| . | 03/08/2009
EDITOR’S NOTES: Shrek, 33 Variations, Guys & Dolls, Ruined, The Savannah Disputation
By: Jeannie Lieberman
 Maybe it’s because the critics trashed Guys & Dolls that I approached it with a jaundiced eye keen on spotting flaws. Instead I was enthralled by Director Des McAnuff’s delightfully clever touches spicing up this extremely good-willed, fast paced musical treasure. Adelaide is an irresistible Marilyn Monroe/Judy Holliday/Betty Hutton confection and you cannot resist the score –wish my fellow critics would stop carping and let us go to the theater just to enjoy ourselves - old fashioned idea in an old fashioned musical – and the antidote for today’s miseries.
(see Jeanne Lieberman’s review to come)
Maybe it because I know first hand the horrors of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the cruelest of diseases that leaves your mind intact while your body robs you of all functions until it kills you, and that I just cannot become fascinated by Beethoven’s somewhat esoteric opus, but I found 33 Variations a tedious, long night, and the Pollyanna- ish attempt to downplay one and play up the other, and wrap both in a transcendental cloak unconvincing despite the cool competence of la Fonda and Moises Kaufman’s skilled writing. I am sure it will attract critical acclaim and Fonda will pull them in, but I’d rather sit in a dentist’s chair… at least they give you gas.
(see Simon Saltzman’s review)
Maybe its because I was apprehensive about the play’s horrible theme of rape and mutilation of women in the midst of civil war in the Congo, but Lynne Nottage‘s Ruined is the best play of the season hands down! The constant danger of the women and the pathos of their past is suffused with humor, each character so compelling I was spellbound till its upbeat end.–
(see Victor Gluck’s review)
Maybe its because I like my princes tall dark and handsome, my princesses fair and pretty, fairytale characters sugar coated and all ending with the proverbial happy- ever-after kiss, NOT a grossly overweight Green monster, who makes his entrance from an outhouse, a short tempered bi-polar princess with a nasty secret, nursery rhyme characters imperiled by an evil prince with such a shortcoming that he is hysterically funny, all manipulated by an annoying talking mule, I had to drag myself to Shrek the musical. Instead I wanted to jump onstage and just hug Brian d’Arcy James’ loveable green ogre and give a high five to Sutton Foster’s gutsy princess, as well as Christopher Sieber‘s hilarious prince and hang out with Daniel Breaker, the motor mouthed donkey. Smart & sassy it will entertain grownups as well as the giggling kids. Go!
(see Eugene Paul’s review)
Maybe its because the play, The Savannah Disputation, was somewhat ponderously billed as a debate between a Catholic spinster and a Pentecostal minister, that, being Jewish, I thought it would be N/A but, with a cast that includes Dana Ivey and Reed Birney, and some good press, I was enticed to go…and happily so. In Evan Smith’s script everyone ends up more pithy than originally portrayed: Dana Ivey as the crusty old Catholic is not as tough as nails, Kellie Overbey as the intruding young evangelical is not as ditzy, and Reed Birney as their laconic Catholic priest eventually kicks in, but Marylouise Burke stays comfortingly the same as the gentle impressionable sister who creates the confrontation. Suffused with humor and good performances the show was surprisingly informative to this outsider. Go.
Playwrights Horizons, 416 W 42, 212 279-4200
More later…………..Jeannie Lieberman, editor
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