Sharpenicity

FINDING NEVERLAND The familiar story of playwright J.M. Barrie and his Peter Pan finds its unique magic in the music of Finding Neverland.   In Barrie’s classic, within one fantastic story lies the secrets of the heart of the author.  The cast of Finding Neverland brings that story to stage both wondrously and believably so.    Jeff Sullivan is an exuberantly creative J.M. Barrie to Ruby Gibbs’  lovely Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widow with her four sons who inspired  playwright  J.M. Barrie to write  Peter Pan.   Conor McGriffin is in the double role of the director of  the Duke of York Theater, Charles Frohman and as the infamous fictional but very real Captain James Hook.  In both roles, he keeps after Barrie to finish the play. Emmanuelle Zeesman is Mrs. DuMaurier,  Sylvia’s mother, and the concerned grandmother of the boys—Jack, Michael, George and Peter—who are played on alternate performances...

THE MASTER AND MARGARITA  at CONSTELLATION THEATRE COMPANY The Master and Margarita is brimming over with an abundance of fun and profundity that merges into a grand operatic experience.   Set in 20th century Moscow, it includes the biblical story of Pontius Pilate with the Faustian tale, told with Kantian inquiry plus a good measure of anti-Stalin satire, with music and wild dancing throughout. The Master   (Alexander Strain) is a writer, a lover, a philosopher —Margarita (Armanda Forstrom) his mistress and muse.   He has written a play about a crucial moment in religious history: Pontius Pilot (Jesse Terrill). This does not sit well with the head of Moscow’s theater  Berlioz (Emily Whitworth) and her sidekick Ivan, a critic (Omar D. Cruz).  She is planning to leave her husband, an astronomer no less, for them to run away together when The Master disappears. Now whether you believe in the devil or not, does not determine whether he exists as h...

THE OLD MAN, THE YOUTH AND THE SEA   GALA HISPANIC THEATER The world premier of  Irma Correa’s  El Viejo, el Joven y el Mar is an  occasion to celebrate the enduring truth and beauty of reason and empathy.  El viejo is Miguel de Unamuno, an early 20th century Spanish existential philosopher and writer whose opposition to the regime  of General Rivera let to his imprisonment in 1924 on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands where he would remain for 6 years.    El joven is Cisco, a young fisherman assigned to guard him.    As Unamuno plots his escape from the sandy prison,  Cisco dreams of one day leaving to be on a whaling ship.   El mar holds the answer for both. Unamuno and Cisco develop a delicate balance in their relationship, which lead to choices which will have life changing consequences for both.  The cast is outstanding with Horacio Peña as Unamuno and Victor De La Fuente as Cisco.  In dual r...

NELL GWYNN at FOLGER THEATRE Nell Gwynn, Jessica Swale’s bright comedy about the Restoration stage,  may not be exact to every historical fact (which is based on questionable records anyway)—- but it is most true about the comic spirit of theater that survives. Nell kept her audiences laughing then and this show that resurrects her for an evening kept this audience quite happy. A lusty king and his lovely mistress take the stage at Folger in celebration of the spirit of live theater.  Alison Luff is the delightful Nell Gywnn to R. J. Foster’s charming royal Charles II of England.   He would have dozens of mistresses. Regina Aqino plays two: Lady Castelmaine and Louise de Keroualle. She would say he was the third Charles in her life.  Quinn Franzen plays the other significant Charles—Charles Hart   who would bring Nell to the stage that Charles II had opened up for professional actresses in the Restoration.   Alas, for Edward Kynaston, p...