Humana Festival 2003 

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Three fascinating assistants surround the captivating wizard. Henrietta, invisible to all but us, at once beguiled and amazed audiences when she assisted Great's father. Trilby is a local waitress drawn toward Great -- the attraction is mutual -- aspiring to become his new assistant. Egypt is the dusky disgruntled I>formerP> assistant who schemes to discover the secret to Great's most awesome illusion, cunningly using Trilby as her bait.

Danger, deceit, vengeance, lust and ambition all take their turns accelerating the wicked whirlwind. Early on, it appears that Great has mesmerized Trilby. Later the tables seem to turn. The magic of love may conquer all -- but will that love be between Trilby and Great or between Trilby and Egypt?

Like a fine juggler, Groff keeps multiple rings suspended in mid-air throughout her elegantly framed story, surprise following surprise. But at the conclusion, we don't feel that satisfying click-click-click-click-click of everything falling beautifully and precisely together. The playwright's structure ultimately takes precedence over driving home any striking dramatic themes. Tidiness trumps showmanship.

Groff does create four charismatic roles. And with the aid of four magic experts behind the scenes, I>Orange'sP> sleight-of-hand and illusions generate solid excitement. Rene Millan, a latecomer to the production, meshed beautifully with his assistants as Great -- most of the time. Director Michael Sexton deftly selected his actresses. As our narrator Henrietta, Wendy Stetson was impudently trashy and detached. Roz Davis smoldered with feline viciousness as Egypt, and most mercurial of all, Nell Mooney's bisexual Trilby turned from worshipful to calculating in the blink of an eye. GRADE: B+

B>RhythmicityP> curated by Mildred Ruiz and Steven Sapp -- With food, souvenirs, and books outside the main auditorium -- plus a bohemian caf downstairs -- there's no shortage of diversions during Humana Festival intermissions. But the biggest crowds gathered around Rhythmicity, a septet of troubadours purveying a pleasing blend of poetry, hip-hop, and the occasional a cappella or doo-wop ditty. At one point, these streetwise scamps invited the crowd to follow them into an elevator.

The group didn't offer a formal, full-length show until the Sunday morning of Theatre Professionals Weekend. They proved that, without the scenery and deejay of Broadway's I>Def Poetry JamP>, Rhythmicity could deliver the same funky vernacular wallop.

No wonder. Members of this hastily assembled troupe were recruited from the same poetry slam circuit that sweetens Broadway's I>JamP>. My favorite was the flamboyantly gay Filipino poet/comedian Regie Cabico, in every way superior to his Asian counterpart on Broadway. Mildred Ruiz, another stalwart from the seminal Nuyorican Poets Caf, impressed with her rapping and Latina singing. GRADE: B

B>The Lively LadP> by Quincy Long (Music by Michael Silversher) -- There's a strange continental flavor to Long's oddball comedy, where ticker tape plutocrats coexist in the same metropolis as an enthroned Patriarch in military dress. It's hard to triangulate into Long's universe. Characters break into snippets of song like rascals in Irish short stories, spouting boozy pub doggerel. Amiable respectable folk are capable of the most outlandish pieties, akin to the weirdos of Voltaire's I>CandideP>. Radical ladies who speak out against the Patriarch may be ordered to burn at the stake.

At the center of all the silliness is Little Eva, a spoiled aristocrat who wants her daddy to bring her a eunuch for her birthday. All her teen friends seem to have one. Trouble is, Papa Van Huffle is dating a scrupulous and scrumptious tea shoppe waitress who happens to think that castration is barbaric. Eva and Pop's Miss McCracken just don't get along.

So when the tyrannical Eva prevails and her eunuch, Gideon, arrives at the Van Huffles', the panicked father attempts to keep the truth from his girlfriend. Deceiving his nutball manservant is not nearly as difficult. In fact, the dimwitted Jameson must be shown visual proof to be convinced. Gideon carries it with him in a little metal box.

Comedy is as offbeat as the people in Long's universe. You expect Little Eva to learn some of the basics of true respectability, and Van Huffle should be taught something about the obligations of standing erect as a vertebrate. Nothing so formulaic or predictable occurs. We're left with the unsavory weirdness of Voltaire -- without the point.

Timothy Douglas' direction was a quirky delight with superb costuming from Suttirat Larlarb. The most attention-grabbing turns came from Holli Hamilton as Eva and Will McNulty as the besotted Jameson. GRADE: B-

B>Trepidation Nation: A Phobic AnthologyP> -- Sixteen playwrights responded to the challenges of articulating the phobias of post-9/11 America. Despite the valiant, sometimes strained efforts of the Acting Apprentice Company to breathe life into the scripts, most of the writing corps sounded tongue-tied.