Communicating Doors
Suffield Players, Suffield, CT thru March 6, 2010 -
www.suffieldplayers.org
by Shera Cohen -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
You don’t have to be a “Lost” fan to fully appreciate
“Communicating Doors,” but it might help. Britain ’s “Neil
Simon,” Alan Ayckbourn penned this comic, science fiction,
mystery before the cult TV show began. Perhaps “Lost"’s writers
saw the play, said “great concept,” and the rest is history?
Toss sex and murder into the plot mix and there’s a lot to like
in “Doors.” Set over the course of one day, yet in a
40-year time span (sounds odd, but true) are six characters
whose lives intertwine in 1984, 2004, and 2040. The lead role is
that of a twenty-something, which makes the literal timing all
the more purposely confusing. Time moves back and forth at the
drop of a hat – actually at the opening of a door. The set is a
hotel suite, beautifully crafted with three rooms, a balcony,
and a surprise. The latter is a key element, as important as any
of the characters. Well-executed lighting and sound design help
create the mystery. A novice (yet fully equipped) dominatrix is
our heroine. Relative newcomer Becky Rodia Schoenfeld portrays
Phoebe with sweetness and naiveté. She is ever-present onstage,
the lynchpin who keeps the steady swift pace from scene to
scene. Schoenfeld is a top-notch young comedian who doesn’t mind
throwing her whole body into the action. Much of her time is
spent in dialogue and antics with Ruella, played by veteran
actress Mary Fernandez-Sierra. The two characters’ immediate
connection and rapport is honest. These total strangers care
about each other and the audience cares about them. Dale
Facey’s direction nicely transitions from one decade to another
and back again, yet on the same set in different time-warps.
Albeit, the play is a bit long and small cuts would have been
helpful. A section in Act I requires an elderly man to collapse,
perhaps with a heart attack. This is done in humor, yet the
audience cannot see the actor since the couch blocks the
audience’s view. Had we seen it, there would have been more
laughs. The writer has strewn his play with clever dialogue, the
director with physical humor, and the actors with the best
English accents heard on a community theatre stage.
Les Liaisons Dangereuse
Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA through March, 21, 2010
by Shera Cohen -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Most of the characters in “Les Liaisons Dangereuse” are evil
personified. They are also smart, handsome, sophisticated,
highbrow, cunning, vengeful, and, “evil” bears repeating.
Christopher Hampton’s play, set in 1780s Paris, is created as a
game, both visually and verbally. The squares on the floor and
the sharp banter between the two lead roles add up to a
championship chess competition. The stakes are high, even for
the winner. At play’s end, it is difficult to determine who
loses more. “Liaisons” is mounted at the intimate Bernstein
Theatre. The 18 scenes fluently move from one to the next in the
form of dance, accompanied by period music. From the play’s
opening note, the chess/dance begins. Clever at first, the
characters’ jumping from square to square becomes too obvious.
It is safe to say that everyone in the audience “got it” – this
is a deadly match, albeit with some humor. It is hard to believe
that, when last seen at Shakespeare, Elizabeth Aspenlieder and
Josh Aaron McCabe each starred in comedies. They were
uproarious, throwing themselves (even physically) into their
roles. While reserved in demeanor that befits “Liaison’s”
characters, the actors portray villains with capital “Vs”.
Aspenlieder’s Marquise is the brighter and worse of the two,
excusing her motives because she is of the weaker sex. Ha!
McCabe’s Vicomte pads his evil ways with humor, making him a bit
more palatable as a human being. Aspenlieder surpasses herself
in each new role. McCabe has not appeared often to date, but one
hopes he will. Tina Packer directs her actors in supporting
roles, some with more stage time than others, so that each
embodies a character not to be forgotten. Tony Simotes is to be
credited as choreographer of the lengthy frightening sword and
dagger fight in Act II. Normal human emotions of jealousy
and revenge, betrayal and cruelty run rampant among “Liaison’s”
population. The play is far more than a battle of the sexes.
Good vs. evil is too simplistic. The Marquise exclaims, “This is
war!” And the audience relishes every evil moment. For mature
audiences.
The
Lion King
The Bushnell, Hartford
by Shera
Cohen -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
While many theatre-lovers have taken sides on the Disneyfication
of today’s musical theatre – its effects on the medium,
audiences, and future audiences – this review takes “The Lion
King” strictly at face value. The fact that its Broadway opening
earned just about every theatre award given is no surprise.
Perhaps a bit surprising to some is that the national tour, in
cities such as Hartford , is equal in presentation, skill,
special effects, costuming, and choreography. “Lion King” in CT
compares equally to NYC’s “Lion King.” The story, straight
from the movie version, offers some life lessons to lions and to
humans, particularly the children in both species. There’s drama
and humor – the later on two levels for the appreciation of the
kids and their adult chaperones. Elton John and Tim Rice’s music
ranges from contemporary rock (“The Morning Report”) to ballads
(“The Live in You”) to calypso, and more. Of course, there is
the expected beauty of “Circle of Life” and contagious beat of “Hakuna
Matata.” Singers shine, particularly in “Shadowland” and
“Endless Night.” All of this makes for the foundation of a good
musical. The “wow effect” of “Lion King,” and far bigger
than the songs, singers, and story combined, is the staging. The
real stars are exquisitely talented director/costume designer
Julie Taymor and choreographer Garth Fagan. Unfortunately,
neither appears onstage to receive standing ovations.
“Lion King” is a visual delight with humans portraying life-size
animals, birds, and vegetation. It is easy to only see the
costumes and masks. Yet the faces of each actor “underneath”
perfectly reflect his/her character. The backdrops of shimmering
sun, dessert, sky, mountains, and elephant graveyard are
massive. Color abounds in the come-to-life imaginations of the
young lions. Technology is state-of-the-art in creating the art
of live theatre, particularly in the stampede scene. Fagan,
known for his choreography of his own famous dance troupe, as
well as works performed by troupes across the globe, has created
movements perhaps unseen onstage before “Lion King’s” debut.
As for opening night’s audience, chock full of children, it was
a pleasure to hear their sounds of exclamation, lion “grrrrs,”
and questioning “Is that real?!”
Almost,
Maine
Majestic Theater, West
Springfield through February 14, 2010
www.majestictheater.com
by Shera Cohen -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
“Almost, Maine ” is charming, delightful, funny, and sweet.
“Almost, Maine ” is also poignant, sad, powerful, and harsh.
This is a non-existent town located in northern Maine where, on
a Friday night, one can see the beauty of the aurora borealis
lights, taste moose paddies, and fall in or out of love. John
Cariani’s dialogue is as crisp as the cold winter night setting.
Scene after scene offers the opportunity for clichéd one-liner
responses between characters. Yet, the playwright takes the
story on a more difficult path. Lines are tossed back and forth,
seemingly on one level – then the surprise, or a series of
surprises. Cariani’s work is clever as he balances the literal
meaning of words with ways in which humans understand them; i.e.
“falling in love” does not mean to fall on the ground…or does
it? The play is actually a series of vignettes, loosely strung
together. Four actors portray many roles each. Every scene is a
mini-play about a couple, with actors pairing off in as many
ways as the math will permit. Equity actors Sandra Blaney and
Dan Whelton perform with non-Equity players Kait Rankins and Tim
Cochran. All actors are evenly matched in skill and versatility.
To see the range of talent of each player is worth the ticket
price. Any one of the foursome shifts from a half-crazed being
to a sober and somber person in the time it takes to change a
parka. Segues of fast scene changes and minimal props to create
both indoor and outdoor settings seem easy, but are probably
not. The constant backdrop of stars, projected moving titles,
and music help set up each segment. Director Keith
Langsdale, for the most part, orchestrates his quartet smoothly
within scenes and between them. On occasion, one actor
completely blocks out another. As the play continues to run its
course, this will undoubtedly be “fixed.” For theatergoers
looking for a “real” play, “Almost, Maine ” might not fit their
expectations. However, for those seeking fine theatre starring
four outstanding actors, a trip to the deep freeze of a pretend
town in Maine is worth the trip.
In the Heights
The Bushnell, Hartford -
www.bushnell.org
by Shera Cohen -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
While the title of “In the Heights” refers to New York ’s
Washington Heights neighborhood, this is a musical that’s high
on life, dreams, challenges, and changes. The story may be
universal for all eras, yet this is very much a contemporary
show evidenced particularly by the multi-racial cast, songs that
toss English and Spanish lyrics back and forth, and atypical
choreography unlike any that Rodgers & Hammerstein, Mel Brooks,
or the Disney staff could imagine. First to be noticed is
the set. Wow! Against the backdrop of the Washington Bridge are
floor to ceiling tenements, quite real with cracks to see
through windows, doors, and walls. Storefronts create the ground
level, where most of the action takes place. Second noticed is
Kyle Beltran as Usnavi (leading role) spouting a rap song about
his life and community. This reviewer wasn’t the only audience
member to worry that the entire play would be rap, hip-hop, and
generally not understood by anyone over age 25. Any reservation
did not last long, as every word of Beltran’s song was not only
distinct, but carried the plotline forward. While hip-hoppers
jumped and jived all over the stage, this was true to their
characters. Twenty-somethings are not going to waltz or do
precision can-can. The dialogue is minimal, as the songs flow
one after each other, with each better and more rousing that the
last. There is the usual showstopper – “$96,000” – surprisingly
followed by four more showstoppers. It is hard to keep up with
and equally hard to stop clapping. Each actor is given his/her
moment in the sun. Those in the roles of Benny, Nina, Carla,
Sonny and Nina instantly become individuals to like. Beltran’s
Usnavi is so charming and naïve that it’s hard to resist the
temptation to take him home as a pet. Some of the plot of Act II
is a bit disjointed, but minimally noticed against constant
dancing that comes from nowhere and is contagious, the clever
lighting, a pit band to beat the best of them, and one of the
best touring companies to reach Hartford and the U.S.A.
Piecemeal – The
Frankenstein Musical
Majestic Theater, West Springfield, MA
through December 6, 2009
by Shera Cohen - In the Spontlight -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
“Piecemeal” has taken a known entity – the story of Frankenstein
– and created a humorous, loveable, musical prequel. The
Majestic presents local playwright Howard Odentz’s version of
how Dr. F., Igor, the Monster, et al came to be. Not only did
Odentz write the play, he composed the music. Perhaps one of
this young man’s best talents is his sense of humor with lyrics.
The set is dark with a brick-like haunted house center stage.
Dry ice flows thick, bolts of lighting appear. The staging is
exactly what it should be, complete with graveyard, damsel in
the belfry, and the very important “lab-or-a-tory.” Period
costumes and coifs, eerie sounds, and body parts strewn about
add to the expected macabre tone. Accents are British, but
sometimes hard to understand by audience members. However,
most of the major elements are unexpected, which makes
“Piecemeal” a pleasure to see. This is not an overdone plot, but
one that takes twists and turns from opening number to finale.
The main characters are not what audience members would expect
either. The focus is on Igor (remember Marty Feldman’s “walk
this way”) as a child who becomes an adult. What a horrible life
he has, yet he has dreams that he pursues. He’s a Gothic
“Rocky,” and we root for him. Nick Gilfor (young Igor) is so
precious, and Scott Zenreich (adult Igor) is an excellent actor
who can also sing well. As if there isn’t enough going on, toss
in a love story as well a few stuffed animals. Music
abounds throughout, with nearly every song carrying the plot
forward. While the story and set bring to mind images of
“Oliver” meets “Sweeney Todd,” the score moves from honky tonk
to 50s doowop to soulful melodic ballads. The cast includes many
with skilled, trained voices; i.e. Luis Manzi, Frank Aronson,
Laura Lites, and R. Steve Pierce. This is Pierce’s first time at
the Majestic. His demeanor, voice, and movement create his
stylish fop character. “I Love to Sew” is a showstopper.
Zenreich and Lite’s dramatic and tender duet brings romance into
Act II. And Zenreich’s “Choices” replicates “Rocky’s” run up the
steps. Most of all “Piecemeal” is very funny. Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein would burst his stitches enjoying this
new musical.
A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Goodspeed, East Haddam, CT -
www.goodspeed.org
by Shera Cohen - In the Spotlight -
www.inthespotlight.org
The introductory song of “Forum” says it all. “Comedy Tonight”
is exactly what takes place on the Goodspeed stage. The plot is
silly, the women are sexy, and the characters are stupid – all
with a capital “S.” One of Stephen Sondheim’s early works, it is
also one of the more accessible. Perhaps better known for
profound lyrics that move the play forward rather than beautiful
music, Sondheim does show off his skill as a wordsmith. However,
this time the text is all for laughs. “Forum,” set in 200 BC,
takes the audience to a cartoon setting painted with bright
colors. It’s a tale of noblemen and slaves, eunuchs and
courtesans, long marriages and young love, warriors and wimps,
mistaken identities, and cross dressing. Let’s not forget the
rubber chicken. This is vaudeville at its best, an increscent
flow of one-liners with ba-da-bing endings. The story is sexist,
risqué, dated (okay, it’s Ancient Rome), and full of shtick.
What could have been a drama about a slave seeking freedom is
immediately tossed aside and replaced by constant comedy.
Throughout the play, the fourth wall (the audience) is
completely open. There is no pretense of anything serious, and
as the first song also states – expect a happy ending. There are
three categories of characters/actors: an ensemble of those in
leading roles, curvaceous women who stand a lot, and a trio of
Proteans (think Keystone Cops, each portraying a dozen roles
each). Adam Heller (Pseudolus) works up a literal sweat as he
creates the chaotic plot. David Wohl (Senex) underplays so well
that he becomes one of the top laugh-getters. If John Scherer (Hysterium)
had failed in his role of the nervous nelly, by the book,
feigned female, a huge chunk of “Forum” would have sunk in the
nearby Atlantic Ocean . All went swimmingly well, as this is an
actor whose every nuance is the epitome of humor and comic
timing. Director Ted Pappas moves his motley groups of
characters (many dressed to look like jesters) at a very fast
clip. “Forum” is a broad show with lots of physical humor. As
dark winter comes to New England , take a trip to Rome , aka
Goodspeed, for bright shinny fun.
The Hound of the
Baskervilles
(Shakespeare & Company, Lenox through
November 8, 2009)
by
Shera Cohen -
In the Spotlight -
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Leave any reverence for Sherlock Holmes or
Arthur Conan Doyle at home before attending “The Hound of the
Baskervilles” at Shakes&Co. The play’s title is the only element
of Doyle’s work that is still in tact. In just three weeks,
director Tony Simotes has created one of the funniest play
productions since “The Complete Works” and “Irma Vep.” In fact,
blend the ingredients of theme and caricatures of “Works” and “Vep”
and mix in dashes of any Monty Python spoof (for younger
readers, think “Spamalot” without the music), and the U.S.
premier of “Hound” becomes a delicious dish. While the plot of
the original “Hound” forms the framework, it’s easy for the
audience to realize within the first minute that this is no
ordinary Holmes, the sleuth. The big mystery of this “Hound” is
to wonder, how does Simotes pull it all together and how do
three actors pull it off? The answers don’t really matter, as
the end results are that they succeed phenomenally. To
paraphrase the playbill, Simotes stated that he wanted to
present a richly layered play that speaks profound truths about
the human condition. “But instead, I directed this.” That was a
tease for the next two-hours of non-stop comedy onstage and
audience laughter. The sound effects are howling dogs. The
lights are dim, creating gigantic shadows. The set is sparse;
i.e. it’s unbelievable what can be done with an old park bench.
The costumes are many because two the actors portray multi-roles
(male and female). The pace is fast, faster, and fastest as the
story moves to its conclusion. Josh Aaron McCabe and Ryan
Winkles are flawless in creating physical humor. While McCabe
seems quite sober at first, he surprises in his hysterical roles
as a Gypsy dancer and diminutive person (okay, a 3 foot hermit).
Winkles is this year’s Shakes&Co. shining young star. He can do
nothing wrong. His Scottish farmer with lamb in a sack is
priceless. Jonathan Croy (a Shakes&Co. old timer) has the
unenviable task of playing the semi-straight man, receiving
fewer laughs than his cohorts. Ahhh, the price of fame.
Finally, kudos to the costume changers. Thank goodness for
Velcro
The
Bacchae by Steve
Capra
(Shakespeare in the Park, Public Theater, NYC)
Euripedes won The Dionysius Festival award for Best Tragedy
award in 405 BC (a year after his death) for The Bacchae. This
year, New York’s Public Theater is producing it as part of its
Shakespeare in the Park program. They can be excused for the
anachronism… The Bacchae isn’t the best Greek tragedy. Most of
the action has already taken place before the play begins, or
else it takes place offstage and we hear about the events
through reports. This is perhaps just as well, since that action
involves cannibalism and dismemberment, among other
unpleasantries. Nonetheless, director Joanne Akalaitis and her
cast make a notable, not splendid, production out of the script.
Jonathan Groff plays Dionysius, the god disguised in jeans as a
mortal, with the effeminate sexuality of Jim Morrison, and well
done. Joan Macintosh has the production’s bravura moment as
Agave, when she discovers that she’s murdered her son and is,
indeed, holding his skull in hands. A classic Greek recognition.
She lets out a prolonged shriek worthy of Fay Wray (King Kong),
and she melts like the Margaret Hamilton (Oz). It’s marvelous
moment of histrionic abandon. Unfortunately, the other
principles are no more than serviceable. But the production’s
best moments occur during the choral odes, the most challenging
passages of any script. Akalaitis has put her women – they’re
all women – in red sort-of pantaloons, and she’s given them
marvelous movement that is not merely blocking but not yet
dance. They’re almost always doing the same thin physically, but
the movement choices leave each an individuality. Best of
all, they sing the odes, intelligibly and demonically, to Philip
Glass’ fascinating, pulsating music. The four musicians play
three brasses and percussion, and the sound is commanding and
elegantly simple. The set of this direct, minimalist
production has an upstage of non-parallel bleaches. They form
beautiful lines, but they have an incomplete look. Dionysius’
long opening monologue is spoken before a smoking geyser and,
later, a thin volcanic crevice appears running the depth of the
stage, red from inner lighting. Terrific!
Alexander Pushkin's
Boris
Gudunov by Steve
Capra
(The Chekhov International Festival, Lincoln Center Festival,
Park Avenue Armory)
Declan Donnellan is a Brit, but he’s staged Pushkin’s Boris
Gudunov (1825) with a Russian company from The Chekhov
International Festival. It was presented a part of The Lincoln
Center Festival at The Park Avenue Armory, in Russian with
English supertitles. It was wonderful, satisfying theatre, as
crisp and pointed as Pushkin’s blank verse. Godunov was the
Russian czar around 1600. Pushkin took as fact the belief that
he had murdered the Czarevitch Dmitri, the child son of Ivan the
Terrible, to gain the throne. The antagonist is a monk who
pretends to be Dmitri grown (czarevitch as survivor) and mounts
an army with the help of Polish nobles. The plot is the story of
his assault on Boris’ czarist forces, Godunov’s death from
conscience, and the pretender’s victory. It’s said that this
play inspired Macbeth, and indeed, the script is like a lean
Shakespearean tragedy. Like Shakespeare, Pushkin shows us all of
society, from the court to the tavern. The descent to the common
allows for comedy when the bar staff deal with both soldiers and
a drunken bully. What a choice of devils! The Shakespearean
overtones are explicit when the supertitle translation reads
“Oh, what a noble mind!” as a court official refers to Gudonov.
The line is from Hamlet, but the point holds. Like Shakespeare,
as well, Donnellan mixes periods to keep the theme current. On
throne, Godunov looks as czarist as we could want in rich robes,
but off-duty he and his men wear suits. The pretender and his
aristocratic retinue wear tuxedos. The battles, of course, are
designed with the unmistakable uniform of the soldier. From the
opening, with eight, cowled monks and the scent of incense, the
production is spare in design and rich in effect. In the large
armory space, the audience straddles the long, narrow stage. The
piece is stunning when the monks hold one-foot candles in
three-foot holders, and rich in sound when the monks chant under
lines. A square of the floor is removed to produce a pool for
the scene when the monk-turned-politico woos his mistress, and
the political becomes the personal in her ambition. This
elegant, simple production runs only about two hours, yet
manages to present a great scope. However Pushkin might have
imagined the staging, Donnellan has the advantage of being able
to draw from Brecht’s techniques. It’s through the simple
suggestiveness of epic theatre that drama manages to be, well,
epic, and still retain dramatic tension. And so when Pushkin’s
characters are in public, Donnellan lights the audience. We
become Moscovites - or they become Americans, depending on how
you look at it. He keeps the politics immediate with reference
to waterboarding when a soldier is interrogated (his head is
held in a bucket of water). The production is never overweight,
never slight, never dull and never rushed. It balances its
various elements exquisitely.
Life and Fate
by Steve Capra
(The Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg)
The production of Life and Fate presented in New York as part of
the Lincoln Center Festival is from The Maly Drama Theatre, St.
Petersburg, Russia. It’s adapted from Vasily Grossman’s
celebrated Russian novel, set during World War Two. There are
various Russian locals, but the chief setting is a Moscow
apartment. Its occupants are the family of a nuclear scientist,
Shtrum, and most of the action of the play concerns his
relationship with the Stalinist government. The production is in
Russian with English supertitiles.
Lev Dodin’s staging of the play is brilliant, stunning stagework.
His stage presents several locales at once fading into one
another – the apartment, a work camp, a battlefield… What’s
more, the characters show up in scenes where they have no
business being. As the camp prisoners discuss cruelty and
patriotism, the family is present, surrounding them, listening
silently. The battle of Stalingrad takes place literally around
the scientist’s bed, he and his wife entangled in love. The play
opens with a recurrent image: the characters – many of whom
never meet each other in the action of the play – are silently
playing volleyball. The first words come from a woman who is
nowhere in particular. She’s the mother of the Jewish scientist,
killed by the Nazis, reciting her final letter to him, and she
shows up a number of times. These two motifs create mythical
moments, outside of the period of the action.
Dodin’s adaptation of the novel exploits
the unique strength of theatre and does what a novel cannot do.
It reminds us that in any moment other moments present. He shows
them to us at once. We’re all connected; we all create a net. A
volleyball net. The play’s chief theme is political. We watch as
Shtrum’s relationship with the government reverses, and he’s
approved by Stalin. When he asked to sign a document condemning
other scientists he capitulates, with “I feel very sorry or you,
but your fate is not mine”. Just as cogent is the flashing
between the Soviet work camp and the Nazi POW camp, when the
volleyball net becomes a fence. It makes no difference. A camp
is a camp, and a dictator is a dictator. Unfortunately, Dodin
has attempted more than any stage can handle, and the play is
much too long. There are long speeches and political talk that
weigh down the vehicle. And there’s melodrama when the script
dwells on points that would be better merely suggested. Shtrum
has a long monologue before he loses his integrity, and we don’t
need to see this inner monologue. If Dodin’s staging lacks
delicacy, its luscious, complex texture is bold and welcome, an
enormously creative method of adaptation.
Carlo Goldoni’s
Trilogia della
villegiatura by
Steve Capra
(Piccolo Teatro di Milano and the Teatro Uniti di Napoli,
Lincoln Center Festival)
As part of the Lincoln Center Festival, the Piccolo Teatro di
Milano and the Teatro Uniti di Napoli presented Carlo Goldoni’s
Trilogia della villegiatura (in Italian with English
supertitles). Goldoni was an 18th century Venetian, and his
plays – there are more than 100 of them - are Italian classics.
He wrote in a comedy of manners, satirizing his society. The
plot of Trilogia concerns two bourgeois families and their
circle. They spend a vacation in the country replete with
romantic entanglements. Under the direction of Toni
Servillo, this production gives the script a luscious, refined
mise-en-scène. When the actress peers into a bin, she bends from
the waist, and her back forms a lovely curve. This concern with
gesture is clear throughout the play; the actors isolate
movements and invest them with italianite grace. The sets
reflect the refined aesthetic, with hanging vines and a gorgeous
yellow sun. The lights pour a dappled rural pattern on the stage
floor. And there are the sound of crickets and thunder, to
complete the texture. Goldini
developed Italian theatre away from commedia del arte, but we
can see its ghosts on stage. The lead characters are tall and
handsome; the minor characters – the clowns – are short and
dorky. There’s a fool catching flies. Upstage of the other
characters, he’s a comment on them as well as one of them.
Concerned largely with food and card-playing, the characters are
drowning in trivialities. But the script rises above the
trivial. The characters’ fashion-centered superficiality, their
utter uselessness, is a timeless theme, as is their
overspending. Money, of course, is our perennial concern.
But foremost in this play is the concern with convention.
Betrothed to one man but in love with another, our heroine
marries not for love, but for duty. Or is it for appearance?
“One must choose honor before life,” she tells us. But also “My
reputation’s at stake. It’s too horrible to consider.” In
Goldini, dialogue had not yet developed subtlety. Characters
explain their emotions, and the texture of their conversation is
more self-conscious than natural. But when the actress says “Te
amo… te amo… te amo…,” we want nothing else in the world.
The Dreamer Examines
His Pillow by
Shera Cohen
(Shakespeare & Company, Lenox)
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Many audience members, especially newcomers, to Shakespeare &
Company do not realize two important factors. First,
approximately half of the plays presented in a given season are
not written by the Bard. Second, many plays (Shakespearean or
otherwise) are mounted at the new Bernstein Theatre. Shakes &
Co. is a campus of happenings nearly round-the-clock. In
addition to Founders Stage (mainstage) and Bernstein, there are
at least three other venues. Back to the “otherwise plays”
at Bernstein. “The Dreamer Examines His Pillow,” by playwright
John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt”), is very much contemporary in its
very explosive power of words, relationships, humor, and angst.
Response to the reading of “Dreamer” at last year’s Studio
Festival of Plays offered the Shakes & Co. staff a preview of
what audiences wanted to see. The full house on a Wednesday
night (not your typical “theatre” night) instantly rose to a
standing ovation at the play’s conclusion. Donna and Tommy broke
up. Tommy takes up with Donna’s young sister. Donna goes to dad
for advice. Dad could care less. This is the four sentence
synopsis of “Dreamer.” Doesn’t sound like much of a play let
alone one of intensity. Add some twists. Donna still loves
Tommy, yet is confused and upset. Tommy still loves Donna, yet
doesn’t have a clue where his life is headed. Dad has the
experience and wisdom to help the situation of both young
people, yet is far from overjoyed to do so. Each is scared to
help him/herself as well as each other. Herein, is the real play
about father/daughter and male/female relationships, love and
sex, art and soul shown with intensity and laughter. The
language is beautifully poetic, especially in the soliloquies.
Director Tod Randolph moves her cast of three seamlessly and
purposefully for the most part. Actors John Douglas Thompson,
and newcomers Miriam Hyman and Bowman Wright share equal time
onstage. They are dynamic in their various duet conflicts.
“Dreamer” is a play for mature audiences.
Freud’s Last Session
by Shera Cohen
(Barrington Stage, Pittsfield -
www.barringtonstageco.org)
It was a wise decision to bring encore performances of “Freud’s
Last Session” – the play which kicked-off Barrington Stage’s
2009 season – back to complete the company’s summer months of
plays. Another excellent choice was to mount “Freud” at Stage 2
located a few blocks from the Mainstage. This intimate theatre
with its smaller stage and fewer seats is ideal for the audience
to closely eavesdrop on the conversations of Dr. Sigmund Freud
and author C.S. Lewis. While Freud and Lewis probably never met
in 1939 (the play’s time) or at any other time, does not matter.
Their discussion, which is the script, is timeless. Born a Jew,
Freud was a staunch atheist eager to preach his beliefs. Lewis,
on the other hand, was a steadfast Christian. Lewis enters the
study of the eminent, elderly, and dying Freud, and their
80-minute conversation starts. A one-act play, with only two
characters, one of whom audience members might not know (Lewis
wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia”), arguing the merits of
religion as well as life vs. suicide could easily become a
snoozer. Excellent acting, directing, pace, humor, and setting
(yes, the couch was ever present) keeps the verbal action
intelligent and quick like a fine game of chess.Martin Rayner’s
Freud is sick with incurable cancer, yet still brilliant and
witty. The actor, perhaps half the age of Freud at 83, truly
fleshes out the doctor. Yes, there is mention of psychoanalysis
and sex, but the audience observes far more about Freud as a
husband, father, and atheist. Mark H. Dold (a regular at
Barrington ) portrays Lewis as unassertive, not yet famous, and
intimidated by the renowned Freud. Yet, he grows -- through
posture, voice, and physical proximity to Freud -- as a man to
be reckoned with. Rather than adversaries, the two men become
respectful debaters. The trappings of the period set, along with
sounds of airplane bombers and radio broadcasts of caution, are
seen and heard throughout the play. Kudos to the backstage crew.
Camelot
by Karolina Sadowicz
Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT thru 9/19 -
www.goodspeed.org
The tale of Camelot begins with a somber, apprehensive
prologue.King Arthur is about to go to war against Lancelot, his
beloved friend and knight, who stole off with the queen. The
story is so familiar, and yet the mournful chorus and rumbling
orchestra make the blood rush with anticipation as the audience
is whisked away to the day it all began. Broadway regular
Bradley Dean commands love and respect as a gregarious, playful
King Arthur. Erin Davies as Guenevere is lithe and alluring in
her vanity and lust for romance, and awakens in her king a
desire to be a great man. In their first encounter they charm
and disarm each other with such delight that it’s hard to
believe there is heartbreak ahead. “Camelot” exceeds
expectations from the first note. Though the theatre is small
and intimate, the sound, light, and performances are Broadway
caliber. Richly costumed by designer Alejo Vietti, the
production is an ongoing exhibition of gowns, fur capes, and
armor that ooze with royal splendor and lush textures. The
simple but versatile set changes drastically with evocative,
dramatic lighting, and creates a very strong sense of place.
There is, however, nothing static about the performance. Superb
vocal performances from the leads and ensemble carry notes of
joy, excitement, longing, and anguish, making each moment bigger
and more powerful. French actor Maxime de Toledo is effortlessly
charming as Lancelot, and affable both in his hopeful grandeur
and surprising humility. No one is surprised when Guenevere
gives him her heart, because the audience has already done the
same. Ronn Carroll plays a hilarious Pellinore and carefree foil
to an increasingly mature and troubled Arthur. Adam Shonkwiller
slithers about as the villainous Mordred, impossible to like
even before he orchestrates the downfall of Guenevere, Lancelot,
and all of Camelot. Creative staging by director Rob Ruggiero
makes use of the aisles, allowing the actors to make the
performance both more intimate and grand. Full of emotional
peaks, beautiful music, and flawlessly timed humor, “Camelot” is
an absolute delight that can be relished for days after the
final bow.
Tanglewood on Parade
by Shera Cohen
Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
www.inthespotlightinc.org
In spite of the fact there were no floats or horses, this
“parade” was certainly full of music – in fact the best music in
all of Massachusetts and probably New England . Started six
decades ago, Tanglewood on Parade is an annual all-day event
appreciated by more than 10,000 people. Overlooking the throngs
of audience goers, particularly those on the lawn, the figure of
10,000 is conservative. The weather undoubtedly increased the
expected crowds as this was a perfect Tanglewood day. Four
orchestras performed various pieces from 2pm until the grand
finale fireworks at 11pm. Admission included 14 separate
concerts to choose from in 7 venues including troubadours on the
lawn. This was a who’s who of conductors (John Williams, James
Levine, Keith Lockhart, Leonard Slatkin, and Rafael de Burgos),
composers (Rossini, Enescu, Bernstein, Copland, Tchaikovsky),
and other recognizable names (choreographer Mark Morris,
Governor Deval Patrick). The evening’s program listed primarily
familiar pieces, which is common to Parade, and welcomed by the
audience. The overture to “William Tell” was obviously rousing,
performed by the “house band,” so to speak, the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, kicking off the final concert of the day. Enescu’s
“Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1” is one of those well-known pieces
which the average listener does not know by name but only by
ear. Gentle and yet swift like a speeding train that had lost
its breaks, Enescu’s music is memorable. The Tanglewood Music
Center Orchestra (most talented youth) took on the lengthy
dances from “West Side Story.” The young percussionist worked in
fast-motion, and the audience did all but sing-along. Parade
would not be complete without the Boston Pops. John Williams
conducted his own “Tributes: For Seiji” (Seiji Ozawa), and Keith
Lockhart took the podium for Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.”
Narrated by Governor Patrick, the Pops performed the entire
score. It took a few minutes for the combined musicians of two
orchestras to overflow the stage for the “1812 Overture.” Every
Parade’s finale is the “1812” coupled with fireworks. It’s been
heard before, and will be heard again. Once is not enough, nor
are a dozen or 100 times.
Tanglewood
Rehearsals by Shera Cohen
Lenox , MA - Saturdays, July & August, annually
www.inthespotlightinc.org
The sounds of symphonic music compete with the squawking of
crows. It’s the Boston Symphony Orchestra vs. the feathered
creatures. Fierce battle ensues. While the birds hold their own
periodically, the BSO always wins out. Such are Saturdays each
summer at Tanglewood. Nearly every Saturday in July and August,
the BSO opens its huge tent and pristinely mowed lawn for open
rehearsals. Starting at 10:30am and ending at various times –
whenever the conductor feels that the orchestra is rehearsed to
his/her satisfaction (approximately between 12pm-1:30pm) –
hundreds of music lovers enjoy these quasi-concerts. Usually,
the music is that of the Sunday afternoon program. Tanglewood’s
program book lists the composers, pieces, conductors, and guest
artists. Audiences know in advance what and who they will hear.
The choice is to sit indoors (actually a huge tent) or outdoors,
or both, as there are no designated seats. Many arrive at 7am to
get the “best” seat. But “best” is in the mind of the listener,
and for many their folding chairs on the manicured lawn is the
best seat in the house. But, if arriving at 10:25am, nothing
will be missed. Rehearsals do start exactly at 10:30am. The
dress is casual with the musicians in shorts and t-shirts. The
same applies for the crowd. It’s not unusual to see rows people
donned in Tanglewood shirts, caps, and sweatshirts. Symphony
rehearsals have become more and more popular, having perhaps
taken a cue from the many years of success at Tanglewood. Some
may think that by attending a rehearsal there is no need to go
to the finished product. In fact, the experience is the
opposite. Listening to a rehearsal, with its frequent or
not-so-frequent stops and starts for the conductor’s corrections
and comments, makes the ultimate performance clearer in
appreciation and understanding of the work. The ticket price is
$17 for adults and free for children under age 12. It is
wonderful to see kids, usually on the lawn, enjoying the music
of Bach, Mozart, Ravel, et al. Sometimes the sounds that they
hear are only background to their chatting with siblings or
playing video games. That doesn’t matter. They are there,
soaking it all in, even subliminally. It is likely that these
kids will be our future generation of symphony goers and
patrons, remembering their wonderful trips to Tanglewood.
Measure for Measure
by Shera Cohen
Shakespeare & Company, Lenox through September 2, 2009 - , thru
9/5 -
www.shakespeare.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
The subject matter of many of today’s movies and television
shows is tragicomedy. While this word is probably a relatively
new entry in the dictionary, a little known fact is that
Shakespeare was one of the first to write a play with equal
elements of drama and humor. “Measure for Measure” is such a
piece. Director Dave Demke has updated the play, setting
it in 1930s pre-World War II Austria. At the same time,
Shakespearian images remain in costuming, staging, not to
mention language. As the title implies, the balance of several
themes exists throughout the story; i.e. justice and injustice,
loyalty and ephemeral causes, wisdom and ignorance, power and
succumbing, church and state. Yes, these are serious issues,
which make for the “tragic” side of the tragicomedy. They
balance with the many Keystone Cop or Marx Brothers-like scenes
of slapstick, stupidity, and literal running around in circles
with no destination. Future audiences should not be put
off by the fact that the actors are not Equity (professional),
but are members of the Center for Actor Training’s Performance
Internship at Shakes & Co. This education program is highly
selective and well-respected throughout the country. “Measure’s”
cast is an ensemble of very talented younger actors, each of
whom portrays at least three roles. A lecture by the director as
well as a talk on the costuming of “Measure” took place in
late-July. Attending either or both augmented understanding of
the play, although neither is required to appreciate the story.
Standout performers are Nathan Wolfe Coleman, lecherous townsman
Lucio; Emily Karol, low-brow sheriff Elbow; Aaron Sharff;
flophouse resident Pompey; and Tom O’Keefe, wise yet bookish
Duke. Here again, in keeping with tragi and comedy and measure
for measure, each actor (except for O’Keefe in the lead role)
played both sides of the ying and yang – not an easy task for
seasoned thespians, let alone theatre students.
Twelfth Night
by Shera Cohen
Shakespeare & Company, thru 9/5 -
www.shakespeare.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
It’s no wonder that “Twelfth Night” is often considered one of
Shakespeare’s best comedies. Proof of that is Shakespeare &
Company’s current production. Like other works of the Bard, the
plot includes mistaken identity, women dressed as men (this was
probably even funnier in the 1500s with male actors dressed as
women), love triangles, a shipwreck, and sometimes a pompous
idiot. This play has all of these elements down to perfection.
Just by looking at the playbill, it was no surprise that the
cast of many Shakes & Co.’s masterful “regulars,” director
Jonathan Croy, and music director Bill Barclay would mount a
clever, quick, and comic play. It never ceases to amaze that
most of actors do double-time throughout the summer in dramatic
roles in either “Othello” or “Hamlet.” The versatility of talent
is evident on a daily basis. Croy, who also wears the hat of set
designer, has created numerous scenes that receive audience
laughs even before an actor speaks. Think Disneyesque topiary,
add unnoticed paper on the bottom of one’s foot, and stick it
all together with bubblegum. This makes for odd and hysterically
funny staging. The lovely actress Corinna May puts her entire
body into making servant Maria elegant and roughhouse
simultaneously. Elizabeth Raetz (sought-after lady) spews both
virginity and lustiness. Robert Biggs (Fool) gives his
supposedly drunken character great wisdom. Ken Cheeseman
(servant Malvolio) should be unabashedly ashamed and equally
proud to well-create one of the most ridiculous roles of a
blowhard to appear on any stage. Young actor Ryan Winkles (Sir
Andrew) is a man to watch. His comedic timing is flawless as he
uses every wink of the eye, scrunch of his neck, and fancy
footwork to make Andrew the most memorable character in this
large cast. Slapstick, physical humor, and broad strokes form
the canvas of “Twelfth Night.” But this is more than a
meaningless, laugh in the moment, comedy. While not dwelled
upon, the plot includes the definition of love and how men and
women feel and think differently.
The
Temptations/James Naughton
by Shera Cohen
Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA -
www.thecolonialtheatre.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Separated by 24 hours, the Colonial Theatre played host to two
extremely diverse evenings of music. It's not at all hard to
believe that the rockin' doo-wop sing-alongs of the 50s/60s
would be equally appreciated by an audience as the smooth,
jazzy, cabaret songs of numerous eras. Yet, this was the case
for The Temptations concert on a Sunday night followed by James
Naughton on Monday. Perhaps one difference between the two was
the familiarity. For anyone over age 50 (which seemed to account
most in the full house), The Temptations evoked memories
including the lyrics of nearly all of their big hits. Think "How
Sweet It Is," "Just My Imagination," and "My Girl." The latter
is dubbed The Temptations National Anthem. The five-member
group, backed by a sometimes too loud band, included those who
started 48-years ago. But age didn't deter the old-timers
onstage, or those in the audience from moving, grooving,
clapping, and swaying. Indeed, the quintet's choreography was
that of the guys' groups of the 50s. Perhaps it looks comical
today, but not then, and the Colonial audience ate it up.
Selections from The Temptations platinum records and 57 CDs
included showstoppers "Get Ready" and "Since I Lost My Baby."
While two singers were obviously newcomers, the guys age 70+
held their own with still fine voices, including one whose bass
went down to the proverbial floor. The stage belonged to
James Naughton on Monday. His is a name well-known in the
Berkshires as an actor whose primary venue is Williamstown
Theatre. His is also face that most have seen on TV or in the
movies; i.e. Ally McBeal's dad, Meryll Streep's husband in "The
Devil Wears Prada." Naughton works steady, particularly on
Broadway, where he is a Tony Award winner. He calls himself an
actor who happens to sing. And, he sings very well.
Naughton mixed a repertoire of oldies
("Star Dust" - yes, real oldies), a Duke Ellington medley, and
rarely heard ditties full of odd lyrics sung at breakneck speed.
The latter proved Naughton's agility and humor. While the
Colonial is a large, elegant theatre, a cabaret setting was the
format. In keeping with that, Naughton told many backstage
anecdotes, which were equally as entertaining as the music.
True West
by Jarice Hanson
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA thru 7/26/09 -
www.wtfestival.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
When Sam Shepard's "True West" debuted in 1980, it signaled a
shift from the playwright's earlier absurdist work toward a more
realistic style. In the Williamstown Theatre Festival's
production, the genius of Shepard proves to be timeless.
"True West" is a fable of brothers who represent archetypes of
the hero and shadow, as well as a metaphor for the greed,
corruption, and violence of the west -- this time set in a small
suburban house 40 miles from Los Angeles. Nate Corddry, in his
eighth Williamstown season, plays Austin, a screenwriter who has
successfully pitched a romantic film treatment to Hollywood, and
has now holed up in his mother's home to write the script while
she's vacationing in Alaska. When Paul Sparks as Lee, the
ne'er-do-well brother shows up, he pitches a ridiculous western
to Austin's obsequious agent (flamboyantly played by Stephen
Kunken) and the tables begin to turn. Debra Jo Rupp's cameo as
mom showcases her control and comic timing, and adds to the
understanding of how two brothers could be so different, yet so
similar. The show really belongs to Corddry and Sparks,
who take sibling rivalry and contemporary ideas of manhood to
extremes. On opening night, a few lines were rocky, and Sparks'
words were muffled in the early part of the play, but this is
the type of show that will undoubtedly grow as these two actors
find a brotherly bond necessary to heighten the tension of
Shepard's verbal intensity. Some of the funniest moments belong
to Sparks who drinks beer with a straw, and uses a golf club for
great comic effect. Director Daniel Goldstein has created
a wonderful set that honors Shepard's realistic, absurdist, and
experimental modes, and has found the intelligence in this
powerful comment on contemporary life.
Boston Symphony
Orchestra by Debra
Tinkham
Tanglewood, Lenox, MA -
www.bso.org
Home, Sweet Home! Tanglewood that is; summer home of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and the start of their 128th season. Today's
incredibly brilliant performance began on an incredibly
beautiful Berkshirian day, with Herbert Blomstedt, who made his
conducting debut with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, in
February 1954. First up was Ludwig van Beethoven's short
Overture from the incidental music" to Goethe's "Edgmont," Opus
84, a story of victory, and ultimately, tragedy, which was first
performed at Tanglewood in 1940. Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No.
1 in G minor, Opus 26" featuring the lovely and talented Joshua
Bell, was a show stealer. This three-movement concerto was so
beautifully performed that the only downside was that it ended
much too soon. Bruch's love of the violin and his "desire to
compose music that is immediately…comprehensive to the bulk of
the audience on first hearing," was truly evident. So
passionately and captivatingly performed, it was as if all other
sounds paused to enjoy the "Allegro moderato prelude, Adagio,
and Allegro energico finale." Bell's love of the violin began at
the age of 12 and today he plays a 1713 Gibson Stradivarius.
Symphony No. 8 in G, Opus 88, a four-movement symphony by
Antonin Dvorak, completed today's delicious venue. Its
introduction was rich with cellos, clarinets, bassoon and horns,
with ebbs of passion growing and waning throughout. Dvorak
handled the many key changes craftily, leaving the listener with
nothing but the feeling of flowing harmonics. Today's
music on the mountain left many speechless. The atmosphere,
while packing up, and those lagging behind, was euphorically
somber. Next Sunday's performance, with James Levine conducting
an "All-Mozart Program" will be something to look forward to,
for there's no such thing as disappointment at the summer home.
GOLF: The Musical
by Frank Aronson and Jarice Hanson
Majestic Theatre, West Springfield, MA thru 8/2/09 -
www.majestictheater.com
www.inthespotlightinc.org
From the title, it is obvious that "GOLF: the Musical" is
different from most theatrical fare. This affinity show (meaning
that the performance is geared to an audience with a special
interest in the topic) by Michael Roberts has played
off-Broadway, and in small venues. The songs and sketches range
from clichй to clever, but the four performers in the Majestic
Theater cast create an ensemble that holds the various pieces
together. Darron Cardosa's sweet tenor shines in "The
Beautiful Time," which contains the evening's most surprising
lyrical twist. Luis J. Manzi's powerful, supple voice rings, and
he deftly portrays a minister in the Church of Golf, and a tour
guide at the Golf Museum. Lea D. Oppedisano was a favorite of
the audience, especially with her solos "Great Lady Golfer" and
"Golf's Such a Naughty Game." One of the sweetest tunes was sung
by Bill Nabel, crooning a love song to his golf club, "Big
Bertha." His lyrical baritone voice has a surprising range, used
to create his own characterizations as well as supporting the
ensemble. The foursome trade vaudevillian barbs, step in and out
of different characters, and most of all-blend their voices as
though they've been together for years. The spare set is
effective for this full-scale cabaret act, which also has a
crowd-pleasing audience participation putting contest. Director
Danny Eaton has found the most humorous moments in this brazenly
self-referential script, and uses the theatre space to great
effect. Music Director Amy Roberts-Crawford and percussionists
Leo Arthur and Brian Peltier masterfully set the pace for the
evening which is par for the course (this joke fits the
material). Real golfers will get the inside jokes, while the
rest of the audience can laugh at the plaid and the puns.
Candide
by Shera Cohen
Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA thru 8/15/09 -
www.berkshiretheatre.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Many know that the musical “Candide” was composed by Leonard
Bernstein. That’s about all that even the most avid theatergoer
is aware of. This can change, as Berkshire Theatre Festival
mounts the satirical operetta based on the work of Voltaire, yet
set in the 21st century – well, more or less. The theme that
life as we know it is “the best of all possible worlds” runs
through both the dialogue and music. Also running (literally) is
a hodgepodge of characters, scenes, and strange people. The
action begins in a colorful jungle gym school setting full of
children and their teacher Dr. Pangloss – the latter,
effectively portrayed by Ben Rosenblatt – who is another thread
stringing the plot along. Songs like “Life Is Happiness” and “Oh
Happy We” fill the Pollyanna-like Act I. The story increasingly
adds war, death, and rape, so that perhaps the audience is not
viewing such a lovely world onstage? Like “Pippin” and “Into the
Woods,” this musical twists its plot and fleshes out its
important characters from one dimension to two or three. McCaela
Donovan (heroine Cunegonda) is a charmer with excellent comedic
timing and mannerisms, not to mention a wonderful soprano voice.
Her “Glitter and Be Gay” is the play’s showstopper. Julia Broder
(The Old Woman) portrays a gypsy character with bold Lucille
Ball-like humor and a tad of reality. Director Ralph Petillo
deserves bravos for manipulating his cast of 20 around the
stage, down the aisles, on the floor, and perched on scaffolds
into nearly as many separate scenes. Two pianists hold it all
together through 22 songs. Important to add is the fact that
every lyric of every song is distinct. Opening night saw a full
house. Some youth attended. At first, “Candide” seems like a
fairytale for children. They can certainly enjoy the play and
excellent production values. Yet, like the old “Rocky &
Bullwinkle” cartoons, there are two layers of humor – one
blatant and the other black. The adults will easily “get” and
thoroughly enjoy both.
Capitol Steps
by Shera Cohen
Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA thru 9/6/09
www.capsteps.com
Lightning, thunder, near-hail size rain, and a dark sky at
6:30pm in July were reasons not to venture out for any cultural
activity. However, the show was Capitol Steps, and even though
this reviewer has seen CS a half dozen times in the past, every
show is new. Get the raincoat and run from the car to the
vestibule of Cranwell. A quintet of comedians/actors (2
women, 3 men), plus one pianist are the members. While material,
both in stories and songs differ from week to week, the show’s
format is constant. The purpose: lambaste politics, celebrities,
and current events to the tunes of familiar music with clever
and oftentimes uproarious lyrics, while wearing incredibly awful
costumes. Each of the five play numerous roles as one skit
immediately follows the next, giving the audience little time to
breathe between laughs. No one is off limits to receive a jab.
Of course, those in government receive the brunt of the
satirical lyrics; i.e. Obama, the Clintons , Biden, Pelosi,
McCain, and even George W. The latter never knew that the White
House had a library. An example the to-the-minute CS’s script
was the rifle-packin’ ex-governor of Alaska , Sarah Palin.
Starting with three songs to the tunes of “Mamma Mia,” the
troupe’s other background music included Broadway and 50s/60s
sounds. Octomom was picked on for “littering,” Susan Boyle had
not yet discovered make-up, Korea ’s leader needed a haircut,
and auto company execs bemoaned their decreased bonuses. The
greening of America was set to song, as was the topic of
prescription drug commercials. A constant treat in each show is
the backwards, twisted malaprops of contemporary politics. The
first letter of a word is juxtaposed with that of the next word.
Just when it seems impossible to understand this very fast
repartee, it’s all clear and very, very funny. One word of
advice is to arrive early for two reasons: pick your seat in the
least cramped aisle, and CS is often a sell-out.
Nano, Nano
by Beverly Creasey
Muhammed Ali used to demonstrate the speed of his famous jab by
asking, "Do you want to see it?" A nanosecond later, he'd
ask "Wanna see it again?" Nanoparticles are a little like
that. So how do you demonstrate what can't be
seen? With jugglers, of course! Tom Stoppard used
jugglers to illustrate Wittgenstein's theory about the
limitations of language in his play, JUMPERS. So
it should come as no surprise - well, maybe a little surprise -
that jugglers have taken up residence at Boston's Museum of
Science. Carol Lynn Alpert's The Amazing Nano Brothers
Juggling Show was conceived (in collaboration with
juggler/comedians Dan Foley and Joel Harris) to teach audiences
painlessly about nanotechnology. Her clever script has a
prologue, three acts and a finale, all of which fit into forty
thrilling minutes. Kids will love the shenanigans and
adults will come away knowing exactly what makes up DNA - and
how a scanning probe microscope works - and it won't hurt a bit.
In fact, you'll leave the museum feeling better, since laughter
is, as they say, the best medicine. Foley and Harris can
juggle tennis rackets, baseball bats, birdbaths and houseplants
AND they can execute these breathtaking feats while atop
unicycles! They're deft comedians who can charm the little
ones and impress their parents equally. My only
disappointment is that they didn't, like their distant cousins
The Flying Karamazov Brothers, juggle a cat. The
Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show returns to the Museum
of Science in October'09. Watch for them.
Blue Day at La MaMa
by Steve Capra
Alessandro Corazzi is an Italian playwright/director. One of his
plays, directed by himself, appeared recently at La MaMA. Blue
Day is a stage duet: we discover a disgruntled, laid-off factor
worker dousing himself with kerosene (timely, no?). A young
girl, a teen, passes by and, of course, through her trivial
chatter, he passes from a lower state to a higher state, a sort
of tragedy in reverse (there should be a term for that). An
opening siren is followed by a film of factory workers, and our
anti-hero is discovered wearing a sign saying “I lost”. The
actor is suitably morose and defeated, with a disciplined, flat
delivery of nearly every line. The young actress, on the other
hand, is clichéd and false, and her performance is painful to
watch. At 45 minutes, the play might be engaging if it
were directed with insight. Its referrals to labor politics are
intriguing, but clumsy. It has mystery in the psychology of both
characters, but Corazzi never examines it in directorial terms.
The translation doesn’t help, with lines like “Who tells you
such nonsense?” There’s an explanatory voiceover that adds
nothing. What’s more, the gamine turns into another character or
a few moments, and we have no idea what reality she’s in.
Corazzi shows subtlety and creativity by having the poor fellow
ascend from despair to desperation – no higher. And there’s a
surreal sequence at the end that we’d like to see expanded.
Perhaps in the hands of a skilled director the script could be
salvaged.
Breaking the Surface
by Steve Capra
Susan Lei’ataua is artist-in-residence at New York University’s
Asian/Pacific/American Institute. She’s put together a
presentation of monologue and music called “Breaking the
Surface”, presented recently at NYU’s Skirball Center.
We discover her upstage, at the top tier of narrow, elongated
four-tired step piece; she introduces herself saying
“Salutations to the first heaven! ... This is the story of a
mountain. This mountain is a woman”. Her white dress flows on
the sides to the stage floor, so she does indeed look like a
lovely, symmetrical mountain. She takes a step down as the
stages of the tale proceed, with “Salutations!” as appropriate.
Her narrative is a sort of myth combining the spoken word with
singing and instrumental music. It’s extraordinary that she
speaks and sings in the same voice; it makes for seamless
transitions and gives the piece a marvelous, smooth flow, like
the flow of her gown.
Her story is pretty, referring to nature and a mythic journey
from New Zealand to Hawai’i, to Alaska to NYC. It has some
lovely poetic moments, as when it describes her transformation
into a sequoia as “a height not from a rock”.
However, the prose depends on natural images we’ve heard before,
like “Massive waves crash turquoise”. Indeed, the script borrows
from primitivism, animism and symbolism to produce an educated
sort of world kitsch. She ends on the subway, admonishing us to
“Wake up!” and asking “What is your name?”– but by this time
we’ve lost the thread of the
complex extended metaphor.
The music is by Gareth Farr, and performed by him and five other
musicians in an ensemble including cedarwood flutes. It’s
exquisite, never dull, never intrusive, lovely in song and
perfectly blended with the spoken words. Sometimes it reflects
the sounds of nature, like classical Eastern music, but then it
slips in jazzy slides.
The Singing Forest
by Steve Capra
Craig Lucas has a brilliant design for The Singing Forest (at
The New York Shakespeare Festival). He’s written an lively,
silly farce about some guys and some gay (psycho)therapists. The
therapists know each other, they share clients who may be gay,
etc, etc… What’s more, there’s a rich guy and his celeb family
and a bunch of characters floating around who all end up being
connected to one another one way or the other…
But on top of this he’s added a gruesome backdrop: the Nazi
persecution of gays. These segments are largely flashbacks to
Vienna around the time of the Nazi annexation, and they’re not
at all farcical.
An aging ex-therapist, played by Olympia Dukakis, is hub of the
farce. In the flashbacks, we meet her as a teen. We watch (as do
the other witnesses, silently) as her brother and his lover are
arrested. We follow her attempts to help him, and in these
scenes the adolescent fraulein is played by the adult Mdme. D.
It’s a brilliant scheme. Unfortunately, the script has a series
of fatal shortcomings.
The first act of this long three-act play is a total disaster.
Lucas never creates real people in this farce. The characters
speak to meet the playwrights need, not their own, so the
machinations are merely contrived. The jeune premier, we’re
told, is a cipher, a bland (his name is Grey). We’re told this,
but we don’t see it; his blandness is never dramatized.
Then there’s the problem of using therapy as a dramatic device.
There’s nothing more facile in drama than therapy. The structure
of therapy is not the stuff of drama.
Lucas’ sense of gay-on-stage is none too sophisticated, either.
Some of these guys prance around stage like Chelsea types. And
of course, because the characters are gay, there has to be
nudity; it’s become a stage iconography.
After the first intermission, the evening improves. As scenes
get serious, the people get real, the gays are classy. Lucas is
not one to miss an opportunity to throw in a dramatic technique,
and Freud himself shows up in Vienna. But in the last scene,
Lucas panders to his Jewish audience with a revelation that has
nothing to do with the rest of the play.
The farce is so complex and contrived that we never really
understand the relationships. The play is at its best in it
serious moments, particularly when Lucas has the sense to make
his characters shut up – ie, in Vienna, when the young men are
arrested. But he succumbs to cheap effect: there’s an onstage
atrocity we’d prefer not to see, thank you very much. Oedipus
blinded himself offstage, and Lucas would do well to be more
circumspect.
In using the gay holocaust as a backdrop, Lucas is attempting
the sort of historic scale that Stoppard gave us in The Coast of
Utopia. Stoppard failed, and so does he, without even that
Brit’s flair for dialogue to sustain him. He tries, like John
Osborn, to hot things up with sex – but he lacks Osborne’s
vicious sensibility.
Mdme Dukakis is terrific, showing us extraordinary comedic and
dramatic skills as she weaves the conflicting styles together.
Jules Ahmad, as well, is brilliant in both farcical and his
tragic roles. Director Mark Wing-Davey exploits the strengths of
the script, but fails to compensate for its weaknesses.
42nd Street
by Shera Cohen
Goodspeed, East Haddam, CT -
www.goodspeed.org
www.inthespotlightinc.org
"The show must go on!" This cliché is the entire plot of the
sparkling, toe-tapping "42nd Street" at Goodspeed Opera House.
The story is the backstage life of a new musical - the audition,
rehearsal, and tour of "Pretty Ladies" (the play within the
play). The era is the Great Depression. Why "great" was ever
linked with the economic doldrums of "Depression" is a question
to ponder. "Great" can, however, apply to this revival in 2009.
Perhaps it was not a coincidence when Goodspeed planned its
season opener to be more apropos in theme than one would have
guessed. As the sounds of the pit orchestra hit that strong
opening note and the ruby red curtain rises, onstage are 14
hoofers tapping away. Their shoes are another instrument, and
one that never stops during the entire musical, thank goodness.
The ensemble is first and foremost superb dancers. They are
young, energetic, attractive, in unison, and can sing. The
production itself is the "star" and can be compared to a large
canvas - on it are colors, swooshes, vibrancy, glitter,
boldness, and whimsy. Some of these colors are literal in the
costumes (the musical becomes a 1930s fashion show) and the
lighting. That said, this is not to discount those in leading
roles, with each actor playing his/her caricature exceptionally
well. Kristen Martin (ingénue heroine) is a sweet soprano who
taps as fast as a speeding bullet. Austin Miller (her beau and
Harry Connick look-alike) is sassy with feet that keep up with
his gal. James Lloyd Reynolds (the boss) doesn't sing much, but
delivers comedy so straight to get extra laughs. Laurie Wells
(leading lady) is the real singer in this quartet. And what do
they sing that leaves the audience unable to eradicate tunes
from their collective heads for the next week? "We’re in the
Money," "Lullaby of Broadway," "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," and the
title number. The other important stars are choreographer Rick
Conant and director Ray Roderick - a dynamic duo who set the
tone and spirit of "42nd Street" to please the likes of Busby
Berkeley.
Vitek Kruta, International
Artist from Holyoke
by Shera Cohen
Paradise City Fair, Northampton - 5/23-25/09 -
www.paradisecityarts.com May 23 - 25, 2009
"Doing art is a basic human right. It's my way of life, a force
and purpose for being here," says Vitek Kruta. One of the
hundreds of professionals showing and selling art at this
spring's Paradise City, Kruta is also one of the many talented
individuals who does not need a "day job." In Prague, Germany,
and now in Holyoke, Kruta has perfected his various art genres
for the past 35 years. A bedroom wall was his first canvas
as he sculpted a purposely lopsided molded frame with painting
inside. People went to the wall to straighten the picture, and
the joke was on them. This Trompe L'oeil 3D art form can be
translated "fooling the eye, illusion." This continues to be one
of Kruta's styles which have been successful and popular -
enough to have made him a "regular" at Paradise City for eight
years. This juried show accepts only the best of fine and
functional art from throughout the country. Visionary Landscapes
are Kruta's mainstay. From his mind and memory, he almost feels,
smells, and hears a scene. "I try to open an esoteric door and
invite the viewer to go to these places," he says. His
Surrealist Paintings "illustrate reality that is not real."
Kruta's explanation of his technique is exploration of the
subconscious. Shapes are familiar and resemble what is known -
not the tangible, but the essence. "I like to work with
materials - wood, clay, mosaics, metal. The enjoyment is in the
process of making things. I get an idea and I do it," he says.
His home is his workplace with an attic and basement full of
materials of all forms, shapes, and sizes. Exposed to art
since he was a youngster, Kruta's own children have followed
this career path. Three family members restored the paintings in
Northampton's First Churches. In fact, art restoration is a
large section on Kruta's resume. One genre which will not be
seen at Paradise City is his murals. Needless to say, they are
too large, not to mention affixed to walls in hospitals,
buildings, and homes. Yet, easy to carry and perhaps place in
one's garden are exotic 3' metal flowers. He cuts, bends, and
shapes the stems and petals out of sheet metal "to
simultaneously become real, yet not real," not unlike his other
art. He made the clear decision as a youngster that he would
never separate himself from art. "Whatever I do must be
connected to art," continues Kruta. That was his commitment to
himself many years ago, and still holds today.
Phantom of
the Opera
by Donna Bailey-Thompson
The Bushnell, Hartford CT thru May 10, 2009 -
www.bushnell.org
There are big shows and then there is Phantom of the Opera, an
extravaganza. Before the first note is played, billowing yards
(tons!) of fabric enhance the proscenium pulling the audience
into its dark interior that reeks with mystery. At center stage
is a large lump covered with an aging canvas on which is
stenciled, "C H A N D E L I E R." Before the performance has yet
to begin, seeds of apprehension are planted.
The simple storyline belies the spectacular tension of this
world-wide favorite that opened in London in 1986 and is
Broadway’s longest-running show: a deranged musical genius with
horrendous facial scars who lives in the depths beneath the
Paris opera house, falls in love with a young soprano. She is
seduced by his admiration of her voice but alarmed by his
possessiveness. The opera house employees and performers are
kept off balance by the Phantom’s malicious mischief which
becomes progressively violent.
Throughout, under the direction of conductor Jonathan Gorst, the
outstanding pit orchestra fills the theater with the emotional
music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyrics by Charles Hart.
Directed by Harold Prince, a cast of 36 finds its marks for 19
different scenes. The energy generated on stage is palpable. The
intricacy of the sets, the engineering required to swing from
one scene to another (54 motors are used to fly scenery on and
off stage), the unseen use of pulley, winch, a radio-controlled
boat moving through dry ice fog, the crashing of the 1,000-pound
chandelier – and more – support the human drama that swirls
about the damsel in distress.
The familiar arias – "The Music of the Night," "All I Ask of
You" – are performed with passion that stirs the soul by John
Cudia (Phantom), Trista Moldovan (Christine), and Sean
MacLaughlin (Raoul). The costumes (230) are electrifying. The
entire company is a well-oiled machine which imparts
spontaneity. To transport this show required twenty 48-foot semi
trucks. In turn, this production transported individual
theatergoers into a rapt, wildly-appreciative audience. Applause
explosions rivaled the startling pyrotechnic effects.
"The Phantom of the Opera" is an over-the-top WOW.
The Fight for Intellectual
Freedom - Brecht’s The Life of
Galileo by Beth
Purcell
Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT and Underground Railway Theater -
www.centralsquaretheater.org - April 10 – May 17, 2009
The famous recantation. The famous recanter: Galileo taking back
his revolutionary theory, when faced with torture, that the
Earth moves around the Sun and not vice versa. The thought sends
shivers up our spine that someone so strong in his convictions
could recant his beliefs – and in Galileo’s case, that meant his
bedrock belief in reason, in science, in the truth he’s seen and
proven. Brecht wrote the play in the late 30s when the Nazis
were in power, crushing any research, teaching, expression that
didn’t align with their propaganda. His play makes us question:
Is a man, a scientist, great if morally weak? How important is
it for a person to be morally strong?
“The Life of Galileo” is a wordy problem play where the most
sensational plot point, the Inquisition, happens off stage. In
order for it to work as compelling theatre, URT/CC immerse the
audience in the sights and sounds of 17th century Italy with a
carnival scene, giant murals of red Jupiter and of ancient Greek
temples and statues exploding into space, projections of a
star-strewn dark sky and moody music between the many scenes.
Director David Wheeler keeps the actors in motion on the
3/4-in-the-round stage; the scaffolded platform and stairs are
in plain view; the audience is close to the action and can see
other theatre-goers’ expressions across the stage – this is a
shared, live theatre experience.
And Wheeler’s down-to-earth direction keeps the story real with
Galileo washing his legs in a stone basin or his housekeeper,
hands on hips, making her outspoken pronouncements. It’s the
human relationships, the feelings between people, that the
audience relates to: the fear the Cardinal Inquisitor generates
as he warns Galileo’s innocent daughter, Virginia, in a tone of
menacing desire; or Galileo’s callous disregard of Virginia’s
marriage prospects when he resumes his forbidden research,
symbolically pointing the telescope skyward which causes her to
fall in a faint as if shot by canon. Most moving is the
relationship between Galileo and a small boy, Andrea, who grows
up to become his protégé. When, later, Galileo seems to betray
everything he stood for, Andrea’s disillusionment is
heartbreaking. He declares: “Unhappy the land that has no
heroes,” to which Galileo replies: “Unhappy the land that needs
the hero.”
In some way, the play is all about smashing cherished beliefs –
or clinging blindly to them. Several characters speak of the
peasants’ need for religious faith and a civil hierarchy,
something Galileo has taken away from them by “abolishing the
Heavens,” the mystery of God’s workings. Neither the higher
clergy nor the peasants want to be reduced to a speck of matter
on “a chunk of rock endlessly revolving,” as they perceive
Galileo’s new theory about the Earth. We ponder: Is our life
meaningless if we are not the reason the world came to be?
This production brings up soul-searing questions which
Underground Railway Theatre and Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT are
eager to engage. The play is staged in celebration of the 400th
anniversary of Galileo’s first telescopic observations, so
they’ve invited scientists to lead pre and post-show debates and
discussions and have set up “talk back” boards in the lobby
where people can post their answers to the Big Questions posed
by MIT scientists, such as, “What did Galileo unleash?” One
broad answer: “Opportunity for dissent.”
There are excellent performances from Stephen Barkhimer as both
the Inquisitor and Chancellor, Amanda Collins as Virginia, in
the evolution of her character from giddy girl to resigned
caretaker, and from Debra wise who brings a physical immediacy
to her role as the housekeeper. In a masterful turn as Galileo,
McElvain brings energy and gravitas to a role that could lack
sympathy. In his hands, we see the selfishness, obsession and
cowardice, but also the anguish, frailty and the thirst for
knowledge and discovery.
We live in a modern world with a heliocentric view of the
universe. And yet – we say the sun rises and sets every day,
favoring our naked senses over what we know is true. There is
something in us that clings to the idea we are central, our
Earth is central, to sustain our sense of self.
Best Little Whorehouse: A Good Ole Time
by Beth Purcell
Turtle Lane Playhouse -
www.turtlelane.org
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a kick up your heels,
feel-good musical. What it lacks in inner conflict, it makes up
for with high energy song and dance numbers and, in this
production, a strong rapport amongst the characters. Based on
the story of the Chicken Ranch, a popular brothel just outside
La Grange, Texas, where the Sheriff closed an eye to its illegal
doings, the musical version romanticizes the relationship
between Mona, the keen-witted Madam with a heart of gold, and
her “girls,” and makes the Governor himself a patron of the
bordello, complicit in its ability to operate.
The story rotates from the setting of the brothel, a homey place
despite its sleazy purpose, to the contrasting outside world: a
coffee shop where the Mayor and other men discuss their options
in keeping the Chicken Ranch open; the Sheriff’s office;
locations where the Watchdog reporter interrogates people. This
investigative reporter is a funny character, a moralizing
egotist with a self-styled evangelical bent. The Watchdog (based
on television reporter Marvin Zindler who crusaded against the
Chicken Ranch) has a commanding stage presence as David
Giagrando plays him, raving about the house of ill repute,
banging on a tambourine, his chorus or groupies, the Dogettes,
echoing his sentiments.
Another stand-out performance is given by Harry Rothman as the
Governor, especially in the song “The Sidestep.” What a
song-and-dance-man! The audience guffawed as he sang “Ooh, I
love to dance a sidestep. Now you see me; now you don’t,”
referring to the slick character of a politician, expert at
evading reporters’ questions.
The heart of the musical is the snappy dancing,
well-choreographed by Karen Fogerty. The girls are sexy and
spunky and when they get together with the men, as in “The Aggie
Song,” it’s a yee-haw good time. The music by Carol Hall is less
interesting, but full of energy and Texas twang. Ballads such as
“Hard Candy Christmas” and Angela Foley’s soulful “Doatsey Mae”
add a poignancy to this story of the importance of a unique
brothel in a small community.
Despite the fairy tale quality of the writing, the acting is
quite honest, especially from Rebecca Shor, who carries the show
with authority, as Mona, and David DeCosta as the Sheriff, with
a real chemistry between them. Director James Tallach encouraged
a feeling of intimacy between Mona and her girls, and amongst
them, that pulls the audience in.
John MacKenzie’s set and lighting evoke a sexy, yet homey
atmosphere, with the brothel wallpapered in red and often softly
lit. It’s a place where the girls casually drape themselves and
their unmentionables over the upstairs railing, where they feel
taken care of by their mother hen, and where the customers – as
well as the audience – can suspend their disbelief for an
evening and pretend it’s a place of romance.
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Shera Cohen
Hartford Stage, Hartford through April 4, 2009
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Why would anyone who has already read the book, or watched the
movie, or both (perhaps a couple of times each) want to spend
time seeing a theatrical production of “To Kill a Mockingbird”?
The answer is not necessarily “wanting” but “needing”. Every
decade or so, audiences/readers must be reminded of the tale of
the mockingbird and its themes of justice and courage amidst
ignorance and fear.
Hartford Stage has, thankfully, brought this Depression-era
story set in the Deep South to today’s New England audiences.
While Harper Lee’s characters lived 70-years ago, it is not hard
to understand and empathize with many of the important issues
that, to a large degree, remain the same.
Throughout the play, a narrator (the adult Scout) reflects on
episodes in one particular year in her young life. Her presence,
coupled with floating sets and seamless onstage movement by cast
and crew, creates an unbreakable line of content and emotion
that build to the perfect crescendo. All the time, director
Michael Wilson uses every scene – even those that are but three
minutes long – to subtly maximize the audience’s belief of the
times, struggles, and characters.
Matthew Modine is one of those actors seen often on TV and in
movies, but few remember his name. He’s not an “A List” guy, but
he should be. To be equally excellent on screen and on the stage
is rare. This man is the consummate professional. Modine’s
Atticus Finch personifies a man of integrity who, by the way, is
one of the wisest father figures in literature.
The three child actors (Olivia Scott, Henry Hodges, and Andrew
Shipman) probably have the most onstage time and dialogue, yet
each is ideal in his/her role. It’s hard to imagine others cast
in these parts. They create the mold that structures the play
with their innocence, respect, fearlessness, lack of prejudice,
and frankness (“out of the mouths of babes”). Their characters
exemplify the qualities that ought to be and that there might be
hope for the future.
A visionary director, exemplary actors, and skilled crew make
“Mockingbird” a piece of theatre to experience more than once.
Four
Dogs and a Bone by
Donna Bailey
Suffield Players, Suffield, CT thru February 28, 2009
www.inthespotlightinc.org
As befits their reputation, the Suffield Players are presenting
a demanding play whose success is contingent upon savvy
direction and an experienced cast. This production scores on all
counts. "Four Dogs and a Bone" is a biting comedy about
the dirty little details encountered when filming an underfunded
movie. Written by John Patrick Shanley, a veteran Hollywood
script writer and best known recently for his honored Broadway
play and now a movie "Doubt," three of the dogs are a dishonest
producer and two actresses who are rapacious carnivores: their
diets include ingesting their own kind. The fourth dog is the
script writer whose desperation to save the movie does not
include devouring the others through bloodless means.
The first act covers a lot of expository ground, of the shock
and awe variety. At times the abrasiveness seems nonstop,
especially as spewed forth by Lea D. Oppedisano who as Colette,
knows she is no longer an ingénue to reap empathy but is now
headed for character roles where she can be type cast as
incarnate evil. Oppedisano’s Colette’s is a force of nature –
major disaster category. Her adversary is the supposedly sweet
Brenda (Megan Fish) who chants and plots mischief. During the
second act, their scene within a minimized dressing trailer is
as tight as the space itself.
As Bradley, the money-short producer who is plagued with a
flaming hemorrhoid (nothing like a little bathroom humor), Josh
Guenter seems to channel Paul Giamatti – glib, light on his
feet, as tailored as an unmade bed. Robert Lunde as the
fair-minded script writer, Victor, throws up his arms in
frustration at the unbridled shenanigans. His disapproval gives
the audience permission to feel shocked by the despicable
behavior, even while laughing at scabrous remarks they would not
tolerate elsewhere.
Director Meghan Lynn Allen prevents "Four Dogs and a Bone" from
becoming farcical melodrama. The production can inspire anything
from the killer comment, "That was much ado about nothing!" to
the exclamation, "What a hoot!"
Dead Man's Cell Phone
By Jarice Hanson
TheatreWorks, Hartford CT thru March 15,
2009
www.inthespotlightinc.org
In Sarah Ruhl’s comedy, "Dead Man’s Cell Phone," the audience
enters a world of feelings and emotion by eavesdropping on cell
phone messages. Two people are in a café, where a woman is
annoyed by the constantly ringing cell phone of the man at the
other table. When she grabs the cell phone to answer it, she
realizes he is dead.To protect his dignity, she lies to a series
of callers, leading her to ultimately meet and confront Gordon
Gottlieb’s overbearing mother, miserable wife, ineffective
brother, and exotic mistress.
The protagonist, Jean, is played by Finnerty Steeves, an
appealing actress who can communicate much by just raising an
eyebrow. We meet her in the stark café, wearing a frumpy gray
and black outfit that matches her life, before she is catapulted
into Gordon’s life, illustrated on stage by colorful
backlighting and an annoyingly effective sound design that
assaults the senses the way an incessantly ringing cell phone
does. As a result of the world she finds herself in after taking
Gordon’s phone, Jean begins to expand her senses (and those of
the audience) beyond what she hears on the cell phone to touch,
taste, and sight. Each of the other characters, also fully
realized and expertly directed by Rob Ruggiero, find what they
need in life, through Jean’s interpretation of Gordon’s wishes.
In addition to Steeves’ portrayal of Jean, Craig Wroe as Gordon,
stands out in this ensemble piece, for his expository monolog
from another dimension—letting those seated in the theatre in on
the real Gordon. With a touch of absurdity in the second act,
carried through by the audience’s immediate cell phone use after
the show, the play ends with an appreciation and marvel at
Ruhl’s comic absurdity of contemporary life.
Jersey Boys
By Sharon Smith
(The Bushnell, Hartford CT, thru February 22, 2009)
www.inthespotlightinc.org
“Oh, What a Night” at the Bushnell, indeed! That song title is
also the best way to describe an enjoyable evening watching a
performance of "Jersey Boys," the story of Frankie Valli and the
Four Seasons. The quartet may sing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” but if
you miss this must-see show, you just might!
"Jersey Boys" recounts the story of how four singers under a
street lamp, from the wrong side of the tracks, made it in the
big time. Who would have thought that the performers of such
wonderful songs as “Sherry”, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and
“Walk Like a Man” would have personal histories that include
theft, jail time and mobsters? The incredibly talented
Four Seasons are played by Matt Bailey (Tommy DeVito), Joseph
Leo Bwarie (Frankie Valli), Josh Franklin (Bob Gaudio) and Steve
Gouveia (Nick Massi). Their vocal and physical similarities to
their real-life counterparts are uncanny. The actors portray the
characters so well that it is difficult to believe they are not
the real Four Seasons -- to cry when Frankie cries and feel
betrayed when Tommy’s indiscretions tear the band apart.
Jersey Boys moves along quickly and uses effortless transitions
to instantly shift focus from a small smoky nightclub to the set
of American Bandstand. Even the costumes help trace the band's
trajectory and tie it to their name by using vibrant colors for
the Spring and Summer of the Four Seasons career and finishing
with more muted colors as the (literal) Fall of the band began.
As befits the rough and tumble New Jersey upbringing of the
boys, their language is also pretty colorful.
A drawback to the "Jersey Boys" is wanting to “Stay” just a
little bit longer enjoying the trip back in time. With at least
40 singles on the best- selling charts, the Playbill included a
song list of “The Ones That Got Away” (songs that couldn’t be
squeezed into the show). Any hope that the curtain call would
feature one or more of these songs remained unfulfilled.
Don’t miss this “Fallen Angel” of a show!
The Grand Master by Steve
Capra
The Grand Inquisitor (CICT/
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/Paris, presented at New York Theatre
Workshop in New York's East Village).
Peter Brook is probably the most
famous and influential director alive. He works out of Paris.
He's directed an adaptation of The Grand Inquisitor that was
presented in the East Village.
The reader will recall that The Grand Inquisitor is a chapter
from The Brothers Karamazov. It's a parable that Ivan tells his
brother Karamazov to make a metaphysical point (they talk like
that). The story is about Christ returning to us during The
Spanish Inquisition. He is not welcomed by the authorities.
Brook's contribution to theatre has been minimalism, and his
stage here is nearly bare, with a raised platform center, a
chair UL for the Inquisitor and a chair DR for his Prisoner,
Christ. The stage picture is stark black and white.
This script is a monologue. Bruce Myers begins and closes with
narration describing the episode, but he spends the bulk of the
hour speaking as the GI himself. He's usually addressing Christ,
Who sits with His back to us, and when he does there are some
wonderful moments. As he recites his dizzyingly philosophical
discourse, he reflects a series of fleeting emotions - in turns
accusatory, smug, challenging… His spare, carefully determined
gestures are eloquent. "Man must decide for himself what is good
and what is evil," he says, and he raises his forefinger to his
temple in a gesture with mystery. And he has a silent moment
when his arms seem to debate with one another, reflecting his
own doubt.
Unfortunately, he has none of this emotional fluidity when, from
time to time, he relates to us. "Now you see them, your free
men," he says to Christ his Auditor, standing DC and facing us.
His attitude to us includes only accusation and, lacking
subtlety, it lacks truth.
Marie-Helene Estienne's adaptation is neither reading nor drama,
and so it has neither distance nor tension. It's ill-conceived
that she and Brook have the same actor narrating and acting.
Worse, we hear lines like "The day ends, followed by night."
There are painful moments during the narration that frames the
speech. Speaking of the Inquisitor and his relationship to the
Listener, Myers says "Then he draws nearer," and as he says it,
he draws nearer the listener. This sort of trans-form
literalization is difficult to sit through.
In short, this production belongs to my least favorite theatre
species - the show that depends on the celebrity of the artist.
If Brook's name weren't on the program, the name of the Grand
Master, the production would be quickly dismissed.
Directors might note that the wooden riser on stage, perhaps six
inches high, does not define space strictly. Sometimes our man
steps off it, like a drawing that laps over its border. It's
beautiful.
Jerry & Ed
by Donna Bailey-Thompson
Majestic, West Springfield MA through November 30, 2008
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Life-long friendship, mutual respect and tomfoolery, and the
vicissitudes and nonsense of aging are woven into an original
play that entertains while unloosing emotions – especially love.
"Jerry & Ed" has come along at the right time, a best buddy play
that momentarily blocks out today’s downer news. The charm
doesn’t unfold immediately because Jerry’s opening monologue is
a collection of cornball one-liners that net painful groaning.
But once Jerry (Steve Henderson, who also wrote the play) gets
that painful shtick out of his system, the play rocks and rolls.
The plot is simple: Jerry and his life-long best friend Ed (Dick
Volker) are widowers residing at the Garden Acres Retirement
Community. They have walkers they don’t need; with a wink they
let the audience in on the scam, "It’s an insurance thing." When
their tempers flare, the walkers held at shoulder level turn the
aging bad boys into antlered game who lock horns, so to speak.
If their balance were better, they’d probably paw the ground.
As one memory leads to another, their adventures and
misadventures are resurrected. They take us and the girls
they’re courting, Margaret and Doris, to an amusement park where
they hate the ferris wheel and are not thrilled with the
rollercoaster. Their romancing is interrupted by World War II.
During one firefight, pinned down by ordnance, Ed is injured in
the leg. Even in the midst of battleground horror, their love
and exasperation with one another spawns humor. When the war
ends and their troop ship arrives in New York, they phone
Margaret and Doris. They are battle-tested veterans, giddy with
romantic longings. When their barely articulate proposals are
accepted, they are euphoric.
Henderson’s Jerry and Volker’s Ed are fully developed
characters. Volker’s restrained remembrance of Doris’s final
illness grabs the heart. Jack Neary’s direction is sensitive to
Henderson’s deceptively simple script that teems with the high
drama of ordinary human beings’ basic emotions. Throughout
"Jerry & Ed" a sweetness permeates. Regardless of how old and
wise they get, their boyish innocence endures.
Like Under a Microscope
by Steve Capra
Sunken Red
began its life in 1981 as a novel, in Dutch, by Jeroen Brouwers.
It relates the author’s life from his childhood imprisonment
with his mother in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, through his
adulthood, to her death. Guy Cassiers, a Belgian director
(invariably referred to as Flemish), has adapted it into stage
monologue, Sunken Red, presented at The Brooklyn Academy of
Music. Cassiers focuses on the most personal elements of the
novel. The script is good, not great, intensely self-absorbed,
reminiscent of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. Alone
throughout, the character addresses us. Apart from the Japanese
guards who terrorized him as a child, there are no men in his
memory. He speaks of his mother, his wives, his daughter, his
mistress, in an objective stream-of-consciousness. He’s obsessed
with sexual organs. Unfortunately, Cassiers jumps on this
character element and includes a masturbation scene that caused
one yuppie couple to march up the aisle. Indeed, it’s an
ill-advised choice, unsuited for the context. The character
climaxes, but the play doesn’t – it just continues, as if libido
counted for nothing. Moreover, Cassiers disregards his
character’s basic drive – to analyze in order to avoid
experiencing. Cassiers’ great
accomplishment is to cast Dirk Roofthooft, a Belgian actor. His
solo performance is brilliant, insightful in analysis, fluid in
technique, subtle and expressive in emotion. Our man is speaking
soon after his mother’s death, he’s skipped the cremation, and
he’s embarked in an intense introspection to solve some
indefinable problem of life. He’s complex, course and
vulnerable. Roofthooft brings the character as close to us
personally as we are aurally – we can hear him soughing. With
exquisite control, he reveals the emotion beneath the character
avoids. “At times I’m half crazy with fear of undefined things”
he observes, and we wonder if this is one of those times.
Cassiers constructs the script with
a late climax dwelling on a particularly horrendous experience
the child had as a prisoner of war. He throws his tech at the
moment. Like the set and the other obvious directorial choices,
it’s superfluous. Cassiers should have remained unobtrusive and
concentrated on supporting his extraordinary actor. Roofthooft
is so commanding and absorbing, that he needs no mis en scène.
We want to explore his work in isolation. It suffers examination
like a perfect gem under a microscope.
Heart of Concept
by Steve Capra
Louder was produced by Verdensteatret, a Norwegian
company. Company members travelled to the Mekong Delta to absorb
material for this non-linear piece. The objects of the set
suggest a gym, with speakers scattered on the floor instead of
weights, and instead of a Nautilus machine, the huge spindly
legs of a spider. Images on the back screen include the jungle,
indigenous architectures intricately deconstructed, fish playing
before a pagoda, and a long, ominous warship. There are drawings
of death and war, some from Brueghel. Cut-outs move across
the stage in a rope. And there’s some pretty clever lighting.
When the cut-outs themselves aren’t lit, they cast shadows on
the lit backscreen. And when they are lit, the backscreen is
dark. Actors,as well, lit or shadowed meticulously. They’re
actors on stage, or musicians, not characters. There’s
next to speech, but there’s babbling, hollering, shrieking and,
throughout, the unidentifiable sounds of the rain forest. These
last crescendo to the point of our using the ear plugs we were
given at the door. The effect is evocative, engrossing –
really terrific, if somewhat confusing. There’s more than a
little Heart of Darkness here, overwhelming and oppressive. The
company has left the referent behind and produced something
abstract. For those with the background, however, it evokes
Southeast Asia. A Vietnamese friend in the audience said it all
took her back to her childhood. Those speakers, which rotate on
different axes, and into which actors peer for no apparent
reason, refer to the propaganda speakers throughout Vietnam.
It’s all a postmodernist combination of abstraction and
reconstruction. It appeared at PS 122, off-off-Broadway,
Big River
by Shera Cohen (Goodspeed, East Haddam, CT
through Nov. 30, 2008)
Advertisements refer to
“Big River” as “a slice of pure Americana.” Who was better than
Mark Twain, through his most famous character Huck Finn, to
simultaneously weave a tale of our county in its glory and
shame?
“Big River” jam-packs most of the Huck Finn story (it was a
thick book) along with 17 songs into two and a half hours. It’s
a big task to accomplish this successfully. Goodspeed, known for
its excellent productions of tried and true musicals as well as
those fresh out of the computer, is the ideal setting for this
important story. Many read Huck’s tale as a high school
assignment. On the surface, Twain’s dialect is melodic and
humorous which gives the tone of froth. Yet, the author – and in
the case of the musical, the composer, lyricist, director, and
actors – is dead serious in the subject matters of conscience,
trust, humanity, and slavery.
Huck (Will Reynolds) and Jim (Russell Joel Brown) seek their own
freedom. At times they are equals, yet circumstances of the
1840s make that impossible. The camaraderie between the
actors/characters is obvious, particularly in the songs “River
in the Rain” and the showstopper “Muddy Water.” While the lanky,
curly top Reynolds portrays Huck with vim, naiveté, and a voice
to accentuate his character, he seems a bit old for the role.
Brown brings depth, sorrow, and his own innocence in his
portrayal of the slave Jim. His only solo, “Free at Last,” shows
off his pure baritone voice.
Director Rob Ruggerio, along with his crew, creates sets with
minimum multi-purpose staging and maximum skillful lighting. The
pit orchestra is as fine as any at Goodspeed, with the wonderful
addition of The Musician (David Lutken), an ever-present figure
onstage as he plays the guitar, harmonica, banjo, and zither.
Tunes run the gamut, including country, gospel, ballads, and
blues. The large ensemble of townsfolk, Huck’s buddies, and
slaves fill the small stage with song and dance from the opening
funny number “Do a Wanna Go to Heaven?” to the reprise of “Muddy
Water” finale.
The Sunday matinee full house loved Twain and Huck in October,
2008 as much as readers must have loved both in 1885.
Four Mystics Minus
Two by Steve Capra
The Whirling Dervishes of
Damascus and the Sheikh Hamza Shakkur Al-Kindi Ensemble
presented The Sufi Liturgy of the Great Ummayad Mosque of
Damascus recently (at The Kaye Playhouse of Hunter College in
New York). There were meant to be fours dervishes, but two were
denied visas, as was one of the musicians. New York was honored
to host them, and the concert was a marvelous artistic and
worshipful event. The songs have the majestic reverence of
prayer:
“Oh God, I begin my entreaties by praising your goodness.
In humility and acceptance I turn to you.”
Instruments included the qana (zither), ney (reed flute), ‘ud
(lute), and riqq (tambourine). The music is intricate and
subtle, and all the more engaging for its strangeness. As Hamlet
advised, “As a stranger give it welcome.”
From time to time the dervishes would stand and begin their
extraordinary ritual. They start by walking in small circles,
about four feet in diameter. As the music intensifies, they
begin to whirl, counter clockwise, accelerating until they reach
about 60 rpm’s. They rotate on the left heel, with their eyes
closed. This lasts for perhaps ten minutes, during which their
splendid white gowns billow around them like great sugar bells.
They return to their seats with perfect composure.
The position of the arms is important. It varies within a piece,
and with the dancer, sometimes symmetrical, sometimes not,
always with the elbows bent, the fingers pointing down or up,
sometimes with a hand before the face as if the dervish were
examining his palm through his closed eyelids. In certain
positions they’re channeling energy from heaven to earth. I’ve
also been told that the various positions stimulate various
parts of the brain. They are unquestionably deliberate.
The ceremony is firstly a form of worship. The Mawlawiyya (order
of the dervishes) is a brotherhood of Sufism, the mystical
branch of Islam. The name of the ritual is sama; it’s a
spiritual listening. Sama developed in Turkey in the twelfth
century, and spread to the neighboring Islamic countries.
There’s no dissonance here between worship and performing. The
perfomer is a priest (as in most priesthoods, they were all
men). They were whirling for all of us.
The Peking Opera
by Steve Capra
The Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera is technically
an American company, but its members are Chinese nationals.
Purists (like me) will be satisfied with this. After all, at the
opening of the show, we are addressed in Chinese before we’re
addressed in English. The company recently presented Women
Generals of the Yang Family at the Kaye Playhouse of Hunter
College. Performed in Chinese, it’s a great show. From the
moment we see the opening backdrop with its stunning blue
mountains, we know this will be a spectacle. This is a
traditional and elaborate Chinese form. Costume is central –
bright colors and complex patterns, red robes with white cuffs
to the floor, feathers yards long, soldiers in pants. Actors
speak, sing, scream or speak over music. They dance, tumble, and
sometimes move with a graceful sideways walk. They work with
gorgeous, stylized gestures. The first backdrop morphs to the
golden emperor-dragon icon of the court.
Note that all the stage movement is SR to SL. It’s apparently
the natural stage flow, not dependant on the way we read.
The story of this play tells us how 12 widows in mythical
history (during the European middle ages, actually) saved the
country from invasion after the general falls in battle. The
dialogue is suitably artificial (“As we face a hanging bluff,
the horse will not budge”); when it wants to be humorous, it’s
delightful. It all culminates in a wordless, acrobatic battle
with juggling and kicking and stylized swordplay (stickplay,
actually). It’s all wonderful.
The music ensemble includes traditional instruments – gong,
drum, fiddle, horn, etc… The Qi Shu Fang company has added an
electric synthesizer! The music is insistent, commanding, not
subtle. This drama works for expansion, not compression.
It’s all clearly designed to impress – a festival of
nationalism. There are no ideas here, no discussion. The
Peking Opera dates from the 18th Century; its repertoire
includes over 1,400 works. We applaud the Qi Shu Fang company
for keeping it alive and offering it to us here in the States.
Unblinking:
The Thirty-third
Year - Playing Life, Theatre ASOU at Mabou Mines, PS
122 by Steve Capra
Theatre ASOU, from Graz, Austria, visited Mabou Mines recently
(at PS 122, New York), with a sort of performance piece called
The Thirty-third Year - Playing Life. The company uses
projections, costume changes, and a disembodied, amplified voice
to create a set of characters, all manifestations of the sole
actor. Indeed, the script was devised from the actor's life
through interviews with the author (Robert Riedl). It's a
probing exposure of character, and it doesn't shrink from life's
worst experiences - death and grief.
Throughout, the actor is engaged in conversation with an alter
ego. "What is it that you want from me?" he asks his other self.
"Just shut your mouth," comes the response. But this disembodied
voice (who is the director) can be reassuring as well, "Just be
you", he tells our man. There's a great deal of Pirandelloing
around here. The best bit is a visual pun on the word "cast", as
the actor enters with his leg in one of those plaster things -
he's in the cast today.
We admire the expression of loss and guilt that Theatre ASOU
gives us. However, the repartee re: acting vs life goes on well
past its welcome, and the production fails. It depends too
heavily a concept that isn't developed, merely repeated. An
upstage screen keeps throwing the actor's soulful eyes at us -
sometimes his soulful eye - and, like the script, it doesn't
blink. But this means it never changes, and the self-examination
isn't stageable.
The production owes much to the honest, fluid emotional life of
its actor, Gernot Rieger. His technique is sharp and sure and
polished. When he addresses us, in the play's best moment, he's
direct and disarming. "Would you like a relationship with me?"
he asks. But still, the answer is decidedly "No". Who'd want to
deal with his self-absorption? And when he says "Maybe this is a
kind of therapy," we've had enough.
We'd like to see this company again, with its unblinking
honesty, when its talents are channeled through a pithier
vehicle.
The
Miracle Worker by Shera
Cohen
Majestic, West Springfield through 10/12/08
The staging is the first clue that the Majestic’s opening play,
“The Miracle Worker,” launches a wonderful professional 2008/09
season. Set designer Greg Trochlil and lighting designer Daniel
Rist arrange multiple areas, representing indoors and outdoors,
clearly defined by outlines of wooden panels and variations of
spotlights.
The high caliber of the play continues from the very first words
spoken to final words of Helen Keller fingered in the hand of
her teacher Annie Sullivan. Playwright William Gibson’s dialogue
is exquisite as he initially hints at the potential of each
character, and then proves it. Just as Gibson depends on
choosing the right words, the plot is about words and language.
Communication is the crux of the play – without it, the human
spirit is locked. Helen and Annie’s story is real, and playgoers
know its beginning, middle, and end. Yet, seeing it often never
seems to be too often.
Zoya Kachadurian skillfully directs her cast of 14 (including
some adorable children) in a well-paced natural clip. The flow
is seamless, especially when moving in and out of flashbacks.
There are no weak actors. Marianna Bassham (Helen’s mother)
portrays a gentile Southern lady with a backbone when it comes
to her child. Eric Love (father) could have easily phoned in his
performance as one-dimensional, but this was far from the case.
Dan Whelton (brother) shows the clear growth of his character’s
inner self.
Wherever did the Majestic staff find Brittany Andrea? Actually,
the answer isn’t important. What is pertinent is that she is a
must-see young actress who is only in town for one month in the
physically and emotionally demanding role of Helen. She balances
relentless frustration with naïve awakening. Andrea is Helen.
The play is truly the story of Annie Sullivan, who was the
miracle worker. Jen Schwaber gives Annie a dichotomy of
forthrightness and doubt, strength and vulnerability, courage
and bravado, humor and drama. Her battles with Andrea call for
shear stamina, and perhaps accepting some bruises throughout the
play’s run. Schwaber is an actress who easily meets the many
challenges of Annie.
While at the Majestic, note the beautiful paintings by Willie
Ross School for the Deaf students which are on display
throughout the run of this play.
Spamalot
@ The Bushnell, Hartford
by Shera Cohen
There’s one really big thing wrong about “Spamalot” at the
Bushnell – only five performances. Given that one fault,
audiences have no choice but to fill the seats immediately and
to the rafters to experience one of the most outrageous,
creative, and funniest musicals ever.
To have remembered and enjoyed the Monty Python series or movies
means instant love of “Spamalot,” because it’s more of the same
along with music and funky lyrics, cartoon-like sets, costumes
from every century (who cares if this is supposedly the Middle
Ages), cheeky special effects, and this time it’s all in
fabulous Technicolor. Nothing is off-limits – sex, politics,
death, or religion. The monk and nun sensual dance is a hoot. To
have never seen Python makes little difference. Audiences need
only bring open minds, funny bones, and expectations of
exaggeration and camp to thoroughly enjoy the play, at least
enough to see it once a year.
The story is that of King Arthur, his knights, the Lady of the
Lake, and search for the Holy Grail. Ahh, sounds familiar, from
books of old. From that basic plot are twists and turns to
Casino Camelot, “a very expensive forest,” and Broadway.
Blatantly hysterical running jokes are poked at many musicals:
i.e. “Fiddler,” “West Side Story,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Les
Miz,” and “Phantom.” The knights especially like Mel Brooks and
especially dislike Sondheim and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The actors are constant hams, which could give the expectation
that the singing skills might not be equal to the shtick. Wrong.
There are some wonderful strong voices, in particular
Christopher Sutton at Prince Herbert doing a lovely falsetto.
Except for those playing Arthur and Lady, all of the actors have
at least three roles each. It wasn’t until after the standing
ovation to boisterous audience cheers that this reviewer had
time to read the playbill. Two of the best acted characters are
Sir Lancelot and The French Taunter. What do you know – Patrick
Heusinger portrays both.
Ending with an audience sing-along to a reprised “Always Look on
the Bright Side of Life,” it is clear that “Spamalot” shines
bright.
Eleanor: Her Secret Journey
by K. J. Rogowski
Berkshire Theatre Company, Stockbridge
through November 9, 2008
Berkshire Theatre Festival's production of "Eleanor: Her Secret
Journey" is a one woman show of power, passion and change, that
documents her reflections on the early years with yet to be
president, Franklin. Equally important is a look at her personal
observations on both world and intimate personal events that
were to shape her future from 1945 on.
Elizabeth Norment's skill as an actor captures the panorama of
that world stage as she plays Eleanor, Franklin, and a cast of
others notables, as they discuss, debate and sort out the
morals, mania and politics of world powers and family
domination. Here, she faces the challenges of dealing with an
unfaithful husband, a manipulative mother-in-law, the senseless
inhumanity of man at war, and the strange, seductive power that
each possesses. Through her journey, Eleanor strips away the
grandeur and the public face of war, and those who manipulate
that machine, and shows, instead, the back story, the human
frailty that actually drives world events. She humanizes the
inhumane, and reduces it to its most basic components. She
reveals the personal quirks and idiosyncrasies of the great and
near great, and casts a light on the personal toll of being a
public figure, that the public sometimes thinks it owns.
Norment does all this with humor, passion and vulnerability,
that make the view into the lives of these very public figures a
true journey of little-known human struggles. Stephen
Temperley's direction keeps the action smooth, uncomplicated,
and focused on the message, as does the simple, yet elegant, set
design. The use of lighting shifts and occasional sound effects
to set the tone and to punctuate the changing emotions of
Eleanor's pilgrimage are also nicely played. For an evening of
drama, humor and humanity, Eleanor's journey is well worth the
trip.
Les
Miserables Special School Edition
by Donna Bailey-Thompson
Exit 7 Players, Ludlow MA
The tension of social unrest – generations of
injustice that led to France proclaiming a Second Republic – and
the individuals caught up in its life-changing drama, are
knocking the socks off audiences as performed at a professional
level by dedicated amateur actors ranging in age from five to
eighteen. In this abridged version of the blockbuster musical,
Les Miserables, the integrity of Victor Hugo’s classic novel is
honored and in many respects intensified by the awe-inspiring
performances of 47 young people.
Based upon the high quality of Exit 7 Players’
productions, the professionalism of their Les Mis should not be
surprising, but, it is. To inspire such outstanding performances
is a testament to Director/Choreographer Jenn Bauduccio’s skill
and the cast’s trust in her guidance..
Exit 7's Les Miserables Special School Edition
is an outstanding theatrical experience. As the dying Fantine,
Monica Giordano’s solo is heartbreaking. Other emotional peaks
are attained by Michelle Waslick, age 9 (Gavroche); Tray K.
Sanders, age 13 (Enjalras); Sarah Banning, age 15 (Eponine)
whose "On My Own" breaks more hearts. The amoral Thenardiers –
Lisa Rizza, about to become a college freshman and Colby Herchel
with three years acting experience – offer lively, humorous
nastiness. Star-crossed lovers Cosette (Katie Stiefel) and Sam
Plotkin (Marius, age 16) pour out their longing for one another.
The determination of Jean Valjean (Gavin
Mackie, high school senior) to become an honest man and the
doggedness of the sadistic law enforcer Javert (Michael Piels
who enrolls in NYU this coming semester) to destroy Valjean,
infuse their scenes, singly and together, with raw energy. Their
duets stir and alarm.
Musical Director Devon Louise Bakum has
infected the young cast with a desire to excel. The songs are
not easy to sing, yet the chorus and soloists deliver with ease
and conviction. The costumers – Bauduccio, Mary Hernandez,
Sherri Montagna, Lori Rodriguez, Cheryl Chant – incorporated
authenticity into their creations. The imaginative minimal sets
are the handiwork of master carpenters Paul Hamel and Tom
Marshall Jr.
Unsung are the parents and families of the
cast who juggled their other responsibilities to support their
cast member’s ambitions. Before the auditions, Exit 7 spent
years planning and negotiating. And now, Bravo!
3 Plays/1 Stage by Shera Cohen
Shakespeare & Company, Lenox
Add it up: 2 Shakespeare plays
(one deadly serious and the other almost deadly comedy) + 1 by someone
else + 3 skilled directors (Tina Packer, Kevin Coleman, Tony Simotes) +
dozens of exceptional actors (among them are Shakes & Co. “old timers”
Jason Asprey, Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Jonathan Croy, Michael Hammond,
Annette Miller, Dennis Krausnick) = a fabulous summer season at Shakes &
Co.
“Othello,” directed by Shakes & Co. alum, teacher, fight captain Tony
Simotes, offers a triumvirate of talent. Simotes’ stages his actors in
exactly the right positions with voices and demeanor to become their
characters. John Douglas Thompson (Othello) shines as the tortured man,
triumphant in battle on the field yet failing himself and those he
loves. This is the perfect role for Thompson. Michael Hammond shows his
audience every minutia of what makes his evil, conniving Iago tick.
Hammond is not shy in his in-your-face performance, which is exactly
what is called for in this role.
“All’s Well That Ends Well” might be called a musical, or at least that
is the case with this version. Called “the house band,” nine actors
accompany singer/interlocutor Nigel Gore regularly liven up the stage
with original rock music composed by Shakes & Co.’s own Bill Barclay.
The songs link the scenes together in this feminist and perhaps atypical
Bard play.
Charles Morey’s “The Ladies Man” (based on the work of Geydeau) treats
the audience to non-stop comedy in the shape of traditional French
farce. In the course of the show, a total of 14 doors and entries permit
the cast comings and goings at such rapid speed nearly faster than the
eye can see. One can only imagine the bumping and bruising that occurs
backstage. The extremely talented ensemble (many from last year’s
successful “Rough Crossing”) must be having the time of their lives,
which is certainly contagious to the audience.
Actually, there’s more at Shakes & Co., and it’s the free stuff; i.e.
the very funny premiere of “The Mad Pirate and the Mermaid,” a terrific
lecture series, pre-show mini-plays, and more.
A Man for All Seasons
by Shera Cohen
Berkshire Theatre, Stockbridge
It’s been several seasons since Eric Hill was last on stage. The
opportunity to observe Hill’s portrayal as Sir Thomas More in “A Man for
All Seasons” is one important reason to catch this play before it
closes. Another is to watch the other actors, as this is a collection of
thespian work at its best.
"Man” is based on the true story of More, of which there is much
history. Set in the era of Henry VIII, is the battle of church and state
over the divorce of the king’s first wife, Catherine. Equally, it is the
conflict of conscience and convenience. The plot is far from black and
white or right vs. wrong. The play could, indeed, be titled “A Man for
all Days” or “Years” or “Centuries.” Beliefs and convictions of 1530 may
as well be the same, with the same vehemence in 2008.
Richard Corley directs his cast in a series of chronological segments in
the life of More, his family, and constituents. The thread linking each
part is The Common Man, portrayed exceptionally well in multiple roles
by Walter Hudson. David Chandler’s Cromwell plays sinister to
perfection, Gareth Saxe’s Henry combines humor with determination in his
king, and Diane Prusha evenly balances love and strength for and against
her stubborn husband as More’s wife.
Hill is quite understated, except for a few short moments, as More. As a
man of the cloth and of government, More’s professions pulled him in two
directions, resulting in deadly consequences. Through Hill, we see the
struggle of a man who willingly sheds both exterior garments to live
solely by his own judgment.
The trappings of staging and costuming create 16th century England. Yet,
actors do not feign British accents, and much of the playwright’s
dialogue seems quite 20th century. Throughout, the play asks the
question, “What is a man without principles and values?” Today’s
audience members leave asking the same question of themselves.
Tell Everybody
by Steve Capra
Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy was first performed in 1606.
Talk about family drama! The Duchess has three sons by a previous
marriage, and the Duke has one, not counting the bastard (who takes up
with his stepmother). It drips with intrigue and duplicity. It’s set,
naturally, in Italy.
London’s National Theatre produced it this month with extraordinary
success. The designs (by Ti Green and Melly Still) are all and
marvelous, with a stark throne room for the Duke and glorious
Renaissance murals for the court. The revolving stage has crannies of
mystery reflecting the intricacies of the script. The costumes are
modern and unobtrusive, making their point without attracting attention.
Our hero, Vindice, is played by Rory Kinnear, looking terrific under his
red T-shirt and white sport jacket. When we meet him, he’s a Raskolnikov
in his bare room, books scattered on the floor, his hair ragged. He
morphs into a macho with a buzz cut, and finally dons a great fright wig
in his final disguise. Kinnear is terrific, with a clear emotional life
expressed through a fluid physicality. He flails his arms or stands in
an introverted lump, as the need arises.
There’s a lot of physical action on this stage. We open with tumblers
and dancers – they show up again from time to time – and occasionally
there are nameless characters doing the most obscene things as the stage
revolves. In the final masque, Still holds back, giving us the masked
dancers (they’re really the young Dukelets) on a spare set, because she
can’t top the spectacle she’s already given us. Wise choice – but
executed without insight, and the macabre dance fails.
This terrific production has crisp asides, an elegant counter tenor,
and, when the occasion demands, a disco beat. Even the face, projected
on the walls of the set, that morphs into a demon in the way of computer
graphics, is integrated into the design.
The script revels in the black Jacobean humor: Vindice confesses a
series of deceits to the Duke before killing him and adds “Tell nobody”
before he stabs him. And Still’s concern with macabre detail matches the
playwright’s – there’s dummy that’s passed off as a woman (Vindice
panders for the duke), and in a post-murder frenzy it comes to life.
The actresses of this cast don’t come off well – Vindice’s mother and
sister are oddly colorless. And Still hasn’t expressed the cynical depth
of the script, its unspeakable emotions. Determined not to dwell on a
moment, he never savors the luscious evil. The trick is, though, that
she’s managed to drive this dinosaur (mixed metaphor there) by us so
deftly. Tell everybody that great drama is timeless and that a form
intensely linked to the 17th century can speak to us as well.
Rolling their “R’s” by
Steve Capra
Igor Stravinsky wrote his opera The Rake’s Progress
in 1951. He was inspired by a set of paintings of the same name
published by the English artist William Hogarth in 1735 that depicted
the moral dissolution of a young man seduced by material goods. The plot
loosely follows Hogarth’s: Tom Rakewell inherits money, dumps his
girlfriend and, led by Nick Shadow (the devil himself!) he plays around
in the big city. Then – after a bunch of adventures – he’s committed to
an asylum. A timeless theme if there ever was one.
I am not at home with this material from Igor’s middle period. The
effusive orchestrations of Right of Spring and Firebird were past for
the composer by the time he wrote Progress. But Stravinsky is like
Shakespeare; as the evening progresses, we’re educated to the idiom. The
libretto is by WH Auden and Chester Kallman, and it’s uninspiring.
The Royal Opera in London has just staged the piece directed by the
Canadian Robert Lepage. The production premiered in Brussels in 2007 and
has travelling around (Not unlike its jeune premier). The production is
dominated by concept as expressed in the grand set designs by Carl
Fillion. The opera’s been set in the prototypical American Mid-west and
decadent California. The libretto retains its allusions to London, and
it’s really cool to separate lyrics and design this way.
The first set is a flatland with oil rig - the clouds move, with a
vanishing point right of center, as the overcast grows. Then, in the
first stage in our rake’s corruption, he makes a western movie (and here
the designer is less successful), with Shadow floating around behind a
sort-of cardboard representation of a classic Hollywood camera. In
another scene, a wisp of grey balloon center stage inflates to become a
trailer, and this is just cheap.
We spend a lot of time at a pool on the coast. There’s a terrific sunset
here over a rippling ocean, and when a crowd of reporters appears,
they’re in heartless black-and-white. “Ruin – disaster – shame” they
croak.
In the opera’s best scene, Shadow leads our man to the entrance to hell
– it’s wonderfully macabre with pictures of playing cards and of a
yellow tub ducky, all sadistically tasteless, “Abandon all hope, you who
enter here” in pictures. And when Shadow says “Behold your waiting
grave”, it’s just luscious. Anyway, Tom doesn’t go to hell – he goes to
the asylum instead, where everything is worse - pale, colorless.
And so we’re served the two elements – libretto and design – linked by
theme, not logic. The setting deepens the opera by adding dissonance.
The problem is that the impressive design is so derivative that it lacks
mystery. We know just where each idea has come from. There are specific
allusions to classic movies and stage musicals – Oklahoma, Sunset
Boulevard, et al.
Charles Castronovo is terrific as Rakewell, physically expressive, with
clear diction. John Relyea, as Shadow, is sufficiently oily; in fact, he
appears out of the oil well, and he looks like oil itself. As Anne
Truelove, the dumped prairieland girlfriend, Sally Matthews modifies her
vowels so extremely on the high notes that we can’t understand what
she’s saying. I was grateful for the text next to the stage. In fact,
the diction throughout is odd – sometimes they roll their “R’s”.
So Lepage’s stage has been enlarged without being enriched. Fillion’s
elegant stage pictures are lifeless and, with no drama in the story or
depth in the characters, the production is more impressive than
memorable.
Broke-ology @ Williamstown Theatre
Festival, Williamstown (MA) by Shera Cohen
It’s not often that a play’s
world premiere takes place in our region. It’s also not often that a
playwright’s first piece of work is staged by such a well-known and
respected venue as Williamstown Theatre Festival. Those two factors do
not necessarily make for success. Yet, in the case of “Broke-ology,” the
audience’s applause and standing ovation (including this reviewer) at
the play’s end would lead many to believe that this play has a long life
on the stage.
It’s a strange title, for sure. One character coined it and explains it
as a college degree in “being broke (poor),” and this man would receive
an A+. His younger brother, however, recently graduated from “real”
college with a double major. The differences and conflict between these
young men are immediately set. While in a happy marriage, their parents
often see life from opposite points of view.
The setting is a poverty-stricken neighborhood, Kansas. But it could be
Anywhere, USA. The times are 1982 and 2007. The family is
African-American. Author Nathan Louis Jackson and Director Thomas Kail
take these four characters and immediately make them real people. There
are no good guys and bad guys; they are each human, opinionated,
likable, and even lovable. The bottom line for the audience is that we
care.
Every actor is exceptional, and while it is cliché, they seem born to
portray their roles. Francois Battiste (the older brother) was
outstanding. An actor with numerous Broadway and regional theatre
credits, Battiste has also appeared in films. Like the long life of this
play, here is a young actor to watch as he climbs the latter to his own
success.
Some might think of the Nikos Stage at Williamstown as the smaller
second cousin with plays that are less important or skillfully produced
as those on the Mainstage. That would not be true. This is a wonderful
venue, particularly for experimentation with new works before a live
audience. Except for one detail at the play’s end (which will not be
revealed) the story, dialogue, and execution were perfect. Take a chance
on future Nikos productions
Almost, Maine @ Chester Theatre
Company by Donna Bailey-Thompson
"Almost, Maine" is a delight, a smorgasbord of vignettes with
beginnings, middles, and endings that make sense. Some are poignant, or
frothy, or silly, even a tad shocking – especially the latter is to the
characters played by two actors, Jim Beaudin and Paden Fallis, who are
appropriately direct, awkward and flabbergasted.
A director less skilled and disciplined than Chuck Hudson might have
encouraged excessive punching of some lines, even supported an actor’s
inclination to go over the top. Not Mr. Hudson. Instead both he and the
cast of four (who divvy up portraying 19 characters) respect the
creative machinations of the playwright’s mind. That John Cariani’s
"Almost, Maine," is included in "New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006" by
Smith and Kraus seems a logical choice.
This is an all A-Team production. The ending of one mini play and the
beginning of the next are effected a few beats shy of blackout pace. As
soon as the lights come up, the actors have nano seconds to establish
who they are. Each actor assumes a new identity: Manon Halliburton
(six), Tracey Liz Miller and Fallis, (four each), and Beaudin (five).
Halliburton and Beaudin may be sitting self-consciously on a bench.
Miller may be waiting for a display of the Northern Lights or arriving
at the door of a long-ago suitor. Fallis and Beaudin may be comparing
notes on their individual preferences when it comes to spending an
evening. Innocuous stuff? Not the stuff of drama? Wrong. And, wrong
again.
It is possible to mount a play without sound and lighting designs but
when the wind howls hard enough to overcome thoughts of a heat wave
baking Chester’s outdoors and a shimmering aurora borealis fills one’s
senses, the talents of Sound Designer Tom Shread and Resident Lighting
Designer Lara Dubin enhance the many pleasures of "various locales in
the small, remote town of Almost, Maine."
Rabbit Hole @ New Century Theatre,
Northampton by Donna Bailey-Thompson
Clues to the type of play that will be performed are evident from Emily
Dunn’s set design. A front door opens into an open layout of a sprawling
family room that links with a kitchen table that fronts a roomy kitchen
area. The overall effect is antiseptic; the furnishings could be metal
and glass. There is nothing to suggest warmth. Even a child’s bedroom
visible on an upper level is hospital-neat, in spite of stuffed animals
and a poster. In the opening scene, Becca (Cate Damon) sits at the table
folding a small child’s clothes. Her younger sister Izzy (Sandra Blaney)
chatters, disclosing information, piecemeal, about herself which
culminates with the announcement that she’s pregnant. Does that shock
Becca? Only somewhat. Becca is mired in grief for the death of her son
several months before, accidentally killed when he chased his dog into
the street.
Keep tissues handy.
Oh, there is topical humor but not much. Becca and her husband, Howie
(Keith Langsdale) are coping with a loss too profound for them to
bear.They can’t derive comfort from one another. They’re living by rote.
There is no clue to how they were before the accident. But now, they are
barely functional. Izzy tries to divert with inanities, fulfilling a
role textbooks classify as the "mascot" Becca’s mother, Nat (Ellen
Barry) rattles on. Attempts at normalcy fail. One person who has
addressed his grief and guilt is the high school boy, driving with a new
license, who while trying to avert hitting the dog instead hit the
child. As Jason, Daniel Plimpton "reads" the letter he has written to
the parents, a recitation sensitively rendered that exudes authenticity.
Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s "Rabbit Hole" won a Pulitzer Prize for
the best drama of 2007. This production is well-executed; the
performances are strong with one exception: too often dialog is missed
because voices are lowered, particularly when Becca speaks of a rabbit
hole.
Berkshire
Choral Festival: Saturdays in July/August by Shera CohenThe experience of Berkshire Choral Festival was
three-fold for this reviewer, having the privilege of attending three
concerts in a matter of eight days.
For 27 years, thousands of choristers have gathered weekly to BCF for
the love of singing and the camaraderie of those like themselves. An
average concert includes 180 vocalists, who travel from nearly every
U.S. state, the Americas, Europe, and Asian countries. One aspect that
does not change is the “back-up” musicians – the Springfield Symphony
Orchestra.
Each Saturday night features different conductors and selections.
Oftentimes, soloists are featured. Be assured that the pieces are all
big; nothing but the most challenging.
A musicologist speaks in a free talk prior to each concert, offering
better insight into the background of the pieces and composers.
Titled “I Hear America Singing,” under the direction of Craig Jessop,
the highlight was “Frostiana.” This was a flowing compilation of seven
Robert Frost poems including “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening.” Coupling Frost with music by Randall Thompson made
for a wonder to the audience’s ears.
That same week, a select group of BCF members performed a free concert
at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. Lead by an assistant
conductor, the 20 or so singers crooned several old chestnuts, including
big band tunes. Theirs was a nice teaser concert for the upcoming
Saturday’s program.
There could not have been a better pair of choral works as Orff’s “Carmina
Burana” was teamed with Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony (finale).” Tom Hall
was the guest conductor. From the first loud and harsh bang of the
instruments and voices to the soft and soothing movements, the lush and
humorous songs of baritone Alexander Tall to the superior soprano notes
of Penelope Shumate, “Carmina” was a standout piece. Its reputation
precedes it as one of the most illustrious choral/symphonic works of the
20th century. To tackle the difficulty in the ebb and flow, ups and
downs of the exceptionally long work, was no small task. This
performance was without a doubt one of the most memorable music
experiences for any in the audience. The well-deserved standing ovation
lasted at least five minutes.
Rounding Third
by Shera Cohen
Majestic Theater, West Springfield (MA) through August 2, 2008
It’s no surprise that the subject matter of a play titled “Rounding
Third” is baseball. This all-American sport is not, however, a favorite
pastime of many theatre-goers, and vice versa. The Majestic cast and
crew had to do a lot of skilled work to win over this reviewer.
Interestingly, one of the running themes throughout the play is that
never the twain (jocks and thespians) shall meet.
Readers…not to worry. Knowledge of home plate, dugouts, and shortstops
is not necessary to thoroughly enjoy “Rounding Third.” The only
requirement for audience members to laugh at, sympathize with, and
appreciate the play is the huge achievement of having survived
childhood. There’s no doubt that everyone left the theatre having seen a
“home run.”
The play takes place today in Any Town, USA. The set is simple – a
backdrop fence of a baseball field and benches. Steve Henderson stars as
an experienced little league coach and John Hart is the new guy
assistant coach. While there are no other actors onstage, these two men,
under the direction of Danny Eaton, bring to life a team of
12-year-olds, none of whom are ever seen. These little leaguers –
Frankie, Eric, Timmy, et al – fill the stage. Now, that’s an
accomplishment!
The essence of the story is to win at all costs even if it means tossing
away one’s integrity vs. enjoying the journey while trying and hoping to
succeed. Through dialogue, body language, and impeccable timing, the
actors seamlessly react of each other. Occasionally, the banter is a
little too fast, leaving some humor unheard or ignored.
Henderson and Hart create three-dimensional real life roles which are
far from stagnant. Henderson is always a pro on the Majestic stage. It
was a pleasure to see Hart return. When he was younger, Hart was just
fine in small roles. He’s paid his proverbial dues in New York City and
earned his Equity card. His talent continues to grow. His soliloquy in a
final scene is so poignant that it undoubtedly touches anyone who has a
heart.
Take a ride around the rotary to the Majestic to see
“Rounding Third.” It’s “way cooler” than seeing a real ballgame, and
it’s air conditioned.
Metro Stage Company’s
Ruthless a Riot by Robin Chamberlain
In a continuing effort to bring Boston newer, edgier, more
thought-provoking and less traditional musical material, Metro Stage
Company’s newest offering, Ruthless! The Musical, is a fabulous
flamboyant trip through every “bad girl in showbiz” movie and metaphor.
Think “The Bad Seed” meets “All About Eve” meets Mama Rose and you’ve
got Ruthless. The biting, bitchy, and hysterical script and score are
loaded with references and double-entendres that will leave musical and
B-Movie buffs rolling in the aisles, but may leave those without those
interests feeling like they missed something. Still, there are enough
other non-“insider” comic moments to satisfy everyone. Pay close, I mean
close attention to every word- this script has more plot twists, turns,
and about-faces than a Telemundo soap opera.
Director Rob Case does an amazing job with the small cast who winningly
portray the deliberately stereotyped roles-Amazonian talent agent,
talented tyke, suburban housewife deluxe, and more. Kudos to the entire
cast: Tracy Nygard, deliciously over-the-top in dual roles as Judy
Denmark-Stepford wife supreme, and Ginger DelMarco, Broadway’s latest
musical sensation, plays both with equally fabulous and amusing results.
Hannah Forsley is amazing as little Tina Denmark, the starlet wanna-be
who is willing to do anything….anything to get (imagine a sinister chord
playing as you hear the phrase)…the lead. She taps, sings, and mugs her
way through the night as the perfect disingenuous ingénue. Christopher
J. Hagberg winningly portrays Sylvia St. Croix, overbearing talent
manager with the most…the most hair, the most jewelry, the most amazing
drag wardrobe (compliments of Mr. Hagberg’s costumer Mark Frederics-Cabrera)…..you
get it. You stop holding your breath hoping he won’t fall in 6-inch
heels after about first 30 seconds after his/her entrance, because he
does a better job of it than most women. Mary O’Donnell plays
Mother/critic Lita Encore and her rendition of “I Hate Musicals” is a
show-stopper. The cast is rounded out by Jaime Steinbach in comic turns
as Miss Thorne, frustrated third-grade teacher and Miss Block, a
reporter from Modern Thespian and Katherine Reynolds as Tina’s third
grade classmate and school-play rival Louis Lerman, and Ginger DeMarco’s
aspiring assistant, the aptly-named Eve.
Congrats are also in order to all of the theatrical elements that helped
bring the production to life – Kimmerie H.O. Jones’ era-evocative
costumes, Abigail Cordell’s music direction and orchestra, John
MacKenzie’s lighting, including simple but effective Ed-Wood-esque
lighting moments, Annita-Marie Brockney’s choreography and a
straightforward set that ably managed to work as two distinct venues.
Each Metro production increasingly proves that there is room for this
little company and its now almost stock company of talented regulars in
the Boston theater scene. Pay attention.
Ancients Songs of South Africa
by Steve Capra
The Ngqoko Cultural Group, NYC
The Ngqoko Cultural Group appeared recently at the Skirball Center in
New York in their first American tour, presenting Ancients Songs of
South Africa. The group preserves indigenous South African musical
traditions, in particular, the traditions of the Xhosa culture of the
Eastern Cape. While the larger company has 15 members, this touring
group consists of six women and one man, the director, Tsolwana B.
Mpayipheli.
They entered through the audience, from the back of auditorium. The
opening denied a split between performer and audience; these singers are
us. The women wore glorious blue and yellow dresses (blue and white on
one woman) and head scarves, with Mpayipheli in a white caftan.
During some songs, the singers were accompanied by traditional
instruments:
 |
the uhadi, a bow with a
calabash resonator
|
 |
the umrubhe, a mouth bow
|
 |
the umasengwana and the
igubu, drums
|
 |
the inkinge, a bow with
tin resonator
|
 |
the isitolo-tolo, a jaws
harp
|
 |
…and also by the
harmonica, not traditional in Africa but which, Mpayipheli
explained, is included to please westerners. Traditional African
instruments are not usually played together, but the company
sometimes breaks with tradition and plays them simultaneously.
|
The singing was extraordinary,
wonderful - euphoric and soothing. Even the ballads sounded like
hypnotic chants. We learned that a chorus is greater than the sum of its
voices – it has a collective life of its own. Sometimes the voices began
timidly and intensified. Sometimes they faded out at the end of a song,
and sometimes they just stop, but they never punctuated the ending like
most European music.
Mpayipheli told us that this singing is not music because it has no
written notes and no beats. I disagree. Music doesn’t have to be written
down, and there are European traditions without beat, such as Gregorian
chant. These African songs are music of the first degree. The singers
hummed, murmured, whistled and clapped their hands, sometimes shaking
their hands and shoulders, sometimes stamping their feet in polyrhythmic
ecstasy. The music varied from simple unison to polyrhythmic complexity.
When they sang with an instrument – or instruments – accompanying, the
vocals sometimes took to the background, giving an unusual depth to the
sound, a sense of aural spaciousness.
The Ngqoko Cultural Group feature overtone singing, a traditional manner
of vocalizing also known as throat singing. It sounded less like the
throat singing of Asia had I expected. It shared the harsh, brittle
quality of the Buddhist monks’ voices, but it was deeper. Mpayipheli
told us that they mix it with more familiar vocals “in order to make it
pretty”. And here’s the lesson: there’s more to music than prettiness. A
further clue to understanding may lie in one of Mpayipheli’s comments:
“We put our complaints to music,” he told us.
Indeed, the director’s notes were helpful throughout the performance,
given in a beautiful and lyrical, if not always intelligible, accent.
African English is itself music. He would sometimes tell us the point of
the lyrics. The song with the harmonica, for example, is about the
dancing of a disabled woman. But I wanted more translation of the lyrics
– is there a refrain? Indeed, are there verses? There was a bit if
dancing during the course of the evening, and I would have liked to see
more of that as well.
We’re enormously grateful to The World Music Institute, which presented
this great concert. At a mere 75 minutes, it was intensely enjoyable,
satisfying, educative. We applaud The Ngqoko Cultural Group for keeping
this tradition alive. We want more of it – more of all the magnificent
musical traditions that are threatened by cultural globalization.
Happy Days - A New Musical
by Shera Cohen
Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT
through June 29, 2008
Expect the expected at Goodspeed Opera House for their run of “Happy
Days – A New Musical.” For the millions of baby boomers and their
parents who loved the TV series, this is a step back in time to fun of
the fifties, rock ‘n roll, perfect families, and poodle skirts.
The musical’s title is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, the production is
“new.” But there is nothing “new” about “Happy Days.” That’s quite
alright. There’s Richie and his buddies, Mr. & Mrs. C, Joanie and Chachi,
Arnold’s hangout, and dialogue that’s “really cool.” While not a series
regular, Pinky – the hot chick in pink – plays a major role in the
musical. Of course, there’s Fonzie. Ronny Howard was credited as the
show’s star, but it was Henry Winkler who stole the show. Well, there’s
no pretense this time. This play belongs to The Fonz.
Joey Sorge and Sandra DeNise (Fonz and Pinky) create characters, both
rough on the outside and fragile on the inside, who are perfect together
as they sing to or about each other. Sorge’s “Heartbreak” and DeNise’s
“Message in the Music” offer examples of the singing and acting skills
of the duo.
There is next to no story. Audience members could have easily turned on
a “Happy Days” rerun on “Nick at Nite.” Important is the energetic,
athletic, youthful cast of what seem like a dozen “American Idol” top
winners, on a colorful and brightly lit set. Put together, these
elements make for wholesome entertainment.
Many actors take double and triple roles. While not on the “star” list,
Matt Merchant is particularly noticeable as Elvis and later as a tough
guy wrestler. Merchant creates caricatures that don’t need to sing very
well, but his voice is one of the best onstage.
It is obvious that the actors were cast to look like those on TV. At
times, the musical even makes fun and inside jokes about the series.
It’s doubtful that the balcony of school kids “got” all of the humor.
What they got was a look at times when the worst problem of the day was
which plunger to purchase or picking a favorite song on the jukebox.
The
Pirates of Penzance by John Small
New World Chorale, Milford, MA
When I was a little lad, my father would frequently play G&S soundtrack
albums on our family's stereo (the quaint term for such albums was
"records", and they were made of an ancient substance called "vinyl"). I
also have a dim memory of being taken by my father to a production of
"The Pirates of Penzance", the only part of which I still remember is
the "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha" section of "When you had left our
pirate fold".
A seed must have been planted, for not only have I recently played the
first 2 G&S roles of my life (Major-General Stanley in "The Pirates of
Penzance" in 2007 & Sir Joseph Porter in "H.M.S. Pinafore" in 2008), I
have also taken to attending Gilbert and Sullivan productions at the
Sudbury Savoyards, the Savoyard Light Opera Company, and the M.I.T.
Gilbert & Sullivan Players - and I've been loving every minute of it!
In March of 2008, I attended the New World Chorale's production of "The
Pirates of Penzance" in Milford, Massachusetts. What struck me first,
most, and overall, was the passion and affection that the vocalists and
orchestra members obviously have for Gilbert and Sullivan's timeless,
yet still politically and socially timely, material.
The quality of the voices of both the principals and the chorus members
was impeccable and ideally suited to Gilbert and Sullivan's unique style
- vigorous and strong, with lightness, clarity, and crystalline
enunciation.
Holly Krafka is to be congratulated for having assembled such a talented
and playfully enthusiastic group of vocalists and instrumentalists.
Michael Prichard's Pirate King was a swaggering silver fox with a
thundering voice and commanding stage presence. His sidekick Samuel,
played by Jim Kauffman, was a self-confident and ever-loyal
second-in-command. Their piratical maid-of-all-work, Ruth, played by
Cindy Jones, delighted the audience with her vigorously-voiced
confession of hearing impairment in "When Frederic was a little lad".
Brad Amidon's Frederic was the perfect blend of innocence, romance, and
Victorian valor. Rebecca Hains' Mabel was delightful and sweet and
vocally stunning - her performance of "Poor wandering one" was
breathtaking in its range, power, and beauty. Mabel's sisters Edith
(Alison Moll), Kate (Karen Wilcox), and Isabel (Amy Harris), delivered a
hilarious performance of "What ought we to do" and "How beautifully blue
the sky", and gracefully comforted their woebegone father with a lovely
performance of "Oh, dry the glist'ning tear". Rick Grenier's
Major-General Stanley displayed a delightfully bemused and jovial
self-importance - and he rose to the challenge of Gilbert and Sullivan's
most famous patter song, "I am the very model of a modern
Major-General", delivering it with clarity and enthusiasm. Art LaMan
III was brilliant as the boldly timid Sergeant of Police, leading his
men with a vocal self-confidence which, of course, never completely
obscured their collective reluctance. Major-General Stanley's daughters
(Sarah Brannen, Colleen Campbell, Nina Eppes, Debbie Slade Pierce, Susan
Rubin, and Julie Steinhilber) were paragons of Victorian propriety, and
the Pirates & Policemen (Dan Borges, William Clerx, Tyler Hains, Dennis
Pereira, Jeff Pierce, Mac Sloan, Chris Loschen, Larry Millner, and
Howard Wilcox) provided all of the sherry-fueled & nightstick-wielding
testosterone needed to keep the laughs coming.
Bravo, New World Chorale! I look forward to your next Gilbert &
Sullivan production.
Pure Joy of Movement
by Beverly Creasey (5/4/08)
Archeologists have discovered cave paintings of animals, warriors and
dancers dating back 3000 years. Even before the written word, primitive
choreographers were notating dances with pictures. According to these
cave drawings, primitive man hunted, fished, fought ...and danced! So
who were these figures whose movements were deemed so important that
they were depicted on stone? Were they royalty? Priests? Elders?
After a performance by Prometheus Dance's ELDERS ENSEMBLE, you'll be
thinking they were definitely tribal elders. Diane Arvanites-Noya and
Tommy Neblett choreograph gorgeous, intricate pieces for their senior
company (ages .55 to 85) which the dancers execute in elegant symmetry.
Some of the work is highly theatrical, with dramatic components which
the performers deliver like seasoned actors. What sets these dancers
apart from their younger counterparts is the joy they radiate and the
unabashed freedom of movement they exude as they dance. They're having a
grand time out there on stage.
I Having seen all but one of the pieces before (An exquisite new work
which celebrates the sacred premiered this weekend) I realized that the
familiar works had changed slightly and seemed even more poignant. The
dancers have grown into their roles so that the work is richer and
fuller now. Audiences are struck by the exuberance and playfulness of
the performances. ALL DRESSED UP (from 2007) is a madcap romp, a
Felliniesque voyage of dreams and discovery, presided over by ringmaster
Dorothy Elizabeth Tucker.
SHADOW PROPHECY (from 2006) sets Marcie Miller centerstage, surrounded
and buffeted by the Fates. It's a harrowing lamentation which ends in
triumph, when Miller comes to terms with, and embraces her destiny.
Arvanites & Noya's remarkable new piece embraces the SACRED in all its
forms: nature, spirit and worship. The dancers sway to ancient chants
and Latin litanies and are lifted up as if in an embrace of peace. The
transcendent images follow the music, changing from Eastern to Western,
from Hindu prayer gesture to a Pieta tableau. Joan Green delivers a
paean to nature at the end of the piece and the dancers whisper their
own prayers as they exit the stage.
Their last dance has become their signature: It's a sassy, hip little
number (from 2005) which says it all. The dancers sport saucy sundresses
and shades, ready to catch some rays in their aluminum lawn chairs but
they don't lounge for long. Those chairs are airborne, the music by Ray
Charles and Nat King Cole beckons them to come out and play ...and they
do, kicking their legs over their heads and amusing us with their
stories. Leave it to Betty Milhendler to end hers with "THERE'S A DANCE
IN THE OL' DAME YET!"
In Barbara Ehrenreich's new cultural history of dance, she speculates
that no less than the decline of Western civilization began with the
church's suppression of Medieval Festivals with their ecstatic ritual.
dancing. You might say that The Elders Ensemble is saving the world, one
dance at a time.
The Full Monty by
Shera Cohen (4/24/08)
Majestic Theater, West
Springfield thru 5/25.
Colloquial definitions of “the
full monty” mean: the whole lot, entire pot, full amount, and the more
commonly understood “full striptease routine.” The Majestic’s
interpretation of the musical “The Full Monty” gives many meanings to
the word “full.”
“Monty” tops off what has been a creative and exceptional season at the
Majestic. From a two-character play, to Shakespeare, to a hysterically
funny show on ice-fishing, to the large-cast and full-fledged musical of
“Monty,” this company continues to prove that home-produced theatre is
among the best. It’s costly and a risk, yet mounting plays from scratch
instills a pride in cast and crew, not to mention audiences.
This musical, the story of down and out unemployed factory workers, is
far from a “downer.” Yes, the characters are broke, with family
problems, and depressed. Yet at the same time, they are full of hope,
dreams, and the potential for self-esteem. Their means to the latter are
unorthodox in the reluctant plan to become Chippendale-wannabes.
Randy Ronco (leader of the troupe) has energy, relates to his stage-son
in poignant scenes, and represents a flawed man who doesn’t give up.
Robert Clark (big-lug buddy Dave) portrays a pussycat with a heart.
Darron Cardosa (mama’s boy) is the best of the singers. Also in this
wonderful ensemble are Tom Knightlee, Van Farrier, and Dann Black. They
are a perfect motley team, especially in their song and dance
(creatively choreographed by David Wallace) piece “Michael Jordan’s
Ball.”
While it’s the guys who “are” the play, Paula Cortis and Lea Oppedisano
(wives) develop background of whom these men really are. Their
juxtaposed scenes, in song and physical placement on the stage, in “You
Rule My World” are highlights of the show.
Director Danny Eaton has a lot to do connecting the many segments to the
next, as he works with Set Designer Amy Davis (creating a warehouse
simply with moving panels) and Band Leader Mitch Chakour keeping up the
pace.
“Monty” is a play with lyrics that move the story along, no
hard-to-understand British accents (remember the movie version), and
proof that there is no difference in talent between Equity and
non-Equity actors.
The Smothers Brothers & Springfield
Symphony Orchestra by
Shera Cohen (4/14/08)
Symphony Hall, Springfield
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Tommy is age 70 and Dickie is age 68. Yet, the Smothers Brothers
performance might as well have taken place in the 1960s. The “boys”
never skipped a beat in impeccable timing, topical humor, irreverence,
and their well-known stage personas. By the way, each aged very well.
Tommy’s trademark stupidity and naiveté bounced off brother Dickie’s
exasperation and seriousness just as they had done throughout the past
50 years. Yes, a half-century! The audience got exactly what they
expected in style, comedy, and music. Which was more perfect – the
material or the delivery? It’s a toss up. Each went hand-in-hand to
create a terrific show.
There was simply too much to remember for this critic to write, because
the performance was extremely fast-paced and funny. Among the highlights
were the following: the trilogy of “dog songs” coupled with a lame dog
joke; the feigned gratefulness to perform in Springfield; and Tommy’s
avocation as a trained pilot. As his brother commented, “Just because
you accumulated thousands of skymiles, it doesn’t make you an airline
pilot.”
Sometimes, it’s forgotten that the brothers are also very skilled
musicians. With Tommy on guitar and Dickie on bass, their music and
voices (Dickie, the better singer) make for an important part of the act
– that is until Tommy always interrupts. The duo never managed through
an entire song, but that’s what the routine is all about.
When music segued into comedy, that was the best of the routines; i.e. a
tender Spanish song reverted to German, then yodeling (Tommy’s the
culprit, of course). Another “normal” melody turned its notes to
“Dueling Guitars,” only this time guitar vs. piano.
Special appearance by The Yo Yo Man (Tommy) and Voice of Yo (Dickie) had
both back and forth on stage performing yo yo tricks and extemporaneous
commentary. Who would think that a yo yo could be that much fun to
watch?
A video of the brothers’ lives capped off the evening. The longest
section showed excerpts from “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,”
including anti-Vietnam scripts, commentary by Pat Paulson, and being
axed in the prime of the series. Thank goodness, the boys never really
went away.
The Ten Tenors
by Shera Cohen (3/15/08)
Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Two math questions. What is Il Divo x 3.33? Hummm? Let’s
make it easier? What are The Three Tenors x 2.5? Answer -- The Ten
Tenors, or affectionally dubbed TTT. These Aussies combine camaraderie,
energy, and animated choreography of a football team with debonair
charm, wit, and professionalism of Wall Street bankers. They are
personable, relaxed, and as one of the members referred to all,
“incredibly good looking.” They are the boys next door, if the boys had
voices like Pavarotis in the making.
Starting as impromptu street singers, the classmates launched their
career performing in every town and hamlet in their homeland, quickly
cut a CD, and then ventured to Europe. Except for one PBS performance,
few in this country have had the opportunity to hear TTT. Now on their
first North American tour, these boys are fast becoming known and
applauded, and not just for their pretty faces. They can sing!
As a unit, TTT is at its best – whether singing as one voice or as a
group sporadically highlighting individuals within sections of songs. It
is clearly evident that each vocalist has his unique singing style,
range, and genre expertise. They also can sing anything – and do!
There are folk, pop, rock, Australian pieces, disco, and a lot of opera.
One of the men told the audience that they would perform, “opera without
the boring bits.” The repertoire shifts from Pucci to Queen, “Waltzing
Matilda” to Dean Martin’s “Volare,” the Tarantella to Simon & Garfunkel,
and Verdi to the Bee Gees. Envision 10 businessmen walking out of an
office, instantly singing “Saturday Night Fever” as a chorus line
performing disco moves.
While the singers promised no encores, they lied. There were three, with
standing ovations after each. The last was perhaps the best tenor aria
ever written – “Nessun dorma” from “Turandot.” What an evening!
The wonderful experience of this concert starts before spotlights go up
and a note is sung. It begins upon entering the newly renovated
100-year-old Colonial Theatre. Millions have obviously been spent in
keeping the original historic luster. The venue was breath-taking, and
every dime was well-spent. Pittsfield’s residents should feel proud of
their good work in turning their arts around 180 degrees. Pittsfield is
very much a destination point.
Buddha: In His Own Words - The Life of the Buddha
assembled from the original texts
written and
performed by Evan Brenner, off-off-Broadway
by Steve Capra
(3/12/08)
Siddartha Gautama, a prince of the warrior class, now
known as The Buddha, lived 2500 years ago. His writings have been
preserved in fifty volumes. Evan Brenner (a Buddhist priest) has
selected the material about the Buddha’s own life and distilled it into
a ninety-minute monologue: Buddha:
In His Own Words. There are some other characters - Ananda the
servant, the charioteer, the devil himself – but for the overwhelmig
bulk of the piece, it’s the Buddha himself who’s speaking.
The text is carefully structured.
The familiar story of the Prince abandoning the life of pleasure
forms the first act, and the climax is, of course, the great
Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The second act is often weak in this
sort of script, but here it’s strong, well conceived, focusing on the
Buddha’s ministry. In fact, the story is at its best here, thrust by the
drive of the spread of the teaching and the joy of new converts: “And
then there were six… And then there were sixty-one… And then there were
thousands…” Its fantastic closing passage concerns the revenge of the
Slave Prince, a story that will probably be new to many.
What’s more, the writing is elegant. It uses poetic
repitition. We hear phrases repeated like “the four great continents
with their surrounding islands numbering two thousand”. We hear
sentences like “Wide open were the doors to Nirvana” and “There is this
teaching discovered by me.” Brenner’s imbedded the rhetorical devices in
the script so that they’re not intrusive.
Like any miracle play, this script’s purpose is to
teach, and we indeed hear the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are repeated
a few times. Brenner’s expression of them is particularly accessible, as
we’re reminded to “let go of the origin of suffering, which is selfish
craving.”
Brenner has commanding speech and has a refined sense
of gesture. He could be a first-rate storyteller. But this is a
monologue in the first person, and it cries for an actor’s technique,
which Brenner lacks. There’s no evidence of the choices actors make. To
whom is the Buddha speaking? His best pupil? His slowest pupil? When
Brenner says “I fight on”, he shakes his fist, and the line cries for
subtext.
Indeed, the production apparently has no director.
The concept is right: Brenner stands barefoot in colorless clothes, with
no set but a chair. But for some reason, he never takes the lotus
position, only a sort of half-lotus. There are self-contained stories in
the script, but they’re not defined in the staging. Worst, his trim,
nice-boy haircut is a glaring anomaly on the stage.
But be that as it may. Buddha: In
His Own Words is a religious and stage event, and we’re happy to
have it. I saw it in previews. It “opens” on an unspecified date “a few
months away”, on West 25th Street in New York. See
www.thebuddhaplay.com.
It was born in Cambridge about 18 months ago.
Enchanted April
by Shera Cohen (3/2/08)
www.inthespotlightinc.org
It’s March 2nd, dirty snow aligns the streets and sidewalks of downtown
West Springfield. Yet inside the Majestic, it’s a warm spring full of
flowers that could have been painted by the best Impressionists, setting
the stage for rebirth and renewal. The current production at the
Majestic is “Enchanted April,” running thru April 6, which accomplishes
all of the above and more.
It’s 1922 England at the play’s start. Two strangers, both dressed in
black on a bleak stage with next to no furnishings, are the catalysts
that change this setting, and indeed themselves and others, into bright
and shining individuals. Act I creates a motley quartet of women, each
leaning close to caricatures. As the story evolves, however, these
stereotypes truly become characters with personalities, people to take
seriously, laugh with, sympathize for, and perhaps emulate.
Lisa Rowe-Beddoe and Cate Damon lead the cast. Both are housewives in
their own uneventful worlds. On first look, they portray the antithesis
of each other, but beneath the exterior each needs to fill her own hole
of things lost in life. The women play off of each other well, with the
former acting crass and in-your-face, and the latter demure and saintly.
Joining them on their journey toward hope are Margery Shaw (dowager) and
Sandra Blaney (socialite). As their characters require the four
actresses to become more and more real, the audience appreciates each as
somewhat injured yet with purpose to go on. Blaney, who was so wonderful
in this season’s “Trying,” is an especially welcome addition to this
cast.
Yes, there are some male actors, who get more onstage time in Act II.
Keith Langsdale (uppity lawyer/husband) makes the most of his role,
particularly as he receives the longest laughs in this serio-comedy.
Actually, every actor was well-chosen for his/her skill, not to mention
keeping English accents going throughout the play.
Special kudos to the stage hands, which swiftly created each of the many
scenes. The artistic crew – Bev Browne, Gary Miller, and Danny Eaton –
made seeing believing, and believing is the core of this enchanted play.
The Drowsy Chaperone
by Shera Cohen
(2/20/08)
This is an easy review to write. The hard ones are dramas and musical
dramas, one-person plays and those with casts of thousands, avante garde
and Shakespeare. “The Drowsy Chaperone” has none of the angst,
tour-de-force performances, or difficult language found in any or all of
the above categories.
The Bushnell has brought in a wonderfully energetic, humorous,
oftentimes just plain stupid play with catchy tunes, tap and Charleston
dance numbers, and one of the worst titles ever given a musical. It
could have been titled “Aldolpho the Lothario” or “Man in Chair” for all
it matters. The chaperone is simply the name of one of the roles in this
ensemble production.
“DC” is a combination of Busby Burklee and Damon Runyon locked in the
21st century, but only sometimes when the record skips. Hmmm, that makes
little sense. That’s exactly what “DC” is – a musical within a comedy
(that phrase is taken from the playbill) abounding with froth, shtick,
clichés, and nonsense. What makes this musical unique from “Me and My
Gal,” “The Boy Friend,” et al is its concept and format. Yes, readers of
this review can google and discover the hidden gem that makes “DC”
different and funnier than the norm, but our policy is not to “give it
away.” It’s better for audience members to walk in unfamiliar with the
book and the songs, and simply enjoy everything that happens for the
next 90 or so uninterrupted minutes.
Everything is right about this musical – the cast of talented
singers/comedians, small band that sounds like an orchestra, and strange
sets that seem to come out of nowhere. Who would expect a dozen actors
in 1920s costumes to walk out of the refrigerator? Expect for the
narrator, the play is populated with caricatures, all played
over-the-top, with not a bit of scenery left unchewed. The lyrics are
distinct and oftentimes ridiculous (a love song about a monkey), there’s
a tap dance on roller skates, cheesy costumes, lampooning of musical
theatre, four weddings (no funeral), and Georgia Engel.
“The Drowsy Chaperone” is a delight. Expect no more.
Love Letters
by Robin Chamberlain
(2/19/08)
A show about 2 people sitting around reading their letters to each
other? You say to yourself “that sounds boring”…. it’s not. Love Letters
is playwright A.R. Gurney’s clever work during which- surprise - 2
people sit around and read their letters to each other. And newcomer to
the theatre scene Princebury Productions of Wellesley provided us with a
production that is anything but boring.
Presented (appropriately) over Valentine’s weekend, this was Princebury
Productions’ first “go” at live theater, having previously focused on
movie and television production. Love Letters spans the lives of
childhood friends through adulthood – summer camp, boarding school,
college, marriage, divorce, careers, and life’s highs and lows in what
become two very disparate lives. Andrew and Melissa are sometimes
romantically involved, sometimes just friends, you start to feel for the
characters and are voyeuristically drawn in so that you really want to
know what the next letter will bring. Telling their stories through
letters is a wonderful way to show these characters in both their public
and private selves – as one character states “letters are a way of
presenting yourself in the best light possible”.
A simple set – 2 chairs, 2 desks and basic lighting caused one to focus
solely on the actors, watching their every facial expression, nuance and
gesture as they simply sat and read their letters. You need accomplished
actors in order to hold the audience’s attention for 90 minutes. Chad
Stewart (who is also the President of the organization) and Carolyn
Paine fit the bill. Chad in particular seems to use his personal
experience as a writer to deliver that sensibility to the role. Joshua
Lee Ramos’ well-paced direction keeps the show moving and I found myself
watching as though at a tennis match.
Let’s hope Princebury continues its journey into the live theatre realm.
Info: Princebury Productions’ Love Letters ran February 15-16, 2008 at
MassBay Community College, Wellesley. For information regarding
Princebury Productions, visit their website at
www.princeburyproductions.com.
All My Sons
by Donna Bailey-Thompson (2/19/08)
Submitted by:
www.inthespotlightinc.org
This play is worth seeing at Exit 7 Players of Ludlow (MA). At the
end of the first act, there was silence. No applause. No one moved. For
two reasons: the audience had become riveted by a masterfully-written
story performed by a fine cast and the house lights had not brightened
enough to signal that intermission had arrived.
Exit 7 Players have bestowed upon Arthur Miller’s emotionally-stirring,
"All My Sons" the highest honor: respect for the material and for the
craft itself. Noted for their upbeat productions of such musicals as
"Gypsy," "Sweet Charity" and "Cabaret," presenting this particular drama
now is as timely as it was when it opened on Broadway in 1947. There’s
not an old bone in its body because "All My Sons" is about timeless
concerns – family and business, love and ethics, courage and cowardice –
huge subjects that beset ordinary people.
Director Jennifer Curran has stated, "This is the story I needed to
tell. What we can choose to ignore, what we can and cannot live with and
what we cannot forgive." Her emotional connection with the script is
reflected in the performances, especially those of Kate Keller (Jennifer
Bauduccio), Joe Keller (Fred Piel), Chris Keller (Charles Holt) and
George Deever (Dan Derby). The conflicted Kellers and the accusatory
Deever are superb. Special kudos go to Bauduccio who stepped into a
demanding role less than two weeks before the opening. As Anne Deever,
Lea D. Oppedisano plays an establishment daughter, a far cry from her
most recent Exit 7 Players role as Charity Hope Valentine in "Sweet
Charity."
Once again, Paul Hamel (Set Designer/Technical Director/Set
Construction) has fashioned a set that complements the play’s theme,
especially as represented by family and business: the Keller’s house
dominates the stage but visible across the road is the factory.
There are strong similarities between "All My Sons" and Miller’s play "A
Death of a Salesman." But to paraphrase a line from "Salesman," more
attention must be paid to "All My Sons" because, to paraphrase a
cosmetic’s advertising pitch, it’s worth it.
Don't
Dress For Dinner
by Donna Bailey-Thompson
(2/17/08)
Submitted by:
www.inthespotlightinc.org
Deliberate, fantastic lies that if recounted during a 55-minute hour
would qualify as confabulations worthy of certification are the fluffy
stuff of The Suffield Players’ contribution to breaking up any
mid-winter blues. "Don’t Dress For Dinner" is a delectable French farce.
Thanks to Director Rayah Martin’s sense of pace and an appreciation of
the ridiculous, this silly play delivers its purpose: it entertains.
Because the cast takes their characters seriously, the roles fall
several giggles below (or above?) cartoon level. A preposterous plan is
conjured up by an otherwise sophisticated Bernard (Robert Lunde) – to
take advantage of his wife, Jacqueline’s (Gina Marie Paro) absence by
inviting his mistress Suzanne (Meagan Kinney) to come spend the weekend.
In the event Suzanne’s presence requires explanation, Bernard includes
his best friend Robert (Christopher Berrien) as a houseguest who can
pass, if needed, as Suzanne’s lover. What Bernard doesn’t know is that
his wife and best friend are lovers. This recipe for failure has one
more ingredient, a chef hired to come in and cook, Suzette (Amy Rucci,
who cavorts with abandon).
When Jacqueline announces she’s staying home, pandemonium breaks loose.
Extemporaneous lies pile up leading to improbable entanglements, sight
gags and double entendres, until the identities are qualified and
re-qualified so many times that no one knows who’s who or what.
Eventually the multi-dimensional puzzle is figured out by Suzette’s
husband, George (Edwin R. Lewis, III): that rapid fire dialog is enough
to make heads spin.
Deft comedic timing is delivered by Lunde, Berrien and Rucci who feed
the laugh meter with aplomb. In the brief mop-up role of George, Lewis
injects gravitas into the whirling nonsense.
"Don’t Dress For Dinner" is so light – how light is it? – too light to
leave a carbon footprint.

The 39 Steps
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
A recent hit in London, The 39 Steps is being presented for a limited
run by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre.
Using the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name as its basis, The 39
Steps is a madcap farce crossed with a British murder mystery. The story
concerns wry bachelor Richard Hannay (Charles Edwards), who crosses
paths with a mysterious woman on the run (Jennifer Ferrin) and soon gets
embroiled in her dangerous world. That world is populated by Nazis in
disguise, inane train passengers, elderly Scottish hoteliers, and many
more wacky characters, all played by just two gifted actors (Cliff
Saunders and Arnie Burton).
The greatest thing about The 39 Steps is its silly energy and clever
stagecraft. Evocative stage effects are created with humor and
efficiency, and the actors look like they're having a blast moving from
one silly location (and character) to the next. Unfortunately the play
doesn't provide as many solid laughs as one would hope. Much of the
humor doesn't elicit much more than a smile or chuckle, though some will
appreciate the constant name-checking of famous Hitchcock movies. Fans
of the titular film will probably best enjoy this smartly-staged
send-up.
The
Little Mermaid
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
Now playing (and swimming and singing) at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater is
Disney's latest animated-film-to-Broadway transfer, The Little Mermaid.
Originally based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale, the musical is about
Ariel, the free-spirited, sweet-voiced youngest daughter of sea king
Triton. When she falls for a handsome human prince, Ariel trades her
voice to an evil sea witch in exchange for the legs she needs to pursue
him.
Mermaid deserves a lot of credit for taking a risk with its design,
which is rather daring and often mesmerizing, if not always completely
successful. Scenic designer George Tsypin has created a series of large
set pieces to establish each world (the bright sea kingdom of King
Triton, the murky lair of sea witch Ursula, the ship that the prince
sails on, etc.) and he mixes realistic floaty effects with shiny metals
to create a sort of underwater Art Deco look. Costume designer Tatiana
Noginova also goes for something between the literal and the
non-literal, giving the actors playing sea creatures little touches like
a beak protruding from the forehead or feathers on the skin, while still
keeping them in people-type clothes (e.g. Ariel's dress has a mermaid
tail instead of a train).
First-time Broadway director Francesca Zambello has assembled a strong
cast. Supporting players Tituss Burgess as anxiety-ridden crab
Sebastian, John Treacy Egan as Chef Louis, Sherie Renee Scott as Ursula,
and Derrick Baskin and Tyler Maynard as devious electric eels are
particular stand-outs. Newcomer Sierra Boggess is a lovely Ariel and
Sean Palmer is a likable Prince Eric, but it's not until the second act
that both characters really come to life, as they become friends and
fall in love. In fact, the second act, which includes a lush staging of
"Kiss the Girl" and a riotous "Les Poissons" (wherein Chef Louis tries
to cook Sebastian), is considerably better than the first act, which
feels too long and too loaded with unecessary numbers. The original Alan
Menken-Howard Ashman score has been beefed up considerably with new
songs penned by Menken and Glenn Slater, but most of them don't really
register. Two key exceptions are "She's in Love", sung by Ariel's friend
Flounder (played alternately by moppets Trevor Braun and Brian D'Addario)
and her older sisters, and the beautiful second-act quarter "If Only".
In the spectrum of Disney shows, The Little Mermaid most resembles the
Lunt-Fontanne's former occupant, Beauty and the Beast. It has that kind
of fairy tale magic, but without hitting the creative highs of The Lion
King (nor, thankfully, the creative lows of Tarzan). Mermaid is a
respectable entry into the Disney On Stage canon, but it still leaves
one wishing that 'The Mouse' would put more effort into creating new
Broadway shows for the whole family.
Is He Dead?
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
The question in the title of this newly discovered, unproduced Mark
Twain play (adapted, probably heavily, by David Ives) is posed by a
pretentious art-buyer as he wonders how much an artist's paintings are
worth. The artist in question is Jean-Francois Millet, a struggling
genius who is not dead, and therefore not in demand. Realizing that
death could be the answer to all his problems (making his name, paying
his debts), Millet and his friends hatch a scheme to fake his death and
sell his store of paintings at exhorbitant prices. Of course, Millet
can't be expected to hide out during all the fun, so he creates a new
identity -- as his own sister.
Is He Dead? is light on laughs at first. Several Twain aphorisms don't
quite land on stage the way they might on the page, and Millet's friends
are mostly too-bland or too-annoying. But when Butz dons that dress, the
farcical fun really begins. While a man in drag might seem like a thin
joke, Butz plays his brash feminine alter ego with such relish that he's
a joy to watch. And once Byron Jennings' delicious, mustache-twirling
villain starts vying for his/her affection, the silly fun compounds.
It might not carry the weight of other Twain works, but Is He Dead?,
playing at the Lyceum Theatre, features lots of crazy characters,
door-slamming antics, some handsome paintings, and one of Broadway's
most talented leading men in a dress. What's not to like?
The
Seafarer
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
The Seafarer, now playing at the Booth Theatre, takes place on a
Christmas Eve in Ireland. Dour, responsible Sharky finds himself back
home taking care of his blind, cantankerous brother Richard (Jim
Norton), and putting up with Richard's loser poker buddies. Fighting off
the demon of alcoholism, Sharky is in no mood to be entertaining a bunch
of drunken louts, but he soon finds he has a bigger demon on his hands
when one of those louts turns out to be the Devil come for his due.
The play ambles at first, but it's still quite entertaining, as we get
to know Sharky (David Morse) and the gang, which includes henpecked Ivan
(Conleth Hill) and cocky Nicky (Sean Mahon). Sharky seems to be trying
to move on from an unhappy past, and the appearance of these men is not
helping matters. They gossip, they drink, they argue, and they can't
wait to play some cards. Little do most of them know how high the stakes
will get as the night wears on.
Playwright Conor McPherson, best known for his ghost story play The
Weir, has no trouble introducing the Devil himself into this scenario
realistically, helped by actor Ciaran Hinds, who is so excellent as the
Prince of Darkness in flesh. McPherson contrasts Hinds' dapper,
dignified bearing with the coarseness of the other men as a metaphor for
the division between humans (with all their clumsy flesh and failings)
and spirits. But McPherson makes the point that despite this, we humans
have friendship and love, which Satan loathes and envies us for. Making
The Seafarer, for all its drinking and swearing and fighting, one of the
most soft-hearted plays on Broadway this season.
The
Homecoming
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
Nothing really makes sense in The Homecoming, Harold Pinter’s 1964 play
now being revived on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. As the first minutes
unfold, with grouchy widower Max sparring with his smart-aleck son
Lenny, and bullying son Joey and brother Sam, you may think you’re
looking at a darkly funny domestic drama about the English working
class. But then the eldest son, prodigal Teddy, drops in with his wife
Ruth, and any sense of reality seems to disappear. Why does Ruth behave
so stiffly? Why does she flirt with Teddy’s brothers right in front of
him? Why doesn’t he care? Why does Teddy, a professor of Philosophy,
insist he isn’t equipped to talk about metaphysics when Lenny attempts
to engage him in a discussion? There might be a reason, but Pinter will
never tell. Confounding audiences for over 50 years now, the Nobel
Prize-winning playwright is one of those love-‘im-or-hate-‘im kind of
writers. He doesn’t go out of his way to flesh out his characters or
offer any motives for their frequently bizarre behavior. They also have
a habit of either prattling on endlessly or punctuating their already
drawn out dialogue with cryptic pauses.
If this isn’t your cup of tea, The Homecoming does still offer a lot of
(very bleak) humor, clever writing, tension to spare, and a fine cast
including Raul Esparza as perpetually insincere Lenny, Eve Best (so full
of life in A Moon for the Misbegotten last season) as dead-eyed Ruth,
Ian McShane as cane-wielding Max, and Michael McKean as Sam, the most
decent character in this house of sociopaths. Unfortunately The
Homecoming, under Daniel Sullivan’s direction, is lacking the quality
most crucial to the Pinter mystique: menace. McShane never appears like
a truly violent threat, and Esparza’s breathless oddball monologues make
him seem more impish than dangerously unpredictable. Minus a palpable
sense of terror, the audience isn't left with much else to do but
appreciate the little power struggles being waged by these inscrutable
people -- or else be bored to tears by it all.
Come Back Little Sheba
by Brooke Pierce (2/5/08)
In William Inge’s 1952 play, Come Back, Little Sheba, currently being
revived by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Biltmore Theatre, Law & Order’s
S. Epatha Merkerson plays sweet housewife Lola. Her husband, Doc (Kevin
Anderson), has been sober for nearly a year, and things are looking up
for this middle-aged couple who have clearly had their share of
problems. But a young college girl, Marie, lodging in their spare
bedroom, threatens to change all that.
The Sheba of the title is a lost dog that Lola occasionally calls for,
and it is an obvious symbol for the lost youth that both she and Doc are
trying to recapture through Marie. Bored at home, Lola enjoys playing
maid to Marie and her jock boyfriend Turk, while Doc distrusts the boy
who he is afraid will steal Marie’s virtue. And so the developments in
Marie’s love life have serious consequences to Doc and Lola’s marriage.
Some aspects of Come Back Little Sheba, particularly its focus on the
dangers and treatment of violent alcoholism, have what today is regarded
as a TV-movie-of-the-week quality (though it surely had more impact in
its time). But the play’s dialogue actually feels quite fresh, and the
domestic drama remains compelling. Especially in Lola’s nattering
exchanges with the milkman, postman, and neighboring housewife Mrs.
Coffman (a wonderful severe Brenda Wehle), Little Sheba shows what a
keen observer Inge was of regular American folks and all their
weaknesses.
The Farnsworth Invention
by Brooke Pierce (1/30/08)
The man who wrote A Few Good Man (a stage play
before it became a much-quoted film) returns to the stage again with The
Farnsworth Invention, a new drama about the race to invent television.
With TV shows as varied as The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset
Strip, Sorkin has shown his ability to educate on a variety of subjects
while also entertaining. The fast-paced Farnsworth is no exception,
expounding on everything from technology to the stock market crash of
1929.
First and foremost, though, the play is about two men. One, Philo T.
Farnsworth, is a brilliant Idaho boy who thinks he has figured out how
to create television and assembles a small team to do just that. The
other, David Sarnoff, is a man who came to America as an immigrant, went
on to establish popular radio, and wants desperately to be the first to
introduce television. Farnsworth and Sarnoff's labs work feverishly to
perfect the technology, and eventually they end up in a legal battle to
determine who can claim ownership of it.
If The Farnsworth Invention has a weakness, it's that it is too
presentational - Sorkin has his characters frequently addressing the
audience, revealing their feelings, telling stories, and explaining
anything that might be unclear. But thanks to Des McAnuff's slick
direction and Sorkin's razor sharp writing, the lack of action barely
registers. Hank Azaria is perfect as the driven Sarnoff, and relative
unknown Jimmi Simpson is excellent as Farnsworth. Thanks to them, and to
Sorkin, both characters keep well shy of falling into the stereotype
trap of ruthless capitalist vs. small town boy. Instead, Sorkin paints a
picture of two passionate rivals who, together (even if unwillingly),
were crucial in the creation of the most influential invention of the
20th Century.
August: Osage County by Brooke Pierce
(1/30/08)
If you saw Tracy Letts' creepy, claustrophobic tale of paranoia, Bug, in
its Off-Broadway run a couple years ago, you would have never guessed in
a million years that the same guy would create August: Osage County, a
sprawling family drama set in a Midwestern farm house. Letts' latest,
very different triumph is about the family of an old college professor
who has gone missing, and the hell that breaks loose when they all
gather together in his home. Nearly every member of the Weston clan is
highly dysfunctional, and the play deals with everything from drug
addiction to incest.
On the surface, and even for the first half hour or so, August seems
like it might just be a glorified soap opera. But as it rolls on,
penetrating deeper into these people's lives, it nearly becomes grand
opera. The play is extreme (I weep for anybody who has a family half as
screwed up as this one), but it is also riotously funny, exceedingly
well written, touching, and troubling. At three and a half hours, and
taking place entirely in Todd Rosenthal's big three-story house set, it
has the aura of Long Day's Journey Into Night. But August is not
perfect, and there are certainly aspects of the drama that strain
credulity (in some instances, especially concerning the youngest member
of the Weston family, Letts seems to go for shock value over realism).
This production of August: Osage County, now playing at the Imperial
Theatre, arrived directly from a successful run at the Steppenwolf in
Chicago, and most of the original cast is in tact. Headed by Deanna
Dunagan as the family's pill-popping matriarch, and Amy Morton as the
abrasive daughter who eventually starts to take charge, this ensemble is
extraordinary. See them before the show ends its limited run on April
13.
Pinocchio
by Steve Capra (1/25/08)
La MaMa, downtown NYC, has brought from Italy Teatro del Carretto’s
marvelous production of Pinocchio. The company, well-recognized in
Europe, is making its US debut. Pinocchio is a dark production,
for adults, spoken in Italian, with visual elements that are universally
eloquent. Its central actor stands with knees together and feet apart,
his spine curved forward and sideways, his palms forward just outside
the shoulders in shock and defense. He’s the picture of oppression in
his timeless white jersey and shorts, with that silly nose strapped on.
He might well look oppressed. Even with no translation beyond the
program notes, it’s clear that he’s the abused man. He’s overworked,
humiliated, trained as a circus act, made to jump through a flaming
hoop, changed into an ass, and hanged. The stage is bare, with a
semi-circular wall on the back and sides, suggesting a circus ring, and
when the masked actors around him, it’s spooky. Some of the costumes,
which are of no particular time, suggest commedia dell’arte. On a stage
of no particular place, they make for a fable of all time and places.
It’s a blessing that I didn’t understand the Italian. Freed of
denotative meaning, the language is as subtle and eloquent as music.
Indeed, some of my most pleasurable moments were spent just listening.
Italian is the most musical of languages, and this troupe gives it the
deliberate cadence of music, with clear tempo changes, and making the
bootsteps extensions of its beat.
The Pinocchio story may be the play’s starting point, but it’s been
developed almost beyond recognition. The program lists 25 scenes mostly
unrelated to the myth, each with a specific action, like the stations of
the cross.
Pinocchio was written by Carlo Collodi (did you know that?). Here,
it’s adapted and directed by Maria Grazia Cipriani. The wonderful
actor’s name is Giandomenico Cupaiuolu. We’re grateful to La MaMa
for this gift of European theatre.
Happy Days Are Here Again
by Steve Capra (1/25/08)
Happy Days is one of the 20th century’s great masterpieces. Samuel
Beckett’s metaphor for everything, it presents Winnie buried up to her
waist in earth. Indominable to the last, she cries “What a curse –
mobility!” and “Hardly a day without some blessing in disguise.”
The Brooklyn Academy of Music has just presented The National Theatre of
Great Britain’s production of the play, directed by Deborah Warner, with
Fiona Shaw as its unconquerable heroine. It’s a brilliant, monumental
success.
Tim Pye’s set, a marvelous great pile of earth and stone, flows into the
audience and out to the wings, the perfect image of solidity. Its weight
is inarguable, but its glimmer of minerals gives it a sort of heartless
sheen. As Winnie’s emotions ramble from one top another, the existential
fact of the earth remains unchanged. Behind is hung a postmodernist
rectangle of barren landscape.
Beckett’s great accomplishment is to transform his minimalist view of
life into his minimalist style. As Winnie tells us,“There is so little
to do one does it all.” So little indeed. She has a bag full of objects
– cosmetics, and a gun for comfort – and a hat to keep her entertained.
Willie lives in a hole behind her. She cannot move; he cannot speak,
although in Beckett’s subtle, super-extended metaphor he does move a
little, crawling out toward her twice.
The metaphor embraces the universe of consciousness – memory, tears,
joy, anger. It’s profound and abstruse. There’s an inexplicable control
over life: Winnie may throw away her hand mirror, but “The glass will be
there again tomorrow without a scratch” in her black bag.
Moreover, Winnie has not always been in this fix, covered with earth,
controlled by a bell for waking and another for sleep. There was a time
she had legs. And there have been passers-by – indeed, “the last mankind
to pass this way” suggested that Willie dig her out. Sometimes she
speaks in “the old style” that acknowledges time, using words like
“daily”.
But memories aren’t regretful. It all comes back to her sometimes, and
she tells us “that’s what I find so wonderful”.
And after all, time passes, and the situation changes. After the
intermission she’s buried up to her neck. Now, the stage directions are
notoriously specific in this play, so that its various productions are
more or less the same, the way classical music compositions are more or
less the same compared to jazz, with some better executed than others.
The variations between performances are subtle but not unimportant. The
choice characteristic of this production is to make Winnie noticeably
lass sanguine in the second act. Things get worse, and she knows it.
In Fiona Shaw’s bravura performance, each beat is crystalline. Her lines
are a series of short outbursts, and she brings to them definition and
commitment. This is the height of representational acting, anti-mimetic,
without inner life, like the performance of a living marionette.
And we need to consider the effect of the British language us American
audiences. Our associations with that dialect, its perceived
self-conscious sophistication, give this hapless character a poignant
edginess.
As it does so often, BAM has imported a masterpiece.
From Cairo to
Bukhara by Steve Capra
(12/28/07)
In December
The World Music Institute presented a program called From Cairo
to Bukhara, a selection of Arab music. Nadim Dlaikan opened on
the nay, which is a reed flute, and other solo instruments, playing
Lebanese folk music. The nay has a wonderful sound, with ghosts of
undertones along with the clear main pitch. The mizmar has quite a
different quality, like a bagpipe, but abrasive. It's meant for outdoor
play - in fact, it's call a shepherd's flute. Mr. Dlaikan joked that we
may want to cover our ears before he started playing this one!
Dlaikan was followed by music from the Anatolian Armenians by Richard
Hogapian and two other musicians. Hogapia himself played the ud, which
is an instrument with 11 strings, and sang. His son was on the zither,
while the third musician handled percussion. This marvelous music was
comprised of both folk and classical pieces, dance and love songs.
The first half of the program closed with Bukharan music (Bukhara is in
the Uzbek Republic) performed by Fatima Kuinova and the ensemble
Shashmaqam. The term shashmaqam also refers to the musical style of that
region. The nine-person group performed in traditional costume, and
included a lively dancer. This music, with its unison singing, was bold
and festive. However, I found it difficult. Perhaps in the open air,
without electronic amplification, it would lose its harsh quality. Not
all of Shashmaqam's work has this sound.
The evening's second half featured Simon Shaheen and the Near Eastern
Music Ensemble, a terrific group of musicians. Near Eastern Music offers
us a shower of notes. We hear the pattern within the spray instead of a
simple lead as in western music. It's complex and delicate. Once our
ears have accepted this different musical language, we find in it an
array of subtle emotions. Let's hope The Word Music Institute continues
to coax us out of our musical complacency.

Make Me a Song
by Brooke Pierce (12/10/07)
William Finn is one of the most unusual songwriters in the modern
musical theatre. He has a gift for melody, a sentimental streak, and a
downright bizarre way of phrasing things – which is, of course, why
everybody loves him. (Who else would write a song that starts "My Father
is a homo, my mother's not thrilled at all"??). The neon caricatured
face of the gruff, bearded, neurotic Finn hangs above Stage 5 at New
World Stages, where the new musical revue of his work, Make Me a Song,
is now playing, and the show's talented four-person cast do a bang-up
job of bringing his quirky spirit to life below.
Although Finn is most significantly represented at the moment by his
score to the charming little Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee, none of those songs can be heard here. Instead,
there is a sampling of Falsettos, the semi-autobiographical A New Brain,
the Elegies song cycle, and selections from little known or unproduced
Finn musicals. It's a fantastic 90 minutes of songs, starting with the
show's title tune, moving into delightful New Brain ensemble numbers
like "Heart and Music" and "Law of Genetics" (both with fantastic
arrangements by Jason Robert Brown), and moving towards the end with
poignant solos "When the Earth Stopped Turning" and "Anytime (I Am
There)". Finn fans will also be happy to hear a few songs in between
that they might not have come across before, such as the inspirational
"You're Even Better Than You Think You Are" and the hilarious "Stupid
Things I Won't Do" (the latter written for Elaine Stritch to sing in the
never-made-it-to-Broadway musical adaptation of The Royal Family).
The show takes time in the middle to offer a special salute to Finn's
most renowned work, Falsettos, with a suite that hits some of the
musical's melodic highlights but only truly spotlights a few of the
songs. "Four Jews in a Room Bitching," "The Baseball Game," and
"Unlikely Lovers" are all smartly chosen, as they each showcase Make Me
a Song's quartet of singers, Sandy Binion, D.B. Bonds, Adam Heller, and
Sally Wilfert, who are all wonderful. Unfortunately the revue gives
short shrift to In Trousers, Finn’s lesser known prequel to Falsettos,
which only gets one song here, "Set Those Sails" (combined beautifully
with another New Brain tune, "I'd Rather Be Sailing").
Conceived and directed by Rob Ruggiero, Make Me a Song is a solid
introduction to the work of William Finn for newbies and an enjoyable
evening for the already-initiated. Ruggiero, the talented cast, and
onstage pianist/music director Darren R. Cohen (who also supplies the
occasional vocal) capture the wit, anxiety, anger, and joy that
characterizes Finn’s music. Go ahead, let them make you a song.

Taking it to the Streets by Steve Capra
(12/6/07)
Each actor in The Thalia Theatre’s production of Frank Wedekind’s
Lulu (from Hamburg, at The Brooklyn Academy of
Music, in German) casts multiple shadows on a lavender screen upstage.
There’s no set – not a stick – except for that screen, and there’s a
single prop, a handgun. Lulu wears a series of minidresses, and the
scenes are connected with rock music, but this production wants to be
without period, larger than life, epic.
Director Michael Thalheimer has chosen this bold
approach (he’s known for it) in spite of the counterindications in the
script. Lulu is Everyman’s desire, but she’s protean, not an absolute.
Each man has his own name for her (‘Eve’ or ‘Mignon’ or something). “I
like them incomplete,” one lover says of her.
Thalheimer has based his lean, abbreviated adaptation
on Pandora’s Box: A Monster-Tragedy, a five-act drama (1892 or so),
referred to as Lulu. Wedekind later rewrote the play as two dramas,
Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, which had a highly censored history. (In
1928 German director G.W. Pabst adapted them into a brilliant silent
film.) The original script was discovered only after FW’s death.
Lulu is one of the great bravura roles. A slut of the
first magnitude, she runs through a series of husbands and other men,
causing some of them to exit this life, all the while resisting a
woman’s advances. Finally, after convoluted plot twists (again an
obstacle to grandeur), she has to take to the streets in London, and she
meets her demise at the hands of a character based on Jack the Ripper.
In this production, Lulu is a monster indeed; she
licks her dead husband’s blood from her lover’s hand. The actress,
Fritzi Haberlandt, is suitably detached from sexuality, but she makes
the character into an insolent brat. Worse, she looks wrong for the part
– too hard. Nonetheless, the actors drop their pants - literally, on
stage - one after another, slaves to their appetites.
As the play progresses, that screen creeps downstage,
crushing the actors against the fourth wall; there’s clearly an
impressive conceptual talent at work. The production is enormously
powerful, but so is a blunt object to the head.
Thalheimer’s minimalism, reducing the script to
actors alone, is wrong for the script. Note that the characters speak
German in Germany, but, in public, they speak French in Paris and
English in London. This is super-naturalism. Indeed, it’s nearly farce,
smaller than life: when Lulu (accidently?) shoots Husband Number Two, he
says “I’m fat enough.” The director wants to give the characters the
dignity of Greek prototypes, and he can’t. The lines themselves need
context to be truthful. In reading, they’re cryptic. In this production,
they’re undecipherable.
And speaking of the lines: there’s a tacky insert in
the program crediting the English Titles. This should have been a clue,
I suppose. The dialogue is difficult, even in the reading, and this cast
spit out the lines with the rhythm of a machine gun. The surtitles
aren’t up to the challenge, and it’s often impossible to tell which
character is speaking the line we’re reading. A times, the surtitles
give up, the screens are blank, and we’re left to out own devices.
|
Table of Contents
2/22/10
Communicating Doors
(Suffield Players, Suffield, CT)
2/8/10
Les Liaisons Dangereuse
(Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, MA)
1/30/10
The Lion King
(The Bushnell, Hartford, CT)
1/11/10
Almost, Maine
(Majestic Theater, West Springfield, MA)
1/6/10
In the Heights
(The Bushnell, Hartford, CT)
11/1/09
Piecemeal - The Frankenstein Musical
(Majestic Theater, West Springfield, MA)
10/22/09
A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum(Goodspeed
Opera House, East Haddam, CT)
10/12/09
The Hound of the Baskervilles
(Shakespare & Company, Lenox, MA)
8/31/09
The Bacchae
(Shakespare in the Park, Publick Theater, NYC)
8/27/09
Boris Dudunov
(Chekhov Int'l Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Park Avenue Armory,
NYC)
8/27/09
Life and Fate
(The Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia)
8/27/09
Trilogia della villegiatura
(Piccolo Teatro di Milano & Teatro Uniti di Napoli, Lincoln Center
Festival, NYC)
8/22/09
The Dreamer
Examines His Pillow (Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA)
8/22/09
Freud's Last Session
(Barrington Stage, Pittsfield, MA)
8/6/09
Camelot
(Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT)
8/2/09
Tanglewood on Parade
(Boston Symphony Orchestra, Lenox, MA)
8/2/09
Tanglewood Rehearsals
(Boston Symphony Orchestra, Lenox, MA)
8/1/09
Measure for Measure
(Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA)
8/1/09
Twelfth Night
(Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA)
07/18/09
The Temptations/James Naughton
(Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA)
07/18/09
True West
(Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA)
07/18/09
Boston Symphony Orchestra
(Tanglewood, Lenox, MA)
07/18/09
GOLF: The Musical
(Majestic Theatre, Springfield, MA)
07/18/09
Candide
(Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA)
07/18/09
The Capitol Steps
(Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA)
06/29/09
The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show
(Museum of Science, Boston)
06/01/09
Blue Day
(La MaMa, New York City)
05/24/09
Breaking the Surface (NYU
Asian/Pacific/ American Institute)
05/24/09
The Singing Forest
(NY Shakespeare Festival)
05/14/09
42nd Street
(Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT)
05/12/09
Vitek Kruta
(Paradise
City Fair, Northampton, MA)
04/27/09
Phantom of the Opera
(The
Bushnell, Hartford)
04/23/09
The Life of Galileo
(Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT/ Underground Railway Theater, Boston)
02/28/09
To Kill a
Mockingbird(Suffield
Players, Suffield, CT)
02/13/09
Four Dogs & a Bone(Suffield
Players, Suffield, CT)
02/11/09
Dead Man's Cell
Phone
(TheatreWorks, Hartford, CT)
02/11/09
Jersey Boys
(The Bushnell, Hartford, CT)
10/29/08
The Grand
Inquisitor
(CICT/ Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/Paris,
presented at NYTW, NYC)
10/29/08
Jerry & Ed
(Majestic Theatre, West Springfield, MA)
10/27/08
Sunken Red
(Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY)
10/27/08
Louder
(Vedensteatret, PS 122, NYC)
10/27/08
Big River
(Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, KY)
9/29/08
Four Mystics
Minus Two
(Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, NY)
9/29/08
The Peking Opera
9/12/08
The Thirty-third Year -
Playing Life
(Theatre ASOU, Graz, Austria)
9/7/08
The Miracle Worker
(Majestic Theatre, West Springfield)
9/6/08
Spamalot
(The Bushnell, Hartford)
9/6/08
Eleanor: Her Secret Journey
(Berkshire Theatre Company, Stockbridge)
8/10/08
Les Miserables
Special School Edition
(Exit 7 Players, Ludlow, MA)
8/2/08
3
Plays/1 Stage
(Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA)
8/2/08
A Man for All Seasons
(Berkshire Theatre, Stockbridge, MA)
7/30/08
The Revenger's Tragedy
(National Theatre, London)
7/30/08
The
Rake's Progress
(The Royal Opera, London)
7/23/08
Broke-ology
(Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA)
7/22/08
Almost Maine
(Chester Theatre Co., Chester, MA)
7/22/08
Rabbit Hole
(New Century Theatre, Northampton, MA)
7/22/08
Berkshire
Choral Festival
(MA)
7/11/08
Rounding Third
(Majestic
Theater, West Springfield, MA)
6/9/08
Metro Stage Company's Ruthless a Riot
(Metro Stage
Company, Cambridge, MA)
5/26/08
Ancient
Songs of South Africa
(Nggoko
Cultural Group, NYC)
5/20/08
Happy Days
(Goodspeed
Opera House, East Haddam, CT)
5/9/08
The Pirates of
Penzance(New
World Chorale, Milford, MA)
5/5/08
Pure Joy of
Movement(Prometheus
Dance Elders Ensemble)
4/24/08
The
Full Monty
Majestic Theatre, West Springfield, MA)
4/12/08
The
Smothers Brothers & Springfield Symphony Orchestra
(Symphony Hall, Springfield, MA)
3/15/08
The Ten Tenors
(Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA)
3/12/08
Buddha
(off-off Broadway)
3/2/08
Enchanted April
(Majestic Theatre, Springfield, MA)
02/20/08
The Drowsy Chaperone
(The Bushnell, Hartford, CT)
02/19/08
Love Letters
(Princebury Players, Wellesley, MA)
02/19/08
All My Sons
(Exit 7 Players, Ludlow, MA)
02/17/08
Don't Dress for Dinner
(Suffield Players, Suffield, CT)
02/05/08
The 39 Steps
(Roundabout Theatre Co., American Airlines Theatre, NYC)
02/05/08
The Little Mermaid
(Lunt-Fntanne Theater, NYC)
02/05/08
Is He Dead?
(Lyceum Theatre, NYC)
02/05/08
The Seafarer
(Booth Theatre, NYC)
02/05/08
The Homecoming
(CORT Theatre, NYC)
02/05/08
The 39 Steps
(Rounabout Theatre Company, American Airlines Theatre, NYC)
01/30/08
Come Back Little Sheba
(Manhattan Theatre Club, Biltmore Theatre, NYC)
01/30/08
August: Osage County
(Imperial Theatre, NYC)
01/25/08
Pinocchio
(La MaMa, NYC)
01/25/08
Happy Days
(Brooklyn Academy of Music)
12/28/07
From Cairo
to Bukhara
(World Music Institute, NYC)
12/10/07
Make Me a Song
(New World Stages, NYC)
12/6/07
Lulu
(Brooklyn Academy of Music) |