Front Row “Center Pieces” for 2016-2017 Season

Our favorites from the 2016-2017 season.
By Tulis McCall Casey Curtis, Sarah Downs, Stanford Friedman, Holli Harms, Michael Hillyer, Elise Marenson, Massimo Iacoboni

 

Photo: Carole Rosegg	Best ridiculous, lurid, pulpy show that doesn’t involve watching news about Trump: The Artificial Jungle	Photo: Joan Marcus	Best actress to return to a role after a gap of 20 or more years: Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard
Photo: Joan Marcus	Best Pulitzer Prize winning play to be named for a bodily secretion: Sweat.	Photo: Joan Marcus	Best Ensemble work: If I Forget
Photo: Jeremy Daniels	Best play adapted from Kid’s book that is not about a boy named Harry: The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson Musical	Keith A. Wallace	Best Play by an actorvist: The Bitter Game
Photo: Joan Marcus	Best play with a matinee idol leading man and pratfalls: Present Laughter	Photo: Shashwat Gupta	Best play of the Bible “behind the scenes:” The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Nastrovya!	Best combination of fear, loathing and vodka: Drunkle Vanya	Photo: Davidawa Photography	Best ‘buddy’ play about two men who are definitely not buddies: Jonah and Otto

 

	Nathan The Wise, at the Classic Stage Company.  What if the three great religions of the world actually respected and tolerated each other? This classic play is an impassioned plea for religious tolerance, and its relevance to modern life couldn’t be clearer.  F. Murray Abraham’s deeply felt characterization in the title role was fun to watch, as well as quite moving.		Indecent.  Paula Vogel’s beautiful and emotionally shattering new play at the Cort Theatre is a rare example of playwright and director working in perfect symbiosis. Vogel and Rebecca Taichman work their transporting magic in plain sight and without any apparent help from a big Broadway budget, relying instead upon an excellent company of actors, a devastating story, and their own imaginative sense of stagecraft.
	Herb Alpert and Lani Hall at the Café Carlyle. Truly, you can only do this in New York. I mean, step out of your cab and take your table at a café and there’s Herb Alpert performing. He is now in his early eighties and performs effortlessly, with the bearing and demeanor of a man thirty years younger. His wife of forty some years, Lani Hall, the lead vocalist on classic hits like “Fool On The Hill,” “Going Out Of My Head” and “Never Say Never Again,” joined him at the microphone.  Only in New York, kids, and only at the Carlyle.		Sunday In The Park With George.  Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford, a stellar supporting cast composed of veterans like Robert Sean Leonard and Ruthie Ann Miles, as well as Sondheim’s achingly beautiful musical score, in a pared-down concert version staged with rigorous simplicity by Sarna Lapine in front of an onstage orchestra. As good as it gets, a production so exceptional, so overwhelming, you might be lucky enough to see something like it once, maybe twice in a lifetime.

A Dolls House Part 2

Sam Gold’s direction pulls these extraordinary cast together into an ensemble that summons the Spirits of the Small Moments to the table to create a banquet. This is a feast all around. A Doll’s House Part 2 is a reminder of why theatre – or art itself – is, at its best, a life altering experience. It reminds us that Walt Whitman wasn’t kidding when he wrote:

“you are here—that life exists and identity,
… the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

This is the sort of play that makes us remember we are alive.

 

The Whirligig

– Hamish Linklater knows from relationships. In The New Group’s The Whirligig now at Pershing Square Signature Center, he lays them out like a card shark fanning a deck

 

 

 

 

Church and State

I went to see a “seriously funny new comedy” — that’s what the press release said.  Seventy-eight minutes later,  the actors were taking bows before an enthusiastic audience and my mascara is all over my face, what with the weeping and the wiping that preceded the curtain call.

 

Venus –

For those of you looking for a fluffy night out at the theatre, where all you have to do is sit back and bask in the good work bestowed upon you by others – you are directed to swan right past the entrance to Venus at Signature Theatre and go directly to the bar.

 

 

 

Cagney –The reason you want to see Cagney, before it closes in May, comes in a compact package busting with a sparkle that nearly knocks you over.  Fortunately you are sitting down when Robert Creighton arrives on the stage as James Cagney.  The unfortunate part is that you will want to be leaping out of your seat before the performance concludes, because Creighton is such a smooth dancer that he makes it look easy.  This makes you think you could probably do it just as well. This probably not true.

Heisenberg

Simon Stephens’ remarkable Heisenberg generates all the potency and disarming immediacy on Broadway that it conjured off Broadway.

 

 

 

Vietgone

Look! Up on the Manhattan Theatre Club stage! It’s a love story! No, it’s a comedy! No, it’s a rap musical! No, It’s a live graphic novel! NO! It’s the New York premiere of “Vietgone” by playwright Qui Nguyen. Part playful, part dead serious, Qui Nguyen, born in America to two Vietnamese refugee parents, takes dead aim at both Baby Boomers and Millennials alike in his innovative new work and hits both targets.

 

Oslo

Everything about Oslo is improbable — not least, the notion of an entertaining tale of Mideast peace negotiations.

 

 

 

 

We were honored and fascinated by the creative thinking and process of Andy Walmsley, top theater and TV scenic designer. Here is Elise Marenson’s interview with Mr. Walmsley.