BOOK REVIEW: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer made me laugh out loud on page two. I was ready to be hooked. By page four I was not so sure.

Nine year old Oskar Schell is on a mission to find the secret behind a key that he found in his father’s closet, in an envelope hidden in a vase. His father had been killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and Oskar is obsessed with finding a final connection with his dad.

He and his father had played lots of games that had required Oskar to go on searches around New York City to solve mysteries and the word “BLACK” written on the envelope is definitely a clue. Oskar decides to visit every person in New York with the last name of Black, hoping to find what the key opens. His adventures, sometimes touching and very often humorous, take him from Central Park to Coney Island, to Harlem and all points in between. There are quite a few people with the name of Black in New York City.

Oskar has a very close relationship with his grandmother who lives across the street. Interspersed with Oskar’s search, we hear her story of how her family had been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden during the Second World War and how she had married Oskar’s grandfather, but telling that here would be giving too much away.

I liked Oskar. He was constantly inventing neat stuff, like a shirt made of bird seed so that the birds could fly a person to safety. I loved the illustrations in the book. They captured Oskar’s imagination so well. I liked that he played the part of Yorick in his school production of Hamlet. Yes, I know Yorick is only a skull, but Oskar was able to make so much more of it.

I did find the book to be a little dis-jointed. The switch from Oskar and his key to the grandmother during and after the war was a little confusing. I have to say though that Foer brought it all together perfectly in the end. The theme of losing loved ones in a war was well handled. 

This is not a book for everyone. It is hard to follow at times, but if you are looking for something different, you might enjoy Oskar very much.

ANNOUNCEMENT: City, State, Arts Online Magazine

I am proud to announce that CITY STATE ARTS, the online Arts & Entertainment Magazine, will now be including POV’s reviews of local theatre productions!

This e-magazine is a wonderful way to find what is happening in Central Pennsylvania for all things arts-related:  music, fine arts, theater, dance... you name it! Schedules, locations, and general comments will appear regularly. So if you are searching for something to do over the weekend, check CityStateArts.com.  It will give you the vital information on what is available to do and see as well as Pat’s Opinionated View. 

THEATER REVIEW: Come Blow Your Horn

Now and then something happens that reminds me that I really am getting older. We just made the trip to the Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall to see COME BLOW YOUR HORN. COME BLOW YOUR HORN was the play that opened Millbrook’s inaugural season fifty years ago. I was there. 

This is the first of many comedies written by Neil Simon and like many of his plays, explores relationships within a family as well as between the sexes. In COME BLOW YOUR HORN swinging bachelor Alan Baker has it all going for him, neat apartment, good job in the family business, and beautiful women at his beck and call. When younger brother Buddy leaves home and moves in with him, he is willing to take his brother under his wing and teach him how to be a swinger. According to their father, now the family has two “Bums”.

For this type of comedy to work the director has to be well aware of the timing and pacing of the show. Adam Knight has proven in the past that he understands all of that as well as letting his characters get their laughs. It is to his credit that the evening went so quickly.

The brothers, Alan and Buddy played by Joseph McGranaghan and Daniel Tepper, were well cast. There was a strong “family resemblance” and since they carried the bulk of the show, it was good that the two of them had strong acting skills. The shift in each personality, Buddy becoming a swinger and Alan settling down, was well done.

Erin McMahon as the sexy, airhead Peggy hit it just right. It would have been too easy to over-play the role and turn it into a caricature instead of someone we might know. The more practical Connie was played by Mary Ruth Baggott. The role gave the actress a chance to show a wider range of emotions and Ms. Baggott was up to the job.

I am afraid that the night belonged to the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Baker. Frank Franconeri and Staci Morin may be two of the most talented character actors around. As the typical, emotional mother who worries that her boys are not getting enough to eat and messes up phone messages because she cannot find a pencil, Staci was perfection. (The bit about the pencil was one of the loudest laughs of the evening).

Frank Franconeri is no stranger to Millbrook audiences and I am one of his biggest fans. It was no surprise that he nailed the part of as controlling father with two bums for sons. We can expect to see him later in the season in Woman in Black.

COME BLOW YOUR HORN should be rather dated by now, but it is still a fresh and new comedy. I think that it has held up better than I have.

COME BLOW YOUR HORN closed this past weekend, but The Sound of Music will run on the Main Stage until July 7 and The Woman in Black will open on July 5 in the Cabaret. Check about tickets at 570-748-8083. A warning though, they are having sold out houses.

THEATER REVIEW: The Producers

State College Community Theatre pulled out all the stops and talent for their production of THE PRODUCERS, the musical comedy hit by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meeham. The only flaw that I can think of was that it did not run long enough.

I have seen THE PRODUCERS several times, including a not so great version by a national touring company, but director Jason Poorman hit the perfect note. Everything worked together, from creative staging, workable sets (Jeff Maloney), costumes that helped to define character (Julie Snyder), energetic choreography (Molly Riva), and, most importantly, being able to hear the actors over an excellent orchestra. Thank you, conductor Michael Marini.

The show was so well cast that it is difficult to highlight any one person. Many members of the ensemble had a moment in the spot light, but since the program did not give credit to the individuals, I have to do what I can. 

Special applause goes to ‘Roger’s team’. I am not sure which actor played which part, but you all helped to make it a very funny bit.

The same goes for the Little Old Ladies, and what delightfully dirty old ladies they were. I loved that each stayed so well in character in scenes where they were not featured. Though, I do think that I noticed a very healthy beard on one during the “walker dance”. That was fun!

I am not sure where to start with the leads. Most of them we have seen in previous productions, but each brought a surprise to this performance.  

Ken Wozetek’s Max Bialystock tore up the stage. He dominated his scenes with the other actors, but his shining moment was his soliloquy “Betrayed”. That is the perfect example of “tours de force”.

 

It was impossible not to fall a little in love with James McCready as Leo Bloom. His panic attacks brought out the maternal feelings in all of us.

The part of Ulla gave Katie Kensinger another chance to play the sexy bombshell—and this time as a blond. I knew that Katie could sing and act, but her talents as a dancer were showcased well in this production.

Tom McClary is brilliant! His portrayal of Roger de Bris was so right; his effeminate Hitler brought down the house. His partner Carmen Giya was played by Eric Brinser. This is meant to be one of the “smaller” parts but Eric made it a stand out one.

I was really impressed by Steve Travis as Franz Liebkind. I know that I have seen him in other roles, but nothing prepared me for his voice, his movements, and, yes, his legs.

I am one of the people who feel nostalgic about Boal Barn and will miss going there in rain, heat, and cold, but if this is what the SCCT can do with a proscenium stage I cannot wait to see future shows.

Catch the final two shows today at 2pm and 8pm at the State Theater 130 W. College Ave., State College.  Arthur Miller’s The Crucible will be on stage at The State Theatre July 19-20 and July 26-27. (If I have one criticism the run time for their shows is too short.) Tickets can be ordered at 814-272-0606, or check out their website at www.scctonline.org. It looks like a good season.

BOOK REVIEW: Black Cross

Greg Iles books are consistently filled with edge-of-the-seat action and page-turning plots. I just finished one of his earlier books, Black Cross and I was exhausted by the time we had wiped out that Nazi camp.

Mark has just buried the grandparents who had raised him when an elderly rabbi came to the house to tell him the story of his grandfather’s secret role during the Second World War. What followed was an adventure that took us all on a breath-holding ride.

In Oxford University in 1944, Mark McConnell and his brother David are having a drink at the local pub. David has joined the British war effort as a fighter pilot.

Mark is a pacifist who wants nothing to do with the war. His medical degree combined with his degree in chemistry has made him important to the research that England is doing on nerve gasses. Evidence has been found that Germany has developed a gas that is deadlier than anything that has been used in the past. The Nazi commanders will have it ready for the Allied invasion at Normandy.

Mark is having trouble with his involvement in the research that could be responsible for millions of deaths. 

 

Meanwhile, Jonas Stern, a German Jew who has become a Zionist guerrilla fighter, has been arrested for crimes against His Majesty’s British forces in Palestine. Several of the British officers see Stern’s hatred of the Nazis as something that can be put to their use.

After some devious maneuvering, Mark and Jonas find themselves on a secret mission to a concentration camp deep within Germany where this new gas is being developed and tested on the prisoners of the camp.

With scenes from the camp as well as the preparation to capture the laboratory and a sample of the gas, Black Cross is an adventure story that will completely capture you.

Two things, besides his ability to craft a plot, make Iles one of my favorite authors. He develops characters that I can care about. Even his minor characters stay with you. That is important to me.

His surprising talent is his perfect use of language. He captures the speech pattern of his varied people in a way to make them believable, but more impressive are his descriptions that can be poetic. Here is how Mark tells of walking through Belgium and France years after the First World War:

He had stood awhile above the intermingled regiments of bones resting fitfully in shallow graves beneath the soil. And there, in whispers just beneath the wind that howled across the stark terrain, he heard the puzzled voices of boys who had never known the inside of a woman, who never had children, who had never grown old. Seven million voices asking in unison the unanswerable question that was an answer in itself:  

Why?

The Author's Notes thoroughly explain the use of nerve gas, an implement of war still being used today.  Greg Iles continues to make the case that there is nothing about war that is romantic.

THEATER REVIEW: Grease

 Millbrook Playhouse is celebrating 50 years of providing true professional summer stock theater in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania. This year's opening show was GREASE, which played to two weeks of sold-out audiences.

I was very proud of Bellefonte resident Jessica Brown as she made her professional acting debut. Jessica is a senior at Bellefonte High School where she was most recently seen as Ensign Nellie Forbush in South Pacific.

Director Michael Schloegl, who also was responsible for the terrific choreography, put together an ensemble that made the audience forget the big names from the movie version of GREASE.

It really was an ensemble cast. Each actor did his or her solo to cheers from the audience. When Johnny Haussener as Doody took the stage with “Those Magic Changes”, I thought that we had seen the scene stealer of the evening; but, then we had Sarah Michelle Cuc and Josh Millhouse with the delightful duet “Mooning”. 

Casey Shane and Erin Long as Danny and Sandy could do it all; they sang, danced and acted. All of the characters were so well defined. Jen Morris as Frenchy, Lizzie Harless as Marty, Brian Lose as Sonny, and Matt DaSilva as Kenickie were great. I am looking forward to seeing what other talents these young actors bring to Millbrook.

Talking about scene-stealers Richard Guido as Principal Miss Lynch is a solid one….but, then he usually is. The surprise of the evening was Timothy Hibbler. His transformation from Eugene, the nerd, to the super cool Teen Angel had to be seen to be believed.

photo courtesy of Millbrook Playhouse

For me the high light of GREASE is Rizzo. The actress playing the part has to be able to do two very different solos. Ayelet Firstenberg was more than capable. Her “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” was tough and sarcastic and her “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” was heartfelt. Excellent job. 

Tonight is the final performance of GREASE.  Score a ticket if you can.  Come Blow Your Horn is currently playing in their Cabaret Theatre and Sound of Music opens June 28^th on the Main Stage. Check them out at www.millbrookplayhouse.org or call 570-748-8088 for tickets. It is worth the short trip to Mill Hall.

BOOK REVIEW: I Still Dream About You

Every now and then, I need a Fanny Flag fix. I have to admit her body of work ranges widely on my Like Meter. Some rank as “All-time- favorites”; some just get a “So-so”. I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU hits about in the middle.

Maggie Fortenberry is a past Miss Alabama who is now working as a real estate agent. Her life is not happening as she expected. Her social life is limited, her love life is nonexistent, and the real estate market has fallen off thanks to a barracuda who works for a rival agency.

As a result, Maggie makes all of the arrangements to commit suicide. Her plans are perfect. Lists have been made to make sure that flowers are on her parents’ graves at each season and her money has been contributed to the proper charities. Her refrigerator will be empty; her beautiful wardrobe will be donated to the local thrift shop. All is ready.

Except, Maggie had not planned for life to get in the way. Each time that everything is set and she returns to her empty apartment, some problem that needs her personal attention seems to pop up.

The good thing is that Fanny Flagg has the base to introduce us to a list of interesting Southern characters and give us plot twists that keep the reader’s interest. Underlying all of Maggie’s dilemmas exists the tender/dark sense of humor that we have come to expect from Ms. Flagg. 

 

I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU is not as good as Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café…..but then what is?