Director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell has assembled a cast of 33 (with mostly Equity actors) that features “A” list talents lead by Larry Adams (Father), Cory Goodrich (Mother), Mark David Kaplan (Tateh) with excellent work from the commanding Quentin Earl Darrington as Coalhouse Walker Jr. Valisia LeKae (Sarah), Max Quinlan (Brother), Stef Tovar (Houdini) and Summer Naomi Smart (Evelyn Nesbit) each made major contributions to the show.
Dancing at Lughnasa is a dramatic tale that develops each individual sister through a story about the whole family. The well written dialogue and natural chemistry between the sisters brings you back in time to simpler existence with fewer options for women and common economic struggles that we can see today.
It still contains all the wonderful sets, lighting and costumes one would expect of a Disney inspired production. Beauty and the Beast has played worldwide to 35,000,000 folks and it remains a family friendly musical. It has a terrific score by Alan Menken with Howard Ashman and Tim Rices’s charming lyrics.
The problems lie in scenes set in reality. Without giving too much away, it feels as though certain plotlines are left unfinished and scenes start to drag on about facts and social change. It becomes less and less about the characters and more about ideas. I believe that if Gilman had focused solely on how the role of theatre evolved in America and around the world then the production would have been a lot more focused and interesting.
The play is based on the infamous 1782 epistolary novel of sexual intrigue and ruthless manipulation set in pre-Revolutionary France. The action centers around two high-powered friends, the Vicomte de Valmont (played by Nick Sandys) and the Marquise de Merteuil (played by Rebecca Spence) who develop a game to test their well-seasoned skills as lovers.
Lovers of swing, big bands and tap dancing will enjoy My Brother’s Keeper. Black Ensemble Theater finally has a first rate dance show thanks to the talented Rueban Echoles and the youthful emerging talent of Rashawn Thompson.
In one of the finest productions I’ve ever witnessed at Court Theatre, director Charles Newell’s passion for Baroque metatheatricality comes across in a splendid, throughly engrossing, production of The Illusion running through April 11, 2010. This is a “can’t miss show!”
“Winterreise” poses more of a challenge as the white box theater is much smaller, but the result is a heightened sense of intimacy more so than constriction. With nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, the 20-some-odd people in the near-sell-out audience and the 5 performers fall into a tangled symbiotic web,…
By April Smallwood Directed by Toma Tavares Langston Co-Directed by Eileen Tull Produced by Innate Volution Theatre Productions At North Lakeside Cultural Center Chicago New take on the effects of religious extremism a cautionary tale Innate Volution Theatre Productions found April Smallwood’s Right As Rain from their New Play Circle Series of staged readings. This … Read more
This play-within-a-play has a wealthy banker – J.B. goes from a happy prosperous family man with a fine wife and a hose full of children to a hopeless and desperate man devoid of all family members. It is the ultimate man’s test of faith.