singing as Angela and Frank, Paul
Hurt's book and Adam Howel's music and lyrics, McCourt's story does
indeed come to vivid life as a musical drama.
Hurt's book remain true to McCourt's recollecions of his
unhaooy Irish childhood in Limerick, the town to which his family
returned after failing to survive their first journey to America. That
was when Frank, the oldest, was just 5-years-old. The years of extreme
poverty resulting from his father's drunkenness and failure to supprt
the family was exacerbated by the Limirick citizenry treatment —
often, mistreatment. No wonder, the dream that took more than a dozen
years to realize that Frank's mantra was to go to America.
Eoin Cannon deftly jumps back and forth between Frank as the show's
adult narrator, and Frank as an active member of his large,
troubled family. I usually don't like to see adult actors playing
children, but Cannon won me over here. Jacinta Whyte inhabits the role
of a woman whose love match results in too many children and
incredible hardship. Her powerful vocals add some of the best
solos and duets to the show. While Cannon and Whyte are thhe show's
stars, The ensemble too does finw work portraying the Limerick
citizenry, many of whom add to the pain of the McCourts'
return to Ireland.
Best of all, this musical adaptation
brings some light into the memoir's darkness. The
heartbreaking moments are still there, but so are some rousing
dance numbers and funny moments. Not to be overlooked in the
musical's assets is Francis O’Connor's clever stage design with its
use of a moving staircase, suspended window frames and a balcony.
For ticket details go to https://irishrep.org/tickets/
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