Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park always impresses me with their shows.  They are always so different from one another, each one a totally different genre and style from the last.  Marry Me A Little, their current musical, contrasted greatly with Jekyll & Hyde, which is playing in their other theatre.  Marry Me was created by Craig Lucas and Norman Rene by taking various songs by Stephen Sondheim which he wrote for his other shows but never used and turning them into an hour long musical of their own.  (Sondheim is best known for writing the lyrics for Sweeny Todd, Follies, and West Side Story among others.)

The show takes place in two apartments with an invisible wall.  On one side lives the character only known as “Woman” and on the other side lives “Man.”  The two are each spending a Saturday evening alone in their apartments, reading the Sunday Times and singing about lost love, hopes for the future, and their funny daydreams about sex and relationships.

The songs alternate between wistful and humorous, which keeps the story moving at a good pace.  The characters are easy to relate to and remind me of myself on a Saturday night when I feel like the only single one sitting at home.  Okay, maybe my Saturday nights involve a little less singing, but the ideas are there.

In Playhouse’s production, Man was played by Benjamin Eakeley and Woman was played by Sally Wilfert.  Both are from New York and have acted in Broadway productions as well as television.  The vocals were amazing on both of their accounts, and the acting was great.  Wilfert had excellent comedic timing and was very free on the stage.  Eakeley made his character extremely likable and just seemed like he really was the typical guy next door.

The lighting and set design was also very well done, as well as direction.  Another interesting thing that they did with the production was have the actors on stage before the show started.  When the theatre doors opened, Man and Woman were both in their apartment just going about their life.  It made them seem more real right from the beginning of the show.  It was another very successful production for Cincinnati’s Playhouse.

The show was directed and choreographed by Stafford Arima.  The music director was Lynn Shankel.  If you live near the Cincinnati area, Marry Me A Little runs through June 14th and you can get your tickets on the Playhouse website: www.cincyplay.com

Click here for more information and to see photos and video from the show: Marry Me A Little

Click Read More to see a video with some short clips from the show.

Sally Wilfert and Benjamin Eakeley

I have always been an avid lover of theatre.  I try to see as many shows as I can, from local theatre productions to Broadway tours.  The show I look forward to the most each year, however, might surprise some people.  My absolute favorite performance, and the one with the most talent, is consistently Theatre Xavier’s annual musical production.

Theatre Xavier is the student theatre at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, although if you’ve ever seen one of their shows you may have mistaken it for a Broadway production.  The talent and passion of the students involved blows me away year after year, and I always go in wondering what else they will manage to surprise me with.

This year Theatre Xavier presented Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.  As always, TX presented the show with complete style and professionalism.  The set and costumes were perfect, the music was wonderful, and the entire performance was completely captivating.  The energy of the cast was phenomenal and I came away from the show feeling like I had just seen a Tony Award winning performance.  One thing that set this one above any other I’ve seen at TX was the dancing.  Cats is a very dance-driven musical, with the actors portraying the movements and attitudes of cats within the choreography.  It takes an extremely talented group of actors and dancers to pull off a show like this.

So how did TX come up with such amazing choreography and talent for this performance?  At the beginning of the school year, when Cats was announced as the annual musical, St. Xavier Senior Ben Lanham was chosen by director Michele Mascari to choreograph the show as well as run the dance auditions (he also played the part of Mr. Mistoffelees).

Lanham has been studying dance since he was 9 years old, when he saw Cats performed in New York City.  “I was so enthralled with the show that afterwards I asked my mom if I could do what the cats did, and when we got back to Cincinnati my parents enrolled me in classes,” Lanham said.  He currently trains in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Acrobatics, and Hip-Hop and will be studying dance performance at Oklahoma City University this fall.  He chose OCU because of their dance program which focuses greatly on the theatrical aspect of dance performance.

Lanham worked in conjunction with Northern Kentucky University Senior Emily Brinkman on the choreography for Cats.  They watched the original Broadway choreography for inspiration, then developed their own movements for the performance.  Most of the choreography seen in the final production was their own.  The two would listen to the songs and try out different steps, then if they both liked it, they would add it into the piece.

Lanham says the most important thing to remember in choreography is to keep the big picture in mind, but you also have to remember to keep listening to the music.  “Music has a built in evenflo with accents the dancing should hit,” he says.  “If the choreography doesn’t go with what the music is saying, it will never click for the performers or the audience.”

Another thing that made this performance of Cats so incredible was the dedication and connection of the entire cast and crew to the show and one another.  Lanham said that although he has worked on many shows, this one was “really something special.  Everyone involved was so closely knit and worked so well together and only because of that were we able to pull off a show like Cats.”  He also said that the cast was so deeply involved with the show that they had a hard time dropping their cat characteristics even once they were off the stage.  “I can’t tell you how many meows I get in the hallway every day.”

Cats is nominated for 24 awards in the Cincinnati Cappies, including two for Ben Lanham as Best Male Dancer and one for his choreography.  This sets a record for the most Cappies nominations for one school.  TX is also the most successful of all schools in the eight years of the Cappies, earning 52 awards in the first seven years.

To see the full list of nominations, click here: The Cappies

To see the full cast list, click here: Theatre Xavier’s Cats

Click Read More for some cast photos.

Ben Lanham as Mr. Mistoffelees

Katy Flanigan as Victoria

Tommy Boeing as Rum Tug Tugger

Cast Photo

Ria Villaver as Grizabella

Tommy Boeing, Katy Flanigan, and Ben Lanham

This isn’t the first time a band’s music has been made into a musical.  ABBA’s music inspired Mamma Mia! which has seen incredible success, and the music of The Who led to Tommy which hit Broadway in 1993.  But Green Day?  Not exactly what you would call a “classic” band.  Green Day might have led the way into the punk movement, but does that make a good musical?  No matter what I say, the Grammy winning band does have extreme popularity.  The American Idiot album sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

I admit I was a fan of their early music.  I probably listened to “Basket Case” on repeat for a year.  But then when I saw what they had done to popular music I was appalled.  Thanks to Green Day, we now have punk bands overflowing the radio stations, with their whiny vocals and unorganized guitar jams.  It seems like any dirty angry kid can start a punk band now.  If bands like All American Rejects and Sum 41 can make it, anyone can.

From my observations, here are some tips for a successful punk band.  Tip 1: Don’t shower.  Tip 2: Get angry over unimportant situations.  Tip 3: Lyrics must be hard, if not impossible to understand.  Tip 4: Do totally crazy and disgusting things, like drink your own urine on stage (I’m not making this up.  Pete Wentz of punk band Fallout Boy just did this at a live concert last week.)  Tip 5 (Most Important): WHINE CONSTANTLY!

So if these are the keys to a good musical these days, then art and culture is about to take a violent downturn with American Idiot rocking theatre stages.  Michael Mayer, a Tony Award winning writer, co-wrote the musical’s book with Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day.  Billie Joe came up with the ideas for the punk musical, and the band will be credited with all the music for the show.

So far no one is willing to give a summary of the storyline for the musical, but the theme of the album was that of a post-9/11 society dealing with “broken dreams” and the realities of life.  They have announced that there will be 19 characters in the show, all in their 20s.  Characters in the album include Jesus of Suburbia (and his drug-dealing alter-ego St. Jimmy) and Whatshername (St. Jimmy’s anarchist girlfriend), so these might be some of the same ones used for the musical.

American Idiot will open on stage at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September.  Funny that one of the songs from American Idiot is called “Wake Me Up When September Ends”…

Rufus Wainwright is a melancholy pop/folk singer who has gained popularity over the years as some of his songs have appeared in movies such as Brokeback Mountain, Moulin Rouge, and Shrek.  Now Wainwright has written a full-length French opera called Prima Donna, which will premiere at the Manchester international festival in the UK in July, along with 20 other world premiere productions.

Prima Donna was originally supposed to open at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but Wainwright pulled away when they asked him to change the language to English.  Originally from Quebec, Wainwright wrote the opera in French and said that’s the way it was meant to be performed.  He was also concerned with the fact that some shows at the Met take years to be staged because of their long list of scheduled productions at any given time.

Prima Donna sounds like an inventive new approach to opera, bringing in new insights while still following the classic ideals of the art form.  Wainwright describes it as being about “the persona of an opera star; it is the day in the life of an opera singer.  Opera is one of the last bastions where you can investigate big emotions and romanticism; and opera singers themselves are tied into that sensibility because they inhabit that universe.”

Wainwright’s music is somewhat operatic already: soft melodies combining with his strong and haunting voice.  He says he has been a fan of the opera for years: “Since I was 14 years old I have been converted to the dark religion of opera.  I’ll even be dramatic about it: it has saved my life, guiding me through some pretty tough junctures.”  Many fans of Wainwright’s music may say the same thing about him.  As an openly gay man, Wainwright has brought hope and light into the lives of many people struggling through their own issues.  His songs bring honesty and love into a dark place, and no matter if you are gay or straight, old or young, everyone can find pieces of their own pain and passion within his music.

Wainwright is also currently preparing to open his musical adaptation of Shakespearean Sonnets at the Berliner Ensemble in April.  The Manchester international festival runs from July 2 to July 19, 2009.

The 1988 film, Heathers.  I have to admit that this is one 80s classic that I have never seen, so I’m not as disappointed with it being turned musical as with some of the others I loved.  I still think it’s a horrible idea, but that goes for any movie they decide to make into a musical (movicals as I have termed them).  Remember when we used to go to the theatre to see things like Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera?  Now we’re just seeing 80s reruns.

Heathers has been in musical production status for a while, and they’ve managed to keep it under wraps until now.  They did some readings this week in Endeavor’s screening room with Kristen Bell playing the lead.  Christian Campbell played J.D., and Jenna Leigh Green, Corri English, and Christine Lakin played the three Heathers.  No word on if any of the actors plan on continuing the roles once the play opens.

The musical is being developed by Andy Fickman, director of Race to Witch Mountain.  He is working with Kevin Murphy, who will be writing the lyrics and book, and Larry O’Keefe will be composing.  Heathers is scheduled to open in 2010, just as the rest of these “movicals” we’ve been hearing about will also open.

Another victim in the movie turned musical disaster that is sweeping the theatrical world!  This time it’s the 1990 film Ghost.  I keep thinking that maybe they will wait to see if some of these movie to musical productions work out before they try to make more, but apparently I tend to overestimate intelligence even in the most ignorant of people.

I think someone came up with an evil plot to make everyone hate any classic films by turning them into musicals.  It’s getting completely out of control.  I love movies and I love musicals, but can we please just have some original ideas?  And when you take a movie like Ghost, which has become a classic and loved film, and turn it into a musical, it’s almost like a mockery.

If people are really having this much trouble coming up with original ideas, why don’t they take a look at the millions of unpublished scripts floating all over the world?  There are so many aspiring writers who don’t get any recognition because producers go for the “sure thing” with something that has already made it big instead of creating something new.

Ghost is being written for the stage by Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an Oscar for the film’s screenplay.  Can’t he just go home and hug his Oscar and remember why he loved his work?  Don’t ruin it!

And since you’re probably wondering, no one has revealed yet if they will be using the famous “Unchained Melody” in the musical or not.

I don’t even know if I should bother to keep posting about movies being turned into terrible ideas.  The downfall of our cinematic integrity continues to surprise me, although I guess at this point I should be getting used to it.  As money hungry producers continue to grab at every last idea that floats around, they apparently had the epiphany that everyone probably would love to see Sleepless in Seattle as a Broadway musical.  (Pause here to think about how this ever sounded like a good idea to anyone.)

Turning Sleepless into a play would be one thing, but a musical???  This movie wasn’t cheesy enough to begin with, and now they have to put songs in it?  Apparently producers are estimating that they will make $12-15 million from the show, which tells you why they want to do it so badly.

Casting hasn’t started yet, and the script is about half finished.  Jeff Arch is writing the script, and he is the same one who wrote the screenplay for the film in 1993.  Leslie Bricusse, who wrote the songs for the 1971 Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will be writing the music for the stage production.  “Oompa-Loompa-Doompa-De-Do, I’ve got a failing project for you…”

If Sleepless in Seattle: The Musical opens according to their predictions, it will be opening up right alongside other movies turned musicals on broadway, such as Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark and The Addams Family.  Unfortunately I think this is one that is sure to backfire, and will cause plenty of sleepiness on Broadway.

With all the big movies being turned into musicals lately, here’s one that’s going the other way.  The Tony award-winning musical, Damn Yankees, is in the beginning stages of becoming a film.  The film version will also be a musical, although producers are trying to decide how to deliver the original songs with a more modern feel.  The musical opened on Broadway in 1955, and the songs and story tie it to that time period.

Jake Gyllenhaal is signed on to play the lead character, Joe Boyd, whose love of baseball leads him to make a bargain with the devil to play on the team as slugger Joe Hardy.  The devil uses tricks, such as a gorgeous lost soul named Lola, to keep Joe involved with the deal, therefore giving up his soul.  The devil will be played by Jim Carrey.  Neither Gyllenhaal nor Carrey has ever played in a musical, which should be interesting.  They are also totally different types of actors, which makes me curious as to how they will play off one another.

Damn Yankees was made into a film in 1958, but hasn’t been on screen since then.  There have been attempts at getting it made for years now, but this is the first time it has been given the green light.

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel have been announced as writers, and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will be producing (they previously produced the film version of the musical Hairspray, and are currenly working on a sequel to that as well).

Blackbird, a play by David Harrower, is the story of a 27-year-old woman named Una who goes back after 15 years to confront Ray, the man she had an affair with when she was 12 and he was 40.  The entire play takes place in the break room of Ray’s workplace, which is very symbolically littered with dirty dishes, empty food containers, and overflowing trash cans.  The show runs about 90 minutes, and consists of a discussion between the two characters about what happened and how it affected each of their lives.  They alternate between anger, fear, sadness, and even happiness in their emotional exchange, and you find yourself completely immersed in their pain and confusion.

The way the script is written leads you through the minds of the characters and you find yourself relating to both of them.  I realized at the end that really most of the performance took place in my head, as you visualize the moments the characters are referring to, but the stage action is very minimal.  I thought this was a very interesting way to present theatre, and it takes a very talented writer and actors to pull it off.

Although the subject matter is serious, the play’s author says it is about looking more deeply into these issues and seeing how they can happen. “I don’t believe it is [a play about pedophilia],” Harrower said.  “Yes, it discusses an illegal, underage relationship and, in most people’s minds, the man would be termed a pedophile.  But I wanted to look at the gray areas in between.  I don’t condone their relationship, but in their past, it happened — and it has happened in real life.  What interested me is how people then go on to deal with the consequences of their actions and desires, how they justify or explain to themselves the reasons for what they did.”

I saw the play at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park, and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen there.  The acting by Joy Farmer-Clary (Una) and John Ottavino (Ray) was excellent, especially for such an intimidating piece.  Both actors have appeared in multiple theatrical productions across the country, as well as some television and films.  John Ottavino most recently appeared in the films Revolutionary Road and The Happening.  The play was performed in Playhouse’s more intimate, blackbox style theatre, and it really added to the atmosphere.  If you live near the Cincinnati area, the show runs until March 8th, and tickets can be purchased by calling the Playhouse or reserving them online at cincyplay.com.

Even if you don’t live in Cincinnati, I would recommend checking out the show’s website, where you can read more reviews, see photos from the production, and even see a short video of the show: Blackbird

Just days after Slumdog Millionaire’s big win at the Oscars, producer Christian Colson has announced that they are setting up for a stage version of the show, with covers of A.R. Rahman’s award-winning songs included.  Although the deals aren’t settled yet, negotiations are already beginning to make the musical a reality.  Producers say that this is all in the interest of the children from the film, and that the money will be used to raise more funds for them.  That sounds like a sneaky alibi to me, but I hope that they do follow through on their word.

The filmmakers have already set up trust funds for all the young actors in the film (which is to cover their education – some of them had never been to school – and basic living expenses).  Also, the children who played young Salim and Latika in the film, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail (10) and Rubina Qureshi (9) were moved to new houses by the Indian government.  The children’s families were living in the very poor slums of Mumbai, which were shown in the film.  “These two children have brought laurels to the country, and we have been told that they live in slums, which cannot even be classified as housing,” said Gautam Chatterjee, head of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.

However, this comes after many protests throughout India and other countries after the film’s viewers discovered that the children continued to live in poverty while the movie was making hundreds of millions of dollars around the world.  Producers and director Danny Boyle argued that the children were paid above average local Indian salaries, but how much does that really add up to?

With all the success of the film, and all the money it has made (over $100 million just in North America), I hope that these children are looked after as well as people are claiming.  As far as the musical, we will see how well that goes over.  Turning films into theatrical productions doesn’t have the best track record, but a Bollywood musical on stage does sound like an interesting idea.  In any case, I’m sure it will do better than the new Spiderman musical, “Turn Off the Dark” (no, unfortunately I’m not kidding).