Pike Road: "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical"

Impressive singing highlights the Pike Road Theatre Company's production of Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical. As directed by James Keith Posey, the 1990 Frank Wildhorn-Leslie Bricusse musical demands stamina from its acting company during the two-and-a-half-hour playing time, and has the audience cheering throughout.

Part One: The Source and Legacy -- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a Gothic "penny dreadful" novella titled Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886, in which an intelligent and well-liked Dr. Jekyll, curious about the duality of human nature, combined with his desire to destroy his untapped darker side, unleashes an evil alter-ego named Mr. Hyde by taking experimental drugs, the gruesome consequences of which are narrated by his trusted friend John Utterson. With many iterations of the tale over the years, it became the source of the "Jekyll/Hyde syndrome" describing several types of split-personality schizophrenia.

Part Two: The Musical -- Loosely based on Stevenson's source, it retains the essence of the duality of the character(s) Jekyll and Hyde, and the chief narration by Utterson.  But Jekyll starts his inquiry here as a reaction to his father's comatose condition that he believes is caused by the evil trapped within him, and will go to any extreme to find a remedy. The musical also adds many new characters for Hyde to take revenge on: a hospital's Board of Directors who refuse to give financial support to Jekyll's experiments on human subjects. Additionally, there are two romances, one for Jekyll and one for Hyde. -- As many contemporary musicals have an almost operatic framework, there is little dialogue, relying instead on lyrics and musical motifs, solos/arias, duets, trios, quartets, and chorus numbers to tell the story and sustain audience interest.

Part Three: The Production -- Mr. Posey's direction sustains the intensity of the action of an unlikely subject for a musical. There are a lot of good qualities in the production, yet it would be a top notch experience if audiences could see and hear better. [Though challenged by inadequate lighting, sound, and scenic capabilities -- please, Pike Road "powers-that-be", find the financial resources to enhance the theatrical experience for both actors and audience for this most deserving Company who will soon be in its third Season of otherwise high quality productions.] -- Utterson [Sam Wallace] shares the narration with Sir Danvers Carew [Jack Horner], whose daughter Emma [Rachel Pickering Seeley] is engaged to Dr. Jekyll; and when Jekyll transforms to Mr. Hyde, another love interest emerges in Lucy Harris [Mara Woodall], an "entertainer" at the seedy "Red Rat Club". They are accompanied by a range of supporting characters and a Chorus headed by Mike [David Rowland]. 

Once you know the premise and watch the consequences of the  frequent changes from Jekyll to Hyde, our attention is centered on the music. -- The gift of strong voices in these principal roles carries the plot and subplots: powerful baritones [Mr. Wallace and Mr. Horner] exquisite sopranos [Ms. Seeley and Ms. Woodall are at their best in their Act II duet], and Mr. Rowland's effervescent chorus leader showcase the musical strengths in the show.

The title role(s) are played by Brandtley McDonald. Without a doubt, Mr. McDonald is the star of Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical. His impressive vocal range and clear delivery, his solid acting chops and generosity to the actors who share the stage, keeps the audience attention where it belongs. With limited time off-stage, it takes a lot of stamina to take command and keep it for two challenging acts. Bravo!

Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical is yet another triumph for PRTC, and with Mr. Posey at the helm, the next season promises more of the same.

Cloverdale Playhouse: "The Laramie Project"

"If you write a play of this, do it right, say it correct" is the charge given to Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project on their departure from Laramie, Wyoming after one-and-a-half-years of conducting interviews with the town's residents following the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. -- The end result is The Laramie Project [2000] now on stage at the Cloverdale Playhouse. And the Playhouse  "did it right"; they "said it correct".

Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, slight of build, seemingly well-liked; and he was targeted, severely beaten, pistol-whipped, tortured, tied to a fence, and left to die only because he was gay. His death challenges the denial expressed by many of the local citizens who insist that Laramie is a good and ordinary place, that "Hate is not a Laramie value", and their motto is "Live and let live"; anti-gay activist Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church led a demonstration at Shepard's funeral, but the impact of his death gave attention to hate-crime legislation, and continues to be felt around the world.

Marking the 25th Anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death on October 12, 1998, the Playhouse production, staggeringly co-directed by Clyde Hancock and Christopher Roquemore, and with another flexible set design by J. Scott Grinstead, features a brilliant 12-member acting ensemble who portray 60+ characters fluidly integrated into the story in a series of short scenes spread over three acts; the play's two-and-a-half-hour running time kept the opening night audience engrossed and stunned into silence so the time was hardly noticed.

Sean Golson, Layne Holley, Jacob Holmberg, John(na) Jackson, Scott Page, Evan Price, Tiara Staples, Hillary Taylor, Sam Thomas, Katherine Webster, Ada Withers, and Emily Wootten comprise the impressive ensemble of veteran and neophyte actors. -- Though the play is a documentary-styled "verbatim" script taken from interviews, court records, and newspaper accounts, these actors are not merely a set of "talking heads"; rather, they embody flesh-and-blood individuals, and change character with simple costume enhancements, and subtle vocal and physical changes. And they are excellent story-tellers.

The actors portray both sympathetic and un-sympathetic characters; parents and friends and strangers, as well as the perpetrators of the crime [Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson] and other antagonistic sorts are played with equal commitment; and much like Greek tragedy that doesn't show brutality and blood on stage, this script's vividly graphic descriptions of the details of Shepard's lacerations leave the audiences' imaginations to create the repulsive images.

There are too many important individual moments in this production to enumerate here, but two significant ones warrant notice and pave the way to healing. In the aftermath of her son's death, Shepard's mother Judy's words as reported by the hospital spokesperson [Evan Price] encourage everyone to "Go home, give your kids a hug, and don't let a day go by without telling them you love them"; and his father Dennis [Scott Page], in the play's single most devastatingly heart-rending section tells his son's murderer and the court, that instead of the death-penalty: "I give you life". 

By doing it "right" and saying it "correct", let us all H.O.P.E that Matthew Shepard's death was not in vain, and that the world we live in, with so many legislative attempts to disenfranchise the LGBTQ+ community, will finally afford everyone the opportunity to be accepted as equals.

Theatre AUM: "Red Bike"

Award-winning playwright Caridad Svich is known for her quirky and sometimes experimental plays that frequently encourage productions to explore their own ways to interpret and stage her scripts.

Red Bike was written for one actor [or several, as the individual production determines]; the current Theatre AUM's production directed by Val Winkelman engages a tight ensemble of three actors to delve into Svich's investigation of children and their responses to the adult world.

As actors Tara Laurel, Yahzane Palmer, and Michael James Pritchard portray the child/children at its center, we are invited into their world of play and imagination as they come to terms with the authority of adults who seem to ignore them while they pursue earning a living, providing for their families, engaging in business and politics while remaining oblivious to the effects their behavior has on the younger generation.

And, the adults are shown to be inconsistent [at least from a child's point of view], or too focused on material things to the detriment of connecting better with the children.

Childhood can be scary, growing up can be frightening, and parenthood wields a lot of power. -- So the child/children here escape on a red bicycle from the confines of home and adults to a magical world where they can assess their place in a society that disregards them. It is through a child's imagination that solutions might be found. -- Reminiscent of the song "Children Will Listen" from Into the Woods, we are offered a teaching moment advising adults to pay more attention to their children, and to listen to them as well. -- It is abundantly clear that "No one wants to be nothing".

Played on Michael Krek's framework scenic design, with plenty of open space for the actors to depict various locations, and "ride" their bikes [I wish there was more of that bike-riding to sustain the energetic commitment of the company], the actors are a top-notch ensemble who feed off one another and manage to insert narrative moments throughout the one-hour running time.

Theatre AUM's season of new or new-ish works gives their students and audiences rare opportunities to listen to new theatrical voices; well done.

Millbrook: "She Loves Me"

With the world in turmoil, it's a pleasure to see a delightfully nostalgic love-story production of She Loves Me that is currently playing in Millbrook under the adept direction of Brady Walker.

Based on Miklos Laszlo's story Parfumerie, and probably better known from the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner, this Bock-Harnick-Masteroff musical from 1963 recounts a familiar story centered on Amelia [Kaylee Baker] and Georg [Kaden Blackburn] who exchange love-letters to "Dear Friend" through a lonely-hearts club.

Set in Mr. Maraczek's [Matthew Givens] parfumerie in 1934 Budapest, Amelia gets a job there and instantly gets under store manager Georg's skin; their mutual sparring disguises what audiences immediately recognize as a sign they are fated to fall in love, and the rest of the two-and-a-half-hours playing time serves up a mixture of songs, comedy, confusions, and pathos that ultimately lead to a satisfying conclusion.

A secondary love affair between shop assistants Illona [Maggie Kervin] and Kodaly [Travis Clark] counters the main plot, while an older employee Sipos [Scott Rouse] adds some solid reason to the emotional younger folks; and an earnest delivery boy Arpad [Jack Posey] dreams of becoming a salesman in the shop. -- A large ensemble play shoppers and other roles.

Along the way, audiences can't but be impressed by the vocal and acting talents of the cast. Mr. Clark is sufficiently sleazy as Kodaly, a character we love to hate as he oozes his way around the others and takes advantage of his position; Ms. Kervin's Ilona is at her best when she decides to drop Kodaly, as audiences applaud her decision. Mr. Posey is an endearing Arpad, and Mr. Rouse reveals subtle dimensions of the character Sipos. -- Mr. Givens has several of the play's most sincere conflicts handled with professional precision.

But it is the music that carries everything along, and the cast display their various strengths throughout. There is an excellent chemistry between Ms. Baker and Mr.Blackburn that makes every moment between them stand out, and when each of them holds forth in singing, it's impressive, especially in her "Vanilla Ice cream" and his title-song "She Loves Me", in which they each let loose with their recognition of mutual love, leaving the audience enraptured.

WOBT: "Present Laughter"

From the late 17th Century on, comedy in Britain often is marked by its glittering wit spoken by sophisticated  characters whose many faults are willingly forgiven because additionally, they are attractive; like today, we frequently overlook the flaws and questionable morality of those people we admire because of some appealing trait, so long as they look good and speak well.

Playwright Noel Coward was a prolific master of the comic form, and often wrote characters into his plays that he would perform. One of these is Present Laughter [1939], in which the central character is Garry Essendine, an approaching middle-aged narcissistic actor famous for roles in drawing room comedies, who is set to embark on an overseas tour to resuscitate his career despite his angst about getting old.

Director Melissa Strickland's Way Off Broadway Theatre production of Present Laughter features Josh Williams as Garry Essendine, accompanied by a coterie of local theatre veterans and neophytes. It's two-and-a-half-hour running time could be significantly shorter through more efficient scene-changes and a faster more energetic pace, but the production does have its rewards.

There's a lot to keep track of here: at the outset, Garry is in a pickle when ingenue Daphnee Singleton [Antilea Hamilton], who has misplaced her latchkey [more of this later] stayed the night in Garry's spare room and believes Garry is attracted to her; the butler Fred [Nick Cutrell] is unflappable regarding his master's escapades; the cook, Miss Erickson [Blair Berry] reluctantly provides what food and drink she can muster; Garry's long-time secretary Monica [Ashlee Lassiter] efficiently runs Garry's calendar and easily bends to increasingly bizarre demands of the job; Garry's ex-wife Liz [Alex Rikerd], who knows and loves him better that anyone, is neither surprised or annoyed by any of the many challenges to getting Garry away on his trip and away from potential obstacles to it; producer-partners and friends Hugo Lypiatt [Russ Tipton] and Morris Dixon [Seth Maggard] try to assuage Garry's overcharged ego while maneuvering the business aspects of the tour; an avant grade playwright named Maule [Greydon Furstender (sp?)] stalks Garry after he has been mistakenlyinvited for an interview; and, oh yes, Morris is secretly in love with Hugo's wife Joanna [Danielle Newton], who makes a play for Garry when she first appears in Act II, claiming like Daphnee in Act I, that she had misplaced her latchkey and needed a place to stay.

Much to unravel, and there are rewards in this production: we can enjoy the plot's complexities and delight in the verily methods each character employs to get his or her way; we laugh at the numerous running gags about latchkeys, dressing gowns, over-acting, and the use of code words to get one out of scrapes; we can giggle at Mr. Williams's intentionally exaggerated "acting"; we can get delight from Coward's witty dialogue, especially when it is expertly delivered by the likes of Ms. Rikerd, Mr. Williams, and Ms. Newton.

Wetumpka Depot: "Doubt: a parable"

"There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds..." Alfred, Lord Tennyson: In Memoriam, A.H.H.

John Patrick Shanley's prize-winning 2004 Doubt: a parable, in a tense intermission less 90-minutes on the Wetumpka Depot stage, starts a conversation with the audience that ought to continue for some time after its final moments.

In our world full of conspiracy theories, where a mere hint of scandal or impropriety quickly escalates [despite a lack of concrete evidence] into full-blown, heated arguments that do not concede any ground from either side, what happens in Doubt should come as no surprise; but Shanley and Depot director Beth Butler adroitly leave it up to the audience to determine which side they take.

Set in a Roman Catholic parish and school in New York in 1964, the play's four characters are faced with an unsubstantiated feeling by a naively earnest young nun that the local pastor might have had an improper relationship with a teenage boy, the first African American student at the school. Sister James [Sarah Smith] confides her feeling about a progressive-leaning Father Flynn [Jay Russell] to Sister Aloysius [Kristy Meanor], a rigidly conservative school principal, who assumes his guilt is certain, and then campaigns to expose him so he can suffer consequences she believes he deserves.

Father Flynn's homily on the value of uncertainty opens the play, only to suggest to Sister Aloysius that her staunch belief in resisting any change from the status quo is the only right path. After Sister Aloysius has told him of her suspicions, Father Flynn retaliates with a sermon on gossip, setting up what is to come.

In several sequences, we witness Sister Aloysius's attempts to get Father Flynn to admit to deviant behavior, and his insistence on his innocence; and Sister James's uncertainty about her feelings furthers the flames of doubt. -- Even an interview between Sister Aloysius and the boys Mother, Mrs. Muller [Michelle Summers], whose reluctance to accuse the priest frustrates Sister Aloysius even more. 

Ms. Butler's fully committed ensemble actors are so convincingly credible in their roles, and deliver Shanley's dialogue with such conviction, that audience sympathies might shift several times during the action; there's always something else to consider, as evidence or lack thereof mounts up. -- In the end, each audience member must weigh the various sides of the argument and perhaps be swayed to an uncomfortable conclusion.

Doubt: a parable is a provocative drama that challenges actors and audiences in a live theatre performance to not only make a determination about Father Flynn's guilt or innocence, but on their own ability to question their own certainty about a wide variety of subjects. -- Food for thought.