New Musicals: Five X 15, Five Brand New Fifteen Minute Musicals

 

THEATER REVIEW: 5 x 15 @ Baldwin Wallace/Beck Center by Laura Kennelly

Through 2/28

This freezing February pandemic winter, the Beck Center and the Baldwin Wallace University Music Theatre program have united to offer five brief dramatic and musical looks to keep us busy. Each 15-minute production previews works created during the forced isolation endured this last year. Scott Spence (Beck Center) and Victoria Bussert and Matthew Webb (BW) are to be commended for allowing “the show to go on” despite having to go virtual this year.

One very good thing about the Beck Center video tickets is that they are good for 48 hours. Find a favorite? Watch it again. Can’t do that in a theater — at least not right away and on the same ticket.

More questions are asked in these short plays than answers are given, but they are important questions — and perhaps ones with no quick answers. All five musicals were winners in the recent National Alliance of Music Theatre (NAMT) challenge. The shows described below are in the order presented on the video.

In Monster on the Lawn, composer and writer Obed De La Cruz explores how a six-year-old, Ricky (played by Mateus Cardoso), might feel if he woke up and saw a whale-sized creature in his front yard. In effect, De La Cruz asks metaphorically what it would be like to leave everything (in this case, Puerto Rico) and flee to (what his mother sees as) a better place. Cardoso deftly sings and looks surprised as he reveals the little boy’s confusion and wonder. Director Jon Martinez and musical director Lindsay Miller utilize close-ups to cut down on scenery while allowing the melodic score to shine.

Holo, writer-composer Nico Juber’s two-person play (and my favorite), asks questions about mankind’s future on a vast scale and on a personal one. It’s set in 2189 at the Mars-based Elon Musk Museum where curator-receptionist Ember (Bryanna Cuthill) talks to young college student Kyle (Mackenzie Meyh). Kyle, now a hologram, has no idea she will later become famous and — worse —whether or not she will recover from COVID. It seems that Earth’s 2020-2021 pandemic has been remembered in a museum. Cuthill and Meyh create characters true to their times (and ours) in this charming and touching reminder of Groundhog Day. Director Ciara Renée and music director Matthew Webb show the vital importance of hearing and being heard — even on repeat.

White Man’s Burden, directed by Nathan Henry (with Ed Ridley, Jr. as music director and Webb as film editor), is described as “funny.” It’s anything but. This compellingly presented and darkly satiric mini-rock musical takes its story from headlines from the past two centuries — all detailing racist crimes. Eric C. Jones (book and lyrics) incorporates music by Joshua Davis to remind us of historic atrocities. The story is conveyed to three young and clueless TV watchers by Gordia Hayes as infomercial host. Hayes’ host uses the familiar pitch to buy CDs of what might be called “racism’s greatest hits.” The ensemble cast includes Dar’jon Bentley, Jack Hale, Brinden Harvey, Makay Johnson, JT Snow, Will Lamb, Zach Mackiewicz and Charles Mayhew Miller. It’s a slick, well-done satire not only of racism, but also of commercial packaging (and how just about anything can be pitched).

Rodeo Clowns by Dale Sampson (with music by Marc Campbell) satirizes clowns and rodeos and small towns. It’s directed by Sara Bruner with Webb as music director. Nick Cortazzo, Lee Price and Danny Bó tell the tale of two queer and eccentric fellows who decide to be rodeo clowns (a job not for the faint of heart). The country music score is all right, the actors gave it their all, but this musical somehow misses the mark.

Perpetual Sunshine and the Ghost Girls has a glittery title that belies its dark story. Written by Lynne Shankel (music) and Sara Cooper (words), it’s the first minutes of what will be a full-length show. That the story is true makes all the horror underneath stronger. Directed by Victoria Bussert, with Webb as music director, it teaches us via short conversations, dances and snippy, tick-tock collages why women sued the United States Radium Corporation in the 1920s for knowingly exposing them to poison. The excellent ensemble cast included Katelyn Baughman, Piper Bruce, Colette Caspari, Audrey Hare, Autumn Key, Jessi Kirtley, Alexa Lopez, Eden Mau, Claire Marie Miller, Andie Peterson, Lauren Senden, and Bella Serano.

Bottom Line: These five musicals are radically different, but all are socially aware. They each offer engaging 15-minute flashes of what may come next, in fully fleshed out versions, on post-pandemic musical stages. Can’t wait to see. (Yes, I have faith there will be a post-pandemic future.)

The BW/Beck production is a limited virtual engagement that runs through February 28 on any device. (Personal experience: The computer screen seemed ideal, casting to the TV didn’t work easily, and the phone screen was too small.) The Beck writes that ticket purchase provides 48-hour access to the shows allowing you to enjoy them all in one sitting or divide up your watching over a few days. Tickets are available here.

[Written by Laura Kennelly, published in CoolCleveland.com]

 

Holo by Nico Juber

Into the Woods

Into the Woods, Cleveland National Tour, Jan. 10 to Jan. 29

Review by Laura Kennelly (Photo by Joan Marcus)

Intertwined fairy tales conjure “what ifs” in the latest Playhouse Square Broadway Series production, the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine hit, Into the Woods This  touring version of the recent Broadway show, reshaped and reimagined by the Fiasco Theater and Roundabout Theatre, and directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, adds an extra element of amusement even for those who have enjoyed this whimsical show before.

The clever and tuneful ensemble cast handles complex lyrics, dances, and  choreographed entrances with ease. The latter is highly important because the stage gets very busy. Almost everyone plays more than one character and/or plays a musical instrument. Some truly shine, such as Lisa Helmi Johanson as the coy little Red Riding Hood and the hapless Rapunzel.

I used to think that the character of Jack (Philippe Arroyo) was dumb for falling in love with Milky White, the family cow (played with true bovine sensibility by Darick Pead), but now I’m in love with the cow too. It should be noted that Pead also plays wicked sister Florinda and Rapunzel’s Prince, but it’s the cow that knocks my socks off. “She” reacts with just the right touch of charming affirmation and (sometimes) sarcasm--and all without a word! Moo.


Evan Harrington as the Baker and Eleasha Gamble as the Baker’s Wife start the action with their wish to have a child. The story is then filled out by adventures with others who wander in and out of their own various stories. Cast  members include Anthony  Chatmon II, as the sexy wolf,  Lucinda, and Cinderella’s Prince; Fred Rose as Mysterious Man; Bonnie Kramer as Cinderella’s Stepmother/Jack’s Mother; Laurie Veldheer as Cinderella/Granny, and Vanessa Reseland as the Witch. Even the “baby” (played by a bundle of rags) cries with feeling (thanks to various maidens just out of the scene).

There are, of course, many funny songs, such as the laughable “Agony” sung by the gallant princes (Chatmon and Pead). Theirs is a delicious duet dedicated to male fickleness and self-absorption. It’s even funnier in the second act than the first (like life, I guess in that it takes a bit of age to see the humor in some things).

The first thing audience members may notice when they arrive is that the Connor Palace stage looks like a jumbled mess. Framed by tiny boxed piano guts above and on the sides, it’s cluttered with junk: giant piano strings across the back, a ladder with extensions, loops of yellow yard, chairs, an  upright piano in the middle, random costumes scattered about--typical backstage storeroom vibe. Scenic designer Derek McLane created a set, which looks, in a good way, like what might have happened if a giant had tossed the traditional set for the show--trees, a house, castle, etc.--into a Vitamix and then poured the resulting concoction out onto the stage. The ladders, benches, colorful structures suggesting houses, castles, gardens, woods all get put into  use when needed by the nimble cast.  Opening night, as items were called into service, only the upright piano remained in the center, even turning its back upon us once in awhile. Other times we saw music/director pianist Sean Peter Forte admirably pounding away on the piano and becoming part of the larger story.

On opening night, while we awaited the start of the show, members of the brilliant ensemble cast begin to appear, some waving at us, others intent on getting into costume. One cast member stepped up to remind us of the rules: “no photos, no phones,” and then added something new: “Before intermission it may look as if the show is over, but it isn’t. So stick around.”

Sure enough, after the rousing  resolution to Act I, featuring the musical summing up we expect at the end of every show, the [Happy] “Ever After,” some of the audience did leave. Well, it was getting late, and the truth is that optimists and/or youngsters may leave at that point, completely satisfied. After all, the first act, shapes a complete drama of loves lost and found and evil overcome. You can safely take the little ones home and they will have sweet dreams.

However, grownups might like to stay and find out what “ever after” really means to Sondheim and Lapine. The rest of the story, as it were, is a bit cynical, with a bit of Voltairian disillusionment (as in “Candide”) laid on the contemporary mantra of “find your family where you can.”

Bottom Line: Beautifully done. It helps, more than it hurts, to know your Fairy Tales.

For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to playhousesquare.org. The show runs through January 29, 2017.

[Review by Laura Kennelly]