Category: Play Review

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If You Liked Nikola Tesla Off-Broadway, You’ll Love Jackie and Marilyn

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Jackie and MarilynLast year at this time I had the privilege of meeting with the Director, Writer, and Cast of the Off-Broadway play, TESLA, about Nikola Tesla, the topic of my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. The play was fantastic, playing to sold-out audiences for its entire run. Tesla Director, Sanja Bestic, and Writer, Sheri Graubert, have teamed up again for a new play that will open in New York on April 18th. You won’t want to miss Jackie and Marilyn.

Jackie and Marilyn

We all know the story of John F. Kennedy, his beautiful yet stoic wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and the fabulous movie starlet, Marilyn Monroe. Or do we? The award winning Bestic and award winning Graubert bring to the Lion Theatre a new story of one of the most famous love triangles of all time, in the way it may have happened. The tragic ending to a charismatic president revealed hidden romances with two women who “represent the divided female psyche, lost love, beauty, fashion, quintessential style, the changes of marriage and relationships and more.” Jackie and Marilyn, the play, “is a fictional imagining of what might have gone on behind closed doors,” and is sure to bring out the most entertaining qualities of both Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.

The leads are played by Aaron Mathias (JFK), Lorraine Farris (Jackie), and Lella Satie (Marilyn), all accomplished actors with stellar credits in television, film, and stage. Opening night of Jackie and Marilyn is April 18th, and will run at the Lion Theatre on Theatre Row through May 3rd. Tickets are on sale now through Telecharge and the Lion Theatre box office.

Sanja Bestic and Sheri Graubert

Sanja Bestic and Sheri Graubert

Based on their amazing production of Tesla last year, I expect another smashing success from Sanja and Sheri with Jackie and Marilyn. I highly encourage everyone to check out the details on Facebook and make plans to come to New York City for the show.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

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Within These Walls – Ipswich at the Smithsonian

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Yesterday, after shipping out a copy of my book to Nikola Tesla’s grand-nephew William Terbo, I took a break and headed downtown to Washington DC. I had read in the “Wicked Local” online version of my hometown paper, Ipswich Chronicle, that The Actors Company would be performing Within These Walls at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I had to go.

For those who didn’t know it, an entire house once located at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich was disassembled in 1963 and reconstructed at the Smithsonian. The exhibit is one of the largest objects in their collection, and is displayed such that visitors can look into the various rooms of the house and experience the respective lives of five residents over the years.

JT Turner Within These Walls

Within These Walls was written by playwright, actor, and director J.T. Turner, who was asked by the Smithsonian to tell the stories of the people who lived there. As the house itself looms behind them, the play opens with the two Ipswich housewives, Kay Thompson and Helen Lunt, pleading with the demolition man not to tear it down. Reminiscent of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, as the workman settles in for the night intending the demolition to start the next morning, he begins to hear the house reveal its history. As he questions his sanity, residents of the house appear in sequence representing major historical time periods.

It begins with Abraham Choate building the house in 1760 for his growing family. He is followed by Abraham Dodge, a revolutionary war patriot who explains how Ipswich came to be known as “The Birthplace of American Independence” (hint, it has to do with being the first to refuse to pay taxes to the British crown). Ahead to the Caldwells, active in the fight to abolish slavery prior to the Civil War, then to the Lynch family of Irish immigrants struggling to pay the $50 a year rent to the wealthy Heard family who then owned the house. And finally to the Scott’s as they supported the World War II effort at home while their two sons fought overseas.

Abraham and Sarah Choate

Throughout the play the spectators become entranced both by the individual stories of the people who lived in the house and by the historical periods they represent. Having been born and raised in Ipswich, and just recently spent my 4th of July holiday there, the play was especially poignant as the family names and stories remain part of the ongoing life-thread of the town. At times the memories it invoked became personally emotional. After the play ended I was lucky enough to have a brief conversation with J.T. Turner. As I thanked him for his wonderful writing, the actress who played “Grandma” Scott gaze at me with that look that actors get when they see how their craft affected others. I can safely say that I was affected by the performance. Thank you all.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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A review of TESLA, the off-Broadway play

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Tesla official posterA rainy evening in the East Village welcomed the opening night of the new off-Broadway play, TESLA. All that was missing were bolts of lightning, which would have been appropriate given that Nikola Tesla was born at midnight during a thunder storm. Inside the theater the electricity was as vibrant as the topic of the show. Not a seat was to be found in the packed theater – not even standing room was left available. They were not to be disappointed.

For much of the play there are actually two Nikola Teslas onstage. Jack Dimich plays the older Tesla living out the end of his life in the Hotel New Yorker, ruminating over his inability to offer a particle beam to stop Hitler’s assaults on Yugoslavia. As Tesla chats with bellhop Luka (played by Luka Mijatovic), whom he has enlisted to feed his pigeons, he is joined by his younger self, who relives the glory days of invention. Young Tesla, played enthusiastically by James Lee Taylor, stars throughout as he meets his idol (and then rival) Thomas Edison, cavorts with Mark Twain, sees his dreams come true with the backing of George Westinghouse, and then sees those dreams dashed by J.P. Morgan.

TESLA cast

TESLA cast (Photo by Sam Mason, Tesla Science Foundation)

Alessandro Colla gives spirited performances both as Westinghouse and Twain. Adam Pagdon brings to life J.P. Morgan in a way that makes you both respect and despise the man who financed, then rejected, Tesla’s Wardenclyffe plans. Tom Cappadona is simply stellar as Thomas Edison, the self-made businessman whose investment in direct current leads him to encourage the electrocution of puppies and people to show the dangers of Tesla’s alternating current. Samantha Slater does double duty playing Katherine Johnson, the wife of Tesla’s friend and supporter Robert Underwood Johnson, as well as Mary, Edison’s enthusiastically social-climbing wife.

Despite the seriousness of the storyline, writer Sheri Graubert has expertly woven comic relief into the play. The most appreciated example is the recurring interludes by Guglielmo Marconi, “inventor of the raaadio.” Played magnificently by Jeff Solomon, you could hear the sound of the audience rising to a smile each time Marconi struts onto the stage. His performance was truly a gem. With her ability to switch back and forth between levity and gravity, Graubert has written an excellent play, well played.

Any review of TESLA would be remiss without acknowledging the superb direction of Sanja Bestic. Balancing two Teslas and host of other actors onstage, along with periodic video shots (by Maria Riboli) to set up and emphasize key characters and concepts, could not have been an easy task. Yet Bestic deftly turns the world of the enigmatic inventor into something we can all understand and appreciate.

Overall I was tremendously impressed with the quality of the acting, writing, and direction. The sold out opening night, including the pack of press passes sitting directly in front of me, rose organically and enthusiastically to give the bowing cast a standing ovation. It was well deserved.

TESLA ran through June 8th, 2013 at Theatre 80, St. Mark’s Place, New York. The run was sold out to standing only crowds. It was worth it.

David J. Kent is the author Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World, plus two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His latest book is Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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