Fire and Air

[foxy]

Seeing this this afternoon. some mixed reviews but this one was pretty good. Here's hoping. The actor James Cusati-Moyer who played the naked hustler in Six Degrees of Separation last year is playing Nijinsky. I guess he will be naked again which isn't such a bad thing.

 

http://deadline.com/2018/02/review-fire-and-air-terrence-mcnally-1202276257/

[foxy]

Terrence McNally has written some good plays. The Lisbon Traviata, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Frankie and Johnny In The Clair de Lune to name just a few. Unfortunately this play is not very good. Sergei Diaghilev was considered something of an artistic genius and changed the look of modern dance, primarily by bringing the focus onto the male dancer. In this play he comes off as mean, selfish, tedious and a dirty old man who forces himself on his young male dancers. I would have liked some idea why Diaghilev became the famous impresario but got none of that from this play.

The actors were all fine. Marsha Mason in a throw away part as a servant seemed wasted. The two young actors who portrayed Vaslav Nijinsky and Léonide Massine were attractive and competent. The theater Classic Stage is small and stadium seating is on 3 sides so viewing is good. Wish I could recommend the play.