April was a busy theater going month for me. I had a week and a half vacation, for which I remained in NYC. There were shows I wanted to see one last time before they closed, some hard to resist offers for free tickets, a new Broadway show and some irresistible downtown theater.
On the first day of April I went to see My Last Play. In December my friend bought us tickets to see Ed Schmidt's one man show. I didn't want to go. I wouldn't have bought tickets, but said friend assumed I would want to go, so April 1 went down in my planner. It was weird. It was in Schmidt's basement apartment in Carrol Gardens. He told us funny stories, but at the end told us that most of it was lies, which left a funny taste in my mouth. It was like when you read a great memoir and then the author has to retract half of it. But we did get to raid his library of plays. I got a copy of BENT and Dara took The Normal Heart for me, too.
Twice this month I ventured to The Public Theater to see The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, more commonly referred to as iHo, or "the new Kushner play." I have tried to write more about iHo, but I keep stalling. I love this play, and I don't know why. I am absolutely struck by the young, intellectual hustler (Eli), played by the talented Michael Esper. I love that many of the actors (Stephen Spinella, Linda Emond) have a history with Tony Kushner. I love the ambiguous ending. I love the totally different, complicated relationships that each of Gus's children have with him. I love that there is so much union history in the play, at a time in our country when the future of unions is voted on by State Senates. This play is beautiful, timely and haunting. I would expect nothing less from Mr. Kushner.
I got free tickets to Tomorrow Morning from StageGrade. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone. I am not motivated to see more heterosexual marriage/divorce plays. It was my first time visting York Theatre Company (I didn't see Yank! I'm a bad gay) and we had a hard time finding it. It was in the basement of a church. "Are you taking me to a church play?" asked Dara. I actually liked the story. It was about a couple the night before their wedding, told in parallel with the story of the night before their divorce. The production felt more like a workshop. The singing and acting weren't great, but it was a free night at the theater.
We saw Part II of Angels in America with the original cast. Then we saw Part I with the new cast. I wanted to go back one last time before it closed, so we went to Part II with the new cast during the last week of the run. Keira Keeley and Michael Urie were just outstanding as sick, delusional souls. I could watch that play over and over again. The whole production was so beautiful. Kudos to Michael Greif and Signature Theatre.
This winter I saw Pearl Theatre Company's production of The Misanthrope and I didn't love it. Classical theater is not my thing, especially seventeenth century French theater. When I heard that Classic Stage Company was doing an adaptation of The Misanthope, I thought I would see it for another take, now that I was familar with the plot. I thought that if they were doing an adaptation there would be differences, like maybe it wouldn't rhyme, or maybe it would take place in a different period, but these factors were not changed. It was still the archaic rhyming prose, but with different, more modern words. The School for Lies did improve on the ending, but otherwise I found it to be just as inaccessible as the original. I had not seen Mamie Gummer on stage before and I was disapointed by her performance. Hamish Linklater was insanely good and was the saving grace in this production.
I really like the Public Theater's Lab productions, but Urge for Going wasn't on my calendar until we went to see iHo and Dara read the Playbill enclosed postcard advertising the show. She asked if we could see it (I usually feel like I'm dragging her to plays). Totally effective marketing, my dear Public Theater! The show was about a Palestinian family living in a Lebanese refugee camp, written by Mona Mansour, one of the many female playwrights whose work was produced by the Public this year. The story was about the teenage daughter trying to take an exam to go to college and get out of the camp. My favorite part was her brother who had a traumatic brain injury, played with great compassion by Omid Abtahi. The play contained a good amount of history about Palestine, served in small doses.
I went to see Baby It's You on Broadway, but I left at intermission, so I feel I can't really pan it. But at intermission I decided I would rather be on the subway reading my book that sitting through another hour of dribble, so I left.
We made one last visit to La Cage aux Folles and loved every minute of it. In fact, I got tickets for my mother and her friends to see it when they come to NYC before it closes.
Just yesterday I finally made it to see Being Harold Pinter, after being shut out from the sold out run during the Under the Radar Festival. I'm sure you've heard of the Belarus Free Theatre and how just performing their work is considered a crime in Belarus. This is, of course, when political theater is at its most important - when used to speak out against oppression, to give a voice to the silenced. I expected to be absolutely devastated by Being Harold Pinter, but it wasn't quite as emotionally draining as I had anticipated (in a good way). I was also nervous about having to read subtitles, actually supertitles, but that too was manageable. Scenes from Harold Pinter's plays are combined with his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Both are used to shed light on modern day torture, political imprisonment and intimidation without alienating the audience.
Wonderful shows closed in the past week (Peter and the Starcatcher, Angels in America, La Cage aux Folles, American Idiot), but I know there is more great theater to come in May. I already have The Normal Heart and Book of Mormon on my calendar!
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