Sides: The Fear Is Real…

Grade: B+

Clever collection of sketches about the auditioning process.

Off-off-broadway always has some fun experiences, and this show performed by
the Mr. Miyagi Theatre Company down at the 45 Bleeker Theatre certainly makes
for one of them. The show is a compilation of stories, allegedly true,
experienced by the actors during their auditioning lives in the acting world.
You see a number of easily recognizable characters: the
overly-impressed-with-themselves actor (plenty of those), the clueless actors
(even more), the actors who can barely speak English, etc. The harshest jokes
come at the expense of casting directors, far too easy a target for, let’s face
it, a group of actors performing at the 45 Bleeker Theatre.

The talent is mixed, but the frustration underlying the sketches gives the
show an energy that makes it a fun experience. Auditions are interview for
actors, and unlike the majority of the working world that may need to interview
for a handful of jobs over their lives, actors are constantly
interviewing/auditioning. And until they reach that elusive level of celebrity
where the work is easy to come by, it is a constantly demeaning experience. The
Asian group has a few sketches that play on the stereotype they face in the
industry, but also play into the stereotypes in more sketches.

Overall, the humor is laced with a healthy serving of reality, which makes
you feel bad laughing at their pain. But at least you’re buying a ticket and
seeing this young troop.

The Odd Couple

Grade: B-

Exactly what you’d expect–which isn’t saying much.

The penultimate trip in our latest NYC theater run was the much coveted
ticket to The Odd Couple starring Nathan Lane
and Matthew Broderick. We actually based our trip around this show, specifically
our being able to get tickets for the Saturday matinee. The show has broken all
kinds of records and generated a huge amount of buzz for being the first
Broadway show to completely sell out before a single performance. Given the
price of tickets these days, that’s pretty impressive.

Unfortunately, that’s the only thing that’s impressive about the show. Don’t
get me wrong, Lane and Broderick are extremely talented actors and are the hot
duo after The Producers. But like The Producers (the musical, not the old movie
or the new one), the audience makes this show better than it is. More
accurately, the audience tries to make this show better than it is. But even
they can’t do that.

The show was written back in the 60s and it feels old. They didn’t rewrite,
which has its own benefits and drawbacks, but they do try and infuse the show
with a bit more energy. Sadly, it just doesn’t work. Yes, everyone is excited
about seeing the hot show, but the show itself just isn’t that funny. Instead,
it’s a bit of a nostalgia play–hey, remember when this was considered cutting
edge comedy? Yeah, we’ve moved on.

Speaking of the audience, they are really into being at the show. When the
curtain goes up, they break out into thunderous applause. This despite the two
stars not being on stage and the only recognizable talent onstage being Brad
Garrett. Apparently all those Everybody Loves Raymond fans also enjoy Broadway.
Who knew?

But the applause doesn’t end there–when Lane appears, big clap. When
Broderick appears, huge clap. Then the first scene break occurs, so the curtain
drops, a few seconds go by while they reset the stage, then the curtain goes
back up. Lane and Broderick appear, HUGE clap. Like the audience thanking the
two stars for not leaving during the fifteen seconds between scenes. Come on
people, have some dignity.

And it isn’t as though the production company cares about the audience in the
slightest. There are far too many seats crammed into the theater, resulting in
less leg room than every other show I’ve seen (except, perhaps, for that other
Lane/Broderick production). And for a 1,000+ seat theater, I cannot understand
how it only has one bathroom for each gender–and that they’re both located on a
small landing with the only bar. The end result is that three minutes into
intermission the lines for both bathrooms have snaked around so that they are
crossing each other, leaving no room for people to get onto the landing or out
of the bathroom or to the bar. It was a logistical nightmare, and given the
average age of the matinee crowd, possibly a safety risk.

Moreover, the production company doesn’t seem to respect the audience much,
either. There is no late-comer seating policy, which usually serves to seat
latecomers at a break in the show to prevent the rest of the audience from being
disturbed. Almost all theaters do this to some extent–some even going so far as
to bar entry to latecomers. Not so for The Odd Couple–when you get there,
they’ll seat you. So when a huge block of 20 seats in the four rows in front of
Mrs Hose and I were
empty, this resulted in a disastrous first scene as clump after clump of
latecomer was seated in a slow, unorganized fashion.

In all honesty, I wasn’t a fan of The Producers (again, the musical). I can
see how Lane and Broderick made it a better show, but I didn’t think the music
was all the great nor did I think it was particularly funny. But it was still
better than The Odd Couple, which Mrs Hose says is The Producers
without music. I think that’s true, but I would add the note that it’s an older
show too. The Producers was based on old material, but it was made a bit more
contemporary. Not so with The Odd Couple. The end result is
that the physical comedy gets much more laughter than any lines. And while that
works for farce, it doesn’t work for a Neil Simon play.

Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos

Grade: B-

Amusing collection of sketches that tries to be more than it is.

The second play of our
latest NYC run and the fifth show overall (#1 #2 #3) easily took the prize for
the silliest title. But surprisingly, the show is a hodgepodge of somewhat
clever sketches and ideas.

The problem is that it pretends to be more than just the collection of
sketches–it tries to become a statement about modern society, but that’s a cheap
cop out. It’s the thinnest veneer of plot where one isn’t needed. Instead, it
should have stuck to the sketches and tried not to be more.

There are more glancing blows than misses among the various pieces. But the
misses are big misses, and the best are not hilarious. Clever ideas like the
song “Nothing Rhymes With Ashcroft But My Heart” falls flat, even when performed
by the amazing Bebe Neuwirth (the best reason for seeing the show, as even the
worst seat in the tiny Flea Theater house is only 20 feet from her). The song
feels like a bad Saturday Night Live segment on Weekend Update from a year ago.
Which doesn’t make much sense given another song moment, recently fired FEMA
director Brown singing the blues (somewhat funny, actually). The timeliness of
the Brown bit makes the Ashcroft song and a few other scenes stand out as
recycled ideas to fill space.

The best moment sketch is geared as a quiz for recently graduated journalists
being tested on the latest buzz phrases. But it only lasts so long before
falling into somewhat silly looks at retirement in New York City and an extended
scene about the title of the show (taken from a Sports Illustrated swimsuit
edition cover some years ago).

Still, the Flea Theater is a fun off-off-Broadway venue to attend with a
small house and great stars (last trip we saw Sigourney Weaver, which was cool).
Their shows aren’t huge hits, but that’s not what off-off-Broadway is about.
Still, this show was a bit too muddied to earn a higher grade.

Doubt

Grade: C+

Overhyped play that would have been completely ignored five years ago.

I have high expectations for plays, expectations that I don’t have for
musicals and expectations which rarely are met, let alone exceeded. That said,
Doubt is one of those shows that failed to live up to my expectations.

Sure, it won the Tony award for best play last year. The cast also won a couple of the acting Tony
awards. But that just means it was among the best of what was released last
season. I still have high expectations for any play, no matter how weak or
strong the season may be.

Doubt just doesn’t live up to any expectations. The play is about a nun
accusing a priest of sexually abusing a boy, and his denying these allegations
forming the basis of the proof for the charges. If this was an episode of law
and order, the voiceover before the show would proclaim that this show was
ripped from the headlines, but not based on actual events.

The problem with Doubt is that it is too topical. It rests on addressing an
issue that’s on the minds of a lot of people, but it doesn’t really address the
issue. Instead, it addresses accusations of that issue, and not in a very
thorough manner. Add to the mix the fact that the play’s subtitle is “A Modern
Parable” and we’re left with a show that intends to teach us something, but
doesn’t. In fact, the author said that he wrote the last line to intentionally
make the show vague and debatable–that isn’t a parable. I think he intended a
particular outcome, hence the subtitle, but after seeing the discussion that
ensued after the play was workshopped he decided to keep it vague. The result is
a bit of a mess, and by no means a parable.

It’s also surprisingly slow for only a 90 minute play. The only fireworks
come near the end, and Cherry Jones is the only saving grace of the show saving
it from total suckage. Sadly, that’s not enough. Too little and way too
late.

Was it the best play of 2004? Maybe. I didn’t see enough to say otherwise.
But it doesn’t make Doubt a great play.

Sweeney Todd

Grade: A

Amazing musical, amazing cast.

Third on our recent trip to NYC was the Sweeney Todd revival starring Michael
Cerveris and Patti LuPone. I had a lot of interest in seeing this since I
realized that, despite seeing hundreds of musicals and plays in my life, I’ve
only seen one Sondheim show (Into The Woods back in 1989). So I was interested
in seeing another show by one of the giants in the genre. I was also interested
in seeing Patti LuPone after Mrs Hose watched a show with
Patti singing something from over a decade ago–she had an amazing voice back
then, so I wanted to see if she still had it.

Bottom line: she still has it. Michael Cerveris is also an amazing talent,
although he’s one of those spitting singers which makes sitting in the first few
rows a nerve-wracking experience. Watching the show, one wonders what Patti was
like twenty years ago in Evita–obviously age has had some impact on her voice,
but it’s still an impressive instrument.

The show itself has a creepy feel to it which helps set the stage. Supporting
roles were done very well, although some of the show suffered from edits that
chopped out some of the exposition. While this helps with timing, it hurts the
actual story. Not that it matters too much, since the basic premise of revenge
and murder are easy to pick up on.

The only quibble with the show is the choice made by the creative team in
foregoing an actual band and having the actors play the instruments. While this
move made sense in the recent Cabaret, it doesn’t fit in as well here. And where
in Cabaret you could hire musicians and teach them their limited acting parts,
here we have trained actors being shoe-horned into musical roles. Yes, most had
some musical instrument training, but it hurt having a non-professional blasting
the horn over one of the best songs in the show (Johana).

Still, a great show to see and experience in this rather tepid season.

See What I Wanna See

Grade: B+

Idina Menzel could sing the phonebook and it’d be amazing.

Let’s get this straight–Idina Menzel is the most talented musical actress in
NYC right now. Even if Sutton Foster had a show on, Idina would still give
Sutton a run for her money. Coming off the Tony win last year, and with the
movie of Rent coming out next month, Idina is have a very good couple of years.

See What I Wanna See is no exception to Idina’s recent record. The show is an
interesting take on three short stories written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, whose
most famous story, Rashomon, was adapted for the famous movie. The three stories
taken here all focus on issues of truth and lies: one through the lens of an
affair coming to a murderous conclusion, another through a vicious tale of rape
and murder, and a third within a story of faith and relationships.

As the show goes, it does tell an intriguing story. The story opening both
acts is the weakest, and also the furthest from the original story, but the
other two have some interesting parts and strong performances.

In My Life

Grade: F

Simply put, the worst musical ever. And I saw Capeman.

Having just returned from the final pre-baby vacation for
the Hoses, I now have seven theater reviews to add to
the blog. First up, appropriately enough, is the worst musical I’ve ever seen.
Actually, I shouldn’t be that kind. This is the worst musical ever. And I feel
like I can actually say that because I saw Capeman. I stayed for the entire
performance of Capeman. Capeman was previously the worst musical ever, but In My
Life takes the title hands down.

Let’s start with the plot. Again, I’m being generous by implying there is a
plot. As the Playbill article about the show says, In My Life is a love story
with a twist: the twist is that the guy has Tourette syndrome. Just to set the
record straight–Tourette syndrome is not a twist. It’s barely a complication.
And it shows up only twice in the show. This, however, makes sense since the
creater (and writer and producer and director) of the show says his son had
Tourette syndrome for a couple of years but is all better now. Somebody should
tell him it wasn’t Tourette syndrome–he was just going through puberty.

Back to the story. Guy meets girl. Guy curses at girl. Guy and girl sleep
together. Then an angel puts on a reality opera for God, so he gives the guy a
brain tumor. The guy’s dead sister appears to guy and tells him to get an
operation. Guy says no. Then guy goes blind, so he has the operation. God stops
riding his bicycle and tells his opera-producing angel to take away the tumor.
Happy ending.

I am not making this up. And I’m being much clearer than the actual show. I’m
not mentioning how the guy dreams of his dead mother (killed in the same crash
as his sister), and then later the sister (she’s dead, remember) has similar
dreams of her also dead mother. I guess the sister and mother are in different
heavens or something. But later they get together when the sister puts on a tutu
and does a dance. I’m not kidding.

Oh, and heaven is a giant white room filled with file cabinets. Again, I’m
being serious.

The only thing that kept us at the show, besides trying to wrench our jaws
off the floor, was that a number of theater critics were sitting
around us. Everyone was laughing at the show–and not at any jokes. It was funny
to see someone miss a note, or deliver a line and watch the critics start
scribbling away, sharpening their pens like knives before the carving.

At the end of the show a giant lemon drops onto the stage. Honestly. It’s the
most appropriate stage design you will ever see. Which, hopefully, you will
never see.

Steve Jobs: Man of two hats

Today’s much covered One More Thing turned out to be the new iPod which
includes video. Finally the industry can stop predicting when this will happen.
But it brings up two interesting ways in which Steve Jobs is very much a man of
two hats.

First, Jobs said over and over that there wouldn’t be a video iPod. He said
that people don’t want to stare at the screen. He said it’s just not how people
use their iPod, they want it to meld into the background. Blah blah blah. That
turned into the next greatest thing, so we have that aspect of Jobs being
two-faced. Course, it’s a bit understandable as the industry matures, technology
progresses, etc.

The second way is a bit more compelling. Jobs always said video iPod wouldn’t
make sense without content, and now he has some content. Sure, there are music
videos–but that sucks. What’s good is that iTunes has TV episodes for $2 a pop.
Sure, it’s just a handful of ABC shows, like Desparate Housewives and something on an island, but
there’s content to be had and we know we’ll see more.

But who owns ABC? Disney. And when Jobs demoed the new iMac he showed it
playing The Incredibles, made by Pixar for Disney. Disney–the same people Jobs
broke off his relationship with over distribution and sequel rights is now
providing Apple, Jobs’ other company, with content for distribution? What a
strange relationship Jobs must have with Disney. Over at Pixar, he hates them.
Over at Apple, he loves them.

Two hats are tricky to wear. Hopefully they both go with black turtlenecks.

Chair/Stove: Chove? Stair?

From the incredibly insane inventions department comes this combination easy chair and stove (as reported by Engadget). Seriously, what would make you think of this combination? One long night of drinking and staring at your easy chair, thinking, “Man, I could seriously go for making some Mac and Cheese, but I don’t want to leave my chair…if only it was a stove.”

This is probably the stupidest Transformer since that evil robot that turned into a boombox.

Six shows to watch

There’s plenty of bad TV shows out there, and readers know how often I
mention the stuff that
sucks. But with the rush of the new season, I haven’t been able to blog as
many reviews as I’d like. So instead of holding out on all of my readers (I hear
we’re up to 4 now, so we’re officially a gang), I thought I’d present the best
six shows on right now that I’m watching.

1. Breaking Bonaduce (review) – This show is
jaw-achingly good. My mouth hangs open for virtually the entire half-hour. He’s
nuts, he knows it, and he knows it makes for fantastic TV (in his increasingly
rarer moments of clarity). Plus, the editing on this show is the best out
there.

2. Survivor: Guatemala – I’ve been a Survivor fan since season 1 and I still
think it’s the standard against which all other reality shows are measured.
Sure, The Amazing Race wins all the awards, but Survivor is still the focused,
intense battle that luck does not factor into winning. If you have to rely on
luck to win, then it’s not a good game or you have a bad strategy. So far the
challenges have been pretty good this year, although not as good as last
season’s which where the best yet. But there’s still a long way to go in this
game, and last week’s twist on the tribe shuffle was a great one.

3. How I Met Your Mother (review) – This show has
defied (at least my own) expectations and has actually gotten funnier. Neil
Patrick Harris is still the bright point of the show, but this one might
actually make it. Then again, Doogie hasn’t hit paydirt since the early 90’s.
Fingers crossed, but worth checking out.

4. Out of Practice (review) – Still living up to
its potential, this might be the best new comedy on TV right now (and
with a chance to stick around). The only weak point remains the lead character,
but they’ve been slowly phasing him out of episodes, and I wouldn’t be surprised
if he’s delegated to a minor role around which the funny people come in and out.
Let’s hope so.

5. The Apprentice – Ratings have taken a hit ever since the first season, but
I still think this show is a lot of fun. The games are always interesting, as
well as seeing how different people react to stress or different management
styles. What’s fun is that every game is winnable by every player–it doesn’t
rely on physical attributes like some Survivor contests (although you can still
win Survivor without winning individual challenges). And although I find the Martha version interesting,
it still doesn’t beat the real thing. The cast is much better this time
around–season 3 was an absolute disaster–so hopefully the show can recover from
those lingering bad impression from the last time.

6. Airline – One of the most amusing reality shows out there, it’s always
funny to see the stressful airport environment when you aren’t knee-deep in the
actual travel stuff. People are late to their flights, get drunk in the bar,
start getting angry when there’s bad weather–we’ve all been there, but now you
can watch from an impartial position as the world comes crashing down.