I know, I know, another musical based on a movie, the difference is this time it wasn’t a blockbuster hit movie that everyone and their grandmother saw. This time the musical is based on an independant film that your Grandmother probably didn’t see. Chances are you haven’t either, but you should, and you should see this musical as well. The film was released in 2007 starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion and co-starring the films Writer/Director Adrienne Shelly. It’s cult success was bittersweet due to the murder of Shelly in 2006. It’s nice to see her work gain a new life and continue to bring joy to audiences. Opening on Broadway in 2016, it ran until 2020. National Tours began in 2017. Now on it’s second tour and it’s second stop in the Twin Cities, it safe to say this is a crowd pleaser of a show. I saw the show at the Orpheum when it came through town a few years ago, sometimes with a busy schedule I’ll forgo a revisit, but I remembered really enjoying Waitress and I’m glad I went back for a second slice. It’s a fairly naughty show, but in a very sweet way.

Jenna Hunterson is the Waitress of the title she has a gift for making pies which she puts to good use at Joe’s Diner. Work is populated by the grouchy short order cook and manager Cal, fellow waitresses and Jenna’s friends Dawn and Becky, and daily customer/owner the elderly Joe. Home life is Earl and only Earl, from that magic mold that so many Earl’s seem to come from. You know the type, the kind that makes people write songs with titles like “Goodbye Earl”. Things go from bad to worse for Jenna’s personal life when she discovers early in the show that she is pregnant. A trip to her OB/GYN further complicates matters when she finds herself attracted to him. During times of stress Jenna creates new pies with fabulous names like Deep Dish Blueberry Bacon, Betrayed By My Eggs Pie, and Almost Makes You Believe Again Pie. While the play focuses on Jenna, we also explore the love lives of the other characters. Particularly the introverted and innocent Dawn who has her own whirlwind romance with Ogie, whom she meets through a service and who is a spontaneous poet.

The cast is for the most part serviceable, there are a couple of really well cast performers. Jisel Soleil Ayon as Jenna is really quite good. There is a song towards the end of the show that really knocked the audience out “She Used to Be Mine”. It’s a quieter song and Ayon beautifully fills it with an emotional resonance that could be felt through the auditorium. It resulted in one of the longest ovations I’ve witnessed in the middle of a play. Other standouts were Gabriella Marzetta as Dawn and Dominique Kent as Becky. Marzetta plays the uncertain and awkward Dawn to perfection and Kent has the sassy experienced Becky down, whipping out the sass and zingers with perfect timing, she also had the chops when it came to the singing. Brian Lundy as Ogie gets perhaps the song that cracks the whole audience up when he comes to woo Dawn and performs the show stopping “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me”

The book is by Jessie Nelson with Music & Lyrics by Sara Bareilles based on the film written by Adrienne Shelly. This being my second time seeing the show, more of the songs stuck with me this time. Bareilles has some real winners here from the truly funny to the emotional. One of the highlights of the production is the set design by Scott Pask. We see change settings throughout the show but the main set is the dinner with a backdrop of the highway out front of the Diner and the horizon. It’s a really impressive look and the diner pieces flow in and out smoothly letting us move to Jenna and Earl’s home and the Doctor’s office. But I always come back to the Diner set and that beautiful backdrop. Key to the backdrop is the Lighting design by Ken Billington, which brilliantly captures the dawning of a new day or the twilight at the end of a long day.

Waitress is playing at The Ordway in downtown St. Paul through March 13th for more information and to purchase Tickets go here https://ordway.org/events/broadway

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The trick with Shakespeare is always to make it accessible and understandable. Joe Dowling, former Artistic Director of the Guthrie, returns to direct and succeeds beyond all expectations. What was I expecting? I’ll tell you what I wasn’t expecting, David Bowie for one. Under Dowling’s direction we are treated to a brave new vision of The Tempest. Recasting the gender of the lead role from Prospero now to Prospera doesn’t alter the plot but it does affect the tone and feel of the play in many subtle but rewarding ways. Other bold decisions follow as the play progresses, and each is a welcome surprise. While the show stops sort of falling into that category of musical it comes awfully close. The music works wonderfully, those were some of my favorite moments in a show that plays like a list of favorite moments.

One of Shakespeare’s final plays The Tempest has a little of everything, comedy, romance, intrigue, monsters and magic. The opening scene takes place aboard a ship which comes suddenly upon a violent storm that washes many of the characters overboard and onto an island. The shipwreck we learn was the result of Prospera’s magic. She has conjured the Tempest in order to exact revenge on her enemies. Twelve years previously she, then Duke of Milan, and her daughter Miranda were set adrift at sea by her brother Antonio who with the aid of Alonso the King of Naples took control of Milan. Aboard the ship were Antonio, and Alonso. Prospera has conspired through her magic and the assistance of the spirit Ariel to separate the shipwrecked passengers. Her prime targets are together along with the traitorous Sebastian, a trusted counselor Gonzala, and some servants, they believe the King’s son Ferdinand has perished and search for him without much hope. Ferdinand has led to Prospera and Miranda, whom he falls instantly in love with. A Third group is made up of the King’s jester Trinculo and butler Stephano, they come across Caliban, a monstrous being that Prospera’s enslaved, whom they befriend with the help of the King’s stock of liquor which Stephano has fortunately saved from the ship. The play cuts between these groups each almost representing a different genre, there is political intrigue and drama with the King and his group, romance with Ferdinand and Miranda, comedy with Stephano and Trinculo and the stores of liquor, and magic and fantastical elements with Prospera and Ariel.

I honestly don’t know what to praise first, the show is such a delight. The cast is especially strong led by Regina Marie Williams as Prospera. She has a gravitas that makes you believe she can control the heavens as well as a lightness that allows her to find humor in her reactions to other characters. We believe her desire for revenge but also her love for her daughter and happiness. Some exquisite line readings as well, “No Tongue” is particularly well timed and played. Second, only to Williams on the stage is local favorite, Tyler Michaels King as the spirit Ariel. Proving once again that he has a phenomenal singing voice, a mischievous sense of humor, and movement as graceful as a cat. While Williams draws our focus and captivates, Tyler Michaels King lightens our spirits, it is an effective combination and on their shoulders alone, this production would be a triumph. But they are not alone they are aided by many wonderful performers. Other favorites were Robert Dorfman as Stephano and Angela Timberman as Trinculo who are fabulous together as the comic relief storyline. Laakan McHardy as Miranda and John Kroft as Ferdinand also shine as the young lovers.

Dowling right off the bat removed any sense of the expected. The stage set at the beginning was completely unexpected, a grand piano, some nice chairs, and a large mast and sails that look too large to be moveable. Then the handling of the storm followed shortly thereafter by the reveal of the main set and the reenactment of the storm, and from then on I knew to throw out expectations. His use of the turntable stage is sparingly, but when it is, it’s done very effectively. The staging of the Marriage Masque scene is a sequence that can only be described as pure joy. The sets designed by Alexander Dodge are dynamic. The Lighting Design by Xavier Pierce is simply incredible, creating shifts in tone out of nowhere and somehow transforming the stage and set to all purple at one point. The costumes by Ann Hould Ward are truly splendid, of special note are Ariel’s two costumes and those of beasts sent to frighten Trinculo and Stephano. Sound design by Jane Shaw helps to sell the storm effectively. Finally the fine work of the Music Director/composer Keith Thomas must be acknowledged, music plays a large role in this production and it all fits perfectly.

The Guthrie Theater’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest will make for a great introduction to the Bard’s work for newcomers. The way to expose first timers to Shakespeare is to circumvent their expectations of a stuffy, creaky, boring old play that you will sleep through. This production is a perfect example of how Shakespeare can be vibrant and full of life, understandable, and intoxicating. The Tempest runs through April 16th, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/

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The Mousetrap at the Lyric Arts in Anoka is the best Agatha Christie stage adaptation I’ve seen in years. I’m a huge Christie fan, so I try and see any adaptation or play of hers that comes along. That usually ends up meaning I see the annual Christie adaptation at Theatre In the Round Players. When I saw that one of my favorite theaters was mounting a production of what is the longest running play in history, I was excited to say the least. The Mousetrap has been playing in London’s West End for 70 years since it opened in 1952. One of the downsides of Christie plays is that I frequently find that I’ve recently watched a film, TV adaptation, or read the source novel and can remember who the killer is. I had seen the play once previously when my college mounted it. Luckily, that was in the neighborhood of 30 years ago so while I had an inkling of who dunnit, I tried very hard not to fully recall the solution. The plus to this production is that unless you’ve seen the play performed before, read the play or had some rotter spoil it for you, you’ll be going in blind. You see part of the original contract for the play states that no film adaptation can be produced until at least six months after the West End production has closed. One begins to suspect there will never be a film of The Mousetrap. Given that, I’m going to give very little detail of the plot as I do not want to inadvertently tip anyone to the solution.

The setting is an English Manor which a newlywed couple is converting into a guesthouse, this would be what we would consider a boarding house I suppose, as bedrooms and common rooms are provided along with all of the meals. They have four guests arriving for their first week in business. Those four will be joined by a mysterious guest who is seeking shelter after his car is stranded in the blizzard that will soon cut off the residents of Monkswell Manor from the outside world. They will be joined by a police Sergeant who makes an heroic attempt to reach them via skis as the police believe that one of the people now at Monkswell Manor is a murderer!!!! Each of the guests seems to have something to hide making it near impossible to guess who’s in danger and who is a danger.

I really enjoyed every member of the cast. Isabella Dunseith and Nick Furlong are Mollie and Giles Ralston, the proprietors who have their hands full running a new and unfamiliar business as well as dealing with difficult customers. For instance, Miriam Monasch who plays Mrs. Boyle, possibly the most contrary and judgemental old biddy in the England, plays it so perfectly that you get a little thrill everytime someone upsets her. My favorite is the over the top in just the right way, Andrew Newman as Christopher Wren, the architect, but not that architect Christopher Wren. He’s a bundle of affectations that endeared him to the audience and Mollie, but rubs the manly Giles the wrong way. Newman makes the most of the role and it’s through him that we get a lot of the comic relief. David Coral as Major Metcalf and Rachel Postle round out the expected guests. Raul Arambula redeems himself nicely as Mr. Paravinci, the mysterious foreigner seeking shelter from the storm. Another over the top performance but again in a delightful way that provides another source of comic relief. Finally we have Sebastian Grim as Detective Sergeant Trotter who arrives to save the day only to find a house full of people who refuse to be up front with him, putting their lives at risk by keeping secrets. Grim, plays the straight man well, getting a few laughs of his own, but he also pulls off the concerned police man trying his best to root out the killer before he or she can strike again.

Craig Johnson directs the show with confidence, it runs like a well oiled machine, you’d think this production had been running for 70 years. He’s captured the perfect manor house mystery vibe. The scenic design by Greg Vanselow somehow ingeniously manages to create something like 6 to 8 points of exit from the mainroom set. There were a couple of things that didn’t quite work here. First the pine trees outside the large window in the main room, look exactly like what they are, painted pieces of wood, I think a couple of artificial christmas trees would have been a much better route. The other thing was the noise created by characters walking across the set. I don’t know if we needed rugs or better wood, but it sounded like someone walking across a set, not a manor house room. Shannon Elliott’s lighting design and Samantha Fromm Haddow’s costume design along with Madeline Achen’s Props round out the productions look beautifully.

The Mousetrap is a well plotted mystery full of red herrings and plot twists. It’s a great whodunnit with a nice amount of character driven humor along for the ride. I saw three fairly serious plays prior to this each with some really challenging ideas and themes. As much as I enjoy that type of theater it sure was nice to sit back and enjoy a good old fashioned entertainment. You just cannot go wrong with Lyric Arts production of The Mousetrap. The show runs through March 20th, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/

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