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May 2006
‘Keeping Watch’ @ Theatrical Outfit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through June 10. Grade: B+
The opening riff of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” returns and teases like a warm summer breeze in Thomas Ward’s “Keeping Watch,” a new play getting its world premiere downtown at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s.
At first, three beer-chugging Southern young men, still wearing their football letter jackets at a reunion long past high school, cavort with the regional defiance celebrated by the redneck anthem. During the party, Phil (Travis Smith) is stuck on repeatedly playing those irritating yet addictive notes on his acoustic guitar.
Eventually, however, Theatrical Outfit’s production moves beyond a simplistic, ritualistic view of the South and slowly reveals the three friends’ inner souls and spiritual anguish. In their reunion on a ridge overlooking an unnamed small Alabama city, they trade rowdy, embarrassing recollections of high school. But then the trio emerges from their adolescent jocularity, revealing traumatic secrets that end in a shattering explosion of betrayal and revelation.
An Alabama native, Ward revisits well-traveled themes of religion, race, sex and violence. Yet his fully realized characters, crisp dialogue and intricate stagecraft transcend cliches. At times, crucial conflicts could be more sharply defined, but overall the play shows an impressive mastery. The 90-minute production —- there’s no intermission —- pulses with the energy of two parallel plays that inexorably pull toward each other, at last intersecting.
Although loaded with biblical references, the production possesses a buoyancy burnished by the characters’ exuberance and often earthy humor. Zigzagging from back-slapping, macho swaggering to deeply conflicted introversion, Jason Loughlin propels the haunted Mike into the dominant member of the three. His expressive eyes, shy yet cocky grin, graceful walk and intense delivery generate strong stage charisma.
In the parallel story line, a perhaps too-smooth Brik Berkes is Joseph, a young Baptist preacher tormented by the demands of his ministry and the necessary modern marketing of religion. Devastated by his wife’s death in an auto accident, Joseph is slowly brought back to vitality by the energetic Laura (Susie Grimsley), a Waffle House cook.
Director Tom Key, executive artistic director of the Theatrical Outfit, fashions a visually exciting fluency from the characters’ movements. In designer Rochelle Barker’s simple yet profound set, a cemetery is evoked on one end with two gravestones, and on the other, the ridge is rendered with a background vista and a leafless tree, recalling the cross. A pew brought in and out and stained-glass images represent a church.
Despite the crippling pressures of small-town Alabama, the self-defeat and waste, the characters rise to a deeper sense of communal spirit, reclaiming their sweet home. “Keeping Watch”
THE 411: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays except May 27; $16.20-$54. Through June 10. Theatrical Outfit; Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St., Atlanta, 678-528-1500. www.theatricaloutfit.org.
THE VERDICT: A fresh look at age-old Southern themes.
‘The Story’ @ Theatre in the Square
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through June 10. Grade: B-
It was a turn of events that caused The Washington Post to pendulate. First came the exhilarating rush of Watergate and a toppled presidency, then the shame of the Janet Cooke affair. In the latter, African-American reporter Cooke won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize for “Jimmy’s World,” her story of an 8-year-old heroin addict. Two days later, the Post returned the Pulitzer —- saying the story was fabricated.
Playwright Tracey Scott Wilson uses the Cooke scandal as the basis for her play, “The Story,” which premiered at New York’s Public Theater in 2003 and is now getting a strong production at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square. In “The Story,” ambitious reporter Yvonne stumbles on an exclusive that will spring her from writing upbeat stories for her newspaper’s suburban weeklies to the front page. But is it true?
Here’s the scoop on “The Story”:
DYSFUNCTIONAL NEWSROOM: Yvonne (the excellent Candice Afia) discovers a D.C. newsroom that operates like “Dynasty.” There’s Pat, her boss and section editor (Joan Pringle), who had to claw her way to her position and thinks The Daily is blatantly racist. She’s against stories about “black pathology and pain.” Reporter Neil (handsome Cedric Pendleton III) is her surrogate son and sympathizer, and they have it in for uppity Yvonne, who claims she went to Harvard and speaks several languages.
AN UNSOLVED CASE: Meanwhile, an idealistic young teacher is murdered in a dicey Washington neighborhood, and his wife says the killer was a black man. Yvonne happens upon a gang member who confesses. There’s a twist, but we can’t give it away. Once Yvonne’s story runs, Pat goes ballistic, and the witch hunt is on. As Yvonne’s world crumbles and her fraudulent resume comes to light, she pulls a stunt worthy of Woody Allen’s “Match Point.”
HOW’D THEY DO? Director Gary Yates has assembled a top-notch cast. Pringle, a veteran TV actress and Diahann Carroll look-alike, is superb in her steely resolve; you wouldn’t want to make this woman mad. The hardworking ensemble includes Michele McCullough Hazard, Brenda Porter, Willa Bost and Farida Kalala (as the girl gang leader, Latisha). Korey Michael Washington’s set is an atypically neat newsroom in gleaming blacks, grays and whites. Nice.
HOLES IN THE STORY: You aren’t sure if it’s really over when it’s over. The ending feels abrupt and makes you think there’s more to come. Also bumpy is the way the playwright sometimes has two conversations going at once. In some cases, better lighting would clarify the muddle.
IF YOU GO: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sundays. 2:30 p.m. June 7. No 7 p.m. show June 11. $18-$33. Theatre in the Square, 11 Whitlock Ave., Marietta. 770-422-8369; theatreinthesquare.com.
THE VERDICT: Riveting, behind-the-headlines drama.
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‘Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner’ @ Synchronicity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through June 3. Grade: C+
Luis Alfaro’s “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” is a tale of two sisters —- opposite in taste, philosophy and body size, but united in their emptiness and hunger. For morbidly obese Minerva, the addiction is Twinkies and kettle chips; for sexually promiscuous Alice, it’s cops and handcuff sex.
To his credit, Alfaro delivers a meal that’s alternately bitter and sweet, morose and quirky —- with dollops of “Saturday Night Live”-style comedy and playful flourishes of magic realism. But Synchronicity Performance Group seems to have bitten off more than it can chew with its 2006 season opener. Director Michele Pearce and her uneven cast can’t quite figure out the playwright’s shifting tone of sugar-rush highs and couch-potato lows.
Here’s a taste of what works and what doesn’t:
THE STORY: Slow and tedious. We ache for Minerva, who’s become so big she’s invisible to her family. But what’s her back story? Alfaro is more concerned with Minerva’s quest for love and acceptance, the way her unbearable fatness of being gives way to freedom and euphoria, than her psychological history. The journey of Alice (Bobbi Lynne Scott) is even less clear. She gets in touch with her romantic side. But maybe she’s just a prisoner of love.
THE PLAYERS: None of the actors have the chops to transform the material’s challenges. Minka Wiltz negates Minerva’s essential sadness by being so flitty and overwrought; she’s much better when her character discovers her gift for levitation. Mark Russ covers up Officer Fernandez’s insecurities with bravado. He’s way too loud. Allen Hagler’s Al never seems fully present.
THE DESIGN: Derek Kinsler’s multilevel set is a wash —- too much brown and beige. Katherine Callahan’s costumes are serviceable. But the use of plastic hoops to chart Minerva’s weight gain is cumbersome and distracting —- except in the funny bedroom sequences.
IF YOU GO: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 3. $15-$20. Synchronicity Performance Group, 7 Stages Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points. 404-325-5168; synchrotheatre.com.
THE VERDICT: Doesn’t fill you up.
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‘Wicked’ at the Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Through May 28. Grade: B -
Being bad has never looked so good.
No wonder Elphaba, she of the green face and pointy hat, is the witch that everyone roots for in Stephen Schwartz’s musical “Wicked.� The once and future Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba may not be a conventional looker and popular girl like her best friend Glinda, who grows up to be Queen of Munchkin Land.
But Elphaba gets the special powers. She gets to fly. And to the chagrin of Glinda, she gets the boy.
“Wicked,� the astonishingly popular musical based on Gregory Maguire’s “Wizard of Oz� prequel, began its two-week-long, sold-out run at the Fox Theatre on Wednesday, and it’s clear that the supernatural love triangle has made a mostly victorious transition from Broadway.
A super-size spectacle that packs a bounty of nifty scenic doo-dads, splendiferous costumes, a clever book laden with one-liners and a few catchy song for good measure, “Wicked� is nearly fool-proof.
You get your money’s worth, but what’s lacking are fully sustained breakout numbers for its stars. Perhaps because the singing and instrumentation was a little murky on opening night, the power of Glinda’s “Popular� and Elphaba’s “I’m Not that Girl� seemed to evaporate. At three hours (including intermission), this is a mighty long show for smidgens of tunefulness. “Thank Goodness� (“we couldn’t be happier�) needs to sparkle, but it didn’t.
And yet, the performers make up for any vocal thinness by making smart comedic choices. Julia Murney (Elphaba) and Kendra Kassebaum (Glinda) step into the indelible parts created by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, respectively, and if they don’t summon the full-out diva dimensions of their Broadway predecessors, they create vivid characterizations that ultimately win you over.
Considering her character’s emerald demeanor, Murney is more a natural beauty than odd duck, and there’s calculated understatement and control in the way she builds Elphaba’s transformation from victim to smouldering hottie to moral crusader. Kassebaum’s Glinda (it’s “Galinda� at first) is more the plump smart alec than svelte fairy-tale princess, but she brings a streak of Karen Walker acid to a blonde-bubble part that was borrowed from Alicia Silverstone’s “Clueless.� Both performances work.
A mixture of “Harry Potter� and “Cinderella,� “Wicked� is a circle narrative that begins with the watery demise of the Wicked Witch — “How dead is she?� says one doubting Ozian — then spins back in time to explain how she became the person she was.
The story playfully throws in references to sequinned slippers and the Yellow Brick Road, and explains the provenance of the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man, but it does so through the warp of time. The intelligence of that conceit is that the “Wicked� characters don’t know anything about Dorothy and Toto, but we get smiles of recognition because we understand what’s on the other side of the curtain.
Elphaba and Glinda meet at a boarding school called Shiz, where Elphaba becomes the star pupil of the deliciously arch Madame Morrible (the wonderful Alma Cuervo) and eventually gains entree to the Wizard (P.J. Benjamin, who sings like the old pro that he is).
Whipping up mischief are a few other subplots involving sinister world domination; family secrets and a romantic lark between Elphaba’s disabled sister, Nessarose (Jennifer Waldman), and a munchkin. But the most important turn of events is the arrival of Fiyero (Sebastian Arcelus), a bad-boy prince with a rock-star voice who captures Glinda’s attention.
This, of course, is where things really start to go wicked.
Directed by Broadway golden boy Joe Mantello, who seems to be staging everything these days, “Wicked� hangs together by virtue of its smart writing and dizzying visuals. (Costumes are by Susan Hilferty, sets by Eugene Lee and lighting by Kenneth Posner.)
The genius of “Wicked� may be that it makes us forgive, and forget, its musical inadequacies. When Elphaba mounts her broom and flies off to conquer Oz, the lines between good and evil melt into puddles of awe and wonder, and our hearts defy gravity.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; also 2 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays. Special matinee at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 18. Through May 28. Presented by Broadway Across America, Atlanta. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E. 404-873-4300 or 404-817-8700. Broadway AcrossAmerica.com.
THE VERDICT: Hits all the soar spots.
‘Color Purple”s Tony splash can help Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With 11 Tony Award nominations, “The Color Purple” will have a major presence when Broadway’s top honors are handed out in New York on June 11. A strong showing could also have a lasting impact on Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, where the musical was born two years ago.
Backed by Oprah Winfrey, the show based on Alice Walker’s beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel will compete for best new musical against “Jersey Boys,” “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “The Wedding Singer.”
Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth was thrilled by “The Color Purple’s” impressive showing in Tuesday’s nominations. “A vote of confidence like that from your peers means the world,” Booth said.
It also means that more people will see the musical.
“The Color Purple” has been finishing “in the top five at the box office for months now,” Booth said. “You couple that with the imprimatur of 11 Tony nominations, and you’ve got a pretty reliable formula for a long Broadway run.”
As an ambitious regional theater, the Alliance should keep an eye on the trajectory of this year’s already announced regional Tony Award winner, Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, and its hot young director, Bartlett Sher.
Sher directed “The Light in the Piazza,” which received its world premiere at the Intiman in 2003 and swept last year’s Tony Awards. This season, he came back to direct a stellar revival of Clifford Odets’ 1935 classic —- “Awake and Sing!” —- which earned eight Tony nominations, including one for the director.
In Tuesday’s Tony ramp-up, “The Drowsy Chaperone” led with 13 nominations. “Jersey Boys,” a jukebox show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, picked up eight and “The Wedding Singer” five.
In the musical revival category, “The Pajama Game” received nine nods, while Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, “Sweeney Todd,” nailed six. “Sweeney” director John Doyle, who attended the University of Georgia, was nominated for his innovative staging, in which the actors also perform with musical instruments.
Smyrna native Julia Roberts was not nominated for her universally panned performance in the revival of Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain.”
But former Georgian Sutton Foster was cited for her glittering lead role in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” In that frothy musical, a theater maven (played by nominee Bob Martin) puts the needle down on a scratchy old recording of a vintage musical called “The Drowsy Chaperone,” only to see it spring to life in his apartment.
Three “Color Purple” actors familiar to Alliance audiences received Tony nominations: LaChanze (who plays Celie) for best actress and Felicia P. Fields (Sofia) and Brandon Victor Dixon (Harpo) in best featured actress and actor categories. Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, who joined the Broadway production as Shug Avery, also was nominated in the best featured actress slot.
“Color Purple” director Gary Griffin was not nominated.
But book writer Marsha Norman and songwriters Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray were, along with designers Paul Tazewell (costumes), John Lee Beatty (scenery) and Brian MacDevitt (lighting) and choreographer Donald Byrd.
Disney’s “Aida” was the last Broadway musical with Alliance roots to place in the Tonys. After its premiere at the Alliance in 1998, it received five 2000 Tony nominations and won four awards.
Meanwhile, it was a good year for English and Irish plays in Tuesday’s nominations.
British playwright Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys,” about a group of students prepping to get into Oxford and Cambridge, earned seven nominations, including best play. Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” and Dubliner Conor McPherson’s “Shining City” were nominated for best play. (“Inishmore” also picked up three acting nods.) Brian Friel’s “Faith Healer” earned four citations, including best play revival. American playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole” was also nominated for best new play.
The Tony Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS from New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
ON AJC.COM
For a complete list of nominations, go to www.ajc.com.
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Broadway review: ‘Tarzan’ is Disney’s latest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New York —- Tarzan say, “This not musical. This Disney-cal.”
Thank you, big guy. You said that very well. Now swing back to your technologically luxurious jungle and make sweet love to Jane while we take stock of Disney’s newest 500-pound Broadway gorilla.
“Tarzan,” which opened Wednesday night at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, is a gaspingly beautiful design achievement that uses aerial choreography and a dazzling bag of optical tricks to plunge the viewer deep into the vortex of its Anglo-African tale. In an opening scene that will be talked about for years to come, designer-director Bob Crowley summons thunder and lightning to create a tempest of raging ocean and shipwrecked bodies falling through space. In a heartbeat, the blue of the ocean turns into the tangled green of the forest, and a lost boy’s journey to become Lord of the Apes blazes off at whiplash speed.
(Insert Tarzan yell here.)
Notice we haven’t mentioned any music yet. That’s because composer Phil Collins’ over-synthed, over-amped score sounds so canned that it might as well have been pre-recorded. Plot rushes by. But about all we’ve heard in the way of a lyric so far is a saccharine chorus that keeps repeating: “Two worlds, one family.” Insipid.
You wonder, do our tickets say “Tarzan” —- or “The Color Purple”? Because this soft-rock schlock is starting to sound a lot like another new musical, written by Broadway novices with pop pedigrees, that tried hard to emulate the brightly packaged, emotionally squishy Disney model.
One of the most expensive Broadway shows ever, rumored to cost between $15 million and $20 million, “Tarzan” again proves that music is at the bottom of the Disney checklist.
The name of the game is spectacle —- jaw-dropping, ocean-swelling, swing-from-the-sky entertainment —- and by that measure, “Tarzan” is one sexy ticket. (Cue for Tarzan yell.)
So we’ll just sit here, look at the pretty pictures and watch the dangerously fascinating dance between human, animal, even botanical behavior. Fortunately, there’s no head-to-toe fur for these apes. Crowley’s fashion-conscious gorillas wear torso-revealing costumes in inky black, and Meryl Tankard’s choreography turns them into beings that are playful, mysterious and strangely haunting.
More on the haunched ones in a moment. Right now, we need to say that the adult Tarzan is played by a young, virtually unknown Charleston, S.C., native named Josh Strickland. Swinging down from the balcony, over the heads in the orchestra section, it’s one heck of a landing on the Great White Way. Strickland sings and performs handsomely, too, and once Jane (Jenn Gambatese) arrives, his Tarzan is a game, goofy and enthusiastic student of his lost mother tongue.
Jane gets a pretty swell intro as well.
After observing hothouse blossoms unfurl and glorious insects metamorphose, she gets trapped in a big spider web. Here Pichon Baldinu’s aerial design recalls Cirque du Soleil. Bodies hang from bungee cords, twisting their way out of shimmering costumes, and Jane is literally snapped into place on the midair web by an invisible tether. Though Gambatese’s portrayal of the clever English girl is a little too pert and idiosyncratic, her voice is pure and technically flawless.
Now back to those gorillas.
In one really smart move, the creators have fleshed out the story line involving Tarzan’s ape father, Kerchak, and his mother, Kala. Kerchak, played by Marietta native Shuler Hensley, knows that Tarzan’s presence will upset the ecology of the ape clan, yet he’s too kindhearted not to love the boy (“No Other Way”). A Tony Award winner for Trevor Nunn’s “Oklahoma!” and the only certifiable star in the lot, Hensley transcends his character’s hulking form to evince a portrait of a tortured and conflicted soul. Are these creatures part human? Absolutely, and Merle Dandridge’s Kala is an example of how they can be strikingly beautiful, too. Like the celebrated “Lion King,” “Tarzan” sticks to the formula of the young prince who must banish his foes before he can claim his patrimony and be redeemed by love. (Remember Simba?) But Tarzan’s conflict is deeper: His evil opponent represents the other side of his divided self. Alas, David Henry Hwang’s book and Collins’ lyrics keep the psychological material of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel at cartoon level.
If only Disney could find a songwriter with the panache to match Crowley’s genius. Here, Crowley, who won a Tony Award for his design of “Aida,” marries the simplicity of Walt Disney’s storybook sketches with the marvels of new technology.
The adventures of Tarzan may be musically disappointing, but as the Disney-fication of Broadway continues, theater gets a whole new toolbox. Prospero’s magic meets the Midas touch. And Tarzan gets the last yell.
THE 411: Open-ended run. $51.25-$101.25. Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., New York. 212-307-4747; www.ticketmaster.com; tarzanonbroadway.com.
THE VERDICT: Stunning visuals; dispensable songs.
THE GRADE: B-
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‘Cirque Dreams’ is not Cirque du Soleil
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s come to our attention that some theater patrons are confused about “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy,” a Broadway Across America production at the Fox Theatre through Sunday. For the record, the show is not affiliated with Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based phenomenon that stops frequently in Atlanta and recently played Philips Arena.
Five ways to tell Cirque Dreams isn’t Cirque du Soleil
The singing narrator isn’t a svelte chanteuse in New Age drag. She’s a rotund Lady Bug in an unflattering red and black costume.
There’s no blue and yellow big top with in-the-round seating. The performance is flattened out on the Fox Theatre’s proscenium stage. The backdrop looks like “Guernica” on mushrooms. It’s got a swing, but it don’t mean a thing.
On opening night, a “balancer” fell off his precarious perch. Fortunately, he landed on his feet, smiling.
Tickets are cheaper, $55 for the best seat vs. $71.50 to $127 for Cirque’s March gig at Philips Arena. (Get yours at 404-817-8700; ticketmaster.com.)
Where’s the buff? Sure, there are a few rippled torsos and lovely women in sheer costumes. But it’s a case of bait and swish —- nothing like the Olympic flesh fest that’s a Cirque hallmark. Â
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‘Chopped Liver in Paradise’ @ Jewish Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B. Through May 21.
When old friends Rita and Sharon steal away from their families for a girls-only Caribbean cruise, there’s nothing on the horizon but an endless regimen of midnight buffets, seaweed body wraps and snorkeling adventures. What’s not to love?
Plenty, actually.
Before the boat can depart Miami harbor, it’s clear that the women at the center of Atlanta playwright Vynnie Meli’s “Chopped Liver in Paradise” have more on their minds than suntans and margaritas. While this Jewish Theatre of the South world premiere operates as a giddy sendup of cruise-ship culture, Meli alternates the high-seas high jinks with a heartfelt meditation on the meaning of love, marriage and friendship.
Truth is, the tale of newly divorced Sharon (Pamela Gold) and desperate housewife Rita (Agnes Hart) is a thin premise for a full-length play. Once Rita makes her big revelation, things go adrift rather quickly. In trying to put a moral compass to their emotional dilemma, you can feel Meli struggling to find a way to lead these two shipwrecked souls back to the bright light of day.
More successful is the series of capers that frame and illuminate the debate. Comedic crackpot Larry Davis turns up in a variety of roles —- as a drunken tourist in a Hawaiian shirt, an overly enthusiastic golf pro and as ship steward Hector, who has a gift for folding ordinary bath towels into whimsical swans and elephants. But when Hector talks about how much he misses his family, his silly shtick takes on a poignant tone.
Newlyweds Brad (Chris Moses) and Annie (Megan Hayes) sip champagne and exist in a bubble of romantic bliss. Whether stumbling tipsily into the ladies’ cabin with a run in her hose or wondering if she’ll actually have to cook now that she’s gotten so many wedding gifts, Hayes’ character is hysterical. Later, the same actors appear as an ancient couple who argue about feeding Picadilly crackers to seagulls, then dance together like teens.
Though the play at times has a manic quality that obscures the language, director Susan Reid coaxes strong performances from her cast. Scenic designer Corky Pratt turns the theater’s expansive stage into a wavy and capacious pleasure ship, and Chris Crawford’s lighting accentuates the magic and theatricality of the comic interludes.
With “Chopped Liver in Paradise,” Meli proves herself an accomplished playwright with a wry sense of humor and a genuine concern for her characters’ emotional well-being. Love, the playwright seems to say, rarely makes for smooth sailing. But ride it out, and you’re bound to find blue skies and sunshine.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through May 21. $20-$28. Jewish Theatre of the South, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. 770-395-2654; www.jplay.org
THE VERDICT: Laughter by the boatload.
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‘Nickel and Dimed’ @ 7 Stages
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C. Through May 28.
“Nickel and Dimed” might give even the most committed liberal a case of compassion fatigue.
This stage adaptation, by Joan Holden, of Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-selling book —- about going undercover to be among women, and a few men, forced to survive on minimum-wage jobs —- stretches for three acts and a whopping three hours.
It’s also dominated by commentary on the corporate and social forces that oppress a multitude of characters: waitresses, cleaning women and clerks and cashiers in a store not too subtly called “Mall-Mart.”
Feeling more like a social lecture or town hall meeting than live theater, the dramatic power of “Nickel and Dimed” is weakened by the unrelenting moral diatribes of Barbara, the character based on Ehrenreich. At one point, Barbara declares that it’s shameful to hire someone to clean a home. She then stops the action for several minutes to ask members of the audience to relate their experiences of having done so. Several folks at the performance I attended somewhat sheepishly confessed to having hired cleaning women, and entered into a dialogue with the cast.
Although providing relief from Barbara’s rants, the gimmicky audience interaction detracts from the theatrical experience. The message is valid that the women who serve our food and clean our homes deserve better wages, education, health care and child care. But what would have made for more interesting drama —- the nuanced unveiling of these women’s stories —- is overwhelmed by Barbara’s liberal sermonizing.
It doesn’t help that, as she travels around the country to take a series of dead-end jobs, Barbara’s primary struggle is avoiding the temptation to bail herself out of financial difficulties with her credit card, an avenue of escape unavailable to the women she meets. We want to root for the protagonist, but her struggles to avoid the ATM —- and her obvious condescension and meddling in the women’s lives —- grow tedious.
As Barbara, Dena Malon shows too little growth, self-knowledge and humor. Like her husband, who frequently calls to express his dubious feelings, we know she’s really risking little, that she’s an imposter and interloper.
The heavy sociological fare is lightened by the acoustic guitar-playing and singing of Michael Levine, a gentle folk presence whose music and sound effects frame the action and who occasionally serves as an everyman character. The cast also has a few moments of authentic power. Yvonne Singh stands out in several roles, most strikingly as an elderly, arthritic hotel worker, and as a born-again employee of “Mall-Mart” who befriends Barbara. Just when she invites the writer to her home in the ghetto, Barbara decides it’s time to retreat and write her best-seller. The question eventually arises, who’s exploiting these women the most?
“Nickel and Dimed” ends on a hopeful note when all the characters return to update the improved circumstances of their lives. Unfortunately, Barbara also shows up to deliver another lecture, once again nickel and diming the audience’s intelligence.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays; 2 p.m. May 6; 6 p.m. May 10, 17 and 24; no show May 12. Through May 28. Tickets $20-$32. 404-523-7647, www.7stages.org.
THE VERDICT: More social lecture than drama.
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‘Guys and Dolls’ @ Aurora
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B. Through May 28.
“Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow” may be the most naive statement ever uttered on the Broadway stage, but in Frank Loesser’s hands it makes for a great duet between Miss Adelaide and Sister Sarah, the two tough-love dolls at the heart of “Guys and Dolls.”
Loesser’s beloved 1950 musical revolves around a floating crap game in 1940s New York City, played by a bunch of wiseguys with names like Harry the Horse, Angie the Ox and Rusty Charlie. Leading the rat pack are the ever-flappable Nathan Detroit (the role Nathan Lane inhabited so brilliantly in the 1992 Broadway revival) and the oh-so-silky Sky Masterson. Nathan bets Sky $1,000 that Sky can’t lure the beautiful, puritanical Save-a-Soul Sister Sarah Brown to Havana. As Sky slithers into Sarah’s heart, Nathan runs —- unsuccessfully —- from Miss Adelaide, his long-suffering (as in 14 years) fiancee.
With such chestnuts as “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” Loesser’s score remains irresistible, and Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ book is clever to a fault. Sure, the dialogue is dated and the pre-women’s-movement marital precepts are absurd. But the Aurora Theatre production’s winning good humor —- not to mention this spirited production —- lend it a fairy tale timelessness.
Major credit goes to director/choreographer Jen MacQueen, who keeps things moving at a bracing pace and whose ensemble staging is smart and tightly executed —- a particularly laudable feat with a cast of 20 on a stage better suited to five. Still, she manages to move the “Havana” scene smoothly from sexy nightclub dancing to all-out barroom brawl, while her use of physical gesture in “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat” turns an already humorous number into a show-stopper —- the perfect finale.
Her casting is good, too. As Sky, Robert Egizio is perhaps more seasoned than suave, but nonetheless convincing; as Nathan, Anthony Rodriguez, Aurora’s producing artistic director, wheels and deals (and squeals) with the best of them; he and Bethany Irby as Miss Adelaide make a lovable match out of an amusingly mismatched pair.
Stacey Stone evolves gracefully from Sarah the square to Sarah the sexy, and her voice carries the high tessitura of the role well.
The seven-member orchestra was out of sight but for a single window from which conductor Ann-Carol Pence could eye the stage. Instruments and voices were miked and balances were occasionally problematic, as was tuning and some overly quick tempos that rendered Loesser’s priceless lyrics unintelligible.
Overall, however, this “Guys and Dolls” was a solid effort by one gung-ho regional theater, and a splashy swan song for Aurora in Duluth. After 10 years, the company is moving to Lawrenceville.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Through May 28. $22-$25. Aurora Theatre, 3087 Main St., Duluth. 770-476-7926, www.auroratheatre.com.
THE VERDICT: Still brilliant after all these years.
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