Too tired for a three-show day

I'm tired, y'all. I hate the summer heat. I feel gross all the time and have trouble sleeping. So forgive me if this post makes even less sense than usual. Also I'm writing it out on my phone using Swype, so there are sure to be embarrassing errors. I just hope they're funny ones.

Anyway, I'm up early (for me) and hadn't posted in forever, and my already questionable judgment is compromised, so it seemed like a good time to say things on the Internet for everyone (or maybe five people) to see.

Today is day three of a four-day, seven-show weekend in New York with Lisa. Thursday I almost got a migraine laughing my head off at James Corden in One Man, Two Guvnors. I'm not a huge fan of that kind of farce in general, so extra kudos to Corden and his crew for the thoroughly delightful evening.

Yesterday was a two-movies-and-a-musical day. I saw The Avengers movie again followed by watching Cabin in the Woods again. I really love them both, and not just because I'm a Joss Whedon fangirl. (What, Swype didn't have "fangirl" in its standard dictionary? Disappointing.)

Then we saw Newsies. Finally. So that happened. And won't be happening again.

This afternoon we're seeing Topher Grace in Lonely, I'm Not at Second Stage. (Really, Swype? You give me "fecund" and "devine" before "second"?) Then we're catching the early evening performance of Potted Potter before splitting up so Lisa can see The Lyons, which I already saw recently (alas, not decadently, Swype!). (Don't worry, Nicky Silver, I'm sure she'll love it. You can stop pacing.) I'm going to Chimichangas and Zoloft at the Atlantic. (So, Swype knew "Zoloft" but not "chimichangas"? That's very disturbing.)

Tomorrow we're getting our lit-nerd on with the musical February House at the Public. I'm predisposed to like it.

To wrap up the weekend, we're going to try to get tickets FOR (not "fir," you stupid tiny portable generally awesome pocket computer) Rapture, Blister, Burn* at Playwrights Horizons. (I'm really looking forward to seeing Virginia Kull, whom I loved in Assistance.)

So, anyway, it's time for about seven frigid showers to wake me up for this long (awesome) day.

See you on the flip side. (See? Dementia from overheating!)

* Update: We ended up paying $25 to see Cock (what a bargain!) instead of rushing Rapture, Blister, Burn. We'll catch Kull's show in June instead. Also, you can bet your ass I'll be paying more money for Cock in the future. ;)

Go see Assistance. Now.

[SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR TWO PHOTOS OF THE ASSISTANCE CAST BEING RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME.]

So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm leaving my awesome publishing job at the end of this month. And this is interfering with my theater life. Wrapping everything up is taking over my life. I suppose leaving a job I love and moving on to a new adventure should be difficult, though. And the end is in sight!

I'm really looking forward to no longer canceling New York weekends. Last weekend I missed all of the following:
* How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (canceled in advance because Michael Urie was going to be out to film a pilot, and I didn't really need to see it without him and without Mary Faber, who has left the show).
* CQ/CX, at the Atlantic Theater (closing March 11, so I won't get to reschedule because I'll be in Denver this weekend visiting my brother and seeing the American Idiot tour again)
* Once, on Broadway (rescheduled for early April, which cannot come soon enough because I loved it the 4 times I saw it at the New York Theatre Workshop)
* How I Learned to Drive, at Second Stage (also closing March 11, so I won't get to reschedule)
* An Iliad, with Denis freaking O'Hare, at NYTW (closing March 25, so I hope I get to reschedule--I do still have tickets to see it with Stephen Spinella at least--they're alternating performances) [ETA: SORTED! As Stockard Channing will be out of Other Desert Cities to film a pilot with Mandy Moore(!), I got a ticket to see O'Hare. So I'll be seeing An Iliad twice in one weekend!)

Anyway, the real purpose of this post isn't actually to complain! *gasp* I just want to highly recommend that you run out to Playwrights Horizons to see Leslye Headland's OMGSOFANTASTIC play Assistance.

Every single person in the cast is perfect (Michael Esper, Sue Jean Kim, Virginia Kull, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Amy Rosoff, Bobby Steggert). Headland's play is great. David Korins's set design is unfrakkingbelievable. Trip Cullman's direction is wonderful. Really, I love pretty much everything about this show. So go see it. Now. Because it closes March 11. If I could recommend only two shows currently running, they would be Once and Assistance. And you would kiss my feet to thank me for seeing both. I promise. (But don't do that, please. Ew.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back to actual theater reviews next month. In the meantime, just do as I say and go see Assistance? Thanks. And you're welcome.

ETA: Here are two photos of the cast of Assistance being awesome.

Farewell, 2011 (the best and the worst)

I've already organized the theater shows I saw in 2011 into categories ranging from Best Ever to Kill Me Now. So I'm doing a different kind of wrap-up post here.

2SD's favorite things about theater in 2011, in no particular order:

* Steven Hoggett took over the city. On stages across New York City this year, you could see Hoggett's magic in theatricalizing the history of the Scottish military's Black Watch, Green Day's disaffected Aughts soundtrack American Idiot, the otherwise-awkward Peter Pan retelling Peter and the Starcatcher, and the stage adaptation of the Irish indie-darling film Once (at NYTW and now transferring to Broadway).

* We found out that the Handspring Puppet Company exists. Their puppet horses made a bleak WWI children's story a hit (but also proved that the Tonys need separate categories for playwriting and production). I actually hated the treacly story of War Horse, but all the design and puppetry aspects of the production are fantastic. The National Theatre knows how to make a gorgeous, stunning production (see also Frankenstein, below). And the puppets are unbelievable in their believability. I trust we'll see more from Handspring in coming years, and I can't wait.

* London's National Theatre took pity on those of us stuck on this side of the pond by screening awesome productions in movie theaters. Thanks to National Theatre Live, which screened both versions of Danny Boyle's lead-swapping Frankenstein play, I got to see my longtime movie obsession Jonny Lee Miller and my current TV obsession Benedict Timothy Carleton Cumberbatch (best name ever) swap roles as Dr. Frankenstein and his Creature. It's one of the most visually stunning things I've ever "seen" on stage. I wish it would kick War Horse out of the Vivian Beaumont Theater immediately. Alas, I missed the screening of One Man, Two Guvnors--but I definitely plan to see James Corden in it on Broadway this season. And I really wish they'd broadcast Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds in Juno and the Paycock.

* We got a second chance to savor the perfection of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan. I first saw this Druid production at the Atlantic Theater in Feb. 2009, and it is still the most perfect performance of anything I have ever seen on stage (just edging out Conor McPherson's The Seafarer on Broadway). I'm not sure why it didn't transfer to Broadway, but I'm so glad it went on a short U.S. tour so that I could enjoy it again. I love ArtsEmerson for bringing shows like this to Boston. I wish they could convince National Theatre Scotland to bring us Black Watch.

* Stephen Karam rewarded Roundabout Underground's investment in the young playwright. Sons of the Prophet in Boston in the spring and the streamlined production that just closed in New York showed the same wit as Karam's Speech & Debate and much more depth. I really love the play and hope Karam continues to work on it. If it doesn't jump to Broadway, it should have a great future in regional theaters.

* Anything Goes had an awesome, never-ending tap number. It lost a bit of its surprise by being blasted via every medium to advertize the show, but HOLY CRAP that performance is amazing to see live.

* The Normal Heart ripped ours out. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that this play inspired me to change my life. I'll post more about that in a few weeks. (Also, it gave rise to Ellen Barkin's F-bombing Twitter domination campaign.)

* Reed Birney was perpetually employed. As he should be. The most natural everyman I've ever seen on stage. His sheer honesty in every moment grounded even Adam Rapp's increasingly bizarre Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling.

* Mark Rylance made two fairly gross characters kind of hot and sexy. In the same season. He won the Tony for his jaw-dropping performance as Rooster in Jerusalem, but I think his work in La Bête was even more impressive. He made a twenty-minute monologue (an exaggeration, surely, but it was wicked long)--part of which was delivered while he was flatulently on the pot--riveting and almost charming, even in pompous, rhyming couplets. Rylance's awards acceptance speeches are themselves award-worthy (2011 and 2008).

* DanRad is a righteous dude. Daniel Radcliffe proved himself to be a true theater fan and completely a dedicated performer. He can come back to Broadway any day. Or out with me for a cup of coffee. Or out to a drag show with me. Or whatever, really. He seems charming and hilarious, and I can't wait for the next time Susan Blackwell gets a hold of him.

* Michael Esper got around. His excellent character development made the couch-ridden Will a character to watch even amid American Idiot's visual barrage of violent choreography and sensory-overloading projections. After he got off the couch, he turned in a beautiful performance in Tony Kushner's new play iHomo and went crazy-pants in Nicky Silver's The Lyons. He did a couple things at Vassar/NY Stage and Film over the summer. And he's just been announced for Assistance at Playwrights Horizons with Bobby Steggert, and that makes me wicked happy. Oh, and on the side, he formed an as-yet-unnamed punk band with fellow Idiots Johnny Gallagher and Gerard Canonico (see photos below).

2SD's least-favorite things about theater in 2011:

* War Horse got the Tony for best play. Just ... NO.

* People created musicals that somehow made awesome things boring. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert made drag queens boring. Catch Me If You Can made one of history's most famous con men boring. And Bonnie & Clyde made sexy, deadly, road-tripping bank robbers boring. How is that even possible?

**********

Here, have some pretty! Look at the bromance! Now with bonus ginger beard!





Michael Esper and John Gallagher Jr. having some bro moments at Rockwood with their unnamed punk band (Gerard Canonico was stuck behind the drum kit)

Photos by Monica Simoes, from Playbill.com

January is a bitch

http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/mainstage.asp

In the theater world, January is a cruel, cruel bitch. Productions hang on through the holidays hoping the hordes of tourists will save their ailing shows, but come January, the closing notices go up all over town. Bonnie & Clyde died a violent death. Lysistrata Jones is giving it up this weekend. The relatively unloved Relative Speaking slinks away at the end of the month. It's a sad time for the already underemployed and underpaid. But it opens up theaters for new shows that might do better. And it opens up my schedule, too.

Poorly reviewed Close Up Space, the editorially (un)inspired play starring David Hyde Pierce and Rosie Perez, is closing up early, so yesterday I received notice that my ticket has been canceled. In hunting for something to take its place, I was reading through Playbill.com's listings and almost choked on my Coke Zero when I read that Bobby Steggert and Michael Esper are starring in a play together at Playwrights Horizons, and that I can go see it on my now-free Sunday afternoon.

How is it possible that Michael Esper is going to be in a play and I didn't know? How is it that Michael Esper is going to be in a play WITH Bobby Steggert and I didn't know??? And in a play by Leslye Headland, the woman who gave me Topher from Dollhouse (Fran Kranz) and Fat Pat from Wonderfalls/Shitbrick from the American Pie movies (Eddie Kaye Thomas) as sleazy guys getting lucky at a bachelorette party!

I screamed my question to the Twitterverse and many of my other theater friends hadn't heard of it either. But Steggert himself confirmed the news! So of course I bought the ticket immediately. And now, today, there's an article on Playbill announcing the casting.

In summary: The theater world took away David Hyde Pierce in a mediocre play about an editor (have I mentioned that I'm a book editor?) but it gave in return a chance to see Bobby Steggert and Michael Esper on stage together in a play that's likely to be really good. I call that a pretty big win for me.

2012: A Look Ahead

How can it be 2012 already when I still haven't finished my reviews of shows I saw in 2011? Less than twelve hours into the new year, and I'm already disappointed with myself. And not just because of my behavior last night.

But now that I mention it:

1. Next year I shall try to not be the drunkest person at the party.

2. Even when I'm drunk at a NYE party, I still talk trash about theater.

(This time I was complaining about the gay lumberjack outfits for the supposedly straight-dressing gay older brother in Sons of the Prophet at Roundabout. If your flannel shirt is fitted, even in a small Pennsylvania town people will start to wonder if you are gay. Right? And both brothers were way less flaming when the show was at the Huntington. More on this later when I double-back to finally reviewing that show, which I really liked, by the way.)

In exciting news, I already have tickets to 27 theatrical performances for this year (in chronological order):

The Mountaintop
Chinglish
Billy Elliot (closing performance)
The Canterbury Tales Remixed (Soho Playhouse)
Stick Fly
Outside People (Vineyard)
Once (NYTW, closing performance)
Red (SpeakEasy, Boston)
American Idiot (tour, Boston)
Wit
CQ/CX (Atlantic)
Assistance (Playwrights Horizons)
Yosemite (Rattlestick)
Merrily We Roll Along (Encores!)
Once (Broadway transfer)
American Idiot (tour, Denver)
Death of a Salesman
Carrie (MCC)
Next to Normal (SpeakEasy, Boston)
Xanadu (SpeakEasy, Boston)

(No, I'm not terrible at math. I'm seeing the American Idiot tour multiple times in Boston. Yes, every performance. It's all Steven Hoggett's fault. Well, mostly.)

It seems unlikely that I'll match 2011's record of 102 theater performances ever again, but perhaps that means I'll read more than 10 books this year.

Completeness

http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/completeness_Bulletin.asp

Sometimes I just love a show, flaws and all. This was definitely true of American Idiot (can't wait for the tour) and iHomo (we are in such need of serious conversations about unions right now). And now Itamar Moses's Completeness at Playwrights Horizons, which unfortunately just closed.

It seems so long ago now, but Hurricane Irene scrapped one of our NY weekends. Luckily, Lisa and I were able to reschedule Bluebird (Simon Russell Beale!) and Master Class (Tyne Daly!), but Book of Mormon make-up tickets on a weekend weren't available until December. But that meant I had time to see Completeness. (Lisa got a ticket for the Hair tour instead, and her complaints about Diane Paulus's changes to the show were more entertaining and better thought-out than the production was.)

Wow, did I bury the lede for this review! Completeness is a romance for the XKCD crowd. I wonder if non-science-nerds find this show's jargon off-putting, or if actual computer scientists and microbiologists find the dialogue too scientifically simplistic. I'm in no place to judge that because I work at a university, married an engineer, edit scientific books, and am addicted to theater. Also, I own one of the shirts worn in the show and another one looked familiar. Yeah, Moses wrote this play pretty much for me exactly.

Mostly the science problems as metaphors for relationship dilemmas work very well for me. They are generally on the right line between being obvious and too on-the-nose, and I find the dialogue clever and realistic--and often hilarious. But every once in a while it feels kind of lazy, as though Moses thinks the audience might get lost and/or he just couldn't bother to rewrite it better. But I love the idea of trying to tackle romantic problems the way one would a failed science experiment, where the data from each failure refines the approach to the next iteration. And the opposite idea that we can never truly account for every variable in science or in life. That sometimes we rely on intuition and inspiration and take leaps of faith based on the imperfect information available to us.

At the top of the show, computer science grad student Elliot (Karl Miller) twists his girlfriend's complaints about their relationship into an excuse for ending it so he can pursue the adorable woman he hangs around the computer cluster to stare at awkwardly. Molly (Aubrey Dollar) is a microbiology grad student who flees a romantic relationship with her advisor to take up with Elliot, whom she has also been eyeing from across the computer lab. Science is both an excuse for and method of flirting for them, and those science-heavy speeches are definitely the highlight of the script and where the actors' work shines most.

Miller's performance is a revelation. After the show, I texted my husband to tell him that I fell in love with his stage counterpart--both the character and Miller's performance in the role. I know he's been with the show for a long time (originating the role at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa), and it shows in his completely naturalistic acting. He's the most exciting new-to-me actor I've seen in a long time, and I hope he'll be in many, many more NY productions. Dollar was great with the overly excited, jargony speeches and in the flirty parts. I found her a bit acty at other times, but she is certainly better here than she was in Lucy Thurber's Bottom of the World at Atlantic Stage 2 (also, this is a better play).

The dialogue for the exes is in desperate need of rewriting. Heavy slash-and-burn rewriting. It's really dreadful in both wording and sentiment. Meredith Forlenza and Brian Avers, who play multiple roles in the show, just can't overcome the material they're given as the exes. They are much better as the enticing characters who threaten to break Elliot and Molly up. Also, kudos to them for being so charming that I managed to not groan audibly or throw my program on the floor in disgust during the fourth-wall-breaking idiocy (overly long to boot!) in the second act. Like the terrible cell-phones-in-the-theater diatribe at the beginning of Tony Kushner's iHomo, this scene MUST be deleted in future productions.

I'm so sad that I couldn't get back to the city to see Completeness again. Luckily, I think the play will do well regionally, so I'll probably be able to enjoy it again before too long. In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for the script so I can find out from my CS and bio friends how accurate the scientific descriptions of data crunching algorithms, traveling salesman problem, and trial-and-error with yeast experiments are.

And I'm praying to the theater gods (is there a patron saint for theater-goers?) that Karl Miller will stick around New York because I am completely in love with everything about his performance and need to see him in everything he ever does. Yup, I'm adding him to my bucket list.