Local theaters are shedding some light on music this month. Ensemble Theatre just finished its run of the fascinating 33 Variations, in which Beethoven is a central character. Coming soon at the Cincinnati Playhouse is Victoria Musica, about a cellist who might or might not be a fraud. But right now, Mariemont Players is offering A Joyful Noise by Tim Slover, a drama about 18th-century composer George Frederick Handel. In 1741, the aging Handel is finding it tough going: Several of his operas have flopped, the king no longer favors him and his latest work has been called blasphemous. His new composition, a work that today we call a masterpiece, “The Messiah,” seems doomed from the start, particularly because the soprano he hopes to feature is the subject of a sex scandal. It’s a true story that lays out the politics and jealousies that swirled between the Church of England, the king and the theater in Handel’s era. Mariemont Players has a knack for picking plays that other theaters have missed, and this is a good example. One more weekend of performances, including a Sunday matinee, at the Walton Creek Theater. $17.
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This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2009.
