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Comings & Goings On & Off Broadway

In the scheme of things – and in my case this means in a workweek following a blurry weekend of compulsive Mad Men marathon watching – I find myself awed by the amount of theatre news coming at me like a swarm of giant insects in a 3-D horror flick.

So let’s get to it.

First off you’ve got Taye Diggs (Rent; How Stella Got Her Groove Back; Murder in the First) queuing up to be the first African American to take on transgender title character in the Broadway hit, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Diggs will be stepping into his own customized platform heels, popping on a cavalcade of wigs and slathering on the glitter and lip gloss beginning July 22nd, after Glee alum Darren Criss departs the Belasco Theatre on July 19th.

Another high profile Broadway replacement is Tony winner Jason Alexander, who will be riding out the role of Norman Drexel (currently played by Larry David in his acting/writing debut, Fish in the Dark) from June 9th through the comedy’s closing date, July 19th.

“I left Broadway 25 years ago because Larry David co-created the show that would change my life and career,” said Alexander, referencing the iconic sitcom Seinfeld. “It is totally amazing that he also created the show that would bring me back to Broadway. I am thrilled I get to do this hilarious play for him and with this wonderful cast. It is quite simply more fun than any bald man should have."

On the Off-Broadway front, here’s a thumbs up for 59E59 Theaters Brits Off Broadway Festival currently underway at its NYC home base of 59E59 Theaters. This 11th version to arrive on U.S. concrete features five productions, two of which are up and running.

One Hand Clapping – an adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s 1961 novel about a British couple, one of whom has a photographic memory which has a major impact on their humdrum lives – will run through May 31st. As for the second in the festival’s production quintet, mark it down as seen and savored. The show in question is Tuesdays at Tesco’s (playing through June 7th), starring Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral). Basically a solo show (pianist Conor Mitchell is onstage throughout, making musical notations and playing the occasional number for Callow to move or dance to), this compelling piece of theatre has a haunting quality, as much for its script – adapted and translated by Matthew Hurt and Sarah Vermande from French playwright Emmanuel Darley’s Le Mardi à Monoprix – as Callow’s tour-de-force performance as Pauline, who began life as Paul.

And even though Pauline asserts, over and over throughout the show’s 75 minutes, the woman before us is the “her” she defiantly embraces as “self”, there is an undercurrent of vulnerability built in to her transformation. Indeed, the first line she speaks is “Everybody stares at me on Tuesdays” – Tuesday being the day she spends taking care of her widowed father’s home: cleaning, cooking, laundry and, most prominently, escorting him shopping for groceries at Tesco’s. Father and daughter, together yet painfully separated, both physically (dad determined to keep his distance) and emotionally (the whole of Pauline is rejected by the father, unable to deal with the loss of Paul). This desire for paternal acceptance is, essentially, the crux of Pauline’s, almost masochistic, weekly pilgrimage into a “father-land” of unrequited love.

Callow’s female exterior is not a pretty sight, which is to say the actor is no Charles Busch when it comes to drag. His voice is so resonant and his features so transparently masculine, that the long blonde wig, impudent makeup, shiny turquoise heels and beige suit almost add up to a caricature of a woman. Almost. Because Callow’s Pauline is luminous – and heartbreakingly real.

This is not an easy play, but well worth the effort. Pauline makes an unforgettable guide into the integrity of selfhood leaving audiences enlightened and, yes, awed. [The final three shows rounding out Brits Off Broadway’s schedule are Cuddles (June 3rd to June 20th); In My Father's Words (June 4th to June 28th); and My Perfect Mind (June 10th to June 28th). For details visit BritsOffBroadway.com]

About the Author

City Guide Theatre Editor Griffin Miller moved to New York to pursue an acting/writing career in the 1980s after graduating magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, she has written for The New York Times, For the Bride, Hotels, and a number of other publications, mostly in the areas of travel and performance arts. An active member of The New York Travel Writers Association, she is also a playwright and award-winning collage artist. In addition, she sits on the board of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Griffin is married to Richard Sandomir, a reporter for The New York Times.

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