Jeremy Tuterow

‘Misery’ still thrills at BCP

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By John Lyle Belden

In the years since Stephen King published his thriller “Misery” in 1987, there have been countless real-world stories of deranged fans stalking and even killing their celebrity obsessions. Yet this story is the most chilling, thanks in part to the William Goldman film adaptation, directed by Robert Reiner and released in 1990, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates (winning her an Oscar).

Goldman also adapted “Misery” for the stage, which Buck Creek Players now brings to life. Popular author Paul Sheldon (Mark Meyer) awakens severely injured in a remote house in the Colorado Rockies. The home belongs to Annie Wilkes (Lisa Banning), a nurse who rescued Sheldon from an auto wreck during a blizzard – and happens to be Paul’s “Number One Fan.”

Annie is obsessed with Paul’s novels about Victorian heroine Misery Chastain, and while caring for Paul reads his new non-Misery manuscript (which she hates), then makes her way into town to get the latest copy of his just-released “Misery’s Child.” She gushes over this new story, until she reaches the final chapter. Misery is dead?! Seeing this happen to her favorite character – her hero, practically a friend in her mind – enrages her beyond disbelief. Paul must write, and right this wrong!

As in the book and movie, this is an engrossing battle of wits. Paul, in a slowly-healing body, through his fog of pain, desperately seeks a way out of his entrapment. Meanwhile, Annie’s madness grows while sharpening her realization that there is only one way her and Paul’s story can end.

Aaron Beal completes the cast as Sheriff Buster, whose suspicions of what’s happening at Annie’s house grow with every visit.

Banning convincingly portrays Annie’s obsessive nature – at first fawning over Paul, later driving her to treat him like a misbehaving pet, at all times a little unbalanced – as well as her strict moral sense, with a sort of charming (at first) sense of eccentricity. It evokes in the best way the chilling transformation of Bates in the film.

Meyer tackles the role of Paul as a fairly nice regular guy who happens to have an exceptional talent for which he hides away in a mountain lodge to bang out a novel. This disruption to his routine has him forcing Paul to plot events in real life, which proves to be a lot harder than typing them to the page. His moments of pain are quite convincing – here’s hoping he wasn’t too “method.”

Jeremy Tuterow directs, and Susanne Bush designed an excellent stage set featuring Paul’s room isolated away from the more welcoming kitchen, with sight-lines that draw us in to Annie’s tightly controlled world.

Three performances remain of “Misery,” Friday through Sunday, April 4-6, at the BCP Playhouse, 11150 Southeastern Ave., Indianapolis (Acton Road exit off I-74). Get info and tickets at buckcreekplayers.com.

Westfield comedy ‘greets’ holiday anxiety in unusual way

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By John Lyle Belden

We tend to recall the past as somehow an easier time, but each era has its own anxieties. Many of us remember the 1990s, still it’s easy to forget how the feeling of imminent change at the end of a millennium carried a lot of uncertainty, even before the Y2K panic.

In the holiday comedy, “Greetings!” by Tom Dudzick, presented by Main Street Players of Westfield, they don’t have today’s terms like “autism spectrum” to describe the personal struggles of Mickey Gorski. The words “mentally handicapped” are briefly mentioned, then not said again as it is better to think of the young man as just a happy member of the family whom his parents cherish, accepting any little word he adds to his limited vocabulary as a divine gift.

Mickey (Dylan Acquaviva), with doting mom Emily (Barb Weaver) and sullen but loving dad Phil (James LaMonte), are preparing their Pittsburgh home for a Christmas Eve visit by big brother Andy (Nathaniel Taff), flying in from New York with his girlfriend Randi (Megan Fridenmaker). A couple of things seem to feel off from the start, including frequent issues with the house’s electrical wiring and Emily’s insistence that she recently heard Mickey say – for the first time ever – the word “greetings,” a feat she seems unable to make him repeat.

The stress of caring for this son has become routine, however, the arrival of Andy gives former minor-league pitcher Phil emotional curveballs he can barely handle. The good news is that Andy and Randi are engaged; the distressing part is that she is an atheist Jew and he has reconsidered aspects of the family’s Catholic faith.

As the inevitable argument ensues, Mickey calmly stands up straight and declares, “Greetings!”

And then, he says even more.

Directed by Jeremy Tuterow, this charming and funny family drama gives a meaning-of-Christmas lesson that blends aspects of “All in the Family” and “The Twilight Zone” with how the Shepherds at the Nativity must have felt.

LaMonte gives us in Phil a solid sitcom-esque Dad who lives with unresolved issues and regrets, as well as resistance to anything more that he feels he can’t understand. Weaver’s Emily greets it all with attempts at understanding and unconditional love, though she can be overwhelmed. Taff plays Andy as caught between his wanting to be there for the brother he loves and wanting to run from what he sees as inevitable parental disapproval. Fridenmaker gives Randi a demeanor in which you can almost see her psychological armor, already forged by friction with observant Jewish parents before being brought here to deal with potential new family. She, like the others, will find her own test of faith – or lack thereof.

Acquaviva is simply outstanding as Mickey. He emulates the tics and eccentricities of his autistic character with respect for the condition and smoothly transitions to other aspects of the role with precision delivery that makes its whole fantastic nature work within the world of the play. A high school freshman with already a few other notable roles on his CV, he has us looking forward to where his talents will take him next.

One weekend of performances remain, Thursday through Sunday, Dec. 12-15, before “Greetings!” becomes goodbye. Find it at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St.; find tickets at westfieldplayhouse.org.

BCP presents charming ‘Memoirs’

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By John Lyle Belden

The legendary Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical “Eugene plays” hearken to a nostalgia for a time that came before our time, yet feels familiar. The comedy “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” now on stage at Buck Creek Players, adds the tensions of Jewish life in the 1930s and the issues of being a teenager in any era.

Eugene Morris Jerome (Dylan Acquaviva), our 14-year-old narrator, obviously didn’t make the Yankees later in life, as he fervently wished, because otherwise he wouldn’t become a writer and we wouldn’t have this story. This is one of many frustrations that he details in this surprisingly dramatic look at two important days in his young life.

The Jerome house, headed by overworked father Jack (Jeremy Tuterow) and ever-worried mother Kate (Barb Weaver) has made room for her widowed sister Blanche (Letitia Clemons) and nieces Laurie (Quincy Carman) and 16-year-old Nora (Brooke Dennis), whose physical development Eugene can’t help but notice. With the girls in one upstairs bedroom, Eugene bunks with his older brother Stanley (Tallon Wynne) in the other.

The family members’ good nature and guarded optimism are their bulwark against the otherwise crushing stresses of their lives – money always short, young people acting impulsive, the spectre of various diseases (one of which claimed Blanche’s husband years ago), and the constant news from Europe in the papers as well as letters from family facing oppression as the Nazis expand their influence. Thus we both laugh and feel their pain, sometimes simultaneously, as only Simon can make us do.

Acquaviva balances his naïve nature with growing maturity to come off as a rather likable scamp. Wynne and Dennis deliver the complexity of putting up brave fronts while never sure if they are doing the right thing. Carman gets to play spoiled without being too bratty. Clemons has Blanche appear to enjoy a comfortable place in the household, yet her simmering guilt at imposing on the Jeromes never lets her fully relax. Weaver gives us a Mom whose love language is constant complaining, while Tuterow makes Jack a lower-middle class Atlas, shouldering the world as best he can with a wry smile on his tired face.

The director is Jim LaMonte, who also designed the nicely functional set with Tuterow. Chris Becker is stage manager. Also appreciated is Adrienne Reiswerg’s help as dramaturg and advisor on details of Jewish life.

A hilarious and heartwarming story, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” runs through Oct. 8 at the Buck Creek Playhouse, 11150 Southeastern Ave., Indianapolis (Acton Road exit off I-74). Get tickets and info at BuckCreekPlayers.com.

Sweet ‘Sordid’ comedy at BCP

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By John Lyle Belden

The 1990s were a quaint time, weren’t they? Of course, it wasn’t so nice if you were a “ho-mo-sex-y’all” in Texas – or if your good Christian mother’s love affair gets discovered in the worst possible way.

Welcome to the steamy world of “Sordid Lives,” the classic comedy by Del Shores, presented by Buck Creek Players.

Ty (Kyler Casbon) has a lot to say to his therapist. Despite being a working actor in New York, he’s still in the process of coming out as gay, and feels he has to “butch up” to survive a return to his Texas hometown for his grandmother’s funeral.

The deceased, Peggy Ingram, passed in an accident during a tryst with a married man, G.W. Nethercott (Josh Rooks), who is left wracked with guilt – over the death, but not the adultery. Peggy’s sister, Sissy (Elizabeth Ruddell) is trying to hold it together and make the arrangements between nicotine cravings. G.W.’s wife Noleta (Lea Ellingwood) is furious, but not at Peggy.

Peggy’s daughters, Latrelle (Cathy Cutshall) and Lavonda (Letitia Clemons) are adults, but not very mature. Latrelle, who is Ty’s mother, deals with situations through denial, Lavonda copes with liquor and sarcasm. At the neighborhood bar, G.W. commiserates with local good ol’ boys the Owens brothers, Odell (Jeremy Tuterow) and Wardell (Logan Laflin).

Meanwhile, Peggy’s son, Brother Boy (Thomas Turner), languishes in the mental hospital where he was placed years ago for being gay and dressing up as country legends like Kitty Wells. Today he is a living tribute to Tammy Wynette, much to the chagrin of Dr. Eve Bollinger (Renee Lopez), who really, really, wants to “cure” him so she can get rich off her resulting book deal.

With all these elements in place, it’s truly going to be one wild, hilarious episode of Lone Star lunacy.

There are wonderful performances all around, including Cutshall’s battles with harsh reality, Rooks’ blubbering repentance, Laflin’s wild change of heart, and Lopez’s over-the-top misguided doctor. And Turner cannot be praised enough for his wonderful turn, ladylike enough to want to help his “recovery” but savvy enough to know when it’s time for a country girl to stand for herself.

This delight is directed by Ben Jones, who opts for a recorded Bitsy, the local country singer whose songs set up the scenes. Nothing feels “missing,” though, fitting Jones’ goal of a simple, easy to relate to vision of family love and acceptance. Mary Miller is stage manager.

One weekend remains of “Sordid Lives,” with performances Friday through Sunday, Aug. 11-13 at 11150 Southeastern Ave. (Acton Road exit off I-74), Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at buckcreekplayers.com.

‘Good’ show at BCP

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By John Lyle Belden

Hard times can make hard people, but also “Good People,” in the hit 2011 Broadway play by David Lindsay-Abaire, now on stage at Buck Creek Players.

Margie (Molly Bellner) is a lifelong resident of Southie, a Boston working-class neighborhood — the kind of hardscrabble place one grows up planning to escape. For years, she struggled since dropping out of high school to take care of her baby, now a mentally disabled adult. Care for the unseen Joyce has made her late for work one too many times, and she is searching for a job again. Her friend Jean (Francie Mitchaner) and landlady Dotti (Susan Hill) suggest Margie look up her past boyfriend Mike (Jeremy Tuterow), a successful doctor, to see if he can help. Her visit to his office quickly becomes awkward, yet results in her getting an invitation to his birthday party at his nice home.

Later at the Bingo Hall (with Brian Noffke as the voice of the Priest calling the numbers), Margie meets Jean, Dotti, and her former Dollar Store supervisor, Stevie (Josh Rooks). She tells them about the party, and her hopes of hitting up someone there for a job. Jean notes that if she tells Mike that Joyce wasn’t born prematurely, making him the father, Margie could leverage that to get his help. But then Mike calls, saying the party has been cancelled – Margie doesn’t believe him, and goes anyway.

This play is best described as a rather dark comedy, wringing a good amount of humor from sad and uncomfortable situations. The struggles aren’t just with employment, as the Act II “party” with Mike and his wife Kate (Alicia Sims), a beautiful African-American woman, becomes reminiscent of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

Bellner gives a brilliant performance, as a person for whom (“pardon my French,” she’d say) “busting your balls” is her love language. Her environment has brought her up so that being passive-aggressive, pushy and manipulative became necessary for survival. But it still comes across that Margie means well, that deep down she strives to be good, or at least “Good People” by Southie standards.

Mitchaner and Hill show in their characters that Margie isn’t unique, Jean and Dotti have only grown older and more cynical. But at least Dotti has her side-hustle, selling handmade (with Joyce’s help) wooden rabbits. Rooks sweetly plays the boy who never got out of Southie, but is making the best of it. Tuterow gives us the boy who did, but resents its shadow, while nursing a darkness that innocent Kate already suspects.

It’s interesting that to these folks, a Bingo jackpot is their “lottery dream.” Note the audience gets a chance to play, too, as Father Noffke calls a game during Intermission, complete with a prize.

With direction and excellent set design by Jim LaMonte, “Good People” has one more weekend, through Sunday, Feb. 13, at Buck Creek Playhouse, 11150 Southeastern Ave. (Acton Road Exit off I-74), Indianapolis. For info and tickets, visit buckcreekplayers.com.

CCP drama presents public family’s private truths

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By Wendy Carson

In “Other Desert Cities,” presented by Carmel Community Players, the Wyeths aren’t an ordinary family.

The father, Lyman, is a retired Hollywood actor and staunchly Republican former politician and foreign ambassador. The mother, Polly, also a past actor, is a devoted political wife. Her sister, Silda Grauman, was writer and costar of their forgettable series of movies – their Tinseltown legacy. Silda is also a resentful recovering alcoholic whose circumstances force her to endure living with her sister’s family.

It’s Christmas time, and Lyman and Polly’s grown children have come home to Palm Springs, Calif., for the holidays. The son, Trip, lives nearby and works in the entertainment industry, producing a trashy, exploitative reality show. The daughter, Brooke, is a troubled novelist residing in New York. After a broken marriage, mental breakdown and institutionalization, a combination of effective therapy and completing another book has brought her out of her darkness and back to the desert.

The family has lived in the public eye, yet hides dark secrets. It turns out that Brooke’s book is a memoir focused on her older brother Henry, who committed suicide years ago after being implicated in a deadly bombing. Considering Henry a free-spirited hero and best friend, Brooke blames their conservative parents for his fate.

The resulting conflict drives the plot of this acclaimed drama by Jon Robin Baitz. Brooke (Shannon Samson in top form) wants her parents’ blessing before the book publishes, but their pushback, especially from Polly (Vickie Cornelius Phipps, a sharp performance with cutting edges) pushes everyone to the brink. Lyman (Ronn Johnstone, giving the impression this role was written for him) struggles to avoid the growing conflict, but secrets have their own inevitable weight. Trip (Jeremy Tuterow, delivering a lighter counterpoint) also wants to avoid drama, and doesn’t recognize the apparent monsters in Brooke’s book as their parents. Meanwhile, Silda (Miki Mathioudakis, excellent as usual) gives full reign to her bitterness in entertaining fashion.

To discover these fascinating secrets and lies, take the Clay Terrace exit to visit “Other Desert Cities,” through Feb. 11. Call 317-815-9687 or visit carmelplayers.org.