<\/p>\n
Lawrence Harbison<\/strong>, The Playfixer, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. In this column, Larry reports on GROUNDHOG DAY, ANASTASIA, INDECENT, A DOLL\u2019S HOUSE PART 2, THE WHIRLIGIG, THE LUCKY ONE<\/em><\/strong> and THE LITTLE FOXES\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and comments on the Kilroys list.<\/p>\n I was not able to catch Groundhog Day<\/em><\/strong> at the August Wilson Theatre during its press dates because its star, Andy Karl, was out due to an onstage injury (he tore his ACL), so the press agent slid me into Bandstand<\/em> instead. I am pleased to report that Karl is back in the show, wearing a knee brace, and has just won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Musical. It is richly deserved.<\/p>\n Groundhog Day<\/em> comes to us from London (where Karl won the Olivier Award). It\u2019s based on the wonderful film about a sardonic weatherman named Phil who is assigned, much to his dismay, to cover the annual ceremony in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania wherein a large rodent forecasts how much more winter we\u2019ll have. If he sees his shadow when he emerges from his burrow and scurries back inside, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Phil (who shares the same name with the groundhog) would rather be anywhere else. Well, a severe storm sets in after the ceremony, and Phil and his crew are forced to spend another night in Punxsutawney. When Phil wakes up the next morning, it\u2019s Groundhog Day all over again \u2013 over and over again — and he\u2019s the only one aware of it. Phil\u2019s progression from jerk to decent human being forms the story\u2019s dramatic arc, as he comes actually to like the denizens of the town even as he tries to figure out how to escape his seemingly never-ending predicament, and as he goes from trying to seduce his producer to falling in love with her.<\/p>\n Karl is terrific in the show, as is Barrett Doss as Rita, the producer, as are all the supporting cast, under Matthew Warchus\u2019 inspired direction, and the inventive sets by Rob Howell are great fun, as is Danny Rubin\u2019s wonderful book. Tim Minchin\u2019s songs are absolutely delightful, with one terrific number after another.<\/p>\n Groundhog Day<\/em> is definitely a must-see. In a season of mighty fine Broadway musicals, it\u2019s one of the best.<\/p>\n I also enjoyed Anastasia<\/em><\/strong> at the Broadhurst Theatre, a slick musical adaptation by Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), directed by Darko Tresnjak, of the animated film based on the story of the woman who claimed to be the only surviving daughter of the Romanov family. Two charming rogues find a street sweeper named Anya and try to pass her off as the Czarina. She has amnesia and doesn\u2019t remember much about her past, but after much coaching she becomes credible. The thing is, she may actually be Anastasia.<\/p>\n The show has a lot in common with Disney musicals. Nothing dark, nothing disturbing, a plucky heroine and lovable rogues. It\u2019s the kind of show you\u2019d feel comfortable taking your kids to. Christy Altomare is wonderful as Anya, as are Derek Klena and John Bolton as her two handlers, and there is a mighty fine turn by Mary Peth Peil as the Dowager Empress, who they must con\/convince in order to get their hands on the Romanov fortune.<\/p>\n Mention must also be made of Linda Cho\u2019s sumptuous costumes, Alexander Dodge\u2019s beautiful sets and, most especially, Aaron Rhyne\u2019s astonishing projections \u2013 all a feast for the eye.<\/p>\n Indecent<\/em><\/strong>, at the Cort Theatre, is a transfer from Off Broadway\u2019s Vineyard Theatre. It\u2019s a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, created by Vogel and the director Rebecca Taichman (the first time I have even seen such a credit), about a troupe of intrepid Yiddish theatre actors putting on a play by Sholem Asch entitled The God of Vengeance<\/em>. It\u2019s structured as a memory play, wherein the troupe\u2019s stage manager tells the story as the actors perform it.<\/p>\n I have never seen or read The God of Vengeance<\/em>, but we are given to understand that it\u2019s a classic of the Yiddish drama, highly controversial in its day in its harsh depiction of its characters but also because it contains a lesbian sex scene, which appears to be the main focus of Vogel and Taichman.<\/p>\n The ensemble is excellent, and Taichman\u2019s direction is brilliant; but the play itself didn\u2019t grab me. If you\u2019re a lesbian, though, it\u2019s definitely worth checking out.<\/p>\n Lucus Hnath\u2019s A Doll\u2019s House, Part Two<\/em><\/strong>, at the Golden Theatre, employs a brilliant conceit: what if Nora from Ibsen\u2019s play, who notoriously left her husband and children, returned years later? Why would she do so? Turns out, she has become a successful writer, under a pseudonym \u2013 but an arch-conservative judge has found out that she is still married to Torvald, has discovered her real name and has threatened to prosecute her for signing her own contracts, which a woman wasn\u2019t allowed to do in 19th Century Norway. So, Nora needs to persuade her husband to grant her a divorce \u2013 which he refuses to do.<\/p>\n Laurie Metcalf is sensational as Nora and Chris Cooper equally so as her tortured husband, Jane Houdyshell provides welcome comic relief as the housekeeper and Condola Rashad is terrific as the crafty daughter, who Nora needs in order to change Torvald\u2019s mind. Hnath\u2019s writing employs a lot of amusing anachronisms, which I enjoyed. While he sympathizes with Nora\u2019s dilemma, he sympathizes even more with her abandoned husband, and Chris Cooper breaks your heart, particularly when compared Metcalf, who is rather shrill (which is exactly right for her character, I must admit). I usually aren\u2019t wild about Sam Gold\u2019s direction, but here it is first-rate.<\/p>\n Unless it wins the Tony Award, A Doll\u2019s House Part Two<\/em><\/strong> will probably not run much longer, regrettably. It\u2019s a tough sell to the Broadway audience, even with its stellar cast, so see it now. You snooze, you lose.<\/p>\n In Hamish Linklater\u2019s The Whirligig<\/em><\/strong>, a New Group production at the Signature Center, a young woman lays dying of hepatitis C. She\u2019s a junkie and has contracted the disease from an infected needle. Her divorced parents bring her home to die, and the non-chronological plot goes back and forth in time, as we see the dying woman as a sweet young teenager. The dramatic crux is, how did she become the dying junkie?<\/p>\n Linklater\u2019s writing is breath-taking, as is Scott Elliott\u2019s direction, and the cast is magnificent \u2013 particularly Norbert Leo Butz as the father and Zosia Mamet as the girl\u2019s former BFF. In an era when few plays require more than four actors and have shorter and shorter running times, it was refreshing for me to see eight actors up there, in a play which runs two and a half hours but which never seems to run out of steam.<\/p>\n The Whirligig<\/em> is a don\u2019t-miss.<\/p>\n The Mint Theatre specializes in lost plays which don\u2019t deserve to be forgotten. The Lucky One<\/em><\/strong>, by A.A. Milne, at the Beckett Theatre, is certainly a \u201clost play.\u201d It was produced briefly on Broadway in the 1920s and then faded into obscurity. It\u2019s about two brothers competing for the hand for the same desirable woman, Pamela is engaged to marry Gerald, much to the dismay of his brother Bob. Gerald is charming but rather callow; whereas Bob is a hapless sort. When Bob finds himself caught in skullduggery at the bank where he works and has to go to prison, he implores Pamela not to marry Gerald, to wait for him. Will she or won\u2019t she?<\/p>\n Director Jesse Marchese\u2019s cast is excellent. My only quibble has to do with Vicki R. Davis\u2019 set. A set must do two things: it must suggest the period and social milieu in which the play takes place and it must facilitate effortless movement by the actors. Davis\u2019 set is a space-dominating two-sided circular staircase, with steel rail supports, descending to the drawing room where the action takes place. This stair unit is just plain ugly and looks modern and industrial. It also results in many awkward entrances and exits.<\/p>\n The Lucky One<\/em> is enjoyable, but I wouldn\u2019t say the Mint has made a case for it as an unjustly-forgotten classic.<\/p>\n In the revival of Lillian Hellman\u2019s The Little Foxes<\/em><\/strong>, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at their Broadway venue, the Friedman Theatre, and superbly directed by Daniel Sullivan, Cynthia Nixon and Laura Linney play both Regina and Birdie, alternating in the roles. I saw Nixon as Regina and Linney as Birdie. I wish I could have seen them vice-versa, but there were so many shows coming at us I couldn\u2019t find another slot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The play is about the scheming Hubbard clan, a once-genteel Southern family whose cotton plantation is on the ropes; so, brothers Ben and Oscar have hatched a deal with a businessman from Chicago to build a mill on their property which will obviate the need to ship their cotton north for processing. Problem is, Ben and Oscar don\u2019t have all the financing for this project. Their brother-in-law Horace, married to their sister Regina, does, but he\u2019s been gone for weeks, recuperating from heart trouble at a hospital. Regina, being a woman at the turn of the 19th Century, has to go along with what her brothers are planning, so she agrees to send her daughter Alexandra off to try to persuade Horace to come home. When he does, he finds that the bonds he has kept in a safety deposit box have been stolen and used to pay the rest of his brothers\u2019 share of the deal. Regina, a fiercely-determined woman who wants to get the hell out of her stifling, loveless marriage and go up to Chicago to live in high style, must turn the tables and get ahold of the money the family stands to make on the deal. Will she, or won\u2019t she?<\/p>\n Cynthia Nixon, as Regina, is as steely and manipulative as Nora is A Doll\u2019s House Part Two<\/em> and Laura Linney is heartbreaking as Birdie, married to brother Oscar, whose lot in life is worse than Nora\u2019s was in Ibsen\u2019s original play. Michael McKean and Darren Goldstein are wonderfully smarmy as Ben and Oscar. They\u2019d fit right into today\u2019s corporate America, probably winding up in President Tweet\u2019s cabinet; and Richard Thomas is giving one of his finest-ever performances as Horace.<\/p>\n My friend and colleague Michael Bigelow Dixon, for many years Literary Manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville, recently published a book with Smith & Kraus entitled \u201cBreaking from Realism,\u201d which I consider to be a brilliant manifesto of the burgeoning Anything But Realism movement in our nation\u2019s theatres, which has ruled the roost at European theatres for many years. I quibble with his touting of some practitioners of Anything But Realism, whom he considers geniuses but whom I think are, to varying degrees, humbugs. I also quibble with Dixon\u2019s assertion that Realism as a viable dramatic style is boring and old-fashioned. So, he would probably dislike The Little Foxes<\/em>. If you, on the other hand, actually enjoy an excellent example of old hat, old fashioned Realism when it is done exceptionally well, you won\u2019t find better proof at the Friedman Theatre that Realism is alive and kicking.<\/p>\n Finally: The Kilroys is an invaluable organization created to promote production of more plays by women. Since its inception, I have had the honor to serve them as a nominator for their annual List, which publicizes worthy plays by women which are as yet unproducedd. This year, I was instructed by the administrator of the List that I was to give preferment to plays by women of color and transgender. Regarding the latter, no instruction was given as to whether this meant men transitioning to be women or women transitioning to be men, nor were there any suggestions as to how nominators were to know when they read a play if its author is transgender. Be that as it may, I replied that while I would be happy to serve the Kilroys as a Nominator, I would not favor any ethnic or racial group, because I consider this to be racist. A flurry of emails were exchanged between me and said administrator, who finally accused me of being among the cohort of \u201caggrieved white males\u201d who has put our country in jeopardy by electing You-Know-Who. Oh really.<\/p>\n When I was at Samuel French I was responsible for the first publication of Tina Howe, Theresa Rebeck, Shirley Lauro, Jane Martin (when \u201cMs. Martin\u201d was definitely a woman) and many, many other plays by female playwrights. The first play I recommended which the firm published was by a woman. The anthologies I have edited for Smith & Kraus and Applause contain many plays by women, many of them \u201cof color,\u201d such as Lynn Nottage, Elaine Romero, Danai Gurira, Nikkole Salter, Anne Garc\u00eda Romero, Kirsten Greenidge, Bridgette Wimberly, Elaine Romero, Fernanda Coppel and others. Many of the best playwrights whom I have assisted as The Playfixer are women. I\u2019ll betcha none of the above considers me to be an \u201caggrieved white male.\u201d<\/p>\n Apparently, if you disagree with the Kilroys, an organization founded to promote woman playwrights but whose focus is now to promote certain women playwrights over others, you find yourself considered the Enemy, a card-carrying member of Trump Nation.<\/p>\n Ignorance and incivility are rampant on both sides of the political divide. If this doesn\u2019t change, we will never be able to work together to make America great again (and I hasten to add, not in the Trumpian sense).<\/p>\n Finally finally: on this Memorial Day weekend I would like to share with you the link to a video which memorializes those who made the Supreme Sacrifice, underscored by John Williams\u2019 \u201cHymn to the Fallen.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n GROUNDHOG DAY. August Wilson Theatre, 245 W. 52nd St.<\/p>\n TICKETS: www.ticketmaster.com<\/a> or 800-745-3000<\/p>\n ANASTASIA. Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 45th St.<\/p>\n TICKETS: www.telecharge.com<\/a> or 212-239-6200<\/p>\n INDECENT. Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th St.<\/p>\n TICKETS: www.telecharge.com<\/a> or 212-239-6200<\/p>\n A DOLL\u2019S HOUSE PART 2. Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th St.<\/p>\n TICKETS: www.telecharge.com<\/a> or 212-239-6200<\/p>\n THE WHIRLIGIG. Signature Center, 480 W. 52nd St.<\/p>\n TICKETS: www.ticketcentral.com<\/a> or 212-279-4200<\/p>\n THE LUCKY ONE. Beckett Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St.<\/p>\n