On the Exhale

B

Marin Ireland (Ironbound, reasons to be pretty), one of our most talented stage actors, seems incapable of giving a less than compelling performance. In this dark drama by Martin Zimmerman now at Roundabout Underground’s Black Box Theatre, she plays a professor in a “concealed carry” state, who is morbidly afraid that some male student, unhappy with a grade, might settle his grievance with a gun. As a single mother, her main fear is that no one would be there to raise her only child. When a gunman does strike, it is not at the university, but at her son’s elementary school. Her son is one of the victims. She deals with her grief in quite unexpected ways. While the acting is impeccable, the material seemed a bit formulaic. During the last 15 minutes, the play took what I felt was a wrong turn that undermined some of its force. The set design by Rachel Hauck is minimal in the extreme — a platform with a black wall behind it. Emily Rehbolz’s costume does not call attention to itself. The lighting by Jen Schriever very effectively enhances the production. Leigh Silverman’s (Violet, Chinglish) unfussy direction is assured. It’s only an hour long, but it’s a very intense hour.

All the Ways To Say I Love You ** C

Neil LaBute’s new play for MCC at the Lucille Lortel Theatre is really just an hour-long monologue for an actress on the far side of 50. But when that actress is Tony winner Judith Light, who’s going to complain about it? Light plays Mrs. Johnson, a long-time high school English teacher and counselor, looking back 15 years to a relationship that profoundly affected her marriage, her career and her soul. To say more would be to give away too much. Those expecting the usual dose of bile and surprise from LaBute will be disappointed. Light is impressive — just learning all those lines is amazing — but her performance is too often overheated with few quieter moments to relieve the intensity. Rachel Hauck’s set recreates a high school office convincingly. Emily Rebholz’s has dressed Light plausibly. I wish director Leigh Silverman had gone for a wider emotional palette. Running time: one hour, no intermissionion.

The Robber Bridegroom **

It’s unfortunate that I saw the Roundabout revival of this 1975 musical so soon after seeing the wonderful Hadestown. The afterglow of the latter show made this one seem even cruder and more insipid by comparison. This adaptation of a novella by Eudora Welty, with a book by Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and music by Robert Waldman (40 songs for "Captain Kangaroo'), has been given the full Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Peter and the Starcatcher, Here Lies Love) treatment, abetted by Donyale Werle’s over-cluttered set and Emily Rebholz’s attention-grabbing costumes. Everything is geared to being relentlessly entertaining and the effort shows. A Mississippi folk tale of a gentleman by day/robber by night turns into little more than an animated cartoon set to loud bluegrass music. The usually excellent Stephen Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County, Far from Heaven) does not get much chance to show his strengths and the always enjoyable Leslie Kritzer (Legally Blonde, School of Rock) is ill-used. Ahna O’Reilly is lovely and spirited as the ingenue. The other hard-working cast members do their best with roles untouched by subtlety. Maybe I just got up on the wrong side of bed, but I found the entire production tedious. It was a long 90 minutes and I had a headache when it was finally over. 

Indecent ***

Borrowing from “Shuffle Along,” I could say that “Indecent” might well be subtitled  “The Making of the Broadway Sensation of 1923 and All That Followed.” Pulitzer-winner Paula Vogel has written a complex, ambitious work, “created by” herself and director Rebecca Taichman, about the rocky history of “God of Vengeance,” Sholem Asch’s controversial 1907 play. The melodramatic story of a Jewish brothel owner whose daughter falls in love with one of his prostitutes, the play’s second act contains the notorious “rain scene” that shows the tender love between the two women. The depiction of Jews as pimps and prostitutes and the desecration of a torah in the final scene made the play problematic. After a striking opening image, the present play takes us from Asch’s play’s raucous first reading at a Warsaw salon for Yiddish writers through its success in several European capitals to its move to the Bowery, then on to Greenwich Village. To secure an English-language production on Broadway, the producer, much to the devoted cast’s dismay, excised the rain scene. Nevertheless, inflamed by condemnation by the rabbi of Temple Emmanuel, the city closed the play down after one performance and successfully tried the cast and producer for obscenity. Asch neither protested the play’s mutilation nor attended the trial to defend the loyal cast. Allegedly, he had just returned from a mission to Eastern Europe and was too traumatized by what he saw there to care much about what happened to his play. The transformative power of his play on the devoted cast who perform it for so many years is in stark contrast with Asch’s loss of interest in it. I fear that the present play attempts to tell too many stories at once: the importance of Yiddish literature and especially Yiddish theater, the bonds within a theater troupe, the positive presentation of lesbianism, the fear of encouraging anti-Semitism, the difficulties of assimilation, fragments of Asch’s long career and the tragic loss of a Yiddish audience. The playwright posits a final performance of Asch’s play in an attic in the Lodz Ghetto. The entire cast is superb: Richard Topol is Lemml, the stage manager. The other actors — Katrina Lenk, Mimi Lieber, Max Gordon Moore, Tom Nelis, Steven Rattazzi and Adina Verson — all play multiple roles and succeed in making us care about characters that are not that fully developed. The production is greatly enhanced by a trio of klezmer musicians and choreography by David Dorfman. The set by Riccardo Hernandez is simple but effective and Emily Rebholz’s costumes are appropriate. While there is much to admire in this production at Vineyard Theatre, the many elements did not cohere as well as I would have liked. Perhaps my expectations were too high because of my high regard for the previous work of both the playwright and the director. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission. NOTE: Do not get front row seats because the stage is very high.

Dear Evan Hansen ****

Fresh from a highly acclaimed run at Arena Stage in Washington, this bracing new musical with music and lyrics by Benj Hasek and Justin Paul (Dogfight and A Christmas Story: The Musical, both of which I admired) and book by Steven Levenson (The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, which I did not) is now running at Second Stage. Levenson’s well-crafted book brings the oft-told tale of a teenage misfit trying to cope with the torments of high school up to date for today’s world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Kickstarter -- social media that are all too available to magnify and commodify events that used to remain private. The title character (a superb Ben Platt) inadvertently becomes involved in a misunderstanding and, through his efforts to be kind to the parents of Connor Murphy (Mike Faist) a classmate who has committed suicide, becomes enveloped in a quicksand of lies. Evan has a difficult relationship with his stressed-out single mother Heidi (a fine Rachel Bay Jones) who is too swamped with work and night school to provide him with the attention he craves. Larry and Cynthia Murphy (John Dossett and a moving Jennifer Laura Thompson), Connor’s grieving and unhappily wed parents, are comforted by the stories Evan manufactures for them and make him almost a family member. An added benefit for Evan is that he is able to spend more time with their daughter Zoe (Laura Dreyfuss) on whom he has long had a crush. Alana Beck (Kristolyn Lloyd) and Jared Kleinman (Will Roland) provide comic relief as two classmates who assist Evan with his deception. The contemporary pop score is well-integrated into the book. The emotional moments are quite gripping. David Korins’s set design has round platforms that whirl in and out of sight and black backdrops for the projection of social media. Emily Rebholz’s costumes befit the characters. Michael Greif (Next to Normal and Grey Gardens) once again shows his skill in directing thought-provoking musicals. The audience, far younger than the usual subscription crowd, loved it. I would not be surprised if a transfer to Broadway is in the works. Running time: 2 1/2 hours, including intermission.

The Way We Get By **

Neil LaBute’s new two-hander, now in previews at Second Stage, represents somewhat of a new direction for him — misogyny and misanthropy are nowhere to be seen and love is in the air. Doug (Thomas Sadoski) and Beth (Amanda Seyfried) have shared a night of lust after hooking up at a party. The morning after is awkward as they attempt to determine what the future holds for their relationship. We learn that they are not strangers and the nature of their past relationship presents an obstacle to any future one. A greater problem is the inability of one of them to commit. Doug, a socially awkward motor-mouth, would become annoying very fast if he were not played by the superb Sadoski, who, I think, is one of the finest younger actors on the New York stage. Seyfried has a less showy — dare I say underwritten — role. I felt that her inability to make a stronger impression was primarily a problem with the script. She does have lovely breasts though. I am curious whether Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”), who was originally announced for the role, could have done more with it. Much of the dialogue seemed artificial. The play became repetitive after a while and ended with a ridiculous scene that diminished what preceded it. Neil Patel’s apartment set is spot-on as are Emily Rebholz’s costumes. Leigh Silverman’s direction does not call attention to itself. I admire LaBute for trying something different and thank him for providing a juicy role for Sadoski. Other than his performance, there wasn’t much to admire. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Our Lady of Kibeho ***

Playwright Katori Hall’s residency at Signature Theatre resumes with this theatrically engrossing play based on actual events in Rwanda in the early 1980’s when three young women at a Catholic school claimed to have visions of Mary. As the play opens, Father Tuyishime (Owiso Odera),a young handsome priest and Sister Evangelique (Starla Benford), an older martinet nun in charge of the students — two stock characters who could be right out of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt — are arguing about what to do with 17-year-old Alphonsine (Nneka Okafor), the first to claim to see the Virgin. The priest secretly hopes the apparitions are real while the nun wants to stamp out attention-seeking nonsense. When another student, Anathalie (Mandi Masden), begins to see the visions, Sister Evangelique enlists Marie-Claire (Joaquina Kalukango), the eldest student and a bit of a bully, to interfere should there be other apparitions. Marie-Claire too sees the Virgin in the gripping scene with gasp-inducing special effects that concludes the first act. When word gets out about the visions, the long absent Bishop Gahamanyi (Brent Jennings) shows up and threatens to close the school if the rumors are not contained. Eventually the Vatican sends Father Flavia (T. Ryder Smith) to investigate. The manner in which he tests the girls is barbaric. As the visions come to be accepted, there is much shifting of positions among those who at first belittled the visions and those who supported them. Some are motivated by crass economic considerations, others by faith. But few are able to accept the warning of a coming bloodbath the apparitions portend. In restricting herself to the immediate period of the visions, Hall does not supply much context for what happens. The audience is expected to know in advance about the tribal rivalries between Hutu and Tutsi and the massacres that took place in Rwanda a decade later. That narrowing of focus may rob the play of a bit of its import but not of its theatricality. Rachel Hauck’s modular set is attractive and efficient. Peter Nigrini’s evocative projections add much to the atmosphere. Greg Meeh and Paul Rubin create some marvelous effects. Emily Rebholz’s costumes are very good. Director Michael Greif keeps things moving. One word of caution: a walkway that bisects the theater between rows F and G is used for part of the action, particularly in the second act. If your seat is in Rows A-F, you either will miss some of the action or twist your neck trying not to. Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including intermission.

The Who & the What ***

Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama must have put a lot of pressure on playwright Ayad Akhtar to come up with another play that is equally impressive. While his new play at LCT3 lacks the explosive power of “Disgraced,” it does have much to recommend it. Afzal (Bernard White) is a wealthy widowed Pakistani immigrant who has risen from cabdriver to owner of the largest taxi fleet in Atlanta. His two adult daughters are Zarina (Madine Malouf), a bookish, somewhat aloof Harvard grad who has been working on a novel for years, and Mahwish (Tala Ashe), her slightly flighty younger sister who would like to marry but cannot because tradition demands that the older daughter marry first. When Zarina wanted to marry a non-Muslim some years past, Afzal forbade her and she acquiesced. Unbeknownst to her, he has recently set up a profile for her on MuslimLove.com and even impersonated her to meet prospects he deemed worthy. One of them is Eli (Gregg Keller, "Belleville"), a white convert to Islam who is imam of a poor congregation, founder of a soup kitchen, and also a plumber. In the second act, which takes place a couple of years later, both daughters have married. Zarina has finally finished her novel (its title is the title of the play, which doesn’t explain a lot) which deals with the life of Mohammed as a flawed human rather than a sanitized prophet, as well as with the constricted role of women in Islam. When her family discovers the nature of her novel and considers the devastating effect its publication is likely to have on them (shades of “Other Desert Cities”), a deep fracture occurs. The well-crafted first act crackles with snappy, often comic, dialogue between pairs of characters. The play’s two scenes between the sisters are especially fine. The second act is not as tightly knit and the big confrontation scene fizzles a bit. Unlike “Disgraced” which peaked with an ensemble scene, the current play seems to flounder when more than two people are on stage. The acting is mostly strong. Jack Magaw’s three-module set with filigreed panels suggestive of Muslim art, is quite attractive and highly functional. Emily Rebholz’s costumes work well too. Kimberly Senior, who also directed “Disgraced,” is effective again here. I found it well worth my time despite its imperfections. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes including intermission.

If/Then **

Unless you’re a really dedicated Idina Menzel fan, you can take a pass on this high-concept musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Menzel plays Elizabeth, a recently divorced almost-40 city planner returning to NYC after 12 years in Phoenix. She seems more interested in dwelling on past choices than in moving ahead with her life. A seemingly trivial decision about which friend to hang out with after an encounter in Madison Square Park leads her down two different paths, one as Beth, more interested in her career than her personal life and the other as Liz, who values love above career. Following her down these two different roads sounds more interesting than it turns out to be. Neither story is particularly compelling and the alternation between them is both confusing and unproductive. The people who surround Liz/Beth are right out of the cliche book — Lucas (Anthony Rapp), a mostly gay housing activist, Kate (LaChanze), a sassy black kindergarten teacher, Josh (James Snyder), a noble doctor just returned from military service; Anne (Jenn Colella) and David (Jason Tam), two cardboard characters to provide romantic interest for Kate and Lucas, and Beth’s boss and mentor Stephen (Jerry Dixon). Mark Wendland has designed an attractive, flexible set complete with turntable and huge overhead mirror. Kenneth Posner’s lighting design features a glowing backdrop of changing colors, some of them quite bilious. Emily Rebholz’s costumes do not distract. Michael Greif keeps things both stories moving with only occasional confusing moments. And then there’s the music, none of which I could hum if my life depended on it, and the lyrics, which rarely rise above the humdrum. Since I am old-fashioned enough to think that the music is the main point of a musical, I find the show wanting at its core. Menzel is a commanding performer, but she can’t elevate mediocre material. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes, including intermission.

Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra **

Playwrights Horizons describes this new play by Kirk Lynn as a "tough-love comedy." So that's what it is? I never would have guessed with all the phony baloney goings on. I could barely get past the play's ridiculous premise -- that Carla (Zoe Sophia Garcia) will not marry Reggie (Chris Stack) unless he agrees to reenact their respective sexual histories "on" each other before they wed. She also does not want Reggie's ex, Tony (short for Antoinette, played by Rebecca Henderson), to be their best man. Got that? Alternating with scenes of these three adults are other ones involving three teenagers -- awkwardly intense Bernie (short for Bernadette, played by Ismenia Mendes);  Sean (Maxx Brawer), a shy boy who has a crush on her; and Cole (Will Pullen), a friend with suspect motives who suggests that Sean use a date-rape drug on her. The party they attend does not turn out well for them. The relationship between the two sets of characters is not revealed until the second act, which takes places 20 years after some, but not all, of the action in act one. The tough love comes then when we learn that it is hard to be a single parent with a teenager. The play is a literal mess as well as a figurative one -- the stage is regularly littered with clothes, books, beer cans, the contents of a purse, etc. for reasons that escaped me. Why two of the three females have boys' nicknames was also a mystery. Any relation the titillating title has to the play is faint and forced. What I was left with was a craving for lasagna, which is mentioned several times during the play. Laura Jellinek's set is appropriately dreary. Emily Rebholz's costumes are apt. Anne Kauffman, whose direction I have enjoyed twice before, does not shine here. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Stop Hitting Yourself **

To misquote Mae West, "too much of a gold thing can be wonderful." That could well describe the sight that greets you when you enter the Claire Tow Theater: 17 gold chandeliers of various shapes and sizes, a gold baby grand piano, oversized gold statues, gold palm trees and a fountain that spouts queso, a golden melted cheese. And let's not forget the gigantic dollar sign with flashing lights. How could we not be in for an evening of madcap frivolity with a dash of surrealism? Alas, 90 long minutes later you'll know how. A wisp of a plot -- something about a contest to win a good deed from the queen at her charity ball -- tries to knit together this intermittently entertaining melange of speechifying about selfishness, the environment and the nature of art, audience participation games, tap dancing, songs and a grand finale in which the actors attack each other with queso. I have a hunch that the members of the Austin-based theater collaborative Rude Mechs had considerably more fun putting the show together than the audience did watching it. I admire LCT3 for taking a risk on something so different, but in this case, the result was disappointing. Getting to see Mimi Lien's over-the-top set and Emily Rebholz's costumes was almost worth the $20 ticket price. By the way, I have absolutely no idea where the title came from.

The Last Five Years ***

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Second Stage Theatre has revived Jason Robert Brown's popular theater piece in a production with two excellent singing actors, Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe, directed by the composer. I say "theater piece" rather than "musical" because the work is basically a song cycle with aspirations. The gimmick is to have the two characters alternate songs, with Jamie telling the story of their relationship from beginning to end while Kathy tells it in reverse from breakup to first meeting. They share a song only once when their chronologies meet and again, very briefly, at the end. When I saw the original production, I wasn't sure whether the gimmick enhanced or detracted from the work and I'm still not sure. What I am certain of is that the score is very good. Brown's music and lyrics and the way he integrates the vocal and instrumental lines are admirable. Kantor and Wolfe have big shoes to fill (Norbert Lee Butz and Sherie Renee Scott in the original), but succeed completely. The six fine musicians, who are arranged on individual platforms on the back wall, perform beautifully. Derek McLane's set is appropriately simple as are Emily Rebholz's costumes. Jeff Sugg's projections are used sparingly, but effectively. I still don't fully embrace the show's underlying concept, but I enjoyed the evening. The audience was notably younger and more enthusiastic than usual. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

The Call ***

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There is much to admire in Tanya Barfield's new play at Playwrights Horizons. The characters are vividly drawn and excellently realized by a fine cast, the dialog is lively and convincingly authentic, and the premise is promising. Annie (Kerry Butler) and Peter (Kelly AuCoin) are a white couple who, after a long battle against infertility that has left Annie depressed, decide to adopt an African baby. Their best friends, a black lesbian couple Rebecca (Eisa Davis) and Drea (Crystal A. Davidson), have mixed feelings about their decision. Peter had been a close friend of Rebecca's older brother, who died after a trip he and Peter made to Africa. The circumstances of his death are a topic usually avoided, but that come out late in the play. Peter and Annie have a new neighbor from Africa, Alemu (Russell G. Jones), whose perpetual smile masks survivor guilt. When they get a picture of the girl they are planning to adopt, they think she looks considerably older than her alleged age, which sets off new doubts in Annie. Unfortunately, the play spins its wheels a bit in act two and the various strands do not blend very successfully. Nevertheless, it is a worthy effort that I was glad to see. Rachel Hauck's set and Emily Rebholz's costumes are effectively understated. Leigh Silverman's direction is assured. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes including intermission. Note: It's merciful that there is an intermission, because the semi-upholstered seats in the Peter J. Sharp Theater become very uncomfortable after a while. And why would anyone build a theater in this day and age without staggering the seats?

The Madrid *

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Alas, the curse that the theater gods apparently placed on Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I at City Center has not yet lifted. On paper "The Madrid" looked like a sure thing. With a cast led by Edie Falco and including Frances Sternhagen and Christopher Evan Welch; a playwright, Liz Flahive, with a previous MTC success and a strong track record writing for Falco on "Nurse Jackie;" and a first-rate director, Leigh Silverman, who helmed Flahive's previous MTC play, what could possibly go wrong? Plenty, as  it turns out. Falco plays Martha, a teacher in a Chicago suburb who suddenly walks out on her family and job and starts a new life in a seedy downtown apartment named The Madrid. Her 20-year old daughter Sarah (Phoebe Strole) tries to find a connection with her. Her long-suffering husband John (John Ellison Conlee) copes by selling everything that reminds him of her. Their meddlesome, needy neighbor Becca (Heidi Schreck) and her slightly creepy husband Danny (Welch) try to help in counterproductive ways. Martha's mother Rose (the always fine Sternhagen) tries desperate measures to bring her daughter home. Becca and Danny's gangly 16-year-old son Dylan (Seth Clayton) provides a brief moment of comic relief. The trouble is that the proceedings offer so little to involve the viewer that, by the end of two long listless acts, I no longer cared why Martha left or whether she would return. David Zinn's multipurpose set is efficiently versatile and Emily Rebholz's costumes are fine. Silverman does her best with the hand she has been dealt. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes including intermission.

What Rhymes with America *

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When I saw Melissa James Gibson's play This at Playwrights Horizons three years ago, I thought she demonstrated great promise. Alas, she has not delivered on that promise in her new play, now in previews at Atlantic Theater. Hank (Chris Bauer) is an unemployed economist who is trying to win back his estranged wife after spending her retirement savings. He tries to recruit his 16-year-old daughter Marlene (Aimee Carrero) as a go-between. At the hospital where Marlene volunteers, Hank meets Lydia (Seana Kofoed), a 40-ish virgin with issues. The fourth character, who basically steals the show, is Sheryl (Da'vine Joy Randolph), an unsuccessful actress who, along with Hank, works as a super at the Met to earn some money. She gets two big scenes -- recreating her audition for Lady Macbeth and reciting a patter list of characters from Wagner operas. Unfortunately, neither of these scenes has much to do with the central plot of the play, assuming there is one. Gibson clearly has a love of language, but she has not used it to build a coherent play. Laura Jellinek's monochromatic grey set is appropriately bleak. Emily Rebholz's costumes for the supers from the Ring and Aida are amusing. Director Daniel Aukin did not succeed in making a silk purse. There was much grumbling in the audience at play's end. Running time: 80 minutes without intermission.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike ****

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Just when New York City can really use a laugh, along comes Christopher Durang's latest play, now in previews at Lincoln Center Theater. Durang stalwarts Kristine Nielsen (Sonia), David Hyde Pierce (Vanya) and Sigourney Weaver (Masha) are joined by newcomers Genevieve Angelson (Nina), Shalita Grant (Cassandra) and Billy Magnussen (Spike) in this riotous Chekhov mash-up with a touch of Aeschylus and Walt Disney. Instead of 19th-century Russia, the time is now and the place is an idyllic farmhouse in Bucks County, where middle-aged siblings Sonia and Vanya rue the meaninglessness of their lives. They are visited by their sister Masha, a famous movie star who owns the house and supports them, her current boy toy Spike, a feckless actor who undresses at every possible opportunity, and their neighbors' guest Nina, an eager young actress. And then there's the cleaning woman Cassandra, who has second sight and a way with voodoo dolls. Durang gives each character ample opportunity to shine. Their antics provide a multitude of laughs. Underlying all the humor is a tinge of regret over the loss of community in a society that no longer watches Ozzie and Harriet or licks postage stamps. Plot has never been the main thing for Durang, and it isn't here either. The humor occasionally flags and the play could profit from a little tightening. The set by David Korins is gorgeous and Emily Rebholz's costumes are delightful. Nicholas Martin's direction is fine. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes including intermission.

Slowgirl ***

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LCT3 inaugurates its new Claire Tow Theater, built atop the Vivian Beaumont, with this new play by Greg Pierce. Becky (Sarah Steele) is a 17-year-old extrovert who leaves no unfiltered thought go unspoken. Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) is her reclusive uncle who lives in a remote home in the Costa Rican jungle. Becky, fleeing the horrible consequences of a cruel prank against a developmentally challenged classmate, is visiting him for a week. Several years earlier, Sterling fled the United States for reasons that are gradually revealed. Although they had not seen each other in nine years, their shared alienation forges a bond as the week progresses. There are some awkward plot points and too many long pregnant pauses, but the play held my interest. Steele, who had impressed me in Russian Transport earlier this season, is quite good. Ivanek is fine in a much less showy role. The sets by Rachel Hauck are evocative, effective and technically impressive. Emily Rebholz's costumes are appropriate to the characters. Anne Kauffman's direction could use a little more energy. Running time: 95 minutes without intermission.

The Claire Tow Theater is a welcome addition to the local theater scene. A simple but elegant black box with 131 comfortable red plush seats, it has a lovely terrace overlooking the newly green roof of the Beaumont. All tickets are only $20.

WIth LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater is "reaching out to younger and more ethnically diverse audiences."  I assume their decision not to market Slowgirl to LCT members was part of this plan. Judging from this afternoon's audience, they are not reaching that goal. I was shocked that the theater was half-empty. I think they need a new marketing plan.