The Christmas Schooner is a wonderful holiday family show filled with empathetic characters, a warm spirit, and a nice lesson of giving that is wrapped up in a ‘feel-good’ musical honoring the human spirit. This sweet show sings marvelously, contains humor and lovable characters. The enhanced music soars to the beautiful singing that rings to the rafters
The key element that makes this theatrical event so noteworthy is that Kane’s amazing classical acting training together with his expert articulation and enunciation and his ability to makes us ‘see’ each character whether it be Achilles, Agamemnon, Patroclus or King Priam. Kane’s fabulous performance gets aid from Todd Rosenthal’s large bomber-out cement bunker set and from Keith Parham’s riveting lighting and from Andre Pluess’ eerie sound
Noemi Schlosser takes on Piaf’s role in this production. It opens with her simply waiting, watching time crawl by, measured by cigarette butts in the ash tray. She calls a place her husband frequents, looking for him; he’s just left. No, they don’t know where he was going. His sister calls, asking if he’s there in the hotel with her; she lies, says he’s in the bathroom and can’t talk, sorry.
This musical is a classic – considered one of the best ever because of the talents of Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows and based on two charming Damon Runyon stories. It is filled with 20 catchy song-and-dance numbers including these all-time favorites
We meet the Bunker clan and follow them through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as the bicker, drunk and eat their way through the holidays. Filled with date and British holiday references, Season’s Greeting is a standard dysfunctional holiday family comedy very similar to fare we see on the BBC.
The Caretaker is an “actor’s play” that needs strong nuanced performances and director Ron OJ Parson has found three from Chicago’s “A” list to people The Caretaker. From the stoic Aston nimbly played by Anish Jethmalani to the manic fast-talking Mick ,played with verbal prowess by Kareem Bandealy, to the complex and contradictory Davis played richly (and humorously) by WilliamJ. Norris, Pinter’s classic is sure in good hands.
She walked onto the stage swathed in sheer black, with matching black drapes hanging from the rafters, drifting through the smoke and light like a raven: cunning, cocksure, alluring. Immediately the deep thundering of bass toms filled the room, as if Glasvegas were playing a rave in Detroit. The sound of electric organ floated through the air and an acoustic guitar brought an earthiness that grounded the otherwise largely electronic aesthetic. Then Lykke Li opened her mouth and it sounded as if Fiona Apple met Joan of Arc on the stake.
The play is a mixture of styles containing a gay relationship, family quarrels plus the haunting effects of bird obsession turned into a religion featuring a gay professional hockey player who loves ballet. This enchanting work is a mixture of hilarity and heartbreak that challenges the normal conventions of storytelling. It works because of the passion and intensity of the characters.
As performed, Let My People Come! has some funny and titillating moments but they were too few. Some of the girls sang off key, some screamed, with many of the ensemble singing weirdly flat. The non-sing bits and sketches suffered from being bland.
as so many of the great stories are, The Nutcracker is also prone to reinvention, which is what the House Theatre has done here. The storytelling is infectious. A happy equilibrium is struck between straight acting, sheer exuberance, and clever winking at the audience. To call this a children’s show would miss the point; to call it a Christmas show would too, although to a lesser extent. It is, after all, about saving Christmas. But more than anything it’s a good time, and certainly gets you in the mood for what can otherwise be a soul-crushing shopfest that has now started to infest even Halloween.