The Big One

Four professional mainstage shows open this weekend. A national tour rolled in on Wednesday. As part of the Acts of Faith festival, Jewish Family Theatre at the JCC raises the curtain on “Conversations with my Father.” Theatre VCU’s “The Elephant Man” finishes up on Sunday (U of R’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” came and went like the breeze last weekend). Five other mainstage shows are still running. How can you NOT see a show this weekend? I’m seeing two.

Weeks like this remind me of the sad state of arts journalism. With all of this going on, I am just amazed that there isn’t a full-time staff person involved with any local media outlet who is wholly or even least partially dedicated to covering theater. While all of the live stage activity is a testament to the vibrancy of the local scene, the lack of dedicated coverage leaves a big hole in the consciousness of most local patrons. Richmonders may have been bombarded by “Lion King” ads in print and on TV but only those predisposed to looking for stage stuff will know about “August: Osage County.” Only those willing to look a little further afield will know about “Topdog/Underdog” at Sycamore Rouge. Volunteer journalists like me can’t get the word to the greater population and Facebook and Twitter can only do so much.

So it’s up to us, theater fans. Get the word out, tell your friends AND your enemies about everything that’s happening on Richmond stages. Put posters up at work. Use gatherings like Monday’s “Stand for Women’s Rights” action to talk to people about the great shows you’ve seen (in addition to protesting the heinous bills being considered by the hypocritical Virginia legislature).

There’s so much good stuff happening; it’d be a shame for people to miss it.

PS: If you haven't seen it, you may want to check out this item in Style about the change of leadership at AART. It's an online only item that didn't make it into print this week.

The Fade Out

The explosion of theater continues and it’s hard to keep up. I hope people are picking up Style’s Mid-Season Arts issue that has my piece on the Minds Wide Open celebration. As it has for the Acts of Faith festival every year, the Richmond theater community has taken the opportunity afforded by a big, broad theme to bring some challenging work to local stages. Should be a fun few months.

The issue also has a preview on “The Lion King” production that lands here next week. Style is taking advantage of the long run of this show and assigning a reviewer (me) to it. I found plenty to be critical of the only other time I saw this show (traveling production in Virginia Beach many moons ago) and am wondering whether my memory will hold true or if I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Richmond Shakespeare’s Macbeth opens this weekend and the T-D had a nice preview of it yesterday. In case you missed the T-D review of “God of Carnage,” here’s a link.

Mr. Miller over at GayRVA has been weighing in on a number of shows lately; here are some links to reviews of Carnage, Always…Patsy Cline, and The 39 Steps. The last of these has prompted some passionate responses as such reviews are wont to do.

In the meantime, a particularly articulate rave about “Lord of the Flies” was posted by Ms. Jewett over at Richmond.com. It’s a good thing that this show is running another couple of weekends so people have the chance to catch it.

I don’t know if this happened when I was out of town or if I’ve just been even more out of the loop than usual, but I heard that Derome Scott Smith has resigned from AART. I don’t know for sure but that might have some to do with the “Ain’t Misbehavin” opening being moved to end of next month. I hope all is well with Mr. Smith and wish him well in all his future endeavors.

I think I've mentioned Dan Savage in this column before but the sex-advice columnist continues to put out a great podcast that deserves mention in particular for his somewhat over-the-top recommendation for "Anything Goes" on Broadway. It's one of the more unexpected places to hear the ranting of a theater advocate. Tune in for the "Anything Goes" rave, stick around for the challenging and entertaining content that follows!

Steps

My review of "The 39 Steps" is in this week's Style. There's another bit of news in this week's edition that seems to be drawing more attention, however. These are exciting times for all sorts of Timberlines, that's for sure, and I really appreciate all the support folks have been sending our way via Facebook.

My review of "Steps" was inspired at least in part by a comment made by my 8 year old son who went to see the show with me. He said, "that was a funny show but I didn't laugh one time." And that's kind of how I felt: there was a lot of amusing stuff happening but nothing that made me LOL, as it were. The bits I liked the best, as I mentioned in the review, were the fun and clever ways Mr. Width evoked cinematic scenes and the more intimate moments between Mr. Stackhouse and Ms. Strong; I really like the chemistry between those two.

I should say that I believe I may be in the minority as far as my less than ecstatic reaction goes. I spoke with a couple of colleagues last Sunday who were quite taken with the antics of Mr. King and Mr. Creasy. And maybe the dynamics were different on Saturday night, the true opening night, versus Friday night when I went to the show.

Regardless, it's certainly a fun show and I particularly appreciated the performance of Mr. Stackhouse. It's a show worth seeing for that alone, though I would probably also say it's worth seeing for Joe Doran's lighting design alone. The train scenes are just fabulous.

I wish I was in town for "Carnage" this weekend but will definitely catch it at my earliest opportunity. Maybe I can find someplace near where I am to see the movie version as a warm-up.

Quibbles

I’m hearing many good things – with some quibbles – about Henley Street’s “Lord of the Flies” which opened this weekend. I was busy taking in “The 39 Steps” down at the Mill, which I enjoyed, but perhaps not as much as Ms. Haubenstock whose review is in the T-D today. I had some quibbles that you hopefully will read about in this week’s Style as the folks at the weekly have admirably taken the initiative to see that theater reviews show up a little earlier these days. That’s a good thing for everyone, I think.

While people may have quibbles about the various productions in town currently, it seems to me that opinion about one thing is unanimous: “what’s with the anonymous gripe about James Ricks posted in comments on the Style site and here?” Many have wondered what got that particular person’s panties tied in such a bunch; others have questioned why I would allow such a comment on my site.

I admit it was a bit of a harsh comment, it may not have been the best decision for me to allow it to go through in the first place, and I have considered removing it since. However, I try to allow opinions to flow fairly freely around here – and the rebuttals to anon have been eloquent and distinct. In general, I let comments go through as long as the criticisms aren’t crude, laced with profanity or if they don’t veer too far afield into personal realms and stick to a person’s professional life. (I have bent this a bit I think when I’ve allowed criticism of a critic’s weird stance -- particularly my own personal stance – that sometimes straddles aspects of his or her personal and professional lives.)

I’ll be clear: I don’t at all believe Mr. Ricks’ comments came from a “superior outsider” perspective. I think they came from a fairly commonly held perspective that audiences in general – Richmond audiences specifically – do not embrace challenging new material as readily and enthusiastically as many in the performing arts community would like. I certainly hold this perspective and was glad to have the chance to see it echoed by someone in the community and broadcast in print.

I don’t read condescension or anything “patronizing” in this perspective but rather frustration. I might not use the word “retrained” but I do believe that potential patrons need to be educated on the interesting new material that is being written and produced in the theater world. I think Henley Street has been able to strike a great balance between putting innovative spins on old material (“Merchant of Venice,” “Richard III,” etc.) and introducing new and challenging productions to the local scene (the Bootlegs, “Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” the upcoming “Yellowman,” etc.)

People can argue about Mr. Ricks’ talents as a director all day if they want (I think his accomplishments kind of speak for themselves) but in terms of his leadership (with all his compatriots) at Henley Street, I don’t think there is any doubt about his value to the community. Personally, I can’t wait to see “Lord of the Flies” and look forward to whatever Henley Street decides to do in this and future seasons.

What's Missing

If you are one of those people that only checks out Style Weekly online, then the beginning of my preview on Henley Street’s “Lord of the Flies” may have you a little confused. That’s because the first couple of sentences of the piece did not get posted online for some reason. Here they are:

Many of the things that make William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” compelling on
the page make it a potential nightmare when bringing it to the stage. “You’ve
got murders, a dead parachutist, people falling off mountains,” explains
director Josh Chenard.

And if you’d like something light-hearted to get yourself through “hump day,” here’s a link to a just-posted collection of Shakespearean Light Bulb jokes, particularly suited to you theater geeks out there. I expect there are plenty out there in the Richmond blogosphere that could post their own worthy additions to this list.

Chautauquan

We’ve reached that point in the theater season where I am falling behind the curve. That’s not surprising given that I barely keep up with the curve even on a good week. Reviews keep popping up all over the place now. There were two in the T-D this past weekend: one for “Always, Patsy Cline” at Hanover Tavern and the other for CAT’s “Almighty Bob.” GayRVA had a “Two Boys” review on plus some pix from the “Ghost Light After Party” and Mr. Porter’s “Two Boys” review aired just the other day (link over to the right there). Add in two nice T-D articles lately – one on “Lord of the Flies” and another on the Minds Wide Open celebration that kicks off (officially) in March – and you can count me officially overwhelmed.

But, in the midst of it all, one more thing that I’d like to throw out there: this weekend, Clay Jenkinson – the man behind “The Thomas Jefferson Hour” – will be in the Virginia Beach area. I’m somewhat heartbroken that the opening of the Mill’s “39 Steps” and a family commitment will keep me from heading down there to see him. Why does Mr. Jenkinson deserve a mention on this site? Well, besides the fact that my admiration for Thomas Jefferson and my overall history-geekiness make me a devoted fan of the podcast, Mr. Jenkinson is also a Chautaquan, that is an educator who is also a performer, often taking on the guise of an historical figure (at least that’s my understanding of what one is; feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

Richmond’s place as an important historical locale has allowed many local performers to find work doing re-enactments, perhaps the most enduring situation being Kevin McGranahan’s take on Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty” speech that has been performed at St. John’s Church for decades. In Mr. Jenkinson’s work, there is a great synergy (if I can use such a clichéd word) between education and performance that results in a more complete understanding and appreciation of history and the unique forces that coalesced to form this great country of ours. As the road to the next presidential election becomes littered with debates and speeches and billions of dollars of advertising that is sure to become (more) tiresome, I think it’s worth recognizing the work of under-appreciated actor/educators who really make history come alive again.

And, if you'd like a dose of this kind of refreshing and edifying history on a weekly basis, I highly recommend taking a listen to the Thomas Jefferson hour (it's on iTunes and also runs on WRIR locally on Tuesday mornings). It's a welcome uplift amidst the disheartening barrage of today's politics.

Always Almighty Concern

This weekend is the first weekend of the year where 3 productions will open, but certainly not the last. In fact, by my figuring, at least 5 productions will raise their curtains the weekend of Feb. 17th if you include the ‘Lion King’ tour. It’s all a little daunting, so much so that I’m preparing for the weeks ahead by heading out to ComedySportz tonight. I need to get a dose of improv before we knuckle down to all of the scripted stuff.

So “Always, Patsy Cline” will be at Hanover Tavern, “Almighty Bob” opens at CAT, and “To Whom It May Concern” graces the St. Mary’s Episcopal Church out in the West End. This last production snuck up on me kind of out of the blue but it’s got some great people in it and it only runs this weekend, which is too bad. A perfect capper to the weekend would be attending the The Ghost Light After Party at Triangle Players, which sounds like a blast.

You’ve probably already seen the reviews of “Two Boys in Bed…” in the T-D but there’s one in Style this week as well (quick turnaround for once!). Also, you can read a GayRVA feature on the production and while at that site, peruse its picks for the best of the Acts of Faith festival.

And for some online theater-related fun, chime in with your thoughts on possible theater sequels. The Spider-Man riffs are particularly amusing.