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April 1, 2005
TT: There's something about Amanda
In case you're wondering what I've been doing since I got back to New York, part of the answer can be found in my drama column in this morning's Wall Street Journal, in which I review four, count 'em, four shows, This Is How It Goes, Dessa Rose, Moonlight & Magnolias, and the Kennedy Center's production of Mister Roberts.Off we go in a breathless rush:
- Neil LaBute, who got my hopes up with "Fat Pig," has let them back down again in "This Is How It Goes," running through April 17 at the Public Theater. Not all the way, I'm relieved to say: This compact tale of a romantic triangle with an interracial twist has its moments of nerve-shredding tension. But the jack-in-the-box plot twists are contrived in a way that sits awkwardly alongside Mr. LaBute's ruthless dialogue, and it's about time he swore off more than a few of his personal clichés (enough already with the cute meetings!)...
All of which brings us to Amanda Peet ("The Whole Nine Yards"), an up-and-coming starlet who is wonderfully natural and direct as the spouse in question, eschewing the glammed-up look of her films and offering instead the kind of no-nonsense performance one never expects and rarely gets from a young movie actress. I'd like to see her on Broadway, soon....
- Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are definitely on the wrong track with "Dessa Rose," an eat-your-spinach musical about slavery in the Bad Old South that proclaims its choking earnestness in the very first line, "We are descended from a long strong line of women." All the more frustrating, then, that so much of "Dessa Rose," which plays at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through May 29, is so impressive....
- If you long to see a play about slavery, I recommend the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Ron Hutchinson's "Moonlight & Magnolias," an unpretentious piece of slapstick about how producer David O. Selznick (Douglas Sills), screenwriter Ben Hecht (Matthew Arkin) and director Victor Fleming (David Rasche) teamed up to rewrite the script for "Gone With the Wind" in five days flat. Any resemblance to real-life events is strictly coincidental, but Mr. Hutchinson keeps the punch lines coming...
- Where are the smash hits of yesteryear? One of the smashiest is on display at the Kennedy Center, which has exhumed "Mister Roberts," a service comedy that opened in 1948, ran for 1,157 performances, won four Tonys, and hasn't been seen on Broadway since. Now it's playing through Sunday as part of "A New America: The 1940s and the Arts," an interdisciplinary festival currently in progress at the Kennedy Center--and you know what? It's good stuff. Robert Longbottom's staging is efficient and effective, the ensemble cast takes care of business, and Andrew Jackness' just-like-a-ship set is a pleasure to behold....
Whew, huh? No link. Buy the damn paper, or subscribe to the Online Journal by going here.
That's it. I'm done. Back to the salt mines. See you Monday, unless I collapse and/or enroll in the Overworked Critic Protection Program....
Posted April 1, 2005 12:01 PM
