Sunday, December 15, 2024

Cloverdale Playhouse: "Shadowlands"

In addition to The Chronicles of Narnia and other literary masterpieces, C. S. Lewis is highly regarded as one of the 20th Century's most renowned Christian apologists. In the early-to-mid century he was one of a small coterie of Oxford intellectuals who met regularly to discuss a range of philosophical, theological, social, human subjects. He was a bachelor who shared accommodations with his brother "Warnie", living a comfortable and relatively uneventful life. -- Then Joy Davidman came into his life and changed him forever, as he moved from skepticism to being in touch with his own emotions.  Joy was an American Jewish divorcee who struck up an acquaintance in a series of letters that demonstrated intellectual abilities equal to his as well as a straightforward demeanor. -- An unlikely match, but one sensitively recounted in William Nicholson's Shadowlands which is currently on offer at the Cloverdale Playhouse

Director Sarah Kay Grinstead's adroit manipulation of Nicholson's script relies on the talents of her excellent ensemble cast to engage audiences as they convincingly deliver the philosophical themes [the "shadowlands" of the title emerge in several ways as they also develop plot and character] along with some gently humorous romantic comedy dialogue.

At the center, Lewis -- referred to here as "Jack" [J. Scott Grinstead] and Davidman [Rachel Pickering] allow themselves time to develop their relationship from pen-pals to an awkward social afternoon tea gathering to a marriage of convenience to a stronger love, through cancer and death and ultimately to an understanding of what it takes to face life with all its complications and pains, and to emerge stronger. -- It's a controlled and fully convincing story.

They are joined by Joy's young son Douglas [a soft-spoken Carson Campbell], Lewis's brother "Warnie" [John McWilliams makes him a slightly stuffy but sweet man who allows others to dominate the scenes he is in], and the aforementioned Oxford intellectuals played by Todd Taseff, Scott Rouse, Scott Denton, and Evan Price: each with his own distinct personality and philosophical bent that contribute to and comment on the Lewis/Davidman plot. -- Sarah Worley as the Nurse while Joy suffers from painful bone cancer, and Ethan Montgomery as the Registrar round out the cast.

Mr. Grinstead also serves as Scenic Designer, creating yet another deceptively simple multi-leveled set, placing Lewis's famous "wardrobe" at its focal point that makes a subtle commentary on the text.

There's a lot to think about both during and after for audiences experiencing Shadowlands. You'll probably be a lot better off.


Sunday, December 8, 2024

Pike Road: "Meredith Wilson's Miracle on 34th Street"

Originally titled Here's Love on its debut in 1963, Meredith Wilson later changed it to Miracle on 34th Street, as it was based on the 1947 film of that name that featured Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and a young Natalie Wood. -- An updated 1994 film with a marvelous Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle is another popular variation.

Wilson's musical rendition of Miracle on 34th Street contains orchestrations of his oeuvre familiar to those aficionados of The Music Man, leaving audiences tapping their collective toes or relishing the romantic moments. -- And though Wilson wrote music, lyrics, and book, Pike Road's director James Keith Posey and company occasionally use references to later dates than in the 1963 text.

Posey has as usual collected a multi-talented ensemble of actors young and old[er] to give energy to Wilson's rather lackluster story that leaves a few issues unresolved. -- Divorcee Doris Walker [Mara Woddal, in fine voice] organizes the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that culminates with Santa Claus arriving to start the Christmas Season and the shopping frenzy that follows. Her daughter Susan [Ruby Mallory] has been brought up to not believe in Santa, but when Kris Kringle [a thoroughly believable Sam Wallace] saves the day as a last minute substitute for the drunk Santa who Doris had hired, it doesn't take long for Susan, in the company of neighbor/lawyer Fred Gailey [Jason Isbell] to realize that Kris is the real Santa, whose lessons about faith and humanity and compassion and treating everyone with love are the backbone of the plot.

It's good to see Lee Bridges back on-stage as department store tycoon R. H.Macy, Kristen Vanderwal as a bewildered Miss Crookshank, and Assistant Director Jason Morgan providing yet another excellent comic portrayal as Marvin Shellhammer. -- And when Kris is sent to court to test his sanity, Eric Arvidson gives a solid performance as Judge Martin Group who is faced with the dilemma of determining that Santa Claus does exist and in the person of Kris Kringle.

All this is told in two acts over two-and-a-half hours [a bit overlong], with numerous pitch-perfect songs by the cast and Ensemble -- "Arm in Arm", "You Don't Know", "Here's Love", "Pine Cones and Holly Berries/It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", "That Man Over There" and "Love Come Take Me" -- and production numbers delightfully choreographed by Kim Isbell.

There was a festive atmosphere in the theatre last night, even though the audience was small. Yet, Meredith Wilson's Miracle on 34th Street remains one of the Christmas Season's engaging stories to share with the River Region.


Tuesday, November 26, 2024

ASF: "A Christmas Carol"

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is kicking off the holiday season with a return of former Artistic Director Rick Dildine's version of A Christmas Carol. Dildine and assistant director Matt Lytle treat River Region audiences to their fast-paced and significantly abbreviated entertainment.

This high-level entertainment [ensemble acting, inventive and flexible set, stunning visual projections, lush period costumes, catchy Appalachian music performed by an accomplished on-stage band] pleased the small opening night audience who cheered at the curtain call after a mere 90-minutes, including an unnecessary 15-minute intermission.

Despite its brevity, the major plot elements of Charles Dickens's classic 1843 tale of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge's [Paul Slide Smith] Christmas Eve reclamation journey are retained.  -- As the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley [Tarah Flanagan] intervenes on his behalf by sending the Ghosts of Christmases Past [Adrian Denise Kiser], Present [Chauncy Thomas], and Future [Garrett Van Allen] to show him the way to a new life of honoring Christmas throughout the year, the story unravels quickly, and we watch Scrooge's gradual awakening to his misdeeds and how to correct them.

Scrooge's nephew Fred [Harry Thornton] will not be deterred by his uncle's "Bah, humbug!" from celebrating Christmas with a spirit of compassionate good will towards everyone. -- Scrooge's clerk Bob Cratchit [Matt Lytle] knows how to celebrate Christmas despite his economic woes and the declining health of his youngest child Tiny Tim [Samuel Joseph Mason on opening night].

As an idealistic and romantic Young Scrooge [Zack Powell] woos and loses Belle [Oriana Lada] because of his focus on material wealth, and former employer Mr. Fezziwig [Chris Mixon] sets a fine example of the best uses of money to give pleasure to others, we are shown several examples of the unsatisfying impact of greed, until the ultimate moment of facing death without leaving a meaningful legacy.

There are a couple of enhancements since last year's production: (1) a bit more attention to Fezziwig's influence in the Christmas Eve dance at he party he throws for his employees, and (2) more pointed staging where an invisible Scrooge is placed between other characters who are talking about him, thereby making their critical words about him have a direct impact on his eventual change. -- And, like last year, there are two "Young Company" cast members drawn from the local community who alternate for each performance.

In the end, Mr. Smith's gleeful Scrooge is infectious; and who can argue with ringing in this festive season with Tiny Tim's resounding "God bless us, every one!"


Monday, October 14, 2024

Cloverdale Playhouse: "Noises Off"

Put the cares of the world on hold for a few hours, sit back, and relish the behavior of the Cloverdale Playhouse actors as they go through three acts of hilarious laugh-a-minute antics in the ever popular sex-farce Noises Off [1982] by British playwright Michael Frayn.

Mike Winkelman serves both as director and scenic designer in this robust comedy featuring a collection of Playhouse veterans and actors appearing there for the first time. The Company includes: Sydney Burdette, Anne Gunter, Jacob Holmberg, Sarah Housley, Laura Johnstono, Kevin McCormack, Chris Paulk, Christopher Roquemore, and John Selden. --Winkelman's sure comic hand challenges the acting ensemble to discover and enthusiastically embody the assorted eccentricities of their characters. And full-house audiences are eating it up.

We watch as a mediocre English regional acting company try valiantly to mount a mediocre sex-farce called "Nothing On": during a significantly under-rehearsed pre-tour dress rehearsal in Act I, followed by Act II's run of the same scene we saw in Act I, except from backstage [watch the set change between the Acts to admire the Playhouse's stagecraft], and then we return to the Act I scene near the end of their tour where everything has run amok.

But, we are also treated to the foibles and personal relationships within the touring Company. So, we have Cloverdale Playhouse actors portraying English actors who are playing roles in a bad play. -- Don't worry; you'll figure it out [though more comprehensive program notes could help]. -- No further specific plot or character spoilers here...they might ruin the fun; and you ought to experience it for yourselves.

As farce requires split-second timing and a lot of physical commitment from the actors, we can anticipate slamming doors [there are several of them, and they don't always work], pratfalls, misplaced props, sexual innuendo, and broad characterizations to carry the load. -- And we watch as Winkelman's exquisite troupe's frustrations give way to downright sabotage and anarchy as both the production of "Nothing On" and their personal lives deteriorate around them.

Two major credits here go to Winkelman's stunning transforming set, and a remarkable ensemble of actors who individually and collectively provide a side-splitting, face-aching evening of the best entertainment around.


Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Pike Road Theatre Company: "Into the Woods"

Ten years on from its first River Region presentation at the Cloverdale Playhouse, and again at Faulkner University a year later, Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into the Woods [1986] is again gracing the Faulkner stage, this time in the Pike Road Theatre Company Artistic Director James Keith Posey's masterfully sung iteration.

Sondheim's challenging musical score and lyrics [here accompanied by overly loud pre-recorded orchestrations], matched with Lapine's sophisticated dialogue, provides a suitably dark version of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, staying true to the original instead of some popular sanitized versions.

Many of the iconic stories are here -- Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk -- as well as the childless Baker and Wife; and, of course, there are Giant and a Witch.

But there's more: Sondheim and Lapine intertwine their stories, bringing everyone "into the woods" where mysterious forces abound. You see, the Baker and his Wife are childless because the Witch cast a spell that can only be resolved if they bring her "a cow as white as milk [Jack sells his milky white cow for magic beans], a cape as red as blood [Little Red's cape is blood red], hair as yellow as corn [Rapunzel's long locks are blonde], and a slipper as pure as gold [Cinderella's slipper that she loses at the King's Festival]". -- And we get caught up in their stories and misadventures while we're entertained by attempts to secure a happy-ever-after result.

Many lessons about tolerance, shared responsibility, honesty, consequences of our actions, and fantasy vs. reality are shared throughout the 2-hour and 45-minute production that the ensemble cast deliver with convincing performances and stunning singing voices, top among them are Brandtley McDonald and Kristen Vanderwal as the Baker and Wife ["It Takes Two"], David Rowland and Cameron Williams as two narcissistic Princes ["Agony" brings down the house], Riley Tate Wilson as Jack ["Giants in the Sky"], Grayson Hataway as Cinderella, with Mr. McDonald, Mr. Wilson, and Olivia Roden as Little Red Riding Hood ["No One is Alone"].

There are several surprises from Michael Buchanan in the dual roles of the Narrator/Mysterious Man, and from a "transformed" Witch in the person of Sarah Carlton.

And much can be made of the musical's warning to us all that "Children Will Listen" to what adults tell them either through their words or their actions.


Monday, October 7, 2024

Theatre AUM: "Red"

A compact bio-drama about the temperamental abstract artist Mark Rothko is a tantalizing one-act two-hander pitting Rothko [Jay Russell] against his eager assistant and novice artist Ken [Michael James Pritchard] as he prepares a series of murals commissioned to decorate the new elegant "Four Seasons" restaurant in New York City's Seagram's Building circa 1959.

Doubtful of placing his "art" in a place where a well-heeled dining public might not even look at the murals, Rothko questions his own hypocrisy for accepting the commission -- for money? for fame? for what? -- using Ken as a sounding-board; but Ken has ideas of his own about how art movements evolve and the artist's responsibility to art and the public.

John Logan's Red is astutely directed at Theatre AUM by Michael Krek who balances his actors' rapid-fire dialogue [a kind of Socratic method Q&A] with moments of thoughtful stillness as their characters introduce a wealth of heady subjects: they disagree about the nature of art, the definition of an artist, and the very act of creating. With forays into Classical drama's tension between Apollonian [reason] and Dionysian [emotion] co-existence, Darwinian survival of the fittest, Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy", and Oedipal impulses, both Rothko and Ken debate and try to protect their opposing aspirations.  

And Mr. Russell and Mr. Pritchard are more than up to the task of validating their roles with dynamic characterizations. Each challenges the other's aspirations and assumptions in ways that keep audience attention, allowing both combatants to score points off the other and forcing us to face the question that bookends the show: "What do you see?" in any painting might leave the value of art up to the individual who views or experiences it.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

ASF: "Dear Jack, Dear Louise"

Popular award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig its best known for witty comedies [Lend Me a Tenor], musicals [Crazy for You], and outlandish spoofs on the classics [Baskerville], so his romantic comedy Dear Jack, Dear Louise -- a two-hander that opened last week in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's intimate Octagon Theatre -- would seem at first glance to be a departure from the norm. 

Not so...it bears the stamp of his oeuvre: snappy dialogue, fast-paced action, and characters audiences are meant to root for.

Based on the true story of how Ludwig's parents met through the exchange of letters during World War II -- Jack [Pete Winfrey], a shy doctor is serving Stateside in Oregon at the beginning of the War and later posted to the European front; Louise [Oriana Lada], an outgoing Brooklyn born actress/dancer aspires to Broadway stardom. -- Opposites attract, don't they? And we know from the outset where this is going.

What begins as a dutifully polite exchange of letters [their fathers, who were friends, thought it would be a good idea for them to "meet"], develops over 3+ years into an endearing love story. In time, the language of their correspondences gradually loosens up as they share thoughts and concerns, until they admit they like each other and want to meet in person...and this becomes the central device that thwarts their meeting for a variety of reasons; and it sustains the tension because we have come to like them.

There is plenty of humor here too. Though the disappointments of not meeting either because letters took a long time to be delivered, or Jack's commanding officer delays granting him leave, or his posting overseas makes it impossible, or Louise's taking an acting job with a touring company complicates things, they take it in good humor despite the growing frustrations as their mutual feelings develop into love.

Ludwig hasn't penned the letters as stand-alone complete epistles as A. R. Gurney did in his Pulitzer Prize winning Love Letters; instead he presents snippets of Jack's and Louise's letters that enables his characters to comment quickly as if in face-to-face conversations. A naturalistic device that brings them into close contact with each other and to us, the audience.

Mr. Winfrey and Ms. Lada are almost always on stage together with a few brief times out of our sight, and the chemistry between them is palpable, even though they never look at each other during the two acts. -- Director Risa Brainin stages them so we can see their faces and register their feelings. She also establishes a rapid-fire pace with the dialogue that the actors deliver with alacrity so every moment speaks to the truth in their personalities and situations.  They speak with little commentary, but nonetheless invite us into their lives.

The impact on War on the private lives of both Jack and Louise resonates with us, and while Dear Jack, Dear Louise is more than a nostalgic paean to a more innocent time [listen to the sound track of many Big Band hits], the period costumes by Val Winkelman use fabrics, cuts and finishes, and a warm muted color palette that transports audiences to the 1940s, and helps in accessing the universals of a romantic love story.