Welcome to 99 AND UNDER THE RADAR: A LOOK AT INDIE THEATER'S MOVERS AND SHAKERS, BroadwayWorld's new weekly series that showcases standout productions and production companies from the independent theater scene in New York City. Each week, independent producer Michael Roderick will be discussing the latest goings on in the theatrical wings, highlighting those with potentially bright futures.
This Week's Topic: The Elephants in the room have (Spoken)
Many producers say that a show's greatest selling point is its title. In the case of Elephants on Parade presented by EBE Ensemble and La Boheme (Spoken) conceived and directed by Jeremy Bloom, the title is just the beginning to an evening filled with delightful surprises.
EBE stands for "Eleven Benevolent Elephants", a group of theatre students who came together to produce their own work. Their latest offering is the result of a search for new plays that yielded six shows from 700 submissions. The six they found are golden. The theme of the evening is difficulty in communication with pieces that explore scenarios of missed text messages, mixed signals on a subway, disillusionment of a high school fantasy, cheerleaders and puppets, a misstep down the wedding aisle, and chance restaurant encounters. Intrigued? You should be. Perhaps even more impressive than the well written scripts penned by Isaac Rathbone, Libby Emmons, Nicole Pandolfo, Rhea MacCallum, Rebekah Lopata, and Erin Austin, is the crisp and varied performances by a very talented group of young actors. Montgomery Sutton transitions seamlessly from Jersey frat boy to creepy taxidermist, to Buddhist while Genevieve Hudson price and Janet Passanante shift from college slackers, to comedic cheerleaders, to cultured ladies in a Buddhist restaurant. The entire cast is impressive and the one acts moves with a nice pace using simple set pieces that establish location. This Ensemble really knows how to produce! The plays themselves vary in style and form, but all have engaging characters that are really fun to watch. The use of voice over in the first piece is especially delightful. The Ensemble also introduces the audience to ta talented new batch of directors who really serve each of the plays to the fullest. Look for Lexie Pregosin, Charley Layton, Kristine Ayers, Eric Alba, AJ Heekin, and Jonathan Reed Wexler to start showing up on posters attached to great shows in the future. Each has a lot of promise. The show is almost sold out so grab your tickets here before these elephants disappear for good.
Also this weekend, Jeremy Bloom continues to work his magic, this time at the Flea Theatre. Bloom's newest piece, La Boheme (Spoken), takes the classic opera and shows the audience what it would sound like if all we heard were the words and not the music. Often done only as an acting exercise for musical theatre performers, Bloom embraces this idea and turns it into a full production. What is most impressive is Bloom's ability to find music in the spoken word. The piece, translated and adapted by Brian Rady has all of the power and spectacle of an opera using only a few microphones, benches, a cleverly cut cardboard box, and a breathtaking ensemble of actors. They move throughout the space in ways that can only be described as mesmerizing and seeing the way they create "fire" alone is worth the price of admission. This incredibly large cast moves with such precision that the piece feels like a huge choreographed dance number with entirely committed performances. La Boheme (Spoken) is expertly produced by Julie Griffith with clever lighting by Dan Gallagher. The show features Laila Alj, Amanda Bloom, Lauren Blumenfield, Veracity Butcher, Holly Chou, Tommy Crawfowrd, Christopher Hejl, Vella Lovell, Nick Maccarone, Joyce Miller, Scott Morse, Sade Namei, Heidi Neidermeyer, Dominic Spillane, Stephen Stout, Katherine Folk-Sullivan, Ari Venturi, Ben Weber, and Claire Wilmoth. They are all worth mentioning because they are all amazing. The piece itself is relatively short in length, but true to the original story which is missing the cheery ending that RENT made so popular. The truth of the piece and the faithfulness to the true ending also makes it much more poignant and engaging. With bottomless wine for $5 a cup and a theatrical experience not to be missed, it's a good idea to scoop up your tickets, before the candle goes out. You can do so by going here.
