Audio By Carbonatix
Sailing to Byzantium Sandra Deer’s WWI-era drama invites a group of writer-friends to the home of Olivia Shakespear (Ellen Locy), a British romantic secretly in love with Irish poet William Butler Yeats (Bill Jenkins). He’s in love with spy Maud Gonne (Carolyn McCormick), but she’s in love with the idea of Ireland’s independence and has no time for matters of the heart. Brash American poet Ezra Pound (Ashley Wood) loves Olivia’s daughter Dorothy (Kelly Rypkema). She loves him, too, but her mother can’t stand him. Too poor. Somehow they all end up in love with other people by the end of this talky two-act play. Directed for Echo Theater by Linda Leonard, the production features actors who give lovely performances. But the whole affair grows a bit tedious after it becomes clear that not much is going to happen in the course of two hours. Through October 15 at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive, 214-904-0500. Reviewed this week. (Elaine Liner)
The Who’s Tommy The Beatles had Sgt. Pepper, and The Who had Tommy, a 1969 concept album about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who plays pinball with “supple wrists” and who attracts a rabid cult of fans. Tuned up for Broadway in the early 1990s, Tommy now takes on the look and sound of a big Vegas revue. It should, that is. The Uptown Players’ production is hampered by major audio problems. The singers’ head-mikes don’t work. The band sounds both muffled and too loud. In a theater this small, the audience shouldn’t have to strain to hear, but somehow the acoustics have gone dead. Handsome Casey Robinson in the title role displays youthful rage as the 21-year-old Tommy, finally sprung from his self-induced catatonia–but what’s he singing about? And young Alexander Ferguson makes the 10-year-old Tommy into a haunting image of an autistic child–too bad his singing is drowned out by the band. Through October 23 at Trinity River Arts Center, 2600 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 180, 214-219-2718. Reviewed this week. (E.L.)
Charlotte’s Web E.B. White’s timeless tale of life and death and unexpected miracles on the farm gets its fourth production at Dallas Children’s Theater. Forget any preconceptions about plays for kids. This is big-budget, high-quality entertainment worth seeing even if you don’t have rugrats tagging along. Equity actors Karl Schaeffer and Trisha Miller Smith play Wilbur the piglet and Charlotte the spider. He’s funny and physically adept as the puny runt of the litter, saved from the ax by a little girl named Fern (Katy Tye and Kendall Howen, alternating performances). Sharing the barn with the pig and the bug are two sheep (Jody Rudman, Deidre Huffines) who divulge the “conspiracy” about where fat little piggies go in the autumn (hint: next to fried eggs and toast). A couple of geese (Mariel Mickens and Cole Spivey) waddle in, saying everything-thing-thing three times. Adapted faithfully by Joseph Robinette, this Web, directed by Robyn Flatt, weaves real magic into a story whose themes of friendship, selflessness and the meaning of life never grow whiskers. Zak Herring’s towering steel web gleams under Linda Blase’s warm lighting scheme. Best performances are by Miller, traversing her web in a sparkly black bodysuit, and Derik Webb as that old scrounger, Templeton the rat. As all fans of the book know, the rat gets all the best lines. Stick around after the show to watch the littlest audience members pose for pix with the actors and stare with wonder at the intricate costumes by Leila Heise. Through October 23 at Dallas Children’s Theater, Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman St., 214-740-0051. Reviewed September 29. (E.L.)