November '11 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week

The Big Country (Fox/MGM)
William Wyler’s widescreen soap opera combines a sappy love story with an old-fashioned Old West adventure. There are memorable shots galore, but not many memorable scenes, mainly because the cast (save Burl Ives as the heavy) can’t overcome the two-dimensional characters: Gregory Peck as the hero is especially ill at ease. Blu-ray’s exceptional clarity shows off the stunning camerawork; the lone extra is a vintage featurette, Fun in the Country.

Carjacked (Anchor Bay)
This agonizingly routine thriller concerns a single mom whose car is hijacked with her son inside, and she manages to outwit the armed fugitive with blatantly obvious maneuvers that wouldn’t fool anyone. Although Maria Bello brings her usual intensity to the heroine and Stephen Dorff makes a plausibly nasty criminal, the movie spins its wheels for 90 minutes without much originality or excitement. The Blu-ray image is decent; the lone extra is an on-set featurette.

The Family Tree (e one)
A family living in the town of Serenity (get it?) has a chance to change its dysfunctional ways when the mother gets amnesia after hitting her head (while having sex their next- door neighbor, natch). Since no one in the family is enacted particularly interestingly by Dermot Mulroney (dad), Hope Davis (mom), Max Thierot (son) and Brittany Robertson (daughter), director Vivi Friedman and writer Mark Lisson’s manufactured tribulations don’t work; there’s at least amusing support by Gabrielle Anwar and Chi McBride. The movie has a solid hi-def transfer; extras include on-set footage and interviews.

Jungle Eagle, My Life as a Turkey, Radioactive Wolves (PBS)
This trio of PBS Nature documentaries explores the incredible animal world: the South American harpy eagle, a naturalist who raises 16 turkey chicks as their “mother,” and the amazing return of wolves and other animal and plant life to the desolate forbidden zone that came about due to Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Each 52-minute program gives an illustrative if far from comprehensive overview, and the eye-popping hi-def imagery illuminates these fantastic but true stories that are more bizarre than any fiction.

Sarah’s Key (Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)
Based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s sentimental but gripping novel, Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s drama is an occasionally affecting tragedy about France’s ambivalence toward French Jews killed by the Nazis. Kristin Scott-Thomas, elegant as always, outclasses the material as a journalist who uncovers the truth about a young girl who survived the German purge that destroyed her family. Despite the subject matter’s inherent power and Scott-Thomas’ presence, the movie--which looks tremendous on Blu-ray--is curiously disjointed. A more interesting watch is the bonus feature, a one-hour documentary that includes interviews with Rosnay, Paquet-Brenner and Scott-Thomas.

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
(Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co.)
Director Robert Rodriguez reboots his family-friendly franchise with this loony but funny adventure that stars a new spy kids family and the return of the original kids, now the grown-up Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. Although Rodriguez can’t sustain any momentum, with the help of game performers like Vega, Sabara and even Jessica Alba (who has rarely seemed so animated as the new kids‘ stepmother), his movie is a quick and painless 85 minutes. The often dazzling visuals have an extra vividness on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and a Rodriguez interview.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Fox/MGM)
Joseph Sargent’s taut 1974 thriller is a uniquely New York cops-and-robbers drama that moves at a breakneck speed that never overwhelms the well-thought-out story. As the bemused and amused detective who finds himself chasing three daring subway hijackers (Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo), Walter Matthau embodies the tough-as-nails atmosphere, especially in that memorable final freeze frame. The grungy mid-‘70s Manhattan locations are perfectly captured on Blu-ray.

These Amazing Shadows (PBS)
In 1988, the National Film Registry was formed to preserve “significant” American movies for the ages, and Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton’s documentary presents a straightforward account of the Registry’s workings and its 550+ choices over the past two of what constitute the most essential of American films. You might not agree with all of the picks (I certainly don’t: How the West Was Won and A Woman Under the Influence?), but historical and/or artistic importance of most films cannot be denied. The movie comprises mostly talking heads and old clips, so the visual quality is variable, but the Blu-ray looks acceptably good. Extras include additional scenes and interviews.

12 Angry Men (Criterion)
Sidney Lumet’s 1957 adaptation of Reginald Rose’s play stays in the jury room for 95 minutes as the dozen men fight through their prejudices to decide whether to convict the defendant for murder, but it contains so many good performances (Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and Jack Klugman are standouts) that it triumphs over essential staginess. The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray has almost excessive grain which only accentuates Boris Kaufman’s gritty B&W cinematography; extras include interviews, featurettes and the 1955 television version of the play.

DVDs of the Week
The Adventures of Tintin: Season One
(Shout Factory)
The classic Belgian comic-strip character works best when he is animated (in both senses), and the 13 half-hour episodes on these two discs are a great introduction to one of the most beloved fictional characters ever--even if most Americans have never heard of him. At least until Steven Spielberg’s upcoming stop-motion adaptation, whose plot is actually taken from two of the stories in this set: The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure. The lack of extras is irritating because providing pre-Spielberg context would seem to be mandatory.

The Green (Film Buff)
After a gay couple moves from New York City to a small town, teacher Michael is accused of inappropriate behavior with a student, compromising his relationship with his partner, caterer Michael. Instead of allowing their story to arise organically out of their characterizations, director Steven Williford and writer Paul Marcarelli impose strident melodramatics on it, resulting in a sadly missed opportunity. Still, excellent acting by Jason Butler Harner and Cheyenne Jackson as the couple, Julia Ormond as the lawyer they hire and Ileana Douglas as a close friend allows The Green to overcome these obstacles and emerge as a mature tale.

Making the Boys (First Run)
The Boys in the Band, the first unashamedly gay play, was a huge hit off Broadway in the late ‘60s and was made into a film by William Friedkin in 1970. Crayton Robey’s lovingly-made documentary explores playwright Mart Crowley’s background alongside the era’s unique dilemma for gay playwrights, in the process showing the play’s widespread influence on two generations of gay artists. Some of the interviewees include Edward Albee, surviving cast members like Laurence Luckenbill, Crowley and Friedkin, all honestly recounting their reaction to (and in some cases against) a now-classic play.

Robotech: The Complete Series (New Video)
This inventive Japanese anime series was a big hit when it first was shown in America in 1985 to 1987, and this jammed boxed set brings together all three seasons, otherwise known as the “Robotech Wars”--13 discs’ worth of 85 remastered episodes. In addition, there are another four discs that include a further 10 hours of bonus material, which ranges from a full-length making-of documentary and music videos to promotional reels, an hour of deleted scenes and an extended version of the series’ original pilot episode.

CDs of the Week
Andrea Bocelli: Concerto--A Night in Central Park
(Decca)
The beloved Italian tenor’s September performance was, despite subpar weather, obviously a labor of love for the singer and his loyal fans. Accompanied by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, Bocelli sings alone and in duets with Celine Dion, Tony Bennett and Bryn Terfel; guest musicians include the scintillating violinist Nicola Benedetti. The CD captures it all for posterity, and the bonus DVD features video of the entire concert for those who want to relive it or who weren’t there. (It’s also on PBS in December.)

The Christmas Story (Harmonia Mundi)
Based on the traditional English holiday service, Nine Lessons and Carols, Paul Hillier has programmed a superb compendium of Christmas music that features two excellent ensembles, the a cappella vocal groups Theatre of Voices and Ars Nova Copenhagen, both led by Hillier. The well-chosen music tells the story of the Nativity through works by Renaissance era composers William Byrd and Johann Eccard, and familiar carols like “We Three Kings,” “The Holly and the Ivy” and, as the joyful finale, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Music Interview: Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

photo by Greg Stepanich

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Quintet (New York premiere)

November 29, 2011
Zankel hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue
carnegiehall.org

Among America’s foremost composers, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has one of the most enviable track records of anyone in classical music today: she won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983 for her First Symphony, has her works recorded regularly (most recently, Naxos released a CD containing three of her compositions: Millennium Fantasy for piano and orchestra, Images for two pianos and orchestra and “Peanuts” Gallery for piano and orchestra) and regularly composes works commissioned by eager musicians and ensembles.

Most recently, her mesmerizing Fifth Symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and her Septet for Piano Trio and String Quartet has had a dozen performances since its 2009 premiere. Her latest commission has its New York premiere on November 29 at Zankel Hall: a Quintet written expressly for the musicians who will perform it: the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson (KLR) Trio, violist Michael Tree and double bass player Harold Robinson.

The new Quintet--which has the same instrumentation as Schubert’s great ‘Trout’ Quintet--was among many topics the 72-years-young composer discussed in a recent telephone interview, along with other new works, her feelings on the so-called ‘death’ of classical music and music’s place in a technology-obsessed 21st century.

Q: Can you describe composing works for musicians like the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio?
A: The trio and I go back quite a long ways, and it has been the most wonderful personal and musical relationship for me. I just love to write for them. You can’t do better than composing for these artists. It's inspiring for me. What it means for me to be writing for them is not that things are tailored specifically in the piece, but it just makes me very turned on to think of them on the stage waiting for the new music that I've composed to be put on the stand so they can perform it.

Q: How did the instrumentation for your new Quintet come about?
A: If you program Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, there’s almost nothing else you can put on with it, since it uses a double bass. So the trio was looking for a companion to the 'Trout' and I loved that idea. And I just couldn’t resist taking a little bitty snippet of the 'Moody Trout' section from Schubert and incorporating that into my piece. Happily, modern performers are capable of doing any style you ask of them.

For instance, in my Septet (from 2009), there was a movement where the strings and piano replicated a kind of baroque style of performance. There are all these wonderful players that specialize in this kind of playing. There’s a certain concept of the 'Moody Trout'--the notion that the personality of the trout has its good and bad moods--so I suggested a sort of a blues kind of thing in that section.

Q: What other works are coming up?
A: I just got back from New Orleans where the Louisiana Philharmonic, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto premiered a new piece called Shadows for piano and orchestra. I also have a brand new piece that will be done in May for violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and her chamber orchestra in San Francisco.

Q: What do you think of the continued predictions of the demise of classical music?
A: When they invented the player piano, then when they invented recordings, that was also supposed to be the end of music. Everything new only opens the field more broadly, and it’s the same with the digital revolution. Music’s a hard thing to kill off when you come right down to it. I don’t think it’s a good prediction at all. I think it’s a really interesting time as far as musical outreach and what’s available to people worldwide. Although we’ve dropped the ball completely on music education in schools, there is now--if anybody looks for it--the availability of any kind of music you could want. The worldwide availability is amazing to me.

Q: Do you take exception to compartmentalizing different kinds of music?
A: Of course! I actually played jazz when I was younger, so if those sounds come out of me it’s because it’s already there, not because I’m "crossing over," which I think is a very misleading term. There’s been so much talk, especially in the late 20th century, about elements of music that have to do with mathematics or whatever. But to me the wonderful thing about music and why I’m still excited to do this is that it incorporates everything about us: our personal experiences, our heads, our hearts, what we’re attracted to. It's one huge ball of wax: everything in my music is native to me, including the European classical tradition like the 'Trout' and blues and jazz.

Theater Roundup: Rickman On Broadway, Friel Off

Seminar

Written by Theresa Rebeck; directed by Sam Gold
Starring Hamish Linklater, Jerry O’Connell, Hettienne Park, Lily Rabe, Alan Rickman
Previews began October 27, 2011; opened November 20
Golden Theatre, 252 West 45th Street, New York, NY
http://seminaronbroadway.com

Dancing at Lughnasa
Written by Brian Friel; directed by Charlotte Moore
Starring Orlagh Cassidy, Kevin Collins, Michael Countryman, Annabel Hagg, Jo Kinsella, Aedin Moloney, Ciaran O’Reilly, Rachel Pickup
Previews began October 20, 2011; opened October 30; closes January 15, 2012
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York, NY
http://irishrep.org

The cast of Dancing at Lughnasa (photo by Carol Rosegg)

The difference between a great playwright and a merely decent one is shown in two current New York productions: the off-Broadway Irish Rep’s revival of Brian Friel’s 1990 masterpiece Dancing at Lughnasa, and the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s new Broadway play, Seminar, starring everyone’s favorite Die Hard villain (and accomplished stage actor) Alan Rickman.

Friel’s play comprises flesh and blood characters and a poignant sense of life as it’s really lived, in its joys and heartbreaks, hopes and disappointments. Rebeck, in contrast, has written an immensely clever and polished comedy populated by caricatures whose relationships are so sketchily drawn that even plentiful--and often funny--one-liners can’t mask the entertaining work’s essential hollowness.

Dancing at Lughnasa is a luminous memory play narrated by Michael, who thinks back to an Irish summer in the fictional town of Ballybeg of 1936 and the five Mundy sisters, all spinsters ranging in age from 26 to 40, one of whom--Christine, the youngest--is Michael’s unwed mother. The women, resigned to their lot in life, look forward to the annual Lughnasa harvest festival; this becomes clear as they listen to their new wireless radio and start dancing in their small kitchen: such unbridled ecstasy is one of the most joyous scenes I’ve ever seen in any play.

Friel’s wistful yet unsentimental drama has a hard-edged poetry not only in its beautifully carved, musical dialogue but also in the very souls of its lovingly rendered characters, whom we end up caring about deeply. What was a moving, humane drama in its 1991 Broadway incarnation doesn’t quite strike the same touching note in Charlotte Moore’s small-scale staging, although the cast (except the usually reliable Michael Countryman, whose lack of Irish authenticity as the sisters’ sickly older brother Father Jake is a serious misstep) is solid. Rachel Pickup is much more than that: her radiant portrayal of middle sister Agnes would have fit in snugly with the original exemplary cast.

Alan Rickman (center) in Seminar (photo by Jeremy Daniel)

Seminar introduces Leonard, a bitter, burnt-out writer reduced to giving private, exclusive lessons to a select few students looking for tips to get published, who teaches a motley quartet of dull Douglas, sexy Izzy, geeky Martin and thin-skinned Kate, whose family‘s gorgeous rent-controlled Upper West Side apartment is the setting for these weekly meetings.

There’s a lot here that’s simply unbelievable: that three students (Kate excepted) could afford the $5000 class fee; that the two women enter into sexual liaisons with Leonard (both of them) and Martin (Izzy only), for mere purposes of dramatic--or, more precisely, comedic--irony when they are found out; and that Leonard would be jetting around the world to visit places like Somalia in his current position: he’s a journeyman editor and, apparently, out of favor in the business because of long-ago plagiarism (which Martin gleefully brings up after Leonard once too often destroys one of their writing efforts).

But if Rebeck is dishonest with her quintet, she can always rely on her zippy dialogue. If these characters are too smart and clever, in the way of so many TV shows, movies and plays nowadays, at least Rebeck keeps the talk lively and pointed. It’s also too bad that Seminar doesn’t end after Leonard’s big monologue in which he admits to creative and moral bankruptcy; by tacking on a final scene to provide a happy ending of sorts, Rebeck has closure, however unearned, and at the expense of a certain plausible messiness in her characters’ lives before the tidy wrap-up.

Sam Gold, who deftly stages Seminar on David Zinn’s terrifically detailed set, has an eager ensemble at his disposal, led by Rickman, who brilliantly drips with corrosive sarcasm, even if Leonard ultimately remains a cipher. Lily Rabe (Kate), Hamish Linklater (Martin), Hetienne Park (Izzy) and Jerry O’Connell (Charles) manage to keep up with Rickman, making Rebeck’s play amusingly endurable but, at bottom, unmemorable.

November '11 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week

Being Human: Complete 1st Season (e one)
There once were three roommates: a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf. (The show’s title is “ironic.”) Despite a trio of attractive leads--led by Meaghan Rath as the female specter-- this Canadian drama strains to replicate the fantastic success of the Twilight saga on a weekly basis. Although the show does occasionally create an invitingly odd atmosphere, it doesn’t sustain the dramatics through this baker’s dozen worth of episodes. The Blu-ray image is excellent; bonus features include featurettes and interviews.

Bellflower (Oscilloscope)
A clumsy and confused attempt at exploring the misogynistic attitudes among young men today, writer-director-star Evan Glodell’s egomaniacal ride has intriguing performances (notably by actresses Jessie Wiseman and Rebekah Brandes) and Glodell’s own inventions like homemade flamethrowers and an impressive muscle car, but his self-indulgent film never develops anything remotely like an arresting or original point of view. The low-budget visuals look excessively grainy in hi-def; extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, outtakes.

Farscape: The Complete Series (A&E)
In its four seasons, Farscape distinguished itself as intelligent sci-fi with a visual imaginativeness from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The innovative, indelible alien and outer space visuals are courtesy of an unbeatable combination of CGI effects, puppets and prosthetics--along with an excellent cast. All 88 series episodes sparkle in HD, and the 20 discs feature hours of extras: a new retrospective documentary, Memories of Moya: An Epic Journey Explored; a behind-the-scenes special, Farscape Undressed; other featurettes and documentaries; audio commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes.

Flypaper (IFC)
This incredibly stale comic caper tries to keep viewers on their toes by switching villains and allegiances every few minutes, but only ends up wasting appealing performances by Patrick Dempsey and Ashley Judd. This bank-robbery flick also allows actors like Tim Blake Nelson, Taylor Pruitt Vince, Jeffrey Tambor and Mekhi Phifer to ham mercilessly, making it more difficult to trudge through as it continues. Cleverness doesn’t automatically equal wit, as Flypaper mind-numbingly demonstrates. The hi-def image is decent enough; extras include cast interviews.

Main Street (Magnolia)
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this meandering character-driven drama is a pale imitation of playwright Horton Foote’s piercing human stories. Instead, it is a Foote screenplay, and it’s been lacklusterly directed by John Doyle, wasting a solid cast led by Amber Tamblyn, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson and Colin Firth. Well-done individual moments aside, Main Street never coheres into involving drama. At least its small-town atmosphere is nicely etched. The movie looks terrific on hi-def; extras are deleted scenes and an on-set featurette.

Pound of Flesh (Odyssey)
Poor Malcolm McDowell is caught in this laughless black comedy about a beloved professor who pimps out his female students to fellow teachers. Aside from a bevy of gorgeous women and McDowell’s dry persona, Tamar Simon Hoffs’ movie is as forgettable and paper-thin as the previous film of hers I’ve seen: The All-Nighter (1987), which at least featured her then-famous daughter Susanna Hoffs in a bikini. The Blu-ray image looks muted; extras are McDowell interview, on-set featurette and outtakes.

The Rules of the Game (Criterion)
Jean Renoir’s best film, this scathing satire of French aristocracy on the eve of World War II flopped in 1939; now it’s rightly considered one of the greatest films ever made, its humor and humanity undimmed. The Criterion Collection’s brilliant Blu-ray release presents the movie in its gorgeous black and white splendor and keeps the extraordinary bonus features that made the original DVD release one of its most comprehensive: Renoir’s intro; audio commentary; interviews; excerpts from a French TV program and part of a BBC documentary; video essay on the film’s tumultuous history; and a comparison of its two endings.

Three Colors Trilogy (Criterion)
Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy, based on the colors of the French flag, varies wildly in quality--austere Blue, clunky White, weirdly colorless Red--with each starring a young French/Swiss actress (Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Irene Jacob). I prefer Kieslowski’s Polish films, culminating in the awesome Decalogue; contrarily, his fancy, elliptical French films are overrated misfires. The Criterion Collection, of course, gives the trilogy the deluxe treatment, from the splendidly grainy visuals to the plethora of extras (video essays/featurettes/interviews on each film and earlier Kieslowski shorts on each disc).

West Side Story (MGM)
The 1961 Oscar-winning Best Picture was this airborne adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s classic Broadway musical, which updates Romeo and Juliet to Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. Director Robert Wise smartly lets Bernstein’s buoyant score, Sondheim’s clever lyrics and Jerome Robbins’ scintillating choreography fill the screen unadorned. This hi-def edition scores with bright colors and film-like quality; extras, spread over two Blu-ray discs (a bonus DVD of the film is included), include Sondheim’s song commentary and several featurettes.

WWII in HD: Collector’s Edition (A&E)
This is an updated release of last year’s revelatory History Channel series that introduced stunning color footage rarely seen anywhere. The immersiveness of this intimate and brutal footage shot during the wars in Europe and Asia is as memorable as the classic World at War series. In addition to 10 outstanding hours encompassing the entire war, this Blu-ray set also features two new programs: The Battle for Iwo Jima and The Air War.

DVDs of the Week
Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (PBS)
This hard-hitting Frontline episode from 2002 takes the measure of fallout from September 11’s horrors by examining belief in God. The absorbing two-hour program shows how the events of that day pulled people in different directions, from losing faith in a God who would let such things happen to reinforcing belief that good ultimately triumphs over evil. An epilogue presents discussion of the indelible image of a man and woman, holding hands, leaping from one of the towers, crystallizing beliefs either way.

It Takes a Thief: The Complete Series (e one)
Robert Wagner played the dashing thief who becomes an American intelligence agent in this classic spy series that ran from 1968-70. This ubiquitous 12-disc boxed set presents the complete series in 66 episodes, beginning with the engaging pilot, A Thief Is a Thief Is a Thief, starring Wagner and a beauteous bevy of international actresses: Senta Berger, Willi Koopman and Anita Eubank. Other noteworthy episodes include Susan Saint James, Bill Bixby, Joseph Cotton, Peter Sellers and Bette Davis as guest stars. Included are extras like a Robert Wagner interview, numbered frame of 35 mm film, set of coasters and collectible booklet.

Rio Sex Comedy (Film Buff)
Jonathan Nossiter’s revealing documentary Mondovino was about the wonderful world of winemaking; his latest feature, set in Brazil’s most spectacular city, amusingly chronicles the wonderful world of sexual exploits of people in Rio who get involved with one another and with locals. With a good international cast--Charlotte Rampling, Bill Pullman and a frequently nude Irene Jacob--Nossiter’s movie works as both sexy comedy and picturesque travelogue. Extras include 20-odd minutes of deleted scenes.

The Tree (Zeitgeist)
If overt symbolism is your thing, then Julie Bertuccelli’s diffuse account of a young widow whose life is literally uprooted by the huge fig tree that surrounds her and her children’s house is a movie for you. The Tree does make extensive use of splendid Australian outback landscapes, and the actors (especially Morgana Davies as a wise-beyond-her-years young daughter) are exceptional, but trowel-laden visual metaphors wear out their welcome, however superbly shot. Lone extra: 30-minute making-of featurette.

CDs of the Week
Helene Grimaud: Mozart (Deutsche Grammophon)
Many musicians return to the simple eloquence of Mozart after years of performing works by other composers, and French pianist Helene Grimaud (an incredibly youthful-looking 43) does just that on this wonderful disc of two of his greatest concertos: the sprightly No. 19 and more serious No. 23. Grimaud’s idiosyncratic technique works wonders with Mozart’s straightforward elegance, and she’s equally good with his tasty concert aria “Non temer, scordi di te?”, in an exquisite partnership with the lovely-sounding German soprano Mojca Erdmann.

Joyce Yang: Collage (Avie)
There’s something special about a pianist whose artistry is so formidably wide-ranging that she can make any kind of music her own. That’s what Joyce Yang does in her brilliant traversal of four centuries’ worth of keyboard masterpieces by Scarlatti (18th century), Schumann (19th century), Debussy (20th century) and contemporary composers Lowell Liebermann (late 20th century) and Sebastian Currier (21st century). Yang brings a superb balance of form and an improvisatory quality to all of these works.

Theater Roundup: Four Off-Broadway Shows

All-American

Written by Julia Brownell; directed by Evan Cabnet
Previews began October 24, 2011; opened November 7; closes November 19
The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
lct.org

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays
Written by Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Jeffrey Hatcher, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick and Doug Wright; directed by Stuart Ross
Previews began November 7, 2011; opened November 13
Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane, New York, NY
standingonceremony.net

The Atmosphere of Memory
Written by David Bar Katz; directed by Pam MacKinnon
Previews began October 15, 2011; opened October 30; closes November 20
Bank Street Theatre, 155 Bank Street, New York, NY
labtheatre.org

Burmese Days
Written and directed by Ryan Kiggell; adapted from George Orwell’s novel
Previews began November 9, 2011; opened November 16; closes December 4
Brits Off-Broadway at 59 E 59
59 East 59th Street, New York NY
britsoffbroadway.com

Meredith Forlenza and C.J. Wilson in All-American (photo by Gregory Costanzo)
In All-American, Julia Brownell takes an implausible situation--wispy Katie is the starting quarterback on a powerhouse high school football team, her sights on a college and pro career--and uses it as a study of a family in crisis: father Mike, a retired pro QB, now lives vicariously through Katie’s talent; mother Beth, now selling expensive homes, feels her real-estate job finally provides the self-confidence and self-respect lacking as a mere football wife; and twin brother Aaron, as lanky as Katie but brainy, not athletic.

Brownell conjures many dramatic situations, like Mike’s insistence that Katie will break the NFL’s glass ceiling; Beth shutting her husband and children out of her current situation; Aaron’s social awkwardness until he meets another high school outcast, Natasha; or Katie wanting to stop playing football.

That’s too much for a 90-minute play to chew on, and Brownell nods toward complexity without ever achieving it. She writes for HBO’s clever but glib Hung and All-American resembles a slick TV sitcom with every character improbably clever, always barking out snappy dialogue. Cramming so much into so slender a frame causes more than a few fumbles.

Under Evan Cabnet’s well-paced direction, an exemplary cast creates a plausible family dynamic, led by Meredith Forlenza’s appealing Katie and Harry Zittel’s Aaron, who raises teenage awkwardness to an art form.

The cast of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays (photo by Joan Marcus)
Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, an amiable collection of mostly comic one-acts celebrating gay relationships, looks to recreate the off-Broadway success of Love, Loss and What I Wore with revolving celebrity casts giving essentially staged readings under Stuart Ross’s steady direction.

The difference, say Ceremony’s producers, is that the stories will revolve along with the casts. For now, the nine one-acts include two typically wacky Paul Rudnick farces, one typical Neil LaBute shocker (appropriately titled Strange Fruit) and an affecting Moises Kaufman monologue.

These and five other sketches are endearingly enacted by Harriet Harris, Beth Leavel, Polly Draper, Mark Consuelos, Craig Bierko and Richard Thomas; Thomas handles Kaufman’s London Mosquitoes with a touching effortlessness that earns commiseration and tears and nearly makes the show’s frivolous wedding finale anti-climactic.

John Glover and Ellen Burstyn in The Atmosphere of Memory (photo by Monique Carboni)
In The Atmosphere of Memory, David Bar Katz’s self-reflexive portrait of a playwright whose messy memories give him difficulties with his new work and with his own family, has good ideas so inadequately executed that the result is flippant wrongheadedness.

Katz presents large chunks of his protagonist Jon’s play-within-the-play as deliberately crude, vulgar and heavy-handed: unfortunately, much of Katz’s real play is equally absurd (one assumes not deliberately). The choppy, episodic structure swallows the characters whole, making them mere puppets moved around by both playwrights to suit their whims, precludes any revealing behavior or a shred of psychological insight.

Instead, Katz borrows emotional catharsis from another artist: John Lennon, whose powerfully personal song “Mother” is co-opted for his finale, ringing false in this context. It’s also unfortunate that Katz’s dialogue is riddled with mistakes like “hone in” for “home in,” “lay” for “lie” and misusing “comprise.”

Pam Mackinnon’s direction can’t coalesce disjunctive parts into anything resembling a whole, even as her cast tries rising above Katz’s stick figures. Ellen Burstyn retains her dignity as Claire, Jon’s actress mother, while the invaluable John Glover’s deadbeat dad Murray dominates whenever he’s onstage. The actor’s naturally gregarious personality makes the play(s) lopsided in ways that Katz and his protagonist surely never meant.

The cast of Burmese Days (photo by Carol Rosegg)
George Orwell’s novel, the picturesque Burmese Days, is a poor choice for a stage adaptation, especially in the bare-bones production that the Aya Theatre Company imported from England for an opening salvo in this year’s Brits Off Broadway Festival.

The talented cast of four men and two women swaps accents to enact over a dozen Brits and Burmese in Orwell’s absorbing story of imperialism and casual racism. The performers also double on visual and sound effects (impersonating a water buffalo or a leopard, making bird noises), but no one creates any compelling characters while busying themselves with the cleverness of Ryan Kiggell’s adaptation (Kiggell’s one of the actors).

Orwell’s racy writing survives in some narrated passages, but his story--playing out on gorgeous locations with colorful characters both human and animal--begs for widescreen epic film treatment a la David Lean, rather than this stripped-down staging.

Interview with Jack Viertel of Encores!

left, Carla Cooke, Wynton Marsalis and Adriane Lenox; below, Jack Viertel (photos by Joan Marcus)

Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Parade

November 18-22, 2011
New York City Center
151 West 55th Street, New York, NY
nycitycenter.org

Encores!, which began in 1994 to return vintage musicals to the New York City stage, is now one of the premier musical institutions in the city. The current Broadway smash-hit production of Chicago began at Encores!, as did the recent Gypsy with Patti Lupone, and there have been wonderful revivals of such “forgotten” gems as St. Louis Woman with Vanessa Williams, The Apple Tree with Kristin Chenoweth and Bells Are Ringing with Kelli O'Hara.

The guiding hand of Encores! is artistic director Jack Viertel, who ensures that the series continues to present top-notch revivals of musicals beloved and/or forgotten, and although this season is no different, in fact it begins differently, with the first fruit of a new partnership between Encores! and Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Parade, featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, playing tonight through November 22.

Viertel spoke recently about Encores! and JALC’s partnership, what else is coming this season, and the recent renovation of New York City Center (Encores’ long-time home).

Q: How did the relationship between Encores! and JALC come about?
A: I was talking with the president of City Center about the different ways that we could expand Encores! We thought of two ways: that there are classical music composers and jazz composers who also wrote Broadway shows. We had a meeting with JALC, which was also thinking about how to explore the areas of jazz that their regular concert format didn’t lend itself too. So we decided to do a show every other year, one at our hall, one at their hall. Then the question was: what do we do as our first jazz show? Cotton Club Parade was my idea to recreate a Cotton Club floor show, and Wynton is a big fan of Duke Ellington, whose band was house band at the Cotton Club. It seemed to fit together, so we decided to start with that, and here we are.

Q: How did Cotton Club Parade take shape?
A: The most interesting thing about the original Cotton Club shows which we are trying to genuinely recreate is that they were a real crossroads of jazz singers, Broadway singers and vaudeville performers: these shows brought Broadway a little bit closer to jazz and jazz a little bit closer to Broadway. And, of course, Wynton’s band is the best jazz band there is. Our performers include genuine jazz singers like Carla Cooke and Tony-winning Broadway performers like Adriane Lenox, and everyone in between, with even some coming out of the street-dancing and hip-top tradition.

Q: Do you expect different audiences than the ones who usually attend Encores! shows?
A: Well, we have our subscribers and JALC has its own subscribers, who will also be there. We’re also marketing this show to general audiences too. We’ve been trying to reach out to different audiences for awhile, to try and mix up who comes to our shows. Even when we do our regular Encores! performances, they’re each unique and each draws different audiences. I hope Cotton Club Parade will also draw an audience of people who just want to hear good music and who go to different jazz clubs in the city.

Q: What is on the regular Encores! schedule this season, and how do you decide which shows to perform each year?
A: We have three Encores! shows coming later this year: Merrily We Roll Along (February), Pipe Dream (March/April) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (May), all of which we’re very excited about, of course. We have a long list of shows that we want to do, and we decide which set of three we want to do together each season. Sometimes the rights for the music are not available, or the orchestrations have been lost, or something like that prevents us from doing a show. We always like to do shows that don’t resemble one another, so that the audience has a completely unique experience each time.

Q: How is the renovated City Center?
A: The renovated City Center looks fantastic: it’s absolutely amazing, and I’m frankly very moved by how it all turned out. Even the acoustics feel different to me, but it’s a little hard to really tell until we actually are in there doing our shows. City Center was the first hall that used amplified acoustics for musical theater back in the 1940s (it was originally a Shriners Temple, not a performance hall). But things have improved greatly since then.

On Broadway: "Godspell" Returns

Hunter Parrish in Godspell (photo by Jeremy Daniel)

Godspell
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Choreographed by Christopher Gattelli
Directed by Daniel Goldstein
Starring Hunter Parrish, Wallace Smith, Uzo Aduba, Nick Blaemire, Celisse Henderson, Morgan James, Telly Leung, Lindsay Mendez, George Salazar, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle

Performances began October 13, 2011; opened November 7
Circle in the Square Theatre, 235 West 50th Street, New York NY
godspell.com

The amped-up Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell spends too much time dumbing itself down, as if the material itself isn’t solid enough to attract new audiences 40 years after its premiere.

What’s strange is that a show originally conceived as a modern, timeless reworking of the story of Christ and his disciples has been reworked to try to remain contemporary. Although Godspell remains a joyful celebration filled with Schwartz’s engaging songs, Daniel Goldstein’s staging makes other errors.

For starters, the cast’s energy is wasted as they bounce around the small Circle in the Square stage as if practicing for a triathlon during the songs (which they may well be), thanks to Christopher Gattelli’s busy but uninspired choreography. When the performers are not running in and out of the stage area, they jump up and down on trampolines appearing from trap doors or bring audience members onstage for some cute interaction.

But where Godspell is most exasperating is during the many scenes that reenact the parables. Jesus told parables to simplify his lessons for the masses: these jokey and farcical reenactments not only further simplify stories already made simple, but dumb them down so much that they pander to audiences. Add to that the many pop-culture and topical references (Steve Jobs, Lindsay Lohan and Occupy Wall Street, for starters) and you have a musical begging for audience approval.

Schwartz’s tuneful rock songs sound harder but hallower performed by the production’s straight-ahead rock band (bass-drums-guitars): Schwartz’s music retains its appealing simplicity, for the most part, although it’s too bad that the sweetly understated “Day by Day” has been turned into an “American Idol”-style audition.

Hunter Parrish makes a spirited pretty-boy Jesus, Wallace Smith a dashing John the Baptist and Judas, and the rest of the cast has enough spunk to keep up with them. Would that this new Godspell was as dynamic as its performers.

November '11 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week

Alleged (Image)
This sanitized dramatization of the famous Scopes monkey trial pits William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow in a courtroom battle for the ages: evolution vs. creationism. The movie sides with the creationists, which is fine, but it presents a “fair and balanced” showcase hidden by a dully made fictional romance. Brian Denney (Darrow), John Thompson (Bryan) and Colm Meaney (H.L. Mencken) tower over weak material. The Blu-ray has an adequate image; no extras.

Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 (Fox)
This middling adaptation of Ayn Rand’s massive novel, covering the first third of the book, will continue with two more parts. With a wooden cast playing Rand’s caricatures with little subtlety, warmth or humanity, Atlas certainly lives up to Rand’s attitudinizing. Director Paul Johansson cannot make endless train scenes, wine-drenched business meetings and wide-open vistas from Colorado to Wisconsin cohere into anything involving. The Blu-ray image is stellar; extras comprise Johansson’s commentary, a making-of featurette and self-indulgent fan feature.

Blue Velvet (MGM)
David Lynch’s bizarre 1986 melodrama, an immediate “classic” upon its release, is little more than a meretricious literalization of the dark impulses that stir beneath red, white and blue American soil. MGM’s pristine Blu-ray only underscores its shallow psychologizing, and Frederick Elmes’ garishly lit photography and amateur-neight acting (especially Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell’s overdone bad guys) don‘t help much. Extras include a 70-minute retrospective documentary, outtakes, 50 minutes of unseen footage and Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s TV review (Ebert, bless him, disliked it).

Fanny and Alexander (Criterion)
One of The Criterion Collection’s best releases finally makes it to hi-def: Ingmar Bergman’s 1982 Swedish TV mini-series is five hours and 20 minutes’ worth of brilliance, the ultimate summation of his filmmaking genius. Included are the original TV version, the universally praised three-hour theatrical version, and on a third disc, Bergman’s own two-hour on-set The Making of Fanny and Alexander, a 40-minute retrospective with interviews and an hour-long 1984 Swedish TV interview with Bergman. The Blu-ray image is luminous, needless to say.

In a Glass Cage (Cult Epics)
Agusti Villaronga’s unsettling 1983 debut tells its shocking story of a pedophiliac former Nazi guard, now in an iron lung, whose past exploits trigger the crazed fantasies of a young male nurse. Tense scenes of psychological trauma sit alongside risible moments of physical torture, but Villaronga is apparently serious: his movie is a horrific traffic accident you keep watching despite the mayhem. The Blu-ray image is appropriately grainy; extras include Villaronga interviews and three Villaronga short films.

Mutiny on the Bounty (Warners)
Lewis Milestone’s 1962 remake of the classic adventure creeps along for much of its three-hour length: only its shimmering visuals distinguish it. With a cast led by Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh and Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian, who leads the mutinous crew against Bligh (but not until the third hour!), there’s certainly much scenery chewing, but the movie is too bloated too much to work. The restored image looks first-rate on Blu-ray; extras include alternate prologue and epilogue and vintage featurettes.

Page Eight (PBS)
Playwright David Hare’s made-for-British-TV movie compellingly tackles the current post-Sept. 11 political climate with its story of a British agent who, being privy to secret documents that look bad for his country and the U.S., must make a decision based on ethics. With a terrific cast--Bill Nighy as the hero, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Judy Davis, Saskia Reeves, Marthe Keller, Rachel Weisz and Alice Krige--Hare’s cerebral thriller is gripping throughout. The Blu-ray image is flawless; no extras.

The River Why (Image)
From David James Duncan’s impressionistic novel, this coming of age story, set among monumental Oregon locations, follows a fly-fishing family, seen through the eyes of the oldest son (Zach Gilford). There‘s not much dramatic weight, although the girlfriend (a delightful Amber Heard) presents a nice distraction for the son and the viewer. The Blu-ray looks splendid; extras comprise cast and crew interviews.

13 (Anchor Bay)
This preposterous drama about men recruited (or forced) to play Russian roulette for bettors who watch tries to conjure suspense from a “who cares?” scenario. What in The Deer Hunter was a metaphor for war’s randomness is used here as a crutch to prop up senseless violence. An assortment of haggard actors (Mickey Rourke, Michael Shannon, 50 Cent, Ray Winstone, Jason Statham) lose out to shopworn material. The Blu-ray image is good; no extras.

Water for Elephants (Fox)
Based on Sara Gruen’s popular novel, this alternately gritty and shameless love story set in a traveling circus is distinguished by two performances: Robert Pattinson as the hero and Christoph Waltz as the villain. Too bad they’re hampered by a colorless Reese Witherspoon as the dastardly Waltz’s wife, who runs away with Pattinson. Two out of three ain’t bad, and an always colorful Jim Norton provides his usual boost as a circus employee. The sparkling Blu-ray image looks superior in every way, especially in its deep blacks; extras include making-of featurettes, interviews and an audio commentary.

DVDs of the Week
Crime of Love (Raro Video)
Luigi Comencini made this propagandistic romantic tragedy in 1974 to illuminate the appalling workers’ conditions in Northern Italian factories. Two workers (the sympathetic Giuliano Gemma and Stefania Sandrelli) fall in love and plan to marry--despite she being Sicilian and he Milanese, apparently as bad as the Capulets and Montagues or Hatfields and McCoys--until she’s stricken by a disease caused by the factory’s conditions. Comencini juggles his love story and agit-prop subplots with finesse, and when the movie becomes too strident, its two engaging stars are triumphant. Lone extra: film critic Adriano Apra interview.

Putty Hill (Cinema Guild)
Matt Porterfield’s artless portrait of a close-knit neighborhood on the outskirts of Baltimore has a truthful documentary feel. This meandering glimpse at people affected by a young man’s untimely death at least doesn’t condescend to them, although it feels padded even at 85 minutes. Extras include Porterfield’s commentary, deleted scenes, a 30-minute making-of documentary, and Porterfield’s first feature, 2006’s Hamilton, with deleted scenes included.

Rush: Time Machine (Rounder/Anthem)
On its last tour, during which the Canadian power trio played its entire 1981 classic album Moving Pictures, Rush showed it can perform with verve and energy even after 37 years together. In this 2011 Cleveland show, Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart perform 26 songs spanning their career from “Working Man” to the hard-hitting new tune “Caravan.” The nearly three-hour set features healthy doses of the band’s offbeat humor (like its hilarious skits of its alternate history as “Rash”). Only quibble: too many audience shots; I’d rather watch Peart play than anonymous fans air-drumming. The sound is spectacular, the bonus skit outtakes are also amusing.

The Sleeping Beauty (Strand)
Catherine Breillat’s unsurprisingly feminist take on Perrault’s classic fairy tale is similar to her adaptation of the fable Bluebeard: she takes liberties to have it conform to her own ideas. Like in Bluebeard, there are fascinating cinematic moments that elucidate her point of view. After Fat Girl, Breillat seemed to lose her way being provocative whether her material calls for it or not: after a few moribund movies, there’s something enervating about her breathing new life into familiar stories, regaining her form in the process.

CDs of the Week
Gabriel Faure, Complete Chamber Music for Strings and Piano (Virgin Classics)
This five-disc set collects all of Faure’s chamber works, composed over a half-century from his First Violin Sonata in 1876 until his final work, the autumnal, haunting String Quartet, composed in 1924 before his death at age 79. Played by veteran French musicians led by violinist Renaud Capucon, the exquisite refinement of Faure’s best works comes through loud and clear. I have rarely heard a more riveting performance of the Second Piano Quintet, which I know backwards and forwards. If you have other recordings of Faure’s chamber music, this is an essential addition; if you don’t (and why not?), this is as good a place to start as any.

Steve Reich, WTC 911 (Nonesuch)
If Steve Reich’s WTC 9/11 quartet isn’t the last word on that devastating terrorist event, it uses a lot of last words in a striking sound collage that plays off the tensile sound of the Kronos Quartet and the electronically manipulated statements of people there on that fateful day (and shortly after). One of Reich’s most personal and emotional works is all the more powerful for its brevity. Also included are his Mallet Quartet (which works better on the accompanying DVD, since you can watch the four performers) and the slight Dance Patterns.