FALSETTOLAND AND BEHIND THE LID

I recently attended two intimate limited-run productions that might be of interest to BAT readers.

Falsettoland is the third in a trilogy of one-act musicals following the story of a Jewish-American family in which the father comes out as gay. Witty and touching and filled with love, this revival of the well-received National Asian-American Theatre Company revival at the Vineyard Theatre (renamed The Dimson Theatre for this production) isn't some fancy-shmancy affair. The staging is rudimentary, like that of a reading. And the Jewish-American characters are played by actors from Asian-American backgrounds. Yet the strengths of this collaboration between songwriter William Finn and book writer James Lapine still come through movingly, with Manu Narayan and Ann Sanders especially well-cast in their roles as Whizzer and Trina. Discounts might well be available for the performances, scheduled to run through July 1, 2007.

Behind the Lid, an artsy collaboration between the late avant-gardist Lee Nagrin and innovative puppeteer Basil Twist (who seems to assemble some of the friendliest and most competent troupes ever), is only open to 18 people at a time. The audience assembles at the entrance to Nagrin's Silver Whale Gallery then descends into a surrealistic environment that offers a sense of Nagrin's life and times...and her feelings about art and country. This often confounding and hardly seamless 90-minute work won't appeal to everyone, but it brims with creativity and, like this Terrapin Industries duplex, shows how an urban interior can be radically transformed. (If you aren't afraid of spoilers, you can find write-ups of Behind the Lid here and here.) If you decide to give this a try and you can still get a ticket before the scheduled run ends on July 7, I suggest arriving about 15 minutes early and reading the program before beginning your descent down the mysterious Silver Whale rabbit hole (below). Hang around afterwards to show your appreciation.
























Photo: David Marc Fischer