JOHNNY WU

Denzel, Green Day, Beethoven, and a Brandy Lounge…NY never lets me down

Having closed my play in Berkeley, I promptly flew home to watch other peoples’ plays. So, let’s jump right in to the headliner with another installment of:

J.WU on Broadway

It was 7:30pm on a Friday in New York City. In front of the Cort Theatre on 48th street, an employee diligently urged people to form two separate lines. One stretched rather neatly all the way to 6th Avenue. The other, more blob-like than a line, grew towards 7th. I couldn’t help but feel swept into the fervor of it all. After all, Kenny Leon’s Broadway revival of the August Wilson’s flagship play was merely four performances away from opening night. So as a thousand people filed in, (the theatre seats 1082…and was PACKED), the burning question on my mind was whether Denzel Washington, the production’s unabashed top-liner, was to deserve his inevitable entrance applause.
As the final stragglers battled into their seats, lights hit the set. Branford Marsalis’ original music swelled and kept on until precisely when I couldn’t bear it any longer and suddenly there was Denzel, striding on, taking the stage as fiercely as I can remember an actor daring. We, as a thousand—we as a unit, applauded thunderously.
From that moment to intermission was the most exciting realism I’ve seen on stage in years. Denzel was just as charming as can be. When we thought he could not reel us in any further, he yanked us deeper into his magical front yard. He would joke with his friend, and we laughed as if we’d known him our whole lives. He would tell his wife how he will handle her later in the evening, and we celebrated how intrepid love-making should always be. He would rail at his son about responsibility, and from whichever angle possible, we understood. He would perform his dream encounter with Death, and we were joyously confident that that expensive ticket stub in our pockets was well worth it.
The play takes its intermission after Cory receives strike one from his father, punctuated with Troy’s line “Don’t strike out!” As the house lights went up, I didn’t take that time to speculate on the potential irony of that line for the second half of the play. I, instead, remembered to reflect on how everyone else in the first act was indeed very solid as well. Viola Davis, Chris Chalk, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson did fine jobs. But, I’ll be damned if they’re not just a candle in the sun next to Denzel.
The production’s second half, could not conceal the inherent problems of the play itself. Slowly but surely, I felt the audience working harder and harder to stay strapped into the story. Henderson as Bono didn’t find a moment to land that huge swing at Troy. Hornsby as Lyons, I just didn’t care. He had buff arms though. Williamson as Gabriel takes the cake for landing the most resounding moments in the second half. Tony award winner Viola Davis makes a great play at the scene where Troy reveals his infidelity but fails to show me in a later scene how she comes to decide to mother Troy’s newborn daughter. Blaming the direction would be the easier route for that. Perhaps less so for Chris Chalk (Cory) and his general lack of depth, variety, and ability to convey a true connection to his circumstances. I will attribute the greenness of the violent baseball bat scene to it still being previews but it seems a believable sequence is many fight-calls away in the run.
How does Mr. Washington fare after the intermission when things get heavy and Wilson forces Troy to reveal less charming things? Frankly, with much less brilliance. His lashing out still reminds me of what he found with the ‘King Kong’ sequence back in Training Day. Would have loved to see some more variety in his emotional explosions. That being said, we still missed him in the final scene as the play ungracefully crawled to an end, including a final light cue that I hope would be cut by opening night.
Still, at curtain call, I leapt to my feet because Denzel’s presence, confidence, and execution had been thoroughly amazing in the first half of the play. And hey, he has two Oscars—and I am a fan.

and now, briefly on:
AMERICAN IDIOT

Okay, so ‘Dookie’ was the very first album I bought in 5th grade. It was on a cassette tape. It was awesome. I remember singing the swear words laden lyrics on the school bus and feeling a tremendous sense of victory when the 6th grade bus monitors resigned to just glaring after realizing they couldn’t fight the masses. Then the band fell off my map. It wasn’t until this January when I showed up at Berkeley Rep where they just had closed the premiere run of ‘American Idiot’ that I stumbled upon that album, and in turn their latest album ’21st Century Breakdown’. I immediately fell back in love with their sound. And I won’t apologize for it.
Nor did the show apologize for anything. The sheer volume, the minimal and trivial words inserted here and there in between numbers, the effortful attempt at a cohesive thru-line. They didn’t say sorry about any of that. And I did not care! The show is about Green Day’s music as arranged by Tom Kitt for the 24 actor voices. And what a tremendous job he did. Sheer fun to see those songs performed with such blow-out energy. The choreography wasn’t bad, there was a fun wire sequence, there were moments of humor, and even some of the heartfelt moments landed…but all in all, totally go see the show because the music itself is enthralling!

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Also, in my two weeks back here in city, made it to Carnegie Hall for an evening with the Takács Quartet as they performed Robert Shumann’s Op. 41, No. 3 in A Major, a New York Premiere of John Psathas’ A Cool Wind, and ending with Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 3, “Razummovsky” in C major, which was exhilarating. The violist walked schleppily on and off the stage, which was entertaining as well.

Finally, I don’t know much about alcohol at all because, well, I’m allergic to it. But if you’re the type to enjoy spending a hefty amount of cash for the best scotches and brandy in the world, I recommend Brandy Library Lounge in Tribeca. For you actors, it is recommended that you leave your resonators outside on Moore St. because the bar will ask that you keep your volume at a bourgy whisper.

Congrats to Miguel and Annie, who is pregnant with their second child!
Shout to James and Roger over at Suskin Management. Shout to Jay, Danielle, and Kyle over at TalentWorks NY. Shout to Shan…getting two companies off the ground. Shout to Frank, for being the richest liberal I know. Big ups to Matt and that Brandy Lounge crew, Franklin, Ashish, Ajay, Paul, Russel, and Warren. Shout to Nicole and Beth! Shout to Natalie and all the third years about to hit showcase…I’ll see you in LA! Shout to Leta! Shout to Meg Simon! Shout to the fam!
And finally, big shout to NYC for always being my constant. I will see you soon. Most likely for good? =)

On the plane, LA-bound. Peace!