Ashley Hoskins, Lisa Kahn, and Sarah Ade Wallace in The Red Velvet Cake WarTwo of the things I miss most about reviewing theatre with greater frequency are raving about area artists whose talents I'm quite familiar with, and raving about area artists whose talents are brand-spanking-new to me. Happily, regarding the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's The Red Velvet Cake War, I get to do both. And that's especially gratifying because one of the things I absolutely do not miss is explaining why certain well-meaning, lighthearted endeavors designed solely to entertain simply don't work for me, and it looks like I have to do that, too.

Don Hazen, Robert Grueskin, and Jackie Patterson in The Robin Hood CaperThe opening scene in the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's The Robin Hood Caper is one you've likely sat through, in different iterations, in numerous stage comedies over the years. It introduces us to the young, flummoxed journalist Richard Collins, who, as his conversation reveals, is dealing with all manner of personal crises: shaky finances; an underhanded mayor with plans to shutter Richard's newspaper; a fiancée demanding a wedding date. Richard's Aunt Flora, meanwhile, takes this all in with a sympathetic ear and an occasional, dotty reminiscence of her own, and routinely shifts her focus back to her needlepoint.

"When I was a child in Australia," says 75-year-old Ron Campbell, "the way you saw cartoons was you went to the movies on Saturday afternoons, which was the way the movie industry catered to the children's audience. We went to see Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, but before all that bang-bang cowboy stuff, there were cartoons. And I remember thinking, when I was like seven years old, that Tom and Jerry were real, and were somehow behind the screen running around.

Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling in The OvernightTHE OVERNIGHT

Even with a goatee, Adam Scott has such a sweet baby face, and can exude such endearing boyishness, that when you see him in an early playground scene in his latest film, you're half-surprised that a more towering adult isn't pushing him on a swing. Yet longtime fans know that Scott also possesses a canny understanding of how to employ his naturally guileless countenance for tension (as in the 2002 thriller High Crimes) or melancholy (HBO's sadly ignored Tell Me You Love Me) or acerbic wit (Party Down, Parks & Recreation, and numerous et ceteras). And that chameleon-ic talent makes him perhaps perfectly cast in the new comedy The Overnight, writer/director Patrick Brice's three-quarters-successful chronicling of an alternately invigorating and deeply uncomfortable grown-up sleepover.

N.E.D.Event

girlpARTs Fest

Schwiebert Riverfront Park

Saturday, July 11, 4-10 p.m.

 

Designed to raise awareness and funds for gynecologic- and ovarian-cancer education programs, the Norma Leah Ovarian Cancer Foundation's inaugural girlpARTs Fest takes place on July 11 at Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park, and the event's headliners are the alternative folk rockers of N.E.D. You could probably make a strong argument for the musicians composing our country's smartest touring ensemble. Or, in the spirit of the festival, the smARTest.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator GenisysTERMINATOR GENISYS

Following some requisite, necessary backstory, Terminator Genisys opens in 2029 Los Angeles, where resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) transports fellow revolutionary Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) to 1984, where he's to hopefully prevent global apocalypse and protect John's mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) from a murderous robot (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Upon arriving, however, Kyle finds that Sarah doesn't need saving and the robot isn't murderous, so off they go to 2017, where the planet is still imperiled, and John Connor himself proves to be the source of the planet's eventual ruin. After one of these whisks through the decades, Kyle says, "Time travel makes my head hurt," and time-travel movies generally make my head hurt, too. But for a fifth installment in an increasingly confounding series, this particular time-travel movie is actually a fair bit of fun.

Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane-ish in Ted 2TED 2

Every fan of Family Guy knows that when he wants to, Seth MacFarlane can be really offensive. (I am in no way a fan of Family Guy, and even I know that.) But the biggest problem with MacFarlane's Ted 2 - which is likely to at least occasionally infuriate anyone who isn't a white, straight alpha-bro - isn't that it's offensive; it's that it's too often sincere. This is a movie in which Morgan Freeman, as a benevolent civil-rights attorney, invokes the 16th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation when arguing for the rights of a talking teddy bear, with the scene's moved onlookers and swelling score matching him in earnestness and integrity. My audience, meanwhile, watched and listened to Freeman's impassioned oration in what felt like stunned silence. Can MacFarlane possibly be serious about this - that his foul-mouthed teddy's rights are equal to those of hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised human beings? And if he's not serious, why isn't this scene in any way funny?

The Stooges Brass BandMusic

"A Taste of New Orleans" featuring the Stooges Brass Band

RME Courtyard

Wednesday, July 8

 

On July 8, Davenport's River Music Experience presents a mid-week happening titled "A Taste of New Orleans," featuring an informative workshop on the city's rich musical history and the Woodfire Grill selling delicious Cajun appetizers and entrées. But the event's spiciest treat will likely be its RME Courtyard performance by the jazz, hip-hop, funk, and R&B artists of the Stooges Brass Band, and I gotta say, ga lee! I'm getting major freesons knowing they'll be bag daer! Weh!

Yeah, I'm pretty fluent in the Cajun dialect. You'd never guess I was actually of German and Danish descent, would you? [Editor's note: We guessed, Mike.]

Cody King, Antoinette Holman, Chris Galvan, Janos Horvath, Brad Hauskins, Deanna Collins, and Ben Klocke in How I Became a PirateHow long does it take for an area production to become legendary? In the case of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's How I Became a Pirate, I'd say about one week, because after the show's debut staging in 2013, that's how long it took four adult patrons, individually, to tell me it was maybe the best family musical they'd ever seen.

Inside OutINSIDE OUT

There appear to be two ideal ways to discuss, in review form, Pixar's hugely entertaining animated comedy Inside Out. One is through something short and sweet that suggests the experience of director Pete Docter's hilarious, incredibly sophisticated charmer without giving away all of its best jokes and most trenchant observations. The other is through a dissertation of some 20,000 words that digs deeply into the rather staggering psychological nuance of this thing, with lengthy footnotes exploring, say, The Role of Abstract Thought in the Prepubescent Female Psyche, or The Singular Comedic Melancholia of Phyllis from The Office. I'm opting for short(-ish) and sweet. And you're welcome.

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