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Star of 'Wicked' to perform with Pittsburgh Symphony next month
I'm referring to Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award for her performance as the fiercely independent Elphaba in Broadway's original production of "Wicked." Lately, the actress/singer has been focusing on her concert career, and on June 29, she'll appear as the guest vocalist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall.
Tickets went on sale two days ago. To make reservations for the show, call 412-392-4900 or go to PittsburghSymphony.org.
Cooney calamity
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So maybe everyone in the company will pardon me for writing at this late date - three days before Ray Cooney's farce delivers its last hokey punch line - that I'm confident much better work will come later in the season with "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," "The Farnsworth Invention," "Secrets of a Soccer Mom," "Red, White and Tuna," "Mauritius" and five other mainstage productions.
A hit is a hit, though, and Paul Laughlin almost salvages "Caught in the Net" by giving a spot-on performance as a doddery octogenarian who falls unwittingly into a charade involving internet dating and a London cabbie who lives according to the "I'll have my cake and eat it, too" axiom.
Having made the choice to under-act whenever possible, Laughlin steals the second act with a soft touch and a twinkle in his eye that recalls John Barrymore at his orneriest. When he combines those two assets with his finesse as an actor, the audience can smile at him and forgive the play for being no more worth stealing than a plastic toy from a box of Fruity Pebbles.
Others in the cast (Rob Gorman, Bob Rak, Mary Liz Meyer, Renée Ruzzi-Kern, Danny Bradley, Natalie Kindler) try their damnedest to keep Cooney's engine running during the long stretches without Laughlin, and therein lies the trouble. Director Art DeConciliis, a skillful comic actor himself, should have stressed to his actors that "trying" by racing on and off the set as if their behinds are on fire is a counterproductive method even in the noisiest excuse for a comedy.
"Caught in the Net" closes Saturday. Then the Little Lake staff can make room for Chris Bondi, Rick Bryant and Jesse Warnick in "Moonlight and Magnolias," Ron Hutchinson's glimpse into the chaotic making of "Gone With the Wind." That play opens May 27.
In the mood
"Well, it was better than it was the last time we saw it," said my friend Catherine as we were leaving the revue "G.I. Jukebox: The '40s Stage Door Canteen" at the Crowne Plaza Cabaret Dinner Theatre in the South Hills.
Now there's a backhanded compliment, I thought, until I remembered what producer Jude Pohl said the previous week: "We did this show 10 years ago, and trust me, it's going to be a lot better this time."
Trust him, it is better. A revue that lifts a cap to the songs popularized close to and during the World War II era can't, as Pohl realizes, go wrong when the program includes classics such as "How High the Moon," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Long Ago and Far Away," "Moonlight Serenade," "I Had the Craziest Dream" and "Moonglow." That's the good news.
On the bad news side, creator Rick Lewis dishes out too much tedious talk between numbers, an unwelcome medley of the decade's worst novelty tunes and an out-of-place restaging of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine. With some tweaking and pruning, "G.I. Jukebox" might have been the sweetest taste of nostalgia Pohl has given his audience since "The Taffetas."
I enjoyed this revue the way it is, however, thanks to a cast made up of energetic pros Rebecca Smykal and Corey Nile Wingard and the ill-at-ease but ingratiating Greta Englert and Tony Glantz. Who knows? Maybe it was the moonglow that got to me.
For reservations to "G.I. Jukebox," call 724-746-1178.
Doug Shanaberger covers theater for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at ds7f@andrew.cmu.edu
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