La Perichole
Salle Favart at Opera Comique

 For his debut as Artistic Director of the Opera Comique, Jerome Savary brought with him a hit (or miss, depending on whether you listen to his strongly-opinionated fans or detractors) from his similar position at Paris' TNP. He's been working with La Perichole since 1977 at the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Germany, as a popular operetta, developing what he now claims is a musical comedy. This kind of popular art, Savary insists, is what should be Opera Comique fare in the 21st Century.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2000
La Vie Parisienne
Opera Comique

 No sooner does the orchestra appear in the pit than the curtain parts and a colorful cast appears at an ornate railroad station singing the praises of the Chemin de Fer. The train's either brought them to or keeps them in Paris, their "place" designated by sumptuous dress, music-hall attire, or work clothes. The latter may be those of vendors, waiters, maids, cleaners, artists - some on their way to the Grand Hotel. A sign painter there pays the doorman for his hat and sign so he can get to a woman who's attracted him. So what if he has to go all the way into the audience?

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
L'Anello di Erode
Galleria Toledo

 The last, and by all reports the most interesting, in a three-part miniseries of gay-themed drama at Galleria Toledo, L'anello di Erode is a portrait of Rome's gay scene. Lucilla Lupaioli incorporates terms found in Roman dialect into depictions of the various types that might be found: an experienced hustler, a younger one who leaves his girlfriend at home while he makes easy money, a determined john, and a (still?) idealistic guy in search of love.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 1998
L'Annonce faite a Marie
Athenee Theatre Louis-Jouvet

A trumpet heralds the start of the play. The sound of laughter gives way to dialogue between a man (Bruno Pesenti's sad Pierre) and woman (Catriona Morrison's intense Violaine) counterpointed by choral music. Their faces are lit like apparitions emerging from blackness. The man whispers to us, and music reinforces the theme of suffering with Christ. How leprous he looks! She comes forth, mostly in grey, to introduce her family and the characters of the community.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Last Dance At Dum Dum
New Ambassadors Theatre

 Actresses who are getting on in years repeatedly complain of the paucity of good parts for their age group. They should welcome Last Dance at Dum Dum, since it provides four such roles. The 37-year-old Ayub Khan-Din is one of the ten children of a Pakistani father and English mother. An actor, he turned to playwriting three years ago, and his East is East (which I did not see) won three awards. Now he is back with a second play, in which serious matters are leavened with a good deal of humor.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Laughing Matter, A
Lyttelton Theatre

 A subtitle for this play might be "Goldsmith vs. Garrick" It concentrates on why Garrick, as leading actor and theater owner of his day, did not stage She Stoops to Conquer which, it is argued here by no less than Samuel Johnson, was the greatest play of its age. Certainly the National Theatre of Great Britain is making no such mistake, since it is simultaneously staging Goldsmith's work with A Laughing Matter as a companion piece.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2003
L'Avare
Salle Richelieu, Comedie-Francaise

 Walls, screens, doors, and traps enclose the many scenes created all over the stage in L'Avare ("The Miser"). The setting is both physically and metaphorically appropriate for a play in which almost everyone is hiding something. As individuals or couples, they're also wrapped up in themselves and cut off from care about others. As for the anti-hero, descendants Scrooge and Silas Marner were philanthropic compared to Harpagon. And he never changes from being, surely, literature's most avaricious character.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2000
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Salle Richelieu, Comedie-Francaise

 From the pit up pops a spiked-curled, tux and black-tied, shaking conductor who bounces to recorded music, as up spring formally attired "violinists" to surround him. It's a zany start to one of the funniest plays ever, witnessed throughout and catered to by two zany-like servants. When the pit is vacated, the stage fills with a curtain (one of many to come) suggesting the Parthenon on mountains, being put there by a painter on a scaffold on wheels.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Le Costume
Theatre des Bouffes du Nord

 On the simple stage where he always shines, Sotigui Kouyate tells of little Sophiatown in South Africa whose marvels included not its decor but its people with their different looks, attitudes, religions, music, stories and hangouts. With a setting delineated by a red and white woven mat-like rug, Le Costume unfolds the folk tragedy of Philemon and wife Matilda, based on Can Themba's House of the Truth. He's a handsome, strong young man who gets his own breakfast and wakes pretty Matilda only to bring her sweets, which she takes in like sex.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Le desarroi de M. Peters
Atelier

 See Criticopia review(s) under English title: "Mr. Peters' Connections"

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
Mr. Peters' Connections
Atelier

 Forestage center in raincoat stands weathered, gray-haired Mr. Peters backed by his brother (middle aged, long-since dead) Calvin. A scrim in front and curtain in the rear peel away (as, eventually, do Mr. Peters' thoughts) to reveal men surveying a brown-and-purple, decrepit NYC jazz club. "September Song" lingers in the air. At his wife's request, Mr. Peters considers buying the place. Already haunted by Adele, a black phantasm who's found her "home" complete with makeshift fireplace-turned-lectern on the alcoved stage, the premises lend themselves to reveries.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
Le Diner de Cons
Sudden Theater

 (See Criticopia International review under "Dinner Game, The")

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Le process d'Hamlet
Theatre les Dechargeurs

 Carmina Burana loudly introduces a mysterious trial in a theatrical (mainly of the absurd) manner, the heart of which involves a presentation of Hamlet. Prosecutors in boxes on one side of a black-curtained box set are balanced by the defense (Joseph Hernandez, worried but indignant as the defendant, an actor of Hamlet accused of murdering Claudius the King, with Virginie Fraignac as his unnerved attorney).

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
Le triomphe de l'amour
Theatre Hebertot

 In The Triumph of Love, Princess Phocion (often called Leonid in English translations), whose family usurped a throne rightly due Agis, comes to set things right and immediately also falls in love with him. That she and her maid Hermidas pose as young men makes the task easier but the love matches (maid falls for Arlequin) harder. Then there's stoic Hermocrate (aptly stern Bernard Lavalette), Agis' uncle and Leontine's brother, who's kept them studying philosophy in a loveless state on a romance-banned estate.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Les Ephemeres
Theatre du Soleil

 As the title, "Les Ephemeres," implies, scenes played by actors from recollections of their own experiences pass like vignettes set in changing times. On a runway between two galleries where spectators become like mirroring Daumier sketches, roll out petits mondes ("little worlds"), from one to three at a time. Actors, crouching, propel and constantly turn the rectangular or circular mini-sets on wheels.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2007
Les Mal-assortis
Galleria Toledo

 The French Institute of Naples presented a lively adaptation of mid-17th-century French playwright Evaristo Gherardi's comedy, whose title can roughly be translated as The Misfits. The characters seem to be midway between the traditional commedia dell'arte stock types, with mostly improvised dialogue, and the lighter and more structured comedies of the next century. Cast with local actors -- all with excellent French -- the overall tone is less elegant and earthier than American audiences might be accustomed to.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
L'Evangile Selon Pilate
Montparnasse

 Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt admits he loves mysteries but enjoys following the quest for a solution more than finding it. He duplicates such a quest for us by having Pontius Pilate dictate to Sextus a report of his search for Yechoua (Jesus) shortly after his body has been reported missing from his tomb. Background for the search consists of tracing what both knew of Jesus, events that led up to his condemnation, then his sufferings and death - thus giving us the points of view of the vigorous, knowledgeable ruler in contrast to the phlegmatic common scribe.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2004
Lieutenant of Inishmore, The
Garrick Theatre

 [reviewed at Barbican's The Pit] What a bloody good play! If Titus Andronicus had lived in a bleak Irish cottage, then pursued his enemies and left Wee Thomas, his cat, for caring by his bummy Da, the upshot of the cat's death could not have been more gory.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
L'Ille des Esclaves
Atelier

 A trunk and bits of chain and such have landed outside the curtain. Soon come tumbling out a couple of clowns and, in what's left of tux-and-gown finery, a bedraggled couple. All are survivors of a shipwreck, all inheritors of the commedia dell'arte tradition. Curtain up on an island settled by slaves who escaped their masters and, by extension, a cruel, unjust world. No escaping each other by the contemporary foursome, however.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2004
Lion King, The
Lyceum Theatre

 How the Lyceum Theatre has been transformed by The Lion King! Henry Irving's old venue, restored to its glory, is certainly a great place to view a show that's basically a thing of artistic and technical beauty. "The Circle of Life" that begins the musical encompasses the percussionists in boxes, the imposing animals swaying down aisles, the great giraffes lumbering across the stage before a gigantic hanging-flower-like sun, insects galore. Villain Scar tries to cast shadows, but a secret lurks inside Rafiki's Tree.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2004
Little Brothers
Galleria Toledo

 (see Criticopia International listing under "Frattellini")

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
April 1997
La Locandiera
Galleria Toledo

 Famosa Mimosa Theater of Turin presented Goldoni's La Locandiera (1752) with three actors outfitted as human marionettes interconnected by strings and set within a frame to look like a real puppet theater. The distinctive use of only black and white for Daniela Dan Cin's set and costumes was reminiscent of illustrations of Italian futurist theater. Written midway in his long career, Goldoni recommended this comedy was recommended as "the most moral, useful and instructive", mainly for the image of a woman both attractive and free of hypocrisy.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 1997
London Assurance
Stratford Festival - Avon Theatre

 Despite our habit of slighting designers in discussing theatrical productions, I suspect that all reviewers will pay serious attention to the designs for this entirely glorious London Assurance -- Brian Bedford's first go at directing this madly stylish treasure of elegant Victorian farce. He has not only proven himself a master of such witty comedies but actually played this lead role triumphantly in an earlier Broadway production.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2006
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Alambic Studio Theater

 The small rectangle, rugged with worn Oriental rug holding mismatched chairs around a table, is so wretched that no wonder Mary Tyrone inveighs against its cheapness. In this terrible seaside summer home in 1912, the Tyrone family will come together (after James and Jamie's yearly theatrical touring) and fall apart. Despite wife and mother Mary Tyrone seeming recovered from morphine addiction, she's on the brink of returning to drugs. Jamie Jr., a misfit as actor in his father's company, will come in from drinking and whoring, soon to denounce and try to break with both parents.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Look Back In Anger
Royal National Theatre

 John Osborne, a 25-year-old actor-turned-playwright, wrote Look Back in Anger in a month. When it opened in 1956, it gave a jolt to the British theater such as had not been seen since Bernard Shaw more than a half century earlier. Osborne and the play's anti-hero, Jimmy Porter, were quickly tagged with the moniker Angry Young Men. The dramatist Sir David Hare recently stated that Osborne here "wrote a play whose social impact was as profound as its artistic effect. He's the gatekeeper. Everyone else comes piling through after."

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Lord of the Rings, The
Princess Of Wales Theater

 Possibly the most ornate musical to date, and certainly the most expensive show ever (currently $28 million Canadian dollars and rising), this version of the Tolkien trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings," is downright daunting. But it is more beautiful than the dark, mystical material might suggest, and the final effect is quite exhilarating. My fellow critics seemed a bit dazed, but the audience was ecstatic.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Lotta degli angeli
Parco dei Pini

 Enigmatic but captivating is the best way to describe Teatri di Vita's Lotta d'Angeli, brought back for a brief run in January 2000. The show is well-travelled, having opened in Le Mans, France, in 1998, and later seen in Berlin, Budapest and throughout Italy. In this incarnation, the cast has two men and one woman, all dressed in white raincoats and appearing one by one, suitcase in hand, falling into a brightly-lit white space devoid of time and spatial markers. Who are they and what will become of them?

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 2000
Love Scenes
Theatre de Nesle

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "Tableaux Amoureux")

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Tableaux Amoureux
Theatre de Nesle

How do you string together the most popular of Shakespeare's love scenes with coherence? What Colin David Reese and Yse d'Algrant do is improvise a story to contain them. A character like the actor-director he is, Reese reads Shakespeare in the native English of them both under a framed engraving of the Bard. A fire destroys some of the plays while others in French translation remain.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Lower Depths, The
Royal Lyceum Theatre

 Established in 1976, the RO Theatre of Rotterdam, one of three major Dutch theatre companies, never expected to present the Russian playwright Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths at the Edinburgh International Festival, but were persuaded to do so by the Festival's director, Brian McMaster. Director Alize Zandwijk certainly gets your attention, in this remarkable production that breaks every rule, while bringing startling emotional and violently physical elements into play. She changes much of the script and boils 16 characters down to ten.

Rosalind Friedman
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Lunatics' Doctor, The (aka Doctor of the Mad)
Teatro Filodrammatici

 (See Criticopia International review(s) under "Il Medico Dei Pazzi")

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Hairy Ape, The
Irish Repertory

 Eugene O'Neill is America's greatest playwright, and there is a powerful representation of his work at The Irish Rep on 22nd Street, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly: The Hairy Ape. It's a marvelous production on Eugene Lee's inspired, complex, brilliantly active set, with vivid lighting by Brian Nason and fine costuming by Linda Fisher.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Little Shubert Theater

 One of the best bio-musical revues to come down the road in years, Hank Williams: Lost Highway captures not only the bounciness of the singer-songwriter's jaunty ditties (including the genius-touched "Lovesick Blues") but the heartbreak underlying classics like, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Jason Petty, as Hank, invests the latter tune with so much ache, and Randal Myler's play-with-music contextualizes it so well, "Cry" actually has more emotional pull than Williams' own classic version. We're also treated to -- rarity of rarities!

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2003
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Manhattan Ensemble Theater

Country & Western star Hank Williams, one of our country's most dynamic and influential singer/songwriters, established his reputation and influence in only five years. He cut his first single, "Move It On Over," in 1946, at the age of 23, had his first of many hits "Lovesick Blues" and his spectacular Grand Ole Opry debut two years later. Death claimed him, the victim of painkillers and alcohol, in the back seat of his car en route to a concert New Year's Eve, at the age of 29.

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
December 2002
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Manhattan Ensemble Theater

You go to a play called Hank Williams: Lost Highway for the music of the legendary singer, and your favorites are all there, played live by a dynamite country band, in the production now at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater. It's all framed in a bio-entertainment that is pure bio-charm. It's a good dramatic play as well about the self-destructive life of Williams, with a fine cast, all first rate musicians, led by Jason Petty as the singer/songwriter in a recreation that is almost a reincarnation. Tertia Lynch as Audrey Williams is the prettiest, wriggliest bad singer on the stem.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2003
Haole
Next Stage

 Haole, written and performed by Cindy Keiter, the daughter of Hall of Fame sportscaster Les Keiter and directed by Padraic Lillis, gives us stories from her and her father's lives, about living and surfing in Hawaii, and about sportscasting. She is a good-looking, engaging athlete and actress, and her personal charm and good nature infuse the piece as her stories, including a demonstration of surfing, unfold. I enjoyed my visit to her life -- full of humor and some quite touching moments -- very much, but I don't think I'll start surfing just yet.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Harlem Song
Apollo Theater

 Harlem Song at The Apollo on 125th Street, written and directed by George C. Wolfe, mixes a fascinating photographic history of Harlem with narrative (by older long-time residents) and musical numbers, some of which are splashy and some balladic, all derivative. The show is uneven -- another clear example that a writer generally shouldn't direct his own show. The first two numbers are bland; the fun starts about ten minutes in when David St. Louis, dressed in white, comes down the steps, and tap dancers enter and lift our spirits.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
Sam Harris
Arci's Place

 (see Criticopia off-Broadway review(s) under "Intimate Evening With Sam Harris, An")

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
August 2001
Intimate Evening With Sam Harris, An
Arci's Place

 Singer/actor Sam Harris scored big on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for his starring role in the Cy Coleman musical The Life. More recently he won acclaim in the West Coast revival of "Hair." The trim, boyish-looking Harris is scoring big in his debut at Arci's where his friendly demeanor and stand-up comedy-implemented set proves an asset in this intimate room. Dressed in Ninja warrior basic black, Harris has a somewhat retro look that is as disarming as the casual attitude with which he frames his diverse and varied material.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
August 2001
Hedwig And The Angry Inch
Jane Street Theater

So many mini-genres are crowding New York theater right now—magic shows, angry British lower-class dramas, explorations of Jewish and/or gay identity—it's rare to come across a piece that's absolutely, uncategorizably new and different. When that show is also good, we're almost tempted to overpraise it. Back in February 1998, I took that risk with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell's fascinating, sometimes terrific mix of rock and roll cabaret act, performance art piece and cross-dressing spoof.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 1999

Pages