CenterStage Gives Their Best to Tony-Award-Winning "Rent"

Rent

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson

Directed by John R. Leffert

A review by Kate Barry

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Kate Barry. All rights reserved.

I have a confession to make: I love Rent. I always have and always will. Jonathan Larson’s opus about a group of friends fighting through inner demons, the AIDS epidemic and heartbreak premiered on Broadway in 1996. Since then, there have been a movie adaptation featuring original players, countless tours, and a revival; and now the production rights have been released to the public and it has hit the local theater circuit. Larson based the play's key issues on what he encountered during his everyday life as a struggling playwright in New York City. Whether it was toying with giving up artistic integrity for the sake of financial gain or falling in love with a high risk of getting tremendously heart broken, the themes addressed in Larson’s work are momentous and emotional. Tonight, I saw a production at CenterStage and I had doubts. Artistic Director John R. Leffert assured me and the rest of his audience that “we’re going to do it and we’re going to do it very well.”

For starters, many elements of this small-scale direct send-up to the Broadway production were pitch-perfect. Jordan Price as Roger was the washed up, aloof, AIDS-inflicted punk rocker. His rendition of “One Song Glory” could rival Adam Pascal’s Original Broadway Cast recording. Price is strong during his emotionally fueled argument with the ever-flirtatious Mimi (Kate E. Reedy) during “Another Day.” Reedy and Price’s vocal chemistry were superb throughout the production in “Light my Candle” and “Without You.” As Maureen, Lauren McCombs was a fun combination of no inhibition and heaps of exhibitionism. She completely owned “Over the Moon.” Brian Bowles plays Mark, the musical’s narrator. As the play centers on Mark’s nearly obsessive filming of a year in the life of his friends, Bowles provides sweetness as he watches his friends suffer with illness and triumph in their victories. Bowles meets his match with his ex-girlfriend’s current lover, Joanne, played with sassy strength by Tymika Prince. In “Tango Maureen,” Bowles’ and Prince’s voices blend as well as their comedic timing. Bowles gained a few extra laughs when he delivered a line about Jewish Community Centers directly to the audience; a smart comedic choice, indeed.

As this is a play which runs on high octane energy, the mechanics of this beast of a show are only as a strong as its weakest parts. This is a rock opera, and Rent incorporates a live band on stage, a concept that has been repeated in other shows like Spring Awakening and American Idiot. Perhaps it was the faulty sound system within the theater itself, which kept cutting in and out at vital moments of the production, or a conscious choice of pulling back on the musicians’ volume to provide clearer quality for the vocals. Regardless, I expected loud rock-and-roll music and received a muted collection of musicians.

As “Today for You” began, and Darius Kenner-Williams appeared in his glorious Santa drag, I couldn’t help but wonder if the music I heard was a recorded track. As this song has major dance club elements, perhaps the pulsating beats and fast rhythm was too advanced for a theater like CenterStage. While on the subject of Kenner-Williams, he had some very big, sparkly shoes to fill. Wilson James Heredia won the Tony for his portrayal as the innocent victim of AIDS. It is a character who keeps the circle of friends together and breathes life into an otherwise dreary play. Kenner-Williams fully grasped on to Angel’s flamboyant elements but lacked chemistry with Tom Collins (played with beautiful vibrato by Alonzo Richmond). Although his leaps and flips were impressive, it could not save “Today for You” from nearly falling flat.

“Take Me or Leave Me” and “What You Own” provided impressive singing for sure but lacked the powerful punch in the gut. Maureen and Joanne are in the midst of yet another fight, and this number lacked the pent-up aggression that such a couple would have. McCombs and Prince are equally talented, but I wanted them to be yelling at each other. That’s the point of belting in this song, after all. “What You Own” is perhaps the most difficult song within the play. Mark is giving up job security for his passion and Roger is gaining the courage to come home and find the woman he loves. It is the turning point of the second act and, in this production, regrettably forgettable.

All is not lost for this production of Rent. This is a play that won many Tony awards and shaped the contemporary world of musical theater. The cast truly shines in the most popular number, “Seasons of Love,” a beautiful choral piece that starts the second act. “La Vie Boheme” is a celebration of rebellion and life as the cast dances and cheers their way to intermission. As I mentioned before, I had my doubts about this production. I had total faith in CenterStage, as I have seen past productions of Cabaret and Evita that were incredibly moving. I knew that the company had talented resources to be taken advantage of; yet I was skeptical. I knew that I did not want to see a complete copy of the Nederlander Theater production. As expected, Mark wears a striped scarf, Mimi wears her shiny pants, and Angel wears her Santa Clause dress. Although it’s important to incorporate such key identifiers within any production, it’s also important to bring your own creativity to the production as well, and I think CenterStage did their best.

Rent

July 12-29, 2012

JCC CenterStage

Linker Auditorium

3600 Dutchmans Lane

Louisville, KY 40205

502-238-2739

A Home-Grown Syndicate for a “Rough and Corrupt Business”

The Cornbread Mafia

by James Higdon

Lyons Press:  376 pp., $24.95

Review by Katherine Dalton

Entire contents copyright 2012 by Katherine Dalton. All rights reserved.

The “Cornbread Mafia” that made national news in the 1980s wasn't exactly a mafia, in the sense of being one organization; and the term wasn't originally used by the men involved either. But when it came time for Kentucky prosecutors to talk to the press, “Cornbread Mafia” is what they called the Marion County, Kentucky-centered ring of marijuana growers and distributors. And being a vivid term, it stuck. 

Before its ringleaders were arrested and/or disappeared, this geographically-connected syndicate of sometime-friends, sometime-rivals became the largest known American pot-growing operation in terms of tons harvested. It was run by Americans, with no foreign nationals involved – also unusual. And these Americans were all from Kentucky; all from three contiguous counties; and mostly from Marion County, just south of Bardstown. The pot was grown in many places, from Michigan to Minnesota to Nebraska (and probably several undiscovered spots to the southeast). But all the roads led back to Kentucky.

When seventy of the Kentuckians involved were arrested between 1987 and 1989, not one of them agreed to testify against others in exchange for a lighter sentence. They remain a remarkable example of “omerta,” though probably none of them knew the word. One of the principal organizers, Johnny Boone, only learned it while in federal prison in Terra Haute – and then had it tattooed across his back. 

This syndicate's success and silence, plus the relative nonviolence of Mr. Boone (if not of others), the excellence of their farming, the roots of Marion County's pot-centeredness in its hempseed farming of the 1940s, and bootlegging during Prohibition all make for a great story. It is told here by Lebanon, Kentucky, native James Higdon, currently a contributing editor for PBS Frontline's Teheran bureau. 

Author James Higdon.

Mr. Higdon leaves the reader with the impression that perhaps only a local boy could have done this reporting. (Lebanon is Marion County's seat.) A community that had both become accustomed to this much lawlessness and – on the flip side – sick of it, and become wary of critical outsiders who were willing to swallow every rumor and accusation about a “hick” place will not easily respond to a reporter's blandishments. A curse or buckshot is probably what most journalists could expect. Kudos to Mr. Higdon for spending a good part of five years getting detail upon detail, and for persuading Johnny Boone to talk to him.

This book is full of the sort of real life that you could never make up. For example:  At a bust of a marijuana farm in rural Minnesota, the police drove up hiding in a Trojan horse trailer. For a vital few minutes, the pot growers thought they had just a lost rider to deal with. In that raid, the lone woman at the camp was quickly caught because she was the dog handler for the eight voiceless Rottweilers who policed the fields, and she chose to stay with the dogs to keep them controlled rather than leave them loose to attack and get killed themselves as a result.

Somewhere out in the world resides a man called “Mr. X,” a Marion County native who traveled the world to hippie pot-smoking enclaves gathering seed, which he brought home to Kentucky to be tested, bred and grown into the high-quality pot that made this syndicate's product so successful. Mr. X has never been identified.

Then there are the tales of the lion one of the Bickett brothers owned in the late ’80s (which finished its life in a Texas zoo), and Charlie Stiles' bear from twenty years earlier, which would escape into town occasionally and get drunk but never violent. Mr. Higdon also briefly retells the bizarre, interconnected story of Harold Brown, formerly the top federal drug enforcement official in Kentucky, who died of a gunshot wound to the head; and his close friend, former cop and drug smuggler Andrew Thornton, who died in 1985 in Tennessee when his parachute failed to inflate. For that jump he was wearing $15 million worth of cocaine strapped to his chest. (His story and the speculation around it are told at greater length in Sally Denton's The Bluegrass Conspiracy.)

One other thing about Cornbread Mafia:  Mr. Higdon has some axes to grind, and he makes or repeats a number of accusations about certain lawmen – though not all of the lawmen – mentioned in this story. In addition to mentioning the Thornton case, in the final chapter he does everything but call out a deputy U.S. Marshall named Jimmy Habib. And because his interviews with Johnny Boone (now a fugitive) were done in person at a location Mr. Higdon will not disclose to the government, Higdon enjoys the distinction of being the first journalist subpoenaed by the Obama Administration to either testify before a grand jury or be imprisoned.

It is also clear that Mr. Higdon has great respect, and I would have to say some empathy, for Johnny Boone. Readers will have to judge for themselves. Mr. Boone seems to combine canniness, farming skill, and physical courage with an honorable willingness to pay in prison time for his silence about his friends. But there is also clearly implied violence in some of Mr. Boone's reported statements and actions, which are reminders that whatever one's opinion of the merits of marijuana, and whatever respect Mr. Boone enjoys from his former neighbors, growing and selling an illegal crop remains a rough and corrupt business

Leapin’ Lizards! “Annie” Is Back at Derby Dinner Playhouse

Annie

Book by Charles Keehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin

Directed by Lee Buckholz

Reviewed by Emily Pike

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Emily Pike.  All rights reserved.

Elizabeth Loos, Megan Bliss & Matthew Brennan in Annie.
Photo courtesy of Derby Dinner Playhouse.

The musical Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and libretto by Thomas Meehan, is loosely based on the popular Depression-era Harold Gray cartoon strip Little Orphan Annie and was originally produced on Broadway in 1977. It won seven Tony Awards; enjoyed a six-year Broadway run; and has since given rise to countless touring, regional and community theatre productions around the country and the world. (A Broadway revival is due this fall.)

It is remarkable how appropriate this Broadway favorite, set in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, is to the national climate of today. As producer Bekki Jo Schneider mentioned in a (particularly well-done) curtain speech of Derby Dinner’s current production, the unemployment statistics, wealth gap and widespread pessimism mentioned throughout the play are uncannily similar to our modern socioeconomic environment. The key, however, is to look to our next generation for the same optimism and hope that little Annie is able to bring to the adults in her life.

For those of you unfamiliar with this play, the story follows 11-year-old Annie as she escapes the hard-knock life of a New York City orphanage through a chance invitation to spend the Christmas holiday season at the home of billionaire tycoon Oliver Warbucks. Annie’s boundless optimism and indomitable spirit soon capture Warbucks’ heart and prompt him to arrange for her adoption. But when he learns that Annie’s parents could still be alive, Warbucks selflessly gives up his own hopes of having Annie for a daughter and launches a national search. This catches the attention of Annie’s nemesis, orphanage headmistress Ms. Hannigan, along with her smarmy brother Rooster and his flavor-of-the-week gal pal Lily. They devise a plan for Rooster and Lily to pose as Annie’s parents using information that only Ms. Hannigan knows so that they can share a three-way split of the handsome reward Warbucks has offered. Everything comes to a head at Warbucks’ Fifth Avenue mansion on Christmas Eve, when identities and old secrets are finally revealed and we learn what Annie’s past is and what her future will hold.

Derby Dinner’s cast is filled with local actors of all ages and levels of experience, all of whom do a fine job of telling the story clearly and enjoyably. Still, there were a few too many missed opportunities for character development that together could have amounted to a stronger story arc from beginning to end and a bolder expression of the point-of-view offered in Schneider’s curtain speech.

The role of Ms. Hannigan can present a tremendous set of shoes for any actress to fill, having been immortalized by the inimitable Carol Burnett in the 1979 Columbia Pictures film version; though in this production, Elizabeth Loos plows through any imagined confidence barriers, pulling no comedic punches and milking the material for all it is worth. Her performance does feel a bit self-indulgent at times – but, then again, so is Ms. Hannigan. Fully to Loos’s credit are the strong choices she has made, her unwavering commitment to them and the fact that the audience loves her. As mentioned, however, there are some notable opportunities for character development that seem to get lost in the shuffle, such as a moment when Ms. Hannigan sincerely hesitates at Rooster’s plans for Annie, yet giddily returns to song and dance seconds later as if nothing happened. Still, Loos’s performance is a gratifyingly outrageous interpretation of this iconic role.

Jeff March as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks looks every inch the part and has a gorgeous singing voice, but on the whole, his acting was a bit too one-note. He starts out fairly likeable and ends up more so by the final curtain, diminishing the potential arc of this character. March’s moment-to-moment work is good, as are his pacing and sense of who Warbucks is at heart; but he does not take enough of a journey. There is too little of the brusque, gruff, hard-hearted business man when first we meet Warbucks to be able to appreciate how completely he is won over and transformed by the spunky, optimistic, utterly foreign presence of little Annie.

To be fair, part of March’s problem undeniably lies in the casting of the title role. While actress Lauren Petrey certainly possesses talent and a strong singing voice, she is unfortunately not well-cast here; the pink elephant in the theatre is that this actress is not a child, and it is difficult to pretend that she is. Petrey is a 14-year-old high school sophomore, and while she is small for her age, smaller does not equal younger. Even among today’s 11-year-olds it would be difficult to find someone with the sheer, unadulterated, quintessentially childlike enthusiasm that is Annie’s trademark – let alone expect a modern-day adolescent to still emanate this quality at the apprehensive age of 14. Petrey’s Annie is not the plucky, cute, optimistic little girl the script calls for but rather a sweet, strong, conscientious young lady. To extend a casting analogy, she is more on the Judy Garland than the Shirley Temple side – and no matter how much we all love Judy, the role of Annie wouldn’t have suited her well either. Petrey is not unenjoyable to watch. But the Annie-Warbucks relationship never quite attains the dynamic called for by the script because a 14-year-old actress is hard-pressed to act her way back to 11 years old, and a grown adult cannot relate to a 14-year-old girl the same way he or she would to a child. There are certainly instances in theatre where a three-year age difference would not matter, but this is not one of them.

Young Petrey should not take this as a criticism, however, but rather as an invitation to build on the work she is doing and to explore areas farther outside of her natural range. She can’t fix a casting error, but that is okay. This role is a great opportunity for her as an actress to practice stretching her boundaries.

Other performances include solid work from Colette Delaney as Mr. Warbucks’ sophisticated secretary Grace; a Lily St. Regis with just the right combo of ditz and cheap glam from Megan Bliss; and a chorus of impressively precise orphans. Matthew Brennan stands out as Rooster Hannigan, Ms. Hannigan’s greasy, beanpole ex-con of a brother with a taste for the quick-and-easy. His dialect is appropriate, his movement and physical presence are spot-on, and his words and interactions consistently feel spontaneous and believable. This is a role both well-cast and well-executed. Props to Brennan for a job well done.

On the whole, while admittedly peppered with noticeable flaws, Derby Dinner’s production is still a pleasant and likeable piece of entertainment. While its shortcomings are evident and not ignorable, they do have the good fortune of being easily forgivable. The script and story themselves are good enough to shine through any minor mishandling. Plus, it is too difficult not to enjoy a production where the cast is so clearly dedicated to and excited about what they are doing. Actors Theatre of Louisville or PNC Broadway In Louisville this show is not; but Annie at Derby Dinner still offers a lovely evening of dinner theatre that is well worth the price of a ticket.

Oh, and not for nothing – the food is fantastic. Do yourself a favor and try the Hummingbird Cake.

Annie

July 3 – August 12, 2012

Derby Dinner Playhouse
525 Marriott Drive
Clarksville, IN 47129
Tickets (812) 288-8281

http://www.derbydinner.com/

“American Buffalo” Brings Alumni Back to the Walden Stage in Strong Production

American Buffalo

By David Mamet

Directed by Hal Park

Reviewed by Keith Waits

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

Jacob Lyle and Ben Park in American Buffalo.

Into the scorching summer heat comes this production from the Walden Theatre Alumni Company. David Mamet’s American Buffalo premiered in 1975, following the success of Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and firmly establishing him as one of the most important playwrights of the late 2oth century American theatre.

The annual alumni show at Walden has established something of a tradition of high-energy renderings of terrific plays from recent American theatre history. A handful of former Walden students, either in or recently graduated from college and hungry to take the stage, deliver meaningful work. This early, seminal work from Mamet is a perfect fit. Three shady characters contemplating the robbery of a valuable coin are as inept as they are unscrupulous. Donny owns the run-down junk shop where the coin was sold for what he suspects was much less than it is worth; Bobby is his younger friend and gofer; and finally, “Teach,” a fully dangerous and highly volatile personality who throws the plan out of balance.

Although certain details suggest the period from which the play originates, Jacob Lyle’sTeach is a character entirely of today. A penny-ante thug dressed in stovepipe jeans, camo jacket, and sporting haircut resembling a combed-forward Mohawk, he is a tidily drawn psychotic, exploding on to the stage in his first scene wearing his vicious, hair-trigger rage on his sleeve like a caution sign.

Elliot Cornett plays Bobby as a naive, dim-witted henchman who requires the rough, father-son dynamic with Donny to survive – a vulnerable figure that seems to have little choice but to be victimized.

The role of Donny seems slightly less interesting in contrast, but Ben Park brings solid authority and a growing desperation to the character, reliably occupying the center.

The conceit of placing two characters who historically would have been uninspired henchman in the roles of would-be criminal masterminds becomes a specific measure of society’s decline. Donny and Teach would be perfectly at home as gunsels for Jimmy Cagney or George Raft in a Warner Bros. movie from the 1930s, but they are out of their depth here and don’t know it. Watching them pretend otherwise is a succinct and potent mix of comedy and tragedy.

American Buffalo

July 6, 7, 8 @ 7:30 p.m. 

Walden Theatre
1123 Payne Street
Louisville, KY 40204
(502) 589-0084

http://www.waldentheatre.org

The Appropriation of Memory: The Collages of Teri Dryden

By Keith Waits.

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

Teri Dryden. Photo by Mack Dryden.

An artist’s journey is most often an irregular path following emotional or at least instinctual cues – as much or more than logic or rational processes. In the case of Teri Dryden, the first steps were into performance in a populist vein, earning laughs working as a professional clown. Yet today her creativity expresses itself in visual art, in collage work that is delicate and controlled.

The contrast that one finds in the two occupations may capture a duality that is not uncommon in many artists, and one can still detect the taste for mischief and low humor discernible in the twinkle of Ms. Dryden’s eye. “I love slapstick!”

Monteith's Marrakech.

So her skills as an acrobat and pantomime led her to the Ringling Brothers clown college in Florida. After graduation she received a contract to perform with the legendary circus itself, touring for two years before “retiring” at the tender age of twenty-one. Eventually her acting ambitions led her to Los Angeles, where she had meaningful impact as a stage actress, marrying comedian and actor Mack Dryden and eventually turning her attentions from the outgoing, more extroverted energy of performing to the more intellectual and introspective expression of an abstract artist.

The transition was actually more gradual, with early work that consisted of highly representational drawings. But eventually she gave in to a fascination with texture and fundamental forms – a well-traveled path for so many artists; for surely it is a rare few that move in the other direction, switching from abstract to representational.

Nightfall.

Her most recent collages are a fascinating use of discarded books, using worn fragments of pages, flyleaf and endpapers, and cloth binding to create compositions that draw the viewer’s attention in the same manner in which a bibliophile is drawn to rare volumes. The structures – mostly, but not always, vertical – are divided by horizontal breaks and changes in material, becoming an abstract memory of the classic design of leather-bound tomes occupying library shelves for thousands of years.

The raw materials often incorporate damages that devalue the book but introduce unexpected organic beauty into the formalism of the rigidly stacked blocks and textured lines. These random elements, tears, stains and the occasional remnant of a worm or some other insect who has made a meal of the parchment, as captured by the artist’s eye, deliver idiosyncratic visual interference that sometimes lead to less abstract, even pictorial imagery. Ms. Dryden may be committed to the abstract, but these literal notes, whimsical and suggestive, prove equally compelling for their unexpected inclusion in her compositions.

Sacred Music.

As is typical of so many artists who utilize cast-off and salvaged materials (the books are discarded from libraries), the artistic choices are informed by the inherent qualities of the raw components. Yet she assiduously avoids the most obvious and omnipresent visual element of published materials: text. “Words are much too literal”, she says. “The viewer needs to discover things for themselves, so I’m reluctant to include anything like that.”

In the end, there is care and respect in how the materials are appropriated – no sense that the artists has violated the integrity of the bound volume or its contents, but instead, given the torn and faded elements new meaning and purpose. A new life.

Terri Dryden will be the speaker at Louisville Visual Art Association’s next Food for Thought luncheon, Tuesday, July 10, at noon at The Louisville Water Tower. Reservations are $25, or $15 for LVAA members, and must be made by noon on Monday, July 9. Lunch is provided from Café Fraiche.

Call 502-896-2146 or visit http://www.louisvillevisualart.org/food.html.

12 Questions for an Actor: Eric Welch

Eric Welch is proud to finally be producing the play Circus Circus at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. This play is very close to Eric, and it means a lot to him to premiere it here in his native city. His latest projects are: the film Many Monsters of Sadness which premiered in the Nashville Film Festival, Finnigan Festival #5, and his latest photo shoot with Christopher Caswell. Whenever Eric has free time, he loves to volunteer at Down Syndrome of Louisville and can’t wait to return to volunteer after the show is over. If he isn’t working on a project or volunteering, then you will find him in the gym. This is his biggest adventure to date, producing and acting in a play he co-wrote with Brian Walker, Circus Circus. Besides himself, he is very proud to have a cast that includes Benjamin Wood, Robert Hatfield, Kayla Gill, Corey Long, Jeremy Gutierrez, Christina Biller, Deanna Gillispie, Taylor Olivia Roebuck and Andy Epstein. It is directed by George Bailey.

1.    How long have you been an actor?

 I was in my first production when I was 21 years old, but I have always loved to entertain. I really didn’t get serious until after attending New York Film Academy in LA when I was 24 years old. After that I knew this was my true passion.

2.    What inspires you?

Creating a life on stage or film that triggers an emotional response from the audience is what I love to see. 

3.    What was the first play where you felt, “I am an actor”?

I’m not sure if it was a play or the training I was doing when I was in LA. I was working with Anthony Montes who studied under Sanford Meisner. Being able to learn how to connect to myself and trust my feelings really led me to feel, “I am an actor.”

4.    What has been your favorite role?

That’s tough, because I’ve enjoyed them all. I think I would have to say “Dennis” from Dirty Sexy Derby Play by Brian Walker. For one, Brian got me up onstage and following what I love. Second, “Dennis” is a fun guy!

5.    What is your least favorite role?

I haven’t had a lot of roles yet, so I can’t say I have a least favorite. I’ve learned something from every one.

6.    What is your dream role?

My dream role would be a character that I am able to create a truthful life to, while working with an amazing cast. There is not one specific role I want.

7.    What is the best direction you have ever been given?

"Get out your head and listen." That’s a tough one for me sometimes, because I’m pretty hard on myself. Another one I liked was, "Stop acting; acting is being fake. Live and be truthful in the moment." That’s something I really like, too, because you have to feel what you are portraying. If not, you’re just going through the motions.

8.    What is the worst?

The worst direction for me is not letting an actor try things.

9.    Who is your favorite playwright?

My buddy Brian Walker!

10. What makes the local theatre scene so strong?

The community and their love for the theatre. We here in Louisville have so many talented people who love what they do. That shines through in the work that is presented here. I am very grateful to be involved with the community theatre scene. I learn so much from everyone.

11. What are the weaknesses?

Sometimes that tightness of the theatre scene makes it hard for new actors to get involved. But I believe that is changing drastically with the growing auditions being held around here.

12. If you couldn’t be an actor, what would be your choice as a profession?

A vagabond!

Circus Circus

July 12, 13, 13, 19, 20, 21 @ 8 p.m.

The MeX Theatre

The Kentucky Center

For tickets call: 502-584-7777

www.kentuckycenter.org

Louisville Artist Illustrates New Children's Book

The Ice Cream Hotel

by Jack Johnston; illustrations by Annette Cable

Culver, Indiana:  Norwen Publications, $17.95

Review by Katherine Dalton

Entire contents copyright  2012 by Katherine Dalton. All rights reserved.

Hot? Tired? Bored? Sick of balanced meals, and under age 8? Then The Ice Cream Hotel is for you. This month we leave the post-modern essayists and noir novelists behind and take a moment out for a book for the kids. And with summer hard upon us, a story about ice cream seems right for the season.

Louisville artist Annette Cable has illustrated The Ice Cream Hotel to a rhyming text by Indiana writer (and now publisher) Jack Johnston. This hardcover picture book is right for toddlers through early elementary readers. It is a colorful exploration of what one little boy and his dog find when they take a special vacation to a place where everything is cold, sweet and edible – right down to the bed. 

If your young reader likes to use the computer, the book offers a search-and-find challenge and an invitation to go to TheIceCreamHotel.com for more stuff to do when she's finished reading – puzzles, word games and coloring pages.

The book is currently available only from the website: http://theicecreamhotel.com/

About the Author

Jack Johnston likes to make things, paddle canoes, read to his kids and basically spend a lot of time with his family. He lives in Culver, Indiana.

About the Illustrator

Annette Cable is a freelance illustrator and children’s art teacher in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives with her husband, Mark, also an artist; her daughter, Izzy; a dog (who loves tennis balls); four cats; and a guinea pig. You can see more of her art at www.annettecable.com.