FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 6, 2023
Contact: Chris Boneau/ Amy Kass / Michelle Farabaugh / Kenya Williams
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Manhattan Theatre Club
Announces Full Casting for the
New York Premiere of
Poor Yella Rednecks
By Qui Nguyen
Directed by May Adrales
Previews begin Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Opening on Wednesday, November 1, 2023
At MTC at New York City Center – Stage I
Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Chris Jennings (Executive Director) are pleased to announce the full cast for the New York Premiere of Poor Yella Rednecks, written by Qui Nguyen (Vietgone) and directed by May Adrales (Vietgone, Golden Shield). Poor Yella Rednecks will begin previews on Tuesday, October 10 and open on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at New York City Center – Stage I (131 West 55th Street).
The cast of Poor Yella Rednecks will feature Jon Hoche (Vietgone, Life of Pi), Ben Levin (Vietgone, “Kung Fu”), Samantha Quan (Vietgone), Jon Norman Schneider (The Coast Starlight), Maureen Sebastian (The Best We Could: A Family Tragedy), and Paco Tolson (Vietgone).
The creative team for Poor Yella Rednecks includes Tim Mackabee (Scenic Design), Valérie Thérèse Bart (Costume Design), Lap Chi Chu (Lighting Design), Shane Rettig (Original Music & Sound Design), Jared Mezzocchi (Projection Design), David Valentine (Puppet Design), Kenny Seymour (Arrangements), and Alyssa K. Howard (Production Stage Manager).
Qui Nguyen, the wildly inventive playwright (and screenwriter for Marvel and Disney) known for his use of pop culture, pop music and puppetry, reunites with his frequent director, May Adrales, for this funny, sexy and brash new play. A young Vietnamese family attempts to put down roots in Arkansas, a place as different from home as it gets. A mom and dad balance big hopes and low-wage jobs, as old flings threaten to pull them apart. It all makes for a bumpy road to the American dream. From the world of Nguyen’s Vietgone, with its comic book and action movie influences, comes a play that melds a deeply personal story with the playwright’s trademark, killer humor. The New York Times hails the writer’s work as “culturally savvy comedy,” and this production shows you why.
Poor Yella Rednecks is co-commissioned by South Coast Repertory and Manhattan Theatre Club. Support for MTC’s production of Poor Yella Rednecks is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation and Laurents/Hatcher Foundation. Developed in part in Center Theatre Group’s Writers’ Workshop.
The 2022-23 season marked Lynne Meadow’s 50th Anniversary as Artistic Director of MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB. Meadow was recently joined at the helm of MTC by Executive Director Chris Jennings, who succeeded Executive Producer Barry Grove. MTC’s mission, which Meadow created in 1972 and has implemented since, is to develop and present new work in a dynamic, supportive environment; to identify and collaborate with the most exciting new as well as accomplished artists; and to produce a diverse repertoire of innovative, entertaining, and thought-provoking plays and musicals by American and international playwrights. Since 1989, MTC Education, which uses the power of live theatre and playwriting to awaken minds, ignite imaginations, open hearts, and change lives, has also been an important part of our work.
Over five decades, MTC has grown from a small off-off-Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most prestigious and award-winning theatre companies, creating approximately 600 world, American, New York and Broadway premieres. Our productions have earned 7 Pulitzer Prizes, 28 Tony Awards, 50 Drama Desk Awards and 49 Obie Awards amongst many other honors. Our Broadway home is the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and Off-Broadway at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). MTC is an anti-racist organization that respects and honors all voices, and upholds the values of community and equity, For more information, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.
TICKETING INFORMATION
Joining MTC’s season of plays is easy! Just call the MTC Clubline at 212-399-3050 or go to www.manhattantheatreclub.com. Group Sales available now, contact Joanna Lee at
[email protected]. Single Tickets on Sale September 5.
BIOGRAPHIES
JON HOCHE returns to MTC after performing in the Off-Broadway Premiere of Vietgone and has collaborated with playwright Qui Nguyen for over a decade. Other credits include - Broadway: Life of Pi (Richard Parker Puppeteer, Associate Puppetry and Movement Director), King Kong: Alive on Broadway (Voice of King Kong/Puppeteer). Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey 2 puppeteer); Soft Power (The Public Theater - Grammy Nominated); Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club); Soul Samurai, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (Ma-Yi Theater/Vampire Cowboys Theater); Hello, From the Children of Planet Earth (Playwright’s Realm). National Tour: Warhorse (Puppeteer/Puppet Captain). Regional: Revenge Song (Geffen Playhouse). TV: “Hello Tomorrow!” (Apple TV+) - @JonHoche
BEN LEVIN’s MTC debut. Ben just wrapped a season-long arc on the CW series “Kung Fu”. Prior to that, he starred in the series Legacies for four seasons. Selected TV credits include “Arrested Development”, “Love”, and a recurring role on ABC’s “Time After Time”. He appeared in a supporting role in the critically acclaimed Independent Spirit Award nominated feature Test Pattern. Ben can also be seen in the Freeform/Hulu feature Turkey Drop. Other features include Allegiant, Admission, and Mike Birbiglia’s indie comedy Sleepwalk with Me. He's thrilled to be reprising the role of Quang in Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone, after starring in the 2018 production at the San Diego Repertory. Ben is New York City born and raised and is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Shout out to TADA Youth Theatre. In addition to acting, Ben makes music under the moniker Grasshapa, available wherever music is found.
SAMANTHA QUAN’s theatre credits include Poor Yella Rednecks (South Coast Rep); Vietgone (South Coast Rep, MTC); B.F.E. (Just Add Water Festival); Masha No Home (Ensemble Studio Theatre); An Infinite Ache (The Globe Theaters), workshops of To Red Tendons, Peerless, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Red Flamboyant, American Hwangap (Ojai Playwrights Conference); Monument: Or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) (Boston Court New Works Festival). Television credits include “Home Before Dark”, “Elementary”, “NCIS”, “The Mentalist”, “Blue”, “Suburgatory”, “Castle”. Film credits include 4 Wedding Planners, Sake Bomb, Good Grief and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
JON NORMAN SCHNEIDER most recently appeared onstage in Keith Bunin's The Coast Starlight at Lincoln Center Theater. Select New York credits include Catch As Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons), The Chinese Lady (The Public), Henry VI Parts 1-3 (NAATCO), Awake and Sing! (NAATCO/The Public), The Oldest Boy (Lincoln Center Theater), Lunch Bunch (Clubbed Thumb), A Map of Virtue (13P), among others. Regionally, he has worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Alley, Alliance, Barrington Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, The Goodman, Huntington, The Kennedy Center, Long Wharf, Magic, McCarter, Milwaukee Rep, Mosaic, Northern Stage, The Old Globe, and South Coast Rep. His film and TV credits include Bitter Melon, Manila Is Full of Men Named Boy, The Normals, HBO's Angel Rodriguez, “The Endgame”, "Jessica Jones", "Veep", "30 Rock" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".
MAUREEN SEBASTIAN’s theatrical credits include, most recently, MTC’s The Best We Could: A Family Tragedy for which she received a Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Featured Performer in a Play; Vietgone (South Coast Repertory) ; Arabian Nights (Berkeley Repertory/Arena Stage); Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center/Second Generation); Now Circa Then (Ars Nova); Lonely, I’m Not and Year Zero (Second Stage); and Soul Samurai (Vampire Cowboys/Ma-Yi). Television credits include “Love Life” (HBO), “American Gothic” (CBS), and “Revolution” (NBC). She produced and starred in the web series “Pretty Precious Unicorns” and the short film “Second Province”. She co-created the podcasts “Gulp” and “A Guide to Freedom” with The North Star Fund. She is a member of May-Yi’s Writer’s Lab and The Gotham Film & Media Institute.
PACO TOLSON is thrilled to return to Manhattan Theatre Club where he received a Lortel nomination for his work in Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone. Paco and Qui have enjoyed an artistic collaboration of over 18 years, and Poor Yella Rednecks will mark their ninth full production together. Select Off-Broadway Credits: Fiasco Theater’s productions of Knight of the Burning Pestle (Red Bull), Twelfth Night and Pericles (Classic Stage Company); The Unwritten Song (EST); Slavey (Clubbed Thumb); The Children of Vonderly (MaYi Theater); Soul Samurai (Ma-Yi/Vampire Cowboys). Regional: to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse); Fiasco’s Measure for Measure (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Winter’s Tale and Vietgone (OSF); Peter and the Starcatcher, Vietgone, and Poor Yella Rednecks (South Coast Rep). Audio: (There’s) No Time for Comedy (Playwrights Horizons), The Memory Motel (Two River Theater), Witness (Paramount/Gideon Media), Play On Shakespeare’s Henry V, The Tempest, and Measure for Measure (Next Chapter Podcasts). Film and TV credits include “Billions”, “Law & Order: Organized Crime”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, “Prodigal Son”, “Search Party”, “The Good Fight”, “Madam Secretary”, “Happy!”, “The Code”, and 7 DAY GIG.
QUI NGUYEN (Playwright) is a playwright, screenwriter, and co-founder of the pioneering geek theatre company, Vampire Cowboys. His plays include Vietgone, Poor Yella Rednecks, Bike Wreck, and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys shows Revenge Song, She Kills Monsters, Soul Samurai, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, and Living Dead in Denmark. For TV/film, he’s written for Marvel Studios, Netflix, AMC, SYFY, and PBS. He most recently wrote Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon (nominated for a 2022 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature), and he co-directed and wrote Disney's Strange World in 2022.
MAY ADRALES (Director) is a director, artistic leader, teacher and mother; she has directed over 25 world premieres nationally. Her work has been seen most recently at Second Stage (Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh), Manhattan Theatre Club (Anchuli Felicia King’s Golden Shield, Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone). Awards include: Ammerman Award at Arena Stage; TCG’s Alan Schneider award for freelance directors; Denham fellowship; New Generations Grantee. She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Van Lier Fellow, WP Lab Director, SoHo Rep Writers/Directors Lab and New York Theater Workshop directing fellow. She served as an Associate Artistic Director at Milwaukee Rep; Artistic Associate at The Playwrights Center; Artistic Associate at The Public Theater; and Director of Artistic Programs and Artistic Director at The Lark. She serves on the board of Theater Communications Group. She is currently the Director of the Theatre Program and Assistant Professor at Fordham University. MFA, Yale School of Drama. (www.mayadrales.net)
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Exciting update! Ben will be making his Off-Broadway debut this Fall! Here is Manhattan Theatre Club's announcement on Instagram and the theatre's press agent BBB's press release that was sent to our magazine.
Poor Yella Rednecks website link:
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If you are looking for a fun musical Rock & Roll Man is for you. At the New World Stages Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola have written a fun show about Alan Freed, the man credited with inventing the term Rock & Roll from the vast R & B singers of the 1950's and 60's.
The musical is somewhat informative about the Cleveland DJ who refused to have the new music of that era silenced. Freed would end up drinking himself to death. Although it wasn't made really clear in the play, Freed was a womanizer, cavorted with gangsters, Joe Pantoliano as Morris Levy ( Pantoliano would double as Leo Mintz, a record store owner).
As Alan Freed, Constantine Maroulis sings and dances his way into the audiences hearts. With a spunky cast and set(Tim Mackabee), and gitchy but insightful costumes (Leon Dobkowski) and backing both of these two spectacles is superb lighting by Matthew Richards and Aja M. Jackson. Freed is able to tell his story about how he brought Little Richard (Rodrick Covington), Valisia Lekae as VaVern Baker, Dominique Scott as Jerry Lee Lewis and many more to the big stage and gave them plenty of air time, even toured with them. It was Freed that took the time, the chance, giving these great artists a shot at the big time.
Eventually Freed would come to New York City radio (WINS) and would meet Levy, a promoter, nightclub owner (Birdland) and gangster. This would lead to many problems. Already in the crosshairs of the FBI, J.Edgar Hoover (Bob Ari) would investigate Freed for graft (payola). It is here where the story gets dicey and weak a little bit. Was Freed in a drunken stupor, or was Hoover actually there? It was never really clear and the cross dressing scene with Hoover was very cheesy, indeed! I think the direction (Randal Myler) at this juncture in a otherwise good musical gets weakened. For the most part the Choreography by Stephanie Klemons is strong. The vast majority of the actors impersonating the famous singers are spot on.
In the music and lyrics by Gary Kupper, the show hammers out some terrific song... "Ready Teddy", "Sixty Minute Man", 'Jim Dandy" in the first act and act two with... "Peggy Sue", "Roll Over Beethoven, "Good Man" and the final song with the great voice of Maroulis "Rock and Roll Music".
As far as a musical goes, "Rock & Roll Man" is a goody; as its plot line goes, it is fair at best bordering on weak.
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REVIEW: "Seared" at the Williamstown Theatre Festival
REVIEW: “Seared” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival
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Raul Esparza as a temperamental chef in “Seared”
Theresa Rebeck’s slight but savory comedy about running a restaurant stars Raúl Esparza as Harry, a hilariously mercurial chef-owner of a hole-in-the-wall eatery that’s become the latest foodie destination. A blurb in New York Magazine has praised Harry’s ginger lemongrass scallops dish, so now the customers are flocking to the place and clamoring for the dish.
But Harry refuses to make it anymore.
“I’m not feeling the scallops,” he says.
This infuriates his business partner Mike (Dave Mason) who works alongside him and believes it makes sense to give the customers what they want, so that the place has a chance of making a profit, rather than barely breaking even.
Caught in the middle is Rodney (W. Tré Davis), the waiter who must mediate between the hungry (unseen) diners and the obsessive culinary artist. Rodney is Harry and Mike’s sole employee – until Mike hires a high-powered restaurant consultant, Emily (Krysta Rodriguez), without telling Harry.
“Seared” was inspired by Rebeck’s favorite neighborhood restaurant in Park Slope, which, though innovative and delicious, shut down, unable to make a go of it.
That’s not what happens in “Seared.” Actually, not too much happens. There is some character development, a climax of sorts near the end and a couple of turns in the plot – one of which, given the hostility of Esparza’s character towards Rodriguez’s at the outset, should be predictable to anybody who’s ever seen a modern American comedy. There’s also a clear underlying theme of the tension between art and commerce. But plot, theme, and even character are not the specialties of the house. Two things count as the main draws. There is the rapid-fire dialogue, largely comic bickering, handled masterfully by the four actors, who are also adept at physical comedy. And then there is an unusual treat — the ballet of meal preparation that occurs right before our eyes (and our noses), using real food in Tim Mackabee’s working kitchen of a set. Esparza either had a day job that we didn’t know about, or he spent a lot time training with a real chef for this role. It is a surprisingly mesmerizing experience to witness the long wordless scene at the top of Act II in which Esparza meticulously prepares and cooks a wild salmon dish.
It’s hard to argue that “Seared” makes for a meaty play, but it is certainly an appetizing one.
click on any photograph by Joan Marcus to see it enlarged.
W. Tre Davis
Raúl Esparza
David Mason and Raul Esparza
Raul Esparza and Krysta Rodriguez
Raul Esparza David Mason Krysta Rodriguez W. Tre Davis
Seared
MCC Theater
Written by Theresa Rebeck
irection by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel, set design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Tilly Grimes, lighting design by David J. Weiner, sound design by Palmer Hefferan, prop supervision by Andrew Diaz, a
Cast: W. Tré Davis, Raúl Esparza, David Mason, and Krysta Rodriguez.
Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes including one intermission.
Tickets: $56-$96
Seared is on stage through December 1, 2019
Seared Review: Raúl Esparza is Cooking, in Theresa Rebeck’s Restaurant Comedy Theresa Rebeck’s slight but savory comedy about running a restaurant stars Raúl Esparza as Harry, a hilariously mercurial chef-owner of a hole-in-the-wall eatery that’s become the latest foodie destination.
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By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review
In association with Moxie Theatre, The Old Globe presents the West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s suspenseful coffee/locker room play, “Skeleton Crew,” through May 7 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.
The work features a tight ensemble of four actors, possibly the best in regards to chemistry and balance that the Globe has assembled in many years.
Amari Cheatom as Dez and Tonye Patano as Faye in “Skelton Crew” at The Old Globe. (Photos by Jim Cox)
Heard by director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (San Diego Critics Circle’s 2015 Director of the Year Award) in the Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival in 2014, the play piqued her interest and Sonnenberg apparently begged the powers that be to grant Moxie the rights to produce the play, which she intended to direct.
The answer was yes, but at The Old Globe. This is Sonnenberg’s Old Globe directorial debut. She co-founded Moxie in 2005 and serves as the esteemed company’s artistic director.
(l to r) Amari Cheatom as Dez, Brian Marable as Reggie, Tonye Patano as Faye, and Rachel Nicks as Shanita (Photos by Jim Cox)
The April 13 opening was well attended and the response was enthusiastic.
Part of a trilogy of plays about Detroit, the play concerns three longtime co-workers at an automotive-related factory where sheet metal is “stamped” into shapes such as doors and hoods for auto manufacture. The time is 2008, when industry closures were just beginning.
(l to r) Tonye Patano as Faye and Rachel Nicks as Shanita
Reggie, the foreman (Brian Marable), knows the plant is closing by the end of the year and confides in Faye (Tonye Patano, a Craig Noel Award-winner in “Ruined” at La Jolla Playhouse), the worker with the most longevity, with whom he shares an almost familial relationship of many years.
Faye was instrumental in getting Reggie the white-collar job, and he now has a house, a family and a college-bound daughter. Faye, one year from fully vested retirement, is sworn not to tell the others.
She is a very loving 60-something lesbian who acts as confidante to the two younger employees, Shanita (Rachel Nicks) and Dez (Amari Cheatom).
Tonye Patano as Faye and Brian Marable as Reggie
Though a bit of a hustler, Dez is basically a good man and sincerely loves Shanita, who is pregnant with her first child (Dez is not the father).
As time goes by, he garners a lot of suspicion over thefts that begin to occur at the plant as rumors of closing spread. The suspense relies on intricate dynamics between the characters as the story unfolds.
The actors’ performances are well developed, each creating a character of individual integrity, with dimension and human interest. There are secrets to be revealed, and the last of them, stunning as it is, comes as no surprise to those who have listened carefully.
It’s more an affirmation of what was suspected all along. These relationships run far more deeply than we first imagined.
Tim Mackabee’s scenic design is redolent of rundown break rooms everywhere, flanked on two sides counters with lockers underneath, a microwave and mini fridge on one side, and a coffeepot on the other.
Sherrice Mojgani’s lighting design creates the feel of Midwestern winter, and Lindsay Jones’ sound design is a clever mix of factory sounds and percussive music.
—Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. Follow her blog at charlenecriticism.blogspot.com or reach her at
[email protected].
The post ‘Skeleton Crew’ shines appeared first on San Diego Uptown News.
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Mission Valley Carjacking at Promenade
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Original Article Provided By: SDUptownNews.com ‘Skeleton Crew’ shines By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review In association with Moxie Theatre, The Old Globe presents the West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s suspenseful coffee/locker room play, “Skeleton Crew,” through May 7 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre.
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REVIEW: "The Cake" at Barrington Stage Company
REVIEW: “The Cake” at Barrington Stage Company
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by Barbara Waldinger
A musical about fracking? Is it doomed to share the fate suffered by entertainments on such unlikely subjects as Anne Frank or Anna Karenina, the Musicals: obscurity and a critical chorus of “What could they have been thinking?”
Decidedly not!
Fall Springs by Niko Tsakalakos (music and lyrics) and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (book and lyrics), now playing at Barrington Stage Company, comes to the Berkshires via BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab, bringing with it the offbeat comedy and edgy excitement we have come to expect from previous productions by the Lab.
Offering musical theatre writers a place to develop their work, The Musical Theatre Lab was created after BSC workshopped and premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2004), which went on to a successful Broadway run. The Lab, under the mentorship of Finn, the two-time Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist, has subsequently produced fourteen world premieres and six workshops of new musicals. Additionally, as a member of the writing faculty at the NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre, Finn has brought the work of some of his exceptional students in his annual Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don’t Know But Should. . . Among this group were Joe Iconis, whose musicals The Black Suits, Broadway Bounty Hunter and Be More Chill (recently directed on Broadway by Stephen Brackett, who staged Fall Springs) were produced at BSC, and Niko Tsakalakos, whose Pool Boy premiered there in 2010. Both of these composers/lyricists have returned to BSC to perform concerts, to the delight of local audiences.
Fall Springs has been in development for seven years, with help from the Creativity Fund (a program of New Dramatists), Ars Nova and TheaterWorks Silicon Valley’s 2013 Writer’s Retreat and as such, this World Premiere arrives at Barrington Stage’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in more polished and professional shape than most other Lab productions.
The satiric plot concerns the problems facing Fall Springs, “the fourteenth most aesthetically pleasing smallish town [in the United States] not including locations near water or mountains,” which is sitting on one of the largest Essential Oil reserves in the country, famous for its lotions and creams. Unfortunately, since drilling is no longer extracting enough of the buried oils, Mayor Robert Bradley (Matt McGrath), desperate for a way to boost production in time for the town’s Semi-Centennial Celebration, eagerly embraces fracking, brainchild of Beverly Cushman (Ellen Harvey, a deliciously evil villain dressed in devil’s red, thanks to Costume Designer Emily Rebholz), the CEO of the Fall Springs Oil Drilling Corporation. Cushman, who has discarded the disturbing data collected by the Mayor’s recently deceased wife, a geologist studying the effect of drilling and overdevelopment on the solidity of the ground, easily cajoles the Mayor’s council of advisors (all single parents) to go along with her idea, but cannot persuade their children. It’s up to the brilliant Eloise Bradley (Alyse Alan Louis), daughter of the Mayor, who continues her mother’s research, despite being threatened by her father (“No science in this family”). With the help of the town’s genius/vagrant, Noland Wolanske (Ken Marks), former professor of geology, Eloise endeavors to save Fall Springs.
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The play is part Little Shop of Horrors, with its campy caricatures of good vs evil, its prescient chorus of young people, and the nerd who musters the courage to express his feelings; part Enemy of the People (or Jaws, referenced in the script), whose main characters are driven by greed to attract the income provided by tourists, ignoring the danger threatening them as well as the townspeople, and part disaster film, focusing on survivors of a calamity facing their imminent deaths who finally acknowledge the importance of family, of forgiveness, of unity–to quote Tsakalakos/Nachtrieb: “one home, one world, one people.”
Director Stephen Brackett and choreographer Patrick McCollum maintain a breakneck pace at first, demanding high energy from their skilled cast and musicians, but slow the action down in the second, more introspective and treacly act, trapping most of the characters on a small raised stage built for the Semi-Centennial Celebration as the town sinks around them. Scenic designer Tim Mackabee has taken on an enormous challenge, adding to his traditional wing and drop set a horizontal crack the width of the stage, deep enough for unlucky townspeople to fall through. David Lander’s eye-popping lighting effects and Sound Designer Josh Millican’s rumbling earthquakes accompany the smoke and fire emanating from this crevice.
Characters fall into two camps: corrupt parents vs. ethical children (and a geologist), each of whose personalities are distilled through the music and lyrics. Examples of the many well-delivered musical references to the current political atmosphere in our country are Matt McGrath’s Mayor, a two-faced politician, so busy convincing us of his heroism in “Save One Life,” that he nearly allows a child to drown, and Harvey’s Beverly Cushman, whose rendition of “More” perfectly exemplifies her avaricious nature. The four teenagers (all age 17), as members of a local rock band, sing powerful warnings like “Sinking Into Oblivion,” that fall on deaf ears, while Louis’ Eloise, in “Gimme Science,” futilely implores the adults not to ignore data and research. Sam Heldt’s Nerdy Felix Cushman, in his wonderful breakout song “The Bass Player’s Lament,” accuses Eloise, whom he loves, of faking her threats about an approaching earthquake, and in “The Birds Have Come Home,” Marks’ Wolanske sings: “Ever think that we may be the ones that have caused the way things are?”
Fall Springs is a dark and lively comedy that approaches a serious issue through pulsating music and strong performances, delivering a forceful punch that might make Al Gore proud.
Barrington Stage Company and Drs. Judith and Martin Bloomfield & Judith Goldsmith present Fall Springs by Niko Tsakalakos and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. Directed by Stephen Brackett. Cast: Matt McGrath (Mayor Robert Bradley), Eliseo Roman (Roberto Mariposa), Felicia Finley (Veronica Mitford), Ellen Harvey (Beverly Cushman), Sam Heldt (Felix Cushman), L.E. Barone (Vera Mariposa), Jorrel Javier (Cooper Mitford), Alyse Alan Louis (Eloise Bradley), Ken Marks (Noland Wolanske). Choreography: Patrick McCollum; Music Supervision: Vadim Feichtner; Music Direction: Mike Pettry; Scenic Designer: Tim Mackabee; Costume Designer: Emily Rebholz; Lighting Designer: David Lander; Sound Designer: Josh Millican; Wig Designer: Mary Schilling-Martin; Orchestrator: Salomon Lerner; Vocal Arranger: Angelique Mouyis; Production Stage Manager: Renee Lutz.
Fall Springs runs from August 9—August 31 on the Boyd-Quinson MainStage, 30 Union Street in Pittsfield, MA. Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes, including intermission. Tickets may be purchased online at barringtonstageco.org or call 413-236-8888.
REVIEW: “Fall Springs” at Barrington Stage by Barbara Waldinger A musical about fracking? Is it doomed to share the fate suffered by entertainments on such unlikely subjects as Anne Frank or Anna Karenina, the Musicals: obscurity and a critical chorus of “What could they have been thinking?”
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by Barbara Waldinger
Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story is an enormous undertaking, featuring nineteen cast members, forty-five songs, a revolving stage and multiple projections. Trotting out dozens of 1950s classics and dynamite singers and dancers to perform them, the show engages the audience from the beginning: what with clapping, singing, foot-tapping—all but dancing in the aisles. But the convoluted plot requires patience between numbers dripping with nostalgia for the target audience: baby boomers.
Adding to the mix in this hybrid musical are several songs written specifically for the show by Gary Kupper. Some performers from the original Bucks County Playhouse production have re-created their roles for Berkshire Theatre Group.
The book is structured as a farcical trial, dreamed by a dying Alan Freed, who has been charged with “the destruction of the American way of life by inventing the genre of music [he] named rock and roll.” Freed (Alan Campbell) was a disc jockey who promoted what he called a “River of Music which has absorbed many streams” including “rhythm and blues, jazz, ragtime, cowboy songs, country songs, and folk songs” on his radio programs, concerts and even some films. J. Edgar Hoover (George Wendt) is imagined as the prosecutor who accuses Freed and his music of “manipulating teenagers into juvenile delinquency, alcohol, narcotics and sex.” Rock star Little Richard (a terrific Richard Crandle), for the defense, eulogizes him as the man “who opened up people’s minds. Black and white kids together. Lovin’ that music.” Introduced by Freed on mainstream white stations like WINS and WABC, this music had previously been broadcast only on smaller, less known black stations. It was Freed who gave black artists the opportunity to be heard throughout the United States and who arranged live concerts for racially mixed audiences. But Freed was flawed: what finally ended his career, besides his excessive drinking, was his involvement with payola (taking money from record companies to play specific records) and accepting songwriting credit for songs he didn’t write but kept playing to increase his profits.
The production keeps returning to the trial as it goes back in time to chronicle (with too much emphasis on the minutiae), Freed’s rise and fall, business associates he meets along the way, his three marriages, the children he rarely has time to see, especially daughter Alana (Whitney Bashor, singing some beautiful and touching melodies with and about her father), all interspersed with star numbers by big name performers like Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Screamin’Jay Hawkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. An excellent and versatile quartet (Early Clover, A. J. Davis, Jerome Jackson and Dr. Eric B. Turner) backs up these iconic acts in addition to representing groups like the Moonglows, the Drifters and the Platters. Enough to make one dizzy!
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The work of the design team is nothing short of fabulous. Scenic designer Tim Mackabee has provided a revolving stage, which morphs from the trial with its benches, Greek pillars and nightmarishly-colored walls to various other locations with speed and precision. For individual performers there is an upper level, a platform that slides forward between half-opened curtains, lights and a microphone in front of the richly-draped curtains, and a large space behind them for dance numbers. Lighting designer Matthew Richards’ work is dazzling, furnishing gorgeous upstage colors that frame the performers and creating disco ball effects throughout the stage and theatre. Costume designer Leon Dobkowski creates miracles as he dresses a huge cast, most of whom play multiple roles, aided by Wig, Hair and Makeup designer J. Jared Janas. Sound designer Nathan Leigh and conductor/keyboardist/music director Dave Keyes (and his orchestra) almost force the audience to leap out of their seats and dance. Projection and Video designers Christopher Ash and Kevan Loney immediately identify every one of the many venues in Freed’s journey, often behind a gauzy white scrim. Kudos to director Randal Myler and choreographer Brian Reeder for guiding this vast and complex production smoothly and energetically.
The entire cast is to be commended for its yeoman work in Rock and Roll Man. Alan Campbell as Freed is a wonderful singer/actor whose sparkle permeates the production. George Wendt recently spoke about his role as J. Edgar Hoover on NPR radio, explaining that since the trial is Freed’s dream, the actor was not required to imitate Hoover, giving him a free hand to play a villain (a real change from his eleven year stint as Norm on Cheers). Richard Crandle’s Little Richard—whose gold-lame outfit tells us everything about his persona—adds humor and pizzazz as lawyer, singer, and dairy queen spokesperson (our “Dairy Queen honey”). Bob Ari, playing the dual roles of Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous, where Freed first hears the music he comes to champion and Morris (Moishe) Levy, mobster as well as promoter of Freed’s career, differentiates his characters to such an extent that he is nearly unrecognizable in the two roles. The talented chorus of singers and dancers as well as many of the performers whose characters we remember are also equally adept at taking on multiple personas in the ensemble.
Credit Kate Maguire, Artistic Director of BTG, for taking on such a momentous challenge. As Rock and Roll Man continues to undergo revisions, one hopes that the script will be pared down so that it doesn’t try to tell all of its stories at once, nor include every song, original or classic. But for now, enjoy the dancing, singing, and evocation of times past, in this electric production.
Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story runs from June 27—July 21 at The Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, where tickets may be purchased, or go online to www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org or call 413-997-4444.
Berkshire Theatre Group presents Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story by Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak, and Rose Caiola; original music and lyrics by Gary Kupper. Directed by Randal Myler. Cast: Bob Ari (Leo, Morris Levy), William Louis Bailey (Dave Cooper, Frankie Lymon), Whitney Bashor (Betty, Alana), Alan Campbell (Alan Freed), Early Clover (Quartet), Richard Crandle (Little Richard), A.J. Davis (Quartet), John Dewey (Buddy Holly, Pat Boone), Janet Dickinson (Inga, Alan’s Mother), Hayden Hoffman (Lance), Jerome Jackson (Quartet, Nate), Valisia Lekae (LaVern Baker), Brian Mathis (Judge, Bill Haley), Matthew S. Morgan (Chuck Berry, Jay Hawkins), Virginia Preston (Jackie), James Scheider (Jerry Lee Lewis, Dick Clark), Dr. Eric B. Turner (Quartet, Fats Domino), George Wendt (J. Edgar Hoover), Jared Zirilli (Danny of Danny and the Juniors). Choreographer: Brian Reeder; Music Director: Dave Keyes; Music Supervision and Arrangements: Gary Kupper and Dave Keyes; Scenic Designer: Tim Mackabee; Costume Designer: Leon Dobkowski; Lighting Designer: Matthew Richards; Sound Designer: Nathan Leigh; Projections and Video Designer: Christopher Ash; Co-Projections and Video Designer: Kevan Loney; Wig, Hair and Makeup Designer: J. Jared Janas; Stage Manager: Pamela Edington.
Running time: two hours 30 minutes including intermission; at the Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield; from June 27; closing July 21.
REVIEW: “Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story” at Berkshire Theatre Group by Barbara Waldinger Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Berkshire Theatre Group…
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Playwright Rajiv Joseph aims high in this ambitious, pertinent, resonant, sometimes compelling but often confusing drama that sprawls over 90 years (and three hours), taking place in Poland, Russia, and East Germany, branching out surreally from its roots in actual historical events. The central and most intriguing of these true stories is the relationship between the Russian Jewish writer Isaac Babel (portrayed by Danny Burstein, last on Broadway in “Fiddler on the Roof”) and the head of Stalin’s Soviet Secret Police Nikolai Yezhov (Zach Grenier, best known as the aggressive divorce lawyer David Lee in “The Good Wife.”
In Joseph’s telling, the two Russians meet when both are young, in 1920, on the Polish front. As the play begins, Isaac, a war correspondent, is writing in his journal, trying to …describe the night. This for him is an exercise to improve his writing. Nikolai, a commander in the Red Cavalry, has gone looking for him, to check up on whether and how he will write about an incident in which he killed an old man. Nikolai grabs hold of the journal and is initially outraged, but winds up impressed, by Babel’s storytelling. But Nikolai sees them only as lies – he admires how well Isaac can lie — because he’s too literal-minded to have, or truly value, an imagination.
Nobody would say that of Rajiv Joseph, best known as the author of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” which brought Robin Williams to Broadway in a story about the American involvement in Iraq. In “Describe the Night,” Joseph imagines a complicated tale that traces Nikolai and Isaac through the years, but adds in fictional characters and fictional events and an additional storyline connected tangentially if at all. The play jumps around in time–from 1920 to 2010 back to 1937, forward again to 1989…and that’s just in the first of its three Acts. In a scene set in 1989, a young Soviet bureaucrat named Vovo (Max Gordon Moore) confronts Nikolai, who is now 99 years old, and tells him that he, Vovo, will replace him as “Chairman of Bureau 42” because of Nikolai’s crimes against the Soviet state, which include resurrecting himself after being declared an unperson in 1940. “Being alive when you are dead,” Vovo tells Nikolai.” This is against the law.”
The actual Yezhov did indeed fall out of favor with Stalin in 1940, but, as we’re told in a fact-sheet distributed upon leaving the theater, Nikolai Yezhov was killed that year.
So, yes, Yezhov was indeed dead in 1989 as Vovo accuses him of being, dead for 49 years. Did Vovo mean his comment to be metaphorical; did the playwright mean the comment to be meta-theatrical? But how are the theatergoers meant to take it?
The true story of Babel and Yezhov seems arresting enough: Babel had an affair with Yezhov’s wife, Yevgenia. When Yezhov found out, he put Babel under surveillance, which led to his arrest; Yezhov also put his wife in a mental institution. Much of this Joseph dramatizes effectively, but he doesn’t stop there. Yevgenia died of an overdose in 1938, as we’re told in the fact sheet. In the play, Tina Benko portrays her as someone who not only predicts the future; she lives into it. We see her at 110. Both she and her husband, in other words, live old enough for their stories to converge with the stories of others caught up in historical events of more recent vintage. Her granddaughter Urzula (Rebecca Naomi Jones) breaks free during Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall. A journalist named Mariya (Nadia Bowers) witnesses the 2010 plane crash at Smolensk, which killed the president of Poland and other Polish government officials as they were traveling on their way to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which at least 20,000 Poles were killed. For years, the Soviet Union had claimed that Nazis were responsible for the Katyn massacre; only in 1990, during glasnost and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, did the Russian government take responsibility. Conspiracy theories quickly develop around the crash. Vovo eventually interrogates Mariya with a velvet-gloved viciousness, to probe what she knows. The Soviet secret police bureaucrat has now become a powerful politician, a Putin-like figure
One can see what Rajiv Joseph is about here – erasing the boundaries of time, pushing the Stalinist era flush up against the current day, to show how similar the paranoia and lies; mixing fact and imagination, to drive home how both facts and imagination are under threat. There is resonance when the old Stalinist Nikolai says to the new Putinist Vovo: “When the world is a gang fight, people want a gangster to lead them.” Much is made of Isaac Babel’s diary, who passes from one character to another – as if to say that art can’t be killed. The playwright’s points are well taken; his ambition is admirable. If the production of “Describe the Night” at the Atlantic doesn’t hold together as one would wish, you leave wanting to encourage the playwright to keep going with it — to paraphrase “Angels of America,” a comparable but more lucid work of breadth and depth and sprawl, intelligence and passion: Let the great rework begin.
Describe the Night
Atlantic Theater Company
By Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Giovanna Sardelli
Sets by Tim Mackabee, costumes by Amy Clark, sighting by Lap Chi Chu, sound and original music by Daniel Kluger, wig designer by Leah Loukas, fighting choreography by J. David Brimmer.
Cast: Tina Benko as Yevgenia, Nadia Bowers as Mariya / Mrs. Petrovna, Danny Burstein as Isaac, Zach Grenier as Nickolai, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Urzula, Max Gordon Moore as Vova, Stephen Stocking as Felix
Describe The Night Review. 90 Years of Russian Lies, Paranoia, and Love Playwright Rajiv Joseph aims high in this ambitious, pertinent, resonant, sometimes compelling but often confusing drama that sprawls over 90 years (and three hours), taking place in Poland, Russia, and East Germany, branching out surreally from its roots in actual historical events.
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This is a tennis match?
There’s no net, no ball, no racquet, and no final score, although the set at Roundabout’s Off-Broadway theater does include a scoreboard. There is only the whoosh or whizzing sound of the (unseen) ball, during the relatively few times over the 95 minutes of the play that the two players mime swings, facing the audience rather than each other.
In Anna Ziegler’s “The Last Match,” we are at a U.S. Open semifinal between All-American Tim Porter (Wilson Bethel), the long-time number one player who’s contemplating retirement because he’s over the hill at 34 (!), and his younger up-and-coming Russian rival Sergei Sergeyev (Alex Mickiewicz) who idolized Tim as a boy and is trying to pretend he’s not intimidated by going up against him now. But the mimed game, which the players mostly describe (e.g. “I barely manage a lob and then it lands long anyway.”) is incessantly interrupted by their interior thoughts and reminiscences, and, above all, by scenes and flashbacks with their respective significant others.
The continual juxtapositions heavily imply that these inserted scenes and monologues are what the players are thinking about while they’re playing, and affect their mood and thus their game from moment to moment. This rings false. It seems much more likely that world-class tennis players focus exclusively on their game while they’re playing it.
But the scenes between Sergei and his bossy girlfriend Galina (Natalia Payne) are comic and lovely. The scenes are sadder and more complex but just as satisfying between Tim and his wife Mallory (Zoe Winters), who was a tennis pro herself, and has had a series of devastating miscarriages. The title could just as well be about these relationships. The characters we get to know are so well drawn and appealing that we’re almost willing to forgive the awkwardness of the play’s overall structure. “The Last Match” would probably make more sense as a short story, freeing us from trying to fit everything into real time. But then we would miss out on the four winning performances.
The Last Match
Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater
Written by Anna Ziegler; Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Set design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Montana Blanco, lighting design by Bradley King, sound design by Bray Poor
Cast: Wilson Bethel, Alex Mickiewicz, Natalia Payne and Zoë Winters
Running time: 95 minutes with no intermission
Tickets: $79
The Last Match is set to run through December 24, 2017
The Last Match Review: Awkward Tennis, Appealing Love This is a tennis match? There’s no net, no ball, no racquet, and no final score, although the set at Roundabout’s Off-Broadway theater does include a scoreboard.
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