Enacted by the delightful, gifted quartet of Michelle Blocker-Rosebrough, Melissa Anderson Clark, Sheri Olsen, and Erin Platt, The Marvelous Wonderettes is Countryside Community Theatre’s intentionally minimalist summertime offering after numerous seasons of grandly scaled, extravagantly cast Broadway hits. As it’s better to go small than go bust, I admire the organization’s decision to downsize. Yet if you know nothing about this undemanding musical, I urge you, in the interest of your time, to avoid the synopsis on its Wikipedia page, which details in 1,576 words what can be effectively distilled to 15: "Four young women sing ’50s songs at their prom, then ’60s songs at their reunion."
Adam Nardini deserves credit for making Countryside Community Theatre's Big Fish so endearing. Playing the father at the center of composer Andrew Lippa's and playwright John August's story - one based on the novel and Tim Burton film of the same name, the latter of which found Albert Finney playing Nardini's Edward Bloom - the performer is in excellent voice and remarkably engaging as this teller of tall tales. While he doesn't adjust his performance to accommodate age differences while traveling from high school to early fatherhood to late-life, Nardini is still one of the best things that Countryside's piece has going for it.
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.
My enjoyment of Die Fledermaus, presented by Opera @ Augustana and Genesius Guild, started with the first notes heard by the orchestra playing Johann Strauss' operetta. The beauty of this ensemble's seemingly flawless performance caused my spirit to swell with delight, and added to the experience of sitting in Lincoln Park's outdoor theatre, watching the stars appear and listening to the sounds of nature. Due to the mixture of the open-air atmosphere and the richness of Strauss' splendidly well-performed composition, I was overwhelmed during Saturday's performance with a sense of art and culture - and all this before a single note was sung.
Les Misérables is an epic musical, and Countryside Community Theatre should be commended for its noble effort in staging the multi-layered, much-loved piece by composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer. Director David Turley and his cast treat the material with the respect it deserves. Friday night's performance, however, was still riddled with problems, many of them of a technical nature.
"You know, it's been interesting," says Christina Myatt, president of the board of directors for the Eldridge-based Countryside Community Theatre (CCT). "Because we wanted to do something big for our 30th anniversary, and this is definitely something big. But when people hear what we're actually doing, they either say, 'That's really great!' or they say, 'You people are insane.'"
Three days after seeing A Nice Family Gathering at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, I was still trying to understand the inclusion of the word "nice" in playwright Phil Olson's title. This isn't a feel-good, fuzzy-holiday-feelings sort of Thanksgiving play that would render the title appropriate, if clichéd. Nor is it an over-the-top, crass, outrageous comedy that makes the use of the word ironic. (Nor, for the record, is it a play about a family with the last name Nice.) I'm guessing, however, that an over-the-top, crass, outrageous comedy was Olson's intent, given that the content of his play kind of approaches shocking, though barely.
Leaving Friday's Countryside Community Theatre performance of Singin' in the Rain, I overheard one woman say to another, "Well, that was a different take on it." Actually, I would love to see a different take on this classic musical written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown. But director/choreographer Christina Myatt's production is, instead, an homage to the original film with only-slightly-adjusted re-creations of Gene Kelly's original choreography, yet one boasting just enough beautiful, original touches to avoid direct mimicry of the movie.
Countryside Community Theatre has plenty to be proud of with its current production of The King & I - the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical about a British schoolteacher who moves to Siam in 1862 to teach the king's many children - as Friday's performance hit all the right notes anyone might expect from this classic. There's enough familiarity in director David Turley's outing to remind audiences of the film or similarly staged productions, but also more-than-enough fresh takes on the characters to make this production Countryside's own. And underlying all this is a true cheeriness that extends from the cast to the audience. Despite the show's moments of anger and sadness, I was brimming with joy and full of smiles when I left the theatre.
