The All Night Strut Holiday Show

After reopening the historic theater two decades ago with The All Night Strut!, the Gem Theatre proudly comes full circle, celebrating its twentieth season and concurrently spreading holiday cheer in The All Night Strut Holiday Show (conceived and originally directed by Fran Charnas; musical arrangements by Tom Fitt, Gil Lieb, and Dick Schermesser, with additional orchestrations by Corey Allen). This production, recreated by Gary Thompson, fashions a revue of equal parts retread and sentiment that, beyond its seasonal appeal, promises to scratch the viewer’s every musical itch.

The show’s premise lies in its simplicity: revisiting beloved tunes circa the 1930s and ‘40s. Borrowing heavily from the original show, the first act finds performers Lianne Marie Dobbs, Marja Harmon, Jared Joseph, and Denis Lambert working their way through sparkling, peppy tunes with a hefty helping of wartime odes. For the second act, costume designer Mark Mariani turns the cheer up to eleven with dazzling plush ensembles as the score leaps headlong into Christmas songs (plus an extraneous bit of tokenism in a single Hanukkah number). A largely empty set is given dimension in Dana White’s cool lighting scheme, which puts the focus on the singers but also highlights the swinging three-piece band behind them (Ralphie Armstrong, Rob Emanuel, and music director Sven Anderson).

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Mid-Life Christmas

One could glean from the title of Mid-Life Christmas, Go Comedy!’s third annual holiday sketch show, that the well of holiday-themed content may be drying up at Southeast Michigan's preeminent improv theater. But based on the razor-sharp humor and screaming breakneck energy of director Pj Jacokes and his ensemble, one would be wrong. Indeed, this is a tightly packed and wildly varying show with not a misstep in sight.

From the outset, an army of characters hurtles across and around the stage, portrayed by a half dozen performers. As suggested by the title, the bloom is off the rose for many of these Christmases; life’s little disappointments and missed expectations are somehow magnified at the holidays, a theme that pervades these hilariously awkward sketches (written by Jacokes and cast). As newlyweds, Jen Hansen and Tommy Simon keep the conflict amicably realistic as they negotiate shared holiday time between their two families. Bryan Lark lends an undercurrent of maliciousness to a composer putting his distinctive spin on a famous Christmas tune. In the longest post-layoff elevator ride ever, Christa Coulter and Chris DiAngelo use much more than words to maximize their excruciating discomfort. And the Christmas Eve Macy’s dressing room is ground zero for Carrie Hall, who enacts the mother of all pubescent humiliations with perfect physical comedy.

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Ain't Misbehavin'

Not to be confused with jukebox musicals (and their frequently shoehorned plots), the musical revue lets a collection of works stand on its own merits. In Ain’t Misbehavin’ (conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr., and Murray Horwitz, and created/arranged/adapted by a laundry list of contributors), the music is that of Thomas “Fats” Waller, the venerated jazz performer and prolific composer. With nothing more than a set list and an after-hours impromptu feel, this Performance Network Theatre revue, directed by Tim Edward Rhoze, doesn’t require fanfare: it makes its own.

In a sunken speakeasy-type joint in 1940s Harlem, five revelers and their four-piece jazz combo aren’t ready to call it a night, so they sing and dance to their hearts’ content. Seriously, that’s all the setup this show — and this team — needs. Set designer Daniel C. Walker introduces cabaret seating to the Network stage, creating a conspicuously cramped, make-do playing space that proves boundless in the director and cast’s collective imagination. Waller’s melodies are handled superbly by this group; under musical director/arranger R. MacKenzie Lewis, expert vocal proficiency is apparent, both alone and in groups. Yet the crowning achievement of the musical performances is their abundant spontaneity, a quality equally well represented in choreographer Robin Wilson’s jovial non-lockstep movement: the fresh and unscripted feeling was never so alive as it is here. The off-the-cuff music and dancing beats actually make some spoken exchanges feel comparatively hacky; even with an unobtrusive boost from sound designer Edward Weingart, the action puts on a temporary veneer to ensure the humorous ribbing can be heard above the uproarious party atmosphere.

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The Importance of Being Earnest

Although translating a classic play into a new context can be as uninspired as a game of dress-up, Tipping Point Theatre’s exceptional take on The Importance of Being Earnest is no such production. Quite possibly the most famous play by timeless wit Oscar Wilde, this intentionally frivolous love story is made comic by its tangled introduction of pseudonym and mischief. As directed by Julia Glander, the current production is transported into another era in an interpretation that simultaneously honors the playwright’s purpose and exceeds the viewer’s expectations.

This incarnation is refashioned from the late nineteenth century text into a Roaring ‘20s splash of sublime excess and frippery, a choice that plugs directly into the play’s obsession with triviality. From scenic designer Monika Essen’s ornate art deco details to Quintessa Gallinat’s perpetually peppy sound design to the beautiful lines and smart seasonal coordination of Christianne Meyers’s costumes, the look and sound is pure Jazz Age decadence. The production is presented in two acts with a single intermission, and although the words are Wilde’s, the unique perspective is Glander’s. Her bold vision has the characters routinely shattering the fourth wall — in actuality, every wall, as the production is staged in the round — and directly engaging with the audience, providing a multitude of unexpected line readings and hilarious creative moments. Characters move dynamically on and around the circular playing area, a lighting challenge ably met by designer Joel Klain, and properties by Beth Duey broadcast opulence while maintaining a clean sparseness that suits the free-wheeling staging. The story of assumed identities and their attendant mixups sails through this fully realized filter, but the storytelling itself is no less deserving of attention here.

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Engagement Rules

Detroit Repertory Theatre refers to playwright Rich Orloff’s Engagement Rules as a comedy. Indeed, in this world-premiere production directed by Bruce E. Millan, the opening scenes — and many following — play that way, with seemingly harmless character differences leading to nonthreatening conflicts. However, the story that unfolds involves themes both heavy and profound, lending a slight but persistent tonal dissonance to the playwright’s study of clashing values and hard-earned communication and compromise.

The younger of the play’s two couples, Donna (Kelly Komlen) and Tom (Charlie Newhart), have an enviable connection that sparks from their first intimate moments onstage. Newly engaged, the pair’s fresh young passion is contrasted with the decades-married complacency and routine of their closest friends, empty nesters Rose (Trudy Mason) and Phil (Harold Uriah Hogan). The women used to be colleagues at an organization championing women’s rights until Donna took up the law school track; all four are established as gym buddies, conveniently making way for numerous Donna/Rose and Tom/Phil locker room scenes that add perspective and depth to the expected Mars and Venus material. There’s a lowest-common-denominator feel to the short opening vignettes, in which every beat is played with flinty contention straight out of a sitcom, regardless of whether it suits the nature of the conversation. Overall, the comic perspective works better for the misaligned Rose and Phil; as performers, Mason and Hogan have a field day blithely failing to connect, and every one of Hogan’s begrudging punchlines is a winner.

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