Review: "Mary Poppins" -- Pleasure Guild Of Nationwide Children's Hospital.

“Mary Poppins”, the stage musical, is based on a series of  eight Children’s books written by P.J. Travers from 1934 to 1988 and a 1964 Disney film.      A 2003 collaboration between Disney studios, Producer Cameron Mackintosh, songwriters George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and script writer Julian Fellowes fashioned a musical theatre version which opened in London in 2004 and debuted on Broadway in 2006 where it garnered several Tony nominations and awards. 

    Pleasure Guild’s current Central Ohio production is filled with joy, energy, great singing and dancing, beautiful costumes, a fabulous orchestra and that extra bit of stage magic that reflects the title character’s special powers.

   This was opening night, and some of the scene shifts and technical effects were a little rough. 

    The show features a huge cast, crew and support staff with some of Central Ohio’s most skilled and capable theatre people.

   Brandon Fox is especially noteworthy in the role of Bert. His stage presence, dancing, singing and characterization are spot-on.  Kristen Basore is excellent in the title role. David Bahgat, (George Banks) brings energetic creativity to his portrayal.  

   I always enjoy seeing Central Ohio theatre friends having a good time on stage. Julie Russell has fine vocals and appearance as the bird woman. She obviously enjoys the tap dancing opportunities as part of the chimney sweep chorus.  

   It was good to see other theatre friends in this production – including Luther Center, Emma Lou Andrews, Dayton Duval and the entire Cremean family – Kate, Tim and their children David and Emily.

I usually prefer live theatre over film versions of shows – even when the movie came before the stage adaptation, as is the case with this production.  Pleasure Guild’s rendition of this beloved classic provides a wonderful piece of theater entertainment that the entire family can enjoy. 

    

Un-Heard Melodies

   Leap Year Day, February 29, 2016 --
This day has been one of musical reflections for me.

    Among other things, it is the day that our beloved Lynda Hasseler and members of her Capitial University choirs are singing at Carnegie Hall.

   It is the time when Gayle Walker and her Otterbein Concert Choir students are embarking on their Spring Break tour to Boston.

   It is Rossini’s birthday, as our friends at WOSU Classical radio  reminded me by broadcasting some of his best ditties.

    The most profound musical reflections that stick with me are from watching the movie “Copying Beethoven” instead of tuning into the Oscars on Sunday night. 

   “Copying Beethoven” is a fictionalized tale of the last year of Beethoven’s life.   What haunted me about it was the intense, passionate moments when Beethoven was hearing "what God wanted him to hear", though he was deaf.  He exhorts those around him to hear, see and create what would please God. 

    It’s not a great movie.  It deserves its bad reviews.   I cannot imagine that a pretty, refined, well-educated young woman would have been alone with Beethoven in his rooms. That she and Beethoven would have any kind of intimate relationship -- even a non-sexual one -- is just not credible to me.   

     In his “Above The Mean” blog today, my friend, Carl Japikse, quoted from the poet John Keats’ “Ode On A Grecian Urn”:

        ”Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

       Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

       Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:”

 Japikse suggests that masters such as Keats and Beethoven were attuned to something that cannot be heard or experienced on the physical plane – something of Spirit.

  One of the pieces Beethoven composed when he was deaf was his Ninth Symphony.  The music of the Ninth dominates the movie.  It's the choral piece that contains the beautiful and popular “Ode To Joy”. 

   Seeing this movie and hearing Beethoven's glorious music again delivers a great reminder that there is no truth or beauty in the cacophony of political and social wrangling that dominates the media and pollutes our culture.
  What would happen if we put aside cell phones and turned off the media for a little while-- maybe just for 15 minutes every day?  For just fifteen minutes every day why don't we try reading good poetry and listening to the music of masters such as Beethoven as we think about and seek understanding about what God wants? 

Review: "The Constant Wife" -- Columbus Civic Theater

Somerset Maugham’s “The Constant Wife” is a fun-filled script that satirizes marital manners among members of British upper class in the 1920’s.    

    Columbus Civic Theater’s current production features Britt Kline as Constance Middleton, the cleverly faithful wife to Dr. John Middleton (Ben Turner) who has been having a long-term affair with Constance’s best friend Marie Louise Durham (Nikki Rehmert). 

    As the show opens, Constance’s sister Martha Culver (Julia Cannel) rushes to warn Constance of her husband’s cuckoldry and is headed off by their mother, Mrs. Culver (Cheryl Muller).  At the same time, a family friend, Barbara Fawcett (Leslie Robinson) shows up to add her support and to offer Constance a job as an interior decorator.  Constance protests her loyalty and faithfulness to her husband and her best friend and with her mother’s help, shuts out any discouraging words from Martha or Barbara about exposing and divorcing John.

   A former suitor, Bernard Kersel (Dan Griscom) has just returned from pursuing his trading business in China and visits Constance to proclaim that he is still in love with her.  Constance flirts with him while declaring her faithfulness and loyalty to John.

   The action comes to a hilarious intersection when the affair is publicly exposed and Constance acknowledges that she has been aware of the situation from the beginning.

    In the third act Constance takes her own clever revenge by accepting Barbara’s job offer and “paying her husband back”.

   Director Richard Albert elects to depict the fully nuanced, high-brow attitudes, accents and gestures that would have been typical among British aristocrats of that era.  Dialect Coach Ryan Long has done an excellent job of advising and assisting with the British pronunciations and inflections.

   Kline exudes confident intelligence and has excellent gestures and timing as does Muller.  Maugham has gifted Constance and Mrs. Culver with the best remarks.  Both Kline and Muller deliver the lines with great panache and style.

   Cannel has good stage presence and excellent command of her lines, though she seems a bit shrill at times. 

   Turner is handsome and elegant. He equals Kline’s energy which produces a playful synergy in the relationship between Constance and John, making the civility of their disagreements especially delicious.

   Rehmert is pretty and injects a delightful innocence into her role, which is both attractive and funny in its deliberate understatement. 

   Griscom looks good on stage and seems to know his lines, but there are moments when his characterization wobbles.  The intense anger that Kersel directs toward Martha at the beginning of Act two is surprising and lacks motivation.  This may have been the result of mis-direction from Albert. 

   Robinson is solid and steady in her portrayal.  The affectations in her voice inflection with certain phrases is probably intended to help give her character a definitive style, but I found it unnecessary and annoying.  

    Miles Drake brings his patented steadiness to the butler role as Bentley

    Scott Clay bursts in for a few high-pitched bombastic moments as Mary Louise’s wronged husband, Mortimer.

   Costumer Greg Smith has obviously enjoyed putting together attractive, colorful matching dresses, purses and hats for the ladies’ multiple outfits. Muller’s flamboyant first-act headdress partially obscures her facial expressions which are such a delightful portion of her portrayal. 

   The set design by Albert creates the sense of an elegant drawing room in the Middleton home while allowing enough space for actors to flow and interact on the tiny Columbus Civic stage.

   The three-act show is lengthly at about two hours and 45 minutes with two intermissions.  Some of the banter is repetitive and a bit tedious, but the overall pacing is good and the play does a reasonable job of holding the audience’s attention.

  “The Constant Wife” gets much praise for its many memorable lines.

   “I may be unfaithful but at least I am constant,” Constance says in the quote that gives the play its title.

   For me, one of the funniest lines comes when Constance is explaining her plans to go away with Kersel, leaving John behind. “Don’t you think it’s a mistake for husbands and wives to take their holidays together?”

        Maugham is said to have been among playwright pioneers who poignantly brought issues of marital infidelity to the stage. While the script's style and references are dated, its themes are timeless. 

    This Columbus Civic production provides a pleasant and entertaining theatre experience.   

Review: "Is He Dead" -- Otterbein University Department Of Theatre And Dance

   Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers.  His style appeals to my sense of what makes the world go around.  “Is He Dead” represents Twain’s sojourn into theatre.  It is not his best writing.  As Otterbein Director Mark Mineart explains in the program notes, the original manuscript is three acts long and calls for 35 actors.  The David Ives adaptation maintains Twain’s droll style and streamlines the piece to two acts with eleven actors, including one person who portrays four different characters. 

    Jordan Wood is exceptional as the central character, Jean-Francois Millet, a starving artist in debt to the ruthless lender Bastien Andre’ (Seleymon Ndongo), as is Papa Leroux (Steven Meeker) father of Millet’s true love, Marie (Lauren DiMario).  Millet’s friends -- Chicago, (Jack Labrecque), Dutchy (Evan Moore-Call) and Phelim (Phil Cunningham) -- convince Millet that he must fake his own illness and death while masquerading as a bereaved twin sister, in order to achieve the fame and fortune that only comes to artists after they are dead.

  Ndongo, DiMario, Labrecque, Moore-Call and Cunningham along with supporting cast members Sally Clark (Madame Bathilde), Tristan Gillia (Madame Caron) and Asel Swango (Cecile) all have wonderful stage presence and character commitment.  Ben Folts demonstrates outstanding flexibility and many levels in his depiction of multiple characters. 

   Rebecca White’s costumes are lavish and period appropriate.  Rob Johnson’s scenic design nicely captures the spirit of two very different settings – the meager apartments of a starving artist in the first act and the elegant rooms of the rich Widow Tillou in the second act. 

   The lack of program acknowledgement for the attractive paintings that populate the set in the first act is a minor disappointment.  It is unclear if these are canvases on loan from somewhere or renderings from student artists.

      I am not a great fan of farce, even when it comes from someone like Mark Twain. The outstanding acting skills, the brisk pacing of Otterbein’s rendering of this script under Mineart’s deft direction, and pleasant stage pictures, kept me laughing and held my attention for the entire two hours.

Review: "Leaving Iowa", Gahanna Lincoln High School

   When I was growing up, my family voted on annual summer trips via the family council.  It was not so much a vote, as my mother coming up with an idea and then cheerleading/cajoling everybody into believing that it was going to be some great adventure. She prepared all our favorite foods, which we loaded it into the trunk of our 1959 Chevy Impala.  The four of us kids squeezed into the back seat.  We rode for three hundred miles with Dad driving, mom holding the map and cheerfully pointing out the sites, road signs, and out-of-state license plates while passing around snacks to stave off our hunger and minimize the squabbling. Sometimes we would get lost, but Dad would never ask for directions, no matter how much Mom nagged him.

  The highlight of the trips was stopping to eat at some park or roadside rest. Mom read historical markers or recited some bit of history.  Then we loaded the family and the leftover food back into the car and drove home by a different route.  These were meant to be fun-filled events that promoted family unity.  But mostly I remember them as long, uncomfortable, boring trips.  The food and picnic atmosphere was the only part that I enjoyed.

    “Leaving Iowa” by Tim Clue and Spike Manton, is a memoir play that invites the audience to recall and re-live the angst, disappointments, embarrassment and funny details of those kinds of trips. 

  Under the direction of Cindi Macioce, Gahanna Lincoln High School drama students successfully bring this piece to the stage in a simple, compelling way.

   This is their annual dinner-theatre fund raiser. The students don their costumes and serve dinner in character before the show.  One of my favorite waiters was Jacob Naiman, who plays Uncle Phil. He floated between tables loudly telling bad jokes and complaining about how his wife, Phyllis, (Josie Fickle) wouldn’t let him touch the deserts.

   Among the principles, Vince Bella as the writer/son Don Browning, is strong in reflecting on the family trips. He smoothly transitions from adult to the young son, sliding from the steering wheel to the back seat where he constantly bickers with his pesky, bossy little sister (Malina Ransom) who always triumphs and escapes her parents wrath, though she truly is the bratty bully of the two siblings. 

   Jason Grafe acquits himself well in the role of Dad. He has great characterization in dominating family car trips.  The moment when he falters and incurs his wife’s righteous wrath is priceless. His moments of mute acquiescence as he rides along with adult Don are compelling and moving.  

   The simple format with minimal sets and stage craft allow the actors to “play the exuberance” without fussing over furnishings and concrete, literal conventions. 

   For me, this un-assuming, straight-forward kind of story-telling makes some of the best theatre.