‘Working it Out’ at Center Stage (source: Baltimore Sun)

On paper, Center Stage's new venture, "Working It Out," looked like it would take a fresh, zingy look at the workplace, how we're all affected by what we do for a living, and why. As it turns out, a few of the diverse elements spinning around in search of a coherent theatrical product should have been laid off.

Substantial excerpts from three pieces -- "Jerry and Tom" by Rick Cleveland, whose credits include such TV gems as "Mad Men" and "Six Feet Under"; "Hidden in This Picture" by Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter and playwright who created TV's "West Wing"; "Washed Up on the Potomac" by Lynn Rosen -- have been mushed together to create an uninterrupted, roughly 100-minute show.

If, as parts of one play fade in and out of another, a sturdy connective thread emerged, a fully consistent theme that pulled things more or less together, the net effect wouldn't be quite so jarring. Instead, it's akin to channel surfing.

That this collision of three separate worlds proceeds in seamless fashion, thanks to Jason Loewith's well-timed direction and Neil Patel's classy, cleverly adaptable scenic design (projected images are used with particular flair), does not make the material any more compatible. And, although a potent cast gives the whole thing a good shot, it's still hard not to think that a vibrant staging of one, unabridged play would have made for a more rewarding experience.

Filling up the lion's share of the production is "Jerry and Tom." The title characters are just a couple of working class guys who master a slightly off-beat profession -- hit man -- and manage to retain wholesome family values in the process.

Cleveland's Chicago-centered black comedy hits its targets easily. He may not be the first writer to make matter-of-fact killers oddly funny, but he certainly knows how to do it with a wicked little twist of the knife. It's not tough to see where he's going with his plot, though, and the F-word-larded dialogue starts to sound rather forced after a while.

Vasili Bogazianos gives a note-perfect performance as the long-experienced executioner Tom, who wouldn't think of switching jobs to, say, real estate -- "too [freaking] cutthroat for me." Luke Robertson is effective as the nervous, determined Jerry. John Ramsey puts a distinctive spin on multiple roles, especially Vic, the mobster with a "grassy knoll" in his past and a terrible toupee on his head.

"Hidden in This Picture," inspired by a story about the making of the Alan Alda-directed "Sweet Liberty," takes place in an outdoor workplace, an upstate New York farm area that, somehow, is supposed to suggest Guam in a war movie. A determined director named Robert waits for his last, great shot, which he has painstakingly rehearsed and precisely timed to a sunset so that nothing could go wrong.

It's an amusing set-up, and Sorkin shoots some telling arrows at the movie biz, the struggle between art ("Yale Drama crap") and costs, etc. The chunk of his play included here has such a frantic energy and wry dialogue that you can almost feel the actors wishing they could sink their chops into the full play.

Joseph Wycoff has quite a romp as Robert. His nicely nuanced portrayal is matched by Garrett Neergaard's as the screenwriter Jeff. Ramsey (Reuben) and Amy Hohn (Christine) provide colorful supporting work.

Hohn also gives an assured performance as Ruth, one of the quirky proofreaders who live with the threat of staff reductions and the nagging memory of a missing employee in "Washed Up on the Potomac," the one play in this hodgepodge that offers a traditional work environment. Neergaard, as Carl, is a lively presence. Katie Jefferies gets good mileage from the role of vapid Tina.

Rosen's dialogue has some amusing, oddball flourishes that wouldn't be out of place on "The Office." And, at a time when a stubborn recession keeps nipping and ripping at our heels, there's certainly extra resonance in the scenes involving the upper management type, Deb (Kate Buddeke), who has a particularly creepy way of bearing bad news. But the plot doesn't really go anywhere interesting, despite a side trip to peek at a possible crime.

In the end, for all of the stylish acting and visual appeal of the production, the payoff in humor and insight is pretty slim. And for all of the potential in the basic concept behind the show, it feels as if someone, somewhere just never got it worked out all the way.

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Will Kids Get The Bard Better If They Don’t Have To Sit Still? (source: Arts Journal)


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‘Neighbors’: Not So Shocking After All? (source: New York Times)

When Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s “Neighbors” began performances last month, it promised to be one of the most incendiary shows of the spring season.

But in interviews after last night’s show, many people, black and white, said that while disturbing at times, the play’s trafficking in racial stereotypes proved an unexpectedly emotional theatrical experience.

“I think so many Off Broadway plays say they are pushing the envelope and are challenging, and then aren’t actually challenging in any way,” said the playwright Annie Baker, the author of the Off Broadway hit “Circle Mirror Transformation.” “I think they just confirm what audience members already think and reinforce what we think about politics. This play is one of the few I’ve ever seen that actually confused me, moved me and made me think.”

The play, part of the Public Theater’s Public LAB series of works in development, is about an interracial couple whose new neighbors, an African-American family named the Crows, are played as (literally) blackfaced racist stereotypes named Mammy, Sambo and Topsy.

“I wanted to write a play about blackness, and theatrical forms about the history of blackness, and as a writer I pushed myself to explore ideas and images that made me uneasy,” Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins said in an interview with Patrick Healy.

“I didn’t find it offensive,” said Nichola Tucker, 24, after last night’s performance. “I can definitely see how people would. But I thought it was a really intelligent play on so many of the stereotypes we’ve seen historically.”

“I thought it was amazing,” said Bartram Ashe, 50. “It was unlike anything I’d seen before.”

“I know it’s a work in progress, and there are some things that could be tighter,” said Patricia R. Floyd. “But in terms of what it has to say about race relations in America, within the community and without the community, I think it’s brilliant, and offensively so.”

Other reactions have been mixed. In his review, Charles Isherwood wrote that the script “sacrifices cogency and meaning for pure sensation.” The show’s rating on nytimes.com is three stars, the average of one five-star vote and one one-star vote.

At a performance last weekend, two women sat stone-faced during the first act and did not return after intermission. On Tuesday night, one person left at intermission, and his reason for doing so had more to do with having seen a similar critique of racial stereotypes in George C. Wolfe’s “Colored Museum,” which opened at the Public in 1986.

“I’m not leaving because it’s bad, I’m leaving because I’ve seen this kind of thing before,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous because he works in the theater and did not want to jeopardize future work possibilities at the Public.

Candi Adams, a spokeswoman for the Public, said “Neighbors” was “one of the great successes of the LAB program,” and the first show in the program to extend its run, in this case for one week.

“Theater is supposed to make you uncomfortable,” said Ms. Floyd as she zipped up her jacket before exiting the lobby. “It’s supposed to make you think and take you someplace you’re not used to going.”

“Neighbors” continues through Sunday at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village; (212) 967-7555. The rest of the run is sold out, but there is a standby line for every performance.

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Kitchen-Sink Drama Staged In Actual Kitchens (The Samosas Are Delish) (source: Arts Journal)


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It’s 2010 And Charles McNulty Has Just Seen ‘Cats’ For The First Time (source: Arts Journal)


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