By LOU HARRY
Musicals tend not to be humble. With rare exceptions, they announce themselves whether with well-known performers, high-profile source material, energetic dance, or visual spectacle.
Occasionally, though, a low-key musical finds its way to the stage, one that seems to say “pardon me” instead of “HERE I AM!!!!”
Such is the case with Reunions, playing through Dec. 14 at City Center Stage II.
The title seems less a marketing move than an effort to find linkage between its two distinct halves. The first act, based on J.M. Barrie’s short story “The Twelve Pound Look,” concerns an about-to-be-knighted gent (Bryan Fenkhart) who hires a typist to respond to the notes of his well wishers. Turns out the hiree is his ex (Chilina Kennedy), who bolted on him years earlier.
Witty without generating big laughs and handsomely-enough designed within the limits of the space, the piece goes down smoothly but without distinct flavor.
The second act brings back the same cast, but with previous supporters in the leads. A popular short play in Spain, “A Sunny Morning” by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero, centers on a curmudgeonly man (Chip Zien) who reluctantly shares a bench seat next to a park regular (Joanna Glushak). We – and they – soon realize that they had long-ago been lovers, but neither wants to admit that realization so they invent stories of having been friends with their actual back-then selves. The charm of Zien and Glushak goes a long way toward helping the piece land while the score by Jimmy Calire and Jeffrey Scarf never convinces that the songs are necessary.
I’m a firm believer that Broadway isn’t and shouldn’t be the best home for many musicals. Theater history is littered with shows that fit more comfortably in theaters like this. Think of it in movie terms. Some films are best watched on an IMAX screen. Others are better suited to your home TV. Reunions, in this appropriately intimate space, never pretends to be more than it is – a light brunch of a musical. That modesty is oddly, if unmemorably, refreshing.
A more atmospheric basement space – St. Luke’s Theatre – houses Beau, a honkytonk-set coming of age/coming out musical by Douglas Lyons with music co-written with Ethan D. Pakchar. It centers on Ace, a musician who, as a youth, was told by his mother that his grandfather had passed. Turns out that wasn’t the case and the generation-hopping connection forged between the two men anchors the plot.
The structure is a bit wobbly: It’s framed as a hometown concert by Ace’s band and peppered by flashbacks sometimes centered on moments Baker couldn’t possibly have seen. And it’s a much softer story than the setup would have you believe. (Not that I expected something akin to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but I was surprised by how conventional Beau turned out to be.)
Still, it’s a powerful, emotional journey with strong, engaging, cast-recording-worthy music, creatively staged. On the night I attended, three of the leads were understudies, none making me feel like I missed out on anything. I am glad that Jeb Brown, nuanced and in strong voice, was in attendance as the titular grandpop.
Los Angeles has a history of actor-showcase plays in 99-seat theaters between TV and movie gigs. And while NYC’s Astor Place Theatre is on the opposite coast, its production of Richard II has that feeling. Its raison d’être clearly seems to be to give Michael Urie a chance to show what he can do digging into the title role.
And dig in he does, tackling Shakespeare’s royal less interested in being king and more interested in playing king. Believing himself divinely in the role, he treats major decisions as coin flips, setting himself up for eventual overthrow.
The production tacks on the late-in-the-play “I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world” soliloquy to the opening, setting the piece up as something of a memory play – or perhaps a rewritten history in the mind of the deposed monarch. The fact that part of the speech returns in the closing moments – after Richard is killed – raises further questions about what we have actually seen.
The cast is hit and miss, with Grantham Coleman and Ron Canada standing out commandingly as Bolingbrook and Gaunt and, on the flipside, Lux Pascal offering a “what is she doing?” performance as the Queen. The effectively minimal set is dominated by a clear cube, underlining the psychological overlap between Richard’s prison and his throne.
Neither as flamboyantly out there as the 2023 rave Richard at the Stratford Festival (now streaming on Stratford at Home) nor as straightforward as the recent Guthrie Theatre production (part of its 2024 three-part Henriad), this Craig Baldwin adapted-and-directed production makes a solid case for Richard II deserving a higher place in the lineup of Shakespeare plays worthy of reexamination.
Reunions runs through Dec. 14 at City Center Stage II. Tickets here.
Beau has been extended into January 2026 at St. Luke’s Theatre. Tickets here.
Richard II runs through Dec. 14 at Astor Place Theatre. Tickets here.
