I like the Lucille Lortel Theatre. It's getting old (last renovated in 1990) and the pitch of the seats isn't the best (so hope you're not sitting behind a tall person). But the leg room is much better than average, the bathrooms are small but clean (no idiotic sofas!), and it's convenient to the Christopher St. PATH station (great for those of us in Jersey City and Hoboken).
The audience generally tends toward West Village twenty-somethings, so it was nice to see a solid smattering of tourists lured from midtown in order to see David Duchovny and Amanda Peet in Neil LaBute's The Break of Noon. It's a dark drama about a guy - Duchovny - who is the only survivor of a work-place shooting. And he claims that God spoke to him and helped him survive.
It's not a great play, but it's pretty good - and it's only 90 minutes, which always makes me happy. I have to give Duchovny credit for a very solid performance, especially on the long opening & closing monologues (Peet is good as well, as are the other 2 cast members, Tracee Chimo and John Earl Jelks).
My quibble is more with the writing: LaBute's plays (which include reasons to be pretty and Fat Pig) are generally edgy, a bit angry, and sometimes annoying. The Break of Noon could use a bit more of that: Duchovny's character is clearly imperfect, but I thought he should seem downright rotten (or pretty close to it) by the end.
One other thing: director Jo Bonney uses the loud noise & flash of light approach to scene changes that seems to be all to popular these days. I don't hate it, but it makes me think: Oh yeah, that again.
Overall: not great, not terrible. And it's nice to see tourists at a play in the West Village.
No comments:
Post a Comment