On the verge of a trip to Broadway

I got a sinking feeling reading the reviews last night for Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown knowing that I have a ticket to see a Broadway musical widely considered a mess.

It's one of 11 shows - 10 on Broadway and 1 off-Broadway - that I'll be taking in during my two trips to New York City this month.

For an out-of-towner, especially one who can't get to the city that often, the selection process can be a gamble. Sometimes I have friends who've seen a show and rave about it. Sometimes I'm making my decisions before opening night or even before previews begin.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I'll feel about my choices by the end of November or whether the results will affect my next round of theatergoing.

While I use discounts, I'll pay full price if I think a better seat is worth it. And my aging knees require the extra leg room in the orchestra section. So we're not talking about an inconsequential amount of money.

Fortunately, I'm in a situation where I could just eat the ticket and go see something else that got a better reception from the critics. It's not going to break the bank.

Maybe it's me putting on a brave face but despite the pans, I'm still curious about Women on the Verge - if only to see for myself what everyone's talking about. I'm still looking forward to seeing Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti onstage again. I will do my best to sit back and enjoy myself. I will NOT have a nervous breakdown over it.

Picking a show is a tough decision for a tourist. Do you go with the safe choice or do you take a chance? I hope I'm always willing and able to take a chance. That's part of the excitement of being a theatre fan - and sometimes the disappointment.

And I'm pretty easy to please. Being in New York City, on vacation and away from the responsibilities of daily life, is always a treat for me. A show has to try really hard for me not to be entertained.

I love being in New York and I love going to Broadway. If Women on the Verge doesn't work for me well, it's an opportunity to hone my critical skills and see why - and to be part of the conversation.

Kevin Spacey, now a Commander of the British Empire

Congratulations to Kevin Spacey, artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre, who was presented an honorary Commander of the British Empire today by Prince Charles for his services to drama.

"He (The Prince) was just extraordinarily generous about the work we've done at the Old Vic over these past seven seasons that I've dedicated myself to the revival of this brilliant, wonderful theatre and for all the belief that I have that arts and culture are a hugely important part of our lives."

Kevin's had his share of criticism in the beginning of his tenure and not all of the plays he's chosen have been successful. But things have begun to turn around. The theatre has won praise for its education and outreach programs and for fostering new talent.

I have to admire him for taking on the financial challenge of running a commercial theatre, opening it up to young, diverse audiences and for taking risks with productions like the revival of The Norman Conquests.

He told Britain's The Stage in 2006, "I’m here trying to build something that is bigger than me and I want to have last long, long, long after I’m gone.”

Of course I have a personal connection, too. I will be forever grateful to Kevin for a gracious note he sent me in response to a fan letter I wrote. The chance to see him on stage in A Moon for the Misbegotten was the impetus behind my first trip to Broadway.

Hopefully I'll get to see him again when he returns to New York in 2012, to play the title role in Richard III at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He's one of the few actors for whom I would gladly lift my Shakespeare moratorium.

Absurd Person Singular

Absurd Person Singular at Trinity Rep
Gratuitous Violins rating: ***1/2 out of ****

I laughed my way through Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests on Broadway. So when I saw a work by the prolific British playwright on Trinity Rep's schedule, my excitement level went sky high.

Set in the mid 1970s in London, Absurd Person Singular takes place in the kitchens of three married couples hosting Christmas Eve parties in successive years. And once again, I laughed all the way through. (If you ever get a chance to see an Ayckbourn play, take it!)

Director Brian McEleney keeps everything moving at a brisk clip and the cast really nails Ayckbourn's slapstick humor.

Sidney (Stephen Berenson) and Jane (Angela Brazil) are desperate to make a good impression so they can obtain a bank loan to expand their grocery store. Geoffrey (Fred Sullivan Jr.), married to the depressed Eva (Phyllis Kay), is a successful architect who boasts about his womanizing. Ronald (Timothy Crowe) and Marion (Anna Scurria) are the snobby banker and his wife.

Ayckbourn has a great knack for bringing out the absurdity in the most ordinary people and mundane events, making comedy out of situations that on the surface don't seem funny: alcoholism, depression, financial woes.

He paints a great portrait of the tension - beneath the surface and boiling over - that exists during these holiday get-togethers: the frantic preparations, the small talk, the silly party games and the person who always has too much to drink.

While I don't think there's any deep message in this play it is interesting to see the changes that occur over the three acts. Marriages are strained, the way the couples relate to each other changes, fortunes rise and fall.

One of the things I appreciated most about Absurd Person Singular is what it leaves to the audience's imagination.

There's a ferocious-sounding dog in Act II that we never see. And at a couple of points during Act I, the actors leave the stage. The only sound is the chatter of partygoers in the adjoining room.

When that happened it was surprising and kind of unsettling - I was staring at an empty set for a minute. Yet at the same time I found it kind of thrilling as I wondered what would happen next.

At the theatre, I don't think you can ask for anything better than that.

NFL to Lombardi: Be Italian

I'm looking forward to seeing Lombardi on Broadway in November and I've read good things about the performance Dan Lauria delivers as the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers.

There's an interesting interview with Lauria in New York magazine about his background and what he did to prepare for the role. I have to admit I was a bit taken aback when he talks about how he got the part:

He says the theatre owners didn't want him - they would have cast Julia Roberts to sell tickets. "The NFL was adamant about having me - they wanted an Italian and they wanted someone who played football."

Lauria goes on to say that he doesn't think Lombardi would have been mounted without the involvement of the National Football League, which is a producer and has put its marketing power behind the show.

Now, I can understand the NFL wanting to read the script before giving its seal of approval to a play about the man whose name is on the Super Bowl trophy. I can even understand the league's desire to want someone in the role who's played the game, although I don't agree with it.

But I think a creative team is on the proverbial slippery slope when it casts an actor based on ethnic background, disregarding those who don't fit the bill. (And does this mean Italian actors can't play non-Italian roles? Because someone should tell Al Pacino.)

I've never seen Lauria in anything - not even The Wonder Years. I'm not disparaging his acting ability. In this case, I guess it was a happy coincidence that he's Italian-American and played football in college and knew the director, Thomas Kail.

Honestly though, none of that will matter when I see Lombardi. All I care about is whether Lauria creates a memorable character onstage.

And I'm not trying to sound naive about how these decisions are made. Casting a Broadway show is probably a lot like making sausage - I don't want to know everything that goes into it.

Doonesbury turns 40

I didn't realize Doonesbury was turning 40 this year until I saw a big retrospective in Slate, including an interview with Garry Trudeau.

I haven't read the strip regularly in years but it used to be my favorite. I even have the cast recording of the musical Doonesbury, which lasted about three months on Broadway in the mid-1980s.

I love the way Doonesbury has always been so much a part of its time - skewering politics and culture with a quirky cast of characters. It was always witty and irreverent, tackling serious topics with humor and sensitivity.

I even remember some of the classic lines, like Mark Slackmeyer's controversial "Guilty, Guilty, Guilty," about Nixon's attorney general John Mitchell. And little Ellie's excitement at the daycare center when she finds out she has a sister: "It's a baby woman!"

Uncle Duke, based on journalist Hunter S. Thompson, was in one of my favorites - I had it on my refrigerator for years. He's speaking at a college and a student asks him for advice on a career in journalism. Duke's answer is predictably over the top and the cowered student is possibly rethinking his career choice.

I can't pinpoint exactly when I began to lose interest but looking over this list of the 200 greatest moments, it was probably around the mid 1990s. I don't know why. Maybe there grew to be too many characters and stories. Somewhere along the line it became less of a "must read" for me.

Anyway, it was fun to see a recent Doonesbury on display, topical as ever, when I visited the Newseum. That's former hotshot Washington Post reporter Rick Redfern trying to make a go of it as a blogger after he's laid off.

Joseph Stein, 1912-2010

Tony-winner Joseph Stein, who wrote the book for Fiddler on the Roof as well as many other Broadway musicals, died Sunday in New York at age 98.

As I've mentioned before, I have an unusual history with his most famous work. I saw Fiddler on the Roof for the first time in Israel, in Hebrew, with Chaim Topol as Tevye.

In fact at the time, in 1998, I think I might have been the only Jewish person who'd never even seen the movie, for which Stein wrote the screenplay. (Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.)

I was always kind of dismissive, believing (wrongly, I admit) that it would be schmalzy, romanticizing the harsh life of Jews who lived in the shtetls of Eastern Europe.

Of course I ended up loving my first experience with Fiddler on the Roof. I knew enough of the plot to follow what was happening, even if I didn't get all the jokes. And I recognized the melodies - even if I didn't understand all the words. It was so poignant that I remember being in tears at the end.

But the richness of the characters and the warmth and humor in Stein's portrait of Jewish life, based on the stories by Sholem Aleichem, didn't truly come through until I saw it on stage a second time - in English - in 2009.

As Tevye would say, may his memory be blessed.

Update: Fiddler on the Roof's composer, Jerry Bock, passed away Nov. 3 at age 81. He wrote the music for many other shows, including another of my favorites, She Loves Me.

If you're interested in what Bock and Sheldon Harnick's songs sound like in Hebrew, here's a medley from a 2008 production by Tel Aviv's Cameri Theatre:

A 21st-century Sherlock Holmes

I love a good mystery - they were my favorite books as a kid. I was a big Sherlock Holmes fan and yes, I bought a deerstalker on my first trip to London. (I think I even wore it in public once or twice.)

So I'm looking forward to Sherlock, the three-part British series that begins tonight on PBS. The video makes it look a little more CSI than I'd like but that's okay. It's a modern-day Holmes and I'm not a purist for a Victorian setting.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock Holmes. I don't know much about him although he was in Atonement, which I did see. And Martin Freeman, who was very funny as Tim in the original (and superior IMHO) British version of The Office, is Dr. John Watson.

While the setting is contemporary there's at least one connection to the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories that, sadly, is as plausible today as it was in the 1880s. Watson has recently returned from Army service in Afghanistan.

And he's still chronicling his adventures with the world's most famous consulting detective - on his blog.

For devoted Sherlockians, there'll be a Twitter event from 9 to 10:30 p.m., with mystery experts Scott Monty from The Baker Street Blog, Leslie Klinger, author of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and Andrew Gulli, editor of The Strand magazine. Just follow the hashtag #sherlock_pbs.