Running time 2:30 - one intermission
A musical of the silent movie era
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Storyline: Young Mary Pickford goes to work for D. W. Griffith to make "flickers" on the rooftop of a New York apartment house as the movie industry is just beginning. They, along with Mack Sennett and the Gish girls, relocate to California both to get away from organized crime and to benefit from more reliable supplies of sunshine. Griffith succeeds with Birth of a Nation but Intolerance comes out just as World War I turns public tastes from serious movies toward escapist entertainment, something Griffith can't provide.

David Heneker isn't a well known name on this side of the Atlantic, but his scores for half a dozen London musicals have been recorded, and those recordings have spread the word of his chipper, inventive rhythms and tightly structured ballads. The biggest hit was Half a Sixpence, a star vehicle for Tommy Steele which made a transfer to Broadway and was made into a movie in 1967. In 1980 he composed the music for this behind the scenes of silent movies story, although just why its backers thought it would be a hit after the 1974 failure of Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel, which tried to do the same thing, is a mystery. Here, instead of the history of "The Industry" through the story of Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, is the history through the story of D. W. Griffith and Mary Pickford. The book for the musical may not be dramatically solid, but just as Herman's score for Mack and Mabel has become a much loved favorite, so Heneker's tuneful score is first rate.

Ken Kemp has the lead role of D. W. Griffith, and he handles himself with some dignity although he can't quite overcome the stuffiness of the role as written, and the big ballads, "Beyond Babel," "One of the Pioneers" and particularly "Gentle Fade" are written on the ponderous side. Reneé Rabben has a fine musical comedy voice capable of making the childlike mannerisms of her Mary Pickford at age 21 trying to play a 12 year old charming rather than irritating.  Donna Davis uses her clear disciplined voice for Lillian Gish's big number "More Than A Man," and Denis L. Latkowski lends a strong stage presence and a great theatrical face as Adolph Zukor. He's particularly good when literally operating Mary Pickford's puppet strings. Sam DePriest gets a very comic squeak into his reactions as the cost conscious business manager finds out just how much Griffith is spending on his extravaganzas. Griffith's legendary cameraman, Billy Bitzer, is played by Roy Barbacow. He seems a bit out of his element when acting or dancing but he brings a voice that anchors a number of pieces and gets to soar in "Every Lady," which has been expanded into a trio in this version of the show. That number also features some very nice flute work from the orchestra.

In designing his set, Hammond managed to establish a number of different locales with a minimum of structure. Backdrops create the rooftop movie factory at one point and a Hollywood back lot the next. Scenic artist Sherrionne Brown (who also performed well as the narrating film cutter in the show) painted a sweeping strip of film on the floor that not only establishes the boundary between fantasy land and the audience, it nicely establishes the subject matter before a single note has been played or a single word spoken. Kudos as well to sound designer Brian Rudell or his assistant Frank Miller, whomever was responsible for the fact that on opening night no microphone malfunctioned, no feedback squawked and no cue was obviously missed. That's quite rare in community theaters of this size.

Music by David Heneker. Lyrics by Warner Brown and David Heneker. Book by Warner Brown. Directed by Roy Hammond. Musical direction by Joe Biddle. Choreographed by Richelle "Rikki" Howie. Design: Roy Hammond (set) Nicholas John (lights) Brian Rudell (sound) Audra Mains (stage manager). Cast: Roy Barbacow, Nora Biddle, Sherrionne Brown, Donna Davis, Sam DePriest, KJ Jacks, Ken Kemp, Denis L. Latkowski, Reneé Rabben, Meghan C. Trahan, Nick Upchurch.

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Running time 1:55 - one intermission
A disturbing play raising challenging issues
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Storyline: In an un-named country just emerging from a totalitarian regime, a candidate for service on a panel to investigate previous atrocities brings into his home a man who had helped him when he had a flat tire. The would-be investigator’s wife believes she recognizes the man as one of the team who tortured her during her incarceration under the prior regime. She wants revenge and, no matter what tactics are necessary, sets out to extract a full confession.

Maman does a fine job with the histrionics of the principal character, a woman who was horribly tortured and repeatedly raped by the officials of an oppressive government. However, it is her handling of the subtler elements of the character that make her more than just a victim given an unexpected opportunity for revenge. Small flashes of memory are visible in her eyes as thoughts she had suppressed surface in the course of the evening. She places her character on the edge of sanity, driven to that edge by the flood of memories as well as by the sudden chance to exact revenge. However, she maintains control with a cool command that is chilling.

Maman's colleagues on stage are Jeff Landou as her husband, and John Decker as the stranger she is convinced was her torturer. The script gives the audience every reason to believe she is right, and that the stranger really is the former fascist functionary who, to the tune of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" string quartet, took such pleasure in causing such pain. Decker plays it as if his life depended on convincing her, or at least her husband, that he wasn't that man at all. Its a loosing battle, but he plays it well and the audience feels his terror. Landou gets the least sympathetic part of the three and he's not really able to make it work. Dorfman writes a few too many complications into the role - not only is he the husband of the victim of a horrible crime, he's an investigator of such crimes. Is his duty to her, to his governmental position, to truth, to justice? Landou never really either resolves the question or makes the quandary clear.

Dernoga's pacing and some of her blocking serves the storytelling quite well, but she's hindered a bit by the limitations of the wide but shallow space her set designer, Jeffery Lesniak, had to work with. The script places key conversations on a balcony behind the living room. By making that balcony extremely shallow and then using small paned windows rather than some sort of sliding glass doors, the scenes on the balcony require careful blocking so expressions and gestures aren't partially hidden. As it is, audience members on the extreme sides miss a good deal of the action, and even those in the center section miss some of it. David Weaver's lighting effect of the headlight shining through a window as well as his use of nighttime shadows were particularly impressive.

Written by Ariel Dorfman. Directed by Lenora S. Dernoga. Design: Jeffery Lesniak (set and photography) David Weaver (lights and sound) Linda Carter (stage manager). Cast: John Decker, Jeff Landou, Anna Maman.

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Reviewed June 19
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
An affectionate family comedy
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Storyline: Nick is facing a decision -- should he accept a promotion at work even if it means moving thousands of miles away from his grandparents. Complicating his decision is the fact that his parents and his only sibling have already left the Hoboken, New Jersey, vicinity and the grandparents are all loath to see him go. Perhaps, they figure, if they just get him fixed up with a good woman he'll stay.

Playwright Joe DiPietro has had some significant success in writing books for musicals either original (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) or revisions of earlier works (Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, Rodgers and Harts' Babes in Arms), and his Elvis Presley musical All Shook Up is on Broadway this season. In this non-musical, he tells a simple story with clarity and skill, creating a number of endearing characters who may be largely stereotypical but are all very human. The key to the charm of his work is that there doesn't seem to be a mean spirited moment in the play, no cheap shots at the foibles of the old folks just for the sake of a laugh. Of course, it helps that there are laughs enough to fill the entire evening so he didn't have to take any cheap shots.

The play requires an easy-going, personable young man in the role of the grandson. He not only is the one whose decision to move away drives the plot, he is the narrator who sets up all the action in explanations delivered directly to the audience. In this production Mike O'Donnell is good, smooth and extremely likeable in the role. The character's genuine affection for his grandparents make all his recollections of their peculiarities charming and ingratiating instead of either patronizing or condescending. That difference keeps the piece from turning sour.

Some of the performers playing the grandparents don't seem to be quite old enough for their parts (and the age lines drawn on their faces seem more distracting than helpful) but they all adopt a pace in their movements as well as their speech that helps create the impression of advancing age. With a playhouse that is wide but shallow with audience sections widely separated, the monologues delivered by O'Donnell and by each of the grandparents have to be addressed first to one audience section and then to another. Director Bob Hoffman wisely has each cast member turn emphatically from one side to the other, making no attempt to finesse the difficult geometry of the space. It works precisely because that is the way these seniors would behave in such a situation. What could have been a distracting difficulty becomes an endearing eccentricity in the process.

Written by Joe DiPietro. Directed by Bob Hoffman. Design: Bob Thompson (set) Tom Zanner (lights) Brian Cole (sound) Keith Brown (stage manager). Cast: Ellen Cole, Hanalyn Colvin, Bill Jones, Jon Marget, Beatriz Mayoral, Mike O'Donnell.

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Reviewed January 23
Running time: 2:30 - two intermissions
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Storyline: A baron and his butler change places when a wrong number results in an invitation to a young lady getting into the wrong hands. The butler pretends to be the employer while the baron dons livery. The kicker is that the young lady involved isn't whom she seems, either.

Porter had been engaged to compose songs for a big Broadway adaptation of a small European entertainment about mix ups between servants and nobility. The score included a few Porter gems such as "At Long Last Love" ("Is it the real turtle soup or merely the mock?") and its list song "From Alpha to Omega" was a big hit at the time, with marvelously inventive references to all the celebrities of the day. But the show wasn't very good and, after a dozen out of town tryouts (including a stop at National Theatre here in Washington) it opened to poor reviews on Broadway and closed up shop in two months. This new revision, which debuted in 1991 at the Pasadena Playhouse, brings the show closer to its small entertainment origin, with a cast of six on a single set and six of the original twelve Porter tunes as well as a passel of those written by Porter for the show but dropped or written for other shows.

The strength of this production is clearly the performance of Chuck Dluhy, who was so good in Port City Playhouse's The Pavilion. Here he hoofs his way through all the butler's routines with energy and charm. His partner for much of the inspired lunacy is Sam DePriest, who sports a wicked glint in the eye as the baron even though he has difficulty finding the pitch on a song like Porter's "By Candlelight." The rest of the time, Dluhy is disporting with Amy E. Haynes whose clear voice is charming. As a hot jazz chanteuse Richelle "Rickki" Howie sells "I'm Back in Circulation." Nora Biddle does not get to demonstrate her smooth song delivery until the third act's reprise of the title tune, but when she does it is a winner.

Joe Biddle's orchestra lays down a solid support for the vocals but has all together too many sour notes when the members are called upon to handle the melody. The choreography often involves steps that exceed the abilities of the cast and charm is sacrificed at a few points. A particularly misplaced groping of a breast spoils an otherwise delightful seduction routine. However, as the evening progresses, there are more high points than low - from 1938 Porter and from these 2005 hoofers.

Music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Based on the play By Candlelight by Siegfied Geyer as adapted by Rowland Leigh. Additional adaptation by Paul Lazarus. Directed by Roy Hammond. Music direction by Joe Biddle. Choreographed by Richelle "Rikki" Howie. Additional choreography by Mark Melton. Arrangements and orchestrations by Steven Orich. Design: Roy Hammond (set) Heather C. Jackson (costumes) Tom Zanner (lights) Kathy McCrory (stage manager).  Cast: Nora Bidddle, Sam DePriest, Chuck Dluhy, Amy E. Haynes, Richelle "Rikki" Howie, Sandy Irving.

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Reviewed June 7
Running time 2 hours 5 minutes

Written by Jon Klein. Directed by Stephen Cox. Design: Jaki Demarest (set) Shirlley Weaver (costumes) David Weaver (lights) Trix Whitehall (sound). Cast: Amethyst Dwyer, Bob Kleinberg, Emily Brite, Momoe Nakamura, Donn Cook, Trix Whitelhall.