Catching up with catching up

I missed a couple of reading recommendations in my Sunday night post.

First, John Lahr's critic-at-large piece about Sarah Ruhl in last week's New Yorker. I haven't seen a lot of Ruhl's work—I missed the Goodman production of The Clean House, for instance—but the Chicago premiere of her Passion Play last fall was one of the most overblown wastes of money I've ever sat through. (And by that I mean the Goodman's money; my ticket was comped.) I've long been a fan of Lahr—I read Light Fantastic, a collection of his long-form New Yorker artist profiles, way back when in college (it was bought from the remaindered stacks at an outlet-mall bookstore, ho ho, ain't that a metaphor about theater in America these days), and recommended him as a serious critic to the Columbia class I spoke to a while back—but his unalloyed adulation of Ruhl, and of her instincts as a playwright that go against everything I've learned as a theater person, test my patience. I'm still willing to give her more chances (oh please, Steppenwolf's production of Dead Man's Cell Phone, please be good), but I'm trepidatious.

Second up is an interestingly concepted, if less interestingly executed, piece by Stuart Miller in Sunday's New York Times. It focuses on the phenomenon of compelling characters that never appear on stage—from Doubt's young black student, to the possibly lecherous teacher in Speech and Debate (which will soon make its Chicago debut at American Theater Company) to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's already-dead Skipper. It's one of those hey-this-is-barely-a-trend stories that still manages to get intriguing responses from the playwrights, directors and actors involved.

Finally, for now, commenter Ed responded to my last post about Northlight's Grey Gardens with some pretty dead-on casting suggestions. BJ, are you listening? I'll happily connect you with Ed for the finder's fee.

Meanwhile, I posted this week's new TOC reviews online tonight: my own of The Talented Tenth and Uncle Vanya and four others, here at the TOC Theater section.

Comments

[Ed]

Aw, shucks. :-)

[Meg]

I saw Dead Man's Cell Phone at Wooly Mammoth and .... man. I liked the first act but HATED the second act. Bleh.

[Ed]

Re: Feydeau-Si-Deau.

Thanks for coming, Kris! I felt more comfortable posting here than as an addendum to the TOC review itself. The new title was one of my suggestions- so do I get the credit, or the blame? Both I guess- yes, it's clunky, but I felt like it conveyed that sence of partner switching, while also incorporating the name of the playwright- something the original title didn't accomplish. From a marketing perspective it was desirable that the title cause the audience to think of the playwright, since due to "A Flea in Her Ear" he's far better known than this particular piece of his could ever be. It was decided that the Baccarat reference was a bit too obscure, so we all tossed around a few suggestions. I agree that the new title could be a bit more graceful- my personal favorite of the ones I suggested was "No Marriage Please, We're French." Runners up included "What the Phonograph Saw" (props to Joe Orton- when is someone around here going to do "Loot?") and "Sexy Sexy Card Game" (that last one not mine). Will posterity remember me as a clever marketer? Or as that guy who made a bad title worse? Oh well.