Michael Dale’s Theatre Crawl – Tipping Is Not Only Encouraged, It’s Wildly Entertaining

Jada Valenciaga in Curtains Up!’s HoliGay Spectacular (Photo: Jada Valenciaga)

by Michael Dale

This week…

Curtains Up! at The Monster every Tuesday night (on hiatus until January 24).  No cover, tip generously.

Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel at SoHo Playhouse through January 8.  Tickets $40.75/$50.75

Inexpensive and recommended…

Darkness After Night: Ukraine at Theater For The New City through January 8.  Tickets $15, Seniors/Students $12.

That thing where you have the most unattainable theatre ticket in town and the performance gets cancelled.

It happens.

It’s what separates live theatre from the movies.

I mean sure, it’s more of a minor inconvenience for people like me who have the privilege of press comps.  Perhaps the press agents will be able to get me into another Off-Broadway performance of Merrily We Roll Along or maybe I’ll just have to wait for the already announced Broadway transfer, but, as someone who tries to be an empathetic person, I couldn’t help but feel sorry last Monday night for my fellow Boxing Day celebrants who now won’t be able to catch a performance of the sold-out run in the intimate confines of New York Theatre Workshop, barring some good luck in the show’s daily lottery or cancellation line.

The house wasn’t open until a few minutes before the scheduled 7pm starting time, which, in my playgoing experience, usually means either technical difficulties or the last-minute insertion of an understudy or standby.  Not long before 7:30, we heard an announcement that they’re working as fast as they can to fix a technical issue.  But when the show’s three stars suddenly took the stage a little after 8:00, I knew it wasn’t the best thing that ever could have happened.

Daniel Radcliffe read a prepared statement from a cellphone, sadly saying that despite everyone’s best effort, they’ve been unable to fix a technical issue caused by the city’s recent spell of sub-freezing temperatures.  He declined to go into any more details for fear of getting the facts wrong.

But since there was still about twenty minutes before the actors were required to change out of their costumes, Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez stuck around for a Carol Burnett-type audience Q&A.

Spoiler:  When asked how they felt about the show transferring to Broadway, they were all very excited about it.

I thought each had interesting comments in regards to acting in George Furth and Stephen Sondheim’s musical, where their characters are first seen as disillusioned adults and every scene goes back in time a bit until the show ends when they’re a trio of optimistic youths ready to take on the world.  Groff said he has to reverse his usual mindset during performances.  Instead of building on his character’s knowledge of past events he has to erase the knowledge of what happened in the previous scene.

Groff also expressed great admiration for Radcliffe’s performance of the complex patter-packed song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.”, calling it a master class in acting.  His co-star admitted he’s glad the number is placed so early in the show, allowing him to get the difficult task over with so he can relax for the rest of the performance.

Mendez took on the tricky query of why Merrily’s original 1981 Broadway production closed so quickly by addressing how part of the problem may have been that the cast was too young to play their characters as adults.  Director/producer Harold Prince’s initial concept for the musical was to cast it with inexperienced actors in their teens and early 20s, and have their fresh energy drive the show.  Mendez noted that she wouldn’t have been able to convincingly play the full arc of her character at that age.

Hopefully, my disappointed audience-mates will be able to catch this production eventually, but in the meantime, they’ve got a great story to tell their theatre-centric friends.

For my own personal well-being, I’m determined to make good on my New Year’s resolution to visit Marie’s Crisis more frequently; the showtune piano bar where, even if not everyone knows my name, a good deal of them know at least half the words to “Meadowlark”.

My favorite times to go are happy hours, where drinks are a bargain and there’s a bit more jazz hands room.  And on Mondays and Thursdays it’s a safe bet that pianist Alex Barylski will be playing something from Bajour or Subways Are For Sleeping  (He recently cajoled me into a duet of “Honest Man”, that Herschel Bernardi/Herb Edelman showstopper.)

Last Tuesday was my first time catching Jim Merillat at the keyboard and I knew he was my kind of guy when he stopped the music for a minute to orient any newbies in the house as to the unique history of the venue; explaining who Marie was, which crisis the bar is named after and the significance of the muraled mirror behind the bar, a 1930s project of the famed WPA.

He also took a moment to reinforce Marie’s Crisis’ policy as being a showtune bar, which to him means only songs that were written for stage or movie musicals.  So be warned, none of this insisting that “Sweet Caroline” is now a showtune on Jim’s watch.

But what I found most amusing was when he explained how when his husband was touring in Company at seaside locales in Brazil, the locals didn’t quite get the line “Does anyone still wear a hat?”, since headgear protecting against UV rays was necessary year-round.

The line was changed to “Does anyone still wear Chanel?”

And after a couple of martinis at Marie’s, where being able to spit out the lyrics of “We Both Reached For The Gun” passes as a sobriety test…

…I crossed over Sheridan Square to see my talented pal Rori Nogee in Curtains Up!’s HoliGay Spectacular the latest of their weekly Tuesday night shows at The Monster’s downstairs cabaret.

Hosted by drag artist Jada Valenciaga, who endearingly mixes street-savvy moxie with glam elegance (and who even baked delicious free cookies for audience members), the show was a wildly fun merriment with singing, dancing, lip-syncing and strip-teasing, capped by a frenzied performance of “Turkey Lurkey Time.”

But one thing I wasn’t prepared for – and apparently this is pretty common at drag shows – was how enthusiastic and extroverted tipping becomes a part of the performance.  Naturally, any time there’s no cover charge for a live show, generous tipping is expected, as that’s how talent gets paid.  But at The Monster, the show was staged with actors walking through the house and grabbing tips (While singing and dancing!) from the outstretched hands of the enraptured masses.  A couple of times, giddy fans ran up to the stage and tossed fistfuls of currency in the air to rain on their beloved stars.  (Tips are pooled by all the performers, so if you’re a bit introverted, like me, you can just give one large tip to cover yourself for the night.)

Though Curtains Up! will be taking a brief hiatus, Valenciaga & Co. will return January 24, with their usual menu of tribute shows and popular musicals in concert.  This first-timer will definitely be returning.

Though the SoHo Playhouse is a modest little Off-Broadway venue…

…playwright/performer Tim Crouch obviously envisions a more extravagant showplace at the start of his solo piece, Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel.  That’s likely because he’s wearing a virtual reality headset as he singles out members of the audience as someone’s who’s purchased an expensive dinner/theatre package, another who nabbed a nice seat at a discount or a balcony ticket-holder who managed to sneak into an empty downstairs.

Perhaps he’s envisioning Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, where he premiered the piece this past August before arriving in New York for a quick run as part of the 15th International Fringe Encore Series.

Tim Crouch in Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel (Photo: Stuart Armitt)

Dressed in contemporary clothes, Crouch eventually takes off the headpiece he wears for much of the 70-minute show to explain that we (or perhaps the virtual audience he described) are watching a performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear where he has been cast as The Fool, a character that is no longer seen after the third of the tragedy’s five acts.  A social commentator who cuts out before the violence of the drama starts kicking in, he’s now observing what has happened in his absence.

Crouch has stated in interviews that his inspiration for this play comes from our returning to live theatre after being away from it for so long due to COVID.  The title is one of The Fool’s lines, perhaps suggesting that our increased dependency on virtual communication has caused us to be more willing to set aside reality.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t quite getting a lot of the show.  This was one of those plays that sent me to Google after seeing it, reading other reviews (quite positive) and interviews to try and see if there was something obvious I was missing.

No luck there, but Crouch gives an engaging, soft-spoken performance sprinkled with gentle humor, so I just sat back and was happy to be in a theatre watching something as simple and authentic as a live actor trying to communicate with me.  And maybe that was the whole idea after all.

Curtain Line…

Cups of coffee.  That’s how I measure it.  Cups of coffee.  You can stop singing now.