On the Culture Front: Jerry Seinfeld, <i>Fiddler On the Roof</i> and More

Jerry Seinfeld took the stage last night at the Beacon Theatre for the first time in a long time. The excitement coursing through the audience was palpable. I found myself giddy with anticipation and when he appeared onstage after a theatrical post-opener blackout, it was hard to believe that he was there in the flesh.
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Jerry Seinfeld took the stage last night at the Beacon Theatre for the first time in a long time. The excitement coursing through the audience was palpable. I found myself giddy with anticipation and when he appeared onstage after a theatrical post-opener blackout, it was hard to believe that he was there in the flesh - knowing him from my well-worn copy of the Seinfeld DVD set and his more recent webisode series, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." He alluded to the familiarity that we felt with him with a gracious "we know each other" and then thanked us for coming out. This turned out to not just be a social convention but the beginning of one of the strongest bits of the night on the hassles and undue preparations of "going out." Whether he was talking about the dilemma of whether to get dinner before the show or after the show or simply in deciding what restaurant to go to, an existential current pulsed below as it does in all of his best material. What are we doing here? How are we choosing to spend our time and does any of it - whether you go to a Michelin-starred restaurant or the diner next door to the Beacon as I did with my girlfriend - matter? Are our actions just a result of not knowing what else to do? Seinfeld's delivery is as sharp as ever and his jokes land with perfect rhythm and with such ease that they feel like blunt utterances despite being part of a well-written set.

Quentin Tarantino's new film, The Hateful Eight, has been getting a lot of slack. Some of this comes from it being set mainly in one room, an isolated general store of sorts in the middle of a brutal storm. Many have wrongly likened it to a play because of the singular setting, but it's unmistakably cinematic. The tension is built with close up shots and sophisticated editing that would be impossible to render on stage. Like Django Unchained the film has a lot to say about race relations and doesn't do it in a way that makes it easy for liberals to pat ourselves on the back without delving into difficult questions. Tarantino is a master at making meticulously crafted genre films, and The Hateful Eight is a big bad western in the best sense.

Ivo Van Hove is one of the most skilled directors at reimagining classic works to the extent that you feel like you're watching them for the first time. I first experienced this with his Hedda Gabler, and there's a scene in which Hedda is defiled with a can of tomato juice that will be etched into my mind forever. His production of A View from the Bridge, which is currently making the argument for Broadway's relevance and vitality in modern theater, has a similar moment that I won't spoil. There's a dull sheen of realism that Van Hove coats the scenes with as the inevitability of tragedy pulses beneath that makes the cathartic moments all the more riveting. The excellent performances by Russell Tovey, Mark Strong and the rest of the cast feel stripped down to their most primal elements, giving Miller's words an added clarity. I've seen many good productions, but this one made me feel like I was seeing a new play.

Jack Cummings III's joyous Once Upon a Mattress is ripe with invention, rooted in the atypical casting of downtown drag legend John "Lypsinka" Epperson as the queen with impossible standards and Jackie Hoffman as the princess determined to pass her tests. The singing is top-notch - "better than Broadway," my girlfriend exclaimed. Her grin remained wide throughout the show. Madcap fun abounds throughout both acts, but you can't help but view it through the prism of the pressure of beauty norms and what it means to belong in society, whether through sexual orientation, job choice or even just sensibility. I couldn't help but think that David Greenspan's king would be much happier frolicking about without the weight of a kingdom.

The czar is the unseen figure who looms a little closer and in more darkly pronounced shadows in Bartlett Sher's deeply moving revival of Fiddler on the Roof. I wouldn't have seen it if anyone else was at the helm but Sher is a master at making classic musicals explode in Technicolor before your eyes. The King and I, still running at Lincoln Center is a shinning example of that. In Fiddler though he does it with bleakness. The joy of the score is enjoyed in contrast with Michael Yeargan's meticulously muted set pieces that make you feel like you've stumbled into a production of The Cherry Orchard. The result is chilling and doubled by Danny Burstein's nuanced Tevya. When he sings, "If I Were a Rich Man," he does so with the weight of years of struggle in his voice. Jessica Hecht brings a sardonic yet warm wit to Golda that helps liven the dynamics of their relationship. Eric Bogosian remarked recently on Marc Maron's podcast that he can't believe we're not caring more collectively about helping the Syrian migrants. Maybe more people in power would be well-served to see this production.

Last month, I attended a benefit for the Children of Armenia Fund in the shiny tomb of Cipriani's. It was founded by Dr. Garo Armen, who must be F. Murray Abraham's long lost doppelganger. He hosted the event with wit and charm along with Caroline Rhea and became one of the evening's biggest donors to fund a state-of-the-art learning center in rural Armenia. The even was particularly poignant as it coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which the Turkish government still refuses to recognize. The renderings of the in-progress SMART center looked more like google's next office than a school in an underserved part of the world. In a country not far from Iraq and Syria, it's heartening to see innovation and education at the heart of a plan for revitalization. Armenian and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, who's previously been honored by the group, has a phrase that I love: "making the world suck less." I think that sums it up.

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