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Ridgelea Reports on Theatre, Ridgelea Institute, New Canaan, CT (2025)

12/08/2023

Happy Hannukah !!!!!!!!

06/20/2023

Webster’s Bitch
What has more words than you ever wanted?
Webster’s Dictionary.
And that might also be a way to describe “Webster’s Bitch.”
I got to see the world premiere of the play at Playhouse on Park and found myself immersed in too many ideas and complaints about how life and work and ambition enter the modern world and our visions of what’s next. Lots of ‘premieres’ are wordy, of course, and include more ‘forewords’ than are necessary. Why should this one be unique? Answer: it isn’t. Here’s a list of what gets introduced to the audience as we’re getting acquainted with what playwright Jacqueline Bircher wants us to know.
1) The script for working at Webster’s main office includes silence and deadlines. Got to be silent because working on a deadline.
2) The HR Policy for Webster’s has included respect for same-sex marriage for a decade.
3) Lexicographers are a special category of word-workers.
4) Twitter and other social media are in use big-time by the lexicographers we meet. They are able to follow developments that affect their office and work instantaneously. And right now, they have picked up lots of commentary on the head of the office referring to his right-hand (woman) colleague as ‘my bitch’ in an offhand comment that was not supposed to be broadcast, but, because his mike was already turned on, was.
5) There will be repercussions. All the phones in the office are ringing off the hook. And the sister of one of the silent lexicographers is a) visiting, b) waiting to go out for margaritas with her sister after the office closes, c) not at all silent, and d) also adept with social media.
All of this foreword stuff does help to set up the plot, such as it is, but if there is a way to cut it way down, the next version of the play will be better.
During this introduction time, we have met three members of the cast of five.
a) Gwen (Mia Wurgaft), a lexicographer at Webster’s.
b) Ellie (Isabel Monk Cade), Gwen’s talkative sister.
c) Nick (HanJie Chow), also a lexicographer, a gay man who casually mentions that he has a husband.
All three of them are appalled to be following the posts that report on the office supervisor having been broadcast with a reference to his ‘bitch.’ But the impact of how this releases and reveals tension inside the office isn’t clear until we meet two other actors:
d) Joyce (Veanne Cox), the office manager and unfortunate target of the broadcast mishap, and
e) Frank (Peter Simon Hilton), the supervisor who counts on Joyce to pick up and organize his paperwork, as well as carry out his instructions, spoken or unspoken, keeping the office running smoothly and efficiently.
Joyce, of course, is not happy with the publicity that now surrounds them and especially herself. She is threatening some kind of retaliation. Gwen urges her not to act hastily, but also reminds her that she has asked for an annual review and in the process wants to be paid on the same scale that Nick is paid. Even though he has worked there longer, they do the same work. The only obvious difference is that Nick is a man and Gwen is a woman. Joyce says that she can give her a raise but not that much of a raise!
Ellie arrives with some bottled Margaritas, and after some hesitation, the four of them share a drink.
Then Frank arrives. He and Joyce share some catching up and Joyce has her copy of paperwork in front of her. When he asks her to get his copy, she observes that it’s waiting in the copy room and he can get it for himself! Now there’s a wrap-up of all those forewords. She also tells him that she has filed a complaint with HR and is ready to step in (up) if he is fired.
Frank begs her not to destroy him. He also speaks to Gwen about not being able to give her the raise she wants but implies that if she helps him save his job maybe he could reconsider.
And before the office door is shut for the evening, everyone is considering what space in Webster’s he or she might occupy next month.
I expect the next version of “Webster’s Bitch” to be less wordy up front but to have the same emphasis on gender equality. Costumes, lighting, sound, and direction were all adequate in this production.
Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre. June 12, 2023

10/24/2021

NEW CANAAN’S GRIDIRON CLUB 2021, honoring DAVE HUNT

I went to the Gridiron Club evening at the New Canaan Country Club last night [October 22]. It was a great celebration of an event that was put off from the Spring of 2020 until now because of the Pandemic. It felt like everyone who is prominent in the community was there and lots of hugging and back-slapping was evident.
The Gridiron Club is a New Canaan institution that dates back to 1961, celebrating and ‘roasting’ one famous citizen each year in a skit that resembles the drama shows from Hotchkiss or Andover before women were enrolled, so the roles of mother or sister or wife are traditionally played by men in drag. Not great drag. But with skirts and wigs and an attempt at busts. Fun drag. And all the years that I have known it, the shows have been played in the ballroom at the New Canaan Country Club.
Except for one. In 2019 the Country Club was starting renovations, so Gridiron – honoring Scott Hobbs -- was moved to the Italian Center in Stamford.
Dave Hunt was on the schedule for roasting in April of 2020. No community gatherings were allowed then, so his show was postponed until last night. In the meantime the Country Club ballroom had been redone, and the lawn was reconfigured too, So we began with drinks and appetizers out on the beautiful new lawn under a moonlit sky, and then moved into the new ballroom, complete with a temporary stage, for dinner set up at twenty tables of ten. Just after 8:00 pm the President of the Gridiron Club, Eric Thunem, called the audience to order and introduced the show.
The only MC I’ve ever seen for the Gridiron shows is Bob Doran. He’s overboard active in steering the Town of New Canaan to continuing charm and prosperity in the downtown. He was easy to be a fan of when I first watched him, and I’m even more fond of him now. The Script for Hunt’s roast had him telling dumb Actuary jokes between each scene – like “What’s better, a wife, or a mistress? Better to have both. Then your wife thinks you’re with your mistress, and your mistress thinks you’re with your wife, and you can spend all those hours at the office!”
Gridiron shows are traditionally a series of skits that exaggerate some feature of the honoree’s life. That Dave Hunt has been a great Actuary got attention in skits about his early life and later life, but to my mind the funniest note of the entire show came in a Valentine’s Day spoof that had Dave singing sweet nothings to his wife but showed him emotionally connected to his favorite pug dog. That skit was written by Eric Thunem, and it featured Rab Ker as Dave, Robert Curry playing Sara, and a stuffed Pug. Rab Ker has become my new favorite Gridiron actor. That honor formerly belonged to Steve Pond, who no longer lives in New Canaan. I’ve often enjoyed Fred Whitmer, too, and Bill Walbert earned an award last night for the most daring display.
It’s great to have such a unifying tradition in the Town. Laughter and ‘Roasting’ break barriers and help us to firm up as a community. 200 enthusiastic citizens seem to agree. Hurrah for the new ballroom, the long wait for the Gridiron ending, and Dave Hunt!

Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre. October 23, 2021

09/20/2021

New Season begins at Curtain Call Stamford as “1776” explodes magnificently in the Kweskin Theatre

I’d been in the audience years ago when Curtain Call first produced “1776 – the Musical” and I was thrilled to get the chance to see it again as the company chose to use it to open what we all hope will be the new season, back in the theater, with live actors (quite a lot of them) on stage and live persons in the audience. There were careful rules, followed without complaint, for the audience. Each person admitted to the theater had to wear a mask, and show evidence of vaccination before going in.

But oh, what rewards were quickly unwrapped and delivered! Lou Ursone, the incredible Executive Director of Curtain Call, reprised his energetic role as John Adams, the Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, who was the most impatient member of the group wanting the Colonies to break ties with England and the King. He lived the role so perfectly, with such enthusiasm and frustration, that the story of the musical was beautifully defined.

Gordon Casagrande was the Director who staged the scenes’ rapid progression from the beginning of May, through June, and into the beginning of July, where the Congress met in Philadelphia. He was aided in this by his wife, Karen Casagrande, who was the Choreographer. Peter Randazzo was the Music Director. The original book by Peter Stone, who collaborated with Sherman Edwards (music and lyrics) to produce the musical that first appeared in 1969, of course provides the framework for the staging.

The Second Continental Congress consisted of delegates from each of the thirteen original colonies. The cast consists of 25 men. There were several delegates from Delaware, and from Pennsylvania. The Carolinas voted together. Virginia had two delegates. New Jersey was unrepresented at first. Two roles for women included Julie Loyd, as Abigail Adams, who sings (beautifully) words from her letters to John Adams, and a vivacious Victoria Clougher, as Martha Jefferson, who came from Virginia to Philadelphia to be with Thomas Jefferson at the time that he was writing the Declaration of Independence.

Among the delegates besides Ursone’s Adams, who were given major singing roles in the show, count Bruce Crilly as John Dickinson from Pennsylvania, Michael Wright as a delightful Ben Franklin, Ben McCormack as the energetic Richard Henry Lee, Jonathan Jacobson as Thomas Jefferson, and Michael Jovovich as Edward Rutledge. Bill King, as the Courier who delivered letters and appeals from General George Washington, also was featured in the lovely ballad, “Momma, look Sharp.”

Jojovich’ Edward Rutledge had a significant space in the argument that lines in the Declaration that implied that Slaves were persons, as opposed to property, must be deleted if the Carolinas were to vote in its favor. Jefferson is given a line in which he promises that he has already determined to set his slaves free. But Rutledge turns to Adams and sings, powerfully, the accusation that it the sailing ships of New England who provide the transport of slaves in the aria, “Molasses to Rum.” It is a highlight of the musical and provides a turning point in the action. If there is a moment that could lead to much more discussion after the curtain falls, this of course would be it.

Within the musical it does create the resolution all are waiting for. The Liberty Bell rings as the delegates, one by one, follow John Hancock’s lead to add their names to the signatures which accompany the Declaration of Independence.

“1776” continues at the Kweskin Theater over the next three weekends. Friday to Sunday September 24 to 26, Thursday to Sunday, September 30 to October 3, and Thursday to Saturday October 7 to October 9. The Sunday performances are at 2:00 pm. All others are at 8:00 pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.curtaincall.org, or by calling the box office at 203-461-6358.

Go, go, go if you can. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Tom Nissley, for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre.

03/17/2020

“The Plot” at Yale Repertory Theater thru December 21

Will Enol’s new play, premiering now at Yale, directed by Oliver Butler, is one of the most sophisticated and beautiful productions I have ever seen. I hurried home and began sending friends to see it ASAP. I’m suggesting that for you too. It has great relevance for persons dealing with aging, with dementia, with environment, with property rights, and even plain old Karma.

Take a minute and think of all the different uses and meanings that cross your mind when you hear the word, ‘PLOT.’ It can be a simple piece of ground, as in a garden plot. It might be an arrangement or plan for getting something in a shady or mysterious way, as in ‘the plot thickens.’ It can be the outline or synopsis of a story, or play, or novel. It can be a space within a larger portion of land designated for sacred memories, as in a ‘cemetery plot.’

Did you know that there are fourteen dead persons for every living person in our world? Generations of those who have gone before, with significant lives, stories, families. For a moment in Enol’s play, there is a fantasy projection of such a soul, long-ago-buried in a cemetery plot, reaching out for recognition and respect. Probably just a metaphor, although people do use forays into old cemeteries to reinforce the legacies we wish to retain in the present.

So, what’s the plot of “The Plot?” Joanne (the marvelous Mia Katigbak) comes looking for her husband, Righty (equally marvelous Harris Yulin), It’s dark. She’s carried a flashlight up a secluded trail on the mountain near their home. Righty is old and perhaps confused. He’s prone to wander off and visit a small park with an old graveyard, where he is now, lying in a pile of leaves on a cemetery plot. A plot, he explains, that he purchased, so he’d have a little place with his own identity attached where he could hang out in peace. He purchased the adjoining one too, for Joanne. Joanne, happy to have found him, is nevertheless not happy to know that he took the money they had saved towards another cemetery space, without her knowledge, and spent it here.

Exit Joanne and Righty. Enter a pompous Real Estate exec named Tim (Stephen Barker Turner) and his accommodating Admin Assistant, Donna (Jennifer Mudge). Tim has a whirl of plans. One is that he and Donna will get married as soon as he divorces his wife. Another is that he will buy the mountain they’re standing on and sell it to a developer who is already planning to turn it into industrial space. Tim already has the agreement sewed up, and he will be very rich when the deal closes. In the meantime, he’s yelling at Donna about why she cannot ever get him the exact Chinese food he wants… It only takes a moment to dislike Tim. His character is self-centered and abusive. A city engineer, or appraiser, Grey (Jimonn Cole), also is involved in the transaction with the old graveyard, and in helping Donna to sniff out any family claims to ownership of plots so that Tim can have clear title to the mountain top.

Several conversations follow. Joanne returns and has a heart to heart with Donna about how difficult is has been to keep Righty from wandering away without a tether. Grey, who is making a painting of the cemetery, talks with Righty about how much he, too, values the peaceful quiet of this place. Righty appears to be willing to sell his rights to the cemetery plot, and does scrawl a signature on a deed. Later Donna overhears a cell phone conversation that Righty is having with someone, and she realizes that Righty’s dementia is a ruse – part of a plot to deceive Joanne and others that he is disabled and needs special support. She threatens to tell Joanne if Righty doesn’t.

There are more twists and turns that help to make “The Plot” resolve quickly into a happy ending. Tim, who with one sentence has broken his deal with Donna, gets his come-uppance. Finding a unique salamander helps to create a new Conservation Commission, run by Grey and Donna, to manage the mountain. Joanne and Righty are happy with that. Their lives would almost be perfect, if Righty hadn’t recently suffered a stroke. Of course, we don’t know if it was a real one…

The set. Beautifully designed by Sara Karl, it includes moss and leaves and trees, portions of a low stone wall, and a gazebo prominently raised on stage left that provides a space for some significant gathering. Sound design and original music by Emily Duncan Wilson stretched from crickets, breaking the silence, to background road noise and storms to accompany excellent projections designed by Christopher Evans. Costumes (April M Hickman) were well designed and appropriate. Oliver Butler’s direction was perfectly precise. The balance between individual roles and the story lines created a real ensemble production.

Over a lifetime, you will have a chance to see this play again and again. Take advantage of every time it comes your way. It’s a masterpiece! Tickets and information at www.yalerep.org.

Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reviews on Theatre December 9, 2019

03/03/2020

Disney’s “Newsies” by Broadway Method Academy at Westport Country Playhouse

It’s no longer surprising, but I love to get to see and hear and experience (!) the magnificent productions by Broadway Method Academy at Westport’s Country Playhouse. In Disney’s “Newsies” they’ve done it again. Simply and completely, they’ve outperformed other good shows at the Playhouse and given viewers a production that is unforgettable.

“Newsies” is the story of a strike that was organized by the youngsters who sold newspapers on a daily basis to customers in New York, in 1899. It really happened, but is beautifully romanticized in the musical, which is based on a Disney film, made into a smashing musical by Alan Menken, Jack Feldman, and Harvey Fierstein.

Let’s start again with the bottom line on this show and work up. It’s one of the finest productions of a musical I’ve seen in any Connecticut theater in months. What BMA does is to bring its own students, from the littlest to the biggest, and work them into a company with excellent professional leading actors. And by the way, those students can DANCE! It is riveting to have some 40 students on stage all working in sync – great skill, thanks to great choreography by Chaz Wolcott. So, an audience stays involved and spellbound.

The plot, easy to follow, includes a popular newsie named Jack Kelly (Joey Barriero) who helps other newsies to organize in protest when Joe Pulitzer (James Judy), the owner of ‘The World’ newspaper, raises the wholesale price that he charges the newsboys for their papers. It’s a no-win scenario and the kids decide to strike. They get help from Katharine Plumber (Aliana Mills), a journalist for the ‘Times,’ who has her own strange ties to Mr. Pulitzer, and Medda Larkin (Aisha de Haas), a friend of Jack, who runs a theater, where he has painted sets.. Other principals include Crutchie (Robert Peterpaul), Davey (Richie Cordero), and Les (Griffin Delmhorst), Davey’s little brother – a spitfire who has already learned in his young life to be BIG in his character on stage.

The sets (Ryan M Howell) do great justice to the story. The costumes (Dustin Cross) are magnificent. Lighting (Weston G Wetzel) and Sound Design (Daniel Bria) are excellent. Music Direction is by J Scott Handley, a co-producer with Connor Deane and David Dreyfoos. The orchestra was conducted by Garrett Taylor.

I am so glad to have been in the audience for this musical and wish it had run for two weeks instead of a few days at the playhouse. Keep your eyes open for any time the BMA returns to the Westport Stage.

Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre

03/03/2020

Mary Catherine Nagle’s “Manhatta” at Yale Rep until February 15

Mary Catherine Nagle, a lawyer and writer with a Native American lineage, has written a beautifully complicated play that spans several centuries, and lays bare some unfinished business about white European settlers and native persons in the land that became the USA.

An attractive young woman has come from Oklahoma to get a job in a commercial bank on Wall Street. When she is turned down, she stands her ground and attempts again, which works. Suddenly a native American with tribal background in the far west has landed a job in Manhattan! Welcome to Manhattan, Jane (Lily Gladstone).

Flashback: Beginning in the island of Manhatta, in the seventeenth century, Dutch traders have purchased fur from native persons. Now they want to purchase more. For a few trinkets worth about $24.00 they offer to purchase the land, checking as best they can to be sure that the Indians have clear title (a concept not even partially understood by the native Americans – who think they are agreeing to share the land with the white traders). It is a covenant that will have severe results for the natives, who will be expelled from their tribal lands and pushed into reservations moving progressively westward until they reach Oklahoma.

When Jane takes a quick trip home to visit her mother (Carla-Rae), she fails to discover that their family home has been mortgaged to pay for an operation that did not save her father’s life. She also reconnects with her sister, Debra (Shyla Lefner), and a stunning friend from the Reservation, who we will know as Luke (Steven Flores) [Because we are bouncing back and forth from then to now, across generations, Luke is also Se-ket-tu-may-qua. In one sequence he is shirtless, wearing leggings and moccasins. As the scene transforms, he wears a jacket and tie. In either version, he is a picture of health and bulging muscles]. Luke and Jane are romantically attracted to each other. But Luke is also an assistant at the Bank which has sold a mortgage to the Mother, after having tried at determine if she has a clear title. The question is reminiscent of the one asked by Dutch traders long ago. And the answer from the Mother is similar. “We have always lived here. My grandparents built this house, and my parents lived here, and our family lives here. It is our house!” Are you following? Of course, you are. In short order it is the bank’s house, because there has not been enough money to pay the mortgage.

Meanwhile in New York, Jane has helped the bank she works for to survive the first threats of the great recession when the housing bubble burst and brought down the markets. But that is illusory, and the bank declares bankruptcy. An inexorable parallelogram has played itself out from generation to generation, and from process to process, demonstrating that trading and banking can easily lead to destruction of a sharing economy.

“Manhatta” is a magnificent ensemble production, and the transition from then to now and back and forth again is a stylistic triumph, that never-the-less allows some audience members to feel mystified by what has surrounded them. That is so very fair, because the process of trading and the constant push of natives to distant corners and the collapse of an economy are all mystifying events.

If it’s possible, don’t fail to be mystified by the production, directed by Laurie Woolery, with costumes by Stephanie Bahniuk. The creative set is designed by Mariana Sanchez, and exquisite projections Mark Holthusen. Sound design is by Paul James Prendergast.

“Manhatta” plays until February 15. Tickets and information are at www.yalerep.org.

Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre. February 12, 2020

03/03/2020

“GODSPELL” at ACT of Connecticut Thru March 8

A deliciously alive production of “Godspell” is nearing the end of its run at ACT in Ridgefield. Even if you’ve seen it before several times, it’s worth a visit to see it anew. And anew is the right word, for Daniel C. Levine, ACT’s Artistic Director, took the delightful story by John-Michael Tebelak and music by Stephen Schwartz, shook it around a bit, and gave it a new twist, with Mr. Schwartz’ blessing.

This “Godspell” starts out in an abandoned church that has become a hiding place for homeless kids, who have formed a community, living among the rubble fashioned by a ceiling dropped here and a wall there. The property has been sold to a developer, and his design team is visiting the scary building to measure and project what wonderful new housing it could become, when, much to their surprise, as they peek into crevices and niches, they find children bundled, then unbundled, and singing “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.”

It’s a powerful opening, and the power doesn’t stop, with one musical number following another to tell the story of Jesus (an impressive Trent Saunders), his visit to his cousin John, the Baptist (Jaime Cepero), and his selection of a series of disciples: Shaylen Harger, Jacob Hoffman, Katie Ladner, Alex Lugo, Andrew Poston, Monica Ramirez, Phil Sloves, Morgan Billings Smith, and Emma Tattenbaum-Fine. All of the above were part of the group that was hidden in the old church or the design team that came to imagine turning it into legal housing. And each of them became lead singers as some familiar songs continued throughout the show. Katie in ‘Day by Day,’ for instance, or Andrew in ‘All good gifts,’ or Morgan in ‘Bless the Lord.’

Brisk timing (Mr. Levine) and dancing (Choreographer Sara Brians) kept the audience’ full attention with help from the band members who would swing into action under the leadership of Danny White and Brian Perri. And the Children’s chorus, presumably thanks to the ACT Conservancy: Nikki Adorante, Marley Bender, Nate Cohen, Sully Dunn, Adelaide Kellen, Colby Kipnes, Jack Rand, Amelie Simard, Caroline Smith, and Dean Trevisani, stayed onstage in a corner loft, singing, or suddenly were in the middle of the exciting action dancing and singing with aplomb.

This is a “Godspell” not to miss, and if you can get tickets (475) 215-5433, by all means, get to see it.
More information at www.actofct.org.

Tom Nissley for the Ridgelea Reports on Theatre posted March 2, 2020

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