Lynn Ahrens

ATI gets ‘Lucky’ with unusual comic musical

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By Wendy Carson

Actors Theatre of Indiana presents the musical comedy, “Lucky Stiff,” with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Steven Flaherty.

I dare say that at least 90 percent of our readers may never have heard of this stage musical. Probably fewer have seen the heavily panned 2015 film. That is for good reason, it does not possess a strong book which could use some major revisions. However, the songs are decent and although the premise is over-the-top and problematic (think “Weekend at Bernie’s” meets “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), a very talented cast can make this flawed stone shine like a diamond. Luckily, director Lysa Fox has compiled an exemplary ensemble who manage to eagerly bring forth all the zany humor the script offers.

The opening number lets us onto the fact that somebody has been murdered. We then meet our hero, Harry (Jacob A. Butler), a lonely schlub working at a London shoe store, yearning for adventure. Then, a telegram arrives at his boarding house alerting him that his Uncle Anthony in the U.S. has died and being the only heir, he must go claim the inheritance.

At the lawyer’s office, he swears to uphold his uncle’s wishes in order to receive six million dollars. He then receives a tape player with instructions, a small stipend, and the taxidermized body of his uncle (Sam Arce), which he must take (along with a mysterious heart-shaped box) on a week’s vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he not fulfil the itinerary, the money will go to The Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. Given his current situation – including the annoyance of aggressive mutts outside his home – he will do anything to prevent those dogs from getting their paws on that money.

From here on we meet a revolving cast of characters including Annabel (Logan Hill), a bookish all-American young woman determined to get the money for the Dog Home; Rita (Diana O’Halloran), Anthony’s vain and legally blind lover who embezzled the six million dollars in question from her own husband, converted it to diamonds, and, before he could run away with Anthony instead shot him in a fit of jealousy; Vinnie (Brett Mutter), Rita’s optometrist brother who must come along because she told her husband that he stole the diamonds; and Luigi (Thomas J. Cannon), a very nosy local on the Riviera who is determined to accompany Harry and his uncle throughout their adventures.

John Vessels Jr., Josh Maldonado, Nathalie Cruz, and Hannah Boswell round out the cast playing all the other oddball characters needed. However, these four are so skillful and versatile, they are truly the grit that makes the production shine.

Cruz’s turn as Dominique, a sassy chanteuse, brings out all her sultry talent and singing chops. Boswell gets her chance to shine as Harry’s nosy landlady intercepting the life-altering telegram as well as starring in a hilarious nightmare. Maldonado brings to life a bevy of hilarious goofy characters. As for Vessels, I am convinced this man could read a phone book and have you in stitches; his turn as the Monte Carlo emcee is a sheer delight.

Arce, as the titular “Stiff,” shows incredible skill in being absolutely still and unresponsive with all the mayhem going on around him. However, he does also get a dance break.

Musical direction is by Brandon Vos, choreography by Carol Worcel, and interesting stage design – colorful, with plenty of doors to slam – by Jay Ganz.

So, turn off the news, ignore the weather, and hop a ride along to sunny, funny, Monte Carlo to just escape reality and have a good laugh. “Lucky Stiff” runs through Feb. 15 (yes, the show has a romantic subplot, making this a potential Valentine’s date) at The Studio Theater in the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel. Get tickets at atistage.org or thecenterpresents.org.

Footlite celebrates love on ‘This Island’

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By John Lyle Belden

Footlite Musicals provides a taste of the tropics with its young artists production of “Once on This Island,” the Broadway hit by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, based on Rosa Guy’s “My Love, My Love,” a Caribbean retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” It copies the original mostly in theme and a few plot elements, standing as its own as a story of love, sacrifice and the forces that work around – and often against – us.

Sometimes it takes a village to tell a story. Aside from the named characters, we meet a chorus of 21 Storytellers who introduce the tale and carry it along. They relate that on this island, a small French possession in the Antilles, they honor the local Afro-Caribbean gods including Asaka (Imani Ruffin), Mother of the Earth; Agwe (Kori Smith), lord of Water; Erzulie (Caileigh Jones), goddess of Love; and Papa Ge (Noah Lee), spirit of Death.

The story centers on Ti Moune (Lauren Blackwood), an orphan found in a tree after a storm. Sensing the gods saved her for a reason, an old couple – Mama Euralie (Plezzance Lawrence) and Tonton Julian (Jalen Breiley) – take her in and raise her. Events transpire that Ti Moune encounters and saves Daniel (Colton Woods), son of the nobleman Armand (Edward Rayhill) whose family has governed the island for generations. She even makes her way to Daniel’s side of the island, where he lives in a luxury hotel. But she is not the only woman in his life; enter his lifelong friend Andrea (Rebecca Pinero). Ti Moune finds herself tested by both the trickery of Papa Ge and the discrimination of high society. What is her destiny?

Directed by Dennis Jones and Edward Trout, and excellently choreographed by Kevin Bell, with the island beat of an ensemble led by Gisele Dollinger, this Caribbean fairy tale flows beautifully as all the cast contribute, with Blackwood’s voice sailing through sun and storm. The gods get their due, with Ruffin shining in the song “Mama Will Provide,” and Lee embracing his role as trickster as well as Reaper.

This story with its ring of familiarity set in an exotic locale reminds us that love is noble and real in all cultures. The energy of its telling sweeps us along and makes us root for the girl in the tree.

Performances of “Once on This Island” run through Sunday, Aug. 18, at Hedback Theater, 1847 N. Alabama, Indianapolis. Get info and tickets at footlite.org.

Civic charms with historical mystery

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By John Lyle Belden

In 1918, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, and their children were all arrested, then secretly executed in a mass of confusion, smoke and bullets. This much is historical fact.

Naturally, there were also rumors. The Bolsheviks were possibly not all happy with killing children. A persistent story soon arose that one of the Tsar’s daughters, 17-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, had somehow escaped and lived in hiding. Among supporters of Imperial Russia – while from its ashes the Soviet Union immediately ascended – this legend, at least, would never die.

This sets the stage for the musical “Anastasia,” presented by the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre.

The book by Terrance McNally takes inspiration from two motion pictures of the same name, a 1956 film by Authur Laurents and the 1997 Don Bluth animated feature, as well as a prior play by Marcelle Maurette. Musicians Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens added and adapted songs from the 1997 version. Here, as in all the scripts, some liberties were taken with history, so for those who accept more recent forensic discoveries on the matter, consider this a fascinating fairy tale in a parallel world.  

After opening scenes with Louisa Zabel, then Keegan Connor, portraying the authentic Anastasia, we find ourselves in St. Petersburg (renamed Leningrad by the Soviets) in 1927, ten years after the Tsar’s death. Hearing the rumors of the lost Grand Duchess, prospective con men Dmitry (Troy Bridges), a handsome grown-up street urchin, and Vlad (Steve Kruze), who used to work his grift among nobility as a faux Count, see a prospective payday in finding a young woman to present as Anastasia to the Dowager Empress (Jill O’Malia), the Tsar’s mother living in exile in Paris. (As a bonus, this also gets them out of the ever-worsening USSR.)

By chance they find Anya (Isabella Agresta), an amnesiac who had mentioned being a princess while in the sanatorium but now keeps that to herself, as it keeps triggering mysterious dreams. With this true backstory making her royal provenance possible, the three prepare to attempt their con, but Vlad notices she knows far more about Russian court life than she should.

Adding to their difficulties, Soviet secret police officer Gleb Vaganov (Nathanael Hein), who has his own personal connection to the Tsar’s family execution, is growing wise to their plans.

It’s a minor spoiler, but it’s in the program that Anya makes it to Paris for Act II. There we also meet Countess Lily (Nina Stilabower), the Dowager Empress’s lady in waiting, who is still sweet on Vlad despite seeing through his schemes. One climactic scene takes place at a ballet, during which we get an exquisite performance by ballerina Izzy Casciani.

Agresta manages to combine everyday girlish charm with regal bearing to keep us guessing while hoping that Anya is who she pretends to be, in a performance that shows the woman “pretending” less and less each scene. Bridges is great in these likable rascal leading man roles (think if Disney’s Alladin were a twenty-something Russian) and charms his way through this show as well. Meanwhile, Kruze is as smooth as top-shelf vodka.

In a standout performance, opera tenor Hein employs his powerful voice to add authority to his man on a dark mission, bringing more than expected to the story’s necessary villain. Overall, this show is a pleasing adventure with the feel of history and how people lived then, peppered with charming tunes like “Once Upon a December” and the powerful big number “Journey to the Past.”

Director Anne Beck noted she immersed herself in the musical’s story and the appeal of its what-if mystery, and it shows. The costumes by Adrienne Conces excellently reflect the story – brilliant white for Imperial glory, drab earth tones for Russia after its fall, then a swift shift to bright colors in the City of Lights. The production also effectively employed scenic projections provided by Broadway Media Distribution, enhancing the audience experience. Music director is Kayvon Emtiaz and Katie Stark is stage manager.

So, even in this bit of fiction, is she, or was she, that tragically lost girl? True nobility knows to be discreet, so you’ll have to see for yourself. “Anastasia” is at the Tarkington stage at The Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Carmel through May 11. Get info and tickets at civictheatre.org or thecenterpresents.org.