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.
New Ground Theatre's 2015 Playwrights Festival: One-Acts was, for me, a mixture of "Ha ha ha!" and "What the hell?!" I either laughed heartily during the five debuting works or sat confused as to the points their playwrights tried to make.
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.'"
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.
At the start of the intermission to Friday night's District Theatre performance of Company, my partner turned to me and said, "I don't remember this show being that funny." He was right, because director David Turley accentuates the funny parts in this musical by composer Stephen Sondheim and writer George Furth. He does so, however, with subtle nudges and winks that almost cross over into silliness but don't, and that keep the production from sinking into sappy sentimentality.
I really like Chicago. Its tuneful score, uniquely vaudevillian presentation, and delightfully naughty nature make it one of my favorite stage musicals. There's one number in the show, however, that tops them all for me: "Cell Block Tango," which is sexy, fun, and what I consider the benchmark for the overall production. And on Friday night, my entertainment needs would've been met, and then some, had the District Theatre's production actually ended after this number, even thought it's only the fourth song in the piece.
