Danny Aiello's raspy voice is even raspier than usual. He is suffering from vocal strain. Nevertheless, he is excited to talk about his current project, Susan Charlotte's "The Shoemaker," in which he plays the title role, a character who reaches high emotional levels. It's not surprising his voice is tired. Now running Off-Broadway at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre, the play is set on Sept. 11, 2001, and recounts the tormented experiences of a shoemaker, an Italian Jewish Holocaust survivor (Aiello), encountering two disparate women (Alma Cuervo, Lucy DeVito), who unwittingly force him to confront the ghosts of his past along with his horror in the immediate wake of the terrorist attacks."The Shoemaker" has journeyed from one-act play reading to a film short ("A Broken Sole") to its current two-act staged incarnation, and Aiello has been with it every step of the way, delighted to be reprising the fleshed-out role on.
- 7/26/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Simi Horwitz)
- backstage.com
Shoemaker/Broken Sole Prods.
NEW YORK -- The title of this three-part drama is a play on words. A Broken Sole refers not only to a damaged pair of shoes, but also the psyche of their owner. Sole, soul -- get it?
Sorry to be so obvious, but that's about the same level of subtlety evident throughout the film, directed by Antony Marsellis and featuring a screenplay by Susan Charlotte that is all too obviously based on a stage play. Several notable actors, no doubt attracted by their colorful characters and the overall pseudo-profundity, are trapped in this misbegotten effort concerning the emotional aftereffects of 9/11 on a variety of New Yorkers.
The first segment, set on the fateful day itself, depicts the encounter between a traumatized woman (Judith Light) and the opera-fanatic cobber (Danny Aiello) she desperately turns to for help with the shoe that was broken when she walked all the way uptown after the disaster. The initial edginess between the pair -- he wants only to close up shop -- soon dissipates when they bond over such things as their shared love for the movie "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis."
The second segment is an equally stagy dialogue between a harried real estate broker (Laila Robins) and the eccentric cabbie (Bob Dishy) who picks her up and then practically needs to be coerced to start driving.
The last two-character episode concerns the awkward encounter during the morning after a one-night stand that has occurred between a dyslexic film director (John Shea) obsessed with palindromes and an actress (Margaret Colin).
The artificiality of the proceedings, which are marked by schematic characterizations, obvious metaphors and stilted dialogue, is not alleviated by the director's choice of visuals, which at one point includes pointed close-ups of pairs of items all too obviously meant to evoke the twin towers.
NEW YORK -- The title of this three-part drama is a play on words. A Broken Sole refers not only to a damaged pair of shoes, but also the psyche of their owner. Sole, soul -- get it?
Sorry to be so obvious, but that's about the same level of subtlety evident throughout the film, directed by Antony Marsellis and featuring a screenplay by Susan Charlotte that is all too obviously based on a stage play. Several notable actors, no doubt attracted by their colorful characters and the overall pseudo-profundity, are trapped in this misbegotten effort concerning the emotional aftereffects of 9/11 on a variety of New Yorkers.
The first segment, set on the fateful day itself, depicts the encounter between a traumatized woman (Judith Light) and the opera-fanatic cobber (Danny Aiello) she desperately turns to for help with the shoe that was broken when she walked all the way uptown after the disaster. The initial edginess between the pair -- he wants only to close up shop -- soon dissipates when they bond over such things as their shared love for the movie "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis."
The second segment is an equally stagy dialogue between a harried real estate broker (Laila Robins) and the eccentric cabbie (Bob Dishy) who picks her up and then practically needs to be coerced to start driving.
The last two-character episode concerns the awkward encounter during the morning after a one-night stand that has occurred between a dyslexic film director (John Shea) obsessed with palindromes and an actress (Margaret Colin).
The artificiality of the proceedings, which are marked by schematic characterizations, obvious metaphors and stilted dialogue, is not alleviated by the director's choice of visuals, which at one point includes pointed close-ups of pairs of items all too obviously meant to evoke the twin towers.
- 11/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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