Samuel Smith

Belfry blesses us with ‘Little Women’

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By John Lyle Belden

“When you feel discontented, think on your blessings.”

This mother’s advice to her four daughters lends a theme to Louisa May Alcott’s classic autobiographical novel, “Little Women.” The Belfry Theatre, as part of its 60th season, presents the book’s adaptation by John Ravold at First UMC in Noblesville.

In December, 1862, we meet the Marsh sisters in their modest Massachusetts home: headstrong tomboy Jo (Emily Haus); kind, nurturing Meg (Emma Gedig); proud, self-centered Amy (Natalie Piggush); and shy “Mousie” Beth (Lizzie Schultz). Jo (patterned after Alcott herself) is also a writer, and leads her siblings in rehearsing a melodramatic play with an audience of supportive mother Marmee (Mary Garner) and young neighbor Laurie (Gideon Roark) who has brought his slightly-older tutor John Brooke (Samuel Smith). Slipping in at the back of the parlor is the very strict, proper, and wealthy Aunt March (Christina Burch).

This play-within-the-play involves some brilliant “acting” by the girls, including Jo in a wild mustache, providing a scene of comedy that alone is worth your ticket to the Belfry show. But moods soon change as a telegram arrives from Father (away at Washington, DC, as a chaplain to the Union Army), and Marmee must depart to be with him.

The second of three acts (intermission comes between II and III) gives the bulk of the original novel, including the arrival of Father (Rob Lawson) and another bit of awkward comedy as Meg and John sort out their feelings for each other. We also get a hot-tempered clash between Amy and Jo, and Beth’s tragically declining health.

The third act, set later, includes part of the “Good Wives” second part of the novel and introduces Professor Bhaer (James Semmelroth Darnell), Jo’s German friend arriving from New York.

Directed by Barcia Alejos, assisted by her son, Daniel Alejos, this production is charming and beautifully presented. Haus is outstanding as Jo, bringing all the aspects of a young woman ahead of her time, yet very much in the spirit of new ideas endemic to mid-1800s New England and changes brought by the Civil War era. Gedig, Piggush, and Schultz also bring life to their archetypes, helping us feel for their individual struggles. Roark is good-natured and Smith dashing, even the characters seeming content to be supporting roles in this feminine world. Garner and Lawson make parenting almost look care-free. As for Burch, her stoic portrayal reflects a woman who has learned only one way for a woman to be strong in their society, and dares not let her nieces stray from it – still, we get hints that there is a heart under that rigid corset.

The story we see does differ a bit from Alcott’s writings, resulting in unfamiliar scenes. Unfortunately, Ravold’s liberties in adaptation also include a couple of anachronisms. They can be ignored, and shouldn’t take away from the excellent work of cast and crew.

“Little Women” has another weekend of performances, Thursday (with special pricing) and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., at 2051 Monument St. (enter at Door 2 on the north side, not main church entrance). Get tickets at the thebelfrytheatre.com.

Footlite: Dancers put it all on the ‘Line’

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By John Lyle Belden

Footlite Musicals opens its 2023-24 season with a summer Young Adults (college-age) production of the 1975 Broadway phenomenon, “A Chorus Line.”

With original concept and direction by Michael Bennett, book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, the musical collected 9 Tonys (of 12 nominations) and a Pulitzer, and became the longest-running show on Broadway, prior to “Cats.” This might not be news to you, but I mention it anyway to note this is a major undertaking for any company, especially considering it has a cast of 19, all with song parts and lines, plus another eight in support. And at points, they are all on stage, dancing for their lives.

This is the story of those who call themselves Broadway “gypsies” (given modern sensibilities, I won’t repeat that), the working dancers who strive for parts in the chorus, backing up the stars everyone actually came to see.  On a rehearsal stage, empty save for dance mirrors, some very talented people are sought to blend into a perfect dancing background for an unnamed star in an upcoming major musical production. They vary in age (though all look in their 20s), background and ability. Zach (Kendrell Stiff) has one day to sort this out – “four boys, four girls.”

With the help of assistant Larry (Parker Taylor), the line is trimmed to 17 hopefuls. To Zach’s astonishment, they include aging former featured dancer Cassie (Julia Ammons). He feels this is beneath her; she feels she badly needs a job.

We get some interesting characters, each with their quirks: Kristine (Sarah Tewes) and Al (Thomas McEvilly) are married; Connie (Jocelyn Evans) is short; Val (Taylor Moss) is – um – stacked; Mike (Sam Schultz) “can do that;” Sheila (Kelsey McDaniel) puts up a tough front, but softens in “At the Ballet” with Bebe (Isabella Davis) and Maggie (Alanna Porter); aspiring actress Diana (Mayi Reyes) is no-nonsense; we also have Judy (Sierra Shelton), Richie (Kipp Morgan), Don (Cordale Hankins), Mark (Samuel Smith), Greg (Nathan Brown), Bobby (Tyler Williams), and Paul (Troy Bridges) who brilliantly gives us one of the best non-musical moments. The initially cut dancers, played by Bailey Rae Harmon, Katie Kobold, Bailee Davis, Wayden Wagoner, Jim Melton, Peter Valentino, Tyler Swinford, and Jared Harris, reappear in various musical numbers, especially to back up the others’ personal stories. Director-choreographers Rick and Chris Barber didn’t let any of this immense talent go to waste.

In an ensemble, it’s tough to give individual praise, but where the story lands on a person’s shoulders, each ably handles the load with a song and a step-kick, or a refreshing punch line. Stiff is solid as the enigmatic director who presents a cold façade, but a genuine curiosity about and concern for the auditioners. Shiny hats off to Ammons for handling the exhausting song-and-dance of “Music and the Mirror,” and especially to Reyes for keeping the wide-ranging hit “What I Did for Love” wonderfully under control.

Dare I indulge the cliché? This Chorus Line is the “One” to see. (A “singular sensation!”) Performances run through July 9 at 1847 N. Alabama St. in downtown Indianapolis. For info and tickets, go to footlite.org.

Belfry presents literary classic of age of excess

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By John Lyle Belden

It has become common practice when staging a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy to place it in another time and place than its original setting – such as America in the “Roaring” 1920s. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” is already very much at home in that era, which gives heft to the Simon Levy stage adaptation, presented by Belfry Theatre at Theater at the Fort in Lawrence.

Directed by Andrea Odle, this production presents people caught up in the roar of jazz, fancy cars, bootleg booze, and easy money, oblivious to the fact it was all too good to last. If a sip of gin made everyone an outlaw, what other sins were fair game? And what if even the slickest con man had honest feelings?

Our narrator and guide through this gilded world, Nick Carraway (Troy Bridges), visits his cousin Daisy (Rachel Bush) and her husband Tom Buchanan (Mike Lipphardt) at their swank Long Island home. She introduces Nick to tennis star Jordan Baker (Tessa Gibbons) with hopes of matchmaking. 

Nick’s rental is next to the palatial estate of the mysterious Jay Gatsby (Samuel Smith), thrower of frequent wild parties. Upon meeting, Nick finds Gatsby is a fellow World War I veteran – a fact obscured by numerous rumors about his life and wealth – who had a past relationship with Daisy. The tangled web of characters includes Tom’s mistress Myrtle (Jessica Hawkins) and her unsuspecting husband George Wilson (Jackson Stollings), New York City socialites Chester (Zach Thompson) and Lucille McKee (Erin Chandler), and Gatsby’s business associate Meyer Wolfsheim (Nicholas Maudlin). Maudlin and Chandler also play a Policeman and witness to a tragic event in the second act.

Bridges ably plays Nick as one both fascinated and repulsed by the excesses around him. Smith presents Gatsby with a shrewd eye, likable even when you don’t quite trust him. Bush gives us a sweet young woman with everything but bravery. Gibbons, on the other hand, plays Jordan strong but addicted to the glamour of a life she feels she earned. Hawkins wins our sympathies as someone who didn’t get the breaks but keeps hoping to the point of delusion. Lipphardt manages an interesting but mildly detestable character living in a time and place where bigotry could get a person quite far in society. 

The play presents a fascinating insight and commentary on a past era that resonates so well with our own, when the lifestyle of excess is still splashed upon our screens and reported with the news. Perhaps the 2020s have a roar of their own. 

Remaining performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at 8920 Otis Ave. For info and tickets, see thebelfrytheatre.com and artsforlawrence.org.