The Merry Wives of Windsor (Actors' Summit)

The Silvers have a Merry Time at Actors' Summit

William Shakespeare was the most influential writer in all of English literature and certainly the most important playwright of the English Renaissance. Born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England he died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. His legacy is a stable of comedies, farces tragedies, historical plays and poetry that are produced and reproduced by theatres the world over.

One of his most farcical scripts is ‘THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. The play's comic intrigues create a jovial tone. But, as with many of his plays, ‘THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR’ carries a social message The title of the play declares the primacy of the women's roles: the play is literally the story of the two merry wives and, against the thoughts of his day, how they manipulate the men in their lives.

The plot surrounds the playful but virtuous behavior of the title characters, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, who are married to two prosperous men of Windsor. The wives set out to dupe the sexually predatory Falstaff while curing Ford of his jealousy. Meanwhile, the Pages' daughter, Anne Page, wooed by Fenton, a man of higher birth but less money. This creates Shakespeare’s other message: romantic love as a kind of social assimilator, transcending class and enabling individuals to create new and inclusive social categories around their romantic relationships.

Shakespeare is noted for his clever use of words and rhyming patterns. Interestingly, this play makes use of far more prose than any other of his plays. It is filled with proverbs and clichés.

For a production of ‘MERRY WIVES’ to be successful, at lease six major characters have to be excellent…the two wives, their husbands, Falstaff and Miss Quickly. Fortunately, in the Actors’ Summit production all of these roles are adeptly acted, thus insuring a happy theatrical experience.

As Mistresses Ford and Page, Sally Groth and Rebecca Knab are delightful. They scheme and the plot and are completely believable. Tom Stephan as Master Page and Andrew Narten as Master Ford are fine. Narten is especially fine in the scenes where he becomes hyper-hysterical when he thinks his wife is having an affair with a gentleman caller.

Reuben Silver, as Falstaff, the lecherous curmudgeon, is character perfect. He delights! Dorothy Silver, the other half of Cleveland’s first acting family, is obviously having a ball playing the interfering Miss Quickly.

Unfortunately, some of the other cast members don’t do as well. In the role of the suitors for the hand of Anne Page, Jeff Nichols as the Frenchman Doctor Caius, overdoes his accent and is entirely too fey and Aaron Coleman, as Slender looks the part, but never quite develops a believable characterization.

Director Neil Thackaberry has wisely chosen to put aside English accents, and has the cast speaking clear General American English.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Shakespeare is difficult to perform, especially for Americans who often can’t identify with either his message or intricate language. The Actors’ Summit production of ‘THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,’ while it does not have the polish of a professional production, is quite creditable and worth seeing.

Agnes of God (Beck Center)

Thought provoking ‘AGNES OF GOD’ illuminates Beck

Agnes, a 21-year old cloistered nun, gives birth in a convent. The baby is found strangled and disposed of in a wastepaper basket. Agnes remembers nothing about the conception, pregnancy, birth or the murder. The court has assigned Dr. Livingstone, a psychiatrist to investigate. A battle explodes between the protective Mother Superior and Livingstone as they each try to ''save'' the disturbed nun. This is the premise of John Pielmeier’s dramatic mystery, ‘AGNES OF GOD’ being staged at The Beck Center for The Arts.

The play invokes questions of sanity, innocence and spirituality. It asks hard questions about faith and gives no easy answers. The author has stated that he ''offers a story of salvation and hope, [and] through philosophical debate dangles in front of the audience and characters the possibility of miracles.” But, in reality, what does Pielmeir offer the audience? Dissecting the play still leads to head-scratching among actors, directors, theologians, psychologists and theatergoers years after its first production.

From where did the concept for the play emerge? The author states, “Shortly after I moved to New York City in 1977, I saw a headline that said “Nun Kills Baby.” I didn’t buy the paper, and I didn’t read that article, but it gave me the answer to a question that I had been asking for a long time. I had wanted to write a play that dealt with, or that asked questions about spirituality, about sanctity. I wanted to write a play that explored the question: “Would a person who was considered a saint in the 15th century be considered a saint today? Or would he or she be locked up in an institution?”

The play, due to its subject matter, has not been without controversy. As a whole, the Catholic Church never has made any sort of stand against it. However, when the national tour was going through Pennsylvania, the Archbishop of Scranton said, “No, I don’t want this play in the city.” Other Catholics might feel the same way. This is not a settling tale and for some, may put the church and the actions of the seminary in a bad light.

For the play to be successful there must be the melding of a director who understand the intent of the script and a superb cast. The Beck production is fortunate to have Seth Gordon as its conceiver. The production is well paced, is visually effective, and uses sound and lighting well.


The intriguing three-woman cast features Sherri Britton as Mother Miriam, equity member Elizabeth Ann Townsend as Martha Livingstone and Alicia Kahn as Agnes.

Britton is outstanding. She is not only totally believable in her portrayal, but she keys important ideas so they become readily apparent. For example, she states, “What we’ve gained in logic, we’ve lost in faith” with such conviction that the listener’s mind slams on its brakes and ponders the profound concept.

Townsend is a fine actress. Unfortunately, her first act performance was hindered by the necessity to deal with a constantly lit cigarette. The use of the cigarettes caused the timing and emphasis of some of her lines, and her natural body movements, to be compromised. In the second act, when she was sans cigarettes she was brilliant!

Kahn’s performance is moving and entrancing. She didn’t portray Agnes, she was Agnes. Her enactment of the birth and death of her baby was captivating as was her entire ethereal presence.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Beck’s ‘AGNES OF GOD’ is one of this season’s local theatre scenes’ highlight productions! Applause, applause, applause!

Shaw and Stratford Festivals Preview--2004

Shaw and Shakespeare Festivals beckon you!

It’s that time of year again. The weather is turning nice, the orange barrels signaling road repairs are going up, it’s vacation time. And, if you are at all interested in theatre, the “in” place to go for a mega-sized offering of good productions is Canada for the Shaw and Stratford festivals. And, to make it even more tempting, the Canadian dollar is still a good buy against the US buck.

THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL OF CANADA

The Stratford Festival of Canada takes place in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. The ride from Cleveland is about six hours through Buffalo. Go on-line to the festival to get directions. The web address is www.stratfordfestival.ca.

Productions, which started May 4 run through October 31. Spring and summer offerings include: ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM,’ ‘GUYS AND DOLLS,’ ‘MACBETH’, ‘KING HENRY VII (ALL IS TRUE),’ ‘THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO,’ ‘ANYTHING GOES,’ ‘NOISES OFF,’ ‘TIMON OF ATHENS,’ ‘CYMBELINE,’ KING JOHN,’ THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE,’ ‘THE SWANNE: QUEEN VICTORIA,’ ‘THE ELEPHANT SONG/THE HUMAN VOICE.’

Besides the performances there are post-performance discussions, costume and prop warehouse tours, backstage tours and garden tours.

What’s the lodging like? I’d opt for one of the many bed and breakfasts. Sorry, I can’t recommend a specific choice. We are trying one this summer instead of staying in a hotel. I’ll report on it when I do my reviews later this season.

Last season I made some recommendations for shopping and eating. I’ve been requested to repeat those ideas. For shopping, I strongly recommend Davis Canadian Arts (106 Ontario Street). This is a wonderful art gallery that offers Canadian traditional and contemporary sculptures, ceramics and paintings. For women’s quality clothing make sure to stop at The Touchmark Shop (137 Ontario Street). The establishment offers unique and one-of-a-kind products at excellent prices.

Hungry? For moderate cost, high quality, try The Annex Room (38 Albert Street). For a slightly higher priced meal Bentley’s, a sister to The Annex, is good. I had a very negative dining experience at Carters on Downie. My expensive halibut main course consisted of a fish stick-sized piece of fish and four asparagus spears. It’s lunch portions at upscale dinner prices. And, unlike most Canadian restaurants, the service was poor. For a relaxed and fairly inexpensive breakfast treat try Demetre’s Family Eatery (1100 Ontario Street).

I’ll be visiting the theatres in June and will be giving my suggestions for what shows to see.

Call Stratford Escapes, a division of Niagara Falls Tours for reservations. For information call 877-356-6385 or go on line to www.niagarafallstours.com. For individual tickets or a festival brochure call 800-567-1600 or go on-line to www.stratfordfestival.ca.

THE SHAW FESTIVAL

The Shaw Festival is perfromed in three lovely theatres in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada, an easy four-hour trip from Cleveland. You travel through the wine countries of Ohio, New York and Canada enroute. It’s worth the ride, even if you don’t go to the theatre, to visit the lovely little city. And, if you are a gambler or want some interesting side-trips, Niagara Falls is less than half-an-hour away as is the Welland Canal. Toronto is a short drive away.

Productions run from April 2 through December 4. This season’s productions include ‘PYGMALION,’ ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST,’ ‘THREE MEN ON A HORSE,’ ‘PAL JOEY,’ ‘AH, WILDERNESS!,’ ‘RUTHERFORD AND SON,’ ‘WAITING FOR THE PARADE,’ ‘THE TINKER’S WEDDING,’ ‘MAN AND SUPERMAN,’ ‘NOTHING SACRED,’ ‘HARLEQUINADE,’ and ‘FLOYD COLLINS.’

Again, I’ve been asked to repeat my comments on the Niagara area restaurants, shopping and places to stay. The area is dotted with wineries, many of which, besides offering wine tastings and sales, have restaurants . I have, in general, been disappointed in the winery restaurants with the exception of Inn on the Twenty, located in historic Jordan Village (www.innonthetwenty.com), about forty minutes from Niagara-on-the-Lake. It ranks as one of my favorite restaurants in the world. The service is always wonderful, the facility is beautiful, the gardens behind the facility lovely, and the food is outstanding! This is a “must go-to.”

Also on the must do list is eating at The Queenston Heights Restaurant. Located in a park just over the Canadian line, the facility has a breathtaking view of the Niagara River gorge. I’ve been there a dozen times and never had a meal that was anything less than outstanding. Try and get seated at one of Christine’s tables. She’s a total delight and a wonderful server.

Fans Court Chinese Restaurant (135 Queen Street) is a good buy. It has a very pleasant outdoor patio and the food is fine. Try the fruit chicken dish for a different taste treat.

Greaves Jams and Marmalades is famous for its products since 1927. A Niagara tradition is the Maple Leaf Fudge store. Also, don’t miss out on the several stores that sell frozen yogurt which is blended before your eyes with Niagara fresh fruits.

The area has many excellent hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. We have found Abbotsford House Bed and Breakfast to be our home-away-from-home. Owner Margaret Currie is a total delight. Her breakfasts are scrumptious, she gives a new meaning to the word “clean,” and the antiques and decorations are impeccable. Return guests are the rule here. For reservations and/or information call 905-468-4646 or e mail AbbotsfordBandB.com. Splurge places include The Prince of Wales Hotel, Queen’s Landing Inn and The White Oaks conference Resort and Spa.

For theatre information, lodging suggestions or tickets call 800-511-7429 or go on-line to www.shawfest.com. Ask about packages that include lodging, meals and tickets. Also be aware that the festival offers Sunday night specials, rush tickets and senior matinee prices.

Friendly people, good value and wonderful theatre awaits you hosted by our neighbors to the north.

Free Will (convergence-continuum)

'FREE WILL' confronts wanton lust at convergence-continuum

Clyde Simon, convergence-continuum’s Artistic Director and Brian Breth, its Executive Director remind us in the program notes for their season opening production of ‘FREE WILL & WANTON LUST’ that the theatre was founded with the idea of “going against the grain” and doing “in-your-face style theatre.”

Nicky Silver is a hot, hip, now playwright who has much to say. Much in the tradition of Edward Albee and Arthur Kopit, Silver writes of the absurdities of life. His works and the play selection preferences of convergence-continuum are a perfect match.

‘FREE WILL & WANTON LUST’ is about Claire, a wealthy, self-absorbed 40-something married woman who takes lovers half her age to allow herself to feel young, beautiful and fulfilled. Her current playmate is Tony, a studly artist who hopes Claire’s connections will help further his career. Claire’s children are Amy, a 15-year-old who is bitter, intoxicated and possibly pregnant, and 20-year-old son, Philip, who is in search for self. It’s a play which discusses loneliness and the nature of humans.

Silver, is less concerned with structure than with words. Unfortunately, a little more structure and less verbiage would have helped. The first act is hysterically funny, exposes us to the characters and sets the stage for a lesson to be taught in Act II. The second act unfortunately fails to satisfy. It features several very, very long monologues which go well beyond making their point regarding metaphors centering on spitting and the sexual nature of men.

Clyde Simon’s directing is basically competent though the pacing and character development could have been enhanced. After a while the play got very draggy and the line between believability and the bizarre was often unnecessarily crossed. Part of this is the writing, especially of the less than satisfying second act.

Lauri Hammer handled the difficult characterization of Claire quite well. The character is written to be shallow, vain and self-centered, which makes it difficult to believe she has anything important to say. This, plus some surface level acting, caused a problem for her Act II monologue in which Hammer manages to keep our attention even if she fails to gain our interest in her fate.

Lisa Bradley tries vainly to give us a creditable Amy. However, she misses the delicate balance needed to imbue her character with the depth and desperation of the swings between teenage brat and the confused moral center of the play.

Geoffrey Hoffman as the young lover, doesn’t fulfill the physical requirements needed for the body builder-stud role. His acting however developed the cockiness of the character well, but missed the shadings necessary to illustrate in Tony’s true nature.

As Philip, the son, Steve Needham was excellent in the shorter scenes. He, as did Hammer, had difficulty in commanding attention for his very long monologue. The depravity of the mother-son relationship was wonderfully captured in his emotional collapse at the play’s curtain as he was rocked in his mother’s incestuous arms.

Allyson Rosen, as the disturbed Vivian, came on stage like a Nazi storm trooper and created a character that was more laughable than believable. This overdone characterization overshadowed the fine scene when she explained the history that caused her to be so emotionally detached.

Capsule Judgement: The dark comedy, "FREE WILL AND WANTON LUST," turns heads with its title alone. It is an interesting play that needed a more riveting and textured production. If for no other reason, it’s worth seeing to appreciate what has made Nicky Silver the new “infant terrible” of modern playwrights.

Danceworks '04 (Groundworks)

Groundworks again captivates audience with Danceworks '04

David Shimotakahara, the artistic director of GroundWorks Dancetheater has a reputation for inspiring his audience’s to think. He also illustrates for them what it means to have a disciplined dance corps.

The evening, presented as part of Cleveland Public Theatre’s ‘DANCWORKS 04,’ consisted of two equal length pieces, “The Book of Water” and “At Once There Was A House.”

“The Book of Water,” as explained by Shimotakahara, the piece’s choreographer, continues his interest in connectivity. He challenges the audience to experience, as the company did, the questions: “Is life a series of isolated pools through which we pass alone in our encounters? Is memory held in separate cups, secret and contained? Or are we connected in our course?

The choreographer answers his own questions, as he leads the viewer through a seamless connection of each of the vehicle’s segments. Each unit, danced to a unique piece of music, had a feeling all its own, but with the unmistakable unity of flow and movement. Slashing hands, flying bodies danced to a heavy drum beat; bodies moving across the floor in controlled moves set to heavy organ music; slow controlled moves of arching bodies, swimming, moving like water birds to plaintive piano music. Whatever the music, whatever the movements, the parts all melded into a single unit. Even the ending, which found Shimotakahara bathed in a pool of blue light, bare-chested and breathing heavily, was a perfect fit.

Felise Bagley, Amy Miller, Mark Otloski, and Shimotakahara are all fine dancers. Bagley and Miller make the most difficult of moves look easy. They display total body control. Shimotakahara has always been a dance machine, well-oiled and in perfect sync. It has been especially interesting to watch Otloski, who was a principal dancer with the Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, mature under the tutelage of Shimotakahara into a more disciplined dancer.

“At Once There Was A House,” a Cleveland premiere choreographed by Beth Corning, and danced to the music of such composers as Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan and Lou Harrison, was a much more complex piece.

Most interesting was listening to the audience’s conversation following the performance about what meaning the piece held for each of them. Comments were made of children playing dress-up, child abuse, the experiences of growing up and looking back at childhood, and childhood delight. One thing appeared certain. The meaning of piece remained abstract, but the concept purported by psychologists is that each of us creates our reality through our stories, narratives, and questions of life.

Dressed at the start in oversized adult shoes and children’s clothing, the company interacted with the audience with childish delight. Later segments found Felise Bagley partnering with a white picket fence that folded and bent as she created illusions of life’s experiences? Another segment was danced accapello, consisted of changing partners, searching other others and freezing in place. Often the words and the movements were not in parallel to each other causing discordant thoughts. Another portion found the dancers moving across the stage in parallel lines, never intersecting, never touching. fifth One unit found Otloski illustrating high school experiences in both movement and words. In another part Shimotakahara, with a large soft sculpture door attached to his body, danced to discordant music. Yet another unit exposed a balancing act of dancer and a chair. The finale repeated the opening in costume and theme.

The piece, a departure from the usual serious mood of Danceworks numbers, was thought-provoking for the audience and physically challenging for the dancers.

For those who have not experienced the offerings of this wonderful company, Danceworks will be performing on July 2 and 3 at Cain Park Theatre in Cleveland Heights. There will be Talk back sessions following each of those performances. For information call 216-932-0222.

A tribute to Marji Dodril

Every once in a while we meet a very special person. My life has been made better by having known Marji Dodril. Marji was a woman of beauty, charm, kindness, talent and class. Marji died on March 17. A memorial will be held at 6 p.m. April 4 at Dobama Theatre, 1846 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights.

It is only fitting that Marji should be memorialized at Dobama. That theatre was a major part of her life. It, ironically, was also where I met Marji.

Dobama’s second play was Benjamin Levy’s ‘RAPE OF THE BELT.’ Dobama had no permanent home, so they borrowed the performing space at Chagrin Falls Little Theatre. I was the public relations director for Dobama at the time, and I loved to just hang around and watch Marji, her husband to-be, Ev Dodrill, and Mary Jane Nottage cavort. She was wonderful in that play and in everything else in which she performed.

Whenever I saw her, I could count on a smile and a hug. Even when cancer was raging in her body she was radiant. Her last performance, was a commercial in support of Issue 31, a proposed arts tax which was recently on the ballot. She had little strength, but she needed to do what she could for a cause for which she had great enthusiasm. That was Marji.

Marji may have made her last entrance and exit in this life, but she will long be remembered by those of us who loved and respected her. Applause! Bravo! Curtain down!

Five Guys Named Moe (Beck Center)

Cespedes pulls off another coup with 'FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE'

Musical reviews are hard to make into good theatre. They are a bunch of songs usually held together by a thread of a script. It takes real creativity to do something other than have the singers stand around singing and maybe dancing around a little. Well, fortunately for The Beck Center, they have that creative director/choreographer. His name is Martin Cespedes.

Those who saw Beck’s ‘SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ’ which won a Times Tribute Award last year for both the production and it’s director/choreographer, know what a wonder that production was. Well, Cespedes has done it again with his production of ‘FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE,” He lets out all the stops as he takes on a musical journey based on the music of Louis Jordan. He does it so well that at the curtain call on Sunday afternoon, which was filled with “mature” citizens, the audience was on their feet screaming for more.

In the hands of a lesser director/choreographer, cast, and musical ensemble, this could have been a long and lethal experience. The story is trite, some of the musical sounds repetitive, but it matters little, you won’t even think about it.

It’s not even worth relating the so-called story. It’s more important that you know the show contains such songs as “Messy Bessy,” “I Know What I’ve Got,” “Caledonia,” and “Is You Is.” The music covers the spectrum of sound. There’s a little jazz, a little rock, a little Calypso, a ballad or two, and great harmony songs. You’ll be delighted by “I Like Them Fat Like That!” and “Saturday Night Fish Fry.”

The cast is uniformly excellent. Lester Currie, Devon Settles, Geoffrey Short, Aric Calhoun and Lawrence Maurice all have a great time, sing well, and move to some creative dance steps. Kyle Primous, as No Max, the participant supposedly not a member of the Moe singing quartet, is phenomenal. He dances, he sings, he acts, he mimes—all extremely well.

As an audience member you just won’t sit and watch. You may find yourself on stage getting sung to by members of the cast. You might “volunteer” to join a Congo line that snakes through the theatre. (Okay, here’s one flaw…that segment was way too long!)

Cespedes ignites the stage with creative and disciplined choreography. David Anthony Williams, the musical director, has these guys wailing. His orchestra doesn’t hit a sour note. Don McBride’s scenic design, consisting of floating radio dials, makes a perfect setting for the goings on. Sharon Stark’s costumes are a hoot! Erik Seidel’s lighting and Casey Jones’ sound design add a strong positive dimension to the show.

Hurrah Martin! Hurrah cast! Hurrah crew!

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: If you miss ‘FIVE GUYS NAMED JOE’ you’ll be very, very sorry as it’s one of this theatre year’s highlights!

A Grand Night For Singing (Kalliope Stage)

Kalliope Stage, the North Coast's new musical theatre

It’s always a dangerous undertaking to start a new theatre. It is even more tenuous in these times of economic wariness. In spite of the odds, the Cleveland area has seen the birth of several new theatrical enterprises in the last year or so. The newest is Kalliope Stage which has settled into a space at the corner of Lee and Cedar Roads, diagonally across from the Cedar Lee movie theatre. Kalliope has a unique role in the area…it is the only venue dedicated exclusively to the American musical.

The American musical, for all practical purposes is the child of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. They conceived ‘OKLAHAMA!’ the first true book musical, in which the music, the lyrics and the storyline all melded into one. In contrast to previous musicals, the dancing, the singing, the spoken lines of ‘OKLAHOMA’ were all integral to the story, which cannot be told if any of the elements is missing. The Rodgers and Hammerstein scheme gave birth to works by Lerner and Loewe (e.g., ‘MY FAIR LADY’), Steven Sondheim (‘FOLLIES’), Stephen Schwartz (‘PIPPIN’), Leonard Bernstein (‘WEST SIDE STORY’) and a number of others.

It is only fitting that Kalliope Stage open its doors with a tribute to the fathers of the American musical. Their production of ‘A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING’ is a review which blends together songs from such hit shows as ‘CAROUSEL,’ ‘THE KING AND I,’ ‘SOUTH PACIFIC,’ and ‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC.’ The title comes from the song “It’s a Grand Night For Singing, written for ‘STATE FAIR’ the only movie musical the duo wrote.

Kalliope’s theatre is a spanking brand new, intimate space, consisting of about 50 comfortable seats, placed in three rows. The audience is right up front and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. The box office personnel, ticket taker, ushers and theatre staff are warm and welcoming. They even hand out chunks of home made chocolate “thingies” to every patron.

It would be wonderful to say that Kalliope Stage’s opening production was superlative. Unfortunately, it wasn’t, but it was entertaining. It was extremely well sung. The music was well played. The production is filled with some very fine moments. But, there are also some problems.

On the plus side, all five cast members individually sing extremely well. Unfortunately, because they are all essentially soloists, the choral sounds were not as blended as they could have been.

The women, both in their acting and singing, were fine. Lisa Spinelli was a total delight flashing her sparkling eyes and playing perfectly the fallen innocent in “I Cain’t Say No.” She captures the stage as soon as she makes an entrance.

Joan Ellison’s “Something Wonderful” was wonderful. She does a nice job of altering her presentational style to fit the mood and ideas of each song.

Allison Hedges has a beautiful voice but needed more glee in “A Wonderful Guy” and more passion in “If I Loved You.” Joan and Allison did a delightful version of “Stepsisters’ Lament” from ‘CINDERELLA.”

Robert Burian has a full and powerful voice. Unfortunately, has not learned to visualize images of the things he is singing about. When he sings a love song, he has to feel the love, we have to see it in his eyes and observe it in the way he looks at and touches his partner. Often he sings off in space, eyes blank, his gestures automatic, not powered by emotion. It’s too bad because he has a gorgeous voice. His ‘We Kiss In A Shadow” for example, had a wonderful vocal sound.

Though he doesn’t have Burian’s vocal abilities, John Paul Boukis does have a pleasant voice. Unfortunately, as with Burian, he seldom makes emotional contact with the person with whom he is singing. His finest moments were during “All At Once You Love Her” and “Maria.”

Reviews often get bogged down in song after song with little variation. Paul Gurgol, the show’s director, made sure this didn’t happen by adding some very creative moments to the show. Having males sing traditional female songs and vise versa was a nice touch. “Kansas City” was delightfully staged as was “It’s Me.” Unfortunately, some of the “schticks” were over-the-top. The twister game in “Don’t Marry Me” put singers in positions where singing was nearly impossible. The constant moving of the hay wagon/table was distracting. In fear of falling into the “bogged down trap,” he over directed, trying to make too much of songs that may have done with less trappings.

Technically, the lights and set were nicely conceived. Especially effective were the trees, with trunks in the form of human bodies and branch like arms reaching out to enfold the audience. On the other hand, Kim Brown’s costume designs detracted rather than added. The costumes often drew attention to the clothing rather than assisting the performer to develop his or her character.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Kalliope Stage is a welcome addition to the Cleveland theatre scene. It takes guts and determination to give birth to a new theatre. The theatre’s directors, John Paul Boukis and Paul F. Gurgol, can only be wished the very best. Their ‘A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING’ was a pleasant way to start the season.

Verb Ballet, Inlet Dance, Antaeus Dance, American Ballet Theatre--March, 2004

QUICK COMINGS AND GOINGS: VERB BALLET, INLET DANCE, ANTAEUS DANCE, ABT

One of the problems with short run productions is that before the word can get out, they are gone. This is especially true with many of the performances of local dance companies, which usually run one weekend. A case in point is the Cleveland Public Theatre’s “Dance Works ’04.” Some of the area’s finest choreographers are being showcased. Unfortunately, each group gets a one weekend three-performance slot. Since you can’t get to see what has been, maybe you can get ready for what’s going to be. If you see that these companies are presenting, go before they are gone once again.

Cleveland is blessed with some wonderful choreographers and company artistic directors. Three of the very best are being showcased in the “Danceworks ‘04” series. Two have already had their works presented: Hernando Cortez of Verb Ballets, and Bill Wade of Inlet Dance. Here are mini-reviews of what was presented.

VERB BALLET

The company’s ‘CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS COLLECTION 04’ was a wonderful and creative evening of dance. The dancers worked with assurance and displayed a complete understanding of each the choreographer’s works. Mark Tomasic and Tracy Vogt were superb in “In Passing.”

Dancing on boxes, in ballet shoes on toe, “The Last Sun” showcased wonderful dancing by Meghan Haas and DeAnn Petruschke. Unfortunately, Robert Wesner’s affected movements and lack of body control were distracting.

“The Envelope” was an absolutely delightful piece centering on the passing of an envelope from dancer to dancer. The melodramatic music and quick short moves delighted the audience.

“A Twist of Fate” was brilliant! It was a powerful, unsettling piece, accomplished with wonderful shadows projected onto the back scrim by lighting designer Cheanult Spence.

“Mozart Piano Trio in C Major” was danced to the fine live accompaniment of Eric Ziolek and Sara and Jeffrey Schimpelfenig. The classical music and contemporary stylized movements blended to give a sprightly conclusion to a wonderful evening of dance.

All in all, this was an entertaining, eclectic evening of dance. As a patron said as he walked out, “I could see that again.” I agree!! For information about Verb Ballets and their next performances call 216-397-3757.

INLET DANCE

Inlet Dance is at its very best when the company is performing to the ingenious choreography of Bill Wade. This was well-illustrated in their “Dance Works ‘04” program. Every one of Wade’s staged pieces was compelling. The works of the other choreographers left much to be desired.

Wade’s “B’roke,” danced to a Vivaldi violin concerto, was beautifully presented. He created involving stage pictures through the inter-twining of bodies. Each physical move perfectly fit the musical underscoring. Jennifer Lott lit up the stage. Marget Ludlow, M. Leila Pelhan and Devon Schlegelmilch were outstanding in this and each piece in which they performed.

“Doppleganger” was the evening’s highlight. Featuring 16-year old African American twins, Bryan and Ryan Peoples, who helped develop the choreography, the dancers displayed amazing physical strength and body control and blended into a co-joined tandem of gymnastic dance movements. Wow!!

“ImPAIRED” saw Leila Pelhand and Christopher Whitney impressively performing the entire piece blindfolded. The slow gymnastic movements were beautifully executed. This was a powerful piece, well conceived and well executed.
Less effective were “Tides and Solitude” which Sally Wallace choreographed using long poles which were used by the dancers to propel themselves across the stage. The effect worked for a while but the extended music and repeated movements became tedious and the piece called for cutting.

Jennifer Lott danced her own choreographed piece, “Duet” competently. The single dancer partnered with a square of light. The choreography failed to captivate.

“Dante’s First Night,” staged by Leilani Barrett, failed to coordinate the tone of the music with the dance movements. The repetitious music and lack of group unity hurt the piece. Interestingly, it was the performance of the choreographer that was most responsible for the lack of precision.

Steve Rooks’ “You Are Now Connected” missed the mark. The dancers, though they valiantly tried, were not capable of interpreting the rap music’s intent.

For information about Inlet Dance call 216-382-0201 or email inletdancetheatre@sbcglobal.net.

ANTAEUS DANCE COMPANY

Starting with a series of bangs and cymbal clashes, choreographers Dough Lodge and Joan Meggitt’s “Moments of Repose” had an impressive beginning. But, as the piece went on and on, repeating and repeating the same musical tones and movements, the audience lost interest. It was too much of the same. Supposedly inspired by Frank Gehry’s Peter B. Lewis Building on the campus of Case-Western Reserve, the piece should have, like the building, flowed, flashed, attracted emotional attention, brought about strong emotional reaction. It didn’t. After a while more attention was paid to Greg D’Allessio’s solo manipulation of the musical instruments than to the dancers. The female dancers—Jenita McGowan, Sherri Mills, Latifa Sage, Beth Salemi and Shanna Sheline--were all very proficient.

A shortened piece, programmed with something of a different feeling, would have made the evening much more satisfying.

For information about Antaeus Dance Company call 216-486-2874.


AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

Performing as part of the Ballet Series at Playhouse Square Center, American Ballet Theatre proved why it is a world class company. The program, danced to a full orchestra, opened with “Raymonda,” a classical piece with folkloric overtones. Well staged, it featured Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky in lead roles. Maxim and Carlos Lopez’s high scissors leaps and the precision dancing and toe work of Erica Cornejo were the piece’s highlights.

“Pillars of Fire,” was a somber, beautifully danced piece which combined traditional movements with modern staging. The result was a moving choreographic concept in which the moods of the dance and the music became one.

“Within You Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison” was the lesser segment of the evening. Though it was interesting to see the former Beattle’s music set to dance, there was a lack of consistency in interpreting many of Harrison’s lyrics to the movements. This was especially true in “Something.” “I Dig Love,” with its interesting lift patterns and inter-weavings of bodies, was more on target as was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which featured powerful gymnastic movements. “Isn’t It a Pity” consisted of a series of countermoves created by having the dancers work in lines. “Within You Without You” evoked little emotional feeling, while “My Sweet Lord” was a high spirited gleeful dance.

All in all, if you missed ABT, you missed a dance season highlight. They will undoubtedly be returning to the area. Make sure to see them.

Miss Gulch Returns (Playhouse Square Center)

Miss Gulch attempts to bribe a critic!

Halfway through his one-person performance of ‘MISS GULCH RETURNS!’ Nick Vannello was explaining to the audience that the reason Miss Gulch, Dorothy’s nasty, dog-snatching, basket-wielding spiteful spinster-next-door neighbor of ‘WIZARD OF OZ’ fame had been overlooked was because of the critics. Vannello contended that the critics played up Dorothy and that “damn dog” Toto and left Miss Gulch high and dry. He then sneered, “Are there any critics in the audience?” No one responded. He then said, “I know Roy Berko is here!” He knew exactly where I was. That had been arranged by placing my press kit on the table, front and center in the cabaret setting! The next thing I knew a huge piece of chocolate cake had been thrust into my hands. Vannello then skipped off saying, “Well, that should insure I don’t get another bad review.” The audience and I were hysterical! Vannello didn’t have to waste the money on the cake. I would have given him a favorable review without it.

Let’s get one thing straight, Vannello is not the all-around super performer…his voice doesn’t quite have the necessary finesse, his acting is sometimes a little automatic, he could have let loose a lot more with feeling rather than feigning emotions. However, he does have what this one-person show requires..he knows how to play an audience! He teases, he sidles up unsuspecting victims, he doesn’t take himself seriously, and he does a great double entendre. The result is our really, really liking Vannello, which parleys into a really, really good time for the audience.

‘MISS GULCH RETURNS!” is the brainstorm of Fred Barton who gives us an endearingly demented look at Dorothy’s next door neighbor, Agnes Gulch, who later in the movie becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. You know, the one with the horrid monkeys. Barton has written a score of comedy numbers much in the style of Cole Porter. The rhyming patterns are cute and obvious. As Gulch says as a side-comment during the song “I’m a Bitch,” “Oh, come on now, what else rhymes with witch?” The sold-out audience howled.

The score also included the beautiful ballad, “Everyone Worth Taking, Part 2,” the hysterical “Pour Me A Man” and “Give Me to the Blonde” during which a handsome blonde waiter appeared to fill Gulch’s martini glass, much to the delight of the audience and the leering Vannello.

Charles Eversole provided the musical accompaniment and a few interactions with Vannello and the audience. The production was directed by Lora Workman.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘MISS GULCH RETURNS’ is a fun evening of theatre for the right nitch audience. Vannello doesn’t have the late Margaret Hamilton’s compelling presence (Hamilton, a Cleveland native, played Miss Gulch in the movie version of ‘THE WIZARD OF OZ’), but he does have the ability to lead the audience on a fun-filled voyage, and that’s the whole purpose of this show.

Nunsense (Hanna Theatre)

NUNSENSE less than hysterical

If those who attended ‘NUNSENSE, the 20th ANNIVERSARY ALL-STAR TOUR’ were expecting a hysterically delightful repeat of the long running Hanna Theatre production of ‘LATE NITE CATECHISM,’ they must have been disappointed. The “play” is based on the ridiculous premise that Sister Julia Childs, the convent’s head cook, had accidentally poisoned most of the order’s nuns. Since there wasn’t enough money to bury all of the sisters, some of were placed in the freezer and we (the audience) were supposedly attending a fund-raiser to bury the remaining souls. Yeah, sure, okay, you get the point! Twenty-five years of stirring hasn’t improved the piece.

Most people, I assume, came to see the old time stars, rather than be enthralled by the goings-on. Well, even that was disappointing as Georgia Engel was off shooting an “Everybody Loves Raymond” episode and Mimi Hines was ill. That left Cleveland’s own, the delightful Kaye Ballard, the “I can still belt-out a song” Darlene Love, and “I was Miss America” Lee Meriwether to carry the load.

Capsule Judgement: It was a slightly entertaining evening. There were some laughs, there was some okay singing, and there was some presence of Ballard’s statement for the reason for the show…”We are here to prove that nuns are fun.” Okay, I’ll accept her word for it, but at $52.50 a ticket, there should have been more fun!

Bee-Luther-Hatchee (Karamu)

Script overshadows production at Karamu

For many years Karamu Performing Arts Center was a crown jewel in the Cleveland theatre scene. This, the oldest African-American cultural arts center in the country, has produced the likes of Langston Hughes, Ron O’Neal, Gilbert Moses, Diane McIntyre and Mel Stewart. It brought Reuben and Dorothy Silver, the reigning king and queen of local theatre, to the area to produce and direct the company’s shows for many years.

Unfortunately, the recent past has not been a period of shining light at Karamu. Recently, Terrence Spivey was brought on board to revitalize this important center as the true local voice for Black theatre. Spivey’s first season is entitled, “The Season of the Woman.” His latest offering is ‘BEE-LUTHER-HATCHEE’ by Thomas Gibbons.

The story concerns Shelita Burns, a young black New York editor who travels to the south in search of seventy-two year old Libby Price, the author of the award-wining Bee-Luther-Hatchee, meaning “the next stop after hell.”

(Side note: If you are planning on seeing the production stop reading now as I have to include the plot twist in order to talk about the production).

Okay, for those of you still with me… ironically, Libby Price turns out to be a white male. Interestingly, the play’s author Thomas Gibbons is also a white male who has authored a play centering on the lives and history of Black Americans.

The play is very well written and has captivating questions: Do you have to be a member of a cultural group to write about that group, to identify with the feelings of that group? Can a male really empathize with a woman? Can a Catholic view a Jewish-themed play with any compassion? Extending it further, can I (this white male reviewer) have empathy for a play centering on the female African American experience? I, and the white male character in the play say “Yes.” Shelita, the black female doesn’t agree.

As thought-provoking as the play is, the production doesn’t live up to the challenge. There are many positives. Renee Matthews-Jackson captivates as Libby Price. Richard Morris, Jr. has created a wonderful workable set consisting of levels which appropriately look like volumes of books. Spivey uses the stage well. Scenes flow together seamlessly. The problems are the tedious pacing and the mediocre level of acting. Most of the cast is simply not believable. They fail to create real people. There is too much acting and not enough reacting. There is a lot of emoting and little feeling of the intent of the words. Gestures are phony, pantomiming is poor. It’s too bad as they had a wonderful vehicle with which to work.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: In spite of the weaknesses of the production, the play is worth seeing. It evokes thinking and forces the viewer to ask questions about himself/herself. That’s not a bad thing for a play to do, not bad at all.

Underpants (Cleveland Play House)

Cleveland Play House drops its ‘UNDERPANTS’

Steve Martin is one of the crown-princes of off-the-wall comedy. He leaves no schtick unturned to get a laugh. It is no surprise, therefore, that when he came upon Carl Steinheim’s 1910 farcical play, ‘THE UNDERPANTS’ he thought, “Here’s a cabbage right for slawing.”

The story centers on an incident when a woman's underpants fall down in public while she is attending a parade for the king. The result is newfound fame for the woman and over-blown frustration for her husband. It also is an opening for Martin to pick up the play’s underlying themes of German excess and go with it. He probes German inflexibility and prudishness, anti-Semitism (one character insists that his Cohen named is spelled with a “K” and that kosher is spelled with a “C”), the male attitude of superiority over women, and a false Germanic sense of propriety.

When the jokes are bawdy, the play is reminiscent of the Steve Martin we know from ‘THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS.’ When at its most ironic, flashes of his recent hit movie ‘CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN’ appear. Martin uses the original story to make leaps into both the ridiculous and academic when he mocks the very fabric of marriage and society, at least Germanic nuptials and society.

To make this play work takes a keen sense of comedic timing, consistency of characterizations, and presenting lines so believably that they become farcically hysterical. It is in these elements that the Cleveland Play House production is lacking. Under the often ill-conceived directing of Peter Hackett, accents (one can only wonder why they were used at all), come and go. Actors change pacing and characterization in mid-sentence. The constant screaming becomes ear piercing. The pacing varies from hysterical to languid. Laughs are lost due to poor line interpretation. The results? The play which a New York critic called “The funniest play in town” becomes less than could be expected. That’s not to say this production lacks laughs. Some are there. Just not as many as there could have been, nor in a format that grabs and holds the whole audience.

Chaz Mena, as the husband, yells his way through the first part of the play and then has a total character change for the second segment. His German accent vanishes, then returns, then vanishes again. Tanya Clarke, as his wife Louise, never seems involved in the goings on. Johanna Morrison is absolutely wonderful as the interfering neighbor. She, along with Brad Bellamy as Cohen, one of the men who is infatuated by Louise, are the production’s highlights. Sam Gregory, as one of the other renters, begins well and then seems to get lost in who his character is, what he represents.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: The CPH production of ‘THE UNDERPANTS’ is less than could be desired. As the man sitting next to me kept saying to his wife, as he squirmed in his seat, “When is this thing going to end?”

Amy's View (Dobama)

High quality acting in Dobama's ‘AMY’S VIEW’

It is somewhat ironic that the weekend before the vote on whether Cuyahoga County should fund the arts that Dobama Theatre opened ‘AMY’S VIEW.’ Much of the play is about the value of theatre, cultural changes, and the role and purpose of the arts.

‘AMY’S VIEW’ follows a mother-daughter relationship over a sixteen year period from 1979 to 1995. As is the general pattern with Hare’s writing, the play is built around what he calls, a “fragrant” woman. In this case, it’s Amy, who believes that “you have to give love unconditionally and that one day it will be rewarded.”

The play’s first half mainly revolves around the conflict between the assertive Esme, Amy’s mother, and Dominic, Amy’s future husband. When we meet them in 1979, she is a well-known stage actress, he a young nobody who despises the theatre as "irrelevant" and has impregnated Amy. Come 1985, Dominic is a big media success, while Esme is on the slide playing germs in ads for disinfectants. The play then jumps to the 1990s. Dominic is achieving world fame by making “action” movies and Esme is hugely in debt due to misguided investments and has succumbed to playing a doughty nurse in a TV soap. Without revealing the “startling incident” which changes the course of the play, Hare has Esme losing pretty well everything, but somehow ending up the gainer.

The play is well-crafted, but the ending is too contrived, unsatisfying. And, as often is the case with Hare, the male characters are too clearly the “bad” guys. Whether you agree with Dominic’s point of view or not, it is obvious from his first outburst that he is going to be the heavy in this story. In a sea of positive reviews regarding Judi Denche’s magnificent performance, one London critic stated of the play, “He’s a peculiar case is David Hare. Always, even in his best work, there are patches where you feel you’re having your ear bent by someone still compelled to score points in the manner of some cocky little snit and a voice inside you wants to scream, more at the dramatist than at the character speaking, “Oh, for God’s sake grow-up!” Another stated, “somewhere during a quarrel between Amy and Esme about the meaning of “talking control” of one’s life, it must be wondered if the play was getting too unfocused, too scattered.

Dobama’s production is well-directed by Sonya Robbins. It is well-acted by most of the cast, three of whom are former Times Theatre Tribute winners for their performance abilities.

Catherine Albers as Esme gives her usual flawless performance. Though there are times when Hare doesn’t give her a clear set of motivations, she invents them and develops a clear characterization.

Derdriu Ring, who always lights up a stage, glows brightly as Amy. The character’s goodness and anguish are both evidently clear.

Todd Krispinsky is given the difficult task of being Hare’s whipping boy. He does it well, though his last act transition was not well textured. Part of this is the script’s fault as Dominic isn’t given much character variance in the lines. The lack of makeup and wardrobe adjustments also didn’t assist Krispinsky.

Robert Hawkes gives a clear and consistent interpretation to the nebbish-like Frank, Esme’s next door neighbor, suitor and financial adviser. But as was the case with the character of Dominic, Hare didn’t give Frank the same dimensions as the female characters.

Tom Weaver is appealing as a neophyte actor. Only Ursula Korneitchouk fails to develop a real being as Evelyn, Esme’s aging mother-in-law. Her lines have a flat, memorized sound.

Michael Louis Grube’s aesthetically pleasing set design works well, except during a set change in which the back wall folds in order to allow it to fade backstage. For an instance it appeared that it was going to annihilate Evelyn, who is sitting in a wheel chair in front of the wall.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘AMY’S VIEW’ gets a wonderful production at Dobama. In fact, the production qualities outshine the problematic script.

A Nigth With Dame Edna (Playhouse Square Center)

DAME EDNA DELIGHTS AT THE PALACE

Cleveland audiences are noted for giving standing ovations to theatrical presentations. Never, however, has the Palace Theatre been the setting for the standing “O” given for and orchestrated by Dame Edna Everage. Dame Edna Everage? The character is the creation of Australian, Barry Humphries, who calls herself, an icon and a megastar, among other things. One thing he/she is not is an impersonator. Barry Humphries IS Dame Edna, pure and simple, period! He’s been doing the character since the 70s and he has it down perfectly.

Dame Edna has been credited with being “one of the funniest characters to grace the stage.” She was the winner of the "Special 2000 Tony Award" for Best "Live Theatrical Event" and received the National Broadway Theatre Award for "Best Play" and for "Best Actor.”

During her nearly two-and-one-half hour show, she combines a few patter songs, with chatter in which she addresses the entire audience but singles out some for close scrutiny. She calls them by name, harasses them in a passive aggressive manner, which, according to Dame Edna is “delivered in a tasteful and loving way.” As she says, “I don’t pick on people. I empower them. It’s Australian tough love.”

Two late arrivers were asked their names and why they were tardy. As expected Dame Edna goes on a bit about it. Is she done with them? No! She returns to the latecomers over and over, to the delight of the audience. She addresses a “senior” in the third row, and before he knows it he ends up on stage in Dame Edna’s recreation of the Royal Family of England. She collects audience members’ shoes for a “reading” of their characters. She uses local references with ease. WEWS-TV’s Adam Shapiro, Rocky River, the West side Market vendors who buy tomatoes as Giant Eagle and spread them with manure to give the idea that they are selling organic products, Shaker Heights and Streetsboro all get their share of attention. They are skewered, as is the clothing of audience members, and their decorating skills. Two women end up dining on pasta on stage during the second act. A young couple who Dame Edna declares are having marital problems are dragged onto the stage and a long distance call is made to the woman’s Australian mother who is living in Maryland, so she can be told of their problems and invited to come live with them. No one and nothing is really safe as she talks to people in the boxes on each side of the theater and to the paupers in the balcony, does a monologue about prostrates, and the elderly who have been placed in the “home for the burdened.” Hysteria is the order of night.

In the hands of someone else it could come across as mean-spirited and crude but Dame Edna’s personality puts her audience at ease so even those who were the brunt of her jibes appeared to enjoy themselves.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: If you are in the right mood, and allow yourself to “let loose”“A NIGHT WITH DAME EDNA” is 2 1/2 hours of some of the funniest material on the planet. Obviously, some didn’t appreciate her double entendres and style of fun as there was a small exodus at intermission. It was their loss! From my perspective, it was one of the most enjoyable evenings of fun I’ve had in the theater.

Vincent in Brixton (Cleveland Play House)

‘VINCENT IN BRIXTON’ is a fine production at CPH

The legend of Vincent van Gogh lives on through his paintings, those swirling, thickly pigmented canvases filled with sunflowers, soulful faces and starry night skies. Rumors live on of his life, the famous cutting off of his own ear, his co-dependent relationship with his brother, his monumental fits of depression, and his penniless existence.

The painter has been depicted as a tortured genius, but in ‘VINCENT IN BRIXTON, Nicholas Wright’s award winning play now on stage at the Cleveland Play House, van Gogh takes on the image of a raw, naive, tactless and even comical character.

Van Gogh had three uncles who were art dealers. In 1873, at age 20, in order to train him for entrance into the family business, he was moved from his native Holland to work in the London office of an international art-dealing firm. It is at this point that author Wright starts his play. The script traces the transforming effects of love, sex and youthful adventure on van Gogh's still-unformed talent.

Vincent rented a room in the house of a widow named Ursula Loyer and her adult daughter Eugenie. Wright speculates that van Gogh fell in love with both women, but it was his affair with Mrs. Loyer that was a life-altering experience in a journey that ultimately ended with mental breakdown, death and immortality.

The “facts” of this story were taken from letters written by van Gogh to various family members. Wright has filled in the gaps where real information does not exist, thus creating a biodrama, not a histodrama.

The play, which won the Olivier Award for its London production, has been called "a fascinating, funny and sometimes deeply moving Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," “Wright's best play," “an enthralling play,” and “fascinating, funny and moving.”

The CPH’s production, under the expert direction of Seth Gordon, is generally on target. As he did with last year’s ‘PROOF,’ Gordon again proves himself to be the most talented of CPH directors. He is the only director so far who has found a way to use the poorly designed Baxter Stage with any positive effect. It can only be hoped that with the reorganization of the theatre Gordon is not only encouraged to remain, but is given more responsibilities.,

Beth Dixon gives a fine performance as Ursula, van Gogh’s mature lover. Simon Kendall is perfect as Vincent. His frail body and delicate face give a vivid picture of the troubled van Gogh as a youth. His acting nuances, foretell the torture that the man will experience. Virginia Donohoe and Patrick Jones are excellent as the daughter and her lover/husband. Only Emily Frazier Klingensmith is weak in her performance. Complete with overdone accent, hers is not a believable portrayal of Vincent’s sister.

Kent Dorsey’s set is excellent, but one must wonder about the modern plumbing and running water in a London house in 1873.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘VINCENT IN BRIXTON’ is excellent. It is the bringing together of a well-honed script and fine production values. This is what the Cleveland Play House should be doing on a regular basis.

Winter Repertory (Ohio Ballet)

Ohio Ballet presents full evening of well choreographed dancing

Dance is composed of four elements: choreography, movement, music and message. When the four come together it makes for an exciting evening. Ohio Ballet’s ‘WINTER REPERTORY PROGRAM’ had three of the elements consistently present...choreography, music and message. The movement, the dancing, was inconsistent.

The program opened with a light, sprightly, South American beat. “Bossa Nova,” consisting of four short pieces, was given its world premiere in this program. They were well choreographed by Leslie Cook. The very talented Amanda Cobb was wonderful as the lead dancer in all the segments. She was ably backed by Kristin Knapp, Alicia Pitts and Eva Trapp. Brian Murphy’s facial expressions, pelvic thrusts and quick feet picked up the beat and created a perfect feel. Unfortunately, the other males were often flat footed and appeared to be laboring rather than enjoying themselves.

“Wanders Night Song” was a classic ballet whose choreography was the weakest of the evening. Toby George was acceptable, if not spectacular as the soloist. He displayed nice leaps and good flow, but lacked the charisma needed to capture the audience.

“Etudes” was performed to ear jarring modern music. The choreography of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux didn’t always fit Gyorgy Ligeti’s tonal intentions. In spite of this, the piece was superbly danced by Alicia Pitts, whose toe work was wonderful, Eva Trapp and Kristin Knapp.

Chung-Fu Chang’s “Traveling in the Frost”was danced to pianist David Fisher’s live piano accompaniment and the poetic messages of Wilhelm Muller and Peter Hartling. Chang challenged the five male dancers with interesting choreography, pushing the performers to their limits. Though some of the unit timing was off, the overall effect was generally positive. Especially effective was Dennis Dugan’s lighting in a segment in which the dancers’ shadows were projected onto the back curtain.

Bennefoux also choreographed “Chaconne” which was danced to violin soloist Amy Barlowe Bodman’s interpretation of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The piece was very nicely performed by Amanda Cobb.

The world premiere of “Transformation!” by Ohio Ballet’s Artistic Director Jeffrey Graham Hughes was highlighted by the outstanding singing and musical sounds of the group Divine Hope. Damien Highfield, portraying Paul, stood out in the story taken from the “Bible,” Acts 6: 1 through 9:19. Eric Carvill was effective as Stephen. Though no great piece of ballet, the overall effect was positive.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Ohio Ballet continues to draw small but appreciative audiences. The group needs to take steps to make people want to come through more innovative programming and improved presentation, especially by their male dancers.

Of Mice and Men (Beck Center)

Classic ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ gets fine production at Beck

John Steinbeck is one of America’s greatest writers. His works have received numerous awards, been translated into many languages and have been revised into films, plays and operas.

Steinbeck’s deep roots in the earth and understanding of the people of California’s Salinas Valley become vividly clear in each of his writings. His keen observations and powerful descriptions of the human condition suck the reader into his fictional worlds. Noted for his views on social values, he championed the forgotten and disenfranchised while affirming the strength of the human spirit.

Steinbeck was not only a writer for America, but a writer for the world, as exemplified by his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. His impressive list of works include “Grapes of Wrath,” “East of Eden,” “Cannery Row,” and “The Pearl.”

Published in 1937, Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” was made into movies in 1939 with Burgess Meredith as George and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lennie , in 1981 with Robert Blake (George) and Randy Quaid (Lenny) and in 1992 with Gary Sinise (George) and John Malkovich (Lennie). It was transformed into an acclaimed opera by Carlisle Floyd.

The story is based on the 1785 poem “To A Mouse,” by Scottish poet Robert Burns which states that the best laid schemes of mice and men matter little, as no matter how hard or well we plan, something stops us from achieving our goals.

The story centers on lonely and alienated George and Lennie, drifters who dream of a place to call their own. After numerous incidents in which the kind hearted, but huge, hulking and simple-minded Lennie gets into trouble, the two find themselves, once again, working for meager wages on a ranch. As usual, problems arise and tragedy ensues.

The Beck Center’s production of ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ is a well conceived if slowly paced production. Director Fred Sternfeld’s pacing brings out the meaning of the lines, but makes the evening a little long. Not boring, just long.

The acting is generally excellent. Robert McCoy, as the simple Lenny gives a fine performance. He does not play the role as a retard, just as a slow-thinking, logically challenged childlike person. This portrayal is nicely nuanced, as is Greg Del Torto’s George. Nowhere in his performance does Del Torto give us the feeling, so often found in interpretations of this role, that George is using Lenny as his whipping boy. We see and feel real concern. Almost of love of father for child.

Glenn Colerider, as the old, one-handed laborer, is compelling. The rest of the cast interprets their roles well, with the exception of Brian Honohan whose Curley, the boss’s son, is basically unbelievable.

Richard Gould’s settings are astounding. The bunkhouse, barn and outside areas are works of art. Richard Ingraham has added some fine background sounds and fine underscoring musical interludes. Jeffrey Smart’s costumes are era perfect.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Though slowly paced, ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ is an excellent production of a classic Steinbeck piece of literature. It is a fine opportunity for students and those interested in the classics to see a staged version of an important American tale.

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN--OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE (Cleveland Public Theatre)

‘UNCLE TOM’S CABIN’ in provocative production at CPT

Many plays and books have evoked controversy and incited change. Probably no volume outside of ‘The Bible” has been more credited or damned for its influence than Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Abraham Lincoln indicated that the book and its author were among the most influential causes for the Civil War.

2004 marks the 152nd Anniversary of the writing of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The volume still remains a controversial work of art. The play productions of the novel also incite strong reactions. In the 1852 “Boston Herald” review of the first production of “UNCLE TOM'S CABIN,” a critic claimed: "This play [is] nightly received at one of our most popular theatres with repeated rounds of applause. It is a sad blunder [that] our stage shall become the deliberate agent in the cause of abolitionism."

Harriet Beecher Stowe was raised as a Puritan. While a child living in Cincinnati, which was just across the river from the slave trade, Stowe observed firsthand incidents which inspired her to write the now-famous anti-slavery novel. Although many Northerners considered slavery a political institution for which they had no personal responsibility, the book become a sensation and raised the conscience of numerous Northerners while repulsing many Southerners

Cleveland Public Theatre, as part of its Black history month program, has decided to produce a “different” version of the play. The vehicle, “UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE),” created by Floraine Kay and Randolph Curtis Rand, breaks from the traditional storyline. It pushes every boundary and stereotype, probing the sensationalism and notoriety of the original script.

The production also breaks from traditional staging using nine actors to play nearly 40 roles. The staging pays no attention to sex or color, having the actors switch both their gender and their race as they act the roles in stylized performances.

The staging, itself, may confuse and confound some viewers, while exciting and pleasing others. Many will find the “plot” hard to follow. There is just so much happening on the stage that the viewer can easily get overwhelmed. Director Randolph Curtis Rand needed to ask whether his staging devices would help or hinder the audience’s receipt of the message. The constant shuffling of chairs, posing and extended acting devices often got in the way of clarity. Maybe a less chaotic approach would have been appropriate.

The performances in the CPT production range from excellent to shallow. Nina Domingue and George Roth make every one of their characters vivid and clear. These are very fine performances. On the other hand, Cornelius speaks words rather than meanings and is unconvincing in many of his portrayals. Betsy Hogg is often difficult to hear and understand.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: . CPT’s ‘UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: THE PRESERVATION OF FAVORED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE’ will create a great deal of conversation regarding both the script and production values. It’s an important function of the arts to present various views. CPT gets high marks for challenging its audiences (and this critic) to think and react.

Saturday Night Fever--The Musical (Playhouse Square Center)

Uninspiring 'SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER' dances way into the Palace

What do the theatre musicals ‘FAME,’ ‘SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS,’ ‘MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS,’ ‘GIGI’ and ‘BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS’ have in common? They were all movies before they were transferred into stage shows. And, they ranged from being flops to moderate successes. The latest entrant onto that list is and ‘SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER—THE MUSICAL,’ which is now on its national tour.

Based on the 1977 film of the same name, it features the songs from the soundtrack by the Bee Gees and tells the story of a streetwise Brooklyn kid with a desire to make it big in NY. The film was the vehicle which capitulated John Travolta toward stardom. The score, which was backup music in the movie, has come front and center for the show. The songs are sung by the cast rather than being put forth by the Bee Gees. The score includes “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep Is Your Love?,’ and “Jive Talkin.”

From start to finish this is a dance show. The cast dances well, they are filled with youthful enthusiasm. Unfortunately, director/choreographer Arlene Phillips’ dance plan gets repetitious. She uses the same movements over and over. The hip thrusts, ceiling pointing, crotch grabs, and head rolls eventually become boring.

The cast, most of whom are in their first professional show, try hard, often too hard. It becomes very clear that Phillips selected the cast according to their dancing abilities, secondly for their singing and lastly, for their acting.
Emotional levels seem fake because shouting is substituted for strong emotions and the meaning of lines often gets lost. Phillips also has tried too hard to get sexual implication induced laughs rather than letting the lines develop on their own. This façade is aided by Suzy Benzinger’s costume designs which uses skin tight polyester and then more form fitting polyester.

The production stars Mentor native Tony Gonzalez as Tony. Gonzalez has a nice singing voice, but his forte is dancing. And dance he does! Gonzalez does not possess Travolta’s natural sexuality or acting abilities. The final effect is an acceptable if unspectacular portrayal. Heidi Suhr, who portrays Annette, who is in love with Tony, has a nice singing voice, but has difficulty developing a believable character. Kristin Piro, as Tony’s contest partner, is a fine dancer, but displays shallow acting abilities. Brandon Nix has a fine singing voice, but his character development is weak. You get the point!

The show’s music has a heavy disco sound. It is well played by the orchestra, though their volume often drowns out the words of the songs.

The show’s highlight is a background drop which illustrates the Verrazano Narrow Bridge complete with moving headlights of passing cars which appears in several scenes.

The curtain call, a no holds barred dancethon, had the audience on its feet clapping and moving.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER—THE MUSICAL’ is a contrived musical that gets a barely acceptable production at the Palace Theatre. It’s pretty sad to say of a supposedly professional show that the highlight is a gimmicky piece of scenery. ‘Nuff said!

The Dinner Party (Cleveland Play House)

Script and directing miss mark in 'THE DINNER PARTY' at CPH

Neil Simon is the undisputed master of modern American theatrical comedy. His thirty-one plays have covered a dysfunctional duo living together (‘THE ODD COUPLE’), the plight of newlyweds (‘BAREFOOT IN THE PARK’) and lots of self examination plays including ‘BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS’ ‘BILOXI BLUES,’ ‘BROADWAY BOUND,’ and ‘LOST IN YONKERS.’

Simon is at his best when he adds up a bunch of funny one-liners into a delightful set of plausible circumstances. Think ‘THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL,’ ‘PLAZA SUITE,’ and ‘LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS.’ He’s at his worst when he attempts to philosophize. Think ‘GOD'S FAVORITE,’ ‘JAKE'S WOMEN’ AND ‘PROPOSALS.’ (You’ve probably never heard of the plays as they were generally panned by the critics and avoided by audiences.)

Unfortunately, ‘THE DINNER PARTY,’ now on stage at the Cleveland Play House, falls into Simon’s “message plays” list. Simon should be given credit for trying to break his traditional mode and write a play very different from anything he had done before. Simon has achieved his goal, but it doesn’t translate into success. The script is not a farce, a broad comedy, or a drama with a few laughs. What it actually is is anyone’s guess. What it emphatically is not is a total entertaining evening at the theatre.

The show opened to negative reviews in New York. It ran because of a strong presale based on Simon’s reputation plus a cast that included Henry Winkler and the late-John Ritter.

The plot of ‘THE DINNER PARTY"’is as simple as some of its lines. Gabrielle invites Andre, her ex-husband, with whom she's still in love, and two other couples who used to be married to each other, to a dinner party at a posh Parisian restaurant. Several funny things happen on the way to discovering why she planned the party and how her Machiavellian plan is meant to affect the others. The premise is broad, the effect is shallow.

Adding to the script’s problems is Peter Hackett’s laborious directing, which adds at least half-an-hour to the intermissionless play.

Hacket, who will soon be leaving his position as Artistic Director of CPH, seems to have no clue as how to balance the comedy aspects with the dramatic message. The pacing of the show is torturous. The characters generally display little real emotional passion, laugh lines aren’t keyed, the actors often seem lost. As someone sitting behind me said, “When is this thing going to end?” Unfortunately, this same message must be placed on Hackett’s well-meaning, but misdirected tenure at the CPH. It can only be hoped that his strong academic talents will fit much better into a university setting where his questionable play selections and administative decisions won’t be a factor. He is wished much good luck in what hopefully will be a better setting for his abilities.

The cast of the production at times seems as clueless as the script. Kevin Hogan, as a frustrated writer, walks through his part, often saying funny lines that become unfunny. He seems some place else, not involved in the action. Mary Gen Fjelstad, his stage wife, doesn’t delve into her character and presents flat lines with little emotional variance. David Brummel, as the aloof Andre, and Cynthia Darlow as the evening’s plotter, seem to be feigning feelings. On the other hand Steve McCue, as a nerdy artist in a rented tux and Derdriu Ring, his ex-wife, milk their roles to high levels of humor and pathos. Too bad the whole production didn’t reach McCue and Ring’s level.

The highlight of the evening is scenic designer Vicki Smith’s magnificent high-ceilinged formal French restaurant dining room.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: With a weak script, inept directing and generally shallow acting, ‘THE DINNER PARTY’ is a long sit not worth the effort.

Private Lives (Great Lakes Theatre Festival)

‘PRIVATE LIVES’ delights at Great Lakes

Playwright Noel Coward is the crown prince of Restoration comedy, in which the battle of the sexes is subjected to amusing scrutiny in order not merely to entertain but to reveal the human compromises, treacheries, and incapacities that lie beneath the mannered sophistication of its protagonists. In a good production, the audience is both entertained and enlightened.

Coward’s ‘PRIVATE LIVES,’ now in production by the Great lakes Theatre Festival, clearly illustrates what happens when a blending of a well written play, a brilliant cast, a talented technical team, and a director who both understands the play and has the creativity to wrench everything from the script, come together. And, as intended, it leaves the audience entertained and enlightened.

It is the 1920’s and divorcees Elyot and Amanda are honeymooning in the same French hotel with their new spouses Sibyl and Victor. Inevitably they meet—they are, after all, staying in rooms with adjoining balconies. Realizing that they are made for each other, Elyot and Amanda abandon their new husband and wife without a backward glance and run away to Paris. There they discover their original true love and then rediscover just why they were unable to live together in the first place, and then discover their original true love, and (you get the point). Sound like a comedy of errors? It is! A delightful comedy of slapstick, double entendres, and hysterically funny lines and deeds.

In order for the play to work we must fall in love with Elyot and Amanda and root for them to find true love, or at least not kill each other with love. We must realize that Elyot really doesn’t believe that “some women should be struck regularly-like gongs” and that love really isn’t “best when it is wise, kind and undramatic.” We must endorse Amanda’s words, “I think very few people are completely normal, really, deep down in their private lies.”

Under Victoria Bussert’s finely tuned directing, we get everything we need to make the play work…empathy, humor, perfect comedy timing, the right degree of stylization blended with drama, and farce blending well with melodrama. Her staging of the fight scenes and a hysterical dance sequence, all show a keen awareness of what it takes to delight an audience while sticking to the intent and purpose of the author.

While the Cleveland Play House traverses the country in search of actors with mediocre results, GLTF plucked its perfect cast from the local talent pool. And, what a cast it is!

Noel Coward may not have know an Andrew May would come along, but he seemingly wrote the part of Elyot for May. May is a laugh riot as the pompous, ill-tempered, “do-and-later-think-of-what-you just-did” lout. May covers the world of comic devices. With eyes bulging, voice reaching ear-splitting pitches, body quivering, mumphering articulation, and mid-sentence stuttering, charging around the sage like a bull in the proverbial China shop, May develops an endearing character.

As Amanda, Eloyt’s emotional foil, Laura Perotta is wonderful. She uses her body as a comic tool. In the scene where she realizes that Elyot is on an adjoining balcony Perotta becomes like a lizard on a wall, scaling and shrinking in order to see and not be seen. In the delightful fight scenes with May, Perotta lets totally lose, giving life and limb for the comedy effects. Her Amanda is a combination of loving, hateful, shallow, caring, manipulative and emotional vulnerability. This is a career highlight performance.

Kelly Sullivan and Scott Plate, as the cast-off partners are also wonderful. They both develop clear and delightful characters. Their play-closing scene is a masterpiece of hysteria. In her brief appearances on stage, Adina Bloom, as the maid Louise, milks laughs with ease.

There is a tradition in the theatre that kids and animals can be disasters on stage. In this production, even the dog (who is not identified in the program) performs with gleeful perfection.

John Ezell’s gorgeous sets, Charlotte Yetman’s costumes, Mary Jo Dondlinger’s lighting, Stan Kozak’s sound effects are all totally on target.

CAPUSLE JUDGEMENT; Great Lakes Theatre Festival’s ‘PRIVATE LIVES’ is a must-see theatrical treat. It’s too bad it is only scheduled to run to weeks. If this were an open ended run, it would be a sure fire hit that would play to happily full houses for a long, long, long time!

Stacy Burris reviews the reviewer

I really respect your write ups, love to read them, and I know the whole place would be thrilled to have you come.

Stacy Burris
President GLTG

Raised in Captivity (Dobama)

'RAISED IN CAPTIVITY' disappoints at Dobama

I was among the original group of local thespians who left Euclid Little Theatre and followed Don Bianchi, Barry Silverman, and Mark Silverberg and into a new theatrical adventure to become known as DOBAMA. The name has no mysterious meaning. It was simply the first two letters of the guys first names (DOn, BArry, and MArk).

Therefore, it is painful to watch a production at this theatre that is poorly directed, and is generally poorly acted. Unfortunately, Nicky Silver’s ‘RAISED IN CAPTIVITY’ fulfills these negative criteria. It is also painful because Dobama has become the shining light of the off-Broadway-like professional theatres on the North Coast.

The play starts with a brother and a sister reuniting at their mother’s funeral, after several years of not seeing each other. It follows the problems of the siblings, which includes a ghost from the past that reveals some secrets, a psychologist who blinds herself out of guilt, a husband who runs off with the psychologist upon the urging of his wife, a several month old baby who walks, and new level of understanding between the siblings.

The play, according to its author is about "guilt, redemption and self-punishment.” Yes, there is guilt and sorrow, but who cares. The characters don’t earn our empathy.

Our lack of feeling is somewhat strange since The New York Times said that Silver’s dialogue “skillfully juxtaposes the banal and the outlandishly whimsical. New York Magazine referred to the NY production as "....funny, original, imaginative and possessed of a furious energy that makes it spin like a top....full of wittily prickly lines and riotous exchanges, and it uses the stage in splashily irreverent ways that can be exhilarating."

So, what’s the problem here? It lies purely on the shoulders of director Russ Borski who appears to lack any insight into what the play is all about. It is the responsibility of the director to set the tone for the production and guide the actors in achieving the playwright’s intent. On this count, Borski fails. No one in the cast seemed to know how to develop their character. In spite of this, there were some funny moments, but far, far too few and any meaning that might have been present evaporated in a pile of confusion and lethargy.

Not only was the cast lost, so was the audience on opening night. They didn’t seem to understand or want to understand the goings on either as shown by the number who left the theatre at intermission.

Credit has to be given to the cast consisting of Tyson Postma, Tyler Postma, Sean Derry, Juliete Regnier and Jeff Staron. They really tried to pull it off. The odds were just too stacked against them.

CAPSULE JUDEMENT: Every theatre has some good productions and some weaker ones. It hurts to say it, but ‘RAISED IN CAPTIVITY’ must go on the list of one of Dobama’s weakest moments.

Urinetown the Musical (Playhouse Square Center)

Tony Award winning 'URINETOWN THE MUSICAL' at Palace

When it opened on-Broadway ‘URINETOWN THE MUSICAL’ was billed as a “simple story of two kids who fall in love in a city during a water shortage.” The question most often asked about the production was, “what’s with the title?” That title, plus a wonderful cast, a no-holds barred production, and some wonderful word-of-mouth, propelled the show into becoming Broadway's most unexpected phenomenon, and the winner of the 2002 Tony Awards for Best Direction, Best Book, and Best Music and Lyrics.

This musical-comedy tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution in a city where water is worth its weight in gold has been hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "fresh, exuberant and even moving-somewhere beyond the sublime and
beyond the ridiculous."

The idea for the show came to author Greg Kotis when he visited Luxenbourg and was confronted with having to use the city's pay-per-use toilets. He, along with his friend Mark Hollmann, developed the show. Theatrical producers took one look at the title and subject matter and wouldn’t take on the project. Luckily, they happened upon three of Cleveland’s own, who were fledgling New York want-to-be stage legends. Matt and Mark Rego and Hank Unger had already produced ‘VAGINA MONOLOGUES’ and were ripe for another hit. They optioned the script, mounted an off-Broadway production, and, against the odds, they became the Big Apple’s new “wunderkinds.”

The First National Tour of ‘URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL’ is now running at Playhouse Square Center's Palace Theatre. The response to the show was very different here than in New York.

Part of the difference is that times have changed. When the show opened, the world was at relative peace. Seeing only the escapist message was all right. Since then the show’s messages have begun to ring clear. Messages such as what happens when big business is given the right to control our lives. Think of the pharmaceutical and medical companies and their stranglehold over our health. What happens when the citizens have their human rights taken away from them? Think Patriot Act and prisoners being held in jail without being officially charged with a crime? What is it like to be lied to continually in an attempt to push a political and economic agenda? Think of the missiles of mass destruction hoax, resulting in the Iraqi war, and the amount of money being made by the oil and military-industrial complex and influential public officials. Think of the rape of the environment caused by loosening of the clean air act. The fantasy of the situation described in ‘URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL’ has become near reality.

The second factor for the difference in reaction to the show is a combination of a weaker cast and a the sometimes less-than dynamic presentation. While the Broadway production literally jumped off the stage, the touring show is more subdued. Does this mean there aren’t any laughs? Oh, believe me, there are. Does this mean that the show isn’t fun? Parts are a hoot.

The touring cast includes Tom Hewitt as Officer Lockstock, the show’s narrator. Hewitt has perfect comic timing, a wonderful ironic-sounding voice, and just the right presence for the role. Meghan Strange is wonderful as his foil, Little Sally. Whether roller skating, singing, or whining her lines, she is fine. Charlie Pollock, who played the lead role of Bobby Strong on Broadway, doesn’t quite win us over as a romantic hero, though he sings extremely well. Christine Noll is not affectionate r vulnerable enough as Hope, the daughter of the tyrant who controls the local urinals and Bobby’s love interest. The rest of cast is fine, but not wonderful.

Special production numbers are “What Is Urinetown?,” “Snuff That Girl” and the minstrel show inspired “Run Freedom Run.” “Follow Your Heart” is a lovely ballad.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: Having loved the Broadway production of ‘URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL,’ I wanted to love this production. I didn’t love it, I liked it. Should you go see it? Absolutely, just reserve a little of your expectations.