‘THE TRUE’: (left to right) Edie Falco, Michael McKean & Peter Scolari. Photo: Monique Carboni

THE TRUE
Written by Sharr White
Directed by Scott Elliott
Through October 28, 2018
The New Group
The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
(212) 279-4200
www.TheNewGroup.org

By David NouNou

Set in 1977 Albany, NY, Erastus Corning II (Michael McKean) is running for his umpteenth term as mayor. However, this time the stakes are much higher as he has an opponent who could easily defeat him. Sharr White’s new drama The True takes electioneering to simpler but not gentler times. There were fewer women’s voices and no social media. Like today, one still had to plan, scheme and maneuver for votes, but unlike today, one email or tweet couldn’t sink a candidate.

Dorothea “Polly” Noonan (Edie Falco), described as “the blunt, profane, decades-long defender of Albany’s Democratic Party machine” and Mayor Corning’s secretary for the last 35 years, is being kicked out by Corning from his inner circle to improve his chances of winning. Polly has been married to Peter Noonan (Peter Scolari) for decades and Peter and Corning have been best friends for decades. The waters here are muddied by the persistent rumor that Polly and Corning have had a relationship together, and this may or may not be true and it is never clarified to what degree that relationship went. Basically, in those days, it was rumors and gossip that persisted; social media wasn’t invented yet to bring people down.

The uniqueness of the play is the tenacity, fierceness and Polly’s persistence that she keeps fighting for Corning even after she has been pushed out of the inner circle. When so few women were involved in politics back then, the ones who were remained dedicated and loyal to the man and the best for the party. They didn’t flit allegiance from one candidate to another. Does Kellyanne Conway come to mind?

The revelation here is Edie Falco; starting out as jabbering, bordering on pushy and obnoxious, only to display her resolved dedication to a man she loves and one she believes in deeply. Her performance is nuanced and spellbinding. Peter Scolari as her husband has never been better, giving a low-key performance of a supporting husband who is bound to both his wife and best friend and forgives anything that may or may not have happened between them. Rounding out this trio is Michael McKean as Corning; as always, he delivers a steadfast performance.

Scott Elliott’s direction is fluid, thanks in large part to Derek McLane’s easy transforming sets. Sharr White has delivered another entertaining evening in the theater but it is Edie Falco’s stunning and galvanizing performance that you will remember for a long time. She truly embodies the adage of “behind every successful man there is a strong woman.”

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 20, 2018
Reviewed at September 16, 2018 press preview performance.

‘THE TRUE’: Michael McKean & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: (left to right) Peter Scolari, Austin Cauldwell & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Glenn Fitzgerald. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Michael McKean. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: John Pankow & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Peter Scolari. Photo: Monique Carboni

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‘THE SPOILS’: Jesse Eisenberg & Kunal Nayyar. Photo: Monique Carboni

THE SPOILS
Written by Jesse Eisenberg
Directed by Scott Elliott
Through June 28, 2015
The New Group
The Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
(212-279-4200), http://www.TheNewGroup.org

By David NouNou

To what ends would one go through to annihilate the ones closest to them? How low would privileged, shiftless millennials sink to, in order to douse the happiness of those hard workers, contributors to society, and people who are just happy to be themselves? How disliked and repellant do you have to be in order to get some recognition from those closest to you? These are just some of the demons that playwright Jesse Eisenberg tries to exorcise here, and he deals with them in a Machiavellian way, with hysterical humor and of course the drama at the core.

Ben (Jesse Eisenberg) is over privileged, living in a fantastic high-rise apartment that his father bought him, and was kicked out of NYU graduate film school. Ben’s never done a day’s work in his life. He’s a pot-smoking, aimless guy who berates everyone close to him. In addition, he’s a bigot, and can’t stand anyone’s happiness, ethics or ambitions. On good days, Ben is sarcastic and spews venom. Ben has a Nepalese roommate, Kalyan (Kunal Nayyar), a hard worker and a finance major. Kalyan loves being in America, and genuinely cares for and likes Ben. He feels obligated to him because Ben lets him live there for free.

Kalyan has a girlfriend, Reshma (Annapurna Sriram), who is medical student on clinical rotations and is very fond of Kalyan, admires his ambitions but has her misgivings about him. She feels free to come and go in Ben’s apartment, and she has contempt for Ben.

On this auspicious day, Ben runs into a former grade-school acquaintance, Ted (Michael Zegen), a likeable Wall Street douche. Ted is marrying Sarah (Erin Darke), a former grade school crush of Ben’s who is now a public school teacher. Now the circle of characters is complete and Eisenberg’s Machiavellian mind shifts the action into high gear. How does a self-hating, childish bully vanquish anyone who is happy, to some degree self-absorbed, has a modicum of success and looks forward to a brighter future?

The ensemble of five is terrific. Eisenberg, the actor, an Oscar nominee and best known for The Social Network, plays the self-destructive Ben to perfection; as both playwright and actor he plays him sincerely and asks for no pity. Like everyone else in life, Ben has to find his own way through his maze.

Kunal Nayyar, best known as TV’s Raj Koothrappalli in the TV series “The Big Bang Theory,” has left such an indelible mark as Raj, that it is almost impossible to separate him from his TV character. Let’s say that Kalyan is the New York cousin of Raj: an optimistic, serious, hard-working immigrant who longs for a better life and Mr. Nayyar delivers splendidly.

Erin Darke, Annapurna Sriram, and Michael Zegen complete the cast and each one stands out well as their character. Scott Elliott, Artistic Director of The New Group and director of The Spoils, should have given Mr. Eisenberg, the playwright, a bit more focus, especially in Act II, because Mr. Eisenberg is proving himself not only as a successful young actor but is distinguishing himself as a new voice and an interesting, up-and-coming playwright.

Jesse Eisenberg & Kunal Nayyar. Photo: Monique Carboni

Jesse Eisenberg & Kunal Nayyar. Photo: Monique Carboni

Annapurna Sriram & Jesse Eisenberg. Photo: Monique Carboni

(Left to right) Michael Zegen, Jesse Eisenberg & Erin Darke. Photo: Monique Carboni

Jesse Eisenberg & Erin Darke. Photo: Monique Carboni

The cast of ‘The Spoils.’ Photo: Monique Carboni

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published June 2, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on May 31, 2015

The post ‘The Spoils’: Millennials Behaving Badly appeared first on StageZine.

MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY: (Left to right): Austin Cauldwell, Ella Dershowitz & Daniel Gerroll. Photo: Monique Carboni.

INTIMACY
Written by Thomas Bradshaw
Directed by Scott Elliott
The New Group at Theatre Row
Acorn Theatre
410 West 42nd Street
(212-239-6200), www.thenewgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

Shock value is nothing new and can be a glorious thing for those who appreciate the intentionally lowbrow.  Film icon John Waters, the “Pope of Trash,” and best-selling “raunchy moralist” novelist Jackie Collins have made fortunes and become legends selling campy, over-the-top, sex-filled tales to the masses.  To the average suburban parent, Thomas Bradshaw’s Intimacy might seem like morally reprehensible filth, but to most jaded New Yorkers or anyone who isn’t offended by pornography, it is tame, entertaining stuff indeed. If you are easily shocked by anything sexual, it’s best not to read this review any further as this show is all about laughing at the lurid.

Mr. Bradshaw, the Northwestern University professor and playwright known for such controversial dramas as Burning, has made a name for himself pushing the proverbial envelope on the New York stage, and his latest might be his most outrageous yet.  As fans and critics of the playwright can attest, walkouts are common in Mr. Bradshaw’s plays, and this one is no exception.

Stereotypes, crazy fantasies and taboo topics are the titillating staples of the average porn film, and Mr. Bradshaw tosses in all the clichés and more in our face in Intimacy, a tawdry comic potboiler set in upper-middle-class suburbia that has many moments of gleeful gross-outs and scatological humor as it purports to explore affluence, parental expectations, class, social mores, racism and just how far people will go when it comes to sex.

The plot centers on a group of suburban families that live in a modern-day version of Peyton Place, but with prurient secrets that would even make that book’s author, the late Grace Metalious, blush.  James (Daniel Gerroll) is a British former Wall Street magnate and widower still grieving the death of his wife as son Matthew (Austin Cauldwell) prepares to apply to colleges.  Much to his father’s surprise, Matthew doesn’t want to go to university and instead dreams of making avant-garde indie films as he idolizes Lars von Trier, Quentin Tarantino and Andy Warhol.

Meanwhile, academics Pat (Laura Esterman), a feminist-theory professor, and her queer-studies professor husband, Jerry (Keith Randolph Smith), are grappling with the inexplicable behavior of their increasingly rebellious teenage daughter, the blonde “harlot” Janet (Ella Dershowitz). Pat, an aging hippie chick, must have overdosed on too many Nancy Friday paperbacks about housewives pursuing great orgasms back in the 1970s because she is more than willing to discuss the joys of cunnilingus with her daughter.

Fred (David Anzeulo) is a stocky Latino contractor working to remodel James’ home for little profit because he is grateful to the man’s late wife, a top-notch oncologist who helped cure his teenage daughter Sarah (Déa Julien) of leukemia.  Sarah is distraught that her mother (who is never seen onstage) is forced to work at Wal-Mart and the kids at school ridicule her about it.

As liberal and well-educated as the families in this upscale community might be, they harbor horribly racist feelings, particularly about Fred’s Mexican workers, many of whom are described as “lazy” and would rather “play the banjo” than finish a day’s work.  Ay yi yi.

The narrative is loaded with hokey homilies and intentionally tasteless jokes about race and sexuality, plus numerous gratuitous scenes of literal toilet humor.  Jerry is convinced he might have colon cancer because he has dark stools, and makes his wife look at them, followed by a scene of him taking a steamy dump on the toilet, complete with sound effects of flatulence. Is it silly enough to evoke snickering from the audience?  Yes, but is any of this necessary or actually funny?

When Matthew insists he doesn’t want to go to college, his father offers him $40,000 to make two short films within a specified time period.  One can guess what happens next as the plot descends into predictable territory that contains every half-baked twist from John Waters films, “sexploitation” flicks and trashy novels from the past 40 years.  It’s a good deal for Matthew, who isn’t exactly college material and spends his days secretly masturbating in his bedroom and trying to hide this fact from his pious papa.  If you’re a male of a certain age, it’s impossible not to laugh at this because we all have painful memories of those awkward teenage years, trying to cover up our raging hormones and dirty magazines from our parents’ prying eyes.  However, anyone who loves Waters’ Serial Mom knows Mr. Bradshaw literally lifted the idea from that classic.

We soon learn the truth about young Janet when James finds her nubile body spread-eagled in an X-rated pictorial in Barely Legal magazine.  James doesn’t want anything to do with Jerry, Pat and slutty little Janet. Of course, hypocritical James is the one who bought the skin mag because the only way he can overcome the grief of his wife’s death is devouring porn depicting 18-year-old jailbait.

It is easy to go along with the story and all the preposterous subplots in act one, but things just unravel by the second act as the whole play becomes like watching one of the implausible, poorly written and downright stupid porno films Mr. Brawshaw is lampooning. Perhaps it’s a spoiler to note, but no surprise when we learn that macho Fred is a closet case and secretly masturbates to online gay porn and, like his daughter, has the hots for Matthew and gets so aroused for the fledgling filmmaker that he strips down to a thong for the guy.

Derek McLane’s clever set anchors the story beautifully.  From the pastiche of the suburban street to TV sets showing raunchy old Ron Jeremy and Linda Lovelace videos, the play is a rich, visual feast.  There are also some fine performances from the cast, particularly stage veteran Daniel Gerroll. However, as ambitious as Scott Elliott’s direction might be, it is impossible for him to make the actors transcend Mr. Bradshaw’s amateurish, paper-thin script, a hodgepodge of everything we ever wanted to know about sex that we’ve seen before.

From incest and homosexuality to “double anal” and “frottage,” the smorgasbord of sexual proclivities here might have been truly shocking had Intimacy been produced half a century ago, but in the 21st century, the show is merely a theatrical stage version of one of the puerile softcore “titty” films shown on late-night cable TV.  In fact, everything would work better as a film because it could be even more sensationalistic and graphic.  Thomas Bradshaw fans certainly will not be disappointed as there is enough fake squirting semen, prosthetic penises, full-frontal male and female nudity and juvenile jokes to keep any lover of “smut” from being bored.

THY NEIGHBOR’S PORN STAR: (Left to right) David Anzuelo, Laura Esterman, Keith Randolph Smith & Ella Dershowitz. Photo: Monique Carboni.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 29, 2014
Reviewed at  press performance on January 22, 2014

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