REVIEW: THE LADIES MAN @ CENTENARY STAGE COMPANY
When the curtain came down on Centenary Stage Company's production of Georges Feydeau's classic French farce, The Ladies Man, my theater companion turned to me and said, "Will you have enough superlatives to describe this show in your review?" I thought for a moment and then realized that I did not! If I use every one of those I want to, I'd run the risk of being repetitive—and boring.
So suffice it to say that The Ladies Man will have you splitting your sides with laughter at the nutty dialogue, zany shenanigans, the slamming doors (a basic component of farce), lots of sexual innuendos and double entendres, a battle-ax of a mother, a sweet young wife, impudent servants, a doofus of a friend and a man who tells one teeny-tiny fib that snowballs into an avalanche of lies.
If that sounds like George Street Playhouse's The Fox on the Fairway (2010) or Paper Mill Playhouse's recent Boeing-Boeing, it should, for Feydeau was the originator of the theatrical genre upon which these two plays are based.
What, pray tell, is the "little" lie that causes all the mayhem on the stage of the Sitnik Theatre? Embarrassed by his propensity to giggle whenever his luscious young wife Yvonne calls him by her pet name, Dr. Hercule Molineaux has decamped to his study to sleep. That has made it easy for him to sneak out one night to meet a stalker woman patient at the Moulin Rouge (ostensibly to tell her he's not interested), only to be punched out by a huge Prussian soldier and spending the rainy night on a park bench. When Yvonne discovers his absence, she calls in her mother, the doctor makes up a cockamamie story about visiting another patient and, when that patient shows up, all hell breaks loose. It's too delicious and convoluted to recount clearly and, of course, I wouldn't want to spoil the fun!
CSC Artistic Director Carl Wallnau has pulled off a nifty double play: he directs the action and plays Dr. Molineaux! The part fits Wallnau like a second skin. He gets to mug, eat up the scenery (legally), run amok and keep everyone laughing. He has assembled a cast seemingly made for farce. Alycia M. Kunkle's wide blue eyes and creamy skin project youth with a capital Y. As her mother, Mme Aigreville, Liz Zazzi looks like the Medusa the doctor thinks she is. With a wild fright wig and a rubber face, she is formidable most of the time but a sucker for a dressmaker who compliments her womanly figure. Ashley Kowzun's Suzanne Aubin is singleminded in her pursuit of the doctor, while Colin Ryan is hysterical as her husband, the Prussian soldier Gustav Aubin, who with a thick German accent mangles the English language to great effect. Robert Anthony Jones and Jaclyn Ingoglia play the cheeky valet Etienne and maid Marie, respectively, with great élan. But it is Allen Lewis Rickman's portrayal of the patient Bassinet that really puts the cherry on top of this frothy farce. His ever-present lisp raises laughter every time he utters a sentence made up of what seems to be a plethora of words beginning with s! My only quibble: everyone except Liz Zazzi speaks with a slight French accent while she sounds like the quintessential Jersey girl.
Bob Phillips has designed a set perfect for the genre, with four doors and a window, the better for entering and exiting and slamming. Revolving panels transform the doctor's elegant drawing room into a dressmaker's shop. Julia Sharp's costumes fit the characters and the era very well.
In his director's notes, Carl Wallnau says, "while our sense of tragedy has changed over the years, our sense of what is comic hasn't." The characters in The Ladies Man may dress in 19th century duds, but their human foibles transcend time and place. Watching someone attempt to wiggle out of a lie, only to have to tell another and yet another, is delicious to audiences of any age. Centenary Stage Company has a big hit on its hands with The Ladies Man. It's well worth the trip out to Hackettstown to see the play. It's sure to get your mind off the country's economic woes and political squabbling!
The Ladies Man will be performed in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Center on the campus of Centenary College through March 4. For information, call 90,.979.0900 or visit online at www.centenarystageco.org.
REVIEW: REPARATION @ LUNA STAGE
Reparation by Gino DiIorio tackles several thorny subjects, with racism, the involvement of America's white citizenry (especially in the North) in furthering the institution of slavery and parent-child relationships being the most prominent, and its attempt to juggle and integrate these themes into a well-made play produces, on the whole, mixed results. Fortunately, the world premiere production fluidly directed by Jane Mandel at Luna Stage provides a polished, accomplished interpretation of a work that could do with some trimming, some tightening up, and a sharper focus.
Most of us have heard the word "reparations" used in reference to the financial payments made by the German government to Holocaust survivors, but in this country the idea refers to payments made to descendents of African natives brought here to serve as slaves.
DiIorio's play involves the efforts of Aurora Investment Trust to purchase land for a development of luxury condos called Mineral Spring, a plot currently occupied by a dwindling black population living in several high-rise apartment buildings. With the deal languishing for decades, CEO Chrissy Aurora enlists former flame/Aurora employee David Burns to make one last offer. Several years before, he mysteriously left the firm under a cloud (and their breakup seems to have been acrimonious), but she has called him back because, she assumes that, as a black man, he will have greater rapport with the remaining tenants. Unfortunately, David's interview with black janitor/resident William Patterson reveals disturbing news: under a bricked-up, sealed-off airshaft lie the remnants of a slave cemetery called the Horn of Gabriel, a spot jealously and zealously guarded by William. Both Chrissy and David think that throwing money at the man will solve the problem, but William has other ideas. And David has information that will throw a wrench into the works. And therein lies the crux (and conflict) of the drama.
The cast Mandel has assembled does wonderfully well by the material, especially the snappy dialogue. Catherin Eaton's Chrissy is fierce, caustic, a woman you don't want to cross. She's a shameless master of manipulation, especially of David, even going so far as to play with (and reawaken) his affection for. Behind the tough gal facade, however, lurks a young woman who has run her father's company into the ground, a daughter who has never felt she was good enough/smart enough for her highly successful father. She mentions his name so often that we get the impression that a graveyard lies under Aurora, this one holding the remains of her father Nelson and those who came before him. Eaton is, at the same time, rather terrifying and terrified.
As David Burns, Shane Taylor is caught between two worlds: that of the black man successful in a "post-racial" business society and a man linked by his heritage, background and skin color to those who made the Middle Passage. Out of work, he projects a yearning to get back in the game that can be tasted, yet he is out of his league up against Chrissy, a fact made evident in Act II.
And finally, Frankie Faison as William Patterson displays a sly, avuncular mien, leading David to misjudge him as simple but providing Chrissy with a worthy adversary. Faison communicates William's devotion to the land with warmth and passion, while he maintains the man's dignity and self-possession beautifully. But his characters is so ambiguous that it’s difficult to discern whether he’s a real person or a symbol.
Where Reparation falls short is in the script itself. It doesn’t help that, on his website, DiIorio bills it as a “romantic comedy.” I found that hard to believe although there are some funny lines. Too, DiIorio has William deliver two long monologues, one in the play's opening moments, telling us why he's stayed at Mineral Spring when his siblings have all decamped to other parts. It includes a recitation of a dream he has had over and over, the point of which will not become clear for several subsequent scenes. The other monologue involves William's assessment of David's nonexistent relationship with his father (whom he has never met), but in fact, it is the story of many a young black man. (Left: Shane Taylor, Frankie Faison) Both speeches are a case of showing, not telling, and tend to stop the action in its tracks. Of the three characters, William is the most puzzling. For a man who has lived somewhere in the country for his entire life, the man's vocabulary and syntax sound too educated, too elevated, and his understanding of the machinations of Wall Street doesn't ring true.
nd the revelation involving the Aurora family comes very late in the action, and Chrissy's dismissive reaction is, as William says, "just another way of sweeping it under the rug." It gets very short shrift and almost becomes a throwaway detail. Finally, saying that the setting is a Northeastern city, without really connecting it to a slave cemetery (saying, "New York had slaves, too," just doesn't cut it), and then not linking it to the Aurora family secret misses a teachable moment. That said, the ending of Reparation will take your breath away, but these two wheeler dealers have it coming.
Superior production values once again reign at Luna Stage. Maiko Chii's set evokes the urban world of business and a broken-down cemetery that is the Horn of Gabriel; Rachel Budin's lighting helps the audience make the transitions easily. Oliver Lake's original jazz music is as haunting as the phantoms that live on the edge of the story, and Deborah Caney's costumes are entirely appropriate for a couple of power yuppie connivers; that the fabrics have a sheen to them conveys the sleaziness of their enterprise.
A finalist for the 2010 Yale Drama Series and winner of the 2011 E. Desmond Lee Prize given by the University of Missouri—St. Louis, Reparation has some important points to make, but judicious editing and sharpening the focus, especially the detail binding the three stories together, could make this play a real winner. As of now, it is an interesting drama that Luna Stage has given a world premiere-worthy production.
Reparation will be performed at Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange, through March 11. For information and tickets, call 973.395.5551 or visit www.lunastage.org.
When the curtain came down on Centenary Stage Company's production of Georges Feydeau's classic French farce, The Ladies Man, my theater companion turned to me and said, "Will you have enough superlatives to describe this show in your review?" I thought for a moment and then realized that I did not! If I use every one of those I want to, I'd run the risk of being repetitive—and boring.
So suffice it to say that The Ladies Man will have you splitting your sides with laughter at the nutty dialogue, zany shenanigans, the slamming doors (a basic component of farce), lots of sexual innuendos and double entendres, a battle-ax of a mother, a sweet young wife, impudent servants, a doofus of a friend and a man who tells one teeny-tiny fib that snowballs into an avalanche of lies.
If that sounds like George Street Playhouse's The Fox on the Fairway (2010) or Paper Mill Playhouse's recent Boeing-Boeing, it should, for Feydeau was the originator of the theatrical genre upon which these two plays are based.
What, pray tell, is the "little" lie that causes all the mayhem on the stage of the Sitnik Theatre? Embarrassed by his propensity to giggle whenever his luscious young wife Yvonne calls him by her pet name, Dr. Hercule Molineaux has decamped to his study to sleep. That has made it easy for him to sneak out one night to meet a stalker woman patient at the Moulin Rouge (ostensibly to tell her he's not interested), only to be punched out by a huge Prussian soldier and spending the rainy night on a park bench. When Yvonne discovers his absence, she calls in her mother, the doctor makes up a cockamamie story about visiting another patient and, when that patient shows up, all hell breaks loose. It's too delicious and convoluted to recount clearly and, of course, I wouldn't want to spoil the fun!
CSC Artistic Director Carl Wallnau has pulled off a nifty double play: he directs the action and plays Dr. Molineaux! The part fits Wallnau like a second skin. He gets to mug, eat up the scenery (legally), run amok and keep everyone laughing. He has assembled a cast seemingly made for farce. Alycia M. Kunkle's wide blue eyes and creamy skin project youth with a capital Y. As her mother, Mme Aigreville, Liz Zazzi looks like the Medusa the doctor thinks she is. With a wild fright wig and a rubber face, she is formidable most of the time but a sucker for a dressmaker who compliments her womanly figure. Ashley Kowzun's Suzanne Aubin is singleminded in her pursuit of the doctor, while Colin Ryan is hysterical as her husband, the Prussian soldier Gustav Aubin, who with a thick German accent mangles the English language to great effect. Robert Anthony Jones and Jaclyn Ingoglia play the cheeky valet Etienne and maid Marie, respectively, with great élan. But it is Allen Lewis Rickman's portrayal of the patient Bassinet that really puts the cherry on top of this frothy farce. His ever-present lisp raises laughter every time he utters a sentence made up of what seems to be a plethora of words beginning with s! My only quibble: everyone except Liz Zazzi speaks with a slight French accent while she sounds like the quintessential Jersey girl.
Bob Phillips has designed a set perfect for the genre, with four doors and a window, the better for entering and exiting and slamming. Revolving panels transform the doctor's elegant drawing room into a dressmaker's shop. Julia Sharp's costumes fit the characters and the era very well.
In his director's notes, Carl Wallnau says, "while our sense of tragedy has changed over the years, our sense of what is comic hasn't." The characters in The Ladies Man may dress in 19th century duds, but their human foibles transcend time and place. Watching someone attempt to wiggle out of a lie, only to have to tell another and yet another, is delicious to audiences of any age. Centenary Stage Company has a big hit on its hands with The Ladies Man. It's well worth the trip out to Hackettstown to see the play. It's sure to get your mind off the country's economic woes and political squabbling!
The Ladies Man will be performed in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Center on the campus of Centenary College through March 4. For information, call 90,.979.0900 or visit online at www.centenarystageco.org.
REVIEW: REPARATION @ LUNA STAGE
Reparation by Gino DiIorio tackles several thorny subjects, with racism, the involvement of America's white citizenry (especially in the North) in furthering the institution of slavery and parent-child relationships being the most prominent, and its attempt to juggle and integrate these themes into a well-made play produces, on the whole, mixed results. Fortunately, the world premiere production fluidly directed by Jane Mandel at Luna Stage provides a polished, accomplished interpretation of a work that could do with some trimming, some tightening up, and a sharper focus.
Most of us have heard the word "reparations" used in reference to the financial payments made by the German government to Holocaust survivors, but in this country the idea refers to payments made to descendents of African natives brought here to serve as slaves.
DiIorio's play involves the efforts of Aurora Investment Trust to purchase land for a development of luxury condos called Mineral Spring, a plot currently occupied by a dwindling black population living in several high-rise apartment buildings. With the deal languishing for decades, CEO Chrissy Aurora enlists former flame/Aurora employee David Burns to make one last offer. Several years before, he mysteriously left the firm under a cloud (and their breakup seems to have been acrimonious), but she has called him back because, she assumes that, as a black man, he will have greater rapport with the remaining tenants. Unfortunately, David's interview with black janitor/resident William Patterson reveals disturbing news: under a bricked-up, sealed-off airshaft lie the remnants of a slave cemetery called the Horn of Gabriel, a spot jealously and zealously guarded by William. Both Chrissy and David think that throwing money at the man will solve the problem, but William has other ideas. And David has information that will throw a wrench into the works. And therein lies the crux (and conflict) of the drama.
The cast Mandel has assembled does wonderfully well by the material, especially the snappy dialogue. Catherin Eaton's Chrissy is fierce, caustic, a woman you don't want to cross. She's a shameless master of manipulation, especially of David, even going so far as to play with (and reawaken) his affection for. Behind the tough gal facade, however, lurks a young woman who has run her father's company into the ground, a daughter who has never felt she was good enough/smart enough for her highly successful father. She mentions his name so often that we get the impression that a graveyard lies under Aurora, this one holding the remains of her father Nelson and those who came before him. Eaton is, at the same time, rather terrifying and terrified.
As David Burns, Shane Taylor is caught between two worlds: that of the black man successful in a "post-racial" business society and a man linked by his heritage, background and skin color to those who made the Middle Passage. Out of work, he projects a yearning to get back in the game that can be tasted, yet he is out of his league up against Chrissy, a fact made evident in Act II.
And finally, Frankie Faison as William Patterson displays a sly, avuncular mien, leading David to misjudge him as simple but providing Chrissy with a worthy adversary. Faison communicates William's devotion to the land with warmth and passion, while he maintains the man's dignity and self-possession beautifully. But his characters is so ambiguous that it’s difficult to discern whether he’s a real person or a symbol.
Where Reparation falls short is in the script itself. It doesn’t help that, on his website, DiIorio bills it as a “romantic comedy.” I found that hard to believe although there are some funny lines. Too, DiIorio has William deliver two long monologues, one in the play's opening moments, telling us why he's stayed at Mineral Spring when his siblings have all decamped to other parts. It includes a recitation of a dream he has had over and over, the point of which will not become clear for several subsequent scenes. The other monologue involves William's assessment of David's nonexistent relationship with his father (whom he has never met), but in fact, it is the story of many a young black man. (Left: Shane Taylor, Frankie Faison) Both speeches are a case of showing, not telling, and tend to stop the action in its tracks. Of the three characters, William is the most puzzling. For a man who has lived somewhere in the country for his entire life, the man's vocabulary and syntax sound too educated, too elevated, and his understanding of the machinations of Wall Street doesn't ring true.
nd the revelation involving the Aurora family comes very late in the action, and Chrissy's dismissive reaction is, as William says, "just another way of sweeping it under the rug." It gets very short shrift and almost becomes a throwaway detail. Finally, saying that the setting is a Northeastern city, without really connecting it to a slave cemetery (saying, "New York had slaves, too," just doesn't cut it), and then not linking it to the Aurora family secret misses a teachable moment. That said, the ending of Reparation will take your breath away, but these two wheeler dealers have it coming.
Superior production values once again reign at Luna Stage. Maiko Chii's set evokes the urban world of business and a broken-down cemetery that is the Horn of Gabriel; Rachel Budin's lighting helps the audience make the transitions easily. Oliver Lake's original jazz music is as haunting as the phantoms that live on the edge of the story, and Deborah Caney's costumes are entirely appropriate for a couple of power yuppie connivers; that the fabrics have a sheen to them conveys the sleaziness of their enterprise.
A finalist for the 2010 Yale Drama Series and winner of the 2011 E. Desmond Lee Prize given by the University of Missouri—St. Louis, Reparation has some important points to make, but judicious editing and sharpening the focus, especially the detail binding the three stories together, could make this play a real winner. As of now, it is an interesting drama that Luna Stage has given a world premiere-worthy production.
Reparation will be performed at Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange, through March 11. For information and tickets, call 973.395.5551 or visit www.lunastage.org.
