A.R.Gurney's Indian Blood- All Reviews Welcome (NY Times is in)

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 1:24am

A little buzz re the new Gurney play (he likes to be called "Pete" doncha know) at Primary Stages in the new 59 East 59th Street theatre complex. The house is 199 seats.

I've heard the play and it has an elegant shape. Touching metaphor to the American Elm tree disease and disappearance in the way of life of Eastern American culture. Fine piece of work by Gurney. Reminiscent of The Dining Room. The elegant human touches of Love Letters.

Rebecca Luker sings a Cole Porter song in it and is no less than stunning.

John McMartin plays a smart, charming banker grandfather to the young male protagonist grandson who's learning a few lessons in life.

Minimalist staging...would be nice if it could transfer up to a little Broadway house...




Indian Blood Updated On: 8/9/06 at 01:24 AM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 4:07pm

buzzy bump

previews begin tonight

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 10:00pm

Reviews trickle in...

Please feel free to add one if you find one....

From Dan Bacalzo of Theatermania:

"The play takes place in the mid-1940s. 16-year-old Eddie (Charles Socarides) blames his tendencies towards bad behavior on his "Indian blood," as he's been told there's a Seneca Indian somewhere in his family tree. It stirs him to do things like draw obscene pictures in his Latin class -- an activity that gets him suspended from school thanks to his cousin Lambert (Jeremy Blackman) who rats him out. Lambert, too, has Indian blood, but while Eddie boasts of his, Lambert feels ashamed by such a connection. This supposed genetic foundation for delinquency is skewered several times in the play, as Eddie's obsession with his Indian blood is treated in a wry, comic manner."

He liked it.
Theatermania Review of Indian Blood Updated On: 8/9/06 at 10:00 PM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 10:15pm

Linda Winer of Newsday doesn't:

"Won't someone please call a moratorium on scripts that begin with the protagonist explaining to the audience, "This is a play about ..." - particularly when the next word is "me." Indeed, this is a 90-minute play about Eddie, whom we first meet during a formal family dinner in which the poor actors must sit at an invisible table and mime their manners."
Newsday review

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 10:24pm

Conor Ennis of Associated Press is mixed...

"Gog is an especially contradictory character, portrayed as a doting grandma who offers up cookies and milk for a grandson who can do no wrong one moment, and as a formidable matriarchal figure who wields an unhealthy influence over her grown sons and drives her maids and chauffeur mercilessly.

But Payton-Wright isn't up to the task of showing both sides of Gog, who often comes off as simply a rattled old woman.
...
[Rebecca] Luker, as Eddie's mother, Jane,...quietly affecting...gets a chance to show off her voice in a charming moment at a family Christmas party, when she sings Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To," accompanied by her husband, Harvey, on piano."
AP Review

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:05pm

Charles Isherwood gives a thoughtful and very positive review for the NY Times:

"As slight as it is sweet, A. R. Gurney’s latest play, “Indian Blood,” is like a snow globe for the stage, in this case a memento of wintry Buffalo in the mid-1940’s. ... Written with delicacy and old-school craftsmanship, “Indian Blood,” which opened last night at the 59E59 Theaters in a Primary Stages production, is a modest memory play that is endowed with a measure of emotional heft by its unchallenged but unusually strong cast.
...
More welcome, and far from cheap, is the finely tuned performance of John McMartin as Eddie’s grandfather. He amassed the family fortune but has retained the perspective of an outsider (he’s the one who brought Eddie his cherished Indian blood) and gives voice to the play’s few forays into serious thought. Only Grandpa senses that the seemingly prosperous city is on the brink of precipitous decline and mourns the clannishness that keeps Buffalo — and the larger American culture — from fully embracing the energy of its diverse races and classes.

Mr. Gurney specifically evokes the more darkly hued nostalgia of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in Eddie’s apologies for the absence of scenery, props and a sufficiency of actors to portray the whole family. He reminds us that bare-bones magic-spinning is what the theater is all about."

Isherwood's last touch is to praise Rebecca Luker's "beautiful soprano" and acting, and rightly so.


NY Times Review Updated On: 8/9/06 at 11:05 PM

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:45pm

The Dining Room is one of my favorite plays! I hope Indian Blood is successful!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:46pm

The funny thing of it is, while Indian Blood may not be getting much attention on this Board, Gurney is one of our most respected classic American playwrights. His plays have been performed extensively in regional and community theatres all over the country and at universities.

Adding this charmed review from the NY Times, I think you can count on Indian Blood finding open arms from Artistic Directors across the nation. An extended life with roles for many actors for years to come. Accessible and suitable to be seen by families with children, this is a show that will not alienate the audience base of any theatre.

In particular, famous older actors with loyal followings will have a joyful time portraying the grandmother and grandfather, the family scions who are at the center of this play.

Just my thoughts and prediction for the play.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:47pm

Tell him to leave his Madras pants at home!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:47pm

So most of the reviews are positive right?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:49pm

Hey!

You are speaking to someone who has owned a madras jacket and worn it with pride!

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:49pm

That is a paraphrase from the Dining Room!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:52pm

Yes muscle, I'd venture to call the NY Times review a subtle rave, and really, with Rebecca Luker singing a Cole Porter song in it, you'd have to be a barbarian not to like this play.

I thought it was GORGEOUSLY written, simply executed, and poignant. I'm very happy to see it added to the American canon of plays.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:53pm

Can you describe what is the play about in a few words?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:53pm

brdlwyr, you have me still laughing!

My Madras jacket, I confess, was a subtle khaki one, which I no longer have.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/9/06 at 11:58pm

muscle, it's a memory tale told by a young teenage boy about growing up in Buffalo, New York in about the 1940's, his conflict with a fatherless cousin, and his relationship with his parents and grandparents, and the family's relationships among themselves.

Also about the gradual decline of Buffalo as an important American city.

How's that?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 12:14am

" The funny thing of it is, while Indian Blood may not be getting much attention on this Board, Gurney is one of our most respected classic American playwrights."

Haven't you realized that most non-musicals get very little recognition on these boards? Musicals, on the other hand, create a stir before they even go into production.

Perhaps Rob should consider changing the title of this site to MusicalWorld.Com.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 8/10/06 at 12:17am

Yes, Dollypop, but you know what?

I am just happy that threads about Off Broadway shows and other kinds of theatre like that Grendel opera are welcome to exist here.