The new season on Broadway and off-Broadway is starting to take shape. New shows seem to be opening every week. It’s exciting to see all the people cramming into Times Square making their way to see a show.
My friend Bill (we were in The Civil War together in Atlanta) is in town on a last minute vacation. He’s packing in as many shows as he can. I’ve gotten to meet up with him for dinner a couple of times and it’s been fun hearing the excitement in his voice as he talks about a show he saw the day before or the one he’s on his way to.
On Friday, Bill saw Spamalot and I saw Bridge & Tunnel which was just across the street.
Bridge & Tunnel was remarkable. It is a one-woman show written by Sarah Jones. She has spent her life listening…really listening to the people around her. Within the 90-minute show Sarah Jones plays no less than 20 characters ranging from an elderly Jewish grandmother from Long Island to a teenage boy from the Bronx. All of the stories she shares paint pictures of what it is like to be an immigrant, not 100 years ago but today. She moves effortlessly between each role, completely embodying each person. It was amazing.
Visit: www.sarahjonesonline.com
Today, I scored not one but two tickets to a couple of Off-Broadway shows that have garnered a lot of attention recently.
One was Tryst, which was playing on the Upper West Side. This two person show was intense from beginning to end. The clever tag line on the poster, Who’s game is this?, was very fitting. The show is a dark romantic thriller. It is the story of a con-artist who preys on middle class women, making them believe that he loves them and then taking whatever savings they have.
In the play, Tryst, his game begins to backfire when it seems that the poor seamstress he’s trying to bilk may be on to him and have a plan of her own. The play’s ending took me, and the rest of the audience by surprise. It takes a very unexpected turn within the last 5 minutes – and as you walk out of the theater you realize that you too have been played.
Speaking of unexpected twists and trysts…I went right from the Upper West Side to the Village to see the one-man show, Confessions of a Mormon Boy.
The show is a true account of the actor/playwright’s experiences within the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints when he discovered and battled his sexuality. The show chronicles his life and struggle as he has everything and loses it again and again in a desperate fight to save his marriage and soul. The truth eventually rises to the surface destroying his marriage and his life. He moved here, to New York, and lost himself completely in a downward spiral of drugs and prostitution.
The show and his life have an incredible redemption. Just like the play earlier in the day, this show also had an unexpected twist toward the ends that struck to the heart of everyone in the audience. The honesty and power of his story and journey was overwhelming.
It was so refreshing to discover that all the hype and word of mouth was very well deserved.
Visit: www.mormonboy.com
