By Francine Russo | Village Voice
XXX Love Act By Cintra Wilson Ohio Theatre 66 Wooster Street With Jennifer Esposito, Nadine Stenovitch, Shea Whigham, Adam Nelson, Thomas Pasley, Daniel Reinisch Sex. Drugs. Money. Murder. When a real-life story has all these elements, it cries out for a spot on the stage, thinks the inspired play wright. Two brothers, bound by love, blood, and a porn empire then fractured by fratricide. The story is irresistible, but, like the tale it tells, is riddled with temptations and traps. In XXX Love Act, San Francisco columnist/performer/playwright Cintra Wilson has heeded the si ren call of the story of Jim and Artie Mitchell, who built an erotic theater empire in San Francisco, which ended with Jim's murder of Artie. Their story is so lurid that it requires restraint to rein it in and imagination to mine its depths. To tell the saga of the brothers here called Manny and Randy Wilson creates a pair of narrators, Gunther and Reinholdt, who are sometime sex partners and brothers in sleaze. In the garish light of a red bulb overhung with fringed umbrella, Gunther, in goggles and warm-up suit, delivers Randy's eulogy, teeming with imagery of the underbelly, extolling "the guy's aura like a fungus." We flash back to scnes of the adolescent brothers in tie-dye drooling over a porno movie. We watch the charismatic Randy lead his dopey brother Manny toward a scheme of making an operatic skin flick to take to Cannes, and, fol lowing its failure, create a wildly successful erotic theater. We see them hook up romantically with their "stars" and we observe Ran dy's fall into drugs and creative burnout and Manny's rise to mar riage, respectability, and corporate management skills. Weaving Gunther's literary nar ration and Reinholdt's medita tions on bondage with surreal scenes of babes in bridal veils and orgies with light bubbles and disco music, director Troy Hollar's stag ing projects the satyric energy suggested by their "chorus" 's richly seamy metaphors. But the more literal scenes of the two brothers falter. Instead of deepening and developing, their relationship flattens into banal surface and cliches. And the ac tors do not rise above the limiting script. Shea Whigham's Randy is a Harvey Keitel Bad Lieutenant wannabe, and Daniel Reinisch's Manny is first dopey, then bland. By the time the shot rings out, we have long ceased being interested in the brothers or believing in the reality of their relationship. Yet what surrounds them is provocative, especially Thomas Pasley and Adam Nelson's snaky smoothness as Gunther and Reinholdt. Wilson has been captivated by the idea of brothers, but has not given it flesh or depth. As the plot descends into decadence, shooting, for example, is called "the ultimate act of penetration." Yeah. But the best parts of Love Act laugh at the lunacy. There's a very funny sequence where Randy directs a lesbian love fest, complete with brandished pitchfork. And there are scenes of, um, audience participation (under rain coats), where Gunther and Reinholdt come noisily-in one case with water pistols, in another with flashlights. The literal masturbation in Love Act is dramatized with fine control and a sense of irony, but the piece is ultimately brought down by the uncontrolled and unintended masturbatory quality of the vision.
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HOLLYWOOD -- With his playlet closing "The 24-Hour Plays" at the Henry Fonda Theater, Bruce Vilanch seemed a bit stunned as the lights came up. Perhaps, as he said, it was just amazement at seeing it staged for the first time. More likely, he was kicking himself for having been the only one of the six scribes to take the 10-minute rule seriously. Six 10-minute plays. With a 15-minute intermission. Yet somehow, including starting half an hour late, the evening ended up running three hours. Obviously, someone cheated. The title "24-Hour Plays" wasn't meant to imply the length of the evening, though it came close. Instead, it explains the gimmick of the fundraiser, which raised $20,000 (in ticket sales) for the World Trade Center Relief Fund. As producer Tina Fallon explained, the playwrights and actors gathered on the evening of Feb. 23 and split up into groups. The scribes then retired to write, drawing on both props and tales offered by their stars. They returned to the Fonda at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 24 to rehearse until 5 p.m., when the tech rehearsals started; they wrapped 10 minutes before the supposed 8 p.m. curtain time. Playwrights were Beth Henley, Hilly Hicks, John Belluso, Alexandra Cunningham, Neil LaBute and Vilanch. Belluso was the only one of the six to include Sept. 11 as part of his play. PLAYWRIGHT BELLUSO FEATURED SETH GREEN, JARED HARRIS, GINA PHILLIPS AND ADAM NELSON IS HIS 24 HOUR PLAY AT THE HENRY FOND THEATER IN HOLLYWOOD LaBute offered his usual shtick, oddly repulsive stories of decadent human behavior, with the added twist that his four actors -- Clark Gregg, Devon Gummersall, Portia de Rossi and Brooke Smith -- purported to tell "true" stories based on their own histories, but assigned to a different person than the one whose story it was. Also, they claimed one of the four was made up. But, of course, the joke was on the audience: See, they're actors, and it's their job to lie to us -- all four were fake! Big surprise. Thank goodness for the reliably humorous Vilanch. In his "It Only Happens When I'm Nervous," John Ritter played an actor hoping to audition for "Urinetown," the title of which he could hardly bring himself to utter. Instead, he found himself up for "Puppetry of the Penis," demonstrating his talent to Sarah Silverman as a lustful stage manager and Ann Magnuson as a rather peculiar producer
By William B. Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer Theater Critic
It wasn't until the crazy Ophelia came on singing "Anything Goes" that I wavered in my approval of what the Arden Theater Company has done to Hamlet. By that time, I was ready for just about anything that the tabloid production in St. Stephen's Alley might throw at me. I really have nothing against pop interpolations in Shakespeare provided they say to a contemporary audience what the playwright himself might have written if he were around now. And Ophelia's mad scene is admittedly one of the more impossibly dippy sequences ever written straight by anyone. But does Cole Porter help? I think not. No matter. Artistic director Aaron Posner has worked over the play with the Arden's characteristic youthful in-your-face spirit, and anyone who knows this masterpiece at all is going to come away mad at something Posner has done. On the other hand, the youngish public that the Arden has discovered in this heavily middle-aged city is not likely to be all that familiar with the play and, consequently, would be blissfully open to whatever turns them on. My guess is that this severely trimmed, anti-illusionist, unrhetorical Hamlet will convey more of Shakespeare to that public than the Royal Shakespeare Company can at its best. I'm not altogether happy with that, but I'm prepared to recognize that intelligible Shakespeare - and by that I mean culturally intelligible - is better. So I suggest we allow ourselves to be stimulated by the displacement of soliloquies. I think we should enjoy the surprise we get when Ophelia (Suzanne O'Donnell) rises from her grave to gaze tragically at her brother and her boyfriend fighting like animals. And I believe there is a valid idea for our time in the suggestion that the ghost that drives Hamlet on to avenge his father's murder is a figment of his fevered brain - one of those bad dreams he talks about having. The play is performed in modern dress. The young people could be part of the weekend crowd on South Street. Their elders look like parents. But Posner is not trying to make them all seem "real" to us, just natural. Indeed, the method of staging has a Brechtian way of calling attention to itself as performance. All the actors are always in view, seated on the edge of the action when they aren't in it. I was especially impressed by the brio of Christopher Mullen (Laertes and others) and Adam Nelson (Horatio and others). Each has a presence. Of course, the Danish court looks underpopulated and Fortinbras has disappeared. He usually does when the crunch is on. The Hamlet is Kevin Cristaldi. At the moment, his chief virtue is the ability to be clear about what is going on in the tormented prince's head. With time, I'm sure Cristaldi will find a sharper profile for his Hamlet. The cast numbers only seven. They play 17 roles. The practice encourages the development of versatility, which is something that doesn't happen in films and television. The more experienced H. Michael Walls gives a demonstration of range in switching from a Polonius without senile flourishes to a colorful Gravedigger, from Player King to Osric. As Gertrude, Hayden Saunier gets roughed up by Hamlet in the closet scene and still keeps her poise. HAMLET Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Aaron Posner; set design by Daniel Jackson; costumes by Michele Osherow; lighting by Ellen M. Owens; original music by Evan Solot; sound by Michael Green. Presented by the Arden Theater Company at St. Stephen's Alley. Ends March 3. Claudius/Player - Jack Coulter Hamlet - Kevin Cristaldi Laertes/Rosencrantz/Player Poisoner - Christopher Mullen Horatio/Guildenstern/Lead Player - Adam Nelson Ophelia/Player Queen - Suzanne O'Donnell Gertrude/Player - Hayden Saunier Polonius/Player King/Gravedigger/Osric - H. Michael Walls CAST OF CHARACTERS | EAST HAMPTON STAR“Adam Nelson is a great actor!” said Gill Holland, Executive Producer of “Dear Jesse” and a juror for the Student Film Showcase. Nelson starts shooting Guiding Light on Monday. Gill Holland whose latest production “Hurricane Streets” just won three awards at the Sundance Film Festival expressed amazement at the rapid rise of the Hamptons Film Festival after a mere five years in existence.
October 2, 2001 - Like the players in an indie film lover's dream, a thicket of movie and theater thesps turned up for The 24 Hour Plays after-party at Spa. Natasha Lyonne, Liev Schreiber and Lili Tay lor hit the hip downtown club's VIP room, coming straight from the Minetta Lane Theatre, where six short plays were written, staged and performed, all in the course of 24 hours (get it?), for one night only, to benefit families affected by the World Trade Center tragedy (ticket sales alone raised $30,000). Once safely offstage,
Philip Seymour Hoffman confessed to being a bundle of nerves, forgetting his first line. Luckily, the ubiquitous actor quickly ad-libbed his way back on track during his scene with Marisa Tomei and Adam Nelson. Also crowding into the celeb-filled space were Billy Crudup, Mary-Louise Parker, Fisher Stevens, Rosie Perez and chameleon Sam Rockwell (remember his loathsome character in The Green Mile?), who cut a mean rug on the makeshift dance floor with Pearl Harbor co-star Catherine Kellner. SEX AND LIES | SEDUCTIVE ACTS
By Guy Giarrizzo and Scott Manus Directed by Guy Giarrizzo Theater 3 | Review by Nicholas Moore Every time you glimpse up at an apartment window, imagine two people are inside, engaged in hot, unholy sex. Wait, you don't have to imagine, it's really happening . . And these two commit this act in the face of one very simple truth: sex and love in the city can be a dirty business. For those brave enough to hunt it down (like our bedroom lovers) and join the emotionally exhausting rat race, filled with shame and bitterness, Seductive Acts, smartly directed by Guy Giarrizzo, will gladly indulge any of your anxieties and/or paranoia concerning the matter. Martin (Adam Nelson) and Paige (Andrea Maulella) met in their therapist's waiting room and fell in love kind of. Well, they're both desperate and coming off bad break-ups (as opposed to good ones), and they do have great sex with each other ...sure, they fell in love. In actuality, that's just a word for it; both are a little self absorbed and distracted, so they're not quite sure what they've got yet. The desperately neurotic duo live in a sitcom-like world swarming with love-starved singles willing to swallow their bitter frustrations and hold out for true romance. If that's even one of the options. It's a city where your friends, thankfully, are more screwed up than you, and answering machines talk back, making sarcastic quips at your feeble, failed efforts to find somebody to love. The script, co-writ ten by Scott Manus and Giarrizzo, is light and enjoyable live television. Each scene is fueled by just one idea which is usually dragged a bit too far, But the play's clever moments are nailed by a terrific ensemble cast headed by the quirky, manic performances of Adam Nelson and Andrea Maulella. It deals with three Manhattan couples: Bill (Michael Bassett) and Danielle (Dana Bledsoe) are devoted to sex. Jonathan (David Folwell) and Blythe (Malindi Fickle) are devoted to love, while Martin and Paige haplessly drift somewhere between the two. And they're all a little mixed up, trying to sort out that sometimes disturbing prospect of an authentic romance. Each actor in the cast has a unique charm and comic timing of their own. They find the bittersweet chemistry within each relationship and rise above_ the light weight of the material, bringing life and blood to otherwise stereotypical characters. Seductive Acts dutifully tries not to overdo its down -to-earth intentions and fails on that count only when the relationships lapse into repetitive, diched melodrama. Still, Giarrizzo's direction keeps the pace relatively brisk. In the end, he delivers a slick, tightly packaged, slice of life and love in mean Manhattan. If you happen not to have cable television and were curious about HBO's new series, Sex in the City, check it out live and in the flesh at Theater 3. Next up was the rooftop of Flo's Diner, the starry-night site of merriment for young Director Morgan J. Freeman's Desert Blue, with his cast Sara Gilbert, stunning babe Kate Hudson (daughter of Goldie Hawn) and Brendon Sexton Ill, who also gives a pedigree performance in Pecker.
When Kate Hudson spilled wine on actor Adam Nelson zinged back, "Never mind. But could I get you a fork for those spaghetti straps?" Hudson, who told us "Rules are meant to be broken," was in major party mode, heading over to the Permanent Mid night bash at Syn, where she joined Very Bad Things director Peter Berg, along with Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau and Jeremy Piven. Slinky Permanent Midnight star Elizabeth Hurley savvily kept her distance from the fun-lovin' partyhearty crew, though Janeane Garofalo didn't. Ben Stiller - who gets our best-male-shoes-of-the night award -briefly dropped by before heading out, first to Bistro 990 and then to the funky Matador. Legit event mixed thesps, scribes in hasty creative process | 24 HOUR PLAYS | HOLLYWOOD 24 Hours Later: Seth Green, looks away as Adam Goldberg pontificates to Adam Nelson, center, at Deep nightclub after-party. By LISA D. HOROWITZ
HOLLYWOOD -- With his playlet closing "The 24-Hour Plays" at the Henry Fonda Theater, Bruce Vilanch seemed a bit stunned as the lights came up. Perhaps, as he said, it was just amazement at seeing it staged for the first time. More likely, he was kicking himself for having been the only one of the six scribes to take the 10-minute rule seriously. Six 10-minute plays. With a 15-minute intermission. Yet somehow, including starting half an hour late, the evening ended up running three hours. Obviously, someone cheated. The title "24-Hour Plays" wasn't meant to imply the length of the evening, though it came close. Instead, it explains the gimmick of the fundraiser, which raised $20,000 (in ticket sales) for the World Trade Center Relief Fund. As producer Tina Fallon explained, the playwrights and actors gathered on the evening of Feb. 23 and split up into groups. The scribes then retired to write, drawing on both props and tales offered by their stars. They returned to the Fonda at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 24 to rehearse until 5 p.m., when the tech rehearsals started; they wrapped 10 minutes before the supposed 8 p.m. curtain time. Playwrights were Beth Henley, Hilly Hicks, John Belluso, Alexandra Cunningham, Neil LaBute and Vilanch. Belluso was the only one of the six to include Sept. 11 as part of his play. Playwright Belluso featured Seth Green, Jared Harris, Gina Phillips and Adam Nelson in his 24 Hour Play. LaBute offered his usual shtick, oddly repulsive stories of decadent human behavior, with the added twist that his four actors -- Clark Gregg, Devon Gummersall, Portia de Rossi and Brooke Smith -- purported to tell "true" stories based on their own histories, but assigned to a different person than the one whose story it was. Also, they claimed one of the four was made up. But, of course, the joke was on the audience: See, they're actors, and it's their job to lie to us -- all four were fake! Big surprise. Thank goodness for the reliably humorous Vilanch. In his "It Only Happens When I'm Nervous," John Ritter played an actor hoping to audition for "Urinetown," the title of which he could hardly bring himself to utter. Instead, he found himself up for "Puppetry of the Penis," demonstrating his talent to Sarah Silverman as a lustful stage manager and Ann Magnuson as a rather peculiar producer. VARIETY & WORKHOUSE PUBLICITY BAND TOGETHER TO AID | WORKING PLAYGROUND AND THE CHILDREN OF NYCNEW YORK - Variety and Workhouse (www.workhousepr) produced a special celebrity performance of the 24 Hour Plays to aid Working Playground in their efforts to help the children of New York cope with the tragic events of September 11th. The benefit was performed before a sold-out audience which included Robert DeNiro, Kevin Bacon, Bobby Zarem and Bart Freundlich. The 24 Hour Play performers included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rosie Perez, Benjamin Bratt, Billy Crudup, Mary-Louise Parker, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Adam Nelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Lili Taylor, Natasha Lyonne, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, Robert Sean Leonard, Drena DeNiro, Catherine Kellner, Brendan Sexton, Jared Harris, Sam Rockwell and Fisher Stevens who appeared in six short plays, each written less than a day before the curtain raised. Under the direction of Gregory Mosher, Seth Rosenfeld, Anna Strasberg, Tom Gilroy, Itamar Kubovy, Pippin Parker, six plays written by Frank Pugliese, Warren Leight, Richard LaGravenese, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Burdette and Chris Shinn debuted and closed in New York on Monday, September 24th, 2001 at the Minetta Lane Theater. The 24 Hour Plays were followed by an exclusive after-party at the nightclub Spa made possible by the generous support of Variety, Benihana & Haru restaurants, Grey Goose Vodka, Plymouth Gin, Illy Caffe of North America, BMG Entertainment, FIJI Natural Artesian Water, Original Sin Cider and Neibaum-Coppola Estate Winery. DETAILS MAGAZINE & WORKHOUSE PUBLICITY AID | NY STATE WORLD TRADE CENTER RELIEF FUND LOS ANGELES - Details Magazine and Ebel USA in association with Workhouse Publicity produced yet another edition of the 24 Hour Plays to aid The NY State WTC Relief Fund. Performed before a sold-out audience which included William H Macy, Ted Danson, Jennifer Grey, Joel Grey, Carla Gugino (Spy Kids), Breckin Meyer (Road Trip), Johnathon Schaeck (Hush), Mary Keller (Emeril), Dylan Bruno (Saving Private Ryan), Beth Littleford (Spin City) and Amy Yasbeck (Pretty Woman). The Los Angeles production of the 24 Hour Plays included performances by Jane Adams (The Anniversary Party), Christina Applegate (Married with Children), Jennifer Coolidge (Best In Show), Portia Di Rossi (Ally McBeal), Seth Green (Austin Powers), Adam Goldberg (Beautiful Mind), Clark Gregg (State and Maine), Paul Guilfoyle (CSI), Devon Gummersall (Relativity), Jared Harris (I Shot Andy Warhol), Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Buelers Day Off), Mila Kunis (That 70's Show), Ann Magnuson (Making Mr. Right), Adam Nelson (Dogs), Gina Phillips (Jeepers Creepers), John Ritter (Three's Company), Sarah Silverman (Gary Shandling Show), Ione Skye (Say Anything), Brooke Smith (Series 7) and Adam Tomei (The Truman Show) who appeared in six short plays, each written less than a day before the curtain raised. Under the direction of Morgan J Freeman, David Lee Strasberg, Neil Pepe, Tom Quaintance and Mike Uppendahl, six plays written by Beth Henley, Neil Labute, Bruce Vilanch, Hilly Hicks, Alexandra Cunningham and John Belluso debuted and closed in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 24th, 2002 at the Henry Fonda Theater followed by an exclusive cast party at the nightclub Deep. Sleeping City was originally produced as part of The 24 Hour Plays Benefit for The New York State September 11 Victims Relief Fund on February 24, 2022 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. It was directed by Gregory Mosher and featured the following cast
PROFESSOR BRINE ... Jared Harris BEN ... Seth Green LOIS / DORIS ... Gina Phillips OTTO ... Adam Nelson The 24 Hour Plays to aid The NY State WTC Relief Fund which debuted and closed in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 24th, 2002 at the Henry Fonda Theater. Produced by Workhouse, the cast included Jane Adams (The Anniversary Party), Christina Applegate (Married with Children), Jennifer Coolidge(Best In Show), Portia Di Rossi (Ally McBeal), Seth Green (Austin Powers), Adam Goldberg (Beautiful Mind), Clark Gregg (State and Maine), Paul Guilfoyle (CSI), Devon Gummersall (Relativity), Jared Harris (Mad Men), Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Buellers Day Off), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Ann Magnuson (Making Mr. Right), Gina Phillips (Jeepers Creepers), John Ritter (Three's Company), Sarah Silverman (Gary Shandling Show), Ione Skye (Say Anything), Adam Nelson (Dogs), Brooke Smith (Series 7) and Adam Tomei (The Truman Show) who appeared in six short plays, each written less than a day before the curtain raised. Under the direction of Morgan J Freeman, David Lee Strasberg, Neil Pepe, Tom Quaintance and Mike Uppendahl, six plays written by Beth Henley, Neil Labute, Bruce Vilanch, Hilly Hicks, Alexandra Cunningham and John Belluso. Program included introductory letter from then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. There are many amazing examples of heroism in Gotham this September. On Monday night, Planet Impact held its “The 24 Hour Plays” benefit at the Minetta Lane Theater for Working Playground’s program to help children in the city cope with the tragic events of Sept. 11.
The heroic hook had 23 actors performing in six 10-minute plays written, rehearsed and teched in a mere 24 hours. Playwrights Warren Leight, Richard LaGravenese, Frank Pugliese, Tamara Jenkins, Nicole Burdette and Chris Shinn got their assignments at 10 p.m. on Sunday, actors started rehearsals at 8:30 a.m. on Monday and the show went on 12 hours later. Pre-performance, Leight weighed in: “I am grateful for the chance this benefit gives me to get back into a theater. To work. To be with my community. To try to create something rather than to cry or feel numb. I don’t know what, or even how to write, given the last 10 days. The skyline and our lives have changed. The work will reflect that.” In Leight’s “Nine Ten,” Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Sean Leonard, Natasha Lyonne, Andre Royo and Rosie Perez played a troupe of recalcitrant New Yorkers on jury duty, with Parker getting the evening’s most memorable line: “There are no sharks in the Hamptons — professional courtesy.” Fisher Stevens and Marisa Tomei contemplated buying a gun from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Adam Nelson in Pugliese’s “A Living Room.” Sam Rockwell and Lili Taylor took a convoluted car trip across America, with Iowa east of Indiana, in Shinn’s “Sandcastle,” while Billy Crudup showed he was a tremendous song-and-dance man in Burdette’s “A While.” And playing grade-school teachers, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianne Moore and Catherine Kellner showed they were definitely ready for Broadway in “Recess” by LaGravenese. Other thesps walking the hire wire were Benjamin Bratt, Liev Schreiber, Jared Harris, Brendan Sexton III, Scarlett Johansson, Drena DeNiro, Adam Nelson, Brice Gaillard and Brent Cox. The partylike atmosphere continued at Spa in the East Village. |
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