Reviews for

RESTORATION
by Claudia Shear

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW

Beneath the Surface,
More and More Layers

By Ben Brantley - May 20, 2010

A really big man takes a very long bath in “Restoration,” the leisurely new comedy written by and starring Claudia Shear, and he’s not the only one who comes clean. In this girl-meets-statue story, Giulia (Ms. Shear), a lonely Brooklyn art conservator, lands the plum job of scrubbing down Michelangelo’s 17-foot statue of David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

And wouldn’t you know it? As centuries’ worth of grimy layers on an immortal marble body dissolve, so do the layers of denial and repression that have long inhibited the people working on his makeover. When it comes to getting to know yourself, it seems, there’s no beating lots of quiet time with a 500-year-old hunk holding a slingshot.

“Restoration,” which opened on Wednesday night at the New York Theater Workshop, is the first new full-length play by Ms. Shear since the wonderful “Dirty Blonde,” which also originated at the Workshop (in 2000) before moving to Broadway, where it picked up five Tony nominations. It’s a pleasure to hear once again Ms. Shear’s distinctively tart voice as a writer and an actress. But “Restoration” isn’t the dream marriage of creator and subject that “Dirty Blonde” was.

Like “Restoration,” “Dirty Blonde” assessed the impact of a cultural monument on those who idolize it. The monument, in that case, was the self-created work of art known as Mae West, the screen’s shapely queen of sexual innuendo from the 1930s. Portraying both West and one of her more fanatical fans, Ms. Shear delivered a poignant, punchy argument for star worship as a route to self-discovery.

Michelangelo’s David, of course, isn’t as naturally lively an object of veneration as Mae West. Whether this statue should be referred to as “he” or “it” is a point of debate in “Restoration,” which weighs the claims of eternal art versus those of life in the moment. And despite being rendered in impressive if slightly distorted facsimile(Scott Pask is the scenic designer), old David never feels entirely real to us. Nor, despite the research and native wit that Ms. Shear has poured into this play, do the reactions that the statue elicits seem altogether fresh.

Directed by Christopher Ashley — who collaborated with Ms. Shear on “Blown Sideways Through Life,” her breakthrough memoir of a play from 1993 — “Restoration” has the sunny but autumnal aura of a romantic genre that might be called “the broad abroad.” In such works, a woman (usually British or American) who feels life has passed her by takes a trip to a foreign land (usually Italy) and learns that la vita can be dolce.

This rejuvenation process has been successfully depicted both in venerable literary fiction (novels by E. M. Forster and Henry James) and contemporary chick flicks (often starring Diane Lane, though there’s one with Julia Roberts on the horizon). In tone, “Restoration” falls somewhere between the two, offering gentle if predictable insights into its fallible characters’ relationships with an almost perfect masterpiece.

Giulia is unmarried and romantically uninvolved when we meet her, a state she attributes to being “weird, aggressive, successful and picky.” Despite her undisputed talent as a conservator, she lacks political finesse and, after opening her mouth once too often, she feels like an “old never-was,” reduced to “restoring rich people’s frames” and teaching introductory art history. So the opportunity to work on David — arranged by a former professor of hers (Alan Mandell) with a guilty conscience — becomes, as she says, “my last chance.”

Thus the prickly and feisty Giulia arrives in socially ritualized Florence (where she had lived as a child) to clean David and do battle with an assortment of Italians who find her people skills on the crude side. They include Daphne (Tina Benko), a beautiful blond aristocrat who oversees public relations on the David project; Marciante (Natalija Nogulich), a no-nonsense, tightly wired bureaucrat; and Max (Jonathan Cake), the hunky security guard who protects David from his visitors.

Scenes are divided by months, with Giulia tackling a different part of David’s anatomy. Each month also brings another small revelation as Giulia learns that people, like old works of art, may harbor surprises beneath the surface. Both the appeal of and the problem with “Restoration” is that what’s under the patinas isn’t very surprising. Even after months of fastidious cleaning, David still looks like David, and Giulia, Daphne and Max are different only in that they are perhaps a shade more comfortable in their own skins.

It is to Ms. Shear’s credit that she doesn’t push her characters into fake, swoony-movie denouements. Her point is that life must be accepted as it is. But that doesn’t keep “Restoration” from being formulaic, especially in Daphne and Giulia’s pretty-woman-versus-plain-woman face-offs. All the people in “Restoration” are, in their different ways, passionate souls, but you almost never feel their heat.

This means that “Restoration,” while often agreeable, is rarely much more than that. The script is winningly self-deprecating about its occasional glibness. (Characters are often calling each other out on premeditated cleverness.) And it is charmingly acted, with Mr. Mandell bringing to mind John Gielgud in his impish old age and Ms. Benko and Ms. Nogulich capturing precisely the worldly warmth and arrogance I associate with upper-crust Italian women. Mr. Cake, the British actor who was Jason to Fiona Shaw’s Medea, renders Max with an expert mixture of cocky machismo and plaintive resignation.

Most important, we get to spend time with Ms. Shear again. In an age of wall-to-wall eye candy, in which it often seems everybody aspires to a Vogue photo op, Ms. Shear refreshingly manages to be frumpy, dumpy and commandingly attractive. And her gravelly, skeptical voice lends conviction to even the glibbest one-liners. She remains a theatrical original, even in a less-than-original play.

RESTORATION

By Claudia Shear; directed by Christopher Ashley; sets by Scott Pask; costumes by David C. Woolard; lighting by David Lander; music and sound by Dan Moses Schreier; video by Kristin Ellert; wig design by Mark Adam Rampmeyer; dramaturge, Gabriel Greene; production stage manager, James Fitzsimmons. Presented by the New York Theater Workshop, James C. Nicola, artistic director; William Russo, managing director. At the New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village; (212) 279-4200. Through June 13. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

WITH: Tina Benko (Daphne), Jonathan Cake (Max), Alan Mandell (Professor), Natalija Nogulich (Marciante/Beatrice/Nonna) and Claudia Shear (Giulia).

 

 

BACKSTAGE REVIEW:

Reviewed by David Sheward

Playwright-actor Claudia Shear made a hit at New York Theatre Workshop in 2000 with "Dirty Blonde," her fascinating rumination on the sultry film legend Mae West. She returns to the same theater with a meditation on another iconic sex symbol: Michelangelo's David. Shear stars as Giulia, an Italian-born, American-bred art restorer given to bluntly speaking her mind and losing commissions as a result. After surviving a scandalous lawsuit, she wins the career-saving opportunity of cleaning the gigantic sculpture for its 500th birthday.

As she goes about her yearlong task at the Academia in Florence, the antisocial Giulia develops a grudging friendship with hunky chief of security Max and thaws toward Daphne, the haughty and glamorous head of public relations for the museum. These may sound like Hallmark TV movie plot threads, but the core of the play is Giulia's relationship to her charge—the statue—and by extension, the relationship of the viewer, whether casual or fanatic, toward art. Just as she examined the relationship between the devoted fan and the object of obsession in "Dirty Blonde," Shear takes a long and complex look at how an incomparably beautiful object can affect the aficionado who has fallen under its spell.  

She occasionally allows inconsistency to creep into her script. Max's hiding his appreciation for the masterpiece behind macho bluster doesn't make sense and seems to be placed in the early part of the play only in order for him to be in conflict with Giulia. But Shear is such an entertaining dialogue writer, we scarcely notice the flaw. When Max asks Giulia why she's not married, she replies tartly, "Because I'm weird, aggressive, successful, and picky." After uttering doubts about her talent, her elderly mentor chides, "Self-pity is the personality equivalent of chewing with your mouth open." 

Christopher Ashley—who staged Shear's solo show "Blown Sideways Through Life," also at NYTW—does a masterful job of balancing the funny bits with the more serious musings on the nature of art. As both actor and author, Shear slowly and movingly reveals Giulia's aching loneliness beneath her hard exterior. Jonathan Cake gives Max seductive charm and compassionate warmth. Tina Benko exposes the soft center of the seemingly bitchy Daphne. Natalija Nogulich adds sturdy supports in three diverse roles, and Alan Mandell lends bite to Giulia's fatherly former professor.  

Set designer Scott Pask cleverly conveys the impression of the entire statue with a huge box displaying sections of David's anatomy. When Giulia is finally finished, a replica of the classic work is revealed in all its glory. The effect, aided by David Lander's lighting, is truly beautiful.

There are a few spots on this "Restoration," but as with the statue at its center, we see past them to appreciate the artistry in its creation.

 

THEATERMANIA REVIEW:

The opportunity to remove centuries of grime from Michelangelo's iconic statue of David gives an art restorer the chance to also cleanse her psyche and spirit in Claudia Shear's genial humanistic comedy Restoration, currently being given a brisk, yet sensitive production at New York Theatre Workshop under Christopher Ashley's direction.

As the play opens, nothing would suggest that Giulia (played by Shear) might ever consider being selected as the professional who would work on such an historic project. She's toiling in Brooklyn on small pieces, mostly from private collections, and teaching art history at Brooklyn College. Yet, through a series of coincidences, Professor Williams (the wittily dry Alan Mandell), her mentor and a former colleague, arrives to tell her that she'll be interviewing for the job in just 10 days.

Although both Italian culture minister Marciante (the multiply cast and always effective Natalija Nogulich) and Florentine bigwig Daphne (played with crispness and surprising vulnerability by Tina Benko) have concerns about Giulia's temperament (she's been sued for slander for her views on a peer's work), she gets the job -- which means she has exactly 12 months to refresh the statue.

It's during her time working on the piece (cleverly and effectively indicated in Scott Pask's handsomely lavish scenic design that's splendidly lit by designer David Lander) that Giulia also finds herself shedding detritus from her past that has left her quick to judge, anti-social, and sullenly withdrawn. The primary catalyst for her change is the perpetual presence of Max (Jonathan Cake), a dashing and gregarious security guard, who's eager to engage Giulia as she works. He shares the English poetry that he loves with her and attempts to make her understand that her almost callous aloofness hurts no one as much as it does her. Eventually, he also begins sharing a little bit of his baggage and the realities of his home life with her.

With the realization that Max's marriage may not be as ideal as it seems -- along with the news of Professor Williams' cancer diagnosis and a confrontation that allows Giulia to understand that even the drop-dead gorgeous Daphne has problems -- Giulia begins to look outside of herself and to allow herself to be not only a consummate professional who will fight for what she believes in but also a more genuine person. It's a touching growth process to watch.

Shear clearly knows how to deliver each of her zingers to maximum effect and even as the actor/playwright maximizes the comedy in her piece, she also mines the character's more melancholy quality, communicating volumes with a rueful half-smile or with subtle changes in body language.

Equally impressive is Cake's performance as Max. The actor exquisitely captures the character's randy teenage machismo, simultaneously tempering it with the regrets of adulthood. By the time Max reveals his own special connection to the statue that he guards, theatergoers are cheering for him as much as they are Giulia.

THE HUFFINGTON POST REVIEW:

If you weren't in love with Michelangelo's David, before, you will be after Restoration, Claudia Shear's love letter to the world's most famous sculpture. Shear, who stars in and wrote this lovely, multilayered drama at New York Theater Workshop, addresses the power of art to restore and sustain the human spirit. A talented playwright, she's equally sensitive to the price of obsession.

Shear plays Giulia, an art restorer banished by the museum establishment for her brash opinions. When this "master of the finer touches" is offered an extraordinary opportunity -- to "refresh" the David in time for its 500th birthday celebration in Florence -- she envisions a new future. The experience will not only revitalize the Renaissance masterpiece, it will transform an embittered Giulia.

In fact, Restoration is a thoughtful meditation on our relationship to art -- and the cost of sublimating desire to objects, however beautiful and important. Cast in the contrapposto style, the David has captivated the public from the moment it was unveiled in 1504. Michelangelo considered sculpture the highest form of art, since it tried to emulate divine creation. His artistry has clearly enamored Guilia, whose passion is shared by the museum's press officer, the wealthy and beautiful Daphne (Tina Benko); Marciante, the top curator (a stylish and versatile Natalija Nogulich); an art history professor who recommends Guilia for the job (Alan Mandell); and Max (Jonathan Cake), a handsome Italian security guard. All are perfectly cast.

Each has a unique relationship to the David; but it's the yearlong exchanges between Guilia and Max that give the academic elements of Restoration its heart. Smart and often funny, Restoration is a clever exploration of the ties that bind -- professional and personal. Shear and Cake have real chemistry; aided by Christopher Ashley's fluid direction and Scott Pask's streamlined set.

Classics come in all shapes and mediums. "The art of making art, is putting it together." The lyric is Sondheim's, but the declaration defines Phantom of the Opera. A lush score, exquisite costumes, fantastical sets and a compelling story rewarded the Andrew Lloyd Webber production with seven Tonys. It's also the longest-running show in Broadway history, now in its 23rd year at the Majestic Theater.

What accounts for its longevity? The producers have kept the show exciting; Phantom's cast sustains the high performance level that brought it initial accolades. Seen by nearly 14 million people, the New York production has grossed more than $765 million.

But the real draw is a timeless story, aided by Harold Prince's directorial flourishes and a theatrical Grand Guignol charm. The special effects, notable in 1988, still work. The pacing is somewhat languid, given its romantic ethos, a marked contrast to current musicals, like Memphis and American Idiot, which pride themselves on fast, electric deliveries. Phantom is a spectacle with a compelling theme. (That all three are playing on the same street attests to the changes on Broadway.)

Based on the 1909 novel by Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera is a tale of unrequited love. A masked figure lurks beneath the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, periodically terrorizing its resident cast, including a pompous diva Carlotta, (Patricia Phillips) and arrogant opera owners. The "Opera Ghost" has a mission -- to see a young soprano, Christine (a lovely Jenifer Hope Wills), become a star.

As the Phantom escalates his threats, we meet a gifted man twisted by rejection, yet yearning for love and acceptance. "The Music of the Night" ballad beautifully captures his longing, much as the gorgeously ornate "Masquerade" celebrates illusion. A perennial favorite is "All I Ask Of You," the love ballad sung by Christine and her suitor Raoul (Ryan Silverman).

There have been more than 10 phantoms since Michael Crawford first donned the mask. I saw understudy Paul A. Schaefer, filling in for John Cudia, and he was sensational, playing the tortured romantic with the flourish and pathos this melodrama requires. Though the cast periodically changes, their standards do not. The old-fashioned draw of Phantom, renewed a few years ago by Joel Schumacher's film version, remains. Heartbreak, rendered bizarre and baroque, never looked so artistic.