Home > Theater Reviews > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
‘Jacques Brel’ @ The Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” Grade: A. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays. 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 28. $30-$35. Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org. Bottom line: Susan V. Booth, who recently picked up the Alliance’s Tony Award for excellence in regional theater, proves she’s at the top of her game.
In the world of Jacques Brel, love is a pas de deux — a dance of desire and loss acted out in a plush red and gold Parisian cabaret.
And what is death?
Death is a tango of back-snapping intensity, between a dark stranger and his submissive victim, acted out in a plush red and gold Parisian cabaret.
Both images work their dizzy magic in “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” — the whirling carousel of a revue that’s getting an intensely imagined workout on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage.
As directed by Susan V. Booth, “Jacques Brel” captures the breathy metaphysical allure that was the essential trademark of the Belgian-born troubador (1929-1978) who made his name in the City of Light.
A mid-’60s off-Broadway hit that has come bobbing back into fashion with the frenetic, century-surveying pace of its opening number (“Marathon”), this musical is as refreshing and soul-satisfying as a spritzy late-afternoon aperitif in a musty Left Bank boite.
Playing on that conceit, designers Leslie Taylor (sets) and Pete Shinn (lights) have turned the subterranean Hertz space into a delightfully warm cabaret, replete with miniature chandeliers, Chinese lanterns, banquettes, a working bar, a piano strewn with swags and tassels and one tiny guitar.
Keep your eye on that strategically placed ukelele, and don’t be surprised if you hear a few bonsoirs from the ushers.
Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, who conceived the entertainment and translated the lyrics from the French, have kept the piece blissfully bookless, so that the songs tell their own stories without colliding with any forced characters or plot. This lets the director play with the order of the numbers, even edit out or add a few, to emphasize certain themes or showcase the strengths of the cast.
In every choice, Booth and musical director Michael Fauss demonstrate impeccable taste, and the quartet of singers is fantastically adept at interpreting Brel’s inimitable oeuvre.
Songs about frolic and courtship (“Bachelor’s Dance,” “Timid Freida”). Songs of abandonment (“Ne Me Quitte Pas”) and romantic longevity (“Songs for Old Lovers”). Songs about lusty sailors and whores (“Amsterdam”) and the silent-film bustle of Brel’s native burg (“Brussels”).
Lovely Lauren Kling gets to play most of the ingenue parts. Joseph Dellger is alternately sinister and salty in a variety of male roles; his lip-smacking turn in “Amsterdam” is a literal study in the delicousness of grandstanding. Craig A. Meyer uses his bright-eyed boyishness to convey both tenderness and strength — you sort of imagine that he’s the Mr. Congeniality of this ensemble.
A ribald comedian, Courtenay Collins also goes to dark, dangerous and exhilarating places. With the tragic “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” the tears are real, and the performance one of the best of the year.
Arriving at a time when America had been shattered by Vietnam, “Jacques Brel” dabbles in political commentary and has been updated here to make salient points about America’s place in the world.
But Brel’s great romantic spirit, his quirky convulsion of ideas and philosophy, are the core of this superbly choreographed revue. He was tough; he was sentimental. He was sensual; he was cerebral. He was an elegant, protean thinker and a low humorist. At once joyous and funeral, Brel’s songs are meditations on the fickle impulse of the modern age.
‘Rat Pack’ @ The Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
REVIEW. “The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands”
Grade: C- 8 p.m. today-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. $17-$55. Broadway Across America, Atlanta, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com. Bottom line: A pack of lies. You won’t believe a word of it.
Some of us who grew up watching Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. on ’60s TV have a certain nostalgia for the Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra’s saloon singing is as legendary as Martin’s booze and women and Davis’ peacock strut.
But a vintage recording is usually enough to satisfy the thirst for that old martini-soaked rat magic. Either that or one of the “Ocean’s Eleven” flicks that keep popping up every couple of years. Just don’t make the deadly mistake of payingto see “The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands,” the limp-footed, poorly written stage approximation of the swinging Vegas lounge act that opened the 2007-08 season of Broadway Across America, Atlanta, at the Fox Theatre.
It takes a couple of terrific character actors to impersonate Sammy and Dean — and a healthy shot of charisma to do a credible impersonation of Ol’ Blue Eyes. Louis Hoover’s Sinatra has a flawless vocal style but an utterly flavorless personality. He’s dapper like Sinatra, suave like Sinatra, but he couldn’t get a laugh if his next glass of whisky depended on it.
British actor Nigel Casey captures a tad of Martin’s funnyman charm — that slurry delivery and pitch-perfect timing. (Of his mother-in-law, Martin quips: “She’s 84, and she doesn’t even need glasses. She just drinks it straight out of the bottle.”) But you’d never mistake him on the street for Dino.
Happily, David Hayes makes for a splendid Sammie Davis Jr., imbuing the ballad “Mr. Bojangles” with tenderness and poignance and scoring a knockout with his big Act 2 number, “What Kind of Fool Am I?” And yes, in those trademark nerd glasses and pencil-thin suits, he’s a dead ringer for the original. A first-rate performance.
With its predictable, occasionally offensive jokes about the Mafia, about Jews and Gentiles, about “fairies” and always, always about alcoholics, “The Rat Pack” is as stale as cigarette smoke. The 15-piece onstage orchestra sounds swank. The trio of back-up babes adds spice. But sometimes, what happens in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas.
‘Mockingbird’ @ Theatrical Outfit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B- 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 7. $30. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St. N.W. 678-528-1500. Bottom line: Doesn’t sing.
The big discovery coming out of Theatrical Outfit’s new production of “To Kill A Mockingbird” has nothing to do with Tom Key’s Atticus Finch or Carolyn Cook’s take on the adult version of Harper Lee’s beloved Scout. No, siree, Bob.
The performance that ought to have these vaunted Atlanta thespians watching their backs comes from a scene-stealing 9-year-old tyke named Tendal Mann. Wearing a bowtie and knickers, speaking with an authentic Southern lisp that would do his Capote-based character proud, this bean-sprout of a boy virtually skips away with director Rosemary Newcott’s staging of Christopher Sergel’s adaptation.
Smart, ironic and very, very cute, he’s the real Dill.
But it’s going to take a lot more than adorable children and ambitious sets to persuade me that Lee’s famous novel of initiation is anything more than an overrated piece of sentimental Southern Gothic weirdness. With its mysterious bogeyman (Boo Radley), evil racist witch (Mrs. Dubose) and crusading superhero (Atticus), Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story is a socially conscious fairy tale that’s provided invaluable lessons on courage and justice to several generations of readers.
A really good piece of juvenile literature to be sure, “Mockingbird” comes off here as an inert evening of theater — a confusing mixture of children’s material in the first act and adult themes in the second. What redeems this uneven experience are a handful of spot-on character-acting turns, including a devastating performance by Eric Moore as accused rapist Tom Robinson.
Donna Biscoe is wonderful but underused as Calpurnia. Alex Van and Veronika Duerr are by turns amusing and despicable as redneck Bob Ewell and his daughter, Mayella. And Susan Shalhoub Larkin’s Mrs. Dubose is a deliciously wicked mixture of Joan Plowright and Mary Nell Santacroce.
In the leading roles, Cook and Key give performances that are impressively measured and crisp, but they kind of fade into the sprawling small-town canvas. Key seems to be holding back on purpose, and his Gregory Peck moment never comes.
Forty years after its publication, “Mockingbird” continues to have such a cult following that “Harper” has become a popular name for girls. Scout, Jem and Dill are indelible literary creations. Even mediocre productions have built-in cheering squads. Too bad, then, that this “Mockingbird” never sings.
Young Tendal, however, is another story. When this Charles Baker “Dill” Harris arrives in Maycom, the socially savvy kid hands out his own cards. For casting agents everywhere, Tendal might consider doing the same.
‘God’s Man in Texas’ @ Georgia Ensemble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “God’s Man in Texas.” Grade: C+. 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $23-$33. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. 770-641-1260, get.org. Bottom line: Few grace notes.
“God’s Man in Texas” has relocated to Roswell, where David Rambo’s commentary on the mega-church phenomenon is running like a long-winded sermon that takes forever to say “Amen.”
Directed by Robert Farley as the 15th season opener of his Georgia Ensemble Theatre, “God’s Man” is a three-hander with mechanically clunky scenery and a narrative that has all the immediacy of the Second Coming.
That said, it would be a grievous sin of omission to overlook Clayton Corzatte, a top-drawer Broadway trouper who has trod the boards with everyone from Helen Hayes and Katharine Hepburn to Bert Lahr and Uta Hagen.
In Rambo’s study of megalomania and paternity, Corzatte delivers a masterfully calibrated turn as Dr. Philip Gottschall, the 81-year-old leader of a Houston-based Southern Baptist empire who comes across like a combination of King Lear, Richard Nixon and Billy Graham. (Or is it Oral Roberts?)
Gottschall, a friend of the Bush clan and the kind of pulpit bull who keeps his acolytes quaking in their robes, is in complete denial about his inevitable loss of power. If God doesn’t strike him dead, looks like the unauthorized search committee will. Can you say “paranoid”?
But the old prune’s fears are assuaged — temporarily, at least — when a gallant young evangelical from San Antone is chosen as his co-pastor. Dr. Jeremiah Mears (Mark Kincaid) calms the waters with his homespun style and heartfelt testimony.
Will the old conservative zealot find the son he never had in the fatherless newcomer? Will it end in victory or bitterness? After meandering his way into a dramatic dead-end, the playwright tries to back out of the corner with an 11th-hour revelation involving Gottschall’s chief lackey, Hugo Taney (played with annoying tediousness by Barry Stoltze).
Ultimately, “God’s Man in Texas” offers little in the way of emotional sustenance or humor. Kincaid finds the charm and charisma of his character, but he tests the audience’s generosity with that prolonged final benediction.
At the end of the show, I actually heard one patron ask another sarcastically, “Don’t you want to go back and listen a little longer?” No way, fellas. Pass that collection plate on by, and save your change for the toll booth.
‘My Name Is Rachel Corrie’ @ Synchronicity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” Grade: B - 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 7. $15-$20. Synchronicity Performance Group, 7 Stages Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points. 404-484-8636, synchrotheatre.com
Rachel Corrie never lived to see her 24th birthday. But based on the trove of journal entries and emails she left behind, the peace activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer on the Gaza Strip had a profound and penetrating spirit. She was also a wonderful writer and precocious observer of human nature.
The young American’s brief but purposeful life is now being celebrated in “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” a one-woman show produced by Synchronicity Performance Group and starring Atlanta actress Courtney Patterson.
Directed by Rachel May, “Rachel Corrie” is a moving evening of theater, even if it’s a little preachy and a little padded. The opening scenes — in which Corrie relates material about her family, her boyfriend and her messy hovel of a room — are stronger than the second half, when Corrie travels to the Middle East. Here the material founders, as is often the case when the polemical subsumes the poetic.
There’s a kind of brutal beauty and symmetry in the way Corrie looks at the blood-red ceiling of her apartment and prophesies: “It is going to rip me to pieces.”
And there’s great good humor in the way the Washington state native comments that watching salmon swim upriver caused her to make a lifestyle change. “You imagine their moony eyes as you walk home from the bar in your slutty boots,” she says of her conversion from free spirit to freedom fighter.
Inspired by a trip to Russia, Corrie feels “awake for the first time.” Flying home to Washington, she knows that even the beauty of Puget Sound is not enough to satisfy her wandering soul. She wants to make a difference in the world.
With her ebullient personality and abundant talent, Patterson captures the quirky vitality of her subject. Is the actress too bright eyed and Lucy-like for this role? Is she a credible 20-something? Can she hold the stage alone for 100 minutes? These are legitimate questions, with no easy answers.
“Rachel Corrie” works better as a portrait of a regular kid than a martyr for a complex cause. To reduce her to an agenda, as this play too often does, is an easy out.
At a young age, Corrie had a sophisticated understanding of how time alters history and reshapes our own truth. Little did she know how time would change the way the world looks at her.
Bottom Line: Works better as a portrait of an regular girl than a political
‘Brewster Place’ @ Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B - At the Alliance Theatre. Through Sept. 30. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org
Inertia seems to be the guiding law of Gloria Naylor’s “The Women of Brewster Place.”
Living in a bleak inner-city housing project in a city at once anonymous and familiar, the women have magnificent stories to tell. Now if only they could get beyond that hulking wall that pins them into their abandoned corner of the universe.
Tim Acito’s new musical telling of “The Women of Brewster Place” opened Wednesday at the Alliance Theatre with all the dreamlike stasis of the novel. Working as composer, lyricist and librettist, Acito has assembled a glorious array of songs but failed to shape his complicated recipe into a satisfactory narrative pie. “Brewster Place” has layers of wonderful flavors, but it comes out more like a casserole than a souffle.
Too many ingredients. Needs finesse.
Though the 1989 “Brewster Place” miniseries was plagued with issues, it had Oprah Winfrey as Mattie Michael, a diligent single mother who ends up in the projects after her truant son strips her of her pride and most of her material possessions. Mattie’s the constant star in Naylor’s swirling galaxy of personalities. But with nine major characters, 27 songs and little actual dialogue, Acito gives almost equal treatment to each of Naylor’s seven, interconnected stories. As a result, his world premiere, directed by Molly Smith and scheduled for an October run at Smith’s Arena Stage in Washington, has no consistent point of view.
Having said that, I hasten to say, once again, that the music — and the performances — are exquisite.
As Mattie, Tina Fabrique is possessed of Sarah Vaughan’s throaty sensuality and Ella Fitzgerald’s sassy physique. Nearly every note she touches becomes a heart-melting experience. Her mesmerizing solo — “How Do We Get Through to You?” — follows the ensemble’s big opening anthem, “Gonna Sing Loud.” “Leave the Light On,” Mattie’s duet with Lucielia (Shelley Thomas), is a keening paean of love and loss, told through the eyes of mothers.
A mixture of the ridiculous and the profound, “Brewster Place” boasts the man-eating Etta Mae (Marva Hicks), the politically strident Kiswana (Monique L. Midgette), nosey neighbor Sophie (Cheryl Alexander) and frustrated lesbian schoolteacher Lorraine (Harriett D. Foy), among other vivid creations.
In the “Midsummer Night’s Dream” sequence, fairies dance in garish costumes that seem ludicrous even for a community theater production in the ’70s, but then the music transforms the piece into a haunting testimonal of Titania’s love for Bottom. In a funny but probably unnecessary bit of schtick, Lorraine sings the Jackson Five-inspired “Smile” to her unruly class. Total silliness. But then later, Lorraine’s “Ghosts With Paper Bones,” about the notes she sends to her estranged father, turns what might be pure sentimentality into a kind of magical realism of the heart. Gorgeous.
In an attempt to make a political statement, Acito renders a world without men or children, setting up some awkwardly pantomimed scenes with invisible beings, and a clunky resolution of Lorraine’s story.
Hicks’ Etta Mae is hysterical. But the character gets too many songs, including the extraneous “Sing, Billie” (as in Holiday). And Tee’s “Welcome to the D.M.V.,” like so many of the numbers, exists so the character can get her story in. As Sophie, Alexander doesn’t get a lot of air time, but when she does, her voice is so delightfully deep that it’s almost manly. Likewise, we don’t get to hear much out of Tee (Suzzanne Douglas), but when she finally steps up, she’s a powerhouse. As Kiswana, Midgette glows from within and seems to be everywhere. What a lovely actress.
Among other elements of the production, Kenneth L. Roberson’s choreography is blessedly organic and unfussy. Paul Tazewell’s costumes, as always, are just right — little vignettes that speak volumes about the ladies who wear them. Anne Patterson’s set is so drab and depressing — we get it, people! — that they might as well use an empty stage.
Acito has written a string of gemlike, character-driven tunes and situated them ever-so precisely. But the songs are all about personality, and they don’t propel the narrative. At once precious, messy and operatic, “Brewster Place” is an enigma. To succeed, it needs rigor, curatorial distance and spine. It needs more work and less love. Otherwise, it may never get beyond that wall.
‘Dark Play or Stories for Boys’ @ Actor’s Express
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: A -
8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 30; 2 p.m. Sept. 23. Through Oct. 6. (Note: contains nudity and adult language.) $22-$27. Actor’s Express, King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. NW Suite J-107. Atlanta. 404-875-1606; 404-607-7469. www.actors-express.com
With Carlos Murillo’s “Dark Play or Stories for Boys,” Freddie Ashley promises to put a scorching imprint on Atlanta’s theatrical landscape.
Coosa Valley Photography
Jimi Kocina and Stephanie Bruno
A lurid and provocative mind-tease of a play that is alternately irresistible and horrifying, “Dark Play” is a sure and welcome signal that the new Actor’s Express artistic director won’t coddle the meek or cowtow to the squeamish.
Ashley, it must be noted, did not program the tingly season opener of the famously edgy 20-year-old ensemble. That was the work of predecessor Bill Fennelly, who left in June after eight months on the job and before putting on a single show.
But Fennelly had already recruited Ashley as guest director of the most talked about play of this year’s Humana Festival of New American Plays — a story of the Internet’s endless capacity for web-weaving and deception — and Ashley’s elegantly conceived debut makes you believe in the silent happy hand of fate.
Maybe they should have just picked this guy in the first place.
Murillo’s creepy tale — based on the real-life case of a Manchester, England, boy who created an elaborate tangle of fictive chat-room personalities in a scheme of seduction — is the dramatic equivalent of a page-turner, all sexy, suspenseful and dangerous. The use of false identities, disguises and masks is an age-old trick of the theater; here the playwright sharpens the tactic by spinning it from the fantastically devious mind of a lustful teen run amok in a digital game of manipulation and self-destruction.
The proverbial spider is a wispy androgynous blond named Nick (Jimi Kocina), and his fly is the stupendously gullible Adam (Brent Rose), who makes the near-fatal error of placing a personal ad on the Internet. Nick not only manufactures the girl of Adam’s dreams — but a swirling galaxy of supporting players as well.
This sick little story is the sort of stuff that will cause parents to cringe at the thought of what happens at night in their children’s bedrooms: web-cam exhibitionism, sleepovers stoked by Absolut mandarin — and the inevitable scars of damaged hearts and souls.
Thankfully, Murillo never places his characters in front of a laptop, and no simulated type is frantically pecked out on an overhead projector posing as a computer monitor. Instead, Nick narrates the whole sordid episode as memory and flashback — prompted by a question from latest conquest, Molly (the lovely Stephanie Bruno). He sometimes participates in this roundelay and sometimes watches it from the sidelines, striking a pose from his messy bed or shooting the audience a knowing look.
The cast — which features John Benzinger and Stacy Melich in a variety of “netizen” roles (think: Internet citizens) — is uniformly fine, although Melich had an alarming, out-of-character moment of fumbled lines on opening night.
Kocina’s performance is mesmerizing, an act of total immersion into the psyche of Nick, and Rose deploys a precocious arsenal of details to suggest his character’s blind desire and unquestioning acceptance.
Though the playwright sometimes pushes the limits of believability and turns Nick’s catharsis into an annoyingly repetitive gimmick, “Dark Play” is an utterly exhilarating theatrical sensation, best summed up in two words: Hold me.
Bottom Line: An electric roundelay of digitally manipulated sex, deception and near-death — and a nervy triumph for new artistic director Freddie Ashley.
And the Suzi nominees are …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Alliance Theatre’s “Sister Act: The Musical” and Synchronicity Performance Group’s “A Year With Frog and Toad” lead this year’s nominations for the Suzi Bass Awards, tying with 10 nods each.
“Turned Funny,” Theatre in the Square’s telling of the life of Atlanta Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley, topped the straight-play competition, with six nominations.
The nominations for Atlanta’s only professional theater competition were read Monday night at the New American Shakespeare Tavern, and the Suzis - named for a beloved Atlanta actress who died of melanoma in 2002 - will be handed out Nov. 5 in the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian Ballroom.
Besides “Frog and Toad” and “Sister Act,” other prominent musicals on this year’s list were the Tavern’s “Cabaret” and Actor’s Express’ “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” (eight nominations each), followed by Theatre in the Square’s “Mount Pleasant Homecoming” (seven).
Several Atlanta theater artists received more than one nomination.
Jeff McKerley got mentions for his performances in “Cabaret” and Horizon Theatre’s “The Thing About Men,” while actress Jill Jane Clements was cited in the featured actress category for “Turned Funny” and Theatrical Outfit’s “The Chase.”
McKerley was also nominated for his choreography of “Caberet.”
In design categories, Clay Benning lead with three nominations for his sound work, while Liz Lee, Kat Conley and Sydney Roberts all got two nods each for their lighting, sets and costumes.
This year’s Spirit of Suzi Bass Award will go to Jerry’s Habima Theatre, an ensemble for actors with developmental disabilities.
Here’s a complete list of the 2006-2007 nominations.
Production - Play
9 Parts of Desire Horizon Theatre
I Am My Own Wife Actor’s Express
I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda Theatre in the Square
The Pillowman Actor’s Express
Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Production - Musical
A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Director - Play
B.J. Jones Glengarry Glen Ross Alliance Theatre
Fred Chappell Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Jasson Minadakis The Pillowman Actor’s Express
Kenny Leon Ceremonies in Dark Old Men True Colors
Lisa Adler 9 Parts of Desire Horizon Theatre
Director - Musical
Clint Thornton A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Dex Edwards Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Freddie Ashley The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Heidi Cline Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Peter Schneider Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Lead Actress - Play
Agnes Harty Educating Rita Red Clay Theatre
Farida Kalala I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda Theatre in the Square
Linda Stephens Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Mary Lynn Owen Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue Alliance Theatre
Park Krausen Othello Georgia Shakespeare
Veronika Duerr Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Tavern
Lead Actress - Musical
Agnes Harty Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Claci Miller The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Dawnn Lewis Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Sara Onsager The Thing About Men Horizon Theatre
Wendy Melkonian The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Lead Actor - Play
Daniel May The Pillowman Actor’s Express
David Milford All The King’s Men Theatre in the Square
Doyle Reynolds I Am My Own Wife Actor’s Express
Eddie Levi Lee Charm School Horizon Theatre
Glynn Turman Ceremonies in Dark Old Men True Colors
Lead Actor - Musical
Bryan Mercer A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
David Jennings Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Jeff McKerley Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Jeff McKerley The Thing About Men Horizon Theatre
Spencer G. Stephens A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Featured Actress - Play
Carol Mitchell-leon The Bluest Eye Horizon Theatre
Jackie Prucha Waiting to be Invited Theatrical Outfit
Jill Jane Clements The Chase Theatrical Outfit
Jill Jane Clements Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Kate Donadio All The King’s Men Theatre in the Square
Kathleen Wattis Based on a Totally True Story Actor’s Express
Valerie Payton Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Tavern
Featured Actress - Musical
Amy K. Murray Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Ellen McQueen Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Jennifer Akin Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Karen Howell Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Libby Whittemore The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Featured Actor - Play
Andrew Benator Brooklyn Boy Jewish Theatre of the South
Chris Kayser Glengarry Glen Ross Alliance Theatre
Jason Dirden Ceremonies in Dark Old Men True Colors
John Benzinger The Pillowman Actor’s Express
John G. Preston Othello Georgia Shakespeare
Neal A. Ghant Glengarry Glen Ross Alliance Theatre
Ric Reitz Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Featured Actor - Musical
Alan Kilpatrick Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Brandon O’Dell The Thing About Men Horizon Theatre
Craig A. Meyer A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Dolph Amick The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Jeff Watkins Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Ensemble - Play
9 Parts of Desire Horizon Theatre
Glengarry Glen Ross Alliance Theatre
The Bluest Eye Horizon Theatre
The God Committee Theatrical Outfit
The Pillowman Actor’s Express
Ensemble - Musical
A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Respect Gfour Productions/Bob & Gudrun Cuillo
Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Music Direction
Bryan Mercer A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Dale Grogan Respect Gfour Productions/Bob & Gudrun Cuillo
Michael Kosarin/Brent-Alan Huffman Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Michael Monroe Mount Pleasant Homecoming Theatre in the Square
Renee Clark Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Choreography
Jeff McKerley Cabaret Shakespeare Tavern
Jen Macqueen A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Marguerite Derricks Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Costume Design
Douglas J. Koertge The Servant of Two Masters Georgia Shakespeare
English Benning I Am My Own Wife Actor’s Express
Garry Lennon Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Joanna Schmink The Violet Hour 7 Stages
Katherine Aurora Callahan A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Sydney Roberts Othello Georgia Shakespeare
Sydney Roberts Pericles Georgia Shakespeare
Lighting Design
Donald Holder Sister Act the musical Alliance Theatre
Jessica Coale Beckett’s Memories 7 Stages
Liz Lee Cuttin’ Up Alliance Theatre
Liz Lee Othello Georgia Shakespeare
William H. Grant III Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue Alliance Theatre
Scenic Design
Derek Kinsler/Nick Collins A Year with Frog and Toad Synchronicity Performance Group
Jonathan Williamson The Great American Trailer Park Musical Actor’s Express
Kat Conley Othello Georgia Shakespeare
Kat Conley Pericles Georgia Shakespeare
Lisa Johnson Voices Underwater Synchronicity Performance Group
Shaun L. Motley Cuttin’ Up Alliance Theatre
Tamara McElhannon 9 Parts of Desire Horizon Theatre
Sound Design
Chris Bartelski 9 Parts of Desire Horizon Theatre
Clay Benning Cuttin’ Up Alliance Theatre
Clay Benning False Creeds Alliance Theatre
Joseph P. Monaghan, III Turned Funny Theatre in the Square
Klimchak/Clay Benning Pericles Georgia Shakespeare
Mimi Epstein Voices Underwater Synchronicity Performance Group
Nominations by theater
Alliance Theatre 20
Actor's Express 17
Theatre in the Square 17
Synchronicity Performance Group 12
Horizon Theatre 11
Shakespeare Tavern 10
Georgia Shakespeare 9
Theatrical Outfit 3
True Colors 3
7 Stages 2
G4 Productions 2
Jewish Theatre of the South 1
Red Clay Theatre 1
Nominations by show
A Year With Frog and Toad 10
Sister Act the musical 10
Cabaret 8
The Great American Trailer Park Musical 8
Mount Pleasant Homecoming 7
Turned Funny 6
9 Parts of Desire 5
Othello 5
The Pillowman 5
Glengarry Glen Ross 4
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men 3
Cuttin' Up 3
I Am My Own Wife 3
Pericles 3
The Thing About Men 3
All the King's Men 2
Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue 2
I Have Before Me…..Rwanda 2
Respect 2
Romeo and Juliet 2
The Bluest Eye 2
Voices Underwater 2
Based on a Totally True Story 1
Beckett's Memories 1
Charm School 1
Educating Rita 1
False Creeds 1
The Chase 1
The God Committee 1
The Servant of Two Masters 1
The Violet Hour 1
Waiting to be Invited 1
Brooklyn Boy 1
Permalink | |
Wine, hors d’oeuvres and Suzi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nominations for Atlanta’s Suzi Bass Awards, the city’s only professional theater honors, will be announced Monday night at the New American Shakespeare Tavern.
The awards for the 2006-2007 Atlanta season will be handed out Nov. 5, and Suzi organizers are hinting that after two years at the 14th Street Playhouse, Atlanta’s Tonys will move to the Fox Theatre.
The venue will be announced Monday at the Tavern — as well as the winner of this year’s Spirit of Suzi Bass Award, given in honor of the beloved Atlanta actress who died of melanoma in 2002 at age 55. (Previous winners of the Spirit of Suzi Bass Award include True Colors Theatre founder Kenny Leon and Atlanta actress and Actors’ Equity liaison Karen Howell.)
Monday’s free festivities begin at 5:30. There’ll be a raffle for two airline tickets good for travel to any Delta destination in the world. (Tickets are $20 and may be purchased online at suziawards.org.) The Suzi-hounds promise wine and munchies — along with nominations for the Suzi Awards’ 20 categories.
The Tavern is at 499 Peachtree St. N.E., across from Crawford Long Hospital in Midtown. For more information: www.suziawards.org
Permalink | |
‘Iron Moon’ @ Aurora
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays Through Sept. 8. $16 senior citizens and groups of 10 or more, $13 students with valid ID. Discovery Point Studio Theatre at Aurora Theatre. 128 Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222; www.auroratheatre.com.
Family ties bind the first production in Aurora Theatre’s new black box space, Discovery Point Studio Theatre. But in this a case, it might have benefited from some outside perspective.
“Iron Moon” was written by local playwright Gabriel Dean and directed by his wife, Jessie Dean. Together they run Relativity Theatre Concern, which co-produced the show, and the drama is based on the life story of the playwright’s grandmother.
The play is about a family, too —- one that implodes in some of the ugliest ways imaginable.
Sick, elderly Eller (Lynne Ashe) is a patient in a psychiatric hospital compelled to tell a good-natured nurse (Nikki Toombs) about the events that led to her family’s undoing. While her story unfolds, the action is played out by Eller’s adolescent self (the promising Rachel Farley), along with her younger siblings and her parents, Jim (Bradley Bergeron) and Leafy (Sherrie Peterson).
Without question, Dean has a shocking story of violence, betrayal and faith set in the Depression-era South to tell. And the older, addled Eller is a complex character who is alternately frustrating, endearing and heartbreaking. Ashe does a tremendous job conveying the nuances of those emotions —- all while seated in an armchair, no less.
But there is a kitchen-sink quality to both the script and the production that overloads it to the point of distraction.
It’s enough that the play has a blind man, a mute child, a wanton woman, the specter of death and frequent leaps back and forth in time. But it also has a confounding Indian spirit; visions of a brandy-sipping Jesus; voice-overs from an unseen evangelist; and long, poetic monologues that do more to mystify than illuminate. And that’s not all. Patrick Campbell’s simple, evocative set design is gilded with intrusive wall projections of Scripture and pictures of a full moon. On another wall is chalked a Bible verse minus a few words, which are later filled in, and from a TV set blares more evangelical pronouncements.
So much effort is made through biblical references, apparitions and technological gimmicks to make Eller’s story say something important with a capital I that the heartbreak and redemption inherent to the story are obscured.
For a story about faith, the lack of faith in “Iron Moon” to stand on its own without all the unnecessary flourishes and embellishments is most stark.
Bottom line: A compelling drama obscured by too many bells and whistles.
Permalink | |
