Theater Reviews: Two Buzzy Women-Driven Theater Projects Open: “The Whoopi Monologues” Celebrate Goldberg (The Playwright) and There’s Only Murders in Palermo in the Entertaining “Giulia”

The Whoopi Monologues (c) Angela Marie Orellana

Theater: The Whoopi Monologues 
At Lincoln Center Theatre 

Director Whitney White has reconceived the theatrical work of Whoopi Goldberg and turned it into an enjoyable event for five black actresses to explore the diverse characters Goldberg wrote for herself and see them in a new way. Four of The Whoopi Monologues are from the comedian’s 1984 show supervised by director Mike Nichols, and the fifth is from her 2004 revival. The start of the performances is a variation on how the HBO special of her 1984 hit began in which Whoopi goes to the dressing room of each of the characters she’s going to portray to wish them good luck. We meet the five actresses as they dance their way onto the stage before entering their respective dressing rooms, with the wonderful Kara Young (Purpose) in an oversized men’s suit, kicking things up with Fontaine, a truth-telling junkie who serendipitously is transported from the mean streaks of New York to Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam. Next up is Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) as a little black girl with a white shirt on her head because she doesn’t like her natural hair or her brown eye color. Danielle Pinnock (TV's Ghosts) in a fun blue wig is a Jamaican curios-stand owner who talks about being hired by a rich man she calls “the old raisin” and her adventures in America. Then it’s Kerry Washington (Scandal) playing a beach-loving valley girl (but really considers herself a surfer chick, if you don’t mind) who tells about a flirtation with a cute guy at a party and the aftermath. The final monologue focuses on Lureen (Hell’s Kitchen’s Kecia Lewis), an older black woman going through menopause, fanning herself from a hot flash she describes as “Dick Cheney at a gay wedding hot.” 

Theater Review: A Walk on the Moon” Is an Old-Fashioned Musical With a Streak of 1960’s Radicalism; “Music City” Is a Good Ol’ Honky Tonk Joint; “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” Is Today as Seen Through the Politics of Yesterday

A Walk on the Moon (c) Joan Marcus

Theater: A Walk on the Moon 
At the Laura Pels Theatre 

If you think the titular walk by Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969 would lean heavily on the metaphor of change and breaking the status quo in the new musical, A Walk on the Moon, you don’t know the half of it. Based on the 1999 film, directed by Tony Goldwyn and starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, the musical, adapted by Pamela Gray on her film script, focuses on one Jewish family in the Catskills on that fateful summer-of-‘69 intersection between the moon landing and a certain musical festival in nearby Woodstock. The four couples who vacation together every summer are enjoying everything they always have, from the mahjong games to the knish parties. But something feels off for Pearl (Talia Suskauer), whose daughter Alison (Sophie Pollono) is turning 16, the same age she was when she got pregnant by her now husband, Marty (Max Chernin). Mother and daughter have an awakening when Pearl starts to flirt with the new blouse salesman (Sam Gravitte) making the rounds selling clothes with an unfortunate name, Walker, while Allison starts flirting with Timmy Chalamet wannabe musician Ross (Oscar Williams), as this newer generation is anti-war and pro-free love. There is a lot to enjoy about this modest Off-Broadway show, with the catchy, if slightly safe songs by AnnMarie Milazzo being quite likeable. Unfortunately, the adult love triangle never really feels dangerous or passionate, with a heavily symbolic tie-dyed tee doing all the heavy lifting for Pearl’s unfulfilled life (maybe if she chose The Feminine Mystique instead of On the Road for her summer read, she might have found her calling outside of her love life). Pollono has the better role as Alison, who starts out as a whiny teen but soon gets politically aware (thanks to her love of Joni Mitchell), gets the best of Milazzo’s songs and has real chemistry with Williams. Similar in tone to the musical version of The Bridges of Madison County, the protagonists of both make very pragmatic decisions, which here feel old-fashioned rather than of the times, which were indeed a changin’. 

Theater: A Deep Dive Into the Mind and Art of Playwright Tracy Letts

12 Hours with Tracy Letts (c) Arthur Knox

Animus Theatre Company gave theater fans a generous gift last Monday when they presented Twelve Hours with Tracy Letts, a marathon reading of five of the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s plays at Circle in the Square Theatre (currently housing the Broadway musical, “Just in Time”). The day-long presentation was advertised to start at 11 a.m. and end at 11 p.m. and I am shocked to say they surprisingly kept to that time frame, ending only a bit later at 11:15. The one-playwright concept is the dream of Animus Artistic Director Jonathan Judge-Russo, and the series is named in honor of the late, beloved Circle in the Square Theatre School teacher, Alan Langdon, with the proceeds of the evening going to the school, which is housed underneath the theater. Many of the students worked as ushers and some read the stage directions for the plays. 

Film Reviews: Love Stories at the Cinema Include “The Invite,” About Two Couples Challenging Relationship Norms; “Leviticus,” a Gay, Australian Horror Film; “Girls Like Girls,” a Lesbian Coming-of-Age Drama and “Voicemails for Isabelle,” a Better-Than-Usual Netflix Romcom

The Invite (c) A24

Film: The Invite 
In Cinemas 

Director/Actor Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to her misguided Don’t Worry, Darling is the much more successful The Invite, the buzzy Sundance hit about two couples who barely know each other but have preconceptions. Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) are a long-married couple with a young daughter, living in Joe’s parents’ San Francisco apartment that he grew up in and never left. Joe is surprised one night when Angela announces she has invited their new upstairs neighbors for dinner, a couple whose loud sex in the middle of the night has bothered Joe since they moved in. Angela just wants to make new friends and finds them fascinating. They are Pína (Penélope Cruz), a therapist, and her boyfriend Hawk (Edward Norton), a retired firefighter, and their love affair feels fresh and exciting. Between Joe’s need to confront them about their noise and Angela’s need to please, Will McCormack and Rashida Jones’ script is funny, clever and occasionally cringy, especially when the neighbors explain the secret to their relationship, and their own invite to Joe and Angela. I was surprised how much this film worked, when other claustrophobic small-cast films, like Carnage, have failed. Rogan gets a lot of the funny lines as he is the audience’s stand-in as the film starts to head into more awkward situations. Wilde and Norton both have fine moments, including Hawk’s monologue as to how he got his name, but the most impressive performance is from Cruz, whose Pína always seems to be in control of the evening’s agenda. The ending feels a little rushed, otherwise The Invite is the kind of smart, American adult comedy we don’t get in multiplexes anymore. 

Off-Broadway Reviews: Some Pride Month Theater to Consider Include a Parody of the Gay Hockey Series, “Heated Rivalry;” the Sex-Lives of Sexagenarian, “Jerome” and the All-Black Cast of “La Cage aux Folles,” While “Romeo & Juliet” in Central Park, by Cualquier Otro Nombre, Is Worth Catching

Heated Rivalry (c) Matthew Murphy

Theater: Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody
At Culture Club 

When it was announced that there was already an unauthorized musical written of Hidden Rivalry not long after the last episode aired, hopes weren’t high that it wouldn’t be just a quick cash grab on the popularity of the TV series about closeted gay hockey players. But credit writer Dylan MarcAurele for actually writing a smart and funny take on the show, which doesn’t make fun of the material as it does celebrate the silliness of the fandom of gay men, straight women and, yes, even the curious straight sports fan. With a cast of five and practical but super creative direction by Alan Kliffer, most of the series’ highlights are represented in this Unauthorized Musical Parody, although the show’s copious amount of sex scenes have been reduced to just enough to not be shut down by the city. Jay Armstrong Johnson is convincingly pouty and alpha male as the Russian Ilya Rozanov, but the show’s real stand-out is Jimin Moon as the Canadian Shane Hollander—goofy, naïve and terminally the good boy. Their first real meeting in the hotel gym is hysterically sweaty and lusty. The rest of the characters are ably played with quick-change precision, without missing a laugh. Ryan Duncan’s major role is Kip, one half of the show’s other gay couple, and while that storyline does get the brunt of the musical’s plot cut, there is a fun scene surrounding Kip and his closeted hockey player (who plays Scott Hunter is a surprise I won’t spoil here). I saw the extremely talented understudy Shelby Acosta playing most of the major female characters, including Shane’s incredibly judgy mom; Maria, Kip’s co-worker (“Gurl!”), as well as the always exotic Svetlana. The hysterical Ryann Redmond’s main role is Susan, and if you’re wondering who Susan was in the tv show, she wasn’t. She’s the musical’s (very) Canadian narrator and stand-in for the many straight women in the audience who read and made Rachel Reed’s novels the hit that they are. Redmond captured the spirit of all the Susans out there. And thanks to the stellar work of the entire cast and director Kliffer, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is the perfect gay pride night out.