West Side Story @ John Patrick Theatre, Baldwin Wallace University, Nov. 9--22

Review by Laura Kennelly

For this election week, a week where political conflict, passion, disappointment, and victory were all the talk, what better work to bring to the stage than West Side Story with its tragic conflicts? Based, of course, on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the familiar story elaborates on the damage feuds inflict on the next generation.

It’s not likely that this collaboration between the Baldwin Wallace Department of Theatre and Dance and the BW Conservatory of Music’s Music Theatre Program was planned to evoke feelings stirred up by this year’s contentious presidential election, but it was hard to watch without thinking of it.

Director Victoria Bussert’s faithful presentation of the entire original production as directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents, was often breathtaking. Watching both casts (the “Jets” cast on Nov. 9 and the “Sharks” cast on Nov. 10)  allowed a dramatic illustration of the unique vibe each cast generated.

Baldwin Wallace has enough young talent drawn from its top-rated music theatre program to cast the whole musical with age-appropriate gang members, a factor which added to the pathos inherent in this tragic tale of Romeo, Juliet, and their foolish families. Both Marias (Michelle Pauker and Nadina Hassan) and both Tonys (Jason Goldston and Colton Ryan) carried a little spark of sweetness that lit up the stage and made me weep (OK, I’m an easy crier) when things went horribly wrong.

And yes, Olivia Kaufmann and Shayla Brielle as Anita spiced things up as the “bad girls” who knew all about the world. Warren Franklin and Noah Mattocks as Bernardo (Anita’s boyfriend)  seemed matched in bravado for their two ladies, but only Franklin’s Bernardo graced the floor in the big dance in the gym scene. That second night the usually frantic Chino (Michael Canada) glided Brielle’s hot red-gowned Anita around the floor. Overall, the ensemble dancing, directed by Gregory Daniels, proved spectacular.

It’s hard to single out numbers in a show featuring hit after hit, but the delicious “I Feel Pretty” sung by Maria with the Sharks’ Girls (Joy Del Valle, Livvy Marcus, and Rose Upton) chiming in with exaggerated pouts and sarcastic musical quips, definitely offered a welcome dash of comic relief.

Scenic designer Jeff Herrmann’s simple staging (alternately a mural of New York City with Lady Liberty’s huge head stretched in the foreground, scaffolding, a bed, a blue sky) as well as costumes by Charlotte Yetman created a believable world with the merest of props. The full orchestra, conducted by music director David Pepin the nights I attended, switched with evident ease from romantic (“I Had a Love,” “One Hand, One Heart,” “Somewhere”) to edgy (“Jet Song,” “The Rumble,” etc.).

I opened by saying the casts were different. How? Well, while recognizing that each night a show runs generates a new vibe, on opening night the Jets seemed to fit the worried somber message of the story. The next night, in contrast, the (perhaps) better-rested Sharks blasted through the action with a snappy precision that brought out the violence edging the lives of both Upper West Side gangs. If  you are new to the story, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story for the whole scoop. (Although in the past newspaper critics tended to summarize plots for readers, these  days it seems redundant to write what is so easy to look up.)

Bottom Line: A delightful production, a classic musical that never seems to grow old. It would be an ideal one for novice music theatre patrons (Maria even survives ...How could that happen?...it looks so weird to see her walk off...what were they thinking in Broadway land?) Oh well, who knows, who cares? A wonderful show can be forgiven plot quibbles.

Performances next week are Wednesday-Saturday November 16-19 at 7:30 pm. And Sunday, November 20 at 2 p.m. For tickets call the box office at 440-826-2240. The John Patrick Theatre, Kleist Center for Art & Drama [https://www.bw.edu/about/location/directions#kleist-center] is located on the Baldwin Wallace Campus.

Sex with Strangers @ Playhouse Square, Oct. 22--Nov. 13, 2016

Review by Laura Kennelly

Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, now playing in the Cleveland Play House’s Outcalt Theatre, isn’t really about a hookup, though you might not be able to tell that from the title. Yes, two writers are stranded in a snow-bound B&B and yes, they do have sex. The introverted slightly older  Olivia (played with verve and passion by Monette Magrath) had hoped to spend quiet time fretting over her latest novel and what reviewers said about her work. Her peace is shattered when extroverted Ethan (played by Sean Hudock) appears. Hudock makes his character’s charming side as obvious as his crass side as he alternately amuses Olivia with his quick wit and repels her with his vulgarity.

Olivia is an old-school novelist who yearns to have a printed book on the New York Times bestseller list and to be published by classy publishers Farrar Straus and Giroux--AKA, FSG. (This is something we of a certain generation all want.)  Ethan is a media-savvy blogger, Snapchat, Facebook guy with his eyes on the popularity prize and getting plenty of $$$-generating clicks.

Life gets complicated for the two stranded writers when they discover that the snowstorm has brought down the Internet. Oh no! No fact-checking, no Twitter or Facebook. Anyone devoted to their Internet life (hand raised here!) can recognize and laugh at Ethan’s dismay. Although Olivia says she just wants to be left alone (but does not retreat to her room), she’s intrigued despite herself. They strike up a conversation and boredom leads to the bedroom before the end of the first scene.

But there’s more to this often-comic play as directed by Joanie Schultz, whose directing shows understanding of complicated social expectations. (Hi Joanie, the program notes you wrote say you worry about reviews--don’t do that! Reviews just show one person’s response.) The play is  actually about what happens to their connection over the years as they themselves turn into “reviewers”--this time of their relationship. While the playwright doesn’t fall back on the old “it was all a dream” trope to resolve the play, I wish she’d given us more information about Olivia’s core values so we would have more to base our theories about “what happened next” when the play ends without obvious resolution.

Bottom Line: If you’re a writer, I’m pretty sure you will like this play and laugh (perhaps uncomfortably) at how beautifully it exposes the “writer mind.” It’s witty, well-paced, and very smartly done. (Need I add that it’s for adults only, although all the sex is discreetly offstage.)

Sex with Strangers runs until November 13. For tickets call  216-241-6000 or go to clevelandplayhouse.com.

Finding Neverland @ Playhouse Square, 11/1-11/20/2016

Review by Laura Kennelly

It’s a mystery why Finding Neverland, now at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square, didn’t win Broadway awards in 2015 (tho the cast got a few nominations). Maybe there are too many grownup grumps in NYC? But in Cleveland, the show, temporarily dubbed “Finding Believeland” for the first two days (hummm, seems to have been a ball game on those two nights) found a fit audience. We all clapped for Tinker Bell and saved her too! Who wants to grow up anyway?

For a smashingly good start, the colorful “Welcome to London,” opens the show and highlights happy chaos as it melds Peter Pan’s fantasy world with the story’s “real” people. Suddenly, an  authoritative voice tells the cast to “Stop” because it’s too early in the story. And, just  like that the pirates and the mermaid and the Lost Boys dash offstage.

The Finding Neverland story (book by James Graham with music and lyrics by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy) really begins when the already famous British playwright J. M. Barrie meets a lively family of four boys, their loveable dog, and their mother in Kensington Park. Barrie’s been having creative difficulties--he keeps writing the same romance over and over--but once he meets the Llewelyn Davies family , he’s inspired to create something new--the world inhabited by Peter Pan.

Kevin Kern (as J. M. Barrie) creates a believable portrait of the charming, vulnerable author who sells the idea of a children’s fantasy for grownups to theatre manager Charles Frohman (the naturally stressed-out Tom Hewitt). Hewitt also has the delicious scenery-chewing role of Captain James Hook. [Interesting note: Barrie’s first name is James--coincidence? I think not.]

As the boy’s mother, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the golden-throated Christine Dwyer sings and dances her way into our hearts (and made me cry in her wonderful final scene). Joanna Glushak (as the boys’ initially snobby grandmother), Crystal Kellogg (the unhappy Mary Barrie), Lord Cannan (the stuffy Noah Plomgren, whose hairpiece got broad laughs), and the rest of the first-rate ensemble threw themselves into being boys (lost and otherwise), servants, pirates, Indians--anything the story needed--with evident enthusiasm.

In this extravagant production, Director Diane Paulus sparks enchantment and childhood memories (at least for this former Amazon pirate) of pixie dust and fantasy worlds. The set, beautifully designed by Scott Pask, and the choreography by Mia Michaels remind us why Broadway can also be a Neverland full of wonder.

Even the curtain calls were fun. Kern donned a Cleveland Indians shirt and others sported other Tribe paraphernalia. Obviously, that went over big.

Bottom Line: In other words: I admit I’m already a fan of musicals, but this one is truly a song and dance filled joy. If you want to hook a child on the charms of theatre, this might be the perfect show. (Make them read Peter Pan first.) Laughs, tears, dogs, kids, handsome and beautiful cast, a touching and inspiring story--Neverland has it all.