Bitter Sweets

Kathleen Combs (L) and Roz Parr (R) star in “The Cake” at Omaha Community Playhouse

A baker getting ready to appear on a competition reality show offers to bake the wedding cake for the daughter of her best friend.  Then she finds out that the daughter is marrying a woman.  Her subsequent reluctance to make the cake and the fallout from that reluctance forms the story of The Cake which is currently playing at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

Inspired by a real-life news story, Bekah Brunstetter’s script has its ups and downs.  I thought the story took a little too long to get where it was going especially with a lengthy opening sequence that could have been much more economical.  But past that point, the story begins to cook as Brunstetter has a real gift for creating authentic people and shines in intimate scenes that ask the hard questions.  Ultimately the story is about acceptance as that is what each character seeks, but it also pursues themes of bigotry, judging others (which flows both ways), family, and seeing things from another’s POV.

Kim Clark-Kaczmarek’s direction adds some serious muscle to the production as her guidance of the intimate scenes truly sing and help to overpower the script’s early shortcomings.  Clark-Kaczmarek imbues a tremendous sense of presence on her performers.  By that I mean, the actors are always aware of themselves on stage and constantly move or animate which prevents the talky script from becoming static.  Her staging is phenomenal as scenes in the bakery use the full space and scenes in the bedroom feel close and snug.  Clark-Kaczmarek has also coached her performers to rock solid performances that will hold your attention and get you thinking.

Although a disembodied voice, Brady Patsy generates some guffaws as the host of the baking competition used in interstitials to reflect Della’s inner feelings and turmoil especially when he starts politely insulting her and cheerfully using vulgarities.  Doug Rothgeb brings a nice everyman quality to Della’s husband, Tim, who is facing his own perceived failings as a man which has tanked his love life with Della.

I was extraordinarily glad to see Roz Parr finally get a role with some serious meat with which to exercise her prodigious talent.  Parr brings an amazing conflicted innocence to the role of Jen.  Jen is always of two minds as she tries to balance her orientation with her upbringing and you can see the strain wrought by this internal tug of war written all over her thanks to Parr’s crystal-clear facial expressions and body language.  Parr gives Jen a powerful selflessness that manages to override her inner struggles until she realizes that a little selfishness is sometimes needed which allows her to voice her truth and wishes.

Delaney Jackson brings some serious depth to the role of Macy.  Macy is one wounded woman.  Clearly, she’s fought emotional battles all of her life due to her race and orientation and this has eroded her sense of trust and nurtured an instinctive tendency to strike first and strike hard.  Jackson’s Macy has no qualms in cutting to the heart of a matter and calling things exactly as she sees them.  But I also found it interesting that she, herself, is guilty of the same judging attitude that she perceives in others.

And in the center of all the chaos is Della, beautifully essayed by Kathleen Combs.  Combs plays Della as the sweet Southern woman who is thrown into a tornado of confusion about baking the cake for Macy and Jen’s wedding.  Interestingly, she never actually says no.  Della’s whole arc is based on her wanting to do the right thing, but not knowing what is the right thing.  Combs wonderfully plays up Della’s confusion and angst as her love for Jen battles her personal belief system, but this forces her to confront her darker aspects and come out with a heightened sense of tolerance.

I can’t explain it, but Sophie Knauss’ set is one of my favorites.  It just had an x factor that gave the bakery a warm, homey feel while the retractable walls with the slide in beds helped transform the spacious bakery into the intimate bedrooms.  The set is further bolstered by Andrew Morgan’s properties as his cakes and signs make the bakery feel so real.  Erica Maholmes’ lights add even more with the warm, welcoming pink of the bakery to the colorful bouncing lights for the game show interstitials.  Jocelyn Reed’s costumes suit the characters perfectly with the overalls and work shirt of Tim to the formal, business-like clothes of the serious as a heart attack Macy to the suitable to her generation dress of Della and the almost childlike, carefree clothing of the innocent Jen.  John Giblisco’s sounds add that extra dash of seasoning especially the fun game show sounds in the interstitials and it’s all wrapped in a subtle, original score written by Stacey Barelos.

The Cake does provide some serious food for thought and asks a lot of hard questions with no easy answers, but its ending provides just the right cherry of hope to show that change and acceptance is possible even if people may not always see eye to eye.

The Cake runs at the Omaha Community Playhouse through Nov 6.  Showtimes are Thurs-Sat at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are on sale now, starting at $36 and may be purchased at the OCP Box Office, 6915 Cass St., Omaha, NE 68132, by phone at (402) 553-0800 or online at OmahaPlayhouse.com. Due to strong language and some mature themes, this show is not suitable for children. The Omaha Community Playhouse is located at 6915 Cass St in Omaha, NE.

Photo provided by Robertson Photography

American Dreams & Nightmares

A housewife and mother of her time.  A Latvian immigrant struggling to realize the American Dream.  A ragtime musician about to have his life torn asunder by the blight of racism.  These are three people living life in America at the turn of the 20^th century and their stories and the intersecting of their lives forms the plot of Ragtime by Terrence McNally with music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and based off the novel by E.L. Doctorow. It is currently playing at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

This has been one of the more uniquely crafted musicals I’ve seen.  Usually, it seems like the songs are worked around the story of the show.  This production goes the opposite direction.  Due to the sheer size of the score, Ragtime is more like an opera and the story is worked between the songs.  And it works because the story part of the show is actually three meticulously crafted short stories which are skillfully woven together with a blend of fictional and real-life characters.

I can see why the score won a Tony Award as Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens crafted a doozy which has something for everyone.  There’s some foot stomping fun, tender love songs, and haunting numbers that will reach right in and squeeze the emotion out of your heart.  I was particularly impressed by the constant use of a singular ragtime number which either served as a springboard from which other songs would emerge or be changed up emotionally to suit the particular moment of the show.

Kimberly Faith Hickman supplies a devastating bit of direction to the production.  Hitting the beats of this show is quite tricky due to the multiple storylines which constantly trade places, but Ms Hickman manages to do so with an effortless ease.  The staging is precisely on point as it utilizes the entire stage and never is there a point where I wasn’t seeing the face of an actor.  The work of her performers is deadly accurate as they never miss a trick.

The night was loaded with sterling performances such as those provided by Jon Flower as Younger Brother, a carefree young man who transforms into a fighter for equal rights, though he doesn’t go about it in the best way.  Flower is particularly moving with his singing in “He Wanted to Say” as he tries to support Coalhouse Walker.  Joey Hartshorn is gripping as the anarchist Emma Goldman who wants to better the lives of the poor workers and bring down the rich and powerful.  Dara Hogan is going to make you cry with her turn as Sarah, the lover of Coalhouse Walker.  Ms Hogan begins as a broken, mute mother whose life has fallen apart along with her relationship with Walker.  She blooms to life as she and Walker rekindle their love before tragedy blows their lives apart due to racism’s malevolent hand.  Ms Hogan has a wonderful upper alto which shines in “New Music” and “Wheels of a Dream”.

Jodi Vaccaro is stunning as Mother.  Ms Vaccaro’s Mother is the nexus character as her life intersects with those of Coalhouse Walker and Tateh and her experiences with them change and deepen her.  When the show starts, Mother is very much a woman of her era.  She takes care of the home and raises the children and her husband is the boss.  But that begins to change when she takes in the homeless Sarah and her illegitimate child.  This breaking of the social and racial barriers of her time opens her eyes to how things are in their world and begin her journey of personal growth as she stomps those barriers flat.

Ms Vaccaro brings a genuine warmth and kindness to the role of Mother and I loved her slow and steady realization to the hardness of life outside of her upper-class walls as it made her character arc truly satisfying.  Ms Vaccaro also has a sweet and beautiful singing voice with shining moments in the touching “Our Children” and the revelatory “Back to Before”.

Mike Palmreuter gives an amazingly realistic performance as Tateh.  Palmreuter’s Tateh provides a very frank look at the plight of immigrants who came to America for the promise of the streets paved with gold only to discover a very different reality.  Palmreuter is brilliant as he plays a man struggling to realize the American Dream.  He begins as bright eyed and determined to reap the promises of the New World only to be beaten down by its harsh realities where the only thing that keeps him going is his daughter’s survival.  But it’s all worth it as his struggles do yield the promised fruit due to his perseverance.  Palmreuter has a great lower tenor and he knows how to use it emotionally from the hopeful “Success” to the bittersweet “Nothing Like the City” to the triumphant “Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc.”

Over the past few seasons, J. Isaiah Smith has evolved into one of the city’s most dynamic talents.  He can sing, dance, and act and his performance as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. allows him to excel at all three at once as well as turn in a performance that puts him in the running for a second straight Fonda-McGuire Award.

In many ways, Smith’s Walker is already living the American Dream.  He’s a successful musician, a new father, his relationship with his lover is on the mend, and he can even afford a Model T Ford.  But he realizes the American Nightmare when racism not only takes away all that he’s worked for, but also denies him an avenue to justice until he feels compelled to take matters into his own hands.

Smith’s interpretation of Walker is a bit of elegant mastery.  Before his life is blasted, he’s a sweet, sensitive, happy go lucky man determined to fix his broken relationship with his lover and be a father.  After the fall, he becomes a smoldering cauldron of anger whose rampage is still tempered by a bit of honor as he’s limiting it to the bigot and the entity that bigot represents and will gladly stop once he metes out justice.  What I liked best was that he doesn’t completely lose his humanity and still makes the right choice in the end.

Smith has a mighty vocal range that soars between deeply baritone notes to high tenor ones.  Some of his best numbers were the raucous “Getting’ Ready Rag”, “Justice”, and the determined “Make Them Hear You”.

Lindsay Pape’s costumes provided an accurate depiction of life at the turn of the century with the short pants of the boys, the double- breasted suits, hats and bowlers, and the almost Victorian gowns of the wealthy women.  Jim Othuse has designed a series of set bits that could easily be moved in and out from the burgundy sitting room of Mother’s home to Coalhouse Walker’s nightclub to the posters and seaside of Atlantic City.  Michelle Garrity provides some scintillating choreography especially with “Getting’ Ready Rag”.  Tim Burkhart and John Gibilisco have cooked up some crucial sounds from the lolling waves outside Atlantic City to the puttering of Walker’s Model T to the gunshots and explosions of Walker’s rampage.  Jim Boggess and his orchestra never miss a note with their fun and energetic take on this show’s score.

In the end, Ragtime not only provides a great night of entertainment, but it also provides an honest look at the lives of all classes of people at turn of the century America and I think it serves as a potent reminder that we have come a long way as a people, but there’s still a bit of road left to travel.

Ragtime plays at the Omaha Community Playhouse through June 30.  Showtimes are Wed-Sat at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2pm.  Tickets start at $32 and can be purchased at the OCP Box Office, by phone at 402-553-0800, or online at www.omahaplayhouse.com.  Some parental discretion is advised due to racial epithets and a little strong language.  The Omaha Community Playhouse is located at 6915 Cass Street in Omaha, NE.

(Photo supplied by Robertson Photgraphy)

A Tragic ‘Parade’ Performs at OCP

PARADE

Opens February 9, 2018 at the Omaha Community Playhouse

Omaha, Neb. – Parade, the true story of a Jewish man wrongfully accused of murdering a young girl in a small Southern town, will run at the Omaha Community Playhouse February 9 – March 11, 2018 in the Howard Drew Theatre.

Parade is the Tony Award-winning musical based around the trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man wrongfully accused of murder in Marietta, Georgia in 1913. Religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tensions are already prevalent in this small Southern town, and when reporters begin to sensationalize the case, the likelihood of a fair trial is put in jeopardy. With a book by Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and music by Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, The Bridges Of Madison County), this true story reveals the beauty of the human condition, even when faced with tragedy.

Disclaimer: Contains language and situations related to racial tension and mob violence.

The events surrounding the investigation and the trial of Leo Frank led to the birth of the Jewish civil rights organization, the Anti-Defamation League.  Following the Sunday, February 25 performance, staff members from the Omaha chapter of the Anti-Defamation League will participate in a post-show discussion about the history of the ADL. Open to all attendees of that day’s performance

Production:  Parade

Credits:  Book by Alfred Uhry.  Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown.  Co-conceived and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince.

Director:  Jeff Horger

Cast

Brendan Brown as Riley

Breanna Carodine as Minnie

Brooke Fencl as Essie

Adam Hogston as Brit Craig

Chloe Irwin as Mary Phagan

Megan Kelly as Lucille Frank

Melissa King as Mrs. Phagan

Nelson Lampe as Judge Roan

Grant Mannschreck as Frankie Epps

Michael Markey as Hugh Dorsey

Rebecca Noble as Sally Slaton

Mike Palmreuter as John Slaton

Joshua Lloyd Parker as Ivey

Brian Priesman as Tom Watson

Tony Schneider as Mr. Turner

Christopher Scott as Luther Rosser

Jonathan Smith as Jim Conley

Jill Solano as Lizzie Phagan

Grace Titus as Iola

Scott Van Den Top as Starnes

Catherine Vazquez as Monteen

James Verderamo as Leo Frank

Randy Wallace as Mr. Peavey

L. James Wright as Newt Lee

Show Dates:  Feb 9-Mar 11, 2018; Thurs-Sat at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2pm

Tickets:  At the OCP Box Office, by calling (402) 553-0800 or online at OmahaPlayhouse.com or www.TicketOmaha.com. Single tickets start at $42 for adults and $25 for students. Ticket prices are subject to change based on performance date, seat location and ticket demand. Call the OCP box office for current prices. For groups of 12 or more, tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for students.

Discounts:  Twilight Tickets – A limited number of tickets are available at half price after noon the day of the performance at the Box Office. Cash or check only. Subject to availability.

Sponsored by:  Carter and Vernie Jones

Location:  Omaha Community Playhouse, Howard Drew Theatre (6915 Cass St, Omaha, NE  68132)