Community Review: A Night at Broadway

Last night I attended Neil Berg’s 100 Years Of Broadway, this show was fabulous from start to finish. The music, hit songs from Broadway, and the performers were excellent in every way. Neil Berg on the piano was wonderful as well as the other musicians.

If you love the music of Andrew Lloyd Weber, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Neil Berg, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Billy Joel and so many more greats, well then, you MUST attend Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway. SO much wonderful entertainment compiled and presented by the gifted voices of Calvert, Rob Evan, Robert DuSold and the amazing Ted Levy with his magnificent Tap.

If you enjoy musicals I totally recommend this to everyone. It is fresh and energizing, and the enthusiasm of the performers would take you back to the best of the Broadway shows. I loved it!!!

Review: Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway

Going in, I had no idea what this show was going to be.  Probably the best way to describe "Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway" is as a Broadway review, with a few personal stories and history lessons thrown in. 

Neil Berg - our host for the evening along with being producer / music director / piano player - turned out to be a lot of fun.  I enjoyed how he drew the audience in with his stories of Broadway-of-old, telling of Rodgers & Hammerstein's first collaboration, and of Lerner and Loewe trying to do what R&H couldn't.  Berg also spiced up the night with his piano, adding interesting flourishes not found in the original arrangements.  Primarily known as a composer, Berg's own piano-only piece from the upcoming Grumpy Old Men was a welcome surprise in a show focusing on singers.  Berg also put together a fantastic back-up band, especially the drummer (Roger Cohen) who I often found myself watching when I should have been paying attention to the singers.

The rest of the night was spent with five Broadway stars trading the spotlight back and forth with varying effectiveness.  Wisconsin-born Robert DuSold was adequate in his first two solos, "Stars" and "The Impossible Dream" - two songs I never realized could sound so similar.  Although later he picked up the energy and flair in "All I Care About Is Love" (which also featured Berg's hilarious one-man seated kick line).  Late-replacement Sandra Joseph may have played Christine in Phantom of the Opera for ten years, but she was having trouble with those songs last night.  Several times her high notes started on one pitch and fell to another.

Two of the other actors had more success.  Ted Levy was incredibly charming as he tap-danced his way through jazzy renditions of "My Favorite Things" and "Almost Like Being In Love".   Levy's tapping can only be compared to greats such as Gregory Hines and Gene Kelly.  Also on her game was Carter Calvert.  She was by far the most versatile actor, being a veteran of shows as varied as Cats and Forbidden Broadway.  Her haunting rendition of "Memory" was a show-stopper, and her slow, slinky "Fever" was probably the best version of that song I've seen.

As good as Calvert was though, Rob Evan was by far the star of the evening.  Evan was in the original cast of Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway, and his performance of "This is the Moment" from that show was utterly fantastic.  Turns out he was just getting warmed up.  You see, Evan was also the youngest-ever to play Jean Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway, and his performance of "Bring Him Home" from that show brought a tear to my eye, which almost never happens.  His second-act opener, "Something's Coming," had beautiful dynamic changes and small rhythmic nuances that gave me goosebumps, and then he closed the night with two spectacular Phantom songs.  These performances alone were worth the ticket price.

Overall though, the show was uneven.  The few group numbers were mostly bland, although changing "Cell Block Tango" to feature two women, and then adding two men, was a brilliant touch.  Sound problems also put a damper on many numbers, especially the group songs.  In the end, I'm not sure Neil Berg himself had much of an idea what the show was about as a whole, but it certainly had parts that were entertaining.

Review: The Diary of Anne Frank

Somehow I managed to go through both high school and college without ever reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I don’t remember if it was assigned and I just didn’t read it, or if it was just never a part of the curriculum. I knew of it, but I wasn’t familiar with the whole story.

Getting the opportunity to see this play was exciting knowing the significance of the story and its place in history. However, I must admit, my first thought was, “How are they going to turn this story into a two-hour performance? Seriously, a group of people living in an attic for two years?” It just didn’t seem possible.
Admittedly, it was a shortsighted thought, given the subject matter and historical importance of the story, but that’s the first thing that popped into my head. But the more I thought about it, the more the idea intrigued me. Again, never having read the novel, I was quite interested in how the world of stage would be able to capture such a historically important work that takes place in such a small setting.

The normally expansive stage of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center is purposefully downsized for this performance. The curtain was slightly drawn in at the sides. Set “scenery” – gray walls – encroached from the sides as well. On top of the “normal” stage was a smaller one where the rest of the props were placed and where the play took place. In the end, perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of the stage was actually used for the performance. Immediately, before the show even began, you felt the closeness and lack of space. Once the actors were on the set, up to 10 at one time, the cramped conditions in which the Frank family lived were easily received. It seemed as if no one could move anywhere without having to walk around another person or object. I am actually quite amazed that none of the actors tripped, stumbled or even fell off the stage while working in such close quarters. The blocking must have been a logistical nightmare.

The story begins at the end, Otto Frank returns to the place his family lived in for 2+ years and finds his daughter’s diary. He begins to read it from the beginning, and then the show starts in earnest. Anne Frank introduces herself and the back story is quickly laid out as to who the characters are and why they are in hiding.

From then on, the first act was nothing like I was expecting. I went into the performance thinking it was going to be quite heavy. I mean, it’s dealing with the Holocaust.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.

While the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews is the reason Anne Frank’s life went the way it did, it is not the story itself. The show emphasizes the small every day events of life. It shows how a group of people, under incredible circumstances, live as normal a life as possible. A life filled with the same issues families deal with today - sibling spats, mother’s love, teenage angst, parenting worries, the first kiss, generational gaps, belief systems, love for life, and longing for peace.

And through it all, humor finds its way. The one thing I absolutely was not expecting with this performance was the humor. It was not roll in the aisles, side splitting laughter, but there was a constant comical thread that ran throughout the entire first act. I found the characters were making the same smart-alleck comments I would have made given similar conversations. And to me, that made it all the more real.

It didn’t take long before I was caught up in the story of these people living together as a family. The reason why they were there wasn't the issue. Yes, it fueled some of the interaction and the type of interaction, but the characters’ relationships with each other seemed always to be the focal point. It was a study of human relationships.

With the second act, things took a turn toward the more dramatic. The humor was not entirely gone, but it was far less prevalent. Anne has started entering adulthood as her actions and views of the world lose some of her earlier childlike innocence. Tension between characters intensifies, tempers flare, and the waiting for an impending doom of a capture that may or may not come visibly takes its toll on all the characters. Everything eventually volcanoes to a crisis point.

The last 10 seconds of the play, in my opinion, are as powerful as any I have seen. Part of that is the manner in which the director did it. Part of it lies in the story itself and the real history behind it. And part of it stems from the performance of the actors and actresses. It all came together in a singular moment that had me blinking back tears. Granted, I’m a bit of a softy, but still…

Overall, the play was a pleasant surprise. I was a bit leery heading into it, but the story and how it was done quickly removed from me any preconceived notions. I would highly recommend this play to anyone. I think the play could serve as an excellent history lesson for the young and old alike. In fact, at intermission, my wife and I were discussing how much our nine-year-old son would have not only enjoyed the performance, but learned some valuable lesons too. (And he would not have been the only child of that age there that evening… numerous boys and girls between the ages of 8-15 populated the audience.) Outwardly, the subject matter of this play doesn’t seem to lend itself as “family oriented.” But the crux of the story was about family, friendships, and living life.

And yes, I will now be reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I’ve already reserved my copy at the library.

Rankin File: The Diary of Anne Frank

I am not going to mention the performance because the subject of the play supersedes it.  I was glad to see such a large crowd tonight, and I hope that the performance inspires all those kids and their parents to read about the holocaust.  Although it was mentioned at the beginning that it took a village to bring Anne Frank to Appleton, I believe individuals entities were mentioned as underwriters. And in the play itself it was individuals that made it possible for the Franks to be able to survive in the attic.  Ironically however it was a “village mentality” that persecuted the Franks.  The Perspective of Anne’s diary was that of a young teenager much the same age as I was when I discovered Leon Uris’s “Mila 18” and Jean-Francois Steiner’s “Treblinka”.  Later on I read Leon Uris’s “QBVII”.  I discovered mans inhumanity to man and the Holocaust alone in my youth through reading.

While going to college I took two in depth holocaust studies and was amazed at my fellow classmates who were stunned by the material being presented.  They had no idea.  For the most part they were spared knowing.  During the 1960s my peers, would ignorantly refer to their parents and any other authority figure as Nazi’s,. The police were regarded as Storm Troopers.  Having a pretty good idea of what a Nazi and a storm trooper really was I was appalled at my generations ignorance.  The “greatest generation,” in hopes that their babies may never know the trouble they had seen, sheltered their children to a point where it would be very hard for them to imagine that there can be anything worse than their own parental authorities.  No wonder Anne Frank struck such a cord.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a start; it introduces fear, anxiety, and helplessness through a child’s eyes.  But what of the rest of the story, why was there fear, why was there inhumanity to our fellow man and how do we stop such inhumanity from happening again.  These are important lessons we need to learn and we need to teach them to our youth.  Will we ever have the strength to grow up?

Anne Frank: The Courage of Everyday Living

Thursday night, audiences at the Fox Cities P.A.C. are in for a treat with Barter Theatre’s The Diary of Anne Frank and a rare opportunity to see one of America’s finest regional theaters sharing their craft on tour. With a long, interesting history, Barter Theatre has grown from humble beginnings to become a theater of national acclaim. 

During the Great Depression, Barter Theatre opened its doors in Abingdon, Virginia, proclaiming “With vegetables you cannot sell, you can buy a good laugh.” The price of admission was 40 cents or the equivalent amount of vegetables, dairy products and livestock. Since then, Barter has created a legacy of amazing theater with actors such as Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal and Ernest Borgnine spending time on Barter’s stage.

Today Barter Theatre is led by artistic director Richard Rose (a St. Norbert College graduate) that has been involved with more than 135 productions during his tenure at Barter Theatre. In an introduction he penned below, it's clear The Diary of Anne Frank has a special place in his heart. 

A Look Within… The Diary of Anne Frank
THE COURAGE OF EVERYDAY LIVINGby Richard Rose, Director of The Diary of Anne Frank

We take our daily lives for granted. We are frequently told, “Live life like every day is your last.” But the truth is, to live each day like it is your last is impossible. Life is about ordinary existence. You cannot sustain a life of the extraordinary over along period of time. We never know when our last breath will be taken – no matter what our situation. We never know exactly when the moment will occur. When you are 15, and your life seems completely ahead of you, you cannot even conceive of the notion that you may never breath again. 

The beauty of the story of Anne Frank is that she left behind in her diary not the fear or the mundane, but the everyday thoughts, dreams and ordinary existence of an adolescent girl growing up in extremely difficult conditions while struggling with those things every adolescent experiences. Yet, Anne’s life is far from ordinary; it is courageous. 

Courage is, generally, defined as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” Further definitions include such descriptions as “a spirit also suggesting a quality of temperament enabling one to hold one’s own or keep up one’s morale when opposed or threatened, as in ‘her spirit was unbroken by failure’; resolution stressing firm determination to achieve one’s ends; tenacity adding to resolution implications of stubborn persistence and unwillingness to admit defeat.” All of these seem highly applicable to Anne Frank. She, no doubt, led a courageous existence, particularly in those years of hiding from July 6, 1942 until her capture on August 4, 1944, and through to her death in March of 1945.

Although Anne Frank did nothing singularly heroic, she is courageous. And it is her living of a courageous life for which she is remembered and admired. 

Her story of daily existence serves to remind us all - then, now and through the ages – of the injustice of hatred. Of course, Anne is a reminder of the horrible Holocaust suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazi regime, but she is also a symbol of so much more than that. Wherever there is persecution at the hands of another, Anne Frank’s story serves to remind us that the innocent, who are only trying to live their ordinary lives courageously, are being stripped of their most fundamental rights. 

Perhaps, someday, Anne’s story will make us all think about the courage of those lives before they are destroyed and help us put an end to the hatred of other races, ethnic groups, religious groups or simply of others who are different from us. 

Everyone has a right to live a courageous life. No one should be allowed to put an end to that life. A note: In 1999, Time magazine named Anne Frank among the icons of the 20th century on their list, “The Most Important People of the Century,” stating: “With a diary kept in a secret attic, she braved the Nazis and lent a searing voice to the fight for human dignity.”

Live a courageous life.