A Review of Mary Poppins

Photo by Len Struttmann

by Sharon Falduto 

Cedar Rapids - Mary Poppins at Theatre Cedar Rapids is lively, energetic, and colorful fun.

The musical combines elements of the beloved 1960s Disney movie and several plotlines from P.L. Travers’ series of books about the uncanny nanny Mary Poppins, making for a unique musical experience that adds more dimension to the story.

The songs in this musical are both familiar and different. You will hear “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and “Jolly Holiday,” but the verses are different than those on that old Julie Andrews soundtrack recording. Much of the music is the original Sherman brothers, with additional songs, music, and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, whose credits include Peter Pan and Honk.

A Review of Into the Woods

photo by Jackie Blake Jensen Photography

by Sharon Falduto  

Iowa City - Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 musical Into the Woods has cast a powerful spell on audiences for nearly 30 years and is always popular in revival, which is why the corridor was able to support two performances of the show in the same season that Disney released a movie.

My 11 year old daughter sold Girl Scout cookies to the cast of City Circle Acting Company of Coralville’s Into the Woods when they were still rehearsing in their street clothes. Without the benefit of props, costumes, or set, she stood enthralled as the actors dug into the prologue of the piece. Naturally, she was my accompaniment for the premiere of the show on April 24, 2015.

The show interweaves and overlaps several Grimm fairy tales. We see Cinderella, longing to go to the King’s Festival but hindered by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Jack, of future Beanstalk fame, and his mother are in desperate need of food, and his mother demands that he sell his pet cow, Milky White. Little Red Riding Hood is off to visit her Granny, but runs into some trouble along the way. A childless Baker and his Wife long for the child who does not come. A wicked witch explains that she has cast a spell on the Baker’s family that his household will always be barren (which, if you think about it, is a pretty short-sighted spell). The only way to overcome the spell is for the Baker to retrieve four objects; “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.”

Year-End Wrap-Up!

As the year draws to a close, we at the Iowa Theatre Blog have gotten to reminiscing about the past 12 months. We're sure you have, too! So, we invited our reviewers to talk to us about their "best of" choices for 2014. It was a fun process: usually, we restrict what our reviewers can comment on. No one can review a show that a company they're affiliated with has produced, for example. Here, though, we gave them free reign to talk about what caught their attention, what moved them, what huge successes they saw in Corridor theatre in the year 2014. We hope you're as excited as we are to read the results! Also, we'd LOVE to hear what YOU think on the matter! Sound off in the comments here, or on FB, or Twitter... or just start the conversation at your favorite NYE party :-D What excited YOU about local theatre in 2014? What gave you hope for 2015? Read our reviewers' thoughts after the jump...

Camo! Is a Clever Collaboration

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Emily McKnight

L-R: Kalvin Goodlaxon, Rip Russell, Iver Hovet, Bob Shaffer

Iowa City - Iowa City Community Theatre’s Camo! The Musical is a snapshot of a time in our recent past when men were the men who hunted and wore camouflage, and women were the women who kibitzed and crocheted. It is a joint effort with Combined Efforts Theatre, “Iowa’s only theatre company with a mission purposefully to include individuals with disabilities in compelling and entertaining performances.” CET and ICCT both serve the mission well with this seriocomic piece.

The musical was written by local talents Janet Schlapkohl and Chris Okiishi. How lucky are we to have such world class song and story writers in Iowa City? Camo! dips into many topical subjects — the role of women and men in a changing word, the disconnect between brothers who have different goals in life, racism, the wounds of childhood, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Xanadu Is Campy Fun, But Frequently Falters

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Jackie Blake Jensen Photography

Victoria Vaughn as Clio; Skylar Matthias as Sonny

Coralville - Nostalgia for the recent past is big business, as musicals like Mamma Mia! have shown. Xanadu mines a similar vein for an audience who wants to reminisce about its youth, and maybe cringe a little along the way.

Xanadu is a labor of love for director Chris Okiishi. He admits to book problems in his director’s note, but tells us how he went to the movie five times in its opening week anyway. His love for the high concept musical shows in the details, but I fear his adoration may have blinded him to some of its weaknesses. Fortunately, the show is, if nothing else, a lot of fun.

For Colored Girls... Tells Powerful Stories with Poetry and Movement

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Len Struttmann

Cassie Liendo, Genevieve Johnson Heinrich, Heather Byrd,  Tierra Plowden,
Olivia Villela Lestrud, Shacorrie Mcbride, Iris Strong

It's amazing how much raw power seven women can bring to an intimate, sparsely decorated space.

Theatre Cedar Rapids's production For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf is in the Grandon Series, and takes place in the black box Grandon Theatre downstairs at TCR. Director Angie Toomsen chose a white flooring to offset the dark walls and the bright colors the actresses wore, which made for a striking visual as the riot of colored dresses filled the stage.

For Colored Girls... is what is called a choreopoem; a melding of poetry and choreography first created by playwright Ntozake Shange in 1975. The play is a collection of twenty poems interpreted by women who are known only by the color of their clothing--"Lady in Green," "Lady in Purple," and so on, encompassing the colors of the rainbow.

A Christmas Carol Will "Bless Us, Every One"

by Sharon Falduto
photos by Jackie Jensen at ICPixx

Fenna Scherrer as Tiny Tim;
Joseph Dobrian as Ebeneezer Scrooge

Coralville - I would be awfully surprised if you didn’t already know the story of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It is a tale so enduring that it has inspired countless retellings, from Mr. Magoo to the Muppets, and suggested the name of Donald Duck’s miserly uncle. But in case you have just arrived here from another land, I will summarize. It is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a flinthearted old man who cares more for money than people. He is visited by spirits in an effort to save his soul from eternal torment.

Director Josh Sazon’s spare set decoration served the piece well. The dim lighting and lack of opulent backdrop served to place the audience in grim Industrial Revolution-era London. Scenes changed easily with the introduction of only a few set pieces to illustrate Scrooge’s counting house, his clerk Bob Cratchit’s house, and other locales. The costumes were evocative of Victorian era England, with women in full black skirts and bonnets and the men in long coats and hats. Scrooge spends most of the play in his dressing gown with a matching night cap covering his bald pate.

Joseph Dobrian’s Scrooge was the right amount of menacing and miserly for the part, indicating his disapproval of requests for such small favors as more coal with a harsh retort. His stentorian tones well suited the delivery of Scrooge’s classic lines. He dismisses a request for charity: are there no jails? No workhouses? If people are dying, then best they get on with it and decrease the surplus population! His dour demeanor in the beginning of the show makes his transformation after the last ghostly visit even more surprising and enjoyable to watch.

Spamalot Is Great Fun For Fans

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Jackie Jensen at IC Pixx

King Arthur (Rip Russell) and his knights

Coralville—I consider myself very lucky to be a resident of Coralville. I can see Broadway shows, presented in the beautiful Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, by just driving a couple miles down the road (even if I do have to add in a few blocks of a detour to 6th Avenue).

It was my privilege to see and review opening night of City Circle Acting Company of Coralville’s Spamalot, which was the show’s Eastern Iowa premiere. I’ve loved the music of the show ever since a friend loaned me a CD of the Tony Award winning 2004 musical. I planned to get tickets to the touring production at Hancher but, well, that plan was washed out by the flood of 2008.

The musical follows the movie of Monty Python and the Holy Grail; and some bits create the laughter of recognition before the scene even begins. When a cart full of plague victims rolls through, the audience anticipates that someone will soon announce that he is in fact, Not Quite Dead--and the always appealing Doug Beardsley as “Not Dead Fred” does not disappoint. He can, in fact, dance a jig and a highland fling, just as the song promises. The “Knights Who Say ‘Ni’” were another group who caused titillation in the crowd before the first “Ni” was uttered.

Musical Fans "Cain't Say No" to Oklahoma!

By Sharon Falduto

Iowa City - There’s a reason Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are so popular, beloved, and often produced, and that reason is that they are just very good shows.

I had a great time at Iowa City Community Theatre’s production of “Oklahoma.” Each actor was a joy to watch, the show was well-paced and engaging, the set was a masterpiece of simplicity, and the band was phenomenal.

“Oklahoma!” is a love story set in the Oklahoma territory at the dawn of the 20th century. It’s not quite a state yet, and resident Laurey Williams isn’t quite ready to admit yet that she really does love Curly. She’s a strong country girl, she doesn’t faint at the sight of a man, and she’s certainly not going to go off with him to the Box Sociable just because he talks purty about a “surrey with the fringe on top.”

Three Little Pigs Full of Endearing Charm for the Younger Crowd

By Sharon Falduto (and Piper Falduto, age 5)
Photo by Jackie McCall

Amana—In our post-ironic age, it’s nice to see a good old straightforward telling of the story of the three little pigs. The Life and Times of the Three Little Pigs, by Gene Mackey, presented at the Old Creamery Theatre in their Theatre For Young Audiences series, is a delightful retelling of the age old tale of three pigs and the wolf who wants to eat them. I brought my 5 year old daughter Piper with me to get the view from the ground floor.

Annie a Joy for the Whole Family

by Sharon Falduto; photo by Krista Neumann

Josh Sazon as "Daddy" Warbucks;
Veronica Abreau as Annie

Iowa City - The Iowa City Community Theatre has continued its holiday tradition of gifting the community with a tremendously satisfying musical the whole family can enjoy. This year’s show is the delightful Annie. My entire family was delighted and engaged by the show, from the hyper five year old to the sardonic 12 year old.

The musical of Annie is based on Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie comic strip, focusing on a story line in which she is plucked from the “Hard Knock Life” of her orphanage and lands in the lap of luxury at the manse of billionaire Oliver Warbucks. The original Broadway show opened in 1977 and it has been a perennial favorite on every platform from the big screen to our beloved local theaters ever since. Props to the lyrical composer, Martin Charnin, for my favorite rhyme ever: “No one cares for you a smidge when you’re in an or-phan-age.”

The core group of orphans were capable and entertaining in their singing and dancing; their raggedy clothes and dirty faces gave them an air of pity as they waited in the orphanage for the person who would “Maybe” eventually adopt each one. I’d like to make special mention of Molly, the youngest orphan, played by the adorable gap-toothed Chase Horning. I’m not quite certain which of the other girls played which orphan. Due to an unfortunate lighting choice indicating the time of day as the dead of night, each girl was in darkness during the one scene in which Annie called them each by name.

Director Krista Neuman was at her best when filling crowded scenes full of people, from the hustle and bustle of a New York City street (“NYC”) to the down in the mouth hoboes who sang in their Hooverville shantytown (“We’d Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover”). Each ensemble member had a true sense of his or her character, whether he or she was a bum or a servant in Warbucks’ home. (As my husband joked, “It’s nice that Warbucks gave all those homeless people jobs”). I especially enjoyed watching the little playlets that took place during the “NYC” number, which included some of the same girls who played the orphans gussied up and playing well-to-do children out on the town.

Jill Beardsley had some fun, memorable choreography, including the kick line at the end of the orphans rendition of “Never Fully Dressed” and a humorous conga line during the Hannigans’ “Easy Street.”

Angela Howard did a nice job as a just-drunk-enough Miss Hannigan, the matron of the girls’ orphanage. She adequately handled the barely suppressed rage of the character intermingled with the desperate hopelessness she exhibited when throwing herself at any available man. Doug Beardsley as her brother Rooster and Eliza Sanders as his girlfriend Lily nicely rounded out the team of scoundrels who were out to con Warbucks through their knowledge of Annie. Though their scheme was evil, their dancing was light and amusing, and it was hard to truly dislike them.

Rebekah Kent was a lovely Grace Farrell, personal secretary to Oliver Warbucks. Her singing voice was light and pure but unfortunately at times too soft to be heard.

For this production the part of Annie was double cast; the performance we saw featured Veronica Abreau, a delightful young singer with a bright future in music. (Katey Halverson plays the role in the matinee performances next weekend and Abreau handles the role in the evening shows. And I’ve heard good things about Halverson as well so don’t be afraid to check out a matinee!)

The true standout from this show was Josh Sazon as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks. He had a perfect blustering tone tinged with just the right amount of heart to make Warbucks believable as both a ruthless money grubbing billionaire and a softie who could fall in fatherly love with a little orphan girl.

The live music accompanying the show was spectacular, up to the caliber of any local performance venue. Unfortunately, at times the music that was meant to be a background to the dialogue overpowered the actors’ voices, and we missed some of the lines.

No production of Annie is complete without her faithful dog Sandy, and Opie-the-Dog was the best live performing dog I’ve ever seen. He came when called, he sat on cue, and he even ad-libbed a paw on Annie’s shoulder during her performance of the show’s big number, “Tomorrow.”

This is a great family show, with humor just grown up enough for the adults and with characters for children to relate to. It’s a wonderful Christmas gift to take your family to the Johnson County Fairgrounds and share the experience of live theater with them.

Annie runs one more weekend, with shows Dec 14 & 15 at 7:30 p.m., Dec 15 at 1 p.m., and Dec 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for students & seniors, and $10 for children, and are available here.

Review of Steel Magnolias

By Sharon Falduto; photos by Jordan Running

Iowa City - My friend invited me to Steel Magnolias. She loves the movie; she’s seen it as least 25 times. I saw it once and so long ago that I have only a vague recollection that maybe Julia Roberts was in it.

The play is more intimate than the movie, of course, by its very nature. It takes place on one set, a beautifully appointed beauty parlor. The focus of the play is on its six women, without any distractions from menfolk. Written by Robert Harling as a way of dealing with his emotions after the early death of his sister, it’s somewhat ironic that one of the most iconic ensemble women pieces of recent memory was written by a man, but the 25 year old script doesn’t feel dated at all. After all, we still feel love, and hope, and anger at loss.

Rich Riggleman’s set is awesome—it looks just like the beauty parlor from my hometown, with the tiled floor, the black bonnet hair dryers, and even a working sink. The sink helped provide one of the first gut busting laughs of the show. Classic hairstyle posters decorate the walls, as well a poster bearing the slogan of the beauty shop owner: “There’s no such thing as natural beauty.”

Carole Martin plays Truvy, the beautician with a heart of gold who keeps the ladies’ hair styles and hearts in line. As the show starts she has hired Annelle, a lost soul whom she is practically ready to adopt, and she’s atwitter because romance is in the air as young Shelby is getting married that day. Carole’s soft Southern drawl is the first thing we hear, immediately putting the audience in mind of the show’s Louisiana setting. She’s conducting an interview with the doe-eyed Annelle, played by Valerie Mozena. Annelle is new in town and obviously has a story to tell, a story Truvy is dying to hear but is too polite to ask about, at least at first. The opening scene establishes Truvy as mother hen and Annelle as her latest project.

It was a treat to watch Valerie’s Annelle mature throughout the show, starting with her wide eyed fear of failure, through a more confident phase marked by brighter makeup and garish earrings, until she settles into a more pious, prayerful repose. Ellen Stevenson plays Miss Clairee, the town matriarch, with a regal air and the conviction that she must know everything at all times. Miss Clairee is a force of nature and Ellen has no problem marshalling that force.

Lois Crowley’s Ouiser, the town curmudgeon, has the best lines in the show—one woman’s husband is “such a gentleman—I bet he takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it.” Nearly everything she says is a one-liner, which, unfortunately, felt somewhat less than organic at times. Nonetheless, every time she opened her mouth the audience laughed at her acerbic wit.

The true heart of the show is the mother-daughter bond between Kristen Schneider’s M’Lynn and Noel VanDenBosch’s Shelby. The show begins on Shelby’s wedding day as the ladies are getting their hair set, and we see the tension and the love between these two immediately. Noel’s Shelby is a strong, independent young woman—not afraid to tell her Mama that she’ll wear baby’s breath up her nose for her wedding if she wants to, by God—but when she sinks into a coma-like state brought on by her diabetes, her mama immediately stops the fighting and snaps into mother bear mode, giving her juice as the ladies fuss around looking for candy. Noel’s valley of vulnerability in between her peaks of spunkiness endears us to her character.

Kristen Schneider’s M’Lynn bears the weight of the show. Her daughter Shelby has decided to ignore medical advice and get pregnant, which proves to be a catastrophic decision for her health, if not for her romantic heart. Kristin shows fierce love as she recounts the tale of sitting by Shelby’s side in a diabetic coma, watching her slip away—her voice doesn’t crack, but the raw emotion is there in her voice and her stance. Her sadness, her anger, even her laughter are all completely believable emotions as we watch her rage against the unfairness of it all. It would take a person with a stronger reserve than mine to remain dry eyed during the final scene of the show.

Director Scott Strode elicited powerful performances from these women. They huddled in a bunch when the scene demanded closeness, but in a way that felt natural, not crowded. Each actress knew her character well enough to inhabit that woman even when the spotlight wasn’t on her. Each woman was able to do some business in keeping with her character without drawing attention from the main focus of the scene.

Truvy’s beauty shop is the home where the heart is, the kind of place we would all love to be able to visit weekly to catch up with our girlfriends and gossip. ICCT’s production of “Steel Magnolias” lets us live in that world of colorful characters and lifelong friends for a couple of hours. The show is a great exercise for your emotions, with a strong cast of some of Iowa City’s finest women. Please plan a visit to the fairgrounds next weekend to check it out.

The show runs through October 28, with shows Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16, $13 seniors and students, and $8 children. Visit the ICCT website for further details.

Legally Blonde Verdict is a Bright Theatrical Future

by Sharon Falduto

Coralville—City Circle Acting Company’s Legally Blonde is a fun, upbeat evening of cotton candy colored entertainment. This is City Circle’s 6th teen summer musical, and some of these talented kids already have a great deal of theatrical experience. It’s a credit to all of their acting chops, as well as Brett Myers’ directing, that all of the characters knew who they were in each scene. Even the extras blended into each scene, whether they were portraying background sorority girls or background law students.

Legally Blonde actually began life as a novel, was adapted into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, and then became a Broadway musical. It’s more difficult these days to make an original musical, so producers are going to established name brands such as The Wedding Singer and The Producers; such is the case with this Laurence O’Keefe musical.

The titular blondie is Elle Woods, president of her sorority, who is all set to get engaged to her boyfriend Warner. The show begins with the insanely catchy “Omigod You Guys,” a perfect introduction to our characters. Instead of proposing, Elle’s boyfriend Warner drops her as he heads off for law school, telling her that in order to be successful, he needs a wife who is “less of a Marilyn and more of a Jackie.” So she decides to follow him to Harvard Law, setting aside her partying ways so she can pass the LSAT and be accepted. Instead of a personal essay, she arrives in front of the Harvard acceptance committee with a backing group of cheerleaders and dancers, who sing that she is “what Harvard wants” in a spectacle of sequins with a driving marching band beat, and that she needs to get in for reasons of love. Though the head of the acceptance committee is hesitant, his two young flunkies let her in for reasons of “cultural diversity,” and of course because she’s a cute blonde.

The set, by Jenn Tillapaugh, was amazing in its simplicity and versatility. It featured two levels and, though I’m pretty sure it only had two sides, the set rotated to reveal several different backgrounds: the sorority house, a Harvard classroom, a courthouse, stairs, windows, and doors. My favorite set piece was the judge’s bench and witness stand, which revolved to reveal—a toilet.

Ryan Forbes Shellady as Professor Callahan kept a calm, cool demeanor, managing to convey a sense of authority over the rest of the kids despite being a high schooler just like the rest of them. Adam Jedlicka played Emmett, the T.A. who helps Elle study and, naturally, falls in love with her. His stooped shoulders and spiky hair conveyed “schlubby scholarship kid” very well, and his passion during his song “Chip on My Shoulder” was strong and clear. Hannah Rublaitus played Paulette, the hair salon worker who helps Elle stay true to her roots and who longs for a love that reminds her of “Ireland.”

Victoria Vaughn’s Elle is a rising star; I couldn’t believe she played both Penny in City Circle’s Hairspray and Marian the Librarian in Regina’s production of The Music Man. The role of Elle allowed her to showcase both types of personalities, as she transitioned from ditzy blonde to a more Marian-like Harvard student.

Leslie Nolte’s choreography was lively, fitting, and fun; each dance scene moved and shook and created engaging visual displays. “What You Want” and “Bend and Snap” were particularly delightful numbers.

Lots of fun details add up to make a delightful, lightweight show. I loved the “Greek chorus” who attend to Elle during her time of tragedy—that is, a chorus of her Greek sorority sisters who appear in all white and comment on the action while also moving it along. I especially enjoyed the way they heralded the passing of time by wearing Pilgrim hats and humming “Simple Gifts” to show that it’s November and then carrying a snowflake bedecked “December” sign. Some of the best moments were small moments, like when a partying student with his tie wrapped around his head sang a Jamaican-tinged chorus of the song “What You Want” while Elle is studying for her LSAT. The cast also included two adorable dogs, as Elle’s pet Bruiser and Paulette’s dog Rufus.

I did, at times, have some trouble following the words, as the orchestra overwhelmed the singers. This only rarely happened, though, and the orchestra was wonderful. I really can’t believe there were only nine of them.

It’s a treat to watch these talented kids, and a shame that this show runs only one weekend. These young people ensure a bright future for our local community theaters, as well as the theaters they will infuse with their talent as they move on with their lives.

Legally Blonde has one more showing, today, Sun 7/29, 2:00 p.m. at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

"Music Man" Lifts Spirits

By Sharon Falduto

Washington - My oldest girl fell in love with The Music Man when she sang parts from the show in her 3rd grade music class. Later that year, we visited the Meredith Willson Museum and Boyhood Home in Mason City and her love for the show grew. So when the opportunity arose to see it at Washington Community Theatre, she—and my other two children—begged me to review the show.

It’s a story of huckster Harold Hill, a traveling con of a salesman whose current line is selling musical instruments, uniforms, and instruction for the original boy band… a marching band. Unfortunately, he can’t actually play a single note, so he has to spend the show keeping the town off kilter so they won’t bother to look into his credentials. He keeps the disagreeable school board from digging too deeply by bringing out their inner barbershop quartet. He even distracts the mayor’s wife with the ladies’ dance society.

The toughest character to woo is Marian, the town librarian. Mackenzie Roth’s Marian was steadfastly aloof toward Harold, refusing to be drawn in by his charm. She is a lovely singer, plaintive when the part called for it, lively when necessary. I realize this may be an odd quibble, but for the part of Marian the Librarian, she was almost too pretty. I realize that this is a cliché, but maybe a pair of glasses would have helped her seem more… librarianish?

Steve Lockard’s Harold Hill wasn’t quite sleazy enough. He seemed too ‘nice Iowa boy’ and not enough ‘shady flim-flam man.’ He sang well, but his songs seemed to lack the oomph necessary to really convince these Iowa stubborn folk to see the error of their pool playing ways. Even “76 Trombones,” the musical’s usual show-stopping number, fell a bit flat.

The best performances in this show were the supporting actors. Doug McBride’s Mayor Shinn and Chrys Vest’s Mrs. Paroo were two of the most fun people to watch. Mrs. Paroo was extremely entertaining as she tried to get her daughter to at least act interested in a man, and Mayor Shinn’s malapropisms elicited a lot of laughs as he tried to expose Hill for the fraud that he was.

The Music Man is a fun show and one that we Iowans appreciate. Meredith Willson’s score pegs us perfectly with the song “Iowa Stubborn”: we can be cold as our falling thermometers in December when you ask about our weather in July! WCT wisely name-checked Washington during this song which always helps to get the home crowd excited. The crowd scenes filled the stage with color and movement. At times, however, some of the ensemble dancing was a little stiff. Perhaps now that opening night is under their belt, they’ll loosen up a little bit.

I was impressed by the touch of having children in costume hand out programs, and then even more impressed when we noticed that these same costumed children were actually in the show. Lots of kids filled out the boys band and the Wa Tan Ye Girls. All the costumes in the show were wonderful, truly reminiscent of small town Iowa 100 years ago.

It’s nice to have a show that all ages can enjoy, and this community of theater goers ranged in age from five on up. The audience provided a standing ovation at the end, and left hopefully with a lighter heart after having enjoyed the evening of theater.

"Music Man" runs through July 29, Monday through Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:30. Tickets are $15 ($5 for students).

Guys & Dolls a High Rolling Success

By Sharon Falduto; photos by Tom Adam Photography

Colin Nies as Sky Masterson, Megan Sands as Sarah Brown, Carrie Houchins-Witt as Adelaide, and Rob Keech as Nathan Detroit


Coralville—“Community theater,” says director Josh Sazon in his Director’s Note, “is, by its very nature, a bit of a crapshoot.” City Circle Acting Company of Coralville’s production of Guys and Dolls definitely comes up seven. Or five. Or however you win at dice shooting—here’s where I admit I don’t actually understand a thing about shooting craps. My lack of understanding, though, does not in any way diminish my enjoyment of this lively production.

Guys and Dolls is set in the early 1950s, when "guys was guys" and the only reason they might do something so crazy as to get a job or rent a nice apartment was for “some doll.” The first characters we meet, and therefore are sympathetic to, are part of the colorful but seedy underbelly of New York. Gamblers and drunkards, always trying to keep one step ahead of the law (as portrayed by Joseph Dobrian’s Lt. Brannigan). Next we meet the hard working missionaries of an obvious homage to the Salvation Army; dressed in military gear and marching down the streets, exhorting the sinners to “follow the fold.”

The sinners and the saints are drawn together when huckster Nathan Detroit, who needs $1000 to hold a spot in the local auto garage for his “longest established permanent floating craps game in New York,” bets high rolling gambler Sky Masterson that he can’t get Sergeant Sarah of the Mission to go to Havana with him the next day. Sky presents himself to the Mission, woos Sara, and due to the laws of musical theatre physics, she goes to Havana and they fall in love. The characters all speak deliberately, with spaces in between each word. It took a bit for my ear to adjust to this rhythm, but when it did, it felt authentic to the Runyonesque atmosphere. It’s not many authors that get an entire adjective devoted to their last name.

In contrast to the new and exciting love of Sara and Sky, we see Nathan Detroit and his fiancée Adelaide, to whom he has been affianced for fourteen years. Rob Keech’s Nathan Detroit is the show’s strongest character , the man who sets the whole plan in action. He’s just a no-goodnik, he says, but he clearly loves his Adelaide, even if they never do make it official. Rob expertly maneuvered his character from huckster to lovelorn man, in a fabulous suit of bright blue.







Rob Keech as Nathan Detroit and Carrie Houchins-Witt as Miss Adelaide








Megan Sands’ Sarah Brown is the heroine of the show, the character who changes from a stiff mission “doll” who will only marry a button down, pipe smoking, Brooks Brothers type, to the kind who gets in brawls in Havana and finally lets her hair down—literally. Megan’s soaring soprano was beautiful . In contrast, our other heroine, long suffering Adelaide, played by Carrie Houchins-Witt, had a deep strong voice invested with pathos and wit.

Colin Nies’ Sky Masterson had a presence that commanded the stage every time he appeared. It never seemed in any doubt that he would win any bet he placed, but he didn’t swagger, he just calmly accepted it.

The two characters who weave their way throughout the show, Larry Newman’s Benny Southstreet and David Rudolph’s Nicely Nicely Johnson, were enjoyable comic relief and fun to watch as they danced and interacted. Their sparkle lit up the stage in every scene they graced. Nicely Nicely leads one of the show’s best tunes, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” At times the ensemble chorus did overwhelm Rudolph’s voice.

Nelson Gurll’s Chicago gambler Big Jule was a man of few words, but when he spoke, he always got a laugh.

The chorus girls of the Hot Box were perfectly harmonized and always in sync with one another during their dance routines; it was a shame that the fellas there to see them weren’t as interested in their dancing and singing as they were in their skimpy undergarments.

The choreography of Doug and Jill Beardsley was fabulous; ranging from a soft-shoe routine with our favorite ne’er do wells Benny and Nicely Nicely, to a stage-filling tango-slash fight that left all but one couple on the floor, to a dice-shootin’ ballet fraught with tension.

The show featured a superb live orchestra, never overpowering the singers but accompanying them beautifully. Frank Loesser’s music is as catchy now as it was 50 years ago; I dare you to leave the show without singing about good ol’ reliable Nathan Detroit.

Every costume in this show was excellent and well suited to its character, from the zoot suits of the ruffians in the ensemble to the gingham dresses of the girls who dance behind Miss Adelaide at the Hot Box.

A note to the audience: you may have silenced your phone, but the people sitting behind you and next to you can still see you texting someone for half the play. If it’s that important, go home. It’s disrespectful to the audience and to the players. You’re not present in the theater with your thumbs on a keypad.

I highly recommend Guys and Dolls. The music is clear and resonant, the singing and dancing are excellent, and the whole production will leave you happy.

Guys and Dolls runs through June 24 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. Show times are 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays. Tickets are $22-27 ($17 seniors/students, $12 children).

The Wedding Singer Brings Us Back

By Sharon Falduto
Photos by Alisabeth Photography

I’ve been a fan of “The Wedding Singer” ever since I saw a performance from it on the 2006 Tony Awards. As a member of Generation X, I feel that our generation is mostly overlooked in the pop culture department—we may have had a moment back there in the ‘90s, but for the most part we’ve been squeezed between the Baby Boomers and their relentless nostalgia and then the growing population of their Bieber Fever kids. There just weren’t enough of us born to shift the cultural zeitgeist for too long. For instance, I have no interest in ‘70s homage “Mamma Mia” whatsoever—ABBA songs mean nothing to me, other than my observation as a wedding DJ that everyone thinks they’re going to like “Dancing Queen,” but then anyone rarely dances to it.

So I was excited to have a musical that was a touchstone for my generation. It doesn’t just pull songs of one particular style. The songbook incorporates all the major ‘80s genres: hair metal, synthesizer music, line dancing, and a song that I swear is a Jewish prayer set to a Spandau Ballet riff. All the music is catchy, fun, and funny, and I jumped at the chance to see Theatre Cedar Rapids’ production of it.

The show is the musical version of the Adam Sandler movie “The Wedding Singer.” If you’re not a fan of Adam Sandler, not to worry—this show has much more heart and much less frat boy humor than you might expect. Our characters are Robbie Hart, “The Wedding Singer,” Julia, who is engaged to Wall Street mogul Glen, and a supporting cast of friends and family of the white trash, stereotypically gay, and rappin’ granny archetypes. Robbie and Julia meet as both are involved with other people, but naturally they are destined to be together—a plot point so obvious that their “engagement announcement” lobby card actually played in the lobby during the intermission of the show.

Rob Merritt is the literal star of the show, Robbie Hart, the lead singer of wedding band Simply Wed. When we first meet him he is about to be married, and his charm deflects tension in the first wedding scene. He convincingly turns inward, and slovenly, after he is left at the altar. The next wedding is a disaster, with Robbie being dumped in an actual Dumpster. Merritt's voice was strong, his body language natural, and his hair fit in perfectly with the ‘80s—though in a low key sort of way. Through Robbie's increasing ardor for Julia he begins to find his way back to being able to sing at weddings—without making the best man want to punch him out.

Nicolette Coiner-Winn’s Julia wasn’t quite as strong in her role. She has a sweet singing voice, but her physical movements didn’t seem in line with her feeling. I couldn’t tell a strong difference between her demeanor with Glen, the man she’s supposed to marry but doesn’t love, and Robbie, the man she’s starting to love but can’t marry. In an awkward bit of foreshadowing, when I attended on opening night, Julia’s mic didn’t work for her first scene. She could be heard, though she certainly wasn’t as loud as the others. Someone made the unusual choice to have another actress sing her lines from backstage, which caused a strange duet for a few bars until the actress realized what was happening and started to lip synch. Not a stellar beginning for the show.

Alisabeth Von Presley as Holly, Julia’s slut-with-a-heart-of-gold cousin, was the standout amongst a great cast of supporting characters. She commanded every scene she appeared in with her booming vocals, her strong stage presence, and her awesome half-toned 80s hair.

Ben Lafayette plays band member Sammy, a white trash sort of fellow who looks like he’d be at home as a backup member of Bon Jovi, and who also serves as a love interest for Holly. I tried to see what Holly could see in him but I couldn’t quite get to the essence of what made him a good guy—all I could see was, as she put it in song, “that jackass with the bass.”

Aaron Canterbury is the last member of the band as George, an obvious Boy George knockoff who never quite “comes out” but does wear his hair long and curly and his eye makeup thick, walks with a swish in his step, and tells us in song “I don’t like a girl that will cry and bawl—in fact, I never liked girls at all.” This was a fun character—I suppose if someone wanted to, they could protest the outrageousness of the portrayal of a gay man, but then hey—this was the ‘80s; everything was outrageous. Remember those shoulder pads?



Amy Rehnstrom plays Robbie’s grandmother, the sort of hip grandma who would buy her grandson a vibrating queen-sized bed as a wedding present. She’s a great character and Amy brought her to life with a stance that’s almost a squat and a voice that sweetly but strongly advises Robbie to remember, when he’s sad, “That Linda is a skanky whore.”

The ensemble actors and actresses were great, rotating through various archetypes (wedding guests, Wall Street brokers, club goers, and impersonators of ‘80s icons from Ronald Reagan to Tina Turner), and I loved some of the casting choices that were made with the actors available—the fact that, for instance, the same couple got married in each wedding scene, with the same best man, and the same maid of honor wearing a different hideous dress each time. I was, however, distracted by the fact that the actress who played Linda, the girl who dumped Robbie at the altar, appeared again in other scenes apparently as someone else—I wish her hair had been worn differently, at least, than the giant crimped blonde hair that was the overwhelming feature of Linda.

“The Wedding Singer” doesn’t address any particularly important issues of the ‘80. It’s a story of love, and loss, and finding love again, set to a rockin’ soundtrack with a ton of color. The laughs aren’t high brow, but they’re genuine, and those of us who were born between about 1965 and 1980 can enjoy all the jokes that seem to have been written just for us. But then, as the 50-year-old woman seated next remarked, “That was such a fun show!”

Leaving Iowa filled with humor and heart

by Sharon Falduto

Washington - The family road trip is a situation easily mined for a story, for nostalgia, and for humor. Even in the modern era, families still pack the car for trips around the country and forced family bonding.

Leaving Iowa, presented by the Washington Community Theater, is a nice play. Gentle humor, gentle people, and slight self deprecating jabs at Iowa that should make every Iowan smile. We are warned before the play begins that we are not allowed to video tape, take photos, or detassel during the performance.

Don is the main character of the show, the prodigal son who returns home to visit family, and to fulfill a promise to his father. The play is told in a series of flashbacks to the family vacations of their youth; interminable car rides with the sibling squabbles and wrong turns that anyone who has ever taken a road trip will recognize. He is played by affable Steven Lockard, who transitions seamlessly from annoyed older brother to a grown man on an “adventure” and back again. His reactions to his annoying little sister feel true, and his weariness as he completes the task set before him as an older man shows in the slump of his shoulders.

Dad, played in the flashbacks by Brett Pierson, is the center of the story and carries himself energetically and with enthusiasm as he treats his family to Civil War reenactments, historical markers, and other Fascinating Road Trip Wonders. He is a quiet presence on stage when his character is no longer with us, and a bubbly center when he is.

Melody Lockard's Mom character is alternately annoyed, patient, and balancing precariously in between—a mom we can all relate to. Melanie Jeter-Hawkins retains a nice sense of character as she shifts from the role of pesty younger sister to the adult role of irritating younger sister. I didn't quite feel the chemistry I wanted, however, between her and her brother.

The show suffered from some pacing problems and dragged occasionally, forcing the audience to wait too long for the punch line of a long tale.

The incidental characters that drifted through the play were used to nice effect; their sight gags and characters were sometimes unexpected and sometimes familiar. After all, a play called Leaving Iowa is almost required to have at least one farmer in Osh Kosh B'Goshs and one homage to “American Gothic,” isn't it? My particular favorite character was Sue Spencer's Museum Assistant, the sort of stern usherette type every theatergoer has encountered at least once.

Leaving Iowa is an Iowan kind of show; not flashy, but droll, and with a good heart. Before the show begins we are treated to a slide show of some wonderful Iowa scenery, which is a nice introduction to the state and to the show. The message of the play, which will resonate with many Iowa Theatre Blog readers, is that you can leave Iowa, but it will still be your home.

Joyful Hairspray is Awesome

by Sharon Falduto

Coralville - Joy.

Joy is the feeling that infuses the cast, and so the audience, of City Circle's Hairspray.

The musical is a riot of color and song; if your toes aren't tapping and you don't leave humming, then your soul must be dead, my friend. It is a joy to watch each actor interpret their role, and furthermore, it's a joy to enjoy a show in the brand new Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. How lucky we are to live in a community that places a priority on artistic endeavors and funded such a wonderful venue, with brilliant acoustics and wonderful sight lines, even for those of us who were seated in the very last row of the balcony.

Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, and deals with a range of issues: racism, sizeism, and the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. The heart of the musical is its star, Tracy Turnblad, who doesn't let her plus size stop her from dreaming big and landing a spot dancing on the “American Bandstand” style “Corny Collins Show.” Elizabeth Breed perfectly inhabits the character of Tracy; full of life and joy and dreams. Elizabeth's voice soars above the crowd, and her spot on delivery of comic asides was wonderful to hear. Her Tracy carried herself tall and proud, as Tracy should; Tracy forces us to look beyond a person's size, or skin color, to hear the heart behind the facade.

The role of Tracy's mother, Edna, is traditionally played by a man, a habit that began with the original John Waters' movie and its inclusion of Divine in this part. In our show, we get the privilege of watching Chuck Bogh evolve from a sad sack washerwoman whom life has beaten down into a strong and powerful woman who owns the stage. The attraction and chemistry is strong and clear between Edna and her husband, Doug Beardsley as Wilbur, who portrays Tracy's joke-shop owning dad with a spryness of physical movement in the mold of Art Carney. The two of them share a duet in Timeless to Me that is touching, funny, and warm.

The mean girls of the show are Janelle Barrow as Amber Von Tussle and Carrie Houchins-Witt as her mother, Velma. They are delightfully and devilishly cruel, especially as Velma plots her daughter's future at the expense of others' pain in Miss Baltimore Crabs. If I have one complaint about Amber, it is that her dancing may be too good—when Mother rebukes her for her horrible dancing on the Corny Collins show, I thought, “Wait, really? I thought she was good!”

Justin Mangrinch's Corny Collins had a great talk show host delivery and style, flipping his microphone with studied ease as he rolled with the movements of a new direction. Tracy's love interest, Link Larkin, was played by Esack Grueskin with an Elvis-type swagger.

Issues of race come to the fore when Tracy lands in detention and meets Seaweed, who helps her learn new dance moves, and who shares an instant attraction to Tracy's friend Penny. I enjoyed watching Tevin Jones as Seaweed, as he moved and glided across the floor with his killer dance moves. I did occasionally have a hard time understanding some of his lines, though.

Seaweed's mother is Motormouth Maybelle, the DJ who spins platters when it is “Negro Day” on the Corny Collins Show. Deandra Watkins' DJ patter is fun and fresh, and when she sings, the roof lifts off the house. Her bio says this is her first musical, and I certainly hope it isn't her last; it's almost enough to make me want to head to her church to hear her sing again.

Seaweed's sister Li'l Inez, played by Mekela Spence, was cute and fun to watch as the 6th grader danced and sang as well as any adult on the stage.

The only flawed note was Kenneth Van Egdon's choice to play Harriman F. Spritzer, advertising force behind the Corny Collins show, as an over-the-top Richard Nixon impersonation.

My personal favorite characters were the Pingletons, Penny and her mother Prudy. Victoria Vaughn's Penny spends the first act in a state of bewildered innocence, wandering amongst the players in choreographed dances in I Can Hear the Bells and misunderstanding the world around her. When she meets Seaweed, her character arc bends away from scared little girl into woman. Her mother, repressed Prudy, was played with great gusto and just the right amount of comic overacting by Robyn Calhoun.

The original choreography by Nolte Academy of Dance was always spot on; each group dance filled the stage in such a way as to look full but not too crowded, and when we are first introduced to the African American dancers, we can tell right away that their dance style is different, looser, more free, than the Corny Collins regulars who suddenly look stiff and square in comparison.

It is a tribute to Chad Larabee's direction, certainly, that at every moment in every scene, each character knew what he or she was doing. When my eyes wandered from the principles, I could tell that each member of the cast was reacting exactly the way their character should, even if they were not the focus. It was noticeable, however, that the character of Brenda's exit (for nine months, wink wink), which precipitated Tracy's shot on the Corny Collins Show, was not complete—in that Brenda, or at least the actress who played her, kept showing up in other scenes, wearing the same dress, as my 10 year old companions noted. The Dynamites, played by Naomi Spence, Taisha Poole, and Chastity Dillard, were a kind of Supremes-style Greek chorus who added color and soul to many scenes. Each member of the “council” of dancers on the Corny Collins show was fun to watch, as they moved in unison in strong dance numbers.

I Know Where I've Been by Motormouth Maybelle is a strong second act song accompanied by choreography that was more abstract than other dances in the show, representing the struggles of African Americans in the early parts of the civil rights movement. Though I love the song, I have a quibble with this part of the book of the musical—because the person who has the idea for a march on the TV station to demand that “every day be Negro day” was not Motormouth, Seaweek, or even L'il Inez, but Tracy; it is unfortunate that we seem to have a tradition of writing plots in which the white person is the one who rallies the minorities to action in order to help themselves.

I took two 10-year-olds to the show with me. They spent the remainder of the evening alternating between singing the show's fabulous closing number, You Can't Stop the Beat, and the song in which we are first introduced to the mother/daughter dynamic, Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now. All of the songs are hummable, danceable, and joyful.

I'd like to give props to producer Chris Okiishi, who introduced the show, for saying it was the first “ticketed in advance, assigned seat” production, thereby acknowledging that the All in a Day Play Festival did precede it. Chris also announced the backstage tours of the new space are available for purchase.

I will leave you with the words of my companions after the show: “That. Was. Awesome.”

(Photos by ICPixx.)
(Additional reporting by Rachel Falduto and Mary Vander Weg)

Original works showcased at City Circle

Coralville - It’s so exciting to live in an area rife with the opportunity to see live theatre written by local playwrights, a chance you’ll have one weekend only at City Circle Acting Company of Coralville’s presentation of the New Play Festival Five at the Iowa Children’s Museum.

The show’s first play is its lightest, if not its strongest; The Comfort of Cole Haans by Henry Meyerson is one of the few plays that doesn’t deal with death or its aftermath. We meet Joe and Karen as they are running late for dinner at his parents. He is nervous about letting the old folks down. Actor Rick Adams shows his unease with twitching legs and hyperactive pacing. Susan Jacobs begins the piece a bit shrill as she looks for her lost shoe, which she cannot leave the house until she finds. We’re made to feel the tension between these two as the show begins, which settles into a more comfortable level when the mystery of the lost shoe is revealed to surprising results which serve to bond the two together. While fun in the moment, the play was a bit of frippery that didn’t seem to say anything new.

Kit Gerken and Theresa Meeks-Mosley expertly inhabit the world-weariness of long suffered nurses in the second play, Extra Patient in Room 203 by Tom Deiker. They both look and sound like naturals in their dark blue scrubs as they discuss the mysterious patient who has appeared in Room 203. Meeks-Mosley’s younger nurse is a patient, kind soul who plays nicely off Kit Gerken’s older, more acerbic nurse. Their repartee is authentic and the audience is made to feel that they are amongst nurses who truly care about their charges. The play hints at the supernatural, and the care that is required for souls even after they have passed on. I enjoyed watching these two and though I sometimes resent a dangling mystery, I don’t believe this is a mystery that it is possible to solve.

Family Portrait by Greg Machlin is another play that deals with the effects of loss, this time on a family. We begin with the fairly gimmicky concept of having a family do a “family portrait” videotape on the same date each year, and we watch as the family grows older and deals with unexpected death, divorce, and moving on after periods of grief. Each actor — Jeff Emrich and Jackie Allen as the parents, Madeline Quint, Jake Russell, and Shelby Zulkin as the children — evolves from a member of a happy family and through the stages of grief and recovery, with bumps along the way. The show is harrowing but ends on an upbeat note. Though the play was short I felt I knew each of these characters, and I was able to feel their pain through the actors’ keen portrayals.

Old Summer Love by Stanley Toledo is a nice little play which shows that love and connection is something not only for the young and hip, but also for the old and hippie. Kit Gerken and Scott Strode, are a couple who drifted apart when he went to ‘Nam. The two seem naturally at ease with one another and it’s a pleasure to watch them reconnect after the loss of their partners. This play is a bit of a light sherbet to cleanse the palate from the sadness that permeates its predecessor, Family Portrait.

Shanghai Knives by Marek Muller is perhaps the weakest of the plays, although to be fair during the preview performance one actor was out sick and was replaced by another actor who held a script and only mimicked the swordplay to come. The play seemed like a nice idea, but was somewhat poorly executed. It involved silverware, embodied by humans, on a quest to save the Lady Spoon. The play seemed to exist so that there could be swordfighting, rather than the swordfighting being there to advance the plot, which was paced too slowly for my taste. But, still. Swords. They can be pretty cool.

The evening ends with A Simple Request by Brian Tanner, in which we see play #1’s frantic husband, Rick Adams, become a control freak boss (named in the program as “Richard W. Adams.”) He shows his range by reigning in his hyperactive energies to a more controlled rage. Josh Beadle, Adams’ opposite in demeanor, approaches the office with an unusual request that throws Adams off his game. This is a fun play with a unique concept and an excellent way to cap the evening. It’s nice to imagine what the characters will be doing after the snippet of their lives which we see in this play ends.

The play festival runs this weekend only, so don’t miss your chance to see these original works right here in Coralville. At $10/ticket, it's a steal!

Check out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the park!

by Sharon and Matthew Falduto

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the story of two minor characters from Hamlet, examining the spaces in between the scenes of Shakespeare’s play, and what these two might be doing with themselves. As they are characters created solely to die, they find themselves lacking in motivation or even memory of any day before today. At times they even forget which is Rosencrantz and who is Guildenstern.

Brad Quinn’s Guildenstern (well, I guess he's Guildenstern) is the philosopher of the two, giving soliloquies of his own on the nature of the laws of probability, and the best process for his sole motivation, “drawing out” the nature of Hamlet’s madness. He is given to monologues, flowingly delivered by Quinn and always relatable, even when they concern unicorns or dwarves.

David Priebe’s Rosencrantz is more reactionary, filling silences with his animated expressions and striding lengths. Though his character is allegedly the less bright of the two, it is clear that he does contain some intelligence and understanding of the end game of the show. Priebe uses his wonderfully expressive face to great comic effect.

The main characters are in their best form when they are engaged in rapid-fire dialogue, such as their games of questions. These scenes are some of the most enjoyable of the play. At other times, the pacing of the show seemed a bit off; the coin tricks that are supposed to demonstrate that these people exist outside the laws of nature end up dragging the show down at times. Admittedly, it's hard as an actor to say the same word over and over and make it interesting, but unfortunately the play gets a little static at the beginning.

When the players within the play took the stage it also livened up the action, illustrated by one of Stoppard’s great lines spoken by Rosencrantz: “I feel like a spectator - an appalling business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.” The mostly silent troupe of actors fills the stage with merriment as they demonstrate their remarkable acting skills, mostly illustrated by the myriad ways in which they can act out death. They are led by Ed Henry, the most vociferous of the group, who delivers his lines with an actor-ly bearing which we found always entertaining but somewhat lacking in vocal variety.

Matthew James’ Hamlet was the true scene stealer of the show; he perfectly exhibited the Dane’s “north by northwest” madness by making perfect sense and reason when necessary and literally falling on the floor screaming and thrashing when not. With akimbo hair and expressions that varied from conniving to convivial, James made the most of every moment he was on stage.

The costumes were beautiful and lively; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s cloaks and hats were a riot of color in stark contrast to the plain black outfit that Hamlet wore for most of the show. Director James Trainor made good use of the stage, choosing the right moments to place a character on the balcony and utilizing the trap system for a hilarious sequence late in the play.

We were glad to have brought a blanket along to utilize in the somewhat unseasonable September weather, and you might want to bring some bug spray as well. We in Iowa City are very fortunate to have such a wonderful outdoor venue in our community. Enjoy theatre under the stars this weekend at ICCT's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.