In case you missed it, a comment was left on the The Hot L Baltimore review. It said "Thanks for your post Bill...do you think you should also extend your review to other aspects of the 'theater experience' like 1) Were the seats comfortable? 2) Was it a pleasant place to see a production? 3) Was it easy to park your car and get to? 4) Were the bathrooms clean? I mean, aren't those things important too when seeing a show?" Really? REALLY??? You've got to be kidding. Good grief!!! I'm sure for some, those are important questions. But I'm more concerned about what happens on the stage. Clean bathrooms? I'm a guy. We're happy if we get close to the target. Comfy seats? I just need a place for my big butt. Do these pants make my butt look big? No, it's my fat ass that does that.
That being said, let me tell you a bit about the Trinity Center, which Players, Please Theatre, the group presenting You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, calls home. It's a new location for them, and it's a nice, clean venue. There is an aura of being utilitarian and functional. The theatre reminded me of a modern take on what was called the multi-purpose room when I was in grade school. The sign on the wall says it holds approximately 350 people, but can be converted for a smaller crowd with large round tables if it needs to be used as a banquet facility. There is a stage that can be used for Sunday services, bands, and the Players, Please show. There is a dazzling array of projectors and flat panel screens that could be used to enhance a show. It is owned by Trinity Lutheran Church, has a preschool annex, a play-land like you've seen at McDonalds, and a cafe that is open for show patrons before the show and at intermission. You can get sandwiches, specialty coffee, bottled water, teas and a slew "health conscious" menu items. There are cafe tables, seats and free wi-fi. Oh yeah, it's part of a strip mall, so there's plenty of parking. My fat ass was well comforted. And yes, the bathrooms were clean. Full disclosure: I received a comp ticket.
Unfortunately, only about 20 people were in the audience on opening night. And we were spread out. It's hard to get a feel for audience reaction when the audience is a needle in a haystack. For future shows, Players, Please might want to think about moving a cluster of the chairs closer to the stage. Something reasonable in terms of how many people they think will attend. You can always add more if need be. Then you can group them together, creating a more intimate theatre-like experience. The space has a lot of possibilities, given just how adaptable it is.
As for this show, opening night was marred by technical gremlins that stole much of the show's thunder. There were dark places on stage from a bad lighting plot, or loss of light channels. I was surprised the actors didn't seek the light. If you're on stage, one would think you want to be seen. There were a few mishaps on sound, and torpid scene changes. Of course, it's easy to blame failings on the technical hiccups of a show, but truth be told, they had little to do with the real problems that I witnessed. A good portion falls on the show itself. Want the skinny on the show? Go here. New version/old version; it doesn't matter. It's a tired show. Sure, it can be cute and adorable, especially if done with some energy. But this show lacked the crisp pace, so the cute and adorable were a thin veneer that showed age quickly. The show is a series of "daily comic strips," moving from one scene to the next as a series of blackouts. They should snap from one scene to the next. They didn't.
The singing was all over the place. The harmonies in the first number just weren't. Many people had trouble with their lower register and couldn't support the notes, so they hardly could be heard. Others had trouble sustaining the high notes, making what should be an invigorating sound come off brassy and sharp. And yes, I'm aware that Lucy is supposed to sing like that, but it still needed to be done well to make it funny.
I would talk about the dance numbers, but they also weren't. Carla Mutone's choreography was cliched and predictable. Two words: jazz squares. Yes, jazz squares!!! I think I might have spotted a jazz hand and a sparkly hand a time or two. And, there was a moment when the drum-line formation (where one person is a spinning center axis and the rest march around in two lines straight off the axis) started to bend so badly that I thought they would form a swastika. The band did a good job, but there were the occasional squeaks and miscues.
Let's go to the actors, in order of the program. Patty is played by Traci A. Cidlik. Patty is supposed to be a child. This Patty was an adult pretending to be a child. I saw the acting. Nothing honest, nothing child-like. Not even childish. She wore a wig that looks like a helmet of hair, and her movement was so stiff that I thought she was a robot. Perhaps it would have helped if she could have transformed into a Camaro.
Spencer Diedrick was Linus. He was OK. In fact he sold his blanket song and has a nice voice. But there was no joy of performance displayed. He needed to have more fun with it.
Lisa Dawn Foertsch was Snoopy. And a wonderful one at that. She embodied the role, was physically and spiritually committed to the character. My eyes were drawn to her because she had energy and it showed. While a few others shut down when it wasn't their line, she was engaged and present each moment. There were times when the songs got out of her comfort zone, but overall, a delight to watch.
Schroeder is portrayed by Zachary Gibson. Another delight to watch. I just saw him in the Picasso fiasco at WDI where he'd shone above the others. Here too, he displays the ability to immerse into a character and bring it to life. He was a kid. Who knows, maybe he is in real life.
I had some real problems with Lucy, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I thought she looked psychotic. Something she was doing with her eyes and mouth (I think it was to imitate the hand-drawn likeness of Lucy) was disturbing. And it was all on one level. I know that Lucy is on one level, but there has to something in her that makes us care when she gives the last line of the show (spoiler alert...it's the title of the show). It has to resonate with some sense of honesty and meaning and she did nothing during the show to make us believe that Lucy is capable of that. And, It comes after the best group number, "Happiness", which is supposed to leave you all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, Genevieve Pastore is Lucy.
And that leaves us with Charlie Brown, played by Stuart Vance. I saw Stewart as Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone at WDI. I thought he did a nice job with that character. But with CB, I felt I was watching Man in Chair wearing a Charlie Brown t-shirt. Maybe because he used the same voice. It works for Man, but not for Charlie. He also had some problems with the vocal range of his songs, with the pen-pal number ending in a very weak voice. As for his character, I never felt he connected with the child in Charlie Brown. And while I'm not that hung up on how people look, Stuart is a tall man with a full head of hair and is the antithesis of the iconic Charlie Brown visual. I will give him credit, though. He tried to find his light. He sidled to accomplish it and it looked silly, but at least I could see him while others played in darkness. Take that however you wish.
Is it worth the price of admission? Well, I'd like to see this theatre company succeed in it's new space, and much of that will rely on ticket sales. So, to support Players, Please, yes, come out and experience the space, and use your imagination to transform it into a great black-box theatre. If you need a show that's family-friendly, then you should go. Send the kids in and you sit in the cafe, playing Angry Birds, and reading my blog on their free wi-fi. If you want a night of quality theatre, maybe not so much.
The show runs approximately 95 minutes, with intermission. For ticket information, directions and other stuff, go here.
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