My Top 10 Off Broadway Shows this Season Part 1

Since Augsut 2012, I have seen a plethora of shows. Many of which were off-and off-off Broadway. I actually have a drawer in my room that is overflowing with so many playbills, I don't think I have the time to count them all. Recently, I've been reflecting back on the shows that stuck out the most to me on the off-/off-off world. Here are some of my favorites:

10. Emotional Creature

This Eve Ensler piece  was playing at The Signature Theater last fall when I was lucky enough to see it. In a style very similar to Ms. Ensler's internationally acclaimed The Vagina Monologues, Emotional Creautre focuses on the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl in the modern world using monologues and songs performed by 6 very talented young women. The show opened with one of the girls taking photos of herself with her smartphone (each photo was instantly projected on the large screen that functioned as the backdrop) as we witnessed her overly critical opinion of herself in each photo. She is joined by a group of her friends and they slip in and out of monologues of different characters as they interact with one another. They deal with boys, pressure and alienation from friends, pregnancy, suicide, coming out, weight, female circumcision in Africa, being misunderstood by parents, abuse, and there's even a monologue about a Chinese girl working at the factory where Barbie heads are made. One monologue was recycled from The Vagina Monologues about the young girl in Africa who was kidnapped and used up by a war lord. I cried, I laughed, and I totally believed every bit of it (especially "My Short Skirt"). The show was full of energy and life, and the set was very fun. I loved the mixed media element of the show with the screen in the back and the songs that were performed (even though it is not a musical). There was just one monologue I didn't quite get involving an angry teenager taking pill in front of her parents that basically caused her to explode in a bloody mess in the living room. I think this is a great show for teenagers to see. It brings awareness to a lot of issues that young girls go through, and it inspires them to be happy with who they are. I loved it! I just wish that the songs were recorded/actually a part of Eve Ensler's published script. Click Here to see the promo for the show.

9.  Giant


I was lucky enough to catch the final show at The Public Theater despite being sick as a dog on a rainy day. Based on the 1952 Edna Farber novel, Giant is an epic, sweeping musical with a book by Sybille Pearson and music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa. This musical takes place in Texas on an immense cattle farm. Jordan "Bick" Benedict runs the show with the help of the older sister who raised him. He brings home a wife from the union who has spent most of her life reading books and attending functions with her important father, against the wishes of his sister who planned on him marrying the daughter of another major cattle farmer (hey, that's love for ya). Conflict ensues. The forward thinking wife, Leslie, wants to improve the living conditions of the Mexicans living and working on their land, much to Bick's reluctance. The kids go on unexpected, and to Bick, undesirable paths (Jordy Jr. falls in love with and marries a Mexican girl right in the midst of racial tension). Bick and Leslie also face the rise of oil companies making deals with all of the farms around theirs.  The villainous Jett Rink (played by James Dean in the film) tries to woe Leslie from under Bick seeks revenge for the past. The music was great, the cast was great - especially Brian D'Arcy James and Kate Baldwin- and the set was wonderful. My favorites were Miguel Cervantes, who should have had more than one song before his character kicked the bucket, and Mary Bacon who played the jilted would-be wife of Bick. Her songs were amazing. The show felt like Gone With the Wind with a huge cast and an "immense landscape" as the backdrop. There were a few plot holes that could use some work, but that might be the fault of the source material. I wasn't quite sure who the main character was - Leslie or Bick or maybe it was Texas! Despite that, I really enjoyed the show! There was some speculation on whether or not it would come to Broadway, but I think they'd need to shave some time off of that 3 hour show to make it plausible. Click Here to see clips of the show!


8.  The Piano Lesson


How can you ever go wrong with August Wilson! Signature Theater's production of The Piano Lesson was very moving and emotional. Many times throughout the show I wanted to get up and kick one of the characters for being so horrible! Guess that actor did a good job! The play is essentialy about a black family in Pittsburgh during The Great Depression fighting over a piano. The piano is an important family heirloom with an ornate carving on it. Boy Willie and his friend Lymon show up with a truck full of watermelons to sell and the intention of selling the piano to buy land in the south. Berniece, the mature sister and woman of the house, is both reverent and terrified of the piano and refuses to let it go. The piano dates back to when their grand parents were slaves, and their is a lot of "blood" on the piano. Brandon J. Dirden as Boy Willie was remarkable. The set included the two floors of the house where Berniece, her daughter, and her uncle live. There was a surprising supernatural element to the show that played a significant role in act two. I was weeping by the show's end, but I was very satisfied with the resolution. Click Here to see pictures and videos about the show!

7.  Meis Julie

My first time at St. Anne's Warehouse was also my first time in Brooklyn, and it was quite memorable. This South African adaptation of the August Strindberg play Miss Julie was eye opening to me. I remember reading Miss Julie in college and hating it! I mean with an ending like that? I'm all for tragic endings, love them, but this one was just....Anyway Meis Julie was a whole different experience for me, and I loved every bit of it. It is Freedom Day in  Eastern Cape on a grande estate. The setting is the kitchen of a farm laborer and his mother. Julie, the white farm owner's daughter comes to provoke her father's favorite farmhand, John. The have a very aggressive, sexual and sometimes violent exchange that culminates in a passionate sexual encounter and ends with one of them dead. John's mother filters in and out warning John to stick to his place and his religion (also to complain about the big tree growing in their kitchen floor), but John has bigger goals. Everything is out on the table in this show, literally. There is eating on the table, sex on the table, and blood on the table. Basically that table sees a lot of action, and so does the audience. It was like watching an independent, international film live. Nothing is held back. "So this is Brooklyn," I thought at the end of the play. It was beautiful, terrifying, and very real. And it was art. Click Here to see more!

6.  If There is I Haven't Found It Yet

Roundabout Theatre Company gave Jake Gyllenhaal his off Broadway debut at the Laura Pels Theatre this past fall in If There is I Haven't Found it Yet by Nick Payne. The play is set in England. 15 year-old Anna (Annie Funke) is being brutally bullied in school for being overweight. Her parents are blind to the real problems. The mother (played by Enid Graham) is a teacher at Anna's school, and the father (played by Brian F. Bryne) spends most of his time working on his book about the carbon foot print. In comes the estranged, drifter uncle played by Gyllenhaal to shake things up. He proves to be just what Anna needs, in spite of his impulsive, immature nature. That is until Anna's familial feelings evolve into something less appropriate, inspiring the wayward uncle to peace out just when Anna was starting to improve. Ugly truths come out, a suicide attempt in a bathtub occurs, but ultimately the parents wake up and try to fix things before it's too late. The set was a hodgepodge of house furniture and appliances which were thrown into a watery "moat" at the front of the stage after use. By the climax, the entire stage was engulfed in water and the majority of the furniture was in the moat (including the fridge). The actors were outstanding, and the show was very moving. There was a lot of humor to be found in what was expected to be a very tragic piece. Jake Gyllenhaal affected a nearly unintelligible lower class English accent (how did he and his brother end up sounding so different in dialect if they were brought up together?), but it sounded pretty authentic to me. Annie Funke had to be taken to the hospital via ambulance right after the show due to something having to do with her heart. In any case, she was COMMITTED to that role. Excellent show. Click Here for photos and videos!