Yet, there is an audience for Tom Jones and the work from Sam Ashdown as the horny Tom Jones as well as nice turns from John Lister and Molly Glynn anchored the show. Rachel Anne Healy and Carolyn Cristofani’s period-perfect 18th Century costumes added color to the show. This is a light heart period comedy with a most charming and empathetic lead character that we can’t help but cheer for. And we have a good time along the way.
The success of this play comes if the audience member willingly lets the mind go with the flow. For example, in a scenario where the small young girl and older man play a couple; surprisingly, the young girl portrays the married man and the older man portrays the woman with no props or costume change. The tall black male actor portrays a young Caucasian blond woman. Acting needs to carry the day and the five excellent actors, especially Deanna Myers, rise masterfully to the occasion. The unusual castings force one to not only hear the words, but to more closely listen to the dialogue and meaning of the play.
Mel Brooks once again has a show with tremendous audience appeal (it got mixed reviews on Broadway) but it should do better in regional theatre. The opening night audience laughed heartily and applauded vigorously throughout. Brooks’ structured Young Frankenstein in the best Broadway traditions leaning heavily on vaudevillian Borscht-Belt elements. Brooks proves that his is a terrific song writer mixing tune-full melodies, many parodies of other Broadway shows, and witty, often satirical show specific lyrics. There doesn’t seem to be a musical style that Brooks can’t parody.
Set in 1931 at the Kit Kat Club of Weimar Berlin, Cabaret.featuring the rich John Kander score with Fred Ebb’s biting lyrics, Cabaret is a multi-layered musical of decadence and desperation. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel, Berlin Stories, Cabaret from its 1966 Broadway opening (winner of 8 Tony’s) and the 1972 film (winner of 8 Oscars) has been mounted often to varying levels of success. In the 2014 Marriott Theatre production (now playing), director David H. bell and Choreographer Matt Raftery have made several questionable choices. it seems that they wanted to somewhat re-imagine Cabaret when audiences have grown to expect a mixture of the stage and film versions of the 1966 & 1972 productions.
When an upwardly mobile African-American couple wants to buy a home in an all white neighborhood of 1950’s Boston, they pay a struggling Irish family to “ghost-buy” a house on their behalf. Fifty-two years later, the Irish family wants “their” house back. Moving across two eras, Luck of the Irish explores our legacy of racial and class issues and the long held secrets that tie two families and one house together.
Reminiscent of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, Luck of the Irish deals with an affluent black family, Lucy (Mildred Marie Langford) and Dr. Rex Taylor (Andre Teamer) who pay cash with a $1500 bonus to a poor Irish family with six children to the Taylor’s can live in a fine all-white neighborhood
Utilizing an extended flashback. Wilson’s look into the rising expectations in the black community post WWII is seen through the eyes of the charismatic blues guitar man – Floyd Barton who has returned from Chicago with a hit blues record yet little money. We see through Floyd, with asides from his six friends, the hopes, dreams and disappointments sometimes expressed best with the dissonant harmonies of blues music.
Just as they did at Marriott Theatre and now in an even more gloriously energetic production on the larger Paramount stage, Rachel Rockwell and Tammy Mader have added little twists and some innovative choreography (especially in “Shadow Waltz” number to make this production stand out without trying to re-invent this classic backstage tap show.
Hedda Gabler, by “the father of realism” is Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 drama. It is a tour de force performance by Kate Fry as the neurotic, spoiled and totally devious Hedda Tesman (formerly Gabler). Hedda Gabler is the story of Ibsen’s ultimate socialite, the daughter of a Norwegian aristocratic General.
I believe Phantom survives because of a combination of a hauntingly beautiful score sung well by the entire cast encased in fantastic sets, costumes, lights, sounds, falling chandeliers and pyrotechnics presented in a breathtakingly illuminating showcase. Quality control by producer Cameron Mackintosh demands that each production live up to the highest standard thus assuring audiences that of worthy entertainment. Phantom has all the extravagant trappings necessary for the spectacle that makes The Phantom of the Opera the phenomena it has become.
The play’s action comes to a complete halt when Brian and Sheila enact all the events as how Joe came into the world handicapped and what the couple did to try to get something done to help little Joe. In this series of enacted events, Vance Smith deftly and quite comically impersonated fastidious British doctors as well as a goofy German doctor. Smith demonstrated his versatile acting skills. His part is extremely over written but in Vance Smith’s hands Brian becomes a most impressive fellow. You’d be hard pressed to see a stronger acting performance. Smith makes his verbose character tolerable.