Stage Capsule Reviews
Fiddler on the Roof We’ve heard great things about Neal Benari’s Tevye in this New Theatre import of the Broadway revival. The show that brought the shtetl to American pop, Fiddler deserves to be reclaimed from high schools and kitsch; it’s the rare musical that means something to people who don’t care about theater. I’ve heard “Sunrise, Sunset” reduce everyone to quivering lumps at more than one wedding. We won’t even complain about having to shell out for dinner — buffets were huge back in the homeland, right? Through Aug. 27 at New Theatre Restaurant, 9229 Foster, Overland Park, 913-649-7469.
The Fifth of July and Talley’s Folly We met the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri, in the stirring Talley’s Folly, the moondrunk romance that kicks off Lanford Wilson’s great trilogy and is running all summer long, so get out there, people. Set 30 years later, Fifth of July gives us the Talleys in the ’70s, coping with adulthood, Vietnam and what had become of American life. Good as Folly is, July is even more promising: a richer script, starring the bulk of the Kansas City Actors Theatre’s best and directed by Mark Robbins, a man so skilled, he could direct the Royals to victory. Through Sept. 3 at Union Station’s City Stage, 18 W. Pershing, 816-235-6222.
Geppetto & Son Handmade charm trumps corporate gloss when the Coterie Theatre teams with Disney itself for a world-premiere musical based on Pinocchio. New songs by Wicked and Godspell composer Stephen Schwartz certainly help, but it’s the spirited performances — Jessalyn Kincaid as a self-absorbed Blue Fairy, Charles Fugate as Geppetto, and a host of smiling kids and theater pros — and homemade Coterie craftsmanship that keep this puppet dancing. Geppetto‘s not as thoughtful as most Coterie shows, and the lessons crammed in by writer David Stern are only Hollywood-deep, but director Jeff Church has again inspired the best from the Coterie’s artistic staff: imaginative puppets and shadow play, costumes both grand and goofy, sound effects that delight and spook. Through Aug. 6, at the Coterie Theatre, Crown Center, 2450 Grand, 816-474-6552. Reviewed in our July 6 issue.
Table Manners Too bad dinner theater is a dirty word. Clever farceur Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy about very British siblings and spouses on holiday together, encountering all the romantic misunderstandings you would expect, is centered on dinners: Everyone meets and eats at 8 each night (which just happens to be showtime throughout the western world; told you he was clever). This is the first in Ayckbourn’s celebrated Norman Conquest trilogy, a series of shows that feature overlapping characters and occur simultaneously in real time, which means that when characters exit Table Manners, they show up in Living Together. Poke in the Eye Productions is just staging the first — and funniest — of the shows. Here’s hoping someone in town someday dares all three. I’m looking at you, Kansas City Actors Theatre. Through July 22 at Corinth Dance Studio in the Corinth Square Shopping Center, 4047 Somerset Dr., Prairie Village, 913-383-1900.
Tick, Tick … Boom! Thin but engaging, this autobiographical musical by Rent composer Jonathon Larson is an all-singing-and-dancing portrait of the artist hitting 30 and feeling sorry for himself. The story is insular, and not all the songs register, but fine performances elevate everything. As Jon, John-Michael Zuerlein brings a shrugging charisma to a character that could seem self-involved, and Sarah Crawford and Tim Scott shine as a host of supporting characters. And the band comes as close as musical theater can to actually rocking without sounding like Meat Loaf. It’s all proof that, with time, experience and a willingness to seek inspiration outside his own life, Larson might have become as great as Rent fans proclaim him. Through July 16 at the Unicorn Theatre, 3828 Main, 816-531-7529, ext. 10. Reviewed in our June 22 issue.
