The Great Society at Vivian Beaumont Theatre 🎭

“The Great Society” played at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre until November 30. It told part of the story of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency.

The play starred Brian Cox as Johnson. He did a masterful job as the former president.

The play itself was interesting, but overwhelming with all the facts and events thrown into it.

The first act covers Johnson’s state of the union address in 1965 to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.

This play is a sequel to “All the Way” which also played on Broadway and starred Bryan Cranston as Johnson. Obviously I’m not sure how that play turned out, but this doesn’t cover Johnson’s full presidency from beginning to end.

It seems as though the end of Johnson’s presidency didn’t end too well.  There were riots he had to deal with as well as the Vietnam war. The death toll of the war is projected on the back of the set throughout various points in the play and the number continues to grow higher and higher.

These are things that of course actually happened. They affected Johnson, but it’s not always easy to see how. As soon as one point in history is brought up another follows quickly behind it.

The Vietnam war continues due to bad information the president receives from his defense secretaries. J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King also play roles in Johnson’s presidency, but it’s hard to keep track of what or how they did.

There is a lot happening at once. There are also a lot of characters and many of the actors play more than one. Unless you were alive during that particular time in American history, it’s hard to keep up. This is the biggest flaw in the play as the effects of all these events are rushed in an effort to cover everything.

Johnson is also hardly in the play. We see him react to a new bit of information and we see him panic or make a choice on what to do then he disappears as something else starts happening. I wish we had gotten more time with him to truly see how he felt. I wanted to see more of his thought processes and the toll everything took on him.

We see how Johnson ensured that some of his proposals passed.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s hard to see a three dimensional person behind those decisions. He knows how to get the American Medical Association’s support in creating Medicare. With the press present he’s able to get the governor of Alabama to protect the civil rights marchers.

These events tell the audience nothing that they can’t look up themselves. There were a lot of things that happened during Johnson’s presidency, way too many to fit into an almost three hour play, but playwright a Robert Schenkkan certainly tried.

While Brian Cox as Johnson was onstage the entire time, he didn’t have much to do as information was given, he made a decision and it started over again. The same with the supporting characters. They introduced information and left soon after delivering it.

There are minor moments that try to show glimpses of Johnson and who he was as a person. Overall, though that’s what I wanted more of.

Yes there is always a lot to cover in biographies. That doesn’t mean, that the aspects of that person’s character and thoughts and beliefs can’t be showcased more. Anyone can look up the events that happened to find out the causes and results, but how did those affect the man in office? Brian Cox did a wonderful job. He could have truly delved into the character even more had he been given the chance.

The few opportunities Cox is given to experience the the more emotional aspects of the character he does just. These moments are few, but we see how those moments could truly affect someone. Johnson starts off a lot more confident than he ends and in those brief moments we can understand why.

As a history fan, “The Great Society” was interesting. It’s such a shame that the characters were not fully fleshed out. Ultimately we go to the theatre to see conflict and to see that conflict resolved.

Politics I do not find interesting. Even so, I would have wanted to see what drove Johnson’s political beliefs and decisions.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

 “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is an unexpected biopic in that Fred Rogers is not the main focus of the film.

Yup.

You still learn a great deal about the man known as Mr. Rogers. The film just went about a completely different way about it. Overall, it works. 

I loved the story, but I did want more Mr. Rogers. After all, he’s the reason I was watching the film in the first place. 

Director Marie Heller came up with a cute way to transport us to the different locations throughout the film. Model sets reminiscent of Mr. Rogers’ land of make believe took us from place to place and it was fun to see that. 

The film opens on Mr. Rogers (Tom Hanks) singing his show’s opening tune “Won’t You be my Neighbor?”

Tom Hanks plays Mr. Rogers incredibly well. He got the voice down and does a wonderful job of capturing the man many children grew up with on screen.

In the opening show within the movie, Mr. Rogers begins by presenting a picture board to the audience. 

The pictures are of Mr. Rogers’s friends, but one isn’t like the others. One of the pictures is a mugshot  of  Mr. Rogers’s new friend Lloyd (Matthew Rhys). 

Lloyd is based on journalist Tom Junod who interviewed Mr. Rogers for a feature in Esquire magazine. Lloyd happens to be the main focus of the film. 

Lloyd takes his journalistic job seriously and refuses to do anything that isn’t hard hitting. 

Unfortunately, for the magazine’s upcoming Heroes edition only one man agreed to be interviewed by Lloyd. That man is of course, Mr. Rogers. 

Lloyd isn’t a nice man. He’s so different from his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) that it’s a wonder how they’re still together. 

The antagonist comes in the form of Lloyd’s father (Chris Cooper). Lloyd has hated his father ever since he abandoned the family after Lloyd’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. 

Now the tie in with Mr. Rogers. 

As Lloyd begins interviewing Mr. Rogers, he finds that Mr. Rogers asks him just as many questions in return. Little by little in the only ways Mr. Rogers can, Lloyd’s begins to confront all his issues. 

Lloyd tries desperately to uncover the real Mr. Rogers and not the persona seen in TV, but it appears, that they were in fact one in the same. The man people saw on their TV screens was the same man they met on the street. 

Hanks portrays this beautifully. If there was one word Mr. Rogers hated to be called it was a saint. He admittedly had a short temper, but he worked daily on controlling it. 

Focusing on Lloyd allows us to see Mr. Rogers as he existed in the world. The downside is that, we don’t get Mr. Rogers’s full story. How he came to be on television and why he stopped and why he decided to ultimately come back. 

My admiration continues to grow for this man, but if you truly want to learn more about the man on your TV screens the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is the way to do it. 

The Dork Knight at Cherry Lane Theatre 🎭

Jason O’Connell’s one man show correlates the Batman movies and his life. Most recently seen as Mr. Darcy in Primary Stages’ production of “Pride and Prejudice”, Mr. O’Connell brings us along on his life’s journey. O’Connell is a huge Batman fan and it appears that major life events happened near the release of the Batman films. It was an absolute joy to experience.

O’Connell relates his life to the audience while also seeking refuge within his favorite superhero. Each film came at the right moment in his life as he grew from childhood to adulthood. Batman was there through it all. From his first date to his first years as a struggling actor he was able to find comfort in the caped crusader. O’Connell sought advice from the caped crusader and the other characters in the films and they take form in his pretty spot on impressions of the actors that portrayed them. He switches back and forth from him to the Batman characters giving him advice.

O’Connell’s passion for Batman is infectious. I loved it as a non comic fan as much as my Batman loving husband did. O’Connell unites all the Batmans from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale as well as the villains they face. The lights help differentiate between O’Connell and his Batman impressions, though he does that well enough on his own.

It’s a genuinely engaging show. O’Connell’s performance is as truthful as it can get while being funny and sad all at the same time. While he does mention Ben Affleck’s Batman, his story truly ends with “The Dark Knight Rises”. That was the perfect ending to him as Bruce Wayne finally got the happy ending O’Connell thought he deserved.

People can say it’s silly for a grown man to love something nerdy this much, but I disagree. O’Connell had an absent father and while his grandfather was a fantastic father figure, O’Connell was also influenced by Batman. We can all deny our inner nerd. However, I believe there’s something nerdy in all our lives that influenced us (even those of you who may outright refuse to admit it). My nerdy aspect is Harry Potter. If I wanted to, I could probably write how Harry Potter correlated and influenced me. We can all learn from Mr. O’Connell that the truth in our inner nerd is something to be celebrated.

Fear at the Lucille Lortel Theatre

I’m a sucker for a good thriller. Plot twists, done well, also fill me with glee.

“Fear” currently playing Off Broadway, left me wanting more.

The description sounded cool, but I was left unsatisfied.

Phil (Enrico Colantoni) enters a shed in the woods pushing in a teenage boy. Jamie (Alexander Garfin) is subjected to harsh treatment, before Phil ties him to a chair.

An 8-year-old girl has gone missing and Phil is convinced Jamie is involved with her disappearance.

Phil gets more aggressive with his questioning when Ethan (Obi Abili) enters the scene. He is disgusted by what he sees, but he has no cell phone reception or any way to report what he has stumbled upon.

Phil conveniently has cell phone reception and is able to take phone calls often. For whatever reason he leaves Ethan alone with Jamie during these phone calls.

Ethan is book smart, but not smart otherwise as he is unable to untie Jamie from the chair. He also doesn’t look for anything that can cut the rope even though they’re in a shed.

The play’s main conflict revolves around Ethan as he has to choose who to believe. Phil and Jaime give him conflicting stories and it’s unclear who is the unreliable one.

The premise of the play had potential. I was excited to see this until I realized that the playwright had also written another show I didn’t enjoy titled “Actually, we’re f*cked”.

The audience, along with Ethan, must figure out if Jamie is as misunderstood as he claims to be or if Phil knows more about the kid than he lets on.

Garfin does a masterful job of winning the audience’s sympathy.

The main problems arise from the adult characters as they seem more like caricatures rather than three dimensional characters.

The technical aspects of the show are great, though.

Last Christmas 🎄(2019)

If you’re familiar with the titular song, it might not be hard to guess the premise of this film. The film stars Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh in this romantic comedy. Kate (Emilia Clarke) is trying her hardest to avoid her overbearing mother (Emma Thompson, who also co-wrote the screenplay). Her life is not a happy one, but things change after she meets Golding’s character at work. As my roommates keep reminding me, this film is cheesy af. The twist is not as clever as the creative team tries to make you believe. Still, cheesy Christmas movies aren’t meant to win awards and this one warmed my cold heart.