Theater Reviews

In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy didn’t know how great she had it at home until she was gone.

Willard High School theater director Cynthia Light, who will direct students in “The Wizard of Oz” in the final production held in the WHS performing arts center, may feel similar to Dorothy after this year.

Explosions slice and dice the air with a ferocity and as fast as a bullet train inside the intimate Dobama Theatre space during its riveting production of “Becky Shaw,” a shockingly funny comedy of rudeness and a Pulitzer-Prize finalist.

The promising playwright Gina Gionfriddo notes in her introduction that audience members after past productions couldn’t help but dislike and assign blame to the characters for the emotional carnage at the end. She also notes she doesn’t believe the characters are “bad or wrong or crazy or worthless or unlovable.”

What do Bob Feller and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre have in common?

leveland.

The former baseball great is synonymous with the city, having pitched the first opening-day no hitter in major league history. The Globe’s connection, while not nearly as famous, can serve as a valuable tidbit for Buckeye grade school students to meet Ohio history standards, any buff of the Bard or any fan of trivia.

A 1950s musical version of “Romeo and Juliet” with different character names,  an old-time favorite comedy from the witty pen of Neil Simon, a Tennessee Williams classic drama and a musical celebrating the 1980s make up the 2015 Huron Playhouse season.

The season will open July 7 with “West Side Story,” set in New York City and pitting two gangs, one American, one Puerto Rican, against each other. When one of the American gang members falls for the sister of the opposing gang, the events lead up to tragedy. 

Norwalk High School junior Lauren Steffanni has been drawn to Mary Poppins ever since she was little. The nanny with the magical umbrella that makes her fly is so perfect and confident, Steffanni said she could’t help but admire her.  

Soon, area residents — including, most likely, present-day little girls, will look up to Steffanni — literally. They’ll have to, since she’ll fly. And so will NHS senior Noah Little, who will play the equally mysterious Bert in the NHS production of “Mary Poppins.” A cast and crew of more than 40 will perform the show at 7 p.m. March 12, 13 and 14 as well as 3 p.m. March 15 in the performing arts center next to NHS.

Diane Paulus is a disguiser extraordinaire.

How else to explain the magic she’s accomplished by helming the high-flying, magical American Repertory Theater production of “Pippin?”

A re-imagined version of the hackneyed, predictable, thin story about a young man looking to do something extraordinary played on Broadway for 709 performances last year. It won four 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival.

Playwright Greg Pierce could’ve written “Slowgirl” as a straightforward, “from the headlines” play about bullying in which all characters are present, the situation plays out in front of us and the tragic consequences revealed.

Such a play could result in powerful theater, leading us to action.

But Pierce is aiming for something deeper here.

Why is the woman who’s grieving the loss of her 4-year-old son talking about parallel existences to the teenager who accidentally killed her child?

What’s she doing befriending him in the first place? Isn’t she supposed to harbor animosity toward him, like her husband does? After all, losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent.

But the grieving process is complex and different people react in different ways.

There’s an exchange in the heartfelt, humorous and tear-jerker play “Trying,” a true story, during which the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. is mentioned.

One of the play’s two characters, the aging, weak former attorney general under President Franklin Roosevelt, asks his young secretary if she knows any blacks who’d discuss the tragedy.

She doesn’t.

“Neither do I,” he responds. “Therein lies the root of the problem. We don’t live with them, we don’t go to school with them, we don’t work with them. One of their poets, Zora Neale Hurston, said, “You can’t know there ‘till you go there.”

Boy, could many of us use the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln — especially with this season of giving, hope, redemption and reconciliation marred in part by the raw wounds festering in the aftermath of racial tension following shootings of young black men by white police officers.

“With malice toward none…with charity toward all….”

They’re words the people of Ferguson, Mo. and other cities where similar acts have occurred need to hear. That’s especially the case if it’s true, from what I’ve heard, that Ferguson’s residents are destroying their fellow citizens’ businesses and property instead of helping one another get through these tough times. Lincoln’s alive, well and reassuring, but never placed on a pedestal of sainthood, in Dobama Theatre’s moving, refreshing production of the rejuvenating epic play with music “A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration.”