13 RUE DE L’AMOUR (The Arctic Playhouse, West Warwick, RI)

April 20, 2017April 20, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The Arctic Playhouse’s current show is “13 Rue de L’Amour” by Georges Feydeau. It was written in 1892 and translated by Mawby Green and Ed Feilbert. It is about locked doors, sexual innuendoes, mistaken identity, clothes switching owners and lying continually about the circumstances in turn of the century, Paris. Justinien is a seemingly blameless husband who periodically leaves his wife Leontine to go on hunting trips. Family friend Gustave, a doctor and man about town, has his suspicions about what Justinien is really hunting. He tries to use his suspicions as a way to get Leontine to visit his bachelor pad on 13 Rue De L’Amour. The confusions begin mounting as Justinien’s young nephew, Jean-Pierre who is still a student, needs money from his uncle to entertain his own mistress; the uncle’s friend Birabeau confesses doubts about his own unseen wife; and several of the men seem to be wearing identical pants while this is going on. Add a love starved female German concierge who was a countess, at the bachelor apartment and a befuddled police inspector to the proceedings and you have the ingredients of a funny French farce to tickle your funny bone. Director Christian O’Brien infuses his cast with madcap shtick to leave you laughing in the aisles.

Huntington’s ‘Who and the What’ Examines American Muslim Family Life From the Inside

April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Mike Hoban

‘The Who & the What’ – Written by Ayad Akhtar; Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara; Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Costume Design by Mary Lauve; Lighting Design by Annie Wiegand; Sound Design by M.L. Dogg, and Original Music by Saraswathi Jones. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston through May 7

“Anything worth believing in, is worth questioning,” a friend with a healthy skepticism of all things institutional once told me. That thought came to mind while watching “The Who & the What,” the intense but often comical drama now being staged by the Huntington Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion. And while questioning long held beliefs that are accepted as truth – particularly those of the religious sort – may be a healthy intellectual exercise and a path to true wisdom, challenging the belief systems of others usually has consequences, as it does for the central character in this very funny and thoughtful play.

EXIT LAUGHING (Newport Playhouse)

April 8, 2017April 8, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The opening show of the Newport Playhouse and recently renovated cabaret restaurant’s 35th season is the 2013 heartwarming comedy “Exit Laughing” by Paul Elliott. It is a sassy ode to female friendships. When the biggest highlight of your life is your weekly bridge game with the “girls,” what do you do when one of your foursome unexpectedly and inconveniently passes away? If you are Connie, Leona and Millie, best friends for 30 years, you do the most daring thing you’ve ever done. You “borrow” the ashes from the funeral home for one last card game, and the wildest, most exciting night of your lives. Bring on a police raid, a cheeky male stripper and soon the ladies get a whole new look at the fun you can have by truly living. Director Richard Johnson has a keen eye for comic situations and brings out the best in his five performers. Set designer Tonya Killavey creates a gorgeous two story house setting that is so realistic that you feel as if you could move right into it. Stage manager Olivia Sahlin keeps the cast on their toes and keeps things moving smoothly all night long.

‘Altar Boyz’ A Heavenly Romp

April 3, 2017April 3, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

Altar Boyz – Music and Lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker. Book by Kevin Del Aguila. Co-Directed by Tyler Rosati and Ceit Zweil, with Music Direction by Matthew Stern. Presented by Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham, through April 9.

The first image one gets of the Altar Boyz is five hooded figures in long white robes, silver crosses on their backs, entering the stage to ominous sounding music from the four-piece band behind them. It’s a Spinal Tap moment, and one that made me laugh out loud. For the next eighty minutes, if I wasn’t laughing, I was smiling. A lot. This is one super fun show with a tight and talented cast.

The Quixotic, Passionate Drive of Golda Meir

March 30, 2017March 30, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

By Michele Markarian

‘Golda’s Balcony’ – Written by William Gibson. Directed by Judy Braha. Presented by the New Repertory Theatre, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown through April 16.

Golda Meir was a fascinating character – passionate, driven, with a sense of personal destiny that was tied in to the “paradise” that she believed to be the State of Israel. Her early childhood was spent in Kiev, where she remembered her father boarding the door with wooden planks to keep out the pogroms. The family emigrated to Milwaukee, where the young Golda heard Ben Gurion speak, which marked the beginning of her life as a warrior and champion for the burgeoning State of Israel.

Bridge Rep/Playhouse Creatures’ “Mrs. Packard” A Nightmarish Journey Into the Bad Old Days

March 22, 2017March 27, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

Mrs. Packard – Written by Emily Mann; Directed by Emily Ranii; Scenic Design by Jon Savage; Lighting Design by Ed Intemann; Costume Design by Chelsea Kerl; Sound Design by Don Tindall. Presented by Bridge Repertory Theatre in a co-production with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Co. of NYC at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., Cambridge through April 9

When I was a boy in middle school, I was a huge fan of the B horror films that ran on Saturday afternoon showcases like Creature Double Feature. There weren’t many classics in the “Dracula” or “Frankenstein” vein, but there was plenty of silly dreck like “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and “The Thing That Wouldn’t Die” that were more laughable than frightening. But there was one film that truly did horrify me, and that was “Bedlam”, a low rent Boris Karloff vehicle that told the story of a woman wrongly committed to an insane asylum in Victorian England known as Bedlam – which was depicted as a Hollywood backlot version of Hell on Earth. What made it so terrifying was that while there no traditional movie monsters, Bedlam was a real place, and the monsters were the evil men running the asylum.

Huntington’s Dark Comedy “Topdog/Underdog” Examines Life as Rigged Game

March 20, 2017March 27, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

‘Topdog/Underdog’ – Written by Suzan-Lori Parks; Directed by Billy Porter; Scenic and Costume Design by Clint Ramos; Lighting Design by Driscoll Otto; Sound Design by Leon Rothenberg. Presented by The Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston through April 9.

In “Topdog/Underdog” the Pulitzer Prize-winning tragicomic drama now being staged by the Huntington Theatre, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks gives us a front row seat into the lives of two damaged brothers alternately chasing/escaping a warped version of the American dream – one that is exclusively reserved for those on the lower rungs of society’s ladder. The vehicle for that dream happens to be “Three-card Monte”, a sucker’s game played by street hustlers in large American cities, but the allure of the fast-money-for-little-work scheme could be applied to any number of similar cons (drug-dealing, prostitution) embraced by those growing up in economically-distressed urban environments. And while the play focuses solely on the interplay between the troubled pair in this intense two-hander, the parents who abandoned them, as well as the love interest of one of the men, loom as large players in this raw and explosive work.

“INHERIT THE WIND” (Ocean State Theatre)

March 18, 2017April 2, 2017 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The current show at Ocean State Theatre Company is one of the outstanding dramas of our time “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. While this Tony Award winning play debuted in 1955, its story is as relevant today as it was then. It is a fictionalized account based on the Scopes monkey trial of 1925, when a Tennessee teacher was arraigned for reading passages from “On the Origins of Species” to his pupils. The teacher, Bertram Cates is a callow Darwinian. The real battle in this show is between the two counsels.

“A Night of Durang” (Arctic Playhouse, West Warwick, Rhode Island)

February 25, 2017February 25, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

The opening show of the Arctic Playhouse’s new season is “Sister Mary Ignatius/The Actor’s Nightmare” by Christopher Durang. They are two one act companion piece plays. Sister Mary Ignatius, a teaching nun who is more concerned with sin in all its various forms, delivers a cautionary lecture to her charges. One of them can quote the Ten Commandments on cue, and each time he does so Sister Mary rewards him with a cookie. But when several of her former students turn up the picture darkens, along with Sister Mary’s indignation. They confess the various paths their lives have taken after leaving her class and teachings. Sister highly disapproves their transgressions and a highly volatile and shocking conclusion to their meeting occurs. One of them is an unmarried mother of an illegitimate child, another is a homosexual, another is a woman who was raped on the night her mother died from cancer and the last one is an alcoholic who is suicidal. “The Actor’s Nightmare”, involves an accountant named George Spelvin, who is mistaken for an actor’s understudy and forced to perform in a play for which he doesn’t know any of the lines. He is dressed as Hamlet but then the show keeps changing from “Private Lives” to “Hamlet” and Beckett plays to “A Man for All Seasons” with a surprising realistic twist to it. Director Christopher Plonka casts these roles wonderfully, giving his 7 member cast the insight into these comic but deeply flawed characters to not only entertain you but to enlighten you along the way, too.

Mary Paolino delivers a tour de force performance as Sister Mary Ignatius. She delivers an enormous 40 minute monologue while speaking directly to the audience. Mary is strict in her lecture but comical at the same time, winning sustained laughter all night long. Her transformation into a tigress at the end of the show by keeping the intruders at bay is hilarious as is her doting on the seven year old prize student, Thomas wonderfully played by Nico Marschat. Another standout performer in this piece is Meg Taylor-Roth who delivers an impassioned speech about how her character felt abandoned by God when her mother was dying of cancer and how she had abortions after being raped on the night her mother died and the second when her therapist had sex with her. This is where this comic piece takes a dramatic turn. Olivia Sahlin plays the unwed mother who is a dumb blonde excellently but she shows great emotion at Meg’s poignant speech with tears in her eyes. She and Jeff Blanchette play a comic Camel who helps Mary and Joseph deliver Jesus in the stable. Jeff plays the alcoholic father who never was allowed to go to the bathroom and wet the floor at school because the nun never let him go to the bathroom. Mario Sasso also delivers the goods in the Nativity skit as St. Joseph as well as when he tells Sister that he slept with 500 men.

Jeff Blancette commands the stage as George Spelvin in “The Actor’s Nightmare.” From the first entrance as this befuddled, confused man who proclaims he is just an accountant not an actor, he delivers a well nuanced performance. As he moves from play to play from “Private Lives” to “Hamlet” to “Waiting for Godot” to Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons”, he shines at each transformation by calling for line, never knowing the dialogue or whether it’s a monologue for the character which he mixes up constantly in this absurdist play. Victoria Ezikovich is a hoot as Amanda in the Noel Coward play by repeating her lines over again until he delivers the right line and slapping his face when he tries to unzip her dress. Olivia plays the stage manager who enters now and again to feed George his lines in an inaudible whisper. Mario plays Horatio in “Hamlet” and the Executioner in “Man for All Seasons”, delivering a powerful performance as both characters as does Meg who plays Sybil in “Private Lives” and a character in a garbage can in the Beckett play. She urges George to play the death scene as Thomas More to the climatic conclusion. So for a riotous night of comic antics with some serious undertones, be sure to catch “An Evening of Christopher Durang” at Arctic Playhouse. Also enjoy their free cookies, popcorn and coffee while watching these entertaining shows.

SISTER MARY IGNATIUS/THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE (22 February to 10 March)

The Arctic Playhouse, 117 Washington Street, West Warwick, RI

1(401)573-3443 or www.thearcticplayhouse.com

MARVIN’S ROOM (Rhode Island College)

February 25, 2017February 25, 2018 Theater MirrorLeave a comment

MARVIN’S ROOM

Reviewed by Tony Annicone

Rhode Island College Theatre’s current show is “Marvin’s Room” by Scott McPherson. It won the Outer Critic’s Award, the Drama Desk Award and the John Gassner Award for Best New American Play in 1992. The show is about two sisters, Lee, a wisecracking, psychologically unstable free spirit who has not helped with the caretaking and Bessie, who is their ill elderly father Marvin and their ill elderly Aunt Ruth’s saintly caretaker who has leukemia. Lee is the mother of two sons, one Hank, who is a disturbed teenager and Charlie, his younger brother. Bessie’s diagnosis and the possibility that one of them may be a match for a transplant is what brings them all together. It is comic show about a serious illness, but it is performed and written with humor amid the pathos. Director Connie Crawford makes sure the comic moments as well as the dramatic moments come to life through the college performers. The show is a series of fourteen vignettes and Connie brings out the best in her cast, creating a splendid show with heart for the audience to savor and enjoy.

The set is by Katryne Hecht while the costumes are by Marcia Zammarelli. Maria Cabral handles the demanding role of Bessie excellently. She plays the long suffering but resilient Bessie, who we see from the humorous scenes of opening in the doctor’s office and with her aunt to the poignant moments in the hospital and with her sister and nephews. Maria appears in almost every scene of the show and makes each moment count. She appears without her wig in one scene to show how the effects of the disease and a lighter moment occurs during a happier time when she was in love with her carny barker. Bessie wants to bring the same kind of happiness to her dying father by using a carnival type light to brighten his life and finally showing her love for her father and aunt. Maria makes Bessie into a sympathetic character that the audience adores for handling a dark situation with humor and optimism.

Madison Ramsay as Aunt Ruth steals almost every scene that she’s in. She wears a gray wig and makes the doddering aunt with a bad back into an hilarious character. Some of the comic moments include the robotic device implanted into her back that makes the garage open, she loves soap operas and thinks Pluto at Disney World is a gopher. Another strong performance is given by Mia Ceglie as Bessie’s sister, Lee. She makes this hard shelled woman soften when she deals with her sister’s illness later in the show. One of her best moments occurs when she finally admits to her son, Hank that she knew his father beat him and she took things out on Hank by yelling at him. Her emotional breakdown and renewed connection to him and Bessie is excellent. Some comic moments include her stealing candy and yelling at her sons.

The two actors who play Lee’s sons in the show do fantastic work, too. Andrew Holowienka makes Hank, the tough juvenile offender who has burnt down his mother’s house into a likeable kid by the end of the show. His scenes with Bessie, his mother and Charlie shows his true love for them. Hank runs away when he feels he’s failed to give Bessie the bone marrow that she needs but eventually realizes he needs the love of his family at last. Andrew makes the transition from tough to nice believable and delivers an emotion packed performance. Elijah Swain plays Charlie, the book loving and school hating younger brother. His interactions with the other cast member is terrific. One of his funniest lines is “Can I watch Grandpa breathe?” while his most poignant when he gives Hank’s note to Bessie after Hank ran away.

Other comical cast members include Michaela Pendola as Dr. Wally who calls everyone by the wrong name, Emily Fleet as Dr. Charlotte who plays Hank’s shrink and also plays the bitchy, Southern Retirement Home Director who tells them they have to become destitute to afford to put their father and aunt there, Yunus Quddus plays the narrator and Marvin who is never scene onstage but through a translucent scrim and Ellen Porde as Wally’s dimwitted sister. So for a marvelous production, be sure to catch “Marvin’s Room” at Rhode Island College. The audience learns what it’s like to be caretakers of our elderly relatives.

MARVIN’S ROOM (23 February to 4 March)

Rhode Island College, Forman Theatre, 600 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI

1(401)456-8144 or www.ric.edu/mtd