Aspen Santa Fe Ballet

At The Joyce Theater, that premier venue for visiting dance companies, was the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet with a brand new piece, “Uneven.” Included in the program were two other pieces from the company’s repertory, “Stamping Ground” and “Red Sweet.” More modern dance than traditional ballet, this company formed in Colorado by Bebe Schweppe in 1996 and shared with Santa Fe (an unusual split residence arrangement) has risen to make annual visits in New York with its small ensemble of ten. “Uneven,” choreographed by Cayetano Soto, was a series of patterns and body contortions set to the live cello playing of Kimberly Patterson. The piece was about twenty minutes and the following intermission was just as long. When finally the curtain went up on “Stamping Ground,” choreographed by Jiri Kylián, the dancers emerged one by one to move through silence. As they joined each other they found synchronization without music or a beat to guide them. The series of animal-like movements began to grow tiresome until drumming came in to give the dance an exciting finish. “Stamping Ground” seemed like organized improvisation and felt like the kind of experimentation typical of young companies. Since the piece is from 1983, this makes sense. “Red Sweet,” Jorma Elo’s piece from 2008 was an involved and exciting dance, displaying the full range of talents of these seemingly super human dancers. Here were the turns, leaps and lifts of the classical ballet mixed with the company’s modern dance approach all set to the lively music of Vivaldi and Biber. I could have used an entire evening of that exhilarating stuff. In the end I realized (yet again), that the small modern ballet company on a bare stage with dancers in the simplest of black and white leotards just doesn’t do it for me. I long for the days of the Ballet Russes (which of course is before our time) and wonder why it is so rare to see that kind of dynamic and theatrical endeavor. Money is the main reason, but even for those companies that have the funds, it is still rare to see that kind of pioneering spirit that combines experimentation with new forms mixed with the art of design and a guiding theme that says something about humanity. This is not to say that small companies have not created ambitious and highly theatrical works on a small budget––they have, but we don’t see it too often. The easiest road is movement for movement’s sake and I have always looked for something more connected to human emotions than that––body mechanics alone are not enough.

The Joyce Theatre is another great example in New York of an old movie theater repurposed for improved use. This building was originally the Elgin Theatre of 1942. In the 1970s when the Elgin was reduced to triple X films, the neighborhood pressured for the theater’s closure by 1978. In the 1980s the theater was gutted to be turned into the current dance venue, though the original Moderne facade and marquee was restored.

CHICAGO 15 Years In

Bianca Marroquin

I lucked into a free ticket to CHICAGO, but then so many others did too. This performance was full of fans who won free tickets on Facebook. I did not win my ticket on Facebook, but rather someone else did and it was handed off to me, but there I was. I had seen the show twice on the road in Sacramento about twelve years ago and outside of the movie, haven’t thought about the show since. In fact, I would sometimes walk by the Ambassador Theatre and be re-surprised that CHICAGO was still running. This is quite an amazing success story when you consider this is a revival of a show that ran only two years the first time out. This production started as a City Center Encores! concert and is more or less exactly the same as that concert production with the lines memorized. The show is produced in the simplest way and yet it is as chic as a late 1990’s Vogue photo spread––a look that still holds up as sexy. The whole show holds up, even without a star stuck in to boost ticket sales. The low maintanence of the production accounts for some of its longevity.

Right now there is “nobody” in it. There is, however, a cast of talented people, most of whom have been in and out of the show for years––on the tour, Broadway and playing it in London. Bianca Marroquin as Roxy comes from the Mexico production originally and Leigh Zimmerman as Velma was in the opening night cast as “Kitty.” Zimmerman is long and fierce, is a beautiful dancer of the Fosse style and can really belt out her numbers. It took me a bit to warm up to Marroquin, but eventually found her to be quite clever and delighted in the way she found new original ways to deliver the old lines. Although she is short of stature, Marroquin kept up with Zimmerman all the way with high kicks and tremendous energy. Colman Domingo, lately from SCOTTSBORO BOYS, has taken over Billy Flynn. He may not be inspired, but he keeps the entertainment going. LaVon Fisher-Wilson tears it up as “Mama” Mortan and R. Lowe’s drag soprano is truly amazing for Mary Sunshine. The show is in top form, though it doesn’t seem nearly as fresh and exciting as it did a decade ago. A few of the long term chorus boys have put on a few pounds and are doughier than their revealing costumes allow. As a group, the chorus is not nearly as ferocious as they once were.

In the audience of this special performance were past cast members Chita Rivera, Uta Lemper and director Walter Bobbie. Seth Rudeski hosted a pre-show giveaway of prizes and everyone walked away with a t-shirt. This was the kind of performance where the songs received applause at the beginning of the numbers as well as the end. A theater full of devoted fans is not a bad crowd with which to pay another visit to CHICAGO!

Uta Lemper signing autographs outside of CHICAGO

John Gabriel Borkman

Henrik Ibsen’s play from 1896 has been newly translated by Frank McGuinness for Ireland's Abbey Theatre now in residence at BAM’s Harvey Theater. The production stars the always interesting Alan Rickman as Borkman and the fierce Fiona Shaw as his wife Gunhild, which is a pretty good start for a good production. Lindsay Duncan plays the third key role, Miss Ella Rentheim and she is equal to the task of bringing life to this century old play. The production, directed by James Macdonald, has a leisurely paced first act, which could have used a shot of energy and a stronger pace. Then came the second act, which was very lively indeed and contained ferocious scenes from the actors as well as the theatrically created snow storm in which half of it took place. Tom Pye’s set would be a bare stage with just the essential furniture pieces, save for the small mounds of snow surrounding the playing area. On stage it looked a lot like it did outside on the street. One of Gunhild’s early lines is “I am often cold” and this was immediately linked to her environment as well as her personality.

The story surrounds Borkman, who has suffered disgrace from a term in prison for embezzlement, and his wife Gunhild, who is dreaming up how to re-enter society. Both hold their grown son, Erhart (Marty Rae), as the way to restore the family name. Gunhild’s sister, Ella, arrives on the scene with only months to live and wants to find out from Borkman why he gave up true love with her to settle instead for an unhappy marriage to Gunhild. She half raised Erhart and so she would like him to live with her in her final days and take her name so that she will not be the last of her line. Erhart has other ideas and decides that while he is young he is only going to live for happiness and elopes with a divorcée (Cathy Belton)––ruining his family’s hope for social salvation. All through this little story-line there is quite a bit of humor, but by the final scene things become pretty dismal for all.

This was a worthwhile production, but it is only too bad that the first act did not match the variety and electricity of the second.

The Majestic before being saved by BAM

The BAM Harvey Theatre is a fascinating space with entirely uncomfortable seats. It is formerly the Brooklyn Majestic Theatre built in 1906 as a legitimate theatre for plays and musicals. For the first twenty years of its life it was used as an “out of town” tryout house (funny that Brooklyn was ever considered to be “out of town”) and then conversely housed Broadway productions that couldn’t be held over and needed a new home. The theater turned over its program to Vaudeville (one of the houses on the “subway circuit” as it was known in days of yore) and then to movies. In the later years of the 1970s the Majestic was reduced to showing triple X movies and then closed until BAM rescued it. The interior was “restored,” leaving its abandoned theatre character in place. The old Orchestra level was raised to blend into what was the mezzanine level, which is why you walk upstairs to get to the orchestra level now. The current balcony (and old third level) still utilizes the old segregated (and steep) staircase, formerly used for “colored people only.” Uncomfortable though it is, this is a very nice use of an aging theater once on the brink of being demolished.

The Majestic today: Saved as the BAM Harvey Theater

Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark

When I was small I had seen Walt Disney’s Peter Pan and wished out loud that “they” would make a live action version. My mother informed me that “they” had; that an actress named Mary Martin had starred in it on the Broadway stage. I then began dreaming about a time when I could see this live action stage version. When I was in my late teens I came across an LP in a record shop of It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman the Musical and began to salivate. That was a fascination for me––live on stage the characters beforehand only having been in the movies and animated. I finally did see a very good production of “Superman the Musical” at PCPA in Santa Maria and of course have seen Peter Pan on stage many times. When I was twelve I would have loved to be taken to Julie Taymor’s Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, and would have forgiven its flaws as a musical play and reveled in its spectacle of the mere sight of Spiderman spinning webs and flying over the audience. As an adult, I have no choice but to step back and really see this gargantuan, multimillion dollar experience for what it is––not so good. I will go on to say that I was fascinated by the show and delighted by many individual components. However, string those components together and you have a lot of noise, but not much of a play. Is it supposed to be a musical play or simply a concept––an experience? Expectations will have a lot to do with each individual’s reaction, which so far has ranged from “the worst show I ever saw,” to “I loved it.”

Let it be known that I saw the thirtieth preview performance. By this point the show should have been frozen and ready to open next week, but it has been postponed another month due to the well reported accidents as this wild theatrical experiment irons out the kinks. What I have always loved about Julie Taymor is her visual expression on stage. With puppets, masks, theatrical conventions both embraced and broken, she gives us unusual perspectives, pictures, images and characters. Her imagination is not restricted by the stage but opened up. She is both a serious professional who believes she is imparting a profound message and a kid who has the best box of Crayola crayons ever and her most extravagant dreams are still not her limit. What Taymor was able to do with The Lion King so perfectly has not happened for “Spiderman.” For one thing, she does not have a good enough story to tell––at least the way she and Glen Berger have written it along with songs by Bono and The Edge.

The show plays like a staged concept album in the vein of The Who’s Tommy or American Idiot, only the concept album did not come first this time. Bono and The Edge have written songs with appropriate hooks: “Bouncing Off the Walls”, “Rise Above”, “The Boy Falls From the Sky,” which all sound good for a “Spiderman” musical, but the end result is a ballad heavy song cycle with interspersed dialogue to keep a sense of story together. The sound is horrid and so it is impossible to appreciate the lyrics if they are to be appreciated at all. The book, for the first act anyway, follows generally what we know of the story from the film. For some reason a quartet of teens act as narrators, sometimes to clarify the muddle we have just witnessed and sometimes to cover a set change in the old fashioned “in one” convention. There are newer ways to cover a scene change and it could have been possible to tell the story through the characters rather than the children’s theater way of relating transition information. In the next month of previews it would be easy to cut those four teens and find better band-aids to cover the set changes (but sadly four actors would suddenly be out of work).

Reeve Carney and Jennifer Damiano

The character of Spiderman himself is played by every able bodied male in the cast at one point or another and sometimes all at once. This is not a straight forward telling of a story in any way––both a blessing and a problem. Peter Parker is played by the accessible Reeve Carney who is every bit the skinny nerdy teen, but with a cool pop rock voice. I found him to be very likable and enjoyed following his scenes when they came around between the spectacle. Jennifer Damiano is Mary Jane and she has a grounded center that is comforting within the cartoon craziness of the rest of the production. Both Damiano and Carney are real and believable, which was absolutely necessary to make the story work, for the rest of the characters are played to full comic book broadness. Reporters at the Daily Bugle, along with J.J. Jameson (Michael Mulheren) are plucked form The Front Page or some ‘40s film noir. Secretaries are plucked from Mad Men. Teenagers are painted in black and yellow and manipulated like dancers in a stylish music video. The many villains produced are in such fabulous costumes and masks that they are given a fashion show runway on which to show off since they have nothing else to do but look fabulous.

For all the bold images, street dancing, rock sounds and really spectacular flying effects, Act One works fairly well at introducing us to the characters. Peter acquires his powers and learns to use them, gets his job with the news paper, shyly attempts to start up a relationship with Mary Jane, etc. The Green Goblin (Patrick Page) emerges and there is a great flying fight between Spiderman and the Goblin to end the act over the heads of the audience. Act Two, by contrast, loses the story entirely. A new villain is brought forth named Arachne (T.V. Carpio of questionable talents), who is a spider goddess controlling Peter’s destiny, but all the interesting Spiderman flying is mostly over and we are informed of his daring exploits rather than fully seeing them realized. There are long stretches where we don’t see anything of Peter and Mary Jane––the only two characters we actually care about. When we do see them they are suddenly a couple then suddenly engaged. The “I love you” scene was building up through act one, but the declaration is the only pay off we get from these characters and it comes too soon in the second act so that we have nothing left for an ending but to have another actor as Spiderman save Mary Jane from her final peril. The other plot build up is Peter’s coming out as Spiderman, but the scene never happens and yet Mary Jane comes to know this truth by the end of the show. We are robbed of real dramatic scenes between the only two believable flesh and blood characters in the show. Am I wrong to want this? Perhaps the polite cocktail applause that greeted the numbers and the absent standing ovation at the end says something about the lack of humanity in the show. When it is all puppets, masks and noise it might be a sensory overload, but it isn’t moving. Ultimately, that is the expectation of a Broadway show, whether it is Annie Get Your Gun or Sweeney Todd.

The very spectacular set done in comic book style is credited to George Tspin and the costumes of insanity are credited to Eiko Ishioka, but Julie Taymor’s hand has been into every aspect, for the visual production has always been her concern. This is Julie Taymor’s show all the way––not to discredit the army of artists who helped to bring this production to life.

This production is so unusual that it has to be seen to be believed. I was not bored, but I left with a feeling of emptiness towards it. Yet I was constantly surprised and interested as the thing unfolded (literally at some moments). Everyone who can must see it just to see what can be done with sixty million. After all, that is one reason one lives in New York: to see a crazy theatrical experience that can’t be found anywhere else. My guess is that the title, not unlike The Adams Family, will survive the critics’ wrath and run the four years needed to pay off the investment, but if you don’t see it in New York you aren’t going to see it, save for an imagined Los Vegas engagement. The physicality of the show can’t tour and the literature of the piece isn’t good enough to come off well in a scaled down production. “Spiderman” is just one of those crazy things that happen in New York sometimes.

Dracula

Michel Altieri as Dracula

Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston’s adaptation of DRACULA made its Broadway debut in 1927 and made Bela Lagosi immortal as the title character, for he went on to make the film version of the stage play as we all know. The original production ran a season and then toured for two more years. In 1977, Frank Langella put his stamp on the role and also starred in a subsequent film version. That production won the Tony for Best Revival and played 900 performances on a unique set design by Edward Gorey. Now at the Little Shubert Off Broadway, that same 1927 version of DRACULA is back. This production has its little changes, edits and adjustments, but it is more like the production an audience might have seen in the ‘20s than it should be. That is to say, we have been through a lot with Dracula since Bella Lagosi and the melodramatic hokum of that era’s stage is hard to take seriously today. I wanted to love this production so much, but it was impossible. This material is delicate, for there are nearly ridiculous and grandiose lines that must be said, the trick of Dracula turning into a bat, the ladies fainting and screaming at the sight of shadows and recorded noises such as wolves howling and bats squeaking is all a bit sticky. The vampire recoils from the cross, he smashes a mirror when it is discovered that he does not reflect in it, and overly familiar words like, “I never drink...wine” are uttered. There are also hokey comic bits between a maid and caretaker, Renfield eating his bugs and the pounding of a stake through Dracula’s heart. How to handle all of this so the audience doesn’t giggle? Very carefully, but director Paul Alexander doesn’t seem to have the touch and neither does most of the cast.

Helming the production as Van Helsing is the commanding George Hearn, who gives the entire production credibility. Right behind him is the stalwart Timothy Jerome as Dr. Seward. These two veterans handle this dusty material expertly and everything they say and do is utterly believable. Less so for everyone else, though they give it the old college try, which is all the production amounts to: no more than a rudimentary college production distinguished only by the guest appearance of George Hearn.

Frank Langella as Dracula

Jake Silbermann, known to soap fans as Noah on “As the World Turns,” is Jonathan Harker. He is handsome and likable, but he hasn’t the ability to live within this particular world and comes off as out of place in his British accent and uncomfortable period starched collar and suit. Katherine Luckinbill as the comic maid gets by, but her role asks her to participate in some hocus-pocus that she barely makes believable. As Butterworth the caretaker to Renfield, Rob O’Hare creates a fun comic character that is just about what the play requires of him.

Jake Silbermann as Jonathan Harker

Two characters are rather miss-cast. The worst offense is John Buffalo Mailer (who happens to be the son of Norman Mailer) as Renfield. He is taller than anyone on stage and a strapping lad who is more in line of a romantic leading hero than the slight, bug-eyed, quirky character we have always known Renfield to be. He is played as a southern American with a slow drawl. He isn’t convincingly crazy and he is so robust that when he throws his fits it is unbelievable that the shorter Butterworth could ever control him. I kept waiting for Renfield to throw chairs around the room and single handedly toss Butterworth out the window. Renfield is a great character and a substantial one, both lovable and weird, and here he is such a disappointment that literally half the fun of the production has been sacrificed. The other disappointment is the hard working Emily Bridges (daughter of Beau Bridges) as Lucy, who was thrust into the role days ago when the original actress, Thora Birch, was fired. She tries, bless her, but she hasn’t the beguiling presence to captivate us. Her particular affliction, which takes on a subtle insanity and requires her to be startled by bats on wires and fall under the hypnotic spell of Dracula, not to mention deliver impossible lines of a 1920s ingenue as if she believed them, does not sell.

Now to Dracula, played by the Italian actor making his American stage debut, Michel Altieri: He looks great and has an exotic accent, but he does not possess that otherworldly magic personality that is required. This quality is hard to describe and impossible to teach. So, it is not enough that Mr. Altieri looks right and is dressed in cape and tuxedo, but he must be mesmerizing. Two famous lines from the 1930 film have been added to the play, “I never drink...wine” and “Children of the night, what music they make.” Mr. Altieri can’t say them with any sense of the weight they held when Bela Lagosi said them. In fact, he throws them away, which kept them from being silly, but did nothing to define the character as they had with Bela Lagosi. It wasn’t worth sticking the lines into the play.

Bela Lagosi as Dracula

That leaves us with George Hearn and Timothy Jerome to hold the show together and it isn’t enough. DRACULA is hard. It must be treated like Shakespeare or the Greek plays where great care is taken to get the line readings to sound natural. It takes a highly seasoned and probably classically trained actor to take these old lines into their being and bring them to life in a way we can believe in them. This cast is full of youngsters without the chops to handle the job, which is why it feels like a college production.

The set by Dana Kenn is old fashioned in its utilitarian aspects, but rather attractive and mood enducing––it was my favorite element of the production. Combined with Willa Kim’s Edwardian costumes and Brian Nason’s very effective lighting, the show looks wonderfully spooky. A few staging touches also make the show enjoyable such as Renfield crawling upside-down along the wall of the Sanatarium (aided by Flying by Foy), a bat flying in the window and up into the rafters was a fun moment, and Dracula dissolving out of sight while in the clutches of Van Helsing and Dr. Stewart was a real surprise. Still, no magic trick could save the production, for the cast just isn’t up to it. For the bows, the theme from SWAN LAKE was played as it had been for the credits of the 1930 film, but Helsing did not hush the audience with his famous last words:

“When you get home tonight and the lights have been turned out and you are afraid to look behind the curtains and you dread to see a face appear at the window...why, just pull yourself together and remember that after all, there are such things.”

Set design by Dana Kenn

Billy Elliot Two Years In

Now two years in to the run, BILLY ELLIOT holds up. The performance I attended on Sunday evening gave us the surprise of director Stephen Daldry taking the stage at the top of the show to inform us that the “Billy” of the evening, Dayton Travares, would be giving his final performance. Travares is from Australia and had played Billy all through the Australian run. His entire family moved to New York so he could continue on with the Billy family for a little while longer on Broadway. Daldry gave a lovely heartfelt speech, thanking Travares and his parents for letting the Billy family share in his childhood. Now his voice was changing (many alternate notes were taken in the songs) and he is off to embark on his final spring into adulthood. But for this last night Travares gave an exemplary performance. It doesn’t seem to matter which boy you see as Billy, he simply controls the hearts of the audience and key numbers such as “Solidarity”, “Dream Ballet” and “Electricity” get the usual incredible reception that literalizes the concept of stopping the show. By comparison to other Billy’s past and present, Travares wasn’t the best singing Billy or even the best dancing Billy, but he was genuine, as all the boys who play the character must naturally be, and his talents were considerable enough to amaze us. It is a wonder what path all these fantastic boys who have had the glory of heading a Broadway mega-hit will take as the years go on.

Gregory Jbara continues on as Dad, but he is milking all of his bits further than he can go. He is acting like an old school Broadway clown in a show that has nothing to do with a star comedian turn. He has become comedically drunk in the Christmas scene, robbing us of the beauty of his folk song, “Deep Into the Ground.” The “esquire” bit with Billy’s letter and the business with the smoking ballet dancer are all prolonged as if Bert Lahr had taken over his body. Stephen Daldry was watching from the back, so maybe there will be a notes session before the next performance, or maybe it is time for Jbara to move on––despite the Tony.

Carole Shelley is still in as Grandma and she has become delightfully batty. If it were possible to dance even less of her choreography than she started with, she has mastered it. However, it is astonishing how she keeps finding little new things in her character.

Laura Marie Duncan is the new “Dead Mum” and she is just right. Some how Stephen Hanna keeps dancing “Older Billy,” now with an extra spring to it. Tommie Retter seems to be all the more enjoyable as Mr. Braithwaite and works his hideously greasy hair for all it’s worth. Neil McCaffrey, who was so great as Randolph in the BYE, BYE BIRDIE revival last season, is ideal as Billy’s cross-dressing friend Michael.

This production has always taken its time to make moments count––a different quality than Broadway’s usually slick, fast and funny mechanized production values. However, some of the moments in the second act have become MOOOOOMMMEEENNNTS. Still, outside of the show needing a little tightening, it delivers where it counts and BILLY ELLIOT holds its own as one of the really great shows of the decade.

During the finale the other Billys were watching the show from the box seats and cheering on their friend Dayton as he danced his last tap dance. It was a special occasion and as the audience departed, behind the act curtain could be heard the voices of the cast privately singing “Happy Trails to You” as a collective good-bye to Dayton Travares.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

George Lee Miles as Tom

I have missed the few assorted productions of UNCLE TOM’S CABIN that have popped up in small theaters over the past ten years, but these have been deconstructions or modern politicized adaptations of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel from 1852. Within six months of the release of that all important American novel came numerous unauthorized stage adaptations including the one that would settle into the position of the version written by George L. Aiken. This three act coherent melodrama has been the dominating version and for the Twentieth Century and on it has been the only version left for posterity from that pre-Civil War era. So I was excited to finally have the chance to see the Aiken version presented in whole at the Metropolitan Playhouse.

After a kind of out of town tryout in Troy, New York produced by George C. Howard, Aiken’s adaptation opened in New York City at Purdy’s National Theater and ran nearly a year (The program notes stated that Aiken’s version also ran at Barnum’s Museum, but that was actually another version by H. J. Conway which favored the anti-abolitionist cause). For the 1850s this was a record breaking run and the play retained its immense popularity in touring productions and revivals throughout the century. Not only was UNCLE TOM’S CABIN the most important American play of the Nineteenth Century, but it changed the style of programing forever. Before UNCLE TOM’S CABIN a melodrama would play as a first act and then the “after piece” would follow, which was generally an unrelated variety program of songs dances and concert selections. The band being on hand for this part of the program would underscore the preceding play and therefor we get the genre melo-drama. Due to the length of the play and a feeling that the traditional after piece would tarnish the production as low entertainment, the play was presented by itself, thereby starting the tradition of the stand alone play in American popular theater.

Inserted into a melodrama would be various songs, mostly derived within the drama from natural sources. As the years went by and various adaptations came and went, UNCLE TOM’S CABIN as a whole might be littered with more songs and dances, which historically added to the play’s connection to the minstrel show. Indeed, it was the case that the black characters were all played by white actors in black face. Put that aspect aside, however, and you have a serious story about the tragedy of slavery, which like the novel, greatly influenced the attitudes that built up to why we fought the Civil War. In fact, Lincoln was said to have commented to Harriet Beecher Stowe that more or less she was “the cause of the great war.”

Uncle Tom’s subservient “Yes Massa” nature mixed with the insult of black faced actors cartooning the experience of black citizens have made the title politically poisonous. I would like to think that in the Twenty-first Century we could look at this work with fresh eyes and thanks to the humble production directed by Alex Roe, with an excellent small company doubling the numerous roles, this proves to be possible. The character of Uncle Tom is, in his non-combative way, insisting that God is looking after him and will do right by him. He is able to convince his master that slavery is fundamentally wrong, but his master dies before he can free Tom, resulting in Tom’s sale to the cruel Simon Legree. Despite Tom’s pleas for tolerance, Simon will not be told his business by a slave and beats Tom to death. In his last words Tom exclaims that he knows God will finally free him. A final image of Tom reaching up to the light as an Angel descends from the heavens was not realized in this production, but we got the idea. Other historical productions showed Tom reunited with the other main characters in a cabin in the sky, which is like the ending we get from Tup-Tim’s Asian ballet version in THE KING AND I.

"Small House of Uncle Thomas" from THE KING AND I

There is no real point to staging Aiken’s UNCLE TOM’S CABIN today save for historical interest, for it rambles around for three hours and is definitely a production of mid-Nineteenth Century American Theatre. When acted by a fine cast, the dust of the years is not exactly blown off the piece, but the story can be told with intelligence and any relationship to the minstrel genre is virtually nonexistent. This production was distinguished by the contribution of George Lee Miles as Tom. Not only did he physically have a domineering presence, but his resonant voice explored the musicality of the words to mesmerizing effect and made Tom the noble human character he was always intended to be. Also excellent was Marcie Hendersen as Eliza, who escapes with her son Harry (a clever puppet) across the ice to Canada to meet her husband George (Rafael Jordan). Rick Delaney distinguished himself in his several roles, but especially as Tom’s sympathetic master who is converted to emancipator. Another historically controversial character is Topsy, who was played as an uneducated, undisciplined teenager with a heart of gold by Alex Marshall-Brown. This actress had, perhaps, the biggest challenge, for if the shiftless stereotypical “darky” character exists anywhere in the play it is with Topsy. In this production we can see Topsy as a product of her upbringing: sold into slavery as a baby and raised without education, religion, or family. She can be seen as a parallel to a girl of the contemporary urban ghetto. It is up to Ophelia (Lisa Riegel) to tame the unruly teenager. When she begins this seemingly impossible task, Ophelia is admittedly prejudiced, but through time comes to love Topsy and see her as a daughter. Aiken’s (and Stowe’s) imploring for change is very clear and any thoughts that UNCLE TOM’S CABIN is racist outside of racism as its topic, has not seen the play and is carrying an age old grudge against a work that is much more than the story’s splintered history. The play was worth it at the Metropolitan Playhouse and will be worth it in the future by other conscientious artists interested in exploring this most American of American plays.

The Duncan Sisters in a production in San Francisco, 1923