THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL

MINERS ALLEY PLAYHOUSE:

 JAN. 27 – MAR.5

 

 

L-R back are: Nick Rigg, Norrell Moore, Rory Pierce and Abby Apple Boes

 L-R front row: Jenna Moll Reyes, Julia Tobey and Preston Adams

The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a Ton of Fun! …and it’s all done with a Great Big, Wide-Open Heart!!!

     With music and lyrics by David Nehls and Book by Betsy Kelso, the proceedings are directed and choreographed by Denver Favorite and triple threat musical theatre artist Piper Lindsay Arpan!

Director Arpan has cast this show to a fare thee well and everyone can sing (Boy can they sing!!!) and Dance!!! 

     Abby Apple Boes plays Jeannie, the agoraphobic lady of the manor in Armadillo Acres Trailer Park. This actor has a set of pipes that are FAN -tastic!!! She’s married to Norbert (Rory Pierce),  a philanderin’ husband who can’t resist the allure of new resident Pippi (Norell Moore), who’s a pole-dancin’ stripper, with a gorgeous body -and voice- to die for. Pippi’s hiding out from her redneck boyfriend, Duke, played by Nick Rigg.

     Norrell Moore’s presence onstage is always an eye and ear pleasing event for this reviewer. We need LOTS more of this actor being cast in local musical theatre.

     The chorus is played by Julia Tobey as Betty, Preston “P-J” Adams as Linoleum and Jenna Moll Reyes (Pickles.)

     New to this reviewer is Julia Tobey as Betty. This actor is a powerhouse performer that will have you searching for her name in every program.

     Preston Adams is a force of nature onstage as anyone knows who saw the recent production of HAIR at Miners Alley. Adams belts to high heaven and believe me, they’ve got the moves!

     Jenna Moll Reyes is another of our premier actors. Cast against type, she’s goofiness personified in this show. It’s this reviewer’s interesting point of view that Ms. Reyes should also be pitching for the Colorado Rockies. She can hit a critic sitting in the middle of the back row with a piece of roadkill with a true pitcher’s eye!

     Colorado favorite Jonathan Scott McKean’s set design for the trailer park is tacky perfection! Vance McKenzie does a superb job illuminating the drama onstage with his lighting design. Jonathan Scott McKean’s and John Hauser’s sound design are the professional work Colorado audiences have come to expect of them. The costumes by Steffani Day are spot on!

    When I saw this piece at the Denver Civic fifteen years ago it was a work in progress. Now composer/lyricist/music director Nehls has honed and polished it to a superb evening of musical theatre that enthralls! Leave the kids home though …and Run to get a Ticket!

 

For tickets call 303-395-3044 or go online at MINERSALLEY.COM

 The Death of Napoleon

 in Less Than Three Acts

Buntport Theater: Jan 27 – Feb 18

              

    Brian Colonna with a Baguette

     What would it be like to be exiled to a tiny island after being Emperor of France and much of Europe?

     This is the question that the intrepid comics at Buntport Theatre pose in their 51^st original play.

     Surely, he would be bored and depressed with his energy 'flagging.'  He might even start imagining things.

     Possibly a buzzing bee might become his intimate if annoying friend.

     Could he imagine a French baguette growing out of a loaf of Focaccia?

      Might he reminisce about a chef who toadied to him while he was l’empereur?

      Would he feel as though the world, which he had once controlled, laughed at him, and sang happily of his Waterloo?

     What would it be like being transformed from a potent leader of armies to an exiled prisoner who only had the acquaintance of the children of his provisioning officer… like Lucy Balcombe?

    With this brilliant absurd comedy at Buntport Theatre we get a chance to see what it must be like to be an arrogant tyrant encountering karma, teetering and tottering on the fringes of reality, and rehearsing la mort!!!

 

Brian Colonna portrays Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte.

Erik Edborg is his high-stepping chef.

Erin Rollman is his little buddy, the annoying child, Betsy Balcombe.

Hannah Duggan is the Bee.

     This amazing quartet of actors delivers a brilliant, wacky look at the inside of an imprisoned dictator’s head as he rehearses for his not so grand finale.

     Go check this one out! It's avant garde theatre unlike anything you'll encounter anywhere else!  

 

For tickets call  720-946-1388 or go online at buntport.com

 A Moon for the Misbegotten

Cherry Creek Theatre: 2/3 – 2/26

                 

                                                  CHRIS KENDALL 

                    (photo credit: Brian Miller)

Let me begin by saying that we owe a debt of gratitude to Producer Susie Snodgrass and the folks over at Cherry Creek Theatre for choosing O’Neill’s play for their season. (Since Ed Baierlein and Sallie Diamond closed Germinal Stage Denver, nobody has attempted to produce the great artists of American and World Theatre.) 

     That said, they (Cherry Creek Theatre) have also been wise enough to choose a talented director to oversee the proceedings.

      Tara Falk astutely delivers O’Neill’s tragic realism while brilliantly mining the salty humor which arises organically from the compost of these characters’ gritty reality. 

     Falk’s clear-eyed direction has blessed the show with a powerhouse cast.  

     Featuring three of our premiere actors, Falk introduces a new actor who fits in with ease and chutzpah.

     There are few actors in town who could portray Josie Hogan with the great heart and diamond-bright talent of Emily-Paton Davies. Commanding the stage from curtain to curtain, hers is a compelling and finally, endearing performance you simply can’t miss.

L-R: Cajardo Lindsey and Emily Paton Davies (photo credit: Brian Miller)

     Cajardo Lindsey’s riveting performance in the role of Jim Tyrone is Powerful! Embodying the playwright’s memories of his older brother’s final attempt to find love, this actor’s portrayal is exemplary and unforgettable.

     Chris Kendall’s dynamic performance in the role of Josie’s father, Phil Hogan, is extraordinary! Doing his best to hold a family together, to raise pigs, and eek out a living from the land, Kendall gives us a grizzled, gravel-voiced farmer, who can stave off any challenge with guts and vulgar humor.

     New to this reviewer, Christopher Robin Donaldson gives superb readings of Hogan’s son, Mike, as he runs away to find his fortune at the top of the play. As the trouble-makin’ neighbor, T. Stedman Harder, Donaldson does a great job of intentionally providing comic fodder for the Hogans’ derisive laughter.

      Director Falk has also assembled an incredible group of artists for the technical end of things. 

      Upon entering the Pluss Theatre we are regaled with Tina Anderson’s superb fragmentary scenic design, which is constructed in such a way that we as audience get to observe the action going on inside the shanty as well as outside.

     Nicole M. Harrison’s costume design for each of the characters is spot on.

     Emily A. Maddox is constantly shifting the mood with her eye-pleasing lighting design.

     The excellent sound design by Max Silverman makes one wonder whether the Pluss theatre has got a new sound system. His choices of folk fiddles and the like to bridge the scenes work incredibly well.

     Eugene O’Neill won four Pulitzer Prizes for literature. They were for “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “Beyond the Horizon,” “Anna Christie,” and “Strange Interlude.” Influenced by Chekhov, Ibsen and Strindberg, O’Neill’s tragic realism is ranked right up there with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams in American literature. In fact, O’Neill’s plays were, for a long time, the most produced in America after Shakespeare and Shaw.

     “A Moon for the Misbegotten” is O’Neill’s last completed play. It’s often thought to be a sort of sequel to his autobiographical “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” 

 

For tickets call: 303-800-6578 or go online at cherrycreektheatre.org