Social Networking Is Easier Than Life - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...er/reviews/the-tutors-by-erica-lipez-at-mcginn-cazale-theater.html?hpw&_r=0&pagewanted=print[6/6/2013 9:34:49 AM]

June 5, 2013THEATER REVIEW

Social Networking Is Easier Than LifeBy CHARLES ISHERWOOD

How would you feel if you had almost invented Facebook, but didn’t quite get it off the ground? Probably a lotlike the three friends and roommates fighting off disappointment and depression in “The Tutors,” a modest butkeenly observed and compassionate new comedy-drama by Erica Lipez that opened on Wednesday at theMcGinn/Cazale Theater in a spiffy production directed by Thomas Kail (“In the Heights”).

The title derives from the unglamorous profession two of these would-be Zuckerbergs have taken up while theywait — in vain, they are beginning to fear — for their social-networking Web site to gain traction. (The year is2007.) Toby (Keith Nobbs) and Joe (Matt Dellapina) were college buddies who moved in together right afterschool with the dream of changing the world with their new site, joinme2u.com, a name that’s unfortunatelynot quite as pithy as its competitors’.

Toby has taken a reasonable liking to his getting-by gig, and does his best to keep his rich-kid clients focusedon their work. Joe sees the tutoring more as an opportunity to find investors for the site by befriending thevulnerable teenagers he’s working with, the better to entice parents to pry open fat wallets. His prime target isthe miserable Milo (Chris Perfetti), an unenthusiastic high-school student who shows more interest ininsinuating himself into the lives of his tutors — Toby takes over one day when Joe calls in sick — than inimproving his grades.

Displaying a wisdom about social manipulation that his tutors could profit from, Milo pries into Joe and Toby’srelationship, using a conversation he overheard between Joe and a friend at Starbucks as subtle blackmail.

Toby and Joe’s roommate, Heidi (sensitively drawn by Aubrey Dollar), makes her meager living by editingterm papers over the Internet. Emotionally adrift and often alone in the apartment they share (expertlyobserved in its cluttered grunginess by the set designer Rachel Hauck), Heidi has also forged a new friendship,in this case with an imaginary man named Kwan (Louis Ozawa Changchien). Or rather semi-imaginary: Kwanis an actual man Heidi helped gain entry to Columbia Business School, but she has created a sort of Kwanavatar to keep her company as she spends her dull days editing papers and tending to the meager membershipof the Web site.

Although the dialogue captures with ease the voices of these millennials, it takes a while for Ms. Lipez’s play togain momentum. The vaguely unsatisfactory lives of 25-year-olds living in funky but friendly cohabitation asthey await the arrival of the big payoff seems pretty thin material, as does the whiny entitlement of the nosyMilo. Some of the play’s scenes drift drearily into discussions about a possible redesign of the Web site, andmatters of similar minuscule import.

But Ms. Lipez has a sure feeling for all of her characters, and as they are fleshed out we come to feel a keensympathy for their conflicted feelings about their lives, their careers and one another. And while watching “The

Social Networking Is Easier Than Life - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...er/reviews/the-tutors-by-erica-lipez-at-mcginn-cazale-theater.html?hpw&_r=0&pagewanted=print[6/6/2013 9:34:49 AM]

Tutors,” which is presented as part of the Second Stage’s annual Uptown series, I was struck once again byhow rich this city is in terrific young acting talent.

Mr. Nobbs has been on the scene for some time (although he looks nary a day older than he did a decade agowhen he first made a strong impression in Christopher Shinn’s “Four”), and is an expert at easing himself intothe skins of uneasy characters. Toby is gay, and he can’t quite bring himself to admit that part of his decisionto forgo some hot job offers — he’s the one with the computer talent — was a long-gestating romanticattachment to the heterosexual Joe.

Mr. Dellapina renders his character’s laid-back sexual magnetism convincingly. He also keeps us guessingabout Joe’s slippery morals: Joe gets righteous when Toby begins allowing Milo to spend time at their place,but is himself hardly above manipulating people in his orbit — with no malice but maybe a little calculation —when it becomes necessary. And Mr. Perfetti perfectly captures the combination of neediness, loneliness anddefensive arrogance that makes Milo such an exasperating client. Yearning for friendship, he can’t help himselffrom securing it through unscrupulous means, and then feels resentment at being used.

Some of the subplots in “The Tutors” feel artificial. It seems a stretch that Heidi would be so far gone in herdelusional relationship with the fake Kwan that she would be unable to recognize the flesh-and-blood versionwhen Milo arranges for him to show up. This is particularly true because Mr. Changchien is so proficient atdifferentiating the two roles: the slick, sexy imaginary Kwan and the awkward but genial real one.

But while “The Tutors” doesn’t have the emotional scope to make the lives of its characters resonate powerfullybeyond the confines of their cramped apartment, it does suggest the work of a writer with a confident knackfor bringing to life men and women whose flaws and virtues are complexly intertwined.

And Ms. Lipez is particularly insightful about the sometimes prickly nature of friendship, felt so keenly in thecollege and post-collegiate years. “The Tutors” reveals how most relationships involve emotional transactions —or sexual or financial ones — that are mutually beneficial, at least until one of the parties involved becomesuncomfortable with the exchanges being made. Once these are brought into the open, there may be no goingback, no matter how much real affection and shared history are involved.

The Tutors

By Erica Lipez; directed by Thomas Kail; sets by Rachel Hauck; costumes by Jessica Jahn; lighting by BetsyAdams; sound by Jill B C Du Boff; fight direction by Thomas Schall; production stage manager, Robert G.Mahon III; general manager, Dean A. Carpenter. Presented by Second Stage Theater Uptown, Carole Rothman,artistic director; Casey Reitz, executive director; Christopher Burney, associate artistic director. At theMcGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 246-4422, 2st.com. Through June 16. Runningtime: 2 hours.

WITH: Louis Ozawa Changchien (Kwan), Matt Dellapina (Joe), Aubrey Dollar (Heidi), Keith Nobbs (Toby) andChris Perfetti (Milo).

Roving in the Park With Those Restless Russian Bohemians - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/theater/reviews/the-seagull-in-central-park.html?ref=theater&pagewanted=print[6/6/2013 9:38:30 AM]

June 3, 2013THEATER REVIEW

Roving in the Park With Those Restless Russian BohemiansBy ANITA GATES

“Too many characters,” the young woman to my right announced. Her friend had just read the programsummary of “The Seagull.” We were seated on the grass in Central Park off 103rd Street, facing what is knownas the Pool but looks like a lake, in a grove of grand old trees.

Well, it’s Chekhov, I wanted to say. Those big 19th-century Russian country houses would be pretty lonelywithout a large circle of lovers, losers and dreamers. The characters are actually easy to keep straight becauseeach is miserable — or deluded — in his or her own way. This New York Classical Theater production(admission is free, by the way), directed smoothly by Stephen Burdman, conveys that well. Jean-Claude vanItallie’s translation sometimes registers as simplistic, but the classic lines remain. Some of us never tire ofhearing Masha (Kersti Bryan) explain that she always wears black because “I am in mourning for my life.”

Ever since Meryl Streep starred in a Shakespeare in the Park production in 2001, “The Seagull” has seemedlike Arkadina’s story, but it is really her son’s. Arkadina (Tamara Scott), a celebrated actress, takes it forgranted that the world revolves around her. Her only child, Konstantin (Ian Antal), grown to manhood, is aninconvenient reminder that she is not as young as she believes she looks.

Happily, Konstantin has Nina (Lindsey Kyler), the world’s freshest ingénue — who even agrees to act in theterrible play he has written — but he may not have her for long. Trigorin (G. R. Johnson), a recklesslycharming famous writer and Arkadina’s current lover, is to blame.

I am not a fan of roaming theater. Asking an audience to get up and stroll en masse to a new location severaltimes (ending up on the Pool’s opposite side) seems cruel. But it does add texture, and I cannot deny the thrillof seeing these beloved literary creations, in luscious period costumes, on a summery night in a sylvan settingthat might really be on the estate of Sorin (John Michalski), who is constantly complaining about hisdisappointing life.

“What a bundle of nerves you all are!” says Dorn (Nick Salamone), the sexy older doctor. Yes, they are. And it’sa pleasure to see them again.

Even Silence Is Steeped in Emotion - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...r/reviews/tea-for-three-with-elaine-bromka-at-urban-stages.html?ref=theater&pagewanted=print[6/6/2013 9:36:08 AM]

June 5, 2013THEATER REVIEW

Even Silence Is Steeped in EmotionBy KEN JAWOROWSKI

There are some good stories in “Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty.” But sometimes the silences tell thebest tales.

In this one-woman show at Urban Stages, Elaine Bromka portrays three first ladies, each at the end of herWhite House stay. Using separate vignettes Ms. Bromka gives an overview of the kindly and dutiful Lady BirdJohnson, the welcoming but wounded Pat Nixon, the chatty and bold Betty Ford. In recollections that are lightwithout being trivial, we learn of their feelings for their husbands, their opinions of the country and their plansfor the future.

“Tea for Three” is biography theater — it’s not for playgoers seeking action or a strong plot. Yet there is anoverarching theme of loneliness and sacrifice, and an indirect look at the changing roles of women duringdynamic times.

“Lyndon has always been my identity,” Lady Bird says. “This need for women to have their own identity,” is foranother generation.

That’s a far cry from Betty Ford’s declaration, only eight years later: “I guess some people think a first ladyshould just stand by her husband’s side, silently, but you can’t shut this one up!”

Ms. Bromka usually chooses understatement over exclamation, and she’s usually right. When Pat Nixon hintsat her husband’s scandals, or mentions that the couple no longer dance together, Ms. Bromka lets the linefade. The sad pause that follows is weighted with emotion.

The 75-minute “Tea for Three” has several such scenes in which a character reveals a great deal simply bywaving away a thought or laughing off a worry. The subtle script, by Ms. Bromka and Eric H. Weinberger, isinherently static and relies entirely on Ms. Bromka’s actorly skills. That script succeeds when she speaks.

When she doesn’t, too.

June 15, 2013

Cast Albums Two Weeks

Last Week

This Week

Title, Artist Imprint | label

Peak Pos.

Weeks on Chart

New 1

#1 1 wksKinky Boots Original Broadway Cast Recording Masterworks Broadway | Sony Masterworks

1 1

1 1 2

Wicked Original Broadway Cast Recording Decca Broadway | Decca

1 388

2 2 3

The Book Of Mormon Original Broadway Cast Recording Ghostlight | Sh-K-Boom

1 107

3 4 4

Once: A New Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording Masterworks Broadway | Sony Masterworks

1 64

4 7 5

Roald Dahl's Matilda: The Musical Original Cast Recording Royal Shakespeare Company | Royal Shakespeare Company

4 12

6 5 6

The Lion King Original Broadway Cast Recording Walt Disney

3 371

5 8 7

Jersey Boys Original Broadway Cast Recording Rhino

1 386

7 11 8

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella Original Broadway Cast Recording Ghostlight/Sh-K-Boom | Razor & Tie

2 4

New 9

Annie: The Musical The New 2012 Broadway Cast Recording Shout! Broadway | Shout! Factory

9 1

9 9 10

Newsies Original Broadway Cast Recording Ghostlight/Sh-K-Boom | Razor & Tie

1 60