 First off, let me start this review by giving a huge shout-out to Christine Kahler who hooked me up with a free ticket to last night's show. Though I'm a Harry Potter fan, I'm not a nut case about it, yet was still pretty damn excited about what I was going to see because frankly, Potter and satire HAVE to equal some form of amazing-ness.
Upon entering The Little Schubert Theater, my first thought was "wow, this is a nice space, I wonder what the rates are" (always thinking like a producer). Not long after we sat down, we were greeted by one of the actors (Dan), who was going around shaking hands and saying hi. Straight away I liked his enthusiasm and cool British accent, and thought I was bound to see a fun show.
I'm not going to spend time on the synopsis as you pretty much know it. The show covers all 7 books in 70 minutes and I'm not going to give away how it does this, but I will say, GO SEE IT.
The show is geared towards kids, but even as an adult, I pretty much didn't stop laughing. At one point, I thought I was going to have to have CPR as Dan enters the stage with chocolate cake all over his face and when Jeff questions him as to why, he can barely speak because literally, chocolate is dripping off of his face. This sent the audience, as well as Dan and Jeff, into stitches and Dan drops my favorite line of the night (and also in the title), "I'm snotting chocolate."
The British duo bring to the stage hilarious Brit phrases that we never hear over on this side of the pond, but always love, and a great sense of improv in dealing with anything that gets thrown at them, which makes for some very real, very spontaneous comedy.
Created in 2006, this show is a 2012 Olivier Award Nominee and rightfully so. I highly recommend it! Tour dates and other details HERE.COME NAGINI!
| Visuals: 9
Acting: 9
Directing: 10
Choreography: basic lol
Music: 10
Costumes: 9
Rockstars: Daniel Clarkson & Jeff Turner
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Oh Classic Stage Company, how I usually love thee!
I purchased a TDF ticket to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, and was really excited because:
a. I had a friend in the show and;
b. the publicity shots made it look amazing and it had Bebe Neuwirth in it, and I've never seen her on stage.
Directed by Tony Speciale this piece was non-stop energy, fun and quirky costumes, beautiful actors and actresses and an apparently amazing set. I say apparently because I got the crap seat in the very corner where I couldn't see the mirror that was supposed to reflect everything back and make it look really cool, thereby taking the production down a notch for me. I know I got my ticket through TDF, but they really shouldn't have given those seats to ANYONE. They were simply worthless, but at least it was directed where I didn't always see the backs of the actor's heads, however, I know I missed a lot visually from what was intended.
The show spent more time trying WAY too hard and getting easy and cheap laughs like a bad TV sitcom, than communicating any real emotions between any of the characters. This could have been a really amazing show, but alas, has become my second example in 3 months of sacrificing the story and text for sheer, utter novelty. It appears this is becoming an epidemic.
Shakespeare's text should never be secondary. Never! And novelty should come way down on the list after text, character arc, emotion and clarity. So let's place it at least #5, but never as the main idea carrying your show.
Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci just aren't cut out for classical acting, at least not at this point, and I was saddened to hear them whitewash some really beautiful passages, trudging over them, deflating their characters, and leaving the audience with nothing to do, but get by on the novelty. In my humble opinion, the strongest actors (save for Puck and Oberon), seemed to have the smallest roles.
This is difficult for me to watch when I can rattle off 10 actors and actresses off the top of my head that could have lifted that text to a beautiful and worthy place...
but I guess it's about selling tickets with big names nowadays, so, enjoy the novelty.
If you saw it, feel free to comment and let me know what you thought.
Mary Riley
Visuals: 9
Acting: 5
Directing: 5
Choreography: 9
Music: 9
Costumes: 9
Rockstars: Anthony Heald, Taylor Mac, Steven Skybell, and David Greenspan
 In all the arts; photography, theater, music, painting et al., a clear story can make or break a piece of work. Nowadays, since theater, especially, is competing with TV, reality TV and YouTube web series, many companies have felt the need to add flashiness and novelty without serving the story. Take the Backstage review of the newly revived Jesus Christ Superstar, for instance. The story and messages get lost in the need to have Jesus and Judas on a moving platform overlooking the audience and a light up cross brighter than Times Square. This is becoming a poor trend, and one that I believe stems from the need to find new audiences and reach out to current patrons in an attempt to keep theater relevant, but I argue, won't it always be relevant? Why are we so afraid? Why do we underestimate our sense of imagination?
Remember when you were a kid, and no matter how many toys you had, the most fun came from an empty box that your Mom or Dad was about to throw out? You didn't need all the flash and novelty of regular toys because you had an imagination. Well guess what, we all still have one, and this push to make shows into movie sets and add novelty just for the sake of novelty is eating away at the reason we do what we do. I'm not at all saying you can't have some flash and some novelty or that you can't love regular toys, but I'd like to get the arts community back to remembering that telling the story, a clear story and getting your message across MUST be the ultimate goal and reason why you are putting a show up, or constructing a piece of art, or taking a photo or the many other ways we humans can be creative. What's your story?Talk to me below. Tell me a show you've seen recently where the story remained the strength of the piece, or a show where it didn't. Why do you think this was?
I am very happy to welcome Andrew M. Chin to the Board of Directors. Andrew is currently Managing Director at Woodson Capital Management. He bestowed upon me the knowledge of 888, which in Chinese culture means:
888 – Three times the prosperity, means "wealthy wealthy wealthy"
I am very honored to have Andrew on the Board of Directors, please leave a comment welcoming him to the company.
Enjoy the beautiful weather!
Mary M. Riley
As with any non-profit, a great mission statement can mean more funding and a clearer direction for the company. To be frank, I didn't at all like my original attempt at our mission statement. Here's the old one:
Mercia Entertainment makes theater worth watching, art worth observing, film worth presenting and music worth listening to, because we believe brilliant art is out there just waiting to be discovered.
Yeah, I know, so I've retooled it and I feel what is below is a much better version, but I'd love to know what you all think. Here it is:
Mercia Entertainment’s mission is to offer patrons a stimulating, dynamic and educational entertainment experience by retelling classic stories through theater, film, music and art.
What do you like about it? Dislike?
It covers the mediums in which I want to function and like the Mercia name, our work will take something old and bring a fresh new perspective on it, AND it's short, simple and sweet.
Does it make you want to see what we have to offer?
Comment below!
| | This month, I'm not on the stage or producing, but House Managing Make Mine Manhattan for UnsungMusicalsCo. The show runs through March 17th and you will be toe tapping and singing along to some really smashing talent onstage. This piece is directed by Artistic Director, Ben West. Get your tickets HERE! |
| | Another successful reading!! Antony and Cleopatra was challenging, fun, and very dramatic. A huge thanks to everyone involved!
Antony-Seth Duerr*
Cleopatra-Mary Riley*
Caesar - Keith Merrill*
Octavia - Amy Bohaker
Enobarbus - Joseph Hamel
Lepidus - Luis de Amechazurra
Charmian - Renee Williams
Iras - Carissa Cordes
Alexas - Alexander Harvey
Mardian - John Curtis
Maecenas - Jeff Topf
Soothsayer/Agrippa - Sean Bell
Eros/Ventidius/Euphronius - Evan Beskin
Philo/Pompey - Fred Stuart
Menecrates/Scarus - Andrew Broussard
Varrius/Dercetas - Ben Leasure
Stage Manager: Michael Zumbrun
Event Assistance: Ben West
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Hello friends. I'm excited to report that The Unstuffy Divas have put their first project A History of Opera...Abridged in the mail to the 2012 Fringe Festival in hopes of being selected. Please follow us on Facebook, to hear about us as we progress through the process of developing this and other pieces throughout the year. From a personal perspective it's scary and exhilarating to put your work out there for the world to judge and see (and hopefully LOVE) and we are grateful to all those that have supported and encouraged this labor of love. We'll keep you posted!
-Mary Riley & Jennifer Gelber a.k.a. The Unstuffy Divas
_This video is an introduction to Artistic Director Mary Riley, how Mercia was formed, and the future direction of the company with some insight and clips from our first project, Voodoo Macbeth.
Featuring:
Matthew Burchfield- adapter of Voodoo Macbeth
Sarah Hankins- First Witch
Dianna Lora- Second Witch
Rashika Pickett- Third Witch
YouTube
This mini-documentary was produced in conjunction with Thomas Ramsey.
His work can be found here:
http://thomasblakeramsey.com/
Our very first project, Voodoo Macbeth was a huge success. Thanks to all the cast and crew for your time and talents. Feedback about the night was very postive and we look forward to bringing you more exciting projects in the future. Next up:
Antony & Cleopatra (Staged Reading) in February of 2012
We are continuing our Indie Gogo campaign through November 18th. So if you'd like to give, please click on the link on the home page or HERE to donate! Even the smallest amounts help to purchase food, wine, party supplies, print programs and pay the actors. We thank you for your continued patronage and look forward to an exciting reading of Antony and Cleopatra.
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