Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test

The Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test is our personal and highly opinionated Commuter's Guide to New York theater and cultural events, with an emphasis on Broadway and Off-Broadway theatrical productions. The test is simple: is an event worth the always expensive, time consuming, and too often horrendous struggle to commute to New York City from New Jersey, Long Island, Upstate New York or Connecticut? Only truly great or near-great performances and productions may meet this stiff challenge!

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Location: Princeton, New Jersey, United States

James Camner is an antiquarian dealer of autographs, manuscripts and printed music and books of Opera, Classical Music, Theater, Dance, and Film, as well as a published author of more than 10 books on the performing arts including "How to Enjoy Opera" (Simon and Schuster), "The Great Opera Stars in Historic Photographs" (Dover), "Stars of American Musical Theater in Historic Photographs" (Dover - with Stanley Appelbaum); was for over 20 years a reviewer for Fanfare Magazine and has written feature articles and reviews for Opera News.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

The House In Town, a play by Richard Greenberg. Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzie E. Newhouse. Though British playwrights have gotten most of the praise in the 2005-2006 New York theater season, it is my own opinion that the two of the best plays of the season were by Americans: David Lindsay-Abaire's searing "Rabbit Hole" and now Richard Greenberg's "The House in Town." Both plays relate an extremely painful journey of an American wife to self-awareness and growth. The journey in "Rabbit Hole" is but an inch, but what an inch! Cynthia Nixon bravely gave, and won the Tony for Broadway's dramatic distaff performance of the year, but if Jessica Hecht's devastating portrayal of the fragile Amy Hammer had been eligible, she might have walked away with the Tony herself.
"The House in Town" is a metaphor for belonging, especially Amy's sense of her physical and spiritual self and and her place in life. In the end, she keeps her house, but at a great price. This is a multi-layered play set in 1929 New York, just on the edge of the abyss of the crash, and it explores everyone's sense of belonging, stripping away long-held facades, especially that of her husband, a Jew who has married into "society." One of the questions asked by the play is if a Jew in 1929 America can have a "House in Town."
Mark Harelik wins the immediate good will of the audience as Amy's solicitous husband. Armand Schultz and Becky Ann Baker are good in supporting roles.
This is the best Richard Greenberg play that I've seen, and is even more skilfully written than the highly praised "Take Me Out". With the exception of one or two cliched phrases (with apologies to Shakespeare, what high society "lady" in 1929 would have crudely opined "it was as cold as a witch's tit"?), it is exceptionally eloquent. "The House In Town" is in a limited run at the intimate Mitzi E. Newhouse at Lincoln Center. It deserves its own "house on Broadway" for a long run.
Passes the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel test with a solid B+

Monday, July 17, 2006

The Lieutenant of Inishmore. A play by Martin McDonagh, Lyceum Theatre. I attended last night's Actor's Fund Benefit performance of the Lieutenant of Inishmore and I was enormously impressed. This is a very entertaining absurdist play with gruesome grand guignol elements that is both funny and sad, and in the end profound. The Lieutenant of Inishmore brilliantly demonstrates the uselessness and senselessness of terrorism and the utter ruthless and remorseless manner in which it is applied so casually. The performances by a perfectly calibrated ensemble cast are outstanding. The rapt audience cheered and cheered at the conclusion. Warning to playgoers seated in the first two rows, I was splattered by stage blood and I'm not sure if it will come out as easily as real blood might. Even though I was stuck at the Holland Tunnel for nearly 45 minutes, thereby nearly doubling the time of my commute, this play easily passes the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test with a B+.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The History Boys. A play by Alan Bennett. Broadhurst Theatre. My wife and I loathed The History Boys! So far, I have only talked to two human beings who agree with us, so we are definitely out of step with the majority who have raved about the play and with the various organizations that have heaped awards on it both here and in the UK.
We felt the play was overlong and lacked focus, and the direction, laced with "Yellow Submarine" mod style videos, was tiresome and cliched.
What bothered us the most was the play's cavalier attitude towards the molestation of male students by a charismatic but increasingly marginalized teacher, and the ridicule piled on the headmaster who fires him for it. While the students all get into Oxford, they appear to fail in later life, and the young teacher who succeeds his older colleague (and may share his fatal flaw) ends up crippled and corroded in his life and later career. This is a play that, to us, despises the British education system and all who participate in it. The only value we discerned in the play lies in the good performances from the boys, but as a father of an NYU college student, I was appalled by the muck these Oxford bound "History Boys" appear to be stuck in. It's hard for me to believe that any of them would make it into perhaps the world's most famous and venerated University. We give this a near failing grade in the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test. Because of the good performance of the young men and an enjoyable, if overpraised turn by Frances De La Tour, we give this a D+

Shining City. A play by Conor McPherson. Biltmore Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club.
A finely written ghost story with virtuoso performances by Brian F. O'Byrne (can he do any wrong? I don't think so) and Oliver Platt in a sizzling Broadway debut. This play is dense and complicated and takes chances, and concludes with a virtuoso flourish. The run is limited, but it deserves to be seen. Passes the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test with flying colors. B+

Sweeney Todd. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler. From an adaptation by Christopher Bond. Eugene O'Neill Theatre. I was fortunate enough to see Harold Prince's original ground breaking Sweeney Todd production, and from prime house seats given to me by my old friend Anna Sosenko. That was an unforgettable experience, with a definitive performance by Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, but this new adaptation in which the small cast are also an onstage orchestra is mind bendingly brilliant. What happens is pure theatrical magic - the multi-talented cast, playing and singing Sondheim's complex score at the same time becomes an organic whole, with the drama pulsing right out of their instruments. The cast is amazing and the extraordinary sight of Patti LuPone playing the Tuba (and the Triangle) is worth the Bridge and Tunnel commute alone. I've never heard an ovation so primally erupt from an audience on Broadway as I did on this occasion. To say that this historic production passes the Bridge and Tunnel Test is an understatement - this is an experience of a lifetime. We didn't even mind being stuck in the tunnel on our way home, feeling as exhilirated as we did. One note of caution however, our daughter saw it on a different night and Patti LuPone did not perform and though she enjoyed the performance, evidentally it was not at all the same. So with Patti LuPone, we give Sweeney Todd an A+. Without Patti LuPone, it falls to B+.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

The Drowsy Chaperone. Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar. Marquis Theatre. The Drowsy Chaperone is an entirely original musical recreating an imaginary 1928 musical in the living room of a fanatical theater nerd played by the co-creator of the book, Robert Martin (hilarious and also poignant in this role). The cast is chock full of top notch Broadway talent led by Sutton Foster and Beth Level. Standouts include Georgia Engel as a ditsy hostess and my daughter's favorites Garth and Jason Kravits as two gangsters who could have fit right in with the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers. The musical is fabulously staged, the costumes and sets are perfection.
I saw The Drowsy Chaperone on July 3 with my wife and 19-year-old daughter. We all loved it. The Drowsy Chaperone gets our highest recommendation; not only do we feel it passed the Bridge and Tunnel Test (and the traffic was horrendous getting through the Lincoln Tunnel), we would gladly see it again, tough commute or not! A+