Initiative (c) Joan Marcus
Theater: Initiative
At the Public Theater
Coastal Podunk, California is the title of a novel being written by a character in Else Went’s five-hour, three-act play, Initiative, at the Public Theater. So, it should be no surprise that the writer is an overachieving high school outsider named Riley (Greg Cuellar) at the start of the current millennium, with no other outlet to channel his artistic sensibility in the seaside California town he lives in. Went’s play takes place during the whole high school experience of Riley and his small “bande a part,” which gave me pause (Netflix is littered with so many subpar high school shows), but the first act put me at ease as they give us realistic, honest and, more importantly, funny interactions between them. Clara (Olivia Rose Barresi), Riley’s best friend, has been home schooled for the last three years but she has convinced her parents to let her attend high school with him. Later, they are joined by introvert Em (Christopher Dylan White) and boisterous Tony (Jamie Sanders), a pair of mismatched childhood friends, as well as Em’s homoflexible neighbor Kendall (Andrea Lopez Alvarez) and Ty (Harrison Densmore), a transfer student. Between just trying to survive and stay unnoticed in high school and the usual teenage angst (X likes Y who actually likes Z, and so on and so on), they decide to form a Dungeons and Dragons crew, with Riley, using his artistic skills, as Dungeon Master. Not unlike the teens of Stranger Things, a lot of their personal problems are paralleled in the fantasy world of action (including the titled move) and inaction. And like most adventures, there’s a shadow character. In this case, it’s Lo (Carson Higgins), a high school jock who has chaotic interactions with most of the other kids — he’s Em’s overprotective but distant older brother, has a crush on an open-hearted Clara and he’s Riley’s former best friend after things soured during a summer camp sexual experimentation goes wrong.
Initiative (c) Joan Marcus
All this is handled deftly by the wonderful cast and by director Emma Rose Went, with a major assist by the versatile set by Mikinko Suzuki Macadams and the eerily era-accurate costumes by Kindall Almond. Even when the action loses focus, especially during an extended D&D sub-plot/adventure in the second act, everyone is on their A game. The D&D story is a lot of fun on its own, but it quickly drains any momentum happening in the real world, not unlike the Don Juan in Hell portion of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. The third act tries to tie together both worlds, in which fate is decided by multisided dice or being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and it’s here I wish Went would have blurred these two realities even more. Initiative is both Wents’ first big production, and kudos has to go to the Public Theater for going all in on a playwright and a director they’ve been nurturing through many of their artistic programs. There’s much to embrace in Initiative, which possesses both laudable and indulgent characteristics of an early career play. The five-hour runtime, however, should not be a deterrent to anyone thinking of seeing a worthy production, especially if you’re an adventurous Millennial, many of whom were part of my audience the afternoon I saw it. They were buzzing excitedly as we walked down the endless stairs from the LuEsther Theater to the Public’s lobby.
Chess (c) Matthew Murphy
Broadway: Chess
At the Imperial Theatre
Chess has always had a troubled existence. The musical’s best format was probably its first, as a concept recording of the score which highlighted its biggest asset: the hummable and gorgeous songs by ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and theater vet Tim Rice. The problem is that the basic story cannot really be altered: the cold war politics of the late 70s and early 80s played out metaphorically as a game of chess in a literal game of chess. Within the restraints of this outline, many productions, including the original London and Broadway versions (in the mid-80s) as well as some concert presentations along the way have tried to crack the Chess conundrum, and the verdict for the show itself has always ended in a stalemate, with only the songs and the actors who sing them being acquitted admirably. Alas, the current iteration of Chess, on Broadway for the first time in almost 40 years, with a revised book by Danny Strong (TV writer for Empire) and direction by Michael Meyer, doesn’t make Chess any more compelling than a storyline on As the Chessboard Turns. However, they do give the songs its proper place, mostly center stage (“belting as high as they can,” as another showtune goes). In the case of “Someone Else’s Story,” Meyers has Lea Michele as Florence, the woman caught in the story’s love triangle, just come out and sing it, without much dramatic motivation.
Chess (c) Matthew Murphy
The year is 1979, and we’re in Italy (with the beautiful, ensemble opening song, which is an ode to “Merano”) for a World Chess Championship between American Freddie Trumper (!) (Aaron Tveit) and Russian Anatoly Sergievsky (Nicolas Christopher). While the political shenanigans of the Soviets’ to get their man to win are in the background, the foreground’s story puts the spotlight on Freddie’s current girlfriend (and chess second), Florence (Michele), who has supported him through his bipolar antics, and may still have feelings for Anatoly, with whom she had a fling at another chess event. Act Two is set in 1984 Thailand, highlighting the show’s one pop chart hit “One Night in Bangkok,” although its performance with mostly non-Asian dancers dulls the song’s ugly American views of “getting Thai’d” and “massage parlors.” So, the story repeats itself as another chess tournament is underway with the same political maneuverings from the Soviets to get their champion to win over Anatoly, who defected to England. The Russian’s trumper card is Anatoly’s wife, Svetlana (Hannah Cruz), who was left behind (with his kids) in the USSR. She gets what appears to be the only new solo song for this production, “He Is a Man, He Is a Child.”
Chess (c) Matthew Murphy
Nicholas Christopher as Anatoly is commanding, sexy and his gorgeous tenor (especially in the showstopper “Anthem”) is eerily similar to the late David Carroll from the Original Broadway cast, but his character is no deeper than a robotic Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory playing 3-D Star Trek chess. Lea Michele is the top headliner here, after her redemption in Funny Girl, and she kills whenever she sings, but Florence is literally relegated to just the girlfriend role here, despite the whole Hungarian refugee backstory. Funny enough, Freddie is the most interesting character because most every paranoid conspiracy theory he professes is actually true, from Florence’s infidelity to the Russian mind tricks to the American government’s sabotage attempts. And Tveit plays this bad boy perfectly. Bryce Pinkham surprisingly makes his narrator (and later the show’s arbitrator) the audience’s favorite, as he provides a running Mystery Science Theater 3000 snarky commentary throughout the show as a way for book writer Strong to concede that Chess will never be considered a classic. The set by David Rockwell is fine but feels sort of like something designed for an Encores! show, with the orchestra onstage throughout. The musicians sound great (I could have done with less electric guitar licks), and they ably support the main cast and terrific ensemble on all those gorgeous songs. With Mamma Mia! also on Broadway, audiences this winter are luxuriating in the catchy songs of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus again.
If you want to comment on these reviews, please do so on my Instagram account. All reviews have their own post. And please follow to know when new reviews are released.
