THEATER

Cheyenne Jackson, Kate Baldwin and Jim Norton lead the Finian’s Rainbow ensemble in the show’s Ode to Joy, “On That Great Come-and-Get-It Day

Finian’s Rainbow
St. James Theater
246 W. 44 th St.
212-239-6200
On my list of 50 Top Musicals, published five years ago, Finian’s Rainbow, in my estimation, ranked #20. I wrote: “Yip Harburg and Burton Lane’s message musical was notable for its parodies of Senator Bilbo and other oppressors of African-Americans. David Wayne was immense as the leprechaun, who loved ‘the girl I'm near.’ Thank heavens they dropped plans for a revival, with a Peter Stone re-writing of the 'politically passe' book.” Yes, the late Peter Stone who wrote the book of the musical 1776, was poised to do a re-vamping of the script and lyrics of Finian’s. Talented as Stone was, it would have been a Leprechaunical curse on any pending production to have sanitized the brave words that emanated from that 1947-48 original. It was the same year in which Jackie Robinson broke into baseball which I happily witnessed at Ebbets Field. To the credit of the producers of this exquisite revival, they have caringly and cunningly retained such pearls from the show-stopping song: “If This Isn’t Love, I’m Carmen Miranda/ if this isn’t love, it’s red propaganda.” Indeed, I had to explain these lyrical references to my three grandkids, and also to point out that the opening number, This Time of the Year, was probably the first time a Broadway ensemble was comprised of African-Americans and whites sharing the stage equally. I relish the memory of that first production of Finian’s with the bravura performances of David Wayne as Og, Donald Richards as Woody, Ella Logan as Sharon and Anita Alvarez as Susan Mahoney, the Silent. Alvarez figured prominently in each of the subsequent three revivals. The first revival was a brief 15-show stint in 1955 at City Center with the under-appreciated actress/singer/dancer Helen Gallagher who played Sharon more winningly than Logan, Opposite her was Merv Griffin (yes, the very same) as Woody in his only Broadway credit. In 2004 I witnessed a delightful minimalist production Off-Broadway by the talented Irish Repertory Theater. This scintillating revival at the historic St. James Theater, has stellar performances from Kate Baldwin as Sharon, Alina Faye as Susan Mahoney, Christopher Fitzgerald as Og, Cheyenne Jackson as Woody, and Terri White as Dottie and Chuck Cooper in such show-stopping numbers as Necessity and The Begat. Towering above them all is the diminutive Jim Norton, that great Tony-winning Irish classical actor as Finian é féin [his very self], who sings, step-dances and sparks every scene in which he appears, without a scintilla of caricature. To paraphrase Joxer Daly from O’ Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, “he’s a darlin’ lad, a darlin’ lad.” It was my pleasure to interview Norton, in his dressing room at the St. James.

Click for Someone Sort of Grandish, Jim Norton.
For James Feinberg’s Review of Finian’s Rainbow. Click for Grandkid’s Eye View, November
For Abby Drucker’s and Lily Feinberg’s Reviews, Click for Grand Times with Your Grandkids, November.

Jude Law as the Melancholy Dane agonizes over the words of his father’s apparition who discloses the treachery of his Uncle Claudius.

Hamlet
Broadhurst
235 W. 44th St.
212-239-6200
Through Dec. 12
Hamlet as rock star! Who would have thought it? Well, Jude Law, like his neighbors a block away, Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, is packing them in at the Broadhurst. His out-traspective performance – in effect splitting the ears of the groundlings, was a Captain Marvel approach that I found more stimulating than those of Ralph Fiennes in 1995 and certainly Sam Waterson in a Shakespeare in the Park production some years back. The finest Hamlet on stage I’ve seen was the Richard Burton production in 1964. Notice I said “on stage” … for the Hamlet of Hamlets to me was Olivier’s memorable Oedipal approach in his 1948 movie, followed closely by Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 film. Mel Gibson’s forgettable 2000 stab actually excised the entire Players speech. There is no more important speech in all of Shakespeare since it is a paradigm of how the greatest of playwrights wanted his lines presented. Frankly my main disappointment with this production is that “Speak the speech I pray thee as a I pronounce it to you trippingly on the tongue and its remaining instructive orders from Hamlet to the chief player are inconveniently dropped. Yet, the redundant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern remain. As for the other roles, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was desultory as the fair Ophelia, while Ron Cook was ploddingly doctrinaire as that amiable bumbler Polonius, yet later he plays the Gravedigger so convincingly and humorously, that he reminded me of the great Stanley Holloway. I was also taken by Matt Ryan as Horatio and Gwulym Lee as Laertes.

Daniel Craig (foreground) and Hugh Jackman play two cops from Chicago’s mean streets.

A Steady Rain
Schoenfeld Theater
236 W. 45th St.
212-239-6200
The steadiest reign in town is abetted by a spare formula that practically guarantees big bucks for the most cautious producer. Hire two superstar heartthrobs (viz. Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.) Place them in a bare bones setting that makes Our Town seem opulent. Teach them to effect a Chicago accent as street cops and give them an 80-minute script that would pale against a Law and Order re-run.

Brighton Beach Memoirs
Nederland Theater
Opened Oct. 25; Final Performance Nov. 1
Here is Exhibit A of a show, garnering glowing reviews, but lacking a Jackman, Craig, Law or other star name (other than the writer Neil Simon), to preclude it from summarily closing in a week’s time. With the original quasi-biographical work fresh in mind from its 1983 debut, I frankly questioned the notion of bringing it and its sequel Broadway Bound (1986) back. Having seen it, I contend that this winning revival was notable for introducing the enormously talented and funny Noah Robbins in his Broadway debut to New York audiences as young Eugene Jerome, a role for which he was better suited than Matthew Broderick who received a Tony as best Featured Actor.

Jon Michael Hill (left) is Franco Wicks and Michael McKean is Arthur Przybyszewski in playwright Tracy Letts’ engaging comedy-drama. Photo: Richard J. Saferstein.

Superior Donuts
Music Box
239 W. 45th St.
212-239-6200
Playwright Tracy Letts, late of Chicago’s Steppenwolf, who last season walked away with both the Pulitzer Prize and Tony for his meritorious August: Osage County, has penned the freshest new play of this season. In a charming variation of The Odd Couple, Arthur Przybyszewski, the philosophical pony-tailed proprietor of a donut and coffee shop matches wits and sentiments with a teen, Franco Wicks, who practically wills his way into a janitorial job with the gentle Mr. P. In the process, John Michael Hill as Franco brings an enterprising spirit, incandescent charm and not a few laughs to a shop that has gone into disrepair, and lifts the spirits of the insouciant widower shopkeeper, played congenially by Michael McKean. Franco’s penchant for gambling with knee-breaking street hoods is the major source of conflict in the proceedings. It is also the comedy’s one weakness. Nonetheless, I do hope that your unfamiliarity with the two lead actors doesn’t deter you from seeing this vastly entertaining play.

The Royal Family
Samuel. J. Friedman Theater
261 W. 47th St.
212-239-6200
Through Dec. 13.
In 1975 I saw a revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s 1927 regal comedy inspired by the Barrymore acting dynasty. I remember it for the uniform excellence of the cast, especially Eve Le Gallienne as the family matriarch Fanny Cavendish and an exquisite ingénue Rosemary Harris who played Fanny’s daughter, Julie. At 82 Harris has stepped seamlessly into the Fanny role, and Jan Maxwell is a sublime Julie, the reigning queen of the Great White Way. There is little else to recommend about a creaky production that could use a double spritzing of WD- 40, save that of the typically arresting faithful-to-the-era scenic design by John Lee Beatty.

Charlayne Woodard.

The Night Watcher
59 E 59 St. Theaters
Opened Oct. 6; Final Performance Oct. 30
From Whoopie Goldberg to Anne Deavere Smith to Charlayne Woodard, talented and amusing though they be, predictably hip autobiographical solo performances about the modern black woman’s experience, have begun to numb my psyche like a booster of Novocain.

Bye Bye Birdie
Roundabout Theater Production
Henry Miller’s Theater
124 West 43rd St.
212-239-6200
Through April 25, 2010
It is a fair assumption that on any given day, Bye Bye Birdie, which was spawned in the wake of Elvis Presley’s unanticipated induction in the U. S. Army, may be the most performed musical in the 50 states, if you count high school and summer stock groups. Disclosure: my grandson appeared in BBB in his senior year, which putting aside the kvell factor, I found to be disarmingly fresh and spirited. And of course Charles Strouse’s music (Put On A Happy Face) and Lee Adams witty lyrics (Kids “What’s the matter with kids today?) in the right hands (Read: Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, Paul Lynde) could well ensure a socko revival. Two performers comport themselves admirably, in the face of desultory staging, one being Jane Houdyshell (who shone off-Broadway in The Receptionist) as Mae Peterson. She is Mom to the romantic lead Albert Peterson; the other being Noland Gerard Funk in his Broadway debut as Conrad Birdie, the Elvis character. John Stamos – he of ER fame – as Albert, veteran musical comedy performer Dee Hoty as Mrs. Patterson, mother of teenager Kim, and Gina Gershon as Rose Alvarez, Albert’s secretary and girlfriend are all in thankless roles. Bill Irwin, mime and dramatic actor par excellence, never had a misstep in his distinguished stage career… until now. As Harry MacAfee, whose daughter, Kim (Allie Trimm), a Conrad Birdie Fan Club member, is selected to be kissed by her idol on The Ed Sullivan Show, his buffoonery is bizarre, his singing is stilted and his stage walk appears to be the end result of a proctoscopy. It is difficult for me to equate the verity that the feeble direction and choreography by Robert Longbottom is by the same artist who did it so brilliantly for the under-appreciated musical Side Show of 1997.

Memphis
Shubert Theater
225 W. 44th St.
212-239-6200
Now if only Charles Strouse and Lee Adams' Bye Bye Birdie score could be injected into Memphis, you might have a musical for the ages. This homage to 1950s rock ’n’ roll has a ton of fine performers, dancers and singers who light up the stage, albeit with mostly forgettable songs. The singular exception is The Music of My Soul, sung by two exciting singer/actors, Chad Kimball as Huey, a high school dropout and white man with a love of the black vernacular of rock and roll and Montego Glover as Felicia a black soul mate to Huey.

Wendell Pierce is William King in Lincoln Center Theater's "Broke-ology."

‘Broke-Ology’
Lincoln Center Theater
Mitzi Newhouse
150 W. 65th St.
212-239-6200
Through Nov. 22 
Nathan Louis Jackson’s earnest, but slight play, directed by Thomas Kail, takes place in Kansas City, Kansas in 2009 with flashbacks to 1982. The principals are the King family, consisting of a father, William, afflicted by MS, played with characteristic humor and grace by Wendell Pierce and his two sons, Ennis, Francois Battiste and Malcolm, Alano Miller, who are conflicted by the necessity of personally caring for their father, vis-à-vis selecting an assisted living center of dubious quality. The fourth cast principal, Crystal A. Dickinson (their deceased mother Sonia) reappears intermittently and affectionately to William. As many of you recall, Pierce’s portrayal of the cigar-chomping, iconoclastic detective, Bunk Moreland, helped make HBO’s The Wire, - along with its Baltimore- centered predecessor Homicide: Life on the Streets, perhaps the finest of TV series.

MOVIES

Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart. © Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Amelia crashes and burns amid poor plot development .
By Zach Drucker
The classic holiday fruitcake combines ingredients like dried fruits, nuts and sugar. Alone, these items are tasty treats, but when mixed together to form a fruitcake, the seemingly scrumptious ingredients typically make for a clustered, unpleasant mess. Director Mira Nair’s latest film, “Amelia” (2009), a biographical flick about American aviatrix Amelia Earhart, blends a story about a global icon with a two-time Academy Award winner, two prominent leading men and a $40 million budget, to make … well, a fruitcake. The film features poor individual performances with a boring, disjointed script, resulting in a weak tribute to Earhart’s legacy. Riding the coattails of successful biopics like “Ray” (2004), “Walk the Line” (2005) and “Public Enemies” (2009), “Amelia” was expected to hit theaters with a bang. The film follows the life of Earhart, the Kansas native who gained celebrity status after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928. It stars Hillary Swank in the title role, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor. The film delves into Earhart’s acquaintance with George P. Putnam (Gere), a publisher and Earhart’s future husband, who sponsors her transatlantic flight in order to provide a story for a book he can later publish. Earhart is only a passenger during her first transatlantic flight, as two male copilots control the plane. Upon returning to America, Earhart dedicates her time to delivering speeches and breaking barriers for female pilots as she works towards her goal of a solo flight across the Atlantic. Earhart’s relationship with Putnam escalates quite quickly and expediently in the film, but the focus is mainly on Earhart’s professional goals. After completing a solo flight across the Atlantic, Earhart attempts her ultimate objective, a flight around the world. She takes off with her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), though her dreams come to a mysterious and heartbreaking end. Splicing vignettes of her childhood into the larger story of her attempt at a flight around the world, “Amelia” is a visual masterpiece. Shots of Earhart’s Electra airplane soaring over stunning mountaintops and rolling desert plains are a highlight of the film. Aside from its aesthetically pleasing scenes, though, the film fails to entertain audiences and it needlessly idealizes Earhart. In biographical films, viewers thirst for dark secrets to be revealed, for characters to be humanized. In the successful “Ray,” fans got a snapshot of Ray Charles’ personal life, including the death of his brother and his drug addiction. “Amelia,” though it includes several scenes centering on Earhart’s extramarital relationship with Gene Vidal (McGregor), does not depart from the perspective of the tabloids as they portrayed her back in the 1930s — as an eternally cheery and moral individual. Swank keeps a gaping smile plastered to her face throughout the film, and her character’s affair with Vidal is downplayed. Swank gives a forgettable performance. She has an uncomfortable southern drawl and has not looked this androgynous since her Academy Award-winning performance in “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999). Gere and McGregor are solid as always, but the script fails to provide their respective characters with much substance. The entire film feels like a series of events rather than a collective, coherent story. “Amelia” leaves audiences yearning for more drama. While there is opportunity for suspense in the scene leading up to Earhart’s mysterious disappearance at sea, it is frittered away by a lengthy back-and-forth between Earhart and air traffic controllers at Howler’s Island. Aside from a scene or two alluding to Earhart’s alcoholic father and subsequent disdain for drunkards, the film does not cut to the core of Earhart’s personal character. When a film is concentrated on one individual, it must develop that individual’s character rather than merely recount a series of events in that person’s life. “Amelia” is overly ornate and is ultimately tedious. For a salute to the legacy of American heroine Amelia Earhart, viewers are better off watching Amy Adams’ performance in “Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian” (2009) than heading to theaters to see “Amelia.”

Ed. Note: We thank Tufts Daily for permission to reprint Zach Drucker’s column.

Matt Damon as Mark Whitaker. © Warner Bros. Pictures

The Informant!
Under Steve Soderbergh’s riveting direction, a plumped-up Matt Damon demonstrates his flair for fussy, understated comedy as the whistle-blower biochemist/executive Mark Whitacre who provided the FBI with scores of tape that implicated his firm Archer Daniels Midland in a global price-fixing scheme.

An Education
I ventured to this movie, because of the high praise it received from many of my friends. Though it takes place in Britain in the 1960s and concerns two disparate people ostensibly in love, Brief Encounter it is not. In point of fact I cannot think of one moment of the 100 minutes of this movie that had a single redeeming quality. I was incensed by the smarminess of a man in his 30s, David (Peter Sarsgaard – whom I saw on Broadway last season in Kristen Ann Thomas’ The Seagull) cozying up to a cute and bright bound-for-Oxford teenager , Jenny (Carey Mulligan) and patiently playing her like the cello she dragged in the rain when he offered her a ride home - until that inevitable day when he would compromise her virginity. Worse than the unctuousness of this smooth talker, was his predilection for gouging a fat fee from black families on whose behalf he surreptitiously purchased or leased a flat while snatching up heirlooms or artwork at distress prices from the former occupants. I especially deplored the fact that this rapacious ne’er-do-well was Jewish. It defies logic that the duplicitous David charms the hell out of Jenny’s unworldly father, played with astonishing ineptitude by Alfred Molina. Emma Thompson – badly wigged, for some unaccountable reason has a ludicrous cameo role as headmistress of Jenny’s school.

MUSEUMS/GALLERIES

George Caleb Bingham, 1811–1879. The Jolly Flatboatmen , 1846. Oil on canvas

American Stories; Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
(212) 535-7710
Through Jan. 24, 2010
On three separate and fulfilling occasions, I have viewed The Met’s brilliant treasure trove of American stories from the War of Independence, the settling of the West, the Civil War, slavery and tenements of the Lower East Side with and without my grandchildren. Kudos to the MMA curatorial staff for an immensely able job of summoning up paintings from 45 museums and galleries large and small as well as from private collections The nine galleries of 103 pieces of art are at once historically and intrinsically noteworthy.

For more on American Stories; Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915
Click : My Kind of New York – Grand Times with Your Grandkids – November 2009

Kandinsky
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Ave. @ 89 th St.
(212) 423-3500
Through Jan. 13.
This full-scale retrospective of nearly 100 paintings of Vasily Kandinsky— visionary artist, theorist, and pioneer of abstraction—surveys his most significant canvases from 1907 to 1942, drawn primarily from the three largest repositories of the artist’s work—the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau in Munich—as well as from significant private and public collections.

For James Feinberg’s take on the exhibition, Click: Grandkid’s Eye View Nov. 2009.

Gustav KLIMT (1862-1918) “Portrait of a Child.” 1885-86
Charcoal and pencil with white heightening on paper.
Serge Sabarsky Collection, New York

From Klimt to Klee:
Masterworks from the Serge Sabarsky Collection
Neue Gallerie
1048 5th Ave. & 86th St.
212-628-6200
Through Feb. 15, 2010
My wife and I had the pleasure of being escorted through the beautifully designed halls housing this fascinating exhibition, by Leah Ammon, Communications Manager for the museum. The Neue Galerie continues growing in its holdings and reputation since its grand opening in 2001. Serge Sabarsky together with his friend Ronald S. Lauder brought to fruition a permanent home in the United States for German and Austrian art and design of the 20 th century.

“Cartouche” Rosemary Connor

“Spacious Skies,” Rosemary Connor

Rosemary Connor – “Harvest Time”
30 Bridge St. Building
New Milford Connecticut
860-354-8433
Through Dec. 18
I have long admired the oil landscapes of a friend Rosemary Connor and am very taken with some of her recent works on display in New Milford Ct, particularly the two from her Harvest Time series.