"To Kill A Mockingbird" at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre Opened December 13, 2018

Jeff Daniels and Gbenga Akinnagbe (photo: Julieta Cervantes)

The good news is that Jeff Daniels is a terrific Atticus Finch -- without diminishing the memory of the sterling Academy Award-winning performance of Gregory Peck in the 1963 film version. It is not surprising that he brings a perspective that adds even more dimensions to this meaty role of a defender of a young black farmhand charged with raping a white girl.

While playwright Horton Foote’s excellent screen version was also notable for the acting of the children, as portrayed by Mary Badham and Philip Alford, this current production has courageously cast the children with adult actors -- Celia Keenan-Bolger as Scout Finch , Will Pullen as Jem Finch and Gideon Glick as Dill Harris -- a decision that works wondrously within the context of this production. These three are the pulse of the play and are collectively superb.

Without faulting the more placid version by Christopher Sergel (although approved by the Lee estate) which made the rounds for years in regional theaters, Sorkin’s focus is on increasing the children’s perception of the events in Maycomb, Alabama in 1934.  Keenan-Bolger’s effectively tom-boyish Scout takes the lead in assuming the play’s primary narrative thread. Addressing us directly she makes us see and understand what is going on around her. She gets additional input from the often funny but always insightful opining of her older brother Jem and from Dill, the unconventionally loquacious town visitor they befriend. Dill is based on Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote.

By all accounts, Sorkin’s adaptation has survived some contentious discussions with the estate regarding his proposed changes to connect the novel’s point-of-view to our world more than half a century later. There is no question that he has kept and honored the novel and brought to it a resonance that will move today’s audience. After re-reading the novel, I can attest that Sorkin has done a masterful job of keeping its integrity while also taking such necessary liberties to make a winning dramatic experience. Despite this I suspect that purists and some fans of the novel will take exceptions.

If the inherent and almost inconspicuous charm of the novel will forever be mysteriously locked in its prose and in its characters’ portraits, Sorkin’s version is notable for rising well above social melodrama. This version plays with time using the climactic trial as a springboard to past events. Thus the play has no straight trajectory, as action moves back and forth from the trial. This heightens our involvement.  

Careful to keep the novel’s most beguiling and fundamental virtues, Sorkin has delivered a text that is as good as one could hope for in a dramatic recreation. At its core, it is the growing-up story of a rambunctious little girl named Scout who idolizes her widowed father Atticus, the town’s most respected attorney. The novel is essentially powered by Scout’s winsome precociousness. At its best, Sorkin’s text resonates with Scout’s feelings and observations. It is, after all, her story.

The courtroom scene gives Atticus an opportunity to express some strong and stirring opinions on human behavior and the course of justice, and it give Daniels the extended time he needs to bring his character’s core convictions to the fore. To his credit, Daniels nuanced performance empowers much of the play. LaTanya Richardson Jackson is splendid as the Calpurnia, the housekeeper. Also outstanding are Frederick Weller as Bob Ewell and Erin Wilhelmi as his daughter.

There are just enough snippets and short scenes of townspeople, farmers and spectators at the trial and other locations to convey the prevailing racism and bigotry of the times. It is always amazing, even in real life, how little one cares about  what the neighbors think, think they know. or even remember. In this instance, their words often purposefully both sting and just as often stink. The most mysterious of them Boo Radley (Danny Wolohan) only makes a ripple near the end and his story which comes late in the play seems almost anticlimactic.

Director Sher has his hands full deploying the large cast within a very cumbersome and only barely evocative unit setting designed by Miriam Buether. Too much time is spent watching set pieces laboriously positioned to create different locations often with the help of the cast. Some incidental music composed by Adam Guettel and played on either side of the stage by guitarist Allen Tedder and pump organist Kimberly Grigsby only served to make me pine for the film’s ravishing score by Elmer Bernstein.  

How near or how far we are to the heart of Lee’s fondly remembered tale is something that only those who revere its every word can say. For the rest, this dramatized “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a stirringly theatrical evocation of its source.

"The Winter's Tale" (now through December 30) at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

Jon Barker and Erin Partin (photo: Jerry Dalia)

You can really feel the chill of winter in the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's production of Shakespeare partly morose, partly magical “A Winter’s Tale." The affection and attention given to the Bard’s late-in-life play is obvious in the direction of Bonnie J. Monte. It may be considered a lesser work, but it has remained an audience favorite. Whether or not it is the best choice for a holiday entertainment is a matter of taste.

The convoluted, preposterous plot, charged as it is with an essentially unmotivated story, is presented within a world of tufted snow-white moveable panels created by designer Brittany Vasta. They effectively frame the subdued palette of the costumes designed by Nikki Delhomme.

Immersion into the plot isn’t all that difficult. Shakespeare pulls out his melodramatic hand-grenade early on. In the story, Leontes, the king of Sicilia, suddenly goes mad with jealousy because he suspects (for no apparent reason) and then accuses his pregnant queen Hermione of not only having had an affair with their house guest, his best friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, but that he is the baby’s father.  

Paradoxically, after the play’s first half in which we see how a distressingly paranoid monarch incredulously slanders, humiliates, alienates, and even destroys most everyone he holds dear, we are treated to a second half all bathed in sweetness and light (with a significant assist from lighting designer Tony Galaska) to making everyone live happily ever after.

The Winter’s Tale makes up for its lack of coherence and cohesiveness in its ability to provoke our continued interest. And certainly its rush of exquisite lyricism is not to be overlooked. Monte, whose creative instincts have enhanced many productions at this theatre for twenty-eight seasons keeps this intriguingly lopsided and fragmented play moving along. She adorns the play’s fantastical element by the increased presence of Father Time (Raphael Nash Thompson) who appears now and again to comment on the action in a silver robe holding an hour-glass scepter.

Monte gives this undeniably make-believe world, in which time and reality run amok, a pro-active energy that emphasizes the play’s confounding psychological aspects. Although it is hard to forgive the Leontes of Jon Barker for his impetuously mindless stupidity, the character he creates comes back to haunt us. His difficult-to-swallow redemption does not preclude, however, our need to evaluate his behavior.

John Keabler makes the most of the maligned Polixenes’ resort to gallantry under the circumstances. So is Erin Partin’s display of patience-in-adversity as that “precious creature” Hermione. Marion Adler was a burst of feminine fury as Paulina, the court physician and resident loudmouth. Courtney McGowan, as the long-lost daughter Perdita, and Ryan Woods as the a-wooing Prince Florizel impressed as the lovesick teens. The small but important role of the king and queen’s ill-fated young son Mamillius was earnestly played on opening night by Jeff Lin (alternating with Xander Egbert-Crowe) with a desire to prove that there is no such thing as a small part. Not generally moved to laughter by the antics of most Shakespeare’s comical characters, I found William Sturdivant as the roguish Autolycus and Seamus Mulcahy as the imbecilic young shepherd funny indeed.

With its romantic innocence tainted by macabre undertones and its gorgeous poetry tested by melodramatic excess, “The Winter’s Tale” makes uncompromising appreciation difficult, but Monte’s elegant staging and the overall excellence of the acting make a case for it as an antidote to the usual holiday entertainment.

"Holiday Inn" (now through December 30) at the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, N.J.

Nicholas Rodriguez (center) and company

Forgive me if I am not playing fair when I say that this absolutely delightful production of “Holiday Inn” has the sparkles even if it is not generating quite the same sparks that made it the best Broadway musical of 2016. Be assured, however, that what is being presented at the Paper Mill Playhouse during this holiday season is still first class entertainment.  

It is safe to assume that there is always a little trepidation, some anxiety and perhaps even worry that a stage adaptation of a modest classic film musical will run the risk of being not only patently quaint but also seriously out-of-touch with life as we know it. Put aside your fears as the 1942 film musical “Holiday Inn,” with its wondrously melodic score by Irving Berlin, has been beautifully restored/re-envisioned by director Gordon Greenberg and co-writer Chad Hodge. To be sure, there is a quaintness to the basic and barely credible story that has been updated to post World War II. But there are just enough infusions and inferences with a contemporary resonance that will appeal to young audiences who may not be bringing along the nostalgia that will inevitably come with older audience members.

The plot follows the travails of singer Jim (Nicholas Rodriguez) after he has a parting of the ways with dancer Ted (Jeff Kready) his b.f. and professional partner. Jim decides to give up showbiz for a less stressful life buying and maintaining a working farm (really?) So what is a smart but desperate guy to do when the crops fail and the mortgage is due? Of course, he turns to his tapping and chirping Broadway pals for help in transforming the dilapidated homestead into a snazzy retreat with entertainment....but only on the holidays (more really.) Jim gets a little help and more than a little romance from former farm owner and school teacher Linda (Hayley Podschun) whose former aspirations of a career in the theater are suddenly re-kindled.

Sometimes the personable Rodriquez puts his big voice into overdrive when more crooning tones would be more effective. As the sweetly rakish Ted, Kready is terrific and as obliged rips up the stage with his exuberantly stylish dancing to “You’re Easy to Dance with” and literally ignites the stage with “Let’s Say it with Fireworks.” Podschun is sweetly beguiling as Linda and her silvery soprano brings just the right luster to her songs... and she’s quite a hoofer.

The best part of this sunny feel-good show is the abundance of tuneful Berlin songs, some of which are not in the original film. “Easter Parade,” “Happy Holiday,” and “White Christmas” are now joined by “Blue Skies,” “Heat Wave,” “Shaking the Blues Away,” “It’s a Lovely Day Today” and more treasures from the Berlin songbook.

With all those great songs, also be prepared for some great and inventive dancing. Choreographer Denis Jones is full of surprises using an assortment props and special effects (they should be surprises) that bring to mind some of the imaginative dance numbers created by filmdom’s Busby Berkeley. It won’t be long into the show before you are shaking your blues away with a splendid cast that has captured the era, the time and place with the same panache as has set designer Anna Louizos and costume designer Alejo Vietti. . .oh, those Easter bonnets! 

Standout among the supporting cast are Ann Harada as the smart-alecky resident handywoman and Paige Faure as Ted’s sassy and brassy blonde fiance and dancing partner. But it’s director Greenberg and choreographer Jones who have delivered the real goods. "Holiday Inn" comes gift-wrapped for all who cherish the great Berlin tunes and those who treasure the great traditions of the American musical theater.

"A Doll's House, Part 2" at the George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, N.J. (now through December 23, 2018)

Kellie Overbey and Ann McDonough
photo: T. Charles Erickson

Nora slamming the door at the end of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” has to be one of the most famous exits in all dramatic literature. It stunned and excited audiences in 1879 enough to insure the popularity of this decidedly verbose play over the years. It continues to be a challenge for the actor playing Nora. We can thank playwright Lucas Hnath for not only considering Nora’s fate by allowing her to come back and have her say in “A Doll’s House, Part 2.”

From all reports, this play which was lauded on Broadway in 2017 and won a Tony for its leading lady, has had a huge subsequent success. It is currently the most produced new play in regional theaters across the country. Having seen the play on Broadway, I would like to assure those considering to see it at the George Street Playhouse, that this production and especially the performance by its leading actress Kellie Overbey is simply terrific. 

Briefly for those who may not know the premise of the play or this sequel: Nora makes up her mind to leave her oppressive husband and two children and take her chances in the world. This brings us to the sequel in which Nora returns fifteen years later as a successful author of women’s literature. Writing under a pseudonym, Nora is a highly motivated, liberated, aggressively independent woman, a kind of  19th century Gloria Steinem. She is dedicated to helping women free themselves from a need to see marriage as a goal and to see marriage as a prison. 

Assuming that her husband Torvald (Andrew Garman) has fulfilled his promise to divorce her, Nora has signed contracts, purchased property, and openly engaged in affairs with men. The problem that brings Nora home is her discovery that Torvald had not filed for divorce making all her actions illegal and subject to prosecution under the law. Facing humiliation and possible jail sentence, Nora hopes to get Torvald to fulfill the agreement made fifteen years ago.

While hardly revelatory in showing how differently men and women once performed their roles in a marriage, Hnath’s play gives the 19th century Nora a shot of 21st century activism. This play dramatically examines both how much and how little has been achieved in redefining relationships in a marriage, equality under the law, and equanimity in our social lives,

It takes a while for the nanny Anne Marie (a wonderfully brittle Ann McDonough) to hear the knocking, answer the door, and gradually deal with the shock of seeing Nora, so well dressed and self-assured. The action is played out over a few days during which Nora attempts to persuade both Torvald to sign the divorce papers and also get the support of their daughter Emmy (Lily Santiago.) This action could, as it is revealed, compromise Torvald’s reputation as well as Emmy’s impending marriage.

Although filled to the brim with discourse, it is also marked with bursts of diverging opinions. Nora makes quite an admiral case for herself, the hard choices she had made and the role she has subsequently assumed to inspire and motivate women. I commend Overbey’s forceful but never abrasive approach to the role.

 But it is Torvald’s and Emma’s responses that are equally credible. It is to Garman’s credit that we can see the gradual changes in Torvald’s perspective and a possible change of heart. Santiago is totally persuasive as Emma, a young woman whose more traditional values have shaped her life.

This play marks the directorial debut for Betsy Aidem and it is an impressive one. The action of this 90 minute play never looks studied but always appears spontaneous and bristling despite being set within a purposefully lack-luster entry room designed by Deb O. Thank you to costume designer Olivera Gajic’s for her fine period attire. Hnath may have planted a few period-questionable expletives into the otherwise sterling text, but they provoke laughs. Just as an aside: I had to attend a post-opening performance and was seated in the next to the last row. Their temporary theater has a nice rake with no obstructed view and I heard every word.