Scott Brown (the critic, not the Masshole)

Ok. This is the funniest thing I've read in a really long time. It's unfortunate that theater critic Scott Brown shares a name with my hated U.S. Senator, but the guy can't help that. He can, however, put new playwright Zach Braff's whiny friend (aka Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence) in his place quite hilariously.

Scott Brown's Response:

Dear Bill,

I do, in fact, wear a monocle. Not by choice.

At 6, I contracted a rare eye disease that left me half-blind and hideous. The monocle helps correct my eyesight — but, unfortunately, not my revolting deformity. Also, I'm told I give off a Lovecraftian fetor that makes women swoon, and not in the I-am-now-having-an-orgasm way.

Ack! "Lovecraftian fetor"! See, there I go again. Sometimes I try to compensate for my "mutilation" (my mother's little term of art for my disability) by using big words and too many hyphens. It's a defense mechanism. I can't say it's improved my love life much — you certainly nailed that one. Twice a year, I pay a blindfolded prostitute wearing a respirator to service me. (And she's not as funny as Anna Camp. In fact ... I've never seen her smile! That might just be the respirator, though.)

The rest of the year, I pour my frustrations into my reviews and my secret desk-drawer mystery novel, The Killing Pun: A Harlan Grantham* Theater Mystery! Which I would be honored if you'd read. (Sorry to impose! I know you must get this all the time, but it's not often I rub elbows with powerful television producers!)

This is all pretty personal stuff, and difficult to talk about. But I'm glad you brought it up. I believe that intelligent, open dialogue heals all wounds — perhaps even my rancid ocular cavity. I'm so glad this didn't degenerate into snark.

Best,

Scott

P.S.: I'm sorry I didn't like your friend's play.

To fully enjoy its brilliance, you have to read backward to Lawrence's complaint letter and the original review that prompted the whining. (I also don't think Braff's play is great, though Brown and I disagree on where it goes wrong, and I don't spend nearly as much space ragging on Garden State.)

As I mentioned before (in reference to Vassar/NY Stage & Film's request for Internet silence regarding their productions including The Nightingale and Nero), the New York Times has invited guest columnists to contribute to its Theater Talkback series this summer on a variety of theater-related issues (including what good can come from bad reviews, whether audiences should boo, and if preshow announcements should be nixed). I'm really enjoying the discussions so far.

Casting announced for NYC transfer of Sons of the Prophet

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/153356-Santino-Fontana-Joanna-Gleason-Lizbeth-Mackay-and-More-Cast-in-Roundabouts-Sons-of-the-Prophet


I hope everyone will go see the New York production of Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet. I fell in love with the play during its Boston tryout (saw it twice), and I am very excited to see it again at the Roundabout this fall. In fact, I like it enough that I will be dragging everyone I know to see it. (My review of the Huntington production is here.)

I am, however, a little disappointed about the roles that were recast--and a bit about the roles that were not, too. (I'm looking at you, Joanna Gleason--please tone down your character a bit!) But I'm sure this production will still be great because the play is so well written. I loved Kurz in the role (indeed, I was completely charmed by his performance, and my only complaint was that he's not built like the runner the character is supposed to be). So I am quite sad I won't get to see him in this again. But I understand that Fontana has name recognition in the NY theater community, and I'm sure he'll be very good. [ETA: Went back and did my homework. They are actually just un-recasting the role, as Fontana was supposed to play the role at the Huntington but had to drop out for the extension of The Importance of Being Earnest.] I am, however, so very glad that Lizbeth Mackay is transferring. She doesn't appear until the end, but I think hers was the best performance in the play. Her scene is truly beautiful, and she is beautiful in it. I promise, I am allowing for the possibility that the new cast will wow me.

In addition to just being excited to see this play I love again, I am stoked to have the opportunity to see what, if anything, is changed in the play itself. And the new set. If you liked Karam's Speech & Debate, please check out Sons of the Prophet. If S&D was too silly for you, check out Prophet anyway because it's just as funny but also more serious.

Previews begin September 30 at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre/Laura Pels Theatre. The show officially opens October 20 and will run through December 23, though I hope it will be extended. If you're 18-35, be sure to sign up for Roundabout's HipTix program for $20 seats to any of their productions.

Powerhouse Theatre, redux

In my recent post not quite reviewing four presentations I had seen at Vassar/New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theatre over the past few years, I lightly mentioned that before several of them we were asked (admonished, really) not to leak information about the shows on the Internet. In the interest of brevity, and perhaps to avoid feeling like a brat, I understated my feelings about that request while also refusing to completely comply with them.

I do support the idea of creating safe spaces for developing works, so while I found the announcements to be rude and ill-advised, I kept my tongue more than I normally would. So I was quite happy--and felt a bit vindicated in my feelings--to see that the New York Times featured a comment from another avid theater-goer on such preshow announcements. It mentions Powerhouse in particular, and I agree with much of what is said there. The discussion in the readers' comments has been quite lively.

Since then, I have taken another visit to Vassar and seen two more shows, one staged play and one play reading. The first had no preshow announcement and the second talked about how pleased they were to present the author's work and then made a sort of throwaway remark about not giving any other comments. Perhaps I'm projecting, but I assumed that was a backhanded response to the NYT discussion.

Now, in the marked absence of such a prohibition, I feel almost obligated to review the two works I saw. So those posts may be forthcoming shortly. In the meantime, I recommend jumping into the conversation at the Times. Industry folks are reading, and audiences should take every opportunity to give them feedback.

Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar: Whisper House / The Nightingale / Nero / F2M

http://powerhouse.vassar.edu




Over the past few summers, I've seen four Powerhouse Theatre shows at Vassar College as part of their annual collaboration with New York Stage and Film. Nero, Whisper House, and The Nightingale were concert readings of musicals by Duncan Sheik (famous for that incessantly played kind-of-twee song Barely Breathing and, of course, for Spring Awakening). F2M was a fully staged play by Patricia Wettig (famous as an actress in Thirtysomething and in Brothers & Sisters).

I think Wettig's play F2M has legs, but I wish the explanatory bits had been less cliched, handled better than as in an after-school special (both in the actual explanations and how they were clunkily folded into the surrounding dialogue). I know many theater audiences know nothing about transgender issues, but the play spends so much time saying what being transgender is and isn't that it shortchanges the really interesting questions the play raises about its impacts on a college-age transgender person and those who love the person. I've read and watched a lot about this (which is how I know how cliched the dialogue is), and the play still managed to raise at least one issue that I had never considered. Serious kudos for that, but it happened late in the play and was barely explored. Keira Keeley's portrayal was excellent, restrained, and very real, though.

For the concert readings, the audience is reminded that in the Internet Era, there are few safe spaces for artists to hone their craft without widely circulated criticism and to please honor that by not filming the show or talking about it with your invisible friends. [See my newer post for an update on this policy.]* So I won't do real reviews for these shows, but I do want to tell you a bit about my experience so far and encourage you to take the beautiful drive or MetroNorth train ride up to Poughkeepsie to check it out for yourself sometime. (Please click MORE at the bottom to read about Nero and The Nightingale.)


Whisper House
Score by Duncan Sheik, book and co-lyrics by Kyle Jarrow. Copied from the Old Globe Theatre's website (the show got a fully staged run there after the Powerhouse workshop):

It’s 1942--at the height of World War II--and Christopher, an imaginative young boy, is sent to live with an aunt he’s never met: Lilly, a reclusive woman who serves as the keeper of a remote lighthouse. Not yet comfortable in his surroundings, Christopher begins to hear strange music no one else can hear seeping through the walls. It doesn’t take long for him to suspect the lighthouse may be haunted, and these ghosts tell him that Yasujiro, a Japanese worker that Lilly has employed, should not be trusted. Is Christopher’s imagination getting the best of him? Or are these ghosts warning Christopher about the very real dangers that lie ahead?

I love this show and hope it comes to New York. It's a simple but touching story, and I think it's brilliant that--like in Spring Awakening--the songs take place outside the narrative, this time with the ghosts commenting on the action but not really taking part in it. Please go listen to the concept album Sheik recorded with the golden-voiced Holly Brook. I'm particularly fond of Better to Be Dead, And Now We Sing, and especially The Tale of Solomon Snell. I listened to the recording on repeat for weeks when I got it and am still completely in love with it.

Here's a video for the Whisper House song Earthbound Starlight: