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May 20, 2005
TT: All about Orson (and Larry and Ken)
It's Friday, I'm in the Journal, and I'm in a raving mood. The causes this week are Orson's Shadow and Kristin Chenoweth:Now that Broadway has settled down for the summer, the show to see is Austin Pendleton's "Orson's Shadow," first performed five years ago by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and currently playing Off Broadway (why did we have to wait so long?) at the Barrow Street Theatre. It's "All About Eve" for eggheads, a thought experiment in which Mr. Pendleton, a veteran actor and sometime playwright, endeavors to imagine what might have happened when Orson Welles (Jeff Still) directed Laurence Olivier (John Judd) and Joan Plowright (Susan Bennett) in Eugène Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" in London in 1960, at the exact moment when Olivier, who had fallen in love with Ms. Plowright, was trying to get up the nerve to end his marriage to Vivien Leigh (Lee Roy Rogers).
The fictional catalyst for this snarl of true-life ego run rampant is Kenneth Tynan (Tracy Letts), the celebrated British drama critic, who knew all the parties concerned and whom Mr. Pendleton employs as the narrator of "Orson's Shadow." In this as in every other aspect of the script, he weaves together fact and fancy with deeply informed audacity....
At intermission I decided that Mr. Pendleton had given us an ingenious entertainment crammed full of good jokes. (Welles: "When and where did you hear the rumor that I've been playing to empty houses?" Tynan: "I heard it tonight, from the other member of the audience.") By evening's end I knew better: "Orson's Shadow" also has something wholly serious to say about the self-destructive impulse that is too often the worm in the rose of genius. I don't know when I've seen a better backstage play....
Kristin Chenoweth might just be the smartest young actress in town. Perhaps that's a peculiar way to describe Broadway's reigning Queen of Cute, but Ms. Chenoweth is more than just a little blonde cutie-pie with a super-sized voice. Anyone who saw her last weekend in City Center's "Encores!" presentation of "The Apple Tree," a triptych of one-act musicals by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick originally produced on Broadway 39 years ago, will know just what I mean.
Ms. Chenoweth played Eve (as in Adam), the jealous princess of "The Lady or the Tiger?" and a frumpy chimney sweep turned ultra-sexy movie star, interpreting all three of her roles with a specificity and precision normally found only in vastly more experienced performers. I got so wrapped up in her ever-fresh line readings and split-second timing that I almost failed to remember what a terrific singer she is, which is a bit like watching "North by Northwest" and paying more attention to James Mason than Cary Grant....
No link, so if you want to read more (including a much less enthusiastic review of Playwrights Horizons' Memory House), buy today's Wall Street Journal and turn to the "Weekend Journal" section, in which you will find much cultural coverage of all kinds, all of it interesting. Or go here to subscribe to the Journal's online edition, which is totally worth it.
P.S. Since I saw Orson's Shadow last Saturday night, Tracy Letts was replaced by Sean McNall, about whom more here. If and when time permits, I'll try to go back and see him.
Posted May 20, 2005 12:01 PM
