Review of "Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin"

NOTE:  The Irving Berlin show is now playing at the Westport Country Playhouse through August 3rd.  This is the same production that was at Hartford Stage earlier this summer.

The performer/pianist Hershey Felder has been captivating Hartford audiences for years with his one man shows of famous composers.  Previous embodiments have included George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven.  His latest personification is of songsmith Irving Berlin, who’s career as a writer of iconic popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway musicals, spanned over five decades. 

Felder’s concept for the show is similar in approach to his previous incarnations.  There is an abundance of historical and biographical recitations mixed in with a generous helping of dazzling musical performances.  The formula can be a little schmaltzy, but Felder, in his earnestness and showmanship, makes the production thoroughly engaging.

The show leans heavily of Berlin’s life and music before World War II.  After quickly setting the scene—Berlin and his Jewish family emigrating to the United States from Russia—and whisking through his teenage years, Felder introduces the composer’s first huge hit in “Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1911).”  From there, a succession of recognizable treasures is presented, including "Always" (1925), "Blue Skies" (1926), "Puttin' On the Ritz" (1928), “Easter Parade” (1933), “God Bless America” (1938), and “White Christmas” (1942).  No wonder when the composer Jerome Kern was asked, "What is Irving Berlin's place in American music,” the response was “Irving Berlin has no place in American music -- he is American music.”

The almost two-hour, intermission-less production packs in a great deal of musical gems and stories.  The problem for Felder, who also wrote the show, and Director Trevor Hay is deciding what to include, what to gloss over, and what to leave out in the composer’s illustrious career.  Scenes about Berlin’s army service and deep-felt patriotism are given ample attention, but his well-established movie composing career is relegated to a video montage of Fred Astaire singing/dancing to some of his best-known film songs.  More disappointing was Felder’s brief review of Berlin’s Broadway musicals.  While not every show was a hit - Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam - these musicals and the less successful ones, which include Miss Liberty and Mr. President, produced a cornucopia of riches.

Director Trevor Hay gives the production an easy-going flow, seamlessly blending Felder’s masterful piano work with his biographical snippets.  He incorporates an audience sing-a-long a few times during the show, which is heartily welcomed by those in attendance.

Stacey Nezda’s scenic design is warm and cozy, with a holiday feel to it. Christopher Ash and Lawrence Siefert’s projection work is finely integrated into the production without being a distraction.

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, an exceedingly captivating show, playing at Hartford Stage through June 30^th.

-->he performer/pianist Hershey Felder has been captivating Hartford audiences for years with his one man shows of famous composers.  Previous embodiments have included George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven.  His latest personification is of songsmith Irving Berlin, who’s career as a writer of iconic popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway musicals, spanned over five decades. 

Felder’s concept for the show is similar in approach to his previous incarnations.  There is an abundance of historical and biographical recitations mixed in with a generous helping of dazzling musical performances.  The formula can be a little schmaltzy, but Felder, in his earnestness and showmanship, makes the production thoroughly engaging.

The show leans heavily of Berlin’s life and music before World War II.  After quickly setting the scene—Berlin and his Jewish family emigrating to the United States from Russia—and whisking through his teenage years, Felder introduces the composer’s first huge hit in “Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1911).”  From there, a succession of recognizable treasures is presented, including "Always" (1925), "Blue Skies" (1926), "Puttin' On the Ritz" (1928), “Easter Parade” (1933), “God Bless America” (1938), and “White Christmas” (1942).  No wonder when the composer Jerome Kern was asked, "What is Irving Berlin's place in American music,” the response was “Irving Berlin has no place in American music -- he is American music.”

The almost two-hour, intermission-less production packs in a great deal of musical gems and stories.  The problem for Felder, who also wrote the show, and Director Trevor Hay is deciding what to include, what to gloss over, and what to leave out in the composer’s illustrious career.  Scenes about Berlin’s army service and deep-felt patriotism are given ample attention, but his well-established movie composing career is relegated to a video montage of Fred Astaire singing/dancing to some of his best-known film songs.  More disappointing was Felder’s brief review of Berlin’s Broadway musicals.  While not every show was a hit - Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam - these musicals and the less successful ones, which include Miss Liberty and Mr. President, produced a cornucopia of riches.

Director Trevor Hay gives the production an easy-going flow, seamlessly blending Felder’s masterful piano work with his biographical snippets.  He incorporates an audience sing-a-long a few times during the show, which is heartily welcomed by those in attendance.

Stacey Nezda’s scenic design is warm and cozy, with a holiday feel to it. Christopher Ash and Lawrence Siefert’s projection work is finely integrated into the production without being a distraction.

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, an exceedingly captivating show, playing at Hartford Stage through June 30^th.

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Review of "Mamma Mia!"

Mamma Mia!, the jukebox musical, wrapped around the songs of the 70’s pop super group, ABBA, is the perfect summer tonic for musical theater aficionados.  The production, playing at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre in Storrs through June 22, is breezy, effervescent, and entertaining.

Unlike many concoctions of this genre, Mamma Mia! doesn’t take itself seriously, with a lightweight and playful, yet well-crafted story by Catherine Johnson.  An incomprehensible story line was the downfall of the Go Go’s musical Head Over Heels from the 2018 - 2019 Broadway season and a confusing libretto plagued the recent Summer – the Donna Summer Musical.  There are no such knotty issues with Mamma Mia! 

The plot revolves around soon-to-be married 20 year-old Sophie, who lives on a Greek island with her single mother, Donna.  Guests start to arrive, including Tanya and Rosie, Donna’s former back-up singers from their days in the 70’s group, “Donna and the Dynamos.”  Unbeknownst to her mother, Sophie has also invited three men – Sam Carmichael, Bill Austin and Harry Bright – because one of them is her father (Donna had an affair with each of them year’s ago).  The daughter hopes before the ceremony begins she will discover his identity.

The score incorporates many of ABBA’s Top 40 hits including “Honey, Honey,” “Mamma Mia,” “Super Trouper,” “Voulez Vous,” “S.O.S.,” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You.”  The songs – ballads and upbeat compositions--are cleverly integrated into the production.

The cast is led by Jessica Hendy as Donna.  She is cynical, vulnerable, and resilient as the mother of the bride and convincingly flummoxed over her tricky situation.  Lauren Blackman (Tanya) – the tall one – and Jennifer Cody (Rosie) - the short one – form a rollicking trio of friends reuniting for the big event.  Ms. Blackman is decidedly feisty with skewering bon mots and a deadpan delivery.  Ms. Cody is more overt in her comic histrionics and physical humor.  Kelly McCarty’s Sophie is charismatic and engaging.   The actress doesn’t have to stretch her acting muscles as she emotes, broods, and celebrates her upcoming nuptials.  Mason Reeves, as Sky (he’s the groom), is enthusiastic and has the prerequisite boyish charm and good looks.

The men, who play Donna’s loves from 20 years earlier – Bradley Dean as Sam Carmichael, Jamie Colburn as Bill Austin, and Rob Barnes as Harry Bright - perform their roles with a mixture of earnestness and honesty sincerity.

Director Terrence Mann keeps a light touch on the material but, smartly, keeps the pacing nimble, high-spirited, and fast-moving.  The large group scenes are controlled horseplay and hijinks, while the more intimate settings are handled with ease and confidence.  The scene changes are seamless as players and crew members pirouette and gyrate on and off the stage positioning set pieces.

Mary Ann Lamb, fresh from her stint as a principle choreographer for the F/X mini-series Fosse/Verdon, along with Jessica Walker, energizes the musical with period inflected dance routines and vigorous production numbers.  They liven up such Act I songs as the Dynamo’s rendition of “Dancing Queen” and group of young wedding guests in scuba fins tap dancing to “Lay All Your Love On Me.”

Scenic Designer Tim Brown has crafted large, easily mobile sections of scenery, which are quickly moved into position to form multiple set pieces.  He has also created a magical miniature that gives a panoramic view of the coastline of the Greek island of Santorini as soothing visual for audience members.

Mamma Mia!, a frothy concoction sure to captivate, charm, and thoroughly entertain.

Review of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

The key to mounting a successful production of The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is making the show fresh without sacrificing its fundamental elements.  This is exactly what Director Michelle Tattenbaum and Choreographer Ilana Ransom Toeplitz have done with their staging of the musical at A Contemporary Theatre in Ridgefield, CT.  The show – tuneful and funny – has been festooned with just enough embellishments and flourishes to make it sparkle and seem new again.

Spelling Bee revolves around six elementary school students, misfits and outsiders, competing in the town’s annual Bee.  Sitting on bleachers in a school gymnasium they take turns spelling, at times, incredibly difficult words.  Sound boring?  Not at all.  Librettist Rachel Sheinkin has created rich characters with lovable eccentricities.  The interplay between contestants and judges, as the students ask for word definitions or use in a sentence, can be absolutely hilarious.  In Act II there is an underlying theme of melancholy as we learn more about each character, but never do these reflective moments take away from the lighthearted nature of the musical.

Ms. Sheinkin has also added a touch of audience participation where seated individuals are introduced as Spelling Contestants and seamlessly added to the performance.  They interact with the cast members, dance and are called upon to spell words, often with uproarious results.  Eventually, the “guests” are weeded out and the actors get down to business.

The charming, perfectly cast group of performers, is first-rate and defines an ensemble effort.  They thoroughly blend together where the sum of the parts create a greater whole.  Phil Sloves as William Barfee, he’s the nebbish with the magic foot, is the nominal star, but his fellow performers are all endearing with well-defined quirks and back stories.  They include Colin Miyamoto as the eager-to-please, Chip Tolentino; Emma Tattenbaum-Fine, as the resolute Logainne Schwarzand Grubeniere; Graham Baker as the ingratiating, definitely off center, Leif Coneybear; Sumi Yu as the intensely focused, serious minded, Marcy Park; and Morgan Billings Smith as the sweetly winsome, Olive Ostrovsky.  The supporting characters are equally well cast and provide, for the most part, a stabilizing effect for their charges.  They are Amy Hutchins as the perky host of the spelling bee, Rona Lisa Perretti; John C. Baker as the harried, slightly agitated Vice Principal, Douglas Panch; and Ryan Williams as the tough-minded Mitch Mahoney, serving out his community service mandate as the comfort coach for losing contestants.

William Finn’s score is catchy, at times poignant, and full of humor.  He has crafted songs that fully encapsulate each character’s unique background. 

Scenic designer Jack Mehler has created a cozy gym, replete with bleachers, sports banners and, with the assistance of Theresa S. Carroll, a varied assortment of amusing props.  Details like colored tennis balls at the ends of each chair leg add a whimsical nature to the production.  Marika Kent’s Lighting Design and Megan Culley’s Sound Design further enrich the show.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a crowd-pleasing production playing through June 23^rd.

Note:  Parts of this review were previously published.

Review of "Actually"

In a way, the play Actually is cheating.  The show, which deals with the ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter of sexual consent on college campuses, spends a great deal of time providing an extensive backstory of the two protagonists.  The scenarios, while multifaceted and psychologically thought-provoking, providing audience members with plenty of information to process, make for good theater, but would have little relevance at an actual campus hearing on the charges.  The impression playwright Anna Ziegler gives is just the opposite--that all the occurrences on stage are important in determining the central question of consensual sex.

The focus of Actually is on two incoming Princeton University freshman—Tom, a handsome, self-confident African-American male who has a way with the women and Amber, a pretty, somewhat self-deprecating, Jewish female.  After a couple of meet-ups they attend a campus party, where they both become extremely drunk, and head back to Tom’s residence hall for a sexual encounter.  The next morning, neither remembers exactly what happened, but soon Amber is talking about the escapade as a rape and not a consensual fling.  From there, there are brief snippets of scenes with unseen Deans and faculty representatives intermixed with pithy monologues about the night’s events.  In the end, nothing is resolved, letting the audience come up with their own judgement.

What makes this issue so confounding for all parties is who to believe with very little outright evidence or witnesses.  Again, most of what is presented in Actually would not be available to a University hearing panel.  What the play does get right, in fleeting glimpses, is the sometimes free-wheeling and undisciplined nature of a campus hearing with poorly trained campus personnel deciding life-changing charges.  It would have been interesting if Ms. Ziegler would have spent more time commenting on the administrative process.

The play is structured as a combination of the two characters interacting and making direct comments, speeches, and pleadings in the direction of the audience.  It is not that the audience is being acknowledged.  Instead, these asides and digressions have the feel of an accuser and accused making their case, presenting their version of the truth.

Ronald Emile, who plays Tom and Arielle Siegel, who portrays Amber, are both very good and convincing as two University Frosh somewhat over their heads.  They produce a realistic sense of empathy for their situation.  When need be they are playful, forceful, vulnerable and sexy. 

Director Taneisha Duggan shows restraint and compassion.  She adroitly teases out each character’s personal history and circumstances to present well-defined portraits of two undergraduates coming together for a fateful night.  Ms. Duggan adeptly utilizes the empty-laden stage to create a fullness to the production.  She seamlessly alternates the action from character interaction to character orations to the audience.

Jean Kim’s scenic design of highly polished steps leading to the empty stage gives the set the feel of a campus lecture hall or classroom.  Adding a screen at the back of the stage, allowing the characters to be occasionally portrayed in silhouette, adds to the sometimes shrouded nature of this type of episode.

Amith A. Chandrashaker’s lighting design, with colored hues and bright, intense spotlights, contributes to the under-the-microscope complexion of the play.

Actually, a challenging and provocative work that, nonetheless, only “actually” skims the surface of the subject of consensual sex on college campuses.