OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE HONORS BEST OF 2019-2020 THEATER SEASON

The last Broadway show I saw was on March 7.  My review for that was written and set for publication on its official opening night. Unfortunately for everyone involved, opening night was slated for March 12, the start of the Great Shutdown, which, we are told, has been extended at least until Labor Day. 

And so my review is on hold, along with everything else. I will say no more about that particular show until it does make its formal entrance. 

Eventually, along with everything else, theater will return. Many shows that were running will reopen, and new ones will come along. But I will note that some 200 plays and musicals did open in Broadway and Off Broadway theaters during 2019-2020. 

While there will be no Tony Awards this go ‘round, organizations like the Off Broadway Alliance, the Off-Broadway League, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, the Drama Desk, and the Outer Critics Circle have found ways to recognize outstanding writers, performers, directors and designers who put everything they had into entertaining and enlightening us during this truncated season.

As a proud member of the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), I am delighted with the process the group used to approach its awards this year, a process that involved the membership and the OCC Board in identifying not one winner, but a group of several honorees in each category.   

The honorees were formally announced in a video featuring several big-name stars making the announcements from their individual homes, which gives everything a nice personal touch. So meet  Kristin Chenoweth, Bryan Cranston, Patti LuPone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Patrick Stewart as they make the announcements here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jifQPNv1vJY


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Listed below are a few of the honorees – for outstanding new Broadways play and musicals, for outstanding new Off Broadway plays and musicals, and for outstanding play and musical revivals. I have included links to my reviews, as indicated.  

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY

Grand Horizons  My review at - https://bit.ly/2X4r2tH

Height of the Storm  My review at - https://bit.ly/2mV42Ph

The Inheritance

Linda Vista  My review at - https://bit.ly/2oAI3yr

The Sound Inside  My review at - https://bit.ly/31r1reB

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL

Jagged Little Pill  My review at - https://bit.ly/2YlyyR7

Moulin Rouge!  My review at - https://bit.ly/3dZw6Xb

Tina   My review at - https://bit.ly/36ToByi

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

Cambodian Rock Band

Greater Clements  My review at - https://bit.ly/36iOkPu

Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven

Make Believe

Seared

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

Darling Grenadine

Octet

The Secret Life of Bees

Soft Power  My review at- https://bit.ly/2VJj6Nm

A Strange Loop

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY

Betrayal  My review at - https://bit.ly/2lGTpPp

Fires in the Mirror

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Frankie and Johnny  My review at - https://bit.ly/2EJPOaf

A Soldier’s Play  My review at - https://bit.ly/37hCJRG

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

Little Shop of Horrors

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

West Side Story  My review at - https://bit.ly/2SZSpmJ

I am unsure of a great many things, but I am quite certain Broadway and Off Broadway plays and musicals will rise again! Until then, let's be grateful for what we've got:  our memories and our record and CD and DVD collections and streaming opportunities that will keep us going. 

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IF THE TONYS WERE AWARDED TODAY...

   ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  


Let's suppose that the Broadway season for 2019-2020 has officially concluded, and that the Tony Awards are to be presented based on a consideration of the Broadway plays and musicals that did open since last summer.  

Identifying the winners is not nearly as straightforward a task as you might imagine, not it you dig into the decision-making process. Things can get a bit tricky. 

Should A Christmas Carol be considered a new play? Does David Byrne's American Utopia count as a musical, or is it a concert, with Broadway being the last stop on its tour? And what to make of Derren Brown: Secret, the excellent mentalist act that is plotless but is scripted? 

There are also questions of categories -- who should be considered a lead actor or actress, and who is featured? It's not always obvious, and producers often campaign hard to place performers in the category where they are likely to be more competitive. 

In any event, I am not going to agonize over these questions. I saw every production that opened on Broadway, with the lone exception of the holiday season return of Slava’s Snowshow, so I herewith offer my completely biased personal selections.  

The envelope, please!

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Best New Play

Slave Play. Not nearly as outrageous nor controversial as it was hyped up to be, Jeremy O. Harris's play about racism in the U. S. managed to preach without being preachy and teach without being pedantic. It was funny in a do-I-dare-to-laugh sort of way, and serious in its underlying message to white Americans:  if you want to be part of the solution, stop talking and start to listen. 


Best New Musical

Jagged Little Pill. This marked a real upgrade to the usually justifiably maligned genre known as the "jukebox musical." Alanis Morissette's brilliantly angsty 1995 megabit album of the same title was the jumping-off point for Diablo Cody's emotionally honest script about characters who face believable real-life problems. It is arguably messy and overly ambitious, with far too many plot threads, but thanks to uniformly strong performances and Diane Paulus's direction, it is the clear winner. 


Best Play Revival

A Soldier's Play. Charles Fuller's 1982 Pulitzer Prize winner had its first Broadway production this season. It was a thoroughly gripping examination of blind obedience and institutional racism within a military setting, and boasted starry performances by a rock solid cast under Kenny Leon's assured direction.


Best Musical Revival 

West Side Story. To be sure, it was the only musical revival of the season. Nevertheless, I want to recognize it here because, and in spite of every attempt by director Ivo van Hove to "reinvent" the classic Sondheim/Bernstein musical, its mostly young cast pushed past the gimmicky video mayhem to breathe new life into this product of the 1950s. Not a lot of shows I'd willingly see again; this is one.     


Best Actress In A Play

Mary-Louse Parker is the winner for her performance in Adam Rapp's enigmatic jigsaw puzzle of a play, The Sound Inside. She gave a richly layered portrayal of a college creative writing professor who lives in a cocoon of books and words, until she is handed a deep conundrum in the form of a manuscript from one of her students.   


Best Actor In A Play  

David Alan Grier wins this one for his role as the troubled sergeant in A Soldier's Play. His performance was mesmerizing, giving us as psychologically complex a character as you are ever likely to encounter on stage. 


Best Actress In A Musical

Karen Olivo. Draw a straight line through time from Dumas's Camille to Verdi's Violetta to Puccini's Mimi to Satine, the female lead in Moulin Rouge. That's where you'll find the exquisite performance by Ms. Olivo, the only one who was able to stay fully fixed on the elusive heart of this glitzy spinning top of a musical. 


Best Actor In A Musical

Isaac Powell as Tony in West Side Story. When he sings "Maria," it is as if the words were coming to him spontaneously. Last seen in the role of Daniel Beauxhomme in the wonderful revival of Once On This Island, this is one skyrocketing star.   


Best Featured Actress In A Play 

Joaquina Kalukango.  She was a standout in Slave Play,  giving a stunning performance in the exceptionally intimate role that leads the play to its breathtaking conclusion. 


Best Featured Actor In A Play

Grantham Coleman. He single-handedly brought Robert Schenkkan's generally by-the-numbers play The Great Society to life through his terrific portrayal of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 


Best Featured Actress In A Musical 

Lauren Patten. Her character was rather underwritten and peripheral to the main story, but she brought the audience to its feet with her performance of "You Oughta Know" in Jagged Little Pill.  


Best Featured Actor In A Musical

Tie. Ricky Rojas and Sahr Nagaujah as, respectively, Santiago and Toulouse-Lautrec, played off one another with a great sense of camaraderie as the comic pair of would-be revolutionaries and masters of la vie boheme in Moulin Rouge. 


Best Director Of A Play

Arin Arbus, for Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune, the impeccably performed (by Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon) two-hander by Terrence McNally, about a hot and heavy one-night stand that may or not lead to a more permanent relationship.     


Best Director Of A Musical

Diane Paulus, for Jagged Little Pill, in which she managed to weave together the various characters and plot points into a near-seamless whole.  



Best Choreography

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, for her work in West Side Story. She made the dance elements all her own without slighting the memory of Jerome Robbins's iconic choreography, and the strong cast made the most of it. 


Best Set Design For A Play

Riccardo Hernández, for Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune.  He gave the set its most authentic look of a one-room walk-up apartment in pre-gentrification Hells Kitchen.  


Best Set Design For A Musical 

Derek McLane, for the dazzling eyeful that is Moulin Rouge.  



Best Costume Design For A Play

Ben Stanton, for The Rose Tattoo, beautifully capturing through his design the mix of old world insularity, religion, and superstition on the one hand and sexual heat on the other.  For the record, I rather enjoyed this revival of Tennessee Williams's most strange take on a romantic comedy.  


Best Costume Design For A Musical

Catherine Zuber, also for the dazzling eyeful that is Moulin Rouge, altogether a visual feast. 




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Feel free to share this blog with your friends, and to offer up your own theater stories by posting a comment. I also invite you to check out the website Show-Score.Com, where you will find capsule reviews of current Broadway and Off Broadway plays from Yours Truly and many other New York critics and theatergoers.  

HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY, STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Stephen Joshua Sondheim

Above my desk at home are three framed images.  One is a page from an early edition of Alice In Wonderland. It’s John Tenniel’s drawing of the Mad Hatter that I acquired during a trip to London.  

A second is a caricature of me, drawn long ago by one of my middle school students. In it, I’m jumping up and down as I perform Pete Seeger’s storysong, “Abiyoyo.” 

And hanging between these two is a copy of Al Hirschfeld's drawing of Stephen Sondheim, who today celebrates his 90th birthday, hopefully ensconced safely at home and being inundated with cards, phone calls, and other forms of greeting from friends and other well-wishers.     

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My only close encounter with Stephen Sondheim

occurred during another visit to London. I attended the premiere production at the pocket-sized Bridewell Theatre of the long-delayed Saturday Night. As Sondheim fans surely know, the show had been set to open on Broadway way back in the 1954-55 season but never made it, owing to the unfortunate death of its lead producer. 

Fast forward four decades to 1997, and here I was, happily awaiting the performance of a new-old Sondheim musical, one that predated West Side Story and Gypsy, for which he would serve as lyricist. Saturday Night, on the other hand, boasted both music and lyrics by Sondheim.  So … yes!!! 

I assume everyone in the audience had the same feeling of opening a special gift. But what it made even more of a gift was that Sondheim himself slipped into my row, a few seats down from me. He then proceeded to videotape the entire production with a hand-held camcorder.

You can imagine how much my attention wandered that evening.   

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Rather than talk about all of the Sondheim shows I have seen, several of them in multiple productions, I thought I might go back a decade to the star-studded 80th birthday tribute that was held at Lincoln Center.   

I attended the second of the two sold-out concerts in honor of that occasion. Google “Sondheim 80th birthday concert videos,” and, voila, you will readily find selections from the performance for your home viewing.  Still, actually being there was a great treat that has led to years of memories. 

The program was directed by actor/writer/director Lonny Price, perhaps best remembered for creating the role of

Charley Kringas in the short-lived, forever loved original and oft revived-and-tinkered-with 1981 Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along. Price also created a wonderful documentary film about that experience called “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened,” which came out in 2016. Find it, watch it, and join me in simultaneously laughing and crying for 90 minutes. 

For the occasion of the tribute concert, Paul Gemignani, long identified as Sondheim’s musical director, conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The evening was hosted with grace and good humor by David Hyde Pierce, with a single guest hosting spot ceded to orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, another longtime Sondheim collaborator. With friends like these, Sondheim’s birthday celebration could not have been in better hands.

Some highlights for me:

•Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters performing “Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George. Both of them looked and sounded in top form as they recreated their performance from more than 25 years ago, from what to me is Sondheim’s richest, most emotional and romantic musical score. Patinkin also gave us a beautiful “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday.  “Finishing the Hat” is also the title that Sondheim gave to Volume I of his collected lyrics and commentary (Volume II is “Look, I Made a Hat.”) Now that’s something you might want to read during this enforced downtime.  

•Patti LuPone, who always seems to be having such a wonderful time onstage, teamed with George Hearn and Michael Cerveris to peform “A Little Priest,” a wickedly fun number from Sweeney Todd.  Mrs. Lovett with her two Sweeneys to play against. Hearn and Cerveris also offered up a chilling rendition of “Pretty Women,” climaxing with one Sweeney slitting the other’s throat.

•Patti again, doing an audacious performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company, right in front of Elaine Stritch, whose original rendition of the song is legendary; Google it and give it a listen if you don’t already own the recording.  Incidentally, a partly gender-switched revival (Bobby is now Bobbie) of Company had started previews on Broadway before the shutdown, with Patti taking on Stritch’s role. We don’t know yet if it will be able to open when things normalize.  Fingers crossed! 

•Elaine Stritch herself, at 85 and looking rather on the frail side, summoning up some great internal power to invest authentic meaning and voice for an ovation-garnering performance of “I’m Still Here” from Follies. I once ran into her walking along Fifth Avenue, but in typical New York fashion, I pretended not to see her; anyway, she was engaged in a rather heated exchange with a young assistant who was accompanying her at the time – so best to keep on moving! 

•Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason singing “It Takes Two” from Into The Woods, one of my favorite Sondheim shows. Ms. Gleason looked at Mr. Zien with a slightly startled expression as she sang the first words: “You’ve changed,” a nod to the more than two decades that have passed since they first sang that number on Broadway. It’s these subtle nuances that move a performance from the ordinary to the special. (Another such moment occurred in the aforementioned “The Ladies Who Lunch;” on the line: “Does anyone still wear a hat?” Ms. Stritch gave a little nod that directed our eyes to the cap she was wearing.)

While these were my personal “wow” moments, I’ve got to give high marks to operatic baritone Nathan Gunn, whose heart-melting rendition of “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd was the first number of the evening that made me sit up and take notice, and whose duet with Audra McDonald of “Too Many Mornings” from Follies was simply gorgeous. Also performing magnificently were such powerhouse hitters as Marin Mazzie, Laura Benanti, Victoria Clark, John McMartin, and the always-wonderful-to-see Donna Murphy, whose venomous rendition of “Could I Leave You?” from Follies was enough to give pause to every married man in the audience.

The last official song on the program was the moving choral masterwork, “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park, performed by a stage filled with Broadway performers. It was followed with everyone singing “Happy Birthday” to the birthday boy himself, who came up on the stage from the audience to offer, in a voice choked with emotion, his heartfelt thanks. 

All in all, this was a special evening, a loving and fitting tribute to one of the all-time greats!

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Feel free to share this blog with your friends, and to offer up your own theater stories by posting a comment. I also invite you to check out the website Show-Score.Com, where you will find capsule reviews of current Broadway and Off Broadway plays from Yours Truly and many other New York critics and theatergoers.  

BEST OF THE BROADWAY SEASON SO FAR: Revivals and Transfers

While holed up against the coronavirus invasion, as we await a return to whatever it is that passes for normalcy around here, let's continue our look at the Broadway season's highlights thus far. 

Here is my take on the best of the revivals and transfers from Off Broadway of plays and musicals that have appeared on Broadway since the start of the 2019-2020 theater year. 

BEST PLAY REVIVALS/TRANSFERS THUS FAR

It's couples' therapy for interracial couples in this standout play, a transfer from Off Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop, that is both funny in a do-we-dare-laugh sort of way, and a smartly constructed satire that preaches without being preachy and teaches without being condescending. 

You can read my complete review by linking here.

This pairing of plays, each of them a solo work, is a matter of both life and death for the men whose stories emerge. Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal worked diligently to deepen their performances since the initial run at the Public Theater downtown, and it made the Broadway production a breathtaking experience. You can read my complete review by linking here.  

A rock solid cast, featuring David Alan Grier and Blair Underwood, along with an overall spit-shine production made for a gripping and altogether outstanding revival and first-time Broadway outing of Charles Fuller's 1982 Pulitzer Prize winner. You can read my complete review by linking here. 

       BEST MUSICAL REVIVALS/TRANSFERS THUS FAR

Two flawed but intriguing and well-performed musicals have been the standouts for the season thus far.  

The tissue-thin plotting has faded away to near invisibility in the transfer from the Public Theater to Broadway, but the performances and the reimagining of Bob Dylan's songbook are first-rate all the way. You can read my complete review by linking here. 

Director Ivo van Hove loves to tinker with long-established plays and etch his mark on them. Now he is doing it with his first Broadway musical. But even his heavy-handed use of video cameras and projections cannot wrest this much-loved show from its originators:  Bernstein, Sondheim, and Robbins. The young cast is exquisite, especially Isaac Powell and Shereen Pimentel as Tony and Maria. You can read my complete review by linking  here.

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Feel free to share this blog with your friends, and to offer up your own theater stories by posting a comment. I also invite you to check out the website Show-Score.Com, where you will find capsule reviews of current Broadway and Off Broadway plays from Yours Truly and many other New York critics and theatergoers.