AUBERGINE @ PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

Everyone loves food. How can you not? You need it to survive. But what happens when you think about food? You start to have a certain relationship with it, a relationship which turns to stories, those stories then turn into memories, those memories comprise the wonderful story that is your life.

It’s hard to picture, but think about it. What is your favorite food? When I was five years old I was living in Washington, I was just playing tetherball with my brother and he hit the ball so hard I had no time to block my face and suddenly I tasted blood. The ball knocked out my front tooth. I ran into the house crying and my Dad gave me some salt water and calmed me down, but my mom, she made me mac n cheese with the swiggly noodles and alfredo sauce.  I remember playing with the noodles in my gap and hearing my family all laugh. All of these memories flood in my mind from a simple box of mac n cheese. Julia Cho manages to write a beautiful story about love, loss, and the beauty that comes after. Aubergine is a play that everyone must see!

Lights fade up on a woman who shares a touching story about her love for the perfect pastrami sandwich that she will never taste because her father was the only one who could make it. He passed away from cancer. This monologue sets up the entire story.

Enter Ray (Tim Kang), who we see in a hospital watching his father die. After the doctor told him to take his dad home we transition to his home, which surprisingly the only room where the hospital bed would fit is the dining room. We are introduced to Lucien (Michael Potts) the hospice nurse who is a breath of fresh air in a lifeless room. He grounds the show and even though he is always surround by death, he grabs the light of life and radiates. Once Lucien forces Ray out of the house we learned more about his personal life, as we are introduced to his ex girlfriend, Cornelia (Sue Jean Kim). Cornelia represents the wall around Ray, and his emotional state. He can’t let anyone in. But that wall slowly breaks down once Cornelia gets in touch with Ray’s uncle who lives in Korea. Uncle who only speaks Korean brings Rays culture back to his life, which also brings up bad memories. We relive in some flashbacks seeing that Rays father never supported his cooking career. His uncle is convinced his dying brother wants turtle soup, and forces Ray to cook one last meal.

Tim Kang delivers a flavorful performance. He never leaves the stage, its as we are watching a meal be prepared in front of us. We see the ingredients he uses and mixing all these different relationships together, and finally after watching the food bake, we see this beautiful result. Yes, it might be missing a piece, but the meal is savory and leaves you wanting more, or just makes you look forward to your next meal. Most people are trained to think death is the end, but really it’s another beginning.  

If you are in need of some type of closure, in need to feel some sense of home, or in need of some beautiful theatre, make your way to Playwrights Horizons and see, Aubergine. Guaranteed to resonate with every generation and leaving you full of… well... That’s up to you.

Review: Briana Burnside
Photos: Sara Krulwich

Iow@ @ Playwrights Horizons/Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond find a place to let loose at Playwrights Horizons this spring.  The story of Becca as she deals with her mother’s impromptu engagement, iOW@ is a theatrical soiree into the disjointed world of slam poetry.  With the pending nuptials, Becca is forced to move Iowa – and forced to leave everything she knows and loves.  At 14, that kind of change is world shaking, affecting everything we are and pulling the anchor of our lives out from under us. 
 

Jill Shackner who portrays Becca, connects brilliantly to an underlying storyline and flow that the writing does not offer.  Her acting breathes much needed life into the driving character of iOW@.  Another solid performance comes in Carolina Sanchez.  She delivers every character she has (from the best friend Amanda to a polygamist’s’ wife) with undeniable conviction and presence.  Kolette Tetlow as a young Becca, sets the stage with a solid presence and Annie McNamara steps into the stereotype Cheerleader with wonderful timing.  Lee Sellars is a versatile tour de force on stage as every male character needed.  He transfers from teacher to father to pony (yes pony) in the blink of an eye.  Karyn Quackenbush is a wonderfully crazy Sandy.  As Becca’s mother, although some of her run on monologues land flat, she owns the stage through her electric energy.

Accompanying the cast is the trio of musicians who make up the pit.  With J Oconer Navarro on the piano (also the musical director), Brian Ellingsen on Bass and Sarah Haines on Viola, Todd Almond’s music couldn’t sound more perfect.  Almond delivers thick and beautiful harmonies akin to a movie score and although most of the songs lack a melodic line, his choir-esc vocal arrangements are a delight to the ear.  Jenny Schwartz adds lyrics to the mix with a Philip Glass like style.  Her writing is poetic as it flows from idea to idea like a series of word associations.  Though Schwartz’s book and lyrics often leave the audience with no clear idea of where the story is, it does always stays true to the language of the verse.

The bare set by Dane Laffrey keeps the visual stimulus simple and plain, allowing time to focus on the language of the show.  Laffrey gets a chance to show the audience a small amount of his ability at the end of the show when we arrive in Iowa, leaving me wishing his talents had been used more throughout.  Arnulfo Maldonado’s costumes are an eclectic variety, complementing the feel of the show perfectly.  Though the physical movement of the show sometimes struggled, it seems clear that Ken Rus Schmoll laid the groundwork for strong character study with the actors, allowing them to give their best.

If you want to see great acting and hear beautiful harmonies, iOW@ is a good night out.  It plays now thru May 10th at the Playwrights Horizons.

Review By: Paul Morin
Photos By: Joan Marcus

Grand Concourse @ Playwrights Horizons

Generally, I enjoy when a piece of theatre or any other form of media decides to focus on characters and relationships instead of just moving along a plot. I enjoy when it’s just two characters onstage talking to each other and showing an audience just what their relationship is. Sometimes, it works really beautifully and becomes a great, touching study on human relationships. Grand Concourse tries to do this, but doesn’t 100% pull it off.

Grand Concourse, written by Heidi Schreck, tells the story of a Bronx soup kitchen run by a nun, Shelley (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), and what happens when Emma (Ismenia Mendes) begins volunteering at the soup kitchen. Also featured are the soup kitchen’s handyman/”security man” Oscar (Bobby Moreno) and frequent visitor of the soup kitchen, Frog (Lee Wilkof). Essentially, the presence of Emma causes twists and turns to appear in the lives of the other characters, for better or worse.

The main relationship of Shelley and Emma is the most interesting, and most grounded relationship that’s examined. Bernstine and Mendes have a natural way of playing off of each other that feels grounded and realistic and really like we’re just watching two people get to know each other and become friends. And when everything falls apart later, we actually feel something for these two characters knowing that their great relationship has been damaged. It’s the odd relationship that happens between Emma and Oscar where things become rocky acting-wise. Moreno is great at playing a cool, likeable and slightly flirty character with a lot of thought and depth.  It’s just when Mendes starts playing with Emma’s attraction to Oscar that her acting starts to feel a lot less grounded and more “schmacty.” Emma is obviously a mentally unstable character in some respects, but her “seduction” of Oscar feels forced and not truthful at all. This made things murky with how the relationship is supposed to be. Is there supposed to be a mutual attraction? It’s unclear, because Moreno and Mendes appear to be playing at different levels, and it makes the relationship ring less true. There’s a way to make crazy appear truthful and honest-Wilkof does an excellent job with the paranoia and instability prevalent in Frog, albeit at a comical level. Mendes’s crazy seems a bit more on the fake side. Whether this is intentional, it’s hard to tell.

Director Kip Fagan does a fine job weaving these characters together and never having the story slow down for too long. There’s a great sense of the balance between hope and struggle that Fagan highlights. Coupled with the witty, natural writing of Heidi Shreck’s script, the characters are well defined. There seems to be an attempt at a message of the nature of forgiveness and betrayal, but it’s not as well defined as it could be. Fagan and Schreck seem to both want to say something important, but that exact thing is lost in execution.  Other design elements worked wonderfully, particularly the scenic design by Rachel Hauck, which makes the non-descript kitchen seem interesting and practically a character in itself.

Grand Concourse will be playing at Playwrights Horizons at 416 W 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, until November 30, 2014.

Review By: Chrissy Cody
Photos By: Joan Marcus

Bootycandy @ Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater

Shocking hilarity and poignant intimacy entwine to reveal Robert O’ Hara’s Bootycandy!

Sutter is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes. A kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray growing up gay and black, Robert O’Hara’s subversive, uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky terrain of pain and pleasure and... BOOTYCANDY

Please note that I am being cautious to steer clear of spoilers of any kind as I feel that the unexpected is the heart and beauty of the show!

Stepping into the Playwrights Horizons Theatre, one cannot possibly be prepared for all of the surprises Bootycandy has in store. The play consists of several shorts; each is approximately 10 minutes in length and the title of each is elegantly displayed via projection above the stage. The first sketch in Bootycandy shares a title by the same name. From the moment the stage lights up the audience ignites with uproarious laughter. O’Hara’s comedic writing cocktailed with the comedic talents of Phillip James Brannon, Jessica Frances Dukes ,Jesse Pennington, Benja Kay Thomas and Lance Coadie Williams are a force that lasso the viewers into submission. The supremely-satirical costume and scenic designs by Clint Ramos are complimented by the supremely-satirical hair and make-up designs by Dave Bova.  

The 1st act may deceive the audience into thinking they are just in for an evening of several humorous short plays (with a dash of drama thrown in for good measure). And, if you’re like me, you may almost be at your wits end with the copious amounts of four letter words and the shorts that just seem to be brazen racial stereotypes. But hold on. Right before intermission Bootycandy will flirt with a depth and an unexpected throughline that will only be revealed in Act II. Be prepared to have chills by the time the sketch “iPhone” is finished (if you haven’t already)!

Bootycandy breaks the fourth wall left and right, consistently mind melding. It will give you an intimate and yet perverse look at family, sexuality, politics and ethics. Above all, it will make you laugh until you choke.

Review By: Staci Morin
Photos By: Joan Marcus

Fly By Night @ Playwrights Horizons/The MainStage Theater

 Fly By Night is an off-beat bittersweet love story set against the backdrop of the 1965 blackout on the east coast. Filled with original music and well scripted dialogue, this musical is a refreshing piece that leaves the audience hungry for romance and surprisingly hopeful in the face of reality.

Conceived by Kim Rosenstock(Tigers Be Still) and written by Will Connolly (performer, Once), Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of Our Parents, the upcoming film The Giver) and Ms. Rosenstock, Fly By Night explores the life of melancholy sandwich maker, Harold(Chanler-Berat), after his path crosses with two equally enchanting, but different sisters, Miriam(Case) and Daphne(Murin).

The cast features Allison Case(Mamma Mia!), Adam Chanler-Berat(Next to Normal, Peter and the Starcatcher), Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Peter Friedman, Michael McCormick(Chaplin), Patti Murin(Lysistrata Jones), Drama Desk Award nominee Bryce Ryness(First Date) and Obie Award winner Henry Stram(Titanic, The Crucible).

This show was filled with a great deal of talent. Stram's classical training shows as he morphed into several different genders, ages, and ethnicities. Each of his characters were different from the other and despite him not changing costume at any point during the show, his switches were seamless and complete. Murin and Case were exquisite as the sisters. Chanler-Berat brought his quirky charm to stage. Friedman was incredibly memorable as Harold's father, while Ryness' grumpiness added to the "hum drumness" of Harold's life as the sandwich maker's boss. 

Directed by Carolyn Cantor (The Great God Pan and After the Revolution at PH; Arlington, Pumpgirl) and choreographed by Sam Pinkleton (Mr. Burns at PH; Natasha, Pierre…). The production features scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Tony Award winner Paloma Young, lighting design by Tony Award winner Jeff Croiter and sound design by Ken Travis and Alex Hawthorn.  The FLY BY NIGHT band is Foe Destroyer.  Musical Director is Vadim Feichtner.  Production Stage Manager is Kyle Gates.

Fly by Night officially opens at the Playwright's Horizons in their Mainstage Theatre on June 11 and runs until June 29th. Do yourself a favor and go see this beautiful show before it closes.  Get your tickets here! 

Review By: Aziza Seven
Photos By: Joan Marcus