12/12/2015Theater: Octoroon Astonishes; Forbidden Broadway Tickles | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ae7364e9-38ad-4799-a92d-9b1f90c39aba&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/5Theater: Octoroon Astonishes; Forbidden BroadwayTicklesTheater: Octoroon Astonishes; Forbidden Broadway TicklesAN OCTOROON *** 1/2 out of **** FORBIDDEN BROADWAY COMES OUT SWINGING *** out of ****AN OCTOROON *** 1/2 out of **** SOHO REPAn Octoroon is precisely the sort of play you hope to catch when venturing Off Off Broadway to see the firstmounting of a new work by a buzzed-about, talented young playwright.</p><p> It's bold, messy, ambitious, filled withvery talented actors committed to a fresh voice, engaging, funny, sprawling and -- this is exciting, too -- feels likea little sharpening will make it even better.It begins in a WTF fashion, with Chris Myers (marvelous throughout), stepping into the spotlight like some avant-garde stand-up comic.</p><p> He starts talking about his therapist and conflicted feelings over the theater and how hiswork is perceived.</p><p> It's wittily done and confessional and just long enough to make you warily wonder whereexactly it's going.Myers is playing the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, nominally sharing how he came to tackle a pieceinspired by the 19th century melodrama The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault.</p><p> It was one of the most popular playsof its time and Boucicault a towering figure, though as Jacobs-Jenkins says, he's mostly forgotten now. (True,though in fact, a recent revival of his London Assurance at the National in London was a delight.)In the blink of an eye, the play morphs into a staging of that melodrama, though Jacobs-Jenkins isdeconstructing the hell out of it.</p><p> A southern plantation is falling into bankruptcy.</p><p> Our hero George (Myers again)has arrived from Paris to see to its affairs.</p><p> He's hounded by the wealthy and tiresome Dora (played with CarolBurnett-like relish by Zoë Winters) but falls for the beautiful and inevitably tragic Zoe (a solid Amber Gray), thetitle character and a mulatto treated almost like a member of the family but doomed in her desire for a happy lifeby the dreaded drop of black blood that poisons her system.The moustache-twirling villain is M'Closkey (Myers, yet again), who lusts after the beautiful Zoe and does all hecan to have her, from killing a young slave boy delivering the mail (it contains a reprieve for the family in theform of a letter of credit) to buying Zoe at auction and trying to kill George.</p><p> The original playwright Boucicaultalso pops in for a word (played wonderfully by Danny Wolohan) and soon dons red makeup to play an Indian.Wandering in and out of the action are the slaves, with a go-for-broke Ben Horner playing old Pete and theexcellent duo Marsha Stephanie Blake and Jocelyn Bioh as Dido and Minnie, two characters with up-to-datestreet slang that turns their dialogue into an hilarious routine that's also a running commentary on both the12/12/2015Theater: Octoroon Astonishes; Forbidden Broadway Tickles | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ae7364e9-38ad-4799-a92d-9b1f90c39aba&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/5status of slaves then and the status of women and poor black people today, somehow both celebrating theircultural uniqueness in the face of horrific injustice then and endemic poverty today, all while messing with yourmind just a little bit.</p><p> If that doesn't discombobulate you enough, the actual playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkinspops in wearing a Br'er Rabbit-like costume, doing bits of business between scenes.</p><p> Somehow, that's not nearlyas odd as it sounds.So to sum up, you've got one actor donning "white face," another actor donning "red face," and yet anotherdonning "black face" in a show that combines every imaginable acting style, sometimes playing the hammymelodrama for laughs, other times delivering the emotions as strongly as possible, and still other times stoppingthe story so the "playwright(s)" can describe the cool effects you'd be seeing (a burning ship!) if they had moremoney or had been able to cast more white actors.</p><p> Myers as Jacobs-Jenkins is a bit woeful when he admits hesorely underestimated the number of white actors the play would call for.</p><p> On the plus side, that means he getsto stage a huge fight with himself since Myers plays both the hero and the villain -- Blazing Saddles-style, he'sholding a knife to himself and soon rolling and thrashing about the stage as the rest of the cast gasps in terror.Amidst all the thoughtful and button-pushing on race and American history, An Octoroon is also a playful look atthe history of theater as well.Meta? You bet, but in a smart and always entertaining style.</p><p> It feels slightly unfocused towards the end of thetwo and a half hours of the show, though you're certainly never bored.</p><p> When a play pulls the rug out from underyou repeatedly (we're never quite sure what the "rules" are for this work), that can be exhausting no matter howsuccessful each element may be.</p><p> The Octoroon wants to barrel towards a big finale while An Octoroon wants todig deeper.Jacobs-Jenkins ends the laughter abruptly by displaying a now iconic photo of an actual lynching.</p><p> That allowsthe finale of the show to have a more sober, powerful effect.</p><p> It doesn't milk the original play's doomed fate forZoe for either humor or tears, choosing it to occur offstage, in a way mirroring the indifference society had at thetime to such uncomfortable reminders of the mingling of the races.</p><p> Zoe could exist on stage only if she died atthe climax.</p><p> Here we end suddenly in song, the theater plunged into darkness while the voices of the cast imploreus to think on what might replace our sorrow, our prejudice, our stereotyped vision of our country and each otherand ourselves.Credit to the entire technical team, which makes the most of modest resources to create vivid costumes (WadeLaboissonniere) and sets (by Mimi Lien) with some flashy, old-school tricks up their sleeves.</p><p> The strong scoreby Cesar Alvarez is ably played by the on-stage cellist Lester St.</p><p> Louis, who somehow never flinches at all thegoings-on around him.</p><p> You know a playwright is one to watch when they can attract the best talent.</p><p> That'scertainly the case here with an excellent ensemble.</p><p> They're all strong, though Bioh (who also starred in his playNeighbors at the Public) is especially hilarious as Minnie and the handsome, intelligent Myers is truly impressivein his various roles and ability to switch styles of acting at the drop of a hat.</p><p> Director Sarah Benson keeps themall on the same page, even as the page they're on switches from melodrama to satire to drama to comedy frommoment to moment.</p><p> I can't wait to see this show again when it's perhaps refined even further and am just aseager to see what Jacobs-Jenkins will do next.Here's a talk back with the playwright and the director:FORBIDDEN BROADWAY COMES OUT SWINGING *** out of **** DAVENPORT THEATRE12/12/2015Theater: Octoroon Astonishes; Forbidden Broadway Tickles | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ae7364e9-38ad-4799-a92d-9b1f90c39aba&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/5What to do? The natural inclination with Forbidden Broadway is to checklist each new edition, list the bignumbers that have been added and tell which ones score the most zingers.</p><p> But I'm a relative newbie to GerardAlessandrini's long-running poisonous valentine to the theater.</p><p> I only caught it for the first time when it cameback in 2012.Thirty two years on from its 1982 opening, Forbidden Broadway is still fresh as a daisy to me.</p><p> I'm still delightingin its essentially loving mockery of the Great White Way and a cast that over the years has given a boost to thelikes of Jason Alexander and Dee Hoty, but whom are good enough you still expect any moment to jump fromthis to Saturday Night Live or better yet a big budget musical.I worried about returning to the show too "soon." Little did I know Alessandrini, with additional dialogue by co-director Phillip George, would turn out so much new material.</p><p> Perhaps some of it is slightly tweaked from daysgone by? (I'll never know but with so many shows revived on Broadway you could hardly blame them for takingadvantage of it.) Les Miserables practically has its own mini-musical edition at the end of act one, with anactress singing "On My Phone" to the tune of "On My Own" and the turntable seeking pity for being unemployed.(Scott Richard Foster shows off his impressive pipes here to best effect as Jean Valjean singing "One RunMore." He's also dead-pan terrific mocking Once and Sylvester Stallone.)I assume the cast has a (good-natured?) rivalry to steal the show and/or make one another laugh.</p><p> Each shinesat a certain point, but Mia Gentile is perhaps the best, spoofing Patina Miller in Pippin and especially scoringwith a deadly take on Idina Menzel as the queen of the pre-school set, simultaneously showing off her voice togreat effect and hilariously pushing it into the red a la Menzel's louder than loud style.</p><p> It's the show's bestcombination of an actor's innate talent with a star ripe for parody.Carter Calvert is such a good Liza Minnelli, they must have rejoiced when Cabaret was revived so she could pullthat out of her arsenal of tricks.</p><p> Marcus Stevens has fun again with Mandy Patinkin.</p><p> Together, their best numberwas a take-down of The Bridges Of Madison County.</p><p> Carter was also amusing as Carrie Underwood, drawlingher way through The Sound Of Music and duly impressed by Mia Gentile's Audra McDonald.Bullets Over Broadway could have been dismissed with one quick jab ("Yes, We Have No Composers" to thetune of "Yes, We Have No Bananas") but I still don't get the jibes at Trey Parker and Matt Stone as guysdismissive of musical theater; they seem to love it.</p><p> Similarly, they toss in a Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig cameo,but haven't figured out the soft underbelly of that one yet. (Maybe they love it too much?)Frankly, that's half the fun of the show (which includes David Caldwell working hard on piano) -- seeing whichcatty comments sync with your own and comparing notes with your fellow theater-goers after it's over aboutwhich ones they liked or thought missed the mark.</p><p> We'll be doing that for many years to come, if the quality ofthis edition is anything to judge by.</p><p> Now who's going to play Tupac Shakur?THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King *** Hard Times ** 1/2 Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ** I Could Say More * The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner ** Machinal *** Outside Mullingar *** A Man's A Man * 1/2 The Tribute Artist ** 1/2 Transport **
