Olney Theatre Center
for the Arts - ARCHIVE
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March 19 - April 20, 2008
Bad Dates
Reviewed March 29 by
David Siegel |
Running
Time 1:45 - no intermission
A mild evening of spun confection
Click here to buy the script |
Dessert comes first in the spun confection of Bad Dates written by
Theresa Rebeck. Then comes the heavier courses and some complexity of
character that save this production from being just a mild, too quickly
forgotten diversion from television for the evening. Bad Dates is a
pleasant saga about a middle aged single mother, played by Melissa Flaim,
out and about on the dating scene after years of hiding herself away. The
themes are not so much about her many shoes and outfits, or being a constant
shopper, as hinted at in the marketing for this show, as they are about
trying on different identities until one is found that might fit; at least
for the particular moment at hand. Along the way, the main character in this
one woman show, discovers that men are every bit as varied as she and her
outfits and shoe choices. She learns a way of living, perhaps, in which
risking rejection can lead to personal growth as she finds her own authentic
and comfortable individuality. She also seems to learn that attracting
certain men, those she doesn’t well relate to, may be in part due to the way
she dresses or the height of her heels. Billed by director Lee Mikeska
Gardner as a play for, by and about women, Bad Dates is as much a
depiction of the struggles of insecure, angst ridden humans trying to find
someone to love and trust through trial and error. Melissa Flaim is one
likeable actor in this one-woman show. She is on stage for the entire
production, and easily makes the audience either her sisters or her best
friends as she has a conversation with them about her life, her dating and
her desire to understand men. This is a production for an audience wanting
not to stretch too far or to be required to look for
sub-texts.
Storyline: Haley Walker, a divorced single mom with a love of shoes,
moves from Texas to New York City and re-enters the dating scene while she
runs a restaurant for the Romanian mafia as their front to launder money.
Haley seems to confide only in a very few about her string of rotten romances with men as she tries to find Mr.
Right.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck
has written for the stage (Omnium
Gatherum, finalist for 2003 Pulitzer Prize) and for television. Her
television credentials include Brooklyn Bridge and Dream On,
each a 30 minute sitcom. She also wrote for L.A. Law, Law and
Order and NYDP Blue. Bad Dates is a sweet little bonbon
with plenty of dark chocolate covering rich creamy ice cream, but with an
unexpected savory and chewy center. Rebeck has given her one-woman show a
quiet sense of daring in how she has the character speak so intimately
with, rather than to the audience as if sharing coffee together.
This is not an angry anti-male riff, but rather something much gentler.
There are very few enormously side-splitting lines. Rather, this has a warm
humor, something like the old Mary Tyler Moore show a bit updated
more than the harder outlook of Sex and the City. There are lines
such as “men will sleep with anyone, even someone they don’t like, while
women won’t.” Perhaps. As directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner, this is a
pleasant evening, with lots of motion and action and business before one’s
eyes, given that it is a one-character show depicting the bedroom of a New
York City apartment. What you see and hear is what you get under the
confident direction of Gardner.
Melissa Flaim, a local
actress and vocal coach, has appeared in a number of Potomac Region theater
productions. She plays her character as one who is frazzled, passionate, and
too impatient with herself. She “dresses” her character with life; as if she
has not memorized the lines from a script but is recalling her own real life
memories. Flaim is a tall woman, with long legs that she shows off under a
comfy terrycloth bathrobe for any number of scenes. Her steady presentation
is natural, with little fakery or dramatic cleverness. Her vocal skills are
heard in the way she can lengthen any and all words to make a single
syllable go on forever. There is no bitchiness in her delivery, even in the
attempts at sharper humor, and she is in constant motion as she dresses and
undresses with nary a missed line … and all as if she is dressing before a
close friend in her bedroom. Flaim is particularly skilled in her ability to
depict the pain of attempting to wear too small shoes as they strangle her
toes. Then again, maybe the shoes used at stage are too small or that the
moment is just too totally real to her. At the final blackout, Flaim has
discovered an unexpected male protector in a situation where such a human
being is useful. She finds herself in a police station with the Romanian mob
after her for skimming money from the restaurant she runs for them. Flaim
plays this as a quietly revelatory situation … that someone would be there
for her at this time. She is warm and tender as she contemplates providing
him with coffee for his efforts. How very real; just coffee at this point in
time, nothing more.
The Multiz-Gudelsky Theatre
Lab is a fitting intimate setting for Bad Dates. A well-crafted bedroom awaits the audience as they take their seats. A quibble though. The
set, which is supposed to be a woman’s apartment feels and looks too male.
The color scheme is beiges and there are few if any touches such as flowers,
or colors such as rich pinks, deep purples, or dusty rose. Only the walls
and not even all of them, have some color and that is a sea foam green. The
pre-show music runs the gamut from acoustic guitar to the upbeat and finally
to club music with a strong dance beat.
Written by Theresa Rebeck. Directed by Lee
Mikeska Gardner. Design: Milagros Ponce de Leon (set) Melanie Clark
(costumes) Andrew Griffin (lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh
(photography) William E. Cruttenden III (stage manager). Cast: Melissa
Flaim. |
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February 13 - March 16, 2008
Doubt: A
Parable
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway
|
Running time 1:30 - no
intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for superb
performances of a superb play
Click here to buy the script |
John Patrick Shanley examines the essence of doubt in ninety minutes of
intense and absolutely absorbing human drama. He certainly gets to his point
right up front. The opening line of the play is "What do you do when you're
not sure?" He never takes the easy way out and never gives the audience a
chance to either, with no revelations, no certainties and no easy answers.
When you leave the theater, you too will still have ringing in your ears the
final line: "Oh, I have such doubts!" Indeed, you may find yourself debating
long into the night whether the priest is guilty or innocent and whether the
sister was right or wrong in her actions. There is no correct answer and
there is no end of justification for either side of either question. What
isn't debatable is the quality of the play or the quality of the
performance. Both are superb.
Storyline: A Roman Catholic nun who runs a
parish school suspects that the young parish priest has established an
inappropriate relationship with one of the boys in the school, but she has
no proof. How should she deal with the situation?
The storyline above doesn't tell you exactly
what the "inappropriate relationship" might be - neither does the author.
He's not setting up a concrete "whodunit" or even a "what's-he-done."
Instead, to see what Shanley's intent is, look to the the subtitle: "A
Parable." The moral dilemma facing Sister Aloysius is that she has doubts,
not proof. She has duties and responsibilities too. The time is 1964.
Today's revelations of pedophilia among clergy dating to that period make
this a highly topical play, but its approach to the central question is
timeless. No wonder Shanley received both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and
the Tony Award for best play.
Shanley's script presents just four people as
it lays out its conundrum. There's the sister herself. What a role! No
simple stereotype of a set-in-her-ways, officious official. This nun is a
widowed woman with a strength based on her discovery late in life of the
certainty of the church, a certainty tempered by a lifetime of seeing how
temporal things work. Cherry Jones won the Tony Award for her performance in
the role. Here at Olney, Brigid Cleary gives every bit as strong and
impressive a performance. Potomac Region theatergoers were fortunate to have
Jones perform when the touring version of the play came to the National last
year. Those same theatergoers should journey out to Olney to experience
Cleary's take - just as insightful, just as affecting and just as human -
but quite different.
James Denvil, as
the charming, youthful priest, and Deidra LaWan Starnes as the mother of the
youth in question, are every bit as marvelous as those who toured the nation
with the play and Patricia Hurley, as the young teacher in the school who
surfaces the initial suspicions, is even better. With a marvelous set by
James Wolk and a nimble sound design by Jarett Pisani, this production is
proof that regional theater in the Potomac Region is a match for theater
anywhere - and that includes the vaunted environs of New York's Broadway!
Written by John Patrick Shanley. Directed by
John Going. Design: James Wolk (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Dennis
Parichy (lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Renee E.
Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Brigid Cleary, James Denvil, Patricia Hurley,
Deidra LaWan Starnes.
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November 14, 2007 - January 13, 2008
Fiddler on
the Roof
Reviewed by
David Siegel |
Running Time: 2:40 one
intermission
An enjoyable family musical
Click here to buy the script |
Four decades after it opened its multiple Tony
award winning Broadway run of 3,242 performances this musical continues to
be an audience pleaser. The plot is uncomplicated; the fictionalized lives
of small village Jews in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th
century as the modern world impinges on them. The Olney Theatre production
is very solid throughout with Helen Hayes Award winners Rick Foucheux and
Sherri L. Edelen in the featured roles. The upbeat, infectious and
beautifully rendered songs of the first act are especially gorgeous and
carry the production through its less fulfilling and speedy second act.
Fiddler certainly remains worthy of revival. It is a show that
could be on auto-pilot and would still receive a standing ovation for those
familiar with it. One wonders if Fiddler will find itself becoming a
niche production with a less universal message as America’s demographics
continue to change and other immigrant stories of love, loss and relocation
are finally told.
Storyline: Fiddler on the Roof is loosely
based upon the stories of the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916)
with his everyman character Tevye. Tevye lives to keep tradition alive. It
is tradition that provides safety from the infringements of the adjoining
world. But, the outside world comes crashing down on him, his family and his
tiny village of Anatevka. Always buffeted, Teyve must come to terms with the
unexpected in his life. Like a fiddler playing on a roof, Tevye must find
his balance.
Director John Vreeke has a difficult artistic
task. How to revive a show that so many know from an Academy Award winning
film and a play that has been revived four times on Broadway, including as
recently as 2004? With musical director Christopher Youstra and
choreographer Gabrielle Orcha, a production has been developed with their
own creative outlook without irritating those who come to see what they
remember (read “tradition”) rather then something new and off-putting. This
is also not a stripped down revival with second rate actors and voices; this
production has 25 cast members and a small 5-piece band all up on the stage
and in full view. The lyrics and music by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick
include audience favorites such as the opening number, "Tradition," that
draws the audience into the show immediately with its tale of how life is to
be lead with unchanging assigned roles and responsibilities. With the full
cast singing (assisted by microphones) the feel is one of a big production
number. "Sunrise/Sunset" is the emotionally touching poetry of a parent’s
feelings pouring forth at the letting go of a child. The night time
hallucinations of "Dream of the Tailor" includes delightful large puppet
heads and arms used expertly in this one tricked-up scene.
Rick Foucheux is Tevye, the husband and
father who argues not only with his wife, daughters and neighbors, but with
God Almighty as well. With his baritone voice, his singing is what it should
be; not sweet and striking but substantial and a bit off center. In his "If
I Were a Rich Man," the upbeat lament of a man without money, the words
don’t matter as much as the charm of Foucheux as he delivers it. Sherri L.
Edelen plays Golde his wife with a broad comedic outlook. She fills the
theater with her strong presence. When Edelen has the chance to sing solo or
bring her voice to the fore within a larger group, the beauty of her signing
voice is magnetic. As the daughters Patricia Hurley, Jenna Sokolowoski and
Margo Seibert are each a charmer in her own way. When they sing together
their harmony is captivating. The daughter’s suitors are Paul Downs Colaizzo
as a way-too-timid local tailor who marries the eldest; Andrew Boza as the
radical and intellectual teacher from the big city who marries the middle
daughter, and Evan Casey as the non-Jewish Russian who courts the younger
one through the love of books. It is their marriage that is a major
faith-related crisis for Tevye - does he follow tradition and consider his
daughter dead to him since she married outside of her faith, or does he
forgive her and give his blessing? Andrew Zox is the mute “fiddler” who,
with his lithe body, makes his presence felt throughout the production.
Finally, in the wedding scene toward the end of Act I, there is the marvel
of a small kick line of dark clothed men with dark hats, arms entangled,
moving up and down, sometimes with their knees touching the floor, dancing
expertly, each with a bottle on his head. Absolutely magical!!
The set is elevated from the floor with a
long ramp for Tevye to pull his cart to the main stage area and for the
townspeople and Russian troops to enter and leave. In one procession of
townspeople, as the house lights are dimmed, the lighted candles carried by
the townspeople are simply stunning. The set area is loaded with trap doors
and elevators that are used to give additional movement and dimension to the
production. The 5-piece band including adept fiddler and clarinetist is
tucked into a corner of the main stage area, but dressed as townspeople in
full view of the audience. Note: The Fiddler title comes from a surreal
painting by Marc Chagall … the fiddler is a metaphor for survival, through
tradition and joyfulness when life is uncertain.
Music by Jerry Bock. Lyrics by Sheldon
Harnick. Book by Joseph Stein. Directed by John Vreeke. Music direction by
Christopher Youstra. Choreography by Gabrielle Orcha. Design: Jon Savage
(set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Charlie Morrison (lights), Jarett C.
Pisani (sound ). Cast: Kate Arnold, Rachel Blaustein, Andrew Boza, Sara
Brunow, Evan Casey, Paul Downs Colaizsso, Michael A. Crea, Jamie Eacker,
Sherri L. Edelen, Rick Foucheux, James Garland, Lily Goldberg, Karlah
Hamilton, H. Alan Hoffman, Patricia Hurley, JJ Kaczynski, Timothy Dale
Lewis, Amanda Montell, Natalie Perez-Duel, Zack Phillips, Carl Randolph, Ron
Sarro, Kyle Schliefer, Margo Seibert, Mary C. Sheehan, Jordan Silver, Chris
Sizemore, Jenna Sokolowski, Mike Vires, Harry A. Winter, Andrew Zox. |
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September 26 - October 26, 2007
Of Mice and
Men
Reviewed by
David Siegel |
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A solid production of an American classic
Click here to buy the novel |
Can a 70 year
old drama that for decades was required reading for many in school still
have the power to make you jump at the final pop and fadeout? Can it
make you feel for the victims of the uncontrolled
power of a strong man who does not know his
own strength until always too late? You bet it can. Do
the rootless in their loneliness and their desire for companionship still
resonate as a theme, maybe now more so than ever? “I ain’t got no
people….That ain’t good…A guy goes nuts if he aint’ got people.” Yes, the
play still can reach into audiences. It is not just a cultural artifact
that has been dusted off. And, the “arched eyebrow” innuendoes about why men might
travel together are spoken quietly almost as an aside, at least in this
production. It is the abject loneliness of men and women and their need for
dreams to move them beyond their current places in life that resonant
throughout the production … as well as the inability of men to connect to
women beyond the superficial and the sexual. Of Mice and Men remains
an undiminished American classic in the workmanlike production directed by
Alan Wade.
Storyline: At the
height of the great depression, two traveling, migrant ranch workers are
once again on the road, traveling to a new place, fleeing their sketchy
past, hoping to find some permanent work and earn enough money to buy their
own ranch. To own land is to save themselves from the vagaries of having no
family to bring them love, attention and validation. One is physically
strong but with intellectual disabilities, the other is the close brother on
the road who looks out for both of them, or at least tries to.
John
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was written in 1937. It ran for 207
performances on Broadway and won a New York Drama Critic’s Award. It was
about an America far different from today. The Depression still affected
both urban and rural populations, but the rural poor needed a spokesperson -
they found it in Steinbeck, among others. The play is a message play and
wears that mantle directly and proudly. It is a play that has you leaving
the theater talking and thinking about the final act of the protector toward
his physically strong but emotionally challenged companion. Steinbeck was an early left-leaning torch bearer for rural America and Of Mice
and Men preceded a full body of work leading to his selection for a
Nobel Prize in 1962. But, his language, which once must have been startling
and confrontational, is now less so. It seems burnished rather than angry
and edgy.
Alan
Wade’s directing is solid throughout. His choices let the story tell
itself and the veteran cast is first rate with several standouts. Christopher
Lane has the complex task of playing Lennie, an intellectually disabled
man-child with the strength to kill, but the inability to modulate either his
physical strength or his voice. He is excellent in his work. Richard Pilcher is a good physical presence
traveling with Lennie, but the conflicts
of being Lennie’s road companion and the “why” of their relationship don’t
emotionally come across. And when he is confronted with the major decision
of the play, there is somehow a missing visual or physical conflict in him.
The moral challenge that director Wade mentions in his program notes seems missing in
action. Jeff Allin, as the world weary, laconic ranch hand, is especially
adept. Keith N. Johnson, as the African-American “other” on the ranch,
gives a
fearful, restrained portrait of a man who has learned to not trust white
folk and with good reason. He wears his loneliness for all to see as a
defensive posture.
One of
the main characters is less fulfilling. Carl Candelario, as the supposed
hot-headed husband and son of the ranch owner, comes off as having little or
no swagger or perceived muscularity in his manner. He is a bully who would
not be believed on the school yard, and he seems to care little about his
young wife, except as an object. In this production the death of a dog has
more emotional wallop and affect on the dog’s owner (played by John Dow)
than a wife’s end. Margo Seibert (as the young wife) plays the role nicely,
not so much as a tart or floozy, but as someone who in her own loneliness
and desire to get away from an abusive family marries the first ticket out.
The technical
work as a recreation of the time and place is top-quality. Carl Gundenius'
set moves from a simple background of fences to ranch-hand rooms, barns and
back to fences in a wonderful evocative manner
with a few interesting theatrical affects to
evocate a large canvas of the outdoors or larger buildings or even a camp
fire. Jarett C. Pisani's
incidental music and sounds establish the right atmosphere, and Charlie
Morrison's lighting provides a hint of the
big sky or the dark night. But, while Kathleen Geldard's costumes are spot
on; they are just too clean. They look new rather than used; there is no
grit or dust or dirt. Even the hats have no sweat spots on them. And not
even stubble of a beard shows when first we see the travelers on the
road. A kudo to Olney:
The company has developed a relationship with DC area schools and is
welcoming more than 3,000 students over the run of the production to see
Of Mice and Men. Ah yes, one last thing, the title. From Robert Burns
poem To a Mouse, “the best laid schemes o’mice an’ men/Gang aft agly
[oft go astray].”
Written
by John Steinbeck. Directed by Alan Wade. Design: Carl Gundenius (set)
Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Charlie Morrison (lights) Jarett C. Pisani
(sound) Stan Barouh (photography) William E. Cruttenden III (stage manager).
Cast: Jeff Allin, Carlos Candelario, John Dow, Keith N. Johnson, Christopher
Lane, Robert Leembruggen, Richard Pilcher, Margo Siebert, and R. Scott
Williams. |
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July 17 - August 12, 2007
Democracy
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:40 - one
intermission
t Potomac
Stages Pick for a handsome staging of a compelling
drama
Click here to buy the script |
Any map reader knows that the west is on the left and the east is on the
right. Any student of German cold war history knows that the
west had the the economic success which allowed them to restore the grandeur of
their buildings while the east had to be content with depressingly
utilitarian concrete structures. Anyone in the audience sitting before James Kronzer's superb set for the Potomac Region premiere of Michael Frayn's
latest exploration of fascinating intellectual issues in contemporary
European history will find those truths on view before their very eyes.
Kronzer provides the physical reality on which the story plays out. It is
the story of an East German spy - tremendously portrayed by Jeffries Thaiss
- who works his way up through the ranks in West German politics until he's
the right hand man of the chancellor. Frayn fills the first forty minutes of
his otherwise fascinating script with an excess of exposition for those who
need a primer on east-west relations. Kronzer's set almost makes that primer
unnecessary. Almost - but not quite.
Storyline: The true story of East German spy Günter Guillaume, who
finagled himself onto the fast track of West Germany's Social Democratic
Party organization just as they came to power under the leadership of Willy
Brandt in 1969. He ingratiates himself into the intimate circle of the
Chancellor himself, achieving access to information of great interest to his
handlers from the East. When Guillaume is finally exposed after 18
years undercover, Brandt's career is destroyed, partially due to revelations
that he failed to take action on the first warnings of infiltration into his
office's operation.
Two of Frayn's
previous plays seem the products of very different talents. Noises Off
is a superb example of farce, a comedy that has kept audiences in stitches
in productions ranging from scholastic to professional. It has been produced
constantly since it first opened in 1982. Nothing could be much further away
from that laugh-a-minute extravaganza than his 1998 intellectual puzzle play
based on an obscure incident in World War II, the meeting of
physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Denmark.
Copenhagen has
been performed in the Potomac Region a number of times, often with
satisfying results as was the case with the 2004 production staged here by
Jim Petosa on another superb set by James Kronzer. Democracy is of the
Copenhagen school. Indeed, the two Olney productions under Petosa could have
made a fascinating pair in repertory.
Thaiss' Guillaume is a giddy lightweight in a world
populated by serious, self-absorbed men. He practically giggles with each
stroke of good fortune and bounces while they plod around the stage. But he
manages to keep his wits about him and avoid drawing the attention that
might threaten his success. The serious westerners include dour Vincent
Clark, acerbic Hugh Nees and distracted James Konicek. The avuncular single
easterner, Guillaume's handler from the East German Ministry for State
Security, is played with a smooth polish by James Slaughter. He's always
present, hovering on the edge (always the eastern or right hand edge, at
that) until that moment when Guillaume's cover is blown and he is arrested.
Then, suddenly, Slaughter's character is no where to be seen.
As performed with Thaiss as Guillaume and
Andrew Long as Willy Brandt, this is a play about the hopes, dreams and
fears of Guillaume as he gets closer and closer to Brandt, whose government
he is spying upon. Thaiss shows us more than just Guillaume's charm, he
touches on the internal conflicts that test him as his relationship with
Brandt evolves. Long, always a pleasure to watch for his consistently well
thought out approach to his own character's inner thoughts, seems to float
through the play as a strong presence but not as the real subject of the
drama. Indeed, as portrayed, it appears that Willy Brandt is a strong
personal presence floating through his four and a half years as Chancellor
as the beneficiary - but not necessarily a shaper - of the forces of
history. How valid a point of history this might be, others will have to
judge. It certainly is a valid point of drama and provides an intriguing and
satisfying examination of human frailties.
Written by Michael Frayn. Directed by Jim
Petosa. Design: James Kronzer (set) Pei Lee (costumes) Daniel MacLean Wagner
(lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Renee E.
Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Clinton Brandhagen, Vincent Clark, Nick
DePinto, James Konicek, Andrew Long, Eric Messner, Hugh Nees, Richard
Pilcher, James Slaughter, Jeffries Thaiss.
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June 20 - August 12, 2007
Brooklyn Boy
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:25 - one
intermission
t Potomac
Stages Pick for a
well designed, well acted production of Donald Margulies' fictionalized look
back at the Brooklyn he left behind to pursue playwriting
Click here to buy the script |
As directed by Jim Petosa, this smoothly flowing production of Pulitzer Prize winner
Donald Margulies supposedly fictional portrait of the self image of a
Brooklyn Boy feels so honestly auto-biographical that the leading character
should be named Margulies. It's not the personal lives of the
characters that feel more real than reality, however. It is the sense of place that
connects with a Brooklyn that exists in our collective self consciousness -
the Brooklyn of the Dodgers - and the pride of place that Brooklynites
exuded in the years surrounding World War II. As Margulies points out in the comments reprinted in the program, his nostalgia is for a Brooklyn that "may
never have truly existed in my lifetime." But it is most
definitely a Brooklyn that exists in our minds whenever we hear that
peculiar accent that sets it apart, not just from the rest of greater New
York city, but from any other place. With Paul Morella bringing
the fictional alter-ego to believable life and with a fine supporting cast,
Olney has a winner in this warmly affectionate comic drama.
Storyline: A Brooklyn born and raised novelist deals with his first best
seller, his first movie contract, the death of his father and the demise of
his marriage - all at the same time.
Margulies has had great success writing plays
under commission for the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Orange County,
California and the Actors' Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. Three of his
plays have made the short list for the Pulitzer Prize, and Dinner With
Friends won it in 2000. This six-scene two-act play is fairly formally
structured. Each of the first five scenes are emotionally important
encounters this Brooklyn Boy has with a single character who is important at a
crucial moment in his life. Each gives
Morella a great deal to react to, and he avoids overdoing those reactions in
a finely tuned performance that feels natural and human.
First it is the hero's dying father, played
by Howard Elfman, who has a marvelous ability to communicate attitude through
body language while reclined in a hospital bed with most of his body covered
by a blanket. Then Ethan T. Bowen plays a former buddy from childhood. Bowen
tends to spit out his lines a bit too abruptly, but perhaps that is a Brooklynism with which non-Brooklynites are not familiar. The most touching
scene of the play, and the one that is best played, has Lee Mikeska Gardner
as his estranged wife bringing an end to their marriage as gently but firmly
as she possibly can. After intermission, things get a bit lighter for a
while as two young actors make their Olney debuts with panache. Emerie
Snyder is sharp as a groupie this newly-famous author takes back to his
hotel for a night, and Paul Cereghino gives a nifty take on a teen-magazine
coverboy of an actor who wants to star in the hero's movie. Halo Wines makes
the most of a somewhat miswritten scene as his movie producer. No
successful producer would have used the negative pitch she does to get a new
writer to change an element of his first script instead of stroking his ego
with suggestions for increased "universality" in his "wonderful story."
The Mulitz-Gudeslky Theatre Lab has been
decked out with a revolving stage which rotates to reveal rooms in
a hospital, a hotel, a home, a cafeteria and a Hollywood producer's office.
Each is distinctive but each seems very much part of the same world. As fine as those rooms are for each of the scenes they contain, it is the
space between them that provides the visual connecting tissue to match the
dramatic ties between the scenes in Margulies' tightly woven plot. Morella is seen walking "the space between"
the sets
in his evolution from scene to scene. The device avoids what might otherwise
seem an excessively mechanical structure of the play as the story
progresses. As it is, the play doesn't jump from scene to scene, it flows.
Written by Donald Margulies. Directed by Jim
Petosa. Design: James Kronzer (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Daniel
MacLean Wagner (lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography)
Tim Burt (stage manager). Cast: Ethan T. Bowen, Paul Cereghino, Howard
Elfman, Lee Mikeska Gardner, Paul Morella, Emerie Snyder, Halo Wines. |
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May 15 - June 10, 2007
13 Rue de
L'Amour
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:55 - one
intermission
A rollicking farce performed in high style
v
brief partial nudity
Click here to buy the script |
This typically convoluted tale of mistaken identity and deception by Georges Feydeau, France's greatest writer of farce during the Belle
Époque which
preceded World War I, is highly stylized silliness acted out in a slightly
mechanical style on two absolutely gorgeous sets by actors in colorful
costumes to match. (Well, most of them are. It seems almost silly to mention
that one character looses his clothes on stage and has to get his laughs
without the benefit of the colorful costumes.) Following the performance fashions of its day
with a wink and a nod directly to the audience and revving up the comic
engine for the quick-hide-in-the-closet sequence, the cast throw themselves
into the spirit of the evening with panache. The fact that they are working
hard is well hidden by the obvious fun they are having.
Storyline: A wife who is certain of her husband's philandering ways wants
vengeance and engineers her own dalliance with a younger man. Things go
awry, however, when their paths cross at the younger man's apartment house
at number 13 on the Rue de L'Amour.
Farce,
like soufflé, rises only when tremendous skill is combined with exact
measures of specific ingredients. Georges Feydeu made a study of the
structure of farce and mastered its peculiarities. In fact, it was the
structure of the style that fascinated him and he polished his craft as
perhaps no other French playwright of his time. Certainly, none was close to
being as successful at it as he was during the two decades surrounding the
year 1900. This example of his output comes from early in his career (1892,
the same year as his first big hit, Champignol in Spite of Himself)
and displays a certain excitement over the possibilities of the genre that
he has obviously just begun to believe he can master.
The central triangle here is the fine trio of Ashely
West and her two men, Lawrence Redmond as her husband and Jeffries Thaiss as
the young doctor who so wants to help her wreck revenge by cheating on her
cheating husband. West goes through the paces without ever seeming to loose
either her dignity or her self control, which provides the comic contrast to
both lustful suitor Thaiss and pompous husband Redmond. The support is strong
as well, particularly with Halo Wines as a Countess who looks like a sticky
clump of cotton candy, and Vincent Clark who sputters with a delightful sense
of confusion.
Dennis Parichy's bright lighting design is probably
brighter than gaslight really was in the 1890s, but its warmth is a perfect
compliment to James Wolk's confections, the two one-room sets with the
squiggly art nouveau style of an Alphonse Mucha print in more shades of pink
than you would think possible. The lip of the stage is lined with footlights
which are used to exaggerate the effect. The atmosphere of the piece is
nicely enhanced by the playing of up-tempo, cheerful music hall music in the
lobby and the auditorium before the show and during intermission.
Written by Georges Feydeau. Translated by Mawby Green
and Ed Feilbert. Directed by John Going. Design: James Wolk (set) Liz Covey
(costumes) Nicole Paul (wigs) Dennis Parichy (lights) Jarett C. Pisani
(sound) Erin Feliciano (photography) Renee E. Yancey (stage manager). Cast:
Ethan T. Bowen, Vincent Clark, Nick DePinto, Patricia Hurley, Brandon McCoy,
Christopher Poverman, Lawrence Redmond, Jeffries Thaiss, Ashely West, Halo
Wines.
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March 27 - April 29, 2007
Eubie!
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:45 - one
intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for simple, joyful
musical
entertainment
|
The art of the revue has come a long way over the years and audience
expectations may well have changed. If you are looking for a revue of a
single artist's output to be something of an educational experience with
some of the qualities of a good biography, you will be disappointed in this
revival of the 1978 assemblage of the songs of Eubie Blake. If, on the other
hand, you are looking for a bright, rhythmic and tuneful evening of song and
dance with no purpose other than to entertain, this is your show. In 1978
that was enough to earn a few awards and a run of a year - of course, it
helped that it then had both Gregory and Maurice Hines to heat up the floor.
Gregory was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance with its big
number "Hot Feet" (not to be confused with the dance show using that same
title which Maurice took briefly to Broadway last year).
Storyline: None. This is a revue built on the songs composed by Eubie Blake, the
jazz musician and composer of the 1921 musical Shuffle
Along. Twenty-two of his songs, with lyrics by a wide range of
collaborators, are included in the evening.
Director/choreographer Tony Parise has restructured the 1978 format, saying
that "The stamp of the 70s was all over the show." He wanted something more
authentically of the ragtime era, rather than something that looks like one
era viewed through the lens of another. He altered the running order of the
songs, dropped a few to make the show shorter and tighter and created a
nicely varied pair of song sets separated by an intermission. Each builds its
own excitement, although the first one is the more impressive of the two.
This is because it is in the first set that a series of numbers by various
women in the cast builds one on top of the other. The second has some
more of this but has more of the men, and they aren't quite as strong as the
women when it comes to selling a torch song or landing a comic number.
Among the real strengths of the cast are Fredena J.
Williams who sells "I'm A Great Big Baby," " Roz White Gonsalves, who
delivers a winning "My Handyman Ain't Handy Anymore," and Kara-Tameika
Watkins whose "Daddy" gives the audience a look at just why so many New
Yorkers drove up to Harlem in the 20s to hear the fresh sounds of the day.
There's considerable talent among the men as well. D. William Hughes gets
low and down with a soulful blues number "Low Down Blues" (which turns into a
duet with Gonsalves' "Gee, I Wish I Had Someone To Rock Me In The Cradle of
Love") in the second set's highpoint. Randy Aaron gets a strong audience
reaction from his well executed tap routine on "Hot Feet."
Visually, the show offers a bright, warm, colorful
feeling given the pinks and reds of Charlie Morrison's lighting plot with
just a dash of blue highlights on Nanzi Adzima's period costumes. Daniel
Conway's set consist primarily of an elevated platform roughly in the shape
of a piano on which Christopher Youstra's small jazz band sits. That band
goes uncredited in the program, but mention should be made of the sharp tuba
work in the orchestral number in the first act, "Baltimore Buzz." Spiral
staircases down to the stage and slide-on set pieces complete the structural
side of things while projections of pictures of Eubie Blake or covers of
sheet music form the backdrop.
Music by Eubie Blake. Conceived by Julianne Boyd.
Directed and choreographed by Tony Parise. Conducted by Christopher Youstra.
Design: Daniel Conway (set) Nanzi Adzima (costumes) Charlie Morrison
(lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Carey Stipe
(stage manager). Cast: Randy Aaron, Loretta Giles, Roz White Gonsalves, L C
Harden, Jr., D. William Hughes, Carole Denise Jones, Kara-Tameika Watkiins,
Fredena J. Williams, Devron T. Young.
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February 13 - March 11, 2007
The Constant
Wife
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:30 - two intermissions
t
A Potomac Stages
Pick for bright and lively comedy
Click here to buy the script |
Director John Going goes for the pleasantry of
charm and literate repartee rather than the "cheap laugh" in this revival of
W. Somerset Maugham's drawing room comedy. As a result, while there are
quite a few really good laughs during the show, the laughs don't interrupt
the process of the audience getting to know and care about the characters.
It is a fine approach, especially since the subject matter of this
apparently light comedy is really much more important and deserving of
serious consideration than many other "mere" comedies. In 1926 Maugham was
raising issues in a highly civil way that would be treated with a crass
touch forty years later when bras were burned and language was much coarser.
In Maugham's day, however, the issue of a wife's right to equality within
the marriage partnership, with all that signifies when male philandering
draws just a wink but female infidelity is shocking, was serious business.
His humor was not intended to mask the issues of the play, just spice it up
a bit and make the evening fun for audience members of both genders.
Storyline: In 1920s London, a society woman deals with her husband's
infidelity not by seeking either divorce or revenge but, rather, setting her
sights on achieving economic independence so that she can declare sexual
independence. She has no desire to end a highly satisfying partnership with
her husband, she just wants to take control of her own life so she can enjoy
both the pleasures of the home and the adventures of the world - just as men
want to do.
Julie-Ann Elliot's fluid
movements, erect posture and sharp enunciation sets a standard for
high-society British comedy. Her performance as the wronged wife who refuses
to see her husband's behavior as either despicable or damaging to her
personally is rock-solid. A number of her colleagues match her for their
sense of belonging in the drawing room world of London in the 20s. Ashley
West is even brighter and a touch flightier, as befits her role, while Nancy
Robinette makes her usual hay with an aside or a direct comment.
Allyson Currin as the sister who can't wait to break the bad news is properly
acidic. Both Michael McKenzie, as the philandering husband, and John Wojda,
as a returned former suitor, manage to avoid seeming too much like weak
ninnies, while Maugham's stronger women plot and plan and generally move the
story along.
It should be noted that James Slaughter was
out for the performance we reviewed. Olney's Producing Director Brad Watkins
made the announcement before the show that there would be a replacement in
the smaller role of West's husband and that the replacement would be
himself. The audience was won over by the self-depreciating humor of the
announcement and went along for the ride when he played his one scene with
script in hand. It was one of those moments in live theater that makes you
so very glad you weren't home stuck in front of a television.
On the design side, the overall impression is
marvelous and the concepts delightful, but in both set and costumes,
something just misses being fabulous. James Wolk's set is everything you
would want for this woman's drawing room - elegant, color coordinated and
oozing both wealth and charm. But outside the window it appears to be night
time while all three acts take place in the afternoon. Liz Covey's costumes
for all the women are a delightful and colorful survey of the highest of
high fashion from the flapper era. For the men, on the other hand, the
designs seem marvelous but the fit a bit off and the construction a bit
crude. Michael McKenzie's suits look like they should hang just as Cary
Grant's do in Hollywood's finest representation of a gentleman's wardrobe,
but a bulging half lining and a drooping cuff break the spell.
Written by W. Somerset Maugham. Directed by
John Going. Design: James Wolk (set) Liz Covey (costumes) Anne Nesmith
(wigs) Dennis Parichy (lights) Jarett C. Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh
(photography) Renee E. Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Bob Barr, Allyson
Currin, Julie-Ann Elliott, Helen Hedman, Michael McKenzie, Nancy Robinette,
James Slaughter, Ashley West, John Wojda. |
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November 15 , 2006 - January 7, 2007
Cinderella
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway
|
Running time 2:00 - one intermission
A family show with some charm
Click here to buy the CD |
Making a family-friendly stage version of
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s family-friendly television musical was a great
idea. After all, Rodgers and Hammerstein had crafted a piece that had enough
charm, enough humor and enough beauty to draw over sixty percent of the
entire population of the United States, adults and children, to their
televisions back in 1957 (although not every home had multiple televisions and
there were far fewer channels to chose between). The show has had a number of
different attempts to craft a satisfying stage script, some better than
others. For this effort, director Mark Waldrop has pulled material from a
number of different attempts, refining it and punching up the humor a bit,
but retaining the essential charm of Hammerstein's original concept. Waldrop
gets kudos for a fine piece of work on the script, but a few missteps in
casting, staging and budgeting keep the show from being as good as it might
otherwise have been.
Storyline: This is a
fairly simple re-telling of the fairy tale of "the girl of the cinders,"
ill-treated by a selfish stepmother and victimized by her two stepsisters.
With the help of her Fairy Godmother, she goes to the ball where she and
the prince meet and fall in love. She flees as the clock strikes
midnight but he tracks her down through the clue of the glass slipper she
lost as she fled.
There are more
delights than disappointments in the show so lets begin with them. Erin
Driscoll is as pert and pretty as you could wish in the title role and
delivers a nice rendition of "In My Own Little Corner." As the Fairy
Godmother, Deb G. Girdler uses a refreshing openness starting with a
take-the-audience-into-her-confidence opening speech about turning off cell
phones and continuing right on through the delightful comic song
"Impossible" in which she comes to the conclusion that "impossible things
are happening every day." Also notable are Chris Sizemore as the Herald and
Christopher Flint as the King who is concerned over the cost of the ball.
Best of all, however, are Jenna Sokolowski and Michele Tauber, who are very
funny as the step sisters. Their "Stepsisters Lament" is a gem.
The strengths in these performances, and in
Waldrop's version of Hammerstein's charming script, combine with the songs
that Rodgers and Hammerstein composed that range from "Ten Minutes Ago," "A Lovely Night"
and "Do I Love Your Because You’re
Beautiful?" as well as a waltz for the ball as fine as any Rodgers ever
wrote. But, that waltz is played here by a five piece orchestra that doesn't even
include a violin. The keyboard synthesized violin setting is no substitute
for the lushness the music demands.
There are serious disappointments on the
stage as well. First among them is the performance of Will Ray as the
Prince. Perhaps he was directed to adopt an ungainly manner that seems
awkward, but he certainly never seems charming. The character isn't called
"Prince Charming" but he should be charming anyway to motivate the love that
springs to instant life when he and Cinderella meet at the ball. Vocally,
Ray is just not strong enough for great love songs like "Do I Love You
Because You're Beautiful?" The inconsistent sound amplification does
considerable damage to some of the songs and scenes as well. For example,
Chris Sizemore's booming voice fills the theater with the announcement that
"The Prince Is Giving A Ball" but the reactions of the citizens disappear as
some seem left without an operating microphone.
The resulting irregularity gives the show an amateur feel from the very
beginning which it is rarely able to overcome.
Music by Richard Rodgers. Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Book
adapted by Mark Waldrop. Directed by Mark Waldrop. Music direction by
Christopher Youstra. Choreographed by Michele Mossay-Cuevas. Design: Michael
Anania (set) Sekula Sinadinovski (costumes) Karlah Hamilton (wigs) F.
Mitchell Dana (lights) Mark Anduss (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Renee
E. Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Sara Brunow, Erin Driscoll, Christopher
Flint, Deb G. Girdler, Karlah Hamilton, Patricia Hurley, Laura Kelley,
Michael Kenny, Timothy Dale Lewis, Monica Lijewski, Matthew McGloin, Will
Ray, Michael Vitaly Sazonov, Margo Seibert, Chris Sizemore, Jenna
Sokolowski, Michele Tauber.
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September 27 - October 22, 2006
The Foreigner |
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t A Potomac
Stages Pick for second act laughs
Click here to buy the script |
Larry Shue's most successful play, this comedy where good defeats evil with
comic flair, has been produced almost constantly in professional, community
and school theaters since 1983 when its premiere in Milwaukee managed a
transfer to Off-Broadway. It even had an Off-Broadway revival just last year
with none other than Matthew Broderick in the title roll. The show took on a
life of its own because audiences loved it. They had a fine time. Of
course, the better the production, the finer the time the audience has, and
Olney throws everything they have at this one to make it as audience
pleasing as possible. There's a detailed rustic set, costumes that look just
as the characters should look, real rain with flashes of lightning
synchronized with the sound of thunder. It is a fine use for Olney's new mainstage with all of its size and equipment. It would all go for naught,
however, if they didn't have the right "foreigner." So they got JJ
Kaczynski. The result? He goes from amusing to engaging to funny to
inspired, building to a finale that audiences just love. Put it all together
and the show is as much fun as it is supposed to be.
Storyline: When a loud and extroverted Englishman
brings his quiet, introverted countryman for a quiet weekend in a Georgia
fishing lodge, he tells the locals not to try to talk with him because his
friend knows no English. As a result, however, they discuss their secrets
with each other in the quiet man's presence and he learns more than he
bargained for, discovering a deep dark plot to take over the lodge for use
as a headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan. He comes out of his shell as he
engineers a fabulously funny way to thwart the plans of the bigots.
Two factors combine to make this a good production. Yes,
Kaczynski is one of them, but there's something else going on here that may
escape your attention until you sit down to think about the evening. Then
you may realize that the first act is so jam packed with plot and character
explanations that it shouldn't be as easy to swallow as it is. The credit
for the pleasure goes chiefly to director Stewart F. Lane, who manages to
keep the first hour from seeming like a lecture. The material here isn't
really that funny, but he lets his talented cast play it to the edges of
tomfoolery without crossing over into territory that could be a turnoff.
Surrounding this foreigner with the likes of blustery
Field Blauvelt, sweet Rusty Clauss, lovely Lindsay Haynes, smooth Clinton
Brandhagen and lumbering Delaney Williams, and placing a concerted focus on
the very funny Ben Shovlin works like a charm. Shovlin is particularly good
as the somewhat dimwitted young man with an innocence that is matched by
goodness. This comes as no surprise to those who still treasure the moment
he played "Lady of Spain" on a tuba for the Washington Stage Guild's
An Empty Plate in the Café du
Grand Boeuf earlier this year. The man seems to have a genius for
earnest silliness.
It would all come to naught, however, were Kaczynski
unable to escalate the comedy in the second act. Here, he gets to play a
comic riff of major proportions as he makes up a story in his own nonsense
language before proceeding on to the marvelously staged confrontation where
his character becomes the prime mover in a superbly funny finale. Never
fear, Kaczynski's got the chops to pull it off. Go, and enjoy.
Written by Larry Shue. Directed by Stewart F. Lane.
Design: James Kronzer (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Charlie Morrison
(lights) Jarett Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Jess W. Speaker III
(stage manager). Cast: Field Blauvelt, JJ Kaczynski, Rusty Clauss, Clinton
Brandhagen, Lindsay Haynes, Delaney Williams, Ben Shovlin.
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September 6 - 24, 2006
In The Mood |
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
An affecting look at a family torn by bipolar disorder
Performances in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab |
Throughout the Potomac Region, this season seems rich with world premieres,
both already open and announced.
Olney adds to the riches with the premiere of a play exploring depression
and what has come to be referred to generally as "bipolar
disorder" or manic depressive illness. The play deals with the worlds of art and
diplomacy which gives its author, former Arena Stage and current Theater J
board member Irene Wurtzel, the pressure points to bring her themes into
stark relief. She stretches beyond the topic of mental illness to create an
examination of a marriage under stress. With dramatically impressive
performances, especially those of Christopher Lane and Marybeth Wise as the
couple at the center of her story, the strains high pressure positions can place on a marriage
are complicated and compounded by a condition often hidden and frequently
misunderstood. Director Jim Petosa increases the tempo and intensity in
measured steps to heighten the sense of the pressure that strain this
marriage.
Storyline: A high ranking official of the Department
of State who has controlled his manic depressive illness through medication
abandons the treatment just as he has the chance to lead the US effort to
arrange peace in the middle east. The reemergence of the symptoms has
serious consequences on his performance and on his marriage to an
artist whose work is just beginning to earn her nationwide recognition.
Wurtzel creates a pair of independent, highly stressed
people for this examination of a marriage under pressure. Bipolar disorder
may be the trigger for the troubles of the moment, but she avoids making
this a play about a disease. It is, instead, a play about relationships and
about people with individual strengths and weaknesses. Wurtzel's knowledge
of the symptoms of the disorder may be thorough, and her exploration of the
havoc they can wreak on the lives of the people it affects may be highly
accurate. She may even have the art world of major exhibit galleries well in
hand. But she doesn't get the realities of government service quite right,
which is a problem in a production here in the nation's capital. Indeed, a
second complete play could be devised on the topic of how the State
Department would deal with the situation of an Undersecretary acting for the
Secretary in a high-visibility negotiation exhibiting the manic behavior
seen here. Wurtzel sets up the situation but leaves it unexamined and
unresolved as she maintains her concentration on the private lives of the
couple.
The very dramatic swings of mania and depression that
are the symptoms of the disorder give Christopher Lane the opportunity to
reach for very different extremes in his portrayal. He is a very commanding
presence in any part, and to his credit, he avoids excesses that would take
this performance to extremes. Marybeth Wise is a fine counterpart to his
swings, working her way methodically through the increased concern that her
character feels for her husband and their marriage right through to the
final confrontation. Leo Erickson is smooth and polished as the Secretary of
State and Halo Wines strikes a number of nice notes, especially in one of
her two supporting roles, that of Lane's mother. Petosa has brought one of
the graduates of the Boston University School of Theatre which he chairs for
his first role on a full Olney production. Tim Spears is impressive as the
couple's stressed-out son.
Milogros Ponce de León's striking set gives the entire
project a sense of serious heft. Since the events of the play are primarily
presented through the viewpoint of the wife, her workshop area is the
central feature of the set. Large windows at the back and tall towers of
brick walls connected by industrial scaffolding makes an eye-filling locale
although the Secretary of State commenting on it being such a lovely home
seemed a bit strange. The image of an abstract sculpture, a
work-in-progress, dominates the artist's studio through many of the scenes,
but it is the image of Christopher Lane hovering over the area on the
scaffolding that remains in the mind - especially as lit so dramatically by
Donald Edmund Thomas.
Written by Irene Wurtzel. Directed by Jim Petosa.
Design: Milagros Ponce de León (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Donald
Edmund Thomas (lights) Jarett Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Renee
E. Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Therese Barbato, Leo Erickson, Christopher
Lane, Tim Spears, Halo Wines, Marybeth Wise. |
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July 20 - August 27, 2006
An Enemy of
the People |
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A portrait of political polarization driven by self interest
Click here to buy the script |
There are really three reasons to catch this production. One is that it is
the last in a twenty-year tradition of presenting quality productions of
plays with a strong political outlook in the Potomac Region, as the Potomac
Theatre Festival has announced its relocation to New York after this season.
The festival will be missed here in the region from which it has drawn both
its name and its topic for two decades. The second reason is the performance
of James Slaughter, who manages to inject a touch of subtlety in what
would be just another in the collection of one-dimensional characters in
this rather stolid but nonetheless solid production directed by Jim Petosa.
Finally, there is the fact that this same play, in a different translation
with a new adaptation, will be opening next month at the Shakespeare Theatre
Company. It will be fascinating to be able to compare and contrast the two
productions. You needn't think of this merely as doing your homework for the
later production, however, because there are pleasures to be had here, even if
most of Ibsen's characters seem somewhat simplistic as they face a conflict
of interest this time out.
Storyline: A respected medical doctor who serves on
the staff of a Norwegian health spa discovers the presence of contaminating
bacteria in the spa's water supply, and tries to get the town officials,
including his brother the Mayor, to undertake the necessary corrective
actions. They, on the other hand, see the discovery more as a threat to their economic
well being than to the health of their patrons, and conspire to silence him.
You can't escape the comparison to Peter Benchley's
novel Jaws, which Steven Spielberg made into such a compelling movie.
Of course, here the threat to public health and safety on the one hand and
to the economic fortunes of a small town on the other is something
considerably smaller and harder to detect than a shark. Indeed, the play
dates to 1882, a time when not everyone understood or accepted the germ
theory of illness which Louis Pasteur had proposed just a decade before. Thus, the doctor's father-in-law can't quite comprehend that
there are "invisible animals" coming from his slaughter house to threaten
the health of tourists "taking the waters" at the town's new spa. What Benchley and Spielberg made amazingly taut, nail bitingly tense and scary
enough to keep a generation of beach goers out of the surf, however, is tame
and stale here. There's no suspense at all, although it may reinforce some
people's reluctance to venture into a town meeting.
It is left to the actors to make the evening watchable,
and there are a host of fine actors in this cast who draw your eye and give
you reason to sit up and take notice. The aforementioned James Slaughter, for
one, adds to his rather impressive list of fine performances at Olney.
Christopher Lane builds to moments of high dudgeon with skill and when he
lets loose, he really lets loose. Jeffries Thaiss may not find any
opportunities for subtlety, but he is marvelously smarmy as the newspaper
editor who believes you print moral stories in the back pages so your
readers will believe the lies you print in the front. On the other end of the spectrum lies Kip Pierson, whose portrayal of the
editor's assistant goes too far in its intensity, reminiscent of Strother Martin at his most orgasmic,
and Julie-Ann Elliot, who, despite considerable charm and dignity, still
can't quite overcome a script that calls for her to respond with alacrity to
to an instruction from her husband "Katherine. Have the floor scrubbed where
he spat!"
Whoever is responsible for the design decision to
place lights under the floor surrounding the stage should get a special
mention, for it lends such an ominous feel to so many superbly appropriate
moments as Petosa blocks the scenes to place his actors standing over them
at just the right times. It may have been James Kronzer who designed the set
in such a way as to have the lights ring the playing space, even at the rear
of the stage under the thresholds of the four huge doors that are the
principal feature of the design. Or it may have been the suggestion of
lighting designer Daniel MacLean Wagner. Of course, it may have been
Petosa's idea all along. Whichever, it is a fine example of the
effectiveness that results when all the members of a design team are working
together in concert.
Written by Henrik Ibsen. Translated by Rolf Fjelde.
Directed by Jim Petosa. Design: James Kronzer (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz
(costumes) Daniel MacLean Wagner (lights) Jarett Pisani (sound) Stan Barouh
(photography) Jess W. Speaker, III (stage manager). Cast: Bradley Bowers,
Julie-Ann Elliott, Tim Getman, Lindsey Haynes, Carter Jahncke, Christopher
Lane, Sean McCoy, Kip Pierson, Richard Pilcher, James Slaughter, Jeffries
Thaiss. |
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June 27 - July 23, 2006
No End of
Blame |
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
Scenes from the life of a political cartoonist who refuses to compromise his
view of truth
Click here to buy the script |
Olney's Potomac Theatre Project returns to a work that was featured in the
inaugural season in 1987, a forceful, episodic drama by Howard Barker that
spans sixty years. They mount the production on the stage of the old
"Historic Mainstage" theater with the audience not in the seats out front
but in folding chairs backstage, creating a very intimate space for an
intense performance. The house curtain has been drawn and replaced by a
screen allowing rear projection of the disturbing political cartoons of its
main character so the audience knows exactly what the fuss is all about as
the
cartoonist refuses to moderate his world-view over a career that spans two
world wars and a cold war working in Hungary, Russia and England.
Storyline: The career of a political cartoonist is
sketched through vignettes ranging from his battlefield experience in World
War I, his resistance to the control of the political watchdogs of the
Soviet union, and, after his emigration to England, similar efforts to censor
his work for a London paper. Late in his career, he summarizes it all in the
line "Look for truth and, when you find it, shout it. That's my politics."
Barker is said to have based his character of the
cartoonist on Victor Weisz, born in Berlin to a Hungarian-Jewish family.
Weisz was too young to have been on the battlefields of World War I,
however, and he didn't emigrate to the Soviet Union when he fled Germany, he
headed for Britain. Still, his left-leaning, anti-autocratic views and his
acidic brush are in keeping with the portrait painted here. Barker gives him
some biting lines, none more important than those spoken about is own work.
"The cartoon is the lowest form of art, and therefore, the most important
form" and "I feel it, therefore it is (art)." The border between audience
and play is blurred in this production with the cartoonist actually taking a
seat in the front row in a scene or two. This results in blocked sightlines
more than a merger of observer and observed, however.
Usually, the test of a fine performance by an actor is
"the arc," the way the character grows, or at least changes, over the span
of time of the play. Here, it is just the opposite as Paul Morella builds a
portrait of a man who steadfastly refuses to change. Normally, of course,
"change" is equated with "growth" and a man who is no wiser at age 80 than
he was at age 20 could be said to have been a failure. In Barker's
conception, however, the artist Morella portrays is a paragon of
intellectual integrity holding out against all pressures to compromise, to
betray "truth." Change wouldn't be an improvement, it would be a betrayal,
and Morella's artist simply will have none of it. The steadfastness of his
character is captured in Pei Lee's costume design for the show - all the
other performer have multiple costumes for their multiple parts, but Morella
stays in his stained and threadbare outfit for all the scenes from the
battlefield in World War I to the offices of a London newspaper in the
1980s.
The supporting cast is comprised of local
professionals and students from Middlebury College in Vermont where the
co-founder of the Potomac Theatre Project and director of this production,
Richard Romagnoli, is the Chair of Theater. As might be expected, the
professionals are the most impressive, creating strong sketches of the
characters who come in and out of the story. Richard Pilcher, Helen Hedman
and Nigel Reed are each a pleasure to watch as they do their work. Among the
students, Rishabh Kashyap stands out, especially in the opening scene when
he's Morella's battlefield buddy in the Carpathian Mountains on the Eastern
Front at the end of World War I. He and Morella work exceptionally well
together in that opening blast of words and emotions that kick things off.
Written by Howard Barker. Directed by Richard
Romagnoli. Design: Alexander Cooper (set) Pei Lee (costumes) Justin Thomas
(lights) Matthew M. Nielson (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Keri Schultz
(stage manager). Cast: Jonathan Ellis, Helen Hedman, Rebecca Kanengiser,
Rishabh Kashyap, Jeanne LaSala, Paul Morella, Richard Pilcher, Nigel Reed,
Alec Strum. |
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May 24 - June 18, 2006
The Elephant
Man |
Reviewed May 27
Running time 2:25 - one intermission
Winner of the Ushers Favorite Show Award for
May
t
A Potomac Stages pick for superb design,
direction and acting
v
Includes brief nudity
Click here to buy the script |
Two years ago, Olney's Artistic Director Jim Petosa directed this
challenging play at the small Catalyst Theatre Company on Capitol Hill with
its Artistic Director, Scott Fortier playing the title character. Petosa's
vision was a finely tuned, highly atmospheric presentation that took as
its central feature a line from the play about its historically-based
character being highly polished "like a mirror that reflects each of
us." Played out amid mirrors and reflective panels, the story of physically
deformed but mentally and artistically gifted John Merrick, and the people
who populated his world at the end of his short life, was given more than a
surface shine, it is presented in all its multiple facets. Both Fortier and
Olney's frequent featured actress, Valerie Leonard, were nominated for Helen
Hayes Awards for their work in that production. Now, Petosa remounts the
piece for the larger new Mainstage at his home company, and again he has the
services of Fortier and Leonard. Again Fortier's performance is superb and
Leonard is, if anything, even better than she was before. Christopher Lane
has joined the cast, lending his intense stage presence to a role played
before by Peter Finnegan.
Storyline: History records that the deformed John Merrick was plucked from
a Victorian freak show to be protected and studied in a hospital in 1884. He
became a mover in London’s high society before his death in 1890. Bernard
Pomerance’s Tony Award winning play explores serious issues of social values
and human worth.
It was the playwright's fortuitous choice to
have the horribly deformed "elephant man" portrayed by an actor without any
help from makeup or special prosthetic devices. Because the concentration on
Merrick's humanity is achieved through this lack of artifice, it requires an
actor of inordinate talent, skill and taste. Some chose to play it with only
a hint of deformity, usually with a limp and a twisted arm. Here Scott
Fortier twists much more than an arm. In the early scene where his
discoverer, Dr. Treves, presents his case at the London hospital where he
practices, Fortier's posture and facial muscles take on the characteristics
described. While none of the "grotesque protuberances" actually grow on
Fortier's slight frame, his arm appears to shrivel up into his chest, his
head seems to fall of its own weight over onto one shoulder and his face
contorts to the extent that he is only barely able to speak. Yet speak he
does, delivering with apparent difficulty but great dignity - and not a
little humor - the lines Pomerance gives Merrick to reveal the intellect,
the poise and the innate humor of the man. It is the mark of Fortier's own
intellect, poise and humor, that, having saddled his performance with the
weight of its own version of elephantiasis, he manages to let the humanity
of his subject shine through.
Valerie Leonard has polished the humor as
well as the compassion in her performance of the first woman capable of
seeing beyond the surface deformity to treat Merrick as a human being with
charms, strengths, weaknesses and needs. Christopher Lane returns to the
Olney stage to assume the role of Dr. Treves and he gives it a dignified if
less fully rounded interpretation than Finnegan brought to Catalyst's
version. The rest of the cast double or even triple on smaller roles.
(Even Leonard does a bit of doubling, appearing as one of the two "pinheads"
in the freak show.) James Konicek creates both a marvelously pompous Bishop
and a superbly selfish handler of freaks at the freak show. John Dow and
James Slaughter give rather mechanical performances as, among others, the
hospital director and a financier, which results in the opening sequence of
the second act being a bit confusing as to just how it relates to the case
of John Merrick. Leonard and Fortier promptly get the show back on track,
however.
A new design team handles their duties no
less satisfyingly than did the Catalyst team. One key feature of the
production that has changed but remains extremely effective is the use of an
oboist as accompanist. At Catalyst the small playing space necessitated
placing the oboist directly on stage. Here, a different oboist, Martha
Goldstein, is placed below and to the side but still very visible. She's
playing music she has improvised around a few evocative classical pieces
(one by Shumann) rather than playing the original score composed for the
Catalyst production by Jesse Terrill. Music has always been a feature of the
play. The original Broadway production had a cellist playing works of Bach,
Saint-Saëns, Elgar and others, while the revival had incidental music
composed by Philip Glass. Goldstein's improvisations give a period-proper
feeling to this story of Victorian London and adds to the allure of the
production.
Written by Bernard Pomerance. Directed by Jim
Petosa. Design: Jon Savage (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Stacey Wilson
(wigs) Charlie Morrison (lights) Jarett Pisani (sound)
James Slaughter (dialect coach) Stan Barouh (photography) Tim Burt (stage
manager). Cast: John Dow, Scott Fortier, James Konicek, Christopher
Lane, Valerie Leonard, Barbara Pinolini, James Slaughter. Musician: Martha
Goldstein. |
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March 29 - April 30, 2006
Anything Goes |
Reviewed April 15
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A bright and tuneful '30s musical
Click here to buy the CD |
Cole Porter's bright and cheerful musical floats nicely along for most of
the time with a solid pair of young lovers and an even better top-banana
comic. With a score that includes Porter gems such as “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “All
Through The Night, ” “You’re the Top” and the classic title tune, the score
has been the strength of the piece since its 1934 debut, while various
re-writes have interpolated other Porter tunes such as "It's De-Lovely" and
"Friendship" to strengthen even this treasure trove of tunes. Christopher Youstra's small pit band supports it all with a solid swinging sound much
stronger and fuller than could be expected from just six players, perhaps in
part because the reed player doesn't double or triple up on instruments but
quadruples, switching tones and timbres at will. The real pleasure of the
show is the work of Ray Ficca as a gangster insulted by being only Public
Enemy #13, who disguises himself as a priest to avoid the FBI - it's that
kind of plot!
Storyline:
Cole Porter’s 1934 musical comedy is set at sea as the SS America sails out
of Manhattan. The hero has stowed away in order to be with the girl he loves
who is sailing to England to fulfill her mother's dream - she's to marry an
English Lord. A runaway gangster, who is embarrassed to be only public enemy
#13, helps the hero impersonate public enemy #1 who has missed the boat. In
this way, our hero hopes to avoid being discovered as a stowaway and locked
in the brig where he can't woo his sweetheart. Everyone on board falls under
the spell of this "celebrity" except for one - the girl he loves.
The show itself has an interesting history,
one of those Broadway legends of a show saved at the last minute. When it
began rehearsals in 1934 it was a light musical comedy about a ship wreck
with a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse.
Before it opened, however, the passenger liner S.S. Morro Castle
caught fire off the coast of New Jersey with the loss over 100 lives. With
newsreel footage filling the new movie houses with pictures of the beached
and burned out hulk, this was no time for jokes about a ship wreck. Howard
Lindsay and Russell Crouse (young men who went on to write such big hits as
The Sound of Music) were called in to re-write. This production uses
a 1962 script prepared for an off-Broadway revival that starred Hal Linden
which added a few lesser known Porter songs like "Heaven Hop" and "Let's
Misbehave" (both from 1928's Paris) and "Friendship" (from 1939's
Du Barry Was a Lady.)
Director Brad Watkins keeps things moving at a fair
pace but avoids skipping over the skimpy plot-setting material, That is a
good thing since the convoluted twists and turns need to be clear in order
to be easy to dismiss. If you are spending your time trying to figure out
just why the nightclub singer is perfect for a revival gospel number, you
won't have time to enjoy just how well she belts out "Blow, Gabriel Blow."
It appears that sound designer Matt Nielson struggles mightily with the
inherent brittleness of Olney's new theater, and, despite a few glitches
with
the wireless microphones, does a commendable job. Still, the show has a
sharpness that makes many of the sequences seem like tap numbers even when
they aren't meant that way. Watkins does make a few missteps, however, as he
tries to zip up that which is already zippy enough. The big tap number
"Heaven Hop" is staged, for example, using stage fog. The idea must have
been to simulate having the chorus tap dancing on clouds, but the effect is
simply to obscure their feet, and, as Gower Champion found out, the sight of
tapping feet is a crowd pleaser.
Kevin Bernard makes a smooth leading man who can croon
and swing a dance partner across the stage with style. Laura Schutter is his
partner in this, and while she has a good voice and can dance nicely, she
lacks some of the youthful vivacity that would make the part a delight.
Strangely, there is one in the cast who seems just perfect for the role but
is, instead, playing the second-banana comic role - Erin Driscoll. At the
performance we attended the starring role of the night club singer which was
written specifically for a young Ethel Merman, and, therefore, has fabulous
songs to belt out to the balcony, was handled by understudy Kristen Jepperson. We can't report on how good Karlah Hamilton is in the role - but
we can say that Jepperson is fully up to the task and sells her numbers with
all the energy they require.
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter. Book by Guy Bolton,
P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Directed by Brad Watkins.
Musical direction by Christopher Youstra. Choreography by Ilona Kessell.
Design: James Wolk (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Larry Munsey (wigs)
Charlie Morrison (lights) Matt Nielson (sound) Stan Barouh (photography)
Renee E. Yancey (stage manager). Cast: Kevin Bernard, Michael Bunce, Debra
Buonaccorsi, William Cortez-Statham, John Dow, Erin Driscoll, Ray Ficca,
Erica Hamilton, Karlah Hamilton, Evan Hoffmann, David Jennings, Kristen Jepperson, Karl Kippola, Eva Kolig, Rachel Kopf, Rachel Lee, Jonathan Owen,
Ernie Pruneda, Mishi Schueller, Laura Schutter, Steve Tipton. |
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February 14 - March 12, 2006
The Heiress |
Reviewed February 18
Running time 2:45 - one intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for superb staging of an
absorbing story
Click here to buy the script
Click here to buy the novella |
Henry James' novella, Washington Square, comes to life on Olney's new
mainstage with performances that ring true in a solid staging by John Going.
He rightly places the emphasis on the story, for James' story, as adapted
for the stage by Augustus and Ruth Goetz, is strong enough to keep the play
in constant revivals for decades. It also made a highly successful movie in
1949 with Olivia de Haviland and Montgomery Clift. That the story is clearly
told, however, is not half as important as that Ted van Griethuysen plays
the imperious Dr. Sloper. What a pleasure to watch the man blend his own
stage persona with the requirements of this role with such seamlessness.
Storyline: In 1850 the daughter of a wealthy doctor in
New York's fashionable Washington Square is courted by a charming young man.
Her father believes the young man is only interested in the fortune she
inherited from her mother, who died in childbirth, and the additional
fortune she will receive upon his death. She draws $10,000 a year from her
mother's estate and will have an additional $20,000 a year upon her father's
death for a total annual income that would equal two thirds of a million
dollars today. She is, her father insists, plain and shy, and the only thing that could attract a charming suitor would be money.
Van Griethuysen's portrayal of the doctor is rich,
smooth, dignified, detailed and full of touches that reveal a complex core
under a polished exterior. It is a challenging role for an actor, for the
doctor tries his best to maintain his privacy and not reveal his inner self
even to the members of his family, yet the psychic scars that mar his
character must be clear to the audience. Van Griethuysen lets you see and
even feel those scars without violating Victorian decorum for a moment.
It helps, of course, to have the rest of the cast
delivering high quality performances as well. In this, the production is
very fortunate. Effie Johnson, as the daughter, makes the transition
from shy and retiring girl with no hope of believing anyone could find her
attractive to giddy fiancée, and then from devastated victim to mature,
commanding adult. Her posture changes with each transition as she almost
literally develops a backbone. Jeffries Thaiss is almost too smooth as the
suitor but turns that to his benefit as his character reaps what he sowed.
Halo Wines is fun to watch as she twitters in the role of the elderly aunt
and Julie-Ann Elliott is impressive in her one scene with Van Griethuysen as the suitor's sister who defends him and her family without
violating her own principles of honesty and dignity.
This handsome production features costumes which
capture both time and social standing and an impressive set that represents the pinnacle of upper class society in the finest
neighborhood of the nation's largest city. The set stretches across the
wide playing space of Olney's new mainstage to such an extent that it is
almost too spacious, but the use of semi-transparent scrim to reveal not
only the entrance hall behind one wall but then the city's skyline beyond
the next, gives it an ethereal feel that allows such an expanse even if the
real town houses along Washington Square would have drawing rooms something
less than forty feet in width. The scrim also allows the
lighting to create some of the most memorable of the stage pictures of
Going's staging, the candle-lit disappearance up the main staircase of,
first, the doctor and, later, the daughter. Both linger in the mind's eye.
Written by Augustus and Ruth Goetz. Adapted from the
novella by Henry James. Directed by John Going. Design: James Wolk (set) Liz
Covey (costumes) Anne Nesmith (wigs) Nancy Schertler (lights) Jarett Pisani
(sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Jenna Henderson (stage manager). Cast:
Julie-Ann Elliott, Patricia Hurley, Beth Hylton, Effie Johnson, Jesse Mays,
Faith Potts, Jeffries Thaiss, Ted van Griethuysen, Halo Wines. |
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November 16 - December 31,
2005
Oliver! |
Reviewed November 26
Running time 2:15 - one intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for a solid production of a well known musical
v Brief moments of violence
Click here to buy the CD |
Lionel Bart's musical based on the tale by Charles Dickens is a unique
combination of the dark seriousness of Dickens' tale of the rotten
underbelly of London society at the height of the terrors of the industrial
revolution, and the humor and optimism the denizens of those slums use to
keep despair at a distance. Brad Watkins' staging captures both extremes,
and as a result, there is a richness to his production that should satisfy
entire families. With a bright performance by Andrew Long as a likable
Fagan, the master of the band of young thieves, and the clear voice of Peggy
Yates as the barmaid who has the great songs "It's A Fine Life" and "As Long
As He Needs Me," the evening offers many pleasures.
Storyline: The basic tale of Charles Dickens'
"Oliver Twist" is compressed into two and a half hours with sixteen songs.
In a London orphanage, young Oliver has the temerity to beg for a second
helping of gruel and is summarily sold off to an undertaker who needs a
child mourner for his funerals. He escapes that fate only to be taken into a
gang of pickpockets run by Mr. Fagan. He's wrongly arrested for picking a
pocket when he was only observing the technique of his tutor, the Artful
Dodger. In the meantime, barmaid Nancy has difficulties with her abusive
lover Bill Sikes. When Oliver's accuser turns out to be a wealthy gentleman
who, finding that he wrongly accused the lad, takes him under his
protection, Bill Sikes sees a way to profit but Nancy comes to the boy's
rescue with fatal results.
Dickens'
sprawling story with dozens of major characters had to be compressed and
streamlined in order to fit within the confines of a single evening. Bart
used the techniques of British music halls with their broad
characterizations, simple humor and energetic musical numbers to move the
story along briskly. He kept Dickens' horde of urchins, giving a youthful
vigor and charm to the piece, with Oliver himself singing the lovely "Where
is Love?" and the Artful Dodger participating in the merriment with "I'd Do
Anything."
The role of Fagan is the adult backbone of
the story and any successful production requires a strong performance in the
role. Andrew Long brings a positive attitude and a glimmer of humor to the
part. His take on the second act big number for the character, "Reviewing
the Situation," is refreshingly new. Supporting singers are very good as
well with notable work by Stephen Carter-Hicks and Monica Lijewski who team
up for "I Shall Scream" and Eleasha Gamble who adds her rich voice to the
four-part "Who Will Buy?" two pairs of young performers alternate in the
title role and the counterpart "Artful Dodger." The disappointment of the
night is Brian Sgambati who seems completely wrong for the supposedly
terrifying Bill Sikes. He should be horrifyingly threatening from the first
notes of "My Name!" Instead, he is a slight presence. His voice doesn't
boom. Indeed, if often doesn't even find the note.
Among the joys of this solid production are
the playing of the quintet in the orchestra pit and the excellent reduction
of the original orchestrations for just five players. Musical Director
Christopher Youstra took the charts provided with the script which called
for four reeds, four horns, two percussionists and a full string section and
created parts for just one woodwind, one violin, a bass, a percussionist and
a piano. His reduced charts enhance the color and lilt of the originals
while providing every bit as much of the atmospheric support the score
demands. It helps, of course, that he had Carolyn Agria who can handle
flute, clarinet and bass clarinet with aplomb (her playing on "I'd Do
Anything" is a joy) and Karen Galvin on violin who can do great underscoring
when called upon, but can also duplicate the unique klezmer-style sound
required for Long's marvelous solo on "Reviewing the Situation."
Music, lyrics and book by Lionel Bart.
Directed by Brad Watkins. Choreography by Ilona Kessell. Music direction by
Christopher Youstra. Fight choreography by Robb Hunter. Design: James
Kronzer (set) Howard Vincent Kurtz (costumes) Anne Nesmith (wigs and hair)
Charlie Morrison (lights) Stan Barouh (photography) Tim Burt (stage
manager). Cast: Gregory Atkin, Jimmy Bellinger, J. Bradley Bowers or Ethan Langsdorf-Willoughby, A.K. Brink,
Stephen Carter-Hicks, William Cortez-Stratham, Adam Donovan or Zack
Phillips, Charlie Eichler, Helena Farhi, Eleasha Gamble, Katherine E. Hill, Wendell
Jordan, Karl Kippola, Dana Krueger, Monica Lijewski, Andrew Long, Kelsey
Mac, Mike Mainwaring, Madeline McCabe, Christopher "CJ" Rager, Brian Sgambati,
Jordan Silver, Thomas A. Simpson, Lynn Sharp Spears, Andy Tonken, Meghan Touey, Zack Vaz,
Bryan Williams, Peggy Yates. |
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October 5 - 30, 2005
Morning's at
Seven |
Reviewed October 7
Running time 2:40 - two intermissions
A h | |