Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Streaming Diary: The artistry of Balanchine, Beckett, and Guettel bring much-needed texture to the austere latter days of this pandemic winter

• By drediman
• February 28, 2021
• No Comments

This weekend, I streamed a diverse, truly exceptional trio of works by indisputable masters from the worlds of dance theater, dramatic theater, and music theater – George Balanchine, Samuel Beckett, and Adam Guettel. As all great art should, their creations have brought much-needed texture to the snowy, austere latter days of this pandemic winter.

PRODIGAL SON
Dance
New York City Ballet
On-demand through March 4

First up, I tuned into the first week of New York City Ballet’s 2021 digital winter season, which thematically explores the “Three Sides of Balanchine” – the narrative (week 1), the classical (week 2), and the neoclassical (week 3). Representing Balanchine’s narrative ballets is Prodigal Son (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which he choreographed in 1929 for the legendary Ballet Russes. For this digital season, City Ballet has chosen to stream a 2013 performance of the one-act ballet, starring principal dancers Daniel Ulbricht as the Prodigal Son and Teresa Reichlen as The Siren. Although technically marvelous, the tall, statuesque Ms. Reichlen has never struck me as the warmest nor most emotive of City Ballet’s deep bench of top-notch prima ballerinas. But it’s precisely the intrinsic icy imperiousness of her dancing that makes her so fascinating as The Siren; this femme fatale is frighteningly heartless. In the title role, the compact and dynamic Mr. Ulbricht – in my mind, one of the company’s most under-exposed assets – was nothing less than smashing, dancing and acting the role to perfection. There’s also a companion “Inside NYCB” video hosted by principal dancer Russell Janzen with the great Maria Kowroski (who has been long affiliated with the ballet), Repertory Director Lisa Jackson, and corps de ballet member Christina Clark (who is currently learning the role of The Siren) that delves deeper into the history of this landmark early Balanchine work and the intricacies of mastering the choreography, particularly that of the Siren.

FIRST LOVE
Theater
Theatre for a New Audience
On-demand through March 1

More often than not, online renditions of stage plays have struck me as far less than ideal, registering more like pallid staged readings than full-blooded productions. Indeed, much of the time, the theatricality of the underlying work is sadly lost in translation. Thankfully, this isn’t the case for Theatre for a New Audience’s digital production of First Love (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a solo stage adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s short story of the same name starring Bill Camp (who may be recognizable to fans of The Queen’s Gambit) as the piece’s infuriating antihero. The digital production has been helmed by one of the icons of avant-garde theater, JoAnne Akalaitis. Instead of directing Mr. Camp to simply recite the script to the camera, she instead ingeniously employs a Brechtian approach in her “staging”, which heightens the play’s theatricality by acknowledging its mode(s) of production (including the process of its capture on video). As such, Ms. Akalaitis’s production proves uncommonly engaging, in the same way that the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s blistering online edition of Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye and Fake Friends’ delirious romp Circle Jerk (both of which made my best-of 2020 list) were. In the work’s central role, Mr. Camp – who plays a scruffy man who thrives on stasis and sabotages his best chance at love – is simply marvelous, giving a masterclass of a performance that’s layered and impressive in its sustained tension and momentum. As for Beckett’s story, it’s raw and frank, unafraid of exposing the gritty underbelly of life and humanity’s capacity for indifference. Consoling pandemic viewing, this is not. But those willing to open up to the playwright’s bleak worldview may come away feeling better about their own predicament(s) in comparison.

MYTHS AND HYMNS – CHAPTER 2: WORK
Music / Opera / Theater
MasterVoices
On-demand

Last week, the second of four chapters of MasterVoices’ digital presentation of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) dropped on the web, and you shouldn’t miss it. Mr. Guettel’s quirky, altogether stunning song cycle – which dizzyingly meshes various Greek myths and the gospel musical tradition – has taken on new resonance during the pandemic as we reassess the concepts of flight (the subject of Chapter 1), work (this installment’s focus), love, and faith. MasterVoices has historically done an admirable and refreshing job of blurring the boundary between musical theater and opera, which continues to be the case here. Indeed, Chapter 2 features vibrant Broadway talents Michael McElroy (heartbreaking in the yearning “Build a Bridge”), Daniel Breaker (at once manic and befuddled as “Sisyphus”), and Shoshana Bean (caressing in her rendering of “Life Is But a Dream”), as well as charismatic opera stars like soprano Ailyn Pérez and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. The production also features the formidable acting talent of John Lithgow, who makes a delicious cameo prefacing the “Sisyphus” portion of the chapter. Although the the video lasts only 20 minutes, the work and its visual presentation (much of it in exuberant animation) are disarmingly artful and invigorating. In fact, the sophisticated production stands on its own on its own as a legitimate document – as opposed to a flimsy makeshift proxy – of Mr. Guettel’s singular work. Additionally, the segmentation of Myths and Hymns and its staggered release allows us to fully appreciate the dense, labyrinthine genius of this masterwork.