In early 2014 countless friends told me, “I couldn’t believe I was laughing at the things they were saying.” They were describing their reactions to the touring production of the Tony Award-winning musical, The Book of Mormon, by Broadway in Cincinnati (Jan. 7-26). The tongue-in-cheek comedy about belief takes a no-holds-barred approach to making fun of organized religion. But deep down, the show pokes good-natured fun at human nature. Its three-week run proved that Cincinnatians aren’t as uptight as some people claim.
Cincinnati Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet (Jan. 10-Feb. 8) featured Brent Vimtrup in an intelligent and energetic performance as the tragic prince. Immediately following was Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Feb. 14-March 9), Hamlet’s story from the perspective of two minor characters who can’t quite fathom what’s happening. With the same cast in both productions, it showcased the company’s talented actors.
Cincinnati Playhouse produced a recent Broadway hit on its main stage to kick off 2014: Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (Jan. 23-Feb. 16) told the story of the house at the center of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, in which an African-American family integrates a white Chicago neighborhood in 1959. In Clybourne Park’s second act, set in the same house a half-century later, a deteriorated neighborhood struggles with issues of redevelopment.
The latter half of the 2013-2014 season saw a provocative production of Nina Raines’ Tribes (Jan. 29-Feb. 16) at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. It portrayed strife in a family with a deaf son who falls in love with a woman losing her hearing. The “tribes” — her family and his — parted company over sign language versus lip-reading, a fascinating study in dysfunctional communications. ETC cast a partially deaf guest actor, Dale Dymkoski, as the son, and Cincinnati Shakespeare veteran Kelly Mengelkoch movingly played his girlfriend.
Cincy Shakes celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014 by staging the seldom produced Two Noble Kinsmen (May 2-25), completing the remarkable feat of presenting all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays in just two decades. A handful of other theaters have “completed the canon,” but Cincy Shakes did it in record time.
Know Theatre presented the 11th annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival (May 27-June 7), the final contribution by outgoing Artistic Director Eric Vosmeier. Of particular note during the Festival was a one-woman show, Sarge, by local playwright and director Kevin Crowley. Christine Dye played the wife of Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State football coach accused of sexually abusing young boys. Her steadfast denials of the possibility of his guilt made for powerful drama.
Over the summer, Know offered Serials! (June 23-Sept. 8), a half-dozen scripts presented episodically every two weeks. With less theater to see in the summer, fans turned these Monday evening events into celebrations of creativity, even if several of the scripts played as if they were being dashed off minutes before being performed with little rehearsal.
Know’s artistic leadership passed to Andrew Hungerford, and the first production of his tenure, Sigrid Gilmer’s Harry and the Thief (Aug. 8-30), was a raucous tale about Harriet Tubman and time travel staged by guest director Holly L. Derr. Hungerford, a scenic and lighting designer, has worked with many theaters locally and nationally, so he might inject new vitality into Know.
Covington, Ky.’s Carnegie staged an excellent production of Stephen Sondheim’s slasher musical Sweeney Todd (Aug. 8-23). Featuring some excellent local talent and staged by Northern Kentucky University’s Ken Jones, the show was the final work produced by Joshua Steele, who left the Carnegie in September. In November at the Carnegie, Cincinnati Playhouse Director of Education Mark Lutwak staged Driving Miss Daisy (Nov. 1-16), featuring Dale Hodges in the title role.
Ensemble Theatre kicked off its 2014-2015 season with two strong shows: With a big cast, the musical Hands on a Hardbody (Sept. 2-21) told the story of everyday people vying to win a pickup truck by keeping a hand on it longer than anyone else. That was followed by An Iliad (Oct. 14-Nov. 2), a powerful one-man show featuring Bruce Cromer playing many characters from the Trojan War while reflecting the full sweep and futility of warfare. Directed by Michael Evan Haney (recently relocated to Minnesota), it was one of 2014’s most powerful dramas.
Clifton Performance Theater, a former coffee shop on Ludlow Avenue, has become a go-to spot for storefront theater. Another script by Kevin Crowley, The Riverside (Sept. 11-27), presented by Clifton Players, recreated a Mount Adams bar and its denizens from the 1970s. In the same tiny space, Untethered Theatre staged All New People (Nov. 7-30), Zach Braff’s quirky drama about a failed suicide and starting over.
Temporarily homeless New Edgecliff Theatre offered a solid production of Douglas Carter Beane’s satiric The Little Dog Laughed (Sept. 25-Oct. 11) at the Hoffner Lodge in Northside. The group moves to its new home, a renovation of Northside’s St. Patrick Church, in April 2015.
The Playhouse hit home runs on its Shelterhouse stage this fall: The charming I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti (Oct. 2-26) was a one-woman confessional comedy built around cooking an Italian meal and serving several guests onstage. Still running is Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Story (extended to Jan. 11, 2015), about the local girl singer who became a Hollywood icon. It’s the creation of the duo Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, and I suspect it will be picked up by theaters elsewhere.
Cincinnati Landmark Productions has launched a commendable season at the Covedale Center. Critics praised A Streetcar Named Desire (Sept. 11-Oct. 5), followed by a polished staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (Oct. 23-Nov. 16).
Just as the year began with an award-winning hit, Broadway in Cincinnati presented the Tony winner Once (Nov. 11-23) in a two-week tour stop at the Aronoff. This intimate show about making music (the actors are also the musicians) couldn’t be more different than the brash, big-cast Book of Mormon. But that’s the great thing about theater: It tells stories of all shapes and sizes to keep us entertained and coming back for more. ©
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2014.
