‘ANASTASIA’: (left to right) Christy Altomare & Derek Klena. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

ANASTASIA
Book by Terrence McNally
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Pictures
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th Street
(212-239-62000, www.AnastasiaBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Anastasia is a musical that can’t make up its mind whether to cater to adults or to children. It was inspired by the two 20th Century Fox movies: the 1997 animated version with talking animals and the excellent 1956 adult version with an Oscar-winning performance by Ingrid Bergman. Luckily there are no talking animals here, but this version is a highly diluted fairy tale version of the once captivating and thought-provoking notion that Anastasia Romanov was spared by the firing squad and actually survived and reunited with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress. Two standout performances, high-tech sets and projections, plus gorgeous costumes make this Anastasia momentous, if nothing else.

Anastasia starts in 1907 before the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg at the palace of Czar Nicholas II, with a young Anastasia (Nicole Scimeca) and her grandmother (the enchanting Mary Beth Peil) singing a memorable duet “Once Upon a December.” This idyllic picture soon dissolves with the massacre of the czar and his family and the new Communist regime of Russia and poverty. Leningrad and the Communists take over the grandeur that once was St. Petersburg.

It is now 1917, Anastasia has lost her memory and is sweepings the streets of Leningrad. Two survivors of the revolution: Dmitry (Derek Klena) and Vlad (John Bolton) upon hearing rumors that Anastasia may have survived the massacre,  hatch up the scheme to find the right girl, train her, take her to Paris and pass her off as Anastasia and reunite her with her grandmother and claim the reward. In the mix is Gleb, (the wonderful Ramin Karimloo). Mr. Karimloo was Jean Val Jean in Les Miz. Here he is now playing the Javert role, the Russian officer who dogs Anastasia (Christy Altomare) to eliminate any remaining Romanov.

Well, you know the rest. With lots of training, Anastasia’s memory gets jogged, she goes to Paris, meets grandmother, and along the way falls in love with the revolutionary who discovered her. All this is good and well if it wasn’t for the rambling book by Terrence McNally and the bland score by Flaherty and Ahrens, which makes the show seem interminable. Too many unremarkable songs stretch the evening as fillers and minimalize the depth of the narrative. This is where director Darko Tresnjak should have stepped in and tightened the proceedings.

Unfortunately, the show isn’t helped any by having two extremely bland performers as the protagonists. Neither Christy Altomare nor Derek Klena have the depth or charisma to carry off the leads. They both don’t seem to realize that they are portraying Russians, instead of voiceovers for an animated film. John Bolton and Caroline O’Connor (as lady-in-waiting to the empress) perform the obligatory older folks for the light comic touch, with both having too many songs and slowing up the action.

The two gems are Mary Beth Peil, who is so regal and divine as the Empress. Young performers, take notice and learn from Ms. Peil on how she commands the stage. Finally she has been given a role that utilizes her talents. The second is Ramin Karimloo, in the role of Gleb, with a voice and presence that shakes the rafters. Oh, how wonderful it would have been if he had played Dmitry. Anyone would give up everything to be able to run away with him.

Lastly one could call the show a spectacle, thanks in large part to the dazzling costumes by Linda Cho, expert lighting by Donald Holder, but especially to Aaron Rhyne for his innovative projection design. It is absolutely astounding how seamlessly the scenes change from palace to the streets, from Russia to Paris. All three evoke the mood of a fairy tale.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 27, 2017
Reviewed at press performance on April 26, 2017

‘ANASTASIA’: Christy Altomare & Derek Klena. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: Ramin Karimloo & Christy Altomare. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: John Bolton & Caroline O’Connor. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: (seated, left to right) John Bolton, Christy Altomare & Derek Klena. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: Derek Klena & Christy Altomare. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: Nicole Scimeca & Mary Beth Peil. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘ANASTASIA’: Christy Altomare. Photo: Matthew Murphy

The post ‘Anastasia’: Romancing the last Romanov appeared first on StageZine.

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Janet McTeer & Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES
Written by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Josie Rourke
Through January 22, 2017
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.LiaisonsBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the third time, I marveled at how well written and crafted a play it is. Granted, productions can vary, casts can give different interpretations, and weak directors misguide the show but this play about love, passion, deceit, seduction, deception, lust and much more, all set in Paris and the countryside in the 1780s, is a marvel to behold.

The enjoyment of the play is how the two main characters manipulate themselves, each other and the people that cross their paths. Needless to say the victims are virtually all annihilated. Le Vicomte de Valmont (Liev Schreiber) and La Marquise de Merteuil (Janet McTeer) are the two principles who joust and parry in this lethal game of love and conquest with other people’s lives. They were once lovers; now they are friends who constantly challenge each other on whom are they going to conquer next and to what degree is that person going to suffer.

The three lives that are going to be affected include Madame de Tourvel (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen), a married, virtuous woman who is staying with Valmont’s aunt, Madame de Rosemonde (Mary Beth Peil). Valmont truly loves Madame de Tourvel but will ultimately seduce and destroy her. Cecile Volanges (Elena Kampouris) is a girl of 15 out of the convent, and daughter of the Marquise’s cousin, whom she forces Valmont to seduce. The third being Le Chevalier Danceny (Raffi Barsoumian), who is in love with Cecile, but the Marquise decides to dally with him to thwart off and renege on her promise to Valmont.

Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer are both very good but they don’t strike the right chord together. They lack the sting the two need that causes all this devastation around them and that comes from faulty direction. The reason for this disconnect between the two, although Mr. Schreiber makes a good Valmont, is he is too good looking for any woman to resist in the 1780s or 2016. He wouldn’t have to try very hard to seduce any woman; she wouldn’t be able to resist him. He lacks the smarminess and lechery that his predecessors had. Ms. McTeer lacks the villainess the character desperately needs.

This all comes under the heading of faulty direction by Josie Rourke. A stronger director could have corrected these minor infractions and made it into a much stronger production. In the supporting roles, Mary Beth Peil and Birgitte Hjort Sorensen are the standouts.

Despite the minor flaws I mentioned, I strongly recommend Les Liaisons Dangereuses if you are in the mood for an evening of seduction and deception. Who wouldn’t want to see Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer live on stage?

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 4, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on November 3, 2016

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Birgitte Hjort Sorensen & Liev Schreiber. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber & Elena Kampouris. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES’: Liev Schreiber & Janet McTeer. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LES LIAISON DANGEREUSES’: Mary Beth Peil & Birgitte Hjort Sorensen. Photo: Joan Marcus

The post ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ still seduces appeared first on StageZine.

CHITA RIVERA, GIVING ONE OF HER BEST PERFORMANCES EVER: (left to right) Tom Nelis, Chita Rivera, Chris Newcomer & Matthew Deming in ‘The Visit.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE VISIT
Book by Terrence McNally
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Based on the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Directed by John Doyle
Choreography by Graciela Daniele
Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.thevisitmusical.com

By David NouNou

She enters from the rear of stage right in a beautiful white, fur clad-coat and cane in hand and the applause begins. She has a long, slow walk to center stage and halts and the ovation is genuine and rapturous and it doesn’t stop. Chita Rivera: Broadway legend and one of two remaining superstars who can command the stage and elicit an ovation upon an entrance. I promised myself that I wouldn’t start my review by gushing over her, but how can one not? After all, we have come to praise Chita. Her roles are indelible and immortal by now: Anita in West Side Story, Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Anyanka in Bajour, Velma Kelly in Chicago. The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman earned her two Tony Awards, and she received Tony nominations in a recent revival of Nine and her one-woman show Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life; and she was in the 2012 revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She now adds to this roster Claire Zachanassian, which ranks among her greatest performances.

The play The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt is a compelling drama unto itself, and it is very difficult to musicalize. I know it is tempting for Kander and Ebb to reach for the dark subject matters in shows and try to make them more enthralling by adding a score; it certainly worked in Cabaret and Chicago, but there was also humor there that could be tapped into. However, in The Visit there is no room for musical numbers; they distract from the drama and weaken it. Sure, there are some melodies that are reminiscent of both musicals, but these don’t linger.

Set in the desolate and impoverished town of Bracken, somewhere in Europe after World War II, Claire returns to her hometown with her ominous black bags, and there are lots of them, and her valet and two eunuchs. Why is she back after many years of ostracism to this bleak, desolate wasteland? We learn that when she was young, she gave herself to Anton Schell (Roger Rees) who went on to marry Matilde Schell (Mary Beth Peil) because her father owned a store and he could better himself. In a mock trial, Claire was thrust out as a whore with a child. After leaving Bracken, Claire married many men who died on her and left her lots of money, making her the richest woman in the world.

She has not forgotten how badly she was treated by the citizens, but she is willing to strike a deal with them. She will pay 10 billion marks for the city to rebuild and each person in it gets an additional two million apiece for the life of Anton Schell. At first everyone is appalled by such an offer, but slowly greed and the taste of the finer things start creeping into the lives of Anton’s friends and even his family. One asks oneself how much is a person’s life actually worth when it comes to revenge and to what lengths would one go to get their pound of flesh?

Durrenmatt’s story is a gorgeous morality play. It’s a pity it hasn’t been revived since 1973. Terrence McNally has written a book that plays to Ms. Rivera’s strengths and the score tries to have a sentimental lilt about it. However, John Doyle’s gloomy direction sucks up everything. Even having young counterparts/shadows of the younger Claire and Anton (a device lifted from young counterparts in Follies) is not very original. John Riddle and Michelle Veintimilla are gorgeous together, and you can see the passion there, but they add very little to the story after a while. Roger Rees, as the older Anton, is a hollow shell of a man now and seems quite uncomfortable in his part and in his singing. One even wonders why Clare wastes all that money on him. Oh, venomous revenge is never sweet.

And so we are back to Chita Rivera. Her singing voice has gotten slower and raspier; she doesn’t do her immortal high kick steps anymore, but good God, can the woman act and still break our hearts. In truth, Ms. Rivera is now 82, and another magnificent role like Claire Zachanassian will be hard to come by. Any theatergoer who cherishes a great performance from a legend must go to the Lyceum Theatre and marvel at the beauty and craftsmanship of the diva La Rivera. In years to come, I know I will be thrilled to say that I was there to see her giving one of her finest performances ever.

VIEW OF ‘THE VISIT’: The superb Chita Rivera & the cast. Photo: Thom Kaine

DANCING WITH HERSELF: Chita Rivera dances with her younger self, Michelle Veintimilla, in ‘The Visit,.’ Photo: Thom Kaine

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Townspeople sing of their greed in ‘The Visit.’ Photo: Thom Kaine

TOWN WITHOUT PITY (left to right) Roger Rees, John Riddle, Michelle Veintimilla & Chita Rivera in ‘The Visit,’ about a woman seeking revenge on the man & town that ostracized her decades ago. Photo: Joan Marcus

KANDER & EBB’S LAST MUSICAL’: Michelle Veintimilla, Matthew Deming, Rogers Rees, Chita Rivera, Chris Newcomer & cast of ‘The Visit’. Photo: Thom Kaine

LA DIVA RIVERA &
‘THE EUNUCHS’: Chita Rivera & cast members in ‘The Visit.’ Photo: Thom Kaine

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 29, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on April 28, 2015

The post Chita Rivera makes ‘The Visit’ worth the trip appeared first on StageZine.