Theater: Broadway’s “Punch” Argues for Forgiveness in Divided Times; “And Then We Were No More” Gives A Chilling Glimpse of a Totalitarian Future; and “Toera” Is an Effective Coming-of-Age Drama

Punch (c) Matthew Murphy

Broadway: Punch 
At the Samuel Friedman Theatre 

There is a lot going on at the start of British playwright James Graham’s Punch, a play that is uniquely opening simultaneously on Broadway and the West End in the same month. We are introduced to Jacob Dunne (Will Harrison), a 19-year-old British man in Nottingham, who seems aimless after the divorce of his parents, and lives only to drink, take drugs and rumble with his mates, in a dazzling montage where he narrates what happened on the night that changed his life. That’s because Graham also intercuts the boisterous Jacob with a contrite, future Jacob as he is in some sort of group therapy. Jacob, misreading the events at a pub where his friends are drinking, punches a young man named James giving him a concussion that leads to his death about a week later. After serving time in prison, Jacob is told by his probation officer that James’ parents (played heartbreakingly by Sam Robards and Victoria Clark) want to meet him for both closure and understanding. The events of this play actually happened in 2011, and their meeting years later was facilitated by an organization named Remedi that promotes the concept of restorative justice to aid in the healing process of both victim and perpetrator. This is certainly a worthy cause, especially when we see how difficult but ultimately freeing this meeting is for everyone involved. The play is based on Jacob’s own book about the life-changing event, Right From Wrong, so while Graham doesn’t sugarcoat Jacob’s story, the moment of the actual punch is surprisingly lacking in specifics, and thus our sympathies cannot be fully given, as it’s obvious something about that night is deliberately being omitted so as to not muddle the uplifting ending of the play. This in no way dilutes the power of Harrison’s muscular and tireless Broadway debut as Jacob. The rest of the cast, who all play multiple characters, have at least one shining moment, especially Lucy Taylor as Jacob’s stressed-out mum. Adam Penford is directing both productions (David Shields plays Jacob in London’s West End), and while he favors the high adrenaline moments of Jacob’s world, it really is the quiet dignity of James’ parents that provides the emotional connection most needed by the audience. 

Film: A Sampling of the 63rd New York Film Festival: New Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnino, Joachim Trier, Richard Linklater and Ira Sachs Films

NYFF 63 (c) The Interested Bystander

Artistic Director Dennis Lim has curated his third New York Film Festival with some exciting new films that premiered in the summer festivals (Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto) as well as a few world premieres of its own. Although never explicit in its programming, New York is the last major film festival before Oscar season and films that have benefited from their appearance in recent years include Nickel Boys, No Other Land, The Tragedy of Macbeth and The Irishman. 

Event: Halloweentown Comes to New York City in the Enchanting and Theatrical Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail

Light Trail (c) The Interested Bystander

For the second year in a row, the New York Botanical Garden is opening its doors to Jack Skellington and the other spooky inhabitants of Halloweentown for the Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail. The nighttime event is a separate ticket from the garden as it starts after the garden closes. Timed entries run from 7 pm to 9:15, and the whole trail lasts 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how long you linger with each artistic installation of sculpture, light and music (the movie soundtrack by Danny Elfman plays throughout). The trail runs from Wednesday to Sunday until November 30. 

Film Reviews: “One Battle After Another” Is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Best Film, While “Plainclothes” and “Where to Land” Are Two Thought-Provoking Indies

One Battle After Another (c) Warner Bros. Picture

Film: One Battle After Another 
In Cinemas 

Everything about the look and feel of One Battle After Another, the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film, would suggest the 1970s, which would be the auteur director’s second consecutive film in this era, but then the plot also hinges on a cellphone as well as starting a car with a fingerprint, so who knows. The film is very loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, and the less you know about the plot, the more exciting and spontaneous the film will feel. Just using what was shown in the first trailer, the film focuses on Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio, at his funniest), who in his younger days was part of the French 75, a group of revolutionaries (think Weather Underground) performing what was seen as terrorist acts against the government and big businesses that had policies they felt were unjust. Now, 15 years later, he’s the single father of a teenage girl, Willa (Chase Infiniti, an impressive film debut), whose mother Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) was also part of the group, and he gets a message that their lives are in danger, being pursued (Javert-style) by the Dickensian-named Army Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn, very committed to the bit). Bob enlists the help of Willa’s karate sensei, Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro, in his best role to date) and we follow how the paths of Bob and Lockjaw intersect. The film has many more themes and characters that I will not discuss, but just know, Anderson is talking about the political environment America finds itself embroiled in today. 

Off-Broadway Reviews: Two Young Gay Men Struggle to Find Their Place in the World in the Sia musical “Saturday Church” and the Bioplay “House of McQueen”

Saturday Church (c) Marc J. Franklin

Theater: Saturday Church 
At New York Theatre Workshop 

The most ingenious element of Saturday Church, the vibrant and engaging new musical at New York Theatre Workshop, is its concept, which parallels Sunday church, the Christian-faith kind with scripture readings and gospel choirs, with Saturday Church, the makeshift, volunteer-based sanctuary in urban cities, where mostly homeless LGBTQ+ youths have a place to connect and get any help they might need. Both churches purport to be an inclusive community, but the Sunday one, mostly misreading the Bible, has rules that must be obeyed and sins that must not be tolerated, while the Saturday one seemingly follows the teachings of Jesus (but maybe not to the letter of the law) helping those in need. Speaking of Jesus, they do show up in the musical, more in the guise of Sasha Fierce than your usual white man in a robe. In fact, Ulysses (Bryson Battle), our main character, humorously calls this deity/occasional run-in/hallucinations Black Jesus. As played by Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee, Black Jesus gives this production a sense of humor and wider world view as the rest of the plot, at least on paper, is pretty bleak. The musical’s two main stories both deal with loss. First, there’s Ulysses, the young effeminate New Jersey churchgoer has just lost his father. It puts a strain on his mother, Amara (Kristolyn Lloyd), who takes extra shifts as a nurse, and makes his Aunt Rose (Tony winner Joaquina Kalukango) even more overprotective than she usually is. Then there’s Ebony (B Noel Thomas), a trans mama bear figure, who runs the Saturday Church near the Christopher Street Piers with their best friend Sasha, who recently died tragically. How these two stories intersect is the main focus of Saturday Church, and as Black Jesus promises at the top of the show, will show us “what collective love looks like.”