Once Upon a Roman Holiday

In the era of the 1%, who would give up their wealth and fame to join the uncleansed masses?

Roman Holiday is essentially the classic fairy tale in reverse. Princess Anne is a young European royal, the darling of her people and an unwilling participant in the trappings of monarchy. Her only dream is to live like a “normal” person, and at the end of a European introductory tour, she sneaks out of the embassy to join the plebeians below.

Her plan backfires as she ends up staying at the home of Joe Bradley, a composer who daylights as a journalist to earn cash. Bradley initially doesn’t recognize Anne, but once he does he’s determined to take advantage of her company to write an exclusive expose and earn his passage back to New York City where he can compose full time.

The problem with Bradley’s plan is that he and Anne come to like each other much more than they anticipated throughout their day spent on the streets of Rome. The script is interspersed with songs, dance, cameos from colorful Roman citizens and more, until Anne must return to her life as a princess.

The Guthrie smartly kept Roman Holiday to an exact copy of the 1953 cinema classic, down to crinoline-clad Audrey Hepburn doppelganger Stephanie Rothenberg, vintage Vespas and a life-size Trevi fountain. The effect is delightful even for those who haven’t seen the original Cole Porter-composed film (which you should if you haven’t) that starred Gregory Peck and nabbed Hepburn her first Oscar, launching her into celluloid stardom.

Rothenberg plays an excellent Anne, capturing much of Hepburn’s winsome portrayal. Her Disney princess innocence can at times be a tad frustrating, but most of her performance is spot-on, particularly in “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.”

Rothenberg is well partnered with Edward Watts, whose Joe Bradley is a bit more Howard Keel than Gregory Peck, but whose confident smile and peppy presence also strongly evoke the original film. Swing classic “Night and Day” is the best showcase for Watts’ voice.

Christina Baldwin is the show’s most winning star as the feisty Francesca, a bodacious Italian babe whose Porsche-caliber curves keep every man on his knees. Baldwin’s strut is magnificent, and her spot on accent keeps the laughs coming.

Roman Holiday’s second star has to be the decadently awesome ensemble cast, who profile some serious swing dance moves every scene or so (the sequence in “Look What I Found” is incredible). Many of them are Chanhassen Dinner Theater transplants, and their musical theater training there serves them well on the McGuire proscenium stage. The enormous ensemble utilizes the extravagant set and costumes to the utmost advantage, providing a live-in-Technicolor feast for the eyes and a beautiful approximation of Rome itself. They bring the cinema to the stage, and any attendees will love their wonderful caricatures.

Roman Holiday might be the musical to see of 2012, and it’s definitely one of the most family friendly shows to grace the Guthrie’s stages in a while. Avante-garde devotees may find its candy coating too much to swallow, but it’s a wonderful show for fans of classic Hollywood cinema, fairy tales or simply an escape from the everyday.

Xany Xanadu: Chanhassen Dinner Theater’s latest effort skates over itself

It seems in musical theater that there are the shows that can, the shows that can’t, and the shows that just don’t give up.

Xanadu, a musical farce of the 1980 movie of the same name, is one of the latter. Despite a weak script, an even weaker premise, and the least amount of flash the Chanhassen has possibly ever seen, the cast heaves this show along with every ounce they have and provide some truly enjoyable moments.

Xanadu tells the tale of an uninspired artist (Sonny), whose depression quickly turns around when he is visited by the leader of the muses (Clio, disguised as Australian Kira). With Kira’s inspiration, he decides to turn a run down theater into an all-arts-allowed space named Xanadu that also houses a roller skating disco.

The more Clio works with Sonny, the more she becomes Kira and begins to fall in love with art and with him, breaking several of the rules Zeus created to regulate each of the muses. Two of Clio’s evil sisters conspire to take over her position as their leader and banish her forever.

I’ll save the ending for curious viewers, but please note that the only thing saving this show is its inherent sarcasm, which comes in spades. The cast is so involved in parodying themselves (sometimes on multiple levels) that otherwise painful moments can be brutally funny. Nowhere is this better seen than in Kersten Rodau’s portrayal of evil sister Melpomene, melting Disney’s Hercules into Ursula the sea witch in a strangely satisfying bad guy way. Her rendition of “Evil Woman” is definitely one of the show’s highlights, and I would love to see her take a crack at Ursula should Little Mermaid ever grace a Twin Cities stage.

As Clio/Kira, Jodi Carmeli is appropriately airy and has a spot-on imitation of Oliva Newton John’s trademark Aussie voice. She works as hard as possible to make Kira relatable and heartwarming, and occasionally succeeds.

Dieter Bierbrauer makes Sonny exactly the kind of annoying, blah hipster that he is. Uptownites, beware: you might find yourself offended by the unflattering (but in ways, true) hipster identity he portrays.

Xanadu’s biggest flaw is its lack of acrobatic dance, which Chanhassen usually pulls off with aplomb (could this be because so many of their regulars are currently kicking their way through Roman Holiday?). One of the most intriguing ideas of Xanadu on stage is that roller disco, and although a few nods are made to it here and there, there is no show-stopping skating number to bring the crowd to its feet.

The costumes and set are a stark departure from past shows, full of ice cream pastels and a congregation like setup that audience members can pay an extra fee to sit in onstage as the show plays on. The mythical character montage during “Have You Never Been Mellow?” is a testament to the genius of Chanhassen’s costume department, featuring wildly inventive centaur, cyclops and Medusa costumes.

Xanadu is as light as a whipped fat-free yogurt sundae, and attendees shouldn’t expect the serious, heart-tugging melodrama of usual musical fare. For anyone with a group of pals who enjoy silly parodies or fantastical fantasies, it’s a good group way to spend a hot day inside. Anyone looking for drama, plot or a standard musical should skip it in favor of other fare.

Tune out to Noises Off!

Like an overfermented wine, Noises Off! promises all the features of a fantastic show, but leaves the audience coming away with a tinny taste in their mouth. It’s not necessarily a bad flavor, but it’s disappointing compared to what one expected.

Noises Off! is the same story retold three times from different vantage points. It opens on a British cast as they run through their dress rehearsal of a (terrible) play called Nothing On, which is essentially a ‘focus on sardines and slamming doors.’ Tensions run high as cast members stumble through set pieces, forget their lines and blocking, and reveal multiple romantic tensions.

The second act reveals the strained effect of this awful production from a behind-the-scenes vantage point, turning the meta- “play on play on play” feel up one more notch. The cast is clearly at their wits’ end, and all manner of fights and sabotage take place as we watch them attack each other backstage during their performances.

The third act finds us once again watching the play from the front as its audience. The cast clearly no longer cares to feign an interest in performing, and finally gives up on the whole shoddy interaction with an exhausted collapse.

The farce has some extremely funny moments, such as a lingerie-clad search for a lost contact, a cantankerous director bellowing from the tech booth, and Bradley Greenwald’s extraordinary facial expressions. The concept of flipping the action between performance and backstage action is also entertaining, and the context this contrasting perspective provides is helpful in enjoying the play.

Photo: Michal Daniel

But, ultimately, (and I’m going to get in trouble for this), Noises Off! is simply too long. The show’s repetitive nature and physical comedy lends itself to a lean, quickly paced script. A brisk 90 minute condensation of the current material would be more than enough to provide the audience with the same amount of humor and understanding of the plot. But instead, after two full intermissions and three dragging acts, the truly golden bits of Noises Off! become lost amidst a mountain of uninspiring pyrite.

The Jungle brought in a stellar cast of regulars for Noises Off!, and they do as much as they can with their roles. Standouts include EJ Subkoviak as surly director Lloyd Dallas, Bradley Greenwald as the simpering Frederick Fellowes, and the unabashed ballsery of Summer Hagen as resident ditz Brooke Ashton. These three manage to provide timely gutbusting pacemakers to break up the lengthy monotony of the script, particularly in the first and third acts.

Neal Skoy finally returns to the stage as Tim Allgood, and I hope he comes back in another show that allows him more stage time. Cheryl Willis (Dotty Otley), Kirby Bennett (Belinda Blair), Ryan Nelson (Garry Lejeune), Kimberly Richardson (Poppy Norton-Taylor) and Stephen D’Ambrose (Selsdon Mowbray) round out the cast, and each heaves as much humor out of their lines as possible.

Noises Off! is a classic example of Jungle programming, with a solid cast, interesting set, and clear direction. Unfortunately, the resistance to judicious editing prevents what might have been a great play with a few tweaks into an okay performance following the original to a T.

Blue Man Group Lights-up the Orpheum

[View the gallery of the Blue Man Group teaching percussion at The School of Rock in St. Paul]

 Irreverence: there could be no other take away from watching the aptly named Blue Man Group’s latest show at the Orpheum. A 21st century mime trio, Blue Man Group mixes cerulean body paint with shades of the Three Stooges, modern technology and the stunts and flash of musical groups like Daft Punk.

Their claim to fame, and the highlight of their concerts, is the extraordinary percussion pieces performed on little more than artfully sculpted PVC pipe. Vacuum tubes that look like corneal blood vessel marching drums and Tim Burton-y xylophones show that almost anything can be musical with enough creativity. Their variation in timbre and unique sound is truly inspiring.

Technological gag jokes comprised another third of the show, riffing on Apple’s extraordinary ubiquity with “Gipod” takes on touch screens, digital dress-up and sound mixing. Personally, I preferred their old-school physical comedy routine better, but the electronic teasing had the audience roaring.

The other third of the show featured Blue Man Group’s fusion of commentary on modern art and its creation. Paintings made of wet splatters from drum heads and paint filled gumballs were fun to watch and became cool souvenirs for the front rows. The best piece, however, was a “statue” made of innumerable marshmallows that one of the blue men swallowed as they were tossed at him. The corresponding price tag he used after disgorging said marshmallows onto his canvas made the best possible pantomime of many forms of abstract art (sorry Walker Art Center).

Photo: Paul Konlik

The show closed with streamers and enormous light up bouncy balls cascading over the audience, with the on-stage backup band tossing their black light skeleton duds and outrageously large hair as frequently as they scaled their instruments. It was quite a sight. Anyone sitting in the front rows should be prepared to participate at their own peril. Several audience members were called to the stage to help eat twinkies, make body paintings and more.

Blue Man Group is a great show for anyone to see once, and an excellent way to introduce kids and teens to thinking more deeply about the worlds of percussion, art and technology. It can be a bit tired for those who have experienced it before, but is definitely a performance you can only enjoy fully from a seat in the theater.

More information: 

 Tickets and information from Hennepin Theatre Trust

Fela! displays all of the qualities that a musical should be, featuring gorgeous music, riveting visuals and an explicit and carefully relayed political message to boot.

What does it take to break a person? How much violence, slander and abuse can be taken before one gives up on the goodness of life? 

In Fela Kuti’s case, it turns out that it takes quite a lot. Kuti was a Nigerian musician and social activist and the Ordway’s latest musical Fela!, which tells Kuti’s life story, is a testament to the exuberance and resilience of the human spirit.  

Fela!, mainly set in Kuti’s famous club the Afrika Shrine, displays all of the ups and downs of Kuti’s role as a renowned symbol of African protest against corrupt regimes. Weaving back and forth between Kuti’s time in America, London and his homes in Africa,Fela! clearly displays Kuti’s inspirations as he creates Afrobeat, finds bravery and purpose in the Black Power/Black Panther movement and devastation at the hands of Nigerian military aggression.  

Sahr Ngaujah’s portrayal of Fela Kuti is marvelous, and he has received well-deserved Tony and Olivier award nominations for his performance. Ngaujah shimmys, whoops and bounds across the stage, using every inch of space available to him to demonstrate Kuti’s struggles and bravery. He’s no musical slouch either, with a red velvet voice and a set of spectacular chops on the saxophone.  

As often seems to happen, Fela!’s most powerful musical moments came from cameos, this time of Kuti’s mother Funmilayo (played by Melanie Marshall). Marshall wields her voice across ungodly extremes, with an enormous, powerful range and a host of sound effects that are the vocal equivalent of kazoos. Her songs are riveting and alone worth the ticket price. 

The rest of the cast shares strong vocals as well, although focus more naturally draws to their furious dance skills. Stomping, chanting, krumping, “clocking,” tap dancing and more, they don’t let the audience’s eyes rest for a moment. A particularly fascinating highlight is their portrayal of a Yoruba religion dream sequence through dance, a flashmob-like introduction to orishas, shamans and spirituality. 

Each member of the band, which is ever-present on stage, helps set the pace for Kuti’s exuberance or despair, hitting pitch-perfect tempos and inducing the audience to their feet to dance along. It’s a shame there aren’t more spectacular instrumental groups like this in clubs these days. 

Musical highlights include the gorgeous adaptation of “Trouble Sleep,” an extraordinary tenor sax solo from Ngaujah on “Zombie” and those otherworldly tones from Marshall in “Rain.” These three tunes are some of this year’s musical standouts on stage, and the rest of the score is also delightful. 

Fela! displays all of the qualities that a musical should be, featuring gorgeous music, riveting visuals and an explicit and carefully relayed political message to boot. Many (if not most) shows that discuss racial issues could stand to learn from this deftly maneuvered play, and I’d love to see Fela!’s careful consideration spread.

Fela! is a must-see, so catch it while you can.

Naiku: Ahead of the Learning Curve

The tech revolution has fully infiltrated communication and information consumption, but its reach has somehow glaringly missed the field of education. Now, one Minneapolis company is aiming to bridge that gap by bringing to the classroom the methods that make consumer services like iTunes and Facebook so effective and appealing.

Formed in 2010 by Corey Thompson, Adisack Nhouyvanisvong and Kevin Sampers (a former computer programmer, educational tester and marketer, respectively) Naiku is an interactive test and assessment platform that helps teachers engage students, collaborate with other teachers and better understand kids’ individual needs and strengths, while attempting to mimic more closely the way young people receive and interact with information today.

Naiku’s creators recognized that today’s tech-savvy students learn in a way that may render some testing methods obsolete or irrelevant. (Think: blue-book exams.) So, Naiku, which is being implemented in school districts across the Twin Cities, allows students to take tests and quizzes on computers or mobile devices, with files easily transferable between formats and media—features that make the testing process as painless as it can be for all parties and engage students in ways that are familiar to them.

“Many sites [students] are used to interacting with—Facebook, Amazon, Google, Foursquare—personalize the experience, and students expect this level of service,” Thompson explains. “Today’s students [better] engage with school when instruction is personalized to some degree.”

In addition to the benefits it offers students, Naiku offers something often lacking in standardized testing: an emphasis on teachers’ role in student assessment. (The company’s name, after all, comes from the Lao word for “teacher.”)

“The relationship a teacher provides is critical to help motivate and nurture the student,” Thompson says. Using the Naiku system, teachers can virtually create, administer, collect and score data for assessing students’ performance. They can then link that data with past assessments for a comprehensive, customizable look at students’ progress. Teachers can also collaborate using Naiku to create consistent exams and scoring rubrics, a feature that streamlines test-administration and grading processes, thus freeing up time for teachers to use elsewhere (like at the front of the classroom).

The benefits to time- and energy-strapped teachers is one of the reasons Edina recently rolled out Naiku in its schools. “Edina likes Naiku because it will make life easier for [its] teachers,” Thompson says. “[Naiku] will reduce the amount of time it takes to administer and grade tests and quizzes.” The company has also partnered with multiple educational organizations, including Technology Information Education Services, an education technology cooperative owned by 46 Minnesota school districts, in order to more seamlessly bring technology into the classroom to better both the student and educator experience.

If the recognition Naiku is receiving is any indication (the company won a High Tech Division award from Minnesota Cup, a statewide new-venture competition, and has been praised by technology- and education-focused publications), it seems like those little blue books may go the way of the Dodo—in favor of something a little more recognizable in the world of iPads and Androids.

Turning Dance On Its Head: David Zambrano's Walker Art Center performance mixes show tunes, circus atire and eclectic choreography

Watching David Zambrano’s company perform Soul Project last Friday was like watching the regular performers of the Gay 90’s act in Baz Luhrman’s wet dream.

Don’t believe me? Witness the Moulin Rouge-like costumes, complete with circus clown hair and makeup; a set of faahhhh-bulous show tune covers by the likes of Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner; and choreography that swiftly alternated between strained, stoic poses, krumping and feats of breakdancing athleticism.

Like most every element of David Zambrano's Soul Project, even the viewing experience was turned on its head.

During its recent two-night stay at the Walker Art Center, there were no stadium seating or spotlights present; instead, a softly-colored club scene was inhabited by the audience, who were led from the traditional vantage point through the backstage door to crowd around the performers on stage behind the curtain, creating an unpredictably amorphous sightline.

And what did those in attendance see exactly?

Dancers in Moulin Rouge-like costumes comprised of a host of carefully “found” objects, complete with circus clown hair and makeup, a set of faahhhh-bulous show tune covers by the likes of Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, and choreography that swiftly alternated between strained, stoic poses, krumping and feats of breakdancing athleticism.

I’m not entirely sure what to say about the choreography itself. It was clearly intentional and thoroughly rehearsed, and in infrequent moments, such as a buoyantly lithe “I Will Survive,” it was inspirational. But too many times it felt like a self-induced seizure moment, something one might witness during a revelrous evening around a hippy campfire, but not after buying an expensive ticket to watch an internationally renowned dance company.

I must be missing something, though, because the show has been touring internationally since 2006 and has seen a veritable stampede of dancers prance through its run. If Lady Gaga had never happened, if the maudlin and macabre was no longer pop music’s swan song, Soul Project might seem a breath of fresh air, a rejection of the strict conformity so often ascribed to dance, and I could see some appeal. But as it was, it seemed tired, the kind of show patrons see to pat themselves on the back about their open-mindedness and edgy taste.

To anyone who enjoyed Soul Project, I salute you. You found the emperor’s clothes, and maybe you can help me find them next time.

+ Learn more about David Zambrano at davidzambrano.org; for a calendar of events coming up at the Walker Art Center visit walkerart.org.