Big Weekend for Talent at Rick’s

by Warren Francke

Old is new when The Fantasticks goes steampunk at the Omaha Community Playhouse Feb. 10-March 18. Think not this musical’s usual idyllic garden wall setting, but 19^th century Victorian industrial revolution grime and grit.

If that doesn’t work, check steampunk style in the recent film versions of Sherlock Holmes. Director Carl Beck has Seth Fox as El Gallo, Rich and Jennifer Tritz as the boy and girl, Gordon Krentz and Jonathon Wilhoft as their fathers. Bernie Clark may conjure up the most memories for me as the old actor, a role I first saw performed eons ago by Norm Filbert at the Blackstone Hotel.

Clark pairs with grim Matt Kelehan as “the man who dies.” If you’re the last person on earth who hasn’t seen this durable triumph, you at least know its memorable song, “Try to Remember.”

n) Big weekend at Rick’s Boatyard Café starts with Lights, Camera, Murder at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. Written and directed by L.R. Nogg, it features Ron Chvala, Erika Zadina, Don Noel and others as motley suspects in the murder of a low-budget director.

Then the founder and friends celebrate 20 Years of Cabaret by Rebecca Noble’s Cabaret Theatre. Becky, hubby Keith Allerton, her mom Phyllis and many others have performed 48 original musical revues in the last two decades.

The singing begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets are $20; call 402.345.4545.

n) Wait another week for the invasion of the Bees, as in Beasley, Blue Barn and Brigit St. Brigit—all set for openings on Feb. 17. You’ll see more here later, especially about the Barn’s In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play).

I’ll give you a longer, deeper look at how the Blue Barn rose from the ashes to its current critical and popular success, but I may not top the daily’s teaser on last week’s story about the vibrator play as a topic for a sex forum.

Bob Fischbach whispered that it’s “about—shhhhh—what you think it’s about,” then promised it’s also about relationship problems, not just a mechanical device.

I may be tempted to titillate but hope to rise above all that with a story about the kids that came from Purchase, N.Y., to give Omaha a gift of high-quality provocative theater. What may be more important is that the community embraced that gift.

Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to coldcream@thereader.com.

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