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CurtainUp Reviews
Barrington Stage Summer 2008 Season
By Elyse Sommer
Show Schedule. A click on show title will take you to production details and, if there's an asterisk * before the title, a review. Main Stage Shows: *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee--reviews of original, off-Broadway and Broadway versions |*The Violet Hour | Private Lives Second Stage: I Am My Own Wife|*The Mysteries of Harris Burdick | My Scary Girl | See Rock City and Other Destinations | About this All-In-One Format: Since summer theater productions run such a short time, instead of retiring each show after it makes way for the next production, we're putting details and reviews of shows at a particular theater on one page so that everything remains at your fingertips. No need to click to the archives unless you are looking for something from a past season. The list is organized in order scheduled. A click on a show will jump you down to that show's details-- an * asterisk before a title indicates that a review is posted. Barrington Stage Union Street, Pittsfield 413 236-8888 Second stage and Musical Theater Lab events will this season be held at the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Linden Street in Pittsfield, near the company's main venue on Union Street. Click show title for basic details * added when review is posted Main Stage
This is, of course the musical that was a major hit for Barrington Stage in 2004 and the only disappointment was that the company's small second stage couldn't accommodate anywhere near the people clamoring to see it. It moved from the Berkshires to the Second Stage in New York and from there quickly transferred to the Circle in the Square on Broadway. The success of the Broadway show helped to finance Barrington Stage's handsome theater in Pittsfield and now, with the long Broadway run ended, it's only fitting that the show should begin what will undoubtedly be a long and happy life in other locations, by returning to Barrington Stage. This revival will be directed by Jeremy Dobrish, with choreography by Dan Knechtges and music direction by Brian Usifer. Cast: s Emy Baysic, Miguel Cervantes, Hannah Del Monte, Molly Ephraim, Demond Green , Clifton Guterman, Michael Mastro , Eric Peterson, and Sally Wilfert. June 11 through July 12 -- after which it will move to North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA where it will run from August 12-31. I saw and reviewed the show before this celebratory production so, since I was in New York at the time of the press opening, here is a link to those reviews: Putnam County. . .the original, Off-Broadway and Broadway reviews, plus song list, trivial notes The Violet Hour
Since this play had a somewhat rocky Broadway premiere five years ago due to casting difficulties, I was pleased to have another opportunity to see it at Barrington Stage. This second time viewing meant that I knew from the get-go why the futuristic machine mysteriously delivered to fledgling publisher John Pace Seavering's office was such a time bomb and how the fateful April 1st day in 1919 during which the action takes place ends. But no matter. This funny yet poignant play, while unlikely to ever attain the wide popularity of Greenberg's love affair with baseball, Take Me Out, has enough going for it even without the surprise element. In fact, knowing what's going to happen gave me a new appreciation for the clever way Greenberg approaches the question of how much of our lives and the record of those lives is within our control and how time has a way of giving new meaning to seemingly fixed nomenclature and events ( a Great War can turn into a prelude to a an even greater disaster and gay can turn into a way of life rather than a mood). Unlike another and better Greenberg play, Three Days of Rain, which sends its characters travelling back in time to become and really understand their parents, The Violet Hour reverses the time travel and adds a sci-fi touch which is quite fitting for that post war era with its intense interest in all things technological. As the paper spewing machine Greenberg has invented could have dropped out of an H. G. Wells story, so his characters are inspired by cultural icons: The young publisher is a stand-in for the legendary editor Maxwell Perkins. Denis (Denny) McCleary, the Princeton classmate who's convinced that since Seavering can afford to launch his publishing venture with just one book, that it should be his, is modeled on F. Scott Fitzgerald (though his unwieldy script is reminiscent of famous Perkins author Thomas Wolfe). To underscore the link to Fitzgerald, there's Rosamund Plinth, the midwestern heiress Denny loves, who's beautiful and talented but, with the same neurotic tendencies of Zelda Fitzgerald. The other contender for that single spot on John's first list is a Josephine Baker-like Jessie Brewster. Except for the director, cast and creative team, the Barrington Stage production presents the script as it was written. Director Barry Edelstein has staged it with its too talky first act uncut and with the look and feel of the original Broadway production. That look, courtesy of Wilson Chin, has transformed the spacious Barrington Main Stage into a period perfect high-ceilinged office, furnished mostly with stacks of manuscripts and with a view of a tall building in the the flatiron district that was once a mecca of the Manhattan book publishing world. The opening scene finds Seavering (Austin Lysy) and his assistant Gidger (Nat DeWolf) "searching for a proverbial needle in a real haystack." What they're looking for is a pair of theater tickets that have gone missing among the piles of manuscripts. The tickets are for the season's hit play. Faintly the Heart, which gives Greenberg, via John's friend Denny (Brian Avers) a chance to dismiss it as a waste of time because, like all Broadway plays "you always know what's going to happen. quot; Of course, this is a sly introduction to the situation that eerily extends the predictability of Faintly the Heart's plot to a much broader canvas. Gidger is the only character not linked to a cultural legend. But, while he's unlikely to even find himself in the index of a book about or by the others, he is a vital comic relief character. All five of these characters call for actors capable of capturing their various shadings and Director Edelstein has helped this cast to play their parts with considerable flair and passion. Austin Lysy's John captures the essence of a young man who, like so many of the "wrecked young men" of his age lost his youth in the recently ended war but has regained his zest and ambition. He's also aflame with passion for the much older Jessie and not immune to a certain sexual tension between himself and Denny. The two women (Opal Alladin as Jessie and Heidi Ambruster as Rosamond) are solidly portrayed. Brian Avers, overdoes Denny's intensity and overwhelming ego in the first act. However, he proves himself impressively capable of great delicacy in a scene in the play's better second act when he more or less rises from the page of a letter written to John. While Nat DeWolf isn't as annoyingly over the top a Gidger as Mario Cantone was on Broadway, his performance can hardly be called understated. The role does demand flamboyance it will inevitably suffer from being a somewhat second-best version of Mason Marzac, the uptight accountant in Take Me Out. Chin's already praised set is most effectively lit by Chris Lee, especially when the action moves to " that wonderful New York hour when the evening's about to reward you for that day" which seeded the title for Denny's colossus of a book and in turn the title for this play. Except for Heidi Ambruster's rather unappealing blue dress with its hankerchief skirt (fortunately Ambruster looks good in anything), Jessica Ford has smartly outfitted the cast and Matthew M. Nielson's incidental music adds to the period flavor. Interestingly, seeing The Violet Hour just a day after taking in a revival of Chekhov's Three Sisters at Williamstown heightened the relevance of the serious underpinnings beneath all of Greenberg's witticisms. Chekhov's play ends at a point in the Prozorov sisters lives when it didn't take any visionary device to accept and foresee a very different future than the one to which they'd aspired. But dark as that future looks, like John Pace Seavering, they don't flinch from living a life far different from the one they once foresaw. PRODUCTION NOTES The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg Directed by Barry Edelstein. Cast: Austin Lysy (John Pace Seavering), Brian Avers (Denny), Opal Alladin (Jessie), Heidi Armbruster (Rosamund), Nat DeWolf (Gidger) Sets: Wilson Chin Costumes: Jessica Ford Lighting: Chris Lee Sound & Original Music: Matthew M. Nielson Stage Manager: C. Renee Alexander. Running Time: 2 1/2 hours, including one intermission Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at July 20th press opening July 16 to 27.
Private Lives by Noel Coward Directed by Julianne Boyd Cast: Christopher Innvar as Elyot, Mark H. Dold as Victor, Gretchen Egolf as Amanda, Rebecca Brooksher as Louise. From Aug. 10 - 26. T. There's also a Fall show schedules from October 8, 2008 - October 26, 2008 To Kill A Mockingbird, adapted by Christopher Sergel from the novel by Harper Lee and directed by Julianne Boyd
by Doug Wright Directed by Andrew Volkoff Starring Vince Gatton Set Design: Brian Prather Lighting Design: Scott Pinkney Costumes: Jacob A. Climer Sound Design: Matt Kraus May 21 to June 8 I am not the solo play's greatest fan, so the ones that work really stand out. I loved I Am My Own Wife, before it nabbed every prize, including a Pulitzer. Since I reviewed it during it's off-Broadway premiere and again when it moved to Broadway, it's had many productions. Jefferson Mays, who originated the role of Charlotte, was terrific. But actors who've followed him have proved that this is a part to bring out the best in other thespians. Vince Gatton is a case in point. I still remember his award winning performance in Candy and Dorothy, an Off-Broadway surprise hit. Berkshire audiences will probably remember his previous Barrington Stage performance in Fully Committed, another in my list of memorable solo plays. For more details about I Am My Own Wife, here are links to various Curtainup reviews, including one attempt to do it with two actors: I Am My Own Wife-off-Broadway, Broadway, London I Am My Own Wife-New Jersey I Am My Own Wife-Los Angeles I Am My Own Wife-the 2-actor version in Philadelphia Musical Theatre Lab The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
By letting those few words and the images that are alike only in style and mood speak for themselves, Van Allsburg hoped to stir his young readers' curiosity and imagination so that they themselves would use those pictures as a springboard for their own stories. Since the book's publication in 1984, children have been doing just that and The Mysteries. . . has become a teaching tool for teachers eager to encourage creativity. Since it's inspired by a children's book, you might well expect the musical Chris Miller, Nathan Tysen and Joe Calarco have created to be geared to the whole family—shades of Barrington Stage's super hit The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which is currently enjoying a homecoming at the Union Street Theater (Spelling Bee's success helped to transform into the company's 500-seat main stage). But you'd be wrong. This musical is not for young kids, nor is it a crowd pleaser. Like the music presented at Tanglewood's Contemporary Music Festival, this show is for audiences willing to give themselves over to musical story telling that doesnt readily lend itself to foot tapping and hit tune hummability. Think of works by Adam Guettel and Michael John Lachiusa— and Miller and Tysen's own first Musical Lab show, Burnt Part Boys. Still musicals like this, whether chamber sized or big productions are definitely finding an audience. Berkshirites loved Burnt Part Boys and its scheduled Off-Broadway production comes in the wake of two well received similarly serious-minded, off-beat chamber musicals — The Adding Machine, a terrific adaptation of Elmer Rice's surreal play and Next to Normal, an original musical in which the death of a son, throws a family into emotionsl turmoil. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which was workshopped last summer's Musical Theater Lab and is now being given its official premiere at Barrington Stage's lovely and comfortable Second Stage, is in a similar vein. Though more surreal and with a somewhat less memorable score and a more flawed book than Burnt Part Boys, it too has a realistic story line that's easy to identify with emotionally. The many children who have over the years responded to Van Allsburg's invitation to use his images and captions as a launchpad for their own stories have mostly written about a single picture at a time. Director Joe Calarco has let his imagination roam even further to encompass all the pictures into his own libretto with a theme that also uses the pictures to demonstrate art as a means for healing even unhealable grief. The plot Calarco has spun and that is advanced largely through Miller's lyrics (the show feels sung through even though it does have dialogue), revolves around the mysterious Harris Burdick himself. It's the story of a couple (Romain Fruge and Catherine Porter) whose marriage moves through various stages with an Our Town flavor. It begins with his proposal and moves on to the birth of their always adventure-hungry Peter Pan-like child Archie (Ben Roseberry excellent as the twelve-year-old, and even better as a neighbor who's a bug chasing loner) who lives with his martini swilling sister (Lucia Spina). When Archie disappears, his parents' tragedy turns the once fun loving neighbor (Mitchell Jarvis) into a neurotically overprotective husband and father (both the wife and the over-protected daughter played by the lovely Nicole Van Giesen). The addition of the book's prologue to bookend the story does much to clarify last summer's workshop, and the production values are significantly more sophisticated. While the new venue is much more attractive than the former basement space, it's not a great deal bigger so Brian Prather's use of projections (beautifully lit by Chris Lee) works quite well to connect the images on the page to the stories in Calarco's book. Miller's music is still presented by a single piano and might seem less repetitive if a small combo had been added (Burnt Part Boys and Miller and Tysen's song cycle, Fugitive Songs, were enhanced by having a guitar and harmonica accompany the pianist in the first, and a small band in the latter). While the cast is vocally strong, too many of their songs are presented as audience facing ensemble anthems. One can only hope that the show is not considered frozen so that Tysen and Miller can focus on including more show-biz type numbers like the catchy "Under the Rug" (smartly delivered by Ben Roseberry) and "Just Dessert" in which Lucia Spina's Sister is transformed into a Mary Poppins from hell. Though much closer to a finished production than last year's showcase, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick still needs another more work before contemplating other production. Yet, it's an intriguing concept and well worth seeing by anyone who cares about innovative theater. Links to reviews of other shows by this creative team Burnt Part Boys, the creative team's previous Musical Lab hit, slated for a production at the Vineyard Theatre in New York Fugitive Songs a well received song cylce that featured Harris Burdick cast members Ben Roseberry, Lucia Spina.
My Scary Girl Book by Kyoung-ae Kang and Mark St. Germain Lyrics by Kyoung-ae Kang Music by Will Aronson with additional lyrics by William Finn. Directed by Andrew Volkoff Cast: Terence Archie, Heath Calvert, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Deborah S. Craig, Greta Lee and J.P. Moraga. Sets: Brian Prather Costumes: Renee Bell Lighting: Scott Pinkney Sound: Jillian Walker Stage Manager: Alma Owen What it's about: A new musical based on the Korean film of the same name. Think Little Shop of Horrors meets So I Married an Axe Murderer meets (a Korean) Gertrude Stein. The romance/comedy/horror story is set in Seoul, Korea. July 10 to 26 See Rock City and Other Destinations August 7 to 23 Sspecial events planned for the VFW venue: • Mary Testa and Michael Starobin will present Sleepless Variations (July 31-August 3) • Free staged readings of Lee Kalcheim's Believer (July 27) • Free staged readings of Mark St. Germain's Freud's Last Session (August 30-31) • Staged readings of David Javerbaum & Brendan Milburn's musical Watt!?! (May 24-25) Seussical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty BSC Youth Theatre Production Try as it might, this musical never made it on Broadway. However, several re-jiggered, regional productions have met with more success, as this BS Youth Theatre is likely to do too. The same musical team from last year's High School Musical will be on board July 16 through August 17. |
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