Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Theatrical manifestations of cultural icons: Peter Danish’s LAST CALL and Michael Walek’s HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?

• By drediman
• March 18, 2025
• No Comments

This past weekend, I was able to take in a pair of Off-Broadway plays that conjured theatrical manifestations of twentieth century icons of art and science, albeit in drastically different ways. As always, read on for my thoughts on these new works.

LAST CALL
New World Stages
Through May 4

Like Gregg Ostrin’s excellent Kowalski (which played Off-Broadway a few months back), Peter Danish’s Last Call (RECOMMENDED) — which opened earlier this week at New World Stages — also dramatizes a volatile face-off between two cultural icons. But in the stead of stage legends Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando (the subjects of Ostrin’s play), Danish’s work focuses its attention on Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan — two of the most celebrated conductors of their time. Set in 1988 in a Viennese bar, the piece finds these two titans of classical music at the twilight of the respective careers. Although their dramatized meeting is fictitious, Danish draws from a plethora facts to inform their motivations and love-hate relationship, which is driven both by jealousy and fundamental philosophical differences in the way they approach their art. The result is a largely compelling clash of egos that transmutes into a touching reconciliation between two lifelong artistic rivals. Despite a few repetitious sentiments and the odd decision to use pre-recorded inner monologues in lieu of actual spoken soliloquies, Last Call is drama with a capital “D” in the good sense, harkening back to the kind of sturdy if telegraphed dramatic writing that used to be more prolific. The main gimmick, if you will, is the decision to have two women play Bernstein and Karajan, and they are brought to life with conviction by Helen Schneider and Lucca Züchner, respectively. Not to be overlooked is the detailed work of Victor Petersen as the bartender — ironically, he’s given the most overtly theatrical and musical moment of Gil Mehmert’s stylishly staged production (no spoilers here).

HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER?
Ensemble Studio Theatre
Through March 30

In 1960, Jane Goodall observed that chimpanzees in the wild made and used tools, which established an indisputable relationship between humans and other primates. This groundbreaking discovery — largely considered one of the twentieth century’s seminal achievements — is the unlikely subject of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Off-Broadway production of Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? (RECOMMENDED) by Michael Walek (the play is the latest in a fascinating series of commssions by the EST / Sloan Project, which seeks to explore, through the act of theater-making, the humanistic aspects of scientific and technological fields). While the aforementioned play Last Call takes an emphatically dramatic approach to depict its subjects, Walek’s new work goes down a vastly divergent path — although you wouldn’t think of Goodall’s work in such light, the play on which it’s based is an out-and-proud comedy. Using metatheatrical and improv comedy techniques, the playwright achieves an appealing jazzy syncopation in performance, particularly in director Linsay Firman’s impressionistic staging and animated by a wonderful set of character actors, led by veteran stage actresses Brittany K. Allen and Kristin Griffith as Jane Goodall and her mother Vanne. It’s a refreshing and smart take on what could easily have been, given the topic, a dry and overly serious slog. Although much of the piece is handled with a light touch — that the play doesn’t take itself too seriously is part of its appeal — Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? transcends mere sketch comedy and manages to create moments of gravitas and authentic drama. There’s also real humanity behind the frivolity of it all, particularly as it relates to the borderline comical frustrations of the whole endeavor.