New Rep New Show Great Fun

Large, overstuffed couches greet theatre goers in the fantastic set of New Reps's area premiere of a brand new play, Rancho Mirage.  (Ridiculous locale names become the topic of a later monologue.) But "mirage" is the perfect descriptor, as it turns out; nothing is as it seems at the start of the play.  The couches become audience to one revelation after another, as the tangle of lies and half-truths holding together various relationships is unwound.

The performances and technical infrastructure of New Rep plays are consistently very high quality.  This show is no exception, although some of the characters feel more real than others. (Whether this is an artifact of the acting or the writing is difficult to say.)  Returning New Rep star Robert Pemberton as Trevor is stunning (and sews a mean pair of pants), and we loved the odd quirkiness of John Kooi and Cate Damon as Charlie and Pam(my).  Newcomer to New Rep Abigail Kileen (as Louise) really holds the show together and is perfectly loud-mouthed, honest, irreverent, and blousy -- although the script speaks of a hypersexuality that is not apparent in the character.

The play, ultimately, is a fun night out.  The script is often laugh-out-loud funny, and director Robert Walsh makes the most of the jokes and set-ups.  The danger with this kind of work, which exposes the ugly underbelly of many of the characters and relationships, is that the audience may not like any of the characters enough to care what happens next.  Some of that feeling comes in here, although the actors do a heroic job in making the characters as like able as possible despite their (many) faults.

~ Shauna Shames, New Rep Reviewer

Illusion and Reflection in "The Elephant Man"

“The Elephant Man” kicks off New Rep’s 30^th Season.   Appealing to both the audience’s curiosity and a dreamer’s unfilled wishes for normality, “The Elephant Man” delivers on this season’s theme of “dreams, dares, and discoveries.” 

The stage is one of the simplest this reviewer has seen at New Rep.  With the exception of a sliding wall made of mirrored glass, the rest of the stage is painted black, with a single, multi-functional black box in the center.  A solitary oboist (Louis Toth) adds a somber quality to the setting and fits well with the reflective pace of the performance.

The simplicity of the design adds additional focus to the heavy-handed mirror and illusion motif repeated throughout “The Elephant Man.”  In an early example, John Merrick (Tim Spears) impresses the actress Mrs. Kendall (Valerie Leonard) with his description of Romeo and Juliet, particularly his belief that Romeo cannot be in love with Juliet because he tests her life only by checking for her breath in a mirror.  He does not check her pulse or have a doctor examine her body, suggesting the greatest test of life is the reflection of that life, the impression a person makes upon their surroundings.

John Merrick inspires this self-reflection within the good people of 1880’s London society, arousing their sense of Christian generosity and validating their need for approval.  The time period, often called the Gilded Age, perfectly complements the characters’ desire to help and their expectation of return.  Characters reference King Leopold, Jack the Ripper, workhouses, and asylums, but those are conveniently in the background, while the moral superiority the cast derives from fulfilling their Christian burden is intensely felt and immediately evident.

Though the characters of “The Elephant Man” are largely flat, the actors do not lack passion in their roles.  Dr. Frederick Treves (Michael Kaye) spends the 2-act play mixing charity and authority, doling out small kindnesses with the unmasked hope of greater recognition.  He delivers an emotional monologue at the end of Act II, and despite his conflation of social acceptance and a cure for “the elephant man,” his sentiment is obviously heartfelt.  Spears’s performance is exceptional.  As he undergoes his transition from side-show spectacle to perpetual patient, he transforms in front of the audience from a diminutive man in a tattered shroud into the elephant man.  He contorts his face; he turns his palm and holds his arm stiffly at his chest; he juts out his hip and turns in his foot as he limps across the stage.  Suddenly he is the deformed man the doctor describes.  The transformation is remarkable, and the fact that the audience begins to forget Merrick and to only see the elephant man inspires reflection long after the performance has ended.

-Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

Fascinating, Layered Elephant Man

New Rep opened its 30th season with the award winning and thought provoking play Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance.  The play tells the true story of John Merrick, the so called Elephant Man who lived in the 1800s – if you search for his name online, you can see pictures of the real Merrick.  The play opens showing him in a freak show in London – we are told that he exposes himself to this humiliation in order to survive.  First we see the reactions of others who have seen John, and when we first see him, his head is covered, so we do not get a good look at him until later.  One day Dr. Frederick Treves walks by and is tempted to go see Merrick, his first glance of Merrick is very short, but asks that he come to be examined.  Over the course of the play, Treves examines Merrick and eventually invites Merrick to live at London Hospital.  While living at the hospital Merrick tries whenever possible to be a normal person – whenever he sees a behavior he feels is normal, he attempts it.  At the same time, those that he interacts with eventually are able to get beyond his appearance, befriending him and seeing something of themselves in him.  

Tim Spears gives a masterful portrayal of Merrick.  While we do not see the full visual effect, no exaggerated makeup or prosthetics, but we don't need to thanks for his portrayal.  We see him fully inhabiting the character, from the speech, the posture, the use of his arms – everything.  It is hard to take your eyes off of him, this is truly a masterful portrayal.  Michael Kaye does a good job as Treves, showing the range of emotions and struggles that the doctor must have faced, he really makes character with depth.  Valerie Leonard provides a good bit of the comedy in this play as the actress and socialite Mrs. Kendal.  She is hired by the doctor in hopes that an actress would be able to hide her reaction when seeing the grotesque Merrick.  While silly at times, as her relationship grows with Merrick, it provides a much needed balance.  In addition to other actors, the production featured a single oboe played by Louis Toth sitting on the corner of the stage.  I understand there was an instrumentalist during the Broadway production as well, and I'm still unsure about this detail and what it should add to the production.  The choice to not use a mask or makeup for Merrick was an interesting one (also the case on Broadway) that I felt really worked in this case and played on the theme of perception and being able to look beyond the outer layer.  Just as those who see Merrick can have their perceptions of him change, we can imagine him as we wish, we're simply able to see the man hiding behind those deformities.  Jim Petosa's direction along with the rest of the artistic team do a great job a layering this production and giving you a lot to dissect and think about afterwards. This play was enjoyable, kept my attention for the almost 2 hour run time and also gave me something to think about for some time afterwards.  

~ Frank Furnari - New Rep Reviewer

"Elephant Man Startles, Disturbs"

Opening the New Rep’s fall season is the Tony-award-winning play, The Elephant Man. Tim Spears’ performance in the title role is nothing short of astonishing. Without costume or make-up, at times nearly naked, Spears persuades us that he is John Merrick and that the deformities he mimics are entirely real. He never breaks character by even the smallest gesture.

John Merrick is a mirror to each of the other characters. Each sees in him some part of his or her own spiritual deformity and longing for spiritual freedom. The prison of his body becomes a metaphor for the prison of Victorian propriety, where good conduct, gratitude and humility are the highest values, where spontaneity, creativity and original thought are suppressed and neurosis is just under the surface.

Frederick Treves (Michael Kaye), the physician who rescues Merrick from the street and from being displayed in a freak show, is a kind, intelligent and thoughtful man, a rational scientist who is attracted by the rarity of the disease and horrified by the treatment Merrick endures. He finds himself moved by the man’s stoicism and he is just sensitive enough to recognize Merrick’s talents and need for human company. He brings as a visitor an actress, Mrs. Kendal (Valerie Leonard). She is at first merely curious but is quickly enchanted by Merrick’s sharp insight into human character and his intellect. (Merrick’s interpretation of Romeo’s reaction to the death of Juliet astonishes her and is one of my favorite moments in the play.)

The production has a simplicity which allows the layered, nuanced play to unfold. The stage is bare and black with, at the center, a coffin-like black box which serves multiple purposes – bathtub, picnic table, sofa, bed. Mirrored sliding screens open to admit visitors to John’s cell. As actors enter and leave the center of the stage where Merrick lives, they move at a measured ceremonial pace. A solitary oboist, sitting at the corner of the stage provides transitional music and adds to the sense of pervasive sadness. The pace of the play is slow and meditative, but nonetheless mesmerizing.  

The meditative pace, the compassion at the heart of the play itself, and the utter lack of cynicism of the play and this production are unusual in the theater today (or perhaps at any time). Add brilliant acting from the three principal characters and you have an evening not to be missed.

~ Johanna Ettin and Shauna Shames, New Rep Reviewers

The Titanic Sails Again!

You wouldn't think that a poignant re-telling of the Titanic's sinking could be made uproariously funny -- but in the hands of the talented Colin Hamell, laughs abound in the New Rep black box theatre.  A collaboration between New Rep and Tir Na Theatre Companies, "Jimmy Titanic" (written by Bernard McMullen) is sweet, a little sad, and ever so funny.

Hamell, who does some excellent accent work in what must be an exhausting performance for him, portrays something like 30 different characters, each with its own voice, story, and funny physical quirks.  The transformations from one to the next are stellar and subtle; you rarely see Hamell make any sudden movements, but he suddenly becomes someone entirely different.  The funniest moments occur in Heaven; we particularly loved the interactions between the Angel Gabriel, St. Peter, and God.  (God's cigar-sucking was perhaps the best sound effect of the show!)

In addition to transforming himself, Hamell transforms a completely empty stage into multiple locations with aplomb.  At the height of the show's narrative, as the Titanic is sinking and the last of the lifeboats is launched, we were so caught up in the story that we truly forgot where we were for a moment.  Such transporting of an audience takes excellent acting and direction, both (kudos to the show's director, Carmel O'Reilly).

~ Shauna Shames, New Rep Reviewer (with Johanna Ettin)

"Amadeus": On the Burdens of Genius

New Rep’s rather magnificent production of “Amadeus”— a show about the burdens of genius on both the individual and those around him -- begins with Antonio Salieri muttering to himself as the audience takes their seats.   As Salieri, Benjamin Evett carries the show, which is no easy feat given its heft, depth, and length!  Evett’s characterization of the jealous, duplicitous composer is mesmerizing, and his transformations from old to young, and back, sublime.  

The show invites us into the mind and world of Salieri, who knows his own gifts to be dwarfed by those of the foolish young boy whose work, Salieri says, channels God.  Upon first reading a Mozart piece, Salieri laments that he will never be as good as Mozart, no matter how long or hard he works -- a sentiment made particularly painful by the contrast in their characters.  As we are meant to, the audience constantly compares the substantive, serious Salieri with the fatuous but enormously gifted Mozart, played by Tim Spears (who, it must be said, comes off more like a caricature than a character until he finally becomes a real person at the end of his life).

On the whole, there is something good to be said for each individual actor, but the production as a whole does not entirely gel the cast into an ensemble.  One of the largest disconnects is between the stylized portrayal of the men of the court and the serious construction of the role of Mozart’s wife (played with great feeling by McCaela Donovan).  The show could also have benefited from some judicious cutting, perhaps in the first act (which moved too slowly), allowing the intermission to come later, so that the second act did not go so long without a break.

Our favorite part of the production was probably the “venticelli” (little winds), two gossiping, whispering spies (played by the expert Paula Langton and Michael Kaye), who bring Salieri the news of the town, gallivanting around the stage and using their masks and wigs to great effect.  They, more than the other characters, use the full stage, including the enormous wooden slide/set piece with a fabulous geometric design, which becomes a church window, a podium, and other set pieces in turn (kudos to Cristina Todesco and Mary Ellen Stebbins, respectively the scenic designer and the lighting designer, for their terrific collaboration).  A big “nice job” to director Jim Petosa also on the brilliant stage pictures created by the intersection of the various production elements and the actors’ bodies in the geometric space of the stage and set.

~ Shauna Shames & Johanna Ettin, New Rep Reviewers

Mozart through Salieri's Eyes

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Reviewer

 

New Rep concludes their season with a wonderful production of the TONY winning play Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, which inspired the film of the same name.  The play presents a fictionalized account of composer Antonio Salieri’s last day where he recounts his relationship with fellow composer Wolfgang Amadeus (some scholars argue he preferred to use Amadè) Mozart. Salieri, though a series of flashbacks takes the audience on a three hour journey through both men’s lives attempting to prove to the audience how he is the one responsible for Mozart’s death.  We see the pious Salieri makes a pledge to devote himself to God in exchange for a musical gift and fame.  He does indeed get a gift and some success; however he is ever aware of his mediocrity, especially in comparison with Mozart who lives the life of a libertine. 

 

Jim Petosa assembles an amazing cast for this large production. Benjamin Evett is wonderful in the role of Salieri, transforming from an old man to a man in his prime for us on stage.  This is a large role, but Evett is up for it and shows that even if the composer were mediocre, the actor portraying him certainly is not.  Salieri’s Venticelli (little winds, aka spies) played by Michael Kaye and Paula Langton are also great in this production, they remind me of Commedia dell’arte characters with their costumes and mannerisms and they add a bit of humor to the production.  Also adding humor without saying many words is Paul D. Farwell as Von Strack – normally mumbling on stage is not something to be desired, but it is perfect for the character and Farwell makes it almost into an art form.  Tim Spears performance as Amadeus was generally good, although at times it reminded me a little too much of the portrayal in the movie rather than his own portrayal.   

 

The technical pieces of the production all came together well including Cristina Todesco’s scenic design whose centerpiece help transform the space through slight changes.  Frances Nelson McSherry’s costume design was very fitting of the period.  Mary Ellen Stebbins took an interesting concept with the lighting design by having Salieri followed by a spotlight throughout most of the production, allowing the rest of the stage to be more dimly lit; this at times helped add to the sense that what we’re seeing isn’t necessarily reality, but what was seen through his memory. 

 

I’ve seen the movie several times and it was a delight to finally be able to see this piece in person.  The two are similar but vary slightly, in the play it feels that a lot more is simply narrated by Salieri, whereas in the movie even if he is narrating the action, it is a voiceover while you see the action take place.  On might say (to paraphrase a line in the play), it has too many words – at times it does go on and one wonders if the script could have been cut a little while maintaining the story, but overall it was a very enjoyable night of theatre.  If you like Mozart or if you’ve seen the movie, you should certainly make time to see this production of Amadeus.