Food for Thought, or Just Food?

Give the producers of Sixteen Wounded credit for bringing a genuinely controversial play to Broadway. Nobody is preaching to the choir, so to speak, when one stages in New York City a play that asks its audience to be sympathetic to an Arab terrorist. The playwright, Eliam Kraiem, would probably claim that he is being even-handed but that’s not the way that many people here are likely to see it. True, the ultimately tragic play dramatically drives home the point that there are no easy answers to the Arab/Israeli conflict, but that’s hardly news.

Politics aside, Sixteen Wounded suffers from some fundamental flaws. To begin with, telling us that Judd Hirsch’s role is that of a Dutch baker named Hans does nothing to change the fact that everyone in the Walter Kerr Theatre knows Hirsch is playing a Jew — yet the revelation of his religion is supposed to be a surprise! Meanwhile, the character of the terrorist-in-hiding, played by Omar Metwally, is so obnoxious that it’s hard to believe anyone would deal with him, let alone love him.

The play’s two female roles, essayed by Martha Plimpton and Jan Maxwell, are exceptionally well performed. But, unlike the other characters, a back-story for Jan Maxwell’s aging prostitute is never provided. That’s unsatisfying, and so is the play.

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Half-Baked

Chef’s Theater at The Supper Club is all about great food and drink. Every week, a different famous chef presents his or her edible creations to an audience hungry for a new sort of entertainment. As high-concept marketing, Chef’s Theater is brilliant. As a theatrical event, however, it’s matzo: The flat and dry elements of the show never rise above the mundane. This is no fault of the talent involved, much of which is rather impressive; rather it’s the focus of the entire enterprise that scuttles not only the artistry of the performers but the musical aspects of the show, as well.

Some of the most gifted songwriters in town — Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, Andrew Lippa — were commissioned to write food-related songs for this show. These numbers have some appeal but not in the context of the Las-Vegas-lounge-type show in which they’re presented. This is a show that truly goes from the frying pan into the fire: When it doesn’t come off as a cheesy nightclub revue, it emulates an even cheesier TV food show. Stafford Arima directs with a sledgehammer, making painfully obvious choices at every turn.

We could not have picked a better night to see Chef’s Theater, which offers a veritable Viennese Table of guest performers to choose from in its upcoming schedule. We lucked out and had Michele Pawk performing a modest set between dinner and dessert. She was her usual exceptional self but, most unfortunately, the crowd assembled seemed neither to know or care who she was. The same might be said of the three otherwise appealing hosts of the evening: Paige Price, Jim Walton, and Shannon Lewis.

In brief: You will eat and drink well at Chef’s Theater but, as theater or even as nightclub entertainment, there are a lot of empty calories here.

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