Gov Paterson's Aide Not Good Enough for NYT?

So is this page1 Times piece on NY Gov. David Paterson's top adviser, David Johnson, his fast rise and spotted past really the long-awaited bombshell about Gov. Paterson that all of New York media has been awaiting with bated breath? The article was co-authored by Albany bureau chief Danny Hakim and supported by four other correspondents. That is more than most foreign policy or intel articles. Or is this the beginning of a series of articles? Is the the Grey Lady still fact-checking the big one? Andrew Cuomo's communications director must be blissed out.

Ruhl's "In the Next Room or the vibrator play" leaves audience dry

Seldom does Broadway see a mid-Victorian revival from period masters like Oscar Wilde. For most audiences, the English Renaissance of Shakespeare is far more familiar territory than the height of British Empire. An inability to connect with Victorian values of formality, propriety, class hierarchy and prudishness may be to blame.

None of this scares playwright Sarah Ruhl whose new play, In The Next Room or the vibrator play at the Lyceum Theatre addresses those themes and more. Set in a time before the female sexuality became a cottage industry, In The Next Room... takes place in an upstate NY town in the 1880s, think Saratoga Springs for those who couldn't make it to Newport. Ruhl creates a parlor drama revolving around a doctor, Mr. Givings (Michael Cerveris) who creates a vibrator therapy for female patients suffering from hysteria, and his wife (Laura Benanti) who is a touch hysterical (and certainly bored) herself . The device is possible due to the recent advent of domestic electricity which acts as leitmotiv for connection, energy and modernity, something that "can be turned on and off at whim" according to Mrs. Givings.

As the doctor becomes engrossed with his therapies, his wife grows increasingly connected to the patients who come calling to the home-office. Her inability to produce enough breast milk for their newborn daughter causes the couple to hire a wet nurse, Elizabeth (Quincy Tyler Bernstine), to provide sustenance to the infant and the emotional center of the drama. Theatergoers will recognize Ms. Bernstine from her amazing turn in the Pulitzer-winning drama Ruined. Her talent is not accidental. In a production where the actors exist at an odd distance from the dialogue, Ms. Bernstine is the only cast member to inhabit her character in a grounded fashion. Once again, the help has all of the sense.

Director Les Waters develops a confident flow of plot and rich balance among the cast. Annie Smart's dollhouse set heightens the emotional resonance in the finale scene, which oddly, is one of the few exciting moments in the entire production. Fans of Mr. Cerveris and Ms. Benanti's work will find themselves disappointed in a piece that gives them little range. (Benanti sings a few bars, a tease, really). David Zinn's lush costumes make us all thankful that we've exchanged corsets for spanxs. Somewhere Edith Wharton touches herself.

The domestic realm is Ms. Ruhl's preferred venue. Lincoln Center Theater produced her neurotic comedy "The Clean House" in 2005 with many familiar echoes. This production however appears to lack an urgency that leaves all of the characters marooned on their own islands, no matter how pleasurable or comic the mechanical erotica. Audiences will enjoy rich laughs from the clinical treatment scenes. Imagine a time before everyone had a goody draw. Female masturbation may no longer be taboo, but Ruhl underscores that male problematization of a woman's pleasure remains with us. Call it: "The Importance of Being Wet". Grade: B

Nathalie Portman is weakest link in "Brothers"

I know it practically requires an act of Congress to green light a movie in Hollywood. Having stars attached is must. But you would think that Jake Gyllenhaal and Toby McGuire would have been enough star power to approve the upcoming Brothers by Jim Sheridan. The Cain-and-Abel tale of one man (McGuire) who goes off to war where he is critically wounded, and his slacker brother (Gyllenhaal) who pinch-hits as the responsible uncle to the grieving wife and children. A love triangle ensues when the warrior awakes from a coma and returns home. Nathalie Portman, far from the Empire, portrays the long-suffering wife; therein lies the problem. Portman is woefully miscast. If the studio can't cut a good trailer, you know the film is an enema. There are many other scrappy, lesser known actresses who could have done something with this working-class role, (eg: Lauren Ambrose, Allison Pill; contrast with Samantha Morton in The Messenger ). Hollywood's obsession with the same twelve skinny women is ridiculous. Sheridan should take a note from TV dramas: casting matters.

Cheyenne Jackson's Big Break on 30 Rock, Way Overdue

New York theater fans have long known Cheyenne's potency since his turn in Altar Boyz and before, but finally the rest of the nation will get a whiff of Mr. Jackson's beauteous talents as he joins the cast 30 Rock for what we hope is more than just a minor arc. Most will know him as Mark Bingham in 9/11 tragedy United 93. Theatergoers recall him as the dim-witted Sonny Malone in Douglas Carter Beane's hillarious Xanadu. Jackson has participated in investor showcases for Beane's upcoming (yet in development forever) musical The Big Time. Producers will pray he's available should the project make it to Broadway. It would be great to see him opposite Xanadu costar Kerry Butler again; both are favorites of Beane's. Now he does double duty at night as the star in Finian's Rainbow at the St. James eight times a week. The hardest working man in Midtown.



The universe sent a sign in casting his character as a Canadian. This blog title had been in mind for a while. This episode sealed it. Canadian Vowels is pleased to launch.