All in Off-Broadway
“Desperate Measures” is a smartly crafted new musical (very) loosely inspired by the central plot of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”, set in the Wild West in the late 1800s. A musical comedy guilty pleasure that is fun and charming, this show offers a perfect, joyful escape from the horror of the daily news.
Elevator Repair Service’s “Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf” by Kate Scelsa is self-styled “fan fiction” parody response to Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, lovingly skewering the latter with a sometimes absurdist literary, dramaturgical, and feminist critique. The ambition is admirable and the result mixed, though entertaining.
“Dan Cody’s Yacht” is a new play by Anthony Giardina that tackles contemporary issues of privilege, mobility, inequality, and education through an implausible, plot-hole ridden story with an irredeemable leading character and disgraceful ideological point of view. Skip it.
“Peace for Mary Frances”, a new play by Lily Thorne, receives a world premiere production by The New Group starring Lois Smith as a fading matriarch of a very dysfunctional family, waiting to die in home hospice. Hyper-realistic, brimming with both tedium and spasmodic explosions of family feuds, death isn’t always the most compelling experience to observe, but that turns out to be the point.
Susan Stroman, John Kander, and David Thompson continue their thirty year collaboration with “The Beast in the Jungle”, a “dance play” inspired by Henry James’ 1903 novella. The dancing and music is beautiful to watch and hear, but the piece is dramatically unfulfilling, its more cryptic source material diminished in the course of fleshing out, crystallizing, and modernizing the story.
Hook & Eye Theater’s fourth collaborative play “She-She-She” examines the experience and legacy of New Deal-era She-She-She campers and their contemporary descendants, set against a larger dialogue about female agency, grief, trauma, and isolation. While this witty, playful, and heartfelt show has closed, be sure to put Hook & Eye Theater on your radar.
Dominique Morisseau completes her “Detroit Cycle” with “Paradise Blue”, a tail-end jazz-age noir tale about the cost of history and bigotry through the lens of Detroit’s racist city planning in the late 1940s. Expertly written in the vein of August Wilson and Tennessee Williams, rivetingly staged by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and finely acted by a terrific ensemble, this play is another triumphant entry by Ms. Morisseau, and a “must see” of the spring season.
“Dance Nation” at Playwrights Horizons is Clare Barron’s explosive and raw look at a ragtag troupe of 11-to-13 year-old competitive dancers as they discover their bodies, their power, and their ambition amid the glorious horror of adolescence. Both messy and explicit, this hilarious and unsettling new play is refreshingly weird and thrillingly honest, featuring an excellent ensemble cast and perfect direction. Catch this one if you can.
“Unexpected Joy”, a new musical at the York Theatre Company, contains several unexpected joys: a groovy, folk rock score, an intriguing original story mining contemporary themes, and a quartet of strong female vocal performances; and some unfortunate faults: a script and direction lacking dynamism, stereotypical characters and sitcom-deep dialogue, and a pat ending. The whole show feels dated and unrealistic, with an “agree to disagree” closing message about LGBT equality that I found troubling.
Marin Ireland gives a ravishing performance in a first-rate revival of Tennessee Williams’ rarely seen “Summer and Smoke”, jointly produced by Classic Stage Company and Transport Group. This lyrical, low-rent Southern Gothic tragedy is stripped to its bones by director Jack Cummings, III, allowing the actors to shine uninhibited and deliver riveting and magnetic performances. This play is a highlight of the spring season in New York, and should not be missed.
“Symphonie Fantastique”, MacArthur “genius” Basil Twist’s whimsical and hallucinatory 1998 underwater puppet show, is now receiving a dazzling and entrancing limited engagement revival as part of HERE’s 25th anniversary season. If you are looking to experience something you have never seen before, I highly recommend you check it out.
A roundup look at three shows that opened Off-Broadway in April. Roundabout’s “Bobbie Clearly” struggles with tone while the Public’s “Miss You Like Hell” is lovely but muted. I highly recommend MCC Theater’s stunning “Transfers”.
