Theater: Signature Theatre / 555 West 42nd. St., New York, NY,
Synopsis:
At a late night party, Sam and Jo entertain their friends with a round of Twenty Questions and another round of drinks. When an unexpected guest and her mysterious companion arrive, the question "Who are you?" gains a whole new and desperate meaning.
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March 5, 2012: Edward Albee throws a mean party. Just check out the elegant, savage soiree taking place at the Pershing Square Signature Center, where “Edward Albee’s The Lady From Dubuque” opened on Monday night in a scintillating revival. One small thing you should probably know, though, in case you’re not on speaking terms: Death is on the guest list.
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March 5, 2012: A notorious Broadway flop in 1980, Edward Albee's "The Lady From Dubuque" doesn't exactly rise triumphantly from the ashes here. Despite its imaginative and terrifically theatrical personification of the Angel of Death as a regal matron from the American heartland (who sweeps in on the arm of a distinguished black man, no less), this metaphysical mystery is surprisingly shallow on the life-and-death issues it raises. In its handsome mounting by David Esbjornson, the play does, however, look absolutely stunning on the largest and grandest of the three stages at the new Signature Center.
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March 5, 2012: Jo sure knows how to play party games. “I am your wife, and I am dying,” she snaps at her husband, Sam, during a round of 20 Questions, while their guests look elsewhere. That’s one way to provide entertainment.
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March 5, 2012: “Get the Guests” is the impromptu game of social sadism played by George and Martha in Edward Albee’s best-known work, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and in this metaphysical fable written 17 years later, he flips the rules. One morning, suburban couple Sam (Michael Hayden) and Jo (Laila Robins) find that their living room is occupied by the mysterious Elizabeth (Jane Alexander) and her associate, Oscar (Peter Francis James). Jo is in the agonizing terminal stage of an undisclosed disease. Sam’s being eaten up by anticipatory grief. In this instance, the guests get them.
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March 5, 2012: The party game at the start asks revelers to guess "Who am I?" Later that night, the question turns to "Who is she?" But there isn't a moment in the Signature Theatre Company's unflinching, riveting reclamation of "The Lady From Dubuque" when the master in charge could be anyone but Edward Albee.
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March 5, 2012: Even those familiar with Edward Albee's most famous works and his trademark absurdist style might still have trouble appreciating his sinister, surreal and altogether puzzling 1980 play "The Lady From Dubuque," which flopped on Broadway after just 12 performances.
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