‘THE NAP’: (left to right) Max Gordon Moore, Bhavesh Patel, Ben Schnetzer, John Ellison Conlee & Heather Lind. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE NAP
Written by Richard Bean
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Through November 11, 2018
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), http://thenapbroadway.com/

By David NouNou

Set in present day Sheffield in the United Kingdom, Richard Bean’s The Nap is about snooker. Snooker is a British game similar to pool and billiards. There are no solid or striped balls, both players get to sink the same balls into pockets, and some of the balls have higher point values than others. Obviously the more points you sink till the last ball is sunk, the player with the most points wins. One cannot divulge too much of the plot, because most of the fun of this show is witnessing how the story unfolds.

Dylan Spokes’ (Ben Schnetzer) world revolves around snooker; he has devoted his life to it. His father Bobby Spokes (John Ellison Conlee) has primed Dylan for this moment to compete in The World Snooker Championship. There are more people involved but again, one can’t tell you much about them because their characters are part of the plot development. There is Stella Spokes (Johanna Day) Dylan’s mother, Tony DanLino (Max Gordon Moore) is his sleazy agent, and Waxy Bush (Alexandra Billings). a transsexual mobster.

Mr. Bean’s other show, One Man, Two Guvnors, which opened at the Music Box in 2011 with James Corden, was a frantic comedy with a stellar performance by Mr. Corden. The Nap is a slower-paced comedy with convoluted characters that are mixed up with all sorts of shady dealings which is in large part where the play gets its fun.

Daniel Sullivan’s direction keeps the plot and actors constantly moving and you really have to pay attention to the dialogue. Because of the regional British accents in the show, it makes it difficult to understand all the punch lines, thus extra listening is required to get the most out of them.

Ben Schnetzer is very good as the Dylan, the young snooker player caught up in the machinations of the adults. John Ellison Conlee delivers yet another delightful performance as Dylan’s addlepated former drug-dealing father; and when your character is named Waxy Bush, a transsexual mobster, Alexandra Billings makes the most of her sublime role.

The Nap is not as rambunctious as its predecessor, but still a delightful evening of hi-jinx in the theater.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 1, 2018
Reviewed at September 30, 2018 press performance.

‘THE NAP’: Ben Schnetzer & Heather Lind. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: Ben Schnetzer & Johanna Day. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: Max Gordon Moore & (left to right) Johanna Day & Alexandra Billings. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: Max Gordon Moore & John Ellison Conlee. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: Ben Schnetzer & Max Gordon Moore. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: Max Gordon Moore & Alexandra Billings. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE NAP’: (left to right) Bhavesh Patel, Thomas Jay Ryan, Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Max Gordon Moore, Ben Schnetzer, John Ellison Conlee, Johanna Day, Heather Lind, Alexandra Billings & Ethan Hova. Photo: Joan Marcus

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SAINT JOAN

Written by Bernard Shaw

Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Through June 10, 2018

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

261 West 47th Street

(212-239-6200), www.saintjoanbroadway.com

By David NouNou

Shaw’s Saint Joan in the best of productions is ponderous and lugubrious. And in the worst-case scenario, it can be like a bad college production with poor direction, acting of all different styles and no cohesion. Well, here we are, folks. What is most mystifying about this production is the direction of Daniel Sullivan, a brilliant director with occasional misfires. Last year at this same time, he directed Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes for the Manhattan Theatre Club with glorious results; fresh, crisp, and razor sharp. This time around everything is stale, wilted and tiresome

The proceedings aren’t made any easier by the mere fact of Bernard Shaw’s verbose text. It is so bogged down by repetition, you need a red pencil for major editing. Starting in 1429 in Vaucouleurs (in Northeastern France), the French have been at war with England for over 90 years and have been severely defeated, demoralized, and depleted. On top of it all, France hasn’t had a king for over 10 years, and a lot of the cities have been governed under British rule.

It is at this point that Joan (Condola Rashad), also known as “the Maid,” is presented to the squire of her province, Robert de Baudricort (Patrick Page), stating that the voices of St. Margaret and St. Catherine have spoken to her to lead an army against England. All she needs is a horse and a suit of armor to lead the men into battle. When presented with the obstacles in front of her, she states that it doesn’t matter, for she has God on her side.

Claiming victories and proving victorious, thus earning the respect of the men in her command, her next mission is to find The Dauphin, Charles VII, known as Charlie (Adam Chanler-Berat) and crowning him King of France. Charles has his own problems; he is a spineless twit, who gets no respect and just wants to be left alone and remain the nothing that he is. Joan persists and eventually crowns him as the next king.

Being vexed by Joan’s rising popularity and victories, the Earl of Warwick (Jack Davenport) wants her burned at the stake as a heretic, thus bribing the French Catholic Church to bring her in and charging her with sedition. The Bishop of Beauvais, Cauchon (Walter Bobbie), has some moral misgivings about prosecuting her. But due to her strong willfulness and refusing to renounce her voices and God, and her refusal to dress as a woman instead of a soldier, in a mock trial stacked against her, Joan signs her own death warrant and is burned at the stake. As history, this is a glorious tale of the hypocrisy of church and state. As written by Bernard Shaw and the unnecessary 20-minute epilogue that follows, it is an interminable evening.

Adding to the production’s misfires is Condola Rashad as Joan. Ms. Rashad is a lovely young actress, and one of the best of her generation. She is a three-time Tony Award nominee and deserved to win for each of her performances. The problem here is Joan is supposed to be a simple peasant girl whose motivations are clearly directed by the voices she hears. She is an innocent trapped by her own victories and strongheadedness. Ms. Rashad is by no means simple in any way, her actions seem of her own doing rather than the voices she hears, thus causing a major and tragic flaw to the balance of the play.

As for the rest of the cast, renowned as they are: Patrick Page, Walter Bobbie, Daniel Sunjata, John Glover, Adam Chanler-Berat, Jack Davenport are all doing various degrees of hamming. From Mr. Page’s Shakespearean intonations to Mr. Davenport’s unnecessary comedic buffoonery, each brings a different style from 1400s France to 2018. Wasn’t Mr. Sullivan out there watching the ensuing proceedings? Isn’t he supposed to bring them together and place them all on the same page?

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 30, 2018
Reviewed at April 27, 2018 press performance.

‘SAINT JOAN’: Condola Rashad. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Condola Rashad & Daniel Sunjata. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Adam Chanler-Berat. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Jack Davenport. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Walter Bobbie. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: John Glover. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Patrick Page. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SAINT JOAN’: Adam Chanler-Berat & Condola Rashad. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘INDECENT’: The cast. Photo: Carol Rosegg

INDECENT
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Cort Theatre
138 West 48th Street
212-239-6200, www.IndecentBroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

More than merely a drama about a play that shocked early 20th century audiences, Paula Vogel’s Indecent illuminates a dark period of history when anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment were rampant in America. No, the year is not 2017 but 1906 to the 1920s through 1940s. There are numerous themes and subtexts in this complex, fascinating and sometimes confusing drama, from the troubled staging of Yiddish writer Sholem Asch’s theatrical potboiler God of Vengeance to the disturbing tide of prejudice toward Jews and their culture evolving from the turn of the 20th century and onward.

This is the proverbial Brechtian epic, immediately grabbing one’s attention and posing questions about art, decency, and the boundaries of morality and faith. It’s exhausting yet riveting to watch from the opening scene, with Yiddish actors onstage speaking as ashes literally fall off their bodies. This is only the beginning of the layers upon layers of symbolism that unfold throughout the 100-minute show.

At first glance, one thinks the story is simply about Mr. Asch’s turgid Yiddish drama, a sensational tale about a brothel owner, his daughter, a prostitute, a lesbian affair and desecration of a Torah. Asch’s play was a hit on the Yiddish theater circuit in Europe, but scandalous indeed when it was translated into English and debuted in New York at the Provincetown Playhouse in 1922. Although the lesbian themes were toned down (and a Sapphic kissing scene cut) for the Broadway transfer to the Apollo Theatre in 1923, the cast and producer were arrested mid-performance for obscenity a few weeks into the run.

Indecent, however, is really less about the puritanical reaction to God of Vengeance in America and more of an homage to the death of Yiddish theater and the tragedy of Jews across the world from the early 1900s up through the Holocaust. In addition, the story shows how America, decades before feminism, could not handle not only homosexuality but anything that depicted women as something beyond wives, daughters or prostitutes.

Despite the heavy subject matter, Indecent is a visually arresting piece of theater. Seven actors portray “the troupe,” from Lemml, the stage manager of Asch’s play (Richard Topol), while others play musicians performing klezmer-style music (with original compositions by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva). The stage features constantly changing projections of Yiddish, Hebrew and English supertitles and scene settings, from Warsaw in 1906 (when Asch first wrote the play) to Berlin, various stages and attics across Europe to New York City. The action jumps around from city to city like a TV miniseries or popular novel (a narrative technique that is always tricky on the stage).

There is a frenetic lyricism to Rebecca Taichman’s direction of the actors, many of whom play multiple roles. It is Ms. Taichman’s manic pacing of the evolving plot, musicians and actors dancing in circles–and the endless projections of the supertitles–that keeps us glued to the action but grows tiresome at times.

Indecent is a show that has quite a backstory itself, with Ms. Taichman basing the chronicle of God of Vengeance (and its obscenity trial over the first lesbian kiss in American theater) as a directing thesis at Yale. She and Paula Vogel worked over a period of seven years to develop the opus, after productions at the Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and an Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard last year.

There are outstanding ensemble performances here, from Richard Topol as Lemml and Max Gordon Moore as Sholem Asch to Katrina Lenk and Adina Verson as the actresses portraying lovers. Musicians Matt Darriau, Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva add an eerie, haunting sincerity to the play with their original compositions.

Yes, the show is over-the-top, overly poetic, and perhaps too cerebral and academic for its own good. However, the overall message of Indecent is what makes it so relevant and topical today. Because, much like the political climate leading up to World War II, we also now live in age of xenophobia and prejudice about sexuality, race and religion. It is chilling when one thinks that the censorship, bigotry and fascism that were pervasive in the days of God of Vengeance (and created so much human suffering) could easily be repeated in 21st century America.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 18, 2017
Reviewed at press performance on April 15, 2017

‘INDECENT’: (left to right) Aaron Halva (with accordion), Matt Darriau (with clarinet), Lisa Gutkin (with violin) & company. Photo: Carol Rosegg

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‘INDECENT’: The cast. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: The cast. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: Max Gordon Moore & Richard Topol. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: Max Gordon Moore & Richard Topol. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: Katrina Lenk & Adina Verson. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: Max Gordon Moore & Adina Verson. Photo: Carol Rosegg

‘INDECENT’: Adina Verson & Katrina Lenk. Photo: Carol Rosegg

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