The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I'll start with the bad news. My understudy Zeke's grandmother passed away this morning. She's not been doing well for a couple of weeks, and it wasn't completely unexpected, but I was saddened to hear the news from him this morning and have the task of releasing him from his understudy duties this weekend so he can be with his family. Two posts in a row (within the span of three days even) about death is never a good thing. They say these things happen in threes so hold onto your loved ones!

The good news, however, is that the Times gave my show a wonderful review which you can read by clicking here or by scrolling down.















Photo credit: Michael Nagle of the NYT

Quasimodo Swings Into Action Across a Gray Paris Sky
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: October 31, 2008

As the Middle Ages give way to the Renaissance, profound love, dark desire, heartbreak, murder and injustice unfold on the stage of the New Victory Theater in a captivating retelling of the Victor Hugo novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Using puppets, moodily masked human counterparts and eloquent mime, as well as atmospheric music, pealing bells, surtitles and plenty of stagecraft, this 80-minute intermissionless Redmoon Theater of Chicago production, titled “Hunchback,” comes recommended for audiences 8 and older.

And, with Hugo himself (played by Jeremy Sher) as a mordant Pirandellian guide to his characters, they are rendered with illuminating depth: the deformed Quasimodo (Jay Torrence), the alluring Gypsy Esmeralda (Katie Rose McLaughlin), the psychically warped archdeacon Claude Frollo (Samuel Taylor), the bereaved mother known as the Recluse (Mary Winn Heider) and the handsome captain of the king’s archers, Phoebus (Calvin Dutton).

The powerful masks are the work of Jim Lasko and Shoshanna Utchenik, as is the set; Laura Heit gets credit for the effective puppet designs.

This remarkable presentation, conceived and designed by Mr. Lasko and directed by Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, accomplishes the difficult feat of delivering Hugo’s immortal tale while preserving his disquisition on Paris at a time that the magnificence of medieval architecture is surrendering to what one of his characters calls the “German pestilence”: Gutenberg’s printing press and the impending ascendance of books. Although Hugo’s 1831 novel is popularly known as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the emphasis of its original title is noteworthy: simply “Notre-Dame de Paris.”

So while the Hugo character emerges from time to time — from one of the crates that serve as rooms and retreats and cells — to shed light on Paris as it was in January 1482, his tale, incarnated by humans and their expressive puppet counterparts, is nevertheless surging forward to its conclusion in the vault by the gallows in Montfaucon.

As an introduction to Hugo, history, grand storytelling, skilled acting and the splendid possibilities of theater, “Hunchback,” combining eeriness, humor and classic storytelling, is a genuine Halloween treat.

“Hunchback” runs through Nov. 9 at the New Victory Theater, 229 West 42nd Street, Manhattan; (646) 233-3010, newvictory.org.

And for The Ugly, I don't have anything really unless you count my cast piled on my hotel bed watching the terrible movie Showgirls last night at 1 in the morning.