A Life (Playwrights Horizons)

By Harry Forbes

David Hyde Pierce gives another masterful performance in Adam Block’s initially amusing but then seriously sobering play about a lonely gay man in a New York apartment ruminating about his life and his place in the universe and the subsequent event that would seem to bring clarity to those questions.

The play begins with a doozy of a monologue in which the Pierce character, Nate, an ad agency proofreader, discourses on all the ways he’s searched for meaning and direction, including therapy and, most especially, astrology; Pierce’s delivery as he addresses the audience is so natural that you almost fear someone might answer back.  (At my performance, at any rate, no one did.) Later, we see him meet up with his friend Curtis (an excellent Brad Heberlee) on a park bench and the self-examination, including his fear of intimacy, continues.

Marinda Anderson, Nedra McClyde and Lynne McCollough take on multiple roles as the play progresses, and all are most accomplished. Anderson and McClyde’s dialogue involving an encounter with a “meter maid guy” is highly entertaining, even though, by then, the play has veered onto a profoundly serious course.

The play, you see, has a twist which dramatically alters the mood of the piece, though it would be a spoiler to discuss just what that is here. Still, director Anne Kauffman handles the transition with assurance. Bock has written quite a daring-in-its-length silent scene which Kauffman sustains thanks, in large part, to Mikhail Fiksel’s superb sound design; the city sounds outside Nate’s apartment are strikingly realistic and further underscore the play’s theme masterfully.

Laura Jellinek’s ingenious set design provides a couple of visual surprises, too, with Matt Frey’s lighting enhancing each scene.

But be forewarned that for all its considerable merits, “A Life” is ultimately unsettling and downright disturbing, so not to every taste.

(Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42 St.; playwrightshorizons.org or 212-279-4200; through Dec. 4)

Photo: Joan Marcus
l.-r. Brad Heberlee, David Hyde Pierce

The Front Page (Broadhurst Theatre)

By Harry Forbes

The first act of Jack O’Brien’s classy, all-star revival is a bit of a slog, as I vaguely recall also being the case in Jerry Zaks’ 1986 revival with John Lithgow and Richard Thomas at the Vivian Beaumont, but happily, the second and third acts pick up considerable steam. (And yes, this 1928 Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur prototype newspaper comedy was from that era when three act plays were common.)

Everyone knows the terrific 1940 Howard Hawks movie “His Girl Friday” where the lead character of reporter Hildy Johnson underwent a gender change emerging as one of Rosalind Russell’s best roles. But a couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to see the splendid restoration of the lesser-known 1931 film with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien, extremely faithful to the play, and solidly authentic in style.

The present revival captures that style impressively. John Slattery (quite different from his “Mad Men” role)  is just right as conflicted reporter Hildy who is hoping to give up the grind of the newspaper business for an advertising job in New York  to please his finance Peggy (Halley Feiffer) and her battle-axe mother (Holland Taylor). But his long-time colleague, hard-bitten editor Walter Burns (Nathan Lane who comes in like a dynamo in the second act and keeps up the energy thereafter) is doing everything in his power to reverse that decision.

Walter is poised to leave town on the eve of the execution of an anarchist Earl Williams (John Magaro) for killing a black policeman. The corrupt mayor (Dann Florek) and sheriff (John Goodman) cover up a reprieve from the governor as the execution will win them more black votes (“colored” is the operative word in 1928).

Complications, both comic and near tragic, ensue when Williams breaks out of jail and lands in the press room. Hildy, a heart-of-gold prostitute (Sherie Rene Scott), and ultimately, the overbearing Walter who’s hoping for a major scoop, conceal his presence.

The play is somewhat dated, to be sure, but the snappy dialogue, and the overall air of cynicism on the press side, and corruption on the political, still resonate, and make for an enjoyable evening.

All the actors are smartly cast, including Robert Morse as the timid deliverer of the reprieve and Jefferson Mays as a germophobic reporter (both of whom earn generous applause after scene-stealing moments), as well as such pros as Dylan Baker, David Pittu, Lewis J. Stadlen and all the others. The curtain call at the end presents quite a jam-packed stage.

Douglas W. Schmidt’s set and Ann Roth’s costumes convey the requisite period aura. Brian MacDevitt’s lighting adds the appropriate muted tone.

(Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44 St.; Telecharge.com  or 212-239-6200; through January 29)

Photo: John Slattery and Nathan Lane in a scene from Broadway's "The Front Page" (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Falsettos (Lincoln Center Theater)

By Harry Forbes

There’s no question this is a finely mounted revival of William Finn’s 1992 conflation of his two Off-Broadway musicals which started life at Playwrights Horizon: “March of the Falsettos” in 1981 and “Falsettoland” in 1990.

I must say that the definitive original cast including Michael Rupert, Stephen Bogardus, and Chip Zien will be hard to put out of mind for those who remember. But then was then, and now is now, and certainly James Lapine, who directed the original and co-authored the book with Finn, has assembled the very best of Broadway’s current crop of talent on this occasion.

The action begins in 1979. Christian Borle is neurotic Marvin, who leaves his wife Trina (Stephanie J. Block in superb form) and 12-year-old son Jason (Anthony Rosenthal) for male lover Whizzer (Andrew Rannells). Trina and Jason seek counsel from Marvin’s shrink Mendel (an excellent Brandon Uranowitz) who falls in love with Trina. In the second act, two years later, Marvin reconnects with Whizzer from whom he had separated in the first, and we meet his supportive neighbors, a lesbian couple Dr. Charlotte (Tracie Thoms) and her caterer partner Cordelia (Betsy Wolfe). But the specter of AIDS brings sadness.

Scenic designer David Rockwell use of modular blocks which cleverly serve various versatile functions, effectively lighted by Jeff Croiter, albeit against a rather ho-hum New York skyline drop, suits the brilliant quirkiness of Finn’s still wonderful score. “Four Jews in a Room Bitching,” “The Baseball Game,” and “I’m Breaking Down” -- the last, incidentally, quite a tour de force for Block -- still amuse in the surprisingly off-kilter way they always have, and the more serious numbers like “The Games I Play,” “”What More Can I Say?” and “What Would I Do?” still pack an emotional wallop.

The two halves hang together much more cohesively than they even did in 1992 when first joined. (I gather Finn has made further edits.)

The cast is outfitted in Jennifer Caprio’s colorful costumes. Dan Moses Schreier’s sound design is admirably clear, so important for catching all of Finn’s sometimes rapid lyrics.

The passage of time -- and the receding of the AIDS crisis -- has not, on the whole, dimmed the emotional effectiveness of the piece as much as one might imagine. But whether because of that, the particular personas of the principals, or simply my over-familiarity with the property, I did feel perhaps a few degrees less moved than remembered.

But AIDS notwithstanding, “Falsettos,” as Lapine asserts in a related program article, is “a story about family and about relationships,” as much as it is a gay story pe se. It’s also about men and maturity, as Trina bemoans the lack of such in the men in her life, played out against the parallel story of Jason’s impending bar mitzvah. And those themes indeed play every bit as well as before.

Borle, such a deft comic performer, takes on a more serious part here, and does it very well indeed. Rannells exudes charm, though he seems a more boyish  Whizzer than Bogardus. Young Rosenthal gives a remarkably uncloying performance. And Thoms and Wolfe are warm and appealing.

I was happy to read he show will be recorded -- for the first time complete as a unit -- by Ghostlight Records, and should sound wonderful. Besides the undeniable vocal excellence of the cast, Michael Starobin’s orchestrations sound particularly fine in the hands of music director Vadim Feichtner.

(Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.; 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com)

Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Booth Theatre)

By Harry Forbes

Here’s a highly absorbing revival of Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s juicy epistolary novel involving the seduction of an innocent convent bred girl (Elena Kampouris) at the urging of the amoral Marquise de Merteuil (Janet McTeer) who wants to ruin her for the intended husband, who once betrayed the Marquise.

Her partner in this enterprise is her sometime lover, the lascivious Vicomte de Valmont (Liev Schreiber), who currently has set his sights on a virtuous wife Madame de Tourvel (Birgit Hjort Sorensen).

The production -- an import from London’s Donmar Warehouse (where Dominic West played Valmont) -- is highly atmospheric, thanks to Mark Henderson’s muted lighting, and Tom Scutt’s museum worthy sets and costumes. There is a striking and effective use of chandeliers which rise and fall throughout the evening. Michael Bruce has provided some fine period sounding choral passages for the scene changes.

All in all, this revival far outclasses the Roundabout’s rather pedestrian production of eight years ago with Ben Daniels and Laura Linney.

McTeer -- so funny and apt as a very butch Petruchio in The Public’s “The Taming of the Shrew” last summer -- is all elegant and conniving imperiousness here, and Schreiber affects a fine English accent (at times, in fact, sounding uncannily like Richard Burton) and plays the vile seducer with delicious nonchalance.

Sorenson’s understated dignity and bearing make the challenge of her seduction all the more convincing, and Kampouris is amusing as the inhibited virgin who gets her first taste of sex, and likes it.

There’s especially intelligent work, too, from Mary Beth Peil as Valmont’s indulgent but wise aunt,

Apart from eliciting such spot-on performances for her actors, Josie Rourke’s direction offers a clever and interestingly feminist take on the story making it fresh even for those who fondly remember the original RSC production with Alan Rickman and LIndsey Duncan, or the Glenn Close and John Malkovich film.

The play holds up very well indeed, and proves one of the best stage adaptations of a literary classic.

(Booth Theatre, 122 W. 45th St.; 212-239-6200 or  www.Telecharge.com; through January 22)

Love, Love, Love (Roundabout Theatre Company)

By Harry Forbes

Mike Bartlett’s 2010 play, which had an acclaimed production at the Royal Court in London in 2012, may, in essence, be a scathing indictment of the baby boomer generation, but it also happens to be one of the most amusing shows in town.

In three acts, the playwright – last represented on Broadway earlier this year with the excellent “King Charles III” – wittily charts the relationship of Kenneth (Richard Armitage) and Sandra (Amy Ryan) over the course of 40 years.

When we first meet them in 1967, he’s an Oxford-bound slacker who steals her away from his dullish brother (Alex Hurt) at whose flat he’s been shamelessly crashing, while she’s a drugged-up free-spirit who sets her cap on Kenneth as soon as they meet. In the second act, 23 years later, they’re a bickering couple living an affluent upper middle-class life in Reading, but utterly self-absorbed, barely taking the time to listen to their teenage children, aspiring violinist Rose (Zoe Kazan) and emotionally troubled Jamie (Ben Rosenfield). In the last act, Kenneth and Sandra are amicably divorced, but the children are a mess, financially insecure and aimless. The parents are oblivious to the roles they have played in shaping their offspring.

Performances are razor sharp, and the cast ages believably over the time span. Ryan is particularly brilliant, delivering Sandra’s funny and thoughtlessly callous lines for maximum effect. Armitage captures Kenneth’s narcissism and self-absorption to a tee. Their children are no less sharply characterized, Rosenfield embodying the unhappy layabout, and Kazan transforming from vulnerable teen to embittered 37 year old who ultimately accuses her parents of ruining them.

In fact, when finally Rose outlines her parents’ destructive behavior, it was disconcerting to hear several audience members at my performance continuing to laugh oblivious that the mood had suddenly changed, another sad indication that many of today’s sitcom weaned audiences just can’t seem to make the leap from funny to tragic.

Derek McLane has designed three wonderfully varied settings which, along with Susan Hilferty’s costumes and David Lander’s lighting, tell you in an instant all you need to know about these characters' lives.

Director Michael Mayer brings out the humor and underlying pathos of Barlett’s clever script in a masterfully paced production.

Laura Pels Theatre at the The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 W 46th Street; 212-719-1300 or roundabouttheatre.org)

Heisenberg (Manhattan Theatre Club)

By Harry Forbes

No, this is not the story of the German theoretical physicist who figured so prominently in Michael Frayn’s 1998 play “Copenhagen,” but rather a theatrical two-hander about two wildly mismatched people – a loopy, talkative oddball 40ish American woman and a taciturn 70-something Irish butcher -- who meet on a London train station platform after she impulsively plants a kiss on his neck.

Aspects of the story of this unlikely, illogical and random pairing do metaphorically reflect the physicist’s uncertainty principle. But otherwise, any overt reference to quantum physics is happily absent.

At 80 minutes, this is a totally engrossing love story – alternately humorous and sad – with two superlative performances. Mary-Louise Parker is at the top of her game as the gregarious, vulgar, compulsively lying but somehow endearing Georgie, and Arndt, resolute and stolid, is equally impressive in a more impassive way as the lonely Alex whose only love ended decades earlier when his fiancée walked out on him, and who continues to mourn the sister he lost as a child.

It would be wrong to reveal more of the plot as each moment of the play brings new and subtle revelations about Alex and Georgie and their lives. And we’re kept forever guessing as to whether Georgie is a stalking schemer or genuinely smitten with the older man.

The play is the work of Britain’s Simon Stephens who so finely adapted “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” Much of the touching humanity in that work can be found here as well.

I didn’t see “Heisenberg” in its Off-Broadway run last year, but small-scale though the play is, and spare in Mark Wendland’s scenic design -- a couple of chairs and tables is about the extent of it -- the addition here of upstage audience bleachers narrows the Friedman Theatre’s playing area, and creates the requisite sense of intimacy. So, too, Austin Smith’s lighting and David Van Tieghem’s sound design contribute to keeping a focused playing area.

Director Mark Brokaw – last represented on Broadway with “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” -- directs his actors with exquisite sensitivity and keeps the humorous and serious elements always in perfect balance.

(Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47^th St.; Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200)

Holiday Inn (Roundabout Theatre Company)

By Harry Forbes

Here’s a surprisingly delightful retread of the 1942 Fred Astaire/Bing Crosby musical, outfitted with a smart book (by director Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge), a generous number of songs from the Irving Berlin songbook (not all from the movie), clever dance routines by Denis Jones, and a thoroughly engaging cast.

The plot follows that of the film, more or less. Song and dance team Jim (Bryce Pinkham) and Ted (Corbin Bleu) split when the latter takes off with Jim’s fiancé Lila (Megan Sikora), and Jim, weary of show business, buys a farm in Connecticut.

In short order, Jim meets and falls for sweet Linda (Lora Lee Gayor), an elementary school teacher who had once had showbiz aspirations and was the original owner of the farm which is now laden with debt.

With the help of Linda’s pal Louise (Jenifer Foote at my performance, subbing for Megan Lawrence), they hit on the idea of turning the multi-bedroom farm house into a hotel and showplace, operating only during the holidays since most of Jim’s showbiz buddies have Broadway shows the rest of the time.

When Ted returns at the end of the first act, he once again threatens to come between Jim and his latest love, as he sees in Linda the ideal dance partner for his upcoming Hollywood debut. Conflict ensues.

I normally disdain songs shoehorned in from other shows, and this time, the creators have raided actual book shows like “Call Me Madam” and “Miss Liberty” along with utilizing more predictable chestnuts like “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and “Blue Skies.” But the original film had itself recycled earlier Berlin songs, so I suppose this is fair game. And Larry Blank’s very spiffy orchestrations and Sam Davis and Bruce Pomohac’s polished vocal and dance arrangements are so fresh that these tunes really do shine anew in this context.

Pinkham, who goes from strength to strength with each new show, makes a fine leading man. His ballads “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” and, of course, the film’s most enduring song, “White Christmas,” are very nicely delivered in his own style without a trace of Crosby mannerisms. And the brassy orchestrations tone down for those more intimate moments. Bleu is no slouch in the vocal department either, and his dancing is quite impressive, be it the playful “You’re Easy to Dance With” and, most spectacularly, the “Song of Freedom” number accompanied by firecrackers. The latter is the big show-stopper of the second act.

The first act winner is “Shaking the Blues Away,” given an excitingly novel approach with some awesome rope jumping dancing, courtesy of choreographer Jones.

Gayer is a lovely heroine, delivering “Nothing More to Say” and “Let’s Start the New Year Right” beautifully. Sikora does her cheap blonde routine well enough, and Foote provides the wise-cracking comic relief with aplomb.

Anna Louizos’ sets and Alejo Vietti’s costumes are appropriately colorful and stylish.

Greenberg directs at a lively pace, and there were no dull patches, while music director Andy Einhorn leads his forces with pizzazz.

Audience buzz after the show was uniformly positive.  

(Studio 54, 254 West 54 Street; 212-719-1300 or www.roundabouttheatre.org)