What Gaul

Rarely does a playwright have the opportunity not only to write the film adaptation of his own work but also to direct it, yet that’s exactly what Craig Lucas has done with the big-screen version of his Off-Broadway play The Dying Gaul. At the Vineyard Theater, the play was troubling and incisive, but Lucas has now sharpened the talons of the script so that it claws at your emotions. This is a movie thriller like none you have ever seen before; put it first on your must-see list for the weekend.

The film begins on high moral ground as a young screenwriter named Robert (Peter Sarsgaard) turns down a major deal offered by a passionate film producer named Jeffrey (Campbell Scott in an intense performance). The reason: his screenplay, “The Dying Gaul,” is about the death of Robert’s lover from AIDS, but Jeffrey wants to change the role of the lover from a man to a woman and make the story about heterosexuals. When Robert storms out of Jeffrey’s office, the producer refuses to be denied and offers Robert one million dollars.

Soon after, Robert meets Jeffrey’s wife, Elaine (Patricia Clarkson). In their own separate ways, Elaine and Jeffrey bond with the diffident and distant writer. Two parallel relationships ensue, neither of which is what you would expect — unless you’ve seen the play. What drives these three people are their desires. This isn’t a movie about Hollywood corruption along the lines of The Day of the Locust; it’s about betrayal in the modern world, in which the ways that we lie and are found out lack the moral clarity that the Greeks would understand. But the characters in The Dying Gaul descend into tragedy just as do those in Greek drama.

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An Odd Disappointment

Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple is a one-joke comedy; it just happens to be a very good joke. The play has proven to be a more than reliable vehicle for top-notch comic actors who know how to spin that joke into a hundred laughs. Another victory lap for this contemporary warhorse was surely expected with the casting of today’s most popular pair of Broadway stars, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, as mismatched roommates Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar. Indeed, victory was won at the box office even before the show opened with a staggering advance sale of $21 million. But it’s a hollow victory in that this production is not hitting on all its comic cylinders.

Still, anyone who tells you that the show isn’t funny should listen to the laughter that explodes throughout the theater from the play’s start to its finish. The supporting players could not be improved upon, and Brad Garrett as Murray the Cop comes near to stealing every scene he’s in. As Oscar, Nathan Lane somehow manages to be vulnerable while tossing off acerbic one-liners with impeccable timing. But Matthew Broderick isn’t getting everything that might be gotten out of the role of Felix. If Lane more than holds his own against memories of his predecessors Walter Matthau and Jack Klugman, Broderick is in a losing battle against Jack Lemmon and Tony Randall. He does get some laughs, but only because they’re imbedded in the writing.

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Hear What You Wanna Hear

When you’re leaving The Public Theater after attending See What I Wanna See, you’re probably going to hear people saying, “I don’t understand what the second act has to do with the first.” You may even be one of the people who say that. But we believe the two acts have a great deal in common; while the second doesn’t continue with the characters established in the first, the two pieces are connected thematically in that they both explore the elusive nature of “truth.”

In the first act, R Shomon, a man is found dead in New York’s Central Park and we get four differing stories of how he died. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which one is true; what matters is the artful ways in which Michael John LaChiusa spins the various tales in words and music. Enjoy the art of ambiguity as the piece unfolds in a brash combination of musical styles including classical-sounding themes and a jazz-infused, Bernard Hermann-like, film noir sound. LaChiusa’s dark, foreboding, highly theatrical music grabs you while the lyrics cleverly tell the story, phrases overlapping from character to character with subtle changes in meaning and emphasis.

The much different second act, Gloryday, deals with a priest who has lost his faith in God after 9/11 and sets in motion a religious hoax. Unwittingly, this charade gives hope to the city’s multitudes, and the ironic finale reveals the cosmic truth behind the show’s title. Very different in style from both R Shomon and Gloryday is Kesa & Morito, a two character mini-musical that unfolds in two parts, used as curtain-raisers for the two acts.

This challenging, provocative work rightly deserves to be at the Public. It’s not a mass market musical, even if it is LaChiusa’s most accessible show since The Wild Party. The show is made even more inviting by Ted Sperling’s vivid direction and the performances of an A-plus cast: the ravishing Idina Menzel, who can act as well as she sings; the powerful Marc Kudisch; the arresting Aaron Lohr; the wonderfully innocent Henry Stram; and the dynamic Mary Testa. (While we’re giving credit, Bruce Coughlin’s orchestrations are exquisite.) LaChiusa doesn’t only push the envelope here; he stuffs it and puts his stamp on it. See What I Wanna See is a special delivery item.

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