See The Gingerbread Lady at Chapel Street Players Before She Crumbles!

Although Neil Simon wrote The Gingerbread Lady in 1970, many of its themes - dysfunctional relationships, co-dependency, alcoholism, unemployment, and the fear of growing older - will resonate with today's audiences. All of these topics are fully explored during the dramedy now playing at Chapel Street Players.

Evy, a once celebrated cabaret singer, returns to her New York apartment after a lengthy stay at a rehab. While she is trying to put her life back together, her daughter (Polly) decides to move in with her, her two best friends (Toby, a vain upper crust woman, and Jimmy, a gay unemployed actor) share their hardships with her, and her former lover (Lou, who had left her for a younger woman) re-enters her life. This is a recipe for disaster, especially for someone as self-destructive as Evy.

Susan Boudreaux successfully tackles the difficult task of making the audience like Evy. Evy's self-centered, but she's also vulnerable and childlike. As much as you disagree with her decisions, you also root for her, hoping that by the end she will be on the path to sobriety and happiness and not crumble "like a gingerbread lady". Ms. Boudreaux's co-stars also gave fine performances, especially Ed Emmi as Jimmy and Pat Cullinane as Toby. Both actors brought much-needed comic relief to the play.

Although I enjoyed the performances, I was distracted by the costumes. The play is set in the 1970s, yet the costumes were a mix of apparel from the '80s and '90s. I expected to see leisure suits, bell-bottoms, and groovy clothing from The Brady Bunch era, but the costumes looked like they came from The Facts of Life and Ally McBeal eras.

Regardless, The Gingerbread Lady is a great piece of theater that should be seen before it closes on March 10. For tickets visit www.chapelstreetplayers.org or call 302.368.2248. 

CTC Stays Cruel, Calm & Neglected

Photo: CTC

In his Playwright's Note, David Robson describes his short work as "absurd, profane, silly, bizarre, take-no-prisoners kind of stuff." Cruel, Calm & Neglected is all of those things, and, at its best, is pretty deep, too. Not that the silliest pieces aren't fun. "Mel and Mee" is a sort of twisted Mel Gibson fantasy featuring Melissa Dammeyer and Kate Brennan; in "Head First," Kevin Regan plays a toilet as Andrew Mitchell and Suzanne Jean Stein's Peter and Rachel do an odd (and sort of gross) dance of old and comfortable romance; and "You Rang," featuring Jess Eppler, Jim McCabe and Kevin Regan, is about a cell phone with a soul that once inhabited a training bra. Robson seems to go out of his way to be thought-provoking in "Ed Rex," a well-acted piece featuring Michael Gray as a sleazy (very sleazy) corporate CEO, but, though it has its moments, it ultimately feels a bit heavy-handed.

Where the absurd meets the profound best is in "The Speech," the opening piece. The play starts abruptly, while the house lights are still on and audience members are still chatting. Dylan Geringer is Dani, a young woman giving a speech to her community college class. She's frazzled, can't stay focused, and before you know it, she's happily telling the professor and the class her not-so-happy life story, parts of which are acted out with Todd Holtsberry as her mother and Greg O'Neil as her sort-of boyfriend. It's darkly funny as Dani tries to come to terms with her own potential, and more than a little bit moving. Geringer is perfect in the role.

Photo: CTC

Also strong is "Killing Neil LaBute," in which aspiring playwright James (George Tietze) writes a critical Amazon review of LaBute's new play, and finds himself in an online exchange with the famous (and, apparently, super-sensitive) stage and film writer, played by the hilarious Melissa Dammeyer in a curly wig. Did Robson himself have a little run-in with the real LaBute on Amazon? I don't know, but it's funny, whatever the inspiration.

Cruel, Calm & Neglected will be performed for one more weekend, March 2 and 3, at the Black Box at OperaDelaware in Wilmington. See city-theater.org for tickets.

Pyxis Quartet at the Mainstay

It is so hard to get tickets for the Pyxis piano quartet Kentmere Concerts at the Delaware Art Museum that I traveled to Rock Hall, Maryland to hear them play in the Hedgelawn Classical Music Series at the Mainstay.

The Mainstay, a restored 105-year-old grocery store, may not be the ideal venue for a classical chamber series acoustically, but the homey chairs and sofas, the amiable and knowledgeable concert hosts and the charming atmosphere made up for the informality of the setting, and the Mainstay organization has their own small, well-maintained Kawai grand.

The quartet’s program was both ambitious and eclectic. A little known set of four pieces which Richard Strauss wrote in his teens provided the quartet with an opportunity to create characterizations - from the cello/piano introduction of the Stȁndchen (serenade) to the Middle Eastern rhythms and bowings for the Arabian Dance.

The second piece, the quartet by Joaquin Turina, put the string players to the test. Meredith Amado played very high violin notes effortlessly, with beautiful intonation and control. Jie Jen’s cello had a wonderfully rounded vibrato in the very romantic solo parts. Ms. Jen can make her cello soar to the extremely high registers required in the Turina with great ease.

The Piano Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 41 by Camille Saint-Saens was a showpiece for pianist Hiroko Yamazaki who glided through the complex fugue of the Andante maestoso ma con moto at a very high speed. Amy Leonard’s viola playing was a beautiful middle voice in the fugal writing for strings and piano. The weaving in and out of voices by each musician provided a beautiful tapestry of sound.

If you can get tickets for the Kentmere Series Concert at the Delaware Art Museum on Friday , February 17, this program is well worth hearing. The Thursday, February 16 concert has been sold out for weeks.

See www.delart.org

See www.pyxispianoquartet.com