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Running time 2:55 - one intermission
A solid presentation of a well-constructed drama
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Storyline: The young son of a London banker is expelled from the junior officers program of the Royal Naval College at Osborn on a charge of petty theft which was brought, investigated and adjudged without notice to the family. When the boy convinces his father of his innocence, all the resources of the well off but not particularly wealthy family are put to the cause of defending him, and the family's honor, and one of the most famous barristers conducts a successful defense. The toll on the family and particularly on the father, whose health deteriorates throughout the two-year long process, is great but there are few regrets over the decision to fight to see that "right is done."

Terrance Rattigan's play is based on a true story, a cause célèbre of 1910 when thirteen year old George Archer-Shee was actually discharged from Osborn on the charge of stealing a five-shilling money order. As detailed in the play, the complicating factor for the family's desire to contest the action was the fact that Osborn, as a Royal Naval College, was under the Admiralty as a function of the Crown, and, thus, immune from suit. In order to bring action to appeal the decision, they had to petition the Admiralty to grant that permission which would be done with the formal declaration "Let right be done." It is that appeal to "right" that drives the play which Rattigan wrote just following World War II and which was a success both in London and on Broadway. It has been made into movies and television dramas, most recently a movie directed by David Mamet.

Field maintains a stoical adherence to his son's cause and an unshakable belief that there is no choice but to pursue the case even as he transitions from a single cane to a pair of walking sticks and finally to a wheel chair as a result of the strain. William Havranek, who played the title role the night we attended, seems a bit young on stage for a thirteen year old but handles the role nicely. Heather Sanderson and Rachel Hubbard do solid work as the women in the family and Bonnie Jourdan is a delight as the flighty maid who has become a member of the family after decades of service. As the barrister who takes on the case and prosecutes it for just as long as it may take, Adams carefully controls his character's flamboyance while making an imposing presence at all times.

The raised stage of what is essentially the multi-purpose room of the Aldersgate United Methodist Church is always a difficult space on which to create a set and to block a show. It is best when a show, like this one, only requires a single set. Here Scott Obenchain provides a very good one, giving a solid feel of an upper-middle class home in the Kensington area of London (just a few blocks from Hyde Park).  The genteel feel of the family's home is augmented by attractive costumes while the period is reinforced through the sounds of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler played through the sound system between scenes.

Written by Terrence Rattigan. Directed by Roland Branford Gomez. Design: Scott Obenchain (set and lights) Judy Kee (properties) Barbara Helsing and Pat Taylor (costumes)  Alan Wray (sound) C. Evans Kirk (photography) Maya Ayala-Bush and Marg Soroos (stage managers). Cast: Mark Adams, Jimmy Day or William Havranek, Brian Clarke, Gary Cramer, Ron Field, Rachael Hubbard, Bonny Jourdan, Carl Nubile, Eddie Page or Bill Austin, Poppy Pritchett,  Heather Sanderson.

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Running time 2:20 with one intermission
Funny, but not timeless, humor
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Storyline: Each member of a self absorbed family of four invites a companion to their country house for the weekend without letting the others know of their pending guest's arrival. The visitors arrive and become embroiled in the family’s politics and games till they end up banding together for their own safety and sanity.

Noel Coward was a prolific writer, with his earlier works counted among his best. He was almost larger than life, and while he lived a semi-closeted homosexual lifestyle, controversial for his time, he still was friends with the high and the mighty of English society, including people like Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, and Vivian Leigh. Though his popularity declined in the 1950’s, and the quality of his work as well, he continued to write popular West End plays until he left England for the Caribbean for tax reasons. His works reflect his views of his times and he took great joy using this 1924 play to poke fun at the prim English society that was so formal and proper in their public images while hiding all manners of extreme behaviors behind closed doors.

Rebecca Lenehan gives a solid performance in the role of the mother, a retired actress who longs to return to the stage. The entire show is played in an almost melodramatic fashion, especially the roles of the four family members, but Lenehan’s interpretation is taken perhaps to an extreme. True, the lines do call for an overboard performance, but by acting the lines rather than the role she often seems larger than the script might warrant. She does monopolize the stage though, and in that she comes across exactly as she should, a desperate fading actress who seeks any means to keep the spotlight focused upon her life.

Given the nature of comedy today, it is still refreshing, if not especially hilarious, to experience older more tame forms of humor. No vulgarity is needed, just the timing and the situations that the setting provides. The players respond well to the feedback of laughter from the audience and truly seem to enjoy their performances. Hay Fever is one of those stories that keep being revived over the years, most recently by Dame Judi Dench in the main role, and perhaps the role really requires an actress of that power and presence. This is a complex play of situations, timing and location, and the use of British slang requires a glossary in the back of the program.

Written by Noel Coward. Directed by Roland Branford Gomez. Design: Bill Gliksburg (set) Kathy Dodson (costumes) Liz and Nancy Owens (lights) Alan Wray (sound) Douglas Olmsted (photography) Leighann Behrens (stage manager). Cast: Kacie Greenwood, Jim Howard, Rachael Hubbard, Richard Isaacs, Rebecca Lenehan, Claudia Love Petty, Mike Russel, David Seemiller, Carol Strachan.

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Reviewed June 26
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
Fine musical direction marks this tuneful show
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Storyline: Mark Twain’s tale of Huckleberry Finn is set along the Mississippi River in the days when it was the key avenue of commerce between the reach of slavery and the free states of the north. Huck embarks on a raft trip down the river with runaway slave Jim and is soon joined by a pair of charlatans who run scams among the river towns. His friendship with Jim sorely tests his acceptance of the concepts of slavery and the inferiority of one race of men as compared to another.

The Huck Finn of this production appears to be a gangly youth in spite of the fact that he is clearly much older than his character's thirteen years. Yet David Seemiller, who is head and shoulders taller than some of the cast playing other kids, moves with a theatrical assurance through the assumed awkwardness of his character's transition from boy to teen. Like the rest of the cast, he's at his best when he is singing. Indeed, under Jeff Taylor's musical direction, nearly everyone from lead to chorus sings out with an open gusto that makes the musical scenes the best part of the show.

The other major role in the show is that of the runaway slave, Jim. Here they have Edmund Sallis who has the singing voice to handle the songs but is still timid in their delivery, holding on to the eye of the conductor throughout each song. No such reticence mars the work of some of the supporting cast, however. Marie Wakefield, who all but grew up here on the stage of the hall of the Aldersgate United Methodist Church, gives a lovely rendition of "Leavin's Not The Only Way to Go" after leading a strong "You Oughta Be Here With Me," Ben Robles handles the oh-so-tricky tempos and tongue twisters of "Guv'ment," Jeremy Closs gives a nice feeling of foolishness to the Fool singing "Arkansas" and the entire cast is solid on the well choreographed "Do You Wanna Go To Heaven" that opens the show.

It was good to see Bailey R. Center take the stage as Mark Twain for he is just back from the intensive care unit after a heart attack (in Peru, no less). David Rowe had a much less life-threatening misadventure on his way to the stage and now performs the role of Tom Sawyer in a walking cast due to a broken foot, but he pulls off his scenes with aplomb. The team of con men claiming to be royalty ("Duke" and "King") is handled by two veterans who hold the stage with assurance. Both Mario Font and Donald Neal know all the tricks of the shtick the parts require, but Font is the one who brings the greatest energy to delivering them.  As with other productions of Big River, it is the duets between Huck and Jim that stay in the mind. With the strong voices of Seemiller and Sallis, "Muddy Water" and "River In The Rain" deliver the musical and the emotional punch the show requires.

Music and lyrics by Roger Miller. Book by William Hauptman. Adapted from the novel by Mark Twain. Directed by Dru Vander-Linden. Music Direction Jeff Taylor. Choreographed by Kevin Laughon. Design: Susie Poole (set) Carol Coyle (costumes) Justin Lang (lights) Yanni Lolos (sound) Peter C. Piraneo (photography) Leigh Loaiza (stage manager). Cast: Gary Alexander, Jr. Bailey R. Center, Jeremy Closs, Mario Font, Teddy Gron, Nicole Herring, Julia King, Adrienne Taylor Magnuson, Elle Taylor Magnuson, Derek Marsh, Priscilla Marsh, Rachel Morrisey, Donald Neal, George Redden, Ben Robles, David Rowe, Edmund Sallis, David Seemiller, Sarah Spiece, Marie Wakefield, Rebecca Wheeler, 

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Reviewed June 26
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
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Storyline: In the depths of the depression of the 1930s, Billionaire "Daddy Warbucks" sends his secretary to a New York City orphanage to select a lucky youngster to spend the Christmas holiday in his mansion. She comes back with "Little Orphan Annie" who charms everyone in the place - the staff and the billionaire. He decides to adopt her but she still holds out hope that the parents who left her on the steps of the orphanage as an infant will fulfill their pledge to come back for her. Warbucks enlists the help of the FBI to track them down and offers a reward, which the mean mistress of the orphanage and her brother plot to collect. But no second rate crooks can outwit J Edgar Hoover, FDR, Daddy Warbucks and Annie!

Vander-Linden's "Annie" is Rebecca Wheeler, a fourth grader making her stage debut with poise and a simple openness with a song lyric. She has a sense of stage savvy and isn't thrown when some things don't go as planned, as when the dog Friday doesn't immediately cooperate in the important role of "Sandy." The play calls for more than a single little charmer - there are another nine "orphans" who drive headmistress Miss Hannigan to drink, and in this production they are all poised and cute. Their syncopated floor scrubbing in "Hard Knock Life" is, as it usually is, a delight.

Not neglecting the adult roles, this production has a heartily satisfying billionaire in Teddy Gron, who handles the songs like a veteran hoofer and the schmaltzy scenes with a nice restraint; a capable actress/singer, Christine Nixon, in the role of his secretary, and a high-energy mean Miss Hannigan in the person of Marie Wakefield who does a fine job on the classic "Little Girls." The singing/dancing comic villain role "Rooster" who impersonates poor Annie's father is played by Derek Van Tassell who moves well and does a nice strong comedy portrayal, but he has difficulty with the singing aspects of the role. Director Vander-Linden adopts a fairly plodding pace for the entire evening, something that community theaters directors frequently do to avoid putting too much pressure on some of the less experienced performers. However, having Gron stretch out some of his lines while he paces the stage tends to kill rather than help the humor of Daddy Warbucks' musings.

Music director/conductor Jeff Taylor gets clean, clear ensemble work from the cast and supports the solos from the principals with a solid fourteen piece orchestra playing the jazzy Broadway sound of Philip J. Lang's orchestrations that, even after a quarter of a century, still sound fresh and inventive. The orchestra is in the corner of the audience hall backed by two cinderblock walls forcing a volume level that is a challenge to the cast members, especially those who aren't too strong voiced in the first place. The fact that the orchestra is acoustically in the same room as the audience while the cast is frequently behind the proscenium on stage, thus actually in another room, exacerbates the sonic mismatch. Audience members would be well advised to sit on the right side of the hall, as far from the orchestra as possible.

Music by Charles Strouse. Lyrics by Martin Charnin. Book by Thomas Meehan. Directed by Dru Vander-Linden. Choreography by Joceile Nordwall. Music direction by Jeff Taylor. Orchestrations by Philip J. Lang. Design: Anna Hawkins (sound) Peter Piraneo (photography)  Leigh Loaiza (stage manager). Cast: Emily Allen, Caroline Austin, Kimberly Braswell, Robin Brown, Bailey R. Center, Megan Cleary, Mollie Clement, Torey Cramb, Teddy Gron, Ted Kavich, Eliza Devon Lore, Carol McCarthy, Charlanne McCarthy, Charlene McDonald, Will Monahan, Megan Morris, Nichole Naccash, John David Nelson, Christine A. Nixon, Jon Poole, George Redden, Laina Schneider, Sara Spiece, Derek Van Tassel, Marie Wakefield, Rebecca Wheeler, Lyndsey Wheeler, Emily Whitworth, Caroline Yunker, Allie Zickar.

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Reviewed March 13
Running time 1 hour 55 minutes

Storyline: Mrs. Savage, a rich elderly widow who likes to give money to people to fulfill their dreams or even to do something "foolish," is committed to a mental institution by her stepchildren who don't want her giving away the money they hope to inherit from her. She fits right in with the other patients who are all nicer, more generous and arguably saner than the family members who conspire against her.

Jourdan is a senior pixie with a sparkle in her eye, a twinkle in her voice and a spring in her step as she leads the cast through a series of pleasant scenes. That spring in her step is demonstrated repeatedly as she walks around the outer edges of the set's carpet under the theory that "everyone walks in the middle of the carpet and wears it out" so she's just evening things out a bit. She carries with her a large stuffed Teddy Bear which plays a part in the plot but she avoids making the affectation too sweet or too strange.

The four patients in the institution, each with unique quirks, are played with a matching sense of gentleness, especially by Bill Rinehuls who fiddles away on a violin he never learned to play and Julia J. King who brings a childlike sense of wonder to her exploration of the hospital's day room which Jerry Wolf's construction crew created from director C. Evans Kirk's design. The more one dimensional characters Patrick created for the three conniving step children get excessively heavy-handed performances, but not so much that the production is weighted down too much.

At one point one of the Savage children demands that the doctor in charge of the institution stop his mother's laughter but the doctor insists "We encourage laughter here." But neither Patrick's script nor Kirk's direction seem designed to elicit much laughter from the audience. Instead, there are warmly affectionate comments and wryly amusing observations from Jourdan's character and the patients of the institution. The dialogue for the children who are trying to fraudulently commit their step mother is more explicitly peppered with jokes and punch lines which don't play as well as the kinder, gentler dialogue for the nicer people.

Written by John Patrick. Directed by C. Evans Kirk. Design: C. Evans Kirk (set, sound) Connie Humphrey and Gwen Stanton (costumes) Carol Coyle (properties) Justin Lang (lights) Peter Piraneo (photography) Marg Soroos and Shirley Bolstad (stage managers). Cast: Mckenzie Beeby, Steven C. Haber, Rachael Hubbard, Connie Humphrey, Bonnie Jourdan, Julia J. King, Paul Morton, Tim Pullen, Bill Rinehuls, Mike Russel, Gail Seavey, Eve Young.

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Reviewed July 4
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes

Storyline: Based on Thornton Wilder’s comedy The Matchmaker, Michael Stewart’s book tells the tale of Dolly Levi, an enterprising widow with more than a touch of con-woman in the Gay 1890’s who makes matches for a Yonkers feedstore owner, his thirty-three year old chief clerk and 17 year old junior clerk, the owner of a Manhattan women’s hat store and her young clerk and - of course, herself.

Director Dru Vander-Linden gets her cast of fifteen, orchestra of eight, dance corps of four and ensemble of nine to work as a team, focused on telling the story, getting all the lines properly delivered, all the songs clearly sung, all the dances executed suitably and all the scenes working. The result is solid if not always as exhilarating as the material might allow. For instance, some of the songs are taken by music director Phil Momchilovich at a slower tempo than usual which robs them of some excitement, but allows everyone of the players, singers and dancers to keep up and stay together. It may be a lowest-common-denominator approach but it avoids an excess of blown notes, missed tempos and unintelligible choruses.

No Hello Dolly can work without a talented “Dolly” at its core. Here Maureen Ribble provides a very good singing voice, a confident stage presence and some very good comic work, especially in the second act restaurant scene that segues into the courtroom. Her prolonged concentration on her meal while the entire cast and audience waits is carried to superb extremes. Good work is also had from Teddy Gron as her intended with a gruff exterior, and Ronnie Hardcastle as the milquetoast clerk who emerges from his shell.

Of course, a Dolly also needs a staircase to make her big “Hello Dolly” entrance to the Harmonia Gardens. Set designer Hal Hunt works well within budgetary constraints by using reversible flats which, in the second act, pivot to reveal the elevated entrance and pull out steps which match with steps build down from the stage to the audience floor. Costumes are also quite nicely handled with the most opulent properly reserved for Dolly. Choreographer Kevin Laughon moves his forces about fluidly. While it is of course hard to create an eye-filling production number with only six dancers behind Dolly, he filled the space with athletic moves, especially featuring the leaping and spinning abilities of Raymond Ejlofor.

Book by Michael Stewart based on Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker”. Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Directed by Dru Vander-Linden. Music direction by Phil Momchilovich. Choreography By Kevin Laughon. Design: Hal Hunt (set) Connie Humphrey (costumes) Cory Herbst (lights) Justin Lang (photography) Grace Galbreath (stage manager). Cast: Emily Barber or Marie Wakefield, Ray Converse, Dohn Downing, Mario Font, James Franger, Teddy Gron, Jessica Hamon-Boomer or Karen Hicks, Ronnie Hardcastle, Gwen Higley, Liz Jenkins or Julia King, Susie Poole, Maureen Ribble, Benny Robles, Ryan Sellers, Peter Thomas,  plus dancers Chelsea Cook, Raymond Ejlofor, Megan Morris and Al Winner.

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Reviewed July 4
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes

Written by Peter Stone. Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards. Directed by Dru Vander-Linden. Music direction by Philip Momchilovich. Choreography by Joceile Nordwal. Design: Robert Vander-Linden (set) Janie Bauer (set dressing) Leonard Dove and Sharon Dove (properties) Connie Humphrey (costumes) Bette Williams (makeup/wigs/hair) Justin Lang (lights). Cast: Bob Ashby, Benny Robles, Janice Codispoti, Madalaine Vander-Linden, Dominic Traino, John Day, Ernie Sult, Jim Howard, C. Evans Kirk, George Redden, Matt Williams, Christopher Bea, Ben Fornshell, Scott Fischer, Joe Codispoti, Bill Rinehuls, Rance Willis, John Downing, George Chartier, Will Monahan, John Day, Augie Burgett, Ronnie Hardcastle, Teddy Gron, Bailey R. Center, Paul Disselkoen.

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Reviewed March 9
Running time 3 hours
t A Potomac Stages Pick

Written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee based on the book by Patrick Dennis. Directed by Roland B. Gomez. Design: Bill Glikbarg and John Downing (set) Connie Humphrey (costume coordination) Ken and Patti Crowley (lights) Madalaine Vander-Linden and George Redden (sound.) Cast: Kathy Fannon, Frederick Ashley, Shannon Benton, Shirley Bolstad, Margaret Bush, John Delaney, Tom Flatt, Ronnie Hardcastle, Barbara Hayes, Bonnie Jourdan, Gardner Reed, Mike stirling, Marie Wakefield.