Thorough indeed

So I haven’t written anything about the big kahuna in town, Barksdale’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” but there are plenty of other opinions about the show out there (Mr. Porter’s summary of “Millie” – as well as ones for “Summer of ’42,” and “Arsenic and Old Lace” – showed up on the WCVE site a coupla days ago, for instance). One reason is because of my preoccupation with a certain out of town production, a review of which just turned up online recently.

But also, it’s hard to know where to begin with this show, given everything it’s got going for it. I guess I’ll start with a bit of an interpretive dance, as it were. Ms. Lewis’s review in the T-D started out with that somewhat cryptic comment about the "relentless, nonstop" nature of the show. Here’s my interpretation of that: “Millie” has many – possibly all – of the aspects of a big old-fashioned musical that annoy the hell out of people who are not fans of big, old-fashioned musicals. People breaking out in song at odd times, broad characterizations -- some of them bluntly politically incorrect, impossible love stories, extravagant plot contrivances, and improbably happy endings. But for me – and I expect for most people – I ended up loving all of the things about old-fashioned musicals that can be annoying in less capable hands.

I can’t think of anything that was not well executed in this production (sometimes you have to resort to the double-negative). Starting with Paul Deiss’s music direction, the astounding set by Ron Heller, the beautiful costumes by Sue Griffin, even an excellent sound design by Derek Dumais. The only reason I don’t include Lynne Hartman’s lighting is because she has done such spectacular work in the recent past that when she is only very good, it hardly seems worth mentioning.

In the cast, in parts great and small, there are immense amounts of talent. At the end of the show, the actor I was most enamored of was Ali Thidodeau because, as Mr. Porter points out, it’s not always easy to play the one that every man falls in love with. Ms. Thibodeau is just so, well, lovable, that she makes it work. As I’ve gotten some distance from the production, when I think about favorite moments they involve Timothy Ford’s crisp portrayal of Mr. Graydon, or Linda Poser’s hilariously tragicomic Mrs. Meers, and the imperious Miss Flanery played by Carolyn Meade. And Chris Hlusko does an exceptional job with the somewhat thankless role of Ching Ho. This boy projects such a charming personality – I wish I had seen him as Aladdin at the Riverside.

Of course the leads are incredible, Maggie and Zac just as attractive as hell and excellent in their roles, with special recognition demanding to be paid to Ms. Marlin for her seemingly effortless athletic dancing ability. Seeing Ali and Maggie dancing together may be the best dancing duo I’ve ever seen on stage. And of course it’s Ms. D’Beck who gave them some fine choreography to work with, assisted by a spry ensemble (so great to see Gray Crenshaw’s dazzling smile again!)

With all of that (and I could go on…) you really have to work hard to get to something negative to say. I guess really the only issues I had were the crotchety plot elements – two rich kids sent out to find true love, the classic she’s-my-lover / she’s-my-sister misperception, white slavery!?!? – but again, everything was done so well that those things barely registered. Any lover of theater will be doing themselves a disservice to miss this show, if for nothing else, that it’s a bright shining example of how the grand old shows can still be done up well.

Actor Aweigh

I know it's old news around these parts, but the announcement of "Fully Committed" on the Barksdale line-up for the summer made Scotty news again. For a piece on Scotty's signing up for the Naval Reserves, check out this week's Style. Sometimes I love my little headlines...

Since I knew how to dream

In a recent story about her imminent starring turn as Spiderman’s love interest in the Broadway musical, Evan Rachel Wood says, “Being on Broadway has been my dream since I knew how to dream.” That’s a pretty deep statement. It’s only a little bit of a shame it was in reference to this stage adaptation of a movie adaptation of a comic book.

There’s all sorts of stage news coming out of NYC these days, including word that T.R. Knight (of “Grey’s Anatomy”) has a new gig lined up to star in a “Lend Me a Tenor” revival and the impression that Anne Hathaway is pretty darn wonderful in a stellar “Twelfth Night.” If you can’t make it up to the Big Apple before July 12th, you might consider celebrating Shakespeare with Richmond’s own little delightful production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” which begins a limited run this weekend. This show was a winner inside earlier this year; I’ve got no reason to believe it won’t be as good or better outside.

But don’t see that one if you haven’t seen “Summer of ‘42” yet, which as I noted in my review, is a wonderful celebration of the male preoccupation with female mammary glands (yes, you can thank me for that “Summer of Second Base” headline). The best part of this production for me was the great male-female pairs that director Chase Kniffen matched up, with each duo managing to be believably “high school” but in an on-the-edge of adulthood kind of way. Chris Stewart and Audra Honaker could have been in a show all to themselves, the kind where the distracted male character finally realizes that Ms. Right is sitting right next to him the whole time.

The Drew Seigla / Ellie Atwood pair reminded me of about half the people I knew in high school, the boys with their sights set like lasors on getting under a girl’s shirt or into her pants and the girls playing that psychological chess game revolving around their willingness to give in. I may have liked them best of the six young people just because they seemed like old friends. Jonathan Perez and Maggie Roop are delightful comic relief, my only regret being that they didn’t have more stage time together.

It’s a little weird but also entirely appropriate, I guess, that Robyn O’Neill’s Dorothy almost seems to be in a separate show. Her character actually lives in the real world with real world concerns and fears and, of course, tragedies. It’s a world removed from kids whose concerns revolve around minutes spent feeling up or being felt up. You could certainly make a case for Robyn being too old for this role. Somewhat jarring to me is the line in the show about her celebrating her first anniversary. Robyn and Fernando Rivadeneira could pass for a young married couple – particularly Fern looking so dashing in that uniform! – but newlyweds I had trouble buying.

But even if Dorothy is a character I would have pegged at being in her mid-to-late 20s, I think it works with Ms. O’Neill because she has always had the energy and a glow about her of someone many years younger. The key question for the show is: can you believe her being the object of a teenage boy’s crush? And the answer for me is unquestionably yes.

Speaking of glow, the predominant shade in the lighting for “Summer” is an amazing pale gold that is pretty enchanting. Great work by Kenny Mullens and, just to reiterate the statement in my review, excellent set by Mercedes Schaum. Almost every person I saw walking into the show was checking out the rocks and pebbles strewn all over the floor. It was a great way to introduce the audience to the show in a way that immediately grabbed their attention.

’42 has only two more weekends of shows and then it’s on to “Godspell” for Stage 1, which, now that I know who at least a significant subset of the cast is going to be, I am really looking forward to. Of course, if I’m being honest, there are few productions of “Godspell” that I don’t look forward to. It was the first musical I ever saw and, to borrow another sentiment from “Summer of ’42,” you never forget your first.

Late Henry

I know it is late to be doing so, but I’d like to wax a little poetic about Richmond Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” What a fine production! As I wrote in a recent Facebook status, the final scene between Phil Brown’s Henry and Sarah Johnson Cole’s Katherine features what may be the two best looking actors I’ve ever seen wooing each other on stage. And that’s a couple hours into a show featuring bracing fight choreography, stirring dramatics, and robust comedy.

Mr. Brown gave a firey performance with some nice attenuation around the burdens of leadership. But perhaps most impressive – and highly unusual, I would think – is the pay-off for those who have watched his Henry mature over the past three years. Being able to build a real familiarity with an actor in a role over three epic performances is a truly remarkable gift that Richmond Shakespeare gave us with their production of this history cycle. Brown’s Henry V could stand alone but his accomplishment is much more amazing considering the entirety of it.

Something I think I have said in this space before is that often the true indication of a quality of a production is how quickly the talent drops off when you get past the lead roles. Another great thing about this Henry V was that the quality was consistent, all the way down to the charming youngster playing the “boy,” Brian Walter. A high school kid handling a Shakespearian sililoquy in such a grand production – and doing it so well – is quite an accomplishment.

Other supporting stand-outs were Jamie Rees, who is quite amusing in the early scenes, and Brandon Crowder as the prancing Dauphin (though I liked him in Midsummer better where his fey shtick was balanced with other facets of his prodigious talent). Joseph Sultani has some smoldering good looks to go with fine acting chops that I’d like to see exploited more in the future. And even Bob Jones, who I kind of thought was going to be a brief distraction as Fluellen, actually gets quite a bit of stage time and shows great comedic ability.

I can’t say enough about the fight choreography by Vanessa Passini, which goes well beyond the usual “swing-and-duck” stuff that is not uncommon, even in fairly accomplished productions. The battle scenes conjured up much mayhem, a great counterpoint to all of the high-falutin’ language being tossed around.

Even with Phil Brown’s shirtless scene early on, I have to say that the scene I’ll remember most vividly from this production is the Ms. Cole and Jacquie O’Connor translating body parts from French into English. Katherine’s singular pronounciation of “de nails,” “de fingras,” and “delbow” managed to be both hilarious and totally realistic and just one of many facets that made this production a finely cut jewel. Many congrats to director James Bond and the whole cast and crew!

Woe is Wednesday

I know, I know: I suck. It’s one thing not to write anything on ye ole blog. It’s another thing altogether to say you are going to write something and then not to write anything. To use that old politically-incorrect phrase, it’s akin to being an Indian-giver.

Ah well, I can only apologize and move on. Sorry peeps. If it helps, I’ve been spending my few spare seconds to further the local theater cause in my own little way. Honest. We’ll see if it does any good.

Anyway, I’m putting out this little dispatch because I hadn’t linked to Ms. Lewis’s review of “Summer of ‘42” yet (done!). I also wanted to relate my own little theater-related woe which is that I was totally a free agent last night, hardly a responsibility in sight, and itching to go see a show and was confounded that I couldn’t. In particular, I wanted to get down to the Mill or head over to Agecroft and yet, there was no Wednesday show for either “Arsenic” or “Henry.” Phooey. I know it’s impossible for most companies to do Wednesday shows for most productions but, in this particular case, it’s probably going to mean the difference between me eventually seeing one of those shows and not. And that’s unfortunate.

There’s no criticism or judgment implied in this, just honest regret. I guess it also points to another challenge for theater in general: there are only so many nights in the week and weekends are prime social real estate. The combination of competing priorities and limited nights/times that shows are playing means some shows just get missed, even by those (like me) who are highly motivated to see them. Kinda sucks.

Calvalcade of Coverage

As is only fitting for the week after a bunch of shows opened, there have been a slew of reviews out there this week. Style’s got reviews of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Summer of ‘42” in this week’s issue; I’ve seen them on the newstand but don’t have links to stories on the website yet (UPDATE: here's the link!) The Times-Dispatch covered “Thoroughly Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Arsenic and Old Lace” on Monday. I expect (hope) we’ll see a “Summer of ‘42” review from the T-D soon.

And in case you read the lovely Ms. Steingold’s reference to my punk son in the comments for the previous post and are at all curious, here is a link to what I think she’s referring to. You can click on the photo to get a pretty ridiculously high-res version of the picture.

It’s tech week for “Oliver!” which explains at least a little of why I’ve been a lax blogger. I’ll be chiming in with thoughts on “Millie” tomorrow and hopefully more on “42” on Thurs. That's the plan, at least...

Aloha Means Hello

This weekend Richmond says 'hello' to three big shows: Barksdale and Stage 1 each putting up big cast musicals and the Mill doing a big cast comedy. It seems as though actors who might have been looking at a dry spell this summer are instead going to have their plates full. So that’s a good thing. And theater-lovers afraid of gaps in their social calendars are instead going to have to scramble to see everything that’s showing (particularly with RichShakes “H5” closing so soon and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” having such a short run).

I’ll be at opening night for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and am looking forward to seeing Maggie Marlin again; I’m a fan of hers since VCU’s “Chicago” this spring. And of course, I’m a fan of Ali Thibodeau’s at least since I first met her back in “Peter Pan,” but I think even before that going back to the SPARC production of "Cats" (I think she was in that; my memory is getting cloudy as I get old...) Patti D’Beck set the bar pretty high with “Guys and Dolls” last summer so I’m expecting / hoping for big things with TMM.

For folks who were planning on seeing “Summer of ‘42” tonight, you’ve probably heard that the preview is canceled. From what I hear, the child involved in the family emergency is fine; my best wishes go out to the family involved and I hope any scrapes and scratches heal up quickly.

I have enjoyed the artfully rendered photographs from “Millie” (running in a slide show) and “Summer of ’42” (a few examples are on Facebook...at least one is visible on the Stage 1 website) that the theater companies have put together. Theater is a visual medium, after all, and good pictures whet the appetite for the real deal. Recently, I was disappointed that Style wasn’t able to get ahold of a current picture from “From the Mississippi Delta,” a production with some great potential visuals. The picture that Night Light Collective has posted from “Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls” has also increased my level of interest in that production. Frankly, I don’t think anything sells a show about pretty girls better than a picture of, you know, pretty girls.

In other news, both Triangle Players and CAT have published their 2010-11 seasons and Stage 1 promised one last week. Maybe once I see the Stage 1 season, I’ll post my preliminary thoughts about all of these. In the meantime, feel free to lay out your own reactions. Anything you are particularly looking forward to? Anything you have no desire whatsoever to see? Anything you really want to audition for? Anything you saw and went, huh?

Combination Platter

I spent some time over my Cheerios this morning parsing out the new “Richmond Loves Broadway” package that Barksdale / Theatre IV is offering and, after a great deal of initial confusion, I’ve concluded it is a fair slice of genius.

My initial confusion stemmed from the somewhat weird amalgamation of productions from ostensibly 3 different companies. Furthermore, I have been imagining that the biggest threat to the primacy of Barksdale’s Broadway-quality production quality in Richmond would be the flashy shows that Jam Theatricals will be bringing in and here is Barksdale promoting “Wicked,” JT’s splashiest and clearly most popular (I know I’ve got my tickets reserved already…) Finally, this “one from column A, one from column B” kind of deal seems like it might dilute the traditional subscription seasons that the Barksdale and Theatre IV offer.

But, as with many things, this offer’s downside is also it’s upside and I’m thinking the up far outweighs the down. Taking the last first, from what I’ve read, traditional subscription sales have been essentially flat in the theater world for years so any cannibalism there would be minimal. And drawing from three production companies may be confusing to those of us who know and care about those things, but I expect most people won’t care and perhaps even consider it a “best of” kind of deal. If you’re a fan of musicals, it sure reads that way. (It also gives me a wacky idea about an even more general Richmond Theatre subscription where someone could buy 4 shows from any combination of theater companies in town – wouldn’t that be cool? Paging RAPT!)

And as far as promoting “Wicked,” well, there’s where the real genius comes in, in my opinion. There’s really no escaping this juggernaut coming to town so why not incorporate it, perhaps even ride its coattails a touch? The subscription may also inspire people who might have only been drawn to familiar titles like “Wicked” and “Sound of Music” to sample less-familiar shows in further-afield venues (i.e., “They’re Playing Our Song” at the Tavern).

That’s my somewhat analytical view of the enterprise but, stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, I also think it is a unique kind of draw for people who could care less about the deeply affecting dramas (a la “Driving Miss Daisy”) or innovative comedies (a la “Well”) that Barksdale offers and just want to see the big, bountiful, extravagant musicals. When it comes to theater, some people don’t want to be weighed down by heavy main courses like Shakespeare or even light but filling appetizers like Sarah Ruhl, they just want dessert. Shouldn’t they have a menu too?

One last curiosity though: “Is He Dead?” finished up a well-reviewed run on Broadway last year while “They’re Playing Our Song” was on Broadway when I was in high school (aka, ages ago). So this new package is really Richmond Loves Broadway…Musicals No Matter How Long Ago They Were on Broadway, right? I guess that wasn’t nearly as snappy a title for the package.