Scott Aiello, Charlie Thurston, and Erick Betancourt in Trinity Rep’s ‘Prince of Providence’ – Photo: Mark Turek
Reviewed by
Tony Annicone
Fifty years ago I attended my first show at Trinity Repertory Company during Project Discovery, which was “Wilson in the Promised Land” by Ronald Van Zandt. That show was a world premiere of a play and eventually went on to be performed at the ANTA Theatre in New York. Fast forward 50 years to Trinity Repertory Company’s world premiere play “The Prince of Providence” written by George Brant and based on the book by Mike Stanton about Buddy Cianci and this reviewer thinks that “The Prince of Providence” is destined to become the King of Broadway. The show is the season opener and what a magnificent season opener it is. From sets to costumes to every one of the performers, this epic show is one not to be missed.
(Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Mia Ellis in Trinity Rep’s ‘Marisol’)
Reviewed by
Tony Annicone
Marisol – Written by Jose Rivera; Director Brian Mertes; Ashley Frith; Composer/Musical Director; Kei Soares Cobb, Composer; Orlando Pabotoy, Choreographer; Eugene Lee, Set Design; Cait O’Connor, Costume Design; Cha See, Lighting Design. Presented by Trinity Repertory Company at 201 Washington St, Providence, RI through June 16
Welcome to a very bleak and grim future in New York where things start going out of control and madness seems to have taken the reins. This is the gist of Marisol by Jose Rivera. It examines human relationships set in the chaos of a major upheaval, and is the closing play of Trinity Repertory Company’s 55th season. It centers on Marisol, a copy editor who becomes involved with the disintegration of New York City as it is being turned into a wasteland. It opens with the cast members singing “My Country Tis of Thee.” The show also takes a look at theology, paranoia, fear and sex as well as showing the dissolution of contemporary society and the battle of good versus evil. It shows how wayward angels try to take over society after they feel that God can no longer do so. They want to encourage people sometimes forcibly to help them achieve their goals. Will the angels convince the humans to help them achieve hope for the future or is everything just doom and gloom?
(Rebecca Gibel, Jude Sandy and Stephen Berenson in Trinity Rep’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’)
By Linda Chin
Little Shop of Horrors – Book
and Lyrics by Howard Ashman; Music by Alan Menken; Directed by Tyler Dobrowsky.
At Trinity Repertory Theater, 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI through May
12
Like the beloved Elphaba, Shrek and Kermit the Frog can attest, it’s not easy being green. This lament also holds true for the trio of characters – Audrey, Seymour, and Audrey II – trapped in a flower shop on the skids. Trinity Rep’s Little Shop of Horrors makes being green look easy, and simply delightful. Director Tyler Dobrowsky sets the production in Providence, spelled out in a giant mural next to the fabulous on-stage (!) band directed by Esther Zabinsky.
Welcome back to 1960’s Providence and Trinity Rep’s current musical production of their 54th season which is “Little Shop of Horrors.” This 1986 musical is based on the 1960 Roger Corman film. It is a tongue in cheek musical comedy that will make you think twice about buying that potted plant and is one of the longest running off-Broadway shows. This musical version is by Harold Ashman and Alan Menken who also wrote Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.” Meek flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II” after his coworker crush. This foul-mouthed R&B singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it blood! Over time though Seymour discovers Audrey II’s out of this world origins and dastardly intent on world domination. We find out the plant has a hidden agenda in this boy meets girl, plant eats world campy musical comedy set in the 1960’s. Director Tyler Dobrowsky, musical director Esther Zabinski and choreographer yon Tande lead this marvelously talented cast as they act, sing and dance their way into the hearts of a very appreciative audience on a fun-filled journey to Skid Row in Providence.
(Charlie Thurston in Trinity Rep’s ‘The Song of Summer’)
By Linda Chin
The Song of Summer – Creative Team: Lauren Yee (playwright), Taibi Magar (director), Adam Rigg (set design), Valérie Thérèse Bart (costume design), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (lighting design), and Mikaal Sulaiman (sound design). Original song by Max Vernon and Helen Park.
Much like those songs from the summers of our adolescence and young adulthood, Lauren Yee’s new play, The Song of Summer will most definitely touch your heart, stick in your head, and trigger memories of times good, bad, and in-between. Robbie Retton is a young self-made pop star who is living a life others dream of – with a hit song, manager, LA lifestyle, girls lining up to see him – a long way from his high school persona as an awkward nerd with an unstable home life. After an absence of about 12 years, he shows up unexpectedly at his old piano teacher Mrs. C.’s house in Pottsville PA, a one-hospital, one-movie theater, and one-new-Thai-restaurant town. Robbie was one of Mrs. C’s prized students and one of her daughter Tina’s good friends. In contrast to Robbie, Tina was the cool, adventurous, sexually experienced teen with the ambition and smarts to escape from the stifling town and be a doctor. We come to learn that Mrs. C is pretty cool herself, an ex-hippie, single mother who adopted Tina from China and with her wise and kind maternal touch “adopted” Robbie as well. Mrs. C. is also welcoming of Robbie’s manager Joe, who shows up in town to bring his runaway client back to his senses, and back to the tour route.
Mauro Hantman as Macbeth and Julia Atwood as Lady Macbeth (Mark Turek photos)
Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Trinity Repertory Company’s current show in their 55th
season is the tale of “Macbeth”, by William Shakespeare,
about political ambition and how that ambition can destroy a person as well as
the multitude of people around them. “Macbeth” could have been
written about the times we are now living in about the cost of blind ambition
in our culture and how a sense of honor should triumph over that ambition. The
show is set in modern times with a DJ playing contemporary music and many
allusions to contemporary society. Macbeth is tempted by three
mysterious witches who place a curse on him and he is pushed by his wife
to overthrow King Duncan of Scotland. This act leads to a domino
effect of killing off Macbeth’s enemies as the show progresses, making it one
of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedies. Director Curt Columbus makes this
show accessible to contemporary audiences with his brilliant direction and
casting these roles perfectly. “Macbeth” definitely stands the test
of time with its story of absolute power corrupting absolutely. It’s a scary
comparison to current events that one would never have thought could happen
again, and the show wins a well-deserved standing ovation.
Trinity Repertory Company ushers the holiday season in with their annual presentation and their 41st production of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens adapted by Adrian Hall and Richard Cumming. Trinity is also celebrating its 55th season. This show’s underlying themes of charity, forbearance and benevolence are universal and are equally relevant to people of all religions and backgrounds especially now after this contentious election and climate of this country. This familiar tale is about the curmudgeonly miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Marley, Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come who hope to change his destiny and save his soul to ultimately to discover the true meaning of Christmas. Director Mark Valdez creates an excellent telling of this well known Christmas tale while musical director Esther Zabinski, plays a concertina and wrote all the parts for the many songs in the show. Choreographer yon Tande makes the cast shine in the dance numbers. The enthusiastic audience thoroughly enjoyed the show with thunderous applause and standing ovation at curtain call.
‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Kate Hamill, adapted from the novel by Jane Austen. Directed and Choreographed by Birgitta Victorson; Set Design by Michael McGarty; Costume Design by Olivera Gajic; Lighting Design by Dawn Chiang; Sound Design by Broken Chord Voice; and Dialect Coaching by Candice Brown Production Stage Managed by Meg Tracy Leddy. Performance through Nov. 4 at Trinity Rep., 201 Washington St., Providence.
“I love balls.”
So sighs the delightful Katie Croyle, who plays Lydia, the wild, youngest daughter of the Bennet family as she contemplates the upcoming party in their English neighborhood. This overshadows the traditional opening line (“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”) and signals that there might be a contemporary spin on this classic tale of manners, misunderstanding, and proper matches.
The opening show of Trinity Rep’s 55th season is “Pride and Prejudice” by Kate Hamill, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel. Written in 1813, the story depicts events, society and romance of that era. The four Bennet sisters, through their individual personalities, relationship to each other, their parents, societal acquaintances from all classes and finally their love interests reveal the manners and mores, the wit, pangs of the heart and the spunk of Austen’s characters.
Welcome to the turn of the century with “Ragtime”, the closing musical of Trinity Rep’s season. This 1998 hit musical is based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel. Trinity begins the show in a contemporary room setting and from there we go back in time to 1905 with the epic sweep of this musical being captured in the opening prologue, a nine minute kaleidoscope of fictional characters mingling with historical figures from the early twentieth century. The cast is in current day costumes during most of Act 1 to reflect that what happened back then is happening now, too. As the story continues, we meet pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his child’s mother, Sarah being taken in by a respectable WASP family in New Rochelle, NY. This family is ruled by “Father”, a patriarchal figure who dominates his household and submissive wife, “Mother” with his overbearing presence. Parallel storylines of the Jewish Latvian immigrant Tateh who unwittingly finds himself involved in the birth of the motion picture industry after inventing a flipbook for his young daughter as well as the real life entertainer, Evelyn Nesbit, the magician Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and the anarchist Emma Goldman eventually mingle and merge. This epic production boasts stellar performances from this talented cast with phenomenal insight and direction by Curt Columbus, Trinity’s artistic director, musical director, Michael Rice and choreographer, Sharon Jenkins as they capture the flavor and essence of the early 1900’s being comparable to current day happenings. Their combined expertise garners the entire cast a resounding standing ovation at the close of this breathtaking musical extravaganza.
