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DOING INGE PROUD

William Inge’s plays are not revived as often as those of his contemporary Tennessee Williams, even though both writers dealt with similar themes. There’s a general consensus that Picnic, Bus Stop, Come Back, Little Sheba, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs are not quite at the same exalted level of dramaturgy as The Glass Menagerie or A Streetcar Named Desire, but the just-closed Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Bus Stop demonstrated that Inge’s comparatively low level of popularity in our time may have nothing to do with the quality of the plays themselves. Rather, it’s probably traceable to the fact that some of the high-profile revivals that did occur were lackluster. (Certainly, neither the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 1994 Picnic nor the 1996 Bus Stop at Circle in the Square — with Billy Crudup and Mary-Louise Parker in the leads — did Inge’s reputation any favors.)

Directed with the utmost skill and taste by Will Frears, Williamstown’s Bus Stop was a well-nigh perfect realization of a comedy that many of us tend to think of as sweet and mildly entertaining but resolutely old-fashioned in its dialogue and construction. The script does have its contrivances, yet it also has a tremendous amount of heart and humor — and when it’s as skillfully directed and honestly acted as in this production, it still works like a charm. Logan Marshall-Green was dynamic, funny, and sexy as Bo Decker, the brash young cowboy who plans on taking a nightclub chanteuse named Cherie back to his ranch in Montana whether she likes it or not. Elizabeth Banks, brandishing a thoroughly convincing Ozarks accent, was sweetly vulnerable and adorable as the lady in question; Bill Camp gave a definitive performance as the tormented Dr. Lyman, a character who in lesser hands can seem to have wandered into the proceedings from some other Inge play; and Elizabeth Marvel (a.k.a. Mrs. Camp) was a marvel as Grace, the no-nonsense proprietor of the Kansas diner in which Bo, Cherie, Lyman, and Bo’s sidekick Virgil find themselves stranded during a snowstorm.

One example of director Frears’ brilliance was his decision to present the play without a break, rather than in three acts as it was originally done on Broadway. This made all the difference in the world. Believe it or not, the running time of the performance was only one hour and 45 minutes, even though the script was played uncut. All that was missing were the intermissions.

Over and above its excellence in so many other areas, the production was notable in demonstrating how effective alternative casting can be when done with intelligence. Though it perhaps strains credulity a bit for Virgil and the bus driver Carl to be played by actors of color, it’s certainly not inconceivable that these characters could be African American — and the fully realized performances of Leon Addison Brown and John Douglas Thompson in these respective roles helped smooth over whatever slight amount of incredulity might have remained.

All too often, when plays and musicals are revived, the powers that be rush to have them rewritten under the assumption that tinkering is necessary to make them palatable to modern-day audiences. Happily, such theater groups as the Keen Company and the Mint continue to prove time and again that if a play was popular in its time, chances are good that it’s still viable in the right hands. Many thanks to everyone involved in the Williamstown production of Bus Stop for making that point yet again.

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APPLE PICKING IN THE HUDSON VALLEY

Which original cast album is the least satisfactory aural document of the show it supposedly represents? Many musical theater buffs would immediately shriek “Follies!” in answer to that question, but an argument can be made that The Golden Apple — a through-sung 1954 musical by Jerome Moross and John Latouche, freely based on Homer’s Odyssey — got an even worse deal in the recording studio. Aside from the fact that more than half of the score was excised in order to fit the recording onto one LP, the RCA album was marred by the addition of rhymed narration specially written by librettist LaTouche at the last minute to fill the plot holes created by the cuts. On top of all that, the recording dates from the pre-stereo era, so the lush Moross/Hershy Kay orchestrations of such songs as “Lazy Afternoon,” “Windflowers,” and “It’s the Coming Home Together” can’t be fully appreciated.

So God bless conductor/musical director Jonathan Tunick and those in charge of the SummerScape series at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson for presenting a concert version of this lovely but obscure musical on Sunday afternoon, August 28. The American Symphony Orchestra played the score beautifully, though the decision to have the musicians on stage with the singers unfortunately resulted in some of Latouche’s marvelous lyrics not coming through as clearly as they should have.

Though clearly somewhat underrehearsed, the cast was superb. Howard McGillin, soon to go back into servitude in the title role of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, reveled in the far superior music of The Golden Apple. Kate Baldwin was delightfully seductive as Helen, and there were jewel-like performances by Nancy Opel (Lovey Mars), Ann Crumb (Miss Minerva Oliver), Cheryl Stern (Mrs. Juniper), Evalyn Baron (Mother Hare), and the clarion-voiced Daniel Marcus as Menelaus. John Cullum was an authoritative presence as Hector despite some fumbling of lyrics, and “The Heroes” were stalwartly played by David Staller, Brandon Victor Dixon, Graham Rowat, Drew McVety, Sinclair Mitchell, and Ken Jennings. But, for me, the real revelation of the afternoon was Crista Moore; I knew Moore as Louise in the Tyne Daly Gypsy, as Susan in the ill-fated musical Big, and as Grace Farrell in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Annie, but I had no idea that her soprano was so exceptionally strong and beautiful as it was proven to be in Penelope’s challenging music.

No professional live recording of the concert was made, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone’s going to fork over the funds necessary to get all those people into a studio in order that they might make a cast album worthy of the piece. If I had half a brain, I would have smuggled a recorder into the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts — but I suppose several other people did just that, so not to worry. (I don’t normally encourage such behavior, but if no one’s going to step up to the plate to issue a commercial recording, I say: Go for the bootleg!)

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TRAIN-ING DAY

If you’d like to catch rising stars on stage but aren’t sure exactly where to go, theAtrainplays is a fine place to start. Perhaps the most intriguing of the several 24-hour play projects that exist in NYC, theAtrainplays have featured such performers as Ashlie Atkinson, who went on to great critical acclaim in the central role of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig; Ryan Duncan, now best known as Juan in Altar Boyz; and Tracie Thoms, who’ll be seen as Joanne in the soon to be released film version of Rent.

Atkinson and Duncan will appear in the upcoming volume of theAtrainplays, to be presented under the rubric of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) beginning September 13 at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Amazingly, this is the 20th volume of the series, which began in May 2002. “Actors, writers, and directors keep coming back to us,” says Larry Feeney, producer and creator of theAtrainplays. “We’ve had two marriages among people who’ve participated, and I think nine kids have been born. Tracie Thoms has done theAtrainplays five times, and she just did Manhattan Bound — a full-length musical that was written in eight days — for us right after she finished filming Rent. She would have done the NYMF shows except that she has to make public appearances for the movie.”

Here’s how it works: On Monday evening, September 12, six librettists will board the A train at 207th Street and begin writing the books for six 15-minute musicals, all set on the subway. Before the trip begins, each team picks a number between 3 and 5 in order to determine how many characters will be in their musical; then, in a blind drawing, they choose that number of headshots to determine which actors will be in their cast. When the librettists reach the Far Rockaway station, they select via another blind drawing their collaborative lyricists, composers, and choreographers, who have been waiting for them at a nearby McDonalds. Six directors then meet the creators at 207th Street and everyone proceeds to Columbus Circle to hook up with the pre-selected actors and to make copies of their script notes at the Kinko’s there. That’s when rehearsals begin. Everyone has until showtime the next day — Tuesday, September 13 at 8pm — to develop these works into performable, one-scene musicals. (The program will have 12 subsequent performances through September 24.)

Feeney and crew participated in the inaugural season of NYMF last year, and he’s thrilled to be back for the festival’s second go-round. Why do theAtrainplays have such a high percentage of returnees, including folks who gone on to much bigger things? The way Feeney sees it, “People come back because, although it’s hard work, it’s also extremely fun. When the product is put up after 24 hours, you have a real sense of accomplishment. There’s no envy, no jealousy in the process — just a bunch of artists who want to have a good time together. In a weird way, it’s almost relaxing!”