Yesterday I wrote about Our Town lighting a fire that was bringing life back to commercial off-Broadway, stoking those flames uptown is this summer’s The Tempermentals.
Hopefully commercial producers will fight to keep the fire burning off-Broadway. Even today’s New York Times was cheering about the recent flourish of great shows outside of the Broadway Box. Although the article did double as a second review for Next Fall (which I will be off to see soon) and doesn’t give enough credit to the work of nonprofits who have produced a lot of great work in the last 9 years .
What is most interesting to me about both of these productions is that the absolute commitment to serving the play in it’s purest form. Simple, almost non-existent sets, props and costumes rule both productions. The directors have relied beautifully on the story-telling of these two very different scripts. The audience experience is not only enhanced by this it is electrified. The success of these two shows are directly tied to the artistry of theatre-making.
And I should note that these productions have bucked the trend that has trapped many over that last few years in that neither has big stars attached in fact Our Town’s only “star (and that is only in the theatre community)” is Cromer himself as the Stage Manager and although The Tempermentals has Ugly Betty’s brilliant Michael Urie in it – he isn’t a household name (YET – although I am among those that think he was robbed of an Emmy nomination this year, but that is REALLY a different blog posting).
The Tempermentals is in a small theater on the third floor one West 36th Street. The space actually reminds me of MCC Theater’s old space on 28th Street where we first produced Wit before moving it to the Union Square. This docudrama features a small cast of 5 (several of the actors play multiple roles). One part history lesson and one part self-discovery lesson the show moves far beyond simply telling the little known tale of the start of the gay rights movement.
That isn’t to say the tale isn’t important. It involves the creation of an early advocacy group for gay right (Mattachine Society) that predated the ‘69 Stonewall Riots, and the show is one of those wonderful moments where one can learn in the theatre a nugget of history that is more than relevant today.
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