Frank Benge - Page 13

RING OF FIRE is a jukebox musical based on the music of Johnny Cash. The main problem with the show's original concept was that it didn't tell the story of the Man in Black. The show originally used 38 musical numbers to try to portray 'a mosaic of American experience'. That original Broadway production only lasted a month.

Andrew Bovell's play, WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING, opens in Alice Springs, Australia in the year 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Gabriel York. This is unusual because fish are extinct and this one still smells of the sea. It's been raining for days and Gabriel knows something is wrong. Fifty years earlier his grandfather, Henry Law had predicted that fish will fall from the sky heralding a great flood which will end life on earth as we know it.

Who out there doesn't know THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW or, at least, the film musical version, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW? Well, as it turns out, at least six people the night I went… but I digress. THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW is the live stage version of what became the most successful flop in cinema history. A musical with music, lyrics and a book by Richard O'Brien, the show is a twisted tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the late 1940s on. The show tells the tale of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple who get caught in a storm and take refuge in the castle of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr. Frank-n-Furter, on the night of the unveiling of his new creation, a muscle man named Rocky Horror. The original London production premiered in 1973 and closed in 1980, running for a total of 2,960 performances and winning the 1973 Evening Standard Award for Best Musical.

THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL is a two-act musical, written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso. Set in the Armadillo Acres Trailer Park in Florida, it is a great big musical Valentine to trailer trash. The main story concerns Pippi, a stripper on the run, who comes between the agoraphobic Jeannie, and her tollbooth-collector husband Norbert. You won't find any deep message waiting for you here in this tale narrated by the three trailer park residents Betty, Lin and Pickles; but you will find a lot of laughs, some great voices and a terrific evening of cartoonish, escapist fun.

Paula Vogel's play, THE OLDEST PROFESSION, is set in 1981, shortly after the election of Ronald Reagan. Set in a park, the play examines the lives of five 'working girls' at the end of their very long careers. The "girls" are Mae, a madam, and her stable: Ursula, Lillian, Vera and Edna. In between appointments with their gentlemen, the women reminisce about their early days in New Orleans' Storyville and review their finances and options today. Their clients are literally a dying breed: one has been kidnapped by his children, another thinks it's 1940 and is paying with silk stockings, some are hospitalized and may not be coming out. The financial situation is grave for Mae's stable. These girls aren't getting any younger.

Terrance McNally's 2014 play MOTHERS & SONS, A Tony nominee for Best Play, touches a lot of subjects: what it means to be a family, the long road to recovery from loss, reconciliation and most of all, the great strides made by gay people in America over the last 20 years.

Part I of Trouble Puppet's THE WARS OF HEAVEN, is the first part of an epic three-part saga. The story, created by the company under Artistic Director, Connor Hopkins, is told through tabletop and shadow puppetry. Parts II and III are to come in 2016 and 2017.  At the core of the story is the concept that angels and demons are among us, serving God and Lucifer, fighting in our wars to uphold an ancient order. The work examines what happens when some of them begin to doubt the rules. The piece is strongly influenced by Milton's "Paradise Lost", an epic telling of Satan's rebellion against heaven.

It's been 30 years since we were first introduced to Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas, where the Lions Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies. The 20 Tuna residents -- men, women, children and a dog -- are portrayed by only two performers, R. Michael Clinkscales and Will Mercer, in a hilarious look at rural Texas life. There is a universality to this script, written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard, that is the reason it has held up so beautifully over the years. This current production, staged by The Wimberley Players and directed by Aaron Johnson, is a thoroughly enjoyable evening and R. Michael Clinkscales and Will Mercer more than do justice to this Texas treasure.

THE GRADUATE is an iconic American film that was a touchstone for an entire generation. It's a coming of age story about Benjamin Braddock's attempt to find his place in the adult world of the sixties. Anyone staging it lives in the shadow of the 1967 film and those indelible images and sounds. To be honest, I went in thinking that I would be hard pressed to think of a cinema piece that cried out less for a stage adaptation than this particular story. However, personally being long removed from both Charles Webb's 1963 novel and the film by Mike Nichols, I found that this piece actually stands on its own. It is quite different from both the novel and the film; but is, in and of itself, an entertaining evening.

The labeled ingredients in the canned mystery meat known as Spam are chopped pork shoulder meat, ham meat, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. There are almost as many ingredients in the Georgetown Palace Theatre production of Monty Python's SPAMALOT, which includes a hard-working cast, clever songs, and a script featuring the witty and politically incorrect British humor of Monty Python. Monty Python's SPAMALOT is a musical comedy adapted from the 1975 film 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail ' which was a highly irreverent parody of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Monty Python is considered both parody and satire. There are abundant examples of both at work in this production. Among the things parodied are Broadway musicals (in general) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (specifically) repeatedly. The original production was the winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical.

'What the hell's the point of being president if you can't do what you know is right?' That single statement, made by President Lyndon Johnson, sums up the theme of ALL THE WAY; a new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, now playing at ZACH Theatre. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, ALL THE WAY examines the period between Kennedy's assassination and Johnson's landslide reelection on November 3, 1964. ALL THE WAY is the first of two plays by Schenkkan on Johnson's presidency. The second part, THE GREAT SOCIETY, continues the Johnson story from 1964 to 1968.

We have all experienced our parents relating something from our childhood of which we have no memory. In fact, if we examine it, the things we don't remember probably are greater than the things we do. In THE GREAT GOD PAN, a new play by Amy Herzog, produced by Street Corner Arts, now in its regional premiere at Hyde Park Theatre, the cloudy areas of memory become a downward spiral for Jamie, an budding journalist who finds his life disintegrating before him when a surprise visit from a friend from his childhood reveals disturbing facts of his past.

Jacob's Ladder is described in the Book of Genesis as a staircase to heaven that the biblical Patriarch Jacob dreamed about during his flight from his brother Esau. It is often used as an analogy for the spiritual ascetic of life. JACOB'S LADDER, a new play by Dennis Bailey & David Mixner, now in its World Premiere staging by Theatre en Bloc, tells the story of a hero, also named Jacob, who's not born but cornered as he wrestles with the idea that all evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

The 60's were an exciting time for music in America, due in no small part to the proliferation of groups with amazing vocal harmonies like The Mamas & Papas, The Beach Boys, Spanky & Our Gang and The Four Seasons. JERSEY BOYS is a jukebox musical based on the song catalog of The Four Seasons; however, unlike most jukebox musicals, JERSEY BOYS features an intelligent script where the songs flow with the story instead of being forced into a storyline. I suspect the participation of Rick Elice, who was also one of the scriptwriters for the charming and witty PETER AND THE STARCATCHER had more than a little to do with the intelligence and theatrical storytelling skill on display here.

By definition, a farce is a light theatrical work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and slapstick are used for humorous effect. Brandon Thomas's play CHARLEY'S AUNT (1892) is a classic example of farce. Farce requires a certain level of comic timing. In farce, the humor comes from rapid speech and rapid movement… people running into and out of rooms at breakneck speed and managing to cause havoc in the process. An example of this style done to perfection was the BBC series FAWLTY TOWERS. Another meaning for the word farce is a seasoned stuffing, as for roasted turkey.

Noel Coward's plays are, for the most part, theatrical souffles: the ingredients are very simple and, when handled correctly, are deliciously light and tasty; however, in the hands of the inexperienced, they can turn out to be a mess best thrown away. I am happy to report that in the case of PRIVATE LIVES, now being staged by Agape Actors Co-op, the chefs know exactly what they are doing… this production is Coward done right and is a tasty treat for lovers of light, frothy, witty entertainment.

Theatre, more than any other medium, has the ability to create magic and seldom has more magic been created on a stage than in the Zach Theatre production of PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. While the production is advertised as suitable for ages 6 and up, it is the adults who are in for the real treat with this whip-smart, endlessly inventive and deliciously campy and snarky production. There's no shortage of delights in store for the younger set, but it is the inner child of the adults in the audience who are in store for a marvelous roller coaster of a ride.

'What's more important, one person or everyone?' That is the question at the center of Dennis Kelly's darkly comedic and chilling play, DNA.

Having grown up in the world of numismatics (coin collecting) and philately (stamp collecting) I was probably in a rarified group in the audience by knowing just what a Mauritius was. It doesn't matter if you don't know anything though, because the playwright, Theresa Rebeck, gets the audience where it needs to be in short order.

Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan created a one-woman show called LATE NIGHT CATECHISM back in 1993 which was based on the pair's experiences growing up Catholic in Chicago and on parochial school stories they heard from their families and friends. The show holds the record for the longest running religious comedy in Chicago's history. Its success inspired them to write sequels, including SISTER'S CHRISTMAS CATECHISM: MYSTERY OF THE MAGI'S GOLD.