Our staff writers take a look at the performances and experiences
that have made this season of Off-Off Broadway theater memorable.
Please click on the show titles to look back at the production's
archived review.
Mitch
Montgomery: My most memorable experience Off-Off-Broadway
this year occurred the week that I saw
"The Snow Hen" at the Charlie Pineapple Theater.
It was the week of the blizzard, just after Valentine's
Day, when I first risked the trip out to Brooklyn. I can
distinctly remember walking down the completely vacant streets
with snow piled up beside me. It actually took two attempts
for me to see the show—we critics are fallible, it
turns out—because the first time I misread the curtain
time in the press rep's e-mail.
The Snow Hen
The second trip out to Williamsburg was
two days later, and the snow had melted. Still, the idea
of frost seemed to cling to the streets and the potential
energy in the air. After wandering through this arresting
environment, I stepped into the theater at around 7:40.
As 8 p.m. approached, I became aware that no one else had
shown up. I was alone, isolated in this theater. Finally,
the gentleman working the box office came over to me at
five till 8 and asked what I wanted to do. Would it make
me uncomfortable if no one else was in the audience? Would
I like to make one more trip out to the Charlie Pineapple?
I told him that I would love to see this show alone, and
I meant it. I was actually disappointed when four other
people showed up. The Snow Hen was the best thing I saw
all season, and the actual process of seeing it put me in
the perfect mood to absorb its haunting account of loneliness
at the end of the world.
Les
Hunter: The two playwrights whom I was most impressed
with this year Off-Off Broadway are Rinne Groff and Mat
Smart. Groff's piece, "What
Then," at the Ohio Theater was innovative, funny,
and disturbing all at once. It seamlessly blended the genres
of science fiction and domestic comedy to create a glimpse
of a dystopian future whose social decay is mirrored by
the breakdown of family structure. These forces work to
create something that feels familiar but new.
What Then
Though I did not review it for offoffonline,
I was lucky enough to see Smart's piece at the Tank, "Music
for a High Ceiling," a very short snippet of a play
that is achingly eloquent. The piece took the form of a
professorial lecture that used evocative music and pitch-perfect
characterization.
William
Cordeiro: Looking back over the year, I find
my taste tends toward revivals of classics that take a dark
turn and challenging, new experimental shows. Basically,
I like my theater smart and grim. How appropriate, then,
that two of my favorite playwrights this year were Mat Smart
and David Grimm.
Smart's "Music for a High Ceiling," a one-act
in an impressive night of new playwriting titled "Couchworks,"
and his full-length, "The
Debate Plays," both displayed a deft humor that
demonstrated his sure sense of the hip, downtown zeitgeist.
But my favorite scene by Smart may have been one he audaciously
wrote without dialogue, in which the actors lip-sync
a pop song while performing a slow-motion Old West shootout.
If Smart proved that less is often more, Grimm's sex farce
extravaganza, "Measure
for Pleasure," proved that more can be more too.
Chock-full of bawdy puns and pungent wit, it exulted in
its sheer high camp (with a showstopping performance by
actor Euan Morton playing dual roles). Kiran Rikhye's verse
play, "Stage
Kiss," mined a similar vein of camp that likewise
played wittily with the conventions of past theatrical traditions.
Both plays managed to find some meaningfully new things
to say about that age-old topic, love.
Stage Kiss
My favorite revival this year was "The
Revenger's Tragedy" by the wonderful Red Bull Theater
company. With great performances from the whole cast, fabulous
costumes, and bloodcurdling guts and gore, director Jesse
Berger did a superb job bringing this grizzly Jacobean masterpiece
back to life—and death.
The hardest-working man Off-Off-Broadway, though, has to
be theater director Michael Horn of the Michael
Chekhov Theater Company, who is attempting to produce
all 45 of Sam Shepard's plays at the new Big Little Theater
in the span of one year. All of the plays I've seen in the
Sam Shepard Festival have minimal but high-quality production
values—a testament to Horn's tireless efforts.
My favorite choreography this year was by Lynn Brown and
Lynn Marie Ruse in the last act of their dance theater work
"Clever
Hans." A deliberately awkward dance used rocks,
pebbles, and garbage cans to produce an effect that was
painful, beautiful, and funny all at once.
As for design elements, the National Theater of the United
States of America's maximal set of three different stages,
partially constructed during the performance of "ABSN:
RJAB," challenged its audiences to consider how
theater itself was constructed.
Peter Ksander's set design for the spectacular "The
Sewers"—still playing at the Ontological-Hysteric
Theater—blew me away: an entire fallout shelter room
hovers a few feet off the ground. Lighting designer Miranda
K. Hardy also should be give credit too, since every nook
and cranny of Ksander's set is illuminated with eerie secrets.
"The Sewers," in fact, is probably both the grimmest
and smartest play this year.
Sarah
Bolson: This season,
I was once again reminded how truly diverse Off-Off Broadway
is. The shows I reviewed—a small revival of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning
"Proof,"
an irreverent and raunchy version of "A
Christmas Carol," and a sketch comedy about the
perils of dating in New York, to name a few—could
not have been more different. But each of these productions,
as well as the other ones that I saw, captured what makes
the Off-Off Broadway experience enriching year after year.
You get to bear witness as a group of people who are utterly
devoted to the theater—why else work Off-Off Broadway?—create
something they are passionate about. As any Off-Off Broadway
theatergoer or reviewer can attest, this often comes with
mixed results at best. But no matter how many misguided
productions I sit through, I still get excited by the honesty
and rawness of the work being performed by this community.
Proof
Amy
Krivohlavek: Produced by Visible Theater, Sam
Forman's "Krankenhaus
Blues" is a surrealist riff on a most unlikely
mix: disability, genocide, and show business. Three brilliant
actors— Christine Bruno, Bill Green, and especially
Joe Sims— offered thrillingly raw and human performances
that have stuck with me ever since, and Donna Mitchell's
minimalist staging smartly kept our attention focused on
them. According to Visible Theater's founder and artistic
director, Krista Smith, the show will get a new life this
fall when it is staged Oct. 5-Nov. 5 at the Abingdon Theater
Arts Complex. So if you missed it last year, don't miss
it this time around.
Megan Lawrence gave a thrilling performance
of a much different ilk in last fall's "Monica!
The Musical," where she showed off impeccable comic
timing as the intelligent (and very pissed off) Hillary
Clinton. She brought an exciting edge to this rather lightweight
show (an entry in the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival),
and after this strong beginning, she went on to play Gladys
in the Broadway revival of "The Pajama Game,"
a tart, spunky performance that earned her a much-deserved
Tony Award nomination.
Monica The Musical
The band GrooveLily could also be defined
as spunky, and its members brought their holiday-themed
musical "Striking
12" to New York last December. The three musician/actors,
Valerie Vigoda (electric violin), Glen Lewin (drums), and
Brendan Milburn (keyboards), offered their own unique brand
of storytelling, giving Hans Christian Andersen's "The
Little Match Girl" a modern spin with a fresh, contemporary
sound in a near-magical staging by Ted Sperling. And there's
good news: this captivating show will likely return this
holiday season (venue to be announced).
Doug
Strassler: One of the greatest pleasures of the
season was the production of "To
Nineveh" by Working Man's Clothes, a really thoughtful
parable. I'm not the biggest fan of religious allegory,
but they managed to pull off that show with such aplomb
that it had me thinking for days afterward, without realizing
while watching it how much food for thought there really
was. I've found that's customary for this production company.
To Nineveh
Sean
Michael O'Donnell: The most intriguing part of
the 2005-2006 season was the resurgence and reinvention
of Ibsen. Les Freres Corbusier brought Elizabeth Meriwether's
divine Ibsen spoof "Heddatron"
to the HERE Arts Center. A brilliant and campy send-up of
"Hedda Gabler," it featured a fantastic Carolyn Baeumler
along with a cast of robots. Equal parts wry observation,
social commentary, and literary criticism, "Heddatron" was
a delirious adventure and the most original show of the
past season.
Heddatron
Wakka Wakka Productions also took on Ibsen
with the unique and imaginative "The
Death of Little Ibsen," a fascinating and hilarious
deconstruction of the famed Norwegian playwright's life.
"Little Ibsen" and its cast of puppets took the audience
on an insightful journey into the bizarre world of Ibsen's
mind. It also showcased the strengths of an exceptionally
talented and dedicated theater group. Both shows were brilliant
in their conception and fearless in their execution.
Kimberly
Patterson: One memorable show that I had the
pleasure of reviewing was Lake Simons and John Dyer’s
interpretation of "Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland" at HERE. Their production
contained music and puppets, and used both in creative ways.
Often, puppeteers manipulated the actress portraying Alice
as if she were yet another (nonhuman) prop. They certainly
made me think about how performers can use objects and the
space around them.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I also enjoyed several different productions
of Shakespearean drama this season: Reduxion Theater Company’s
"Hamlet"
and The American Globe Theater’s "The
Merchant of Venice". These two companies put on
straightforward versions of these plays, instead of modernizing
them or offering any sort of experimental staging. What
both productions did very well was internalize the Elizabethan
language so that the dialogue was very clear and the characters’
actions well-motivated and plausible. Even though the shows
appeared traditional, they still felt fresh and contemporary.
Lauren
Snyder:
As a theater critic, one tends to fall into that terrible
trap of "expectations." When it comes to Off-Off
Broadway, however, this can actually be a good thing. One
expects the budget to be low, the sets and costumes to be
minimal, and the Shakespearean adaptations to be straightforward
- so when any of these elements are particularly strong,
the reviewer is pleasantly surprised.
Dead City
This year, two very different shows made
a lasting impression by challenging my ideas of what a downtown
show looks like, and what a non-Equity Shakespeare production
sounds like. Sheila Callaghan's "Dead
City" used a combination of moving walls and soft-focus
video projections to produce a New York City of startling
power and darkness, which complemented the show's lyrical
script and intense performances. William Shakespeare's "Twelfth
Night" was transformed by alcohol and a group of bawdy
twenty-somethings into "Twelfth
Night: The Drinking Game", a hilarious exercise
in stimulating the brain cells that weren't being killed
off by liquor. Both shows managed to defy my expectations
in unique ways, and both renewed my faith in the creativity
and passion that exists Off-Off Broadway.
Antoinette
Nwandu: My season was highlighted by something
old and something new as two artists at opposite ends of
their careers made impressions that will not soon be forgotten.
We'll start with the new: In the play "The
Mistakes Madeline Made", the promising young playwright,
Elizabeth Meriwether, cooked up a love story set in a small
basement office that existed solely to run the day-to-day
functions of an extremely wealthy couple. Not only was the
hyper-banality of the office setting pitch-perfect (the
dramatic struggle involved individually wrapped handi-wipes),
but the oddball attraction between the main character, an
apathetic girl mourning the loss of her brother, and her
quirky (to put it mildly) officemate was refreshing and
genuine.
The Mistakes Madeline Made
The second great--seeing La MaMa's recent
production of "King
Lear"--really made me appreciate the years of training
that go into the craft of acting. In 1956 Alvin Epstein
played the fool to Orson Welles' Lear, and though the production
was critically a disaster (by opening night Welles had sprained
both ankles and had to reblock the entire show with Lear
in a wheelchair), Epstein went on to play Lucky in the premier
of Waiting for Godot. And now, exactly forty years later,
Epstein, at 81, played Lear as a petulant and pugnacious
old fool. His Lear was the result of a lifetime on the stage
and a wonderful tribute to one of Shakespeare's most empathetic
characters.
Jill
Jichetti: Most Creative
Use of Pre-Packaged Snack Foods
Belly
Off the Leesh’s production of Julie
Tortorici’s "Belly"
featured Tortorici as Frannie, an obsessive-compulsive housewife
who, despite her obvious quirks, is not much different from
the rest of us. Though fearful of leaving the safety of
her own home, Frannie welcomed the audience into her living
room and into her confidence. Effectively utilizing audience
interaction is no easy feat, even in a small theater, but
Tortorici’s warmth was contagious. Once she enlisted
the help of another Hostess—cupcakes for everyone!—it
seemed that none in the house could refuse her charm. With
assistance from director Alicia Arinella, Frannie had us
all eating out the palm of her hand—literally and
figuratively.
Marlon
Hurt : As funny
as it might sound, the most significant moment of my recent
time as a critic was also my first true—albeit mildly—negative
experience. I had the opportunity to review Michael Smith’s
"Trouble"
at Theater for the New City this past January. The prospect
had me more excited than usual because of Smith’s
near iconic stature in the Off-Off-Broadway community; his
excellent reviewing for The Village Voice in the
1950’s and ‘60’s single-handedly put Off-Off-Broadway
on the cultural map at a time when no other critics would
so much as sniff in the direction of such landmark OOB venues
as LaMama or Caffe Cino.
"Trouble"
is a kind of roman a clef: the adventures of Smith’s
protagonist, Tess Byerson, are a thinly veiled retelling
of the exploits of Bess Myerson, a Bronx native and the
first Jewish Miss America (1945). Smith, however, eschews
her glory years in favor of her later, more tabloid-friendly
escapades, when she was embroiled in corruption and shoplifting
charges, even as she hobnobbed with New York’s artistic
and political nobility.
The atmosphere in the theater was positively charged with
history. Playwrights, actors, and directors from OOB’s
infancy were in attendance, as was Smith himself, whom I
had the great pleasure of meeting.
My review was less positively charged. I didn’t find
the evening offensively sub par, but neither was it gripping.
The play was, in short, forgettably mediocre, and I went
to work on my review with the intention of sliding the knife
in as gently as possible.
One minor point I made, however, read less gently than I
intended, or so Smith informed me in an email exchange after
the review was published. His view was not without merit,
though I had support for my opinion in the major theme of
the play itself. What struck me, however, was that we were
having a discussion at all. OOB has always counted as one
of its supreme virtues the shared community of its participants.
There may be legends but there are no elites. Smith took
issue with one of my criticisms and shared it with me, and
though I didn’t necessarily agree with his objection,
I was moved by the idea that the father of OOB criticism—on
whom my job is essentially modeled—didn’t think
twice about corresponding with a complete unknown.
Outside of Off-Off-Broadway, how many other fields can boast
that their luminaries, no matter how storied, are never
less than their peers?
Adrienne
Cea : This
season I was most impressed with the work of Manhattan Children's
Theatre; a downtown based company whose mission is to provide
affordable and high quality performances for children and
their families. With their 2005-2006 season featuring, "Sideways
Stories At Wayside School", "Brave
Irene", "Snow Maiden", "The
Last Of The Dragons", and "Jack
and The Beanstalk", Artistic director, Bruce Merrill,
and Executive Director, Laura Stevens, consistently met
their objective. Their clever, unique and intelligent shows
proved that when children's theatre is done right it can
appeal to more than just children.
Sideways Stories At Wayside School
Deidre
McFadyen: Two serious
dramas about family and mental illness left the most lasting
impression on me over the past year of reviewing Off-Off
Broadway theater.
Playwright Barbara Hammond mined her own
parents’ history to create "Norman
and Beatrice: A Marriage in Two Acts", which was
mounted by Synapse Productions at the Connelly Theater in
the East Village in April. In its compelling first act,
this modest play shows a wife gamely trying to maintain
a veneer of normalcy while managing the erratic behavior
of her husband, who suffers from dementia. The New Group’s
"Jayson
with a Y", staged at the Lion Theater on Theater
Row in June, captures the anguish of two sisters as they
struggle to deal with their autistic nephew following his
mother’s sudden death.
Norman and Beatrice: A Marriage in Two Acts
Giving both plays such deep resonance was
their Pointillist depiction of these complex mental disorders
and compelling acting by Graeme Malcolm as the elderly Norman
and Miles Purinton as 13-year-old Jayson.
