The Violet Hour: Brantley and Me, Together Again
The Violet Hour: Brantley and Me, Together Again
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
The Violet Hour: Brantley and Me, Together Again#0
Posted: 11/3/03 at 10:57am
Well...I continue my stalking of Mr. Ben Brantley. After sitting two rows in front of him for Bernadette's triumph in GYPSY, I sat just across the theatre from him at yesterday's matinee of THE VIOLET HOUR. The reason I'm stalking Brantley is simple: it's not about sex, money or power (I already have ALL those things
). It's the fact that every time I attend the same performance as he, I end up having a very surprising and thoroughly wonderful time at the theatre.
I enjoyed TAKE ME OUT last year, but recognized its several faults. At times overwritten, at times unfocused and even somewhat unbelieveable, TAKE ME OUT still had big ideas and beautiful language to hold my interest. But in the end, I felt the that the whole thing was slightly untruthful. I believed Mr. Greenberg's passion for baseball and for language and for men...I just didn't believe all the situations set up in his play.
It's odd, then, that a play about a machine that spits forth pages from the future should be one of the most truthful and emotionally fulfilling play I've seen in years. Somehow, this trip to the fantastical places of Greenberg's mind opened up this extraordinary well of truths about the lives of Americans. In one play (in one act, really) Greenberg defines what it means to be gay, he demonstrates the destructive quality of America on the young men it produces and, in some magical way, it calms fears about what is to come in life by facing the dark head on. But, most beautifully, this piece, in one line, makes the most empassioned plea for the arts in our country that I've ever come across.
The performances that bring this beautiful piece to life range from the very good to the completely sublime. Very good were Mario Cantone, Scott Foley and Robin Miles. Cantone is very, very funny, but one wishes he captures just a bit more of the pathos of the needy, desperate young man he portrays. Scott Foley starts off with a rather conventional performance. I was surprised by his stage presence, although I would have preferred more variety in the character. By the Act 2, however, Mr. Foley revealed an emotional depth that resonated throughout the theatre. It was a truly lovely performance. Robin Miles needs a little more time to settle into the part. After the whirlwind of being pushed onto the stage to take over for an 'ailing' star, with little time to rehearse, Ms. Miles has not found the quirky subtleties of her jazz star character yet. On the other hand, the big notes she needs to sound in the later part of the show were there and were quite effective.
Dagmara Dominczyk may well be giving the most controversial performance of the season. Her take on her character, a meatpacking heiress, is so quirky that she put me off a bit in her first scene. But as we discover that her character is holding on to her sanity with her fingernails, the quirks become demons she must daydream away and the performance becomes a revelation. She teeters precariously between the peirod of 1919 and a modern sensibility. It may distract others, but to me, it spoke of an intelligent girl done in by her status in life.
And then there's Robert Sean Leonard. When did this handsome man become such a soulful, strong stage actor? Admittedly, I have not been following his stage performances of late, so perhaps I should not be surprised at his command, his charisma and his absolute mastery of his craft. His performance is so skillful and, at the same time, so invisible. We are told over and over again what a strong, well-meaning, agreeable young man he is. But when the pages of the book from the future reveal he is also hungry for power and has a ruthless streak in him, you are finally able to name the discordant line he had playing underneath his likable facade. It's a wonder of a performance.
The first act is rather conventional Greenberg with witty wordplay and soaring soliliquies telling the story of young New Yorkers trying to make a difference after the Great War. It was enjoyable and flew by pleasantly. But it is Act 2 where the passion and the pain reside. From the second the curtain raises (and what a delight it is to have a curtain raise) for this act to reveal massive piles of paper spewed forth from the future-espousing machine, I was filled with both hope and dread in equal measure. The playwright and his performers did not disappoint. To see how lives are destroyed by recognition (or the lack thereof) is devastating. And the realization that, in the end, we must simply go on and let life unfurl as it will is both heartbreaking and freeing.
In the last moments of the play, Mr. Greenberg has his characters exit to attend the theatre. It's a predictable play in which all will now how it ends from the first words of the piece. But they go anyway, knowing that that predictability will provide some comfort to those both certain and uncertain of the future. Leave it to Mr. Greenberg to write a call to arms where both the suprisingly new and the comfortingly familiar can be both entertaining and artful. And so revitalizing.
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