LUCIA GOES MAD, GETS EVEN AT MET

Men are selfish pigs who tend to treat women like property. This is a major point of both Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, the masterworks that respectively served as the Metropolitan Opera's season openers this year and last. Director Mary Zimmerman's take on Lucia, unveiled at the Met on September 24, makes the point very clearly.

If you consider Zimmerman's Metamorphoses to have been one of the supreme highlights of your theatrical experience, as I do, chances are that you've already secured a ticket to Lucia. You'll be glad you did. This exploration of the central character's madness, the result of the poor Scottish lass being forced to renounce her lover and marry another man for political/financial reasons, is astute and gripping. Early in the action, the appearance of a ghost -- referred to in Salvatore Cammarano's libretto based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, but not usually seen -- brings home the fact that the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society is a tragedy destined to be repeated again and again. (This may partly explain Zimmerman's having updated the opera's action from the 17th century to the mid 1800s, a choice that neither helps nor harms the story.)

Throughout the production, there are dozens of felicitous directorial touches. In the scene where the guests are gathered to witness the signing of the wedding contract, Lucia's brother Enrico announces her arrival to her bridegroom and fidgets nervously until she shows up; then he none-too-subtly strong-arms her as he mutters sotto-voce that she'd better behave if she doesn't want to ruin him. At one point during Lucia's mad scene, she gets the giggles. Oh, and in the final scene, the death of Edgardo is depicted as an assisted suicide. (I'll say no more!)

The major fly in the ointment here is the set design of Daniel Ostling -- odd, since he was responsible for the gorgeous, evocative, pool-based unit set for Metamorphoses. In Lucia, his mixture of representational settings (e.g., the woods of Act I) with far less realistic elements is distracting; we spend so much time trying to figure out what he's going for that we're taken out of the drama. For the oft-omitted Wolf's Crag scene that begins Act III, Ostling provides virtually no set at all. Is it possible that this scene was going to be cut as usual until a last minute decision resulted in its inclusion?

To some extent, this lack of a cohesive style is reflected in the direction, which is founded in psychological realism but occasionally veers off that path. Why, for example, do the chorus members suddenly begin to move in a slow-motion, ritualistic way during Lucia's mad scene? Still, Zimmerman has come up with many bracing ideas, several of them involving the brilliant Natalie Dessay as Lucia. For one thing, these two have managed to find some moments of joy and lightness in this grim piece, as in Lucia's scene with her companion Alisa and the surreptitious rendezvous between Lucia and her lover, Edgardo.

With her big eyes, sweet face, and lithe figure, Dessay is an uncommonly lovely Lucia -- and the fact that Mariusz Kwiecien as her bullying brother Enrico is also a looker causes their onstage confrontations to be fraught with an incestuous sexual tension. (I loved the moment when, immediately after berating Lucia, her brother grabbed her and almost violently kissed her on the forehead.) Vivid portrayals are also offered by Michaela Martens as Alisa; Stephen Costello as Arturo, the bridegroom who comes to a gruesome end; and John Relyea as the priest Raimondo, whose misguided efforts to avert the tragedy that's waiting to happen only serve to help bring it on.

From a musical standpoint, this Lucia is near perfect. James Levine, not famous as a bel canto specialist, conducts a virile performance that nevertheless sacrifices nothing in terms of tenderness and lyricism. The celebrated sextet, intriguingly staged by Zimmerman as a photo op (!), is even more of a guaranteed show-stopper than usual. Dessay is a wonder, delivering gorgeous, long-lined phases or dazzling coloratura even while lying flat on her back or being dragged upstage. Her mad scene is riveting, whether she's knocking out a stratospheric high note or letting loose with a gut-wrenching scream.

All of the other principals are superb with the exception of Marcello Giordani, miscast as Edgardo both vocally (his voice is too muscular, not quite lyrical enough for this music) and physically. Though he's unbeatable in parts well suited to his gifts -- the title role in Andrea Chenier, Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, even Pinkerton in Butterfly -- Giordano is no Edgardo.

Mara Blumenfeld's costumes in the style of the production's rather unspecific 19th century time frame are eye catching, and T.J. Gerckens' lighting is more consistent than Ostling's sets. The Met orchestra plays beautifully, natch, and the chorus sings lustily. For all its flaws, this Lucia is an unforgettable three hours of music drama.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Who will buy? Apparently, a whole lot of people. The 21st annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction was held on Sunday, September 23 in Shubert Alley and along West 44th Street. Stars, gypsies, backstage workers, et al. helped raise a grand total of $559,810 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by posing for photos, selling merchandise, and doing just about anything else that needed to be done. Here are some pics of this joyful event.

BC/EFA stalwart Peter Borzotta had tons of fab stuff to sell at a table set up right next to the Booth Theatre.

Andy Halliday, whom you may remember from his work in several of Charles Busch's hilarious shows, hawked snow globes.

Here's Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, with wife Kristen and their adorable daughter Katie.

Broadway maven Seth Rudetsky (left) with Hunter Bell, one of the co-authors and stars of the brilliant [title of show].

The Drowsy Chaperone star Jo Anne Worley (right) with a very happy fan.

Two more Drowsy people: Troy Britton Johnson and Mara Davi.

A trio of cute, cuddly, Broadway Bears.

As is the case every year at the Flea Market, the photo booth was the best place for schmoozing with the stars. Among those on hand: the ever fabulous Marian Seldes, late of Deuce...

...Jersey Boys J. Robert Spencer and Daniel Reichard, dipping into some dessert between posing for photos...

...Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) and David Hyde Pierce (Curtains)...

...Debra Monk, one of Pierce's comic cohorts in Curtains...

...Broadway vet Tony Roberts, now co-starring in Xanadu...

....the cheeky Mary Testa, also of Xanadu...

...Avenue Q alumnae Ann Harada and Stephanie D'Abruzzo...

...funnymen Jim J. Bullock (Hairspray) and Christopher Sieber (Spamalot).

"Don't trust anyone over 30!" was a warning cry of youth in the turbulent, anti-authoritarian years of the late 1960s. Well, Hair, the "American tribal love-rock musical" that distilled many of the era's hopes, dreams, and frustrations, has now turned 40. Much of the show's book, by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, has not aged all that well; but thanks largely to its score, featuring evergreen music by Galt MacDermot and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics by the Ragni-Rado team, Hair lives on in perpetuity.

This weekend, such songs as "Aquarius," "Good Morning Starshine," and "Let the Sunshine In" will ring out at the Delacorte in Central Park as the Public Theater presents a free-admission, 40th anniversary concert version of the epoch-making musical that was first seen at the Public in 1967. And don't be surprised if Hair still has a lot to say to a country that once again finds itself involved in a highly unpopular war.

"The show seemed fun at the time, but some of it was quite shocking," says Galt MacDermot, who'll be playing keyboards in the 12-piece band for the Delacorte performances. And how will audiences react to Hair in 2007? "They'll probably think it's kind of dated. Kids today are not particularly concerned about the war in the way the people were back then, because there's no draft now. I don't think kids today even know what a hippie is."

MacDermot tells me that, for the park concerts, "some of the scenes have been shortened, and the band will be on stage: three trumpets, trombone, baritone sex, and five in the rhythm section. The main thing with the music of Hair is to get a really good band -- and we've got one. The drummer and the bass player played on the movie soundtrack, and a couple of the guitar players have done the show before."

The composer is a longtime resident of Staten Island, where I was raised. I first interviewed him in 1979, just before the movie version of Hair was released. He has always been known for his honesty -- as you can tell from his comments above and his response to my remark that Spring Awakening is perceived by some people to be a revolutionary musical in much the same way that Hair was in its day. "I've heard a couple of the songs from Spring Awakening, and the score didn't sound very revolutionary to me," MacDermot says. "Pop music has become pretty standard on Broadway now. Hair sounded like it was of its era, but the truth is that every song is a little different. They're not all in one genre; that gets boring. A lot of the songs really couldn't be classified as rock and roll."

Though he went on to write several other terrific scores -- including one of my personal favorites, The Human Comedy -- there's no question that Hair is MacDermot's masterpiece. "The show is done more or less continually around the world," he notes, "especially in Europe. Over there, it never stops. My wife is Dutch; she hears about those productions, and she tells me about them. I used to go to see the show often, but not recently. The last time I saw it was a few years ago, at Wagner College on Staten Island. It was very good."

Of late, MacDermot and his New Pulse Jazz Band -- with his son Vincent on trombone -- have been playing on Monday nights at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Cafe. "You could call it jazz," he says. "It's my own music, but we play like a jazz band. My son runs a little record company called Kilmarnock, and we put out recordings of things we like. We made a live recording of a concert we did at the St. George Theatre on Staten Island, and we put that out as a CD."

The West Bank gigs have been on hold for the past couple of weeks as MacDermot has been prepping for Hair at the Delacorte. He declares himself "very happy" with the cast, which is headed by Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening) as Claude and Will Swenson (Adrift in Macao) as Berger. Also featured are such talents as Karen Olivo (Sheila), Darius Nichols (Hud), and Megan Lawrence (Mother). But why is the Public offering only three al fresco performances of a show that's sure to attract a huge potential audience? "I don't know," says MacDermot, "except that it's getting a little cold out now."

[Hair will be performed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, September 22-24, at 7pm. For more information, click here.]

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When last I caught up with Robert Funaro, he had just recently had his big moment as Eugene Pontecorvo on The Sopranos. Desperate to sever his ties with the mob but unable to do so, Eugene had gruesomely offed himself by hanging. The performance earned Funaro great acclaim and lots of fans, many of whom will no doubt show up for The Lady Swims Today, the play in which he's currently co-starring at the TADA Theater on West 28th Street.

Described as "a drama in the tradition of Key Largo and The Petrified Forest," H.G. Brown's play is set in Baltimore in the summer of 1984. A guy named Eddie plans to steal two million dollars off a boat on the Chesapeake Bay, and he enlists some other losers to help him. "The play has a very film-noir feel," says Funaro, "but the comedy is definitely there, too. It's set up in the way these people talk to each other. Eddie is this independent business man-slash-criminal. In a way, the play reminds me of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It's about how people behave when they get a lot of money."

A highly intense actor, Funaro has previously been seen on the New York stage in Dread Awakening (as a sexually abusive dentist!) and in showcase productions of Golden Boy and Burn This, but he views The Lady Swims Today as his first big Off-Broadway foray. Of his career, he says: "It's not as easy as people think it would be when you've been on a hit TV show. I was out of work for a little while. Summers are really slow, and keeping things going is not so simple." Did he at least get a big send-off from The Sopranos. "No," he laughs. "They used to have The Big Pussy Rule: If you got whacked on the show, they threw you a party in Little Italy. But then they stopped doing that, so I didn't get a party. I just faded away."

Funaro does have a juicy featured role in an upcoming Ridley Scott movie that sounds like it has "hit" written all over it: American Gangster, due out in November. "It's a wonderful film about a drug kingpin, based on a true story," he says. "Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, who brings him to justice. It's an interesting story about how Lucas came to power; he kind of usurped all the crime organizations by going to Vietnam and buying heroin directly. Josh Brolin and I play two detectives on the case who are very crooked."

Right now, though, Funaro is 100% focused on The Lady Swims Today. "It's a lot of hard work," he allows, "but it's fun. This is the second time I've done the play; I did it as a showcase in February. It's been interesting to work with a new director, Steve Sunderlin. The challenge for me has been to put aside everything I did before and make it fresh. I'm still working on that! But I'm honored and very happy to be a part of this production."

BROADWAY AL FRESCO

The 16th annual Broadway on Broadway concert was held smack dab in the middle of Times Square on Sunday, September 16, with performers from 20 main stem musicals performing numbers from their shows. Tens of thousands of fans gathered to enjoy the festivities, and some of them went so far as to dress as their favorite Broadway character in order to gain access to a VIP viewing area. What they did for love, indeed!

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Chang chang, chang-itty-chang she-bop! Here are Laura Osnes (left) and Max Crumm (right), chosen by America for the roles of Sandy and Danny in Grease, with Ryan Haddad from Cleveland, who won the title of "Broadway's Biggest Fan" in an online contest.

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The concert was hosted by former 'N Sync heartthrob Lance Bass, who is currently appearing on Broadway as Corny Collins in the long-running hit Hairspray.

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Lea Salonga, who created the role of Kim in Miss Saigon, is now playing Fantine in Les Misérables.

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Carolee Carmello, the current star of Mamma Mia!, posed with fellow cast member Frankie James Grande, who won the title "Mr. Broadway" in a beauty/talent pageant held earlier this year.

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Here are Ashley Brown (left) and Gavin Lee (right), a.k.a. Mary and Bert in Mary Poppins, with Janelle Robinson, who's featured in the "Super-cali-fragi-listic-expi-ali-docious" number.

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Julia Murney gave a powerhouse performance of "The Wizard and I" from the smash hit Wicked.

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Avenue Q's Howie Michael Smith made the scene with his pal Rod, who was very miffed that he didn't win the title of "Broadway's Biggest Fan."

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Looking cuter than ever, here are Andy Karl and Orfeh, a couple both onstage (in Legally Blonde) and off.

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Tamyra Gray warmed up a somewhat chilly morning/afternoon with her hot-hot-hot rendition of "Out Tonight" from Rent.

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This parting shot is of Jeffrey Schecter, a.k.a. Mike in A Chorus Line, who showed the audience that he ain't kidding when he boasts, "I Can Do That."

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A TASTE OF NYMF

In the fall, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of -- musicals! The fourth annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is nearly upon us, and some super-talented folks gathered on Wednesday afternoon, September 12, at the Julia Miles Theatre for a press preview of numbers from nine of the 34 tuners that will be presented under the festival's aegis. Check out the photos below, and then check out the website www.nymf.org to plan your musical theatergoing for the next three weeks.

Marla Schaffel, best known as the star of Broadway's Jane Eyre, appears with James Stovall (left) and Tom Deckman in Going Down Swingin' (book and lyrics by Matt Boresi, music by Peter Hillard).

Broadway vets Liz Larsen (Hairsrpay, The Most Happy Fella, Starmites) and Brad Oscar (The Producers) are in Such Good Friends, with book, lyrics, and music by Noel Katz.

Former Miss America and current Legally Blonde star Kate Shindle sizzles in a song from Sympathy Jones (book by Brooke Pierce, music and lyrics by Masi Asare).

Grease: You're the One That I Want finalists Austin Miller (left) and Kate Rockwell (right) are both featured in Tully (In No Particular Order), with Adam Hose (center) in the title role. The show has a book by Joshua William Gelb, music and lyrics by Stephanie Johnstone.

Marisa Rhodes and Eli Schneider play Carol Fugate and Charlie Starkweather in Love Kills (book, lyrics, and music by Kyle Jarrow), based on the true story that inspired the films Badlands and Natural Born Killers.

Jesse Bush and Amanda Watkins are in The Angle of the Sun (book and lyrics by Rachel Lampert, music by Larry Pressgrove).

Theater, jazz, and comedy favorite Lea DeLaria stars in Roller Derby -- book and lyrics by Barry Arnold, music by the legendary Harold Wheeler.

Here's the cast of Look What a Wonder Jesus Has Done in a rousing number from that gospel tuner with book, lyrics, and music by Walter Robinson.

Finally, here are Jason Tam and the cast of The Yellow Wood (book by Michelle Elliott, lyrics by Michelle Elliott and Danny Larsen, music by Danny Larsen).

SHAW ON THIS SHINING NIGHT

Was Joan of Arc a heroic visionary worthy of sainthood, or a religious zealot whose belief that she was in communication with God marked her as insane? Certainly, anyone living in America today has good reason to be wary of a leader who claims the benefit of divine counsel; but Joan seems to have had a lot more smarts and personality that GWB, not to mention the fact that she was apparently much cuter.

A world-class performance in the title role is essential to any production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (1923), which is generally agreed to be the best dramatic treatment of the short, fascinating life of the Maid of Orleans. The excellent staging on view at the Shaw Festival in the picturesque Canadian town Niagara-on-the-Lake boasts just such a performance by Tara Rosling (pictured), now in her fourth season with the festival. Rosling is a Joan whose tireless efforts to help her countrymen liberate their lands from the English and to insure the French Dauphin's succession to the throne make her a wonderfully compelling figure despite her extreme self-righteousness.

This superb actress is ably supported by a company whose standouts include Ben Carlson as the shrewd Bishop of Beauvais, Harry Judge as the immature Dauphin, and Andrew Bunker as Brother Martin, who tries harder than anyone else to save Joan from being burned at the stake as a heretic. (As Shaw wrote in Man and Superman, "Every genuine religious person is a heretic and therefore a revolutionary.") Except for the fact that Sue LaPage's costumes rather distractingly mix the styles of the 15th century with those of the World War I era to make an obvious point, the production is exemplary. Jackie Maxwell's direction is so well-focused and well-paced that the running time of the play seems much shorter than the actual two hours and 40 minutes.

Even better is the Shaw's production of Somerset Maugham's The Circle, a play that didn't make much of an impression on me when I saw it on Broadway in 1989 with Rex Harrison, Glynis Johns, and Stewart Granger starring. As expertly directed by Neil Munro for the Shaw, with Michael Ball (no, not that Michael Ball!), David Jansen (no, not David Janssen!), Wendy Thatcher, and Moya O'Connell reveling in the roles of Lord Porteous, Lady Kitty, and Mrs. and Mrs. Arnold Champion-Cheney, this timeless comedy/drama about two generations of women who leave their husbands for other men is a joy from start to finish. Gray Powell is suitably charismatic as Mrs. C-C's suitor, Edward Luton (a.k.a. Teddie), and even the casting of the butler (Al Kozlik) and the footman (Ken James Stewart) is spot-on.

Christina Poddubiuk's set for the Cheneys' drawing room is so detailed and so gorgeously appointed that it was a shock, later that same day, to to see it had been completely struck for the evening's performance of Tennessee Williams Summer and Smoke in the same theater, the Royal George. This is one of those productions in which first-rate acting triumphs over shaky direction (by Neil Munro, far less sure of his footing here than with the Maugham piece) and ineffective set design (by Peter Hartwell). Nicole Underhay is well night perfect as the fluttery spinster Alma Winemiller, and so is Jeff Meadows as her love object, Dr. John Buchanan, Jr. But why is the all-important angel statue placed way upstage? What are those odd set pieces that resemble sections of a gazebo lined up in rows? And what exactly is the point of having the entire cast on stage for the all-important final scene, seated immobile as if this were the graveyard in Our Town? Beats me!

The only outright clinker of the four Shaw Festival shows I caught during my two glorious days in Niagara-on-the Lake was the musical Mack and Mabel, with a fabulous score by Jerry Herman ("I Won't Send Roses," "Wherever He Ain't," "Time Heals Everything," etc.) and a frustrating, schematic book by Michael Stewart, revised but not improved after his death by his sister, Francine Pascal. This show about silent movie genius Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, his favorite actress and on-again, off-again lover, flopped "Big Time" -- to quote another of the song titles -- on Broadway in 1974 despite the presence of Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters in the title roles. (By the way, if you're wondering why the festival chose to present M&M, it might have something to do with the fact that Sennett was Canadian. Who knew?)

The musical's innate flaws are exacerbated due to poor direction by the normally reliable Molly Smith (artistic director of Arena Stage in D.C.) and lackluster choreography by the normally unreliable Baayork Lee (who, at this stage of her career, doesn't seem to be really good at anything other than recreating Michael Bennett's original choreography for A Chorus Line). Throw in the painfully overacted Mack of Benedict Campbell and the whole thing might have been a washout if not for the charming, golden-voiced Glynnis Ranney as Mabel and the winning Jeff Madden as Frank.

Gabrielle Jones as Lottie, Neil Barclay as Fatty Arbuckle, et al. try their damnedest but are done in by Smith's and Lee's lack of affinity for the style of the show and, more specifically, by their failure at the admittedly difficult task of making silent movie comedy work on stage. Paul Sportelli -- who wrote some stirring music for the Shaw's Saint Joan -- does an excellent job as musical director, and the sets and costumes of William Schmuck (!!) are fine, but the production does not make a strong case for this problematic piece.