Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

A first-class multicultural design, lofty artistic intentions, an award winning play, and a gaggle of talented theater professionals do not necessarily result in compelling theater. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case (at a preview, at least) for the oddly titled "it is said the men are over in The Steel Tower," a collaborative effort linking Theater Arts Japan ("founded to introduce contemporary Japanese plays in English for American audiences"), Kyoto's MONO Theater Company and worken' glacier, a New York-based experimental troupe.

Hideo Tsuchida's play, with a more logical original English title of "The Happy Lads," has undergone an 18-month developmental process and has been the focus of the creative efforts of a number of artists: M. Cody Puolton (English translation), Matthew Paul Olmos (American adaptation), Eriko Ogawa (liaison for American adaptation), and U.S.- German-Israeli director Ronit Muszkatblit. The set (the inside of the steel tower) designed by Tomoyuki Ikeda (awarded best Japanese stage designer of 2006) consists mostly of wood with only a vague suggestion of an Asian motif, created by some cloth hanging on a line.

The dutiful actors (Gili Getz, Christopher Loar, Moti Margolin, Josh Peters and Andy Schneeflock) portray characters (four vaudevillians apparently enlisted to entertain troops and a deserter; all seeking to escape some sort of hostility) have Japanese names and speak like home grown Americans. In the nearly two hours duration of the play (without intermission) most of the action centers on waking up, squabbling about a t-shirt, arguing over the water supply and rehearsing a song and dance routine. There was some mention of what might be happening outside the confines of steel tower, but there wasn't nearly enough dramatic action for me to care about what might happen to the souls within.

I'm not quite sure where things went wrong, perhaps trying a bit too hard to suit New York theater goers. Maybe Theater Arts Japan is confounding itself in wanting "to introduce modern Japanese theater, culture and point of view to American audiences" as well as desiring to "break into the theater of America, not to be seen as only Japanese theatre, but as theatre itself." Hey, you can take Tennessee Williams out of America, but can you take Southern sensibilities out of his plays“