Tick Tick Boom @ The Acorn Theater @ Theatre Row

Before Rent, there was Tick, Tick… BOOM! This autobiographical musical, by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Jonathan Larson, is the story of an aspiring composer questioning his life choices on the eve of his thirtieth birthday. His girlfriend wants to get married and move out of the city, his best friend is making big bucks on Madison Avenue, but Jon is still waiting on tables and trying to write the great American musical. This exhilarating, funny, and moving work by the late Larson will speak to anyone who's ever gotten lost on their way to finding their dreams. 

“Tick, Tick…BOOM!” has book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. David Auburn serves as Script Consultant and Joey Chancey is Musical Director. Jonathan Silverstein directs, with choreography by Christine O’Grady.

The cast of “Tick, Tick…BOOM!” includes Nick Blaemire, Lilli Cooper (begins 11/22), Ciara Renée (thru 11/20), and George Salazar. The creative team of “Tick, Tick…BOOM!” includes Steven Kemp (set design), Jennifer Paar (costume design), Josh Bradford (lighting design), Julian Evans (sound design), and Ricola Wille (prop design). Joanna Muhlfelder is production stage manager. 

Tick, Tick... BOOM! opened with Keen Theater Company on October 20th 2016 and plays through December 18th, 2016. This revival is a must see, make sure you catch it before Ciara Renee's final performance.

Photo By: Joan Marcus

Les Liasions Dangereuses @ The Booth Theater

Since its initial 1987 Broadway debut with Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman, Les Liasions Dangereuses has returned to the Booth Theatre starring Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber. A performance filled with the underbelly of intrigue and sexual manipulation of ancien régime France comes from Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ 1787 novel.

Directed by Josie Rourke, Dangereuses witty lines and scintillating tales scurry across the stage in beautiful period garb designed by Tom Scutt. Scutt also designed the unit set that resembles an old art gallery—the walls peeling and gorgeous paintings lying about, waiting to be properly marveled at.

Janet McTeer plays La Marquise de Merteuil, a happily widowed aristocrat who gains her pleasure from the power she imposes on others—her success measured only by the misery and destruction that falls before her. Expertly, she hides her intentions behind her perfect mannerisms and military-like strategy. Her aim is to exercise the only power she can possibly possess as a woman and achieve its ends better than a man. Her competitor is Liev Schreiber, Le Vicomte de Valmont, serially unwed and searching for the highest conquests to earn him fame and legend (from his loins). His intentions only hidden by his quick wit and easy command of a woman’s virtue (or lack thereof).

Their major victims are a 15-year-old virgin, Cecile Valanges (Elena Kampouris), her true love Le Chevalier Danceny (Raffi Barsoumian), and a happily married and virtuous woman Madame de Tourvel (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen). La Marquise desires revenge on a former lover and tasks Valmont to deflower Cecile before her impending marriage and Valmont wishes to become an irresistible yearning of Madame de Tourvel; enough for her to drop her religious afflictions and leave her husband. A feat he views as the height of his career; so impossible that only he can achieve its end.

What ensues is Schreiber and McTeer commanding the stage and performance. Each one pulled from the audience a sense of overarching foreboding and hopelessness. Rourke was careful to include comedic relief wherever possible. The acting was without flaw and the play itself a dark undertaking where characters shed their innocence, their feelings of true love and desires for the art of the game.

Difficult as it is to bring all aspects of a novel to life, Les Liaisions Dangereuses does its best and is graced with a very capable cast. While there was a lot of comedy and talent to bridge the gaps of a thin plot and overt hideous intentions that did not always run deeper, Dangereuses opened an eye to the musical chairs of lovers and destroyers of pre-revolution France.

Review By: Alex Lipari
Photos By: Joan Marcus

OH HELLO @ THE LYCEUM THEATRE

A few minutes into “Oh, Hello” I noticed in front of me a well dressed older man with a disinterested posture. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of the stand up comedy of John Mulaney or Nick Kroll or the sketches from Kroll Show, the latter’s Comedy Central series that birthed the characters of two stylized curmudgeons from the Upper West Side who were now lighting up the historic Lyceum Theater. Maybe he had already decided this was a pop culture cash in and there was nothing for him here, but as the two began their descent into a near perfect deconstruction of the theater (surprise surprise, the show is wonderful), one thing became clear: It wasn’t IF they’d break through to the stiff man in front of me, but when. 

Mulaney and Kroll play George St. Geegland and Gill Faizan, two decades long best friends who are thrown to the wind after the comfort of their rent stabilized apartment is taken away. The plot doesn't dig much deeper, but the story itself is just a springboard for the two to completely dismantle both cliches of the theater and New York in a rapid fire series of disjointed vignettes. The narrative is broken constantly, peppered with asides to the audience, requests for bathroom breaks, criticism from one another about their delivery, etc. It’s the slapdash, shooting-from-the-hip vibe that gives it all a special charm, with all the silliness enhanced by the fever dream of a set, a cobbled together collection of props and other memorabilia from previous shows at the Lyceum that seems to constantly remind us not to take this too seriously.

The result is a laugh on nearly every line thanks to the incredibly polished script and endearing characters the two have delicately crafted, as well as something all too rare to Broadway, playful moments of improvisation that, thanks to their obvious friendship and comfortability, is (gasp!) actually just as funny as the dialogue. No moment overstays its welcome as the two pin ball their way from discussing their origin story to chewing out their unpaid intern in the booth for delayed sound cues to introducing genuine surprise celebrity guests for an impromptu talk show to addressing specifically expensive set pieces as specifically expensive set pieces, all culminating in a final bow that leaves the audience satisfied that there is not one more drop of humor to be squeezed from the evening. 

When the man in front of me eventually let out a satisfied laugh (during a very small moment when Mulaney’s Geegland showed genuine contempt for the audience for not being into Steely Dan enough to enjoy the show) I could tell he finally agreed he wasn’t seeing some flash in the pan novelty act, but something completely different. He relaxed like he was listening to an exotic instrument he had never heard before but that he couldn’t deny was fine tuned and being played with perfection. You don’t have to already love Kroll and Mulaney to find something special here, though like listening to copious amounts of Steely Dan it’s better for you in the long run. 

Review: Dave Columbo

Photo: Dave Kotinksy

GYPSY @ PHOENIX RED BANK

I’d imagine there is a lot of pressure associated with staging, what most consider to be, the GREATEST American musical of all time. One must dissect the elements that make it to be just that: the greatest. Well, here she is boys, Phoenix of Red Bank’s stellar production of Gypsy at the gorgeous Count Basie Theatre, shining in all it’s glory.

Bernadette Peters once compared the character of Momma Rose to “the female equivilant of King Leer.” Under the ginger care of director Tom Martini, Loretta Boyle lead the cast with the verve and doggedness every Momma must possess.

 The diadem of this production, however, was within her daughter Louise, played by Kathryn Pentek. Pentek explored a vulnerability who’s depths jarred the audience. We watched her transform from the overlooked tomboy cast aside by her mother, to a sexualized demigoddess casting her mother aside. Miss Pentek’s performance was nothing short of heartbreaking, thoroughly embodying the spirit of the piece.

Bob Sammond musically directs a show with tight knit harmonies very reminiscent of the vaudevillian days. Elise Klinger's choreography matches that same level of grace and historical accuracy. 

Stand out performances littered the show with every twist and turn. Chris Lorenc took on the role of Tulsa, leaving every single person in my row breathless, and for good reason. His mastery of the time period nuances, execution of the dance and  sheer chemistry with every single person on stage was certainly infectious and memorable. Mikayla Petrilla lit up the whole stage with infallible energy as Electra and led her fellow strippers to victory in a hilarious rendition of “You Gotta Get a Gimmick.”’

Its always a wonderful feeling when you see a classic just done right. Phoenix Red Bank undoubtedly provided that sense of nostalgia and a toetapping good time.

Review: Brittany Goodwin

Photos by: Rick Kowalski

ALL THE WAYS TO SAY I LOVE YOU @ THE LUCILLE LORTEL THEATRE

My English teacher once admitted every story is a variation of a handful of tired archetypes. "The beauty," she said, "is in a familiar narrative being told in an exciting way."

 This was on my mind while watching “All The Ways To Say I Love You” at the Lucille Lortelle theater, thanks to the skills of playwright Neil Labute, director Leigh Silverman, and particularly Judith Light who all deliver us Mrs. Johnson, an English teacher bound by her curiosity of a student’s obtuse question about lying, her intrigue with the fluidity of the truth, and by her burden of transgressions she admits to but can’t in good conscience condemn. 

In a few minutes the familiarity of the rather simple story is clear, but malaise has no time to set in thanks to Judith Light’s portrayal. Her seemingly fragile frame is betrayed by a powerful drum beat of a performance, complete with moments of delicate calm interspersed with erratic explosions of movement and force. Her honesty is palpable and often moves faster than she can, resulting in us piecing the story together less from her enthusiasm but in the moments she recoils at simple words spoken before she’s fully ready to meet their emotional weight, leaving us with multiple pregnant pauses and the uneasiness that this teacher, who also acts as the school’s guidance counselor, is as in need of guidance as any of us.

There is an argument that the tone of her performance borders on unmotivated at times. She clenches her hands, clutches her stomach, and bellows air out of her like an animal, and some of these events do more to disrupt the pace than accent a moment, though all I had to do was remember the unpredictability of some of the more colorful teachers I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and suddenly these jarring outbursts seemed in the realm of possibility. On a few occasions though even I was thrown off by some of these choices, along with stiff motivations of movement around the small set that lacked the honesty of the rest of her performance. 

The claustrophobia of the set is telling, as we are treated to merely a portion of her classroom office lit by a lone ceiling light, and equally sterile office windows covered by blinds, the room cluttered and busy, framed tightly in about half the available space the of the theater which cuts off the proscenium to allow just enough space to let her move, but not enough to let her find comfort for longer than a moment. 

It’s hard to imagine this play working without Judith Light. LaBute’s writing is solid and specific as usual, but it’s Judith’s energy that coerces us to listen and her pain that we take with us on the ride home. This story has been told many times, but never quite this way. 

Review: Dave Columbo

Photo: Joan Marcus