off-stage right

I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to write about the many shows I have been seeing in the last several weeks.  One MUST SEE is Alan Ayckbourn’s Norman Conquests.  I spent an entire Saturday with the most amazing ensemble of actors (again, please now that special event category is gone PLEASE Tony committee PLEASE create a best ensemble category.  It is criminal not to!). 

It took close to eight hours to watch all three shows beginning at 11:30 in the morning, but it was worth every single second.  Certainly you don’t have to see all three shows but if you can, don’t miss the opportunity.  As a matter of fact, since it is supposed to rain all day Saturday, why not just buy tickets now and spend the day laughing indoors instead of dodging umbrellas on the street.

I have worked on several Ayckbourn plays and although the mistaken identities and situations are often so specific that the plays can’t be updated to current times (the cell phone alone would crush many of Ayckbourn’s most hilarious circumstances) the plays and the characters somehow never come off as dated.  I consider one of the true signs of a great playwright. 

The entire cast, Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root, travelled with the production from the Old Vic (Kevin Spacey, Artistic Director). 

I feel completely in love with Stephen Mangan’s insatiable and irresistible Norman.   Despite the character’s utterly repulsive actions and behavior, I don’t think many woman could resist Norman’s and Mangan’s charms.   I will be shocked if we don’t see him with his own television series soon.  Ben Miles and Paul Ritter, as Tom (the simple suitor) and Reg (the “put-upon” brother and husband) respectively, were perfection. 

But it was the ladies and Ayckbourn knows how to write delicious roles for women, that you had to cheer for throughout the day. 

Amelia Bullmore’s Ruth is so vain she refuses to wear glasses.  She rules with an iron fist that has left her hated by the entire family, but Bullmore grows on you through out the day showing the utter vulnerability of Ruth, breaking your heart near the end as she describes why she loves and puts up with Norman – it is just because he is who he is.  Each time Amanda Root’s Sarah stepped on the stage, I could not control my laughter.  With pure comedic genius, Root has her character so wound so tight that you half expect her to spring into the rafters of the theater at any moment.  But it is Jessica Hynes’s Annie who anchors the entire ensemble.  The heroine who runs up and down a range of emotions and situations taking us with her each step of the way.  A lesser actress would not only fumble the ball in this carefully orchestrated game, but without a great talent like Hynes the play would be lost.

In addition to the actors, Mathew Warchus proves he is a master of the stage (I still think he should have won the Tony for Norman Conquests, not God of Carnage).  The show is staged in the round, a rare seen delight on Broadway.  Working with Rob Howell on my favorite set of the season, Warchus creates a world with minimal tools leaving us the opportunity to be pulled into the actors great performances and Ayckbourn’s brilliant puzzle of plays with out interruption or distractions.

For those who don’t know the plays unfold over a weekend with each play divulging different scenes from each day.  Each play going back and forth in time, but somehow you are never lost.   In writing alone the work is a true masterpiece of the theatre.  The fantastic revival reminds a new generation of this.

With straight plays disappearing from Broadway left and right, make sure you go see three of the best before July 26.

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