Theater News

Standouts of the New Season

Barbara & Scott urge their readers to catch Tabloid Caligula and Flight before they fly the coop. Plus: Cheers for the first Leading Men concert.

Peter Tate, Suzan Sylvester, and Chris Harperin Tabloid Caligula(Photo © Hugo Glendining)
Peter Tate, Suzan Sylvester, and Chris Harper
in Tabloid Caligula
(Photo © Hugo Glendining)

New York is full of great performances that you unfortunately hear about only after they’ve gone. So, do yourself a favor: Catch Tabloid Caligula and Flight before they leave town.

We’re not Anglophiles, but after the extraordinary impact of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 last year, we wouldn’t have dreamt of passing up a chance to see some of the shows in the second annual edition (continuing through mid-July). Like the first offering we saw, The Pull of Negative Gravity (now closed), Tabloid Caligula is an exceptionally well-acted piece that is made to seem better than it really is by virtue of its top-notch cast.

The standout in a tightly woven company of three is Suzan Sylvester, who plays a character with more colors than Crayola. She enters a literal den of thieves and appears to be out of her depth — but appearances can be deceiving, especially in this piece. Young American actors should catch the show, which closes on Sunday, just to see what their British colleagues are up to.

As Charles Lindbergh in Flight, Gregg Edelman gives the best performance of his career. A four-time Tony Award nominee, Edelman brings an innocent charm to any role he plays, and he makes this controversial aviator instantly modest and likeable. Yet the actor doesn’t rely on a bag of tricks to play this part; there is raw emotion on the stage. His multi-faceted performance is a seamless masterpiece.

Flight uses Lindbergh’s life as a means to examine the nature of celebrity in America. It’s a smart and provocative piece of work, one that sadly did not get the critical support it needed to extend past its closing date of June 19.

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John Tartaglia(Photo © Michael Portantiere)
John Tartaglia
(Photo © Michael Portantiere)

Leading the Way

On May 30, Wayman Wong produced his first Leading Men concert at Joe’s Pub. Hosted by John Tartaglia, the evening was a lively look at some of the men that man the barricades of live entertainment in New York. Happily, the majority of the performers chose their material wisely and performed it well.

In particular, the cabaret contingent did themselves proud. Tom Andersen’s personalized rendition of “Downtown” was engaging and original. Tom D’Angora’s parody song “Somewhere That’s Pink” was a smash that came early in the show and set the playful, often gender-bending tone of the evening. There was also a soulful “It Goes Like it Goes” by Scott Coulter and a surprise country/western parody written by Wong, whose exuberant performance was as charming as it was funny. One of the few group numbers in the show had Andersen, Coulter, and DiPasqua singing DiPasqua’s “What Do I Know,” a bittersweet song in a wonderful arrangement.

After some other hits (and misses), the evening ended particularly well. All Shook Up star Cheyenne Jackson surprised the packed house with a hilarious comedy number titled “Mr. Potato Head.” He was followed by the deconstructing genius of Seth Rudetsky, who in turn was followed by the heroic comedy of Christopher Sieber demonstrating how he won his Tony-nominated role in Monty Python’s Spamalot by singing his audition number, Stephen Sondheim’s “Agony.” He got the job and we got to hear the song; that sort of thing was what this event was all about.

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