The language of playwright Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is loaded with layers of emotion underneath its dialogue. During New Ground Theatre's opening performance on Friday, a few actors neglected the dark undertones, reciting their lines as if Letts' words held nothing below the surface. Most, however, got to the heart of the script, impressively revealing the richness of the work through performances that ranged from subtle to over-the-top. While not perfect, the show deserved the standing ovation it got from the audience.
Author Neil LaBute is known, and respected, for pushing the envelope with his plays. The Richmond Hill Barn Theatre generally produces plays that are comparatively safe in theme and style. So it's a somewhat surprising thing to see LaBute's The Shape of Things on the barn-theatre stage - and, I think, a very good thing, too. Because while some of the play's elements are offensive, its central themes of art, relationships, and what we're willing to do for love are well worth examining. And happily, they're examined here in a production that is also thoughtfully staged and performed.
I had a great time at Thursday night's performance of The Rocky Horror Show at the Harrison Hilltop Theatre. I laughed, quite hard at times, and sang along (in my head, so as not to annoy those around me), and almost jumped to my feet to do "The Time Warp." The group of 50- and 60-year-old men and women in the crowd did dance along, as well as throw rice, toilet paper, and other items at the appropriate times, all of which upped the fun ante. Still, Harrison Hilltop's show could use a bit more of something to take it over the top and make it more memorable. Actually, it's more accurate to say it needs to lose something: inhibition.
Susan Perrin-Sallak is currently one of the bravest actors in the Quad Cities. Starring in New Ground Theatre's Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, she's required to sing badly, and Perrin-Sallak delivers a daring vocal performance that's intentionally off-pitch and off-key, with poor placement, intonation, and timbre. It leaves her vulnerable to audience perception that the performer really can't sing. However, since her caterwauling is required by the role, and presented with such abandon, Perrin-Sallak's vocally painful singing is actually awfully good.
There's a charming naïveté at the core of the Internet Players' debut production of The Tragedy of Sarah Klein, as the playwright's perspective seems to be one often observed in college students and recent graduates - a belief that "I am one of the very few who sees certain injustices in the world, and I, alone, can wake the world up to them." Wake-up calls of this sort are often attempted with protests, targeted vandalism, or, in the case of Sarah Klein, the stroke of a pen, yet while the Internet Players' Thursday-night performance was poetic in word and impressive in scope - particularly in playwright/director Nathan Porteshawver's staging - it was also pretentious and, at times, dull.
I have little doubt that many patrons of the Playcrafters Barn Theatre will enjoy its current production of Hard to Believe, as there's consistently an audience appetite for shows on themes of faith and God. The opening-night premiere of this locally written musical, however, reminded me too much of church performances of which I've seen or been a part. I'm not sure Hard to Believe will find a place in community theatres alongside other musicals, but it could very well find its place within many a church's walls.
I can't imagine anyone who likes the music of Patsy Cline not liking the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's current offering, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. Personally, I don't much care for the mid-20th-Century country style of Cline's songs. However, I very much appreciated Friday night's performance for its staging and its remarkable singing, and therefore, enjoyed music I'd otherwise ignore were I to hear it on the radio.
There's one thing that appears missing from Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Sunday in the Park with George: adequate rehearsal time. Actually, there are a number of things partially absent in this offering - polished performances, accurate notes, emotion - but they all stem from what seems to have been not enough time to adequately prepare the piece. To quote lyrics from the show, "art isn't easy," but it's certainly easier than prepping a Stephen Sondheim production in two weeks.
It is with great apprehension that I write this review of the Curtainbox Theatre Company's production of 
The Harrison Hilltop Theatre's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is both outrageously hilarious and poignantly touching. I laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time during Thursday's opening-night performance, and I wasn't alone in offering up hearty guffaws, with the capacity crowd cackling with delight throughout the evening's entertainment.Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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