A Bite of The Big Apple

The current Broadway season offers an interesting mix of energetic musicals and regular plays. A few stars are inevitably seduced into productions to boost box-office sales: Woody Harrelson is in a revival of The Rainmaker, Sandy Duncan in Chicago and Uta Hagen Broadway8217;s original Martha in a one-night-only staged reading of Who8217;s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins. I would have killed to get to that, but at fundraising pricesof 500 a seat, it was, regrettably, impossible.

The current film fare combines a plethora of Independent and Foreign films with Hollywood blockbusters. I8217;ve a few recommendations to offer any of you who are planning a NY winter trip.

Theatre
Cabaret: British hotshot Sam Mendes directs this dark, searing production of a love struck English singer doing her best to live it up in the dilapidated decadence of 19308217;s Berlin, at the start of the Nazi movement. Susan Egan plays Sally Bowles with frenzied, self-destructive energy, and fills the theatre with her gigantic voice. Michael Hall has the unenviable task of playing a role immortalised by Joel Grey on film and yet does a magnificent job, playing the emcee of the Kit-Kat Club with incredible androgyny, sexuality and a streak of delectable sadism. Much of the ambience comes from the locale itself the show is staged at Studio 54, the infamous drug-n-sex disco of the 8217;70s, haunt of countless celebrities ranging from Andy Warhol to MickJagger.

Ragtime: A sweeping musical pageant with a cast of 59, based on E L Doctorow8217;s semi-fictional novel about three turn-of-the-century American families one Harlem Black, one immigrant Jew and one upper-class White whose lives become entangled with the social and political events of the times. We witness magnificent singing and spectacle, with an interesting combination of real-life and fictional characters. Although the piece is unabashedly lets-live-in-harmony propaganda, it is surprisingly moving.De La Guarda: Performance Art at its best. A visceral experience involving all five senses. This piece defies description. It is part carnival, theatre, rave concert and dance work. The audience stands, and most of the action takes place above them, with acrobatic cast members ricocheting off walls or flying through the air on bungee ropes, occasionally whisking audience members 50 feet into the air, and then depositing their shrieking victims on top of other viewers. Wear old clothes and preparethe get rained on 8230; an absolute must-see.

Films
American Beauty: Director Sam Mendes strikes again with a chilling look at suburban American life, and a father8217;s infatuation with his teenage daughter8217;s best friend. The topnotch cast, headed by Kevin Spacey enthralls you at every moment. Two actors to watch for are Chris Cooper and Wes Bentley, who plays a homophobic, military father and drug-dealer son with desturbing reality. This one is bound to garner a few Oscars.

Run Hola Run: In German, with subtitles. You must get your hands on 100,000 marks in 20 minutes or the mafia will kill your boyfriend. What do you do? If you are Hola Franka Potente you try to rob a bank and get shot doing it. At the point of death, you decide this is not how it should turn out, so you start your life again, with changes in the same situation. This film part philosophical examination, part MTV show, roller coasters the viewer through three alternative outcomes to the same events. Bizarre?And to end on apatriotic note: Deepa Mehta8217;s Earth and M Night Shyamalan8217;s The Sixth Sense are both running to packed houses and critical acclaim.

Let8217;s hope this trend continues, and more of our talented film-makers get to strut their stuff abroad.

Sohrab Ardeshir is an actor.