fauxklore

Continuing my catch-up, I did a theatre binge at the end of March. The impetus for this was City Center’s Encores, which was doing a production of Michael John LaChiusa’s version of The Wild Party. For those unfamiliar with Encores, this is a series that produces infrequently performed, often forgotten, musicals, with minimal staging (although it has gotten more elaborate over the years) and short runs (2 weeks). This was a show that I had wanted to see for ages. They had planned it for a previous season, but it got postponed and there was no way I was going to miss out when it did show up on the schedule. So I bought a ticket as soon as they went on sale - at full price, no less! I built the rest of this trip around that production, so let’s take things in order.

The first show I saw was on Friday night. The hot ticket of the moment was Giant, starring John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. I was able to find a ticket on TodayTix for Friday night. I was literally in the last row of the the theatre, but I had a perfect view. The show has to do with an incident in which Dahl wrote a highly antisemitic review of a book about Israel, leading his publisher to try to get him to issue a retraction. In addition to Dahl, the characters include his fiancee, his housekeeper, and representatives of his publisher (a British man who Dahl considers a friend and a woman from New York). The play was well acted and sadly relevant to our times. I’ve written before about the problem of separating the artist from the art, and Dahl joins people like Caravaggio and Neil Gaiman in my list of people who created some great works despite being terrible people. So this was an interesting look at a deeply flawed person whose works (that is, his children’s books) still endure. However, I didn’t find the play completely satisfying, since Dahl’s deliberate abrasiveness is unrelenting. The reason to see this is Lithgow, rather than the lines he’s been given.

The main event was Saturday afternoon, when I saw The Wild Party at City Center. The back story of why I wanted to see this show so much is that both LaChiusa and Andrew Lippa wrote musicals based on Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 narrative poem in 2000. I’d seen (and liked) Lippa’s version a while ago. But I think LaChiusa ia a better composer. The plot involves Queenie (a vaudeville singer) and Burrs (the vaudeville clown she lives with) who throw a party to try to stir up their disintegrating relationship. The party involves pretty much every vice imaginable, full of sex and drugs and jazz (since this was set in the 1920’s, long before rock and roll). The music was excellent and I thought the choreography was also notable, given the relatively small stage. It’s a show I would definitely see again.

I was back at City Center (this time at the Manhattan Theatre Club, which is their smaller venue) on Saturday night for Bigfoot. The plot involves the residents of the town of Muddirt, which is located between a chemical dump and a nuclear power plant. Bigfoot lives in the woods outside of town because his mother knows he wouldn’t be safe among the biased town residents. The mayor stirs up the townspeople against him to distract them from his plans to sell the town and turn it into a waterpark. Overall, I found the show funny and cute, but pretty silly. I felt like it was more appropriate for a fringe festival.

If you’re going to binge, you might as well go all the way. So I went to see About Time at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, which is in the YMCA on W. 64th Street, just a stone’s throw from Central Park. This is a follow-up to Maltby and Shire’s revues,Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever and focuses on issues of aging. The six performers were all excellent and most of the songs were very enjoyable. My favorite was “Smart People” which included lines like, “It’s not a new idea, though to me it’s kind of newish / that when your cast talks really fast, it simply means they’re … smart people.” I also found “I’m Here” (which is about travel) very relatable. However, I’m in my mid-60’s and I was one of the youngest people in the audience. I suspect the show may not appeal as much to younger folks.

The final show I saw was a cabaret show by Joe Fox at Don’t Tell Mama. Anyone who knows me won’t be surprised that I couldn’t resist something with the title Don’t Cry for Me My Yeshiva. Fox combined his story about making a documentary about the fight for (and against) gay marriage in Maine with his personal experience as the gay son of an Orthodox rabbi. That he was adopted is also relevant to his story. I found this pretty entertaining though I thought it could use some editing. I should also note that one of the songs Fox used was based on the Maltby & Shire song “I Want It All” (from the musical Baby.

Overall, this was a good weekend. I should also mention that I stayed at the Sheraton on 50th Street and 7th Avenue, which was convenient, but disappointing. There was an absurdly long wait to check in, for example. The temperature control in the room didn’t work well, so I was too cold most of the time.

Also, I didn’t leave myself time to do much besides theatre going, though I did get in a nice walk around (part of) Central Park. I do have one more trip to New York scheduled, but I don’t think I have any free time on that one.