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All abuzz about theater season
Community theaters will offer classics, musicals and experimental and movie-related productions.
“Excitement” is the word that came up most frequently when discussing the upcoming community theater season with representatives from Youngstown Playhouse, Oakland Center for the Arts and Top Hat Productions.
Playhouse managing director John Holt is “extremely excited” about the new season. Brooke Slanina, president of the Oakland’s board of directors, is “excited about everything.” And Brian Palumbo, Top Hat presiden, is “really excited” about his company’s October production of Elton John and Tim Rice’s musical “Aida.”
Certainly the eclectic mix of shows promises a bevy of riches for theater buffs of all persuasions. No wonder everyone seemed positively energized (and, yes, genuinely excited) by the enormous challenges that lie ahead.
The Youngstown Playhouse has a season packed with classics. Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” (Nov. 7-15), Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” (April 17-25) and “West Side Story” (May 29-June 13) are all part of Playhouse’s 2008-09 schedule.
Cutting edge and experimental opportunities are also in high number. The Oakland supplies many of the shows with John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer and Tony-winning “Doubt” (Sept. 5-13), Tracey Letts’ “Bug” (Feb. 20-March 7) and David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole” (June 12-20). All three rank among the most challenging — and provocative — plays in Oakland’s 20-year history. Plus, just in time for Halloween, the Oakland is mounting a stage version of “Night of the Living Dead,” Pittsburgh native George A. Romero’s epochal 1968 zombie flick.
In a recent telephone interview, “Living Dead” director Chris Fidram discussed his interest in tackling the Romero spook-fest. “Zombies terrify me, and haunted houses were a really big deal for me as a kid,” Fidram confessed. “I’m really hoping to recreate some of that terror onstage.”
Having directed a successful stage adaptation of Stephen King’s “Misery” a few seasons back, Fidram already knows that local theatergoers “enjoy a good scare.”
“West Side Story” isn’t the only Stephen Sondheim musical set for area stages next season. New Castle Playhouse mainstay Michael Cavalier (“South Pacific,” “Man of La Mancha”) is directing Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (Nov. 21-Dec. 7) in what promises to be another revelatory NCP production. Holt, who had remarkable success with Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” last year, tackles the composer’s sophisticated “Company” (Sept. 26-Oct. 4), another of Sondheim’s witty, adult “concept” musicals.
Among Playhouse’s upcoming slate of musicals, Holt is particularly enthused about directing the regional premiere of “Big,” a musicalization of the popular 1988 Tom Hanks movie. Holt believes that the stage “Big” “is just as good or better than the screen version,” and has confidently scheduled it in Playhouse’s prestigious holiday slot (Dec. 5-20).
He’s similarly jazzed about “Music Man” Michael Moritz’s upcoming Playhouse production of “Blood Brothers” (March 13-28). “It has one of the best overall scores that a musical theater lover will ever find,” Holt remarked.
Another “Never-Before-Produced-in-This-Area” musical that’s generating a lot of local buzz is Top Hat’s imminent “Aida.” Palumbo said he’s been fielding calls “left and right” from actors interested in auditioning for the show.
Also on tap this season for the Christian Theater Company are revivals of “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and Gospel musical “The Earth Trembled.” The latter “has been a Top Hat staple for years,” Palumbo said. “It helped build our reputation, so we have a strong commitment to that show.”
And for something completely different, the campy “Reefer Madness (The Musical)” at Oakland (May 1-16) looks destined to become another audience hit. (Robert Joki of “Bat Boy” and “The Full Monty” fame is handling the directorial duties.)
Like every show on the Oakland schedule next season, “Reefer Madness” is based on a movie (“Living Dead,” “Reefer”), was previously turned into a movie (“Bug” and Alfred Uhry’s “Driving Miss Daisy,” March 27-April 4) or will become a movie (“Doubt,” “Rabbit Hole”) by season’s end.
“I don’t think we did it intentionally, but we wound up with a very film-heavy rotation,” Slanina admitted with a laugh. The one exception to that movie-centric lineup is a holiday fund-raising revival of Oakland perennial “How the Drag Queen Stole Christmas,” again directed by Joki (Dec. 5-13).
The Youngstown Playhouse fires the first volley of another jam-packed season of area theater. Their leadoff production, Michael Frayn’s critically acclaimed backstage comedy “Noises Off,” opens Friday at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Aug. 30.