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Tony Nominees 2012: The Bad

Please Welcome to the Stage… Ron Raines…
What the what? Ron Raines is great, but his nomination is kind of a head-scratcher. His wooden performance as Ben in Follies left us feeling mostly unmoved — and like the fabulous Jan Maxwell deserved a better wall at which to flail herself. Which of course makes us wonder: Was the nominating committee so set against nominating Raul Esparza that Ron seemed like a good choice? Yikes. For all parties involved.

That Play Had a Great Score, You Guys!

How slim were the pickings for Best Original Score this year? Two are from plays and one is by Frank Wildhorn. No wonder they’ve relegated this poor award to the lame-o New-York-only “pre-telecast.” Paging Adam Guettel!

The Bone Thrown to Man and Boy
Frank Langella is a beast. But this show was the worst! A sleepy mellowdrama for the blue-hair set, it didn’t make our pulses pound once. It was so subdued that even Frank’s performance barely registered. Surely there was room in this category for Hugh Dancy. Or Stacey Keach. Or Paul Gross. Or…

Nice Work! Or… Not
In general, we’re not feeling infuriated with this year’s nominations. But seriously, Nice Work If You Can Get It? This lame-o, pandering show isn’t nearly as good as its 10 nominations promise. With a hopeless leading man and a charmless central romance, this feels like a bullshit vote for “classic,” “old-time-y” theater without regard for genuine substance. Give us a break, ye olde hoary nominating committee. And please remember that people under the age of 60 occasionally like theater, too.

Lysistrata Jones Gets One Tiny Thing
Sure, it’s great that this smart, tiny show picked up a nod for Best Book. But this really feels like the Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Award of Too Little, Too Late Consolation for the Special, Precious Young’uns. It won’t win, and everyone knows that. But throwing half-assed accolades to young writers is a crappy way to engage a younger audience. Or to tell them that the shows intended for them matter.

Leap of Faith Is a Leap, All Right
Um… congrats, Leap of Faith? We guess? With its inclusion in the Best Musical category, we seriously had to ask: Is this show, with its wonky book and un-engaging characters, really all that much better than Bonnie & Clyde, or even Ghost? At least Bonnie & Clyde had great performances, and Ghost had a killer production design and some nifty direction. Even the ambitious, funny Lysistrata Jones, which is long gone, seemed a better fit for Broaway’s top prize than any of those.

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Tony Nominees 2012: The Good

OMG, the Tony nominations are officially decided! Here’s our take on what we loved, what we hated, and who got massively left out of the fun. First, we give you…

Porgy & Bess Is Good, Duh
You know what’s super crazy? The pre-opening brouhaha over Porgy & Bess — wherein Stephen Sondheim expressed his displeasure with a show he’d never even seen — genuinely affected the conversation surrounding the show. Given Sondheim’s cache as a theatrical genius, lots of smart people read his comments and assumed he was right. Well… he wasn’t. Beautifully directed and filled with incredible performances, it was one of this year’s strongest offerings. And it was pretty awesome to see the Tonys acknowledge that. With 10 nominations, it’s one of this year’s top Tony contenders. Thumbs up to the nominating committee for ignoring the static.

Judas Makes It to the Church on Time
You guys–we’ve been holding our breath for weeks, and this morning, there his name was: Josh Young. Up for his introspective, smoldering, beautifully sung performance as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, the craziest part of this story is how it almost didn’t happen. Vocally incapacitated by illness at the eleventh hour, Young missed a bunch of previews, and almost didn’t get the all-clear to perform on opening night, which would have lost him any shot at a nomination. Now it’s time to start daydreaming about what he’ll be wearing on the red carpet to offset those beautiful curls…

Laura Osnes Is Here! Let’s Party!
Our favorite out-of-nowhere nod is this one. Bonnie & Clyde wasn’t exactly the season’s best musical, but Laura’s performance — and especially her sing-your-face-off delivery of Frank Wildhorn’s songs — was totally Tony-nom-worthy. If Jeremy Jordan is Broadway’s reigning crown prince, Laura Osnes is so the princess. Gorgeous and sweet as pie, she seems poised to be a major star. And we cannot wait to see what she wears to the ceremony.

Extra, Extra! Jeremy Jordan Is So Badass and So Is Newsies
We’re obsessed with this show for its tuneful songs and its dreamy cast, sure. But really, our fixation is fully rooted in the sweet sense of nostalgia this show holds for us. That’s our childhood up there, you guys! So of course we’re rooting for Newsies, which garnered eight nominations this morning. We’re especially hopeful for Jeremy Jordan, who is so much more than your average Broadway prettyboy. His Jack Kelly is a genuine, rafter-shaking force. Give the boy his Tony! Before Hollywood figures it out and snatches him away forever…

Once is Never Enough When it Comes to Tony Nominations
Score one — or eleven — for smart, nuanced, brave theater. And for little shows that dream really big and the gutsy folks who take the risk to produce them. With zero show-stopping production numbers, a cast of theater actors instead of famous names, and no easy, pat ending in sight, Once isn’t your traditional Tony-nominated show, or your traditional Broadway musical, and yet, it scored more nominations than any other show this season. We love it — the Great White Way should be home to shows of all shapes and sizes and flavors — and we hope everyone at the onstage pub in the Jacobs tonight raises an extra glass in celebration.

Andrew Garfield Has the Swagger
Hollywood stars totally can’t cut it onstage, right? Well… wrong. Especially in the case of Andrew Garfield, who’s tearing up the stage eight times a week as Biff in Death of a Salesman — and more than holding his own opposite the formidable Philip Seymour Hoffman. His mournful/forceful performance was a shoe-in for a nod. It might even be worthy of a win, and his moviestaaah cred could certainly help. We wouldn’t be sad if it happened. And we wouldn’t ever be sad to see his pretty mug on our TV.

Peter and the Starcatcher Rakes In the Treasure Hand Over Fist
Move the fuck over, War Horse, there’s a new family friendly play steamrolling its way to the Beacon Theater. Decidedly low on flashy stagecraft, Starcatcher’s genius lies in how simply and authentically it tells audiences its tale — like the Broadway version of the best backyard summer production you ever managed in grade school. Neither too sophisticated for children nor too juvenile for adults, Starcatcher panders to exactly zero people, which makes its 9 nominations (more than any other play) feel so good. Especially exciting are nods for the show’s stars: Christian Borle, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and for directors Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, the latter of which is the hottest director on Broadway in all senses.

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The livestream has ended, but check out all the nominees right here! And stay tuned to The Craptacular throughout the day, and over the next weeks. We have a veritable avalanche of Tonys coverage on deck!

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stevekazee

In honor of the fact that you’ll likely be hearing it out loud in the very near future, we just wanted to help you understand the intricacies of Steve Kazee’s last name. Because god knows you’re already an expert at understanding the intricacies of how good he looks in jeans, and how his character in Once melts you into a puddle of snot and broken dreams.

And if you think this is anything less than a highly important issue that requires immediate attention, friend, you’d better think again. Dozens of socially awkward people drop the following into Google every single night:

“how to pronounce steve kazzee name”

We’re here to help. So if you’re presenting at the Tony Awards or you just want to avoid a moment of extreme embarrassment at the stage door or at your weekly showtunes meet-up, here’s a real-world pronunciation guide. As opposed to the fake-world pronunciation guide that lives nowhere but in your theater-obsessed brain.

Here goes:

Steve Kazee:

1. Steve is pronounced like Steve.
2. Ka is like you’re going to say Genghis Khan, but you don’t say Genghis or the silent H or the N part.
3. Stress the second syllable. Like in the word kazoo. Just don’t call him Steve Kazoo. Unless he’s out of earshot. Or you’re on national television.

4. Zee rhymes with tree or melody or cabinetry.
5. Steve Kazee. Like kazoo, only the last part rhymes with tree.

Done and done. And now there’s one less reason for Steve Kazee to a) punch you in the face or b) get into a huge, heated Twitter fight with you. (We know how hard you’re working to avoid either scenario.) On the flipside, we’re pretty sure this will increase his chances of marrying you by .003 percent. And it’s all a numbers game.

photo: t magazine

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Las Gringas Guide to Ricky Martin on Video

Clearly, there’s nothing for you to do this afternoon but obsess over tomorrow’s Tony announcements. So let’s take a little break from that madness and watch some Ricky Martin videos, OK? OK.

We’ll say it up front: We are hardly completists when it comes to Ricky Martin’s career. We remember him in Menudo, but just barely. And his pop career came to our immediate, urgent attention at the same watershed moment it did for the rest of the English-speaking world: in the spring of 1999. If you will please forgive our knowledge gaps, we’d like to give you a video tour of one of Broadway’s (and the world’s) biggest (and obviously handsomest) stars…

The Cup of Life – 1999 Grammy Awards

To be clear: A star wasn’t born in this moment. A megastar was. This is the iconic clip from the 1999 Grammys telecast that launched Ricky Martin’s pop music career in North America. Urban legend has it that Martin wasn’t even scheduled to perform, and that he was filling in for an ailing Cher. Her head cold was his lucky break, apparently. And ours.

Livin’ La Vida Loca

Watching this video now, we’re struck by how singularly it captures what the world thought it looked like in the late 90s, right down to the clinging, spangled knits. Endlessly spoofed and copied, this video was the song of 1999. And we still wonder where that girl in the silver lame dress it today.

Nobody Wants to be Lonely

Let’s be clear: We’ve never not been obsessed with this video. This duet between Ricky and Christina Aguilera is notable because it sort of seems like they were never in the same room together – ever. Not when they recorded it or when they filmed the video, which features the two of them singing to each other from the confines of a gothic-arched castle of nondescript geographic location. (Or fav: When Ricky is singing in the shrubbery. Which might be a hedge maze. Because HE’S LOST.) Remember when a calculable percentage of Christina’s career consisted of shots of her belly? We clearly do. The only thing that would make it better would be if Ricky took his shirt of, but alas…

She Bangs

Oh my God, you guys. Let’s go dive into the ocean and see if we can discover a crazy underwater club where everyone dances to Ricky Martin songs and gets elaborately felt-up in the bathroom! Sounds like fun! Actually… it kinda does. Right down to the blue octopus man in the opening scenes. OK… maybe not the octopus man…

As Marius in Les Miserables

Broadway isn’t a new thing for Ricky Martin. In 1995, after rocking General Hospital for a few seasons, he played a very mulleted Marius in Les Miserables, back in the days when a mullet was an actual part of Marius’s costume. Wait for some really distinct acting, courtesy of the woman playing Eponine, at the :34 mark. You’ll be as startled as Ricky looks.

On General Hospital

This is a video of Ricky Martin making out with a girl in the shower on General Hospital, which really needs no further description or elaboration. This video is actually age-restricted, so… we’re sorry if you’re 13. You won’t always be! Someday you too will enjoy mostly-G-rated video of Ricky Martin making out with people. Wait for the best line: “Let me get my shampoo.”

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Weekend Agenda: Stick a Fork in the 2011-2012 Theater Season, It’s DONE Edition

It’s over, you guys. Finito. With a final flurry of starry openings, the Broadway season came to a close on April 26. Here’s how our post-mortem/pre-awards-show conversation is shaping up…

  • The nominations are in. Well… for all the awards that matter less than the Tonys, anyway. The Drama Desk Awards, the Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the Drama League Awards all announced their nominations this week. The usual suspects (Once, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Newsies, Audra, Jan Maxwell, Philip Seymour Hoffman) were all nominated. But we’re intrigued — if less-than-shocked — by some of the omissions: Evita‘s Elena Roger was universally snubbed, as was Matthew Broderick. On the flip side, Bonnie & Clyde and Lysistrata Jones got some post-closing love. The best news of all? We only have to talk about this until Tuesday, when the Tony nominations obliterate the conversation surrounding these awards.
  • He’s above the title. He’s an international superstar. But on Broadway, he’s a Featured Actor. The mysterious and all-powerful Tony nomimating committee ruled that Ricky Martin will be considered in the supporting category at this year’s awards. Our guess? The powers at Evita asked that he be placed there, instead of in the significantly more competitive Lead Actor category, to maximize his chances of getting nominated following some… ahem… lackluster reviews. We’re guessing Ricky Martin doesn’t mind, however. Considering that he’s rich enough to hire Jeremy Jordan, Steve Kazee, Danny Burstein, Raul Esparza, and Norm Lewis to all sing at his next birthday party…
  • In other weird-ass Tony eligibility news that bears no resemblance to reality, Kara Lindsay is a Lead Actress, Josh Young and Christian Borle are both Featured Actors, Once doesn’t have an original score but Newsies and A Streetcar Named Desire both do, and lots of people are pretending that the actors in Ghost could feasibly be nominated for something other than Looking Hot in Underwear…
  • In a move that made us LOL as hard as the show itself, One Man, Two Guvnors asked that the Tonys committee consider the show for the Best Revival of a Play category, because it’s partly based on a play from 1746. Good try, guys! Maybe next year! Oh sorry, they only do that at the Olivier Awards…
  • Because famous people care so much about American theater and take it so seriously, Usher will appear in — count ’em — two performances of Fuerza Bruta this weekend.
  • The annual Easter Bonnet competition was held this week. This is important because Jeremy Jordan was there IN GLASSES. In glasses, y’all. Hold onto your britches before you spy these pics, ladies and gents. They’re pretty exciting.
  • And score one for anyone invested in keeping the Spencer-Jordans in NYC for the moment: Ashley Spencer has been cast as Sherrie in Rock of Ages.
  • Producers announced the casting of Broadway’s new Annie live on the Today Show. Because apparently… zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
  • A promo poster for the Les Mis movie (aka “The Motion Picture Event of 2012”) turned up on the internet this week. We like it — and dig that they’re using the iconic art used in the theater — but new candids of Aaron Tveit in costume would be considerably more interesting.
  • It’s unofficial! Director Mark Brokaw told Playbill that Harriet Harris and Victoria Clark are set to join Laura Osnes on Broadway in Cinderella (as Cinderella’s Stepmother and Fairy Godmother, respectively). This is so badass we don’t even want to ruin it with our own commentary. We just hope the show confirms it soon.
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After attending a second preview performance, I am now absolutely certain I didn’t take some bad drugs and hallucinate my first Leap of Faith experience. Which is a damn shame, if you ask me. Not in that I wish I’d been on a bad trip recently, but more in the way of “if that was real, then I have to seriously question the people who put together and financed that show for Broadway.” I like some of those people! I love Raúl Esparza! But nonetheless, Leap of Faith is a real thing that really opened on Broadway last night and I have some real things to say about it, so I thought I’d put together a little list.

Below, five things I’d rather do than see Leap of Faith ever again.

Attend an actual revival
Thirty-five seconds into the show Jonas Nightingale and the Angels of Mercy are supposedly staging a revival. Supposedly. All I saw was Raúl Esparza is running in circles, shoving people around by their foreheads and it made me wish I was at a real revival instead. Now, I don’t happen to be a believer in this revival business myself, but like… if I’m going to watch people shudder and shake and generally freak-out, I’d rather it be people who really do, you know? Who have something at stake. Instead of people who are obviously faking it. Because everyone on that stage is obviously faking it, and I say that not because I know they’re actors, but because the acting is bad. It’s not even the cast’s fault, really. They’ve been handed a pile of cow dung in place of a book and asked to make something out of it. No one’s motivations are even scrutable, let alone believable, and everything is so rushed that the characters never have a chance to develop the emotional connections necessary to make this revival business seem in any way genuine for the audience.

Watch Raúl Esparza read the phone book
Look, we’re talking about one of the most talented stage actors of this age. He honestly could make a phone book reading layered and exciting. And you’d rather see him do that than play Jonas Nightingale, I assure you. Honestly, Leap of Faith made me deeply sorry for anyone seeing Raúl the first time in this show. Because they’re missing out on all the things that make him so good—among them his keen intelligence, sharp tongue, and ability to dramatically express inner turmoil. I’ve even seen him convincingly and sensitively portray a grifter before in Anyone Can Whistle at Encores!.  In Leap, Raúl just seems to know how bad the material is, and that knowledge has robbed him of his usual fiery charisma (which is kind of important for a con-man, you know). You don’t believe for a second that anyone would fall for this greasy, louche man’s shtick and Raúl doesn’t, either. It’s a damn shame. And terrible casting.

Have a Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin movie marathon
You know, in an attempt to erase the Leap of Faith hot mess from my brain. And remember what it was like when Alan Menken worked with talented lyricists who don’t think that Helen Keller jokes are still fresh and exciting. I remember the words to basically every song in all three of those movies. With a gun to my head I couldn’t remember the words in Leap fifteen seconds after I heard them. Every song was so bland and pat and forgettable it literally passed by me almost completely unnoticed. Sure, nothing offended me—okay, except the bad Helen Keller joke—but nothing registered at all, either.

Watch Joyful Noise
There’s a moment fairly early in the show where Raúl says “Let’s make some joyful noise!” and I immediately wished I was watching that movie instead. At least that would involve actually seeing Jeremy Jordan’s beautiful face, instead of trying to pass time by mentally tabulating Mr. Jordan’s myriad six-degrees-style connections to this cast. (Those include, btw, first degree connections to Louis Hobson and Baby Clyde Talon Ackerman via Bonnie & Clyde and Angela Grovey via Joyful Noise and a second degree connection to Jessica Philips via his fiancée Ashley Spencer, who starred with her in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.)

Bedazzle an old blazer
Okay. The mirror ball jacket was hot. Obviously they pulled the trigger a bit early in the show, so the jacket was kind of wasted. And life would have been a million times better and more craptacular if they’d paired it with those sinfully hot leather pants. (Really, director Christopher Ashley, we couldn’t have saved that for the big third night “blow-off” and let the man wear it for more than thirty seconds?) But let’s be real. Raúl straight up looked like divine emanations of god’s light were shining out of his body in that jacket. I dug it. I ‘dreamed’ about it. And now I want one of my own. Like… now.

Photo: Joan Marcus

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That’s Gross! Balls on Broadway

Welcome to That’s Gross!, a weekly analysis of one aspect of the Broadway Grosses. As always, the numbers below are provided by the The Broadway League. This week, we looked at…

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in our pathetic dating life, it’s that it’s pretty rare to find a dude who likes both sports and theater. For some reason, those ESPN-watching bros hate going to see Broadway shows.

That’s not to say that pro-theater/pro-sports guys aren’t out there. Take Eric Simonson, for example. Here’s a theater dude who likes sports so much, he’s written not one but two Broadway plays about it; last season’s Lombardi and this season’s Magic/Bird. And producers obviously feel there’s an audience out there who, like Simonson, will support both genres. Either that, or they hope that all the ladies out there have an easier time dragging their men to these shows over Mamma Mia!

So are the producers right? Well, during the week ending April 22, Magic/Bird grossed $163,223 – just 18.84% of its potential gross–making it the lowest grossing show open on Broadway. That week Magic/Bird only filled 55.41% of its capacity at an average ticket price of $34.19. Not a good sign.

Things were a little different back when Lombardi opened. Looking at the grosses the week ending October 31, 2010 (Linda’s birthday, heeeeey), Lombardi filled 81.1% of its seats and took in $290,188 (at an average ticket price of $56.59) – substantially more than Magic/Bird. And though that was only 39.93% of Lombardi’s potential, it was at least an increase from the week before during previews. Magic/Bird saw a drop from previews.

So what can we make of all this? Do theater fans just prefer football to basketball? Are Packers fans more supportive than Lakers and Celtics fans combined? Is the NFL a better producing partner than the NBA? Probably not. Reviews may have mattered. Lombardi’s reviews were certainly more positive than Magic/Bird’s. Casting may also have an impact. Judith Light and Dan Lauria, who starred in Lombardi, are better known than Tug Coker and Kevin Daniels, the virtually unknown leads of Magic/Bird.

But what probably had the biggest impact was timing. Lombardi opened in the fall – a quieter time of year. The spring is a crowded time of year for shows in general – and this year, especially for plays. With shows like Pulitzer Prize-winner Clybourne Park and critical hit Other Desert Cities, it’s unlikely that Magic/Bird will get much love come award season. Though we hate to predict the demise of any show, if Magic/Bird is on your list, you might want to go sooner rather than later.

Curious about how the rest of Broadway fared this week? Take a gander at the rest of this week’s grosses.

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Review: Nice Work If You Can… Anyone? Bueller?

We’ve all done it. We’ve all asked a question, and, when met with resounding silence, recycled that age-old (stale-as-shit) Ferris Bueller joke. We maybe even felt like assholes afterward. Or wondered if we were finally turning into our parents. But I am here today to assure you that your tired “Anyone? …Anyone? …Bueller?” was far, FAR from the worst abuse of that maxim.

Because after seeing Nice Work If You Can Get It—the new Broadway tuner starring Ferris himself, Matthew Broderick—I can only conclude that abuse of that question is exactly how the creators cast their lead. Picture it. They’ve had a long, tiring day of seeing actors, and somehow, Cheyenne Jackson still hasn’t appeared (he’s too busy being real life famous, probs). Someone—an assistant, director Kathleen Marshall, who knows—throws his or her hands up in the air and drops an exasperated “Anyone? …Anyone? …Bueller?” and BAM, they have their star.

Because honestly. There’s no other possible way Broderick got the job.  Homeboy isn’t really singing, or dancing, or even looking terribly appealing up on that stage. He’s mostly just shuffling around like a reanimated corpse/marshmallow who can’t remember where he is, or what he’s doing. And he’s got exactly zero chemistry with his co-star, the delightful (if wildly underutilized) Kelli O’Hara.

Unfortunately, Matthew Broderick isn’t even the musical’s worst offense, a distinction which belongs to its egregious exploitation of the Gershwin catalog. Because whatever else it might wish to be, Nice Work is really just a Gershwin Jukebox musical, and ruining those songs seems about the biggest offense I can even imagine. But ruin the songs it did. In myriad ways, too.  First, the creators blew their load early on the title song by placing a fraction of it within the first 10 minutes of the show. Then there was the really stupid sight gag that turned “Someone to Watch Over Me” into a joke (come ON now, that’s one of the most beautiful ballads in the American Songbook). But honestly, so many of the songs were so misplaced that they ended up feeling as emotionally off-the mark and impotent as the worst Frank Wildhorn musical you can even think of.

Meanwhile, as with many a jukebox musical, Nice Work’s book—written by Joe DiPietro—is about as thick as a communion wafer. And it’s got just as much flavor and texture, too. If the Ferris Bueller joke is stale, this show is fucking fossilized. A knock-off of a knock-off, the material in Nice Work has been recycled so many times that none of it is interesting anymore. The gags and plot-twists are dead before they hit the stage, and this self-styled “sex-farce” is just about the most unsexy thing I can imagine. Watching Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara stage-kiss (come on, team, its 2012, just kiss) made me never want to kiss anyone again.

Try as I might, I just can’t figure out who this was written for. Certainly not me, and frankly… I’m not even sure people my parents’ age would be on board for this totally derivative, totally backward comedy. If the creators are still trying to get my Grandmother to come to the theater, they needn’t bother.  She’s dead, and most of her friends are too. Or they will be within the next 10 years.  Looks like you might need to find a new audience.

Photo: Joan Marcus

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A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays: Though it gives its entire cast plenty to do, it’s often devoured whole by a single performance. In the film, the devouring was done by Marlon Brando. Playing Stanley Kowalski, he howled his way into cinema history, even though Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden all won Oscars.

In this production of Streetcar, which opened Sunday at the Broadhurst Theatre, the actor doing her own kind of memorable howl is Nicole Ari Parker, whose Blanche DuBois is the whole story of this stylish revival. Playing Tennessee Williams’s famously ruined Southern belle, she tears up the stage so soundly that the rest of the performances seem to fade into the background.

Seamlessly transformed from a collected — if postured — school teacher to a weeping wreck, Ari Parker beautifully captures Blanche’s sense of measured self-delusion throughout. When she tells her meek sister Stella that the family’s estate was lost through their family’s “epic fornications,” and that wealthy suitors are on their way to rescue her, you believe that she believes it. Her final moments of madness land like a punch in the stomach. At the performance I attended, you could hear members of the audience saying her famous closing lines along with her. While that probably sounds kind of annoying, I actually saw it as a sign of total audience investment. They really were hanging on to every syllable.

Beyond her performance, however, this Streetcar, which is directed by Emily Mann, feels more serviceable than stunning, and as though it’s more or less just trying to stand out of Ari Parker’s way. Underwood gets the job done as Stanley, but the character’s sense of animalistic force is interpreted so literally that he doesn’t have much room to modulate. There’s no anguish in his bottom-of-the-stairs “Stella!” He just sounds angry. Likewise, Rubin-Vega’s Stella does what she needs to do — hand-wring and flounder — but her performance gets lost in the shuffle.

There are other things to admire about this production — namely, its handsome production design and a spate of gorgeous costumes. Even when they’re falling to pieces, the sisters DuBois look fabulous — Blanche in an avalanche of sequins and lace and Stella in simpler house dresses. And Mann does capture a sense of roiling, sweaty New Orleans, with the help of Terence Blanchard’s smoky jazz underscore. But ultimately, it’s Ari Parker who leaves the strongest impression. Part of me wants to cheer because the play’s true protagonist is fully in charge — instead of being out-shouted by Stanley. But part of me just wishes that she had a more formidable company in her weird little world.

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