On Stage
KANFER, ETHAN
On Stage Traumatic Disclosures By Ethan Kanfer At Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater The Light in the Piazza, adapted from a novel by Elizabeth Spencer, offers a bittersweet...
...All too soon, unusual behavior does occur...
...Flynn loses his temper, denying that he is guilty of any wrongdoing, yet refusing to elaborate on the "private matter" between him and the boy...
...She already had to rescue Clara after an attempt to assert her independence by sneaking out of the hotel to meet Fabrizio resulted in her getting hopelessly lost...
...In the bitterly comic song "The Joy You Feel," Franca tells Clara what to expect from marriage: romance, passion, infidelity, shouting matches, tears...
...Moss will be going out with a friend, to establish a solid alibi...
...Catherine Zuber's costumes and Michael Yeargan's sets combine to create an opulent portrait of the city, with each color chosen as carefully as a stroke of paint on a Renaissance fresco...
...After talking it over with his wife, an anxious Lingk arrives to tell Roma he wants to back out of the deal he signed the night before...
...In this formal atmosphere, Aloysius cannot speak of sexual misconduct by name, but her oblique references are clear enough: Should Sister James witness anything suspicious, she is to report it immediately...
...The biggest surprise of the evening, however, turns out to be Alda...
...Roma just happens to have an inspirational text in his pocket...
...Undeterred, Sister Aloysius continues her inquisitions by calling in the boy's mother...
...What is expressed in the arias goes painfully unsaid in the awkward exchanges...
...She is 26 and Fabrizio is 20, an unheard of combination in Italy...
...Laura Bauer's suits range from schlumpy to ostentatious, providing eloquent billboards for the personalities they contain...
...She portrays Aloysius as an energetic administrator whose resistance to change is less a function of age than of a worldview formed by years of staid routine...
...After seeing him beaten by his father and harassed at public school, she wishes to spare him any further pain...
...The parade of hostile negotiations ends on a tragic note, as the police prepare to take the old man away...
...Face to face with the futility of his old school tactics, Roma heads off to the restaurant...
...Why not Aaronow...
...She flatly vetoes his suggestion of including secular holiday songs in the pageant...
...A childhood head injury has kept Clara from developing normally...
...Somehow, he finds a likable side to this craven criminal, so much so that his plight elicits sympathy rather than contempt...
...Appropriately, she has the last word...
...At first Margaret seems just another overprotective middle class matriarch, but her profound discomfort at the sight of her daughter's sexual awakening is driven by a deeply hidden secret...
...He's mild-mannered, the least likely to incur suspicion...
...Gravitte shines as a Southern gentleman skilled at business and confounded by matters of the heart...
...Berresse, especially, adds a much needed dash of humor and invites speculation as to what he might have done with a number of his own...
...When she has Fabrizio's attention, though, all she can manage to say is that Clara "is a special girl...
...He wishes to modernize the church, to present the clergy as available and positive, rather than as cold "emissaries from Rome...
...No, says Moss, "we're speaking about it...
...They need structure, a clear definition of right and wrong...
...Afterward, in history class, the boy slouches with his head on his desk and his breath smells of alcohol...
...While director Doug Hughes draws fine performances from his cast, he has difficulty adapting the action to the Walter Kerr's capacity...
...Clark's dimpled, pleasant face relaxes, revealing the vital girl the mother once was and hinting at the bitter old woman she may become...
...All that's needed is someone to actually do the burgling...
...Clara and Fabrizio may marry if they wish...
...mentally and emotionally, she is destined to remain a child...
...Rival real estate mogul Jerry Graffis willing to pay handsomely for stolen merchandise and will also offer jobs to Aaronow and Moss...
...The Machiavellian world outside has penetrated the safe haven of St...
...Thinking quickly, Levene poses as a satisfied customer...
...In Weller's hands, Williamson emerges as the alpha male...
...Finally Aloysius comes right out and makes her accusation...
...Fabrizio's playboy brother Giuseppe (Michael Berresse) offers advice on how to woo a lady, while his father (Mark Harelik) agrees to meet with Margaret...
...Aloysius is a tough disciplinarian who cautions her idealistic instructor that the kids at St...
...Margaret is torn between the desire to see Clara happy and the fear of herbeinghurt...
...Belligerent Dave Moss (Gordon Clapp) rails at life's unfairness, obviously a familiar litany because the more somber George Aaronow (Jeffrey Tambor) keeps finishing Moss' sentences...
...If Flynn is indeed guilty, Aloysius has done nothing but remove a nuisance from her turf...
...What will it take to get some decent leads-cash up-front, a percentage of the take...
...His solution to the predicament is to simply bring Clara home as swiftly as possible...
...Aloysius calls Flynn into her office on the pretext of discussing the Christmas pageant...
...but a visit to the family store proves otherwise...
...It is safe to say this provocative drama will have people talking for years to come...
...Into this seductive setting walk respectable Margaret Johnson (Victoria Clark) and her wide-eyed daughter Clara (Kelli O'Hara...
...If he is innocent, she has needlessly tarred a good man's reputation and robbed an isolated boy of his only ally...
...In Act Two, Margaret takes Clara away to Rome, as if more sightseeing will somehow make all her troubles disappear...
...An offer of dinner follows, and Margaret cannot refuse without appearing rude...
...Tremulously, they explore each other's bodies...
...Nicholas will not profit from affection...
...The supporting Naccarellis form a tight ensemble as a family who tear at each other yet form a united front against the rest of the world...
...Clark fills the role with warmth and intelligence, subtly shedding layers of middle class propriety as the story evolves...
...Convinced that her son is "that way," she seeks only to get him through the eighth grade and into a decent high school...
...His next sermon strongly condemns the spreading of rumors...
...Shanley touches on the universal, examining the dynamics of power and accountability that are common to secular as well as religious institutions...
...He also finds the character's darker notes, seeming at times like a child accustomed to charming his way out of trouble and prone to bouts of rage when the strategy fails...
...He will neither be penalized nor rehabilitated...
...He shrugs off insults with the confidence of one destined by nature to win the competition for resources...
...Having caught a glimpse of Clara, Fabrizio is tormented by the prospect of her departure back to her faraway home...
...Roma embodies the quintessential Mamet protagonist-smart enough to know he belongs to "a dying breed," but unable to adapt to a changing world...
...Set in Italy in 1953, the musical treats Florence itself as a kind of character...
...The book, by Craig Lucas, is deceptively spare...
...Signor Naccarelli is dapper, decorous and speaks reasonably good English...
...No longer able to countenance her own cruelty, Margaret takes a leap of faith...
...Clara struggles to fill out the necessary marriage papers, and something on one of the forms alarms Signor Naccarelli...
...Goldenhersh and Lenox provide ample support as well meaning citizens caught in the crossfire...
...Margaret charms him into reconsidering-so effectively, in fact, that their conference ends with an overheated kiss...
...Williamson endeavors to restore order, while Officer Baylen (Jordan Lage) interrogates each of the employees behind closed doors...
...At a nearby table sits another duo from the same real estate firm...
...If that means looking the other way every once in a while, so be it...
...Emotionally, though, the conflicts remain far from resolved...
...Williamson is a college boy, unfamiliar with the mean streets where Levene, "the Machine," earned his reputation...
...Margaret returns to find them locked in a passionate embrace...
...Worse, her tactics have included deceit and intimidation...
...Flynn's name then comes up in the course of a conference between school principal Sister Aloysius (Cherry Jones) and Sister James (Heather Goldenhersh), a young nun who teaches eighth grade history...
...Unfortunately, the score also suffers from a lack of variety...
...Tough as she is, though, Aloysius displays a genuine concern for the children's welfare and a keen eye for potential trouble spots...
...Margaret is the classic tourist, checking her guidebook for historical information as she sees the sights...
...Listening to him wax philosophical at a third table, quiet James Lingk (Tom Wopat), a potential buyer, is slowly drawn into his world...
...Santo Loquasto's set and Kenneth Posner's lighting convey the impersonal world these desperate men inhabit...
...Both have been drinking (no one ever seems to eat in this restaurant), and Aaronow is susceptible to Moss' twisted reasoning...
...The upshot of the midnight sermon is that the past is gone and the future is unknowable...
...Face to face with Father Flynn, she claims to have called the school where he was previously employed There, too, his demeanor aroused suspicion...
...Roma and Levene succeed in buying a little time until Williamson blows their cover...
...Sister James is required to be there, since school protocol dictates that a man and a woman cannot meet without a witness...
...Office manager John Williamson (Frederick Weiler) listens coolly as aging real estate salesman Shelly Levene (Alan Alda) begs for a second chance...
...Even his best bargaining techniques cannot save him now, as Williamson relishes the chance to get back at the one of the hucksters who have cursed and reviled him...
...Clara, bursting with unfulfilled curiosity, is excited by the openness of European culture...
...Margaret worries that her daughter's condition has been found out...
...On Stage Traumatic Disclosures By Ethan Kanfer At Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater The Light in the Piazza, adapted from a novel by Elizabeth Spencer, offers a bittersweet meditation on the complexities of love...
...Baffled, Fabrizio sings the ballad "Il Mondo Era Vuoto" (The World Is an Empty Void) entirely in Italian, but its meaning is made clear by Morrison's sensitive face and powerful tenorintonations...
...Sister Aloysius has one more trick up her sleeve...
...Aware that she is putting her marriage at risk by overriding Roy's objections, she returns with her daughter to Florence...
...The ploy succeeds, and in the last scene Aloysius informs Sister James that the Monsignor has transferred Father Flynn to another school...
...In a soliloquy, Margaret at last reveals the truth...
...In a thick Bronx accent, he exhorts the flock not to always look to prayer and good deeds to create a sense of community...
...the other subject under fire here is faith...
...As morning reveals, the office has indeed been broken into...
...John Lee Beatty's set design is effective in the courtyard scenes, but the principal's tiny office is simply planted in center stage and surrounded by darkness...
...In the evening's best number, "Dividing Day," she wonders when it was that she and Roy drifted so far apart...
...Confusion, guilty secrets, tragedy, and trauma can be just as powerful in binding us to our fellow man...
...It is a brochure for Florida real estate...
...At 47, Jones is an inspired choice in a part written for a much older woman...
...By contrast Ricky Roma (Liev Schreiber) is young, relaxed and dapper-a lounge lizard seeking kindred souls for conversation...
...She is aided by a palpable chemistry with O'Hara, whose clear, powerful voice and innocently knowing face make Clara's struggle anything but "simple-minded...
...Alone with Margaret, the patriarch tells her his concern is Clara's age...
...One or two comic or up-tempo pieces would have added to the evening and made the more somber songs stand out in contrast...
...Williamson gives in, but not before listening to a stream of abuse from Levene...
...A heist has been planned, an inside job camouflaged as a break-in aimed at stealing those hot leads...
...Flynn panics, and for Aloysius, this is evidence enough...
...A disturbing dynamic develops between the two women...
...Tears finally flow as Aloysius confesses, "I have such doubts.' Shanley's lean script purposely dashes our expectation of a satisfying denouement...
...Clara is hardly a child, yet her mother leads her by the wrist...
...Margaret still must unburden herself of her long-kept secret...
...One of her worries is the easygoing relationship the new priest has with the boys who serve at his altar and play on his basketball team...
...First performed on Broadway in 1984, this fast, farcical piece of streetlevel Darwinism has lost none of its power to entertain...
...In Doubt, he continues the exhortation, encouraging the audience to draw its own conclusions...
...The priest blithely sits at Aloysius' desk as if it were his own...
...Back in Florence Fabrizio and his family join together in the histrionic scherzo "Aiutami" (Help Me...
...The meeting rapidly deteriorates into a territorial tug of war...
...She is a formidable foil for O'Byrne, who gives Flynn a warmth that makes it easy to understand his popularity in the community...
...He also directed the original Off-Broadway production of Doubt, and its interior scenes seem to have been airlifted to the bigger house...
...The sparseness of the story is a challenge for the actors, too, who must suggest their characters' inner workings without exposing them...
...Composer Adam Guettel's lush orchestrations evoke the splendor of Florence, shaded by minor chords that underscore the characters' internal ambivalence...
...In true Italian style, the family comes to the rescue...
...Physically, she has become a woman...
...Nicholas...
...A rescaling of the play's visual aspects would have given the actors more room to stretch...
...He and Clara celebrate their stolen moment in the tender duet "Say it Somehow...
...In halting English, Fabrizio (Matthew Morrison) asks her to visit him at his family's haberdashery, but Margaret will have none of it...
...A telephone call to husband Roy (Beau Gravitte) in America proves fruitless...
...The first half of the play takes place in a Chinese restaurant...
...For most of the play's second half, he keeps the dynamic Schreiber at center stage...
...M??ller (Adriane Lenox) offers little cooperation...
...Director Joe Mantello eschews routine readings and draws remarkable performances from his able cast...
...AttheNaccarellis', Clara is taken aside by Fabrizio's sister-in-law Franca (Sarah Uriarte Berry...
...the real world, with all its ambiguities, will greet them soon enough...
...Margaret is charmed, but still diffident...
...It will have to be someone else...
...An earlier Shanley play, The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, ends with the words, "begin, begin...
...Flynn is seen entering the rectory alone with Donald M??ller, a newly enrolled student...
...In an unsupervised moment, she mischievously places her hand on the penis of a marble statue...
...At the Royale Theater David Mamet's elegantly profane dialogue receives first-class treatment in a potent revival of Glengarry Glen Ross...
...Terrified, she begs the principal not to press the matter any further...
...The song "Fable" blends weariness with relief, joy with fear, as she gives Clara away to an uncertain future...
...Once awakened, the romantic in Margaret will not be easily put to rest...
...In a classic Mamet tribute to the manipulative magic of words, Aaronow protests, "I thought we were only talking about this...
...Things will not be so easy for Levene, who turns out to be the guilty party...
...The title of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, at the Walter Kerr, refers not only to the core question of its protagonist's guilt or innocence...
...Margaret understandably demurs, and seethes inside...
...Yet now the former legend is reduced to selling his own dignity...
...Director Bartlett Sher keeps the large cast moving in delicate harmony and makes ample use of the Beaumont's three-quarters round stage...
...This, however, is a minor flaw in what is otherwise a solidly crafted and uncommonly mature new musical...
...Finally, over espresso and pastries, the two families come together...
...Lingk is all apologies, but his offstage wife is clearly a force to be reckoned with...
...Even after two decades of imitations and parodies, Mamet's tough take on American manhood remains fresh, and painfully funny...
...Claiming a business emergency, he whisks his family away, leaving Clara hurt and bewildered...
...He's got to run off to Kenilworth (a posh Chicago suburb) for a party his "client" is throwing...
...As the "parable" (Shanley 's word) opens, Father Flynn (Brian F. O'Byrne) is at the altar...
...No sooner has she departed to seek solace at the hotel bar than Fabrizio slips in through the open window...
...The way for a man to enjoy life is to seize the day...
...Roma will be happy to answer any questions, but hot today...
...Naturally, it's not long before boys take notice of her...
Vol. 88 • May 2005 • No. 3
