Randy Harrison sings The Who's "Tommy" in new Berkshire Theatre Festival production

As the season announcement of the newly merged Colonial Theatre-Berkshire Theatre Festival began, the schedule of events was handed out to reporters, most of whom were seeing it for the first time. When Kate Maguire opened the floor to questions, the first show to draw questions was the complex and wildly popular rock opera Tommy by Peter Townshend and The Who. Undertaking a rock opera in the Berkshires is rare, especially this one. The Who’s Tommy was first released as a concept album in 1969, and then given the full Broadway treatment in 1993. It toured the country for a decade afterwards.

In 2011 the Berkshires will be one of the few places in the world where it can be seen in a fully staged production from the Berkshire Theatre Festival on the stage of the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA. Previews begin July 7, with the opening set for July 9 and the final performance on July 16.

There is more about the Berkshire Theatre Festival 2011 season, plus news, previews and interviews at our main site, Berkshire on Stage. You can also find Berkshire on Stage at Facebook, or our Twitter name is BerkshireStages.


Actor James Barry seen here in "Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson."
Tommy is a powerful totem from an earlier age, its music and message still able to reduce an audience to tears, or make them cringe during its unfolding, and then raise the crowd to their feet with cheers as it ends.But the cheers and tears do not come automatically. Eric Hill who will direct the Berkshire Theatre Festival production has signed on for what could be his greatest challenge ever. Even with a long history of complex undertakings behind him, Hill has his work cut out for him. Tommy is as much about the music as it is the story. And it never stops moving. This is one musical that has to be done “right” to work, with split second timing, relentless energy…so difficult in fact that few theatre companies have undertaken it in recent years. It’s real risky.

Tommy not only requires perfection in its musical elements (to gloss over them is to risk disaster), but the acting can not take a back seat for even one moment. For that, much of the weight falls on the person who plays the title role, and the actors who play his younger self. Finally the production itself is Dickensonian in its scope, for this is one sweeping, epic tale. Those who were born after its earlier incarnations have quite a theatrical tsunami to look forward to.

The casting is exciting. It includes both Randy Harrison who will play Tommy, and James Barry as Captain Walker. James Barry is fresh from the cast of Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson, and has been seen in The Caretaker and The Einstein Project at the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

About Randy Harrison

When the casting was announced,, perhaps the most excited person was the irrepressible Randy Harrison, who said: “I’m very excited to finally sing on a Berkshire stage, and thrilled and honored to be a part of the first Berkshire Theatre Festival production in the gorgeous Colonial Theater.” And being the consummate professional he is, we have no doubt that he is already committing the music and book to memory.


Randy Harrison
While Berkshire audiences know Harrison for his acting abilities in BTF shows like Equus, Waiting for Godot and One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, he has earned his stripes in musicals as well. He played in Wicked on Broadway, and has extensive musical theatre experience in regional theatre, most notably playing Andy Warhol in Pop! at Yale Rep in 2009.

“Since I’ve started working in the Berkshires and in western Massachusetts, I feel re-connected to the New England area. It’s always felt like home to me. I still have some family there. My aunt is there. But now I think of it like a summer home, which is kind of nice.” – Randy Harrison

Harrison played the youngest member of the cast in the Showtime series Queer as Folk which is still in syndication worldwide. It brought him to the attention of millions of television viewers and could have typecast him as a heartthrob, but after the series finished, he returned to his first love, the stage, and continued to perfect his craft. On the sunny side of 30, Harrison still can play young, and that combined with his deep experience means that we could be in for a Tommy that will sear its music and characters on our memories. You have to see and feel his character for the show to work.

At the moment, Harrison is preparing to open in a new play off Broadway. The Red Bull Theater’s “In the Raw” workshop of Margaret, A Tyger’s Heart, which explores the role of the French Queen throughout Shakespeare’s history plays, begins tomorrow, Feb. 25. Michael Sexton directs the work, which is adapted from Shakespeare’s Richard III and Henry VI. Performances are just this weekend at the Theatre at St. Clement’s.


Jenn Harris (l) and Randy Harrison in Jack Ferver's "Swan".
From March 10-12, the actor and his friends will have a little fun at PS 122 as they undertake their spoof of the film Black Swan, complete with unhinged ballerinas, lurid hallucinations, tons of makeup and stage blood with Harrison playing the mad mother, with Jack Ferver as Lily, the hot new bad ballet girl in town. The cast will also include Christian Coulson and Matthew Wilkas. It promises to be catnip for lovers of camp and spoofery. It is a production of the infamous dancer Jack Ferver and his QWAN (Quality Without a Name) Company. “It is going to be insane,” Ferver said modestly.

Harrison maintains a busy schedule in his home base of New York, but uses the Berkshires as his summer retreat, thanks to the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

”I want to do Shakespeare. I want to do Chekov. I want to do Beckett. I did Waiting for Godot in the Berkshires. I think it was just a really, really good production. It was a wonderful director, and a wonderful company and people really responded to what we did. I love the play. I love Beckett. I like what I do now.

But I’ll also do a musical every three or four years. I miss singing after a while, so I’m always happy when the time comes and I’m like, ”I think I want to do a musical.” And also, there are more jobs in musicals and they pay better. [Laughs.] So it’s good when you want to do one.” – Randy Harrison

About Tommy’s Creation


Tommy becomes a Pinball Wizard.
In 1968, Pete Townshend told Rolling Stone he was working on a rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy. Townshend had rejected psychedelic drugs and discovered mysticism, and wanted to represent different states of consciousness through the story and music. It was only after rock journalist Nic Cohn gave an early version a cool reception that Townshend, knowing Cohn to be a pinball fan, made Tommy a Pinball Wizard. But the plot is much darker than anything you can experience at the local arcade, and varies among the many incarnations of The Who’s eponymous 1969 album. It was played live at Woodstock, and appeared as a ballet, a symphonic recording, a movie, an all-star stage performance, and, in 1993, a Broadway musical.

The original rock opera, The Who’s Tommy is at once a show-stopping rock concert and a cautionary tale of the power and perils of celebrity. We witness Tommy Walker from his birth, through the shocking episodes of his childhood that render him deaf, mute and blind, as he conquers the world with his stardom, and finally after the crowds have turned on him. Featuring legendary songs by the Who, including “Pinball Wizard,” “See Me, Feel Me” and “Tommy, Can You Hear Me?” this promises to be the event of the summer in the Berkshires.

Schedule and Ticketing

Previews are July 7 and 8 with opening night July 9. It plays until July 16 with tickets priced at $49, 40 and 20. Performances are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday and Saturday at 2pm. Subscriptions now, otherwise single tickets for all events go on sale March 14 to the general public. For BTF productions (including Tommy) contact the BTF Box Office at (413) 298-5576 or visit www.berkshiretheatre.org to purchase.

Arts America has moved to Berkshire on Stage

As Berkshire on Stage has grown in size and scope, it is also claiming more of my available time. Please visit me there, and if you wish to see articles, interviews and stories with a LGBT focus, just select that category. We also continue to cover selected regional theatres.

http://berkshireonstage.com/

Thanks for your readership and support.

Larry

"Nicholas Nickleby" finally gets its N.E. Premiere at Lyric Stage

(l to r) Jason Powers as Smike, Jack Cutmore-Scott as Nicholas Nickleby and Nigel Gore as Mr. Squeers. Photo by Mark Howard.

It's only taken thirty years and one of Boston's bravest theatres to undertake a full scale production - running over two nights - of the legendary Nicholas Nickleby. It premiered in London in 1980, created a sensation in New York where it opened in 1981 and then mostly sunk from sight. This is a play that requires huge resources.

So we take our hat off to the Lyric Stage Company of Boston as they debut the New England premiere of the Olivier and Tony Award winning theatrical epic, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Parts I & II October 21 through December 19, 2010 Called “the theatrical event of a lifetime,” by American Theatre Magazine, "love, sex and money, poverty and exploitation, hope and despair: Dickens' world is vividly brought to life in David Edgar's adaptation of his 1838 novel." The Times, London.

According to Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos, “this extraordinary piece has never been produced in New England and we are pulling out all the stops for this remarkable two-part play with music featuring over 150 characters.” He adds, “the new, shorter adaptation streamlines the narrative, and captures Dickens' genius for combining exuberant characters, theatrical spectacle, and genuine emotion.”

The Lyric’s production of …Nicholas Nickleby includes 25 of the Boston area’s best actors, most of them playing multiple roles. Featuring: Will Lyman (Ralph Nickleby), Jack Cutmore-Scott (Nicholas Nickleby), Peter A. Carey (Newman Noggs), Maureen Keiller (Mrs. Nickleby), Larry Coen (Vincent Crummles), Nigel Gore (Wackford Squeers), Leigh Barrett (Miss LaCreevy) Kerry Dowling (Mrs. Squeers/Mrs. Crummles), and Jason Powers (Smike), John Davin (Arthur Gride), and Neil A. Casey (Mr. Mantalini) .

The …Nicholas Nickleby creative team, led by director Spiro Veloudos and Associate Director Courtney O’Connor, includes Janie E. Howland (scenic designer), Rafael Jaen (costume designer), Scott Clyve (lighting designer), and local composer Kevin O’Shaughnessy (original music). The production manager is Nerys Powell and the assistant stage manager is Katie Ailinger.



(Shown here is the wonderful actor Jack Cutmore-Scott who plays the title role. Photo by Sara Joe Wolansky, Harvard Crimson.)

Left penniless by the death of his father and young Nicholas Nickleby assumes responsibility for his mother and sister and seeks help from his Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph. Instantly disliking Nicholas, Ralph sends him to teach in a school run by the sadistic Wackford Squeers. Nicholas decides to escape, taking with him the orphan Smike, one of Squeers’s most abused young charges, and the two embark on a series of adventurous encounters with an array of humanity’s worst and best—greedy fools, corrupt lechers, cheery innocents, and selfless benefactors.

Lyric Stage Company of Boston is located at 140 Clarendon Street, Boston. Performances are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30 pm, select Wednesday matinees, 2 pm (Part I: November 3, December 1; Part II: November 10, December 8), Saturdays at 3pm and 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:00 pm. Performances of both parts will be in rotating repertory, with five “marathon days” (November 13, 28, December 1, 4 and 18) where Part I and Part II will be performed with a 2 hour dinner break. Tickets range from $29 to $56 and are available by calling the box office at 617.585.5678 and online at www.lyricstage.com.

Waiting for Godot - An Opera by Pierre Boulez? It might happen.

The Berkshire Theatre Festival's 2008 production of Waiting for Godot had an almost-operatic set. Kevin Sprague photo.
Normally you don't find insider gossip here, but this rumor has a fine provenance, and is being printed by some mainstream UK sites, so it is worth passing along.

It is being reported that Pierre Boulez, the French composer and conductor, is planning to make an opera from Samuel Beckett's most famous play, Waiting for Godot. According to Charles T. Downey at Ion Arts, Beckett is not only planning to write a Godot opera, it is going to be presented by La Scala in Milan in 2015. Peter Gelb (General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera), where are you in this? It's going to be the hottest opera of the 21st Century!

"… the sound thus obtained had a 'spatialised' richness, which, without requiring any electronic aid, could be of interest to Pierre Boulez for the opera that, according to our sources, he will adapt from Beckett's Waiting for Godot, planned for La Scala in Milan in 2015. - Ion Arts"

His source is, in turn a review in the June 15 Le Monde.

Pierre Boulez, composer and conductor.
It's certainly true that Boulez has wanted to write an opera for a while. Talking to the U.K.'s Telegraph in 1996, he confirmed that he corresponded with the playwright Jean Genet about working together in the 1960s, as well as the German writer Heiner Müller in 1995, and that a year later he was thinking about adapting Edward Bond's plays for the opera house. None of these plans ever came to fruition.

Whether the legendary composer and historic opera house have bothered to check in with the notoriously sniffy Godot estate, I have no idea. Based on the rigid and dust-preserving tendencies of the estate, (read this tale of Endgame in the current Berkshire On Stage) I seriously doubt it. It would be news if they allowed an adaptation. They fight fiercely to preserve every word, every pause and gesture of Beckett's infamous and inscrutable play.

Yet if the composer used the play's script as its libretto, word for word, and followed the prescribed action to the letter, I don't see how they could object. And it might be easier in French than English, since Beckett wrote it first in French before doing his own translation back into English. Odd man that Beckett.

This one is worth watching.

MOMIX does insects, too

After seeing the incredible OvO from Cirque du Soleil (reviewed in previous post) I went in search of other dancers that celebrate the world of insects and found a Momix video excerpt from their Joyce appearance in May 2009. It is apparent that the world of Entomology still offers plenty of ideas for choreographers and dancers. The one thing missing from the Cirque show was a flying act on bungees with silk wings fluttering which judging from this video would not be that difficult to stage.

Cirque du Soleil brings Ovo to New England: Hartford now, Boston next

Ovo immerses you in a colorful ecosystem teeming with life.

First a little background before the OvO review. Hartford is the seventh city on the worldwide tour of OvO, which began in Montreal in April 2009. It's arrival in Hartford follows the successful runs of Dralion there in 2003, Varekai in 2005 and Kooza in 2008. It plays until July 11 and then packs up and heads to Boston where it plays from July 22 to August 15. So now, the question is, how does OvO measure up compared to the earlier shows?

OvO is simply the best show Cirque du Soleil has ever sent on the road. Written and directed by Deborah Colker, it has moments of sheer spectacle, held together with dance, movement and pure theatrical wizardry. During a performance you may notice subtle references to artists such as Gaudi, Dali and Piazzolla while enjoying performers dressed as butterflies, spiders and even a Ladybug looking for a mate.

OvO (which means egg in Portuguese) is the 25th quirky show from Cirque, created for the company's 25th Anniversary. Currently playing in Hartford, next month it moves on to Boston, then to Washington, DC in September.

Spiders are more artistic than scary.
Even for those who have seen Cirque du Soleil, it is difficult to describe the experience. Those flat two-dimensional televised snippets of their performances don't do it justice, and even in print, how can words describe a basically wordless show?

You don't just see a Cirque show, you experience it. On the way in you may hear some first time ticket buyers complain about the ticket prices (they're not cheap) but you never hear that on the way out. You get a lot for your money. There's more imagination and entertainment compressed into 2.5 glorious hours than you will get in a month on commercial television.

The fun begins the moment you spot their blue and gold Grand Chapiteau (big top) at the Intersection of I-84 and I-91 In Hartford. It seats 2200.

As you push the canvas flaps aside to enter, you notice the subtle smell of grass and hear a cacophony of insects all around you. Scientists in beekeeper-style helmets with nets and specimen boxes patrol the audience, on the trail of insects. A few unfortunate latecomers are examined, magnifying glasses are employed, and Grotowski-esque mutterings and grunts fill the air. The show has no script, but uses a wide variety of the Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski's techniques to communicate their surprise, happiness etc. Once in a while you can even make out the word "ovo" or "no" but Cirque's shows are created for multi-lingual audiences. They travel the world.

The scarabs operate at the top of the tent.
As this is happening, insects are slowly hopping, crawling, slithering and otherwise finding their way on stage. Someone is lugging a human sized egg through the audience. On stage is a gigantic egg, perhaps 60 feet wide, dominating everything. In the background is an organic structure reaching from floor to ceiling. Two pods of four musicians each begin playing a samba with tango overtones. All this, and then the show actually begins.

The audience becomes aware that they have shrunk in size and importance and entered a different world. OvO offers a headlong rush into the insects colorful ecosystem. On stage we watch as the creepy-crawlies work, eat, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop dance of endless energy. Giant flowers open and their scent fills the air. The insects’ home is a world of biodiversity and beauty alternately filled with noisy action and moments of quiet emotion.

The contortionist made the audience gasp at her impossible combinations.
But all this is simply the lavish frosting to introduce the circus acts, albeit using every dance and theatre trick imaginable. Just as Julie Taymor created a special world for the animals of The Lion King so do Deborah Colker and Chantel Tremblay create an imaginary world for the insects. OvO's costumes are not precise depictions of what a cricket or ant looks like, but an interpretation. None of the proceedings will upset someone who might get squeamish at the site of a spider, ant or cockroach. Instead it's like being twelve years old again, looking to see what's hiding under the rocks in the back yard.

With 54 performers from 16 countries, there are a lot of insects. For example, five yellow and-red fleas fling themselves through the air and come together in graceful, perfectly balanced sculptural formations. A Dragonfly performs a graceful balancing act. A spider defies gravity and physics on the slack wire earning gasps and applause from the onlookers.

Perhaps the most stunning performance was that of the "scarabs" who operate from perches high above the audience . It is an act that combines several traditional circus skills like banquine, Russian swing and swinging chair. These fly boys leap from the edges of two platforms in the rafters to the catchers positioned on a third. Their physical setup is the largest ever created under a big tent, and requires some 16 people just to set up. They do it in minutes as other action was taking place on the stage.

The fleas cling to each other as they jump about.
The penultimate act was the 25' high Cricket Wall, which has 20 artists running, jumping and walking across its jagged face. Using trampolines and power tracks - plus pure physical strength and teamwork - they leap, jump and spring to the top. The effect is so stunning that the audience can not believe what it is seeing. But there are no hidden wires, nothing but the artists and the setup. A similar effect is used at the close of La Nouba, a permanent Cirque show in Orlando. It is an acrobatic achievement like no other.

Cirque's productions have become so elaborate and intricate that they are becoming more grandiose than Grand Opera. Like that art form, they combine spectacle, theatre and music into a whole new experience. The gold and crystal of the venerable Metropolitan Opera House is even challenged by the KA theatre Cirque created at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Instead of monied gilt, that theatre's interior resembles the heart of a giant space ship with a hydraulic stage that arises from the deep.

Everything about this show is amazing, scenery, costumes and makeup included. The costumes for OvO are not only intricate, they are sufficiently detailed to allow close-up scrutiny. (They offered, I accepted.) But what makes them special is they are also truly durable. They are able to take the punishment these circus acts inflict on them. Liz Vandal, who created them, is known for her futuristic superhero costumes, and for recreating suits of armor from all eras. There is little doubt that is why they have such beauty and durability.

In OvO, it is the lighting and sound people who create the magical environment that surrounds the audience. There are four enormous lighting toweres and the same number of giant subwoofers strategically placed under the seating. 100 surround speakers are placed around the arena to immerse the audience in a wall of sound. The effect is stunning. You can feel the action at several points in the evening. And subtle. The chirping and chattering never stops, yet becomes a soundstage on which everything else is overlaid.

OvO, like most Cirque shows, is designed to please all ages and all levels of sophistication. As someone who has seen ten of their 25 shows, the question is when they will begin repeating themselves. Yes,, there are certain elements that appear in all their shows, which might be dismissed as just a bunch of dressed up circus acts.
But like a good meal, where we use the same ingredients over and over, Cirque always creates totally new and different menus to excite our taste buds. This is a company that totally reinvents themselves again and again. Any Cirque du Soleil show makes for a great way to spend an evening. But this is one you should see early. And often.

This is only two-thirds of Ovo's huge cast!

Dates, Performance and Ticket Information

Cirque du Soleil's OvO opens in Hartford June 17 and runs through July 11. It then moves on to Boston from July 22 to August 15 and Washington, DC from September 9 to October 3.

The performances are Tuesdays thru Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. No performances on Mondays. Tickets are available via www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo or at 1-800-450-1480. A VIP Tapis Rouge™ package is also available.

A slightly different version of this review appeared earlier in Berkshire Fine Arts.

Karen Zacarias saved by Arena Stage Playwriting Program

There was a moment not long ago when Karen Zacarias became sure that her blossoming playwriting career would be lost among sippy cups, baby dolls and field trip forms. Arena Stage made the difference.


Can you have it all? Playwright Karen Zacarias certainly seems to have found the secret. With three young children at home and a blinking computer awaiting, the 2009 Playwright in Residence for Washington, D.C.'s Arena stage is a prolific writer. She finished five plays the year her youngest was born, and the ideas just keep on coming. She has had four of her plays staged in the past year or so. Legacy of Light is one that Arena Stage produced. But the double duties of mother and writer takes its toll. "I haven't slept in years," she says. Thanks to Arena's program, she has found a way to live two lives.

Today news came that the path that Zacarias has blazed will soon be joined by two additional women playwrights Lisa Kron and Amy Freed, who will each start their three-year residencies in July 2010, and then Katori Hall and Charles Randolph-Wright, who will begin in January 2011. It's all part of The American Voices New Play Institute. The Institute—integral to Arena’s mission as a leading center for the production, presentation, development and study of American theater—isdesigned as a center for research and development of effective practices, programs and processes for new play development in the American Theater.

In addition to the first round of Resident Playwrights, the Institute will also host Project Residents Lynn Nottage and David Henry Hwang, who will be commissioned through the Institute to write a play that Arena Stage will produce.

In addition to the residencies, the American Voices New Play Institute operates with a suite of interrelated programs, including the New Play Producing Fellowships, Theater 101 Audience Enrichment Seminar, administration of Round One of the NEA New Play Development Program and major convenings of American artists and arts administrators around issues facing the new play sector.

Under the leadership of Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith, the Institute is guided by Arena Stage Associate Artistic Director David Dower and works in partnership with Georgetown University’s Theater Department, led by Dr. Derek Goldman. The American Voices New Play Institute is made possible through the keystone gift of $1.1 million in support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

"With the launching of the residencies for the American Voices New Play Institute under the visionary funding of the Mellon Foundation, we at Arena Stage are eager to support and help transform play development around the country,“ said Smith. “These writers are so different; my mouth is literally watering at the thought of what each may write. From major dramas to musicals, comedies, one-person plays and interview-based stories, the range is exhilarating. Now the writers will have the time, support and finances to be able to do their best work. Each writer is splendid and has the talent and insight to surprise us all.”

The primary purpose of the residency is to write plays and to advance professional outcomes for the participating writers, as well as to help Arena Stage test and develop best practices for such residencies in theaters around the country. The playwrights will determine their individual involvement in the life of the theater company. Ultimately, Arena Stage hopes the Institute will make the case for the power, practicality and impact of resident playwrights in regional theaters nationwide.

"This first cohort of playwrights is going to really advance the inquiry here at Arena Stage,” shared Dower. “They come at it from so many different perspectives on form, process and story, and they have all grabbed hold of the opportunity to help develop the role of the playwright in the institutions of the regional theater. So I expect we'll not only see work they write popping up on stages around the country, but I hope through their leadership we'll see increased opportunities for playwrights' residencies around the field."

This is one of the most exciting initiatives by any American theatre company. The nurturing of playwrights is essential for the theatre's future.

For more information regarding all of the American Voices New Play Institute programs please visit www.arenastage.org/institute.