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A CurtainUp Review
The Third Story
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I recall you being quite enraptured with my narrative abilities when you were a child. — Peg I loved your stories. You had an endless collection of Russian fairy tales.— Drew Yeah. The stories my Grandmother Olga told me. At her knee, I learned the basic rules for holding an audience. How to gauge'em, goose 'em and grab 'em.— Peg |
Charles Busch
(Photo: Joan Marcus) |
Famously fixated with Hollywood legendry and the more dominant female icons of the golden age of film-making, notably those of the 1930s and 1940s, Busch, in his latest opus, is not channeling the likes of Crawford, Stanwyck or Davis, but rather existing as a living repository of all their most identifiable traits, postures and expressions. These have all been extracted and absorbed into a crazy quilt that is far more ambitious in scope than such past drag-immersed works as The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and Psycho Beach Party.
The Tony-nominated Busch (as author of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife) can be lauded again for writing a play in which displaced, disfigured and distressed personalities vie for attention and resolution in their lives. Simply put: Psychological profundity meets psychopathic lunacy. Now whether his aim and ambition have been translated into a good play is the fourth story. It remains in question.
Notwithstanding the high-styled wig, a collection of handsome ensembles and stunning gowns and a witch's schmata, Busch's extravagant theatrical personas and fictional characters in the play within the play allow room for two poignant characters to emerge. As played with mushy-mouthed invectives, by Turner, Peg is a washed-up screenwriter who once hob-knobbed with such female screenwriting luminaries as Frances Marion, June Mathis and Anita Loos. She is hoping to convince Drew to collaborate with her in developing a scenario for a gangster flick she hopes to market. Maybe by the third try, the story will gel, as will their fractured relationship.
Ensconced in the home outside Omaha, Nebraska where he lives alone and works as a mailman, Drew resists his mother's attempt to lure him back to writing and expedite her come-back. He is content, as he says, being a mailman. Mother thinks she knows best and proceeds to entice Drew with her loopy and ludicrous ideas for a plot. These also spark a trio of comically dramatized scenarios that imaginatively interpolate various genres, including science fiction, horror, fairy tales, gangster/mob movies and pure melodrama, all of it woven into the fabric of the main story.
Four of the play's six actors are playing more than one role, making it somewhat of a four-de-force. Busch makes an atypical fashion statement as the fabled witch Baba Yaga who helps a princess gain the love of a prince. But he is at his best as the tough-talking mob boss Queenie Bartlett and as her discombobulated robotic clone. The clone, like the humorously afflicted zombie Zygote (as played by the gruesomely made-up Scott Parkinson) is the flawed product of Dr. Constance Hudson, a demented scientist. Dr. Hudson is played with an impassioned brio by Jennifer Van Dyck who has the hots for Queenie's smart aleck son Steve. Jonathan Walker gets high marks impressively contrasting his double assignment as Steve and also as the conflicted Drew. Sarah Rafferty is demure as the forest princess and then appears wonderfully sexy and sassy as Verna, Steve's former girl friend. Let it be said that Turner's turn as the German-accented scientist Dr. Rutenspitz manages to create a genre of its own.
The Third Story was (according to the author's notes in the program) inspired by Busch's own memories of a beloved story-telling aunt. It is a commendably daring exploration of the silver chord syndrome and the agony of the creative process. The significance of the title becomes evident at the play's conclusion. The significance of the play may reside in Drew's retort to Peg: "I'll concede that you weren't any worse a parent than others of your ilk."
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The Third Story By Charles Busch Directed by Carl Andress Cast: Jonathan Walker (Drew, Steve Bartlett ), Kathleen Turner (Peg, Dr. Rutenspitz), Charles Busch (Queenie Bartlett, Baba Yaga), Sarah Rafferty (Verna, Princess Vasalisa), Jennifer Van Dyck (Dr. Constance Hudson), Scott Parkinson (Zygote) Original Music: Lewis Flinn Scenic Design: David Gallo Costume Design: Gregory Gale Lighting Design: David Weiner Sound Design: Chris Luessmann Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street Tickets ($65) Performances: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 PM; Thursday and Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 & 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM. Opened 02/2/09 Ends 02/27/09 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 01/31/09 |
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Wicked
Jersey Boys
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide