Robert Barossi - Page 4

There is unquestionably something to be said for reliability and comfort. For things that are familiar to us or make us feel at home. There is something wonderful about that feeling when you are experiencing something that you know so well and have enjoyed so many times before. That feeling that you not only know what to expect, but know it will be very, very good. Provicence Performing Arts Center is always reliable in that you know they are bringing our area the best cultural, artistic and entertainment options around. The most recent example of this is this past weekend's arrival of Garrison Keillor and his A Priarie Home Companion - The America The Beautiful Tour.

While it seems that some musicals are constantly produced and have been seen by every theatergoer alive, others seem more elusive. For example, there's no good explanation for why so many people have mentioned recently that they've never seen the musical Gypsy. 'Oh, I know the songs,' they all say. Immediately followed by, 'But I've never seen the actual show.' If you are among that number, Ocean State Theatre Company has just what you need, a nearly perfect production of this classic and beloved musical. And if you are not one of those people, and you have seen the show before, you should definitely take this opportunity to see it again.

According to the United States Association of Fringe Festivals, the idea of a Fringe started in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1947. Since the beginning of that most-famous Fringe, other festivals have sprouted up all over the United States, from Philly to San Diego and places in between. The Association describes a Fringe as "Focused on the performing arts…uncensored…easy to participate in…original…rapid-fire." This July, Providence will have it's second-ever Fringe festival, produced by one of our local theatre companies, The Wilbury Group and its Artistic Director, Josh Short.

Plays and musicals have, since the very beginning, found ways to get us to face important issues and problems in new and surprising ways. Musicals, esepcailly, can be unexpected in how they bring together a story that, in the end, is wonderfully relatable, human and filled with emotional and important moments, even though it's wrapped in such an unusual package. The Broadway smash hit musical Kinky Boots succeeds exceptionally well at doing just that, creating a big, bright fun musical entertainment that also delivers a timely and important message in a believable way.

Issues surrounding gender and gender equality have always been important and deserving of attention and discussion. At this moment, these issues seem to be especially at the forefront of our conversations across this country and beyond. It seems like the perfect moment for a play that focuses on these issues in a fascinating and engaging way. Unfortunately, the production at Epic Theatre of Sarah Ruhl's Orlando fails to fulfill it's potential for generating those important questions and conversations. It does the opposite, seemingly playing it safe and keeping those important issues at a great distance from the audience.

Some great musicals are great because they take us to another time, another place, perhaps another world entirely, one unrecognizable and filled with magic and fantasy. Others are great because they offer us a realistic and recognizable image of our own lives, a mirror in which we see our struggles, hopes, joys, failures and successes. The really great ones do so while offering an audience a captivating story, deeply developed and universally human characters, stunning music and unforgettable songs with amazing lyrics. One such musical is Next To Normal, now playing as the final show in The Wilbury Group's current season.

There is a very famous episode of the classic TV show The Twilight Zone called 'The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.' The episode dramatizes the concepts of how and why people might in fact turn into monsters. It demands that the viewer ask 'who are the real monsters?' and 'is it us?' These sorts of questions about monsters and how they are created have been around for many years. One of the most famous, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, is now receiving a new and fascinating adaptation at Mixed Magic Theatre.

Family dynamics and dysfunction are well-worn territory for writers, artists, singers and all other creative types. Themes that run through family dramas are among the most universal themes a writer can employ. They are the stories that we all experience, instantly recognizable and relatable. In her play Absalom, now being presented by EPIC Theatre Company, Zoe Kazan mines these stories and universal human experiences for a tale that is all too familiar, for better or worse.

At times, it can be hard to imagine that there was ever a period in history when society was as celebrity-obsessed as we are right now. With the internet, social media, Twitter, 24-hour cable news and everything else, information about the rich and famous is everywhere, all the time. It seems impossible to avoid and seems that the public's appetite for it is insatiable. On the other hand, David Adjmi's play Marie Antoinette, now playing at the Gamm Theatre, casts the famous French queen in much the same kind of world. And while the uneven play doesn't offer much that's new or original, it does provide another lens through which we can view and examine our own society and it's problems.

Theater is often at its best when it is unconventional. Surprising. Innovative. While there is certainly merit in sticking to the old-fashioned and traditional ways of doing things, there's also great value in doing something new and outside-the-box. The success of doing so depends on many things, from the technical aspects of a production to the ability of the actors to create and tell the story in ways the audience can relate to, even in unfamiliar trappings. So far in the short lifespan of OUT LOUD Theatre, the company has excelled in doing just that, masterful storytelling that is delivered in creative and exciting ways.

Famous celebrities, singers, musicians, actors and the like, can often seem almost other-worldly. As if they're from some other dimension or planet, different from ours, one we'll never fully experience or understand. Others, though, seem so remarkably a part of our world and a familiar resident in it that the quality becomes one of their calling cards. For his entire decade-spanning career, John Mellencamp has been one of those artists. He has always had an everyman quality, as if he has worked the same jobs we have, dreamed the same dreams, lived the same life and had the same experiences. And, of course, he has had some of those same dreams and experiences, he's just been able to craft them into songs which have more than stood the test of time and still have as much relevance and power as on the day he wrote them.

Door-slamming farce can be a tough beast to tame. There's often so much going on, so much quick-moving action, doors opening and closing, characters literally running from place to place, that it can easily devolve into a confused mess. And there are usually so many witty retorts and double entendres, also often delivered very quickly, that they can sometimes be missed altogether. Luckily, in the hands of Trinity Repertory Company, A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, is handled with near-perfect precision.

There are many ways a playwright, filmmaker, writer or artist can work their themes and messages into a creative work. In some cases, those themes are delivered subtly, with nuance, so they're almost imperceptible at first but land in the audience's mind long after they've witnessed the work of art. At the other end of the spectrum, important messages can be put at the forefront, told in forceful and undeniable ways so that the audience is immediately confronted with them. Both of those approaches can and do often work. Unfortunately, in the Wilbury Group's current production of Rapture, Blister, Burn, the messages are delivered at the expense of a captivating compelling story or engaging characters.

There are some plays that are easily categorized. They fit a very specific label, nice and neat and tidy. Hamlet is a tragedy. Noises Off is a comedy. There's little room for doubt or debate. On the other hand, some plays defy definition. They challenge you to put them into a category or give them a label. When that happens, you can sometimes get a muddled, confused mess that never really works. Or, as in the case of The House of Blue Leaves, currently playing at the Gamm Theatre, you get an exciting and entertaining piece of theater that surprises in part because of just how well it works.

While Providence Performing Arts Center is known by many as the place in town where the big touring Broadway musicals make their local stop, PPAC isn't just about the Broadway shows. It's also a venue with a reputation for bringing in countless other kinds of performances, from stand-up comedy to internationally renowned dance troupes. Recently, PPAC has also hosted a string of amazing concert performances from some of the world's most talented and beloved musicians. Last year featured such performers as Beck and Jackson Browne and this year includes the recent appearance of Diana Krall, making a stop on her "Wallflower World Tour."

Coincidentally, Ocean State Theatre Company happens to be presenting back-to-back productions which are two-person shows. The first one, The Meeting, was a serious drama depicting the fictional meeting between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The second one is their current production of a much different show, the musical love story, The Last Five Years. While the first one had a noticeable but minor difference in the charisma and stage presence of its two performers, the second one is an example of just how obviously wide that gap can become and just how much the difference between its two leads can impact a production.

For theater aritsts and theater lovers, few things compare to watching the genesis of a new piece of theater. The creation and development of a new work, from initial staged readings and workshops to final performance, is a thrilling process. Of course, there are many steps along the way and not all of them are successful. Not every aspect of the play found in the first version of the script will make it to the final version. Not every beloved moment or great-idea-at-the-time will end up making the grade when all is said and done. Still, it's a process that is vital to the present and future of theater. Vital because new blood and new life must be created and injected into the theatrical world and it's up to theater artists everywhere to make sure that happens. In our region, one of the companies doing just that is The Wilbury Group, currently presenting the second iteration of a new work, Roadhouse: The Musical.

There are an endless number of ways for a new theater company to make its mark. In a crowded artistic and theatrical landscape, a fledgling company must find a way to stand out and be noticed. A way to make its voice heard. Some will succeed spectacularly while others will fail just as spectacularly. Now entering its third season, OUT LOUD Theatre has begun to carve out quite a successful path for itself. Last season's Metamorphoses proved just how talented and skillful the company could be at pure storytelling. This season's opening show, Fefu and Her Friends, allows the company to demonstrate equal talent in bringing a distinctive voice and vision to a theatrical event that is entertaining and exhilarating.

It may be something rare when a theater company is able to utilize its two performances spaces at the same time to feature two plays which are extremely similar yet completely different in important ways. Two plays that deal with similar issues and in a sense tell the same story, or kind of story, but execute that story with vastly differing results. Such is the case at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, where the current production in the UpStage space, Seminar, bares a striking resemblance to the just-closed production that playe din the DownStage space, Collected Stories. While Collected Stories was a finely crafted study of two nuanced and textured characters, Seminar is the exact opposite. This play, written by Theresa Rebeck, doesnt even begin to scratch beneath any surfaces as it deals with four writers who are participating in a writing seminar with a well-known, past-his-prime writer of fiction. As the seminar progresses over the course of a number of weeks, we begin to see conflicts arise as the egos, insecrities, passions, dreams and failures of the writers, young and old, tumble together and clash.

There is a well-known Native American proverb about the spirits of two wolves that live inside all of us. One is violent and aggressive. The other is peaceful and benevolent. The wolves are always fighting and the one that wins, according to the proverb, is the one we feed the most. In every battle we fight, we can choose which way to respond. Are we going to react with aggression and violence or with compassion and empathy?. Two of the greatest leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, were similarly two sides of the same coin. One preached nonviolent protest while the other was willing to use violence to stop or defend against violence. In Jeff Stetson's play The Meeting, receiving its New England premiere at Ocean State Theatre Company, we witness an imagined encounter between these two men, who in real life met only once, and briefly. This time, they get a little over an hour, in a hotel room in Harlem in 1965, to discuss, debate and arm wrestle, figuratively and literally, over the best way to achieve their common goals.