Scenery, Cleveland Shakespeare Festival

(Anne McEvoy and Robert Hawkes)

There’s a certain attraction to being let in on what happens behind the scenes, whether the subject is Hollywood (The Player), real estate sales (Glengarry, Glen Ross), or professional theater. The cloistered world of the latter is addressed in Scenery, a production intended to raise funds for the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, which is now being performed at the Cleveland Play House.

If you enjoy turning yourself over to a couple excellent actors who know a little something about comic timing, you should bundle up, start your poor frozen vehicle, and treat yourself to an entirely likeable couple of hours.

The play by Ed Dixon, a veteran actor on Broadway and elsewhere (he played Matthew Harrison Brady in the fine Play House production of Inherit the Wind in 2009), drops us into the dressing room of the Crains, Richard and Marion, who are experienced thespians in the third act of their careers. They are opening something called “The Anniversary Wake” at the Belasco Theatre in New York City, a play they consider pure tripe but which will allow them to pay some bills.

Dixon uses his background to explore the inner workings of actors before, during intermission and after their performance. In addition to revealing some of the superstitions that abound in theater dressing rooms (no mention of Macbeth without a cleansing spin-spit-“fuck!” ritual), we learn that the Crains have a fairly dicey personal relationship.

They each share a fondness for male sexual companionship and, while Richard and Marion haven’t had sex with each other for eight years, they still clearly love each other. This comes through even as they argue and bicker with each other, occasionally joining forces to dump on the lowest of the low (critics and audience members who open candy wrappers during a performance).

As Marion and Richard, Anne McEvoy and Robert Hawkes conjure a believable, semi-platonic chemistry while delivering Dixon’s punch lines with off-handed dexterity. McEvoy is both aggravating and sympathetic as she battles with her self-image as an aging actor. Playing gay Richard with remarkable restraint, Hawkes avoids obvious limp-wristed characterizations but, at the same time, sacrifices some fey fun he might have had with this juicy role.

Director Tyson Douglas Rand keeps the two-acts moving briskly, even through a forced conclusion that threatens to throw it all off the tracks. But these two proven performers stick the landing, and it is hoped many people brave the elements to enjoy this charming inside-theater treat.

Scenery

Through January 30, produced by the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, at the Brooks Theatre, Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid Avenue, www.cleveshakes.org.

Altar Boyz, Beck Center at PlayhouseSquare

(The Boyz. Dan Grgic in foreground with, l. to r.:Connor O'Brien, Josh Rhett Noble, Matthew Ryan Thompson, and Ryan Jagru)

There aren’t many cottage industries in professional theater, but it seems that Josh Rhett Noble has a pretty good thing going with Altar Boyz, now playing the Hanna Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. After playing lead singer Matthew at Beck Center a couple years ago, and at TrueNorth Theatre last autumn, here he goes again.

It’s all about five guys in a Christian rock band who talk their way through a concert as they try to save all the souls in attendance. This process is tallied by the Sony Soul Sensor, a pile of electronics that can detect when a soul has been cleansed of its various flaws and defects. (Perhaps they can ship it over to Fox News once the show is over.)

This production on the Great Lakes Theater Festival stage is essentially a redo of the former Beck production, with four of the five cast members and most of the production people reprising their work. And that’s not such a bad thing, since this energetic romp directed by Scott Spence is a feel-good 90 minutes. It also works because it praises the Lord without being nasty or divisive; it’s welcoming for just about anyone.

The band is a motley crew, with the pretty straight (in all ways) Matthew joined by fey Mark (an adorable Matthew Ryan Thompson), streetwise punk Luke (Dan Grgic), the Latino Juan (Ryan Jagru), and their Jewish lyricist Abraham (Connor O’Brien). The Boyz attack the songs by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker with unflagging gusto, and have plenty of fun with the sub-storylines in Kevin Del Aguila’s book.

Unfortunately on opening night, there were problems with sound balance so that quite a few of the clever lyrics were swamped by Larry Goodpaster’s band. And the Soul Sensor suffered from digital constipation, at times throwing off the soul countdown.

One must assume those glitches will be fixed, allowing this reborn fab five to sing, rock and jam their way into a very satisfying run.

Altar Boyz

Through January 30 at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, 2067 E. 14^th St., 216-241-6000

Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical, Cleveland Play House

(Matthew LaBanca as Fred and Anna Aimee White as Ginger)

When staging a show of any kind, it’s a good idea to know what your “money shot” is. That’s the moment that everyone has come to see, the scene for which they have the highest expectations. And woe to you if you don’t deliver it.

When the title of your evening is Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical, you have to know that the audience is drooling for a live recreation of the magic Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire displayed on the ballroom floor. Instead, what this production at the Cleveland Play House provides is a tiresome, cliché-ridden trudge through Ginger’s career, starting at birth (her mother felt her daughter’s toes dancing in the womb!) to Roger’s Oscar for her dramatic role in Kitty Foyle.

Christopher McGovern, who is the author of everything on stage, including four original songs, would have had a middling career in Hollywood about 80 years ago, grinding out minor musicals loaded with stock characters. His dialog is flat, obvious and entirely predictable. Yes, someone actually says “Hollywood’s a mean place and it’s a hard world.” Just in case you hadn’t ever heard that before.

McGovern weaves various old standards into this banal storyline. For instance, Ginger’s multiple marriages are dispensed with in a cutesy version of Irving Berlin’s “Change Partners (and Dance).” Never mind that there might have been some emotional baggage attached to those matrimonial arrivals and departures.

To be frank, Ginger Rogers was a tough, sexy broad who esaayed a brilliant career, but she comes off in this show as a dancing doll with domineering mother issues. Issues that are resolved, as is everything else, with laughable ease.

Played on an essentially bare stage with some flats rolled on for specific scenes, it seems as if the director Scott Schwartz and scenic designer Walt Spangler are setting us up for a glorious surprise. Surely, when Fred and Ginger finally are allowed to dance together, the stage will be transformed into a ballroom dreamscape.

But no, the money shot in this show just turns out to be loose change, as Fred and Ginger dance in their familiar duds, but minus any staging that would transform the moment into something truly memorable. Perhaps this would have been the best time to strike up the tune “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.”

As Ginger, Anna Aimee White dances well and sings serviceably, but McGovern’s determinedly hollow libretto never allows her to turn Ginger into a fully dimensional woman. Matthew LaBanca has a bit of the Fred look, but comes nowhere near the genius’s fluid moves and quirky singing voice. Heather Lee, as Ginger’s mother Lela, plays a down-market stage mom who often states facts (“Ginger was willful and headstrong”) that would be better off inferred.

Playing multiple roles, Christianne Tisdale, Benjie Randall and James Patterson are humorous at times, but are only cringe-inducing when they attempt to impersonate Hollywood stars attending one of Ginger’s parties. Where is Rich Little when you need him?

This production, done in partnership with three other theater companies, is making the rounds across the country. At least they’re sharing the pain.

Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical

Through January 30 at the Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid Avenue, 216-795-7000

Black Nativity, Karamu

For my review of Black Nativity at Karamu, follow the link below to The Plain Dealer.

http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/12/black_nativity_gets_a_makover.html

Cirque Dreams Holidaze, PlayhouseSquare

There’s a good chance that Cirque Dreams Holidaze, now at PlayhouseSquare, will delight most younger kids, since they don’t get a chance to see circus acts every day of the year. And the costumes are certainly dazzling. But if you’re older and have a few circuses under your belt, most of this show will feel achingly familiar and sometimes even a tad boring.

To be clear, this Cirque isn’t part of the Cirque de Soleil franchise that has earned much praise over the years. This is a touring show produced by Cirque Productions, created and directed by Neil Goldberg, and it doesn’t have quite the pizzazz of the other, more famous troupe.

Most of the acts, which include a lot of handstands and jumping and prancing, are performed with skill. They just don’t dazzle. Indeed, some of the routines recall some old bits on The Ed Sullivan Show (yes, there’s a spinning-plates-on-poles routine; yes, there’s a guy building a tower of chairs, and yes, there’s a roller skating couple doing their thing on a small round platform). That’s some pretty ancient material to be dredging up.

Other acts just never go anywhere. The tightrope walker has only one trick: bouncing from his butt to his feet (over and over again) and doing maybe one or two flips. Some other folks jump a big multi-colored rope. But, hey, they’re just jumping rope.

This is supposedly tied together by three performers who do all the solo singing. Unfortunately, one of them (Jared Troilo) has about a two-note range while the other two (Kelly Pekar and Emily Matheson) have at least a couple okay moments. As for the music, the few familiar Christmas tunes are droned repetitively while the lesser known ditties are a bit strange melodically and only occasionally interesting lyrically.

As is true with most circuses, the aerial acts are the stars and so they are here, with the aerialists creating some lovely movement as they spin on straps, a rope and flowing fabric. And a clever act featuring two matched contortionists (Bing Long and Jun Long) has some spark.

It all happens on a static set filled with large inflatable toys that never really changes. So if you know some little ones who haven’t seen many circuses, this is can be a treat. For others, this show is pretty much Cirquelling the drain.

Cirque Dreams Holidaze

Through January 19 at the Palace Theatre,

PlayhouseSquare, 1615 Euclid Avenue, 218-795-7000

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Beck Center

(Connor O'Brien as Joseph)

First, a small confession: I have Dreamcoat fatigue. This is a debilitating condition that builds slowly over time, with repeated exposures to this Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical. And, I assure you, the exposures are repeated—ad infinitum—by practically anyone with a stray Klieg light and some unused pancake makeup.

So I approached this latest iteration by at the Beck Center with all the enthusiasm and glee of a snail approaching an escargot factory. But, surprise, surprise! This production is infused with energy and spirit. And thanks go a couple great voices in the leads, this Dreamcoat is a kick, for kids and adults, from start to finish.

As directed by Scott Spence, this sung-through show pulses with youthful passion, as the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors is laid out. It is all aided immeasurably by Trad A Burns’ spare set and richly complicated light show. Indeed, the stage is awash in so many colors, Burns’ Amazing Technicolor Lightshow makes you feel as if you’re face-planting into a huge bowl of neon gumballs (but in a good way).

The show is anchored in dazzling fashion by the supple voice of Tricia Tanguy, who plays the narrator. Her efforts are matched by Connor O’Brien as Joseph, who gives each of his songs a distinctive spin, especially “Close Every Door.” Josh Rhett Noble, Beck’s go-to guy for arrogant, testosterone-riddled dudes, has fun with Pharaoh/Elvis, and Zac Hudak as one of Joe’s brothers, Levi, adds some most-appreciated smiles in “One More Angel in Heaven.”

Spence keeps the large cast, which apparently numbers in the thousands, on track and involved. No one in the cast is mailing it in as they execute Martin Cespedes eye-catching choreography, and that generates its own particular zing.

In short, this Dreamcoat will fit you just fine. No alterations required.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Through January 2 at the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Avenue,

216-521-2540

Aporkalypse, convergence-continuum

(From left: Geoffrey Hoffman as Karol, Michael Regnier as Pappaw, Scott Gorbach as JP, Marcia Mandell as Mammaw, and Tom Kondilas as one of the Pork Corp. executives)

On the competitive cooking show Top Chef, one of the more frequent criticisms of the dishes is that the cooks in question did not edit their recipes sufficiently. This usually results in a concoction that has way too many colliding flavors and textures.

Such is the case with the vaguely food-themed Aporkalypse!, a world premiere now at convergence-continuum. In it, local playwright Christopher Johnston starts with an appealing if not exactly mouth-watering premise: the awful offenses to both animals, people and the environment caused by industrial pig farming operations. But then he loads so many other ingredients onto the plate that the whole serving collapses into a muddled, tasteless mess.

Following the “let’s shoot fish in the barrel” approach to comedy, we are plopped down in the squalid southern farm house of a backwoods clan whose ratty acerage is lusted after by the local Pork Corp. But aside from the inhabitants being easy-to-mock rural yokels (the elderly parents are helpfully named Pappaw and Mammaw), there are other issues afoot. One grown son, Karol, is an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, while his brother JP, a chaplain in the Marines, has just come home with mental problems of his own.

These are serious issues. But the playwright just uses them for sport, so that the two young men can cavort crazily, waving guns and touching off explosives at random. Okay, that would be fair enough, as long as the script turns this dark comedy into something other than theatrical exercises.

But Johnston just keeps layering on the absurdities. A couple accordion-playing (haw, haw) neighbors show up, only so they can get blowed up. And there’s a long and nonsensical scene between Karol and his suspiciously touchy-feely social worker (who later doubles as Astarte (the goddess of sexuality and war, get it?) in one of Karol’s PTSD-fueled fantasies.

Amidst all the scuzziness, as addled old Pappaw takes his dumps in the living room wastebasket, any thought of satire or relevant commentary on the supposed theme goes out the set’s plastic-sheeted window. Plus, Johnston’s incessant usage of “fuck” and “shit” displays more of a leering, adolescent fixation rather than the symphonic application of vulgarities by, say, David Mamet.

Virtually none of the blame goes to the actors, since they all do what they can with this tattered material. But director/set designer Clyde Simon appears as tone deaf as the playwright. This bottom-rung, stench-ridden hovel incongruously features a security system with multiple cameras scanning the barren property, visible on two monitors stacked by the door, along with a weirdly pristine settee placed in the middle of the room. Simon also enables some of his actors’ bad habits (Geoffrey Hoffman as Karol once again indulges his passion for spastic jumping, running into things and falling down).

One wishes Johnston would have focused more on the Pork Corp., as embodied by three identical executives, played by Tom Kondilas, who visit the farm with purchase papers in hand. Therein lies a play, and a rich vein of dark humor, if only all the other ingredients could stay on the shelf.

Aporkalypse!

Through December 19 at convergence-continuum,

2438 Scranton Road, 216-687-0074