Annoyed by local radio stations that switch to 24 hours of holiday music on November 5, as well as stores that set up holiday displays before Halloween, I wasn't all that keen on seeing a Christmas musical in early November. However, Irving Berlin's White Christmas is my kind of holiday production: It's light on its emphasis on Christmas cheer, and plays out as a musical that just happens to take place ahead of the holidays.
Thank goodness for second acts, because Saturday's production of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother, with its first act that almost put my own mother-who-doesn't-look-like-a-grandmother to sleep, had us laughing fairly heartily during its second half. Director Ann Nieman's staging of this modern-granny revue is fun and comfortably paced, and her choreography is oftentimes peppy and clever, especially in the yoga-class number and the jazzy, early-20th-Century-styled footwork of the musical's high-energy "Grandmas to Go," which features the play's three leads - Karen Pappas, Deborah Kennedy, and Andrea Moore - singing gorgeous, tight, impressive Andrews Sisters-type harmonies.
Friday's performance of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse left me wanting more - specifically, more of Kiarri Andrews' and Nina Waters' Apollo singers and Collin O'Connor's Ritchie Valens. Andrews and Waters brought some much-needed energy to the first act, adding attention-worthy moxie and a whole lot of fun to their one scene. (Waters' character also sparkles, literally, with the help of costume designer Gregory Hiatt's gorgeous pink column gown with watteau train.) Meanwhile, O'Connor, with his suave demeanor and smooth pelvic gyrations, whet my appetite for a Ritchie Valens musical, if for no other reason than to see the actor enjoy more stage moments as the singer.
Driving home from the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on Friday night, after seeing the opening performance of the musical Joseph & the Technicolor Dreamcoat, I asked my husband, "Can you honestly think of anyone who wouldn't like this show?" We couldn't. And I still can't. With its appealing confluence of technical effects, engaging storytelling, musical styles, memorable characters, and lessons in forgiveness, humility, and hope, even those grudging types who would rather be dressed in bologna and tossed into a shark tank than see a musical can find something in Joseph to laugh at, mull over, be inspired by, or appreciate on a sensory level.
Friday's sensational opening-night presentation of Ring of Fire, the Johnny Cash tribute currently playing at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, was the beneficiary of an awful lot of goodwill before the production even started, and very little of it actually had to do with Johnny Cash.
Even considering the show's cast and director, if you had told me a week ago that the musical comedy Are We There Yet? would wind up being my favorite Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse presentation over the past two years, I wouldn't have believed you.
By their very nature, biographical jukebox musicals such as Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story - currently being performed at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse - have to be a little glib. Given roughly two hours of stage time, how can book writers adequately detail a performer's personal and professional arcs without drastically simplifying the experience?
Among those I spoke with during the show's subsequent opening-night party, the prevailing opinion seemed to be that the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's new production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas was superior to the 2006 production, and I guess that maybe, in several respects, it was.
On August 17, the 
For West Side Story to really work, the actors portraying Tony and Maria have to be marvelous, and in Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's new presentation of this beloved musical updating of Romeo & Juliet, Mishi Schueller and Kimberly Willes are even better in these roles than you'd hope they'd be. The duo is so touching, so emotionally expansive, that director/choreographer Ann Nieman's production is an absolute dream whenever they're on stage, so allow me to begin by discussing Schueller's and Willes' contributions, which should underscore how great this West Side Story is, and perhaps help explain why it should've been greater still.Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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