Asbury Radio ~ The Radio Voice of Asbury Park Theater Page Home
Asbury Radio's Review:
One thing that hits you as clear as a Minnesota Icehouse from a 100 yards is the guy who wrote "Don't Hug Me" had a helluva good time doing it. Phil Olson, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical now running through Dec. 31 at NJRep's Lumia Theater in Long Branch, did just that. And the same probably goes for Phil's brother Paul, an M.D., who wrote the music. The result is that 10 minutes into this musical, you drop your big city smugness and settle into your LandsEnd boots (North Country attire is de riguer for the evening) and laugh along to goofy jokes and silly songs that you gradually realize are all rather clever, in fact.
There's a love triangle, a karaoke machine that cues itself at the strangest moments, a couple whose marriage needs a tune up and the constant specter of a now famous classmate, Sven Jorgenson, with 82 songs on the Karaoke LSS 562. The acting keeps this tongue in cheek romp from sinking through the ice. Cudos to Michael Nathanson, who lights up the stage with his irresistibly charming Karaoke salesman (a la Music Man); Clark Carmichael as the egocentric Kanute, John Little as Gunner, the romantically challenged, slightly homophobic husband who just wants to move to sunny Florida, Cortnie Loren Miller as Bernice, who glides through her character's dramatic transformation with ease, and Darcie Siciliano, as Gunner's wife Clara, who portrays a wife with one hand on the front door knob with sincerity, sentiment and humor. Gail Winar did an excellent job of directing the cast through dance routines on the postage stamp Dwek stage. Hurry on over to the Lumia Theater before the bad weather socks you in. ~~~~
Musical Comedy by Phil and Paul Olson
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Asbury Radio Theater Reviews
| Asbury Radio
~ The Radio Voice of Asbury Park The Best Man is a Side-Splitting Delight
|
'Exits and Entrances' -- by Athol Fugard, an NJRep production currently
playing at the Lumia Theater, in Long Branch.
Review by Maureen Nevin Duffy
"I know why my father is dying," exclaims the nascent playwright, acted ever
so subtly by William Dennis Hurley. "My father is dying of unimportance." And
in that one marvelous sentence I knew I would love playwright, Athol Fugard.
Fugard's play, 'Exits and Entrances', explores the lives of two white men
struggling to cling to their own importance in a land riddled with racial and
class prejudices, the apartheid of Fugard's South African homeland.
Did I expect to hear more of the black person’s experience with this tyranny?
Of course. I waited to hear some lines from the young playwright's work, some
glimpse into Apartheid. It was only in retrospect that I realized Fugard had a
much larger message: If the educated and the worshipped dread obscurity, what
can be said about those who daily are reminded of their insignificance to this
world. Through these white men, Fugard's message was much more incisive,
ironic, and probably more likely to get heard.
Hurley is the perfect understated counterpart to Morlan Higgins' over the top
Andre Huguenet, whose Shakespearian roles are his life, the theater his home.
He is a fine actor. We believe him and adore him, even while feeling
embarrassed for racism and other critical flaws. A masterful accomplishment.
This run end June 25, get your tickets today. Call the theater now
732-229-3166
'Women of Lockerbie', Review by Helen Pike Home
Washing the soul, the mind, and the material
body is a ritual rich in symbolism. Through April 30 at the Lumia Theatre,
Deborah Brevoort's play "The Women of Lockerbie", is as much about the
cleansing of grief, fear, hatred, frustration, and anger as it is about
laundry. Each emotion is introduced through individual vignettes before coming
together for a collective expunging by the end of the 90-minute performance.
Part drawing-room, part Greek chorus, part therapy, the play introduces four
women, who grappled with death when Pan-Am flight 103 exploded over their
community, to a mother still looking for anything remaining of her son on the
seventh anniversary of the tragedy. The masculine view is supplied by her
husband and a Washington bureaucrat ordered to burn the passengers' effects
warehoused on "the shelves of sorrow" at the conclusion of the governmental
inquest.
"Give love to those who have suffered so the evil won't return" is the message
of this award-winning play, a worthy exhortation given the geo political
history which continues to link Americans to events in the Middle East.
~~~Listen
to interview with actors from this performance. Listen to the show
live to win tickets for two. www.njrep.org
King
keeps the mayhem circling around his excellent story like a swirling
polka, while he takes us inside the lives of the people we will love;
the chubby bridegroom, Patrick, played masterfully by Ed Jewett.
Patrick's sacrifices have held the family together while his rakish
kid brother, John, played convincingly by Dan Domingues, has snatched
nearly all the ripe fruit for himself --even Patrick's most prized
possession. (photo left: Bob's other half, Nate Gorham)
One
is convinced in the first five minutes that King isn't capable of
writing one. So the groom's best friend, Ronnie, played by Tom Tansey,
which might be a bit part if crafted by a lesser playwright, becomes a
tour de force for this natural comedian. Tansey, like all good
comedians, employs every facet of his physical and mental trappings to
propel us along from one side splitting line to the next. And this
fellow knows what to do with a line. When the groom tells his friend
he loves his bride so much that he's decided to give her the greatest
gift he has, Tansey screams in horror, "Your car? You're giving her
your car?"
All
of the wonderful lines are on the mark, true to character and
wonderfully fun. The timing is impeccable and a credit to King's
director, Peter Bennett, who also directed the brilliant NJ Rep
production, Piaf in Vienna. The plot spins along flawlessly
through an excellent set designed by Harry Feiner and lit by Jill
Nagle. This wedding is bliss!!