Michael Dale's Theatre Crawl - "Theatre Ghosts of East 4th Street"
By Michael Dale
Zero Boy and Frank Zilinyi in The Haunting of 85 East 4th Street (Photo: Dan Bianchi)
This Week…
The Haunting of 85 East 4th Street at the Kraine Theater through November 20. Tickets $30 or pay what you can afford.
Swing/Big Band Music at The Back Room on Monday nights. No cover.
Hotsy Totsy Burlesque, second Thursday of each month at The Slipper Room. Tickets $25/minimum $20.
L’Amour à Passy at The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at A.R.T./ New York Theatres through November 20. Tickets $20; students/seniors $15.
Inexpensive and Recommended…
What Passes For Comedy at The Chain Theatre through November 19. Tickets $25.
F*ck7thGrade at Wild Project through November 19. Tickets $45/$35.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a show more site-specific than…
…Radiotheatre’s immensely entertaining bit of ectoplasmic fun, The Haunting of 85 East 4th Street, now inhabiting The Kraine Theater. (Don’t bother Googling. That’s the address.) A treat for both fans of horror and New York City history buffs, the show is based on a chapter of creative director Dan Bianchi’s book Manhattan Macabre, detailing the remarkable history of the plot of land that, since 1885, has been the location of the tenement building that eventually became the home of the popular Off-Off Broadway theatre.
Written as conversation between two storytellers, Frank Zilinyi is the even-toned voice of authority supplying most of the narration, while “vocal cartoonist” Zero Boy adds evocative commentary. Through them we learn how the first structure built on this property was the home of Isidore Langahans, the city’s official hangman, who performed thousands of executions from an elm tree in what is now Washington Square Park.
The site was also the location of a mission with a gruesome secret and the city’s morgue until the current structure was built. Its years as a union meeting hall, a Communist Party headquarters, a speakeasy (where the beloved KGB bar now resides) and a playhouse have been filled with unfortunate occurrences that have led many to believe the place is occupied by spirits.
Technical director Wes Shippee’s historic projections and eerie soundscape dramatically enhance the atmosphere.
No spoilers here, but let’s just say you’ll want to take a closer look at the building’s stoop as you exit.
I have to make a point of not waiting another 25 years before visiting The Back Room again…
When a friend invited me there to hear some music last Monday night, I didn’t realize until I walked in that this was the speakeasy with a hidden entrance I had once been to sometime in the late 90s that I totally forgot where it was and what it was called.
Not that they make it easy to find the place. Hidden on Norfolk Street, you walk past a small gate marked The Lower East Side Toy Company and through an outdoor alleyway until you get to an unmarked staircase that leads to the building. Once inside you’re immersed in a snazzy 1920s atmosphere, with drinks served in teacups – ya know, in case the joint suddenly gets raided.
Monday nights at 9 are reserved for swing/big band shows, and I had a terrific time listening to golden age classics like “My Baby Just Cares For Me” and “Slow Boat To China”, presented by reed player Evan Hamaguchi’s ensemble of Lisa Liu (guitar), Kent Williams (drums), Trevor Robertson (bass) and Gretta Cavatassi (vocals).
There’s little seating on Mondays because couples claim any spare space on the floor to show off their vintage ballroom dance moves. With Mondays usually being slow theatre nights, this is a great place to start the week with some live entertainment. And there’s no cover charge. Just make sure you tip the band.
As someone who wouldn’t know a TARDIS from a Tribble…
…I’ll readily admit to most of the references going over my head earlier this year when I went to check out my pal Miranda Raven strip-teasing out of sci-fi getups in Hotsy Totsy Burlesque’s tributes to Dr. Who and Star Trek.
But all you really have to understand about their monthly shows at The Slipper Room, that Lower East Side jewel box theatre that looks like it may have been an old vaudeville house a century ago, is to yell your approval loudly when the artists disrobe. Neo-burlesque is about cheering, not leering.
Celebrating its 15th year, Hotsy Totsy is hosted by the bantering duo of Cherry Pitz and Handsome Brad as a benefit for “The Home For Wayward Girls and Fallen Women”, where as Ms. Pitz quips, their motto is, "We've fallen and we can't get up and we like it that way."
Every show is dedicated to a nerdy theme like Disney, Scooby-Doo, Game of Thrones and, every December, the legendary 1978 TV Broadcast of The Star Wars Holiday Special, with theme-related gift bags raffled off at every performance.
Last week, though, the topic was one I’m very familiar with, Charles Schulz’s classic comic strip Peanuts. And what a delight to have the show open with Esme D’Avril, clad in Woodstock yellow, go-go dancing for tips to Vince Guaraldi's “Linus and Lucy”, arguably the best known jazz instrumental in America.
To eliminate the creepiness factor, the premise was that Charlie Brown (Handsome Brad) had grown up to become a famous self-help guru and was back in his hometown to visit childhood friends, including The Little Red-Haired Girl (Rosie Tulips), Pig-Pen (Miranda Raven) and, of course, Snoopy (Queensinera). In a pair of duo acts, Venatrix’s Peppermint Patty and Dutch Baby’s Marcie finally recognized their feelings for each other, and Bimini Cricket’s Lucy figured out the way to get Brief Sweat’s Schroeder’s attention was through Beethoven cosplay.
But wouldn’t you know it, even with all this childhood familiarity before my eyes, there was still a reference that went over my head. I couldn’t figure out why stage kitten Fortune Cookie was dressed in a Girl Scout uniform. Turns out there was a character named Loretta who made a couple of appearances in the strip in 1974, hawking her Girl Scout cookies. Now that’s obscure!
Speaking of obscure, one of the treasures of my Broadway vinyl collection…
…is the original cast album of the short-lived, underappreciated 1964 musical Ben Franklin In Paris, which featured rousing melodies by Mark Sandrich, Jr. and a smart libretto by Sidney Michaels. (Give it a listen and see if you can guess which two songs were contributed by show doctor Jerry Herman.) Robert Preston starred as a middle-aged Franklin courting a fictitious middle-aged confidante to King Louis XVI, in hopes she would use her influence to gain France’s military support. It was a highly romanticized adaptation of the facts.
Musa Gurnis and G.W. Reed in L’Amour à Passy (Photo: Jonathan Slaff)
There appears to be a bit more truthfulness in G.W. Reed’s two-hander, L’Amour à Passy, where the playwright portrays a 70-year-old Franklin, growing physically feeble and infatuated with the real-life Mme. Hardancourt Brillon (vivaciously played by Musa Gurnis), a married socialite in her early thirties who was known as a gifted composer and the hostess of salons attended by notable musicians and philosophers. But the playwright clearly notes that any suggestion that Brillon could have used her influence to gain French support for America is his own speculation.
At this stage, what the play has going for it is the theme of how personal relationships can influence politics. Though Brillon is flattered to be receiving the attentions of a man acclaimed by Europe as America’s genius, there’s also the hint that she puts up with his lecherous advances in hopes that rumors of their relationship will find the ear of her cheating husband.
Reed’s Franklin is sufficiently charming when narrating the story to the audience, but his continual pleading for kisses and playful intimacy are embarrassingly juvenile, particularly since the play deals partially with Franz Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism.
A showcase moment where Franklin and Brillon play chess in a bubble bath may be overdressed in this production, but with fewer displays of lust and more of the kind of witty, intellectual flirtation a scene like that can suggest, L’Amour à Passy could become a good one.
Curtain Line…
It’s being pushed that the Broadway revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ “transforms the show's original vision for 21st Century audiences.” I can only assume that means, “Now with less misogyny!”