Toronto
Classical theatre company Soulpepper offers competition to the nearby Shaw and Stratford festivals with its well-cast productions. In its seventh season at Harbourfront Centre, Soulpepper is having its most successful artistic season ever, with a crop of plays that includes the Bard, some rarely performed 18th-century works, and several modern classics.
The season couldn't have gotten off to a better start than with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (through Sept. 24), directed by company head Albert Schultz and featuring legendary actor William Hutt as Vladimir. He's beautifully paired with the younger Jordan Pettle as Estragon—the two have previously played Lear and his Fool at Stratford—in a production that makes much of the father-son relationship, with Pettle as the rebellious, edgy child soothed by the calm parent trying to impart wisdom and patience.
Next up was G.E. Lessing's Nathan the Wise (closed July 31) in a superb production directed by Tim Albery and featuring William Webster in the title role. Set in a medieval Jerusalem populated by wrangling Jews, Christians, and Muslims and dealing with reconciliation and family ties, the work glowed with humanity and some expert performances, including those of Webster, Andrew Moodie, and Karen Robinson.
The company brought in Ben Barnes, artistic director of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, to direct Brian Friel's Translations (closed Aug. 14), a play whose theme of the importance of language and naming has resonance in officially bilingual Canada. The cast—among them Gordon Rand, David Storch, Diego Matamoros, Lisa Repo-Martell, and Patricia Fagan—gave the audience a luminous production.
The double bill of Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" and Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story" (closed Aug. 17) wasn't as successful, though actors Michael Hanrahan and Stuart Hughes provided the Albee, directed by Diana Leblanc, with some electric moments.
Yet to come are Carlo Goldoni's commedia-based Mirandolina (opens Aug. 26), helmed by regular visiting director Laszlo Marton, and Hamlet (opens Sept. 8), directed by Joseph Ziegler and featuring Schultz in the title role. The latter production is aimed largely at school audiences, a group with whom the company's been doing important outreach and training work for years.
Jon Kaplan
Boston
Theatre usually deserts Boston in the summer and heads for the beach or the mountains, but although this season is no exception, the big theatrical news item in the last few weeks has been a touring production of a big Broadway hit right in the center of town.
Actually, the production itself—The Lion King, which opened to rave reviews and runs through Dec. 26—isn't even the newsworthy part, although it's certainly what's drawing big audiences to the theatre where it's playing. No, the big news is the venue that the production inaugurated: the Boston Opera House, which opened again on July 21 after two years (and $38 million worth) of restoration and 14 years of disuse. The 2,600-seat theatre was built in 1928 as a memorial to B.F. Keith, the "father of vaudeville," by his business partner, Edward Franklin Albee (grandfather of the playwright). After 50 years hosting vaudeville and movies, it was bought in 1978 by Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston and renamed the Opera House. By 1990, the Opera Company had essentially folded; the Opera House, allowed to deteriorate, was perpetually on the verge of demolition. In 2002, Broadway in Boston bought the building and has returned it to its pristine state of opulent glory. This means that now all of Boston's surviving historical theatres are beautifully restored and, when possible, active.
A couple of miles away, on the banks of the Charles River, the open-air Publick Theatre's 34th season consists of two Shakespeare plays running in repertory: Troilus and Cressida (July 8-Sept. 12), directed by Steven Barkhimer, and The Merchant of Venice (July 29-Sept. 5), directed by the company's artistic director, Diego Arciniegas, who also plays Shylock. Merchant is also being given four performances (directed by Nat McIntyre) in late August by the group of classically trained teen actors that constitutes the Publick Theatre Young Company.
Further north, Gloucester's West End Theater hosts Gods and Goddesses, a new play by local (but English-born) playwright Eliza Wyatt (Aug. 12-22). Set in present-day Brighton, England, the play celebrates pagan values (love, honor, and satisfaction of one's basic instincts) via a cast of characters consisting (as Eliza puts it) of "the kind of people who, when you have a wedding, you don't know where to put them."
David Frieze
Colorado
It was a strange sort of homecoming for Martin Moran when he brought his Off-Broadway one-man play, The Tricky Part, to Curious Theatre Company (closed Aug. 14). The play recounts his Catholic upbringing and seduction, at the age of 12, by a 30-year-old man. Telling the story in the town where so much of it happened brought back memories and reunions for the playwright-actor. "Here it's in people's bodies, in people's minds," he said. "Denver is a center. It's a force, it's an energy, it's a character in the play."
At the first Denver show, Moran looked into the audience and saw half a dozen old neighbors turned out to see the young boy who became a Broadway actor—and who drew his latest plaudits from a horrifying event that happened while they knew him.
"It's loaded. It's rich with feeling," he says of his return. "Right now I'm so in the midst of excavating and telling that it has become a kind of focal point, but it hasn't colored everything. It will pass."
Since coming home, he has struck up lessons again with his high-school voice teacher, Winnie Hartman. "Winnie is so brilliant, and always searching for techniques," he says. "I mean, she's an artist."
And his theatre colleagues in New York, where he now lives, might have been shocked to see Moran dressed in hip waders, standing in the middle of the Blue River, fly fishing for the first time with high school friends. He spent almost all of his days off trekking into the mountains.
Talkbacks, conducted after each performance (except for closing night), were larded with poignancy. And Moran felt a slight need to reassure those in the Denver audience. "When it's people you know, I feel that much more alert to say, 'Really, I'm fine,' " he says.
Lisa Bornstein
The Hamptons
East Hampton's John Drew Theater presented a concert staging of Judith Shubow Steir's musical in development, Only a Kingdom, July 9-11. The book needs more work, but many in the cast were memorable: Dina Merrill, Ted Hartley, Marni Nixon, George S. Irving, Kaitlin Hopkins, and Tom Sellwood. Patricia Watt produces and Lee Davis hosts the popular "American Musical Theater Salutes" series with Broadway performers on several Sunday evenings. This summer's salutees: Stephen Sondheim (July 18), Cole Porter (Aug. 15), and Sheldon Harnick (Aug. 29).
Cincinnati's Ensemble Theatre performed a concert version of Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman's musical Green Gables (July 23-25). With its good script, accomplished cast, and lovely score, this deserves a full production. Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton co-produced (with JDT) a staged reading of Carter W. Lewis' new comedy Golf With Alan Shepard on Aug. 1. It starred Jack Klugman, Len Cariou, Peter Boyle, and Charles Durning, all directed by Dan Lauria. The play needs some work but could entertain full-production possibilities. The season continued with 2want2: The New Bohemia, Patrick Bonomo's new burlesque about downtown NYC life (Aug. 6-7). North Carolina School of the Arts grads performed David Marshall Grant's Snakebit (Aug. 11). John Epperson did his acclaimed Lypsinka: The Boxed Set (Aug. 14), and the Mabel Mercer Foundation brought out cabaret all-stars for the second Hamptons Cabaret Convention, Aug. 19-22. Todd Robbins' Off-Broadway show Carnival Knowledge (Aug. 25), San Francisco jazz stars Eric Reed and Paula West (Aug. 27), G.E. Smith and Edie Brickell in concert (Aug. 28), and Mercedes Ruehl in Diane Shaffer's new one-woman show about Frida Kahlo, Viva La Vida! (Aug. 30), end the month.
Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre had Charles Busch's stylish but slightly hammy version of Auntie Mame (July 13-Aug. 1). The Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty French-Caribbean musical Once on This Island is on from Aug. 10-Sept. 5. The cast, staging, choreography, and sets are fine, but the score of this Tony-nominated musical is somewhat repetitive, so the overall feel of the production is tepid. The Hamptons Shakespeare Festival put on a fun-filled Comedy of Errors (July 28-Aug. 29) and Gateway Playhouse had Cats and then Fosse at its Patchogue Theatre, with Gypsy (July 28-Aug. 14) in Bellport.
Jan Silver
Virginia
Theodore Snead, as a convicted killer, mesmerized audiences in Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train at Richmond's Theatre Gym (closed July 25). As we watched him con prisoner Angel Cruz (Timothy Bambara), we came to the realization that we, too, had been duped. What we thought was a redeeming soul emerging turned out to be a ruse, carried off by Snead's dynamic performance. Jenn Meharg did a fine job as Angel's attorney, but the script called for more exposition than action, limiting her role. Once Bambara gained confidence, his dialect became more consistent, and we began to feel his desperation. Producer Foster Solomon and director Tovah Nunez are to be congratulated for tackling Stephen Adly Guirgis' daring script.
Barter Theatre in Abingdon staged three period shows. Girl of My Dreams (through Sept. 5), directed by John Hardy, is a musical about entertainers whose USO service appears as important as that of soldiers. What is lacking in David DeBoy's book is made up for by Peter Ekstrom's music, carried off with vigor by Perry Morgan's musical direction and Amanda Aldridge and Chris Boyd's choreography. Chris Boyd, Nicholas Piper, and Stephanie Holladay make strong musical impressions, but Peter Yonka takes the prize for his comical Chopin number.
First Baptist of Ivy Gap (through Aug. 28) by Ron Osborne won the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights in 2003. Directed by Richard Rose, six women share their dreams and fears of war and life in a church hall. Mary Lucy Bivins is a delight as the pastor's wife keeping her flock together. Alice White and Elizabeth McKnight make a strong juxtaposition of bitterness and hope, while Seana Hollingsworth, Karen Sabo, and Evalyn Baron each add spice to a compelling story.
The talented cast of Pump Boys & Dinettes (closed Aug. 14), directed by Karen Sabo, pumped out a lively show. While Derek Davidson kept up the pace as lead singer, Kimberly Mays and Melissa Davidson harmonized their hearts out. James Hollingsworth and Gill Braswell were both musical dynamos and a pleasure to watch. Perry Morgan, however, made the show with his deadpan and "sexy" rendition of "Farmer Tan."
Wendy Mathis Parker
Providence
For decades, summer theatre in Rhode Island was bookended by the Brown Summer Theatre in Providence, which generally did plays, and by Theatre-by-the-Sea in bucolic Matunuck, which supplied musicals.
Alas, both those standbys are gone. John Lucas, the Brown prof who ran the summer theatre, retired and, apparently, the will to go on was not there. Theatre-by-the-Sea, which usually employed a couple of dozen Equity actors from New York, is up for sale, but there are no takers as yet, according to producer Renny Serre.
So the summer theatre limps along, mostly with Shakespeare done outdoors in a mix of beach-chair seating and productions aimed at satisfying audiences wanting hot-weather diversion as much as Shakespeare.
The one "legitimate" house in terms of a proper performing space is 2nd Story Theatre, which has become a surprise success in the working-class town of Warren. Artistic Director Ed Shea devised a winning combination of bare-set productions, often using performers who attend 2nd Story's acting school.
This has resulted in some strong works, including Morning's at Seven earlier this summer. However, 2nd Story has missed the mark in its current revival of Picnic.
William Inge's play has stood the test of time better than many realize. Its view of the "other," the trouble-engendering outsider, remains provocative on several levels. You'll remember it has Hal, a hunky ne'er-do-well, who brings great upset over a heated Labor Day weekend to all the females in a small Kansas town.
But at 2nd Story, Picnic is treated as if everyone had to race away because of an approaching thunderstorm. Shea's direction is so lickety-split that you never get the feeling of a languorous time in which emotions are rising in spite of themselves.
Additionally, Tim White as the outsider and Lara Hakeem as the teenaged girl growing up too fast never achieve either the threatening masculinity or quavering female growth that's needed.
Trinity Repertory Company supports summer Shakespeare using actors from its training arm, now aligned with Brown University, with some participation by full-fledged Trinity folk such as Associate Artistic Director Amanda Dehnert. The result this summer is a gassy, overly jokey, and downright not-much-fun version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shakespeare's early and admittedly not great play is pretty much lost amid a flurry of let's-have-fun ideas that are not.
Meanwhile, the Colonial Theatre in Westerly is doing a reasonable outdoor version of Much Ado About Nothing that transfers to North Kingstown this month. Harland Meltzer, an old Shakespeare hand, directs a cast led by Kaleo Griffith and Nigel Gore that understands that comedy must be taken seriously.
Bill Gale
Utah
The Utah Shakespearean Festival (June 24-Sept. 4) has mounted a relatively safe repertory program this year in Cedar City. The project of bringing Shakespeare to small-town southern Utah has not been forgotten, but anticipating what the weakened economy might do to ticket sales, USF is alternating Stuart Ross' Forever Plaid this summer with Henry IV, Part One and The Winter's Tale. Plaid is a safe but poor substitute for the productions of Chekhov and O'Neill from the last two years. Besides Plaid, two other fine productions are being performed inside in the Randall L. Jones Theatre—Paul Osborn's Morning's at Seven and Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady.
The festival is nonetheless quite relevant during an election year. Who could miss the references to power gone awry in Henry IV, Part One and The Winter's Tale, both playing outside to good effect in the Adams Shakespearean Theatre. Henry Woronicz ably directs an interpretation of Henry that belongs to the aptly named Hotspur. Brian Vaughn as Hotspur leads the rush to war with great intensity and righteous honor, forgetting that "the better part of valor is discretion." Vaughn is a USF favorite, usually playing comedic roles, but he shines as Hotspur. Jonathan Braithewaite as Hal barely holds his own, and so does Peter Sham as Henry IV. But Kieran Connolly makes for a disappointing Falstaff. With Hotspur, the glorious, well-mourned failure, Shakespeare reminds even contemporary audiences of the dreadful but inevitable outcome of war.
The Winter's Tale director Fontaine Syer casts Michael David Edwards as a storyteller who opens the play and reappears at various intervals, giving a coherence to Shakespeare's tale of tragedy and romance. This morality tale is relieved by the clowns: Edwards as Autolycus and Brian Vaughn as Willem. King Leontes (Raymond L. Chapman) loses all he has in his jealous rage; only love and humility can restore to him what he did not value—his wife, his children, his friends. Toward the end of his writing career, Shakespeare shows what matters most in life.
The third play performed outside in the Adams—The Taming of the Shrew—also offers surprises through the casting of a middle-aged Katherine and Petruchio (Leslie Brott and Kieran Connolly). Along with a particularly strong Katherine, the director, Henry Woronicz, adds the seldom-used prologue and epilogue using these same actors, thus giving a surprisingly contemporary sense of gender equality to the play.
Claudia Harris
Melissa Stern Lourie returned to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival at Boscobel Restoration this summer to direct The Merry Wives of Windsor (July 21-Sept. 5), which followed Terrence O'Brien's lean production of Macbeth (closed Aug. 7). Lourie co-founded the festival in 1987 with O'Brien and served as its producing director until 1992, when she moved to Vermont.
The first thing longtime patrons of this company want to see is how Lourie's style differs from that of O'Brien, and the answer is broadly. Whereas O'Brien's productions are noted for their consistently straightforward yet vivid acting style, Lourie's Merry Wives is hyperbolically cartoonlike by contrast. Carl Palmer's Shallow and James Garver's Slender are all affectation, and these characters grow tedious. Wesley Mann's Sir Hugh Evans and Kurt Rhoads' Doctor Caius are more grounded, even though both actors relish their hard accents.
On the other hand, Charles H. Hyman rather underplays Sir John Falstaff. Hyman is a tall actor and with his padded costume (designed by Sara Jean Tosetti), he displays an imposing figure. He shines brightest when escaping Ford's house dressed as a wretched, bearded hag.
Stephen Paul Johnson masters the role of Ford, who's passionately jealous most of the time but convincingly contrite at others. (His ridiculous disguise as Master Brook is one example of Lourie's tendency towards overkill.) Festival veterans Nance Williamson as Mistress Quickly, Chris Edwards as the Host, Michael Borrelli as Bardolph, Neil Hellegers as Pistol, and Julie Fain Lawrence as Mistress Page play it straight and are very funny.
O'Brien used only eight actors to pull off a captivating Macbeth. Rhoads' title character and Williamson's Lady Macbeth anchored the solid ensemble with their clarity and intensity. Mann showed his range by playing Duncan and the Porter, as did Edwards (Macduff and others), Joe Plummer (Malcolm and others), Johnson (Banquo and others), and Richard Ercole (Witch and others).
Westchester Broadway Theatre just completed its brief production of the Kander-Ebb revue And the World Goes 'Round (July 29-Aug. 14), directed by Donald Birely and featuring Terri White, Rachel Cohen, Danette Holden, Stacia Fernandez, Ian Knauer, Kilty Reidy, and Tom Sellwood. Cabaret (Aug. 19-Nov. 13) returns the theatre to its regular subscriber season.
E. Kyle Minor
One thing Cleveland's two LORT theatres share in common is change. At the 89-year-old Cleveland Play House, that change is in the form of leadership; at the 43-year-old Great Lakes Theater Festival, it's a return to its grass roots as a summer repertory company.
Michael Bloom is the eighth artistic director at the Play House. He replaces Peter Hackett, who has returned to academics as a tenured professor of theatre at Dartmouth College.
Bloom, 54, had served as head of directing at the University of Austin for the past eight years. As a freelance director, Bloom has worked at leading theatres throughout the country, including South Coast Repertory, American Repertory Theatre, and Long Wharf Theatre. Bloom directed the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Dinner With Friends, at the Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the award-winning Off-Broadway production of Margulies' Sight Unseen. He is also the author of the 2001 handbook Thinking Like a Director.
While Bloom has never run a theatre, he remains confident that his experience as an administrator and director has prepared him for the job. His work is cut out for him at the financially strapped Play House.
Starting with the summer of 2004, Great Lakes Theater Festival is now a summer-fall repertory theatre. A company of 18 actors is currently performing in repertory (through Aug. 22) Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Drew Barr, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield and directed by Charles Fee, GLTF producing artistic director. Both productions overdose on slapstick.
In the fall, the company will increase to 21 actors, who will perform Julius Caesar and The Importance of Being Earnest in repertory (Sept. 10-Oct. 16). Both plays were already presented earlier this summer at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, where Fee also serves as producing artistic director.
While Fee says it is too soon to measure the financial success of the new format, he reports that single-ticket sales are increasing. His broad, populist, farcical approach is also attracting a new and younger audience. The downside is that the company has lost 20% of its subscribers since the switch.
Fran Heller