Tom Williams Formatted as a play-within-a play, the cast members are both participants as Numberless and sympathizers with them. The plot is cliched, trite and predictable – a contemporary “Mad Max” style rock fantasy. The players are manic, hyper sensitive and over-the-top; the singing consists of screaming and mind-numbing garbled harmonies. I’m can’t find anything artistic or stage worthy to justify spending $20 -$25 and 90 minutes of your time attending Rise of the Numberless
2012 Non-Equity Jeff Awards Nominations
The two are alienated by a bitter divorce that finds Denny only spending weekends with his dad, Ky. On their sixty mile journey from Denny’s soccer game to Ky’s home, the two awkwardly try to communicate but bitterness and teenage angst get in the way. Denny resents his father who tries, fumbles actually, to relate to his son. Ky is totally out of touch with Denny and the more he tries, the more resistant and awkward Denny feels. There are many funny and poignant moments filled with natural dialogue that gets us to hope that Ky will somehow relate to young Denny.
Director Brandon Bruce (also with Christine Scarfuto adapted the play) found some theatrically interesting staging techniques to spice up the dark story of misuse of power, revenge, the status of women, cruelty, and incest. Utilizing a five man chorus, dressed on ancient white togas, the chorus underscored the show’s action, delivered songs, made suggestive movements and acted-out several characters including mad-men.
Songs like “When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely),” “Shule Agrah (Johnny’s Gone for a Soldier)” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” were particularly emotionally moving. The Civil War songbook’s rich personal sensitivity toward the angst of war is deeply presented by this group of talented singers. The superb vocals and the honest presentation of the letters home added power to the sacrifice of theses honorable patriots.
The short scenes mixed with those inexplicable fraudulent pop celebrates left me confused. I was able to ‘get’ the gay couple that had one a playwright – Bixby (John Zinn) struggling to get produced. After many rejections, he decided to send in his plays not from himself but from a fictional African-American Lesbian woman (Sam Bailey) in a wheelchair.
After hearing Jerome pontificating on the plight of American Indians, we also learn that Ninety-Two is a Holocaust survivor. We learn that Rey is much more than a chump “fish” chess player. We hear his story about surviving a genocide of his family and village in Guatemala. Rey lives for revenge and since the chess hustlers took the man who saved his life in Guatemala, he is bent on cleaning out the hustlers through his amazing chess skills
By Marisa Wegrzyb Directed by Shade Murray At A Red Orchid Theatre, Chicago Wacky comedy a winner that reminds me Fargo on crystal meth Marisa Wegrzyn is a new theatrical voice with an appetite for violently dark comedy in the style of Martin McDonah. She fills her Baraboo, Wisconsin town with a wacky female cop, … Read more
Book by W. S. Gilbert Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan Directed by Dominic Missimi Music Director Ryan T. Nelson Choreography by Matt Raftery At Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire Pirates hijack delighted audience Dominic Missimi has justifiably been called a force of nature. That’s because Missimi is as talented as a director as he was as a … Read more
Jersey boys is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons—Bob Guadio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. These guys are blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks. DeVito is a small-time Jersey hood and mafia want-to-be who narrates the early story of the rise of the pop foursome. Jeremy Kushnier plays DeVito with raging intensity. We see that Nick Massi is the passive, go-with-program guy and friend to Tommy Devito. DeVito’s control over the group is challenged when songwriter/arranger Bob Guadio arrives in the group.