Displaying items by tag: Kent Joseph

George Sidney, the prolific 20^th Century movie director who helmed the 1952 movie version of Rafael Sabatini's 1921 novel SCARAMOUCHE as well as Hollywood musicals from SHOW BOAT to VIVA LAS VEGAS, is reported to have said, "I always thought SCARAMOUCHE should be a musical." And now it is. The world premiere musical adaptation of SCARAMOUCHE, with music and lyrics by City Lit Artistic Associate Kingsley Day and book by Day and James Glossman, will close City Lit's 45^th season, playing from May 1 to June 14. The classic adventure story follows the exploits of a sardonic provincial lawyer who is radicalized by his friend's brutal murder on the eve of the French Revolution. He repeatedly evades disaster by taking on a series of new identities—first as an insurgent orator, then a traveling comic actor, and finally a master swordsman. Beth Wolf, recently named one of New City's "Players 2026: 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago," will direct this full-scale, swashbuckling musical that will take audiences to 18^th Century France with such visual delights as sword fighting, Commedia dell'arte, projections, and costumes of the French elite and peasantry. A score of some 30 musical numbers will be performed by a 10-person cast with extensive musical theater credits from across the Chicagoland areas, accompanied by a three-piece pit band. 

 
Cast in the title role as Andre-Louis Moreau, the young lawyer from Britanny who assumes a secret identity as Scaramouche, will be Ethan Smith, seen recently in Music Theater Works' GODSPELL. The story will be told by a troupe of players, led by their Manager, who will be played by Actors' Equity member Henry Michael Odum. Odum has played such iconic musical theater roles as Fagin in OLIVER! (Citadel Theatre) and The Narrator/Mysterious Man in INTO THE WOODS (Porchlight). Odum will additionally play Gavrillac, Moreau's godfather – a man who many believe is secretly Moreau's father. Gavrillac's orphaned niece Aline will be played by Laura Michele Erle, who earlier this year was Mina in Lazy Susan's DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Erle's character Aline is betrothed to the powerful nobleman Marquis de la Tour, who challenges Moreau's best friend, the idealistic Phillipe (Conor Ripperger of GODSPELL, PIPPIN and LEGALLY BLONDE with Music Theater Works), to an outrageously lopsided dual, killing him. De la Tour will be played by Kent Joseph, who is experienced in playing French villains, having been cast twice as Frollo in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Music Theater Works and Metropolis Arts Center). 

The cast also includes Alicia Berneche (Penelope Pennywise in URINETOWN for Theo Ubique) as Madame de Sautron, Shea Lee (THE CONDUCTORS, Lifeline) as Columbine, Ed Rutherford (Pseudolus in A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, Madkap Productions) as Chapelier, India Huy (URINETOWN, Theo Ubique) as Climene, and Rushil Byatnal (THE UNKNOWN VARIABLE, Momentary Theatre) as Pierrot. Understudies are Ryan Smetana (u/s Moreau), Brian James (u/s Manager, Gavrillac), Matthew Benenson Cruz (u/s Marquis de la Tour), Will Ehrlich (u/s Philippe), Alex Stetkevich (u/s Aline), and Emma Jean Eastlund (u/s Madame de Sautron).

Kingsley Day's many musical theater works include the one-act musical "Text Me," produced at City Lit in 2024; and with Philip LaZebnik, the musicals SUMMER STOCK MURDER and STATE STREET (the latter produced at City Lit in 2012). Co-Bookwriter James Glossman enjoyed a two-decade-long collaboration with author and journalist Jim Lehrer that included the plays KICK THE CAN, THE SPECIAL PRISONER, and FLYING CROWS. More recently, he collaborated with actor Tom Hanks on the plays SAFE HOME and THIS WORLD OF TOMORROW. SCARAMOUCHE will be directed by Beth Wolf, two-time Jeff nominee for Direction (for OUTSIDE MULLINGAR and SILENT SKY at Citadel Theatre) and Founding Artistic Director of Midsommer Flight. SCARAMOUCHE will open to the press on Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 pm, following previews from May 1 and will play through June 14, 2026.

The designers who will bring the look of late 18^th Century France to City Lit's stage in Edgewater are Trevor Dotson (Scenic Designer), Jackson Mikkelsen (Lighting Designer), Jennifer Mohr (Costume Designer, Commedia Consultant), Meg X. McGrath (Props Designer), Kevin Zhou (Music Director), Tyeese Braslavsky (Assistant Music Director), DJ Douglass (Projections Designer), Maureen Yasko (Violence and Intimacy Design), Ray Post (Assistant Director). The production team also includes Grace Elizabeth Mealey (Stage Manager), Dylan Hirt (Assistant Stage Manager), Alexa Berkowitz (Production Manager), Becca Holloway (Casting Director), Teseela Sokolin-Maimon (Technical Director), Sara Johnson (Production Electrician), Bruce Bennett (Scenic Charge), and Aubrey Pierce (Production Carpenter).

Tickets to SCARAMOUCHE are priced at $37 for previews and $45 for regular performances and may be ordered online at www.citylit.org or purchased over the phone by calling 773-293-3682. Senior prices are $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $22.00 for all performances.

My favorite writer of all time is Tennessee Williams. He was born into a dysfunctional family in Mississippi 1911. Most of his plays revolve around family dynamics.  My favorite play of his, and of all time is “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. It is an exploration of life, of death, of unrequited love and sexuality, but most of all, it’s about mendacity. The whole play is centered on various family members lying to each other, and in the case of one character, to himself.

“Cat” was written, and it takes place in the present, which would be 1955. A lackluster screen adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman was done in 1958. While beautiful to view , the movie sanitized the script, taking out the scandalous details, leaving an easily digestible movie for 1958 audience. It has none of the heart or the scandal of the play and Mr. Williams hated it.

I had mixed emotions with MadKap’s production at Skokie Theater. I loved the sound effects and felt they were well-designed. The set was a different story. I liked the hanging moss indicating a southern locale. I would have liked to see more order in the netting surrounding the set. It was extremely thick in certain places and seemed to be thrown onto the backdrop. I understand what the designer was going for. With a little help from the lighting designer this could have been an impressive set, as it is now, it is just functional. The furniture in the bedroom did not suggest a wealthy southern family of means. The vanity was a table with a tablecloth thrown over it, the chaise lounge was a pale gray color, the liquor cabinet was a 1980’s stereo system without the stereo. All these items should assist in telling the audience who these people are.  Set design for this show doesn’t begin and end with a brass bed.

The characters in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” are complicated. They have big personalities and even bigger emotions, but so much more than that, they are real people. They shouldn’t be reduced to goofy accents and characterizations.  Reid Harrisson O’Connell plays older brother Gooper and Emilie Yount plays perpetually pregnant sister-in-law Mae. O’Connell wore an oversized suit, a rare miss in an otherwise excellent costume design by Beth Laske Miller. I never got the impression Gooper was a successful lawyer. O’Connor played at the character. His body language gave H.S. student trying to play older. His big scene in the third act came off as comical. Yount as Mae fared slightly better. I wanted to see more variety in her characterization….more cat, less bitch.

I love what Kent Joseph did with Big Daddy Pollitt. He showed us all sides of this cancerous and cankerous plantation owner. In him we see parallels between himself and Brick.  Like Brick, he believes himself to be surrounded by dishonesty. Also, like Brick, he views his marriage as a sham, and feels nothing but disgust for the woman whom he married. The difference between he and Brick is Big Daddy is being lied to, while Brick is lying to himself.  Joseph gave us an honest portrayal of Big Daddy and he was equally yoked with Ann James’ Big Mama. Hers was a loud, tender, and touching performance.  A joy to watch.

I wish Caleb Gibson matched the energy of Kent Joseph. I couldn’t get past a weird accent he used. It was a cross between Jim Nabors’ Gomer Pyle (who, incidentally, was gay) and Foghorn Leghorn. A dialect coach would have served this production greatly. Act two of the play is the heart of the drama. We learn the problem with Brick, and Big Daddy learns of his problem. The language is very important. It is not the time to break down sobbing. Gibson, while trying to convince his father he is not “a sissy”, is incoherent because of his crying. We miss a lot of information. It was an issue of over-acting in some places while underacting in others.

Sarah Sapperstein did an amazing job as Maggie the cat. She is strong yet vulnerable. She gives as well as she takes. She is determined yet utterly feminine. We could have asked for more onstage chemistry between Gibson and Sapperstein but her Maggie was one point nonetheless.

I recommend everyone see “Cat on A Hot Tin Roof”, after all, this is Tennessee Williams. The world has changed so much since the 50’s. Writers such as Donja Love, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Jonathan Larson, Tony Kushner as well as others, owe so much to Williams. I owe so much to him; he kept me reading and learning.

“You two had something that had to be kept on ice, yes, incorruptible, yes!--and death was the only icebox where you could keep it....”
― Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Through 11/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Wed 11/16 1:30 PM, Skokie Theatre, 7924 Lincoln, Skokie, 847-677-7761, skokietheatre.org, $38 ($34 students/seniors)