Review: "The Pound, A Musical For The Dogs", Gahanna High School Theatre,

Gahanna High School’s Performance Studio 2017 students put together a sweet, delightful, simple musical  “The Pound, A Musical For The Dogs” as their annual dinner theatre fundraiser.  This is a cute story about, Laura, who begins a new job at a municipal dog shelter and quickly discovers she has a gift for being able to communicate with the dogs. As she gets to know them, Laura discovers that the dogs each have a sad story about how they ended up at the shelter. The show was a simple staging with the students singing, and dancing to piano accompaniment from music director and Gahanna High School alum Michael O’Dell simple, attractive choreography and effectively delivering the lines. “The Pound is a relatively new work from the Minnesota creative tea, of Phil Darg and Julie Ana Rayne.  I would highly recommend it for other high school or community theatre groups looking for a simple musical with wide audience appeal. Their Imagine Theater web site describes this as suitable for all ages.  I would suggest that some parental discretion might be advised as the piece contains stories of dogs and their owners dying.  Those scenes had me and my husband as well as several other audience members, blinking back tears. But the ending is hopeful and uplifting.   Well done, Cindi Macioce and students. Thank you for this pleasant evening of theater. 

    Imagine Theatre, Minnesota, link: http://www.imaginedtheatre.org/ThePound/about.htm.

       

Review: "Top Girls", Otterbein University Department of Theatre and Dance

Caryl Churchill’s 1982 “Top Girls” is described as an exploration of what it means to be a successful woman.  It was written and originally produced in London about the same time that Margaret Thatcher became the first female British prime minister.  The play’s focus is on the idea of women breaking glass ceilings.  The piece is best known for the opening scene where a modern-day Marlene (Daria Redus) is celebrating her recent promotion at the “Top Girls” employment agency by hosting a dinner party for strong women of history including 19^th Century Explorer, Writer, photographer, Isabella Bird (Kara Jobe); Dull Gret, (Isabel Billinghurst), a celebrated figure from Flemish folklore who was famous for leading an army of women to plunder and pillage Hell; Pope Joan (Kaylee Barrett) who, disguised as a man, was said to have been Pope between 854 and 856; Lady Nijo (Sally Clark), mistress of a Japanese emperor, and later a Budhist nun; and Griselda (Lauren Dimario) "The Patient Wife," a literary figure from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 
    It is difficult to follow the dialog in this opening scene, because all of the women are talking over each other in their constant diva competition to be the center of attention.  Though I am certain that is how the author intended for the scene to be played, I found this extremely annoying. 

    We left at intermission, as did many others.  The subject matter didn’t offer a lot of encouragement for people like me to want to stay. Several people left after the first scene, though they had to crawl over folks in the dark in order to escape. I am sure the medical emergency with an audience member which caused a hold in the action just prior to the intermission, was also a contributing factor to the massive audience exit. (By the way, the house staff and the stage manager handled this emergency in an efficient, compassionate and professional manner.) 

    Director Lenny Leibowitz does a great job in helping his creative team fulfill the playwright’s intentions.  The actors are especially to be commended for their courage, skill and commitment to these difficult characters.  Rob Johnson’s set design provides a nice outline for the various scenes, while furniture and props fill in the details. Julia Ferreri’s costuming is good – especially in the first scene.  Assistant Director Emily Bubeck’s program notes help us understand the background of the dinner guests.  Leibowitz’s program notes help prepare us for the non-linear nature of the action and the sequence of scenes.

    I realize that Otterbein needs to do shows like this because of the many strong female acting students that are among its ranks.  This piece has the classical flavor that the students should be exposed to as part of their training.

   Though the show has outstanding production values, “you are only as good as your material,” as my dear friend, Otterbein Theatre Department Chair Chris Kirk, is often wont to say.  The script is difficult for the audience to follow even with all the helpful program notes.  During the drive home, my husband summed up my feelings nicely:  "After over 25 years, many of us are tired of being beaten over the head with this kind of defensive, angry, in-your-face, feminist activism."  
   I am equally certain that those who are dedicated to the continuing causes and concerns of the feminist "sisterhood" will find this production uplifting, affirming and inspirational.  

Review: "The Taming Of The Shrew", Columbus Civic Theater

  There are several scholarly conjectures concerning the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s comedy “The Taming Of The Shrew”.  None of them seem to agree.  In contemporary Western Cultural discussions, much ado is made about the misogynist themes. I have my own interpretation.

   The story centers on the relationship between Pretruchio (Amanda Phillips) and Katherine (Jordan Davis). Katherine or Kate, as Pretruchio nicknames her, is the strong-willed, temperamental oldest daughter or Baptista (Tony Ludovico).  Her nasty disposition is known throughout the land.  Thus, there are no suitors for her hand.  Baptista’s younger daughter, Bianca (Madison Garvin Lee), by contrast is mild-mannered and sweet natured.  She has many suitors including the elderly Gremio (Nick Samson), Hortensio (Scott Raymond Clay) and Lucentio (David Lawler). Baptista is adamant that he will not allow Bianca to wed until a suitable match can be made for Katherine. 

    The bold, brash Pretruchio barters with Baptista for a rich dowry, wagering that he can woo and win Katherine. Pretruchio employs a myriad of attitudes and techniques to “tame” Kate, including crooning flattery and solicitousnees, behaving like a mad man,  depriving her of the kind of clothes, food, entertainment and relationships she would prefer. I don’t see Petruchio’s attitude and behavior toward Katherine as misogynist.  Rather I think Shakespeare has provided a brilliant recipe for how to deal with bratty behavior in anybody. Petruchio croons and cajoles, employs humor and a bit of Machiavellian cunning, suggesting that the food and clothing that Kate craves are not good enough for her.  I note that Petruchio never does anything to Kate that would "harm" her.  Rather he wears down her pride and her brattiness with his “tricks”. Thus Petruchio succeeds where his colleagues fail.  In the end a kindly, good-natured Kate gives a long speech about the duty a wife owes to her husband, while Bianca and the widow, (Kris Wilson) who weds Hortensio, are disrespectful to their husbands and take them for granted.

    All the actors in the current Columbus Civic production deliver Shakespeare’s prose with accuracy and authority. Phillips and Davis are especially impressive in their stage antics.  However, I don’t find their relationship credible.  The gender-bending of Pretruchio doesn’t bother me.  Phillips delivers the role of Petruchio nicely.  But because Davis is so much taller than Phillips, I just didn’t believe that Phillips could exercise that kind of dominance. 

   The show is well-paced.  Director Richard Albert has made some excellent choices in cutting the script to make it better fit a two-hour time-frame and the small Columbus Civic stage   Though, there is no set or furnishing to speak of, the walls and doorways are attractive and well-placed. There are some blocking problems in placing that many characters on that tiny stage. In the end, all the characters are standing in static lines and unattractive clumps

    The costumes from Dayton Willison are a mish-mash of things.   

   The excellent line delivery, characterizations and commitments to character make the show worth seeing.