And then there was nun

Vintage Theatre: May 17 – June 16

     Campy, kitschy and kooky, Vintage Theatre’s “And Then There Was Nun” is a panic!

     She’s got Bette Davis eyes!  Of course I’m referring to that funny, funny actor, Bob Leggett who’s playing Sister Bette in Vintage Theatre’s rollicking new production of “And Then There Was Nun.” Leggett is outstanding as that Bette we all know and adore of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” fame. Leggett gets loads of laughs just rolling those big ol’ Bette Davis eyes.

     Her sister, Joan (Crawford) is played with tongue in cheek by Shane Delavan.

      Decked out in an ante bellum hoop skirt with tiny four leaf clovers Preston Britten is the hilarious Vivien Leigh of “Gone With the Wind” fame.

Preston Britten and Geri Crawley

                                         All photos by Denver Mind Media
     Geri Crawley is smashing as the incahation of Sistuh Hattie (McDaniel) of the same suthuhn plantatiuhn as Mistuh Britten’s Scahlett.  

     Abby Apple Boes is stunning in her portrayal of Sister Gloria (Swanson.) As the aging star with the bulging eyes always craving her close-up, Apple Boes delivers a juicy performance that’s delicious to the core. 

                                           

                    Abby Apple Boes

     Cathy Washburn’s Sister Katherine (Hepburn) gets high marks as well standing out among these “loons!” (Sorry!)

      In fact the whole cast has gotten into the habit of being deliriously out of control as they portray this convent full of the aging Hollywood Sisters of Saint Andreas. Directed with a light touch and a quick pace by Peter Hughes, this offering is a comedy directed at anybody who loves vintage movies and has even one funny bone in his body.

                              

   The cast of "And Then There Was Nun"

Richard T. Witter’s and Bruce W. Gilray’s play is a send-up of Agatha Christie’s book and subsequent screenplay. As directed by Mr. Hughes and “fleshed out” by this cast of Hollywood nun-stars, the show twinkles and shines!  The script sticks to the bare bones of Christie’s murder mystery as one nun after another meets the grim reaping hand of “Mother Paramount.”  The very funny script also mirrors Neil Simon’s script for the 1976 “Murder by Death” in which a pun-slinging all star cast of famous literary detectives met their maker at the hands of a maniacal Truman Capote.

      I defy you, dear reader, to find all the references to the classics of treasured cinema. There are so many of them that you will not believe your ears. Trust me, dear reader. It’s laugh-filled to say the least!

Vintage Theatre presents

"And Then There Was Nun"

May 17 – June 16, 2013
Fri/Sat at 7:30 p.m.; Sun at 2:30 p.m.

$25 ($20 advance)
303-856-7830 or online at www.vintagetheatre.com

Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010

Marlowe's Musings

God of Carnage

Curious Theatre: 4/25 – 6/8

     In recent seasons Curious Theatre has sometimes failed to entice this reviewer with its decisions about which plays to produce.  Probably well-intentioned decisions have depended on how much was in the coffers balanced by the desire to help young or struggling playwrights. However… when Curious gets to the linch pin of their season… as in “Red”  or “God of Carnage" the company sparkles and shines. 
     Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” is a powerfully well-written piece.  It’s wise beyond words and speaks volumes about one of the primary reasons for violence on our playgrounds as well as reminding us of the rampant narcissism that pervades our society.
        Even with its land mines exploding with comic schtick director Chip Walton manages to provide his audience with a balanced, ordered and exhilarating evening of theatre.
        The very fine ensemble includes: Karen Slack, Dee Covington, Timothy McCracken and Erik Sandvold. McCracken gets to play one of the most annoying characters in memory. (A cell phone is involved.)

        This production should show well at the Henrys and you, dear reader, would do well to show up for an evening with “The God of Carnage.”

Curious Theatre Company, 1080 Acoma Street, Denver, CO 80204

Regular run: $18 – 44         

The Box Office is located at 1080 Acoma Street, Denver

303.623.0524 or online at www.curioustheatre.org.

 Marlowe's Musings

Dividing the Estate

Arvada Center for the Arts: 4/30 – 5/26

     The Arvada Center’s production of “Dividing the Estate” is a thoroughly enjoyable evening of theatre. The magnificent direction is by A. Lee Massaro! Ms. Massaro should be in the director’s chair always in this town. This director has cast the show impeccably and paced the show at such a clip that the audience is rapt throughout.

     The stunning cast includes the likes of the divine Anne Oberbroeckling as the stubborn matriarch, Mark Rubald as the drunken brother, Sharon Kaye White as a greedy daughter and the incredible Russell Costen as a hilariously loquacious black servant. 

                                      Anne Oberbroeckling and Russell Costen

Rachel Fowler is brilliant.  Michael McNeill stuns! Director Massaro has also very wisely enlisted the talents of Clare Henkel (costumes), Brian Mallgrave (scenic design) and Jacob M. Welch (lighting design.)

     If one were to compare this play to cinema he might say that it’s sort of an odd amalgam of Eric Von Stroheim’s early masterpiece, “Greed,” and Shepperton Studios’ wacky take on avarice called “The Wrong Box.”

     “Dividing the Estate” is an amusing study of a dysfunctional family letting its penchant for avarice hang out all over the place.  It may not be Pulitzer Prize winner and Oscar winner Horton Foote’s most artistically satisfying work, but you won’t even get a hint that that might be true with the outstanding Director Lee Massaro at the helm.Did I mention that she’s a GREAT director? The show comes with high recommendations from this reviewer’s desk.

Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.  Talkbacks will be offered Friday, May 10 after the 7:30 p.m. show and Wednesday, May 15 after the 1:00 p.m. show. To purchase tickets and for additional information go www.arvadacenter.org or call 720-898-7200. Marlowe's Musings

The Shadow Box

The Edge Theatre Company: 4/19 - 5/19

Paul Page and Brock Benson

     Michael Cristofer’s “The Shadow Box” was the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner for Best Play in 1977. Rick Yaconis has directed a fine production of Cristofer’s play in the brand new space housing The Edge Theatre Company at Teller and Colfax.

     The matrix for the play is the observation of three terminally ill people living in cabins on the grounds of a hospital. Joe, Brian and Felicity are the three patients.

     Paul Page is superb as Brian, a gay man who, when visited by his former wife, attempts to keep up appearances with a smiling mask that’s slowly slipping to the tragic. Patty Ionoff is brilliant as Paul’s ex-wife, one of the most floridly annoying characters you may ever encounter in a play. Brava! Brock Benson’s portrayal of Mark, Brian’s gay lover, is outstanding.  His ability to communicate to us as audience the steaming rage of a man who is being encroached upon by this insufferable woman is phenomenal. Page and Benson’s acting duet describing their emotional meltdown is indelible and unforgettable.

     Michelle Grimes plays a daughter who is unable to release her mother to the inevitable. Carol Bloom shines as Grimes’ character’s dying mother who’s choosing to hang on to life because of lies and cruel hopes about a deceased daughter’s imminent return.

     Marc Stith plays a man who finds it difficult to face his eventuality and express the truth to his son and wife. Haley Johnson gives us a sensational characterization of his devastated wife. Paul Escobedo shows great promise in his portrayal of their son, Stephen.

     As the interviewer, Kirk Montgomery provides stunning voice over work as the detached voice of medical science. Although this omniscient and omnipresent character is never seen the questions expressed in the methodical observation of his experiment provide exaggerated contrast to the humanity of these traumatized patients and their families.

     The scenic design by Remigio S. Velez II includes the exterior of a rustic cabin, as well as a backyard and one cabin’s interior. His set gives this intimate venue the illusion of having a sprawling stage. It’s phenomenally well done. However … the size of the set sometimes makes the eye unsure of which way to travel especially when two areas are illuminated as one scene ends and the next begins.

     This play allows us to feel the anguish of people who are unable to understand what’s killing them. This was before there was even the prognosis for what was soon called “Gay cancer,” and which was soon to be known as AIDS. It’s a compassionate and saddening glance into the rear view mirror across the decades of death and devastation this epidemic spawned.

The Edge Theatre

"The Shadow Box”

April 19 – May 19

Fri. / Sat. @ 8 p.m.; Sun. @ 6 p.m.

Tickets: $20 adult / $16 student & seniors

*303-521-8041 or online at www.theedgetheater.com.

*The Edge Theatre, 1560 Teller Street, Suite 200, Lakewood CO 80214. Free Parking.

Note new phone number and address

“A Knight To Remember”

                             Buntport Theatre: 4/18 – 5/11

                                                  

                                                                      Brian Colonna 

    “A Knight to Remember” relates the tale of a young man who now 35 has never been as happy as he was in fourth grade. Brian Colonna’s autobiographical illumination of his memories of his fourth grade crush on a girl who didn’t know where to put her hands touches. Even the orthodontist from his childhood gets into the mix by way of a tee shirt bearing the inscription: “Stainless Steel Sex Appeal.”

        Simplistic-seeming yet saucily savvy, Colonna’s script allows for the intervention of other cast members who take HUGE pleasure in deftly breaking all theatrical rules with childlike abandon.  Only the audience takes more pleasure in their antics than they do! Examples of these are: When you don’t have lines you don’t talk. Or if you are not in the scene then you don’t stick your head out from the side curtain in view of the audience. “A Knight to Remember” is a return to childhood with reminiscences based on a book about “Knights.” It’s part “Fellini- Amarcord”(“I Remember”) and part The Marx Bros’ “A Knight at the Opera”  … without a lot o’ Spam. (Sorry!) There is grandiose movie music that gives the auditory illusion of Hollywood chivalry at its most florid.          

                                     

                                                                      Brian Colonna

In one scene Sir Brian appears as Sirs Lionel, Sagramore, and Dinadan in projections of various lobby fotos of Vanessa Redgrave’s Guinevere singing “Take Me to the Fair.” As we listen to the voice over of Julie Andrews from the Broadway version of “Camelot” we get one of the most hilariously correct similes in the show. “Her voice is like a clean white shirt drying in the sun.” Beyond that there is an amazing suit of armor and a chivalric mount that will make the producers of “War Horse” weep.

                                      

                                          Hannah Duggan, Erin Rollman and Brian Colonna

     A pencil experiment in which the adorable Hannah Duggan raps :“where’s my PENcil, where’s MY pencil, WHERE”S my pencil” while strutting around with a plush black chair pasted to her butt stuns. Duggan’s hilarious turn as the show’s onstage technical director for sound, lights and constantly changing and deliciously fluid set design is a hoot!

     Erin Rollman is her usual brilliant self in numerous roles including both of Brian’s parents, his fourth grade teacher and his fourth grade squeeze as well as a thoroughly minimal and delightfully innovative Lady of the Lake.

     Although I didn’t guffaw a whole lot in this one ... even after the show I had to sternly tell my happy face to stop smiling because it was getting EXTREMELY painful and I was starting to fear that the tragic face of the critic would never again be mine. Happily the tragic has returned and all is in critical condition again.

     To paraphrase the Bard’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”: ”The short and the long of it is  - Buntport’s show is preferred.”

       It’s comic caviar on crackers!   

                                                       ("Not much of a cheese shop tho!")

Through May 11 at 717 Lipan Street, Denver CO.

720-946-1388  or stuff@buntport.com

Marlowe's Musings

Motherhood Out Loud

The Avenue Theatre: Through Mother’s Day and may extend again!!!

     In the intimacy of The Avenue Theatre this play with its superbly written monologues gives us heart opening gems about Mom that are sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes just plain sparkle with great humor.

     The stellar cast includes such talents as LuAnn Buckstein, Jane Shirley and Cindy Laudadio-Hill. New to this reviewer were director Wells’ fabulous new discoveries : Megan Heffernan and Samantha Provenzano. The male element is provided by the brilliant actor Jeff Kosloski. This actor’s monologue about a character who’s a gay papa is unforgettably poignant.

     The monologues in this play are full of lots of maternal moments that get illuminated by writers who work in film, theatre, television and newsprint. One can hardly imagine a better-written evening and director Wells has breathed life into the piece by his innovative reimagining it theatrically to ‘show’ rather than just ‘tell’ these stories.

     One scene involving a mother’s love for a son who has been deployed to foreign shores is extremely moving. Although one and all involved in this production are stellar, the show is led with magnificent aplomb by stars: Jane Shirley and LuAnn Buckstein. Seth Alison’s lighting design adds a different kind of ‘star’light. Bravo! I have only one criticism of “Motherhood Out Loud.” And it’s the title!

I couldn’t imagine any play with this title being of interest to me or my readership. How wrong I was!!!!!!!!  

     This show will make any day Mother’s Day and if you take her you’ll be glad you did. If she’s not in town you’ll be makin’ a call!

This show about Moms reminds us… you only get one!  Run to see it!

417 E. 17th Avenue  Denver, CO 80203
  Call 303-321-5925 for tickets! Marlowe's Musings

The Memory of Water

Miners Alley Playhouse: 4/19 – 5/26

     John Arp’s direction of “The Memory of Water” is smart and professional. His casting couldn’t be better and Arp keeps the proceedings moving at a clip that does not allow the show to ever descend into the maudlin. 

     The scenario is pretty much the same as that of Woody Allen’s homage to Ingmar Bergman in his screenplay for “Autumn Sonata.” Both Shelagh Stephenson’s play and Allen’s screenplay have the same armature. Three sisters have returned home to come to terms with the death of the matriarch. Unlike Allen’s film, after which one wishes to slit his wrists, “The Memory of Water” is full of warmth and humor. 

     The evening has a poignancy, which endears. It’s a female driven production with some of the best acting talent in the state. Lisa DeCaro, Paige Larson and Emily Paton Davies portray the three sisters. Deborah Curtis is the ghost/memory of their mother, Vi. The peripheral male characters in all of this - a husband and boy friend - are superbly read by Matthew Blood-Smythe and Kurt Brighton.

      There is a very fine lighting and projection design by award-winning Jonathan Scott McKean that illuminates McKean’s and Rick Bernstein’s appropriately self-effacing set. Ann Piano’s costume design is one of her best and lends a humorous lightness to the piece. You’ll see what I mean when you see it.

      “The Memory of Water” has a soothing flow to it and its resonance will bubble up in your consciousness throughout the week that follows. The truth that those who go before us are profoundly a part of us always is illuminated with beauty and great heart.This is a beautifully staged production that demands to be seen.

                    Left to right: Lisa DeCaro, Paige Larson and Emily Paton Davies

Miners Alley Playhouse presents

"The Memory of Water"

Apr 19 – May 26

Fri. and Sat. @ 7:30 p.m. and Sun @ 6 p.m. (2 p.m. on May 26)

$19.00 - $29.50; senior, student and group rates available.

303-935-3044 or online at www.minersalley.com

Miners Alley Playhouse, 1224 Washington Avenue (13^th and Washington 2^nd floor entrance on 13^th) in Golden, CO.Marlowe's Musings