Casa Valentina Previews- Page 3

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/7/14 at 9:12am

Thanks for the response, bjh. I see where you're coming from- but with the femininity lessons and such should they be trying to act like more like January Jones and less like a sassy drag queen. If they really wanted to pass, shouldn't they have been trying to be more like Mare Winningham and less like their fabulous selves?

I would love to read a book about these men, or any straight transvestites. What were their childhoods like? What made them identify as women, but still want to have sex with females?

I thought about Michael and Billy in Billy Elliot when they tired on those dresses. You could safely assume Michael was gay, but I liked how they didn't feel the need to spell out either boy's sexuality.

I thought Westrate was very good, but John Cullum was my favorite of the "ladies."

[Sauja]

Posted: 4/7/14 at 9:20am

Saw this last night. What a beautifully constructed heartbreaking show. And what a CAST! There isn't a weak link in the bunch. Reed Birney continues to be one of the most fascinating, accomplished actors working. His Charlotte is a masterpiece. In lesser hands, she may have been a gorgon, but here is intense and driven, possessing depths. Gabriel Ebert moved me to tears several times--that can be credited to his character's "newness" among these ladies, but his performance itself must be given appreciation. There is a softness and sadness and yearning that is palpable. I'm tempted to call them the standouts, but then you have Patrick Page's flawless Valentina, John Cullum shattering in a small role, Larry Page giving a master class on reacting on stage, Tom McGowan giving brilliant comic relief while staying clearly defined and truthful, Nick Westrate showing brass and nerve and heart, and then Mare Winningham quietly shoring up the show where lesser actresses would have gone for histrionics. Even Lisa Emery impresses in the show's tiniest role (she may only have about two minutes on stage, but she makes them count).

It's the sort of show that again makes me wish for an Ensemble Tony. I can only hope some of these brilliant actors are recognized for their stellar work on this beautiful show. From the opening tableau alone, you know you're in good hands. One of the best things I've seen this season by far. I adored it.

[ryankon]

Posted: 4/7/14 at 10:07am

Interesting...I think this is going to divide people. I thought Birney was sensational--giving yet another beautifully textured performance. Tom McGowan is always good and I thought the rest of the ensemble was solid. The production was gorgeous. But frankly for me, the play's the thing and this is where by biggest issues lie: I believe it was Whizzer who said he found some sections boring. I had the same issue(and certainly audience members around me were restless). More pointedly, there was a failure to probe deeply into any one person's life, point of view, psychology. It seemed a series of talking points that lacked dramatic action or credibility. The play doesn't live up to the concept or its production but I am grateful I saw it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/7/14 at 11:07am

Whizzer, I totally agree with you. I found it so interesting that all they wanted to do was dress up as women and hang out. Nothing sexual, etc. And I think that's why they had that whole drama where Page got hit on at the bar and didn't stop it, etc. It sort of blurs the lines as to like "well do you want men to be attracted to you?" Because up until that point they made it all very clear that there's nothing sexual about it. It's just hanging out as women. Although I did find the parallels to be very drag queen-esque. Like the lip-synching of the song and stuff.

I wanted to hear more from the wife's perspective. Obviously they still have sex and stuff, but it's just so interesting that he'd rather spend his life as a women, but he's not attracted to men sexually? There's a lot of hints dropped throughout that maybe they are or are not.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/7/14 at 5:40pm

I have a feeling the the Featured Actor in a Play category (a pretty weak category this year) is going to end up being all or mostly men in frocks between several Casa Valentina gentlemen and Rylance as Olivia for Twelfth Night.

[PrinceCaspian]

Posted: 4/9/14 at 10:55pm

Give it to Tom McGowan please.

Updated On: 4/9/14 at 10:55 PM

[Adair Haywind]

Posted: 4/10/14 at 10:39am

Anyone think this may extend? I'm dying to see it, but I don't think I'll be able to make it to New York before June 15th.

[dreaming]

Posted: 4/10/14 at 10:52am

I think depending on the reviews for Casa Valentina, they may want to give Twelfth Night something-and Mark Rylance's Olivia was pretty amazing. I think he may win the featured actor award. (I tend to think revival will go to Glass Menagerie, together with leading and featured actress with a chance at director. My prediction for leading actor is Bryan Cranston, and the best play is likely between Casa Valentina and The Realistic Joneses. Best director will either go to the winner of Best Play or Best Revival of a Play (I think Menagerie deserves it for the amazing production, but that's just my opinion).

Do I think it will extend, Adair? If the reviews are good enough, then yes.

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/10/14 at 11:37am

They don't have anything else lined up until September, and there's probably at least some kind of potential extension already built into the theatre's schedule. Last summer, THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES ended up extending something like three or four times.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/10/14 at 10:51pm

I would think this would pick up some awards. Word of mouth is good. And it's been selling well. So I'd say yes.

[pennydreadful]

Posted: 4/10/14 at 11:45pm

I bought this ticket on a whim off TDF, and wasn't expecting much. Wow, was I wrong. It was great! Beautifully acted, and so moving. I hated to see it end, because I want to know what happened to all the characters.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/11/14 at 9:16am

Not much to add - I'm among those who thought the acting was worth the admission price, but that there's not much of a play there.

I can understand the challenges presented by trying to adapt a book of still, non-narrative photographs into a dramatic piece - the playwright has to invent not only the characters' voices, but also come up with a compelling story about them all, and I think Fierstein didn't make it. Only two characters have specific goals they're working towards, and both of those goals are pretty much quietly abandoned midway through act II. There's a lot of static talk (much of it very enjoyable, but due, I think, to the actors' skill rather than the dialogue itself). The problems, crises, and conflicts feel (mostly) self-consciously engineered; the play's seams are showing.

Reed Birney gives an perfect example of how to do transformative acting; after seeing Gabriel Ebert's delightful spidery clown act in Matilda, it's wonderful to see him play someone a bit more genuine and very delicate.

There was talk after the show about how some felt that they were all acting more like drag queens than women, but I didn't see that; I think our notions of what is "feminine" have changed so much, that we attribute that 40s-50s-60s kind of feminine behavior only to drag queens now, forgetting that Bette Davis, Agnes Moorehead, Joan Crawford, Joey Heatherton, et.al. all were real women, behaving in ways that they saw as authentically "feminine," and which we today see as caricature.

An enjoyable evening; I just wish there was more of a real play.

[Libby1209]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 7:42am

Penny...I'm curious...where were the TDF seats?

[pennydreadful]

Posted: 4/12/14 at 11:34pm

My TDF seat (on a Thursday night) was row K, orchestra. An excellent seat!

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/13/14 at 6:59pm

I apologize for breaking the cardinal rule of BWW by not reading this thread before I post, just curious if there is a poster for this, since I figure it shouldn't be too hard to get Harvey to sign it. Is there merch? Not all plays bother...

Sorry if this has been posted already, but I avoid preview threads until I've been to shows, typically.

[joeyinpa]

Posted: 4/13/14 at 9:19pm

No window card yet. I asked and was told there were some issues with the artwork design. What issues they are or were I'm not sure.There is one coming though. I got my playbill signed by the entire cast and Harvey. They all were so nice. I especially enjoyed talking with Mare Winningham and John Cullum.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 4/13/14 at 11:59pm

I saw this tonight. It's a beautiful production. I think the subject matter is so very interesting and I can't remember another play about Cross Dressers. Most of the performances were just wonderful. Except a few. I thought Mare Winningham was BY FAR the weak link. It could have been her part was grossly underwritten or she just didn't make much of it. I think her and Lisa Emery should have traded parts. I am also not crazy about Patrick Page. That voice is so booming and overwhelming it sometimes overshadows his performance. In this case I think it did. All in all it had some very touching, wonderful moments.

All in All a lovely night in the theatre.

[SweetLips]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 5:23am

I only know about this play from what I have read here so slight detour, sorry. I was in an all male revue-some with beards,facial hair,smooth and over the top makeup,wigs, drag,miming,everything for comedy. We performed a one off to an audience of hetrosexual men all dressed as women.There was no way any of them tried to feminize[?] themselves with their walk and talk, apart from the dress/wig/make up. They were all like truck drivers, labourers etc maybe professional men, but they certainly didn't want to come across as camp/limp wristed ,stereotype 'gay' men-there was just this part of them that needed to wear female clothes;[then there are the butch 'straight' men I meet,undress, and they are wearing ladies knickers-what's that classification?]. In fact, our act didn't go down well at all where a gay audience couldn't get enough of us. Because we all looked so butch, they[heterosexuals] thought we were taking the mickey out of them. So..are there any characters like this in Casa Valentina? This is a fascinating subject but there are just so many variations on a theme--which one is this?

[newintown]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:22am

There'll definitely be disagreement on this, because we're so totally screwed up as a culture about gender identification and behavior, but I thought these guys all came across as men who wanted to be seen as women - not as "camp/limp wristed ,stereotype 'gay' men," but as actual women circa 1960 - and different kinds: John Cullum and Larry Pine as the old dowagers at the church social, Tom McGowan as the fat "fun girl," Gabriel Ebert as the sweet young newlywed housewife, Reed Birney as the chic and sophisticated older career woman, Nick Westrate as the jaded barfly, Patrick Page as the statuesque strong woman (not in the circus sense).

So although they didn't walk like men who have never before worn heels, they also didn't seem (to me) like drag queens - rather something in the middle: men playing at being the kind of women that maybe don't exist so much anymore.

Updated On: 4/14/14 at 09:22 AM

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 12:43am

I saw this tonight, and enjoyed the performances immensely and thought Harvey found an interesting little enclave to shine a light on.

For those who are curious, and some have asked about it, they were selling a book there called Casa Susanna, which is a photo book with pictures from the real place in the Catskills. Here is a link to some description and some photos...
Casa Susanna on Time.com

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 9:30am

There'll definitely be disagreement on this, because we're so totally screwed up as a culture about gender identification and behavior, but I thought these guys all came across as men who wanted to be seen as women

Newintown, you're absolutely right. Fierstein drew a lot of research for the play from Robert Hill's research on straight transvestism in the fifties and sixties. Hill writes extensively in his doctoral dissertation about how the ultimate goal for many of these men was to be seen a mirroring the behavior of traditional, middle-and-upper-class women of the time. They were openly derisive of anyone who used crossdressing for camp or queer purposes, and often didn't allow gay men to be part of their social circles.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 10:19am

Yes, AC, I know that was Fierstein's goal, and it's what I saw- but there are many who see the behavior of middle and upper-class women of 1962 as flamboyant to the point of drag-queeniness, and this is where many will disagree.

What would have been accepted, admired, imitated standard feminine behavior of that time now seems exaggerated to us today; but look at the contemporary images in Vogue, and mainstream performers like Lauren Bacall and Dorothy Malone (Written On The Wind), Agnes Moorehead (Who's Minding The Store?), Debbie Reynolds, Loretta Young, Joan Crawford - these were all mainstream, imitable models for women in 1962. But our values and thoughts about "feminine" have changed so much, many of us can only see these woman as role models for drag queens, unable to believe that this was once considered mainstream behavior.

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 10:28am

Oh yes, you're totally right. I wasn't thinking about it from the perspective of how what is considered "mainstream" (and not overexaggerated or campy) has changed, or what level of knowledge people have about that.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 10:57am

which only makes the play all the more fascinating the more I think of it and what has been accomplished with this production.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 4/17/14 at 11:01am

I didn't much like the play. I found it a little offensive from a feminist perspective. You can't really become a woman by putting on a dress-- so the whole "self-made women" thing felt wrong to me. I enjoyed the first act but didn't like the way it ended up.

I'm totally respectful and understanding of the gender identity thing, but comparing their experiences to Mare Winningham's character just feels false.

Astonishing performances all around, though.

Updated On: 4/17/14 at 11:01 AM