Month: January 2025

From December 5^th -22^nd, 2024, The Firehouse Theatre staged the musical Annie, by Thomas Meehan (Book) Martin Charnin (Lyrics) and Charles Strouse (Music). A fine choice for the Christmas Season to be sure: tribulation without pathos, moxie without bravado, sweetness without sap. Inspired by the popular comic strip, Annie opens (as you might expect) in an orphanage, Lorded over by Mrs. Hannigan. A drunk but not a beast. A snot but not a bully.

She nevertheless rules with iron bloomers. The little girls sing their wistful disappointment, in “Maybe”, next their anger and despair in “Hard Knock Life.” Perhaps there’s a clue here in Meehan, Strouse and Charnin’s strategy. The actors wield their emotion forcefully without crossing the line. Their feelings are curiously, just this side of adult. No one is interested in playing us.

Next we see Daddy Warbucks in his palatial mansion. He has a very efficient, very pretty assistant (Grace Ferrell) skilled at following his constant stream of directions. Warbucks is a tycoon and (I think it’s safe to say) a Republican. Evidence of the poverty he’s caused is easy to find, all over town. Warbucks has decided he wants to adopt an orphan. Preferably a boy. Grace ignores this when she realizes that Annie is the perfect fit. To honor Annie’s wishes, he uses his great wealth to track down her parents.

You might say that Annie is a fable. A testimonial to the power of kindness and good will. Before we know it, Warbucks and Hoover are smoking the peace-pipe and he adopts the rest of the girls from the orphanage. Leapin Lizards. The script is quite clever and if we never go too deep, perhaps it’s the tone that makes it all work. When Annie’s introduced to the opulence of Daddy Warbucks’ lifestyle, she’s impressed, she’s pleased, and she’s poised. None of this is to suggest she’s not in earnest. The aforementioned three man team has read the room, and know just what to do. They have mixed (very, very carefully) the plausible with the fanciful. And once you find your way to the plausible, the rest is easy to sell.

I want to mention here that in recent years my experience with The Firehouse Theatre has been nothing short of phenomenal. Truly. Show after show: Little Shop of Horrors, Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd, Pippin, The Drowsy Chaperone, Gypsy….. has been meticulous and impeccable. Timing, gusto, intelligence, and a head of steam like the Queen Mary. And all of this in a space that’s small and unforgiving. Somehow they have managed to pull this off without revealing any scaffolding. (If you know what I mean.) Not once at The Firehouse have I been disappointed. If I’m gushing, it’s because Firehouse has earned it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Miss Eliza Chabot, who played Annie in the company of this stunning cast. Her performance was flawless, her demeanor unbelievably authentic. She doesn’t act, she is. There’s something about her energy, her warmth, her lack of artifice, that makes us forget we’re in a theater.

Annie played The Firehouse Theatre December 5th-22nd, 2024. 2535 Valley View Ln, Farmers Branch, TX, United States, Texas. (972) 620-3747. thefirehousetheatre.com

 

It has become a recent tradition at Richardson Theatre Centre to stage something from the Radio Show Theatre genre. We are taken to a radio station, back in the days when actors and singers and musicians stood close to stationary microphones, performing like there was an audience. We get to know the personalities of all the characters, from the intern to the manager, to the host to the guitarist. We’re privy to the inside dope: crushes, spats, exhilaration, vanity, disappointment. Clearly all that work at the radio station comprise a family.

It’s Christmas Eve and everyone is wearing some kind of Holiday Finery. Even the technician. There are bright dresses, vivid sweaters, Santa caps, green and red ensembles. At WRTC they’re raring to go, infected by the spirit of the season. An ingenue is overcome with excitement: the one and only Elvis Presley will be performing there tonight. It’s something of a gamble. A lot of money has been spent to promote the event, in hopes of saving this humble station from destitution. Some of the performers are holding on to scripts, while others have one ear poised for their cues. Once the station signs on, there will be comedy skits (remember the Bickersons?) cooly cool tunes, traditional carols, perky commercials, and the emcee who (from what we can tell) has aspirations to the big time.

A Rockabilly Christmas is ingenious. This particular category of show appears more and more frequently during the Yuletide Season. Nothing Wrong with A Christmas Carol, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and A Christmas Story. But it’s great to find something different. Every Christmastime the RTC seats fill up, and Rockabilly Christmas was no exception. The audience was stoked, convivial and bubbly.

The hazard of Holiday Theatre is walking the tightrope between excess emotion and a story without zip. You could say they are informed by nostalgia, but there’s more to it. The manager has a monologue in which he cringes over the advent of television. Children and we grownups too, ache, for the lost enchantment of this rmiraculous event. We have the technology to create the razzle-dazzle, but it seems Christmas has lost its human touch. Forgive my getting so ooey-gooey but adults, especially (I think) yearn for the kind of Christmas that comforts and gladdens the soul. That wraps us in grace.

Thank you, Friends at Richardson Theatre Centre.

Richardson Theatre Centre presented: A Rockabilly Christmas. 518 West Arapaho Road, Suite 113, Richardson, Texas 75080. 972-699-1130