Rabbit Hole stuns, Jersey Boys rocks, Like It Was the Last Day impresses
by Martin Brady
Jersey Boys fever engulfed Nashville last weekend (see below), but Tennessee Repertory Theatre also opened a local premiere at TPAC, and the company's staging of David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole through April 4 is worthy of the work's Pulitzer Prize-winning status. Director David Alford has assembled a stellar cast, and that's particularly important to the telling of this bittersweet tale of a family striving to overcome deep heartache.
In a finely modulated performance, Erin Whited is suburban wife Becca, now eight months removed from the death of her 4-year-old son, Danny, accidentally killed by a passing motorist. Becca's husband, Howie (Shane Bridges), appears to be the stronger of the two—more willing to accept reality and move on with their lives. Meanwhile, Becca receives well-intentioned support from her sister, Izzy (Jamie Farmer), and mother (Peggy Walton-Walker), though their attempts to mitigate her fixation with the tragic past look fruitless.
Becca is not out of her mind with grief—just sincerely and understandably still grieving. She denies the existence of God and, in an impulsive moment, decides that selling their Larchmont, N.Y., home might help to erase all bitter memories. Howie reluctantly sets that plan into motion, and then we discover that he's in fact not as far along in the mourning process as he seemed at first blush.
The downward trajectory of Lindsay-Abaire's setup is heroically rescued by his forthright dialogue and his credible characters, who strike a universal chord as unremarkably normal people—they could be anyone you know—emotionally buried by unfair circumstances and challenged to dig their way up to the light, with only faith, hope and enough love to guide them.
Despite the play's dark theme, there's a strong undercurrent of humor throughout. That's a tribute to Lindsay-Abaire's realistic channeling of simple truths, plus his keen sense of irony and his attention to those preciously absurd moments when laughter is the only alternative to tears.
Alford's staging feels natural and right, and the players never misstep in a psychic landscape fraught with potential pitfalls. Special mention must be made of Andy Kanies' effectively understated performance as the young man in the wrong place at the wrong time—driving the car that hit the child—and who pays an awkward but cathartically inspired visit to the devastated parents.
It would never be categorized as obviously escapist fare, but Rabbit Hole is theater that points the way out of life's thorniest thickets.
Men for all seasons
As for Jersey Boys, it's everything it's cracked up to be—a mega-hit musical that delivers on all fronts.
The story of the rise and fall of the Four Seasons proves to be thoroughly engaging, with its blue-collar Italian backdrop of 1950s New Jersey and the heyday of doo-wop. Early incarnations of the group went through numerous names and struggled to get bookings, while band members endured run-ins with the law. But once young songwriter Bob Gaudio joined the quartet, the Number Ones just kept on coming, assuring international success and all its mixed blessings.
The score encompasses more than 30 numbers, including all the group's huge chart-toppers, and the cast is simply a marvel of versatility. Some actors even serve double duty among the excellent musicians who play the songs, conducted stylishly by maestro Andrew Wilder.
The doppelganger Seasons—Josh Franklin as the gifted Gaudio, Joseph Leo Bwarie as iconic lead singer Frankie Valli, Erik Bates as bad-boy Tommy DeVito and Steve Gouveia as the unheralded Nick Massi—offer tremendously committed performances that rise far above mere imitation. Meanwhile, the Marshall Brickman-Rick Elice script is an unapologetically manly piece of writing that maintains its dark edges even as the group soars to fame.
Director Des McAnuff paces the show with such breathless drive that the 75-minute Act 1 seems half that long. His glitzy assault of big sound, bigger lights and nonstop movement is executed with totally entertaining—sometimes downright mesmerizing—results. Jersey Boys rocks—and rolls onstage at TPAC's Jackson Hall through April 5.
'Bama bound
Also opening last weekend was Like It Was the Last Day, jeff obafemi carr's original play concerning an African American family in 1967 Alabama.
When Chicago-based blues singer Nudon Rison (Joel Diggs) returns to his Southern home, he must settle an old score with his brother Workman (David Chattam). But his real mission is to reconcile his life—because death lies just around the corner.
Carr's script offers a sensitive, yet often delightfully humorous, portrait of average folks dealing honestly with daily life and serious issues such as illness, manhood, love and sex, child-rearing and sibling rivalry. Core family values are affectingly reaffirmed, but never at the expense of generally involving dramatic moments.
The ensemble cast is terrific, featuring Bobby Daniels, Kenneth Dozier and relative newcomers Jessica Townsend and Adam El-Amin. Chattam's development as an actor of brooding power continues apace, and his transition here from depression and anger through fraternal understanding to an eventual sense of personal freedom is wholly gratifying.
The play is presented through April 12 at the Amun Ra Theatre Playhouse, 2508 Clifton Ave..
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
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