Hundreds of characters walked onto local stages in 2015, ranging from the sublime — Mark Twain — to the wonderfully ridiculous: the kids of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Rep. Here are just some of the highlights of the past year in theater.
For more than 50 years the acclaimed stage and film actor Hal Holbrook has delivered the genius of American author and humorist Mark Twain to audiences with his one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight. In October, he brought it to the Valentine Theatre in downtown Toledo.
The show included such hot-button topics as politics and religion, Blade staff writer Shannon E. Kolkedy said in her review, and “Holbrook drew laughs — uneasy, perhaps, at times — and hearty applause throughout his two-plus hour performance filled with Twain’s own words.”
Other memorable Valentine Theatre productions this year included an evening of New York-style cabaret, 4 Girls 4 in May. The stars included Andrea McArdle, who originated the title role of the little girl in the hit Broadway musical Annie; Maureen McGovern, who earned a 1973 Gold record for “The Morning After” from the film The Poseidon Adventure; Faith Prince, who won a 1992 Tony Award in Guys and Dolls, and Christine Andreas, who earned Tony Award nominations for On Your Toes and Oklahoma!
● The Broadway in Toledo series, presented at the Stranahan Theater by the Theater League, included the audience favorite, Beauty and the Beast, in January. The Disney Broad way musical is based on the Academy Award-winning animated film inspired by a French fairy tale. The show even drew slightly more people to the theater than the appearance of the international mega-hit The Book of Mormon at the Stranahan at the end of 2014; both were very close to sell-outs.
Another audience-pleasing musical brought to town by the Theater League was Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage, which arrived in Toledo in November. It was inspired by 1987’s hit movie that starred Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.
● Mary Poppins was certainly a hit at the Croswell Opera House. The Broadway musical was the Adrian theater’s best-attended show since 1997, bringing in 5,586 people over 10 performances in June. It was also the third-highest-attended show of the past 50 years.
The Croswell presents its musicals in a summer season, and 2015’s attendance of 13,260 was the highest since 1998. Its August production of Memphis the Musical, starring Tatiana Owens, also created buzz for the Adrian theater. Owens, who at age 10 sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at Storm hockey and Mud Hens baseball games, now is building her career. She has her own EP, Colorful, and her song “What U Lookin At” has been featured on the ABC Family TV series Becoming Us.
● The Toledo Repertoire Theatre’s year always is marked by what has become a Toledo holiday tradition, its annual production of A Christmas Carol. The Rep’s production, which celebrated its 30th anniversary, was directed by Debra Ross Calabrese, who has been the director since 2008.
Also among the highlights this year was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee this fall. Six middle school students are out to impress their classmates, friends, and families by correctly spelling big words in front of an audience. But these are not the cool kids. “You have six super-nerds and they’re all vying for the title of best speller in Putnam County,” Amy Spaulding-Heuring, who directed the Rep’s production, said in an interview in September. The cast of Putnam County brought out the humor of the show, but also portrayed the emotional roller coaster that can be a part of preteen life.
The Rep also presented two classics in 2015, William Inge’s 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Picnic on Labor Day weekend, directed by Brad Bowman, and in November came a 1664 French comedy, Moliere’s Tartuffe, directed by Matthew Gretzinger.
● The Village Players’ May presentation of Clue: The Musical, directed by Wes Skinner, was the first musical the Village Players presented in three years, and it was a success — with shows at the end of its run nearly selling out, said Chris Jagodzinski, Village Players’ vice president for public relations.
This fall the Village presented two shows with film connections. The Lion in Winter, a reminder that dysfunctional families are nothing new, was staged in September and directed by Kate Argow. And in November the Village produced The Birds, directed by Jeffrey Albright.
● This fall the University of Toledo presented The Laramie Project, by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. It centers on how people living in Laramie, Wyo., reacted to — and tried to come to terms with — the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who was found tied to a fence outside Laramie. He had been brutally beaten and left for dead; he died of his injuries days later.
In his review of the UT production, Blade features editor Mike Pearson wrote, “This production of The Laramie Project soars. Far from perfect, it still manages to grip us with its heart-wrenching story and performances a theater department can be proud of.”
The UT production was co-directed by Pete Cross and Mark Leasor.
● Bowling Green State University’s slate of theater productions included November’s A Perfect Wedding by unconventional playwright Charles Mee, about a runaway bridegroom, new pairings, and perhaps new weddings. Mee believes there is no such thing as an original script, so he uses as his sources Shakespeare (in this case A Midsummer Night’s Dream) or ancient Greek text, adding anything else he finds interesting, director Sara Chambers, a BGSU lecturer in theater and film, said in a recent interview.
Contact Sue Brickey at sbrickey@theblade.com.
First Published December 27, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
