Steel Magnolias at TLT

A perfect storm

by Michael Dresdner

L - R: Carol Richmond, Dana Galagan, Jessica Robins, Gretchen Boyt, Stephanie Leeper, Kathi Aleman.  DK hotography 

Steel Magnolias is an amazing property, beautifully written with endless wit, darting one-liners, richly crafted characters, and ultimately, deep, wrenching emotion. Tacoma Little Theatre graced it with an outstanding ensemble cast and a sterling director who added sparkle, humanity, and flawless timing to create a perfect storm of a theatre experience. This is truly a must-see play.

Great plays start with great choices, and director Elliot Weiner has made them well, choosing what felt like the perfect actor for each of the character-rich roles. He added excellent pacing -- fluid, snappy, and captivating -- and combined it with some very clever staging. A large imaginary mirror at the front of the stage allows the actors to look at one another in its reflection while always facing directly toward the audience. The conceit helps draw us intimately into Truvy’s carport-turned-hair salon so well that in spite of the proscenium stage, we feel like we’re right there among the scissors and combs.

Truvy’s hair salon is the ad hoc meeting place for six diverse but intertwined women from a small Louisiana town. Set against the backdrop of their own changing lives, the friends gossip, snipe at one another, complain, and reminisce about past and present husbands and lovers, and the vicissitudes of life. The lines are fast and very funny, and we’re soon roped in by each personality in this charming group.  

Things get tense when M’Lynn’s daughter, Shelby, who is about to be married, decides to have a child against the advice of her doctor,  who warns pregnancy could tip her diabetic state into mortal danger. M’Lynn is forced to walk that fine line between aching to force her daughter into common sense and fear of alienating her. Ultimately, Shelby’s choice leads to the inevitable, triggering a shattering emotional release from M’Lynn, cushioned only by the loving support of this circle of genuine, devoted friends.

The plays trappings -- set, lights, sound, costumes, props -- were all top notch, but this play is really about the acting. Fortunately, the six women in the cast were absolutely superb, right down to their comfortable Southern accents.  

Stephanie Leeper artfully crafts Truvy, the big-haired, flashy, doyenne of style, into a calming, caring den mother to her shy, confused employee and her circle of customer/friends. Jessica Robins plays her timid, unmoored employee Annelle, who eventually recreates herself through religion. Dana Galagan is bitingly funny as Clairee, an older, richer, wiser voice in the fray, whose mutual sniping with her equivalent counterpart, Ouiser (pronounced “Weezer”), adroitly brought to life by Carol Richmond, hides their thinly veiled affection for one another.

Then there’s Gretchen Boyt, the beautiful, sweet Shelby, a southern belle so charming that no one can help but love her. Capping it all is Kathi Aleman as M’Lynn, Shelby’s emotionally torn mother who struggles to quell her very obvious frustration at not being able to talk sense into her free-spirited daughter.

It is Aleman who brings the most powerful performance to the table, erupting into a passionate release of anger, pain, frustration, and tears at her daughter’s demise at the climax of the play. By the time she was done, the entire audience was riveted in stunned, tearful, breath-bated emotion. Atop a play filled with great acting, hers was a performance not to be missed.

Backing up all this stellar cast was a delightfully appropriate set by Blake York and scenic artist Brie Yost, along with wonderful costumes (Michele Graves,) lighting (Matt Lawrence,) and props (Katelyn Simpson.) Jeffery Weaver did a great job on hair and wigs, critical to a play set in a hair salon, and Lynn Harper Nelson was the dialect coach who helped with their vocal realism. Sound design, by Nena Curley and director Elliot Weiner, added yet another dimension to the play. In fact, the radio on the set almost becomes another character, waking up to spew exactly the right song for the moment and mood each time one of the women bops it with a fist.

It is rare when all of a production’s elements merge so deftly to create a such a notably outstanding play, and you really should see it when it happens. Steel Magnolias is only at Tacoma Little Theatre for three weeks. Make sure you don’t miss it.

Steel Magnolias

Oct. 18 to Nov. 3, 2013

Tacoma Little Theatre

http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

The 39 Steps at Centerstage

Déjà vu by four

by Michael Dresdner

You might want to scroll down and read my most recent previous post; it’s a review of The 39 Steps which opened one week ago at Renton Civic. Last night the same play, but with a different cast, venue, production team, and director, opened at Centerstage, and while the words and “plot” were largely the same, the presentation was decidedly different.

You’ll notice I put “plot” in quotes. There is one – the plot of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps – but it’s really quite irrelevant, especially in this version. The feeling you walk away with is that it’s merely a structural excuse for this excellent four person cast to stage something remarkably close to a series of Monty Python sketches. If you like that sort of thing, and fortunately, I do, you’ll be delighted with how very well they do it.

Robert Bergin, the only actor who inhabits just one character throughout, plays Richard Hannay, the protagonist, with an earnest combination of reserve and befuddlement reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart. He provides a small measure of sanity needed to anchor the madness around him. Mariana De Fazio plays the three very different women who guide Hannay’s convoluted journey with an understated support that subtly but substantially aids and abets the rest of this well-meshed ensemble.  

It’s just this well-constructed acting backdrop that enables the two clowns, Vince Brady and Erik Gratton, to soar. They play a whole host of different outrageous characters hell-bent on grabbing the laughs, and boy are they good at it. With quick costume changes, a host of different voices, and elaborately energetic physical comedy, they play a wide range of short, tall, gruff, absurd, giddy, and foolish men and women. There’s one hilarious scene, with Gratton playing a short women, on his knees and in drag, trying to sit on a bed, that alone is worth the price of admission.  

There’s no set to speak of, save for an elaborate train trestle made of ladders and boards that appears in one short scene. Instead, the four actors hustle a variety of set pieces – chairs, tables, couches, counters, doors and windows on wheels, etc. – not surreptitiously like dutiful stage hands, but quite overtly, and usually in character. “This mockery,” they seem to say, “is brought to you by us, the actors, moving set pieces, providing our own sound effects, and changing our clothes, heights, and characters, right before your eyes.”

Aiding both the actors and director Cynthia White is an army of back stage denizens providing costumes by Julia Evanovich, sound design by Ray Pritchard, lighting by Amy Silveria, set design by Jerry Clausen and Greg Heinzel, and props by Sheila Criscione, Mary Sawyer, and Laura Campbell. Together, they make a team that delivers a night of ribald fun.

All this should come as no surprise from the theatre that so adeptly brings English Pantomime to the Puget Sound each year. If there’s one thing Centerstage has a good grip upon, it’s the combination of nuance and lunacy that is British comedy.

The 39 Steps

September 28 through October 20, 2013

Centerstage

http://www.centerstagetheatre.com/

The 39 Steps

Two by four

by Michael Dresdner

Perhaps I should explain my sub-title, “Two by four.” Last night I went to see The 39 Steps, a raucous comedy at Renton Civic Theatre directed, oddly enough, by John Munn, the artistic director of the Lakewood Playhouse. It’s a play with just four outstanding actors playing a multitude of parts; hence the four. The two comes from the fact that in just one week, the same play, with a different director and cast, opens a few miles away at Centerstage, and if you keep posted, I’ll bring you that review next week.

While it may sound familiar, this is not the famous spy thriller of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. Although it borrows the plot line, these 39 steps climb a decidedly different staircase.

Think of the prop comedy of Jonathan Winters overlaid with the goofy physical mayhem and overt sexual innuendo of Benny Hill and you’ll be on the right track. Add to that all the sound skills of a whole team of Foley practitioners with the mime skills of fine physical actors and you’ll have some idea of the tenor of the play.

Bob DeDea plays Richard Hannay, the protagonist and only character who stays in the same role throughout. Deya Ozburn primarily plays the raven-haired German woman Annabella Schmidt, Scottish red-head Margaret, and English blond Pamela. Almost all of the other male and female characters, and there are dozens of them, are portrayed by two thoroughly adroit clowns, Bryan K. Bender and Eric Hartley. To put it succinctly, all four actors are nothing less than amazing.

They are supported with wonderful costumes by Rachel Wilkie, spot on lighting by Curt Hetherington, clever props by Jessica Anderson, and superb sound effects by Jay Biederman.

With no set to speak of, the actors use props, mime, movement, and both self -generated and off stage sound effects to create an airplane dogfight, a careening car replete with working doors and windows, a comically defective window shade, conveniently moving doors, floating hand held windows, a typically rocking train, and more. There’s even a harrowing chase scene on a railroad trestle bridge created on nothing but the stage apron.

The two clowns, Bender and Hartley, flip back and forth through a maze of characters in seconds, often with no more change than yanking off one hat and replacing it with another, altering their voices, accents, mannerisms, and even heights in the blink of an eye. In one scene they start as annoying traveling salesmen on a train, then quickly become a newsboy, a conductor, a brace of cops and more, cycling back and forth through all the characters repeatedly with astonishing rapidity.  

To some extent this is an insider’s play for Hitchcock fans. It’s laced with subtle references to his characters and movies, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. Naturally, that includes appearances of the big man himself, both as his typical cameo in human form and another time as a tiny silhouette during a shadow puppet show reflected on a back-lit scrim.

With so much mania packed into act one it’s hard to sustain that level of frenetic activity, and the second act, possibly because we’ve been inundated since opening curtain, occasionally becomes a bit tedious, especially for those not well versed in Hitchcock trivia. Still, it is a riotous three-card Monte of a play, designed to showcase the considerable talents of its actors while incessantly tickling the funny bone of the audience.

The 39 Steps

Sept. 20 to Oct. 5, 2013

Renton Civic Theatre

http://rentoncivictheatre.org/

Arsenic and Old Lace at Lakewood Playhouse

I’m not Mortimer

by Michael Dresdner

Martha Brewster (Rebecca McCarthy) 

The first of several running gags in Arsenic and Old Lace, the opening salvo in Lakewood Playhouse’s celebrated 75^th season, is that the male lead, Mortimer, is a reluctant theatre critic who despises all the plays he sees. That’s the least of the unlikely scenarios we’re asked to accept as normal in this dark comedy that’s decidedly more farce than noir. Directed by Dale Westgaard, the black humor is played so broadly that it becomes almost a corporeal cartoon; a layer cake of absurdity made manifest.

At the heart of the play is a pair of achingly sweet but morally askew spinster sisters who care for lonely, single men with the offer of lodging. However, the room comes paired with a compassionately administered dose of poisoned elderberry wine, another running gag. Their nephew, the aforementioned Mortimer, discovers their peculiar take on charity, and their impressive body count, during one of his frequent visits inspired largely by his interest in their neighbor’s daughter, Elaine, who more than reciprocates his nascent ardor.

L to R: Abby (Diana George), Martha (Rebecca McCarthy). Seated: Mortimer (Jacob Tice) 

  

Also living in the house, and definitely adding to the lunacy, is their nephew Teddy, a bugle-blaring delusional convinced he is President Teddy Roosevelt. He unwittingly helps bury the many bodies while convinced he is digging the Panama Canal in the basement. All this occurs under the noses of the local police, several of whom visit frequently due to bugle noise complaints, and who, to a man, all adore the sweet sisters. One cop adds extra confusion by refusing to leave until Mortimer helps him flesh out the play script he’s writing on the side.

L to R: Mortimer (Jacob Tice), Jonathan (Chris Cantrell)

Things become much more complicated when yet another nephew, the long-absent and quintessentially evil Jonathan Brewster, shows up with both a dead body and a hapless criminal sidekick in tow. Jonathan, deservedly on the lam, has a much more serious-minded approach to his multiple murders. The sidekick is his plastic surgeon, ironically named Dr. Einstein, who surgically provides Jonathan with new faces as needed to evade capture. Hey, I said it was absurd!

Diana George and Rebecca Lea McCarthy play the Brewster spinsters, Abby and Martha respectively, with even more flightiness than charm. Two frequent house visitors are the “flaco y gordo” pair of police officers played by Kerry Bringman and Kenneth Loth, clearly meant to be evocative of Laurel and Hardy in both stature and nature. Ana Bury is the adorable Elaine Harper, one of the few totally sane characters on stage. Her love, and the play’s leading man, Mortimer Brewster, is nicely handled by Jacob Tice. Meanwhile, Jeffery Weaver cuts a wide and delightful path as the nutty Teddy “Roosevelt” Brewster.  

Chris Cantrell is both realistically threatening and convincingly evil as Jonathan Brewster, while Tony Onorati plays his German sidekick Dr. Einstein with overtones of Peter Lorre’s Ugarte from Casablanca, and with a decidedly unusual accent. Both Mark Peterson, as the play-writing cop, and Steve Tarry, as his somewhat jaded police lieutenant, bring excellent and realistic portrayals to the fray, along with some much-appreciated nuance. Michael Sandner, Patrick Gerrells, and Ernest Heller round out the other minor roles, along with Connor Tibke, who mutely portrays the two dead bodies we get to see.

Set designer Amanda Swenger outdid herself with a lavish and beautiful set portraying the Brewster living room, aided by set dresser Halley Phillips, propmaster Virginia Yanoff,  Kristen Zetterstrom’s lighting, and Lindsey Morck’s sound design. As she so consistently does, costumer Alex Lewington created both an accurate period setting and a stunning array of outfits, pin perfect from hats to shoes.  

Eventually, all the situations and people in this play get sorted out not so much by their actions, but by their natures. The lesson here is that good intentions equal good deeds, even when they’re not. If nothing else, it’s a very comforting way of wrapping up this convoluted cinnamon bun of a play.   

Arsenic and Old Lace

Sept. 13 to Oct. 13, 2013

Lakewood Playhouse

http://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/

All photos by Kate Paterno-Lick

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised) at TLT

Barking Mad; or How Hamlet becomes a Great Dane

by Michael Dresdner

  * L to R: Luke Amundson, Coleman Hagerman, Blake York 

Again. She did it again.

Explanation?

Last year, after seeing her version of The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised) at Tacoma Little Theatre, I wrote “With her unerring eye for humor and a truly amazing cast, director Suzy Willhoft has brought one of the stage’s funniest properties to a new and greater height of hilarity and lunacy.”

That show was so well-loved that everyone involved realized its two weekend run was not nearly enough, so they brought it back for an encore. If anything, it’s even better with a slightly modified cast that has all the chops and incredible chemistry to boot. This time it’s here for three weeks, which is better, but still not enough.

Luke Amundson and Coleman Hagerman have returned from last year with a new partner in theatre crime, the redoubtable Blake York, to take us through a rapid and hilarious tour of all of Shakespeare’s plays in an hour and a half. There are reams of costumes (Michele Graves) along with dolls, puppets and other props (Sarahann Rickner), but mostly there are three incredibly funny guys cross-dressing, baiting the audience, changing characters and voices repeatedly, and flinging exceedingly funny lines in every direction. It’s all in the name of turning Shakespeare from imposing intellectualism into harmless, engaging farce.

The opening night audience adored them, as did I, laughing and applauding from the opening salvo to the anything-but-bitter end. Nor were they spared; during the second act the three actors goad everyone into becoming part of the raucous insanity.  

Of course, this play demands much not only from the actors and director, but from the backup crew as well, so a tip of the hat must also go to stage managers Sarahann Rickner and Sophie Nevins and lighting’s Niclas R. Olson.

And the good news? This encore is still only $10, so there is absolutely no reason for any right minded person to miss it.

For a more in-depth take, feel free to read my review of last year’s version of this same show at http://michaeldresdner.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-complete-works-of-shakespeare.html  

It all still holds true for this wonderful production.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised)

Sept. 6 to 22, 2013

Tacoma Little Theatre

http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

* Photos by DK Photography

The Importance of Being Earnest at Lakewood

Éclat, élan, and earnest elegance

by Michael Dresdner

The cast                                                                                                          Photo by Dean Lapin                                  

The Importance of Being Earnest, which opened last night at Lakewood Playhouse, is undoubtedly the best of Oscar Wilde’s biting satires. It is, by any reckoning, an outstanding and completely enjoyable play to watch; flawlessly written, hilarious, and just dripping with those questionable British values Wilde saw as the underbelly of Victorian society, and skewered mercilessly.

I adore this play so much that I watch or read some iteration of it several times each year, both to bolster my own moral turpitude and to remind myself to always keep a sharp tongue in my head.

Or is that civil?

Whatever. The point is that a play of such perfection demands a director and cast equal to its brilliance. That is precisely what director Marilyn Bennett and her superb cast have given to us lucky Lakewood Playhouse patrons; a shiny, perfect apple of a comedy just bursting with juicy delight.

Ah, yes; you need a short synopsis, right? Trust me, it’s the amazing characters and gleefully funny dialog that makes this play, not the plot, but here goes.

Two elegant bachelor pals discover that they both engage in elaborate fictions to allow them to escape societal demands and instead pursue pleasure. They both pine for well-born young ladies, and thanks in part an inexplicable allure of the name, both insist they are called Ernest.

There are some serious obstacles, beyond the obvious fact that neither is actually named Ernest. One yearns for the cousin of the other, who is saddled with a gorgon of a mother blocking the way because of the suitor’s lack of any apparent parentage. The other yearns for the young, pretty ward of the first, but unless both are happily paired, neither will be. A lost cigarette case, a lost satchel, a lost novel, a lost baby, and a once careless former nursemaid help make a complete scramble of this Mexican standoff, but don’t worry. At the end, all is resolved in a comically unlikely manner, and everyone ends up happy.

Now for the good stuff; the lead actors.

The Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax (Deya Ozburn) is the daughter of Lady Bracknell, the inamorata of John Worthing (Bryan K. Bender), and the cousin of Algernon Moncrieff (Andrew Kittrell), who in turn pines for Worthing’s ward, Cecily Cardew (Cassie Jo Fastabend).

Ladies first, gentlemen!

Ozburn is amazing, adroitly donning the imperious, duplicitous mantle of Gwendolen with flawless timing, an unerring balance of coy sweetness and cutting innuendo, and a set of postures and mannerisms that make her the very best Gwendolen I’ve ever seen, on stage or screen. It was an absolutely perfect performance.

Did you catch all that? Good, because I am about to repeat exactly the same thing three more times, for Fastabend’s Cecily, Kittrell’s Algernon, and Bender’s John Worthing. Each actor crafted the epitome of Wilde’s characters with the same flawless timing, balance, delivery, and physical mannerisms.

Fastabend (L) and Ozburn spy on a seated Kittrell                 photo by Dean Lapin

Fastabend gave us a Cecily bursting with both kittenish enthusiasm and womanly wiles, her sweet innocence hiding the razor sharp claws of cutting verbal retort. Kittrell was a joy to watch as the suave, slightly foppish, thoroughly hedonistic Algernon. And last, though anything but least, was Bender, an actor who has consistently created some of the best performances we’ve seen on these local stages (Mozart, Benedick, Macbeth). His John Worthing was simply perfect; the ideal balance of refined, responsible landowner, and earnest, love-struck suitor.

The rest of the cast, Lady Bracknell (Syra Beth Puett), Rev. Chausuble (Aaron J. Schmookler), the butler, Merriman (Tony Onorati), manservant Lane (Michael Sandner), Miss Prism (Lee Ryan) and the housemaid, Felicity (Laura Shearer) are also quite good and definitely hold their own, but the leads set the bar impossibly high, and to be honest, those four love-struck leads both steal and make this show.  

It is a credit to both director and cast that every word, every nuance, and every bitingly funny line was crisp, clear, and perfectly understandable. That should be taken for granted, but becomes a problem surprisingly often. The director’s pacing was so wonderful that the time flew by, and as it should be, we were left wanting more.

Let’s not forget the splendid costumes by the always excellent Alex Lewingon, a cleverly simple set by Robin Dean, Larry Hagerman, and Hally Phillips, lighting by Alex Smith, sound by John Burton, and props by Patrick Casados. And, because they invisibly keep things running like a well-oiled machine, a nod to the stage manager, Kali Raisi.

Even the seating deserves an honorable mention. Lakewood is partway through the process of replacing the seats in the entire theatre, and we had the good fortune to sit in the new ones. They are sinfully luxurious and unjustifiably comfortable. Patron sponsorship is helping to pay for them, so we dutifully “bought” a seat, which will now sport a plaque with our august names engraved on it. Fairly few seats are left unsponsored, so if you want to be a theater immortal, talk to the box office.

The Importance of Being Earnest is the final play of the season, and I can think of no better way to go out in a blaze of glory than with a production that is so superb, so funny, and so thoroughly delightful. Go see it; I can confidently guarantee you an evening of pure, unadulterated pleasure. 

The Importance of Being Earnest

June 14^th to July 14^th, 2013

Lakewood Playhouse

http://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/

The Laramie Project at TLT

Tolerance  is not enough

by Michael Dresdner

Photo by Galen Wicks 

“There are stories we love to tell, and there are stories we have to tell.”

That’s what actor Mark Peterson wrote in lieu of his bio in the playbill for The Laramie Project at Tacoma Little Theatre, and as is often the case with Mark, he aptly summed up just why this play is and should be on the TLT stage. 

The Laramie Project surrounds the murder and torture of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally beaten and left to die tied to a fence outside Laramie in 1998. However, that is only a small part of the very real story this play tells.

The writers, Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project, went to Laramie and conducted hundreds of interviews of the people there. With that they crafted not a slanted piece of propaganda or a shock tale, but rather an astonishingly even-handed revelation of what really happened and how the locals responded in both words and actions. It is that very honesty and lack of bias that makes this play so powerful.

Make no mistake; it is powerful. It’s the sort of theatre that does its job; to bring you to a very real place that you have not been before by taking you inside the minds of those who witnessed reality. For that reason alone it is well worth seeing.

Of course, if you are going to experience this, and you should, thank your lucky stars if you can see it with a cast of this caliber. Director Brie Yost deserves the accolades for that. Her genius began with assembling the ideal cast, then continued as she led them to create true éclat.

Jen Aylsworth, Russ Coffey, Mike Cooper, Rachel Fitzgerald, Marty Mackenzie, Jefri Peters, Mark Peterson, Tiffani Pike, and Jeremy Thompson each took on an average of ten roles apiece, flipping effortlessly between wildly divergent characters. They did it, to an actor, flawlessly. I could endlessly call out exceptional scenes for each and every one of them. Instead, I’ll just say this is as fine an ensemble cast as one can imagine.

What also comes across is the distinct feeling that the cast has bonded with one another well beyond the normal realm of what a production requires. Perhaps because of that, they adroitly become the close-knit Tectonic Theater Project, then become the varied and sundry Laramie denizens, all with gratifying proficiency.

Rounding out the experience was the support of an equally fine production and design staff. Sets are by Lex Gernon, costumes and props by Jeffery Weaver, lighting by Niclas R. Olson, and the stage manager is Bethany Bevier.

Don’t be put off by what sounds like a depressing subject. The Laramie Project is, in spite of its general subject matter, a thoroughly moving theatre experience. Go see it, for this is a show whose seats should be filled every night. Yes, Tacoma Little Theatre deserves your support for making this available, but far more than that, as a living, breathing human, you deserve to experience this sort of emotional fulfillment.

The Laramie Project

June 7 to June 23, 2013

Tacoma Little Theatre

www.tacomalittletheatre.com


For Alec Clayton's take on this play, make sure you read the review at his blog: 

http://alecclayton.blogspot.com/2013/06/tacoma-little-theatre-takes-on-laramie.html