05/02/2008
On the Stage: South Pacific, Macbeth, From Up Here
Kevin Sessums last reviewed Gypsy, The Four of Us, and The Drunken City for Towleroad. You can also catch up with Kevin online at his own blog at MississippiSissy.com.
If Patti LuPone is proving her chops as the new Ethel Merman of Broadway in her portrayal of Mama Rose in Gypsy then the newest version of Mary Martin, Merman’s old Rialto rival, that tomboy from Texas who could spark the constricted heart of the most uptight of tenors, is Kelli O’Hara. She is starring in one of Martin’s most reknowned roles as Nellie Forbush in the Lincoln Center Theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Indeed, at times it seems as if Martin is peeking from beneath O’Hara’s otherwise pitch-perfect portrayal so that it has the eerie quality of watching a kind of double performance, a musical characterization cast in the artistic terms of pentimento when one notices such a thing on a canvas for the first time. There is a richness to the texture. Yet it is a bit dizzying if one keeps focusing on it.
So let’s focus on that first legendary production. It was based on two stories from James Michener’s collection called Tales from the South Pacific, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948, an award the musical itself won two years later — along with all nine of the Tony Awards it was nominated for. Since Michener’s two stories — "Fo’Dalla" and "Our Heroine" — were so serious, Rodgers and Hammerstein along with Joshua Logan, the original director, and Leland Hayward, the show’s producer, asked him to write a third story not found in the book and he came up with one about Luther Billis, the show’s womanizing comic relief. Ezio Pinza was cast as the romantic male lead, Emile De Becque, setting up the precedent of casting, when possible, a strapping opera singer in the role.
It has always been rumored that Oscar Hammerstein was so taken by Mary Martin in the last scene of Kurt Weill’s One Touch of Venus, when she appeared in her tight-fitting gingham dress, that he insisted she be cast as Nelli. (She had been cast in Venus, her starmaking role, when Marlene Dietrich backed out of the lead because she, of all people, found it “too sexy and profane.”) Martin was at the time, however, on the road in a national tour in one of Merman’s great roles, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, and didn’t think she wanted to commit to what appeared to be yet another long run in her future. But when Rodgers and Hammerstein flew out to meet her on the road and played “A Cockeyed Optimist” and “Some Enchanted Evening”, two of the first songs they’d written for the score, she accepted on the spot.
The show opened in Boston to rave reviews — so much so that playwright George S. Kaufmann joked that Bostonians were slipping money under the door of the Shubert Theatre in Boston not to buy tickets but just because they wanted to slip money under the door of the theatre where South Pacific was playing. Once it arrived in New York its reviews were so rapturous that the state’s Attorney General threatened to shut it down once word got out that scalpers were charging — back in 1949 — two hundred dollars a ticket. He, of course, backed down. And the show ran for over five years.
This production — directed by Bartlett Sher, who directed the last big musical hit at Lincoln Center Theatre, The Light in the Piazza, the score and lyrics for which were written by Rodgers’ grandson, Adam Guettel, and whose two young romantic leads were played by O’Hara and South Pacific’s Lt. Cable, Matthew Morrison — could run just as long as the original one judging by its own critical reaction and the visceral love the audience has for the show from the first sweeping notes of its overture. In fact, it is one of the mosty stirring overtures I have ever heard or — and this is the genius of it — witnessed. As the floor of the stage slowly moves back into the far reaches of the Beaumount’s deep recesses, the orchestra is revealed and the music becomes even more lush. It is a thrilling moment but also a dangerous one. Not because of the stage mechanics of it, but because one wonders how anything after it could be as thrilling.
For me, the overture was, indeed, the highlight of the show though I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of it. But it is a deeply old-fashioned one — especially because of the book by Hammerstein and Logan even with its allusion to pedophilia in its secondary love story between Lt. Cable and Liat. Most of the performances, however, could not be bettered.
O’Hara is proving to be Broadway’s brightest light. There is a wholesomeness about her that does not lessen her sexiness. Paul Szot, the Brazilian opera star, who is her Emile de Becque, is brilliant and, yes, equally sexy. One of the heartbreaking highlights of the show is his second-act solo “This Nearly Was Mine.” Matthew Morrison proves his musical mettle yet again as Cable — though I wonder what his grandpa, John Wayne, would think of his always taking his shirt off in his stage appearances and pleasing all us gay guys so much in the audience. The Hawaiian star Loretta Ables Sayre as Bloody Mary — a role that could be problematic because of its racial stereotyping in a show that preaches against racial stereotypes — finds the anger and bitter beauty that transcend such problems. Yet, sadly, I was disappointed in Danny Burstein. As much as I loved his portrayal of the daffy Latin matinee idol in The Drowsy Chaperone, I found him quite offputting as Luther Billis. He overplays the admittedly hoary comedy of the part and I just didn’t find him believable as a womanizer. His is a grating presence in the show when it should be a welcome and happy one...
All in all, it is a wonderful evening. Even the sailors are all individuals in their varied posturings about the stage. And be advised — right before O’Hara brings the house down with her marvelous-as-Martin version of “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair,” two of the shower doors open and the cutest sailors scurry about the stage butt-naked adding to the leitmotif this theatre season of male nudity which enlivens even this, the most old-fashioned of musicals.
T T T 1/2 (out of 4 possible T's)
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, Lincoln Center Theater-Vivian Beaumont, 150 West 65th Street, New York. Ticket information here.
***MACBETH
Patrick Stewart is packing them in as the title character in Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in a production that originated at the Chichester Festival Theatre before moving to the West End then had a sold-out limited run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Now it’s taken up bloody residence on Broadway. Stewart is the frontrunner to take home the Tony in a couple of months for Best Actor. And although I admired the production for its high concept that takes fascism to a fetishistic level, I could never get out of my mind that I was watching just that: a production. It’s so highly stylized that one is never bored, but one is never moved as well.
Continued, AFTER THE JUMP...
Director Rupert Goold certainly makes his presence felt but his wife, Kate Fleetwood, could have been less of a presence perhaps as I felt she fell into the trap of overacting the part of Lady Macbeth. And when the the three witches began to rap one of their most famous scenes, I wasn’t tapping my toes but rolling my eyes. If a production could be overly interesting, this could be it. Utterly fascinating but flawed. I kept thinking, what’s next? Setting MacBeth on Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise?
T T (out of 4 possible T's)
Macbeth, Lyceum Theatre,
149 West 45th Street, New York. Ticket information here.
***FROM UP HERE
Julie White did rightly win the Tony last year for Best Actress for her portrayal of the hyper and hilariously cold-hearted personal manager in The Little Dog Laughed. As her theatrical follow-up she’s chosen The Manhattan Theatre Club production of From Up Here, playwright Liz Flahive’s sensitive cliche-free play about how a family deals with a teenage son who has taken a gun to school in order to threaten his bullying classmates. Instead of a treatise concerning gun control politics and violence in America, Flahive and the director Leigh Silverman have chosen to more delicately approach the issues that such a plot device places in front of all of us. It is not only the son who must deal with the consequences of his actions, but also his extended family.
The production still felt a bit like an out-of-town tryout of a promising work the night I saw it in previews a few weeks back but it is well worth a visit if you’re interested in new plays instead of the spate of revivals that increasingly make up the New York theatre season. White is her expected magnificent self. I kept waiting for the scene that made her choose this play as her follow-up to Little Dog Laughed and it comes toward the end when she and her son have ended up back in the police station once she herself has lost control and gotten in trouble. It is an acting class of nuance and stillness and histrionics all wrapped together as she and the young actor who plays her son, Kenny, Tobias Segal, find depths in the characters that leave them as well as the audience speechless with wonder.
T T 1/2 (out of 4 possible T's)
From Up Here, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, New York. Ticket information here.
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Posted 3:15 PM EST by Kevin Sessums in Kevin Sessums, New York, News, Review, Theatre | Permalink
Comments
Even though they share the last name Matthew Morrison and John Wayne (Marion Morrison) are NOT related. Matthew himself refutes the rumor here: http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/6681
Posted by: Jeff | May 2, 2008 3:37:00 PM
As usual, THANKS KEVIN. It must be a thrill for these young musical/comedy actors to do the classics of Ameican musical theater. I mean, they were raised on "CATS", "The Phantom of the Opera", "A Chorus Line", etc. I'm glad to know that they appreciate the older classics. As a little Sissy growing up in North Philly, I always dreamed of playing Julie in a revival of "Show Boat", but this small growth between my thighs kept getting in the way. Oooops, did I say "small"? Forget that.
Whenever I watch the film version of "South Pacific"...Rosano Brazzi sings "Some Enchanted Evening"--I cry...and not just because of the half empty fifth of Bourbon sitting in my lap either--the song is heavenly. Is "...Pacific" the greatest American musical, or is "Oklahoma"? or is it "West Side Story" or "Gypsy"? or "Carousel" or "Hello Dolly"? or, or, or...
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 2, 2008 3:42:40 PM
What allusions to pedophilia were there in SOUTH PACIFIC?
Posted by: Roscoe | May 2, 2008 3:58:03 PM
Ooooops. I'll be damned, Rossano Brazzi didn't sing a damn thing. It was some opera star whose voice they used. Hollywood can't be trusted...EVER!
ROSCOE, you're not getting away with that. EXPLAIN! frikin' sacriledge 'n shit.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 2, 2008 4:09:35 PM
Uh, okay.
In the sixth paragraph of his review of SOUTH PACIFIC, Mr. Sessums refers to "an allusion of pedophilia" in the musical. I didn't remember that allusion in the show, and was asking for clarification.
Posted by: Roscoe | May 2, 2008 4:14:17 PM
I love MTC, whenever I can get student tix..I try to see everything..much original ...
Posted by: daveynyc | May 2, 2008 4:20:47 PM
I'm sorry, ROSCOE. I was so busy thinking about Rossano Brazzi's fake singing, and thinking up my brilliant comment-- I didn't pay attention to that note in Kevin's review. Kevin, I always thought that the beautiful Pacific Islander girl was old enough to fall in love with Lt. Cable. (Certainly, I was in love with John Kerr...he had the cutest buns). And remember, at the time this show first appeared half the states in this country had the age of consent at about 14 years old (for girls to marry).
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 2, 2008 4:31:50 PM
to anyone reading, I saw Macbeth last night and it's incredible! Slick and stylized, yes, but unlike the reviewer, I could feel the emotion from the balcony. Despite all the innovations it's still solid serious Shakespeare. Absolutely loved the three witches, rap and all. Go see it! Closes soon...
Posted by: bklyn | May 2, 2008 5:27:59 PM
THANK YOU Andy and Kevin for bringing love of theatre to the net intelligently. The articles are fantastic! If I had just one quibble, Kevin, it is that for a writer who doesn't like "hoary" to ham-fist a 'Patrick Stewart / Starship Enterprise' joke into the review is, yep... hoary. Or should I say, Kevin, "if I had just one tribble"....
Posted by: Strepsi | May 2, 2008 5:51:09 PM
As people begin to age the gods employ corrupting tactics. They ultimately begin to look down on the children and the wisdom they recently understood:::
They voluntarily turn their back on their opportunity to ascend and instead embrace evil.
It's not old people who go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they've made throughout their lives. Children are the ones who have the opportunity to ascend.
Children are discounted by adults in society. The gods corrupt people as they age, use trust-building tactics and soon adults view the children as ignorant, yet to understand the god's system, and subsequently look down on the children. This is one of the most bitter, painful ironies the gods employ, for people consciously turn their back on and lose their opportunity to ascend::::
Religions teach that old people to go to heaven when they die. They don't. Old people are reincarnated. It's the children who go to heaven, those who have a chance at immortality.
The wisdom the gods impart to children, either through their innocence/purity or religious-based educational pursuits are the gods sharing the truth with their most favored people::::It's the children whom the gods teach the right way for it is the children who have a chance. For example, they teach children to have faith, for understanding the god's geographical clues hurts people by illustrating negative things, opening the door for the god's to employ deceptive tactics.
Old people don't go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they've made throughout their lives. It's the children who have the opportunity to go to "heaven". They must behave apprioriately, think correctly and be genuinely god-fearing. Their innocence and lack of desensitization ensures they have a real opportunity to achieve this goal.
This is charecteristic of the gods methodology::::The big prize gone early, deception compels people to chase something that has already been decided. They sent this clue with boss as well. It is also a clue supporting my claim RW&B's german is in fact Christianity's Anti-Christ. Logic also dictates, considering the definition.
The confusion over this multi-dimentional positioning will serve as an effective tactic, eliminating many additional disfavored in the process, for positioning states the Apocalypse to be a continuation of WorldWarII's Aryan superrace ideals, positioned as punishment for the 5th century invastion of the Roman Empire:::John's Fourth Reich.
This amounts only to "nested theater":::::Levels of positioning enables the gods to scapegoat:::::RW&B merely is the tool the gods chose to execute the final scene of their scripted theater that is human history.
Just as they would have had me chase boss so would they have wanted me to sign on to this theater, evil by definition, and chase this role of Anti-Christ. By doing so I would have incurred evil and would have been punished, painfully "losing" Anti-Christ in the process.
Does that mean RW&B is not the Anti-Christ?? I suspect as they would have "offered" it to me so will there be a fake Anti-Christ for those in these generations to accept as well. But it is a clone host. This is ALL clone host theater, created not as a clue to me but instead designed to be preditory on the disfavored, designed to increase indecency and further the god's goal of justification towards The End.
We were all merely peasants centuries ago, struggling with our disfavor, but without the enormity of temptations, real and telepathic, which exist today.
They have shared I was positioned to some disfavored as the Second Coming of Christ, explaining all the evil surrounding me and RW&B's placement in the "eye of The Beast" was to positon the sabotage of my candidacy (Damien Omen, Big Army Men, etc).
The Big Lie of course is that Christianity is evil. The reverse positioning nature of Planet Earth dictates that good is demonized, as we wintessed in World War II, while evil is put on a pedistal, as we see with the Italians.
The truth? The gods used their tools to create this and the rest of the incidents surrounding this Situation to distract the people from my message, for I speak the truth:::Only you can save you. You have to be responsible for your own relationship with the gods.
The gods are asexual. They have no sex organs nor rectums.
When the gods take children these individuals have the opportunity to become "god-like". Temptations are employed and, if sucessful, these are the individuals who make up the human race's immortals.
I believe there are opportunities that exist for females that do no exist for males. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush but women's "sexual peak" may represent the transistion to "sociological males" and their "fall from grace". Considering today's promiscuity I question whether this is currently applicable, and is yet anther 20th century-earlier phenominah.
I believe Purgatory is real. I think it is a temporary destination, perhaps sparsely utilized until the Apocalypse, but this will be the destination for those who "ascend" during the event. As they've said this planet will too be disposed of one day and it is imperative people try to avoid that destination, for there may be no escaping its fate.
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Females are better people than males
Historically the role of females was as enforcers of decency. Men have god's disfavor and enagage in behavior damaging to themselves and their families. Women who adhered to this crucial role helped the men understand and avoid inappropriate behavior while enhancing decency in their domestic environment. These women sacrifice to help the disfavored:::They are like Jews, scattered throughout Europe to help the misled Christians or the Amish today, living in purity and simplicity.
Many disfavored groups embrace "paternalistic superiority" and believe the men are "entitled"::::;If Italian women tried to enforce decency the men beat and raped them.
The gods subsequently used this Italian charecterisitic to corrupt other morbidly disfavored groups, legitimizing this and other associated behavior whereas decency in society may have been able to hep correct this disfavor. This is very similar to the "clone host" issue, where the gods corrupt normal people into thinking they are one of them.
Posted by: As people begin to age the gods employ corrupting tactics. They ultimately begin to look down on th | May 4, 2008 11:41:46 PM
I have seen and heard SP 100's of times.....sorry Kelli did not do it for me in this production..as far as I know the actors are not miked...so listening to the album on playbillradio.com...I heard her sing the music and her voice is just luscious....but not on that stage trying to project to the entire theater
I loved when the orchestra played & the stage pulls back..that was as exciting as the play...that music is pure heaven...Lincoln Center knows how to do it right
Posted by: tc | May 29, 2008 4:22:03 PM
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