Clifford Odets’ play GOLDEN BOY is as alive today as it was in 1937 in a splendid production directed by Bartlett Sher with a brilliantly designed cityscape set by Peter John Still and Marc Salzberg. The story of a working class boy with a talent for the violin who becomes a boxer is vividly played by Seth Numrich who gives full range of emotional depth as well as a powerful physicality to his role. The beautiful Yvonne Strahovski is striking as Lorna, his love, and most of the large cast well communicate the angst, the dreams, the insecurities, the intricacies of that time. The play is full of poetic phrases expressing the innermost feelings of family, cohorts, and the underworld of the fight game— a kind of writing rarely seen today. If you’re a Theatre lover, make sure you catch this one.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

VOLPONE by Ben Johnson, first performed over 400 years ago, still entertains as a cynical exposure of greed. Stephen Spinella plays the title role as a fey farceur with a padded crotch and a kind of graceful vulgarity as he feigns illness and near death to squeeze gifts from the people who hope to be his inheritors, who each give expensive tributes and parade their greed, with the connivance of Mosca (Cameron Folman), chief assistant and parasite to Volpone. A chorus of three servants in fantastical costumes (by the inspired Clint Ramos) and zany makeup who sing, dance and cavort throughout the play: a dwarf, and two transvestites— one a eunuch, the other a hermaphrodite (Teale Sperling, Sean Patrick Doyle and Alexander Sovronsky), give us tight, lively, well-choreographed (by Tracy Bersley) ongoing mischief. Rocco Sisto, Michael Mastro and my old early Mime teacher, the marvelously comedic antique Alvin Epstein, all bring conviction and verve to their portrayals of greedy suitors. Then a splendid theatrical tornado enters the scene: the magnificent Tovah Feldshuh, the most stylized in manner and gown of them all. Her great comic presence fills the theatre-- her every bark sparks laughs. The entire spot-on cast is directed with great flair by Jesse Berger on John Arnone’s imaginative, stylized, very artistic set. Spinella is quite amazing: he even sings; and he is surely game to perform all the ridiculous exaggerated Commedia he does with full confidence. Does he get his comuppance? Go find out, Dahling— you’ll have a good time.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

In all my years of working in and reviewing Theatre, I have rarely seen an ensemble that reaches the level of the four amazing performers in the very splashy FORBIDDEN BROADWAY. Natalie Charlé Ellis, Scott Richard Foster, Jenny Lee Stern and Marcus Stevens, all superb physical comedians, extraordinary impressionists and top level singers with great range, inflections and power, satirize most of what is playing on Broadway, give impressions of singing stars that are absurdly accurate, and all show a range of talent that is the best there is. Philip Heckman’s costumes are inspired-- lush, stylized, and, in a classy way, ridiculous. Set by Megan K. Halpern and lighting by Mark T. Simpson work perfectly, and wigs by Bobbie Cliffton Zlotnick are inspired. Gerard Alessandrini, who created the original, tops himself in the brilliance of the humor that he wrote for this rendition of F B, and as directed by him and Phillip George, it’s a laugh-filled show, performed by the best comic ensemble in town.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Nancy Redman is a top-level comedian whose very funny one woman show EMERGENCY A LA CARTE is an encounter with Death. We learn the comedian’s obligation: Kill or Die. She jokes to assuage Death, and she’s terrific, with a great sense of the incongruous— joke after joke works: laugh after laugh. Directed with perfect timing by Austin Pendleton, the show builds to Redman’s impersonation of her grandmother, who has a different voice, and then to a zippy segment of great one-liners, and finally to a warm, rather serious section about the death of a boyfriend at the end. Redman is a mature, first class, fully developed comedian, and it’s a pleasure to be entertained by someone who has “climbed the ladder,” rather than someone who is a “fast-rising comedian,” as in most of the comedy clubs. Her show will tickle your fancy, your mind and your sensibility. This is a funny lady. Long may she wave.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Do you have a sense of adventure? An appetite for the odd, strange, bizarre? Performance Art filled with lots of action and surprises? Try The New Stage Theatre Company’s GARDEN OF DELIGHTS by Feranado Arrabal as imaginatively directed by Ildiko Nemeth at the Theatre for the New City. It’s Theatre of the Absurd plus DaDa. A Movie Star (the beautiful, flexible and delightful Kaylin Lee Clinton who does some of the oddest dance movements I’ve ever seen) who has a grotesque lackey (Chris Tanner) she keeps in a cage, peeks back at her past in an orphanage and at her climb. Elements included are a chorus of nine adorable girls as sheep in wooly white wigs and brief costumes choreographed like Rockettes by Catherine Correa and Nemeth, a mysterious bringer (Brandon Olson), Ave Maria sung to the accompaniment of farts. The designers, Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger, provide a simple clean set of flats with marvelous projections playing on them, including Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, and a huge egg as a prop, and there is a terrific soundscape with music by Jon Gilbert Leavitt. Lighting by Federico Restrepo enhances everything. Nemet has directed with great timing and synchronization of sound, projections and acting, and she can capture you into the strange Arrabal’s surreal universe: an artistic adventure well done.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Kathie Lee Gifford’s show SCANDALOUS (she wrote the book, lyrics and some of the music— David Pomeranz and David Friedman wrote most of the catchy, memorable music) about the life and career of the famous/infamous super evangelist Amy Semple McPherson, who brought theatricality to preaching, is a well-written, terrific musical that grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let go. It starts with a gospel opening, and when Carolee Carmello, playing Amy, opened up her pipes, she had me. Her performance grows, and blossoms. As Amy’s life is played out on the farm, in the city, through Deco, etc., as time passes, the fearless designer Walt Spangler presents a fresh imaginative look at each period and setting with stylized powerful suggestions of the literal through abstract designs. Natasha Katz’s lighting sizzles and enhances. Period costumes by Gregory A. Poplyk are spectacular. Edward Watts, good looking, with a powerful voice, shines as her first husband, the dark haired Semple, then as her magnificently-built blonde stud. George Hearn gives a couple of strong characters as her father and as her preaching adversary, and Candy Buckley shines in the emotionally complex role of her mother. Roz Ryan an Andrew Samonsky are exellent as friend and second husband, McPherson. The cast is highly energetic, full of exuberant talent, and the snappy dances by Lorin Latarro are liberally sprinkled with humor. There’s even an Irish jig early on. It’s a party! As directed by David Armstrong, SCHNDALOUS, for me, has no low spots— I was totally engaged by this Big Broadway Musical that gives us vivid insights into a bigger-than-life American icon.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Workshop Theater Company’s show of seven one-acts, COLD SNAPS, gives us a well-produced, enjoyable presentation of plays written by their members: “The Latest News from the Primordial Ooze” by Rich Orloff, a cute, zany, display of evolution from the aquatic; “Look me in the Eyes” by Margo Hammond about couple communication; “Sugarplum” by Scott C. Sickles, a surreal psychotic nightmare about a mental patient cleverly staged by Ryan Lee; “To Build a Fire” by Greg Oliver Bodine about two men freezing in the wilderness; “To Live” by Bob Manus about two holocaust prisoners making choices to survive a vicious Nazi, “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” by Robert Strozier about daters meeting and “Nine Moons Ago” by Anne Fizzard, a very cute piece about two cave women with babies. The acting by this troupe is all quite good, quite believable, except for one glaring example of overacting by giving a gesture for every word, a facial change for every other word. I won’t name the poor man, who somehow is a member of Actors Equity. All I can do is give two quotes: Alfred Lunt said the secret of acting is “Say the lines loud and clear, and don’t bump into the furniture,” and “The Method” says “Don’t ACT— just think the thoughts and say the lines.” But this is a quibble-- COLD SNAPS is a rewarding evening of innovative Theatre performed by a talented company. I look forward to their next venture.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

The opening beat of GRACE by Craig Wright starts with a BANG! A strange, very nervous man (Paul Rudd) shoots himself and others. We seem to have a dissolve, and the play starts as a flashback. Beowulf Borritt’s artistic, imaginative set has two neighboring apartments occupying the same space, all in a kind of mystical oval background, one with a religious couple (the scripture-spouting fanatical Jesus purveyor Rudd and his also religiously-saturated wife Kate Arrington) who have come to Florida to open a chain of Gospel Motels, and one with a wounded man (Michael Shannon) who has lost his woman in an auto accident. Ed Asner enters each apartment as an exterminator. His performance is stylized-- an accent, an odd walk-- an actor showing a character rather than being it— but he’s quite entertaining. He claims to be an old German (no tattoos) who hid Jews in WW II and was forced to do an abominable act, and I believe him, because of other information that comes out at the end, but his accent is not German— it’s Yiddish. Who cares? It’s Ed Asner, and it’s great to see him on the stage again. The theme seems to be: “Is There a God?” mixed with a real estate scam. Rudd fills the stage as a big handsome enthusiastic exuberant galoot. Arrington has a lovely feminine sensitivity, and I believe what she says and does as she goes through a transition. Michael Shannon, for me, steals the show. He’s a man with a deep inner life— a totally believable portrayal filled with undercurrents that peek out in his fascinating performance. He has the intensity of a Steve McQueen. The entire hour and a half show, clearly directed by Dexter Bullard, with brilliant lighting by David Weiner, is theatrically fascinating— gripping.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

THE GOLDEN LAND, a period musical created by Zalmen Mlotek & Moishe Rosenfeld in 1985, and now directed with great timing and verve by Bryna Wasserman, is a sweet show about the immigrant experiences of Eastern European Jews in the late 1800’s,the 1910’s and in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. With a high-level cast of terrific singer/dancers: Bob Adler, Cooper Grodin, Stacey Harris, Andrew Keltz, Daniella Rabbani and Sandy Rosenberg, it’s a simple story well done, filled with a sweet nostalgia and Yiddish-flavored tunes as they arrive, find work, have labor troubles, the Triangle Fire in 1911, become citizens, and go through WW I. There is a terrific, stirring Anthem for Justice as the Act 1 finale. Act 2 is the American experience: numbers about moving to the Bronx, the Yiddish Theatre with Shakespeare being performed in Yiddish. Jews creating the movie industry (cute stuff), Yiddish radio commercials on WEVD, the 1929 crash, 30’s, The Depression (Brother Can You Spare A Dime?), visas denied to Jews, a fine rendition of “Romania, Romania.” And a Holocaust reflection. Throughout the show I had urges to get up and dance along with the cast who bounced with Deanna Dys’ choreography. The spare two level imaginative set by Roger Hanna works perfectly, as does the excellent lighting by Brian W. Barnett. And there are wonderful costumes, changing with the periods, by Natasha Landau. This is a first class musical production by Folksbiene, The National Yiddish Theatre, and don’t worry about the Yiddish— it’s almost entirely in English, with any Yiddish you need to know immediately translated. A great musical time was had by all-- did I say the singers were all Broadway-level? They are. Thru December 2nd at The Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lex. 866/811-4111.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Nov. 9

THE PERFORMERS by David West Read, set at The Adult Film Awards, is real Theatre of the Absurd, and is also a wicked weird reality, that pushes boundaries in subject matter and language that is hilarious as porn stars get ready for their big night. The magnificent Cheyenne Jackson plays the main contender, and he has an amazing depth of humor in his portrayal of his truly stupid character (as well as the best body in town). Ari Graynor as his wife and sometimes co-star has a charming density and the timing of a master. Jenni Barber as the inflated blonde is perfect, Daniel Breaker as Jackson’s square interviewer and friend is a fine contrast to the others, all of whom, though totally believable, are caricatures in some way. The gorgeous Alicia Silverstone as the fiancé of Breaker takes her transformation in the play to almost unimaginable heights, and Henry Winkler, master comedian, masters his role of the old, old porn star. It’s really fun to see him on the stage. The premise? There are two: 1. Jackson is sure he’ll win. 2. His wife is furious with him because he kissed the blonde on the mouth. Director Evan Cabnet is a comic genius-- he guides his cast into absolute believability as they take comic business yea beyond anything on Broadway except perhaps The Book of Mormon. Anna Louizos’ marvelous set becomes part of the action as it dissolves from scene to scene, Lighting by Jeff Croiter is perfect, and Jessica Wegner Shay’s costumes are brilliant-- they enhance and magnify each character. I laughed so much I stopped taking notes-- I didn’t want to miss a line or a physical action or expression of these super comedians.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com

5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood has a great title. Directed by Sarah Gitenstein, it’s a silly show by five actresses trying to be funny at a quiche breakfast, all but one from the same small town, each with a different accent. The foolishness drones on and on until an atomic bomb falls (it’s 1956 and their meeting place is bomb-proof). Now the play begins-- confessions, relationships, confessions (yes, they are lesbians). It takes a long time to get there, but eventually we get to one of the funniest brief moments you’ll ever see- a consequence of the atomic activity. The set by Kevin McClintock is fine, as is lighting by Nicholas J. Carroll, and Nathan R. Rohree’s costumes are stylized versions of the period that enhance the proceedings. The five women, playing airheads, Caitlin Chuckta, Rachel Farmer, Megan Johns, Thea Lux, Maari Suorsas and the director make the most of a vacuous play.

Richmond Shepard—Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.