Category: Theater Feature

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Theater Theater Feature

Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King at Circuit Playhouse

The play opens in the kitchen and stays there for almost the entirety of the show. (Photos: Sean Moore)

It’s difficult to imagine a more Memphis-centric theater outing than the opening night of The Circuit Playhouse’s production of The Hot Wing King — written by Memphis native Katori Hall, performed by a cast of six Memphis residents, set in Memphis, and attended by none other than the mayor of Memphis.

If the audience’s response is anything to go by, this show’s success could be described not by a traditional two thumbs-up, but rather by a rapid-fire volley of finger snaps. The Hot Wing King serves up not only an often-hilarious look at the bonds and squabbles of a found family, but also a refreshing, unapologetic depiction of gay Black men comfortably presenting a full range of everything non-toxic masculinity can be.

This play has a bit of a sitcom-like feel to it, right down to Andrew Mannion’s scene design of a slightly upscale lived-in Memphis house. The play opens in the kitchen and we stay there for almost the entirety of the show, but you’ll find no complaints here as the set dressing was beautifully homey.

The Hot Wing King follows Cordell, a St. Louis native who recently relocated to Memphis to move in with his boyfriend, Dwayne. Their cohabitation seems like it’s off to a rocky start despite their obvious affection and deep feeling for one another. Cordell, who is currently looking for a job, seems to be rubbed the wrong way by the idea of being supported by another person. Thus, he pours himself obsessively into his hobby, trying to win the annual Memphis “Hot Wang Festival.” Much of the play’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime is taken up with the intricacies of the cooking, prepping, marinating, etc. of the wings by the couple and their two close friends, but the real meat in this production lies in the struggle of the characters’ internal battles of guilt and accountability, and of the external conflicts that subsequently stem from within.

One such major conflict arises when Dwayne’s nephew EJ and EJ’s father TJ make unexpected appearances in the middle of the festival prep. Sixteen-year-old EJ is in need of a place to stay, and as his mother, Dwayne’s sister, died after being restrained by police (police that Dwayne had called for a welfare check) almost exactly two years ago, it’s understandable why Dwayne wants to take EJ in. At least, it’s understandable to the audience. Cordell, on the other hand, is still struggling with his discordant relationship with his own adult children, who don’t know that he divorced their mother in order to pursue a relationship with Dwayne.

The situation is messy, yet it has an air of familiarity to it that most audience members will probably be able to relate to. Anyone who has been through great loss will understand that though everyday events and emotions are a necessity for navigating daily life, the pain is never too far away. While the dialogue occasionally drifts into somewhat unrealistically poetic expressions of this sort of grief and pain, the cast carries it off well. The jump between comedic hijinks and somber self-reflection doesn’t feel quite as stark as it could, when the actors are performing with such open honesty.

What makes this play truly special and important is the matter-of-fact presentation of queer Black men who are completely at ease with their sexuality. As a straight white woman, I can only imagine what it would mean to see that kind of representation onstage to a person struggling with their own sexual identity. What I especially appreciated was Katori Hall’s method of revealing the characters’ struggles after we had been introduced to their confidence. Again, I have only imagination and empathy to go off of here, but I think seeing these characters being their full authentic selves would be inspiring to young queer people; to see that they, too, overcame struggles to get to that point could only be incredibly validating.

When it comes to serving up quality theater, The Hot Wing King has everything to offer: heart, saucy exchanges, slapstick comedy, and even redemption.

The Hot Wing King runs at The Circuit Playhouse through June 2nd.

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News News Blog Theater Theater Feature

Michael Detroit to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Michael Detroit, executive producer at Playhouse on the Square. (Photo: Carla McDonald)

Memphis’ annual Ostrander Awards honor the season’s best local theatrical productions. 

Mostly. 

But there is one category that gives a standing ovation to someone who has had an ongoing, yearslong impact on the theater scene. 

The Eugart Yerian Award for Lifetime Achievement has put the spotlight on these singular people since 1984, and this year, the distinction will go to Michael Detroit, executive producer at Playhouse on the Square, a professional resident theater company. 

Detroit started at Playhouse when he came to Memphis in 1989. And he’s done it all: actor (stage, film, television, commercials), director, singer, costumer, choreographer, professor, creator of the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions (UPTA), civic activist, and more.

When Detroit took over at Playhouse from founder Jackie Nichols in 2018, he was more than ready, having been associate producer since 1998. As executive producer, he manages $15 million in capital assets, a $3.3 million annual budget, an endowment of more than $7 million, and 40 full- and part-time employees, including hundreds of contract actors, designers, and directors.

Being ready to take over also helped when the global pandemic hit, forcing arts organizations to rethink how to keep creating — and delivering — art. Detroit and Whitney Jo, managing director at Playhouse, were able to ensure that no staff or company member was laid off because of the pandemic. Further, they devised ways of creating online content to sustain interest and involvement.

Detroit will receive the award at the Ostranders ceremonies on August 26th at the Orpheum.

The Memphis Flyer asked Detroit about the highlights of his 35 years in Memphis.

Memphis Flyer: Tell us about your journey since you came to Memphis in 1989.

Michael Detroit: I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to make a living in the arts, which is hard for anybody that goes into the arts. For me, it was a history of piecemealing things together — doing theater, doing video gigs, doing voiceovers, doing print work, and teaching and all the things you did to make a living as a younger artist. And I’ve been able to stay with it and make a living out of it. With that kind of vision in mind, my goal since I became executive producer was to strengthen our ability to have artists have the ability to make a living in Memphis — things like salaries and working conditions and hourly work weeks and all of those things, which is a challenge in any artistic format for sure. 

What are some of the initiatives behind your vision?

It goes back to things like UPTA, where we’ve got 1,100 people coming in over four days with 85-plus companies and 850 actors all looking for work that pays across the country. We’re also very committed to partnering with our friends at the Greater Memphis Chamber. Playhouse belongs to seven different chambers and I wanted to make sure that we were doing that so that we were civically engaged, not just an artistic company, but as a small business in Memphis. And that creates an awareness of employees, but just like the big folks out there, like FedEx and IP and Nike and AutoZone, we want to attract and retain the talent that we have here as actors and designers and technicians and admin folks. 

You have to have material that they want to work with and work on, but you’ve got to pay them a salary that’s of value to them. And that’s what UPTA was created for, to help folks find work, and certainly to help Playhouse find talent. Coming out of that too, making sure that what we’re bringing to the table is a lot more newer work, perhaps than we had done in the past, and certainly a greater diversity of work than we have been doing in the last, let’s say, couple of decades. So, we’re getting back to our roots in terms of types of shows we’re doing. 

You like to see where there’s a need and then take steps to meet it, right?

Yes, things like the Queer Youth Theater Program. We chose to do it, recognizing that as something that’s important for our community, we’ve been able to do that and do it proudly, do it unabashedly. It’s easy to identify issues. It’s challenging to find the right materials to put in front of folks that help push that needle in one direction or the other that reflects that diversity of our community. So yeah, we’re going to do the family shows because that’s part of our community, but then we’re going to do shows that talk about the politics that we’re dealing with right now.

I’ve also been helping theatrical licensing companies realize that Playhouse on the Square in Memphis is a treasure to be had because we can produce things here in the Mid-South that these licensing companies, quite frankly, can’t really license anywhere else. And they realize quickly when we produce things that perhaps they can be produced in other places. 

You were instrumental in organizing last year’s arts-centered mayoral forum. How did that go?

We worked with various other folks through the Memphis Cultural Coalition who had strong contacts into the various mayoral candidates committees. We got four of them here at Playhouse to talk to a full house of people, and it was specifically geared towards the arts. It’s something, as far as I know, that had never happened before, and it was extremely successful. We had four candidates committing to creating something or engaging the arts as a way for Memphis to move forward. We see that now in Mayor Paul Young’s messaging. We had a chamber event at the Memphis Botanic Garden last week, and he talked about it there, and he’s talking about it without being fed a line about it. He’s making it part of his platform. If you feed the arts, you feed business. Without a strong professional arts component, especially in a city, you become a tier-two city. And we want to be a tier-one city. It’s important to keep those organizations vital and thriving.

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Theater Theater Feature

Wicked at the Orpheum

National Touring Company of Wicked (Photo: Joan Marcus)

In my junior year of high school, our revamped theater program found its feet with the production of a traditional spring musical, The Wizard of Oz. It was 2008, and three years previously, the smash hit Broadway musical Wicked had begun its national tour, one that would break every house record in every city it played in. As a 17-year-old voracious reader, I knew of Wicked the novel, not the show, but that changed when, for the first time I could ever remember, a Broadway musical became a common topic of conversation in the hallways of a small-town high school. At the time, I was confused about what the big deal was. Wicked the book was a strange and almost unpalatable read, and I could barely understand how it had been translated to the stage in the first place. It took over 15 years, but I finally have seen what all the hubbub was about.

Wicked has become a global phenomenon and a household name, just as much as its origin story, The Wizard of Oz. I can’t bring to mind another example of a spin-off gaining as much traction and coexisting so long alongside the original. The Orpheum Theatre was a packed house last Thursday, with the audience hanging on every word and madly cheering after every number. The merch table in the lobby was nearly overrun, and all this after 20 years of the show being on stage.

Olivia Valli as Elphaba (Photo: Joan Marcus)

On the drive home, my friend Meagan Kitterlin asked me how I already knew some of the songs when I hadn’t actually seen the play before. “Doesn’t everyone know ‘Defying Gravity’?” I answered. I couldn’t tell you the first time I heard that song, or “Popular,” but they are both nearly as familiar to me now as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The wild success of this musical is staggering, and seeing it in person, I understand why musical-lovers go crazy for this show.

The grandeur of Memphis’ Orpheum Theatre lends itself to the opulence of Wicked’s presentation. A giant clockwork dragon adorns the proscenium arch, looking like some sort of steampunk nightmare come to life. Wicked reimagines the early life of the Wicked Witch of the West, painting her as a complicated, misunderstood figure. The musical centers not only on the Wicked Witch — whose name is Elphaba, after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum — but also largely on Glinda, nee Galinda, the Good Witch. Celia Hottenstein, who plays Glinda, says, “For both characters, you’re observing how society and the public views these women. Glinda the Good and Elphaba, this person who is other, different, but you, through the show, see who they really are as people.” Glinda and Elphaba are college roommates, and from their first meeting, immediately at odds. Elphaba has obviously lived a life of hardship, constantly judged for her green skin, while Glinda has obviously lived a life of privilege, being granted her every desire almost before she can even wish for it. The two inexplicably become friends, and their friendship becomes the backbone of the entire musical.

Olivia Valli’s portrayal of Elphaba is surprising. I expected a bitter, passionate introvert, but Valli plays Elphaba as almost spunky. She’s hopeful, she seems like kind of a nerd, and she’s got moxie. It’s not at all what I was expecting, but it works. Valli and Hottenstein have undeniable chemistry onstage, and watching Elphaba and Glinda interact is where the true magic of Wicked lies. The musical is all about people’s perspectives, especially around what is considered “good” and what is considered “wicked.” As Hottenstein points out, “I think this show really delves into what it means to ‘do good’ and to ‘be good.’ It’s not as easy as you think.” This show’s message resonates with so many people, and Hottenstein is no exception. “To have compassion for people is the message that really has stuck with me. To always have compassion and always have empathy for others because everybody has their own struggles. And everybody is trying to be a good person, I think, for the most part.”

With show-stopping vocal performances, a set that might as well be another character it has so much personality, and a message all audiences can relate to, it’s no wonder Wicked is so justifiably good.

Wicked runs at The Orpheum Theatre through April 21st.

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Theater Theater Feature

The Sound Inside

Kim Justis and Taylor Roberts as professor and student (Photo: Tony Isbell)

The phrase “the magic of theater” most likely brings to mind a musical. Grandeur, spectacle, something larger than life. Certainly that is often true, but there are some instances where “the magic of theater” refers to the exact opposite: the small vagaries of everyday life quietly rendered to the stage. These sorts of plays can make audiences feel as though they’re pressed against a living room window, peering through a gap in the drapes to eavesdrop on the characters’ lives. When it comes to Quark Theatre’s production of The Sound Inside, audiences might receive a shock. The metaphorical front door opens, and we aren’t just acknowledged — we are invited directly in.

The Sound Inside is a one-act play with a cast of only two characters. Kim Justis plays Bella Baird, a creative writing professor at Yale who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Taylor Roberts plays Christopher Dunn, her student. Over the course of the play, the two become inadvertently close, and the line between professor and student becomes increasingly blurred.

Director Tony Isbell describes the play as an “existential mystery.” It is narrated throughout by Baird, and eventually in parts by Dunn as well. Isbell says, “The show certainly portrays the versatility of theater. It moves back and forth from direct address, where the characters talk directly to the audience, into traditional scenes between the two of them and even into meta-theatrical territory, or at least one of them acknowledges the fact that she is in a play talking to an audience. It has scenes of great pathos and emotion as well as some very funny bits, including one of the funniest monologues I’ve ever seen.”

I think I can guess which monologue Isbell is referencing, and I have to agree. Justis is superb in her delivery, so much so that my friend, local nursing student Quinlan Culver, leaned over after the monologue, gestured to her arms, and said, “I have chills.” There are ample moments that might elicit such a response from audience members, as it becomes less and less apparent just how much of what we’re watching is actually true. The concept of an unreliable narrator is familiar, but one aspect of The Sound Inside that is so fascinating is that our narrator, Bella Baird, comes across as completely, even frankly, honest. It’s Christopher Dunn who creates unsure footing for the audience. Roberts convincingly plays Dunn as a bit off somehow, in a way that’s hard to put your finger on. Dunn’s cadence of speech is strange, his mannerisms are slightly awkward, which is a stark contrast to Bella Baird’s comfortable self-assurance. The juxtaposition makes the slow crescendo of Bella’s insecurity even more compelling to watch.

This play is one that intentionally leaves many questions unanswered and up to the viewer’s interpretation. Playwright Adam Rapp seems to be drawing our attention to this by including a story within the play that ends in a similarly ambiguous way. The disparity in age between the characters leaves me wondering, “Is this simply a friendship in which age doesn’t have much importance? Is the ‘friendship’ between Dunn and Baird perpetually teetering on the edge of sexual tension?” It certainly seems the latter is true, and the actors manage to sustain that tension throughout every one of their shared scenes. The moment when Dunn begins to narrate is one that was beautifully executed by the two actors. It feels almost sweet, but at the same time, the shift in the power dynamic is almost tangible. Baird, whether she realizes it or not, has lost control, a metaphor for the entire play condensed neatly into one fleeting moment.

For Quark Theatre, Isbell says, “Our motto is ‘small plays about big ideas.’” The Sound Inside fits the bill as an intimate show that manages to explore, in its 90-minute or so run, power, feminism, truth, trust, illness, bravery, existentialism, and much more. In a simple, dressed-down black box set, Quark Theatre has managed to capture just as much allure as any big-budget musical.

Quark Theatre’s The Sound Inside runs at TheatreSouth at First Congo through March 17th.

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Theater Theater Feature

Orpheum Theatre Announces 2024-2025 Broadway Season

Hamilton National Tour 2021 (Photo: Joan Marcus)

The Orpheum Theatre has announced its 2024-2025 Broadway Season of eight shows. On the docket are MJ (September 17-22, 2024), Girl from the North Country (October 8 – 13, 2024), Moulin Rouge! The Musical (October 29 – November 3, 2024), Peter Pan (November 26 – December 1, 2024), Hamilton (February 18 – March 2, 2025), Some Like It Hot (April 8 – 13, 2025), Kimberly Akimbo (June 24-29, 2025), and The Wiz (July 22 – 27, 2025).

“I’m all excited about all of them,” says Brett Batterson, Orpheum president and CEO. “I can give you a reason why I’m excited about each one. I use a formula to basically make sure that I’m covering all my bases when I pick a season. I want to make sure I have a family show — Peter Pan. I want to make sure I have a classic, which is The Wiz this year. I want to make sure I have the newest and the best from Broadway, which we have a lot of this coming year, and then I like to make sure I might bring some shows that the people in Memphis would like to see.”

The Orpheum’s 96th season kicks off with MJ, the new Tony Award-winning musical centered around the making of Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour. Girl from the North Country, which follows in October, reimagines 20 legendary songs of Bob Dylan to tell the story of a boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota in 1934. Then Moulin Rouge! The Musical will bring the magic of Baz Luhrmann’s film to the stage in a musical mash-up extravaganza. Peter Pan will close out the fall, but with a spin to the well-known musical that has been thrilling audiences of all ages for close to 70 years.

“I’m Flying.” (from left) Micah Turner Lee as John, Reed Epley as Michael, Hawa Kamara as Wendy, Nolan Almeida as Peter Pan in Peter Pan (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

“I’ve always loved the musical Peter Pan, but the portrayal of the Indians was always problematic,” says Batterson. “This particular Peter Pan, they hired a native playwright Larissa FastHorse to rewrite the Indian sections to make it respectful, and so I’m really excited to bring that and to see how that plays out.”

In the spring, Hamilton returns for a third time, to be followed by Some Like It Hot, a Prohibition story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. The 2023 Tony Award Best Musical winner Kimberly Akimbo about growing up and growing old takes the stage in June. Closing out the season is The Wiz, the groundbreaking twist on The Wizard of Oz that changed the face of Broadway.

Kyle Ramar Freeman as Lion, Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Phillip Johnson Richardson as Tinman, Avery Wilson as Scarecrow in The Wiz, 2023 (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Season ticket packages include seven shows and one optional show (Hamilton) that can be added to any package. Current season ticket holders can renew now. Ticket packages for new season ticket holders will be available starting Thursday, April 18th. New this season, those interested in becoming a season ticket holder can join a special priority list starting now until April 12th to secure access to a 48-hour presale ahead of the public on-sale. For more information about season tickets, visit orpheum-memphis.com/season. The public on-sale for individual shows and group tickets will be announced later.   

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Intermission Impossible Theater Theater Feature

A World of Pure Imagination

Playhouse’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is sweet, uplifting, and, most importantly, fun. (Photo: Sean Moore)

Having read Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory many times growing up and having seen both the 1971 and 2005 movie adaptations, I thought I knew exactly what to expect walking into Playhouse on the Square’s opening night of the stage musical. However, I’m happy to say that I was entirely mistaken. The production, directed by Dave Landis, told a familiar story in a way I had never seen before, and the entire show was — appropriately — a sublime display of eye candy.

Though the onstage version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory shares quite a few similarities with the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, such as several of the same musical numbers, there are also a few differences. For one thing, this play takes place in a contemporary setting, with many references of modern relevance — Violet Beauregarde’s Instagram following, as one example. These nods to a present-day timeline help make the humor in the musical more accessible to a 2024 audience, and much of that humor is surprisingly dark, though in my opinion all the more funny for it.

The story of this musical is the same one most people have grown up knowing: Plucky daydreamer Charlie Bucket, played on opening night by McCager Carver, wins one of five golden tickets to gain entry to the Wonka Chocolate factory, a place that’s been operating behind mysteriously closed gates for decades by the reclusive genius Willy Wonka. Carver, in his Playhouse debut, absolutely shone as young Charlie Bucket, bringing a mischievous and carefree energy to the character while maintaining what the audience must know about Charlie from the get-go and never question: He is good.

Photo: Sean Moore

As in the ’70s film version, Mr. Bucket is deceased, meaning Mrs. Bucket is a single mother working alone to maintain a household of five dependents, if we’re including the four immobilized grandparents. Amy Polumbo Nabors’ interpretation of the character was slightly different from what I’ve come to expect from the onscreen versions of Mrs. Bucket, less overtly nurturing and more anxious, which makes perfect sense given her circumstances. Still, one moment that I thought was extremely touching took place once the optimistic Charlie starts to lose hope after failing to find a golden ticket in his annual birthday chocolate bar. It’s his seemingly more cynical mother who makes a wish for his dream to come true — a wish that of course comes to fruition. A mother’s love isn’t really of thematic importance in this show, yet it’s nonetheless a hidden linchpin to the plot if you’re paying attention.

Without question, my favorite section of this musical was the introduction of the golden ticket winners. Each one came with their own musical number, and each one was somehow even funnier than the last. A surprising standout was Brooke Papritz as Mrs. Teavee, which would never have been a character I would have thought warranted much attention. Papritz, however, managed to make Mike Teavee’s introduction just as entertaining with an almost entirely solo performance as the other kids’ intros were with all the glitz and glamor an onstage musical has to offer.

The character of Willy Wonka has a duality in this musical, as he disguises himself as a mere chocolate shop owner during the first half of the show. Jimmy Rustenhaven’s Wonka in act one is somewhat quiet and unassuming, though by act two we are introduced to someone who doesn’t seem particularly bothered by occasionally straying over the line that separates eccentric, creative genius from rich, outlandish asshole. Watching that transformation take place was a highlight of the show.

For a musical about chocolate and candy, I expected the production to be visually decadent, an expectation that was met and surpassed. Lindsay Schmeling’s costume design was spectacular to look at, with a variety of textures, colors, sequins, and accessories constantly on display. The reporter Cherry Sundae? Style icon. The choreography of the ensemble was also highly entertaining, at times like watching a delightfully riotous fever dream (I’m thinking particularly of the squirrel ballet that delivers Veruca Salt’s comeuppance).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has much to offer to Memphis audiences: It’s sweet, uplifting, and, more than anything, fun.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory runs at Playhouse on the Square through February 18th.

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Theater Theater Feature

Beetlejuice: The Musical

Isabella Esler as Lydia and Justin Collette as Beetlejuice star in Beetljuice: The Musical. (Photo by Matthew Murphy, 2022)

It’s easy to be queasy about the IP era. The obsession with pre-existing intellectual properties that has enthralled the American film industry for most of this century has metastasized through more of the arts. The appeal to producers is obvious. Somebody else already did the hard work to lodge the idea of Barbie into your head, and imbue it with positive associations. That makes you more likely to get up off your couch and go see a movie with Barbie in it. 

It’s easy to say “In the good old days, they made original films with original stories. Now, all they do is IP adaptations.” and you’re not wrong. The flood of IP has crowded out original ideas, and made it more difficult for original films and theater works to break through. But any appeal to “the good old days” is always suspect. Believing that producers were more original in the “good old days” vastly overestimates the creativity of the ordinary working producer and playwright throughout history. Shakespeare based Romeo and Juliet on an existing story by Italian writer Matteo Bandello. Gone With The Wind was an adaptation of an existing IP. Stories evolve and mutate through different media. That’s just how stories work. The problem with the current IP era is that the film studios and Broadway producers are too risk-averse to give virtually any new ideas the kind of resources they need to thrive. 

But the cowardice of capital is not the problem of the producers of or audience for Beetlejuice: The Musical. With music and lyrics by Australian musical comedian Eddie Perfect and book by Scott Brown and Anthony King, this version of the 1988 Tim Burton masterpiece leans heavily on nostalgia. I am familiar with every beat in Beetlejuice, from Michael Keaton’s big-swing take on a malevolent demon as coke-fueled party guest from hell to Winona Ryder’s pitch perfect turn as the OG goth girl who’s not sure if she listens to Siouxsie and the Banshees because she’s sad, or if she’s sad because she listens to Siouxsie and the Banshees. 

In retrospect, Beetlejuice was a harbinger of “cozy” horror, and this production leans into it. This being Broadway, Lydia’s mother is now fridged instead of just divorced. The teenager’s pining for her dead mother sands a little bit of the Gen X cynicism off of Lydia’s angst. Beetlejuice, however, remains the crass pervert from the afterlife that never met a fourth wall he didn’t break. I occasionally wondered if the manic proceedings onstage would make any sense at all to someone who has no fond memories of a possessed Catherine O’Hara singing calypso. 

But really, it didn’t matter. Because the real point of the Broadway musical is watching a talented, road-hard ensemble go to town for two hours. The twin leads of Beetlejuice: The Musical, Justin Collette and Isabella Esler, are more than up to the challenges of this super technical production. Collette brings out the carnival barker in Michael Keaton’s characterization, taking control of the crowd from the opening curtain. Esler’s Lydia leans more toward Jenna Ortega’s playfully wicked Wednesday than Ryder’s existentially wounded romantic. But could Winona’s Lydia have sung with such verve and power? Only if it was calypso, and only if it was authentic. 

What makes this such a difficult show and precise show for the cast, which includes a punishingly physical turn as Delia by Kate Marilley, is the intricate production design. Burton’s Beetlejuice is an ADHD whirlwind of psychedelic images, impossible to recreate on the stage. But director Alex Timbers gives it the old college try with the help of an elaborate and seemingly infinitely flexible set. Projection mapping, the combination of technologies familiar to Memphians who experienced Christopher Reyes’ Exploratorium of Baron Von Opperbean installation in 2020, enables lightning fast scenic mood swings. Also, there’s a giant sandworm puppet that eats people. 

The moments in Beetlejuice: The Musical where the needs of Big Musical Theater bumps up against idiosyncrasies of the source material are offset by the performers’ talent and energy. Tim Burton’s boldest vision is having quite a nice afterlife.

Beetlejuice: The Musical runs through Nov. 5 at the Orpheum Theatre.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Theatre Memphis’ Blithe Spirit

Martha Jones as Madame Arcati (Photo: Carla McDonald)

During the opening scene of Theatre Memphis’ production of Blithe Spirit, I was worried. Noël Coward’s arguably most successful play starts out with a quiet moment between husband and wife, the exposition leisurely woven into the mundane, everyday sort of conversation that occurs between spouses. What made me anxious was the possibility that I would have to work to give my full concentration to this show — I’m currently going through the sort of personal crisis that makes distracting my mind difficult.

Fortunately, my worries proved fruitless. Once the action got going, I experienced one of the purest joys of entertainment: I forgot everything else. Blithe Spirit is funny in the way that I like best: There are plenty of big laughs, but much of the humor is hidden in the dialogue-heavy play; blink and you’ll miss it. Luckily, the cast makes you want to pay attention.

Blithe Spirit is a black comedy, one that is perfect for October as it is rife with both death and the arcane. Upper-crust author Charles Condomine and his second wife, Ruth, are planning a dinner party/seance in order to covertly observe their town’s local medium, Madame Arcati. Charles wants to see the “ticks of the trade” in action as research for his next literary project. Charles, Ruth, and their two friends are all decided skeptics, but it turns out that Madame Arcati is the real deal. During the seance she inadvertently summons the spirit of Charles’ first wife, Elvira, though Charles is the only person who can see or hear her. Crises ensue.

I always enjoy plays with unsympathetic protagonists. Characters who are inherently flawed are the most interesting and realistic, but in watching this play, I am fully on Ruth’s side, all imperfections notwithstanding. A woman making every effort to remain level-headed while attempting to rationally explain something to a (predictably obtuse) man is something I gleefully identify with, all the more so because of Lena Wallace Black’s energetic performance. I’ve observed Wallace Black in other productions, but seeing her embody Ruth Condomine I realized she possesses a rare gift, one that pertains to the physicality of acting. Simply put, her movements look natural, which may sound easy but is actually one of the most difficult things to achieve onstage.

Each member of this relatively small cast brings their own panache to the humor of the script, but one thing that stood out was the way Martha Jones approached the somewhat odd (if we’re being polite), downright weird (if we’re not) character of Madame Arcati. This is a role that could very easily fall into an archetype pitfall of being boring to watch, as audiences know what to expect from a batty fortune teller. Jones, however, brings a sincerity to the character that makes her antics that much more humorous; it’s obvious she’s having fun playing this character, which in turn makes it fun to witness.

There’s not really a weak link in this cast, as even the character I was least interested in — Charles Condomine — shifts at the last minute and becomes much more intriguing. The ending of this play is one that had me scratching my head, but not in a bad way. Adam Remsen plays Charles Condomine as a kind of weak-sauce, limp-fish-handshake man who is ruled not only by the women in his life but also by his own selfishness. In short, a pretty familiar male cliche. That is, until the final scene, when the hitherto boring Mr. Condomine becomes something else. Remsen does a delightful job in showing Condomine’s true colors, leaning into the snide, boorish cad that has been hiding under the surface all along.

What I’m curious about, in contemplating the close of this play, is this: Is Charles Condomine acting like such a selfish prick in order to drive away the spirits of his wives (yep, by this time they’re both dead) for their sakes, or is he truly just another asshole finding his stride? The latter seems far more likely, but it is an added layer of entertainment to wonder.

Blithe Spirit runs through October 29th at Theatre Memphis.

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Theater Theater Feature We Recommend We Recommend

TSC Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series Returns

For last year’s Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series, the company performed Macbeth. (Photo: Courtesy TSC)

On select dates through the month of October, Tennessee Shakespeare Company (TSC) invites you to free outdoor performances of The Tempest for the company’s seventh annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series. 

Though scholars categorize the play as a romance, TSC’s artistic director Dan McCleary says the story encompasses so much, touching on themes of betrayal, revenge, and love; it even dips into the genre of science fiction as the world of the story is entrenched in magic. “The Tempest starts tragically,” the director says, “but it ends with grace, and along the way, there’s some of the most beautiful poetry.” And some of this poetry you probably recognize: “brave new world,” “What’s past is prologue,” “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

This year happens to be the 400th anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio, in which The Tempest appears first in the collection. Written in 1610-1611, the work is thought to be one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote alone. “It’s his farewell to the stage,” McCleary says. “And so it’s personal and, like the best science fiction stories, even though it might be in a land of fantasy, it’s quite meaningful. And Shakespeare is meant to be played, not read. It’s meant to be fun and not every word is meant to be understood necessarily. But it is meant to be enjoyed.”

For TSC’s performances, the company has condensed the play to 90 minutes, “without sacrificing any of the story or any of the music — a good 60 to 65 percent of the play is music. It’s sung or it’s danced or it’s underscored down to the island [the play’s setting].”

The performances, McCleary adds, will also be outdoors, so the sounds of nature and Memphis — airplanes, birds, cars, neighbors passing through — will add to the soundscapes and to the theatrical experience. “The whole notion of [the outdoor performances] to make it accessible, surprising, and fun,” McCleary says. “We wanted happy accidents with patrons. We wanted to be in a public forum, where we might confound people’s notion of a Shakespeare play and theater space. The whole purpose of this initially was wanting to capture a young person who was, for instance, coming by on a skateboard and just capture that person for five minutes and then maybe they’re on their way, but they had five minutes of hearing and seeing Shakespeare. We hope it brings an immediacy to the storytelling that audiences walk away, saying, ‘I’m never going to see something like that again.’”

For this series, in addition to the traditional free outdoor performances, TSC has added two ticketed indoor performances on October 28th and 29th for half-priced admission. For these two performances, patrons can purchase tickets here. A full schedule of performances can be found below, and more information on TSC’s Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series can be found here. 

FREE Outdoor Performances, No Reservation Required:
Friday, October 6, 7 p.m.: Overton Square’s Chimes Square Courtyard
Saturday, October 7, 4 p.m.: Woodlawn, LaGrange, Tennessee, no reservations required
Sunday, October 8, 3 p.m.: Dixon Gallery & Gardens
Friday, October 13, 7 p.m.: Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center
Sunday, October 15, 4 p.m.: Overton Shell
Thursday, October 19, 7 p.m.: Broad Avenue Wiseacre Brewery
Friday, October 20, 7 p.m.: St. George’s Episcopal Church
Saturday, October 21, 7 p.m.: Collierville Town Square’s Train Depot
Sunday, October 22, 3 p.m.: Davies Manor

Half-Price Tabor Stage Performances, Reservations Required:
Saturday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.: Tennessee Shakespeare Company
Sunday, October 29, 3 p.m.: Tennessee Shakespeare Company

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Theater Theater Feature

Quark Theatre Puts on The Wasp

From left: Mary Hollis Inboden, Tony Isbell, Meghan Lisi Lewis (Photo: Quark Theatre via Facebook)

Thanks to Quark Theatre, Memphis is about to be home to the American debut of The Wasp, the critically acclaimed play written by London native Morgan Lloyd Malcolm in 2015.

“As crazy as this sounds, we have been told that no other theater company in the United States has done this play,” says director Tony Isbell, who founded Quark Theatre with Louisa Koeppel and Adam Remsen in 2015. “I just sort of stumbled across it. When I read the script for the first time, I lost count of the number of times I was taken by surprise because there are so many twists and turns. Usually, especially if you do theater a lot, you can read a script and kind of get an idea of where it’s going. But I will admit I did not see where this one was going. Even up until the very last page, I did not see where it was going.”

A psychological thriller, The Wasp unravels the relationship between once-childhood friends Heather and Carla, who have lost touch since school where a bully incident tore the two apart. At the start of the play, the women reunite 20 years later over tea at a cafe, where one offers the other a significant amount of cash and an unexpected proposition. What ensues is a dark exploration of how trauma shapes us. 

“I highly recommend you don’t do your research,” Isbell says. “Spoilers. Don’t watch the previews. Just let us take you on a ride.” 

As with most Quark productions, the cast of the play is small — just two women: Meghan Lisi Lewis, who was most recently in Theatre Memphis’ The Play That Goes Wrong, and Mary Hollis Inboden, a University of Memphis alum, whom you might you might remember from a number of Memphis productions before she moved to work in television, most recently on shows like Kevin Can F**ck Himself and The Righteous Gemstones. 

So far, more than 50 percent of tickets to The Wasp performances have been sold, and Isbell predicts the show will sell out. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at quarktheatre.com. Performances will run September 22nd through October 8th, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinées at 2 p.m., at First Congo Theater in Cooper-Young. 

In anticipation of Lewis and Inboden’s performance, the Flyer spoke with the two actors to learn more.

Mary Hollis Inboden
Meghan Lisi Lewis

Memphis Flyer: What interested you in this play?

Meghan Lisi Lewis: You just don’t often get the opportunity to do a two-woman show. So for me, that is a gift. I was hooked by this script from jump. It’s a smart, smart script. And it really takes the audience on a ride, and I was really excited to go on that ride myself as a reader and audience member. It’s also a really big stretch for me. I’ve been in the Memphis theater scene for a long time, but I rarely get to dive into roles that are this far outside of who I really am. 

Mary Hollis Inboden: I’ve spent the last 10 years doing exclusively television, and this is a great opportunity for me to make sure that I’ve still got it while we [the Screen Actors Guild] strike. It’s been 17 years since I’ve been on stage in Memphis, and a chance encounter brought me into the space of Meghan, who was talking about having just auditioned for this play. She actually asked if I’d be interested in coming and doing this two-hander play. And of course, I was terrified. It is a challenging piece, and it’s also a show that features two women, and only two women. And, in a way I feel like only women can, the show touches on empathy, and love and support and understanding and also cruelty and violence and how we hold resentment. And it’s so completely well-rounded the way they kind of get at these really hard topics. Of course, I’m always drawn to women, female characters, especially who can behave badly, but also have a full scope of their existence and world. So that was exciting for me, and quite frankly, the reason why I took it on.

Meghan, you mentioned that part of the reason you took on this role is that you’re not like your character. As actors, how do you approach characters that are so outside of who you are?

MLL: The way that these women are written is so complex. So while the lived experience of my character Carla is nothing like my own lived experience, I think in ways universal experiences come through. We all either know these people [like our characters], interacted with these people, or have bits and pieces of them in ourselves. And so I think the challenge that’s been so interesting to me is to find where our humanity does align and how I can bring truth to her through my own lived experiences or the experiences of my friends and loved ones and also through the relationship that Mary Hollis and I have built, both as individuals and then through the relationships we’re building in the play. It’s like the characters are both far away from us and very close.

MHI: I would piggyback on that, fully agreeing that we’re always using our experience to bring these characters to life. And I do associate with my character. While I wasn’t a victim of bullying, I am a victim of a mass shooting [the 1998 Westside Middle School shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas] and have grown up with that sort of trauma in my past. The shooting, while it was so very tragic, and I really wish that it hadn’t happened to me or my classmates, in some ways, it propelled me forward. I understood immediately how precious life is and wanted to get at that. And so I would be wrong if I said that there wasn’t a little part of what I feel like is my success that is kind of overcoming that tragedy every day. 

Mary Hollis, what’s it been like being back on stage in Memphis?

MHI: Being back on stage in Memphis, it has turned out to be the very, very right choice for me because I get to be in the room with Tony and Meghan. I mean, they’re just so fantastic and so talented, and they are a great representation of Memphis theater as I remember it. We’ve all grown up a little bit, but coming back, I am taking it back to brass tacks and learning so much again. So, as a working actor, it’s been a really, really great exercise, performing alongside and with Meghan and under Tony who has like the lightest touch. It feels very free in the rehearsal space to kind of make big decisions. While I’m so grateful for my jobs in TV, you can sort of feel, especially in some of those smaller roles on TV, that it’s not super creative all the time. [Theater] really forces you to have imagination and really express yourself and give everything that you have so that the live beating heartbeat of the theater is felt, and especially in a company like Quark that’s so small, and just about two chairs and two actors, it’s a real turn on. So I hope that once out of the strike, which will be resolved and hopefully in the favor of labor and actors, I can make some time and remember how productive it feels to do a live show, especially with creatives like Tony and Meghan who are just really filling my cup. 

Meghan, though this is your first Quark production, you’ve been involved in the Memphis theater scene for a while now, right?

MLL: I’ve spent most of my decade or more on Memphis stages, mostly at Theatre Memphis. I most recently just did The Play That Goes Wrong there. So that’s sort of my home base. One of the things that is the most special about the Memphis theater scene is that 90-plus percent of the shows that you see in Memphis, outside of the Orpheum Theatre, are all done by volunteers. They’re volunteer actors, volunteer directors, and volunteer stagehands. And there is something truly magical about people who follow their passions and give up their time. And the Memphis theater community specifically has the most deep and generous pool of über-talented people that I have ever run into in all of my days. I’ve lived in L.A., I’ve lived in New York, I’ve been all over the world, and this theater scene is one to pay attention to. It’s important for audiences to come out and pay attention to all the theaters here because they’re getting things that you don’t get everywhere. And I think sometimes we’re spoiled for that.