‘Hamilton’ Review: You Say You Want a Revolution – By A.O. Scott – The New York Times

By A.O. Scott

• Published June 30, 2020Updated July 10, 2020

Hamilton

NYT Critic’s Pick, Directed by Thomas Kail. Biography, Drama, History, Musical. PG-13,   2h 40m

“The opening scenes of the filmed version of the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” which starts streaming on Disney+ on Independence Day weekend, pull you back in time to two distinct periods. The people onstage, in their breeches and brass-buttoned coats, belong to the New York of 1776. That’s when a 19-year-old freshly arrived from the Caribbean — the “bastard, immigrant, son of a whore” who shares his name with the show — makes his move and takes his shot, joining up with a squad of anti-British revolutionaries and eventually finding his way to George Washington’s right hand and the front of the $10 bill.

But this Hamilton, played with relentless energy and sly charm by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music, book and lyrics, also belongs to the New York of 2016. Filmed (by the show’s director, Thomas Kail, and the cinematographer Declan Quinn) in front of a live audience at the Richard Rodgers Theater in June of that year, the movie, while not strictly speaking a documentary, is nonetheless a document of its moment. It evokes a swirl of ideas, debates, dreams and assumptions that can feel, in the present moment, as elusive as the intrigue and ideological sparring of the late 1700s.”

Moliere’s 1665 comedy “Don Juan,” has great resonance in today’s world, at Westport Country Playhouse through Nov. 23.

We saw Moliere’s Don Juan last night at the Westport Playhouse, and were deeply impressed by the script and the acting. Don Juan explains to his servant how his new piety will be the perfect con, is so appropriate to understanding the giant hypocrisy of the GOP today.

The review below ends, ” One question that’s highlighted by having Don Juan be so dastardly and Sganarelle so dutiful: Why does the servant stick around? The theme of blind obedience is one that Kennedy and Pelsue are happy to explore, right up to the closing of the curtain.

Brendan Pelsue’s adaptation is full of respect for Moliere’s original. He cuts a few scenes down to their essence, but since the show runs two and a half hours (including intermission) even with those cuts, he’s doing us a favor there. When a joke won’t work without explaining it, Pelsue explains, usually by adding more jokes. He turns monologues into snappy dialogues just by adding a few reaction lines or back-and-forth expressions. The debates about love and honor don’t get tedious. Religious dogma is downplayed. This new version, coupled with Kennedy’s clear direction, is about accenting what we find objectionable about Don Juan today, and that’s plenty.

“Don Juan” is not a morality play. Its anti-hero stays immoral to the end. His story is crazed and complicated, and very much a comedy. This underappreciated 350-year-old play by one of theater’s all-time master satirists is scarily appropriate for our times. It can be hard to take, but so worthwhile. “A cruel nobleman is a horrible thing,” the play tells us. But he can also be terribly entertaining.

DON JUAN by Moliere, translated and adapted by Brendan Pelsue, directed by David Kennedy, runs through Nov. 23 at Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $40-$70. 888-927-7529, westportplayhouse.org.”

COURANT.COM

Review: ’Don Juan’ a cool, cruel comedy at Westport Playhouse

Moliere’s 1665 comedy “Don Juan,” a cautionary tale of unrepressed lust and selfishness, has great resonance in today’s world, as proven by David Kennedy’s sharp production at Westport Country Playhouse through Nov. 23.

Foxfire (play) – Wikipedia

Foxfire (play)
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Foxfire is a play with songs, book by Susan Cooper, Hume Cronyn, music by Jonathan Brielle (Holtzman) and lyrics by Susan Cooper, Hume Cronyn, and Jonathan Brielle. The show was based on the Foxfire books, about Appalachian culture and traditions in north Georgia and the struggle to keep the traditions alive. The 1982 Broadway production starred Jessica Tandy, who won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. It costarred Hume Cronyn as well as Keith Carradine who played a country music performer selling out the old traditions to make a buck. Carradine sang most of the songs in the show and most notable were the close of Act 1, “My Feet Took T’ Walkin’.” It was later adapted as a TV movie, where Tandy played the same role and won an Emmy Award. Carradine was replaced with John Denver for the Hallmark movie. Other songs in the show included: “Sweet Talker,” “Dear Lord,” “Young Lady Take A Warning,” and “Red Ear.”

Source: Foxfire (play) – Wikipedia

The Broadway Shows to See Now – The New York Times

Same-Day Strategies

“TKTS TKTS, that discount-ticket mainstay of Times Square, also has outlets at Lincoln Center, at South Street Seaport and in downtown Brooklyn. The Times Square booth has the longest hours, but it’s the only location that sells same-day matinee tickets. (The other locations sell same-day evening but only next-day matinee tickets.) On the TKTS app, or online at tdf.org, you can see in real time which shows are on sale, and for how great a discount at each location. But that doesn’t mean there will be any seats left for the show you want by the time you get up to the window, and you have to buy them in person. The Times Square booth is the most crowded, especially right after it opens, when options are most plentiful. But new tickets are released all day, even as curtain time nears, so going later can be lucky, too. Want to see a play rather than a musical? At Times Square, there’s a dedicated window for that, and the line is shorter.

Rush Tickets

Many shows, though not the monster hits, offer same-day rush tickets at the box office for much less than full price. Some – including “Hello, Dolly!,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Book of Mormon” – sell standing-room tickets if a show is sold out. Don’t count on these approaches, because availability varies – but it’s worth swinging by the theater to check. Conveniently, Playbill keeps a running online tab of individual shows’ policies on lotteries, rush tickets (sometimes just for students, often for everyone), standing room and other discounts.In-Person LotteriesSome shows (lately including “The Book of Mormon” and “Wicked”) have in-person lotteries, where you go to the theater at a designated time on the day of the performance and put your name into a drawing for the chance to buy cheap tickets. It’s more work on your end than a digital lottery, but these tickets can be substantially less expensive than those.”

Annie Baker’s Thanksgiving Retreat John Gives Ghosts Second Billing in Dallas – dmagazine.com

“A charming but spooky bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania hosts two young people struggling to hold their relationship together in a new play by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Genius Annie Baker. On at Undermain Theatre through Dec. 10, John is set during the Thanksgiving holiday and positions its characters to contend with the mystical on top of everything else.

Audiences are welcomed into a run-of-the-mill tragic bed and breakfast, as the character Elias would say. Thousands of knick-knacks watch you from the walls and tables, but opera music and floral wallpaper from your grandma’s guest room warm it up just enough to stay in the physical present. And the characters never leave this one location, the intersection of private and public, the permanent and the temporary; that space between a home and a hotel that makes B&Bs so intriguing.”

“. . .  The quieter, more subtle eccentricities of Elly Lindsay’s inn mother Mertis are never overshadowed by Rhonda Boutté’s half-kooky, half-enlightened blind friend Genevieve. As for the couple, an off-kilter chemistry is key. Elias (Scott Zenreich) shuts down Jenny’s (Olivia de Guzman) playfulness as she tries to make their relationship work. He comes off as a lousy boyfriend but not a monster. The result is a believably unbalanced relationship; Elias’ rudeness and anger are overt. The very good reasons why Elias is so horribly unpleasant do nothing to make us like him more. Although, he makes us laugh.”

via Annie Baker’s Thanksgiving Retreat John Gives Ghosts Second Billing – D Magazine

Review: John by Annie Baker | Undermain Theatre Open In Dallas now through Sun-Dec 10-2017

Review: John | Undermain TheatreOpen now through Sun, Dec 10
Next performance today at 7:30pm
John Who?
A rocky relationship crashes into a B&B stuffed with curios built over a bloody battlefield in Annie Baker’s ambitious, ambiguous John at Undermain Theatre.

by Martha Heimberg
published Wednesday, November 15, 2017

via Review: John | Undermain Theatre

My sister, Elly Lindsay, plays Mertis in this production, which has received rave reviews.