Q&A with Grace McLean

If you're a musical theater fan, you might know Grace McLean from her performances in musicals like Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Bedbugs!!!, and Brooklynite. She'll make her Broadway debut in the fall in Natasha, Pierre, reprising her role as Marya D. She also has a career as a singer/songwriter, fronting the band Grace McLean and Them Apples. On Friday, April 1, she and her band close out Lincoln Center's 2016 American Songbook series. Last year, they opened the series after winning Prudential's Invest in the Future of American Song contest. She's releasing a new single in conjunction with the American Songbook concert and her first full-length album is out next year.

In college at NYU (after attending Orange County High School of the Arts in California), McLean studied musical theater, then Shakespeare at the classical studio, and then experimental theater in Amsterdam. "I think all of those things have really influenced the way that I work and have given me permission to be myself in the work that I do," she says. Read on to find out more about her influences, the pop opera that she's working on, and why she gives out goodie bags at her concerts.

Q: What can audiences expect from your upcoming American Songbook concert?

A: I have little goodie bags that I bring for my audience because I like everybody to be pleased with me when I perform, so [last year] I made them do little magic tricks and write down their wishes and blow bubbles. There's going to be more of that this year. I like to call these kinds of shows that I do Grace McLean lives in concert as opposed to live. Just add a little s there because it's alive. It's vibrant. I'm going to have my core band, Grace McLean and Them Apples--bass, percussion, and me and my looper. We're going to do some reimagining of some old American standards that we're maybe going to mash up with some American pop songs. I'm talking Beyoncé and, like, Duke Ellington. I'm going to do a bunch of original stuff. I'm going to do some things from the musical that I'm writing about Hildegard von Bingen, who's this 12^th century mystic who was a really powerful, amazing, medieval woman who I'm obsessed with. I'm going to tell some stories. We're going to learn some lessons together. We're going to make some big old wishes come true in a big musical, costumed way. 

Q: How did the name Grace McLean and Them Apples come about?

A: I thought it was funny. We were trying to name the band for my boyfriend at the time. We were looking for a name and a somebody. I think my roommates and I were trying to make each other laugh so "them apples" was out there, but also "these guys," which we also thought was funny. But Them Apples I just thought was so funny and cute and I just liked the idea of when you have your name and the people behind you. And I like it because, "How do you like them apples?" You probably will because they're quite good.

Q: When doing a show like this, how do you come up with the set list?

A: I definitely think of the arc of the evening and how the whole thing is going to work because I want to take everybody on a little journey. Months ago, I started making a list of anything and everything that I want to play and then I have to whittle it down because I don't have three hours to play to people. I just think about the different stories that I want to tell and how I can weave all of those things together, not only in terms of the arc of the set, but also how and when to get audience involvement, and it's not in a scary way. I give everybody a goodie bag and there are different points in the show where we'll do something together that relates to the song that's coming up next just so there's a communal context for everything. And then I also think about how I'm going to surprise people. At my 54 Below show, I had a flash mob of dancers for one song. Last year at the American Songbook, I had a whole horn section that came on at the end, so I'm going to have something like that this year as well. You've gone along for this whole concert, you think you know where you are, and then there's one other big, fun thing that happens that kind of comes out of nowhere.

Q: You've done a lot of musical theater. How do you balance your musical theater career with your singer/songwriter career?

A: It's working out pretty well. They're kind of riding side by side so far, which makes me quite happy. When I have a musical theater gig, that's where I'm focused and that's where my energy is going and when I don't, that's when I have more time for my music, which is pretty great because right now I'm waiting for Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet to start at the end of the summer, so I have a lot of time to put out these singles and get ready for the album next year. And the two kind of feed each other. It's great to be able to work on other people's projects as an individual in the whole cog and hone your one specific part and then it's great to be able to take that back when I'm looking at all of my work and being the director of things, making a whole album or a whole song or a whole evening.

Q: Have you learned anything about yourself as a singer/songwriter from the musicals that you've done?

A: I've really learned about succinct, clear storytelling. Sometimes as a songwriter, I really like to be quite personal and poetic and metaphorical and I think that works for songs sometimes, but then sometimes it's like, "How can I be as simple and clear about this moment and make it about one moment as opposed to five within a song? How can I stretch this one feeling over this whole arc and be very clear and have everybody understand really simply what's going on?" Working in musical theater, that has to be done. When I'm writing a song, sometimes that's a whole play. But inside of a whole play, every song has to be its own little moment and there's a little bit of different clarity of storytelling that's necessary. And it's been a good thing to learn that it's ok to do that. 

Q: When did you discover your sound?

A: It's always being discovered. I've been working with this looping station since 2012, which is a little box that records my voice live and then I layer harmonies on top of it or beats or whatever and it's sort of like a little one-man band situation. That's really shaped the direction that the band has gone. But before I had that, it was very pop singer-songwritery. I think you could hear Nellie McKay Regina Spektor. Since I got the looper, it's gotten a little more dance-y or fun and a little bit darker maybe. I'm also influenced by Joanna Newsom and her really idiosyncratic, long-form poetic storytelling. I love the lady storytellers. But also I want to be Robert Plant. I like a good scream sometimes.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit more about the pop opera that you're developing?

A: Also in college, I studied medieval art, just because I liked it and you can do those things in college. So I came to know this woman Hildegard von Bingen through her artwork. Once I graduated, I kept buying all these books about medieval history and she kept coming up and I was like I want to know everything I can about this woman and I started delving into her and her story. And she's just such an important woman that not a lot of people know about. You know about her if you're in the classical music world. In addition to the crazy artwork that she made, she wrote songs and poetry. She basically wrote the first opera in the west, predating others by like 400 years. She wrote the first mystery play. When you go to theater school, they say theater in Europe started in the church. She did that 100 years before anyone else was doing it. She just had a crazy, amazing, creative, abundant life. But what I'm writing is about the first 40 years of her life where we don't know that much about her because she was locked in a cell with another woman called Jutta von Sponheim. Jutta was an anchoress, which means she decided she was far too holy for this world, so she was going to live her life inside of her own tomb. 

Hildegard was given to the church at the age of eight. You're supposed to give 10% of your income to the church. She was the tenth child, so her family was like, "Just take our kid." And the church was like, "Great. Jutta needs a handmaiden. Go live in this cell with her." So they did. It was these two ladies in a tomb. There was one window through which they could participate in mass and get food and basically your open grave is in there and you just meditate on that and just hang out in there because your body is tied to this world, but as a nun, you're engaged to Christ and death is the best possible thing because you're going to be united with your bridegroom. And we know that Jutta really loved hurting herself, self-mortification, because that sort of pain and denial of the body brings you closer to spirituality. So Hildegard grows up around and becomes a women around this other lady who eventually died when Hildegard was in her early 40s. And Hildegard comes out and then she lives this totally explosive, individual life with this individual voice at a time when individuality doesn't exist. Nobody signs their name on anything. You don't know who anybody is. Especially if you're a woman. I'm interested in what happens in this period of time for 30-some years when these two ladies were together just being quiet and crazy and in darkness. I read this quote somewhere that I loved that Hildegard's life was one splendid vision of dying. And Jutta's was too, but Jutta's life leads her to a literal death and Hildegard's leads her to a life of creativity and celebration of death in life. 

Q: Where are you in the process?

A: I was just at the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals in February and we finished the first draft of it. I have a concert on May 5 at Greenwich House for their Uncharted series to perform all the music as it is now to see what it sounds like all in context.

Q: If you could have anyone come see your American Songbook concert, who would it be?

A: Hildegard! My mom and dad are coming, so that's good.

Q&A with Rap Artist Baba Brinkman

Canadian rap artist Baba Brinkman creates one-man shows using rap and projections to educate and entertain about scientific or literary topics. His latest is The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos. He's been interested in the topic of global warming from a young age. It was dinner table conversation growing up, since his mother wrote a thesis on climate change. After debuting the show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, he performed it at the Paris Climate Conference. He just opened the show at SoHo Playhouse, where it's playing through April 24.

Baba Brinkman in The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos. Photo credit: Olivia Sebesky 

On the night I saw The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos, Bill Nye the Science Guy was a special guest for the Q&A portion, which leads into a freestyle rap performed by Brinkman. Each week there will be a performance with a special guest. The next will be Gavin Schmidt, NASA's chief climate scientist.

I spoke to Brinkman about the process of writing a rap guide, the effect Hamilton has had on audiences being more open to rap in theater, and more.

Q: What is your process like for writing one of these rap guides and how long does it typically take?

A: I was probably researching and reading for this one from March through June all last year. So it's probably three to four months of just reading climate change books and articles and blogs and everything I can get my hands on really. And then it took me about two months to write a draft for a script, so I wrote the script all through June and July and by the end of July I had a version I was performing, and then I probably scrapped about half of that. I'd say about 2/3 of the show that I'm doing Off-Broadway now was written since December, but it's based on the frame of something I wrote this summer, so that's usually how I do it. I'll do a version for an audience and treat that as a beta test and then go back to the drawing board on some of it and talk to people about what's clear and what's unclear. 

Also, the process includes this whole peer reviewed concept where I do actually send drafts of the script to scientists and get them to comment and send me back feedback, so then I can feel like I'm representing the scientific consensus view.

Q: What was the biggest surprise in your research for this show?

A: I think the scale of some of the dangers or tipping points I was pretty stunned by. It reinforced the whole we're playing with fire mentality. And also the Exxon knew revelation that Exxon was doing climate research in the '70s and their internal scientists are saying the results of this will be catastrophic for the planet and they turn around and fund climate denier groups and their public statement is that the science is uncertain. It's just a blatant lie and one of the worst examples of corporate malfeasance that I can think of, so I was pretty surprised. I talk to a lot of climate deniers and I give them the benefit of the doubt that they're actually sincere--that they really don't think that there's climate change. You can kind of forgive people that. People have their ideologies or their tribal views or they see the world through a lens and they focus on the data that satisfies what they're looking for. I start the show out with that. I get the crowd shouting along with me, "When I say confirmation, you say bias," just to keep that idea in mind that we're all doing that to a certain degree. But sometimes you get a really blatant example of something that is not just confirmation bias. It's cynical manipulation out of a profiteering motive. And when you look at it from the perspective, that's when it starts being permissible to get mad about it.

Q: Do you ever change your mind about something while writing one of these rap guides?

A: Yeah, I actually totally changed my mind about something. In the version of the show I was doing last summer, I came down pretty heavy that consumer action is not getting us anywhere. All this feel-good altruistic response is a total waste of time and all we need is a carbon tax and a legislative level policy shift. And the thing that I was surprised about in Paris, which I tried to convey in the show with more of a balanced multilevel perspective, is the degree to which other factors besides federal governments are playing a role in the response. Like the mayors of 1,000 cities signing up to commit their local economies to becoming 100% renewable by 2050 whatever the national policy ends up being. I was sort of surprised and inspired by that. Richard Branson was there in Paris and he was doing press conferences. He said, "I own three airlines. I speak for the business community. And we want carbon pricing. We demand it. We recognize the scale of the problem and we're going to move as business as quickly as we can towards decarbonization but clear regulatory frameworks are going to help us, so that's what we're calling for." But I didn't expect the business community to be there so forcefully on the side of the good. I went into the Paris conference thinking business is in the way of saving the world and my mind was changed there to some degree. 

Q: Do you worry about preaching to the choir? I think if you're going to see a show called Rap Guide to Climate Chaos, you're already concerned about global warming. How do you reach the skeptics?

A: I think the hard-core skeptics, the best you can do is quarantine them. I don't think you're really going to convert them. But you can innoculate other people against their views. I think there are a lot of people out there who care about climate change and there are a lot of people out there who know about it and know they're supposed to care, but don't really know why. I think that's the people outside the choir who I'm trying to connect with. People that are on the fence about whether they should care or if they do care, what they should do about it. I'm not so easy on the choir either, if the choir is the people who already believe in climate change and think it's a big deal, but what they're doing about it is riding their bike to work instead of driving a car to work, but not taking it seriously from a policy perspective or a legislative perspective. If they say they don't support a carbon tax, but recycle plastic bottles, then actually they're not the choir, they're totally deluded. I'm actually going after some of the green fallacies in the show as much as I'm going after the more skeptic views. Hopefully that means that everybody who comes hears something that challenges them or makes them rethinks their views.

Q: Obviously, you've been doing this for a long time, since before Hamilton, but do you think the popularity of that musical will make audiences more likely to check out other theater with rap in it?

A: We've only been open for a week, so it's hard to say how much that's going to cause a flood of audiences, but one of the reviewers who wrote about the show said, "I wouldn't have gone to this show if I hadn't like Hamilton so much." So, there's some evidence right there that it's going to open people's minds. I think there is a major effect because I did a hip hop theater show Off-Broadway in 2011 and when I told people what I was doing, I'd have to explain that it's like a play, but it's with rap, and that took some processing to wrap their head around what that would be like. But now you can just say it's like Hamilton but it's about climate change and then instantly people are like, "Rapping and theater, of course. Those goes together great." Hamilton has had the effect of making it intuitively obvious that it's a good idea to put theater and rap together whereas people before needed some convincing of that fact, which is I think a very good thing. Although Hamilton and my show are different in genre because that's a musical and I don't do much singing in my show.

Q: You've already tackled religion, global warming, and evolution. Do you have other topics that you want to explore?

A: I'm starting research and looking into a new show about artificial intelligence. I'm pretty interested in biotechnology and genetic engineering and what could happen with that as well. Still science related, but I do tend to gravitate towards controversial subjects. I think there's entertainment value in that because if you can get a feel for what kind of emotional reactions people have to it, whether it's excitement or revulsion or indignation or whatever, then you can navigate and negotiate those creatively and provoke reactions and then subvert those reactions. That's where a lot of my artistic craft is based, provoking outrage in ways that somehow are still funny.

Buried Child

Amy Madigan, Nat Wolff, Taissa Farmiga, and Ed Harris in Buried Child. Photo credit: Monique Carboni

To be honest, the main reason I wanted to see Buried Child was because I was intrigued by the presence of Nat Wolff in a Sam Shepard play. Wolff gained fame (among the tween set and parents) on the Nickelodeon show The Naked Brothers Band. I've been impressed with his work in the film versions of the John Green novels The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. This play about a dysfunctional family is a far cry from the YA world.

Wolff plays Vince, who returns to his grandparents' house to find that nobody remembers him. That's not even the strangest thing that happens in a play that involves corn growing where it hasn't been planted in years, hints of incest, and something else that you can guess from the title. But this Pulitzer Prize winner isn't as shocking or interesting as it might have been in 1978. Wolff is fine in his role, but it's Ed Harris as the drunken, battered Dodge who makes the best case for bringing this play back.

Pizza Theater

Carter Gill as Pulcinella in Commedia dell'Artichoke. Photo credit: Jacob J Goldberg Photo.

Commedia dell'Artichoke is based on commedia dell'arte, a form of theater from 16th century Italy characterized by masks and improvisation, but it may also have invented a new genre--pizza theater. At the Gene Frankel Theatre, where the show is playing through February 6, every audience member is given a slice of pizza from Artichoke Basille's Pizza. If Artichoke decides to sponsor more theater in the future, I don't think anyone would complain.

Shannon Marie Sullivan as Smeraldina.
Photo credit: Jacob J Goldberg Photo. 

The pizza isn't just incentive to see the show. There's a theatrical reason too. The play takes place in Pulcinella's pizza shop and he must find a way to pay his increase in rent or face eviction. Before the start of the performance, we were told to just have fun and not think too much, but it seemed at times like the creators did want us to think about issues like capitalism and misogyny. Due to the nature of commedia dell'arte, most of these are tangents and not explored in depth enough to be thought provoking.

The play was conceived by Frances Black, Carter Gill, Tommy Russell, directed by Devin Brain, and created/performed by Gill, Russell, Alexandra Henrikson, and Shannon Marie Sullivan. They've really committed to the authenticity--bringing on Christopher Bayes as commedia consultant and wearing appropriately grotesque and expressive masks by Emilia Buescher, Den, Jordan Allen-Dutton, and Mister Face. It's hard to know who contributed what, especially because the cast is so skilled at improvising that it all seems like part of the script. I didn't look closely at my program before the show, so I was sure there were six to eight actors performing. It was only during the curtain call that I realized there were only four. Well, five if you count Robert Cowie, the composer who spends the evening at the piano, providing almost a second show.

A Few Thoughts On Why BroadwayCon Was A Success, At Least From This Fan/Journalist's Perspective

Here are three words I never expected to type when I arrived at the New York Hilton Midtown on Friday afternoon: I loved BroadwayCon. At the first Broadway fan convention, I got to hear Lin-Manuel Miranda freestyle about an unfortunate captioning incident. I got to see cut footage from my beloved Smash while showrunner Joshua Safran provided commentary. I got to hear from company managers about how they dealt with Winter Storm Jonas when all matinee shows were cancelled less than an hour before curtain. But all that was after my first few minutes at the con, during which I wanted to turn around and leave.

After an easy check in, I made my way up the escalator and was met with what was either a line or a mob. The doors to the MainStage, where the opening performance was going to take place, hadn't opened yet. People were waiting to get in and it was chaotic because nobody knew where they were supposed to go, including, it seemed, the volunteers. I don't deal well with crowds, so I escaped to the marketplace area and found space to breathe. That's when a Twitter friend who I had never met in person recognized me and introduced herself. I later went back with her and we were able to find seats for the opening performance--near the back, but close to a screen.

I feel like this post needs a picture, but I was so preoccupied that the only picture I ended up taking was this terrible one of the Hamilton cast. Oops.

In between the opening and the Hamilton panel, some cosplayers were invited onto the stage. One of them said her dream role is the Leading Player in Pippin. Ben Vereen happened to be in the audience and he went up to meet her. Another said she knew all the lyrics to "Guns and Ships" and rapped it as the audience joined in. Moments like these were the highlights for me--getting to watch the fans. I am lucky enough to live in New York and see shows all the time. I interview actors and see them walking around the theater district, so it's not that big a deal to me to see a Broadway star up close. But I remember what it was like growing up in California, where I could only hear Broadway actors on cast recordings. A lot of the attendees were from out of town and probably hadn't had a chance to see Hamilton, but you can bet they listen to the cast recording on repeat and have watched all the Ham4Ham shows. And here were those actors, right in front of them. All weekend, I kept thinking about Neil Patrick Harris singing in the 2013 Tony Awards opening number (penned by Miranda): "There's a kid in the middle of nowhere sitting there, living for Tony performances singin' and flippin' along with the Pippins and Wickeds and Kinkys, Matildas and Mormonses. So we might reassure that kid and do something to spur that kid. Cause I promise you all of us up here tonight. We were that kid." At the end of the Hamilton panel, as the recording of "The Schuyler Sisters" played and everyone in the audience sang along as the actors filmed on their phones, we were all that kid.

I joked that they should have called it HamilCon, but it wasn't only about that musical. The programming was impressive. You didn't just hear from actors, but stage managers, company managers, and others who do crucial work we rarely hear about. Also, as much as the weekend was a celebration of Broadway, many panels offered discussions about the problems in the industry. At "Your Fave is Problematic," panelists addressed presenting classic work that is offensive today and how to get more diverse voices on Broadway. They didn't come up with all the answers in 50 minutes, but at least they got a dialogue going. At a panel on making theater accessible, the panelists admitted that they still had a long way to go in terms of making captioned, ASL-interpreted, audio-described, and other accessible performances more readily available.

After those first two events on Friday, as far as I could tell, you could wander into the MainStage without waiting in line and always find a seat. Part of that could be the blizzard kept people away, but I think there was also more going on to space out the crowds. I was worried that it would be hard to attend panels in each time slot because they would get out at 10 til with a new one starting on the hour. This summer, I went to D23, the Disney fan convention, where you would have to pick and choose a few things to do each day because of all the time required to wait in line to get into things. But at BroadwayCon, it seemed that everyone would go from one panel to another, which prevented having to line up early. My biggest problem ended up being that there were usually multiple panels I wanted to attend at the same time.

BroadwayCon wasn't perfect. There's always room to improve. Obviously, the weather was unfortunate. A lot of scheduled guests had to cancel. I left early on Saturday after finding out that my evening show was canceled and that certain areas of my subway route were being shut down. From what I read on Twitter, it seemed that the rest of Saturday was a lot of impromptu panels, but I think they tried their best to make sure to keep the attendees entertained and if you had to be stranded somewhere, that was probably a good place to be. There should have been more volunteers, especially on the first day. There could have been more booths in the marketplace. But I'm sure they'll implement changes next year. And maybe hold it in July.

Harry Potter, This Time With More Hufflepuffs!

If you love Harry Potter, but think the secondary characters are way more interesting than the whiny Boy Who Lived, get yourself to the P.I.T. for Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic. Even if you like the character of Harry, you'll still enjoy all seven books told from the perspective of Hufflepuffs (with enough details changed so writer Matt Cox doesn't get sued).

Cox parodied anime with the three-part epic Kapow-i GoGo and again he sets himself apart from other parody writers by writing funny jokes for the fans while creating three-dimensional characters that you can care about despite your level of fandom. This time, his protagonist is Wayne Hopkins (Zac Moon), a boy from New Mexico who finds out he's a wizard and goes off to wizarding school in England where he gets sorted into Puffs. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin have hilariously and accurately been changed to Brave, Smart, and of course, Snakes. Wayne becomes friends with fellow Puffs Oliver (Langston Belton), who is good at math and terrible at magic, and Megan (Julie Ann Earls), whose attempts to be a badass can't hide her greatest desire--to have friends, and their adventures parallel a certain other trio. The few Hufflepuffs that J.K. Rowling mentions by name are also here, including the most famous, dreamy Cedric Diggory (Evan Maltby).

There's a lot packed into these "80-ish minutes"--after all, it took eight movies to cover the same events--and director Kristin McCarthy Parker keeps the action from becoming too chaotic. Like the Harry Potter series, this play has plenty of magic, snogging, fighting, and friends bonding. Those who have read the books and seen the movies will find the most to laugh at, such as when they get to year five and Wayne says, "Apparently we don't have to wear uniforms anymore. You can just wear regular clothes now," but anyone can relate to these characters who don't get any breaks and aren't worshipped as heroes.

Tickets for January are sold out online (you can try to get in at the door). The show has been extended until the end of February, so I suggest you get on booking those $10 tickets now. That's less than what you'll pay to see Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

Theater Roundup, Yearbook Style

A yearbook-style update on some of my recent theatergoing.

Best Discovery: MasterVoices

Photo credit: Erin Baiano

I'm kind of late to the party on this one. The Collegiate Chorale was founded in 1941, but I was introduced to the performing arts organization this season when it changed its name to MasterVoices and started a new partnership with New York City Center to present concert versions of operas and operettas in English. In October, it kicked off this new initiative with Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance; or, the Slave of Duty featuring Deborah Voigt as Ruth, Douglas Hodge as Major-General Stanley, Hunter Parrish as Frederic, and Phillip Boykin as the Pirate King. All these stars didn't take away from the pleasures of listening to the chorus and orchestra, conducted by Ted Sperling. Next up is Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell and Nahum Tate with a world premiere companion piece by Michael John LaChiusa. Dates for these works, featuring Kelli O'Hara and Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza reunion!), are April 28 and 29.

Biggest Surprise: Songbird

Left to Right: Eric William Morris, Adam Cochran, and Kate Baldwin in Songbird. Photo credit: Jenny Anderson Photography.

I don't consider myself a country music fan, but I loved Lauren Pritchard's score for the new musical Songbird, currently at 59E59, so much that I'm hoping for a cast recording. Bookwriter Michael Kimmel captures the essence of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull while believably updating the story to take place in present-day Nashville. It's fun to watch Kate Baldwin play a character with a mean streak as Tammy Trip (Irina Arkadina as a country star instead of famous actress). Everyone in the cast is terrific, but Kacie Sheik as Missy, the stand-in for Masha, is a standout. Her voice and Pritchard's music are a perfect match. Every morning at 10 a.m., tickets to that day's performance are sold for just $10 online at Ticket Central, so there's no excuse not to see it.

Best Use of Abs: Trip of Love

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Trip of Love is a dance musical featuring music of the '60s. There is a story shoehorned in that doesn't make a lot of sense, so it's best to ignore that and soak in the psychedelic costumes and sets, powerhouse vocals, and the abs on constant display (both male and female).

Most Dedicated: Annaleigh Ashford

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

At a blogger Q&A for A.R. Gurney's Sylvia, now on Broadway at the Cort Theatre, Annaleigh Ashford spoke about going to obedience and agility training with her dog, Gracie. Ashford, who plays a dog in the show about the relationship between a man and his pet, embodies canine behavior without crawling on all fours and imitating an animal. She tends to rely on the same schtick for every role I've seen her in, but it works here. I can't say the same for Matthew Broderick, who is as stiff and lifeless as he's been for years.

Best All-Around: On Your Feet

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Bio-musicals are tricky, but On Your Feet!, the musical about Gloria and Emilio Estefan, has charismatic leading performances (remember the names Ana Villafañe and Josh Segarra) and music that makes you want to get up and dance (and you might be asked to do that--I had to join a conga line and even my fear of audience participation did not stop me from enjoying the show). The book by Alexander Dinelaris does not completely avoid the clichés of a music industry story (there's of course a moment when a record studio executive tells the Estefans that they will never cross over into non-Latin markets), but it also has a lot of genuine laughs. 

Checking In With Fringe Encores: Part 2

As you enter the SoHo Playhouse for Wasted, an Edinburgh Fringe transfer, there is a fun, club-like energy. Loud music plays, lights flash, and the actors, Serena Jennings and Will Merrick, act like bouncers, directing audience members to their seats and asking for IDs. As the hour goes on, the fun starts to fade into questions of what constitutes consent when drinking.

This is a topic that's been explored before on television (especially well-done last season on Switched at Birth), film, and theater, but as long as these things continue to happen, these stories need to be told. And Kat Woods manages to find a fresh take in her format--brief scenes, which sometimes place the audience in a similar disorientated state of mind as the characters. Oli (Merrick) and Emma (Jennings) meet at a club through their friends and end up spending the night together, but the exact events are a puzzle for both the audience and characters to figure out. Merrick and Jennings play all the characters and without resorting to exaggeration, they make it easy to distinguish between them all.

Woods writes believable dialogue that feels very true to the culture of nightlife in the UK. It was a smart move not to change the language for an American audience. The slang might be different, but the events could just as easily happen here.

Remaining performances are October 21 at 8 and October 22 at 7 pm.

Q&A with Jenn Kent, currently starring in Rocking Dead: Bedlam

If you dream of zombie apocalypses, you can soon live out that fantasy in the new interactive show, Rocking Dead: Bedlam. It runs from October 22 through October 31 at the Medicine Show Theatre (549 West 52nd Street). I spoke to Jenn Kent, one of the actors, to find out more about what you can expect.

Q: Who do you play?
A: I play TayTay—the hostess with the mostest! TayTay'll tell you your future right before she pulls you on the dance floor and introduces you to the joys of dust.

Q: What do you want audiences to know about your show?
A: It's the most fun you can have in the post-apocalypse! Really, we have a zombie cage match, an organ toss, sexy people, and awesome dance music. If you like to party, you need to come join us and party like you never have before!

Q: Why do you think zombies are big right now in popular culture?
A: I got sucked into the zombie phenomenon when I did my first zombie show three years ago. I think different people find different aspects of the phenomenon alluring. Some like to shoot zombies, others plan their survival, others like the make-up, and yet others allow themselves perspective—as shitty as things get, at least they're not zombies. I personally like exploring the interconnectedness of all the survivors and how they come together and rely upon each other for survival.

Q: What would you do in the case of an actual zombie apocalypse?
A: I'd surround myself with people I trust and can rely upon, find a yacht, and sail to the Caribbean.

Q: And finally, since it's almost Halloween, what was your best Halloween costume ever?
A: I'm pretty much a sexy kitty every year. This year, I'm gonna switch it up... sexy zombie kitty!

Checking in with Fringe Encores

This year, I was out of town for most of the New York International Fringe Festival (for those interested, you can read about some of my summer travels here and here), but I'm checking out some of the shows I missed at SoHo Playhouse during the Fringe Encores Series, which also features shows from the Edinburgh Fringe. Last week, I caught Daniel Cainer's 21st Century Jew and Schooled.

I must admit I hadn't heard of Daniel Cainer before now, but judging from all the audience requests during the encore, he has a fan base, and it's not hard to see why. His easygoing approach makes it easy to listen to him for an hour. Using song, projections, and stories, he explores what it means to be Jewish today. It sometimes feels more like a concert than a cohesive show, but then again, each song is strong enough to stand on its own. Though he is often funny, he is even better when telling a moving story, such as one about going to cricket games with his grandfather. This show will especially resonate with other 21st century Jews, but you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate a skilled storyteller at work.

Remaining performances at the Huron Club (downstairs at SoHo Playhouse) are October 13 at 7, October 14 at 3, and October 18 at 3.

Lilli Stein and Quentin Maré in Schooled. Photo credit: Andrea Reese

Schooled was one of the most talked about shows at Fringe and the winner of overall excellence for playwriting. Lisa Lewis explores sexism and privilege through three characters at a college campus. Andrew (Quentin Maré), a screenwriter and professor, offers to help senior Claire (Lilli Stein) with her script. She is hoping to get a prestigious grant, which requires a nomination from a professor. Her much richer boyfriend, Jake (Stephen Friedrich), is going after the same grant. Lewis's pithy dialogue hones in on problems in our society, such as when Claire tells Jake, "I can tell a 50-year-old man, 'I like your movies,' without it meaning, 'I want to sleep with you.'" When Jake says that's what men hear, she answers, "That's not my problem." Snaps.

There is one performance left on October 17 at 7, but don't be surprised if it transfers soon.

Musical Comedy, Politics, and Free Donuts

When you enter the Actors' Temple Theatre for Who's Your Baghdaddy? Or How I Started the The Iraq War, you might wonder if you're in the right place. There is a table with free donuts and mimosas in the middle of the room, with chairs arranged in a circle around it. No, you didn't accidentally walk into a meeting. Well, not exactly. The musical by Marshall Pailet and A.D. Penedo takes place at a support group for people who started the Iraq War, so the treats help set the scene. Actors take their seats in the circle and Brandon Espinoza, who plays the support group leader and various other roles, starts the meeting. Don't worry, though, despite the intimate staging (Pailet also directs), you won't be asked to participate.

Photo credit: Jeremy Daniels

As each character tells his or her role, we see flashbacks, often elaborately told through song and dance (Misha Shields's choreography impressively utilizes the minimal space). There are a lot of pieces in the true story (with dramatic license taken, of course) of how the Iraq War started and Pailet and Penedo make it easy to follow. There's Richart Becker (Brennan Caldwell), a German detective responsible for Curveball (Nehal Joshi), an Iraqi defector who claims to have intel on biological weapons. He sends information to CIA analysts Berry (Larisa Oleynik) and Jerry (Olli Hasskivi), who verify it with weapons inspector Martin Bouchard (Bob D'Haene). Though they are all convinced that Curveball is telling the truth, CIA operative Tyler Nelson (Jason Collins) is skeptical.

Although the members of the cast, which also includes Claire Neumann in multiple roles, have varying skills in the vocal department (Joshi is the standout), they all work extremely hard. Though comedy should appear effortless, for the most part, their efforts pay off, as in Caldwell's big number, "Das Man," (German words in musical numbers always seem to be funny). For fans of The Secret World of Alex Mack or 10 Things I Hate About You, it's also fun to see Oleynik rap.

But it's not all frivolity and the writers deserve credit for tackling this subject matter in such an unexpected way. The musical is based on J.T. Allen's 2005 screenplay, which couldn't get made in Hollywood. Producer Charlie Fink writes in a program note, "Musical comedy may be one of the few vehicles through which we can see and accept our responsibility for what happened, and what we will do in the future to repair the world we have so terribly broken." It's also a form which can constantly evolve and surprise as long as producers are willing to take risks.

Let's Talk About Sex... And Talk... And Talk

Threesome might be the least sexy ménage a trois ever. The sex talk is theoretical, not dirty, and  foreplay involves establishing context. But at 59E59 through August 23, Yussef El Guindi offers intellectual stimulation.

Photo caption: Hunter Canning

El Guindi delves into issues of gender equality and cultural identity through an Egyptian-American couple--Leila (Alia Attallah) and Rashid (Karan Oberoi). In an attempt to work out their relationship issues, they've invited a stranger--Doug (Quinn Franzen), who they met at an office party--into their bedroom. As the characters talk their way around any actual sex, they sometimes feel more like mouthpieces than real people, but the debates not often heard on stage are worth hearing. 

Full-frontal nudity is used twice in the show, very effectively. First, Doug is introduced completely naked (bravo Franzen for being game to bare all for such a long period of time) and it's refreshing to see male nudity used as comic relief. Later, it is used as an act of empowerment. Nudity, like threesomes, doesn't always need to titillate.

Girls and Boys

Feminist. Body image. Cougar. Needy. Pushy. Family. Biological clock. These words--which immediately make one think of women--are written on a white panel on the left side of the set on which Howard Korder's Boys' Life and Rebecca Gilman's Boy Gets Girl are playing in rep through August 2. On the right of the stage is a similar panel with labels like narcissism, player, bro-mance, weakness, chiseled, testosterone, and nice guy. And in the middle is vocabulary for what happens when men and women interact--hope, friend zone, awkward, fear, marriage, and compromise. Different terms resonate in each scene in The Seeing Place Theater's thoughtful productions, directed by Erin Cronican (Boys' Life) and Brandon Walker (Boy Gets Girl).

Natalie Neckyfarow, Logan Keeler, and Brandon Walker in Boys' Life. Photo credit: Russ Rowland

In Boys' Life, the words on the male panel draw attention to the way Jack (Walker), Phil (Logan Keeler), and Don (Alex Witherow) want others to see them and the ways they are afraid of being perceived. Written in 1988 and nominated for a Pulitzer, the play presented as a series of vignettes probably felt more groundbreaking at the time. It hasn't aged well and might make more sense as a period piece (characters in this production have iPods and cell phones). It's hard to have sympathy for any of these men who behave in deplorable ways as a means to sex or the women, who let themselves be treated poorly. Sure, people like this still exist, but Boys' Life on its own doesn't say anything that interesting about them. So it is smart of The Seeing Place to pair it with a better play.

Daniel Michael Perez and Erin Cronican in Boy Gets Girl. Photo credit: Russ Rowland

Boy Gets Girl premiered in Chicago in 2000 and is still terrifying and relevant today. Journalist Theresa Bedell (Cronican, giving one of the evening's most powerful performances) goes on a decent blind date with Tony (Daniel Michael Perez) and agrees to a second date. After she realizes that there is no chemistry there, she tells him politely that work makes relationships impossible. He doesn't take no for an answer and continues to call and send flowers, even show up at her office. Gilman, with believable dialogue, hits on something really troubling in society about what is thought of as normal male behavior. It takes Theresa's coworkers some time to be seriously concerned, at first thinking Tony is sweetly persistent.

One of her coworkers, Mercer (Walker), has a theory that men are conditioned from the movies that women will reject them and then have to be chased before being won over. Though the characters in Boys' Life aren't as insane as Tony, it sets up this idea. Clearly the company has thought a lot about how the two works can have a conversation with each other, which should extend to conversations after the shows.

Boys' Life is 90 minutes and Boy Gets Girl is 120 minutes. Neither has an intermission, but there is a 30 minute break in between the two. Tickets are only $15 for each.

Drinks and Shakespeare

I love Shakespeare. I love seeing his plays performed classically. And I'm also always down to see a modern interpretation. Drunk Shakespeare caters to both the Shakespeare buff and the theatergoer who would rather see anything else than a Shakespeare play.

The space at the Lounge at Roy Arias Stages at 300 West 43rd Street is set up like a library, so if you're a nerd like me, you'll feel at home as soon as you arrive (and the complimentary shot is a nice way to kick things off). At every performance, an actor is selected as the "drunk actor." He/she starts with five shots of whiskey, and continues to drink throughout the performance of Macbeth, occasionally bringing up volunteers from the audience to join. Luckily, no one is forced to participate, but if you love being part of the show, then you might want to be the King or Queen. That means you sit in a throne during the show, drink champagne, eat caviar, and get to make decisions during the play. It's priced at $500, but if no one reserves ahead of time, it's auctioned off to the highest bidder, starting at $15.

My only complaint would be that I would have preferred a play that isn't performed as often as Macbeth, since I've seen it so many times recently, but at least I'd never seen it like this. As the actors point out, Shakespeare plays have a lot of references to alcohol, so it just makes sense. The scenes are performed using Shakespeare's original language, but actors interrupt to clarify things in the play or bring up pop culture references. You can order drinks throughout the 90 minutes and they will be brought to the table. But this is a show that can be enjoyed sober. Shakespeare really is for everybody.

I Saw Entourage And That Doesn't Make Me A Terrible Person

According to many posts on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, the Entourage movie is the worst thing to happen in the history of cinema. Maybe even in the history of the world. I don't remember ever seeing so much hate for the release of a movie. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to see it and expressing that on social media. But what I found strange was the disbelief that anybody would have any interest in seeing it except maybe bro-y douchebags. I am a woman of reasonably sound mind and this weekend I paid (matinee price, of course, because who can afford to pay full price for movies anymore) to see Entourage in the theaters. I don't think anyone is asking me to defend myself or that anyone needs to defend the entertainment he or she chooses to consume, but with all the negativity surrounding the movie, I just wanted to throw out another perspective.

Entourage only opened at number four at the box office and it got terrible reviews. That's pretty fair. It wasn't a great or, let's be honest, even good movie. It was a movie for fans of the show. And it succeeded on that level. That's all I expected from it. Like most Entourage fans, I really enjoyed the first few seasons and then continued to watch out of a completist's need. That's also why I saw the movie, which was basically an extended episode, no better or worse than the episodes towards the end of the series.

I smiled as the familiar theme song played. Nostalgia is a powerful thing and it had been so long since I'd heard it. I was happy to see each of the characters again as they appeared, at least at first (in truth, I really only always loved Drama and tolerated the rest). All the recurring characters made appearances and acted pretty consistently with the way they acted on the show. Yes, it sucks that the female characters aren't written better. But I have other shows I watch for well-written female characters. And I think it's ok to be entertained by a show or movie with sexist characters. It's not the same as condoning the behavior. The show was always escapist, and as a woman, I can be disgusted by some of the conversations and also drawn to the fantasy of living in a huge house, eating extravagant meals, and telling people off the way Ari does.

Creator Doug Ellin has said that he would do 20 Entourage movies and I hope he gives up on that plan. It should end with this movie. But if he does make another one, I'll probably see it.

The New Group is on A Roll

To tell you the truth, The New Group has always been pretty hit or miss for me. But this 20th anniversary season has made up for all the misses with Sticks and Bones, Rasheeda Speaking, and now, The Spoils, Jesse Eisenberg's third play.

L to R: Jesse Eisenberg, Erin Darke, Michael Zegen, Annapurna Sriram, Kunal Nayyar
Photo credit: Monique Carboni

Eisenberg has once again written himself a character who is spoiled, sexist, racist, and thinks he's superior to everyone. That probably doesn't sound like a guy you want to spend two hours with, but it's impossible to look away from Eisenberg's fidgety performance, even while you cringe at the words coming out of his mouth.

Ben (Eisenberg) lives in a nice apartment (Derek McLane's set makes me jealous that I don't live there) paid for by his father. He was kicked out of film grad school, so now he spends his days working on his movies although it doesn't seem like he's ever actually made one. He lets his Nepalese roommate, Kalyan (Kunal Nayyar), stay rent free, but he treats him terribly. According to the program, Kalyan is based on Eisenberg's Nepalese friend and I hope Eisenberg treats him better in real life. It's hard not to wonder if Eisenberg is trying to ease his own guilt with his writing, but I'm not here to review the person, just the play, which is getting an excellent production directed by Scott Elliott.

Ben runs into an old classmate from grade school, Ted (Michael Zegen, mastering the art of the awkward laugh), who it turns out is marrying Ben's old crush, Sarah (Erin Darke). Ben invites Ted, Sarah, and Kalyan's girlfriend, Reshma (Annapurna Sriram), for a dinner party. The writing is sharp and funny and actually sounds like how young people talk, especially when spoken by this fine cast of actors. You might find yourself simultaneously laughing and sighing in recognition.

Marathon Theater + Sugary Cereal = A Good Way To Spend a Sunday

Madeleine Bundy as Kapow-i GoGo, Photo credit: Crystal Arnette

I often joke that the perfect run time is 75–90 minutes with no intermission. But as much as I love getting home at a decent hour, I honestly think that a show should be as long as it takes to tell the story well. I also love marathon theater. There's something fulfilling about spending the day with the same audience members, getting to know characters over a long period of time. So I happily sat through four-and-a-half hours of Kapow-i GoGo on Sunday. Based on anime and video games, Kapow-i GoGo is broken down into three parts (each is about 60-75 minutes, so it falls into my perfect run time), each further separated into three episodes. There are three-minute breaks between each episode and fifteen-minute breaks between each part, enough time to grab some free sugary cereal and candy, so you can really feel like a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons.

The saga starts with our blue-haired heroine, Kapow-i GoGo (Madeleine Bundy), at 14 as she heads with her brother, Hiccup (Michael Axelrod), and teacher, Master Masterwhiskies (Hank Lin), to a tournament to determine the World's Greatest Fighter. She even has a kick-ass theme song, written by Brian Hoes. The episodes get darker as she grows into adulthood and continuously has to save the world. She also falls in love, and not to give away too much, but it's refreshing to see a love story between two women treated so naturally.

Although I've played a lot of Super Mario Bros. in my day, I'm not as well-versed in anime and was worried that I wouldn't understand a lot of the references, but it didn't really matter. It helped that my plus one is a Pokémon fan and explained a lot of the inside jokes I missed, but the story by Matt Cox works on its own. As solely a parody, it would probably get old after an hour, but I grew to really care about the characters. A lot of this is in the writing, but also in the multi-layered performances that co-directors Kristin McCarthy Parker and Joel Soren get out of the entire cast.

Karsten Otto and Matt Cox as Mr. Smiles and Mr. Snuggles, better known as Team Trouble
Photo credit: Eleanor Philips

Bundy is both sweet and tough as Kapow-i and believably plays every age. Josh Boerman and Soren's perfect costumes also subtly change as she gets older. It truly is an ensemble piece, but I had particular affinity for Team Trouble, made up of Mr. Smiles (Karsten Otto) and Mr. Snuggles (Cox), often the comic relief, but also surprisingly moving in their friendship. And Evan Maltby broke my heart a few times as Tuxedo Gary, Kapow-i's insecure "rival since they were both babies."

Your next chance to see Kapow-i GoGo is Sunday, June 20th at 1 p.m. at the PIT. Tickets are $30 for the whole marathon and are available here, so go (go).