Wendy R. Williams

Greetings Theater Lovers, This month I saw a lot of theater: Bombay Dreams, Cookin’, Golda’s Balcony, Good Body, and ‘night, Mother. But before I begin, I need to shout out one thing: Bombay Dreams rocks.

I had not wanted to see Bombay Dreams (Broadway Theatre) because I read the bad review in the New York Times. Well, that was one big mistake. I ended up going with some out-of-town company and I was blown away. Bombay Dreams is an amazing amount of fun. It is full of energy with great catchy tunes, wonderful dancing, an engaging cast and beautiful sets and costumes. I definitely did see the plot point that did not work (someone dies, someone else sings a sappy song and then quickly changes directions and goes back to his roots), but I simply did not care because I was having a blast. Criticizing Bombay Dreams is like attending the best wedding in the world and carrying on about how you did not like the father-of-the-bride’s silly two minute speech.

I also saw Cookin’ at the Minetta Lane Theater. If you have not seen this show, you should definitely put it on your short list. A cross between Stomp and Blue Man Group, this show is filled with high energy comic fun. Like my friend said as we left, “Wow, they are going to be able to play Las Vegas forever.”

Then I saw Tova Feldshuh (one of my favorite actresses) in Golda’s Balcony (Helen Hayes Theater). I have always said that one of the reasons people should go to theater is to learn. Theater can be a great teacher – a quick painless way to learn our history with no midterm exam. Golda’s Balcony is one such teacher. I was alive when Golda Meir was Prime Minister of Israel and I remember the Yom Kippur war. What I don’t remember or perhaps never knew is that Israel was so desperately in danger of losing the war that they loaded atomic bombs (known as Temple bombs) onto their airplanes with the intention of bombing Cairo and Damascus. This Apocalypse was averted at the last minute when Henry Kissinger made the decision to rearm Israel and quickly flew in new planes and weapons. Golda had effectively blackmailed him with the threat of using nuclear bombs. It took my breath away to realize how close we had all been to such a conflagration.

On the night I attended Golda’s Balcony, it appeared that a lot of the audience was Jewish - there were lots of yarmulkes. But everyone needs to see this show - especially now with the present day mess in the Middle East. Because we need to understand our past before we can ever hope to change our future.

I was also privileged to attend the opening night performance of Eve Ensler’s (The Vagina Monologues) Good Body (Booth Theater). There was a huge audience of women there that night (Eve does not seem to have much of a male following), lots of paparazzi and stars like Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, Harvey Keitel, Julia Stiles, Dylan McDermott, Joe Mantello and Mario Cantone. Ms. Ensler put on a great show to a very appreciative audience. See Jessica Cogan’s review in the Theater section.

And last I saw ‘night, Mother (Royale Theater), with two of my all time favorite actresses: Brenda Blethyn (of Secrets and Lies fame) and Edie Falco (The Sopranos). Mother is a very well written play (Marsha Norman) and these two actresses are mega-talented, but somehow the production appeared flat. I cannot figure out exactly why but perhaps Edie (playing Jessie Cates) was directed to create her character in such a depressed and quiet way (she is suicidal after all) that it was impossible for her character to truly engage the character of her mother, Thelma Cates (played by Brenda Blethyn). I still don’t understand, because a daughter telling her mother that she is going to kill herself qualifies as a pretty big conflict in my book. But if you are a true theater lover/student you should probably go see this play anyway, just to try to figure it out. The talent is definitely there, but the show just did not quite seem to fire. And if you figure it out, please email me at wendy@newyorkcool.com

Rock on,
Wendy