Annie Baker Contemplates the Vagaries of Storytelling in "The Antipodes"

Like most talented playwrights these days, Annie Baker has no doubt been asked to spend some time in a writers' room for one of the prestige TV shows. But on the basis of her new play The Antipodes, which has just been extended through June 11 at Signature Theatre, she hasn't liked that idea.  Nor it seems has she liked all the questions about what her plays are about or about why she writes them the way she does.

The Antipodes (the dictionary defines the word antipodes to mean "places diametrically opposed to one another on the globe") is set entirely in a conference room where six guys and a woman sit around a large table in expensive Aeron chairs and try to impress their boss with various suggestions for narratives. 

Intermittently, a female assistant comes in to take food orders, which magically (I'm not kidding, I still can't figure out the sleight of hand) appear on the table. It's clear that days go by because the assistant's outfits change and at one point, a severe storm forces the group to spend the night in the office. But the stories—some intimate, others universally familiar—never go anywhere.

And that seems precisely the point that Baker, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning and plot-defying play The Flick, wants to make (click here to read an interview with her). In fact, the character who tells the most complete and conventional tale is thrown out of the room. For this is a play devoted to the belief that a good play, an engaging play, doesn't need to have a traditional narrative. 

At the same time, Baker also understands that we humans have an innate need to be told stories. It's our way of making sense of who and why we are. To tell their stories, Baker's characters invoke all kinds of rituals, from the mundane (chugging cans of La Croix soda) to the mystical (you need to see this yourself).

The play runs about two hours without an intermission, which is short for Baker. And even though not much happens, it is funny and even suspenseful. Under the deft direction of Lila Neugebauer, the acting is also terrific.

Josh Charles may be the most familiar face in the cast from his days on TV's "The Good Wife" (I actually bumped into him at Sardi's and got to tell him how much I enjoyed his performance in the play) but this is an ensemble piece and each actor creates a distinct individual recognizable to anyone who's ever been trapped in the purgatory of an office meeting. And maybe the decisively enigmatic The Antipodes is about that too.

Parsing the Outer Critics Circle Nominations

There's no question that the Tonys are the Oscars, or most desired awards, of the theater world but there are other coveted prizes too. Yesterday, the Outer Critics Circle, of which I'm a proud member, announced our nominations for the best work of the 2016-2017 season. And it's been such a strong year that even if your favorites got slighted (as a couple of mine did) few, if any, of the choices are likely to make you wonder what-were-they-thinking.

The OCC recognizes both off-Broadway and Broadway shows and since there were so many transfers from the former to the latter this year, some of the biggest Broadway titles weren't even considered for this year's OCC awards because they'd already been honored for their earlier runs. Among them were Dear Evan Hansen and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, both acknowledged frontrunners for the Tony for Best Musical.

Still, there are plenty of other new musicals to take their places on the ballot and Anastasia (with music by Lynne Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and a book by Terrence McNally) has emerged as the biggest contender with 13 nominations, the most for any show.

Anastasia is up for Outstanding Broadway Musical against Come from Away, Groundhog Day and, surprisingly to me, Holiday Inn. Which means that the recently-opened Amélie, Bandstand, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and War Paint, all failed to make the cut.

But the competition may be the most fierce in the category of Outstanding New Broadway Play, with the contenders being A Doll's House, Part 2, Indecent, Oslo and Sweat.

The acting categories are mainly dominated by big names (Nathan Lane, Bette Midler, Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline, Christine Ebersole and David Hyde Pierce twice) but I was particularly pleased to see that the lovely young actress Katrina Lenk has won two much-deserved nominations for her performances as a featured actress in the off-Broadway musical The Band's Visit and in the play Indecent. She's got tough competition in both categories but win or lose, she's a talent worth cheering.

This year's categories also include two new additions for Sound Design and Orchestrations, both of which the Tony Awards just announced they'll also be adding to their roster next year. 

The OCC winners will be announced May 15, which will give me just barely enough time to see all the nominated productions before I have to cast my votes. In the meantime, here's the full list of the nominees in case you want to do the same: 

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY
A Doll’s House, Part 2
Indecent
Oslo
Sweat

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Anastasia
A Bronx Tale
Come From Away
Groundhog Day
Holiday Inn

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY
If I Forget
Incognito
A Life
Linda
Love, Love, Love

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL
The Band’s Visit
Hadestown
Himself and Nora
Kid Victory
Spamilton

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Terrence McNally     Anastasia
Itamar Moses     The Band’s Visit
Chazz Palminteri     A Bronx Tale
Danny Rubin     Groundhog Day
Irene Sankoff & David Hein     Come From Away

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens     Anastasia
Alan Menken & Glenn Slater     A Bronx Tale
Tim Minchin     Groundhog Day
Irene Sankoff & David Hein     Come From Away
David Yazbek     The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
The Front Page
Jitney
The Little Foxes
Othello
The Price

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Finian’s Rainbow
Hello, Dolly!
Miss Saigon
Sunset Boulevard
Sweeney Todd

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
Lila Neugebauer     The Wolves
Jack O’Brien     The Front Page
Daniel Sullivan     The Little Foxes
Rebecca Taichman     Indecent
Kate Whoriskey     Sweat

 OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL
Christopher Ashley     Come From Away
David Cromer     The Band’s Visit
Darko Tresnjak     Anastasia
Matthew Warchus     Groundhog Day
Jerry Zaks     Hello, Dolly!

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER
Andy Blankenbuehler     Bandstand
Warren Carlyle     Hello, Dolly!
*Savion Glover     Shuffle Along 
Kelly Devine     Come From Away
Denis Jones     Holiday Inn

*from last season since the show wasn't ready to be seen by the 2015-2016 nominators

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN (Play or Musical)
Alexander Dodge     Anastasia
Nigel Hook     The Play That Goes Wrong
Mimi Lien     Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Scott Pask     The Little Foxes
Douglas W. Schmidt     The Front Page

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN (Play or Musical)
Linda Cho     Anastasia
Susan Hilferty     Present Laughter
Santo Loquasto     Hello, Dolly!
*Ann Roth     Shuffle Along
Catherine Zuber     War Paint

*from last season since the show wasn't ready to be seen by the 2015-2016 nominators

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN (Play or Musical)
Christopher Akerlind     Indecent
Donald Holder     Anastasia
Natasha Katz     Hello, Dolly!
Bradley King     Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Kenneth Posner     War Paint

OUTSTANDING PROJECTION DESIGN (Play or Musical)
Duncan McLean     Privacy
Jared Mezzocchi     Vietgone
Benjamin Pearcy for 59 Productions     Oslo
Aaron Rhyne     Anastasia
Tal Yarden     Indecent

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN (Play or Musical)
Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin     The Encounter
Gareth Owen     Come From Away
Nicholas Pope     Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Matt Stine     Sweeney Todd
Nevin Steinberg     Bandstand

OUTSTANDING ORCHESTRATIONS
Doug Besterman     Anastasia
Larry Blank     Holiday Inn
Bill Elliott & Greg Anthony Rassen     Bandstand
Larry Hochman     Hello, Dolly!
Jamshied Sharifi     The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY
Daniel Craig     Othello
Michael Emerson     Wakey, Wakey
Kevin Kline     Present Laughter
David Oyelowo     Othello
David Hyde Pierce     A Life

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Janie Dee     Linda
Sally Field     The Glass Menagerie
Allison Janney     Six Degrees of Separation
Laura Linney     The Little Foxes
Laurie Metcalf     A Doll’s House, Part 2

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Christian Borle     Falsettos
Nick Cordero     A Bronx Tale
Andy Karl     Groundhog Day
David Hyde Pierce     Hello, Dolly!
Tony Shalhoub     The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Christy Altomare     Anastasia
Christine Ebersole     War Paint
Katrina Lenk     The Band’s Visit
Patti LuPone     War Paint
Bette Midler     Hello, Dolly!

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Michael Aronov     Oslo
Danny DeVito     The Price
Nathan Lane     The Front Page
Richard Thomas     The Little Foxes
Richard Topol     Indecent

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Johanna Day     Sweat
Jayne Houdyshell     A Doll’s House, Part 2
Katrina Lenk     Indecent
Nana Mensah     Man From Nebraska
Cynthia Nixon     The Little Foxes

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
John Bolton     Anastasia
Jeffry Denman     Kid Victory
Gavin Creel     Hello, Dolly!
Shuler Hensley     Sweet Charity
Andrew Rannells     Falsettos

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Kate Baldwin     Hello, Dolly!
Stephanie J. Block     Falsettos
Jenn Colella     Come From Away
Caroline O’Connor     Anastasia  
Mary Beth Peil     Anastasia

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Ed Dixon     Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose
Marin Ireland     On the Exhale
Sarah Jones     Sell / Buy / Date
Judith Light     All the Ways to Say I Love You
Simon McBurney     The Encounter

JOHN GASSNER AWARD
(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Jaclyn Backhaus     Men on Boats
Sarah DeLappe     The Wolves
Paola Lázaro     Tell Hector I Miss Him
Qui Nguyen     Vietgone
Bess Wohl     Small Mouth Sounds

The Tony Talk Podcast, Episode 5: Supporting Players

The Tonys may be the top dog in awards season but it's not the only one in the game. Lots of other groups also celebrate the best of the theater season. The nominations for the Lucille Lortel Awards, which honor off-Broadway productions (click here to see the full list) were announced last week. This week brought the Drama League nominations which encompass Broadway and off-Broadway (click here for its full list). And this coming Tuesday, the Outer Critics Circle, of which I'm a member, will weigh in with its choices for both Broadway and off-Broadway as well (check back here on Wednesday for my thoughts about them).

Some categories are easier than others. Even in this jam-packed season, there are only 10 plays and nine revivals vying for one of the four slots in their respective categories and each of them has, at most, two people who would qualify for Lead Performer in a Play. But, depending on who you count, there are about 120 actors praying to hear their names when the nominations for Best Featured Actor or Actress in a Play are called out.

There are lots of reasons to single out one of those supporting players: maybe the actor managed to give a great performance in a so-so production, or perhaps a newcomer made an auspicious debut or a journeyman showed a different side of himself and dug deeper than he ever has before, or maybe an actress simply gave an unforgettable performance.

In this episode of the Tony Talk podcast, my pals, Chris Caggiano, Bill Tynan and I talk about our strategies for choosing actors for the four featured categories, as well as some of the week's other Tony-related news. Click the orange button below to hear what we have to say. You can also check out all the Tony Talk podcasts on SoundCloud by clicking here or on our new Tony Talk show page, which you can find here.

"The Profane" Seeks The Moral High Ground

Playwrights Horizons hasn't made a big deal of it but over the past year, the company seems to have gone out of its way to tell stories about people whose lives rarely get shown onstage and to try to sidestep stereotypes that tend to get used when telling them. Last spring, Danai Gurira's Familiar looked at Zimbabwean immigrants adjusting to an upper-middle class life in the U.S.  In the fall, Julia Cho's Aubergine focused on the uneasy relationship between a Korean-American chef and his dying father. And now, The Profane, Zayd Dohrn's play about two Muslim families, is running through May 9.

The Profane won the 2016 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New Play but it's received only lukewarm reviews. In some ways, that's understandable. The play exudes a heavy-handed earnestness that wouldn't be out of place on one of those network TV shows that like to take on the latest hot-button topic. And yet, the fact that there is a show about Muslims in which the subject of terrorism isn't even a subplot strikes me as something to be applauded.

The plot here centers around the romance between two young people, both from families who have immigrated to—and done very well in—the U.S.  Emina is the younger daughter of a novelist dad and a former dancer mom who are secular and proudly assimilated. Sam is the only son of a small business owner who sells restaurant equipment and his hijab-wearing wife who are culturally conservative and religiously observant.

Tensions arise when Emina and Sam announce their engagement and Emina's folks object to the idea of their progressively-raised child marrying into such a traditional family. Their fears allows playwright Dohrn to explore the internecine divisions that will be familiar to the members of just about every ethnic group and he's scrupulously even-handed about it. Probably too much so.

Every point gets a counterpoint. Emina is discovering her faith; Sam is beginning to doubt his. Her free-spirited parents are less tolerant than one might expect; his traditional parents are more forgiving than one might suspect. Even the settings are evenly divided with Act 1 taking place in Emina's family home (a book-lined apartment in Greenwich Village) and Act 2 in Sam's (a beautiful, if bland, house in White Plains).

But a lot of the criticism has been directed at the fact that despite his ambiguous sounding surname, Dohrn is white, the son of the former Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. The naysayers complain that his outsider status has produced characters who are too generic and that his treatment of them is too p.c. 

I agree that a playwright of Middle Eastern descent like Ayad Akhtar or Mona Mansour might have provided more nuance but I don't think that Dohrn's effort should be automatically dissed. The issues of class and identity that he raises are valid. And he and director Kip Fagan treat them with respect and sensitivity.

The Profane has also given its seven-member cast the rare chance to stand center stage (click here to read a group interview with them).  Not one of those actors has appeared in a Playwrights Horizons production before this one. Here's hoping that this isn't the last time we see them there, in other plays about Muslim life and in ones about life in general too.