A Utah Theater Review compiled by Ben Christensen
Payson Community Theatre’s production of Xanadu is quite the experience. As appropriate for such a unique play, this review is going to veer from the norm a bit—or at least as much as we can veer from the “norm” when we’ve only had a week to establish any kind of norm. Tonight several of us from Spanish Fork Community Theater went to Payson to show support for our sister theater and, since many of us are also reviewers for Front Row Reviewers Utah, to review the play. As such, this review is written collectively by Ben Christensen, Shannon Eden, Becca Gunyan, David Henry, Kara Henry, Ann-Marie Mair, and BJ Wright.
The first thing you need to know about Xanadu is that it’s hilarious. We all thought it was a lot of fun, and, as Kara puts it, “like eating cotton candy—fun and fluffy.” Becca calls it “cheesy, but engaging.” The play satirizes the 1980 film of the same name, in which aspiring artist Sonny Malone (B.J. Oldroyd) falls in love with the muse Clio (Alyssa Claunch), who appears to him in the guise of Kira, an Australian roller skater. The plot is somewhat silly, but it’s supposed to be. Ben notes, “I couldn’t stop laughing!”
Xanadu is being shown at Payson High School, which has a recently-renovated theater. Kara says, “It looks super nice and the seats were really comfortable.” “It’s a little out of the way,” David says, “but comfortable and nice.” The theater was not very full tonight—a problem that we hope is remedied in coming nights—but the audience was engaged. The auditorium was filled with laughter through most of the show. At one point, a character onstage walked into an empty room and asked, “Is anybody in here?” and a child in the audience yelled out, “There’s an audience!” This interruption might be viewed as disrespectful in another context, but in this case it was a sign of how engaged the audience was, and a fun addition to the running motif of fourth-wall breaking that pervades the entire show.
The set was minimal, but the few pieces used were very effective. BJ especially enjoyed the use of a projection screen to establish the Venice Beach setting. “I enjoyed his run to Olympus!” BJ says, referring to a particularly innovative scene where Sonny’s trip across the world is demonstrated by changing scenes on the screen, and Sonny reacting to each of the scene changes with a different pantomime. For example, first he runs in place while beach scenes pass by behind him, and then when he notices that the screen has switched to an underwater scene, he starts swimming. Ann-Marie says that “the effect was most impressive” when the screen was used to portray a mural that comes to life, with actors seemingly stepping out of the mural and onto the stage. Although there were sound problems toward the beginning of the play, the problems seemed to be resolved for the most part by the end. Kara loved the props and costumes, and found them “creative and well-done.” David agrees that they were “fantastic.” We all agreed that the oversized early-eighties cell phone was hilarious.
And then there’s the cast. Kara says of the entire cast: “They look like they are having so much fun and they have great chemistry. They obviously have gelled as a cast.” Ben thought that B.J. Oldroyd demonstrated a strong sense of comedic timing in his portrayal of Sonny. Both Kara and Shannon enjoyed his voice, but some of us felt he was overpowered by the music at times. He played his part well, though, and worked well with his costar Alyssa Claunch (Clio/Kira). “I thought Kira sounded best when she was doing her duets with Sonny,” Becca says. BJ enjoyed Claunch’s controlled voice, and that she didn’t oversing. There were parts, though, where it would have helped to have her mic turned up louder. Ann-Marie (who, it should be noted, is a theatrical accent coach) was not impressed with Claunch’s Australian or Southern accents, but forgives this slight, given the satirical context of the show. To be fair, Claunch was not portraying an Australian or a Southerner, but rather a Greek goddess pretending to be an Australian and a Southerner.
Clio’s jealous sisters and antagonists Melpomene (Emily McKinney) and Calliope (Miranda Duke) were favorite characters for several of us. Becca says, “The mean sisters had the best facial expressions. I loved watching their over-the-top actions.” BJ agrees, but notes that “[Calliope’s] lisp was too strong at times for me to understand.” Nonetheless, he says the two demonstrated a strong chemistry on stage. Many of us found Chris Jensen’s portrayal of Danny Maguire to be a little flat compared to the energy of all the other characters, but Shannon notes that when he sang, his voice surprised her, and Kara was impressed by his movement on stage. BJ has watched Jensen in several roles over the years and says that he has shown a lot of growth. Ben thought Deven Skaggs was fabulous, both in his cross-dressing role as Terpsicore (one of Clio’s sisters), and as Hermes, where he delivers a line that left the audience rolling on the floor with laughter. “The muses as a group were really fun,” David says. “I loved the way they interacted.” The ensemble actor who played Cupid also got a lot of laughs for his wicked eighties dance moves, and was not afraid to engage the audience after the show either, despite his not-very-modest costume (basically a cloth diaper).
Shannon notes that “the chorus could have been tighter on harmonies and volume,” and Kara agrees. “Sometimes they sounded very good,” Kara says, “but if there weren’t very many of them singing, they seemed to waver a bit and get more timid, then get off.” Both Shannon and Ann-Marie thought the final song of Act I, “Dancin’,” was especially strong. Kara says “they were tight on those harmonies and their dancing was quite good there too.” The song features backup dancers meant to represent eighties icons Kiss, ZZ Top, and Devo; we had fun stretching our eighties pop culture muscles to figure out that third one. Director Michael Carrasco embraces the self-referential humor of the script by making a cameo as the mythical creature Cyclopes. BJ enjoyed that Carrasco choreographed the scene changes seamlessly, such that they were hardly noticeable at all. Ben loved that even the tech crew, who usually remain unseen, got a chance to shine, when they were brought out to break the fourth wall along with the actors.
These extra costs hike their production costing of their product due to which they come at a cialis sale distinct time. In recent times, several other prescription medications such as viagra vs generic have been developed, it has finally been acknowledged that the female counterparts of these poor suffering men, might also be suffering. One needs to buy research chemicals to cure online viagra severe diseases, with less chances of success. It has blessed cialis canada generico the impotent men with the satisfactory sex life.
So what do we think of Payson Community Theatre’s production of Xanadu? Shannon sums it up for us: “Super fun, great music, the things that are lacking are easy to look over because the rest is so easy to enjoy.” Becca adds, “The characters have so much fun on stage, you can’t help but smile with them.” And Ann-Marie points out that her twelve-year-old daughter loved the show. “That is the measure of a good show.” “Most importantly,” David says, “it was really fun to watch, and I laughed a lot.” At the end of the play, Zeus explains that the word Xanadu means “true love and the ability to create and share art,” and PCT’s Xanadu exudes just that.
Front Row Reviewers with Miranda Duke (Calliope) and Alyssa Claunch (Kira/Clio)
Payson Community Theatre presents
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks