Jerusalem *

Lured by the prospect of seeing Mark Rylance in another prize-winning performance, I attended the final preview of the London import Jerusalem at the Music Box. Three things that I have a very low tolerance for are plays about trailer dwellers, plays about heavy drug users and/or drunks, and plays that resort to blasting my eardrums with loud rock music to get my attention. Within 30 seconds, it was clear that I had hit the trifecta and was in for a long (3 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact) tough slog. Rylance plays Johnny "Rooster" Byron, a modern Pied Piper, whose drugs and booze attract a sorry lot of hangers-on to his trailer in the woods on the edge of a Wiltshire town. The action takes place on St. George's Day, on the eve of Rooster's threatened eviction by the local town council to make way for a housing estate. Much drinking, snorting and using the "c" word ensue. Perhaps playwright Jez Butterworth's goal was to bemoan the sterility of life in present-day England and lament the loss of any connection to ancient English folk traditions. The hymn Jerusalem from a poem by Blake is sung at the beginning of Acts I and II, but the significance of the words was lost on me because they were either inaudible or unintelligible. The only bright spots of the evening were the tall tales Rooster tells with such great flair. Rylance's performance is indeed a tour de force, but not sufficient reason to endure a tedious evening. For me to enjoy a play, there must be at least a character or two that I care for or want to know more about; in this case there were none. The play was enthusiastically received in London. Maybe you have to be English to fully appreciate it. Fairness requires that I report that many people around me seemed to be enjoying the evening. Ian Rickson directed the mostly British cast.

La Bête ***

David Hirson's Broadway record is unenviable-- in 1991, La Bête ran for 25 performances; in 2000, Wrong Mountain lasted 28 performances. Who would have guessed that a revival of La Bête would be one of the hottest tickets on Broadway?  A faux-Moliere comedy in rhymed couplets hardly seems a sure bet, but, with the right cast, it might overcome its reputation as a "cult flop." Reuniting award-winning director Matthew Warchus with Tony-award winner Mark Rylance and adding David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley certainly improves the odds. Rylance is simply brilliant as the vulgar egotistical street performer Valere. No one does righteous indignation better than Hyde Pierce: the part of actor-manager Elomire (an anagram of Moliere) fits him like a glove. Only Lumley seems out of her element as the acting troupe's royal patron: her performance is shrill and lacks nuance. (For some reason the current production changes the patron from prince to princess and the location from Languedoc to Paris.) Rylance's astonishing 30-minute outburst of logorrhea early in the play is something I will never forget. Alas, it sets the bar so high that anything that follows is bound to disappoint. Once the princess arrives and the play turns into an extended argument over the merits of "pure" vs. popular art, it loses much of its sparkle. The play-within-a-play performed by Valere and the troupe's actors is surprisingly flat. Mark Thompson's set and costumes are wonderful. Although the play fizzles a bit during its second hour, it is well worth seeing. Mark Rylance's Valere is simply not to be missed.