The Royal Family

Gratuitous Violins rating: ***1/2 out of ****

It would be perfectly understandable if The Royal Family showed its age. After all the play, by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, made its Broadway debut 82 years ago, in 1927. The story is based on the Barrymore clan and the only Barrymore I know is Drew.

Well, the Manhattan Theatre Club revival of this three-act play is anything but a musty period piece. As directed by Doug Hughes, The Royal Family, at the Friedman Theatre, feels immensely witty and fresh.

What a lively, stylish homage to the 1920s. John Lee Beatty's opulent Manhattan apartment and Catherine Zuber's glamorous costumes richly evoke the decade. I sat in the front row - a first for me - and I laughed, a lot. I know some reviewers felt it started out slowly but I enjoyed myself from beginning to end.

Rosemary Harris, best known these days as Aunt May in the Spider-Man movies, is so warm and regal as matriarch Fanny Cavendish. Trouper that she is, she's determined to go back on the road again after recovering from an illness.

As her daughter Julie, a Broadway star in her own right, Jan Maxwell is superb. She's trying to cope with all of the crises that erupt in this family of theatre actors, as well as dealing with some of her own mixed feelings about continuing on the stage. When it all finally becomes too much, Maxwell is amazing to watch.

I loved the supporting cast, too, including: Kelli Barrett as Julie's daughter Gwen, who wants to quit the business and get married; John Glover and Ana Gasteyer as Fanny's brother and sister-in-law, desperately trying to revive their fading careers; Tony Roberts, a favorite of mine since Annie Hall, as the family's put-upon agent.

And Reg Rogers is perfect as Tony Cavendish, the womanizing, spendthrift son who's turned his back on the stage for - horrors - Hollywood and the movies. Luckily for us, he returns to the family hearth when things don't quite work out as planned. Rogers plays this role to the hilt, including some terrific swordplay. He's hilarious and I loved every moment of his performance.

For all the deliciously witty parts of The Royal Family, there are some thoughtful ones, too.

I loved the passion for their craft, the dedication and pride that comes through when these characters talk about the theatre. As much as they try to get away from the stage, as ambivalent as they sometimes feel, it's clearly in their blood.

The Manhattan Theatre Club calls The Royal Family "a valentine to the theatre." And it is - a funny valentine, a touching one, too. I certainly gained some insight into what it's like to be part of a family business when that business is show.

Learning about Broadway's nonprofits

A few things surprised me when I started going to the theatre in New York - and I'm not even talking about the price of tickets to a Broadway show.

One was the fact that very few theatres are located on Broadway. Second, many are fairly small, especially the orchestra sections.

And third, I didn't realize the large role played by three nonprofits: Roundabout, the Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center. Together, they operate 5 of the 40 Broadway venues. (I'm not sure if Circle in the Square is a nonprofit.)

MTC's mission is to produce a season "as broad and diverse as New York itself" while nurturing new talent and reaching out to younger audiences.

Roundabout's mission is to reenergize classic plays and musicals while developing new works to "embody the crossroads of American theatre."

Lincoln Center says it observes the mandate of founder John D. Rockefeller 3rd: "the arts not for the privileged few, but for the many." And it's guided by the motto: "Good Plays, Popular Prices."

For me, it's been a mixed bag.

I loved the Lincoln Center productions of South Pacific, Dividing the Estate and Joe Turner's Come and Gone. I thought Roundabout's 110 in the Shade was really enjoyable and it was my first time seeing the amazing Audra McDonald.

On the other hand, I wasn't energized by Roundabout's Waiting for Godot. MTC's LoveMusik was disappointing, too, but this week they'll get another chance when I see The Royal Family, which has gotten terrific reviews.

(And the tickets don't cost any less than commercially produced Broadway shows, so I'm not sure where that Lincoln Center mandate of arts for the many at popular prices fits in.)

But I'm hardly an expert on this subject, so over the weekend I listened to Downstage Center interviews from 2008 with artistic directors Lynne Meadow of MTC and Todd Haimes of Roundabout.

They were both good although Meadow is more lively, talking about how she caught the theatre bug growing up in New Haven Conn., and her fight to get into Yale Drama School. And they both discussed the balancing act between doing innovative work and keeping their subscribers happy.

Haimes, who comes from a business background, makes an interesting comment about the difference between the commercial and nonprofit worlds. (It's even more interesting considering that Roundabout's Bye Bye Birdie is selling tickets through April despite a critical drubbing.)

Here's part of what he said:

"I feel more pressure than ever to have stars because they do sell single tickets and we have to sell a lot of single tickets.

"And at a not-for-profit I not only feel pressure to have stars but I feel pressure to have stars who are great theatre actors because in the commercial theater - and I won't mention any names - you can get away with having a star who is famous but not a great theatre actor and get bad reviews and sell all the tickets and have it be considred a success because you made money.

In the not-for-profit theatre, that's not a success, that's what's called a failure. In the not-for-profit theatre what's a success is doing really fine work."

A bravo for Tony Roberts

I want to send out a heartfelt bravo to Tony Roberts, who was back in The Royal Family for opening night Thursday at Broadway's Friedman Theatre, four days after suffering a minor seizure onstage.

I'm sure Roberts must have felt a little nervous about being in the same place where he fell ill, but he's a trouper and an inspiration. I'm so glad he's doing well and able to return to something he loves so much.

It would have been completely understandable if the 69-year-old actor had taken a week off after a scare like that, or even left the show altogether. But according to The New York Times, Roberts is back for the duration of the Manhattan Theatre Club production, which runs through Nov. 29.

Lynne Meadow, MTC's artistic director, told the Times, “It was pretty amazing to have him back so quickly, and the audience’s response to him and to the production were ecstatic. It was one of the great opening nights in the theater that I ever attended.”

Of course I know Roberts from his movie roles - Annie Hall is one of my all-time favorite films. He's one of the reasons I'm excited about the Broadway revival of this 1927 play about a theatrical clan.

And even more exciting - I'm seeing The Royal Family on Oct. 22. Did you know that happens to be Roberts' 70th birthday? I just hope it's not a night he decides to take off!

Pulitzer for Drama goes to Ruined

Congratulations to Lynn Nottage, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Ruined, about the plight of women in the African nation of Congo who have been scarred by civil war. You can see it off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club through May 17.

The citation calls Ruined "a searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness."

You can read more about Nottage and Ruined in a Los Angeles Times profile, in the New York Times review and in a review from Broadway & Me.

In this piece from the New York Post, Nottage writes about the play's origins, including how she and director Kate Whoriskey traveled to Uganda to interview Congolese refugees. (Thanks to Elisabeth Vincentelli, the Post's drama critic, for pointing me to it in her new blog for the paper.)

There's a very interesting quote in the Los Angeles Times story about what Nottage, 44, sees as the failure of her generation of playwrights to engage audiences:

'Our job as artists is to literally keep our eyes open while everybody else's are shut,' " she recalls. "And we've fallen down very badly in the last couple of decades. We're in a really unique position to have a conversation with an audience. But we are not challenging them, not their morality, their religion, their politics, liberal or conservative. We are not shaking them to the core."

Before the award was announced, Nottage said what she'd really like, more than the plaque, was to see Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey in the audience for Ruined. "I would like to see them take up the plight of women in the Congo as their special cause. That would be the prize."

Here's a clip that includes scenes from the play and an interview with the playwright about the issues raised in her work:



And kudos, too, to the Windy City.

I definitely have to get to Chicago someday because among other things, it's a great theatre town, which I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't realize until the last couple of years.

Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune, notes that Ruined was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre. That makes 2009 the second year in a row that a play originating in Chicago won the Pulitzer, coming on the heels of Steppenwolf's August: Osage County.

As this year's winner shows, the drama prize doesn't always go to a play with an American theme. Most notably, in 1956, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich won for The Diary of Anne Frank. The citation notes that the award is given "for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life."

The 2009 finalists were: Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo, "a jarring comedy that examines family and romantic relationships with a lacerating wit while eschewing easy answers and pat resolutions;" and In The Heights, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, "a robust musical about struggling Latino immigrants in New York City today that celebrates the virtues of sacrifice, family solidarity and gritty optimism."

From Up Here

I was interested in From Up Here mostly because of Julie White. I didn't see her Tony-winning performance in The Little Dog Laughed, but I did watch her Tony acceptance speech, and it was hilarious. She just seemed like such a character. I thought, that's a woman I want to see on stage.

In Liz Flahive's play, being produced at City Center by the Manhattan Theatre Club, White plays Grace, a stressed out wife and mother on her second marriage. She's going through a rough patch with her husband, Daniel (Brian Hutchison). She's got her hands full with two teenagers, Lauren (Aya Cash) and Kenny (Tobias Segal). And her world traveler sister Caroline (Arija Bareikis) has just popped in for a visit.

The major drama in the play comes from something horrendous Kenny has done, an act for which he has to apologize before his entire high school. It's never quite spelled what he did, but Flahive strongly hints that it involved bringing a gun to school. Kenny's understandably being watched very closely by everyone and he's under a long list of restrictions about where he can go and what he can do. He's pretty much become a pariah.

The actors who played the teenagers were all good at playing stubborn, mopey, perky, dorky, uncommunicative kids. I especially loved Will Rogers as Charlie, a somewhat goofy classmate who wants to take Lauren to a high school dance, and Jenni Barber as Kate, an overachiever who befriends Kenny as kind of a personal challenge, but who may not be as altruistic as she appears.

White was very funny in a role that requires her to be pretty over-the-top at times. She seems like a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, trying to hold her family together at a time of incredible strain. Everyone needs something from her, but her needs, of course, aren't being met at all.

My biggest problem with From Up Here, is that in the end, I felt a little bewildered and teased. Flahive brings up a very serious subject, school violence, and uses it as a device to explore its effect on a family. But she leaves out some essential details. I expected to find out what Kenny did and why. While Segal does a good job as the troubled teenager, giving us some sense of the anger that led to his outburst, the details remain maddeningly vague.

Ok, maybe Kenny's motivations were fuzzy. That's understandable. But why couldn't Flahive have simply come right out and told us what happened? It seems to me that if the play is supposed to be about everyone's reaction to this incident, then we need a clearer idea of what the incident was and how serious it was. I felt like I could have empathized more if I understood what happened.

Also, if Kenny really did bring a gun to school and use it, I simply don't believe there's any way he'd be allowed back, not even with the most stringent of restrictions. I don't think an apology to the entire school would have done it.

While there are some good performances in From Up Here, and I'm glad I had a chance to see Julie White, the play ultimately wasn't as deep or thought-provoking as I expected. I knew it was a dark comedy, so I expected some laughs. But it's about an incident that should have turned a family upside down and shaken everyone to their core. Or maybe not. I just don't know.

The Receptionist

I don't know whether Jayne Houdyshell ever worked as a receptionist in an office, but she certainly is terrific portraying one in Adam Bock's short one-act play "The Receptionist" at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Houdyshell's portrait of Beverly Wilkins still makes me smile whenever I think about it. Almost everyone has worked in an office or been in an office with people like Wilkins. She's efficient, overprotective of office supplies, motherly, humorous and has plenty of advice to dispense, whether you want it or not.

I can just picture her sitting at her circular desk answering the phone at the Northeast office of some unnamed concern, transferring callers to voice mail, wiping down her workspace with disinfectant and keeping track of wayward pens. David Korins' excellent production design gives Houdyshell plenty of props to work with.

At first, Bock's play appears to be a celebration of the mundane. It didn't surprise me that he told Playbill he once worked as an office receptionist. He has a good ear and a good eye for what the work is like: "The thing that was so interesting is you have a lot of power, because you know everything that's going on, yet you have no power, because you're not allowed to leave your desk."

Houdyshell's Wilkins advises her young coworker Lorraine, played by a delightfully flirtatious Kendra Kassebaum, on her love life. She orders a birthday cake. She makes personal phone calls. She offers a parenting tip to Mr. Dart, played by Josh Charles, who comes calling from the central office. (Don't worry if your 4-year-old eats paste, she advises. He'll get over it.)

As the day wears on, everyone waits for the boss, Mr. Raymond, played by Robert Foxworth, to make an appearance. When he finally shows up, it becomes apparent that there's something unsettling going on in this office. That's when "The Receptionist" takes a turn from the mundane to the sinister.

Bock's point, about how horrific things can take place amid the most ordinary circumstances, about how far people are willing to "look the other way" in the course of doing their jobs, isn't original, but it is thought-provoking.

I did get a little impatient with all the small talk, and about halfway through the play, wondered when something momentous was going to happen. When it finally does occur, I didn't find the resolution completely satisfying. I ended up with more questions. For example, how much did Houdyshell's character know about what kind of work was being done there? Was she an accomplice or a bystander?

Perhaps those are the questions Bock wants the audience to answer. Although he does offer a hint in the Playbill interview: "It's easy to forget what kind of living you're making. I think it's the fear of money. In The Receptionist, the receptionist Beverly has a vested interest in keeping her safety net at work strong. She's willing to look the other way at what happens."

Bock never spells out in so many words exactly what's going on in the Northeast office, or back at the Central Office, although he does drop a clue early on, during Foxworth's short prologue. (I admit I didn't pay attention to it as closely as I should have. It's the first thing we hear, and I just wasn't attuned to its significance. I remember wondering what it had to do with the play. I must make a mental note that at the theater, I can't just press rewind and listen again.)

I have to admit that my guess about what was going on in that office turned out to be wrong. Luckily, my theatergoing companions spelled it out for me and it made perfect sense. (Which is why, whenever possible, you should have theatergoing companions).

Now that I know what's at the heart of "The Receptionist," it would be great to see it a second time, to look for all the clues I may have missed, and to once again enjoy Houdyshell's witty, endearing performance.

Pictured above are, from left, Josh Charles, Kendra Kassebaum, Jayne Houdyshell and Robert Foxworth.