On the Town With Aubrey Reuben
Where All the Stars Shine Brightly!
April 26, 2014
04-23-14 (L-R) Cicely Tyson. Vanessa Williams announce the
nominations for the 64h Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards at the
New York Friars Club. 57 East 55th St. Tuesday morning. 04-22-14
Cicely Tyson and Vanessa
Williams announced
the 64th Annual Outer
Critics Circle Awards
Nominations at the New
York Friars Club. Among
the many worthy
nominations, I must
mention A
Gentleman's Guide to
Love & Murder, which
received 11, including
Outstanding New Broadway
Musical and All
The Way as
Outstanding New Broadway
Play. Among the
individual performances,
Outstanding Actor in a
Play Bryan
Cranston and Ian
McKellan, in a
Musical Jefferson
Mays and Bryce
Pinkham, Outstanding
Actress in a Play Estelle
Parsonsand Jessica
Hecht, in a Musical Jessie
Mueller and Audra
Mcdonald. The
winners will be honored
at Sardi's on May 22.
Christopher Sieber and Judith
Light announced
the 2014 Drama League
nominees at Sardi's.
Many nominees are
similar to those of
Outer Critics Circle,
but as more nominees are
included in their
selections, it is good
to see Reed
Birney, Chris O'Dowd,
Daniel Radcliffe,
Patrick Stewart and Denzel
Washington among
those recognized.The
80th Annual Drama League
Awards will be held May
16 at the Marriott
Marquis Times Square.
Fran Drescher, Robert
Lopez and Kristen
Anderson-Lopez announced
the 2014 Drama Desk
nominations at Studio 54
Below. Many nominees are
similar to those of
Outer Critics Circle and
the Drama League. They
also included Special
Awards to Veanne
Cox and
the ensemble casts of
two plays by Will
Eno. The awards will
be presented at Town
Hall on June 1.
On Broadway, Daniel
Radcliffe is
a famous movie star, so The
Cripple of Inishmaan,
by Martin
McDonagh, will
attract his fans. He
plays a cripple, who,
unbelievably, is hired
to go to Hollywood to
act in a film. His
opportunity arises when
an American film using
Irish natives is made on
the small island near
where he lives his
boring life. The
director thinks he may
be able to play a part
in his next film. The
play consists, mainly,
of unintelligent local
characters gossiping in
a dingy shop, which may
be amusing to some
members of the audience.
However, all the cast
act their roles very
well, under the
direction of Michael
Grandage, and
Radcliffe is to be
commended for appearing
on stage to the delight
of the young people in
the audience.
Presented Off-Broadway
many years ago, Violet was
a success. After one
performance at City
Center last
year with glowing
reviews, it was moved to
Broadway. It has music
by Jeanine
Tesori, book and
lyrics by Brian
Crowley, and tells
the story of a young
lady (Sutton
Foster), who makes a
bus trip to visit a
televangelist, hoping
that he can cure her
disfigured face. She
meets various
characters, including
two soldiers, on the
trip, and finds hope for
her future. It is a
depressing trip, made
tolerable by a superb
Foster in the title
role. The music is quite
good, but loud, the set
design minimal, and the
love interest between
Foster an the two
soldiers seems more like
a fantasy than real.
However, Sutton Foster,
as always, is
magnificent. She is a
musical theatre
treasure.
The opportunity to see
86 years-old Estelle
Parsons on
stage is the only reason
to see the 90 minutes The
Velocity of Autumn,
by Eric
Coble. She plays a
widow, who is aging and
whose children want to
put her in a nursing
home. She has barricaded
herself in her
brownstone with Molotov
cocktails, and plans to
blow up herself and the
building. Her estranged
son (Stephen
Spinella) climbs in
through a window to
persuade her to change
her mind. The play is
silly, but Parsons is a
gem, and delivers a fine
performance, under Molly
Smith's direction.
Neil
Patrick Harris is
well known as a
television star, but
he has also appeared
on Broadway, and
hosted the Tony
Awards. He is very
popular ,and his
fans will rush to
see him in the Rock
musical Hedwig
and the Angry Inch,
book by John
Cameron Mitchell,
music and lyrics by Stephen
Trask. It was a
cult favorite in an
Off-Off-Broadway
theatre many years
ago, and made into a
film. Now it is on
Broadway,
modernized, and
still extremely
loud. The story is
about a transgender
singer, whose sex
operation was not a
success, and his/her
life growing up in
East Germany and
moving to America.
Also, it is about a
relationship with a
successful Rocker
performing that
night in Times
Square. Harris
dominates the 90
minute production,
skillfully directed
by Michael
Mayer.
.
.
|
Playwright Harvey
Fierstein knows
a lot about cross dressing, and
it is the theme of his new play Casa
Valentina, based on a little
known bungalow colony, where in
the 60s, heterosexual men went
to relax and dress in women's
clothes. Blessed with a
magnificent cast, directed by Joe
Mantello, this unusual play
has many moments of interest. At
other times, it feels like a
lecture for men to engage in
their female desires, shown
primarily by wearing dresses and
wigs. All the cast, headed by Patrick
Page and Reed
Birney, give splendid
performances, and that is the
reason, one can overlook the
melodramatic parts in this
overlong play.
A revival of Cabaret,
book by Joe
Masteroff, music by John
Kander, lyrics by Fred
Ebb, at Studio 54, is the final show of
the Broadway season. This is the exact, same
production, which was a success in 1998.
Only many of the cast members have been
changed. Tony winningAlan
Cumming again
leads the cast, and he is, once again,
terrific. Michelle
Williams, Bill Heck, Linda Edmond and Danny
Burstein are
the new, supportive cast members. Everyone
does a fine job, under the co-direction of Sam
Mendes and Rob
Marshall. It
is a splendid musical, about a dingy cabaret
club in Berlin, during the rise of the
Nazis, with wonderful music and an
intelligent story. It is good to have it
back.
I was invited
to see A
Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder again.
It was a terrific performance, and the
musical is definitely one of the best
musicals of the season.
I was also
invited to see The
Realistic Joneses again.
The four member cast give fine performances,
and the play is quite amusing. It has
already received a Drama Desk Special Award
for the cast and playwright, and is
nominated by Outer Critics Circle and the
Drama League in the best new play category.
Off-Broadway, Your
Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra,
by Kirk
Lynn, seems like two plays
in one. The first act has a
couple deciding to tell all
about their sexual experiences
before they marry. The second
act has the father confronting
his daughter over her sexual
activity. The acting is fine,
under Anne
Kauffman's direction, but I
was disappointed not to learn
anything about Kama Sutra.The
opening night party was held at
the West Bank Cafe.
Annapurna,
by Sharr
White, stars the popular television
actors, husband and wife, Megan
Mullally and Nick
Offerman. For their fans, it will be a
splendid opportunity to see them on small
stage. Unfortunately, the play does not live
up to expectations. A wife, after a twenty
year disappearance, shows up at her
ex-husband' refuge in the mountains of
Colorado. They fight, she screams
constantly, and they resolve their
differences, which are totally unbelievable.
The opening night party was held at KTCHN in
the OUT NYC with guests Parker
Posey, KatieFinneran and Janeane
Garofalo.
Inventing
Mary Martin, conceived and written by Stephen
Cole, at the York Theatre, opens on
April 27. My comments will appear in the
next column.
The 28th
Easter Bonnet Competition is
a wonderful event, and I have attended
everyone since its inception. It raises
funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The show is always great fun. The stars of
Broadway appear, and among the judges were Patrick
Page, Carly Rae Jepsen and Michael
McKean, and on stage, Idina
Menzel, Fran Drescher, Bryan Cranston,
Denzel Washington, Tyne Daly, James Franco among
many others.
MoMA is
presenting Ongoing
An Auteurist History. Belle
de Jour, by Luis
Bunuel, France, 1927, starring a
beautiful Catherine
Deneuveas a cold, frigid wife, who
decides to become a prostitute in her
afternoons while her husband is working as
surgeon in a hospital. Apparently, having
sex with a number of different men, some
quite horrible to look at, releases her
sensuality. It is ridiculous story, full of
erotic dream sequences, made palatable by
beautiful photography and the lovely leading
actress.
MoMA is
presenting ContemporAsian. Bends,
written and directed by Flora
Lau, China 2013, is a lovely, leisurely
film, which contrasts the lives of a rich
wife living a luxurious life in Hong Kong,
and her driver, with a child and a pregnant
wife, suffering in poverty living on the
border with Hong Kong in mainland China. The
acting is realistic, intelligent, and leaves
a profound impression. The two lead actors
give superb performances. It is a wonderful
film.
04-23-14 (L-R) Idina Menzel. Bryan
Cranston. Fran Drescher. Denzel Washington announce the winners of the 28th
Annual Easter Bonnet Competition at the Minskoff Theatre. 200 West 45th St..
Tuesday afternoon. 04-22-14
|