Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:38:07 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jeremy McCarter :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Jeremy+McCarter istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/from-russia-with-fear/14289/ Tue, 24 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Fondly I remember a time when nobody would have given a damn about this play. Not so long ago, New York audiences would have greeted "Terrorism" as a glib view of a certain kind of violence. So the way we treat one another in our daily lives is not so different than the way fanatics try to blow up airports? Whatever you say, Presnyakov Brothers, whatever you say. The play wasn't written to cash in on our post-September 11 anxieties. Even before that day, events in Russia provided all the raw... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/mother-daughter-bake-off/14017/ Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 EST "I'm still a star!" booms Dianne Wiest's character, wagging her finger in her agent's face. "I never play frumps or virgins." That deathless line from Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" came rushing back to me at Playwrights Horizons the other night. In "Memory House," Ms. Wiest plays a divorcee who's raising her teenage daughter in a drab West Side apartment. Her portrayal of a dowdy, lonely 50-something woman here suggests her diva character in "Bullets" had it all wrong: If acted well, it... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/tracy-lettsthe-exit-interview/13808/ Fri, 13 May 2005 00:00:00 EST When Tracy Letts leaves town in a few days, New York will find itself short one talented playwright - and one talented actor. The 39-year-old Oklahoman is best known to New York audiences as the author of the audacious, grisly off-Broadway hits "Bug" and "Killer Joe." But around the country, he has a second persona, as a gifted performer. He played George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in Atlanta. He has done Richard Greenberg and David Mamet plays in Chicago. He recently earned a place... JEREMY MCCARTER http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/on-the-bright-side/13675/ Wed, 11 May 2005 00:00:00 EST It was funny: You have to give It that. The just-ended Broadway season drew a great many laughs. Sometimes it even meant to. If you acknowledge the uproarious genius of Dame Edna, you must also acknowledge the unintentional hilarity of "The Glass Menagerie" and the comic misrule of "Julius Caesar." Among new musicals, I'll grant you the clever originality of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," as long as you bear in mind "Good Vibrations," the title of which includes an adjective I... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/fickle-foot-of-fate/13392/ Thu, 5 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Christina Applegate has taken method acting to unprecedented levels of dedication in the new Broadway revival of "Sweet Charity." She plays Charity Hope Valentine, the gullible but kind dance-hall hostess who's waiting for her Prince Charming to ride along. Along the way, Charity encounters immense difficulties - so many that her signature number is "I'm the Bravest Individual." To prepare for this song about overcoming challenges, about moving ahead in spite of pain, Ms. Applegate broke a foot... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/revenge-of-the-nerds/13237/ Tue, 3 May 2005 00:00:00 EST 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" is still very funny and still very sweet. That is the happy news from Circle in the Square, where the show reopened for a Broadway run last night. The musicals content has changed little since its acclaimed off-Broadway run at Second Stage earlier this year. All the things that were right are still right - alas, most of the things that are wrong are still wrong. Fortunately there are more of the former than the latter - many more. Few shows in New... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/david-mamets-unreal-estate/13162/ Mon, 2 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Liev Schreiber takes the stage in a thick accent and a thin mustache. In the new Broadway revival of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," he plays Richard Roma - a salesman, and a good one. For a potential mark, the son of the Midwest has sweet poison. "What I'm saying, what is our life? It's looking forward or it's looking back." For the other salesmen in his hypercompetitive office, he has tough love. "F-- that s--, George. You're a, hey, you had a bad month. You're a good man, George." And... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/car-trouble-on-broadway/13077/ Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST There seem to be good reasons to welcome "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" to Broadway - sociologically speaking, I mean. Theater-going habits tend to develop early in life, and this adaptation of the movie about the flying car will draw hordes of impressionable youths to the stage. It's pleasant to think that the show is cultivating the theater audience of 2020, even if its automotive fixation might also generate vast new demand for Teen Autoweek. But what kind of audience will these youngsters be... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/big-uneasy/12945/ Wed, 27 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST She is shattered from the start. Natasha Richardson walks onstage in the opening moments of "A Streetcar Named Desire" looking jittery, unready, like a woman already lost to the world. The New Orleans into which she stumbles is a sweaty, treacherous dive. A woman sings the blues; grubby street archetype make deals and break them. Eight ceiling fans spin over the stage, and all around us. A scene this chaotic would unhinge even a strong sort of person - one much stronger than Blanche DuBois... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/rocking-out-with-the-new-slang/12842/ Tue, 26 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST "Ma nishtana halaila hazeh?" asked Marty Crandall, keyboardist of The Shins, at the start of the band's Sunday night show. Not getting an answer from the packed Webster Hall crowd, he supplied one himself: This night was different from all other nights "'cause we came to rock!" There are many reasons to love The Shins, the indie darlings from Albuquerque; rock-god theatrics is not one of them. The band has released two full-length albums on Sub Pop, both gleaming with lo-fi gems. "It'll change... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/painter-by-numbers/12553/ Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST If I were a betting man (and who isn't in the theater?), I'd wager that we'll be seeing a lot of Jeffrey Hatcher's new play over the next few years. Not here in New York - John Tillinger's production of "A Picasso" at Manhattan Theatre Club will probably satisfy the civic appetite for a while. But out there in regional-theater-land, brace for a Picasso bonanza. Mr. Hatcher has imagined a 1941 encounter between the wily Spaniard and a blonde Nazi interrogatrix. As the two-hander unfolds in real... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/adult-entertainment-finally/12484/ Tue, 19 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST "It's a new old world to me," sing mother and daughter. "It's a new old world and / We are here." The ladies refer to Florence, where they have traveled for a holiday. They might also be talking about "The Light in the Piazza," which opened last night at Lincoln Center. The musical is new because it's a first-time collaboration between librettist Craig Lucas and composer lyricist Adam Guettel, who showed young promise with "Floyd Collins" nine years ago. It's old because they have based their... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/torture-vengeance-and-murder-priceless/12020/ Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Martin McDonagh, no stranger to the grotesque, gets obscenely familiar with it here. The author of "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" and other hardscrabble tales has returned to Broadway with "The Pillowman." His play is like a long fall down a dark well: cold and stomach-turning, yet at times a thrill, in spite of the sinking feeling it produces. At its best, John Crowley's production is funnier than you'd think material so bleak could be, and bleaker than anything so funny ought to be. In a... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/dozing-by-the-pond/11957/ Fri, 8 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST James Earl Jones doesn't so much play his role in "On Golden Pond" as shoulder his way through it. Big frame, big hands, big voice: As Norman Thayer, a cantankerous professor emeritus whose mind is starting to go, he jostles the action every time he speaks, or moves. His co-star Leslie Uggams takes a different approach, singing her way through the role of Norman's devoted wife; a high clear melody to his rumbling, tumbling bass. It's not exactly beautiful, the music they make together in Ernest... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/peter-brooks-global-village/11870/ Thu, 7 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST "Tierno Bokar" is a new work staged by that promising upstart, Peter Brook. Even now, at 80, his imaginative energy makes most New York theater seem hidebound and timid by comparison. Combine his vitality with the directing chops that come from 60 years of working with actors, and you have a stage artist without parallel today. The show about a religious dispute in French Africa, which opened last night as part of the Columbia University Arts Initiative, is radical in its simplicity. To keep... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/broadways-bed-of-roses/11709/ Tue, 5 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST "Steel Magnolias" unfolds in a Louisiana beauty salon, where ladies paint their nails pink, swap gossip, and share tearful embraces. Beyond its obvious cultural significance (I defy you to tell this play and Ice Cube's "Barbershop" apart), it also serves as a kind of time capsule. Robert Harling's 1987 script name-drops Jaclyn Smith, G.I. Joe, and "Circus of the Stars." As it opened last night at the Lyceum, it established a direct and unexpected portal back to the decade of big hair and small... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/et-tu-denzel/11630/ Mon, 4 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST I come not to bury Denzel Washington, but to praise him. Here is a first-rate film actor: a commanding presence, a rich voice, some range, good taste. He makes quality films. I mean, did you see "Training Day"? I wish I had a kid brother, so I could kick him around the way Denzel does Ethan Hawke in that movie. Mr. Washington is many things, but an especially authoritative Brutus isn't one of them. At least, not in the revival of "Julius Caesar" that opened at the Belasco last night. Like... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/parable-of-the-unshakable-nun/11557/ Fri, 1 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Like many of the best plays New York has seen lately - and "Doubt" is certainly one of those - John Patrick Shanley's story has qualities barely hinted at by a plain description. A nun suspects that a priest may have interfered with one of the students: Considering the trouble the Catholic Church has had lately, this sounds like the work of a playwright who's spent too much time watching CNN. As it reopens on Broadway, it's clear there's much, much more going on in "Doubt." Just as Richard... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/going-12-rounds-with-rhett-scarlett/11395/ Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST One morning in 1939, producer David O. Selznick locked himself in his office with the director Victor Fleming and the writer Ben Hecht. Selznick told them they had one week to turn Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" into a screenplay. To judge by his new comedy about their frenzied, round-the-clock writing marathon, Ron Hutchinson knows full well the perils of fashioning existing material into a compelling script. "Moonlight and Magnolias" is a situation - at best, a scenario - striving... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/black-and-white-and-ben-all-over/11252/ Mon, 28 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Neil LaBute gets more abuse than he deserves. I don't mean as a writer: Aside from his earliest works for stage and screen, "bash" and "In the Company of Men," respectively, his writing has left me cold. I mean as a moral critic. Selfishness, cruelty, bigotry, envy: They're all prominent in his stories, without much in the way of sunny endings or salvation. For this, Mr. LaBute's name has become synonymous with savagery and misogyny. He is tagged the Prince of Darkness. Yet aside from a... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/bard-meet-the-king-king-the-bard/11180/ Fri, 25 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Cheyenne Jackson is what happens when you cross a middle linebacker and a Broadway chorus boy: He sings, he cracks jokes, and I bet he could bring down a fullback in the open field. Near the start of "All Shook Up," the new jukebox musical based on the songs of Elvis Presley, he alights from his motorcycle, all black leather, bulk, and sideburns. Normally when a man like this complains that his hot rod is making "a jiggly-wiggly noise," and the only grease monkey in sight is a sexy brunette... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/ever-heard-the-one-about/11109/ Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST As he makes his seventh trip to Broadway, devoted fans will say that Jackie Mason and his unswerving Borscht Belt comedy are a New York institution: Like the Empire State Building, he may change his colors, but you always know where he stands. Those who find him unfunny and retrograde (and there is room for both camps) will say that his shows are more like the Holland Tunnel: inexplicably crowded and endless to get through. "This is going to be one of the great shows of all time," says Mr... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/tennessee-williams-no-talent-hack/11013/ Wed, 23 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Can Chopin be played with one finger? An absorbing question. Can "The Glass Menagerie" be performed by under-equipped Hollywood actors on a clumsy set with ineffectual direction? A less absorbing question, except that someone has actually tried it. There is no very good reason to see the revival that opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore, unless you happen to think that Tennessee Williams was an aimless, purple, nonsensical hack, and are looking for confirmation of that view. Me, I tend to... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/young-poet-with-a-horn/10954/ Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST "Eyewitness Blues" stumbles, but at least it stumbles in the right direction. That may be small consolation to some members of its audience at New York Theatre Workshop, who looked bored or bewildered by what they were seeing. (I was with them, here and there.) But there are larger forces at work behind the show, impulses that need encouraging. A little context may help. Last night saw the opening of two off-Broadway musicals, "Dessa Rose" at Lincoln Center and "Eyewitness Blues" at NYTW. The... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/marital-blisters/10833/ Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Are you happily married? Would you like to be? Are you sure? If you answered yes to any two of these questions, you might not know about the partnership whose problems are being aired in Midtown. The union seemed like such a good idea at the beginning, a long-awaited match. But complications ensued. Now the principals stagger on beneath the weight of their woes. I refer to the wobbly marriage of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and its stars, Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin. The... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/and-now-for-something-not-so-very-different/10762/ Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST According to my Playbill, the Shubert Theater is currently home to Bin Faaarkrekkion's new Moosical, "Dik Od Triaanenen Fol (Finns Ain't What They Used to Be)." The story of Finland's transition from an agricultural society to an industrial one, which features the talents of the East Finland Moose Ballet, is highlighted by such songs as "I Hear Your Nokia But I Can't Come In" and "Foek You, Farmers." The action takes place entirely in a sauna. Before a line of dialogue has been spoken - before... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/cataclysm-of-stars/10537/ Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST If the current season didn't feature "The Gospel According to Guirgis," Austin Pendleton would surely take the prize for audacity. "Orson's Shadow" imagines the turbulent London premiere of Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" in 1960. Sir Laurence Olivier starred in the play, along with his mistress Joan Plowright. It was directed by Orson Welles, who landed the gig through the midwifery of his friend and disciple Kenneth Tynan. All of these luminaries appear on the stage of the Barrow Street Theatre... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/python-on-the-road/10248/ Tue, 8 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Eric Idle turned up at the 92nd St Y the other night to talk about some projects coming to fruition, including the imminent, fanatically awaited Broadway opening of "Spamalot." Mr. Idle, one-sixth of Monty Python, began with a series of comic riffs, a kind of compact stand-up routine. A host then joined him for what was shaping up to be a sometimes desultory, sometimes funny, extremely hagiographical Q&A. One question led Mr. Idle to recall the stunned silence that greeted the Pythons when... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/life-in-a-cabaret/10177/ Mon, 7 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Billy Porter's "Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am)" sounds like autobiography, but at heart it's a love story, subgenre: showbiz. It recounts the tale - dizzying highs and punishing lows, triumphs and separations - of a lifelong love affair. Mr. Porter is one side of the romance; his larynx is the other. But who doesn't love that larynx? George C. Wolfe says Mr. Porter has a voice that comes along only once in a generation of American musical theater performers. A strong endorsement, and... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-pros-cons-of-broadway/10098/ Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" is a clever and engaging new Broadway musical. That's the trouble. The show has vexingly good songs, unnervingly elegant sets, and enough strong performances to be really distressing. Composer David Yazbek and librettist Jeffrey Lane have sweetly adapted the 1988 film, which leaves a sour taste. I had a good time, which is bad. New York hasn't seen many musicals like this one lately. Broadway has become all but synonymous with post-Lloyd Webber excrescences like... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/betraying-the-betrayer/10043/ Thu, 3 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Stephen Adly Guirgis may be the most extravagantly talented, maddeningly wayward playwright in America. You would not believe the speeches this man writes. People say he has a good ear for dialogue, but that doesn't explain why his soliloquies are such wonders: precise and evocative, with a raucous theatrical energy. Mr. Guirgis's lines - I mean this as a compliment - don't sound as if a playwright wrote them. Mr. Guirgis's plays don't sound as if a playwright wrote them either, and that's no... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/mamets-court-is-in-hysterics/9973/ Wed, 2 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST What the hell has gotten into David Mamet? The puzzlement is genuine, and the profanity is the cooing of a dove compared to the bad words Mr. Mamet unleashes in "Romance," his outrageous new comedy at the Atlantic. Let us take stock. Mr. Mamet, one of the great American playwrights, is now entering his fourth decade on the stage. At a comparable point, Eugene O'Neill had a few more successful works up his sleeve, weighty dramas of substance, but Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller were both in... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/with-god-on-their-side/9818/ Mon, 28 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Though it's hard to believe it today, there was a time when all sorts of violent deeds were carried out in the name of religion. This was a long time ago, when civilization was less civilized. Science, reason, and the tolerant values of the Enlightenment had not yet taken hold. Today, of course, the world knows better than to mix religion and state power - especially in the United States, where everybody understands that one of America's great achievements has been to give the world a pristine... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/prisoner-smith-goes-to-washington/9752/ Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Early in "McReele," Stephen Belber's new play at the Roundabout, Darius McReele stands, hands clasped before him, imparting some sophisticated ideas about public policy. Are his fingers laced this way because he's thinking deeply about the minutiae of welfare reform? Or is it because he's wearing handcuffs that limit what the convict can do? Darius McReele is a smart, conscientious, charismatic black man. He is also sentenced to die, for a murder he allegedly committed when he was 17.The play... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/spook-your-children-well/9571/ Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Gory stories, quirky music, clever puppets, staggering hilarity: Different people will find different reasons to adore "Shockheaded Peter." This freewheeling adaptation of the "Struwwelpeter" tales, Heinrich Hoffmann's cautionary lessons for naughty 19th-century children, won raves on its first trip from London five years ago. As it reopened last night at the Little Shubert, the show captivated me, for one, with ineptitude. There is much to be said for badness, for the tonic properties of the... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/mob-superman/9435/ Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Into the garden of delights that New York has lately become - pretty orange curtains in the park, cute spelling bee musical, charming documentary about porn - "Coriolanus" descends like a black granite slab. Shakespeare's tragedy may not match the cosmic nihilism of "King Lear," but the story of a noble general's destruction is cynical enough, and timely enough, to appall even the most jaded reader of the daily news. The play, now mounted by Theater for a New Audience, is overwhelmingly about... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/kids-are-a-l-r-i-g-h-t/8909/ Tue, 8 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST If Charlie Brown, Stephen Dedalus, and Bart Simpson's friend Milhouse have taught us anything, it's that trauma is funny, adolescent trauma is funnier, and sensitive, intelligent adolescent trauma is funnier still. With its lofty parental expectations, inconvenient priapism, and six-syllable words, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" is downright hilarious. William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's musical, which opened at Second Stage last night, makes us the audience for the eponymous... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/this-is-your-life/8779/ Fri, 4 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST To put it ungenerously, they're cliches: The writer who Hit It Big; the gruff, unlettered father; the rapacious Hollywood producer; the perky groupie. A playwright needs real guts to present such familiar material to the fangs and claws of Broadway. Donald Margulies is more than gutsy; he is one of the ablest dramatists now writing. In "Brooklyn Boy," which opened last night at the Biltmore, a novelist finally achieves the literary success he has long craved. Yet Eric Weiss, the author of the... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/good-vibrations-an-apologia/8707/ Thu, 3 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST It began with a good idea, as most calamities do. How about a show based on Beach Boys tunes? Jukebox musicals are in vogue, and Brian Wilson wrote some of the best pop songs around. The baby boomers are flush with disposable income. How could that go wrong? After two hours of "Good Vibrations," which opened last night at the Eugene O'Neill, urgently I wish to answer, in long, vituperative detail. I'll resist the temptation. Enumerating the ways in which this show miscarries would be easy, but... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/down-out-in-the-hollywood-hills/8414/ Fri, 28 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST The title of David Rabe's "Hurlyburly" comes from a line in a Shakespeare play. Shakespeare also wrote a play in which a windy storyteller is ordered to get to the point: "More matter, with less art." As audiences of Mr. Rabe's sprawling tale might intuit, they are not the same play. Mr. Rabe's bleakly comic drama about depraved casting directors eking out a depraved Hollywood existence in the depraved modern world runs 3 hours and 10 minutes. On and on it tumbles, like a Congressional hearing... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/thoroughly-modern-marches/8151/ Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST For the past couple of years, Broadway's prevailing winds have been blowing us towards a faux-pop wasteland, with small reason to think any return possible. Once you've been to "Brooklyn," is there any going back? "Little Women" marks a slight, welcome change of direction. The show, which opened last night at the Virginia, isn't overblown or cynical. Its creators have clear affection for the material, and chose their cast on the basis of talent. It's also unassuming, if a musical attempting to... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/fiddler-calls-another-tune/8058/ Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Harvey Fierstein, that demure, dulcet-voiced ingenue, has returned to Broadway. When we last saw him, he was draped in a paisley housedress the size and subtlety of Atlantic City. His Edna Turnblad always felt a bit like a novelty act - that voice, that wig - but it suited "Hairspray," hardly the most delicate musical in town. Now he's essaying Tevye, the dialectical milkman at the heart of "Fiddler on the Roof." Mr. Fierstein brings to the role some obvious limitations; well, just one. He is... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/gallery-going-1/8065/ Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Doubt (131 W. 55th Street, 212-581-1212) A riveting, brilliantly acted look at the question, "What do you do when you're not sure?" As You Like It (651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100) Chilly but clear; Rebecca Hall is a Rosalind for the ages. The Gods Are Pounding My Head (131 E. 10th Street, 212-533-4650) T. Ryder Smith and Jay Smith dazzle in Richard Foreman's moody swan song. Avenue Q (252 W. 45th Street, 212-239-6200) Still running, still hilarious... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/ardens-ideas-foremans-frontiers/7917/ Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Peter Hall has done Shakespeare the immense service of letting him be. His staging of "As You Like It," which opened for an American run last night at the BAM Harvey, is plainly the work of a director who has learned to leave well enough alone. Such is the wisdom gained from 50 years in the business. Sir Peter's production reminds you that in the old days nobody went to see a play; they went to hear a play. His modern-dress staging is spare, tasteful, restrained. Seek all you like for brilliant... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/how-to-make-the-public-great-again/7391/ Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Oskar Eustis's task couldn't be simpler: He must be all things to all people. When he becomes artistic director of the Public Theater this month, he'll wear the hats of producer, director, fund-raiser, and all-around cultural pooh-bah. Not an easy job, but an essential one. The Public, like its new chief, finds itself in a challenging spot. What began as a brash experiment by the pugnacious Joe Papp remains, at its best, home to some of downtown's most provocative drama. Yet this summer marks... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/year-in-theater-more-and-or-less/7030/ Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST This time each year, drama critics pore over their notebooks, gnaw away at their cuticles, and proclaim their 10-Best lists. A big deal, the 10-Best list. Opinions that went unheeded in paragraph form assume a whole new authority when preceded by a number. But no matter how much I pour or gnaw, my own 10-Best list refuses to be born. A year's worth of theater in New York is too scattershot - too sublime and ridiculous - to line up and march for me that way. Still, what critic doesn't want a... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/sheridan-in-love-and-war/6452/ Fri, 17 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Pigeon? Pinwheel? Sometimes it's fun to picture a writer at work. Take Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In 1775, not yet 23, Sheridan let fly with his sparkling comedy "The Rivals." Porcupine? Persimmon? It describes a loony courtship in Bath, where various suitors pursue Lydia Languish, the wily niece of the dignified, word-slaughtering Mrs. Malaprop. Poinsettia? Pushcart? I like to imagine young Sheridan, feet propped on his desk, searching for the right wrong word to give his most enduring... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/superego-size-me/6364/ Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST One afternoon, businessman Tom shares a lunch table with plus-sized Helen, and a mutually satisfying romance begins. Yet what the cafeteria has joined together, Tom's mocking coworkers wish to pull asunder. Will he stick it out? If I told you the play was written by Neil LaBute, you could guess the answer. And, having been told that, you probably wouldn't care to try. He has spent the last decade filling stages and screens with depictions of male foul ness. Some of these were real achievements... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/gaiety-forced-otherwise/6128/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST "La Cage Aux Folles" is so timely it feels antique. Here's a story about a gay couple - a nightclub owner and his transvestite star - and their son, who announces he plans to marry his sweetheart. Quelle horreur: She's the daughter of a politician - a fanatically anti-gay conservative politician, the kind of beefy breeder who gets excited and bellows, "Homosexuals!" Well, yes. Georges (Daniel Davis) and Albin (Gary Beach) are in love with each other, and with their son, Jean-Michel (Gavin... JEREMY McCARTER http://www.nysun.com/arts/my-three-dozen-sons/5976/ Wed, 8 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Caryl Churchill is a 66-year-old publicity-shy barrister's wife who writes some of the most punk-rock plays in the English language. She has covered a lot of intellectual terrain - feminism, sexual politics, Romania - and has provoked at every turn. Her career teaches that it's possible, and great fun, to scratch your chin with one hand and give your audience the finger with the other. Last night, Ms. Churchill made a feverishly anticipated (by me, anyway) return to the New York Theatre...