Jonathan Grafft and Nathan Johnson, and (clockwise from lower left) Mallory Park, Josh Wielenga, Sarah Ade Wallace, Andy Davis, Stan Weimer, and Jackie Skiles in Leading LadiesThursday's audience certainly enjoyed the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's Leading Ladies, judging by their loud snorts and uninhibited guffaws. Ken Ludwig provides plenty of fodder for laughter, as do director Tom Vaccaro and his cast, who hit the comedy's high notes pitch-perfectly. As for me, I didn't just giggle but laughed heartily right along with the rest of the crowd at least a dozen times.

Tom Naab, Jackie Skiles, and Stephanie Naab in The Last RomanceThe Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's The Last Romance is, for the most part, a refreshingly lighthearted romantic comedy. Watching Friday's performance, I was delighted not only with much of playwright Joe DiPietro's script, but also with the tempo of director Tom Morrow's production. The characters' conversations are quickly paced, though not unnaturally so, and maintain the piece's joyful energy, but Morrow also gives his cast moments to breathe when appropriate, allowing the play's emotions and humor to sink in before the fast-talking exchanges continue.

Jackie Patterson, Jackie Skiles, and Sarah Ade in The Curse of an Aching Heart: Or, Trapped in the Spider's WebSo far as melodramas go, The Curse of an Aching Heart: Or, Trapped in the Spider's Web is, for me, one of the more tolerable and entertaining works in its genre. Not being a fan of this brand of comedy, I still laughed quite a bit during Thursday's performance at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, as playwright Herbert Swayne's clever wit and director Tom Morrow's pleasingly on-the-verge-of-over-dramatic tone made for an amusing night of comedy.

Jim Driscoll and Dana Moss-Peterson in Death of a SalesmanThe Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's Death of a Salesman marks one of James Driscoll's most powerful, effective, fully realized performances to date, which is saying a lot given the actor's résumé, which includes roles such as Long John Silver in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Treasure Island and his multiple characters in last year's Anton in Show Business for New Ground Theatre. During Friday's presentation, I was awed by Driscoll's ability to shift from sanity to a mental confusion bordering on insanity as his Willy Loman transitioned from his vision of his past to a moment in the present. Driscoll accomplishes this both through physical gestures, such as rubbing his head as if sweating, and vocal inflection, as his voice becomes more frantic and emotional during his state of confusion.

Elizabeth Buzard, David Bailey, Jackie Skiles, and Bailey O'Neil in Any Famous Last Words?You know a comedy is in trouble when its most engaging scene features an elderly woman's description of her escape from a German concentration camp. You know a comedy is in serious trouble when it uses that description merely to goose its tinny excuse for a plot.

Stan Weimer and Diane Greenwood in California Suite For my money, California Suite is the ideal Neil Simon play, as it's actually composed of four independent one-act plays, giving you far less chance to grow exhausted by his characters' persistent wisecracking.

Dave Rash, Jim Driscoll, & Molly McLaughlin in Actors frequently speak of performers who "raise the bar," whose personal performance standards are so high that they challenge - and inspire - their co-stars to match them. In Death Takes a Holiday, the comedy/drama/supernatural romance currently playing at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, James Driscoll raises the bar so high it's practically celestial.

Joe DiPietro's Over the River & Through the Woods is a charming stage sitcom, and based on a final dress rehearsal held January 10, the production of it that opened the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's 2006 season is perfectly charming, too. The large, invited audience of (mostly) seniors who attended the rehearsal seemed to have a terrific time; the show's punchlines, more often than not, got their laughs, and there was no denying the sweetness of spirit that emanated from the show - if smiles were audible, it would have been deafening in the Barn Theatre.
There are two styles of drama going on in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, or at least there are in the Richmond Hill Players' current production of it: domestic and melo-. A prequel of sorts to the author's more widely known The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest features, as its central figure, patriarch Marcus Hubbard (Stan Weimer), the richest man in Bowden, Alabama, circa 1880. A cruel, conniving, even murderous despot, Marcus is universally reviled, especially by his children - Benjamin (James V. Driscoll), Oscar (Steve Mroz), and Regina (Keri Cousins) - all of whom, for reasons of their own, want their hands on the family fortune.
Kindertransport is a script full of potential. Unfortunately, on the Playcrafters stage on May 8, the meaning of the play got lost somewhere in the muddle of forgotten lines and lifeless delivery. Directed by Charles Rubovits, Kindertransport (continuing through May 23) is definitely a change for Playcrafters Barn Theatre, which usually sticks to scripts in the adult comedy or mystery genres. I'm glad to see the group stepping out of its usual lighthearted mode into drama, but a lot of elements need improvement before plays such as Kindertransport will be taken seriously.