Curtain call

Good fun, good cause

Local production raises money for the families of fallen police officers

The non-profit Blue Light Players, whose mission is to help the families of fallen police officers, have been packing houses for 10 years. They began with children’s theater productions, but three years ago, in response to interest from college-aged and adult performers who wanted to be involved, they broadened their musical selections. After staging contemporary shows “Chicago: The Musical” and “All Shook Up,” the troupe this year chose to take on that swell chestnut, “The Music Man.”

Con man Harold Hill (John-Weston Hart Franke) arrives in a small Iowa town and convinces the townspeople that their children are in danger of becoming hooligans. To prevent this, he sells them instruments and uniforms promises to whip the kids into a marching band. The success of his plan hinges on charming Marian, the town librarian (Paula Sheynerman). What he doesn’t plan on is falling in love with her.

While it is a popular show for performers and audiences alike, “The Music Man” seems a bit tame compared to those first two shows. Yet attendance was healthy on the second night of the run, and the audience seemed to enjoy the show, even despite some production deficiencies. The chief problem hampering the play was that the pre-recorded music accompaniment was so loud that it was difficult to hear the lyrics to most of the songs. The “strength in numbers” approach didn’t fare much better; even some ensemble pieces sounded muddy.

Clocking in at over two and a half hours, the production was slogged down by slow scene changes. This might be understandable if the set pieces were complex, but they aren’t. The design of the set pieces is crude, which may have been a stylistic choice. If so, it was not a good choice, because the style and quality is incongruous with the excellent quality of the colorful costumes.

While the Blue Light Players have room for improvement in staging and pacing, one thing they have down pat is choreography. Co-director Helen Hart, assisted by Karyn Koenigsknecht, has transformed a large cast with diverse theater backgrounds into a fairly tight group of confident performers. The opening number, “Rock Island,” is a fun and energetic piece, as is “Pickalittle,” in which the townswomen evoke a hilarious gaggle of clucking hens.

Based on audience reaction at the second performance, it was obvious which characters were the most popular. Harold wins over the school board members by convincing them that they have the makings of a barbershop quartet. From that point on, the group becomes more and more immersed in their new avocation, strutting around town in full barbershop quartet regalia. As the group, Jack Meloche, Doug Phillips, Nico Berroa and Michael Tessin are a hoot to watch and pleasing to hear.

The true star of the show, though, is Sheynerman as Marian. She has the poise to play the cynical, icy librarian and the pipes to fill the theater. Her vocals, along with Franke’s, were the only ones not buried by the overwhelming canned orchestration. As noted in her bio, Sheynerman is a “recent transplant” to Lansing, and her skill and experience in musicals should make her a valuable commodity for local theaters.

The Blue Light Players do good work with their mission, and also have the potential to do really great theater work. Hart and co-director Daniel Southwell know how to meld child actors, community performers and college theater majors into a cohesive cast. With a bit more attention to production values, they are poised to become real players in the Lansing area theater scene.

“The Music Man”

Blue Light Players 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28 $15 Albert A. White Performing Arts Theater, Hannah Center 819 Abbot Road, East Lansing (517) 490-4567 bluelightplayers.com

—Mary C. Cusack

Dead end streetcar

Anna Szabo shines as the doomed Blanche DuBois

I have seen three productions of “A Streetcar Named Desire” in the past three years, and each one presented aspects of Tennessee Williams’ intentions I had never considered previously. In this production, presented by Lansing Community College’s Theatre Program, it is the notion that Blanche is Williams’ twisted and transmogrified doppelganger to Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara — except that in this case, the South shall not rise again.

From the moment Blanche DuBois steps down from the streetcar named Desire onto New Orleans’ steamy Elysian Fields Avenue, actress Anna Szabo owns the Dart Auditorium stage. Presenting a character too tall and too frail for her own good, Szabo combines an awkward, storklike gait with an accompanying bird-song voice that captures the many nuances of Blanche’s complex persona.

Szabo does all that she can to present a brave and believable Blanch, a fading faade of illusions that are no match for the wartorn, blue-collar, Polish-American peasant, Stanley Kowalski, portrayed by Michael McCallum. McCallum’s Stanley approaches the intrusion of Blanche as if she were the enemy he fought in the war. And it is clear from the start that he will prevail, that he will be the only survivor of the epic battle with Blanche.

McCallum’s version of Stanley, while strong with intention, suggests little of what makes Stanley tick and evokes little empathy. Meanwhile, Szabo’s Blanche is a myriad of confusing emotions, a woman with her own internal battle between an over-principled morality and desperate schemes for survival.

Sarah Wilke, as Blanche’s sister Stella Kowalski, brings a conflicted constellation of roller-coaster emotions to the mix. Stella, the loyal wife of Stanley, appears to fully appreciate his sexual magnetism, yet also suffers his angry outbursts of physical abuse. One could speculate that, in a sequel, Stella and her newly-born child might very well be the next victims of Stanley’s out-of-control attempts at dominance.

Zach Riley as Mitch, Blanche’s potential new beau, stands out in a supporting role. Mitch is gentle and surprisingly sensitive — until the truth of Blanche’s promiscuous past is shown to him.

In the end, Blanche is faced with disintegration, a deterioration into schizophrenia, pushed over the precipice of her fragile defenses. Stanley ends his personal war with a brutal rape of what little is left of Blanche’s sad, lost soul.

No one wins in this bitter rendition of life at the end of the streetcar line. Destiny is destination. Life is portrayed as an empty exercise of survival with bleak options. No one wins in this kind of war.

“A Streetcar Named Desire”

LCC Theatre Program 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28; p.m. Sunday, March 1 $15/$10 seniors and staff/$5 students Dart Auditorium 500 N. Capital Ave., Lansing (517) 483-1488 lcc.edu/showinfo

—Tom Helma

Blood will have blood

MSU Department of Theatre creates a post-apocalyptic ‘Macbeth’ 

Let’s be honest. For most contemporary audiences, Shakespeare is something to “appreciate” rather than “enjoy.” Even violent productions like “Macbeth” are no match for the body counts of modern cinema, never mind the poetic prose that functions as a language barrier for many. With that in mind, Michigan State University Department of Theatre’s current production of “Macbeth” works hard to engage young audiences with cinematic set designs and costumes inspired by comic books.

Unlike most comic books, there is no victory or redemption for lead characters in “Macbeth.” It’s a cautionary tale that cynically examines one man’s quest for power  and the bloody lengths to which he will go to achieve that end.

Standout performances, not surprisingly, come from the department’s graduate students: Andy Head as Macbeth, Sarah Goeke as Lady Macbeth, Kirill Sheynerman as Banquo and Carolyn Conover as Duncan.

As the slimmest lead, Andy Head understandably emphasizes Macbeth’s brains over his brawn. While Macbeth’s inferior size — even to his own wife — could be awkward, Head and Goeke use their physical disparity for effect, often turning Lady Macbeth’s persuasion into physical intimidation.

Goeke is especially great in her first scene, as Lady Macbeth prays to the spirts to “unsex” her. It’s a chilly transformation from supportive spouse to the mother from “The Manchurian Candidate.”

As Macbeth’s second-in-command, Sheynerman, with his impressive physique, makes a strong statement. Although he looks like the henchman from a Bond film, Sheynerman brings emotional empathy to his character.

The most striking elements of director Ann Folino White’s production are the visuals. Scenic designer Alex “Lex” van Blommestein’s dark, industrial set pays homage to Tim Burton, while the costumes designed by Stephanie Eubank evoke a tempered, post-apocalyptic feel — “Mad Max” meets American Apparel. The combination of leather clothes with tribal tattoos and plenty of knives evokes a nonspecific, ethereal world.

“Macbeth”

MSU Department of Theatre 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25 and Thursday, Feb. 26; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28; 2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 1. (Post-show discussion on Thursday, Feb. 26) $15/$13 seniors and faculty/$10 students Fairchild Theatre, 542 Auditorium Road, East Lansing (800) WHARTON whartoncenter.com

—Paul Wozniak