Author: Colin Douglas
An Absolute Adult Delight
Poor People! The Parody Musical
Do I have a treat for you, especially if you’re an adult, liberal-minded Musical Theatre aficionado! Hell in a Handbag Productions, David Cerda’s wildly creative theatre company, is currently continuing its 22nd season. The company’s comprised of an ensemble of multitalented artists who are always challenging audiences and pushing the envelope. Well, consider the envelope pushed to the max. Often the company lampoons their favorite vintage films, classic television shows and even popular cult genres. But this sassy, salty new production parodies many of Broadway’s most treasured, time-honored musicals. Seemingly motivated by television’s “Schmigadoon!” HIAH’s tuneful satire is, quite simply, an absolute adult delight, and theatergoers will never look at these prototypical Broadway musicals the same.
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A Comedy Within a Satire
The Thanksgiving Play
Four well-meaning people come together in the multipurpose room of an elementary school for a singular purpose: to create a politically correct play for children that tells the story of the First Thanksgiving. The earnest assembly acknowledges that trying to correct the mythology most Americans think of as the first harvest celebration won’t be easy. In the process, they also hope to focus the youngsters’ attention on Native American Heritage Month. The problem is that this quartet of eager theatre folks, who are just trying to do the right thing, are all White. No one has any real connection to the oppression that was experienced by Native Americans, both then and now.
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An Evening of Pure Joy
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
From the very first moments of this incredible production, theatergoers will find themselves falling in love with Carole King. Actually, one of the reasons can be attributed to talented Tiffany Topol’s honest, layered and loving performance. She makes the audience believe that she’s the actual American singer, songwriter and musician, standing before us on the Paramount stage. Within the next two-and-a half hours, the artist shares with the audience all of the highs and lows of Carole King’s life. Because of Ms. Topol’s brilliant performance, along with her 25 gifted cast mates, this production is an evening of pure joy from start to finish!
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Heaven Can Wait
Judgement Day
Meet Sammy Campo, a corrupt, self-serving, money-grubbing louse of a lawyer. While gloating about how his latest cutthroat scheme is going to make him even richer, Sammy suffers a sudden heart attack. While under the knife in the ER, Sammy has an out-of-body experience. An angel suddenly appears to him, who looks remarkably like Sister Margaret, his strict Catholic school teacher from many years ago. She severely admonishes Sammy for his decades of amoral behavior and provides a vivid preview of his eternity of unending torture in the fiery pits of hell. But it turns out that Heaven can wait.
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Finding Your Own Song
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Goodman Theatre’s latest production is a magnificent revival of August Wilson’s second, chronological installment of his extraordinary and ambitious American Century Cycle. This particular drama, set in 1911 Pittsburgh, is one of Wilson’s ten plays that chronicle the African-American experience, decade by decade. The Goodman was actually the first theatre in the country to present all ten of the Wilson Cycle plays, including the world premiere of two of the dramas. After the Goodman’s recent miraculous production of Mr. Wilson’s GEM OF THE OCEAN, set in 1904, we can only hope that soon audiences will be enjoying a remount of MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, the next play, chronologically-speaking, and set in the 1920’s at a Chicago recording studio.
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Hope and Healing
Jump
As the lights come up, through the whispy fog we discover a young woman walking on a bridge. She enjoys a draw from her vape pen. Then she throws it away into the dark waters below, only to have it magically reappear in her hand. This moment, like several other incidents in the play, happen over and over again. Very soon theatergoers realize that Charly Evon Simpson’s quirky one-act is set in a universe that’s rife in magical realism. The 90-minute drama, which is enjoying its Midwest Premiere, is a play about hope and healing and just plain being human. It’s told through a nonlinear storyline that’s filled with unexpected surprises and humor, as well as a deep river of sadness.
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What Could Be Better?
Baby
Three diverse couples, all living in a fictional university town and a different sector of that collegiate community, become united in this musical by, and about, pregnancy and childbirth. But as delightful as they are, the diversity of the six characters seems like a purposeful, cross-section of all the coupled, heterosexual members of society. In addition, there’s three very disparate conclusions to these couples’ individual pregnancies. As one couple sings, “What Could Be Better?”
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One Inch From Terrific
Brooklyn Laundry
At the top of this one-act, a perky, attractive young woman named Fran drops off a bag of soiled bedclothes at her local laundromat/dry cleaners. The lady who usually greets her has the day off, but Owen, the owner of a modest three-store laundromat empire, welcomes her instead. Fran paces around, her mind clearly occupied with much more than dry cleaning, and the cheerfully optimistic Owen picks up on this. The amiable laundromat manager is, true to his character, masking his own hurts and heartbreaks. However, Owen choses to look at the positives in life. He observes that Fran reminds him of the fiancee who left him a couple years ago, a woman he describes as being smart, pretty and “one inch from terrific.” Despite gently chiding her for being so gloomy, Owen flirts with Fran and asks her out to dinner.
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A Musical Fable of Broadway
Guys and Dolls
More I Cannot Wish You. No, really! This perfect, professional production is a beautiful Bushel and a Peck of playfulness. Sue Me, if I’m not speaking the truth! If I Were a Bell I’d ring out the great news! They say that everything old is new again and Drury Lane’s resplendent revival of this “Musical Fable of Broadway” is proof positive of this old proverb. So please, do not miss this phenomenal production or, much like the marvelous Miss Adelaide, you’ll be Lamenting it for 14 years.
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An American Musical Classic
The Music Man
Meredith Willson’s very first musical, and his magnum opus, is undeniably one of the best-loved classics of the American musical stage. As one of the most perfectly written of all musicals, it doesn’t simply feature a few main characters backed up by a chorus of nameless, dancing singers who only appear during the big musical numbers. Each and every character in this show is unique individual with his own personality and backstory. And that alone makes this show very special, both as an actor and as a theatergoer.
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