Review
A View from 151st Street
Public Theater (LABrinth Theater Company)
October 28, 2007
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
Bob Glaudini's A View from 151st Street is a one-act play that has been stretched into two acts which does it a major disservice. What could have been a taut examination of a local drug trade and the undercover cops involved with nabbing the perpetrators becomes a maudlin ode to the trials and tribulations of dealers, users and law enforcement.
Daniel (Juan Carlos Hernandez), an undercover agent in the guise of a user, is trying to get a local drug dealer, Delroy, on 151st street to unwittingly lead him to his major distributor. At the same time he is trying to help his Gulf War buddy, Ray (Andre Royo), who is just out of prison and drug-rehab by letting him stay with him and his wife to help maintain his rehabilitation. In the war, it seems that Ray was always protecting Daniel and their bond, despite the objections of those close to Daniel, remains cemented. In a deal gone wrong, Daniel takes a bullet to the brain and must re-learn language and all that goes with it and Ray takes on the jobs of nurse, therapist and to some degree, spouse. So in essence the rehabilita-tee becomes the rehabilita-tor and the bond between the two men becomes even stronger.
The women in this piece surprisingly come off the strongest. Liza Colon-Zayas as Daniel's stalwart wife, Elizebeth Rodriguez as his suspicious, no-nonsense sister and especially Marisa Malone as a Russian rehab nurse with a penchant for trouble have the liveliest scenes and deliver well-etched performances. The men struggle with Glaudini's one-note male characters which try to embody symbols of sacrifice and unfulfilled dreams. The biggest problem, however, is the insistence of Delroy's poetry jams between scenes that mean little and stop the action dead in its tracks. Craig "muMs" Grant (known for his role as The Poet in HBO's Oz) delivers these def raps in a drawn-out, hoarse and plaintive tone that rarely changes and his actual scenes could be played three times as fast as Director Peter Dubois allows. With a jazz trio stage-right adding mood and atmosphere, let it be noted that it, too, now and then drags down the action. Had we been able to stay entrenched in the lives of the main characters, there might have been pathos instead of pulp.
As always with the LABrinth Theater Company and its host, the Public Theater, the design team (David Korins- set, Mimi O'Donnell - costumes, Japhy Weidman - lighting, Bart Fasbender - sound) turns in excellent work.
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