|
Nestled among rolling pastures
and silo-dotted farmlands, Lancaster, Pennsylvania makes for an idyllic getaway weekend. This central Pennsylvania town is probably best known to tourists for its location in the heart of Amish country, but there are many other reasons to pay this thriving little city a visit. There are the fine restaurants, the numerous classy boutiques, antique shops, and galleries, the fascinating architecture in a variety of styles, and the quintessential Lancaster City Market. But the best reason of all, and the one which draws me as often as I possibly can manage the trip, is a visit to the Fulton Theatre. This Civil War era auditorium with its gilded horseshoe interior is a gem with a storied past, but more than its history, it is its dynamic present as one of the country’s foremost regional theatres which demands the pilgrimage.
Next season the Fulton Opera House will celebrate its 160th year, as well as the 10th anniversary of its current Executive Artistic Producer, Marc Robin. Robin, who is a much-sought-after director and choreographer, composer and creator of musical theatre on the national stage, took over the reins of the company upon the death of Michael Mitchell in 2008, and he has presided over an ambitious period of artistic and capital growth for the company. The theatre currently operates three series: its main stage roster of Broadway scale musicals and plays, its Studio Series of four performances of musicals and drama in its lovely black box Tell Studio, and its Family Series of four Theatre for Young Audiences musicals – these in addition to lab performances of new works and educational and outreach opportunities for the community.
The current building, itself, is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. The original hall was designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan and in 1859 erected on the foundation of a pre-Revolutionary jail which had been made notorious by a massacre of Native Americans which occurred within its walls. Named Fulton Hall in honor of the steamboat inventor, the theatre presented over the years the likes of soprano Adelina Patti, violinist Ole Bull, Maude Adams, Lily Langtry, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Sarah Bernhardt, George M. Cohan, and Ethel Barrymore. After a period of decline in the mid-20th century when the hall served as a movie theatre, citizens raised the money to renovate the house to its former glory and to operate it as a not-for-profit theatrical producing venue. Since 1995 the theatre has focused on producing professional live theatre – excelling in musicals as
well as classic plays and new work. As it approaches its milestone gala season in 2018-2019 the Fulton stands poised to celebrate not only its extraordinary history, but also its highly respected place in the American regional theatre scene, and its vision for growth and innovation in the future. (But all this is another article!)
The pair of shows which brought me to Lancaster on a cold January weekend were Agatha Christie’s dramatic thriller, The Mousetrap and Frank McCourt’s musical play, The Irish and How They Got That Way. As different as two theatrical experiences could possibly be, they showcased admirably the range of this company. The longest continuously running play in West End history with some 26,000 performances played since opening in 1952, the murder mystery thriller The Mousetrap is quintessentially British in flavor – clever, witty, succinct, understated dialogue, colorful, crazy characters, a plot calibrated to supply twists and turns, delivering the final surprise just before curtain. It is a work that, for all its length and conversational denseness, keeps the viewer riveted to the edge of his seat. And even though I have seen it more than once
in the past – including in the West End in the 1970s – the Fulton’s production has an air of stunning freshness.
Director Marc Robin has assembled a brilliant cast, and he has paced the drama with a finely tuned combination of tension and playfulness. He has imbued the piece with a perfect sense of style – as lavish and Ur-British as Downton Abbey- and perhaps best of all he has, as he does in all his work, he has found the heart in the story, so that the unraveling in the second act is deeply touching.
In creating the perfect illusion, he is aided by the magnificent physical production that utilizes all the grandeur of the Fulton stage. William James Mohoney’s set of the interior great room of Monkswell Manor is grand and gorgeous, capturing the scale of an old English Gothic estate with a pair of majestic staircases, a vista onto a snowy landscape through the towering rear window, and elegantly carved oversized furniture and props by Katelin Walsko. The stage is bathed in Bill Simmons’ rich palette of lighting, which complements the décor and the attractive period costumes by Beth Dunkelberger with wigs/makeup by Anthony Lascoskie, Jr. Jacob Mishler and Matthew Moran complete the illusion with a well-balanced sound design that beautifully supports the clarity of the actors’ delivery in the Fulton’s fine acoustic.
Robin has cast a richly talented group of Equity actors - Fulton regulars and guest artists- all of whom impress with their stylistic command of the dialect and dialogue (Peter Simon Hilton being the only actual Brit in the group). Katie Sina and Andrew Kindig play the straight roles of Mollie and Giles Ralston, the new owners of Monkswell Manor, with just the right blend of perplexed reserve and indomitable level-headedness, but they also rise to the challenge of the more emotional moments in the second act. As the flamboyant Christopher Wren, Peter Simon Hilton is deliciously naughty and funny in the first act and then more appropriately subdued in the second as the murder threat ratchets up. Tony Lawson is a silky-voiced, theatrical and elusive Mr. Paravicini, while Kate Fahrner’s Miss Casewell manages the transformation of her character from aloof, masculine, cool and
crisp to one in the throes of an emotional crisis. Paula Scrofano is the sharp-tongued Mrs. Boyle, whose consistent crankiness cuts through the play like a laser, and John Reeger limns a dignified, upright Major Metcalf. Jeffrey Coon gives a finely nuanced performance in the meaty role of Detective Sergeant Trotter and makes the most of the character’s pivotal function as a driver of the action.
Classy and engaging, this ensemble comes together to create a beautifully balanced and memorable production of this old chestnut, demonstrating to a modern audience what the appeal of the work is and why it deserves to be a classic.
In direct contrast to the restrained, period style of The Mousetrap, the show treading the boards of the Fulton’s fourth floor Tell Studio is an exuberant musical journey tracing the history of all things Irish. Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s The Irish and How They Got That Way with musical arrangements of traditional Gaelic songs by Rusty Magee, is a rollicking, heart-wrenching, infectiously funny, deeply melancholy, profoundly moving and entertaining two-hour foray into the Irish psyche and the Irish experience in America. Part history-lesson, part musical revue, McCourt’s script is eloquently written, filled with insight and self-deprecating humor, and brilliantly paced to turn on a dime from tragedy to comedy offering the audience a roller coaster of magical moments and emotions.
Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark, the Fulton’s co-directors, have a long history with the show, which opened in 1997 off-Broadway. Robin did some early choreography for Charlotte Moore, the original director, and Clark starred in the long-running Chicago production at the Mercury Theatre. Robin mounted the show in 2008 at the Fulton, and it was in that mounting that he created the concept which defines the production today. He sets the action in an Irish pub and envisions the four-person cast of principals and three-musicians as friends enjoying drinks and reminiscences after regular pub hours. The conceit lends cohesiveness and a naturalness that reinforces the storyline and allows the individual actors a measure of freedom to bring their own personalities to the parts and to improvise a bit.
This third Robin-Clark reprise of the piece – the two having collaborated on a Maine State Music Theatre- Portland Stage co-production in 2016 – is the most dynamic yet! This time, the Fulton opts for fully interactive and immersive theatre. William James Mohney transforms the fourth floor Tell Studio Theatre and its lobby into McCourt’s Irish Pub. With the help of Katelin Walsko’s realistic props, Josh Schlader’s nimble lighting design, Jacob Mishler’s articulate sound design scaled perfectly to big voices in a small room, and Anthony Lascoskie Jr.’s Irish tweedy costumes, the Tell Studio Theatre becomes a world apart.
The moment the audience steps off the elevator into the hunter green entrance hall festooned with bar trappings and takes a seat at a small table in the center of the theatre, they enter the world of the play. There are raised platform stages in three corners of the room and a working bar with a waitress and bartender in the fourth. The actors move fluidly from stage to stage, as well as moving among the tables and involving the audience. Drinks are served before the show, at intermission, and at the end, and by the time the opening medley is sung, the audience is no longer a spectator but a participant. The evening plays itself out with clapping, singing, dancing, crying and, yes laughing- lots of laughing. And by the end when the actors join the patrons lingering for a last drink after the final bows, one feels a friendship and camaraderie that seems lasting.
Robin and Clark have preserved all the grace, fluidity, intensity, and comedy of the previous production while adding tiny new touches that keep it fresh. The freedom for the actors to move throughout the house creates some touching uses of space that work particularly well in scenes like the tale of the two Irish brigades on opposing sides in the Civil War or the heart-wrenching farewells of immigrants departing Ireland. And the opportunity to tease, flirt, and dance with members of the audience creates merriment for all. The choreography is lively, including Robin’s tap solos for Clark in the George M. Cohan numbers and in Gaelic dances, among them the riotously funny “Irish Washerwoman” for Charis Leos and Cary Michele Miller. But perhaps most remarkable of all is the way the directors and the cast find the emotional depth of the narrative - how they
weave McCourt’s eloquent words into a flesh and blood experience.
Music Director Jonathan Lefever leads the three-person band with toe-tapping brio and with heart-melting lyricism. With help from the excellent Stephanie Sullivan on violin and Clem Lichty on percussion, he finds the fun and the melancholy in this music. Gillian Hassert as the pub waitress and Jay Poff as the bartender get to use their considerable vocal talents in support of the principals.
The cast enjoys a special chemistry, especially since the four principals, are all reprising their roles from the Maine production. Strong-voiced, intelligent and appealing singing-actors, they move skillfully among the various personae they play, while retaining their own individual personality and charisma. Cary Michele Miller conveys the youthful, sometimes sassy, often sweet charm of an Irish colleen. She is mischievous in the comic moments and heart wrenching in the sad ones. Her rendition of Fields of Athenry leaves nary a dry eye. Charis Leos skips merrily through a series of characters from superstitious old woman to dim maidservant to brassy vaudeville performer. But it is her incarnation of the Widow Clancy in the Irish wake scene that delivers sidesplitting laughter that leaves the audience breathless. The scene, which she plays opposite an
equally hilarious Curt Dale Clark as the drunken reporter and supported by Peter Cormican and Miller’s tipsy relatives , is an opportunity for improvisation – something that all four do with gleeful mischief.
With his rich dark baritenor, Peter Cormican gets to shine in both comic turns such as Mrs. McGrath or Moonshiner and sober, serious ballads like Molly McGuire, and he uses his chameleon facility for dialect and character to create a series of diverse cameos from a nearly drowned Irish youth, to Tamany Hall politician, to Irish statesman Daniel O’Connell. Accorded some of the most beloved solos of the work, tenor Curt Dale Clark brings his creamy yet crystalline timbre, soaring lyricism, textual clarity, and emotional intensity to numbers like Rare OldTimes, Skibereen, Anchors Aweigh, and Yankee Doodle Dandy. But it is his Danny Boy which remains the performance high point. Delivered with exquisite phrasing and line, and dazzling vocal security, Clark invests the piece with a depth of inner emotion that wraps the audience in the embrace of the
song and its sentiments. Greeted by a standing ovation at the performance I saw ( and in the past at others here in Maine), his interpretation remains one of the great musical moments in my memory.
By the time the company comes together to sing the show’s rousing finale, U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, in which each cast member has his opportunity to pull out all the stops in solo sections, the audience is laughing and crying simultaneously and then clapping, applauding, and on their feet cheering. And it is this standing ovation which is a bit unusual among this more reserved Lancaster public. In Maine, audiences are very vocal and demonstrative about work they love, but oftentimes, while the Pennsylvania public loves the same things about the piece, they are slow to be openly demonstrative. The Irish and How They Got That Way left them no opportunity for reticence. And while that is a tribute to the production, the creative team, the cast, it is also a metaphor for the kind of transformation the Fulton is bringing in the Lancaster community.
It is Marc Robin’s belief that theatre should be entertaining, engaging, all-embracing, and the past ten years have demonstrated how this kind of vibrant, bold, exciting stage experience can revitalize an entire community. Besides savoring the remainder of this season which includes Guys and Dolls and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one can look forward to a very special anniversary year for 2018-2019, which will open with the world premiere of a new work – Treasure Island A Musical Adventure by Robin and Clark. As Robin has been saying to his patrons- “Time to set sail with the Fulton!”
The Fulton Theatre’s 2017-2018 season runs
until July 22 www.fultontheatre.org 717-397-7425
Photos courtesy Fulton Theatre and MSMT
|
