William Nicholson’s Shadowlands, is a powerful tear-jerker. It is a romantic love story that finds famous British author and scholar, C. S. Lewis, a committed bachelor, Christian, and Oxford professor, with outspoken American poet, Joy Gresham. In Shadowlands, their unlikely romance poses the basic questions about God and love, life and death, pain and suffering.
I had mixed feelings about this drama. I found the fast pace that tried to give snippets of each generation too thin to be more than a glimpse into each. I was impressed at how much family life playwright LeFranc and director Dexter Bullard were able present. Too bad they couldn’t develop each more completely. The work begs a second act.
Tyler Ross is charming, lovable and heartfelt as the good kid bent on meeting his hero. He unexpectedly learns life lessons from Robinson (nice work by Kamal Angelo Bolden) and Branch Rickey (Charles Stransky) the brave Dodger general manager who had the chutzpah to sign Robinson to play in the Major Leagues.
This 55 minute play seemed like 5 hours as the plot-less show depicts three dysfunctional brothers who can only relate to one another through highly ritualized violent games. Much of this show is a series of violent acts that finds the brothers trying to trick each other as they whack each other with a tire iron. They slap punch, stomp, and kick each other by the convoluted rules that change at the whim of the moment
As the show starts, they play some 50s commercials on the two side-stage screens, including a commercial where Flintstones characters sell cigarettes; this got a big laugh. I guess I missed how cartoon characters selling cigarettes to children is funny. Anyway, the screen then cuts to an Ed Sullivan impersonator, who introduces the band.
Playwright Alice Childress’ 1957 Trouble In Mind bravely dealt with racism by utilizing a play-within-a-play device to dramatize racial attitudes in both African-Americans and whites. This was powerful and controversial theatre in the 1950’s especially with the stunning ending after a quite funny look at foibles of actors and directors as they struggle through rehearsals for a new radically “ground braking” play Chaos in Belleville.
This fun show is light weight yet sophisticated musical comedy. The humor is infectious; the singing is fine; and the staging is brisk and compelling. Jessie Mueller’s Adelaide, Rod Thomas’ Nathan Detroit and Brian Hissong’s Sky Masterson together with Abby Mueller’s Sarah led the way with complete performances. Bernie Yvon, George Andrew Wolff and George Keating nailed their zany characters most effectively.
The original songs, composed by Jesse Terrill, are excellent, fitting into the piece as a whole, bringing the absurdity of the play to the fore and enhancing the commentary and characterizations of those who sing them – with a particularly impressive rendition by Andy Hagar, the Bridegroom’s Friend. Another ensemble piece is petrifying, with all the actors in lock step, staring straight forward, playing instruments and singing.
This riveting, superbly written, and expertly performed 90 minute drama is a showcase for the talented actor Brian Parry. Parry’s performance as the man collapsing under the weight of his lifeless marriage is brilliant and complete. He experiences rising rage toward his tender wife. Parry deftly tells his story in a series of long monologues to t he patient therapist. Guilt and a haunting sense of his life being out of his control rules John’s life after his wife’s death.
It’s a father-and-son team, Eddie and Sam Sisson, played by the remarkable Francis Guinan and firecracker Patrick Andrews, who eek out a living by doing two-bit scams on whoever happens by. Their various victims are played by Joe Minoso and Karen Janes Woditsch, who are excellent in every character they inhabit, with Woditsch showing particular range