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Miami Herald
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Review: Pondering matters of life and death in Zoetic Stage's ‘The Comeuppance'
Zoetic Stage's 'The Comeuppance' is a satisfying punctuation mark as the theater season winds down; an exclamation point to keep theater lovers satiated through the leaner times of summer. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama (For his play 'Purpose'), created a challenging, almost surreal dramedy with layers upon layers of emotions in the present dredged up from the past. The setting is a porch in Prince George's County, Maryland ('in fall in the year of our Lord 2022,' Jacobs-Jenkins wrote in the play notes). Twenty years after graduation from St. Anthony's High School, a Catholic academy in Washington, DC, a group of friends are gathering to pregame before their high school reunion. This particular group had named itself the 'Multi-Ethnic Reject Group' (MERGE for short). It's Ursula's grandmother's house, but grandma has passed away and Ursula (Joline Mujica) is living there alone. She enters with a patch on her eye, carrying a pitcher of her watermelon-muddled 'jungle juice.' But, she isn't the first character we meet. That would be Death in his first incarnation, inhabiting the body of Emilio (Jovon Jacobs). The Grim Reaper appears throughout the play, merging with the bodies of each of the characters. Every cast member gets a Death monologue, just one of the many acting acrobatics that the playwright has devised to ensure that the play, heavy on dialogue, is constantly in motion. Director Stuart Meltzer embraces Jacobs-Jenkins' fly-on-the-wall sensibility. We can relate to Death's comments, 'I like to watch.' There's a wonderful undercurrent that's meant to make us feel like silent party crashers, eavesdropping on this group who are trying to make sense of fraught personal lives and revisit what they thought would be a fun reunion. But reliving the past is much akin to Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward, Angel,' and the phrase 'You can't go home again.' There are more than a few comparisons to the 1983 comedy-drama 'The Big Chill.' Old college friends have been brought together for a funeral. The Vietnam War and its effects hover over the group. They find out that inevitable changes in their lives have made it impossible to connect as they once did. The same happens here, just in a different era. The millennials have gone through the horrors of Columbine and 9/11. Now, as adults, they are gathering shortly after COVID. 'How was your COVID?' is the phrase in this post-pandemic gathering. A classmate, Simon, who has cancelled on the group, calls in every once in a while. And although he isn't seen, he speaks for all when he says: 'Look at all the shit we've been through – It's like too much, Columbine, 9/11, the war, the war, the endless war, then Trump, then COVID, whatever the f— is going on in the Supreme Court… Roe v. Wade….' Emilio is an artist now living in Germany. He's in for the reunion but off to Manhattan, where his work will be shown in a biennial, presumably the Whitney. He's done well for himself, able to afford the luxuries of staying in a high-end hotel while in town. Caitlin (Mallory Newbrough) has married an ex-cop, a man older than her, who participated in January 6 at the Capitol. 'Michael was not in the group that actually stormed the Capitol,' she makes sure her classmates hear loud and clear. Kristina (Amy Lee Gonzalez) is an overworked anesthesiologist with five kids and a drinking problem, a carryover from so much time at the hospital during COVID. She dated Emilio in high school. She's brought along her cousin Francisco, aka Paco (Rayner Gabriel), who is an unwelcome guest because he wasn't part of MERGE. He's a military veteran suffering from PTSD after two tours of duty in Iraq; he has a past with Caitlin. The dowdy and shy Ursula is diabetic and has lost her eyesight in one eye. An orphan whose grandmother raised her, she's now alone and has a woman who stops by a few times a week to check in on her. This is a brilliant all-local Equity ensemble, Mujica's tenderly sweet Ursula, Newbrough's carefully calibrated yet lonely Caitlin, Gonzalez's 'I've had it' doc mom, and Gabriel's amped up Francisco, with each actor working off of one another with obvious guidance from Meltzer. This is how the complex characters Jacobs-Jenkins created develop throughout the two-hour and 10-minute show without an intermission (a difficult but wise choice since an interval would interrupt the necessary continuous momentum and worth every minute) When they must step out of their realistic portrayals to become Death, it is done with seamless precision so as not to seem out of character. It's a difficult tightrope and one that each of the actors maneuvers with finesse. It's not easy, mind you. Jacobs, who has appeared in productions throughout South Florida, makes his Zoetic Stage debut here and has the weightiest role. His Emilio is the protagonist and, although all the characters are given a shot at Death, Jacobs as Emilio is the most unsettling. He begins the play as Death and winds it up at the end. It is his Death that makes you wonder whose soul he has come to collect. The steeped in reality Emilio (in some aspects based on the playwright himself) is also the character who seems the least to have crossed over to adulthood. These two spectrums call for an actor with range and Jacobs aces it. The lighting design by Leonardo Urbina creates the atmosphere of the outdoors at dusk. During the tricky Death monologues, Urbina subtly shines a spotlight on the actor, while the others, frozen in place, are dimly lit, still able to be seen. Sound design by Haydn Diaz adds an eerie reverb to each actor's voice for Death. Then there's the realistic sounds of a neighborhood, dogs barking and birds chirping, a car driving up and a door slamming, a limousine speeding off. Costume design by Lorena Lopez fits each character's persona – the oversized sweater and long skirt for Ursula, Emilio's richly looking beige turtleneck, brown pants, leather boots, Caitlin's breezy dress, Paco's oversized suit, and a skirt uniform for military doc Kristina. Scenic design by Michael McCLain is a back porch filled with odds and ends shoved in a back corner, things that should have gone to the trash, but never did. At stage right are overstuffed garbage cans. There's plenty of places for the characters to move about in addition to the porch: a lawn, a picnic table. A non-realistic faux stump, which is used as a playing area seems out of place, however, affecting the realism. While some may find the 130-minute running time daunting at the outset, once the clock begins to tick, the play and this production, like life and death, have you in its grips, and it isn't about to let you go. If you go: WHAT: Zoetic Stage's 'The Comeuppance' by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, May 25. COST: $66-$72 WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722, or is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don't miss a story at
Sydney Morning Herald
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Hobbits in the aisles: The Lord of the Rings musical is a valiant effort
Their affecting duet Now and for Always in the second half is one of the musical's highlights. Laurence Boxhall's performance as Gollum alone deserves five stars as he bounds across the stage on all fours, swings from ladders and somehow croons in the character's trademark breathy rasp. It's like Andy Serkis is in the room with us. Other standouts are Stefanie Caccamo as Arwen, bringing her signature melodic prowess to the ethereal role, an impressive violin-brandishing Hannah Buckley and cello-playing Jeremi Campese as comedic duo Pippin and Merry, and Jemma Rix as the majestic Galadriel. And there's the magic of it all. The demonic Balrog and gigantic spider Shelob are magnificently brought to life. The liminal state Frodo enters whenever he wears the ring is depicted through a stunning combination of lighting, sound and Newton's arrested movements. How you'll feel about this adaptation will hinge on your attachment to the source material, but if you want to see the most fantastical moments of the trilogy resurrected on stage, Lord of the Rings – a Musical Tale mostly delivers. Reviewed by Sonia Nair THEATRE The Comeuppance ★★★ Red Stitch Actors' Theatre, until May 25 High school reunions are sublime stages for the exploration of thwarted dreams, misled desires and suspended states of youth. Robin Schiff knew it when she wrote the play-turned-film, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, now a musical. Christopher Miller knew it when he created The Afterparty, the darkly comic murder mystery TV series that kicks off with a death at a high school reunion after-party. American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins knew it when he wrote his playscript, The Comeuppance, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2023 and is gracing Melbourne stages for the first time in this Red Stitch debut. Five friends who used to call themselves MERGE (Multi-Ethnic Reject Group) gather in DC to 'pre-game' for their 20-year high school reunion. Edging towards middle age and living through the 'comeuppance' from past decisions, they're in various states of disarray – exacerbated by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. Party host Ursula (AYA) recently lost their grandma and is nursing partial blindness due to diabetes. Berlin-based artist Emilio (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor) is reticent about his newborn child and seemingly flourishing arts career. Caitlin (Julia Grace) is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Christina (Tess Masters) is severely struggling as a doctor who navigated the worst of COVID. And interloper Paco (Kevin Hofbauer) is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a war veteran. But this isn't any average school reunion. Lurking on the edges of Ella Butler's eerily constructed facade of a suburban porch is Death itself, who takes turns inhabiting each character to elucidate their relationship to mortality in sonorous, sinister addresses. It's a masterful sleight of hand from Jacobs-Jenkins, displaying the actors' range as they oscillate between their characters and Death, and blending exposition with a blatant reminder that everyone is on a slippery slope towards eventual pain and loss. The script is exquisitely dark, as Death – personified here as a catty gossipmonger – traverses the terrain of miscarriages, accidental deaths, suicide, death of children, loss of pets, war crimes and fatal illnesses. Jacobs-Jenkins depicts how large, traumatic, historic calamities like Columbine, 9/11, the Iraq War, Trump's election and COVID have metastasised into the rot of the characters' personal lives. It's a remarkably pessimistic but compassionate snapshot of life as a Millennial. Under Gary Abrahams' direction, the characters join the fray at different junctures throughout the night and circle each other in various formations of anger, joy, nostalgia and regret. In-jokes are carried out to their headiest conclusions in a particularly memorable choreographed sequence, spittle-specked invectives are uttered – mostly by Emilio, whose memories differ from those who've had to navigate a different version of the truth to cope with living in the hometown they're still in – and feelings are irrevocably hurt. Loading The play is pitched at such a frenetic level that it can be hard to maintain momentum throughout – it's split into two halves, unlike the original which ran for an uninterrupted 140 minutes – and the intensity of the exchanges are diffused when any one character is monologuing at length. Instead, the play is at its strongest at its bookends with intimate conversations that grapple with the sum of a life. The conceit of Death, while portentous, ultimately fizzles in the final sequences. A striking work of fiction that dares to situate itself in the aftermath of COVID, The Comeuppance combines horror with social realism to probe existential fears and chart our collective mental state. Are we OK? No, not really. Reviewed by Sonia Nair MUSIC The Soul of the Cello: Timo-Veikko Valve ★★★★ Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Recital Centre, May 3 There's a lot to love about Timo-Veikko Valve. After almost 20 years as principal cello of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Finnish-born musician, affectionately known as 'Tipi', has become something of an Australian musical treasure. Blending prodigious technique with infectious enthusiasm, he continues captivating music lovers wherever he goes. Working with the strings of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, this chamber concert not only confirmed Valve as a charismatic player but proved him a sensitive director and talented arranger. Bringing a questing sense of exploration to the Prelude from Bach's solo Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, Valve grew the music's intensity, leading it directly into a tidy account of Mozart's orchestral arrangement of Bach's E-flat major fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. The variegated textures of Valve's effective arrangement of Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor underlined both the work's passion and playfulness; qualities reminiscent of its dedicatee, Joseph Haydn. Deftly alternating solo quartet passages with full orchestra or spotlighting soloists ensured a welcome lightness of touch, as in the Trio of the third-movement Menuetto, where acting associate concertmaster Tair Khisambeev contributed a sparkling solo. More abrasive textures came with Wiima by Valve's compatriot, Jaakko Kuusisto. After some sonic shrapnel, the music seemed to morph into a dystopian soundscape from which elements of civilisation struggled to emerge. Solo cameos for Khisambeev, principal second violin Matthew Tomkins and Valve's former ACO colleague, principal viola Christopher Moore, were all dispatched with aplomb. Passion and poetry allied with sheer joy made Valve's account of the Schumann Cello Concerto a thrilling highlight. His tender slow-movement duet with principal cello David Berlin vividly contrasted with the folksy rhythmic swagger of the finale. In manifesting all of Schumann's elegiac drama, Valve indeed revealed the cello's dynamic soul. Reviewed by Tony Way DANCE Yirramboi: Monster in the Cyborg Body ★★★ The Channel, Arts Centre Melbourne, May 3 Saturday was a long day for many – politicians, election workers and volunteers at countless sausage sizzles – but for no one more than choreographer and performance artist Joshua Pether, who spent 12 hours in a durational performance, embodying the strange, otherworldly ordeal of Monster in the Cyborg Body. While the democratic process played out in school halls and community centres, Pether staged his own parallel ritual of personal and political transformation – a slow and fluid ritual, still in the process of becoming – in the small studio behind Hamer Hall, overlooking the Yarra. The work, scheduled to run from sunrise to sunset, combined two earlier pieces by Pether exploring the intersections of indigeneity and disability. But rather than restaging them directly, he folded their concerns into an evolving performance landscape – circling, diffusing and reworking them in gestures of suspension and hesitation. It invited a porous kind of attention: audiences drifted in and out, collaborators appeared and disappeared. The performance seemed to breathe with the ebb and flow of its witnesses. In the morning, there was minimal action as piles of dry leaves were gradually shifted around the space and its centrally placed trestle table. By early afternoon, haze drifted through the room and a glitchy, subterranean soundscape began to pulse. WeiZen Ho, who created the sound design for one of Pether's earlier works, joined him as a performer. A tangle of yarn was slowly, unsystematically straightened out and then wrapped around a large column: a neat way of registering the passing of time. By late afternoon, the calm solemnity of the performance gave way to a more intense atmosphere. Appropriately, perhaps, the work reached its climax just as polling booths closed and counting began outside – a moment collective transition registered in the work's search for new ceremonial forms. Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann THEATRE Hans Zimmer ★★★ Rod Laver Arena, April 29 'I haven't done anything yet,' Hans Zimmer grins when he walks out on stage in Melbourne to immediate, rapturous applause. It's not hard to see why the mere sight of the man might cause such a response – any movie lover of the past few decades will know his iconic film scores, from The Lion King and The Dark Knight to Dune and James Bond movies. Zimmer's unique compositional style melds classical and synthesised elements, so a show bringing it all to life is a little like seeing the MSO if they were all wearing leather and performing in an arena with drunk men heckling them. Unlike other composers who might stay behind the scenes, Zimmer is a part of the experience: the 67-year-old plays guitar and keys throughout, and also chats candidly. 'I treat this like a big dinner party,' he says. 'It's like my best 10,000 friends coming over.' More than 20 musicians are on stage, with instruments including an electric cello, two drum kits, bagpipes, brass and a large gong. The technical prowess on show is impressive: special mention to Leah Zegler, whose vocal range in the Interstellar suite is incredible, and Pedro Eustache, who makes the Armenian duduk sing sorrowfully alongside Melbourne's own Lisa Gerrard for the music from Gladiator. Zimmer's music is masterful, often building from an unassuming foundation to something grand and sweeping – What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World? from 2013's Man of Steel is a great example, beginning with Zimmer on piano. It's a joy, too, to hear the spirited music from Pirates of the Caribbean live. But the show is let down by a poor sound mix – a blown speaker blares intermittently, and at one point the bass is so loud that it is actually painful on the ear. Generic footage accompanies the music – even stills from the films would evoke a stronger emotional response from the audience, who first found the music this way. The concert's runtime of more than three hours means there are also dips in energy – a tighter selection of music may have made for an overall more cohesive experience. Still, there are great moments in the show, such as the iconic Lion King music, though the strange inclusion of a non-Zimmer composition (He Lives in You) is ironically my favourite moment of the night. Zimmer ends on Time from Inception – a meditative piece that has the arena silent. It's a reminder of what good music can do. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen JAZZ International Jazz Day Celebration ★★★★ Hanson Dyer Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, April 29 In 2011, UNESCO designated April 30 as International Jazz Day. Since then, the annual event has become a universal celebration of jazz, with cultural and educational activities held around the world in the lead-up. This year, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music hosted a free concert on the eve of International Jazz Day, highlighting some of the most recent additions to the teaching faculty – a faculty that now includes many of this city's finest jazz musicians. Andrea Keller (head of the jazz and improvisation department) was positively beaming as she introduced the musicians, who performed in different combinations alongside special guest Simon Barker. Barker has been working as artist-in-residence with the Con's jazz students, many of whom were in the audience on Tuesday to marvel at the Sydney drummer's artistry. They were treated to a masterful display of technique in the service of musicality – not just by Barker, but by all the performers. Solos were deliberately compact, emphasising communication rather than parades of individual virtuosity. International Jazz Day is about the value of shared experiences, after all. Alto saxophonist Angela Davis lent her ravishingly graceful sound to several ballads, while tenor saxophonist Carlo Barbaro variously strutted, swaggered and delved into turbulent freeform clouds. The rhythm section (Brett Williams on piano, Stephen Magnusson on guitar, Sam Anning on bass and Barker on drums) sketched deft backdrops for the shifting frontline, instinctively driving the energy forward or pulling back to a whisper when required. Gian Slater sang mostly wordlessly – including on a striking duet with Barker, where her voice rose like a ceremonial chant over Barker's expressionistic drums.
The Age
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
The play that offers up a pessimistic yet compassionate snapshot of life as a Millennial
Under Gary Abrahams' direction, the characters join the fray at different junctures throughout the night and circle each other in various formations of anger, joy, nostalgia and regret. In-jokes are carried out to their headiest conclusions in a particularly memorable choreographed sequence, spittle-specked invectives are uttered – mostly by Emilio, whose memories differ from those who've had to navigate a different version of the truth to cope with living in the hometown they're still in – and feelings are irrevocably hurt. Loading The play is pitched at such a frenetic level that it can be hard to maintain momentum throughout – it's split into two halves, unlike the original which ran for an uninterrupted 140 minutes – and the intensity of the exchanges are diffused when any one character is monologuing at length. Instead, the play is at its strongest at its bookends with intimate conversations that grapple with the sum of a life. The conceit of Death, while portentous, ultimately fizzles in the final sequences. A striking work of fiction that dares to situate itself in the aftermath of COVID, The Comeuppance combines horror with social realism to probe existential fears and chart our collective mental state. Are we OK? No, not really. Reviewed by Sonia Nair Hans Zimmer ★★★ Rod Laver Arena, April 29 'I haven't done anything yet,' Hans Zimmer grins when he walks out on stage in Melbourne to immediate, rapturous applause. It's not hard to see why the mere sight of the man might cause such a response – any movie lover of the past few decades will know his iconic film scores, from The Lion King and The Dark Knight to Dune and James Bond. Zimmer's unique compositional style melds classical and synthesised elements, so a show bringing it all to life is a little like seeing the MSO if they were all wearing leather and performing in an arena with drunk men heckling them. Unlike other composers who might stay behind the scenes, Zimmer is a part of the experience: the 67-year-old plays guitar and keys throughout, and also chats candidly. 'I treat this like a big dinner party,' he says. 'It's like my best 10,000 friends coming over.' More than 20 musicians are on stage, with instruments including an electric cello, two drum kits, bagpipes, brass and a large gong. The technical prowess on show is impressive: special mention to Leah Zegler, whose vocal range in the Interstellar suite is incredible, and Pedro Eustache, who makes the Armenian duduk sing sorrowfully alongside Melbourne's own Lisa Gerrard for the music from Gladiator. Zimmer's music is masterful, often building from an unassuming foundation to something grand and sweeping – What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World? from 2013's Man of Steel is a great example, beginning with Zimmer on piano. It's a joy, too, to hear the spirited music from Pirates of the Caribbean live. But the show is let down by a poor sound mix – a blown speaker blares intermittently, and at one point the bass is so loud that it is actually painful on the ear. Generic footage accompanies the music – even stills from the films would evoke a stronger emotional response from the audience, who first found the music this way. The concert's runtime of more than three hours means there are also dips in energy – a tighter selection of music may have made for an overall more cohesive experience. Still, there are great moments in the show, such as the iconic Lion King music, though the strange inclusion of a non-Zimmer composition (He Lives in You) is ironically my favourite moment of the night. Zimmer ends on Time from Inception – a meditative piece that has the arena silent. It's a reminder of what good music can do. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen JAZZ International Jazz Day Celebration ★★★★ Hanson Dyer Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, April 29 In 2011, UNESCO designated April 30 as International Jazz Day. Since then, the annual event has become a universal celebration of jazz, with cultural and educational activities held around the world in the lead-up to IJD. This year, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music hosted a free concert on the eve of International Jazz Day, highlighting some of the most recent additions to the teaching faculty – a faculty that now includes many of this city's finest jazz musicians. Andrea Keller (head of the jazz and improvisation department) was positively beaming as she introduced the musicians, who performed in different combinations alongside special guest Simon Barker. Barker has been working as artist-in-residence with the Con's jazz students, many of whom were in the audience on Tuesday to marvel at the Sydney drummer's artistry. They were treated to a masterful display of technique in the service of musicality – not just by Barker, but by all the performers. Solos were deliberately compact, emphasising communication rather than parades of individual virtuosity. International Jazz Day is about the value of shared experiences, after all. Alto saxophonist Angela Davis lent her ravishingly graceful sound to several ballads, while tenor saxophonist Carlo Barbaro variously strutted, swaggered and delved into turbulent freeform clouds. The rhythm section (Brett Williams on piano, Stephen Magnusson on guitar, Sam Anning on bass and Barker on drums) sketched deft backdrops for the shifting frontline, instinctively driving the energy forward or pulling back to a whisper when required. Gian Slater sang mostly wordlessly – including on a striking duet with Barker, where her voice rose like a ceremonial chant over Barker's expressionistic drums.
