6/10/2010 - West Side Leader
     

Cabaret performances close theater’s run in Hudson

Actors’ Summit Theater’s production of “Wine, Women and Song” includes, from left, Lissy Gulick, Tricia Bestic, C.J. Bonde, Michael Anderson, Lisa Marie Schueller, Rachel Anderson and Paula Kline-Messner

Photo courtesy of Actors’ Summit Theater

Last week, I was invited to one of the final rehearsals for the cabaret production. And it really was a rehearsal, with director MaryJo Alexander stopping the show and making suggestions, and the performers occasionally stopping the action to ask a question. However, the rehearsal was entertaining.

The seating arrangement has been altered from what we’ve grown to expect in Actors’ Summit’s Hudson facility. Each row includes regular seats, although some seats are separated by a small table, which holds a candle and the glasses for the wine (provided by the audience). Cheese, crackers and other treats wait on a large table by one of the doors.

The three acts of “Wine, Women and Song” take place at different times and each act is performed by three women who have performed in Actors’ Summit Theater. Act I (June 10-13) is performed by Rachel Anderson, Lissy Gulick and Lisa Marie Schueller. Act II (June 17-27) will feature C.J. Bonde, Shani Ferry and Dawn Sniadak. Act III (July 8-18) includes Tricia Bestic, Paula Kline-Messner and Maryann Nagel.

Alexander had each of the nine singers prepare a list of songs each would like to sing in the cabaret. The result was Broadway classics, jazz standards, pop songs, folk music and other music. Alexander organized the music so that no one song will be used twice in the three acts of the cabaret.

In the rehearsal I watched, Gulick sang “Bali Ha’i” from “South Pacific,” “Sunrise, Sunset” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Hello, Young Lovers” from “The King and I” and “The Water is Wide,” a folk song.

Anderson performed “That’ll Show Him” from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Never” from “On the Twentieth Century.”

Schueller sang “Somewhere That’s Green” from “Little Shop of Horrors.” She stopped the rehearsal with “A Christmas Wish (Rich, Famous and Powerful),” a great new stand-alone song that isn’t from any show.

However one of the most interesting performances was “I’m Just a Girl Who Cain’t Say No,” from “Oklahoma.” This was performed as a trio by Anderson, Gulick and Schueller. They brought men from the audience and each woman sang to one man.

Perhaps the most important person in the cabaret is Michael Anderson, who accompanies the three singers on the piano.

This is not a complete list of what they will perform. But this listing should give the reader an idea of how the cabaret is structured.

Act I runs 94 minutes without an intermission. Audience members may bring wine, as well as cheese, crackers and fruit. (Who said dinner theater is dead?)

“Wine, Women and Song” runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For ticket information, call 330-342-0800.

Unfortunately, this will be Actors’ Summit’s last performance in the theater at 86 Owen Brown St. The facility has been less than perfect, but the company has turned the space into a workable theater and a place that brought pleasure to many audience members. We can expect an announcement soon of where Actors’ Summit will move, according to theater officials.

In the meantime, this final production, glorious as it may be, still will be bittersweet.

David Ritchey has a Ph.D. in communications and is a professor of communications at The University of Akron. He is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association.

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