There’s no place like home

The Wizard of Oz lands in Detroit

By Vivian DeGain

The Oakland Press Jan. 24, 2010

Cackling witches, demanding wizards, sweet little people, three best friends, flying monkeys – and ruby slippers – this could only be the magical story of “The Wizard of Oz.”

The journey of Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and Tin Man will be playing live in Detroit opening Jan. 29, as the friends travel in Munchkin Land, the Haunted Forest and the Emerald City.

Celebrating “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” a children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1900, the story became a legend in the 1939 film, featuring numerous classic songs composed by Harold Arlen, such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” and “If  I Only Had A Brain.”

The Wizard of Oz touring cast includes Cassie Okenka as Dorothy Gale, Adam Jepsen as the Scarecrow, Peter Gosik as the Tinman, Jesse Coleman as the Cowardly Lion, Pat Sibley as the Wicked Witch and Robert John Biedermann as the Wizard of Oz.

Director Nigel West, who resides in London and Central France when he is not working, “all over U.S. with ‘The Producers,’ ‘Chicago’ and ‘Wizard of Oz,’ or directing shows in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, Korea, Vienna, Berlin or Madrid,” reflected on his creative image of this show in this email interview.

Q: Why is there no place like home?

A: It’s such a personal thing. We often think the grass is greener, but is it? If we are given the opportunity to find out, where do we go from there? There really is nothing like arriving through our own front door, sleeping in our own bed and being close to the people or pets that we love. It’s very simple really I guess. 

Q: How did you approach your direction of “The Wizard” – a story that is so familiar, beloved and magical for the audience? Do these expectations make for an added challenge?

A: My approach is to be honest. You have to tell the story. Everybody knows it. If the show loses its honesty, there really is no point in telling it. It has to have a heart, as the story offers this simple clear message. But “The Wizard of Oz” has been an amazing journey for me. Being an English director, I was a little nervous to bring the production to America, but once I was able to cast as required, I relaxed. I had the wonderful support of the co-creative team, especially Leigh Constantine as choreographer. Tim Mcquillen-Wright is the set and costume designer.

Q: Were there any surprises or unexpected challenges?   

A: The obvious physical challenge – is the twister. The set and the special effects have to (work impressively and be) portable, able to be moved into any theatre in seven hours. I created animation for the sequence to try and offer something a little (graphically) dramatic to this generation of children who are familiar with computer-generated effects.

We keep Kansas an animated back drop. Pure theatre begins with Munchkinland. Then we have to bring Glinda on stage in a bubble, create pyro technics for the witch, have it snow on stage, and have the witch melt in front of our eyes! It is amazing – with wardrobe and wig changes too. We created a bit of a monster that has to fit into four 52-feet trucks! 

Q: With such a vast professional background, have there been roles, productions or experiences that are of special importance to you?

A: Such a hard one to answer. All the shows have their own merits. The large scale musicals are wonderful, but one of my most enjoyable periods was directing a one-woman show for the Edinburgh Festival, just myself, a pianist and a wonderful Scottish singer Brenda Cochrane. It went on to be a full scale show.

In terms of musical comedy, ‘Me and My Girl’ has to be up there. ‘Crazy For You’ was tops for the joy of a Gershwin score and the amazing choreography of Susan Stroman. ‘The Producers’ is tops — such an amazingly funny piece of work. 

West’s impressive credits include his work at the Bristol Old Vic Company at the Theatre Royal, London’s Strand Theatre and London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. His shows have appeared throughout the U.K. and the U.S., and he has served as the artistic consultant or director in productions in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Dusseldorf.

For more information on the tour visit www.wizardofozontour.com.

‘Oz’ runs Jan. 29–Feb. 14 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd. in Detroit. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 6:30 p.m. on Sundays; with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m. on Sundays and on Feb. 11. Tickets are $24-$79 at the Fisher Theatre box office, online at www.broadwayindetroit.com or at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at Ticketmaster, 1-800-982-2787.

BOEING-BOEING High-flying comedy lifts at Meadow Brook Theatre

By Vivian DeGain

Oakland Press Jan. 17, 2010

Meadow Brook Theatre Interim Artistic Director Travis W. Walter wears many guises in his roles on stage and off for the local company. Now he is earning his wings as the captain of an airship determined to fly high with laughter.

Currently directing the comedy farce, “Boeing-Boeing,” Walter has three great allies in the friendly skies — and actor Karen Sheridan is all three.

MBT performs the Michigan premiere of this ensemble production written in 1960 and revived most recently on Broadway in 2008, as are so many things from the popular culture of the sixties. The 2008 production won Tony Awards for the Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor as well as numerous other nominations.

The “Boeing-Boeing” story revolves around an American architect Bernard, who lives in Paris in a tres chic apartment overlooking the city with his savvy and sarcastic maid, Bertha. Bernard fancies his charmed life and love on the fly – as he juggles three fiancées – one American, one French and one German – all three who are airline attendants with different shifts, separate companies and international schedules. Christopher Howe performs the role of the smooth Bernard at MBT, a role played by Tony Curtis in the 1965 film. Bernard is both a cad and a champion, but his maid is the one who keeps it all straight for him.

Sheridan performs as Bertha his housekeeper. She identifies herself as Bernard’s “air traffic controller, keeping one up, one down and one pending.”

The MBT cast also includes Katie Hardy as the American fiancée Janet; Julianne Somers as the French fiancée Jacqueline; and Stephanie Wahl as the German fiancée Judith.

Sharing the initial “J” helps to simplify some of the details around the domestic scene, but the French comedy becomes hysterical and outrageous when all three of the stewardess’ schedules overlap and they all arrive at Bernard’s at once.

Thank goodness that Bernard’s long lost friend Robert (Steve Blackwood) has also dropped into the apartment for a visit. Robert and Bertha do their best to keep all passengers on board, entertained, comfortable and ignorant of each other, but turbulence is bound to create narrow escapes and crash landings. Because the apartment has seven doors leading to infinite possibilities – the stage chase is set and all the door slamming features the excellent work of scenic designer Brian Kessler.

While this entertaining farce is written to be brassy and over-the-top – the best thing going for it is Sheridan’s performance. Her savoir fare is her restraint, masterful timing and slow delivery. Sheridan’s comic persona onstage is all her own, but reflect equal parts Zsa Zsa Gabor and Lucille Ball.

Sheridan, long time theater professor at Oakland University, earned local recognition in her roles in “Dancing at Lughnasa” and “Angels in America” at Meadow Brook Theatre. Her long professional credits include degrees in theatre from Loyola University of Chicago, from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul — and she studied mime in Paris. She has also taught for six years on the faculty at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.

The sixties humor is a bit dated and the other actors need to study Sheridan’s technique, but all in all, Meadow Brook’s “Boeing-Boeing” creates levity in these long cold January skies in Michigan.

The MBT production features costume design by Liz Moore, lighting design by Reid G. Johnson and sound design by Mike Duncan. Terry W. Carpenter is the stage manager and Sarah Warren is the assistant stage manager.

Meadow Brook Theatre presents the comedy ‘Boeing-Boeing’ through Jan. 31. Performances at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2, 6 or 8 p.m. on Saturdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets: $30-$39 at MBT box office (248) 377-3300 or www.ticketmaster.com. Information www.mbtheatre.com.

Wayne David Parker and Tom Whalen star in ‘Escanaba’ now showing at the Purple Rose.

AT LAST, the first ‘ESCANABA’ begins the trilogy – and this one’s for the JIMMERS

**** Four Stars

By Vivian DeGain

The first one, Escanaba in Da Moonlight, was a WILD ride in the U.P., twisting and turning at every pass, never predicting where it would go or how it would end.

Similarly, the second, Escanaba in Love, set a rustic romance smack in the middle of woods where the laws of nature wrestle with the ways of love.

And now, as deer season trails off Nov. 30, there is perfect license to bag some tickets, drive to Chelsea and see Jeff Daniels’ newest play Escanaba at his Purple Rose Theatre.

This Escanaba is the first story, the prequel, in his Escanaba trilogy, and the PRT run has been extended through Jan. 23 by popular demand.

Directed by Guy Sanville, Purple Rose’s artistic director, this fantastic cast includes Tom Whalen as Alphonse Soady, Wayne David Parker as James Negamanee and Julian Gant as Black Jack.

While the look back story is all about Alphonse — this one’s for the Jimmers.

Wayne David Parker is a tour de force, a skillful, brilliant, active, playful and always surprising commotion on stage. Parker created Jimmy “Jimmers” Negamanee (In Da Moonlight and In Love) with a hitch in his walk, a twitch in his speech and a charade of tremors, shudders and tics.

Parker has performed the role in some variation, in all three of Daniel’s “Escanaba” plays on stage as well as in the 2001 film.

This time, Parker’s James Negamanee moves without a spasm, but there is nothing ordinary about this Negamanee from Menominee.

Parker makes the show. Parker makes the story. He’s earned it and he deserves it. He moves the plot, the action and binds the trilogy together as if he tightened it with deer hide straps.

In this Escanaba we go back to the beginning of the legend in Daniels’ final installment of his Yooper trilogy. Set in 1922 as Alphonse Soady completes the finishing touches on his newly-constructed deer camp, a wild-eyed Negamanee bursts into the Soady lodge fleeing a black bear.

Daniels, Purple Rose’s executive director, writes in his playbill introduction, “When I wrote Escanaba in Da Moonlight in 1995, I was simply trying to write something unique to those of us who call Michigan home. An Upper Peninsula deer camp on the eve of buck season seemed familiar enough…the demand for it exceeded even our loftiest expectations, when we watched the ‘I’ve seen it five times’ crowd show up in full camouflage hunting gear and quietly mouth the lines right along with the actors.”

Since then, Daniels has penned and staged the second, his Escanaba in Love which is a wonderful and richly layered story, and then turned the legend into a camp song “Escanaba in Da Moonlight.”

Not to mention, Daniels, a tour de force of our own, is nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor for his Broadway role in God of Carnage (2009). Daniels has acted in some 55 films, written more than a dozen plays, and collaborates in countless others on and off stage.

Just when we might wonder what else Daniels could possibly have to say about a bunch of hunters escaping to their Yooper den up north – Daniels has given us another look into the wonders of survival, kinship and the necessity and danger of solitude.

New to the “Escanaba” cast, but a Purple Rose veteran, actor Whalen perfectly matches and balances the rowdy Negamanee, with (Whalen’s) quiet, contemplative, restrained Alphonse.

Whalen starred in the Purple Rose production of Daniels’ Panhandle Slim & The Oklahoma Kid last year, and was hog tied as his character for the entire two hours of the production. We wonder how he ever walks straight again.

Now his Alphonse, composed and perhaps consumed, has his own Soady history to mend and consider, and that is where the story turns to Black Jack.

Two warnings about this Escanaba.

The 90-some minute performance is without an intermission. Use the bathroom before you sit down to watch the show.

And don’t forget the story takes place at deer camp. Rugged outdoorsmen are free to speak and act in the wild and they do.

The world premiere of Jeff Daniels’ Escanaba runs at the Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park Street in downtown Chelsea through Jan. 23, generally at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $25-$38, senior discounts available. Call the PRT Box Office at 734-433-ROSE (7673) or visit www.purplerosetheatre.org.