50 Years Old and as Fresh as Ever

Review: The Boys in the Band

From left to right: Charlie Carver, Andrew Rannells, Tuc Watkins, Jim Parsons, Robin de Jesus, Matt Bomer, and Zachary Quinto in The Boys in the Bands.

There is a moment in The Boys in the Band, Mart Crowley's groundbreaking 1968 play about a group of gay New Yorkers, where the men dial back their effeminate behavior to avoid upsetting a less-than-accepting party crasher. Watching the star-studded ensemble of openly gay actors subtly modify their body language, mannerisms, and vocal inflections in order to "pass" for straight is both breathtaking in its simplicity and profoundly moving, a wonderfully naturalistic moment that encapsulates everything that is exceptional about Joe Mantello's first rate production. These men - both the characters and the out and proud actors who portray them - are intimately familiar with that particular conflict between being your authentic self and trying desperately not to rock the boat for fear of retribution, and that bubbling undercurrent of internalized homophobia informs every aspect of Crowley's deceptively powerful script.

The premise of The Boys in the Band, like many great dramas before and after it, involves a group of people gathering together, drinking heavily, and proceeding to eviscerate one another while dealing with years of emotional baggage. In this case, the group is a collection of gay men throwing a birthday party for their friend Harold in the opulently appointed apartment of Michael. Initially a joyous if somewhat catty celebration - the men throw shade at one another with pinpoint accuracy thanks to Crowley's caustically funny one liners - things take a dark turn when Michael's possibly closeted college roommate crashes the party and takes offense at the blatantly fay behavior on display. When the mental stress causes a previously sober Michael to fall off the wagon, the claws come out and no one is safe from his unmitigated rage.

It is shocking how immediate and relevant Crowley's script remains a half century after its initial premiere, a fascinating example of both how much and how little has changed about gay culture in the intervening decades. Stonewall, the AIDS crisis, and marriage equality have all seismically altered gay life in America, and yet many of the issues facing the characters in Crowley's play are the same as those that gay men grapple with today. There's the self-loathing that comes from growing up in an environment that states, either implicitly or explicitly, that it would be better if you weren't gay, and the lifelong effect that has on one's ability to connect with other human beings. There's the question of what exactly a loving homosexual relationship should look like: should it mirror the monogamous template favored by heterosexual couples, or is an open arrangement that allows for other sexual partners a viable alternative? Does the constant belittlement gay men experience excuse their tendency to inflict the same kind of taunts on one another, and how is that compounded when discussing queer people of color?

All of these issued are embodied by an impeccably cast ensemble of top tier talent. Jim Parsons is close to a revelation as Michael, the party's host and evening's protagonist. While the play's opening scenes allow the Emmy-winning television star to rely mostly on the skills that have served him so well on The Big Bang Theory, once Michael turns to drink the actor goes into much darker and more surprising territory. The ferocity with which Parsons turns on his supposed friends is astounding, and like the characters in the play you find yourself becoming more and more terrified of the unbridled malice he displays. And when Michael finally crumbles under the weight of what he's done, Parsons bares his soul in a raw and emotionally devastating climax that will leave you stunned speechless.

Two-time Tony-nominee Robin de Jesus also shines as Emory, the most flamboyant and overtly femme member of the group. de Jesus is responsible for many of the evening's biggest belly laughs thanks to his impeccably timed delivery, but it's his gut wrenching monologue about Emory's difficult childhood that leaves the longest lasting impression. Tuc Watkins and Tony-nominee Andrew Rannells bring believable depth and complexity to their fraught onstage relationship as two men with very different ideas of what commitment looks like, a relationship which ends up being one of the more uplifting storylines of the evening. And in a less showy role, Matt Bomer makes a confident Broadway debut as Michael's sometimes-lover and the oft-ignored voice of reason.

Director Joe Mantello has once again worked his magic here, subtly but assuredly guiding his actors' performances so that every bit of stage business further reveals either character or plot. His beautifully understated direction belies the extreme specificity used to usher this work onto the Great White Way - the original production ran for over 1000 performances Off-Broadway, but this is the show's Broadway premiere - amping up the emotion while maintaining the intimacy and even claustrophobia necessary to make the drama really land. Mantello's pacing is first-rate, giving this intermissionless work room to breath without ever letting it drag, and cultivating an ever-growing sense of dread as both the audience and the characters realize they are getting far more than they signed on for. And the way Mantello deploys his actors over David Zinn's spectacularly varied unit set ensures the production is always a joy to look at (Zinn also designed the period-perfect and expertly tailored 1960s costumes).

Given the talent both onstage and behind the scenes, it isn't surprising that The Boys in the Band is one of the hottest tickets of the summer. It isn't even that surprising that the show's Broadway bow is so expertly realized. What is downright remarkable is that in its own way, this small show has as much to say about the gay experience in America as the recently closed and rightfully lauded epic Angels in America. It is a darkly comic drama polished to near perfection, and an absolutely necessary history lesson in gay culture and interpersonal dynamics. If there are still any tickets left for the remainder of The Boys in the Band's limited run, snatch them up quick; this is essential viewing.

An Admirable "Journey," If Not a Great One

Review: Long Day's Journey Into Night

John Gallagher, Jr. and Jessica Lange in the latest Broadway revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night.

There's always been something off about the Tyrones, the highly dysfunctional family unit at the center of Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Long Day's Journey Into Night. Slowly learning the many ways in which the Tyrone family isn't what it seems is one of the drama's chief pleasures, with each new revelation forcing you to reconsider your feelings about the four deeply damaged characters onstage. But in the Roundabout Theatre Company's current revival of this American classic, something is even more off than usual, and it holds this fine production back from the transcendent heights it so desperately wants to achieve.

The cast of stage and screen veterans assembled here certainly dives into their meaty roles with abandon, with each cast member offering a perfectly valid and often fascinating take on their member of the Tyrone clan. Yet these performances don't quite stylistically mesh with one another, so at times it feels like four separate productions occurring simultaneously rather than one seamless whole. Whether this is a fault in casting or direction is up for debate, but it is a noticeable issue which distracts from the impressive acting of the cast.

As the family patriarch James, Gabriel Byrne is wonderfully understated, convincingly reserved and world weary from a life full of regret and emotional turmoil. Byrne does an excellent job of using the character's Irish bluster to hide his true insecurities, and his deeply expressive eyes make it clear that every insult and accusation hurled his way stings even though James rarely vocalizes his hurt. His is an all-too-real remorse that is quietly devastating, anchoring the showier performances around him with genuine human gravitas.

Jessica Lange is often captivating as the alternatively fragile and ferocious matriarch Mary, and is particularly effective in the scenes where the character rapidly shifts from one emotional extreme to another. Lange makes the character's repeated utterance of "I don't know what you're talking about" everything from the heartbreaking possible onset of senility to a bone chilling challenge to anyone who dares question her sincerity. You're never quite sure how conscious her denial of the problems in her life is, and it makes for a fascinating character study. Yet for all she does right, Lange sometimes feels out of place; you get the feeling her Mary would work even better in a production where the other actors matched her particular style of emotionally volatile acting, rather than the more measured and stately performances favored by her current costars.

As the Tyrones' two sons, both Michael Shannon and John Gallagher, Jr. are exceptional. As the elder son, Shannon is mesmerizing, expertly forging all of the character's conflicting impulses into one multifaceted gem of a performance. Shannon's Jimmy is the most self-aware of the bunch, but also the most vindictive, purposefully agitating the rest of the family by continually bringing up their hurtful past. There's a twinkle of joy in Shannon's eyes when he gets a rise out of one of the other characters, and yet his repeated apologies are heartfelt and his own self-loathing always readily apparent. As the younger son Edmund, Gallagher, Jr. nails the character's contradictory desire to be treated as a man and need for the extra attention granted him by virtue of being the family baby. He also makes for the most interesting foil to Lange, the only one who seems to really see her even as she continually lies to herself about his ongoing medical problems.

Director Jonathan Kent makes a few choices that actively undermine his cast, including staging the play so that an unnecessarily large amount of dialogue is delivered upstage. It robs the audience of the chance to see the actors' expressive faces, and occurs enough that it becomes difficult to fully empathize with them (Lange in particular spends a lot of time speaking upstage). Also, while no one has ever accused Long Day's Journey Into Night of being a short play, Kent's decision to provide only one intermission during the play's four hour runtime turns it into an endurance test for even the most devout O'Neill fans. The last of the four acts suffers the most from this decision, with several brilliantly subtle bits of acting competing against the increasing restlessness of the audience, and the heartbreak of Lange's final monologue undercut by the relief of finally getting a break.

Overall, this Journey is admirably executed but rarely excites, making it difficult to recommend but also hard to completely dismiss. O'Neill's play is a masterwork of rare skill, infinitely complex despite its relatively straightforward setup, and something that reveals new facets of meaning on every viewing. It is something that should be experienced by every theatre lover at some point in their lives, but it would be a shame if those unfamiliar with the work mistook the flaws in this production as flaws with the play in general. Audience enjoyment will be directly tied to how interested you are in seeing these specific actors tackle these specific roles, but those who have seen multiple productions of the play probably won't find much to distinguish this revival from the rest.

A First Rate Revival of a First Rate Farce

Review: Noises Off

After seeing Noises Off, you'll never look at a plate of sardines the same way.

When is bad acting the best kind of acting? When it is intentional and pulled off with the kind of deft, reckless comic abandoned used by every single cast member in Roundabout Theatre's stellar revival of Michael Frayn's farcical masterpiece, Noises Off. The belly laughs come early and often in this dizzying comic tour de force, which marks not just the first Broadway show of 2016 but also the first great one.

Heralded since its 1983 premiere as one of the all time great theatrical comedies, Noises Off milks its many laughs out of an exceedingly simple premise. A troupe of actors is desperately trying to mount a production of the fictional sex farce Nothing On, a terrible play being done terribly by the ill-equipped actors. Noises Off is broken up into three acts, each set at a different point in the show's run: Act I details the show's disastrous technical rehearsal, Act II moves the action backstage during a performance midway through the show's run, and Act III comes back in front of the curtain to show just how much the show has fallen apart by the end of its run. All of this is enacted by a wonderfully eccentric cast of characters who are concurrently sorting out multiple backstage romances, none of which seem to be going particularly well.

It must be said that even 30 years later Frayn's writing remains a marvel of economy and subtle exposition. As Noises Off primarily deals with how poorly the play-within-a-play is going, there's little time for fleshing out the actors performing it, and yet Frayn manages to pepper the dialogue with enough organic references to their offstage lives that everyone comes across as a person rather than a caricature. The show's first act is funny enough on its own that you don't realize how much expository groundwork it's laying. The repetition of scenes from Nothing On (necessitated by multiple missed cues during the play's tech rehearsal) allows you to follow what's happening in Acts II and III, where the same portion of the fictional comedy is viewed from backstage and from the audience during completely botched performances, yet you don't even realize that's what Frayn's doing until long after the final curtain has literally fallen. The only real knock against the writing is that the playwright fails to follow up on the bombshell revelation at the end of Act II, but at the same time the fact Frayn leaves certain details offstage details to the imagination is part of the appeal.

Of course no matter how strong a script is, you still need a cast and creative team capable of executing it, and that is where this revival truly shines. As the saying goes, "Dying is easy; comedy is hard," and nowhere is that more apparent than in the carefully plotted madness of Noises Off. The play relies on everything going wrong in such a specific fashion that one misstep would derail the entire enterprise, and yet for it to remain funny you cannot see the work or be aware you're being set up for a punchline. Director Jeremy Herrin nails this aspect, carefully crafting each moment of stage time so you can follow both the plot of the play-within-a-play and the behind the scenes shenanigans with ease. He keeps the pacing tight and the comedy heightened yet real; none of the characters have any idea they're being funny, which makes their hapless misadventures all the more hilarious.

Herrin has also assembled one of the hardest working casts in the industry, a true ensemble where every member is working together towards the larger goal. Part of what makes the sparsity of character development work is this cast's ability to fill in the blanks with their mannerisms, and at any moment you can watch anyone onstage and see a fully committed and often deeply hilarious performance. The specificity of the character choices is astounding, as is the varied and delightful ways they interact with one another. It helps that everyone has impeccable comic timing and a major affinity for physical comedy, from prat falls to slap fights to a tumble down the stairs executed with near balletic grace. The actors' physicality comes to a head during the showstopping backstage pantomime that makes up the majority of Act II, a sequence so packed with comic genius it could be watched half a dozen times and reveal entirely new layers of brilliance each time.

Andrea Martin is excellent as the company's resident (and fading) diva, who slowly but surely comes to realize she's in way over her head. Famed comedienne Martin is essentially playing the straight woman, which anyone who works in comedy will tell you is the hardest role to make work, a change of pace she expertly handles while remaining her unimpeachably hilarious self. Jeremy Shamos is side-splittingly funny as an actor who can't stand the sight of violence and just wants to know his motivation, getting funnier and funnier as his character becomes more and more bedraggled. Kate Jennings Grant is immensely appealing as the company's most competent actor and resident gossip monger, and has perhaps the play's single greatest bit of physical comedy as she *slowly* slinks across the floor midperformance to "unobtrusively" remove an errant plate of sardines from the set. Campbell Scott is delightfully explosive as the cantankerous director trying to corral this hapless troupe of actors, and both Tracee Chimo and Rob McClure provide fine support as the production's stage manager and resident technician/understudy, respectively. David Furr kills as the fading marquee idol seemingly incapable of finishing his sentences, and as the resident drunk Daniel Davis is great fun.

But the true standout of the show (quite the accomplishment in a cast this talented) is Megan Hilty as the blonde bombshell who spends the majority of the play in sexy lingerie. Hilty is one of the best bad actresses you are likely to ever see, and her every second of stage time is a multi-faceted masterclass in comic business. Hilty never upstages her cohorts, but when it's her time to shine she takes the moment and runs with it, like her tear-inducingly awkward crawl down the staircase while searching for her missing contact. Whether she's practicing her meditation, silently mouthing the other actors' lines, or flailing her arms in mock panic, Hilty is a comedic knockout.

Really, the only thing wrong with Noises Off is that it's a limited run production, meaning we only have another month to savor this sublime production. The entire hilarious cast will soon have to clear out of the American Airlines Theatre to make way for a very different type of classic (Roundabout's upcoming revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night), so I beg you to brave the cold and catch this production while you can. It's the perfect antidote to the winter doldrums, and proof positive that comedy can be every bit as artistically rewarding as drama.

Epic Drama in Every Sense of the Word

Review: The Iceman Cometh

Nathan Lane (center) and the cast of the epic drama The Iceman Cometh at BAM

The unabridged, nearly 5 hour production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh currently playing the Brooklyn Academy of Music isn't for the faint of heart. Director Robert Falls' production, previously seen during a sold out, record setting run at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, is one of the most lovingly crafted and fully realized stagings of this epic length drama you're ever likely to see, and the phenomenal cast headlined by Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy is unlikely to be equalled anytime soon. Which unfortunately means that any slow spots in the production (and there are a few)have to be attributed to the play's Pulitzer Prize-winning author, an undeniably great playwright who's well-known verbosity occasionally crosses the line here.

The play is set in a rundown New York City bar and boarding house, peopled by a varied assortment of drunks and layabouts who all harbor dreams of making something of themselves, although these dreams always seem to take a backseat to the group's desire to drink. The play's many denizens are gradually introduced over the course of the overlong first act, which is beautifully staged on Kevin Depinet's simple but evocative set (simple but evocative is an excellent description of the production philosophy in general). Everyone is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Hickey, a traveling salesman renowned for his jokester persona and generous bankrolling of the gang's alcoholism. But when Hickey finally makes his appearance, it quickly becomes clear to his friends that something has changed, and his previous happy-go-lucky attitude is now leavened with a more sinister undercurrent.

Those who aren't already familiar with Iceman probably shouldn't know much more than that, as much of the play's tension comes from trying to figure out what's motivating Hickey and reconciling the man we've been told about versus the man we actually see. But even those intimately acquainted with O'Neill's script will still find great pleasure in watching the subtleties of Hickey's interactions with the other patrons, especially as expertly embodied by this outstanding ensemble. Nathan Lane brings his sad clown routine to new heights as Hickey, simultaneously inviting and chilling as the enigmatic salesman. Lane is so charming that it makes his emotional manipulation and eventual abuse of the other characters all the more disconcerting, and his tour de force performance of Hickey's Act IV monologue (which takes up a large portion of the play's final hour) is Shakespearean in its scope and depth. Lane is best known for his multitudinous comedic gifts, but Iceman is yet another reminder that he can play grand tragedy with the absolute best of them.

Meanwhile Brian Dennehy, a longtime interpreter of O'Neill's work, is fascinatingly complex and opaque as Larry Slade, a former anarchist and the character most suspicious of Hickey's new attitude. World-weary and obstinate to a fault, Dennehy's Slade is perhaps the most complex and nuanced person in a play full of such characters, whose unassuming demeanor gradually morphs into a quiet strength as the rest of the cast slowly unravels around him. Dennehy completely disappears inside his performance, letting us see Slade in all his glorious contradictions, giving us a character whose outward strength is a mask for a deep-seated doubt he can barely hold at bay.

But Lane and Dennehy aren't acting in a vacuum, and it cannot be overstated how absolutely stellar the entire cast is. Everyone delivers utterly convincing performances, and even when tasked with sitting in silence each and every actor manages to convey volumes about their character's thoughts, feelings, and general state of being. The play's long length ensures that everyone gets several big moments, all of which hit with a conviction and weight so staggering you cannot help but become engrossed. Stephen Ouimette is devastating at bar owner Harry Hope, who endures the brunt of Hickey's mind games with a gradually escalating paranoia that is heartwrenching to watch. Patrick Andrews is excellent as young Don Parritt, a deeply conflicted former anarchist who seeks out Slade in hopes of advice and sanctuary. And as the most sympathetic of the three prostitutes staying at the saloon, Kate Arrington is a knockout.

So complete and convincing is every performance that you genuinely believe these characters have existed in this same bar for years, living richly detailed lives we are lucky enough to get a brief glimpse into. Falls has expertly orchestrated his cast into creating the kind of complete living, breathing world that every stage production strives for but only a select few achieve. This is an expertly executed production that makes a strong case for O'Neill's play as THE great American tragedy, albeit one in need of a few trims. It is a staging that is sure to be talked about for years to come, and those with the patience to sit through nearly 5 hours and 4 acts will find plenty to admire and appreciate. If you're going to make the trek to Brooklyn for theatre, The Iceman Cometh is as compelling a reason as any.

2014 Fall Preview: The Play Revivals

Tony winners Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane are 2 of the many, many celebrities coming to Broadway this fall in limited run revivals.

The 2014-2015 Broadway stealthily began the week after the Tony Awards with the premiere of the ill-fated musical Holler If You Hear Me, something that already seems like a non-event in the grand scheme of things.  But we are getting ready to start the season proper, with several new productions beginning previews this month and many more scheduled from now until the lucrative holiday season.  And so I will be writing a three-part series previewing the upcoming season, examining all of the announced productions and giving a brief assessment of the probable level of success, both artistic and commercial.

We start with the plays, and like last year this coming season is jam packed with celebrity-led revivals.  Not everyone appreciates these shameless cash grabs (which can sometimes be of dubious artistic merit), although enough of them turn out well that I'm not about to dismiss the trend out of hand.  The productions also have a pretty good track record of making money, which the producers will hopefully pour back into riskier projects and not solely into more celebrity-led revivals.  So what revivals can star-struck theatregoers who need a break from singing and dancing look forward to this coming fall?  Find out below.

This Is Our Youth
Previews begin 8/17; Opening Night 9/11

This is one of those awkward situations where producers seem to think they've booked name talent but actually haven't.  Michael Cera is the biggest "name" here, and even in his home medium of film he has never been a consistent draw (the one-note screen persona he's cultivated probably doesn't help matters).  Cera and costars Kieran Culkin (younger brother of Home Alone's Mucauley Culkin) and Tavi Gevinson don't have nearly the drawing power as a Denzel Washington, Neil Patrick Harris or even a James Franco, which means that director Anna D. Shapiro better work the same kind of magic she did with August: Osage County if the show's to be successful.  The play, which explores themes of adolescence and maturity, sounds promising, but I'm taking a wait-and-see approach to this work.  If the buzz is good, I'm more likely to give it a chance.

You Can't Take It With You
Previews begin 8/26; Opening Night 9/28

This revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy has a much starrier cast than This Is Our Youth, headlined by the always engaging James Earl Jones.  Jones plays the head of the eccentric and slightly unhinged Sycamore clan as they entertain the more conventional family of their daughter's boyfriend.  The play, with a premise ripe for scene-stealing supporting turns by a cast of theatrical veterans, certainly has my interest, although it lacks the "it factor" which makes me feel compelled to buy a ticket.  Unless something goes horribly wrong, I expect this play to do good business and win decent reviews, although it remains to be seen if it will have the kind of legs to merit an extension and/or any serious Tony talk.

It's Only a Play
Previews begin 8/28; Opening Night 10/9

Terrance McNally's last Broadway outing Mothers and Sons left me cold, but the upcoming revival of his 1982 comedy It's Only a Play is one of my most anticipated productions of the fall season.  The cast assembled by the producers and director Jack O'Brien is stacked with name talent, most of whom have at least one Tony nomination (if not a win) to their name.  The idea of seeing such noted clowns as Nathan Lane, Megan Mullaly, and Matthew Broderick ham it up in the farcical-sounding work (about a Broadway producer anxiously awaiting the reviews for his latest play) is exactly the kind of thing I and a lot of people would be willing to pay big bucks for.  Unless it gets absolutely terrible reviews, I suspect this will be one of the theatrical events of the fall.

Love Letters
Previews begin 9/13; Opening Night 9/18

An last minute addition to the fall season, this revival of the A.R. Gurney drama about the lifelong friendship between an artist and a politician sounds like a complete snoozefest.  The entire play is told via a series of letters the pair exchange, meaning it is essentially a series of monologues read aloud to the audience.  I have never enjoyed Gurney's work; he focuses so specifically on the concerns of upper class whites it can be hard to relate to his plays if you don't come from a similar background.  The gimmick of this revival is that it will feature a rotating cast of name actors, starting with Brain Dennehy and Mia Farrow and eventually including the likes to Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, and Diana Rigg.  I personally think this revival is ill-advised (the rotating guest stars didn't do much to help After Midnight's sales, and these stars have even shorter runs that will be almost impossible to properly advertise) and likely doomed to failure.  I will certainly be skipping it.

The Real Thing
Previews begin 10/2; Opening Night 10/30

Roundabout's productions have been incredibly hit or miss over the past several seasons, so without more information it is impossible to know where this revival of Tom Stoppard's heady drama will land on the quality spectrum.  It does have the appealing prospect of Ewan McGreggor in his Broadway debut, with a supporting cast that includes Maggie Gyllenhall and Cynthia Nixon to give it both theatrical credibility and even more Hollywood sheen.  I'm expecting a competently staged and acted evening at the theatre, although I will admit that it isn't very high up on my list of things to see.

A Delicate Balance
Previews begin 10/20; Opening Night 11/20

Along with It's Only a Play, A Delicate Balance looks poised to become one of the more buzzed about Broadway productions of the fall.  Featuring Glenn Close's first Broadway appearance in 20 years, Tony-winner and multiple Oscar-nominee Close is joined by Tony- and Emmy-winner John Lithgow in this Edward Albee drama.  Directed by Pam MacKinnon, who worked wonders with the 2012 revival of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this production contains great actors tackling a great script under the helm of a great director.  Assuming the stars are available and willing, I can easily see this extending for a month or two past its planned February closing date (which will give me more time to actually go see it).

The Elephant Man
Previews begin 11/7; Opening Night 12/7

This production is a wildcard for me.  On one hand, Bradley Cooper has racked up multiple Oscar nominations over the past couple of years, proving he is a much more versatile actor than his lowbrow performance in The Hangover would lead you to believe.  The Elephant Man is a respected property in the theatrical world that is a major showcase for its star, who plays the deformed John Merrick without the benefit of prosthetics or makeup.  But I wonder if director Scott Ellis, who is also directing You Can't Take It With You and On the Twentieth Century next season, is perhaps stretching himself too thin to really give this project the level of focus it deserves.  Cooper's name is probably enough to ensure good box office, but I am very curious to see what the verdict is on the artistic merits of this production.


And those are all the play revivals you can look forward to between now and Christmas.  Check back soon to see my take on this fall's upcoming new plays.

God Bless Audra McDonald

Review: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Has Audra McDonald just won herself a record-breaking sixth Tony?  It's hard to say, but no one can argue with the virtuosic quality of her latest Broadway endeavor.

When you enter the Circle in the Square Theatre, home of the Broadway revival of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, it legitimately feels like you've entered an underground jazz club.  After descending down into the basement lobby, you must enter the smoke-filled theatre proper to the quiet buzz of patrons talking amongst themselves as they find their seats.  A jazz trio plays to the steadily increasing audience, some of whom are seated onstage at tables that further increase the club-like atmosphere.  And then, just as the last few audience members take their seats, the lights dim and she appears.

Not Audra McDonald, the five-time Tony-winner with above-the-title billing on the evening's Playbill; you won't catch even a glimpse of her over the course of Lady Day's intermissionless 90 minutes.  With a jittery walk and a slightly unfocused gaze that belies her intoxicated state, the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday saunters onstage and begins her set, seemingly back from the dead.  The mannerisms, the stream of conscious rambling, and the distinctively mournful voice that expresses a life fully lived, are all hallmarks of Lady Day.  And for the rest of the evening, you are in the palm of her hand; she has control over you, even when she loses control of herself.

To say that McDonald is giving the performance of the season as Billie Holiday seems disingenuous, as she has accomplished what all actors aspire to but few actually achieve: she doesn't seem to be acting at all.  McDonald fully disappears inside Holiday, becoming the legendary singer so completely that she's virtually unrecognizable.  McDonald's heralded voice is completely changed as it adopts Holiday's vocal ticks and mannerisms, but the actress' musicality and song interpretation have arguably never been better.  She is so convincingly, measurably intoxicated throughout the evening that the audience audibly gasps when she falls off the stage, a move that in hindsight was obviously planned but at the moment felt like a legitimate threat to the McDonald's safety.

But make no mistake, her performance goes far beyond mere physical impersonation.  Although the show is essentially a 90-minute monologue, McDonald is so in the moment she never feels rehearsed (the only real giveaways that the evening isn't entirely improvised are the perfectly timed lighting and music cues).  You see McDonald's Holiday have the thoughts before she expresses them, and it genuinely feels as if this is the first time she's put these words in this particular order.  She has fantastic connection to and interplay with the audience - who she repeatedly, almost desperately refers to as "my friends" - which again contributes to the underground club vibe, and demonstrates a searing emotional vulnerability as she shares various and often painful anecdotes about her life.  While the Circle in the Square's small size certainly contributes to the feeling of intimacy, it is McDonald's performance and accessibility that allows you to leave feeling as if you truly know Holiday.

It is unfortunate that Lanie Robertson's script isn't fully worthy of McDonald's numerous gifts, although at the same time anything that provides a framework which allows the kind of performance McDonald is giving cannot be completely dismissed.  The writing nails the free-associative nature of an intoxicated individual so well that it ultimately robs the play of some of its impact, since the script lacks any discernible narrative arc or rising tension.  Perhaps this is by design (the play's central conceit is that no one, including Holiday, realized this would be one of her final public performances before an untimely death), but that doesn't negate the vague sense of dissatisfaction the work leaves you with.  Yet the play does provide a fleshed-out portrait of a deeply troubled artist, while simultaneously putting a personal face on some of the racial issues that plagued the pre-Civil Rights era and are unfortunately still problems today.

Director Lonny Price has seamlessly staged the evening, subtly nudging the production here and there to give it as much dramatic heft as possible.  He keeps the evening interesting and involving while doing remarkably little (James Noone's spot-on scenic design purposely doesn't give Holiday much space to move around), and has obviously helped enable and shape McDonald's performance into the master class it currently is.  As previously mentioned, Robert Wierzel's lighting design is just about perfect, and while costumer ESosa was only called upon to create one look for McDonald it is an absolute stunner.  And the jazz trio of Sheldon Becton (piano), Clayton Craddock (drums), and George Farmer (bass) make absolutely beautiful music together.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, despite being a last-minute addition to the current Broadway season, is a high class affair that has been lovingly rendered from top to bottom.  While Lanie Robertson's script isn't fantastic, it provides the foundation on which McDonald builds one of the most impressive feats of acting I have ever seen.  In her last Broadway appearance, McDonald went operatically big in The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess and won a Tony for it; the fact that she is just as effective, if not moreso, in something as small and intimate as Lady Day proves there is nothing this versatile performer cannot do.  Billie Holiday died long ago, but thanks to McDonald she lives again nightly on Broadway.

Podcast Episode 6: Spring Preview, Part 1

Jared, Christopher and Brian get together to discuss this spring's upcoming Broadway shows. The first of this two part podcast centers on the plays, both new and old, scheduled to open on the Great White Way before April's Tony cutoff date. Revivals like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Picnic get discussed along with new works like The Nance and Lucky Guy. Find out what the panel thinks is worth checking out, and come back for the musical-centric part 2!