Stage Write

  Welcome to Big Cherry where the dedicated city council members are ready and waiting to plan the annual heritage festival. The American Lives Theatre production of Tracy Letts’ one-act play “The Minutes” is on stage now at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.  The show has a slow start as the meeting we’re watching is almost too realistic. It hits close to home if you’ve ever attended small-town meetings with petty conflicts and private grievances. It took me back to my years as a daily reporter covering the board of zoning appeals, and town councils.  Robert’s Rules of Order go out the window when blood begins to boil. When Charles Goad (Mr. Carp) appears the plot kicks into high gear. His role looms large in the story even before he arrives. As the catalyst for the action, he’s perfect, both passionate and sincere. Up until that point, it feels a bit like an awkward waiting game as Mr. Peel (Josh Ramsey) sits on the sidelines desperate for answers.     R...

The Phoenix Theatre has gone through some huge changes in the past year. In addition to moving into a brand new state-of-the-art theater, it also has a new artistic director, Bill Simmons. With all of that in mind it’s not surprising that the theatre opened its new season with something a bit outside of its normal range. Known for producing plays that tackle tricky issues the theatre doesn’t often do musicals and when it does they tend to be edgy shows like Spring Awakening, American Idiot or Avenue Q. In contrast, Bright Star is a bluegrass musical with a big heart. Written by banjo-playing renaissance man Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the show is set in the hills of North Carolina in the 1940s with flashbacks in the 1920s. It is at times playful and at others steeped in nostalgia. There’s a large ensemble cast with a full bluegrass band onstage providing live music. The set is simple, with movable pieces on wheels and straightforward staging. The result is an absolutely deli...

When the play you’re about to see is a murder mystery called “And Then There Were None”, you know there will be a body count. The deliciously dark Agatha Christie novel comes to life on the stage in the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre‘s current production. Unlike most of its shows, this one is held in the smaller, more intimate Studio Theater, a great fit for the chilly drama. Ten strangers find themselves trapped on an English island with a killer in their midst. They soon realize not all is as it seems when they are all accused of committing various murders. The three-act play has one 15 minute intermission and then a short pause after the second act. The pace clips along briskly as the story unfolds. Charles Goad had quite the challenge as the director. He has to show murders, both onstage and off, without revealing the killer. It’s a game of sleight-of-hand and he manages it beautifully. The audience is pulled into the guessing game as the bodies piled up. I frequently he...

Last week if someone had asked me what Snow White, the Tony awards and Chekhov had in common I would have assumed it was the beginning of a bad joke. Instead, the answer is obviously the Phoenix Theatre’s season opener, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike. The title is a mouthful, but the play itself is a delight. The show won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play and audiences will have no trouble figuring out why. Witty dialogue, neurotic characters and a bit of absurdity thrown in for good measure make the show odd, but endearing. Playwright Christopher Durang introduces us to a group of middle-aged siblings, two of whom still live in their childhood home after spending years caring for their now deceased parents. The third sibling, Masha, became a self-absorbed movie star. The play takes place over one weekend when Masha decides to visit her sedate siblings, Vanya and Sonia (their professor parents named them all after Chekhov characters). The whirlwind weekend includes a co...

  Over the past 25 seasons Diane Kondrat has performed in dozens of roles at the Phoenix Theatre. Now she can be seen for the final time in the Hoosier state playing the handpicked role of Rita Lyons, the matriarch of a dysfunctional New York family in the Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre. This part is perfect for Kondrat, offering her a chance to showcase both her comedic timing and dramatic prowess. The Lyons provides a tightly-wound look at the unique intricacies of one family’s dynamics. It’s a black comedy providing wildly funny lines, but each clever barb cuts another character to the core.     Rita is a piece of work. In the opening scene she discusses her design ideas for a new living room with her husband. Quickly you realize she’s asking her husband what he thinks of these new ideas with the full knowledge that he’ll be dead soon and won’t be around to enjoy it. There is no love loss between the two. Though the couple has been married for 40 yea...

"The Fantasticks" is the longest running musical in the world ... and before this summer I had never seen it. Currently on the Indiana Repertory Theatre's main stage, the show is split into two acts. The first is all roses and sonnets and moonbeams. It is the quintessential romantic musical. A young couple fall for each other, then they run into a few obstacles, but their passion prevails and love triumphs. Call me a cynic, but I wasn't impressed. It felt so pat and predictable, but the show wasn't over yet. The real meat of the show lies in the second act where the perfect pictures falls to pieces. The impressive thing about "The Fantasticks" is that it was first produced in 1960 and yet it avoids all of the normal musical trappings of being predictable and borderline cheesy. The second act is cynical, witty and filled with humor. It doesn't mock love stories, it simply shows a more realistic view of life. In this particular production the cast doe...