What: Classic Stage Company, in collaboration with NAATCO and Transport Group, presents William Inge's play about a cafe attached to a bus stop, with several passengers stranded overnight when the roads are closed for a storm.
And? A pretty sublime production. There have been issues for a few years of CSC staging favoring one end of the audience over the two longer sides (which not only seems dumb, since that's less than a third of the audience space, but is also just bad direction. Thrust stages were meant to be activating and dynamic, not staid like any old proscenium), but I'm happy to report that's not the case here. While it did feel like one side was more heavily favored than the other (the side we sat on), I think the staging by Jack Cummings III is still largely effective. Peiyi Wong's scenic design, moreover, which includes black bands framing the floor and ceiling, elongate the space; and, with the Tiffany blue cafe counter, evokes Hopper's Nighthawks very effectively. For the most part, the cast has an appealing natural quality, with especially standouts of Cindy Cheung and Delphi Borich, who run the cafe; Rajesh Bose as the sleazy Shakespeare-loving professor (every moment of his is compelling and true); and Moses Villarama, giving an understated but fully present performance as Virgil. His final moments are still and quiet and heartbreaking, even as they go unwitnessed by everyone else around him. This one was a real treat.
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| Cindy Cheung and Delphi Borich as Grace Hoylard and Emma Duckworth. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
5/14/25: The Picture of Dorian Gray
What: The Broadway transfer of Sarah Snook's one-woman turn in the Oscar Wilde controversial classic as adapted by Kip Williams, about a young man whose portrait absorbs all his sins while he remains youthful and beautiful.
And? Really quite an extraordinary execution of the piece. One-woman turn isn't technically correct, as Sarah Snook's performance is facilitated by a masterful camera (and prop) crew following a tightly-planned and intricately-timed choreography with such precision I honestly think they should get their own Tony Award (but they're already doing two of those this season: one for the musicians of Buena Vista Social Club, and one for the illusion/technical effects of Stranger Things: The First Shadow). While Sarah Snook's face is the only face we see on the many screens onstage (including the various portraits hanging in Dorian's house), we see her doubled and redoubled in different guises, wigs, makeup, accent. Even when onstage Snook seems to be interacting only with a camera or an empty chair, we are seeing the echoes of her other selves reacting.
I was describing this show to someone who said they'd never heard of this kind of stunt before. I think it's the first time I've seen it on this scale and on Broadway, but Theater In Quarantine has been experimenting with this sort of thing since 2020, and I'm sure they're not the only ones either. Still, it's really something to see in person.
The production is a bit breathless (I'm shocked Snook isn't hoarse by the end), which is effective, but it did have me longing for a moment of calm and quiet just to balance it out. That's a small nit to pick, though, as she had the entire audience in the palm of her capable hands for two hours straight. Major props to Kip Williams for pulling this whole thing off.
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| Sarah Snook as Dorian Gray. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
5/15/25: Eurydice
What: Signature Theatre presents Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of the Orpheus myth.
And? Everything here is slightly askew. Everything here is underwater. Everything here is more than it seems. Yes, this is me obsessing over the stunning scenic design by Scott Bradley, where a tiled wall resembling the clear blues and teals of a swimming pool fade into paper: letter after letter, handwritten and never delivered. The floor, similarly painted in swirls of blue and green, runs at a tilt, climbing from left to right, and in the opposite direction of the tilting wall behind it. Hanging a still different tilting angle is an incongruous chandelier, framed by a square section of water pipes. The space is at once both familiar and unnervingly unnatural. It's a beautiful frame for Eurydice's story, as she navigates her grief for her husband, now lost to her as she is in the underworld, and her reunion with her long-dead father (a heartbreaking and heartwarming performance by the always excellent Brian d'Arcy James). Looking at Sarah Ruhl's list of works, this is the first one I've gotten to see rather than simply read, and I'm very grateful this was my starter. It's moving, it's funny, it's strange, it's all the weirdness you want in a play without having to wrap it in a tidy bow before you go home. Her language is somehow both straightforward and startlingly poetic. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work.
5/16/25: She Takes Flight
What: Chrysalis Theatre Company presents the world premier of a devised theatrical piece written and performed by Sora Baek, Cindy Keiter, Gabriela Kohen, Adina Taubman, and Susan Ward, about, per the press release, "reaching middle age and not giving a f&*k."
And? full review here.
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| The cast of She Takes Flight. Photo by Charles Chessler. |
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