Author: Colin Douglas
Cruelties of Our Shameful Past
Relentless – TimeLine Theatre
The pandemic has changed our lives for the foreseeable future, and restrictions have loosened up a bit. We’re allowed to gather in groups once more but we have to show proof that we’re fully vaccinated and wear a mask that covers both our nose and mouth. These measures help protect both ourselves and others from possible exposure to Covid. But, thankfully, the opportunity to attend a live play or musical in person has returned. Why do we enjoy going to the theatre so much? The reasons are many, but it usually boils down to a desire to get together and share entertainment and/or be enlightened in some way.
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Wage War or Give In
Wellesley Girl – Compass Theatre
Brendan Pelsue’s futuristic one-act, which premiered at the 2016 Humana Festival, was originally scheduled for a Chicago production two years ago. Then along came Covid-19, which shut down everything in its wake. With the pandemic seemingly under some sort of control, the play was then scheduled to begin earlier this month, but, once again, the virus prevented that from happening. Now that Mr. Pelsue’s drama has finally opened, masked and vaccinated audiences can finally attend Compass Theatre’s first production of the new year. The rewards of this uneven production may be difficult to fully recommend.
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Who Will Get the Final Rose?
Bachelor: An Unauthorized Musical Parody – Right Angle Entertainment
After the great success of their parody of the British holiday film, “Love Actually,” Right Angle Entertainment has returned to the Apollo Theater with their new 75-minute musical entertainment that lampoons one of America’s most popular hit TV series. After 25 seasons of tears, laughter, love, rose ceremonies, and more melodrama than you can possibly imagine, dozens of beautiful people have been seen vying for love in this sappy television program. Like every other reality show, this one was ripe for a parody. So here it is—live and in person, featuring a stellar cast of seven topnotch, local actor/singers, all of whom know how to belt out a tune and land a comic line.
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When You Call Me That, Smile
The Virginian – City Lit Theatre
In 1902, American author Owen Wister’s novel about life on a cattle ranch became what would later be considered the first fictional western ever written. Wister’s short stories had appeared serialized in Harper’s Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. When collected together they were soon adapted into his groundbreaking novel. Wister’s book not only became a bestseller, it would eventually inspire a whole new genre of literature and open the door for many more authors of westerns, such as Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour.
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Gleefully Unhinged Performances Abound
The Moors – A Red Orchid Theatre
The prolific playwright and fiction writer, Jen Silverman has, in her 2017 play entitled “The Moors,” crafted a clever and very funny feminist one-act comedy. Set in the upland area of northeastern Yorkshire, the play both mirrors and parodies the lives and writings of those 19th century British wunderkinds, the Bronte sisters. Set in an apparently Escher-like manor house, where each room of the mansion is identical to the next one, two sisters, their maids, and a mastiff named Mastiff, survive the English wilderness, somewhere out on the titular Moors. This black comedy is also kind of an homage to the Theatre of the Absurd of Ionesco.
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It’s All In the Music
Promises, Promises in Concert – BrightSide Theatre
As might be expected of a concert version of a show, it’s the music that drives this excellent production. And in this respect, Artistic Director Jeffrey Cass has chosen wisely for his second offering in BrightSide’s recital series (his first concert presentation was “Nine”). Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s perky and assertively rhythmic score is the reason audiences should flock to BrightSide Theatre where they’ll enjoy a production that pulsates with joy. The excellent script, written by comedy genius Neil Simon, is strong and very funny. The story, although perhaps a bit dated for 21st century audiences, will delight with its bizarre plot and quirky characters. But it’s all in the music, which is everything here. The opening night audience couldn’t refrain from tapping their feet, snapping their fingers, bobbing their heads and sometimes singing along with these bouncy and beautiful songs.
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A Reimagined and Modernized Classic
Oklahoma! – Broadway in Chicago
To devoted theatergoers, there’s nothing quite so thrilling as seeing a work of art that both moves you and is filled with beautiful, carefully-crafted songs being perfectly played and sung. A case in point: audience members hearing those first strains of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin,’” simply, but skillfully, strummed on an acoustic guitar, and sublimely sung with heartfelt emotion by Sean Grandillo, as cowboy, Curly McLain. It sets the tone for this stripped-down, contemporary version of this classic musical. Besides entertaining us, and because less is certainly more in this National Tour, this musical production might even remind audiences of what has been missing in other fuller, more gussied-up productions of the show.
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The Island Calls
Mary Rose – Black Button Eyes Productions
A lonely military Chaplain asks for a tour of a dark, drafty English mansion in Sussex. It’s rumored that the home is haunted by the ghost of a young woman. The caretaker of the now-abandoned estate is the grim, elderly housekeeper, Mrs. Otery. When the Chaplain asks if she might offer him a cup of tea she agrees, but very reluctantly leaves him alone in the drawing room. Before she goes, Mrs. Otery warns the young man to not touch anything, particularly the ornate, wooden door that’s the focal point of the room. Of course he disobeys her orders and suddenly a strange young woman appears out of the misty recesses of the chamber. She is Mary Rose, whose eerie story she then relates to the Chaplain.
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Born To Boogie
Billy Elliot – Music Theater Works
Based upon A.J. Cronin’s The Stars Look Down, “Billy Elliot” began life as a 2000 English film. It tells the story of a motherless boy from a working class background who discovers, purely by accident, that he was born with a gift for ballet. Set during the 1984-85 UK miners’ strike in Northeast England, amidst Maggie Thatcher’s turbulent reign as Britain’s Iron Lady Prime Minister, Billy and his family struggle to survive. His father and brother slave away down in the mines, barely scraping together enough to make ends meet. The boy attends school, helps care for his elderly, often befuddled grandmother and, once a week, pays for boxing lessons at the local hall. When he accidentally wanders into the abrasive Mrs. Wilkinson’s ballet class a light begins to shine. Billy suddenly discovers a hidden talent and his unknown passion for dance.
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A Pursuit of the American Dream
Dishwasher Dreams – Writers Theatre
Every so often a story comes along that really makes you feel deeply and think about who you are and how you got to that place in life. Alaudin Ullah, an actor and stand-up comic, whose parents immigrated to America from Bangladesh in the early 20th century, is currently performing his one-man show at Writers Theatre. And Mr. Ullah’s very touching, often humorous performance, is such a story.
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