Les Six

The Delaware Symphony champagne series at the Hotel DuPont Gold Ballroom October 4 was a whirling delight of early twentieth century compositions. The program featured DSO woodwind principals and principal French horn in five solos and a grand finale sextet.

Pianist Lura Johnson, recently named principal piano to the DSO, was a powerhouse – playing every one of the quite difficult pieces and bonding extremely well with all five soloists. William Short was able to show his marvelous tone in both high and low registers in Henri Dutilleux’s Sarabande et cortege for bassoon and piano. (Having heard him play in Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra in both his final Curtis concert and the recent DSO opening, his smooth sound and control was no surprise.)

Charles Salinger’s arrangement of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei for clarinet was a more somber and subtle piece, allowing Salinger to show his amazing control and dynamic gradations in a narrow range of sound. Karen Schubert’s horn sound in Paul Dukas’ Villanelle for horn and piano had the volume needed in that room to stand against the full sound of the grand piano’s open lid and Johnson’s strong attacks.

Jeff O’Donnell’s delicate oboe sound (which had been sorely missed during his year-long hiatus from the DSO) and Kimberly Reighley’s flute were both high enough to be in an almost different sound zone from the piano and this enhanced the effect of each performance, allowing their control and technical brilliance to be clearly heard.

And the Poulenc sextet was one of those moments in musical performances where everything seemed to click among the six musicians – the rollicking music resounded in the ballroom – and here is where the strength of Johnson’s piano playing really showed. What other pianist could have prepared that many notes for a single evening’s concert and still play with energy and gusto up to the very last note?

See www.delawaresymphony.org.

Newest Blogger Lives It Up at "The Life"

Charles "Ebbie" Alfree, III is the newest blogger at Delaware Arts Info! We welcome him aboard and hope you enjoy his first installment!

The Wilmington Drama League opened its 2011–12 season with the Cy Coleman Broadway musical, The Life. The show chronicles the trials and tribulations of prostitutes and pimps in New York City the early 1980s—in those days before Disney and chain restaurants reformed 42^nd Street and families began visiting the city again.

Watching the production, directed by the incomparable Tina M. Sheing, I realized how much prostitutes and everyday people actually have in common in the workplace.  Sure prostitutes might not have offices like a high-powered lawyer or executive, but they deal with the same pressures — contending with sexual harassment, working long hours, having coffee (or beer) breaks cut short.  In addition, there are the everyday stresses all people confront in their personal lives — balancing careers and relationships, worrying about getting older, wanting to be loved.  I’m sure all people can relate to at least one of these issues.

Although I was thinking about these similarities during the show, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the action on the stage! I was entertained by the show’s R&B and gospel–inspired musical numbers brought to “life” under the music direction of Matt Casarino.  The terrific performers, many in heels, brought dance numbers alive with some Fosse-esque choreography by Jody Anderson.

I must admit I loved listening to the lead prostitutes, best friends Queen (played by Sharon Brown Ruegsegger) and Sonja (played by Rebecca Gallatin), sing duets. By themselves their voices were strong, but combined they soared!  I also loved that Ms. Gallatin’s look was reminiscent of (get ready for a retro reference) Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill.

The Life might have ended its run (closing night was October 2), but WDL is ending their season with another show of similar working girls – The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (May 4-19, 2012)!  And, I must admit I’m looking forward to their upcoming production, Barefoot in the Park (October 28-November 12)…One of my faves!

See www.wilmingtondramaleague.org.  

Passing Strange at Bootless

Stew, the creator/subject of Passing Strange, and collaborator Heidi Rodewald chose just five theater groups in the US to perform the stage version of the show this year; Wilmington's Bootless Artworks was one of them. Still essentially homeless (they are taking up in The Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew in downtown Wilmington for this show), Bootless continues to show that they're a major force in Delaware theater.

My last Bootless show was The Pillowman, an incredible, and incredibly dark, comic piece put on in an empty outlet store on the Riverfront. Passing Strange is positively light in comparison, but the journey is deep and real.

Directed by Malika Oyetimein and James W. Fuerst, the musical is narrated by Stew (Jerry Rudasill), who introduces his teenage self (Cory Hindorff) and his mother (Cherie Jazman), a comfortably middle class black family in Los Angeles. She drags him to church, where he finds after-hours inspiration from the secretly free-spirited choir director (B.K. Elam) who never left home. His punk band flounders, and, terrified of never moving past his neighborhood, he leaves his mother for Europe -- and the promise of creative freedom, sex and drugs. The farther he gets from home, the farther he gets from himself, until his life is a performance of "passing," gaining acceptance from a group of German radicals by using his non-existent ghetto street cred. Humorous, yes, and also quite poignant. The Narrator was shaped by the choices made by his naive young self, but it wasn't without loss.

Hindorff is a star. And by that I don't just mean the star of this production, which he is, but a star, period. It's what I thought when I saw him in Cats at NCT in January, and my feeling has only been reinforced with Passing Strange. The ensemble includes four actors who take on triple roles as characters in LA, Amsterdam and Berlin -- Candace Thomas, Kori Beaman, Keith Wallace and B.K. Elam -- all of whom transformed dramatically and convincingly throughout.

The show features a live band, which was one of the main concepts of the original version, Travelogue. On preview night, the band sounded great, but at times drowned out the stage performers. Hopefully, the sound issues have been resolved.

Passing Strange runs through October 15. Ages 15 and up. For tickets, click here.