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They cant articulate, so they attack.
But when it comes to producing, small-cast shows with a celebrity drawdefinitelyare.
Jeff Wards new production ofDanny and the Deep Blue Seasits at the center of that Venn diagram.
And, in a strangely exciting way, it mostly holds up.
The fact that it does so is largely due to Abbott.
(Undergrads looking for somethingso intenseto do for scene-study classes love it.)
Johnny has his bride!
and Abbott has ready access to that exhilarating, almost embarrassing, opera-in-a-dirty-white-undershirt sense of magnitude.
Its a desperate, thrashing duet, and it requires evenly matched, extremely daring partners.
Though shes certainly daring, Plaza hasnt yet turned Roberta into a match for Danny.
Its not a matter of literal size its a matter of the body as a fully charged-up power station.
Roberta needs to crackle and seethe.
She needs to take up dramatic space.
If shes sometimes a wary stray cat, shes just as often and always, in essence a panther.
Plaza is tough, but she tends to fold inwards.
Shes game, though.
When the choreography follows suit pushing toward the angular and Expressionist the sequence ascends to some truly exciting heights.
Shanley is a romantic, and in Wards production, the more tender moments are among the strongest.
You got friendly ears, Roberta tells Danny.
They make me feel friendly … like, I wanna shake hands.
You got a nice nose, says Danny.
It looks right at ya, your nose, and it says Hello!
Danny and the Deep Blue Seais at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
