Relatively Speaking

[edjames]

SPOILER ALERT>>>DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION!!!!

 

3 one act plays written by Ethan coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, starring a host of has-beens from sitcoms past. it was like a TVLand reunion!

 

Play One, a short 25 minute exercise called Talking Cure failed to catch my funny bone and in the end I was glad it was over. Starring Jason Kravits (well known from many TV appearances), as the shrink doing therapy with a former postal worker in a prison pyscho ward, it failed to get the laughs needed to start off the evening.

 

Play Two, George Is Dead, by Elaine May, stars Marlo Thomas, who is quite the gifted comic actress and provided a brillant portrait of a spoiled, dim-witted woman whose husband has just been killed in an avalanche and has shown up on the doorstep of her former Nanny's daughter's apartment looking for solace and comfort. It runs about 40 minutes and has some fun moments watching Marlo intrude into this woman's life. Grant Shaud (formerly of Murphy Brown) appears as Carla, the daughter's, husband, whose marriage has fallen apart.

 

Play Three, Honeymoon Hotel, written by Woody Allen, is probably the best of all. Woody knows how to get a laugh and they come fast and furious in this piece. The premise is simple, a honeymoon couple check into a dilapidated motel bridal suite, but we soon learn that the bride has left her bethrothed at the altar and run off with his father! Steve Guttenberg (Police Academy and a disastorous Dancing With the Stars alumni) plays the father. The couple are soon found out and the wedding party decends upon them. They include Grant Shaud, Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson, and Rhoda), Mark Linn-Baker (Cousin Larry from Perfect Strangers), and many others. In true Allen form he depects an angry and dysfunctional Jewish family dynamic and the jokes come fast and furious.

 

Alas, it all falls rather short of promise and the polite applause from the audience tells me that the reviews may not be the raves we might expect from these three gifted playwrights.

 

FYI, sitting behind me Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer, alas, I could not hear any of Mike's comments about his former comedy partner, Elaine May's, effort! But, prediction, look for Marlo to get some Tony nomination interest next season.

[craigville beach]

you left out where/when this is being presented

[edjames]

Where/When

 

you left out where/when this is being presented

 

Actually, although this info was omitted from my recent post, the earlier thread The Fall theater Season in NYC lists this as one of this season's shows.

 

Sorry, I "assumed' most theater lovers would know that the show is running on Broadway, here in NYC, at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on West 47th St, it began previews on September 20 and will officially open on October 20.

 

For more information the website is:

http://relativelyspeakingbroadway.com/

 

ED

[+ Lucky]

I consider myself a theater lover, but I didn't know these details. Maybe living in New York helps!

[edjames]

I consider myself a theater lover, but I didn't know these details. Maybe living in New York helps!

 

Aren't I "LUCKY"!

[+ Lucky]

I'd say so...

[skynyc]

Hi all

Saw this tonight and can pretty honestly concur with ed's original assessment. Act one was pointless, act two was icky and act three was typical VERY early Woody Allen. I definitely had the thought that some producer had thought that approaching Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Mr. Allen saying..."you got anything that wouldn't work as a film that we can knit together for a Broadway evening?"

 

I do have to say that many of the performances were strong. The first part was pretty forgettable, but the second act featured Marlo Thomas and Lisa Emery both playing pathetic characters in a truly unpleasant piece of theater. Marlo playing Doreen a woman who personifies the Upper East Side housewife that makes the women on the Bravo show look deep and intelligent. Ms. Emery plays Carla, the daughter of Ms. Thomas' character's former nanny, and when Doreen asks Carla to scrape the extra salt off her Saltine, AND THEN CARLA DOES IT!!!!!.....well, let's just say both my theater partner and I groaned.

 

The Allen piece is too over-the-top to really work, but some of the one liners were quite funny. The extended cast is quite talented, but the play descends beyond farce and into ridiculous.

 

I am pleased that I didn't have to pay for this, and think that one definitely needs a pretty strong Jewish sensibility to truly appreciate much of the humor, (and Long Island won't hurt either.) Having grown up in a very Jewish community, I did understand most of the jokes, but didn't find the recurring cracks about circumcision, sex among the middle-aged, or therapy/counseling (or Great Neck) overly funny .

 

If you have money to spend on the theater and want to see a great Jewish family at it's humorously dysfunctional best, go see The Lyons at The Vineyard...I cannot recommend Relatively Speaking.

[edjames]

Closing JAN 29.

 

ED