March 14, 2013 - WestchesterGuardian.com

Page 12 THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2013EYE ON THEATREStumbles and TumblesContinued from page 11played by the talented Santino Fontana,is more of a lovable goofball thana handsome charmer, which is all right,especially as his Cinderella makes upfor this and everything else. LauraOsnes is one of our loveliest actresses,whose acting, singing and looks areall you could ask for and then some.Whether in her humble Cinderellagetup, or in a couple of ravishing costumesWilliam Ivey Long has designedfor her, you cannot take youreyes off, or your heart away from, thischarmer.For the other costumes, the designerhas produced some suitablyswirling, multicolored ball gowns, withno danger of eclipsing Cinderella’sbeauties. Rather routine too is much ofJosh Rhodes’s choreography, except inits rousingly acrobatic passages. As thestepmother, Harriet Harris is droll inher usual overcooked way, and VictoriaClark is lovable as both the flying fairygodmother and in her disguise as thecrazy, raggedy Marie. This, incidentally,may be the production’s triumph: thesudden, spectacular costume changesfrom rags to riches or vice versa, occurringin full view in almost magicaltransmutations.A nod must also go to DannyTroob’s orchestrations and DavidChase’s arrangements, as well as toMark Brokaw’s generally amiable direction.There is one major false step:even for the nasty stepsister, Charlotte,Ann Harada is too repellent, althoughshe is saddled with some of Beane’smore desperate gags. Peter Bartlett’soleaginous Sebastian and Greg Hildreth’stubby Jean-Michel are nocharmers either, but Harada has thembeaten by a country mile.Cinderella photos by and courtesy of CarolRosegg.The Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadwayat 53 rd Street. T: (212) 239.6200.There are, alas, such creatures ascritics’ darlings, whose appeal leavesme appalled. Such a one is the playwrightAmy Herzog, whose worksrange from expendable to execrable.Firmly ensconced in the latter categoryis her current Belleville. Little of thismakes an iota of sense, starting withsituating it in the Paris working-classneighborhood of Belleville, where theAmerican bourgeois couple of Zackand Abby would be unlikely to set footmuch less settle.If I tried to list for you everythingabout this debacle that is ludicrous,preposterous, foolishly contrived, andultimately melodramatic, I would needten times the space I have, and wouldtake up far more of your time that youcould spend more profitably gazing atyour navel.I have no idea what Herzog mighthave been gazing at, perhaps the movieThe Triplets of Belleville, a cartoonfeature, but lots more real than thiswoefully excogitated contraption. Forstarters, can you swallow the notionthat Zack, who unbeknown to Abbyflunked out of medical school, cango off every day pretending to workfor Doctors Without Borders, withoutAbby, even crazy mess that she is,catching on to the fakery? And howdoes the dimwit Abby get to teachyoga (unsuccessfully to be sure) in acountry where much more qualifiedforeigners have difficulties getting acarte de travail?And what is this about needing avisa for France, and forfeiting a reentryMaria Dizzia and Greg Kellerif you return to the U. S. for the birthof your sister’s baby? Also would anylandlord, even a Senegalese one, put upwith nonpayment of rent month aftermonth? And on what does this couplelive on, and how have they paid for allthe furniture, bought not rented, whichwe gather from the seemingly endlessclosing scene wherein the owner couplelaboriously rid themselves of everybelonging of the Americans.I suspect that Herzog wanted toshow off her grasp of French, in whichmuch is spoken, rather too well in thecase of Zack. But there are far greaterimprobabilities here that anyone capableof a little more thought than thegushing reviewers woulddisgustedly see through. The actingis not half bad, but not even supremehistrionic geniuses could makethese goings-on credible.The program, which ostentatiouslybut unsolicitedly records the entire productionhistory of this epochal work,informs us that a new ending picked byHerzog and her director, Anne Kauffman,involved “drastically changing theend of the play, cutting a stage effect oneof the actors has been rehearsing for sixweeks.” Sounds terrific, and makes mewonder: couldn’t that spectacular effecthave been preserved, and the rest of theplay cut instead?Belleville photo by and courtesy of CarolRosegg.New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East4th Street, between Second Avenue andthe Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan,New York, NY 10003. T: (212)780.9037.John Simon has written for over 50 yearson theatre, film, literature, music and finearts for the Hudson Review, New Leader,New Criterion, National Review, NewYork Magazine, Opera News, WeeklyStandard, Broadway.com and BloombergNews. Mr. Simon holds a PhDfrom Harvard University in ComparativeLiterature and has taught at MIT,Harvard University, Bard College andMarymount Manhattan College.To learn more, visit the JohnSimon-Uncensored.comSHIFTING GEARSThe Ambitious Crossover from Korea—Hyundai Santa FeBy RogerWitherspoonThose of us whogrew up during thedawn of the spaceage heard a common aphorism fromparents, teachers and radio disc jockeys:“Always shoot for the moon, ‘cause evenif you miss, you’ll be among the stars.”It’s a phrase that hadn’t come tomind in decades, until I got behind thewheel of the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport.When the Korean car manufacturersfirst ventured to America, its rickety,low powered cars were the regularbutt of jokes on late night television.But instead of feeling cowed and leaving,Hyundai decided to shoot for themoon. They took aim at the most popularcars made by Toyota and Lexus,and then decided to compete in termsof style, quality, and price.Their Sonata sedan, while notsignificantly denting the sales of theToyota Camry or Honda Accord, wasso stylistically stunning that a year-oldSonata was worth more than a newone. Its sporty Genesis Coup takes offfaster than a Porsche Panamera and itsluxury liner, the Equus, comes prettyclose to a fully stocked Mercedes BenzE-class. It is unlikely that folks who cancasually afford a new Porsche or Benzwill take a test drive in a Hyundai –even if it does mean saving $20,000.But the quality, performance, and mostimportantly, the price differential areimportant to many buyers looking tomove up from the entry level, compactcar class.Which brings us back to theSanta Fe. It is definitely not a LexusRX, which is essentially a sports car inan SUV shell. But if you aren’t in themarket for an SUV you can take to thedrag races, then the Santa Fe is likely toearn high marks for style, comfort, andprice. At $33,000, the Santa Fe costs abit less than fully loaded sedans like theContinued on page 13