The Drama Book Shop

Today, I got a chance to visit the newly reopened Drama Book Shop in Midtown. It was great to finally be able to return!

The Drama Book Shop used to be over on West 40th Street, but it shut down when the landlords figured they could make more money leasing the space to a high-end clothing store. A group of investors, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, bought the remaining stock of the bookstore and promised to reopen is somewhere in the same neighborhood.

Well, there were the inevitable delays, and then COVID hit, so the reopening has been a long time coming. The selection on hand looked about the same as it has always been, though I noticed they also had a section in the front for "Bestsellers" that included novels, poetry, and other books that had nothing to do with the theatre, which I don't remember from the past.

There used to be a theatre downstairs from the bookstore, where I had a reading of a selection from The Mysteries of the Castle of the Monk of Falconara as part of the book launch for The Best American Short Plays: 2005-2006. I was down there more recently for a talk given by the director Ivo van Hove. The new location of the Drama Book Shop has a roped-off staircase leading down to... dare we hope a theatre?

The new location also has a cafe, so you can get snacks and beverages. Currently, management is recommending that you make a reservation to be sure you can get inside, since capacity is capped. When I showed up on a Friday afternoon, though, they just waived me in without checking my reservation, so it looks like they're taking walk-up browsers, provided the store isn't too full.

I bought a volume of some Eugene O'Neill plays while I was there, and I look forward to spending more time reading this summer. Thank goodness the Drama Book Shop is open again for hungry readers like me!

The Crucible

I just saw Ivo van Hove's Broadway production of The Crucible. Though the modern dress and some directorial weirdness might grab headlines, what really makes this version so remarkable is the honest, straight-forward acting that illuminates how wonderful Arthur Miller's play really is.

While I did not see van Hove's critically acclaimed rendition of Miller's A View From the Bridge, I did see his staging of Susan Sontag's Alice in Bed at New York Theatre Workshop way back in 2000. Like that production, The Crucible features some questionable choices. (A line about nakedness leads to a literal stripping on stage, and one emotional moment is accompanied by hurricane-strength winds.) Still, there is an intensity to the acting that makes familiar material seem fresh.

The set for The Crucible, designed by Jan Versweyveld, is a modern-day classroom, and when the curtain first rises, we see a group of schoolgirls at their desks. The curtain lowers again, and when the play proper begins, one of the girls lies motionless, with her father distraught. Rather than focusing on the girls, though, van Hove chooses not to perform the optional scene Miller cut from the original production, in which Abigail faces John Proctor in the forest. The decision helps to make this production decidedly John Proctor's play, in spite of star performer Saoirse Ronan playing Abigail.

Ben Whishaw, who memorably portrayed John Keats in the film Bright Star, plays Proctor. He manages to be upright, even as he confesses to adultery and wavers on whether or not to sign a false confession. His denunciation of Abigail is particularly powerful, and he mostly has good chemistry with Sophie Okonedo, who plays his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. In the final scene, where Elizabeth often shines, Okonedo's acting is subdued, placing even more emphasis on Proctor.

During a few moments, van Hove stages the supernatural, even though the play is clear that magic spells and flying witches don't really exist. This introduces an ambiguity Miller never intended, but it also makes the audience take the possibility of witchcraft more seriously, perhaps making the actions of extremists in the play more understandable.

This limited engagement is only playing through mid-July, so if you're interested in seeing it, check out the show's website:

The Crucible on Broadway