Off The Radar

I am often at numerous readings and short fringe theatre runs.  These things come and go and play to a very small audience, yet make up a rich part of the New York theatre scene.  Here's two interesting things seen recently:

Chimes

It has been six years since the Summer Play Festival (SPF) began with an ambitious eighteen plays, a number which has been whittled down to eight for 2009.  This number much more manageable, since unlike other New York theatre festivals, SPF produces all the plays from scratch––design work and all.  The past two years SPF has been housed at the Public Theatre and friend Andy Phelan was starring in a very good play by Kevin Christopher Snipes called CHIMES.  The title refers to the name of a club of teens at an all boys school in Massachusetts who love their Shakespeare.  This is a kind of memory play where older actors watch their younger selves and relive cherished experiences––some good, some bad, all worth it.  During the course of a series of flashbacks, the older characters purge themselves of their demons.  It might not have been necessary to even bother with the older characters, for the coming of age story was interesting enough.  Still, the older characters, namely Nick Ross (Richard Bekins as the older version and Andy Phelan as the younger), are withholding something and so as we get each episode from the past, a little more is revealed until we get the full story––adding a level of suspense.  The play is set just before World War II., but in these modern times, the revelation that two of the boys fall in love is almost expected––the play was heading there from the beginning.  The slight surprise is that it is not the coupling one might expect after all.  

However, a much bigger issue was more striking.  One of the professors finds the famous speech from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (“If you prick us do we not bleed?”), morally objectionable because he is anti-Semitic.  The leader of the boys (played beautifully by Jeff Ward), argues that the speech is the center and purpose of the entire play and that it must be said.  He goes on to give the speech in a heated delivery and it was stirring.  The bigoted egomaniac of a professor firmly orders that the speech will be cut.  So, the boy plots to sneak the speech back in opening night, facing expulsion from the school.  What is really moving about CHIMES is the way the teens are so stuck under the rule of their elders.  These are intelligent young men, being taught by intolerant adults who hold all the power of their existence.  It is nearly impossible for the boys to fight against the institution they are jailed by and so, in the end they do not succeed.  Something is being said here about an older generation’s inability to actually do what is best for their children, which in this case is to not allow them to develop their own humanity.  This all sounds pretty rough, but the play was filled with humor and the joy of camaraderie, which went a long way to balance out the horrible plight of the boys and the negative ramifications it brought to their adult lives.  

Also featured as the teen cast was Brian Charles Johnson as Birdie, who is an original cast member of SPRING AWAKENING, and a gregarious and entertaining performance by Elan Moss-Bachrach as Vivian Porter.  The adults were all perfectly suited to their roles, the older versions of the boys looking quite like their young counterparts, with John O’Creagh as older Birdie and Graeme Malcom and Peter Van Wagner as the faculty. Andy Phelan continues his career as a teenager several years past his own ten year class reunion, but he is perpetually young and astonishingly believable as a seventeen year old to this day.  He was ideal for the role and his maturity as an actor only brought a depth of character that it might not otherwise have had.  Truth be told, Andy has played this character many times and it is like rolling out of bed for him––literally in this case.  Here’s hoping he gets to graduate from high school before he’s forty.  

The photo is of Andy made for a prop in a period play of my creation, A TASTE OF HEAVEN, which played the NYC Fringe Festival in 2003.  He pretty much looks exactly the same today.

999 B.C.

On assignment for MTI, I attended a reading of a new musical at the York Theatre Company based on the bible story of Jonah and the whale.  The York will present up to forty readings a year, choosing a lucky few for their regular season of full productions.  At this beginning stage, it is hard to know what will become of 999 B.C., for it doesn’t spring forth and grab you, yet it is generally entertaining and the score is bouncy and fun.  The show depends on the general humor that comes from an audience knowing they are seeing a biblical tale and then getting a campy send up of the traditional story, full of out of place modernisms and a jazz score that just doesn’t fit into the biblical box.  Bob Larimer has fashioned the book and lyrics using 1940s jazz standards by Neal Hefti, Ernest Wilkins, Charlie Parker and others.  The songs are the best element, with a so-so book, containing only a few really brilliant jokes, but an otherwise tongue-in-cheek diversion of the original tale.  If you aren’t up on your bible stories, this is the one that reminds you of PINOCCHIO, for when Jonah denies God’s instructions, he is fed to a whale.  999 B.C. makes quite a lot out of the surrounding plot of this main event, but the details of the original story are scant.  Mostly, the story of Jonah is a jumping off place for fun, but I’m not sure what we’re supposed to gain by the shenanigans.  A full staging might complete the experience and turn the whole thing into a kind of cousin to SPAMALOT.

The reading was filled with some wonderful performances.  Todd Buonopane as Philo, the narrator and lead comic of the piece, was delightful in his general exuberance and joy.  Cole Burden made Jonah a working class romantic leading man and sang well alongside the naturally funny Keven Reed as his sidekick Joel.  The rest of the cast turned in energetic performances with strong singing, but the youngest of the cast, Jacob Pinion, stood out, playing multiple little roles with a fresh and funny character every time.  He was a hoot and the real comic genius of the production.  It wasn’t that his material was particularly funny––he made it so.  Young Mr. Pinion is only just out of NYU.  Watch for his name, for I bet that he will emerge into a major talent.