Indy Theatre Habit

Last Friday night I drove downtown to the American Cabaret Theatre to see “The Wiz.” 

I didn’t realize it was their summer youth production, and probably I would not have gone if I had been paying better attention, because I have promised to focus on adult productions for this blog and I don’t have time to see all of the adult productions around town as it is.  However, once I let go of my guilt and recalibrated my expectations, I enjoyed the production very much.  There are a number of treats in this completely family-friendly show.

The costumes, designed by Stephen Hollenbeck, are one “wow” after another, for example.   In fact, because I got a chance to chat with Hollenbeck for a bit after the show, I have decided to turn those notes into a separate “Conversation with…” post.   Look for that to appear here soon.

I wasn’t sure, at first, about the fact that Dorothy is white (Caucasian) in this production of what is traditionally an all-African-American musical.  However, director Bob Harbin, in his curtain talk, said that he and musical director John Austin Butsch had cast the show “blind,” striving to be “completely open to diversity in race, size, and gender.”  He said that they opened the auditions to the whole city of Indianapolis and cast the best people for the roles, no matter what they looked like. 

I admire that, and I also admire what he says in his program bio about believing that “musical theatre should be a melting pot of original work/NY produced productions and experienced performers/brand new talent backed up with a devotion to diversity and entertainment excellence.”

In any case, I don’t know who else auditioned, but when the white girl playing Dorothy (Jessica Murphy) opened her mouth Friday night and began singing…oh, my goodness, I could understand why Harbin and Butsch closed their eyes and cast her.

I had heard Murphy sing once before, pre-blog. It was in a revue called “Songs for a New World,” which was presented last summer in the very intimate Studio 15 in Carmel using a much too powerful sound system.  Murphy and the other young singers in that show were all outstanding, but…they all sang full out as if they were still performing in their high school show choirs.  I wanted to like that show, but I came away thinking it was much too “big,” too loud, too MUCH for that tiny space.

However, when Murphy started to sing on Friday night at the ACT, I sighed with contentment and thought, “Oh, here.  THIS is where she belongs!  Such a big, beautiful voice deserves a big, beautiful venue.” 

As there had been for “Victor Victoria,” there was noise bleed from the venue next door, and I think sometimes it distracted Murphy and the other singers in “The Wiz.”  It certainly distracted, and annoyed, me.  

However, when Murphy sang “Home” at the very end, all that was wrong in the world anywhere fell away.  That single rendition is worth the price of admission.

There are, as I say, several other treats in this show as well:

The Scarecrow (Allan Washington) tumbles as easily and alarmingly as a Hollywood stunt man.  He is also funny and sweet, even when being bothered by a pack of mischievous but graceful Crows (Kelsey Breece, Megan Cornelius, Abby Grenda, Meredith Keller.)

The Tin Man (Patrick Rogers) is an irresistible flirt, heartless or no.  His dancing is well-lubricated, too, even under all that rusty “tin.”

The Lion (Stephen Dougherty Koch, Jr.) is completely pet-able, but also delicately and hilariously fussy, like a show dog.  And when Sam McKanney (who also doubles as the bossy Gate Keeper in Oz) comes out with his violin to accompany the Lion’s sob story, they are even funnier.

Glinda (Brook Wood) is somehow both motherly and glamorous, majestic and soft. When she sang “A Rested Body is a Rested Mind” with four handsome guys in yellow dinner jackets behind her singing elegant back-up, the beauty of it made me feel rested, too. 

I think those four young men are the same four that dance with long poles in a clever mix of hip-hop and martial arts and serve as the Yellow Brick Road: Jason Gloye, Nic Herring, Robert Kingery, TJ Wilson.  (Choreography by Michele Martin and Melissa Schott.)

The other good witch, the sassy little Addaperle (Paeton Chavis), is a hoot with her magic rope and her snorkel-shaped magic wand that just won’t do what she wants it to.  I loved the glee with which she and the adorable Munchkins (Anthony Boler, Amanda Kennedy, Donovan Long, Lindsay Alissa Porter, and Deaon Smith II) sang “He’s the Wiz.”

I know I said this is a completely family-friendly show, but actually, I was pretty taken aback (okay, I was SCARED) by Evilene’s balcony appearance in an explosion of foam.  When Da’Keisha Bryant sings “No Bad News,” everyone on stage and in the audience sits up a little straighter, as if to say, “No, ma’am!  We wouldn’t think of bringing you any.”  I felt sorry for the poor Messenger (played with believable fright by Deion Hawkins, who also plays the cop-like Mouse.)

Evilene has great, deadpan, eye contact with the audience, and a deliciously bizarre relationship with her tall and skeletal Lord High Underling (Robert Kingery.)  He worshipfully kisses her foot while trying not to vomit, which made me laugh even as I was saying “Ew!” in sympathy.

Her Flying Monkey (Colin Van Wye) is pretty creepy, too.

Cosmo Clemens is strongest as the Wiz when he is in preacher mode.  He sings “Y’all Got It” with an infectious, fearless, driving energy that was missing from his earlier songs Friday night.  However, it also makes sense that the Wiz would be more confident when he is finally released from his role-playing and on his own way home.

The ultra-sophisticated Ozians include Anthony Boler, Kelsey Breece, Megan Cornelius, Jason Gloye, Abby Grenda, Mary Hampton, Nic Herring, AnnaMarie Hosei, Meredith Keller, Amanda Kennedy, Robert Kingery, Donovan Long, Lindsay Alissa Porter, Deaon Smith II, Colin Van Wye, and TJ Wilson.  When they are all on stage in their emerald finery, singing and dancing together, the effect is lavish and fun.

The band is tucked up on the balcony behind some of the forest leaves.  It sounds good throughout the show, but the musical accompaniment as the Wiz hands out the funny gifts at the end is particularly entrancing.  That sexy trombone!  Those tummy-tickling piano keys!  Those tantalizing percussion brush strokes!

(The Band includes John Austin Butsch on keyboards, Dorothy McDonald on reeds, Dave Schurger on drums, Jon Schwier on guitar, Ryan Williams on bass, Cody Arnholt on trombone, and Ed Zlaty on trumpet.)

Tamara Tudor’s artful makeup designs deserve their own paragraph, too.  They compliment Hollenbeck’s costumes perfectly and add another layer of fantasy to the fantastic world of Oz.

There is a chance to be an active part of the fantasy if you spring for the more expensive tickets in the front section of seats.  During the curtain talk, Harbin asked, “Who wants to be a poppy?”  Those who felt the call to express their inner intoxicants (or who just liked saying the word “poppy”) received red baseball hats to put on at the appropriate point in the show.  Harbin also distributed green paper fans and said to those volunteers, “You can put ‘I played a poppy leaf’ on your theatrical resume.”  I was sitting too far back, and wanted to keep my hands free for note-taking anyway, but it was fun to be a poppy even vicariously when Dorothy and her friends got lost in the audience.

Evilene’s gloomy, multi-level, “stone” lair is wonderful: vultures hover on the ledges and skulls rest in the corners.  I also loved the tinsel-draped, Chinese dragon-like “mouth” of The Wiz. (Sets designed and lit by Bernie Killian.  Set dressing and props by Rodney Tolliver.)  

The other sets are enjoyable, too.  However, I was distracted out of the story by the backstage lights illuminating random hallways and furniture when the rear curtain came up to allow the huge Oz piece to be rotated.  Usually I feel like “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing” when watching cast or crew rotate a huge, impressive set piece like the city of Oz in this show - it’s all part of the magic that is live theatre - but this time there was too much transparency. 

I also worried that the left side of the house could not see the hot air balloon rising at the end…until I reminded myself to just worry about myself.  Then I relaxed and enjoyed the fact that I could see it, and it was very cool.

I also wondered if there was a story behind the fact that the live Toto (Cindy Lou Who) only appeared during the curtain call. But Aunt Em’s (Mary Hampton’s) heartfelt duet with Dorothy at the beginning of the show grounds us very effectively in the “everydayness” of their relationship even without a Toto.

Mostly I just have been singing “When I think of home, I think of a place, where there’s love overflowing…” ever since I left the theatre Friday night.

Before I forget, I want to record that “The Wiz” is based on the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum.  The book for this show is by William F. Brown, with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls.  The assistant director/stage manager is Bo Frazier.  The vocal director is John Phillips.  Sound direction is by Donna Jones and Matt Cunningham.  John Stevens and Donna Jones are on spotlight.  The deck manager is Will Brown.

By the way, when I first arrived at the theatre Friday evening, I was delighted to finally meet Clark Foster, the assistant box office manager.  (We had talked by phone and email previously.)  There was no one behind me in line for a moment or two, so we got to talking about his experiences with the Black Curtain Dinner Theatre, which used to be at 21st and Talbott Street.  If I someday become independently wealthy and can afford to write about theatre fulltime, I would like to do a series of in-depth interviews of Indy theatre insiders.  I would like to use that information, and other research, to write a book on the history of live theatre in Indianapolis. 

Or maybe somebody else will write that book, and I will just get to read it.  That would be good, too.

At intermission, I chatted with actor Erin Cohenour and met writer-director-producer Jason Newkirk of New Key Productions.  They have been rehearsing Newkirk’s new show, “Gone Country! The Musical,” which will open at The Wheeler Arts Community in the Fountain Square area of Indy on August 1, 2008.  According to Cohenour, “The show is being workshopped for an opening in Branson or Gatlinburg. Producers from Gatlinburg will be coming to see the show; this production is for their benefit, so they can make suggestions on the final product before it is opened down there.”    But it is open to the public as well, and will run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2:30 pm through August 1oth.  For more information, please call 441-7533.

In the meantime, “The Wiz” continues at the American Cabaret Theatre Thursdays-Sundays through August 17, 2008.  Please call 317-631-0334 for more info or to make a reservation.

Hope Baugh - www.IndyTheatreHabit.com