Cherry Picking

Summer is theater festival season in Manhattan, which means plenty of bad shows and poor acting, yet there is the ever-present hope of finding a diamond in the theatrical rough. We’ve been taking in a bunch of plays at The Sixth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival and, so far, we’ve only discovered one jewel: Inside Cherry Pitz, a one-woman comic extravaganza written and performed by the stunning Cyndi Freeman.

Stunning in more ways than one, Freeman displays impressive versatility. The show has a definite downtown sensibility but she somehow manages to make it fun for an uptown crowd, bringing to life a wild, whacked-out story with a winning comic innocence that is as charming as it is funny. This is one of those rare festival shows that deserve a commercial production. (Stay tuned: We’ll be reporting on other MITF hits, as well as misses, in a future column.)

********************

Revivals Worth Writing Home About

The Irish Repertory Theater can usually be counted on for worthy revivals of Irish-related plays. This time, with Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come!, the company has outdone itself. This is a major-league production, one that far outshines the Roundabout’s remounting of the play a decade ago. Here is a beautiful, moving work about a young Irishman’s last day before leaving his home, family, and friends to immigrate to America. Director Ciarán O’Reillly has done a bang-up job of casting it; 14 remarkable actors grace the Irish Rep’s small stage, a number that’s remarkable in itself. Particularly brilliant are Michael FitzGerald as the public Gareth and James Kennedy as the private Gareth. We hardly know where to draw the line in lauding this exceptional troupe of actors but we can’t possibly leave out the wonderful combination of poignancy and vulgarity achieved by Helena Carroll as Aunt Lizzy.

The Mint Theater Company’s slogan is “Good Stories Well Told.” Ain’t that the truth! Their latest triumph is John Galsworthy’s The Skin Game, originally produced in 1920. Directed by Eleanor Reissa, this is a sumptuous-looking production (even though it was presumably done on a shoestring budget) of a richly detailed play that pits an upwardly mobile English family against an old-money-aristocracy clan. The Skin Game exposes hypocrisy even as it entertains us with mighty effective melodrama. A mostly fine cast is led by John C. Venema and James Gale as the two fathers, and there is a piercing performance by Monique Fowler as an upper-crust wife with the morals of a back-alley brawler.

********************

Not Such a Good Thing Going

It turns out that you don’t have to leave New York to have a summer stock experience. Drawn to the 45th Street Theatre to see a revival of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, we were shocked to find ourselves attending what appeared to be a student production. While it’s great to hear the Sondheim score, the show’s high school-level choreography sure doesn’t enhance the experience.

Everyone in the cast, regardless of the parts they’re playing, looks to be in his or her early twenties — that is, everyone except for the child playing Little Frankie, who really is a child and is therefore ever so slightly younger than his castmates. It would be unfair to call the performers inept; they are simply too raw to be performing in such a venue. Only Joshua William Gelb as Charlie Kringas is up to the demands of his role. And this at a top ticket price of $50!

********************

You Gotta Have Friends

Jamie deRoy & Friends is cabaret’s most enduring and successful variety series. Its success derives from the ability of its host to consistently produce shows that feature a healthy mixture of name-brand talent, up-and-coming stars, and artists from other fields whom deRoy introduces to cabaret. She is also very smart about stocking each program with different types of performers.

The series recently finished a sold-out run at The Encore; you can see highlights on deRoy’s cable TV show this evening. Word is that the hostess with the mostes’ is looking for a larger venue in which to produce these wonderful events later this year, to which we say: Think Birdland!

********************

Tru Grit

Theater, film, and literature will collide on the big screen with the release of Capote on September 30, which also happens to be the late Truman Capote’s birthday. The film stars theater actor/director Philip Seymour Hoffman as the title character, and we’re sure that he’ll give yet another riveting performance.

The movie is based on the biography Capote by Gerald Clarke; it has a screenplay by actor Dan Futterman, who is also one of its producers. (Hoffman is a co-producer). The film centers on Capote’s writing of In Cold Blood, the book that changed journalism forever. You’ll be pleased to see other prominent theater folk in the movie, including actor-director Bob Balaban and Amy Ryan, who was recently Tony-nominated for her performance as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire.

********************

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