The play, billed as a stroll down Coney Island Avenue, through the neighborhoods of Turks, Pakistanis, Jews, Muslims, Italians, Sikhs, Russians-ending with everyone in their swimming suits dancing on the beach at Coney Island to a Beach Boys number. The play for a dozen actors combines theater, dance, music, video. Presented by Sixdollarsinmypocket productions will present the world premiere of Charles L. Mee's Coney Island Avenue, at New York Theater Workshop's 4th Street Theater ; directed by Anjali Vashi.
Based on Mee’s play, it looks at the varied lives and every day struggles of the dynamic and diverse population of Brooklyn, and includes spoken word, film, live and recorded music, and dance. The talented, high energy cast explores the personal challenges, prejudices, and struggles of being a resident of Brooklyn in the 21st century. The direction by Ms. Vashi seemed sincere and focused, although the play’s essential quality as a pastiche of scenes, dances, multi-media and post-modern comic/dramatic touches, would seem to work against even the best intentions of any director to wrest a completely coherent whole from the mix. For instance, the effort to have the characters break through the 4th wall (cast members' whispered interactions with theater-goers, or lying in the aisles during the beach scene) fell a little flat. A musical it isn't, although the characters are provided with ample opportunity to belt out a heart-felt standard. But overall, a colorful, energetic, and interesting large ensemble production that showed why the NY Theater Workshop (which was the first home of Jonathan Larson’s Rent) remains a dynamic laboratory for off-off Broadway theater in NYC.
Cast: Jenny Bennett, Claudeen Benoit, Angela Bonacci, Ruben Celeberti, Jennifer Leigh Cohen, Tim Dax, Sam Ghosh, William S. Huntley III, Sandhya Jain, Max Jenkins, Haerry Kim, Aryeh Lappin, Franco Pristritto, Rachel Popson, Casey Robinson, Jerilyn Sackler, Bobby Savage, Lauren Sharpe, Chandra Thomas, Nitya Vidyasagar, and Annie Yim. The design team included Sarah Huddleston (sound), Hwi Won Lee (costumes), Dans Sheehan (lighting), Chris Zalewski (filmographer/film production), and Bobby Savage (choreography).
Happily for us, we caught the world premier of C.I.A. just as it was ending its off-off Broadway run. This also collided with a walk we took around our Flatbush neighborhood to Coney Island Avenue yesterday, where the Pakistani-American Day celebration was in full swing. Brooklyn -- ya gotta love it.
Mee's numerous plays include Iphiginea 2.0, Queens Boulevard: The Musical, Paradise Park, Big Love, True Love, First Love, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, Orestes 2.0, Trojan Women 2.0, Summertime and Wintertime.
Mee’s plays are available free online:
http://www.charlesmee.org/html/coney.html
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