Torch Song Revival-Thoughts

Posted: 10/13/18 at 5:39pm

More often than not, plays don't age well. Writing is like a fashion trend, it's in and out. The style, structure, humor,  and content of a play can just seem almost ridiculous 10 to 20 years after it's initial run, because plays are about ideas.  Ideas evolve so quickly (especially now) that a revived play often feels out of step with the present moment.  Reviving a play should come with a relevant reason to do so....that's when I believe a play works at its most successful level.

The Torch Song Revival now playing at The Hayes Theatre hasn't aged that well and isn't working as successfully as the Brantley Times Review says it is.  The first act MUCH better than the second, but it comes across now exactly how Brantley says it doesn't, "With its high sentimentality quotient and wisecracking briskness, it came across as an honorable, gender-tweaking variation on Neil Simon’s classic cash-cow comedies of urban Jewish anxiety."

I certainly get it for the time period it was written in. As gay lifestyles were still not viewed by this country as acceptable we needed to see and have the conversation about what a real gay relationship was like in 1982...both for gay men who didn't believe they could have a true relationship, family, self respect and for the hetero-normative crowd who needed to see gays in a less, in their minds, sinful or strange light.  I do believe this play helped give the gay community both of those, but in 2018, it plays more like an adult version of the sitcom Full House than an example of great playwrighting. 

The first part of the first act is FANTASTIC, a real portrait of a lonely person looking for connection....the opening monologue is still one of the best written examples of how to use one in a play.  When something is honest it's timeless, and that's what the first half of act one still is.Michael Urie, is a great choice for this and he really is showcasing his masterful control of physical comedy here. The backroom hookup scene he does solo is hysterical. As the writing starts to feel more dated and untrue his performance suffers...it starts to get saturated with sentimentality. Moises Kaufman's direction starts to really lean into at surface value instead of digging into true why of the moment and times and unfortunately, Urie ends up looking like a clown performing at a kids birthday party...even when he's fighting with his mother. 

Casting issues make it suffer further. Ward Horton is a very good looking guy with an optimistic take on Ed, but he displays no complexities of a man confused or tormented by his bisexuality in the early 80's.  It's handled as if Uncle Jessie from the aforementioned sitcom would have on. Horton does not have the acting chops to relay much else.   Jack DiFalco as David fares even worse, like an Olsen Twin told by her stage mother to smile more  for the camera. He is supposed to be a troubled teen passed off to several different foster homes...not even close to believable (The writing does go full sitcom in the second act so its not entirely his fault).

Mercedes Ruehl is of course a theater legend and handles Mrs. Beckoff with as much honesty as she can give it. The way it's directed, however, Urie doesn't seem that affected by it and when he is supposed to be hurt it comes off as camp. She gets nothing from Horton or DiFalco that she can actually play off of, so strangely it feels like she is out there on her own ... but shes so good she almost pulls it off lol.

One wonders if Kaufman had a vision for this at all.

David Zinn's set is deceptively simple, at first it looks like an empty stage with the exposed back brick wall, pulleys, old pipes all for the audience to see.  Over the course of the first act, planks of the stage side out from compartments in the brick wall to become his drag dressing room, his brooklyn apt, ed's apt...its effective. The bedroom scene at Ed's country house is like a backdrop of clouds from the ceiling that opens up into one large bed for the two couples to roll around with each other...its witty.  Act 2 it becomes a literal apt that feels jarring considering the minimal take of the first act. The bedroom walls are constantly being yelled from into the main apartment by characters in the second act and the bad sound design makes it sound like they are standing right next to each other. It seems like a little thing, but it happens so much in the act that it just takes you out of the play.David Lander's Lighting is Exquisite! It brings grace to loneliness and beauty to the shabby.

Will you have a good time, I think so. Fierstein's play has wit. But I'm not sure this play holds up enough to be considered a modern classic. And those who are looking for something more complex about the Gay life just before its true cultural and political acceptance will leave wanting more.

Updated On: 10/13/18 at 05:39 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/13/18 at 5:52pm

I don't fully agree with you. Although I was aware of the play's creaky construction in the 2nd act, I thought it played very well. The scenes between Arnold and his mother were electric and I liked Ward Horton as Ed.

Honestly, it was one of the finest evenings I've ever bad in the theater.

[MarilynMonroeSmash]

Posted: 10/13/18 at 5:53pm

I really disagree with you. As a young gay man having first seen "Torch Song" in 2017, the play has had a huge impact on me.

Posted: 10/13/18 at 6:47pm

Dolly pop, I'd love to know what you got from Horton that wasn't surface level at best. I thought he was very wooden, not really in touch with what the character is going through.

 

MMS, glad it had an impact on you. It did me when i was younger too, but I hadn't seen many things with gay characters in them.  And don't get me wrong I enjoyed myself, I just don't think it plays very complex in 2018 

[Impossible2]

Posted: 10/14/18 at 4:46pm

Really I just sat and watched the play...

[smidge]

Posted: 10/14/18 at 5:05pm

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?page=2&thread=1112586

[denos]

Posted: 10/14/18 at 5:11pm

This review is on the money - you put down almost word for word what my husband and I said about the play last night. I would just add that Urie's performance was so over adorned with distraction, that it was clear that Kaufman didn't trust that the material could hold up (or maybe he just gave up and let Fierstein direct it).

On a side note: 2nd Stage has made the Helen Hayes Theater the most uncomfortable theater on Bway. I sat dead center in the orchestra, and THE topic before the play, at intermission, and after the play was how small and cramped the seats are are. Don't think I will be going back any time soon.

[Impossible2]

Posted: 10/14/18 at 6:05pm

denos said: "This review is on the money - you put down almost word for word what my husband and I said about the play last night. I would just addthat Urie's performance was so over adorned with distraction,that it was clear thatKaufmandidn't trust that the material could hold up (or maybe he just gave up and let Fierstein direct it).

On a side note: 2nd Stage has madethe Helen Hayes Theater the most uncomfortable theater on Bway. I sat dead center in the orchestra, and THE topic before the play, at intermission, and after the play washow small and cramped the seats are are. Don't think I will be going back any time soon."

He played the character exactly the same as it's always been played.