To Rent or Not To Rent By Beverly Creasey

Going to New Rep last night has me thinking about rentals. When you rent a tux you don’t know who’s rented it before you. You hope it’s been freshened up. You can’t be sure of the fit and you may need alterations.

I do know who’s worn Jonathan Larson’s RENT most recently. In the last year alone I’ve seen three productions. Alas, the New Rep’s RENT (playing through Sept. 25^th) needs some alterations before it can go to the prom. Perhaps it was opening night jitters but more than one or two singers were way off key. Maybe they couldn’t hear the orchestra (which sometimes happens when a show is rehearsed with only piano accompaniment until the orchestra arrives on opening night). Some of the performers weren’t sure of their lines either, and some weren’t sure of their staging.

Some, like Aimee Doherty and Robin Long, were cooking. Their “Take Me or Leave Me” was surefooted, righteous and intense. Cheryl D. Singleton, too got lots of laughs as a foulmouthed homeless woman asleep on a stoop, none too pleased at being disturbed. The wacky phone messages were delivered amusingly but “urgency” was sorely missing from the main stage.

And what’s up with the nudity? Director Benjamin Evett evidently wanted something fresh in his rental but there was no dramatic reason (or effect that I could see). Perhaps he was trying for the soul’s transcendence at death??? Angel becoming an angel??? (Most artistic renderings of angels, though, aren’t nude, are they?). If the reason were clear, it might have been acceptable instead of awkward and embarrassing and just plain bizarre.

Back to the tux. You’d prefer the wrinkles to be already ironed out. Same with theater. Maybe they will be by the time the legions of RENT fans buy their tickets. C’est la vie or, rather c’est la Vie Boheme.

A River Runs Through My Thoughts By Beverly Creasey

I’m of two minds about the Lyric Stage Company’s ambitious BIG RIVER (playing through Oct. 8^th). Two big performances make it soar. De’Lon Grant and Jordan Ahnquist as Jim and Huckleberry Finn lift the musical out of its one dimensional moorings into transcendent territory. They’re sheer pleasure to watch.

But I’m afraid some of the staging (especially in Act I) serves to keep the musical earthbound. Huck and Jim are fully realized characters so why aren’t the rest of the people in their world? Now I know Mark Twain invented plenty of peripheral characters (and plenty of mischief) but the stage production looses something by embracing full blown parody. The Lyric presents Huck’s back story as caricature, making his caretakers, father and friends stock tropes (and shrill ones at that, as if Jim Nabors had been channeled for his famous “gol-ly” Southern accent).

Since the William Hauptman/Roger Miller musical already has two vaudevillians (who arrive one hour in), it seems to me dramatically detrimental to treat the early scenes as vaudeville. Act II, happily, offers more naturalistic characterizations (except for a Gomer Pylized Tom Sawyer). With real characters like Leigh Barrett’s sympathetic Aunt Sally and John Costa’s principled doctor, the whole story is fleshed out … and compelling. Take Nicholas Lee’s delicious cameo, singing “Arkansas.” He’s so sincere that we’re delighted. We’re not laughing at crass histrionics. We’re laughing at his innocence. Besides, Peter A. Carey niftily delivers all the buffoonery the play needs, spouting his slaughtered Shakespeare.

Miller’s lovely country music is at its best in anthems about the river. Jim and Huck’s glorious “Muddy Water” is even surpassed by the stirring “River in the Rain.” Music director Jonathan Goldberg makes every number count. Pity we couldn’t see the musicians who had us tapping our shoes.

Twain invented his famous “escape” story to soften the hearts of anti-Abolitionists so the issue of slavery is experienced mostly through Huck’s white eyes. We see other slaves as Huck and Jim drift down river but we don’t encounter them as characters, which is my problem with the musical. Director Spiro Veloudos has wonderful performers like Kami Rushell Smith and Nellanna in the cast and they’re only called upon to sing or march about in shackles.

I can’t help cringing, too, at the story of a black man at the mercy, and salvation, of whites. Granted the adapters were stuck with the original story but I can’t watch it without thinking of the countless spurious plays and films with just that plotline. And I recall the not too distant past when the only parts for black actors were maids, pimps, prostitutes and slaves. (Not at the Lyric Stage, I should point out. Look for their AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ later this season.) However, the big Hollywood buzz this fall is about the maids in THE HELP. Here we go again.

An Artful ARCADIA By Beverly Creasey

I’m an unabashed Tom Stoppard fan. I love the mind play and the word games …or is it the word play and the mind games! Either way suffices. If you’ve never experienced a topsy-turvy Stoppard script, Bad Habit Productions’ ARCADIA is the one to see (@ BCA through Aug. 28^th). The Bad Habit folks make the complicated absorbable, the complex illuminated, and the humor utterly delightful. (I’ve seen a number of “noisy,” over stylized productions of ARCADIA but Bad Habit plays it just right.)

If you have seen ARCADIA before, you’ll be surprised by BH’s luminous, up close and personal production (in any seat you’re at most three rows away from the action). See it for the dynamic young cast and see it for Alycia Sacco’s brilliant turn as the little girl with the insatiable thirst for knowledge. She’s the precocious 13 year old tutored by a handsome scholar (Greg Nussen) who, it turns out, is augmenting his scholastic duties by showing the women of the estate a thing or two. A. Nora Long is delicious as the haughty Lady Croom, an aristocrat with an eye for the latest trends… not to mention her daughter’s tutor.

When the story shifts from the 1880s to the present, Lady Croom’s descendants play host to a number of demanding historians there to research the estate. John Geoffrion is hilarious as a pompous know-it-all obsessed with Lord Byron. Sarah Bedard is his intellectual match as the authoress he dismisses at his peril. When the timelines converge, it seems fitting, not the least awkward, thanks to director Daniel Morris’ deft touch.

Stoppard creates a maze of ideas about philosophy and science, romance and intellect, whim and determinism but Morris’ production works these ideas into your frontal lobe without you even noticing. (His nifty one-set concept keeps the through line speeding along. It’s the fastest ARCADIA I’ve seen.)

Like Voltaire, Stoppard satirizes Leibniz’s famous optimistic assertion about “the best of all possible worlds.” Morris boldly places the satire center stage with two fleeting comic characters whose existence will prove vital in unraveling a mystery in the present day story. (Stoppard adores minor characters who take on major importance.) It’s a masterful stroke to make the characters so indelible in our minds that it makes the key to the mystery all the more satisfying.

Glen Moore and David Lutheran are marvelously absurd as the two buffoons, right up to their eyebrows! Moore raises his in a huff, forming the apex of a pyramid which exactly mirrors his oversized mustache. Lutheran’s eyebrows seem to tumble inward toward his nose when stricken with a fit of jealousy (His wife in the boathouse with the tutor.) What makes Stoppard’s work unique is this juxtaposition of high art and low comedy.

The entire cast is up to the task, with fine work too, from Arthur Waldstein as the omniscient butler, from Rebbekah Vera Romero as the flirtatious sister of both math wizard Nick Chris and the silent Luke Murtha (as the current aristocrats) and from Chris Larson as the 19^th century landscape designer so taken with Lancelot “Capability” Brown.

Just one small complaint: There would be no CANDIDE, no ARCADIA (not to mention any calculus) without Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The mathematician/philosopher referenced by Stoppard is pronounced with a long “i” as in “library.” When pronounced with a long “e” as in “leaf,” one might think the gent was that crony of Karl Marx some two hundred years later. But for that tiny flaw, the BH production would be perfection.

QUICK TAKE REVIEW CRAZY LOVE By Beverly Creasey

Just like the fools in Shakespeare, Beane in John Kolvenbach’s LOVE SONG speaks the unvarnished truth. He’s reduced life to the essentials: a cup, a spoon, a chair and a lamp. He sees conspiracy in just about everything. Witness the “redundancy of glassware” when you already have a cup. To Beane, even “a raincoat is redundant [because] skin is already waterproof.” Clearly he’s nuts but he does have a point. His lateral, literal thinking is unassailable: On the subject of skyscrapers? “Leave the sky alone!” Every environmentalist I know would agree!

Unfortunately Beane is miserable. The walls in his tiny room are closing in on him and his sister and her husband want him to get professional help (not that his sister is so emotionally stable herself). So what’s to be done? Love, of course is the answer, in whatever form it appears. It takes a while for his sister to accept that Beane is at last happy…and it’s that happiness, and its distinct peculiarities, which power Kolvenbach’s wacky little comedy.

Kolvenbach’s oddball dialogue has characters defining conversation (as “opposition”), deconstructing choices (with hilarious hypothetical conundrums) and rediscovering the origin of chemical bonds. It’s quirky, it’s delightful. Each scene is a surprise, with Gabriel Kuttner breaking your heart as the poor sad sack understandably reluctant to try “people.”

Liz Hayes as Beane’s sister is wound so marvelously tight you’re afraid at any moment she might spontaneously unwind in a whirlwind. Her journey to (relative) calm is engineered by Daniel Berger-Jones in an understated but sly performance as her husband. Georgia Lyman is deliciously off kilter as Beane’s tough talking, burgling alter ego. Director Risher Reddick and the ORFEO GROUP have a hit on their hands. Don’t miss it. It’s not often you come across a fresh, funny new play with something to say.

LOVE SONG runs through August 27^th at the Charlestown Working Theater – with FREE Thursdays. You can’t beat that!

TWO ON THE AISLE: Sounding Off on Rogers & Hammerstein

She Said: THE SOUND OF MUSIC: How do they solve this problem at the Reagle? The dilemma being that most productions of THE SOUND OF MUSIC are so reverential that there aren’t any surprises left (especially for reviewers who have seen it umpteen times at Reagle and elsewhere). Not this time. This time THE SOUND OF MUSIC is a delight!

He Said: In Sarah Pfisterer, director Larry Sousa is fortunate enough to have found an actress with the energy and voice to bring life to what often can be bland and one-dimensional. She embodies the “flibbertyjib, a wil-o-the-wisp, a clown” – a and we see the angel.

She: Sarah Pfisterer has performed the role of Maria at Reagle before but never so mischievously. That’s the director’s touch. Even the Mother Abbess is kicking up her heels.

He: Especially in the reprise of “My Favorite Things” when Jenny Lynn Stewart as the Mother Superior lets her wimple down! Maria’s joie de vivre infects the entire production… and the von Trapp children, who often sacrifice talent for cuteness, emerge as three dimensional, individual characters, toads and all.

She: This director escapes many of the traps (or should we say von Trapps) inherent in Rogers & Hammerstein’s overworked but beloved musical. Even the scenes in front of the curtain (so scenery can be removed and re-set) are charming interludes, with happy nuns and rambunctious children enjoying themselves.

He: The “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” scene, featuring the lovely Gillian Gordon and James Forbes Sheehan as the adolescents who fall in love, is now one of the musical highlights of the evening, thanks to Susan Chebookjian’s clever staging and simple but elegant choreography.

She: Gordon is a triple threat: She can act, sing and dance like a veteran and she’s only a teenager! Alas, less effective are two of the secondary leads. Neither Susan Scannell nor Rick Sherburne (as sympathizers) evince the cynicism or sophistication to represent the evil behind the compromise which enabled the Nazi’s triumph. It’s a wonder they were even able to annex Austria, judging by the Keystone Krauts who arrive on scene at Reagle to heighten the danger. The peril awaiting the von Trapps must be palpable and it just isn’t.

He: You mean The Drei Stoogen? We shouldn’t be laughing at incompetent Nazis. We should be terrified. More attention should be paid to characterization…and to chemistry. Perhaps Brigitta (the adorable Victoria Blanchard) saw more in the relationship between her father and Maria than we did. Patrick Cassidy’s best moment was the Captain’s heartfelt rendition of “Edelweiss.” He made it a truly moving expression of loss.

He and She: All in all, the Reagle’s SOUND OF MUSIC is a crowd pleaser. How could it not be with Pfisterer and seven consummate professionals as the children! Even the missteps pleased the crowd. When Jeffrey Leonard heroically vamped the same eight bars for five minutes due to a backstage technical delay, the audience clapped along in the generous spirit of the show. Then the moment was topped by a resourceful Cassidy, hilariously adlibbing, as the curtain finally rose, about “the same tune running over and over in his head for some reason.”

THE SOUND OF MUSIC runs through August 14^th at the Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston.  B. C. & J. D.

TWO ON THE AISLE: Comparing Notes on CAROUSEL

SHE SAID: CAROUSEL in a tiny black box theater? I didn’t think it could be done. CAROUSEL, one of Rogers & Hammerstein’s most difficult shows to pull off: R&H take romance from the heights of passion to the depths of domestic violence (which is condoned in CAROUSEL, raising feminist hackles by the by, mine included), all the way to heaven! I certainly didn’t think a small company like F.U.D.G.E. could manage the sprawling musical. Well, Friends United Developing Genuine Entertainment is ten years old this year and they give it their best shot.

Some elements work remarkably well and some are less successful but their production packs the requisite punch. The woman next to me gasped at the right time and sobbed at the end. (I even felt a tear in my eye and I know what’s coming.) Here’s what works. I heard lyrics which usually sail right by. I heard chords in early songs like “If I Loved You” that foreshadow the tragedy to come, notes which appear later in the “Soliloquy,” when a reckless Billy (Dave Carney) vows “to steal it or take it or die”. They’ve always been there but I never noticed them before.

Furthermore, in addition to some clever staging, director Joe DeMita does the impossible by designing a set which doubles as the actual carousel, houses the orchestra on the carnival roof AND doesn’t look crowded. Then he invents choreography for mostly non-dancers which is pretty impressive…and which soars when the radiant Kimberly Fife as Billy’s little girl executes the heartbreaking, defiant beach ballet!

DeMita and music director Stephen Schapero get lovely singing from Stephanie Schapero as the foolish mill girl who sets her cap for Billy even though she knows “the ending will be sad”…from Holly Ann Marshall as her best friend and confidante (Marshall gives a spirited comic performance) and from TJ Rufo as Marshall’s stuffy intended.

(B. C.)

HE SAID: Here’s what’s missing: Billy should be more grounded, more comfortable in his own skin. He boasts he can have any woman he wants. Girls throw themselves at him. They even give him their hard earned money for beer. Mrs. Mullins has plenty of employees at the carnival but she can’t do without Billy. He brings in the female customers (and he’s hers when day is done). We need to see the arrogance, the physicality, the sexual energy. Where’s the attraction Laurie feels? We need to see why she falls for him…and more importantly we need to see why he’s thrown for a loop over her.

If the F.U.D.G.E. production played up the sexual tension between Billy and Mrs. Mullin, it could pay off handsomely when she wants to caress her dead lover one last time. And it would pay off for Julie when she lets the older woman go to him. As it stands now, it’s a lost moment. It could speak volumes about Julie’s acceptance of Billy’s character, knowing she loves a man not equipped to handle maturity, marriage and unemployment (That might resonate with the current economic crisis: A rise in unemployment rates means a rise in violence and Julie does say that’s why he hits her.)

There ought to be sparks when Jigger and Mrs. Mullin fight over Billy but he’s not menacing enough and she’s not ferocious enough. The relationships between the characters in F.U.D.G.E.’s CAROUSEL aren’t fleshed out. It’s like the blinking white lights on the carousel. There should be colored lights, reflecting the fantasy and promise of the frenetic overture ballet.

CAROUSEL spins in Watertown through August 6^th at the Arsenal Arts Center, then it sets up again at the Next Door Center in Winchester through August 20^th.

(J. D.)

Wond’rin about CAROUSEL By Beverly Creasey

CAROUSEL in a tiny black box theater? I didn’t think it could be done. CAROUSEL, one of Rogers & Hammerstein’s most difficult shows to pull off: R&H take romance from the heights of passion to the depths of domestic violence (which is condoned in CAROUSEL, raising feminist hackles by the by, mine included), all the way to heaven! I certainly didn’t think a small company like F.U.D.G.E. could manage the sprawling musical. Well, Friends United Developing Genuine Entertainment is ten years old this year and they give it their best shot.

Some elements work remarkably well and some are less successful but their production packs the requisite punch. The woman next to me gasped at the right time and sobbed at the end. (I even felt a tear in my eye and I know what’s coming.) Here’s what works. I heard lyrics which usually sail right by. I heard chords in early songs like “If I Loved You” that foreshadow the tragedy to come, notes which appear later in the “Soliloquy,” when a reckless Billy (Dave Carney) vows “to steal it or take it or die”. They’ve always been there but I never noticed them before.

Furthermore, in addition to some clever staging, director Joe DeMita does the impossible by designing a set which doubles as the actual carousel, houses the orchestra on the carnival roof AND doesn’t look crowded. Then he invents choreography for mostly non-dancers which is pretty impressive…and which soars when the radiant Kimberly Fife as Billy’s little girl executes the heartbreaking, defiant beach ballet!

DeMita and music director Stephen Schapero get lovely singing from Stephanie Schapero as the foolish mill girl who sets her cap for Billy even though she knows “the ending will be sad”…from Holly Ann Marshall as her best friend and confidante (Marshall gives a spirited comic performance) and from TJ Rufo as Marshall’s stuffy intended.

CAROUSEL spins in Watertown through August 6^th at the Arsenal Arts Center, then it sets up again at the Next Door Center in Winchester through August 20^th.