Pike Road: "Roald Dahl's 'Matilda, the Musical'"

Roald Dahl's 1988 novel, Matilda, tells the story of a precocious child who is unloved and mistreated by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, and sent to a boarding school where her intellectual achievements are unacceptable to the abusively tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Though she manages to make a few friends among the students, and finds she has telekinetic powers that get her out of scrapes with the authorities, Matilda is encouraged to read and tell stories to Mrs. Phelps, and is ultimately rescued by a compassionate teacher, Miss Honey.

Several versions of Dahl's novel are available, the 2010 musical being one of the most popular, and which is currently part of the Pike Road Theatre Company's season.

There are several reasons to attend the award-winning Roald Dahl's "Matilda, the Musical" [book: Dennis Kelly; music and lyrics: Tim Minchin] in addition to the play itself:

• It is the first venture of the Pike Road Theatre Company in its new-found home at Faulkner University in a proper theatre facility that can showcase the play's production values;
• It has stunning multi-tasking sets with moving parts that quickly and seamlessly shift locations; and effectively creative lighting [neither designer is given credit in the program];
• It has beautifully rendered character driven costumes designed by Emily Blossom;
• It features Kim Isbell's masterful, athletic, challenging choreography delivered with precise and disciplined enthusiasm by the able ensemble cast;
• It is directed by James Keith Posey, whose attention to detail moves the action clearly forward with inventive staging and characterizations;
• It has an ensemble of veteran actors in principal roles, who inhabit their roles completely, warts-and-all [Jason Morgan and Kristen Vanderwal as the nasty Wormwood parents; Tara Troccia as the patient and concerned Mrs. Phelps; Jenifer Hollett as the voracious headmistress you love to hate, Miss Trunchbull; and Sarah Olguin as the faithful savior, Miss Honey];
• It is centered in a mature-beyond-her-years performance of 4th-grader Caroline Suggs in the title role, whose clear angelic singing voice, admirable stage presence, ability to connect with her stage partners, and confident interpretation of dialogue and lyrics carries this show on her very capable shoulders.

The 34-member ensemble cast do an admirable job in entertaining PRTC's largely sold-out audiences, and carry them along with effervescent enthusiasm. -- Accompanied by a recorded musical score, and with over-amplified voices, some dialogue and many of the lyrics are drowned out. We get the general meaning and intentions, but often have to struggle to hear the precise words.

Nonetheless, this production of Roald Dahl's "Matilda, the Musical" is a crowd-pleaser that deserves the enthusiastic applause at the final curtain.

Cloverdale Playhouse: "The Explorer's Club"

Smile, giggle, laugh, and snort your way through the outrageously comical The Explorer's Club that opened last night at The Cloverdale Playhouse. -- Nell Benjamin's witty script and over-the-top characters are pure fodder for director and scenic designer J. Scott Grinstead's nine ensemble actors: James-Louis Avery, Jon Carroll, Isaac Garrison, Jacob Holmberg, Sarah Housley, Chris Roquemore, Jan Roeton, Hunter Stewart, and Mike Winkelman. 

As the eccentric members of the men-only Explorer's Club gather in mid-Victorian London, each of whom has a specific scientific expertise, they bemoan the disappearance of their bartender. One member promotes admitting a woman to their membership -- controversial, of course, but she is, after all, both brilliant and good looking, and has just returned from an expedition to a fabled Lost City with one of the natives in tow.

Add a pompous bureaucrat, an Irish rebel, a poisonous snake, and the assorted in-fighting and romantic jealousies among the members, as well as confusions of the native as he navigates linguistic and cultural challenges, and the cumulative effect of the hijinks at hand is contagious laughter.

Mr. Grinstead's lush scenic design is period specific and detailed, creating an atmosphere that is supported by Sarah Kay's witty and character driven costumes, all enhanced by finely executed lighting [Jason Grinstead] and sound [Noah Henninger].

The action moves swiftly, its two acts lasting under two hours including intermission. -- The Explorer's Club is loud and funny, and the actors are a fine ensemble group who support one another throughout. Occasional comic lines are covered by audience laughter or stage business, but no matter...the madcap shenanigans keep the audience gleefully entertained.

Millbrook: "The Hallelujah Girls"

The program notes for Millbrook's production of The Hallelujah Girls lists several of their veteran comic actresses in the cast, so audience expectations were high for what was to become yet another delightful encounter with them.

The play -- one of a small cottage industry by playwrights Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten  -- relies on an improbably silly plot through which the assorted archetypical "girls" demonstrate their individual quirks while [in response to another friend's death] they transform a redundant church into the SPA--DEE--DAH salon...and with many economic, social, political, and romantic entanglements that need to be remedied, the two acts entertain as things get twisted out of proportion.

Director Cheryl Phillips trusts her fine ensemble cast [Jamie Brown, Karla McGhee, Pat McClellan, Vicki Moses, Steve Phillips, Terry Quotes, Tracey Quotes, Margaret White] to deliver the goods; and though the staging is relatively static and scene changes take too long, the acting company inhabit their characters and land their witty dialogue with confidence.

We know these people; they walk amongst us...and Millbrook's Hallelujah Girls are so truthful that we applaud the result...a good old-fashioned entertaining evening of theatre.

ASF: "Ken Ludwig's BASKERVILLE: a Sherlock Holmes Mystery"

At the curtain call of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's production of Ken Ludwig's BASKERVILLE: a Sherlock Holmes Mystery, the backstage crew and dressers are brought out for a well-deserved ovation. They had been working silently and out-of-sight for the past two hours, flawlessly manipulating scenic elements, props, and innumerable split-second costume changes for the five-member acting ensemble who portray more than 40 characters. 

Director Laura Kepley deftly manages this madcap farcical interpretation of one of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous escapades of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. -- Though true to Doyle's original, audiences are challenged to keep up with the main plot, sub-plots, red herrings, witty dialogue, exaggerated dialects, and broadly comical delineations of characters that drive the action at a rapid pace.

Paige Hathaway's flexible, multi-leveled and evocative set, Rob Denton's sophisticated lighting, Jane Shaw's confident sound design, Kelly Colburn's stunningly effective projections, and Lex Liang's period character-driven and often humorous costumes offer a collaboration that supports the actors and the script.

The impressive acting ensemble -- Grant Chapman [Holmes], Todd Cerveris [Watson], with Michael Doherty, Justin Blanchard, and Madeleine Lambert as "everyone else" -- are so finely disciplined and specific in their choices of posture and dialect that make each character distinct, that we forget there are only five of them. 

And they have to tell the convoluted story of a family curse and deaths attributed to a "hellhound" on the moors near the Baskerville estate, the latest of which conscripts Holmes to solve and to prevent the death of the latest family member to inherit the title and the land.

It's all a great deal of fun for audiences to try to solve the mystery along with Holmes, but entertainment is the key to Ludwig's take on the tale. And we get it big-time here. Many twists and turns, many revelations, and even more laughs as we become complicit in the story and its outcome.

Come to ASF for the story, come for the costumes, and the set, and the projections, come for the laughs. Admire the talents of the acting ensemble. And have a good evening out.

WOBT: "A Streetcar Named Desire"

If not for community and university theatres, the River Region would be hard-pressed to find significant attention to the standard and classic repertoire, and Prattville's Way Off Broadway Theatre's challenging  season includes Shakespeare's Twelfth Night [coming in July] and its latest production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. 

First-time director Kaden Blackburn has curiously re-set the play some decades after its original 1947 time period, and his set is so bright and open that it works against Williams's gritty claustrophobic post-World War II New Orleans location.

That notwithstanding, and though uneven in pace and conflict, Mr. Blackburn has elicited strong performances from his able cast -- particularly his principal players -- who provide a number of powerfully sensitive moments during the two-and--half-hour running time.

When a confused and damaged Blanche Du Bois [Alex Rikerd] arrives at the dingy apartment of her pregnant sister Stella [Maggie Kervin] and working-class brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski [Douglas Dean Mitchell], she disrupts their lives by contrasting the gentility of her Southern-belle social status with the boozy grit of Stanley's "common" upbringing. -- Clearly all is not well with Blanche, and Stanley sets out to uncover the truth about her reduced circumstances. Ms. Rikerd's admission of Blanche's many failures comes at a cost. Even the potential of developing a relationship with Mitch [Josh Williams], one of Stanley's poker-playing friends, seems doomed from the start.

These four actors deliver multi-layered characterization with consistent vocal and physical commitment. Though Stanley is sometimes abusive towards Stella [perhaps from what is now known as wartime PTSD], both Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Kervin are convincing in their characters' love for one another. Ms. Kervin and Ms. Rikerd show a truthfulness of sibling rivalries and misunderstanding with a strength that is unusual in many productions. Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Williams enliven scenes of male bonding and friendships. Mr. Williams and Ms. Rikerd are heartbreaking in scenes that test and ultimately break up the romance between Mitch and Blanche. 

But the tension between Blanche and Stanley builds throughout the play to its violent conclusion that sends Blanche over the edge to pitiable compliance in agreeing to institutional help and "the kindness of strangers"; well done. 

Wetumpka Depot: "The Bachelorette Party"

A skillful acting ensemble carry the farcical intent of the Wetumpka Depot's production of Karen Schaeffer's The Bachelorette Party in a raucous laugh-out-loud evening. Director Beth Butler guides them through two acts of non-stop antics that leave audiences entertained throughout and happy at the outcome.

Even with last minute casting changes, the company [Tammy Arvidson, Seth Bordlee, Brad Cooper, Sydney Burdette Humphrey, Josh Carples, Christina Knuckles, Zac Morris, Brad Sinclair, Leanna Wallace] only occasionally appear tentative in their physical and vocal commitment, so audiences go willingly along for the ride.

Prepare yourself for slamming doors [there are seven entrances], characters literally being caught "with their pants down", several running gags, a few embarrassing moments associated with alcohol and recreational drugs, all in service of a formulaic comic plot in which the assorted couples plan -- in exactly the same way -- to escape a bachelorette party and meet for their private romantic dalliances. Hi-jinks abound.

Anything that can go wrong does go wrong, but as a comedy the end result when all the participants are eventually on-stage together, resolves things in a delightful way that pleases everyone.

Theatre AUM: "Buddies: a Bro-mantic Comedy"

With clever dialogue and engaging performances by Theatre AUM's seven ensemble actors under Neil David Seibel's able direction, Buddies: a Bro-mantic Comedy by Ben Abbott opened its Alabama debut on Thursday after its generation at the "Hollins Playwrights Lab" last Summer.

In a series of episodes, David [Meadow Lokey] and Julia [Sam Crevensten] host concurrent gatherings at their home: a book-club meeting for the women which is more about gossip than literature, and an awkward men's meeting where they watch football and reveal little about themselves or their mates.

Julia's sister Kelsey [Sarah Paterson] and her partner Adam [Michael James Pritchard], married couple Jake [Zameron Boozer] and Erica [Tara Laurel], and friend Billy [Aaron Rudnick] make up the mix of multi-dimensional characters who break the stereotypical male and female expectations.

And their children [never seen but impactfully present via special effects] enter and exit like tornadoes every once in a while.

While the women cajole their men to become more open and reveal to them their "secrets", the men -- uncomfortable and reluctant at first -- eventually discover for themselves and surprisingly for the women how liberated they become during the play's two acts.

It's all lighthearted fare interspersed with more serious investigations of such subjects as friendship, marriage, social discomfort, homophobia, political disagreement, and the possibilities of genuine Platonic love among men...all of which become catalysts for every character's growth.

Design elements are all top-notch in supporting the text and characters, though sound levels are frequently too soft; and actors' voices are sometimes drowned out by audience laughter or for lack of vocal support.

Buddies: a Bro-mantic Comedy is a delightful comedy that leaves audiences smiling and laughing, perhaps in recognizing a lot about themselves.

ASF" Blues in the Night"

It's all about the music on the closing weekend of Sheldon Epps's 1980 musical revue Blues in the Night in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's intimate Octagon Theatre. -- Directed by Ron OJ Parson, audiences are taken back to a run-down Chicago hotel c.1938, where three nameless women stay in their individual shabby rooms [scene design by Shaun Motley; costume design by Celeste Jennings] and share their experiences with the Blues through song.

There is no linear story, very little dialogue, and only a smattering of interaction among them, but lots of contact with the audience. -- And that's about it. So just sit back and enjoy the vocal dexterity of Cynthia F. Carter, Devereaux, Clare Kennedy and the "Man in the Saloon" [Percy V. Nesbary III] who provides the chauvinistic male commentary on the women's Blues, and also solos on guitar. -- There's also a dancer [Donovan McFadden] who unexplainably disappears for most of Act II.

Music Director Joel Jones and his on-stage quartet give expert attention to the nuances of some 25 memorable songs from the Blues and Jazz catalogue [Bessie Smith, Billy Strayhorn, Benny Goodman, Alberta Hunter, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, and others]; from the upbeat "Stomping' at the Savoy", to the heartbreaking "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", to the raunchy grit of "Rough and Ready Man" and "Take Me for a Buggy Ride", to the sad weariness of "Lush Life"; and the Band is featured by itself in what's credited as a Jam Session version of "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues" --Wow!

They accompany, support, and drive the songs forward, and all of the three women have numerous opportunities to showcase their talents. It's all an accomplished undertaking, and individual audience members will have their favorites. -- But it is Ms. Carter's charismatic characterization that is the emotional and visceral center of the show; she commands attention throughout with her powerful voice, confident character personality, and witty engagement with the audience.

Blues in the Night provides a good evening out in Montgomery; and if you weren't a fan of the Blues or Jazz beforehand, you probably will become one after this production.

Wetumpka Depot: "Monty Python's Spamalot"

For those lucky enough to have tickets for the final weekend of Monty Python's Spamalot [2004] at the Wetumpka Depot, you're in for a treat as director Kristy Meanor's energetic ensemble acting company and collaborative design and creative team continue their raucously irreverent musical journey following the excellent double-act of King Arthur [Scott Page] and his loyal horse Patsy [David Rowland] in their quest for the Holy Grail.

"Lovingly ripped off from the motion picture 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'" [1975], fans of the film gleefully anticipate the rogues-gallery of Pythonesque characters and situations that have entertained for decades, starting from 1969-1974 with "Monty Python's Flying Circus" on BBC-TV. -- The uninitiated will have to keep up as best they can and enjoy the ride.

Here you will find the rag-tag squabbling Knights of the Round Table [Tim Griggs, Gage Leifried, Seth Maggard, Jay Russell], The Lady of the Lake [Adrian Bush in various guises], ferocious rabbits, taunting French soldiers, the Knights that say "Ni", Not Dead Yet Fred, the Black Knight who gets dismembered before our eyes, and [of course] God. -- It's quite a workout for the supporting ensemble who play multiple characters and accomplish countless quick costume changes, sing and dance in production numbers, and carry forward the ever-changing plot.

Ms. Meanor is ably abetted particularly through disciplined musical direction by Randy Foster, clever choreography by Daniel Grant Harms, and brilliantly conceived costumes by Suzanne Booth in telling a satirical story that has something in it to offend just about everyone [sexual innuendo, scatological language, cross-dressing, and all manner of things]; but it is all done with such good-natured self-mocking foolery by the cast, that all can be forgiven quickly.

There are also a number of theatrical "in-jokes" with such songs as "The Song That Goes Like This", "You Won't Succeed on Broadway", and "The Diva's Lament"; but perhaps the signature song that encapsulates the entirety of Monty Python's Spamalot is the ever-optimistic "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in fueling everyone's search to find their own Grail.