community theater The stars who lit up area stages

Some performances belonged on Broadway.

By MILAN PAURICH

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

LOOKING BACK AT THE YEAR IN community theater, I’m struck by the number of privileged moments I witnessed. Because a conventional list of the 10 best local productions would be unfair and incomplete — I didn’t get the chance to review everything that was staged in area theaters during the past year — I’ve decided to compile a sort of highlight reel instead. These are the performances, shows, actors and behind-the-scenes talent that impressed, and captivated, me the most in 2007. Here’s hoping that next year provides just as many “moments to remember.”

(1) Stephanie Ottey. The recent Playhouse production of “Beauty and the Beast” would have been inconceivable without Ottey’s truly enchanted lead performance. If the show had still been running in New York, Ottey could have stepped into the role of Belle and become the toast of Broadway. “B&B” gave Ottey — so memorable in supporting roles in last year’s “The Secret Garden” and May’s “Sweeney Todd” — the kind of old-fashioned star vehicle that announces the arrival of a future musical theater superstar. Since Ottey will be graduating from YSU next year, local audiences may not have the chance to marvel at her talent and beauty much longer.

(2) John D. and Stephanie Holt. Youngstown Playhouse managing director John D. Holt and his actress wife, Stephanie, are quite simply the Lunt and Fontaine of the local community theater scene. In his acclaimed Playhouse productions of “Sweeney Todd” and 2006’s “The Secret Garden,” John raised the bar for himself and his regional theater peers through a combination of technical sophistication and creative audacity. And starring as George in the New Castle Playhouse’s summer revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” he gave the best male community theater performance of the year. Not to be outdone, Stephanie’s Martha in that same NCP production was equally brilliant. The fact that she bookended her “Virginia Woolf” triumph with stellar supporting turns in “Sweeney Todd” and “Beauty and the Beast” confirms my suspicion that Stephanie may be the finest working actress in the tri-state area.

(3) “Sweeney Todd.” From the moment the chorus first hit the stage, regaling us with the macabre ballad of the Fleet Street demon barber, John D. Holt’s illustrious ensemble had the audience eating out of its hands. In tackling a musical as difficult as Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 masterpiece, Holt, Playhouse musical director Michael J. Moritz and a splendid company of actors dazzled theater fans with their conspicuous level of ambition and achievement. Special kudos to the superb David El’Hatton and Cyndi Weichey who played Todd and his partner-in-crime, meat pie baker Mrs. Lovett.

(4) Laura Phillips and Denise Sculli. The most memorable female performances of the past year were by Phillips and Sculli in Oakland Center for the Arts’ productions of “Misery” and “The Runner Stumbles.” Rather than simply do an imitation of Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning interpretation of “Number One Fan” Annie Wilkes, Sculli made it her own in a tour-de-force that was spooky, funny and almost indescribably moving. By finding the humanity inside a monster, Sculli brought an unforced empathy to the role that eluded even a great actress like Bates. And as Sister Rita in “Runner Stumbles,” the incandescent Phillips seemed illuminated from within. Her radiance cast such a glow over the proceedings that the set seemed shrouded in darkness whenever she was offstage. Coincidentally, both shows were directed by Oakland MVP Chris Fidram who proved that he’s possibly the finest director of actresses in local community theater.

(5) Tom DePaola. DePaola’s terrifically engaging lead performance as Eugene Morris Jerome in the Playhouse’s “Biloxi Blues” made the audience his trusty confidante, and we gladly followed him anywhere. Because Eugene is as much observer as participant, lesser actors could have easily receded into the background and allowed themselves to be upstaged by the show’s more flamboyant supporting characters. The prodigiously gifted DePaola never took a back seat to anyone, though. His Eugene was a vividly drawn and fully realized creation from start to finish. Since DePaola played Eugene in an earlier Playhouse production of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” I hope that he gets a crack at the same role in “Broadway Bound” someday. It would be great to see him complete Neil Simon’s Eugene trilogy.

(6) Michael Cavalier. Cavalier’s New Castle Playhouse productions of “Man of La Mancha” and “The Wizard of Oz” brought new vitality and luster to shows that, for all intents and purposes, should have been shrouded in dustballs by now. His “La Mancha,” however, made a good case for the continued relevance and appeal of both Don Quixote and classical Broadway musical theater. And for expeditiously navigating nearly 80 featured “Oz” performers — many of them children — on the relatively diminutive NCP stage, Cavalier deserved a medal for valor. Cavalier’s “Wizard of Oz” got just about everything right, and his “Man of La Mancha” was the best community theater production of the Dale Wasserman/Mitch Leigh/Joe Darion musical that I’ve seen in ages.

(7) Eric McCrea. Decked out in his pointy green slippers, candy cane tights and dorky elf hat in the Oakland’s “Santaland Diaries,” McCrea somehow managed to not look entirely ridiculous. That’s a real testament to this terrific young actor’s level of professionalism and skill. Playing Crumpet, one of Santa’s 50-plus “helpers” at Macy’s department store, McCrea made his hopeless misanthrope of a character likable, even at his most glibly vicious. Another thing that’s impressive about McCrea is his ability to physically transform himself in every role. I saw him in three area productions this year (“Biloxi Blues” and “The Runner Stumbles” were the others), and he’s looked completely different — shorter, taller, older, younger, thinner, beefier — each time. I’m not sure how McCrea does it, but I’m still a little in awe.

(8) Barbara Evans. This beloved veteran character actress appeared in three area community theater productions this year (the Playhouse’s “Harvey” and “Sweeney Todd,” and the Oakland’s “The Runner Stumbles”), but it was Evans’ ferocious, fearless performance in “Stumbles” that I’ll never forget. As Mrs. Shandig, the loyal-to-a-fault housekeeper of a priest charged with murder, Evans proved again why every local director wants to cast her in a play. Like a vintage wine, indefatigable trooper Evans just gets better with age.

(9) Alan McCreary. I’ll admit that the prospect of sitting through another revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-wining 1946 chestnut, “Harvey,” didn’t exactly send my pulse a-pounding. And since most actors wind up doing an imitation of Jimmy Stewart’s Elwood P. Dowd, I wasn’t expecting to discover anything revelatory, or even particularly interesting, at the Playhouse last January. Yet McCreary’s Dowd felt completely unique and could never be compared with anyone else’s. You’d swear that he’d never seen Stewart’s fabled interpretation of the role. That’s quite an achievement. McCreary also nailed the most important requirement of the role: making you believe that he’s sharing the stage with a humongous rabbit named Harvey. It’s not easy acting opposite empty space, but McCreary made it look effortless.

(10) Khaled Z. Tabbara. Although the Playhouse’s SRO summer production of “Grease” was merely so-so, Tabbara brought so much manic, unbridled energy to his one show-stopping number that he brought down the house at every performance. Tabbara’s deliciously hammy Teen Angel amusingly channeled the ghosts of James Brown and Elvis, and single-handedly disproved the maxim that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.