{"id":291,"date":"2012-01-27T18:20:26","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T22:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=291"},"modified":"2012-01-27T18:20:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T22:20:26","slug":"on-the-aisle-with-larry-17-january-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=291","title":{"rendered":"“On the Aisle with Larry” 17 January 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Harbison, The Playfixer<\/em><\/strong>, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. This week, Larry reports on ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, GODSPELL, CLOSE UP SPACE, THE CANTERBURY TALES REMIXED, LYSISTRATA JONES, SISTAS<\/em><\/strong>, HOW THE WORLD BEGAN<\/em><\/strong>, THE ROAD TO MECCA.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The revival (revisal?) of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever<\/em><\/strong> at the St. James, which is closing next month, is not as bad as you\u2019ve heard; but neither is it all that good. I am unfamiliar with the original production, which double-cast Barbara Harris as both a psychiatrist\u2019s patent and the woman she was in a past life, which notoriously didn\u2019t work, so all I can say is that the decision to make the patient a gay man and his past incarnation a female swing music singer doesn\u2019t work either \u2013 though it does give Harry Connick, Jr. the opportunity to almost-kiss his cute patient, David, at the end of Act 1. Harry spends most of his time in the 1940s, with Melinda the chantoosie, with whom he falls in love. In other words, this is not only about reincarnation \u2013 it\u2019s also about time travel. This new incarnation just doesn\u2019t work, either.<\/p>\n

That said, the show features lovely songs by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner, winningly delivered by a fine cast. Connick has been derided for being miscast, I guess because he never takes off his shirt or plays the piano; but I thought he was excellent, both in his acting and in his singing. David Turner, who plays David, is a gifted comic actor here constrained by a straight role, if such a thing can be said of a character who\u2019s about as fey as fey can get, and \u2013surprise, surprise! \u2013 he sings beautifully in a rich baritone. The other lead, Jessie Mueller, is giving the best performance in the show, as Melinda.<\/p>\n

If you can buy the premise, you just might enjoy On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever<\/em>. You\u2019d have to make a huge willing suspension of disbelief, though.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the revival of the early 1970\u2019s Stephen Schwartz musical, Godspell<\/em><\/strong>, is hanging on at Circle in the Square, I think largely because it must have a low weekly nut. It\u2019s a rather goofy show about what used to be called \u201cJesus Freaks,\u201d its book updated with many contemporary topical references, performed by an energetic and very talented young cast headed by Hunter Parrish as JC, who\u2019s not the hippie of the original production but a guy who looks like he\u2019s wandered in from The Book of Mormon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is a silly take on Christianity, probably more palatable to skeptics than to believers.<\/p>\n

Another show that\u2019s not as bad as you\u2019ve heard is Molly Smith Metzler\u2019s Close up Space, <\/em>wherein David Hyde Pierce plays a supercilious book editor as a variation on Niles from \u201cFraser.\u201d Metzler has a gift for wacky characters and even wackier dialogue. She\u2019s been slammed for this one, but watch for her Elemeno Pea<\/em>, a hit at last year\u2019s Humana Festival, currently at South Coast Rep and I think coming to NYC next season.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop hipster Baba Brinkman is back at the Soho Playhouse, this time with The Canterbury Tales Remixed<\/em><\/strong> , a rapped version of three of Chaucer\u2019s tales with Beowulf<\/em> thrown in for good measure, which I found delightful. Brinkman is a charismatic performer and a gifted wordsmith, and he makes the rap idiom more than palatable \u2013 which is a lot coming from someone who is usually as appalled by rap as I am.<\/p>\n

Lysistrata Jones<\/em><\/strong>, which moved from Off Broadway to Broadway and Died The Death, was a goofy modern adaptation of Aristophanes\u2019 comic classic about a sex strike; in this case, by cheerleaders fed up with their school basketball team\u2019s lackadaisical attitude about winning. It was as delightful on Broadway as it was Off, but with no stars it had no chance. If commercial Off Broadway were economically viable, that\u2019s where it should have gone.<\/p>\n

Sistas<\/em><\/strong>, which plays a few performances a week at Theatre at St. Luke\u2019s, is an engaging though rather contrived musical about black women who have gathered in the attic to go through the possessions of the recently-deceased family matriarch, there to talk a lot about the past (mostly boring) and sing kickass versions of songs made famous by the likes of Dionne Warwick, Billie Holliday and The Supremes (wonderful). I took a Black lady friend and she whooped it up. The book\u2019s mediocre; but if you love hearing this music again, as I do, you won\u2019t mind so much.<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s Project continues their roll with Catherine Trieschmann\u2019s mighty fine How the World Began<\/em><\/strong>, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in Theatre Row, about a city woman who is trying to put her life back together by teaching high school biology in a small town in the heart of the Bible Belt, who runs afoul of local religious beliefs when she refers to the Book of Genesis<\/em> as \u201cgobbledygook.\u201d Heidi Schreck is superb as the teacher, and the play itself has much to say about the vast cultural divide between secularists and evangelicals which is so much a part of our current political debate.<\/p>\n

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

Athol Fugard\u2019s The Road to Mecca<\/em><\/strong>, being revived by Roundabout at the American Airlines Theatre, is a mixed bag. It\u2019s a fine production of a rather tedious (particularly the first act) play about an elderly artist named Helen who lives by herself in a house out in the karoo who just may be thinking of suicide the young woman who drives from Johannesburg to try and save her and an elderly preacher who wants to put her in an old folks\u2019 home. Rosemary Harris and Carla Gugino are excellent, but the standout performance comes from Jim Dale, most touching as the preacher.<\/p>\n

Three great actors, in a boring play.<\/p>\n

ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER. St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

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

GODSPELL. Circle in the Square, 235 W. 50th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

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

CLOSE UP SPACE. Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center, 131 W. 55th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: 212-581-1212<\/p>\n

THE CANTERBURY TALES REMIXED. Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: 212-691-1555<\/p>\n

LYSISTRATA JONES. Alas, Closed<\/p>\n

SISTAS. Theatre at St. Luke\u2019s, 308 W. 46th<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

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

HOW THE WORLD BEGAN. Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 W. 42nd<\/sup> St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: www.ticketcentral.com<\/a> or 21227-4200<\/p>\n

THE ROAD TO MECCA. American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd<\/sup> St<\/p>\n

TICKETS: 212-719-1300 <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

For discount tickets for groups of ten or more, contact Carol Ostrow Productions & Group Sales. Phone: 212-265-8500. E-Mail: ostrow1776@aol.com<\/a>.<\/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.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

— George F. Will<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who actually does strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

— Theodore Roosevelt<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/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 reports on ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, GODSPELL, CLOSE UP SPACE, THE CANTERBURY TALES REMIXED, LYSISTRATA JONES, SISTAS, HOW THE WORLD BEGAN, THE ROAD TO MECCA. The revival (revisal?) of On […]<\/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\/291"}],"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=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}