{"id":150,"date":"2010-03-31T16:56:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T20:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=150"},"modified":"2010-03-31T16:56:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T20:56:16","slug":"on-the-aisle-with-larry-31-march-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"“On the Aisle with Larry” 31 March 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Harbison<\/em><\/strong>, The Playfixer, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. This week, Larry tells you about GIRLS IN TROUBLE, NEXT FALL, LENIN\u2019S EMBALMERS, ALICE IN SLASHERLAND <\/strong>and CHING CHONG CHINAMAN.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Reynolds, who has lately been making quite a name for himself as a proponent of right wing politics in the theatre, has outdone himself with his latest, Girls in Trouble<\/em><\/strong> at the Flea Theatre. As we all know, women have an inalienable right to choose abortion, and anyone who takes on that viewpoint is at best a crank and at worst The Enemy. Reynolds has done just that in Girls in Trouble<\/em>, and has been fielding angry verbal brickbats tossed at him by audience members at talk-backs after the performance. Talk about daring to walk into the lion\u2019s den!\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Flea likes to produce provocative plays. This one\u2019s a doozy. It\u2019s actually three inter-related one-acts. In the first a college student, whose father is a high official in the Kennedy administration, is driving a girl he has impregnated to get an (illegal) abortion. He gets lost, and when he finally arrives the abortionist, a black woman with a young daughter, has to rush things, with tragic consequences. In the second act, the abortionist\u2019s daughter, now grown up, is performing at what appears to be a poetry slam, and reveals that she has gotten pregnant but plans to have an abortion just to stick it to her boyfriend, who has gone cold on her. The final act is the Main Event. In it, a TV chef who mixes politics in with her recipes finds herself confronted by a radical pro-life proponent, who gains entrance to her home by posing as the doctor who is performing an abortion for Our Heroine, who has too much going on in her life right now to deal with having and raising another child. The \u201cdoctor\u201d turns out to be the woman from the poetry slam. What ensues is a knock-down drag-out debate about the ethics of abortion. Many people will consider the mere fact that this is even being debated onstage an outrage. Not me. I like a good argument. I only wish this part of Reynolds\u2019 play were better\u2014 I found its resolution hard to believe. That said, Jim Simpson\u2019s production is excellent, and the actors are terrific.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Geoffrey Nauffts\u2019 Next Fall<\/em><\/strong> has transferred from Off Broadway to Broadway\u2019s Helen Hayes Theatre. God bless Elton John and his \u201cpartner,\u201d David Furnish, who put up a big chunk of the dough for this transfer. Next Fall<\/em> is a beautifully-written play about a gay odd couple, Adam and Luke. Adam is 40; Luke\u2019s in his early 20s. Nothing unusual about that. What is<\/em> unusual is that Luke is a sincere Christian, whereas Adam\u2019s an atheist. Whoever heard of a gay play which takes Christianity seriously?\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the play begins, Luke is in a coma after being hit by a car. His mother and father are at the hospital, along with friends Holly and Brandon. Adam\u2019s there, too. Mom and Dad don\u2019t know that Luke is gay. He never got around to coming out. While everyone waits for news about Luke, Nauffts takes us back in time to scenes which show when Luke and Adam met, when they fell in love, when they moved in together. These scenes develop the Christian vs. Atheist agon, as Adam finds much of what Luke believes hard to fathom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Naked Angels\u2019 Off Broadway production, beautifully directed by Sheryl Kaller, has transferred intact, sans stars (just really good stage actors like Cotter Smith as Luke\u2019s Dad, Connie Ray as his Mom and Patrick Breen as Adam). It\u2019s a don\u2019t-miss. Support the American Play on Broadway!\u00a0<\/p>\n

For that matter, support the American play Off Broadway, too, where there have been several new openings of note, such as Vern Thiessen\u2019s Lenin\u2019s Embalmers<\/em><\/strong> at Ensemble Studio Theatre, a mordant farce (is that an oxymoron?) about the two Soviet scientists who came up with \u00a0way to embalm the instigator of the Russian Revolution but who subsequently ran afoul of Stalin and wound up in the Gulag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Billy Carden\u2019s production starts out almost as pure Marx Brothers, and then proceeds to get darker and darker. It\u2019s brilliant, as are Zach Grenier and Scott Sowers as the two embalmers, Richmond Hoxie as Stalin and Peter Maloney as Lenin, who\u2019s dead but who pops up from time to time, often to tell pithy Soviet jokes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This one\u2019s a don\u2019t-miss.<\/p>\n

As is Qui Nguyen\u2019s latest, Alice in Slasherland, <\/em><\/strong>at Here. Nguyen specializes in campy send-ups of pop culture in the tradition of the Ridiculous Theatre Co., though Nguyen demonstrates time and again that camp doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be gay. This is camp for straight people \u2013 young straight people, weaned on comic books and slasher and kung-fu films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director Robert Ross Parker perfectly captures Nguyen\u2019s outrageous style, as does his talented cast, several of whom I have seen and enjoyed before in other Nguyen plays, produced by his company, Vampire Cowboys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alice in Slasherland<\/em> is Great Fun. Even geezers like me can dig it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadly, Lauren Yee\u2019s Ching Chong Chinaman<\/em><\/strong>, produced by Pan Asian Rep at the West End Theatre, is not so much fun. It\u2019s about a Chinese American family which has a Chinese immigrant living with them, imported by teenaged Upton to do his math homework so he can focus on an online video game he\u2019s playing 24\/7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s style reminded me of Nguyen\u2019s \u2013 very broad and campy. Unfortunately, May Adrales has directed the play as if it were a bad TV sitcom, when the outrageousness such as that employed by a Robert Ross Parker would have been more effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pan Asian Rep is the granddaddy of Asian American theatre in New York. They\u2019ve been around for over 30 years. Since then, other companies such as Ma-Yi and NAATCO have come along, and I would say their productions make Pan Asian\u2019s look like amateur night \u2013 except that would give a bad name to the amateurs. There is a deep talent pool here of Asian actors. Howsacome Pan Asian Rep never seems to tap into it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GIRLS IN TROUBLE<\/strong>. Flea Theatre, 41 White Street.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TICKETS: www.theflea.org<\/a> or 212-352-3101<\/p>\n

NEXT FALL<\/strong>. Helen Hayes Theatre. 240 W. 44th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TICKETS: www.telecharge.com<\/a> or 212-239-6200<\/p>\n

LENIN\u2019S EMBALMERS<\/strong>. Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 W. 52nd<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TICKETS: www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org<\/a> or 866-811-4111<\/p>\n

ALICE<\/strong> IN SLASHERLAND<\/strong>. Here, 145 Sixth Ave.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TICKETS: www.here.org<\/a> or 212-352-3101<\/p>\n

CHING CHONG CHINAMAN<\/strong>. West End Theatre, 263 W. 86th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TICKETS: 212-352-3101.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Who is<\/em> <\/strong>this guy?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For over thirty years Lawrence Harbison<\/strong> was in charge of new play acquisition for Samuel French, Inc., during which time his work on behalf of playwrights resulted in the first publication of such subsequent luminaries as Jane Martin, Don Nigro, Tina Howe, Theresa Rebeck, Jos\u00e9 Rivera, William Mastrosimone, Charles Fuller, and Ken Ludwig, among many others; and the acquisition of musicals such as Smoke of the Mountain, A\u2026My Name Is Alice, Little Shop of Horrors <\/em>and Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down. <\/em>\u00a0<\/em>He is a now a free-lance editor, primarily for Smith and Kraus, Inc., for whom he edits annual anthologies of best plays by new playwrights and women playwrights, best ten-minute plays and best monologues and scenes for men and for women. For many years he wrote a weekly column on his adventures in the theater for two Manhattan Newspapers, the Chelsea Clinton News and The Westsider. His new column, \u201cOn the Aisle with Larry,\u201d<\/strong> is a weekly feature at www.smithandkraus.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He works with individual playwrights to help them develop their plays (see his website, www.playfixer.com<\/a><\/strong>). He has also served as literary manager or literary consultant for several theatres, such as Urban Stages and American Jewish Theatre. He is a member of both the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk. He has served many times over the years as a judge and commentator for various national play contests and lectures regularly at colleges and universities. He holds a B.A. from Kenyon College and an M.A. from the University of Michigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is currently working on a book, Masters of the Contemporary American Drama<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It requires a certain largeness of spirit to give generous appreciation to large achievements. A society with\u00a0a crabbed spirit\u00a0and a\u00a0cynical 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.”<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 —– George F. Will<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Harbison, The Playfixer, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. This week, Larry tells you about GIRLS IN TROUBLE, NEXT FALL, LENIN\u2019S EMBALMERS, ALICE IN SLASHERLAND and CHING CHONG CHINAMAN.\u00a0 Jonathan Reynolds, who has lately been making quite a name for himself as a proponent of right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}