February 9, 2006
BALM IN GILEAD is NOMINATED for the 2006 LA WEEKLY THEATRE AWARDS
Best Revival Production of the Year
Best Supporting Male Performance: Christian Levatino (as Dopey)
Excerpts from a review in Backstage West by Dink O’Neal on June 9, 2005.
“Director Leon Shanglebee and his merry band of 27 cast members and onstage musicians score points for tackling this unrelentingly offbeat script. The troupe pulls no punches in this psychosis-laden story set in and around a 1960s New York ghetto cafe. …imagine Hot L Baltimore on smack…The whole thing feels like a heroin-laced bowl of oatmeal… Shanglebee has assembled a core of strong talent. Gary Poux's Joe is a subtle mix of self-protective savvy and compassion for those less fortunate. Michael Flowers as Rake, a sideburn-festooned, urban guitarist, attacks Wilson's fourth wall, breaking monologues with gusto. As Ann, a streetwise hooker, and Darlene, a newbie just off the bus from Chicago, Karen Maxwell and JJ Pyle respectively hold their own in this coarse, male-dominated environment. But, for my money, Christian Levatino's turn as Dopey, a Mephistophelian narrator of sorts, is unequaled. His creepy forays to our side of the footlights are tinged with a dangerous unpredictability, just the sort of risky energy this production calls for…Lighting, credited to Fontaine, ranges from natural to Brechtian…”
Review in L.A. Weekly by Sandra Ross on June 2, 2005.
*LA Weekly Recommended*
“Leon Shanglebee’s superb direction distinguishes this revival of Lanford Wilson’s 1965 play about the patrons of a seedy Needle Park diner. Updating the action to 1973, Shanglebee adeptly captures what Wilson found so fascinating about street life but wisely refrains from sentimentalizing or glamorizing the characters. The opening scene is highly engaging: The colorful clientele flit from one table to the next, squabbling over drugs and money. While the café functions as a haven for pushers, pimps and prostitutes, the owner (Tee C. Williams) isn’t averse to ejecting a desperate barefoot addict (James Gilbert) or enforcing a 50-cent minimum per table. Amid the various clusters of characters and conversations, the main plot follows the burgeoning romance between Darlene (J.J. Pyle), a naive new arrival, and charismatic dealer Joe (Gary Poux). The huge ensemble handles the overlapping dialogue well, and live music, seamlessly incorporated into the play, adds to the ambiance. Many of the performers shine in smaller roles, most noticeably Christian Levatino and Mary Kelsey. Gangbusters Theater Company in association with the MET Theater, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood.; Tues.-Wed., 8 p.m.; thru July 6. (213) 864-9365"
Excerpts from a review in entertainment today by Travis Micheal Holder on May 27, 2005
“New York City’s notoriously drug-addled Needle Park is described as "almost respectable in the daytime" by one of the characters in Lanford Wilson’s 1963 Balm in Gilead, now revived weeknights at the Met…After dark during that era, Needle Park, the place where the playwright himself living during his early lean years, became inhabited by hustlers, whores, pimps, pushers, junkies, minor gangsters and perpetual losers—folks just trying to survive ‘til morning. The young Wilson makes this world seem oddly endearing, something director Leon Shanglebee has managed to recreate with vibrant, jarring results. It’s Shanglebee who must be commended the most here because, although fascinating, Balm in Gilead is definitely Wilson before Hot L Baltimore, before the Pulitzer, before the Talleys returned to Missouri, before the gentrification of New York during the Giuliani years…As clunky and difficult as this play is to stage, however, Shanglebee has made monumental strides, only accented by an excellent onstage band playing for donations outside the café, led by musical director Mike Flowers, who also contributes the evening’s finest performance as a sped-out rentboy named Rake… Shanglebee has employed a strikingly coherent signature vision…Gangbusters’ Balm in Gilead [is], well gangbusters.”