Top 5 in 2009: Theater in Rhode Island is Alive and Well
By Channing Gray | Providence Journal Arts Writer | December 27, 2009
Theater is such a thriving art form around these parts that it’s a little hard to cram the top shows into a list of five. But anyone’s list should include the Gamm Theatre’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” which director Fred Sullivan, Jr. turned into a dazzling romp.
The Gamm opened its 25th season with the show back in September, and it turned out to be some of the most rewarding Shakespeare done around here in a long time. One nice thing was that it was delivered without fussiness or affectation. It got right down to the business of telling the story.
But there was some fine acting too, particularly from Tom Gleadow as the hysterically funny constable Dogberry. Great chemistry could be found between Tony Estrella and Jeanine Kane as reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick.
No list would be complete without mentioning Ed Shea’s virtuosic turn in “I Am My Own Wife” at 2nd Story Theater in October. Shea, who normally directs at 2nd Story, made a rare stage appearance for this one-man show about an East German transvestite who survived both the Nazis and the Communists. Shea slipped into more than 30 characters, altering his voice and body language to fit the part.
There were no costume changes, no props, just Shea in a black shirt, skirt and pearls standing in front of an audience for 90 minutes. It was a tour de force.
The recent tour of “Rent” featuring many stars from the original Broadway cast was pretty exciting, but nothing at the Providence Performing Arts Center this year topped “Wicked,” which is in town for a month, until Jan. 10. This show’s got soaring tunes from composer Stephen Schwartz, spectacle aplenty, and intriguing political machinations.
I missed “Shooting Star” at Trinity Rep which my colleague Bryan Rourke liked a lot. But I was very taken by this year’s “A Christmas Carol” from director Birgitta Victorson, one of the stronger versions in recent memory. This was a fairly stripped-down effort in which less was more. Much of the time a black curtain covered the set and the action took place on a darkened stage. It was nice, too, that Victorson used a young girl as the narrator, giving the show a sense of child-like wonder. She also used the children in the cast to greet Scrooge as he awoke from his night with the spirits.
The public apparently felt it worked, too, because the run sold out.
Elemental Theatre made a giant leap forward this year from fringy offerings to a mainstream keeper with their “Amadeus” in November. This was a bare-bones effort, staged at Beneficent Congregational Church. But, boy, was it powerful. Max Vogler was especially fine as the aged composer Antonio Salieri, and Bryan Kimmelman gave us a very human Mozart.
Hopefully, Elemental Theatre will be doing more in the coming year.
www.projo.com
The URL link to this article is no longer functional. We have reproduced the text of the article here. Any errors are the responsibility of Elemental Theatre.
Theater is such a thriving art form around these parts that it’s a little hard to cram the top shows into a list of five. But anyone’s list should include the Gamm Theatre’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” which director Fred Sullivan, Jr. turned into a dazzling romp.
The Gamm opened its 25th season with the show back in September, and it turned out to be some of the most rewarding Shakespeare done around here in a long time. One nice thing was that it was delivered without fussiness or affectation. It got right down to the business of telling the story.
But there was some fine acting too, particularly from Tom Gleadow as the hysterically funny constable Dogberry. Great chemistry could be found between Tony Estrella and Jeanine Kane as reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick.
No list would be complete without mentioning Ed Shea’s virtuosic turn in “I Am My Own Wife” at 2nd Story Theater in October. Shea, who normally directs at 2nd Story, made a rare stage appearance for this one-man show about an East German transvestite who survived both the Nazis and the Communists. Shea slipped into more than 30 characters, altering his voice and body language to fit the part.
There were no costume changes, no props, just Shea in a black shirt, skirt and pearls standing in front of an audience for 90 minutes. It was a tour de force.
The recent tour of “Rent” featuring many stars from the original Broadway cast was pretty exciting, but nothing at the Providence Performing Arts Center this year topped “Wicked,” which is in town for a month, until Jan. 10. This show’s got soaring tunes from composer Stephen Schwartz, spectacle aplenty, and intriguing political machinations.
I missed “Shooting Star” at Trinity Rep which my colleague Bryan Rourke liked a lot. But I was very taken by this year’s “A Christmas Carol” from director Birgitta Victorson, one of the stronger versions in recent memory. This was a fairly stripped-down effort in which less was more. Much of the time a black curtain covered the set and the action took place on a darkened stage. It was nice, too, that Victorson used a young girl as the narrator, giving the show a sense of child-like wonder. She also used the children in the cast to greet Scrooge as he awoke from his night with the spirits.
The public apparently felt it worked, too, because the run sold out.
Elemental Theatre made a giant leap forward this year from fringy offerings to a mainstream keeper with their “Amadeus” in November. This was a bare-bones effort, staged at Beneficent Congregational Church. But, boy, was it powerful. Max Vogler was especially fine as the aged composer Antonio Salieri, and Bryan Kimmelman gave us a very human Mozart.
Hopefully, Elemental Theatre will be doing more in the coming year.
www.projo.com
The URL link to this article is no longer functional. We have reproduced the text of the article here. Any errors are the responsibility of Elemental Theatre.