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Home - Theater
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Advice for the Ages - |
One-man Mark Twain show still timeless after 50 years
by Patricia Sindelar
With the economy tanking, wars raging all over the globe and a very important election looming, America needs someone to turn to. Someone with timely advice, full of insight, wisdom and wit. Someone with keen intelligence who can relate to the working class man. Someone like Mark Twain.
Luckily for Omahans, Hal Holbrook knows Mark Twain like a friend of 50 years. He has been performing a one-man recitation of Twain’s works since 1956. The timeless material Holbrook chooses for each performance is spot on with current events. Holbrook doesn’t change a word.
“Those unfamiliar with Twain have no idea, as I had no idea when I first started out, the amount of subject matter and wisdom, and the relevance of what he had to say about America, the human race, our behavior,” Holbrook said by phone from his hotel room in Columbia, Mo. “Once you get past Tom Sawyer, you get into deeper water. You get into his social essays and editorial speeches. You find a wealth of material and I never update it. When you get through the material, you’re amazed at how it sounds like you’re commenting on something in the morning newspaper.” |
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Cold Cream - |
Readers of Robert Fulghum’s book may be the primary audience for the musical All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten this Friday and Sunday at First United Methodist Church. But even non-readers must be rooting for its director, Fred Wilson, the forgiving survivor of the Von Maur massacre.
The gentle spirit so obvious in recovery interviews shines when you ask about his cast. There are no leading roles, he says, “it’s a group effort,” with a cast more active “vocal and chorus-wise” than in acting. He promises “a lot of people who do a lot of performing in the community,” with piano accompaniment by the church music director, Mark Kurtz.
They’ll appear in the sanctuary at 7:30 p.m. May 9 and 3 p.m. May 11. No reservations are needed and no tickets purchased, although donations will be accepted.
Wilson, who directed student productions at St. Albert’s High School in Council Bluffs more than 10 years ago, agreed to guide this project despite “not being 100 percent” after suffering the loss of most his blood due to wounds from the shooting. “But it’s fun to get back,” he said, “and I’m getting stronger every day.”
He supervised customer service at Von Maur, and hopes to return there in “a part-time capacity.” Wilson turns 62 this fall.
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Experi-MENTAL Theater - |
Witching Hour’s good dose of verbal assault
by Victor Hahn
Five members of the Witching Hour troupe have created a thought-provoking, experimental piece that pulls on angst, despair, loneliness, sex, love and blips from their own past in an engaging, mostly fast-paced work.
Down and Out in Heaven and Hell is essentially a tightly constructed group of five pieces: each performer writing his own work and performing as if they’re soliloquies, but broken up by the other performers. What you get is bits of thought and moments by one person, moving perfectly into another person’s work. Yes, they do interact with each other on occasion, as in the beginning, when four of them seemed to converge on one, all for apparently different reasons.
This show developed out of a workshop at the NU Works/NU Ways Festival. But Down and Out is a completely developed work, that weaves and bobs ideas so fast you hardly have time to laugh at the funny ones, even though some pause is allowed for thought-provoking parts. |
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Dancing on a Tightrope - |
Treacherous mind games require acrobatic survival
by Steve Eskew
One can expect treacherous consequences when reacting with guilt, self-hatred, jealousy or revenge. Those responses constitute the major themes running through Acrobat. Written and directed by local playwright Eric Salonis, this rousing drama is currently running at Shelterbelt Theatre.
Centering on sensations among a group of people following a suicide, the play focuses on the ups and downs (and ins and outs) of the characters’ shaky relationships with each other, intensified by devastating internal conflicts. |
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Cold Cream - |
We’re fired up about The Crucible opening this weekend at the Omaha Community Playhouse, especially with Susan Clement-Toberer directing Amy Kunz and Scott Kurz in the Arthur Miller classic about the Salem witch trials.
It’s worth Googling to relive its 55-year history. The first fact usually mentioned is that Miller’s inspiration for revisiting the horror grew out of the witch hunts conducted by Sen. Joe McCarthy, who accused even Lucille Ball of communist connections. Those roots may explain why it wasn’t an early choice at the Playhouse, where plays by anyone with the slightest red tint drew protests.
You don’t have to check many websites to find comparisons of Miller’s script and the actual events, listing inaccuracies which take nothing from the artistic power of the play. I suppose we could balk if the notion that alleged witches were burned was actually dramatized (they were hanged).
More than a few were accused. In addition to those hanged, some 200 were freed from prison when the governor called a halt to the paranoid insanity. |
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Shaken Nebraskan - |
Barn at best in man’s quest for lost faith
by Warren Francke
What’s more exciting than your first encounter with a brilliant new playwright? Seeing his talent in the sure hands of the Blue Barn Theatre.
Advance blurbs on its production of Man from Nebraska by Tracy Letts waved danger flags. A man from Lincoln “awakens in a panic to find he no longer believes in God.” It was easy to be a bit cynical, to expect a slick shedding of faith, puerile counseling by a stereotypical pastor, anti-religious clichés and perhaps some putdowns of Baptists and Nebraskans.
You get none of that. Instead, you get a layered look at universal experience that honors the search for spiritual insight. As directed by Susann Suprenant and performed by Jonathon Wilhoft, Delaney Driscoll and a surprising supporting cast, it also entertains at every turn. |
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Vivid and Varied - |
The Birds rock in UNO show
by Warren Francke
Variety is the spice of life onstage at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where D. Scott Glasser has transformed The Birds by Aristophanes into a rock musical populated not only by hawks and woodpeckers, but the Governator, Dr. Phyllis, a televangelist and Miss America. How old are the birds? Why, “older than William Shatner.”
From the hard rock overture to a rhyming rap by Prometheus (Amy Castro), Prof. Glasser draws heavily on the creativity of student composer Jeffrey Bell, choreographer Chelsie Hartness and costume designer Sharon Sobel to conjure a Cloudcuckooland rich in sound, movement and feathered avians.
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Cold Cream - |
If you wonder where the Brigit went, check out three current plays and you’ll find many of the talents that usually perform as the Brigit Saint Brigit Theatre’s repertory company.
In past years, the Brigit troupe led by Cathy Kurz was involved about now in its last show of the season. But that company is in transition, moving from its home at the College of St. Mary to combine with the Blue Barn Theatre in the Old Market.
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Flesh, Farce and Fantasy - |
Play fights gloom the Hollywood way
by Steve Eskew
When the Great Depression thrust America into one of its lowest ebbs, people desperately yearned for the unique escapism provided by a relatively new medium known as “moving pictures.” By the mid-1930s, Hollywood dream factories had begun churning out screwball comedies that featured clownish characters fighting like frenzied warriors in waging a savage battle against gloom.
Shakespeare in Hollywood by Ken Ludwig, currently running at the Omaha Community Playhouse, pays homage to this grand genre of the silver screen, in which producers showcased flawless human flesh with fantasy and absurdities. Emulating such familiar Shakespearean techniques as mistaken identities, magic powers and characters encumbered with self-contradictions, Ludwig has intermingled imagination with facts, skillfully embellishing real-life personalities amid fictional characterizations.
The play centers on world-renowned stage director Max Reinhardt (Dennis Collins), and his relentless quest to film William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’s abruptly informed that film studios habitually regard such classics as box office poison but, to Reinhardt‘s delight, studio head Jack Warner suddenly wants to develop a prestigious picture as a star-making vehicle for his girlfriend, Lydia Lansing (Theresa Sindelar). |
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Cold Cream - |
“Dawg, check it out” is disarming enough when coming from “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, but dog as metaphor can be perilous. Bear with me, then, before assuming the worst when reading that theater hereabouts is going to the dogs.
That’s a plus at the Omaha Community Playhouse where a Great Dane named Daisy ambled into Shakespeare in Hollywood and left no unwelcome gifts behind. If that doesn’t satisfy your need for suspense, note that Daisy’s breeder wanted to euthanize her because her coloring wasn’t marketable. And she’s a certified therapy dog.
Next week Annie returns to Omaha for one weekend at the Orpheum Theater, and the press kit offers no bio on the orphan’s dog, Sandy. But we do learn the dog’s handler recently appeared in Miss Saigon and that Sandy’s trainer has more credits than Amanda Balon, the 10-year-old in the title role.
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What a Whale - |
Iowa Western’s fierce farce
by Warren Francke
Here’s how the fun unfolds: You’re watching the kids from St. Godley’s School for Young Ladies cavorting onstage at Iowa Western Community College when the head mistress warns that the school is going broke. The pianist in pigtails and glasses (think Mary Katharine Gallagher of “SNL”) steps up with script in hand and proposes fundraising with her Moby Dick! The Musical.
Next thing you know she utters those immortal lines, “Call me Ishmael,” and everybody yells, “Ishmael.” Before you can fully ponder that “November of my soul” line, director Jerry Ditter presents such clever choreography and black light effects that one question (or two) looms large over the entire evening:
When do we get to see the great white whale? How will Ditter do Moby Dick?
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Cold Cream - |
Comedy seldom comes with guarantees, but combine playwright Ken Ludwig with the cast assembled by Carl Beck at the Omaha Community Playhouse and you wonder how Shakespeare in Hollywood could be any more promising.
Maybe by planting two of the bard’s fairies, Oberon and Puck, in the 1930s world of Jack Warner and Louella Parsons. Ludwig finds fertile ground in such theatrical settings as his Lend Me a Tenor or Moon Over Buffalo, where the actor playing Cyrano de Bergerac finds his prosthetic nose slipping to his crotch.
Now Ludwig a la Beck brings Theresa Sindelar, Karl Rohling, Bill Hutson, Dennis Collins, Teri Fender and others under the same roof April 11-May 4.
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Ferguson’s Flower - |
Renowned artist sculpts vision into set of Opera Omaha’s Aida
by Leo Adam Biga
When Catherine Ferguson was offered the opportunity to design Opera Omaha’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, she knew the project would test her limits. The renowned Omaha installation artist and sculptor was accustomed to working with a variety of materials on a large scale. But the monumental task of designing costumes and sets for grand opera, albeit a somewhat minimalist mounting of it, was something new.
It marked the second time Opera Omaha asked a prominent Omaha artist to interpret a major work from the canon. Ceramic master Jun Kaneko designed the 2006 production of Madama Butterfly.
Opera Omaha again wanted a nontraditional interpretation of a classic work for which, Ferguson said, “people have such expectations.”
“People who’ve never seen Aida feel like they’ve seen Aida. It definitely gave me pause and left me without speech,” she said. “I asked for a month to think it over. It was a huge decision to make.” |
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Cold Cream - |
I’ve panned productions of the Grande Olde Players, and I’ve skipped others. But, until now, I’ve never enjoyed one so much I couldn’t wait to round up friends and insist they see it or miss one of the best this season.
That’s the case with Enchanted April, a romantic comedy with a cast to match its charming script. Perhaps you saw the Oscar-nominated film, but the stage version is new here and you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been done before.
Two London housewives spy an “advert” for a villa overlooking the Mediterranean, recruit two strangers to share the rental, and escape to Mezzago, Italy, and the promise of wisteria and sunshine. Director Mark Manhart obliges playwright Matthew Barber by playing the early scenes before a black curtain, then adding two set pieces that perfectly capture the villa spirit: a curving staircase and a peek through white columns at a blue splash of the sea.
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Multicultural Moves - |
Cirque du Soleil stages Saltimbanco at the Qwest
by Layne Gabriel
Flying through the air, playing with fire, bicycling with no hands — all while wearing colorful costumes — sounds like a parents’ nightmare. For Cirque du Soleil’s troupe performing Saltimbanco, it’s all in a day’s work and creates quite the spectacle.
“We have a lot of acrobats, gymnastics, trapeze — we pretty much capture the full range of the gymnastics,” Saltimbanco’s artistic director Robin Webb said. “They have to sing, they have to dance, they have to act as well. That separates us and puts us into the theatrical category as much as it puts us into the circus category.”
Long a staple of Las Vegas casinos and international big-top performances, and known for flashy, exciting performances and awe-inspiring tricks, the Montreal-based Cirque brings a feast for the eyes to large arenas.
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Cold Cream - |
Given the quality of the talent and the food, plus a tax deduction, Saturday’s fundraiser at the Omaha Community Playhouse is a bigger bargain than ticket prices might suggest.
Here’s the deal for the event called Destination World’s Fare: “First Class Boarding” tickets cost $150, “General Boarding” $100, with all but $40 deductible. In other words, it costs less than most tickets to the Holland Center. And you get entertainment that starts with the Weisenheimers Comedy Troupe.
The main stage show features Erika Hall as Patsy Cline, Jill Anderson and Seth Fox singing theater hits, the cast of Crowns and the tap dance ensemble from Swing. The food comes from restaurants fitting the theme of global destinations: Athens, Frankfurt, Madrid, Tokyo, Venice and that ultra-chic hangout, Coney Island.
Along the way, travelers can try karaoke in the Tokyo martini bar, carnival games at Coney Island and beer-tasting in a German beer garden. The first class ticket buys you into a patron party at 6 p.m., with the general crowd arriving at 7 p.m. and the show at 9:30 p.m., March 29.
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Political Purgatory - |
Play epitomizes life, truth and humor during the early days of AIDS
by Steve Eskew
SNAP! Productions has resumed Tony Kushner’s colossal saga of Angels in America. Part 1 ran last November. Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika intensifies Kushner’s tempestuous, wacky and witty examination of the AIDS pandemic at its scariest. Hitting America hard in the mid-1980s, the baffling syndrome turned its sufferers into instant pariahs, often forsaken by fearful lovers, friends, family, medical personnel, undertakers and certainly by their government. Drowning in a toxic political arena of indifference, characters of Kushner’s play also feel abandoned by God, who reportedly left the universe in 1906.
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Cold Cream - |
Cast an actor to play Roy Cohn, the famously unsavory sidekick of Sen. Joe McCarthy, and he faces a problem. Michal Simpson got the role in Angels in America for SNAP! Productions and began searching.
“I did as much research as I could to find something redeeming about him,” Simpson explained. He settled on the idea that the lawyer was good to his mother. Angels part two, Perestroika (see review), runs two more weekends at the Shelterbelt. In the HBO version, Al Pacino played Cohn. |
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Fit For A Queen - |
Jim Boggess gets his day in the sun
by Leo Adam Biga
Community Playhouse Music Director James Boggess likes big, brassy numbers. Sundays, he indulges his penchant for belt-it-out show-stoppers by directing the Freedom Choir at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The choir pours out raise-the-rafters gospel sounds in response to his dynamic, stand-up-and-shout lead at the piano.
He’s been an “MGM kind of guy” since growing up in Estherville, Iowa, where his flamboyance fed off the movie musicals he watched at the Grand Theatre. He set his sights on showbiz after seeing a high school production of Carousel. Being gay in a small, conservative Catholic community spelled trouble. Songs he’s written for his new cabaret at the P.S. Collective, Jurassic Queen: A One Diva Show, touch on those years. |
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Weaving a Tangled Web - |
Mystery-comedy involves covering up a moderately innocent murder
by Steve Eskew
One needn’t be overly bright to know that covering up a crime can cause more headache than the crime itself. The Omaha Community Playhouse’s current offering, Cliffhanger by James Yaffe, reminds us that possessing intelligence and being smart aren’t necessarily synonymous. It examines the comic consequences suffered by a philosophy professor who commits murder to save his standing in the academic community, then tries to hide his crime. |
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