Full disclosure, this review is based on my experience sitting through a rehearsal performance of 2^nd Street Theatre’s Steel Magnolias, when there was still a whole week to go before the play was set to open, where a photographer buzzed around on stage for the first half an hour of the show, chasing the actors like persistent flies at a BBQ, and there was still ongoing discussion about how to hang the set curtains. Yet based on said performance I believe the audience at the play’s opening night, and every night thereafter, are in for a treat to rival any of the desserts at Truvy’s beauty parlor.

The performances of the Steel Magnolias cast shone fiercely through under the expert direction of Juliah Ramaker. Every member kept up his or her character flawlessly despite the distractions, so much so, in fact, that even the costume changes played out like fascinating little sketches. They delivered, as an ensemble, an outstandingly powerful presence. A play like Steel Magnolias, although a classic and the basis of a much-loved film, could in less talented hands have turned out a mere trifle, or an overblown melodrama. But in the hands of 2^nd Street Theatre it is a sensitive, quietly moving drama highlighted by well-timed, expertly dispensed comedy.

It’s the story of a group of Louisiana ladies who gather at their local salon to discuss everything and anything from recipes and the antics of their husbands to the celebrations and tragedies of their lives. The highs and lows play out in a lovingly conceived 1980s beauty parlor. The ladies are soft and spiky, serious and silly, like, well, real people—these are no Sex And The City-like female types—they each have their distinctive traits. Truvy is romantic, Ouiser is jaded, but as their individual plots unfold, their personalities exchange, flip and reverse.

The play relies on the performances colliding and complimenting and it is here that the 2^nd Street Theatre cast truly excels. Their interchanges are so effervescent and easygoing, they’ll have you hanging on their every word from the start—as though you yourself are right there with them in the salon, waiting your turn in the hairdresser’s chair.

Jenn Copsey plays Shelby, and is brilliant as the defiant daughter of Deborah Feffer’s fretful M’Lynn. Together they create an absorbing central dynamic, having perfected the muttered asides and knowing glances of a mother-daughter relationship. Susan Benson gets some hilarious one-liners as confident, cheeky businesswoman Clariee Belcher and sends them out with aplomb, while Lynn Talbot plays the sweet and sour of grouchy Ouiser Boudreaux with dexterity.

Rickey Minder has the transformation of Annelle from timid waif to willful Baptist convert down to a seamless evolution of subtle mannerisms. As the owner of Truvy’s Beauty Parlour and the lynchpin of the group, Ellen Valway provides a strong foundation to the ensemble and an endearingly ditsy character.

Steel Magnolias will make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, and it’ll make a perfectly lovely night out with your own gang of friends.

 

Steel Magnolias

2^nd Street Theatre, August 20 - September 5, Wednesdays through Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 3pm. Opening night champagne and dessert reception at 7pm. $18/adults, $16/students and seniors.

It was a night of gin martinis and evening gloves at the Tower Theatre, an homage to Ol' Blue Eyes that all ages will fall for. My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, produced by Innovation Theatre Works under the artistic direction of Chris Rennolds and Brad Hills, is a journey to a time where elegance ruled, men loved dames, dames loved mink stoles, and the world, at least for the duration of a song, believed in the fable of perfect love.

An ensemble cast, led by Broadway veteran Daniel Guzman, croons through a medley of fifty-eight standards intermixed with Sinatra tidbits delivered with the affability of a vintage nightclub act. Guzman, a haberdasher's dream endowed with an engaging sense of "cool" and a lush voice that refuses to lose its masculine edge, is the highlight of My Way from the time the curtain opens on his iconic, tuxedoed silhouette to the magnetic way he commands such classic songs as That's Life and New York, New York. Guzman's reverence and dedication to the material never drops to the level of impersonation. My Way is Guzman's heartfelt and charismatic tribute. He acknowledges there can only ever be one Chairman of the Board¸ but effortlessly manages to transfix the audience from his very first note.

With everything from whips cracking to hips popping, the circus has come to town and has jammed itself into the cozy confines of the CTC in the form of a striking production of La Cage Aux Folles.

As I watched the play, the laughter ringing in my ears behind me was the real show; the La Cage Aux Folles isn't shy on the audience participation. We  threw our heads back, clapping and shaking with the music, extreme fun and flamboyance unfolding on the stage.

The best thing about the '50s had to be the hair...or the fallout shelters.

Arrival time of intermission is the true test of any stage production. Either it can't come fast enough as in, "Please, no more" or, if its expediency catches you completely by surprise, it either means you (A) fell asleep; (B) the cast forgot what to do, say, or sing; or (C) the production is actually good and at the same time, entertaining.

The Taffetas, Rick Lewis' hit Off-Broadway musical tribute to the girl groups of the 1950s, which opened last weekend at 2nd Street Theater here, garnered, you guessed it, choice (c). Good. And entertaining.

The time: 1950s. The place: sound stage at the Dumont Television Network in New York City.  Four sisters, a.k.a. The Taffetas, who hail from Muncie, Indiana and like boys (really like boys), convertible Chevys, their mother, and who beam with a wholesomeness that has, in today's culture, all been forgotten, offer the audience 90 minutes of well-delivered classic 1950s songs, and a little bit of "Taffeta chatter." The purpose: give a great variety show performance because you-know-who, the man with the golden touch, that swell Ed Sullivan, will be watching. Pause. (Imagine four girls shrieking.)

Executives at the Cascades Theatrical Co. (CTC) and the Tower Theater are contemplating future big-budget musical productions in the wake of the "success" of their first collaboration, Urinetown: The Musical (UTM). UTM completed its two-weekend run May 11.

Rickey Minder, who played UTM's Little Sally, said she appreciated the opportunity for growth that production provided.

Her response is noteworthy, and not because it's unexpected of an aspiring actress who was previously cast in a non-speaking role in CTC's recent production of The Fantasticks, which ran on its NW Greenwood stage last February. Rather, the response of this 21-year-old Idaho native and competitive hip-hop dancer illustrates the sort that Torrey works to foster in his "troupers." The CTC exists to accomplish three major purposes, Torrey explained in another interview: "We want to do good theater, and [that means some] heavy drama. We want to educate the public, and give our actors a chance to grow."