The Receptionist

"The Receptionist" by Adam Brock at the Signature Theatre tries to bring a different view on corporate America and really never gets going with any pace that makes it interesting.  The show features two time Tony winner Kate Finneran as Beverly Wilkins. Finneran is deft as the receptionist; she gossips, tells company secrets and is very upbeat and proud of her work area. The four character cast are all good at their roles and are not the problem with this show. It is Bock's writing and Sarah Benson's direction. Other things make the show a bit of wonderment: the scenic design by dot is a 70's design of an office. The furniture, the carpeting and the wall treatments scream 70's and yet, the office has a fax machine, they talk about the internet. The costumes too are confusing: Enver Chakartash has Beverly (Finneran) in 70's clothes; Lorraine (Mallori Johnson) in 80's fashion, and the men in 90's wardrobes

The monologue at the beginning of the play sets the tone of confusion right from the beginning; Nael Nacer as Edward Raymond, the head of the office, talks about hunting rabbits and fly fishing. It never makes sense to the audience. Why hunting and fishing? Why that speech; why this beginning? The ending with Beverly in the same box making a similar speech was equally as weak and confusing."The Receptionist" is a short play, 80 minutes; and with any real action in the play starting around 40 minutes into it, it made for a slow night at the theater! Bock would have been better off starting the play at a quicker pace, show the audience punishment for non conformity and then go from there. The writer gives us the plot which is about conformity way too late and way under delivered leaving the audience wanting much more to this play.

As I said the acting is good, so is the sound and the lighting. The industrial lighting worked well here. Bock is back at Signature. His breakout role in writing here was 2005. This play however never reaches the mark and was really stagnate for much of the 80 minutes. Even in the breakout scene we never get to excited about what is going on up on the stage.

As an experimental work, Bock needs to make the show more interesting right from the start. Waiting as long as he does, he loses the audience. If 10 or 15 minutes in he makes the plot more interesting and then move the play along, he had a chance at a good play. In this case, however, he never gets us caring about the characters very much.

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Joe Turner Has Come and Gone

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Two more left on Broadway for me to see this year. It was a very good season and I am not sure why the Tony's have not picked more Spring shows. I realize that' Oedipus and Ragtime" were great shows, but the spring season was far superior than the fall season.

The Tony committee nominated last week and not many surprises with the nominations. I was surprised that "Death Of A Salesman" has a s many nominations as the received. I thought this rendition, like the one two years ago was not great to be polite. Both were in the modern and it just didn't fit the eye very well.

I was disappointed that :Dog Day Afternoon" did not get anything of substance. I thought the staging and direction was very good.

Broadway Bob Massimi, No Bull With Raging Robert, Nathan Lane, Tony Awards, New York City, Iran, Hollywood, Anne Hathaway, Devil Wears Prada, Ragtime, Oedipus, Death Of A Salesman, Arthur Miller, Al Pacino.