Two Nights At The Opera

Well, actually, it was two nights at the theater, but the title above is a play on a great Marx Brothers movie, so how can you pass that up?

Yes, twice in a seven day span, we took in a live theatrical performance, both of them straight plays.

The first show was part of the Broadway Pittsburgh series, "To Kill A Mockingham", Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's landmark 1960 novel.  Just about everyone is familiar with the story of "To Kill A Mockingbird" either because it was assigned reading in high school or because of the 1962 movie that starred Gregory Peck as southern lawyer Atticus Finch.

Sorkin's play was highly acclaimed when it opened on Broadway a few years back, and this touring production was terrific as well.  The story and message of Lee's novel is timeless, and this adaptation is an excellent presentation of that story.  I imagine that it won't be long until high schools will be performing this play  as well.

One of the big hooks of this show was that Richard Thomas, young John-Boy Walton himself, starred as Atticus Finch.  Thomas is now 70 years old.  He looks at least 15 years younger, and was great in the role.  However, as I scanned the Playbill prior to the opening curtain, the name of one actor listed far down in the billing caught my eye: Mary Badham.  The name might be familiar to movie fans.  Badham, who will turn 70 later this year, was nine years old when she earned an Academy Award nomination for playing the role of Scout Finch in the "To Kill A Mockingbird" movie in 1962.  In this production, she played Mrs. Dubose, a crotchety old lady neighbor of the Finches.

Badham virtually retired from acting - IMDB shows only seven credits for her - after two single episode TV roles and two film roles after Mockingbird.  After 1966, she virtually disappeared from the profession when she then appeared in a 2005 and a 2019 featured film, both of which you never heard of.   What has she been doing all these years, what has prompted her to return to spotlight, and why wasn't her involvement in this production publicized in the press as the show came to town?

Four Stars from The Grandstander of this play.

The second show that we saw was an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Murder On The Orient Express", presented at the O'Reilly Theater by the Pittsburgh Public Theater.  Just about everyone knows the story of MOTOE, if not from the book  then from two excellent movies that have been made of this great mystery.  The play has been pared down for the stage, out notably, eight suspects instead of twelve, but this mystery and the sheer fun of this classic whodunit remains the same.  

Martin Giles, a local Pittsburgh actor and director played the juicy role of Hercule Poirot with great gusto, but the two most interesting members of the cast were two venerable war horses (and I use that term with the utmost respect) of the Pittsburgh theatrical community, actresses Helena Ruoti and Lenora Nemetz.  Both of these women have national credits on their resumes, but they are Pittsburgh natives and based here, and if you have gone to PPT and Pittsburgh CLO productions, you have seen them many times.   Nemetz, who is now 72 years old, was the star of this show.  She played "Mrs Hubbard", the role that was played by Lauren Bacall and Michell Pfeiffer in the film versions, and she stole the show.

The Grandstander gave this one Three Stars.

Just as important as the show itself was being able to return to the Pittsburgh Public Theater and the O'Reilly.   I had not been there since pre-pandemic days when Marilyn and I saw "A Few Good Men" back in 2019.  The O'Reilly Theater remains one of the very best places anywhere to see a play.

As for the Broadway Pittsburgh series, here is how I rank the productions of this 2021-22 Season:

1. Hamilton
2. To Kill A Mockingbird
3. Summer, The Donna Summer Musical
4. Pretty Woman
5. Oklahoma
6. The Band's Visit

The season wraps up in two weeks with "Ain't Too Proud, The Life and Times of the Temptations."

"Fiddler On The Roof"

"Tradition. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as a fiddler on the roof!"

                            - Tevya, in the Prologue to "Fiddler On The Roof"

As a part of our Broadway in Pittsburgh subscription, last night we saw "Fiddler On The Roof".  This play opened on Broadway in 1964, and at one point, it was the longest running show in Broadway history (it ranks 16th on that list now, according to Wikipedia), and I had never in my life seen this show performed.  Not as a part of national tour (as last night's production was), not at the CLO, not as a high school musical.  I had never even seen the movie.  Of course, I knew many, many of the classic songs from the show, and while I was familiar with the music, I am almost ashamed to say that I wasn't totally familiar with the story of "Fiddler On The Roof".

I thoroughly enjoyed the show last night.  Great music, wonderful dancing numbers, and a great performance by Yehezkel Lazarov as Tevya, the Russian milkman struggling to raise his five daughters in czarist Russia as his beloved "traditions" begin to crumble around him.  The story was especially poignant here in Pittsburgh as a result of the awful events at the Tree of Life Synagogue last month. Sadly, many of the themes in "Fiddler On The Roof" are still with us today.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Oh, and a fun fact about this musical, again, according to Wikipedia.....on average "Fiddler On The Roof" is licensed for  amateur productions 500 times each year.  So, if you can't catch this current edition now at the Benedum in Pittsburgh this week or on its national tour, there is a good chance that it will be performed at a high school or college near you sometime this spring.

"The Play That Goes Wrong"

Last night we took in the first show of the Broadway Pittsburgh 2018-19 season, the hilarious "The Play That Goes Wrong" by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields.  This is actually a play within a play, wherein a ragtag amateur British theater group sets out to present a play called The Murder at Haversham Manor.  As the title tells you, nothing, and I mean nothing goes right for this spunky little theater group, and the results are hilarious.

Everything that you ever laughed about in, say, a Marx Brothers movie, an episode of I Love Lucy, or a madcap comedy sketch on the Carol Burnett Show is all here for you in this show.  A dead body that can't stop moving, actors missing their lines, crew members wandering onto the set, and scenery that doesn't always stay in place.....and those are just some of the things that will make you laugh during this play.  As much as anything, great comedy depends on great timing from the performers, and the eight actors in "The Play That Goes Wrong" had their timing down perfectly.  You have to be a really good actor to portray a really bad actor, and, again, this cast pulled it off perfectly.

I laughed throughout the whole show.   Even the folks at the Benedum got into the spirit of the whole thing:

This show's run in Pittsburgh ends today, but put it on your radar if you ever get the chance to see it someday and you need a good laugh.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.