Summer Re-View

School's over...what now?

The PxP Summer Re-View, of course!

Ploggers take a second look at shows already covered online or in print, reminding you of the shows that you have been meaning to see.

Do you have a Re-View of a show that we've already covered? Email it to juliar@tdf.org!

Fuerza Bruta

by Sam Norton

For those of you who have seen one too many abstract performances and have declared “Enough!” I may just have the performance to shake you off your wagon. Aesthetically and sensationally pleasing, Fuerza Bruta (which in Spanish means “Brute Force”) may be abstract, but it is much, much more.

Upon entering the Daryl Roth Theater, the first sign that this is no ordinary show comes with the complete absence of seats. Instead, you find yourself thrust into a throng of people, huddled at the center of an enormous fog filled room. The show follows the story of a lone man, ever persevering through the endeavors with which life unabashedly chucks at him, while he walks on a giant treadmill. This would seem to be the plot, however as the actors begin to dance, you begin to realize that the story has taken an unexpected turn. The very ground on which you are standing becomes a dance floor, and you are expected to shake your hips. If you are the kind of person who stiffens with the prospect of dancing, you may think that this is a cruel joke, but as the audience starts to flail and jump wildly with the dancers, you feel the music’s infectious techno-funk rhythm impossible to resist. You, too, become another flailing jumping idiot in the middle of a flailing jumping crowd.

“Look Up,” say the poster, which you noticed upon entering the show. "For what?" You might ask yourself, until you notice a woman, illuminated by bright beams of light, sifting through a small see-through pool directly above your head. She descends as if from the heavens joined by three others, until the pool becomes close enough to you to touch your nose to the pool.

The true oddity of Fuerza Bruta, is that the show is just as alive as the performers. At any time, it might awe you from one end, creep around you from the corner and tap you on the shoulder. No one movement can be expected--every action as authentic as the next. For better or for worse, Fuerza Bruta has been burned into your head, standing out above all the rest. The originality of the show leaves you flabbergasted; its zany dances and delectable imagery are enough to warm the heart of even the iciest critic. While the plot still remains a mystery, you leave the show feeling invigorated. You want to bring this feeling out onto the streets, and give everyone in New York City a taste of Brute force.

Tickets: $25 general rush • Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 E. 15 St.

Next Fall

By Ben Ellentuck

Next Fall brings together the past and the present to tell a story of family and faith. Much of the play takes place in flashbacks, which chronicle the romantic relationship of Adam and Luke. Luke, a devout Christian, meets Adam, a sarcastic, culturally-Jewish-but-really-atheistic urbanite There is an instant attraction and a very serious romance blossoms, despite the fact that they have opposing views of faith.

The other part of the play, the present, takes place in a hospital waiting room after Luke is hit by a car. The accident brings together Adam, Luke’s parents, and friends, who all try to cope with the situation.

The play explores different kinds of family: There’s the biological family, who are there whether we like them or not, and the family of friends, whom we’ve chosen for ourselves.

Adam’s accident incorporates everyone into one big family —where they, even literally, catch each other when they fall—united for a common cause, at least temporarily. Though, it seems that something lasting may be forming in that waiting room.

TICKETS: $26.50 student rush, 2 per valid ID • Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44 St.

The Addams Family

By Grace Lisandrelli

The delightfully dismal The Addams Family has returned as a musical.

Gomez and Morticia’s daughter, Wednesday, has fallen in love with Lucas Bieneke, an all-American boy from Ohio. Wednesday forsakes her affiliation with all things grim and gruesome in favor of a positive approach to life, much to her family’s dismay. When Lucas’ parents arrive for dinner, Wednesday begs her family to act “nor­mal” for just one night. Lucas asks the same of his parents, two rather conservative Midwesterners. Hilarity ensues when these polar­ized families spend the evening together, posing an interesting question: what, exactly, is “normal”?
The Addams Family is irresistibly funny, full of clever one-liners that had the audience laughing out loud. The script did have an overabundance of modern political jokes, though, which fell flat and affected the show’s equilibrium.

The strong bond among the members of The Addams Family is clear. The cast interacted naturally with one another, which made them appear very much like a real family.

The Addams Family is a fun relic for fans of this “creepy, kooky, spooky” but loveable family.

TICKETS: $41.50 student rush • Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 W. 46th St.

The Addams Family Dramaturgy

By Christa Tandana

Do you remember that cartoon show The Addams Family? Is the theme song stuck in your head now?

Well, guess what? The ghoulish cartoon about the beyond abnormal family has been transformed into a musical which is now on Broadway, starring Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as his wife Morticia!

Before it was even a television series, The Addams Family was an original single-panel cartoon that appeared in The New Yorker Magazine in the 1930s. It was created by an American cartoonist named Charles Addams. These cartoons were about a not-so-typical American family. But as far as they were concerned, what was normal?

The cartoon evolved into a television series in 1964 which lasted for two seasons. The original characters in the cartoon were nameless, but Charles Addams was asked to come up with the names for them for the television show. The bizarre family did not get their own cartoon show until 1973. After this, the family went on to star in other cartoon shows, tv movies and films and have been part of pop culture history.

The most recent of The Addams Family is now on the Broadway stage. The musical opened on April 8th, 2010, and was recently announced to hit the road on a national tour in September of 2011.

American Idiot on PlogTV

American Idiot

By Nunny Reyes

American Idiot follows Johnny (John Gallagher, Jr. from Spring Awakening) and his friends, a group of young people trying to break free from the society they have grown to know and hate. These characters don’t want to slip between the cracks of our hypocritical society. The play highlights how easily someone can self-destruct when rules don’t apply anymore and freedom is taken in large doses. For example, Johnny meets a girl, Whatsername (Rebecca Naomi Jones from Passing Strange), and they choose drugs to enter an alternate world.

Those of us heading off to college or making a new life transition can easily relate to the difficulties Johnny and his friends face. We are afraid of looking back, but share the same passion to find an escape and discover something new about ourselves and the world. With music by Green Day, the cast fills the theater with unforgettable vocals. The elaborate set displays images, sounds and videos of events that have made a significant impact on our lives.

In theater, we expect to be challenged. American Idiot goes beyond that and truly depicts what life is like for teenagers in our time. With each passing song, the musical became more realistic and more truthful.

Read Nunny's Interview with John and Rebecca here

Read more about American Idiot here

TICKETS: $27 lottery rush • St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St.

American Idiot Dramaturgy

By Christa Tandana

Green Day is back onstage…on Broadway? Yes, my friends, it’s true! The hit song “American Idiot” is also now the name of the newest rock musical to hit Broadway!

Packed with angst and set to a punk rock soundtrack, American Idiot is certainly not your average trip to the theatre. The story is a coming-of-age story about American youth in suburbia who are trying to find meaning in a post 9/11 world.

Director Michael Mayer came up with the idea for this show by listening to Green Day's Grammy Award winning album. He then collaborated with Billy Joel Armstrong from the band to write the book for the show.

Michael Mayer won a Tony Award for Best Director of Spring Awakening. John Gallagher Jr., who played Melchior in Spring Awakening, is now starring in American Idiot as Johnny. Rebecca Naomi Jones, who was in the rock musical Passing Strange, is now playing Whatsername – (Note: I didn’t make a mistake, that’s the character’s actual name.) These are just a few names of the best and talented in theatre today – and they all collaborated on one show!

Fences

By Monikha Reyes

For me, Fences can be summarized simply—a father doesn’t approve of his son’s interest in football. Denzel Washington plays that father, Troy Maxson, who is a garbage collector in Pittsburgh in the 1950’s. He once dreamed of having a career in baseball, but by the time black players were admitted into the major leagues, he was too old to join. In order to “protect” his son from disappointment, he attempts to prevent him from following a similar path.

Family is a crucial part of Troy’s life. However, finding a balance between his home life and job causes him grief—so much so that he begins to stray from his path as the perfect husband and father. He is the type of man who wants to fence in his family, which only backfire.

When intermission came, I blinked in surprise, realizing that the world on stage wasn’t real. The actors stay true to their roles in the play and the dialogue flows naturally.

If you can handle rough language, you will enjoy Fences. 

TICKETS: thru 7/11, $26.50 standing room only • Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th Street

Fences Dramaturgy

by Sabrina Khan

Fences, by August Wilson, is a 1983 play that reflects of the African American struggle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—rights owed to every US citizen—during the Civil Rights Movement era. Set in 1957 through 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the play explores complex themes of family conflicts and relationships, unwavering friendship during trying times, and integration among blacks and whites.

The play portrays the reality of the Black experience in the US in the midst and wake of Jim Crow laws. One such way the play alludes to historical context to serve as the foundation of the story is through the family name “Maxson,” a play on the words Mason and Dixon, from the Mason Dixon line, which was an imaginary border that separated the slave states from the free in 1820. It conveys the connection Troy bears between the unjust South he had leaves early on to become an urban citizen and the North that serves him little better.

Late playwright August Wilson, a prolific and influential writer to this day, told such a story by weaving together the threads that were the conditions of his own life. Wilson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1945 and was raised in an environment where he became intimately familiar with poverty and racial discrimination. A remarkably intelligent individual, Wilson felt his academic curriculum unchallenging and often encountered prejudice in school. He educated himself in the local library, immersing himself in great works, and wrote poetry and short stories. Though Wilson wanted to be a writer, he and his mother were at odds because she wanted him to be a lawyer, and so he was compelled to leave home. He then enlisted in the US Army in 1962 for a year and returned to working odd jobs afterward.

In the 1960s, Wilson established himself as a playwright through the Yale School of Drama where the Dean of the Drama School, Lloyd Richards, saw extreme potential in him. Wilson and Richards collaborated on Broadway, and Wilson created the first of many works thereafter, Black Cart and the Sacred Hills. Fences soon followed, along with Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and more. Fencesand The Piano Lesson both won Pulitzer Prizes for Drama in 1987 and 1990 respectively.

Fences opened in 1987 to great critical acclaim, and earned many Tony Awards, including Best Play. Since then, an entirely new cast has taken the responsibility to show another generation the still extremely relevant and poignant the story of Fences.

La Cage Aux Folles

By Alyssa Zakaryan

La Cage Aux Folles is filled with snappy jokes, attitude, long legs and feather boas.
 

Kelsey Grammer plays Georges, owner of the nightclub La Cage Aux Folles. He is married to the star of the club Albin—known onstage as Zaza—played by Douglas Hodge. Grammer and Hodge work very well together, making their characters’ 20-year marriage seem very authentic.

Georges has a son, Jean-Michelle, who was raised by Albin because his birth mother left when he was four years old. When Jean-Michelle falls in love with a woman and proposes to her, he wants to introduce the families. The only problem—his fiancée’s parents are not only conservative, but are trying to shut down Georges and Albin’s beloved club. In a desperate attempt to hide his family,  Jean-Michelle begs everyone to “straighten up”—which means that Albin has to leave the picture.
 

The musical leaves you not only with laughter, but with questions that make you reevaluate who a mother is—is it someone who gives birth to you or is it the person who takes care of you, stays up with you when you’re sick, and sacrifices for your benefit?
 

TICKETS: $36.50 student rush • Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St.

Blue Man Group

By Sami Bonilla and Adina Abercrombie

SAMI: Blue Man Group is an amazing show for all ages. It takes music and humor to a whole new level.

ADINA: The Blue Men don’t speak, but that doesn’t stop them from being heard. They express themselves through color, sound and art.
 

SAMI: During the show, two lucky people are chosen to come onstage and “help” the group with a skit. I was lucky enough to be given a bowl of cereal. No, I didn’t eat it, but I did feel awfully special!

ADINA: The way that the performers interact with the audience show that without the audience, there wouldn’t be a show at all. The Blue Men make you feel as though you are a part of the cast and just as important.
 

SAMI: I love the way they interact with each other. If one of them does something wrong, the other two give him the “why are you like this?” look—the look an older brother gives to his younger brother. They are a family.
 

ADINA: Blue Man Group shows that you can express yourself loudly without saying a word. How cool would it be to have a whole conversation without uttering a single word?
 

TICKETS: $29 student rush (except Fri/Sat night) • Astor Place Theatre, 434 Lafayette St. 

Lend Me a Tenor Interview

Plogger Sabrina went backstage to talk with Mary Catherine Garrison about her role in Lend Me a Tenor!

Sabrina: You've done a variety of plays that include Accent on Youth, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and many others. Do you like doing period pieces? What attracts you to this era of the '30s and '40s?

Mary Catherine: I actually really do like doing period pieces, but I don't necessarily seek them out. That time period was sort of a golden time for American theater so there are frequent revivals of plays from then, and, like our play, you have writers who have a lot of affection for that genre and then set plays in that time period. Personally, I enjoy doing GOOD plays--whether modern or a revival. But I do have a special place in my heart for the 20s, 30s, and 40s. I love films and music from then--and I'm al

so fascinated by their lifestyle. The hair, the clothes, the social norms--I love seeing inside a diner from the 30s--all the little details just fascinate me.

Sabrina: After having done both, what do you think is tougher, drama or comedy?

Mary Catherine: The honest answer is that they're both tough, but in different ways. I would say that a rehearsal for a comedy is tougher--only because you spend a lot of time not being funny until you find the funny, or doing the same jokes for the same people in the same room who can't laugh at it anymore. But doing a run of a play that asks a lot of you emotionally--eight shows a week of screaming and crying--that's a whole other animal. Right now, I'm really happy to be in a light, silly comedy!

Sabrina: In the play, your character, Maggie, wants a fling. What do you think that really means in terms of 1934? In your opinion, do you think this want ever really gets satisfied?

Mary Catherine: The writer, Ken Ludwig, obviously wrote this play in the 1980s and set it in 1934, so I'm thinking there are some liberties taken with some period behavior here :) The truth is, though, that people in the 30s--and any other time period, for that matter--were having sex and fooling around and had sexual desire and all of that. Whether you would have announced it to your fiance at that time, I'm not so sure. I think the want gets satisfied in a way she wasn't expecting: she had underestimated Max (played by Justin Bartha) and gets to experience him in a whole new light--which ends up being much better than a fling could have been.

Sabrina: Can you relate to Maggie? Or is she different from yourself or anyone you've ever played?

Mary Catherine: I almost always feel like there is plenty to relate to in any character I play. They may not be exactly like me or want exactly what I want, but they are people who want something so we always have that in common--after that you just have to get into and believe in the specifics.

Sabrina: What is your typical warm-up before getting on stage? Is there any particular song or exercise that pumps you up?

Mary Catherine: I'm finding that every show is different for me. I do a little yoga and a short vocal warm-up in my dressing room in this particular show, I want to go onstage (since I start the show) with my energy high so I've been blasting music that I don't normally listen to--like Guns-n-Roses and AC/DC and other random pop stuff to get the blood pumping.

Sabrina: What is it like working with such a dynamic and star-studded cast?

Mary Catherine: As famous and dynamic as they are--they are also an incredibly generous group of people who know a lot about comedy and about finding the jokes and I love them all immensely. We're still thrilled to be onstage together and still working. An example: the other night I was backstage with Tony and Justin and told them about a laugh I had lost which I had been getting since the beginning and I couldn't figure out what I was doing differently and what I needed to do. So in the dimly lit backstage area while whispering, the three of us talked it out and tried out a couple of things and solved it and I got my laugh back! They're also a hilarious group so we laugh a whole lot. There's nothing better.

Sabrina: What has been your most memorable onstage or backstage experience?

Mary Catherine: Fortunately or unfortunately, this particular cast has quite a few individuals who break easily on stage (by 'break' I mean laugh) and because there are some funny moments with some real funny actors, we have all--except a few who seem to be made of steel and are clearly more professional than the rest of us--lost it on stage. The audience loves it so my feeling is that if its genuine its fine. But as much as the audience loves it, we're having an even better time. It's such a wonderful job to be able to make people laugh!

Read Sabrina's review of Lend Me a Tenor and check out a backstage video here!

Sound Off: Ingredients of a Good Play

What are the ingredients of a good play? How should they be put together?

Give us your recipes in the comments!

Family Week

by Sam Norton

Family Week is a twisted, yet undeniably funny play that tells the story of a family, their hardships, and how they learn to cope with the rough hand that life has dealt them.

Claire has checked herself into a rehabilitation center in the Arizona desert, far out in the middle of nowhere, after the death of her 17-year-old son. Claire's mother, sister and and daughter arrive for Family Week to help Claire, they find themselves in need of help themselves. Trying to compensate for her pitiful previous attempts at motherhood, Lena arrives in a desperate attempt to reconcile her mistakes. Kay copes with the death of her only sibling, her abusive mother’s frail state, the fresh divorce of her parents, and the unforgiving pains of puberty and high school. Claire’s sister Rickey would seem to be the only comic relief, but as the play delves deeper into her character, there is nothing funny about her. Together, these four women probe through their pasts, under the watchful eye of the staff, to discover a way to live with the horrors that haunt them.

Family Week is a beautifully written, sassy, well-acted play. It’s fast-paced and packed with loose ends that allow the audience to understand for themselves what the characters are going through. Each line is delivered and written in the most poignant manner so as to twist and mold your emotions.

When it comes to the tragedy of life, this play does not beat around the bush. When you exit the theatre, you feel every bit as empty and alone as the characters of the play. Family Week, with it’s very real people and very real emotions, will bring a pang to your heart.

TICKETS: thru May 23 • $15 student rush • Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St.

Million Dollar Quartet

by Desmond Sam

Million Dollar Quartet is a tribute to four musical geniuses of rock 'n' roll and allows you to join in on the fun.

Million Dollar Quartet is a recreation of a legendary moment in music history. This musical retells the impromptu jam session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins held at Sun Records Studio the day before Christmas in 1956. The show focuses on their brilliant music and barely touches upon their unstable lifestyles.

Million Dollar Quartet is a showcase of nostalgic remembrance of a time when youth expression was starting to explode and become a key component of the fabric of America. The show helps young people today understand the roots of our music. The performer who stands out the most is Dyanne, Elvis Presley's girlfiend, played by Victoria Matlock. She is the only woman in the show and her vocals take control.

The music is a collection of hits that have become household favorites, including Fever, Great Balls of Fire, and I Walk the Line. The music has people dancing in their seats, reminiscing about the first time they heard each song. The actors' impressions of each singer is completely believable.

Million Dollar Quartet is an easy-going musical that will delight your soul and make you tap your toes.

TICKETS: $30 lottery rush • Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St.

It's a Small World

If you're a young and talented Broadway star, that is.

Ever wonder what happens to your favorite performer when he or she leaves a show? For some, they don't go very far.

Take a look at the new Broadway musical American Idiot. John Gallagher Jr., who played the unhappy Moritz in Spring Awakening, is currently starring as another angsty teenager. His love interest in the show is performed by Rebecca Naomi Jones, who you may have seen in Passing Strange.

Remember Sonny from In the Heights, played by Robin de Jesus (he also appeared in the musical theatre movie Camp)? You can catch him in the new Broadway production of La Cage Aux Folles.

Karen Olivio, who played Karen in In the Heights, has been appearing for over a year as Anita in West Side Story.

And we can't ignore the slighly larger move of the two ill-fated lovers from Spring Awakening, Wendla and Melchior, played by Lea Michelle and Jonathan Groff. Chances are you've seen them on the silver screen as they sing and dance their way through prime time on the new hit TV show Glee...coincidentally (or not), their characters are dealing with some of the same issues as their Spring Awakening characters did onstage.

Is it hard to see an actor perform a different role than what you are used to? Tell us in the comments!

Lend Me a Tenor

by Sabrina Khan 

When it comes to comedy, delivery is everything. The cast of Lend Me Tenor makes that clear in every single scene of the hilarious play written by Ken Ludwig and directed by Stanley Tucci. Set in a hotel suite in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1934, the stage is divided into two elaborately decorated rooms. The atmosphere is vibrant and classic, costumes similarly glamorous, and the tones of the actors appropriately melodramatic.

When neurotic Cleveland opera producer, Saunders (Tony Shaloub, Monk), hires the world renowned Italian tenor, Tito Morelli (Anthony LaPaglia, Without a Trace), to star in Othello, he expects him to arrive on time and be ready to perform. Max (Justin Bartha, The Hangover), his daughter, Maggie’s (Mary Catherine Garrison, Accent on Youth) foolish boyfriend, is his assistant and responsible for ensuring that Tito is focused on the premiere. The three, expecting him to arrive solo to his hotel room, are surprised to find him finally enter with his hot-tempered wife, Maria (Jan Maxell, The Royal Family). She proceeds to yell at her husband for eating too much on the way and accuses him of having women in the hotel room.

Saunders leaves Max to convince him to take a nap. Max secretly mixes a tonic in his drink to do the trick, totally ignorant of the fact that Tito had already taken pills in an impassioned response to his wife‘s bickering. Completely intoxicated, Tito even has Max sing to him after Max tells him about his own vocal ambitions. He finally falls asleep, distraught because he finds out moments before that his wife has left him.

When Max attempts to wake Tito, he finds him completely still and panics that he is dead.He informs Saunders, who goes mad with rage because he thinks of the tickets that must be refunded. He devises a plan to have Max sing the tenor’s part and wear the costume for Othello, with blackface and all. He would fool the audience and the company until having to announce Tito’s death early the next morning. “Nobody will know,” he convinces the reluctant Max. Little do they realize that Tito is still alive. It’s one farce after another and the actors do a tremendous job of refreshing the humor.

A play of operatic proportions, Lend Me Tenor, is a surefire hit. Each role, large or small, has its own flair and the dynamic between the characters is well balanced. The actors truly compliment each other, making the play an arena for witty verbal jousting. Lend Me Tenor is simply genuinely funny and suitable for all audiences.

TICKETS: $26.50 general rush • Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St.

God of Carnage

by Dalia Wolfson

God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza, reveals the violence and animal instincts of daily, mundane encounters in the living room in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Eleven year-old Benjamin, armed with a stick, hit his peer Henry, knocking out two teeth. This incident brings their parents – Veronica and Michael, Annette and Alan – to discuss the next step in educating and disciplining their sons. The fast-paced 90-minute play tracks the unraveling of a polite discussion into a safari of sorts, with the two couples’ attacking each other and themselves as their social barriers crumble.

God of Carnage is particularly enjoyable because of Matthew Warchus’ directorial talent. The characters rearrange themselves throughout the play, sitting in different seats, collapsing on couches, strolling around the stage and, in the final moments, all are found to be in states of disarray with their knees on the floor – a sort of descent of man to the most primitive, crawling form of mobility. The set is also used masterfully, so that each prop – be it yellow cleaning gloves, white tulips or a limited-edition Kokoschka art book – is not merely a stage piece, but an object that merits interaction and attention. The roles of the characters conjure up a nice balance: one couple consists of an art history teacher and a department store owner who gleefully discusses toilet fittings, while the other pair includes a lawyer and a job in wealth management. The socioeconomic differences in the two sets of parents are outlined by their speech and clothing and, eventually, verbalization of values through the dialogue.

The root “carn” (flesh ) in Latin reveals itself in many forms: carnage, carnal desire, reincarnation and other visceral, instinctual words. These concepts are introduced throughout the play, placed as focal points in the struggle between high society’s discipline (upheld by Veronica, the art history teacher who respects sophistication) and raw, animalistic behavior (represented by Michael, the ‘neanderthal’ who settles for a “second rate” lifestyle). While a philosophical thread runs through the performance, God of Carnage skirts around this conflict with a generous dose of physical humor and a rapid hour-and-a-half long duration that leaves the audience feeling that somehow, the issues have not been fully fleshed out.

God of Carnage illuminates the tension between the primitive and the civilized, and ultimately this play is rather relevant to our generation; the slow, painstaking process of maturity is a concept that teens encounter in our daily existence. God of Carnage may not explore these issues to a point of satisfaction, but is worth seeing because it does raise vital questions about human nature that are pertinent to adolescents as they attempt to find a balance in this helter-skelter world.

TICKETS: $26.50 student rush • Bernard B Jacobs Theatre, 242 W. 45th St.

Ching Chong Chinaman

by Olympia Zipitas

Ching Chong Chinaman is a fun play full of laughter and cliffhangers. It follows a Chinese American family that seems normal at first, but then the teenage son, Upton, imports a Chinese man to do his homework so that he can spend all of his time playing computer games. We watch as this stranger forces the family to learn more about themselves as individuals and as a family.

Many creative aspects of the play really stood out to me. The man from China coudn't speak English, but instead of speaking Chinese, he communicated only with body language. He and Upton's sister, Grace, had entire conversations that made me forget that they didn’t speak the same language until Grace said something like, "You still don’t speak English.”
After the play, I was able to ask the actors some questions about their characters and the rehearsal process. I learned that they only rehearsed for a couple weeks, which surprised me because they all seemed so comfortable with each other. They explained that because of the small number of Asian actors in the theater industry, many of them had previously worked with each other at one time or another. I also asked James Chen, the actor who played the man from China, how it felt to not speak for a big part of the play. He said that it was difficult because he wanted people to realize that he didn't understand his surrounding, not that he actually couldn't speak.

Ching Chong Chinaman is a lot of fun. The actors all played their roles very well and the chemistry between them was excellent. I definitely recommend this play to teenagers.

TICKETS: Playing thru April 11 • $20 student tickets • West End Theatre, 263 W. 86th Street, 2nd floor