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Los Angeles Times
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Cole Escola's ‘Oh Mary!' is a hoot, but the Tony should go to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' ‘Purpose'
'Oh, Mary!' is poised to have a big night at the Tony Awards on Sunday. A campy melodrama by alt comic Cole Escola, the play conjures to the stage a vision of Mary Todd Lincoln as a harridan and drunk, who's sick of the restraints being placed on her at the White House and desperate to return to her first love, cabaret. As played by Escola, the First Lady is a tramp with a showbiz dream and an unslakable thirst for whiskey. Poor Mary has reason to be in a state of spiraling turmoil. Husband Abraham Lincoln (Conrad Ricamora), wary of Mary's scandalous behavior, has placed her booze under lock and key. The Civil War, which is jeopardizing his presidency, has turned him into an utter killjoy. Overcome with stress, he's finding it harder than ever to resist his homosexual urges. He prays for willpower, but his assistant (Tony Macht) is all too willing to go above and beyond the call of duty. The production, directed by Sam Pinkleton, plays this delirious situation to the comic hilt. Melodramatic tropes, from the striking of over-the-top poses to thunderous piano underscoring during moments of rising tension, situate 'Oh, Mary!' in a bygone theatrical universe. Escola's Mary, dressed like a 19th century version of Wednesday Addams from 'The Addams Family,' can't contain herself. Don't let the rouged cheeks and Shirley Temple curls fool you. That demonic glint in her eye isn't a ruse. Escola is part of a wave of comics, along with Megan Stalter, who built their fan bases by posting comic vignettes on social media during the pandemic. Both were crucial mental health resources during that dark time, and both found a wider embrace online for their niche comic sensibilities. 'Oh, Mary!,' which had its premiere off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre last year, has become the mascot production of the Broadway season. It's the unexpected hit that proves that, while there are no sure bets anymore on Broadway, success is more likely when artists are allowed the courage of their crackpot convictions. I'm elated for 'Oh, Mary!,' but I think it would be a mistake to reward the show's giddy Broadway triumph with the Tony for best play. The category is too rich to be treated as a popularity contest this year. Artistic discernment is called for when deciding among works as good as these. The race includes two plays that received the Pulitzer Prize, the 2023 winner, Sanaz Toossi's 'English' and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' newly awarded 'Purpose.' Jez Butterworth, who won the 2019 Tony for his play 'The Ferryman,' has outdone himself with 'The Hills of California,' the fall season's best (and most intricately woven) drama, magisterially directed by Sam Mendes. And 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' Kimberly Belflower's reconsideration of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible,' thrillingly staged by Danya Taymor, is perhaps the feat of playwriting that surprised me most in this group. 'Oh, Mary!' ought to receive a special citation. Not only is it in a category of its own, but it doesn't bear comparison with the other nominees. And this point of view has nothing to do with any bias against camp. In fact, it's my deep affection for the genre that has compelled me to raise what I assume will be an unpopular opinion. In her landmark 1964 essay 'Notes on 'Camp',' Susan Sontag observed that the 'whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to 'the serious.' One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.' The silliness of 'Oh, Mary!' shouldn't be held against it. Artistic worthiness isn't measured by gravity of subject matter. But there's something mainstream about Escola's outrageous flamboyance — it's camp for 'The Carol Burnett Show' crowd. Sontag noted that camp functions as 'a private code, a badge of identity even.' I wasn't sure who 'Oh, Mary!' was pitched to, but it didn't seem intended for someone whose camp sensibility was forged watching the plays of Charles Ludlam at the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in Greenwich Village or the drag headliners of East Village bars and clubs that made such an impression on me in the 1980s and 1990s. That was a bleak period to be coming of age in New York. The AIDS crisis left the gay community in a state of mournful siege. Camp offered sanctuary, a mode of performance that didn't suffer hypocritical fools gladly. There was something transgressive and liberating about an aesthetic that inverted not only good and bad taste but also conventional and unconventional morality. 'Oh, Mary!' is fearlessly raunchy but never is it truly dangerous. The show is both a novelty on Broadway and completely at home there. The audience members laughing the hardest on a recent visit to the Lyceum Theatre were the older married couples who found it risqué enough to enjoy but not so risqué that it might upend their thinking of right and wrong. As a spoof of melodrama, it is sprightly, crisply executed and untaxingly entertaining. Part of the appeal of 'Oh, Mary!' is that it just wants to give audiences a concentrated dose of hilarity. Escola recognizes the importance of not being earnest. But the mainstream success the show is enjoying is a sign of something more subversive being watered down. The Tony nominating committee has demonstrated remarkable judgment this year. Let's hope Tony voters follow suit and give one of the other four best play nominees the award. If forced to pick a winner, I would opt for 'Purpose,' Jacobs-Jenkins' engrossing family drama set in the household of a civil rights icon, whose personal and public morality haven't always been aligned. Any concise description of 'Purpose' is bound to fail because the play is so multifarious and complex. Jacobs-Jenkins has written a domestic drama in the epic tradition of 'Death of a Salesman,' 'Long Day's Journey Into Night,' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and 'August: Osage County.' The playwright has pursued this line before in 'Appropriate,' which won the Tony for best revival last year. But here the focus is on a Black family grappling both with the burdens and privileges of a father's unique legacy and the difficulty of adapting to changing times and new frontiers of political struggle. Whenever you think you know which way 'Purpose' is heading, it veers off in an unexpected direction. The play leaves the mundane world to engage in spiritual questions between an old-school father (Harry Lennix) and his independent-minded youngest son, Nazareth (Jon Michael Hill), who left divinity school to become a nature photographer. 'Naz,' as he's known, serves as the play's narrator. And as someone who identifies as asexual and is possibly on the spectrum, he brings a bracingly original perspective to the classic homecoming play, updating the genre for the 21st century. 'Purpose' deserves an extensive life after Broadway, and a Tony would help its producing prospects. The Steppenwolf Theatre production at the Helen Hayes Theater, directed by Phylicia Rashad and featuring one of the best ensemble casts of the season, is intimidatingly good. (LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Lennix, Hill, Glenn Davis and Kara Young were all nominated for their work, but the company really deserves a collective award.) It's a long play (nearly three hours), and one you might not care to see performed with second-tier performers. A Tony would create more incentive for regional theaters to rise to the challenge, though with a Pulitzer, New York Drama Critics' Award and Drama Desk Award, 'Purpose' is hardly lacking in accolades. There was a time not so long ago when the future of the Broadway play was in serious doubt. The threat hasn't gone away, and Tony voters shouldn't pass up an opportunity to honor true playwriting excellence.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Oh, Mary!' Tony nominee Conrad Ricamora on getting laughs as Abraham Lincoln: ‘I've got to take the stakes deadly seriously'
"The jokes are always so strong, but the surprising thing is that people have been so moved by the show as well," says Conrad Ricamora of the hit new play Oh, Mary! The actor stars opposite playwright Cole Escola, and earned his first career Tony nomination for matching the zany, camp energy of the writer. Ricamora has been with the production since its original off-Broadway run, and believes that much of its success is because of the seriousness behind the jokes. In a recent Gold Derby interview, he discusses the commitment to the seriousness behind the hysterics, his love of classic plays, and his thoughts about a potential sequel to the fan-favorite movie Fire Island. More from GoldDerby 'Sentimental Value' hailed as a 'masterpiece,' the 'best movie' at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival 'The Daily Show' editor Cathy Trasborg on letting Trump supporters 'reveal themselves' in the edit: 'We just let them play out' 'Beast Games' editor Mack Hopkins on the scene that was inspired by 'Dunkirk' Gold Derby: Could you have imagined the unprecedented mainstream success of when you were performing the show downtown at the Lucille Lortel Theatre? Conrad Ricamora: It all feels like this impossible thing. The show that we're doing every night is a show that comes from Cole's mind, who I've been a fan of for over a decade when they were self-funding their own YouTube videos and their one person shows at Joe's Pub. So when I got approached about doing Oh, Mary!, I was like, yeah, this will probably be a niche downtown hit. And now we're outselling some big musicals on Broadway, which is insane. It's hard to understand and wrap my head around. It was always a hit in my heart. But I like a lot of things that aren't big mainstream hits. You play Abraham Lincoln. I think everyone has this distinct image of him in their heads. I know isn't exactly documentary-style theater, but how do you relate your character with this image that we have of Abe Lincoln? It's funny that you say that because there is a lot of documentation that Abe slept in bed with different men. Even after he got married to Mary Todd Lincoln, he would sleep in bed with some secret service. And so there are all of these rumors. So it turns out that without doing research, Cole was onto something that people have thought about. During the second or third week of rehearsal, I remember I'd never seen Gone With the Wind and I watched it. And something clicked. It was the way Cole writes characters and comments on gender roles, the way that the women in Cole's play speak. And the men, the way that they're supposed to behave and what they're suppressing. That is something I'll still probably be unpacking for a while. But watching Gone With the Wind and seeing the sincerity of the gender roles. Seeing Vivian Leigh [as Scarlett O'Hara], she flipped into hysteria so quickly, but it was sincere. And seeing Rhett Butler having to be strong, commanding, not vulnerable in any way. And then seeing how that relates to what Cole has written and how those things fall apart with an extremely ambitious woman in Mary Todd Lincoln and an extremely vulnerable man. To me, Abe is so vulnerable, but overcompensates in so many ways until he just crumbles. There is certainly plenty of hysteria in play, especially from Cole. What is it like being on the receiving end of that energy? It's the most frustrating thing I've ever had to do on stage. What I am tasked to do is gain control over the wildest, most insane animal on stage. And my job is to convince myself every night that tonight I'm going to get control over her. I'm going to make her behave for the sake of our country, for the sake of myself, for the sake of everything. I'm going to make her fall in line and conform. And it's the most exhausting thing. It's rewarding that the audience gets to laugh at it, and laugh at the twists and turns. But for me, it is so exhausting because Cole is so committed and Cole has written such a demented character, and Abe responds in kind. He has to respond with the same type of energy, otherwise, Mary would just walk all over him. So I love giving that laughter to an audience every night, but I can't sit in the laughter and enjoy it. I've got to take the stakes deadly seriously. Your character is not as demented as Cole's, but you are certainly expelling plenty of energy. How do you vocally sustain those scenes yelling at Cole? I mean, I give a lot of credit to all of the voice teachers that I've had over the years. In my 20s and 30s, in addition, going to grad school, in addition to doing plays, I was constantly taking classes with different teachers, and you learn how to place things and not let your technique get in the way of your intuition. So it's managing those two things in order to do eight shows a week … it's the culmination of doing this for over 20 years professionally. It just becomes second nature. With the move to Broadway, the types of people sitting in the audience has expanded so much since the smaller downtown run. What is it like performing to these new kinds of audience members? It really does feel like we're opening up people's minds to downtown queer theater. At the Drama League Awards, there was somebody that came up to me and said, I've seen your show three times now, but it's because my daughter, who lives down in the village, saw it at the Lortel. And she is into the queer community and queer theater. And she made me go see it, and I've now seen it three times. It was an older man who's probably in his 50s or 60s. So hearing stuff like that is wild. Most of the stage roles I've seen you in have been musicals, like , , and . You earned Grammy nominations for the latter two shows. Are there dream musical roles that you want to cross off your bucket list? It's funny that you say that because before I moved to New York, I did a lot more plays than musicals. But as an Asian-American male actor, you move to New York and all of a sudden, you just get put in Asian musicals like The King and I and Miss Saigon. I have found that I've been in this narrow range. The first time I burst out of that was doing Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, and now playing Abraham Lincoln. A lot of my training and my passion lies in Shakespeare. I've done Romeo and Juliet four times outside of New York City. I've played Tartuffe at regional theaters. I've played Tom in Glass Menagerie in Philadelphia. So my passion lies in plays, and it's just really telling in some ways, New York City has to catch up to the rest of the country. I really want to do Oscar Wilde at some point. So I'm hoping that this kind of recognition will open up more of those types of conversations in New York City, because it's happening in other places. Speaking of your other roles, director Andrew Ahn recently mentioned that there's ideas floating around in the ether for a sequel. What do you think your character would be up to in a second film? Oh gosh. I feel like the longer we wait, the more my character is just going to be in an advisory role to a younger couple that they'll feature in the sequel! So yeah, Joel [Kim Booster], let's get cracking on this because the longer we wait, I'm just going to be the wiser, older gay man sitting at the pool that's like, 'You kids keep it down.' The first film took place in a party atmosphere on Fire Island and dealt with really deep friendship. I would like to see these couples that we left off with, dealing with what it looks like five or ten years into a committed relationship. What are the challenges at that point? After being newly married myself, I am ready to explore those types of themes in the art that I'm doing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' Click here to read the full article.
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Off-Broadway's Bold Voices Take Center Stage At The Lucille Lortel Awards
Andrew Scott. His show, Vanya, won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show Since 1986, the Lucille Lortel Awards have been celebrating excellence in Off-Broadway theater. Named for visionary producer Lucille Lortel, who was called 'Queen of Off Broadway,' the awards honor her legacy. In her seven-decade career, Lortel was known for nurturing new playwrights, actors, directors and designers. She bolstered talents like Adrienne Kennedy, Terrence McNally, David Mamet and Wendy Wasserstein. She presented productions of lesser-known plays by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and Ionesco. She took risks and championed daring new works that others would not champion. Producing over 500 productions, she gave artists a creative home. Lortel's legacy was front and center at the 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards, where the Off-Broadway community gathered to honor this year's productions. Off-Broadway casts and creatives filled the theater at NYU Skirball Center to celebrate awards in 16 categories. 'Off Broadway has always been a home for bold voices, new ideas and fearless creativity,' said George Forbes, executive director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Before the packed crowd, Casey York, president of the Off-Broadway League, offered her reflections on the state of Off-Broadway and the power it holds. 'By gathering here tonight, we are not just witnessing history,' said York, who is also managing director of Playwrights Horizons. 'We are hoping to shape it.' While York reflected on challenges, she shared how vital it is to keep going—that performing, producing and supporting Off-Broadway requires courage. Especially now, when people and organizations are being threatened. 'I hope you continue to lean on each other, to step forward instead of retreating and to stand firm in your convictions. We need your vision, your persistence, your voice,' added York. 'Let's also reaffirm our commitment to building a community where differences are celebrated, empathy triumphs over division and creativity drives change.' That sense of community was echoed by this year's nominees and presenters, who reflected on how Off-Broadway shaped their lives. 'Off-Broadway is where A Chorus Line started over 50 years ago with Michael Bennett and Joe Papp,' said Donna McKechnie, who was instrumental in the show's creation and originated the role of Cassie, inspired by her own life. 'Michael found a safe place to create under his vision with the luxury of time and Joe Papp as our champion.' Lauren Patten, a nominee for the Lonely Few, shared her first Off-Broadway memory performing in Sarah DeLappe's exhilarating play, the Wolves. 'It was a very insular experience, learning how to be a soccer team together and electric,' said Patten. 'I remember buying Samuel French plays when I was a teenager and this was the first time I saw one with my name in it.' Nominee Whitney White, who directed Bess Wohl's play Liberation, spoke about Off-Broadway's intimacy. 'Off-Broadway is so raw. It's easier to feel closer to the audience. It's about the performers and the people you touch and you can't get that anywhere else,' said White. Liberation actor Susannah Flood shared how Off-Broadway inspires connection and community. 'There is a lot of fear out there,' said the Lortel-nominated performer. 'People want a place to go to think about these topics and issues.' The evening was also a moving tribute to the pioneers who paved the way. Throughout the night, special honors were presented to groundbreaking playwright Alice Childress, beloved producer and managing director, Carol Fishman, and New Federal Theatre, which was founded by Woodie King Jr. in 1970 to be a creative incubator for Black artists, amplifying stories of marginalized communities. Since then, New Federal Theatre has produced hundreds of plays and helped launch the careers of countless artists, including Ruby Dee, Denzel Washington and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who presented the lifetime achievement award to Woodie King Jr. and the theater's producing artistic director, Elizabeth Van Dyke. 'Woody provided a place where we could walk around and know that we belonged,' said Santiago-Hudson. Childress, who passed away in 1994, was posthumously inducted into the Playwrights Sidewalk. Located in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the walk of fame immortalizes Off Broadway's great playwrights by embossing their names into the sidewalk pavement. Writing, performing and producing plays for four decades, Childress was the first African American woman to receive an Obie Award and devoted her life to the theater. (In fact, the latest production of her play, Wine in the Wilderness, presented by Classic Stage Company, was nominated for two Lortel awards this year, including Outstanding Revival.) LaChanze, who performed in Childress' play Trouble In Mind and directed Wine in the Wilderness, presented the honor to the late playwright's niece, Dedrienne McKenzie and grandniece, Nicara McKenzie, who accepted on her behalf. 'Please continue to live in your power,' said Nicara McKenzie. 'Walk in your light. And speak to your originality—just like my great aunt Alice did.' From left: Dedrienne McKenzie, Nicara McKenzie and LaChanze at the 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards Helen J. Shen, a nominee for the Lonely Few The cast and creatives from Here There Are Blueberries. The show won two awards, including ... More Outstanding Play and Outstanding Director From left: Ruben Santiago-Hudson with New Federal Theatre's producing artistic director Elizabeth ... More Van Dyke and founder Woodie King, Jr. The cast and creatives from Our Class, which won four awards, including Outstanding Revival. Nominee Qween Jean, the costume designer for Liberation Lea DeLaria with Alaska Thunderfuck, who starred in Drag: The Musical, which received six Lortel ... More nominations. The duo co-hosted with Kandi Burruss, Jay Ellis, Stephanie Nur, J. Harrison Ghee, Ilana Glazer and Maya Hawke Co-host Ilana Glazer The cast and director of Three Houses, which won Outstanding Musical From left: Drew Elhamalawy, Rotana Tarabzouni, Nadina Hassan and Ali Louis Bourzgui. Some of the ... More cast members from We Live in Cairo nominated for Outstanding Ensemble, along with John El-Jor and Michael Khalid Karadsheh Co-hosts Jay Ellis and Stephanie Nur. This summer they will star in Duke & Roya at the Lucille ... More Lortel Theatre Michael Rishawn, who won Outstanding Featured Performer in a Play for Table 17
Los Angeles Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Tony nominations reward audacious risk-taking on Broadway
It was the bravest of times, it was the priciest of times. The Tony Award nominations, announced Thursday morning in New York, reflect the split screen reality of a Broadway season divided by mavericks and mega-stars. The mavericks fared considerably better. Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Othello,' George Clooney in 'Good Night, and Good Luck' and newly minted Oscar-winner Kieran Culkin in 'Glengarry Glen Ross' allowed producers to create sticker shock on Broadway. Magnets for media and money, these productions created momentous New York buzz — along with the growing sense that Broadway is now a luxury goods item, affordable only to the super affluent and the super savvy about ticket discounts. But of this group only Clooney received a nomination for his excellent lead performance as Edward R. Murrow in the stage adaptation of the 2005 film. Culkin, the weak link in the otherwise sturdy 'Glengarry' revival, was passed over for a featured actor nomination. Bob Odenkirk, who shines as shabby Shelley Levene, scored the production's only nod. Clearly, the Tony nominating committee was paying close attention. All the advance hype in the world couldn't extract a single nomination for the rudderless 'Othello,' notwithstanding Gyllenhaal's sleekly sinister Iago and Andrew Burnap's Cassio serving as a model for how Shakespearean verse should be spoken. The most memorable offerings didn't care a whit about product-testing strategies. What marketing genius, for instance, could have predicted that 'Maybe Happy Ending,' a jazz-infused rom-com about robots and mortality that originated in South Korea, and 'Dead Outlaw,' a quirky jam-session of a show about a butterfingers bandit who was outshone by his more famous corpse, would be the most acclaimed musicals of this season? 'Maybe Happy Ending' led with 10 nominations in a tie with fellow best musical nominees, 'Buena Vista Social Club' and 'Death Becomes Her.' 'Dead Outlaw,' which opened Sunday just before the season deadline to glowing reviews, earned an impressive seven nominations. From a purely commercial perspective, 'Maybe Happy Ending' and 'Dead Outlaw' represent huge gambles. Both lack the preexisting IP and Hollywood star power that are the assumed requirements of Broadway juggernauts. But audacity combined with artistic ingenuity is still the best bet for holding one's head high in an American theater devoid of safety. Epitomizing this lesson is Cole Escola's 'Oh, Mary!' This wild ride of a play, which I saw last year off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, follows the machinations of an unsteady Mary Todd Lincoln (originally played by Escola, who has returned to the role) as she drunkenly chases her cabaret dreams. Part off-color drag act, part Carol Burnett-style sketch comedy, the show has survived on its bountiful comedic wits to become one of the hottest Broadway tickets of the year. 'Oh, Mary' is also a contender in the best play race, having proved that it's durable enough not to depend exclusively on Escola's delirious drollery. (Betty Gilpin and Tituss Burgess both served tours of duty.) Hearteningly, the best play category has turned out to be one of the year's most competitive. Kimberly Belflower's 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' starring Sadie Sink from Netflix's 'Stranger Things,' received seven nominations, the same number as Jez Butterworth's 'The Hills of California.' 'John Proctor' initiates a conversation with Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' about the way the suffering of women in this American classic is given painfully short shrift. The title may sound polemical, but the work, superbly directed by Tony-winner Danya Taymor ('The Outsiders'), has a buoyant curiosity about the lives of young women and exists on its own independent terms. (Sink, Taymor and Gabriel Ebert in the Proctor-ish teacher role, all nominated, are an integral part of the company-wide excellence.) I'm still haunted by 'The Hills of California,' Butterworth's richly imagined drama about the death-bed vigil a group of sisters is holding for their mother, who sought to turn them into a copy of the Andrews Sisters. The exquisite music-filled production, which had a limited run in the fall, was too good to be forgotten. Sam Mendes' magisterial direction and Laura Donnelly's heartbreaking performance were part of the trove of well-deserved nominations. Broadway continues to recognize the brilliance of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, one of the outstanding talents of this new generation of American playwrights. Last year, 'Appropriate' received the Tony for best play revival. This year, 'Purpose,' his domestic drama about an illustrious civil rights icon's dysfunctional family and checkered legacy, received six nominations, including best play. And it was uplifting to see Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'English,' which I encountered last year at the Old Globe, rounding out a best play list that shores up faith in the future of intelligent playwriting on Broadway. It was a credit to the collective wisdom of the Tony nominating committee that Leslye Headland's 'Cult of Love,' one of the hokiest family dramas I've seen in ages, was excluded, despite a few strong supporting performances. And that 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' received a slew of design nominations and a nod for Louis McCartney's sad-creepy lead performance but nothing for the deranged script. 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' a deft stage translation of the movie chronicling CBS newsman Murrow's heroic stand against Sen. Joseph McCarthy's communist witch-hunt, may not have made the playwriting cut. But Clooney is duly nominated for bringing Murrow's sterling moral example to life at a time when the country badly needs a shot in the arm of courage. Escola is likely to come out on top in the lead actor race, which I was pleased to see found room for Daniel Dae Kim's fine work in David Henry Hwang's 'Yellow Face.' But I want to stress that 'Good Night, and Good Luck' is no vanity exercise and that a movie star's top billing on Broadway is not necessarily a sign of a broken system. The production, scrupulously directed by David Cromer, is deeply moving in its public-spirited vision. Cromer would no doubt have been nominated for his work were he not nominated for his ingenious staging of 'Dead Outlaw.' He, along with Michael Arden, who won a Tony for his direction of 'Parade' in 2023 and was nominated for his direction of 'Maybe Happy Ending,' may be Broadway's sharpest auteurs with the discreetest profiles. Sarah Snook is the presumed front-runner in the lead actress in a play race for her solo tour de force in the multimedia extravaganza version of Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.' But how marvelous to see Mia Farrow in contention for her work in 'The Roommate' opposite a game Patti LuPone. Can producers find another excuse to bring this comedy duo back together? The Broadway performance that cut the deepest for me was Audra McDonald as Rose in George C. Wolfe's revival of 'Gypsy,' a harrowing reexamination of the musical through the historical prism of race. She already holds the record for the most Tony wins for a performer with six awards. The only thing standing in the way of a seventh is Nicole Scherzinger's sublime singing in Jamie Lloyd's fearless re-imagining of 'Sunset Blvd.' The success of 'Maybe Happy Ending' hinges in no small part on the miraculous performance of Darren Criss, who plays an automaton with a secretly sensitive heart. The charm of this musical has proved to be not at all ephemeral, and in a Broadway season of invigorating long shots, the happy ending of 'Maybe Happy Ending' seems all but guaranteed.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Eight Andrew Scotts Star in One of NYC's Hottest Theater Tickets
When Andrew Scott appeared on stage, a voice behind me breaking the sudden silence perhaps spoke for many in attendance: 'He's so beautiful.' Scott starts his one-man Vanya (Lucille Lortel Theatre, through May 11) gazing out at the audience—indeed handsome, and mischievous twinkling eye on subtle blast—switching the house lights on and off until they are to his liking. It's a moment of both comedy and assertion: a nod that this is a performance in a theater (one hour, forty minutes, no intermission), but that this is also his performance, his construct. Adapted from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya by Simon Stephens, directed by Sam Yates, and designed by Rosanna Vize—with all three listed as co-creators—this off-Broadway production premiered in London in 2023. It's part of a creative endurance-test trend of big-name actors taking on texts playing multiple characters—among them, Eddie Izzard doing Great Expectations and Hamlet, while on Broadway this season Succession star Sarah Snook is performing another multi-character Brit-import, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in the wake of Jodie Comer's Tony-winning Prima Facie in 2023. Vanya is an inviting showcase for the charismatic and talented star of Ripley, All of Us Strangers, Fleabag, and Sherlock—eight characters, all genders and ages, with enough drama, angst, and illicit passions to craft some standout scenes around. This is Uncle Vanya, basically faithful yet meaningfully tweaked. The stage design is not 19th-century Russia but modern-day indistinct rehearsal room meets indistinct domestic setting. There's a kitchen, some sundry seating, and a stage door to nowhere allowing Scott transitional moments to underline character and scene shifts (and give Scott the occasional second to himself). We are on an Irish farm rather than country estate; some names and professions of characters have been changed. A working knowledge of Uncle Vanya is recommended; Scott's performance is both showy and unshowy—a panoply of actorly skills and control—but sometimes the exercise feels too subtle. The transitions between scenes and characters can be confusing. Approach it instead as a showcase and masterclass, a chance to see the talented and charismatic Scott close-up. He has fun imagining housekeeper Maureen (a substitute for Marina the nurse), who with cigarette in hand is always jabbering on about the various intrigues around her. Then there is Vanya himself, here called Ivan, and brother-in-law Alexander (no longer a professor as Chekhov had him, but an artistically precious film-maker), who has arrived with his younger second wife Helena. Hovering as usual is poor, plain Sonia, Alexander's 'plain' daughter (Scott evokes hers and Helena's spiky conversations very well) and Elizabeth, Ivan's mother (named Maria by Chekhov). Grief for Anna, Ivan's sister, is conveyed by the memories represented by a piano Ivan observes and sometimes plays. A moment of passion between Helena and Michael, the endlessly whining, but very hot doctor who really should strike out on his own and get out of there, is the very distillation—the very necessary distillation—of self-love, as Scott grabs and lustily sighs over his own body. Disrobed, he also imagines their illicit encounter being interrupted. This is all fascinating to watch as Scott stalks, dances, pouts, and slinks around the stage traversing genders and ages, but the exercise does not reveal Uncle Vanya anew. As engaging and adept a performer as Scott is, Vanya is a practically impressive but theatrically mixed experience. It doesn't yield anything new from Chekhov's text, sometimes it even muddies it; it feels more stylish performance exercise than illuminatingly innovative. The original play can drag—a traditionally multi-cast Lincoln Center production last year also ran aground—and having the brilliant Scott play all the characters doesn't animate it further. Scott's Vanya is virtuosic in spirit, but it also feels oddly aimless—its fundamental reason to be squarely down to the star name on the Lucille Lortel marquee.
