Tish, age 13 and 6-1, no Raggedy Ann

by Warren Francke

Here’s one of my favorite bits of Omaha Community Playhouse trivia and it involves that great native Omahan who died last week at age 86, Letitia “Tish” Baldridge. If you read Mike Kelly’s column, you know about her connection to Jackie Kennedy and her fame as an author and etiquette columnist.

More than a half century ago, she was 13 and one of many young girls who auditioned for the theater’s production of...

Holiday Fare Sans Zombies

by Warren Francke

Now that we can walk around town without zombies lurching our way, beware a more benign menace: the invasion of holiday theater. It begins Friday with one of the darker seasonal traditions in a different form.

If you’re nostalgic for the Great Depression and suicidal bankers, Bellevue Little Theater offers a stage variation on Jimmy Stewart’s suffering in It’s a Wonderful Life—A Live Radio Play. Let us hope it...

Laugh as Earth Goes Boom

by Warren Francke

boom offers more than the crash of a kettle drum to herald the end of the world. For me, at least, it entertained first and saved the thought-provoking part to continue days after the lights went down on the Howard Drew space at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

And it helped me overcome what I’d feared was my immunity from crude obscenities. I was so smitten with director Amy Lane’s brilliant treatment of August:...

If world goes “Boom!,” say yes to Shrek

by Warren Francke

boom with a small b at the Playhouse Thursday? Yes. The Bad Seed with a good cast at the Circle Theatre Friday? Yes. Chanticleer’s fund-raising cabaret in CB Saturday? Yes. A Bright New Boise at the Playhouse Monday? Yes.

Shrek the Musical at the Orpheum Tuesday? “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” The first four affirmatives were mine, but the next five are in quotation marks because they erupted excitedly from my...

Mo’ Poe in Midtown Haunts

by Warren Francke

Poe, Poe and more Poe. Edgar Allan everywhere, all over the Joslyn Castle and Shelterskeltering at the Shelterbelt, both lacking only the rasping caw of a raven to give them the full gothic atmosphere.

And Scott Working’s Tales of Poe, a Metro Community College creation in league with the Castle, came complete with an ominous, open-beaked raven hovering over the castle turrets, courtesy of a poster by Midwest...

Odd Coupling: Rothko’s Red and Funny Girl

by Warren Francke

No, you’re not getting an essay contrasting Jerry Longe as artist Mark Rothko in Red with Ariel Talacko as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Suffice it to say, viva la difference.

And that’s without making it three for three by catching Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus the next night, doing back-to-back Blue Barn, Creighton and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Instead of flipping a coin to pick between the two...

Add Delaney and Leanne to Star List

by Warren Francke

I’m not pleading for a flop, but it could get ho-hum around here if this parade of powerhouse women’s role keeps coming. I’ve seen three plays so far this season and all three featured female triumphs.

It started with Susie Baer Collins as Violet Weston topping the dream team that made August: Osage County a monster hit at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Who could match that role of a lifetime?

Then, just last...