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Theater and the economy: classics are casualties
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Julia Stiles (Photo by Louis Lanzano/AP)
OK, so there may not be those among you that consider a live stage visit from Bill Pullman, Julia Stiles and David Mamet a cause for “Aw, shucks-ing!” Then again, consider what’s being replaced. And why.
The decision to sub out what would likely have been a bang-up production of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” for Mamet’s “Oleanna” at the Mark Taper Forum was made _ according to Center Theatre Group’s Artistic Director Michael Ritchie because “the casting we anticipated for this production did not come together as we had planned.” Whether or not as rumor has it, the deal hinged on actor Alfred Molina’s availability, AC is out and DM is in."Oleanna" runs June 5 to July 12.
“Oleanna” is not, I should add, a crapper of a play. Once upon a time, it was even something of a buzz play that pushed “did he, did she, is he a brute, is she nuts,” buttons over topics ranging from power struggles to sexual harassment. William H. Macy and the eventual second Mrs. David Mamet, Rebecca Pidgeon, played it to great effect off Broadway. The play later became a (less successful) movie with Macy and Debra Eisenstadt.
Pullman, who doesn’t do a lot of stage locally, figures to make a decent John, the college professor whose attentions toward his screw-up student Carol go horrendously off course. And Stiles, who might be making her L.A. stage debut, played this role in London. Doug Hughes, who directed another claustrophobic play, John Patrick Shanley‘s “Doubt” to great success, is also well chosen (guess Mamet himself wasn’t available.).
You’ll forgive my being hung up on the “Vanya” question. Casting or no casting, stars or no stars, the production switch undoubtedly saves CTG money. Classics are frequently costume dramas with large casts and budgets to match.
And if you’re going to throw a bunch of moody Russians up on stage these days, you jolly well better have the star (or company) wattage to put some rears in the seats. Oh, it can be done. “The Cherry Orchard,” the Taper’s last venture into Chekhov-dom in 2006, had Molina and Annette Bening, and sold briskly. Ditto, the touring Royal Shakespeare Company production of “The Seagull” which came into UCLA’s Royce Hall in the fall of 07 with Ian McKellen.
“Oleanna,” meanwhile, is a contemporary play by a well known playwright, and has but two actors. ‘Nuff said.
Well, O.K. not quite ‘nuff.
The same thing is sort of happening down the 405 Freeway at South Coast Repertory where a spring production of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” to have been directed by Daniel Sullivan, was swapped out for a revival of the Donald Margulies two-hander, “Collected Stories.” Directed by Martin Benson, “Collected Stories” plays May 15-June 14.
So let’s see…a multi-character Shakespearean tragedy vs. a two character play about an author who accuses her acolyte of mining her life for dramatic purposes. SCR actually premiered “Collected Stories” some 15 years back in its smaller stage. Now it goes on the mainstage, bumping “Lear” which could yet be rescheduled to the fall of 2009.
Let’s hope so. In major regional houses like SCR and the Taper, a classic lost is a classic loss.
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