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Showing posts with label
Baldwin Wallace University Beck Center.
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Showing posts with label
Baldwin Wallace University Beck Center.
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“On Stage” recently announced that Baldwin Wallace University's Music Theatre program has risen to number one calling it "a top destination for any student wanting to study musical theatre."
The honor is no wonder as around twenty of Victoria Bussert’s thespians have graced Broadway for each the last several years. This, along with all those who are staring in professional productions, such as Great Lakes Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival have brought much attention and prestige.
If you need personal proof, and you haven’t seen productions by the collegiate group at BWU or Play House Square, get over to Beck Center, where the students are appearing in “Once,” the Edna Walsh (book), Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglová (music and lyrics) Tony Award winning musical, based on John Carney’s 2006 film of the same name.
As “Once” starts, Guy, a busker, is singing a ballad of unrequited love. He is in despair over the loss of the-love-of-his-life who left him and went to America.
Girl is watching, listening, and approaches him. Posing personal questions, she finds out that he is giving up music because singing songs of love is just too difficult.
Seem like an extreme reaction? Not if you remember that the Irish are noted for their strong display of emotions, the acting out of their angst, and the expression of those feelings in songs, poetry and staged drama.
Of course, the two develop an emotional relationship, but are confronted with the barrier that Girl is married to a man who has left her and their daughter, but may return. Over the period of one week, the duo, with the help of various friends, creates a CD of raw, emotional, music.
A vacuum cleaner, a piano, a recording studio, hope, laughter and Irish angst all play into the tale. The expected happy ending may or may not take place, depending on how you interpret the touching final scene.
Jordan Janota’s minimalistic set is transformed into various places by adding a few tables and chairs and some strategic lighting.
Though the songs are often dynamic, there is no rock and roll, no hip hop, nor show stoppers, leading to a laid-back feeling, not often found in musicals.
The cast members are four-level performers who act, sing, dance and play instruments. They present the depressing “Leave,” the pretty and plaintive “Falling Slowly,” the beautiful “Gold,” and the dance-inducing “North Strand.” There’s nothing here that will make the hit parade of great songs. It’s mainly emotional Irish “woe-is-me-music.”
This is the kind of script that BW’s Music Theatre Director, Victoria Bussert, does so well. It is full of pathos, needs creative staging and a firm understanding of the subtle, as well as the importance of blended dancing, good vocals, strong acting and a comfortable pacing. Bussert and her BW “cherubs” make it a “wee “grand experience.
The choreography, which is well-performed staged movement, is nicely designed by Gregory Daniels. The vocal blends and musical sounds are impressively conceived by Matthew Webb.
The entire cast impresses with their musical performances, proficient singing and clear characterizations.
Kelsey Brown is Broadway ready! Her nicely textured creation of Girl grabs and holds the audience. She has a good take on subtle comedy. Her singing voice and acting talents are well-honed. Her Czech dialect, developed under the coaching of Matthew Koenig, was clear, crisp and easy to understand. Her piano playing added a special dimension to her performance.
Jake Slater grows nicely into the role of Guy as he transforms from depressed, even by Irish standards, to having a positive outlet for life. He has a nice singing voice and displays good guitar skills.
The rest of the strong ensemble cast was impressive, displaying clear Irish dialects, thanks to Brennan Murphy’s guidance, and excellent singing blends and solos. Their character development and playing of instruments impresses.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: The Beck Center/Baldwin Wallace Music Theatre Program production of “Once,” is vibrant, and has talent overload. This production rivals the Broadway staging and is much superior to the touring show which was part of the Key Bank Series. It’s the kind of production that you might be tempted to go back and see again! Go. You will enjoy!
“Once” is scheduled to run at Beck Center for the Arts through February 24. For tickets and information call 216-521-2540 or go online to http://www.beckcenter.org
In December, 1968, about 50 Lorain County Community College students flew to New York. Some in the clean-scrubbed conservative group, coming from a campus void of political turmoil, had never traveled as far-a-field as downtown Cleveland.
The first play they saw on their Big Apple adventure was “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.”
Yes, “Hair,” the James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Galt MacDermot hippie, counterculture, sexual revolution musical that introduced rock and roll to Broadway, and shocked many theatre-goers with nudity, swearing, anti-Vietnam protest, sexuality, drug usage, and irreverence for the American flag.
The students were seated in the first couple of rows of the theatre and received lots of attention from the young actors and were invited onto the stage for the “Be-In” finale, which found them dancing on a Broadway stage.
When the tour of the show came to Cleveland, some of the students were at the April 25, 1971 performance of the show when a bomb exploded in front of Cleveland's Hanna Theatre. Yes, “Hair” was a controversial show.
“Hair” is often referred to as the ending bookend of the era known as the Golden Age of Broadway. The first true book musical, “Oklahoma” (1943) set the format for what is known as the American Musical, and the Age of Aquarius musical (1968) ushered in major changes to that format, showcased by a racially integrated cast, taking on a serious topic, and adding rock music to the genre’s lexicon.
The script was time-specific, furthering the concept that theatre is representative of the era from which it comes. “Hair” is the 1960s, a time of political activity, flower children, drugs, long-haired hippies, bohemian life style, free love, tie-dyed shirts and polyester bell bottom pants, rebellion against tradition family values and conservative beliefs, and the preaching of making love/not war.
“Hair” tells the tale of friends Claude, Berger and Sheila and their “tribe” as they struggle to balance their youthful lives, with rebellion against the Vietnamese War and draft conscription. It is also a reflection of the tidal waves of change that were ripping the country apart.
Even the theatrical staging was a change from tradition with caffolds to climb, nudity, breaking of the third wall with cast members flowing over the apron of the stage to interact with the audience, and dance and sing down the aisles. A Be-In with cast and audience dancing together on and off-stage were nightly occurrences. This was definitely not “Oklahoma,” “My Fair Lady,” or “Annie Get Your Gun.”
The score was eclectic and electric. “Aquarius” placed the “world” in a dream-like/flower power state. “Sodomy” gave words to free love. “Hashish” introduced the topic of drugs. “Colored Spade,” Black Boys” and “White Boys” put black oppression front and center. “Hare Krishna” assaulted western organized religion. “Where Do I Go” showcases the angst of growing up in the era. “The War” shocks reality, while “Good Morning Sunshine” opens new paths. And, on and on, it goes…selling its ideas, confronting realities, challenging what was, and making a case for what might be.
The Beck Center/Baldwin Wallace Music Theatre Program production, is vital, dynamic, and has talent overload.
It is well directed by Victoria Bussert.
Choreographer Martin Céspedes wisely has the large cast mostly moving, rather than doing complex coordinated choreography. His visual creations fit the music and create the desired effects. It’s so exciting to see real dancers on stage, well instructed.
The vocalizations are outstanding. The chorus sounds full and engulfing. Impressive is that the entire cast stayed in character throughout the production, creating the needed reality.
Sam Columbus (Woof) nails “Sodomy,” Chandler Smith (Claude) plays “Manchester, England” for appropriate tongue-in-cheek laughs. He, Olivia Kaufmann (Sheila), Veronica Otim (Dionne) and the chorus put the right emotion into “Eyes Look Your Last.” MacKenzie Wright (Jeanie) nicely interprets “Air,” singing meanings not just words. Courtney Hausman (Crissy) is “geek” delightful in her rendition of “Frank Mills.”
At times there are some strays from the show being era correct. “Fu*k Trump,” “Black Lives Matter,” “No Way Sanctuary,” and “Build Kindness Not Walls” signs, videos and chants may be an attempt to make the issues, issues of today, but modernization is not the purpose of “Hair.” The high-energy music interpretation, more 2018 than 1960, sometimes takes over and sets a jumping up and down, rather than an intense, flower power rock sound. Not using 60s clothing and hair styles distracts, but aren’t major issues.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT See “Hair?” Of course! The overall effect will leave you “Walking on Air,” asking “What a Piece of Work is Man!” and cause you to exit humming, “I Believe in Love.” Bravo!
“Hair” is scheduled to run at Beck Center for the Arts through February 25, 2018. For tickets and information call 216-521-2540 or go online to http://www.beckcenter.org
Mention Lin-Manuel Miranda and the musical sensation Hamilton comes to mind. If not, then, In the Heights, which had a run at Beck Center last year, is noted. Few know Miranda also wrote both the music and lyrics, along with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green for Bring It On: The Musical, with book by Jeff Whitty, which is loosely based on the 2000 film of the same name. The script centers on the competitive world of cheerleading, with side stories about bullying, teen angst and determining what’s important in the world.
The story centers on Campbell Davis (Kailey Boyle) who has achieved her goal of being elected captain of the Truman High School co-ed cheerleading squad. Through manipulation of the school district boundaries by the mother of Eva (Abby DeWitte), a devious sophomore, Campbell and her friend Bridget (Shelby Griswold), who can’t make the cheer squad because of her heft, are transferred to Jackson High, a predominately black school, with (horror of horrors) no cheerleading squad.
In her exile, Campbell leaves behind, Steven (Jonathan Young), her studly boyfriend, her chances at a national cheerleading championship and her role as “queen bee.”
As must happen in tales of teenage angst, Campbell and Bridget win over the originally hostile students at their new school, forms a cheerleading squad, and go on to compete in the national competition.
Though the outcome is not what “after school specials” are usually made of, the conclusion is pleasing, the moral well honed.
If the standing ovation and tween girls who were seated in front of me, who sat on the edge of their seats, often jumping up and down with squeals of excitement, are representative, the audience will love this show in spite of its soap opera tale.
Bring It On: The Musical opened on Broadway in August, 2012 and closed in December of that year. Termed “a high-energy stage spectacle,” it opened to generally positive reviews, with special praise for its dance numbers. It was also praised for Manuel’s “sassy libretto.” It was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Choreography.
The power of Beck/Baldwin Wallace College’s staging is Martin Céspedes’ spot-on choreography and Mary Sheridan’s cheerleading stunts which take the show to a high level of pleasurable excitement.
Céspedes creatively lets loose. Constant motion rocks the stage with hip hop, poppin’, breakdancing, freestyle moves, isolations, jerkin’, krumping and freezes being showcased. This is a lesson in modern street dancing vocabulary and forms.
What’s compelling is that the moves are being performed by music theatre majors, not trained cheerleaders and free form dancers. The BW cast are performing dangerous human pyramids and athletic movements which normally take years to perfect and do safely, and dancing which requires years to learn the body control to achieve the moves.
Director Will Brandstetter keeps the show moving swiftly along and has done a nice job of helping the large cast develop realistic characterizations.
The cast, Baldwin Wallace University musical theatre majors, is excellent. They are well trained as performers, and it shows in their performances.
Shelby Griswold (Bridget) has a wonderful sense of comic timing. Her mobile face and line interpretations light up the stage. David Holbert (Twig, Bridget’s boyfriend) also displays strong comic chops.
Kailey Boyle not only looks like the stereotype blond, cute cheerleader, but is convincing in creating a real Campbell. Shayla Brielle effectively wails and dances up a storm as Danielle, the leader of the “Queen Bees” of Jackson High. Mike Cefalo is appealing as Campbell’s new boyfriend.
Michael Canada’s convincing and humorous cross-dressing performance La Cienega made him an audience favorite.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Bring It On: The Musical is not a great script, but with a talented cast, high energy dancing, creative choreography, compelling gymnastics, and a dynamic musical score, Beck appears to have another cash cow on its hands as large audiences should fill up the theatre.
Bring It On: The Musical is scheduled to run until February 26, 2017 at Beck Center for the Arts. For tickets and information call 216-521-2540 or go on line to http://www.beckcenter.org
Next at Beck: The regional premiere of A Great Wilderness tells the tale of a gay conversion therapy camp in the remote Idaho woods. (March 3-April 9, 2017)
A teenaged girl snarls at another, “I know who I’m sitting with at lunch, do you?” Yes, high school can be a time of great angst or hellish glee. Depends on which clique you are in! Jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, drama-kids, brains…what was your place in the high school hierarchy?
Veronica, seventeen-year-old teenage misfit at Westerburg [Ohio] High School, yearns to be a Heather, the in-group! The Heathers...head cheerleader Heather McNamara, the sullen Heather Duke and the “bitch Queen,” Heather Chandler. Yes, the Heathers….3 blond bombshells who run the high school for their own enjoyment. Harassment, bullying and degrading, allowed.
Veronica hangs with over-weight, nice kid, Martha Dunstock, better known as Martha Dumptruck, until one “glorious day. That day Veronica’s talents as a forger are discovered and the creation of hall passes and absence excuses flow forth and detentions disappear. Through forgery, Veronica becomes a Heather.
Will Veronica now become miss popular? Will she, after achieving her goal, turn on Martha? Will she fall for J.D., new school bad boy and become, like him, a psychopathic killer? Will idiot jocks Ram Sweeney and Kurt Kelly be knocked from their stud pedestals? Will J.D. satisfy the longings for revenge of every high school outsider who was the victim of character assassination and bullying by the likes of the Heathers? Will the audience cheer when they vicariously get their settling of scores?
Yes, high school can be hell, and Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, conceivers of Heathers the musical, now in production at Beck Center for the Arts, have found the key to a fun, but often sadistic way of making bullying into a means of entertainment.
Heathers has a bizarre history. A Daniel Waters-written, non-musical version was filmed in 1988 and became a cult hit. It made instant celbs of Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. Though not a critical hit, the film was named one of the “Best High School Movies” and Ranked #412 on the list of “The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.”
The musical’s start came on September 13, 2010, via a concert/reading in a pub. The script languished until 2013 when it showed for a limited engagement at Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles. And then it hit the big time when, in February, 2014, it opened off-Broadway for a moderate run. Since then, the script has become a favorite of community theatres looking for a device to attract younger audiences.
Beck’s production, under the direction of Scott Spencer, which is being staged in the intimate Studio Theatre, fills the space with rock sound, great singing and good acting. The star of the show, however, is Martin Céspedes’ choreography.
One dynamic dance routine after another explodes. The opening “Beautiful” sets the mood and is followed by such other showstoppers as “Blue” and “Shine a Light.” This is Céspedes at his finest and it makes the production a special event.
Madeline Krucek, gives just the right tone to kind, Veronica, who has a strong sense of right and wrong, even if she gets waylaid for a while by bad boy JD (Shane Lonergan). She has a fine singing voice and nice stage presence. Her duets “Dead Girl Walking” and “Seventeen,” sung with Lonergan, are compelling.
Logan, dressed in the appropriate “Columbine” black trench coat, doesn’t look like a deadly psychopath (do they ever?), but he portrays killer to the core. His well sung “Freeze Your Brain” gives a clue into what is going to come.
Kayla Heichel was born a “high school mean girl!” This lass portrays evil, power and control with ease as the hateful H. Chandler, leader of the Heathers. She is well backed up by the other “Heathers,” (McNamara) Amy Kohmescher and (Duke) Tia Karaplis. They all have strong singing voices and their solos are well done.
Molly Millsaps creates a Martha (Dumptruck), she of beautiful soul, with charm and pathos, in spite of teasing and rejection. Her version of “Kindergarten Boyfriend” is a wonderful ballad which gets a lovely rendition.
Riley Ewing (Ram Sweeney) and Jonathan Walker White (Kurt Kelly) are right out of the playbook…walking six-packs with no brains and lots of unbridled testosterone. The duo can actually dance, sing and act.
Matthew Wright (Ram’s Dad) and Paul Floriano (Kurt’s Dad) almost steal the show with their rendition of “My Dead Gay Son.”
Multi-award winning Trad A. Burns shows his usual creativity in designing a visually and functionally perfect mock-locker filled set. His lighting design, along with Aimee Kluiber’s costumes, helps in creating the right illusions.
Musical Director Larry Goodpaster and his band do a great job of hitting all the right notes and supporting instead of drowning out the singers.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Heathers the musical continues the Beck trend of staging dynamic, small, cult appealing shows (e.g., Evil Dead, Reefer Madness, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) in its Studio Theatre. With dynamic choreography, a well-played rock-infused-with-ballads score, and enough blood, gore and simulated sex to grab and hold an audience, Heathers should be awarded with a sold out run!
Heathers the musical is scheduled to run through July 2, 2016 at Beck Center for the Arts. For tickets and information call 216-521-2540 or go on line to http://www.beckcenter.org
Next at Beck: The regional premiere of Billy Elliot the musical with music by Elton John from July 8 through August 14, 2016.
At the start of IN THE HEIGHTS, now in its locally produced premiere at Beck Center, Usnavi chases away Graffiti Pete, a graffiti artist, from in front of his Washington Heights “bodega” (Spanish for a small neighbor grocery store). As the young owner raps, the lyrics and music set the mood for what is a three-day visit to the largely Hispanic/Latino neighborhood on the brink of change. It’s a place where families bond, neighborhood ties are strong, and the George Washington Bridge casts its shadow across the hopes and dreams of the residents.
Nina, the bright, precocious daughter of the owner of a car service, has just returned from her Freshman year at Stanford. The scholarship student has secrets. She left Stanford because in spite of a scholarship and meager help from her family, the work load she needed in order to pay for books and other expenses, had taken away time from her studies and she flunked out. Matters are not helped by her relationship with Benny, a non-Latino who works for her father.
A winning lottery ticket, a buy-out offer for the car service, the death of the neighborhood’s Abuela (grandmother), and a power outage affect Washington Heights, resulting in the residents not only finding out about themselves, but the place they call home.
IN THE HEIGHTS, with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, opened on Broadway in March, 2008 to mixed reviews. In spite of the press, it went on to get thirteen Academy Award nominations and won in four categories, including Best Musical.
The Beck production, mostly populated by the much revered Baldwin Wallace Musical Theatre program’s present and past students, and directed by multi-award winning Victoria Bussert, explodes with enthusiasm. It is exciting, flashy, tender, and emotional. Miranda’s rap, steamy ballads, and Latin-toned music makes it hard to sit and not want to dance and clap in time to the ever pounding beat.
The dynamics of the band, which was positive, was also problematic. Coupled with a weak sound system, the music often overshadows the singers and the hip-hop and the Spanish-infused lyrics are hard to hear. While the audience gets the general feeling, comments at intermission and after the show, indicated that the actual words were lost.
Greg Daniels’ choreography had an appropriate Latino flavor and fit the mood and tone of the music. “Carnaval del Barrio” was a dynamic production number.
Jordan Janota’s set had the right feel, aided by the bright lights as designed by Jeff Herrmann, it created a cramped and hot-humid atmosphere.
The cast was excellent.
Jessie Cope Miller was convincing as the tender-hearted Abuela Claudia, the neighborhood’s “grandmother.” Her well sung “Paciencia y Fe: (“Patience and Faith”) was one of the production’s emotional highlights.
Livvy Marcus created in Nina a clear picture of a young lady conflicted, frustrated and loyal. She carries the burden of being the “one who made it out,” with nice sensitivity. Her “When You’re Home,” sung with Malik Victorian (who developed a nicely textured Benny) was a fine duet as was their “When the Sun Goes Down.”
Michael Canada was a dynamic as the spontaneous Sonny. He has wonderful sense of comic timing.
Isabel Plana was delightful as Daniela the gossip queen owner of the beauty salon next door to Usnavi’s bodega.
Ellis C. Dawson III created Usnavi, who was named after one of the first sights his parents saw then they arrived in America: a U.S. Navy ship, into an authentic person. Unfortunately, some of his rapping was muted by slack articulation.
The beautiful Christiana Perrault sang, acted, and danced well as Vanessa, Usnavi’s love interest, who wants to escape the neighborhood by moving into an apartment downtown, but can’t afford it until a special person co-signs for her.
Jared Leal authentically develops Kevin, into a father and husband, with dreams for his family. His interpretation of “Atencion” was very effective as was “Inutil.” He was nicely balanced by Kelsey Baehrens as Camila, Nina’s mother.
Warren Egypt Franklin (Graffiti Pete) displayed strong dancing skills.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: The multi-Tony winning IN THE HEIGHTS gets an exciting and well-developed production through creative direction by Victoria Bussert and fine acting, singing and dancing by a cast mainly composed of Baldwin Wallace University past and present students. If you like Latino music enfolded into a nicely developed story, this should be on your “go to” list.
IN THE HEIGHTS is scheduled to run through February 12, 2016 at Beck Center for the Arts. For tickets and information call 216-521-2540 or go on line to http://www.beckcenter.org
Next at Beck: The regional premiere of SHINING CITY, Conor McPherson’s 2006 Tony Award winning play about a guilt ridden man who reaches out to his therapist after seeing the ghost of his recently deceased wife.
