Cloverdale Playhouse: "Next to Normal"

A stunning and powerful opening night performance of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Award winning musical Next to Normal received a well-earned spontaneous ovation from its full house audience at the Cloverdale Playhouse.

Meticulous direction by Randy Foster and Eleanor K. Davis guided an exceptional six-member ensemble through the rigors of a demanding vocal score [most of the 2+ hours playing time is sung, with little spoken dialogue] that tells the story of a suburban family grappling with the wife/mother's bipolar depression and the medical treatments she undergoes long after a traumatic event many years ago.

Groundbreaking in its time for stretching the content of musical theatre to objectively and compassionately portray the causes and effects of depression on ordinary families through Tom Kitt's rock-influenced score and Brian Yorkey's insightful lyrics, the Cloverdale Playhouse production rivets audience attention and challenges us to invest our own experiences with what happens on stage.

Arguably one of the most provocative adult-themed of the River Region's productions in recent memory, Next to Normal's center is Diana [Sarah Housley] who attempts to identify the cause of her depression, the effects it has on her family, and the increasingly aggressive methods the medical experts use to alleviate her condition.

Ms. Housley's exceptional performance [she sings with power and clarity, and portrays Diana's mental confusion and changing family relationships with subtle nuances] compels audiences to weigh each ambivalent moment as she carries them on her disorientating journey of self-discovery.

As her always supportive husband Dan, Gage Leifried elicits the conflicting impulses of a strong duty-bound spouse and father who doubts his ability to keep it all together. -- Tenth-grader Bella Posey as their over-achieving teenaged daughter Natalie delivers a mature debut performance at the Playhouse that belies her years and promises a bright theatrical future. -- Natalie's boyfriend Henry is an ingratiating Graham Butler, who becomes a counterpoint to Dan through his persistence in helping Natalie through her own emotional rollercoaster. -- As their son Gabe, Reese Lemaster's enigmatic portrayal is by turns a measure of Diana's condition and its cause, a help and a hindrance to her depression. -- And John Selden's dual roles as Diana's doctors [a "rock-star" and a "psychopharmacologist"], add some levity to the proceedings while also highlighting the seriousness of the medical profession's achievements and limitations.

With some 39 songs listed in the program, what we can and cannot know about our own or others' conditions is investigated and strategically dramatized in "You Don't Know", "I Am the One", "Superboy and the Invisible Girl", "Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling", "Song of Forgetting", among others. Individually and collectively, the ensemble actors interpret the informative lyrics with spot-on dramatic intention as well as with musical confidence.

The character driven costumes [Ms. Davis], evocative lighting [Chris Roquemore] and minimally appropriate props [J. Scott Grinstead/Sam Wootten] -- and the performances of the acting troupe -- are enhanced by another masterfully inventive set designed by J. Scott Grinstead: a multi-leveled exterior of a blue house architecturally defined by white trimming that has several cleverly disguised moving parts to define spaces and seamlessly segue from scene to scene.

Next to Normal stages a profound analysis of grief, depression, suicide. drugs, and medical ethics through an all-too-familiar scenario. The Cloverdale Playhouse's production targets our emotions and our appraisal of mental disease while leaving us with a suggestion that hard decisions determined by love can open the doors to a satisfactory resolution.

Way Off Broadway, Prattville: "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

Jon Jory's version of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes masterpiece, The Hound of the Baskervilles, is currently playing to full houses at Prattville's Way Off Broadway Theatre.

True to Conan Doyle's short story's conventions -- mysterious deaths, an isolated manor house, strange characters, many red-herrings and misdirections -- Jory's adaptation sustains the tension through a series of short scenes that require audiences to follow all the details as they try to identify the culprits before master sleuth Holmes [Kevin Morton] and his assistant Dr. Watson [Savannah Brown] resolve everything to our satisfaction.

There's a centuries-long history of mysterious deaths related to a curse on the Baskerville family that are attributed to a fearful phantom hound, the most recent one at Baskerville Hall that urges Dr. Mortimer [Russ Tipton] to engage Holmes and Watson to figure it out and protect the new owner Sir Henry Baskerville [Nate Greenawalt] from a similar fate.

Whether any of the characters are reliable witnesses is hard to tell, as details conflict with reports from the butler Barrymore [John Hill] and his wife [Sandra Hill], and from neighbor Stapleton [Luke Fenn] and his sister Beryl [Haley Falcione] -- not all is what it seems, and is complicated by the introduction of the mysterious Mrs. Lyons [Meagan Tuck]. -- Doubling as a Cabman and as Mr. Frankland, Jon Darby adds some freshness and details to the goings-on, and does so with confident appeal.

Much of the enjoyment for audiences comes from trying to stay one step ahead of the plot and character development, so no spoilers here. -- Suffice it to say that director Tara Fenn's troupe keep us in suspense from start to finish, and allowing us to change our collective minds as new evidence is divulged.

It isn't a long play [though long blackouts during scene changes added several minutes to the playing time], and could have sustained the atmosphere and dramatic tension by performing it without an intermission. That notwithstanding, The Hound of the Baskervilles remains one of Conan Doyle's best, and appeals to audiences today as it did when first penned in 1901.

Millbrook: "The Odd Couple: the Female Version"

A story about two unlikely roommates -- Felix Unger, a neurotic, neatnick newsman; Oscar Madison, a slovenly, devil-may-care sports writer -- are separated from their spouses, but when Felix moves in with Oscar, each one's habits quickly become the central comical conflict.

Neil Simon's 1965 The Odd Couple has been seen on Broadway and around the world, engendering a 1968 film and a popular 1970s television sitcom, and in 1985, The Odd Couple: the Female Version was born, and is currently playing in Millbrook.

Felix is now Florence, and Oscar becomes Olive; the weekly poker nights become a gathering of women friends playing "Trivial Pursuit"; and the upstairs British Pigeon sisters are now the Spanish Costazuela brothers. -- And pretty much everything else remains the same, continuing to pack a comical punch even though many of the popular culture references are now a bit stale.

Luckily, director Stephanie McGuire has conscripted a number of Millbrook's veterans in the featured roles [as well as in the supporting ones]. Karla McGhee shines as the messy and careless Olive, whose frustrations with Vicki Moses's fastidious Florence, afford audiences plenty of opportunities to identify with the conflict, laughing both at and with the two lead actors/roles.

The participants in the weekly board game, parallel the characters in the original male version, and each one -- Tracey Quotes, Tammy Arvidson, Donna Young, and Millbrook newcomer Ginger Connor -- creates a clear character believably.

When the brothers show up in Act II as "dates" for Florence and Olive, Manolo [Mark McGuire] and Jesus [Steve Phillips] add another dimension of cultural and language confusions, that are played with appropriate verve...what happens after the "date" is destined to repeat what we've just seen.

The Odd Couple: the Female Version is a lighthearted and pleasant evening out in Millbrook.

ASF: "Million Dollar Quartet"

If non-stop entertainment is what you're after -- a nostalgic compilation of some 22 songs performed without an intermission by a multi-talented ensemble -- you would be hard pressed to find a better example than the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's rollicking production of the award winning Million Dollar Quartet.

Based on an actual 1956 once-in-a-lifetime impromptu jam session at Sun Studios in Memphis, TN that brought together legendary music veterans Carl Perkins [Billy Finn], Johnny Cash [Chris Marsh Clark], Elvis Presley [Luke Monday] and then up and coming upstart Jerry Lee Lewis [Michael Kurowski], Million Dollar Quartet is a celebration of the early days of Rock'n'Roll spearheaded by Sun Records' founder, Sam Phillips [Josh Canfield], a man with a keen ear for raw talent that would have been passed over by establishment recording studios.

Narrated by Phillips, and joined by drummer Fluke [Tucker Cruz Marshall], Perkins' Brother Jay [Roy James Brown] on bass, and by Elvis's singer-girlfriend Dyanne [Fatima El-Bashir], the ensemble's infectious good will and impressive musical talents took ASF's opening night's audience on a fabulous ride.

They were treated to a variety of well and lesser known songs from each artist's repertoire: "Blue Suede Shoes", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Great Balls of Fire", and "Hound Dog" among them had the audience enthusiastically responding, sometimes singing along, and anticipating the next number throughout the hour and forty minute performance.

But there's a story here, too: Sun Studios (and Sam Phillips' pivotal role in giving unknown artists their starts in the early days of Rock'n'Roll), gave rise to the popularity of rock, blues, R&B, and rockabilly styles, and became renowned as the "birthplace of Rock'n'Roll". -- With each man at various stages in their careers, with a few personality clashes, and none of them content with the status quo, there are some hard decisions to make while acknowledging Phillips's role in their successes. History isn't always comfortable.

But this show is mostly about the music. And Million Dollar Quartet delivers a knock-out punch for a most satisfying evening out.

Theatre AUM: "Uncle Vanya"

Mike Winkelman is retiring from AUM, and his final directing project there -- a solid production of Anton Chekhov's 1898 comedy: Uncle Vanya -- brings students, alumni, staff and faculty as participants in a challenging piece of World Theatre.

And, in case anyone might wonder -- amidst the characters' restlessness, weariness, boredom, unrequited love, family disruptions, and wallowing in individual and group exhaustion from doing very little --  yes...it is a comedy that Winkelman taps for all its nonsensical glory, garnering well-earned laughs along the way, while allowing the serious matters equal attention.

In rural 19th Century Russia, Vanya [Neil David Seibel] and his niece Sonya [Yahzane Palmer] have been long-term caretakers of an estate controlled by Vanya's brother-in-law and Sonya's father Alexander Serebryakov [Sam Wallace], a "celebrated" Professor who has returned with his new young wife Elena [Amy May], setting the house in turmoil by changing the status quo of the daily routine. 

Dr. Astrov [Noah DePace] is on hand to treat members of the household, but seems more concerned with preserving the rapidly deteriorating forests nearby; Telegin [Worth Harris] and Yefim [Kelyn McIntyre] hang around with little to do; and Vanya's selectively hard of hearing mother Maria [Layne Holley], busies herself with socio-political pamphlets. 

There's not much of a plot in Uncle Vanya [subtitled: "Scenes from a provincial life"]; it's more about rich people complaining about their mundane existence, petty grievances against one another, and attempted love affairs doomed to failure. They bicker and chatter on without acting on their desires, and then cry and lament when things don't go their way. -- The best they can do by the end is endure. -- Only the family Nanny [Katie Pearson], has a reasonable voice in wanting the status quo to be restored, though when it is, and nothing much has changed, we are left with only a slightly optimistic future.

Production values are top-notch -- Chason Marvin [Lighting], Mike Mann [Sound], Mike Winkelman [Scenic], Val Winkelman [Costume] -- supporting the actors and director's vision throughout.

Too much rapid and vocally unsupported speech makes several characters [and some important information] hard to hear; though Ms. Holley, Ms. Pearson, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Seibel are always clear and articulate, delineating their characters and relationships with confidence.

Mr. Wallace's depiction of Serebryakov ranks high in this experienced actor's repertoire. And Mr. Seibel's Vanya: the play's central and most complex character, is subtle and surprising in his fluctuating nature, commanding our attention from start to finish, and allowing audiences to connect with Vanya's self-assessment.

An excellent way for Mr. Winkelman to end his directing career at Theatre AUM.

Pike Road: "Gypsy"

"May we entertain you?" -- Indeed you do in a sparkling production of Gypsy at the Pike Road Theatre Company, directed and choreographed with an infectious flair by James Keith Posey.

Based on the memoirs of iconic striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, this 1959 Arthur Laurents-Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim offering has been hailed by some as the "greatest American book-musical" for its powerful story, memorable songs, and extraordinarily forceful central character who has been played by such theatre icons as Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters, Patti Lupone, Angela Lansbury, Rosalind Russell, Tyne Daly, and Imelda Staunton.

At Pike Road, Jennifer Hollett joins their ranks in taking on the role of Rose, a tunnel-visioned stage mother in a love-hate relationship with her daughters June [Bella Posey] and Louise [Kaylee Baker], who she drags around the vaudeville circuit in her quest for successful performing careers from their childhood to young adult women. They eke out a living while Rose conducts herself in ever more forceful ways for them to make it to the big time, while vicariously living out her own dreams of living in the spotlight. -- And it takes its toll on their relationships as well as on Rose's business and romantic relationship with Herbie [Eric Arvidson], a manager who wants to marry her and puts up with her demands and tirades until he can't take it any longer.

Over the course of almost a three-hour playing time [the time rarely lags as the Pike Road Company keep us entertained and engaged throughout], we see the un-glamorous side of show business, the ups and downs of several careers, the demands and sacrifices of theatre gypsies looking for their big break, the assortment of talents from these local actors, and the passion felt by those in thrall of greasepaint and lights.

From childhood versions of Baby June [Caroline Suggs] and Baby Louise [Maddie Otwell] prancing their way through repetitive updates to "May We Entertain You" to a cleverly staged segue to the grown up June and Louise, and the various chorus boys and girls invigorating the story line, audiences are treated to colorful production numbers -- and yes, there's a cow on-stage.

Key to both advancing the plot and demonstrating the talents of the cast are songs like "Some People", "You'll Never Get Away from Me", "If Momma Was Married", "All I Need Is the Girl", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "You Gotta Get a Gimmick", and, of course "Rose's Turn", each of which has achieved permanency in the musical theatre repertoire.

No matter how much we feel for June [the talented headliner] and Louise [relegated to the background], and finding when June deserts them to marry tap-dancing Tulsa [Kevin Mohajerin], and understand Louise's reluctance to take to the burlesque stage on her mother's dictum to "strut and drop a shoulder strap...but always be a lady", the focus is always on Rose...and Ms. Hollett commands the stage and our attention and admiration. She never falters either vocally or in presenting a complex character.  It's quite a powerful performance from start to finish.

ASF: "The Tempest"

"Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not." -- Caliban, Act III, Scene ii The Tempest.

Director Rick Dildine's interpretation of Shakespeare's late-career The Tempest is playing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for an all-too-short run. Editing the play to a compact 110-minute intermissionless production, setting it in the late 18th Century on Christopher and Justin Swader's grand hulk of a skeletal wrecked ship, and adding a folksy musical score to span the centuries and signal its relevance to modern audiences, it details a story of revenge and forgiveness, of love and family, of control and slavery, of music and of magic.

Much of the magic on-stage comes in the person of Greta Lambert in the principal role of Prospero: a sorcerer/magician seeking revenge on the perpetrators of her exile some twelve years ago, when she and her then infant daughter Miranda [Sigrid Wise] were ousted by her brother Antonio [Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper] from the Dukedom of Milan. With the assistance of Gonzalo [Greg Thornton], they escaped to a remote island, where her study of magic has given her power and authority over a savage Caliban [Chauncy Thomas] and an airy spirit Ariel [Thani Brant], both of whom want their freedom.

Ms. Lambert's ASF career spans the last 38 years, during which she has impressed and delighted audiences in portraying countless Shakespearean heroines, and a host of classical and contemporary protagonists, putting her indelible mark on each with skillfully measured physical and vocal exactness that embraces each character's humanity and affords audiences the ability to connect with them.

Here, she is a protective and compassionate mother, a determined taskmaster, a master of revenge and restraint, a skilled magician, and one who learns that love and forgiveness are the very things that can set one free.

When Prospero shipwrecks her antagonists by conjuring a storm at the start of the play, dispersing them in separate groups around the island, she gets her revenge in motion. But her purpose is more than that: she wants Miranda to meet and fall in love with Ferdinand [Billy Finn], the son of Alonzo [Michael A. Sheppard] the King of Naples, and to ultimately unite Naples with Milan. Mr. Finn and Ms. Wise are thoroughly credible in their depiction of "love at first sight". And Ariel is empowered to do her bidding to manipulate her plans and by the end, bring them all together to resolve the various conflicts.

As a counterpoint to Prospero, et al., Shakespeare introduces the King's jester Trinculo [Alex Brightwell] and drunken butler Stephano [Chris Mixon] -- the two of them are a rambunctious comical double-act --  whose meeting with Caliban show how both the aristocrats and the lower classes devise murder plots to have things for themselves. The King's brother Sebastian [Ben Cherry], along with Adrian [Danny Adams] and Francisco [Pete Winfrey] plot to overthrow him, and Caliban conscripts Trinculo and Stephano to overthrow Prospero.

It is a distinct pleasure to see and hear three of ASF's current and former actors reunite on the stage. While the assorted skills and craft of the entire acting company are on display throughout, and the musical elements are engaging and skillfully connected to Shakespeare's intentions, Ms. Lambert, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Mixon give a master class in speaking Shakespeare's verse clearly and with character driven purpose.

Ms. Lambert is in charge from the first moment to the last, tracking Prospero's journey from revenge to forgiveness, and seeking her own freedom from revenge in promising to give up magic. As she breaks her magic staff and sets Ariel free, she begs the audience's indulgence/applause to set her free...and we comply with her request with a well-deserved ovation both for Prospero and for the ever gracious and resilient Greta Lambert.