'Burgh Vivant

By Michael Buzzelli

Pippa Peterson (Molly Twigg) of Pluto, Pennsylvania (say that five times fast), is the only eyewitness when a cow is beamed aboard an alien spacecraft in “Abduction,” a musical comedy about some very spacey space invaders.

Pippa goes on a quest to save the town from the alien intruders. Soon, she’s surrounded by unlikely allies; her best friend and chronic people-pleaser, Teddy (Cade Teribery), her one-hit-wonder mom, Lydia (Jamiya Forna), formerly of “Phat Booty” fame, her new love interest, Quinn(Nandita Mahesh) and the jingoistic Mayor O’Neill (Hayden Bobbyn), who can’t get through a sentence with out “Praising the Lord.”

The moronic mayor and the misfits have to face off against the big boss, Ziggy (Emma Schuszler) and her horde of extras to save the Pennsylvanian Plutonians from being the punchline of an SNL sketch version of the Twilight Zone episode, “To Serve Man.”

When Pippa is knocked unconscious after being transported onto the alien spaceship at the top of act two, she delves into a delightful dream sequence, replete with veritable smorgasbord of lesbian icons, including Megan Rapinoe, Scooby Doo’s Velma and the X-Files Agent Scully. They trot out in a scene that could rival the West Hollywood Halloween parade.

Twigg is a fascinating lead. She is a joy to watch as she stumbles around trying to save the townspeople and discover her inner truths.

Mahesh seems to juxtapose her enthusiasm in all the right ways. Her Quinn is a sullen, sarcastic Goth chick with a big heart hiding under her basic black.

Teribery’s Teddy is the comic relief with his own layering. The actor does a outstanding job. He plays it big and broad, but knows when to underplay the darker, moodier bits of dialogue, such as when he is trying to calculate unbelievable odds and lands the line, “There’s a better chance of me having dinner with my father.”

Winner of the “There are no small parts Category” is Lauren Taylor (Zoey and Sally Ride). She’s a terrific dancer, and has big stage presence.

Another winner is costume designer Maya Jones for nailing the “corny” puns with a collection of Corn-Fest t-shirts and the magnificent dream sequence characters. The Velma looked like she stepped out of the cartoon.

The production is deftly directed by one of the show’s creators, Becki Toth. Toth, who is a true talent on stage, is equally comfortable behind the scenes. She gets some star performances out of a gigantic cast.

The ensemble is immense, and, truth be told, a bit uneven, but don’t let that stop you. Creators T.J. Pieffer, Brad Kemp and Toth put on a silly show filled with clever lines with a deeper meaning underneath.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” or in the words oft-attributed to 18th Century, Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

On the surface,  “Abduction: A Musical Comedy” is a silly, little musical about aliens, cow mutilations, a corn festival and a high school over-achiever, but under that glossy veneer, it’s a story about the nature of complacency.

If you’ve guessed by now with a mention of lesbianism and some sarcastic dialogue about hiding under a veil of religion, the show is not designed for conservative Republicans (do not save a seat for Mike Pence). But if you’re up for an evening of zany Sci-Fi fun, vote Pippa!

-MB

“Abduction” runs from April  7 – 16 at the Charity Randall Theatre, 4301 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. For more information, click here.

By Michael Buzzelli

At a celebration for the booming success of their business, Voltaire, entrepreneurs George Fast (Sam Turich) and his very-pregnant wife Margarita (Christine Weber) – the great woman behind the great man – realize that time is running out on their venture and, while investors can vote in their favor, nothing is going to change their fate in Jennifer Chang’s “The Devil is a Lie.”

The title is a lie. In Chang’s play, the devil is real. Strike that. The devils are real – she/he/they are legion.

Lucy (lisa Sanaye Dring) prepares for the event by hiring Dogg (LaTrea Rembert) to DJ from a fancy tech booth.  Dogg is stage name. He is really Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.  (if you know – you know).

Things go south (all the way south) for George and Margarita Fast fast when Lucy reveals her true nature. Chaos ensues. Then, more chaos.

The opulent investor meeting swiftly becomes a nightmarish hellscape.

Before the play begins, investors…i.e. audience members are greeted by a Voltaire employee (House Manager/ Actor, Marsha Mayak) who reminds everyone to scan the QR code to vote in the upcoming proceedings. She is a welcoming and comfortable presence in a show that gets uncomfortable –  especially for George and Margarita Fast – quickly.

Scan that code because there’s a sort of “Choose Your Own Adventure” feature where you get to vote for the character’s fate.

Side note: The play didn’t really need the gimmick, and there was some debate after the show as to whether the voting actually affected the character’s fates, but it was fun to play along.

George Fast is a being of pure pleasure and no self-control, and as every student of Marlowe knows, “He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.” Fast is a hedonist, narcissist and smarmy billionaire rolled into one finely-tailored suit, but he falls fast and furiously. Turich plays him with sensual aplomb, a  capitalist pig of the oinkiest degree.

Weber is terrific as the long-suffering wife – who suffers more than she should for her man (and unborn child). There’s a strange section of the play were Weber returns twice – once as Helena (a character the show didn’t really need) and another as a more-surprising twist. Weber gets a chance to spotlight different aspects of her talent in each of the three different roles, and she does it superbly.

But this is Dogg and Lucy show (both of whom are named after Peanuts characters). Dring is excellent as the malalovent manipulator of the events. She struts around on the stage with gravitas and devilish charm. Her character is one of contradictions. Dring not only pulls it off, she shines.

Rembert is another charmer. He gets some of the show’s best laughs. He makes said laughter look effortless, but anyone would tell you that garnering those belly laughs is a difficult job.

Scenic designer Sasha Schwartz reimagines the space – the Tenant Innovation Center of the Frick Building – into an sumptuous playground for the rich investors – replete with neon piping and Voltaire logos hidden around like Easter eggs.

Kudos to the sound designer Howard Patterson who produced noises that sounded like they were ripped straight from the gates of hell.

There’s also some great costume design work from Grzegorz Labuda. Weber’s fake pregnancy looked very real (the distended belly had a button).

Chang has some interesting things to say, but a very many things. The show is, mostly, about fate and free will, but she tackles a plethora of topics – maybe too many. Things get a little confusing.

The Quantum production, with tremendous acting, a beautiful set and pitch-perfect sound and lighting design, is flawless. But is it good? That’s for the audience to decide.

-MB

“The Devil is a Lie” runs from April 7 to April 30 at the Tenant Innovation Center,  Frick Building, 437 Grant Street, Downtown Pittsburgh. For more information, click here.

by Claire DeMarco

Small town Popcorn Falls starts to decline when its famous water fall goes dry. It faces bankruptcy and the neighboring town plans to build a sewage treatment plant there.

Note:  Holy Crap!  Will the town’s name be changed to Popcorn Fall-less?

Doom and gloom.  What to do?

Only one possible solution exists in an attempt to save the town. An arts grant is available that if executed could provide the town with the money needed to pay its debts and stop the sewage treatment plant’s construction.

There is one major problem – actually two!  The town of Popcorn Falls must create a play and present it in a theater within one week and no one has a clue on how to do that. And there is no theater!

Actor 1 (Patrick Brannan) and Actor 2 (Kauleen Cloutier) play a combination of 20 characters who are all involved in various aspects of saving Popcorn Falls.  Distinguishing the various characters is often accomplished through the use of small adjustments by each actor.  A flannel shirt tied around the waist is an apron. A sweater cradled in one’s arms becomes a cat.

Actor 1 is the new Mayor Trundle, leading the charge to write “the play” and help save the town.  He also briefly plays a pompous German immigrant.

Actor 2 plays most of the roles from Joe the Janitor whose wife is expecting their 3^rd set of twins to gentle Becky, local bartender/waitress.

The town holds auditions for a play that hasn’t even been written but the townspeople carry on.

Cloutier is amazing!  As Actor 2 she plays both male and female parts, changing her cadence, mannerisms, vocal deliveries and physical movements easily.  She transforms from a deep-voiced male into a silly, self-absorbed young girl auditioning for a part in “the play” into the town’s librarian with ease, adjusting each unique accent and delivery seamlessly.

Although Brannan has fewer roles, Mayor Trundle is the dominant one.  He develops Trundle from a new mayor who’s come to town with some trepidation and becomes the leader intent on trying to save Popcorn Falls.  He shows a gentle side in his interaction with Becky in what is one of the more serious conversations in the play.

The set is minimal with several chairs and a small box-like table that serves as a desk or a bar front.  A green chalkboard is updated during the performance by the actors to indicate where the action takes place.

The plot for “Popcorn Falls” is far-fetched and unrealistic but it’s supposed to be.  It is a silly, funny and laugh-filled production that spotlights two very talented actors.

Excellent direction by Dana Hardy.

-CED

“Popcorn Falls” is a production of Little Lake Theatre Company.  It runs from April 6 through April 16. For more information, click here.

 

By Michael Buzzelli

When suspicion falls on a group of women freely dancing in the woods, in the Puritanical town of Salem, the girls redirect their mischief and turn it into chaos in Arthur Miller’s iconic play, “The Crucible.”

Miller wrote “The Crucible” as a parable to his experience in the McCarthy era Red Scare, when he was asked to name members of the Communist Party, and, sadly, there are some parallels in modern society. In an uncanny and frightening side note: On opening night, Tennessee republicans accused and expelled two of three democratic representatives for speaking up in public about gun violence instead of listening to their disgruntled constituents.

In the play, Abigail Williams (Jackie Mishol) becomes the ringleader of the girls who foment hysteria throughout the town, accusing their neighbors of witchcraft (a sin punishable by death in Ye Olde Salem Towne).  Once she realizes she can get away with her falsehoods, she goes after Elizabeth Proctor (Tamara Siegert), wife of John Proctor (Brett Santry Sullivan) for personal reasons. Abigail feigns possession to carry out revenge on her, because she covets Elizabeth’s husband.  The elder Proctor had a secret affair with his former maid and Elizabeth cast Abigail out of their household when she found out.

In one of the most humorous moments of the play, Reverend Hale (a gender-swapped Brooke Echnat) asks John to recite the Ten Commandments and he can only remember nine, conveniently forgetting “Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery.”

John convinces Mary Warren (Maddie Kocur)  into confessing to taking part in Abigai’s conspiratorial scheme to save the life of his wife, and Hale begins to see through the Deception. Unfortunately,  the Judge (Isaac Miller) has let things gone on too far – and it’s resulted in many deaths in the community – he refuses to believe he’s been duped. John is sent to the gallows in place of his wife. If he confesses to consorting with the Devil, he will be saved, but he, and Rebecca Nurse (Apryl  L. Peroney) can’t confess to crimes they did not commit.

Director Renee Rabenold makes great use of the setting, North Park’s Parish Hill Barn, to create an immersive experience. Before the play begins, the women frolic in the forest surrounding the creaky, old barn.  Its a masterful use of the area.  The audience becomes enveloped by the story as they move around the structure, from scene to scene.

Fair warning: Opening night it was 42 degrees and a section of the play takes place outdoors (though under a covered shelter in case of rain).

The cast elevated the material. While Miller wrote the story in the 50s, the players gave viscerally charged performances.

Mishol was hypnotic as Abigail. While the character is a villainous harlot who condemns her fellow villagers, Mishol finds a sympathetic core – a young woman scorned by her former lover, who suddenly finds power in her voice – even if she uses it in an diabolical manner.

Sullivan Santry brought a hefty gravitas to John Proctor, effortlessly spitting out swaths of difficult dialogue, seamlessly.

Siegert plays the much-put-upon spouse with aplomb. Her character has to agonize over moral decisions.

There were fantastic performances by the entire cast.

Dylan Marquis Myers as a vile and hypocritical preacher, Reverend Parris, and Miller as the pompous and preening judge who will not stop citizens from dying because it would make him look foolish. Michael McBurney’s Giles Corey gives an impassioned speech to save the life of his unseen wife. The actor’s eyes water when he realizes he is losing her to the whims of an insane court proceeding.

Many theater critics have seen multiple iterations of this timeless  (and unfortunately timely) tale, but this version of “The Crucible” stands out as one of the best, telling the tale in an exciting and fresh manner.

The entire Vigilance Theater Group should be commended for bringing “The Crucible” back to life at yet-another critical juncture in our democracy.

-MB

 

“The Crucible” runs from April 6 to April 16 in and around Parish Hill Barn in North Park. For more information, click Here.

 

By Michael Buzzelli

Anyone who has seen the 1993 movie, “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” or read the 1986 autobiography, “I, Tina,” knows that the relationship between Tina Turner (Ari Groover) and Ike Turner (Garrett Turner) was tumultuous.  “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” is an energetic, Cliff Notes version of the Queen of Rock & Roll’s triumphant rise to fame after her famous divorce written by Katori Hall (creator of TV’s “P-Valley) with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins.

The story starts at a massive concert venue in Brazil. Right before Tina takes to the stage, the self-proclaimed Baptist-Buddhist chants “nam-myōhō-renge-kyō.”

Flashback to young Anna-Mae Bullock (an amazing Ayvah Johnson) taking the lead in the church choir back in Nutbush, Tennessee. Her mellifluous-albeit- loud voice is  an embarrassment to her mother, Zelma (Rox White). Things between mother and daughter don’t improve. Zelma skips out on her husband (Kristopher Stanley Ward).  Then, her dad leaves. Anna-Mae moves in with her grandmother (Ann Nesby).

At sixteen, she was sent to St. Louis to live with her mom. Once there, Anna-Mae meets Ike and rechristens her Tina Turner (in a proprietary way – not yet in a legal way).

Things get rocky pretty fast, but the Ike and Tina Turner Revue keeps rolling (rolling) along on tour.  Until she can’t take the abuse anymore and flees with .36 cents in her pocket.

In her forties, Tina Turner has to reinvent herself once more. With the help of Roger Davies (Zachary Fereier-Harrison) she does just that, and the rest, as they say, is history…or, in this case, herstory.

Groover isn’t Tina Turner, but she is setting her own star into the firmament. She rocks out with vivacious charm. Part of the gig is imitating a world-renown celebrity and its an intimidating gig. If you can separate yourself from the True Tina and take Groover for her own unique talent, you’ll have more fun.

Note: Lonnie the Theater Lady claims that the original Broadway cast was better, and that Adrienne Warren was Tina 2.0, looking and sounding like the iconic pop star.

We may not need another hero, but Groover is the hero(ine) of the national tour, moving and grooving for almost the entire 2 hours and forty-seven minute run of the musical.  She is phenomenal.

Garrett Turner (not to be confused with any of the original family members) plays a villainous Ike. Yes, there’s some nuance, but this is from Tina’s POV and not his. The Real Life Ike wrote a rebuttal to Tina Turner’s autobiography, “I, Tina,” in an autobiography titled, “Taking Back My Name.”

Zelma also gets very few nuance, but she is played with panache by White.

There’s a terrific cameo by Geoffrey Kidwell playing the notorious record producer Phil Spector.

For some reason, jokes in musicals are big and broad. Often,  the writers tend to pander to the lowest common denominator. Freier-Harrison is delightful as Roger Davies. He is able to transcend some of the cornier lines he has to utter with wit and charm.  When Davies meets Tina Turner for the first time, his reaction is joyous, continually telling her, “You’re Tina Turner!” As if she didn’t know.

“Tina – the Tina Turner Musical” is filled with pomp and circumstance. It revels in being over-the-top. Bruno Poet’s lighting design is flashy and exuberant. Jeff Sugg’s projection design adds additional layers to the show. In a powerful scene, Tina, on a cold, wet street in London, feels alone in the world. The lighting and projection go above and beyond to tug on your heartstrings, bathing the stage in deep blues and cold grays. The ensemble in dark coats and black umbrellas bustles around her.

The end is bright and beautiful. “Tina – the Tina Turner Musical,” proves, once and for all, that the rock legend is “Simply the Best!”

Additional note: Stay after the curtain call. Much like a real concert, the show continues after the cast clasps hands and bows.

-MB

“Tina” runs from April 4 to April 9 at the Benedum 237 Seventh Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. For more information, click here.

By Claire DeMarco

It was a pleasure and delight to spend last Monday evening, March 27^th with Carole J. Bufford.

Note:  Okay, there were several hundred other people there, too!

Bufford wowed the audience at the O’Reilly Theater as she presented her “Vintage POP!” show as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Cabaret Series.

Multi-talented with a wonderful singing voice and a big personality, she often incorporated a little dance or two while performing.  Bufford had a rapport with the audience that you could feel was genuine and the audience responded in kind.

“Vintage POP!” took us on a journey from the 1920s to the 1980s – years considered to be the prime years of American pop music.

Some of the songs included in the program had interesting stories behind them and Bufford enjoyed highlighting them. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was almost eliminated from the classic movie “Wizard of Oz.” Bei Mir Bist Du Schön started out as a Yiddish love song and was popularized by the Andrews Sisters, Lutheran siblings from Minnesota.

Bufford regaled us with a variety of songs from the 1919 “There’ll Be a Change in the Weather” through the decades to the 1980’s Tina Turner classic “The Best.”

Bufford is “simply the best.”

-CED

The Greer Cabaret Theater is temporarily closed for renovation. The next show in the Trust Cabaret Series is on Monday, May 8, 2023 at the O’Reilly Theater featuring Norm Lewis.  For more information, click here.

By Claire DeMarco

A big wedding is happening this afternoon in a small rural town in 1980’s Louisiana.

Truvy (Robyne Parrish) owner of a home-based beauty salon expects this day to be a bit busier than normal.

She just hired Annelle (Saige Smith) as an assistant and poor Annelle will be thrown head first into hairspray overload, giant rollers and ever churning hair dryers.

Note:  Those old dryers that look like space helmets!

Bride-to-be Shelby (Kyra Kennedy), her mother M’Lynn (Monica Wyche) and Clairee (Elizabeth Elias Huffman) are in various degrees of “hair care.”  Ouiser (Helena Ruoti) arrives late, in a bad mood from the get-go.

Note:  She will later claim that she’s “been in a bad mood for forty years.”

Conversation is centered on Shelby’s upcoming wedding, the preparations, the excitement, promises and hopes to come.

The seasons change, the beauty salon doesn’t.  The customers and friends are still there.

Shelby is married and has a new baby. M’Linn is concerned since Shelby is a diabetic and has been cautioned not to conceive.  A beauty salon is not only a social center for light conversation. It’s a gossip hub as well, where some secrets and discussions are best left at home (but aren’t).

Time passes and Shelby’s health worsens. M’Lynn, Truvy, Clairee, Annelle and Quiser provide the support, comfort, tears and laughter for dealing with life and its many ups and downs.

As the gum chewing, flashy dresser, Parrish shines as Truvy.  She is definitely the epitome of a Southern belle. She gives her opinions willingly, whether you asked for them or not.

We watch Smith transition from a backward, awkward new employee to an assertive and confident member of the group.

Elias Huffman captures the essence of a wealthier, more poised member of the group but one who interjects her verbal shots as well as her cohorts.

Kennedy is the perfect Shelby.  She’s positive, upbeat, forward looking in spite of her limitations.

Wyche portrays M’Linn as the ever-present concerned parent who has watched over Shelby for years.  She shows us how she adapts when Shelby determines her own destiny.

Ruoti is delightful as the ouchy, grouchy Ouiser.  She captures us the moment she hits the stage.  Hardly ever smiling and squinting like she just swallowed a lemon slice.  Ruoti subtly hints that there is a softness behind that façade.

You go Girl(s)!!!

Excellent production and so appropriate for Women’s History Month. Kudos to Director Marya Sea Kaminski.

– CED

 “Steel Magnolias” is a production of Pittsburgh Public Theater.  It runs from March 22 through April 9. For more information, click here.

 

 

 

By Claire DeMarco

Tess Townley (Rachel Lewandowski) is a psychologist.  She is also a bit wacky, enthusiastic, prone to jump into situations where she often causes more problems than solutions.  Her friend and colleague, Owen York (Garrett Galcik) are great friends with York wishful that the relationship could be deeper. Owen refers to her as “I Love Lucy with a phd”.

Following the cries of a missing cat, Tess meets the cat’s owner, Englishman Terrence Wakefield (Sam Ruffino).  Time is as fast-paced as the play’s action and Tess and Terrence immediately fall in love with a promise to meet in London on Christmas Eve.

Tess interacts with a menagerie of different people as her journey to London progresses.

Religious Sisters Manchester – Terrier Vashon (Vivian Rose Ferris) and Chautauqua Thibault (Ellie Troiani) interact with Tess at the airport and on the plane.

Wink Shanahan (Benjamin Steffey), a well-known Cornhole Champion (and Tess’s brother-in-law) is also off to England for a large International Cornhole competition.

Note:  Wink is also on the same plane.

Does Tess meet up with Terrence in London?  Is there a happy ending?  What happens to the nuns and of course, Wink, our world class cornholer?

Lewandowski’s Tess is energetic and sometimes child-like.  She is especially funny as she gets stuck attempting to exit a window, legs and butt hanging and flailing frantically.

Galcik is convincing as the solemn, downtrodden, depressed professor.

Ruffino’s English accent is spot on, portraying Terrence as the typical steady Brit.

Ferris and Troiani work well together.  Troaini’s character plays the old school nun (with ever present ruler in hand) while Ferris represents the more modern, compromising nun.

“Serenade” is a buffet of corny, crazy actions as we follow Tess on her wild journey from Pittsburgh to London.

Note:  These antics are presented in an over-the-top frantic way that at times becomes a distraction.

The world-wide premiere of “Serenade” was written by Timothy Ruppert.

-CED

 “Serenade” is a production of the Red Masquers at Duquesne University’s Genesius Theater. It runs from March 23 through April 2. For more information, click here.

By Michael Buzzelli

A cynical reporter, Stephen (Joseph McGranaghan), sets out to expose a nationally known celebrity working in Pittsburgh, Father James R. Cox (Michael Fuller), only to realize the good in humanity in Ray Werner’s “Shantytown – the Ballad of Fr. James Cox – the Musical.”

If the plot sounds familiar, you may have seen “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” wherein a cynical reporter sets out to expose a nationally known celebrity working in Pittsburgh only to realize the good in humanity.  The biggest difference in the plot is that Father Cox was on the radio, Mr. Rogers was on TV, and “Shantytown” is a musical.

Despite the recognizable plot, Father James Cox was a fascinating historical character.  The  graduate of Holy Ghost College (now Duquesne University), he was the youngest priest to lead Old St. Patrick’s Church in the Strip District.  During the Depression, Cox  organized a food-relief program and helped the homeless and unemployed find shelter (i.e. creating Shantytown in the Strip). 

In January 1932, Cox led a march of 20,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians, dubbed “Cox’s Army,” on Washington, D.C to confront Herbert Hoover (J. Alex Noble in a variety of roles). The march sparked the Jobless Party, and Cox ran for president.  When his efforts failed, he backed Roosevelt who took the White House later that year.

Making “Shantytown – the Ballad of Fr. James Cox” is an ambitious move. There are two really fun songs in the show, “Johnny, I hardly knew ye,” a traditional Irish ballad and famous anti-war song (versions of the song go back to 1867, but it became popular again in the 1970s to protest the Viet Nam war), and “The Haircut Song,” a humorous and original ditty about men kibitzing in the barber shop (delightfully sung by Sam Lothard and the cast). Lothard’s beautifully shiny head gets the biggest laugh in the show when he runs his hand over his bald pate and sings about the army barber cutting off all of his hair.

The cast does a great job with the material. In the chorus, the voices meld together mellifluously.  Despite the gloom of the Depression, the actors look like they’re all having a ball on the stage and their exuberance is contagious.

There’s a stand out performance by Dominique Briggs, who plays Catherine, Cox’s secretary and all-around right-hand-woman. Briggs electrifies the stage in every scene. She has a strong stage presence.

Another outstanding member of the cast is Michele Bankole who sings her heart out.  Pittsburgh stages need more Briggs and Bankole in the future.

There is, however, a weird and mostly unnecessary bit of shadow puppetry, literally and figuratively, hammering away at any subtleties in the show.  The play’s subject matter is so engaging, it doesn’t need shadowy reenactments of the lyrics to make a point.

Werner, best known in advertising for his song, “You’ve Got a Friend in Pennsylvania,” has picked a worthy historical figure to create a show about, Cox was credited with dishing out 300 million meals.

In the recent past of Pittsburgh productions, there have been a plethora of plays based on true-life characters Point Park’s “Men in Boats” about Powell’s expedition down the Colorado River, and the National Tour of “Six: The Musical,” about the six wives of Henry VIII. Now, “Shantytown” joins their ranks. In all cases, it might lead audiences to learn more about the historical shows these characters are based on. The life and times of Father James R. Cox is a worthy subject to take you down an Internet rabbit hole.

“Shantytown – The Ballad of Fr. James Cox – the Musical” gives us Hope (so much so there’s an entire song dedicated to it), and hope is always a good thing.

-MB

“Shantytown – The Ballad of Fr. James Cox” runs until March 26th, 2023 at the  Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee Street, Pittsburgh, PA For more information, click here. 

By Michael Buzzelli, an Irish Twin

Pablo (Juan Rivera Lebron) and his very pregnant wife, Tania (Evelyn Hernandez), are trying to lay down roots, literally and figuratively, in a swanky neighborhood in Washington, D.C., but their plans go awry when they meet their neighbors, Frank (Cotter Smith) and Virginia (Laurie Klatscher), in “Native Gardens,” by Karen Zacarias.

When the neighbors meet, the seeds of a friendship are sown. Things start off as friendly, even though generational differences, politics and and race seep through the cracks of their friendship like weeds on the sidewalk.

Frank prides himself in his almost award-winning garden (he keeps coming in second to an unseen enemy). He has meticulously maintained the green space with weed-killers and pruning shears. Tania, however, wants go wild, planting native species in her backyard, even though it will attract bugs and bees into the space. Pests that Frank has been desperately attempting to destroy to save his hydrangeas.  The central conflict between the neighbors is around twenty-two inches long. Frank’s garden encroaches into Pablo and Tania’s newly surveyed land and a dispute ensues.

Frank, a dyed-in-the-red-wool Republican, has unknowingly crossed the border into Pablo and Tania’s yard, and he tries to save his garden before the contest judges come by to declare it a winner. Pablo and Tania, however,  are trying to get their backyard fence up in time for a garden party with Pablo’s law firm.

Tensions mount and the backyard brawl begins to escalate, a war of words and petty battles begins (a cigarette butt becomes the butt of a joke in their skirmish). While their opinions are quite contrary, their gardens grow!

Photo credit: Kristi Jan Hoover

Zacarias adds complexity to a simple story about a land dispute between neighbors. It’s sharp and witty, but it’s text and no subtext. Everyone says and does exactly what their thinking. While it takes on some very substantive issues in a humorous way, it hammers them down hard like the stakes in Pablo’s new fence.

The acting is superb. Marc Masterson does another outstanding job directing, letting the cast blossom in their own vibrant colors.

Hernandez is a delight as the soon-to-be mom Tania.  She’s strong and forthright without ever being a pest.

Frank’s crotchety old man is a trope, but Smith gives him nuance and vulnerability. Smith lands some  great silent gags as he putters around in his garden, germinating on revenge.

Klatscher’s Virginia is so immensely likable, even when she tries to be the bad seed, sewing chaos by summoning a lawyer (Maame Danso in a silent cameo) to produce a cease and desist.  Virginia is  lovably awkward thanks to Klatscher’s charm.

Rivera Lebron is no wilting flower, but his costars get more time in the sun.

All of the elements align in perfection in this production.

Tony Ferrieri isn’t your garden variety scenic designer.  He creates another stunning set. Half of the set is Frank and Virginia’s pristine yard, and the other is Pablo and Tania’s more rustic space. The large oak, a plot point in the play, looms majestically over the set.

Paul Whitaker’s lighting design brilliantly sets the time of day for each scene.

The show is about  a minor grievance between neighbors, but in the end, compassion wins. Love wins (even for Frank and Virginia’s off-stage son).

The characters are all likable and their arguments valid. “Native Gardens” makes a strong point about seeing past our differences and being human beings together.  It’s the petty squabbles that crop up on our garden path. What better way to break down barriers – than through laughter?

“Native Gardens” is not an easy plot to hoe, but it’s an important idea to cultivate.

-MB

“Native Gardens” is planted at the City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203, until April 2. For more information, click here.