Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - Page 11

Audience favorite and native son, Scott Moreau returns to MSMT to close out the theatre’s 2022 concert series with a new, engaging musical tribute celebrating Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, performed by Allison Kelly. Conceived by Moreau and featuring twenty-five songs and duets that the couple made famous, DARLIN’ COMPANION (presented by ShowTunes Productions) is a musical feast with a compelling narrative thread.

Something extraordinary has happened in Brunswick, Maine, this summer. Maine State Music Theatre’s production of THE COLOR PURPLE has taken this tiny New England town by storm, telling a story that has shaken and uplifted an entire community, inspired by its truth, beauty, and sheer joyousness.

Maine State Music Theatre celebrates the world premiere of a new children’s musical, THE VERY FRACTURED TALE OF ROBIN HOOD by Randall Frizado in a clever, funny, upbeat, contemporary retelling of the Howard Pyle folktale about the legendary outlaw who robbed the rich to pay the poor in 12th century England. Helping to develop this title from script to the stage, MSMT has made a valuable contribution to the canon of children’s musical theatre, while reacquainting a new generation of youngsters with colorful characters in the source material.

For its third 2022 main stage production, Maine State Music Theatre has mounted a brilliant, beautiful, authentic, and heartwarming staging of the musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s epistolary novel, THE COLOR PURPLE. This epic story chronicles the journeys of its complex characters through hardship and pain to hope and healing. Inspirational and uplifting, it is a tale of resilience, redemption, and love, that speaks with powerful universality, and in this stunning production, directed by E. Faye Butler, it becomes one of those unforgettable, transformative moments in the theatre.

“We have been fortunate right away that there felt like a sisterly energy between the two of us,” says Tavia Rivée, who plays Nettie in Maine State Music Theatre’s new production of THE COLOR PURPLE. Rivée is talking about her co-star, Jaden Dominique, who plays the show’s protagonist, Celie. Dominique seconds these sentiments, saying she has felt that connection from the very beginning and being able to share housing with her colleague during the rehearsal period “has strengthened that bond.”

In Maine State Music Theatre’s second 2022 concert series program, the Pickard Theater pulsates with the big, bold, vibrant musical energy of Joe Boucher and his band, vocalists and a seventeen-piece orchestra, treating a cheering audience to a playlist of rock and roll classics from the 1970s and 1980s. Boucher, who managed to sell out the house even during the 2021 pandemic-era performances, returns triumphantly with his talented instrumental ensemble and two charismatic lead vocalists who collaborate with Ben McNaboe and the MSMT Orchestra to create a rich and unforgettable aural tapestry.

“JOSEPH’s ability to be done in a thousand different ways is what keeps it fresh,” declares Maine State Music Theatre’s Artistic Director, Curt Dale Clark. “I have heard people say they almost didn’t come to see it because they had already seen it many times, and then when they did see it, they were blown away by a new fresh production.” Clark is joining the two stars of MSMT’s current production, Jordan Alexander (Joseph) and Alyssa Anani (Narrator) at the second PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN panel discussion, hosted by Broadway World Maine editor, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, on July 6 at Curtis Memorial Library to discuss with patrons the theatre’s second main stage show.

Maine State Music Theatre’s second main stage production, perennial favorite, JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, takes the Pickard stage by storm, exploding with color, energy, and sheer irrepressible joy. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s early collaboration based on the Book of Genesis has as its central metaphor the coat of many colors, and like that kaleidoscopic garment, the show itself is a rich, eclectic tapestry that weaves together musical and choreographic genres, ancient and modern sensibilities, and perhaps best of all in this production – a diverse and deeply talented cast that is beautiful to behold.

“This production is new, fun, fresh,” says actor Blake Hammond who plays Jacob and Potiphar in Maine State Music Theatre’s production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT that runs from June 29-July 16. “The show is pure joy,” concurs his castmate Jeff Max, who plays the role of Pharoah. “There is something in it for everyone.” This praise, coming from Hammond and Max, has a special resonance. Both actors have a long history with this show and the parts they play, and both have worked together in memorable previous productions. Recounts Hammond, “I first played Jacob and Potiphar thirty-five years ago in summer stock and since then have also played Napthali and the Baker as well, so it is fun to come back to the original track of Jacob/Potiphar in this production. [Director/choreographer] Alex Sanchez doesn’t have a lot of experience with this show, so he has fresh eyes for it; he’s not repeating anything else he’s done; it is as if we are learning for the first time.”

Chicago’s Leading Lady and beloved superstar of MSMT, Heidi Kettenring returns to the Pickard Theatre for three splendid concerts featuring the music of Carole King, Karen Carpenter, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell. An exquisite chanteuse, Kettenring combines vocal richness and power, interpretive flair, and sheer elegance and class in an evening of song and sentiment that goes straight to the heart.

For two weeks now Brunswick’s Pickard Theater has been “alive with the sound of music,’ but on June 15 Hanley Smith and Will Ray, the stars of MSMT’s brilliant new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC, joined MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and BWW Maine Regional Editor Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold to celebrate the joy, inspiration, and continued resonance of this timeless musical at the first Peek Behind the Curtain program in three years. The popular panel discussion series held at Curtis Memorial Library returned to an enthusiastic, capacity audience for an hour of conversation about what Clark called “the quintessential American musical and the perfect show to launch post-pandemic MSMT’s Revival Season.”

Maine State Music Theatre opened its Theatre for Young Audiences series with a delightful, energetic, and amusing production of Robin and Clark’s JACK AND THE BEANSTALK that drew a crowd of enthusiastic youngsters, their teachers, parents, and grandparents for the four performances on June 13.

What did our critic think of MSMT's Sound of Music? What happens when one of the most beloved musicals in the canon comes to the stage at the very point in time when history and a harsh pandemic seem to intersect with an iconic story?

“Marc Robin ‘s vision for this production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is that of a joyful, hopeful child,” says Hanley Smith, the actress who makes her debut as Maria von Trapp this week as Maine State Music Theatre kicks off its “Revival Season.” Describing the lens through which director/choreographer Robin views the piece, she continues, “This production comes from a very joyful, youthful place at the same time that there is an awareness of the weight and import of the story. In the face of deep darkness in the world, the light becomes all the brighter. Marc knows how to create both those worlds and the battle between them and make you really want the light to win. And you believe it CAN win. And that is not naïveté; that is an act of courage.”

Portland Stage closes its 2021-2022 season with a new play with music that is really a chamber opera, SABINA, about the pioneer in psychoanalysis, the muse and lover of Carl Jung and colleague of Sigmund Freud, Sabina Spielrein. Sabina’s story from Jung’s catatonic patient to medical student and respected doctor in the turbulent years leading up to WWII is a fascinating one, filled with history and hope.

Portland’s Good Theater’s final offering of its nineteenth season is a deliciously zany and stylish production of Peter Kellogg and David Friedman’s 2017 musical comedy, DESPERATE MEASURES, a witty, saucy sendup of Shakespeare’s MEASURE FOR MEASURE set in the Wild West. Directed by Brian P. Allen and Cary Libkin with musical staging by Raymond Marc Dumont, the comedy written in rhyming verse is a rollicking, madcap adventure from start to finish.

The Public Theatre’s latest offering is a poignant, quirky romantic comedy that becomes a heartwarming pas de deux between its injured dancer heroine and a geoscientist with Asperger’s Syndrome, who enlists her help not only in learning to dance, but also in exploring, what for him, is the uncharted territory of human friendship and intimacy. Mark St. Germain’s 2014 two-character, seventy-five minute play dances with an ironic humor, fast repartee, unexpected revelations that evolve from the relationship of this mismatched pair, and an ending that is hopeful in its transformative inner reality.

The Good Theater’s latest offering, SIGNIFICANT OTHER, is an edgy, quirky, bittersweet look at the complexities and pitfalls of modern love and friendship, seen from the perspective of a quartet of marriage-age friends, who try to navigate this rocky road as best they can. Told with humor and compassion, Harmon’s play, examines the yearnings, strivings, and conflicts that befall the heart.

The Maine premiere of George Eastman’s HARRY TOWNSEND’s LAST STAND is a sad, sweet, sassy rumination on aging and the fragile communications between father and son as they navigate this daunting process. Despite its poignant and serious underpinnings, Eastman’s play succeeds because of its unsparing humor, uncanny ear for authentic dialogue, the trim direction of Brian P. Allen, and the strong performances of the Good Theater’s stars, Will Rhys and James Noel Hoban.

In the midst of the winter doldrums and yet another pandemic surge, Maine's theatre scene is experiencing a hiatus. Several companies have been forced to cancel shows or postpone openings, and all are struggling mightily to fulfill their programming plans and bring Mainers the live theatre they crave.