THE NANCE Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:27am

Today is Monday, April 15, marking the official opening night for Douglas Carter Beane's latest offering, THE NANCE, starring stage veteran Nathan Lane. Under the direction of Jack O'Brien, previews began at the Lyceum on March 21.

According to LCT, "A nance, according to Webster's Dictionary, is 'an effeminate or homosexual man.' In the world of 1930s burlesque, a nance was a wildly popular character, a stereotypically camp homosexual man, most times played by a straight performer. In The Nance, playwright Douglas Carter Beane tells the story of Chauncey Miles, a headline nance performer in New York burlesque, who also happens to be a homosexual. Integrating burlesque sketches into his drama, Beane paints, with humor and pathos, the portrait of a homosexual man, living and working in the secretive and dangerous gay world of 1930s New York, whose outrageous antics on the burlesque stage stand in marked contrast to his messy offstage life."

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 6:55pm

AM NY is mixed to positive with two and a half stars out of four, I presume:
"While a good deal of the play consists of silly, old-fashioned sketches where Lane engages in some very funny wordplay, it primarily focuses on the gritty backstage environment, where burlesque is on the verge of being banned by Mayor LaGuardia, and a threatening Depression-era culture where openly gay activity is being targeted by the police.

Even if the play eventually loses momentum, it is the most ambitious and substantial effort made to date by Beane, who is known primarily for writing the books of silly musicals like “Xanadu” and “Lysistrata Jones.”

It also allows Lane to combine his comedic persona with a tragic undertone, not unlike his fine performance in the 2009 revival of “Waiting for Godot.”"
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-the-nance-2-5-stars-1.5077689

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The AP is positive:
"The two stories Beane is telling are brilliantly connected by John Lee Beatty's rotating set, which takes viewers both backstage and in the seats at a burlesque theater, as well as inside the apartment of Lane's Chauncey Miles. It is another way of exploring the gulf between public and private.

Lane as the tortured soul at the play's heart is magnificent -- showing sides that are charming, witty, savage, self-destructive and yearning. While many nances were actually straight men, Miles is a gay man pretending to be an over-the-top, ridiculously limp-wristed fairy, ("kind of like a Negro doing blackface," he says) which makes him sometimes sick to his stomach."
http://www.the-review.com/ap%20entertainment/2013/04/15/review-nathan-lane-shines-in-the-nance Updated On: 4/15/13 at 06:55 PM

[choitoy]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 8:29pm

I hate to be one of THOSE people, but after reading the couple of reviews that are out, and being a fan of Nathan Lane, I want to put "The Nance" on my short list of things to see when I'm in New York. But are there any gunshots in the show? I see in one of the promo pics and the B-reel that he has a gun during one of the Western vaudeville sequences. Private responses are fine if there is a spoiler.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 8:53pm

Huffington Post is mixed, with a rave for Lane:

"All would be fine with Beane's intentions were he more brutal in his attack on repressive behavior in the past -- and by implication in many quarters today -- but though he shows and tells spectators a good deal about Miles, he hasn't completely figured who Miles really is.
...
But if Beane's work is a character study calling for further study on the author's part (he's certainly accomplished more here than he does in his current Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) libretto), Lane's three-dimensional portrait of Chauncey Miles -- named after George Chauncey, whose 1994 Gay New York Beane consulted for background info -- is never a let-down."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-finkle/first-nighter-nathan-lane_b_3088077.html

[CapnHook]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 8:57pm

Where is NewYorkTheater's review? I've been waiting all day!!!!!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 9:18pm

Hollywood Reporter is mixed to positive, while the Lane raves keep rolling in:

"In plays like As Bees in Honey Drown and The Little Dog Laughed, as well as musicals like Xanadu and the current revamped Cinderella, Beane’s strength has always been writing clever comedy. It’s admirable to see him stretching himself here, and in territory clearly of deep personal interest. But the play often seems to be straining for a poignancy that doesn’t come naturally.
...
Doing his most rewarding work on a New York stage since the brilliant 2009 Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot, Lane is masterful, finding new depths in a well-worn sad clown persona. Few actors do droll quite so deliciously, and Beane has given Lane plenty to feast on with both a complex character and a load of flavorful dialogue. But it’s the restraint with which he etches Chauncey’s bitterness and battered dignity that distinguishes the performance."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/nance-theater-review-439779

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Entertainment Weekly is mixed to positive with a B:
"Beane — along with director Jack O'Brien, who knows a thing or two about showbiz razzle-dazzle (see: Hairspray) — has come up with a few genuinely fresh burlesque bits (no easy feat!), accompanied by Glen Kelly's too-darn-catchy tunes. And they've assembled a crack comic team to play the Irving Place performers: Cady Huffman (a Tony winner for her when-you-got-it-flaunt-it turn in The Producers), Jenni Barber, and Andréa Burns (In the Heights) as a ragtag trio of strippers — think Gypsy's Mazeppa, Electra, and Tessie Tura. In addition, the priceless Lewis J. Stadlen portrays Efram, Chauncey's usual scene partner. Stadlen and Lane have built up quite the easy-breezy comic rapport over the years in shows such as Laughter on the 23rd Floor, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks', and The Man Who Came to Dinner. If they got an act together, they could take it on the road.

John Lee Beatty's set — a Lazy Susan-style nook-and-cranny-filled marvel — spins between the theater, backstage, and Chauncey's apartment with wondrous ease. If only the story moved back and forth that smoothly. There's an awful lot of talk devoted to New York City politics and the (unseen) conservative commissioner of licensing Paul Moss; and there's a lot of heavy relationship discussion between Ned and Chauncy. Like Chauncy's two worlds, Beane's eventually crumble as well.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20691494,00.html

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Time Out NY is positive with four out of five stars:
"Douglas Carter Beane has a million great jokes in him, but only a few good plays. The Nance, a heartfelt period piece about coded and censored gay life in 1930s New York, is one of the good ones. Coming after 2010’s numbingly quippy Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, this is Beane’s finest straight (well, straight-acting) play since The Little Dog Laughed. It also goes deeper, providing a humane and psychologically messy portrait of self-loathing and social progress, lovingly delivered by the perfect cast and crew. The season isn’t over yet, but The Nance may turn out to be its dramatic high point.
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/the-nance

Updated On: 4/15/13 at 09:18 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 9:37pm

Backstage is mixed to negative (C+) (with good words for Lane):

"Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Nance” is a bold, brave play, in which this eminent theatrical boulevardier reaches for something deeper and darker. Chronicling Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia’s crusade to wipe out burlesque, accomplished in part by the persecution of gay people, in 1937 New York City, the show offers taut direction from Jack O’Brien and a tour de force turn from the brilliant Nathan Lane. So it’s with great regret that I have to say that Beane’s yin-and-yang mix of low comedy and high tragedy, the personal and the political, never meshes."

http://www.backstage.com/review/ny-theater/broadway/the-nance-douglas-carter-beane-nathan-lane-lincoln-center-theater/

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 9:47pm

NJ Newsroom is positive:
"Nathan Lane’s wonderfully layered, poignant, subtle performance in the laugh-clown-laugh role of Chauncey is compelling. Late in the play, when the comedian is reluctantly camping in female drag, the range of underlying feelings that Lane suggests is remarkable even as Chauncey nails one gag after another. The hilarious, hoary burlesque exchanges that Lane blithely trades with the top banana played by Lewis J. Stadlen, a longtime expert at classic comedy, comprise a particular delight of the show.
...
A thoughtful and compassionate study in the forgotten ways of the metropolitan world of the last century, “The Nance” is a flawed yet rich play that offers a great deal of heartbreak and hilarity."
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/movies/the-nance-broadway-review-nathan-lane-stars-in-a-new-play-that-proves-historical-and-hysterical
Updated On: 4/15/13 at 09:47 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:03pm

The NY Times seems mixed; he calls it "strained" yet "heartfelt":
"This Janus-faced persona makes Mr. Lane a natural for the divided soul that is Chauncey, and he doesn’t disappoint. Moving between his natural and artificial selves in increasingly adverse circumstances, his Chauncey flips the on and off switch so often that it finally short circuits, to devastating effect.

But even Mr. Lane can’t reconcile all the disparities Mr. Beane’s script asks him to weave together. By the show’s end, Chauncey has become both an eloquent hero in the fight against censorship and a crusty defender of the status quo, a figure of illuminating self-awareness and benighted denial. It is to Mr. Lane’s credit that he displays no signs of whiplash, but his audience may not be similarly immune."
http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/theater/reviews/the-nance-starring-nathan-lane-at-lyceum-theater.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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TheaterMania is positive:
"No custom-made suit could fit Nathan Lane quite as beautifully as the role of Chauncey Miles in Douglas Carter Beane's ambitious and affecting new play, The Nance, now being presented by Lincoln Center Theater at the Lyceum Theatre. And just like a supermodel, Lane returns the favor by showing off every detail of this tailored garment. His multilayered performance may be the finest of this brilliant showman's long career."
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/04-2013/the-nance_64891.html

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NY Magazine is mixed:
"For Beane, the play is a revelation that effects a rehabilitation. After writing the books of three fairly trite musicals, he has found a way to harness his love of camp and make it do something other than amuse with diminishing returns. When The Nance is sharp, it’s very sharp indeed. But it isn’t perfect; Beane will go almost anywhere for a joke, even years into the future, and the storytelling gets woozy and frankly a bit lost whenever it leaves the central plot behind. Some scenes—especially those involving an attempt by the burlesque workers to organize their theatrical colleagues in a strike—are almost impossible to follow. That the director, Jack O’Brien, has not been able to focus this material is an oddly glaring problem considering that the rest of the action is so satisfyingly organized on John Lee Beatty’s gorgeous revolving set. And in general the supporting cast, save that old pro Lewis J. Stadlen as Efram, is not as convincing in the later material as in the earlier.
But Lane, in the apotheosis of his sad clown routine, is sensational throughout. Rarely have his innate qualities of pathos and quacking cheer been put to better use; it’s hard to decide whether Beane has given him a part he was born to play or he has given Beane a role he was born to write. His patented way of saying something funny and then disowning it with a scowl—the pause that disgusts—here becomes a kind of living double entendre, the apparent meaning souring almost immediately into something much darker. When Beane has Chauncey explain that the heart of burlesque humor is “the gap between what is known and what can be said,” it’s impossible not to feel it. Lane’s genius, exploited so beautifully in The Nance, is that he not only feels that gap, he lives there. "
http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/theater-review-the-nance.html

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Variety is mixed to positive:
"Beane’s intriguing character study turns into a fully involving play when this meet-sweet scene between Chauncey and Ned expands — on a wondrous set by John Lee Beatty that revolves like a magic lantern — to reveal the enticingly tacky (and lovingly lighted, by Japhy Weideman) interior of the Irving Place Theater. Here, Chauncey displays yet another side of himself. On stage and in full costume (Ann Roth did the meticulous period designs) as the effeminate “nance” character in a popular burlesque act, he’s a proficient comedian, a thoroughly confident performer, and a real pro — just like Lane."
http://variety.com/2013/legit/reviews/legit-review-the-nance-1200369817/

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Newsday is mixed to negative:
"So even when material lets him down, which it finally does in "The Nance," Douglas Carter Beane's splendidly ambitious but psychologically superficial tragicomedy, it's thrilling to watch Lane bond with a character who demands the full attention of so many gifted layers of him.
...
So much is unexplored here. Is Chauncey a Republican just so Beane can make gay-Republican jokes? Does Beane make the hunky young Ned insist on monogamy just to make a contemporary case for commitment? Most of all, how does Chauncey avoid the self-loathing of his parodies? When arrested, he makes an outrageously brave courthouse speech. Even Lane, at the top of his game here, can't make us believe that one."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/superb-nathan-lane-disappointing-nance-1.5075539

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Bloomberg.com is positive:
"Lane, in his best performance since “The Producers,” brings considerable heart to Chauncey’s ambiguities (which include the political: he’s a staunch if unlikely Republican). He’s surrounded by a superb ensemble that includes Lewis J. Stadlen’s stern top banana and Cady Huffman as the first among equals in a trio of women playing put-upon nurses, gold-diggers and fan dancers.
Jack O’Brien has directed with his usual sensitivity, never allowing the play to devolve into a camp fest."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-16/nathan-lane-bares-all-as-comic-queen-in-nance-review.html

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USA Today is positive with three out of four stars:
"After a lifetime avoiding conflict, Chauncey finds his courage tested as both an individual and a member of an oppressed community. Beane examines these struggles with grace and compassion; but as things unravel in Act Two, Nance shifts into a more sustained minor key and loses some of its punch.

The mood swing hardly fazes Lane, who is as heartbreaking in Chauncey's bleaker moments as he is hilarious in his burlesque routines. Under Jack O'Brien's vigorous direction, he has superb support from the invaluable Lewis J. Stadlen, as Chauncey's gruff performing partner, and from the musical actresses who play their colleagues — particularly Cady Huffman as a sassy redhead who clashes with Chauncey over politics. (She's a Communist; he's, ironically, a Republican.)

Jonny Orsini is sweetly affecting as Ned, who challenges Chauncey to accept the love of another and, above all, himself. He is repaid in Chauncey's final monologue, a drag skit that turns darkly confessional, inspiring both giggles and tears.

In that sequence, Nance regains its equilibrium — and Lane reaffirms his status as one of the stage's brightest treasures."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2013/04/15/broadway-review-the-nance/2077031/ Updated On: 4/15/13 at 10:03 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:28pm

Nathan Lane's best work has always been as a tragic, self-destructing clown figure. The Birdcage, The Producers and The Nance all have him playing variations on that theme, which he does perfectly.

If they were to make a somewhat more faithful film adaptation of "The Wild Party" (the book, not the musicals), he would be a fascinating Burrs: the middle-aged, sexually overexperienced vaudeville clown who has seen everything, done everyone, and is dangerously near the psychotic breaking point as he parties with the New York underbelly and his latest lover, at a party full of his previous conquests, male adn female.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:33pm

The Wall Street Journal is positive:
"One of the most exciting things that a well-produced play can do is serve as a time machine, giving modern-day audiences a privileged glimpse of a corner of the lost world of the past. That's what Douglas Carter Beane does with "The Nance," a dead-serious comedy set in New York circa 1937 in which Nathan Lane plays a self-hating gay man who makes a living playing outrageously effeminate gay men on the burlesque stage. Such comedians were known as "nances" (short for "nancy boys"), and most of them were straight. The paradox that drives "The Nance," by contrast, is that Chauncey Miles, Mr. Lane's character, is the real thing—but that he lives in an age when his own sexuality is not merely unmentionable but illegal. It's an immensely promising premise, and Messrs. Beane and Lane, greatly aided by Jack O'Brien, the director of "The Nance," make the most of it.
...
"The Nance" definitely has its faults. The clockwork alternation of onstage and offstage scenes becomes a bit rigid, and Mr. Beane loses his grip on the show's dramatic arc two-thirds of the way through the second act, which starts to drift right when it should be picking up speed. These are, however, forgivable failings. What matters far more is that "The Nance" never hides its emotions behind a cloud of camp, nor does it settle for easy applause-sign trickery. (Even the political jokes are understated.) It shows you the real pain of a real man, and makes you feel what he feels."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324030704578424561102568592.html

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:46pm

I'm very happy to see Nathan's comedic and dramatic skills being praised. He is certainly one of our best Theatre treasures.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:55pm

So it's safe to say Lane is a lock for a Tony nomination now?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:57pm

After these reviews, absolutely.

NY Daily News is positive with four out of five stars:
"Lane has won Tonys for musical star turns in “The Producers” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Under Jack O’Brien’s assured direction, he’s funny, sad and touching as the conflicted Chauncey.

Newcomer Orsini makes an auspicious Broadway debut and startles with the sweetness and authenticity he brings to the role. Lewis J. Stadlen is gruff and hilarious as Efram, who runs the burlesque show. Filling out Ann Roth’s cheeky stripperwear are Cady Huffman, Jenni Barber and Andrea Burns.

Beane, a writer known for streaming jokes and contemporary comedies like “The Little Dog Laughed,” digs a bit deeper. He looks back at a time in New York that could have never imagined gay marriage being a hot topic before the Supreme Court and in Crate & Barrel his-and-his wedding registries."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/theater-review-nance-article-1.1317128#ixzz2QaoFOg4m Updated On: 4/15/13 at 10:57 PM

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:59pm

Can I say, that this is getting better reviews than I thought?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 11:26pm

Best performance since The Producers? How about those two itsy-bitsy triumphs he had in Waiting for Godot and The Iceman Cometh? He's one of the great performers of our time, period.

[mc1227]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 11:29pm

Having seen this last Friday night, I am very surprised to see all the positive reviews for this show. I knew Lane's performance would get raves (imo, a Tony winning performance) but very surprised to see the writer get positive reviews since I did not think it was well written or the characters defined within the story. I rarely agree with critics anyway, but I am genuinely surprised that overall, the play did not receive mixed reviews across the board.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 11:48pm

Okay, HOW in the hell is this considered a "review"? The entire thing is a summary of the play, with a few lines dedicated to criticism or commentary! What the hell?!

But she gave it three out of four stars, so I guess the NY Post is positive:
"With his hunger to entertain and his precision timing, Lane reminds us why he’s a vaudevillian master in those scenes. He could ham it up even more, though, as he did so flamboyantly in the film “The Birdcage.”

There’s also little sense of titillating sleaze in Jack O’Brien’s staging, which is saying something considering the comic routines are interspersed with hootchy-kootchy bump and grind, backed by a five-piece band."
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/lane_plays_it_gay_unhappy_RdMsX8D7tQjV4exwptuUTP?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Theater

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 8:22am

So happy to read these "Positive" reviews

I can not wait to see this in June and hope Nathan gets a Tony nom!!!

[jayinchelsea]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 8:40am

The play pretty much got a "pass" because of Nathan, and of course he'll get a Tony nom and probably the award, although right now Tracey Letts deserves it but that ship has sailed. Haven't seen Cumming yet, so can't comment.

Still think the play should have stayed in Beane's bottom drawer.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 8:46am

Agreed -- the reviews are far more enthusiastic than I was. They all took their Generosity Pills before the show, it seems.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 3:17pm

Gotta disagree with Jay and Rosco. I loved the show when I saw it 3 weeks ago, and took my husband back to see it a second time last Thursday. For me the night is just an incredible mix of hilarity and heartbreak, a beautifully painted love story and eye-opening history lesson all at once. That Nathan Lane is getting raves is a given-- I'm actually surprised Beane's script isn't getting more positive reviews than it is. We just found the evening a rich full meal, ranking right up there with "Peter and the Starcatcher" and "The Normal Heart". Lovers of good theater are missing something special by passing this up.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 3:45pm

The comedy was very funny, Mr. Lane can certainly sell a punchline with the best of them. I just found the love-story and the depiction of Homosexuality As Misery to be frankly cliched (Brantley is very good on this, the too-good-to-be-true boyfriend saying basically, "You're throwing away happiness with both hands!!!") and the history lessons frankly unenlightening -- it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and it wasn't able to transcend the cliches or the familiarity with anything particularly interesting. The political messages were all very nice but felt rather self-congratulatory, a real case of preaching to the choir.

Updated On: 4/16/13 at 03:45 PM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 4:00pm

***SPOILERS***

I found Chauncey's choice to throw away a true romantic future with his boyfriend to resume the dangerous life of chasing trade shocking and unexpected, and matched perfectly the choices of some closeted gay guys I knew in the late 70's. Seeing something so un-p.c. was what worked so well in the show for me.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 4/16/13 at 4:09pm

One person's shocking and unexpected is another person's trite and predictable. I could see exactly where the play was heading, it was clearly programmed to be a Total Gay Downer, and that's exactly where it went without doing anything to transcend the easiness of the tear-jerking cliches.