items tagged with John Donald O Shea

The Curious Savage is the best production I’ve seen at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre so far this season. With its sharply funny script, interesting and endearing characters, and director Don Hazen's gentle touch rendering the piece heartfelt and sincere, I was captivated from beginning to end during Thursday’s performance, curious as to how the story would unfold, and caring what would happen to the show's cast of sanatorium residents.

Quad City Music Guild’s Meet Me in St. Louis seems to me a beautifully gift-wrapped empty box. Designer Kevin Pieper’s sets are grand and detailed with touches, such as light fixtures and curtains, that are appropriate for the piece's 1904 setting. Sara Laufer’s choreography fits the feel of the songs, exuding high-energy fun without being overdone. Costume designer Cindy Monroe’s period creations are gorgeous – particularly the women’s feathered, wide-brimmed hats. And the actors are, for the most part, in fine voice, and offer cheerily spirited characterizations. I enjoyed the sights and sounds during Thursday’s performance. The story, however, barely interested me.

By the time the titular character entered the play, I’d resigned myself to having to endure two more hours of few-and-far-between laughs during Friday’s performance of The Nerd, while also fighting off a sleepiness fostered by the unusually high temperature in the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. However, appearing in only his third stage role, Jordan L. Smith woke me up and held my attention with his annoyingly nasally delivery of playwright Larry Shue’s monologues. The best reason to see The Nerd, it turns out, is the nerd himself.

As suggested by the title, the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre’s current offering, Sex Please, We’re 60, involves men and women of a certain age and their libidos, but thankfully it maintains a modicum of decency by placing the “action” off stage. The piece also features many clichéd jokes and absurd situations, but while I cringed at the images conjured by the title, it’s when the work is at its (relatively) raunchiest that the play and the cast work best.

Countryside Community Theatre's current, charming presentation of Annie Get Your Gun is directed by married couple Christina and William Myatt, and stars married couple Sheri and Wayne Hess as Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. (You'll also find the wedded Cheryl and John Wagner among the show's 38 cast members, plus several parent/child and sibling/sibling combinations.) Yet the production's most endearing, unexpectedly inspired couple turns out to be two performers who don't share 40 years between them, and whose characters you're probably unfamiliar with if your only exposure to this Irving Berlin classic comes via Ethel Merman's glorious blare.