“Consider yourself – one of the family!”

This is community theatre at its most enthusiastic and rockwellian.  If you visited Leeds, Alabama, you’d be in a place that Charles Dickens probably would’ve never guessed that his London-centric novel, Oliver Twist, would’ve been turned into a musical and performed.  “Located one block past Regions Bank the last building on the left next to Carl Ann’s Florist.”  Yep, really.  I can only hope that Carl Ann likes kids.  And has a tight grip on any wallet or handkerchief.

I sometimes complain that there isn’t much community feel in Birmingham.  Even though one of my friends suggested that we’re “the biggest small town in America.”  And of course you can generate this kind of feeling from personal involvement in various different groups or organizations.  But I don’t know if you can find much “we’re all in this together” kind of spirit generally.

And I often wish I had a more cohesive family as well.  All the way up through my grandparents, we’re about as independent as you can get.  We like space.  Yes, I admit that I like mine a lot of the time.  I’ve had several running conversations with friends about how much distance we like in relationships – everybody’s got a different taste for it.  For example, I think my parents were supportive of my talents and the things I wanted to do, but I absolutely can’t contemplate my Mom and/or Dad acting with me in musical theatre.

So I couldn’t help but notice that the cast of Oliver! – as produced by the Leeds Arts Council – was a family affair.  There were five members of one family: Emily Lunsford (Bet), Lucy Lunsford (Charley Bates/Boy), Joseph Lunsford (Boy), Margarita Lunsford (Mrs. Bedwin), and Michael Lunsford (Mr. Sowerberry).  Direct from Emily: “Most of my family have been acting together since 2000 and it has been such fun!”

Holy cow, I can’t even seriously begin to imagine.

But I’ll admit to being more than a little jealous.  My family was always more “check in with me once a month, okay, or maybe we can talk next year sometime?”  As long as everyone was off somewhere happily doing their own thing, everything was fine.  As a little kid, I’m sure I would have loved acting with my parents.  Somewhere along the way, being onstage with them would’ve become about as uncool as anything gets.  But add a pinch of maturity, an ounce of wisdom, a dash of experience, and those moments would become priceless.

Also related in the cast: Wendy Riley (Mrs. Sowerberry) and Grace Riley (the World’s Cutest “Boy”).  And Caitlin Cartwright (Rose Seller/Old Lady/Ensemble) and Rachel Cartwright (Milk Maid/Seller/Ensemble).  I bet they’ll hold this forever.

With all the kids in the cast, you just know there were parents running around in all kinds of other helpful ways.  It looks like at least two different fathers of young cast members acted as Stage Manger (Rick Beiswenger, Alec Beiswenger’s Dad, and Gary Chapman, Sadee Chapman’s Dad).  As Emily puts it, many moms and dads contributed as “child wranglers” with Barbie Baldone (good name!) credited as the head Parent Wrangler (and the Mama of a well-cast Oliver: Gabe Baldone).

So it’s definitely a family.  The thing about theatre is – so I hear – that, even if you weren’t family going in, you are coming out.  Seeing this kind of warm and charismatic performance makes me want to be involved – and isn’t that the point?

Thanks to Sandi Nicholson, Regina Arnold, and the Leeds Arts Council for not locking the door when they heard I might be visiting.  “Please Sir, I want some more.”

“Oh, of course you sing.  Everybody sings!”

I don’t exactly know why, but I’m usually pretty tough on lead actors.  If a show has a main character (or two), I’m maybe a little unforgiving.  Maybe it’s just because those shoes can be awfully big to fill.  It’s an important job.  Some soar, some flop.  But “pretty good” just won’t do when you gotta be Stanley Kowalski.

The Sound of Music offers some of theatre’s biggest shoes to fill.  Everybody’s seen the movie.  Plus, Julie Andrews.  I mean really – Julie Flippin’ Andrews.  There’s pretty much no girl hotter than Mary Poppins, is there?  Or does saying that make me weird?

Kristen Bowden Sharp & Children - How can you not smile watching someone jump on the bed?

In the Red Mountain Theatre Company’s production of The Sound of Music, there’s no danger of me talking bad about Kristen Bowden Sharp.  (Especially since I think I might’ve sat next to her Daddy…)  I already complimented her as “attentive and attractive” in an earlier piece.  It’s always fun to see the same actor in different roles because you get to see which personality parts change and which parts don’t.  The great voice is still there.  Plus, she brought a innate grace, elegance, and sweetness to each role.  If you’d asked me beforehand, I mightn’t have thought those qualities would’ve worked for a Maria that I normally think of as childlike, insouciant, and guileless.  But they did.  If you’re stuck with casting actors who are just like the original, more-famous version, it gets a bit creepy – like only dating people who look suspiciously like your ex.

As a complete digression, I keep wondering if the name “Maria Rainer” – The Sound of Music’s lead character – has anything to do with the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke?  I truly have no idea.  Any help?

Back to the “tough on leads” thing, I’ve often thought that it might be hard to find truly masculine leading men for theatre.  Especially for musical theatre?  George Dvorsky, as Captain von Trapp, works.  He’s stoic and military at first.  Then you get to watch as he becomes more warm, expressive, and personable.  His first smile of the evening is truly lovely.  But he’s always a significantly male and paternal presence.  Maybe it helps that he’s about a foot taller than this Maria, but she looks like she’s happily tipping straight back when it’s time to be kissed.

Even with all the talent of these leads and the cuteness of the von Trapp children, I gotta say that “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” stole the show.  When I take seven pages of notes, I can tell I like a performance.  Or sometimes if I’m too engaged in the show to take any.  But here are my verbatim notes on this song: “Sixteen on 17 – Easily one of the most adorable things I’ve seen on stage.  Liesl is great.  Good dance, good expressions – minus the lifts, out of character.  Deliciously awkward.  Really great.  He’s good too.  Rolf???  *expressive, expressive*  If you can’t shake your head CUTE, you have no business in theatre.”

Liesl is Katie Wesler – a fellow Shades Valley alumni – and she’s terrific.  Pretty, expressive, and she sings, dances, acts, and interacts.  Even her pink dress was excellent.  And Rolf’s performance (Collin Janich) is worth noting and provides a strong foundation.  Their number was great and reflected the wavering confidence and awkwardness of being thiser-teen going on thater-teen.  She’s great the rest of the show, too.

The von Trapp children are precocious and cute and they all have at least one moment.  A nice feature of the Red Mountain Theatre Company blog is a chance to read about these kids.

Finally, the show was at the Virginia Samford Theatre and I asked at halftime whether I could switch my seat and try out the balcony.  When I take someone new to the VST, they often ask “Who gets to sit up there?” or “What’s up there?”  It must be a common question.  And now I know.  It’s the Charles D. McCrary Patrons’ Balcony.  It’s every bit as chilly as I’d heard.  They keep the spotlights up there.  It’s only one row of seats.  But the chairs are much larger and softer than the cramped seats in the main theatre.  It’s really a whole different perspective and it’s different to be able to see right down into the orchestra pit.  You’re at about eye level with the rest of the lights.  And it’s cool to see all the pink and yellow tape all over the stage – completely invisible from the ground level.  If they could talk, I wonder what stories those tape marks would tell.  Almost makes me want to sell my truck and donate a couple thousand dollars.

Thanks to Nicole Smith, the Red Mountain Theatre Company, and Kim Dean Davenport (I think…) for admitting me.  This show was great in almost every way.  I still wish they’d prominently feature some photographs or video on the RMTC website.

Theatre might should be marked with a “degree of difficulty” rating.

In some sports (the ones that maybe really aren’t sports), the way they get judged is to rate how hard something is and then score participants based on how well they did it.  For example, in diving, a tuck reverse double somersault from a one meter springboard is a “2.3″.  That’s almost meaningless to me, too, but that’s just what divers do.  For a high jump, you just set the bar, measure, and see whether you cleared it.  Because high jump is a sport.  Unlike ice skating or cheerleading.

Similarly, some things in theatre are more difficult than others.  Putting on Equus is maybe harder than Driving Miss Daisy.  I’m not saying that it’s easy to put on any particular show.  Getting the people together and moving in the right direction is always an amazing and laudable effort.  But I think some shows have a higher “degree of difficulty” to perform and perform well.  Put another way, some shows carry a higher risk of failure or leaving an audience unsatisfied.

To break it into parts, there can also be individual, discrete pieces of theatre that are more difficult for performers.  Certain songs are just plain hard to sing.  Certain lines are hard on the tongue.  Certain characters are difficult to get right.  Certain moments or emotions may be tough to convey.  Maybe the beautiful dress the Costume Coordinator made for you makes it impossible to dance and sing.

While watching the musical Grey Gardens – as presented by Dane Peterson’s Theatre Series – I couldn’t help but think how difficult it seemed.  Whereas I believe likability and charisma are the most important assets for a performer – whether you’re playing good or evil – these characters seemed to have been written as mostly unsympathetic.  This kind of writing asks a lot of your actors.  If your character is kind-of a jerk, you’d better be a very likable jerk.  To this day, I can’t explain the popularity of Seinfeld.  Although I have to say that Leah Luker’s performance as “Little” Edie Beale often gave me reasons to pull for the character and Carole Armistead as Edith Bouvier Beale had the likability thing down pat.  Though he plays a rascal, I also liked Brad Simmons as George Gould Strong and I especially liked his voice.

I’m no expert, but it seemed like many (or most) of the songs in Grey Gardens were written to be flat-out hard.  This is part of the “degree of difficulty” I’m talking about.  I understand that these kinds of songs can take a lot of mental energy for a performer.  And that it takes substantial work to get the technical details right.  But this doesn’t free anyone from a responsibility to act.

I’m not usually wowed purely by masterful technique.  In the world of musical theatre, I generally want to find a groove where the performers don’t seem like they’re performing at all.  Any singing should mostly feel like a seamless part of the character.  No matter how gifted your voice, in musical theatre you shouldn’t forget the theatre part.  No one is allowed to ignore other actors while they flirt with and sing to the audience.

Thanks to Dane Peterson for working hard to bring a difficult and unusual musical to the Birmingham stage.