SECRET GARDEN

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Secret Garden" by Marsha Norman & Lucy Simon

from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Date:Sat, April 28, 1:21 PM

Quicktake on SECRET GARDEN

     Turtle Lane is closing their season with one of the best shows the company has done in a while. Director Michelle M. Aguillon has assembled an ensemble of voices which can handle Simon’s harmonies and Norman’s lyrics, and act as well. Music director Wayne Ward gets the best out of this well-trained group. The design team of Michelle Boll and John MacKenzie has met the show’s scenic requirements with a combination of well-painted scenery and effective projected backgrounds. Robert Itzcak’s costumes suit the period and mood, giving a final touch to this Victorian Gothic romance.

    While not a children’s show “The Secret Garden” is family friendly, as the plucky orphan, Mary Lennox peserveres against her uncle’s depression and his brother’s frustration. Hannah Grace Horsely captures the role and has enough of a voice for the music. Likewise Benjamin Hirsh as her supposedly sickly cousin, Colin. James Fitzpatrick is convincing as his father, as is Michael Goodwin as his doctor uncle. Elizabeth Robinson is luminous as his mother Lily, who died bearing, while Anne Velthouse is in good form as her sister, Mary’s mother, who died, along with her father, in India. It should be noted that more than half the cast are ghosts or “dreamers” as the program has it. Among the living, Michelle Mount makes a fine perky housemaid and Gary Ryan does well as her fey brother. Both were coached in their Yorkshire accents by James Tallach, who plays the old gardener, Ben Weatherstaff.

     Turtle Lane in Newton near the pike has once again proved its worth to the local music theatre community. The show runs through Jun. 3rd with some cast rotations.

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"Secret Garden" by Marsha Norman & Lucy Simon Apr 27-June 3

Turtle Lane Playhouse

263 Melrose St. Auburndale MA, (617) 244 - 0169
Turtle Lane

Valhalla

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Valhalla" by Paul Rudnick

Date: Sun, Apr 22, 2007 9:41 PM

Quicktake on VALHALLA

     Paul Rudnick is perhaps best known to the general theatre-goer as the author of "I Hate Hamlet". Several of his more overtly gay-themed plays has attracted notice. But "Valhalla", a sprawling attempt to weave the tale of mad Ludwig of Bavaria, whose monuments to history (late 19th Century) are the fairty-tale castle which inspired the one at Disneyland and funding Wagner's Opera House at Bayreuth with the career of a ne'er-do-well, James Avery from East Texas during the '30s, is a misshapen farce burdened with a two and one-half hour script with about one hour's too many "laugh-riot" one-liners

     The play doesn't create much sympathy for any of its characters, who number almost two dozen leaving the two leads, Ludwig (Brian Quint) and James (Jon Ferreria) focused on themelves and their pursuit of ineffable "beauty." The only semi-rounded character is IRNE winner Christopher Michael Brophy, as Henry Lee Stafford, James' sexually confused friend. The rest of the six actor ensemble includes Theater Coop veteran Maureen Adduci, who plays mostly Ludwig's mother but ends the show as tour leader, Natalie Kippelbaum, Elisa MacDonald who plays most of the princesses and Henry's wife whom James seduces (of course) and co-director Rick Park who plays Ludwig's various functionaries.

    The cast tries hard--often to little avail--but when a character is onstage for only a few minutes and the actor has to exit swiftly to make the next costume change, there's no much hope for more than a superficial sketch. Seth Bodie's costume assembly does the job but has a certain dress-up quality. Co-director David J. Miller's set is a bland unit with one end of the Black Box indicating Bavaria, the other Texas, neither particularly distinguished. The action thus has a lot in common with a tennis match. Jeff Adelberg's lighting helps and Walter Eduardo provides all the cuts from Wagner selected by Reinhold Mahler. But a play never really emerges.

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"Valhalla" by Paul Rudnick, Apr.

Zeitgeist Stage Co. at BCA Black Box

539 Tremont, (617) 933 - 8600


Zeitgeist

Winnie the Pooh

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Winnie the Pooh" adapted from A.A.Milne by Kristin Seigel

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2007

Quicktake on WINNIE the POOH

     The Wheelock Family Theatre is taking children of all ages back to the Hundred Aker Wood for Spring break. Harold Withee, last seen as George W. in Zeitgeist effective "Stuff Happens," has the title role. Several other regulars, including Ricardo Engermann as Rabbit, Mansur as Eyore, Marina Re as Owl, and Grace Napier as Kanga complete the adult cast. Young Grace Brakeman is an energetic Piglet and Sirena Abalian hops along as Roo. A.Minh-Anh Day is Christopher Robin, who's the leader of a group of Narrators who lead into the story. The script is acceptable, but doesn't quite capture the charm of A.A.Milne's work.

     The stuffed animal costumes by Charles Baldwin come closer but a very much old-school children's theatre, as is Harwich's James P. Byrne's direction. The large ensemble and the leading players come together on his set and the show is satisfatory for the younger set as an introduction to live theatre. Incidentally, Tigger, played by W. Yvonne Murphy bounced in the the finale.

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"Winnie the Pooh" adapted from A.A.Milne by Kristin Seigel, Apr. 13 - May 13

Wheelock Family Theatre

200 The Riverway , (617) 879 - 2300
WFT

PERSEPHONE

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Persephone" by Noah Haidle

Date: Wed, April 11, 10:44 PM

Quicktake on PERSEPHONE

     The world premiere of Noah Haidle's "Persephone", read last spring as part of the HTC's Breaking Ground series owes its success as much to the author's cleverness and Nicholas Martin's apt direction as to a stunning performance by Melinda Lopez as the statue of Demeter, the main character in the piece. Through voice and very limited movement, Lopez creates a witty and believable Earth-mother, mightily dismayed by the world from which she cannot look away. The second half of the play, set in a Manhattan park circa 2007, is full of Durang-like non-sequitor and urban violence, the first in a sculptors studio in 1507 Florence; both handsome designs by David Korins.

    All the various parts in the piece are played by a trio of actors, led off by Jeremiah Kissel, who appears as the sculptor's patron in Act 1, plus a laid-back harpist and a starving mouse. The sculptor, Guiseppe, is done by Seth Fisher; his model is Mimi Lieber. Each actor then plays innumerable walkons with Kissel memorable as a art-loving Rat in Act 2. Their reappearence in various guises underscores human--and animal--transience against Demeter eternal marble form. The play is full of surprizes, many of them unpleasant, but overall, it comes off as a rather dystopian and fantastic tragicomedy. Haidle has revived a species of drama not seen much since immediately after WWII and previously in the '20s. Let's hope he doesn't become "the next big thing." This summer, Company One will be mounting his "Mr. Marmalade" which made quite a splash for Roundabout in 2005.

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"Persephone" by Noah Haidle, Mar. 30 - May 6

Huntington Theatre Co. at BCA Wimberley

527 Tremont, (617) 266 - 0800
HTC

...Young Lady from Rwanda

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "...Young Lady from Rwanda" by Sonja Linden

Date: Sun, Apr 8, 4:05 PM

Quicktake on ...Young Lady from Rwanda

     The full title of Sonja Linden’s compelling documentary play, "I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady From Rwanda " is far too long to fit on a marque, but does capture the special essence of her piece. For while the subject of the story, Juliette, is a survivor of the genocide, what’s staged is her recovery from the ordeal by writing about her life as a middle-class Rwandan, played by Dorcas Evelene Davis from New York. This process is facilitated by Simon. a British poet working with clients at a refugee center, played by the ever-dependable Owen Doyle. His life as a minor poet and frustrated novelist serves as a foil for her larger tragedy.

     Director Weylin Symes presents the play with notable economy on a simple but strong black and white set by Richard Chambers. Stoneham has resisted adding multi-media details, using sound by David Wilson to enhance some key scenes. The play is easy to watch if not to listen to as we are reminded of the horrific violence wrecked on the Tutsi by their Hutu neighbors. But it’s a lesson not to be forgotten even as the world watches the barbarity currently savaging Darfur on the opposite side of Africa. The small hope this play offers for salvation somehow seems too little. Linden approach to the subject, using only two actors whose personal stories are revealed in a series of monologues and simple scenes is a unique way to deal with such a subject, however. This show is well worth the short trip out to Stoneham.

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"...Young Lady from Rwanda" by Sonja Linden, April 5 - 22

Stoneham Theatre

395 Main Street Stoneham, (781) 279-2200
Stoneham Theatre

Conquest of the North Pole

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "The Conquest of the South Pole" by Manfred Karge

Date: Fri, Apr 6, 9:43 AM

Quicktake on THE CONQUEST OF THE SOUTH POLE

     Molasses Tank, one of CWT's resident Theatre's, has mounted a darkly comic version of German filmmaker/playwright Manfred Karge's "The Conquest of the South Pole," an allegorical romp in the Brechtian tradition. This 90 minute play has a small group of unemployed men, who all feel like losers, reenacting Admundsen's epic journey in an attic. Written before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the play centers around one Slupianek, who's desperate to release them from their round of pinball, snaps, and trips to the unemployment office. This pivotal role is played by versatile Jason Beals, last seen playing Prospero in 11:11's under-rehearsed "Tempest." He's also canoodling with the wife of his friend Braukmann, played by George Saulnier III, the only one of the group to have a job, albeit an unsatisfactory one. La Braukman is done by Janelle Mills with admirable energy. The rest of the motley crew includes William McGregor as gruff Buscher, who emigrates at he end of the play, and suicidal Seiffert, played by quirky Bob Musset. There's also Frankieboy (Mike Budwey) who thinks he's a dog.

     The play is an excellent example of contemporary Continental writing, which blends heightened language, mixed metaphor, and bravura style in an adventurous manner not practiced much in the U.S. Director Steve Rotolo, who's also doing a cameo opposite Ashley Kelly, gives it a staccato interpretation on an interesting set by Christopher Allison. Matt Breton's lighting is appropriately non-realistic.
    Molasses Tank has mastered this style, which is worth the trip over to Charlestown. CWT is only three blocks from the Sullivan Sq. T stop, with street-parking a short ways down the hill.

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"The Conquest of the South Pole" by Manfred Karge, Mar. 29 - Apr. 14

Molasses Tank at Charlestown Working Theater

442 Bunker Hill St., Charlestown, (866) 811 - 4111
Molasses Tank