"Slings and Arrows" Offers Outrageous, Hilarious Fortune

As we head into the last week of our local Shakespeare Festival, I have been having fun augmenting my experience, first with Jane Dentinger's "Winter's Tale" mystery novel and now with a Canadian TV series (three seasons, six episodes each) called "Slings and Arrows."

My friend Ron introduced me to "Slings and Arrows," which concerns the crazy backstage happenings at a fictional (and quite dysfunctional) Canadian Shakespeare festival that seems to be based on the Stratford Festival. After the first episode, I was completely smitten. The series is funny, fast and brimming over with outrageous theater people as well as inside info on how art and commerce battle it out. It benefits from terrific performances from Paul Gross (famous for "Due North" and the short-lived TV version of "The Witches of Eastwick") as Geoffrey Tennant, a talented director and actor who is dragged back to this "New Burbage Festival" even though he is madder than a hatter (and madder than Hamlet, regardless of hawks and handsaws); Gross's real-life wife Martha Burns as his former love and leading lady who is still hanging around New Burbage, now playing Gertrude instead of Ophelia; Stratford Festival regular Stephen Ouimette as Oliver Welles, the artistic director who once betrayed Geoffrey and sold out his art; and Mark McKinney, one of the Kids in the Hall, as bean-counter Richard Smith-Jones, whose secret love is "Mamma Mia" instead of "Much Ado."

"Hamlet" is the focus of the first season, as Oliver gets drunk and gets hit by a truck, Geoffrey is lured back to New Burbage to replace him and direct the same play that drove him crazy years ago AND contend with an untested and unsure Hollywood star playing Hamlet, a la Keanu Reeves, all while Oliver keeps haunting Geoffrey at every turn, not unlike Hamlet's dad in the play. Oh, and Geoffrey tries to figure out how to get Oliver's skull on-stage as Yorick. And there's a subplot involving Rachel McAdams as a New Burbage newbie; she took this "Slings and Arrows" role just before she broke out in "The Notebook."

Season Two has "Macbeth" as its main play, with Geraint Wyn Davies ('Forever Knight') as an ambitious leading actor with ego issues. There's a little "Romeo and Juliet" on the side, as directed by an avant garde doofus. (Don McKellar, part of the team behind "The Drowsy Chaperone," shows up as that doofus, Darren Nichols, every season.) Off-stage, Ellen (Martha Burns) has tax troubles and Richard (Mark McKinney) gets involved with a new marketing initiative helmed by Colm Feore as a New Age nutball named Sanjay.

And Season Three moves on to "King Lear," as a legendary actor (played by legendary Canadian actor William Hutt, who spent 39 years at Stratford) comes out of retirement to play the role, and a beautiful newcomer (played by Sarah Polley) as his Cordelia. Meanwhile, Geoffrey is acting crazier than ever, Geoffrey and Ellen struggle to make their relationship work, and Richard Smith-Jones finally gets a musical in the line-up.

I am happy to tell you that all three seasons are on DVD (as you can see by the "complete collection" box above), making them easily accessible. So far, I have shared the "Slings and Arrows" experience with quite a few friends, and they've all loved it, too.

Revisiting the episodes has made me love this series even more. Season One is the best, no question, with Paul Gross at his best as whacked-out Geoffrey, Rachel McAdams absolutely lovely as Ophelia and Luke Kirby spot-on as the wannabe Hamlet, but the other two have their joys, as well. All along the way, there's plenty of madness and outrageous fortune to spread around.

If only we could get another season. After all, there's Much Ado and Tempest and Othello and plenty of other Shakespeare with issues for Geoffrey & Co. to explore.

I just can't recommend "Slings and Arrows" highly enough. If you like Shakespeare, if you've ever hung out with crazy theater people, if you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at summer rep... "Slings and Arrows" is for you.

"The Winter's Tale": Building a Mystery

When my friend Jon and I were discussing "The Winter's Tale," a production of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival that I had just seen, he mentioned "The Queen Is Dead," a mystery novel by Jane Dentinger that deals with her heroine/sleuth, an actress named Jocelyn (AKA Josh) O'Roarke, returning to her college campus to play the role of Hermione. O'Roarke fills the role as a favor after her mentor, an amazing actress and teacher who was set to play Hermione, dies unexpectedly. Everybody thinks it was a heart attack, but Josh is suspicious. So now Josh has to negotiate her way through the intricacies of a possible murder investigation, along with academic in-fighting, a flood of old memories of her own days on campus, strange currents among her colleagues and friends, and still somehow take on the tricky role of the ill-used wife and mother in "The Winter's Tale."

I thought I'd read all of Dentinger's backstage mysteries (mystery + theater = perfect for me), but this one didn't ring any bells. So I quickly purchased a copy and read it, mostly as a way to see how Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale" fits into a mystery.

The good news is that Dentinger does indeed use "The Winter's Tale" and its plot to inform her own. There are crucial clues in the play (that I'm guessing most readers will figure out long before Josh O'Roarke and her hot policeman pal, Gerrard, do in the book) as well as some fun information about how O'Roarke intends to play the role and how the pieces come together on stage.

So far, so good. But the bad news is that I found this the least interesting of Dentinger's mysteries just as a mystery, with O'Roarke herself coming off much less appealing than in the other books. I admit I loved "Who Dropped Peter Pan?" as much for its method of murder (i.e., somebody arranging to drop an actor who is flying through the rafters as Peter Pan) as its send-up of a vain star/producer who never should've been playing Peter Pan in the first place. But in that one, I don't recall ever finding myself annoyed with Josh as a character. In this one, on the other hand... When she and her old roommate, Francis Mary Findley, get together, what seemed like cheeky irreverence and zippy slang before suddenly feels forced and way overdone. I'm afraid that continues throughout the book, and while Dentinger clearly intends for me to think her heroine is perfect and charming and wonderful and the Best Actress Ever as well as the Best Friend Ever and the Smartest Girl Ever, well, I just wanted to punch her and tell her to get over herself. That's not a healthy relationship between Heroine and Reader.

Still, the view of what goes on behind the scenes, from how to move your fall to upstage a hammy scene partner to how a costumer might take revenge on an actress he doesn't like, is quite amusing. The murder weapon is also creative, and again, I liked how she used the issues in "The Winter's Tale" (not even the obvious ones) to sculpt her plot.

When it comes to learning more about "The Winter's Tale" in a painless, pop fic way, "The Queen Is Dead" serves nicely.

Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite," Soap Style, in Ottawa

Remember last year, when Walt Willey of "All My Children" fame came back to his home town of Ottawa, Illinois, to perform "Arsenic and Old Lace" with the lovely Julia Barr, also of "All My Children"?

He's baaaaaack! This year, with Taylor Miller (who was the Nina half of the Cliff-and-Nina supercouple in the AMC golden days) as well as Kale Browne, who played Sam Rappaport on "One Life to Live" as well as roles on "Another World" and, of course, "All My Children." Willey, Miller and Browne will each take one piece of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite," portraying the crazy people who check in and out of the same suite in New York's Plaza Hotel.

In the first act, Visitor From Mamaroneck, Browne will play opposite Ottawa high school teacher Mary Fennessy Morgan as a couple trying to recreate the bliss they felt on their honeymoon years ago.

Next up is Visitor from Hollywood, with Willey himself as a Hollywood producer who meets up with his old girlfriend, now a suburban housewife. The old girlfriend will be played by Minooka's Erica Quirk.

And in the last act, Visitor from Forest Hills, Miller plays the mother of a nervous bride who's locked herself in the bathroom and won't come out, with Willey's producing partner Kim "Howard" Johnson, as her husband.

Performances of "Plaza Suite" with these soap vets and local actors will take place at the Ottawa High School auditorium on July 29, 30, and 31. Tickets are available through the Ottawa Visitor’s Center at 815-434-2737 or through their website. There's more info here and here.

A Peek Backstage at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival

I'm not sure if the idea of backstage (and other) tours is new to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival this year, but it's new to me, at any rate. They currently offer backstage, scenic design and costume tours on selected evenings, all about an hour and a half before the show itself. The cost is $10, these tours are conducted by members of the acting company, and the backstage tour gives you a chance to see the green room, dressing rooms, and even the stage from the actors' vantage point.

Last night I took my first-ever backstage tour, along with my aunt, my cousin and my husband. It was very warm, so maybe that's why it wasn't quite as long as billed. (The info says 50 minutes and it was really only about 30.) But it was fun to find out how Ewing Manor came to be and get a look at the back side of the lovely theater where I've seen so many shows. Our tour guides, actresses Jessie Dean and Melisa Pereyra, were entertaining and illuminating. One caveat: There are stairs involved. My aunt wasn't game for the steps, but she enjoyed getting to sit out the costume part and watching Illinois Shakesfest action happen around her, nonetheless.

We also got a glimpse of Romeo and Juliet (Dylan Paul and Laura Rook) warming up and Sampson/Old Capulet (Nile Hawver) carrying his clothes. What fun!

So, all in all, I would definitely say I am a fan of this inside scoop stuff, and now I'm anxious to try out the other tours. Ten bucks worth? You bet.

A view of the lawn at Ewing Manor.

"The 39 Steps" All in Good Fun at the Station in Urbana

If you've seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps," you know there's already humor built into this familiar "man erroneously accused goes on the run to prove his innocence" story. "The 39 Steps" was early in Hitchcock's career, and he was working on getting the right tone for his somewhat snarky hero, the saucy love interest, some sexy innuendo, and all those spies and doublecrossers who have our hero in their crosshairs, all the elements that Hitchcock would get perfect in his later films like "North by Northwest." That means things in "The 39 Steps" come off a little odd at points, making it a perfect choice to really send up and make fun of.

When English comedian, actor and playwright Patrick Barlow took on "The 39 Steps" as a four-actor stage piece, he put the focus directly on the humor. Half the joke is how the two people called "clowns" in the credits can play a ton of roles, swiftly abandoning and grabbing hats and capes and accents to change identities, while the other half is about just how silly the film story was, with its opening in a music hall with the oddball Mr. Memory act, the strange notion that hero Richard Hannay would let "Miss Smith" and her scary accent come back to his flat with him with no preliminaries, the sinister Scottish farmer and his much-younger wife who seem like they should be in a totally different movie, the unpleasant girl in heels who goes tottering through the moors handcuffed to our hero; and the fact that the answer to "What is the 39 Steps?" makes no sense even when it's spelled out at the 11th hour. There's a whole lot of potential for comedy there.

Barlow's creative, crazy version of "The 39 Steps" became a big hit in London's West End in 2006, and subsequently on Broadway in 2008. Critics called it "rollicking fun" and "absurdly enjoyable."

Even this kind of "39 Steps" has to be scaled down considerably for a space the size of Urbana's Station Theatre, but it's to director Mathew Green's credit that he uses those limitations to make it even funnier and sillier. Yes, it's still "rollicking fun" and "absurdly enjoyable." And by the time leading man Rob Zaleski and "clown" Mike Prosise go romping across plain black boxes (gently flapping their jackets to indicate wind) to play out a chase across the top of train cars, you know "The 39 Steps" is in good hands. Zaleski does good work throughout as the debonair Richard Hannay, unfairly accused of murder, with Katie Baldwin going slinky, Gothic, and snappy in turn as various femmes (fatale and otherwise) in the piece, and Prosise and Mikel L Matthews Jr. absolutely hilarious with their shape-shifting antics. The hats alone are worth the price of admission, although Matthews' villainous professor and Prosise's bizarre Mr. Memory are pretty funny even without headgear.

"The 39 Steps" continues at the Station Theatre through this weekend and next, with all performances at 8 pm. For details and ticket information, click here.

Weekend Update #2: Godspell at Vale

I'm not absolutely positive, but I think "Godspell" may just be the first professional musical I ever saw on stage. I know I saw it in Chicago in approximately 1972, with a cast that included Joe Mantegna as Judas and Richard Gilliland as Jesus. You may remember Gilliland from a slew of appearances on episodic TV in the 80s and 90s, including a guest stint on "Designing Women," where he met his wife, actress Jean Smart. He was great as Jesus and definitely made an impression on me as a 16-year-old. I have to confess, I don't remember Mantegna's performance. Judas wasn't as cool as Jesus in those days, apparently.

But I do have a soft spot for "Godspell," with its sweet, bright Stephen Schwartz score and earnest book by John-Michael Tebelak. The pieced-together, hippy-lite costumes and pop Jesus Freak* stylings that fueled "Godspell" made it seem fresh, youthful and fun.

The plot of "Godspell" covers familiar territory, moving from John the Baptist to the Crucifixion, telling a few parables from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke along the way, all accentuated by modern pop songs with lyrics taken right from the hymnal. "Day by Day," the simple song about trying to lead a life closer to God, became a Top 40 hit after the film version of "Godspell."

I'm curious how a show that seems so deeply rooted in the 70s will play in the new millennium, and how Vale Community Church and its Vale Community Players will interpret it. "Godspell" comes to Vale, 1304 Morrissey in Bloomington, this Thursday and Friday, July 28 and 29, at 7:30 pm, and Saturday, July 30, at 2:30 pm. Interested? You'll find more information here. You can also contact connie@valecc.org or call the church office at 662-8508.

Tickets are $5 and available for purchase at the ticket office at Vale Community Church during regular church office hours or 45 minutes before the performance.

*Yes, that's what we called it in the 70s, without any pejorative connotations. It referred to a sort of counter-culture Christianity with an overwhelming belief in positivity, inclusion, love, peace and social change.

Weekend Update #1: Schoolhouse Rock Live at Miller Park

The first annual Miller Park Summer Theater Camp will present "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" this weekend and next, with shows at 7:30 pm July 29-31 and August 5-6.

"Schoolhouse Rock Live!" is a show built around the ABC Saturday morning show from the 70s and 80s (revived in the 90s), where kids could learn about grammar (who doesn't remember "Conjunction Junction"?), science, math, history and civics, with catchy songs and bright colored animation to make it all seem fun and cool.

To put on "Schoolhouse Rock Live!," the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts teamed up with the Miller Park Theater to offer something called the Spotlight Theater Camp for children from 8-18. This theater camp has been holding workshops and classes since July 5th to show students "every aspect of the show from technical theater to choreography and voice in addition to traditional rehearsals."

Director Rhys Lovell cast actors Ryan Tipton, Terrance Watson, Ashley Genung, Shelby Voyles, Kayla Kubinski and Kathryn Langdon to tell the "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" story, involving a young teacher named Tom who is looking ahead to his first day of class with a good deal of trepidation. But then, as he watches TV to relax, helpful characters pop up all around him, reminding Tom of just how much he already knows as they sing about everything from verbs and numbers to voting rights and how a bill becomes a law.

If you saw and sang along to "Schoolhouse Rock!" when you were young, you'll want to be sure to introduce your own children to the phenomenon now. It's free, it's fun, and it's "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" at Miller Park.

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE!
July 29-31
August 5-6
7:30 pm

Miller Park
1020 South Morris Avenue

FMI, click here.