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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 AIN\u2019T TOO PROUD, KISS ME, KATE, BE MORE CHILL, BEETLEJUICE, HADESTOWN, NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE, HILLARY AND CLINTON, INK, THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE <\/strong>and GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n For theatregoers my age (old) the music of the Motown group The Temptations was part of our youth, but I think younger audience will flock along with the geezers to the Imperial Theatre, where Ain\u2019t Too Proud<\/em><\/strong> is in residence for what will probably be a long run. Like Jersey Boys<\/em> and The Cher Show<\/em>, this is a bio-musical, working in the group\u2019s greatest hits as it tells their story. Dominque Morissseau was the perfect choice to write the book. She\u2019s a wonderful playwright, the recipient of a MacArthur grant and she\u2019s from Detroit! She has done a terrific job of seamlessly weaving those great 60s songs into\u00a0<\/strong>what becomes a rather dark story. More on that later.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The story is narrated by Otis Williams, the last surviving original member of the Temps, as we used to call them, played by Derrick Baskin, and he\u2019s terrific \u2013 but so are the other members of the group; particularly, Ephraim Sykes as David Ruffin, a great soul singer but a troubled man. Sykes\u2019 rendition of Ruffin\u2019s signature song, \u201cMy Girl,\u201d took me back to my boyhood and made me long for my own girl.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n As you might expect, the choreography by Sergio Trujillo, who seems to specialize in what are often derided, unfairly in my opinion, as \u201cjukebox musicals,\u201d captures perfectly the Temps\u2019 slick moves, and the whole thing has been put together perfectly by Des McAnuff who, you might remember, also directed Jersey Boys<\/em> and The Who\u2019s Tommy<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The only problem with the show is the second act as, one by one, the Temps die off, Ruffin in a drug overdose when he was only 28. It\u2019s bummer after bummer but, fortunately there are a lot of great songs to get us through the tragedies.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Scott Ellis has come up some new ideas to stage Kiss Me, Kate,<\/em><\/strong> the Cole Porter and Sam & Bella Spewack musical at Studio 54. For one thing, he\u2019s had orchestrator Larry Hochman add music to some songs, like \u201cToo Darn Hot,\u201d \u00a0to enable choreographer Warren Carlyle to turn them into big dance numbers. He\u2019s also \u201cfixed\u201d the ending, which is right out of Shakespeare\u2019s The Taming of the Shrew<\/em>, adding new lyrics to \u201cI Am Ashamed that Women Are So Simple,\u201d in which star Kelli O\u2019Hara is ashamed that people<\/u> are so simple. There are other PC touches, some of which work, some of which don\u2019t, but essentially this is a first-rate production. O\u2019Hara is sensational, as she always is, but she\u2019s matched by her co-star Will Chase, who has great fun with the role of Fred.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Be More Chill<\/em><\/strong>, at the Lyceum Theatre, is a transfer from Off Broadway last season, It got great reviews then, less than great in this incarnation. It\u2019s a teen angst story about a kid who takes a mind-altering pill to cure his awkwardness and, of course runs into trouble. I liked this show \u2013 a lot. I liked Joe Iconis\u2019 songs, Joe Tracz\u2019 book. I liked\u00a0all the performances. I liked Chase\u00a0<\/strong>Brock\u2019s choreography. I am at a loss to understand why it\u2019s been slammed.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I also liked Beetlejuice<\/em><\/strong> at the Winter Garden Theatre, based on the Tim Burton film about a jolly ghoul who longs to be brought back to life \u2013 if he can only get a living person to say his name three times. Alex Brightman is hilarious in the title role, and Sophia Ann Caruso is touching as a troubled goth teen who misses her recently deceased mother, as she sings in the show\u2019s first song, \u201cDead Mom.\u201d Eddie Perfect\u2019s music & lyrics capture the tone of the film perfectly, as does Alex Timbers\u2019 direction. P:raise must also go to David Korins\u2019 shape-shifting set.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Although this has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, it\u2019s a long shot to win, as all the momentum is with Hadestown<\/em>, but I have to say I had the best time at Beetlejuice<\/em> than at any musical this season since The Prom<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Shows which lose in the Tony Roulette tend to close quickly thereafter. I hope this will not be the case with Beetlejuice<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Hadestown<\/em><\/strong>, at the Walter Kerr Theatre is, like Be More Chill<\/em>, a transfer from Off Broadway, but it\u2019s the show which everyone seems to love, and it has the most Tony nominations. It\u2019s a retelling of the Orpheus myth. The whole shebang \u2013 book, music and lyrics \u2013 are by Anais Mitchell, and it\u2019s directed by hot young director Rachel Chafkin, whose direction of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812<\/em> wowed the critics but was not enough to entice audiences to buy tickets after star Josh Groban left.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The reviews are, as I said across-the-board raves, and everybody I have talked to, with the exception of my companion the night I attended, thinks it\u2019s the bee\u2019s knees. Not me. I just don\u2019t get it. I liked some of the performances, notably Amber Gray\u2019s as Persephone and Eva Noblezada\u2019s as Eurydice, but Patrick Page as Hades growled through most of his role, and his songs, few and far between, were for me the least interesting, musically.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Ah well \u2013 who cares what I think? I just hope I am not becoming what I promised I would never be \u2013 an Old Fart.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n At the Mitzi Newhouse theatre, John Guare\u2019s Nantucket Sleigh Ride<\/em><\/strong>, his first play in several years, is being given a fun, whimsical production by Jerry Zaks, starring John Larroquette as a one-hit wonder playwright, now a businessman, who goes back to 1975, in Nantucket to relive many painfully hilarious memories.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s true, Nantucket Sleigh Rid<\/em>e is often confusing, but I for one appreciate an absurdist farce once in a while.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Hillary and Clinton<\/em><\/strong>, at the Golden Theatre, is sort of about the Clintons and sort of not. It\u2019s another whimsical play by hot hot hot playwright Lucas Hnath, whose A Doll\u2019s House, Part Two<\/em><\/strong> was a hit last season. Laurie Metcalfe and John Lithgow make no effort to impersonate the Clintons and, in fact, Metcalfe is giving pretty much the same performance she gave as Nora in A Doll\u2019s House Part Two<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The play takes place on the eve of the 2008 New Hampshire primary. Hillary is behind in all the polls and it looks like she will lose to Sen. Obama, which will effectively be the end of her candidacy, particularly as she is out of money \u2013 which is why she summons her husband, who has stayed away from her campaign, up to New Hampshire in hopes he can come up with the cash to keep her in the race (which, of course, he does \u2013 he being Bill Clinton after all). Obama shows up to offer her the nomination as Vice President if she will agree to drop out in the interest of party unity. Will she take him up on it or won\u2019t she?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Hillary and Clinton<\/em><\/strong> seems rather lightweight, certainly compared to A Doll\u2019s House II<\/em>. Still, it\u2019s a more or less enjoyable 90 minutes.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n James Graham\u2019s Ink<\/em><\/strong>, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, was a huge London last season and has been brought over with it\u2019s two leads intact, again directed brilliantly by Rupert Goold. \u00a0The play takes place in the 1960\u2019s. Australian newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch is determined to make a ton of money in London by buying a failing newspaper, the Sun, and hiring a brilliant editor named Larry Lamb, who\u2019s been excluded from the top executive level because he\u2019s an outsider to a club which consists mostly of old fuddy-duddies. Together, Larry and Rupert change newspaper publishing forever, turning the boring Sun into the first tabloid, proving that sleaze always trumps honest reporting. Fittingly, Larry overtakes the best selling newspaper in the country, like David bringing down Goliath, putting the Sun over the top by, fittingly, publishing a picture of a naked woman (well, a semi-naked woman but you can see which way the wind blows) on page three.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bertie Carvel and Jonny Lee Miller are sensational as Murdoch and Lamb, and there is strong supporting work from the Americans in the cast.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I liked Halley Feiffer\u2019s latest, The Pain of My Belligerence<\/em>, wherein Feiffer plays a journalist who falls for the husband of a woman she has interviewed, even though he is obviously a bad boy and possibly a serial adulterer. Why would a woman fall for such a man? Who knows? I have to say that the fine actor, Hamish Linklater, almost makes this credible with his raffish charm, and I think Feiffer is giving a very courageous performance.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The play has been given a fine production by Trip Cullman, whose work I have always loved, and is well worth seeing.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, I have arrived at Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andonicus<\/em><\/strong> by downtown performance artist Taylor Mac, which takes place in the aftermath of the carnage in Shakespeare\u2019s play but multiplies it to the nth degree. Nathan Lane plays the title role, a failed clown who is hired as a maid to help clean up the mess, something at which head maid Janice is most adept. Also in the play is Carol, a midwife, played by Julie White, who wanders in and out appearing to be bewildered that she\u2019s in such a weird play. Lane is sometimes funny, sometimes not, as Gary, and Kristine Neilson goes even more over the top than usual as Janice. I usually like all her mugging, but here she\u2019s more than too much.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a fan of Taylor Mac and his peculiar sensibility I think you will enjoy this. Everyone else, be prepared to be appalled.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n AIN\u2019T TOO PROUD<\/strong>. Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St.<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n KISS ME, KATE. <\/strong>Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St.<\/p>\n Tickets: www.roundabouttheatre.org<\/a><\/p>\n BE MORE CHILL<\/strong>. Lyceum Theatre. 149 W. 45th ST<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n BEETLEJUICE<\/strong>. Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n HADESTOWN<\/strong>. Walter Kerr Theatre. 219 W. 48th St.<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n NANTUCKET SLEIGH RIDE. <\/strong>Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n HILLARY AND CLINTON<\/strong>. Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th St<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n INK<\/strong>. Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St.<\/p>\n Tickets: 212 -239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or www.telecharge.com<\/a><\/p>\n THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE<\/strong>. Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd ST<\/p>\n Tickets: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com<\/a> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n