Tonys 2008: B'way gives life to Twain's 'Is He Dead?'
A once-thought lost Mark Twain comedy could be in the running for the best play Tony as "Is He Dead?" opened Sunday to good reviews a mere 109 years after being written. Unlike the Oscars, the Tonys tend to find room in the race for well-received comedies like this one. This buried treasure, discovered in the author's archives and adapted by David Ives, is headlined by the much-praised Norbert Leo Butz in his first Rialto run since winning the Tony two years ago for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
As Michael Kuchwara of AP notes, "Farce is the theatrical equivalent of a wind-up toy. It requires some exertion before the mechanics kick in and 
produce (one hopes) the required laughs. Act 1 marks time, dutifully laying the groundwork for the inspired antics of the play's riotously funny second half." He deftly describes this, "satiric examination of greed in the art world of 1840s Paris - it focuses on real-life painter Jean-Francois Millet, perhaps the best known painter of Twain's day. In Twain's version, a young Millet, played by Butz, is promising but penniless. He surmises monetary rewards won't really kick in until after he's dead. So why not pretend to be on the way out, disappear and collect the money now, posing as his sister. The lady, Millet in disguise, turns heads and causes complications." For Kuchwara, "Butz, done up in drag, is the fireplug who jump-starts the farce, adapted by Ives and directed by Michael Blakemore with a sure ear for language and an even surer eye for physical comedy. Their teamwork is one of the most felicitous collaborations of the season."
Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News said, "Blakemore hasn't just awakened the 'Dead.' He and his cast, some of the best comic actors in New York, have turned an old-fashioned, sometimes wobbly piece of material into a delightfully silly and entertaining evening." He thought, "Butz proves that in pants or a dress, he's Broadway's finest, funniest and most appealing rascal. Tossing his hair and wagging his finger, his Daisy blooms into a feisty girl with a modern attitude. It's not period-correct, but it's very amusing." And, he adds, "the 10-actor ensemble is impeccable. Memorable are Michael McGrath as Millet's scheming pal and Byron Jennings as a villain who falls for Daisy. David Pittu, who is a living cartoon, deft-ly lands each bit as a ridiculous art collector, butler and king. Patricia Conolly and the delicious Marylouise Burke sparkle as loopy landladies, while Jenn Gambatese, in the girlfriend role, can't understand why Daisy's kisses remind her so much of Francois'."
Ben Brantley of the New York Times may have only liked the play, but he, too, loved the players. He said, "Once Butz puts on a pink dress, who had been rather flavorless in his opening scene, shows the true comic genius of which he is made. From that moment the whole production feels as if it’s been pumped through with nitrous oxide. Jokes you would swear you would never laugh at suddenly seem funny." For Brantley, "Jennings appears to be having the time of his life as a sleek, melodramatic villain. (His greyhound carriage and vulpine face have seldom been used to such piquant visual advantage.) And Pittu plays too many people to count with a consummate blend of precision and enthusiasm that is this production’s hallmark."
David Rooney of Variety thought, "The most consistent delight is the gifted Butz, who undergoes a kind of liberatory release when he dons Daisy's ringlets and gets squeezed into her heavily corseted pink frock, as if being incognito forces both the actor and the character's most subversive comic instincts to escape. Chomping on a cigar or pipe, nervously massaging his fake breasts and fanning his legs with his voluminous skirts, Butz is a riot. He's so utterly relaxed and in command onstage that he appears to be making up Daisy's dialogue as he goes along, shooting disbelieving but slyly self-satisfied double-takes as her statements become increasingly ludicrous."
And for Clive Barnes of the New York Post, "Twain's play (even with Ives' tinkering) is pretty feeble - a mix of the cross-dressing British farce 'Charley's Aunt,' written six years earlier (and better known as the musical 'Where's Charley?') and dog-eared copies of the frou-frou magazine La Vie Parisienne. Yet Twain (and Ives) have struck it rich with Blakemore, the set designer Peter J. Davison, the costume designer Martin Pakledinaz and a cast that can spin gold out of lead. Leading the revels is Butz, who, once he gets into drag as Millet's sister, is simply incomparable. By the time the cast erupts into the crazy dance that constitutes its curtain call, it would be a hard heart that could have resisted such a subtly nutsy ensemble performance."
(Photo: Lyceum Theater)
