Welcome to the Phonys
Stereophonic.
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
This is the latest edition of The Critics, our weekly roundup of critical reviews, essays, and conversations from features writer Madeline Leung Coleman. Want to have it arrive in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here:
In a theater-loving town where it feels like a standing ovation is standard procedure, itâs time to find out which applause will go down in history â itâs awards season! This week, both the Drama Desk Awards and the Tonys dropped their nominees, with the Alicia Keys bio-musical Hellâs Kitchen and Fleetwood Macâinspired Stereophonic leading the list for the latter â each of those shows has 13 nominations, while The Outsiders comes in close behind with 12. And while we could place bets on who will win Best Revival or Best Lead Actor in a Musical, thereâs one thing the official awards will never be able to do: tell you what theater critics really talk about over postshow martinis.
That includes our very own Sara Holdren and Jackson McHenry. These two critics have spent the past few months cramming their schedules with previews and spinning out reviews of all the big shows (and a clutch of small ones too). Now that theyâve seen it all, theyâre ready to hand out some honors of their own â in categories the Tonys voters never dreamed of. Welcome to our awards show. Go ahead and call it the Phonys.
With respect to Rachel McAdamsâs nurturer in Mary Jane, this season belongs to the moms who canât â or wonât! Itâs a crowded field: Sarah Paulson in Appropriate, Jessica Lange in Mother Play, Cole Escola in Oh, Mary!, Shoshana Bean in Hellâs Kitchen, Kelli OâHara in Days of Wine and Roses âŠ
Jackson McHenry: Iâm awarding this to Cole Escolaâs Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary! for refusing to acknowledge her children at all.
Sara Holdren: I also vote for Escola, because I donât think the existence of Mary Toddâs children bothers her whatsoever. In Appropriate, despite some of the real horrors of Paulsonâs character, she still takes her teenagerâs face in her hands and goes, âI love you.â Sheâs trying. Mary Todd wins points for not trying.
An epidemic has struck the stages of New York: The actors treading the boards are being forced to compete with over-the-top video projections meant to cheat in backgrounds and visual effects. The nominees include The Great Gatsby, Spamalot, and The Wiz.
Sara: I believe in The Great Gatsby for this category. The oversaturated digi-video element is so in your face and distracting â there are moments where youâre probably supposed to be paying attention to a character, and instead youâre like, âOh, look, another mansion or a golf course or digital rain.â I realized something about the video sets in both Gatsby and The Wiz: Neither had an ensemble that was particularly small, but in each I felt like it wasnât taking up enough space â the ensembles felt weirdly little and underpowered for the stage. But I think itâs actually because theyâre being eaten by the backgrounds. Nothing is lifting up the human body. Everything is competing with it.
Jackson: Unfortunately, I think the set for The Wiz is even uglier than the one for Gatsby, especially the yellow brick road. If Gatsbyâs set looks like a simulator, The Wizâs looks like a video-game loading screen. Youâre waiting for it to boot up so you can enter a level.
The Notebook.
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
A strong season for the elements, including both fire and pouring rain in shows such as The Notebook, The Outsiders, Uncle Vanya, Suffs, Teeth, and The Great Gatsby.
Sara: For most effective use of the elements, Iâd say The Outsiders for that rumble in the rain, where theyâre doing a prolonged piece of stage combat covered in mud. Also for whatever theyâve put on the stage â I think itâs cork or something like that, but itâs supposed to feel like dirt. There are these beautiful moments in the choreography where they kick it toward the audience, creating clouds.
Jackson: For the most elements, the rain in The Notebook. Thereâs a lot of wet.
Do we really need to see an actual vehicle right now? No, but itâs here anyway â in shows such as The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, and Lempicka.
Jackson: This one goes to Lempicka, the bio-musical of Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka played by Eden Espinosa. (We just learned the show is closing May 19.) She paints a woman in a car, and then, suddenly, you see the car. Why? Who knows. It just rolls in and out. Some might say, âWell, what about Back to the Future?â The car in Back to the Future isnât there for some reason â it is the reason that you came to see the show.
In not-great productions, these performers outshine their surroundings. Nothing but respect for the very brave John Zdrojeski in The Great Gatsby, Mia Katigbak in Uncle Vanya, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine in Doubt.
Jackson: I would give it to Mia Katigbak in Uncle Vanya because sheâs just wonderful despite the show. I also think Quincy Tyler Bernstine is so good in Doubt, but that is also kind of the part where youâre supposed to get someone to come in and just kill that scene. I do think the way that she does it is really impressive because she doesnât overplay it. Sheâs not doing the tears and snot.
Sara: John Zdrojeski as Tom Buchanan in Gatsby. While I love everything Katigbak does, sheâs the kind of actor who really knows how to smooth the edges of things. You know what I mean? She can always fit herself into the world sheâs acting in. But with Zdrojeski in Gatsby, I mean, he really does just feel like a different category of performer than the rest of the cast. The rest feel so, âHello, everyone! Jazz hands!â And heâs like, âIâm here to play a psychologically complex role.â
A specific and delightful trend: shows set in the landlocked states that prominently feature dance. Nominees include The Outsiders (Tulsa), Illinoise (duh), The Heart of Rock and Roll (Chicago?), How to Dance in Ohio (duh), and Dead Outlaw (Oklahoma but eventually California).
Sara: Illinoise really is a show based entirely in the body. I was excited when I realized that it would not have a conventional book, that they werenât going to be talking the whole time, and the choreographer Justin Peck does beautiful work. But the only reason Iâm going with Illinoise instead of Dead Outlaw â a great show that was at the Minetta Lane Theatre until a couple weeks ago â is a technicality: Despite the fact that most of the story is based in and around Oklahoma, the one who does the wild, one-man Busby Berkeley dance Iâm thinking of, Thom Sesma, is actually playing the L.A. County coroner.
Jackson: I still want to vote for Dead Outlaw â not only because of Sesmaâs dance, but also because of the train heist and horseback riding. Itâs got so much great movement and this kind of open-sky vastness.
For when part of your job is pretending to be high. Nominees: Stereophonic (cocaine), Lempicka (opiates, etc.), Tommy (acid)
Jackson: I mean, the Stereophonic coke bag. How can you not? Itâs so big. The way that Sarah Pidgeon does this glamorous little sniff with her manicured nails really feels lived-in and of the era.
Who knew there would be more than one show featuring a screaming match between songwriters? The nominees: Merrily We Roll Along and Stereophonic.
Sara: Merrily is so wonderful, but Iâm going to go with Stereophonic just because itâs about creative differences in their present frictional form. So many moments are fueled by active tension â whereas a lot of what weâre watching in Merrily is the consequences of that. In Stereophonic, thereâs this moment where they play an incredible song and everyone is sitting in how incredible it was. Then Peter (Tom Pecinka) turns to his bandmate and girlfriend Diana (Sarah Pidgeon) and says, âItâs good, but thereâs only so much I can do if youâre not gonna cut the verses down; your ego is getting in the way.â
Jackson: If we were just considering Daniel Radcliffeâs song about working with Jonathan Groffâs character in Merrily, âFranklin Shepard, Inc.,â I would give it to that.
And itâs not from the actor who is currently playing the Emcee in Cabaret.
Sara: The best current performance as this kind of character is not the one by Eddie Redmayne, whoâs in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway â itâs George Abud as Marinetti in Lempicka. Heâs playing an artist who was the real-life father of futurism, historically shoehorned into the play. But that doesnât matter, because he does what the Emcee in Cabaret is supposed to do: He guides us along as the world tumbles toward fascism. The opinions he expresses are explicitly ugly, but Abud does it with so much successful charm without giving away any of the menacing. Whereas Redmayneâs Emcee is just a mess, wiggling his fingers.
Jackson: He totally tips his hand. Itâs odd to watch Cabaret and never feel like youâre being seduced by the Emcee. Redmayneâs Emcee is just going, âWelcome to Berlin, itâs evil,â and hopping around. There is meant to be a complicated dynamic with the Emcee where heâs both sort of queer and luring you into fascism. But this production seems to tell you, âAll of this expression is going to lead to being a brown shirt.â It seems un-thought-through and un-nuanced. Abud is much more convincing.
For the recent retiree in your life. Tommy, Stereophonic, The Heart of Rock and Roll.
Jackson: Stereophonic. A story based on Fleetwood Mac making Rumours is material for great drama. Whereas The Heart of Rock and Roll is, although kind of charming, inspired by the Huey Lewis and the News catalogue.
Sara: It may not be a full vote, but I will throw in a weird little thumbs-up for the Who musical, Tommy. It is undeniably dated, and yet thereâs something thatâs still exciting there. Thereâs something about both the Whoâs music and Ali Louis Bourzguiâs central performance as Tommy that weirdly holds up.
Jackson and Sara agree: Thereâs no way that the very run-of-the-mill Alicia Keys musical Hellâs Kitchen should be nominated for as many Tonys as Stereophonic.
The Tonys doesnât usually hand out prizes for this â but then they surprised us by announcing a special award for Jajaâs hair and wig designer Nikiya Mathis. Letâs talk about her work!
Jackson: The play takes place at a hair-braiding salon over the course of a day, and the entire time you need to have convincing braiding going on â these women are meant to be very good at their jobs. There are even little skips in time, which means the actorsâ wigs need to progress far enough forward to be realistic and to create the sense of work being done. The show managed to communicate so much about the characters and the setting just using the materials of hair itself.
Sara: Itâs spectacular. The actress Kalyne Coleman, who played multiple customers in the show, posted this incredible video of one of her quick changes where she runs offstage, loses her whole costume and wig, gets another costume and wig, and goes back on as another character. Watching that happening on stage was incredible, but so was seeing what happened backstage.
A special award for the erstwhile eldest boy, whose starring role in An Enemy of the People involves getting a bucket of real ice dumped on top of him at every performance.
Sara:Â Itâs clearly his favorite moment in the entire show.
Welcome to the Phonys