Have you seen the Star City Playhouse production of “The Glass Menagerie”? Do you agree with reviewer Jeff DeBell? Let us know in the comments.

Star City Playhouse does commendable ‘Menagerie’
by Jeff DeBell

A highlight of the current Star City Playhouse production of “The Glass Menagerie” takes place before the show even begins.

It’s the brief speech that director Marlow Ferguson delivers before turning the stage over to his actors.

Ferguson doesn’t use those few moments merely to hype future shows, point out the exits and admonish patrons to squelch their cellphones.

Instead, he speaks informatively about the life of the playwright, the play itself and the strong links between the two. As a result, the audience probably enjoys the play — and understands it — more than it might have otherwise.

Other directors might do well to follow Ferguson’s example, especially when the works they are presenting are more than usually challenging intellectually.

Now, on to Star City Playhouse’s creditable performance of Tennessee Williams’ 1944 drama. It is set in the shabby St. Louis household of the dysfunctional Wingfield family — a place where memory is strong but faulty, where one man’s escape is another’s abandonment, and where fantasy may be mistaken for reality.

There is Tom, a young shoe warehouse employee and aspiring poet. He yearns to escape his domestic ties for a life of adventures like those enjoyed by the stars of his beloved movies. Tom serves as both a character and the play’s present-time narrator. He is portrayed by Christopher Reidy in the production’s standout performance.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

“The Glass Menagerie”
Where: Presented by Star City Playhouse at Metropolitan Community Church, 806 Jamison Ave., S.E.
When: 7 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7 p.m. May 24; 2 p.m. May 25-26
How much: $12 general; $8 seniors and students
Info: 366-1446; Star City Playhouse on Facebook

Theater review Nona Nelson had a good time at Attic Productions’ “Too Soon for Daisies.” Did you you see it yourself? What did you think?

Theater review: ‘Too Soon for Daisies’ is a hoot
By Nona Nelson

A rehearsal photo from “Too Soon for Daisies,” with Trina Yancey, Nancy Lawrence, James Honaker, Joann Hoyt and Piper Gaul.

It’s a risky choice when a community theater stages a comedy that requires a glossary in the playbill to help the audience understand the jokes.

Yet Attic Productions takes that risk in its latest production, “Too Soon for Daisies,” a dark British comedy-thriller penned by William Dinner and William Morum, and pulls it off thanks to enthusiastic direction and a talented cast.

The setting is Trotley, a small seaside village in Suffolk, England, in the 1950s. Three elderly women — Freda Grey , Joy Philpotts and Edie Boggs — have liberated themselves from Even Tide, a retirement home for the impoverished where they feel like hopeless captives. After making their escape in a row boat, they stumble upon what appears to be an abandoned cottage and begin to make themselves at home.

Things get complicated when the house’s new owner, Paul Vanderbloom, comes to claim his property and tries to send the uninvited trio on their way. Things get even more complicated when Vanderbloom suffers a fatal heart attack.

Desperate to avoid returning to the dreadful old-age home, the ladies hatch a convoluted plot to take control of their lives and adopt the “orphaned” house.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

“Too Soon for Daisies”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Attic Productions, D. Geraldine Lawson Performing Arts Center, 7490 Roanoke Road, Fincastle
Cost: $12; $10 for 18 and younger and for groups of 10 or more
Info: www.atticproductions.info; 473-1001

Did you see Opera Roanoke’s “The Pirates of Penzance”? Do you agree with reviewer Michael Saffle? Let us know in the comments.

Courtesy David Clark. Pirates seize the Major General (John Dooley) while daughters Kate (Tara Sperry) and Edith (Chelsea Bonagura) react.

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ blends music, comedy
by Michael Saffle

Friday night’s sold-out Jefferson Center audience lavished laughter and applause on Opera Roanoke’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance.”

Created by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, “Pirates” opened at London’s Opera Comique in April 1880. The show is known as a “Savoy Opera,” after the Savoy Theatre where later Gilbert and Sullivan hits were first performed.

Gilbert created a saucy, satiric libretto, for which Sullivan composed music occasionally as lovely as Mozart’s. The perennial problem is how to combine musical loveliness (and wit) with low puns and lots of on-stage joshing.

Roanoke Symphony conductor Scott Williamson and his minions let the music speak for itself. Several cast members, on the other hand, kept the audience laughing with their lively antics. When they also sang and danced to Williamson’s baton, things went swimmingly.

John Tiranno played Frederic, a young pirate-apprentice who falls for Mabel (played by Ariana Wyatt ), one of the aging Major-General’s pretty wards. John Dooley shone as the Major-General, while Bradley Smoak proved a dashing Pirate King.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

“The Marvelous Wonderettes”
Where: Trinkle Main Stage, Mill Mountain Theatre, Center in the Square, Roanoke
When: 7:30 p.m. May 1; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 2; 7:30 p.m. May 3; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 4; 2 p.m. May 5; 7:30 p.m. May 8; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 9; 7:30 p.m. May 10; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 11; 2 p.m. May 12
Cost: $27; students, $25
Contact: 342-5740; millmountain.org

Theater reviewer Nona Nelson loved Mill Mountain Theatre’s “The Marvelous Wonderettes” and its trip down memory lane. Have you seen it yourself? What do you think?

Mill Mountain Theatre’s ‘The Marvelous Wonderettes’ a musical delight
by Nona Nelson

Shake and shimmy your way down a musical memory lane with the newest production at Mill Mountain Theatre, “The Marvelous Wonderettes.”

The musical opened to a nearly sold-out theater on Wednesday, and the lighthearted show filled the stage with plenty of favorite old songs and laughs.

The show kicks off Mill Mountain Theatre’s first full season since 2009. “Wonderettes” is the nonprofit’s first Equity production since “Greater Tuna” in 2012, and the first on Trinkle Main Stage since Center in the Square began renovations on its Campbell Avenue building in 2011.

The first act of the play, with book by Roger Bean and music from 1950s and early 1960s girl groups and singers, features four best friends filling in as last-minute entertainment for their 1958 senior prom at Springfield High School.

The all-girl quartet, calling themselves the Marvelous Wonderettes, serenades the audience with a dreamy version of “Mr. Sandman” as the opening number. From there the songs flow smoothly between snippets of dialogue that reveal the friendships and tensions between Cindy Lou (Rebecca Russell), Betty Jean (Katie Emerson), Missy (Jessi Tidwell) and Suzy (Andrea Dotto). Most of the story is communicated through the song lyrics and the physical interaction between the four characters.

We learn that sultry Cindy Lou has been up to no good with spitfire Betty Jean’s boyfriend Johnny (“Lipstick On Your Collar”) and that sweet Suzy is crazy in love (“Stupid Cupid”) with Richie Stevens, who is running the lights for the show. We discover shy Missy’s secret crush on the music teacher through “Born Too Late” and “Teacher’s Pet.”

The second act is set in 1968 at the Springfield High 10-year class reunion, which also features a reunion of the Wonderettes, who have gone their separate ways in the decade since graduation.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Theater review Jeff DeBell was hugely impressed with Showtimers’ production of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” Did you see it? Do you agree? Show your love or say what needs changing in the comments.

Showtimers cast, direction make ‘I Love You’ a standout
By Jeff DeBell

In a time when everything else seems to change by the hour, the dynamics of romance remain the same: sometimes blissful, sometimes vexing and always as mysterious as the innards of an iPad.

We are reminded of this in the first-rate Showtimers production of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”

In two hours of clever lyrics and catchy tunes, the popular musical comedy comments sharply but good-naturedly on the pleasures and pitfalls of launching and sustaining a relationship. It continues through Sunday.

Built on Jimmy Roberts’ music and book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, the show has been around since 1996. There have been more than 5,000 off-Broadway performances and who knows how many more on regional and community stages (including Mill Mountain Theatre in 2001).

Despite a few cultural references that betray its age, the show remains timely because of its subject.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Did you attend the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra concert Monday evening? Do you agree with reviewer Timothy Gaylard? Make a joyful noise in the comments.

RSO concert serves hearty helping of Beethoven
by Timothy Gaylard

David Stewart Wiley in RSO’s new home on Campbell Avenue.

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony Chorus, the Liberty University Concert Choir and the Southern Virginia University Concert Chorale performed at the Performing Arts Theatre on Monday night. Maestro David Stewart Wiley conducted and played the piano in an all-Beethoven program to an audience of more than 1,500 people.

The evening began with a riveting rendition of the Seventh Symphony. The mesmerizing introduction, featuring the fine woodwind section, set the mood for a memorable performance. In the fast section of the first movement, the orchestra responded with the requisite bounce to Wiley’s dancelike activities on the podium. In the haunting slow movement, Wiley brought out the melancholy of the main theme, sometimes reducing the string sound to a mere whisper, as well as emphasizing the hopeful beauty of the second theme, played with lyric grace by clarinetist Carmen Eby .

The refreshingly buoyant scherzo moved along humorously, interrupted in the trio by the magnificent brass fanfares. But the last movement proved to be the most exhilarating of all because of Wiley’s inspiring baton and the forceful precision brought to this joyous finale. One came away from this rendition convinced again of Beethoven’s genius and complete mastery of the symphonic form.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Here’s what reviewer Nona Nelson thought about the show. What did you think?

Bernadette Peters still spellbinding
By Nona Nelson

Singer and actress Bernadette Peters brought Broadway to the Salem Civic Center on Friday night in the third and final show of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra’s pops season, holding a crowd of more than 2,000 patrons spellbound for an more than an hour.

Six decades of performing have not diminished the power of Peters’ haunting and distinct voice. The 65-year-old performer belted out crystalline notes from the opening “Let Me Entertain You” to the closing “Being Alive,” while still showcasing her trademark vulnerability on standards like “No One is Alone” and “Some Enchanted Evening.”

The chanteuse looked dazzling in a glittery, form-fitting lavender gown with her mane of ginger-colored pin curls cascading to her shoulders. She made use of the entire stage, striking a sweetly seductive pose on the piano for “Fever” and strolling out into the crowd while she sang the playful “There’s Nothing Like a Dame” from the musical “South Pacific.”

The Tony-Award-winning comedic actress had the audience giggling with a bawdy joke about sons sending a call girl to visit their 90-year-old father as his birthday gift.

“I am here to give you super sex,” Peters purred before revealing the father’s punchline: “I’ll take the soup.”

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Note: A free performance of “Eric and Elliot” at Radford High School, delayed several times because of inclement weather, is scheduled now for 7 p.m. Monday, March 4.

Courtesy Roanoke Children’s Theatre. Andrew Lewis Middle School student Noah Oldham (left) is brilliant as Eric, and Northside High School student Alex Cutting plays Elliot with maturity and compassion.

Review: ‘Eric and Elliot’ shows importance
of asking for help with mental illness
By Nona Nelson

“Eric and Elliot” tells a powerful story of mental illness, but ultimately, it’s a story of love and hope.

The current production of Roanoke Children’s Theatre — about teenage depression and suicide — has already been performed for middle school students from Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem . Tonight’s one-act, one-hour performance will be the first for the public.

The play centers around Elliot, a teenage boy, and his younger brother Eric, a middle-school-age child, as they go on a journey to seek professional help for their depressed mother.

It’s clear that the brothers are close and that Eric adores and admires his older sibling. The two get lost on the way to the doctor’s office and meet three different characters as they try to figure out where they went wrong.

Each character the brothers encounter has a different way of coping with life’s stresses, symbolized on stage by file boxes of “paperwork.”

Ms. Hadden (Amanda Mansfield) leads a rigid life of structure and insists that everyone must drag their paperwork with them wherever they go. Mr. Willoughby (Michael Mansfield) maniacally runs away from his paperwork, terrified of dealing with the unpleasantness of reality.

Daisy (Gwyneth Strope), a girl about Elliot’s age, simply refuses to move forward or look back, preferring to ignore her paperwork and thus hide from her problems.

Along the way, the audience is given subtle clues that all is not as it seems with the brothers. Eric doesn’t want to face the tragedy of Elliot’s depression; Elliot realizes that, by letting depression consume him and by giving up hope, he caused irreparable trauma to his family.

 Click here to read the rest of the review.

 Do you agree with theater reviewer Nona Nelson’s take on Roanoke Children’s Theatre’s “Eric & Elliot”? Let us know in the comments.

Theater review Nona Nelson was deeply moved by Showtimers’ “A Lesson Before Dying.” Did you see it? What did you think?

‘Lesson’ a compelling look at heroism
By Nona Nelson

Showtimers Community Theatre kicks off its 2013 season with a powerful performance of “A Lesson Before Dying,” a tragic play of dignity in the face of injustice.

The play, written by Romulus Linney and based on the eponymous Ernest J. Gaines’ 1993 novel, tells the story of Jefferson, a young black man in 1940s Louisiana, facing execution for a murder he witnessed but did not commit.

Resigned to the inevitability of Jefferson’s fate, Miss Emma, his godmother and surrogate parent, wants to help him face the terrifying end of his life with dignity, something that was not afforded him during his poorly defended trial.

She recruits Grant Wiggins, the teacher at the plantation school, to help Jefferson. Wiggins, whom the black community of Bayonne, La., helped put through college, is less than enthusiastic about the task. His jailhouse visits include enduring the condescension of the smug white sheriff with humility and finding an unwilling and confrontational student in the poorly educated and clearly frightened Jefferson.

Wiggins himself is torn between what he sees as the futility of trying to make a difference, both in his daily classroom and his pilgrimages to the jail, and his desire to escape to a better life away from the bigotry of the Deep South. As a non-believer, Wiggins is also constantly at odds with Reverend Ambrose, whose sole purpose in ministering to the condemned prisoner is to save Jefferson’s soul.

Despite the dark topic of this play (the novel was also chosen as a community Big Read book in early 2010 by Roanoke Valley Reads), there are moments that are tender, funny and inevitably, heartbreaking.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Guest reviewer Abigail Minor, a Hollins University junior, returns for a second round today (her first review here) with an assessment of the The Roanoke Valley Reef, on display in Roanoke College’s Olin Gallery until March 1st. —MikeA

The Roanoke Valley Reef
By Abigail Minor

The Roanoke Valley Coral Reef, on view at Roanoke College, simulates the experience of being immersed underwater in a colorful reef. Rippling mounds of psychedelic yarn, piled on freestanding pedestals throughout the darkened room, form a visual buffet on which the viewer is invited to slowly gorge. A soft symphony of underwater sounds plays in the background.

There is no denying the vast amount of work that was put into the creation and layout of the project. Its aim – to inspire viewers to examine ecological problems – is admirable. As a cohesive whole, however, the visual effect is somewhat uneven. The multitude of color and texture in each piece is at times overwhelming. Individual stitches lose their beauty while singular pieces end up lost in the patch-worked mass, and the formal structures can feel repetitive. It might be a testament to the success of a shared project. But is yarn a serious enough substance to convey the urgency of the environmental issues?

Nevertheless, certain pieces stand apart. Bleaching, an intricately composed reef comprised of whites, ivories, buttery yellows, and truffle browns, forms a ghostly silhouette amid the exhibition’s raging acid trip of color. The albino-like beauty of this aquatic structure conveys a quiet tension, a feeling of mourning. The accompanying wall text reveals that harmful chemicals bleach the coral and cause its death. Had more pieces possessed the same balance of artistic insight and ecological information, the overall message would have been much better supported.

Though exhausting to the eye, the exhibition’s innovative and whimsical premise makes a case for more art that unites community members — in this case, stitch by stitch, in an effort to aid the natural world. For this, Roanoke College should be commended.