The Frogs

The Frogs
Master Voices
Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall
November 4, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Master Voices

The Frogs, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, was performed in concert by Master Voices at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall.  It was a rare opportunity to experience this unique  musical theatre piece.  Based on the 405 BC comedy by Aristophanes, the book was adapted by Burt Shevelove in 1974.  It was revived by Lincoln Center in 2004, with additional music by Mr. Sondheim.  That production was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, with book revisions by Nathan Lane.  Mr. Lane introduced and narrated this concert presentation.  

Dionysos, the god of theatre and wine (played by Douglas Sills), realizes there is a desperate need for truth and humor in present day theatrical productions.  He takes his servant, Xanthias (played by Kevin Chamberlin), on a quest.  They travel to Hades to bring back George Bernard Shaw (played by Dylan Baker) to write new work.  While crossing the River Styx, Xanthias and Charon, the Boatman (played by Chuck Cooper), save Dionysos after he is captured by a group of frogs.  Upon arrival in Hades, they meet Plato (played by Peter Bartlett), who allows Shaw to leave for a short period of time.  They are all set to depart until Dionysos encounters a few other surprises that alter his original plan. 

This stellar cast and brilliant chorus presented this lesser-known Sondheim gem with skill and grace.  There were masterful and humorous performances by Douglas Sills, Kevin Chamberlin, Marc Kudisch, Chuck Cooper, Peter Bartlett, Dylan Baker, Jordan Donica, and Candice Corbin.  The choreography by Lainie Sakakura was creative and energizing.  Director/Conductor Ted Sperling delivered a stunning concert event. 

This presentation of The Frogs played for only one weekend (November 3 & 4).  Congratulations to Master Voices for making it memorable.  Check out their website for future concert performances (mastervoices.org).  They are sure to be valuable experiences.      

Domenick Danza

Trouble in Mind

 Trouble in Mind
Roundabout Theatre Company
American Airlines Theatre
December 26, 2021 

Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind is a revelation.  The play received high acclaim when it was first produced Off-Broadway in 1955.  It was scheduled to move to Broadway, but was cancelled when Ms. Childress refused to make significant changes.  She chose not to soften the story that illustrated the racism in the theatre and film industry.  After sixty-six years, Trouble in Mind has received it’s well deserved Broadway production.  It is a well crafter play with strongly developed characters that make a powerfully clear statement about the untruths depicted in American entertainment.

Wiletta Mayer (played by LaChanze) enters the theater for the first rehearsal of a play she is working on.  She meets the doorman, Henry (played by Simon Jones), who remembers her from a production he set the lights for a number of years prior.  He treats her like a star.  She meets John (played by Reynaldo Piniella), an up and coming, young actor.  She schools him on how to behave when in rehearsal with a white director.  Millie Davis and Sheldon Forrester (played by Jessica Frances Dukes and Chuck Cooper) join the rehearsal.  They are old friends with Wiletta.  When the director, Al Manners (played by Michael Zegen) arrives, he is a no-nonsense task master.  He pushes Wiletta and the rest of the cast to find the truth in their acting, yet the material they are working on does not contain truths worth their effort.  The cast all works at giving the director what he asks for during rehearsal, but when a scene where the character played by John Nevins is going to be dragged off and lynched, Wiletta pushes hard to make changes in the play that are more truthful for the characters. 

LaChanze as Wiletta Mayer
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

LaChanze portrays Wiletta with grace, poise, and zest.  The character is an experienced performer with a yearning to play a serious role.  When the conflict erupts, LaChanze plays the moment with strength, wisdom, and conviction.  Michael Zegen’s character of the director, Al Manners, comes back to her logically and rationally.  These two actors skillfully play this scene, keeping their composure to the very last moment.  This is an amazingly written scene and LaChanze and Mr. Zegen do it supreme justice.  

Michael Zegen, LaChanze, & Chuck Cooper
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Chuck Cooper has a riveting monologue in Act II.  The action stops as his character tells of a lynching he witnessed as a young boy.  Mr. Cooper takes the audience deep into his character’s traumatic childhood memory.  It is a powerful moment and brilliantly delivered.

Jessica Frances Dukes is feisty as Millie Davis.  Reynaldo Piniella is charming as John Nevins.  There are also strong performances from Simon Jones, Victoria Oliver (u.s.), Alex Mickiewicz, and Don Stephenson. 

Trouble in Mind is playing at the American Airlines Theatre through January 9.  The performances are powerful and the writing is magnificent.  Don’t miss it.  

Domenick Danza

Choir Boy

Choir Boy

Manhattan Theatre Club

The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

December 22, 2018

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

In Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play Choir Boy, he explores the turmoil one young, black man faces to accept his homosexuality and carve out a place for himself in the world.  This Manhattan Theatre Club production is superbly directed by Trip Cullman with a gently touch and warm heart.  Mr. McCraney’s play is highlighted by acapella singing of gospel hymns and spirituals that illuminate the depth and drive of these well-written characters.  Movement by Camille A. Brown viscerally connects the audience to their need for unity and belonging. 

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys is celebrating its 50^th year of providing excellence and tradition in the education of strong, ethical black men.  Pharus (played by Jeremy Pope) is confident in realizing his goal of leading the choir in his senior year and singing the school song at his own graduation.  Headmaster Marrow (played by Chuck Cooper) is supportive of his talents, while tactfully encouraging him to downplay his flamboyant behavior.  Bobby (played by J. Quinton Johnson) is constantly bullying Pharus, yet unable to bring him down.  Pharus is determined to achieve his goals, fit in, make his mother proud, and become a Drew graduate of distinction.  When he is caught in an intimate encounter with a fellow student, he is put on probation and forced to face his homosexuality.  He finds comfort and acceptance where he least expects it.

Jeremy Pope & Chuck Cooper
Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

Jeremy Pope portrays Pharus with high integrity and strong determination.  As these qualities are put to the test during the action of the play, we see his sensitive and vulnerable side.  Mr. Pope blends all these qualities to deliver a truthful performance of a young man struggling with self-acceptance while challenged to create a respectful position in his community.  J. Quinton Johnson’s Bobby is a strong adversary to Mr. Pope’s Pharus.  He is boldly determined to keep the tradition and honor of Drew Prep free from homosexual influence.  John Clay III plays Pharus’ roommate Anthony.  His character is self-assured and secure.  He has an open heart, full of care and compassion for his good friend.  Caleb Eberhardt delivers a heart wrenching performance as David.  He is full of fear and doubt, due to monumental pressure from his family.

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

This is a cast of highly skilled actor/singers who become one when performing acapella.  The destruction of that unity as each character strives for honor, belonging, and respect is what makes Choir Boy a gripping story.  See it!  It is playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through February 17.    

Domenick Danza

Prince of Broadway

Prince of Broadway

The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Manhattan Theatre Club

August 8, 2017

 

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

Prince of Broadway is presently in previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.  Produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and under the direction of Hal Prince himself, the show celebrates his career and highlights some of the most memorable moments in Broadway musical history.  Susan Stroman collaborates as co-director and choreographer doing what she does best, making this a cohesive piece of theatre.  The cast of nine of heavy hitting performers (Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Michael Zavier, Tony Yazbeck, and Karen Ziemba) left me wanting more.

Hal Prince started his career working for free in the office of director George Abbott in the late 1940s.  He stage managed, directed, and/or produced some of the most well know Broadway musicals.  The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, She loves Me, West Side Story, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Merrily We Roll Along, Parade, and Phantom of the Opera, to name a few.  He has worked with the top directors, choreographers, composers, lyricists, book writers, and performers ever known.  The nine cast members all tell his story, wearing his trademark look, glasses on top of his head, when they are speaking his words.

The cast of Prince of Broadway
Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

The Follies sequence is intense and mesmerizing.  The two selections from A Little Night Music are biting and emotional.  The Act II opening of three songs from Company pulls you into the questioning/rebellion mindset of the time period.  The Evita section is powerful.  The Sweeney Todd scenes are haunting.

The highlight of Act I is Karen Ziemba’s rendition of “Who Cares” from Cabaret.  The Act I finale of “Cabaret” sung by Bryonha Marie Parham is stunning.  Chuck Cooper delivers an invigorating “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof, then later pulls you into the rolling rhythm of “Ol’ Man River” from Mr. Prince’s Showboat revival.  Ms. Stroman’s choreography for “The Right Girl’ from Follies masterfully depicts the inner conflict of Buddy's character.  Tony Yazbeck delivers it to perfection.

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

The scenic design by Beowulf Boritt and lighting design by Howell Binkley are brilliant and effective.  They create strong impressions and vivid images that exemplify the complete settings and overall mood of each varied segment.  They keep the flow seamlessly moving from one moment to the next. 

From the insert in the program you can see they are tweaking and refining, but no matter what they do, this show is a wondrous look at the legendary body of work of a Broadway icon.  Prince of Broadway is scheduled to open on August 24.  It is on TDF during previews.  Get a ticket right away!

  

Domenick Danza

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

Nederlander Theatre

June 27, 2015

Photo courtesy of Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace is the story of the spiritual awakening of John Newton, the man who wrote the well-known hymn of the same title.  This new musical has a flat and relatively melodramatic first act.  The second act contains truthful moments culminating in an emotional finale.  Hopefully the creative team can make some well needed adjustments before the show opens on July 16.

The story begins on a pier in Chatham, England in December, 1744 as John Newton (played by Josh Young) returns from a long sea voyage.  He is met by his beloved, Mary Catlett (played by Erin Mackey).  He sings to her about the journeys he is yearning for in order to find freedom from his father’s control.  The ironic twist at the end of the scene is extremely effective.  It is revealed that he has actually returned from a slave trade expedition.  Not only that, but his father owns the slave trading ship and company, and John Newton makes his fortune by selling slaves. 

Chuck Copper & Josh Young
Photo courtesy of Amazing Grace

Act I continues by setting up the main conflicts of the story: a father’s disappointment, a son’s agony of his mother’s death and his father’s emotional abandonment, a young woman’s need to marry for social status and financial security, and true love that is disregarded due to emotional upheaval and social responsibility.  The villains are identified and the hero’s obstacles are clear, but due to the circumstances, these conflicts and the characters are not emotionally engaging - it is too clean and pristine a rendition of a story that is dirty with slave trading and brutality.

Act II has genuine moments of suffering, pain, and integrity.  Chuck Cooper (as Pakuteh/Thomas), and Laiona Michelle (as Nanna) delve deeply in their portrayal of slaves owned by the two main characters.  Their heartfelt and visceral performances create genuine moments of loyalty and betrayal that heighten the dramatic action of the second act and drive the story forward.

Laiona Michelle & Erin Mackey
Photos courtesy of Amazing Grace

The vocal skills of Josh Young and Erin Mackey are stunning and strong.  The score by Christopher Smith is outshined by the finale of “Amazing Grace.”  It is well orchestrated and superbly performed, yet not as poignant as when PresidentObama sang it last week in North Carolina.  The audience in the theatre did, however, rise to its feet and join in when the song was reprised during curtain call.

The story of the transformation of John Nash enhances the meaning and value of his most known hymn, which was written in 1779.  His story is worth telling and worth knowing.  Is this musical, however, the best venue for an effective telling of this powerful story?  Can director Gabriele Barre eliminate the melodrama and rework scenes and characterizations that will be emotionally engaging, and tighten up this almost three hour musical?  Let’s hope so.  Write a comment if you see it and let me know how the show is developing.

Domenick Danza