'Lee Daniels' 'The Butler' A Dignified Snapshot on History

"IT'S not a movie; it's a movement," Lee Daniels asserted recently at a press conference promoting his latest film, "Lee Daniels' The Butler."

The film chronicles the tenure of White House butler Eugene Allen (14 July 1919 – 31 March, 2010) who served seven presidential administrations from 1957 to 1985 - from Eisenhower to Reagan. This soft-spoken gentlemen, portrayed by "Forest Whitaker," witnessed a ton of American history unfolding in real time. The film opens in the United States today ... More shortly

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" is rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking; visit http://www.weinsteinco.com/sites/leedanielsthebutler/ to learn more about the film.

A Muddle of a ‘Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo’

Robin Williams as a big cat and Brad Fleischer and Glenn Davis as marines tasked with guarding him in “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.” Photos by Carol Rosegg.

BY TAMARA BECK

“BENGAL Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” is a lot of nonsense, much of it seriously entertaining. The play purports to be about war and the evils it brings.

Unfortunately Rajiv Joseph’s Broadway debut, running at the Richard Rogers Theatre through 3 July, unveils metaphysics as sloppy as its plotlines. The play centers on the wanderings of a dead Tiger (Robin Williams, also in his Broadway debut) through the streets of Baghdad circa 2003.

When Tom (Glenn Davis), one of the marines guarding the zoo, loses his arm to the bite of the Tiger, fellow marine Kev (Brad Fleischer) kills the Tiger. Kev is then haunted by the Tiger who is searching for meaning. “I’m dead,” he asserts, “why am I still here?”

Robin Williams is uncertain about his state of being in "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.”

As in his recent off-Broadway foray, “Gruesome Playground Injuries” (see review at http://www.bit.ly/m4XQqX), RJ seems to want to be outrageous with an emphasis on the extreme and unlikely.

The Tiger, who claims all tigers are atheists, is suddenly wondering about sin and redemption. As “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” unfolds, it is apparent that everyone is lost and beyond redemption.

Perhaps with the exception of RW, whose angry comic timing is low key and superbly barbed, the actors don’t seem to know whether the play is worthy of their efforts. (Hint: not.) They work hard at selling this material as if it were making a salient, coherent point. (See video at http://http//www.bit.ly/mNbzKB)

While modestly entertaining, “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” like the dying topiaries in Musa’s garden, is as senseless as war itself.

Visit http://www.bengaltigeronbroadway.com/ to learn more about “Bengal Tiger At the Baghdad Zoo.”

3 Decades of 'Gruesome Playground Injuries'

Pablo Schrieber, left, in “Gruesome Playground Injuries.” Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

IN Rajiv Joseph’s “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” the hurt is perpetually horrendous and generally self-inflicted.

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” is an odd love story. Doug (Pablo Schreiber) cherishes Kayleen (Jennifer Carpenter) from the first moment they meet. “Ew gross,” Kayleen says to Dougie at that first meeting in the school nurse’s office as much with fascination as disgust.

Doug and Kayleen continue to meet over a period of 30 years in various emergency rooms. Each scene in this one act play, at Second Stage Theatre until 20 Feb., is introduced on a screen above the stage mostly by the injuries that Doug has suffered. At 13, it’s the Limbo, at 23 a firecracker and at 28 a coma. Throughout, he is protective of Kayleen. Doug’s genuine affection for Kayleen is as constant as the accidents that befall him.

Unfortunately, for all its interesting nuances, “Gruesome Playground Injuries” is more a novelty act than a play. It’s hard to understand why these two are such lost souls or what could be done to mend them. It is near impossible to see what motivated them to a life of self-destruction.

When Dougie first enters the stage, PS perfects the cadences of an 8-year old daredevil, proud of having slid off the roof of the school. He is brilliant over the span of three decades during which Doug is continually wounded, usually by his own actions.

Pablo Schreiber and Jennifer Carpenter in “Gruesome Playground Injuries.”

JC is alternately hardened and vulnerable, at first a damaged girl then a damaged woman. Kayleen’s hurts are smaller, more psychological than Doug’s but also self-inflected and certainly as real as his. At 8, she has stomachaches, at 13 she throws up. Eventually, she takes to cutting herself and takes up with men unworthy of her whom Doug can’t stand. Like Kayleen, Doug is lost to himself.

Although the acting is riveting and the subject matter unusual and interesting, the best thing about “Gruesome Playground Injuries” is the clever set by designer Neil Patel. “Gruesome Playground Injuries” is staged on a platform of stacked translucent boxes filled with water. On either side of the stark set is a wall of drawers from which the actors pull costumes for on-stage costume changes. Besides the auditorium seating, there are several rows of seats embracing the set from behind the stage.

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” is RJ’s second play to premiere at Second Stage Theatre. His next production, “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” is heading for Broadway with no less a name than Robin Williams in the cast.

Visit http://www.2st.com/ to learn more about “Gruesome Playground Injuries.”