Simon McBurney’s “The Encounter,” which opened at Broadway’s Golden Theatre September 30, is an astonishing one-person tour-de-force.

The multi-Olivier Award-winning, Tony and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated actor/writer/director leads the audience at the Golden on a brazenly-harrowing trip in the jungles of the Amazon River basin – with only his voice and 15 recorded voices programmed by sound wizards Gareth Fry and Pete Malkin.

At the start of the play the audience is asked to don earphones to “see” all the action through its ears and imagination. That is a remarkable achievement in itself:  No matter where members of the audience sit, they are “sound witnesses” to the play inspired by the book “Amazon Burning” by Petru Popescu. It graphically recounts the late National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre’s quest deep into the heart Amazon territory in 1969. The explorer/shutterbug is searching for the Mayoruna Indians on the Peru-Brazil border.

And Mr. McIntyre almost doesn’t return. Sometimes, it’s the characters of Mr. McIntyre, as related by Mr. McBurney, a prominent tribe member and others who speak. But mostly it’s Mr. McBurney himself in his hauntingly-sonorous English diction. It’s as if the late, great Orson Wells was telling the story of Citizen Kane in the movie of the same name as well as playing its title character.

Mr.McBurney, speaking for Mr. McIntyre, explains that after landing on a remote river by seaplane he trudges deep into the jungle looking for a village occupied by the “Cat people” or Mayoruna.

“The truth was, that being fascinated with the Mayoruna he’s simply forgotten to mark his passage as he normally did,” Mr. McBurney relates. “He was so far into the jungle he had no way of getting back and time was passing. Five, ten, forty minutes later – still no village… Suddenly the trees pulled back … A narrow horizon of huts, perhaps six, seven, eight or nine at a glance … It was a village …”

This passage especially brought back memories of a trip journalist Clay Jones, now the chief editorial writer of The Christian Science Monitor and I had in 1976. We landed on the Columbian-Brazil border seven years after Mr. McIntyre’s trek several hundred miles to the south on the Peru/Brazil border.  Clay and I later wrote a series of articles for The Monitor about our adventure; they were syndicated in other newspapers as well.

The Encounter seemed to bring it all back. We flew on a DC – 3 from Villavicencio, where the Andes mountains meet the plains of Los Lianos, to Mitu, Columbia and from there traveled by single-engine Cessna much further into the wilderness. I won’t recount details of our journey other than to say in retrospect it bore remarkable similarities to Mr. McIntyre’s as depicted in The Encounter.

Mr. McBurney says Mr. McIntyre was befriended by a tribal leader he called “Barnacle,” just as Clay and I were befriended by a chief on a remote tributary of the Rio Negro River.  Both friendships grew out of self-preservation as well as curiosity.

“In the middle of the clearing he (McIntyre) saw the headman, who he had now christened, Barnacle, sitting in front of a fire on his carved stool,” Mr. McBurney says in his performance piece or play. “His cheeks were guant. His eyes were at half-mast, but he could see from a distance that his hands were moving with precision, of stature,”

At the same time, despite the incredible beauty of Mr. McBurney’s words and performance, I wasn’t as captivated with the rather elaborate “curtain raiser,” for want of a better description, of Mr. McBurney’s prelude to the heart of his journey when he describes the rather elaborate technical preparations in putting together his show.  But listening though earphones brings you into the very action of the jungle much like radio dramas of yore must have done.

In this prelude, Mr. McBurney also introduces the audience to the voice of his young daughter who wants to be told a bedtime story. If this and other interludes were meant to contrast “civilization” back home to the seeming timelessness of living in the jungle I applaud them. And an overriding important question pervades the play: is the obsession with recorded time in so-called civilized societies so seemingly important when it can vanish like the morning mist in jungle environs?

Yet his observations are sometimes revelatory. For instance, Mr. McBurney hints that he and Barnacle seemed at times to communicate in a metaphysical, telepathic language, wholly apart from verbal exchanges. I wanted to hear more about this in the play.

In sum, thank you Simon McBurney for giving Broadway one of the most original masterworks in years. Personally, I put it almost on the same level as seeing Richard Burton in “Hamlet.”  I left the Golden Theatre electrified, rejuvenated – and on a purely personal level found a fountain of my journalistic youth along the way at The Encounter.

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Somehow I expected Humphrey Bogart to magically appear. But Charles Richard Hernandez Hardeman, known to jazz fans around the globe at Rick Bogart, didn’t disappoint. Looking uncannily like Bogart in Rick’s Cafe in “Casablanca,” the jazz great commands the New York Yankee Steakhouse the way Derek Jeter did the baseball diamond at New York Yankee Stadium. He’s cool, confident and his music, to purposely use an apt cliche, is to die for – and well as live for!

 The youngest union musician to lead a band at the celebrated Famous Door in New Orleans, a popular jazz club on Bourbon Street, the Rick Bogart Trio now plays regularly at New York Yankee Steakhouse  and Broadway Thai Restaurant.

You may have also seen him play at The Plaza Hotel, Waldorf-Astoria or at Jazz at Lincoln Center or the United Nations. Having also performed in 65 countries and in many movies and for countless charity events, the late Danny Stiles of WNYC Radio called Bogart, “One of the great clarinetists of our era.”

“My mother was a fine pianist and singer who knew music theory,” Bogart says. “At 5 years old I was playing the piano…My father was a practicing attorney who spoke English and Spanish and helped put me through  music school.”

HBO featured Bogart in its documentary called “When the Clarinet Swings.”

Like the real life Humphrey Bogart, whose first real acting role was in a movie my late father, Ward Morehouse, wrote called “Big City Blues, Rick Bogart doesn’t toot his own horn so to speak.

“I check my ego at the door. I’m just happy to still be playing at two wonderful places in New York City on a regular basis.”

 Play it again Rick!

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With this fabulous new production of Cyrano de Bergerac the golden age of  the American theatre is alive and well at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, one of the oldest continuously-operated Off-Broadway theaters in New York.

Directed by and starring Tony Award-nominated actor (for Best Actor) Gabriel Barre, this production of the Edmond Rostand classic is a classic itself. I’m positive that the late Jose Ferrer, who I knew personally and well – and who practically set the modern-day standard for the title role in his 1950 film — would have graciously taken off his own white-plumed hat in admiration to the acting and production.

Mr. Barre’s eloquent portrayal of the ski-nosed hero is thrilling in its pathos, sweeping majesty and sheer magic. The same can be said of his direction, revolving around a small turn-table where the love and battlefield scenes are seamlessly interwoven.

Barre, who most recently directed the musical Amazing Grace on Broadway, joins a long list of great actors who have played Rostand’s title character, including Mr. Ferrer at the New York City Center and Kevin Klein in 2007.  The late, great Walter Hampton first played Cyrano on Broadway back in 1923 and reprised the role on the Great White Way three more times in subsequent years.

This production of Cyrano de Bergerac was adapted by Gabriel Barre, Rick Sordelet and Alexander Sovronsky. It was produced by the Resonance Ensemble, Eric Parness, Artistic Director and Rachel Reiner, Managing Director.  Barre was supported by a highly-gifted cast including Bridget Saracino as Roxanne and Luke Darnell as Christian, who has the looks but lacks both the prose and poetry to express his love he feels in his heart for the beautiful Roxanne.  I also very much liked Rin Allen, Joe Jung, Mark Peters, Alexander Sovronsky and Louis Tucci in their roles.  Jennifer Paulson-Lee as the show’s choreographer also deserves great applause for her artistry.

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When the shutters opened in the Darling London house I half-expected Mary Martin to come sailing through singing “I’ve Got to Crow,” one of the hit songs from the1954 Broadway musical Peter Pan starring the late Miss Martin. But as tuneful and joyful as the songs were in this musical they pale to “When Your Feet Don’t Touch The Ground,” “Neverland” and “We’re All Made of Stars,” with music and lyrics by Gary Barlow and Elliot Kennedy.

Finding Neverland just may be the best musical I’ve seen in years: best acted, best sung and best danced. Little wonder that Barlow has 15 number 1 UK singles to his credit and Kennedy has has written hits for Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls. Finding Neverland is also directed to perfection by Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.

Matthew Morrison is brilliant as playwright J. M. Barrie whose character is cross between shy and self-effacing poet and daring man-of-letters. Kelsey Grammer, in the duel role of Captain Hook and producer Charles Frohman strikes just the right balance between the kind of comic genius we’ve seen in Cheers and straight-laced, budget-minded producer Frohman. In 1906, Frohman risked money and reputation to bring Peter Pan to Broadway. Laura Michelle Kelly, as Barrie’s muse Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and Carolee Carmello as Mrs. Du Maurier are both highly-effective and sincerely heartfelt. Teal Wicks, as Mary Barrie, dreamer J.M. Barrie’s unsympathetic wife, brilliantly succeeds in being appealing despite her carping. And she has a knockout singing voice. And everyone of the children in Neverland bring incredible zest and talent to their roles. Melanie Moore as the character Peter Pan is both fun and knows how to fly quite well indeed! The cast also features Alex Dreier, Aidan Gemme, Jackson DeMott Hill, Noah Hinsdale, Sawyer Nunes, Chris Richards, Hayden Signoretti with Courtney Balan, Dana Costello, Colin Cunliffe, Rory Donovan, Chris Dwan, Kevin Kern, Josh Lamon, Mary Page Nance, Fred Odgaard, Emma Pfaeffle, Jonathan Ritter, Tyley Ross, Julius Anthony Rubio, Paul Slade Smith, Ron Todorowski, Jaime Verazin and Jessica Vosk.

It was 110 years ago that Charles Frohman produced of Peter of the tree tops and Never-Never Land at Broadway’s old Empire Theater starring the great Maude Adams. And playgoers from 6 to 60 “came swarming into the theater,” my late father, Ward Morehouse, writes in his book Matinee Tomorrow a one-volume history of the American theater. Adams herself was a large part of the play’s allure. She “had something of a spiritual quality that made her appeal universal,” my father continued in the book. “The rippling laugh, the lilting voice, the odd toss of her head – these were attributes that endeared her to playgoers.” It was also her generosity that endeared her, especially to children. When a little girl who had saved her pennies for what she thought was the 50 cent ticket price found out it was $1 Miss Adams not only paid the difference for her but ordered that all tickets for that performance be sold for 50 cents.

As a very young boy, I saw Mary Martin playing Peter in the 1954 Jule Stein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical adaptation of the play and my father and I visited Miss Martin in her dressing room after the show. She gave me some “fairy dust,” and for many minutes I tried using it to fly off my family’s living room couch. It failed to do the trick.

Based on the Academy Award-winning Miramax motion picture by David Magee, and the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland follows the relationship between playwright J. M. Barrie and the family that inspired Peter Pan. Directed by Tony®-winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Hair)with book by Olivier Award®-nominee James Graham, music and lyrics by Gary Barlow (Take That) and Grammy Award®-winner Eliot Kennedy, choreography by Emmy Award®-winner Mia Michaels (“So You Think You Can Dance,” Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium). Scenic design is by Tony Award®-winner Scott Pask (Pippin, Book of Mormon), lighting design by Tony Award®-winner Kenneth Posner (The Coast of Utopia, Pippin), costume design by Suttirat Larlarb (Of Mice and Men), and sound design by Tony Award®-nominee Jonathan Deans (Pippin, La Cage aux Folles).

Finding Neverland is produced by Harvey Weinstein and Weinstein Live Entertainment, The Madison Square Garden Company, Len Blavatnik, Ron Burkle, Radenko Milakovic and Bryan Cranston in association with Jason Blum, Broadway Across America, Stephen Bronfman, Rodgin Cohen, Michael Cohl, Jean Doumanian, Chad Dubea, Rick Gerson, Jeremiah J. Harris, Sh. Mohammed Y. El Khereiji, Terry Allen Kramer, Howard Milstein, Dalip Pathak, Steve Rattner, Jimmy Sommers, Peter Stavola, Marvin Peart, and The American Repertory Theater. The production is Executive Produced by Alecia Parker, Barry Weissler and Victoria Parker.

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I saw two adventurous and entertaining shows recently and while their styles couldn’t be farther apart, they both were startlingly insightful as well as a lot of fun.

Singer Jackie Draper returned to the Laurie Beechman Theatre with a one-woman show called Designing Woman. Accompanied by her longtime music director Gregory Toroian on piano, Ritt Henn on bass and Robbyn Tongue on woodwinds, Ms. Draper illuminates each song from “Something In Your Smile” (Leslie Bricusse) to “Make Some Magic” (Blossom Dearie, Johnny Mercer/Duncan Lamont) with unique clarity and unadorned appreciation. Each song tugs at both mind and heart with a unique personal meaning for her and audience members.

Money Lab, conceived and directed by Edward Einhorn, head of Untitled Theatre Company No. 61, is a brilliant potpourri of cabaret and Brechtian vaudeville. Often performers directly address the audience interrupting the narrative in fresh and humorous ways as well inviting people to be part of the show. Money Lab is at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue through April 11.

Yet not all is strictly fun and economic games. One question Money Lab addresses, Mr. Einhorn writes in the program is “how much do we really value art … (and) is it important to us.”

Actor Mick O’Brien, who plays the MC, keeps the evening rolling right along by asking the audience to bid on items with plastic chips they have purchased. The competition is fun as well as instructive. But, surprisingly, several people pooled their chips altruistically to help another make a purchase — something that seems out of kilter with strictly competitive business practice.

The climax of Money Lab was a segment called “Love and Greed,” sung by Jenny Lee Mitchell. The glamorous Ms. Mitchell, who studied classical voice in Vienna and Munich, transports us to Germany in the 1930s. Yet the piece speaks to our own unstable economic times where cut-throat greed, the love of money, overshadows the love of humanity. The “Dead Cat Bounce” segment was entertainingly and satirically instructive, pointing to market highs and lows which are not as final as they do appear.

Ms. Draper’s rendition of songs in Designing Woman also often go beyond joie de vivre. She nimbly treats us to soulful elements not primarily associated with pieces. I found this was especially true with “Let Me Be Your Mirror.” With two of her songs, “It’s My Party” (Herb Wiener, Wally Gold, John Gluck, Jr.) and “The Ballad Of Pearly Sue” (Gerry Mulligan) I noticed some audience members so enthusiastically engaged I thought they were almost tempted to join Ms. Draper on stage.

Oscar Wilde is said to have once quipped that some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. But you can’t put a price on the artistry of Money Lab and Designing Woman. They take you on a refreshing musical journey of self-discovery as well as joy.

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Review by: Beatrice Williams-Rude

In keeping with the current trend of Broadway-Metropolitan Opera crossovers, it seemed a good time to revisit Bartlett Sher’s production of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (“The Tales of Hoffmann”), which was broadcast live from the Met on Saturday. Sher, a Tony-award winning theater director, also did Met productions of “The Barber of Seville” and “Le Comte Ory,” both of which were charming.

The opera is a recounting of the bizarre loves of the poet Hoffmann, a perennial adolescent whose addiction to alcohol exceeds all other feelings even when he lands in the gutter. This is the story of a man, not unlike Poe’s “William Wilson,” who is his own worst enemy. Hoffman hangs out in Luther’s Tavern, a students’ venue. His companion, Nicklausse, is actually his Muse disguised as a student, as she tries to save him from himself.

Hoffmann is killing time as he waits for his current love, the diva Stella, who is performing in an Mozart opera. The students press him to tell them about his romantic life.

The first is Olympia, a beautiful mechanical doll, delightfully performed by Erin Morley, who brought the house down. The production, however, was a problem. Everything in the text points to Olympia’s being unique, the invention of Spalanzani and Coppelius. However, the stage is littered with Olympia look-alikes which violates the story line and serves to confuse the audience. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the principal Olympia.

The Munich and Venice acts present a choice. Sometimes one is the second act sometimes the other. There is justification for both. Musically the Venice scene is much more grandiose, culminating in the magnificent septet, which would make it a logical third act. Dramatically it shows Hoffmann’s descent: he kills a man. However, the argument for the Munich scene providing the climax is that Antonia is real — an actual love. Giulietta, in the Venice scene, is a courtesan, whose love is for diamonds.

The production presents problems in both acts. The Munich scene is supposed to be intimate — Crespel and his daughter Antonio are hiding. It’s ridiculous when Crespel tells his servant to keep the door locked. What door? The setting is huge and barren without any of the properties of a home. Antonia was beautifully sung by Hibla Gerzmava, who also played Stella, a nice touch given both characters are singers.

Critical to the plot is Antonia’s dead mother whose portrait sings, urging Antonia to sing, which for health reasons she shouldn’t. There was no portrait. The mother, appealingly sung by Olesya Petrova but at too rapid a pace, was performing mostly hidden in the dark, then emerging into the light at the end.
The man sitting in front of me was so appalled he didn’t return for the third act. Two others in the same row were denouncing this production and comparing it to the abhorrent new Willy Decker production of “ La Traviata,” which replaced a beautiful and much loved Zeffirelli production, even as this “Hoffmann” replaced a nigh on perfect Otto Schenk production. The new “Traviata” managed to be as ugly as it was stupid, re-set in the 20th century.

As stark as the Hoffmann Munich scene was, the Venice scene matched it at the other extreme: it was so cluttered one couldn’t follow the principals. Traditionally the act opens with Nicklausse and Giulietta in a distant gondola singing “Belle Nuit” with increasing volume as gondola gets nearer. Not in this production. No gondola — not a hint of water –and the stage so crowded they had to step forward to be seen.

Vittorio Grigolo was an excellent Hoffmann, singing beautifully except on what should have been the boffo bring-the-house-down high notes on which his voice lost focus and became breathy. Breathiness was also an occasional problem of an otherwise lovely Nicklausse performed by Kate Lindsey.

Thomas Hampson was excellent as all four villains, Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto. Tony Stevenson was a standout in multiple roles: Frantz, Pitichinaccio, Andres and Cochenille. David Pittsinger was fine as Luther and Crespel. The conductor, Yves Abel, was mostly on target, although his tempi could be challenged. There was one devastating moment, during the septet, when there was a disconnect between the army of singers and the orchestra.

Applause was mostly tepid. “The Tales of Hoffman,” Jacques Offenbach’s masterpiece, is one of those glorious operas that stays with people. The music keeps replaying in one’s head long after one has left the opera house.

Thomas Hampson as Dapertutto and Christine Rice as Giuletta in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Photo credit: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Vittorio Grigolo in the title role of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.” Photo credit: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

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Review by: Ward Morehouse III

On Kentucky Avenue – the Club Harlem Revue is set on the night of a dress rehearsal during the the club’s 1969 season in pre-casinos Atlantic City. But neither time nor nostalgic memories of a by-gone era, however vivid or hazy, can overshadow the brilliance of this new musical. And the word revue is actually a misnomer since it indicates a series of songs and dances stitched together around a common theme. But On Kentucky Avenue is a full-fledged, razzle-dazzle riveting “book” musical that startlingly transforms the tiny stage of Off-Broadway’s Triad Theatre into one of New York’s most magical and electric shows.

There are no ghosts of the past On Kentucky Avenue.

Rather, the show recreates a time that was with a brilliant blend of rousing original finger-snapping songs along with music of the 1960′s (such as “Rescue Me” and “You’re Nobody Till Somebody”…) And I felt like I might have felt if I was fortunate (and old enough!) to have heard the late George Gershwin play his signature “Rhapsody in Blue” in person.

In other words, move over The Last Ship, If/Then and even Jersey Boys. On Kentucky Avenue is a vivid example of what Broadway should and can be.

I personally have seen On Kentucky Avenue twice, the first time  a number of months ago. “OK” was what I thought the first time. “Wow!” and “unbelievable” now. Mostly recently, Tony Award nominee Brenda Braxton (Smoky Joe’s Cafe) and recording artist Jenny Douglas stepped in for the brilliant stars Cheryl Freeman and Andrika Hall, both of whom had holiday commitments. They all thrill us with their grace, beauty, humor and especially their voices. But award-winning singer/songwriter Ty Stephens steals the show time and time again. Mr. Stephens delivers the kind of virtuoso performance that would do Engelbert Humperdinck and Wayne Newton proud indeed. The only difference is that that Mr. Stephen acts, too. Acts up a storm in a performance that is an heart-warming as it is exciting.  Mr. Stephens, who plays the MC, is caught in a love triangle between the club’s lead showgirl and its featured female singer. Yet what could be ordinary becomes extraordinary, pulsing with pathos and the genuine emotion of longing and reconciliation.

Last and certainly not least is the show’s magnificent original score with such songs as “And If I Tell You I Love You,” by Mr. Stephens and Frank Owens, and “This World Is Mine” by Mr. Stephens.  And when the music of the 1960′s starts there’s not a pair of hands not clapping in the audience.

This production also features Lee Summers as comedian ‘Slappy Black’ (modeled after real-life comedian Slappy White who performed frequently at Club Harlem) with special guest artist, Jeree Wade as singer Damita Jo.   Mr. Summers plays his role with such believabilty it’s hard to believe he isn’t the character he portrays. Jeree Wade  Also appearing are dancers (in alphabetical order): Brian Davis, Donna Clark, Gregory J. Hanks, Mindy Haywood, Cassandra Palacio, Renee Ternier and Olutayo Bosede.  The “Hot Band” includes Frank Owens, Wilbur Bascomb, Richard Cummings, Jr. and David Silliman, Brian Brake and Jack Cavari. The show concept was first developed by Jeree Wade, is written by Adam Wade and Ty Stephens. Original music is by Ty Stephens, Frank Owens, Branice McKenzie, Wilbur Bascomb, Adam Wade and Jeree Wade. The Musical Direction is by Frank Owens. Choreography is by Ty Stephens, the Assistant Choreographer, Donna Clark, Dance Captain, Cassandra Palacio with Swing Dance Choreography by Mickey Davidson. The Showgirl Consultant is Betty Jo and Creative Consultant is Russ Weatherford. The Costumes were created by Ty Stephens and Pearl Williams, who is also the Executive Company Manager.  Production Assistants are LaToya Britton and Moses Ukandu.

On Kentucky Avenue – The Atlantic City Club Harlem Revue is presented by Robert R. Blume, Adam Wade, Songbirds Unlimited Productions, Peter Martin/Rick Newman in association with J.R. Knauf, Marshall N. Warner, Marya Coburn & Step Forward Entertainment. Jazz producing legend, Cobi Narita is Associate Producer.

The musical has been playing three to four times a month this past year. Let’s hope that in 2015 this fabulous night (also the name of the show-stopper song “Fabulous Night” by Adam Wade, Mr. Owens and Mr. Stephens), is on Broadway.

On Kentucky Avenue showgirls (L to R) Cassandra Palacio, Renee Ternier, Mindy Haywood and Donna Clark. Credit: David James

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From the opening moment of The Velvet Oratorio – with libretto by Edward Einhorn and music and direction by Henry Akona – you are swept up into an uncommon and soulful exuberance.  And as the show progresses you gradually become part of a harmonic world of music and dramatic art, dispelling the mist of any lack of familiarity with the events of 1989 on the eve of the fall of the Communist government in Czechoslovakia.

The peaceful, largely nonviolent revolution came only eight days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Henry Akona’s dedication of the oratorio “to the crowds in squares all over the world who believe that, through peaceful protest, truth and love can prevail over lies and hatred,” is telling in the wake of the Arab Spring and events in the Ukraine and other places.  The original concert version was more narrowly, if still gratefully dedicated “to the people in Wenceslas Square.”  And yet with all the political violence still going on in the world, this production reminds us that the powerful  freeing power of “truth and love,” evidenced in in peaceful protests, is all too sporadic.

Like Handel’s Messiah, this oratorio combines orchestra, a choir and soloists. Unlike Greek drama in which choruses comment on actors and scenes, here the characters’ dialogue comment on the action of the choruses.  You have diplomats and ordinary citizens trying to make sense of the larger picture. As the protests grow, the Czech government makes concessions.  Characters in the show, such as Shirley Temple Black, a diplomat at this time, comment. Black is well-acted with the proper dignity and distinction by Andrea Gallo.

In fact, all the actors in this large cast give the kinds of standout performances the Untitled Theater Company has become known for. The Untitled Theater Company has mounted this show in association with  the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York and the Czech Center. Untitled Theater Company No 61 gave us the widely-acclaimed The Pig or Vaclav Havel’s Hunt for a Pig earlier this year. The story of The Velvet Oratorio is simpler than The Pig but if not quite as outlandishly musical just as moving.

Aside from Andrea Gallo, all the performers give impassioned and at times quite funny performances. The Pig, Havel’s last play, was uproariously funny, speaking volumes for the sense of humor of the late dramatist and Czech Republic President himself as well as the the show’s outstanding cast members. In this production, Ross Degraw as Officer, Oliver Fetter as Drum, John Gallop, Baritone, Marina  Kifferstein, Second Violin, Jonathan Klein as Communist, Jillian Kukl as Student, Mike Maloney as Martin 2, , Nadya Meykson, First Violin, Michael Midlarsky, Cello, Jenny Lee Mitchell, Mezzo, Soprano solo, Mike O’Brien as Michael, Victor Romeno as Collective Unconscious, Eric B. Oleson as Stanek, Nick Ravel, Viola, Yvonne Roen as Vera, Emily Shankman, Student, Phoebe Silva, Student, Phoebe Silva, Student, Rebecca Steinberg, Trumpet, Moire Stone, Soprano, Mezzo solo, Terence Stone, Tenor, Matthew Trumbull, as Vanek, Michel Villastrigo are all deliver powerful and appealing performances.  Jenny Lee Mitchell stood out for her clear and haunting singing, especially since I understand she was struggling to get rid of a cold at the time. As for Mr. Akona and Mr. Einhorn, who is also the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company, give the show both poignancy and fast-moving dramatic power. I for one would love to see both talented writer and director/composer bring their combined magic to a purely “mainstream” great dramatic work such as Eugene O’Neill’s “The Moon for the Misbegotten.” I can even see them doing it with a chorus and orchestra!

The Velvet Oratorio plays at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, through January 14, 2015.

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Review by: Nitya Thomas

New Encompass Theatre’s production of ‘A Wake or a Wedding” is charming, entertaining and funny. What starts off a bit slowly turns steadily into an amusing comedy with several completely unexpected and mad plot turns – true to the style of comic opera. Under Nancy Rhodes direction, the cast had the audience well entertained throughout with splendid acting and strong singing despite a relatively dead space that did not do much for voices. The singers were accompanied by a chamber orchestra conducted by Mara Waldman, which unfortunately sometimes outplayed the voices in the small space.

New Encompass Theatre, founded by Nancy Rhodes in 1975, is dedicated to fostering American and international modernist opera. Their latest production by Richard Pearson Thomas (both composer and librettist) is a story set in Montana, of the family and household of a copper king who has just passed on, on the eve of his daughter’s wedding. This leaves his family and household in a state of turmoil and chaos, which only deepens with the arrival of an opera diva and her cohort, who have been hired to sing at the wedding. Despite being “modern” music, Pearson’ score is relatively accessible and lyrical. Most importantly for an English opera, the score allowed the singers to effectively communicate the story. To their credit, the singers did a fine job with the diction and communication through acting.

Joy Hermalyn was a treat to watch – her strong comedic acting as the aging and loud opera diva, took the performance to a whole new level. Alison Davy did a beautiful job playing the wistful wife Deirdre. The three young sopranos Lindsay Rider, Marie Anello and Caroline Miller all gave solid performances – Lindsay Rider as Miss O’Dell was particularly exciting to watch with strong acting and a beautifully warm and even tone through the different registers. Of the male voices, Jack Highstraw was particularly memorable.

All in all, an enjoyable experience and wonderful effort by a talented group of performers. Hats off to Nancy Rhodes for preserving and keeping the space of Chamber Opera alive in today’s world.

Nitya Thomas, an accomplished professional singer herself, is an occasional guest reviewer for Broadwayafterdark.org. She can be contacted at nitz00@gmail.com

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Productions at The Pearl are usually lustrous; George Bernard Shaw dazzles on his own, but in the hands of  David  Staller blazes even more brightly. So what happens when  these elements coalesce? An incandescent  offering that’s as thought-provoking as it is entertaining, as informative as it is humorous. “Major Barbara” is among Shaw’s masterpieces and The Pearl does it proud.

In this play GBS proves Milton’s observation that the devil is more interesting than God. Andrew Undershaft is the embodiment of evil, a multimillionaire arms manufacturer who buys governments, and anything else he chooses. Insightfully portrayed by  Dan  Daily, this is a character on whom our attention is riveted, a charming scoundrel, a “Mephistopheles,” a “Machiavelli.” Or is he?

His adversary is his wife, Lady Britomart Undershaft, the embodiment of hypocrisy, who is hilariously played by  Carol Schultz. These two are the polar opposites, the pillars: Undershaft, whose company motto is “Unashamed,” and Lady Undershaft, who arrogantly poses as a moralist yet has no compunctions about living off what she considers her husband’s ill-gotten gains.

An ingenious casting device has Carol Schultz doubling as Lady Britomart and Mrs. Baines, a Salvation Army General, showing the two women as being but opposite sides of the same coin. There is other doubling that furthers Shaw’s theme that but for the accident of birth, one could be living the life of the other.

Undershaft wants the one thing he can’t buy: his daughter Barbara’s affection and respect. But  he can win by default, by showing her that her world is as corrupt as his, by “buying” the Salvation Army. He then shows Barbara, nicely  played by Hannah Cabell, and members of his family as well as would-be members, his munitions village. The workers are well paid, there is beautiful housing and grounds, schools, medical facilities, even a “William Morris Labour Church—no “Satanic mills” here. Rather more like something an idealist like Robert Owen would envision.

The righteous moralists, led by Lady Britomart Undershaft and seemingly abetted by son Stephen, are appalled and accuse Undershaft of wasting money and “weakening the workers’ sense of responsibility.” Undershaft replies, “… when you are organizing civilization you have to make up your mind whether trouble and anxiety are good things or not. However, a sufficient dose of anxiety is always provided by the fact that we may be blown to smithereens at any moment.”

Shaw has great fun with “Major Barbara,” pitting the military–industrial complex against organized religion. He introduces us to Peter Shirley, a hard-working idealistic man who looks older than his age, having been overworked for most of his life, and has now been fired because his employer thinks him too old, even though his work has not suffered. His circumstances are in contrast to those of the men who work in the munitions plant of Andrew Undershaft, highlighting the question of “who is moral?” He tells Barbara that he saved her soul—as he saved the souls of his workers, saved them from the seven deadly sins: food, clothing, heat, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven millstones from Man’s neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted. “I enabled Barbara to become Major Barbara, and I saved her from the crime of poverty. … The worst of crimes….Only fools fear crime; we all fear poverty.”

Among the bon mots: Undershaft notes that when someone knows nothing but thinks he knows everything, a political career is in order.

This splendid production was admirably directed by David Staller.  In addition to the elegant Dan Daily as Andrew Undershaft and stalwart Carol Schultz as Lady Britomart Undershaft and General (Mrs.) Baines; Richard Gallagher is a delight as Adolphus Cusins, the professor of Greek literature and philosophy, who only joined the Salvation Army because of his love for Barbara (Hannah Cabell). Other cast members nimbly handling multiple roles are  Becky Baumwell, as Sarah Undershaft and who is particularly appealing Jenny Hill; Alex Shaw as Stephen Undershaft and Snobby Price; Cary Donaldson as Charles Lomax and Bill Walker; Bradford Cover as Morrison, Peter Shirley and Bilton; and  Robin Leslie Brown as Lady Briomart’s maid, Rummy Mitchens, and   Andrew Undershaft’s assistant.

Run, don’t walk, to get tickets for this delightful exercise where conscience meets funny-bone.

“Major Barbara” will be at The Pearl Theatre through  Dec. 14: 555 West 42nd Street, NYC 10036, info@pearltheatre.org

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