Terra Nova Theatre Group is breaking new ground. It’s offering a play as well as play readings in Pittsburgh, starting with a script, Violet Sharp by founder/artistic director Washington & Jefferson College theatre professor William Cameron. Since 2007 productions had always been in Washington County while this play actually premiered in Los Angeles in 2009. It also won the 2007 Julie Harris Playwriting Prize.
I’d call it a significant docu-drama, one with, in this instance, thoroughly skilled, truthful acting by a mostly Pittsburgh cast.
This goes into the story of a real woman, Violet Sharp, who worked as a serving maid for the Morrow family where Anne Morrow Lindbergh was living there with her husband Charles when their baby was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. In this shocking and world-famous crime Sharp became one the suspects, especially given that her alibis were questionable. The play, much of it based on original statements, letters, police and news reports, follows Violet in and out of intense interrogations as well as in and out of fragments of her life within the household before and after the crime. A newspaper reporter named Adela provides background narration.
Cleary Cameron has done extensive research to create this script telling Violet’s story in a way to show how the confused woman became a kind of victim herself. For many of us, most of what he portrays will be a revelation; probably few people these days have even heard of Violet Sharp. Cameron as writer and director tells the story well in frequent, fast-paced intense scenes. He and actress Theo Allyn succeed in clearly conveying Violet’s several kinds of innocence along with her self assertiveness and bewilderment. A sympathetic, totally convincing portrayal.
The other characters, by comparison, look more like sketches from a dramatized TV documentary. Yet, the actors all bring something to the roles to give them personality, even if the writing gives them little. Among them, Sam Turich makes police captain Harry Walsh believably relentlessly harsh while, as Charles Lindbergh, Tyler Scherer gives him a fine sense of patrician dignity. And John Michnya makes Morrow household butler Septimus Banks convincingly snotty. Narrator/newspaper reporter Adela is played by Allison Cahill, portrayed to suggest satire, which distracts from the other more straightforward, not stylized interpretations.
This polished production does credit to everyone in it while telling us some American history most of us may have overlooked. It reminds us that innocent people accused of crimes may be exonerated but their lives can be forever damaged by those who exploit and degrade them.
Terra Nova Theatre Group’s production of Violet Sharp continues through June 25th at the Grey Box Theatre in Lawrenceville, 3595 Butler Street. There are also free play readings there June 13th to 15th and June 20th to 22nd. Tickets through Pro Arts: 412/394.3353 or proartstickets.org and more information at terranovatheatre@comcast.net
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Theatre review: "God Of Carnage" at Pittsburgh Public Theater-Sunday June 5th 2011
Pittsburgh Public Theater offers its third production of a play by Yasmina Reza, having presented Art last year and Life X 3 in 2007. This one is God of Carnage which certainly resembles those other two, concerning affluent, articulate people trying to be civilized while confronting issues and feelings which surface surprisingly and unexpectedly. As before, in edgy satire, Reza sends up and makes funny how these people end up doing and saying irrational things, taking themselves too seriously.
The superb cast vibrates with believable energy and personality, especially well-paced by director Ted Pappas.
Unlike those previous plays, these characters don’t know each other at the outset but get to know themselves in ways which they could not have anticipated. Anger and accusations surface and spill. This is not like Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, likewise fueled by too much alcohol, because, as we stand outside, we see the foolishness of such people. They’re not really in deep pain, even if they think they are. Perhaps Reza wants to make us think we are superior, when, of course, we are not, even if we may have less sophisticated lifestyles.
Alan and Annette Raleigh have been invited into the home of Michael and Veronica Novak. The couples are concerned parents of young boys who have just had a violent after-school fight and the adults want to work things out. But, as conversations develop into arguments, producing accusations within as well as between the couples, tempers get out of hand, making it clear that, even as boys will be boys, men are still that aggressive within their well-tailored clothes and the women, equal in significant careers, are equally prone to aggression.
Reza makes good points about people like Alan and Veronica. He has an almost umbilical connection to his cell-phone, tying him to his high-powered position as a corporate lawyer and is one of those people who can’t help emphasizing his significance by making sure that people nearby overhear his importance. He also represents a pharmaceutical company which is casual about dangerous side-effects in its products. Veronica is, on the other hand, never casual about what can happen to the lives of innocent people. She is deeply committed to activities against genocide and other violence, yet becomes clearly violent herself when the issues get too close to home and her commitments there are shaken.
David Whalen and Deirdre Madigan play those roles to the hilt perceptively keeping both characters superbly, delightfully reasonable, unreasonable, predictable and unpredictable. As their mates, Annette and Michael, Susan Angelo and Ted Koch bring equal believability to all their permutations.
Pappas finds clever ways to subtly point up Alan’s self-involvement when away from the phone, yet, regarding that phone, something doesn’t work right. I don’t know if it’s in the script or if it’s a Pappas invention but every time that Alan picks up his communication device he starts talking immediately without any indication of having heard anyone on the other end. He never appears to be listening to anything being said to him. Sure, that may be a point about his character, but the way it’s done seems surreal and out of place in what otherwise looks like real people going haywire. Also Pappas’ costume design for Annette looks too tacky for such an affluent woman and it says nothing meaningful about her.
Given the main premise and theme, developed about as far as it can go, the 75 minute running time seems a little longer than necessary. And, several days after experiencing this, it seemed more clever and funny at the time than it does now.
God of Carnage continues through June 26 at Pittsburgh Public Theater, downtown. 412/ 316.1600 or ppt.org.
The superb cast vibrates with believable energy and personality, especially well-paced by director Ted Pappas.
Unlike those previous plays, these characters don’t know each other at the outset but get to know themselves in ways which they could not have anticipated. Anger and accusations surface and spill. This is not like Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, likewise fueled by too much alcohol, because, as we stand outside, we see the foolishness of such people. They’re not really in deep pain, even if they think they are. Perhaps Reza wants to make us think we are superior, when, of course, we are not, even if we may have less sophisticated lifestyles.
Alan and Annette Raleigh have been invited into the home of Michael and Veronica Novak. The couples are concerned parents of young boys who have just had a violent after-school fight and the adults want to work things out. But, as conversations develop into arguments, producing accusations within as well as between the couples, tempers get out of hand, making it clear that, even as boys will be boys, men are still that aggressive within their well-tailored clothes and the women, equal in significant careers, are equally prone to aggression.
Reza makes good points about people like Alan and Veronica. He has an almost umbilical connection to his cell-phone, tying him to his high-powered position as a corporate lawyer and is one of those people who can’t help emphasizing his significance by making sure that people nearby overhear his importance. He also represents a pharmaceutical company which is casual about dangerous side-effects in its products. Veronica is, on the other hand, never casual about what can happen to the lives of innocent people. She is deeply committed to activities against genocide and other violence, yet becomes clearly violent herself when the issues get too close to home and her commitments there are shaken.
David Whalen and Deirdre Madigan play those roles to the hilt perceptively keeping both characters superbly, delightfully reasonable, unreasonable, predictable and unpredictable. As their mates, Annette and Michael, Susan Angelo and Ted Koch bring equal believability to all their permutations.
Pappas finds clever ways to subtly point up Alan’s self-involvement when away from the phone, yet, regarding that phone, something doesn’t work right. I don’t know if it’s in the script or if it’s a Pappas invention but every time that Alan picks up his communication device he starts talking immediately without any indication of having heard anyone on the other end. He never appears to be listening to anything being said to him. Sure, that may be a point about his character, but the way it’s done seems surreal and out of place in what otherwise looks like real people going haywire. Also Pappas’ costume design for Annette looks too tacky for such an affluent woman and it says nothing meaningful about her.
Given the main premise and theme, developed about as far as it can go, the 75 minute running time seems a little longer than necessary. And, several days after experiencing this, it seemed more clever and funny at the time than it does now.
God of Carnage continues through June 26 at Pittsburgh Public Theater, downtown. 412/ 316.1600 or ppt.org.
Theatre review: "King Hedley II" from Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater-Sunday June 5th 2011
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Producing Artistic Director Mark Clayton Southers has long shown an affinity for making the most and best of the work of August Wilson. And now, finally, his company is offering a new production of a Wilson play at the August Wilson Center. Southers didn’t direct this version of King Hedley II. Instead it is guided by Eileen J. Morris who has major credits staging Wilson’s work elsewhere.
Morris and her cast make it vivid, dynamic, colorful and perilously dramatic. As Christopher Rawson points out in his superior program notes, this is Wilson’s darkest play and that the layered plot may be hard going for some audiences. I briefly studied the story line before attending and that gave me a sense of the essence of the major developments. However, given that Wilson regularly evokes what he calls “black street vernacular” I did not find the dialogue easy to understand. I especially had trouble with nearly every word said by one leading performer who seemed to be constantly swallowing her words and emphases
Wilson is always trying to say more than to just depict actions, behavior and results. He’s known for writing about how and why the African-American people he represents do what they do. Those characters deeply ponder the details of their own lives. Such background is also at the heart of his writing, concerning daily struggles with love, death, spirituality and making ends meet in a culture where race relations frame and lie behind what happens or can’t happen to them.
King Hedley II is Wilson’s next to last play and is set in the 1985 Hill District. Although the title suggests some kind of long-ago classic and it could be considered a tragedy, Hedley is no king. King is his first name. Yet, trying to rule his life, produce an heir and maintain his honor, Wilson’s choice of a name has resonance. Hedley and a buddy named Mister eke out existence selling stolen refrigerators and plot a robbery to finance a new business. King spent years in prison for having killed a man who severely cut his face. Back home he lives with his mother Ruby and his wife Tonya. Ruby’s one-time lover Elmore returns to the neighborhood, intent on getting back together with Ruby. Like King, he too spent time in prison for having killed a man. Always present is a neighbor called Stool Pigeon, a half-crazy, sometimes chronicler of life and death on the streets.
Clearly violence and vengeance lurk within the grimy, trash-cluttered framework, personified by several loaded guns. Much of what is said, meanwhile, in the three hours this runs, is about what these people have done and will do next, detailed in many extended monologues. Tellingly, Wilson has both King and Elmore find empathy for the men they killed. Yet, had I not done background reading, I’m not sure how much I could have followed.
Solidly truthful performances by three leading actors always make those characters clear and memorable. Benjamin Cain’s impressive version of King seethes with believable rebellion against a society which keeps him down. As Elmore, Kevin Brown vibrates with personality and panache. Plus Tyla Abercrumbie brings sweet, genuine maturity to the role of Tonya, King’s wife. Yet I found Chrystal Bates’ as Ruby, an equally important role, constantly unintelligible, a case of style over substance. Director Morris probably knows the script so well that she may have forgotten that some of us white folks aren't all that familiar with the kind of language Wilson writes. Often, on opening night, when Ruby spoke, the only people laughing where those sitting near Morris. They got it, even if the rest of us didn't seem to. Meanwhile, Jonas Chaney never overdoes the idiosyncrasies of Stool Pigeon but he raced through too many lines which could have been more interesting and clear.
During the performance parts of recordings by Miles Davis and John Coltrane faded in and out, a distracting, pointless, embellishment, sometimes annoying when competing with dialogue.
Mark Clayton Southers also designed the set, a thing he always does superbly and which, as always, gives substance to such productions. Even though he did not stage this, the cast and director bring their own substance and truth to the urgent tale.
King Hedley II continues through Sunday, June 12th at the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Avenue downtown. Pro Arts Tickets the source :412/ 394 3353. Info at www.pghplaywrights.com
Morris and her cast make it vivid, dynamic, colorful and perilously dramatic. As Christopher Rawson points out in his superior program notes, this is Wilson’s darkest play and that the layered plot may be hard going for some audiences. I briefly studied the story line before attending and that gave me a sense of the essence of the major developments. However, given that Wilson regularly evokes what he calls “black street vernacular” I did not find the dialogue easy to understand. I especially had trouble with nearly every word said by one leading performer who seemed to be constantly swallowing her words and emphases
Wilson is always trying to say more than to just depict actions, behavior and results. He’s known for writing about how and why the African-American people he represents do what they do. Those characters deeply ponder the details of their own lives. Such background is also at the heart of his writing, concerning daily struggles with love, death, spirituality and making ends meet in a culture where race relations frame and lie behind what happens or can’t happen to them.
King Hedley II is Wilson’s next to last play and is set in the 1985 Hill District. Although the title suggests some kind of long-ago classic and it could be considered a tragedy, Hedley is no king. King is his first name. Yet, trying to rule his life, produce an heir and maintain his honor, Wilson’s choice of a name has resonance. Hedley and a buddy named Mister eke out existence selling stolen refrigerators and plot a robbery to finance a new business. King spent years in prison for having killed a man who severely cut his face. Back home he lives with his mother Ruby and his wife Tonya. Ruby’s one-time lover Elmore returns to the neighborhood, intent on getting back together with Ruby. Like King, he too spent time in prison for having killed a man. Always present is a neighbor called Stool Pigeon, a half-crazy, sometimes chronicler of life and death on the streets.
Clearly violence and vengeance lurk within the grimy, trash-cluttered framework, personified by several loaded guns. Much of what is said, meanwhile, in the three hours this runs, is about what these people have done and will do next, detailed in many extended monologues. Tellingly, Wilson has both King and Elmore find empathy for the men they killed. Yet, had I not done background reading, I’m not sure how much I could have followed.
Solidly truthful performances by three leading actors always make those characters clear and memorable. Benjamin Cain’s impressive version of King seethes with believable rebellion against a society which keeps him down. As Elmore, Kevin Brown vibrates with personality and panache. Plus Tyla Abercrumbie brings sweet, genuine maturity to the role of Tonya, King’s wife. Yet I found Chrystal Bates’ as Ruby, an equally important role, constantly unintelligible, a case of style over substance. Director Morris probably knows the script so well that she may have forgotten that some of us white folks aren't all that familiar with the kind of language Wilson writes. Often, on opening night, when Ruby spoke, the only people laughing where those sitting near Morris. They got it, even if the rest of us didn't seem to. Meanwhile, Jonas Chaney never overdoes the idiosyncrasies of Stool Pigeon but he raced through too many lines which could have been more interesting and clear.
During the performance parts of recordings by Miles Davis and John Coltrane faded in and out, a distracting, pointless, embellishment, sometimes annoying when competing with dialogue.
Mark Clayton Southers also designed the set, a thing he always does superbly and which, as always, gives substance to such productions. Even though he did not stage this, the cast and director bring their own substance and truth to the urgent tale.
King Hedley II continues through Sunday, June 12th at the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Avenue downtown. Pro Arts Tickets the source :412/ 394 3353. Info at www.pghplaywrights.com
Friday, June 3, 2011
Theatre review: "9 to 5, the Musical" presented by Pittsburgh CLO
Pittsburgh CLO has opened its new season with something somebody else produced, the national tour of 9 to 5 The Musical. That there would be a tour is surprising; the show was not a hit on Broadway in 2009, running for just four months and collecting mostly negative reviews, although the stars got praise and a few Tony nominations.
Clearly the script with its sitcom-like obviousness doesn’t have much to offer, despite a potentially meaningful premise. The cast displays a lot of energetic, sincere talent, making the most of the material. You can admire the singing and dancing skills of everyone, the sturdy playing of the score by a small orchestra led by Martyn Axe and Kenneth Foy’s clever sets. Meanwhile Dolly Parton’s songs have a lively country and/or pop feel, more simple than complex, appropriate to the show, agreeable enough, if not memorable.
This is based on the 1980 hit movie, which certainly could have resonated those 30 years ago. A new take could be a cute trip down memory lane. This version skims that, as it skims everything else. Patricia Resnick’s book looks like a paste-up with no point of view. Too bad. The underlying isues are about women in the work force being exploited, undervalued and underpaid, premises which,if well-developed, could go to interesting, creative places. Moreover the three central women have lives with potential for development. The first act keeps re-stating these themes decorated with numerous, gratuitous production numbers. The second act has a little more substance. But the whole thing relies on superficial, not particularly funny nor imaginative situations, peppered with primitive laugh lines. Certainly some of this derives from Resnick’s original screenplay, yet you’d think she, or the producers or director Jeff Calhoun would have found ways to come up with something fresh.
40-something Violet is a widow who’s been working for a long time without hope of advancement within a very large corporation. Blonde, noticeably breasted Texan Doralee Rhodes is a secretary for big boss Franklin Hart Jr. who lusts after her. And newcomer to the office naïve Judy is recently divorced. The three plot against sleazy, chauvinist Hart and eventually kidnap him and take over the office in his name, improving the working conditions for the women working there.
Doralee is evidently modeled on Dolly Parton; she had that role in the film. In this case Resnick seems to be trying to make a case that being blonde and shapely doesn’t mean Dorelee is a ditz. But, since there are several pointed references to her superstructure, milking that for all it’s worth, and Doralee never expounds on any profundities, you just have to take it on faith that inside she’s got a mind just bubbling with ideas. In this role Diana DeGarmo, one time runner-up in “American Idol,” proves she can sing and dance with professional polish equal to anybody in the cast, but doesn’t come across with any specific personality.
Like the other leads she is called upon to belt out numbers which could double as calling in livestock from across the valley. Dee Hoty as Violet also gets her turn, knocking out the notes to the back rows, countering Violet’s potential for maturity. Hoty actually conveys substance much of the time, even though the role calls for her to get stuck in shtick. Mamie Parris gets Judy’s equal shot in the spotlight but, like DeGarmo, nobody seems home inside that body. There’s another entry into the all- stops -out stuff. This is assigned to Kristine Zbornik as Roz Keith, some kind of not clearly defined special secretary to Hart. She’s an older woman with a crush on Hart, setting up another potential for patent humor.
There’s also a falling -down-drunk woman in the office staff, more juvenalia. How she’s kept her job never gets explained. Plus, unexplained,Hart never fires or puts down back-talking Violet. More, among Resnick’s other sloppy writing, it’s revealed that Hart has been cooking the books, information on the verge of being spilled to CEO Russell Tinsworthy when something else develops and the subject is dropped unexplained. By the way, I don’t know if “CEO,” back in 1980 was a term in common usage, but since anachronisms keep turning up in the dialogue, sometimes acknowledged, laugh, laugh, sometimes ignored, it can serve as another more example of why, justifiably, this show failed to wow New York critics.
Director Calhoun had major work cut out for him. He didn’t succeed. Don’t blame the performers. They earn their salaries. When you’re an actor and you want to stay in the business, sometimes you need to take what you can get.
9 to 5 The Musical continues through 2 p.m. Sunday June 5th at Benedum Center. 412-456-6666 or the Box Office at Theater Square or www.pittsburghCLO.org. ,
Clearly the script with its sitcom-like obviousness doesn’t have much to offer, despite a potentially meaningful premise. The cast displays a lot of energetic, sincere talent, making the most of the material. You can admire the singing and dancing skills of everyone, the sturdy playing of the score by a small orchestra led by Martyn Axe and Kenneth Foy’s clever sets. Meanwhile Dolly Parton’s songs have a lively country and/or pop feel, more simple than complex, appropriate to the show, agreeable enough, if not memorable.
This is based on the 1980 hit movie, which certainly could have resonated those 30 years ago. A new take could be a cute trip down memory lane. This version skims that, as it skims everything else. Patricia Resnick’s book looks like a paste-up with no point of view. Too bad. The underlying isues are about women in the work force being exploited, undervalued and underpaid, premises which,if well-developed, could go to interesting, creative places. Moreover the three central women have lives with potential for development. The first act keeps re-stating these themes decorated with numerous, gratuitous production numbers. The second act has a little more substance. But the whole thing relies on superficial, not particularly funny nor imaginative situations, peppered with primitive laugh lines. Certainly some of this derives from Resnick’s original screenplay, yet you’d think she, or the producers or director Jeff Calhoun would have found ways to come up with something fresh.
40-something Violet is a widow who’s been working for a long time without hope of advancement within a very large corporation. Blonde, noticeably breasted Texan Doralee Rhodes is a secretary for big boss Franklin Hart Jr. who lusts after her. And newcomer to the office naïve Judy is recently divorced. The three plot against sleazy, chauvinist Hart and eventually kidnap him and take over the office in his name, improving the working conditions for the women working there.
Doralee is evidently modeled on Dolly Parton; she had that role in the film. In this case Resnick seems to be trying to make a case that being blonde and shapely doesn’t mean Dorelee is a ditz. But, since there are several pointed references to her superstructure, milking that for all it’s worth, and Doralee never expounds on any profundities, you just have to take it on faith that inside she’s got a mind just bubbling with ideas. In this role Diana DeGarmo, one time runner-up in “American Idol,” proves she can sing and dance with professional polish equal to anybody in the cast, but doesn’t come across with any specific personality.
Like the other leads she is called upon to belt out numbers which could double as calling in livestock from across the valley. Dee Hoty as Violet also gets her turn, knocking out the notes to the back rows, countering Violet’s potential for maturity. Hoty actually conveys substance much of the time, even though the role calls for her to get stuck in shtick. Mamie Parris gets Judy’s equal shot in the spotlight but, like DeGarmo, nobody seems home inside that body. There’s another entry into the all- stops -out stuff. This is assigned to Kristine Zbornik as Roz Keith, some kind of not clearly defined special secretary to Hart. She’s an older woman with a crush on Hart, setting up another potential for patent humor.
There’s also a falling -down-drunk woman in the office staff, more juvenalia. How she’s kept her job never gets explained. Plus, unexplained,Hart never fires or puts down back-talking Violet. More, among Resnick’s other sloppy writing, it’s revealed that Hart has been cooking the books, information on the verge of being spilled to CEO Russell Tinsworthy when something else develops and the subject is dropped unexplained. By the way, I don’t know if “CEO,” back in 1980 was a term in common usage, but since anachronisms keep turning up in the dialogue, sometimes acknowledged, laugh, laugh, sometimes ignored, it can serve as another more example of why, justifiably, this show failed to wow New York critics.
Director Calhoun had major work cut out for him. He didn’t succeed. Don’t blame the performers. They earn their salaries. When you’re an actor and you want to stay in the business, sometimes you need to take what you can get.
9 to 5 The Musical continues through 2 p.m. Sunday June 5th at Benedum Center. 412-456-6666 or the Box Office at Theater Square or www.pittsburghCLO.org. ,
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Theatre review: "West Side Story" national tour.
A somewhat revised version of West Side Story is here for a few days. It’s a national tour of the 2009 much-praised Broadway production which ran for 22 months. Recently- departed Arthur Laurents directed his modification of his original 1957 script.If you haven’t seen any performance recently, you may be surprised by some of its intentionally darker moments. Whether or not they’ve always been there, I’m not certain. Still the essence of original concept remains intact.
Leonard Bernstein’s exciting, dramatic, stirring and beautiful music surges and soars throughout the experience, the best reason to be there. The superb playing comes from 14 local musicians plus three touring artists conducted by John O’Neill in new arrangements created by, among others, Stephen Sondheim. Most of the singing does it justice, despite a lack of any truly memorable voices.
Sondheim’s own 1957 often brilliant lyrics sparkle with clarity as sung by the capable cast. The dancing and the action look impressive in Joey McKneely’s sturdy choreography and tour director David Saint’s vigorous staging.
I found more solid drama in this than I expected, personified in the believable nastiness of two adult policemen. One is Lieutenant Schrank whom Laurents gave some depth, including compassion. Christopher Patrick Mullen plays both sides convincingly. Mike Boland equally makes Officer Krupke another memorable example of the oppressive adult world leaning on the confused young kids of the story. And you certainly get a sense from this cast of youth and vulnerability beneath the bravado. Moreover Laurents’ tale of juvenile gangs has as much resonance today as it did 54 years ago.
To add to the sense of reality, Laurents also got Lin- Manuel Miranda (he wrote In The Heights) to transform the Puerto Ricans’ dialogue and some lyrics into Spanish. This has become somewhat controversial, given that there are many audiences with limited or non-existent knowledge of Spanish and no subtitles or supertitles are used. But this is the U.S.’s second language now and the characters who speak would naturally do so, effectively, validly, making them look like a separate culture. But here it seems most like an unnecessary embellishment diminishing the story, being meaningful only to Spanish speakers.
Laurents and Saint have also made sure that tender moments between Tony and Maria have touching truth and they get a lot out of the humor in the only non-serious part, “Officer Krupke.”
Ali Ewolt’s acting as Maria constantly conveys believable, innocent sweetness but Kyle Harris’ Tony seems less well-defined. Her singing feels wrong, as if too operatic, even though parts of Bernstein’s score resemble opera, while he sings in a voice without enough personality.
The entire experience comes across as a fine team effort, with a meaningful sense of ensemble. It needn’t be some kind of star showcase. Plus, given Bernstein’s music, Sondheim’s words and Laurents’ script, this remarkable musical theatre lives on.
West Side Story continues through 6:30 pm Sunday May 22nd at Benedum Center, downtown. 412/ 456-6666 or pgharts.org
Leonard Bernstein’s exciting, dramatic, stirring and beautiful music surges and soars throughout the experience, the best reason to be there. The superb playing comes from 14 local musicians plus three touring artists conducted by John O’Neill in new arrangements created by, among others, Stephen Sondheim. Most of the singing does it justice, despite a lack of any truly memorable voices.
Sondheim’s own 1957 often brilliant lyrics sparkle with clarity as sung by the capable cast. The dancing and the action look impressive in Joey McKneely’s sturdy choreography and tour director David Saint’s vigorous staging.
I found more solid drama in this than I expected, personified in the believable nastiness of two adult policemen. One is Lieutenant Schrank whom Laurents gave some depth, including compassion. Christopher Patrick Mullen plays both sides convincingly. Mike Boland equally makes Officer Krupke another memorable example of the oppressive adult world leaning on the confused young kids of the story. And you certainly get a sense from this cast of youth and vulnerability beneath the bravado. Moreover Laurents’ tale of juvenile gangs has as much resonance today as it did 54 years ago.
To add to the sense of reality, Laurents also got Lin- Manuel Miranda (he wrote In The Heights) to transform the Puerto Ricans’ dialogue and some lyrics into Spanish. This has become somewhat controversial, given that there are many audiences with limited or non-existent knowledge of Spanish and no subtitles or supertitles are used. But this is the U.S.’s second language now and the characters who speak would naturally do so, effectively, validly, making them look like a separate culture. But here it seems most like an unnecessary embellishment diminishing the story, being meaningful only to Spanish speakers.
Laurents and Saint have also made sure that tender moments between Tony and Maria have touching truth and they get a lot out of the humor in the only non-serious part, “Officer Krupke.”
Ali Ewolt’s acting as Maria constantly conveys believable, innocent sweetness but Kyle Harris’ Tony seems less well-defined. Her singing feels wrong, as if too operatic, even though parts of Bernstein’s score resemble opera, while he sings in a voice without enough personality.
The entire experience comes across as a fine team effort, with a meaningful sense of ensemble. It needn’t be some kind of star showcase. Plus, given Bernstein’s music, Sondheim’s words and Laurents’ script, this remarkable musical theatre lives on.
West Side Story continues through 6:30 pm Sunday May 22nd at Benedum Center, downtown. 412/ 456-6666 or pgharts.org
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Theatre review: "Louder Faster" at City Theatre
What is Louder Faster louder and faster than? And what the hell kind of a name is that for a play anyway? Who cares? Writers Eric Simonson and Jeffrey Hatcher have come up with a comic classic. The spirit of 1930s farcical stage and movie comedies lives on. Sort of like Room Service, the movie version of which starred the Marx Brothers. Sort of like The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers in which they also starred on the silver screen and under the bright lights of Broadway. Hey! Hold the phone. Weren’t those last two by that bright light of Broadway, East Liberty’s,George S Kaufman? Uh, sort of. He actually wrote that stuff with some other guys. But give him credit where credit is due.
And guess who’s the star of this whole new shebang. Good old GSK. He’s not in it; he’s dead. But he lives on as the most significant character. Although this is fiction. With a Kaufman-like plot.
True, some of the acting goes a little overboard at times, as if director Tracy Brigden allowed a couple of cast members to milk it too hard, squeezing instead of letting it flow naturally. But since zippy lines keep on coming, no matter who delivers them or how, we’ve got a gem on our palm red hands in this world premiere. I'll bet my bottom dollar that this baby’ll go places.
Get this: No nudity, No profanity. No sensitive gays. An actual intermission. Way out of its time. And way into another one.
It’s 1937 and George has come back to where his family used to be…used-to-be, as you recall, is Pittsburgh to a fare-thee-well. Kaufman’s got a masterpiece in mind. Written all by himself. About his family, hence hanging around the roots to dig into the family tree. More recently the place was a hideout for a Communist cell. And one of those reds is still lurking, looking for an incriminating list. Also looking for it: G man Vic Zimmer. Standing by is distant relative young Morris Kaufman, whom George quickly wishes would get more distant. In the mix too are George’s agent, Max, and two girls Max hired by phone. One’s a secretary, the other a babe who mostly works in the dark, prone to be prone.
Confusions and misunderstandings cascade and tumble with snappy sentences flowing like the Mon flooding The Bathtub.
Brigden gets the vigorous pace nailed. And visiting artist Brian Sgambati plays George S. with winning charm and solid substance. Martin Giles and Patrick Jordan as Max and Vic expertly carry off the roles as funny extensions of their regularly recognizable personas. Meanwhile Robyn Parrish as a Betty Davis look-alike does well with the style that works best, a Veronica who comes across more like a real person than Marina Squerciati’s Betty cartoon, or Tony Bingham’s proximity to Jughead. Tony Ferrieri’s wonderfully crusty set does the trick as does the brassy, pre and post act sound of classic swing which Brad Peterson has disc-jockeyed swell.
Don’t forget to glom City Theatre’s program notes from Carlyn Aquiline. This gang knows how to do what it’s doing.
Louder Faster runs through May 29th at City Theatre at Bingham Street on Pittsburgh’s South Side. 412/431 CITY (2489) or www.citytheatrecompany.org
And guess who’s the star of this whole new shebang. Good old GSK. He’s not in it; he’s dead. But he lives on as the most significant character. Although this is fiction. With a Kaufman-like plot.
True, some of the acting goes a little overboard at times, as if director Tracy Brigden allowed a couple of cast members to milk it too hard, squeezing instead of letting it flow naturally. But since zippy lines keep on coming, no matter who delivers them or how, we’ve got a gem on our palm red hands in this world premiere. I'll bet my bottom dollar that this baby’ll go places.
Get this: No nudity, No profanity. No sensitive gays. An actual intermission. Way out of its time. And way into another one.
It’s 1937 and George has come back to where his family used to be…used-to-be, as you recall, is Pittsburgh to a fare-thee-well. Kaufman’s got a masterpiece in mind. Written all by himself. About his family, hence hanging around the roots to dig into the family tree. More recently the place was a hideout for a Communist cell. And one of those reds is still lurking, looking for an incriminating list. Also looking for it: G man Vic Zimmer. Standing by is distant relative young Morris Kaufman, whom George quickly wishes would get more distant. In the mix too are George’s agent, Max, and two girls Max hired by phone. One’s a secretary, the other a babe who mostly works in the dark, prone to be prone.
Confusions and misunderstandings cascade and tumble with snappy sentences flowing like the Mon flooding The Bathtub.
Brigden gets the vigorous pace nailed. And visiting artist Brian Sgambati plays George S. with winning charm and solid substance. Martin Giles and Patrick Jordan as Max and Vic expertly carry off the roles as funny extensions of their regularly recognizable personas. Meanwhile Robyn Parrish as a Betty Davis look-alike does well with the style that works best, a Veronica who comes across more like a real person than Marina Squerciati’s Betty cartoon, or Tony Bingham’s proximity to Jughead. Tony Ferrieri’s wonderfully crusty set does the trick as does the brassy, pre and post act sound of classic swing which Brad Peterson has disc-jockeyed swell.
Don’t forget to glom City Theatre’s program notes from Carlyn Aquiline. This gang knows how to do what it’s doing.
Louder Faster runs through May 29th at City Theatre at Bingham Street on Pittsburgh’s South Side. 412/431 CITY (2489) or www.citytheatrecompany.org
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Theatre review: "Shining City" at Off The Wall Theatre-Sunday 15th May 2011
Washington PA’s Off the Wall Theatre offers another well-acted, provocative play, Shining City by Ireland’s Conor McPherson. Locally two of his plays were seen here recently, The Seafarer at City Theatre in 2009 and The Dublin Carol produced by PICT in 2008. Similar to both, this largely remains a loquacious character study with thorough insights into conflicted lives. In this case parallels in behavior become revealed, creating a clever intellectual exercise to ponder once you’ve re-inserted yourself in your own city lights. An extraordinary, virtuosic performance by F. J. Hartland carries the day, making constantly interesting and clear page after page of nearly uninterrupted self-revealing monologues. Hartland never overdoes it; the result looks effortless rather than showy, perfectly suiting what McPherson wants to say about ordinary people struggling to make sense of uncertain existence.
Recently widowed John has been haunted by the ghost of his dead wife, Mari, and seeks help from Ian, a former priest turned therapist. Gradually it becomes clear that the relationship between John and Mari was increasingly strained, mostly due to John. It also turns out that Ian has serious problems in his relationship with his fiancée Neasa, where he seems most to blame. Both men search ways to be more complete than they are while McPherson’s fine perceptions show how realities keep teaching them lessons they hadn’t imagined. By contrast, a less ordinary man, streetwalker Laurence, has come to terms with who he is, another good McPherson conception.
I see potential for seriously touching moments, but the convincing portraits by Hartland and Dennis Schebetta as Ian stay inside the frame rather than grabbing you by the hand where you can feel the warmth, the sweaty palms. For me the only emotionally moving point comes when John describes getting violently angry with innocent Mari, making her a helpless victim. Odd, isn’t it? that an off-stage person could become more sympathetic than anyone onstage. Yet Hartland thoroughly conveyed that sorrowful moment even though not ever generating much sympathy for John.
He gets most of McPherson’s well-known penchant for Pinter-like fractured dialogue in rambling, always original, unpredictable stories. Alas there is constant repetition of “you know?” There may be some kind of point in having that phrase repeated so maddening excessively, but I can’t help wondering if Hartland was throwing in extra helpings. Too bad director John Shepard didn’t trim that somehow.
Shepard has kept the pacing genuine, never pushing too hard, making everything realistic, adding a few subtle touches in staging. Something else, though, puzzles me, a studied emphasis on Ian increasingly adding home-like touches to his office, bringing new pictures, lamps, flowers, plus pillows and a blanket which, oddly, never get used and just sit there on the floor. This seems rather close to Ionesco’s The New Tenant, perhaps with a similar point. I’m sure there’s a point in there somewhere.
As for the title, although the play is set in Dublin, nothing in the text talks about the city and, since it is outside the confines of these walls, the neither dark nor bright interior could be any place, making the events universal, rather than specific. So what does the title mean? Another puzzle.
Here we have thought over feeling in a well-done production which gives lots of interesting things to consider, including a surprise ending.
Shining City remains through May 21st at Off The Wall Theater, 147 N. Main Street Washington, PA. 724/ 873-3576 or www.insideoffthewall.com
Recently widowed John has been haunted by the ghost of his dead wife, Mari, and seeks help from Ian, a former priest turned therapist. Gradually it becomes clear that the relationship between John and Mari was increasingly strained, mostly due to John. It also turns out that Ian has serious problems in his relationship with his fiancée Neasa, where he seems most to blame. Both men search ways to be more complete than they are while McPherson’s fine perceptions show how realities keep teaching them lessons they hadn’t imagined. By contrast, a less ordinary man, streetwalker Laurence, has come to terms with who he is, another good McPherson conception.
I see potential for seriously touching moments, but the convincing portraits by Hartland and Dennis Schebetta as Ian stay inside the frame rather than grabbing you by the hand where you can feel the warmth, the sweaty palms. For me the only emotionally moving point comes when John describes getting violently angry with innocent Mari, making her a helpless victim. Odd, isn’t it? that an off-stage person could become more sympathetic than anyone onstage. Yet Hartland thoroughly conveyed that sorrowful moment even though not ever generating much sympathy for John.
He gets most of McPherson’s well-known penchant for Pinter-like fractured dialogue in rambling, always original, unpredictable stories. Alas there is constant repetition of “you know?” There may be some kind of point in having that phrase repeated so maddening excessively, but I can’t help wondering if Hartland was throwing in extra helpings. Too bad director John Shepard didn’t trim that somehow.
Shepard has kept the pacing genuine, never pushing too hard, making everything realistic, adding a few subtle touches in staging. Something else, though, puzzles me, a studied emphasis on Ian increasingly adding home-like touches to his office, bringing new pictures, lamps, flowers, plus pillows and a blanket which, oddly, never get used and just sit there on the floor. This seems rather close to Ionesco’s The New Tenant, perhaps with a similar point. I’m sure there’s a point in there somewhere.
As for the title, although the play is set in Dublin, nothing in the text talks about the city and, since it is outside the confines of these walls, the neither dark nor bright interior could be any place, making the events universal, rather than specific. So what does the title mean? Another puzzle.
Here we have thought over feeling in a well-done production which gives lots of interesting things to consider, including a surprise ending.
Shining City remains through May 21st at Off The Wall Theater, 147 N. Main Street Washington, PA. 724/ 873-3576 or www.insideoffthewall.com
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