Tag: Ann Marie Hall

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New Moon’s Evil Dead: The Musical

Evil Dead: The Musical (Photo: New Moon Theatre)

We may be in a national blood shortage (donate if you can!), but the folks with New Moon Theatre Company have a surplus of blood — fake blood, that is — and they’re ready to shower their audience with it.

What exactly calls for blood to run on the stage of New Moon’s latest production? Well, it’s all for Evil Dead: The Musical. Taking elements from the cult classic films Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness, the show spins the tale of five college students going to an abandoned cabin and accidentally unleashing an evil force that turns them all into demons. But, as director Ann Marie Hall says, “In this case, they’re all singing and dancing” — to songs like “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons” and “What the Fuck Was That.”

“‘What the fuck was that? Your girlfriend has turned into a demon,’” chirps Hall during our phone call. “‘What the fuck was that? Your sister’s a demon, too.’ And then two of the main guys do a tango.”

Hall adds, “It’s kind of stupid and funny, just the kind of way I like my show. Stupid and funny.” Indeed, Hall has acted in and directed a number of comedic shows, most recently having directed Theatre Memphis’ You Can’t Take It With You.

“I like to laugh. I like to make people laugh. That’s my favorite thing — hearing people laugh,” she says. “I will try to find the comedy wherever it is. And sometimes it’s just in the tragedy. So when somebody gets their head lobbed off or you have to kill your girlfriend with an axe, then chop it up later with a chain saw, that’s terrible, but sometimes it’s funny.”

So when presented the opportunity to direct New Moon’s Evil Dead, Hall jumped at it immediately. She had seen the show years ago in Charleston and loved it — especially the Rocky Horror-like moments where the cast splatters the audience with blood in the midst of their violent throes. “I’d been trying to get somebody in town to produce the show for ages,” she says. “I’m so excited for the blood part.”

For those who are also excited for the blood part, the theater will have a special section reserved: the Splash Zone. These seats will quite literally be in the middle of the action, practically on the stage. “Your chairs are on the floor with the cast,” Hall explains. “They are dancing right up to your face.”

Tickets for the Splash Zone cost $35 and include a commemorative T-shirt. For those not wanting any blood on them (couldn’t imagine why), non-Splash Zone tickets are available for $30. Performances run Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. through November 13th. Evil Dead is not recommended for those under 17. For more information or to buy tickets, call 901-484-3467 or visit newmoontheatre.org.

Evil Dead: The Musical, Theatre works, Friday, October 28-November 13, $25-$35.

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Intermission Impossible Theater

The Envelope Please: The Ostranders Must Go On

CREDIT: Jon W. Sparks

Carla McDonald

Crystal Brothers and Travis Bradley in the musical Cats at Theatre Memphis last year. Brothers won an Ostrander on Sunday for best featured performer and Bradley won along with Jordan Nichols for best choreography in a musical.


The annual celebration of Memphis theater was Indecent several times, had lots of Cats, savored Jelly’s Last Jam, and though it had no direct Shakespeare, it made much ado over the Book of Will.

The 37th Ostrander Awards Sunday evening was like no other. That’s not hype, it’s just fact, thanks to 2020 being, well, 2020. The annual event was virtual, with attendees watching on Facebook or YouTube. Theater people were not crowding into the Orpheum Sunday evening, not thrilling to one energetic musical production number after another, not casting admiring/envious glances at gasp-worthy fashions and not participating in multiple toasts. Presumably some of that went on anyway, but with much diminished clusters and, one prays, appropriate social distancing.

Furthermore, there was not the usual quantity of productions to judge since the coronovirus shut down all stages mid-March, truncating seasons everywhere that would usually have run into the summer.

But the shows that did go on gave much to applaud, and the Ostrander Award judges gave particular love to Cats from Theatre Memphis (TM) with six awards, Indecent from Circuit Playhouse (CP) with five, and Jelly’s Last Jam from Hattiloo with four. Playhouse on the Square (POTS) earned three each for Book of Will and the musical Memphis.

Also winning were TM’s Next Stage (Next) with two awards for A Few Good Men, Germantown Community Theatre’s (GCT) double for Next to Normal, Hattiloo’s two for Eclipse, and single awards for Mamma Mia! at TM and On Golden Pond at POTS.

In the Collegiate Division, seven awards went to Hissifit at the McCoy Theatre at Rhodes College (Rhodes), four plaques to Inherit the Wind at the University of Memphis (U of M), and four awards to Raisin in the Sun at Southwest Tennessee Community College (SWTCC).

Jon W. Sparks

Dennis Whitehead Darling won for best direction the second year in a row.

Dennis Whitehead Darling won the Ostrander for direction of a musical for 2019’s Jelly’s Last Jam, his third directing honor in two years. This time last year, he picked up two awards for directing, one in the community division, one in collegiate. 

Winning for best direction of a drama was Dave Landis for helming Indecent. Supplementing that was a special award given this year for Seamless Integration of Direction, Choreography, and Music Direction. That went to the trio of Dave Landis, Daniel Stuart Nelson, and Tammy Holt for Indecent at Circuit Playhouse. 

Ann Marie Hall, winner of the 2020 Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award

Ann Marie Hall was this year’s recipient of the Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award. Hall got her start in theater in grade school when she was a frequent visitor to the principal’s office for talking too much and doing impressions from TV shows. The solution came when she got into a play in the eighth grade. “I realized I could be really silly and people would laugh at me and I wouldn’t get in trouble,” she recently told Memphis magazine. Her devotion to the stage never stopped after that and she’s become, in her words, “the consummate community actor.”

Sunday’s event, despite being forced to be virtual, was pulled off with considerable energy as Elizabeth Perkins, Ostranders program director, determined several weeks ago that the show would go on, pandemic or no. Up until the end of June, the hope was to have it old style at the Orpheum, but when it became evident that was a no-go, it was decided to have it online and celebrate the truncated season with virtual gusto.


Here are the winners of the 2020 Ostrander Awards:

COMMUNITY DIVISION

  • Excellence in Set Design for a Drama: Tim McMath, On Golden Pond, POTS
  • Excellence in Set Design for a Musical: Jack Yates, Cats, TM
  • Excellence in Costume Design for a Drama: Lindsay Schmeling, Indecent, CP
  • Excellence in Costume Design for a Musical: Amie Eoff and André Bruce Ward, Cats, TM
  • Excellence in Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design for a Musical: Karen Reeves and Brooklyn Reeves, Cats, TM
  • Excellence in Props Design for a Drama: Eli Grant, Book of Will, POTS
  • Excellence in Props Design for a Musical: Eli Grant, Memphis, POTS
  • Excellence in Sound Design for a Drama: Carter McHann, Indecent, CP
  • Excellence in Sound Design for a Musical: Carter McHann, Memphis, POTS
  • Excellence in Lighting Design for a Drama: Mandy Kay Heath, A Few Good Men, Next
  • Excellence in Lighting Design for a Musical: Mandy Kay Heath, Mamma Mia!, TM
  • Excellence in Music Direction: Tammy Holt, Jelly’s Last Jam, Hattiloo
  • Excellence in Choreography for a Musical: Travis Bradley and Jordan Nichols, Cats, TM
  • Best Supporting Actress in a Drama: Raven Martin, Eclipsed, Hattiloo
  • Best Supporting Actress in a Musical: Katy Cotten, Next to Normal, GCT
  • Best Leading Actress in a Drama: Donita Johnson, Eclipsed, Hattiloo
  • Best Leading Actress in a Musical: Dawn Bradley, Memphis, POTS
  • Best Supporting Actor in a Drama: John Maness, Book of Will, POTS
  • Best Supporting Actor in a Musical: Willis Green, Jelly’s Last Jam, Hattiloo
  • Best Leading Actor in a Drama: Stephen Garrett, A Few Good Men, Next
  • Best Leading Actor in a Musical: Johann Robert Wood, Jelly’s Last Jam, Hattiloo
  • Best Featured Performer: Crystal Brothers, Cats, TM
  • Best Ensemble in a Drama: Indecent, CP
  • Best Ensemble in a Musical: Next to Normal, GCT
  • Best Production of a Drama: Book of Will, POTS
  • Best Production of a Musical: Cats, TM
  • Excellence in Direction of a Drama: Dave Landis, Indecent, CP
  • Excellence in Direction of a Musical: Dennis Whitehead Darling, Jelly’s Last Jam, Hattiloo
  • Best Original Script: When We Get Good Again, POTS@TheWorks
  • Special Award — Seamless Integration of Direction, Choreography, and Music Direction: Dave Landis, Daniel Stuart Nelson, and Tammy Holt, Indecent, CP
  • Best Original Script: When We Get Good Again, POTS@TheWorks
  • Otis Smith Legacy Dance Award: Jared Johnson
  • Larry Riley Rising Star Award: Jason Eschhofen
  • Behind the Scenes Award: Christina Hendricks
  • Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award: Ann Marie Hall


COLLEGIATE DIVISION

  • Excellence in Set Design: Brian Ruggaber, Inherit the Wind, U of M
  • Excellence in Costume Design: Bruce Bui, Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Excellence in Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design: Juliet Mace, Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Excellence in Sound Design: John Phillians, Inherit the Wind, U of M
  • Excellence in Lighting Design: Jameson Gresens, Inherit the Wind, U of M
  • Excellence in Music Direction: Eileen Kuo, Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Best Supporting Actress: Raina Williams, Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Best Leading Actress: Mary Ann Washington, A Raisin in the Sun, SWTCC
  • Best Supporting Actor: Joshua Payne, A Raisin in the Sun, SWTCC
  • Best Leading Actor: Toby Davis, Inherit the Wind, U of M
  • Best Featured Performer: Syndei Sutton, A Raisin in the Sun, SWTCC
  • Best Ensemble in a Musical: Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Best Ensemble in a Drama: A Raisin in the Sun, SWTCC
  • Best Production: Hissifit, Rhodes
  • Excellence in Direction: Joy Brooke Fairfield, Hissifit, Rhodes
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Theater Theater Feature

Never Land: “For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday” Opens at POTS

“We’re orphans,” a mature Wendy wails to her siblings, who aren’t getting any younger. Their dad has just died, finally. They were all there to share the  passage, and assure him he’d given them each other to lean on. But there’s nobody “standing sentry” between the children and death now, and that’s the premise from which this story unwinds. Sort of. It’s a little unclear, since dad’s prankster ghost, and his ghost dog, wander aimlessly in and out of scenes like the invisible dead people in one of Bill Keane’s Family Circus cartoons.

Sarah Ruhl’s short play For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday isn’t the stuff holiday classics are made of. Playhouse on the Square’s seasoned cast finds the show’s poignant moments, and hardcore local theater fans may get a little verklempt to see Memphis favorites Ann Marie Hall and Emily Peckham fly in the show’s last movement. But there’s an awful lot of runway before takeoff. There’s a lot of content about death, aging, more death, political squabbles, and nagging reminders that time flies, which is the last thing anybody wants to think about when they’re watching iffy theater. But for all of the brave cast’s best efforts, For Peter Pan … seldom soars and it’s anything but uplifting. And for clocking in at under 90-minutes, this brief encounter is also an endurance test. 

Ruhl is always surprising. She subverts expectations and breaks rules. The grim-spirited one-act, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, finds Ruhl in an autobiographical mood, and uncommonly prosaic. Her play takes us from the theater where we’re watching the play in real time, to a hospital room in the 1990’s as five children watch their dad die a less-than-easy death, to an Irish wake, and finally to Neverland, where adults act out disjointed bits of the Peter Pan story like children improvising on a playground.

Playhouse on the Square has produced Peter Pan 27 times over its 49 years of existence. If the company has a signature piece, it’s the musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s famous story — a dark fantasy of pirates, fairies, and a developmentally arrested narcissist with superpowers and a history of luring young girls and boys off to Neverland. The century-old story has always been popular, but a brightened version burrowed its way into the psyche of the “Forever Young” generation when Broadway actress Mary Martin flew into homes across America by way of live TV broadcasts on NBC. For Peter Pan… was written as a birthday gift for Ruhl’s actress mother who played the crowing leader of lost boys when she was a teenager, and who met Martin during the older actress’s high-flying heyday. It’s a faintly Jungian interpretation of the post-Martin Pan that shows up in the play’s unsatisfying final movement.

Never Land: ‘For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday’ Opens at POTS (2)


For Peter Pan… asks several versions of the ultimate question: What happens when we die? But the play and its characters seem more concerned with the penultimate question: When do you consider yourself a grownup? Most of us, of a certain age, are familiar with the phenomenon of living with minds as nimble, silly, and ready for adventure as they ever were, housed in bodies that creak just thinking about exercise. This is the kind of bittersweet prank on humanity Tennessee Williams regularly twisted up into literate, deeply surreal tragicomedy. But Ruhl,  a writer who does literate and surreal as well as anybody, can’t quite seem to land this one. Without the aid of pulleys and wires (and the best local actors you can find) it might never get airborne in the first place.

For Peter Pan… is a bit like Thornton Wilder’s Our Town crashed into Luigi Pirandello’s famous meta-rehearsal, Six Characters in Search of an Author. Much of the show’s content revolves around the relationship between creations and their creators. The pivotal central characters rehearse their adult roles, while searching for a plan. There’s so much possibility here, but almost none of it’s been fleshed out.

To be fair, I don’t think #AARPAN (as the cast has taken to hashtagging it) was ready to be reviewed on the night of its preview performance at Playhouse on the Square. Then again, I’m not sure slickness or polish will have anything to do with whether or not For Peter Pan… finds an audience. Director Tony Isbell has assembled a first-rate cast and the show will improve with repetition. But like a kid who won’t mature, this story also lacks is a plan. And like those same kids, that’s only charming for a short time.

Like Isbell, most of the actors in this ensemble have shown both an incredible commitment to the local theater community, and a strong independent spirit. Whether they’re working in the spotlight, or just offstage, Hall, Sam Weakly, Gordon Ginsberg, Mark Pergolizzi, and Emily Peckham all have a history of taking risks. The good that happens in this show is a direct result of their vulnerability, generosity, etc.

Audiences will no doubt connect with For Peter Pan‘s most humane moments. That’s no guarantee that anybody will leave the theater crowing. 

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Girls will be boys at THE CLUB

The Club at TheatreWorks

  • The Club at TheatreWorks

“A gentleman is any man who wouldn’t hit a woman… with his hat on.”— From The Club‎

Ann Marie Hall doesn’t mince words.

“We’re not just sexist, we’re racist too,” she says archly doting on her production of The Club, a slyly insightful if somewhat obscure musical review compiled by poet Eve Merriam with choreography by Courtney Oliver and Jackie Nichols. The title of the show refers literally to Gentlemen’s clubs at the turn of the 20th-Century where certain privileged males of Anglo extraction could escape family obligations to gamble, drink, and conduct private business. More broadly it also alludes to the white male privilege exemplified in period songs like, “String of Pearls,” “The Juice of the Grape,” and “Following in Father’s Footsteps.”


Sights and sounds from The Club, 2012

This isn’t Hall’s first encounter with The Club, which showcases an ensemble of female performers impersonating men of means. In 1980 she played Freddy in the show’s regional premier at Circuit Playhouse and revived the role a year later for Playhouse on the Square.

Ann Marie Hall directing The Club, 2012

  • Ann Marie Hall directing The Club, 2012

Hall sings Miranda in The Club, 1980

  • Hall sings “Miranda” in The Club, 1980

“It was very popular,” she says.