8 THENEWYORKER, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019
Into the Woods
Boscobel House & Gardens
OUT OF TOWN For its first foray into full-out mu-
sical theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festi-
val tackles Sondheim. James Lapine’s book is a
mashup of fairy tales—Little Red Riding Hood
(Kayla Coleman), Cinderella (Laura Darrell),
beanstalk Jack (Brandon Dial), and others—
that goes on to darkly imagine what follows
“happily ever after.” Stephen Sondheim’s music
and lyrics present unique challenges, including
wordy, hairpin turns, odd harmonics, synco-
pation, counterpoint, and daunting intervals.
Under the direction of Jenn Thompson, the
cast acquits itself magnificently—comedi-
cally, dramatically, and, especially, vocally.
Also playing, in repertory through Aug. 30:
“Cyrano,” directed by Meredith McDonough,
stars the terrific Jason O’Connell, sporting a
nasty gash across his nose instead of the usual
elongated proboscis. This adaptation, which
O’Connell co-wrote with Brenda Withers, is
freewheeling but ultimately true to the orig-
inal’s deep romanticism. Britney Simpson is
a spirited Roxane, Luis Quintero a touching
Christian.—Ken Marks (Through Sept. 8.)Make Believe
Second Stage
The four Conlee kids have an attic playroom
that serves as both an escape and a refuge in
this quietly unsettling play by Bess Wohl. As
in her acclaimed “Small Mouth Sounds,” Wohl
creates fleshed-out characters from seemingly
little—an impressive feat, considering that
the characters are preteens (played by child
actors) in the show’s first half. “We are not
even going to remember most of this stuff
when we grow up,” the boisterous Chris (Ryan
Foust) soothingly tells his siblings in a time
of crisis. “Make Believe” explores trauma
and its legacy, brought into the open when
the Conlees’ adult selves turn up. At eighty
minutes, this is the rare show that feels too
short, and Michael Greif’s production, for
Second Stage, has moments that are a little
too big, a little too emphatic. Still, Wohl has a
voice all her own, especially when suggesting
the unsaid.—E.V. (Through Sept. 22.)Midsummer: A Banquet
Café Fae
Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”
with its whimsy and good-natured chaos, is
already a sweet, toothsome morsel of theatre.
This makes Food of Love Productions and
Third Rail Projects’ immersive play, accompa-
nied by a multicourse tasting menu, delectable
in more ways than one. Though it’s still set in
the fairy forest, this “Midsummer,” staged in
a French café, works a narrow, cumbersome
space. It’s no easy feat, but the director and
choreographer, Zach Morris, keeps everything
tight, so, even as the central quartet of con-
fused lovers goes into peak farce mode, with
a zany mess of swoons, fisticuffs, and tumbles,
it all comes off flawlessly. The entire cast is
uproariously on point with its comic cues and
mugging, from Adrienne Paquin’s spastic Hel-
ena to Charles Osborne’s side-splitting Bot-
tom, his comic style like that of an overinflated
Nathan Lane. If that weren’t enough, the cast
also serves the feast—smoked mushrooms,1
THE THEATRE
Bat Out of Hell
City Center
In this garish, hyper-colorful, and sort of
stressful musical, directed by Jay Scheib, with
a book, lyrics, and music by Jim Steinman—
based on songs that the singer Meat Loaf
made famous—the kids have it rough. Strat
(Andrew Polec) leads a gang of perpetual
youths, all stuck at age eighteen, and loves
Raven (Christina Bennington), whose father,
Falco (Bradley Dean, who barrels around
like Andrew Cuomo), is a post-apocalyp-
tic despot. Think Peter Pan made up like
Edward Scissorhands, with ample aesthetic
borrowings—the costumes are wild; confetti’s
a constant—from “Mad Max” and “The Rocky
Horror Picture Show.” The slender plot is
beside the point. The songs are what they’ve
always been—if you’ve heard them, you’ve
heard them—and the singing’s just fine. “Bat
Out of Hell” is a bit like Meat Loaf’s florid
and inimitable career, and also like some eigh-
teen-year-olds, cooped up in their intensely
private minds: either you’ll totally get it, or
you really, really won’t.—Vinson Cunningham
(Through Sept. 8.)The Exes
Theatre Row
Lenore Skomal’s new play has great classics
in its rearview mirror: a little drawing-room
comedy à la Noël Coward here, a touch of
screwball antics there. Alas, such objects
are further than they appear—the distance
between “The Exes” and its antecedents is a
chasm. The billionaire Richard Killingworth
(Tim Hayes) is about to marry off his pam-
pered daughter, Victoria (Alison Preece);
his best friend, Dick Wright (David M. Far-
rington), hovers around for moral support.
Shenanigans ensue after the surprise arrival
of Mavis (Karen Forte), his wife, who needs
Richard to sign their divorce papers imme-
diately. Fun fact: she was once married to
Dick. The witless characters behave awfully
to one another, creating a bit of a pickle for
the show, directed by Magda S. Nyiri, since
a comedy should have at least one person for
the audience to root for—and it should be
funny.—Elisabeth Vincentelli (Through Oct. 5.)plays as Dog Blood in a collaboration with
Boys Noize—for the three-day blowout, which
encompasses styles from dubstep to trance
and house. Though the commercial E.D.M.
bubble may have largely burst, its festivals, in
all their neon, pyrotechnic glory, can still pull
a crowd.—Briana Younger (Aug. 30-Sept. 1.)
Maayan Nidam
Public Records
The Berlin-based electronic musician Maayan
Nidam produces minimal techno that belies
the style’s dust-dry reputation; it’s ripe, hyp-
notic, spirited, and just off-center enough that
even the most repetitive moments carry some
suspense. Much of her work is loop-based—her
2009 début, “Nightlong,” made sharp grids
from chopped-up chunks of Cuban music—but
it has a wit and a personality that are rare in
the field. That’s also true of Nidam on the
decks: her segues between long-limbed tracks
can feel as inevitable as pop hooks.—M.M.
(Sept. 1.)
The Who
Madison Square Garden
Cantankerous by temperament and artistically
fastidious, the Who makes for an unlikely uni-
fier. Yet the band’s tentacles creep into musical
realms that typically maintain a safe distance
from one another: classic rock, punk, prog,
and even—when considering the slick-chested
belter at its helm—Vegas bombast. Pete Town-
shend and Roger Daltrey long ago lost their
fabled rhythm section to rock-star intemper-
ance, but the Who’s firecracker live show roars
on; the group’s current tour, “Moving On!,”
features a forty-eight-piece orchestra.—J.R.
(Sept. 1.)
Natalia Lafourcade
The Rooftop at Pier 17
Natalia Lafourcade has shed her skin repeat-
edly as a performer, moving from peppy girl
bands to indie alt-rock before settling into
what seems like her most fitting incarnation:
a tender revivalist of Latin America’s folk
traditions. Her latest albums, “Musas Vol. 1”
and “Musas Vol. 2,” celebrate classic composers
of past generations, among them Agustín Lara
and María Grever. Each of Lafourcade’s grace-
ful interpretations trembles with emotion, her
voice conveying a timeless yearning.—J.L.
(Sept. 3.)
Polo G
Webster Hall
One aspect of street rap’s power is how it can
convert pain into euphoria. But some rappers,
such as Polo G, aren’t interested in cutting
troubled musings with sugary production or
glamorous bravado; sometimes reality just
doesn’t go down easy. On Polo G’s début
album, “Die a Legend,” from June, he paints
his experiences in his home town of Chicago
in shades of blue-black and blood-red, spilling
out his reflections over brooding piano lines
and bass. He’s a raw storyteller, and, in the
land of the forgotten, he’s aiming for a kind of
immortality: “I promise Imma die a legend,”
he declares on one song. “I’m gonna make
sure that you remember me.”—B.Y. (Sept. 3.)Hot Chip
Brooklyn Steel
For almost twenty years, Hot Chip has been
noodling away in weird musical corners, twist-
ing off-kilter strains of synth-pop, disco, funk,
and house into an eccentric yet electric body
of work. Its music often boasts an upbeat,
poppy pulse, and it may be that shiny core
that has attracted such megastars as Katy
Perry. After producing for Perry, the group
took slivers of those brainstorming sessions
and funnelled their giddy dance vibes into a
laser-lit new album, “A Bath Full of Ecsta-
s y.”—J.L. (Sept. 3-5.)