‘Rock Paper Dead’ – A New Horror Icon Is Born (Review)

We here at Horror Fuel have been tracking Rock Paper Dead since back in 2015. The film was written by Kerry Fleming and Victor Miller (Friday the 13th), directed by Tom Holland (Child’s Play), and produced by Fleming and Amy Williams. After interviewing both Fleming and  Miller, we could not wait to see the final film. That day has finally come. Earlier today, I sat back and pushed play with my fingers crossed that the film would be everything I had hoped for. Luckily, it was.

In the beginning of the film, we witness Peter Harris (Luke Macfarlane) execute a woman he has kidnapped just as the police bust down his door. The girl’s identity will play a major part in the film later on. After serving time at a psychiatric hospital he is deemed cured by Dr. Evelyn Bauer (Tatum O’Neal) and released. However, the arresting officer Doyle Dechert, played by Micahel Madsen, is not convinced Peter is actually cured and sets out to keep an eye on him.

When Ashley (Jennifer Titus) moves next door (on purpose) Dechert explains to her that Peter is dangerous. While she claims to be a reporter seeking to write a book about Peter, that’s far from who she truly is. In reality, she is the sister of Peter’s last victim before being put away and she’s hell-bent on revenge. Ashley has spent her life training to go toe-to-toe with the killer and avenge her sister’s death.

After Peter agrees to let her write the book the two begin to spend a lot of time together much to the chagrin of detective Dechert. The more time they spend together the more a strange attraction/hatred develops between the two. Peter’s urges grow to slip on that doll mask and sharpen his blade.

During his last writing sessions with Ashley, the truth of Peter’s tormented past comes out. It is revealed that he began life as a normal child before being sent to live with his uncle Charles (John Dugan). We witness the pain and damage inflicted by Charles in flashbacks. When it comes to the question of nature vs. nurture, the film implies that Peter’s sickness is mostly due to the way he was raised and his experiences, though nature does play an important part as well.

Peter could no longer fight the urge and attacked Ashley. This is where I swear not spoil the ending and trust me, you don’t want me too.

I will say this, don’t piss off actress Jennifer Titus (Zoombies) (interview). She’s a badass. In all seriousness though, she was great as Ashley. She captured the anger her character felt for Peter perfectly. The fact that her role was so physical and knowing the fact that she was acting and fighting just weeks after major shoulder surgery left me with a new respect for her as an actress.

Mcfarlane truly shines. He plays crazy so very well. You could tell the character was “off” but Mcfarlane never goes overboard like so many actors do. His character Peter came across both sick and sympathetic which was a strange feeling. He is a killer after all. Luke was fantastic. A new horror icon is born.

The scenes with Uncle Charles (John Dugan) left me feeling gross, but that’s not a bad thing. The definition of horror is: “an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust” and they hit it right on the head. Even though Dugan does not appear often or at length in the film he left a lasting impression.

Anna Margaret (Scream Queens), Maureen McCormick (The Brady Bunch, Passions), and Gabrielle Stone (Death House), Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th), Stephanie Shamie (The Redeemer), Courtlyn Cannan (Till Human Voices Wake Us), Ryan Sadowsky (She’s Gotta Have It), and newcomer Kane Rocca co-star.

The twist at the end as fantastic and unexpected, a brilliant choice. It leaves the film open for a sequel, which I’m happy about. The good news is that Rock Paper Dead is only the first film of a trilogy, so we will get to see the story continue for several years to come. Fleming recently told me that the next film will be more deranged, brutal, and I can’t wait to see more!

My final verdict? Rock Paper Dead is a unique, interesting film filled with suspense and horror. After first hearing about the film two years ago, following its development, and finally getting to see the complete film I can tell you that it was worth the wait. I strongly recommend that you see Rock Paper Dead the moment the film is released. Luckily, you won’t have to wait very long. Rock Paper Dead will hold its world premiere this weekend at the Nightmares Film Festival in Ohio. As soon as a general release date is announced we will let you know. In the meantime follow the film on Facebook for regular updates, screening information and more.

Source: Horror Fuel

Big Night Reviewed by Katie Buenneke

22/09/2017
Tom Phelan, Kecia Lewis, Wendie Malick, Brian Hutchison, Max Jenkins and Luke Macfarlane in Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. (Photo by Craig Schwartz)
Tom Phelan, Kecia Lewis, Wendie Malick, Brian Hutchison, Max Jenkins and Luke Macfarlane in Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. (Photo by Craig Schwartz)

Big Night

Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
Kirk Douglas Theatre
Through October 8

Big Night is a play with aspirations bigger than it can deliver on. The new work by playwright Paul Rudnick wants to make grand statements and provoke gnarly debates about important social issues, but complex issues need to be explored carefully — they’re not best served by being glossed over to get to the next Big Idea, a trap Big Night falls into all too often.

The show follows Michael (Brian Hutchison), an actor who’s been struggling and playing bit parts for years. He’s finally been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, much to the delight of his agent, Cary (Max Jenkins). It’s the night of the show, and Michael is freaking out. His nephew, Eddie (Tom Phelan), who is trans, wants Michael to use his speech — when and if he wins — to make a statement to the LGBT community. Michael, who is gay and in a long-term relationship with boyfriend Austin (Luke Macfarlane) isn’t sure if tonight is the right night to do that. Meanwhile, Michael’s mom, Esther (Wendie Malick), who willingly shoehorns herself into the role of a stereotypical Jewish mother, mostly wants to make the night all about her.

The first half of the play moves along well, with an almost sitcom-like pacing of quips and zippy punchlines. The writing feels a bit too expository — the characters spend a lot of time saying what they’re thinking and delivering monologues about backstory. Still. Cary, Michael’s agent, has so many great one-liners that it’s easy to forgive those faults.

But then the play takes a turn. Michael learns that there’s been a shooting at the Los Angeles LGBT center, where Austin is. Michael wins the Oscar, but it’s bittersweet, and the rest of the evening is somber. It’s a moment that feels directly inspired by last summer’s shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, which occurred the same day as the Tony Awards, and similarly cast a long shadow over that awards show.

Unfortunately, this is when the play loses its footing. The characters, who didn’t feel very three-dimensional to start with, retreat further into tropes. Eddie becomes the angry young radical who is barely won over by common sense. Eleanor (Kecia Lewis), who’s there with Michael’s mother, is solely defined by her past trauma and her Pulitzer Prize. Esther — well, she still wants to make it all about her, and she has some truly cringe-worthy moments of white feminism (really, it’s not always about you) and, even worse, outright racism and transphobia. Perhaps Rudnick thinks it’s alright to make racist and transphobic jokes, as long as they’re coming from a character the audience isn’t supposed to like, but there’s something about the context of the “jokes” that doesn’t make them feel very much like joke. It seems like the audience is expected to laugh along, and secretly agree that, yes, Muslims are the problem!

Perhaps it’s telling that the three most important figures in the second half are the play’s least compelling. Michael, as a character, is a bland everyman, while neither Macfarlane nor Malick seems comfortable in their roles. Macfarlane reads as stilted, as if he’s delivering his lines and hitting his marks (which are pretty obvious under Walter Bobbie’s direction — he literally turns his back on the others so he can look out to the audience and deliver the most emotional moment in one of his monologues).

Malick, meanwhile, trips over her lines, and comes across nervous as an actor, yet not neurotic enough in her character. Given the chance, Eddie and Eleanor could be interesting, but neither Phelan nor Lewis is given much to work with from the script. Indeed, it’s Jenkins’ Cary, who doesn’t talk much throughout the second half, who makes the biggest overall impression, likely due to his great comedic timing.

There are some truly funny moments in Big Night, and it’s commendable that the playwright is trying to tackle big issues — he just doesn’t tackle any of those issues particularly well. The play makes half-baked statements about gun control, base desires for revenge, and what it means to have a platform to speak out about important social issues. Ultimately, however, Rudnick does not use his own platform to say anything meaningful about anything.

Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; Tues.-Fri. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; through Oct. 8. Centertheatregroup.org. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Source: Stage Raw

L.A. Theater Review: Paul Rudnick’s Oscars Comedy ‘Big Night’

22/09/2017

An unforeseen (and inexcusable) off-stage event overshadows the Academy Awards ceremony where a gay actor stands to win his first Oscar.

Where to begin with all that’s wrong with Paul Rudnick’s new play, “Big Night,” which takes place in a swanky Hollywood hotel suite before and after the Academy Awards ceremony where a C-lister named Michael (Brian Hutchison) stands to become the first openly gay actor to accept an Academy Award?

Let’s start with the fact that Rudnick — the typically hilarious writer of stage and screen responsible for “Jeffrey” and “In & Out” — doesn’t seem to realize the historical significance of this win, which ought to have been sufficient drama on which to hang the entire show. One can just imagine all the backstage quarterbacking as Michael’s boyishly young agent Cary (Max Jenkins) coaches his client, a serious Juilliard-trained actor who’s just received a five-picture offer to appear in the “Star Wars” franchise, on whether or not to acknowledge his homosexuality in his acceptance speech. But “Big Night” avoids all that, settling for far easier (albeit infrequent) laughs.

In addition to being gay, Michael is also Jewish, and nearly all Rudnick’s punchlines center on those two aspects of his identity, hitting the Jewish angle especially hard: There are Bar Mitzvah jokes and Passover jokes and Hanukkah jokes and Yiddish jokes — pretty much everything but Bris jokes. Then come the gay jokes. The first guest to appear is Michael’s nephew, Eddie, née Erica (played by trans actor Tom Phelan), a female-to-male college student who earnestly implores his uncle to take a stand against Academy prejudice by decrying the cisgender actor also nominated in his category (best supporting actor) for playing a trans character.

Politically speaking, such things do matter, but apparently not so much to Rudnick, who uses the cause as fodder for cheap shots about gender pronouns and political correctness. Strange for a play that takes place so deep within its own queer echo-chamber that every single character is L, G, B or T (though Rudnick can’t resist rattling off the rest of the alphabet for easy laughs, quipping that “gender fluid … sounds like a cleaning product”).

That applies even to Michael’s Jewish mother, Esther, who enters after a laggy first 15 minutes or so — and hers truly is an entrance, as slender, long-legged actress Wendie Malick swans in wearing a glittering silver gown. A brash, irrepressible Christine Baranski type, she wastes no time in establishing herself as the most interesting person in the room, stealing scenes right out from under her humdrum son (the idea that this dullard might ever be Oscar nominated is an insult to anyone who ever has been).

“Tonight isn’t about me,” Esther insists, before proceeding to make it all about her when she drops a bombshell: Instead of wasting time as a widow, she has fallen in love again, this time with Pulitzer prize-winning poet Eleanor (Kecia Lewis) — another dramatic opportunity missed. Although “Big Night” consistently avoids the storylines that seem most promising, it’s not for lack of having something serious to say. But when Rudnick does try to make his statement, the play practically falls apart entirely. (Stop reading here if you don’t wish to spoil the surprise.)

For the first half of “Big Night,” Michael’s partner Austin (Luke Macfarlane) has been missing. We’re free to imagine all sorts of explanations (they met in a club, then spent the next eight hours wandering the streets of L.A., which suggests he might have a crystal meth problem), but the real one is a doozy — and a mood-ruining bit of emotional manipulation so egregious, it’s hard to take seriously: Austin had been volunteering at the local LGBTQ youth center when a gunman walked in and shot more than 50 kids.

The incident casts a pall over the Oscar ceremony, of which Rudnick includes just Michael’s speech, beginning with that old cliché where the actor takes out his notes, starts to read and then decides to speak from the heart instead — a convention that simply doesn’t work under these circumstances. In fact, the only way such a scene might have been effective is if Rudnick had written the other play, the one in which Michael must decide whether or not to acknowledge his sexuality from the stage, then is compelled at the last moment by forces bigger than his petty career concerns.

As inside-joke showbiz satires go, “Big Night” is inexplicably out-of-touch on how things work, from Hollywood’s “don’t ask, don’t tell (and if asked, let Scientology find you a wife)” policy to the Academy Awards (which never go to actors whose only credits are regional theater and “Law & Order” guest spots). But even if it did get these things right, why invent the youth center shooting? Wouldn’t an attack on the Oscars themselves be more interesting — and plausible?

Rudnick has a hard time juggling the competing tones of the play, alternating between the cattiness that comes naturally (as when Esther dismisses the Edible Arrangements fruit bouquet) and heavy-handed social commentary (a preposterous moment in which Eddie pulls out a gun and proposes that he try to hunt down the gunman zirself). Though he’s shell-shocked by what he’s just witnessed, Macfarlane makes for nice eye candy as Austin (who might just as well have been written shirtless) in the second half of the play.

But there’s no denying the terrorist attack is a cheap stunt, one that merely reinforces the play’s agenda, when it would have been far more effective if Rudnick had forced these liberal-minded characters to face off against at least one bigot, or someone who challenges their progressive ideals. Though he wrote one of the funniest movies of the last 25 years (that would be 1992’s “Sister Act,” albeit pseudonymously), Rudnick isn’t likely to win an Oscar in this lifetime, so this is his chance to say his piece. As “Big Night” is written, Michael manages to perform two possible acceptance speeches. Surely at least one of them should be the highlight of the play.

L.A. Theater Review: Paul Rudnick’s Oscars Comedy ‘Big Night’

Kirk Douglas Theater, Culver City; 317 seats; $75 top. Opened Sept. 16, 2017, reviewed Sept. 20, 20176. Running time: 1 HOUR, 25 MIN.

Production

A Center Theatre Group presentation of a play in one act by Paul Rudnick.

Creative

Directed by Walter Bobbie. Sets, John Lee Beatty; costumes, William Ivey Long; lights, Ken Billington; original music, sound, Karl Fredrik Lundeberg; production stage manager, Brooke Baldwin; casting, James Calleri, Paul Davis.

Cast

Brian Hutchison, Max Jenkins, Kecia Lewis, Luke Macfarlane, Wendie Malick, Tom Phelan.
Source: Variety

What Did L.A. Critics Think of Paul Rudnick’s New Comedy Big Night?

22/09/2017

Wendie Malick and Brian Hutchison star in the world premiere from the writer of Jeffrey and In & Out, which opened in Los Angeles September 16.

Wendie Malick, Brian Hutchison and Luke Macfarlane in the world premiere of <i>Big Night</i>
Wendie Malick, Brian Hutchison and Luke Macfarlane in the world premiere of Big Night Craig Schwartz

The Center Theatre Group world premiere of Big Night, the latest comedy from Jeffrey and In & Out writer Paul Rudnick, opened in Los Angeles September 16.

Big Night, which unfolds in a swanky Beverly Hills hotel suite over the course of a chaotic Academy Awards night, began previews September 10 and will continue through October 8 in the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Tony winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago, Bright Star) directs a cast that features Emmy Award nominee Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me, Hot in Cleveland), Brian Hutschison (Smokefall ), Max Jenkins (The Mysteries of Laura), Kecia Lewis (The Drowsy Chaperone), Luke Macfarlane (Brothers & Sisters), and Tom Phelan (Hir, The Fosters).

Source: Playbill

Big Night Crams a Lot of Big Issues Into 90 Minutes

19/09/2017

Brian Hutchinson, left, and Max Jenkins

Brian Hutchinson, left, and Max Jenkins
Craig Schwartz
Big Night is one of those stage comedies that tries to tackle big themes but trips on the very glibness it purports to satirize.

Written by Paul Rudnick and unimaginatively directed by Walter Bobbie, it’s set in a glitzy hotel suite before and after an Oscars ceremony. Mike (Brian Hutchison), a gay Jewish actor, is an unassuming guy who still can’t believe he’s been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category (and on the same ballot as Matt Damon, no less). Mike’s hanging out with his agent, Cary (Max Jenkins), discussing his past career and future plans, when in walks his nephew Eddie (Tom Phelan), a transgender person and a college student in gender studies. Eddie wants Mike to use the podium to take a stand on the casting of a cisgender performer (also up for an award) in a transgender role. Cary strenuously objects, concerned that such overt political statements at a good-time event such as the Oscars will undercut Mike’s career.

Before this conflict can play out, however, Mike’s glamorous and controlling mom, Esther (Wendie Malick), appears and immediately secures center stage with her own announcement (following a lengthy exposition) that she’s fallen in love with Eleanor (Kecia Lewis), a Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American novelist. Hardly have greetings and congratulations been bandied about when news comes of a mass shooting at an LGBT center hosting homeless children. Thirty people, among them youngsters, die; one of those to survive is Mike’s buff boyfriend, Austin (Luke Macfarlane), who, traumatized, soon shows up at the suite to reveal all the terrible details.

All of this is jam-packed into 90 minutes of a facile script studded with one-liners, some more on target than others.

From the beginning the kindest thing that can be said about the ensemble is that it is under-rehearsed (maybe) and under-directed (for sure). Bobbie positions the actors onstage and they mostly stand there, looking awkward and shooting exposition back and forth. It’s as if they’re being directed for a sitcom, with expectations that strategic cameras will pick up some close shots to be edited in later.

The charismatic Malick comes off best in the first half, but her performance falls apart once the role calls for her to approximate a real human being. The bland Hutchinson is miscast, and it’s impossible to believe that he and Malick share DNA.

BIG NIGHT | Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City | Through Oct. 8 | (213) 628-2772 | centertheatregroup.org

Source: LA Weekly

‘Big Night’: Theater Review

18/09/2017

Craig Schwartz
Brian Hutchison, center, and the company of ‘Big Night’

Wendie Malick stars in the world premiere of playwright Paul Rudnick’s latest, an Oscar-themed tragicomedy.

Tragedy strikes on Oscar night, splitting the emotions of Best Supporting Actor nominee Michael Stratford (Brian Hutchison) in the world premiere of playwright Paul Rudnick’s seriocomic ensemble piece, Big Night. What happens when the real world comes crashing through the bubble of celebrity? Apparently nothing much, as Michael hunkers down in his hotel suite with friends and family, including a corrosive yet effervescent Wendie Malick, for a bout of hand-wringing, quippy one-liners and meandering monologues.

The one-liners are a trademark of Rudnick’s, whose breakout AIDS comedy, Jeffrey, was full of them. Winner of a 1993 Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award, Rudnick had already found success in Hollywood with Sister Act, and had the sequel coming out that same year, as well as Addams Family Values. A creature of both Broadway and Hollywood, Rudnick wrote satirical film criticism as Libby Gelman-Waxner for a column in Premiere Magazine until it folded in 2007, continuing at Entertainment Weekly.

With a dense résumé spanning roughly 30 years, there’s no doubt the writer is familiar with his chosen milieu in Big Night. The mid-century hotel suite by scenic designer John Lee Beatty features floor-to-ceiling windows with a stunning view of Los Angeles in the background. Nervous about his prospects of beating Matt Damon for the Oscar, Michael is calmed by his new agent, Cary Blumenthal (a scene-stealing Max Jenkins), who offers him a gift of cuff links. “They’re from the agency,” he notes. “See the logo?”

Jenkins kills in the early going, the perfect vehicle for Rudnick’s best zingers. In fact gags are abundant in the play’s first half, and occasionally some of them land — “Now there’s a woman who believes cosmetics should be tested on Republicans” — but many more do not, with a few summoning the sound of crickets.

When Michael’s nephew Eddie (Tom Phelan) arrives, the plot begins to creep forward. A transgender LGBTQ activist, he implores his uncle to use his soapbox, should he win, to make a statement on behalf of the community. It’s a question that demands more attention as the play moves into its later stages, but first Michael’s mother, Esther (Malick), arrives with her new lover, a double Pulitzer Prize-winning professor from Columbia University, Eleanor (Kecia Lewis).

The two enter just in time to bring much-needed brassy-broad energy to a comedy that has begun to meander. And continues to do so as Malick does what everyone does in this play — that is to launch into a monologue while the others sit rapt, listening as if it were the Panic Broadcast of 1938.

Michael’s partner, Austin (Luke Macfarlane), arrives directly from the scene of a mass shooting at the LGBTQ center where Eddie often volunteers. The tragedy ignites passion but no action from the ensemble. It is here that an interesting possibility arises about a group of wealthy and influential people rendered impotent, trapped in a form of stasis in the face of calamity. And it’s here that Big Night might have become a razor-sharp satire along the lines of Luis Bunuel’s Exterminating Angel, in which bourgeois dinner guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave a gathering at a lavish mansion. Instead, the play keeps hurtling forward with more monologues and no end in sight.

If these and other issues are addressed in subsequent drafts, hopefully veteran director Walter Bobbie’s work with his cast can be fine-tuned. A 2007 Tony winner for Chicago, Bobbie’s timing with the actors often brings added punch to Rudnick’s best lines. But just as often his actors are rooted to the carpet like floor lamps, listening to yet another discursive expository passage. If character comes out of action, Rudnick’s characters take no action. Their vague contours are only exacerbated by unfocused direction, hamstringing an otherwise solid cast.

Big Night plays without intermission with a running time of roughly 90 minutes, but with little plot or pacing it feels longer. Writing about Jeffrey for The New York Times, Stephen Holden compared Rudnick to Oscar Wilde. That might have been an overstatement, but one of Michael’s lines late in the play comes pretty close: “There’s nothing worse than a human being, nothing. And once in a very long while, nothing better.” It proves that Rudnick still has it. Hopefully we’ll see more of it in his next show, the musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada with a score by Elton John.

Venue: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Los Angeles
Cast: Wendie Malick, Max Jenkins, Luke Macfarlane, Tom Phelan, Brian Hutchison, Kecia Lewis
Director: Walter Bobbie
Playwright: Paul Rudnick
Set designer: John Lee Beatty
Costume designer: William Ivey Long
Lighting designer: Ken Billington
Music and sound designer: Karl Fredrik Lundberg
Presented by Center Theatre Group

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Los Angeles Theater Review: BIG NIGHT (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City)

17/09/2017

Post image for Los Angeles Theater Review: BIG NIGHT (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City)

A STAR IS BORN

Paul Rudnick’s bright new comedy takes place on Oscar night. Michael (Brian Hutchison) is a journeyman actor with a career and life-changing Best Supporting Actor nomination. After years of steady theater work and occasional television guest shots, he is on the verge of becoming a star. His trans nephew Eddie (Tom Phelan) hopes when Michael wins (not if, but when) he will use the platform to lambaste Hollywood for its treatment of actors and characters who fall within the alphabet soup of LGBTQ—you can add more letters according to your generational orientation.

Everyone has his, her, or their own opinions, including his agent Cary (Max Jenkins), partner Austin (Luke Mcfarlane), mother Esther (Wendie Malick), and new friend Eleanor (Kecia Lewis). At first, it appears the play will stay focused on Michael’s acceptance-speech dilemma, but Rudnick has a lot more he wants to explore. Before the night is over, violence and hatred transform his deft comedy of manners into something deeper, though happily, no less funny.

Oh, and another little thing happens: A star is born. Max Jenkins. From the moment this theater and television veteran steps onto the stage in his shiny tuxedo pumps, he commands our attention, paralleling the play’s Cinderella story of a working actor coming into his own. His sly wit, gleeful underplaying, and unexpected moments of pathos are astonishing. Rudnick and director Walter Bobbie give Jenkins free rein to turn this “shallow” agent into the emotional heart of the show. Look beneath all his fake show-biz tinsel and glitter and what do you find? The true show-biz tinsel and glitter within.

Wendie Malick, of course, is already a star. But if she weren’t, it would take little more than the cool insouciance with which she wears her William Ivey Long evening gown to turn her into one. Her Esther calls herself a Jewish mother, but if so, she’s the wittiest, smartest, sexiest Jewish mother the world has ever seen. Esther arrives to Michael’s big night with a smashing surprise of her own (no spoilers here) and a warm heart that belies her droll one-liners.

As Michael, Brian Hutchinson has a difficult task. The character is so grateful for his career, so in love with his handsome activist partner, so lovely to his nephew and his mother, and so welcoming to everyone he meets, that he runs the risk of becoming a bit dull—like Sidney Poitier’s “Good Negro” in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Hutchinson is an actor of range and color, who steers well away from making Michael into the “Good Homosexual,” but Rudnick could afford to give the character some darker notes.

Explosive, hilarious moments from Kecia Lewis pop up along the way, and her timing is beautiful. (So is her William Ivey Long evening gown.) Luke Mcfarlane and Tom Phelan are equally effective. Much was made in the press during Phelan’s run on ABC’s The Fosters about the actor’s real-life trans identity. Visibility is wonderful, but talent is what matters most, and Phelan has it to spare.

Director Walter Bobbie has a flair for light comedy, and he easily balances the emotional moments, never letting the pendulum swing too far one way or the other. For my money, Bobbie is theater. And theatre. His decades of experience inform every single choice he makes with his actors and designers. John Lee Beatty’s hotel suite set is a brilliant, towering, expensive wonder—so luxe it’s almost ugly. As already noted, William Ivey Long knows his way around an evening gown. His formal wear for the four male characters is less flashy, but just as impactful in subtler ways.

Rudnick is a comic pointillist who would have been happily at home in another era, taking his rightful place alongside the likes of Noël Coward and Philip Barry. What makes him modern and relevant, though, is his ability to find human connection in our culture’s vanities, pretensions, and obsession with celebrity. Even Libby Gelman-Waxner has a heart of gold. And I love that Rudnick is so sneaky. Here he comes with a glittering new commercial comedy. Some people might not notice that among its six-member cast, not one character is a straight white male. Change doesn’t have to wear its importance on its sleeve. Rudnick is sublimely confident in his own voice, his own humor, and his own way of seeing the world. With Big Night,he is at the top of his game.

photos by Craig Schwartz

Big Night
Kirk Douglas Theatre
9820 Washington Blvd in Culver City
ends on October 8, 2017
for tickets, call 213.628.2772 or visit CTG

Source: Stage and Cinema

Review Paul Rudnick’s ‘Big Night’: Comedy and crisis in the awards machine of Hollywood

17/09/2017

In a posh Beverly Hills hotel suite overflowing with gift baskets, Michael, the central character of Paul Rudnick’s tentative new comedy, “Big Night,” is anxiously primping for what may be the most important evening of his life.

A dedicated gay actor whose career has balanced Shakespeare in the provinces with “Law & Order” guest spots, Michael (played with amiable earnestness by Brian Hutchison) is up for an Oscar for supporting actor. Heading off to the ceremony that will decide his Hollywood future, he wonders what expression he should feign if he loses to Matt Damon. But he’s informed by his young and excitable new agent, Cary (Max Jenkins), that he has a good shot at winning. Somehow this only makes him more nervous.

The play, which opened Saturday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre under the direction of Walter Bobbie, recalls in its bantering setup one of the playlets in Neil Simon’s “California Suite,” the one that looks in on a visiting couple from London as they prepare for the wife’s own big night and then cope with the bitter marital aftermath after returning from the Academy Awards empty-handed.

But Rudnick, the author of the plays “I Hate Hamlet,” “Jeffrey” and “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” the screenplay “In & Out” and countless New Yorker humor columns, populates his five-star suite more densely. This ostentatious room with an entrancing L.A. view becomes an LGBTQ microcosm as visitors arrive full of congratulations, special requests and dizzying surprises.

The first to show up is Michael’s transgender nephew, Eddie (Tom Phelan), who’s majoring in queer studies at UCLA with “a thesis concentration in non-binary gender expression.” He wants Michael to use his platform to make a statement about Hollywood’s lack of diversity and “historic abuse” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally and pansexual” people.

Cary, who’s out and proud himself, respects Eddie’s alphabet of political commitments but advises Michael not to shoot himself in the foot just as his career is about to take off. He’s working on a lucrative multi-movie deal. The producers of “Star Wars” want to cast Michael, who, turns out, has a thing for light sabers. This is no time for criticizing the academy.

By this point, Michael’s mother, Esther (Wendie Malick), has shown up dressed to the nines with breaking news of her own. I don’t want to give too much away, but Esther is traveling with a new friend, Eleanor (Kecia Lewis), an African American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who brings some intersectionality to the political debate Michael would rather not be having.

Eleanor inquires what pronouns Eddie prefers. (“I’m fine with he, they, hir, zir, or zee,” he answers.) Eddie asks Eleanor whether she prefers “black, African American or person of color.” (“Dealer’s choice” is her freewheeling reply). Rudnick could probably have spun an entire play lovingly satirizing this kind of politically correct social etiquette, but he recognizes that homophobia and hate crimes are more pressing concerns.

“Big Night” takes a serious turn when Michael discovers the reason his lover, Austin (Luke Macfarlane), is unaccountably late. The situation Rudnick constructs is all too plausible in an age when mass violence and displays of intolerance are regularly in the news, but the change in dramatic register isn’t smoothly pulled off.

The characters react to information that shocks and upsets but doesn’t have the power to upend them. Scenarios remain theatrical hypotheticals. The mood grows somber, but the comedy doesn’t allow the consequences of what occurs to sink in. Unreality reigns.

“Big Night” plays like a speculative humor essay on urgent themes. The interplay of perspectives is lively, but the characterizations are “types” led more by laugh lines than by psychology. The playwriting makes it hard to believe in the world inside this hotel suite, which (as designed by John Lee Beatty) seems more Las Vegas than Beverly Hills.

Comedy, as practiced by Molière, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, provides a forum for the bandying of difficult and dangerous ideas. Realism needn’t be the priority, but Bobbie’s production plays against genre, keeping the zaniness on an unnecessarily low flame.

“Big Night” doesn’t accelerate like a farce. There are curious lulls in which the actors appear stranded, waiting for rescue from Rudnick’s inexhaustible wit after something more dramatically meaningful fails to show up.

On the plus side, there’s Malick in a gorgeous evening dress (the magic of costume designer William Ivey Long) looking impossibly young and doing her best to turn the stereotype of the Jewish mother into something contemporary and original. Yes, she foists food at her loved ones in moments of crisis. And no, she never stops worrying about careers, grades, designer discounts and awards. But she plays Esther first and foremost as a woman with her own desires, needs and convictions.

If the play forces upon the character sentimental speeches that say nothing, the fault lies with the playwright, who doesn’t know how to resolve a situation that even his own characters have lost faith in.

Rudnick ought to write to his own strengths. More camp from Jenkins’ Cary wouldn’t be amiss.

Cary, who grew up in Beverly Hills wanting to be an agent, recalls his bar mitzvah at the Hotel Bel-Air “with calla lilies, a vegan buffet and twin Soviet gymnasts from Cirque du Soleil.” The theme? “The films of Jennifer Aniston,” he answers, defensively clarifying in the next beat, “The early films!”

“Big Night” may be earnest in patches, not entirely convincing and a bit thin, but Rudnick hasn’t lost his talent to amuse. The play is funny even when it stumbles and stalls.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Big Night’

Where: Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays; ends Oct 8 (call for exceptions)

Tickets: $25 to $70 (subject to change)

Info: (213) 628-2772 or www.centertheatregroup.org

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes (no intermission).

Source: Los Angeles Times

BIG NIGHT

16/09/2017

Paul Rudnick flounders Big-Time in Big Night, a World Premiere comedy-melodrama likely to prove a Big Letdown to fans hoping for more of the same hearts-and-minds-changing comedic magic that made Jeffrey and In & Out such crowd-pleasing delights.

It’s Academy Award night and Best Supporting Actor nominee Michael Stratford (Brian Hutchison) is about to head over to the Dolby Theatre and quite possibly accept an Oscar as pay-off for years spent either toiling regional theater or snagging an occasional TV guest spot or movie bit.

Not only is this a big night for Michael, it’s a big one too for his firecracker of a new agent Cary (Max Jenkins), who’s so gay he’s got fifteen pairs of eyeglass frames (and he doesn’t even wear glasses); for his political activist boyfriend Austin (Luke Macfarlane), about to arrive at Michael’s deluxe Beverly Hills hotel suite from a stop at the Gay Center’s LGBT youth Oscar party; for his trans nephew Eddie née Erica (Tom Phelan), a UCLA queer studies major raised in the most traditional of homes; and for his mother Esther, who we know must be absolutely fabulous if for no reason but that she’s played by Wendie Malick.

Sill, from the start there are indications that Rudnick in political activist mode won’t be the writer we’ve come to know and love for his ability to poke fun at contemporary gays (whether the out-and-proud Jeffrey or Kevin Kline’s In & Out closet case) without ever becoming strident and preachy.

It turns out that Michael’s biggest Oscar competition tonight is a cisgender actor playing a transgender serial killer (if this seems very 1991 Silence Of The Lambs, it’s not the only time audiences may find themselves feeling they’re watching something written a quarter-century ago) and Eddie, selfish if well-meaning little prick that he is, wants Uncle Michael to use his Oscar speech platform (because there’s apparently little doubt he’s going to win) to lambast the Academy for its long history of homophobia!

(I’m guessing that it’s around this time that those of the non-progressive persuasion will find themselves heading for the exit rather than stick around for more of what they’ll surely see as Rudnick’s “gay agenda,” and they may not be the only ones.)

Esther’s arrival does manage to perk things up a bit, as does the surprise she springs on her son, which is that walking the red carpet by her side tonight will be her college prof Eleanor (Kecia Lewis), the merry widow’s Pulitzer-prize winning African-American lesbian lover!

But that’s nothing compared to the cataclysmic event that follows Esther’s announcement, a game-changer takes Rudnick’s comedy into stark dramatic territory (a genre most definitely not the writer’s forte) from which there is no recovery, a tonal shift not helped by the fact that the words coming out of Rudnick’s characters’ mouths are talking points and sound bites, and before you know it, Big Night has sunk quicker than Titanic.

Director Walter Bobbie and his cast do what they can with the material, Jenkins proving a particularly sassy delight as Jack McFarland clone Cary, and it’s a treat seeing Malick play a character with more depth than those she’s normally given. Hutchison, Lewis, and Phelan, on the other hand, are hobbled by their characters’ clichés, and Macfarlane, entering when he does midway, never gets to play more than anguished.

At the very least, Big Night looks absolutely fabulous as designed by a team of Broadway greats. John Lee Beatty’s gorgeous set looks to have been transported directly from the Beverly Hills Hotel, William Ivey Long’s costumes are stunners, Ken Billington’s lighting dazzles, and Karl Fredrik Lundeberg adds amusing/dramatic sound effects and some nifty original music.

Brooke Baldwin is production stage manager. Lindsay Allbaugh is associate producer. Casting is by James Calleri, CSA and Paul Davis, CSA.

Paul Rudnick fans hoping for more of what made us fall for his previous hits will be sorely disappointed by Big Night. Big Flop is more like it.

Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Through October 8. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00. Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00. Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30. Reservations: 213 628-2772
www.centertheatregroup.org

–Steven Stanley
September 16, 2017
Photos: Craig Schwartz

Source: Stage Scene LA

Brothers & Sisters: 10 motivi che la rendono ancora attuale

24/09/2016

Dieci anni fa debuttava il family drama sulla ABC, ecco perché le cinque stagioni hanno lasciato il segno nel cuore degli spettatori.

Brothers & Sisters

2006 – 2011 – Drammatico

Sono passati dieci anni da quando, il 24 settembre 2006, la ABC ha mandato in onda il primo episodio di Brothers & Sisters, la serie televisiva ideata da Jon Robin Baitz dedicata alla storia della famiglia Walker.

Gli eventi, come spesso accade nei family drama, prendono il via con la morte del patriarca, William Walker; a sopravvivergli sono la moglie Nora (Sally Field) e i cinque figli. Kitty (Calista Flockhart) deve scegliere tra il matrimonio e una vita a New York o una carriera in televisione a Los Angeles. Tommy (Balthazar Getty) è diviso tra la famiglia e i tentativi di aiutare la sorella Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) a occuparsi dell’azienda ereditata dal padre. La donna, inoltre, ha molti problemi nella sua vita privata e un matrimonio forse irrimediabilmente in pezzi. Kevin (Matthew Rhys) lavora invece in uno studio legale ed è alla ricerca di un compagno di vita. Il più piccolo della famiglia, Justin (Dave Annable) è infine reduce dalla guerra in Afghanistan e convive ogni giorno con le ferite che il conflitto ha lasciato nella sua anima.

Sally Field e gli altri membri del cast in una scena dell'episodio 'Going Once...Going Twice' della serie tv Brothers & Sisters

Nel corso di cinque stagioni sullo schermo si è assistito a segreti in grado di cambiare per sempre la vita, tradimenti, dibattiti politici e morali, e ovviamente intrighi sentimentali di ogni tipo. La sceneggiatura ha sicuramente perso un po’ di spessore e originalità mentre ci si avvicinava all’epilogo della storia, tuttavia lo show è riuscito a conquistare un posto nel cuore degli spettatori che hanno trovato nella vita dei Walker elementi in grado di emozionarli, commuovere e alle volte ridere.
Brothers & Sisters è arrivato sugli schermi televisivi sulla scia di altri progetti di successo, come ad esempio Settimo cielo, e ha anticipato serie dalle basi simili, tra cui Parenthood o Modern Family e la sua atmosfera più leggera.
In occasione del suo decimo anniversario ecco i 10 motivi per cui ancora oggi merita una visione.

1. Il cast

Una cena in famiglia nell'episodio 'Going Once...Going Twice' della serie tv Brothers & Sisters

Una storia così ricca di svolte e rivelazioni, alle volte un po’ troppo forzate, avrebbe rischiato in più momenti di scivolare nel surreale se a sostenerla non ci fosse stato un cast di altissimo livello. La sempre intensa e brillante Sally Field è stata infatti affiancata da Calista Flockhart, all’epoca reduce da Ally McBeal, Ron Rifkin, Rob Lowe, Matthew Rhys già in grado di dimostrare il proprio talento prima di The Americans, Balthazar Getty, Dave Annable, Rachel Griffiths e l’allora quasi emergente Emily VanCamp, star di Everwood. Gli interpreti hanno saputo costruire un feeling evidente e, nonostante alcune iniziali difficoltà, sono riusciti a rendere i personaggi multidimensionali e credibili, evitando stereotipi e semplificazioni.

Brothers & Sisters - Il cast della serie

2. Tanti personaggi con il giusto spazio

I nostri protagonisti a cena insieme nell'episodio Scandalized di Brothers & Sisters

Molti family drama faticano a trovare un equilibrio nello spazio e nell’importanza da dare ai vari protagonisti della storia. Gli sceneggiatori di Brothers & Sisters, invece, hanno permesso a ogni singola presenza di vivere un’evoluzione personale coerente e naturale. La quarta e quinta stagione, tuttavia, hanno avuto più problemi rispetto al previsto nell’assecondare questa necessità, lasciando poi in sospeso alcune situazioni, come quelle di Kitty e Justin, a causa della prematura cancellazione. L’uscita di scena di alcuni personaggi chiave, come Robert e Rebecca, inoltre, non è stata del tutto colmata dall’arrivo di nuovi personaggi.

3. Un personaggio omosessuale lontano dagli stereotipi

Brothers & Sisters - Il matrimonio di Kevin e Scotty

Attualmente la presenza di un protagonista apertamente gay non suscita alcuna sorpresa ma dieci anni fa non era così scontato che un network generalista come la ABC desse spazio a questioni sociali come quelle riguardanti Kevin Walker. La costruzione del personaggio interpretato con bravura da Matthew Rhys rifletteva i dubbi e le discussioni politiche allora in corso negli Stati Uniti, mostrati anche attraverso il rapporto tra Kevin e sua sorella Kitty, contraria ai matrimoni gay ma non alle unioni civili. Nel corso delle stagioni la situazione di Kevin è cambiata, fino ad arrivare a fargli compiere l’importante dichiarazione a Scotty che ha portato al loro matrimonio e alla scelta di diventare genitori insieme.

4. Lo stress post-traumatico di Justin

Brothers & Sisters - Una foto di Justin in crisi

Il membro più giovane della famiglia Walker, Justin, ha contributo a portare sul piccolo schermo questioni e tematiche legate al post-11 settembre. Il personaggio affidato a Dave Annable è entrato infatti a far parte dell’esercito dopo i tragici eventi avvenuti a New York e al suo ritorno in patria ha iniziato a fare uso di droga a causa delle conseguenze dello stress post traumatico. La possibilità di essere inviato di nuovo al fronte, questa volta in Iraq, ha dato vita a sequenze in cui il ragazzo ricadeva nelle sue dipendenze, rischiando persino di morire. La storia di Justin è stata poi complicata dal rapporto con quella che inizialmente pensava essere la sua sorellastra, Rebecca, ma gli aspetti più interessanti del personaggio risiedono proprio nella sua capacità di rappresentare un’importante percentuale di cittadini americani, spesso appartenenti alle generazioni più giovani, che hanno vissuto in prima persona gli orrori della guerra e hanno dovuto trovare la forza di continuare a vivere.

5. Le cene in famiglia

Brothers & Sisters - Una cena in casa Walker

La casa di Nora, tranne nell’ultima stagione, ha ospitato moltissime riunioni e cene di famiglia. I Walker sono infatti famosi per le loro discussioni e accesi scambi di opinione; che si tratti di questioni politiche, contrasti o problemi sentimentali, ogni reunion tra le mura di casa era un indizio certo che qualcosa di importante stava per accadere. Il cambiamento di location, pur giustificato dalle modifiche avvenute nelle vite dei protagonisti, ha fatto perdere un po’ di incisività alle interazioni dei Walker nelle ultime puntate e il calore rappresentato dalle scene ambientate nella casa di Nora, a volte fin troppo acceso, ha rappresentato una delle grande assenze degli ultimi capitoli della storia.

6. Amori molto complicati

Brothers & Sisters - Un'immagine di Kitty e Robert

Basta pensare alla perfezione solo apparente del legame tra William e Nora o al matrimonio in crisi di Sarah ed è evidente che le vite dei Walker hanno portato sugli schermi le varie sfumature dell’amore: appena nati o giunti al capolinea, senza dimenticare decisioni difficili di accettare e perdonare tradimenti o, al contrario, chiudere per sempre la porta a chi ha dimostrato di non meritare fiducia. Brothers & Sisters ha proposto diversi aspetti dell’amore, rendendo più realistici gli eventi raccontati nelle cinque stagioni e declinando con efficacia il sentimento in base alle varie età dei personaggi.

7. Gli ostacoli per diventare genitori

Brothers & Sisters - Sarah insieme a sua figlia

Tra gli argomenti ancora attuali e presenti nelle pagine della cronaca, è la scelta di diventare genitori e gli ostacoli da superare che questa comporta. Tra figli illegittimi, donazioni di sperma, uteri in affitto, adozioni e gravidanze da portare avanti in situazioni mediche difficili, gli episodi hanno esplorato i vari lati della maternità e della paternità, senza mai giudicare i personaggi ma, al contrario, mostrando spesso anche le critiche e le difficoltà incontrate sul loro cammino.

8. La produzione

Un primo piano di David Marshall Grant

Brothers & Sisters ha potuto contare su una produzione di alto livello fin dalla prima stagione. A sostenere il progetto non c’era infatti solo Jon Robin Baitz, acclamato autore di Broadway, ma anche Ken Olin che era reduce da Alias. Nel team della produzione, nella prima stagione, era presente inoltre Greg Berlanti, destinato a essere il capo degli adattamenti per il piccolo schermo dei fumetti della DC realizzati da The CW. L’arrivo di David Marshall Grant al ruolo di showrunner, avvenuto nella quarta stagione per sostituire Monica Owusu-Breen e Alison Schapker, ha contribuito a un cambiamento narrativo che, purtroppo, ha portato alla cancellazione dello show.

9. Sogni destinati a non realizzarsi

Odette Yustman, Gilles Marini e Rachel Griffiths nell'episodio Safe at Home di Brothers & Sisters

La famiglia Walker, fin dalle prime puntate, porta in scena la difficoltà di dover fare i conti con una realtà in cui i propri sogni sembrano allontanarsi sempre di più con il passare del tempo. Nessuno dei protagonisti ha vita facile nel realizzare gli scopi che si è prefissato, dal successo professionale a una carriera medica, fino ovviamente alla serenità nella vita privata. Il buon equilibrio tra drammi e momenti più leggeri ha permesso alla serie di non diventare mai stucchevole o eccessivamente tragica.

10. Le battute taglienti

Brothers & Sisters - Un divertente momento della serie

Se non ci fosse stato spazio per momenti divertenti e battute esilaranti, tra così tanti drammi e momenti cupi lo show avrebbe faticato a mantenere vivo l’interesse e l’affetto degli spettatori. Dalla scoperta di Kitty che Nora ha trascorso la notte con un uomo agli scontri fisici tra fratelli, dai disastri culinari alle serate karaoke, senza dimenticare l’ironia e il sarcasmo di Sarah o le discussioni con figlie ormai adolescenti o adulte che non rispondono esattamente alle proprie aspettative di genitore. La leggerezza non è mancata sullo schermo e ha reso ancora più indimenticabili le cinque stagioni.

Source: Movie Player