THE CHERRY ORCHARD Previews

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:21pm

Previews for Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (adapted by Stephen Karam) begin tomorrow night. Starring Diane Lane, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Joel Grey, Tavi Gevinson, John Glover, & Chuck Cooper.

So who's going?

[10086sunset]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:28pm

Excited and looking forward to tomorrow night....

Updated On: 9/15/16 at 11:28 PM

[dlenxz]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:28pm

I'm going on the 25th! Looking forward to reading the first preview reports.

[Fantod]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:30pm

If you are going, know that I am insanely jealous

[PianoMann]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:32pm

I'll be in attendance on Saturday night, and I'm really looking forward to it!  I'm excited to see Diane Lane on stage, as well as many members of the ensemble, and I'm particularly interested to see Karam's adaptation of the play.  I heard in a lot of press materials that he's "dusted off" or "modernized" Chekhov, so I'm anxious (and a tad bit trepidatious) to see how this turns out.

After a disappointing opening to the Roundabout season with Holiday Inn, I'm really hoping this is a home run for them!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 9/14/16 at 11:44pm

They unveiled the set design on here a few weeks ago. It is a very surreal(?) design? If I remember the whole playing space is a giant dissected tree stump. 

[fb1123]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 8:18am

Saturday matinee 1/17 for me

[somechrysanthemumtea]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 8:51am

Very excited to read people's thoughts on this one

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 9:29am

Saturday matinee for me.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 9:30am

I'm going Saturday as well.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 2:03pm

Have 2 access 10 tickets for tonight which we cannot use as wife not feeling well. At least it only a $20 loss.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 4:18pm

They've taken out seats 105 through 109 in Row AA of the center orchestra for this production. Interested to find out why. My seat was relocated due to the change. 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 4:34pm

I'm going in about 2 weeks. I have to. Diane Lane would be disappointed if I didn't show. I can't do that to her.  She's goddess...

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 4:54pm

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 5:25pm

God...she's insanely gorgeous!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 11:15pm

I was there tonight and found it to be a mixed bag at best. The adaptations pushes way too hard to be modern, the direction was a clunky and I hated most of the costumes. There are some good performances, but even with the actors who have a handle on their characters the director hasn't found a way to convince them to all be performing in the same show. 

Perhaps the biggest positive of the evening is that Roundabout has discovered diversity and actually cast a black man (a very good Harold Perrineau) as Lopakhin. Let's hope The Cherry Orchard is the start of greater diverse casting and not just a momentary blip of enlightenment. 

Well, Lopakhin opens the show talking about his fine coat. He came from a serf-like beginning and now has made it. What would his father say if he could see him now? Lipstick on a pig! 

Say what? Look, I get what Karam is trying to do here. He doesn't want the text to feel stodgy and impenetrable to a modern audience, but references like this only draw attention to themselves. The play is still set in turn of the century rural Russia. It distracts and takes you out of the moment when you hear "Lipsick on a pig," rather adding any new clarity to the text. Perrineau also refers to himself as a tight-fisted, nouveau riche jackass. Joel Grey is called "Gramps" and patchouli oil even got a mention! I don't think one has to try so hard to make Chekhov feel fresh and relevant. For example, the recent Cate Blanchett Uncle Vanya production felt very lively and current, but still retained a sense of period and milieu. 

Speaking of Cate, who I know is also coming to Broadway this season with some Chekhov, I kept imagine her Uncle Vanya performance transported to Lyubov and imagine that she would be smashing in the role. Right now Diane Lane is still finding the character. She started out strongly, but I think she faltered a bit in act two. It's early previews though and she's a talented actresses so I hope she gets there. 

The set is sparse, especially by Roundabout standards.  The stage is covered by a giant, rotted tree stump. A little bit heavy handed I suppose, but I kind of liked it. The cherry trees are impressionistic and the lighting in the orchard scene was pretty. 

Runtime was 2.5hrs and although it went by quickly enough I found it difficult to remain emotionally engaged in act two. 

[dave1606]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 11:45pm

I was there tonight and really disliked it. I fondly remember my first exposure to Checkov as Uncle Vanya on 42nd St. Tonight I kept thinking of how what is essentially a filmed read-through of actors doing that play was more interesting than this production.

The text really annoyed me. Karam's new translation doesn't seem to trust what is already a great play. Nearly all of the updates detract rather than add anything. The costuming is equally bad, but the direction is possibly even worse.  The cast all seems to be acting in different plays. Chuck Cooper seems to have decided to play it as if he's Jackie Hoffman in Adams Family, milking every line for a laugh even when there isn't one.  Meanwhile Celia is doing her best straight on take with her role and I thought was ok enough with it. Diane doesn't seem to know what to do with the character in act 2, while Harold Perrineau is an absolute standout and the best thing going for this production.


 

 

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Overall this is really disappointing production that should be quite good on paper given the talent of cast, especially Lane who I loved in The Mystery of Love and Sex.

[Sauja]

Posted: 9/15/16 at 11:45pm

Whizzer, I usually agree with almost everything you say. With regards to this production? I think you're being very, very kind. Listen, first previews are hard. Chekhov is hard. A production of The Cherry Orchard needs time to settle in. But what I saw on stage tonight was one of the single worst productions of a classic play I've ever laid my eyes on. The cast seems to have been directed by a set of four or five directors who never spoke to each other. The styles are wildly divergent leading to a stageful of incredibly talented actors looking amateurish at best. The translation is ham-fisted, scrubbed clean of almost anything that sets it in a distinct time or place, but rather than making it more accessible, it casts the whole enterprise adrift, never seeming to connect to any recognizable reality. The costuming is appalling, shifting through periods as the play progresses, getting more modern as it goes. "This play speaks to all times," the translation and costuming shriek at you, lest you have to rely on, you know, the actual content of the play.

Diane Lane is a stunningly talented, undeniably beautiful actress. Her performance tonight was terrible. I didn't find it to start strong and end weak. I found it a mess from beginning to end. I don't really blame her. The other actors, collectively brilliant in dozens upon dozens of other productions, are rendered impotent by lazy, thoughtless direction, bad writing (I love you Stephen Karam, but what have you done to Chekhov. And what did he every do to you?), and a production that is blunt and unsophisticated. The less said about the party scene after intermission, the better.

The actors will find their ways deeper into their roles. The lighting and sound cues won't be all over the place. But without a different translation, complete redesign, and new staging? This is going to stay a trainwreck. I was so excited about this production. I wanted it to be great. I love The Cherry Orchard. I love so much of the cast. But...no.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:02am

Sauja, truthfully, yes, I am being very kind in deference to many of these actors, whose bodies of work I greatly admire. I do agree with everything you wrote about the translation and the direction. The party scene was awful. Like I said, I hated the costumes too. 

I want to give the actors the benefit of the doubt that they will be able to pull it together during the preview period. I did think that Perrineau gave the one really solid performance. You're right that the acting won't help the translation or the direction, but I think it will really help the audience get through it. 

[Sauja]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:07am

Totally fair, Whizzer. And that reminds me that I should stress that I don't blame any of the actors. Too many incredibly talented people are giving bad performances for me to think the fault lies with them. If they were given a different translation, production, and director, I would love to see what this exact cast was able to do with the material elsewhere. Sadly, we'll never know.

[carnzee]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:07am

Whizzer, I believe Mamet uses 'lipstick on a pig' in his translation as well. At any rate, the phrase doesn't sound out of place in a period piece to me. It sounds like something that a grandparent might say. Were there any other glaring examples you remember? Also, since I know you love The Humans, does this Cherry Orchard feel like it was written by the same person?

Anyway, wow, what a bummer: three lucid, intelligent reviews all come to the same negative conclusion. I have a hiptix for next month.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:08am

As someone who has loved Diane Lane from the moment I saw her in "A Little Romance", I have to say these reports are making my heart sink....

Updated On: 9/16/16 at 12:08 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:20am

The theatre marquee proudly proclaims "a masterpiece reimagined." If the name of the adaptor hadn't already set off alarm bells, then this pronouncement set them to clanging deafeningly. Somehow it seemed that Chekhov's imagination was in no need of anyone else's help. This misguided production served as ample proof of that.

 

The marquee should have more accurately proclaimed, "a masterpiece botched." For here, a masterpiece was turned into a messterpiece.

Updated On: 9/16/16 at 12:20 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 12:28am

carnzee, I am such a fan of The Humans (and Sons of the Prophet), but Karam just didn't do it for me here.

I googled lipstick on a pig and it looks like the first written use of it was in 1946...lipstick was a coined term only in 1880 itself. The expression just doesn't sound 1904 rural Russia to me. If Mamet uses it then I think he's wrong too, ha! 

Even in a "modern and fresh" translation there should still be an element of formality and dignity with these characters. They are the last dying gasp of the aristocracy after all and their insistence of hanging on to perhaps some flowery, antiquated expressions should only heighten how out of touch they are with society and really shouldn't create a barrier for modern theatergoers who are purchasing tickets for a century old play in the first place. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 9/16/16 at 1:28am

Haven't seen this, but I hate the notion that audiences today won't comprehend or be interested in things that aren't modern. Like, WTF. So if Chekov references snapchat, then suddenly we'll be all about it? Like, c'mon. Look at the success of King and I or South Pacific, etc. They didn't change a word of it, and it was a smashing success. We're all smarter than that.