April 15-21, 2004

theater

Theater Reviews

All in a day's work: Leo (Josh Sauerman) pays Mary (Amanda Murray) her wages in Villanova's Parade.

Three's a Crowd

Three writers live in a blissful menage a trois: Tom (Christopher Schimpf) is a poet and something of a nerd; Dick (Gene D’Alessandro) is a novelist with macho inclinations; Harriet (Kara Tyler) wants to have a baby by both men, combining the best characteristics of each. Baby is conceived after a three-way on the beach and before you know it, 10 years have passed. Dick has been winning Pulitzers as a war correspondent, imprisoned in various Middle Eastern countries; when he returns home to celebrate the 10th birthday of his son, Sidney (Johnny Pulcinella), whom he has never seen, there’s the all-too-inevitable Conflict.

Tom and Harriet have struck it rich, ditched their ideals and acquired a lot of stuff. Sidney goes to the Charlton Heston Elementary School, an NRA charter, where he learns to handle a variety of weapons. The world has become very brave and new, with lots of talking gadgets providing "News You Can Use" each morning (example: high-fat foods like ice cream are a threat and have thus been declared illegal). There's a craven reporter (Peter Miltz) and a lot of predictable media bashing, politician bashing and rich-person bashing.

Brick Playhouse's 2003 Award for Outstanding Writing went to Tom, Dick and Harriet, a play based on a front-page newspaper story about a paternity lawsuit resulting from DNA testing. Written jointly by two former Inquirer reporters, Shankar Vedantam and Donald Drake, it is no surprise that Dick, the reporter character, is the hero of the piece. It is also no surprise that there are no surprises; the play labors along, under Connie Norwood's direction, filled with every dramatic cliche and many prefab jokes.

The cast is perfectly adequate, with Tyler and Pulcinella turning in fine performances, not the least of which is Tyler's scooping up melted chocolate ice cream on a pickle (an instantaneous pregnancy craving) and eating it. The stuff actors have to do. --Toby Zinman

Rising Above

Like Lazarus in the Gospel of John, Philly’s Freedom Theatre has come back from the dead. Well, almost dead. The company was in deep financial trouble two years ago, reduced its paid staff from 52 to five and premiered Walter Dallas’ musical interpretation of the Lazarus story with plain costumes and minimal scenery. Now one of the nation’s oldest black theater companies has regained financial health and has revived Lazarus, Unstoned in spectacular fashion. What was bare bones in 2002 is now flesh and blood.

The musical overflows with glitzy production values that equal the best of regional theater, and costumes and choreography that surpass anything seen locally this year. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus who became ill. Jesus was slow to come to visit, and when he arrived, four days after Lazarus' death, Jesus told the family he would bring his friend back to life. In the play, Jesus calls for Lazarus three times before the man returns from death, and the reasons for Jesus' delay in coming and then for Lazarus' delay in answering pose interesting questions. Lazarus, Unstoned explores these issues and also dramatizes the hope for resurrection and everlasting life that is the basis for Christianity.

Dallas' script and direction show us a Jesus who works for his dad, Joseph, as a carpenter and is a charming partygoer with a group of loyal friends. The conversation is hip and contemporary. As the play progresses, Jesus begins his teaching and acquires followers who see him as a (perhaps the) son of God and a healer. The musical styles are a mix of African, gospel, rap and pop. Dallas has taken old songs by Elton John, Creed and others and given them new context as well as adding new numbers with words by Dallas and music by conductor Jamar Jones. The dancing is spectacular and the singing by a large cast of local performers is excellent. Josef Mitchell -- a graduate of Freedom's teaching program -- is an appealing Jesus, impressive in his singing, dancing and acting.

The title, incidentally, refers not to Lazarus being pelted with rocks, nor to drugs, but rather to being entombed in a cave with a stone blocking the entrance. Lazarus, Unstoned is theater, not religious instruction, and you don't have to be black or Christian to enjoy it thoroughly. Another reason to go: Freedom has one of the most comfortable theater spaces in town, housed in the historic Edwin Forrest mansion.--Steve Cohen

Everybody Loves a...

First things first: Parade, a worthy and very serious 1998 musical, receives its Philadelphia premiere in a fine production at Villanova -- one that, like their Chicago did a few seasons back, is selling out houses and will likely sweep the Barrymore nominations. Book now!

Parade is based on the infamous Leo Frank case, a 1913 Atlanta murder trial and its aftermath, known in legal circles as the first time in Southern judicial history that a black man's testimony convicted a white man. If it sounds like a leap forward for civil rights, it was anything but. Frank (the white man) was a Brooklyn-born Jew and factory boss, accused of killing 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a girl who worked for him. (Hours before, Phagan had visited Frank's office to retrieve a little over a dollar that she had earned as her previous week's pay.) Jim Conley, the black man who turned evidence against Frank, was a convicted criminal who appeared to have been coached by the ambitious prosecutor. (Many scholars of the case believe Conley to have been the actual killer.) Upon Frank's conviction he received the death penalty; this was later commuted to life imprisonment, and a few days later he was lynched.

Such a harrowing story, of course, needs the utmost sensitivity from its musical creative team. Parade's book, by veteran Alfred Uhry, is disappointingly un-nuanced, but the score, by then-neophyte Jason Robert Brown, is an astonishing achievement, crowned by a fully concerted ensemble setting of the trial. For my taste, there are a few too many grand anthemic ballads, but many will see them as the score's greatest strength. Only in the last scenes does Brown fail to find the right note of gravitas.

Parade is certainly well-served by the excellent Villanova team. Peter Donohue directs with fluid elegance, and his 34-member ensemble cast is universally excellent and clarion-voiced. (Regarding the latter: Wouldn't it have been possible, in this small theater, to forgo amplification of the singing?) Josh Sauerman (Leo Frank) and Nina Donze (Lucille Frank) are exceptionally skilled actor-singers, their performances all the more touching for their youth. There's fine support from Joe Leduc (Hugh Dorsey), André N. Jones (Jim Conley), Gregg Pica (Tom Watson) -- everyone, really. Production values (scenery by Dirk Durossette, lighting by Jerold Forsyth and especially costumes by Janus Stefanowicz) are sumptuous.

In all, honor is done here to a difficult and important work.--David Anthony Fox

TOM, DICK AND HARRIET

Through April 25, The Brick Playhouse Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-592-1183

LAZARUS, UNSTONED

Through April 25, Freedom Theatre, 1346 N. Broad St., 215-978-8497

PARADE

Through April 18, Villanova Theatre, Vasey Hall, Lancaster and Ithan Aves., Villanova, 610-519-7474