Lawrence Harbison, the Playfixer himself, brings you up to date with what’s hot and what’s not in New York. This week, Larry tells you about GIRLS NIGHT, VANITIES, SUMMER SHORTS SERIES A and WILDFLOWER.
Last week I saw not one but two off Broadway musicals about female friendship, “Girls Night” in the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre at Sofia’s and “Vanities” at Second Stage. Girls Night is what has come to be called a “jukebox musical;” Vanities has original music and has been adapted by Jack Heifner from his long-running off Broadway hit play from the 1970’s. Unlike most critics, I have nothing against “jukebox musicals,” but of the two I much preferred “Vanities.”
The premise of “Girls Night” is that a group of friends, all about 40, are having a bachelorette party at a bar for the daughter of the former queen bee of the group, who died when she was but a teenager. The dear departed, however, is there in spirit, as a ghost. She does a lot of narrating, both at the start and between numbers.
This could have been a clever, fun show if it were well-executed; but the book by Louise Roche, adapted by Betsy Kelso, is unbelievably crass and vulgar. The performances pretty much match the book. The songs are mostly disco hits of the 1970s, all about female empowerment (“I Will Survive,” “It’s Raining Men,” etc.). They are heavily amplified in this small space, and are pretty much ear-splitting. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a sound board, so the book scenes are amplified, too. Lord have mercy.
I was one of about three men in the audience, which was a full house and which whooped and hollered and generally had a great time, which mystified me and my two female companions, both women of taste and refinement who were appalled by the show, as was I. If you are a woman with absolutely no taste whatsoever, who loves 70’s disco music, this one’s for you.
“Vanities” has pretty much gotten hammered in the press, which mystifies me as much as the audience reaction to “Girls Night.” I thought Heifner did a fine job of adapting his play about three friends who progress from teenaged innocence to jaded adulthood, and I loved the music by David Kirschenbaum. Judith Ivey has done a fine, fluid job of directing and the show features three terrific performances, by Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles and Annaliese van der Pol.
Heifner has made one important change to his story, which I think was necessary to make the show work as a musical. The original play is in three scenes, the last ending in anger and recrimination. For his musical version he has tacked on a final scene in which the women meet years later at the funeral of the mother of one and patch things up, thus ending on a more upbeat note than in the play. I had no problem with this, but I think it has led some critics to accuse the show of being too sentimental, which is very much a no-no for critics, most of whom are jaded cynics. If you are a jaded cynic, by all means skip “Vanities”; but if you want a tuneful, upbeat, feel-good evening Vanities is your spoonful of sugar.
“Wildflower” by Lila Rose Kaplan, at Second Stage’s McGinn/Cazale Theatre, is a charming, sentimental comedy about a divorced mom and her quasi-disturbed teenaged son who are hanging out for the summer in a town in Colorado known for its annual Wildflower Festival. She gets a job at a local country store run by a quirky teenaged girl who is determined to lose her virginity by the fall, when she goes away to college, and who decides that the aforementioned teenaged boy is the best candidate to do the deed.
Kaplan’s writing is fresh and funny until the final, weird, melodramatic scene which seemed to me totally incongruous to the rest of the play, a real head-scratcher. But the direction by Giovanna Sardelli is excellent and the performances are all uniformly fine.
Finally, I caught Series A of this year’s Summer Shorts Festival at 59 E. 59th. By and large, I wasn’t much impressed by the play choices. There was an undramatic though somewhat engaging monologue written and performed by Nancy Giles called “Things My Afro Taught Me” about her many Bad Hair Days, a quirky comedy by John Augustine called “Death by Chocolate” which I felt went on too long and was too unfocused and a mini-musical by Skip Kennen and Bill Cunningham which was creepy in a silly sorta way. The best play of the evening is Neil LaBute’s “A Second of Pleasure,” about a couple going off for a weekend together who, it turns out, are married but not to each other. Victor Slezak and Margaret Colin are wonderful in their roles (they always are), and made this rather slight part of the LaBute oeuvre more fascinating than it really is.
Lets Hope Series B is better.
GIRLS NIGHT. Downstairs Cabaret at Sofia’s, 227 W. 46th St.
TICKETS: 212-947-9300.
VANITIES. Second Stage, 307 W. 43rd St.
TICKETS: 212-246-4422.
WILDFLOWER. McGinn/Cazale Theatre, 21262 Broadway.
TICKETS: 212-246-4422.
SUMMER SHORTS Series A. 59 E. 59th St.
TICKETS: www.ticketcentral.com 212-279-4200.
“It requires a certain largeness of spirit to give generous appreciation to large achievements. A society with a crabbed spirit and a cynical urge to discount and devalue will find that one day, when it needs to draw upon the reservoirs of excellence, the reservoirs have run dry.”
—– George F. Will