4/03/23: Rough Trade
What: The Tank presents a new play by Kev Berry about four gay millennial men in New York who connect and disconnect over ideological and economic disparities.
And? Just excellently done, from top to bottom. Well staged by Alex Tobey against Brendan Gonzales Boston's intelligent and deceptively simple scenic design. The dialog is as fast and quippy as it should be, while still being sharply brutal, genuinely hilarious, and all of it grounded in these four specific individuals. If the explosion that shatters the relationships is telegraphed from beat one (and from the playwright's note in the program), that doesn't mean the journey isn't still worth it. Fantastic cast, especially Derek Christopher Murphy and Remy Germinario as roommates Finch and Bunting, whose verbal sparring showcases not only their habitual barbed rhythms but also how incapable they are of stopping to think before speaking.
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| Derek Christopher Murphy and Max Kantor as Finch and Hawk. Photo by Hunter Canning. |
4/04/23: White Girl in Danger
What: 2nd Stage presents Michael R. Jackson's new musical, a satirically meta examination of narratives that always center, well, white girls in danger, and what happens when the "Blackground Best Friend" decides she deserves a story of her own.
And? There's a lot going on here. There's probably too much going on here. Michael R. Jackson is a smart and able songwriter, but a lot of the satire in this book lands kind of clumsily (maybe it's just me missing the too-short-lived Ain't No Mo'). While his final tie-it-all together coup with the wonderful James Jackson, Jr.'s quiet song is a good moment, everything leading up to it is a bit overstuffed. And very loud (Be More Chill flashbacks). Sure, we can hang a lantern the fact that Nell Gibbs, as voiced incredibly by Tarra Conner Jones, is written wailing belt after wailing belt to sing, but that doesn't change the fact that she's been wailing at us for nearly three hours to prove that point. Yes, she's up to the challenge, but there's too much sameness for us to keep listening with the same degree of attention. It doesn't help that the sound design is way too muddy throughout. MRJ is an incredible lyricist, but not if I can't hear his words (even the term "Blackground" I was mishearing as "Black-Brown" for the first third of the show). The cast is pretty great, though, especially Latoya Edwards as Keesha, the best friend who wants to be the main character for once. And Montana Levi Blanco's costume design is mostly really fun and imaginative (I say mostly because not all the pieces seem to fit the bodies they were designed for as well as I want them to; but when they do fit, they're truly excellent).
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| Lauren Marcus, Molly Hager, Latoya Edwards, and Alyse Alan Louis as Meagan Whitehead, Megan White, Keesha Gibbs, and Maegan Whitehall. Photo by Marc J. Franklin. |
4/06/23: Fat Ham
What: The Broadway transfer of James Ijames's Pulitzer-winning backyard barbeque adaptation of Hamlet.
And? Not quite a repeat, since they had to adapt the staging from the Public's intimate space to the proscenium at the American Airlines Theatre. But no new notes from me. A great production and a great cast.
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