28. August 2011 by admin.

F. J. Hartland

Edward Albee’s classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the final offering in Duquesne University’s Summer Company for 2011.

And the season goes out—not with a whimper—but a bang!

T.J. Fierno makes an impressive main stage directing debut, tackling this lengthy (three acts)  and intense drama.

George, a college professor, and his wife Martha (daughter of the college president) have invited a new faculty member Nick) and his wife (Honey) to their home, following a campus cocktail party.  Nick and Honey have no idea what a hornet’s nest of mind games and deception they are walking into.

While it is a powerful and emotional drama, there are also some wonderful laughs.  But be warned.  It is a biting brand of humor; the kind that draws blood.

As Nick and Honey, Matt Robinson and Lisa Cummins look like the ideal, clean-cut couple from the Mid-west.  These two performers start out a little stiff, but both soon warm-up.

John E. Lane, Jr. gives a remarkable performance as George.  It is simply not to be missed.  He excels at the script’s witty banter but also shows incredible moments of anger and pathos.

Anne Brannen (as Martha) starts off well, matching George’s venomous wit barb-for-barb.  Overall, though, her performance does not match the high level of Lane’s.

The set design (also by Fierno) is beautifully detailed.  There isn’t an empty space that hasn’t been crammed with books or art or knick-knacks. It really does look like a college professor’s home, circa 1962.

Costumes also look very period—but could have been tailored better.  There are a few ill-fitting items.

Overall, it is an emotional roller coaster ride worth taking, especially to see Lane’s masterful performance.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? continues through September 3 at the Peter Mills Auditorium on the campus of Duquesne University.

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

7. August 2011 by admin.

F. J. Hartland

In Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre’s (PICT) production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest all the roles are played by men.

The idea of playing fast and loose with gender in Wilde’s play is not new.

Several years ago Pittsburgh’s own Unseem’d Shakespeare did a production where all the roles were cast cross-gendered.

The difference is in the Unseem’d production, director Nona Gerard brilliantly trusted Wilde’s text and had the actors play their roles honestly.  In the PICT production, directed by Conall Morrison, mugging and pratfalls and sex gags are the order of the day, and the men play women like screaming harpies (a la RuPaul’s Drag Race).

The result?

The Unseem’d production was amazing and memorable for all the right reasons. 

The PICT production is memorable, too.  For all the wrong reasons.  Director Morrison reduces Wilde’s script to the level of a bad summer stock production of Natalie Needs a Nightie or Love, Sex and the IRS (and aren’t there enough of those?).

Morrison has also added a prologue to the play (just what a three-act classic needs…to be longer!).  This addition adds nothing really to the production (other than time).  Half of it is spoken in French, so if it wasn’t slow and plodding enough, it’s is also incomprehensible.  (There must have been jokes because I did hear the three people in the audience who spoke French laughing).

Why in the final year of his life is Oscar Wilde—played by Alan Stanford—remembering The Importance of Being Earnest (a play he had written years before)?

Your guess is as good as mine.  This production certainly doesn’t tell us.

The only possible explanation for this prologue is to make the cumbersome set changes required by The Importance of Being Earnest unnecessary. 

But then what does he do?  Morrison adds cumbersome set changes.  The top of Act Two in unbearably slow as we get to watch “gardeners” carry out (and plug in) about 75 lamps.  Really?  Couldn’t that have been done during intermission—and shaved five minutes off this three-hour production?  And yet another set change at 10:25pm?

Matthew Cleaver plays Cecily with a voice that sounds like Miss Piggy.  If this were The Importance of Being The Muppet Show, he’d be perfect!  Will Reynolds’ Gwendolyn is equally cartoonish.  Reynolds already towers over partner David Whalen—and then wears heels?

Leo Marks plays the most annoying Algernon I have ever seen.  And neither he nor David Whalen (Jack) look young enough to play men in their 20’s…not even from the back row of the Charity Randall Theater.

The “women’s” costumes by Joan O’Clery are ghastly. 

Poor James FitzGerald is forced to wear such large mutton sleeves and enormous breasts as Miss Prism that his head looks miniscule.  The effect is like he was a life-sized doll that had a “Barbie” head planted on it.

The only good thing I can say about Sabine Dargent’s shabby set with bad sightlines is that it is so busy, it gives one something to look at when you avert your eyes from this train wreck of a production.

Jim French’s lighting is fine—if you are downstage.  I don’t know if the cast knows they are barely lit when upstage on the platform (or if they move too far stage right or left).

The production is not completely without merit.

David Crawford makes a fine Canon Chausible (but he, too, is forced to mug and have pratfalls by Morrison).

Martin Giles creates a very funny Merrimen—noticeable because it is the only understated performance of the evening.

Legend has it that when Oscar Wilde was dying in his hotel room in Paris, he looked at his window curtains and declared, “Either those drapes go—or I do.”

If he were alive today to see this three-hour monstrosity, perhaps he would say, “Either this production goes—or I do.”

The Importance of Being Earnest runs through August 27.

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

4. August 2011 by admin.

F. J. Hartland

Pittsburgh CLO brings its season to a close with the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice classic Jesus Christ Superstar.

It’s difficult to believe that it’s been forty years since this show was introduced to the world.  And what once seemed so controversial seems somewhat tame.

Sadly, director Charles Replogle gives us a very tame production of the show.  As the song says…”everything’s alright.”  Just alright.

In this quick-paced production (under two hours), the voices are magnificent.  And considering that the creators labeled their show “a rock opera,” strong voices are required.

As Judas Iscariot, Josh Tower brings a vibrant energy to all his numbers, culminating in the power title song.

Doug Kreeger as Jesus is also a vocal powerhouse.  The duets between Kreeger and Tower are always electric confrontations.

Not only is she exotically beautiful, but Stephanie Umoh as Mary Magdalene makes the most of all her numbers.  The high point is definitely her emotional “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”  which resounds in  the Benedum Center. Sadly, Weber and Rice have given the character very little to do in Act Two.

Doing his best work of the season is Robert Cuccioli as Pontius Pilate.  This is the first time that I’ve seen Superstar when I walked away remembering Pontius Pilate.

However, these performers (along with the rest of the cast) deserve a far better production than they get.

The costumes (from Theatre Under the Stars) are awful.  The cast looks like a combination of Mexican peasants and refugees from a bad Christmas church pageant.  Some of the items the actors are required to wear are downright laughable.

The set by Michael Anania is uninspired and looks like something from a bad high school musical.  Director Charles Replogle really doesn’t make the most of it either.

John McLain’s lighting is confusing.  Odd shapes are projected on the back cyclorama that don’t make much sense.

Truthfully, the physical aspects of the production are so bad that I found myself closing my eyes and just listening to the amazing vocals.

Jesus Christ Superstar continues through August 14.

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »