Waitress @ The Brooks Atkinson Theater

If someone were to tell you there is a place in the city that you can hear killer new music and experience every emotion known to man all the while smelling warm pie wafting through the air, you’d think we're was crazy, right?

Look no further, folks: WAITRESS IS HERE.

The crown jewel of Broadway just arrived at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and audiences couldn’t be more excited (hence their hashtag #worththewaitress)

The story of Waitress is beautifully simplistic: Our heroine marries the wrong guy.  He gets her pregnant. She has an affair with her ob-Gyn. She has the baby and leaves them both. Did I mention she makes pies?

Jessie Mueller took on the role of Jenna (originated by Keri Russell in the 2007 movie) with grace, humanity and ingenuity. Her Jenna was completely different than her predecessor and it left the audience so blissfully connected, you could find them audibly weeping when struggles came afoot. Mueller’s voice filled Sarah Bareilles’s iconic style absolutely perfectly, and her connection to the words- be it playful phrases or palpable pathos- was just an absolute treat.

Her sidekicks Kimiko Glenn and Keala Settle were perfect juxtapositions to Mueller’s Jenna that you couldn’t help but smile and laugh when the three were together at Joe’s Pie Diner. Drew Gehling as Dr. Pomatter simply stole your heart and served as an amazing hero to Jenna’s tragic tale.

Diane Paulus did wonders staging this beautiful show. Every bit of Jenna’s “out of body” thoughts were physicalized by the ensemble; be it handing her all the ingredients to her hilarious pies or simply going through contractions all together. The fluidity of their movement was flawless and propelled the piece forward. Time simply flew in that theatre. Scott Pask’s set design flipping from Joe’s Pie Diner to the Ob-Gyn’s was so much fun to watch and mirrored the fluidity of the staged movement. Christopher Akerlind’s lighting design is much to be commended for as well. Akerlind captured the color of thought and whimsy as well as absolute sadness in all of Jenna’s thoughts, which provided so much depth to what you were seeing and feeling.
 

So what are you waiting for? Go now to the Brooks Atkinson and see for yourself! But don't have dessert with your meal that evening- you can buy a pie at the door!

Review By: Brittany Goodwin

Photos By: Joan Marcus

Spring Awakening @ The Brooks Atkinson Theatre

The beautiful thing about theatre is that it gives you the freedom to push limits, bring up important issues in the world, and get conversations started. This revival of spring awakening takes a huge step in artist freedom and brings deaf actors and hearing actors on the same stage to tell an amazing story. Michael Arden and the entire creative team manage to take a story that is set in the 1890’s and make it so relevant to our lives.

As you enter Brooks Atkinson Theatre there is silence and as it gets closer to curtain you start hearing vibrations and a humming noise. The set is dimly lit and gives a presence of darkness and loneliness. Slowly the actors start to appear on stage dress only in their white undergarments. The actors continue to warm up, greet each other, living life, as they had no problems in the world. We see center stage a mirror and actress Sandra Mae Frank who plays Wendla makes her first inter action with her ‘voice” actress Katie Boeck. They have a beautiful moment seeing each other in the mirror and helping each other dress. We quickly understand their relationship, the “voice’ actors seem to resemble their voice inside their heads and almost represent how they wish they could be.

This cast is beyond amazing! There is so much talent on stage that you don’t know where to look! Austin P. McKenzie does a fantastic job carrying this show; he brings this energy on stage that you can’t take your eyes off him. Katie Boeck who voices Wendla has such a unique voice and it was so refreshing to hear her make it her own. Daniel N Durant who plays Moritz gave a haunting performance. Watching him sign in his last scene repeating “so dark” over and over in silence will forever leave an image in my mind, truly a powerful moment. Again, I can’t stress how talent this cast is; seriously they are all rock stars!

Visually this show was stunning, from the lights, costumes, to choreography. The lighting went from realistic to a rock concert to magical romantic, to absolutely haunting. I loved how the costumes for the voices symbolized how they would like to dress if they weren’t stuck in such a regimented world. And I loved the choreography; the actors signing basically took over their body and made a beautiful dance. The entire show moved so well that I wasn’t ready for it to end. There were so many great stage pictures that if I only saw pictures in order of the show I would understand what was going on and again I need to give Michael Arden credit for directing this wonderful piece of theatre.

Everyone needs to see this show, you will leave the theatre feeling so many emotions but hopefully you will leave feeling inspired as I did. This production is an exciting step for Theatre, giving more artists opportunity to share their gift, it is an exciting time!

Review By: Briana Burnside

Photos By: Joan Marcus

Love Letters @ The Brooks Atkinson Theatre

I traded my first “love letter” with Jason Forrester in 2nd grade. We passed notes back-and-forth in Mrs. Black’s class, hoping not to get caught but elated when we did and had to sit in detention alone together. I had forgotten all about that memory until I saw “Love Letters” by A.R. Gurney (The Dining Room) at the fabulous Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Opening September 18th with the ageless Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby) as Melissa Gardner, a precocious, wild child who time reveals to be damaged and fragile, with an incredible sensitivity, whose letters from Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, embodied by “the man” Brian Dennehy (Tony Award winner for lead in Death of a Salesman), whose voice remains commanding and defies mortality, provide the only real sense of stability in her whimsical and sometimes chaotic life.

Thought to be a dream job for actors who sit upon the stage alone as they trade turns reading five decades worth of letters, I am unconvinced if anyone claims it to be an easy task. The trip that the playwright and these two stellar actors took me on, under the direction of Gregory Mosher (former director of the Lincoln Center Theater) was an epic journey of missed opportunities until the eventual realization of one true thing. My heart was broken into a million pieces. I can hardly wait to do it again! And I will with each of the pairs who will grace the stage over the next three months: Carol Burnett, Candice Bergen, Diana Rigg, and Angelica Huston coupled with Brian Dennehy, Alan Alda, Stacy Keach, and Martin Sheen.

A simple set designed by John Lee Beatty, with Jane Greenwood doing costume, Peter Kaczorowski lighting, and Scott Lehrer sound, these professionals have obviously honed their craft, practicing incredible self-restraint, doing nothing to compete with the artistry of the actors’ voices nor the sentiment of two people experiencing a lifetime of emotions, experiences, and love through the letters they exchanged. Thank you for your subtlety. And thanks to Karen Armstrong, stage manager, for keeping it all on task. This show is for everyone who has ever dared to put pen to paper to scroll “I like you. Do you like me?”

Love Letters officially opened on September 18th, after previews starting September 13th and will run through February 1st at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

Review By: Michele Seven
Photo By: Todd Heisler

Relatively Speaking @ Brooks Atkinson Theatre

Relatively speaking, three wrongs do not make a right.  This phrase still stands true for the new Broadway piece, Relatively Speaking, currently playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.  Made up of three One-Act comedies from playwright greats Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen, Relatively Speaking looks to explore the themes of the underdog; unfortunately, this underdog did not rise to the occasion.  Featuring a large ensemble that just never appeared to jell, technical elements that felt ignored, and simple direction that had the characters never fully being able to develop, Relatively Speaking has an interesting concept that simply never gets fully realized.

Opening up the play is “Talking Cure” by playwright Ethan Coen (films No Country for Old Men and True Grit).  With a similar twist to the Robert De Niro Analyze This series, “Talking Cure” looks at the relationship between a patient and his therapist.  After a recent blow up at his job, the patient is placed under medical watch and assigned a doctor who has a few problems of his own to sort out.  Before long, however, it becomes clear that the patient’s problems stem back to before birth as his parents turn out to be a bitter quarreling couple who have lost the love in their lives.  While the piece had its overall moments, Coen could have dug a lot deeper into his characters problems, lives, and souls.  The acting duo was Danny Hoch (television’s Nurse Jackie) as the patient and Jason Kravits (The Drowsy Chaperone) as the doctor.  While the two worked well together and the material did not give them very much to work with, both actors played their respective parts very stereotypically – the patient goes from gangster to graduate as the doctor goes in the reverse direction.  Thus, the audience was left feeling a bit worried at the conclusion of piece one.

Piece two is “George is Dead” by playwright Elaine May (films The Birdcage and Primary Colors).  When one puts a woman who feels everything and a woman who feels nothing in the same room, there is guaranteed drama and craziness.  Carla has major mommy issues and is on the verge of divorce number two.  The last thing that she needed was empty headed Doreen knocking on her door to confess that her husband, George, has just died.  With a strange dynamic between the two women that causes constant mixed feelings, the audience almost feels the need to pick what corner they wish to stand on – Carla (played by Lisa Emery – The Women) or Doreen.  The obvious answer is Doreen, mainly because the charter is played by the talented Marlo Thomas (television’s That Girl) who steals not only this piece, but the other two pieces as well.  Thomas took hold of her character, made strong choices, and simply owned the stage.  She took the audience on a journey and captivated their hearts.  The only problem was that the piece unfortunately had to come to an end in order for and intermission to take place.  Thomas is to be commended for giving a beautiful performance despite the lack of support from the cast around her.  “George is Dead,” much like “Talking Cure,” leaves the audience hoping that one of the masters of comedy, Woody Allen, will be the savior of this play.

“Honeymoon Hotel,” by playwright Woody Allen (films Annie Hall and Midnight in Paris), is a quick, funny piece that is one hundred percent over acted – bring what could have been a brilliant one-act down to an average piece of theatre.  What appears to be an average night for a happy-go-lucky bride and groom soon turns into a family crisis.  Affair after affair is revealed, a rabbi keeps handing out eulogies, and a wise pizza man puts all to rest.  The usual Allen humor, antics, and mishap are all intertwined in a wonderfully written script.  The problem, however, lies in the acting.  While the supporting cast, featuring Caroline Aaron (film Edward Scissorhands) as the bitter wife and Julie Kavner (voice of Marge on The Simpsons) as the sharp witted mother-in-law, was strong, the two leads were way too over the top and corny.  Steve Guttenberg (film Three Men and a Baby) and Ari Graynor (Little Dog Laughed) played opposite one another as the love birds with a very big surprise to share.  The direction both actors took was very characterized and untrue to real life.  This then forced the others around them to be over the top even when it was not called for in the script.  This over all cheese fest left the audience felling a bit unsure as to why they paid to see an Allen one-act get fluffed to the point of bursting.

Staging and presenting a play made up of three one-acts is not an easy feet; unfortunately, this piece needed some more love and attention.  In the hands of actor great John Turturro (films Mr. Deeds and Transformers series), Relatively Speaking fell flat – missing the Broadway WOW factor that a show usually comes with.  Standard blocking left three pieces with little movement; therefore, it never really allowed advances in character or plot development.  It just left the pieces feeling unattended and abandoned.  To add to this, sloppy lighting design by Kenneth Posner (Catch Me If You Can) and poor sound design by Carl Casella (Baby It’s You!) left the audience feeling a bit cheated.  Strange angles of lights left awkward dark patches and shadows while awkward microphone placement allowed for dropped lines and annoying static.  To make up for this, scenic designer Santo Loquasto (Fences) designed three gorgeous sets for this production.  Each set had a fully developed concept and view bring the ideas and words of the playwrights off of the pages and onto the stage.  While the scenic elements were pleasant, it was not enough to bring this play into the world of truly stunning theatre.

Relatively Speaking can be commended for its attempted to bring the Off-Off-Broadway scene to the mainstream theatre world.  However, with a worn out theme, plots that never really lifted off the ground, and overall dull technical elements, Relatively Speaking is not the next big Broadway hit.
Review By: Ryan Oliveti