St. Louis Eats and Drinks

Gypsy

The Muny’s doing Gypsy this week, a show that’s been around so long that some folks don’t remember just how good it is. The script, based loosely on a memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee, a rather elegant (and relatively restrained) burlesque dancer of great fame, and written by Arthur Laurents, gives actors some serious stuff to dig into. Jule Stein wrote the music, and Stephen Sondheim, after some persuasion by Oscar Hammerstein, wrote the lyrics. Yes, Sondheim. Who can doubt it with rhymes like “You can sacrifice your sacro, working in the back row,” from the deliciously bawdy “You Gotta Have a Gimmick”, sung by three strippers (shown below) to the rookie who’s about to attempt it for the first time?

Mamma Rose, the ultimate show biz mother, is at the heart of the story. Beth Leavel (below) turns in a fine performance moving from driven to obsessed and then, eventually, beyond that. It’s a beautifully nuanced piece of work from her. Her daughters, June and Louise, are dancing and singing in vaudeville as children; kudos to Amelie Lock and Elise Edwards, respectively, who portray the sisters during their childhood.

For the remainder of the show, June, who the world came to know as actress June Havoc, is Hayley Podschun (below), the fair-haired child of her mother because she’s their headliner, more talented than her sister. Louise, Julia Kneitel, is the older by a couple of years – neither of the girls is sure of their age, since Mom has fibbed about it so often, adding years because of child labor laws, subtracting them when dealing with theater owners because little kiddies might be a bigger draw. Louise isn’t as cute, not as graceful, not as good a singer, and is always June’s supporting cast. (At least Rose doesn’t relegate Louise to being either the front or the back end of the cow she decides should be a part of the act. Faint consolation, I suppose.)

Rose finally manages to snag an agent. Herbie’s a candy salesman who used to be an agent, but Rose draws him in. He’s played by Adam Heller – who, probably not coincidentally, is the boyfriend of Beth Leavel. Heller is a delight, warm and funny and charming, with a singing voice like butterscotch. Herbie’s a stalwart guy, pretty patient with Rose’s obsessive focus on making June a star.

June escapes and Rose’s focus turns to Louise, but vaudeville is waning as motion pictures are becoming more popular. The act, scraping the bottom, finds themselves booked into a burlesque house when the headliner is arrested. Mamma Rose volunteers Louise to take her place, and the transformation begins – aided by the experienced strippers – both in Louise, who becomes Gypsy Rose Lee that night, and in the balance of power. And Kneitel (shown below) steps into Gypsy’s (and Gypsy’s) power with immense grace.

As with many of the older shows that have had several revivals, there are different versions. This one is not nearly so bleak as some, but that doesn’t lessen the impact. Director Rob Ruggiero has done a fine job in putting this remarkable show together. It’s great to see it again.

The only misstep is the persistent problem this year of mics not coming on as performers start to speak for the first time or after a prolonged period of silence. It’s corrected in a few syllables, but it’s slightly jarring to the listener, especially considering the smoothness of most everything else.

A great chance to see a fine version of one of the greatest classic American musicals. And how can one resist a chance to hear that fine anthem, “Have an Egg Roll, Mr. Goldstone” (shown below)?

 

 

Gypsy

through August 2

The Muny

Forest Park

www.muny.org

The Realistic Joneses

Jennifer and Bob sit outside on a summer night. It’s quiet and pleasant. Soon, there’s a noise offstage, and then footsteps. It’s their new neighbors, John and Pony, who banged into the garbage can, uh, while they were listening to Jennifer and Bob. But politeness prevails, and it turns out that the new couple has the same surname as the longtime residents. They’re all named Jones. We're seeing The Realistic Joneses, by Will Eno. 

But this isn’t Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel. It isn’t even Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. It’s apparent from the start that all these folks are hanging on the edge in various ways. Conversation bolts off from the expected to give us more story and/or to lead us into the land of the puzzled. It’s all close to absurdist.

Of the four, Jennifer, Laurie McConnell, seems the closest to normal, whatever that means in such a neighborhood. She’s a bookkeeper but is taking some time off because her husband Bob played by her real-life husband Alan Knoll, has been diagnosed with a rare degenerative neurological disease. (Note: The Harriman-Leavey syndrome they refer to here doesn’t really exist.) It’s causing some memory problems, and whether from the disease process itself or the overwhelming knowledge that he has a fatal illness, seems to be at the root of Bob’s habit of suddenly speaking harshly to his wife.

Pony – her father, Pony remarks at one point, thought up her name – is not just a garden variety neurotic with her insecurity and neediness. Her line of thought is frequently, almost brilliantly, illogical, bouncing like a tennis ball out of the lines and into an unsuspecting spectator’s face. She’s Kelly Hummert, the artistic director of Rebel and Misfits Productions, the presenting group. Her husband John is the strangest one of the group, and Isaiah Di Lorenzo leans into the role, leaping and crawling across the stage, ignoring boundaries of personal space, tact and good sense.

The story line is linear, short vignettes interspersed with blackouts, full of crackling dialogue but not leading to a tidy ending. It’s all typical of author Will Eno, whose work we’ve seen in St. Louis with shows like Thom Pain (based on nothing) and Title and Deed. Ed Coffield directed, using his actors pretty much spot on. McConnell and Knoll are smooth and believable in their first roles playing a married couple, letting the threads of normalcy fray and fall away in shreds of varying sizes. Hummert’s Pony knows she’s fragile but pushes herself anyway, sometimes almost trembling with the intensity of her feelings. Does Di Lorenzo’s John choose her because she’s so vulnerable? Watch his face for micro-expressions as his predatory instincts come up for air and are shoved down. At least they are some of the time. A warped-reality set from Peter and Margery Spack fits right in, with Jon Ontiveros’ lights and Ellie Schwetye’s sound. Coffield conducts this band of Misfits with considerable style.

Not your usual evening of theatre.

 

The Realistic Joneses

through August 12

Rebel and Misfits Productions

The JCC Blackbox

2 Millstone Campus Drive, Creve Coeur

314-534-1111 (Metrotix)

rebelandmisfitsproductions.com

Mamma Mia!

The original version of the movie Mamma Mia! looks better than ever now that the followup film continuing the story has been released. (You want irritable? Try The New York Times review of it.) Stages St. Louis currently shows off their version of the stage production on which the movie was based, and the smaller venue is a good way for its numerous fans to enjoy it – again, in many cases.

You know the story – Donna Sheridan, the lead singer in an all-female rock trio, left her group when she found out she was pregnant in the Seventies, and now runs a small hotel and taverna on an obscure Greek island. The daughter, Sophie, now 20, is getting married and thinks she may have identified who might be her father, the family secret. Three candidates, British, Australian and American. Unbeknownst to her mother, she’s invited the guys to the wedding.

Lots of themes resonate here. Sophie, Summerisa Bell Stevens, is very young to be getting married, especially by the standards of Donna, one of the original free spirits as played by Corrine Melancon. Donna doesn’t know which of the men, is the father, either, ex-head banger Harry, David Schmittou, Aussie explorer and writer Bill, Steve Isom, or the American who left her to return to his fiancee, Sam, played by Gregg Goodbrod. Her diary, found by Sophie, uses ellipses about each man right around when it happened. The groom Sky, David Sajewich, is rather a cipher, but that’s mostly the fault of the script.

Despite all this, it really is a lighthearted show, especially when Donna’s former bandmates show up, the frequently-married Tanya, who’s Dana Winkle, and Rose, Dan’yelle Williamson, less of an Earth Mother here than in some versions of the show.

Melancon’s Donna is a hard-working mother of the bride, visibly hesitant about the whole thing and even more rattled when her exes arrive, but she sounds good. Stevens gives us a Sophie that’s a lot more, uh, sophisticated than her lines would have us believe, and she, too, makes good use of the score. The three ex-swains all are pleasing, and in particular their harmonizing at the end of “Money, Money, Money” was a delight.

It’s also a real pleasure to see that choreographer Tony Gonzalez has in the number, ”Lay All Your Love on Me”, utilized swim fins for the men of the dance ensemble, a wonderful bit that is remarkably funny. Overall, it’s a handsome show with scenic design by James Wolk and lighting from Sean M. Savoie. The opening number of the second act, “Under Attack”, as Sophie dreams, shows great imagination, with plenty of surprises and some of the best use of black light I’ve seen in a number of years. Director Michael Hamilton has put together a fine tech ensemble for the show.

Still, these days, how many people in the audience, when they weren’t wanting to sing along, were wondering, What if she had been able to get those DNA kits?

A number of performances have already sold out – get a move on if this is your bag, as we would have said in the Seventies.

 

Mamma Mia!

Through August 19^th

Stages St. Louis

Robert G. Reim Theatre

111 S. Geyer Rd., Kirkwood

314-821-2407

www.stagesstlouis.org

La Bute New Theater Festival, Set Two

The second half of St. Louis Actors’ Studio LaBute New Theater Festival finishes up this weekend. As is the tradition, it, like the first section earlier in July, opens with the short play that Neil LaBute offers each year. This year it’s Eric Dean White in The Fourth Reich, and you can read about it here.

The Gettier Problem, by Michael Long, was a problem for me, but maybe that’s because I worked in hospitals for so many years. It takes place in a psychiatric patient’s room, with a manipulative woman spitting out her medication. The woman’s discussion of what’s reality and what isn’t might be interesting if one hadn’t thought about it before, but basically it’s a scenario that, while realistic, seems without a point. Colleen Backer has a spot-on portrayal of the patient, Erin Brewer is the nurse mostly containing her impatience, and Spencer Sickmann a nurses aide who starts listening to the patient and is drawn in. But a note of authenticity needs to be attended to: One does not “check in” to a hospital. This is not the Ritz, or even Motel 6, where one presents oneself at the front desk, and says, “I want a room.” Even a voluntary psychiatric admission comes from an order from someone, probably a physician, who is on staff and has what’s called admitting privileges. And even if someone is rich enough to bypass insurance and pay for the hospitalization out of their own pocket, one “is admitted”. One does not check in. [End of rant.]

Peter McDonough’s The Process brings back Brewer, along with Carly Rosenbaum as two women in what at first seems to be an interview. It evolves slowly into something rather different, and quite political. Good performances from both actors in a script that could either use condensing or expanding into a full one-act.

And then there’s Unabridged, by Sean Abley. It’s in the absurdist style, and Zak Farmer and Spencer Sickmann are having an absolute romp with it. Farmer runs a dusty, moth-eaten storefront where the merchandise is words.

Words? Words? Yes. He sells words. The lack of accurate words in this society shows in the Sickmann character’s vocabulary – a really bad guy, he says, reaching, fumbling for a descriptor, is a “boat”. This may not appeal to everyone’s sense of humor but I found it hysterical and the two actors are an utter delight.

John Pierson directed The Fourth Reich, The Gettier Problem was directed by Wendy Renee Greenwood and Ryan Scott Foizey directed both The Process and Unabridged. Some interesting stuff here.

 

LaBute New Theater Festival Set Two

through July 29

St. Louis Actors’ Studio

Gaslight Theater

360 N. Boyle

314-458-2978

stlas.org

Brunch: The Preston

A fine meal at the Preston with excellent service. 

The quiet decor is a good setting for some colorful food. Read about it here.

 

The Importance of Being Earnest

It’s hard to resist a play that includes probably the 19^th Century’s greatest food scene. The Importance of Being Earnest is the current offering from Insight Theatre Company, scampering across the stage at the Grandel Theatre. It’s Oscar Wilde at his best, one funny line after another.

One of the main reasons this production glows so brightly is the combination of Will Bonfiglio and Pete Winfrey. Bonfiglio plays Algernon Moncrieff, and Winfrey is his chum John Worthing. The two are bachelor men-about-town, living on inheritances and having a fine time doing so, but Worthing has become smitten with Algie’s cousin Gwendolyn and intends to propose to her.

They’re expecting cousin Gwendolyn and her mother Lady Bracknell, for tea when the play opens. Gwendolyn knows her suitor as Earnest – that’s the name Worthing uses when he’s in London, up from his country house. The proposal comes when Algie drags Lady Bracknell off to another room for something, and her sudden return throws thing into a tizz.

Bonfiglio and Winfrey bounce off each other like they’ve been doing it for years, all in the droll, arch style that so marks this script. It’s a pleasure to watch. Lady Bracknell, brought to us in full battle-axe style by Thomas Murray, is utterly splendid. I’m not sure when the role was first cast with a male, but contemporary revivals of the play have used actors such as Geoffrey Rush and Brian Bedford to great effect.

Gwendolyn, as smitten with her suitor as he is with her, is Gwen Wotowa, who brings a little more gravitas to the role than sometimes is seen. Jack/Earnest’s ward Cecily, who lives at his country house is Julia Crump, all pinkness and fluff, to the dismay of her governess, Miss Prism, Ruth Ezell. (Yes, that Ruth Ezell, from the Nine Network, making her professional stage debut.) The country rector, played by Steve Springmeyer, and Miss Prism seem to be sympatico, another potential romance, all played with nice subtlety.

The heart of this play is the dialogue, which is rapid-fire and demanding. Director Ed Reggi has chosen to use English accents for the show, fine and fitting, and the dialect consultant Jeff Cummings has done yeoman work with the cast. Because the lines are rapid-fire, one quip often immediately following another, the timing of their delivery is crucial, giving the audience a chance to react without drowning out the next line. That, too, is handled well nearly all the time. The Grandel space continues to be a challenge for hearing, though. Mostly, the cast aims toward the middle of the nearly 180-degree sweep of the audience, and that works pretty decently. But in one instance on opening night, one line was aimed toward stage right – and that half of the audience were the only ones that were laughing. There were a few instances of lines seeming to be lost from too-rapid or too-soft delivery, but those were transient problems that righted themselves.

Kudos to Laura Hanson for her lovely work, for the men as well as the women; you may put Lady Bracknell in whichever category suits you. (Whoever chose the wig for the character deserves special acknowledgment.) The sets, two drawing rooms and a garden, come from Lucas Shryock.

The food scene? Early in the second act, there’s a scene dealing with muffins, including the deathless line, “I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner.” A strong recommendation overall, especially for those of us who enjoy banter. Wilde’s gift for offering a fast pace in a sedate setting rises to its peak here.

 

The Importance of Being Earnest

through July 22

Insight Theatre Company

The Grandel Theatre

3610 Grandel Square

www.insighttheatrecompany.com

H.M.S. Pinafore

Ah, those staid Victorians…. H.M.S. Pinafore, now staged by the Union Avenue Opera Company puts the lie to many of the stereotypes we, uh, pin on them. It’s classic Gilbert and Sullivan, of course, and modern theatre-goers might be interested to know that their work bridged things into modern musical theatre as it began to bridge the gap between opera and the British music hall. For one thing, the prolific pair hired their own actors rather than taking what the owner of the theatre insisted they use. And for another, they wanted acting that was natural rather than stylized and histrionic, apparently fairly uncommon at the time.

The daughter of the captain of the Pinafore is in love with one of the sailors, an inappropriate match because of their unequal social status. The First Lord of the Admiralty, the equivalent of our Secretary of the Navy, is hot for the lovely young thing, but she’s having none of it.

All’s well in the end but not without two other marriages, one of which is two cousins marrying and the other a foster mother marrying one of her foster sons. Incest. Near-incest.

There are some very funny songs in the show, all brought to light by a fine cast. Josephine, the sweet young thing is Leann Schuering, who sounds marvelous. Her heartthrob, Ralph (please to note it’s pronounced “Rafe” in the British style) Rackstraw is Anthony Heinemann, clearly and tunefully entranced by her. The First Lord, the most broadly comedic of the characters and given some of the funniest songs, such as the one in which he explains just how he got to be “the ruler of the Queen’s navee”, is sung by Steven Condy He makes the most of it. Someone has thrown in another, quite contemporary verse in the song, too, and it works splendidly. The sailors are having a fine time despite the admiral’s visit and so are “his sisters and his cousins and his aunts”, who arrive with him to see the ship and enjoy the company of the sailors – despite what one presumes is more social inequality.

A simple set, but lots of work with the lights from designer Andy Vieluf, and some charming costumes from Kyra Bishop Sanford. Eric Gibson directed the stage work and Scott Schoonover, UAO’s artistic director, directs the fine pit orchestra.

All great fun, and a nice, easy introduction for someone who’s new to opera.

 

H.M.S. Pinafore

Union Avenue Opera Company

773 Union Boulevard, St. Louis

314-361-2881

www.unionavenueopera.org

Jersey Boys

Once upon a time, the then-Municipal Opera in St. Louis gave the audiences shows like Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince. Teenagers would wonder to themselves, Why are they doing stuff like that? Who wants to hear an operetta, for crying out loud? Of course, it was the people who paid for the tickets who wanted to see shows like that. They’d heard the music before – often – and they liked it. It was fluff, certainly; summer theatre, all across America, was like that.

Now it’s officially known as the Muny (having escaped the very misleading nickname those teenagers often heard, “the Opera”), and it’s the erstwhile teenagers who are buying tickets. This week’s offering, Jersey Boys, is, if you think about it, the perfect summer show, a light plot and plenty of music that lots of the audience grew up with, either when they were teens or listening to their parents tuning into the Oldies stations that proliferated in the ensuing years.

It’s the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, with plenty of creative liberty taken regarding the real story. That’s no big deal. This is all about the music that poured out of KXOK and WIL from bedrooms while doing homework or cars on dates at the A&W Root Beer stand, the background music to almost everyone of that generation’s life. And it sounds great. If the angle of the Muny’s audience seating was not so great, people would surely be dancing in the aisles.

Mark Ballas plays Valli, and he’s got the perfect voice for it, strong in the high registers so necessary for these songs. His acting chops come through, too, as the young Frankie matures before our eyes. Bob Gaudio, who joined the group at age 16 after writing the hit single “Who Wears Short Shorts”, is Bobby Conte Thornton, seemingly self-assured from the start, remaining strong no matter what. Nicolas Dromard’s Tommy DeVito, the guy who at least claims to have put the group together – although with the personnel changes, that claim’s a little iffy – works all the angles, but from the start brings all the colorful New Joisey stereotypes to vivid life. Keith Hines, who was here two years ago with the touring company that played the Fox, returns as Nick Massi. Hines gives the relatively silent Massi a memorable portrayal; when he speaks, as the old, old commercial used to say, people listen. And it’s not just because there’s a little Jack Nicholson thrown in.

Josh Rhodes directed and did the choreography, of which there’s plenty, as varied in style as the decades through which this music poured. The costume department obviously had another busy time preparing for this one as well, although to my recall, the costumes of the chorus, while wonderfully nostalgic, weren’t always quite coordinated with the period of the music being played. Still, miniskirts and go-go boots were as much fun as the early Sixties boat-necked, full-skirted frocks. A few glitches with mics not coming on when they should, but other than that, a fine opening night performance.

In fact, as I was leaving, a mom and dad were leaving with their kids. The young gentleman, perhaps 5, said enthusiastically to his father, “That was great! That was great!” Another theatergoer hooked for the next fifty years, we hope.

 

Jersey Boys

through July 16

The Muny

Forest Park

www.muny.org

2018 LaBute New Theatre Festival, Set I

It’s time once again for the annual LaBute New Theater Festival at St. Louis Actors’ Theatre. This is the sixth year for the festival, and a good chance for theatre-goers who want to avoid The Same Stuff to see brand new work. As William Roth, SLAS Artistic Director, said on opening night, the short plays are basically still being workshopped – they’re in progress. And unlike sausage, as the old saying goes, it’s interesting to watch art being made.

Understand this does not mean these are rehearsals, the sort of thing where a director stops what’s onstage and says, “Eileen, can you give that line a little more anxiety? And Rufus, come downstage a couple of feet. We want to see you react to her.” But the scenery is minimal, and the actors on hand may well appear in more than one of the four plays presented in each half of the festival.

Set One has just opened; Set Two opens July 20. Each of them opens, as usual, with a new short play from Neil LaBute, who was in attendance on opening night. This year’s offering from the eponymous playwright was The Fourth Reich.

LaBute can often give an audience a slap in the face. This is more like gradually turning up the volume on a piece of music so it’s easier to recognize the recurring theme. Eric Dean White plays an ordinary sort of guy seated in an armchair for a little chat. Perhaps he’s making a video for YouTube. As he speaks, there’s the sort of affability one might associate with small-town grade school principals. But we realize pretty quickly that his discussion of history being written by the winners but “other truths” are omitted is leading into something bigger. Much bigger. It’s a voyage of growing horror and disgust. Then the snake, so to speak, just slithers away, leaving us gasping and relieved.

Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich wrote Shut Up and Dance about a Rockette, Erin Brewer, who has refused to participate in the inaugural festivities last year. It’s part fantasy/nightmare and part dialogue with her mother, Margeau Steinau. The women talk past each other for most of the time, and while the dialogue is an accurate portrayal of how many people felt at that time, it’s not enough to carry things.

After the intermission, the tone changes considerably. Advantage God is by Norman Kline, about an affluent couple empty-nesting in a gated community. Colleen Backer and Eric Dean White discover the neighborhood is under siege and being invaded. Backer is so blissfully self-absorbed she’s really not disturbed. Fine work from both actors, especially White, whose gift for comedy seldom seems to be displayed. The piece is wonderfully over-the-top satirical, especially the voice of God, Reginald Pierre, and shows considerable promise, although the very end needs a little work.

James McLindon’s Hipster Noir, gives us a Brooklyn coffee shop that has an old-fashioned corded land line phone. That right there proves we’re entering the land of cognitive dissonance. Reginald Pierre is a Raymond Chandler-esque guy who’s also working a day job as a barista, although he would surely look puzzled at the title. But he’s not surprised when a, yes, hipster customer played by Joshua Parrack comes in carrying a vintage Smith-Corona portable typewriter and gushes over the barista’s fountain pen. He’s followed by a glamorous dame, Carly Rosenbaum, much more in the oeuvre of Chandler, who is clearly interested in more from him than what’s coming from the coffee machine. The dialogue is perfectly, deliberately, sappy, and everyone is having way too good a time.

Wendy Greenwood directed Shut Up and Dance; the others were directed by John Pierson. It’s a fast, fascinating and, in the second half, fun evening.

 

LaBute New Theater Festival Set One

through July 15

St. Louis Actors’ Studio

Gaslight Theater

360 N. Boyle

314-458-2978

stlas.org