Jennifer Simms

New dinner theatre celebrates Broadway

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By John Lyle Belden

This year there is a new place for dinner and a show, in an old, familiar building. The Murat Shrine Club (north side of the historic building that now houses the Old National Center) hosts Downtown Dinner & Theatre. We got to experience it for the current production of “Broadway Off Broadway.”

After the opportunity to dine like a Potentate at a small buffet, patrons were ushered upstairs to the intimate cabaret stage for a musical revue.

The theme, of course, is various songs of Broadway hits, performed by a very talented troupe: Alicia Barnes, Alexis Koshenina, Jennifer Simms, Parker Taylor, and Rex Wolfley. Company artistic director Simms directed the show and Wolfley wrote its “book,” so to speak, with input from the others.

The narrative structure is built on our cast finding themselves in a “classroom” with magical properties, instructed by the disembodied voice of a spirit of musical theatre, “BOB,” by Ty Stover of StageQuest Theatrical Services. This impish entity helps to bring out the self-confidence, vocal and otherwise, in each of our singers.

All the while, we are treated to exceptional renditions of around 20 showtunes. Some of them you might expect – from Sondheim, Andew Lloyd Weber, Rogers and Hammerstein, etc. – plus some wonderful surprises. (There were whispers of, “What was that one from?”) Look for something from “Chess,” “Wicked,” “In the Heights,” “Spring Awakening, “Dear Evan Hansen,” and even this year’s Tony winner, “Maybe Happy Ending.”

Performances are sharp throughout, infused with good humor – especially as they act manipulated by BOB invisibly positioning them for numbers and dance breaks. Taylor, quickly becoming one of Indy’s biggest stage talents, is particularly good at this. While all are well-cast vocally (and their strengths were taken into account in song selection), Koshenina exhibits show-stopping power and range.

We give this “class” high marks. You can attend Friday through Sunday, Sept. 12-14, Friday the 19th, or matinee or evening Saturday the 20th, at 510 N. New Jersey St., downtown Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at downtowndt.com.

Old play’s themes are ever current

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By John Lyle Belden

Was there ever a good time to be 15 years old?

For an answer, there is the hit Broadway musical “Spring Awakening.” Based on a controversial 1891 German play, it presents the Teutonic teens of the 1890s with music styled from the 1990s (by Duncan Sheik, lyrics and book by Steven Sater), because, aside from the Latin lessons, it’s all essentially the same. Put aside the cultural and technological differences, and the themes ring familiar.

The musical, now at the District Theatre, is presented by Fast Apple Artists, founded by Kelsey Tate McDaniel, an Indianapolis actress and recent New York University graduate. Mack Fensterstock directs.

Wendla (McDaniel) is becoming aware of feelings and mysteries which her mother is hesitant to explain. Her upbringing has been idyllic, which is good, except she’s feeling uncomfortably naïve. The other girls, especially Martha (Sophie Sweany) and Ilse (Eden Franco), wish they had such quiet homes; Anna (Adrian Daeger) and Thea (Lauren Lewis) muse over which boys they will eventually marry.

As for the boys, Moritz (Kendrell Stiff) is struggling, with no adult willing to cut him any slack. His best friend, Melchior (Dylan Kelly), is a budding intellectual growing frustrated with the status quo. Georg (Nathan Brown) lusts after his piano teacher. Hanschen (Jim Melton) and Ernst (Parker Taylor) quietly lust for each other. Otto (Kipp Morgan) just lusts.

For much of the play, we get glimpses into their lives and conversations, with the microphones coming out when characters let their hormone-fueled inner selves express their questions and frustrations. As we move into the second act, we see what happens when a lack of guidance and support brings our youths to hard – even tragic – lessons.

As the production’s trigger warning notes, “Spring Awakening” deals with issues of sexuality, abuse, assault and rape, firearms, suicide, teen pregnancy, abortion – stuff we’ll likely still be singing about in the 2090s.

The cast includes Jennifer Simms in Adult Woman roles and S. Michael Simms in Adult Man roles, as well as Bailey Rae Harmon, Katie Kobold, and Alexis Koshenina in ensemble parts.

The players, especially with being not much older than the persons they portray, give a powerful performance that we feel as much as hear. The simple stage set (recycled from the District’s former “outback” stage) puts the emphasis on the emerging personalities they present.

Following up on last year’s acclaimed production of “Heathers,” McDaniel and company establish themselves as a welcome new facet in the jewel of Indy’s stage scene.

Performances of “Spring Awakening” are Thursday through Saturday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons, at 627 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis. Get tickets at indydistricttheatre.org. Learn about Fast Apple Artists on McDaniel’s website.

Asaykwee presents tragic story of “Triangle”

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By John Lyle Belden

On Saturday, March 25, 1911, just minutes before the workday was to end, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the upper floors of a Greenwich Village building in New York. In minutes it would bring about the deaths of 146 people, and afterward, an outcry for better working conditions for all laborers.

That death toll was 123 women and girls (as young as 14) and 23 men. They all had names; they had lives. In “Triangle,” a stunning drama by Ben Asaykwee presented at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center, we hear their names; we see their faces; we get a glimpse of those lives.

This is one of Asaykwee’s projects in which stage veterans mentor young actors. With this production the approach was more collaborative than one-on-one, assistant director Kallen Ruston said, building the kind of close contact and camaraderie that the garment workers they play would have felt. Thus, we have Shelbi Berry Kamohara, Maddie Deeken, Shawnté Gaston, MaryAnne Mathews, David Mosedale, Jennifer Simms, and Georgeanna Smith Wade aside teens Toni Jazvic, Gennesis Galdamez, Sophia Huerta, Paula Hopkins, Zoe Lowe, Juliet Malherbe, and Novalee Simms. In all, an excellent ensemble performance.

The play starts with a warm March day being even more unbearable with hundreds of people and machines in such close quarters. While their hands are in constant motion, their minds are occupied with familiar workplace chatter. There’s a breeze at the window. There’s talk of unions. The last strike made things better, and it didn’t. One of the girls is engaged! Someone is hurt by a needle! How much will the pay be this week? Someone needs to put water in those fire buckets…

The second act is Saturday afternoon. It’s even hotter, and that’s before someone on the eighth floor notices smoke. In 1911, locked doors and flimsy fire escapes were common, and the fire truck ladder only reaches to the sixth floor…

Only a couple of the people represented on stage will survive the ordeal. Asaykwee’s insightful script gives us a feel for what all must have felt – a cry from Beyond that later generations must heed. We hear their names; we see their story. And with it, we also get a parable of American greed, with what can happen if the only concern is the bottom line, and those in charge ignoring what might not happen because it hasn’t, until it does.

The narrative also includes glimpses of reformers, suffragettes, and other signs of the era’s restlessness. But as a practical matter, if you didn’t do that job for what little you get, you don’t eat; so there they were, at their machines when hell literally broke loose.

The staging hints at the claustrophobic work floor with the smaller Phoenix stage covered in chairs, the audience close at hand on all four sides of the “black box” room. Ruston said the costuming reflects a timeless look, with period skirts but more recent-looking colored ribbons in girls’ hair, allowing us to see ourselves or the women in our lives in them.

Performances of “Triangle” continue June 22-25 (Thursday the 22nd is sold out) at 705 N. Illinois St. For tickets and info, see phoenixtheatre.org.

‘Sweeney Todd’ now serving customers at Footlite

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By John Lyle Belden

The dirty streets of 19th century London have been a rich source of great stories, from the fact-inspired fiction of Charles Dickens to the fiction-inspiring facts of Jack the Ripper. Out of these shadows steps “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Now, attend the tale at Footlite Musicals.

This murderous denizen of Dickens-era penny-dreadfuls is the subject of a popular 1979 musical by Stephen Sondheim, with book by Hugh Wheeler, based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond. Perhaps you’ve seen the Tim Burton film, or the occasional stage show over the years. Under the direction of Josh Vander Missen, this Footlite production still manages to thrill.

Daniel Draves masterly uses his average-joe looks as the title character. Todd is just another man getting off a boat, a friendly barber – or with a small shift of expression he casts an air of menace, or even madness. He wields a sort of gravitas as well as those trademark silver blades.

Jennifer Simms is a spot-on pitch-perfect Mrs. Lovett on a par with stage and screen notables who have taken on the infamous pie shop. She needs better meat, though, and Todd needs a disposal method as he slashes his way towards long-overdue revenge – you see where this is going.

Troy Bridges is adorable in manner and voice as Anthony Hope, the sailor whose life Todd saves on their recent voyage (for Todd, who had been sent away under another name, it is his secret return from exile). Hope becomes just that as he seeks to rescue Todd’s daughter, Johanna (Christina Krawec) from the evil Judge Turpin (Ben Elliott).

While Elliott makes Turpin downright creepy, Donald Marter portrays the judge’s assistant, Beadle Bamford, as more of an amoral product of his time. You get the sense that if he were hired instead to bust heads for Mr. Todd, he’d do so with the same joy in a day’s “honest” work.

Parker Taylor excels in (pardon the expression) a meaty role as somehow-innocent youth Tobias Ragg. He’ll talk up a crowd for you, seeing it as more a game than a grift, and returns Lovett’s kindness with total devotion.

Other notable roles include Rick Barber as Todd’s rival, Adolfo Pirelli; a cameo by Dan Flahive as bedlam-keeper Jonas Fogg; and Melody Simms as the ever-present Beggar Woman.

One nice touch to this production is the opening overture is played on Footlite’s 1925 theater pipe organ (the full orchestra plays though the musical).

Set designer Stephen Matters delivers on one of the show’s true “stars,” the modified barber chair which Todd uses to dispatch and dispose of his victims, sitting upon a versatile two-story wooden frame.

Equal parts gothic thriller and dark comedy with a good serving of Sondheim, this “Sweeney Todd” is worth experiencing, or revisiting if you’ve met the man before. Performances run through Oct. 2 at the Hedback Theater, 1847 N. Alabama St., Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at Footlite.org.