Made in Heaven

GRADE: C+



By Jay Bernzweig. Directed by Andrew Shaifer. At the Soho Playhouse

Let me break it down for you: Made In Heaven's premise is about conjoined twins joined at the (massive) penis are about to propose to their girlfriend when one of them comes out of the closet and begins seeing a man. As you might imagine, the play is more than a little divisive. Director Andrew Shaifer and his performers get high marks for their deft handling of complicated physical comedy and a punch(line) drunk script, but reviewers' opinions of Jay Bernzweig's writing range from exuberantly positive to Sam Theilman's sniffing dismissal of the play as not "dramatic literature". (PS: For an interview with Bernzweig, click here.)

TheaterMania A-
(Barbara & Scott Siegel) Made in Heaven is pointedly silly, but it has a lot of heart and four characters that are all rich in their comic potential. What's more, that comic potential is fully realized by some extremely zesty, even inspired, performances. Anfanger is comically adorable as the gay twin with a winsomely innocent yet comically exaggerated sexual desire. Collins is a wonderfully madcap actor who is out-and-out hilarious at physical comedy. Meanwhile, Madison gets to toss off her own fair share of comic lines with a ferocious quality, and Bondy plays his role with so much comic bravado that he almost steals the show.

NYPost B+
(Frank Scheck) The results are better than you'd expect. While Jay Bernzweig's comedy doesn't exactly inspire comparisons to Oscar Wilde, it's a genuinely funny farce that you'll only mildly disrespect yourself the next day for having liked...It's all much funnier than it should be, thanks to the often hilarious dialogue and the inspired physical comedy from Collins and Anfanger. Wearing a single pair of oversize pants as if they've been sharing them forever, the two are particularly riotous in the scene in which Benjie is forced to fling his drugged, unconscious brother around like a rag doll.

TalkinBroadway B-
(Matthew Murray) Trash theatre doesn’t get much trashier than Made in Heaven. But it doesn’t get much funnier, either. Jay Bernzweig’s play, which just opened at the SoHo Playhouse following a tryout at this summer’s Midtown International Theatre Festival, may be a one-joke evening, but both the playwright and his director, Andrew Shaifer, ensure that that joke is exploited for all it’s worth. And that proves enough - barely - to sustain over most of 90 minutes a premise that in most hands would grow tiresome after 10 minutes, tops.

Backstage D+
(Mark Peikert) Just when we've settled down to a mediocre slapstick comedy—Collins and Anfanger work their three-legged jeans as hard as they can—Bernzweig veers into serious territory as the grand sexual experiment his characters have undertaken falls apart around them. Nothing that precedes the final scene has prepared us for this sudden about-face into seriousness, and so the melancholy of the play's end feels forced and unearned. Benjie and Max deserve better than the self-obsessed Jessica and the selfish and cruel Gilbert. And the actors deserve better than a script that falters so badly in the clinch.

Variety D
(Sam Thielman) Max and Benjie are conjoined twins. Max is straight. Benjie is gay. The two share a penis. What could go right? Not a lot, as it turns out. Jay Bernzweig's televisual comedy Made in Heaven is notable more for the performances of thesps Alex Anfanger (Benjie) and Matthew Bondy (his paramour, Gilbert) than it is for its contribution to dramatic literature. Helmer Andrew Shaifer wrings a lot of laughs from the play's reheated "Will and Grace"-style gags, but ultimately, Bernzweig's biggest innovation is his surprisingly bleak denouement, which totally annuls the rest of the mildly entertaining enterprise.

TM A- 12; NYP B+ 11; TB B- 9; BS D+ 5; V D 4; TOTAL: 41/5=8.2 C+

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Krapp, 39

GRADE: A/A-


By Michael Laurence. Directed by George Demas. SoHo Playhouse. Through Apr. 5.

Critics don't just admire Michael Laurence's chutzpah in riffing on Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape with his own ironically self-involved multimedia solo show--they also mostly adore the results, in which Laurence uses journals and answering machine messages, among other personal effects, to create a resonant, and, critics say, quasi-Beckettian hall of mirrors.

Nytheatre.com A+
(Martin Denton) Laurence's smart, funny, wise, and profound riff on/response to Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape...It's a rich, ripe stimulating work that's as rewarding to ponder afterward as it is to experience.

Variety A
(Sam Thielman) The show--gorgeously directed by George Demas, and mostly composed of the author-performer's journal entries, phone calls and personal correspondence--is simply Laurence sticking a pin into his own self-importance and watching it deflate time and again...Arrogance and self-regard are always a risk in a one-man show; in "Krapp, 39," Laurence flees so quickly to the opposite extreme that his show is a complete surprise--and thus, hilarious. It's the same impulse that propelled Beckett's bleak play, and like his spiritual ancestor, Laurence has produced a priceless artifact.

New Yorker A
Michael Laurence’s well-written and expertly performed solo piece, directed by George Demas, is the actor’s response to Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” and its themes of “love, loss, art, death, and bananas"...Laurence creates a funny and lacerating self-portrait that earns its affiliation with the classic that inspired it.

That Sounds Cool A
(Aaron Riccio) Laurence's grant-worthy term for Krapp, 39 is "an autobiographical 'documentary' theater piece," but in truth, it is neither a history nor a premonition, and it is all the stronger for that. Krapp is a sort of shield, in which an actor can visit the deep themes of love and death and, especially, loss. Stripped of that role--"Take the character away from the actor and what does he have?"--and there's a far greater existential dread...and, as Beckett so wisely observed, a certain special comedy, too.

Gothamist A
(John Del Signore) A work of brave and vulnerable beauty that succeeds despite its seemingly off-putting subject matter. That Laurence somehow coaxes the audience to care about and even identify with a floundering New York theater actor speaks volumes about his warmth and charm—which is doubly impressive considering he usually gets cast as the homeless drifter...The well-paced production at Soho Playhouse is speckled with self-deprecating humor and thoughtful considerations on time and aging.

Flavorwire A
(Anne Fenton) Lawrence (sic) uses the concept of Beckett’s famed monologue to reconsider various periods of his own life, and to reflect upon his desires for the future...Lawrence walks a fine line between self-exploration and self-obsession, but he manages to keep his audience interested and engaged. His insights and anecdotes about both Krapp and himself are variously hilarious and devastating, uplifting and sobering. All in all, it’s a great piece of theater.

Time Out NY A
(David Cote) Michael Laurence, possessed of princely good looks and a poet’s tenor, seems no stranger to his mirror, but the writer-performer also knows how to mine the comic underside of artistic self-absorption. His deceptively fatuous Krapp, 39 starts with the actor’s genuine desire to record himself delivering a speech that is played back in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape...The actor and his shrewd director, George Demas, deftly navigate the pathos and satire in the navel-gazing setup...The result is a moving and wise 70-minute retrospective of a man’s soul, an homage to the self that somehow doesn’t feel selfish.

Theatermania B+
(Andy Propst) Often fascinating...In his efforts to shape his piece, Laurence has assembled a wide range of materials: there are journal entries from previous birthdays dating back 20 years, an unearthed message from an answering machine from his dead mother, and--to enhance the ironic quotient of the piece--phone conversations with his capable director, George Demas...Slowly, the piece turns into a rich and brutally honest examination of a life at mid-point.

New York Post B+
(Frank Scheck) It takes nerve to mine the same territory as Samuel Beckett, but Michael Laurence pulls it off...It is a moving and funny examination of the loss of youth that, while not on a par with Beckett's classic, is far more than a mere homage...What in lesser hands may have come across as yet another autobiographical, self-obsessed monologue - it's not for nothing that he looks up the word "solipsistic" at one point - Laurence makes it work...It's unfortunate that Laurence lacks Beckett's gift of simplicity: Even at 80 minutes, the piece feels too rambling and self-indulgent. But it's more than good enough to make one regret having to wait 30 years for the sequel.

The New York Times B+
(Anita Gates) “Krapp, 39” has a sort of intoxicating fatalism. A 39-year-old actor, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s play “Krapp’s Last Tape,” decides to follow in the title character’s footsteps by recording his thoughts on his own life so far, for a future (staged) reflection. The process does not cheer him up.

Nytheatre.com A+ 14; Variety A 13; New Yorker A 13; That Sounds Cool A 13; Gothamist A 13; Flavorwire A 13; TONY A 13; Theatermania B+ 11; New York Post B+ 11; The New York Times B+ 11; TOTAL: 125/10=12.5 (A/A-)

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Mindgame

GRADE: D

By Anthony Horowitz. Dir. Ken Russell. SoHo Playhouse. (CLOSED)

(Critic-O-Metered by Isaac Butler)

Camp classic? Infamous disaster? Best set ever? These are the questions the critics are pondering about this new thriller, which is most notable for being the Off-Broadway debut of '70s-'80s schlock-art director Ken Russell. One thing is for sure: No one likes Anthony Horowitz's play. Even Talkin' Broadway's Matthew Murray--whose bizarrely enthusiastic review is the only reason the show didn't score in the D range overall--concedes that it's the production, not the text, that makes this a don't-miss.

TalkinBroadway B+
(Matthew Murray) Horowitz's tangled narrative is never as clever as it thinks it is, but Russell and [scenic designer Beowulf] Boritt could themselves well be accused of overcompensating, making the show far more of a show than it should be. If not for those inventions, most of which you observe via the corner of your eye, this play might be seen more easily as the brandy-spiked trifle it is--but because they can't be overlooked, a mild curiosity becomes a must-see. Even if you hate yourself in the morning, it's hard to overdose on Mindgame's mind candy.

Variety C+
(Marilyn Stasio) A claustrophobic thriller set in a lunatic asylum, Mindgame is so goofy it's almost fun. One of the two main characters in Anthony Horowitz's Hammer Horror-inspired drama, the director of the asylum and a pulp crime writer, may be a serial killer, and it's up to us to figure out which one. (With Keith Carradine and Lee Godart in these Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing roles, it's a toss-up.) But more imagination has gone into the tricky set than into the plot, and despite some stabs at realistic horror, helmer Ken Russell can't quite stop himself from tipping the whole thing into farce.

TheaterMania D+
(Dan Bacalzo) Mindgame includes a number of plot twists, hidden secrets coming to light, and mysterious goings-on. But much of it is far too predictable, and Russell's directorial choices are often questionable. For example, during one climactic scene, sound designer Bernard Fox's background music swells to a fever pitch, only to cut off abruptly once the "scary" moment passes, provoking a few giggles in the audience. Even more egregious, the closing moment of the show should be somewhat disturbing, but that quality is undermined by a ludicrously melodramatic staging of it.

NY Post D+
(Frank Scheck) Unfortunately, what might have been outrageous fun is instead laborious, due to the excessively talky and overly gimmicky script, the slow pacing and the gruesome violence on display. Not helping matters are the decidedly low-budget production elements that defeat the committed efforts of both the director and cast.

Backstage D
(David Sheward) Horowitz's shallow suspenser is an attempt at the kind of theatrical cat-and-mouse game once popular on our boards and in the playwright's native Britain. Sleuth and Deathtrap are the most recent examples of the genre to achieve hit status on Broadway, and Perfect Crime is still chilling theatregoers Off-Broadway. Those plays are like intricate Chinese puzzles, tantalizingly difficult to fit together. But Mindgame's tricks are so easy to figure out that they provide no treats.

Associated Press F
(Michael Kuchwara) One of the play's more intriguing features is its contracting set, a cozy office designed by Beowulf Boritt. Without giving too much away, let's just say that it has more theatrical life—and movement—than anything else on stage.

Time Out NY F
(Adam Feldman) Perhaps the looniest stage failure of the year, Mindgame is dinner theater served with an emetic...The audience treats the whole show as a comedy, laughing openly at descriptions of torture and cannibalism and at the sight of a tied-up woman pleading for her life...The play manages to be at once mundane and bizarre: in every sense, insanely dull.

Talkin' Broadway B+ 11; Variety C+ 8 ; TheaterMania D+ 5; NY Post D+ 5; Backstage D 4; AP F 1; TONY F 1; TOTAL: 31 / 7 = 4.43 = (D)

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