The Lily's Revenge

GRADE: A-

By Taylor Mac. Directed by Paul Zimet, Rachel Chavkin, Faye Driscoll, Aaron Rhyne, David Drake, and Kristin Marting. HERE Arts Center. (CLOSED)

Reviews for playwright/performer Taylor Mac's five-hour meta-theatrical epic so far range from ecstatic to admiring, with advocates trumpeting not only the work's thoroughgoing, form-breaking playfulness but also its serious intent, and admirers seeming a little surprised how much fun they had over the long program, even if they liked one or another of the five acts less than the rest and looked askance at some of the work's more earnest excesses. Mac's definitive central performance and Machine Dazzle's costumes get the most universal praise, but there are a lot of bouquets to go around for this outsized Lily.

Time Out NY A+
(Adam Feldman) At a time when much of New York’s theater seems to have shrunk in the wash, here at HERE is a nearly five-hour feast that involves some 40 performers, six directors, a live band and a pyrotechnic array of costumes. Let us not condescend to the show simply because it looks so ramshackle-fabulous. In its bravery, scope, creativity, extremity and sheer generosity of spirit, The Lily’s Revenge, to my mind, surpasses any American theater in New York this year...A hothouse garden of unearthly delights, most extravagantly manifested in its divinely makeshift-glamorous costumery—a heroically imaginative effort by the whimsically named Machine Dazzle. But Mac’s vision goes beyond the wacky fantasia that the descriptions above may so far suggest, for The Lily’s Revenge, though often very funny in its execution, is surprisingly serious in its intent. Mac’s ethos of individualism and community, explicitly articulated toward the end of the play, has clear roots in the 1960s, but his notion of flower power is thornier than one might think.

Nytheatre.com A+
(Martin Denton) Five hours sail by like a happy and satisfying dream...Intelligent, endlessly surprising, and above all spectacularly entertaining. It inspires hyperbolic pronouncements like "the most important event of the theater season" or "the essential must-see event of the year," and then thumbs its nose at such portentous preposterousness (or bares its bottom; it's that kind of cheeky show, after all)...Taylor Mac...here proves himself to be not just a radiant starry presence on stage (the kind of performer you simply cannot look away from) but also a theatrical auteur/force of nature of Wellesian ambition and potency. It's not just Mac's intellect or talent or even audacity that makes The Lily's Revenge the magical stupendous piece of theatre that it is: it's the over-the-top heart, full of unwavering faith in himself, dozens of disparate collaborators, and roomfuls of audience members he's never even met, that they will make The Lily's Revenge possible every night. For possibility is finally what it's all about.

Backstage A
(Mitch Montgomery) Mac hauls these abstract ingredients to Here Arts Center and stirs them together with messy, impish delight...Mac has gone to great lengths to express his love-me-love-me-not relationship with theatrical convention, hoping the audience will comprehend precisely the raunchy dialectic between, say, performance art, Japanese Noh theater, and burlesque. And by the time it’s done, it is unquestionable. Mac might be a little overly ambitious in the delivery of his message, but after rearranging the theater four times and ticking through the whole history of performance, the point about looking more progressively at the institutions of theater and marriage emerges with profound clarity. A surprising but suddenly obvious connection lands just right: Both theater and marriage are essentially pure, intimate relationships that have only been corrupted into institutions.

The New Yorker A
Breathtakingly ambitious on nearly every level, but at its core it’s a progressive allegory about love and matrimony. And it flies by: the multiple intermissions are presided over by the World Famous Bob and feature a Discussion Disco, where theatregoers can chew over lessons they have learned from the flowers.

The New York Times A-
(Charles Isherwood) A five-hour tide of fishnet, eye shadow and sequins...The riot of styles sometimes clashing and sometimes coalescing during The Lily’s Revenge offers so many incidental pleasures (resplendently tacky-ornate costumes, a dream ballet, a haiku competition, a stage curtain made entirely of crumpled cocktail napkins) that theatrical time — always a curiously malleable element — seems to contract. To my happy surprise, I emerged from The Lily’s Revenge more refreshed than exhausted...As much a party as a theatrical presentation, and you should be prepared to be stuck occasionally in a corner with a less than entrancing conversationalist. Some sequences — well, maybe most sequences — are longer than they need to be. Mr. Mac’s versifying is impressive in its volume and its whimsy, but he seems a little besotted by his own lyric gifts...In any case Mr. Mac is aiming more for amusement than enlightenment. The jokes are more memorable than the lit-crit gabble.

New York Post A-
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) It's as if Shakespeare had been reincarnated as a hippie and written a picaresque musical...But the evening is surprisingly easy to digest, particularly since the three intermissions are abnormally long to reconfigure the main performance space for every part...The show takes over the entirety of the HERE theater complex -- including the dressing room, hallways, stairs and bathrooms -- to immerse the audience in a fantastical alternate reality. Some sequences do dilly-dally, and even the wacky internal logic falters by the end, but for the most part this experience is sweet, ramshackle and generous -- and unique.

Variety A-
(Sam Thielman) It's not easy to do avant-garde and epic simultaneously, but Taylor Mac has pulled it off...Machine Dazzle's costumes are gorgeous, Mac's songs are clever, and the performances are fun, but one caveat: The experience clocks in at a little under five hours...This is about as far into the world of downtown theater as you can get without actually falling into the Hudson. Mac thumbs his nose at traditional narrative structure, eventually explaining that this show is what he wants in lieu of a wedding. What's best about "Lily's Revenge" are the emotional surprises, which are so strange they could be from another planet...Where the show goes wrong is in its final act, when, after another half-dozen funny incidents, including a glammed-out pope blasting the entire cast with a machine gun, Mac proposes that we all commit to loving each other and the world -- that we "marry" everything, in effect. It's a nice sentiment but it feels a little played-out and naive -- maybe deliberately so...Still, Mac's engagement with big ideas -- about marriage, about theater, and about love in general -- carries the show a long way, and the sheer audacity of the enterprise makes what could potentially be a grueling experience into something cool and fun and even communal, if you're open to the possibility.

Theatermania B+
(Dan Balcazo) Defies easy categorization as it continually plays with and satirizes a range of dramatic forms...Mac is an enormously entertaining performer, mixing campiness and sincerity as Lily continues on his journey...Ferguson is also quite delightful, and his Act 3 striptease manages to be simultaneously hilarious and titillating. The remaining performers are of varying ability, with memorable turns from Leigh, Gaines, and the burlesque star World Famous *BOB* who serves as a charming and gracious hostess for the entire evening...Admittedly, there are moments -- and sometimes entire stretches -- of the long evening that become tiresome, such as the Act 3 dream ballet. But, overall, the ambitious project confirms Mac's reputation as an innovative theater artist.

Village Voice B
(Alexis Soloski) Gleefully queer and desperately untidy...Mac's play draws on a plenitude of genres: Noh drama, stop-motion animation, American musical theater, and Carolingian masquerade. The presence of eight different directors, choreographers, and filmmakers encourages the stylistic bedlam. The directors prove more and less capable, and the cast, drawn largely from the burlesque scene, boasts widely (and wildly) varying abilities. Mac, as he has demonstrated in previous shows such as Red Tide Blooming, is an affecting performer...Though he plays the lead, I often found myself wishing he had written a larger role for himself (and perhaps for the charming Heather Christian) and trimmed much of the rest.

Time Out NY A+ 14; Nytheatre.com A+ 14; Backstage A 13; NYer A 13; NYT A- 12; NYPost A- 12; Variety A- 12; Theatermania B+ 11; VV B 10; TOTAL: 111/9=12.33 (A-)

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Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines

GRADE: B

By Quinn Bauriedel, Geoff Sobelle, and Trey Lyford. Directed by Aleksandra Wolska. Here Arts Center. (CLOSED)

Only Andy Propst, writing for Theatermania, wasn't charmed by Quinn Bauriedel, Geoff Sobelle, and Trey Lyford (the three actors and writers of the piece) and their machines. Propst believes the political messages in the second half of the play would have been more relevant during the Bush administration and eventually grows tired of the antics. The rest of the critics enjoy watching the actors struggle with the intricate machines designed by Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala.
Edit: Another very negative is in from William Coyle (off off online), bringing the grade down to a B-.

Show Business Weekly A+
(Bryan Clark) Beyond the screwball machinery — the cereal-pouring chute, the eggbeater toothbrushes, the snare drum roll triggered by a power drill — the true strength of the performance is the astonishing engagement of the three actors. They improvise easily when the machines are stubborn, and they decide on the spot whether a gag is worth fighting for. A foldout mirror fails to fold out, so the bit is tossed. But fried egg goes into the audience, and the moment is milked for all it is worth. The trio is so profoundly connected to their environment, it is hard to believe that they did not devise and build every bit of it themselves. (The ingenious design of the machines is by The Dufala Brothers; scene design, Hiroshi Iwasaki.)

Theatermania A
(Adam R. Perlman) machines machines machines machines machines machines machines is the show so nice they named it twice. Okay, seven times -- but, this time, the attention-grabbing moniker isn't overcompensating for bland, gimmicky material. This giddy, deliriously funny enterprise from the exciting company rainpan 43 -- now at HERE --is not only good enough to redeem its title, but possibly the idea of experimental theater. Here is a work that is proudly, playfully trying out new things and inviting you to bear witness and share in the mutual delight of discovery... Similarly terrific is the immersive design work, which is so of a piece that it's hard to find the seams between sound (James Sugg), "music machines" (Sean Mattio), machine design (Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala), scenic design (Hiroshi Iwasaki), lighting design (James Clotfelter), and house lighting design (Marlon Hurt). Aleksandra Wolska is billed with direction and Charlotte Ford with further direction -- I'm not sure in this context what either job entailed -- but all of the partictipting artists have combined their talents to create the thrill of watching people do unnatural things completely naturally.

The New York Times A
(Charles Isherwood) Without the apparatus of elaborately useless machines that surround them, this oddball trio would have no reason for being. If they did not turn the making of breakfast into a martial campaign to match the best of General Patton, they might be prey to those existential bugaboos that haunt the likes of Gogo and Didi in “Waiting for Godot.” For the show itself, directed by Aleksandra Wolska, is on the macro as well as micro level something of a Rube Goldberg machine. A tremendous amount of theatrical ingenuity and energy is expended to little expressly dramatic purpose. The plot wouldn’t fill a half-page in a comic book... Mostly these cutups just goof around, with the actors giving intricately nuanced comic performances that are perfectly in tune with the pinballing madness supplied by the cast of a thousand mechanical supporting players. Mr. Sobelle’s garbled mutterings in cornball British dialects from several centuries are often hilarious. Mr. Bauriedel’s fearless, cluelessly self-confident leader — like William Shatner’s Captain Kirk, only without the towering intellect — is likewise a piquant bit of parody. And the verisimilitude of Mr. Lyford’s impersonation of a police radio (a voice-altering box hanging around his neck comes in handy) and the whizzing robotic sounds he uses to accompany his every movement are funny and fascinating in their precision.

The Village Voice A
(Alexis Soloski) It is marvelous to watch the devices in action, and equally marvelous to watch the men improvise when the devices fail. (Lyford and Sobelle previously demonstrated their gift for physical comedy in All Wear Bowlers; Bauriedel is no slouch, either.) The play's content doesn't bear too much contemplation: machines seems intended as a satire of the Bush years, a time when the population worried over external enemies and ignored domestic misconduct. But that's beside the point. Much better to goggle at the hard hat, blowdryer, and plastic lobster dangling from the ceiling and wonder how they might soon be deployed. As Bauriedel's character insists, "This is not a time for thinking—this is a time for doing!" Then he activates another disastrous apparatus.

The New Yorker A-
(Unsigned) When they work, the effect is exhilarating—watch an egg get fried in ten demented steps—and when they don’t, the guys improvise like pros. Although the piece carries undertones of wartime paranoia, any real meaning is washed away by the sheer delight of watching the actors interact with their ingenious set, which is packed full of visual surprises, right up to the giddily apocalyptic finale.

New York Post B+
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) The latter angle, which takes over the second half of the 75-minute show, is where "Machines" hits a snag. The military's absurdity and paranoia make a worthy target, but Bauriedel, Lyford and Sobelle don't come up with enough contraptions to sustain the momentum. As the characters ran around trying to identify a potential intruder, I just kept waiting for them to resume pouring cereal with a supermarket grabber. At least the show gets back on track with a wonderfully nutty finale. Clearly the authors had no clue how to wrap things up, but trout and polar bears somehow feel completely appropriate.

Time Out New York B+
(Helen Shaw) Machines isn’t flawless—some dramaturgical springs have gone flat, and the nattering dialogue hopscotches between hysterical and aimless. But the three lunatics at its center function as perfect perpetual engines. Where another actor would quail in the face of a story line sputtering or a piece of toast going AWOL off the stage, these boys charge recklessly ahead. They’ll do anything to get the job done. They’re machines.

Backstage D-
(Andy Propst) It quickly becomes apparent that for all of its lunatic humor, Machines… also comments wryly on any government's efforts to remain militarily prepared for possible attacks. Unfortunately, once we realize this, the guys' behavior—the propensity of the kilt-wearing Phineas (Sobelle) to spin ludicrous fairy tales in a heightened British accent and the robotic affectations that Liam (Lyford) continually vocalizes (assisted by sound designers James Sugg and Sean Mattio)—wears increasingly thin. And by the time the play, staged with unfocused intensity by Aleksandra Wolska and Charlotte Ford, explodes in a conclusion worthy of Monty Python, patience has worn out. Perhaps if Machines… had debuted during the Bush administration, its zaniness might have been a more enjoyable and satisfying theatrical tonic.

off off online F
(William Coyle) machines… is a hybrid of a poor man’s Blue Man Group and one long, bad, Monty Python skit that tries way too hard to please. Liam (Trey Lyford) wears a mechanized mask that makes all of his verbal communications sound like radio dispatches. Like Michael Winslow in Police Academy, he is dubiously gifted with the ability to make all kinds of annoying mechanical noises with his mouth. Phineas (Geoff Sobelle) sports a kilt and World War I pilot’s goggles. The third (Quinn Bauriedel), who we learn is the “Chief Commander,” sounds like a cross between George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Stewart at his dopiest... The real stars of this production are machine designers Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala, Technical Director Derek Cook and Marlon Hurt, the Master Electrician. Creating a stage-world of working contraptions and low-tech gadgets is not easy, and their creativity is often staggering. Yet, the performers, left to their own...er...devices…fail to do anything with this world other than weave a trite story around it. machines… would be quite fascinating in a college talent show, and it would probably win. But, I expect more from productions at HERE.

Show Business Weekly A+ 14; Theatermania A 13; The New York Times A 13; The Village Voice A 13; The New Yorker A- 12; New York Post B+ 11; TONY B+ 11; Backstage D- 3; off off online F 1; TOTAL: 91/9 = 10.11 (B)

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Red Fly/Blue Bottle

GRADE: B

Music By Critina Campenella, Text by Stephanie Fleischmann; Directed by Mallory Catlett. At HERE Arts Center (CLOSED)

Red Fly/Blue Botte, the elusive new musical (of sorts) gets universally respectful notices. If there are no out-and-out raves, there are also no scathing pans. Everyone praises the beauty and detail of the production and the rigor of the direction, but feel it isn't quite concrete enough to completely captivate.

The New York Times B+
(Jason Zinoman) Written by Stephanie Fleischmann with moody, driving music by Christina Campanella, Red Fly — woven together with lyrical monologues, otherworldly videos and an ingeniously eerie set design by Jim Findlay — is a purposefully elusive work, a poetic meditation in which the hero, Clarissa, says pointedly, “Look closer.” It’s advice worth taking.... Like Gone Missing, the far more accessible downtown show by the Civilians, Red Fly is about loss and the extraordinary power of ordinary objects. (Wittgenstein’s quotation that the goal of philosophy is “to show the fly the way out of the bottle” was an inspiration for the production.) But this play’s otherworldly tone and ghostly mood rely less on reality than on the imagination.

Time Out NY B
(Helen Shaw) The title undersells it. The team that created the meticulous, moody work on view at HERE hasn't settled for a red fly and a blue bottle. They also crammed in plenty of dark songs and bright ideas, and—sadly, for the impatient among us—purple prose and green dramaturgy....Director Mallory Catlett is a mistress of detail, and as an installation, the piece exerts a mesmeric pull. But as a durational work? Fleischmann's mannered language ("flash of light, blitz of krieg") needs Campanella's music to be the piece's engine. Yet by chugging along at the same tempo, even the loveliest songs modulate into an unintentional lullaby.

Village Voice B
(Alexis Soloski) The nursery rhyme and lack of plot ought to make the piece maddening, but instead, it's sweetly strange. From elliptical imagery and approximate rhyme, director Mallory Catlett has conjured a complete, unique universe—with ample assistance from Miranda K. Hardy's lights, Jim Findlay's set, and Jeremy Wilson's live soundscape. Red Fly just might generate some buzz.

Offoffonline B
(William Coyle) Despite its dazzling technological work and fascinatingly creepy music, Red Fly/Blue Bottle sometimes becomes tedious, falling victim to its own preciousness and fable. The themes occasionally become bloated, as what exists of the narrative doesn’t have enough meat to sustain it. Yet, the sheer technical brilliance of its creators saves the day....Red Fly/Blue Bottle is another in a recent spate of bold experimental pieces that largely eschew plot and linear narrative in favor of challenging theatrical devices that foreground aspects other than text. This production will greatly reward both the novice and the connoisseur of new downtown theater.

Backstage B
(Ronni Reich)
Stephanie Fleischmann's words are intriguing but often oblique, and characters can seem overly precious as they devote themselves to tiny tasks. Director Mallory Catlett keeps performances almost blankly simple, compounding the sense of the set and music as primary. Campanella's compositions envelop the audience, with densely, dexterously woven textures often pulling together heavy rock rhythms, throwback sounds of a toy piano and an accordion, and elegiac cello and vocal patterns. Droning electronics saturate the space. Taken together, the often lugubrious, depressed songs can seem to drag, but each holds interest.

Theatermania B-
(Andy Propst) Red Fly/Blue Bottle, now at HERE, certainly is pretty to look at, and its blend of spoken word, black and white video, and song can be mesmerizing. But this 75-minute multimedia piece will disappoint and probably confuse those audience members looking for a traditional theater experience... the work as a whole doesn't fully succeed in spite of its exceptional design achievements.



NYT: B+ 11; BS B 10; OOO B 10; VV B 10; TONY B 10; TM B- 9; TOTAL: 60/6= 10 (B)

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Soul Samurai

GRADE: A

By Qui Nguyen. Directed by Robert Ross Parker. Ma-Yi Theatre Company and Vampire Cowboys Theatre at HERE Arts Center. (CLOSED)

Ladies and gentleman, we present to you the best-reviewed show, and the first A grade, in Critic-O-Meter's admiteddly brief history. Critics find Vampire Cowboys' frenetic new mash-up of martial arts, blaxploitation, and graphic novels airtight and entertaining, with an ambitious use of multimedia and a literally kickass cast headed by the magnetic Maureen Sebastian. The play's irresistible urban argot inspired That Sounds Cool's Aaron Riccio to a pen charmingly slangy notice, including the first use of "sick" as a superlative I've ever read in a New York theater review.

Blog Critics A+
(Jon Sobel) Need to pump yourself full of urban adrenaline? Soul Samurai is one long, sustained blast of the stuff. With unflagging energy and nary an ounce of dramatic flab, playwright/fight director Qui Nguyen riffs on post-apocalyptic science fiction, Fangoria horror (specifically vampire lore), blaxploitation films, karate movies, samurai/ninja subcultures, and gangsta rap bravado....It's also sexy, and full of noisy joy...It has a youthful, athletic cast with more energy than a solar flare, and talent to match.

Nytheatre.com A+
(Martin Denton) Has HIT written all over it. Savvy off-Broadway producers should be pushing each other out of the way to get to HERE Arts Center so that they can be the one to move what feels like the Next Big Thing in Theatre to the long commercial run it doesn't just deserve but commands...Offers a happy and rare combination of pop-culture-guilty pleasure and smart, sophisticated storytelling...All the innovations that Vampire Cowboys have been working on these past five years come together here in an evening that's loaded with energy, style, humor, intelligence, and a surprising amount of heart.

That Sounds Cool A+
(Aaron Riccio) Badassss...It'd be accurate to say that Soul Samurai is played to the hilt except that this group is working with a pure blade--nothing slows this show down...Something's always being flipped, which keeps Nguyen's fight choreography feeling fresh...Not only is it dazzlingly creative, but it's also never confusing: Sarah Laux and Jessica Wegener's sick costumes make it easy to distinguish bad guys from good guys, and Nick Francone's set and lighting make for clear, quick transitions from location to location (projections provide the details)...At last, Vampire Cowboys Theatre has found the right balance of action and adventure, creativity and control. Soul Samurai isn't just their best show, it's one of the best shows in the city, and until you see it, you'd better just shut yo' mouth.

Time Out NY A
(Helen Shaw) Explosively funny Foxy Brown–meets–Kill Bill goof. Shoguns and 70s style reign over a dark New York of the future, vampires infest Brooklyn and one woman takes revenge against the undead. Outfitted with stop-motion animation, awesome puppetry and a pimped-out wardrobe, Soul Samurai kicks the Vampire Cowboys recipe up a notch; the script has the complexity of a graphic novel, without sacrificing its zinelike homemade sweetness.

Village Voice A
(Andy Propst) It's smart and funny stuff that's deftly supported in Robert Ross Parker's sure-handed production, where Asian theater traditions are ably blended with Nguyen's exhilarating fight choreography. David Valentine's puppets and Nick Francone's intentionally cheesy videos are, like the rest of the show, side-splittingly funny and slyly intelligent.

Backstage A-
(Mark Peikert) Even if, unlike me, you don't have a fondness for petite women brandishing large weapons, Soul Samurai offers plenty of charm and entertainment. Equal parts 1970s samurai flick, blaxploitation, and post-apocalyptic NYC grit, it tells the tale of the meek and mild lesbian Dewdrop (Maureen Sebastian), who toughens up when her lover is killed by a gang of vampires running Brooklyn...Unfortunately, Nguyen, who also choreographed the riveting fight sequences, lets his play down when it comes to the climactic battle between Dewdrop and Lady Snowflake, giving us the evening's one uninteresting battle. That lapse is happily compensated for by the consistently clever use of multimedia...And boy, do those actors work...Soul Samurai, a glorious melting pot of influences and inspirations, is theatre at its best.

Theatermania A-
(Dan Balcazo) A pop culture explosion of influences ranging from comic books to Blaxploitation films, Qui Nguyen's Soul Samurai, now at HERE Arts Center, is a wildly funny, action-packed delight...The work is stylishly directed by Robert Ross Parker and showcases Nguyen's dynamic (and often hilarious) fight choreography...The piece both utilizes and subverts racial stereotypes through snappy dialogue (including a kind of parody of ebonics), larger than life mannerisms, and tongue-in-cheek satire. It includes plenty of plot twists and a variety of narrative strategies such as direct address, traditional dialogue scenes, lots of fights, flashback sequences, film and animation (directed by Parker and designed by Nick Francone, who is also responsible for sets and lighting), and short interludes that tell the origin stories of various key characters. My favorite is a puppet theater piece in which Sally tries to shut out the cries of the world--represented by an adorable and expressive puppet designed by David Valentine, and manipulated and voiced by Jon Hoche.

Offoffonline A-
(Samantha O'Brien) Vampire Cowboys have, once again, proven themselves masters of action-adventure theater...Even with such a dark premise, the show is infused with geeky glee. From the impromptu breakdancing to the witty battle banter and pop culture references, Samurai is ultimately a very playful presentation. Complementing the violent saga, there are puppets with Avenue Q-style attitude and other multimedia touches, such as a great stop-motion film about a forbidden love between a ninja and a samurai starring, naturally, pieces of fruit. All playing multiple roles, the five-person ensemble nails the goofy-yet-hip style of Nguyen’s script...The show seems just as much fun for the actors as the audience. You can’t even fault them when they break into an accidental chuckle...There are some weak spots in the show...However, small inconsistencies do not ruin what is overall an extremely exciting piece of theater. See Samurai before it’s too late.

Blog Critics A+ 14; Nytheatre.com A+ 14; That Sounds Cool A+ 14; Time Out NY A 13; American Theatre Web A 13; Backstage A- 12; Theatermania A- 12; Offoffonline A- 12; TOTAL: 104/8= 13 (A)

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