Keith Waits - Page 13

Theatre [502]'s Failure: A Love Story - Just Because Its Called A Failure, Doesn't Mean Its Not A Success

Charles Addams' 'altogether ooky' macabre family has been around since 1938, although most people date their introduction to the mass media culture from the 1964 television series. Two popular films from the 1980's raised the profile even more. Most recently the musical theatre adaptation hit Broadway starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth.

To begin at the end: the stage production of Dirty Dancing brought cheers and screams from the opening night audience of the Broadway in Louisville at Johnny's iconic line about Baby and at the even more iconic dance number following that flooded the stage. Gillian Abbott and Christopher Tierney, respectively, inhabit these roles with enough of a nod to the originals (Jennifer Grey and the late Patrick Swayze) that audiences are swept back to the 1987 movie.

As techno music plays and the stage lights come up in the Pamela Brown Theatre the audience is presented with an antiseptic, industrial brick wall with large windows and a set of chairs. It is here that Peter (David McElwee) is crashed out, slumping over the chairs while Karlie (Lexi Lapp) is jumping all over the room occasionally rummaging through a bag of junk food or talking on the phone. This is a hospital ER and this young couple is there because their daughter, Luna Gale, is sick. Unfortunately, Peter and Karlie are too.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella is A Lovely Night

Louisville Orchestra Performance of Bernstein's Mass is Triumphant

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been a mainstay at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) since 1995, and has become identified with actor/director William McNulty, who eight years ago was invited to forge his own adaptation of the horror classic. The result only intensified audience demand and acceptance, and the play now stands as the second holiday perennial (with A Christmas Carol) for Louisville's highly acclaimed regional theatre. This interview with Mr. McNulty was originally published in 2013 by Arts-Louisville.com, and covers Dracula as well as the veteran actor's long association with Actors Theatre.

Since taking over the reins of The Louisville Orchestra in 2014, Music Director Teddy Abrams has taken the musicians out of Whitney Hall to venues all around the city. If the challenge for the venerable orchestra in recent, troubled years, has been to bring new patrons downtown to Main Street, Mr. Abrams' approach seems to have been: if the audience won't coe ton the orchestra, then take the orchestra to the audience.

I am always excited by the opportunity to see an August Wilson play. Only Actors Theatre has managed to deliver them to Louisville audiences, the most recent having been an outstanding production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 2010. Now we have Seven Guitars to feast upon.

Liminal: adjective - 1. Of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process, 2. Occupying a position at, or on both side of a boundary or threshold