post-gazette.com - 22/Dec/2011

[Source]

Best Play(s): 'House & Garden'
Thursday, December 22, 2011
By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The world is so much with us, racing forward, that it's restorative to pause, recall the theatrical year past and savor its pleasures. You should try it yourself -- trying using the post-gazette.com search box at the top of this page. But the odds are you don't have as many memories to sort through as we do, and that makes it hard when faced with the annual directive to pick the top 10. There is too much range and variety in Pittsburgh's professional theater scene, both local and touring, plus the best of the semi-pro and university shows, to make it easy. Though it falls to me to wield the pen, PG theater criticism is a team effort. Of the 80-some local shows reviewed in 2011, I did the most, then Sharon Eberson, then Bob Hoover. Both spoke up for their favorites. Nine others reviewed at least one show, led by Kate Angell. I also queried a few trusted others whose help is enhanced by their anonymity. But the final decisions were necessarily mine. It was particularly tough selecting No. 1. It came down to "House & Garden" and "Maria de Buenos Aires," both excellent collaborations in unusual ways. The former won out because two plays staged simultaneously and (literally) on top of each other is simply the greater feat. We also struggled with the bottom of the top 10 -- "Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods" could easily have moved up. I further relieved pressure on the top group by creating a category for solo shows; otherwise, "The Amish Project" would be in the top 10, as well.

Teddy, portrayed by Martin Giles, blathers uncomprehendingly as his British wife, played by Helena Ruoti, left, and French fling, Nike Doukas, face off on this unlikely field of amatory battle in the "House" half of "House & Garden" at Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre.

1. Alan Ayckbourn, "House & Garden," Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre: Two interlocking plays ("House" and "Garden") in adjacent theaters trace the comic haps and mishaps at an English country estate. Actors exited one play just in time to enter the other, keeping two audiences entertained with Mr. Ayckbourn's rueful comedy. Good as separate plays, the two multiply their effect when served in tandem.

2. Astor Piazzolla (music) and Horacio Ferrer (libretto), "Maria de Buenos Aires," Quantum Theatre: A tango opera, mixing a melancholy song cycle, surreal poetry and smoky music, then using ballet noir, operatic voices and a rich video accompaniment to create a story despairing, romantic and ultimately mythic. The space played its part, a cabaret wrapped around ramps and platforms in a derelict East Liberty Y, a dusty echo of the battered streets of turn-of-the-20th-century Buenos Aires.

3. Tarell Alvin McCraney, "Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet," City Theatre: A story about a Louisiana teenager coming to terms with his sexuality, told by a theater poet with original myth-making power. Part of Mr. McCraney's Brother/Sister trilogy, it draws on the oldest strands of Yoruba folklore and the newest hip-hop rhythms.

4. John Logan, "Red," Pittsburgh Public Theater: A play about art and the war between generations, as Mark Rothko, the artist as epic hero, looks back to the great masters, triumphs over his immediate predecessors and sneers at his pop art successors. There's also a surrogate son with whom to tussle, while man's tenuous place in the universe is in the balance.

5. Leslie Bricusse (book, lyrics) and Frank Wildhorn (music), "Jekyll & Hyde," Pittsburgh CLO: Director Robert Cuccioli (who played the lead on Broadway) returned to re-stage and re-jigger his previous CLO success with a largely new cast, especially strong in its women.

6. Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest," PICT: Director Alan Stanford added a frame story about the exiled author taking his desperate pleasure in a Parisian cafe and also taking refuge in a revival of his great play in his own mind, casting it from the cafe's rent boys and other habitues while saving the imperious Lady Bracknell for himself.

7. Madeleine George, "Precious Little," City: A crisp tough-minded but often comic play about a linguist working with an ape. It's also about language, memory, culture, commitment and, ultimately, the hopes and fears of love and maternity.

8. Gab Cody (with Rita Reis), "Fat Beckett," Quantum: An appropriation of "Waiting for Godot," re-imagined as a more hopeful journey by two female comics, performed by the authors and staged in another Quantum-found space, a derelict school building in Lawrenceville.

9. Tracy Letts, "Superior Donuts," Public: A feel-good comedy about the gritty slice of Chicago life seen in a doughnut shop, where greed and abuse are eventually turned back by loyalty and honor.

10. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, "Hunter Gatherers," Bricolage: A grisly comedy that peels back social niceties and finds two young couples reduced to primal comic mayhem.

A runner-up dozen:

Tammy Ryan, "Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods" (Playhouse Rep); David Lindsay-Abaire (book, lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music), "Shrek" (PNC Broadway Across America); Yasmina Reza, "The God of Carnage" (Public); "Million Dollar Quartet" (PNC Broadway); Martin McDonagh, "Lonesome West" (Playhouse Rep); August Wilson, "King Hedley II" (Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre); William Cameron, "Violet Sharp" (Terra Nova Theater); Euripides, "Electra" (Public); Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson, "Louder Faster" (City); Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, "Seussical" (Pittsburgh Musical Theater); Caryl Churchill, "Mad Forest" (Carnegie Mellon); and Tennessee Williams, "The Glass Menagerie" (Prime Stage).

Best solo show: Jessica Dickey was magnificent in her own "The Amish Project" (City). Keith Bunin's "Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir" (also City) is a cabaret that morphs into a drama, with the charming Luke Macfarlane as Sam. And of Alan Cumming's cabaret for the 25th annual Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force benefit (Public), I predicted, "it's going to take an awful lot of great theater to keep this evening off my annual list of the Top Ten theater evenings."

Best debut of a new company: Organic Theater Pittsburgh in Sarah Ruhl's "Dead Man's Cell Phone."

Special mention: The retrospective of Frank Gagliano's Voodoo Trilogy (Pittsburgh Playwrights).

Theater of the year: City Theatre, with five of its six mainstage shows among these bests.

Stay tuned for the annual Performer of the Year story, coming in early January, when we celebrate the year's best performers, directors, designers and others.

Senior theater critic Christopher Rawson: 412-216-1944.

First published on December 22, 2011 at 12:00 am

post-gazette.com - 15/Dec/2011

[Source]

Bright Lights, New City: Out-of-town actors share experiences of getting to know Pittsburgh

Thursday, December 15, 2011
By Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Luke Macfarlane

Actors who live in other cities come and go through our many local companies, but they take a little bit of Pittsburgh with them. How they experience the area for the first time may depend on where they are housed, the intensity of producing the show and their curiosity. Three actors performing at Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theatre this month discussed the challenges and joys of getting to know a new city while working onstage.

Luke Macfarlane made it to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob and The Andy Warhol Museum within the first weeks of coming to City Theatre on the South Side, where he is performing the marathon one-man show "Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir." The native of Canada has a home in Los Angeles, where he filmed the ABC drama "Brothers & Sisters," and recently stayed in New York while on Broadway in "The Normal Heart."

The Public's two-man team in "Red," Jeff Still as Mark Rothko and Jack Cuthmore-Scott as his assistant, come at Pittsburgh from two very different starting points.

Mr. Still, a New Jersey native, celebrated his 52nd birthday by working out at the Downtown Y before a performance of the show, which ended its run Dec. 11. The stage veteran who understudied the title role in "Lombardi" on Broadway spent a week here last year with the touring company of "August: Osage County" and took his son, Luke, to PNC Park for a ballgame.

Mr. Cutmore-Scott, 23, grew up in the Chelsea section of London and attended Harvard before making his way to Broadway as an understudy in the revival of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" from March through June. This is the first regional theater job for Mr. Cutmore-Scott, who settled in New York four months ago.

Mr. Macfarlane, 31, and his partner in exploration, "Sam Bendrix" playwright Keith Bunin, came here having worked on and workshopped the show for almost two years. Exploring has been a respite from the intensity of performance days.

He has been out and about so much, Mr. Macfarlane wondered, "Where shall I start?" when discussing his Pittsburgh experiences.

"I am very interested in buildings and houses, and here in the city I've just discovered an architect of yours, Frederick Scheibler. So I've been doing sort of drive-abouts looking at his buildings from the outside. He did this building in Shadyside called Highland Towers. It's incredible, this 1913 building. I live in this 1915 house that was considered modern for its time but then I look at Highland Towers and I have this whole other sense of what 'modern for its time' means. So I've really enjoyed looking at buildings in the city whenever possible. Some of them are really, really well kept up, and some of them aren't at all, and it creates this amazing potential energy of possibilities everywhere."

On performance night, though, Mr. Macfarlane doesn't stray far from the South Side theater at 13th and Bingham streets. He eats dinner every night at Dish Osteria and Bar on 17th Street.

The stars of "Red" are staying Downtown, within blocks of the Public's O'Reilly Theater, and so far have not wondered too far since they arrived to rehearse for a Nov. 10 opening.

"I've walked around certainly and as a result I've gotten to know Downtown and the walk to Mount Washington is something I do quite often, and I walk up to the Strip District," Mr. Still said. "But it is a pretty monastic life, which may be something particular to this play. I go to the Y and I go here, that's mainly what I do."

When the weather and time have allowed, Mr. Still makes the climb up McArdle Roadway to see the sights from the Mount Washington overlook.

"Then Becky [Rickard, the Public's group sales manager] recommended another way to go which is a much steeper climb, and I did that on Thanksgiving. I haven't been up there yet at night to see the lights, which I have to do."

Mr. Still had that week here last year to know he wanted to come back and give Pittsburgh a closer look. In the role of Ken, Mr. Cutmore-Scott came here for his first road experience in theater and for the first time onstage suppresses his natural English accent in favor of an American one. He won the role and came to Pittsburgh sight unseen.

"I didn't know much about what to expect," he said. "I'd looked the Public up and delved as much as I could online. I wish I'd known that one of the actors [in Broadway's "Arcadia"] had worked here; I didn't know until she sent me a message that said congratulations on getting the part and 'Oh, say hi to Ted [Pappas, head of the Public]. It was Bianca Amato, who played Titania [in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last year]. She was highly complimentary ... I knew Pittsburgh was pretty sizable, I knew the Public had a beautiful space and had a good reputation. And I knew the play pretty well by the time I got cast."

Getting to know the area was a little harder. He had been to the top of Mount Washington, gone skating Downtown and joined friends for drinks in Squirrel Hill, but he had a long list of places to see that had very few checked off. He'd had been told he had to have a meal at Pamela's, and The Andy Warhol Museum was high on the list for both "Red" actors.

Mr. Macfarlane, meanwhile, checked museums off his list with every passing day.

"There's so much I want to say about your city. The museums here, I haven't even talked about them," he said. "I met with the three people who are doing the [Carnegie] International show, and that is amazing. I am coming back for that. The history of that is incredible. And the Mattress Factory? It's one of the most unique museums I've ever been to."

After the Bon Soir closes shop on Sunday, he will spend holidays with his family and meet his new niece. "I'll be in Canada for New Year's, and then I'll be in L.A. for this crazy thing they call pilot season."

Although he is well-traveled, this is Mr. Macfarlane's first time at a regional theater. He has points of comparison from going back and forth twice from New York, where he was on Broadway in "The Normal Heart" last year, and his L.A. home.

"I love taking in all the different cities," he said. "Something that really struck me ... is that Pittsburgh has its own identity, but it's really like a secret to everyone else. If you showed a lot of Americans a picture of the skyline they wouldn't have any idea what city you are talking about. It hasn't locked into minds as an identifiable city."

It was suggested that anyone who watches "Monday Night Football" would know the Pittsburgh skyline, and he laughed. "Or when we'll see Gotham Tower, which could be the Cathedral of Learning, or Inspector Gadget ..." He laughed again.

All three actors were aware of the high-profile films being shot in Pittsburgh this year, and all brought up the city's intersection of culture and sports.

Mr. Still looks for opportunities to see day games when he is on tour, and that's how he came to visit PNC Park last year. "It's obvious from what I know about Pittsburgh is that fans here love their football and hockey ... but the Pirates have a history of winning and it is a great ballpark," he said, adding that he enjoyed the view of PNC from the Downtown building that was his home for more than a month.

Mr. Still's co-star heard from friends who lived here that "I could expect a pretty healthy arts scene, which I've found to be true. Other than that I didn't know a lot about the city, except that sports is really big, which I've also found to be true."

He may not have gotten out as much he'd like, but he seems to figured us out.

"Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir" ends Sunday at City Theatre (412-431-CITY; citytheatrecompany.org).

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com

First published on December 15, 2011 at 12:00 am

Talkin' Broadway - 09/Dec/2011

[Source]

Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir

City Theatre

Luke Macfarlane

Spend an evening away from the holiday hustle and bustle, and step back in time with Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir and the songs of Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Vernon Duke and Jerome Kern (to name a few). Luke Macfarlane is Sam Bendrix, the "man you came to see when you can't see the man you really came to see," at the 1958 New York nightclub Bon Soir. As it is outside the Hamburg Studio doors, it's a cold winter night in the Bon Soir, and it's truly a delight and a respite to immerse yourself in the cozy little world created by Macfarlane, author Keith Bunin, director Mark Rucker, and a snappy 3-piece band (music director Douglas Levine, Jeff Mangone & Paul Thompson alternating on bass, and R.J. Heid on drums). This is not a cabaret show, though there are an impressive number of songs performed by Macfarlane and the band (I counted 16, but I may have missed a couple of titles), but a rich musical story about Sam Bendrix, who came of age in World War II, made a life in New York bartending and singing, and found friendship, romance and family with the women and men he met. 

It might be best to break this show down into components. Let's start with the superb list of songs performed. These are standards, nightclub songs of the '40s and '50s, but not the typical mix you might expect to hear. And each one is a gem. Yes, they start with Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," and there's the Gershwins' "Nice Work If You Can Get It," but we're also treated to Burt Bacharach and Hal David's lovely "The Story of My Life," "The Land Where the Good Songs Go" (Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse), "Too Close For Comfort" (Jerry Bock, George David Weiss, and Larry Holofcener), "Blame It On My Youth" (Oscar Levant and Edward Heyman) and beautiful "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II). You could strip away the story, and this would make a fine cabaret show, but here, each song fits within the story, but neatly so (no hitting over the head with symbolism). I'll credit the song selection to Bunin and Levine, and say that it is a key part of the success of this show. 

The story is another key component done well. It's not an earth-shattering story, but neither is it predictable. It's compelling, expertly placed in period and, except toward the end where maybe things get a wee bit maudlin, it's impossible not go along with the ride. Besides a telling of Sam Bendrix's backstory, there's also a lesson in bartending (Martinis 101, delivered to the band, of course, and a demonstration on how to make the beautiful pousse-café—made in a glass or, when necessary, a vase), as well as a deeper story of what it was like to be gay in 1958, or at least what it was like for Sam. Keith Bunin has carefully crafted this show (like that pousse-café); it's a treat to be able to sit back and enjoy a show without being distracted by plot holes or anachronisms. 

Great songs and a great story, of course, are nothing without someone to put it all across. And Luke Macfarlane is absolutely sublime as Sam Bendrix. His work on television, and a part in the accomplished ensemble of the recent Broadway production of The Normal Heart, didn't quite prepare me for what he does here. Yes, he sings (and plays the cello!) just fine, but what is really impressive is how he carries the show for 100 minutes. It's not that it's a burden, and the band does play a part, but it really is all Sam (and all Luke), and the energy never flags. Not to mention how the charm factor is off the charts. A handsome guy, who is very natural and appealing as a club singer of the era—not a Rat Pack ring-a-ding club singer, but a sincere, earnest real guy singer who is comfortable with a microphone and an audience. The moves are all there; he doesn't seem to be acting like a nightclub singer—he just is one. The connection Macfarlane has with the audience, right from the start, is palpable. How well does he sing? In a local feature piece, it was stated that he hasn't sung since performing with a band in high school. But it's hard to believe he hasn't trained for this role. His style comes off a little like Tony DeSare, but Sam isn't "the guy you came to see," and Luke seems to fit right in character there: not a headliner, but he would be a pleasant surprise perfectly capable of erasing the disappointment if you had to "settle." Some songs are delivered solidly, with a great balance between strong and smooth. A few songs seem a bit out of his range in places, but it's not unreasonable to think he'll work out those details. 

 

The sweetening components of the show are the expert band—great players always in character—and the cozy nightclub set by Tony Ferrieri. There's fine work from Angela M. Vesco (costume), Andrew David Ostrowski (lighting), and Brad Peterson (sound). The pieces all fit together so well, it's amazing that this is the first post-workshop production. With a little trimming of the last half hour (but don't cut any of the songs!), Sam Bendrix's gig at the Bon Soir has a great future. 

Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir, a world premiere with music. By Keith Bunin. At the City Theatre 

through December 18. For performance and ticket information, call 412.431.CITY (2489) or visit www.citytheatrecompany.org/. The City is also hosting a one-night After Hours at the Bon Soir! following the December 16 performance of Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir at 9:45pm. Billy Porter will host and special guests include Luke Macfarlane, Lenora Nemetz, Daphne Alderson, Chris Laitta, Bria Walker. Tickets for that event include a free drink and are $30 each ($25 for City subscribers).

Photo: Suellen Fitzsimmons

See the current Schedule of Pittsburgh Theatre.

-- Ann Miner

TRIB LIVE | A & E - 01/Dec/2011

[Source]

Review: 'Sam Bendrix' a tribute to dreams of a bygone era
By Alice T. Carter, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, December 1, 2011

_______________ Related Articles ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 'Sam Bendrix' hits the highlights of a heyday _______________ 'Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir' ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Produced by: City Theatre Company When: Through Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays and 1 p.m. Dec. 7 Admission: $30-$60, $15 for students and age 26 or younger, $22 for age 60 and older beginning two hours before showtime Where: City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side Details: 412-431-2489 or website _______________ About the writer ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Alice T. Carter is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's theater critic and can be reached at 412-320-7808 or via e-mail.

Playwright Keith Bunin arrived in Greenwich Village long after the Bon Soir and the era in which it lived had passed into history. So, his play "Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir," which is playing at City Theatre through Dec. 18, is woven from threads of fact and fiction, reality and creativity. "I guess Sam Bendrix is a version of the person I might have been," writes Bunin in his program notes. The play, Bunin explains: "is my attempt to pay tribute to the men and women who walked the streets of downtown New York long before I got there: the people who paved the way." The play is set in 1958 in the fondly remembered Bon Soir, a tiny basement club that featured up-and-coming performers who included Barbra Streisand and Phyllis Diller, as well as lots of others like the fictional Sam Bendrix, who tends bar while hoping to grab a moment in the spotlight. "I'm the man you see when you can't see the man you came to see," he announces ruefully. In an era when morals seemed as rigid as Sam's crisply starched button-down shirt and as narrow as his fashionably skinny tie, cabarets and their employees could lose their licenses for voicing an incautious word or opinion or showing too much skin. The Stonewall riots and marches against the Vietnam War or for racial equality were unimaginable. So, when Sam takes the stage on his last night before leaving New York, it's not surprising that he's 45 minutes into the show before he gets to the heart of the matter. Those familiar with the era and its coded language will already have realized where this tale of almost-requited love is leading. But that in no way diminishes its poignance and anguish. Playing Sam is Luke Macfarlane, whom some know from his role on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters." Macfarlane's Sam is a slim, cool, attractive young man you might find in an episode of "Mad Men." As he waits for that special someone to fill the empty seat at the front-row table, he's alternately vulnerable, hopeful, resigned and cautious. As he reveals himself and his story over an intermissionless 100 minutes, he engages the audience with a songbook of 20 songs of the era, such as "Blame It on My Youth," "It Never Was You," "That's Him" and "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." He also demonstrates how to customize a martini and construct a multilayered pousse-cafe cocktail, and plays the cello. He's a pleasant and intelligent singer who uses the songs to advance the journey of his story, which is the central mission. Scenic designer Tony Ferrieri and lighting designer Andrew David Ostrowski provide the proper setting -- a dimly lit basement cabaret space with wood paneling and floors, tiny tables and the subtle haze once generated by cigarette-smoking patrons. Offering musical support is drummer R.J. Heid, musical director and pianist Douglas Levine and -- depending on the performance you see -- either Jeff Mangone or Paul Thompson on bass. The musicians, most notably Levine, provide cameo performances during the proceedings. The production at City Theatre marks the play's world premiere. Although some trimming and tightening is likely, it's already a tender, sensitive tale of love and loss that should have a future.