Heather Hansen

Footlite: Say ‘Hello’ to a familiar show

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By John Lyle Belden

There’s a good chance that nearly everyone who reads this has seen at least one version of “Hello, Dolly!”

If you haven’t, there is a dandy production at Footlite Musicals through Oct. 8. If you have, this is still worth your while, especially with Georgeanna Teipen firmly in charge as master matchmaker Mrs. Dolly Levi.

Directed by Kayvon and Erin Emtiaz, this classic musical (book by Michael Stewart, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman) takes us back to New York around the turn of the 20th century, when a dollar could get you a modest night on the town. We meet the widow Dolly at the peak of her powers, arranging a match for “half-a-million-aire” Horace Vandergelder (Darrin Gowan) of Yonkers. She also needs to arrange nuptials between Horace’s emotional niece Ermengarde (Lindsey Schaecher) and the young artist Ambrose Kemper (Thomas Zotz), over her uncle’s objections.

For Dolly to corner Horace for herself, she needs an alternative for Mrs. Irene Molloy (Heather Hansen), which fate provides in the persons of Vandergelder’s wayward employees Cornelius Hackl (Joseph Burke) and Barnaby Tucker (Cordale Hankins). At Molloy’s hat shop, Irene and her assistant Minnie Fay (Bailey Rae Harmon) meet the young men in a most bizarre fashion.

All this leads to everybody – as well as Dan Miller as the charming Ernestina Money – at dinner in the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, complete with the big production number this show is famous for, with Jerry Beasley as the head waiter.

The production goes big with 18 additional human actors in the chorus, plus Sully Emtiaz making his doggy debut. The big orchestra, conducted by Jill Stewart, takes up much of the backstage, allowing the pit to be completely covered for more room to dance.

Set design by Mary “ML” Lich includes a clever split-level stage that helps with Cornelius and Barnaby needing to be in the basement of Vandergelder’s Feed Store, and (literally) adds dimension to other scenes.

Wrangling all this is stage manager Melissa Yurechko.

Teipen and Gowan are stage veterans at the top of their game. Hansen and Harmon are up to the task as well, exhibiting a charm more streetwise than sophisticated, making their pairing with the Yonkers lads believable. Burke is impressive as the likable rube on his first day in the big city. Hankins is a glorious bundle of naïve energy.

From cheerful beginning to happy ending, “Dolly” makes for a nice evening (or Sunday afternoon) of theatre. Performances run through Oct. 8 at 1847 N. Alabama St., Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at Footlite.org.

Powerful ‘Ragtime’ at Footlite Musicals

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By John Lyle Belden

Since it launched in 1996, Terrance McNally’s musical “Ragtime” — based on the E.L. Doctorow novel — has become an American “Les Mis,” a great sweeping epic of national identity and tragic power. And now it graces the stage of Footlite Musicals.

Set in the first decade of the 20th century, an upper-middle class family in New Rochelle, N.Y. find themselves at the crossroads of a number of intersecting stories, blending historical figures and events with characters who were a reflection of the era in various ways — good and bad. 

One can’t dispute the star power of such roles as ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Allen Sledge), who faces one racist indignity too many; his tragic girlfriend Sarah (Angela Manlove); extraordinarily kind Mother (Heather Hansen), discovering liberation despite society’s constraints; her headstrong Younger Brother (Jared Gaddis), whose search for meaning takes him to radical extremes; and immigrant Tateh (Daniel Draves), whose artistic soul keeps reaching for the American Dream until he finds it. 

Another impressive performance is by Edgar, the Little Boy, who acts as one of the play’s narrators as well as involvement in numerous scenes — a big task for a young actor, which Lincoln Everitt carries out well.

The “real” people in the show include Henry Ford (W. Michael Davidson), J.P. Morgan (Bryan Padgett), Harry Houdini (Josh Cox), and anarchist Emma Goldman (Lauren Laski) — as well as two whom history would remember in completely opposite ways. Evelyn Nesbitt (Hadas Yasmin) was the Kim Kardashian of her time, a style icon with more notoriety than talent, only known now by her inclusion in Doctorow’s book; while civil rights icon Booker T. Washington (Jerry Davis) is widely celebrated to this day.

Directed by Paula Phelan, this production has solid performances throughout, including from characters who don’t come off quite as heroic in the narrative — such as Father (Mitchell Hammersley) who means well, but finds himself distanced from his family (even when he’s with them) and lost in the changing times; and bigoted fireman Willie Conklin (Josh Cornell), the biggest villain of the show.

A last-minute addition to the cast, Truman Peyton charms as little Coalhouse Walker III in the finale.

The split-level set is used to good effect, with excellent light effects and projections to punctuate scenes, and a nice representation of a Model T to drive across the stage. Zak Techiniak directs the live orchestra.

Part of the impact of this very powerful musical story is in the unflinching look at the treatment of minorities of the era, including the use of vicious language, in context. It is disturbing, as it is meant to be — a visceral reminder of how far we have come in a century, yet how close we are to falling back.

Performances run through Oct. 13 at 1847 N. Alabama St.,near downtown Indy. Call 317-926-6630 or visit footlite.org.

The beat goes on for CCP with ‘Ragtime’

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By John Lyle Belden

RAGTIME: A modification of the march with additional polyrhythms coming from African music, usually written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominant left-hand pattern of bass notes on strong beats and chords on weak beats accompanying a syncopated (“ragged”) melody in the right hand. Ragtime is not a “time” in the same sense that march time is 2/4 meter and waltz time is 3/4 meter; it is rather a musical style that uses an effect that can be applied to any meter. – from Wikipedia

How appropriate that “Ragtime” is the title of the first show for Carmel Community Players after losing its previous home: The beat of the theatrical season goes on, as events turn ragged with a stage search resulting in a nicer venue – though outside Carmel and further from Indy. A large and immensely talented cast and crew adapt quickly, making props and actor movement serve a larger space, singing their hearts out as seasonal health issues threaten.

Yet it all works.

It is worth the drive up to Noblesville to see this compelling glimpse of an America that, a century later, still casts its shadows on the events and issues of today.

This Broadway musical is largely the story of three families – Harlem musician Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Ronald Spriggs) and Sarah (Angela Manlove), the woman who fell in love with him; Jewish Eastern European immigrant Tateh (Thom Brown) and his daughter (Ali Boice), seeking any possible opportunity in America; and the wealthy white suburban family finding themselves in the middle of upsetting but inevitable social, historic and cultural changes. Being what would now be called the faces of “white privilege,” in this latter group we don’t even bother with names: Father (Rich Phipps), Mother (Heather Hansen), her Younger Brother (Benjamin Elliott), Grandfather (Duane Leatherman) and Little Boy (Lincoln Everitt).

We also see some people who one might actually meet in early 1900s New York, including anarchist Emma Goldman and Civil Rights icon Booker T. Washington, powerfully portrayed by Clarissa Bowers and Bradley Lowe, respectively. Celebrities include Harry Houdini (Jonathan Krouse), popular magician and escapist; and Evelyn Nesbitt (Molly Campbell), the Kardashian of her era.

Appropriately, the most critical roles give the strongest performances – Manlove and Spriggs bringing us to tears, Brown confronting crushing problems with wry humor, and Hansen struggling to reconcile her “perfect” life into a more just worldview.

Also notable are Guy Grubbs as unrepentant bigot Willie Conklin, and – at the opposite end of character appeal – little Gavin Hollowell steals our hearts in the final scene.

In addition, I must give kudos to Everitt for, as frequent narrator and our future-generations point of view, ably carrying such a big role on his small shoulders.

This musical has seen some controversy, particularly in its period-appropriate use of the N-word, but the horrors of racism should disturb us, and in the end this is not just a story about groups, but individual men and women, like us, dealing with the still-continuing evolution of this thing we call America.

Performances are this Friday through Sunday (April 27-29) at Ivy Tech Community College auditorium, 300 N.17 th St., Noblesville. Information and tickets at carmelplayers.org.