Richard Van Slyke News

Crown City Theatre Company turned 21 this year and to commemorate their 10th season in their own home will open with the World Premiere play 'Somewhere in the Middle (or guess who's coming for Passover) by Co-Artistic Director Gary Lamb.

'Somewhere in the Middle' is about a Jewish-Christian, middle-class family living in the Midwest. It's a funny and heartwarming comic-drama about prejudices and religious beliefs, which are brought to the forefront when the eldest over-achieving child (Sarah) comes home for the Passover/Easter holiday dressed in Muslim garb.

With this concise Wikipedia description in mind let's say that Michael John LaChuisa has taken liberties in composing his musical version of La Ronde called Hello Again. The musical first premiered off-Broadway in 1993. Liberties taken primarily are placing 10 scenes and characters in different time periods of the 20th century in a non-chronological order...and utilizing simulated raw sex in many of the scenes. When the whore (a very enticing Michelle Holmes) gets her hooks into the soldier (Cesar Cipriano), it is 1900. In the next scene the soldier comes onto the nurse in 1940. Mores changed with the times and sexual practices diversified, particularly in the 60s and 70s with Woodstock an open haven for hippies and rampant sex, and then later homosexuals coming out of the closet. Within these varying time periods, LaChuisa introduces a variety of musical styles that somehow manage to tie the stories together, making them more colorful and exciting. Now in a rare revival at Chromolume Theatre, Hello Again is receiving a fine production with even direction by Richard Van Slyke and a fantastic cast of 10 actors.

Chromolume Theatre at the Attic has announced the second production of its 2017 Season of Musicals, Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again. Opening on Friday, May 5 at 8pm, the show will play a strictly limited engagement through May 28. The Chromolume production will feature musical direction by Brenda Varda and will be directed by Richard Van Slyke. 

The Chromolume Theatre at The Attic in Los Angeles has announced a season of musicals for 2017, kicking off on January 13 with the off-Broadway hit Zanna, Don't! by Tim Acito, followed in May by Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again, and concluding with the rarely produced Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman classic Pacific Overtures, opening in September.

Talk about quirkiness and how it makes a musical rock! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is terribly funny in a smart, slick, offbeat manner with prize worthy characterizations of lively eclectic people.It may be a tad long like the actual spelling out of words (that are not to be believed!)yet the exaggeration and contestants' varied reactions give rise to some great comic moments...and I love the audience involvement! Some of the contestants are picked from the audience and their ad-libs lend one.of.a.kind hilarity. The unpredictability in denouement is another big plus in the overall enjoyment of the show. It's like a real contest. Who will win is anybody's guess!

It's been 50 years since Neil Simon wrote The Odd Couple, perhaps the most famous of his early plays. March, 1965. I was a freshman in college, and little did I know that one day I would play Felix Unger in a local production onstage. Needless to say, I was certainly smitten with the crazed character and his neurotic mannerisms and with Simon's terribly funny comedic lines, whenever I watched the film with Jack Lemmon and the TV series with Tony Randall. Not so easy to essay...this character - as I found out first hand - for this play with all its laugh.a.minute jokes is really a very serious drama about the frailty of relationships and how we suffer through them. Now onstage in a wonderfully grounded and real portrait, The Odd Couple still holds up; the Sierra Madre Playhouse production, under the meticulous direction of Alan Brooks, does the classic proud.

What do the 1950s have in common with 1912? Ages of innocence, both. When Meredith Willson wrote his story with Franklin Lacey about a con artist bamboozling an Iowa town in 1912, which formed the substance of his musical The Music Man (1957), the effect became like that of N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker. People were jubilant, ecstatic and welcomed Professor Harold Hill, as they craved a good old-fashioned love story coated with ironic excitement. He was a charmer, and they saw way past his bad side. Now in a jubilant new production at GCT, the company pulls out all the stops and yet presents a delightfully down.to.earth show that keeps the flavor of Meredith Willson in tact. With fast-paced direction from Valerie Rachelle and a terrific cast led by Brent Schindele, The Music Man offers a refreshing look at the way life should be.