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Creede Rep Scores with 'Edwin Drood' |
Tony Fair | 6/16/08
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Creede Repertory Theatre has been receiving well-earned recognition as one of the country’s outstanding professional repertory theatres. Along with the kudos comes increased expectations by the audiences and the reviewers regarding the breadth and depth of a season’s offerings. So, how does CRT open the 43rd Season amidst pressures of maintaining and hopefully increasing attendance with the current economic conditions, the ever increasing competition for the entertainment dollar and the increased expectations for artistic excellence?
 First, this exceptional professional company opened its Black Box Theatre Season with the CRT original musical Meet The Beasts. This production, commissioned by CRT for its Educational Outreach offering last Fall, was so successful on tour it was selected to open the 2008 Season in the intimate third floor performance space known as the Black Box Theatre.
A Black Box Theatre is so named for its flexible qualities as a performance space and the fact that its walls are usually painted black for this reason. This bold step is proving very successful to date and you will have an opportunity to experience this Jeff Carey and Jessica Jackson original work through August.
While the Black Box Theatre has presented many original and adventuresome offerings, it is the Main Stage Season that carries the brunt of the financial pressures.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood was selected to lead the Main Stage presentations, Directed by Francis X. Kuhn, with its opening this past weekend. The result is an audience pleasing comical/musical romp in a Music Hall in jolly old England. The humor, music, dance and audience involvement are accomplished in a most delightful way. The cast is quite talented from the leads through the ensemble providing the opportunity for a strong presentation – the opening night seized the opportunity.
The talented and very funny Martin Buchanan, as the Chairman of The Music Hall Royale, guides us through the adventure with a charm, perhaps scented with the essence of snake oil, that sells us on the benefits of participating – and participate we did. The audience has several important functions – not the least of which is to choose the ending the cast is to perform. It is a good thing this show has such a strong cast as they do not know the ending until the audience has chosen until it needs to be performed.
This reviewer particularly noted the following. Jessica Jackson as the male impersonator Alice Nutting provides another of her strong performances as Edwin Drood. Christy Brandy brings her considerable talent to the juicy role of Princess Puffer. Candace Bondank utilizes her outstanding operatic soprano in the role of Rosa Budd. Charlie Thurston continues to develop his intense talent as Neville Landless. Rebecca Gibel returns with all her considerable qualities as Helena Landless but quite a different look than the pin-up attributes we have experienced in the past. The gifted Michael Bouchard and his comedic abilities are well utilized but it is his surprisingly straight forward solo toward the end of Act One that was the show-stopper in my opinion.
The musical direction and accompinament by Asaf Finkelsteing and Evangelos Spanos was excellent. Georgianna Londre’s costume designs lived up to our very high expectations from this talented designer (Georgianna has set the date with Martin Buchanan for this Fall -- a little inside chat, though I am not sure Martin deserves this gem). Michael Duran’s Set design and Ryan Wentworth’s Lighting provide the technical support one expects from CRT but still surprises me as a reviewer knowing the limited space and technical challenges present at the CRT facility.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood runs in CRT’s revolving repertory format through August 23. You will consider attending more than once and use this show as a sure thing for out of town theatre and non-theatre buff guests.
A great start for what promises to be a great season for mining CRT theatrical ore in the mountains of South Central Colorado.
Tony’s Choices: We decided to lunch at the new Mermaid Café in downtown Creede and were glad we did. The Mermaid provides tasty and healthy food in a fun atmosphere with good service. The Mermaid Café is a welcome addition and will become a regular stop on our theatrical jaunts. Dinner was enjoyed at the Creede Hotel restaurant as we always find this establishment to have great food and service. We stayed at Blessings Inn, enjoying the new hammock and deck furniture as friends joined us for libations and chat prior to the show and for informal review of the performance in the hot tub prior to sleep as we need to rest up for Barb’s breakfast and her catching us up on the Creede happenings in the morning.
Information regarding the entire 2008 Season and ticketing is available online as well as ticketing at the Box Office 719-658-2540. |
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