Faith Sheehan Gallivan, Peter Jaskowiak and James R. Finan in TOY's "Bridge to Terabitha"

(photo: Ken Barney)

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

Theatre of Youth has long specialized in plays for children that do not condescend to them. Their current production of Bridge to Terabithia is a sophisticated entertainment that emphasizes their theme of plays based on books.

Bridge to Terabithia is the story of a friendship between Jess and Leslie, two fifth-graders, a boy and girl, who are having trouble fitting in at their rural school. They invent a secret kingdom which they call Terabithia, where they rule as king and queen. The script, by Katherine Paterson and Stephanie S. Tolan, was adapted from Paterson’s Newbery Award-winning book, which has also been made into a film.

Under the able direction of Eileen Dugan, in the Theatre of Youth production, young adult actors James R. Finan and Sara H. Churchill play 11-year-old Jess and Leslie with great sincerity and a winning lack of self-consciousness. We witness the forging of a strong and complex friendship between the boy and girl. Whereas a book can offer numerous events and subtle character development, a staged musical retelling of the story necessarily depends on broad strokes. Still, the world of Jess and Leslie seems quite vivid and fully dimensioned.

Jess’s family is played by the ever reliable and motherly Mary McMahon, with Peter Jaskowiak as the father, Amy Jakiel as the older sister and child actor Faith Sheehan Gallivan as younger sister, May Belle. Little May Belle is a deliciously written role, and Miss Gallivan makes the most of it, giving a spirited performance reminiscent of any of a number of unforgettable Hollywood children from Margaret O’Brien to Hayley Mills.

Ultimately this is a sad story, and one appropriate only for children over the age of seven. Its message is quite soulful. Among the dramatic highlights is a scene between Jess and his father, with whom he has had a rocky relationship, in which father and son bond after the accidental death of Leslie.

Caroline Parzy gives a strong performance as Janice Avery, the despised class bully, who turns out to have hardships of her own that no child should have to endure. Tanya Shaffer is charming as the beloved and insightful teacher, Ms. Edmunds.

FAMILIAR STRANGERS

Familiar Strangers, the current offering at MusicalFare, is billed as a “chamber dance musical.” Told entirely through dance underscored by the music of Joni Mitchell, the show takes us on a journey of a woman who becomes agoraphobic after her husband’s suicide. Afraid to go out of her home, she observes relationships among the people on the world outside. The story unfolds in a series of scenes or interactions with Terrie George as the lead character and principal dancer and Loraine O’Donnell as the vocalist.

Conceived, directed and choreographed by Michael Walline, Familiar Strangers is a thrilling theatrical piece that makes excellent use of Buffalo’s abundant dance talent. Kelly Cammarata, Nicole Marrale Cimato, Robert J. Cooke, Christopher M. Howard, Marc Sacco, Kristy E. Schupp and Doug Weyand all shine in this daring and dynamic evening.

Walline’s choreography is inventive, varied and lively. He successfully tells the story while he entertains and shows the dancers off to marvelous advantage.

It is especially good to see talented Terrie George given a role that allows her to showcase her formidable acting and dance skill. She is sensationally graceful and expressive. George finds an equal partner in O’Donnell, who provides nearly constant vocal interpretation for the duration. An actress with an impressive range of vocal expression, O’Donnell can alternate from rock and roll to soulful ballad with seeming effortlessness. She is demoted to second fiddle at the curtain call, a decision that is inexplicable, except, apparently, to a choreographer. Make no mistake, she exerts an important narrative presence throughout.

Michael Hake provides musical direction and accompaniment along with a talented ensemble. The show sounds terrific.

From time to time, MusicalFare takes a chance with a show that challenges its audience and moves them outside the traditional box of diverting musical confection. Wings and A New Brain come to fine as successful examples. Do not expect a Joni Mitchell revue from Familiar Strangers. Similarly, do not expect a Twyla Tharp night of greatest hits matched to dance, in the vein of her Billy Joel, Bob Dylan or Frank Sinatra concoctions. For Familiar Strangers, the songs seem to have been matched to the story, not merely jobbed in for their popular appeal.

The show reportedly continues to undergo refinement and I am told that it is fully 20 minutes shorter than it was on the night I saw it. That being said, while I did feel that trimming was in order, I never felt hostage to a piece that was constantly engaging and enjoyable.

THE SYRINGA TREE

Yes, Gin Hammond gives a tour de force performance in The Syringa Tree. Yes, it is a highlight of theater going at Studio Arena Theatre. The piece is compelling, moving and thought-provoking. The set by Kenneth Foy and lighting by Steven B. Mannshardt are perfection in their admirable simplicity and effectiveness. Audiences have been adoring the play and it is worthy of these accolades.

The Syringa Tree is a one-woman show by Pamela Gien, in which Hammond portrays a little white girl in South Africa, and all the other people who populate her world. She acts out the role of her mother and father, her friends and caregivers, doctors and neighbors with clarity and invention.

The story begins during the time of apartheid and takes us through the violence leading up to the changeover to majority rule and finally to the return of the main character, now an adult, to her homeland after years living in America.

If that sounds like an expansive stretch, it is, and marvelous as Hammond is, the event is, at times, a test of endurance. A great deal of personal and national history is packed into the uninterrupted hour and 40 minutes. Nonetheless, there are other times when the tale is gripping and at every moment, Hammond is in command of the world of The Syringa Tree.

THE FOURTH WALL

The Kavinoky Theatre delves headlong into the most recent self-reflective and politically charged turn in the career of A. R. Gurney with The Fourth Wall. I first saw this play over a decade ago, at the Hasty Pudding in Cambridge. It only had its New York debut last year, meaning it had an unusually long gestation period for a Gurney play. The play that evolved was a comment on the state of theater, and how that reflects a general theme of passivity and disconnection in society at large.

As the play begins, we find ourselves in the typical Gurney setting, the upper-middle-class home of a middle-aged couple in a town like Buffalo. From the start, there is something askew here. Peggy, the lady of the house, has decided to leave one wall of her living room entirely blank, believing that there are or might be people on the other side watching, like in a theater. This decision creates turmoil in the house; the husband enlists an old friend from New York and a theater professor to get to the bottom of it.

Christina Rausa plays Peggy. Steven Cooper is the husband. Lisa Ludwig plays Julia, the friend from New York, and Paul Todaro is the theater professor.

Gurney creates great fun by playing with theatrical conventions. The characters work earnestly at finding an appropriate plot. As Julia observes, Peggy must think there’s something about contemporary American life which makes her feel she is performing a useless role in a second-rate comedy of manners. The professor, however, sees Peggy as a contemporary Saint Joan.

Ultimately, Peggy bails out of this comedy and escapes through the fourth wall on her way to confront George W. Bush. As she leaves she asks the audience if there is anything they want her to tell him. The query elicits a palpable laugh.

The cast is strong, the performance is strong and the evening is very enjoyable. The play is performed without intermission, which seems wise, as the single joke on which it is built is quite slim. Still, nobody can toy with a single theatrical convention like A. R. Gurney and the Kavinoky has made his work a specialty of the house.