'Big River' offers a mighty musical

Reporter Jackie Majerus reviewed the latest musical at the Goodspeed Opera House:

Aside from the banks of the Mississippi River, it's hard to imagine a more fitting place for theatergoers to see "Big River" than at the Goodspeed Opera House.

The fabulously fun musical, based on Mark Twain's masterpiece, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," is playing through Sunday, Nov. 30 at the charming theater on the bank of the Connecticut River.

Directed by Rob Ruggiero, and produced for Goodspeed by Michael P. Price, the show uses a stellar cast, clever staging and a wonderful array of music to bring Twain's novel, or parts of it, to life. While the length of the novel makes it impossible to include every scene and detail, "Big River" does a remarkable job of squeezing in quite a bit.

Will Reynolds, who plays Huck, a poor white boy who fakes his own death to escape his abusive father, and Russell Joel Brown, who plays Jim, a runaway slave, beautifully carry the story of their journey together down the Mighty Mississippi. They make a great on-stage team and the chemistry between them lends credibility as the show focuses on their growing bond of friendship.

While Reynolds shines in his role, Brown steals the show with a stunning performance filled with honesty and grace.

Roger Miller's wide array of music and lyrics keeps the show rolling, but also provide some exceptionally moving moments.

It includes the funny "Do Ya Wanna Go to Heaven?" by the ensemble and "Guv'ment" by Huck's drunken father, Pap Finn, convincingly played by Kenneth Cavett and the poignant "Worlds Apart" by Jim and Huck.

The character of The Musician, a strolling, continuous onstage presence, adds depth to the show. Portrayed by David Lutken, The Musician doesn't speak, but plays a variety of instruments, often just strumming softly in the background while the story continues.

"Big River" has several settings, and this production does a good job of depicting them.

Some of the show takes place with Huck and Jim on the raft. Their craft, which moves about on stage, works well, especially when the scenery gets rolled back to reveal a glorious, illuminated view of the Mississippi River behind them.

Fans of Twain's novel should be delighted with "Big River," and those who haven't read the book may decide to pick it up after they see the show.

Beyond putting on a terrific show, the cast and theater itself has shown it has a generous heart.

To prepare for their roles in the show, the cast took a tour of The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, according to information released by the theater.

They were so taken with it that they decided to take up a collection for the financially struggling historic landmark and museum instead of exchanging gifts on opening night, which is the tradition at Goodspeed. The collection netted a gift to the museum of $1,135.

The show is appropriate for teens and adults, and for children who are familiar with the book. There is smoking depicted and the occasional use of a racial slur.

Tickets to "Big River" are $26 to $63. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.

On Thursday, Nov. 20, the performance includes a post-show discussion with the cast and a guest from The Mark Twain House and Museum.

During Thanksgiving week, the schedule changes, and Goodspeed will be holding its annual food drive to benefit the East Haddam Food Bank. 

Shows Thanksgiving week will be Monday, November 24, at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 28, at 2 and 8 p.m.; Saturday, November 29, at 3 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November 30, at 2 and 6:30 p.m. 

Anyone who brings a non-perishable food item to either performance on Monday, Nov. 24 gets $10 off the ticket price.

For a complete schedule and tickets call the box office at (860)873-8668, or see the theater's website at www.goodspeed.org.    

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

"No Child..." worth a trip to TheaterWorks

Reporter Jackie Majerus wrote this review:

The dramatic high school comedy "No Child…," now playing at TheaterWorks, deserves an A plus.
Simultaneously sad and funny, "No Child…" is a fast-moving, intelligently done and provocative work about the painful reality of urban high school by playwright Nilaja Sun.
The show is based on Sun's own experience as a teaching artist in public schools in the Bronx. Originally done as an award-winning, off-Broadway solo performance by Sun, "No Child…" in Hartford uses a cast of four.
Setting the tone for the show is the dismal cinderblock scene of the high school hallway, where a bullet hole has pierced a window and graffiti defaces the walls near the janitor's closet.
The set supports the underlying theme that high school is often a prison for the students trapped there. The ugly truths that the teenagers live with come out in bits and pieces.
The audience learns that the students have had five different teachers in seven months, that teachers generally expect them to fail and that their parents are uninvolved – if they even exist at all.
Four actors together represent a dozen or more characters, and they do a stunning job of it.
Three of them – Lizan Mitchell, Portia and Anthony Mark Stockard – carry all the characters except the visiting teacher, Ms. Sun. They play people of varying ages, races and sexes, all of them morphing flawlessly from one to another.
Mitchell, who is remarkable as an old black man, a timid Asian woman and a slouching student with attitude, opens the show. In her role as the longstanding custodian who's seen it all, he doesn't mind sharing his observations – on the students, teachers, the school and the neighborhood – with the audience.
Half the kids, he says, are "raising themselves."
Equally impressive is Stockard, who plays a wide range of students who are as hilarious as they are heartbreaking.
The three actors work their character-changing magic without benefit of elaborate costume changes, using powerful body language and talented voice work to pull it off.
Donnetta Lavinia Grays plays Ms. Sun, the struggling teaching artist who is desperately trying to keep up with her bills even as she fights to connect with the students.
At one point, Ms. Sun hits bottom, and like so many dedicated teachers, announces she is quitting. She's exhausted, smoking and losing weight and worst of all, doesn't think she's reaching the students.
"They need something much greater than I can give them," Ms. Sun says. "They need a miracle."
She laments that the students aren't taught to become leaders, but to go to jail. They're abandoned by families and by their teachers, she realizes, and sent to a school with metal detectors and security guards.
Possibly the most poignant moment comes when Ms. Sun realizes that the students are all too familiar.
"All of those kids in there are me," she says.
Directed by Rob Ruggiero, the TheaterWorks run of "No Child…" has been extended more than once.
Shows continue through Sunday, Oct. 12, according to Jacques Lamarre, spokesman for the theater.
For more information, call the theater at (860) 527-7838 or go online to www.theaterworkshartford.org.
General admission seating for No Child... is $37 to $47, but there are discounts available for teachers and school groups. TheaterWorks is located at 233 Pearl Street in downtown Hartford.

*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Review of haunting "Bluest Eye" at Hartford Stage

HARTFORD – "The Bluest Eye," a tragic tale of shattered dreams now playing at Hartford Stage, is a poignant and revealing look inside the troubled heart and mind of a young black girl.
Based on the Toni Morrison novel "The Bluest Eye," the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove's childhood is filled with racism, incest and poverty.
The play, adapted by Lydia Diamond, is almost devoid of hope, save for the thought that the story is set in the 1940s and that life has to be better now for a girl like Pecola.
Though she lives in poverty and is abused by her own father, possibly the saddest fact about Pecola's life comes from within. She doesn't believe in herself or see her own beauty.
Instead, brainwashed by culture, society, maybe even her own family, she believes that she must have blue eyes to be pretty. Naturally, she supposes that all good things come from being pretty, so she prays for blue eyes.
In her simple, heartbreaking prayer, Pecola asks God to change her brown eyes to blue "so that my mama loves me and I have friends and they think I'm pretty."
It's a painful thing to hear a child say, and it hurts to watch the story unfold.
The all-adult cast does a terrific job with the story, but it's important to recognize the outstanding performance by Adepero Oduye, who plays Pecola.
Other notables were Miche Braden, who played Mama and also brought her wonderful voice to the music in the show, and Ellis Foster, who delivered some of the play's most humorous moments with a delightfully dry wit in the character of Daddy, a hardworking and loving father who sharply contrasted the abuser.
The set, typical for Hartford Stage, is intriguing and well thought-out.
Sheets hung on a series of clotheslines all around the set give the feel of an old-fashioned city neighborhood, and the story is unveiled in increments that parallel when the bedclothes are removed one by one from the line.
"The Bluest Eye" is a co-production of Hartford Stage and the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven.
The show runs at Hartford Stage through March 23. The production then moves to the Long Wharf Theater from March 28 through April 20.
Eric Ting, Long Wharf's associate artistic director, directs "The Bluest Eye" at both theaters.
Tickets for the Hartford Stage production are $23 to $64, but discounts for groups, last-minute purchases and some $10 "Ten Spot" tickets may be available. Contact the theater box office at (860)527-5151 or go to www.hartfordstage.org for more information.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

"Driving Miss Daisy" at TheaterWorks

Here is reporter Jackie Majerus' review of "Driving Miss Daisy," a fabulous show at Hartford's TheaterWorks that is slated to run until Oct. 14:

Times change, chauffer Hoke Coleburn tells Miss Daisy, but "they ain't changin' that much."
The delightful, funny and sometimes-touching "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry, hasn't changed much in 20 years, either.
It's still great.
Directed by Rob Ruggiero and starring Rosemary Prinz as Daisy Werthan and Mel Johnson Jr. as her driver, Hoke Coleburn, the show is playing now to an enthusiastic audience at TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford.
The show offers top-notch acting, an interesting set and a lot of laughs.
The story revolves around the relationship between Miss Daisy, a retired white Jewish schoolteacher, and the gentle and patient Hoke, the black man that her son Boolie (John Leonard Thompson) hired to drive her around after she crashed her car.
Miss Daisy's initial hostility toward Hoke slowly thaws over their many years together.
Though she's the one who is educated, he's easily her intellectual equal and by far the more perceptive of the two. It's often his dry remarks or wry commentary that bring the biggest laughs.
While Hoke slows down over time, Miss Daisy truly ages. Prinz does an outstanding job showing decades of aging in a 90-minute performance.
The set and costumes were nicely done, but Vincent Olivieri, who did the sound design, deserves special recognition.
The perfect timing of each appropriate sound, every time Miss Daisy or Hoke opened or closed a car door or whenever Hoke put the car in gear added much to the show's realism.
"Driving Miss Daisy," which completes the 2006-2007 TheaterWorks season, runs through October 14, at the theater at 233 Pearl St.
TheaterWorks starts its 2007-2008 season in November with "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony-winning drama that runs Nov. 9-Dec. 23. After a holiday break, the theater returns Jan. 25 with a comedy by Douglas Carter Beane, "The Little Dog Laughed," followed by three dramas: "Blackbird," by David Harrower running April 11-May 25; Pulitzer winner "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire from June 20 to August 3 and finally, the New England premiere of "Gee's Bend" by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, which runs September 5 through Oct. 19, 2008.
Tickets range from $35 to $55, but a season of five shows sells for $122, and "rush" tickets are $10 at show time with a valid student identification. Discounted parking, with theater validation, is available a half block from the theater in the Goodwin Hotel garage.
For more information, call the theater at (860)527-7838 or see its website at theaterworkshartford.org.

*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com