Boston Theatre Marathon '06

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Boston Theatre Marathon '06" by 50 Playwrights

Date: Mon, May 22, 9:08 AM

Quicktake on THEATRE MARATHON '06

     The eighth Boston Theatre Marathon, running for the second year in May rather than in connection with the actual event, showed some general improvement in the writing of its 10 minute pieces, if not in the diversity of participation or the ambitions of the work. Many of the more notable works, from Robert Bonotto's opening piece, "Mal Canto," an opera burlesque featuring Sara DeLima and Robert Saoud with Jeffrey Goldberg at the piano to Jack Neary's closer, a character study of two actresses written for and performed by IRNE winners Ellen Coulson and Bobbie Steinbach were sketches appropriate for revues. Very few pieces tried to complete a dramatic arc in 10 minutes. But the entertainments were varied, including Richard Snee's "Black Irish" performed with his wife Paula Plum or Ted Reinstein's "Fine!", a political satire featuring Barlow Adamson, Sean McGuirk, and Ilyse Robbins. There were notable solo performances such as Ellen Peterson's tough wife in Janet Kenney's "Weight," Kevin Dunkleberg's tattooed man in John Kuntz' "Oscar," or on a more serious note, Cristi Miles in J.K.Walsh's "Huma's Loom."
     Past marathon participants included Eliza Rose Fichter and Debra Wise playing mother and mother in Patrick Gabridge's unique family drama, Vince Siders and Jeff Gill in Jon Shanahan's "Brushstroke." a rumination on artistic impulse and Will Lyman and Melinda Lopez in Jon Lipsky's intense duet, ""Belly of the Whale." Andrea Kennedy's "Bobby Came Home" with Nathaniel McIntyre as a returning Iraq War vet was a searing comment on the consequences of combat. And Robert Mattson's "Martinis, Dry & Bitter" gave Jennifer Condon another plum role seated at the bar.
     The Boston Theatre Marathon continues to fulfill its place in the local theatre scene as a charity event and a chance for the diversity of local theatre companies, from the Wellesley Summer Theatre doing Megan Maile Green's "Theology Class" using members of their soon-to-open "Ideal Husband" to the Portland Stage having fun with Jason Wilkin's "Kickass Librarian," a variously political sketch. It remains a chance to see the range of actors already mentioned, plus groups such as Rough & Tumble, who did part of their current piece, "Hinterlands" which closes this coming weekend to QE2 who did George Sauer's "Miss Marple..." with Charlotte Ann Dore, Jennifer Barton Jones, and Helen McElwain. Sauer's latest, "Heading for Eureka" opens this coming weekend next door in the Plaza. McElwain, another Marathon veteran, also appeared in Leslie Harrell Dillen's "Brain Surgery" opposite Robert Murphy, who also showed up in Ernest Thompson's "American Terrorist," another oblique swipe at current affairs. And the listing could go on. Quite simply, you hadda be there. Next year, go.

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"Boston Theatre Marathon '06" by 50+ Playwrights, Sunday May 21

sponsored by Boston Playwrights' Theatre in the Wimberley, Calderwood Pavilion

BCA, 529 Tremont, Boston
Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Island of Slaves

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Island of Slaves" by Pierre Marivaux, translated/adapted by Gideon Lester

Date: Thurs, May 18, 11:44 PM

Quicktake on ISLAND OF SLAVES

     The final offering for the season from the A.R.T. is another dismal reconception of a minor classic, this time one of Pierre Marivaux's philosophical comedies from pre-Revolutionary France. While their joint production with SITI of "La Dispute" had some amusement value, this mangled version of "L'Ile des Esclaves" is set in grungy theatrical locale, this time by David Zinn, using ideas left over from "Orpheus X." Instead of an island off Greece ruled by escaped slaves, director Robert Woodruff has designated the locale to be a rundown basement club featuring drag queens, presided over by Thomas Derrah in a blond wig as Trivelin, the one of the five original speaking characters in Marivaux's 11 scene dissertation on overbearing masters and long-suffering servants.
     The first pairing of master and slave washed up on this mythical shore are John Campion, whose most notable part at the ART in the past few seasons was Oedipus, as irasible Iphicrate and ART veteran, Remo Airaldi as Arlequin, his downtrodden smart-aleck slave. Next comes ART original Karen MacDonald as Euphrosine, a hard taskmasters and her sullen maid, Cleanthis, played by newcomer Fiona Gallagher. The premise of this comedy. blown much out of proportion in this production, is that under the rule of this island's inhabitants, masters must become slaves and vice versa. The drag queen chorus (Freddy Franklin, Ryan Carpenter, Adam Shanahan Airline Inthyrath, and Santio C. Cupon) is evidently supposed to highlight this reversal, but instead becomes manages to overshadow the argument of the play, try as the cast might to get through Gideon Leaster's versions of the original confrontations. By the time the situation is reconciled, with mutual apologies, the audience is just glad the 90 minutes of high-volume antics are over.
     While Campion and Airaldi manage to set things up in scene one, the rest of the show can be summed up by the scene of Euphrosine's humiliation midway through, where MacDonald shows her loyalty to the ART by being strapped to a revolving target wearing a pig mask while paint is thrown at her by the queens. The original show played 127 times in the repertory of the Theatre-Italien, an evolved commedia troupe, between 1725-1768 despite the French court's lack of enthusiasm for its preaching against the mistreatment of servants. The play was revived for the repertory of the Comedie-Francaise in 1930 and has had success recently in English language productions even here in the States. But ramping up the stakes of "L'Ile des Esclaves" rather timid morality to the level of this ART effort, as in the ART's previous excursion with "La Dispute," results in another exercise of theatricality, this time tinged with the theatre of cruelty accomplishing little other than titillation. If there's a lesson about man's inhumanity to man being taught, it's more typified by the artistic license exercised onstage than by anything in this abortive text.

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"Island of Slaves" by Pierre Marivaux, May 13 - June 11

A.R.T.at Loeb Drama Center

64 Brattle St. Harvard Sq., (617) 547 - 8300
A.R.T.

Love's Labours' Lost

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Love’s Labour’s Lost" by Wm. Shakespeare

Date: Wed, May 17, 11:50 PM

Quicktake on LOVE”S LABOUR”S LOST

     The most innovative staging during the Huntington’s Theatre Company’s current production of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, directed by Nicholas Martin, happens up in a tree. There’s also the Princess of France’s yatch, seen as a cut-out floating against the background. On the other hand, the opening set which features a huge chiascuro backdrop of the King’s library looming over a long table tends to overwhelm almost everything that happens under its immanence. Thus the four gentlemen, the King of Navarre and his companions, Dumaine, Longaville, and Berowne, start off at a disadvantage which only Noah Bean as Berowne manages to overcome. Their future loves however arrive on said yatch with a good deal of useful luggage. Their set, designed by Alexander Dodge, and the background for most of the play is the afore-mentioned monumental tree, which moves across the stage as needed.
     The ladies, like the gents are costumed in turn of the last century pale upper-class garmsents, in the best BBC late-Victorian mode, which makes them rather indistinguishable, except perhaps for Berowne’s partner, Rosaline, played by Zabyna Guevra. This pair, proto- Beatrice and Benedick come closest to creating the romantic aura necessary to make this overly poetic show work. As it is, the comic characters, notably Will LeBow as the fantastical Spaniard, Don Armado, from the King’s court. and Neil A. Casey, as Lord Boyet, the Princess’ chamberlain, more or less steal the show. They’re joined by Robert Jason Jackson as Holofernes, the schoolmaster, and Bill Mootos as Sir Nathaniel, the curate. Jeremy Beck as the Don’s page. Moth, has to overcome his Little Lord Fauntleroy suit but has his moments. particularly as the infant Hercules. And for the really low comedy there’s Peter Zachari as Dull the constable pursuing Costard, the clown in overalls, played by Tommy Schrider, and his main squeeze, Jaquanetta, the buxom dairymaid, played by Elisa Bocanegra. She’s also been carrying on with the Don, with the inevitable result as the show’s comic climax. The costumes for the comedians are much more interesting than the bland whites and beiges worn by the four prime couples.
     The show is enlivened by an original score based on ragtime and music hall tunes, played live. LeBow even gets to play the number which opens the second half, ably performed by Beck. All-in-all, it’s a pleasant production with high production values and respectable performances. There’s just not much development and only Berowne and the Don are consistantly memorable. There will be two more community productionms of this show in the suburbs this summer. The comparison will be interesting.

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"Love’s Labour’s Lost" by Wm. Shakespeare, May 12 - JUNE 11

Huntington Theatre Co. at B.U.Theatre

294 Huntington Ave. (617) 266 - 0800
HTC

HINTERLANDS :Season One

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Hinterlands" by Dan Milstein et al.

Date: Sun, May 14, 8:50 PM

Quicktake on HINTERLANDS

     For this productions, Rough & Tumble has metamorphosed into "The Hinterlands Revue," a traveling variety troupe sometime in the late 1920s, wandering the byways of Pennsylvania, perhaps. Company veterans, Kristin Baker, Irene Daley, and George Saulnier III are joined by David Krinitt, Harry LaCoste, and two members of the Snappy Dance Co., Tim Gallagher and Bonnie Duncan. Bonnie has been the company's costumer for the past couple of years and continues in that capacity. Director Dan Milstein is largely responsible for the scenario and script, though one senses the usual company input. The show has a sense of melancholy as the troupe struggles to deal with various crises and changes, but also has a good deal of fun. The pace is leisurely but will probably pick up as they run. Fred Harrington's live contributions from the keyboard might hurry them along faster.
     They've configured the Calderwood rehearsal hall differently this time, facing the three-quarter seating towards the entrances which are canvassed arcades like entering an old time circus. The acting area is three-quarter with vintage folding seating. Bring a pillow. Designer Jeremy Barrett has created a large false proscenium which rest against the balcony behind the acting area, serving as the entrance for a rolling wagon and various furniture units. There's juggling, dance, acrobatics, etc. as behooves such a show, but also some heartbreak. That's show-biz. Longtime Rough & Tumble fans will relate to this stage of the company's search for "theatre that doesn't suck."

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"Hinterlands" by Dan Milstein et al., May 12 - 27

Rough & Tumble Theatre at Calderwood Rehearsal Studio

BCA, 527 Tremont, (617) 933 - 8600
Rough & Tumble

Manifest/Destiny

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Manifest/Destiny" by Vladimir Zelevinsky

Date: Sat, May 13,11:34 PM

Quicktake on MANIFEST/DESTINY

     Previous scripts by Vladimir Zelevinsky, playwright-in-residence at the Theatre Coop have required considerable more actors and were set in fabled locations. "Manifest/Destiny" has only four players, a few props and bits of furniture, but has numerous characters from several centuries and encompasses the entire United States, the Atlantic and Europe. In some ways, it's a perfect show for Theatre Coop's finale at the Peabody House on Broadway in Somerville, about six blocks north of the Sullivan Sq. T-station.
     Zelevinsky has distilled the immigrant experience with some emphasis on the experience of Jewish and Irish emigres, and concentrating mostly on the 19th century. The central motif of the first part, "Manifest," has a mixed group on steerage passengers crossing the Atlantic in a leaking steamer. To pass the time they speak of their past lives and their manner of going to the New World. The goals and tragedies of their lives are well considered. The second section is not as polished as it details the further travels of newcomers from the East Coast into the West. This material needs more focus and a more forceful conclusion, but has several moving sections and a bit more humor. Perhaps some reference to the current immigration crisis would be appropriate.
     For the last nine seasons, the Theatre Cooperative has produced a variety of thought-provoking plays often as regional premieres. Attendance and fundraising have been erratic, so the company is going on hiatus, leaving its current home. "Manifest/Destiny" featuring Robert Doris, Linda Goetz, Korinne Hertz, and John McClain could however be easily staged almost anywhere, so we might look for its reappearance next season. But why take the chance? Parking isn't that difficult along Broadway and public transportation is an option. Help the Theatre Coop to a graceful exit.

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"Manifest/Destiny" by Vladimir Zelevinsky, May 12 - 27

The Theatre Cooperative at Eliz.Peabody House

277 Broadway, Somerville (617) 625 -1300
Theatre Cooperative

Wonder of the World

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Wonder of the World" by David Lindsay-Abaire

Date: Fri, May 12 11:42 PM

Quicktake on WONDER OF THE WORLD

     Vokes Players' spectacular winter production of "Amadeus" was a hard act to follow, and while the acting in "Wonder of the World", another of David Lindsay-Abaire's skewed takes on modern society and women in it is worth the admission--if you can get a ticket--the technical support for this offering is merely sufficient. There's no organizing theme to the variety of scenes, starting with the opening, This is one of those production where the crew needs to incorporated in the show, probably be costumes changes, unless some sort of complex unit set's been devised.
     The central character, Cass Harris, is played with full out by Kathleen Dalton, with David Wood as Kip, her husband with a guilty secret, and more importantly, Kimberly McClure as Lois, the woman she meets on her pilgrimage to Niagara Falls. McClure's deft underplaying as an abandoned and alcoholic wife planning to commit suicide by going over the falls in a barrel forms a predictable support to Dalton's flights of fancy. The rest of this cast of comedians includes stalwart Bill Stambaugh, the captain of the Maid of the Mist who Cass takes up with, Deanna Swan and Brad Walters as a pair of would-be private eyes Kip hires to locate her, and most impressively, Anne Damon, as everyone else, starting with a woman Cass buys a blonde wig from, the pilot of a sightseeing helicopter--trying to overcome a fear of heights, three waitresses at three different themed restaurants--all in the same scene, and finally, a marriage counselor who shows up wearing a clown costume because she's just been volunteering at a children's hospital. Kip incidentally is afraid of clowns.
     Like Abaire's other two notable plays, the cockeyed world view of "Wonder of the World" must become believable. This cast under Doug Sanders make it work. For their summer time show, John Barrett will direct the Vokes Players production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a landmark play which continues to resonate in the American political landscape.

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"Wonder of the World" by David Lindsay-Abaire, May 4 - 20

Vokes Players at Vokes Theatre

RT#20, Wayland MA, (508) 358 - 4034
Vokes Players

Kong's Night Out

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Kong's Night Out" by Jack Neary

Date: Thurs, May 11, 8:24 AM

Quicktake on KONG'S NIGHT OUT

     After a season of shows with serious social comment of one sort or another, the Lyric and Spiro Veloudos returns to their other speciality--farce with no obvious redeeming social value, except good-natured laughter. Jack Neary's last original play on their stage was "Beyond Belief," giving his bitter sweet comic take on the tribulations of the Church, but in "Kong's Night Out" it's competitive human nature and basic silliness to the fore. The cast couldn't be more suitable.

     To start with, Larry Coen is Myron Segal, the hapless producer of "Foxy Felicia," a frothy new 1933 musical set to open the same night his arch-rival Carl Denham is showing his new attraction, "the eighth wonder of the world." up the street. Myron''s invested his mother Sally's life savings in the show. She's a stripper played by IRNE winner Ellen Coulton. He's also dependent on M.J.J.Cashman's Siegfried Higginbottom, a foreign investor with a yen for Sally. To add to Segal's problems, his niece, Daisy, shows up from Buffalo. She wants to get into show business, has an important letter from his sister which Myron ignores, and is played by Lordan Napoli, making a triumphant return to the Lyric. Then there's Steve Gagliastro as Segal's gun-toting henchman, Willie, who's improving his vocabulary. Willie and Daisy hit it off right away. Segal's wife, an actress named Bertille, played full out by New Rep stalwart Rachel Harker, is secretly carrying on an affair with Denham, played by Redfeather's Timothy Smith. Myron didn't give her the lead in "Foxy Felicia." To complete the confusion, there's BU grad Sarah Abrams as blonde Ann Darrow, the focus of Kong's desire and Gold Dust Orphan Christopher Loftus as Jack, her heroic--but not too bright--fiance.

     Robert M. Russo's art deco set has a back wall of doors with downstage entrances left and right, so the toing and froing gets quite frantic. Kong even puts in a partial appearance. IRNE winner Gail Astrid Buckley as usual has a field day with costumes for the ladies, from Harker's backless wonder and Coulton's velvet creation to Napoli's girlish get-ups. Neary's been working on this script since 2001 and this world premiere marks its final period of refinement. He's also about to open a new musical "Ring a Ding Ding" at the Firehouse in Newburyport, has a one-act in the Theatre Marathon on May 21, and is opening an adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw" at Smith College's New Century Theatre on June 15th. See 'em all.

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"Kong's Night Out" by Jack Neary, May 5 - June 3

Lyric Stage Co. at Copley YWCA

140 Clarendon, (617) 585-5678
Lyric Stage Co.

CAROLINE OR CHANGE

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Caroline or Change" -book & lyrics - Tony Kuschner; music - Jeanine Tesori

Date: Sun, May 7, 10:27 PM

Quicktake on CAROLINE OR CHANGE

     Speakeasy's N.E. premiere of Kuschner & Tesori's Tony nominated music drama, Caroline or Change--in association with North Shore Music Theatre--is a challenge for their established expertise, the excellent cast of mostly local singers, and the audience's attention. This modern "folk opera", with Jeanine Tesori's usual eclectic mix of musical styles ranging from Motown to klezmer, from classical to jazz is sung-through using Tony Kushner's heightened prose for most of the show. Award-winning actress Jacqui Parker, the artistic director of Our Place Theatre and the African-American Theatre Festival plays the title character, a disappointed but determined divorcee, supporting her three younger children working as a maid for the Gellmans, a well-off Jewish family in Port Charles, Louisiana. Her oldest son is in the Army in Vietnam. Her oldest daughter Emmie, sung by Shavanna Calder, is becoming increasingly rebellious and Black. It's late fall 1963. The Gellman's young son, Noah, played by Jacob Brandt, misses his mother terribly, especially since his father Stuart, played by Michael Mendiola, has just remarried one of the boy's late mother's friends, Rose, played by Sarah Corey.

    This might all sound like a soup opera set against the background of JFK's asassination and the rising turmoil of the '60s, but Kuschner and Tesori start off the show with a comic abstraction. Caroline's first scene is alone in the basement, doing the daily laundry. Her companions are the washer, the dryer, and the radio. These all "sing"; this is an opera of sorts. The Washing Machine is sung by A'lisa D. Miles, resplendent in white wearing an elaborate head wrap. She also appears later in the show as the Moon, a bit like something out of "The Magic Flute." The almost satanic Dryer wearing a pompadour and ruffles is sung down and dirty by Brian Richard Robinson, Robinson also appears twice later as the Bus, symbolized by its driver, with a placard round his neck directing negro passengers to the back of the vehicle. The Radio is sung by Emilie Battle, Nikki Stephenson and Anich D'Jae Wright, in pink party dresses complete with elbow length gloves, with a MoTown sound and all the moves. The show's choreography was done by Jackie Davis. Even though the script has a basis in Kuschner's childhood in Louisiana and some family traumas, almost everything is stylized to some degree, so that moments of realistic acting become all the more powerful. The three grandparents, the Gellmans, played by Dorothy and Dick Santos, and Rose's old radical father, played by Sean McGuirk, form a base for this reality. Father expresses himeslf as often on the clarinet as through speech, while Rose, a transplanted New Yorker, rejected by her stepson and unsatisfied by her new husband, is in a quandary.

     Caroline's interaction outside of her place of employment is largely with Dotty Moffet, played with sincerity by Merle Perkins. Dotty is dressing in current styles and attending night classes at the community college. The two grow further apart as Caroline's frustration and suspicion about change grows. She clings fiercely to her family as Emmie tries to become her own person, and the younger two, Jackie played by Breanna Bradlee, and Joe, played by Dominic Gates, try to please their mother. Throughout this complex story, Tesori's eclectic music leads the way under music director Jose Delgado's able control. Each character has an effective and appropriate sound, with Davis' strong alto at the center. Director Paul Daigneault has assembled an experienced and committed ensemble resulting in a unified show despite its at times rarified styling. Eric Levenson's unit set with set pieces on wagons, well-served by John R. Malinowwski's area lighting keeps the focus of the characters. Gail Astrid Buckley's costumes are of the period without drawing attention to themselves, except for the abstract characters. Once again, Speakeasy has brought a complete and satisfying contemporary production to the BCA.

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"Caroline or Change" - Tony Kuschner & Jean Tesori, May 5 - June 3

Speakeasy Stage Co. in Roberts Studio, Calderwood

BCA, 527 Tremont , (617) 933 - 8600
Speakeasy Stage Co.

Ragtime

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Ragtime", lyrics & music - Ahrens & Flaherty; book by McNally, adapted from the novel by E.L.Doctrow

Date: Tues, May 2, 7:07 AM

Quicktake on RAGTIME

     The New Rep is finishing up their inaugural season at the Arsenal Center for the Arts with an impressive mounting of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's award-winning music drama, "Ragtime". The book was adapted by multiple-Tony winner Terrence McNally from E.L.Doctrow's lauded panoramic historical novel. The excellent cast, New Rep's largest to date, is anchored by IRNE Award winner Leigh Barrett as Mother in a role which uses all her best talents. She's partnered by veteran music theatre performer Peter Edmund Haydu as Father, last seen locally in the New Rep's "Christmas Carol" as Marley et al. The more romantic duo of Coalhouse Walker Jr., the ragtime piano player from Harlem and his girl, Sarah, are played by NYU Vocal performance grad Michael E. Parent, who's done the role in NYC, and Stephanie Umoh, a BosCon BFA candidate. Both bring charm and power to their roles. Representing the third element in "Ragtime"'s melting pot, singer and comedian Robert Saoud has his most fulfilling role in a long time as Tateh, the Lativian emigre artist who starts out ragged selling silhouettes on the street in front of a tenement on the lower East Side and winds up in California making silent movies for the nickolodeons, all for his motherless daughter.

     Primary casting for rest of the ensemble has June Babolan as anarchist Emma Goldman, Dee Crawford as the Gospel Singer, Aimee Doherty as showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, Paul D. Farwell as firechief Willie Conklin, Frank Gayton as Henry Ford, Paul Giragos as Harry Houdini, Austin Lesch as Mother's Younger Brother, big Bill Molnar as financier J.P. Morgan, Sophie Rich as Tateh's daughter, and Samuel A Wartenberg as Mother's young son. All these singers, dancers, and scene shifters join as many other members of cast in various large numbers as director Rick Lombardo and choreographer Kelli Edwards meld them into a seamless ensemble. The entire company numbers more than thirty, not counting appropriately attired music director Todd. C. Gordon visibly conducting from a keyboard his seven member orchestra on a bandstand hovering over backstage left.

     Audiences who've experienced this classic American music drama downtown in one of the barns, or even in one of several community productions, such as Footlight's IRNE winning effort, have a chance to get close-up and involved in another excellent New Rep musical effort. Most members of the ensemble plays several parts in this panorama of turn of the century American in and around New York, all are firmly in period and place under Lombardo's skilled direction. Janie E. Howland's movable set pieces form and reform the playing areas, Francis Nelson McSherry and Molly Trainer deserve their equal billing for a set of superb costumes and many, many changes, and Dorian Des Lauriers' black and white (mostly) projections expand the scope of various scenes. "Ragtime" is a glorious end to a very impressive first season in Watertown for the new New Rep in its 21st year.

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"Ragtime", lyrics & music - Ahrens & Flaherty; book by McNally, Dates

New Repertory Theatre at Arsenal Center for the Arts

123 Arsenal St. Watertown, (617) 923 - 8487
New Repertory Theatre