What I've Seen Recently

A brief look at the plays and musicals I've recently seen.

Amerian Wee Pie - at The Station.  A touch of the absurd runs throughout this tale of a man returning to a hometown still searching for a way out of a lifetime of anonymity.  He finds purpose - or rather has the purpose find him - from a high school classmate whom he does not remember - who is riding the wave of popularity of gourmet cupcakes.  There is levity and some actual emotion  with generally solid performances - highlighted by Grant Moreanz' wandering accents - which made this an enjoyable evening at The Station.  Director Jaclyn Loewenstein shepherded her cast nimbly.  The division of The Station's small space into three separate areas was a daring choice, but mostly paid off.

She Kills Monsters - at The Station.  This play highlighted, for me, one of the weaknesses of The Station.  One of the more recent strengths of The Station has been its production of newer and edgier plays, exposing Central Illinois to plays that audiences would never otherwise have a chance to see.  She Kills Monsters is a newer play, but one that seemingly was developed to highlight stage combat.  Unfortunately, the proximity of the audience and the skills of the actors combined to make the stage combat less than realistic or involving.  The script suffers from major timeline issues that baffled me throughout.  The script has other internal inconsistencies and, to me, a not very original take on the "issues" the play purportedly seeks to address.  I spent too much time trying to make sense of the script - rather than being taken in by the story.  A strong performance by Andrew Ambrose Lee was not sufficient to carry the play.  Director Mikel Matthews struggles admirably to mask the script's flaws - but I think that effort called for more bells and whistles than The Station could muster.

Legally Blonde, Jr. - Champaign Park District.  This was a youth show for 5th through 8th graders, so this is not a review of their performances!  Having directed the full length production, I was curious about what had been done to the script to make it safe for "junior" audiences.  It was not done surgically - it was done by a butcher.  The script was hacked indiscriminately and lines changed for no apparent reason.  The show makes even less sense than it ever did and does not give the actors adequate opportunity to develop any character.  The set also was disappointing, as Champaign Park District has been doing admirable sets for youth productions.  But, not this time.

Matilda at Oriental Theatre, Chicago.  Ok. This isn't Central Illinois - but we made the trek, along with, it turns out, many of our friends to see the National Tour of Matilda.  This is probably my youngest daughter's favorite show.  She and I have seen it on Broadway and in London.  The tour production was quite good, but not to the level of those prior viewings.  The child actors in the tours have dropped any pretense at trying to have British accents.  But, the adult actors still speak with British accents.  Tim Minchin's lyrics are so witty - but delivered so quickly that I still only caught about 80% of the words actually sung.  However, those in our party (and others we spoke with from Champaign-Urbana) who were seeing Matilda for the first time absolutely loved it.  They loved the staging, the music, the lyrics, the actors, just about everything.  

I also went to two area High School shows: Fiddler on the Roof at University Laboratory High School and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum at Champaign Centennial High School.  My youngest daughter was in the latter.  These are two classic 1960s musicals which are very very very different in style.  Seeing them on the same day was quite a shock to the system going from the very serious and gradually depressing Fiddler to the farce and outrageousness of Forum.  I'm not going to review these shows, but I do have a couple of quick observations:    For Fiddler: Noah Blue was a Tevye who was a much stronger confident character than usually presented and commanded all of his scenes.  Director Chris Guyotte made incredible use of the very small stage at University Laboratory High School with an ingenious structure that opened and rotated to serve as Tevye's house (interior and exterior), Motel's store, and other exteriors.  For Forum, director Suzanne Aldridge gave her leads Ryan Gossett and Lyndon Fabi tremendous freedom to chew the scenery to great audience appreciation.  Leland Jackson, however, stole every scene he was in as Miles Gloriosus.