Stage struck

Before the schedenfreude of CBS’s misbegotten live musical version, MSU took flight with joyful energy with an incredibly creative interpretation of “Peter Pan.” Director Rob Roznowski changed the setting of the play to colonial India, allowing him to incorporate Bhangra dancing and period costumes, customs and décor. The production values, particularly the flight technology and choreography, rivaled that of the touring Broadway shows that play in the neighboring Cobb Great Hall.

Not all plays require great production values to be great. Ixion’s “Topdog/Underdog,” directed by Paige Dunckel, was presented at the former Art Alley space in REO Town. The rustic space provided the perfect backdrop for this intimate tale of inner city desperation. Rico Bruce Wade and Sineh Wurie played brothers who alternately protect and provide for each other, then tear each other apart at the first signs of individual achievement. Wade and Wurie were wellmatched, slowly building intensity in their ever-more claustrophobic confines. The explosive ending left the audience stunned, the room airless.

The most jaw-dropping individual performance of the year was Todd Heywood’s creepy transformation into Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, in Peppermint Creek’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.” Lest this accolade be interpreted as nepotism, as Heywood is also a City Pulse contributor, let me assure readers that Heywood and I have never been formally introduced. And following that performance, I’m not sure I want to meet the man who has the reserves to play such a character. Heywood’s Hussein was unsettlingly charismatic and convincing as he sells his particular brand of evil.

Williamston Theatre provided seasonally appropriate fare with its fall production of “The Gravedigger.” Another original work by Williamston favorite Joseph Zettelmaier, the play fills in a gap of time in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” an imagining that for a brief time the monster (Alex Leydenfrost) gets a break from being pursued. He finds a mentor (Mark Colson) who teaches him about being human and a gypsy (Alysia Kolascz) who teaches him about love. The work was heartwarming but edgy, a perfect Halloween treat.

The year wrapped up with the perfect Christmas gift: Beefcake. Although “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” based on a 1784 novel, its plot of vicious deception and psychological social gamesmanship as a diversion from insecurity and boredom is still engrossing material for contemporary audiences. As the Marquise de Merteuil (Carolyn Conover) and the Vicomte de Valmont (Kirill Sheynerman) use each other to get back at all of their enemies, they become locked into a game of chicken, with inevitable results of mayhem and death. Luckily, before he dies, Valmont takes his shirt off. Frequently. Proving that there is, indeed, a Santa Claus, and he got my letter.