January 13, 2015

Audra McDonald and in a Reading of ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’

By Patrick Healy

Could a Broadway revival of the acclaimed musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman” be on the horizon? A multiday reading of the show, the 1993 Tony Award winner for best musical, was held last week with three big theater names playing the major roles: Audra McDonald as the title character, Alan Cumming as the gay prisoner Molina, and Steven Pasquale as the Marxist revolutionary Valentin. The Tony-winning director John Tiffany (“Once”) oversaw the reading, which was organized by the producer Tom Kirdahy (“It’s Only a Play”). Mr. Kirdahy is married to the show’s book writer, Terrence McNally, and is working with the “Spider Woman” composer, , on this spring’s Broadway revival of “.” (“Spider Woman” has lyrics by .)

Mr. Kirdahy, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, said that he was “thrilled” with the reading and that the actors and Mr. Tiffany were pleased as well. “I think everyone is interested in having further conversations, but there is no game plan for a production at this point,” Mr. Kirdahy said.

Based on the 1976 novel by Manuel Puig, “Spider Woman” centers on the relationship between two prisoners in a Latin American country and the fixation of one of them on movies and a diva known for many roles, including a deadly spider woman. The show ran on Broadway for two years and won Tonys for its three main actors as well as best book and best score, among others.

An email message to a representative for Ms. McDonald, a six-time Tony winner, was not answered on Tuesday. Mr. Cumming, also a Tony winner, is currently starring on Broadway in the Kander and Ebb musical “Cabaret,” while Mr. Pasquale starred last spring in the new musical “The Bridges of Madison County.”

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January 13, 2015

A History of Christianity, With No Strings Attached ‘The Cardinals’ at the Public Theater

By Charles Isherwood

The long, tumultuous history of Christianity reels by like a silly cartoon in “The Cardinals,” an uninspired and interminable show being presented as part of the Under the Radar festival. The concept behind the production, which comes from a theater troupe called Stan’s Cafe of Birmingham, England, posits that three cardinals are “on an evangelical mission to broaden knowledge of the Bible — through their traveling puppet theater,” according to a note on the Public Theater website. Alas, the puppets get lost in transit, so the cardinals must jump into the fray to enact famous scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

This is, to begin with, irritatingly nonsensical. Unless Pope Francis has radically altered the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church while I was busy playing Candy Crush Saga, cardinals are hardly likely to be producing itinerant theater. Also, if you didn’t read that précis of the show beforehand, you’d have no clue that the cardinals were pinch-hitting for puppets.

True, before the tiny pageant begins, one red-robed cardinal in a broad-brimmed hat can be seen shuffling around the backstage area, as if looking for something. He then emits a scream. But the show is mostly wordless (mumbling between the cardinals and their Muslim stage manager can occasionally be heard), and it would take a very perceptive interpreter to deduce that the scream translates as: “Oh, Lord! Where have our puppets gone?”

Also, if Jesus and Joseph and Mary et al. were originally to be represented by puppets, why the racks of costumes conveniently full of human-size costumes? The cardinals fling these on and off as they switch characters in their race through a couple millenniums of biblical and Catholic history.

The show’s dubious concept would be immaterial, I suppose, if it proved witty or stimulating. But after we’ve absorbed the joke — dignified figures of the church making like amateur actors, mugging away absurdly and donning goofy wigs and headdresses to represent figures from biblical lore — it palls within minutes, leaving more than an hour of the same to be endured. (Any given 10 minutes of Monty Python’s biblical-themed “Life of Brian” is funnier than the whole of “The Cardinals.”)

Yes, the intentionally cheesy little tableaus, with their charming hand-painted, two-dimensional props (by Miguel Angel Bravo), sometimes raise a giggle or two. And, yes, it’s mildly amusing to watch the cardinals’ farcical desperation as they attempt, with the assistance of the stage manager, to keep the pageant from falling into a confused shambles. (We see both the puppet theater and the surrounding backstage.) When that stage manager, dressed in black and wearing a hijab, stops performing her duties in order to pray, chaos threatens to break loose — a mild and harmless joke, I suppose, on the clash of religions that has caused so much violence over the millenniums.

The performers (Gerard Bell, Graeme Rose and Craig Stephens as the cardinals, and Rochi Rampal as the stage manager), who also devised the show, are certainly game, energetic and adept at comic miming (and timing).

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But while the flailing and the goofing has been meticulously choreographed, it grows ponderous, and your indulgent smiles tend to get more perfunctory once you realize that this is all there is to the show.

Providing an aural backdrop to the zaniness is traditional liturgical and religious-themed classical music, with the stage manager frantically fiddling with cassette tapes to match music to mood. But, for reasons that eluded me, there’s also a snatch or two of a 1980s hit from the Britpop band Bronski Beat, namely its version of the Donna Summer disco staple “I Feel Love.”

I wasn’t feeling the love, obviously. In fact, another of that band’s hits seemed more appropriate to these bootless proceedings: the one called “Why?”

The Cardinals

Devised and performed by Gerard Bell, Rochi Rampal, Graeme Rose and Craig Stephens, with additional devising by Alia Alzoughbi; directed by James Yarker; sets by Miguel Angel Bravo; prop making, sourcing and stage management by Harry Trow; costumes by Kay Wilton; lighting by Paul Arvidson; photography by Graeme Braidwood; graphic design by Simon Ford; video by Oliver Clark; general manager, Charlotte Martin; advisory producer, Nick Sweeting. A Stan’s Cafe production, presented by the Public Theater, Oskar Eustis, artistic director; Patrick Willingham, executive director; Mark Russell and Meiyin Wang, festival co-directors, as part of the Under the Radar Festival. At the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, 212-967-7555, undertheradarfestival.com. Through Jan. 18. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

January 13, 2015 Broadway Review: ‘’ Starring ,

By Marilyn Stasio

Short and sweet and strangely haunting. That’s the quick take on “Constellations,” a romantic two-hander starring dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal and the radiant British thesp Ruth Wilson (fresh off her Golden Globes win for Showtime’s “The Affair”) as a young couple who break through the boundaries of the time/space continuum to explore the infinite possibilities of their love. Although barely an hour long, this baby bombshell by hot Brit scribe (a play that originated at the Royal Court and went on to the West End) overflows with emotional highs and lows. Who hasn’t wondered about the roads not taken and where they might have led us? Who hasn’t mourned the adventures we never had, the soulmates we never met, the happiness we never knew because we never dared to take that detour off the beaten track?

The poet Robert Frost said it in a single memorable line: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both.” Gwyneth Paltrow had the rare opportunity to live two simultaneous (and equally dull) lives in the 1998 movie “Sliding Doors.” In its own clumsy way, the musical “If/Then” plays on the same theme by manipulating the chance decisions that allow a woman, played by Idina Menzel, to pursue two alternate lives

“Constellations” accomplishes the same metaphysical feat with far more grace and intelligence by sending destined lovers Roland (Gyllenhaal) and Marianne (Wilson) spinning through space, altering their relationship at every turn through the individual choices they make. There’s some cosmological science behind the premise of co- existing universes, but nothing you need master to enjoy the show.

On human terms, the infinite possibilities of unlimited choice present themselves in the amusing opening scene, which has Roland, an earthbound beekeeper, and Marianne, a flighty quantum physicist, meeting cute at a

Total Weekly Circulation – 30,857 Monthly Online Readership – 2,600,000 barbecue. But before this affair can get off the ground, the scribe re-runs the same scene to show us all the variables involved in any start-up relationship. In one version, Roland is already in a serious relationship. In another version, Marianne is in recovery from a bad relationship of her own. In other variations, Roland is married. Or Marianne is.

Each time the scene backs up for a replay, Roland and Marianne are actually transported to an alternate universe and given another chance. Under Michael Longhurst’s silken direction, these hops through space are accomplished without elaborate set changes – just a photographic flash (the work of designer Lee Curran) to light up a stage that set designer Tom Scutt has hung with masses of silver balloons (and balloon-like lights) suggesting individual planets suspended in an endless universe.

That’s all it takes for drama — that, and some killer acting.

It’s inevitable that regional theaters will pounce on this low-maintenance, audience-pleasing show. Single set, two characters, no scenery to speak of — the economics of it are positively irresistible. But anything less than killer acting would be lethal for any future productions, and exactly how many Jake Gyllenhaals and Ruth Wilsons are out there, anyway?

Gyllenhaal has the charm and good looks of a leading man, but he’s also got the acting chops of a chameleon character actor, equally believable as a driven investigative reporter (“Zodiac”), a sensitive cowboy (“Brokeback Mountain”) or an obsessive gutter-press photographer (“Nightcrawler”). Here he gets to play someone whose character changes from minute to minute, and he’s pretty amazing. So is Wilson, now best known through “The Affair” but carrying heavy theater credentials including an Olivier award for “” and one for “.” Her style as the brilliant, desperately needy Marianne is mercurial — and enchanting.

With this oddball show safe in the hands of these thesps, Roland and Marianne eventually connect and their affair finally gets off the ground — sort of. Marianne invites Roland to her place after their first date. And then she doesn’t. Roland behaves like a jerk in one scenario and she throws him out, but he’s a sweetheart in another variation on the same scene, which draws them into a more intimate relationship.

And so it goes throughout the play, as they explore one or another of their infinite universes. Marianne cheats on Roland in one universe, and he cheats on her in another. He proposes and she accepts. He proposes and she turns him down. They break up and he marries someone else. They break up and she gets engaged. They break up and get back together.

The important point here is that the devilishly clever scribe is not playing games with either his characters or his audience, because with each iteration Roland and Marianne grow closer to one another — and become more important to us. And by the end of the play (has it really been only an hour?), we’re fully invested in their lives. All of them.

Broadway Review: 'Constellations' Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Wilson

Samuel J. Friedman Theater; 650 seats; $125 top. Opened Jan. 13, 2015. Reviewed Jan. 8. Running time: ONE HOUR, 10 MIN.

Production A presentation by Manhattan Theater Club and the Royal Court Theater, by special arrangement with Ambassador Theater Group and the Dodgers, of a play in one act by Nick Payne.

Creative Directed by Michael Longhurst. Sets & costumes, Tom Scutt; lighting, Lee Curran; sound, David McSeveney; music, Simon Slater; production stage manager, Peter Wolf.

Cast Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Wilson.

January 13, 2015

'Constellations': Theater Review Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson make their Broadway debuts in Nick Payne's hypnotic reflection on life, love and mortality, viewed via quantum multiverse theory By David Rooney

The Bottom Line: A dynamic brainteaser with an emotional payoff Venue: Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (runs through March 15) Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Wilson Playwright: Nick Payne Director: Michael Longhurst

A romantic two-hander spun out of string theory, in which the significant moments of a couple's life together are played out in different directions across infinite parallel paths? That sounds on paper like a cerebral exercise, designed to test audiences' concentration while actors flex their muscles. But British playwright Nick Payne's beguiling Constellations is not only a full-bodied narrative, it's a richly affecting experience. That's thanks to the sensitivity of the writing, but also to the warmth, humor and vitality invested in it by Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, giving two astonishing performances in a production from Michael Longhurst that's as rigorous as it is tender.

First seen to great acclaim in 2012 at London's with and , the production comes to New York via Manhattan Theatre Club and has been ideally recast. Gyllenhaal is riding high on critical and awards-season attention for his maniacally riveting turn in Nightcrawler, while the secret is out on seasoned English stage actress Wilson after her terrific TV work on Luther and The Affair. Neither of them could have asked for a more distinctive entrée to Broadway. The pithiness and intellectual curiosity of the writing and the experimental structure might be somewhat reminiscent of eminent Brit playwrights like Caryl Churchill, Michael Frayn and Tom Stoppard, but there's an emotional directness, even a humanity, if you will, that sets Constellations apart.

The play runs a fleet 70 minutes and includes multiple variations on a number of short two-character exchanges that's relatively limited by most dramaturgical standards. Yet it's packed with both incident and depth as it explores the many possible developments of a relationship that begins (or sometimes ends) when beekeeper Roland (Gyllenhaal) and Cambridge cosmologist Marianne (Wilson) meet at a party.

The economy of means with which the production establishes a visual equivalent for Payne's ricocheting text is one of its chief pleasures. Designer Tom Scutt places the two actors on a stark, shining black dais, surrounded by darkness, with a cluster of white helium balloons above and all around them, evoking both a pillowy cloud formation and a stylized garden. On the most basic level, the image is that of a festive gathering, in keeping with the couple's first encounter. But as lighting designer Lee Curran's colors ping kinetically through those balloons at varying intervals to mark each jump in the temporal universe, the stage becomes a constantly shifting molecular field.

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Longhurst and movement director Lucy Cullingford choreograph Gyllenhaal and Wilson around this space with pinpoint precision, and yet their pas de deux remains graceful and fluid throughout. The looseness with which both actors navigate the tricky text and the whiplash behavioral switches of their characters suggests a rehearsal process that was as much military drill as emotional investigation.

Very little can be said about the course of their relationship without diminishing the play's rewards. But it begins with Marianne's unlikely opening conversational gambit about the ability to lick one's own elbow unlocking the secret of immortality. In a number of cases Roland brushes her off quickly, claiming to be married, in a relationship or just out of one and looking to stay unhitched. In other outcomes, however, he's receptive to her blundering overtures, leading to subsequent dates, romance, cohabitation and marriage, or different combinations thereof. He tells her about being an apiarist, memorably incorporating a paean to the clarity of purpose in a bee's life into his proposal. She gives him a crash course in the quantum multiverse, causing him at times to glaze over, at others to respond with a hunger to learn more.

The signposts of their relationship are familiar ones: The discovery of a genuine connection, the joy of mutual happiness, the insecurities of wayward hearts, the sting of betrayal and rejection. There's also the sorrow of serious illness, resulting in momentous life choices to be approached either alone or together.

What's so remarkable about Payne's play and Longhurst's beautiful production is the awareness that all of this could easily have been dry and academic. Instead, it's exquisitely real, and despite the shared experience of Roland and Marianne being related in fragments that keep veering off on new tangents all the way through the final scenes, their love story is profoundly involving and also quite moving.

The range displayed by both actors is impressive indeed, and their chemistry unquestionable. Wilson's character is the classic socially awkward brainiac with a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease. She makes Marianne slyly funny but also prickly, defensive and volatile — sometimes guarded and nervous, other times brittle and angry. Her performance is a complex symphony of ever-changing movements.

Gyllenhaal made an admirable New York stage debut off-Broadway in 2012 in Payne's If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, a less striking study of the chaos and comfort of human relationships. But the actor's work here is in another league, swinging from open to standoffish, from vulnerable to cool, from sweet and shy to charming and self-assured. His ambling physicality in the role is expertly disciplined but appears entirely natural, while his English accent is flawless.

Constellations is the first Broadway opening of the year and it sets the bar high. Would that more plays were as compact and lively, as intellectually and emotionally stimulating as this one.

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Wilson Director: Michael Longhurst Playwright: Nick Payne Set & costume designer: Tom Scutt Lighting designer: Lee Curran Music: Simon Slater Sound designer: David McSeveney Movement director: Lucy Cullingford Presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, Royal Court Theatre, by special arrangement with Ambassador Theatre Group and the Dodgers