‘HAPPY TALK’: Marin Ireland & Susan Sarandon. Photo: Monique Carboni

HAPPY TALK
Written by Jesse Eisenberg
Directed by Scott Elliott
Through June 16, 2019
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
(212-279-4200), http://www.TheNewGroup.org

By David NouNou

I was so intrigued by Jesse Eisenberg’s last play The Spoils, presented by the New Group in 2015 (also performed at this same theatre and directed by Scott Elliott), that I really looked forward to his next show. Mr. Eisenberg can never be accused of lacking imagination when it comes to his play writing. So for his current venture Happy Talk, he has Lorraine (Susan Sarandon), a suburban New Jersey housewife, rehearsing to play Bloody Mary in the Jewish Community Center production of South Pacific. Well, the premise right there is a hoot. However, Lorraine is saddled by a bed-ridden dying mother who is never seen; a pain-riddled husband, Bill (Daniel Oreskes) who is mainly seated quietly and reading his papers in his recliner; and an estranged daughter, Jenny (Tedra Millian). Throughout all this mayhem, there is a savior, the Serbian immigrant aide Ljuba (Marin Ireland). Ljuba tends to the dying mother, the ailing husband, and especially to Lorraine, who is in constant need of validation.

After six months of working for this family, Ljuba asks Lorraine for a favor. She is here illegally from Serbia and wonders if Lorraine, who works with so many people in her theatrical community, can find her a husband that she can buy with the $15,000 she has saved in order to get her green card. Lorraine does a great job of matchmaking and brings home Ronny (Nico Santos). Ronny plays Lt. Cable in South Pacific. He is gay, Asian, and has a partner and both are in desperate need of money, so Ronny is willing to comply.

The set-up in part one is amusing, the second part is hysterical and witty, but the third part becomes Mr. Eisenberg’s now formulaic, five-character nihilism as it was in The Spoils.

Mr. Eisenberg could have had a wonderful comedy, the likes of Neil Simon. It could have been something totally different for him and very entertaining for the times in which we live, but he chose to stick to his now trademark dark themes. His Lorraine is a wonderful eccentric character like so many wannabes who never made it in real life as a professional actress but delude themselves that they bring extra character to the part they are playing when the part already has all the essentials the character needs. Susan Sarandon is a superb actress, and as Lorraine, she not only embodies delusional and is loved by all, but also can deliver devious and crazy like no one else. She makes Lorraine a terrifying experience for anyone who works in community theatre.

In Happy Talk, Marin Ireland captivates us from the onset. Eccentric? Yes, but in the best sense, upbeat in a sort of Gilda Radner way as Lisa Lubner, or Roseanne Roseannadanna (from the early seasons of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), perfectly charming, and delivering a sensitive, heartbreakingly authentic performance to be counted among the best of the year.

If you liked Nico Santos in last year’s mega-hit movie Crazy Rich Asians, you’ll adore him here. As if being gay and Asian, playing the all-American Lt. Joe Cable in South Pacific isn’t enough, he wants to give Joe a limp to add character, and that concept itself is a scream. He is the perfect remedy for what is about to unfold.

Jesse Eisenberg has written a good play and Scott Elliott has directed it in an adroit manner, but both have already explored similar territory because The Spoils also featured a protagonist who turned into an antagonist and became a nihilist. With Happy Talk, Mr. Eisenberg and Mr. Elliott have both rehashed things from their previous collaboration. However, I still recommend the play highly just to witness thoroughly engaging performances from Marin Ireland, Susan Sarandon and Nico Santos.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 16, 2019
Reviewed at May 12, 2019 press preview performance.

‘HAPPY TALK’: (left to right) Daniel Oreskes, Nico Santos, Susan Sarandon & Marin Ireland. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘HAPPY TALK’: (left to right) Susan Sarandon, Marin Ireland & Nico Santos. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘HAPPY TALK’: (left to right) Daniel Oreskes, Susan Sarandon & Nico Santos. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘HAPPY TALK’: (left to right) Marin Ireland, Susan Sarandon & Tedra Millan. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘HAPPY TALK’: (left to right) Susan Sarandon, Marin Ireland & Tedra Millan. Photo: Monique Carboni

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‘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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JERRY SPRINGER—THE OPERA
Music & lyrics by Richard Thomas
Book & additional lyrics by Stewart Lee & Richard Thomas
Choreography by Chris Bailey
Directed by John Rando
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd Street, (212) 279-4200
www.thenewgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

Jerry Springer—The Opera was originally produced in Britain back in 2003 and received an Olivier for Best Musical. Other than a two-day concert staging at Carnegie Hall a decade ago, this profane, sung-through parody of the infamous tabloid TV talk has been absent from the New York stage until now. It’s certainly been worth the wait because this off-Broadway production is original and marvelously entertaining.

Some of the subject matter—from tap-dancing Ku Klux Klansmen to strippers, a transgender tramp and a man with a diaper fetish—was probably shocking 15 years ago, but not in modern-day America, with the wackiness of Washington and our reality TV star president giving us a daily dose of surrealistic news that is more bizarre than anything on Jerry Springer’s show.

Theater veterans Terrence Mann as Jerry Springer, and Will Swenson as his Warm-Up Man, play the leads with comic precision. Act I is basically a musical version of over-the-top staples from Springer’s show: a man, Dwight (Luke Grooms) cheating on his fiancé, Peaches (Florrie Bagel) with her best friend, Zandra (Beth Kirkpatrick) and a midriff-bearing transsexual, Tremont (Sean Patrick Doyle). There’s also a redneck, Chucky (Nathaniel Hackmann) and his wife Shawntel (Tiffany Mann), a woman with dreams of becoming a pole dancer. Plus, a man in a diaper and his girlfriend, a character called Baby Jane (Jill Paice), and more.

F-bombs abound in the numerous hilarious songs written and composed by Richard Thomas, from “Talk to the Hand” and “Mama Gimme Smack” to “Put Your F***in’ Clothes On.” Act I breezes by with scatological glory, but just like watching an episode of Springer’s show, the shock value eventually wears thin by Acts II and III. These later acts of the musical are set in Purgatory and Hell, with Mr. Swenson doubling as Satan himself. Of course, there are characters poking fun at Jesus and the Virgin Mary with blasphemous zeal. After the seamless first act, the show unravels a bit and makes little sense, but it’s all so much fun that one doesn’t mind. Just enjoy the insane ride.

Why did it take so long for Jerry Springer—The Opera to arrive on this side of the Atlantic? Who knows. The British invented the tabloid press and nurtured the concept of reality TV long before us, so perhaps one could say the U.K. has a bigger appetite and appreciation for “schlock” than America.

Theater purists and the easily offended may argue that Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee’s creation simply wasn’t good enough for a mainstream U.S. production, but it must be noted they wrote this foul-mouthed “opera” eight years before the derisive, impudent Book of Mormon became a phenomenon. For this fact alone, the show was ahead of its proverbial time.

There are numerous standouts, especially Terrence Mann as Jerry Springer and Will Swenson as Warm-Up Man/Satan. The cast is uniformly superb, with strong and melodic voices. In particular, Tiffany Mann as Shawntel is in especially fine voice doing her show-stopper “I Just Wanna Dance.” Tony winner John Rando directs all the insanity with amazing precision, and that’s no easy task in a small venue with a 17-member cast in a production as ambitious as this, with performances that are consistently and beautifully outrageous in all the right places.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 25, 2018
Reviewed at February 24, 2018 performance.

‘JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA’: Will Swenson & Terrence Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA’: Tiffany Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: (left to right) Terrence Mann & Jill Paice & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE MUSICAL’: Terrence Mann (far left) & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: Nathaniel Hackmann, Tiffany Mann & (top right) Billy Hepfinger. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: (left to right) Florrie Bagel, Luke Grooms & Terrence Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

“JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: Jill Paice (center) & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

The post ‘Jerry Springer—The Opera’: Lowbrow meets high art appeared first on StageZine.

‘ALL THE FINE BOYS’: Abigail Breslin & Joe Tippett. Photo: Monique Carboni

ALL THE FINE BOYS
Written & directed by Erica Schmidt
Through March 26, 2017
The New Group at Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
(212-279-4200), www.thenewgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

The limits and boundaries of two teenage girls’ innocence and coming-of-age sexual identities are explored with gritty sincerity in suburban 1980s South Carolina in Erica Schmidt’s dark, disturbing All the Fine Boys.

Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin is the obvious draw here, but she’s part of a truly gifted ensemble. Ms. Breslin plays 14-year-old Jenny. She and her best friend Emily (Isabelle Fuhrman) both enjoy hanging out in the basement watching “slasher” horror movies, and they are anxious for real experience with boys. In their world, this means seeking older guys. The paths each choose, of course, has different levels of danger.

Emily selects a senior boy from her high school’s play, Adam (Alex Wolff), while Jenny goes after a man she has seen at her family’s church, Joseph (Joe Tippett). The play, at just one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission, focuses on each girl’s story.

Emily is fascinated by Adam, who’s into music and poetry, and she idolizes the guy. He is just a few years older than her. Meanwhile, Jenny’s story is a bit complicated since Joseph is twice her age at 28.

Playwright/director Erica Schmidt weaves the narrative of the two girls together beautifully, complete with 1980s classic pop songs, showing the parallels of each and their troubling twists. On the surface this appears to be a harmless account of two teenagers experiencing boys for the first time. However, the girls’ innocence will soon be shattered.

Ms. Breslin wonderfully portrays Jenny, a girl who enjoys eating Pringles potato chips and Twizzlers and experiments with cigarette smoking. She has everything about Jenny down, from the smoldering adult sensuality to the awkward vulnerability to the gawky mannerisms. She is every teen who has ever wanted to simply fit in. Jenny is a teen wanting desperately to appear grown up, but is too inexperienced and naïve to comprehend what it really means to get involved with an adult man. Ms. Breslin has definitely come a long way from her breakout role as the child beauty queen in Little Miss Sunshine.

Equally effective are Isabelle Fuhrman as her best friend Emily and Mr. Wolff as the theater nerd/musician who teaches her about poetry, Morrissey and the Smiths.

Joe Tippett gives a marvelously subtle portrayal of Joseph, the handsome man Jenny knows from church. He at first appears innocuous, almost apologetic for being attracted to someone so young, but it is unsettling watching his personality change as the plot unfolds.

Erica Schmidt does a fine job of blending the different scenes as the setting shifts, from Jenny and Joseph to Emily and Adam, all on a small stage. The cast are all so natural, and the dialogue so believable that we are left rattled by the many twists, even if some are ultimately a bit cliché. Although Ms. Schmidt has not chosen the most original subject matter, there is enough stellar acting here to make us overlook the sometimes too-familiar territory of adolescent angst and teenage sexuality.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 1, 2017
Reviewed at press performance on February 25, 2017

‘ALL THE FINE BOYS’: Isabelle Fuhrman & Alex Wolff. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘ALL THE FINE BOYS’: Abigail Breslin & Joe Tippett. Photo: Monique Carboni

The post ‘All the Fine Boys’ a dark teen tale 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.