STAR POWER: (left to right) Megan Mullally & Nathan Lane. Photo: Joan Marcus

IT’S ONLY A PLAY
Written by Terrence McNally
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Through January 4, 2015
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200),www.ItsOnlyAPlay.com

By David NouNou

The first instinct of any theatre-goer who hears that Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally, F. Murray Abraham and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley of Harry Potter fame) are starring in Terrence McNally’s revival of It’s Only A Play would be to order tickets. And they did just that, creating an advance sale of millions of dollars. One wonders what this cast of luminaries saw in this flimsy excuse for a play.

It was presented as a re-write of Mr. McNally’s Broadway Broadway and played at the small Off-Broadway house at the Manhattan Theatre Club for 47 performances in 1985. It must have been a fluff piece about a playwright, his best friend, cast, producer and a critic awaiting the reviews of a show on opening night.  The premise was this: While waiting for the reviews, a lot of famous names of the day were mentioned, those evoking the mirth and humor. Well, now it is a fully mounted Broadway show with all the above-mentioned stars in this overblown, overlong, namedropping bacchanal, in which boldfaced names—ranging from Lady Gaga to Alec Baldwin and James Franco to Ben Brantley, critic of the New York Times—are bandied about as if the very mention of them creates an instant hysterical punch line.

For a comedy to truly work, it has to be embedded in reality, the people have to make sense, and the humor has to flow naturally. Yes, there are some genuinely funny lines as a result of the celebrity namedropping, but you can’t build a whole show around it. In addition, a critic who hasn’t written his review of the show yet would never be attending the producer’s opening night party. Worse yet is having a British director throw a tantrum that critics have only praised him and his works and he has not known a failure. I know that theatre people live for praise; I don’t think anybody in the theatre yearns for a failure…..and so it goes. What humor did all the above- mentioned A-listers see in this bit of fluff that has not been revived since 1985?

Thank God for Nathan Lane, for no one can inject humor into a listless line like he can. He and Stockard Channing manage to save the day with their over-the-top performances. Mr. Lane is James Wicker, the playwright’s best friend. Ms Channing is the drug and booze-addled leading actress Virginia Noyes of said play, The Golden Egg. The playwright, Peter Austin, is Matthew Broderick, delivering another one of his one-dimensional robotic, monotone performances; it now seems no one can flatline a comedy like him.

Megan Mullally is a puzzlement here; she is among the best scene stealers in comedy. However, as the producer, Julia Budder, she seems lost between a combination of her Karen Walker character from TV’s “Will & Grace” and a Southern bimbo who wants to be the sole producer of a show. Her part is too underwritten to make her believable or effective.

A part that could have very easily been written out of the play is Ira Drew, a critic played by F. Murray Abraham. He is fine in the role but there is nothing to substantiate his existence here because critics are a producer’s nightmare. Totally miscast, as the sniveling British director, is Rupert Grint. Why he was made out to look like Tim Burton, the film director, is a head scratcher.

Jack O’Brien, the director, does his best to keep things moving. After all, it is a step up from his 2013 Macbeth with Ethan Hawke at Lincoln Center. The pity of it all is there was so much anticipation and potential for this show. Had it not had so many stars, with each needing their stage time, this could have been written as a tighter, more insightful play for audiences to learn what really goes on after the curtain comes down on opening night and the agony of cast and crew having to wait for those ever-dreadful reviews. But then again, this is supposed to be a comedy.

OPENING NIGHT JITTERS: (left to right) Rupert Grint, F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing & Nathan Lane in ‘It’s Only a Play.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THERE’S NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: (left to right) Micah Stock, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint & Nathan Lane in ‘It’s Only a Play.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Video Excerpt from It’s Only a Play

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 12, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 11, 2014

The post ‘It’s Only a Play’: Did we like it? appeared first on StageZine.

ESTRANGED EX-SPOUSES: Ulysses (Nick Offerman) & ex-wife Emma (Megan Mullally) in Sharr White’s ‘Annapurna.’ Photo: Monique Carboni

ANNAPURNA
Written by Sharr White
Directed by Bart DeLorenzo
Through June 1, 2014
The New Group at Theatre Row
Acorn Theatre
410 West 42nd Street, www.newgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

Just how much are we willing to forgive someone who has damaged us, either emotionally or physically, when we learn he or she is dying?  Or confront a person, face to face, so he/she understands the complexity and magnitude of an unspeakable act of violence years later? These heavy questions are posed in Sharr White’s dark, provocative new one act, starring real-life husband and wife Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) and Nick Offerman (of “Parks and Recreation” fame).

Annapurna is something of a departure for playwright Sharr White, author of such recent Broadway dramas as The Snow Geese and The Other Place, two tales set in upper-class surroundings. The narrative and structure are also superior to his earlier efforts, and the characters and dialogue more emotionally formidable and true to life. Here, everything takes place in a ramshackle, one-room trailer (brilliantly designed by Thomas A. Walsh) in rural Paonia, Colorado, with a view of the Rockies.  Ulysses (Mr. Offerman) is a not-so-successful poet and former college professor, hooked up to an oxygen tank because he’s suffering from emphysema and lung cancer, living his final days in squalor with a smelly old dog. His ex-wife, Emma (Ms. Mullally) returns, suitcase and money in hand, for a visit 20 years after she and their son left him. It is the reason why she’s back that is the mystery for the rest of the show, as Emma cleans her ex-husband’s filthy trailer, buys groceries and talks vaguely about the wreckage of their failed marriage and what happened to their son (now in his 20s) when he was five years old.

Anyone expecting to see Ms. Mullally do a variation of her Karen Walker character from “Will & Grace” will be disappointed because, although she maintains some of that iconic TV character’s whiny intonations, nothing here is amusing enough to call this a comedy. Granted, Emma and Ulysses indulge in some awkward repartee in the opening scenes of the play, when Ulysses walks around nearly naked and asks his ex-wife what she’s doing in Paonia, the “ass-crack of the Rockies”. In the first third of the play, even when Ms. Mullally’s character shouts, there are traces of the high-pitched, lilting “Karen Walker” voice, but it soon fades.  As the story progresses and the twists get bleaker and more solemn, the acting from both Ms. Mullally and Mr. Offerman is consistently first rate.

Annapurna is a somewhat depressing 95 minutes, but it is thoroughly engrossing and there is dynamic raillery and tension between Emma and Ulysses.  There are shades of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the many excoriating arguments and banter between the two exes, and the volatile love-hate relationship they still have, but Mr. White’s dialogue is never rhythmic or symbolic. After all, Ulysses is supposed to be a cowboy at heart, and Emma has been living humbly after a bad marriage back East.

Mr. White’s script is full of talk about love, death and hate, but the dialogue and revelations never delve into the maudlin.  Director Bart DeLorenzo has little to do here, because the onstage chemistry between Mr. Offerman and Ms. Mullally is so natural and palpable.  Since both portrayals are so solid, we easily overlook any shortcomings in the narrative.  There is an especially haunting sincerity in Mr. Offerman’s understated but powerful performance, perhaps due to the fact that the two are married in real life, thus enhancing the energy they share here.

CLEANING THE DEBRIS OF A FAILED MARRIAGE: Nick Offerman as Ulysses & Megan Mullally as Emma in Sharr White’s ‘Annapurna.’ Photo: Monique Carboni

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 21, 2014
Reviewed at press performance April 20, 2014

The post ‘Annapurna’: Scenes from a long-ago marriage appeared first on StageZine.