Notable, quotable American plays

I've been looking over the results of a poll by the Denver Post that came up with the 10 most important American plays. They are:

1.) Death of a Salesman
2.) Angels in America
3.) A Streetcar Named Desire
4.) Long Day's Journey Into Night
5.) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
6.) Our Town
7.) The Glass Menagerie
8.) A Raisin in the Sun
9.) The Crucible
10.) Fences

The only one I haven't seen is The Glass Menagerie. I've seen four on stage - Our Town, A Raisin in the Sun, Fences and The Crucible - and movie versions of the others. (My high school put on The Crucible, so it's been a long time!)

The newspaper surveyed people connected with the theatre world and the list is filled with high school and college English class fare. They're older works, which I guess is how you become a classic.

Two things surprised me about the list.

First, they're all exceedingly serious. Hasn't anyone written a great American comedy? Second, the article includes a quote from each play and I was surprised by how few I recognized.

These are important plays for the way they illuminate American life. But if I didn't already know the names of the top 10, I would only have been able to match the dialogue to the play for three - Death of A Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire and A Raisin in the Sun.

I'm not sure that's important. A great play is more than a collection of snappy one-liners, right? Maybe it's just a reflection of my lousy memory. I can't quibble with the list or say that I would have done any better.

Anyway, here's a clip from a 1985 TV production of Death of A Salesman, adapted from the 1984 Broadway revival. It featured Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman, John Malkovich as Biff, Stephen Lang as Happy and Kate Reid as Linda.

For Willy's sake, please pay attention!

Looking back on A Raisin in the Sun

It was the play, wrote then-New York Times drama critic Frank Rich in 1983, that "changed American theater forever." Fifty years ago this week - March 11, 1959 - A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway.

The Great White Way's first drama by a black woman, Lorraine Hansberry; and the first with a black director, Lloyd Richards, debuted after only one preview at the Barrymore Theatre, and closed at the Belasco on June 25, 1960, after a total of 530 performances.

In his review for the New York Times, Brooks Atkinson called the story, about a working-class black family on the South Side of Chicago, an honest, illuminating work that is "likely to destroy the complacency of any one who sees it."

He had high praise for the entire cast, many of whom I know from their later work in movies and television: Ruby Dee as Ruth, Diana Sands as Beneatha, Louis Gossett Jr. as George Murchison, Ivan Dixon as Joseph Asagai, and a very young Glynn Turman as Travis.

But Atkinson singled out Sidney Poitier's portrayal of Walter Lee Younger and Claudia McNeil as his mother, Lena Younger.

"As the matriarch, Claudia McNeil gives a heroic performance. Although the character is simple, Miss McNeil gives it nobility of spirit."

"Mr. Poitier is a remarkable actor with enormous power that is always under control. Cast as the restless son, he vividly communicates the tumult of a highstrung young man. He is as eloquent when he has nothing to say as when he has a pungent line to speak."

Seeing the original production as a teenager was electrifying, remembers San Francisco Chronicle theatre critic Robert Hurwitt in his anniversary appreciation.

"As a high school senior already involved in the civil rights movement, I found the play an unprecedented mainstream depiction of the social and economic constraints on urban black families and a stereotype-smashing portrayal of a diversity of black ideas and aspirations."

Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. recalls his first encounter with the play, thorough the 1961 film, in which nearly the entire Broadway cast reprised their stage roles. (At top is a still from the movie, with Dee and Poitier.)

He writes about how contemporary the message seems. "The tension between Walter’s anxious yearning and Mama’s careful planning sums up the crisis among our people today."

Gates interviewed Ruby Dee, who reflects on A Raisin in the Sun 50 years later. It was interesting to hear her thoughts about why Lena, not Walter Lee, became the center of the play for audiences. And she talks about what it was like to see the 2004 Broadway revival.

Talking about race

In a speech yesterday at the Justice Department to mark Black History Month, our new attorney general, Eric Holder, said that Americans - black and white - simply don't talk to each other enough about race.

While blacks and whites are integrated in many sectors, such as the workplace, we're still too segregated in our free time. "Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago," Holder said. "This is truly sad."

He's right, it is sad. And that quote made me think about my experience at A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity Repertory Company on a Sunday afternoon earlier this month.

For most of the play's nearly three hours, we're watching African-American actors tell the story of a working-class black family in Chicago in the 1950s. The lone white actor in the cast is on stage for only two scenes.

I found the play so absorbing that when the lights came on at the end of Act I, it was a little startling to look around and see that the audience in the sold-out theatre was almost entirely white. Once I got to the lobby, I realized that the crowd was more diverse but not by much.

I'm not criticizing anyone. I'm sure Trinity Rep has a community outreach program. I know it offers matinees for school groups through Project Discovery that attract students of all races and backgrounds. And there have probably been other performances that drew a larger percentage of African-Americans.

And it's not that I think black people have an obligation to come support this show. We should all be interested in hearing each other's stories as well as our own.

Unfortunately, I think there's still a misconception that theatre is somehow special - it's not for everyone. In my two years of regular theatergoing I've noticed that audiences tend to skew white and older.

A Raisin in the Sun is so relevant and compelling 50 years after its debut on Broadway and this is a fine production. It's a play about the dreams and struggles of a family that should resonate with everyone. I had hoped it would bring black and white theatergoers together for a shared experience.

Theatre especially is perfect for that role because the actors are right there in front of you. If you're in a small venue, it's a much more intimate experience than watching a movie or sitting on the couch at home watching television. And Trinity Rep has talkbacks for the audience after every performance where a staff member leads a discussion about the show.

That shared experience, as the attorney general said, is one we all need.

A Raisin in the Sun

Gratuitous Violins rating *** out of ****

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the Broadway debut of A Raisin in the Sun. Watching the play at Trinity Repertory Company, I was struck by how revelatory it must have seemed to audiences in 1959.

Here was a story about a striving, working-class black family at a time when positive depictions of black people were rare on stage or screen, if they were seen at all. It was Broadway's first drama by a black woman, Lorraine Hansberry; and the first with a black director, Lloyd Richards.

As the play opens, five people - three generations of the Younger family - are living in a cramped Chicago apartment in the late 1950s. Walter Lee Younger Sr. has passed away and his widow and children are waiting for a $10,000 death benefit from the insurance company. They have different, conflicting ideas for the money and how it can be spent to help them build a better life.

Trinity Rep veteran Barbara Meek, in her 105th production with the company, is terrific as matriarch Lena Younger. She holds this family together with great deal of courage and common sense and resiliency. She's the keeper of its history and its moral center.

Angela K. Thomas, an M.F.A. candidate at the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, is great as her college student daughter Beneatha, a confident, spirited young woman, forging her own identity at the dawn of the civil-rights movement.

I was a little less pleased with Joe Wilson Jr. as her son, Walter Lee Jr., and Lynnette R. Freeman, also a Brown/Trinity student, as his wife, Ruth.

Walter Lee works as a chauffeur and he has this rage that's supposed to be just below the surface. But Wilson was a bit too over the top. And while you can see how Freeman's Ruth has been worn down by her husband's weaknesses, she seemed a little young for the role, simply not as memorable a presence.

I liked the actors who played Beneatha's suitors. Jude Sandy is charming and idealistic as Joseph Asagai, a student from Nigeria who nurtures Beneatha's desire to connect to Africa. Charlie Hudson III hits just the right note as the preppy and well-off George Murchison. Dustin Isom and Nigel Richards alternate as Walter Lee and Ruth's young son, Travis.

The set design by Michael McGarty makes the Youngers' apartment small but extremely neat and tidy. Directed by Brian McEleney, this production also has a lot more humor than I remembered from the 1961 movie or the 2008 television version of the Broadway revival. Sometimes, I think the audience laughed a little too much in places where it veered close to being inappropriate.

The Youngers are a family in transition - proud, industrious, the people who work as housekeepers and chauffeurs and take in laundry and care for other people's children. They will not be intimidated, they will not let racism stand in the way of achieving the American Dream. They are the people that Broadway audiences of 50 years ago probably employed but never really knew.

The title of the play refers to a poem by Langston Hughes that asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?" A Raisin in the Sun is about the American Dream - what does it mean to different people, how do we achieve it and how do we react when it looks as though that dream is about to slip through our fingers.

Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer at age 34, in 1965, leaving a small body of work, including this classic play. Half a century later, A Raisin in the Sun remains a powerful, compelling drama about the importance of family and the dreams we hold in common. At a time when so many families of all backgrounds are struggling, it is every bit as relevant.

Gifts for theatre lovers

Okay, Jan at Broadway & Me is my inspiration for this. She wrote about 12 terrific gifts - one for each day of Christmas - that you can get for the theatre lover on your shopping list. So I tried to come up with my own list of 8 presents, one for each night of Chanukah, which begins Dec. 21. But really, the items on both of our lists would be great to give and receive for any holiday. I took most of the prices from Amazon, just to give you some idea of the cost involved.

1.) Broadway: The American Musical. If I could pick just one gift, it would be this 6-hour documentary tracing the history of musical theatre that aired on PBS in 2004. I watched it before making my first trip to Broadway, and it got me even more excited. I even bought the companion 5-cd box set. Plus, there are hours of extra interviews on the dvds that didn't make it into the documentary. Since it's been out for a few years, I'm assuming most people reading this already have a copy. But there are new musical theatre fans being born every minute and they'll be needing one of their very own. Cost: dvd, 59.99; cd box set, $53.99.

2.) A Raisin in the Sun. 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's play about the struggles and aspirations of an African-American family. A copy of the play would make a nice gift, along with a dvd of the recent Broadway revival starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Audra MacDonald that was filmed for television. Several theatre companies (and probably more) are putting on A Raisin in the Sun during its anniversary year. So if you live near one of them, consider buying a pair of tickets for that special someone. Cost: book, $6.95; dvd, $15.49.

3.) Carols for a Cure, Vol. 10. Whenever I'm at a show and there's an appeal for donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, I always drop some money in the fundraising bucket. While I've never bought anything at their online store, this year is different. I have my eye on the 10th anniversary Carols for a Cure CD. Every year, the casts of Broadway and off-Broadway shows record holiday songs, and this year's two-disc set includes classic tracks from past volumes. I can't wait to hear the cast of Hairspray sing "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel!" Cost: $20.

4.) Broadway Nights and The Q Guide to Broadway. These books by Seth Rudetsky are quick, very fun reads. I bought Broadway Nights, his novel, in the spring. It's about the life and loves of a pit musician who gets his big break when he's hired to be the musical director for a new show. So you get a bird's-eye view of how a Broadway musical comes together. I picked up the Q Guide during my trip to New York last month. It's filled with useful information, like the Top 10 Broadway CDs you must have, and the difference between an understudy, a standby and a swing. There's also some (discreet) backstage gossip. Cost: Broadway Nights, $10.85; The Q Guide to Broadway, $11.86.

5.) Long Day's Journey Into Night What makes the short-lived 1986 Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's classic play different from all others? It's got Kevin Spacey as the ne'e-do-well, alcoholic Jamie Tyrone, of course! And Jack Lemmon, Bethel Leslie and Peter Gallagher, too. I love watching Spacey and Lemmon engage in some brutal verbal sparring as father and son. As a bonus, there are two audio interviews - one with Spacey and a second with director Jonathan Miller. Spacey's interview is great - he talks about getting started in the business, how Jack Lemmon became a mentor and the slightly devious method he used to get an audition for Long Day's Journey. Aspiring actors, take note! Cost: $22.99.

6. Home: A memoir of my early years. Julie Andrews' memoir is an an exquisitely written, wonderfully detailed look at her youth in wartime England and her career on stage in London and New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. My favorite parts are about her experiences on Broadway, where she starred in three shows in quick succession - The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady and Camelot. The book concludes with Andrews heading to Hollywood for the filming of Mary Poppins. I hope she's working on a sequel. Cost: $17.79.

7. 13. Tickets to a Broadway musical about a Jewish teenager who moves from New York City to Indiana and wonders whether the cool kids will come to his bar mitzvah - the perfect Chanukah (or Christmas) gift. I really enjoyed this sweet, funny, exuberant show about not simply going along with the crowd just because its the popular thing to do. It's got a catchy rock 'n' roll score by Jason Robert Brown, and a very energetic and appealing all-teenage cast. While 13 is closing Jan. 4, there's still time to see it over the holidays. You can also get the cast recording and the book based on the musical (which I haven't read yet.) Cost: book, $11.67; cd, $13.99

8. Broadway magnet. I have all my ticket stubs and Playbills, I love the Broadway posters and the souvenir programs and the coffee table books. And there's nothing better than eating your cereal and milk in the morning while gazing up at a refrigerator covered with magnets from your favorite Broadway shows. (Don't ask how many I have. Too many.) The Playbill store has a great selection of magnets and other merchandise for the theatre lover on your holiday shopping list. Cost (magnets): $4 and up

A new season

I couldn't believe it when I read about next season's lineup at Trinity Repertory Company, which was announced this week by artistic director Curt Columbus, pictured above.

On the schedule for Dec. 5 to Jan. 11 is a play by Adam Bock, The Receptionist. Given that I haven't been a regular theatergoer for very long, what are the chances that they'd pick a play I've seen? I took in The Receptionist last fall at the Manhattan Theatre Club. I didn't realize this, but Bock has an MFA from Brown University and worked for Trinity for awhile, so I guess it makes sense.

I have to admit I didn't absolutely love The Receptionist. It was good, but it just seemed somewhat underdeveloped. The story of the mysterious goings on at the Northeast office of an unnamed company was a little vague. I got impatient with all the small talk. The resolution wasn't quite satisfying, and I left the theater a bit confused about what it all meant.

But Bock has written some great characters and injected lots of humor. It'll probably remind you of some offices you've worked in. I loved Jayne Houdyshell's wonderfully funny yet spot-on performance in the title role. I said in my review: "She's efficient, overprotective of office supplies, motherly, humorous and has plenty of advice to dispense, whether you want it or not."

I'm looking forward to giving The Receptionist a second chance. Hopefully, I'll gain a deeper appreciation for the play. I'll be able to pick up on all the little clues I missed the first time around. And the best thing about Trinity's staging is I'll be able to go to the talkback afterward and say in by best theater-snob voice: "Well, when I saw it in New York ...."

From what I've seen, Columbus puts together a good mixture of classics and new works. And Trinity always manages to put its own spin on the classics. Our Town, from a couple seasons back, is a great example. While it was pretty traditional, there was also a little something that made it unique: in this case, a two-level stage that allowed the audience to watch the actors get ready for the performance.

This is Columbus' third season at the helm. He came to Providence from Chicago's esteemed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. My regular trips to Trinity coincided with his arrival, so I feel like there's a special connection between the two of us. He hosted the talkback held after the first show I saw at Trinity in decades: Hamlet. (And yes, someone at the session did preface their comments by saying, "When I saw it in New York.")

Columbus likes to arrange his lineup around a theme. Next season, it's personal change. Associate Director Craig Watson says: "We wanted to look at plays that spoke about hope, and all the possibilities hope can bring."

One of the shows I'm most looking forward to seeing in the new season is A Raisin in the Sun, which runs from Jan. 30 to March 8. I just watched it on ABC last month, with Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald reprising their Tony-winning roles from the Broadway revival. They were just terrific, so compelling and believable. I think the play, about an African-American family in Chicago in the 1950s and their dreams of a better life, has great resonance today.

Raisin will be the centerpiece of Trinity's Project Discovery Plus program, which brings students to the theater and cast members to schools for workshops with students. "These themes of race and class really resonate with students who live in our cities," Watson said. "They’re dealing with these issues on a daily basis."