Review: The
Nance
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| Nathan Lane commands the stage in his latest tour de force performance, as the title character in Douglas Carter Beane's The Nance. |
After
several forays into the world of musical theatre bookwriting, Douglas Carter
Beane returns to his roots as a serio-comedic playwright with The Nance, his latest Broadway venture
that is recently finished up its run at the Lyceum Theatre (and will be
recorded for broadcast on PBS). And
while the play is certainly a more accomplished work than any of his musical
outings, it remains a frustratingly conflicted piece that attempts a variety of
things without fully succeeding at any of them.
The play wants to be a probing character study but fails to really
explore the motivations of its protagonist.
It wants to make an admittedly topical political statement but ends up
feeling preachy and pedantic rather than relevant and illuminating. It wants to be both a serious drama and a
low-brow comedy, but rather than complimenting one another each of these
disparate elements continually undercuts the effectiveness of the other.
But at the
play’s center is a Herculean performance so electric, so accomplished in its
specificity and authenticity that it almost succeeds in elevating the play to
the lofty realms which it so obviously aspires to. Nathan Lane’s work as protagonist Chauncey
Mills is nothing short of extraordinary, reasserting his status as one of the
most accomplished stage actors of his generation. With no disrespect meant to his very talented
costars, Lane acts circles around everyone else onstage, and actually manages
to make the play’s disparate tones seem organic and even necessary.
The plot
centers on Lane’s Chauncey Mills character, a man who has made a name for
himself doing burlesque skits in Depression Era New York City. Mills’ signature role is that of the overtly
effeminate stock character dubbed “The Nance,” a professional choice made
infinitely more complex by the fact that Mills is himself gay. After years of anonymous sex with strangers,
Mills seduces a young man named Ned who is just coming to grips with his own
sexuality, and to the surprise of both men they find themselves entering a
long-term relationship together.
Meanwhile, Mills’ burlesque theatre and his act in particular are coming
under increasing pressure from city officials taking a stance against
indecency, forcing the outspoken Mills to make a choice between being himself
and suppressing his true nature to fit in.
It cannot be
overstated how brilliant Nathan Lane is in the central role. From the opening
moments of the show until the final curtain, Lane dominates the stage and
exhibits such mastery of his craft that even his accomplished costars look like
amateurs in comparison. The play gives
him ample opportunity to demonstrate his dramatic chops, while simultaneously
providing him with an unending string of zingers and comic bits that utilize
his unparalleled sense of comedic timing.
Throughout the play we are treated to excerpts from Mills’ stage act,
and Lane absolutely kills in these scenes of perfectly reconstructed vaudeville
comedy. Where a normal actor would earn
one laugh Lane manages to get three, often by using little more than a cock of
the eyebrow or a sideways glance at the audience. More miraculous still is Lane’s ability to
make such carefully calculated choices feel utterly spontaneous, leaving the
audience with the impression that this virtuosic performance is being created
from scratch each night.
And while none
of his costars are operating on Lane’s level (there are few actors in the world
that could match such inspired lunacy), the rest of the cast turns in fine performances
in their own right. In his Broadway
debut, Jonny Orsini charts a beautifully realized journey of self-acceptance as
Mills’ lover Ned, and watching him realize that his sexuality doesn’t automatically
prevent him from enjoying the perks of a domesticated life is particularly
poignant in this time when marriage equality is on the forefront of the
national debate. If there is one
criticism of Orsini’s performance it’s that he plays the character rather dumb,
which at times comes into direct conflict with the highly literate dialogue
playwright Beane has provided all of the characters.
Lewis J.
Stadlen plays the lovably gruff Efram with aplomb, and makes an excellent foil
for Lane during the burlesque skits that are the show’s highlight. In a lesser actor’s hands Efram’s discomfort
with Mills’ sexuality would make him the clear villain of the piece, but
Stadlen tempers his performance with enough begrudging respect to make it clear
that Efram isn’t a bad person. As the
trio of burlesque dancers that work at the same theatre, Cady Huffman, Jenni
Barber and Andrea Burns make for excellent support, although the writing
doesn’t do enough to differentiate their three characters. Huffman (reunited with Lane after they both
won Tonys for The Producers a decade
ago) makes the strongest impression, although she is unfortunately saddled with
the most overtly political and unnecessarily knowing dialogue.
Director
Jack O’Brien keeps the evening moving at a steady pace, and during the show’s
final twenty minutes manages to synthesize the disparate bits and repeating motifs
into something resembling resonance. He
is aided immensely by John Lee Beaty’s marvel of a rotating set, which allows
for virtually seamless transitions from one locale to the next. Ann Roth clearly had a ball with the period
costumes, and her designs for the burlesque outfits in particular possess just
the right amount of winking outlandishness.
The lights and sound by Japhy Weideman and Leon Rothenberg get the job
done but aren’t particularly memorable, and the original music by Glen Kelly is
a nice if unassuming addition to the proceedings.
Ultimately, The Nance’s primary reason for being is
to provide Nathan Lane with a showcase for his immense talents, and in that
respect it succeeds wholeheartedly. The
comedic genius’ work manages to elevate Douglas Carter Beane’s passable script
into something approaching greatness, and everyone involved has graciously taken
a backseat while letting the master work his magic. It is a worthwhile evening for those who are
interested, although I do hope that Lane’s next Broadway outing is in a vehicle
more worthy of his extraordinary gifts.
