Breaking The Leg – “Side Man” By UATD

This edition of “Breaking the Leg” will be a little different than most. I’m going to review the show first. Then I’m going to have a small rant at the end about terrible audience members.

But first, the show!

“Side Man” is a rather fascinating show written by Warren Leight about jazz music at its height during the big band era in the 1950s, and yet it’s not. The show actually focuses in on one family, the Glimmers. Narrated by Clifford Glimmer (Jacob Valleroy) as a memory play, informed by his mother Terry (Abby Jones) to help him fill in the parts he wasn’t actually born for yet, the show takes the audience on a rather a-linear journey through time that, generally, brings them back to 1953, when jazz was hot. Gene (Chris Bellinger) is a massively talented, and perhaps stupidly humble, trumpet player, the titular side man (someone who can play solos or backup as needed). He and Terry, a flutist, meet, share a night of passion and move in together, mostly due to Terry’s strong will. The rest of the gang, trumpet players Ziggy (Jeff Horger) and Al (Cooper Kennard), trombone player Jonesy (Michael Luwoye) and waitress/lover of many a musical man Patsy (Carrie Poh), all share in the successes and height of jazz, as well as the successes and happiness of the Glimmer couple.

But, as music history teaches, jazz didn’t last. The entrance of Elvis Presley and rock and roll saw the decline of the big band scene, the downfall of jazz. As jazz declined, so, too, did the happiness and glory of the Glimmers and those around them.

When you consider the show, it’s not just the path jazz takes through time that informs the show, but also the style of jazz. Jazz is free flowing, has tempos that shift and change throughout the piece, has solos and duets and ensemble parts that constantly pop in and out. You never really know what one jazz number will be like if they improv right. And the show keeps that style as well. Driven by Clifford’s narration, the show shifts through time and physicality, following its own rules. Sometimes, the pace of the show slows to a near stop. Other times, it flies past, covering years in seconds. The ensemble of the band and Patsy supports the sometimes solos and sometimes melodies (not always harmonious) of the Glimmers as their story is told.

With a cast of only seven, “Side Man” has ample opportunity to let every actor show off their strengths, and each of them does. Each character becomes memorable in their own way. Luwoye shows a drug addict’s decline and return in a severely emotional way. Horger and Kennard both create wonderfully unique voices with characters that seem identical at times, yet stand clearly apart with their own problems to deal with. Poh very wonderfully plays the role of the jazz band groupie and above-it-all, tough-talking waitress, giving her a sultry side to contrast with her nostalgia and occasional vulnerability.

But the show shines with the Glimmers. Valleroy, once Clifford is actually born in the second act, has some amazing moments of passion and weakness. Bellinger shows a man slowly succumbing to mental deterioration trying to keep a handle on his life, trying to keep doing the only thing he knows how while doing the things he feels he has to, like provide for his family. And Jones shows us a woman who starts off with her strength of will and character slowly succumbing to alcohol and loneliness brought on by her husband’s inaction. Her madness eventually becomes a part of her life she, and Clifford, must accept.

With fabulous and strong performances all around, “Side Man” truly shows off the actors and gives the audience a play of smooth, wandering, emotional theatre. The play has some amazingly humorous moments, too, hitting wonderful highs and solemn lows throughout the show. While there were some technical difficulties tonight with the sound (brought on, I discovered, by someone using the sound board earlier in the day when he wasn’t supposed to, I believe), they were fixed for the second act and never truly took away from the performance. It is an actor’s showcase, and one I suggest watching. The final show is tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Gallaway Theatre at Rowand-Johnson Hall on the University of Alabama campus.

Now… small rant. If you DO go see the show, please do not do the following things: Get up in the middle of the show to leave, particularly if you’re in the front row. Come back in the middle of the show after leaving in the middle of the show. Get out your cell phone for ANY reason, they are supposed to be OFF, not on silent or vibrate (if they’re not off, they can interrupt the communication backstage over headset, like your phone does if you keep it near your computer’s speakers and you get a text). Also, PLEASE, do not talk during the show. If you have to, whisper. And do it either to yourself and VERY QUIETLY, or to the person next to you. Which, if I could suggest, make sure that person is someone you actually know.

I had the unfortunate displeasure of sitting behind a rather unfortunate audience member. First, he was tall and blocked the view. I could get used to that, though. I’m not short either, so I know it’s not the most fun, but it’s something you get used to. However, I don’t place my hands on my head and splay my arms to block the vision of those behind me. Nor do I constantly undo and redo my ponytail. Nor do I talk audibly so the majority of the theatre can hear me.

Seriously. I don’t know why these things need to be said, but they do. Respect the actors and the work they’re doing, and respect the audience that paid to see the show. No cell phones. No talking. No getting up and leaving the theatre mid-show and, if you do, don’t come back.

…But, either way, “Side Man” was great.

Breaking The Leg – “Fools” By UATD

One day, I’ll start buying tickets to opening night so these posts aren’t “I got to see this show, and if you didn’t, too bad, suckers!” Though, to be fair, this show was sold out for a good while. I only barely got in myself.

Anyway.

The Fall 2012 University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance season started off last Monday with the premier of directed grad student John Nara’s first show at UA, “Fools” by Neil Simon. Simon, as a playwright, became extremely well known for his witty, often fast-paced comedies such as “Barefoot in the Park” and, perhaps his most famous play due to the eventual television series, “The Odd Couple.” Simon received more Tony and Oscar nominations than any other writer, as well as a Pulitzer prize for his complex “Lost in Yonkers,” though many feel he was underrated due to his continual comic works. It tends to be true that drama gets more respect than comedy on almost every level. Unfair, but true.

“Fools” is perhaps a bit more… shticky and slower than many of Simon’s other comedies. And “slower” can be applied in multiple ways. See, the plot of “Fools” is such: The sleepy little Russian town of Kulyenchikov has been under a curse for 200-plus years. The curse states that there can be no love in Kulyenchikov, and that everyone living there for more than 24 hours, and everyone born there, is made phenomenally stupid and unable to leave the village. The unaware school teacher Leon Tolchinsky (John Paul Snead) answers an ad for a teacher placed in another city’s newspaper and arrives… to a village of fools.

The characters of this town are colorful, and each memorable and hilarious. First, we meet the shepherd (Joey Gamble), who has lost his sheep and is wholly unable to understand how his horn works. Gamble’s shepherd was the perfect introduction to the abject ignorance and idiocy this town would provide throughout the show. Leon attempts to keep optimism and smiles throughout his stay in the town (the play takes place, pre-epilogue, over a slightly-more-than-24-hour time period), but his frustration begins to seep through the longer he stays and the more crunched for time he is. The other villagers – the butcher (Jordan DeWitt), the old lady peddler (Bess Houston) and the postman (Ben Mitchell) – test his patience. Perhaps the one that tests his patience most is the magistrate, played by Wen Powers in one of the most dedicated bits of physical humor I’ve seen in a long time. A crouched over old man, Powers moves at approximately half the speed of dead grass growing. His first entry onto the stage, in which he circles the outside of it, takes about three full minutes, or five minutes in the play.

Leon ends up crunched for time when he discovers that he has 24 hours to break the curse, leave town or be hit by the curse as well. Unfortunately for him, the option of leaving town is eliminated when he falls for the daughter of the doctor who placed the ad, Dr. Zubritsky (Tommy Walker) and his wife (Loui Clagett). Their daughter Sophia (usually played by Natalie Riegel, but played by understudy Esther Workman at the showing I went to) is especially problematic, having only just recently learned how to sit down properly. And worse, the only known way to break the curse is for a Zubritsky to marry a Yousekevitch (the family that created the curse), and so her hand is being constantly asked for by the last, and immensely cheesy and over-the-top very obvious bad guy, Yousekevitch, Gregor (Sam Hardy).

With physical humor and absurd word play and wit sometimes reminiscent of Monty Python, the play has quite a bit to offer in the ways of humor. Most of the audience was giggling for a large portion of the show when I saw it. With some special jokes thrown in to the theatre students of UA and other parts of UA’s culture (Gregor Yousekevitch invited the audience to his tailgate next Saturday), and just good acting all around, there were also some good moments for big guffaws of laughter.

There were also moments where Simon was perhaps attempting to be pointed and poignant, making sweeping statements about the ignorant masses or philosophical statements about knowledge and teaching, but I’m not so certain those hit the notes nearly as well as the comedy and meta-humor laced throughout the show did. Perhaps others enjoyed the mild social commentary, but I found the show to be quite enjoyable just as a witty, laughable comic routine. And the actors chosen for the show were amazing, and amazingly transformed through costume and makeup by the talented designers Alex Kosbab and Tiffany Harris. The set, though I didn’t get to experience it in all its glory due to my poor seat in the house, was whimsical and playful, designed by Brad Lee.

Ultimately, it was a great time, a very cute and quite entertaining show filled with stellar comic actors (who all understand physical comedy and timing quite well), and a great premier show for director Nara. It will be interesting to see his next step is and how that goes. (It’s either Noel Coward’s comic “Design for Living” or Helen Edmundson’s tale of ethnic cleansing in 17th century Ireland, “The Clearing.” …A bit of a difference there, either way.)

Next time, I’ll try to see the show early enough to get you all to buy tickets, too. Next UATD show is “Side Man” by Warren Leight. Should be interesting.