August 5 2006 Bright Neon Lights

I've been on the road for the last week or so. A consulting gig in Albany, a long weekend with a pal in the Berkshires (and a couple of great concerts at Tanglewood), and then down to NYC for all of this week.

My NYC pattern is always the same: there is no such thing as a free night when there's a show on somewhere to see (excepting when work DOES get in the way, every now and then).

As Liza once sang: "What good is sitting alone in your room...?"

You remember that our friend Dave says that "all stories are true."

Then, he would like the play titled "Faith Healer."



















Three performers. Four Acts. Three soliloquies. One story told three times... or is it three stories?

Act 1: Ray Fiennes in the title role. A spartan stage. He appears to have the power, but it's there by chance.

Act 2: Cherry Jones as his anguished wife. Same tale... yet not the same at all.

Act 3: Ian MacDiarmid (yes... Palpatine...) steals the entire show as his agent. Another telling. Worth seeing for the third act alone.

Act 4: Fiennes returns to complete his story, textured as it is now with the tellings of the other two. Chance plays a part.

It's a challenging play. Dark. Somber. Not laid out. Yet remarkably performed when you realize that these actors have built a relationship with each other on the stage and they never appear together until the curtain call.


Then there is "The History Boys." If I can score another ticket before I leave, I am sure I will see this again on this trip; it's on a limited run. I'm a sucker for the "teacher movie" genre, and this is HIGHLY recommended.












And what would a trip to a city where "Mamma Mia!" is showing be without snagging a half price ticket and seeing it, yet again? Well, it would not be me on that trip, I tell you that.