'La Cage Aux Folles' fills Fox with flights of fun

by Cate Marquis

A high energy flight of fantasy, La Cage Aux Folles has roosted at the Fox Theater for a run through January 15. It provides a delightful, fun way to start the new year.

George Hamilton may be the marquee name but the real star performance comes from Christopher Sieber as Albin, the drag queen star of St. Tropez nightclub La Cage Aux Folles. Albin is also the love-of-his-life of the club's owner Georges (Hamilton).

This Broadway musical won three Tonys including Best Musical Revival. The story is familiar to many from the French film or the American film adaptation “The Bird Cage,” although the story is a bit different. The feather-boa, sequined-bedecked production is packed with plenty of delightful stage show song-and-dance numbers.

Its farce comedy is triggered when the quiet, unconventional lives of George and Albin are up-ended by Jean-Michel (Billy Harrigan Tighe), Georges' son from a youthful dalliance, who suddenly shows up and announces he is getting married. The problem is his fiancee Anne's (Alison Blair McDowell) conservative, politically influential parents (Bruce Winant and Cathy Newman). Under Jean-Michel's pleading, they concoct a scheme for the parents to meet, with the longtime gay couple posing as “straight.”

Because social attitudes about gays are so different now, the story has to remain set in the 1970s for the farce to really work.

The production is playful, fun and interactive. The play opens with a moderator to get the audience in the bawdy, cabaret mood, with a little ribbing with local references tossed in.

Sieber actually starred with Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway version but takes the Fierstein part as Albin in this production. And a fine Albin he is, offering the audience one show-stopper song and dance after another, and dominating in the dramatic and comic scenes as well.

Hamilton mostly smiles and poses attractively, making a seeming minimum of effort with his lines. He is not much of a singer or dancer but Sieber more than takes up the slack. Given the two characters they play, it works pretty well.

Les Cagelles, a talented, athletic troupe of six, portray the chorus at the night club. Their performances are spirited and the costumes are spangly, although the men are less convincing as women than real drag queens would be. Instead, there is a kind of tongue-in-cheek playfulness about too brawny shoulders topping big sequined-draped busts.

The staging is wonderful. The action takes place under a proscenium arch, with groups of musicians on second tiers to left and right of the colorful set. The center space under the framing arch is transformed by moving sets, changing into Georges' and Albin's apartment, the La Cage stage or backstage, an outdoor cafe and the posh restaurant Jacqueline's.

Decor is a style that evokes equal parts of French and tropical. A starry night sky is the back-drop for most of the production, peaking out behind the palm fronds or street lamps, adding a romantic touch to what is basically a love story wrapped in a farce.

While the production numbers are colorful and cleverly staged and performances are all very high energy, the songs themselves are hardly memorable. Still, the cast gives it their all and it was a sheer joy to hear Sieber belt them out.

Supporting roles offer a chance for extra, over-the-top fun. Especially good was Albin's crazy butler/maid Jacob (Jeigh Madjus), a wildly flamboyant character who longs to be part of the La Cage stage show. Gay Marshall as talkative, pushy restauranteur Jacqueline is another comic gem of a performance.

All in all, “La Cage Aux Folles” offers a delightful, light distraction from winter blahs.

© Cate Marquis

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Rep's 'Adventures of Tom Sawyer' charms with Twain's boyhood tale

Justin Fuller as Joe Harper, Tom McKiernan as Tom Sawyer and Robbie Tann as Huckleberry Finn. ©Photo by Eric Woolsey.

by Cate Marquis

Grade: B+

Mark Twain's remembrance of his Missouri boyhood, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” remains an entertaining adventure tale for both adults and children. Despite the passage of time, Twain so completely captured the sense of childhood in many ways. What child, or adult recalling childhood, sulking after some rebuke would not relish the fantasy of disappearing for a few days and having the whole neighborhood looking for you. Reappearing at one's own funeral to tearful embraces only caps the triumph.

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” playwright Laura Eason's energetic adaptation of Twain's classic, is the Repertory Theater of St. Louis' current Mainstage production through December 23.

In recent years, the Rep has presented musicals for their holiday production. Thankfully, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is not a musical but a clever, high-spirited play. There is no need to interrupt Twain's humor and adventure tale with unnecessary songs of questionable merit.

Fun and adventure are the themes of this delightful production. The play draws of the timelessness of childhood, with the characters played as real people rather than stiff nostalgic icons. The naturalness makes the story more contemporary and the production more lively.

The play opens with a narrator, Joseph Adams, quoting Twain on his intention to entertain both children and adults. Adams appear in costume as one of the story's characters, rather than as Twain, and returns periodically to help the story along and sprinkle in more of Twain's humor.

Tom Sawyer (Tim McKiernan) has inadvertently whiled away the school day swimming - again - his small Missouri town on the banks of the Mississippi. Rushing to arrive home with the other kids after school he encounters his friend Huck Finn (Robbie Tann), a ragged social outcast who does not bother with school, and pretty new-girl-in-town Becky Thatcher (Hayley Treider), who wows Tom at first sight - at least as long as none of the other boys are watching. Tom races home to Aunt Polly (Nance Williamson) and his too-good brother Sid (Nate Trinrud) hoping to conceal that he has spent the day playing hooky.

All three actors in the lead roles of Tom, Huck and Becky bring considerable fun and energy to their characters. They spring to life as everyday kids, capturing boys' timeless interest gross stuff and every kid's imaginative play and sense of adventure. McKiernan's Tom is full of bravura and a confidence in his ability to talk his way out of every difficulty. Tann's Huck is a charming urchin, full of folk lore about curing warts as he willingly follows Tom's lead. But Tann's Huck also has a melancholy undercurrent of awareness of evil unfamiliar to the more sheltered Tom. Treider plays Becky with a wide-eyed sweetness that makes her character irresistible.

Apart from Tom, Huck and Becky, the rest characters are played by an ensemble cast in multiple roles. The story's villain, the resentful, vengeful Injun Joe is played with great stage presence by Michael D. Nichols, who also plays the teacher and the preacher with delicious humor. Besides serving as narrator, Joseph Adams plays bad-luck drunk Muff Potter and other towns people. Justin Fuller plays Tom's less daring pal Joe Harper and Nate Trinrud plays ill-fated Doc Robinson in addition to Sid and various others.

The play is fast-paced and delightfully entertaining as directed by Jeremy B. Cohen. Scenic designer Daniel Ostling's moveable, pared-down set serves as everything from the white-washed wall to graveyard to two story houses with a series of moving walls and suspended windows. One of the cleverest piece of staging is for the church scenes, where the cast sits among large prop dolls anchored to the benches serving as pews. The cast members operate the dolls like puppets, nodding heads or leaning into each other or away to whisper gossip. The effect is both funny and effective.

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is a fine choice for family fun, enjoyable for adults and kids alike. The play is presented at the Loretto Hilton Theater on the Webster University campus, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves. Their website www.repstl.org has information on student discounts, rush tickets and show times.

© THE CURRENT.  Reprinted with permission

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High-flying 'Billy Elliot' thrills Fox audience

by Cate Marquis

The movie “Billy Elliot” was a heart-warming hit about a Scottish boy, in a mining town, who discovered a gift for dance. But director Stephen Daldry set that unlikely story against the backdrop of the real-world 1980s coal miners strike, in which British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher broke the union and dismantled the British coal-mining industry.

The whole history is spelled out in a poster displayed in the lobby of the Fox Theater, which is running the hit Broadway musical version of “Billy Elliot” through November 13. With music by Elton John and choreography by Peter Darling, “Billy Elliot” is a highlight of the Fox season, presented by Dance St. Louis, the area's wonderful dance presenting organization.

The story takes place in Northern England, where coal mining had dominated the economy for hundreds of years. Despite the serious backdrop, the musical is funny, heart-warming, thought-provoking and drenched with great dancing.

The role of young Billy Elliot is so daunting that four boys share it, rotating performances throughout its run. On the night this reviewer saw the show, November 2, the role was played by Lex Ishimoto, who did a bang up job of both acting and dancing. Especially the dancing.

Billy Elliot lives in a tiny mining town with his Dad (Rich Hebert), his older brother Tony (Cullen R. Titmas) and his somewhat confused, foul-mouthed Grandma (a delightful Patti Perkins). Both Billy's Dad and brother are miners who are debating going on strike over Thatcher's draconian policies. The whole family is struggling after the recent death of Billy's mother (Kat Hennessey) who appears in dreams to twelve-year-old Billy on occasion.

Billy's father sends the boy to boxing lessons at the local community center but a misunderstanding one day throws Billy into an all-girl ballet class taught by wisecracking Mrs. Wilkinson (Leah Hocking). The teacher sees an unexpected spark of talent in the boy, who keeps coming back because he prefers it to getting pummeled at boxing class.

Dance highlights of the first act include the opener with the full company, “The Stars Look Down,” on the eve of the year-long strike. “Shine” features the girls of the dance class in a very funny bit. Billy and his colorful friend Michael dance the joyful, campy “Expressing Yourself.”

The musical is funny in that dry, sarcastic British way but the coming-of-age story, the idea of an unexpected gift and the tragic miners' story give an dramatic underpinning that makes this production soar.

Soaring of another sort is a highlight of the second act, when Billy's growing love of dancing and the chance to transcend his working-class life sparks his imagination.

The second act opens with a wonderful dance, set to the music of Swan Lake, with young Billy and an older dancer, who may be his future self. Both imagination and Billy himself take flight in well-executed wire work, an effect that is both beautiful and startling that offers the show's biggest highlight.

While comedy is the focus of the first act, dance dominates the second. However, another highlight of the second act is “Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher,” with the whole town poking fun at the despised Prime Minister in cheeky style.

The production's set serves several purposes but is always convincing as the Elliots' home, that dance studio or the miners union hall.

Fantasy sequences, including a flight of fancy with Billy's goofy cross-dressing friend Michael, take place before a sparkly curtain. The role of Michael is shared by Ben Cook and Jacob Zelonsky, who turned in a high-energy. winning comic performance that charmed the audience.

Although Billy's class studies ballet, the dance numbers mix ballet and contemporary dance, in a series of energetic and appealing numbers. Elton John's music is good, although not as memorable as the dance numbers. The cast excels in both acting and dancing.

The real miners strike lasted a whole year, when the union collapsed. Yet the show concludes with the full company's moving “Company Celebration.”

“Billy Elliot” offers far more than humor and dance, with a historical backdrop that is now topical in light of the “Occupy” movement. This is one show not to miss.

© THE CURRENT  Reprinted with permission

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'God of Carnage' at Rep brings parents back to hilarious sandbox squabble

by Cate Marquis

Grade: B

Four parents - affluent, civilized people - come together to discuss - rationally, reasonably, like adults - an after-school fight between two grade school boys. You know this cannot end well.

That is the premise of the hilarious Tony Award-winning comedy, “God of Carnage,” now on stage at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis. The movie version, named “Carnage,” of this Broadway hit is set to arrive here early next year. But this is our chance to see the original.

Veronica (Eva Kaminsky) and Michael Novak (Triney Sandoval) have invited Annette (Susan Louise O'Connor) and Alan Raleigh (Anthony Marble) to an afternoon visit in their very nice New York City apartment, to politely discuss what actions are needed to address the fight between their sons. The Raleighs' son hit the Novaks' son with a stick, knocking out two teeth. Grateful that the Novaks are too gracious and reasonable to sue, the Raleighs are contrite and willing to cover dental costs, For their part, the Novaks understand that boys do sometimes fight. Things are going so well, both couples feel as if they are bonding as friends.

Everything seems to be going so well - until they do not.

Playwright Yasmina Reza's play runs like a rock rolling down hill but you never know which hilarious way the stones are going to bounce, only that it could be bad. “God of Carnage” mines the basic nature of parents that, no matter, how reasonable they intend to be, that is still their treasured offspring we are talking about. Ultimately these adults embrace their inner child, who wants to brawl in the schoolyard.

At first the couples seem to have much in common - same income level, same private school, same neighborhood but eventually cracks appear, revealing them all to be very different. Veronica, a freelance writer who focuses on children in war-torn Africa, is a perfect hands-on mother. Reserved, shy Annette is more restrained, perhaps more comfortable at work in the orderly world of an investment adviser. The men are more blunt, alpha males but different ways. Corporate attorney Alan is firmly attached to his phone and self-made-man Michael glad to explain the plumbing supply business to the over-educated Alan.

Reza is known for her knowing and biting humor, on full display here. The Rep production is directed by Edward Stern and the play was translated by Christopher Hampton. The program notes that the coffee table in the room weighs 350 pounds, that seven fresh clafoutis are baked and eaten per week, that 50 tulips are destroyed per show but that no hamsters are actually harmed.

Although destination is not a big surprise, this is a very, very funny trip. Mixing elements of farce with a kind of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf” brinksmanship, one person eggs on the next. Sometimes its men versus women, sometimes its couple A against couple B, sometimes its the privileged class against the up-by-the-bootstraps entrepreneur, sometimes even red state versus blue state. The prefect mother versus the career woman, the polite versus the imperious. And then there is that cell phone.

The play has not intermission and runs a mere 90 minutes. It runs so fast and leaves the audience so breathless with laughter that is feels shorter. There is a no way one could take a break and maintain this mayhem anyway.

The set is modern, spare but flexible enough to provide everything needed. The blond wood and clean lines, modular furniture, vases of tulips and a back-lit bar all provide a context of taste and restraint, in which the veil of adult sophistication can be dropped.

The acting is superb, with each of the four players topping each other with twists and outrageous-ness. Triney Sandoval, who was so riveting as the Inspector in the Rep's marvelous, pared-down “Crime and Punishment” last year, again dominates the stage as Michael Novak, a man of large ego and girth, proud of his accomplishments and glad to set aside the pretense of polite restraint and speak plainly once the door opens. Anthony Marble, as Alan Raleigh, opens that door, once he can no longer resist his cell phone and pressing business. Marble's Alan oozes impatience and arrogance, in the same way Veronica Novak oozes self-righteousness and a wish to have things her way. Susan Louise O'Connor may be the funniest as conflict-phobic Annette, whose stomach churns every time voices are raised. It is like a day in kindergarten.

The shifting alliances and gamesmanship between the four characters may be spilled is is where the play most resembles “Virginia Woolf,” although this is purely comedy, tongues are firmly in cheek and there is no one couple driving this train. In fact, no one is charge, like a free for all on the playground. Secrets come out, unspoken resentments are voiced and egos expand, aided a bit by a bottle of rum. Despite our pretense at reason, we all embrace the god of carnage at some level.

“God of Carnage” is a rollicking good time, a breathless verbal barrage of human sure to leave your composure broken and bleeding on the floor. This delightful comedy runs through November 6 at the Rep, on the Webster University campus, at 130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves, MO.

© THE CURRENT Reprinted with permission
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'Circle Mirror Transformation' at Rep explores people's issues in acting class 

by Cate Marquis

A creative drama class at a small-town community center is the setting for a sometimes funny, sometimes revealing drama about five people.

“Circle Mirror Transformation” is the current Studio Theater production of the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, running through November 13. The play takes its title from three exercises the class practices in the course of their creative drama class.

Lynne Wintersteller plays Marty, short for Martha, who teaches the creative drama class. Among her students are her husband James (John Ottavino), newly-divorced and slightly chubby Schultz (Danny McCarthy), budding actress Theresa (Kate Middleton) and teenaged Lauren (Charlotte Mae Jusino)

Creative drama is the kind of acting exercises intended to open one to expression and sensitivity. Which makes it both an inherently touchy-feely thing and a place where surprises are likely to take place. Anyone who has taken an acting class has experienced some of these exercises, a standard of the theater world. People sit in circles, they mirror each other, they transform objects, actions and themselves.

The play by Annie Baker is directed by Stuart Carden. The simple yet evocative set, a dance studio in Shirley,Vermont, looks so much like any classroom, with wooden floor and a mirrored back wall that has a line of low cubbyholes for gear, that one can hardly shake the sense of being in class. Doors on either side of the back wall line of cubbies provide entrances and exits from the space.

There is something inherently funny in this kind of class, which the plays taps into. Otherwise ordinary adults engaged in sometimes awkward improvisational games which aim to bring out creativity and sensitivity but which look like a mix of childhood playtime and off-beat therapy. In fact, one of the characters, increasingly confused by seemingly random exercises, blurts out an observation along those lines.

At the same time, the characters come to life as they explore their creativity, get to know each other, experience emotional highs and lows. The humor gradually gives way to a touching human drama.

The setting brings the audience in very close to the action, almost making members of the drama class. The audience in seated on three sides in the small downstairs studio space, along what would be three of the walls of the classroom space. Signs directing people to the performance space, as if a real class is being taught there, further heightens the sense of sitting in on a real class. However, the audience does not participate, and only observes. like the proverbial fly on the wall.

“Circle Mirror Transformation” both amuses and touches with its slice of ordinary life.

© THE CURRENT Reprinted with permission

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'Addams Family' musical haunts Fox with humor and Halloween spirit

National touring cast of "The Addams Family" musical. Photo by Jeremy Daniel

by Cate Marquis

Grade: B +

Every family looks normal from the outside. Well, maybe not the Addams Family.

The new Broadway musical “The Addams Family” is haunting the Fox Theater through October 9. You may know them from the TV show and the movies but before that they were a clever bizarre comic in the New Yorker magazine. Cartoonist Charles Addams created a wide-ranging cast of characters but especially popular were the scary, spooky family who turned conventions of normal, suburban life inside out with delicious dark humor.

Playing around with what is normal and what is, well, not so much, always has been at the center of Addams Family humor. This Broadway production draws more from the ironic, macabre cartoons than the TV show but the familiar elements and characters are there. The playful, funny show opens with that finger-snapping tune from the TV show but otherwise it is a brand-new score filled with comic song-and-dance numbers, interspersed with snappy patter and rapid-fire jokes worthy of stand-up or late night TV.

The show is the perfect comedy mix of Broadway and Halloween, appealing across generations. Especially for those who love all things zombie, creepy and Halloween, this is your ticket. Humor and fun are the big emphasis but the comedy is surprisingly fresh. While there are a few standard Addams Family sight gags, like Pugsley delightedly being tortured on a rack by his sister during the song “Pulled,” there are plenty of tossed-off quips on wide-ranging subjects. Quick, biting jokes and asides on topical subjects like Charlie Sheen or the red state - blue state divide all fly past so fast that if you do not laugh at one, there will be another along in a minute.

All the familiar characters are here - Gomez (Douglas Sills) and Morticia (Sara Gettelfinger), butler Lurch (Tom Corbeil), Uncle Fester (Blake Hammond), Grandma (Pippa Pearthree) and the children Pugsley (Patrick D. Kennedy) and Wednesday (Cortney Wolfson). Other favorites also appear.

But daughter Wednesday is now grown up, and she is bringing home a boy, Lucas (Brian Justin Crum), to meet the parents. Lucas is likeable, steady and normal and he also is bringing his very conventional parents, Mal (Martin Vidnovic) and Alice (Crista Moore) Beineke, along from Ohio, to dine at the Addams' New York home.

In some ways, it is like any seemingly mismatched families meeting. However, the Addams bring out the Beinekes' inner weirdness as the Addams try to be normal. There is further family turmoil when Wednesday confides in daddy that she and Lucas are secretly engaged, leaving Gomez to face keeping a secret from his wife, something he has never done. Young Pugsley worries about losing his sister and both Gomez and Morticia worry about their little girl growing up. The Beinekes are just worried.

The Broadway staging is on display even before the show begins, as the stage is draped with a plush, gorgeous red curtain. The curtain is not just pretty but part of the elaborate moving set and complex staging. It is a multi-level Halloween playground where things unexpectedly fly, disembodied hands appear and even decorations spring to life.

The question of what's normal is a big theme of the play. The Addams think of themselves as a normal family - it is everybody else who is strange. In their world, collecting instruments of torture is a harmless hobby, kids play at poisoning each other and Mommy reassures there really is a monster under the bed. Of course, they really do love each other too.

The songs and production numbers are great fun, staged with a Mel Brooks flavor. The production good-naturedly spoofs Broadway conventions with its Rockettes-meets-Rocky-Horror comic style.

Appropriately, the musical begins in a graveyard. Gomez and Morticia lead the troupe in singing the praises of family in “When You're an Addams,” while visiting the family crypt for their annual resurrection of their dead ancestors. After all, as Morticia says, “Living or dead, they are still family.”

The ancestors provide a high-energy chorus line, dressed in pale, ragged costumes through the ages. They include a 1920s flapper, a '50s airline stewardess, a World War I soldier, a French aristocratic victim of the guillotine and, of course, a conquistador. This dancing chorus of the dead provides a lot of fun throughout, with high kicking and acrobatic comic dancing.

Sills plays Gomez with a boundless energy, while Gettelfinger is slinky cool as Morticia. Uncle Fester and Grandma are comic standouts, with a late turn by Lurch. Singing is uniformly good but young Patrick D. Kennedy as Pugsley wowed the audience with his solo “What If.”

Uncle Fester is particularly good, a kind of twisted romantic trying to help the young lovers while dropping tons of one-liners in a vaguely Bronx accent. His production number “The Moon and Me,” in Act Two is pretty much a showstopper, as he serenades the moon in hilarious and cleverly-staged fashion. Grandma is feisty, funny, crazy and a bit stuck in the '60s, but offers straight-shooting advice to a confused Wednesday.

Cortney Wolfson's Wednesday and Brian Justin Crum's Lucas are completely believable as contemporary young lovers. Their spooky duet involving a crossbow, “Crazier Than You,” shines.

“Addams Family” is just plain fun, and just the thing to put one in the Halloween season spirit.

© The Current.  Reprinted with permission.

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'All That Tap XX' dances delightfully across Touhill stage

by Cate Marquis

Tap is an American original, a dance style combining footwork and percussion, largely created by black Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

“All That Tap” is an annual celebration of tap showcasing some of tap's greatest performers and the tradition's range of styles. The twentieth anniversary performance wowed an enthusiastic crowd at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on Saturday, July 30.

Cloris Leachman served as mistress of ceremonies, providing introductions for the performers and a big dose of comedy. It was a good choice, since comedy and tap dance have been linked since the days of vaudeville.

The program including several comic acts and a range of tap and tap-related dance styles, from jazz tap, soft shoe, swing, precision tap to hip hop.

Among the legendary performers were Arthur Duncan, an icon of '50s crooner style song and soft shoe tap, and Harold “Stumpy” Cromer, part of one of the biggest dance teams of the '30s, Stump and Stumpy. Other stars were Bill Irwin, a master of silent physical comedy, dancer/choreographer Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, who choreographed for Michael Jackson, and several Broadway performers.

As MC, Leachman was fabulous. While all the performers were wonderful, there were a few glitches transitioning between acts. Leachman's comic instincts kept everything rolling by improvising and a fearless, brash, even bawdy comic style. Leachman completely charmed the audience and producers would be wise to bring her back to the Touhill stage.

The Carolbeth Trio provided music for show, opening with a musical piece accompanied by Leachman's son and manager, George Englund, on saxophone.

The dancing got off to a rollicking start with Radio City Rockette Denise Caston, followed by the Israeli dance comedy/dance team of Avi Miller and Ofer Ben, decked out in fezzes and Hollywood-style Middle Eastern outfits. Miller and Ben offered humor and a mix of tap and Middle East dance. At one point, they were joined by Sarah Reich,who performed solo later in the show, who danced dressed in a harem girl outfit.

The evening's showstopper was at the close of the first half. Elderly Harold “Stumpy” Cromer slowly made his way on stage pushing a chair but then Cromer sat down front-stage and performed a remarkable tap dance while seated. All the while, he kept up a running patter about the early days and of all the greats, Duke Ellington, Sophie Tucker, Bill “Bo Jangles” Robinson, he had worked with on Broadway and in vaudeville. The audience was enthralled by the old showman and the audience response seemed to give him energy, so by the act's end he was standing, singing and dancing. It was one heck of a performance, rewarded with a standing ovation.

Other highlights of the first half were Bill Irwin's delightful physical comedy and team of Evita Arce and Nathan Bugh, dancing Lindy Hop and swing.

Second half highlights included Omar Edwards, dancing in a sexy Savion Glover style, Sumbry-Edwards' energetic modern dance and duo Stick-N-Move, performing comic hip-hop, a dance style with similar roots to tap.

The last act was legend Arthur Duncan, who charmed the audience with his smooth crooning, soft shoe tap dancing and tales of the old days, in his case, the Frank Sinatra era of the '50s and early TV.

Program organizer Robert L. Reed, was scheduled to perform but was prevent by an injury. Reed did tap in the show's finale, when all the evening's performers came out for what Reed called the dancer's anthem, the Shim Sham Shimmy.

Sadly, Reed announced this was the final “All That Tap.” Hopefully, popular demand brings back this wonderful event.

© The Current. (reprinted with permission).

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Circus Flora charms audiences again with 25th anniversary performance, 'Vagabond Adventures'

Aerialist Una Mimnagh in Circus Flora's 2011 production 'Vagabond Adventures.'               Photo by Dan Donovan.

by Cate Marquis

Grade: A

Circus Flora wows and charms audiences once again with “Vagabond Adventures,” a circus show built around a story of a Mississippi River showboat.

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of St. Louis' own one-ring Circus Flora. Every year, it has been delighting audiences with its intimate presentation of the best of traditional circus arts, one of only a handful of such top-notch organizations, along with Big Apple Circus, devoted to the preservation and presentation of tradition circus.

Circus Flora truly is entertainment to delight both children and adults. Every seat is close to the ring, which increases the suspense and emotion of the performance, heightened by live music. Air-conditioning the tent keeps everyone comfortable.

As always, the performance is framed by a story, this year, inspired by the real story of a 16-year-old boy who stowed away aboard the Floating Palace, an elegant paddle-wheeler showboat that plied the Mississippi River before the Civil War. Past shows have revolved around the beloved Nino the Clown or multi-talented star performers like Sasha Pavlata but this year, the narrative's star is young Keaton Hentoff-Killian, as the stowaway in a tale with a little intrigue around the showboat's star, Lotte (aerialist Una Mimnagh). Some stories have been romantic or mysterious, this one is a little more pure comedy.

The show, which features both longtime favorites and newer acts, begins with a parade around the ring. Circuses had traditionally been family affairs, both in the ring and out, so Master of Ceremonies Yo Yo (Cecil McKinnon) has a bit of fun with this, explaining the various family relationships between the performers while introducing them.

The Flying Wallendas form a central link in those family ties. The Wallenda high-wire act capped the first half of the show and was as thrilling as ever, especially the three-level bicycle trick. Young Aurelia Wallenda launched a new aerialist act, showing skill and promise.

The always-popular Nino (Giovanni Zoppe) clowns around several times during the show, beginning with a bit that featured plenty of slapstick trickery, feats of skill and his toddler son Julien in a little Nino costume.

Circus Flora has always had dog and horse acts and this year's were among the best. The Riding Donnerts flew on and off their mounts as the horses flew around the ring in an entertaining show of skill and thrills. The Donnerts did two acts, one of which features horseback juggling and flips.

Comedy was the attraction with the Olate Dogs. Richard Olate's troupe of dogs of various sizes and breeds amazed and amused us.

A newer addition, blonde hottie Una Mimnaugh, performed amazing feats of strength and flexibility on rings suspended above the sawdust.

An act whose long-ago promise is now being spectacularly fulfilled are the St. Louis Arches, who have graduated from a cute kids' act to almost the stars of the show, performing amazing feats of acrobatics. The mix of teens and youngsters form eye-popping pyramids, leaps and flying somersaults and topped off with endless backflips. Two Arches, Sidney “Iking” Bateman and Terrence “T-Roc” Robinson, also performed as the duo Bateman and Robinson.

The second half's showstopper was the Flying Pages, whose trapeze feats left us gasping, topped with the mid-air triple somersault.

There is no better way to spend a summer evening than under Circus Flora's air-conditioned big top tent.

© Cate Marquis 2011

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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, 2011, 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, 2011 at the Fox Theater.

© Cate Marquis 2011

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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, 2011.

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 2011 Reprinted with permission

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