Hello Again

The Transport Group Theatre Company is staging Michael John LaChiusa's extraordinary musical adaption of Schnitzler's LA RONDE, called HELLO AGAIN. Directed by Jack Cummings III, it's an environmental staging in a SoHo loft normally utilised as a photographer's studio but now lined with mirrors from different periods and filled with round white tables where the audience sits but which sometimes double as mini-stages where the characters sing, dance or have sex. For HELLO AGAIN is about sex, with the characters coupling and re-coupling in different combinations in different time frames from 1918 to the present day.

The astonishing cast in this flawless production includes Nikka Graff Lazarone (Nick Adams' drama school buddy!) and Alan Campbell (Joe Gillis to Glenn Close's Norma Desmond)...

Elizabeth Stanley (April in John Doyle's COMPANY) and Max von Essen (of whom more later)...

Robert Lenzi, (Lincoln Center's SOUTH PACIFIC),Blake Daniel (SPRING AWAKENING), Jonathan Hammond (Transport Group's BOYS IN THE BAND)...as well as Alexandra Silber who was wonderful as Julie Jordan in the West End CAROUSEL, Bob Stillman(GREY GARDENS) and Rachel Bay Jones, most recently Patti LuPone's standby in WOMEN ON THE VERGE. All of them truly magnificent, funny and touching and vocally thrilling.

 The room was lit with household light fittings and chandeliers making for an eerily atmospheric space and the actors were not miked which might have annoyed some punters who strained to hear lyrics but I adored because it forced us to sit forward and really listen to the nuances and clever subtle links between the episodes. We found ourselves seated at the same table as BROADWAY BEAT host Richard Ridge who was kind enough to introduce us to the director so we could kiss the hem of his garment, and we also introduced ourselves to Miss Silber (who had seen PRISCILLA in London and had spent time in Australia with her ex-partner Damian Humbley), Mr. Stillman (who had been fired from LEGS DIAMOND for being too good and overshadowing the star Peter Allen the DAY BEFORE we saw the show, a memory which still rankled when I brought it up!) and  Mr. von Essen who is a mate of our darling friends and PRISCILLA alumni Sean McGrath and David Spencer. We took pics of Max von E to prove to Sean and David that we had finally met up with him (also pictured, Richard Ridge).