17
Nov
2015
"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of a man can invent." This Sherlock Holmes quote is a perfect description for the mystery play at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre - at least in terms of the lives of those on-stage. Just when you think things cannot get any crazier and the coincidences cannot get more coincidental, Ken Ludwig's script shows you otherwise. The Game's Afoot is a comedy with a mix of nutty characters and a whodunit theme, and while it was clear that the cast was still getting comfortable with each other and the script during Thursday's dress rehearsal, there were improvements in energy and confidence by the second act.
Avenue Q is one of a few musicals that I thought should maybe only be staged by Broadway professionals. However, it didn't take long during Friday's performance at the District Theatre for director Marc Ciemiewicz and his cast to prove they can handle Avenue Q, and handle it well.
There's a lovely sincerity to the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's production of Bernard Slade's Moving, and Saturday's performance possessed such realism - with notable acting from every member of director Bryan Woods' cast - that I had to wonder how such an impressively produced piece could feel so mismatched with its script.
As if she hadn't already proven so in the previous three hours of Friday's Countryside Community Theatre performance, Christina Myatt left no doubt that she's worthy of the larger-than-life role of Mama Rose with Gypsy's final song, "Rose's Turn."
Several minutes into the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's Lend Me a Tenor, I was concerned that I was in for two more hours of comedy that fell flat with forced funniness, rendering it unfunny, and jokes more worthy of groans than chuckles. But then John VanDeWoestyne's Tito, the titular tenor, and Diane Greenwood's Maria, Tito's wife, entered the stage, and brought with them the strong farcical performances that, until that point, were lacking in Saturday night's performance.
South Pacific comes to us with an intimidating load of pedigreed baggage: Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, Rodgers & Hammerstein. And if you add its dramatic World War II setting, its themes of interracial romance and prejudice, its enormous scenic drops and set pieces, and its cast of two dozen plus, it'd be enough for Countryside Community Theatre's current production of the piece to be impressive, and it most certainly is that.
