Stage Write

Don Quixote, the infamous errant knight questing to save those in need and fighting windmills because he sees giants in their frames. He is a familiar character to most of us. Man of La Mancha is a classic musical inspired by the Spanish story. Beef & Boards’ current production of the show features Disney royalty in the titular role. Richard White, famous for providing the voice of Gaston in Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast, takes on the role. It is absolutely his show, featuring him first as the book’s author, Miguel de Cervantes, and then transforming into the knight. His deep baritone is perfect for the role. His Don Quixote is blundering, but sincere in his delusion and you can’t help but root for him.  The show features a untraditional love story. The elderly knight sees Aldonza, a kitchen maid and prostitute, and decides she is his glorious lady Dulcinea and he will do anything to win her favor. Aldonza is a fiery character full of scorn. Erica Hanrah...

Beef & Boards Dinner Theater kicks off its 45th season with “Greater Tuna”. The show is set in a small Texas town in the 1980s where a bevy of local rednecks live. Playing more than a dozen characters, Eddie Curry and Jeff Stockberger perform the entire show. The comedy relies heavily on the two actors donning dresses and wigs, rapid costume changes, and over-the-top accents. The problem is, nowadays there’s not much to laugh that when the joke is about censorship or a local gun salesperson touting the incredible killing properties of her wares. Instead of accentuating these stereotypes, it might help to start 2018 off highlighting our similarities with people who come from a different point of view.   The stage is simple; diner tables with a backdrop of cornfields and telephone poles. Audience members must use their imagination as Curry and Stockberger mime drinking a cup of coffee or answering an invisible telephone. The two actors are long-standing regulars at Be...

Beef & Boards launches its 2015 season with the buddy comedy The Odd Couple. It’s the story of two men, unmoored from their marriages, who find themselves as unlikely roommates. One is the fastidious Felix, a worry wart with an anxious disposition and a deep desire to clean. The other, Oscar, is a slob, with no motivation to tidy his home. The Neil Simon comedy is celebrating its 50 year anniversary, which is a tribute to just how timeless this story is.   The production is a perfect showcase for two of Beef & Boards’ favorite performers, Eddie Curry (Felix) and Jeff Stockberger (Oscar). It’s at its best during a silent scene where the two men circle each other after a big fight. They do everything they can to provoke a response, all without words. Both men excel at physical comedy and the bit works well. The set gives the show a farcical feel, which fits in well as Beef & Boards traditional season opener usually falls into that category. Doorbells or pho...

Our church basement ladies are back in a brand new installment. The lovely ladies of the Lutheran church won Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre audiences’ hearts when they first appeared in 2010. This is the fourth show in the series and the crowd favorites are sure to fill seats again. The clean, quirky humor is entertaining to anyone who has grown to love them over the past few years. It’s now 1960 and the girls are cooking, singing and swapping advice about life in their small Midwestern town. This installment feels a bit more forced than the others. Most people who attend the show will already know if they love the Church Basement Ladies series or not. This one doesn’t deviate from what we’ve come to expect, but it also doesn’t offer quite as much depth.   Mavis, played by Karen Pappas, remains the stand out character. Her earnest nature and brash sense of humor are both endearing and hilarious. Licia Watson also returns as Vivian, the group's matriarch, and has a g...

Beef and Board Dinner Theatre kicks its 40th Anniversary Season off in style with the classic screwball comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Mortimer, a young theatre critic,  learns his two aunts are murders and his long-lost brother returns all in the same night. Chaos ensues as Mortimer tries to keep anyone else from getting killed.  David Schmittou is excellent as the straight man Mortimer trapped in the farcical situation. His bewilderment and consternation at his family's madness is hilarious. He says more with one incredulous face than a dozen lines of dialogue could convey.  One of my favorite bits in the show are the playful jibes at theatre critics. Mortimer hates the theatre and spends hours lambasting new plays and saving time by "writing the review on the way to the show." You can't help but think that was a bit of revenge from a frustrated playwright.  Eddie Curry plays Dr. Einstein perfectly, channeling the long-dead Peter Lorre who playe...

    The Church Basement Ladies are back for a third time at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. This installment, Away in the Basement, is actually set in 1959, before the other two chronically. B&B’s audiences have grown to love the devoted crew and their playful banter. The ladies, so proud of their Norwegian heritage and Lutheran traditions, keep their churches’ events running smoothly.   The whole cast is back for a third installment with the exception of Lisa Bark, who is replaced by Hillary Smith as Beverly. Karen Pappas returns as Mavis, a hilarious woman with her own particularly style. Vivian (Licia Watson) is the group's matriarch with a strong aversion to change. Katherine Proctor is Karin, Beverly's mother and Vivian's deputy.     The Church Basement Ladies shows are always at their best when the women are supporting each other through both the heartbreaks and celebrations life brings. Vivian shows her softer side in the second act an...

It’s a Wonderful Life may not have been a box office smash when it was first released, but in the decades that followed, the film became an American classic. Families watch it together at Christmas, people can quote lines from it, there are even flower shops named Zuzu’s Petals in almost every state. The reason the movie has become such a holiday staple is because the story is one that’s easy to connect with. Everyone has felt discouraged at some point and it’s easy to believe your life doesn’t matter. That struggle resonates with people and keeps them coming back, year after year. It’s hard to capture the onscreen magic created by the earnest Jimmy Stewart and his town of misfits, but the cast of Beef & Boards' current production brings the story to life. Sean Patrick Hopkins plays George Bailey with all the sincerity and selflessness needed to make the audience root for him. Stockberger makes a great Uncle Billy and Eddie Curry is in his element as the simple angel Clarence. ...

When one thinks of Mel Brooks, creator of the films "Spaceballs," and "Blazing Saddles," subtly and quiet laughs don't generally come to mind. Instead, the genius behind those comedy cult classics tends to lean towards over-the-top bawdy humor. Brooks crosses every racial, sexist and religious line in his movies and musicals. He embraces taboos and has brought audiences to their knees with belly laughs for decades. His film "The Producers" was turned into a Broadway smash hit and is now being presented for the first time, by an independent theatre, in Indianapolis. Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre has the show on its stage until Sept. 28. It stars the duo, Eddie Curry and Doug Stark, two actors more frequently found behind the scenes than on the stage in recent years. Stark is the owner of Beef & Boards and Curry is a real life producer and director at the theatre. The pair's easy friendship on stage comes from two decades of collaboration in v...

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre opened their 35th season with the British farce "Run for your Wife," on stage now. Since 1973 the Indianapolis theatre has provided quality shows and delicious dinners. The one stop evening out includes not only a live performance, but a dinner buffet. The current show is a first for Beef & Boards. John Smith, an ordinary cab driver in London, panics when a head injury puts his quiet life in the spotlight. All of a sudden his seemingly humdrum world is anything but. He worries that the world will discover that he has not one, but two average lives, with two separate wives. For years he has kept his parallel lives on strict schedules. Now everything is thrown into chaos as his neighbors, police officers and his wives begin to suspect that something is not quite right. With over-the-top characters and exasperating misunderstandings the show is everything a farce should be; confusion at its most amusing. The more improbable the situation, the...