EMAV REVIEW: The Lost Virginity Tour *** Satisfying

Baking up the past

By Paul Atreides

Author, playwright Theatre critic at EatMoreArtVegas.com

paul-atreides.com

Writing is a very solitary profession. Whether creating fiction, or non-fiction, for stage or screen, it’s a long and often lonely process. It requires feedback from other creatives in the same field, and damn near constant tweaking to make the piece sizzle, to resonate.

The Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT) holds an annual New Works Competition and provides playwrights an opportunity to do all of the above; to have their work read and possibly produced. Winning offers the chance to see what works, what doesn’t, and what interpretation a complete stranger might bring to the script.

The 2023 winner, The Lost Virginity Tour, written by Cricket Daniel and directed by David Ament, is now playing in the Fischer Black Box. The conceit of the play is that one’s past may very well inform their future if they dare to look over a shoulder. Here, that set-up takes too long to establish as four members of the Happy Trails Senior Resort Community Baking Club decide to take a road trip to the locations where they each lost their virginity.

The script has some snappy dialogue but could also use cutting and tightening. For instance, a flashback phone call Kitty (Barbara King) has with her mother (provided in voice-over). The call isn’t necessary to the character, or to the plot. What transpired has already been made clear through previous dialogue. King brings it all across perfectly clearly, not only in delivery but with body language.

It's not all fun and games. Viola (Rhonda Goldstein) is a big and brash Jersey girl–think Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. Viola has been hiding from the truth for years that she didn’t give up her virginity willingly. While the cliché of it makes it easy to fit into the plot, something about it doesn’t ring true. Either the script needs a better transition, or Goldstein didn’t deliver it.

The most fun comes from Teresa Fullerton as Rita. The character comes across as the most thought-out and consistent which is what brings believability. The story of her first time is honest and hilarious and Fullerton’s timing is spot on. The dialogue crackles and has a real snap.

The last stop on the tour belongs to Elaine (Sherri Brewer) at a mountain cabin. Brewer brings the humor but also manages to deliver some touching moments as she realizes she gave up on that first love. Yet it feels contrived in order to provide the expected happy ending. There was one place in that final scene that would have provided the perfect and, moreover, funny “Blackout” end. Daniel might want to revisit that and cut the unnecessary ones that don’t deliver.

The production values are fairly solid but details matter. The use of a cookie tin for the Time Capsule fits the idea of the Baking Club but being all bright and shiny after 30+ years of being buried under a rock kills the suspension of disbelief.

Despite the flaws, I urge you to support the program and the playwright. But, the subject matter is enough to sell tickets and the remaining performances are very close to being sold out.

What: The Lost Virginity Tour

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through May 28

2 p.m. Saturday, May 27

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre-Mainstage, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $20 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Grade: *** Satisfying

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: David Ament; Set Design: Chris Davies; Lighting Design: David “Lep” Morey; Stage Manager: Belle Rivas

EMAV REVIEW: Inherit the Wind **** Delicious

The war rages on

By Paul Atreides

Author, playwright Theatre critic at EatMoreArtVegas.com

paul-atreides.com

In a stroke of luck—yes, luck—Majestic Repertory Theatre had to look for another venue to mount their production of Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s 70-year-old Inherit the Wind. Why was that lucky? Well, because of the reason behind it: Hedwig and the Angry Inch is doing so well that Artistic Director Troy Heard wanted to extend it. But wanted to present Inherit the Wind as planned.

As luck would have it, Vegas Theatre Company (VTC) had an opening in their schedule and the two companies are now collaborating so the production could hit the boards on schedule.

The play centers around an actual event in 1925 that has been labeled the Scopes Monkey Trial. The script may be old but the subject matter is right up to date. The religious right’s claims of a “war on religion” battle the left’s claims of belief in science. In this case, the evolution of man. The war rages on and you thought all this was new.

Under the direction of Heard, the production holds up. He’s made great use of the space provided, staging it in the round. For the most part, he’s led his cast of 22 well.

The standouts, of course, are the two battling men (Erik Amblad as Henry Drummond and Taylor Hanes as Matthew Harrison Brady) who argue for the right to think for oneself, be that religion or science. If you don’t know the outcome of that trial, you’ll find no spoilers here.

Both Amblad and Hanes command the space. At times they bluster, at times they bellow but at all times they’re both so embedded within their characters that to believe them is to simply open your eyes and watch. These two are actors who use their entire instruments, from head to toe.

Glenn Heath as Rev. Jeremiah Brown is a perfect match. Heath is studied when he needs to be and purely in-the-pulpit-on-Sunday-morning as he leads the ensemble of townspeople—a sort of Greek chorus.

Eager to watch the circus unfold, as some talking heads do today, is E.K. Hornbeck, a newsman who arrives in town before the trial. Bringing truth to the journalist, Joe Basso is a joy to watch as he verbally jabs at some of the townspeople as well as the trial participants for the sheer fun of getting a reaction he can put into print.

One actor stands out and shouldn’t. Sherri Brewer as Mrs. Krebbs draws focus when she should be blending in as part of the ensemble, particularly in a scene where Rev. Brown is preaching. The cast sings, mostly softly, on entrances and exits but Brewer’s soprano is such that it stands out well above the rest of the chorus and carries across the room with a vibrato she hasn’t learned to control.

Some actors haven’t quite learned to project and remain in the moment. As a result, when their backs are to a segment of the audience, they cannot be heard. The actual trial took place in Tennessee. According to the program the play is set in “A small town,” and the townspeople's dialects are rather all over the place. Throughout the show, special effect haze is used; at times it’s overly heavy, but rest assured it is not harmful.

Despite some faults, I encourage you to go and see this. Not only as a lesson in how history repeats itself or, as credited to writer and philosopher George Santayana and in its original form, “Those who cannot remember the past are likely to repeat it.” But attending this play is a great way to celebrate the success of the one that drove this to VTC’s venue.

What: Inherit the Wind

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday – Saturday through April 2

5:00 p.m. Sundays

2 p.m. Saturday, March 25

Where: 1025 S. 1st St., Suite 110

Tickets: $20 - $40 (www.theatre.vegas)

Grade: **** Delicious

Producer: Majestic Repertory Theatre; Artistic Director: Troy Heard; Director: Troy Heard; Set Design: The Design Ninjas; Lighting Design: Darren Simmons; Sound Design: Jake Harrell; Costume Design: Candice Wynants; Stage Manager: Zachary Kyser

EMAV REVIEW: You Can’t Take It With You ***** Irresistible

Fresh out of the garden

By Paul Atreides Author, playwright Theatre critic at EatMoreArtVegas.com

paul-atreides.com

Chatting in the lobby before curtain last evening, I commented to a friend that it seemed an odd choice to pull the Moss Hart / George S. Kaufman moldy-oldy You Can’t Take It With You out of mothballs. But the opening night for this 1937 Pulitzer Prize winner at Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT) was pretty full. Which is a good thing.

Then, much to my pleasant surprise, under the direction of Alex Bassett, this is a timely and charming production. It feels fresh because the subject matter of learning to enjoy life instead of being a slave to it, the social class clashes, and arguments over governing styles are things we see in today’s world.

Bassett has directed this in the broad comedic style of its time: a bit over the top.

The women rule the stage. Monica Johns as Penny Sycamore, Tate Burton-Robinson as Miss De Pinna, Mary Rose Stark as Alice Sycamore, Anita Bean as Miriam Kirby, Shana Brouwers as Kay Wellington, and Barbara Nolan as Grand Duchess Olga Katrina are the standouts in this capable ensemble cast of nineteen actors.

Johns, Burton-Robinson, Brouwers, and Nolan brought a wonderful sense of zany fun and great timing to their roles. Stark kept the flavor of the style yet still managed to blend into the overall as the only rather sensible member of the Sycamore family. Bean’s ability, as the uptight Miriam Kirby, to use a simple glance or shift in body language and get the laugh without uttering a word is unmatched.

Even though the third act wrap-up bogs slightly, which can be blamed on the script, the play still moves at a good clip. Despite two short intermissions, the whole comes in at a bit over two hours.

As always, Ron Lindblom provides a beautiful setting with precisely detailed period decorations by Bette Kennedy. Abby Stroot surprises with her costume choices by bringing a bit of history into the production by donning the characters of Penny Sycamore and Miss De Pinna in what were called “trousers” at the time. Despite Eleanor Roosevelt wearing them to an official function in 1933, women in pants didn’t become acceptable in “polite society” until the mid-century.

Despite the eighty-seven-year age of the play, LVLT’s production tastes like it was picked out of the garden and put right on the plate. Go, give this zany salad a taste.

What: You Can’t Take It With You

When: 8 p.m. Friday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through March 19

2 p.m. Saturday, March 11

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre-Mainstage, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $30 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Grade: ***** Irresistible

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Alex Bassett; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Costume Design: Abby Stroot; Sound Design: Alex Bassett; Stage Manager: Morgan Johnson