Dead Accounts

[edjames]

Two-time Tony Award® winner Norbert Leo Butz and Katie Holmes return to Broadway in DEAD ACCOUNTS, the new comedy from Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck (Seminar), directed by three-time Tony® winner Jack O’Brien.

 

DEAD ACCOUNTS is the story of a brother, a sister, and a surprise reunion that turns their family upside down. A $27 million secret proves that the truth can be complicated.

 

Jack has returned home to Cincinnati unexpectedly in the middle of the night with a bagful of ice cream from the local ice cream store he's bought for $1K. His family is in the middle of a medical crisis as Dad lies in bed upstairs popping pain killers to avoid the pain of kidney stones. Mom doesn't want him to take anymore as she fears it will affect his blood oxygen levels. She's a devout Catholic who believes the pain is good for you. Lorna, Jack's younger sister, has been stuck at home without a lot of prospects and longs to escape the dysfunctional family setting. The play soon reveals Jacks real reason for escaping NYC to Cincinnati. He's just embezzled $27 million from a major bank by transferring monies out of dead accounts. He sees nothing wrong with his crime and the matter only gets further complicated when his soon-to-be ex-wife shows up for her share of the $27 million. Insanity ensues and Jack just keeps buying more and more food....

 

I enjoyed this production very much and it's one of my personal faves from this fall season. Butz is hysterical and an amazing actor who hits all the right notes in his maniacal portrayal of Jack. Katie Holmes was quite good, too, as was the supporting cast.

 

It's been on discounts. Limited run. 16 weeks. Opens Nov 29...

 

ED

[edjames]

Well, I liked it although the critics had another view...

 

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/theater/reviews/dead-accounts-with-katie-holmes-at-music-box-theater.html?ref=theater&_r=0

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/play_is_dead_on_arrival_gtEsxUcHSesWFeMinHlyAO

 

ED

[operalover21]

I'll have to disagree with you about Katie Holmes. I saw her twice in ALL MY SONS a few years back, once in the beginning of the run and then later on. In the beginning she was just awful but she improved near the end. But she's back to fairly awful in this. The problem is that she has absolutely ZERO stage presence. So she just gets lost. Not sure than can be solved.

 

I loved Rebeck's SEMINAR although very few others did. Rickman's was the best performance I saw on stage last year. He got no recognition. Go figure.

[+ Lucky]

Terry Teachout at the WS Journal doesn't gloss over the flaws in Dead Accounts, but he does say:

 

Sometimes a play that doesn't quite work can be more satisfying than a well-made piece of dramatic yard goods. It isn't hard to see what's wrong with Theresa Rebeck's "Dead Accounts," the story of a manic embezzler who takes the money and runs home to his mother—yet for all its manifest flaws, Ms. Rebeck's new play is seldom predictable and never boring, and her cast, led by Norbert Leo Butz, glitters like sapphires on black velvet. If it's perfection you want, go elsewhere, but you'll miss out on an exceedingly interesting night at the theater.

 

And more:

None of this, however, stops the members of the cast from giving performances that never fail to fizz and sparkle. We've come to expect that from Mr. Butz, who might just be the smartest stage comedian of his generation, but Ms. Holmes, who floundered her way through the 2008 Broadway revival of "All My Sons," proves to be a pleasant surprise. Not only has she learned to project, but she's unafraid to be unglamorous. As for Ms. Houdyshell, Broadway has no finer character actor, and Ms. Greer and Josh Hamilton expertly dispatch their supporting roles. Jack O'Brien, the director, pays close attention to detail without lapsing into fussiness.

 

So I still plan to see it. Norbert Lee Butz is, to me, one of the best comedic actors to take a Broadway stage, and Jane Houdyshell is a gem.

[uwsman2]

Seeing it soon. Glad to see another point of view besides the somewhat dismal Times review.

[operalover21]

Seeing it soon. Glad to see another point of view besides the somewhat dismal Times review.

 

I don't think they much like Rebeck, for some reason. Who knows. They practically drool over Sarah Ruhl and I think she's a bore.

[+ Lucky]

Sarah Ruhl received a Tony nomination for her play In The Next Room, so it might have been appropriate for the Times to say nice things about her. Yet in their review of her subsequent work, Passion Play, they hardly drool over her. You can see for yourself: http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/theater/reviews/13passion.html?pagewanted=all

 

One example of non-drooling: At about three and a half hours, performed with two intermissions, “Passion Play” is a bit sprawling, occasionally spending too much time on unprofitable tangents, like the rambling mystic-girlish musings of Ms. Noonan’s characters. Ms. Ruhl’s complicated layering of imagery from the Bible — snakes and fishes and intimations of apocalypse — is colorful but mostly fancy window dressing.

 

She doesn't sound like a bore to me after having read the review. And where's the drooling?

 

As for the Times not liking Rebeck, they said this about her while reviewing her play Seminar: "Ms. Rebeck, whose “Mauritius” was seen on Broadway four years ago, is a canny craftswoman with a sensibility poised somewhere between that of Yasmina Reza (queen of the quick, smart comedy) and Neil Simon (the longest-reigning king of the New York-style one-liner)."

The reviewer ends the review of Rebeck's Seminar by saying: "But for the first time I felt an authentic rush of pleasure and the exhilaration of being reminded that in theater, art comes less from landing lines than in finding what lies between them." And yet you say they don't much like her? They didn't much like Dead Accounts, but it wasn't all that personal toward Ms. Rebeck.

[+ Lucky]

Dead Accounts filled only 44.4% of their seats last week. Oddly enough for that, the average ticket price was $94.79. So less seats are being filled, but at a higher price.

[edjames]

CLOSES JAN 6....

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/dead-accounts-to-close-on-broadway/

[uwsman2]

Too bad. I saw it and enjoyed it, although more for the performances than for the play itself, which I thought got kinda lame in the second act.