Let’s get this out of the way: In case you're attending to specifically hear “Music of the Night” or other well-known tunes, the current production of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Phantom is not Andrew Lloyd Webber's more famous version of the same story. Comparing Phantom to Webber's The Phantom of the Opera is like comparing a croissant to an éclair. Both are French, textured, and rich with flavor, but also two totally different experiences.
One of the biggest stars of Quad City Music Guild's take on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats never appears on stage, though her mark is rarely invisible the entire time, as designer Sara Wegener is responsible for the costumes, makeup, and wigs worn by the musical's cast of felines. Obviously drawing inspiration from the original West End and Broadway productions, it's a bit of a shame that the intricacy in her makeup, in particular, isn't fully discernible from the audience, because the detail in her work is exceptional. Adding her spiked-fur wigs with plush fabric ears, and her bodysuits and loose shirts and pants colored to look like various cat coats, Wegener's contributions are award-worthy.
Director Jeff Ashcraft's vision for Countryside Community Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar is clear from the very beginning. As the orchestra, under music director Keith Haan's capable leadership, plays the overture to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's and lyricist Tim Rice's gospel story, images of recent religious, political, and social figures and world events are projected on a large screen. It's as if Ashcraft is saying that these are the reasons we need a savior (e.g., terrorism), and that these are the vessels through which Christ's message reaches the world (e.g., Mother Teresa). Ashcraft not only modernizes the story's setting - aided by designer Emilee Droegmiller's present-day costumes and the use of cell phones, tablets, and video cameras throughout - but immediately makes the case for a modern need for Jesus Christ.
Fewer than 90 minutes after it began, the Timber Lake Playhouse's season-opening production of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ended, appropriately, with a blast of exuberant, life-affirming color. Yet at the curtain call for this fantastically well-sung presentation of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's and lyricist Tim Rice's beloved biblical musical, it became clear that the stars of the show weren't the gifted performers portraying Joseph, the Narrator, or any of director James Beaudry's 19 other cast members. The real stars, it turned out, were the streamers.
Director Tommy Iafrate beautifully bookends the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Evita with scenes in which the actors acknowledge, or the staging makes clear, that the cast is performing specifically for an audience.
Judas is angry. Jesus is angry. Everyone's really angry in the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar.
Odd as it may seem now, there actually was a period in the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's history - a run of 12 shows, to be precise - in which the company didn't produce any musicals whatsoever. Yet after staging a dozen plays between June 2008 and May 2009, co-founders Tristan Tapscott and Chris Walljasper chose to open the theatre's second season with a production of Jonathan Larson's rock musical tick ... tick ... BOOM!
After an extended silent-movie montage - one featuring clips from F.W. Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu - and the appearance of the show's title, the Timber Lake Playhouse's Sunset Boulevard opens with screenwriter Joe Gillis (Brandon Ford) at the bottom of a swimming pool. Granted, the water, like that montage, is a multimedia projection, and Gillis is standing (and singing) rather than floating face-down. But the Act I prelude is still enough like the opening to Billy Wilder's beloved Hollywood noir that fans of the Sunset Boulevard movie will likely smile in recognition and appreciation, and we're returned to this scene of a future crime at the start of the musical's second act.
If you can't pull off grandeur in a show that's pretty much known for grandeur, you're much better off shooting for ingenuity and invention. So, for those curious how the modestly scaled Clinton Area Showboat Theatre was going to house the extravagantly scaled Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the happy answer is: with considerable wit and smarts, thank you.Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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