Seder

Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT 
www.hartfordstage.org 
through Nov. 12, 2017
by Bernadette Johnson

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” is the question asked by the youngest family member at a Seder, the ritual feast ushering in the yearly Jewish celebration of Passover. For the characters in Sarah Gancher’s “Seder,” a Hungarian family celebrating its first-ever Seder under the questionable guidance of an American neighbor, it is the backdrop upon which family secrets are exposed and political and moral judgments erupt. Without a doubt, this night is different for all concerned.

Set in 2002, the catalyst of the drama is the opening of the House of Terror museum in Budapest in the former headquarters of the Hungarian equivalents of both the SS and, later, the KGB. The family matriarch, Erzsike (Mia Dillon), who worked as a secretary in the building, discovers that her portrait has been hung on the museum’s “wall of perpetrators.”

Conflict…thy name is Judit (Birgit Huppuch), Erzsike’s estranged daughter reluctantly reuniting with the family on the occasion of their first Seder. Judit, ever the controversial activist and now curating the exhibit, launches into a tirade of accusations and denunciation against her mother. Huppuch’s passionate portrayal is relentless and in-your-face, infusing the role with palpable fury, her actions, expressions and demeanor as voluble as her accusations.

Dillon transitions smoothly from the distress of this confrontation to the past as flashbacks haunt her and she seeks to defend the morality of her actions. Huppuch and Dillon are powerful in their respective roles, and the drama that unfolds is riveting.

Gancher wisely injects humor into the situation, which might otherwise have been uncomfortably dark and depressing. Steven Rattazzi, the American neighbor David, a comic figure with an exaggerated accent (nationality?), is relentless and diverting in his attempt to restore order and make this Seder “happen.” Julia Sirna-Frest, as Margit, the younger sister, and Dustin Ingram, as brother Laci, try to make light of a hopeless situation, Ingram mocking Rattazzi’s accent and Sirna-Frest calmly affecting normalcy.

Erzsike’s “I am one person, a woman. What could I do?” is a question that is sure to reverberate in the minds of theatergoers, as is scenic designer Nick Vaughan’s “wall of perpetrators.” Exceptional direction by Elizabeth Williamson and fight choreography by Greg Webster. Kudos to Laura Stanczyk on her choice of this superb cast.

School of Rock, the Musical

The Bushnell, Hartford, CT

www.bushnell.org

through October 29, 2017

by Rebecca Phelps

“School of Rock” is a staged adaptation of the ever popular 2003 movie of the same title starring Jack Black. Surprisingly, the book to the show is written by Julian Fellowes of “Downton Abby” fame, and music by non-other than Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who returns to his earlier, rock roots (think “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”). The show closely follows the same story line as the movie, but the music is almost entirely new.

The production relies heavily on the skills of Rob Colletti who supplies the humor and super-charged, rebellious, yet loveable energy that propels the show. It is hard not to compare Colletti’s depiction of Dewey Finn, the hapless rock ’n roll wannabe, to the iconic Jack Black. Colletti earns his keep in this performance giving 110%.  It is hard to miss the charismatic performance of Lexie Dorsett Sharp as Rosalie, the up-tight principal of Horace Green Prep School, with her beautiful and strong vocal skills (excerpts from Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria) and just the right combination of humor and style to draw you in.

But the real stars of the show are the kids who form the rock band under Mr. Schneebly’s (aka Dewey’s) tutelage. They play their own instruments, sing their hearts out, and dance up a storm. Special kudos to Gianna Harris in the role of Tamika, the shy girl, and her amazingly soulful rendition of “Amazing Grace,” and Phoenix Schuman in the role of Zach – the meanest elementary-school aged guitar player ever!

It is always a challenge to keep a hard-driving, rock style pit band quiet enough to still hear the lines, especially when they are being delivered by children. Unfortunately, this show suffered from this problem and some of the dialogue was  lost. In spite of this, the heavy rain and near hurricane force winds, the Bushnell Theatre was packed with an enthusiastic audience for opening night. This is a fun-filled, high energy show, perfect for those who are nostalgic for the great rock sounds of the 70’s. With quotes and nods throughout the show to the greats: Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Stevie Nix, Led Zepplin, and more. Bring your kids and the grandparents as well, and rock on!

The Titans: Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets

Mahaiwe, Great Barrington, MA

Close Encounters with Music

www.cewm.org

October 21, 2017

by Rebecca Phelps

A warm reception was offered to the opening performance of the 26th season of Close Encounters with Music series. Clearly the audience was primed and expecting a first-rate performance of two, much beloved classics of the chamber music repertoire.

The evening commenced with an informative introduction by Yehuda Hanani, artistic director of the series and cellist in the evening’s performance. In his lecture, Hanani went straight to the music with descriptive insights into the composers and each movement of the pieces, knowing he had an informed audience, ready to listen and learn.

The program’s pieces are both considered to be giants of their respective composers’ overall output, and of chamber music repertoire. In order to present them in chronological order they were reversed from the program order with the Schumann going first, followed by intermission and then the Brahms, which was preceded by another introductory lecture from Hanani.

The piano quintet was a new concept in chamber music in 1842 when Robert Schumann wrote his now famous Quintet in Eb major.  At the time, Schumann was engaged to the lovely and talented Clara Wieck, and the addition of a piano to the standard string quartet gave her an opportunity to perform her fiancé’s music, perhaps helping to assuage her father’s concerns about his prospective new son-in-law.

The Brahms Quintet in F minor is surely one of the giants in Brahms canon, and not for the faint of heart. The demands placed on the players to successfully surmount this musical mountain of a piece are extraordinary. The fast passages went at lightening speed; the quiet, pensive ones were played with delicate control and sensitivity; and the musical conversation amongst the players had to be developed to a high degree. Chamber music requires team players who interact with each other, passing the music between them and understanding their roles to form a cohesive whole. The five performers, all fine players from diverse backgrounds, came together and did just that. The audience and this reviewer raved about this outstanding evening of first rate, high class artistry. Bravo!

SSO Opening Night: Prokofiev Piano Concerto

Springfield Symphony, Springfield, MA

www.springfieldsymphony.org

October 14, 2016

by Michael J. Moran

To open the SSO’s 74th season and his own 17th season as their music director, Kevin Rhodes told the Springfield Republican, he planned a program of three musical pieces that “should take us to lots of places.”

After an exuberant sing-along season-opening “Star-Spangled Banner,” the concert proper began with a rousing take on the Overture to Rossini’s comic opera “The Thieving Magpie,” in which a servant girl is saved from the gallows when a missing spoon is found in a magpie’s nest. Having just produced an exciting drum roll throughout the national anthem, a stalwart SSO percussionist played the overture’s opening snare drum solo with equal flair, and the full ensemble nicely captured the zany high spirits of Rossini’s score.

Claire Huangci

Making her third appearance with the SSO, 27-year-old Chinese-American pianist Claire Huangci gave what she had promised and dubbed a “no-holds-barred performance” of Prokofiev’s rarely heard second piano concerto. Overshadowed by his more popular first and third concertos, the second presents formidable technical challenges, which Huangci overcame with ease. Its exotic melodies and often percussive orchestration were expertly rendered by all the musicians.

The audience enjoyed it so much that Huangci played a contrasting encore, the title theme from “Beauty and the Beast,” which she joked was “appropriate” for the bouquet of red roses she had just received from maestro Rhodes.

In another change of mood, the program closed after intermission with the second and sunniest of Brahms’ four symphonies in a tenderly affectionate rendition. From the heartfelt opening “Allegro non troppo,” through the radiant “Adagio non troppo” and the gentle “Allegretto gracioso,” to the jubilant “Allegro con spirito” finale, conductor and orchestra achieved a perfect balance of skillful ensemble and emotional commitment.   

In pre-concert remarks, Rhodes announced that each concert this season would introduce a new feature to the concert experience. Tonight’s innovation was “real time notes” during the Brahms symphony, which audience members in the balcony could follow on their cell phones as the music unfolded. The large number of young people present suggested that this 21st-century strategy just might work.

WAM & The Last Wife

Bernstein Theatre, Lenox

www.wamtheatre.com

through November 5, 2017

by Shera Cohen

The most important work of WAM is not the arts, or theatre in particular, but charity and goodwill. Since 2010, WAM Theatre (Where Arts & Activism Meet) has donated more than $32,500 to 12 nonprofit organizations that benefit women and girls, and provided paid work to more than 200 theatre artists.

Photo by Kristen van Ginhoven

WAM was founded in 2010, and “The Last Wife” marks the  end of its eighth season. In total, WAM has presented one Main Stage play each fall. Also filling out WAM’s calendar is its reading series which presents works in progress by local artists. A younger troupe, The Girls Ensemble, has performed original works in 2016 and 2017. WAM  also collaborates on community events, such as the Facing Our Truth project in 2016 and our Sister March event in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington this past January.

I had the opportunity to see a preview of “The Last Wife” by Kate Hennig. The wife, in this instance, is Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who not only saved her head but also outlived her husband.

Enticing me to attend this play was the collaboration of WAM with Shakespeare & Company. The latter contributed three of its finest actors in lead roles; Nehassaiu deGannes (Kate), a spunky, articulate new-comer in the Berkshires who shined this summer in “Intimate Apparel;” John Hadden (Henry), a regular at Shakespeare & Co. whose attention to drama is especially unique; and David Joseph (Thom), a suave young man, who seems to have grown up before my eyes, with a cunning grin.

WAM has some challenges, as do other stages in the Berkshires. The most significant hurdle is timing. Since it’s no longer summer, attending performances at Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, and Barrington Stage in the fall months is not an immediate thought when seeking theatre. Many venues are trying to stretch their calendars. I honestly don’t know if it works – only the box office staff know for sure -- but I have to say that I attended three of this year’s best productions this month – yes, in October.

The Wolves

TheaterWorks, Hartford, CT

www.theaterworkshartford.org

through November 10, 2017

by Jennifer Curran

Photo by Lanny Nagler

“The Wolves,” written by Sarah DeLappe, is as complex and honest as it is heart-breaking and hopeful. Having had a successful Broadway run in 2016, DeLappe’s first play has been produced in regional theaters across the country. “The Wolves” is a war story, told one soccer match at a time. The battlefield might be an indoor soccer field and the soldiers teenaged girls, but this is the very essence of fight to win. The ten-member cast of women, all un-named, marches and spars and sweats together. The ensemble work that stormed the stage at TheaterWorks was a rare and stunning dance of control and chaos.

A Pulitzer Prize Finalist and multiple award winning play, “The Wolves,” introduces and then lays bare the inner lives of these nine ferocious girls with all the gory, gutsy, and heartbreaking truth a writer can fit into 90 minutes. Here, the audience is more voyeur than active participant. As the girls fight to win, for control, for a place, for answers, we are watching them struggle to survive the world that they have inherited with the tools they’ve been given. Nobody said it would be a fair fight.

These girls are middle America, and they are living in the upper middle class suburban dream created by Boomers and later perfected by Generation X. They are exactly who the two generations hoped their daughters would be. Perhaps the moms didn’t realize that hopes can be interpreted as unfulfill-able demands by their daughters.

This is a play with a drumbeat heart that requires a master at the helm. With dialogue so dense, a lesser director would allow for unwelcome air between the rapid-fire dialogue. What a travesty that would be. Under Eric Ort’s direction, there is barely room for an extra atom of oxygen. The show hurtles by with almost zero moments of silence or stillness. Those moments, when they do happen, grab and shake and hold long after the curtain call.

Beethoven’s Eroica

Hartford Symphony, Hartford, CT

www.hartfordsymphony.org

October 6–8, 2017

by Michael J. Moran

Conductor Carolyn Kuan

The “Star-Spangled Banner,” which launched each concert in this opening weekend program of the HSO’s 74th season, took on a personal meaning for Carolyn Kuan, Saturday, when she and 10 other Connecticut residents became American citizens at a naturalization ceremony held earlier on the same stage. Beginning her own seventh season as HSO Music Director, Kuan led the national anthem with a festive enthusiasm that drew a standing ovation from a full house.

The concert proper began with a majestic account of Beethoven’s dramatic “Egmont” Overture. Part of  a score written for Goethe’s 1810 play about a nobleman who led a revolution in 16th-century Holland against Spanish tyranny, the overture depicts the suffering of the Dutch people, the execution of Count Egmont, and the jubilation of eventual victory. Conductor and orchestra brought it to vibrant life.

Yugo Kanno next gave two Japanese instruments, the koto (a zither-like stringed device) and the shakuhachi (a vertical bamboo flute), solo roles in his concerto “Revive.” Played with virtuosity by Masayo Ishigure and Kojiro Umezaki respectively, they blended delicately with the sumptuous orchestra, which reflected the composer’s primary experience in writing film music. The three movements of this 2014 piece progress from the tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in 2011 to the reconstruction of many destroyed communities. The musicians honored the composer’s intentions with an affecting performance.

A dynamic reading of Beethoven’s third (“Eroica”) symphony brought the program to a triumphant close. From the energetic opening “Allegro con brio,” through the somber “Funeral March” and the uproarious “Scherzo,” to the exuberant theme and variations “Finale,” Kuan and her ensemble vividly conveyed the massive scale of this unprecedented work, which introduced the modern symphony.

Under the enlightened leadership of their new American conductor, this program was an inspiring start for the HSO’s upcoming season.