Suffs

Last night I saw Suffs, the emotionally moving and often infuriating new musical by Shaina Taub about the struggle to pass the 19th amendment.

Taub is one of New York City's most talented songwriters, and has long been supported by The Public Theater, which produced her musical adaptations of Twelfth Night and As You Like It in Central Park.

The Public Theater staged Suffs Off-Broadway prior to its transfer to the Music Box on 45th Street. The same company originated Hamilton, and comparisons between Suffs and that show are inevitable. Both musicals opted to feature their creators onstage as the play's protagonist and both utilized history in order to talk about contemporary politics.

While Hamilton was born out of the multi-cultural optimism of the Obama years, Suffs speaks to the anger, impatience, and exhaustion of our present moment. Taub stars as Alice Paul, the Quaker activist who both drove and divided the women's suffrage movement, engaging in militant protests and hunger strikes to try to embarrass the very politicians her movement needed to pass a constitutional amendment.

Suffs shows Paul first idolizing then clashing with Carrie Chapman Catt, played brilliantly by Jenn Colella. A mentee of the great Susan B. Anthony, Catt patiently built a movement that gathered support state by state, making slow and steady progress toward needed reform. In the show's opening number, "Let Mother Vote," she engages in folksy, non-threatening rhetoric aimed at winning over the American mainstream.

Though Catt welcomes the firebrand Paul into the feminist fold, it doesn't take long for Paul to George Clooney her mentor in the back. Paul forms her own National Woman's Party, funded by the multi-millionaire socialite Alva Belmont, played by Emily Skinner. Belmont happily bankrolls a team of professional activists, including Polish-American socialist Ruza Wenclawska, played by Kim Blanck. Historically, by the way, Wenclawska later appeared on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.

A combination of left-wing extremism, elite monied interests, and showbiz glamor isn't attractive to everyone. Paul and her mostly white organization fails to win over Ida B. Wells, the legendary African-American journalist played powerfully by Nikki M. James. Though Wells is absolutely right about basically everything, her my-way-or-the-highway attitude mirrors that of the racist white Southerners she opposes and makes compromise impossible. A different (and perhaps more productive) course is charted by Mary Church Terrell, played by the wonderful Anastacia McCleskey.

Terrell, a graduate of Oberlin College, when told that because of her race she can't march with her state delegation at a national event, instead marches with a contingent of collegiate groups. This creative solution allows her to maintain her dignity (and get in a not-so-subtle dig against the racists) while neither engaging in nor provoking a pointless boycott. It's the type of political pragmatism that seems all-too-lacking in contemporary America.

In the play, Terrell notes that she assisted in the founding of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority at Howard University, which her daughter Phyllis (played by Laila Erica Drew) attended. When McCleskey said this onstage, a cheer erupted from a part of the audience, presumably Delta Sigma Theta sisters.

Suffs boldly presents the bitter infighting that characterized much of the American suffrage movement. It also gives voice to those who callously dismiss its achievements as limited and thus, to many, meaningless. Still, that cheer from Delta Sigma Theta filled me with hope.

THE RAINBOW Film to Premiere

My short play The Rainbow which is published by Applause has now been made into a short film premiering next week at a festival in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The Rainbow was selected by the Cine del Mar 17 festival, which runs from July 10th through 14th. It will be screened as part of the Official Short Film Competition on Thursday, July 11th at 7:15 pm.

I wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by Dennis Cahlo. The film stars Sandra Maren Schneider, Taso Mikroulis, and Ed Trucco. It has an original score by Martin Bäcker and costumes by Madison Hopkins.

Special thanks to everyone who worked on the film, including Isabel Sandoval (editor), Debby Caplunik (assistant director), Daniel Hirshon (cinematography), Rita Mansinho (color correction), Mauricio Zapata (sound mix) and Silvia Cannarozzi (finishing touches).

Empire

Last night, I saw Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull’s new musical Empire, which just had its first preview at New World Stages under the direction of Cady Huffman.

The play tells the story of the construction of the Empire State Building, using as a framing device a woman whose family has a certain connection to it. Exactly what that connection is isn’t clear to the audience at the beginning of the piece. As it happens, it isn’t entirely clear to the woman herself.

 

Jessica Ranville plays Sylvie Lee, an outspoken feminist in 1976 whose daughter Rayne (Kiana Kabeary) wants to become an iron worker. Sylvie, who has mixed feelings about her family’s ties to the construction industry, provides some of the show’s exposition, but also learns a few things herself, including about her mother (April Ortiz), a Mohawk woman who might know more about the construction of the Empire State Building than she’s let on in the past.

 

Young men from the Mohawk Tribe have played a crucial role in the shaping of the New York skyline, including pivotal work on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building. The musical centers their stories, though it also maintains a great deal of focus on Frances Belle “Wally” Wolodsky (Kaitlyn Davidson), a former political operative who (in this version of the story at least) makes sure the building actually gets built. Like Sylvie, Wally might be a composite of numerous individuals, as it takes a lot of people to build a skyscraper.

 

Some of the figures in the musical are historical, though, including Al Smith (played by Paul Salvatoriello), the former governor and presidential candidate who later became president of Empire State, Inc. That company acquired the site of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which shut down in 1929. The plan was to demolish the hotel and construct the world’s tallest building, but the stock market crash made that look increasingly unlikely. Still, Smith persisted, aided by financier John J. Raskob (Howard Kaye) and in the play by the possibly fictional architect Charles Kenney (Albert Guerzon). This trio sings a wonderful song called “Moxie” that’s a tribute to the outrageous ambitions of all New Yorkers.

 

Other great songs include “Stuck With You,” “Touch the Sky,” and of course “Empire.” The play might take some liberties with history, but always in service of emphasizing the hard-working and often unknown men and women who turned the dream of a building in the sky into a reality.

A Martial Coriolanus

If you're going to stage an outdoor production of William Shakespeare's bloody tragedy Coriolanus in New York, there might be a more appropriate spot than outside the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park... but I'm not sure where that would be.

Fortunately, that's precisely where Hudson Classical Theatre Company does their shows, so it's pretty much an ideal spot to contemplate the exploits of Caius Martius, the noble Roman who after taking the Volscian town of Corioles earned the cognomen Coriolanus, only to then threaten destruction against Rome itself.

Benjamin Farmer plays the title character in this production which opened tonight under the direction of Nicholas Martin-Smith and Joseph Hamel. Bruce Barton plays Caius Martius's friend and mentor Menenius, though this production leaves out his famous speech to the rabble, using the body as a metaphor to forestall a riot. Shakespeare, by the way, pretty much lifted that speech from Plutarch.

In many productions, including the film starring Ralph Fiennes, the most memorable performance is given not by the actors playing the male leads, but by the woman playing Volumnia, the mother of Caius Martius who was really the one who saved Rome from destruction. Roxann Kraemer, an HCTC regular, plays Volumnia in this production, having been a superb Sir Oliver (changed to Lady Olivia) in the company's staging of The School for Scandal last year.

Other fine performances are delivered by Fever Hawk Browne as General Cominius, Joshua Gutierrez as the Volscian leader Aufidius, Cindy Xu as Caius Martius's wife Virgilia, and David Palmer Brown and Annette Fox as the two unethical tribunes who turn the mob against a victorious Coriolanus right after he's just been elected Consul. (In this modern dress production, I almost expected them to be holding signs saying Stop the Steal.)

The production runs through July 21st (no show on July 4th), so see it while you can. Performances start at 6:30pm Thursdays through Sundays.

Stirling's Nickleby

The novels of Charles Dickens have been adapted for the stage over and over again, but one of the earliest adaptations was a two-act version of Nicholas Nickleby first staged at the Adelphi Theatre on November 19, 1838.

 

Edward Stirling adapted the script, which was later published by B. Webster as part of the series Webster’s Acting National Drama, offered to the public under the auspices of the Dramatic Authors’ Society. Though the script was printed cheaply and sold for only 6 pence, it contained a wood engraving by Pierce Egan the Younger done from a drawing of the Adelphi’s production.

 

O. Smith, who was famous for starring in melodramas, played Newman Noggs, a fine character part, but hardly the show’s lead. Noggs appears in the opening scene, wanting to expose his employer, Ralph Nickleby, but unable to find the courage to do so. Instead, he merely gives a letter to Nicholas, who is being introduced to Mr. Squeers, the proprietor of the aptly named school Dotheboys Hall.

 

The rest of the first act then proceeds in parallel scenes showing Kate Nickleby at Mantilini’s (spelled Mantalini in the novel) millinery and her brother Nicholas at Dotheboys Hall. This resembles the first half of the novel, which moves back and forth between Kate in London and Nicholas in Yorkshire. In spite of the novel’s title, Kate is given just as much prominence as her brother for much of the narrative, and the scenes with Kate crackle with comedy in the script.

 

It is the play’s second act that diverges from the book—and with good reason—as Dickens had not yet finished the novel when the play was first performed. Instead of dying, Smike inherits a fortune in the play, and all ends happily.

Back in 2020, I saw a Zoom reading of the play, but it was nice to get hold of the script and read it for myself.

Heart of Rock and Roll

Yes, jukebox musicals have been overdone in the past, and we all want to hear original scores, but that doesn't change the fact that The Heart of Rock and Roll, the new musical using the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, is just plain fun.

I got to see the show last night at the James Earl Jones Theatre. As the music is nearly synonymous with the 1980s, the story by Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan A. Abrams is specifically set in the year 1987 and revolves around a family cardboard-box business, which lends new meaning to the song "Hip to Be Square."

Choreographer Lorin Latarro stages some amazing dance sequences, both in the factory and at the big packaging trade show in Chicago. Yes, this is a show that leans into the cheese factor, reminding us of the importance of small, quiet lives as well as the glamor of rock and roll. This allows it to capitalize on the comedy of the everyday, perhaps typified by Tamika Lawrence, who plays the company's no-nonsense H.R. manager Roz.

McKenzie Kurtz delivers a wonderfully comedic performance as Cassandra, the company accountant whose love of spreadsheets rivals her romantic longing for the show's male lead Bobby, played by Corey Cott. Kurtz gives her character hysterical vocal mannerisms that make her wildly weird in a way that plants her at the eccentric heart of this quirky show. It's delightful to see her and Cott sing a duet version of "It's All Right" that reimagines the classic song in a completely new way.

Sadly, producers posted a closing notice this week, and its last performance is slated for Sunday, so if you haven't seen it yet, go now!

Daddy Issues

On this Father's Day Eve, I went to Central Park to see New York Classical Theatre perform Henry IV.

Director Stephen Burdman adapted both parts of Shakespeare's two central plays from the Henriad into one two-hour performance, featuring a game cast frequently performing multiple roles.

Ian Antal plays Prince Hal, the heir to the throne who finds himself torn between two father figures, his actual father, King Henry IV (Nick Salamone), and his surrogate father, the rascally Sir John Falstaff (John Michalski).

Due to financial constraints, the production has to rely on considerable amounts of doubling, often with actors changing their personas purposefully in full view of the audience. Juan Luis Acevedo, for instance, plays the rebellious Northumberland, only to then personify law and order as the Lord Chief Justice.

Some originally male parts are also adjusted to be played by women. Anique Clements plays Ned Poins, now transformed into Bess Poins, as well as Edmund (now Countess) Mortimer. Carine Montbertrand plays the Earl of Worcester (also transformed into a Countess in this version) as well as the tavern keeper Mistress Quickly. One of the best female roles in the play is Hotspur's wife, Lady Katherine, played by Briana Gibson Reeves, who is this production also doubles as Bardolph.

Frequently, when companies combine the two parts of Henry IV, they basically just do Part One, and then a couple of scenes from Part Two. While this adaptation heavily leans on the first play, it also includes key scenes from the sequel sometimes left out of productions. These include the mourning of Lady Katherine and the politic maneuvers of Hal's younger brother John (played by Damian Jermaine Thompson, who also plays Hal's foil Hotspur).

The show is still in previews, but is scheduled to run until June 30th in Central Park. Then, it will be playing from July 2nd through 7th in Carl Schurz Park and July 9th through 14th in Battery Park. See it if you can!