“Barefoot in the Park” at Trinity Rep

by Richard Pacheco

“Barefoot in the Park” is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The play premiered on Broadway in 1963 and starred Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. The play was made into a film in 1967, also starring Redford, and Jane Fonda and is currently playing at Trinity Rep in a splendid production full of energy, and vitality loaded with physical comedy and zippy dialogue brought vividly to life by a winning cast. This was Neil Simon's longest-running hit, and the tenth longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history. The play was nominated for three 1964 Tony Awards, and Mike Nichols won the award for Best Director.

Corie Bratter and Paul Bratter are newly wed. For their first home, they live in an apartment on the top floor (six flights up if you count the front stoop)of a Brownstone in New York City. The newlyweds face the realities of being married with surprise and at times dismay. They get to met some of the odd collection of neighbors, in particular one Victor Velasco, who fancies himself a ladies’ man and Romeo. Corey takes it in her head to introduce her mother, Mrs. Banks in the hopes that at least he will be a distraction for her, perhaps even a romantic interest. The newly weds head out to dinner with the older couple and everything goes crazy as the night transpires.

Charlie Thurston is Paul Bratter, a young attorney who I about ready to face his first case in court. He is also a  newlywed and very down to earth, feet on the ground, practical kind of guy his wife calls stuffy. Thurston is a marvel of comic timing in the role, with impeccable delivery and facial expressions He is also brilliant when it comes to physical comedy, recalling people like Dick Van Dyke, Charlie Chaplin and Jerry Lewis.  He is a sheer delight to watch in a comic gem of a performance.

Rebecca Gibel is Corie Bratter, the young wife, who is full of dreamy notions about marriage and feet off the ground in an airy attitude which is all centered on what she thinks and believes about the world and marriage. Gibel is a load of charm and energy, full of vitality and spunk. She is confident and self assured. She deftly captures the flightiness of Corie with skill and style.

Gibel and Thruston are a couple offstage as well.

Stephen Berenson is the apartment Romeo, Victor Velasco, who is full of dash and swagger, a smooth talker with an eye towards the ladies no matter what their age may be. Velasco is a gourmet cook and dime store Romeo who flirts with all the women, such as Corie and her mother with equal verve and dedication.  He just loves women and isn’t afraid to show it with a flourish and strut. Berenson is a delight, with comic aplomb in his timing and flair.  Velasco is inexpensive debonair in his capable hands and loaded with laughs.

Phyllis Kay is Corie’s mother, Mrs. Brooks, a widow who is beginning to feel the ravages of both being alone and getting older that way. She sleeps on a board or she cant sleep and her life it pretty much determined in terms of routine and her own rituals. Kay is wonderful in the role, with comic class and grace, full of the right nuances to make her character both endearing and very funny simultaneously.

There is solid support coming from the other two cast members as well, Uche Elueze as the telephone repairman and George Spelvin as the delivery guy. Both add some nice comic touches with zest and panache.

Director Michael Perlman keeps everything moving merrily along with a swift pace that is impressive and effective.

While the material seems a bit dated, the cast makes it all enjoyable. The long drawn out spat that leads to the brink of divorce seems like a tremendous abuse of time, but the actors make it all so much fun even it the material sags a bit due to its age and perspective.

The Daniel Zimmerman set design is a sheer gem, with moveable apartment walls that vividly create the outside of the brownstone and then glide open to reveal the insides of the apartment.

This is a must see production of comic finesse and excellence. There is so much here that is impeccable you’d be crazy to miss it. It is sheer fun and very well acted.

“Barefoot in the Park” at Trinity Rep ” runs through Dec. 21 at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets start at $46 Call (401) 351-4242, or visit trinityrep.com

“A Christmas Carol” at Trinity Rep 2014

by Richard Pacheco

            It’s that time of year again, the time to trot out those Christmas classics and show them off to best effect. Trinity Rep revives the classic Dickens tale this year from the adaptation by Trinity Founder Adrian Hall and Richard Cummings. It gets of to a shaky start with an awkward beginning scene it turns into rip roaring fun. Yes, there are some changes this year and they work well and is very satisfying and delightful.

            It masterfully evades sentimentality and sugary goodness while remaining poignant and moving where it should be. The familiar tale of the curmudgeon Scrooge, the epitome of skinflint transforms from Christmas hater to its most ardent devotee is a charming journey filled with many delights along the way that are sure to please.

          

  Fred Sullivan Jr. as Scrooge, the tireless businessman who finds value in the cash and not his fellow man is full of zest and energy. He is not brooding or dark as the earlier Scrooge, but instead is full of rambunctious  bluster, not at all a shriveled up mean spirited misanthrope. It’s a keenly delivered performance, full of humor and sizzling with energy. Scrooge is indeed a miser in his hands, but one full of presence and energy.
            Tom Gleadow is Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s now deceased partner.  He has some brief moments as Scrooge recalls the living partner and gives an indication of his business acumen and likewise stingy nature. When he appears as the ghost of Marley, wailing and howling, wearing chains and the grave trappings, he is ominous and may prove too frightening for younger children as the young girl near me begged her mother to leave which she eventually did.. It was very effective as he rises from Scrooge’s bed in the most eerie manner. Gleadow is right on the mark as Marley, delivering his ominous warning with purpose and determination. He is also effective as the ebullient Mr. Feziwig, Scrooge’s boss in his youth.

            Elise Hudson is the  Ghost of Christmas Past and she enters with flair and presence, as she descends from the ceiling in a white flowing gown that give the impression of airiness and flight. It is a spectacular entrance that leaves and impact and she is poised and patient as the spirit who leads Scrooge to his more pleasant past with fond memories such as the woman he almost married, Belle and the Feziwigs, Scrooge’s boss and his wife.

            Joe Wilson, Jr. makes an amazing entrance as the Ghost of Christmas Present, zooming in from above wearing tights, a handlebar moustache and top hat to hilarious effect. He bounds about with zip and zest as he speaks with Scrooge, full of merry energy and sheer fun. It is delightful.

            The Ghost of Christmas Future is a dark and ominous figure, looming and dark, with hands, rather massive threatening mitts which dangle to the floor, but is never really particularly terrifying or ever full of dark threatening prescience or menace. Ralph Adriel Johnson handles it with a brooding , nearly plodding movement that is dark, but not terrifying.

Anne Scurria does multiple duty here with the skill and finesse for which she has always been known as Mrs. Feziwig, Scrooge’s crusty and cranky charwoman is a pleasure.

Stephen Thorne is there as the hapless assistant to Scrooge, Bob Cratchitt. He is excellent as the frightened obedient employee whose concerns for his family and in particular his injured son, Tiny Tim keeps him in line at work for fear of losing his job.

Michael Jennings Mahoney is Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, son to Scrooge’s beloved dead sister and his only living family.  Fed continues to try to make contact with his uncle, reach him emotionally, but is always blocked by Scrooge’s indifference and mockery until his transformation by the ghosts’ visits. He is sincere and  convincing in the role, full of enthusiasm and conviction.

Henry Siravo who played Tiny Tim in the press opening was endearing and cute but did not show much enthusiasm in the scene where he blesses everyone. There are tow cast of children, the red cast and the green cast. The red cast performed on the press night.

For the purists, there are some elements missing or not emphasized here. There is no showing or mention of how Scrooge ruins his former boss in his descent to parsimony and self absorption. Scrooge’s break up with Belle lacks a romantic impact and power that it might have. But there are small things in an otherwise wonderful and entertaining version of the Christmas classic.

Director Taibi Magar keeps the pace moving merrily along, at times abbreviated, but always fun.

            The sets by Patrick Lynch and lean and streamlined, not heavy into detail and atmosphere, while they do indeed invoke the right mood and atmosphere they do so lightly and without a heavy hand.

            The Olivera Gajic costumes are rich and wonderful.

            “A Christmas Carol” runs through Dec. 31 at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets start at $31 for adults and $26 for children 2-14. Call (401) 351-4242, or visit trinityrep.com

“Hedda Gabler” at the Gamm

By Richard Pacheco

            “Hedda Gabler” currently at the Gamm Theatre adapted by artistic director Tony Estrella is simply riveting, rich in underlying emotional currents and devastating intensity, propelled by superb acting and deft directing.

            The classic Ibsen play tells the tale of Hedda Gabler, the daughter of an aristocratic general who finds herself trapped and bored in married life even though she is a newly wed. These are sharply drawn characters that are superbly acted and skillfully directed by Estrella. There is seething intensity here, underlying currents of deceit and disappointment that surge to the surface with dire consequences. All of which makes for compelling and relentless theatre. The characters are sharply drawn and very distinct.

            Marianna Bassham is Hedda, now Mrs. Tesman, ne Gabler, daughter of the imperious general.  Hedda is deeply troubled and incredibly bored by her life and in particular her husband.  She has a dark streak that runs deep and constant. She was a bit wild before  she got married and at times seems to long for that life again, as if her choice for prudence has becomes an overwhelming burden which drags her down daily, saps the life out of her. Her idea of fun and games is to fire a pistol at people, one not loaded with blanks. It is a riveting performance, rich in darkness, boredom and borderline madness.

            Joe Short is her somewhat naïve and often childlike husband George, who got his degree while studying on their honeymoon He is clueless and nearly painfully innocent and without a hint about life or his wife.  He has a childish enthusiasm, a really kind of golly gee effect which he struggles to keep in check. He is like a child who just met his favorite movie star or made the little league team in spite of it all. Short delivers a rich performance of a childish and childlike man who is unaware of so many things in particularly regarding his wife’s darker side.

            Alexander Platt is the tortured and fragile Eilert Lovborg, a brilliant writer who is tortured by relentless drinking and alcoholism which disintegrates his talent and his life reducing him to dire straits and failure personally and professionally. Yet Lovborg has manages to get on the wagon and stop drinking, get his life together again with the publication of a new book which is getting wide acclaim and interest. It is a tortured performance rich in inner battles and oozing a sense of fatal weakness and disaster.

Jim O’Brien is Judge Brock, longtime friend of the family who appears to be proper, but has his darker side as well. It is one of O’Brien’s best performances, rich and full of depth.

Marya Lowry is George’s doting aunt Juliana who holds her nephew in high regards despite his meager accomplishments. She is the epitome of the loving aunt, who adores her nephew and does not see his failings and flaws, only delights in his successes.

Karen Carpentier is Thea the sheriff’s wife and serves as Lovberg’s muse and helps him  with his research and his writing, takes care of him and adores him. IT is a sincere and touching performance, rich and deep.

Katie Travers is the maid, Berta, longtime employee of Aunt Julie and now, not too happily working for her nephew and his wife whom she is not too fond. She adds some fine comic touches to the role.

Tony Estrella directs with flair and finesse, evoking the best out of this superb cast. His adaptation is vivid and dense, full of depth and varied.

Scenic artist Cappie Cappizano delivers a set that is loaded with beams  cross beams, a house under construction and transparent, exposing it structural flaws and emotional holes. There are a couple of times when it interferes with the lighting.

This is an excellent production rich and varied with a strong and talented cast that is sure to please.

“Hedda Gabler” at the Gamm Theatre Oct.23 – Nov 30 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket. Tickets are $36-$45. Call (401) 723-4266, or visit gammtheatre.org.

“Tapped Out” at Image Theatre

by Richard Pacheco

            Image Theatre in Lowell continues its commitment to  new plays and local playwrights with its current production of “Tapped Out” by Massachusetts playwright Karla Sorensen with an evening that is full of solid acting and intriguing twists and turns.

            It is the 1980’s and Manny buys a bar in an old mill town fighting for a second chance and new life. The dilapidated bar is a dive with the same customers who cluster there, stuck in their same lives and struggling for a second chance or better life. Manny has taken some chances to start his bar and those hard choices may be crashing down back on him including his unconventional financing arrangements he made until he can get a VA loan.  Things are in jeopardy and Manny faces these trials and tribulations with the most fortitude he can muster, some new dreams and a new love.

            David Sullivan is Manny, a man with a past and some dark secrets, troubled by guilt over the death of friend years ago and the sad state of his current life mired in failure and frustration. Yet Manny is trying to dig his way out, buying a bar with the hopes of renovating it with the help of his former crush and new love, Janine. She has dreams like him is wiling to help propel him into his much denied success and borderline legal ways.  Sullivan is straightforward and direct as the former champion teenager boxer now struggling for dignity and success.

            Drew Shadrawy is Tucker, a drunken, boisterous coot who hangs around, and is a long time friend to Manny. He is on disability and walks with a limp and spends his time dreaming of the good ole days in the bar, resistant to any kind of change at all, determined to remain a fixture in an unchanging landscape of broken down bars and fond remembrances from the past, or even not so fond ones. He has a shady side, skirting the other side of the law with ease and frequency, but under it all loyal to his friend and his welfare, or what he thinks it his best welfare. Shadrawy is gruff and cranky, yet full of humor in the role, plunging right ahead to remain in the past. He is sincere and skillful in the performance.

            Jenney Dale Holland is Janine, one time neighborhood cutie who left for California and a better life but is back home to take care of business when her mother dies, she must deal with the estate and sell her mother’s house. She is attracted to Manny, claiming she always was and wants to forge a new life with him, including the future fate of the bar. She has secrets from her past as well, which might permeate her potential for a better future, one filled with success and joy. She is pert and perky in the role and handles the romantic scenes with Sullivan with flair and sincerity.

Director Jerry Bizantz handles it all with skill and finesse including making good use of the small space. The set design by him and Ann Garvin, Bill Walter and  Shadrawy works well and makes good use of space.

            “Tapped Out” at Image Theater, upstairs at the Old Court Pub, 29 Central street, Lowell, MA www.imagetheater.com or call 978-441-0102. Continues until Nov. 14.

“Eleemosynary” at 2nd Story Downstage

By Richard Pacheco

            “Eleemosynary” is a 1985 one act play by Lee Blessing (Best known for “A Walk in the Woods”. It follows the relationships between three generations of women at the Downstage Theatre for 2^nd Story and it sparkles with fine performances and vibrant energy, full of sass and fun as it investigates the relationships between a grandmother, mother and daughter, fraught with intricacies and peculiarities.. The word "eleemosynary" itself plays a significant part in the plot.

            The stage is nearly bare with ramps criss-crossing, some shelves and books, highly evocative along with some large wooden frames for wings a la Da Vinci’s flying machine. Words, not jus their spelling, but their definitions play an important part in this play. They interplay with the relationship between the three women, delving into its complexities and convolutions. The relationships between the three women are subtle and at times contrary and perverse. The grandmother, Dorothea, is a genuine eccentric, a woman disappointed by much of her life until she discovers she can be eccentric and it offers her a saving grace, but one with impact and consequences for her family. Her daughter Artemis (Artie) shirks from her mother’s strong personality and quirky ways. Her mother is dominating and overbearing and she flees from her influence, running away from home as a child multiple times. Artie’s daughter, Echo, is bright, talented and precocious with a love of words, instilled in her by her grandmother to the point of obsession from childhood on. Artie leaves her daughter in her mother’s care, feeling cut of by the bond between the two. As the play begins, Dorothea has suffered a stroke, and while Echo has reestablished contact with her mother, it is only through extended telephone conversations, during which real issues are skirted and their talk is mostly about the precocious Echo’s single-minded domination of a national spelling contest.

            Isabel O’Donnell is the eccentric and quirky Dorothea. Dorothea loves learning, loves, if not is downright obsessed about getting children to learn words, both meanings and spelling. Dorothea’s father dashed her dreams of attending college and pushed her into an unwanted marriage. Trapped in that, her mind turns increasingly flighty and cold towards her daughter. O’Donnell is a delight in the role, full of poise, prescience and oozing eccentricity with ease and finesse.

            Sharon Carpentier is Artemis, an intelligent woman nearly snuffed by her mother’s oppressiveness and overbearing manner. She latches on to scientific rationalism in self defense. Her mother squeezes her out of her daughter’s life piece by piece and she admits to emotional child abuse and moves to eight different cities to escape her mother and is always ready to move to another one. Carpentier handles the role of the resentful perpetually escaping Artie with skill and energy. It is difficult to evoke compassion for the character, but Carpenier does so ably and admirably.

            Valerie Westgate is Echo, the spelling genius who tires to get her mother and grandmother back on better terms and is willing to use her spelling abilities to entice them to the same place at the same time for her spelling bee. She also knows all about derivations and the earliest literary uses of all manner of arcane words. She is precocious to the border of irritating. Echo is bound and determined to somehow bring her grandmother and mother somehow together again no matter what. Westgate is charming in the role, managing to balance exuberance with a smart aleck arrogance that does not get to be overbearing.

            Director Mark Peckham keeps the pace rapid and on target. He deftly balances the wants and desires of the three women with a keen eye on pace and their unique relationships.

            Words play a key element in this play, words and their ability to alter and control life, to redefine relationships and interactions on so many levels. It offers some dazzling moments for Echo with her spelling and some terrific interplay between the women.

“Eleemosynary” (20 October - 23 November)

2ND STORY THEATRE

@ 28 Market Street, WARREN RI

1(401)247 4200

“Dial M for Murder” at Ocean State Theatre

by Richard Pacheco

            It is pleasant enough usually ably acted and evenly directed and if there are nay issues with it, it lies with the play itself and its flaws. The play was written by written by English playwright Frederick Knott, whose work often focused on women who innocently become the potential victims of sinister plots. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC television, before being performed on the stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October. It was later made into the 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock

            The tale revolves around an ex professional tennis star Tony Wendice and his socialite wife, Margot. After a chaotic schedule that his wife bitterly complaints about,  and she begins an affair with an American television writer, Tony decides to retire from the tennis circuit.

            Drew Anthony Allen is the stuffy Brit, Tony Wendice who wants to do away with his wife to inherit her fortune.  Wendice is aloof with the nearly cliché stiff upper lip attitude of the British. At times however, Allen seems too aloof and above it all and without any passion or emotions at all. He appears separated from what is going on with his wife and the television writer, to aloof and distance to really care. He seems to be unable to muster any kind of rage to propel him to plot and murder his wife.

Aimee Doherty is his wife Margot, likewise stuffy and upper class British, a bit detached from her husband and reconnecting with him She struggles to deal with the British accent at times slipping and drifting out of it. There are times when she is not merely reserved but somewhat flat and without animation, too much stiff Brit

Rudy Sanda is Capt. Lesgate, Wendice’s long lost college buddy who gets blackmailed into committing murder for his old college chum. Capt. Lesgate is a sleazy man with a nefarious past full of dark secrets and criminal deeds, thought usually of the larcenous kind.

What gets to be the real treats here comes with Boston actor Bill Mootos as Max Halliday the television writer and Brandon Whitehead as Inspector Hubbard.

Mootos who was excellent in last season’s  “good People” at the Gamm shines here too. He is concerned and caring as the televisions writer who had a fling with the socialite.

A main saving grace to this production is the Inspector Hubbard, played by Brandon Whitehead.  Whitehead is a deft and smart combination of a kind of Colombo, and down to earth detective with the smarts and determination to solve the case, not matter what the odds. Whitehead is a delight as the disheveled somewhat gritty and gruff detective. He ably snags some Colombo touches to spark it all up which he does with  flair and sass.

Finally there is Jonathan Fisher as Thompson who is solid as the policeman.

Amiee Turner directs with a usually deft sense of pacing and mood and gets the best out of Mootos and Whitehead.

Katryne Hecht’s set is simply superb, at once elegant at times spooky and full of mood and atmosphere. David Sexton’s lighting design is brooding and mysterious, very effective and evocative.

The play itself has flaws and could have taken something from the writers of Colombo, yes I know it was first and their effective techniques. The set up in Act I takes far to long to come together. Both use the knowledge of the crime and the criminal from the beginning. Both use a clever detective to figure it all out and to prove it. The rest comes from the flatness of some of the performances, the utter lack of emotional nuance and presence.

            “Dial M for Murder” runs through Nov. 16 at Ocean State Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick. Tickets are $34-$49. Call (401) 921-6800, or visit oceanstatetheatre.org.