Curtain Call
Twin Beach Players’ Much Ado about Stormy Weather
Reviewed by Margaret T`earman
Against a backdrop of a wind-thrashed Chesapeake Bay, Twin Beach Players gamely held on to their hats to play William Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing on the North Beach boardwalk. Actors competed with the howling wind, seagull chatter and the occasional dog barks to be heard by brave spectators, bundled against the May gale in blankets and hooded coats.
Weather willing, next week’s audience and performers may fare better.
The pirate tale of love and romance is one of Shakespeare’s most enduring stage plays. In the comedic romp, the four romantic leads, Captain Claudio (Danny Beach) and Hero (Emily Miller), and their comic counterparts, Master Benedick (Tom Weaver) and Beatrice (Bess Wilkins) battle for love as the supporting cast of merry characters contrive to join them together or devise ways to keep them apart.
Twin Beach Player’s director Sid Curl changed the story’s locale from Shakespeare’s Spainish vineyards to the island of Tortuga, a pirate sanctuary in the Caribbean.
“The fun I thought could be in the locale, so I transferred all to the Caribbean,” says Curl. “And again got to prove how universal William Shakespeare’s writing can be.”
The gray skies and occassional spray from a wave crashing against the seawall set an appropriate stage for the pirate’s tale, though that very ambience made it difficult to hear and sometimes understand the actors, especially in Shakespearean diaglogue.
The unusual presence of theater on the boardwalk drew curious onlookers: joggers slowed their pace to take in the scene, fisherman on the pier followed a cast of a different sort and an assortment of dogs waited with their owners as they stopped mid-walk to see what all the fuss was about.
There was something for everyone — including the dogs.
As the Shakespeare’s first act came to a close — to the modern McCartney tune “Silly Love Song” — a second, very different band of merrymakers took the stage.
Cue the dogs.
Lynn Franklin, Joan Rosen, Sam the standard poodle and Tucker, the long-haired dachshund — otherwise known as The Boogie Woogie Bow Wows — entertained the windblown spectators with doggie dances and skateboarding feats.
The local quartet performs on stages across the country and had just returned from a grueling two-day, six-performances run in Michigan.
“The dogs are really tired,” Franklin told the crowd. “But your clapping will wake them up.”
The audience responded with an enthusiastic round of applause, and for a few minutes, the biting May wind was forgotten.
As charming as a performance on the boardwalk can be, it’s not an ideal venue for interpreting Shakespeare. Despite the inhospitable weather and the inevitable distractions found in a public setting, the first two performances drew a good crowd.
“So far, it’s been a success,” says producer Janine Naus. “We had a full crowd on Saturday, and more than 30 people came on Mother’s Day.”
See Much Ado About Nothing with its intermission entertainment by the Boogie Woogie Bow Wows at 2pm Sat., May 17 and Sun., May 18 at the North Beach Pavilion, Bay Ave., between 3rd and 5th streets in North Beach. Bring your own chair or sit in one of the 50 pavilion chairs. Free w/donations accepted.
Dignity Players’ Vanishing Point
Meet three fascinating characters — and three powerful actresses
reviewed by Davina Grace Hill
We all love mystery, adventure and spectacle. Such is the premise of Vanishing Point, a musical that made its world premiere last week in Annapolis.
Vanishing Point weaves together the historic vanishings of mystery writer Agatha Christie in 1926, spectacle-creating evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1926 and adventure-seeking aviator Amelia Earhart in 1937. It seems to want to make a point about women, their strength, and the social expectations they face.
The concept is intriguing (if not entirely successful), the music stellar and the production strong. Exemplary are the actors: Margaret Allman as Christie, Wendy Baird as McPherson and Sheri Kuznicki as Earhart. The three women sing almost continuously, weaving through gospel, folk and ragtime-tinged melodies all scored and sung in high Sondheim style. Their performances and vocal powers carry the show.
Allman sings her rapid-fire lyrics superbly. Her Christie is funny, flirty, wounded when she discovers her husband’s indiscretions and creative when she plots her retribution.
Baird has a powerful voice and commands the stage, as McPherson is said to have done. She also skillfully conveys the confusing entrapment of her character’s self-sought fame.
Kuznicki has one wonderful song, “Vanity and Gravity,” but other show-stopping songs go to the other characters or the trio. Earhart’s emotional journey is not well defined and her fate undiscovered, making a less distinct character.
Director Mickey Handwerger lightly guides the production, done with Dignity Players’ typical minimalism, with actors and script the sole focus.
A stronger hand might have reined in the show’s length and intensity. With 14 songs, all sung with full-out fervor, and 75 minutes, the first act wants variety in pacing, quieter moments and less exposition.
The second act works far better. It’s more metaphysical as the three characters interact and ponder how to explain their disappearances.
The strong show has uneven elements. Joe Gems on piano is wonderful — but the piano can overpower the singers. And there’s surprisingly little focus on the feminine values of these trailblazing women.
The overall effect surmounts all, whetting our curiosity about three fascinating women and their missing days — and introducing us to three strong, powerful, full-voiced actresses who deserve to be seen before this production vanishes.
Book and lyrics by Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins; music by Rob Hartmann; original concept and additional lyrics by Scott Keys. Music direction by Mark Hildebrand,.
Playing thru May 11 at 8pm ThFSa; 7:30pm Su & 2:30pm May 11 @ Unitarian Universalist Church, 333 Dubois Rd., Annapolis. $20 w/discounts: 410-266-8044 x127; www.dignityplayers.com.
Colonial Players Examines Crime and Punishment
After 72 years of infamy, the Lindbergh baby killer pleads his case.
reviewed by Diana Beechener
In a tiny jail cell, Bruno Richard Hauptmann waits for death. Convicted of the kidnapping and murder of American hero Charles Lindbergh’s infant son, Hauptmann went on trial when the first headline hit the streets. The media convicted the German immigrant — labeled Lone Wolf Hauptmann, Mad Dog Hauptmann or simply the baby killer — before he ever saw a courtroom. Colonial Players’ stunning performance of John Logan’s Hauptmann scrutinizes the media’s influence over the American justice system through the memories of a man who might — or might not — have committed the crime of the century.
Baltimore journalist H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 “the biggest story since the resurrection.” Americans were horrified. Lone Eagle Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne were idolized as the perfect American couple after Lindbergh’s successful first-ever solo flight from New York to Paris. Then Charles Jr. was stolen from his bed, and the media converged to cover every intrigue and the anguished plea from the parents. The crime coverage and news reports made live drama, printed and broadcast nightly. The discovery of the golden couple’s crushed baby in a ditch several weeks later was unfathomable tragedy.
The media amplified the outraged cries: Someone, anyone had to pay.
As the minutes tick down to his execution, Hauptmann pleads his case to the audience, his memories unfolding in a collection of scenes with the small ensemble playing multiple supporting roles. Hauptmann breaks through the play’s fourth wall, addressing you and arguing his case. Hauptmann makes a strong argument for the innocence of its protagonist, but it never lets you forget that the narrator is unreliable.
As the case preoccupies newspaper, radio and newsreels, Hauptmann loses control over his own story. Narrating the events, he is forced to take the role of the kidnapper because the other actors refuse. Even as he professes his innocence with logic and earnest vows, he cannot escape the role of baby killer. As the story spins back to death row, his mask of control slips.
Director Beth Terranova, who drew laughs as Italian maid Costanza in Players’ Enchanted April, throws focus on the actors by paring away typical distractions. The set, also designed by director Terranova, is brilliantly sparse. Simple wooden chairs shift from scene to scene, forming cell walls, cemetery fences and courthouse furniture. Using chairs for the principal set design is ideal for Colonial Players’ theater-in-the-round, where elaborate sets can block the actors from sections of the audience.
Terranova gives the press a leading role in the play, inundating the scenery, costumes and blocking. As the trial begins, reporters surround Hauptmann — recreating his jail cell — reciting their sensational headlines. Also the costume designer, Terranova chose muted browns and grays, giving the play the same color palate as a weathered newsreel.
The floor also serves as a constant reminder of the media coverage. Blocks of gray paint form an abstract portrait of Hauptmann’s mug shot on the floor.
Terranova’s minimal staging choices showcase Pat Reynolds’ mesmerizing performance. The focus of every scene, Reynolds shifts effortlessly between cynical commentator and harassed victim. He makes Hauptmann a complex figure: He controls the stage, exuding an affable charm when speaking to the audience, but he clearly manipulates his narrative. By withholding truths and offering implausible explanations, Reynolds creates a character that the audience wants to believe — but doesn’t fully trust.
Jim Reiter lends impressive support, playing multiple roles from H. L. Mencken to key witness Dr. Condon to three major witnesses in the Lindbergh trial. As each testimony concludes, Reiter turns his chair and morphs into the next character.
With attention to detail and expert staging, Colonial Players add nuance to Logan’s tense drama. Hauptmann doesn’t provide easy answers, but it does offer stunning performances. And that’s enough for a favorable verdict.
Ensemble: Thurston Cobb, Danny Brooks, Jamie Elliott, Ron Giddings, Theresa Riffle and Emily Bowen. Production manager: Tom Stuckey. Lighting designer: Dottie Meggers and Jason Ward. Sound designer: Wes Bedsworth. Props: Lizzy Wilbond.
Playing thru May 24 at 8pm ThFSa; 2:30pm Su; 7:30pm May 18 @ Colonial Players, 108 East St., Annapolis. $20; rsvp: 410-283-7373; www.cplayers.com.
Bowie Community Theater’s Social Security
You’ll put on a happy face at this light-hearted wink at love, lust and family relationships
Reviewed by Jane Elkin
Social Security, an adult comedy by Andrew Bergman (author of such hits as Blazing Saddles and The In-Laws), is a light-hearted wink at love, lust and family relationships. If you like sitcoms, stereotypes and one-liners, Bowie Community Theater’s production is for you. The script is neither compelling nor deep, but it delivers escapist laughs aplenty.
Set in the trendy East Side penthouse of art dealers Barbara and David Kahn (Maribethe Vogel Eckenrode and Jim Estepp), Social Security plays on family tensions and the clash of the classes. Barbara and David live a charmed life of orderly prosperity until her sister and brother-in-law, Trudy and Martin Heyman (Debbie Samek and Andrew Negri), turn their lives upside down with the unwelcome news that Mother must stay with them for a while.
Mother, chief among the stock caricatures who propel the action, is Sophie Greengrass (Michele Hitchcock), the classic Jewish mother. This blue-wigged, kvetching octogenarian comes across like a Yiddish version of Vicki Lawrence from Mama’s Family. Hard of hearing, hard headed and hard to get along with, she threatens Barbara’s sanity and marriage.
Mother’s power to disrupt has already been proven in sister Trudy’s life. Small-minded and cheap, Trudy the housewife and her CPA husband live a boring life of inane predictability under mother’s domineering thumb. Worst of all, Trudy is turning into her mother: overbearing and obnoxious while lacking her mother’s confidence and wisdom. Now the Heymans’ 18-year-old daughter has taken up with two men, an arrangement her father mistakenly refers to as a menagerie. They dump Sophie on the Kahns to rescue their daughter.
After some initial misery, the Kahns’ problem solves itself when Sophie meets one of their famous clients, Maurice Koenig (Rich Fogg), a centenarian artist who is smitten with her common sense and old-fashioned family values. Romance transforms her from battle-ax to babe, and life will never be the same for any of them.
There are no weak links in this cast. But as comedies go, someone always gets all the best lines, and in this show that would be David. Sophie, however, has one visual stunt that trumps all dialogue, and though I will not spoil the surprise, I promise it is worth twice the price of admission.
These are characters you will like getting to know. You will feel comfortable in their home and chuckle at the familiarity of their squabbles. You’ll tap your toes to mood music from the 1960s hits like “Put on a Happy Face” and “Just in Time.” And you will leave with renewed optimism and appreciation for those difficult, offbeat and misunderstood relatives with whom you are occasionally forced to spend time.
Directed by Estelle Miller. Set design and lights by Garrett Hyde. Costumes by Karen Spitzer.
Playing thru April 26 @ 8pm F & Sa; Su @ 2pm @ Bowie Community Theatre, White Marsh Park, Rt. 3 South, Bowie. $15 w/discounts; rsvp: 301-805-0219; www.bctheatre.com.
top
Annapolis Chorale’s Aida
Previewed by Jane Elkin
Giuseppe Verdi’s grand operas combined eye-popping spectacle with big sound. Had he lived into the 20th century, he would have hired Cecil B. Demille to stage Aida, and he would have wanted a chorus as big as the Annapolis Chorale — all 160 of them. They get the best song, the Triumphal March, which you’ll recognize from the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies.
This weekend J. Ernest Green directs a semi-staged, abbreviated Aida, sung in Italian with English supratitles, accompanied by the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra. It features a cast of international rising stars singing some of the most vocally challenging opera repertoire ever written. Hear baritone rising star Shouvik Mondle plus tenor Antonio Nagore, mezzo Jeniece Goldbourne and soprano Leah Anne Myers — before they become tomorrow’s superstars and you can’t afford a ticket.
They sing a tale of love, loyalty, jealousy and hope as Ethiopian slave princess Aida and her beloved Egyptian soldier seek happiness despite a jealous Egyptian princess and the wartime capture of Aida’s father. To the victor goes the girl, so in predictable operatic fashion, the lovers embrace death as their best option. Now that’s devotion!
top
Hansel & Gretel: A Delicious Diversion
Peviewed by Jane Elkin
The Wagnerian soprano in a Viking helmet, bellowing a foreign language, is a tough stereotype to break. That’s why Annapolis Opera — in conjunction with Opera AACC — reaches out to new audiences each year with Children’s Opera. This year’s opera is Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1931 classic Hansel and Gretel, with a score, based in German folk tunes, including “When I Go to Sleep at Night” and “Brother Come and Dance with Me.”
This fully staged favorite is abbreviated to one hour and sung in English. Kids will enjoy the All Children’s Chorus of Annapolis as the gingerbread children. Additionally, Humperdinck changed the tale’s worst fear factor so that the sinister step-mother is softened to a regular mom who, under stress, unthinkingly sends her kids on an errand in the woods. Rachel Sitomer and Julie Hiscox are charming and talented as the misbegotten moppets.
The director, Douglas Brandt Byerly, also plays the father. Accompaniment is by the Opera AACC Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Marc Boensel.
top
Chivalry and Pageantry at Arundel Mills
The courtly spectacle is as carefully choreographed as a Broadway play.
Reviewed by Ben Miller
Clashing swords, charging knights, prancing horses and a costume drama of good and evil bring the 11th century of Europe to Arundel Mills.
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament is an over-the-top spectacle larger than the big screen. The show unfolds in a 1,000-seat arena where the often-cheering spectators — all with good views — look down on colorfully costumed knights mounted on galloping horses.
The actions of the knights and their horses, the squires and pages, King, Prince, Princess and Lord Chancellor; the music; the lights; and even the serving of dinner are as carefully choreographed as a Broadway play.
Medieval Times is not new to the area. This is the fifth year for a company that, by last year, had entertained one million guests.
This year’s production is new, but returning fans can be assured that there is treachery afoot and plenty of action. In summary, the Prince is kidnapped, the good King and the sweet Princess worry for his safe return and the Green Knight threatens to disturb the peace of the kingdom.
There are interludes to the drama.
In the Tournament of Games, mounted knights throw javelins, toss flags and pierce rings with their lances in the Maryland state sport, jousting.
The horse demonstrations may be the highlight for adults. The beautiful Andalusian stallions show European-style dressage steps — leaping, marching and trotting — that are a tribute to the horses’ intelligence and the skill and patience of their trainers. Look for the scene where the mounted horse trots in time with the music.
In another captivating moment, a falcon, released by the Royal Falconer, soars through the arena, seemingly in time with the music.
The experience of the audience is as choreographed as the performance itself.
We gathered in the Hall of Arms, which has a bar, souvenirs and displays of medieval artifacts.
The Lord Chancellor directed us to our seats based on our color-coded tickets. Each section roots for an individual knight dressed in the same colors.
Drinks and dinner are served. Children will be delighted there are no utensils; everyone eats with their hands. Dinner portions are Henry the Eight-sized: chicken and spare ribs with bread, soup, potato and dessert. A vegetarian menu is also served.
The action continues during dinner and builds to a crescendo of flashing swords (look for the sparks) and wounded knights. As the evening progresses, the audience gets more and more into the action with applause and cheering.
The performance could be rated PG for the violence. Younger children need to be reminded that this isn’t real; it’s more like a dance than a fight. The wounded knights are conspicuously walked off the floor by the squires and pages.
The young knights are remarkably athletic performers and good horsemen. They are also hot, according to our middle-school aged female seatmate.
You can be assured that all ends well. Good does triumph, after all.
Outside the arena, performers meet with guests after the show. We met with the Royal Falconer and the Lanner-Saker falcon, an unexpected highlight.
The Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament at Arundel Mills, 7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Hanover. Show times vary with evening performances and weekend matinees. Adults, $50.95; children under, 12 $37.95 w/groups rates: www.medievaltimes.com ; 888-we-joust.
At Colonial Players, Kiss Me Kate Hits the Right Notes
Colonial Players channels zany Shakespeare in Cole Porter’s 1940s’ screwball style
Reviewed by Diana Beechener
“If your blonde don’t respond when you flatter her, tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer,” advise two pinstriped gangsters who soft-shoe across the stage during Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate. Adapted from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Colonial Players’ anything-but-typical night of Shakespeare puts backstage drama in the spotlight with quarreling actors, madcap misunderstandings and a couple of thugs with a good sense of rhythm.
What you’ll see in Colonial’s theater in the round is a play playing a play. In 1940s’ post-war Baltimore — a far cry from the Baltimore we see on television in The Wire — ego-driven Fred (Matt Garcia) directs himself at Ford Theatre in a production of Shrew. Fred divides his time between chasing the coquettish Lois (Jamie Miller) and contending with his staring shrew, former wife and failed film star, Lilli (Catherine Chiappa). The two stars fight their feelings and each other while supporting actors Lois and Bill (Ronnie Schronce) engage in their own battle of the sexes. Lois uses her wiles to advance her career and her wardrobe. Her jealous boyfriend, Bill, spends his off-stage time amassing huge gambling debts and signing Fred’s name on his IOU.
Pugilistic romance is Shakespeare’s subject too, so life mirrors art mirroring life.
As the opening night curtain goes up on the play within the play, the drama backstage takes center stage, with a jealous Lilli driving home her defiant lines by slapping Fred. Their theatrical squabble spills over into Cole Porter’s version real life. Lilli is about to storm out of the theater when two gangsters arrive to collect on Bill’s IOU. In madcap desperation, Fred convinces the thugs to don harlequin garb and join the cast. With the addition of two armed players, one livid lead and the sudden appearance of the U.S. Navy, Fred soldiers on so the show can go on.
Set designer Gary Adamsen wisely chose only essential furniture with little backdrop, forcing all attention to the performances and elaborate dance numbers. Director Beverly Hill Van Joolen brings on a live four-piece band to play Cole Porter’s delovely music.
Both Matt Garcia and Catherine Chiappa hit all the right notes as Kate’s leads. Chiappa, easily the best vocalist of the cast, dominates her scenes. More impressive, however, is Matt Garcia, who projects such caddish charisma that it’s hard to believe he learned his part in only a week. In a twist worthy of Porter or Shakespeare, the Players’ original lead became ill, forcing the last minute recasting. Garcia’s effortless performance elevates the play and is a credit to his talent.
Yet the gangsters steal the show. Whether in pinstripes and fedoras or harlequin jumpsuits, Steve Migdal and Jeff Sprague maintain their tough-guy personas while cracking wise. Never given names, the characters are a modern nod to Shakespeare’s fools — outsiders who function as wry observers of the action. Armed with revolvers, brassy New Yawk accents and a soft-shoe number, they show what would happen if Tony Soprano had taken vocal lessons. In the Kate’s hilarious musical number, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” Sprague and Migdal perform a pun-filled Vaudevillian tap number, explaining how to snag a dame by quoting the bard.
A play-within-a-play plot does not lend itself to theater-in-the-round. In several scenes, actors play to their imaginary audience with their backs to a whole section of their real audience, obstructing the view of the action.
That’s a nuisance, but it doesn’t spoil the zany entertainment Colonial Players channels 1940s’ screwball style from Porter on Shakespeare. Chiappa and Garcia’s chemistry sparks, as do the gangsters’ pistols in this credit to Porter and the bard.
Musical director: Pete Thompson. Choreographers: Nancy Dall, Matt Macis and Theresa Olson. Lighting design: Alex Banos. Sound design: Richard Atha-Nicholls. Costume design: Mary Schmidt. Ensemble: Michelle Harmon, Monica Anselm, Nathan Bowen, Trent Goldsmith, Robert Hardy, Jim Murphy, Michael Rease, E. Aubrey Baden, Christiana Bartone, Carol Anne Drescher, Brenda Garcia, Heather Harris, Mark Kidwell, Erik Springer-Emerson and Bronwyn van Joolen.
Playing thru April 5 @ 8pm Th-Sa; 2:30pm Su; 7:30pm Feb. 3 @ The Colonial Players Theater, 108 East St., Annapolis. $20 w/discounts; rsvp: 410-268-7373; www.cplayers.com.
2nd Star Production’s Leading Ladies
Can love flourish when the suitors are female impersonators?
Reviewed by Davina Grace Hill
Mistaken identities, physical comedy and considerable bluster are constant elements of Ken Ludwig’s work. Leading Ladies is no exception.
Written just over three years ago, Leading Ladies revisits the themes and characters of Ludwig’s 1995 work, Moon Over Buffalo. Down-on-their-luck actors go to extreme lengths to gain fame and fortune, in the process discovering true love off the stage. As an added bonus, they get to hack up Shakespearean verse. The twist? They get to do it in drag.
2nd Star’s production, directed by Charles W. Maloney, introduces Leo (played by Leo Knight) and Jack (John Parry) as the pair of Shakespearean actors who learn of a dying matron who is leaving her fortune to two long-lost heirs — if they can be located. The heirs are named Stephanie and Maxine. Leo and Jack, actors after all, don’t find female impersonation a daunting obstacle. Off they go to try to gain the inheritance.
At the matron’s home, Leo falls madly in love for a minister’s betrothed and Jack falls for another local young lass. Annoyingly, the matron doesn’t die. So Jack and Leo remain on the scene, falling more in love with the local ladies and deeper into the gender deception.
Leo Knight and John Parry work very well together. Their comedic timing is excellent, and they convince us, as the show demands, that they are a well-established team. Given the differential in their heights, they also provide visual amusement, especially when clad as women.
Nora Zanger plays the object of Leo’s affection, Meg, ably — with one exception. Whether she knew all along that Jack and Leo weren’t Stephanie and Maxine is important to this show; that distinction wasn’t made clear on opening night.
Caitlin E. Jennings plays Audrey, the young woman that Jack falls for, with bravado and confidence. Discovering in the program that she is but a sophomore in high school makes her accomplishment even more applause worthy.
Jack Degnan as the flustered minister, Carole Long as the not-quite-dying matron and Nick Schultz as a goofy “Buddy Holly-esque” young man keep the action moving. Martin Hayes as Doc Meyers and Rich Church as a Moose member, round out the cast.
Once again scenic designer Jane B. Wingard showcases considerable skill. The set has levels and visual interest and is extremely well painted and appointed. Art deco touches are excellent in the Act 1 train scene.
Intricate pacing is needed in a Ken Ludwig play. Director Maloney starts Leading Ladies at one level from which it never varies; it just barrels on through. The result is that Leading Ladies makes us laugh but does not necessarily leave us satisfied when the house lights come up.
Playing thru March 22 at 8pm FSa; 3pm Su @ Bowie Playhouse, White Marsh Park, off Rt. 3, Bowie. $18 w/discounts: 410-757-5700; www.2ndstarproductions.com.
Dignity Players’ Antigone
Fine writing and extraordinary acting make Antigone worth your while
Reviewed by Jane Elkin
You’ll see some extraordinary acting in Dignity Players’ showdown between Frank B. Moorman and Hallie Garrison.
You’ll also see the uncanny power of a play that has survived for 2400 years. Greek playwright Sophocles’ understanding of human nature was so keen that new generations continue to find it illuminating. In 1944, French playwright Jean Anhouihl adapted Antigone to his times, echoing the French resistance against Nazi occupation. Now Dignity Players opens a theater season devoted to women’s history with Lewis Galantiere’s translation of Anhouihl’s Antigone.
Antigone, played by Garrison, is a young woman who defies authority to do what she thinks right. Authority is Moorman’s Creon, her uncle and the father of her fiancé, Haemon (Jamie Hanna). Her defiance demands her execution.
From the moment we first see the cast in freeze-frame motif 10 minutes before the show begins, we know them. There is no mistaking Creon: authoritative, threatening and cool. Antigone: solemn and calm, her distant eyes bespeaking troubled thoughts. Haemon: youthfully optimistic and confident.
Their story is one more link in the crazy chain of events that makes up the Oedipus saga.
Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, formerly the king of Thebes. Opportunist Creon seeks to “impose order on this absurd little kingdom” after his two nephews, Polynices and Eteocles, kill each other in a civil war. His edict forbidding the burial of the rebel Polynices, Antigone’s brother, is more than she can bear, though it poses no burden to their sister Ismene (Becki Placella). Ironically, only Ismene and Creon will regret their choices.
Creon tries to overlook Antigone’s defiance because she is betrothed to his son. But when she refuses his proffered alibi, he orders her arrest by abusive Guardsmen (Josh Riffle, Robby Rose and Nick Beschen.)
Haemon curses his father and chooses death with Antigone. When Queen Eurydice (Donna Soraparu) learns of her son’s suicide, she takes her own life. Creon’s legacy is his miserable solitude. His best argument for Antigone’s compliance, that “life is nothing more than the happiness we get out of it,” will forever resound in his memory of missteps on the road to power.
The ensemble as a whole delivers a solid interpretation. Garrison and Hanna give fine performances. Moorman, however, is so remarkable I cannot imagine any star I’d rather see in this role. He channels his character.
Dozens of luminaria light the stage to nice effect, and I liked the togas featuring subtle variations of color and decoration to indicate wealth and rank.
Best of all, though, are Moorman’s performance and the superb writing.
Directed by Mickey Handwerger. Costumes: Donna Soraparu. Set: Barrett, Handwerger, Eric Lund and Soraparu. Lights: Annie Garrison. With Theresa Riffle and Bryan Barrett.
Playing thru March 9 at 8pm Th-Sa; 2 pm Su @ Unitarian Universalist Church, 333 Dubois Rd., (off N. Bestgate Rd.) Annapolis. $20 w/ discounts; rsvp: 410-266-8044 x 127; www.dignityplayers.org.
Bay Theatre Company’s Glass Menagerie
Raising the bar; redefining the standard
Reviewed by Jane Elkin
The dysfunctional family in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie lived in St. Louis in the 1930s. Yet his semi-autobiographical drama about an overbearing single mother and her two grown children is as relevant today as ever.
Amanda Winfield (Lucinda Merry-Browne) is so blinded by her unrealistic expectations for Tom (Ben Russo) and Laura (Kristen Calgaro) that she cannot appreciate them for who they are. She badgers them relentlessly. Modern kids might escape to drugs or online gaming. Tom escapes to booze and the movies, and Laura to her menagerie of glass animals while Amanda latches onto the dream of a gentleman caller to save Laura from spinsterhood.
This show is so well cast that it is the new standard by which I will judge every other production. Amanda’s usual persona as a cloying harpy with a Southern drawl is banished forever as Merry-Browne infuses her with sincere motherly concern. Like a cornered animal seeking to protect her young, she worries about their future. She doesn’t know when to curtail her tongue because it is her only weapon. Here is a woman I can almost relate to. I no longer loathe her, for she made me laugh and cry — just as a real mother will.
Russo’s slouch and blasé expression convey the message I’m outta here! long before he mentions the possibility. Yet his filial sense of duty and love for Laura show in his every reluctant step and word.
Calgaro’s gentle and fragile Laura is a tortured soul, yet the only calming influence on her family. A frumpy and awkward cripple, her transformation to dazzling and almost graceful is magnificent as she exudes the potential only her mother could prevision. It is a joy to watch her unfold like a blossom in a warm room.
Williams describes the Gentleman Caller, Jim (Judson Davis), as “the long delayed but always expected something that we live for.” Davis is so likeable in this role that we pray for him to love Laura as only her family does — and rescue her from them.
Williams claims to “give the truth in the clever disguise of illusion,” yet this dingy tenement feels as real as primal memory. The set is like a time machine with its yellowed wallpaper, bare light bulb and timeworn furnishings. Best of all is the fire escape that serves as their porch. It rattles with every footstep, conveying each character’s mood: dancing in anticipation, tip-toeing in culpability or stomping in sullen resentment. Likewise, costumes are carefully chosen and tailored, with an eye to style and dramatic effect.
My complaints are few. One set design choice and the blocking of one scene obscure some crucial dialogue, and the cramped seating is worse than flying coach. Still, I loved this show; it is a Must See.
Directed by Nancy Robillard. Set design: Dave Buckler. Costumes: Eric Langmeyer. Lights: John Burkland.
Playing thru March 29 at 8pm Th-Sa; Su @ 3pm with special Sa matinee March 29; no show Feb. 28 @ Bay Theatre Company, 275 West St., Annapolis. $25 with discounts; rsvp: 410-268-1333; www.baytheatre.org.
Twin Beach Players’ Heartstrings
North Beach makes a cozy venue for this tug at your heartstrings.
Reviewed by Dick Wilson
Twin Beach Players, a theater group that’s becoming known for its wide-ranging and ambitious productions, tugs at Heartstrings in its Valentine show.
This Valentine show is no syrupy tale of young lovers whose hearts are on the verge of breaking until redeemed by a Valentine card.
The Valentine cards come, but not before the damage has been done. The nice thoughts on a card don’t change reality. And reality is what this adult play deals with.
In monologues, three women of different backgrounds and outlooks puts their own twists on an old tale: being wronged by men.
Anna (Regan Cashman) is a simple, soft-hearted soul who’s outwardly tough, sometimes brash and combative. She’s made a lot of bad choices (and she knows it) with regard to men, but she’s resilient. Cashman is the play’s light humor.
Elizabeth (Clare O’Shea) has chosen alcohol as the route she will travel to escape the pain inflicted by an unfaithful, lying husband, and she’s far down that road. In a powerful performance, O’Shea is immersed in this role, swigging gin, passing out, waking up and doing the things that intoxicated people do. The humor in her role is darker than in Anna’s, but they offset one another nicely.
Helen (Joanne McDonald) has — perhaps more than the others — submerged her own life’s desires and aspirations to be wife, helpmate and companion to a husband who thought of himself as Emperor of the Household. McDonald’s character is emotionally positioned in the middle between Elizabeth and Anna. Her air of subdued suffering fits neatly between their extremes.
They three are connected in a strange way, which brings in a fourth woman, Barbara (Marianne Rude), an intellectual who is married relatively contently to a college professor. Her monologue ties the elements of this drama together.
Heartstrings was written by Phillip Glass who, not so coincidentally, is a longtime friend of Eleanor Nelson, secretary of the Arts Council of Calvert County. Many years ago Nelson suggested to Glass the title Heartstrings for his play, which has run off-Broadway and at other venues to high acclaim.
North Beach makes a cozy venue for this tug at your heartstrings.
Directed by Diane Belanger. Produced by Janine Naus. Playing thru Feb. 23 at 8pm F; 7pm Sa @ Black Box Theatre, Union Church, 8912 Chesapeake Ave., North Beach. $15 w/discounts: 410-257-0207; www.twinbeachplayers.org.
Find Respite from Winter in Annapolis Chorale’s South Pacific
No synthesizer can evoke Pacific trade winds as effectively as a dozen violins and violas.
previewed by Jane Elkin
Whether you’re new to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific or an old fan, Annapolis Chorale’s concert of this classic of American musical theatre promises to warm you up. The melodies are hummable, and the lush orchestration punctuates the lyrics without distracting from their message. It’s a message still warm 60 years after James Michener wrote the tales that inspired the musical: a message about the insidious nature of racism, the transience of happiness and the narrowing of choices during wartime. Opening in 1949, South Pacific ran five years on Broadway; a revival opens at the Lincoln Center next month.
The Chorale’s collaborations with the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of J. Ernest Green, produce top-notch, originally orchestrated performances of a full choir and professional soloists-actors — just as the composer intended. The result is a fuller sound than is typically heard in local musical theater. Let’s face it; no synthesizer can evoke Pacific trade winds as effectively as a dozen violins and violas.
The composer magically evokes the moods of his characters and their surroundings. The haunting allure of “Bali Hai” (sung by Jenni Bank as the Polynesian trader Bloody Mary) flirts with the octave to leave you pining for fulfillment on this magical isle. In the youthful romp “A Wonderful Guy,” the orchestra sets Nurse Nellie (Katie Hale) to dancing with a grand ballroom sound. But her mature lover’s reflective response, “Some Enchanted Evening,” sung by Emile (Jimi James), contrasts with measured gravity and the intensity of 40 instruments whispering simultaneously. The indecision in Lt. Cable’s (Tom Magette) musings on prejudice are echoed in the dithering melodic line of “You’ve Got to Be Taught.” For raw vocal energy, however, there is nothing like my favorite, “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” featuring every male voice from the lowest bass to the highest tenor.
Enjoy a little pre-Valentine’s Day romantic get-away to the tropics. As an added incentive, come as you are to the Casual Friday concert and enjoy a post-concert Q&A session with the cast and conductor.
Playing Feb. 8 & 9 at 7:30pm @ Maryland Hall, 801 Chase St., Annapolis. $35 w/discounts; rsvp: 410-263-5114.
The Pirates of Penzance at Opera AACC
Singing students take Gilbert and Sullivan to the theme park
reviewed by Jane Elkin
Pirates are hot this year, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic The Pirates of Penzance is enjoying a renaissance, first at Second Star Productions in Bowie, soon to be at the Washington Savoyards and currently at Opera AACC. So how does a director make his largely amateur production stand out among a field of semi-professional competition? The answer is with clever adaptation for modern audiences, which John Bowen delivers in treasure troves.
His resetting of the Victorian operetta to a contemporary theme park, named D’Oylyland in honor of the original G & S producer Richard D’Oyly, provides contextual relevance for modern audiences as well as a fresh take on characters and plot. Through entertaining program notes, liberal rewrites and pantomime, the story is clear from the moment the overture begins. Adorable little Frederic (Bobby Kaiser) goes to D’Oylyland with his nanny, Ruth (Charlotte Taylor). Despite his obvious captivation with the Royal Navy Pilot School recruitment booth, she apprentices him to the D’Oylyland pirate attraction instead. Thus half the story is explained before Ruth sings her famously incomprehensible aria of how she confused the words pirate and pilot, thus dooming older Frederic (Frederic Rey) to indentured servitude until his 21st birthday.
Frederic hates the piratical profession so much that he vows to annihilate his coworkers, the Pirate King (Douglas Brandt Byerly) and his band, once he is freed. But here is the sticking point in the updated plot. If the pirates are merely theme park actors, what is Frederic’s motivation to violence? In the show’s spirit of silliness, I am inclined to chalk it up to disgruntled employee behavior. Let’s just say he went postal. After all, Frederic tells us that he has been constantly backstage since he was eight years old, and Ruth is the only woman he has seen in all that time.
Once out of indenture, Frederic meets Mabel (Julie Hiscox) behind the Mermaid Lagoon Putt-Putt attraction, and it is lust at first sight. Mabel is a ward of Major General Stanley’s Academy of Dramatic Arts for Wayward Schoolgirls, and while she and Frederic are backstage making out, the other schoolgirls carp cattily about the lovers and spy on them through the employee lounge door. The pirates all want a piece of the action and threaten to kidnap the girls, but Major General Stanley (Larry Ellinghaus), the girls’ father, saves them by telling a sentimental lie.
Stanley is also resident owner of D’Oylyland, and when the pirates learn of his deceit they attack his corner office at the family estate, Ye Olde Haunted Castle. Poor Frederic has been forced to reenlist with the pirates due to a contractual snafu. His leap year birthday makes him ineligible for freedom until the year 2080, so Mabel’s only hope of rescuing her fiancé is the venerable police force, under the uneasy command of their sergeant (Michael Collins). They reluctantly march to certain death in a fight against the pirates, but quick thinking on the sergeant’s part averts conflict when he invokes piratical submission in Queen Elizabeth’s name.
Creativity defines Anne Arundel Community College’s show. The set features an attractive backdrop of the theme park map. Most of the costumes are cute period garb, with colorful pirate apparel, Keystone Kops and naughty parochial school girl uniforms. But poor Major General Stanley looked worse than ludicrous in an incongruous layering of safari outfit, academic robes and sleepwear. The numerous hats he wore stacked atop each other — a pith helmet, tasseled mortarboard and fur fez — combined to make him look like a raving lunatic. It was distracting, to say the least.
The amateur cast is distinguished by two stand-outs: Julie Hiscox (Mabel) is destined for stardom with her glorious coloratura soprano voice and stunning face and figure. Byerly, the founder and artistic director of Opera AACC, is an excellent Pirate King. Rey as Frederic hit his stride in Act II, but the other leads are uneven. Clearly this troupe exists to give students room to grow.
At the same time, Opera AACC’s Pirates entertains audiences with a fresh perspective on a comic cultural classic.
Directed by John Bowen. Set: Christa Ladney and D.B. Byerly. Costumes: Mary Bova and A.T. Jones & Sons Inc. Lighting: D.B. Byerly.
Playing thru Feb. 2 at 8pm FSa @ Pascal Center, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold. $10 w/discounts: 410-777-2457.
Spend an Enchanted April with Colonial Players
Colonial Player’s Enchanted April blooms with wisteria, sunshine and breezy comedy.
Reviewed by Diana Beechener
Stuck in a drab women’s club as rain pounds on the windows, bored English housewife Lotty Wilson (Darice Clewell) stumbles on an advertisement for an Italian castle, directed to those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine. Lotty leads a circle of women — all seeking refuge from their London lives — on a quest for physical and emotional revival in the flowery soil of Italy. Matthew Barber’s witty adaptation of Elizabeth von Armin’s novel leads these ladies through the countryside on a joyous romp. Colonial Players’ whimsical adaptation of Enchanted April sends audiences on their own vacation.
The horrors of the Great War linger in the background. In 1922, clothing is drab, rain is constant and spirits are dampened.
Lotty, a free-spirited optimist, is lost at her husband’s tightly controlled society parties. Rose Arnott (Heather Quinn), a pious church woman, watches in horror as her poet husband forsakes his art to write trashy novels and mingle at society parties. Lotty persuades Rose to accompany her to Italy so they can both regain joy. To lessen their financial burden, Lotty and the ever-reluctant Rose find two roommates: the severe widow Mrs. Graves (Carol Cohen) and flighty socialite Lady Bramble (Zarah Roberts), who is never far from her flask. As the women wander among the wisteria and soak in the sunshine, each faces the demons that followed her through their London lives.
In Colonial’s theater in the round, Doug Dawson’s brilliant set design uses every inch of space to enhance the themes. He captures Rose and Lottie’s first-act English desperation with drab carpets and dark wood that absorb the minimal lighting. The women seem enclosed in a small box with the light slowly fading. In Mezzago, the set transforms into an airy villa garden where soft cream walls reflect warm light. Trellises of wisteria, which denotes welcome in Victorian floral symbolism, hang above the front-row audience’s heads, drawing them into the warmth of the castle. Sun-worn veranda furniture, floral murals and rustic villa doorways complete the set’s transformation.
In this paradiso, director Mary Fawcett Watko coaxes wonderful performances from her actors. She demonstrates a flare for uproarious humor in a scene featuring a precariously draped towel and a group of shocked ladies. The performances of the ladies, however, supply the enchantment.
As Lotty, Clewell is the play’s driving force. Her exuberance and bursts of insight balance her madcap character. Beth Terranova also gives a bravura performance as Costanza, the maid, draws some of the biggest laughs with her Italian lines.
The spell is interrupted by inexplicable music cues. During a dramatic scene, a mournful piano suddenly tinkles over the speakers, ripping the audience’s attention away from a dramatic revelation and hurling them into a movie of the week. Quinn’s moment is undercut.
That lapse aside, for over two hours, our own winter blooms with wisteria and sunshine as the characters’ hopes are revived and the troubles of the time overcome.
Ensemble: Richard Koster, Nick Beschen and Richard McGraw. Stage manager: Herb Elkin. Lighting design: Herb Elkin, Eric Lund and Richard Koster. Sound design: Mickey Handwerger and Wes Bedsworth. Costume design: Jean Beall and Donna Soraparu.
Playing thru Feb. 9 @ 8pm Th-Sa; 2:30pm Su; 7:30pm Feb. 3 @ The Colonial Players Theater, 108 East St., Annapolis. $20 w/discounts; rsvp: 410-268-7373; www.cplayers.com.
top
Children’s Theatre of Annapolis’ Beauty and the Beast
Ah! The energy of youth. The cast of teenagers is astonishing
reviewed by Davina Grace Hill
Irish playwright Bernard Shaw would have erased his famous line — “youth is wasted on the young” — had he seen Children’s Theatre of Annapolis’ January musical, Beauty and the Beast.
The young performers in the cast of 35 — ranging in age from 12 to 18 — display not only youthful energy and enthusiasm but also considerable talents.
Director Joe Thompson has done something quite remarkable with his large cast: Given each at least a small moment to shine individually. He has skillfully avoided creating a faceless chorus or ensemble, creating instead a very large group of distinct secondary characters to support the leading actors. Jason Kimble’s choreography supports that feat by contributing little dance highlights for each character.
Thompson paces the show a bit too fast for full character development, but these characters and story are so well known that the audience has already met the actors halfway.
The popular musical explains how a magic spell transforms a cold, arrogant young man into a Beast and how a lonely, forgiving young woman, Belle, gives him a last chance to rescind the spell. Complications enter in the person of Belle’s unwanted suitor Gaston, his sidekick Lefou, her father Maurice — and the cadre of humans turned into inanimate objects such as candelabrum, a clock and a teapot.
As the Beast, R.J. Pavel displays not only a full and very controlled vocal ability but also the pathos and sadness to make you care about the Beast. In his song, “How Long Must This Go On?” the longing and yearning he creates is palpable; he makes it the emotional centerpiece of the show.
As Belle, Lindsay Espinosa shines with powerful vocal talents and great stage presence. She makes Belle an intelligent character as well as a beautiful one.
The third stand out is Miguel Mattia-Uribe as Lefou. Gifted with a malleable body and an expressive face and fearless about taking pratfalls, he provides considerable comic relief.
Dorian Jackson as the villainous suitor Gaston and Martin Thompson as Belle’s father Maurice carry their roles but might have been pushed to own the stage a bit more during their important moments.
The inanimate objects are portrayed by Kyle VanZandt as the candelabrum (Lumiere), Scott Aucoin as the clock (Cogsworth), Malarie Novotny as the teapot (Mrs. Potts), Carly Snyder as the teacup (Chip), Emily Sergo as a wardrobe (Madame de la Bouch) and Brittany Kemmer as a feather duster (Babette). Scott Aucoin’s comedic skills shine, and Carly Snyder and Emily Sergo’s vocal skills are impressive. Malarie Novotny not only sings well, she also inhabits her teapot and carries the title song exceedingly well. Brittany Kemmer flirts and flounces just as a feather duster should. Kyle VanZandt’s Lumiere seems a bit overshadowed by Aucoin’s Cogsworth, but vocally VanZandt carries on the songs “Be Our Guest” and “Human Again.”
Opening night was marred by technical difficulties, but the cast of teenagers was astonishing. Coming from different schools and home schools from throughout the region, these young people (and their parents) have overcome school rivalries, social networks and physical distances to create a disciplined and structured theatrical community. Would that we all, children and adults alike, could experience a similar transformation.
Playing thru Jan. 13 at 7:30pm F; 2pm & 7:30pm Sa; 2pm Su @ Pascal Performing Arts Center, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold. $12 w/discounts: 410-757-2281; www.childrenstheatreofannapolis.org.
Volume 16, Issue 20 - May 15 - May 21, 2008