Everyone there was under pressure.
“It’s heavy, isn’t it?”
George C. Wolfe accepted his award graciously and with more than a little humor, hoisting the notoriously heavy Monte Cristo award up in his arms with aplomb and cheeky dramatics. This was not a stressful night. There was no suspense. There may have been only one winner that night, but everyone knew him, and no one was complaining.
The atmosphere on the red carpet was breezy and exciting, everyone there not in anticipation of either losing or winning, but just there to celebrate one man. And what a man he is. George C. Wolfe, renowned director of Angels in America and countless others, including Shuffle Along, which has just received 10 Tony nominations for its outstanding status as musical and civil rights activism, more than deserved the award bestowed upon him last night. And everyone seemed to think so.
Preston Whiteway, Executive Director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, explained the award as such:
“The Monto Cristo award is named after the house where our namesake, Eugene O’Neill, grew up, and of course he set two of the greatest America dramas in that house, the Long Day’s Journey into Night, being revived this season, and Ah, Wilderness!, his only comedy. And so with that sort of balance on both sides of the scale there with theatre, with comedy and tragedy, I think it’s a perfect name for this award which is given to an artist who’s pioneered in the same way that Eugene O’Neill has- and on top of all of that, it was his father’s greatest role, the Count of Monte Cristo.”
He further went on to explain how Wolfe exemplifies a recipient of the award:
“Few can match George Wolfe’s trailblazing leader as a writer, as a director- he’s a multi-hyphenate, he’s a writer, he’s an actor, he’s a director, he’s an artistic producer, he does it all. There really could be nobody more worthy for an award honoring significant artists in American theatre.”
As for Wolfe himself, when asked about his pioneering work on African-American and LGBT theatre, he had only this to say, which he later repeated in his acceptance speech:
“I wouldn’t even call it activism, I just would call it – I don’t know, just responsibility. When you live in a world where you are in a capacity to hire people or you make decisions, then you may need to make decisions that are reflective of the world in which you live.”
Responsibility is something Wolfe holds very true to his heart. In his acceptance speech after the dinner, he thanked everyone in the room for their support as he existed as a fledgling young writer, then director in the theatre world. His last words were “Thank you so much”, and it wasn’t for the award, but for the help he had received along the way that led him to this moment, to being able to have such an impact on the world through theatre. He feels responsible in turn to “act as not only a director, but a mentor”. It’s the true spirit of the theatrical world- everyone collaborates. Whether they are actually participating in the movement itself onstage, like Savion Glover, Tony Award-winning choreographer that performed that night in celebration of longtime associate Wolfe, or assisting in offstage things like production, like the presenter Broadway producer Hal Prince, winner of the most Tony Awards ever, everyone is a part of the process.
George C. Wolfe understands this as a fundamental rule of theatre, and that, along with his genius and talent, deserves ample celebration.
On Wednesday May 4, the Tony Nominees met with the press to discuss their achievements, at the Paramount Hotel. Daveed Diggs, who plays Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, in the incredible Hamilton, and the show’s set designer David Korins, sat down to talk about their nominations.
On May 4th, the Tony Nominee’s sat down with the press to discuss their nominations and what it meant to each of them to be recognized by the Broadway community.
The moment the lights went down, the audience whooped like it was the Super Bowl. I began to wonder, was I in the wrong theatre? Alas, no. An explosion of smoke erupted onstage with an ear-splitting bang. This was American Psycho, a testament to modern Broadway. Or rather, what old people would have you think modern Broadway has become: loud, with flashing lights and techno music, and lacking what we long for in our musicals: a soul.
Maybe that’s on Bateman.
Bret Easton Ellis’s tale of Patrick Bateman’s psychosis is one familiar to those who have seen the movie version, but even a newbie could quickly catch on. This musical did not deal in subtleties, preferring explosive dance sequences and strobe lights to nuanced performance.
Was it a three-hour long Lady Gaga music video? Perhaps, but three songs were pop and not one of them hers. Lorde’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” came in for exactly one lyric of the song, sung by Bateman’s secretary, Jean. Which lyric was this? The title.
An oddly poignant moment came when the prostitute Christine sang “In the Air Tonight” (another pop song) in the taxi, immediately preceding a scene straight out of a horror porno. God forbid we become emotionally invested. Crude drawings of crass acts adorned the walls as the entire ensemble cast introduced a rape victim’s worst nightmare. I briefly had to avert my eyes.
“I am not here; I am not there. I am nobody, I am nowhere” sang Bateman in “Common Man”, and I wondered at whether this musical was taking itself seriously at all. One song mocked theatregoers as obsessed with appearances, which as I’d observed earlier in the audience, does not hold true for a 2016 audience (a girl next to me ate Pringles noisily, cackled like a hyena, and then left her garbage as though Broadway theaters are the new ghetto). A throwaway reference to Donald Trump may have been timely for the setting, but was an instant guffaw moment for those around me. Every time it seemed as though darkness would seep in, a blood splatter would swing us right away from any semblance of true meaning.
I have never been to a more convoluted fashion show. The comedy wasn’t dark in this musical, more a light grey peppered with very strange dancing. It played like an advertisement for blood.
The saving grace was Jennifer Damiano. Known for her Tony nominated turn in Next to Normal and already a veteran of another failed musical, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, she pierced the absolute carnage with a lovely voice and sincerity lost to the rest of the characters. Through her character Jean, we saw some humanity in Bateman- after all, for all his insanity, he is human. That’s one of the best parts of the story, seeing the chinks in his armor that reveal not only an animal, but a tortured one at that.
When the end came, I was wickedly happy. He didn’t deserve Jean. That musical did not deserve Jean.
I left enamored with the furniture on set, already forgetting the songs.
The 2nd Annual New York City High School Theatre Festival, hosted by The Shubert Foundation, took place Monday March 7th.
A burlesque Snow White
A play worth dying for…maybe
A play worth seeing!
NBC produced their third live musical broadcast on December 3rd, with new and known talent.