Give My Regards to Off-Broadway

For a reminder that Off-Broadway fare is often an excellent alternative to what may be found on Broadway, all you need do is look at the recent history of the Manhattan Theatre Club. A few months ago, even as the company's stage version of the classic film To Be or Not to Be was tanking at the Biltmore, its fine production of the gripping three-character play Back Back Back -- about steroid use in baseball -- was running in the smaller of MTC's two Off-Broadway venues at City Center.

Currently, Lynn Nottage's universally acclaimed Ruined, an extraordinary new play about the sexual degradation of women in the strife-torn Congo, is on the boards of MTC's City Center mainstage while the Biltmore houses an unnecessary revival of Richard Greenberg's The American Plan.

Among the many and varied entertainments currently on the Off-Broadway boards are Charles Busch's multi-layered genre spoof The Third Story, co-starring Bush and Kathleen Turner, at the Lucille Lortel; comedian Mike Birbiglia's one-man show Sleepwalk With Me, at the Bleecker Street Theater; and the return engagement of Christine Jorgensen Reveals, in which Bradford Louryck brilliantly lip-synchs to an old, recorded interview with the pioneering transsexual, at the Lion in the Theatre Row complex. Then there's The New Group's bold if misguided revival of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, a marathon work that isn't likely to turn up on Broadway anytime soon (unless Meryl Streep agrees to star in it).

This isn't to say that Off Broadway is free of disappointments; one current example is CSC's Uncle Vanya. But even when Off-Broadway shows misfire, they tend to be more interesting than what's seen on the Great White Way because they so often represent a distinctly non-mainstream and/or non commercial sensibility.

Aside from noteworthy stand-alone productions, the Off-Broadway landscape is enriched by the fact that two of New York's finest non-profit theaters, the Atlantic and the Vineyard, operate in this arena. The Atlantic is currently offering an acclaimed production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, while the Vineyard hosts The Civilians in This Beautiful City. Among the tremendously worthwhile shows recently seen in Lincoln Center Theater's Off-Broadway venue, the Mitzi Newhouse, were the Flaherty-Ahrens musical The Glorious Ones and Paul Rudnick's comedy The New Century. The current occupant of the Newhouse is Happiness, a new musical that's generating lots of positive buzz in advance of its first preview performance on February 27.

You say you want more? The New York Theatre Workshop can always be counted on for boundary-pushing theater; its fairly recent production of Hedda Gabbler, which starred Elizabeth Marvel, was far superior to and much more intriguing than the Roundabout's present Broadway staging. As for The Public Theater: While that venerable institution is far less consistent than other Off-Broadway nonprofits in terms of the general quality of its shows, the sheer volume of theater produced there means that gold is sometimes to be mined down on Lafayette Street.

For economic reasons, Off-Broadways musicals are not as abundant as they used to be, but you still have quite a few to choose from. My number one recommendation at the moment is the York Theatre company's first-rate revival of the Joseph Stein-Stan Daniels musical Enter Laughing, sparked by Josh Grisetti's comic-genius performance in the central role.

It's always exciting to discover new musicals Off-Broadway, but don't forget about the shows that have been with us for awhile. In case you haven't heard, the all-time long-run champ The Fantasticks is in revival in the Jerry Orbach Theater at the Snapple Theatre Center, which is considered an Off-Broadway venue even though it's located right on Broadway (at 50th Street). Altar Boyz, at New World Stages, remains one of the most thoroughly entertaining shows in town -- and the current cast is awesome. And if you act now, you still have a chance to get in under the wire and see Forbidden Broadway again -- or for the first time! -- before it ends its three-decade run on March 1.

If all this isn't enough to convince you to check out what's playing Off-Broadway, consider the following very short list of hits that have transferred from that arena to Broadway within the past few years: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Doubt, Avenue Q, Grey Gardens, Spring Awakening, In the Heights, and Dividing the Estate. Due this spring are transfers of Rock of Ages (from New World Stages to the Brooks Atkinson) and Next to Normal (which played at Second Stage last year and will soon come to the Longacre after a run of a rewritten version in Washington, D.C.) Here's looking forward!

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This Is the Story of Il Trovatore

Grand opera and American musical theater have much in common, of course, but they are very different in at least one major way: Due to the over-arching importance of an opera's score, several works with great music but less-than-great libretti have consistently held the stage, whereas even the finest musical theater score can't carry a show with a book that doesn't work -- e.g., House of Flowers, The Baker's Wife, Mack and Mabel, etc., etc.

For more than 150 years, Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore has served as Exhibit A that an opera with a ridiculous libretto can serve as a cornerstone of the repertoire if the music is truly great. There are risible moments throughout this blood-red opera about love, lust, and vengeance in 15th-century Spain, but the plot turns and the characters' behavior in the final scene are so preposterous that we can only be glad it's the final scene. Yet Trovatore survives and thrives because most of its score -- including the soprano's exquisite "D'amor sull ali rosee," the tenor's thrilling "Di quella pira," the mezzo's gripping "Condotta," the baritone's gorgeously lyrical "Il balen del suo sorriso," and the immortal Anvil Chorus -- is fabulous.

Enrico Caruso himself once said that the only thing necessary for a successful performance of Il Trovatore is the four greatest singers in the world. In this regard, the Metropolitan Opera's new production is well equipped. Leonora is Sondra Radvanovsky, whose huge but supple voice is also exceptional in that its timbre somehow sounds dark and bright at the same time. (Think Callas.) Manrico is Marcelo Alvarez, whose tenor remains a marvel even if he cuts a less romantic figure on stage than he use to because of added poundage. Dolora Zajick proves once again that she pretty much owns the role of Azucena in our era. And as the Count di Luna, Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings and looks better than ever. I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention bass Kwangchul Youn, whose performance of Ferrando's music in the opera's first scene earned the audience's vociferous approval.

The Met has at least one generally reviled staging of Trovatore in its recent history, so I'm pleased to report that the present one is a winner. David McVicar, in his company debut, has moved the action of the opera forward to the early 1800s; this is no way harms the story, even if the new costumes (Brigitte Reiffenstuel) and the set design (Charles Edwards), which makes much use of an enormous turntable, do tend to put one in mind of Les Miz.

Conductor Ginandrea Noseda and chorus master Donald Palumbo make invaluable contributions to this presentation of an opera that is as beloved for its pule-quickening orchestrations and choruses as for its magnificent solo opportunities. So, my advice is: Damn the libretto! Full-speed ahead to the Met to catch Il Trovatore.

PARTIES AT SARDI'S

I've known Danny Burstein since he was 15 or 16, when he played Og the leprechaun in an amateur production of Finian's Rainbow as I ran the follow spot. I'd be lying if I told you that I jumped up and shouted, "That kid is going to be a star!" But I sure could see that Danny was exceptionally talented -- and I would have probably bet that, with any luck at all, he'd have a fine career as a professional actor.

Fast forward about 30 years. Danny is now acknowledged as one of the New York theater's most valuable players. Among his copious credits, he received two Tony Award nominations two years apart for his hilarious portrayal of the ridiculous Aldolfo in The Drowsy Chaperone and his pitch-perfect performance as Luther Billis in Lincoln Center Theater's magical revival of South Pacific.

Having been there with him on the ground floor, as it were, I was thrilled to be present at Sardi's on Tuesday, February 3 as Danny was presented with a portrait of him that will now join the restaurant's fabled collection of visages of showbiz celebs. For the event, he was joined by his gorgeous wife, Rebecca Luker -- a Broadwaystar in her own right -- plus several of his castmates from South Pacific and his past shows.

"I was still going to the High School of the Performing Arts when I did Finian's Rainbow," Danny reminisced after I brought up that long-ago performance. "The show was part of something called The Great Irish Fair in Brooklyn, and we did it in a tent under the bridge. It was produced by a priest, Father Funaro. I'll never forget him standing outside that tent, trying to drum up an audience, when Joe Papp came walking by. Joe took one look inside the tent, turned on his heel, and headed in the other direction."

Also at Sardi's: The theater district landmark was host to yet another happy event earlier in the day on Feb. 3, as Stephen Reineke, music director designate of The New York Pops, met the press. Perhaps taking a cue from the Boston Pops, the NYC counterpart has hired a youngish, handsome fella to lead the band. But Reineke is no newbie; he has been associated with the Cincinnati Pops for 13 years and he's also principal pops conductor of the Long Beach Symphony and the Modesto Symphony, in addition to having guest-conducted major orchestras in L.A., Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore, and Edmonton.

"I am thrilled beyond words to be the new music director of the esteemed New York Pops," Reineke stated. "It is my goal to build upon the wonderful tradition that Skitch Henderson created and lead the orchestra to new heights. The Great American Songbook is alive and well and growing every day, and I look forward to exploring new music, artists, and programming ideas to entertain the people of New York City and beyond."

The orchestra's upcoming season -- its first with Reineke at the helm -- sure sounds enticing. On October 9, Wayne Brady will headline a tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr. and Sam Cooke. On November 20, Ann Hampton Callaway will appear in A Johnny Mercer Centennial Concert. On December 18 and 19, Sandi Patty will help the Pops celebrate the holidays (John Morris Russell is set to guest-conduct this concert). On March 12, Ronan Tynan and Méav will lead a Saint Patrick's Day celebration filled with Celtic music. And on April 16 -- be still my heart! -- South Pacific stars Kelli O'Hara (pictured here with Reineke) and Paulo Szot will lend their gorgeous voices to The Best of Lerner and Loewe. My suggestion? Subscribe!

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TWO DIVAS

Whenever the irreplaceable author/drag performer Charles Busch writes or stars in a play, attention must be paid. When he stars in a play of his own creation, even closer attention must be paid. And when he co-stars in a new play of his own creation alongside one of the fiercest biologically-female divas of the stage and screen -- well, color me there!

Busch's The Third Story is now receiving its New York premiere at MCC Theater after a run at the La Jolla Playhouse. And the big news about this production, in case you haven't heard, is that Kathleen Turner has joined the cast. "The play tells three stories in three diferent theatrical styles," say the author. "One of the stories is about a mother/son screenwriting team in the '40s, played by Kathleen and Jonathan Walker. Intercut with their story are scenes from the movie they ultimately will write, about a queen of the mob and her son. I play the queen of the mob. The third story is a fairy tale that the screenwriter had told her son when he was a kid. In that one, I play an old witch in a forest.

"I've never had the experience of doing a play out of town first," says Busch. "With my last couple of plays, after they were over, I would do post-mortems and think about changes I might have made if I'd had more time. My agent put out feelers to some of the regional theaters, and the La Jolla Playhouse bit; they commissioned me to write this play. I've done extensive rewrites since we opened there, and the design scheme for the New York production is completely different from what people saw in La Jolla."

So, how did Miss Turner become involved in the project? "The role of the woman screenwriter was originally based on my aunt," Busch tells me. "Mary Beth Peil played the part in La Jolla, and she was perfect for it as written. But then I started to rethink the role as a more garrulous, hard-drinking broad -- which is Kathleen Turner, not Mary Beth Peil! From what I understand, Kathleen had called Bernie Telsey at MCC about an idea she had for another project, and he asked her, 'Would you consider doing a play Off-Broadway?' She read my play and then she asked to meet with me and Carl Andress, our director. We went to her apartment and she said, 'Fellas, I'm intrigued, but not hooked.' But we talked for awhile, and she signed on the next day. We're so glad to have her."

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OSCAR WINNERS

To see The Importance of Being Earnest at the Paper Mill Playhouse on Super Bowl Sunday, with only about half the seats in the large theater filled, might not sound like theatrical heaven. But if this intimate, witty comedy can make an effect under such circumstances, as it did this past weekend, it's a sure indication that those involved are doing something -- or many things -- right.

A great deal of credit for the production's success goes to David Schwizer; he has directed the play in a broadly comedic style that would probably not have gone over well in a smaller venue but is just right for the capacious Paper Mill, which is much better suited to big, splashy musicals. Alexander Dodge's sets and David Murin's costumes take a similar approach; bold, black and white prints on every surface of Algernon's London flat yield to colorful, almost impressionistic designs for the scenes in a country garden.

The cast follows suit, contributing highly entertaining performances that sometimes threaten to go over the top but never do. Jeffrey Carlson gives us perhaps the most foppish Algernon in history -- and it works. Handsome Wayne Wilcox plays John Worthing as a gangly nerd, complete with brilliantined hair. Annika Boras is a feistier Gwendolyn than the usual; Zoë Winters is adorably annoying as Cecily; and the always wondeful Lynn Redgrave potrays Lady Bracknell as a still vital woman of a certain age, rather than a brittle old crone. To them all, I say "bravo!" (or "brava!", as the case may be).

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TAKE-HOME RENT

Not long ago, I hailed the digital "cinecaste" of Rent that was seen in movie theaters throughout the country, and I predicted that this groundbreaking event -- plus the upcoming release of the program on DVD -- might be a milestone in terms of the preservation and dissemination of Broadway's most popular shows. I still think the DVD -- officially released on February 3 and featuring the final Broadway company of Jonathan Larson's immortal rock musical -- has the potential to be a phenomenal seller, even though the people at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment actually seem to be working against its success.

First of all, I can't vouch for the quality of the DVD experience because the press screener I received is technically inadequate. (I'll spare you the boring details.) But there's a much bigger issue: Having seen the final package, though not the disc itself, I'm dismayed to report that the performers are identified nowhere on the DVD case. This of course has led to much confusion, with consumers asking retailers if the show's original cast is featured and, if not, who is? Even if you go to buy the DVD on Amazon.com, you'll see only a few of the actors' names listed, without their roles specified.

Can you even imagine a DVD release of a Hollywood film in which the actors' names are only to be found in the end credits? I can only assume that this lack of information is not having a positive impact on sales of Rent. For the record, the company seen and heard on the DVD is headed by Will Chase as Roger, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Mimi, Adam Kantor as Mark, Tracie Thoms as Joanne, Eden Espinosa as Maureen, and Michael McElroy as Collins, and Justin Johnston as Angel. All give superlative performances, so it's a damn shame that Sony has not given them the credit they deserve.

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LIZA, JUDY, SUTTON, ANN, AND TONY

If one of your responses to the scary economic situation is to go out less (and stay in more), you'll want to be aware of several newish theater-related CDs that you can enjoy while sitting home and NOT spending money.

Liza's at the Palace (Hybrid Recordings) is a two-CD studio recording of the show that Ms. Minnelli recently performed to acclaim. If her voice ain't what it used to be, her energy and showmanship are amazing as ever. And it's great to have an aural document of the program -- especially Liza's tribute to her godmother, the one-and-only Kay Thompson.

Liza's mom, the great Judy Garland, is in fine vocal fettle on a new CD compilation of performances drawn from the soundtrack of her legendary 1960s TV series. This Savoy Jazz disc is title Judy Garland: Love Songs, and eight of its 12 tracks -- including "Old Devil Moon," "I Am Loved," and something called "Island in the West Indies" -- are hereby making their CD debut.

Sutton Foster's youthful, crystal-clear, non abrasive Broadway belt voice has endeared her to thousands of theatergoers, but the most interesting thing about this super-talented young woman's solo album debut is that we get to hear more of her lovely soprano register than ever before. Titled Wish, the Ghostlight Records release includes a few musical theater gems ("Warm All Over" from The Most Happy Fella, "Once Upon a Time" from All American) along with great non-show songs by everyone from Duke Ellington to Craig Carnelia to Jeff Blumenkrantz.

Ann Hampton Callaway's At Last (Telarc) is a wonderful mix of such songs as "Lazy Afternoon," "Over the Rainbow," "On My Way to You," and "What Is This Thing Called Love?" All of these and more sound divine as delivered through the medium of AHC's amazing voice, and there's a terrific nice-piece band on hand for good measure(s). Finally, check out hottie Tony DeSare's neato, retro Radio Show (also from Telarc), which is highlighted by his jazzy performances of "Get Happy," "All or Nothing at All," and "Lazy River."