09
May
2016
Miss Manners dictates that in social settings one should not bring up religion. But can I just say that when I was a shy child of six, seeing a Catholic nun in full habit scared the bejeezus out of me? Nuns were mysterious. You never saw them eat or drink or sweat. Never did I see a nun dance. And they were always worried about the soul. But the nuns in the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse’s musical comedy Sister Act know soul – as in soul music, sung with such energy that it had me clapping and swaying in my seat. And could those nuns dance! This joyful musical based on the 1992 film was a crowd-pleaser on opening night, and I predict the same for future performances.
Given its "sorority" sort of feel, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's The Dixie Swim Club - which concerns the annual, beach-cabin gatherings of five former members of a college swim team - will likely appeal to the women in the audience. However, not being a woman myself, I can also say that I quite enjoyed Friday's performance of the show for the chemistry between the actors, the stunning set, and the humor that playwrights Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten put into their comedy.
The story's kind of lame and the songs are kind of blah. But all told, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's family musical Frosty's Magic Hat is a winning, rambunctious treat, the sort of unapologetically silly good time that can cause adults to laugh with even greater vigor and frequency than their pre-teen chaperones.
No show that opens with 10 sharply dressed, great-looking, terrifically talented performers dancing a spirited tap number can be all that bad, which is a good thing for Holly Jolly Christmas, the musical revue currently playing at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse. Considering, however, that the production has no loftier purposes beyond entertaining crowds with familiar holiday tunes and spreading a little yuletide cheer, I think audiences could be easily forgiven for turning to their theatre-going companions after the curtain call and saying, "Well, that was nice... but what the hell was it?"
