Onstage: Art and Religion
In Westchester County an ugly duckling sees the light; in Salt Lake City two companies view the darker side of Mormon history.
Westchester County, NY
Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" has most recently surfaced as Honk!, with music by George Stiles and lyrics and book by Anthony Drew. The modest yet stylish musical ruffled a few feathers in London when it recently aced The Lion King out of the Olivier Awards for best musical. Judging by its American premiere at the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center (Feb. 17-March 5), Honk! is a deliciously silly beast with atrocious wordplay and a lively pop score.
Director Gordon Greenberg used a modest concept, recalling that of Story Theatre, Paul Sills' 1970 adaptation of Brothers Grimm and Aesop's animal stories. The set was a raked stage indicating a barnyard flanked by bulrushes. Actors dressed in whimsical accessories suggesting their animals of the moment, carried set pieces on and off as needed. It's the sort of production which could happen in a park, provided the performance is good enough to engage the audience's imagination.
The tone is lighthearted and slightly irreverent, allowing parents and kids equal fun. Though not quite as recherch perhaps as "Rocky and Bullwinkle," or the other Jay Ward cartoons, Honk! definitely speaks out of both sides of its bill-the charming, disarming side and the wise-ass side.
The performances were well done, if not all the choices seemed inspired. Gavin Creel was delightful as the ugly duckling, simply called Ugly. As his parents, Alison Fraser was on the money as Ida and Darin De Paul was an oily Drake. Evalyn Baron, who sang "Never Go Onstage with an Animal" 20 years ago in the revue Scrambled Feet, brought her fowl characters to full plumage. Stephen DeRosa's Cat was a diluted knock-off of Alan Cummings' Emcee in Cabaret, complete with ogling eyes and German accent. The bit could work if it could possibly sustain some satirical edge.
At two and a half hours, Honk! is long even for adults these days, much less for children. Since this is a children's show, the creators may pick their spots for cutting. There are a few.
E. Kyle Minor
Salt Lake City
Utahns have been given rare opportunities to revisit troubling aspects of their pioneer past. Julie Jensen's "play of history" Two-Headed (Feb. 5-March 12) premiered at the Salt Lake Acting Company, helped by an NEA grant. SLAC's theatre in a former Mormon chapel seemed the perfect venue.
Commissioned by ASK [Audrey Skirball Kenis] Theatre Projects of Los Angeles, where it was given a staged reading, Two-Headed spans 40 years in the lives of two fictional Mormon pioneer women, beginning in 1857 when the gingham-pinafored Lavinia (Anita Booher) and Hettie (Valerie Kittel) are 10 years old. This date marks the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre in which 120 Arkansas pioneers bound for California were killed by a joint force of Mormons and Paiute Indians in remote Southern Utah. Only 18 young children were spared, adopted by local Mormon families. Years earlier, Mormons had been expelled from Missouri with great loss of life and property, and in '57 rumor had it that the ill-fated wagon train was from that state.
Lavinia's father takes part in the massacre and tells her never to speak of the events she witnesses. Fascinated and haunted by the bolted root cellar full of the dead pioneers' belongings, Lavinia tells her friend Hettie that the cellar contains, instead, a two-headed calf, something she can talk about. Booher and Kittel were marvelous in this saga which visits the girls' lives at 10-year intervals.
Jensen wanted the play to be "epic," to have "scope and size." In one scene, Hettie has married Lavinia's father, thus displacing her mother. Later, Hettie's child of that polygamous union marries Lavinia's husband, displacing her. Jensen saw the play as a way of "getting at the shocking results of polygamy, namely the destruction of generations."
Although the Utah/Mormon particularity of the play raises questions about its exportability, upcoming productions of Two-Headed are scheduled at Santa Fe Repertory and New York's The Women's Project.
Also on offer this month was Margaret Young's historical account My Name is Jane (closed March 5), a chronicle of the heroic life of African-American Mormon Jane Manning James. Unlike SLAC's production, this musical received Church sanction and was performed in a Mormon chapel by Genesis-a group of African-American Mormons. The tale of "Black Jane" begins in 1843 when she first brought her family to Nauvoo to meet Joseph Smith, ending with her death in Salt Lake City at 95 in 1905. Young, who is white, tells the sad stories of Mormon bigotry through the voices of early African-American members.
Claudia W. Harris
Boston
Boston finally has a taste of Art-the play by Yasmina Reza (translated by Christopher Hampton)-in a first-rate touring production now at the Colonial Theatre, March 7-26. Ostensibly about The Meaning of Art, exemplified here by a white canvas that one of three friends has bought for an outrageous price, the comedy is also a cunning examination of the dynamics of male friendship.
Judd Hirsch, splendidly sardonic as the most bluntly opinionated of the trio, clearly outshines Cotter Smith, rather bland as the purchaser of the contentious painting. Best of all, and only partly because his role is the most richly written, is Jack Willis, a former local actor who has worked at Huntington Theatre and Providence's Trinity Repertory Theatre, and spent five years with the American Repertory Theatre. As the beleaguered intermediary, Willis stops the show with a hilarious five-minute tirade; throughout, he provides the emotional core of the production. Matthew Warchus' direction is elegant and incisive, and seconded by Mark Thompson's set design.
Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, in a very different category of theatre-good, solid courtroom melodrama-received a rare outing at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (Feb. 17-March 5). The large and variable cast was led (if so superficial a performance can be said to "lead") by Robert Sperlinga, who also produced the play, taking the role of the defense attorney. Much more interesting were Doug Marsden as the villain of the piece, John P. Arnold as a fanatical officer, and Owen Donovan Yarde and Maxfield Raynolds as the two men who kill a fellow soldier in the name of honor. Jerry Bisantz's strong direction maintained interest in a very long play.
The Sugan Theatre Company offered the American premiere of Scottish playwright Liz Lochead's Perfect Days (Feb. 25-March 18), billed as a "romantic comedy" about a successful businesswoman who decides she needs to have a baby before her biological clock winds down. The subject has been done before-in better plays than this, which takes forever to get going and then doesn't seem to go far enough. At least some of the performances were good, notably Scottish actress Linda Carmichael as the mommy wannabe, and Billy Meleady as her gay friend who, armed with sperm and a turkey baster, helps her achieve her goal. Carmel O'Reilly directed.
David Frieze
Philadelphia
March comes in like a lion in Philadelphia, where the theatre season is in full roar.
The Wilma Theater's east coast premiere of Tom Stoppard's latest, The Invention of Love, has already been extended twice (to April 9). Stoppard's wry ruminations from the mind of poet and scholar A.E. Houseman receive a stunningly theatrical production from Artistic Director Blanka Zizka. The wild design work of Michael McGarty (set), Russell Champa (lights), Janus Stefanowicz (costumes), and Adam Wernick (sound) does not eclipse strong performances by Martin Rayner as elderly Houseman, Mark Alhadeff as his younger self, and Ian Merrill Peakes as the object of his unspoken affection.
Freedom Theatre celebrated its biggest opening in years-not Artistic Director Walter Dallas' disappointing co-production with Chicago's Court Theatre of Desire Under the Elms (Feb. 25-March 19), but the new John E. Allen Jr. Theatre. Named after Freedom's late founder, the 299-seat state-of-the-art proscenium stage should make the company's home-the former Edwin Forrest mansion-a cultural magnet in underdeveloped North Philadelphia. Eugene O'Neill's play fares less well in Dallas' scaled-down "African-Americanized" version.
The Prince Music Theater (formerly the American Music Theatre Festival) continued its rich legacy of innovative world premieres with The Hidden Sky (Feb. 25-March 19), adapted from an Ursula K. LeGuin science fiction story, by Kate Chisholm (book) and Peter Foley (music and lyrics). Artistic Director Ben Levit directed this post-apocalyptic fable about a young woman, played by Ana Maria Andricain, who defies her society's harsh laws by pursuing her passion for mathematics. Sounds unlikely? This well-crafted musical, smartly written and inventively staged, plays very well.
People's Light & Theatre Company delves into the psychological aspects of Anne Frank with Wendy Kesselman's intimate adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank (Feb. 23-April 1), directed by David Bradley and featuring Tom Teti, Ceal Phelan, Joanna Lee, Graham Smith, and Eve Moennig in the title role. James Pyne's circular setting captures the annex's claustrophobia while remaining open to the sky.
Productions too numerous to mention abound at Venture Theatre, the Lantern and Hedgerow theatre companies, the Walnut Street Theatre, 2nd Stage at the Adrienne, the Delaware Theatre Company, and more.
Mark Cofta
Wisconsin
Milwaukee's biggest theatre surprise of the new year just closed a month-long run in a 40-seat storefront performance space in a working-class neighborhood on the city's south side. The Boulevard Ensemble, currently in its 14th season, presented its eclectic audience with a sublime production of Uncle Vanya. Using Michael Frayn's very accessible translation, director Maureen Kilmurry elicited subtle shades, moods, emotions, and a sense of intimacy from her non-Equity cast. With all of that in place, the play's subdued humor emerged from Chekhov's text. The Boulevard's mission is to stretch and develop actors, and the superb work done by these actors took the company to a new artistic level. Among the notable performances were David Flores' multi-layered Vanya, John Starmer's quietly frustrated Astrov, Stacey Meyer's fresh and unaffected Sonya, and Terry Tuttle's ravishing but substantial Yelena.
The humorously named stage company Bialystock & Bloom is demonstrating the power of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in a 99-seat space, with its production of the Albee classic in Milwaukee's new Off-Broadway Theatre. The play seems to find a vibrant new energy when it is in your face. Director Drew Brhel's staging tilts slightly toward the comic side of the piece without losing Virginia's dramatic jagged edge. William Clifford's wry George drives the production with his barbed cynicism and exquisite timing. Carrie Van Deest delivers a wonderfully natural Honey, but Raeleen McMillion pushes Martha's profane personality and over-the-top behavior. Jonathan Wainwright (Nick) is overly stiff. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? continues through March 26.
Theatre X has named David Ravel its new producing director. He succeeds Michael Ramach, who left the company in November. The 44-year-old Ravel is a playwright and screenwriter. A native of San Jose, Calif., he moved to Milwaukee in 1997 when his wife, Phylis Ravel, became the chairman and artistic director of the Department of Performing Arts at Marquette University. The couple founded and jointly ran Brooklyn Playworks in New York from 1984 to 1990.
Damien Jaques
Providence, R.I.
Location is big, the real estate agents like to say. In Providence these days, it's probably juxtaposition that counts. Consider that in a three-block area this once-down-at-its-heels theatre town is showing plays by Mac Wellman, Maria Irene Fornes, and the newest work by Emily Mann.
The Wellman is Girl Gone, a flamboyent, even dance-y, work that's almost a musical. At Perishable Theatre, director Vanessa Gilbert and choreographer Heather Ahern have come up with a bouncy, sometimes even wry, look at this Wellman play which includes a view of a private girls' school where girls tend to disappear into the ether and things get pretty dicey. Girl Gone could use some clarity as to its writer's intentions, but the production is a funny goof.
That can hardly be said for Fornes's Mud, which travels the writer's familiar route concerning the exploitation of women. At the Providence Black Rep, tech director Alonso Jones has come with a properly dingy set featuring a flagpole for characters to climb-the better for us to have some fun as we watch the story of a woman coping with two very dubious gents. The production's acting, unfortunately, does not rise above that of a good college production.
Sited between the two small houses, Trinity Repertory Company is doing a smashing production of Mann's Mesugah. Taken from an Isaac Bashevis Singer novel, the play is pretty much all over the place as it copes with survivor guilt after the Holocaust. But three new faces at Trinity, known for its homegrown troupe-Sam Tsoutsouvas, Tom Brennan, and especially Diana La Mar (all from New York)-do superior work, directed by Oskar Eustis.
On the commercial front, that major Broadway flop "The Civil War," now re-tooled for the road, arrived. The result of the fix? Well, it's different, but still not ready for primetime, although BeBe Winans and Michael Lanning give strong performances.
Finally, John Lahr, The New Yorker's theatre critic, spoke to a small-but-hanging-on-every-word crowd at Brown University. Lahr pointed to the TV show Providence, a weepy mishmash of a hit on NBC, as an example of the deleterious effect of art by committee. The theatre, he said, is the last place where you can expect to hear a relatively clear voice, unhampered by the dumbing-down effect of collaboration aimed at not ruffling anybody's feathers.
Right on, John.
Bill Gale
Detroit
Who likes short shorts? We like short shorts. At least it appears that way. Between touring shows and homegrown productions, Detroit area stages have been awash in revues and anthologies.
Smokey Joe's Cafe, The Irish...And How They Got That Way, and Fosse stopped by the Fox Theatre, Music Hall, and Fisher Theatre, respectively. The traveling Always, Patsy Cline sat down at the Century Theatre for at least a five-month run, March 8-Aug. 27. Jessica Welch, who has portrayed Patsy in 38 states, splendidly captures the late country singer's vocal style, while Melanie Fry, another veteran of this two-woman show, capably does most of the talking.
The Hilberry Theatre has mounted a production of Five by Tenn (March 10-May 6, in repertory), a handful of one-act plays by Tennessee Williams, three of which foreshadow his later masterpieces The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Long-form drama is far from dead in Michigan, however. The Jewish Ensemble Theatre has a powerful version of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass on its stage (March 12-9). This story of a Brooklyn woman in 1938 who is literally paralyzed by Nazi atrocities in Germany receives knowing performances from Chris Ann Voudoukis as the woman, Joseph Haynes as her husband, and Mark Rademacher as their doctor. They are directed by Evelyn Orbach, JET's artistic director.
Meadow Brook Theatre has something for the whole family in Chagall's Arabian Nights, (March 15-April 9), by playwright-in-residence Karim Alrawi. Inspired by Marc Chagall's illustrations for an edition of the Arabian Nights stories published in the 1940s, Alrawi has written an account of the artist at work and wrapped it around a half dozen of the magical tales. Robert Grossman plays Chagall.
Speaking of long, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Jeff Daniels' raucous comedy about deer hunters in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, has been extended through June, at the Gem Theatre. By then, with a 39-week run, it will have become the longest-running non-musical ever (or at least in aynone's memory) on a Michigan stage. Daniels' own Purple Rose Theatre, where Escanaba was previously staged, is closed for a makeover.
Martin F. Kohn
Florida
Despite the presence of a bevy of South Florida's leading actresses, Caldwell Theatre Company's production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (Feb. 25-April 2) never rises above the level of a curiously cold trifle.
The Boca Raton-based production's problems are twofold: Director Michael Hall has the performers playing to the audience in many of the most intimate and dramatic moments in the work; and the performances seem to run the gamut of acting styles, negating the thrust of playwright Albee's most interesting observation of suburban family life. Joe Warik is so understated as Tobias that none of his subtle emotional angst is even allowed to come to the forefront. Pat Nesbitt's performance as the alcoholic Claire is all surface, never hinting at her character's inner turmoil, and Angie Rudosh never comes close to connecting the dots in the complex character of Agnes.
Harry Chaplin's America: Musical Lies and Legends (March 3-May 26), at the Coconut Grove's intimate Encore Room, has a resounding hit on its hands. Featuring a cast of four talented South Florida performers, the production captures both the poignancy and satirical insight of the late singer-songwriter's diverse works.
Many of the 25 songs are performed as dramatic vignettes, using the author's story-like composition to create an involving narrative structure. The quartet of thespians-Christopher Bishop, Sarah Guarnaccia, Barry Tarallo, and the utterly winning Amy Carol Webb-offer adroit performances that showcase their immense talents as both actors and singers.
Prolific South Florida playwright Michael McKeever's hit production of The Garden of Hannah List ran Feb. 3-27 at the Hypothetical Theatre Company in Manhattan. (It played South Florida last season.) McKeever's comedy Don't Tell the Tsar recently completed its run (Feb. 13) at the Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton, and his 37 Postcards will kick off this year's Sarasota Festival of New Plays at the Florida Studio Theatre for a six-week run beginning April 18.
George Capewell
San Francisco
Berkeley Repertory Theatre's premiere of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, playing through April 6, could be subtitled "Who Wants To Be and/or Marry a Millionaire?" In a new, keenly etched adaptation by Joan Holden (of the San Francisco Mime Troupe), the 400-year-old comedy is as contemporary a satire on greed and acquiring inflated fortunes as today's TV ratings. The splendid ensemble cast consists of some Bay Area favorites-Ken Ruta, Sharon Lockwood, Gerald Hiken, and Geoff Hoyle. This time director Tony Taccone has allowed Holden's text to play itself, without adding the excessive clutter evident in the company's 1993 revival of Jonson's Volpone.
Theatre Rhinoceros recently presented (through March 11) the world premiere of Barebacking: A Sex Panic! Comedy, written and directed by John Fisher-the winner of two Will Glickman Playwriting Awards, for Medea: The Musical and Combat! As the title indicates, Barebacking is about-among many other things-safe sex (and free love) in the age of AIDS, and Fisher's vision becomes an eclectic collage of contemporary issues that happily cavorts between logic and lunacy-with some mercurial moments of genuine emotion. The exuberant cast handles (literally) the considerable nudity with admirable insouciance.
Director Jay Manley at Foothill Music Theatre has again shown himself to be one of the finest musical-theatre directors in the Bay Area, with a stunning revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along-playing at the Foothill Studio Theatre through March 26. Most incredible about seeing this production is the realization that it was Sondheim and Hal Prince's only failure on Broadway. It is arguably Sondheim's most melodic score, and its expression of friendship, idealism, and hope combined with a world-weary melancholy makes it his most approachable. Manley's inventive staging in this intimate area is truly brilliant, as is musical director Lita B. Libaek's achievements with a truly terrific 24-member cast. Special mention goes to Patricia Meade, Mickey Killianey, Gary Horowitz, Laura Donovan, Patricia Haug, and Mark D. Messersmith.
A. J. Esta
North Carolina
Playmakers Repertory Company of Chapel Hill has scored a solid hit with its current production of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. Starring Tandy Cronyn as the doomed cancer victim gallantly awaiting her death, the production strikes just the right balance between gallows humor and the quiet terror of inevitable death.
Under the taut direction of Drew Barr, Cronyn gives a splendid portrayal, moving seamlessly through discovery, denial, and ultimate acceptance of her fate. Along the way, there are wonderful bursts of genuine humor as her character, an academic, draws on her rich store of learning to cope with her illness. Cronyn is supported by a fine cast, with Jeffrey Blair Cornell standing out as her onetime student turned doctor. The production runs through April 2.
The Cronyn name pops up again as Sanford's Temple Theatre plans its staging of Foxfire (April 14-29), by Hume Cronyn and Susan Cooper. The production, will feature Martha Nell Hardy and Leonard McLeod, and is directed by Cathy Stallings.
In Raleigh The North Carolina Theatre is reviving the durable Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, running March 24-April 2. Broadway star Terrence Mann will play the role of Jud. A native of North Carolina, Mann has performed and directed for the NCT a number of times. Raleigh native LouAnn Aronson plays Laurie.
Charlotte Repertory Theatre will stage Martin McDonagh's dark Irish drama The Beauty Queen of Leenane, in the Booth Theatre, April 5-16. The cast includes Lisa Bansavage, Marilyn Ruth Moore, Jerry Colbert, and Chris Graham. Guest Director for the production is Ann Marie Costa.
In Chapel Hill, StreetSigns continues its ambitious first season in the area with Chekov's The Seagull. Direction will be by the company's artistic director, Derek Goldman, and the cast includes Bridgette Ane Lawrence, Miki Whittles Shelton, and Paul Ferguson. Playing in the Morehead Lounge of Graham Memorial on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, the production runs April 16-29.
William Hardy