Witching Hour and Witch Way to Pole

by Warren Francke

While we’re waiting for the Witching Hour this weekend and Doug Marr’s latest original play next weekend, keep your eye on the Sower, that seed-spreading statue atop the Nebraska State Capital Building at Friday noon.

I’m hoping something magical happens at the lunch hour performance of King Kong: the Puppet Show in Room 1126. Suppose Kong breaks loose from the puppeteer’s strings, grabs Amelia Barrett, Lincoln’s answer to Fay Wray, and heads for the tower.

There, silhouetted against the late November sky, the big guy hangs, one gargantuan paw  gripping the Sower, the other clutching Amelia Fay. Save your prayers for the pilots of the fighter planes that try to bring him crashing down.

Just in case things do get out of hand, lets hope Ladd Wendelin, who produces this free 30-minute comedy and plays filmmaker Carl Denham, costumes Ms. Barrett in that Skull Island paw-proof version of the torn blouse.

But, if that performance ends as planned at 12:30 p.m., you’ll have plenty of time to drive back to Omaha, and rest up for the 11 p.m. opening of another original, Grass So Tall, Sky So Black: an original old-time ghost story musical.

Directed by Nick Zadina and Jennifer Pool, it promises “a macabre cabaret of dread” set in “a time not quite now, a place not quite here.” Movement, masks and story-telling come with original songs by Elizabeth Webb of Midwest Dilemma and Brad Hoshaw of Brad and the Seven Deadlies.

The cast with Eric Grant-Leanna, Shannon Jaxies and others will perform at the same 11 p.m. hour Nov. 30-Dec. 15, each Friday and Saturday, at the Blue Barn, 614 S. 11^th St. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Creighton University also opens Vive Paris! this week. It’s set on the Seine, a ballet directed by Patrick Roddy, and it’s not about someone named Hilton who posts sex videos. Marr’s holiday play at the Circle Theater, Witch Way to the North Pole, starts Dec. 7 at Central Presbyterian Church, 55^th and Leavenworth.

The year-ending month also promises two guaranteed musical hits: Billy McGuigan’s Yesterday and Today with Billy and his brothers plus brilliant instrumentalists doing the Beatles songbook at the Omaha Community Playhouse, Dec. 7-31, and then Gordon Cantiello’s Beehive revival at the Waiting Room on Maple. Starting Dec. 15, that proven array of Aretha Franklin and friends plays at 1 and 5 p.m. spots, leaving the night for other forms of live music.

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

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