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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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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NO MORE NEED FOR FEAR.

HOLD FAST ONTO YOUR CONVICTIONS,

GIVEN TIME THEY’LL LEAD TO BLESSINGS.

IN TIME THEY WILL LEAD TO BLESSINGS.”

This choir excerpt from the famous Czech operetta, Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride,” comes late in act 2 of Vaclav Havel and Vladimir Moravek’s “Hunt for a Pig,” (also called “The Pig.” at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan. But its message of sweetness and light comes after a dramatic comedy roller coaster ride that leaves the packed audience figuratively dancing in the aisles. For “The Pig” is no ordinary collage of comedy, drama and music. You will be sorry if you don’t see this wildly amusing, excitedly staged and extremely well-acted show.

Havel, of course, was the Czech Republic’s first President, a human rights icon, who was also a critically-acclaimed playwright. He died in 2013. Havel’s final theater piece, set some years before the non-violent “velvet revolution” overthrew communist Czechoslovakia, is phantasmagoric testimony to his famous oft-quoted belief that, “Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred.” But this is also the only time he appears as a character in one of his plays.

As brilliantly directed by Henry Akona from a translation by Edward Einhorn, “The Pig” tells the story of Havel’s near futile attempts to buy a pig for a “zabijacka” or celebratory pig roast which foreshadows the demise of communist rule.  Havel’s very presence in this comic quest is not just buffoonery, I can tell you. It underscores the restrictive nature of the “lies and hatred” of oppression.

Yet it seems that every time he and the villagers are ecstatic about finally finding a pig it slips out of their grasp. Is this a symbol of elusive freedom and peace of mind? I believe so. I understand that Havel himself had an big sense of humor despite four years in prison and constant persecution.

Playing Havel, Robert Honeywell is properly bureaucratic and uproariously funny in his frustrated attempts to buy a pig. And what a commanding voice he has!  Katherine Boynton is perfectly cast as the ditzy American TV journalist interviewing Havel and others on camera. Yet to her immense credit, her movie star good looks and flawless comic timing don’t hide her character’s underlying warmth and humanity which become plainer as the play progresses. Her performance oddly reminded me of Cary Grant’s in the classic movie “Bringing Up Baby,” co-starring Katharine Hepburn.

The entire cast is unusually talented – as actors, singers as well as instrumentalists. Melissa Elledge, John Gallop, Andrew Goldsworth, Jennifer Harder, David Hov, Mateo Moreno, Emily Shankman, Pheobe Silva, Moira Stone, Terence Stone, Michael Whitney, and Sandy York are among the most talented performers you’ll see on any Off-Broadway, or for that matter, Broadway stage. And I especially liked Christopher Yustin as Fanda, who tries to come up with an appropriate pig Havel can buy, and Jenny Lee Mitchell who played the Tapmaster’s wife as well as the clarinet.

As I’ve indicated, “The Pig” is not simple, straightforward fair. But I can truly say that ever since I accompanied my father, the late legendary late drama critic Ward Morehouse to Broadway plays, I’ve seldom ever enjoyed an evening in the theater as much.

First published in BlackTie Magazine – See more at: http://blacktiemagazine.com/arts_theater/Hunt_for_a_Pig.htm#sthash.24wCuEgQ.dpuf

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