Love, Janis - Hanna Theatre

Love Rock and Roll? ‘LOVE, JANIS’ is your thing!

"Some people live, some survive. I'm a survivor. I plan to be around for a long time." Those were the words of legendary rock singer Janis Joplin, whose life story, ‘LOVE, JANIS’ is now on stage at the Hanna Theatre.

As it turned out, Joplin was wrong. She died before her twenty-eighth birthday of an overdose of morphine and heroin.

Noted for her wailing blues sound, Janis Joplin broke the mold of traditionally pretty band singers, so prevalent during the 50s and early 60s, to become one
of the icons of rock music. But in spite of her
fame, she couldn’t overcome her self-destructive instincts

Born Janis Lyn Joplin on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, a small Southern petroleum industry town, she proved early in life to be a rebel. She broke with local social traditions during the tense days of racial integration, standing up for the rights of African Americans whose segregated status in her hometown conflicted with Janis’s youthful ideals.
She, along with fellow beatnik-leaning high school friends, pursued the non-traditional via arts and literature, especially music. She found her voice and was soon playing in coffee houses in the small towns of Texas. After a short stint in college her big break came. Chet Helms, a Lone Star state friend who was living in San Francisco, called to offer her a singing audition with an up-and-coming local group. Janis accepted, went to California and became the lead singer for "Big Brother and the Holding Company.” And, as the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

‘LOVE, JANIS’ was created by Joplin’s sister, Laura, whose goal was to show a side of the legendary singer that her fans may not have known. Through the use of pictures, letters that Janis wrote to her parents, and her songs, we learn of the star’s life. Or, at least the life her sister wants us to see.

The performance piece has an interesting premise. There are two Janises. One, the performer who puts on a face and a voice for the world, and the private Janis who wrote letters which indicated her successes and self doubts. Both Janises appear on stage, sometimes solely, sometimes together. This is accomplished by having two actresses portray the single person. One sings, the other speaks.

The present Cleveland production (in 1999 the Cleveland Play House mounted a very successful version) has two casts. I saw the duo of Katrina Chester as the singing Janis and Helen Coxe as the speaking Janis.

Chester has a big voice. She sings with gusto and lets loose with ease. I, at points, found her voice shrill and the song interpretations to be words rather than meanings, stressing the emotion rather than the meanings. A woman who shared my table at the performance, and who is a Janis fanatic, indicated that Chester, though good, didn’t have the audience-commanding presence of the original star.

I found Helen Coxe, who played the speaking role, unimpressive. She was constantly fiddling with her hair, seemed uncertain on stage and failed to develop a textured character. She simply didn’t display the emotional core of the character. She was missing the inner fire of a woman in chaos.

Local Cleveland favorite, Paul Floriano, is the off-stage voice who questions Janis and makes transitional comments.

On the way into the theatre the usher handed me a pair of ear plugs. She said, “Believe me, honey, you’ll need these.” She was right. Sitting in the first row, immediately in front of a huge speaker, my chair actually vibrated from the base notes. After a while the sound so overshadowed the singing, that I was hearing “boom, boom, boom,” not words. I wish that
bands would realize they are playing backup to the singer and if we can’t hear the lyrics, there is no sense in having a singer.

Capsule Judgment If you love rock and roll, if you are a Janis Joplin fan, you’ll like the concert segments of ‘LOVE, JANIS.’ If you have sensitive ears and aren’t into rock, there are probably shows around town that will be more to your liking.

Bravo, Caruso! - Ensemble Theater

‘BRAVO, CARUSO!’ off key at Ensemble

Playwright William Luce is famous for his one-person scripts. His subjects have included Emily
Dickenson, Charlotte Bronte, Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman and John Barrymore. In “BRAVO, CARUSO!,’ now being staged by Ensemble Theatre, Luce takes on Enrico Caruso, considered by many opera aficionados to be the greatest tenor of all time, in a two-character script.


Caruso was born into a working-class family in Naples, the 18th of 21 children. Early-on his mother was convinced that he had singing talent. By the time he was 10, the young Enrico's singing voice was receiving serious critical attention.

Caruso became a favorite at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he performed 37 roles in 607 performances. Since his career coincided with the development of the phonograph, he became one of the early recording stars. Earthy, and something of a clown, the singer was extremely popular, not only as a singer, but as a personality. In 1921, when he died at the age of 48, he was greatly mourned.

"BRAVO, CARUSO!" takes us into the tenor's dressing room at the Met on Christmas Eve, 1920. No one knows that he is about to sing his last performance.

As the tale unfolds, we see the eccentric, preoccupied and brilliant Caruso manipulating his devoted dresser, Fantini, into giving him the adoration the performer so desperately needs.

Any theatre choosing this script has to have two superb actors to play the roles. This is not a script for the ordinary performer. It also requires a director who has the inventive nature to work with the performers to hold the attention of an audience with a script that has little action, is very wordy and is two acts in length. There also has to be a sensitivity to developing the needed humor and pathos.
Unfortunately, Ensemble misses on all counts.

Though they try hard, Bernard Canepari and Pat Mazzarino can’t pull off the difficult roles. Neither is totally believable in their performances. Canepari seems so pre-occupied with remembering his lines that he fails to develop a textured character. The humor and the drama get melded together. Mazzarino plays at being fay and endearing, but never reaches down into the real Fantini. We never understand why he is so devoted to his master and why he is willing to be the brunt of the manipulation.

They are not helped by Licia Colombi’s directing, which consists of coming up with shticks and gimmicks rather than creating a unified feeling, using the humor and drama of the script. How many times can we be amused by an ironing board being taken out and put away? Does having Mazzarino mincing around the stage really help him develop a meaningful character? Why weren’t real food and cigarettes used? The faking was just too obvious, especially in a play that has to be real.

Ron Newell’s fragmented set, Michael Beyers’ lighting and Casey Jones’s sound effects all work well. Too bad the rest of the production doesn’t live up to the technical aspects.

Capsule Judgment One of the most difficult reviews for a critic to write is one that is generally negative. Unfortunately, every once in while, it is my unfortunate duty to have to do so. In choosing a difficult script to perform a theatre has to be sure they have the talent to direct and perform the intent and purpose of the script. Ensemble was over its head in selecting ‘BRAVO, CARUSO!’

T.I.D.Y (Beck Center)

‘T.I.D.Y.’ has some funny moments at Beck

Eric Coble, considered by many to be the local playwright laureate, has hit the big time. He’s an entry in ‘Wikipedia,’ the on-line encyclopedia. You can also probe him for personal information on ‘Answers.com.’ Theatre Communications Group honored him in their article “Seven Playwrights to Watch.”

Coble, whose newest play ‘T.I.D.Y.’ is being staged at Beck Center, is a member of the Playwrights' Unit of the Cleveland Play House. His past works include:
‘TEN MINUTES FROM CLEVELAND’ (which premiered at Dobama Theater), ‘SOUND BITING,’ ‘ISOLATED INCIDENTS,’ ‘BRIGHT IDEAS’ (which had a New York off Broadway production, as well as a Cleveland run), ‘PINOCCHIO 3.5,’ ‘CINDERELLA CONFIDENTIAL,’ ‘SACAGAWEA,’ ‘VIRTUAL DEVOTION,’ ‘TRUTH: THE TESTIMONIAL OF SOJOURNER TRUTH,’ ‘IN A GROVE: FOUR JAPANESE GHOST STORIES,’ and ‘NIGHTFALL WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE.’

Coble, who has an affinity for storytelling, often displays a wonderful spirited creativity. Some of this may have come from his upbringing on the Navaho and Ute reservations of New Mexico and Colorado where he spent time wandering around in what he once described as an “Indiana Jones setting,” which encouraged his imagination to run wild.

Anyone who has seen Coble’s ‘BRIGHT IDEAS,’ which tells the tale of parents who will stop at nothing to enroll their child in the “perfect” preschool, realizes his off-the-wall thought processes and an ability to play with words.

Coble often turns to classic sources as well as fairy tales and social issues and political intrigue for his inspiration. ‘T.I.D.Y.’ has a conspiracy base, which works perfectly in this year’s political atmosphere of who outed an FBI agent, was the public misled by G. W. Bush’s “evil empire” and the neo-cons about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or their tie to the terrorism that destroyed the World Trade Center.

The basic story centers on Emily Danbert, a computer geek, whose quiet life is totally thrown into chaos when T.I.D.Y., a program she developed, becomes the center of a global conspiracy. Matters really get out of hand when her “sweet” old mother, her husband, her best friend and a mysterious confident all get involved in the intrigue.

The concept is a delight. Unfortunately, the play and the production don’t live up to the premise. Though filled with some delightful moments, the play’s pieces-parts don’t always flow together well. There are segments where the action zooms right along, others where there are lulls. Some of the problem lies with director Roger Truesdell, who has paced the production much too slowly. This has to be a Marx Brothers romp, a farce on speed. Instead, we get a car race followed by a pony trot, followed by acceleration, and then more plodding.

The cast is generally excellent. Sarah Morton develops a nice textured roll as the obsessive compulsive left-brained nerd whose personal and professional life lacks much excitement until she becomes the center of an international conspiracy plot. Kevin Joseph Kelly plays multi-roles with comic delight. His highlight is a portrayal of an ice cream salesman who can hardly contain his exasperation while Morton’s character continually changes her order. Rhoda Rosen, as the mother turned international hit man, is hysterical. She gives a perfect Ethel Mertz impersonation. Nicholas Koesters makes for a fine ex-husband trying hard to come back into his former wife’s life. Tracey Field could have had more fun and exaggerated her role of the mysterious confident, as could have Alison Garrigan as the friendly fellow worker turned bad.

Don McBride’s multi-level set design basically works, but the constant need to move furniture around slowed down the show’s pace.

As the program states, “Anyone in the United Sates today who isn’t paranoid must be crazy.” After watching ‘T.I.D.Y’ you’ll be even more paranoid. Or, as the bumper sticker on my car says, “If you aren’t appalled, you haven’t been paying attention.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘T.I.D.Y.’ isn’t up to Coble’s ‘BRIGHT IDEAS,’ but it has some good laughs. Too bad both the script and pacing couldn’t have had a little more “oomph.”

Opal (Kalliope Stage)

Kalliope Stage does area premiere of ‘OPAL’

‘OPAL,’ the Richard Rodgers and AT&T Award-winning musical by Robert Lindsey Nassif, is getting its local premiere at Kalliope Stage. Nassif ,who penned the book, music and lyrics, is known to Cleveland audiences for his authorship of ‘HONKY TONK HIGHWAY,’ and ‘ ELIOT NESS IN CLEVELAND,’ which had local productions.

Opal is a full-length musical in one long act, that explores a young girl's attempt to "make earth glad" by helping those around her fulfill their needs and desires. Billed as the true story of Francoise D'Orleans, who, as a child, was shipwrecked off the Oregon coast. It is a bittersweet story that supposedly grew out of Francoise's own diary entries.

The reality, however, was that ten months after the diary was published, D’Orleans was accused of fraud. Critics said she fabricated her biography, especially her claims that she was adopted by the Whiteleys and that her parents were actually French aristocracy. She was also accused of writing the diary as an adult, not when she was a child.

After the untruthful revelations, Opal fled America and was found in England more than 20 years later wandering through the rubble and burned-out buildings left in the wake of World War II. She was committed to an insane asylum, identified as Schizophrenic, and remained there the rest of her life. She died in 1992, just weeks before the New York debut of the musical based on her writings.

No matter the veracity of the tale, the bottom line is that Opal’s story is compelling, mysterious and tragic.

The play opens with the shipwreck and illustrates what happens when Francoise is taken in by The Mamma, an embittered woman. The child, who believes her parents will come back one day, is given the name Opal, the same name as The Mamma’s dead daughter. To psychologically survive, Francoise creates a world of fantasy which includes naming things by cultural connections in her background. For example, she names her pet pig “Peter Paul Rubens.” She gives nicknames to the people of the town: “the thought-girl with far away look in her eyes,” “the girl that has no seeing,” and “the man that wears gray neckties.” Her extraordinary imagination affects the lives of those around her.

This isn’t the traditional musical theatre feel-good fluff story with a neatly packaged happy ending. This is a story that is a mix of happiness and sorrow.

Kalliope Stage’s production, under the adept directing of Paul F. Gurgol, is generally excellent. Gurgol does a masterful job of using the theatre’s small stage to its maximum. He has cast members linger around the stage, doing various tasks such as needle-point, knitting, and sawing wood to the best effect. The scenes flow well and transition effectively. The pacing is excellent. The opening storm scene is quite realistic and his creation of visual pictures, such as the human tree, is impressive.

There are some very strong performances. Marla Berg as Sadie McKibben, the washer woman who befriends Opal, has a fine singing voice and develops a clear character. Kris Comer, the blind girl, creates a perfect image of a woman who is vulnerable and in need of love. Scott Posey has a powerful voice and also hits all the acting notes right as The Shy Man that Wears Gray Neckties. His future bride, The Thought-Girl with the Far Away Look in her Eyes, is nicely developed and sung by Jodi Brinkman. Each of the narrators is effective.

On the other hand, Ayeshah Douglas as The Mamma fails to texture her role. Her lines often miss depth of meaning and she acts, rather than reacts to Opal and the other characters.

Evaluating a play that has a child lead is often a difficult task. No matter the quality of character development and singing abilities, it is expected that the child, due to her age, is to be judged as “wonderful.” However, I feel that it is unfair to use one criteria for the rest of the cast and another for child actors, especially ones in musicals like ‘ANNIE,’ ‘OLIVER,’ and ‘OPAL’ where they are the pivotal centers of the show. With that said, eleven year-old Dani Apple makes for an acceptable Opal. She has a nice singing voice. Her acting is not quite as good. She often says lines, rather than creating meanings. Her speaking voice sometimes gets into the high registers which is hard on the ears. Gurgol needed to work with her on emotional development which stretched beyond yelling when she was distraught, and looking directly into the eyes of other characters as she speaks.

The choral work is excellent as are the musical sounds created by Brad Wyner and Anthony Ruggiero. Russ Borski’s set design is effective and Lance Switzer’s lighting works well.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘OPAL’ is an arresting play that gets a very good production at Kalliope Stage.

Alice in Wonderland (Cleveland Play House)

Alex and Noah Give A Mild “Thumbs Up” to CPH’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’


Who better to review a children’s play then children? As I have done before with child centered plays, I took my grandsons, Alex (10) and Noah Berko (8) to see the Cleveland Play House’s ‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND.’

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was a British author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer who lived in the mid to late 1800s. His most famous writings are ‘ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND’ and its sequel ‘THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS.’

The original book was illustrated by the famous Sir John Tenniel. His drawings are those which usually illustrate any telling of the story. The volume was a phenomenal success, but questions still arise over the tale’s meaning. It is generally felt that the story is that of the author, and Alice is his alter ego. It is also conjectured that the entire story is a mathematical formula which when solved gives the clues for a positive philosophy by which to live one’s life.

The book has been transformed into numerous films, television shows, ice skating shows and even an interactive museum.

The story concerns Alice who “falls” down a rabbit hole and has a set of wonderful adventures as she attempts to find her way out. In reality, as the Cleveland Play House production seems to indicate, she may have just fallen asleep and dreamed the whole thing. Whatever. An adventure it is and the characters are vivid. The March Hare, the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat are known to most children and adults in the English-speaking world.

The short, approximately one-hour adaptation by Eric Schmiedl, is a perfect length for children. Alex and Noah were alert throughout. Alex especially liked “the caterpillar” and Noah’s favorite was the vertically hanging table for the tea party with the cups and saucers held in place by magnets. He also thought Nigel, Alice’s cat (Jared Nichols, who marvelously morphed from person to feline) was “funny” and was his favorite character.

They both indicated they found several scenes “too long” and “boring after a while.” These included the trial and the tea party. Noah said that he “didn’t like it when the actors were whispering lines to each other” during the trial scene.

From an adult perspective I found the pacing rather slow. I have always thought that children’s theatre needs to have variety, action, the unusual and be participatory. This production did well on involving the audience. The unusual was taken care of with such devices as the long caterpillar with all the legs moving and the unusal placement of the tea party table. There needed to be more schticks and gimmicks, more slapstick, more glee to really grab and hold the kids attention.

A treat was the question-and-answer session following the show when the kids asked probing and fun questions of the cast. These were well handled by Kristen O’Connor, Philllip Carroll, Kevin Joseph Kelly, Colin Cook, Jared Nichols and Gilgamesh A. Tagget.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT: Alex and Noah gave CPH’S ‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND’ a mild but not enthusiastic “thumbs up.”

Swing (Carousel Dinner Theatre)

Carousel’s ‘Swing!’ swings audience

“It was worth the drive in from Warren!” Fill in the name of the town, but those were excited words of some audience members as they exited Carousel Dinner Theatre’s production of ‘SWING.’

As long as there has been a Broadway, there have been music and dance revues. ‘SWING!’ is one of those. The show opened on the Great White Way in December of 1999 and ran through mid-January, 2001, a respectable 461 performances.

As its title indicates, the show centers on swing music, also known as swing jazz or the big band sound. It is a music that was popular during the 1930s and 40s in the United States. The major dance forms that went with the music included boogie woogie and the jitter bug.

Reviews of the Broadway production stated that is was exuberant, fun and a sure winner. It was called “a show that is one big exclamation point.”

There is no story line, just a series of dance, song, instrumental solo and group performances. Some of the songs included are: “Hit Me with a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce,” “G.I. Jive,” “ I'll Be Seeing You, “ “In the Mood,” “Swing, Brother, Swing,” “Cry Me a River,” “Blues in the Night,” “All of Me,” and “Stompin' at the Savoy.”

The Carousel production, under the adept directing of Marc Robin, features the creative choreography of Beverly Durand and Mark Stuart Eckstein. The duo also dance in the show and provide many of the show’s highlights. Eckstein tosses Durand around like a sack of potatoes. He sweeps the floor with her body, tosses her skyward on numerous occasions, twirls and twists and flips her with ease. Their versions of “Show Me What You’ve Got,” and “Boogie-Woogie Country” were show stoppers.

Other highlights included: the dynamite “Swing It, Brother, Swing” and “Don’t Mean a Thing,’ the opening number; Bli-Bip” which featured the duo singing of Charles Statham and Kate McCann; “Harlem Nocturne” which featured Jessica Dillan performing an interactive sensual dance number with a cello; the pretty ballad, “I’ll Be Seeing You” sung by Kate McCann and featuring the dancing of Joe Komara and Courtney Combs; the company’s singing and dancing of “Swing It, Brother, Swing” and “Cry Me A River” featuring Ashley Hunt and strong trumpet solo; and, a fine rendition of “Blues in the Night” featuring Kate McCann, Jessica Dillan and Robert Bottoms.

Steve Parson’s musical direction, Paul Black’s fantastic lighting concepts, Paul Sannierud’s creative big band techno set and Dale DiBernardo’s costumes, all added to the quality of the production. Another added feature was the theatre’s new sound system, which made the vocals and the music crisp and clear.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: If you love swing music, if you love good dancing, if you love good singing, if you like musicals that entertain even though they have no story line, you’ll love Carousel’s ‘SWING!.’

Googlewhack! - Playhouse Square Cener

‘Googlewhack! adventure’ hysterical, but I’m not allowed to say much more

How does a reviewer comment on a production when the author and performer (who happen to be the same person) stands stage center during the curtain call, and explicitly forbades viewers from telling anyone other than the people in that audience what the production was about or revealing the ending. So, what can I say about ‘DAVE GORMAN’S GOOGGLEWHACK! ADVENTURE’? Okay, try this on...it’s about 2 words, 4,285,199,774 web pages and what happens when an obsessive-compulsive creative man goes berserk on the internet. I can also say it’s hilarious, delightful, mind bending, comical, hysterical, side-splitting, cleverly conceived and a one-of-a-kind experience.

Maybe it’s just best to let Gorman himself tell you what’s it all about. That way I won’t get into trouble. On his webpage he states, “At the age of 31 I decided to give up my stupid ways, grow a beard and write a novel. I guess this show is the story of my failure to do two of those things. (Yes, I have a beard) All sorts of unpleasantness could have been avoided if other people had told me not to do it. Instead, they took me seriously. Meetings were set up, deals were done and a novel was commissioned. To make matters worse, a publisher even gave me a chunk of money as an advance on the project. This was an exceedingly stupid thing to do. Needless to say, the novel doesn't exist and I've spent the money. What on? On a googlewhack adventure.”

He goes on to state, “It started when I received an e-mail from a stranger telling me that I was a googlewhack. I didn't know what a googlewhack was. Now I do. A googlewhack is what happens when two words are entered into Google and comes back with one and only one hit. So when the stranger told me that I was a googlewhack, he didn't mean that my name Dave Gorman was one... he meant that my website contained one.”

And with that premise, Gorman went on an adventure. Sorry, I can’t tell you what kind of adventure, or what happened, or how the whole thing turned out. The only way you’ll ever find out is to go see the production yourself.

Capsule Judgment I loved, loved, loved the show and thanks to Mr. Gorman, I have become a slave to my computer, having spent the last 12 hours googlewhacking! Be warned--Gorman and googlewhacking are addictive.

The Family Line (Karamu)

Karamu stages County Commissioneer Peter Lawson Jones's play

Writing a good play is a difficult task. Directing a new play, especially for an inexperienced director, is a difficult task. Performing in a new play, with a novice director, especially when you are an amateur actor, is a difficult task. These conditions are all present in ‘THE FAMILY LINE’ now on stage at Karamu Theatre.

Peter Lawson Jones is best known locally as a Cuyahoga County Commissioner. He is also a Harvard College and Law School graduate and an aspiring playwright. His play, ‘THE FAMILY LINE’ has been produced at Harvard and Ohio Universities and received a staged-reading at the East Cleveland Community Theatre. It has an interesting premise. A star black male high school basketball star sees his way out of the ghetto by becoming a college phenom and then going on to play in the pro ranks. His hopes are dashed when he runs into a prejudiced college coach and allows this to send him into a tailspin of self-pity, which not only effect his own life, but that of his wife and those who befriend him.

Most plays go through a long period of adjustment in which a dramaturg, a writer’s workshop and numerous developmental productions help hone the script and insure that the dialogue is natural, the plot twists are well founded, and the concept holds up. The script of ‘THE FAMILY LINE,’ with all its strengths, is still a work-in-progress. Some of the dialogue is in written rather than oral style, some of the plot twists too obvious, and some of the needed emotional motivations for the actors are missing. The play needs some texturing, some humor, some variance of mood.

Director Desmond “Storm E” Jones indicates in the program that this is his directing debut at Karamu House. Undertaking to direct is a daunting task. To take on a new, untested play is even more difficult. He hits some of the notes right, but, the pacing is extremely slow and the interactions between characters are sometimes unreal. Some of the cast spoke lines, rather than creating meanings. Some of the staging was awkward, such as the scenes in the bar. The fake food did not help enhance the realism of the production. The fight scenes were unrealistic.

Sonia Bishop is one of this area’s better actresses. Her portrayal of Sheila, the basketball player Brad’s wife, was right on key. The character’s emotions were clear and her frustration obvious. Joseph Primes and Karyn Lewis, as Brad and Sheila’s life-long friends, also developed well-honed and realistic characters. They inter-played well with each other.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast struggled with creating real people. Most of the time it was obvious they were acting, not reacting to the lines’ concepts and each other. They often lacked believability. Director Jones needed to work more with the cast members to create reality, not just say memorized lines.

Talented Scenic designer Richard H. Morris, Jr. has constructed two realistic side-by-side sets. Unfortunately, they both looked too chic, too modern, too well furnished and appointed to be that of a financially struggling young couple and a seedy bar. He could have helped the director by placing the dining room table on a platform behind the couch, thus eliminating an awkward scene change.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Karamu should be commended for giving a voice to a new work. Though the quality was not soaring, there is a place in the theatre for giving a voice to new playwrights, directors and performers, and Karamu fulfilled that need with this production.

Family Life - Karamu

Karamu stages County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones's play

Writing a good play is a difficult task. Directing a new play, especially for an inexperienced director, is a difficult task. Performing in a new play, with a novice director, especially when you are an amateur actor, is a difficult task. These conditions are all present in ‘THE FAMILY LINE’ now on stage at Karamu Theatre.

Peter Lawson Jones is best known locally as a Cuyahoga County Commissioner. He is also a Harvard College and Law School graduate and an aspiring playwright. His play, ‘THE FAMILY LINE’ has been produced at Harvard and Ohio Universities and received a staged-reading at the East Cleveland Community Theatre. It has an interesting premise. A star black male high school basketball star sees his way out of the ghetto by becoming a college phenom and then going on to play in the pro ranks. His hopes are dashed when he runs into a prejudiced college coach and allows this to send him into a tailspin of self-pity, which not only effect his own life, but that of his wife and those who befriend him.

Most plays go through a long period of adjustment in which a dramaturg, a writer’s workshop and numerous developmental productions help hone the script and insure that the dialogue is natural, the plot twists are well founded, and the concept holds up. The script of ‘THE FAMILY LINE,’ with all its strengths, is still a work-in-progress. Some of the dialogue is in written rather than oral style, some of the plot twists too obvious, and some of the needed emotional motivations for the actors are missing. The play needs some texturing, some humor, some variance of mood.

Director Desmond “Storm E” Jones indicates in the program that this is his directing debut at Karamu House. Undertaking to direct is a daunting task. To take on a new, untested play is even more difficult. He hits some of the notes right, but, the pacing is extremely slow and the interactions between characters are sometimes unreal. Some of the cast spoke lines, rather than creating meanings. Some of the staging was awkward, such as the scenes in the bar. The fake food did not help enhance the realism of the production. The fight scenes were unrealistic.

Sonia Bishop is one of this area’s better actresses. Her portrayal of Sheila, the basketball player Brad’s wife, was right on key. The character’s emotions were clear and her frustration obvious. Joseph Primes and Karyn Lewis, as Brad and Sheila’s life-long friends, also developed well-honed and realistic characters. They inter-played well with each other.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast struggled with creating real people. Most of the time it was obvious they were acting, not reacting to the lines’ concepts and each other. They often lacked believability. Director Jones needed to work more with the cast members to create reality, not just say memorized lines.

Talented Scenic designer Richard H. Morris, Jr. has constructed two realistic side-by-side sets. Unfortunately, they both looked too chic, too modern, too well furnished and appointed to be that of a financially struggling young couple and a seedy bar. He could have helped the director by placing the dining room table on a platform behind the couch, thus eliminating an awkward scene change.

Capsule Judgment Karamu should be commended for giving a voice to a new work. Though the quality was not soaring, there is a place in the theatre for giving a voice to new playwrights, directors and performers, and Karamu fulfilled that need with this production.

The Things They Carried (Playhouse Square Center)

‘THE THINGS THEY CARRIED' mesmerizes

Every once in a while a theatre-goer has an experience in which the images developed by writer and the actors envelopes him or her and remains for a long time. I had such an experience when I saw ‘THE THINGS THEY CARRIED,’ a contemporary literature piece about the writer’s Vietnam War experiences, which was presented at the Idea Center of Playhouse Square as part of their Discovery series.

The one-man play is based on Tim O’Brien’s best selling book about the Vietnam war. In reality, it’s more than a book about the war. It is a series of stories creatively written with the intimacy of a searing autobiography. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. It also is a great catalyst for thinking about the present Iraqi conflict. Much of the discussion during the after-talk centered on the parallels of the deceptive, misguided and ego-centered thinking which carried this country into both conflicts.

Since it was first published, ‘THE THINGS THEY CARRIED’ has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature and a profound study of men at war and how war affects not only the combatants, but those left at home and those living where the battles are fought.

The title of the book and the play centers on what the soldiers carried: malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, and each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb.

The play, which has been developed into both a 30-minute version to be showcased in junior and senior high schools as the center of a discussion about war, and an hour version to be presented in commercial venues, goes beyond the book. The play starts as we share with O’Brien, who has just graduated from college and is readying to go for his master’s degree at Harvard, the emotion of receiving his draft notice. O’Brien, who objects to the war, is caught between family and community loyalty and his desire to flee. We travel with O’Brien to the Canadian border, share his decision not to cross into the unknown, getting drafted, fighting in the war, and returning a different person from when he left. A person who now carries emotions and experiences he would rather not have as part of his life baggage.

The play was developed in a collaboration between O’Brien, the play’s director, Wynn Handman, actor Dashiel Eaves and cellist Mark Wind. The full-length version is getting its world premiere in Cleveland.

Handsome, intense and talented Eaves is compelling in the role of O’Brien. He does not portray O’Brien, he is O’Brien. I found myself so enmeshed with Eaves that I forgot I was in a theatre. His every nuance helped activate all of my senses. I saw Canada so close, but so far away. I smelled the burning flesh of the buffalo that was senselessly slaughtered. I saw the one legged boy. I heard the helicopters overhead, the bombs exploding. My eyes welled when his did as he recollected his emotional reactions. This was one proficient, very proficient performance.

Wind has created haunting music. He sets the mood, makes transitions and underscores ideas with perfectly written and played sounds.

The talk back after the show was also a unique experience. The audience, which included a humanities class from a Michigan high school, asked pointed and intelligent questions. Both cellist Wind and actor Eaves displayed a depth of knowledge about the war and the project beyond the script.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: It’s a shame that ‘THE THINGS THEY CARRIED’ only had a three-day run. It is the kind of presentation that could have had a long open-ended run and developed a cult following. I will long remember the experience!

I Am My Own Wife - Cleveland Playhouse

Compelling ‘I Am My Own Wife’ at CPH

‘I AM MY OWN WIFE, now on stage at the Cleveland Play House, opened in New York on December 3, 2003 and ran until October 31, 2004, having played 26 previews and 361 performances. Audiences and critics were so enamored with the show that it garnered the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play. It starred Jefferson Mays, who received Tony Award recognition as Best Actor for his portrayal.

On the surface, the story of “I AM MY OWN WIFE” is straightforward: a European follows a lifelong pursuit for sexual freedom and antique furniture. But, that’s only the surface of what the play is all about. It’s the story of a real person who defied the odds to outwit the Nazis during World War II and deal with the communist control of East Germany during the era of the Berlin Wall. That would have been an achievement for most people, but Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was a man who lived his life as a woman. Dressed in high-heeled sandals and a “good” suit, Charlotte collected furnishings from the Grunderzeit for half a century. In the Third Reich, Mahlsdorf "rescued" pieces from Jewish deportees; in the German Democratic Republic, Charlotte protected "bourgeois cultural assets" from the Stasi. She saved a long-existing East German gay-lesbian bar from destruction and moved the contents into the basement of her house/museum where it existed for many years.

The story does not center on Charlotte’s sexuality, but her sexuality is part of the tale. It intensifies the story. Her being transgendered adds to the intrigue.

It is interesting to note that reviews and publicity for the play use the words “transgendered” and “cross dressing” interchangeably. They are not the same. (Let me put my psychology professor hat on here.) Someone who is transgendered (sometimes referred to as “transsexual”) believes they have been born into the wrong body. In von Mahlsdorf’s case, early in his life he realized that he should have been a female. So he led his life as a woman. With present day scientific advancements, von Mahlsdorf would have been able to go through hormone replacement therapy and operations to remove his male organs and transforming himself into a female. But that was not possible in his era. If von Mahlsdorf was a crossdresser, he would have liked to dress in the traditional clothing of a person of the opposite sex but not desire to be that sex. Research shows that most crossdressers are mainly heterosexual. von Mahlsdorf openly declared herself to be a lesbian.

Though the play is acted by one man, over 30 people are portrayed. We watch as a member of the German Secret Service, an aunt, a father, a barmaid, a Russian official, a male prostitute, American soldiers, West German officials, a prison guard, a political dissident, a tv performer, several neo-nazis, a TV interviewer, reporters and a psychiatrist interact with Charlotte.

The first act is exposition...explaining Charlotte to us, laying the background as to who she is. One question that surely arises is whether Charlotte was able to stay alive by being a collaborator. That’s the duty of the second act, poking holes in her story. Was she a true innocent who lucked out or a master manipulator? Was she, like her artifacts, unusual enough to treasure and preserve or were they and she well hidden, below the surface, and capable of living on through duplicity?

Mark Nelson portrays Charlotte and all the characters with ease. He switches roles seamlessly. He underplays Charlotte in such a way that it allows us to question whether she is real or is playing a game with us. Whether she is editing her life so we accept her as being what she tells us she is, or, whether she is displaying catlike wariness intended to allow herself to slip into our hearts and minds and ignore the inconsistencies in her story.

Nelson beguiles the audience with sweet tales and harrowing ones as the character recounts her father's brutality and the child's violent retaliation, the experience of nearly getting shot by Nazi guards as a teenager, and the constant harassment by the Stasi, the East German secret police.

Nelson’s performance, effectively directed by Anders Cato, is remarkable for its establishment of distance and boundaries. With a Mona Lisa-like grin, Nelson establishes a character who can barely suppress delight in her own uniqueness and an apparent willingness to lie openly and frequently. Nelson’s von Mahlsdorf enchants us while she's reeling us in.

When she speaks, it's in German or an accented English, often with a "yes?" at the end, as if verifying that she has been heard and understood. The grin is shy, the gaze opaque. She appears comfortable amid a vast collection of antiques which surround her in backwall pictures and miniatures which have been woven expertly into an impressive set by scenic designer Hugh Landwehr.

Those who like their dramas to have a conclusive ending will be disappointed with Wright’s script. We are left with the question of who, really, is this person? How much of a hero or traitor she was is open to speculation. The author lets you take your own guesses. It makes for good driving home talk.

Capsule Judgment ‘I AM MY OWN WIFE’ is fascinating theatre. Nelson’s portrayal is excellent. The Cleveland Play House should be proud of this production and audiences should flock to see it.

Bebe Miller - Dance Cleveland

'BEBE MILLER COMPANY uses "motion capture" to create visual art

The Bebe Miller Company recently brought its newest dance piece, ‘LANDING/PLACE,’ to Cleveland under the joint sponsorship of Dance Cleveland and Cuyahoga Community College.

You don’t go to see Miller’s work expecting the “normal” dance program. This is both its strength and
its weakness. Her company doesn’t dance, per se, it
uses “motion capture” which incorporates state-of-the-art digital equipment to capture every subtle movement of a subject, preserving the movements on a computer. The technology is most often used for creating visual special effects and animation. In other words, the dancers are incorporated into mechanically produced musical sounds and computer generated graphics. It’s much like being in a contemporary art gallery, often with pictures that make no logical sense, with dancers who are free-flowing in their interpretation of a continuously developing illusion against a background of video movement.

The ‘LANDING/PLACE’ project, which began last October when the company started to integrate the “motion capture” with video imagery, developed over the summer.

According to Miller, the ‘LANDING/PLACE’ project “explores sensory, spatial and cultural dislocation—the yearning toward order in the apprehension of difference. Inspired by Miller’s travel in Eritrea, North Africa, ‘THE LANDING/PLACE PROJECT’ is created as a portrait of a more common landscape, the daily exchange of competing ideas of ‘place’ and the tension created by an unfamiliar body in an accustomed landscape.”

With all that said, I was not captivated by the intermissionless performance. Okay, I may be old-fashioned, but I like to understand, to feel something, to be carried away by what I see on stage.
At first I was captivated by the integration of the media. I was especially enamored with the technician, sitting alone stage right in the orchestra pit, who with his Mac computer and technical gear produced all the visual and musical/electronic sounds. After a while my attention waned, especially when a spotlight came up on him and he lip-synced an opera aria and then jumped on stage and attempted to dance with the performers. Well, I guess it could be called dancing if you consider wiggling one’s hips and sliding one’s feet around clumsily, dancing.

After my interest in the technician waned, I just sat back and watched the proficient dancers move around the stage. This is a very talented group of
performers! They deserve to be the center of
attention, rather than the gimmicks.

For a while I tried to make sense of the “stories”
being developed, but those attempts also soon waned out of frustration. I wasn’t alone in my attempt for understanding. Seated in my row was a charming teenager, who was in attendance with her mother. She leaned over about half-way through the production and whispered, “Is this supposed to make some kind of sense?” The mother replied, “I have no idea.”

I get frustrated by artists who pile trash in a space and call it a work of art. I am confounded by those who paint a bunch of squiggly lines and hang it up and then expect viewers to spend long periods of time pretending to like the work. I don’t think it’s art when someone gets up on a ladder and randomly pours paint onto a canvass. I also get upset by choreographers who create something that defies understanding and then state that the audience should interpret it for themselves. That’s not my job. It’s the creators job to give me enough concept and execution to lead me in some direction, even if its in a direction in which I don’t want to go.

At the conclusion of the performance the young lady sitting next to me said to her mother, “Should we stay for the after-talk? Maybe they’ll explain to us what we just saw.” Her mother said, “No! Someone else shouldn’t have to explain to you what you just saw. She should have made it clear to you with what she created on stage.” My response? “Amen!” I’m going to hire this woman to help me write my future reviews.

South Pacific (Jewish Community Center)

‘South Pacific’ pleases opening night audience at JCC

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, America’s premiere traditional musical theatre writers, were social theorists and activists. Each of their shows, including ‘SOUTH PACIFIC,’ now being staged by the Jewish Community Center’s Arts and Culture Division, carries a message of societal problems and lectures on the need for change. This message is highlighted by one key song in the score of each of their shows. In the case of ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ it is the poignant “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” which explains that prejudice is not inborn but is passed from generation to generation.

The musical, based on James Michener’s ‘TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC,’ basically asks the question of whether a young military nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, can overcome her family taught prejudices and find happiness with a mature French planter she met “one enchanted evening” on a Pacific Island. When she finds out he was formerly married to an island native and fathered two children, she must decide whether “to wash that man right out of her hair.” On another level the tale examines another pair, American GI Joseph Cable and the Bali Ha’i born Liat, who are also the victims of prejudice. The love affairs are wrapped inside the reality of World War II when, in 1943 the United States Navy established bases in the Solomon Islands, in preparation for an invasion towards the Central Pacific. On one such island Michener created a fantasy about a French planter named Emile de Becque, whom the Navy wishes to employ as a scout to nearby Japanese held islands. He eventually agrees to assist and thus the story races to it denouement.

The Broadway version of ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ opened in 1949 and closed in 1954 after 1925 performances. It won the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Libretto and Original Score and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Three of the show’s original cast also won Tonys. Ezio Pinza as best actor, Mary Martin, best actress and Juanita Hall for best featured actress in a musical. In 1958 the play was made into a movie staring Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston and Juanita Hall.

The musical score, which many theatre experts believe contains the best score ever written for an American musical, includes such classics as, “A Cockeyed Optimist” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothin' Like a Dame,” “Bali Ha’I,” “Younger Than Springtime,” and “This Nearly Was Mine.”

Musicals are the most complex of arts, combining acting, singing, dancing, musicianship, scenic and fabric design and construction. It is why so few musicals are truly outstanding, especially on the non-professional level. No matter how much we want to think that our friends and relatives are “better than Broadway,” the reality is that they usually are not.

Yes, every once in a while a local production soars. Yes, there are near wonders like the recent ‘URINETOWN’ at Beck Center, ‘SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD’ at Cain Park, ‘CHORUS LINE’ at Carousel Dinner Theatre and JCC’s award winning ‘RAGTIME,’ but those are the exceptions. Most local musical productions are, “okay.” They are pleasant experiences, with performers and staff who try hard and give their all to please an audience. JCC’s ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ falls into the latter category. Don’t go expecting to see another ‘RAGTIME.’ It isn’t. Does that mean it’s bad? No, it just doesn’t reach the level of that superb production.

Tom Fulton is excellent as Emile. He creates a clear physical and vocal character. His rendition of “This Nearly Was Mine” was wonderful. Cheryl Campo’s Blood Mary is generally on target. Colin Cook has a nice singing voice and has a grasp of Lt. Cable’s motivations. For some reason his version of “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” seemed truncated. Since it is the key to the show’s meaning, one must question why that was done. The male singing chorus and the orchestra are superior.

The usually terrific Larry Nehring is much too controlled as the wheeling-dealing Billis. He doesn’t appear to be having fun...a vital element in making the character delightful. Joan Ellison (Nellie) has an excellent singing voice. Unfortunately she often says and sings words rather than creating meanings. It was difficult to accept her as a real person. There appeared to be little emotional connection between Nellie and Emile. John Lynch had trouble creating a realist character in the pivotal role of Captain Brackett.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: JCC’s ‘SOUTH PACIFIC’ is an acceptable but not an outstanding production. If judged by the opening night audience those who attend will enjoy themselves.

States of Shock (convergence-continuum)

‘STATES OF SHOCK’ challenges audience at convergence-continuum

Stephen Gaghan, the writer and director of the film ‘SYRIANA’ recently stated, “I think it’s really important to go out of the theater wondering about its meaning. Everything isn’t explained in two hours. The world is a big, complex, inscrutable place. Why take a complex world and reduce it to simple truths? That’s kind of false.”

When reading Gaghan’s quote I thought of convergence-continuum, the little theatre in Tremont that strongly subscribes to the theory of abstraction. Artistic Director Clyde Simon and Executive Director Brian Breth seem to get special glee out of perplexing their audiences. Their latest production, Sam Shepard’s ‘STATES OF SHOCK’ is no exception.

‘STATES OF SHOCK’ opened in May of 1991 to mixed reviews. It was mainly perceived as a dash back to Shepard’s late 1960s style of experimentalistic and hallucinatory plays. Even the subtitle, “A Vaudeville Nightmare,” keys us into the non realistic nature of the script.

‘STATES OF SHOCK’ condemns both the American government's military invasion of Iraq in February of 1991 and, the compliant and complacent reaction of the American public to that invasion and to the manner in which it was mass-marketed by our leaders. With that theme, is it any wonder why convergence-continuum chose to stage the play today, when the public is again learning the lesson of compliancy and complacency and government manipulation regarding the present Iraq fiasco?

Set in a diner somewhere in time and space, the play is written as almost a dreamlike event. The writing device puts the cast into a shock-state which carries over to the audience who often don’t know if they are to react in horror or laughter to the goings on.

Another of Shepard’s constant themes, the confrontation between a father-figure and a disinherited son is present. In ‘STATES OF SHOCK’ the father, known only as the Colonel, is costumed in bits and pieces of historical uniforms, military decorations, and combat gear from various American wars. As described by Shepard historian David Rose, “He is an amalgam of the archetypal military man: a firm believer in the noble myths of war which men like himself have served to perpetuate. He regularly raises his glass in a toast to the enemy who has made the present war possible. ‘Without the enemy,’ the Colonel frequently proclaims, ‘we're nothing.’ His companion, Stubbs, is his son, a disabled veteran. Their confrontation, enacted before symbolic representatives of the American public, suggests a battle between those fathers who make war and those sons who must do battle.”

The public present for the conflict between Stubbs and the Colonel is a seemingly affluent couple dressed from head to foot in white. As Rose states, “They sit at a table waiting for a long overdue order of clam chowder. Detached and unaffected, they are white America, watching unmoved as father and son debate the terrible cost of war.” They are annoyed at their wait for the chowder, seemingly interested in, but not overly upset by, the horror that is unfolding just feet away from them, much like the complaisant American electorate.

The only other character in the play is an ineffectual waitress named Glory Bee. In the original production she was black, adding another texture to Shepard’s image--the negative treatment of minorities in the power games of an authoritarian society. This is lost in the convergence production with the role being portrayed by a white actress.

The cast is uniformly excellent. Wes Shofner (The Colonel) rants and raves and physically abuses with abandon. Geoffrey Hoffman is compelling as the physically and mentally crippled Stubbs. Lucy Bredeson-Smith as Glory Bee creates a character who is perfectly pathetic and comic. Steve Needham and Dawn Youngs due yeoman duty as the bland, non-involved couple.

Clyde Simon keeps the pacing on target. Eric Wahl’s visual media design greatly enhances the production.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: As is often the case at convergence-continuum ‘STATES OF SHOCK’ is not for everyone. A complete set of program notes would have helped the viewers navigate through Shepard’s poetic, dream-like anti-war father-son conflicted world. But, as is, this is a compelling piece of theatre.