'Beehive: The '60s Musical' closes out Rep season with safe, nostalgic version of Swinging Sixties

by Cate Marquis

Grade: C

“Beehive: The '60s Musical” closes out the Repertory Theater of St. Louis' Main Stage season with a promise of music from the classic era of rock 'n roll and rebellion, the Swinging Sixties. What it delivers is something far more tame, despite best efforts by the performers.

This musical tour through the time transformed by the Beatles features only the female artists of the decade and with a slant to towards the earliest years.

Still, there should be plenty of material there, right? After all, this was the era of the Supremes, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner and other greats. We do get a few of their signature hits but we have to wade through cutesy tunes like “The Name Game” first.

“Beehive” is what is call a jukebox musical, performances of hits with the barest of narrative to take us through the decade. Six performers, Lauren Dragon, Lisa Estridge, Jennie Harney, Kristin Maloney, Debra Walton and Jessica Waxman play all the parts of famous singers, updating costumes as they progress through the years. Their performances are good, and there are even some stand-outs, but the material is thin for such a rocking time.

The tip-off that we will have one foot still in the '50s is the musical's name, a reference to an early hairspray-heavy hairstyle of the late '50s and early '60s. So is the production's set, which look like it is straight off the sound stage of “The Dating Game.” Costumes are cartoonish, pastel versions of the decade's changing fashions. If that is your ideal version of the '60s, this may be the show for you. In fact the whole first half of the show only brings us up to 1963, before the Beatles transformed popular music.

Lisa Estridge got things started with an audience-participation version of “The Name Game.” Cute teen hits like “It's My Party,” sung by Jessica Waxman, and “My Boyfriend's Back,” sung by Kristin Maloney, followed. Everything was more safe, suburban Sandra Dee than rocking Motown Supremes. The Supremes, who burst out of Detroit's street corners with a fresh new sound, do get a nod but only in a brief medley, with Jennie Harney doing a slightly campy Diana Ross.

After intermission, we finally do get to meet the Beatles, mini-skirts, long straight hair and the whole musical watershed moment called the “British Invasion.” But the Brits we get are safer fare, like Petula Clark's “Don't Sleep in the Subway,” sung by Maloney, rather than Marianne Faithfull's “As Tears Go By.” The whole folk music/protest music movement, with greats like Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins, are boiled down to one song, Janis Ian's “Society's Child,” also sung by Maloney.

There are a few genuine hits that are more typical of the decade. Debra Walton belted out a fairly good rendition of Tina Turner singing “Proud Mary” but her channeling of Aretha Franklin singing “Respect” was more than respectable - actually, one of the show's two showstoppers. That second one came next. After passable versions of Janis Joplin singing “Piece of My Heart,” strangely without backup singers, and “Me and Bobby McGee,” Lauren Dragon floored the crowd with her bluesy, soulful version of Joplin's “Ball and Chain.”

The Joplin hit capped the show, apart from a closing sing-along, allowing “Beehive” finish on a more respectable, and more typically '60s, note than it started. “Beehive: The '60s Musical” was the Rep's Main Stage production March 16 - April 10.

© Cate Marquis 2011

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Guid should contain 32 digits with 4 dashes (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx).Floating down Nile more than pleasant trip in 'Cairo Time'

by Cate Marquis

“Cairo Time” takes us on a lovely stroll through a lushly romantic Cairo but frames that tour around an honest cross-cultural discussion, between an American woman tourist and a Syrian man who calls the city home. The film delights with its beautiful setting and poignantly romantic story but also because their discussions are so frank and real, gently exploring about myths and realities on both sides, and their own lives, as they idle away time waiting for her husband to arrive.

At first glance, “Cairo Time” seems a simple romance but it is much more. It is a little film but a little gem both gently thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable. Two people adrift in a city and its cross-cultural theme evoke “Lost in Translation” but its setting means it explores a more challenging culture clash. This Canadian-made film is an excellent example of what is best in independent films - the courage to explore the nuances and the human side of cultural differences and clashes.

Patricia Clarkson plays Juliette, an American who is meeting her husband in Cairo for a vacation, planned as a romantic get-away for the new empty-nesters following their son's recent marriage. But her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), who works for the U.N., is delayed due to a crisis in Gaza. He sends his recently-retired assistant Tareq (Alexander Siddig) to meet her and get her settled at the hotel. Expecting someone older, Juliette is a bit surprised to meet a handsome, courtly man her own age. As her husband's arrival is postponed repeatedly, the restless Juliette finds herself exploring the city in the company of Tareq, and its culture through their talks.

Juliette is both curious and clueless about Cairo.

(to read more, click on link: http://thecurrent-online.com/ae/cairo-time-offers-romantic-tour-but-thoughtful-too)

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Rep's 'In The Next Room' finds hysterical comedy in Victorian history

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A

The Victorian era was noted for its sexual repression, especially for women. Hardly a time when one expects doctors to prescribe medical treatment with a vibrator to women beset by a form of anxiety called “hysteria.”

Yet the curious historic fact is that Victorian doctors actually did this, completely unaware that the relaxing effect of the treatment was in any way related to sex.

Playwright Sarah Ruhl's “In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play” creates hilarious, intelligent comedy from this laughable historical mistake, made possible by a social blindness to reality.

“In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play” is now playing at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis in their Studio Theatre, through March 27. The playwright's works include intelligent comedy “The Clean House,” a hit when it played the Rep.

Victorians lacked any knowledge of female sexuality. Women were considered semi-human creatures, treated like children. It was thought that women did not even experience sexual climax. Only later, when the facts of what it really going on were revealed, did the vibrator move from medical tool to sex toy.

The play is set near New York, in a post Civil War era when electricity is the latest thing. Prosperous Mr. Daldry (Michael James Reed) brings his thin, nervous wife Sabrina (Emily Dorsch) to Dr. Givings (Ron Bohmer) for treatment. The doctor diagnoses hysteria and recommends a new electric treatment. After one session, Mrs Daldry is eager to return.

Meanwhile, the doctor's lively young wife Catherine (Annie Purcell) has her curiosity aroused about what is going on in the next room. When her husband treats patients, she hears strange noises coming from women being treated. Curiosity drives her to recruit other women to a secret plan to uncover the secret to this strange new device.

The cast is filled out by Amy Landon as nurse Annie, Krystel Lucas as the Daldrys' maid Elizabeth and David Christopher Wells as Leo Irving, a frustrated artist and rare male patient. Dr. Givings presses his reluctant wife to hire Elizabeth, a dignified married black woman, as a wet nurse, because he does not thinks their new baby is plump enough.

The “medical treatment” scenes are tastefully played, with Victorian decorum and underwear-clad patients under sheets, with no “When Harry Met Sally” overblown acting. After all, these are restrained Victorian ladies, clueless about what is happening.

There is biting social commentary on how women were perceived, by men and by themselves but the humor gets top billing in this inventive, energetic play. As another critic noted, there is a bit of “I Love Lucy” in this comedy of women conspiring to sneak behind men's backs to satisfy their curiosity.

The multi-level set is remarkably creative, a design that provides a way to see action in several rooms simultaneously. A front door on stage right leads to a hall, then up to a lush Victorian parlor. A pivot and a few more step, leads to the doctor's treatment room, elevated above the front door hallway. A door at stage left leads to the nursery.

The ladies costumes are fancy and colorful, and changed frequently through out. They are also cleverly designed to allow the actors to undress and dress, as is frequently needed.

“In The Next Room” is part bedroom farce, part sly feminist comedy, part slapstick fun and all laugh-out-loud funny.

© Cate Marquis

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Alvin Ailey troupe showcases its past, present and future in wonderful Dance St. Louis show at Fox

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A


Although choreographer Alvin Ailey is no longer with us, his iconic work and his outstanding troupe continue to inspire and astound with African American contemporary dance.

Dance St. Louis has set an annual tradition of bringing the Alvin Ailey Dance troupe to St. Louis. The troupe performed three concerts at the Fox Theater, March 11-12. Each dance concert featured Ailey's masterpiece, “Revelations,” now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.

At the Saturday evening performance, the program was divided into three very different themes, separated by two intermissions. The three sections seemed to represent the company's past, present and future. Besides the founder's “Revelations,” the program include works added under the troupe's current artistic director, Ailey protegee Judith Jamison, and a piece choreographed by Robert Battle, who is replacing Jamison at the end of this season.

The program opened with the multi-part “Uptown,” charming historical tour of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Breaking a number of dance conventions,the piece began with a narrator in dressed '20s attire on stage next to an old Victrola, describing the remarkable era and setting up the dances to come. However, the emphasis was always on lively entertainment, that not lecture.

“Welcome To Harlem” offered jazz-era songs and dancers symbolizing the array of people in Harlem, from well-dressed swells to ordinary workmen to jitterbugging teens. “Rent Party” featured dancers as high energy party-goers, presenting a phenomenon invented in Harlem.

READ MORE AT THE CURRENT BY CLICKING HERE:

http://thecurrent-online.com/ae/alvin-aileys-iconic-americana-dance-at-the-fox/

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UMSL Opera Theater's 'Marriage of Figaro: Slice and Diced' is splendid dish at Touhill

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A

What an unexpected delight was University of Missouri-St. Louis Opera Theater's “The Marriage of Figaro: Sliced and Diced,” March 11-13 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center's Lee Theater.

The production featured a student cast, many of them vocal performance majors, in an abridged version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's comic “Figaro.” The singers performed the big arias, duets, trios and choruses of the opera, without the more-spoken recitatives. The the plot was summarized in text projected on a screen. Basically, the story is a farce, in which servant Figaro has to out-smart his employer the Count to protect his fiance Susanna while bringing the nobleman back to his neglected Countess.

“The Marriage of Figaro: Sliced and Diced” turned out to be great fun, playing up the comedy and featuring surprisingly good voices. While the opera is paired down to the big musical numbers, this was no spare production on a bare stage. “The Marriage of Figaro: Sliced and Diced” had sets, costumes, live music and even acting, all modified in comic and creative ways.

This playful, tuneful production was both funny and charming. The roles were sung by a rotating cast of 18 singers, with clever costumes helping identify each character.

Opera is a musical art form that emerged long before microphones. Big, beautiful, knock-you-out-of-your-seat voices are what it is about. The stories are big and melodramatic or in the case of comedy, crazy farce.

One might expect little for a student production but a very pleasant surprise was in store. Not only were the sets and costumes more than expected but voices were big, lush and beautiful. While some singers were stronger than others, all were clearly talented.

Particularly delightful were sopranos Elizabeth Smith, Lauren Weber and Stephanie Clonts. Weber sang the majority of the Countess' arias in rich, moving manner. Between them, Clonts and Smith sang many of Susanna's arias, and did so beautifully. Smith's and Brown's duet as Cherubino and Susanna in the first act was a special comic delight.

Baritones Bryan Ziegler and Dale Robison were notable, as they largely shared the singing as the Count. The role of Figaro was split among several singers but baritone Ryan Myers was one standout. Pianist Donna Pryon provided musical accompaniment.

The singers' comic performances, directed by Stella Markou, director of vocal studies, were wonderful. Performed in a pantomime style that matched the curly white wigs and rouged cheeks, they mugged, rolled on the floor, leered comically at each other and winked at the nearly-packed audience in charming fashion.

The audience was charmed, both by the animated stage antics and the glorious music. There is little more tuneful and appealing in comic opera than Mozart's music.

Those clever costumes and surprisingly attractive sets deserve some recognition. All characters wore a combination of skinny jeans and eighteenth century-inspired attire, created by Felia Katherine Davenport, assistant professor of theater. The visual impression promised farce and fun, a promise was kept.

Sets designed by Glen Anderson, assistant professor of theater, were a pair of tall, moveable structures with doorways. They serves as interior walls but when rotated were decorated as ivy-covered garden walls.

The singing and the comic acting of the singers, along with the creative costumes, sets and staging, combined to make this an enjoyable experience. “The Marriage of Figaro: Sliced and Diced” was pure fun.

© Cate Marquis/The Current. Reprinted with permission.

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Imaginative staging, emphasis on witchcraft set Rep's 'Macbeth' apart

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” William Shakespeare's tragedy “Macbeth” is packed with such memorable lines. The Scottish play, whose name is considered bad luck to mention in a theater, is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest, a tale of witches' prophesies and all-consuming political ambition.

The Repertory Theater of St. Louis' new production of “Macbeth,” which runs through March 6, 2011 at the Loretto-Hilton Theater in Webster Groves, spotlights witchcraft more than blood. Written at a time of rising accusations of witchcraft, the play was topical. What is timeless in “Macbeth” is its tale of a fall from grace, with an honorable man seized with blind ambition following a prophesy of greatness, in this case from the ambiguous words of three witches.

It is an unalloyed delight to see the Rep return to Shakespeare. While fans of the Bard have enjoyed occasional performances by other worthy troupes, few can compare to the Rep for remarkable staging of serious material.

Timothy D. Stickney plays Scottish general Macbeth, with Caris Vujcec as Lady Macbeth. After bestowing honors for Macbeth's battlefield triumphs, King Duncan (Jerry Vogel) visits his castle, along with his sons Malcolm (Ben Nordstrom) and Donalbain (Greg Fink), and Scottish nobles including fellow general Banquo (Jason Cannon). The king is unaware that by honoring Macbeth he has just fulfilled the predictions of three witches and sealed his own fate.

Imaginative staging, along with an unusual approach to casting, sets this production apart. Two of the three witches are men - Michael Keyloun and David Graham Jones, along with Shanara Gabrielle. Many roles usually played by men are here played by women and conversely. Actors playing multiple smaller roles is not unusual but in this production, even actors in larger roles reappear in smaller ones. Stickney stands out in his role as Macbeth but also as the sole black actor in the play.

The cast is fabulous. Nordstrom, who has gained a strong reputation in previous roles, and Cannon, former University of Missouri - St. Louis faculty, provide memorable supporting performances, as does Vujcec as the unthinking, bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth. In the central role, Stickney started out strong but seemed to hurry through lines as the play progressed, possibly due to opening night jitters. He missed the chance to linger over great lines. If ever there was a play that cried out for some scenery chewing, “Macbeth” is it. In “Macbeth's” one bit of comic relief, David Graham Jones made the most of his moment in the spotlight, teasing audience members with gallows humor. The cast's several children also performed well.

The staging was minimal but visually striking. A raised central platform was surrounded by upright, slightly-tilted boards. Lower platforms on either side were painted red but the central space and vertical planks were lighted either green or gray, to serve as both forest and castle walls. A wooden zigzag path led to the back of the stage. There was no witch's caldron - instead the stage split to reveal a red light from below, suggesting both caldron and hellfire.

Time and place were ambiguous. Costumed were mostly tan and gray, with touches of dark red. Boots and cargo pants paired with jackets and doublets suggested both the present and past, military and civilian. Colors were muted, except for the red garb of Macbeth and his wife when they become king and queen.

The eerie witchcraft scenes were among the most striking but the whole show is a delight. The Rep's “Macbeth” is one haunting production not to miss.

© The Current 2011. Reprinted with permission

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'9 to 5: The Musical' at Fox Theater trades on '79 nostalgia and Dolly Parton fandom

by Cate Marquis

Grade: B -

If Dolly Parton, musicals, and nostalgia for 1979-1980 warms your heart, the Fox Theater's production of “9 to 5: The Musical” is for you. The 2008 musical stage adaptation of a 1979 film trades less on the film's feminist theme and more on nostaglia, or at least rosy imaginings, of 1979 when employment was full, everything was made here, women were just starting to enter the workforce in numbers. It was a pre-cubicle time when women in the office were “girls,” administrative assistants were still secretaries, only men got promoted and politically-correct was new idea.

The stage curtain concealing the sets before the show tells us what to expect - images of Farrah Fawcett, President Jimmy Carter's grin and a young Barbara Streisand sporting a puffy Afro hairstyle. This play is set specifically in 19'79 but trades on late '70s and early '80s-era kitsch, with bell-bottom pants, loud-patterned clothes, big shoulders and big hairstyles. There is no attempt to modernize or comment ironically on all that has changed in the world of work.

When that curtain rises, it reveals a Mad Men-esque set over which a oval movie screen descends. A video of Dolly Parton introduces the characters, sets up the story, and sings her signature title song “9 to 5.” That song and videos of Parton return several times throughout the show.

The story follows the movie's plot closely, pausing for occasional musical production numbers and several Dolly Parton renditions of the title song. Dee Hoty plays hard-working, longtime office manager Violet Newstead (the Lily Tomlin role in the movie) is showing a new secretary, Judy Bernly (Mamie Parris, in the Jane Fonda role), around the office. It is Judy's first day, in the first job the newly-divorced women has ever. Violet introduces her to co-workers including Doralee Rhodes (Diana DeGarmo, in the Dolly Parton role) who is the private secretary to the branch office boss Franklin Hart Jr. (Joseph Mahowald).

Hart is a self-centered, skirt-chasing, old-school sexist. He makes things miserable for all the women in the office, except for his “enforcer” Roz (Kristine Zbornik), who secretly adores him. His character is perhaps the most dated. His sexist jokes are so outlandish to modern ears, that after the other men in the office laugh at his jokes, they have to turn and grimace at the audience, to retain any sense of believability.

Basically, it is farce, an old theatrical form that people either love or hate. The musical starts out well enough, with its first original production number but then the first act quickly becomes leaden. The second act revives a bit, when the women now in charge make changes that make the office a happier and more productive place. It is pre-outsourcing, pre-lay-offs paradise.

The best songs are in the second half. The production number that opens the second act, Violet's “One of the Boys,” is probably the show's highlight, although the crowd clearly is there for the Dolly Parton song. The performers' voices are good and everyone gets the most they can out of the material. Kristine Zbornik, in the comic supporting role as boss Hart's toady office enforcer Roz, is wonderfully funny, particularly in her big production number “5 to 9.”

All in all, “9 to 5: The Musical,” February 8 - 20, 2011 at the Fox Theater, is a really a show for a select audience, with appeal especially for Dolly Parton fans and otherwise mostly for fans of the movie on which it is based or those who love '79 nostalgia.

© Cate Marquis 2011

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Rep's 'Fall of Heaven' is clever, surprising, and entertaining as hell

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A -

“The Fall of Heaven” is a clever, twist-filled tale of a wily, street-smart black man from Harlem, whose penetrating questions shake heaven's foundations.

Funny, brainy and full of plot twists, “The Fall of Heaven” is the Repertory Theater of St. Louis' Main Stage production until January 30. The play touches on topics like race, religion, morality and love, with a mix of humor and humanity, in a story of the struggle between a man, an angel and a devil that threatens to upset the balance between heaven and hell.

When philandering, small-time hustler Tempest Landry (Bryan Terrell Clark) is killed by a stray bullet on a present-day Harlem street, he faces St. Peter (voiced by Jeffrey C. Hawkins) at the gates of heaven to hear his judgment. Yet Tempest upends this routine process, by challenging his sentence to hell with questions that cannot be answered. To resolve the questions he raised, St. Peter returns Tempest to earth, in the body of another man and under the supervision of the “accounting angel” Joshua (Corey Allen).

The play was written by award-winning novelist Walter Mosley, based on his novel “The Tempest Tales.” Mosley is the author of the best-selling “Devil In A Blue Dress” and other mystery novels featuring detective Easy Rawlins, plus numerous other books. This is his first play.

The relationship between human Tempest and angel Joshua is pivotal but the story's focus is often the angel. Joshua takes a last name - Angel - to blend in on earth and a job - as an accountant - to keep busy while waiting for Tempest's final move to the underworld. Tempest tries to distract Joshua by putting temptations in his way, including the sweet Branwyn (Kenya Brome). Over time, Basil Bob (Jeffrey C. Hawkins) slips into the picture.

Stories of an angel come to earth and seduced by human life are common but what is the end point for other stories is merely a starting point for this one. “The Fall of Heaven” is far more complex, far more surprising and entertaining as hell.

Seth Gordon directs this fast-paced play with a firm hand. Supporting cast playing multiple roles. Rachel Leslie portrays Tempest's girlfriend Alfreda, Joshua's secretary Darlene and passers-by on the street. Jeffrey C. Hawkins also provides the voices of St. Peter and Joshua's unseen bosses Mr. Chin and Mr. Akbar. Jerome Lowe and Borris York play people on the city streets.

The acting is excellent, with Clark's Tempest an endlessly inventive, charming rogue. Allen's Joshua is an appealing mix of formality, innocence and strength. Their discussions are the theological center but the heart is often carried by Brome's Branwyn. Hawkins is delightfully creepy as Basil Bob, the sole non-black character in the play. In supporting roles, Rachel Leslie is a stand-out, particularly as the self-impressed Darlene.

Sets are always one of the delights of any Rep production. “Fall of Heaven” presents some special challenges for set designer Robert Mark Morgan, because it calls for numerous diverse scene changes. The opening scene on a Harlem street gives way to the gates of heaven in scene two. Morgan solved the problem with a backdrop that transforms from a sepia-toned Harlem street scene to the gates of heaven by clever shifts in lighting. Set pieces that rise from the floor or slide out from behind rising panels provide a host of every-changing locations, from office, to bedroom, modest apartment to penthouse.

This complex, funny, endlessly clever and thought-provoking play is well worth the money and a trip to the Repertory Theater in Webster Groves.

© Cate Marquis/The Current. Reprinted with permission

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'Jersey Boys' sings out at Fox Theater with energetic, irresistible show

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A

“Oh What a Night,” the title of one of the Four Seasons' songs in the musical “Jersey Boys,” sums it up pretty well for this high-energy, harmonizing musical theater experience.

The Tony award-winning Broadway musical “Jersey Boys” returns to the Fox Theater, May 11-29, for what promises to be another sold-out run. This high-energy, dramatic, crowd-pleasing musical tells the story of four working-class Italian American boys from New Jersey who became the '60s pop group The Four Seasons.

The group had an impressive string of hits, including “Oh What A Night,” “Big Girls Don't Cry,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Working My Way Back to You,” “Sherry” and “Walk Like A Man.” The latter prompted countless wags to quip “walk like a man, sing like a girl” about lead singer Frankie Valli's signature falsetto but Valli's voice had a richness and range that set it apart.

“Jersey Boys” is energetic, entrancing entertainment, even if you never heard of the musical group.

The Four Seasons rose to musical stardom in the same early '60s musical era as the Supremes, an era of singing groups with soaring vocal harmonies, matching costumes and choreographed moves.

Rather than a jukebox musical of  hits tied together with minimal story, “Jersey Boys” delivers a fully developed story, dramatically gripping or charmingly funny by turns. There is a touch of the Supremes-inspired “Dream Girls” here, although these teens singing on city street corners are Italian American boys in New Jersey. However, “Jersey Boys” is a biographical tale, with drama and humor, which has the bonus of terrific performances of the band's numerous hits.

The story is divided into seasons, beginning with spring and the band's roots, and each band member has a season to tell his version of events. Tommy DeVito (Matt Bailey), who speaks first, begins by telling the audience there were three ways to go in Jersey - join the army, join the Mob or get famous.

Tommy is the organizer, the wheeler-dealer from the mean streets, who along with longtime pal Nick Massi (Steve Gouveia) starts the band. These streetwise guys alternate between musical gigs and stints in jail until Tommy recruits golden-throated, diminutive 16-year-old Frankie Valli (Joseph Leo Bwarie) as lead singer. The later addition of 17-year-old songwriter Bob Gaudio (Quinn VanAntwerp), who wrote the hit “Short Shorts” at age 15, completes the group.

Each cast member creates a memorable character with their own unique appeal, as they play out a rags-to-riches-to-heartache story. It is a story of friendship, ambition, loyalty and betrayal amid the hardships of life on the road and dizzying effects of stardom.

Hits are woven into the musical, making the production musically saturated, but are incorporated smoothly into the story as performances, added at the points in time where they became hits or to underline events in the story.

And the singing is fabulous, although the cast does an excellent job with both the dramatic acting and musical performances in this demanding production. The harmonies are wonderful but Bwarie's singing in Valli's sweet, high tenor is especially thrilling. Bwarie is truly impressive in a role that demands he be on stage nearly constantly. Although Bwarie is the heart of the show, it is a true ensemble triumph. The actors craft distinctive characters while singing like angels.

Staging is impressively clever, with a two-story scaffolding and big '50s comic book graphics as backdrops. When the band sings on TV, the performers turn to face a camera set up on one side of the stage, while the audience sees a black-and-white TV broadcast projected on a screen above. A concert scenes puts the real audience backstage, by having the band facing away from them while banks of white lights illuminate the performers and glare in our eyes. The metal scaffolding set serves as everything from jail to recording studio to living room to performance space.

This is a must-see show, even for those unfamiliar with the band and a definite treat for fans. “Jersey Boys” runs through May 29 at the Fox Theater.

© Cate Marquis

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'Next to Normal' rock musical is searing drama at Fox

by Cate Marquis

Grade: B +
 
“Next to Normal” is a searing drama about a family battling mental illness. The award-winning Broadway musical drama is playing at the Fox Theater through April 24.

This modern rock opera is directed by Michael Greif, who directed “Rent.” Alice Ripley recreates her 2009 Tony-award winning starring Broadway role. “Next To Normal” won three Tonys, including best score, in 2009 and a Pulitzer Prize in 2010.

“Next to Normal's” dramatic story and strong rock score combine with a real-world premise for what may be the Fox's best show of the season.

While the director's hit “Rent” was an updating of “La Boheme” filled with operatic excess, this rock musical is entirely contemporary and far less romantic. Not a pretty musical but it is pretty amazing, moving drama.

The plays opens at night, with Diana (Ripley) staying up waiting for her son Gabe (Curt Hansen). Diana is a frazzled, stay-at-home mother whose family seems too busy to really connect but there is something more not right. Her late-night hours worries her husband Dan (Asa Somers) but Diana's distraction is hardest on her teenage daughter Natalie (Emma Hunton).

Natalie is a hard-working student and an accomplished musician, a teen any parent would treasure. Yet the daughter can barely catch her mother's attention, even for an upcoming concert. Diana's focus is all on her son. Her husband Dan seems dazed about what he can do, meekly urging his wife to see Dr. Fine (Jeremy Kushnier) about adjusting her medicine.

Just how bad is Diana's mental state is revealed several scenes in, when Natalie's new boyfriend Henry (Preston Sadleir) shows up for dinner.

“Next to Normal” presents a powerful drama with a remarkably accurate portrayal of mental illness and its devastating impact, on family as well as the afflicted person.

Ripley's performance as Diana is riveting, the heart of the play's power, showing us why she won that Tony. Hunton's Natalie is heartbreaking, nuanced and wholly real, buffeted by her mother's moodiness. Somers is touching as Dan, often clueless about what is happening and blinded by his love for Diana.

Ripley's rough, rocker style of singing and distinctly non-Broadway voice may not appeal to some musical fans but it works beautifully on the dramatic level. Other cast members carry the more showy, melodic singing. The differences in voices can even be taken as a metaphor for her mental state.

Staging is impressive, with an enormous, three-level set dominating the space. Metal scaffolding and pierced-metal catwalks give an industrial look. Yet sliding screens, banks of lights and moveable staircases transform it into every location, from home to school, interiors to exteriors. The soaring set gives cast members a workout, running up and down those stairs, but the multi-level structure allows several scenes to take place simultaneously, something particularly effective during dramatic musical numbers.

The emotional energy of this production is electrifying, as we go inside the head of one character after another. Inside Diana's head, we experience the world as she sees and feels it. Her illness dominates nearly every scene, so that seems to become another character, as they all struggle with it.

Plays have often used mental illness as a dramatic device but here it is portrayed realistically. The play gives us a glimpse of the real experience, with an exploration of the benefits and limits of treatment.

“Next To Normal” is not a happy musical, nor sometimes even a pleasant experience. It is a moving one, with catharsis, raw emotion and, finally, resolution. This powerhouse Broadway drama strikes deep into the heart.

© THE CURRENT Reprinted with permission

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'Wizard of Oz' brings kid-friendly fun to Fox

by Cate Marquis

First the Fox hosted “Wicked” earlier this year, now it offers the other side of the story with “The Wizard of Oz.”

The Fabulous Fox Theater,  in St. Louis' Grand Center, presented a touring production of “The Wizard of Oz” adapted from the beloved movie that was inspired by L. Frank Baum's books. A family crowd with plenty of children packed the theater for opening night Friday, November 26. The production offered matinee and evening performances November 26 to November 28.

“The Wizard of Oz” on stage followed the film version closely, with the addition of a few musical numbers and colorful characters. Katherine Bristol played Dorothy, a Kansas farm girl running away from home with her dog Toto, after a run-in with a mean neighbor lady. But a tornado sends her running home, where Dorothy and her house are lifted up and deposited in the magical land of Oz. In Oz, everything is different, although some people look strangely familiar.

The tone of the production was slightly more comic than the film version, which may have been better for the young audience. The voices were fine and the performances were good overall.

Sarah Amandes played Dorothy's Auntie Em and Glinda the Good Witch, Ryan Wagner played Uncle Henry and the Emerald City Guard. Andrew Haserlat was Scarecrow/Hunk, Beau Hutchings was Tinman/Hickory, and Jesse Coleman was Lion/Zeke. Pat Sibley portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West and mean Miss Gulch. The Wizard of Oz and traveling magician Professor Marvel were played by Robert John Biedermann. The Muny Kids troupe played some of the Munchkins and later some of the Wicked Witch's guards, the Winkies, along with supporting ensemble. The performance was accompanied by live music.

Since “The Wizard of Oz” movie is so well-loved and features legendary performers, it poses a challenge for the cast on stage. To various degrees, each performer did succeed in making their part their own while still evoking the audience's affection for movie versions. Katherine Bristol was charming and cute as Dorothy but the one who most warmed audience hearts was Jesse Coleman in the role of the cowardly Lion, where he virtually channeled Bert Lahr before easing into his own version. Pat Sibley took another approach with her smart, sassy, wise-cracking Wicked Witch, which was another stand-out.

There were plenty of big scenery, colorful costumes and stage changes and effects but not on so lavish a scale as the animatronics-filled Broadway production “Wicked.” One especially nice effect in “Wizard of Oz” was the tornado at the beginning, where actors on stage, moving sets and a series of semi-transparent screens combined with rear-projection of the tornado and its flying objects to created a marvelous effect. It was much better than if a film clip were used for this sequence, as another production might have done. The extra effort of the effect was much appreciated by the audience, judging by response.

The show added some new characters and dance numbers which were playfully comic, like the dancing crows after Scarecrow finished his first number. The poppy field was portrayed by ballroom dancers, whose following costumes transformed from red to white, a very charming effect. However, the Jitterbug number that virtually replaced the Flying Monkeys, while very acrobatic was no substitute, because, really, it is hard to top flying monkeys. The head Flying Monkey on stage with the Wicked Witch did a high-leaping excellent job but overall the show did need more flying monkeys.

Overall, the Fabulous Fox's “The Wizard of Oz” delivered an evening of good family fun.

© Cate Marquis

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'South Pacific' revival at Fox finds fresh twist on classic musical

by Cate Marquis

Few musicals are as classically Broadway than Rodgers and Hammerstein's “South Pacific.” are as classically With hummable show tunes and a WWII 'greatest generation' story of love in wartime, it hard to better sum up that era of Broadway greats.

Yet the new Lincoln Center Theater revival of “South Pacific,” now on stage at the Fox Theater until Nov. 21, finds a fresh, contemporary angle to this familiar musical masterpiece.

The story is set on a Pacific island during WWII, built around the romances of two couples. Hit tunes include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Bali Ha'i” among others.

Traditionally the play focuses on the war and coyly skirts around other topics - race and sex - present in the James Michener book on which the musical is based - topics considered incendiary in 1949. But this new production takes a more realistic, frank approach, making the story much more modern. When the sailors sing “There Is Nothing Like A Dame,” the dancing is comically bawdy and we know exactly what they mean. When nurse Nellie Forbush (Carmen Cusack) meets Emile's (David Pittsinger) multiracial children Ngana (Christina Carrera) and Jerome (CJ Palma), her reaction reminds us that in 1945, segregation was still in full force back in her native Arkansas. There is a sharper, less comic edge to the foul-mouthed, entrepreneurial Bloody Mary (Jodi Kimura) selling shrunken heads for $50.

Before the show starts, excerpts from Michener's memoir of his war experiences are projected on a sepia-tone curtain, a perfect set-up for the tale. On opening night, it was clear what the audience was really there for - “South Pacific's” music. And they were not disappointed.

This national touring company production is directed by Bartlett Sher, and both won Tonys in 2008. for Best Revival and Best Director. This is the same excellent production broadcast on PBS earlier this year. The performance was bolstered further by music played by a live orchestra, always a plus.

David Pittsinger's big, bold baritone and imposing stage presence in the romantic lead as Frenchman Emile De Becque made him a standout in the cast, as evidenced by audience reaction. Every time Pittsinger began to sing, a woman sitting one row closer sighed with delight. Every time he finished a song, a woman one row back enthusiastically exclaimed “woo-hoo!” with equal delight. Their reactions said it all.

Another strong voice belonged to Jodi Kimura as Bloody Mary, played in a more sinister, calculating manner than usual. The role is significant, as this production casts a more realistic hue on the usually sunny musical, making the story much more contemporary. Carmen Cusack, although no Mary Martin, held her own as sunny optimist Nellie Forbush, offering high-voltage performances of the character's signature songs.

The other couple in the story, Anderson Davis as handsome, patrician Lt Cable and Sumie Maeda as Bloody Mary's lovely daughter Liat, were touchingly tragic. Other cast members, Timothy Gulan (as wheeler-dealer Luther Billis), Gerry Becker (as Capt. Brackett), Peter Rini (as Cmdr. Harbison) and Rusty Ross and Genson Blimline (as Billis' buddies Professor and Stewpot), create just the right mix of WWII characters to keep the comedy and wartime drama flowing.

The dance numbers were big, splashy and fun. The staging used large elaborate flats, rolling sets and clever lighting to create the ever changing set, with a beach-and-sea backdrop tying everything together. Costumes were just right for the period, not overly glitzy.

This production casts the whole story in a fresh light and finds new energy. Confronting rather than skirting around such matters gives the story a freshness, taking it out of its nostalgic wrappings. Fan of musicals - of which this city has legions - should delight in this updated “South Pacific.”

© Cate Marquis

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Rep's 'Next Fall' is theater worth falling for

by Cate Marquis

“Next Fall,” the Repertory Theater of St. Louis' latest production, is that rarest of things: a play about a controversial social issues that really gives all sides an fair chance to speak. Better yet, it takes what could have been a grimly serious play and transforms it into something both witty and intelligent, thanks to its wonderfully sharp and honest dialog.

Funny, provocative and unpredictable all describe this intelligent, moving play. The story takes place mostly in flashback, while family and friends are gathered in a hospital after an accident that has left a loved one in a coma.

Playwright Geoffrey Nauffts' “Next Fall” began as an off-off-Broadway production that gained such popular support that it made it to Broadway for a year-long run. Although this is one of the Rep's Studio Theater productions, it is not being staged in Webster Groves but at the Grandel Theater, near the Fox, at 3610 Grandel Square. The play runs until November 14.

The story begins in a hospital waiting room, where friends and family are gathered awaiting word from doctors after Luke (Colin Hanlon), a rising young New York actor, was in an accident. As they wait, they recall the past, setting up flashbacks to happier times. Luke's friends Holly (Marnye Young) and Brandon (Ben Nordstrom) arrive first, followed by Luke's parents, Arlene (Susan Greenhill) and Butch (Keith Jochim). Although long divorced, Butch and Arlene remain friendly. Finally Adam (Jeffrey Kuhn) arrives, setting the stage for the flashbacks and an exploration of attitudes on gays, religion and the cultural divide.

Read more by following this link to the review in the Current:

http://thecurrent-online.com/ae/audiences-will-fall-for-funny-provocative-play-next-fall/

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Wicked' weaves its magic again at Fox

by Cate Marquis

Flying monkeys. Who doesn't want to see flying monkeys? But that is only one reason to rush to see the magical, superb, thought-provoking dramatic musical “Wicked.”

The Broadway hit musical is returning to the Fox Theater for its third run, now through July 11. “Wicked” tells a tale of the witches of Oz before Frank Baum's famous story begins. The twist is this story gives the Wicked Witch's point of view, a lesson in how the victors write history.

Rather than the usual simple romance theme, this musical's plot has real meat for the audience to sink their intellectual teeth into, exploring prejudice, pressures to conform and social oppression. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, “Wicked” is a worthy successor to such works as “Les Miserables.” It is filled with magic and spectacle, both playful and serious, built around a story of friendship and betrayal, love and heartache and the struggle to do the right thing.

The Tony Award-winning “Wicked” broke attendance records the other two times it was staged at the Fox. Judging by the packed house on the opening weekend, it is on track for a string of sell-out shows this time too.

Many of the familiar elements of “The Wizard of Oz” are present although placed in a new light. Flying monkeys and feats of magic are part of the appeal of this big-stage extravaganza but so are the fascinating story and wonderful performances.

The story begins in the land of Oz before Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, when they both were just two young girls at college, one a smart, shy girl born with green skin and the other a pretty, popular blonde. What follows is a unique coming-of-age story in a society undergoing radical changes.

Pretty Galinda, who later changes her name to Glinda, is played by Natalie Daradich in perky, high-energy, dumb-blonde fashion. Although she revels in her popularity, she also knows to cultivate it, never stepping too far away from popular views. As both very popular and the daughter of a wealthy, powerful family, she expects to always get her way at her new college too.

Green-skinned Elphaba, although very bright and possessed of some special gifts, has been sent to school mainly as a helper for her disabled younger sister Nessarose (Kristine Reese), who is set to inherit the office of Mayor of Emerald City. At the June 17 performance, the demanding role of Elphaba was played by Vicki Noon until part way through the first act, when she became ill and was replaced by Anne Brummel. Both Noon and Brummel have strong voices and the audience hardly noticed the change.

Elphaba is widely shunned for her unusual appearance yet she is remarkably strong and defiant. When Elphaba shows an unusual aptitude for magic, she suddenly finds herself under the wing of the head mistress Madame Morrible (Marilyn Caskey), much to the dismay of Galinda.

The cast is rounded out by professors and students at the school, and later by the Wizard of Oz and citizens of the Emerald City. Although Elphaba is the only green student, there are other kinds of minorities, like Doctor Dillamond (David De Vries), a dignified, scholarly professor who happens to be a goat, and Boq (Zach Hanna), a Munchkin student. But things clearly favor the well-connected and attractive like Galinda and wealthy bad boy Fiyero (Chris Peluso). The Wizard of Oz is played by Don Amendolia.

“Popular,” the show's catchy break-out hit song is one of several musical highlights. Daradich tickled the audience with her energetic, bouncy version of “Popular” but Noon, and then Brummel, did the vocal heavy-lifting. Their strong, emotion-laden voices in the star role of Elphaba, brought wild applause for several of show's defiant anthems.

The show is carried by the excellent voices and fine performances of Noon, Brummel, and Daradich in the starring roles, who draw us into the drama and the challenges of their unlikely friendship. But all the cast is excellent, with a special nod towards De Vries' Dillamond.

Not only is the story magical but the breath-taking animated set is pretty astounding as well. As the play opens, large dragon gazing down with red-lit eyes from the proscenium arch over the stage seems to spring to life, one of several impressive effects. In other scenes, the audience is wowed by a singer is hoisted above the stage or the imposing animated head of the Wizard himself.

“Wicked” is easily one of the best shows that Fox has every hosted, a production that delights on all levels, from the rousing song, searing drama to the astounding sets and costumes. Even for those less enamored of musicals, “Wicked” is a must-see.

© Cate Marquis 2010

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Circus Flora scores a triumph with 'Ingenioso'

by Cate Marquis

Circus Flora, St. Louis' wonderful one-ring circus, scores a triumph with “Ingenioso,” inspired by Don Quixote, for its 24th year.

Every year there is a mix of old-favorites and delightful new acts. Despite this year's absence of the famous Flying Wallendas, “Ingenioso” is one of Circus Flora's best productions.

The show takes place under an air-conditioned big top in the parking lot next to Powell Hall in Grand Center, Grand Avenue and Samuel Shepard Drive. Because it is a one-ring circus, the audience is remarkably close to the action, which makes this marvelous circus all the more enjoyable. The circus runs through June 27 and information is at www.circusflora.org.

Circus Flora is famous for offering a show to enthrall both adults and children. Founded as a way to preserve traditional circus arts, it presents the best of circus acts, from families who have performed in circuses for generations, in a unique, intimate setting.

There is a theatrical flare to Circus Flora, with colorful, gypsy-fantasy costumes and music from their own live band. Unlike Cirque Du Soleil, these kid-friendly circus acts feature animals. The acts also often feature several generations of performers.

As always, the story serves to tie together the varied circus acts, which range from amazing bare-back riding to acrobatics to trapeze and clowning.

The story of Don Quixote, the old nobleman who imagines windmills are giants and sets out to right the world's wrongs as a chivalrous, errant knight, is an excellent fit for the fanciful circus.

European-style clown Yo-Yo (Cecil MacKinnon) serves as narrator as usual, while equestrian Carlos Svenson portrays the imaginative knight Don Quixote and Circus Flora's beloved, award-winning clown, Nino (Giovanni Zoppe), portrays his loyal sidekick Sancho Panza. Animal trainer Jennifer Vidbel is the knight's love ideal Dulcinea. Other performers also are given roles from the classic novel.

Among the newcomers is a sensational wire-walking act by Frenchman Julien Posada. “Wire-dancing” or “wire-acrobatics” might better describe this jaw-dropping performance. Posada is reportedly the only person in the world who can perform a backflip on a tight-rope. His flamenco-dancing wire-walking is a must-see performance, worth the admission price alone.

Another showstopper was the acrobatic aerial duo Elliaire Duet, teens Elliana Henthoff-Killian and Claire Kuciejczyk-Kernan, who performed a series of graceful, intertwining moves with trailing lengths of fabric, suspended from a large ring above the sawdust floor.

Both performers are also members of the St. Louis Arches, the excellent children's acrobatics troupe. The Arches put on one of their best shows yet, always managing to top themselves in delighting the audience with pyramids, high jumps and amazing flips.

Jennifer Vidbel, our Dulcinea, presented a dog-and-pony show that was a particular kid-pleaser, an act including ponies, goats, dogs and an Arabian stallion.

The Spanish flavor of the story lends itself well to the production's many equestrian acts. Omar Chinibekov and the Riders of the Ring thrilled with their riding tricks, jumping on and off, or swinging under horses racing around the ring. British cowboy Vince Bruce amazed with his masterful rope tricks on horseback.

Sasha Alexandre Nevidonski created romantic fantasy magic with his acrobatic aerial equestrian act, flying around the ring on billowing red fabric, before gracefully returning to his galloping horse's back.

As always, Nino the Clown did his wonderfully comic trapeze act, to appreciative applause. Juggling, comic bits with animal performers and whole-company set-pieces delighted the audience as well.

The finale of the evening was the Flying Pages, a glittering flying trapeze act.

“Ingenioso” adds up to a remarkable show, with something to please any age, an amazing way to spend an summer evening.

© The Current 2010. Reprinted with permission

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Shakespeare Festival St. Louis stages superb 'Hamlet'

by Cate Marquis

For its tenth year, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis takes on the big one - “Hamlet.”

The most famous play in the world, William Shakespeare's “Hamlet” is a drama of madness and revenge, with iconic characters and widely-quoted speeches.

Shakespeare Festival's production of “Hamlet” is one of their best, a superb staging graced by marvelous acting and riveting drama.

The Shakespeare Festival is a free, outdoor event in Forest Park, presented annually in a natural amphitheater to the east of Art Hill and the St. Louis Art Museum. “Hamlet” is performed every night, except Tuesdays, through June 20, 2010.

Shakespeare in the park is more than just the play. People often get there early to stake out their spot, bringing blankets, chairs and a picnic, or you can rent a chair or purchase refreshments. The “green show” starts at 6:30 p.m. with roving performers, before the performance starts at 8 p.m.

The festival often brings in out-of-town actors for lead roles so it is particularly satisfying that this excellent production features some of St. Louis' best actors, including Jason Cannon who is Assistant Visiting Professor of Theater at University of Missouri - St. Louis.

Prince Hamlet (Jim Butz) returns home to Denmark from his university studies, upon news his father, King Hamlet, has died. He is shocked and dismayed to find his uncle Claudius (John Rensenhouse) has usurped the throne. Furthermore, his mother Queen Gertrude (Deanne Lorette) has married him within a month of Hamlet's father's death.

Hamlet is depressed by his father's death, sickened by his mother's rapid re-marriage and perhaps also dismayed at the lost of a throne should have been his, yet both the new king and the queen are puzzled by Hamlet's dark mood.

Informed by his closest friend Horatio (Jason Cannon) of strange sightings, Hamlet encounters an apparition resembling the dead king (Rob Krakovski). His father's ghost tells Hamlet his death was not an accident but murder plotted by his brother Claudius. The dead king urges his agitated son to exact revenge. To this end, the half-mad Hamlet tells his friend he will feign madness as he plots how to best take that revenge.

The cast is rounded out by Kimiye Corwin as doomed Ophelia, who loves Hamlet, Anderson Matthews as her father Polonius, King Claudius' trusted if foolish adviser, and Justin Blanchard as Ophelia's loving brother Laertes. Audience-favorite Whit Reichert plays the dryly funny gravedigger, who unearths the skull of poor Yorick the jester. Mark Kelley and Matthew Folsom play the ill-fated Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, respectively.

The award-winning Jim Butz delivers a sometimes fiery, sometimes introspective Hamlet, creating a riveting presence on stage with all the dramatic fireworks and nuances you could want. He squeezes every drop from Hamlet's famous “to be or not to be” speech, making it sound fresh and off-hand, a remarkable feat for a soliloquy many theater audiences can recite.

Jason Cannon is masterful as Hamlet's rock-solid friend Horatio. Anderson Matthews is perfect as the bumbling, elderly plotter Polonious while John Rensenhouse as cunning King Claudius and Deanne Lorette as Queen Gertrude are both outstanding. Lorette's scenes with Butz' Hamlet are among the most searing in the play.

The actors capture convincing the easy friendship between Hamlet and Horatio, the false merriment of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Wisely, the production is staged traditionally, in Elizabethan costume. The large set resembles a partially-ruined castle with stairs, parapets and balcony, and action taking place on several levels.

The stage combat sequences are particularly powerful, with an energy and violence that sharpens the dramatic effect.

A better production of “Hamlet” has not been seen here in years, if ever.

© The Current 2010.  Reprinted with permission

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Young Frankenstein' brings Brooks comedy to Fox

by Cate Marquis

“Young Frankenstein,” Mel Brooks' musical stage adaptation of his hilarious homage to the classic Frankenstein movies, stormed the Fox Theater stage with the comedian's signature mix of classic comedy silliness and Broadway flash. The Fox may never have seen such delightful, raucous, slightly risque fun, and the audience that packed the theater on opening night lapped up every drop of it.

For those of us who are old movie buffs, Mel Brooks' “Young Frankenstein” movie has long been a favorite. Brooks began as a comedy writer with Sid Caesar during the early golden age of TV and his work has always been steeped in the classic comedy and slapstick of early movie greats such as Buster Keaton. Brooks put his skill as a composer to good use in re-working his old hits for the musical stage.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Roger Bart) teaches anatomy at an American medical school, while doing his best to distance himself from his grandfather Victor's work in creating a monster from dead body parts. But when his grandfather dies, Frederick is forced to travel to Transylvania to deal with the estate. He leaves behind his beautiful but untouchable fiance Elizabeth (played on opening night by Melina Kalomas), with promises to return quickly. In Transylvania, he encounters Igor (played opening night by James Gray), the humpbacked grandson of his grandfather's old assistant, a pretty local girl named Inga (Anne Horak) and his grandfather's old housekeeper Frau Blucher (Joanna Glushak). Of course, Frederick finds himself drawn into his grandfather's old work.

The cast is rounded out by Erick R. Walck as a nightmare version of a wonderfully exuberant Victor Frankenstein, Rye Mullins as his Monster, Brad Oscar as the town constable Inspector Kemp and as the blind Hermit in the forest.

The stage version of “Young Frankenstein” is pretty faithful to the film but adds some nice touches with the song and dance numbers. Of course, the movie always had that song and dance potential with its “Putting On The Ritz” number when Dr. Frankenstein presents his creation.

Comic punchlines familiar from the film are periodically used as points to spin off into Broadway extravaganzas, with great comic results. One particularly delightful number takes place during the ride to the castle in the back of the hay wagon. The horses pulling the wagon, played by Lawrence Alexander and Geo Seery, entertain us with puppetry-based physical comedy, while Frederick, Inga and Igor sing about a roll in the hay.

There were several families with kids in the audience on opening night but parents might want to note that this musical is a little more adult than the movie. Nearly every one of the double entandres that pepper the film are transformed into somewhat more risque production numbers. It is all is still done in great fun but a little more grown-up in style.

Standout performances were delivered by Rye Mullins as the Monster and James Gray as Igor, garnering the loudest applause at the shows end. But truthfully, all the performers were excellent. Roger Bart gave us a dry, droll, sophisticated Frederick Frankenstein, which was very funny if quite unlike the Gene Wilder film version. Joanna Glushak, Anne Horak and Brad Oscar had their show-stopper moments as Frau Blucher, Inga and Inspector Kemp/Hermit respectively, and Melina Kalomas did fine work with the difficult task to taking on the fiancee role created by the incomparable Madeline Kahn.

The look of the production was marvelous, both campy and extravagant. Sets and costumes were elaborately wonderful, transforming seamlessly from the Gothic horror Frankenstein locales to Broadway glitz for the musical numbers. Not surprisingly, the glittering, hilarious “Putting on the Ritz” extravaganza was the show stopper of the evening, with a chorus line of dancers in top hats and tuxes stomping around in thick-soled Frankenstein monster boots. The use of strobe lights added a little extra electrical fun to some production numbers.

This was a delightful production from start to finish, with non-stop humor. Hopefully it will become one of those favorites that returns year after year. “Young Frankenstein” is at the Fox Theater through May 23, 2010.

© Cate Marquis 2010

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Theater review
Crime and Punishment' at Rep shows how good theater can be

by Cate Marquis

“Short” is rarely a word that pops up when talking about Russian classic novels. So the idea that a playwright could distill Dostoyevsky's complex 700-plus page “Crime and Punishment” into a 90 minute play for three actors seems an impossible task. Yet, the current production in the Repertory Theater of St. Louis does just that.

Better yet, it captures the beating heart of novel to deliver an evening of searing, moving drama, the kind of grab-you-by-the-throat stuff that only live theater to can do. Remarkable and astonishing hardly covers it.

“Crime and Punishment” is on stage in the Rep's downstairs Studio space until March 28, 2010. With only three actors, two taking multiple parts, it pares away the supporting storylines yet concentrates the book's essence without diminishing it, leaving the raw emotional, moral, political beating heart.

This stark, moving tale is told by moving back and forth in time. Soliloquies of interior dialog and haunting repetition of philosophical questions provide a structure to the story. Jimmy King plays Raskolnikov, a student too poor to continue his studies to become a lawyer and new living in a drab single room. Raskolnikov is called in to police headquarters by Inspector Porfiry (Triney Sandoval), to pick up pawned items found in the apartment of the neighborhood pawnbroker Alyona Ivanova. The body of the cruel, widely-hated pawnbroker was recently found in her shabby apartment, brutally murdered along with her sweet-natured sister Lizaveta. Porfiry in investigating the murders, talking to those who visited the pawnbroker and other neighbors.

Amy Landon plays the student's neighbor Sonia, a devotedly Christian young woman forced into prostitution to support her sickly mother, alcoholic father and small siblings. Sandoval also takes on the role of Sonya's sad, drunken father Marmeladov. Landon also plays the pawnbroker, her sister and the student's impoverished, widowed mother.

Despite the play's length, it fully captures the soul of the novel, its balance of religion and morality against the backdrop of class-stratified 19th century Russia.

The single set is brilliant, the kind of inspired structure the Rep does so well. A dusty mountain of chairs that are some times used to sit on and some times as a barricade to climb. The back wall is constructed of doors, and doors at either end allow for a series of entrances and exits, and create other locations that the student clamors up to, to speak to other characters. On one side of the stage floor is a ragged hole, filled with water, with serves as a river, a mirror, a wash basin, as the scene demands.

The acting is remarkable as well. Characters are created with a few costume adjustments but each is sharply distinct and dramatically compelling. The dramatic arc is like a freight train running down hill, with the actors' performances glowing white-hot. King is on stage the whole time, as the student unraveling as he reliving the incidents. Yet Sandoval nearly steals the show as the crafty detective, relentlessly chatty and always thinking. Landon is heart-breaking as Sofia, and the actress has almost as much time on stage as King in the lead role, as she creates three other very different characters.

“Crime and Punishment” is the kind of wonderful theater that the Rep does better than any other theater company in the area, surpassing the touring Broadway hits that appear elsewhere. It is the kind of play that reminds us what a powerful experience theater is. In years past, this gem would have been on Rep's Main Stage, now dominated by ubiquitous musicals. But we will take this kind of treasure on any stage we can get it.

© Cate Marquis 2010

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Theater review
'White Christmas' at Fox rounds out a month of holiday shows

by Cate Marquis

It has been a very Christmas-y month at the Fabulous Fox, with three shows of holiday favorites. The trio cover the gamut of Christmas entertainment, something for every tastes, with a packed house for each one. First it was the Dance St Louis' presentation of the Joffrey Ballet's “the Nutcracker,” then it was a delightful, musical “A Christmas Carol” and followed by the current offering, “Irving Berlin's White Christmas.”

The musical “Irving Berlin's White Christmas,” a stage adaption drawn from the classic movie musical “Holiday Inn,” which introduced the composer's famous “White Christmas” song, and especially its sequel “White Christmas.”

Successful song-and-dance duo Bob Wallace and Phil Davis (Stephen Bogardus and David Elder) are on their way to a Florida for a Christmas season booking when they stop to catch a rising new sister act, Betty (Kerry O'Malley) and Judy Haynes (Megan Sikora), at a club before leaving town. Smitten with one sister, one partner tricks the other into following the girls to their holiday gig at a ski lodge in Vermont. Expecting to find a winter wonderland, they arrive to find no snow but their old beloved general from their WWII army days, General Waverly (Barry Flatman) who owns the financially-struggling inn. The entertainers cook up a plan to save the inn by putting on a show, as love blooms all around.

Like the movies, the story mostly serves to take us from one song and dance number to the next, with a dash of humor and romance along the way. The show is a delight for Irving Berlin fans and lovers of the classic musical. The title song “White Christmas” is featured but so are favorites such as the comic “Sisters”and “Snow,” and other famous tunes like “Blue Skies” and “Happy Holiday.”

Much of the show's comic appeal is supplied by Lorna Luft. The daughter of Judy Garland shows some of her mother's comic touch in her Ethel Merman style role as the long-suffering inn manager, who is quietly in love with the gruffly military ex-general innkeeper. Luft is especially good in scenes with the child star of the cast, Sarah Safer, who plays studious niece Susan visiting her uncle the General, who is bitten by the theater bug as the performers begin to rehearse.

The staging is very nice, with elaborate sets, some old-fashioned Broadway style production numbers and of course snow. The singing and dancing are very good, and this is where the show and the performers shine. The humor and romance between the leads is rather thin and perfunctory, lacking the charm of the movie originals, so the real reason to see this production is those big song and song numbers featuring those Irving Berlin favorites.

“White Christmas” runs daily at the Fox Theater in St. Louis through December 27, 2009.

© Cate Marquis 2009

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(photo by Sofi Seck)

Dance review
Dance St. Louis offers perfect holiday gift with Joffrey Ballet's 'Nutcracker' at Fox

by Cate Marquis

There is hardly anything more classically Christmas than Tchaikovsky's “The Nutcracker” ballet. While the season is often filled with performances of this beloved standard, none compares to the lush version danced by the famous Joffrey Ballet. Dance St. Louis gave us all an early Christmas gift with their presentation of this classic of classics at the fabulous Fox December 3-6, 2009

The performance last Saturday was simply magical. The dancers were skillful, the costumes and sets gorgeous and the music superb. It was as good a “Nutcracker” as one could wish.

The story takes place on Christmas Eve, starting with a party in a Victorian home, and focuses on Clara (danced by Anastacia Holden), a young girl who receives a soldier-shaped nutcracker as a gift from her mysterious godfather Dosselmeyer (Michael Smith). However, her brother Fritz (John Mark Giragosian) breaks it and Dosselmeyer consoles poor Clara.

Late at night, Clara returns downstairs to retrieve her nutcracker. The house is transformed into a dream world, where Drosselmeyer brings to the nutcracker to life, becoming a handsome Nutcracker Prince (Miguel Blanco). A fantasy battle against a mouse army ensues, after which Clara's parents (Thomas Nicholas and Megan Quiroz) and brother are transformed in the world of the Snow King and Queen. They travel to a land of sweets with a Sugar Plum Fairy (Victoria Jaiani) and are entertained by colorful folk dancers from Spain, Arabia, China and Russia and dancing flowers.

This production added to the magic with its unusual Drosselmeyer. Traditionally, the character is dressed all in black, in contrast to the colorful clothes of the other adults, and is often white-haired. The role is usually played by a non-dancer, who gestures to direct Clara's attention to the action. This Drosselmeyer is more of a magician, presenting tricks to entertain the children, with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and a sweeping black cape with a purple lining, which he flourishes in a way that evokes a mix of stage magician and Dracula. Better yet, this Drosselmeyer sometimes dances, elegantly and athletically, which adds greatly to the energy of the performance. Dancer Michael Smith in this role was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the evening.

Other dancers whose performances deserve note are the leads Miguel Blanco and Victoria Jaiani, as the Nutcracker Prince and Sugar Plum Fairy, and Megan Quiroz and Thomas Nicholas as Clara's parents and the Snow Queen and King. Among the showiest and best dance performances came from spinning, leaping John Mark Giragosian, as the Snow Prince and Clara's brother Fritz, and later along with April Daly, in the duet of the Chinese dancers, the most charming of the folk dance performances.

Live music was provided by the Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis. The elaborate sets included a mix of moveable screens, flats and large props, and were aided by liberal use of snow and smoke to create a magical world. Costumes were lush but while there were plenty of sequins, the exuberant use of color was more eye-catching. The third act featured a huge moveable puppet, Mother Ginger, with huge eyes, bonnet and large round skirt, from under which appeared child dancers, in a very charming effect.

The cast features lots of local children, although the adults do the majority of the dancing, with local dancers among them. The Joffrey Ballet is among the most famous of American dance companies, with a reputation for “firsts.”

There was not a better way to get in the holiday mood than to see this excellent Dance St. Louis presentation of “The Nutcracker” by the Joffrey Ballet.

© Cate Marquis/The Current 2009

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Theater review
'Christmas Story' at Rep takes holiday favorite from movie screen to stage

by Cate Marquis

As holiday treats go, it is hard to beat “A Christmas Story,” the dryly funny '80s movie about Christmas from a kid's eye view in the 1930s small town Midwest, with a tongue stuck to frozen flag pole, a relentless bully and weird little younger brother, and a boy in glasses pining for a Red Ryder BB gun.

Now the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis offers up a new treat, a stage version of the charmingly quirky kid-centric holiday movie which, best of all, is not a musical. The stage version retains the kid view and all the humor, and the charm of a trip back in time to a radio-dominated childhood where Christmas was the best day of the year.

Actor Jeff Talbott provides hilarious narration on-stage as the grown-up counterpart to Ralphie (Jonathan Savage), the glasses-wearing Indiana boy dreaming of that Red Ryder air rifle. As Ralph reminisces about childhood days of radio adventure series with secret decoder rings, magazine contests and comic book ads for air rifles that your mother says will put your eye out, we see scenes of Ralphie's world played out before us. As the excitement of Christmas builds, Ralph scampers around the stage, setting the narrative groundwork for the scenes in comic fashion.

We meet Ralphie's best friends, confident Schwartz (Jarrett Harkless) and little Flick (Taylor Edlin), who seems a magnet for bad luck, especially at the hands of the coon-skin cap wearing bully Scut Farkas. At school, we find Helen (Sarah Koo), the smartest girl in the world, Ester Jane (Julia Schweizer), with long curls in hair ribbons and velvet-trimmed coat, and teacher Miss Shields (Susie Wall) who is exacting about margins. At home, Ralphie's younger brother Randy (Caden Self) seems to be always hiding under something and The Old Man, Ralphie's eccentric Dad (Jeff Gurner), is bedeviled by the neighbors' barking dogs and a balky furnace. Ralph's ever-cheerful Mother (Marnye Young) is always cooking meatloaf and knows the answers to all the questions for the contests quizzes her husband fills out.

Ralphie's dream is to get a Red Ryder air rifle for Christmas, the one he saw advertised in a kids' magazine. He fantasizes about being the cowboy action hero Red Ryder rescuing damsels in distress and saving the day, just like in the radio and movie serials. And as the holiday approaches, Ralphie cooks up schemes for getting his wish, even though his mother's response to the idea of a BB gun was that he would out his eye out.

The play does a wonderful job to translating the movie to stage, under director John McCluggage. The use of the narrator, who scampers about the stage providing access to Ralphie's inner life, his action-hero fantasies and other dreams are played out with great fun and some clever staging.

Everybody in the cast brings great comic energy to their roles, especially the adults whose roles are the most bizarre in this kid-centric reality. Susie Wall is especially fun as the teacher in her fantasy scenes, wearing a huge medallion of Shakespeare while praising Ralphie's essay and in a scene with “Wizard of Oz” touches. The kids do a great job as well, with Jonathan Savage playing Ralphie as the calm center of sanity in the pre-Christmas excitement and all the cast playing their roles with just the right touch of comic exaggeration.

“A Christmas Story” runs through December 27 at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 130 Edgar Road, on the Webster University campus and details are at the Rep's website www.repstl.org. Student and bargain “rush” tickets are often available.

© Cate Marquis/The Current 2009 (reprinted with permission)

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Film review

Film review

'Everybody's Fine' is not a comedy but true-to-life family drama

by Cate Marquis

Even when you are all grown up, the desire to please your parents and make them proud often remains.

The ads and movie trailer make “Everybody's Fine” look like a family comedy with a Christmas theme, Robert DeNiro and Drew Barrymore in a too-familiar, heart-warming family comedy, a role that seems to be becoming a DeNiro staple.

But that image is false. Although “Everybody's Fine” has comic moments and a final scene at Christmas, this film is actually a well-crafted drama, well-acted and surprisingly true-to-life, about a far-flung modern family.

“Everybody's Fine's” story of grown children still trying to please their widowed father reverses director Kirk Jones' previous film equation, yielding a drama with comic touches. Jones' successful, previous films were the comedies “Waking Ned Devine” and “Nanny McPhee,” but both comedies featured dramatic messages and warmth under the laughs. Jones wrote those two scripts but he adapted the screenplay for this one from the original Italian 1990 film, “Stanno Tutti Bene” (“Everybody's Fine”), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”).

(to read more, go to The Current (www.thecurrentonline.com) or (www.thecurrent-online.com)

© The Current 2009

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Film review
Absurdist French comedy 'OSS 117: Lost in Rio' lampoons '60s spy flicks, Bond films

by Cate Marquis

The silly but fun French spy spoof “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” teams a bumbling French James Bond with a beautiful female Mossad agent to hunt Nazis in '67 Brazil.

The sequel to 2006's “OSS 177: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” this new spy parody is set in 1967 and brings back its super spy OSS 117, a smarmy, obnoxiously French womanizer, with toothy smile and arched eyebrow, a mix of James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.

If you ever found 1960s James Bond-type spy movies laughably cheesy, this is the film for you.

The film parodies perfectly American spy thrillers of the period. The film not only recreates the characters, fashions, sets and locales but recreates the whole 1960s movie experience, using the same camera and editing techniques, like multiple split screens, right down to the cheesy soundtrack music. The comedy is peppered with ridiculous dialog and references to Bond films, along with other American thrillers of the era, even Hitchcock films.

Smooth secret agent OSS 117, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin), is sent to Rio when French intelligence headquarters are instructed to send their “best agent” to ransom a microfilm from a Nazi officer, Von Zimmel (Rudiger Vogler), hiding out Brazil. The microfilm has a list of WWII French collaborators, and headquarters is desperate to get it back, although agent OSS 117 is sure the list cannot be very long. Von Zimmel is now posing as a manager for a pair of wrestlers in masks - lucadores - so he can still wear his uniform. Silly, no? It gets worse.

To read, follow link to St. Louis Jewish Light:

http://www.stljewishlight.com/features/article_5533a266-73ec-11df-b489-001cc4c03286.html

© St. Louis Jewish Light 2009

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Film review
'Holy Rollers' tells unlikely but true tale of NY Hasidic drug smuggler


by Cate Marquis

Jesse Eisenberg stars in “Holy Rollers” as an ambitious young New York Hasidic man, about to be engaged to be married, who is drawn into a drug smuggling ring. As unlikely as it sounds, this striking drama is based on true events from the 1990s.

It is a startling, fact-based story, a sincere film focused on a young man's frustrations within his circumscribed community and his religious conflicts outside it. Although the story's premise has potential as another tale about the rise and fall of a drug kingpin, “Holy Rollers” is a more restrained and thoughtful drama, more about religion, identity and temptation. Anyone expecting “Scarface” will be disappointed.

Jesse Eisenberg, the young actor who was so affecting in the indie film hit “The Squid and the Whale,” plays Sam Gold, a twenty-year old young man from a poor Hasidic family in Brooklyn, hoping to become engaged to a young woman he spotted at his temple.

His family and his rabbi (Bern Cohen) approve of the match but her family seems reluctant. Sam is a good son who wants to comply with his father Mendel's (Mark Ivanir) plan for him to become a rabbi. But Sam struggles in his studies, unlike his close friend and next-door neighbor Leon Zimmerman (Jason Fuchs).

While Sam does not have a gift for scholarship, he has a knack for business that his father lacks. Mendel Gold is more interested in being well-liked in his community than making enough money for his impoverished family, much to Sam's frustration.

Sam attributes the reluctance of his would-be fiancee's family to the engagement to his family's poverty, and Sam is desperate to show them he can make money.

But how would this nice Jewish boy get involved with drugs? Next door neighbor Leon's older brother Yosef (Justin Bartha), who has a strained relationship with his family, asks Sam if he would like to make some extra money. Sam is interested if wary but Josef assures him it is a simple job, he just brings back a package from Europe for an Israeli importer. Smoothly, Josef tells him it is legal but he would be carrying “medicine” from Europe which cannot be bought here, “to help people.”

The medicine is actually Ecstasy and Yosef's employer Jackie Solomon (Danny A. Abeckaser) is an Israeli-born drug dealer.

To read more, follow link to St. Louis Jewish Light:

http://www.stljewishlight.com/features/article_99aa05c4-791a-11df-b432-001cc4c002e0.html

© St. Louis Jewish Light 2009

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Film review
Coens' 'A Serious Man' is seriously funny dark comedy

by Cate Marquis

The Coen brothers' newest film, “A Serious Man,” is seriously funny but it is the darkest of comedy. A throwback to darkly comic works like “Fargo” and “Barton Fink,” it also has a bit more humor in the style of “The Big Lebowski.”

Set in Minneapolis in 1967, it draws more on the Coens' childhood growing up in a Midwestern Jewish community. “F Troop” is on TV but Jefferson Airplane's song “Somebody to Love” is on the transistor radio, marking the cultural pivot point that 1967 is in this Midwestern city.

The screenwriting, directing and editing brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen, set the dark tone from the start, opening with two quotes: “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you,” from medieval French Rabbi Rashi, and “When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies,” from the Jefferson Airplane song “Somebody to Love,” followed by an unsettling little scene in Yiddish, set in a nineteenth century Polish shtetl, what appears to be a Jewish folk tale but is not.

At the center of everything in “A Serious Man” is Larry Gopnik (Tony-nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a local college. Larry is an ordinary man, a good guy trying to do all the right things but blissfully drifting through life. Until everything seems to fall apart, starting when his wife Judith (Minneapolis-based actress Sari Lennick) suddenly announces she wants a divorce and plans to marry a widower friend of theirs, the supremely confident, even smug Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), whom she considers a more “serious man” than the passive Larry.

Larry is certainly a more successful man than his older brother Uncle Arthur (Richard Kind), who sleeps on their couch and tends to a cyst on the back of his neck that requires repeated suctioning and hours in the bathroom, much to the frustration of their appearance-obsessed teenaged daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus). Their son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is supposed to be preparing for his upcoming bar mitzvah but seems more focused on listening to Jefferson Airplane on the radio, smoking pot in the boy's room at Hebrew school and watching “F Troop” on TV.

Although he is upset by events in turn, Larry seems to try to do what is asked on him, to do the right thing, just as everyone around him expects, no matter how absurd things get. And things keep piling on. He is up for tenure when a Korean student tries to bribe him. His wife asks him to move out and he does, taking Uncle Arthur with him. He worries about his brother - will he find a job, a wife, is he mentally ill? As things deteriorate, Larry becomes increasingly obsessed with finding the meaning behind all these awful things. Is G-d trying to tell him something?

Yet the worse things get for poor Larry, the funnier the movie gets. Things mount up into an absurd mountain of grief and insults, curiouser and curiouser, for beleaguered good-guy Larry. As Larry walks this knife edge, he starts to dream strange dreams, comic gems the clever Coens lob at us. The comedy is like a huge, awful joke with an enormous punchline at the end.

The script is a tour-de-force, aided by outstanding acting from the gifted Michael Stuhlbarg, who has to walk a fine line to make Larry a likeable, sympathetic character instead of simply a luckless victim. Other performance from the lesser-known cast are sparkling as well. There are two more familiar faces: Richard Kind plays the pathetic yet vaguely sinister Uncle Arthur and Fred Melamed is smooth, even sexy as Sy Ableman, offering to counsel befuddled Larry even as he steals his wife. The film also includes fine work from local Minneapolis actors such as Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff and Jessica McManus.

As always, Roger Deakins' vivid, dream-like photography is stunning, functioning like another character in the story, deepening every scene and imbuing it with a palpable sense of meaning or foreboding.

The Coen brothers have a crafted a brilliant film in “A Serious Man,” a masterpiece of blackest absurd comedy. It is among their funniest and best works.

(Reprinted with permission from The Current http://thecurrent-online.com/)

© The Current 2009

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Film review

Don't expect comedy from Ben Stiller in drama 'Greenberg'

by Cate Marquis

When the affluent Phillip Greenberg (Chris Messina) plans to take his wife and kids on a family vacation, he knows he is leaving their Los Angeles home in the

Anyone who expects Ben Stiller's newest film “Greenberg” to be a comedy is in for a shock. This drama is the mirror opposite of Hollywood romantic comedy, from writer/director Noah Baumbach, whose first film was “The Squid and the Whale.”

Ben Stiller plays an emotionally-wounded, middle-aged man, who is drifting through a life that peaked too early. The set-up sounds like a comedy, about a mismatched couple with a touch of Annie Hall, where a nebbish Jewish New Yorker meets a laid-back, blonde non-Jewish California girl. “Greenberg” uses comedy's familiar characters and plot elements but allows things to play out as they would in real life. The standard elements of Hollywood comedy are stripped bare to create a realistic, very un-Hollywood dramatic story.

A couple in California go on vacation leaving their home in the capable hands of their assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig). Florence's only responsibility in their absence is to care for their dog Mahler and check up on Phillip's brother Roger (Ben Stiller) who is flying in from New York to "house sit." Phillip is less comfortable about leaving his under-achieving brother, recently released from a mental hospital following a breakdown, in charge of his house.

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Once a rock musician on the verge of fame but now working as a carpenter, Roger Greenberg's life has become a series of uncompleted projects and unfulfilled potential, who now spends most of his time writing letters of consumer complaint to companies. Florence expects a sensitive, fragile person but Roger is cocky, even arrogant and self-absorbed, a 40-year-old single man stubbornly still living life as if he were in his mid-twenties.

Back in his L.A. hometown after decades in New York, Roger immediately sets out to re-connect with his former bandmates and an ex-girlfriend, expecting nothing to have changed. Roger wheedles his old friends to get together to party like the old days, inviting them for a pool party at his brother's house but is dismayed when they show up with wives and kids. When they chat about everyday family life, like a child's upcoming Bar Mitzvah and how one pal throws the best Seder, Greenberg snarls at them viciously, decrying religion and asserting that he was only half-Jewish anyway. Tellingly, they shrug this off as typical Roger Greenberg behavior.

It sets a repeated pattern in the film, with Roger begging his old friends to socialize but then heaping abuse on them when they do. He seems outraged at being surrounded by ordinary life, shifting uncomfortably in his seat at a neighborhood sidewalk cafe, as clusters of Orthodox men and other people from his brother's neighborhood walk by on a sunny California day.

The much younger Florence, who seems to suffer from low self-esteem as well as lack of ambition, seems inexplicably drawn to him. Roger treats her as a convenience - he does not drive and quickly expects her to be his chauffeur - while she admiringly sees him as a superior being and is willing to accommodate him in anyway.

Artistically, it is a brilliant move, to take what is cute in comedy and show how obnoxious and toxic it would be in the real world. The film also unblinking presents issues of class divisions and other realities and challenges of modern life.

But the character at the center of this dramatic spiral is completely distasteful, an arrogant, angry mess much like the father in the director's “The Squid and the Whale.” In that film, audience sympathy was with the children caught between their parents but this film lacks a sympathetic character for audiences to care about. What audience sympathy there is goes to the misguided, low self-esteem-girl Florence, although the ending leaves one just dismayed for her.

The story settles into a spiraling pattern, with Roger wheedling attention, only to revert to nastiness. His former bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans) offers Roger true friendship and tolerates a great deal of this, despite that Greenberg cut short their band's shot at fame by turning down a record label contract without even asking the rest of the band.

Ben Stiller does a great job, taking the kind of character he has often played in comedies and stripping it of comic elements. But he leaves no drop of charm, no loveable - or at least likeable - trait, to give us any reason to care about this person. What is left is just a raw being, a self-destructive, self-absorbed, passive-aggressive person who keeps everyone at arm's length. While the character is fully-developed and believable, he lacks any hint of charisma to explain why his long-time friends would stick with him despite his abusive behavior.

It is a brave and polished performance but building a film around such as unlikeable character is difficult. As real and fully-developed as the characters are, it is hard to see Greenberg reaching much beyond admiring critics and acting-aficionados to connect with a broader general audience.

© Cate Marquis

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Film review
French “The Girl On The Train” uses real event to explore identity and society's concerns

by Cate Marquis

Renowned French director/writer Andre Techine draws on an actual incident that divided his country for "The Girl On The Train." The film follows the life of a young French woman who makes an accusation of anti-Semitism, which ignites a chain of events. The film's narrative is divided into two parts, first setting up the circumstances of the accusation and then its consequences. The story takes place in 2004 France, when a series of anti-Semitic incidents had the country on edge.

Jeanne (Emilie Dequenne) is an immature young woman living in a modest home in the Parisian suburbs with her single mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve). Jeanne travels by train to the affluent center of Paris, seeking secretarial work in the office of Samuel Bleistein (Michel Blanc), a successful attorney and out-spoken Jewish activist. With the recent incidents, Bleistein is a frequent media commentator on anti-Semitism and seems omnipresent on French TV.

It is Jeanne's mother who urged her daughter to apply for the job the lawyer advertised, despite Jeanne's own doubts about her qualifications.

To read more, follow link to review in St. Louis Jewish Light:

http://archives.stljewishlight.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=2010/April/30/1LocalNews/6346.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=Girl+On+The+Train&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F2003&enddate=5%2F6%2F2010&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&IncludeImages=1&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=None%0A%09%09%09

© St. Louis Jewish Light 2009

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Film review
Keeping up with 'The Joneses' on road to financial ruin

by Cate Marquis

Heard of “viral marketing”? It is the concept of a company selling things by identifying “trend-makers” on campuses or among the young and affluent, and paying them to promote the company’s products by using them and talking them up without letting on that they are paid salespeople.

The ambitious satire, “The Joneses”, takes viral marketing to a new level, creating an entire family of perfect style-setters. The company sets them up in a McMansion in a high-income gated community, with all the goodies—furnishings, cars, clothes and high-tech toys—needed to drive their neighbors wild with envy and straight into the nearest high-end store.

Of course, Jones is not their real name. In fact, they are a bunch of strangers, carefully selected salespeople hired to pose as a family and covertly sell, sell, sell.

“The Joneses” is a satire of consumerism gone wild, especially pointed now, and a brilliant idea for a film. But “The Joneses” falls short in execution, losing its nerve to bite the commercial hand that feeds it.

David Duchovny and Demi Moore star as Steve and Kate Jones, who have just moved into a huge new house along with their teenagers Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth). Although their furniture has just arrived straight from an Ethan Allan showroom, the Jones family eagerly welcomes neighbors Larry (Gary Cole) and Summer (Glenne Headly). Although Larry and Summer do not have children for Jenn and Mick to befriend, they do seem impressed with all the Jones’ stuff. Score one for the sales team.

To read more, follow link review in The Current:

http://thecurrent-online.com/ae/keeping-up-with-%E2%80%98the-joneses%E2%80%99-on-way-to-financial-trouble/

© The Current 2009

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Film review
'Amelia' looks pretty but fails to fly

by Cate Marquis

“Amelia,” the biopic about early aviator Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor, is a very pretty film, with lovely aerial photography, dreamy stylish 1920s and 1930s  period fashions, and elegant period decor and architecture. But as gorgeous as “Amelia” looks, the film itself is a bit bland.

Director Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”) certainly nailed the casting for her film “Amelia.” Hilary Swank looks enough like the blonde, tom-boyish pretty Earhart, a tall thin young woman who had a striking resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, the then wildly-popular aviator who had been the first man to cross the Atlantic solo in 1927. The film does start with the contest to find a woman to duplicate Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic feat, begun as a sort of stunt in this era of early feminism that followed women getting the vote in 1920. What the film fails to note, however, is the role Earhart's physical resemblance to Lindbergh played in her being picked for the mission and the media's fascination with her. The film does note Earhart was actually a passenger on that flight, although technically in charge as captain, and that her experience as a pilot was limited at that time.

(to read more, go to The Current (www.thecurrentonline.com) or (www.thecurrent-online.com)

© The Current 2009

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Film review
"Avatar' is technology groundbreaker

by Cate Marquis

From a technical viewpoint, “Avatar” is the most astounding film of the year. The futurist fantasy's 3D CGI visual effects are as realistic and amazing as you have heard, a true leap forward in movie visual effects. Even for those indifferent to technical effects, the seamless realism of “Avatar's” futuristic adventure are astounding.

But what is even more amazing is that “Avatar” is also a really good film, entertaining and even thought-provoking, something too rare in special-effects films. Game-changing visual effects added to a well-plotted hero tale adds up to a film worth seeing.

The story is classic heroics but effective. Paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is offered a chance to earn enough for a medical procedure to restore his ability to walk, by taking the place of his recently-deceased twin brother, a research scientist in an experiment on the distant planet Pandora.

The experiment involves using a human mind-controlled “avatar,” a biological human-Pandoran hybrid, created by fusing DNA from two specific individuals. The avatars look like the 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned humanoid natives, called Na'vi, and when controlled remotely by humans attached to a computer in pods in the lab, the avatars interact with the native non-technological Pandorans, in order to study them and gain their trust.

Since Jake is an identical twin, his DNA matches his brother's, so he can replace him, if he can catch on to the training fast enough. Naturally, the researchers are skeptical of the Marine taking the place of a scientist who had trained for years for his task. There is even some resentment among the other researchers, including project leader Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).

The reason all of them are on the planet is to assist a company hoping to mine a valuable mineral. The scientists are supposed to help the company reach an agreement with the Na'vi to extract it, with ex-Marines hired to provide security.

Eye-popping visual effects are reason enough to see “Avatar.” The integration of the CGI animation and the live action work is seamless, and coupled with 3D makes for a powerful cinematic ride.

But unlike special-effects-laden “2012,” “Avatar” is an entertaining and engrossing adventure story with some real human meaning, not just fast-paced but meaningless action. “Avatar” also gives respectful treatment to classic science fiction, while mining what is appealing about hero tales throughout human history.

The story is more classic than original. But it earns points for fearlessly tackling greed and the hubris of a technically-developed power seeking to exploit the resources of a less-technologically advanced one. In some ways, Avatar's story is “Dances With Wolves” in outer space but the hero tale is skilfully handled and introduces modern touches like private military contractors and science co-opted for profit. The futuristic story parallels modern multinational corporate exploitation of resources in poorer, developing nations, often with the help of military operations, although the practice of this kind of exploitation really goes back to the East India Company.

However, the story of an unscrupulous corporation claiming resources under someone else's soil has some people on the political right claiming that the film attacks capitalism, a characterization to which responsible, ethical businesses might take exception. Likewise, people seeing something anti-military in the film might note these are ex-military private contractors, which would make the story more anti-Blackwater than anti-Marine.

“Avatar” may not become a classic but it is highly-entertaining, technically ground-breaking movie that reminds us of the kind of adventure epics Hollywood once did so very well. With its the 3D effects and the epic scope, “Avatar” is one movie that absolutely should be seen on a big screen.

© Cate Marquis 2009

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