A Small Fire

Bebe Neuwirth & John Dossett

A Small Fire by Adam Bock is being presented by the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Broad and Lombard Streets through November 10, 2019. This exquisite one-act, starring the talented ensemble cast of Bebe Neuwirth, John Dossett, Oge Agulué, and Sarah Gliko suspends belief and returns it in the play’s innovative ending. John Bridges (John Dossett) becomes the rock in this drama as his wife Emily (Bebe Neuwirth) first loses her sense of smell which is almost disastrous when she cannot smell a gas leak at the construction firm she operates. Loss of smell equates with loss of taste, which is not helpful in choosing items for her daughter Jenny’s wedding. Understandably, perhaps, Emily is cantankerous about these losses. Neuwirth is superb as she undergoes various changes after losing even more senses. Before the wedding, she loses her sight. As she has to lean on her husband, she is appreciative and mellow in her dependence. Hysteria sets in when she realizes she can no longer hear. But John is always by her side as a calming influence as he maintains, “Love isn’t what you get from someone; it’s what you give.” Bebe Neuwirth’s performance as a woman who has lost her sense of smell and taste, sight and hearing, is phenomenal. Her portrayals are not only convincing but a character study as her entire personality changes. Jenny Bridges (Sarah Gliko) is disturbingly believable as she portrays a daughter who is a “daddy’s girl” and has little sympathy for a mother who never liked her husband. Chelsea M. Warren has done an outstanding job with the set design. Backdrops are lowered onto the stage to create new scenes while other sets are behind it. For more information or tickets to this intriguing play, call 215-985-0420 or visit PhilaTheatreco.org.

Beyond My Backyard

Ensemble Cast

Broadway Philadelphia is presenting the Philadelphia Premiere of the Tony Award ® Winning  Come From Away at the Academy of Music through November 3, 2019. This must-see musical has everyone glued to his seat during the performance and standing up giving kudos after. Based on the true story of several planes that were diverted out of US airspace on 9/11 and rerouted to a small town in Newfoundland, Canada and the people who so generously cared for them, the scenes ingeniously alternate between the Newfoundlanders and the passengers and crew on a plane. With the dimming of the lights and shifting of a few chairs, the Town Hall becomes an airplane. As the floor rotates, the plane flies, the lighting changes in this miraculous production, and the audience scarcely realizes that the plane is no longer visible.  The chair alignment has changed and the Newfoundlers are sitting around a bar, listening to news on a radio. The change from one scene to another is seamless with most actors playing dual roles. The story-line is fascinating but the production itself is even more so. The lighting changes are brilliant. The quick chair realignment to indicate a new scene is outstanding. The backdrop which has a hidden door that opens to indicate the inside an airplane is ingenious. And oh the glorious music! Almost all of the cast members are given an opportunity for a solo. Together their music is resplendent.  Don’t miss this show! Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, visiting www.kimmelcenter.org or at the Kimmel Center Box Office. Group sales are available for ten or more by calling 215-790-5883. More information is available at www.kimmelcenter.org.    

The Roomate

Jennifer Childs & Grace Gonglewski

1812 Productions, Philadelphia’s only all comedy theatre company, is presenting the Philadelphia premiere of Jen Silverman’s The Roommate through October 20, 2019 at Plays and Players Theater, 17^th and Delancey Streets. Starring Jennifer Childs and Grace Gonglewski, the play progressively explores how two very different middle age women can share a home and alter each other’s lives. Jennifer Childs portrays Sharon, a recently divorced woman who describes herself as” retired from my marriage.” Grace Gonglewski portrays Robyn, a woman from the Bronx who has done “this and that.” Jennifer’s facial expressions are phenomenal. When Sharon discovers some of Robyn’s secrets, such as growing pot and then selling it, she is astonished and then wants to be “part of the game”. It is hysterical when she enthusiastically develops a client base among her friends and Robyn has to stop her from recruiting 12 year olds to sell to their friends. Robyn is not altogether thrilled with these new developments as she had moved to Iowa from the Bronx to escape her old life. As Sharon has said repeatedly, “Nothing ever happens in Iowa.” When pressed, Robyn tells Sharon some of her other adventures: scamming people on the phone to get their credit card information, car theft, petty theft…Sharon is delighted and wants to learn how Robyn operates. There are many scene changes indicating a new day. Lighting and music are excellent indicators of the scene change and the costume changes are perfect indicators as well. This is a very humorous play. It is not non-stop gag-lines or fall out of your seat funny as some productions are, but is has many laugh lines and is extraordinarily well done. Both veteran actors Jennifer Childs and Grace Gonglewski deliver their lines with a straight face or, as in Jen’s case, with a startled one, and the audience breaks out in laughter. The story-line is somewhat bittersweet but well worth your while to come and explore it. For more information or tickets, call 215-592-9560 or visit online at 1812 productions.org            

Ragtime

Ensemble Cast

The phenomenal production of Ragtime, triple Tony Award Winner for Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestration in 1998 is appearing on the F. Otto Haas stage of the Arden Theatre for an extended run through October 27, 2019. Simultaneously  following the lives of an upper class white family, American immigrants and  black families at the turn of the 20^th Century, themes of privilege, discrimination, prejudice,  deportation anxiety, and a desire to make a good life in America which is frequently thwarted are refrains that resonate today  over 100 years later. Ragtime is awash in fantastic choral numbers and musical arrangements.  Dual pianos play in the beginning of the production. Various actors have a turn at one of them. The other is wheeled under the stage where the music director Vince De Mura brilliantly plays the score for the entire musical while directing the other musicians and some of the soloists. The exception is a jazz number, ‘Gett’ Ready Rag,’ when another pianist surreptitiously slips onto the director’s piano bench and begins tickling the ivories. Both Kim Carson, as Mother, and Terran Scott  as Sarah have  remarkable voices that reverberate throughout the Arden’s stage. Set in the round, characters walk on and off from all points and from all angles, including up and down staircases. Scott Greer is outstanding as bigoted tough guy Willie Conklin and Nkrumah Gatling is superb in his role of the educated black musician, Coalhouse Walker who is thwarted at nearly every turn. Lovely Rachael Camp provides some comic relief as Evelyn Nesbit, the girl on the swing. This is an incredible show that shouldn’t be missed, even if you have seen previous iterations of it. I have seen it twice before and I marveled at every moment. For more information or tickets, visit www.ardentheatre.org.

An Act of God

Kim Wayans (God)

Kim Wayans is starring in the very irreverent An Act of God at the Bristol Riverside Theater, 120 Radcliffe Street, through October 13, 2019. Kim, well known for appearances in the sketch comedy show Living Color, is accompanied by two arch angels: Peter DeLaurier (Gabriel) is well known to Philadelphia theater audiences not only for his acting but also for his directing and playwriting and Benjamin Brown (Michael) who has also appeared in several local theatres but has a history of television appearances as well. As Kim Wayans descends the staircase from heaven she announces her rare appearance in human form and in Bristol, Pennsylvania. And so starts a love affair between the audience and God. Wayans gives a cheeky 90 minute performance refuting many Bible stories. Ridiculing the possibility that two animals of every kind could fit onto Noah’s ark (“It’s a boat, for me’s sake,” she exclaims! "I really said thou shall put 2 puppies onto the ark. They will be good support animals.”) She then proceeds to rewrite and explain most of the 10 Commandments. For example, Wayans tells the audience “Thou shalt Not Take My Name in Vain” “Don’t try to seek a personal relationship with me.” she warns. “I am not a Saints fan or a Lions, fan. I am not even an Eagles fan. I do not care who wins the game and I do not influence the games’ outcome. The same thing is true for celebrities. They try to thank me for their success. I have nothing to do with it. I don’t help one person over another.” Another interesting commandment to be noted is: “Thou shall not tell me what to do.” Wayans opines. “I am tired of hearing: ‘God Bless You,’ ‘God Bless America’, ‘God Forbid’ or ‘God Dammit’.” Angel Michael periodically runs into the audience with questions for God. Kim Wayans ends her extraordinary performance with a final commandment: "Thou Shalt Believe in Thyself." For  more information or tickets to this funny experience, call 215-785-0100 or  visit www.brtstage.org.

RENT returns to Philadelphia

Ensemble Cast

RENT RETURNS TO PHILADELPHIA

FOR AN ENCORE ENGAGEMENT

OF 20^TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

OCTOBER 18-20

        PRODUCTION WILL LAUNCH 2019-2020 BROADWAY SEASON

                     Local Philly cast member & former
                     Kimmel Center  Showstoppers
                     musical theater student starring
                                   in lead role!

RENT's cast features Philadelphia native Shafiq Hicks as Tom Collins and University of the Arts graduate Lexi Greene, who is a member of the ensemble and understudy for the role of Maureen Johnson. Shafiq performed as a member of the Kimmel Center’s musical theater ShowStoppers program and also attended the Kimmel Center’s Jazz Camp. He graduated from the Philadelphia High School for the Performing Arts and is a student at Temple University when he is not on tour. RENT follows a year in the lives of seven struggling artists. The production won the 1996 Tony Award Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is recommended for an audience of ages 13 and older. Performances will be held in the Merriam Theater on Friday October 18, 2019 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 1:00 P.M. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, visiting www.kimmelcenter.org. or the Kimmel Box Office. A limited number of seats in the first two rows of the orchestra will be available for $25 (cash only) for each performance of RENT. The tickets are available at the Merriam box office, located at 250 S. Broad Street, on the day of each performance, two hours prior to the show. The $25 tickets are limited to two tickets per person while supplies last. 

Young Frankenstein

Ben Dibble & Alanna J. Smith

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein The Musical is appearing on the mainstage of the Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut Street, through October 20, 2019. Not only does this revised version of the London hit have two additional musical numbers and revisions written by Mel Brooks himself, this iteration makes it first appearance on an American stage at Walnut Street Theatre. No one writes a funnier script than Mel Brooks and if his original script and score weren’t funny enough, Dr. Frankenstein's fiancé’ (Casey Elizabeth Gill)  belting out “Please Don’t Touch Me” had the audience howling in its tribute to the ME TOO movement.  Walnut Street Theatre’s deep stage allows several scenes to be set simultaneously but the manner in which they are switched is magnificent. Whether going from a train track to the woods in Transylvania or from the woods in Transylvania to Castle Frankenstein, the change is seamless and can scarcely be noticed. Young Frankenstein The Musical has a little bit of everything. There is a bit of slap-stick, as when the book case turns around 3 or 4 revolutions before Dr. Frankenstein and Inga determine its secret formula. A tap dance routine is very nicely choreographed.  There is the monster, of course, wonderfully portrayed by Dan Olmstead. The biggest surprise of the performance is how he can be so agile in his enormous platform shoes!  Fran Prisco is a marvelous blind hermit with his heart-wrenching “Someone”.  Mary Martello (Frau Blucher) always lights up every stage she enters and continues to do so as she serves as housekeeper for Dr. Frankenstein. Luke Bradt (Igor) comically portrays the hunched back (?) sidekick who is always on hand with advice. Alanna J. Smith does an exceptional job of portraying Inga, the frisky lab assistant who wants to assist Dr. Frankenstein with more than his lab work. Ben Dibble is superb in his role of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein. This is perhaps his best portrayal to date. The musical score must be right in his voice range as he has never sounded better. The sets are remarkable, thanks to scenic designer Robert Kovach. The work of lighting designer Charlie Morrison’s adds excitement to the production. For more information or tickets, call 215-574-3550, 800-982-2787, or visit online at www.WalnutStreetTheatre.org or Ticketmaster.