Theatre This Week: Back in Festival Mode

With the massive arts listings in last Sunday’s Times, the new season officially got underway, although theatre fans have for some time been able to get at least some idea about the next year on stage, and not only the brand-name productions, via the estimable nytheatre.com. Still, poring over those inky pages and getting overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of what’s about to come our way has no real substitute, and we’re now particularly looking forward to October’s Massacre (Sing to Your Children), a dark psychodrama/mystery written by Jose Rivera and being produced by the LAByrinth Theatre Company at the Public; 4.48 Psychose, Sarah Kane’s very experimental final play which will be performed by Isabelle Huppert in French (also in October, it’s part of both the Act French festival and BAM’s Next Wave festival); the latest provocation from Les Freres Corbusier, Hell House, which from the Times’ description sounds like it will be a close reproduction of fundamentalist Christians’ method of scaring people into faith, though you probably won’t have to look too hard for the satiric element; and Douglas Carter Beane’s The Little Dog Laughed, a send-up of the pervasive celebrity gossip culture playing in December at Second Stage. We were also tickled to see that Martin McDonagh (writer of The Pillowman) and John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) will again go head-to-head with new plays next spring – Shanley’s Defiance at Manhattan Theatre Club and McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Atlantic. As the Times asks, why mess with success? The Pillowman’s imminent closing notwithstanding, both have been hits despite being singularly unsettling theatrical experiences, so maybe they offer each other mutual support, and maybe the new plays will find the same rapport. In any case, we’re excited.

But that’s all a hazy, approximate future, so back to the here and now, since there’s certainly no lack of things to see right away. Yesterday the New York Musical Theatre Festival opened for its second year, and it looks like the folks running it have filled the slate with some pretty intriguing, nontraditional musical productions. The festival is running for three weeks, so we’ll have updates and reviews as it goes along, since not all the shows are opening just yet. One theme that more than a few entries this year have in common is that of nostalgia for the fifties and sixties; a number of musicals look like they’ll be heavy on the camp, including (this week) It Came From Beyond and Wild Women of Planet Wongo. Both sound like great fun; It Came From Beyond is about a fifties high school guy who has to use clues from a comic book to save his girl from an alien attack, and Wild Women is a rock musical that finds two astronauts crashed on a planet of sexy ladies. Another show with the sixties groove is Plane Crazy, about airplane stewardesses in that era, but you’ll be hard pressed to get tickets, as it’s already sold out; fortunately, such keen interest (it’s already added a couple shows and sold them out) means it’s likely to find a more long-term home soon, and you can go then. Also, it’s not all about conjuring up mid-20th century good times at the festival. Going a bit more feminist than Plane Crazy’s go-go booted flight attendants is The Mistress Cycle, which we’ve mentioned before and which, along with Wild Women of Planet Wongo and Uncle Jed’s Barbershop has received a Directors Choice Award from the National Musical Theatre Network. The Mistress Cycle, which weaves together the lives of five women (shown in the photo) from different centuries and different backgrounds, but all with unconventional love lives, opens Thursday. Last but not least (and there are more, of course) a likely good choice for this first week is Feeling Electric, which tackles a subject we’ve always wanted to see in a musical: electroshock therapy. Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s rock opera is about a family’s struggles with the mother’s debilitating depression, and it starts tomorrow.

Finally, since Gothamist knows not everyone likes musicals, even if they are totally unconventional, may we suggest Francis Kuzler’s new play Giant-n-Variation. It’s part of Boomerang Theatre’s “Playing With Words” season, and the linguistic twistiness here comes with, well, talking cattle. Or at least they might be able to talk; that’s what Tom Noise is trying to find out, but he’s up against the Texas ranch family that owns the bulls. From the interview with Kuzler that’s up on nytheatre.com, it sounds thought-provokingly bizarre, and might be just the thing to slap you into form in this first part of the season.

Details: It Came From Beyond is at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 W. 45th St.; shows this week are Thurs.-Fri. at 8pm and Sat. at 1pm and 4:30pm.
Wild Women of Planet Wongo is at the Beckett Theatre (Theatre Row), 410 W. 42nd St., today and Sun. at 8pm and Fri. at 4:30pm.
The Mistress Cycle is at The Lion Theatre (410 W. 42nd); this week, Thurs. 8pm, Sat. 4:30pm, Sun. 1pm.
Feeling Electric is at the Barrow Group Theatre, 312 W. 36th St.; Wed. and Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm.
For more information see the official NYMF site and the online program. Tickets for all shows are through Theatermania.
Giant-n-Variation is at CenterStage, 48 W. 21, 4th Fl. This week shows are Thurs.-Sat. 8pm, Sun. 3pm. It runs through 10/1. Tickets are at Theatermania.

Photo of The Mistress Cycle by Bruce Glikas.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Mallory Jensen in Arts & Entertainment on September 13, 2005 11:48 AM

Comments [rss]

Jon Brian Blake

Actually, I have to comment on this show. I saw it last year and just found this review.

I worked on a few of the NYMF shows last year. What isn't always apparent are the limitations that working on this schedule place on the creative staff. Especially in the dance department. Remember - these actors agree to take these gigs for a flat $200 for a six week commitment.

In casting these productions, finding sufficient principal talent can be done since these new musicals need leading actors and actresses and provide some good material to be seen performing. In that light, a lot of high caliber actors will take these jobs even for the small $200 fee. It's interesting to note that the reviewer mentions the director's dual status as director and casting director. I know from speaking to people at the Festival that Ms. Margolis cast most of the leads of this production without the choreographer seeing or knowing their work. So when it came to the couples numbers like "Teach You How To Fly" and "Dancing On Air", Mr. Slovacek was saddled with leading men who admitted they couldnt' dance at all. When I attended Plane Crazy and saw what was obviously supposed to be a comedic tango between the older leading man and the young female lead, I didn't think "Wow, this choreography is bad." I thought, "wow, this actor can't dance and how difficult this must have been for the choreographer to try and develop something here when his leading man can't dance." It's hard to be funny when the leading man is counting to 8. I sat back and imagined that at some point the choreographer had to simplify for the actor he was forced to work with.

When it comes to dance with these festival productions, you aren't getting the high caliber, Broadway A-list at the auditions. Dancing in the ensemble of a showcase for $200 isn't much glory to the likes of Nancy Hess, Joann Hunter, David Eggers, and other top dancers on B-way. AND I understand director Jamibeth Margolis insisted that the ensemble understudy the principals, 7 of the 9 ensemble members of Plane Crazy ended up being singers who move a bit, rather than dancers of even a B-list caliber who might have been able to pick up and master a distinct style emulating the 60s. I also understand from people at the Festival that the choreographer was hired with the understanding that he was only being asked to develop two production numbers for this production and once rehearsals began the director insisted that all musical numbers be developed. WITHIN the same short time frame as originally specified.

I understand that productions should be judged on their merits, however, I think it's important to judge a production with all of their limitations also. I would ask that in the future, take into consideration forces outside of a choreographer's power.

Considering an ensemble who was cast more to understudy than dance, an ensemble that was hired from a small talent pool due to the relatively large commitment and small fee, and the time constraints overall, I think the choreographer did an amazing job on Plane Crazy. I saw ideas onstage that, with talented dancers and a proper rehearsal period, would have been terrific.

JBB

Justin Leder

PLANE CRAZY DOESN'T FLY - NYCTheaterCritique - New York, NY ----------------------------------- It is always difficult to decipher the merits of show when its first production is a hastily produced, budgeted festival production. But without the venue of The New York Musical Theatre Festival, one wouldn’t have the chance to view musicals that have potential greatness.

How does one judge a musical such as “Plane Crazy,” which premiered at the festival? By what one sees onstage or by it’s hidden worth? Not wanting to second guess artistic decisions made, I will report my opinions of what I saw.

Set in 1965, ``Plane Crazy’s'' creative team takes librettist/composer/lyricist’s Suzy Conn’s tale of the fictional Venus Airlines (much like the defunct Braniff Airlines) and while emphasizing its message of feminism, offer a bland unfocused pastiche of multiple storylines, without a cohesive or stylistic flair.

Its brightly colored, near-cartoonish look, doesn’t go far enough to have a bit of fun with the era, nor does it take the era serious enough to present an honest depiction of that free-wheeling tumultuous time. This schizophrenia is also apparent in the storyline which needs to be pared down. This over stuffed show tackles too many issues without the flow to interconnect them.

The costuming is effective, yet unobtrusive, and obviously within budget constraints. The set is simple, but with the use of projections quickly defines place and time.

The cast is talented, but by no means perfect. It is an odd occurrence when the director is also the casting directing agency – sort of an unobjective conflict of interest. Many of the problems come from Jamibeth Margolis’s uneven direction. Much of the show is presented with a “wink of the eye”/punch the joke to the audience attitude. The show lacks an eye for time period detail and specificity.

The character development is superficial and for the most part one dimensional. It appears Ms. Margolis does not understand the lead character of Faith, who lies at the core of this piece. The audience never sees her growth, as the end result is apparent from the start.

Randy Slovacek’s choreography is admirable, but standard musical comedy fare. With much repetition of uniform movement, his work lacks vision. The moments that could make a choreographic mark and achieve an identity are simply lost.

The dances lack the style and look of the 1960s and could be easily transplanted to another show, without looking out of place. As this era has been tackled before with greater success, this fault is all the more apparent.

Far worse are the musical staging opportunities, particularly the moments with the couples, which are awkward and lack character. The bedroom musical duel between the stewardesses is uninventive, too planned and is never fully realized.

The music is smooth and has merit. With several stuck in the mind tunes, the lyrics are witty and the musical genre all encompassing. Musical director Seth Weinstein and his band propel the music to a sphere that the other components do not match.

With some artistic revision, Plane Crazy” is a show that could go on to greater production, but in this first worthy mounting it never actually takes flight.