BW’s INTO THE WOODS offers a path out of Covid angst

INTO THE WOODS is a musical with a book by James Lapine and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. 

Yes, that Stephen Sondheim, the man who is credited with reinventing the American musical with shows that tackle unexpected themes, music and lyrics of such complexity and sophistication that they challenge performers and musicians who are responsible for taking “Sondheim” off the page and into the world of production.  

Sondheim, the man who ignores the genre’s traditional subjects and writes instead of assassins (ASSASSINS), unmarried men (COMPANY), has-been performers (FOLLIES), revenge (SWEENEY TODD), artists (SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE), isolationism (PACIFIC OVERTURES) and the foibles of fables. 
 
Foibles of fables is the focus of INTO THE WOODS, now on stage at Baldwin Wallace University.  

The musical intertwines the plots of several Grimm fairy tales by exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and desires. The main characters are taken from “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and “Cinderella,” with guest performances by Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.  

The musical is tied together by a story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to have a child, which is actually the original beginning of “Rapunzel,” their confronting the witch who placed a curse on them, and their interaction with storybook characters during their journey searching for things the witch requires to withdraw the curse.

The first act ends with “happily ever after,” while the second act illustrates that life is not a fairy tale, but that there is a price to be paid for our wishes. 

The show’s themes include the angst of growing up, the relationship between parents and children, the difficulties of accepting responsibility, morality and, most importantly, wish fulfillment and its consequences.  
 
Theatre experts have opined that, since the show was conceived in the 1980s, the height of the AIDS crisis, the show is a parable about the disease.  They perceived that “the Giant's Wife serves as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, killing good and bad characters indiscriminately and forcing the survivors to band together to stop the threat and move on from the devastation.”   The modern day parallel would be the implications of the COVID crisis.

“Sondheim drew on parts of his troubled childhood when writing the show. In 1987, he told Time Magazine that the ‘father uncomfortable with babies [was] his father, and [the] mother who regrets having had children [was] his mother.”

INTO THE WOODS had a 1987-89 Broadway run of 765 performances and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning three.

The BW production, under the creative direction of Victoria Bussert, is not only well-conceived and compelling, but is also a tribute to the quality of the students and faculty of one of the best collegiate musical theatre programs.

After almost two years of education via zoom, the cast emerged to face the daunting task of performing a very complex show filled with challenging Sondheim music and daunting acting hurdles.  To make matters even more difficult, because of the need to give the many students in the Musical Theatre program an opportunity to perform before a live audience, the show is double cast and there is a full set of understudies.

The task of getting the horde of students ready for the return to live theater, fell on the shoulders of not only Bussert, but choreographer Greg Daniels and musical director Matthew Webb.  The well-honed production is a tribute to their abilities.

The performance comments are based on my having seen the “Prince” cast, which is on stage November 10, 12, 14, 18 and 20.  The “Cinderella” cast is on stage the other performances of the run.

Dario Alvarez well creates a Baker who is focused on his task and is a loving husband and father.  “It Takes Two,” his duet with his wife, the charming, Amelia Beckham, is delightful.

Claire Marie Miller (Cinderella) displays a wonderful comic-timing sense, especially in doing prat-falls.  Her “On the Steps of the Palace,” illustrates not only her strong singing voice but her music story telling abilities.  She shines, as does Amelia Beckham, in “A Very Nice Prince.”

Nicholas Hermick (Jack) displays a wonderful child-sensitive quality, which is well-expressed in “Giants in the Sky.”

Eileen Brady skips and sprightly dances in creating a delightful Little Red Riding hood. “Hello, Little Girl,” co-sung with Jack Borenstein, the wolf, is a show highlight.

“Agony” is a fun-bit nicely sung by Cinderella’s Prince (Jack Hale) and Rapunzel’s Prince (Makay Johnson).

The “star” of the show was RhonniRose Mantilla, the witch, who made “Children Will Listen” one of the greatest songs in the Broadway musical lexicon, a meaningful show closer.  She has a lot of the qualities of BW grad Ciara Renée, who has appeared on the Great White Way in BIG FISH, PIPPIN, FROZEN, and will take the stage shortly in Broadway’s WAITRESS.

The rest of the leading players and chorus were excellent. 

Jeff Herrmann’s set design which cleverly used the entire proscenium stage, Tesia Dugan Benson’s costumes, Angela Baughman’s sound design, and David Allen Stoughton’s lighting, all added to the over-all positive effect.

Capsule Judgment:  Sprightly, fresh, well done, all involving INTO THE WOODS is a must see!

For tickets to INTO THE WOODS, which runs from November 10-21, 2021 in BW’s Kleist Center for Art and Drama go to bw.edu/tickets or call 440-826-2369.
 
Upcoming BW/Musical Theater events:
December 4, 7 p.m.—SENIOR CELEBRATION—Each music theatre senior will perform one number from their virtual senior recital.  Tickets required.
 
February 4-27, 2022—LIZZIE THE MUSICAL—Beck Center for the Arts, Lakewood--BW Musical Theatre students, as directed by Victoria Bussert, present the Lizzie Borden tale of did she or didn’t she ax-out her parents.  Tickets required. 

April 22 & 23, 2022—LIGHTNING THIEF—Playhouse Square-Helen Theatre—BW grad Chris McCarrell, who starred in the off-Broadway production, will direct present BW students.  The musical tale centers on Percy Jackson, a dyslexic twelve-year old with ADHD.  While on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the chaperones attacks him.  Percy's favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner, lends Percy a magical sword-pen to defeat her.  And, thus, the mythical tale begins.  Tickets required.

Entertaining THE PROM, a musical with a social message, gets a deserved standing “O” at the Connor Palace 

Roy Berko
 
In 2010 a gay Mississippi high school student was banned from coming to her senior prom by the school’s Board of Education because she wanted to bring her girlfriend as her date.  She challenged the ruling, which resulted in the cancellation of the prom.  The student and the ACLU sued the district.  The federal court found the school district guilty of violating the student’s first amendment rights and said the prom must be held.  

The board reinstated the prom, but local parents organized an alternative event to be held on the same night, but kept the event and its location a secret so the gay student and the media would not know.  
 
Celebrities, such as Green Day and Lance Bass rallied together via social media to show support for the student and sponsored a “Second-Chance” prom, where students could attend without homophobic backlash.
 
That event was the impetuous for Jack Viertel’s concept musical, THE PROM, which is starting its national tour with Cleveland performances as part of Key Bank’s Broadway series.  The show features music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin and book co-authored by Beguelin and Bob Martin.
 
The story centers on four frustrated Broadway actors, at a failure crossroad in their careers, who contrive a way to get attention by traveling to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help Emma, a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to the high school prom.
 
The Broadway production was critically greeted with such comments as, "such a joyful hoot,” “with its kinetic dancing, broad mugging and belting anthems, it makes you believe in musical comedy again," and “with a tuneful score, a playful book, and performances that remind you what Broadway heart and chutzpah are all about, this cause cerebra of a show turns out to be a joyous, funny, and sweet production that should appeal to several generations of musical fans." 
 
The touring production, which rehearsed in Cleveland, was met with smiles, laughs, cheers, resounding applause and a well-deserved standing ovation on opening night.
 
The story, though possessing the quality of a TV sitcom tale, has a meaningful purpose, is tightly written and keeps attention throughout.  This is not CHORUS LINE or MAN OF LA MANCHA, but proves to be a delight to a Covid-experiencing audience, that is in need of a relief from angst.
 
The show follows the tried-and-true pattern of American musicals since OKLAHOMA, the first book musical.  The opening number sets the pattern for the humor, sprightly dancing, and the over-done performances that follow.  The first act ends with a cliff-hanger that the audience must come back for act two, or not know whether the heroine’s problem is resolved, and ends with a joyous audience-invigorating finale. There are several show stoppers, a tender song that is reprised, and an obvious moral. 
 
“The musical opens on Broadway, where Eleanor!: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story is celebrating its opening night with its lead cast members Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman.  The musical is bashed by The New York Times because Dee Dee and Barry do not understand their characters since they are self-absorbed narcissists, resulting in the show closing on opening night. To improve their image, the actors decide to take up "a cause" to appear selfless After searching on Twitter, they find Emma, a teenager from Indiana whose prom was cancelled by the PTA because she wanted to bring her girlfriend. Seeing the opportunity, and some personal connection, the actors decide to go to Indiana to help.”

Of course, there are stumbles and conflict and love affairs along the way, but, as is the case with all “fairy tales,” there is a happy ever-after ending.

Don’t be surprised to hear Broadway songs that sound familiar.  The writers have snuck in references to GODSPELL (“The Acceptance Song”) and CHICAGO (Zazz”)

The cast for the touring show is top notch.  Patrick Wetzel delights as the “over the top” gay Barry Glickman.  Kaden Kearney is appealing as Emma, the lesbian who only wants to “Dance with You.”  Her heartfelt rendition of that song is the vocal highlight of the show.  Courtney Batan finely walks the tightrope of not going overboard and creating ridiculous, as diva Dee Dee Allen.  She is quite the effective vocal belter.  

 
Emily Borromeo’s Fosse jazz dancing aficionado is marvelous in “Zazz.”  The real Julliard might be either delighted or abashed to have obsessive Bud Weber (Trent) as a grad, but the audience was enthusiastic with his performance.  The rest of the cast and chorus were excellent.
 
Kudos to choreographer and director Casey Nicholaw and music conductor Chris Gurr for jobs well done.
 
CAPSULE JUDGMENT:  THE PROM is an old-fashioned musical which tells a contemporary tale with a moral.  The touring company gives a fresh, dynamic, fun and tune-filled performance that delighted the audience and got a well-deserved standing ovation.  Applause, Applause!
 
THE PROM will be on the Connor Palace stage through November 21, 2021.  For tickets go to https://www.playhousesquare.org/events/detail/the-prom or call 216-241-6000.

Thought-provoking AIRNESS brings back live performance to Dobama

 

Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which performers pretend to play an imaginary electric guitar.  Performances include exaggerated strumming motions and recorded rock music often coupled with loud singing or lip-synching.

 

On the surface, AIRNESS, Chelsea Marcantel’s play now on stage at Dobama, is a spoof on air guitar competitions and the people who participate in what many think of as a frivolous activity. 

 

The story centers on Nina (Maria Burks), a band guitarist, who enters her first air guitar competition, supposedly to compete.  In reality she is searching for her boy-friend, D Vicious (Michael Glavan), the reigning national air guitar champion, who broke off their relationship, leaving with no notice or reason.

 

She meets contenders Cannibal Queen (Eric Scerbak), Shreddy Eddy (Lue Brett), Golden Thunder (Corin B. Self) and Facebender (Tim Keo), all who are conflicted and in a search for personal purpose.  Instead of finding meaningless, she finds friendships, and discovers what it means to find airness, both on stage and in life.

 

Airness is the state of a person so absorbed in something that they lose their inhibitions and transcend the lack of self-worth, thus setting themselves free to be in a state of pure joy.

 

The play helps one to realize that the angst of living, especially in these days of Covid, conflicting realities, and political and philosophical strife, has unleashed a need for escapes from reality.  It illustrates that angst can present itself in physical and verbal aggression, as has been displayed on commercial airlines, in attacking school board members due to misunderstanding the teaching of racial and ethnic awareness, participating in the Black Lives Matter and/or Me-Too rallies, or acting out negatively at athletic events. 

 

The script seems to proport that maybe a little more air guitar participation might be the way to get rid of stress in a non-aggressive way.

 

Marcantel, who is presently developing new plays at the Cleveland Play House through a commission from the Roe Green Fund for New American Plays, won the American Theatre Critics Association Osborn New Play Award in 2018 for AIRNESS.  She recently won the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her new musical THE MONSTER.

 

Reviews of other productions of AIRNESS posit that, “If you are looking for an amazing piece of theatre that will get you on your feet tapping, wailing and clapping in mid-air – while also moving you to reflect on and care for yourself – look no further; this bad boy is for you” and

“An all-out comedy that’s fricking funny, hella heartfelt, and badass brilliant.” 

 

I wish I could use the same platitudes as those reviews for Dobama’s production.

 

Though the performance, under the directorship of Nathan Motto, is entertaining and develops the play’s theme, it lacks the dynamism needed to get the audience wailing and clapping.  The drawback is not the fault of the actors’ character development or line presentations, it is their lack of charisma during the air guitar presentations.  It is difficult, based on the generally weak routines of the Dobama cast, to believe that thousands of people attend the national and international air guitar competitions.

 

Weak that is, with the exception of Trey Gilpin, the show’s uninhibited, compelling, rad, heartfelt, rockin’, narrator.  The rest of the cast could take some lessons from him on really getting into the music and being uninhibited.

 

Some may argue that the lack of talent of the guitar performances aids in drawing the attention to the play’s purpose, but, these are supposed to be people who make the national finals, and those in the real-world are dynamic, compelling and emotionally involving. (If you have never seen a well-performed air guitar playing go onto You Tube and watch.  Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMIws86ZLyk)

 

The hour and a half production is performed without intermission.

 

As per Equity rules, those in attendance must show proof that they are totally vaccinated and wearing of a mask during the entire production.

 

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  AIRNESS is a fine play to attend if you are feeling angst and need an escape.  Though much of the air guitar playing could have been more dynamic and involving, the message of the author stands out. 

 

AIRNESS continues at Dobama through November 21, 2021.  For tickets go to:  Tickets — Dobama Theatre or call 216-932-3396