{"id":558,"date":"2019-11-22T14:57:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T18:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=558"},"modified":"2019-11-23T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T17:54:27","slug":"on-the-aisle-with-larry-22-november-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=558","title":{"rendered":"“On the Aisle with Larry” 22 November 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOn the Aisle with Larry\u201d<\/strong><\/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 SLAVE PLAY, EINSTEIN\u2019S DREAMS, FEAR, BRANDOCAPOTE <\/strong>and THE GREAT SOCIETY<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Jeremy O. Harris\u2019\u00a0Slave Play<\/em>, at the Golden Theatre, is one of those plays where you think it\u2019s one thing but then it turns out to be something quite different. In the first third of this two hour and 20 minute intermission-less drama, we are in the Old South, at a plantation. It starts off with a female slave and her sadistic overseer who, of course, rapes her. Next, we go inside the plantation house, with the randy plantation owner\u2019s wife and a very handsome male house slave. She makes him strip butt-naked and get down in all fours, then takes out an enormous black dildo and sodomizes him with it. The third scene involves two men \u2013 one black, one white. The white guy plays the slave and the black guy plays his master. The master makes the slave lick his boot until he orgasms, which surprised the heck out of me as the black guy didn\u2019t appear to even have a woody.<\/p>\n

After these carryings-on, we go to the present. It turns out, what we have seen were fantasies of the contemporary mixed-race couples, participating in a sex-therapy workshop conducted by two women. What ensues is a lot of psychobabble, much of it incomprehensible.<\/p>\n

The actors are fine, the direction\u2019s fine; but the play is who-cares.<\/p>\n

Einstein\u2019s Dreams<\/em>, at 59E59, is a musical about young Albert Einstein, a humble patent clerk, who falls asleep at his desk and dreams up the Theory of Relativity, inspired by a muse named Josette. The book by Joanne Sydney Lessner is sort of a Cliff Notes. Some of the songs by Joshua Rosenblum are pleasant, although one or two are not so. In \u201cNow Backwards Moving in Time,\u201d for instance, all the lyrics are sung backwards, to demonstrate how Time will eventually turn around and head back the other way.<\/p>\n

Of the performers, Alexandra Silber is a standout as the Muse.<\/p>\n

Fear<\/em>, a new drama by Matt Williams at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is a gripping cat and mouse game. At the start, a man (a plumber) drags a teenaged boy into a disused tool shed near a lake. An 8 year-old girl has gone missing, and he thinks the kid\u2019s responsible. Another man, part of the search party for the girl, hears the ruckus and barges in to find the kid tied up and being choked. Turns out, he\u2019s a college professor and the next door neighbor of both the kid and the guy choking him. He can\u2019t call for help because he has no bars on his cell phone. Who\u2019s telling the truth? Is the kid the culprit or, maybe, is it the\u00a0plumber\u2019s own son? And, what\u2019s with the visits by the plumber to the professor’s house? Into this melodramatic framework, Williams grafts a brilliant examination of the all-consuming fear in which we all live in these dark times.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Tea Alagi\u0107\u2019s direction is taut, and there are terrific performances by Enrico Colantoni as the plumber, Obu Abili as the professor and Alexander Garfin as the scared-out-of-his mind kid. You won\u2019t find better acting right now on a New York stage.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss\u00a0Fear<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0BrandoCapote<\/em>, by Reid and Sara Farrington, you could skip it unless you really like \u201cexperimental theatre\u201d which here, as it usually is, is mostly imitation-Dada\/surrealism. Inspired by an interview Truman Capote conducted with Marlon Brando in Tokyo during the filming of \u201cSayonara\u201d the play, such as it is, uses the text of this interview to examine the similar troubled childhoods of both Brando and Capote. For some reason, most of Brando\u2019s dialogue is heard as voice over done by the actor playing Brando, who makes no effort to sound like him, whereas much of Capote\u2019s words are done live by Akiro Kumatsu, who does a killer Capote impression. All the actors are dressed in kimonos, and they spend a lot of time rolling up and then unrolling lengths of cloth, which they stretch across the stage.Why? Nobody knows. Sometimes, they pick up red mops and mop the floor furiously. Go figure.<\/p>\n

BrandoCapote<\/em>\u00a0is only 60 minutes long, which I found blessedly brief.<\/p>\n

Robert Schenkkan\u2019s\u00a0The Great Society<\/em>, at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, is a follow-up to his\u00a0All the Way<\/em>, which featured a towering performance by Bryan Cranston as LBJ. Here, Brian Cox assays the role. While he\u2019s pretty good he\u2019s hardly towering.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The play focuses on Johnson\u2019s attempts to pass the Voting Rights bill even as he is trying to get Congress to pass his Great Society agenda. The usual culprits, such as Governor Wallace and the Republicans stand in his way. Of course, the Vietnam quagmire eventually brings him down. Like\u00a0All the W<\/em>ay, it\u2019s a fascinating portrait of a brilliant politician pulling out all the stops. Bill Rauch\u2019s direction is superb, as are all the actors \u2013 Richard Thomas as Hubert Humphrey, Bryce Pinkham as Bobby Kennedy and Grantham Coleman as Martin Luther King are particular stand-outs.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0The Great Society\u00a0<\/em>is not as great as\u00a0All the Way<\/em>, it\u2019s still worth seeing even if you didn\u2019t live through the events it dramatizes, as I did.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

SLAVE PLAY.\u00a0<\/strong>Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th<\/sup>\u00a0St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS:\u00a0www.telecharge.com<\/a>, 212-239-6210 or 800-543-4835<\/p>\n

EINSTEIN\u2019S DREAMS.\u00a0<\/strong>59E59, 59 E. 59TH<\/sup>\u00a0St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: 646-892-7999<\/p>\n

FEAR.\u00a0<\/strong>Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121.Christopher St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS:\u00a0https:\/\/www.ticketoffices.com\/venues\/lucille-lortel-theatre-tickets?discount-tickets&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9vjCw9r75QIVhJ-zCh0xjwXBEAAYASABEgJ32fD_BwE<\/a>\u00a0or 844-379-0370<\/p>\n

BRANDOCAPOTE.\u00a0<\/strong>The Tank, 312 W. 36th<\/sup>\u00a0St.<\/p>\n

TICKETS:\u00a0www.thetanknyc.org<\/a><\/p>\n

THE GREAT SOCIETY<\/strong>. Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Lincoln Center<\/p>\n

TICKETS:\u00a0www.telecharge.com<\/a>, 212-239-6210 or 800-543-4835\u00a0<\/strong><\/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

\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\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\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\u00a0<\/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\u00a0<\/strong><\/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\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\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 — Theodore Roosevelt<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOn the Aisle with Larry\u201d Lawrence Harbison, The Playfixer, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. In this column, Larry reports on SLAVE PLAY, EINSTEIN\u2019S DREAMS, FEAR, BRANDOCAPOTE and THE GREAT SOCIETY.\u00a0 Jeremy O. Harris\u2019\u00a0Slave Play, at the Golden Theatre, is one of those plays where you think […]<\/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\/558"}],"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=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}