Guys and Dolls

From my seat in Row D, I was absolutely fascinated by how much Lauren Graham’s eyes sparkle. Unfortunately that’s about the only place you’ll find any sparkle in this lackluster revival of Guys and Dolls at the Nederlander Theatre.

For the most part the performers have lovely voices, but except for Kate Jennings Grant (in photo) as Sarah Brown none of the main characters seems to be even trying to inhabit their parts. It’s as if they’ve come in to record the cast album, not act in a Broadway musical. Director Des McAnuff fails to produce much chemistry, but at least Frank Loesser’s songs are rendered beautifully.

The weakest member of the cast is Oliver Platt as Nathan Detroit. I can think of no reason why he was chosen for this major role except that he has a following from his portray of Oliver Babish in “The West Wing.” He has neither a good singing voice nor magnetism, and it’s completely unbelievable that Graham’s Miss Adelaide would be at all attracted to him, much less be engaged to him for 14 years.

Graham also is miscast, again possibly getting the job because of her television following from her years as Lorelai on the popular “Gilmore Girls” series. So fresh and pretty, she looks more like a debutante than a show girl, even though she can shimmy with the best of them. She has a beautiful voice, but her acting is flat.

Craig Bierko as Sky Masterson also seems to be phoning it in, which is disappointing because he was so fabulous as Professor Harold Hill in the 2000 revival of The Music Man.

I did enjoy Tituss Burgess as Nicely Nicely Johnson, and it was good to hear his extraordinary voice again. He sang at Broadway Blessing two years ago and was a real powerhouse.

Guys and Dolls, which is based on characters created by Damon Runyon, won five 1951 Tony Awards, including the one for Best Musical. The book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows is alternately funny and corny.

In general, the evening is entertaining, just not up to Broadway standards performance-wise. This is too bad because set designer Robert Brill did a terrific job of creating 1930s New York street scenes, complete with a subway car that rolls by, Dustin O’Neill provided great video designs, Sergio Trujillo’s choreography is lively and costume designer Paul Tazewell’s flashy costumes are a delight. Lighting designer Howell Binkley and sound designer Steve Canyon Kennedy also produce Broadway-quality work. Music director Ted Sperling and orchestrator Bruce Coughlin bring to life the classic score, which includes "Fugue for Tinhorns," "A Bushel and a Peck," "If I Were a Bell," "Adelaide's Lament," "I'll Know," "Guys and Dolls," "More I Cannot Wish You," "Luck Be A Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."

Tickets for Guys and Dolls may be purchased by calling (212) 307-4100, visiting www.Ticketmaster.com or from the Nederlander Theatre box office, located at 208 W. 41st St.

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Horton Foote Is Dead at 92

Broadway marquee lights will be dimmed for one minute tonight in honor of Horton Foote, a remarkable light on the Great White Way who died yesterday. I was fortunate to have interviewed him in 1992 for an article for The Washington Post and found him to be accessible and down-to-earth, seemingly without ego despite his decades of accomplishments.

Mr. Foote may be best known to non-theatregoers for his play The Trip to Bountiful, which was made into a feature film that won two Academy Awards in 1985 and for which he was nominated for best adaptation. He personally won Oscars for his screenplay for “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), based on the novel by his lifelong friend Harper Lee, and the original script for “Tender Mercies” (1983), which he wrote for his friend Robert Duvall (who incidentally made his film debut playing Boo Radley in “Mockingbird.”) His Pulitzer was for The Young Man From Atlanta, which also was nominated for a Tony Award.

His play Dividing the Estate had a Broadway run earlier this season and will be produced at Hartford Stage this spring. In 2009-10 Hartford Stage also will co-produce, along with Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company, the world premiere of Mr. Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle, a collection of nine Texas-set plays.

In presenting Mr. Foote with the National Medal of Arts in 2000, President Bill Clinton stated, "Believe it or not, the great writer Horton Foote got his education at Wharton — but not at the Wharton Business School. He grew up in the small town of Wharton, Texas. His work is rooted in the tales, the troubles, the heartbreak, and the hopes of all he heard and saw there. As a young man, he left Wharton to become an actor and soon discovered the easiest way to get good roles was to write the plays yourself. And he hasn't stopped since."

Mr. Foote’s death followed a brief illness, but other than that he had worked right up until the end. He had even moved to Hartford temporarily to work on the Cycle plays. He would have been 93 on March 14.

God bless you, Mr. Foote.

Gates of Gold

This is a story about a dying man in a play without a moment of life. I recommend it to anyone with only a short time to live. The 95-minutes will feel like a lifetime.

Playwright Frank McGuinness, who won a 1997 Tony Award for Best Revival for his translation of A Doll's House, creates a fictionalized version of the men who founded Dublin’s Gate Theatre in 1928, Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir, who onstage become Conrad (Charles Shaw Robinson, right in photo) and Gabriel (Martin Rayner, left). Gabriel is dying, which will not make you the least bit sad. He’s such a bore you wish he would just hurry up and do it. 

The play, having its American premiere at 59E59 Theaters under the direction of Kent Paul, is loaded with undeveloped plot lines -- the nurse (Kathleen McNenny) seems to be the sanest person in he household, that is until she goes off the deep end, only to return to once again being the rock of the group. Conrad, who is Gabriel’s partner in life as well as the theatre, has had, and seems to be having again, an affair with Gabriel’s nephew, Ryan, (Seth Numrich), who either hates or loves his uncle. It’s hard to tell. Kassie (Diane Ciesla) is Gabriel’s sister and Ryan’s mother who seems to have no purpose in the play other than to babble annoyingly whenever she’s onstage.

Mercifully, Gates of Gold is only playing a limited engagement, though Sunday March 29. To purchase tickets, contact Ticket Central on 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com. For more information, visit www.59e59.org. 

Transforming power of theatre

I was proud to be the first guest blogger on the Christians in Theatre Arts (CITA) web site where I shared this special memory of teaching the plays of Tina Howe (in photo).

The Savannah Disputation

Religion is rarely so much fun as it is in this tennis match of a new comedy, which opened last night at Playwrights Horizons. But it’s not just all for sport. Playwright Evan Smith lets each side score some solid theological points in this competition between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.  

Walter Bobbie directs a delightful ensemble cast in a story about two Catholic sisters (Dana Ivey and Marylouise Burke) whose lifelong assurance that they belong to “the one true faith” is shaken by Melissa, a fundamentalist Christian (Kellie Overbey) whose mission is to “save” Catholics by getting them to renounce their tradition.

“I’m trying to convert Catholics,” she says.

“Into what?” they want to know.

“Christians,” she says smugly.

Margaret (Burke), the sweet-natured sister, and Mary (Ivey, in photo), her divorced and often irritated sibling, share a house that soon becomes a sparring ground after Margaret politely welcomes in Melissa, a door-to-door “missionary to the Catholics,” over Mary’s strong objection.

“If you’re nice to them, they’ll just keep coming back,” Mary warns. “They’re like cats.”

But Margaret wants to listen. After Melissa explains one element of her tradition, Margaret excitedly pipes up, “We believe that too!” Melissa smiles condescendingly, “No you don’t,” she says.

Because Melissa is determined in her mission, Mary calls in the parish priest, Father Murphy (Reed Birney), for reinforcement. Melissa explains that she doesn’t really have anything against Catholics in general. “Take away their religion and they’re just people,” she says.

“Take away their religion and they’re not Catholics,” Father Murphy replies.

But the tone shifts as the debate gets down to the root of Christianity as both sides seek to pinpoint exactly what the one true faith really is. As they are challenged, they begin to realize they have been spouting beliefs handed down from others without fully questioning the orthodoxy behind them.

John Lee Beatty’s set is heavy on Catholic imagery, which I hope he means as a comic exaggeration. The sisters’ living and dining room feature a crucifix, a cross, statues of Mary and a rosary hanging by the door leading to the kitchen, to name some of the items. Otherwise the set is nice, conveying a cozy, bright middle class home. David C. Woolard’s costumes portray the sisters as middle class and Melissa as lower class, which is in keeping with how the characters are developed in the script. Kenneth Posner’s lighting design makes this world intimate and accessible.

While the play makes fun of stereotypical images of both Roman Catholics and evangelicals, it doesn’t mock either group. In fact, it just might spark some questioning and debate among staunch believers in either way. (Episcopalians like me will probably be glad we’re right in the middle -- catholic but not Roman.)
 
The Savannah Disputation’s limited engagement runs through Sunday, March 15 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater, 416 W. 42nd St., between Ninth and 10th Avenues  Tickets may be purchased online via TicketCentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (Noon to 8 p.m. daily), or in person at the box office. 
 
     Reflecting Playwrights Horizons’ ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, the theater company will offer HOTtix, $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before show time to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. STUDENT RUSH, $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid student ID required.

You should be dancing . . .

This is so fun. I would have loved to have been there. We should do this in our subway stations!

This commercial was shot at the Liverpool Street subway station in London on Jan 15. Only the dancers knew what was happening; the general public didn't have a clue what was about to unfold. This Youtube site has had more than two million hits in less than a month's time.

Meditation

I love this quote from Thomas Merton. It’s a great illustration of why meditation is the deepest form of prayer.

“The highest praise we can offer Him is to sacrifice every attempt to praise Him in human language and resist the temptation to reduce Him to the level of our own concepts and understandings. So it is great praise of God to remain in His silence and darkness. My silence is therefore the sacrifice of all things and the offering of my soul to God. Hence, my silence is my salvation.”