Not Quite a Month, but Three Hours

I generally make it a point not to review the mainstage shows at Marymount Manhattan College. Too many politics attached. Too many professors involved. But when one comes along that makes an impression on me the way A Month in the Country did, I have to sing its praises. That’s what this website is for, after all!

The proper place to start is probably the play itself, by Ivan Turgenev in a translation by Brian Friel. It’s a three-hour Russian piece labeled as a “comedy.” As we all may be well-aware, those Russians have a funny definition of the word “comedy,” but let that rest. The last time MMC saw a three-hour Russian comedy it was the raucous Inspector General two years ago. Inspector received a mixed reaction from the students and faculty, though I’m probably not the best person to comment on the quality of the show, as I worked on the production. A woman sitting outside the theatre asked me before we went in if I thought A Month in the Country would be anything like The Inspector General. No matter anyone’s opinion of one or the other, the answer to that is decidedly: no. A Month in the Country could be closer compared to a Neil Simon family drama. The play deals with Natalya Petrovna (Stephanie Card) who is torn between the man she loves, old friend Michel Rakitin (William Farrell), and the man she lusts after, her son’s tutor Aleksey Balyayev (Nicholas Vorderman), and keep it all a secret from her husband Arkady (Taylor Miller). The complication begins—haha—when it seems there is a potential rival for Aleksey’s affections: Natalya’s 17-year-old ward Vera (Melissa Benoist). All eyes are on Natalya as she navigates between the men in her life while keeping her own eye on Vera.

But, to the production. Rob Dutiel’s stained-glass window set suggests that the family within the house is as fragile as the glass surrounding them, even the powerhouse Natalya, who may not be as strong as she seems. Kyle McGahan’s lighting perfectly compliments Dutiel’s sets, while adding to the atmosphere of the Russian countryside. Kirche Leigh Zeile’s costumes, while not what any of us would wear during the summertime, perfectly evoke the lightness of a depressing Russian comedy. And, to top it off, the fluid staging of the actors by director Lisa Rothe makes this production one of the best I’ve seen on Marymount Manhattan College’s stage.

There are those of us who have followed Stephanie Card’s performances since freshman year, and I’m sure those who have been following even longer. Still, how could anyone be prepared for the whirlwind performance she gave when Hurricane Natalya swept in? Card’s Natalya could give The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson a run for her money in a role portrayed on the professional stage by the likes of Helen Mirren and Harriet Harris. She gives us a woman who will sever any and all ties to get what she wants in the moment, which of course will leave her with very little in the end, and we follow every step and hang on every word. She is a force to be reckoned with and, eventually, the cause of her own downfall. (I told you those Russians had weird ideas concerning “comedy.”)

Of the many people who share the stage—which Card rarely leaves—three stand out the most, both in terms of their relationship to Natalya, and their ability to hold their own against her. William Farrell has been seen many times on the Marymount stage in both mainstage and student directed productions. It would seem almost as if all of his training and experience thus far has lead him directly to this production in which he must stand up to the force of nature which is Card’s Natalya. Playing the rival for Natalya’s affections, Nick Vorderman offers a delightfully double-handed performance as Aleksey Balyayev—at ease with the young Vera, and uncomfortable around the brazen Natalya. His shift in the second act is a twist in the plot, but a natural progression from whence he came.

Still, the break-out performance of the year would have to be Melissa Benoist, a freshman at MMC, as the 17-year-old Vera, who gives us a genuinely touching scene opposite Ms. Card in the first act, and a triumphantly defiant scene in the second. Her shift from youthful curiosity to cynical maturity, keeping in mind that this is within the span of a month, is heartbreaking. (Remember about those Russians and the word “comedy”?)

There are some characters on hand to remind us that through all of the bleak Russian pathos, this is still a comedy. This mainly comes from Chip Rodgers as the malapropping German tutor Herr Shaaf, Seth James as the quack doctor Shpigelsky, and Tyler Neale as the Russian 40-year-old Virgin Bolshintsov.

The rest of the cast does an admirable job, with surprising dramatic turns from two otherwise comical characters in the second act. Taylor Miller as Arkady, the bumbling husband of Natalya, comes out with great sympathy in a lovely scene opposite Antoinette Henry playing his mother, a woman who’s never afraid to speak her mind. This may be the only scene in the play where no one is lying or manipulating, and the two actors play it with heartfelt sincerity.

And even though it seems like just about everyone loses out by the end of A Month in the Country, the final moment gives us Tyler Neale with a triumphant yet ridiculous grin, reminding us that we are supposed to laugh at the events of the evening. It’s a comedy.

A Month in the Country is no longer running.

Little Women and Twenty-five Strangers

After a whirlwind weekend of theatre, I'm back to report on two shows which are running for one more weekend each.

The non-equity national tour of Little Women has found its way to its final stop in Flushing, Queens. There are reasons to go see it and reasons not to waste the time and money going all the way out to Flushing. If you caught the play on Broadway in its initial 2005 run starring Sutton Foster, you probably don't need to go back again. If you didn't and you're a big fan of Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, this is a good way to see the characters come passionately and humorously to musical life. If you have children and would like to introduce them to the theatre, this is a well-done production of a fairly tight show with some nice tunes for humming.

Finally, if you want to be able to say you saw Paige Faure in an astonishing star-turn before she was famous (and I don't think you'll have very long to say that), then it's definitely worth shelling out the thirty bucks and hopping on the 7 train. Faure handles the lead role of Jo March with grace and poise, even throughout the rambunctious shenanigans that characterize the role. Her progression through the three-years that the play takes place move seemlessly from go-getter adolescent to mature young woman, always accented by the ever-present wit. And when she sings, you can be sure that if there was anyone who should fill a role written for Sutton Foster, this is the performer. Other stand-out performances include Tabatha Skanes very funny and silver-voiced Amy, Stephen Lukas's heartfelt and sincere Laurie, and Jodi Lynne Sylvester's hilarious double-take as Aunt March and Mrs. Kirk.

On the island, Ten Grand Productions has brought award-winning playwright Matthew Fotis's play A Year in the Life of Twenty-five Strangers Living in a City by the Lake to the Algonquin Theatre for its New York premiere. Over the course of a year (one month per scene) twenty-five people who may have more in common than they'd think live out their lives, trying to make it from one New Year's party to the next. The play was a finalist for the 2005 Theatre Publicus Award for Dramatic Literature. It's an ambitious idea and a mostly admirable execution, though there are scenes where it feels like some characters get let out too soon or let off too easy. Still, the production is tightly directed by Shaun Colledge, who defied the original intent of the playwright by actually casting twenty-five actors where the script originally called for double- and triple-casting.

Colledge's staging has the cast entering for completely visable scene changes--the only times during the play when everyone is onstage together--giving us a reminder of the relationships between the characters, as well as foreshadowing things to come between characters we've not yet seen. This makes a play which could easily feel like a series of unrelated vignettes a cohesive whole.

Twenty-five actors in a play leaves room for many stand-out performances. Jennifer Bishop and Ben Rosenblatt offer an almost sickeningly sweet portrait of the youngest characters in the play, a pair of high school graduates in August going in different directions for college. Though the scene deals with honest emotions and real concerns, the end leaves us with a rather naive optimism that can make us feel that even if they do stick together and get married, they may end up like the June couple (David Stadler and Michele Rafic) trying to rekindle and long-since-gone flame in Paris. Still, Bishop and Rosenblatt's performances make you believe it can work, just as much as Stadler and Rafic's performances make you wish it could have been better.

November brings us performances by Chloe Cahill and Josh Hurley in a scene that deserves to be a little longer and explore the characters a little more. Both actors give honest performances that make us care about the people they embody, though the scene gives us little more than a moment of conflict and nothing for the audience to discover about the character or for the characters to discover about themselves. Aside from adding to the talley (for those keeping count of who's related to whom and in what way) the scene provides little insight or purpose in the play. It's the actors in the scene who make us care, and make us want to know more about the characters.

Other notable performances come from Edward Chin-Lyn, who somehow makes pigeons fascinating, Taylor Baugh, who gives a funny and honest portrait of everyone's mother, and Matthew Murumba, with a monologue that is certain to start popping up in auditions very soon.

If you have the time and money and wish to spend your weekend with some fascinating people doing fascinating things, take a look at Little Women and A Year in the Life of Twenty-five Strangers Living in a City by the Lake.

Little Women plays at Queens Theatre in the Park (www.queenstheatre.com) and A Year in the Life of Twenty-five Strangers Living in a City by the Lake plays at The Algonquin Theatre (www.tengrand.org). Both close on May 18th.

Five Flights Does it Again

So, did you hear that Andy and Allison got married?

The Five Flights Theater Company, who last brought us an in-depth examination of the art of growing up with their debut Don’t Step on the Cracks, have chosen for the subject of their newest play another age-old institution: marriage.

The new show is called You Are Cordially Invited to the Wedding of Andrew Pepperidge and Allison Short and everyone is present for the wedding: Allison’s brother and sister, Josh (Jake Bartush) and Emma (Kacy Rice), Andy’s best high school friends Nick (Adam Delia) and Ben (Nick Hepsoe), Nick’s girlfriend Julia (Sara Lukasiewicz), Ben’s ex-girlfriend Audrey (Carlyn Kautz), old friends Chris-who-is-now-Narhari (Will Lacker) and Liz (Laurel Casillo), and college buddies Casey (Eruck Tait) and party-planner Beth (Claire McGinley). The event is directed by Alli Taylor and stage managed by Adam Chanler-Berat, both founding members of the Five Flights Theater Company. When everyone gathers for the wedding, the old values clash with the new ideals, and some of the old friends clash with the old.

In comparison, You Are Cordially Invited to the Wedding of Andrew Pepperidge and Allison Short may seem like a complete opposite from their last show, but there are themes that have carried over. Cordially Invited also tackles the subject of growing up and dealing with the twists life can send you, but this time through the lens of one couple of friends tying the knot.

A note in the program states, “No matter how mature you think you've gotten, you're never quite ready for the first time one of your friends tells you they're about to get married.” This is the sentiment that rings true for the majority of the characters in the play. It would seem that no one is truly ready for Andy and Allison to get married, so how do those gathered at the reception deal with it? This is often shown through monologues (beautifully lit by Marymount Manhattan College senior Lisa Hufnagel) during which character toast the bride and groom. Each character has a different opinion on their friends’ nuptials and how they take it out on themselves and each other makes for compelling and honest drama. The more we see ourselves in each of the characters, the more we can laugh and cry at the events of the evening.

I was impressed by the fluidity of the writing. For those of you unfamiliar with the Five Flights Theater Company, let me take this opportunity to explain. Five Flights is made up of twelve company members, all recent or upcoming graduates of Marymount Manhattan College. In their last endeavor, they came together on a theme, separated to write scenes and sketches, then came back together to create a show. With Cordially Invited, the company members worked together creating characters around the performers and collaborating on the script.

The product is an organic theatre piece that is marked with the sensibilities of not one playwright, but several. And yet, there’s no feel of “too many cooks” with their work. The multiple perspectives add up to make a final product that is thoughtful and very real, especially for those of us who have friends who are recently engaged or married.

Cordially Invited is a work in progress. It is listed as such in the program. And it definitely is. There is room for improvement. There are scenes that could be tighter, exposition that could be clearer and a few general tweaks to be made. But the show has obviously gone through a lot of work already. The original script, so I’ve been told, clocked in at three and a half hours. The current production came down at just over an hour.

Five Flights has definitely developed a sense of honesty and a style that easily makes them one of the most exciting things to happen to New York theatre in recent years. They’re hardly the first to try to make theatre that speaks to a generation, but they’re doing the best that I’ve seen in a while. Sorry for the superlatives, but it’s true. As company member Jake Bartush put it, “It’s about growing up and coming to terms with our lack of understanding.”

Where Don’t Step on the Cracks got Five Flights noticed for doing brave, new theatre, Cordially Invited solidifies them as a voice in the theatre that will be around for some time. Look forward to their upcoming show coming this September.


You Are Cordially Invited to the Wedding of Andrew Pepperidge and Allison Short is no longer running.