Dinner and a Mystery? Whodunnit Welcomes New, Recurring Character in "Reflections..."

Reflections: Murder in a Hall of Mirrors

Written & directed by A. S. Waterman

Reviewed by Keith Waits.

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights reserved. 

Pictured left to right: Erica Goldsmith, Niles Welch,
Brian Kennedy, Teresa Wentzel, Jane Mattingly,
Graham Bell & Craig Nolan Highley in
Reflections: Murder in a Hall of Mirrors.
Photo courtesy of WhoDunnit Murder Mystery Theatre.

If you cross Perry Mason with Nancy Drew, the result might be Morgan Farewell, the new heroine of the latest WhoDunnit Murder Mystery Theatre production, Reflections: Murder in a Hall of Mirrors. Recently relocated to Rhode Island from San Francisco, the new Assistant District Attorney has inherited a doozy of a case, one that would appear to be a slam-dunk: the prosecution of the clearly insane Otto Bales for the murder of his son-in-law.

As played by Jane Mattingly, the spunky gamine public servant is deceptive: seemingly disorganized and inexperienced, she is actually equipped with a keen mind and gift for observation that allows her to discover the truth behind what everyone else sees as an open-and-shut case. It is a promising debut for a character intended to return each season in a new mystery, and this inaugural entry suggests mysteries about the character that we must assume will be explored in future chapters.

The rest of the cast is mostly satisfactory, and in a few instances more than that. Niles Welch exhibits mischief and delight as Otto Bales, and once again displays a knack for playing mentally damaged characters. Graham Bell is relentlessly annoying as Cal Carlson, an unscrupulous con game who can never put down his cell phone; while Teresa Wentzel was imperious as the Judge in the case who has more to tell us than this script will reveal. Brian Kennedy was an energetic defense attorney, although his attempt at an appropriate New England accent never could settle down. I liked John Collins’ work very much, essaying a shifty personality for the brother of the victim; and Erica Goldsmith was a sexy, slutty delight as the opportunist who appears to be sleeping her way through the male characters wrapped in this intrigue. Special commendation for Ms. Goldsmith’s continuing facility with accents, which in this production she is allowed to add a consistently rendered Russian dialect.

The courtroom setting is, of course, inherently dramatic but also works as an effective framework for the action in the long, horizontal space that WhoDunnit usually occupies in the Hyatt Regency.   The “stage” contains the set, but the action is effectively carried out into the dining tables, with characters occupying seats among the guests throughout the evening.

Witty and engaging, this is another winner from a company with a sure understanding of what it does well and, apparently, a successful approach to finding an audience, as its opening night performance was sold out.

Editor’s Note: WhoDunnit roles are double-cast to accommodate their particular schedule, and some actors mentioned here may not be appearing when you attend.

Reflections: Murder in a Hall of Mirrors

February 11 – March 31, 2012

Seating at 6:30 / Show starts at 7:00

WhoDunnit Murder Mystery Theatre

Performing at the Hyatt Downtown

320 West Jefferson Street

Louisville, KY 40202

http://www.whodunnitky.com/

New Exhibit at KMAC Challenges Traditional Concepts of Craft

Into the Mix

at The Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft

By Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks. All rights reserved. 

My early morning visit to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC) afforded me the opportunity not only to view the new exhibition, Into the Mix, but also to meet the new director, Aldy Milliken.  Into the Mix opened on February 3 and features ten Caribbean artists, including regional names Carlos Gamez de Francisco (Louisville) and Ebony Patterson (Lexington).

Aldy Milliken took over as director for KMAC in January 2012 after running the Milliken Gallery and spending 15 years in Sweden. His experience as a curator of contemporary art was immediately included into the process of creating Into the Mix. Although the exhibition had been planned well in advance of Milliken’s hire, he changed many of the artists and steered the exhibition more towards craft and slightly away from a focus on the Caribbean. His goal was to avoid generalizing cultures while simultaneously challenging the idea of craft in a way that would inspire the local community. With every exhibition, Milliken hopes to address the issue of how the public will interact with the space. He wants the museum to show quality work while fostering education and inspiration.  

Upon entering the gallery, I was pleased to walk in on a large school group viewing and actively engaged with the work. One of Milliken’s new initiatives is to include more educational opportunities within their shows. Two interactive art projects easily occupied the young minds, while a computer station (funded by an NEA grant) allowed the students to research the artists and learn more about Caribbean culture.   

Touch, video by Janine Antoni.
Photo by Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks.

Into the Mix is a diverse exhibition displaying everything from video to paper masks. Milliken arranged the show in a variety of vignettes, showcasing the relationships between artists and materials. Talking with Milliken, I learned that many of the works represent a theme of balance: realtiy vs. concept; craft vs. technology. Janine Antoni, one of the better-known artists in the exhibition, vividly demonstrates these themes in her video. The moving image gives the appearance that Antoni is walking on the horizon and demonstrates the idea of reality vs. concept.  At first, it may be hard to see how this work fits in the craft category.  However, the precise framing and careful execution of even this simple concept reminds the viewer that films must be crafted, just as a ceramic vessel or painting must be made. The artist develops a concept and gathers the materials needed to create the film. In this case, Antoni developed the composition for her film, then made the rope, then taught herself how to walk on the tightrope. 

Heino Schmid’s video piece also challenges the viewer in a similar fashion. In the film, a man’s hands tries to balance two empty glass bottles on one another. For a brief moment he succeeds, but the bottles quickly topple over onto the table.  The process repeats itself.  Here Schmid speaks to the relationship between craft and technology. The artist is taking a common cultural reference from the Bahamas (the balancing bottle act is a con often targeting tourists) and placing it in a minimal and non-traditional setting (using a white background with clear glass bottles).  It still has a strong connection to the traditional idea of craft (making the film, developing the concept, gathering materials) but introduces the viewer to a new method and further challenges them.

Detail of Untitled (Tyres) by Blue Curry.
Photo by Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks.

Not all of the work in Into the Mix is non-traditional. Many of the artists have pieces that are more familiar to the viewers but still slightly provocative. Blue Curry’s work uses shells and beads in interesting compositions. One of his installations is a set of tires covered in beads forming a unique snake skin design on each tire. Curry has taken a more common craft item (beads) and used it in an unusual setting, allowing the viewer a fresh take on the familiar material.

Marlon Griffith installation. Photo by
Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks.

Two other pieces work with a different sense of scale than the rest of the show. Marlon Griffith’s work reaches back to our childhood memories of craft in the sense that he has cut paper to create masks. In this case, Marlon Griffith created the series of paper masks onsite the week before the exhibition opened. Approaching the sculpture, viewers can see the paper scraps covering the floor beneath the masks, which are joined together and suspended from the ceiling. This time-sensitive piece was created just for this exhibition and will cease to exist after the show ends.  Viewers can walk underneath the piece and even try a mask on. Griffith has taken a traditional material but used it in a very nontraditional way and, like Curry, uses familiar materials to elevate the idea of craft as something that can be contemporary and unsure.

Little Gestures, Installation by Christopher Cozier.
Photo by Mary Margaret Carlton Sparks.

Christopher Cozier’s installation covers a large section of floor with images of identical benches on little paper stands. Cozier’s parents worked as civil servants for the government and their jobs consisted of stamping, cutting and clipping paper. The artist uses the same process in this piece by stamping the bench image, cutting the paper and clipping it to make a three-dimensional piece that can stand on the floor.  He also includes an activity where viewers can make their own bench to take home, thereby making conceptual art more accessible and further exploding the concept of craft.

Into the Mix helps to challenge the norm and elevate craft into the contemporary art scene. This exhibit is a must-see, providing an eye-opening and visually pleasing experience for viewers. 

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft  

715 West Main Street

Louisville, KY 40202

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10AM-5PM, Saturday 11AM-5PM.

British Thriller at Little Colonel's Features a Good Twist but Little Excitement

Inspector Davies, left, played by Cook Farmer, questions Howard Holt, 
played by Allen Schuler (center), and his wife, Karen Holt (right), 
played by Candy Thomas, in a "Something to Hide," 
a thriller playing at The Little Colonel Playhouse.

Something to Hide

By Leslie Sands

Directed by Bob Zielinski

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

There is a particular type of British thriller or mystery story-telling format that thrives in community theatre circles: one simple room for a set, a handful of characters struggling to overcome stereotypical expectations, and a few modest twists and turns in the plot just sneaky enough to avoid seeming too predictable to the average theatre-goer. Something to Hide is a good representative sample of this type of material; better than some perhaps, but mostly a less-than-sterling example.

The plot concerns a successful novelist married to a woman who is also his publisher, but who has a mistress on the side. As the play opens, the mistress is about to depart the country house of the novelist, unaware that her fate will be the beginning of a tragic series of events, the unraveling of which will form the remainder of the story.

The mediocrity of the script seems to dull the good senses of the director and cast a bit, although they work hard to summon up some emotional energy and dramatic conflict within the limited confines of the material. There also are attempts at appropriate accents, all arrived at with varying degrees of success. As the married couple, Allen Schuler and Candy Thomas used fairly non-distinct English dialects that lacked specificity, although I suppose one could argue that these were at least never distracting. Tiffany Smith, as the mistress, and Kirsten McDowell, as the maid in the country house, both went in the opposite direction, overdoing more pronounced, if obviously studied, working class accents that could not quite contain each performer’s natural Southern drawl. All four struggled to bring life to their characters, with Mr. Schuler and Ms. Smith managing to build some good momentum and engaging interaction in the second act. To be fair to Ms. Smith and Ms. McDowell, the mistress and the maid are both small roles that offer little to work with, and the latter is saddled with curious comic asides directed to the audience that, while funny, seemed out-of-place in relationship to the play as a whole.

Happily, Cook Farmer enters as the slightly eccentric and underwhelming Inspector Davies. Mr. Farmer absolutely nails the archetypal character of an ordinary policeman so unimpressive in his detecting that one finds it hard to believe that he could solve anything. But of course, he does, owing as much to luck as skill. Equally effective was Elaine Hackett as the nosy neighbor Miss Cunningham, again essaying with aplomb an all-too-familiar character in the English mystery genre, the prying old maid/widower. Although not of equal importance to the resolution of the story, these two actors, veterans of many local stages, were key to anchoring this production against the tides of indifference.

The whole thing is harmless enough, I suppose. But the lackadaisical pace never allows for genuine tension, and the last, pretty good, plot twist fails to truly surprise in the manner in which it was clearly intended, making for a reasonably engaging comic thriller that never fulfills its promise, despite the solid work of Mr. Farmer.

Something to Hide

February 9-19, 2012

Little Colonel Playhouse

302 Mount Mercy Drive

Crestwood, KY 40014

(502) 241-9906

littlecolonel.org‎

Youthful Writers Effectively Explore Different Worlds at Walden Theatre

2012 Young Playwrights Festival

Walden Theatre

Reviewed by Kathi E.B. Ellis

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Kathi E.B. Ellis. All rights reserved

Walden Theatre’s annual Young Playwrights Festival was held this past weekend on the Nancy Niles Sexton stage. The Festival featured eight plays written by current Walden Theatre students, with actors drawn from the Walden student body and directors from ATL interns, a Stage One staff member and a Walden alumna.

The scripts reflected a broad range of realism and parody, with subjects ranging from teen love to post-Depression survival to cults based on franchises of toys and movies.  In general the scripts were most successful when the young playwrights focused on themes and characters which are discernibly part of their life experiences.  It was somewhat concerning that the teacher figures in all of the plays in which they appeared were characterized as shouting, unfeeling, and unobservant.  While there are, no doubt, teachers that fit these descriptions, it’s unfortunate that these are the only versions of teachers we saw on stage; I’d like to think that, at least at Walden, the students experience teaching artists who transcend this stereotype.

The two scripts that resonated most with me were One Last Dance (Ian Jackson, 12th grade) and Scars (Jack Keyes, 9th grade). The writing in both these plays felt authentic to the experiences of the teen characters, and directors honored the intimacy of the conversations between the two characters in each script. In One Last Dance, Mr. Jackson brings a young man and a young woman to the outside steps of a party where they talk about who they love. It’s clear these two care about each other, trusting each other with their emotions, and there’s a sense that each of them, at different times, could be describing the other as the one they love. The twist at the end – as to who actually loves whom – was crafted effectively.  Scars is a poignant exploration of how young teens respond to family crises and the way their community treats them as a result of those events; the quiet resilience of children in such circumstances was etched with a resigned acceptance of the vagaries of adults.

The first three plays of the program dealt, variously, with school themes:  #2 Pencil Only (Lilia Conklin, 9th grade), Time Play (Lucy Fitzgerald, 8th grade), and Table 3 (Travis Ryan, 9th grade). Ms. Conklin takes the opportunity of a test and an absent (though somewhat implausibly) teacher to riff on the idea of popularity and power in the classroom. The types of students about whom she writes are highly recognizable and the secondary characters’ dialogue rings true. I suspect some editing would strengthen the main character’s trajectory. It’s possible that staging choices (or setting description from the playwright) may have impacted the role of the teacher – the storage cupboard being more visible, the potential reappearance of the teacher, and the possibility of him overhearing would give more urgency to the actions in the classroom.  Ms. Fitzgerald’s exploration of time is delightfully quirky, with an irrationally-assigned detention providing the opportunity for a student to step into a parallel time zone. Would this student have overcome her embarrassment about writing a boy’s name on her binder without this out-of-time detour? We can’t be sure, but the sweet outcome was refreshing. Mr. Ryan’s lunchtime extravaganza – and nightmare for running crew – is a tongue-in-cheek re-structuring of the clique-ishness of school cafeterias.  The characters in this piece are clearly ‘types’ but are written with a robustness that allows them to be more than merely stereotypes.

Wandering (Olivia Millar, 8th grade) is a dark examination of the sometimes desperate choices we make when we care for someone.  Ms. Millar sets her story in a non-specific post-Depression period; it’s not clearly the Great Depression of the 1930s, so it’s possible to interpret it as potentially contemporary, which is disquieting. The one structural weakness is the underwritten arrival of the fourth child – Who is she? Where does she come from? What’s her story? Is she just there to observe and report on the fatal action?  With undertones of themes from Lord of the Flies, The Road, and similar post-disaster writings, it would be interesting to see this developed more.

Ze Pizza Delivery Guy (Jack Schaver, 8th grade) was the piece I found most problematic. 

All the characters in this piece are adults and their dialogue and interactions don’t ring true. The intervention of the police at the end provides a too-convenient resolution to what has become an almost-farcical script. 

Chris Lockhart’s (11th grade) More Than Meets the Eye was placed last on the program, presumably because it is almost twice as long as the other plays.  This served the play and was a needed lift after the two preceding more serious pieces; but the convention of a complete blackout between the two scenes – after blackouts following the preceding one-scene plays – allowed the energy of the piece to dissipate.  Mr. Lockhart’s transposition of Transformers’ characters and conflicts into the lives of college students demonstrates a sure comedic hand, together with a sly side-swipe at the hypocrisy of those who claim to have found a New Way. The denouement was delightful, and could be even more tightly written – audiences will get it.

The Walden actors entered into the worlds of each of these scripts with energy and commitment. It was particularly rewarding to see that these young actors are comfortable with stillness and silence on stage; obviously they moved and spoke, but they and their directors also found the moments when characters needed to be quiet and unmoving. They did so effectively and without looking uncomfortable or rushing through those moments – an important attribute to gain this early in their careers.

Kathi E.B. Ellis is a member of the Lincoln Center and Chicago Directors' Labs and an associate member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society. She has attended the LaMama Directing Symposium in Umbria, Italy, and is featured in Southern Artisty, an online registry of outstanding Southern Artists.  Her directing work has been recognized with nominations for the South Florida Theatre Carbonell Award.  Locally, Kathi is a member of Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, a founding principal of StageLab theatre training studio, and is part of ShoeString Productions an informal producing collective. She has written book reviews and articles for Southern Theatre, the quarterly publication of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and was a contributing writer for JCPS' textbook for the 11th grade Arts and Humanities survey course and for YouthArts Tapestry, a Kentucky Arts Council publication.

2012 Young Playwrights Festival

February 9-11 @ 7:30
February 11 @ 2:00pm

Walden Theatre

1123 Payne Street

Louisville, KY

(502) 589-0084

http://www.waldentheatre.org/

New Production from Le Petomane is "A Gleeful Ode" to Song & Fairy Tales

Kristie Rolape and Heather Burns in Once in A Blue Noon. 
Photo courtesy of Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble.

Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble presents

Once in A Blue Moon

Review by Todd Zeigler

Entire contents copyright © 2012 by Todd Zeigler. All rights reserved.

They’re musicians too!?!

Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble has become a favorite in Louisville by mining the long history of performing arts and tossing elements they like into the blender of its collective imagination. And wouldn’t you know it, they’ve gone and created a musical – of sorts. Le Petomane’s Once in a Blue Moon is a gleeful ode to the expressive power of song replete with original music accompanied by the familiar Le Petomane magic: masks, movement, dance, actual magic and some knowing winks to the audience.

The story is a basic myth, playing dress-up as a fairy tale, with a little Dr. Seuss laced throughout. Long ago, a mysterious blue coyote from far away hung the moon for all to appreciate. Of course they didn’t appreciate it, so the coyote stole the music of the world. Years later, Princess Ruby was born with the gift – no, compulsion is more accurate – to sing. She is of course forbidden, so she sneaks away to the dark forest one night (see where this is going?) to sing her heart out. The coyote’s compatriots show up, and Ruby’s song is stolen. She must risk great danger to get it back.

Sounds basic enough. Even Ruby’s Fairy Thoughtfather, a country crooner who dispenses evermore nonsensical pearls of wisdom, lays out all the elements directly to the audience of exactly how this will end up. But as anyone who has seen Le Petomane interpret history’s most read playwright knows, the magic is in what they do with the material. This Maupin-less Le Pet quartet is as capable and inventive with instruments as with…well, just about anything else they put their hands on. Musical styles from country ballads to African rhythms to punk rock create and underscore the story. Kyle Ware plays a sweet acoustic guitar and provides some unsettling minimalist distortion for the coyote’s theme. Tony Dingman creates an entire percussion palate with an empty propane tank. (Yes, you read that right.) Dingman, Heather Burns and Kristy Rolape perform an extended polyrhythmic stomp routine that got my head bobbing without me even realizing it.

The company’s acting performances are everything we’ve come to expect: superb in all aspects. As the blue coyote, Burns is a seductive blend of playfulness and danger, the sort of nature god you’d best respect should you encounter it in the moonlit woods. She also shines in comedic turns as Airhead Rocker and Drawly Truck Stop Waitress. I may be relatively new to town, but to my eyes and ears, Kyle Ware is the funniest actor in Louisville. His Fairy Thoughtfather is ridiculously silly while being gently supportive and sweet to Ruby, and his dashing Blue Rogue is Errol Flynn spouting arch couplets. His business with an unwieldy bow staff would’ve been much admired in the silent film era. Dingman is great with broad types, and he capably plays his fair share here: wizened-yet-doddering king, science nerd, and his feature role, a shady fedora-adorned tango expert who works for the coyote. He’s more “Kind of Blue” than “Guys and Dolls,” and his tractor beam gaze does plenty to pull Ruby along her journey to maturity, if you know what I mean. Finally, Kristy Rolape is a delight as Ruby. She finds the perfect balance of wide-eyed innocence and mischief to pull off a child’s role, and her singing voice is lovely.

Something that also deserves mentioning:  the costuming. Each character is imaginatively conceived, vivid and distinct. The coyote’s mask is immediate, alluring and intimidating, though a lot of the latter quality has to do with all that Heather Burns does behind it. Ruby’s gown is an eye-catching combination of colors and properly aesthetically contrasts her to everyone else in this world. Great attention to detail on the designer’s part.

As much as Le Petomane does with Blue Moon, it needs just a bit more work to stand up in their acclaimed repertoire. There are always sight line problems at The Rud, and for the most part they are managed. But more than once I really wanted to see something (particularly Dingman’s propane hand drum – Why have him sit? Build the man a stand!) and couldn’t. Some story elements seem extraneous. As impressive and exciting as it was, the truck stop rhythm fest didn’t seem to advance the story.

There’s also the danger of being too self-aware with your story. Self-awareness is inversely proportional to dramatic tension. Yes, this is a story anyone who has seen The Little Mermaid or even Star Wars knows. But laying it all out at the top hurts your hero’s cause. And announcing that we’re about to start act three kicks the audience’s brains onto the topic of intermissions and bathrooms and away from your tale. (There is no intermission, but no worries – the show clocks in around 75 minutes).

Nonetheless, the show is quite a performance showcase for all this talented group can do, and I certainly hope it’s something they’ll continue developing and bring back. I’m a sucker for a classic story done well, which is very much what Once in a Blue Moon is.

               

Todd Zeigler came to the Kentuckiana area in 2005 with a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. He has been putting it to use covering the local theatrical scene since 2007 while putting that drama minor to use as Associate Director of the Alley Theater, a board member of Louisville Repertory Company, and appearing in various stage and screen projects around town, some of which he writes and directs. Outside the theater, he spends time with his doggie Bradley, his drums, and lovely wife Amy, whom he is grateful is also a theater person and understands (for the most part) why he's always out so late.

 

Once in A Blue Moon

February 10-11, 13, 17-18 @7:30pm

Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble

At The Rudyard Kipling

422 West Oak Street

Louisville, KY 40203

http://www.lepetomane.org/

Tickets: $8-$20 on the usual Le Petomane sliding scale
Contact Us@LePetomane.org or (502)609-2520 for tickets.
For pre-show dinner reservations, call The Rudyard Kipling at (502) 636-1311

Iconic "Angel Street" Given a Praiseworthy Execution by As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company

Michael Jester as Jack Manningham & Larry Chaney 
as Inspector Rough in Angel Street. 
Photo courtesy of As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company.

Angel Street

By Patrick Hamilton

Directed by Gary Tipton

Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.

Angel Street, or as it's better known by its original British title Gaslight, is one of the few classic shows that can truly be considered iconic. In the nearly three quarters of a century since it was first produced, it has been adapted and imitated so many times that for the uninitiated, the plot can seem predictable and dated. In fact, it is so familiar that its original title has become the clinical term for a criminal act of psychological manipulation!

With so much baggage clinging to it, any theater company attempting a production today deserves credit for just being brave enough to attempt it. I’m glad to say that the As Yet Unnamed Theater Company deserves praise for both the attempt and the ultimate execution in their latest production.

By today’s standards it is an odd script; it isn’t really suspenseful enough to call it a thriller, there is almost no comic relief so it definitely isn’t a comedy, and it contains enough criminal and macabre elements that it can’t really be classified as a drama. It could easily have been played up for camp value, but thankfully director Gary Tipton has enough respect for the material to have his actors play it straight. The resulting performance manages to hold attention, if not suspense, until the truly unsettling moment at the very end where well-deserved comeuppance is meted out.

The story is fairly straightforward: a young wife (Jennifer Poliskie) fears she is losing her mind when she repeatedly hears unexplained noises in the night and minor items keep going missing. Her overbearing husband (Michael Jester) is no comfort, and his constant verbal abuse only makes matters worse. With the arrival of a retired detective (Larry Chaney), the mystery receives an early resolution and the rest of the play is all about avoiding and then apprehending the guilty party.

In an ironic twist of fate, this already risky project faced what could have been a death-dealing blow: it lost its original leading lady with just six rehearsals to go. Luckily for the company, Poliskie was ready, willing, and available. Her performance is outstanding even without considering her short rehearsal time, but factoring that in just makes hers an absolutely incredible turn. She has your sympathy from the get go, and will have you rooting for her even in the show’s final moments when she may or may not be about to do something horrible.

Any crime drama is only as good as its villain, and this show is no exception. The role of the abusive husband was created on Broadway by no less a luminary than the incomparable Vincent Price. While Jester looks absolutely nothing like him, Price’s spirit is indelibly stamped all over his performance, both in his slow, deliberate speaking style and his regal bearing. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it works to sell this unctuous character (with a smattering of James Mason thrown in just for flavor).

As the heroic detective, Larry Chaney turns in a fine, understated performance. He adds a bit of a fatherly, protective vibe, giving a much-needed softening to the proceedings. As the two serving women who both help and hamper the proceedings, Morgan Schussler-Williams and Carolyn Holbrook each get some amusing moments.

On the technical side, Tipton’s set and the work of an uncredited costume designer are flawless, evoking the Victorian Period and enhanced by Tipton’s moody lighting design.

Overall this is a solid production. It does drag at times thanks to the dated script, but the cast and crew give it their all and I can’t imagine a better modern performance of this slightly creaky classic!

Angel Street

Starring Larry Chaney, Carolyn Holbrook, Michael Jester, Jennifer Poliskie, Steve Rockhold, Howard Whitman, and Morgan Schussler-Williams.

February 10, 11, 17 & 18 @ 8 p.m.
February 12 & 19 @ 2 p.m.

The As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company

The MeX Theatre, Kentucky Center

501 West Main Street

Louisville, KY 40202

502-584-7777

New Effort from The Alley Theatre is Funny and Unexpected

Hughesical, The Improvised Reunion Musical

Presented by The Bad Actors Club

Directed by J.P. Lebangood

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

I think it is always a good thing to be surprised when you go to the theatre. I entered The Alley Theater expecting a pop-culture savvy parody chock full of references to the oeuvre of filmmaker John Hughes: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink. This freewheeling company’s history of shows like Evil Dead: the Musical, Point Break Live! and most recently The Matrix Live! The Parody would certainly lead you to expect such an enterprise.

Instead, the familiar archetypes and tropes of the Hughes 1980s-era high school melodrama become the building blocks for a loosely structured, lithe and nimble evening of improvisational comedy ably guided by director J.P. Lebangood, who is himself a key presence onstage, framing the action as an MC of sorts. The cast of six randomly (?) select their identities as The Punk, The Prom Queen, The Freak, The Geek, The Jock, and The Rich Kid and then proceed to spin a story that follows the six from high school through more or less dismal adult lives until their class reunion 25 years later. As is customary with improv comedy, input from the audience cues the developing scenario.

It is fair to say that, at least on the evening I was in attendance, while the focus often drifted away from Hughes parody in the strictest sense, it never strayed far from being very funny. The ensemble seemed to be having a good time and was bright and quick in their responses, displaying sure understanding of the source material but also easily abandoning the core idea in pursuit of more subversive tangents. Especially fascinating was how Mr. Lebangood actively and spontaneously directed the activity, interjecting himself directly when things started to go flat, or accompanying certain moments with extemporaneous lyrics from an offstage microphone. It was an effective balance of order and chaos, energized by risk and uncertainty. He also makes good use of musician Aaron Crater, whose accompaniment on electric piano was expert, but who also found sure laughs warming up the audience.

According to the program notes, the show underwent significant change from the original concept of a scripted musical intended for the more generous space that The Alley occupied before moving into this smaller downstairs venue. Ever since moving into The Pointe, Alley chief Scott Davis has had to work in an ever-changing environment, lending each production an underlying uncertainty. It makes it hard to imagine their work ever becoming complacent, and the edge and energy that results is perfectly embodied in the work onstage in this production. The program also makes it clear that Hughesical, The Improvised Reunion Musical is an evolving work destined to return in a presumably more “developed” form in the future, and that this version is but a “first run.”  It will be interesting to see if it is as much fun once it begins to be codified, but the experimental rendition now on display works very well on its own terms: it is damn funny!

Featuring Kimberly Taylor-Peterson, April Singer, Madeline Dee, Scott Goodman, Scott R. Davis, and Tony Smith.

Hughesical, The Improvised Reunion Musical

February 9, 10, 11, 17 & 18, 2012.  All shows at 7:30.
Tickets, Advance: $18 General Admission; Student, Senior, Military $16
Day of Show: $20 General Admission; Senior, Military: $18
Student: $10 with valid current student ID at the box office
Season ticket eligible * Group Rates available

The Alley Theater

1205 East Washington Street

Louisville, KY 40202

502-589-3866

http://thealleytheater.org/site/