Tom Williams The inability of most of the audience to hear the speeches, kills this show adding another tragedy to this horrific account of genocide. It got so bad, I was thinkg about shouting out “Lauder, Lauder” after Malessa Nelson’s first few weak opening monologue.
What makes this drama sizzle are two main factors. One, the strong yet subtlely nuanced performance by Heather Chrisler. She makes us feel how trapped his is. And the brilliant staging and ensemle wotk from the cast. The tiedum and repitious ‘machine’ of office work and the roles each play in society as marvelously presented here.
This is a scary, funny cautionary tale that is both a work of art and a functioning musical. The twelve players, lead by the hammy MC, Kevin Webb, who weirds-out us yet sets the tone for the 65 minute musical.
The first great rock musical, it has some of the most rousing and soulful songs ever written for the stage, including “Let the Sun Shine In,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Aquarius,” and the memorable title song, “Hair.” This cast led by Matt Keffer (Berger) , Lliam Quealy (Claude) and Michelle Lauto (Sheila) effectually understood what was the mindset of the hippies. They sing, dance and create chaos in tune with their tribal sense of freedom, love and doing what feels good.
But the real star here is the ensemble of dancers who manically translate Echoles’ varied choreography into a sweeping rhymthic movements worthy of appreciation. I always thought that the Black Ensemble needed stronger choreography to compliment the terrific orchestra and the fabulous singers. And this year, under Rueben D. Echoles.’ leadership, dance has found its place at the Black Ensemble. Kudos!
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It seems that playwright Lisa Kron tries to write several plays here. The result is a long-winded bore! For 2 and a half hours we are stuck with Ellen reciting the liberal political agenda without many rebuttals until Kelli Walker’s Judy retorts with a cynical unhopeful look at the state of the American dream. Kron even creates a character with homophobic beliefs that leads to another lecture. In the interest of clarity, pick one idea and develop that.
But to make this fine music come to life director Wheeldon has cast two fabulous “triple-threat” prformers to tackle the Kelly-Caron roles from the film. Jerry Mulligan is played by McGee Maddox (a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada) and Sara Esty (a former soloist with the Miami City Ballet) plays ballerina Lise Dassin. The love sparks flow between Mulligan and Dassin throughout. But there is more to this fine book. These two are fantastic dancers, fine singers and fine actors. They fuel many show stopping scenes including the terrific ballet scene.
They’re Playing Our Song is essentially a two-character show. Vernon and Sonia are the sole characters on stage; each character has a three-person Greek chorus acting as their inner voices. The Brown Paper Box Co’s production uses pre-recorded music and a 70’s flavored set. Basically, it is well-sung by Dan Gold and Carmen Risi with a tad too much use of the three-person male and three-person female Greek chorus.
LUZIA is stunningly adorned with use of water falls and a pool. Of Course there is breathtaking acrobatics with mesmerizing traditional and modern circus disciplines.