| re: Unplanned visit to NYC in two weeks | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 03:41 pm EDT 10/31/17 | |
| In reply to: Unplanned visit to NYC in two weeks - sherrie74 10:53 pm EDT 10/30/17 | |
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| Having just spent a lovely weekend in the city myself (aside from three hours in the Mt. Sinai emergency room after my husband tripped and fell near Lincoln Center!--but all is well with him, other than a bruised face), I'd recommend all the shows I saw. Thursday night, we saw "Lonely Planet," which is a moving and at times funny two-hander about the friendship between two gay men during the height of the AIDS epidemic (though that word is never uttered). It makes overt reference to Ionesco's "The Chairs" and resonates those eternal friends, Didi and Gogo, though neither play is necessary to know to enjoy the show. Ernie Burton and Matt McGrath give magnificent performances. The play is lodged in my soul even five days later--and almost a quarter of a century after it was first produced. Friday night (after the emergency room), we saw "Torch Song," in which Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl show us how it's done. The play is no longer three separate one-acts (the first two are compressed into the first half, the third now comprises the second act), and my guess is that some of the trimming is all for the better. It's fascinating to observe how far we "seem" to have come--the attitudes espoused by Ma seem out of step for a woman who has been a public school teacher for decades--or they would be more so today--the play retains its period setting. Urie has really developed into one of those actors I would see in just about anything (including "The Hairy Ape") and, never having seen Ruehl on-stage, but only in the movies, it was a wonderful opportunity to see her command the space, while sharing it generously with her fellow actors. Fierstein's endorsement of what the kids are calling "homonormativity" gives a little pause, but his vision is true to himself and consistent, and the other actors, who don't have as much juice written into their roles, are all fine. Well-directed and the 2nd Stage is a theatre that always feel welcoming, without a bad seat (though some are better than others). Saturday matinee we saw Midler and Company (the "and Company" really does matter here, too--everyone, from Hyde Pierce to Creel to Baldwin, Trench, and Feldstein, and the ensemble, are splendid) in what I now think is my favorite musical show, "Hello, Dolly!" It's conventional wisdom that Rose in "Gypsy" is musical theatre's "Hamlet"for women (maybe more like King Lear"). Perhaps. But if so, Dolly is musical theatre's equivalent of Moliere--a blend of comedy and genuine pathos, warmly performed and emotionally engaging (of course, Wilder based his Dolly, or a scene in his play, with a nod to Moliere's "L'Avare"). We were very lucky--I simply walked up to the box office Thursday when we got to town and asked if they had anything for the weekend. After clarifying that I also needed to pay rent this month, we were able to get last row orchestra on the side for 250.00 each. I've gotten fussier about seats as I get older (this was a weekend to celebrate turning 60 the previous Monday), but I also knew we were damn lucky to get anything at face price, and it was the event more than the show itself. Well, it WAS the show itself, and Midler was more magnificent than I had expected (the cast recording does not capture what her voice did in live performance--she may have had an off-day when it was recorded, as Mary Martin is purported to have had when she recorded the London cast recording). It was HER Dolly, with homages in moments to Channing, Shirley Booth in the film of "The Matchmaker" and even some of what I imagined Martha Raye may have managed in terms of physical humor. But it was all hers, and I thought she moved from broad farce to wistful longing in ways that never threatened the coherence of character. Hyde Pierce could not have been bettered as Horace and the addition of the in-one at the top of Act Two was justified in making the character not an also-ran, a prop to hold up the leading lady. I've never seen the young people do so well--Creel was a Cornelius who found his adulthood in the course of a day and could have wooed anyone (male or female). Baldwin was the best Irene Molloy, finding the spirited, at moments very sexy widow who found stirrings of what she had as a young wife when faced with Mr. Hackl: without being skeezy, you delighted to imagine their married life. Barnaby and Minnie Fay can be thankless, but these two were lovable as could be. The dancing, the costumes, the various drops and show curtains--"Isn't the world so full of wonderful things?" It was more than an event--it was one of the nights in the theatre I will cherish forever. Would I have enjoyed it if we had paid 500 a seat? Maybe not as much, I grant you, which is why I wasn't willing to do so (and why we will probably miss Ben Platt in "Dear Evan Hansen," as those seats start at that range on StubHub). All three were extraordinary experiences in their own ways. With a discount, you can get "Lonely Planet" for 50.00 a seat, and we only paid 125 each for Torch Song. Dolly was the expensive one, but we paid close to that for premium seats for Hair a number of years ago, and, while closer, they weren't as satisfying as back row orchestra (only one moment when view was partial--early on when Cornelius and Barnaby were on the top of the set, plotting their day of hooky--lasted for all of two minutes). BTW, we also saw the new French film "120 Battlements per Minute," or "BPM (Beats Per Minute)" as the title has been translated into English, about the development of ACT UP Paris in the 80s and 90s. Heart-breaking, erotic, and stirring, all at the same time. If you live in an area where it is not likely to play (we're getting it in Ithaca in December, but I wanted to see it now), it's worth a "slot." Good luck! |
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