​Jazz, crime and fame make a sinful combo: Chicago @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Eileen Daley

The truth is in the telling when it comes to sensationalist crimes, as the residents of Chicago know. Any monster can become a bombshell underneath the right lighting. In 50 years (or so) of this jazz musical’s nonstop runs, our obsession with fame hasn’t changed so much as grown, so its spectacle-as-message is prescient as ever.

Chicago’s revues, jailhouses and courtrooms of the 1920s feel like familiar settings, given that it’s a sister city of our own New Orleans when it comes to corruptible authority figures and miscarriages of justice. But the minimalist set, which showcases the phenomenal chorus dancers and jazz orchestra, keeps the show from feeling drab or grimy. Instead it’s all about the glitz and glamour of putting on a performance to save your life.

Taylor Lane and Ellie Roddy star as Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, two incarcerated ingenues who
are preparing for their separate trials. Their only hope of avoiding death row is to parlay their
growing infamy as smoking hot murderesses into a sympathetic jury. Both stars shine when it comes to vocals and Bob Fosse’s iconic choreography, making every complex song and dance look easy.

Another standout was Josh England as Amos, Roxie’s belittled husband—an understudy who
proved more than capable (I’ll hear no Mr. Cellophane slander in this house!). The cast took the musical performances in interesting directions; most songs started with precise, wholesome annunciation and ended in sultry belting, the singers’ arcs mimicking the corrupting influence of jazz itself.

It feels good to imagine a world where crime leads to fair consequences from one’s community and rehabilitation of the selfish myopic attitude that brought it about. But until then, we have Chicago to hold up a funhouse mirror to our twisted morals. And after a show like this, I’ve got to say: damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

​Chicago plays at The Saenger Theatre through June 15th. Click here for more information and ticketing

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​Ain't Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show @ Le Petit Theatre
Review by Beth D'Addono

Fats Waller isn’t from New Orleans, but thanks to the showstopping performances of the local
cast of Ain’t Misbehavin’, he might as well be. This brilliant rendition of the 1978 Grammy
award winning tribute musical brings impressive New Orleans talent to the Le Petit Theatre stage
with every shake, shimmy and song. It’s a musical feel-good celebration guaranteed to deliver
toe-tapping joy, and who doesn’t need that right about now?

Donald Jones-Bordenave brings it as the show’s director and choreographer and in one of the
starring roles, showcasing both his impressive moves and his resonant pipes. Joining him onstage
with charisma, talent and sass to burn, are Danielle Edinburgh Wilson, Rahim Glaspy, Jarrell
Hamilton, and Kadejah Onē. Each actor puts their whole heart and soul into solos and ensemble
performances worthy of the Broadway stage.

Delivering pathos, sex appeal, humor and plenty of double entendres, the cast crushes with some
of the best-known tunes from the Tin Pan Alley artist’s canon. Of course, there’s the title song,
“Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” and a red-hot duet of “Honeysuckle Rose,” and the hits just keep coming.
“Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right
Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Mean to Me,” “The Jitterbug Waltz,” “The Viper’s Drag,”
“Fat and Greasy,” “Black and Blue” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” offer a glimpse
of the composer’s genius. He only lived 39 short years, but with more than 400 songs to his
credit, his legacy is epic.

The New York-born Waller was part of the Harlem Renaissance. His innovations with stride
piano – which means playing bass with the left hand, melody with the right – remains a
foundation for modern jazz piano. If you love James Booker, that’s another reason to see this
show. Booker was a master of New Orleans flavored stride piano, inspired by Morton as well as
our own Professor Longhair.

The action takes place in an impressive bi-level night club setting from Bethany Lee, with
sumptuous costumes from Tiffany Sherrif and hair and make-up from Chazonia Lewis. This
song and dance revue is fueled by a kick ass seven-piece band: piano player Max DoVale,
Utopia Francois and Nicholas Harrison on alto and tenor sax, Cam Michal Clark on trumpet, Ian
Monroe on bass, Peter Gustafson on trombone and John Jones on drums.

​The flirtations and mini dramas onstage unfold easily. There’s no real story to follow. Instead, the thrum of incandescent home-grown musical talent impresses until the last note is sung, the last step danced. Get your tickets now – this show is a winner.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’” runs through June 22 at Le Petit Theatre, with shows Thursday through
Sunday.  Students of all ages get discounted tickets and groups of 10 or more can use code GROUP to save 20 percent online.

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Laughter is the best medicine: A first night review of The Imaginary Invalid @ Lupin Theatre, Tulane
Review by Todd Perley

Hypochondria is no laughing matter...except in the hands of Molière, who thought it was a hoot. The Imaginary Invalid follows the story of Argan (Doug Spearman), a perpetual sicky (when it suits him, to garner pity and attention), who is trying to marry his daughter Angélique (Alexandra Miles) off to a doctor so he may have access to free medical attention.

Headstrong Angélique is, naturally, in love with another, and her relationship with her curmudgeonly father becomes strained. Toinette (Jessica Podewell), the scheming maid steps in to facilitate a plot to get Angélique and her hot-but-dim lover Cléante (Brandon Sutton) into blissful matrimony.

The farce is punctuated by a Greek chorus singing of Argan’s follies, a parade of various doctors examining Argan and prescribing absurd and conflicting cures, and a constant stream of enemas (pun inevitable) to ease Argan’s “gentle bowels.”

This was Molière’s final play from 1673. The author collapsed during the fourth performance and died shortly after, an ironic twist that surely would have amused him if he wasn’t ... y’know ... dying. Ryder Thornton’s new adaptation makes a lovely meta reference to this Fun Fact.

The ensemble of twelve work well off each other. Podewell’s brazen, snarky Toinette both amuses and moves the plot along at a nice trot. Phillip Andrew Monnett’s choice to “gay up” Angélique’s unwanted fiancé is a standout hilarious scene, and Spearman’s wild vacillations between lamentation and rages as the long-suffering father carries the show.

Medical knowledge in the 17th century was tenuous at best, and absurd by today’s standards. Molière was ahead of his time as he skewers the entire medical profession, exposing self-serving quackery and hiding ignorance behind fancy Latin jargon. And yet have things changed so very much in the ensuing 350 years? This satiric commentary is weirdly relatable today. Maybe with slightly fewer enemas now.

Why not open the Shakespeare Festival with a nice old French play, I ask you? Make an appointment to see these bumbling doctors now — don’t (ma)linger!

The Imaginary Invalid runs as part of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at the Lupin Theatre, Tulane University, through June 22nd . Click here for more information and ticketing. 

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​Run, Rabbit: First night review, Bunny Hill Motel @ The New Marigny Theatre
Review by Dorian Hatchett

The auditorium is dark. In an antique church sanctuary with a cluster of seating at one end, the audience shouldn’t be conscious of the great room around them. In this dark, though,  the expanse of space around the audience presses in close. Filled with live piano music, the dark is a little unsettling-alive, liquid. The curtains draw back and the audience collectively breathes a sigh of relief. There is momentum, a beginning. The relief was premature though, as the following ninety minutes of will-they-or-won’t-they tension doesn’t allow for anything resembling comfort.  

Bunny Hill Motel is an original one act play written, directed and produced by Alex Anthony Vazquez. Blue Theatre Company is labeling it 'neo-noir' and the undercurrent themes of crime, punishment, and the consequences of dubious morality are certainly fitting that label.

The curtain draws down on a single room in a cheap motel. A fraught Caleb Elias plays John.  He’s a criminal, but we don’t know what kind. The things we are aware of are that he’s got a gun, a bag of cash, and if he doesn’t slow down and breathe, the apprehension is gonna give us all a heart attack. 

Enter Daisy (played by Abigail Duhon) who is a regular call girl with a specific set of skills, and everything goes from stressed to complicated faster than you can say your safe word. John is a man with big dreams but no real ambition. He is everyone’s cousin who is so intent on finding a get rich quick scheme that he doesn’t realize that it’s less work to just get a job.

The actors all do an excellent job, even as they're portraying hard-to-love antagonists - and in my eyes, a well-written villain is worth ten heroes. Elias skilfully presents a character that is relatable, if not imitable, and for instance, we want John to succeed, even if only to shut him up. The more Daisy talks, the more we realize that no one is exceptional without a past. Her cavalier attitude and witty banter are hiding a lifetime of failures in a world just not built for someone like her. Even at her most wonderfully wretched, she is an electrical current; carrying the action on the back of her stilettos.  

Vidal Amador-Flores is Peter, John’s childhood best friend turned partner in crime. He’s a little crass (in the universe of the play, Daisy would call him “banal”) and a lot cavalier about just what needs to be done to get the job done.  Amador-Flores manages to create a foil that is hilarious, but not in a highbrow way. There’s not much about him that you can’t see right on the surface, and that takes a pitch perfect performance from the actor. Anthony Carollo plays Seymour- the widower hotelier who just does not know how to take a hint and take a hike.  

The entire production takes place in just one room of the Bunny Hill Motel (Elvis stayed in that room once, before he got big.  How do you feel about Elvis?). It’s about the lengths people will go to when they feel trapped, and just how disparate the definition of  “trapped” can be for different people. It’s funny and sad and when it’s over, and you’re aware of the dark again, you might not be willing to admit just how far you might go if you were in the same place.  

Bunny Hill Motel runs through June 1st at the New Marigny Theatre.  

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The acclaimed musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ is set to swing onto the Le Petit Stage with a cast of New Orleans locals. Winner of the 1978 Tony Award for Best Musical, this musical revue is a sassy, sultry celebration of the music and spirit of legendary jazz great, Fats Waller. 

“Ain’t Misbehavin’ is the perfect New Orleans musical,” says A.J. Allegra, Le Petit Theatre’s artistic director. “It is a collection of some of the catchiest jazz music paired with Fats Waller’s sly lyrics, whose blush-worthy double entendres are just the right mixture of naughty and nice. It’s also a celebration of Black artistic excellence in the realm of musical theatre, and our all-local cast will knock the socks right off our audiences. What a wonderful way to spend a June night in New Orleans’ French Quarter.”

Ain’t Misbehavin’ will have its opening night on Friday, June 6th, and run through June 22nd. Preview night is Thursday, June 5th, with discounted tickets for all seats.

BOX OFFICE: 504.522.2081 x 1 or lepetittheatre.com 

​Fool's Gold: A Review of Clown Bar 2
By Beth D’Addono

In the Clown Bar, coulrophobia - an intense fear of clowns - is the baseline for survival. If you’re not afraid of these clowns, there's no telling what could happen.

Clown Bar 2 from The Nola Project is playwright Adam Szymkowicz’s second foray into the
sordid mobster-clown underworld. It’s a dark place, a world populated by killers and cops,
hookers and racketeers. But as an alternative to the “beige life” – think living in Iowa instead of
New Orleans – it’s got heart and action. And thanks to Szymkowicz’s writing, Khiry Armstead’s
big top direction and a stellar ensemble performance, Clown Bar 2 is a hilarious study of the
absurd.

Directed as an immersive dramedy that unfolds in and around the audience, as well as onstage,
this is not a show for the literal-minded theater goer. Does it make sense that clowns kill each
other with toy guns and “bleed” streamers (amazing props made by Destiny Gotham) when they die? No, but it’s visually on point and just one of the many comic details that makes the production work.

Wearing eye-popping costumes from Shauna Leone and spot on make-up and wigs from Leslie
Claverie, the cast literally shines. They bring it – there is not a moment where their clown-dom is
in question.

If you didn’t see the original show ten years ago, not to worry, the story is easy to follow. Happy,
played with strutting exuberance by Alex Martinez Wallace, is a cop turned gangster clown who
goes missing. Two of his former colleagues show up to investigate, going “full clown”
undercover to solve the crime. A gang of western clowns led by Brigham Bill show up looking
to take over the action and sight gags and double-crossing hijinks ensue.

The Clown Bar, which boasts a cocktail list with drink descriptions like “heavy on the absinthe
and a little light in the loafers,” sets the stage for flashbacks, shoot outs, romance, and in one of
the best cameos of the evening, a loud talking mime performance by 'Cliteau, Cliteau', a tour de
force from David Sellers. There’s even a funny off-stage sex scene between the two cops, Mac,
(played by Benjamin Dougherty) and the tough-but-vulnerable Gloria (Megan Whittle).
This bar has just about every kind of clown, sex kitten clowns, singing clowns, madame clowns,
assassin clowns. Have you been to Snake and Jake’s lately?

The NOLA Project brings back a few of the original cast members, including the outstanding
Keith Claverie as sad clown Musty, the brother of the ill-fated Dusty in the first show. Acting as
a musical narrator with a classic Emmett Kelly vibe, Claverie manages to out-deadpan Steven
Wright, delivering hilarious one-liners both sung and spoken. His timing is straight-up vaudeville. Jessica Lozano is the gleefully bloodthirsty Popo – I loved her blood-spattered apron - and Natalie Boyd is multi-faceted Petunia.

Clown Bar 2 is a perfect distraction from reality, boss Petunia seeming positively presidential compared to...well, you know. The show, with its whisper of burlesque and smatterings of profanity, is for clown lovers/fearers 21 and over. As the director points out, the show is crime family friendly, not kid friendly.

Clown Bar 2 plays at the AllWays Lounge Twilight Room through June 6th. Click here for more information and ticketing. 

Beth D'Addono is the author of the excellent City Eats: New Orleans book

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First night review: Tiny Beautiful Things @ The Marquette Theatre at Loyola University, New Orleans
Review by Dorian Hatchett

The French have a concept called jolie-laide, which roughly translates to 'ugly-beautiful'. It’s used to describe unconventionally attractive women, but it gets thrown around to describe all sorts of concepts where the true beauty of something lies in its imperfections, rather than in some divine symmetry.

Tiny Beautiful Things is a melange of everything imperfect about people, and how the intersection of lives can bring those imperfections together like facets of cut crystal. It is presented by Crescent City Stage, based on the novel by Cheryl Strayed.  

A novel writer takes on the project of an advice column. It seems simple enough. The word on the page is easy to compartmentalize into something separate from life, though, and our main character finds out all too quickly that the letters are real; perhaps more real than she was prepared for.  

The stage is austere. A single room, with a desk and a different chair at each corner. The entire progression of the plot is in the dialogue, and the lack of fussiness is perfect for forcing the audience to focus on the words, rather than the room.  

Tenea Intriago plays Sugar, the pseudonym for an anonymous advice-broker. She is quirky and interesting, and when she reaches into her lived experience to give guidance, the audience gains a glimpse not only into her life and history, but also a master class in grief and finding yourself through the tides of human experience. The writing is pithy and poignant, and full of brilliant analogies for experiencing life through our fragile conscious. Ms. Intriago is sublime in her portrayal of the complicated, clever Sugar.  

The letter writers are a Greek chorus; three voices in atomic orbit around our columnist. They are portrayed by Steve Zissis, Helena Wang, and Rashif Ali.  Three actors with a plethora of characters, they quick-change from one to the next as simple spotlights frame small monologues.

A barrage of voices, of problems, of the eternal question, “WTF?!” ring out to surround, overwhelm, and intrigue the writer. There is genuine laughter from the audience at times, and the chorus soaks it up and uses it as further fuel to turn around and thrust deep the knives of pain that cover our bravado and our elaborate coping masks– the things that we would use to separate ourselves from the lives of others.  

Once they have us hanging on to their every word, they effortlessly bring forth our own grief, mirrored in bullet points about loss and the moments we cannot seem to escape. Sugar expertly plucks these threads out of the air and weaves them together into a tapestry that is rich and beautiful and ugly, in just the right places. 

Tiny Beautiful Things is playing through May 25th at the Marquette Theatre at Loyola University. Click here for more information and ticketing

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First Night Review: The Wiz @ The Saenger Theatre, New Orleans
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Frank L. Baum’s saga of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its expansive universe has captivated audiences since the initial novel was published in 1900.  Every generation since has had its own adaptations, right up to the most recent craze surrounding the blockbuster movie adaptation of Wicked.  One of the most unique approaches to the world of the Emerald City and the cardinal witches was the 1974 production of The Wiz, which portrays the story of the first Oz book through the lens of then-contemporary black culture.  

When the show made the jump to Broadway in 1975, it was groundbreaking. The first Broadway production to feature an all-black cast, it also managed to get a nod from the Billboard Music Charts with its single “Ease on Down the Road” covered by a disco group.  Despite mixed critical reviews, the show managed to win eight of the nine Tony Awards it was nominated for during its first year running.  

In 1978, the show was adapted into a feature film, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy (and the feature film debut of Michael Jackson, as the Scarecrow).  The current touring production in the US comes after numerous Broadway revivals and international adaptations.  To say that this show, never a unanimous critics darling, has had an impact, would be a grave understatement.  

This tour is certainly living up to the hype.  Dana Cimone as Dorothy is imminently relatable as a teen girl far from the home she grew up in, but when she sings she channels the voices of her musical theatre ancestors. This girl has pipes. Elijah Ahmad Lewis, D. Jerome, and Cal Mitchell are superb companions as the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion.  Their characters are as much physical comedy as steadfast companions, and the galvanizing force of the quest to take down the witch who has wronged them each in turn is as funny as it is ambitious.  

The costuming of this show deserves special mention. Using high-fashion as an element of storytelling has always been a pillar of this show, and the costume designers here did not disappoint. Colors so saturated they seem to absorb and reflect the stage lights, fantasy hair and makeup, and a generous application of metallics and rhinestones recall the disco era the show hails from, but brings in a modern finish that feels relevant and new, even for those of us who grew up watching the movie over and over.  

Under the expert direction of Schele Williams, the cast and choreography are polished, the voices are clarion, and the costumes are to die for.  Every detail maintains the Broadway flair that we have come to know and expect from Broadway in New Orleans and the Saenger Theater.  
 
The Wiz runs at the Saenger Theatre through May 18th. Click here for information and ticketing

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​Doubt: A Parable @ Le Petit Theater 
Review by David Lewis

When Doubt: A Parable debuted on Broadway in 2005 it immediately won four Tonys and the Pulitzer, which seems like a striking feat for a four-character one-act play about suspected sexual abuse by a Catholic priest.

John Patrick Shanley’s examination of a New York catholic school navigating the possible misdeeds of an affable young priest chose for setting and environment an incredibly loaded situation, but the play isn’t entirely “about” the high-stakes situation it tees up, but rather the dire processes behind the internal decisions faced by its four characters.

When principal Sister Aloysius, deeply mistrustful of both the secular and the overly informal, fences with Father Brendan Flynn over her suspicions about his conduct, we wonder whether her struggle is actually more with her own faith.

Actor Leslie Nipkow finds humor in the character, delivering some of the nun’s most acerbic lines with wicked timing, but also seems to establish herself with the eager and optimistic younger nun Sister James such as to remind you that “grooming” isn’t limited to sinister priests or male abusers. Elizabeth McCoy’s Sister James slowly unravels under the constant accusations and cynicism of her superior, until the shell that’s left is almost identifiable as a younger Aloysius.
 
If there’s a close but reluctant alliance between the two nuns, the distant alliance of actors David Lind and Queen Shereen Macklin is more haunting and complex. Lind plays Father Flynn, the priest accused of abusing the school’s only African American student; Macklin portrays the boy’s mother, Mrs. Muller.

Although the two won’t share a scene, they together explore complicity and deniability, two actors giving strangely corresponding performances, both characters with shockingly parallel agency. Macklin’s Mrs. Muller reminds me of the Greek chorus: it’s the most passive role of the four. These things are happening to her and her family, but we’re still never given the option to acquit her. Like the chorus, she in this way provides the most direct bridge to the audience.
 
The dialogue is tense, but director Ashley Santos senses the play’s real tension stems from the unsaid implications in a narrative that coldly withholds resolution. We are forced to assess disparate themes as though they are truly natural contrasts: The tension between redemption and safety; “cancel culture” social reactions and the very real threat of child abuse by trusted adults in ostensibly safe places; the injurious certitude of the blindly faithful and the crippling risk-avoidance of those waiting for someone else to solve the problems.

Shanley’s masterpiece is well positioned in our current social moment – and in the theater, you’ll find that the distance between yourself and the players is insufficient insulation from the invariable weakness of your own convictions. 

Doubt, A Parable plays at Le Petit Théâtre through May 18th. Click here for information and ticketing.

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After a successful regional premiere of Adam Szymkowicz’s CLOWN BAR ten years ago, the itinerant theatre company is returning to their clown roots with a sequel – this time trading a saloon for a twilight room.

​In this follow up to Szymkowicz's long-running comedy, two years have passed since the events of
CLOWN BAR, and Happy Mahoney – the new clown-crime boss – is missing. Foul play is suspected, so two cops from the “beige life” are enlisted to go deep undercover and solve the mystery.

The NOLA Project’s Khiry Armstead directs ensemble members Natalie Boyd, Keith Claverie, Matthew Thompson, Alex Martinez Wallace, Megan Whittle and Kristin Witt with Benjamin Dougherty, Jessica Lozano, David Sellers and Joe Signorelli completing the cast.

Please note that CLOWN BAR 2 is intended for mature audiences – must be 21+ to attend. For schedule, tickets and more, visit NOLAProject.com.