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Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Big Love

. . .if we cannot embrace another what hope do we have of life?
What hope is there to survive at all?
This is why: love trumps all.

—Bella
The Cast (Photo: Charles T. Erickson)
Charles Mee has knack for giving old Greek tragedies outrageous comical and modern twists. Big Love, one of his most popular and inventive updates, is his version of Aeschylus' The Danaids a.k. a. The Suppliant Maidens His kooky spin on the 50 maidens seeking asylum from arranged marriages to their 50 cousins has been around for over a dozen years. It's now being given an enchanting production as part of Mee's current residency at the Signature Theater.

It's not easy to successfully stage Mee's whimsical way of modernizing an ancient text into a semi tragi-comedy with musical interludes and eye popping stage business. But in Tina Landau Mr. Mee has found the perfect partner to turn these women's bloody way of freeing themselves from unions based on family obligations and custom into an exhilarating paean to love.

Mee overcame the problem of putting this 100-strong battle of the sexes on stage, by having three brides and bridegrooms represent this huge family. But Landau has cleverly enlisted projection designer Austin Switser to maintain the enormous scale of the story, as well as provide other visual enhancements.

The projections are just one way Landau has tackled this now as then bizarre story's challenges with great flair. And she's got a terrific design and acting ensemble to help her do so.

These unwilling brides are by no means docile maidens. Their flight and bizarre ultimate escape scheme is the result of their own initiative, not at the behest of their father as was the case with Aeschylus's women. And Rebecca Naomi Jones's Lydia, Libby Winters' Olympia and Stacey Sargeant's Thyona are deftly differentiated rather than cookie cutter characters.

Also given free rein to create distinctive personalities are the three cousins who pursue them —Emanuel Brown as Oed, Ryan-James Hatanaka as Constantine and Bobby Steggert as Nikos. Their landing in a helicopter at the Italian villa where the girls seek asylum is just one of several theatrical coups.

Given Lydia's anti-marriage opinions and her bond with the aggressively anti-men Thyona, it maybe hard to buy into her suddenly falling in love with her betrothed. But not so with charming Bobby Steggert as Nikos, the one groom who actually wants a loving, mutually respectful relationship rather than a marriage to satisfy tradition and a legal contract. He tops off his endearing declaration of affection for Lydia dating back to their childhood with a touching rendition of "I Won't Give Up." If this were a musical like some of Steggert's previous shows (notably Ragtime and Yank) that ballad would be a show stopper. Actually,it did end on a round of applause as did the sisters' passionate claim to independence, "You Don't Own Me." ("You Don't Own Me/ Don't Tie Me Down/ 'Cause I'd Never Stay")


Though Big Love isn't a musical, these pop songs as well as classical music that includes traditional wedding marches add to the aural pleasures. And while there's no choreographer listed, neither is choreography neglected, thanks to the skillful collaboration by Landau and father and son fight directors Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet. The Sordelets deserve a double bravo for helping both trios animate their feelings with some truly amazing acrobatics.



The fact the sisters' escape to Italy via the family's big yacht and mistake a private mansion for a hotel adds to the fun. It also adds several outstanding actors to deliver different points of view about what it takes to live a good and satisfying life: Piero the owner of the villa (Christopher Invar). . . Giuliano (Preston Sadleir) his gay nephew. . . Bella (Lynn Cohn) his mother; and more briefly, Eleanor and Leo (Ellen Harvey and Nathaniel Stampley), two house house guests.

Innvar's Piero is all genial hospitality. He's willing to have the sisters join the party he happens to be giving that weekend. But their request for more than a weekend visit, but asylum for them and the 47 siblings still on board their boat brings his conservatism to the fore. As he put it: "I can't take in every refugee who comes into my garden. . . because the next thing I know I would have a refugee camp here in my home. I'd have a house full of Kosovars and Ibo and Tootsies, boat people from China and god knows whatall." Sound like some of the arguments heard from many nations wanting tighter rather than more lenient immigration policies?

Lynn Cohen, another sprightly octogenarian still at the top of her form, gets to deliver the widowed mama's two long monologues — in the first she amusingly tells her female guests about how she met the husband with whom she had thirteen sons. In the final and more serious one she acts as the judge and jury of how to deal with the aftermath of the wild and bloody wedding night revelries.

Scenic designer Brett J. Banakis has wisely not cluttered up the stage, yet it handily accommodates all of Mee's wild and wooly concepts; for example, the upstage wall opens for the arrival of the three persistent airborne husbands. The scarcity of props adds to the double duty drama of the always on stage bathtub — humorously so for Lydia's strip and splash arrival and more ominously for Constantine's messy finale.

Scott Zielinski's lighting contributes considerable ambiance, as do Anita Yavich's costume — especially the grungy gowns from the wedding that wasn't and white as driven snow ones for the one they finally attend.

As has been typical at the Signature's Irene Diamond Stage, this production takes full advantage of the side aisles as well as the one between rows F and G for numerous entrances and exits off the main playing area. This tends to make the audience feel part of the players and Tina Landau wittily builds on this by having Lydia throw her bouquet right into the audience. It's all theater at its most inventively original and entertaining.

Links to Curtainup reviews of the other plays in Mee's love trilogy:
First Love
True Love

Big Love
Modern adaptation of Aeschylus' The Danaids by Charles Mee
Directed by Tina Landau
Cast: Emanuel Brown (Oed),Lynn Cohen (Bella), Ellen Harvey (Eleanor),Ryan-James Hatanaka (Constantine),Christopher Innvar (Piero),Rebecca Naomi Jones (Lydia), Preston Sadleir (Giuliano),Stacey Sargeant (Thyona), Nathaniel Stampley (Leo), Bobby Steggert (Nikos), Libby Winters (Olympia).
Scenic Design: Brett Banakis
Costume Design: Anita Yavich
Lighting Design: Scott Zielinski
Sound Design: Kevin O'Donnell
Projection Design: Austin Switser
Fight Direction: Rick Sordelet
Production Stage Manager: Brett J.Banakis
Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Signature Theatre Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center
From 2/03/15; opening 2/23/15; closing 3/15/15.
Tuesday Thursday & Friday, 7:30PM; Wednesdays February 4, 11 & 18, 7:30PM ; Wednesdays February 25 and March 4 & 11, 2PM & 7:30PM; Saturday, 2PM & 8PM; Sunday, 2PM; Sundays February 8 & March 1, 2PM & 7:30PM.
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on February 21st press preview
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