Christine Zavakos

Phoenix in its Xmas era

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By John Lyle Belden

That Holiday Tradition that’s an alternative to Nutcrackers or Tiny Tim or other Christmassy cliches – except perhaps to mock them – has returned to the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.

“A Very Phoenix Xmas XVII: Sleigh, Queen, Sleigh!” takes the stage with its various funny and nicely naughty short plays. This time these all-original skits all have common creators – written by director Zack Neiditch with songs by Paige Scott. They are brought to life by Suraj Choudhary, Samantha Lewis, Craig Underwood, Cara Wilson, and Christine Zavakos, who also each give a disturbingly charming (or charmingly disturbing) “Christmas memory” in videos by Zach Rosing.

The various pieces are presented in historical order from past to present, starting with a breaking TV news report from Roman Palestine. A more historically accurate approach is taken in a hilarious look at Christmas in Renaissance-era England. As for the Victorian era, Marley’s still dead. In the 20th century, things really get strange. With more recent decades, be sure to “like and subscribe.”

Note this isn’t all-ages. Mature content includes f-bombs and middle fingers, but no outright blasphemy. Think of it as SNL with HBO standards.

The ensemble work very well together, with most of them interacting in nearly every scene. Neiditch’s knack for comedy and Scott’s for a catchy tune give them plenty to work with.

If this kind of humor fits your stocking, you’ll find it very entertaining with familiar themes taken on like nobody else.  

“A Very Phoenix Xmas” runs through Dec. 21 at 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at phoenixtheatre.org.

ATI: ‘Forbidden’ bits both fresh and familiar

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By John Lyle Belden

What Weird Al is to popular music, “Forbidden Broadway” is to popular musicals.

Created by Gerard Alessandrini more than 40 years ago, this Off-Broadway parody revue has been frequently updated and presented worldwide, including a couple of times by Actors Theatre of Indiana, which is performing it again in Carmel through May 12.

Since TV producer Dick Wolf seems to have poached every between-gigs Broadway actor to be on his shows, it seems appropriate that this edition of “Forbidden” opens with “Broadway SVU” (BUM BUM!). As for the rest of the musical skits, skewering various musicals while backhandedly saluting the folks who make them (both creators and talent), I’ll respect the tradition of letting the audience be surprised. There will be some new material, as well as some returning laughs – after all, part of the joke of “Les Mis” is that it never ever truly goes away!

ATI co-founder Cynthia Collins joins the return of accompanist extraordinaire Brent Marty at the piano as well as three new faces to explore this forbidden world: Kieran Danaan, William Kimmel, and Christine Zavakos.

Kimmel, who is also director and choreographer, admitted it was tricky to guide his own performance, as well as helping set up the right set of send-ups from the show’s vast catalogue.

“We had to choose the best for our voices, and for the costumes, the best look-alikes,” he said after opening night. “Most importantly, we had to make sure the order was right, for who is performing a song while the others were changing backstage for the next one.”   

The result is a hilariously dizzying array of Wicked ice queens, naughty puppets, an aging Annie, a boy named Crutchie, and the true spirit of “tradition!” But it’s not all raspberries – watch for a heartfelt nod to shows that you won’t likely see revived, as well as a tribute to a Broadway genius recently departed.

Dare to explore – once more if you’ve seen it before – “Forbidden Broadway” at the Studio Theatre in the Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel. Get info and tickets at atistage.org or thecenterpresents.org.

Good examination of ‘Bad Seed’

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By John Lyle Belden

The story that shockingly brought the question of nature vs. nurture in human evil to popular culture, “The Bad Seed,” is brought splendidly to the stage in an adaptation by Indianapolis’s own James Capps, produced and directed by Callie Burk-Hartz for Betty Rage Productions at the downtown Scottish Rite Cathedral.

Time brings a notable perspective to this drama. We, as a society, have learned an incredible amount in the decades since the 1954 novel by William March, which became a play that year and a hit movie in 1956. Since then, especially with the Criminal Minds and Hannibal Lecter books, films and TV series, as well as True Crime shows and podcasts, the average person is at least casually aware of the signs a person is a “born” psychopath or sociopath.

This sense of “if we only knew then what we know now” adds a deeper level of suspense and dread to the Capps play, placed firmly in the Eisenhower era, when the nature of criminality is only starting to be understood. Being born bad is a fringe theory, with juvenile acts chalked up to bad backgrounds. So, of course, 10-year-old Rhoda Penmark (played by 11-year-old Greta Shambarger) couldn’t be anything more than the perfect little girl adults take her to be.

She gets excellent care from doting parents Christine (Christine Zavakos) and Col. Kenneth Penmark (Lukas Schoolar) in their beautiful Tallahassee apartment. Col. Penmark gives Rhoda extra gifts and “baskets of hugs” to compensate for leaving on assignment to the Pentagon. Meanwhile, the girl is off to a school picnic, while Christine hosts lunch for friend and criminologist author Reginald Tasker (Tristin Ross) and landlady and upstairs neighbor Monica Breedlove (Shannon Samson), who is fascinated with Freudian psychotherapy.

The day turns tragic as Rhoda’s classmate Claude Daigle – whom she had been furious at for winning a Penmanship Medal she felt she had deserved – “accidentally” drowns during the school outing. Our girl then blithely skips home and quietly slips something into her keepsake box.

While coldly clever, Rhoda is still only as smart as her age, but goes far on charm, flattery, and, at turns, tantrums. Still, there are suspicions. Her teacher Miss Fern (Alyce Penny) is impressed at her academic prowess but concerned at her inability to get along with peers, or to accept setbacks. The apartment building caretaker Leroy (Austin Hookfin), having a simple yet complex mind of his own, senses her constant deceit, and calls her out on it. Claude’s distraught mother, Mrs. Esther Daigle (Jenni White), is positive there is more than what she’s been told, but her excessive drinking blunts efforts to get at the truth.

Christine increasingly realizes what has been going on, and with the help of her father, former radio star and investigative journalist Richard Bravo (Ronnie Johnstone), digs at a deeper secret.

Performances are nicely delivered with a touch of melodrama appropriate to a 50s film, tension builds as revelations and bodies fall. Zavakos is touching as a devoted mother, afraid the blame could be partly hers, driven to extreme measures. Samson and Ross ably portray the know-it-alls who miss the big clue because they can’t see past the smile and pigtails – a pity they never asked Leroy, who Hookfin plays with a wink to his aw-shucks manner. White brings out the full tragedy of survivorship without support. Johnstone gives a case study on internal conflict, struggling against the inevitable pain to himself and others.

Shambarger, being a gifted young actress, makes you want to not let her near sharp objects until she’s at least in high school. She manages the layered expression of a person without emotion presenting emotion, a caught animal coldly calculating a way out, or a machine-like stare.

The timeless wood-trimmed auditorium of the Scottish Rite compliments the cozy living room set by Christian McKinny. Gigi Jennewein is assistant director; Kallen Ruston is stage manager, assisted by Jamie Rich.

As this is posted, there are performances tonight, Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday matinee, March 1-3, at the Scottish Rite, 650 N. Meridian (entrance and parking in the back), Indianapolis. Get tickets at bettyrageproductions.com.

ALT: Damaged souls in Inge’s dark drama

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By John Lyle Belden

The title, “Natural Affection,” despite being part of a spoken line, is ironic.

A lesser-known yet highly regarded drama by William Inge (its brief 1962-63 Broadway run suffered from poor publicity), it is a story of people struggling with life and relationships in upper middle-class Chicago apartments. The overall atmosphere is Tennessee Williams, without the humidity.

In the current American Lives Theatre production, single mother Sue (Carrie Anne Schlatter, or Christine Zavakos on select dates) is expecting a Christmas visit from her troubled teen son Donnie (Zach Hoover), allowed temporary release from the “work farm” to which he had been sentenced for an assault years earlier. Sue’s life had been hard, but she has found success as a buyer for a downtown department store, which irks her live-in boyfriend Bernie (Alex Oberheide), a struggling Cadillac salesman.

Next door are friends, of a sort, Vince (Ronn Johnstone), a mostly-functioning alcoholic with both high income and debts, and his wife Claire (Diana O’Halloran), who married for money and is now unsure what she wants – aside from Bernie, again.

Other roles are filled by Wendy Brown, Tim Leonard, Garrett Rowe (including a scene as Donnie’s fellow parolee), and Haley Glickman (most notably in the play’s climax).

This dark drama with, at best, a grim humor provides hearty material for the actors. The undercurrent of dysfunction soon becomes apparent between Sue and Bernie. Schlatter ably expresses the woman constantly pushing against her own insecurities, never quite sure she’s made it. Despite her workplace success, she still feels the need for a marriage to make her truly happy; which with her going on 40 in the 1960s, brings feelings of desperation. Oberheide, for his part, wears his neediness like the tailored suit he wears to work the car lot, coming across like the smarmy guy who’s about to talk you into all the options. It burns him that his girlfriend makes far more than he does, which he gives as the reason for not marrying her. On top of this, Bernie has an abusive temper, but more bipolar than controlling, bringing Sue along on the ride.

As noted above, the “natural” way you’d assume a Midwest family holiday to go is absent here, especially with the neighbors, as Vince tries to salve insecurities about both his financial worth and his sexuality with a wild swinger lifestyle. Johnstone is excellent at playing someone so perpetually pickled you could almost smell it on him without delving into comic drunk stereotype. We hear moments of lucidity between the slurred lines, a kaleidoscope of shifting emotions, and when he’s truly had one too many, it’s more pathetic than funny. O’Halloran portrays the debutante who never matured beyond high school, in desperate need of affections she can only see as transactional; Claire wants better for herself, without a clue about where to start.

Hoover’s Donnie is a Freudian scholar’s dream, the hurt boy in the body of a dangerous man, never sure how to connect with a mother he has only seen infrequently through his tragic life. His scars are both visible and deep, as we discover a character like a revolver with a single chamber loaded. Tension builds from one trigger moment to the next, to the last.

Directed by ALT artistic director Chris Sanders (one of his passion projects), assisted by Tim Leonard with Marta Hamilton as stage manager, this gripping study of human affections, however you define them, runs through Jan. 21 at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org and info at americanlivestheatre.org.

ALT: The long laborious birth of a vital test

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By Wendy Carson

The Home Pregnancy Test – it is so ingrained in our lives now that you can even buy one at Dollar Tree. However, it was not so long ago that it was created. Prior to this, women had to go to the doctor and not only convince him to test her but also wait about two months for the result.

American Lives Theater launches the world premiere of the play “Predictor,” by Jennifer Blackmer. It tells the story of Meg Crane, the woman who not only saw the flaws in the current system but also persevered to develop the first-ever home pregnancy test.

As is the case with so much of women’s medicine and discoveries, Crane’s name is mostly lost to history. Blackmer delves into the intense, sexist struggles of one woman who knows what she wants and fights the misogynist barriers thrown up against her every effort.

Brittany Magee embodies Crane as a sweet, yet determined woman who is in no way going to allow her voice to not be heard. She sees that the test, previously confined to laboratories, is actually very easy and develops a simple, convenient package for it out of a plastic paper clip holder. All the men she must deal with constantly rebuff this design – declaring she has no idea what women want.

While the rest of the cast play multiple roles and are referred to in the program book as Chorus # 1-6, each is excellent and does embody at least one prime role within the story which I will use to summarize their efforts.

Christine Zavakos plays Meg’s roommate Jodie, an artist and free spirit constantly encouraging Meg to stand up for herself and fight.

Jen Johansen flows between Meg’s mother and coworker. She portrays the lack of knowledge the generations before her were given regarding their own bodies as well as the fears of this newer generation’s need to change things.

Miki Mathoiudakis superbly brings Meg’s grandmother to life with her even more primitive knowledge of sexual behaviors and morality.

Zack Neiditch not only brings us a charming game show host but also the head of the company Meg works for who at first has no time for silly lady things.

Drew Vidal embodies the most toxic example of male ego in the show. He gives us an advertising executive who sees Meg as nothing more than a secretary who knows nothing about business or how to “play the game” and torpedoes her every attempt to prove herself.

Clay Mabbitt gives us the snarky superiority of the lab tech who insists only a (male) lab tech could possibly check the test results (because looking in a mirror for a circle in the bottom of a test tube is a difficult job). This is balanced by his portrayal of a more insightful executive in the company’s marketing department.

This show is Bridget Haight’s directorial debut, and she has done a great job of bringing us the story of a woman’s perseverance in the 1970s world of business (like a more-sexist “Mad Men”). The story is a vital piece of women’s history that was destined to be lost as Crane was only given a patent on her test design. The actual test itself was sold to another company, which sat on the rights to it for ten years before it finally made it to the market, the corporation taking full credit for introducing this important tool for women’s health.

Performances run through May 28 at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, 705 N. Illinois St., downtown Indianapolis. Get tickets at phoenixtheatre.org, or americanlivestheatre.org.

Note that this weekend, the real Meg Crane will be in attendance. She will be part of a pre-show program 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13, as well as “Mom, Mimosas and Meg” for Mother’s Day, May 14, available for questions after the performance.

Review: Fun but unusual “Family” show

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Gomez Addams (Eddie Curry, center) is caught between honoring the wishes of his daughter Wednesday (Samantha Russell, left) and wife Morticia (Erin Cohenour) in a scene from
Gomez Addams (Eddie Curry, center) is caught between honoring the wishes of his daughter Wednesday (Samantha Russell, left) and wife Morticia (Erin Cohenour) in a scene from “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy,” playing at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre through Nov. 22. — B&B photo

By John Lyle Belden

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, 9301 Michigan Road in northwest Indianapolis, hosts “The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy,” through Nov. 22.

High schooler Samantha Russell more than holds her own in her excellent portrayal of Wednesday Addams next to seasoned pros including Erin Cohenour (Morticia), Eddie Curry (Gomez), Amanda Butterbaugh (Grandma), Jeff Stockberger (Lurch) and Shaun Rice as Uncle Fester, the role he played on national tour.

The story — with Wednesday falling in love with a “normal” boy and trust issues developing between her parents — shows a family that, despite their oddities, are good-natured people we can somewhat identify with. The songs are fun and the comic hijinks entertaining. Though the subplot of Fester’s love affair with the Moon (yes, the actual heavenly body) is a little distracting, it still fits into the odd family culture the Addamses have been famous for, for generations.

The cast also includes Simon Barnes as Pugsley Addams, Blake Spallacy as Wednesday’s beau, and John Vessels and Sarah Hund as his parents. Thing is uncredited, which is unfair as he is quite “hand”some. (No Cousin Itt in this production — maybe in a sequel? — which I’m guessing was a relief to the costume crew.) Also, Jennifer Ladner, Samuel McKanney, Amy Owens, Peter Scharbrough, Kenny Shepard and Christine Zavakos appear as ghostly ancestors — trapped by Fester on this side of the grave until they help Wednesday fulfill her destiny — to help give the show more of an old-time big-dance-number musical feel.

Full disclosure: Your family will enjoy spending time with this family. Get info and tickets at 317-82-9664 or beefandboards.com.