Stephanie J. Block fresh from a recent revival of “Kiss Me, Kate” in London’s West End, sang songs from her heart on Monday, March 11th as part of the Trust Cabaret Series. She performed two sold-out shows.
Block, accompanied by pianist Ben Cohn, delivered powerful renditions of songs from “Wicked,” “Into the Woods,” “Falsettos” and more.
The Tony-Award winning actor filled the time between songs with witty banter and sips of hot tea.
Block told an amusing anecdotes about her experiences in Pittsburgh. She had genuine affection for the Steel City. She met her now-husband, Sebastian Arcelus , while trodding the boards at the Benedum in the national tour of “Wicked.” She was Elphaba and he was Fiyero (technically, the duo met in Hartford, Connecticut, but didn’t get together until they hit Pittsburgh).
Stephanie J. Block
While Block joked that she was tired and lazy, she was vivacious, charming and energetic on the cabaret stage.
Her rendition of “Breaking down” from “Falsettos,” which she did for the 9:30 PM show, was delightfully whacky and filled with gusto.
Block told a very amusing stories about her former bosses, Dolly Parton (on “Nine to Five”), and Cher (on “The Cher Show”), and recording Cher’s book on Audible). She sang songs from both shows.
Block’s show was one of the highlights of a stellar year of cabaret performances which included Laura Benanti, Jason Robert Brown and Christopher Jackson.
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The Trust Cabaret Series continues with Patina Miller on May 5 at the Greer Cabaret, 655 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. For more information, click here.
Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Knight Raymond, PhD and Theron Raymond (6th grader)
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Liberty Magic continue their 2025 show series with magician Ben Seidman in Good Charlatan. Seidman brings his brand-new show to Pittsburgh, so don’t miss the chance to say you saw it when.
Ben bridges his origin story as a magician to the present when he opens his show by saying, “The thing I love about magic is that you couldn’t trust your eye.” This mixed tense sentence is prophetic and anticipates the show’s journey. Good Charlatan sweeps the audience along on a journey about trust – and questioning trust. As individuals, we have unshakable trust in what we see – or think we see. Seidman flips that narrative and demonstrates time and again how we lose perspective inside the matrix of our own perception.
Ben (also the good charlatan) provides a history of the con – and con men (interestingly, no women). In fact, con man is actually a shortened version of confidence man as confidence is key for the con to work. Ben’s history of con men begins in the 19th century with William Thompson who gained infamy by asking if he could borrow people’s watches and return them the next day. It sounds like a laughably obvious scam, and the audience shares a knowing laugh that we’d never fall for something like that in the 21st century.
And yet, history proceeds to say otherwise. Ben marches us forward through time with legendary con men like Charles Ponzi whose name became synonymous with scheming. Regardless of historical time period, our confidence that we’re too smart to be conned persists. This consistency is in fact what enables and emboldens the con man
Ben interweaves his narrative with illustrative magic tricks. He plays with a full deck of cards (magician pun intended!) as he effortlessly blends magic styles from close up tricks to sleight of hand to mentalism. He picks pockets with the proficiency of a Dickens character in Oliver Twist and mesmerizes with his shell game. His feats of mentalism leave the audience gasping and guessing.
Ben Seidman promotional photo.
When Ben performs close up tricks, he thoughtfully utilizes a camera that projects onto two screens. This allows not just the person in front of him, but the entire audience to participate in seeing the tricks. It’s a con of our own times that the person in front of him ends up drawn to the screens, not Ben’s hands. Ben gently reminded the witness to watch his hands, not the video feed. We are drawn to the mediated experience even when the real experience is in front us. It reminded me of seeing the Mona Lisa and watching people not even looking at it but framing it on their cellphone cameras.
Ben’s background as a trained actor enables him to improv as needed, injecting humor and humanity into the show. He connects effortlessly with the audience as he can laugh at himself and on-stage participants in a way that enhances the collective experience. He often heightens the effect by commenting on his own magic, and his seamless ability to make everyone comfortable is in fact critical to the show’s success and its theme of trust. While the show is amazing, the ending is truly spectacular.
-TKR, Ph. D. & TR
Don’t miss the chance to see Ben Seidman in Good Charlatan through March 16, 2025 at Liberty Magic, 811 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222. Liberty Magic also offers a VIP experience to go backstage and connect with Ben after the show, which is well worth it. Purchase tickets online here.
When Scratch (Max Pavel) comes to a rural village to tempt the local witch, Elizabeth Sawyer (Shammen McCune), all hell, literally and figuratively, breaks loose in Jen Silverman’s dark comedy, “Witch.”
Scratch is a handsome devil, but he’s not THE devil, he’s mid-level management for Beelzebub in a satanic pyramid scheme. He’s pitching money, power and true love all for the measly price of a human soul.
When this particular devil breezes into town, he sets his sights on Cuddy (Matt Henderson). The boy, the closeted son of the fiefdom, son to Sir Arthur (Brett Kennedy), who prefers Morris Dancing to dating, is willing to cut a deal. He both loves and hates the rival of his father’s affections, Frank Thorney (Ryan Patrick Kearney).
Frank is secretly married to Winnifred, (Lorna Lominac), a maid in the castle. When Frank realizes he could be the heir to the tiny fiefdom, over the rightful heir, Cuddy, he seizes the opportunity and dumps Winnifred like a hot potato. She does not take it well.
Cuddy is tempted by Scratch. Then, Frank is tempted by Scratch. The only one who won’t give in to the temptations is the aforementioned witch, Elizabeth, who turns out to be a lonely woman in the woods. Her denial of Scratch’s iron clad agreement causes him to look deeper into the abyss, and the devil gets his due, or, rather, the soul stealer finds his own soul.
Whether they are maidens, mothers, or crones, witches are hot right now. With the success of “Agatha All Along,” “The Discovery of Witches” and “The Mayfair Witches,” the sorceresses are in style.
The review will be uploaded with production photos.
Witch is style and substance. It’s heart and soul. It is a timeless tale told in contemporary vernacular, both witty and wise.
Pavel is a handsome devil indeed, everything Scratch should be. He is charismatic, charming and churlish, a mischievous rogue, and with a soul.
Henderson seems born to play Cuddy. The part is so perfectly aligned with Matt and his sensibilities. When an actor crushes a role, it’s hard to picture anyone else in the part. Think: Peter Falk in “Columbo,” Tony Shaloub in “Monk,” or Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: Next Generation,” and “Picard.”
McCune has the gravitas to command any stage. Her Elizabeth is too smart to be seduced, but, possibly, too smart to ever love or be loved. It’s a tragic flaw, and McCune mines it, giving subtextual layers upon layers. There is wisdom and aching sadness, and undeniable rage.
Kearney does a marvelous job as the smarmy villager. Frank is a man who expects to get everything with his self-confidence and good looks. The high school jock/bully who becomes a senator, smiling while stabbing people in the back. Frank is the other handsome devil in the show and far more motivated than Scratch.
Lominac, last seen in “Arcadia” at Point Park University, is gracing the professional Pittsburgh theater scene for the first time. It won’t be the last. She makes a stunning impression. Winnifred seems like a minor character until the last few moments of the play when she finally finds some agency.
Kennedy, who has a more minor role, is also perfect for the part.
Director Ingrid Sonnichsen finds the core to each character and opens the actors up to their most vulnerable selves. The cast is at their best under her helm.
There’s a fight scene, choreographed by Randy Kovitz that is both dramatic and hilarious.
Jenn Bechak’s scenic design is a wonder; opulent castle on one side, rustic witch’s hut on the other. Gnarled branches festoon Elizabeth Sawyer’s cottage giving it a real witchy vibe.
All art is political, and “Witch” is a powerful play at the right time with the right actors. Silverman’s underlying message of the show is a visceral gut punch to the soul.
If you get invited to the play, tell your date that you’ll be there with bells on, or, better yet, conjure up your own ticket.
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“Witch” runs from March 7fd to March 22 at the Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street, Carnegie, PA 15106. For tickets and more information, click here.
Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Knight Raymond, PhD and Theron Raymond (6th grader)
The enGAGE program brings together the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and Prime Stage Theatre in creating performances that address the atrocities of genocide. Prime Stage’s current production showcases playwright Celeste Raspanti’s two plays, I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise, which are thoroughly meta. Through the plays as art form, we see how drawing art and writing poetry helped children find agency and give voice to their experiences amongst the horrors of the Terezin concentration camp.
While the production is positioned as two plays, it would be more accurately described as one play with two acts. The characters are the same, and the storyline is continuous. The Terezin Promise picks up where I Never Saw Another Butterfly ends.
Alex Keplar’s set design is brutalist and unchanging. The towering, yet bleakly earth-toned walls with sharp angles symbolize the unblinking horrors they hide. A stark black and white sign in all caps arches over the entrance to Terezin and commands “ARBEIT MACHT FREI.” The German phrase translates to “work sets you free” and was displayed at camp entrances. This visual icon is chillingly ominous from our vantage point as work was in fact enslavement, and freedom was an illusion.
(from Left to Right) Concentration camp inmates Sadie Karashin, Eva Balodimas Friedlander, Holland Adele Taylor) read secret poems in Prime Stage Theatre’s “I Never Saw a Butterfly & The Terezin Promise.” Photo by Laura Slovesko.
Costume designer Meg Kelly triumphs with rough, patchy fabrics in shades of brown and gray. The costumes are outward manifestations of those who wear them – dirty and dispirited but holding together.
The play only becomes infused with color when the children read their poems. “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” is both the play’s title and a poem’s name that personifies the camp. The title mourns the details we lose that we never even thought of as privileges. The impact is heightened by the fact flowers on the property are repeatedly mentioned, suggesting that even though the butterflies have reason to, they choose to avoid Terezin.
Holland Adele Taylor is inspiring as the production’s lone adult, art and poetry teacher Irena Synkova. Taylor channels a forceful, but maternal, power. She effortlessly calibrates to each child’s needs while not understanding the chaos herself or being able to provide rational answers for why this is happening. She inspires her students to experience joy and hope because it is hope that helps them survive. Notably, Taylor also portrayed Annie Sullivan in Prime Stage’s production of The Miracle Worker where she also demonstrated an instinctual unsung leadership as she wrangled a young Helen Keller.
(from Left to Right) Sadie Karashin, Eva Balodimas Friedlander, Holland Adele Taylor and Jackson Frazer safeguard the children’s poems and drawings in Prime Stage Theatre’s “I Never Saw a Butterfly & The Terezin Promise.” Photo by Laura Slovesko.
Synkova helps main character, Raja Englanderova (commandingly played by Meredith Kocur) adapt to Terezin and invites her into the community of children she teaches art and poetry to. This community deepens relationships, which creates accountability for preserving the artistic byproducts of their suffering to ensure history is learned from, not repeated.
Genocide can only be a heavy and triggering word. Yet, what shines through most in Raspanti’s plays is hope fostered by community and through art. Art by its very nature outsurvives its creator and lives on to teach, inspire, and provoke thought. While so many lives in Terezin and other concentration camps were cut tragically short, their art lives on.
At the play’s start, the children take turns reading “their” poems aloud, which are actual poems written in the camps. Helga Weissova (Eva Balodimas Friedlander) reads her poem last. Director Wayne Brinda subtly demonstrates the power of art, having Friedlander gradually stand taller as she reads on. Friedlander movingly quavers as she reads: “friends depart — for other worlds…we want to have a better world.” Departure is such a poignant, tender positioning of the brutality of death in a concentration camp. These worlds interconnect in Helga’s poem, at Terezin, and still today. The responsibility to help create that “better world” is no less urgent than ever before. May we all do so.
-TKR, Ph.D.
You can see Prime Stage’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise through March 9, 2025 at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, Pittsburgh, PA, 15212. Purchase tickets online here.
At the skating rink, Kimberly (Carolee Carmello) meets Seth (Justin Cooley), but “Kimberly Akimbo” is not just your average high school boy-meets-girl romcom.
Kimberly is suffering from an unnamed disease that is most likely, Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, an extremely rare, progressive genetic disorder. It causes children to age rapidly, and Seth is looking for a partner for Science Class. She wants to do the project on Glaucoma, but he wants to do it on her illness.
On a study date in the library, we discover that Seth is wonderfully weird. He’s into anagrams and a member of a puzzle society.
Note: “Flared Puny Owl” is an anagram for “Wonderful Play.”
Seth and Kimberly meet the show choir, who become their new friend group.
There’s a subplot with show choir kids, Theresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman), Aaron (Pierce Wheeler), Martin (Darron Hayes) and Delia (Grace Capeless.
Kimberly’s family life is odd, even for a rapidly aging teen. Her father, Buddy (Jim Hogan) is an alcoholic, her mother, Pattie (Laura Woyasz) is pregnant and recovering from two carpal tunnel surgeries (both hands). Then, her Aunt Debbie (Emily Koch) shows up and things get even weirder.
Theresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman), Aaron (Pierce Wheeler), Martin (Darron Hayes) and Delia (Grace Capeless) dance at the ice skating rink. Note that Delia dances akimbo!
Carmello is terrific as Kimberly. She is able to play the role with the complexity of the character. A young girl dying of old age. Someone stuck between various levels of maturity.
Cooley is terrific. He is charismatic, joyful and full of weird fun. He is able to deliver the most awkward lines with verve.
The show choir kids are used as a form of Greek Chorus, or rather, a regular chorus, backing up the songs, providing dance moves, etc. There woefully funny love-rectangle is funny, but seems achingly real for high school. The whole quartet is great, Hayes knocks it out of the park as the lovelorn Martin. There is a great scene during the song, “How to Wash a Check” where Friedman and Wheeler show off some great slapstick skills. Capeless’s delivery of lines hilarious.
Another standout is Koch. She is crude, crass and delightfully comical.
Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire captures the truths about high school, adds a whacky subplot about check fraud, show choir costumes and a trip to an amusement park and wedges in a powerful statement on “living in the now.”
David Zinn’s scenic design is gorgeous, especially the skating rink.
Danny Mefford’s choreography is cleverly akimbo (Seth would love that reference).
While the songs are as catchy as other Broadway shows, and the lyrics are particularly difficult to sing in the shower the next day, “Kimberly Akimbo” is a fun show with some great character work. Lindsay-Abaire doesn’t go for the easy puns, the jokes are a little smarter than most musicals.
Most of all, “Kimberly Akimbo” is a fervent love letter to life and living it as best you can.
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“Kimberly Akimbo” runs until Sunday, March 9 at the Benedum Center for Performing Arts, 237 Seventh Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. For more information, click here.
George Roth AKA Mr. Super (Dave Joseph), aging TV star, has trouble coming to grips the loss of his celebrity status in Thomas B. Andrews play, “Up and Away.”
The former Hollywood actor is trying out for bit parts in small theaters and working in a call center. His wife has died and his daughter, Chelsea (Chelsea Kikel) has moved away with her husband, David (Michael Church). His only real connection to the world is through his therapist, Amy (Joan Schwartz), who is prompting him to get out in the world and try some new things.
George would rather sit at home and relive his glory days, watching videotapes from his show, “Mr. Super.” He wears his old red cape everywhere, to work, to his favorite diner, and, even, to his therapist’s office, LARPing through life.
George’s grasp on reality slips and thinks he can fly.
Note: The first half of the play was performed as a one act in the 2023 Pittsburgh New Works Festival. Andrews won the Best Playwright Award that year and has added the second act. R-ACT’s production of “Up and Away” is the premiere of the full-length play.
The second act features Chelsea’s story.
George Roth AKA Mr. Super (Dave Joseph).Chelsea Roth (Chelsea Kikel)
Joseph is amazing as George in “Up and Away.” He’s also a very-convincing Mr. Super. The first act is a showcase of his talents. George cycles through every possible emotion, mania, rage and despair.
Kikel is very impressive as Chelsea. She runs through an gamut of emotions as well, the full spectrum of Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief.
The show has an interesting conceit. Most of the characters are voice overs. George’s interactions with his therapist, the waitress (Anna McAnallen), his boss (David Holderbaum), and his old rival, Jack (John C. R. Silbert) are unseen. It enhances George’s loneliness. It isolates him.
The stage is nearly barren with just a few props, a phone, a menu, and, of course, the iconic scarlet cape, but the scenes are enhanced by Jack Lefebvre’s art via projection design.
Barbara Burgess-Lefebvre, the show’s director, does an excellent job with the playwright’s prose and poetry, bringing George Roth and his estranged daughter to life.
Andrews wrote a provocative play about death and aging, and the ramifications for the survivors.
R-ACT Theatre Productions is tucked away off of a roundabout in Rochester, PA, but “Up and Away” is worth the drive. Unlike the central character of his first full-length premiere play, the playwright’s future is bright.
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“Up and Away” runs from February 27 to March 2 at the Segriff Stage, 134 Brighton Avenue, Rochester, PA 15074. For more information, click here.
Spinsters Abby (Joyce Miller) and Martha (Cindy Berg) Brewster believe they’ve found the solution to curing loneliness by dispatching elderly gentlemen to the afterlife with their diabolical concoction, a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide, in Joseph Kesselring’s black comedy, “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
The Brewster women’s beleaguered nephew, Mortimer (Brian Ferris), returns to their Brooklyn home to pick up his sweetheart, Elaine (Chelsea Contino Eicher), to take her to the theater, when discovers a dead man in the window seat.
Mortimer learns that there are eleven bodies in the basement. Mr. Hoskins, the widower in the window seat, is the twelfth victim or the aunt’s loving charity work, i.e., the macabre murder spree.
He plans on pinning the murders on his loony brother, Teddy (Cassidee Knott Huey), because he already has the papers drawn up to send Teddy to a sanitarium because Teddy thinks he’s Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy’s been burying the bodies in the basement because he thinks he’s digging the Panama Canal and that the men are victims of Yellow Fever.
Meanwhile, Mortimer’s dastardly brother Jonathan (John Hermann) and his assistant, Dr. Einstein (Dennis Taylor) hightail it to Brooklyn to hide out in the Brewster home. They’re on the run for killing twelve men all over the world.
Realizing his sweet old aunt’s have the same body count, Jonathan decides it’s time to take out his brother, Mortimer, to get the higher score.
From left to right: Elaine (Chelsea Contino Eicher) confronts her boyfriend Mortimer (Brian Ferris) while his aunts Martha (Cindy Berg) and Abby (Joyce Miller) look on. Photo credit: Hawk Photography
Director Erin Bock’s take on the timeless tale of murder, mayhem and madcap comedy is delightful. The director mines the show for all the comedy gold.
While the play takes a moment to get going, it speeds along once Ferris pops through the front door. He is hilarious as the nervous nelly who keeps finding dead men in his childhood home. Ferris fidgets and fumbles with grace and style. “Arsenic and Old Lace” rests on the shoulders of the lead actor, and Ferris handles the responsibility with aplomb.
Miller and Berg are the perfect pair for Abby and Martha. They perform their characters with sweetness and sincerity, ramping up the laughs. Miller gets the first funny line of the show when she says, “I’m beginning to think that that Hitler person isn’t very Christian.”
Hermann is properly menacing as Jonathan Brewster, an escapee from the Home for the Criminally Insane in South Bend, Indiana. He delivers his lines in a slow, methodical way, devilishly calm.
Taylor’s Einstein is channeling Peter Lorre, who played the same character in the film adaptation of the play.
There are also some fun cameo roles by Alex Blair as O’Hara and Brian Kadlecik as Witherspoon.
Brian Nath’s set design is a true beauty to behold. He makes great use of the unique stage, which has several layers.
Berg also provided the costumes for the show. Martha and Abby’s funeral blacks are particularly impressive, replete with lacy high collars with brooches.
Side note: Unlike drama critic Mortimer Brewster, this review was not written on the way to the theater.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a frolicking romp with some laugh out loud moments. The play was originally performed during World War II to be a pleasant diversion from the ugliness of the outside world, and it remains to be a pleasant diversion from the ugliness of the outside world.
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“Arsenic & Old Lace” runs until March 2 at 20 Wabash Ave, Hickory, PA, United States, Pennsylvania 15340. For more information, click here.
Director and former Point Park University graduate, Daina Michelle Griffith, returns to her alma mater to gather an amazing cast of leading ladies to sing from Jerry Herman’s songbook in “Jerry’s Girls.”
“Jerry’s Girls” is a musical revue, or, to put in simpler terms, an extravaganza. It’s full of classic songs from Herman’s repertoire, highlighting Broadway favorites such as “Hello, Dolly!” “Mame,” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”
The cast of “Jerry’s Girls.”Bosom Buddies, Jessica Carmona and Charlotte Jensen in “Jerry’s Girls.”Jessica Carmona singing “If He Walked Into My Life” from the musical “Mame.”Jamey Meske belts it out in “Jerry’s Girls.”
Reviews were everything is terrific are often very boring to read. Prepare to be lulled into a restful sleep as we heap mounds of praise on this amazing musical revue.
The cast is flawless.
The Leading Ladies included Jessica Carmona, Charlotte Jensen, Giavanna Marino, Julianna Ramos, Jamey Meske, Drew Dela Llana, Andrea Nalbandian, Daphne Riddle with ensemble members Camani Campbell, Lexi Casey, Andrea Robles and Bee Walker.
Carmona’s “Before the Parade Passes By” is a heartfelt moment. Her Super-Villain Team-Up with Charlotte Jensen for “Bosom Buddies” is a comedic high point in the show.
Meske belts out “I Am What I Am” from “La Cage Aux Folles” and nearly brought the house down. It was a beautiful moment of LGBTQ+ Pride (bringing joyous tears many audience members, including my seat mate, Lonnie the Theatre Lady).
Dela Llana performed a delightful rendition of “Gooch’s Song” from “Mame,” with a laugh out loud reveal at the end of the tune.
Riddle’s comic “Nelson” is a joy.
The ensemble moves with ease to some excellent choreography coordinated by Kristiann Menotiades. They dance beautifully to beautifully orchestrated Deana Muro and her all-star band which includes Doug Levine, RJ Heid, Paul Thompson, Kathleen Billie, George Hoydich and Dave Wingenbach.
The array of costumes by Claudia Brownlee is astonishing. “Jerry’s Girls.” The stunning clothes are fit for Broadway.
Emmaline Naud’s scenic and projection design is a whimsical addition to the show. The projections add context, flashing the title of the song and the name of the show it premiered in, saving patrons from flipping and fumbling around in their programs for context.
“Jerry’s Girls” is as big as Broadway but without the pocketbook breaking ticket prices.
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“Jerry’s Girls” runs until February 23 at the Point Park Playhouse’s Highmark Theatre, 350 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. For more information, click here.
Layton Gray’s “Feed the Beast” is inspired by the shameful study conducted by the U.S. Health Service at the Tuskegee Institute from 1932-1972. Approximately six hundred African American men, 399 of whom were suffering from syphilis, weren’t told of their condition, and cruelly were denied treatment for it. They believed they were in a special government healthcare program that provided high quality care to cure their “bad blood.”
The play opens as young Dr. Phillip John (Milton Lyles, ll) enters his spartan doctor’s office at the Tuskegee Institute. He is optimistic that this, his first job out of medical school, will produce significant medical findings to lead to better medical care for syphilis patients. He speaks aloud the contents of a letter he’s writing to his mother, expressing his excitement due to the importance of his work (The frequently spoken letters to his mother is an effective technique used to reveal his innermost thoughts).
Ellis (Thaddeus Daniels), the long-employed janitor at the Institute, is the first person the doctor meets. Ellis’s wisdom becomes an invaluable resource guiding the doctor through his interactions with his patients over the forty-year span of the study.
One by one the patients enter the office. Pee Wee (Jamar Arthur), Deacon (Dontonio Demarco), Clarence (Layon Gray), Zeke (David Roberts) and Benny (Reggie Wilson). Their treatments involve drawing blood and sometimes painful spinal taps.
Promotional image for “Feed the Beast.”
The play relies on storytelling, and character development, with a loose plot that addresses details of the cruel medical protocol that is implemented. The characters reveal their present circumstances and their dreams for the future. They are all sympathetic, authentic characters. The audience is drawn into the courage, hope and optimism they display. Their interactions with each other are surprisingly playful and often humorous, despite their illness. This much needed comic relief humanizes the characters. They’re touchingly protective of each other. It’s impossible to dislike any of these well-developed characters.
Lyle’s Dr. John morphs from a hopeful young doctor, blindly following orders, to a man struggling with his own immorality, and finally being racked with regret and guilt. Lyles executes his struggle authentically. His well-portrayed humanity is deeply touching.
Daniels is a warm, caring, wise Ellis. His personable demeanor is likeable as he shows moments of both strength and vulnerability. Everyone could benefit from having a loyal, caring friend like Ellis.
Layon Gray’s Clarence is a man pursuing a big dream to go to California and act in movies. He frequently and (unintentionally) comically performs a self-written monologue for his friends who kindly indulge him and encourage him, as they inwardly cringe. Near the end of the play Gray’s raw, emotional, determined monologue lands a stunning punch. Wow! Memorable!
Arthur plays a likeable, sweet, immature Pee Wee. His modest dream is to sometime fly in an airplane. The heart wrenching depictions of his hallucinations are tangibly real. One can almost see the image of his long-ago deceased pet rooster, Mr. Jangles, as he lovingly cradles him in his arms.
Demarco embodies the spiritual, pure of heart Deacon, who dreams of having his own church and congregation someday. His heartfelt sincerity illuminates his countenance.
Wilson’s beleaguered Benny sputters impatiently when the others often tease him about being henpecked. Wilson delivers a deeply moving reaction to the death of his beloved wife.
Roberts flawlessly manifests Zeke’s skepticism, frustration and intelligence.
This remarkable cast deserves to be congratulated on their impeccable commitment to their roles.
Award winning playwright Gray not only wrote, but also directs, choreographs, and acts in the show. All aspects are achieved with impressive results! Gray said that “Feed the Beast” is, “by far the most important piece of theater that I have ever written.”
The characters in this heartbreaking piece highlight some of the best, most courageous, resilient traits of humanity juxtaposed with some of the cruelest, most depraved and immoral parts. Its powerful, impactful scenes should motivate people to not only speak out against inhumanity targeting vulnerable groups but to act in every possible way to combat the wave of inhumanity that we’re currently witnessing in this country.
“Feed the Beast” is highly recommended not only for the brilliant performances and stunning historical value, but, also, it’s relevance to the current political situation is deserving of your attention.
LTL
“Feed the Beast” runs until February 23rd at The Public’s Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall – 621 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15222. For more information, click here.
“Girl, there’s going to be a reckoning…in the morning!”
The lyrics of the fictional 90s boy band go hard…for laughs in Kelly Trumbull’s comedy/drama about the break up of a boy band fan group in “Morning Reckoning.”
Eight-grader Kandace (Lola Hodgins) is head of the Morning Reckoning Fan Club, Wayne, New Jersey chapter. Meetings are held in her mom’s basement, a laundry room decked out to look like set of “Saved by the Bell.” The room is littered with Morning Reckoning tchotchkes, t-shirts, pillows and a full-sized cardboard cutout of lead singer, Brandon Brixton.
Kandace does not take her presidency of the fan club lightly. She scrawls an agenda on a blackboard and takes attendance in “The Binder” (a Trapper Keeper with pictures of the boys in it). Latecomers will suffer the consequences of Kandace’s passive-aggressive wrath.
Members of the fan club included Trisha (Spade You), April (Ava Hartman), Emily (Maddie Colucci), Sue (Advika Ravishankar).
Like almost all 90s boy bands, Morning Reckoning is more style than substance. They’re mostly blond highlights and Axe body spray, but that doesn’t stop Kandace from crushing hard on Brandon Brixton. Let’s call it human nature.
Kandace rules the roost with an iron fist. She’s all angst and hormones. Tensions erupt when Trisha invites a new kid on the block to join the original five. A vote passes and in support of Nadia (Emi Prudhoe), with Kandace holding out against the newcomer.
“Morning Reckoning” is about friendships, fandom and obsession. There are revelations and reunions in the second act when the girls meet up again twenty years after their fan group disbanded.
The Morning Reckoning Fan Club members April (Ava Hartman), Kandace (Lola Hodgins), Emily (Maddie Colucci), Trisha (Spade You) and Sue (Advika Ravishankar). A life-sized AI-generated Brandon Brixton stands in the background.
Note: This reviewer saw the first act as part of the Community Supported Art (CSA) 2022-2023 season at the New Hazlett. The second act takes the story in a thrilling new direction, and the girls reunite as adults to get back in synch.
Hodgins does a great job as Kandace. She makes the role her own (originally – and brilliantly – played by Alex Manalo).
The cast does a great job inhabiting the preteens, and, with the help of costume designer Claire Stemmer, pass as thirty-year-old women in the second act.
Hartman gives off a strong mom vibe in the second act, helping Kandace bring the girls back together.
Ravishankar is a standout as the buoyant, bubbly Sue. She gets the best lines, and makes a simple “What’s up?” into a mantra.
Prudhoe has a smaller role, but makes the most of it. She resonates kindness and graciousness, foils for the bad-tempered, hard Kandy.
The buzzy boy band songs come straight out of the boyzone, composed by Brad Stephenson and Addi Twigg. The duo are genius-level goofy with lyrics that are delightfully daft, especially when singing about Adderall, love and other drugs. It’s hard not too bop along to the music, while laughing at the lyrics.
The girls lip-synch to the lyrics and memorize the band’s dance routines, brilliantly choreographed by Alex Manalo (the aforementioned original Kandace in the CSA run).
Playwright Trumbull takes an event with low-key consequences such as the break up of a fan group and blows it up big, taking a moment in their young lives the characters adulthood. It is a brilliant work celebrating the complex intricacies of female friendships.
Ashley Martin does an excellent job directing the madness.
If you’ve ever nerded out over a boy band, or belonged to a fan club, it’s easy to get into the basement shenanigans of “Morning Reckoning.”
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“Morning Reckoning” runs until February 23 at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre, in the sub-basement of the Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. For more information, click here.
