"West Side Story" among Best by Moonlight Players of Clermont

                                         

Kevin Ryan Cole (Tony) and Nina Bethencourt (Maria)

“West Side Story” is a young person’s show.  Whatever Director Cathy McEachern did to obtain a stellar cast of young talent should be celebrated.   The result is enough to put this musical theatre adaptation of Romeo and Juliet over the top in a marvelous, gripping performance.

Instead of the Capulets and Montagues we have the Jets, first American born Eastern Europeans, and the Sharks, recent immigrants from Puerto Rico in a turf war on the streets of New York City.  The conflict is galvanized in the opening moments by Jet leader Riff (Michael Kanago) and Shark head-man Beranardo (Mitchel Morris) in a physical face-off. 

Do not let Kanago’s previous credits as a comic actor fool you.  This guy can be mean.  Morris is a surprise.  He holds his own opposing Kanago, yet this is his stage debut.

Nina Bethencourt is an example of perfect casting as Maria, the young Puerto Rican girl who falls tragically in love with Tony, a former Jet gang member.  Bethencourt is the correct age (very early teens), can sing up a storm, and delights in her own performance.  Just watch her facial expressions and fragile body movements in her early scenes where she meets Tony.  Occasionally she upstages herself; otherwise, her performance is spellbinding. While active in juvenile theatre, this is her debut in as the lead in a major adult production.

Kevin Ryan Cole has the experience to carry the role of Tony to its fullest.  He is totally at ease working with Bethencourt and moves exceptionally well on stage. His singing voice and projection smack of hours of training and hard work.

Sub plot characters are handled by veterans Glen Howard (Officer Krupke), Jenn Roman (Anita), and Scotty Schultz (Doc).

Both dancing and combat choreography by Rosemary DeMott is excellent and includes steps seen in Broadway versions.  The chorus makes up any deficiencies in talent with effort and exuberance.

Music is handled by Dan Martin.  Volume is correct with only a few moments where the woodwinds outshout the voices.                                                                               

Michael Kanago (Riff) and Mitchel Morris  (Beranardo)

There were only 4 empty chairs empty in the second Sunday matinee in the run of this show.  I am willing to make a prediction: If you miss this show you will be kicking yourself when years later you see Nina Bethencourt on the screen or stage for big bucks when you could have seen her live for a mere $15 and her autograph at the Warehouse Theatre in Clermont.

Take my advice.  Don’t miss her performance.  Don’t miss this show!

For remaining show dates for “West Side Story,” times, directions, etc., click on the icon on the left.                    

"Guys and Dolls" Needs Boost at Ocala Civic Theatre

Frank Loesser’s fabled musical, “Guys and Dolls” is based on Damon Runyon characters who are obsessed with gambling.  It is a commendable choice for the closing show of the 2012-13 Ocala Civic Theatre season, but when gambling is the game, sometimes you lose.

Staging is no problem for the large cast of the show.  Scenery drops into place smoothly.  For the most part, the characters move in sync with their parts.  All principals are on microphones, the orchestra is located off stage nicely piped in, and lighting is good.  Costuming is adequate with the exception of the skin-tight slacks worn by some of the ensemble during the Times Square scenes… out of step with the Runyon era.

Victoria Sexton plays Sergeant Sarah Brown, the ‘Salvation Army’ neophyte who is bent on redeeming the wayward through her the “Save a Soul Mission” located near Broadway and 42^nd Street in New York.  The young Sexton has the voice, appearance, and experience to capture the psyche of a champion of lost causes in a standout performance. 

The fugue by Nicely Nicely (Patrick Stanley), Benny (Bill Roughton), and Rusty (Gregg Bleam )  is nicely done expounding the pitfalls of gambling.

Frank Louis Carullo makes his entrance as Sky Masterson and does not match his Sexton’s level of performance.  Carullo, a newcomer to OCT, sports an impressive list of previous credits.  But, he never captures the aura of the suave, high stake gambler who commands every scene by his very presence.  The chemistry between  Sky and Sarah does not materialize and the show begins to falter.

The first act is somewhat rescued when Joan Elizabeth  (Adelaide)  and Hot Box Girls (Amanda Faith Franz, Melaine M. Tarter, Aubrey Wise, and Miranda M. Morris) hit the stage with a slam-bang routine.   Also, the Havana café dance and ensuing melee deserve recognition. 

Even in spite of efforts by veteran actors such as John LaPaille (Nathan Detroit), the second act does not click.  The critical “Rocking the Boat” musical number, usually a show-stopping event, lacked the energy and crispness that would normally excite a standing ovation.

Broadway’s version of “Guys and Dolls” debuted in 1950, but popularity rose when the 1955 version starring Marlon Brando hit the silver screen.  It is widely recognized that Brando was selected for the Sky Masterson role on the basis of his ‘star power’ not his suitability for the part.  Frank Sinatra played Nathan Detroit.

Maybe this performance did not gel because of opening night jitters.  Maybe it was because Director Greg Thompson (“Cats” at OCT, a winner) was stretched by dual Directing and Choreographing responsibilities.  Maybe the casting call for male performers was thin, a perennial problem in theatre.  Maybe the show is too long.  Maybe everything will come together next week and improve throughout the run matching the standard of past musicals at Ocala Civic, but then, again, maybe you should not bet on it.

“Guys and Dolls” runs Thursdays-Sundays through June 9.  For other information, click on the icon to the left.

"Deathtrap" is Alive and Well at Melon Patch Theatre in Leesburg

Ryan Smith, Henri Delorme, Jan Sheldon, J. Scott Berry, and Denise Truscotte

‘Deathtrap:  A thriller in two acts.  One set, five characters.  A murder in the first act.  Unexpected developments in the second.  Sound construction, good dialogue, laughs in the right places.’  And that is just what you in Ira Levin’s classically constructed play expertly presented by the Melon Patch Players of Leesburg.

Sidney Bruhl (J. Scott Berry), a well-known playwright, is suffering from writer’s block.  He receives a draft of a play from fledgling author Clifford Anderson (Ryan Smith) who recently attended a workshop held by Bruhl.  The manuscript has the makings of a sure-fire hit in Bruhl’s opinion.  The potential dollar signs cloud Bruhl’s mind to where he concocts a scheme to pilfer or otherwise manipulate the script to his advantage.

To take Levin’s plot any further would take the fun out of watching this performance that has more twists than a licorice strip.  You will be on the edge of your seat for the full two hours.

The bulk of the work on stage is handled by Berry and Smith, veteran actors who are well cast for their parts.  Berry handles the satirical part of Bruhl’s character adeptly, but misses some of his darker, sinister side.  Smith is remarkably at ease on stage and paints Clifford in proper pastels.

Henri Delorme (Attorney Milgrim) plays a part obviously written expressly for him.  Visiting from the stage of the Moonlight Players of Clermont, Jan Sheldon gets most of the laughs as the physic Helga Ten Dorp.  Denise Truscotte, Sidney Bruhl’s wife Myra, fills out this accomplished cast.

The set is meticulously constructed and shows ‘The David Clevinger touch’ in its detail.  The appointments include a collection of every known lethal instrument.  Lighting effects are computer coordinated and the ‘dark and stormy night’ sequence is superb.  Excellent actor projection makes the show a listening pleasure.

Director Brendon Rogers deftly creates scenes that clearly establish the relationship between Bruhl and Anderson without being blatant or offensive.  Choreography of the combat sequences is seamless and realistic.  Blocking on the full stage is excellent. 

“Deathtrap” opened on Broadway in 1978 and ran for four years, long for a non-musical.  The 1983 movie starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve was moderately successful. 

This play, rarely produced, is as good as it gets in the local theatre thriller genre. It gets a top Must-See recommendation. 

“Deathtrap” runs through May 19 at the Melon Patch Theatre in Leesburg.  For ticket prices, times, and directions, click on the icon to the left.

"Dearly Departed" is Comedy for the Unparted by Bay Street Players

                                                                 

Actor Patrick Ward responds at Q & A session after the show

It has all the makings of a southern back-woods soap opera.  There’s a death, an affair, a non descript preacher (Patrick Ward), a drifter son (Mark Milkman), and a wealthy busy body cousin (Ashley Barnette).  And there is plenty of situation comedy like the teen aged daughter (Katelyn Long) who is constantly eating and whose best punch line is a burp.

“Dearly Departed” now showing at the State Theatre in Eustis is collage of events that revolve around a funeral.  Patriarch Bud Turpin (Charles Finklestein) dies withing the first 90 seconds of the play without uttering a word.  Wife Raynelle (Charlotte Jardine) begins the funeral arrangements which her eldest son, Ray-Bud (James Simson) takes over.  Younger brother Junior (Glen Howard) is no help as he is recovering from a bad business deal and has an affair that was initiated in a K-Mart parking lot.  His wife Suzanne (Michelle Getchell Marshal) is not to happy taking care of bratty kids throughout this domestic mess.

Other cast members are Marni Ann Whitehead, Marian Dunham, Liz Curtis, Jimmy Miller, and Cathy Norman Ratliff,

After the first act of choreographed chaos, the second act begins as a sequence of vignettes.  Simpson and Howard have the best scene where brothers bare the souls, but from there on the flash-scenes are bits that could have come from “Laugh In” that do not add much to the story.

The physical problem of the play is the plethora of scenes.  While the stage crew hustled, the repeated time breaks seemed to fracture the mood.  This show is definitely “Black Box” material where the scenery changes are mostly in the minds of the audience.

Director Lawrence Benjamin, with a long list of credits, makes his Bay Street directorial debut, but has previously appeared as an actor at the State Theatre in “The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge.”  He was kind enough to return for the Sunday matinee on April 21 for a Q and A for members of The Villages Theatre Company.  Most of the cast were present for the program.

“Dearly Departed” is sure to keep you in a good mood and the nearly sold out matinee attendees surely enjoyed it.

Villages Theatre Members talk with director and cast after the show

The show runs through May 5  For reservations, prices, and other information, click on the icon on the left.