The flim-flam man who gets himself bamboozled is a staple character of the musical theater. Think of Max Bialystock of The Producers, Lawrence Jameson of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and especially Harold Hill of The Music Man. That last one, the creation of composer-lyricist-book writer Meredith Willson, is an enduring conning icon who arrives in River City, Iowa, intent on … [Read more...]
For cast, ‘Music Man’ is a feel-good show with heart
By Hap Erstein Frequent Wick Theatre director Norb Joerder has forgotten how many times he has staged Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. But he can recall a lot of the prominent performers who have played the traveling salesman who cons town after town into buying instruments and band uniforms for their music-challenged youngsters. “This is probably my eighth or … [Read more...]
Sluggish pace mutes the laughs in MNM’s ‘Forum’
Stephen Sondheim was a mere 32 years old when the first show with his music and lyrics, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, opened on Broadway. A farce based on a convoluted storyline by the ancient Greek jokester Plautus, the audience-friendly musical has none of the psychological complexities that Sondheim would become known for, but plenty of his quirky melodies … [Read more...]
World premiere play revives ‘Goldbergs’ pioneer and the blacklist
Gertrude Berg, the pioneering writer-director-producer-star of radio and television’s The Goldbergs, a domestic comedy of a Jewish family in the Bronx, is all but forgotten today. In part that is why area stage actress Elizabeth Dimon wanted to commission a play about Berg and her show’s untimely demise in the dark days of the anti-Communist blacklist. In addition, the … [Read more...]
Audience-participation whodunit ‘Drood’ takes Maltz stage
Charles Dickens wrote what is probably the most popular holiday tale, A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted for the stage many times, filling theaters at this time of year. A bit perversely, then, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has chosen to dust off his other Christmas show, 1986’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a five-time Tony Award winner including Best Musical. It opens … [Read more...]
Playwright confronts work, romantic past in ‘Everything is Super Great’
Nineteen-year-old Tommy, the main character of Stephen Brown’s Everything is Super Great – a sarcastic title is ever there was one – lives a lonely life in a dead-end job at Starbucks. He is attracted to the female assistant manager who has no interest in him, he has no friends, his older brother has been missing for months and an inept therapist has arrived at Tommy’s home … [Read more...]
‘Andy and the Orphans’ deals thoughtfully with Down challenges
If the term “orphans” conjures up those adorable tykes from the musical Annie, playwright Lindsey Ferrentino asks us to adjust our sights and consider the more common situation of adults whose parents have died, leaving them with clean-up chores, both physical and emotional. That is how it is in Ferrentino’s Andy and the Orphans for siblings Maggie (Patti Gardner) and … [Read more...]
‘Fiddler’ still a miracle, as Sher’s version at Kravis shows
Fifty-five years ago, during what we now look back on as the golden age of Broadway, Sholem Aleichem’s folk tales of Tevye the dairy man and his five tradition-challenging daughters were adapted into the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Although considered commercially risky at the time, it went on to become one of the longest-running shows ever on Broadway, and a hit around the … [Read more...]
Maltz’s new ‘Dracula’ successfully Stokers the fires of silliness
To paraphrase that renowned philosopher Monty Python, “And now for something completely silly.” To open its 2019-20 season, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has commissioned a new spoofy take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale, Dracula. Or more accurately, on the general idea of Dracula, since co-adaptors Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen gleefully concede that they never read … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s production turns so-so ‘Shrek’ into a winner
How can you tell that the pot-bellied, antenna-eared green ogre named Shrek and assertive, yet incurably romantic Princess Fiona are meant for each other? They fart and burp with compatible pride. In the shorthand of musical comedy – well, in Shrek, the Musical at least – that means love. Chances are you know that already from the 2001 Oscar-winning Dreamworks … [Read more...]