Theater
The Book of Liz
The Boulevard Ensemble Theatre presents the Milwaukee premiere of David and Amy Sedaris’s The Book of Liz without the cartoonish costumes, ludicrously artificial sets and other stunts that had New York reviewers raving about the Sedaris’s own production in 2001. By stripping away all of the visuals, director Mark Bucher was able to tackle this cinematic, scene-change-ridden comedy with little or no budget. Bucher’s decision to narrate the action might have been a viable or even bold approach to this technically challenging play if the narration had been funny and stylistically consistent with the script. Unfortunately, it was neither. Instead, Bucher worked against the script, inundating this idiosyncratic play with tired gags and clichés. Thanks to a talented cast, much of the humor of the script managed to shine through. Beth Monhollen played the title character wonderfully straight, navigating bizarre situations (from a religious sect devoted to cheese ball production to a pilgrim-themed restaurant staffed almost entirely with recovering alcoholics) in a simple, genuine performance that proved to be the funniest aspect of the show. The rest of the cast also hit some moments perfectly, especially David Oplinger, Ruth Boulet and Kathleen Williams, but their performances lacked consistency. My personal experiences at the Boulevard have been mixed. They’ve produced many excellent plays, often by playwrights that don’t get much attention elsewhere in the city, but occasionally their productions slide into the kind of amateurish goofing off that almost sank this one. VS The Boulevard Theatre’s production of The Book of Liz continues through September 30. 414-744-557 or www.boulevardtheatre.com for more info.
Sep 18th, 2007 by R. Winsome
Cyrano de Bergerac
The panache of Cyrano De Bergerac resonated throughout the Quadracci Powerhouse Theatre at The Rep on opening weekend. Cyrano’s indomitable soul overcomes unsightly features through his unabashed ability to love, conquering both the stage and the audience to begin the 2007 season. Directed by Sanford Robbins from the nationally renowned Professional Theater Training Program (PTTP) in Delaware, which originated at UWM, Cyrano is a tour de force for graduates of the program. Lee Ernst, who studied under Robbins, creates a believable and honorable Cyrano, wholehearted in his unrequited love for his distant cousin, Roxanne. Whether reciting poetic refrains while dueling swords or under the moonlight to Roxanne, Ernst delivers an exceptional persona true to playwright Edmond Rostand’s panache. Add the fight choreography developed by Ernst for the production and the audience begins to understand the complete package this resident Rep actor brings to the theater. Two other graduates of the PTTP include Erin Partin debuting as Roxanne and Andre Martin performing as Christian de Neuvillette. Both light the stage, as lovers and actors, especially Partin as she imbues Roxanne with comely dignity. Torrey Hanson as Rageneau the pastry chef, another PTTP actor, adds comic delight with his patisserie poetry. And a recent performer from the same program, Benjamin Reigal – Ernst’s son – is sure to follow in his father’s footlights as both actor and fight captain. But this Cyrano uses the polish of the PTTP in combination with the superb costume design of Matthew J. LeFebvre who adorns the characters with every ruffle of romance. Lace, bows, tassels and tulle, with wonderfully imaginative shoes, addresses the play’s theatricality. Overhead “the lamps are lit” when two chandeliers rise above the beautifully dressed actors to begin the performance. Linda Buchanan’s scenic design, adaptable and appropriately restrained, allows the candlelight to illuminate the words and performances, particularly in scene three under full moonshine. However, the romantic soul of the story, that Cyrano’s love must go unspoken because of a long and protruding nose, a supposedly ugly presence, is timeless in its telling. In a society requiring more physical perfection than ever before, amid the constant picture of youth, Cyrano De Bergerac reminds us that beauty is window dressing. It is in the depths of spirit, wit, and wisdom, behind those curtains, where love resides. Speaking of heartbreaking tragedy beneath the comedy in the final act, Roxanne says, “I have lost my love twice.” The audience understands the double disappointment of love misplaced and squandered, but also the broken belief that outside appearances are of more value than inner character and integrity. Robbins and Ernst, with the large supporting cast of The Rep, produce three hours of theater demonstrating extraordinary romantic panache. Continuing until October 7, Cyrano De Bergerac, with a soul continually worth revisiting, offers a tragic lesson under the guise of laughter in love and life. VS The Rep presents Cyrano De Bergerac in the Powerhouse Quadrucci Theater at the Repertory Theater on East Wells. For information: 414.224. 9490 or www.milwaukeerep.com.
Sep 11th, 2007 by Peggy Sue Dunigan
2 Henry IV
Milwaukee Shakespeare continues its multi-season presentation of the Henriad with part two of Henry the Fourth. The production, which cleverly fills the space of the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, continues the saga of yet another doomed king on his way out of office. The doomed king in question is the title character as played by Angela Iannone. Thin, sinewy Iannone is a clever casting choice on the part of Milwaukee Shakespeare. Iannone, who has a long history in local theatre, casts the role in a faintly otherworldly light as she makes contact with the character of Henry IV through an almost saturnine stage presence. The king is frail and will die soon — this much is clear in a profoundly visual way before any lines are spoken. The stage is set up much the same way as it was for the 1 Henry IV last year. The audience flanks the stage with half of them facing the other half through the flurry of drama onstage. This season’s set elevates two of the four entrances at a diagonal to each other, providing a dramatic edge to the flow of action onstage. Everything feels pleasantly out of balance as the events of the play tumble across the stage. Even the cast feels a bit uneven, albeit affably. This year’s Prince Henry is played by last year’s Hotspur. This year’s Earl of Westmoreland is played by last year’s Gadshill. This year’s Bardolph is played by … last year’s Bardolph. And Michel Pocaro returns for another year in the role of Henry Percy. Jake Russo is every bit as comic in the role as he was last year. Pocaro’s continued exploration of Percy’s personality has been interesting to watch since he first walked onstage in the role as part of Milwaukee Shakespeare’s production of Richard II at the end of the 2005 – 2006 season. Standout performances by those new to Milwaukee Shakes’ Henriad include a deft Bo Johnson in the role of Lord Mowbray, a fiery DeRante Parker as the Earl of Mowbray and a weighty performance by Bob Adrian as the Archbishop of York. Kevin C. Loomis plays this year’s Falstaff admirably, with all the requisite depth and darkness the character acquires from the first to second part of the series, but he’s playing that role in the shadow of Ricard Ziman’s magnetic performance in the role last year. Loomis stands out in a number of scenes, but his performance here lacks some of the clever nuance Ziman had managed in the same role last year. Brian J. Gill brings Prince Henry to the stage with precisely the kind of charisma that is so important to the role. With everything as intriguingly off-balance as it is, the ending feels remarkably out of synch with everything that has happened in the series so far. The crown peacefully passes from the withered king as all others look on gravely. And there at the center of it all is Gill — the nice guy […]
Sep 11th, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
The Night of the Iguana
American Players Theatre The American Players Theatre delves into a mid-twentieth century script with its production of Tennessee Williams’ Night Of The Iguana. It’s an interesting choice in material for one of the APT’s few dips into the recent past. While it is true that Williams is widely recognized as one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century, The Night Of The Iguana is scarcely as acclaimed as other Williams classics like The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. (When the play debuted on Broadway in 1961, it received mixed reviews.) That said, The Night of The Iguana is far more entertaining than Williams’ more turgidly acclaimed works. It mixes particularly effective humor with a sense of drama that manages an abstract allegorical nature while still feeling quite natural. The APT production stars the multi-talented Jim DeVita as Reverend Shannon—a defrocked minister who, in his new occupation as tour guide, is leading a church group on a vacation tour through Mexico during World War II. DeVita does an excellent job here, but the character is nowhere near as interesting as the plot he’s a part of. Shannon guides his group to a hotel run by an old friend of his by the name of Maxine. Maxine (Tracy Michelle Arnold) takes the tour group in, certain that Shannon is still the wild party animal he always was—even as he claims to have reformed, cleaned up, and curbed the alcohol consumption. Arnold is very seductive here, possessing a smart, tough kind of allure that serves the character well. The rapport between DeVita and Arnold makes for some of the best moments in the play. The seduction of Shannon is complicated when a virginal young artist named Hannah (Colleen Madden) arrives at the hotel with her aging father (Robert Spencer.) It quickly becomes apparent that father and daughter have no money to pay for their accommodations and must attempt to sell his poetry and her paintings to keep their rooms. Madden is interesting here, but the character doesn’t provide her the kind of challenge she would need to turn out a really great performance. And it’s always great to see Spencer playing the lovable older guy (like he did most recently in the Rep’s production of Tuesdays With Morrie last year). It’s still a bit difficult to see him play such a simple character after his much more recent turn as a sophisticated Russian politico in Milwaukee Chamber’s production of A Walk In The Woods. In absence of any really amazing individual performances, the play comes across as a solid, entertaining ensemble piece. Talented actors squeeze themselves into roles that aren’t quite as good as they are, making for a stage dynamic that never quite manages to get boring. The script is bizarrely uneven in places, making for fascinating friction that seems to have no direct link to the central theme of temptation in a paradise that may be imprisonment. (Showing inexplicable storytelling instincts, Williams throws in a group of vacationing […]
Sep 7th, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Timon of Athens
Regarded by many scholars as an unfinished, perhaps experimental piece that may not have been entirely written by Shakespeare, Timon of Athens has great potential to be staged in an offbeat style. American Players Theatre in Spring Green has brilliantly realized this potential in what is by far its most accomplished production this season. This year, the APT has fallen a bit short of its usual standards. Timon of Athens goes a long way towards making up for any shortcomings it may have presented in its 2007 season. Aside from a decidedly modern-looking set, the audience’s first indication of the setting shows up in the usual “turn off your cell phones” announcement, cleverly delivered here as a polite notice from one of the title character’s servants. As the audience, we are all greeted as guests of Timon and encouraged to enjoy ourselves. When characters begin to filter onstage, the overall feeling is that of a posh, contemporary dinner party. All the guests are dressed in white except the Painter and the Poet, who reflexively dress in a classy, reflexively nonconformist black. The Painter (Matt Schwader) carries a tiny black leather portfolio. The Poet (Michael Gotch) carries around a black portfolio of his own that holds a disheveled stack of papers. Gotch and Schwader are brilliantly subtle here, delicately playing the part of pretentiously successful contemporary art-world hipsters – the kind you see nervously shuffling about the Third Ward on gallery night. Eventually, of course, the title character shows up in the form of a jovial Brian Mani. Mani has a very robust presence in the role, lending an earthy believability to the overwhelming generosity that is Timon’s tragic flaw. Just as Timon’s guests sit to eat at the banquet of his wealth, in walks Jonathan Soots in the role of true individualist Apemantus — a philosopher. There’s not a whole lot of money in philosophy, so Apemantus has little regard for it; he snacks idly on a carrot, acting as an upstage critic to the pretentious proceedings at center stage. With a presence and comportment vaguely reminiscent of a contemporary Mark Twain, Smoots puts in a pleasantly detached performance as he warns of the treachery of bought friendship. Of course, this being Shakespearian tragedy, Apemantus’s concerns turn out to be valid, and before long, Timon loses all the wealth he ever had. We catch up with him after the intermission on a set that is a dark aberration of the finely appointed atmosphere that started the play. A rusted-over wheelchair tilts in one corer of the stage. Empty cans litter the stage with other detritus. Mani plays the generous Timon now as a surly, soiled misanthrope with a fabulously twisted sense of humor. Inevitably, Timon happens upon a stash of bills – more accursed money, which brings on all those people he never wanted to have to deal with again. The Poet and the Painter show up right away, appearing first offstage, rustling through the foliage around the outdoor theatre. […]
Sep 7th, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Raise the Curtain!
The performing arts season bursts open with a half-dozen theatre groups launching productions this month. The Milwaukee Rep opens no less than three shows, including its centerpiece – Lee Ernst as Cyrano De Bergerac. The Rep’s cabaret opens its season with this year’s Roger Beane show Life Could Be A Dream. In more edgy local theatre, Wisconsin Lutheran College presents a couple of compelling one-acts, including Tickless Time, about the nature of time, and The Illuminati In Drama Liber, an experimental piece that explores the nature of linearity. Further out, Madison’s Mercury Players Theatre presents a comic musical production of Reefer Madness. Also in Madison, The Madison Rep opens its season with Death of A Salesman. Death sings a bit closer to home with The Skylight Opera Theatre’s production of The Midnight Angel. Local stages animate with intense drama as Dramatists Theatre and Milwaukee Shakespeare launch Orpheus Descending and 2 Henry IV respectively, both productions of some pretty heavy work by two of the greatest playwrights in history.
Sep 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
“THE HEART has reasons that reason cannot know.” — Blaise Pascal
Radiance and darkness come from the same place. If the mind is the brightest place in the human body with its constant storm of electrical impulses, perhaps the human body’s darkness exists in the heart – a place of absolutely essential, tireless labor. The heart creates enough pressure in the course of its constant pumping to shoot blood out of the body up to 30 feet. It can continue pumping even after 1/3 of its muscle mass is decayed. In spite of this, what is strong and durable from within is also quite fragile from the outside. It only takes 25 to 75 watts of electricity to stop the heart from beating. Somewhere in every beat lurks the final one, pumping blood to darker veins on the other side of human consciousness. This season promises some particularly dark moments. In May, Windfall Theatre travels into a conspicuously bleak autobiographical musical with William Finn’s A New Brain. Finn chronicled his battle with brain cancer in a musical filled with more heart and true human emotion than most musicals ever aspire. The Skylight Opera launches a completely different take on the dark side of musical theatre with a production of The Midnight Angel at the end of September. It’s the story of a wealthy 18th century woman so bored with life that she throws a lavish, decadent ball, inviting Death itself as a guest of honor. A similarly dark specter descends upon the Waukesha Civic Theatre’s Concert Series this season with Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldiers Tale. It’s a brilliantly dark piece usually performed by seven instruments. Composed in 1918, it’s based on an old Russian folk tale about a deserting soldier who meets and loses his soul to the Devil. In February, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents its stage adaptation of the dense, gritty work of Russian darkness that is Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The heavily intricate story of the brutal axe murder of two women will be played out sparingly. It will take a particularly deft scalpel to bring the extensive complexity of the original novel to the stage with three actors in a 90-minute show, but with the unique talents of Drew Brhel, Leah Dutchin and Mic Matarrese under the direction of Patrick Holland, Milwaukee Chamber’s Crime and Punishment could be one of the better shows on local stages this season. Under an even deeper pall of surreal darkness, The Milwaukee Rep presents Samuel Beckett’s vision of The End next March. Mark Corkins stars in Endgame as Hamm, who sees the final curtain falling and a new one rising. Another classic tale of dystopia makes its way to Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Theatre Department with George Orwell’s 1984. The title may be out of date, but the concept of a world watched over by the all-seeing Big Brother is a very interesting choice for WLC. Earlier in the season, WLC also presents a pair of one-acts about the darker aspects of time, including playwright Susan Glaspell’s intriguing short drama Tickless Time. Written […]
Sep 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
“THE BRAIN is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.” — Elbert Hubbard
The mind is run by the brain through an extraordinarily complex series of bioelectric reactions. Much like local arts groups, the brain does remarkable things with profoundly few resources. The brain runs an individual’s body and arguably everything abstract going on in his/her mind on very little quantifiable physical energy. If, for instance, a waiter (who we’ll refer to here as Mark) decides to become the artistic director of a new theatre company, he can find a space in Bay View and start the Boulevard Theatre. The brain in its near-infinite complexity allows this individual to adjust to the new role. If, years later, this same individual and his theatre company are pushed out of a season-opening production of playwright David Mamet’s very modern and ridiculously acclaimed Glengarry Glen Ross by a larger theatre company, said individual will adapt to the situation (through a dizzying set of neurological interactions) by planning a production of David and Amy Sedaris’ irreverent comedy The Book Of Liz. Leaping from Mamet’s serious and deeply engaging glance into the heart of human motivation to a comedy that briefly involves a person in a Mr. Peanut costume by the side of the road seems a bit nonlinear, and as the process of adaptation took its course The Book of Liz was rescheduled. The new season-opening work finally rendered was Will Eno’s Thom Paine (Based on Nothing), which opened last month. While the Sedaris’ piece is no longer the Boulevard’s replacement for Mamet’s brilliant drama (it may have never, in fact, ever really been intended for this purpose), it remains on the Boulevard’s season schedule this September. The comedy tells the story of a woman living in a fictitious, secluded religious commune who makes the cheese balls for which the commune is so well known by the outside world. Featuring some pretty deft dialogue, Thom Paine is a brilliant fusion of the distinctive comedic voices of both writers. Thus, thanks to the process of adaptation, Milwaukee theatre is host to the comedy AND the drama of both Eno and Mamet. The adaptability offered through the constantly changing architecture of the human brain can produce astonishing versatility within a single individual as well. For instance: say a young man from New Jersey (we’ll call him Jim) gets a job on a fishing boat. He dreams of being a captain of his own boat, so he graduates from high school and goes to the local community college to perfect the math skills he will need for navigation. If, in the process of going to said college, he finds himself in a theatre watching someone onstage and thinks, “I want to do that,” neurological adaptation at a cellular level kicks in, allowing him to travel across the country to Wisconsin and attend UWM’s professional theater training program. Years later he’s a successful actor/playwright/author. This year, Jim DeVita has a tremendous amount going on, thanks to the basic fundamentals of neurologically-fueled human adaptation. The fall arrives as DeVita’s summer season as […]
Sep 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
“Human salvation lies in the HANDS of the creatively maladjusted.” — Martin Luther King
Some of the oldest words in human language relate to the hands, suggesting a fundamental linguistic link between the human mind, the human hand and the world in which they exist. Hands, being the fundamental organ of corporeal interface between a human being and the outside world, have much to answer for in this respect. Throughout history hands have built monuments, started wars and saved and ended lives. Many scholars have elected to pin the blame for many of the hand’s indiscretions on the opposable thumb, thus freeing the rest of the hand from any guilt. Actually, any monkey (or chimpanzee for that matter) can oppose a thumb against an index finger. It’s the fact that the human thumb can oppose ANY of the other fingers including the small and ring fingers that make the human hand unique. Clearly, all the fingers can take both blame and credit for getting humanity to where it is today. And many hands have taken great pains to place performances all over greater Milwaukee this season. Hands have put together a new space for In Tandem to perform in as it opens its first comedy at the newly opened Tenth Street Theatre this season. Meanwhile, Milwaukee Shakespeare is still more or less without a central home as it stages a season featuring a couple of rarely performed pieces. It opens with 2 Henry IV (in September) and Cymbeline (in March) at the Broadway Theatre Center and Twelfth Night at the Wilson Center. Many hands have adapted Shakespeare’s work to other stage forms. The Milwaukee Ballet, for instance, performs dance adaptations of two plays by Shakespeare at the Marcus Center: Hamlet in November and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in February. Two months later, completely different hands place an adaptation of a completely different piece by Shakespeare as The Florentine Opera presents Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet.
Sep 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Moonlight and Magnolias
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Watch the closing credits of any film and you’ll see a long list of people who lived, breathed and sweated a massive creative project for days, weeks, months or more. Every name on that list has a story behind it that might be just as interesting as the story the film tells. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre opens its 2007-2008 season with Ron Hutchinson’s Moonlight and Magnolias, a comedic tribute to the hard work and dedication of three men striving to finish the final script of what would become the single most commercially successful film of all time – Gone With The Wind. Actor, musician and high school teacher Tom Klubertanz stars as legendary film producer David O. Selznick. Selznick finds himself in the unenviable position of lacking a director on one of the most expensive films in history – a film eagerly anticipated by a legion of fans who have read the book and expect something good. Selznick pulls acclaimed director Victor Fleming (Dan Mooney) off his current project (The Wizard of Oz) to pick up where exiting director George Cukor left off. With a new director in place, Selznick decides to start over with a new script. Bringing in screenwriter Ben Hecht (Michael Herold), Selznick locks himself, Hecht and Fleming in his office to bang out a completely new script in five days. Selznick is aided by a seemingly endless flow of peanuts and bananas brought into the office by his secretary Miss Poppenghul (Marcella Kearns). Klubertanz doesn’t quite muster the emotional weight onstage to play the mighty film producer convincingly. The gravitas is hardly missed, however, as Klubertanz has a compelling nice-guy stage presence that makes the role work. Michael Herold gives a shrewd, intelligent turn as the last screenwriter to work on Gone With The Wind, performing with a deft comedic perspicacity that unleashes itself from some of the best lines in the script. Dan Mooney summons a great amount of arrogance for his initial appearance onstage as big-name film director Victor Fleming, which gradually erodes throughout play in a hugely entertaining performance. Kearns is perfectly conservative in the role of Selznick’s secretary until just the right moment at the end of the play. More than merely a comedy about the golden age of Hollywood, this is a play about three men working themselves to the brink of death. When everything else fades away, we’re watching three men nearly destroy themselves to build the foundations of what is destined to be an unparalleled success. As the characters’ sense of sanity and decorum start to deteriorate, we see the deeply affecting comedy of three men losing their minds, learning something about the nature of their business in the process. It’s a brilliant opening to what looks like a very promising season with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. VS Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of Moonlight and Magnolias runs now through August 26th at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the box […]
Aug 13th, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Much Ado About Nothing
It can be the smallest things that make any production of a popular Shakespeare classic more memorable than the last. In an American Players Theatre production, this always seems to come from the least expected places. Maybe the production design is so impressive that it nearly overshadows the play it’s presenting. Maybe there’s a subtle, brilliantly unspoken joke woven into the set design that plays on a drastic height difference between the diminutive James DeVita and a towering supporting character. In this year’s APT production of Much Ado About Nothing, it’s the villain Don John. More than simply being a marginal character, Don John almost seems to be an afterthought in an otherwise giddy comic script, which is fun enough to make Much Ado one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Precisely why Don John would leave such a strong impression is a bit of a mystery, particularly when said production features such strong performances in all of the other more central roles. Milwaukee Rep actor Ted Deasy stars as confirmed bachelor Benedick who is unsuspectingly dragged into a relationship with Beatrice – a woman with which he is quite reluctantly head over heels in love. Beatrice is played brilliantly here by Milwaukee actress Tracy Michelle Arnold. Beatrice has a stinging, level-headed wit about her – a wit that Arnold rings to the stage with a considerable amount of flair. At the center of the story rests young Claudio (Marcus Truschinski) who has fallen for Hero (Leah Dutchin), the daughter of the Governor. Brian Mani plays the governor with a characteristically charismatic stage presence. The love here is pure and played remarkably well between Truschinski and Dutchin. With a central supporting cast consisting of such considerable APT/ Milwaukee talent as Sarah Day, James Ridge and Jim DeVita (among others) this is a solidly executed production of Much Ado. While little of it seems overwhelmingly impressive, it’s all executed very well. Milwaukee Shakespeare recently did a brilliant production of this play, so APT’s production may suffer from being produced so soon afterwards, but taken on its own it is exceedingly enjoyable. Why should it be then, that the marginal villain Don John is the single aspect of the production that makes this production worth seeing? The character only serves to provide the conflict that is the central obstacle in Claudio and Hero living happily ever after. There are few characters as far from the center as Don John, yet Milwaukee Shakespeare talent Michael Gotch plays the character with such dazzling flair that the character seems almost essential to the plot in this production. It doesn’t take Gotch long to establish the ostentatious personality of his particular Don John as he begins scheming to ruin the wedding plans of Hero and Claudio. Once he’s established his presence, all eyes are on Gotch every time he makes an appearance and the audience responds openly to even his most subtly comic movements. In Milwaukee Shakespeare productions (notably Taming of the Shrew and Richard II) Gotch […]
Aug 1st, 2007 by Russ Bickerstaff
Footloose
By Tracy Doyle Check it: a beloved ‘80s movie starring Kevin Bacon, over a decade later made into a moderately successful Broadway musical, revised in 2007 and this past weekend made its local premiere in Elm Grove’s Sunset Playhouse. Why yes, I am talking about Dean Pitchford’s Footloose! Noi-ce! Mark Salentine’s director’s notes clearly stated what one should and should not expect from the performance. “Don’t expect the movie… and don’t expect the original Broadway play… Expect a story of triumph and celebration. And, of course, you should expect to cut loose – footloose!” I wholeheartedly agree. The musical centers around the story of angst-ridden teenager Ren McCormack (Zander Bednall) who is uprooted from Chicago to the biggest little nothing of a town, Bomont, in the middle of Oneofthosestates. A bit of a troublemaker from the get go, Ren attempts to release his pent up emotions through biting sarcasm, friendly brawls and his real passion: dance. However, Ren quickly discovers that dancing has been outlawed in Bomont and he makes it his personal goal to bring back the beat to this tiny town. Along the way he befriends a hodgepodge collection of kids, the less-articulate, yet heart-of-gold side-kick Willard (Andrew Hollenbeck), the gorgeous misunderstood preacher’s daughter Ariel (Allie Beckmann), the giggling gaggle of teenage girls and the jealous meathead boyfriend of aforementioned preacher’s daughter. With his gang behind him, Ren confronts the religious authority running the town, learns a few heartfelt lessons and becomes a man. I liked the movie (shoot, shouldn’t be talking about movie) but I loved this musical! These kids can rock. The carefully reined enthusiasm of the ensemble paired with the attitude the size of North Dakota oozing out of every angsty pore in Bednall’s body was enough to keep this girl rocking and cause some audience members in close vicinity to shout out “YEAH!!!” at the end of “Footloose (Finale).” Neither Bednall nor Beckmann is the best singer in the world, but their acting was quite believable and enjoyable. Anne Gore (Rusty) shone brightly in her rendition of “Let’s Hear it for the Boy,” one of the several popular ‘80s songs to make it into the musical score. This show is not out to change any lives. It’s not going to change the world and I doubt you’ll leave the theater foaming at the bit over all the unfortunate souls living in danceless communities at this very moment. However, the show overwhelming succeeds in its goals of “triumph and celebration.” You’ll leave the house tapping your toes and humming a catchy bar or two; just promise me you’ll watch where you’re kicking off those Sunday shoes. VS The Sunset Playhouse’s performance of Footloose runs through August 5. For more information, call 262-782-4430 or visit www.sunsetplayhouse.com.
Aug 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
