A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Myles Frost as Joey Evans and the Company in Chez Joey at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy. In my review of Arena Stage’s production of Damn Yankees (which has just been nominated for 13 Helen Hayes Awards), I quoted Sergio Trujillo, its director/choreographer, who called this re-working of the musical a “revisal.” Not “just” a revival of a classic musical, but with numerous revisions to bring it “up to date,” in a way that it would be more relatable to a contemporary audience. I was somewhat familiar with the source material and therefore aware of obvious changes, though I am sure I missed some of the more subtle ones. Arena’s current production is Chez Joey , which I would also classify as a “revisal.” In this instance, the source material is Pal Joey , a 1940 musical that was the last collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. Hart is having something of a re-discovery, as the central character in the current film “Blue Moon,” featuri...

  Bill Irwin in On Beckett at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Craig Schulman. Bill Irwin may well be the ultimate “man of many talents.” According to his cast biography for the current Shakespeare Theatre Company offering, On Beckett , an Irish Repertory Theatre production, he is “a Tony Award-winning actor, director, writer, and clown.” His Wikipedia profile adds choreographer, comedian, creator, and adapter. He is also a true genius, as evidenced by his selection as the first performance artist to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, often colloquially referred to as “the Genius Grant.” He may well be the actor with the highest identity as an interpreter of the work of Samuel Beckett, the enigmatic, Nobel Prize-winning Irish writer, who wrote in French and later translated his work to English. Theatre artists and scholars sometimes revel in their classifications, though Beckett defies simple classification. As a student, I was taught Beckett’s plays as “theatre of the ab...

  Claudia J. Arenas (Ruth), Brigid Cleary (Barbara), Naomi Jacobson (Fanny), and Michael Russotto (Hal) in Ali Viterbi's  The World to Come , co-produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Theater J. Photo credit: Cameron Whitman. Because I read (and write) about plays, it is not often that I find myself at a play I have never read (perhaps because it is a world premiere) and about which I have not read much. It is an experience I enjoy, one that puts me in the place of a more casual theatregoer. This was the case when I had the opportunity to attend The World to Come , the world premiere of a new play by Ali Viterbi, co-produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Theater J. Because of the way that the play unfolds, part of me would like to skip any discussion of the plot, but I will, because so many of the press items about the play include it. If you would like to have that “first look” experience, please skip ahead to the last paragraph. Part of Viterbi’s strength as a pl...