The Realistic Joneses @ The Lyceum Theater

Playwright Will Eno looks at people's interaction and what our conversations reveal not only about us — but human existence as well. The Realistic Joneses is packed tight with Broadways most anticipated and starred studded cast: Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei.

In The Realistic Joneses, we meet Bob and Jennifer and their new neighbors, John and Pony, two suburban couples who have even more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities.

Eno's dark comedy takes a while to warm up to the audience, all the action sneaks up on us and then jumps out from behind then corner and drags us along a highly emotional, quick witted and thought provoking journey. This truly ensemble piece could easily fall apart if one of the four actors were to fall short but it wasn't the case here. Toni Collette is warm, snarky and shuttered, she brings a mysterious quality to Jennifer that makes the audience want to dig deeper. Tracy Letts is pretty much playing the same character he won his 2013 Tony Award for, luckily for him it worked out in his favor. Marisa Tomei is bubbly, frantic and dim witted; Tomei brought a smile to the audiences faces, even in the darkest moments in the show. Lastly, Michael C. Hall in this critics opinion is the driving force and show stealer. It was truly amazing watching him portray John as we watch his psyche decline and deteriorate.

The production will be directed by Obie Award-winner Sam Gold, who recently received critical acclaim for his production of Fun Home at the Public Theater. The show features the scenic design by David Zinn, which consisted of a black wall, a sliding door and some outdoor trees, leaving the whole experience incomplete. The sound and lighting by Mark Barton and Leon Rothenberg worked very well together to create a daunting atmosphere that didn't seem to belong with this show.

The Realistic Joneses officially opened night on Sunday, April 6th, 2014, at the Lyceum Theatre and will play through Friday June 6th, 2014.

Review By: James Russo
Photos By: Joan Marcus

Venus In Fur @ The Lyceum Theatre

Sex.  Power.  Lust.  Passion.  Venus in Fur returns to Broadway for a second limited run for a very good reason - it is a damn good show!  Based on the erotic and controversial novel of the same name, playwright David Ives captures the very essence of a true battle of the sexes.  In a male dominated world, it is up to one woman to change the odds and take control.  Featuring an all star acting couple in Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy, Venus in Fur is sexy, smart, sexy, funny, and sexy (was sexy mentioned already?).  Broadway has found its next great American drama in Venus in Fur!

Late one night, after sitting through tons of useless auditions, Thomas is ranting one the phone to his girlfriend.  Just as he announces that there is no hope of ever finding the lead for his new work, Venus in Fur, Vanda burst through the door full of a unique energy that Thomas finds himself starting to fall victim to.  After some convincing, Vanda has Thomas reading his own words and acting alongside her for this audition.  Complete with a bad of costumes and props, Vanda and Thomas begin to cross the line between text and reality; before long dialogue feels more natural and the world of his play starts to become the reality of the night.  With the girlfriend slipping farther and farther from Thomas’s mind, the erotic novel that was banned so many years ago starts to unfold before the audience - proving an audition that is so passionate and steamy, no one will soon forget about it!

A piece like this one is impossible to do without chemistry!  Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy have chemistry!  The text is lifted off the page and given life by these two incredible actors that each give the performance of a life time.  Nina Arianda (Tony Award nominated for Born Yesterday) continues her charge toward stardom tackling the very complex character that is Vanda.  Full of determination, Vanda storms onto the stage, and from line one commands the attention of both Thomas and the audience.  Arianda is hilarious, truthful, and all around brilliant to watch on stage.  Her understanding of the world she is in is magnificent.  Back in May, Entertainment Hour had this to say about Arianda, “It is clear that this is just the beginning of an extremely successful career for Arianda” (Born Yesterday review).  This statement is true once more as Arianda proves yet again that she is the next big Broadway star.  Thomas may seem all kinds of confident, but by the end of the piece, his outlook on life has surely been altered.  Hugh Dancy (films Ella Enchanted and Confessions of a Shopaholic) tackles this role with charm and skill that are beyond measure.  His ability to transform into each character on stage, between Thomas and the roles that Thomas reads throughout the audition, is amazing to watch; his commitment to find the truth behind each character is something that cannot be ignored.  Separate, these two could tear apart any piece of theatre; however, together they destroy the stage, in a good way of course!  The chemistry and fire between these two is almost indescribable.  The physical and mental attraction is there from the moment both appear on stage together; the audience watches as it grows and grows with each passing moment - the first time they lock eyes, the first time they read together, the first time they touch.  Both bring sex appeal while delivering performances that one can only hope will be acknowledged come June at this year’s Tony Awards.

Brilliant acting was not the only triumph that this new piece has to offer.  Playwright David Ives (The School for Lies) crafts the ultimate story based around a book that caused trouble so many years ago.  Ives provides the ultimate look into the ways that men and women look at the world - who holds the power?  Moving the actors in a small room is not an easy task, but director Walter Bobbie (Tony Award winner for Chicago) does it with ease.  Along with fight director Thomas Schall (War Horse), Bobbie brings both the world of theatre and the erotic novel to life.  Creating pictures and moments that truly reach out to the audience and pull them in, Bobbie creates a world that feels so natural yet surreal at the same time - a vision that was seen through by designers John Lee Beatty (Other Desert Cities) on set and Peter Kaczorowski (Wit) on lights.  Beatty’s scenic design is absolutely remarkable.  Literally placing the duo in a floating box, he creates the idea that these two souls are trapped together no matter how rough things might get.  This box of an audition room is light magnificently by Kaczorowski who uses all kinds of mood lighting to set the perfect tone for this piece.  Bring the team together is costume designer Anita Yavich (Chinglish), who leaves little to the imagination when it comes to sexy Arianda and plenty to the imagination when it comes to hunky Dancy.  This balance only adds to Ives’s brilliant battle between man and woman.

Back on Broadway, Venus in Fur is a not to be missed, mega hit that is running at the Lyceum Theatre through June.  This hot and powerful piece of theatre will be one that you will not soon forget.  Love it or hate it, you will not be able to stop talking about it!  This will honestly be one of the best pieces of theatre you will ever get to see!  Do not miss Venus in Fur!

Ghetto Klown @ The Lyceum Theatre

John Leguizamo – a name that is known for high energy, comedy, mad acting chops, and hugely successful Broadway shows.  Well, he is back again with his next solo production Ghetto Klown, currently playing the Lyceum Theatre through July 10, 2011, only!  Filled with high emotion and non-stop humor, Leguizamo once again lights up the stage with a performance that is not to be missed!

In Ghetto Klown, Leguizamo “asks the audience to leave a piece of their soul in the theatre, while he leaves a piece of his soul on the stage.”  This release of souls is done while the audience is taken on a very special journey into the full life of Leguizamo – from birth to the present.  The audience is introduced right away to Alberto and Luz Leguizamo, his always fighting mother and father.  As his life moves forward, the audience is let in on the family struggles that faced Leguizamo with each passing year.  After one of his most successful shows, Sexaholix, his father and mother even go as far as threatening to sue him for using them as characters in the play.  Despite all of this, Leguizamo also lets the audience in on his strong relationship with his grandfather – whose parting words on earth encouraged Leguizamo to find the love of his life, settle down, and have two wonderful children.  From his early beginnings of doing standup on the Brooklyn subway to his five successful one-man-shows to his roller coaster of a film career to his struggles with life, love, and family, Leguizamo does exactly what he set out to do from moment one on the stage.  He leaves a little piece of his soul on that stage, and, in return, the audience cannot help but do the same.

John Leguizamo – known for Moulin Rouge! and Ice Age, along with stints on Miami Vice and ER – is, in one word, brilliant!  Ghetto Klown spins the tale of his rises and falls in the world of show business perfectly – mastering the arts of humor and grace.  Leguizamo has a skill for commanding the audience’s attention, which is a strong quality considering the diversity of the crowd he faces.  His audience packs in everything from the regular Broadway crowd to members of his ethnicity proud to hear stories of their culture to woman wanting a night out with strong content and humor to men who downed a beer earlier in the day and thought this sounded like a great idea.  Some actors might have a hard time trying to connect to such a diverse group; however, Leguizamo makes it look so easy – “acting is simply in his blood.”  Just as performing is something he needs to survive, writing is too.  The story of his life is crafted so perfectly that one cannot help but get wrapped up in his life story as he becomes not only himself, but other characters as well – including his parents, mentors, and fellow actors and directors.  Even with the minor rants in Spanish, that left some of the theatre wishing they paid more attention in their high school Spanish class, everyone in the audience supported Leguizamo one hundred percent.  Writing and performing a one-man-show is no easy feat; however, Leguizamo has no trouble at all keeping up energy (dancing through most of the show), connecting to the audience, and, ultimately, making the whole theatre fall in love with him.

While it is billed as a one-man-show, Leguizamo has a very talented crew of people working behind him to make Ghetto Klown the success that it truly is.  Director Fisher Stevens, co-founder of the theatre company Naked Angels, breathes life into this show by forming great moments of transition in the piece.  Each decade of Leguizamo’s life is broken down with smooth transitions of song and dance ripped right from his heritage.  Fisher gave Leguizamo the freedom to move around the space freely to create a cast of characters that came right from the life stories of Leguizamo himself.  The space around Leguizamo was designed by Happy Massee, Jen Schriever, and Aaron Gonzalez for scenic, lighting, and projection design respectfully.  Massee (feature film work includes Just A Kiss and Welcome to the Rileys) designed a space that looked like a photograph of Brooklyn, New York where Leguizamo grew up.  Complete with apartment fire escapes, street lamps, and a billboard used for projections, this set kept it simple, but left a big impact.  Schriever’s (associate design for Broadway’s Women on the Verge… and American Buffalo) light plot allowed the perfect ambiance to be set for this show – soft and dark like Leguizamo himself with crazy flashing lights every time the story would shift decades and Leguizamo would bust a move.  Gonzalez (served as ASM for Broadway’s Time Stands Still) created projections that created the perfect aid for Leguizamo’s mad story skills.  The projections let the audience into the crazy mind of Leguizamo – allowing all to see his family, mentors, and creative works on stage, screen, and television.  All of these technical elements joined forces with Leguizamo’s writing and acting to deliver a night a grade A story telling.

Ghetto Klown brings the brilliant John Leguizamo back to Broadway to continue the tales of his life.  With great humor and soul this is definitely a show to go check out! But hurry, it ends its limited run on July, 10, 2011!

Review By: Ryan Oliveti