Latest news with #BetweenRiversideandCrazy
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Weekend events around Dayton: May 23
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — As the 2025 NATO Parliamentary Assembly makes international headlines here in Dayton, this Memorial weekend is full of interesting events. 2 NEWS compiled a list of events happening around the Miami Valley Join as a volunteer at Dayton VA Memorial Day events PEACE TALKS: DSA's Spring Juried Exhibition – Noon, Dayton Society of Artists. Learn about the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords and the dynamics of peace. Learn more. Dance Class – 8 p.m., Dayton Vintage Dance. $5. A fun way to learn about the history of dance and get moving. Learn more. Between Riverside and Crazy – 8 p.m., Dayton Theatre Guild. An award-winning play follows the story of a retired NYC police officer, Walter 'Pops' Washington, his grief from the death of his wife, and his son's reentering his life. Buy tickets. Memorial Day carnival at Young's Jersey Dairy this weekend Front Street Saturdays – 11 a.m., Front Street. See a variety of local vendors and art. Learn more. Record Release and Concert Film Shoot – 6 p.m., The Fairborn Phoenix. $25. Described by organizers as 'an event eight years in the making', the performance will be the entire new album. It will be filmed for a concert film called GIVE ME COLOR. Buy Tickets. Adult Prom – 8 p.m., Scene75 Dayton. $65/$125. The event will feature a live DJ, Ron Hunter. Buy tickets. Heritage Day at Carillon Park to feature Centerville Community Band Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' at Detroit Repertory Theatre delivers a solid performance
Detroit Repertory Theatre continues its exploration of legendary playwright August Wilson's Century Cycle with 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' a work especially well known to many since 2020's Netflix adaptation starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. During the freezing winter of 1927, 'Mother of the Blues' Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey and her band struggle to record a few new songs in a rundown Chicago studio. Egos and tempers clash, and lives are changed in a mostly solid production that's proven very popular with local audiences. The real meat on the bones of this premise is the interactions between Ma's four sidemen as they prepare for and work their way through the gig. Their bickering, reminiscing, storytelling and wisecracking form the majority of the show's content, and the four actors portraying them here – Antoine McKay (Cutler), T. Pharoah Muhammad (Toledo), Will Bryson (Slow Drag) and Evan Lewis Smith (Levee) – display a great, lived-in chemistry together. Muhammad's world-weary Toledo is a treat, and Smith shows great range in an iconic role without chewing the scenery. And it's always an embarrassment of riches when Detroit Rep regulars McKay and Bryson share the stage together; their hilarious back-and-forth jabbing shows the mark of an excellent comedic duo, but they bring the fire and fury when things turn serious. Melanie Jones does some terrific singing as Ma, but lacks some of the booming force that's needed from the character. It's a pleasure to see X'ydee Alexander again after her great work in Detroit Public Theatre's 'Fat Ham' earlier this season, but she's given sadly little to do here as Dussie Mae, Ma's kept girl. In his Rep stage debut, James Herriotte give a warm and winning performance as Sylvester, Ma's nephew with an unfortunate speech impediment. Matt Hollerbach (recently seen in the Rep's 'Between Riverside and Crazy') and Jeff Nahan make a humorous duo as Irvin and Sturdyvant, the beleaguered and possibly shady duo trying to wrangle the circus of characters. You can practically smell the stale air in the recording studio of Jamie Hope's well-done set, and costumer Sandra Landfair Glover ensures everyone looks period-perfect. Cassaundra Freeman's direction varies when it comes to pacing, which stretches the show to nearly three hours with intermission, and also with movement, frequently stranding the ensemble in the same locations for very long periods, creating static energy; it's unusual to watch someone give a lengthy and impassioned rant while firmly planted in one spot. With such agitation among the characters, one wants more movement as the tension amps. Still, as the action careens toward a devastating conclusion that feels somehow inevitable, quality performances bring it home. One wonders what might be done to help with audience etiquette at the Rep, however. Talkative viewers and active cell phones tend to be a regular issue, but a recent matinee performance of 'Ma Rainey' was so rife with audience chatter and frequent cell phone noises that the actors were clearly thrown off their game a few times and the audience had to be admonished by theater admin before the second act. (Which didn't stop yet another phone from ringing – at length – during Act Two.) The Rep is a valuable community asset worth supporting. Which means it's worth supporting politely so that all present may enjoy its offerings. 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' currently one of the hottest tickets in town, is sold out for all remaining performances. But standby rush seating is available for every performance, and thus far, no one has been turned away. To purchase rush tickets, you must be present in the lobby one hour before a performance, check in at the lobby box office, and ask to put your name on the standby list. Closer to showtime, tickets for any open seats are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are $30. Performances continue through March 2. Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Review: 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' at Detroit Repertory Theatre
Boston Globe
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Attention must be paid to the Gamm's ‘Between Riverside and Crazy'
The play is getting the compelling telling it deserves in its Rhode Island premiere at the Gamm Theatre. It is spearheaded by director Jeff Church, whose most recent productions as artistic director of Pawtucket's Burbage Theatre Company (' by his exceptionally talented cast and crew. Get Globe Rhode Island Food Club A weekly newsletter about food and dining in Rhode Island, by Globe Rhode Island reporter Alexa Gagosz. Enter Email Sign Up Like Guirgis' other works, 'Between Riverside and Crazy' is populated with richly drawn, fatally flawed, self-destructive characters that are hard to categorize. As the play unfolds, their glorious contradictions become captivating and lead to unexpected Everyman heroism. This is particularly so for retired police officer Walter 'Pops' Washington, portrayed with remarkable dexterity and honesty by Cliff Odle. Advertisement Pops refuses to settle an eight-year-old civil lawsuit against the New York City Police Department after he, a Black man, was shot while off-duty by a white rookie officer. Pride is on the line. So is honor. But mostly, Pops needs the residual anger and acknowledgement that the lawsuit provides to get up every morning to face another day without his self-worth, faith, sobriety, and his recently deceased wife. The outspoken Dolores always defended her man and would tell others that attention must be paid to Pops with the same conviction as Willy Loman's devoted spouse in Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman.' Listen carefully and you'll also find evidence of August Wilson and Tennessee Williams in Guirgis' characters and dialogue, along with David Mamet's affinity for profanity. Living with Pops in his rent-controlled apartment on Riverside Drive is his ne'er-do-well adult son, Junior, played by an intense Daniel Washington, who seems close to exploding upon each entrance, and imploding at each exit. Also freeloading are Junior's air-headed girlfriend Lulu — portrayed delightfully by Luz Lopez — who squeals 'I may look how I look, but that don't mean I am how I look' without providing a shred of evidence, and recently released felon Oswaldo, played by Arturo Puentes. Advertisement Puentes effortlessly manifests the aforementioned dark comedy and intense drama, first in the play's very funny opening scene that finds Oswaldo trying to express feelings grounded in his case worker's over-intellectualized feel-good therapy, and then in the violence that erupts at the end of the first act. Puentes displayed a similar aptitude for Guirgis' work in last summer's Burbage production of 'The Motherf**ker With the Hat.' Feeding Pops' indignation is a seemingly cordial visit by his former partner, Detective Audrey O'Connor (an excellent Rachel Dulude) and her two-faced fiancé, Lieutenant Dave Caro (Anthony Goes, also terrific in Burbage's 'The Motherf**ker With the Hat'). Both attempt to talk Pops into taking a settlement by convincing him that there is no Black or white on the police force, only blue. Attempting to restore his faith in God is a representative from a local church, portrayed by a wonderfully risk-taking Maria Albertina, who arrives at his door with a Bible in one hand and ulterior motives in the other. The play takes place in a performance space built for intimacy and with an eye for detail by scenic designer Michael McGarty. The set consists of adjoining rooms – a lived-in kitchen, family room, and bedroom – that show remnants of Dolores' gentle touch and taste, that are now obscured by Pops' indifference. All this has been pushed so close to the edge of the audience's seating that we can feel the heat coming from the on-stage arguments, and easily hear sound designer Peter Sasha Hurowitz's between-scene underscoring with thematically relevant lyrics, such as Sly Stone's 'It's a Family Affair,' coming from Pops' phonograph. Steve McLellan's lighting design and Amanda Downing Carney street-smart costuming add to the production's authenticity. Advertisement Pops may feel that no one is paying attention, but the folks at the Gamm should have no such worries when it comes to this fine production. BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY Play by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Directed by Jeff Church. At the Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick. Runs through March 9. Tickets $65-$75, plus fees. 401-723-4266, Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle. Connect with him .
