NEW YORK ― I spent last weekend in Manhattan, checking out the holiday lights and the department store window decorations.
And a few shows, too, to see whether they are naughty or nice.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Fifty years ago, Edward Albee burst onto Broadway with his take-no-prisoners view of marriage, academia division. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? cemented his place as a major voice in the American theater, even if the play was deemed too profane for the Pulitzer Prize committee’s sanction.
It has returned to Broadway three times in the intervening half-century, with such stars as Ben Gazzara and Kathleen Turner drawn to the towering roles of battle royalty, George and Martha. The current revival comes from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton are fixtures.
The fact that they are not household names beyond the Windy City could explain why the box office for the play has begun to flag just two months after the production opened at the Booth Theatre to considerable acclaim. It is surely no reflection on their performances, particularly Letts, who brings unexpected ferocity to the role of history professor George.
The mark of a great play is its ability to support various interpretations and here Steppenwolf and director Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park) shifts the balance away from the usual upper hand of braying harridan Martha to George, who seems out for blood from the opening curtain. At least it seems so once Morton underplays some of Albee’s white-hot verbal punches and Letts suggests he never got the memo about using restraint.
As a result, George is the aggressor in the tug-of-war that he and Martha wage late one night and into the wee hours to the dismay of their guests, Nick, a new arrival at New Carthage in the biology department, and his mousy wife, Honey. Nothing really changes, and yet there is new light shed on this very familiar play.
Morton takes some getting used to, but her Martha as wounded animal is ultimately persuasive. Trickier and often thankless are Nick and Honey, and Madison Dirks and Carrie Coons let us catch them acting while Letts and Morton simply are George and Martha.
Even the look of their home ― designed by Todd Rosenthal ― gets a sigh of approval from the opening curtain. Strewn with books and carelessly unkempt, it truly is the “dump” that Martha declares it to be in her famous first line.
Fifty years after it first met an audience, Virginia Woolf does not shock us at it once did, but the sting is certainly intact. And by varying the balance of power, Steppenwolf gives us something more valuable: a Virginia Woolf with a new sense of surprise.
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St., New York. Through Feb. 24. Tickets: $67-$132. Call: (212) 239-6200.
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13 Things About Ed Carpolotti: In a theater season that has already featured more than its share of duds in the musical department (Scandalous, Chaplin, Giant), there is a simple, but satisfying one-woman show playing this month only, but likely to spawn plenty of subsequent productions around the country.
(Caution: There is reason not to trust my opinion on the prosaically titled 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti. For starters ― full disclosure ― the composer/lyricist/adapter/director, Barry Kleinbort, is a personal friend of mine. If that does not sufficiently cross the line of reviewing ethics, you might as well know that I went out for drinks after the performance with Barry and his muse, Penny Fuller, who brought the source material to him to musicalize for her.)
The show is based on a play by Jeffrey Hatcher, part of a trio of one-acts collectively called Three Viewings, which Fuller originated in 1995. She plays Virginia Carpolotti, recent widow of Ed, who suddenly finds herself deeply in debt when her husband’s creditors ― including the Mafia ― start coming out of the woodwork. How she thwarts them and moves on with her life makes a tidy tale, aptly heightened by a handful or so of songs.
One of Kleinbort’s more inspired creations is the number At the Liberty Theatre, Virginia’s recollection of her first date with Ed, which Fuller turns into a comic tour de force. Having lied to her parents about going to see the movie My Friend Irma Goes West, Virginia is forced to reenact the flick, which means rapid-fire impersonations of Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and their co-star, Marie Wilson.
Most of the rest of the score is wistful and touching, notably One More Spring, and the title tune, which is set to a calypso beat for no particular reason. By sticking to the characters’ original name of Carpolotti, Kleinbort gives himself a rhyming challenge, which he manages to meet un-self-consciously.
Two-time Tony Award nominee Fuller has a lovely throaty voice and Kleinbort knows how to write for her vocal strengths. She has indicated an interest in touring with 13 Things, but one can easily imagine legions of veteran actresses eagerly taking on the role as well.
13 THINGS ABOUT ED CARPOLOTTI, 59E59 Theatre, 59 E. 59th St., New York. Through Sunday, Dec. 30. Tickets: $25. Call: (212) 279-4200.
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The Ride, Holiday Edition: Ah, but what is a theatrically minded visitor to The Big Apple to do by day when there are no matinees? If you are willing to embrace your inner tourist, you can see the city ― well, a specific section of Midtown ― aboard an amusing, if kitschy, tour bus known simply as The Ride. And between now and Dec. 30, you can be a part of the seasonal Holiday Edition.
Picture an oversized bus with three rows of stadium-style seating running the length of the vehicle, facing a wall of picture windows looking out on the drama known as New York City. Or more often than not, it’s a comedy. And on The Ride, it can be a musical.
Our on-board hosts for the 4.2-mile loop between 42nd and 57th Streets are a couple of glib performers (Stuart and Julie on my trip) who narrate the ride, tossing out historical factoids ― accurate and otherwise ― as well as New York trivia questions. The Ride itself is a disembodied mechanical voice, not unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000 computer, which displays tour tidbits on the bus’s numerous video screens.
Also aimed to test our awareness of the city is the game “New Yorker or tourist?,” in which we are asked to guess the residency status of people on the street. (Hint: If they are smiling or making eye contact, they are tourists.)
At several spots along the route, however, The Ride has planted cast members who, when spotted by the passengers, break out into song and/or dance ― such as swing, hip hop, tap and ballet. Another way to tell a New Yorker is that he will ignore such musical spontaneity as if it were the most natural occurrence in the world.
The shamelessness of the passengers is frequently tested by mandatory group waves at the pedestrians and by the Ride’s finale, a karaoke sing-along to New York, New York.
THE RIDE, HOLIDAY EDITION. Embarking from 42nd St. and 8th Ave., New York. Through Sunday, Dec. 30. Tickets: $74. Call: (866) 299-9682.