There are so many delightful distractions in Quad City Music Guild's Cinderella that, during Thursday night's preview performance, I kept getting lost in the scenery. And then the costumes. And then the vocals. And then the scenery... .
What strikes me most about the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's production of Don't Talk to the Actors is the tone created by director Susan Simosky. While playwright Tom Dudzick's script calls for a couple of roles to perhaps be played bigger than they are, Simosky maintains a simple feel that's more natural than feigned. Watching Thursday's performance, it seemed as if I was looking in on real-life scenes rather than designed ones. There's a gentle, unforced flow to the effort that seems effortless.
After an extended silent-movie montage - one featuring clips from F.W. Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu - and the appearance of the show's title, the Timber Lake Playhouse's Sunset Boulevard opens with screenwriter Joe Gillis (Brandon Ford) at the bottom of a swimming pool. Granted, the water, like that montage, is a multimedia projection, and Gillis is standing (and singing) rather than floating face-down. But the Act I prelude is still enough like the opening to Billy Wilder's beloved Hollywood noir that fans of the Sunset Boulevard movie will likely smile in recognition and appreciation, and we're returned to this scene of a future crime at the start of the musical's second act.
The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre kicks off its summer season with two similarly themed shows running in repertory, and I caught a double-feature of Nunsense and Altar Boyz on Saturday - a marathon day of Catholic humor. The pairing is a good choice, with each offering a self-aware musical featuring jokes related to Catholicism. And while the scripts push the boundaries of Christian decency, neither crosses over into completely irreverent territory, each maintaining a respect for religious roots and having fun with the shows' core faith, rather than at its expense.
Allow me, if you will, to get the unpleasantries out of the way right away, so that I can expound upon the virtues of New Ground Theatre's debuting drama Under the Radar. The play, inspired by the local gay scene in the late 1970s, isn't eloquent in its verbiage or impressively acted; the dialogue is amateurishly written; and for the most part, the individual performances are adequate, at best.
New Era Dinner Theatre's Once Upon a Mattress is flat-out delightful. It's not the perfect production, but it's so amusing and well-sung that I left Saturday night's show with a giddy feeling that's sticking with me even as I write this review a day later.
The Playcrafters Barn Theatre's production of Rehearsal for Murder suffers from poor pacing, but excels in its sincere sentiment and charm. The actors, for the most part, tend to take too many beats between lines, which leads to sometimes-clunky dialogue progression. Still, Friday night's performance was appealing for its overall emotional effect, and likable for the cast's ability to move the audience to sympathetic sorrow for the main character's heartache.
Playwright Thornton Wilder's Our Town is one of the few preachy plays that I don't mind for its sermonizing. With his blatant, nearly Buddhist statements and themes about living, really living, each and every moment of life, Wilder is unapologetic about the points he wants to drive home. And perhaps because his ideas are so universally acceptable, it's easy to accept Wilder's moralizing. It also helps that the delivery of his messages is so emotionally poignant, as was effectively displayed during Friday night's Our Town performance at Augustana College.
Not being a child myself, I can only imagine the delight that kids feel at seeing a much-loved book played out, on stage, before their eyes - which is what's currently happening in the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's production of Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. While I've personally never read author Judith Viorst's work, I do know it's a popular story among younger readers, and those in the audience during Saturday morning's performance certainly seemed to like what they were seeing. (They were also at least familiar enough with the source material to be able to shout out the show's title without a hitch... though I'd bet many could recite much more than that part of the book by heart.)
When the cast for the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was revealed several weeks ago, I'll admit I was concerned. While I'd previously admired the work of most of the actors, I wasn't sure they were up to the tasks of the roles they'd been awarded - chiefly Tom Walljasper, cast as the titular barber. While Walljasper excels at comedic roles, I worried that, with his smirking, tongue-in-cheek style of delivery, he wouldn't be able to carry the dramatic weight of Stephen Sondheim's killer character. But after seeing Thursday's opening-night performance, I'm pleased to admit that I was wrong. Very wrong; Walljasper's ability to handle the role was apparent with the first lyric he sang, which carried with it a dark, sinister, intense appeal.
Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
On Stands Now
Tagged Content
Two Ways to Subscribe
1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?)
2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48
Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!
Click this link to Subscribe now.
Theatre Calendars
Submit your event listings to calendar@rcreader.com