Milk Train Review
Milk Train Review
Milk Train Review#1
Posted: 1/30/11 at 4:15pm
Attended: January 26, 2011
Opened: January 30, 2011
Location: Laura Pels Theatre
Length: 145 Minutes (w/ 1 intermission)
Closes: April 3, 2011
No writer is perfect, and that is on display at the Laura Pels Theater where Tennessee Williams’ The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore has been dug up and put onstage in a horrific revival.
Let’s start with the play itself. It takes place in Italy, where an elderly, terminally ill woman Mrs. Flora Goforth (Olympia Dukakis) is dictating her memoirs to her secretarial assistant, Frances Black (Maggie Lacey). Blackie, as she is called, has to deal with almost all jobs on the private estate, as Goforth has fired all but two other employees. Goforth has also installed an intercom system so she can recount her memories at any time, much to Blackie’s chagrin. Into this setting comes a mysterious stranger, Christopher Flanders, who is known throughout the area as “The Angel of Death”, having been the final companion of many wealthy women.
Mrs. Goforth is basically what might become of Blanche if she became old, regained her wealth, and lost any of her interesting qualities. Frances Black is put upon, with a tragic a back-story, and seems stuck in her situation, a Laura Wingfield with a bit more gumption. And Flanders is a slightly older Chance Wayne. Basically it’s a Tennessee Williams play, with all his familiar character types, written after his great successes. There is a lot of grasping at the past, but very little actual plot to keep the story going.
I’m not sure anything could elevate the Milk Train, which failed in both its original New York production, and in its revived version a year later. It infamously starred Tallulah Bankhead, and having seen Looped last year, Dukakis somewhat channels Valerie Harper channeling Bankhead. She plays the role large, and out to the audience, constantly raging. In fact, everyone on stage spends most of their time emoting, and almost no time connecting with anyone around them. Darren Pettie, very good in The Collection at Atlantic Theater Company just a month ago, has taken any bottled up restraint from doing Pinter and channeled it into a Greek amphitheater style performance in the 424 seat Pels. Lacey, whom I find consistently average, particularly fails in the combative moments, perhaps having grown too used to the homespun, low emotion of Horton Foote.
Edward Hibbert appears as the Witch of Capri, who tells the back-story of Flanders to Mrs. Goforth, and appears in the strangest scene of the production, a brief interlude where he drunkenly speaks to the Italian workman, Giulio, who then spanks the Witch and chases him offstage. This is Hibbert’s second straight performance in a Roundabout show where he comes off better than the rest of the stage, but might as well have been performing on a green screen. Curtis Billings (Giulio) and Elisa Bocanegra (Simonetta), the two Italian employees, do little more than make the Italian spoken by other characters sound amateur.
The style of the entire production, directed by Michael Wilson, is akin to what you would find in a high school performed melodrama. Make sure the audience hears the words! Make sure they can see your face! Don’t worry about subtlety! It’s a weak play by a great writer, and the production is detrimental to anything that might be salvageable in the text.
Grade- D-
-D
More Reviews- New York Idea, etc.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
Milk Train Review#3
Posted: 1/30/11 at 5:33pmIt happens but I agree with Joey on this one.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Milk Train Review#4
Posted: 1/30/11 at 6:29pmI disagree with this review as well. Big time.
Milk Train Review#5
Posted: 1/30/11 at 6:36pmHave to say I agree with the OP. It took all my willpower to stay awake during this show (and it sounded like I wasn't the only one: at intermission, I heard multiple conversations about how hard it was to stay awake through the first act).
Milk Train Review#6
Posted: 1/30/11 at 7:01pm
Oh gosh.... I went on Friday night..... it was terrible.... just awful... Olymbia was great... but how did the rest of the cast get cast???? Their resumes I guess because they were all wrong for their respective parts...
The two main problems are casting and the play itself which could have used a few more rounds of rewrites to get at something great... there are times it comes close but it's just a big mess... no wonder it's never revived... we should let it stay un-revived from now on.
AGREE.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Milk Train Review#7
Posted: 1/30/11 at 7:27pm
Totally disagree.
And incidentally, the OP might do well to learn about using the search button. There already was a thread dealing with this play in which several posters had expressed their opinions, many in direct contrast to the OP's.
Milk Train Review#8
Posted: 1/30/11 at 11:40pmLove how people disagree and bring nothing to the table in terms of rebuttal. I saw this mess last week and its SAD. I saw BOTH original and revival in the early sixties and the play, while second tier Williams is still better than most of the made for TV movie type plays that are acclaimed today (Doubt, Proof, Clean House, Rabbit Hole anyone??) The play could be stunning but they just play it for melodrama. Olympia Dukakis continues to be the most over-rated theatre actress out there. She has dined out on her Oscar win for over twenty years but enough! She is okay in a wacky comedy but stop putting her in Greek Tragedy and anguage plays. She has a monotonous voice and thinks that acting is either talking soft or loud, slow or slower. I would love to see Elizabeth Ashley or Judith Ivey or Mercedes Ruhl deal with this role. Michael Wilson is another Emperors new Clothes type director. There will be a special place in theatre hell for him, John Doyle, David Leveaux, Ann Bogart and Emily Mann. All pretentious directors who haven't a clue.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/17/03
Milk Train Review#9
Posted: 1/30/11 at 11:46pm
i just got back and i must say, i really enjoyed it!!! was it life changing or AMAZING no but it had a nice mix of everything
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Milk Train Review#10
Posted: 1/31/11 at 4:25am
To whyoh:
The rebuttals you seek are all to be found in the original thread on this play that I referred to in my post above. There you will find that the posters brought quite a bit to the table.
I saw Elizabeth Ashley do this role and she had a field day with it.
And I saw Olympia Dukakis in both Hartford and NY, and thought she was excellent as well.
What's so difficult about using the search engine?
Milk Train Review#11
Posted: 1/31/11 at 8:30am
Here is the other thread:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=1026590#4109829
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
Milk Train Review#12
Posted: 1/31/11 at 9:30am
Which T. Williams play actually has "a plot" again?
Man, those expecting a neat, well-made play are going to have a reeeeeal tough time when star-power (and probably nothing else) compels them to SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH.
Milk Train Review#14
Posted: 1/31/11 at 11:48am
***Spoiler Alert(?)***
One full frontal, newintown. For about 15 seconds, if that.
Milk Train Review#16
Posted: 1/31/11 at 12:41pmIt's full frontal. He stands there in the nude. Oh, HOW is it! You will have to see for yourself! It was a highlight.
Milk Train Review#18
Posted: 1/31/11 at 1:06pm
Times' review:
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/theater/reviews/31milk.html?ref=theater&pagewanted=1
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
Milk Train Review#19
Posted: 2/2/11 at 9:27am
Feingold's review:
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