Theatre Review by Craig Nolan Highley: "Moon Over Buffalo"

By Ken Ludwig

Directed by Anny Alexander

Ken Ludwig’s Moon Over Buffalo is a masterpiece of physical comedy and comic timing. It is the very definition of “door-slamming farce” and is such a juicy script that it managed to lure Carol Burnett back to the stage after a 30-year hiatus in its original Broadway production. Its various incarnations have featured such luminaries as Jane Connell, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Goulet, Frank Langella, and Joan Collins.

So it’s no surprise that so many theater groups are drawn to the piece, as the show is a comic actor’s dream. The Little Colonel Playhouse’s current production is probably the third version I’ve seen in half a dozen years, but it still had me rolling on the floor laughing at the sheer genius of a script that remains fresh no matter how familiar you become with it.

The story concerns George and Charlotte Hay, a pair of aging, husband-and-wife actors, at a Buffalo theatre in 1953. Both are vain, in denial of their advancing years, and determined to leave the stage behind for a career in the movies. On an afternoon where everything goes wrong (temperamental actors quit, George’s extramarital dalliances are discovered, etc.), it is revealed that none other than Frank Capra will be in today’s audience. Ronald Colman and Greer Garson have just dropped out of Capra’s new movie, you see, and the famous director is considering George and Charlotte as replacements.

That’s the setup for pure situational comedy gold and LCP’s cast pulls it off, amazingly. This type of shtick is very easy to screw up if not done exactly right and with perfect timing, and the cast kept me cackling through every drunken rant and case of mistaken identity. By the time the doors started slamming and the actors were running breathlessly in and out of every stage entrance, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t catch my breath!

The cast is a who’s-who of familiar local actors, many of whom present us with some of their best work. As George, Michael McCollom gives what is easily his greatest performance yet. I had doubts about his ability to pull off such a huge and complicated character, but he nails it. Grace Poganski also introduces us to one of her greatest creations yet, making Charlotte a force of nature but yet still imbuing her with enough humanity that you can still root for her.

Nancy Hoover is comic gold as Charlotte’s mother, Ethel, whose hearing loss leads to many of the show’s conflicts. Magdalen Hartman, as the Hays’ long-suffering daughter Rosalind, shows us she is not just a pretty face but a true comic actor, especially in a later scene where she is forced to try to save a live performance that is rapidly going to Hell.

Andrew K. McGill has some of the show’s funniest moments as Rosalind’s clueless weatherman fiancé, Katie Hay shows a lot of spunk as George’s one-night stand who refuses to go quietly in the night, and Howard Whitman is all arrogance and swagger as the Hays’ lecherous lawyer. 

Brian Kennedy, like Ms. Hartman, uses his good looks to great comic effect as the Hays’ long-suffering production manager (and Rosalind’s ex); some of the pitfalls his character overcomes are exhausting!

I can’t usually make this statement with community theater productions, but there was not a single miscast performer in any of the roles. This is easily one of the best ensembles I have seen in the entire Louisville theater area, and I have to strongly congratulate director Anny Alexander for putting this group together.

The only negatives I noticed were on the technical side, and were mostly minor quibbles. The five doors arranged around the stage that the actors are constantly running in and out of seemed ill-defined as to their purpose, other than their obvious need for the constant door-slamming. It really seemed the doors never lead to the same place twice, as characters refer to different destinations each time they used them. I found it a little confusing and I don’t know whether this was a script or directing issue. (I don’t recall this being a problem in other productions of the show I have seen.)

The most glaring thing, though, was the “General Patton Uniform,” which plays a major part in the proceedings. It is referred to several times, but when we finally see it, it is nothing of the kind. If anything, it looked like a half-dressed cartoon Nazi.

Otherwise, though, the set looked fantastic and realistic, and the costumes perfectly evoked the period. Big kudos to the team of Anny Alexander, Bill Baker, Bob Burke, Darren Burke, and Jane Burke for the set and Dan Goodrich for the costumes.

So do yourself a favor. Make the drive out to the Little Colonel Playhouse, turn your brain off for a couple of hours, and enjoy the lunacy of Moon Over Buffalo, easily one of the best tickets in town!

Starring Cristeen Grasch, Magdalen Hartman, Katie Hay, Nancy Hoover, Brian Kennedy, Michael McCollom, Andrew K. McGill, Grace Poganski, and Howard Whitman.

MOON OVER BUFFALO

Little Colonel Playhouse

302 Mount Mercy Drive

Crestwood, KY 40014

(502) 241-9906

littlecolonel.org‎

Entire contents are copyright © 2011, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.

Theatre Review by Kate Barry: Fifth Third Bank's "Dracula"

Originally dramatized by John L Balderston and Hamilton Dean
Based on the novel by Bram Stoker
Adapted and directed by William McNulty

Well, today is the first day of autumn, which can only mean one thing:  my favorite holiday – Halloween – is right around the corner. The holiday that celebrates things that go bump in the night. And it’s only fitting that I watched Actors Theatre of Louisville's theatrical adaptation of Dracula to get into the holiday spirit. Although the plot might be the same every year, diehard fans and newcomers alike won’t be disappointed by the scary adventure in the Bingham Theatre.

Having seen previous productions, I was excited to travel to Dr. Seward’s sanatorium and visit these characters plagued by terror. I entered the theatre with certain queries. What will this year’s vampires look like? To what depths will Renfield’s insanity delve? Will Van Helsing and Dr. Seward be able to save Lucy? And how about that Count Dracula fellow; what will he be like? Most importantly, how scared am I going to be during this show? The vampires or Undead Ensemble are both creepy and beautiful as they leap, hiss and scream at all four corners of the stage. Calvin Smith plays Count Dracula in demon form. He was an acrobatic beast, leaping and tumbling around the stage in the prologue as he corners Mina, the play’s first victim.


In past years, Actors Theatre has produced variations of Dracula from Renfield’s point of view. This year, Alex Morf plays Renfield as a rambling, scurrying rat who looks as though he has escaped from the sewer. I was most impressed not only with how willing he was to throw his body around the stage in almost every one of his scenes, but also with how quickly he transitioned from laugh-out-loud funny to a tragically haunted prisoner of Count Dracula.


Director William McNulty plays Abraham Van Helsing, the skeptical Dutch doctor who has come to rid the world of Dracula’s wide-spread panic. The choice to cast the director is a daring move. I have seen Actors Theatre do this before in The Tempest when Mark Masterson filled in as Prospero. Serving as director, actor as well as script adapter, McNulty had his hands full. McNulty’s adaptation places Van Helsing in an ensemble of people who are mutually inflicted by Count Dracula, making him not the most prominent character but rather an equal to other victims. The voice of reason, McNulty was wise and mature as he tries to solve matters that are “beyond the realm of conventional science.”


And then there’s Dracula, played by Rufio Lerma. Men want to kill him and women are defenseless against him. Lermas’s Count is hypnotic and charming, but he never lets his audience forget that he is the villain. Whether he is cheekily making fun of himself with such lines as “I never drink…wine,” or “Humans? I thrive on them,” or seducing his victims in the middle of the night, Lerma’s Dracula is a powerful, blood-thirsty presence.


I think it goes without saying that this is not a show for the weak at heart. There is a lot of (fake) blood spilled on stage as well as screaming, creepy laughter, eerie music and a pulsating chorus of the phrase “He’s going to get me” at the top of the show. This is a show that is meant to frighten as well as entertain, just in time for Halloween. So if screaming blood-thirsty vampires sound like a real treat this October, head on down to Actors Theatre to grab a seat for Dracula.


Fifth Third Bank’s Dracula
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Bingham Theater
September 16-October 30th
Third & Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
502-584-1205
www.ActorsTheatre.org


Entire contents are copyright © 2011 Kate Barry. All rights reserved.

Music review by Carol Larson: Bourbon Baroque at the Bard's Town

Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Theatre at the Bard’s Town Restaurant was the venue for this performance by Louisville’s Period Instrument Ensemble, Bourbon Baroque. The Theatre, located on the upper level, is a great space for early music concerts.

The program began with the Tombeau de Monsieur de Meliton for two Violas da Gamba and Continuo by French Baroque composer Marin Marais. Mr. Marais was a student of Lully and a master of the Viola da Gamba. In fact, he was the leading French composer of music for that instrument. It was he who “founded and firmly established the empire of the viol.” This piece was beautifully played by the ensemble. The slow and sustained phrases were glorious. The entire piece was a joy to the “listening soul.” The same can be said for the next piece, the Allemande from the Suite in D Minor for three Violas da Gamba and Continuo by Antoine Forqueray. The group was very connected to the music and to each other and the rendering of these two pieces was mesmerizing.


The Passacaglia (Passacaille in French) is a piece composed for organ or harpsichord whose foundation is the basso ostinato (ground bass). This form is majestic and often sorrowful and employs a slow tempo in a triple meter. (One of the best known examples of the passacaglia in Western classical music is the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor by J. S. Bach.)  However, the French clavecinists, especially Louis Couperin, were noted for their use of the passacaille form. Johan Austin Clark's performance of the Passacaille in G by Louis Couperin transported the audience right to the grand court of Louis XIV and all its majesty. Bravo to John Austin for an interpretation that was truly magnifique!


Violinists Nicola Fortin and Margaret Little next delighted the audience with the Sonata in C Minor by Telemann. The sighing phrases in the Affettuoso movement were beautiful, and the excitement of the Vivace and Allegro movements was brilliant!


The concert concluded with the featured work of the evening, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B Flat, BWV 1051, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach wrote a set of six instrumental works that he presented to Christian Lugwig, Margrave of Brandenburg; hence the name, Brandenburg Concertos. These concertos are among the finest and most popular musical compositions of the Baroque era. The Concerto No. 6 is scored for two Violas da Braccio, two Violas da Gamba, Cello, Violone, and Harpsichord. Once again, this ensemble played flawlessly. The musical interweaving of the viola parts, the support of the lower strings and harpsichord, combined with the vast musical knowledge of the players created a stellar performance.


Just another wonderful evening with Louisville's Period Instrument Ensemble, Bourbon Baroque!


Bourbon Baroque
http://www.bourbonbaroque.com/

Entire contents copyright 2011 by Carol Larson. All rights reserved.

Opera Review by Scott Dowd: “Carmen” at the Brown Theatre

Kentucky Opera has set a high standard for the 2011-12 season with their production of Carmen, which officially opens tonight at the Brown Theatre. Performances continue this Sunday afternoon and conclude next Friday evening.

Based on an 1845 novel by Prosper Mérimée’s novel of the same name Georges Bizet’s popular opera premiered in 1875 and has been a mainstay of the repertoire ever since; some much so that it is popularly referred to as one of the “ABCs of Opera,” meaning that, along with Aida and La Bohéme, Carmen is one of the most accessible crowd-pleasers in the canon.

Mezzo-Soprano Tara Vendetti lead an outstanding company in Kentucky Opera's production of Bizet's Carmen
at the Brown Theatre.

Wednesday night’s final dress rehearsal was not my first trip to Seville, nor was it my first encounter with the Gyspy cigarette girl. That being said director Kristine McIntyre’s interpretation has an earthiness and strength that let me fall in love with this classic anew. Mezzo-soprano Tara Vendetti’s Carmen is highly sexual, and playful but gone are the overtones of the evil siren who lures Don Jose to his doom. In this production Don Jose’s (Scott Piper) own weakness leads inexorably to his downfall.

Vendetti and Piper, both making their Kentucky Opera debuts have magnificent voices that easily fill the Brown, supported expertly by conductor Joe Mechavich and the orchestra. We expect no less from the singers who take the lead in the production and Kentucky Opera regularly delivers spectacular leads. What was most apparent last night was the work of general director David Roth and his team in developing the secondary roles via the Studio Artists program and the dramatic improvements in the chorus both vocally and in their ability to believably tell the story. In this case that includes a charming children’s chorus that performs at the standard we should expect of a professional company.  Norman Garrett who opens the show as Moralès is confident and easy in his delivery, setting the stage for everything that is to follow. He is joined shortly by another member of the program, Noel Bouley as Zuniga whose characterization of the Captain is as fine as his voice. Other Studio Artist stand outs include Carmen’s sidekicks: Frasquita (Abigail Paschke) and Mercédès (Claire Shackleton) who in addition to their singing, join in the dance as choreographed by my old friend Diana Dinicola.

Michael Mayes delivers a swash-buckling, self-important Escamillo, beautiful in the mid and upper registers. Soprano Heather Phillips, who sings the part of Michaëla, the peasant girl who might have save Don Jose from himself, is simply glorious.

I am so glad Kentucky Opera is able to present an addition evening of this production. Performances continue tonight, September 23 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 25 at 2 p.m. with a finale on Friday, September 30 at 8 p.m., all at the Brown Theatre. For tickets call 502.584.7777 or go to kyopera.org. 

Theatre Preview by Ted Benson: Splitting Schnitzel with the Narcotic Farmers

 I've been a big fan of the Louisville Improvisors for many years, whether through their shows, classes or their annual improv festival "Improvapalooza", so I was anxious to catch up with them find out more about their latest incarnation as the Narcotic Farmers.

I caught up with them as they were wrapping up a short tour of minimum-security facilities throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, called the "Fresh From The Can" tour. We had a freewheeling discussion at a little German Restaurant out on Dixie Highway where we split the Schnitzel and drank our weight in Spaten. Here goes part one of our conversation.

Ted Benson

Ted Benson: What is the Narcotic Farmers?

Alec Volz: That's a good question Ted, maybe Chris can answer that better than I can.

Chris Anger: Thanks Alec, I'll try. The Narcotic Farmers grew out of the Narcotic Farm, a famous drug facility in Lexington, Kentucky. A lot of famous jazz musicians ended up there, like Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, and Jackie McLean. So they had always had a great jazz band. Well one day someone brought in a copy of Viola Spolin’s book Improvisation for the Theater, so they started using it with the inmates as a tool to help them with role playing and learning how to play again. Eventually, the way it always happens with improv, after a couple of classes they decided to start their own group. Hence the Narcotic Farmers are born. This would probably be in the 50s.

AV: I should also say that they were also doing various other experiments with the inmates, including giving them LSD as a therapeutic tool, to varying degrees of success. And one day they decided to combine them both.

CA: Right. So, the first few Narcotic Farmers show were actually done under the influence of LSD. Which they filmed by the way.

AV: They were hard to watch. People would wander off in the middle of a scene; changes characters every line, in mid sentence become totally mute or just start crying hysterically for no reason. 

CA: Not unlike some of our rehearsals...

AV: It was compelling, but I wouldn't call it comedy.

CA: It was like watching a cross between the Living Theatre and an Inuit Birthing Ceremony.

AV: Gradually, they evolved and grew into what was more recognizable as a comedy improv group. Doing more of a 'Whose Line is it Anyway' kind of show.

CA: If you’re doped up on methadone or Thorazine it's better to focus on short form games.

TB: Why the Narcotic Farmers?

AV: When you've been working together as long as we have (Anger and Volz have been working together for 12 years) it's important to mix it up a little.

CA: Instead of doing the same old thing.

AV: With the same old people.

CA: Over and over again.

AV: Day after day after day.

CA: Year after year after year.

AV: Because you don't know any better.

CA: Or you just don't care any more.

AV: What was the question?

TB: Is there a personal connection to the Narcotic farmers?

CA: There is for me. My Uncle Sid did time there. My father’s brother. He was a comic who never quite made it. He spent a lot of time on the road, where he also picked up a heroin habit that he never quite shook. He was the Artistic Director of the Farmers when Peter Lorre was in the group.

TB: Is he still alive?

CA: No, sadly he's dead.

TB: If you don't mind, was it drugs?

CA: No, he choked on a balloon animal and died.

TB: That is sad.

CA: But, at least he was onstage when it happened.

TB: Who are the Narcotic farmers today?

AV: The Narcotic Farmers today are : Scott Field from Improv Nashville and Music City Improv, Jill Mothershed from Music City Improv, and of course Chris Anger, Todd "Magic Fingers" Hildreth and I from Louisville Improvisors.

TB: How did this particular configuration of the group get together?

CA: That's an excellent question Ted, maybe Alec can answer that better than I can.

AV: Thanks Chris, I'll try. Chris ran into Scott at a railroad/ reunion fundraiser for families of former inmates at the Farm.

CA: And we knew Scott and Jill because we've already played with them at "Improvapalooza" and at our "Irish Hill Improv and History Festival", although we didn't know about our shared history with the Narcotic Farmers until last year. Besides, we are always looking for a reason to get together.

AV: So, they started talking and it turns out that Scott is really into genealogy and had been doing a lot of research about the group, Scott is actually the group historian so if I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details please forgive me, one thing leads to another and the Narcotic Farmers are reborn.

CA: Needless to say we're very excited about the shows coming up this weekend.

AV: Yes we are. We've got 2 shows coming up, on Friday it will be the Louisville Improvisors with the New Improvisors, which is the debut performance of the latest group of graduates from the Louisville Improvisors Training Center.

CA: They'll be opening the show for us.

AV: Saturday night will be the return of the Narcotic Farmers!

LOUISVILLE IMPROVISORS/ NARCOTIC FARMERS perform Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 p.m. each evening at The Bard's Town, 1801 Bardstown Road. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door. For more information call  (502) 749-5275 or go to http://louisvilleimprov.com/

INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.

Theatre Review by Keith Waits: Hayswood Theatre’s “The Crucible”

While playwright Arthur Miller’s original commentary on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Committee on Un-American Activities has become an historical footnote, The Crucible remains a mainstay of today’s community, high school and college theatre programs. Most people will encounter it several times in their life, but the play manages to avoids the problems of over-saturation because it truly is one of the great classics of American theatre and, because people never change in their essentials, the perspective is relevant in to any prevailing socio-political climate.

Unfortunately, Hayswood Theatre has mounted a production that is as notable for sluggish pace and awkward performances as the script is for timelessness and intelligence. The story of the Salem witch trials, based largely on fact but viewed through the prism of McCarthyism in America circa 1952, is here given a self-conscious reading that undercuts its vitality and power. Many in the cast struggle to move beyond obvious limitations, allowing cues and lines to be dropped in detriment to the production.

Director Ellen Hanaver seems to have a sure understanding of the themes, and has a few capable performers in lead roles, but it just isn’t enough to make the play soar. Allen Platt has some good moments in the early scenes as Reverend Hale, but is unable to sustain the initial good work through the end. Likewise, Corey Macon Long is well-cast as the protagonist, John Proctor, finding the humility and the outrage the character requires, but a rich vocal delivery is not enough to realize the deep moral struggle of the final scene. Jim Aich’s arch, stentorian tone is appropriate to the puritanical authority of Deputy Governor Danforth, but he too misses the humanity that makes the character’s self-righteousness so tragic. These three have done solid work before, and no doubt their efforts here are highly motivated, but they just miss bringing this material fully to life.

Clockwise from Left -Shelley Hanaver-Torrez ,Elizabeth Anderson, Leigh Ballance, Trinity Travis,  Emma Dayvault, Kirsten McDowell, and Kathy Norton 

The settings and costumes are well-judged (although the judge’s wigs, while perhaps period-appropriate, were silly-looking) and suitably stark, and the blocking is functional and clean through most of the show.  The problem resides in actors with good intention, some of whom have looks and presence befitting the characters, but nevertheless find it difficult to deliver Miller’s expert dialogue with enough subtlety and nuance to do it justice. If one is looking for a straightforward production with which to explicate the text, this will suffice, but if you are searching for a rendering of The Crucible that might bring new insight and understanding, this is not the one for you. 

     

The Hayswood Theatre is located at 115 South Capitol Avenue, Corydon, IN 47112. For more information go to www.hayswoodtheatre.com

Entire contents are copyright © 2011 Keith Waits. All rights reserved. 

Dance Review by Kathi E. B. Ellis: The Louisville Ballet's "The Three Muskateers"

Artistic Director Bruce Simpson introduced the Louisville Ballet’s Saturday sparkling performance of The Three Musketeers by recognizing the company’s Diamond Anniversary, reminding audiences that Louisville is home to the seventh oldest ballet company in the country. In an odd juxtaposition he also lauded the city as home to all four of the major performing arts, dance, opera, theatre, and symphony orchestra – and the evening proceeded with a recorded track (a not-atypical music choice for the Ballet).

For those familiar with The Three Musketeers – from the swash-buckling Alexandre Dumas novel to the many movies and television versions (including the newest movie premiering next month) – The late choreographer Andre Prokovsky’s retelling of the story sensibly streamlines many of the subplots and focuses on select events and main characters. His choreography, recreated by repetiteur Gilles Maidon, evokes the great classical ballets and at the same time embraces quirky and comedic moments that delighted the audience. 

Dancer/choreographer Andre Prokovsky on stage.

The brief prologue, featuring clean, spare tableaux and a suggestion of the riotous crowd scenes to come, efficiently introduces the protagonists d’Artagnon (Kristofer Wotjera), the French Queen (Helen Daigle), and the English Duke of Buckingham (Robert Dunbar). Just as the audience thought it was au fait with proceedings, d’Artagnon’s mode of transport – a mule – erupted on stage in true English pantomime style evoking chuckles from the adults and delighted giggles from the youngest members of the audience.

Both acts move smoothly between the myriad locations necessary to even a stripped down version of the story thanks to the elegant and smart sets of Alexandre Vassiliev. Act One begins with d’Artagnon’s introduction to Athos (Brandon Ragland instead of Eduard Forehand on Saturday evening), Aramis (Phillip Velinov) and Porthos (Ben Needham-Wood). Each musketeer is introduced with a divertissement in which their character is neatly defined through their choreography: the solid strength of Athos, the lovelorn romanticism of Aramis, and the rollicking Porthos. Each dancer satisfactorily embodied these traits.  The three of them and d’Artagnon came fully into their own with the clever and humorous fight choreography of their duel and subsequent duel with the beleaguered Cardinal’s men. In recent seasons it has been wonderful to witness the strengthening of the men’s ensemble, both in numbers and in quality, and tonight was no exception. Making full use of the levels in the set and the wide Whitney Stage, the dance/combat sequences energetically and, apparently, effortlessly dispatch the Cardinal’s men. In the garden of the Louvre we are introduced to the delightfully self-centered and easily bored Louis XIII (Ian Poulis), his Queen, and her lady in waiting Constance (Natalia Ashikhmina). The ladies-in-waiting were hard-pressed to compete with the king’s fussiness and distractedness; their dancing was precise and charming, and yet the king commanded attention! The intrigue is introduced as Cardinal Richlieu (Harald Uwe Kern) and Milady (Erica de la O) plot to reveal the Queen’s affair with Buckingham. Of course, d’Artagnon and the musketeers arrive in the nick of time to rescue Constance from the Cardinal’s men, and in a lyric pas de deux d’Artagnon and Constance fall in love. We are next transported to the Queen’s apartment and another pas de deux – depicting the passion between the Queen and Buckingham  -- a lush romantic interlude which also features bravura dives.

Act two moves to London (beefeaters on hand to help with this transposition, in case the audience confuses Paris and London) and Milady arriving at Buckingham’s chamber.  Miss de la O’s long, lazy battements as Milady waits to entrap Buckingham sensuously suggest her complete ease in the role of spy, a delightful contrast to the mischievously efficient means of neutralizing the beefeaters guarding the necklace Milady is sent to retrieve. The conflict between Milady and Buckingham is strongly etched and passionately danced by Mr. Dunbar and Miss de la O. Back in France with the necklace, Milady is tricked into delivering up the necklace to Rochefort, a member of the Cardinal’s men – actually d’Artagnon in disguise – in a feisty pas de deux. Back at the Louvre the Queen and Constance await either the revelation to the king of the missing necklace or rescue by the musketeers.  This scene, with the two waiting women, evokes their apprehension through a series of turns and twists with each partnering the other, the patterns thus made are both familiarly classical and alien danced by two women. The timely arrival of d’Artagnon with the necklace not only saves the day, but reunites him with Constance in another lyric pas de deux, bringing this sometimes rollicking ballet to a gentle and sweet conclusion.

The energy of the evening bounces back in a delicious coda-like reprise of the highlights, almost a two minute version of the evening, including the dueling bravura and a sharp solo from Miss Ashikhmina. A brilliant ending to complement a happy ending, right down to the firework display! Having first become familiar with Mr. Prokovsky as a dancer in his London Festival Ballet days, it was delightful to renew my knowledge of him, this time as a choreographer. His (1980) ballet version of “The Three Musketeers” is a worthy addition to the many other adaptations of the novel, and the Louisville Ballet embraces the energy and humor of the piece with panache.

A bonus for balletomanes this weekend was that Mr. Prokovsky’s widow, Elvire, and M. Maidon were in the audience.  A reminder that under Mr. Simpson’s leadership the Louisville Ballet is firmly connected with the wider, international world of ballet. A connection that can only continue to benefit Louisville audiences as the company embarks on its seventh decade.

The Louisville Ballet continues their season on December 10 with the ever-popular Brown-Forman Nutcracker. For tickets and more information go to www.louisvilleballet.org.