Applause for Those Who Didn't Win

Posted by Bruce Miller
I loved the Artsies as much as the next theatre-nut, probably more. I think everyone who won was super-deserving and I offer my hardiest and most heartfelt congratulations.

I especially congratulate the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle for putting so much time, effort and love into this endeavor. It’s a great way to celebrate the diversity of talent and effort in the Greater Richmond theatre scene. And it was a heck of a party.

I’m proud that Theatre IV donated the magnificent Empire for the event, and doubly proud of our staff who made this historic albeit rundown facility twinkle and shimmer and buzz.

In addition to the deserving winners announced Sunday evening, I like to offer my appreciation to some other theatre artists, some nominated and some not.

All the winners who won on Sunday evening and are mentioned below deserved to win. I mean to take nothing away from their wonderful achievements.

Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Design
Joe Doran is fantastic (and a good friend and a heck of a nice person). So is Lynne Hartman. She was nominated for The Clean House, but she could just as easily have been nominated for Children of a Lesser God, Thoroughly Modern Millie or any one of several other shows. I love and will always be inspired by her exemplary work.

Outstanding Achievement in Set Design
Ron Keller is an uber-talent (aagfaahoanp – see above). With significantly smaller budgets, the other nominees also did amazing work. Let me single out one who deserves lots of praise. Lin Heath. Show after show, year after year, Lin quietly creates wonderful sets at Chamberlayne Actors Theatre with tiny budgets and no paid staff. His set for All My Sons was an intimate valentine to post-WWII America that worked in beautiful counterpoint to the betrayals revealed in the play. Lin is an under-recognized (but not under-appreciated) artist. He amazes me.

But let’s leave the Lynne/Lin’s, and move on to the Ali/Aly’s.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Musical
Ali Thibodeau is a singing / dancing / acting dream, and she was incredibly wonderful in Millie. Aly Wepplo is also young, beautiful and talented. I know I have no objectivity about Ms Wepplo, since I directed the show I’m about to mention. Nonetheless, I thought Aly Wepplo was fantastic in Sanders Family Christmas. Her performance and the show received no nominations, but I loved watching the amazing connections she and the rest of the cast made with the audience night after night.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Play
Marta Rainer absolutely blew me away in Rabbit Hole and I've been wooing her for Barksdale ever since. Jan Guarino also blew me away in The Clean House. Jan has been so beloved by the Richmond audience for so long that it’s easy to take for granted how incredibly talented she is. She is a cornerstone of our theatre community, as is the un-nominated Kelly Kennedy. So I just want to tell both Jan and Kelly that I love their work.

Best Actress in a Leading Role – Musical
Audra Honaker is a force of nature and everyone knows how much I love her. People make fun over how highly I think of Ms. H. I think this year, Maggie Marlin also deserves great acclaim. Maggie carried Thoroughly Modern Millie on her capable shoulders. Her co-stars all were award-winners, and her show won Best Musical, but it was Maggie who WAS Thoroughly Modern Millie, and triple-threated her way into the hearts of the Richmond audience. I hope Maggie knows that our award-sweeping musical would have been nothing without her amazing, heartfelt star turn.

Ford Flannagan and Landon Nagel. I thought they were both incredible in The Widow’s Blind Date at the Firehouse. And I thought Ford also was excellent in Normal at Stage 1 (along with Dave Amadee). I thought Landon, Erica Siegel, Richie Gregory and the not-nominated Michelle Schaefer were all terrific in Children of a Lesser God. And in Children’s Letters to God, I thought the ensemble of kids was completely winning—even if they didn’t win on Sunday.

And as for that other ensemble of Joy Williams, James Bynum and Garet Chester--those three pulled off two hit runs in two different facilities, thrilling thousands.

Best Musical
Of course, I’m thrilled that Millie won. I completely agree. And now I’m going to be so bold as to mention the fact that Barksdale produced a very worthy World Premiere musical last season—Mona’s Arrangements by Bo Wilson and Steve Leibman. If this had been the Tony Awards, Altar Boyz, Annie, Trailer Park, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and tick, tick…Boom! would all have been competing for Best Revival, and only Mona’s Arrangements would have been eligible for Best Musical.

Producing a World Premiere is a BIG DEAL, so I mention it here. I thank Bo and Steve for their amazing work. I’m so proud of the entire Mona’s Arrangements team. I hope Richmond theatre will continue to grow to the point where it makes sense to offer an Artsie for Best Original Play or Musical.

Just like the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle, there are hundreds of other performances I loved. Space and time don’t allow mention of them all. But there is plenty of room in the comments for your thoughts.

Thanks again to the RTCC for their great evening on Sunday. See you at the theatre.

--Bruce Miller

Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum!

Posted by Bruce Miller
Tonight’s the big night! Broadway Today, a cabaret benefiting the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, opens in Barksdale’s living room tonight at 8. Tickets are still available, so by all means, COME!

When I say "living room," I mean the loft-like lobby of our intimate Willow Lawn theatre. Audience members will sit in comfortable chairs pulled up to our vintage tavern tables, enjoying some of Richmond’s finest musical theatre voices. The bar will be open throughout the evening, and a fun time will be had by all.

The program is a benefit for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. All of the performers are volunteering their time to raise funds for the endowment, which is administered by the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres and managed by the Community Foundation. Barksdale is contributing the space, cabaret license, etc., and the goal of the cabaret is to raise around $2,000, which will take the Theatre Artists Fund from its current corpus of approximately $22,000 much closer to the benchmark of $25,000, which we hope to reach prior to Christmas.

Broadway Today is masterminded by that most energized of impresarios—Billy Christopher Maupin. The guiding theme is this: from July through December 2009, Barksdale is running three (count ‘em) new American musicals, all of which originated in the 21st century. The three new shows are Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Empire, Souvenir at Hanover Tavern, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Willow Lawn.

Mr. Maupin has assembled stars from the casts of these three new musicals to sing other songs written in the last few years for today's Broadway. Nancy Crawley (actor photos appear in the order listed), Timothy Ford, Zak Resnick and Ali Thibodeau from the cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Audra Honaker from the cast of Spelling Bee, and special guest star Debra Wagoner from the cast of Souvenir will lead the audience on a whirlwind tour of these other 21st Century Broadway hits: Avenue Q, Curtains, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Spring Awakening, Urinetown, Wicked and more!

Maggie Marlin, Millie herself, was to have appeared in the cabaret, but due to last minute vocal strain, she has been replaced by Robin Harris Jones.

The program is conceived and directed by Mr. Maupin, with musical direction by Sandy Dacus and Paul Deiss.

The Richmond Theatre Artists Fund provides emergency relief to local actors, directors, designers and theatre artists and administrators in all disciplines when, through no fault of their own, accident or ill health places one of them in an untenable financial situation. Recent recipients have included Liz Marks, who was able to pay her mortgage during the final months of her life because of support from the Fund, and one of our leading directors who recently was able to avoid having his electricity turned off when the Fund covered his electric bills in the two months following his stroke.

There will be two performances: Sunday (tonight) at 8 and Monday (tomorrow) at 8. Only overflow seating remains for Monday evening’s performance, so why not come tonight. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15. Barksdale subscribers, students and RAPT Card holders can purchase tickets for only $10.

Hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

"Chicago," "nor.mal" and "Well." Oh My!

Posted by Bruce Miller
I'm just winding up another great theatre weekend right here in River City. I had the pleasure of flying solo to the Opening Night of Chicago at TheatreVCU on Friday. Hannah and I made it to the second weekend of nor.mal at Stage 1 on Saturday (I was at the Fairy Tale Ball for last week’s nor.mal opening). Tonight I caught the first dress of Well, which we open at Willow Lawn this Friday.

I love going to theatre in Richmond, and found lots to admire in these three productions.

At VCU, Maggie Marlin co-starred with Kim Exum, lending their triple-threat talents to the showgirl femme fatales, Velma and Roxie. This summer Maggie will be starring with us in the titular role of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Mike Rieman charmed his way into the hearts of America as the song-and-dance attorney, Billy Flynn. And Jake Ashey stole the show as Amos, Roxie’s long suffering husband.

Patti D’Beck’s creative and energetic choreography showed off the strengths of her talented cast. And Ron Keller’s terrific set provided all the visual jazz (and pizzazz) anyone could want. Patti and Ron directed / choreographed and designed last summer’s Guys and Dolls, and will reprise their roles in this summer’s Millie.

At Stage 1, despite nagging laryngitis, Julie Fulcher acted her heart out as a mother trapped in a downward emotional spiral. Knowing as I do that Ford Flanagan (who plays the dad) shies away from dance roles, I’m pleased to say he looked right at home in the “boxing” choreography given to him by Chase Kniffen. Ali Thibodeau and Dave Amadee turned in persuasive performances as the brother / sister teens. Dave is that commodity that is all too rare in professional theatre: a handsome, masculine young man who can act, sing and dance. He has a career ahead of him if he wants it.

Sandy Dacus did her usual masterful job as music director. And Debra Wagoner proved yet again that she has a voice made for musical theatre. The new music created for nor.mal, like a lot of new theatre music, combines dissonance with unusual harmonies and unexpected intervals to create a contemporary feeling. Those who sing this music best have perfect intonation, hitting pitches dead on rather than sliding into them or approximating them. Debra Wagoner gives a master class in nor.mal in how to do just that.

Chase loves this new and complex musical, and deserves special congratulations for daring to bring such a challenging work to Richmond audiences.

We at Barksdale deserve some of those same congratulations. Well by Lisa Kron is not your usual comedy. Ms Kron is an established memoirist—an acclaimed master of the one-woman show. In this first Virginia production of her new Broadway hit, she plays fast and loose with the form, inviting her mother to join her onstage, and hiring several guest actors to play the roles of people from her past.

Watching the show is like peeling back the layers of an onion. It’s fun and funny, with a quirky sensibility. Jenny Jones Hundley and Jody Strickler are gonna be great as Lisa and her mother. And before the evening ends, there will be more than a few sniffles as mother and daughter resolve their issues with warmth and humor.

Next weekend I hope to make it out to Pulp, Altar Boyz (Mill version), and, of course, the opening of Well. Hope you too will make the effort to support professional theatre in Richmond. Call a box office, buy a ticket or two, and then go spend some time where the acting is.

Hope to see you there.

--Bruce Miller