Under the Radar Festival
January 4-15, 2018
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, New
York, NY
publictheater.org
The
Public Theater’s recent Under the Radar
Festival—an annual two-week theater immersion at various venues—included two
wildly different one-man shows: How to Be a Rock Critic, about the long-lamented
Lester Bangs, and The Gates, New Yorker
writer Adam Gopnik’s monologue about life in New York City.
Erik Jensen in How to Be a Rock Critic (photo: Craig Schwartz) |
Lester
Bangs was the first (only?) rock reviewer whose writing seemed genuinely
honest, unlike such snobby poseurs as Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau. Bangs’
reviews in Rolling Stone, Creem and Circus magazines were often stream-of-consciousness
and full of nasty put-downs, but they were articulate and came from the heart,
whether he crapped on corporate rock (Styx, Boston, etc.) or extolled real rock
(The Clash, Lou Reed, etc.). My own favorite Bangs review, from Circus, was of Kiss guitarist Ace
Frehley’s great 1978 solo album: after raving about the songs and their
punk-rock edge, he ended the review in inimitable fashion: “Of course the
lyrics suck. Who cares?”
In
the cheekily titled How to Be a Rock
Critic, Erik Jensen holds forth for 85 often riotously funny minutes, as we
see Bangs in his own element in his messy East Village apartment in 1982—perfectly
rendered by set designer Richard Hoover, complete with LPs and magazines lying
all over the place in heaps. As he holds forth on his musical likes and
dislikes, blasting his favorite tunes, Bangs is also chugging cough syrup,
among other things, and we realize that we’re witnessing the last blissful moments
of a self-destructive man (Bangs died in his apartment in April 1982).
Jensen
makes an amusingly slovenly Bangs, and the snippets of music we hear
throughout—Black Sabbath, Otis Redding, the Troggs, Lou Reed, and most
memorably, Van Morrison—provide some sense of how Bangs defined rock’n’roll
authenticity. Jessica Blank (who co-wrote the play with Jensen, based on Bangs’
own writings) directs savvily, bringing Jensen’s performance into sharper
relief.
Adam Gopnik in The Gates (photo: Jason Falchook) |
The Gates is Adam Gopnik’s
illuminating, heartfelt performance piece about family; specifically, about how
a Montreal couple moved to the Big Apple in 1980 and made a home for themselves
and their two children. If that seems dull, don’t worry; a fine essayist, Gopnik
is a delightful spinner of tales about quotidian characters and events that glisten
with wit and insight.
The Gates refers to several
passages in Central Park, which Gopnik sees as both literal and symbolic for
those coming to New York for the first time. His stories—which describe the
absurdity in the everyday, like his losing the pants to the first suit he owned
in the city or the laugh-out-loud bit about his misunderstanding what LOL means—are
told in a chatty, easygoing manner, and Catherine Burns directs with no
unnecessary flourishes. It’s just Gopnik at a microphone for 100 minutes, throwing
open his gates for us to listen.
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