true blood' star will play stanley in 'streetcar' - nytimes

'True Blood' Star Will Play Stanley in 'Streetcar' - NYTimes.com

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/.../06/14/true-blood-star-will-play-stanley-in-streetcar/?ref=allankozinn&pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:03:39 AM]

JUNE 14, 2013, 1:16 PM

‘True Blood’ Star Will Play Stanley in ‘Streetcar’

By ALLAN KOZINN

Joe Manganiello, whose buff physique has been amply displayed as a werewolf on HBO’s “True Blood”and as a stripper in the film “Magic Mike,” will wear (and take off?) the most famous T-shirt inAmerican theater when he plays Stanley Kowalski in Yale Repertory Theater’s production of “A StreetcarNamed Desire.”

Portraying Blanche DuBois will be René Augesen, who has appeared at the Public and Lincoln CenterTheaters. Mark Rucker is directing the production, which opens Yale Rep’s season on Sept. 20 and isscheduled to run through Oct. 12.

The season, which had already been announced, also includes “These Paper Bullets,” an adaptation ofShakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” with music by Billie Joe Armstrong of the band Green Dayand plays by Caryl Churchill, Dario Fo, Marcus Gardley and Meg Miroshnik.

Of Shakespeare and Superheroes - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...er/reviews/venice-by-eric-rosen-and-matt-sax-teems-with-action.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:02:37 AM]

June 13, 2013THEATER REVIEW

Of Shakespeare and SuperheroesBy BEN BRANTLEY

There’s enough plot in Eric Rosen and Matt Sax’s “Venice,” the action-flooded new musical at the PublicTheater, to fill a whole year in a Marvel comics series. Though it borrows some of its story from Shakespeare’s“Othello” and much of its tone from apocalyptic movie blockbusters like “The Dark Knight Rises,” this tale of aonce-and-future civil war still seems to translate into two-dimensional panels as you watch it.

You can imagine thought bubbles rising from the characters’ heads, as they brood in ways idealistic anddastardly in a devastated city of tomorrow still steeped in a suffocating past. This is true even when they’rewailing like Bruno Mars or rapping like Nicki Minaj. They also often speak in urgent, public-bulletin-styledeclarations that help fill us in on recent events, like: “Willow Turner is missing ... We have reason to believeshe is headed for the city.”

The news is most entertaining when it’s broadcast by a serious joker identified as Clown MC, who delivers thedish rap-style in “Venice,” which was previously staged in Kansas City and Los Angeles and opened onThursday night as part of the Public’s valuable Lab series. First seen with a laptop composing this show’sopening lines (which are projected on the walls around him), Clown MC would also seem to be the guy pullingthe strings in the story. This is fitting, since he is played by Mr. Sax, who wrote the show’s score and, with Mr.Rosen, its lyrics. (Mr. Rosen, the show’s director, did the book.)

A man of improbably elastic face and form, Mr. Sax, who in 2008 starred in the one-man show “Clay” (createdwith Mr. Rosen), is an original voice and presence, a rapper from the suburbs who regularly morphs from self-conscious square to wriggling, blissed-out Slinky. You can feel the joy he takes in summoning the charactersinto being as “Venice” begins, assessing the actors with sly and shy glances as they appear onstage.

When he shows up toward the end of the first act as the host of a spectacularly doomed wedding party, he’s soelectrified that you expect him to short-circuit. He brings to mind a kid who has created an elaborate fantasyuniverse out of objects in his bedroom, and has come to believe this world is a hundred times more real, not tomention exciting, than the daily routine at home and school.

Unfortunately, the creatures that spring from this teeming imagination are, to outsiders, about as lifelike as toysoldiers. Though the cast includes a bevy of attractive and seasoned young performers — including JenniferDamiano (“Next to Normal,” “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”) and Leslie Odom Jr. (late of “Smash") — theirskills don’t always mesh with Mr. Sax’s sensibility. Chanting in propulsive rhyme, for instance, comes naturallyto very few of them.

They are also burdened with an unwieldy tale to tell, unassisted by the special effects that Hollywood can berelied on to provide as plot-hole-concealing camouflage. “Venice” is both the show’s title city — a townshattered by terrorism 20 years earlier and now controlled by a military-industrial complex — and the title



character, a clean-cut Che Guevara type portrayed by a subdued Haaz Sleiman.

Venice Monroe is a child of rape, born to a freedom-fighting mother (who appears as a sorrowful but inspiringghost, played by the charismatic Uzo Aduba) who would surely have won the Nobel Peace Prize if it existed inthis unspecified future. She, like most of her generation, was wiped out in the terrorist attack. (No, I don’tknow who the terrorists were. Will you let me get on with this, please?)

The survivors include the lovely Willow Turner (Ms. Damiano), the daughter of Venice’s dead president, whohas grown up away from the city in the Safe Zone and is betrothed to Theodore Westbrook (Jonathan-David),the inheritor of the aforementioned military-industrial complex. But she really loves Venice (the man), whomshe remembers from their shared childhood, and intends to marry him in a ceremony that would reunite adivided nation (or city-state, or whatever).

Not everybody wants this to happen, though, including Venice the man’s half-brother, Markos Monroe (Mr.Odom), a conniving military malcontent who is married to a love-starved woman named Emilia (VictoriaPlatt). Though Markos occasionally erupts into Iago-like utterances that suggest that he, too, is a creature ofmotiveless evil, we know why he’s bad. Mom liked Venice (the boy) best, and it still rankles.

The cast also includes Claybourne Elder as Michael Victor, the straight-arrow aide and friend to Venice (theman and the city), whose story arc looks as if it might parallel that of Cassio in “Othello,” until ... well, it’sdeflected by the arrival of a seductive pop diva named Hailey Daisy, zealously played by Angela Polk, whodoesn’t really have much reason to be here, except that she’s the only performer who matches Mr. Sax in verve.I was very sorry when she walked into that bomb, or gunfire, or whatever it was.

The production has been designed with a “Mad Max”-meets- “Max Headroom” sensibility by a formidableteam that includes Beowulf Boritt (set), Clint Ramos (costumes), Jason Lyons (lighting) and Jason H.Thompson (projections). The music, overseen by Curtis Moore and played by an onstage band, isn’t verydifferent from what you’d hear on most mainstream radio stations. Chase Brock’s funky, “Riverdance”-stylechoreography is kind of fun, especially as executed by Mr. Sax.

Though Mr. Odom doesn’t have the strength of malice that a first-rate villain requires, he makes sweetlyinsinuating music in his falsetto range, and has one of the show’s best songs, the revenge-survival anthem“Last Man.” Ms. Damiano’s clarion voice is always a pleasure to listen to, though her Willow, partly inspired byShakespeare’s Desdemona, is otherwise short on defining characteristics.

Still, what’s a leading lady to do when she has to sing lines like “I’m still, the calm ahead of the storm/I feel thedark ahead of the dawn”? At such moments we need Mr. Sax’s Clown MC, who is missing in action for far toomuch of the second act, to swoop in and rescue us from banality. It’s remarkable how many clichés you’rewilling to forgive when they’re tumbled together in a nonstop rap rant, delivered by a performer like Mr. Sax,who gets high on his own delirious rhymes.

Venice

Book by Eric Rosen; music by Matt Sax; lyrics by Mr. Sax and Mr. Rosen; additional music by Curtis Moore;choreography by Chase Brock; directed by Mr. Rosen; sets by Beowulf Boritt; costumes by Clint Ramos;lighting by Jason Lyons; sound by Acme Sound Partners; projections by Jason H. Thompson; music supervisor,orchestrator and vocal arranger, Mr. Moore; dramaturge, Doug Wright; music director, Jim Abbott; music



production by Mr. Sax, Mr. Moore and Joshua Horvath; production stage manager, Kelly Glasow; associateartistic director, Mandy Hackett; associate producer, Maria Goyanes; general manager, Steven Showalter;production executive, Ruth E. Sternberg. A PublicLab production, presented by the Public Theater, OskarEustis, artistic director; Patrick Willingham, executive director, by special arrangement with Kansas CityRepertory Theater and Center Theater Group. At the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, EastVillage, (212) 967-7555, publictheater.org. Through June 30. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.

WITH: Uzo Aduba (Anna Monroe), Jennifer Damiano (Willow Turner), Claybourne Elder (Michael Victor),Jonathan-David (Theodore Westbrook), Leslie Odom Jr. (Markos Monroe), Victoria Platt (Emilia Monroe),Angela Polk (Hailey Daisy), Matt Sax (Clown MC), Haaz Sleiman (Venice Monroe) and Emilee Dupré, SemharGhebremichael, Devin L. Roberts and Manuel Stark (Ensemble).

Sexual Trafficking, Up Close and Personal - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...views/roadkill-bears-witness-to-human-trafficking.html?ref=theater&_r=1&&pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:03:11 AM]

June 16, 2013THEATER REVIEW

Sexual Trafficking, Up Close and PersonalBy BEN BRANTLEY

The girl on the bus had been promised summer and sunshine, she says, and it is cool and clammy on this wetevening in June. But Mary, 14 years old and fresh from Nigeria, is willing to forgive this new, exciting city itsdisappointing weather. If she has any suspicion that what awaits at the end of her journey will be beyondforgiveness, she does not betray it.

Thus began the performance I attended of “Roadkill,” the unsettling site-specific theater piece about sextrafficking created by Cora Bissett, first seen three years ago at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and brought toNew York by St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. The audience members, who numbered about 20, had boardedthe same bus as Mary outside the Warehouse’s theater.

She proved to be a delightful traveling companion, infectiously alert to the changing landscape as we rodetoward Clinton Hill, and full of artless questions for her bus mates. Were we rich? Did we have cars? Did welive in houses?

Though portrayed by the adult actress Mercy Ojelade, Mary seemed far more childlike, less guarded and moreexuberantly hopeful than most American teenagers. How could you not answer her questions? How could younot want to protect her? How could you not feel an urge to yell at her to get off that bus right now? Needlessto say, nobody yelled anything like that; we were watching a play.

Ms. Bissett fully intends to exacerbate the sense of helplessness that is always to some extent part of being apassive spectator. In forcing us into instant intimacy with its guileless heroine, “Roadkill” makes us feelpersonally responsible for what happens to Mary once she steps off the bus and into a town house in ClintonHill.

Within minutes of her arrival she will be raped by a pimp. Shortly after, she will be sexually servicing manafter man; they will later describe her performance in consumer satisfaction reports, as if she were a newmodel of car. As we are ushered from room to room, we share the claustrophobic prison that is now Mary’shome (designed by Jessica Brettle and lighted by Paul Sorley).

Conceived and directed by Ms. Bissett, with a text by Stef Smith, “Roadkill” was inspired by first-personaccounts from girls and young women who have been sold into prostitution. This is by design a consciousness-raising show, meant to bring a sobering immediacy to a topic that has become a regular subject of televisioncrime shows like “Law and Order: SVU.” (The program includes a list of ways to help stop human trafficking.)

Ms. Bissett successfully avoids tabloid prurience in telling Mary’s story. The girl’s initial rape and subsequentsexual encounters are mostly rendered impressionistically, in animation (by Marta Mackova) and videoprojections (by Kim Beveridge) on the walls. The sequences are artfully made, but there’s a didactic quality totheir inclusion, making you feel a bit like a visitor at a sexual trafficking information center.

Sexual Trafficking, Up Close and Personal - The New York Times

http://theater.nytimes.com/...views/roadkill-bears-witness-to-human-trafficking.html?ref=theater&_r=1&&pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:03:11 AM]

In other scenes the audience is put in the position of uncomfortable eavesdropper on Mary’s conversationswith Martha (Adura Onashile), the older woman who accompanied her on her bus trip as a seeminglybenevolent aunt. As played with alternating warmth and brusqueness by Ms. Onashile, Martha is no bluntlydrawn villain but a survivor of an experience similar to Mary’s, who has now pragmatically accepted the rulesof her trade as grim but unavoidable facts of life.

Viewed coldly as a work of theater, “Roadkill” is variable. It can seem clumsy, in hindsight, as it switchesbetween live and video sequences. And the use of a single actor (the credible but overworked John Kazek) asthe different men in Mary’s life, from her evil pimp to her loving father, goes against the grain of you-are-thereexperiential theater. (Michael Bradley Cohen completes the cast as a police officer who arrives during a noisyparty.)

But “Roadkill” is not meant to be viewed coldly. And it is unlikely that anyone who sees it will be able tosustain an objective distance. That’s largely because of the performance of Ms. Ojelade, whose Mary seems toage, harden and wither before our eyes.

She is not on the bus that takes the audience back to St. Ann’s Warehouse after the show. And something like ascream fills the silence left by the girl who 90 minutes earlier had been so full of ingenuous chatter.

Roadkill

Conceived and directed by Cora Bissett; text by Stef Smith; sets and costumes by Jessica Brettle; lighting byPaul Sorley; video art by Kim Beveridge; animation art by Marta Mackova; dramaturge, Pamela McQueen;assistant director/sound design by Harry Wilson; movement by Natasha Gilmore; associate producer, ColinBaird. Produced by Pachamama Productions and Richard Jordan Productions, in association with TraverseTheater, Edinburgh; presented by St. Ann’s Warehouse, Susan Feldman, artistic director; Andrew D.Hamingson, executive director. Bus departs from St. Ann’s Warehouse, 29 Jay Street, at Plymouth Street,Dumbo, Brooklyn, (718) 254-8779, stannswarehouse.org. Through June 30. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

WITH: Mercy Ojelade (Mary), Adura Onashile (Aunt Martha), John Kazek (Various Male Roles) and MichaelBradley Cohen (Police Officer).

Harold J. Cromer, Vaudeville Duo’s Stumpy, Is Dead - NYTimes.com

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/theater/harold-j-cromer-the-stumpy-of-vaudevilles-duo-stump-and-stumpy-dies.html?pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:01:50 AM]

June 13, 2013

Harold J. Cromer, Vaudeville Duo’s Stumpy, IsDeadBy BRUCE WEBER

Harold J. Cromer, a hoofer and comedian who as Stumpy, half of the vaudevillian duo Stump and Stumpy,performed antic dance routines in clubs around the country after World War II and later on television, died onJune 8 at his home in Manhattan. He was in his early 90s.

His death was confirmed by his great-granddaughter Chelsea Phillips.

Stump and Stumpy were among the top comedy teams to play the black theater and nightclub circuit — includingthe Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas — from the 1930s into the 1950s. They alsoappeared at the Paramount Theater and the Copacabana.

James Cross was Stump, who towered over his partner, Stumpy (initially played by Eddie Hartman), and their actplayed off their differences in height — Mr. Cromer was 5-foot-2 — and their contrasting levels of sophistication.(Stumpy was the sharper-witted.)

They sang and danced, and they clowned with great precision, often to the music of jazz orchestras, frequentlyperforming on the same bill with the likes of Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, EllaFitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Mr. Cromer took over the Stumpy role in the late 1940s or early ’50s.

With the emergence of television in the 1950s, the pair appeared on the Milton Berle and Steve Allen variety showsand occasionally in dramatic series, including “Dragnet” and “Gunsmoke.” Their slickly choreographed high jinksare said to have inspired those of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

Mr. Cromer was a self-taught dancer who was known early on for tapping on roller skates. As a teenager heappeared on Broadway in the Cole Porter musical “Du Barry Was a Lady” (1939), which starred Ethel Merman andBert Lahr, and in which Mr. Cromer had two dance numbers with a leggy young ingénue, Betty Grable.

He stayed with the show after it went on the road (with Gypsy Rose Lee in the Merman role), and, in 1943, heappeared in another Broadway musical, “Early to Bed,” with music by Fats Waller. But his mainstream stage careerwas stalled by a lack of opportunities for black performers. He didn’t return to Broadway until 1978 in “TheAmerican Dance Machine,” a show named for a touring dance company that specialized in reviving dance numbersfrom musicals of the past.

“There was no advancement,” he recalled about his early theater days in a 2001 interview with the Web site Talkin’Broadway. “I did that and that was it. I went out on the road and continued to do ‘Du Barry Was a Lady.’ Afterthat, what’s next, little man, when your show closes in Columbus, Ohio? I came back to New York and nothing wasgoing on. That’s when I started to get into vaudeville.”

Mr. Cromer was born in Manhattan and grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of the West Side, and inHarlem. His father, William, a railroad worker, and his mother, the former Hattie Bell DeWalt, were transplantsfrom South Carolina.

Always coy about his age, Mr. Cromer would acknowledge only that his birthday was on June 21. Public recordsreport the year to be anywhere from 1921 to 1923, and Ms. Phillips, his great-granddaughter, said it might havebeen 1920. He was one of nine children, including a twin sister.

Harold J. Cromer, Vaudeville Duo’s Stumpy, Is Dead - NYTimes.com

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/theater/harold-j-cromer-the-stumpy-of-vaudevilles-duo-stump-and-stumpy-dies.html?pagewanted=print[6/17/2013 11:01:50 AM]

Mr. Cromer said he was inspired to dance when he saw a movie in which Bill Bojangles Robinson tapped down aflight of stairs. Through his early teens he helped support his family by dancing on the street (sometimes on skates)for change and winning groceries in dance competitions. During high school — he never finished — he danced at anight spot called the Kit Kat Club. He sang and danced in the 1938 film “Swing!,” directed by Oscar Micheaux.

Mr. Cromer appeared in other films over the years, including “The Cotton Club” in 1984. In the late 1950s and early’60s, he was the M.C. for touring rock ’n’ roll shows produced by Irvin Feld, introducing performers like Paul Anka,Bobby Darin, Bill Haley and His Comets, Aretha Franklin and a young Stevie Wonder — to whom, according to Ms.Phillips, he gave a harmonica. (Mr. Wonder returned it decades later, she said.)

Mr. Cromer outlived two wives: Gloria Freeman, whom he married in 1939 or 1940 and who died in 1971, andCarol Carter, whom he married in 1980 and who died in 2000. In addition to Ms. Phillips, his survivors include adaughter, Dierdre Graham; a son, Harold Jr., known as Poppy; a brother, Raymond; five grandchildren, eight othergreat-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

In later years Mr. Cromer performed in Off Broadway revues and traveled widely as a teacher, often using his ownchoreographed piece “Opus One,” as a textbook. “Aside from ‘Opus One,’ danced to the Tommy Dorsey tune,there’s not a huge body of choreography that Harold left behind, but that one work, with its swinging rhythms andclassic vernacular moves, was a classic primer in rhythm tap,” Constance Valis Hill, a tap historian and professor ofdance at Hampshire College, wrote in an e-mail. “He kept the tradition alive for younger dancers. His life inentertainment — as a busker tapping for pennies, a vaudevillian, song-and-dance man, comedy tap dancer bringingthat black vernacular style to Broadway — is iconic, representative of his time. If you saw him singing and dancing‘Mr. Bojangles,’ you’d know his story.”

true blood' star will play stanley in 'streetcar' - nytimes

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