the morning line - Boneau/Bryan

THE MORNING LINE
DATE:
Friday, May 29, 2015
FROM:
Michelle Farabaugh, Jennie Mamary
Eliza Ranieri, Raychel Shipley
PAGES:
13, including this page.
May 29, 2015
Betty Buckley and Rachel York to Star in ‘Grey Gardens’ in
Sag Harbor
By Erik Piepenburg
The Tony Award-winning actress Betty Buckley will star with Rachel York in a revival of the musical “Grey
Gardens” this summer at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, N.Y., the theater announced Thursday.
Ms. Buckley and Ms. York will play Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who are at the center of the Tony Award-nominated show by Doug Wright (book),
Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics). Michael Wilson will direct the production, set to run Aug. 4
to Aug. 30. Other cast members include Gracie Beardsley, Matt Doyle, James Harkness, Sarah Hunt, Simon
Jones and Dakota Quackenbush.
Based on the 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, “Grey Gardens” opened in March 2006 at
Playwrights Horizons with Christine Ebersole as Little Edie and Mary Louise Wilson as Edith Bouvier Beale.
The pair reprised their roles when the show moved to Broadway later that year, and both actresses won Tony
Awards.
And how’s this for art meeting life: the Bay Street Theater is about eight miles from the East Hampton home —
named Grey Gardens— where Big and Little Edie lived, making this production probably the closest the
musical has ever come to being mounted near its namesake location.
May 29, 2015
Review: ‘An Act of God,’ With Jim Parsons as an Almighty
Comedian
By Charles Isherwood
If God were really as adorable and funny as Jim Parsons in the new Broadway show “An Act of God,” perhaps
many more of us would be minding our morals, rapaciously atoning for our sins and generally doing unto others
as we would like to be done unto, all in the hopes of a breezy welcome at the pearly gates.
For now — praise be! — in a history-making metaphysical transformation, Mr. Parsons has been temporarily
inhabited by the spirit of the Lord. Yes, God himself is in residence at Studio 54, of all sin-haunted places,
holding forth on matter of faith and folly to peals of raucous laughter, in the body of the endearing star of“The
Big Bang Theory.”
Turns out that while many people have railed darkly against the Almighty’s mordant sense of humor over the
years — we learn that God himself thinks the Book of Job is a hoot, although I doubt Job quite appreciated the
joke — nobody knew quite how funny the fellow really is. Delivering a new and improved set of
Commandments, as transcribed by the man we might call the Moses de nos jours, David Javerbaum, who wrote
the show and the book that inspired it, God is really killing it up there.
.
How funny is the guy? He’s Jon Stewart funny, plus Stephen Colbert funny. (Mr. Javerbaum has written for
both.) More obviously, it might be said that Mr. Parsons as Mr. Javerbaum’s tell-it-like-it-is God is, yes,
divinely funny.
Wearing a slightly bedazzled toga-style garment over Mr. Parsons’s jeans, sneakers and plaid shirt, God
presides over his flock from a chic, swooping white couch, like a celestial talk show host. Assisting him are two
favorite archangels, Gabriel (a deadpan Tim Kazurinsky), who helps with quotations from a (fake) Gutenberg
Bible (“For the publishing industry it’s been downhill since,” God says); and Michael (Christopher Fitzgerald,
nicely playing the bratty upstart), who works the crowd, microphone in hand, gathering questions from the
audience.
But mostly we are not here to interrogate the Lord, but to receive his wisdom. In addition to handing down these
new laws, God riffs widely on humankind’s dunderheaded and destructive behavior, specifically the way his
words and actions have been misinterpreted over the millennia, causing no end of pain and strife. Some of the
words in the Bible, he assures us, are indeed literally true. With others, well, there’s a little wiggle room.
Take that Adam and Eve business. Turns out that was Plan B. In a weird twist of fate, all those gay-haters who
mock that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, knew not whereof they spoke. God really did
create Adam and Steve! Only when that wily snake induced them to eat of the “Tree of the Knowledge That
Your Lifestyle Is Sinful” did problems arise.
As God tells it: “And so Steve ate of the tree; and he bid Adam eat of it; and the knowledge that their lifestyle
was sinful shamed them; whereupon they grew embarrassed, and cloaked themselves in fig leaves, the first
clothing, which represented the entirety of the fall collection.”
To ease their guilt, God made Steve into Eve, after a simple operation. (Cue a Bruce Jenner joke, which is alone
worth the price of admission.) Contrary to what some believe, God does not hate gays. “Gay, straight, bisexual,
transgender; thou art all equally smitable in my eyes,” as he puts it bluntly if sweetly.
Verily I could quote every other line from Mr. Javerbaum’s annotation of the Scriptures and gather a chuckle,
so deliriously funny is he as a sort of amateur theologian and stand-up comedy genius rolled into one. But this
wouldn’t be fair. It didn’t make the Top 10 this time around, but when God gets around to another set of laws,
“Thou shalt not sprinkle reviews with too many spoilers” might just make the cut.
And while Mr. Javerbaum’s book (inspired by a series of tweets), from which most of the material in the show
is culled, is sensationally funny, at nearly 400 pages it goeth on a bit. (Not unlike the Bible itself, of course.) At
the risk of blasphemy, I’ll aver that “An Act of God” the Broadway show is more fun — and certainly a brisker
entertainment experience — than “An Act of God” the book.
This is due in no small part to the perfection of Mr. Parsons’s performance. With his sly smile and his sparkly
eyes, he delivers the zingers with an easy grace, giving a nice silky consistency to shtick that, in more
aggressive hands, might grow oppressive. He handles the pseudo-biblical language as if it comes as naturally to
him as the nerd-speak he spouts on television, looking down upon us with an air of benevolent affection, like a
really caring therapist, but one who prefers to talk about himself.
Mr. Parsons’s light Texas drawl makes the Lord seem approachable as opposed to unfathomable, just a nice
fellow sitting on the porch — a very fancy one, mind you — sharing homespun if definitely holier-than-thou
wisdom about, well, just about everything to do with his ways and his world: Noah and the flood (that business
about all the animals was an error; really there were just a couple of puppies); Abraham and his near-sacrifice of
his son Isaac (“It was only then that I first began to consider the possibility that there was something seriously
wrong with me”); the taking of his name in vain (“Kanye, next time you win a Grammy Award and you thank
me for your ‘God-given talents,’ they’re going to get God-taken, understand?”); the weirdness of a child’s
bedtime prayer (“Even I consider it bizarre that the last words on children’s lips before they go to sleep would
address the prospect of their own premature death.”)
Forgive me. I have sinned and spoiled, but these are merely a few morsels of the veritable flood of funny lines
in the show, which has been directed with a sharp eye by Joe Mantello, and which takes place on an eyedazzling set by Scott Pask, reminiscent of both James Turrell’s recent Guggenheim exhibition and the design
ethos of Busby Berkeley musicals.
As it happens, “An Act of God” ends with a soft-rock song, in which God tells us that we’re on our own, and
it’s time we stopped looking to him for advice and got our act together by ourselves. Turns out God can’t really
carry a tune too well, but it’s a comfort to know that even he isn’t perfect.
An Act of God
By David Javerbaum, based on the memoir by God and Mr. Javerbaum; directed by Joe Mantello; sets by Scott
Pask; costumes by David Zinn; lighting by Hugh Vanstone; sound by Fitz Patton; music by Adam Schlesinger;
projections by Peter Nigrini; illusion consultant, Paul Kieve; special effects by Gregory Meeh; technical
supervisor, Steve Beers; production stage manager, Arthur Gaffin; company manager, Roseanna Sharrow;
executive producer, 101 Productions. Presented by Jeffrey Finn, the Shubert Organization, Carl Moellenberg,
Arielle Tepper Madover, Stacey Mindich, Bob Boyett, FG Productions, John Frost, Corinne Hayoun, Jamie
Kaye-Phillips, Scott Landis, Larry Magid, Stephanie P. McClelland, David Mirvish and Daryl Roth. At Studio
54, 254 West 54th Street, Manhattan; 212-239-6200, anactofgod.com. Through Aug. 2. Running time: 1 hour
30 minutes.
May 29, 2015
Review: ‘Cagney,’ a Tribute to the Tough Guy Who Tapped
By Anita Gates
Normally, if you’re doing a musical about James Cagney, casting is a challenge. Not so for the York Theater
Company’s “Cagney.” Robert Creighton, who wrote the music and lyrics (with Christopher McGovern), just
cast himself.
Mr. Creighton does bear a physical resemblance to Cagney, who was 5-foot-5 and resembled a fireplug with a
Lower East Side accent. And he does a fine job recreating Cagney’s gangster-vicious movie scenes. But it’s
only when he breaks into dance that he seems born for the role. Joshua Bergasse’s choreography, especially in
rousing numbers like “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There,” could sell tap shoes to Tibetan monks.
Some major hero worship is going on here. Despite differing accounts of whose idea it was for Cagney’s
character to shove a grapefruit in his co-star Mae Clarke’s face in “The Public Enemy” (1931), this musical —
the book is by Peter Colley — presents it strictly as Cagney’s on-the-spot inspiration. Cagney is also depicted as
a noble advocate for the working man, falsely accused of Communist ties by the Dies Committee (an early
version of the House Un-American Activities Committee) and mentally tortured by Jack Warner (Bruce
Sabath), the tyrannical Warner Bros. studio chief. Mr. Sabath’s performance actually makes Warner the show’s
most interesting character — and maybe the real tough guy.
The intimate Theater at St. Peter’s lends a cabaret feel to the production, which has a pleasantly cartoonish
revue vibe, under Matt Perri’s musical direction and Bill Castellino’s direction. Of the original music, “Black
and White,” the opening number, which is reprised in Act II, is the standout.
There’s nothing even remotely convincing about the cast members who double as stars of yesteryear like Bette
Davis, Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn and Bob Hope. But when the same actors put on their tap shoes, you may want
to buy war bonds.
“Cagney” continues through June 21 at the Theater at St. Peter’s, 619 Lexington Avenue, at 53rd Street,
Manhattan; 212-935-5820, yorktheatre.org.