Michael Dale - Page 28

'If you have to choose between family and flying, I hope you would choose the flying,' a father tells his children as the lesson behind a bedtime story involving an angel and a woodcutter. 'And don't tell mommy I said that,' he's quick to add.

Yes, in the world of Tom Stoppard, post-coital pillow talk can be a debate about human consciousness and whether or not altruism truly exists.  After all, nobody said anything about THE HARD PROBLEM was going to be easy.

The lack of permanence that allows new artists endless chances to bring their own interpretations to classic material is the most significant aspect that separates live theatre from movies and television. But in musical theatre, it's sometimes the case that a director/choreographer such as Jerome Robbins or Bob Fosse may create visuals that become so indelible in the public's mind that they become fixtures of most remountings. In the case of A CHORUS LINE, it's the whole show.

Let's cut to the chase. The Prom is a great musical comedy on the same level as HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and THE PRODUCERS. Brooks Ashmanskas, the flamboyantly-styled song and dance man with a razor-sharp comic flair who has spent over twenty years on Broadway stealing scenes in supporting roles, is now giving a great musical comedy star performance that should rank up there with the classic turns given by Robert Morse, Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane in those smash hits.

No, director/designer John Doyle does not have Raul Esparza wearing a blonde wig when he delivers his climatic oratory at the close of CSC's revival of Bertolt Brecht's 1941 allegorical satire, THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI, but listen closely to the chant of the crowd provided by sound designer Matt Stine and the production's message is ever so clear.

For those of us of a certain age, the phrase "good grief" has been a part of our vocabulary since childhood as simply an expression of exasperation, thanks to the influence of Charles Schulz and his Peanuts gang.

Steve Rosen and David Rossmer's pop rock musical charmer THE OTHER JOSH COHEN has been hitting the regional circuit a bit since its 2012 Off-Broadway production that picked up Drama Desk, Lortel and Off-Broadway Alliance Award Nominations for Best Musical.  It's great to have this very funny, very tuneful and very uplifting show back in town.

Though it often involves individuals speaking prepared material into a microphone in front of paying customers who may be enjoying a libation or two, and though generating laughter is usually a good sign of success, the art of storytelling should not be confused with stand-up comedy.

'We are a great country,' presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assured his supporters in a speech given moments after winning the Democratic Party's 1968 California primary and moments before he was assassinated while leaving the celebration at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel.

Using Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 cinema classic 'King Kong' as the inspiration for a musical theatre piece really isn't such a bad idea. Among the film's notable achievements is the extraordinary dramatic underscoring music by Max Steiner, that supplied the title character's tragic death plunge from atop the Empire State Building with the kind of heartbreaking emotion that would make any operatic tenor jealous.

'Cuddles the puppy had fallen into the 50 foot deep well and was trapped,' an unseen television anchor is heard reporting at the outset of Patricia Ione Lloyd's chilling and evocative EVE'S SONG. 'After 30 hours volunteers rescued Cuddles from near death,' she continues. 'Locals are demanding stricter standards on well construction. The mayor's office will be holding a town hall meeting to address their concerns.'

"There are many factors, grant and school board requirements that we need to fulfill with this piece," the director explains to the cast on the first day of rehearsal of a Thanksgiving play for children.

A frustrated African-American woman, convinced that the young, armed, white police officer she's alone with isn't revealing everything he knows about her missing son, loses control of her temper and yells at him.

For most New York playgoers, the words "Shakespeare In The Park" will immediately bring to mind the free performances at Central Park's outdoor Delacorte Theater, created decades ago by The Public Theater's visionary founder, Joseph Papp.

The play is no longer titled TORCH SONG TRILOGY and the venue is no longer known as The Little Theatre, but there's still a marvelous homecoming taking place at The Helen Hayes, where Second Stage's recent Off-Broadway revival of Harvey Fierstein's groundbreaking TORCH SONG has transferred to the home of its historic original Broadway run.

'I hate white people,' blurts out a diminutive, small-voiced white teenager, trying to convince the white activist she just met that she would be a valuable addition to his commune. 'I can't help it. I always have.'

It was October 31st, 1926 when the world famous escape artist Harry Houdini succumbed to the one thing in life that's inescapable, and every year since, believers hold seances on Halloween night, anticipating his return.

"You're more afraid of looking like a racist than you are of being a racist," an African-American college student surmises when her white professor reacts with panic when it becomes clear that she intends to go public on social media with the content of the conversation they just had.

'The whole neighborhood is changing,' is the oft-repeated melancholy observation of the 85-year-old woman at the center of Kenneth Lonergan's 2001 Pulitzer-finalist, THE WAVERLY GALLERY.

For the past five years the very fine actor John Kevin Jones has been drawing packed houses to East 4th Street's 1832 landmark Merchant's House Museum building for Summoners Ensemble Theatre's delightful recreation of Charles Dickens' public readings of 'A Christmas Carol.'