By George, I Think He’s Got It!

Passion is to the theater what caffeine is to coffee. Inspired since childhood by the life and work of George M. Cohan, journalist Chip Deffaa was determined to shine a light on the man who changed the face of American musical theater, so he set about to create a musical celebrating his idol. Over the past few years, he developed a variety of different Cohan shows for different sized casts. (The first incarnation that we saw had 16 players.) Remarkably, he did so without ever repeating a song or any dialogue from one show to the next. The only constant in each of the productions was Jon Peterson as Cohan. Now, Deffaa has finally reduced the show down its core, making it a one-person musical. What was once a diamond in the rough became the brilliant, multi-faceted sparkler called George M. Cohan Tonight!, currently playing at the Irish Rep.

This is a sophisticated and amazingly thorough biography of Cohan, told largely in song and dance. Impressively economical, without ever stinting on the facts, Deffaa’s script is exquisite in its deceptive simplicity. The story flows so naturally that it almost seems to tell itself — but it is actually told in one fast-paced fluid act by Peterson, a dynamic triple threat as actor, singer, and dancer.

The show gives us the facts on Cohan, from birth to death, with a charming combination of brash bravado and a self-aware sense of humor. The tap-dance choreography (Peterson’s own) is a tonic, and Deffaa’s direction is seamless. George M. Cohan Tonight! offers audiences a delightful opportunity to learn about the roots of our musical theater heritage in the most entertaining way possible.

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A Family Affair

Jewish mothers are getting a workout this season. Following Judy Gold’s comic impalement on the sword of Jewish matriarchy is the return of Family Secrets. In this solo show, last seen here in 1993, Sherry Glaser impressively plays five different characters in a Jewish family: the laconic father, the manic-depressive mother, two of the family’s daughters, and the hip grandmother.

Glaser co-wrote the show with her late husband, Greg Howells. Though this is ostensibly a play about a family, its fundamental focus is more specifically on motherhood. Starting things off with the father directs our attention away from the main theme — even more so because he’s one of her most original and entertaining characters — but, eventually, the emphasis shifts and the three generations of women in the play take center stage.

If there’s a significant problem here, it’s that it is almost impossible to present a play about the secrets of an upper middle class Jewish family to a New York audience, from whom no such secrets are kept. For us, it’s all one big, living-color cliché. Family Secrets skillfully elicits some genuine laughs and tears but often resorts to easy gags and low comedy. Nose-picking, for instance, is not the classiest way to go. (We should blame director Bob Balaban for this sorry bit of shtick.)

Any play that asks the audience to sing along to “Sunrise, Sunset” is obviously reaching out to the sentimentalists in the crowd. There is an undercutting sense of humor in the play’s sentimentality, and — for the most part — Glaser depicts the characters with intelligence and wit, but some of them can be rather irritating. Just like family.

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Hedda the Harpy

It was with enormous anticipation that we set off for BAM to see Cate Blanchett in Hedda Gabler. The actress seemed to be perfect casting for Ibsen’s tragic heroine. The problem is that the director, Robyn Nevin, has misused her and most of the rest of the cast so miserably that it feels as if Ibsen’s play was the one tossed into the fire in the second act.

In this hapless production, Hedda is played like a hateful Harpy from the start; all of the subtext is right on the surface. In an effort to make the character more likeable in the face of her rotten behavior, the director has Blanchett play her scenes for comedy — a huge mistake. (When Hedda tells her husband that she burned Lovberg’s manuscript, she shouldn’t get a laugh! )

To balance Blanchett’s performance, Nevin has Anthony Weigh play her husband, the academic Jorgen Tesman, as a buffoon. Meanwhile, her former lover, Lovberg, is a cipher as played by Aden Young; and Justine Clarke is miscast as Thea Elvstead for her hair alone. Only Hugo Weaving as the Judge offers a credible characterization; he is sinister and sly without descending to the level of a Snidely Whiplash. Otherwise, the production is a major disappointment.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]