Kimberly Rae Miller

Review from the Jewish Week for "A Match Made in Manhattan"

My Big Fake Jewish Wedding

Esther D. Kustanowitz - Staff Writer

Weddings are supposed to be about joy and harmony, but the reality is, uniting two families is a complex negotiation, a diplomatic and tenuous situation, and rife with the opportunity for drama, comedy, and if you’re lucky, a good spot at the smorgasbord.

For instance, take Leah Lowenstein’s wedding to Sam Levine. Leah’s a nice Bais Yaakov girl from a religious family; Sam’s in a rock band. Sam’s mother, Dr. Roz, has a popular radio advice show, but she has an awful relationship with Sam’s father, Morty. Dr. Roz has hired her “hippie rabbi,” Conrad Singer, to perform the wedding, unbeknownst to the Lowensteins, who have employed Rabbi Perl, a more traditionally Orthodox rabbi. The dysfunction flows like Baron Herzog into the glass of hyperactive, almost too-happy bridesmaid, Gitti Sara, who’s so desperate to get married that she solicits dates from the guests. Most of them just ignore the histrionics, turning their attentions to the kosher Moroccan-style buffet.

Maybe you need a Jewish wedding refresher course. Or you’re sick of attending weddings. Or you’re considering a career as an Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn-style wedding crasher. “A Match Made in Manhattan” is a chance to attend nuptials where no one cares how you behave — as long as you participate in the simcha, and play Jewish geography until you find someone you know. (Like I did.)

The “interactive Jewish wedding experience,” which opened in January 2004 at Levana on the Upper West Side and moved to The Center for Jewish Discovery on West 19th Street, is a production of Black Box Entertainment (BlackBoxEnter@aol.com), which, according to co-founder Matt Okin, “is positioning itself as the leading creator of contemporary plays and music for the entire Jewish world, while also producing legitimate theatrical runs for mainstream audiences.”

Riding the interactive theater trend created by shows such as “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” and “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral,” “Match” is an accurate, if occasionally exaggerated, replication of the rituals, family negotiations, and general state of chaos that is characteristic of Jewish weddings. “The show is designed to reach everyone,” says Okin, who adds that non-Jews “consistently prove to be our most enthusiastic audience, especially those who have never been to a rocking traditional Jewish wedding before.”

Because the show is interactive, those “guests” who are willing to get improvisational, and stretch beyond their idea of theater as proscenium presentation with a fourth wall, will enjoy it a lot more. The show begins before the show begins: outside the venue, Rabbi Perl (Rabbi Neil Fleischmann, named New York’s Funniest Rabbi by Stand-Up NY), seeks reassurance from guests that his presence is really wanted, despite the surprise arrival of Rabbi Conrad (Stewart Schneck), who invites guests to his synagogue/retreat center up in the mountains, “Our Lady of A Thousand Mitzvot.” Instead of snickering, when he asked if I’d like to join him there sometime, I asked if the congregation had a Web site. “No,” he replied, “but that’s a great idea!” Later, I got on line to see the kallah (Kimberly Rae Miller) and ask her for a bracha (blessing) toward finding my own soul mate. Her wish for me: “a blonde guy with broad shoulders.” (I’m not holding my breath. But it couldn’t hurt.)

In an odd echo of all the other Jewish weddings I’ve attended over the years, I was there without a date. Apparently, when you’re alone at a wedding — fake or real — where you don’t really know anyone, the only one who talks to you is the mother of the bride (Esther Rachel Russell), who immediately tries to set you up.

Single women will likely, and sadly, identify most with Gitti Sara (Michelle Slonim, who heads south to join the Florida cast of “Jewtopia” later this summer), the single bridesmaid who is a simmering (and hilarious) cauldron of single frustration, one “im yirtzeh Hashem by you” away from going postal. Most people sneak out before Grace After Meals. And if you don’t know how to hora, there’ll be someone on hand to instruct you. In other words, “Match” will likely remind you of every wedding you’ve ever been to.

Some future performances, Okin reports, will partner with singles’ Web sites such as Frumster (check Frumster.com for details) in the hope the show might inspire extra-theatrical coupling among the “wedding guests.” “I hope that some singles will find real-life matches here.”

Review from GO Brooklyn "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Waterloo Bridge Playhouse

TWICE THE FUN
Waterloo Bridge Theatre Co. stages Wilde with Chekhov

'Earnest' grieving: (From left to right) Jack Worthing (Jason Esquerra) discusses his deceased fictional brother with Reverend Chasuble (Danny Jensen) and Miss Prism (Beth Yocam) in a scene from the Waterloo Bridge production of "The Importance of Being Earnest," directed by J. Brandon Hill.

By Paulanne Simmons
for The Brooklyn Papers

The Waterloo Bridge Theatre Company's double bill, "The Bear" and "The Importance of Being Earnest," unites two commanding and very different literary figures - Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov.

Journalist, poet, playwright, novelist and author of children's fables, the Anglo-Irish Wilde (1854-1900) was perhaps best known for his charm, wit and flamboyant dress. At his height, Wilde was a prominent proponent of an aesthetic movement that advocated "art for art's sake."

None of this helped him much when his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas led to his imprisonment for homosexual behavior, effectively putting an end to his career at the age of 41. A broken man, he died five years later.

Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was actually a physician in a poor area outside Moscow. He had already written hundreds of short stories when at the age of 28 he began to be taken seriously as a writer. Chekhov's work, often very funny, is noteworthy for its realistic portrayal of ordinary human beings caught in situations they find unmanageable.

Like Wilde, Chekhov died young, succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 44.

Despite their differences, what is strikingly obvious about these two literary giants is that they were contemporaries. Living in the latter half of the 19th century, both witnessed tremendous upheavals in their respective countries: England was establishing her empire and Russia was coming out of the feudal system of the Middle Ages. To a large extent, these changes are reflected in the work of both.

"The Bear," directed by Michael Hagins, is a one-act dealing with the attempts of the boorish (or bear-ish) Grigory Stipanovich Smirnov (David Rigg), a landowner who has none of the graces that come with such a position, to recover a debt from the widow Yeliena Ivanova Popova (Sharon Cacciabuado). Smirnov never gets his money, but he does get the girl. And it is Chekhov's subtle play of emotions and shift of mood as well as the wonderful acting of Cacciabuado and Rigg that make this rendering so enjoyable and funny.

The company has used an abridged version of "The Importance of Being Earnest," which may be a disappointment for those who are familiar with the play and miss a few of Wilde's sparkling epigrams. But for those who can deal with the omissions, or who believe that less is more, this production trips along as lightly and gracefully as a deer running through the woods.

Wilde's most popular play, "Earnest" is a comedy of manners and a satire on the British nobility and clergy. This production is directed by J. Brandon Hill.

Jack Worthing (Jason Esquerra), a foundling who was discovered in a handbag at Victoria Station, has a ward named Cecily Cardew (Kimberly Rae Miller). In order to justify his frequent merrymaking trips to London, he fabricates a rascally younger brother named Earnest who constantly needs his older brother to get him out of trouble.

As the play opens, Worthing, as Earnest, is seeking the hand of Gwendolen Fairfax (Katherine Sise) daughter of Lady Bracknell (Cate Brewer), an upper-class snob who objects to the match because of Worthing's lack of appropriate connections.

Worthing has a friend named Algernon Moncrief (Will Pinchin) who learns of Worthing's deception and decides to go to Worthing's country estate and woo Cecily posing as the fictitious Earnest. Soon both Gwendolen and Cecily are in love with men whom they believe are named Earnest - a name which is, in fact, very important to them.

When Worthing and Moncrief learn of the ladies' predilection for the name Earnest, they each ask Reverend Chasuble (Danny Jensen) to re-christen them, until a twist in the plot proves this unnecessary.

Pinchin and Esquerra parry magnificently but don't do enough to distinguish their characters from each other. And Sise and Miller are true to form as the proper young ladies trying to get their way without popping out of their corsets.

While the affectations of all the characters may be a bit much for a contemporary audience, they are quite consistent with Wilde's elegant witticisms. Lines like, "You've buried yourself alive, but you haven't forgotten to powder your face," "Do you smoke? Every man should have an occupation," and, "In matters of great importance, style, not sincerity, is the thing," deserve the accompaniment of a churlish twist of the lips, a fluttery flight of the hand or the surreptitious wink of the eye.

The Waterloo Bridge company has yet to attract the audiences to fill their theater and their coffers. This means bare-bones sets and lighting. (They seem to do better with costumes.) Nevertheless "The Bear" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" make for an delightful evening of light, no-frills laughter.

The Waterloo Bridge Theatre Company's productions of "The Bear" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" play through March 14, Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $15, $10 students. The Waterloo Bridge Playhouse is located at 475 Third Ave. at 10th Street in Gowanus. For reservations, call (212) 502-0796 or visit www.waterloobridge.4t.com.

Review from NYTheatre.com of Macbeth at The Impact Theatre

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The C.A.G.E. Theatre Company presents Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Michael Hagins. The press release describes the play this way: "The story of 'the butcher and his fiend-like queen', about a tragic hero who, with temptation from three Weird Sisters and driven by his ambitious yet loving wife, murders his way to become King of Scotland. Presented in a modern-day vision, the characters of the play are depicted as members of the 'Scotland Mob', a fictional 21st century crime family, similar to known criminal organizations of our time. The nobles are still vicious, war-torn killers, but use baseball bats and guns instead of swords and crossbows, and dress in two-piece suits instead of metal armor. The Weird Sisters, or the 'Witches', are depicted as everyday street people--a drug addict, a homeless derelict, and a prostitute."

Regular readers of nytheatre.com may be interested to note that our reviewers Michael Criscuolo and Gyda Arber head the cast as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

nytheatre.com review

Martin Denton · March 12, 2005

The way that director Michael Hagins begins his Sopranos-inflected production of Macbeth is pretty cool. Three "Weird Sisters"—a prostitute, a drug addict, and a homeless woman—roam around the theatre and then alight in front of the stage near a trash can. Almost immediately, a small but important-looking procession marches past them—Duncan, "King" (or, in this context, kingpin) of Scotland, a magisterial bejeweled man who seems very much the Godfather; accompanying him are bodyguards and a messenger who brings word of the recent victories of his henchmen Macbeth and Banquo, and also of the treachery of another underling, the Thane of Cawdor. Duncan tells the gathering—which includes the three eavesdropping Sisters—that he will reward Macbeth by awarding Cawdor's dominions to him.

What I loved about this, besides the fairly canny contemporary contextualizing of the story that Hagins provides with the mafia metaphor, is the way that it makes the Sisters a little more accessible to a wary modern audience. How do they know about Macbeth's sudden good fortune (which they will relate to him as prophesy in the next scene)? Because they overheard it!

Hagins finds ways throughout, both more and less successful than this, to frame Shakespeare's famous play as a story of mobsters gone awry. Overall, the production is entertaining and effective.

Another of Hagins's inspired ideas is to put all the members of his ensemble into identical ghoulish masks, allowing them to serve as a massively frightful apparition when Macbeth seeks the advice of the Weird Sisters for a second time. But double-casting of roles is less successful elsewhere, as when the actor playing the assassin hired by Macbeth to ambush Banquo immediately seats himself, without changing his appearance in any way, at Macbeth's table as the nobleman Seyton—a confusing moment, even for those familiar with the play.

The climactic fight sequence is played with baseball bats—not a great choice, especially in a venue as intimate as the Impact Theatre (I feared for the actors' safety throughout the battle, and my companion told me afterward that he feared for his own as well). I was hoping that Hagins would have his Macbeth and Macduff engage in a shootout, using the pistols perpetually tucked into their waistbands as their weapons of choice.

The acting skills of the ensemble cover a very wide range; some of the ensemble members are clearly less sure of themselves than others when it comes to tackling Shakespeare's language or showing, rather than telling, the emotional state of their characters. Nevertheless there's not a moment that's unwatchable and indeed, thanks to Hagins's brisk pacing and shrewd, liberal editing of the play, this Macbeth moves nice and fast. It should prove a great learning experience for all on stage.

As Macbeth, Michael Criscuolo does an outstanding job, delivering the verse (especially the soliloquies and monologues) with real verve; he gives us a man governed by entitlement more than ambition—it's only as things start to go terribly wrong near the end of the play that he begins to understand that it is this tragedy, rather than unchecked power over his fellows, that is his actual due.

Gyda Arber is a youthful, sensual Lady Macbeth—seducing rather than dominating her mate into committing murder to acquire and then solidify his kingdom. Arber's vocal technique is less assured than Criscuolo's, but she's got just as much of a fix on her character as he does; her reading of the famous sleepwalking sequence near the end of the play is eerily convincing.

Others in the company whose work stands out include Robyn Berg as Lady Macduff and one of the Weird Sisters, Synge Maher as the Porter, Clark Main as Seyton/First Assassin, Christopher L. McAllister as Duncan, and Jamie Effros as Malcolm.

I enjoyed myself at this production, and not just because it offered the chance to see two of nytheatre.com's own (see disclaimer just above this review) trodding the boards. Hagins is a young director with smart, interesting ideas about how to make Shakespeare resonate with a contemporary urban audience. I will be interested in seeing what he comes up with next.