Along Came Two Spiders
Manuel Puig's prison drama spins a web on both sides of the river.
Sometimes the stars align: A few years ago we had four local productions of Macbeth in one season, and in another, three versions of August Wilson's Fences within a few months. These happy accidents allow extra insights not only into the material itself, but into the nature of theater.
Today, we're blessed with two adaptations of Manuel Puig's 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman: Puig's own stage play as put on by InterAct Theatre Company, and the 1992 musical by Terrence McNally (book), John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (lyrics) at the Ritz Theatre. They're entertaining, provocative, true to the source material — and very different. Taste determines one's preference.
Marissa Noelle Henriquez
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InterAct's two-man version (also a successful 1985 film) stars Frank X as Molina and Vaneik Echeverria as Valentin, who share an Argentinean prison cell. Molina's committed the crime of homosexual sex while Valentin's imprisoned for revolutionary activity. Puig starts with Molina entertaining Valentin during the night (lights out at 8 p.m.) with stories from old movies, specifically a thriller (1942's Cat People) that Valentin analyzes for allegories about class differences and gender roles while Molina focuses on fashion and passion.
Their bond grows through frank conversations about life and love, deepening when Molina nurses Valentin back to health after his food is poisoned purposefully by the warden, who's bribing Molina to gain Valentin's confidence and report his secrets. Molina avoids politics and danger, but can't resist playing the system for luxuries and, perhaps, freedom. But who will he ultimately betray, and at what cost?
Seth Rozin's production features an appropriately dingy but surprisingly vast cell by Marka Suber, representing their barren existence and the cultural gulf they must traverse to reach each other, and bravely dim lighting by Shannon Zura (most directors and designers would balk at her daring shadows). This Kiss stresses an intimacy that develops in, and despite, grim circumstances; the inspiring romanticism of Molina's beloved movies is created through X's soulful performance, accompanied by Zura's delicately evocative music choices.
The musical expands the story, adding not only the jailers who in Puig's script are offstage voices, but an inmate chorus, the women each man misses, and the title character — a femme fatale from Molina's beloved B films who personifies his fear of death.
Marissa Noelle Henriquez makes a slinky, sensuous Spider Woman at the Ritz, provocatively costumed by Trish Reichfeld and inventively choreographed by Michele Sasse. Director Bruce Curless' energetic staging features Broadway veteran Erick Pinnick as Valentin, with Nicholas Muni as a too-young, too-glib Molina; both, like Henriquez, are powerful, sincere singers. The musical detracts from their growing relationship with songs from Valentin's girlfriend Marta (Carly J. Mooney) and Molina's mother (Jeanne Haynes), as well as Joshua Bessinger as Molina's skittish straight friend Gabriel. The production dips into musical silliness by presenting the warden, the guards and Molina's bitchy co-worker as cartoon villains with inexplicable accents.
Bart Healy's set is so big that it seems small. Valentin and Molina's cell is a tiny platform surrounded by cells on two levels that open up to create a small staging area for the Spider Woman's fantasy (and fantastic) numbers; behind all this, nearly scraping the ceiling, is a metal spider web she climbs for one song. No scene gets the room it deserves.
The musical is brighter (visually and emotionally), and shows us every event; both are romantic, but the play — to me — reveals that more through the characters, and through two brilliant performances, fulfilling an old writing cliche by "showing rather than telling." The theater is an imaginative medium, and some of that imagination should be the audience's. As much as I enjoyed Henriquez's performance, I prefer the sultry women conjured in my head by Frank X's whispers in the dark.
I'll take the play — but what a luxury to have two valid choices.
Kiss Of The Spider Woman, The Musical
Through Nov. 18, Ritz Theatre, 951 White Horse Pike, Haddon Township, N.J., 856-858-5230, www.ritztheatreco.org
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Through Nov. 19, InterAct Theatre Co., The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8079, www.interacttheatre.org
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