The Fab Marquee

The Fab Marquee Review by Preston Wise.

Something extraordinary is happening on 13th Street; Target Margin’s Old Comedy transcends what we think a play can do. Inspired by Aristophanes’ satire The Frogs, this adaptation doesn’t feel like the play is from old times, but a young art form. It has the unrefined rage of a brilliant teenager. This production takes so many risks, breaks so many taboos, challenges and inspires the audience so often that it seems absurd to compare it to a typical theater experience.

Pedro Pascal as Dionysus & Derek Lucci as Xanthias.
Photo Credit: Joe Dore

The play loosely follows the structure of The Frogs. Dionysus (Pedro Pascal), the god of Wine and Drama, and his slave Xanthias (Derek Lucci) travel to the underworld in search of a poet and preside over a verbal duel between Euripides (Purva Bedi) and Aeschylus (Anthony Mark Stockard). Xanthias begins with a razor-beautiful speech comparing the decline of ancient Athens and the end of the ‘American century.’ The play teems with images from throughout human history. A forest out of The Inferno is haunted by a Wendy bird. Heracles thinks he’s special because they changed his name and made him a cartoon. Charon makes a brutal prophesy that no checks and balances can save a government whose people have become corrupt.

As you may guess, the play is smart as it is fearless. As it is funny. While each actor has a standout moment, the comedy team of Pascal and Lucci ignite the show. Sometimes with a flamethrower. As they drop in and out of character, commenting on the action they drive, many of the laughs are of “I can’t believe they just said that” humor. Followed quickly by humor of recognition. The ensemble, working seamlessly as one, finds and discards caricatures by the second.

Somewhere between political commentary too angry to be called satire and a paean to writers who shaped the human soul, the play starts to be something more than play. It’s entertaining and thought-provoking and then it becomes something else. Maybe it’s a reminder that theatre can be a life-changing, not just a night out. Maybe it’s just an experience.

Early in the play, it’s pointed out that Xanthias is a literary first: the clever slave. He will be followed by any number of servants, slaves, and fools who are wiser than their masters and say to them what no one else would. That’s a good analogy for the play. Its production values, while clever, are not ornate. The musical numbers, whether through acoustics or conscious choice, often seem dampened. Sometimes one can see the outline of what a moment could be with stronger musical support. It doesn’t have the smooth polish of Broadway or the Off-Broadway subscription season.

(Front L-R) Purva Bedi, Davina Cohen,
(Rear L –R) Charles Hudson III, Michael Levinton & Anthony Mark Stockard
photo credit: Joe Dore

Like Xanthias, the production uses its humility to say what we don’t like to think, much less hear out loud. There are riveting indictments of our leaders, our art, and the populace that follows them. Rather than anger or defensiveness, they make us laugh or ruefully shake our heads. After the play, something has changed.

And that is a stunning achievement.

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Target Margin presents
David Greenspan’s
Old Comedy from Aristophane’s Frogs
directed by David Herskovit
Closing May 31st @ 8pm

The performance schedule for Old Comedy from Aristophanes’ Frogs is Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Single tickets are $45 for weekday performances and $50 for weekend performances and may be purchased online at www.classicstage.org, by calling 866-811-4111, or in person at Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13 Street, between 3rd & 4th Avenue, Monday – Friday 12-6pm, or by visiting www.targetmargin.org.

Classic Stage Company | 136 East 13 Street, between 3rd & 4th Avenue | Manhattan.

The Fab Marquee review by Peyton Wise.

The marketing for Boxed In, a presentation of two one acts by Project Oriented Productions, describes it as ‘fighting against a stagnant country of 88 hour work weeks and $8 cups of coffee.’ That may have been the writers’ impetus, but the plays inspire questions more than they impose answers. In both plays, someone is crazy, but I honestly don’t know who, myself included.

Kellie Arens as Roberta & Melissa Derfler as Fawn

The first piece, Cornered, portrays a manic first-day orientation of an artist-turning-checkout-girl at Cornerworld, a superstore for Styrofoam packaging corners. (The description of how Cornerworld replaced dusty old mom and pop corner stores is one of the many surprise laughs scattered through the piece). The orientation is driven by Roberta (playwright Kellie Arens), an obsessive employee-handbook thumper who argues with stuffed animals as she charges through a litany that includes requiring the applicant to change her hair color and lose her pregnancy. We begin to wonder, however, at the sanity of Fawn (Melissa Derfler), the Goth artist for sticking around. When Roberta breaks her to the point of forcing her to scream “art is useless,” the audience, clearly comprised of artists, can’t help shifting in their seats.Cornered has many surprises, both in the staging and the writing. Both set the groundwork early for punches that come around at the end of the play. If the intention is to build to a frenzy, however, it is sabotaged by the middle section. After the situation and tone are established, both continue without escalation. During this time, one can’t help but wonder why Fawn stays, despite having her hand on the doorknob while being insulted and why the lights keep changing so abruptly. Despite these limitations, the play has some interesting thoughts and Arens and Derfler find some fun comedic moments. At the performance I saw, Arens created from a prop problem one of the funniest moments in the play.

The second piece, Transit, is quite simply a remarkable piece of theatre. Everything is so tightly honed it was like watching the Marx brothers via Meyerhold. The simple tools offered by lights, two actors, and some boxes onstage were used to create fractal worlds. The actors were so in tune and the mime so sharp- at one point an actor picked up a discarded ‘prop’ from the exact place the other had thrown it- that I began to believe I must be crazy to not see props and scenery that were so clearly there.

Jonathan Albert as Sam & Anthony Crep as Pat

The play begins with two men in coveralls, waiting for a train to come. They play games waiting for it to come and as they do, we begin to realize this may not be the limbo of a train platform, but of some form of incarceration. Sam (playwright Jonathan Albert) is a Gump-like younger brother, deeply affected by the moods of the moodier and more sinister Pat (Anthony Crep). As the games merge with murkier aspects of their pasts, the actors play hide and seek on a dizzying path of tonal switchbacks. Albert and Crep execute the turns in perfect unison, playing off each other and in a Beckettian pas-de-deux. Either performance is impressive; together they are stunning.

Director Cristina Alicea keeps a sharp control of the reins, shaping pace and focus by eliminating any extraneous movement or element. The set of white boxes is used to shape movement without marking place. The lights change subtly to bring us into each world without defining what we’re about to experience. At one point, the exit light is put to the best use I’ve ever seen. (The performance of No Exit with a clearly marked upstage fire exit must now take second place.) The entrance of sound is so unobtrusive that it’s only noticed when it changes for a powerful final reveal.

Absurdism, like many 20th century isms, has often been remembered only for its repudiation of conventional structure. Transit is so successful because the playwright and director create their own structure, rather than justify whimsy with ‘carte absurde’. Audiences may not know the play’s rules, but can feel that they and the actors are supported by it. The actors are not trying to justify outlandish choices with mania and the audience can trust that the end will not betray what’s gone before. In fact, this hidden structure is a theatrical metaphor for the bastard existentialism that prompted Absurdism. Pat and Sam follow a track laid out according to rules they don’t know, vacillating from rage to joy to fear, with a predetermined ending, while we struggle to connect any clues to a universal picture that includes us.

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Project Oriented Productions presents
Boxed In
May 1-18, 2008 (Thu-Sat @8pm; Sun@3pm & 7pm).
The Royal Theatre (The Producers Club).

Tickets: $18 available online at www.smarttix.com.

The Royal Theatre (The Producers Club) | 358 West 44th St. | Manhattan.

The Fab Marquee review by Antonio Miniño.

First thing you think when you walk into the 3LD Art & Technology Center is, you are in for a hi-tech show, and then you notice you are in for a party. A party in a multimedia fire island, with two boardwalks, 4 ginormous screens, “all you can eat” hamburgers, hot dogs, and booze galore! You are surrounded by tempting buckets full of beer all over the “beach” floor, and there’s wine and soda if beer’s not your thing. Oh yeah, and a fantastic live cover band lead by Albert Kuvezi. You take a cushion, or a beach chair and pick a spot between the boardwalks and the screens, two hours later “the show begins” (doors open at 6pm so you can enjoy the bash).

Catherine Yeager, Gautham Prasad,
Allison Keating & David Tirosh

Charles Mee is best known for his plays of history and love, and I have to mention Big Love because you will be revisiting this masterpiece in Fire Island, just be sure to have a relaxed neck, you will be twisting left to right to figure out where the action is coming from. The actors are gliding through the crowd, they are part of the live band, they are… well, they are Fire Island. At first you are fully aware of what is going on, you are intrigued, engaged on the actions that happen on the screens, that are reenacted or completed by the actors around you. But the lack of narrative, of that ‘magic glue’ that puts all the pieces together in a play, was not there.

A cry to social love and understanding, a cry to things that must be left behind, or of moving on, but it might as well have been a night of monologues or scenes. I had a hard time trying to figure out if this was a play or not. Fire Island was missing Mee’s high stakes, battles of wit and bloody situations. Fire Island fell a little behind, but that didn’t stop it from being a memorable evening. This is a must for theatergoers that are more into the casual and free approach to the art form.

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3-Legged Dog Productions presents
Charles Mee’s
Fire Island
April 10 - May 3, 2008
3LD Art & Technology Center
Tickets are $30.00 and $15.00 for Students, visit www.3ldnyc.org.

3LD Art & Technology Center | 80 Greenwich Street | Manhattan.

The Fab Marquee review by David Stallings.

Today, many people believe that musical theater began with Rodgers and Hammerstein, specifically with their Oklahoma. But before Oklahoma, there were plays filled with beautiful scores that simply did not move the plot forward. Before Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers worked with Lorenz Hart. The two wrote many beautiful scores and memorable songs. It was a pleasure this past weekend to see CAP21’s production of The Boys From Syracuse, to be reminded of one such score.

Caroline Dooner (Luciana), Jessica Wagner (Luce) &
Melanie Dusel (Adriana)

CAP21 presented the musical as part of their conservatory program—using students from their second year. Conservatory style programs build a wonderful acting company—similar to what other countries do with resident acting theaters. The groups practically live with each other for four years as they study and perform theater. This is surely an exciting time for young actors as they are allowed to focus on their craft and do not yet have to be concerned with selling themselves as entertainment property. In The Boys From Syracuse, the audience could see the excitement and enjoyment of theatre on the faces of each member of the young cast. The Faculty of CAP21 should be commended on choosing a piece well within the range of their students—all of whom had lovely voices.

The Boys From Syracuse is based on Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and is set in Ancient Rome (think toga party). The plot follows not one, but two sets of twins separated at birth. A lively book by George Abbot takes Shakespeare’s tale and turns it into a sex comedy. The plot—filled with mistaken identities—has been maneuvered into the uniting theme of love. Antipholous of Ephesus (Kevin Wade) is married to Adriana (Melanie Dusel). Adriana gives up on her husband and love altogether when she suspects him of cheating on her. She sings the haunting ballad, Falling in Love with Love. The entrance of his twin brother unbeknownst of him only complicates matters—as of course Antipholous of Syracuse (Matt Dengler) falls for Adriana’s beautiful sister Luciana (Caroline Dooner). Each pair of Antipholous twins is matched with a pair of twin slaves—the Dromios (Craig Fogel and Matthew Steele). One of the Dromios is married to the kitchen maid, Luce (Jessica Wagner), whose unending sexual appetite exhausts both brothers. Filled out with a chorus of courtesans and citizens, The Boys from Syracuse is a delightful evening.

Matt Dengler (Antipholus of Syracuse) &
Craig Fogel (Dromio of Syracuse)

Overall, the cast faired well. The musicality of the group should be applauded as the harmonies were consistent and the blending was smooth. The one aspect lost is the crooning style of the thirties—which was very specific. The lovely ballads were sung well but missed that style—which adds to the romance of the piece. A big kudos should be given to Jessica Wagner as Luce. She truly embodied the period in every sense. Her timing and solid voice paired with a bright smile and sense of humor always brought new breath to the stage. Caroline Dooner as the ingénue Luciana proved to have a sweet likability. And the Boys from Syracuse themselves, Matt Dengler as Antipholous and Craig Fogel as his Dromio, had the most ease on stage.

Director Lawrence Arancio staged the production well in the tight space. He kept the pace light, bright, and brisk so the play ran under two hours. Choreographer James Bulleri adhered to the thirties’ style and students’ ability. The costumes (Melissa Daghini) were especially fun with the bold colors of comedy. All in all a fun night—and how often do you get to hear such a classic score?

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CAP21 presents
The Boys from Syracuse
directed by Lawrence Arancio
April 3-13, 2008
The Shop

*This show is now closed, for information on upcoming CAP21 productions, visit www.cap21.org

The Fab Marquee review by Antonio Miniño.

Phare Play Production proves to be an artistic busy bee. With their current production of Ghosts, they also present to us Office Hours by Norm Foster (not to mention they have a production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia lined up in May). Office Hours is a group of six vignettes that take place in a different office on a Friday afternoon. Mr. Foster takes us on a comic ride with 13 characters that we can’t help but see ourselves reflected in, and the journey is pure hackling fun.

Katie McConaghy as Ellie Young &
Nicholas Masson as Mark Young.

At first you might think a desperate producer, an overweight jockey and a figure skater, just to mention a few of the characters, have nothing in common. But the success of Norm Foster’s piece lies in the interconnection of the stories. What sometimes seems as a repetitive tool to tie these stories together (a shiny new leather bound week-at-a-glance, a romance novel and a race horse), turns out being a well thought out amusing element to the blossoming reveal. Even though we have it figured out from scene one (as the production expresses on the show’s description), it’s still a mirthful journey.

The highlights of the evening for this humble theatergoer were the crisp and humorous performances by most of the cast, wonderfully orchestrated by director Christine Vinh. Beth Adler’s comic timing was precise as clockwork. Miss Adler plays Rhonda Penny, an oppressive mother and wife, who deals with her sarcastic husband (well played by Edward Monterosso), and her two sons; a gay entertainment lawyer and a suicidal straight figure skater (both played by the zestful Christopher James Cramer).

Michael Weems as Stan Thurber &
Blake Bradford as Artie Barnes.

Blake Bradford proves to be a master in the art of comedy and improv. His portrayal as the desperate producer Gordon Blanes and the overweight jockey Artie Barnes left me gasping for air between cackles and tears. I’ll make sure to attend future productions graced by Mr. Bradford.

Nora Vetter, Katie McConaghy, Michael Weems and Nicholas Masson form the rest of the hard working ensemble.

The minor hitches of this production have to do with first performance nuances. Some of the momentum was lost in a couple of the skits, and the cast seemed to lose focus with the responsive and engaged audience. Not to worry, Mr. Foster’s material, and this energetic cast, can only get tighter and finer. If you want to experience what smart comedies are made of, you should definitely see this show.

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Phare Play Productions presents
Norm Foster’s
Office Hours
directed by Christine Vinh
March 30-April 6, 2008
American Theatre of Actors
Schedule: Sun, March 30 – Tue, April 1 @ 8pm; Sat, April 5 @ 3pm; Sun, April 6 @ 8pm
Tickets: $20.00; Reservations: (646)241-0823, online purchase www.theatremania.com

American Theatre of Actors | Beckmann Theatre | 314 West 54th St | Manhattan.

Phare Play Productions presents
Norm Foster’s
Office Hours
directed by Christine Vinh
March 30-April 6, 2008
American Theatre of Actors

During the course of one day in the city, in six different offices, the lives of a chaotic group of characters unfold like a spider’s web. You might need a shiny new, leather bound, week-at-a-glance to keep it all straight. Starring: Beth Adler, Blake Bradford, Christopher James Cramer, Nicholas Masson, Katie McConaghy, Edward Monterosso, Nora Vetter, and Michael Weems.

Schedule: Sun, March 30 – Tue, April 1 @ 8pm; Sat, April 5 @ 3pm; Sun, April 6 @ 8pm

Tickets: $20.00; Reservations: (646)241-0823, online purchase www.theatremania.com

American Theatre of Actors | Beckmann Theatre | 314 West 54th St | Manhattan.

PlaidBird Productions presents
Katherine Williams’
My Dead Mother is Funnier than You
April 3-April 13th, 2008
Thursday-Saturday @ 8pm
Sunday @ 3pm
The Arclight Theatre

PlaidBird Productions presents Katherine Williams’ My Dead Mother is Funnier than You, directed by Clyde Baldo, premiering at The Arclight Theatre (152 W. 71st St between Broadway and Columbus), from April 3rd through April 13th.

First date criers, pants-crapping setter-uppers and online dating horror stories abound as a single woman in NYC struggles to break out of bad habits dealing with men, including her widower father. Soon enough, she traces both back to her mother’s passing.

My Dead Mother is Funnier Than You stars Franklin Abrams, Dan Almekinder, Makenzie Caine*, Joseph Callari*, Todd Conner, Michael Scott King, Jaye Maynard*, Gabriel Silva, Jeff Stevens*, and Katherine Williams. Production crew includes Stage Manager Rome Brown, Set Designer Sarah Phykitt, Lighting Designer Timothy Walsh, Costume Designer Jaye Maynard and Sound Designers Mark Sutton and Rob Carpenter.

Tickets: $18.00; , available online at www.Theatermania.com or by phone at 212-352-3101. For more information visit www.myspace.com/myfunnydeadmom.

The Arclight Theatre | 152 W. 71st St between Broadway and Columbus | Manhattan

The Gallery Players presents
The Anti-War Comedy
by Aristophanes
translation by Drue Robinson
Lysistrata
March 15-30, 2008
Thursdays through Saturdays@8pm
Sundays @3pm
(Sat, March 22 & 29, extra 2pm perf.)
The Gallery Players

The Gallery Players, Brooklyn’s premier Off-Off Broadway Theater, is proud to present the classic and sexy Lysistrata, by Aristophanes and in a new translation by Drue Robinson. Directed by Alexa Polmer, Lysistrata runs March 15-30, 2008. “A bawdy and audacious antiwar classic, is filled to the brim with hilarious innuendo and exposes the shared humanity between two feuding peoples. The women of the warring factions wage a psychological battle of their own when they take over the Acropolis and withhold their sexual favors from the savage local men until such time as the insane conflict is ended.”

Tickets: $18.00 adults, $14.00 seniors & children 12 and under. www.galleryplayers.com / www.theatermania.com

The Gallery Players | 199 14th St, between 4th and 5th Aves | Park Slope, Brooklyn

Giulia Rozzi & Margot Leitman’s
Stripped Stories
March 12, 2008 @ 8PM
Comix Comedy Club

The hottest and most hilarious sex show in New York City

Featuring: Michael Mattera, DJ Hazzard and Jessie Delfino. With a combined resume which includes appearances on NBC, ABC, Vh1, Mtv, Comedy Central, AMC, ESPN, E!, various guest radio spots, and features in Glamour and Playgirl Magazine, Giulia and Margot easily blended their love of stories, silliness and sex to create Stripped Stories. This themed night of hilarious sex stories has been playing monthly to sold-out audiences since it first began in January 2007.

Tickets: $10.00 Advanced Purchase, $15.00 Day of Show; www.comixny.com

Comix Comedy Club | 353 West 14th St, just East of 9th Ave | Manhattan.

Today are the final performances of Emerging Artists’ shows in repertoire at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. You still have time to try and catch these shows.

The Triple Threat shows are:

• Sisters’ Dance @2pm
  by Sarah Hollister
  directed by Paul Adams
• The Play about the Naked Guy @5pm
  by David Bell
  directed by Tom Wojtunik
• Claymont @ 8pm
  by Kevin Brofsky
  directed by Derek Jamison

Tickets are $50 and are now available online at www.eatheatre.org or by calling 212-247-2429. Tickets may also be purchased in person at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue) –Monday - Friday: 10Am - 7PM. The Box Office will also be opened 2 hours before each performance.

Baruch Performing Arts Center | 55 Lexington Avenue | Manhattan.