Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERIE

[BlueWizard]

Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERIE#0

Posted: 1/31/05 at 12:43am

For no purpose other than to fawn my own ego (and to get published in the college newspaper), here are my reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERIE, mounted by Canstage in Toronto.

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The Canadian premiere of the much-heralded Take Me Out – the winner of the 2003 Tony Award for Best Play that caused quite a stir Broadway for its abundant male nudity – is an admirable production: blessed with the same director and designer as Canstage’s fall triumph, Vigil, the locker room set is sleek and evocative, the cast is appealing and the plot and characters are intriguing. Yet, despite the fine staging and the interesting subject matter of baseball and coming out of the closet, I left the Bluma Appel Theatre somewhat underwhelmed and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Richard Greenberg’s play explores that stubborn bastion of homophobia, the realm of professional sports, and speculates what would happen if a professional baseball player revealed that he was gay. Superstar Darren Lemming – young, black and rich – suddenly “outs” himself to the public and his team, and while his teammates take the news surprisingly well, the dynamics between the players change forever. Anxieties surface in the locker room, especially when the team acquires a new pitcher who starts spouting racist and homophobic slurs on camera.

It’s certainly an entertaining work, full of incisive wit, voyeuristic situations and a few scattered moments of poignancy; the themes are rich and the dialogue is exquisite. Yet Greenberg doesn’t fully explore the issues he raises; he picks them up and contemplates them one-by-one, but the thoughts expressed in the play are frequently half-complete. Characters are given long, philosophical monologues but none are particularly sharp. The result is a dish of appetizing ideas that are unfortunately uncooked. The play broadens to an ambitious scope when using baseball as a metaphor for everything from democracy to predetermination. But Take Me Out probably plays better in the U.S., where baseball is an integral part of American culture; however, a hockey-possessed Canadian audience can only swallow so much overblown significance the play places on the ballgame.

The all-male cast is uniformly good, but the standout performance comes from Matthew MacFadzean, who plays Kippy, the intellectual player who also acts as the evening’s narrator. Possessing endearing charm and a boyish demeanor, MacFadzean becomes the play’s emotional centre. Also fantastic is David Storch as the gay accountant Mason Marzac, who falls madly in love with baseball. The character, a neurotic, bouncing, delightful mess, is a scene-stealer; however, too often he is used for little more than comic relief. It is to Storch’s credit, then, that the shtick doesn’t get too tiring.

The only character that felt lacking was the central one: Darren Lemming, played by Thom Allison. Allison gives Lemming the voice of a radio personality, making him seem artificial and not quite believable. Yet I suspect it has less to do with Allison’s performance and more to do with how the character is written; the baseball god is charismatic, proud and confident, yet seems to lack any inner life. Like the issues in the play, the character is sketched out but never coloured in.

Take Me Out is playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre until February 12th.

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On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Tennessee Williams’ classic The Glass Menagerie, Canstage presents a sensitive staging of the play at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Imported from Montreal, this production is as lovely as it is fragile and, despite a few missteps and questionable stage gimmicks, serves as a welcome reminder of Williams’ brilliance as a playwright and poet.

For those unfamiliar with the piece, The Glass Menagerie is Williams’ most autobiographical stage work and is famously a “memory play”: a writer and narrator named Tom invites the audience into his past and into his family’s dusty St. Louis apartment in the midst of the Depression. The Wingfield household consists of his angry and miserable younger self, frequently escaping into fantasy through the movies; his frail sister Laura, crippled less by her lame foot and more by her pathological shyness; and their domineering mother Amanda, a faded Southern belle who clings desperately to hopes of happiness. When it is discovered that Laura has abandoned her studies in business school – and therefore any chance of her being self-sufficient – Amanda aggressively latches onto a new dream: to find her daughter a gentleman caller to marry.
However, as in all of Williams’ masterpieces, the characters’ hopes and aspirations ultimately turn to disappointment and despair.

The play is tender and nostalgic, and director Chris Abraham immerses his production in a dreamy melancholy: a live violin creates an ambience of sorrow as it plays over the scenes like a soundtrack, while the lighting is dim and warm. Abraham regularly reminds the audience that this is a play about recollection: the set is a loose assemblage of objects with lights and picture frames hanging in midair, like elements of memory that Tom arranges to create his play. Tom is a constant presence on the stage, either reminiscing in corners or drifting around the stage to put the pieces together. The gritty performance space of the Berkeley Street Theatre – with its worn, red-bricked walls and iron-wrought fire-escapes – is perfect for The Glass Menagerie and helps greatly to suggest the setting of a gloomy, Depression-hit apartment.

The production is unfortunately marred by an unaffecting Amanda, as played by Rosemary Dunsmore. Amanda is the heart of the play and should command the stage with her desperation and fervor. Yet Dunsmore fails to give her Amanda any gravity; instead, the character comes off quaint and harmless, rather than as an aggressive matriarch detached from reality and stifling the life out of her children. Dunsmore offers an impersonation rather than a real character; by the time the pretenses fall and she allows her Amanda to unleash genuine emotion and anger in the last scene, it’s too late: she is neither threatening nor tragic.

The focus of the production thus becomes awkwardly saddled onto Tom, played competently by Damien Atkins. Although Atkins struggles with his accent (his Southern drawl sometimes sounds British or disappears altogether), his portrayal deftly channels Tennessee Williams’ own introverted awkwardness and effeminacy.

The best performances, however, come from Michelle Monteith as Laura and Seann Gallagher as her Gentleman Caller. Monteith’s Laura is spellbinding; not just shy but a little weird, with a small shrill voice that reveals the psychological depth of her introversion. She is like a feeble bird that has been locked up in a dark cage for years and is now finally given the chance to see sunlight. As the Gentleman Caller, Gallagher is the most natural and relaxed of all the actors onstage and is charming and sympathetic. Their pivotal scene together is so perfect and so effective that any misgivings with the production fall to the wayside.

The star of the show, however, is Tennessee Williams’ heartbreaking language, full of lyrical beauty and a profound sense of loss. The Glass Menagerie is as moving now as it was sixty years ago, and this poignant production attests its endurance as stirring drama.

The Glass Menagerie is at the Berkeley Street Theatre until February 26th.

BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERIE#1

Posted: 1/31/05 at 10:21am

Good Stuff. I agree with most of the Take Me Out stuff. Are you as excited as i am about tick, tick...BOOM!, and Bat Boy, showing a little boost in musical theatre in Toronto after SARS...I think small shows are just what this city needs. Its not like they are stealing people from Mirvish, and at the same time they are giving the younger, artsier crowd somehting to enjoy.

Akiva

[broadwayguy2]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERI#2

Posted: 1/31/05 at 1:36pm

akiva would be a good bat boy.

[BlueWizard]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERI#3

Posted: 1/31/05 at 2:11pm

Are you as excited as i am about tick, tick...BOOM!, and Bat Boy, showing a little boost in musical theatre in Toronto after SARS...I think small shows are just what this city needs. Its not like they are stealing people from Mirvish, and at the same time they are giving the younger, artsier crowd somehting to enjoy.

I'm VERY excited about BAT BOY and especially TICK TICK BOOM!! I've had the ttB cast recording for awhile now, and I'm ecstatic that it's finally making its premiere here (about time, too -- with the huge success of RENT in Toronto, you'd think they would have brought ttB here sooner).

It's great to see other production companies besides Mirvish bringing musicals to Toronto (or making musicals of their own) -- they're beginning to develop a real off-Broadway-esque vibe here, which is exciting. Mirvish is wonderful, but they bring only the megablockbusters from Broadway to Toronto. It's really great to have smaller works from New York make its way here too; there's also enough buzz surrounding these works to give the new theatre companies putting them on a helping hand.

Now, if only someone would mount SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE in Toronto.

BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."

[MarkCohen]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERI#4

Posted: 1/31/05 at 6:41pm

"Now, if only someone would mount SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE in Toronto. "

Heck YEAH! That really needs to happen. I'm also hoping for Canstage to tackle Assasins. I think that its possible.

I'm also soo excited for ttb.. and Bat Boy. I cannot wait.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERI#5

Posted: 2/1/05 at 11:39am

Hah BG2,

I am not sure whether that is a compliment or not, as i have never seen the show. Hah.

Akiva

[broadwayguy2]

re: Canstage in Toronto -- My Reviews of TAKE ME OUT and THE GLASS MENAGERI#6

Posted: 2/1/05 at 1:37pm

very good compliment!