James Lindhorst - Page 6

The Muny and director John Tartaglia have staged an enchanted and epic tale as old as time for the second show of the Muny’s 105th season. This production of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is like no other production you’ve experienced before. The opulent scenic design, the elegant set decoration, the stunning costumes, the intricate choreography, the magical orchestrations and vocal arrangements are produced on the grandest of scale crafting a multi-layered technical theatre experience to enhance the exceptional performances of a richly talented cast. Tartaglia’s vision and leadership allowed his actors and creative teams to produce a luxurious show that is a visual, auditory and emotional indulgence.

The Muny’s production of BEAUTIFUL is a nostalgic delight. They have taken one of the best jukebox musicals, adapted to The Muny stage and elevated it with a large cast of exceptional performers who deliver the songbooks of two prolific and competitive songwriting teams of the 1960’s, Carole King/Gerry Goffin and Cynthia Weil/Barry Mann. The vast Muny stage comes alive with high energy vocal performances, exceptional choreography and colorful vintage inspired costumes.

There are those rare instances when a director perfectly casts and directs a play. The actor in every role inhabits the playwright’s characters and delivers performances that transcend an exceptional script to further elevate the material. That is exactly what Robert Ashton has done with Albion Theatre’s second show of their inaugural season with his casting and direction of Alan Ayckbourn’s comical farce ABSENT FRIENDS.

Salgado, his company, and STAGES St. Louis delivers a touching story of fateful, forbidden and unrequited love with originality and panache. While Salgado’s choices are modernistic, it is his focus on the characters and their love story, told through Elton John and Time Rice’s score that allows this production to provide an emotional wallop. This may be different visually than what may be expected, but this performance has the impassioned heart of the original production.

Last year, Luis Salgado directed and choreographed IN THE HEIGHTS at STAGES St. Louis. It was among the most critically acclaimed productions of the year in St. Louis. His production was recognized with 11 St. Louis Critics Circle nominations and six wins including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Choreography. This year, Salgado returns to STAGES St. Louis to direct and choreograph AIDA.

New Line Theatre’s production of A FUNNY THING HAPPENS ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM succeeds due to Scott Miller’s directorial vision and the comedic timing of Miller’s strong cast. There are plenty of laughs in the First Act, but the second act builds to a crescendo of complete hilarity. Miller’s blocking and the actors’ execution of  the Second Act chase scene is downright madcap. Ann Hier Brown’s delivery of “That Dirty Old Man,” Kent Coffel and Chris Moore’s delivery of “Lovely,” and the Company’s collaboration on “Funeral Sequence” keeps the audience laughing nonstop following the intermission. The remaining cast Jason Blackburn, Danny Brown, Gary Cox, Robert Doyle, Nathan Hakenewerth, Brittany Kohl Hester, Aarin Kamphoefner, Ian McCreary and Sarah Wilkinson rely on their deadpan delivery and comedic timing to deliver big laughs throughout the show.

Jenni Ryan gives a magnificent performance as Steinem. She paints Steinem with human vulnerability. Her characterization elicits audience empathy as she exposes the incertitude Steinem experienced in her early work. Ryan illustrates Steinem finding her voice and ultimately demonstrates Steinem’s maturation to a confident activist who raises issues without fear. It is commendable that Ryan stepped into the role just a week before opening night due to a last-minute casting change and delivered a solid performance.

Midnight Company is following up their sensational hit JUST ONE LOOK, the Linda Ronstadt theatrical cabaret experience, with another narrative driven cabaret show YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU, featuring the songbook of the incomparable Judy Garland. YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU stars Jennelle Gilreath Owens and premiers at THE BLUE STRAWBERRY on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, with two additional performances on Wednesday, August 2nd and August 9th.

Last week when the Tony Award Nominations were announced, four producers with ties to the St. Louis area figured prominently in the races for Best Musical and Best Musical Revival. Broadway World had the opportunity to sit down with St. Louis Native Mike Bosner, The Muny’s Mike Isaacson, STAGES St. Louis founder Jack Lane, and St. Louis based producer Terry Schnuck. Each of these theatre executives have enjoyed enormous success producing plays and musicals on Broadway. In fact, in previous years these four men have amassed over 30 nominations and 14-Tony wins among them. This year, the Tony nominations again included nods for each of these gentlemen. Mike Isaacson is nominated for Best Revival of a Musical for PARADE. Jack Lane is nominated for Best Musical for & JULIET. Mike Bosner and Terry Schnuck are nominated for Best Musical for SHUCKED.

WELCOME TO ARROYO’S is the current production by The Tesseract Theatre Company that closed on May 7th.  Brittanie Gunn directs a funny and mostly effective production of Diaz’s uneven play. There are plenty of genuine laughs, more resulting from the energy, physical acting choices and rapping ability of Kevin Corpuz (Nelson) and Jacob Schmidt (Trip) than from the actual script itself. Corpuz and Schmidt play two DJs who advance half of the narrative with their hip-hop performance and their story telling. These two are the heart and soul of the play and never fail to captivate the audience when they are front and center.

Originally produced in the 1970s, EUBIE re-introduced audiences to Blake’s iconic career and  his music with a 23-song musical review. The Black Rep's production has taken century old music giving it a current sound with choreography that is both traditional and contemporary. The vocally talented cast of high-kicking and toe-tapping dancers make the most of Beal’s complicated choreography while singing EUBIE’s score with beautiful ease.

Midnight Company’s Joe Hanrahan performs all nine roles in the play that is narrated by detective Chuck Desantis as he tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Leonard. Along the way the audience is introduced to Leonard’s Aunt Ellen, his cousin Phoebe, one of his bullies, Tyler, and to about another half-dozen characters. Hanrahan again proves himself an adept storyteller in a one-actor show as he effortlessly transitions in-and-out of characters using physical acting choices as opposed to significant alterations in his voice. Hanrahan is at his best when portraying Leonard’s aunt as she emotionally confronts one of her nephew’s bullies, but all of his characterizations have the requisite depth to make each character real.

Michelle Hand is mesmerizing as Heidi, driving nearly all of the play’s dialogue. Her indelible presence is captivating. She enters, introduces herself as Heidi and tells the audience about her mother’s vision to help her pay for college by winning VFW sponsored debates about what the constitution means to her. Throughout the play, Hand steps in and out of character as the adult Heidi, the 15-year-old Heidi, and as herself addressing the audience. As the play unfolds, she unpacks her thoughts on The Constitution, the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, and she tackles themes of women’s equality, reproductive rights, sexual assault, domestic abuse, immigration, and the decisions significant legal cases have had on women in the United States. Hand’s outstanding performance and her conviction for presenting Heidi’s dialogue is unforgettable. When she is playing Heidi, she completely disappears into the role and her electric oration of the subject matter is authentic and convincing.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of things broke with this production. The scripted part of the show is banal. There are too few laughs. The two songs written, one for each act, are forgettable. In fact, the only memorable thing about the production value of BROKE was the bright kelly green blazer and bold pink tie worn by Myers.

Due to audience demand, The Midnight Company has added additional shows of JUST ONE LOOK, starring Kelly Howe as Linda Ronstadt. Howe continues to thrill audiences with her vocal performance singing Ronstadt's songbook.

The Midnight Company will present the THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, by Celeste Lecesne from May 4-20 at The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre. Joe Hanrahan, Midnight’s Artistic Director, will play all the roles in this show including a detective, as well as the other characters, in a small New Jersey town as he unravels the story of Leonard Pelkey, a tenaciously optimistic and flamboyant fourteen-year-old boy who goes missing.  A luminous force of nature whose magic is only truly felt once he is gone, Leonard becomes an unexpected inspiration as the town’s citizens question how they live, who they love, and what they leave behind.

While the source material is subpar, director Bekah Harbison uses simple staging with minimal set pieces to focus the audience on the relationships between the characters. Through her collaboration with her actors, she extracts committed and emotional performances out of each member of the cast. Her blocking, coupled with Mary Fedak’s choreography, uses every inch of the floor (stage) in the theater adding to the intimacy of her vision. There are moments when the entire company fills the full performance space, and it almost seems uncomfortably cramped. There may have been an opportunity to edit and think through the limitations of the space and the number of chorus members used in some of the larger numbers.

Director Geovonday Jones vision and collaboration with his actors and technical crew deliver a superb production of SKELETON CREW. In addition to the exceptionally directed performances by the actors, Jones empowers his technical teams and allows their creativity to raise the production value to the highest standard. Lamar Harris’ sound design is nuanced, detailed and spectacular. The sound effects (the punching of the time clock, the ambient factory noise when the breakroom door opens, the rattle of the employee lockers) adds to the intimacy and shrinks the theatre, placing the audience directly in the breakroom. The breakroom set and three-dimensional factory projection effects once again illustrate why Margery and Peter Spack are among the best scenic and video designers working in St. Louis Theatre. Their set detail provides a conscious palate for Coda Boyce’s purposeful prop choices. Jayson Lawshee’s lighting design, Marisa Perry’s costume design and the work of the technical staff Christian Kitchens, Kristen Gray and De’Janna Hand all add to the exceptional quality of this production.

STAGES St. Louis has announced the creative team behind their 2023 Season at The Ross Family Theatre at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. The 2023 Season includes Elton John & Tim Rice’s AIDA; the hilarious farce meets murder-mystery, CLUE; and the Grand Finale of the season, the rock ‘n roll musical smash, MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET.

Albion’s extraordinary production of Pinter’s work is grounded in Suki Peter’s sharp direction, brisk pacing and her collaboration with her actors. The performances she elicits from each of the cast members are balanced perfection. Her use of the space within Brad Slavik’s smartly appointed period set design conveys the confined intimacy one would feel in an overcrowded small rundown boarding house. Marjorie Williamson’s graphic & scenic design, Gwynneth Rausch’s props and Tracy Newcomb’s superb costume design all perfectly transport the audience back into the late 1950s.