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Each member gave me the elements that I have come to expect from the characters while making these relatable people both real and unique. Bobby Hewitt's Mark is, as expected, more observer than participant, but he still manages to create a heart for the character that makes him one the audience can sympathize with. He angrily spits out the line "Because I'm the one of us to survive," and while we feel the cold hard slap of those words on Roger's face, we also understand his fear of losing his best friend to AIDS and being alone. Jake Bevill's Roger is an angst-laden rocker looking for love. He is insular and closed off, fearing that his AIDS makes him undeserving of intimate human interaction. As the AIDS inflicted stripper Mimi, MaryAnn Williams is the perfect blend of young and sexy. Additionally, she is outgoing, warm, and loving, quickly endearing both the audience and Roger to her character.
Erik Olmos Tristan's Angel and Johnny Nichols' Tom Collins, complete with a soulful powerhouse voice, are a charismatic and engaging duo. Whether fighting or smitten with one another, Devin Ashley Witten's daring performance artist Maureen and Laurel Smalley's lovably type A Joanne are memorable and charming. Lastly, Michael Lovette as Benny is the entrepreneurial "villain" you can't help but love, especially as he showcases his fondness for the madcap antics of his artist friends. Likewise, the hardworking chorus plays their various parts with vigorous energy. Handling many roles to flesh out the denizens of New York City, Brian Kay, Robert L. Pimentel, Whitney Nolder, Shannon Zamora, Libby Hart, Fong Chau, Monique Holmes, and Eric Briggs put everything they can into their performances.
Families that "play" together stay together in College of the Mainland Community Theatre's production of the musical "The Drowsy Chaperone," which continues through July 31.
"My whole family is eaten up with theater," said stage veteran H. Russ Brown, who is directing his daughter, Auben, for the first time.
Auben Brown plays ditzy flapper Kitty in the high-energy spoof of Jazz Age musical comedies.
"Kitty is ridiculously funny," said the 17-year-old senior at Clear Brook High School, who recently played the "straight man" as Mrs. Trotsky in "All in the Timing" by David Ives at Clear Brook High. "This is the opposite of that."
"The Drowsy Chaperone" also features another father-daughter team, music director Joey Bernsen and his adult daughter, Melanie Bernsen Clinkscales of Friendswood, who portrays Trix, an aviatrix.
In addition, Laurel Smalley, a 23-year-old college student from Katy who plays Broadway star Janet Van De Graaff, shares the stage with her mother, Lisa Smalley of Katy, as the musical's tipsy title character.
"We only do age-appropriate casting; so we have students playing characters their age alongside seasoned actors in older roles," H. Russ Brown said. "You won't see students playing grandfathers here."
As head of the theater program at College of the Mainland, Brown also serves as the artistic director of the theater. He directs three of the group's six annual shows.
"The season was already selected when I came on board last August, but I was so happy to hear that we would be doing 'The Drowsy Chaperone,' Brown said. "I have known the show for a while and it has been on my list to direct.
"It's definitely the classic old-style Broadway musical with tunes that are a fun homage to the Roaring '20s."
-style Broadway characters pop to life in the apartment of "Man in Chair," a devoted musical theater Damon RunyonIn fact, it's a show within a show, as buff, when he puts a cast album on his Victrola.
Bryan Hardee of Santa Fe, who majors in technical theater at COM, makes his acting debut as Man in Chair's building superintendent.
Other featured cast members include Bill Lundgren, Shawna Glad, Kyle Crawford, Chris Pool, Keith Dupree, Jeff Coletta, Andrea Richards, Zack Varela, Sean Maxwell Bailey, Jared Cadore, Lindsay Lindquist and Roger Stallings.
Offstage, COM theater performance major Max Estudillo serves as stage manager.
Brown grew up in Corsicana and graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
He is married to Clear Lake City native Elizabeth Brown, who teaches theater at Barber Middle School in Dickinson. She recently choreographed "High School Musical" at Pasadena Little Theatre.
Their son, Grant, 23, is a senior who is seeking a bachelor of fine arts degree at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, where H. Russ Brown earned a master of fine arts degree in theater.
"The Drowsy Chaperone" plays Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
has presented more than 228 productions including children's shows, COM Community TheatreSince 1972, concerts and workshops with attendance of more than a quarter of a million people.
- Don Maines, The Houston Chronicle, July 26, 2016
WTAMU Theatre Production Receives National Awards from KCACTF
CANYON, Texas—West Texas A&M University’s theatre production of Brooklyn: the musical, received six national awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) in recognition of its outstanding work at the Region VI showcase in March at Angelo State University.
The six national awards included Distinguished Production of a Musical; Distinguished Ensemble of a Musical; Distinguished Direction of a Musical—Andrew Barratt Lewis, assistant professor of musical theatre; Distinguished Choreography—Crystal Bertrand, instructor of dance; Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical—Caleb Summers, musical theatre major; and Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Musical—Laurel Smalley, musical theatre major.
In addition to the six national awards, the production also received regional recognition. The play was awarded the Director’s Choice Award and the Best Load In/Out Award. Eleven WTAMU students also were recognized as finalists in the Musical Theatre Initiative, a competition geared toward musical theatre students. The Musical Theatre Initiative vocal finalists included Laurel Smalley, Caleb Summers, Macy Watts and Maddie Todd. Caleb Aguilar was named first alternate. Dance finalists in the Musical Theatre Initiative are Maddie Todd, Zach Perrin, Macy Watts, Caitlin Izard, Treston Johnson and Caleb Summers. The award for Outstanding Honor Crew Member at the festival was presented to Thomas Stowers.
KCACTF is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide and has served as a catalyst for improving the quality of college-theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions across the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents. KCACTF Region VI consists of six states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
The WTAMU production was one of six shows invited to perform at the regional festival. The invitation marked the fifth WTAMU theatre production to be selected for performance at KCACTF. Previous productions were selected in 1997, 2005, 2009 and 2013.
With book, music and lyrics by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson, Brooklyn: the musical first appeared on Broadway in 2004. Brooklyn: the musical, directed by Andrew Barratt Lewis and choreographed by Crystal Bertrand, uses rhythm and blues to tell a heartwarming story of Brooklyn, a girl in search of her father and more. It first appeared on the WTAMU stage in the fall. - WTAMU official site, March 27, 2017
"Chicago: West Texas A&M University's theater department closes its season with a jazzy bang with a staging of this iconic musical. The fast-paced, high-energy production, directed by Andrew Barratt Lewis, is good, solid fun, highlighted by a killer turn by Laurel Smalley as Velma Kelly. She brings nice vulnerability, a sharp edge and a powerful belt to the role as the seen-it-all murderess angling for her turn in the spotlight. Madeleine Hale similarly has a gorgeous voice and good comedic timing as Roxie Hart, the fame-hungry center of the show, though at times her line readings felt like she was still casting about for a consistent interpretation of her character. Cody J. Wilson is a smarmy delight as Billy Flynn, the girls' rapacious attorney, and Sean Evan Jones makes milquetoast appealing as sad sack Amos Hart. Across the board, the ensemble gives enjoyable performances, sounding terrific and mostly nailing Crystal Bertrand's Bob Fosse-inspired choreography. My one qualm is the look of the show. I get that it's imagined as Velma and Roxy's post-prison vaudeville show; I don't get, however, why the ensemble members look like something out of a Xanadu fever dream in unflattering costumes and wigs. The color stories don't even match: The stage and stars Smalley and Hale's wardrobe hew to golds, crimsons, and blacks, while the ensemble is stuck in eye-searing fuchsias, turquoises and blues. It's jarring and unnecessary. Ultimately, though, it doesn't detract too much from the show's success."
- Chip Chandler of Panhandle PBS, April 28, 2017
The Addams Family (HITS at Miller Outdoor, for free, but only tonight and tomorrow left) is a very happy surprise! It's nearly perfect!
I personally saw the tour that came through of this show. It wasn't very good. I could enjoy it, but the best number was when Uncle Fester and the moon literally flew around stage, dancing with each other. The chorus seemed like they had been added as an afterthought. Etc.
It came as a surprise to me that anyone was going to do this show again. It was, um, not destined to be a warhorse.
It also came as a surprise to me that it was being done in town this weekend! :Lazy as I am, I had not heard that it was happening until yesterday, after I had put Openings and Current Crop to bed for the week. I heard about it; the theater I had called about reviewing tickets - the only option there I know of is an answering machine or by computer, neither of which good ways to ask for free reviewing tickets - hadn't gotten back to me; I grabbed it.
Now, it didn't really come as a surprise to me that HITS put on a better show than the tour. I've seen some of their shows before and they have been uniformly excellent and exciting. I'm thinking Ragtime here, amongst others.
I hadn't realized that they do two shows at Miller each year now - a Spring one like Ragtime where the students work under visiting stars and a Fall one like this one where its just the students. Well, they were all teenagers, anyway. And you know what? I didn't miss the visiting stars. Heck, when they had been there I had had some trouble knowing which ones were the visitors and which ones were the best students.
It did surprise me that even HITS could make a good show out of Addams Family. But, they did.
I didn't get surprised that the best number, the first time I saw it - Fester dances with the moon - could not have been staged the same way that it was before. And I'm not going to even say that I didn't really miss the old staging, but I did really love the new one, too. So, bravos for that, amongst many other things, to directors Lauren Pastorek and Barry Stagg and choreographer Dana Lewis.
And the chorus - too many to mention - each a well differentiated character of its own - belonged in the scenes they were in. Very well done!
And did they add some dance music? Or maybe restore some from the NYC version that wasn't in the tour? Because - wowzers! The dancing!
If you remember the Addams Family, from their New Yorker cartoons, or from the TV show, then you'll know that this is a very good way to celebrate the Halloween season!!
It's a bit more adult than some might expect, but I suspect that most of the adult stuff will float out right over the heads of many children in costume tonight, as they just enjoy themselves - even with a rather long show. There were some that did just that last night - though some had parents who whisked them away at intermission and some of the youngest got a little past their attention span towards the end.
But as an adult Halloween night out? Made for it!!
There was not a single performer who deserved to be left out of this celebration of the show - as you might think of this review - and I don't want to give away too much of the plot - well, any really - so here is a list of a bunch of young performers all of whom have a bright future ahead of them: Dante Rossi (Gomez), Laurel Smalley (Morticia), Jonathan Algeroy (Uncle Fester), Betsy Broaddus, Emmy Smith, Estus Stephens, Thomas Sutherland, Erik Mills, Travis Carroll and last, but by not means the least, Olivia Clayton.
Olivia's character is named Alice, and when, at the end, she asks Fester where he's going, he says, "To the moon, Alice!" and even just thinking about that one line makes that happy ending real for me again and I'm nearly in tears.
Wildly enough, once again like the last show we reviewed - and we have been blessed this last two weeks with great shows! - Loyal loved the first act and rated the entire show higher than I did, by the same scores!! So, it'll look like a repeat, but this show deserves it -
Out of 5s: Loyal: 5.0, Me: 4.8, Average: 4.9.
-Bill O'Rourke, Houston Theater Year - Oct, 31, 2014
The best part about summer is the fun, frivolous pot-boiling productions that many companies offer to enchant and beguile audiences. The Eklektix Theatre Company, fresh off of celebrating their one year anniversary in Houston, is kicking off their Summer Stock season with a tremendously amusing and entertaining production of Richard O'Brien's cult favorite, THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW.
David: Direction by Bryan-Keyth Wilson keeps the show light but engaging. Many naysayers complain that the musical lacks a plot; however, Bryan-Keyth Wilsonguarantees that the transformation of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss from naïve, sexually repressed youths to open-minded sexually alert beings at the forefront of the show. Likewise, he has coached his cast to reinvent these beloved characters into personas that are zany and unique, ensuring that audiences will have never seen a ROCKY HORROR SHOW quite like this one. This freedom to experiment with and re-shape the characters also makes the production all the more magical and alluring.
Kristina: Eklektix Theatre Company's production of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW was masterfully choreographed by Bryan-Keyth Wilson with assistance from Isabelle Dom. The Choreography was comprehensive and consistent. From the tiny kick done at the end of "Dammit, Janet!" to Dr. Frank N Furter's effortless motions in high heels, it was clear that full attention was given to even the smallest details. The Choreography of such numbers as "Over at the Frankenstein Place" was both innovative and creative as ensemble members were efficiently used as set pieces. Ensemble numbers such as "The Time Warp" were choreographed to present the audience with a throwback to some of the iconic dance moves while being wholly original and distinctive. The transvestite Dr. Frank N Furter was expertly choreographed, shaping the character to be supremely feminine with hints of masculinity. It has to be said that the Choreography of this production perfectly captures the seductive nature of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW.