Topic: Theater

Tuesdays with Morrie: a stunning memoir tugs heartstrings on Roxy stage

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 25, 2008 |

A minimalist production of Tuesdays with Morrie opened this week at the Roxy Regional Theater with breathtaking performances by its two stars: Jay Doolittle and Joe Sonenshein. The finely woven connection between both men manifests itself as a tour-de-force performance of Broadway caliber.

Morrie (Jay Doolittle at left) with Mitch (Joe Sonenshein) in the Roxy Regional theatre production of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie.

Doolittle as the aged professor Morrie Schwartz and Sonenshein as student/author Mitch Albom loom larger than life even as they navigate the simplest truths of living, dying and what it means to love. The play is based on real-life Albom’s memoir of the same title. This is adaptation of another medium at its finest and our actors capitalize on that. «Read the rest of this article»

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My Way: Sixty years of Sinatra songs showcased at Roxy Theatre

By Christine Anne Piesyk | February 15, 2008 |

As a little girl, one of the stories my mother told me was of a trip to New York City with fellow singers to see a Carnegie Hall concert. My mother had other plans though, an ulterior motive for this Big Apple sojourn, and gave up Carnegie Hall for a chance to see a new young heart throb, a skinny crooner with dreamy blue eyes in one of his earliest performances … Frank Sinatra. It was 1942.

For nearly 60 years, old blues eyes — Frank Sinatra — was larger than life, a singer, movie star, and worldwide legend with 1300 songs to his credit. The Roxy Regional Theater captures a collection of the very best in their current production of My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra.

Even before the show began the mood was set with soft music from yesterday that hasn’t lost is charm — hummable, dance-able music that continues to endure. As the combo took their seats and began to play, as the singers stepped back in time, they carried their audience with them all the way. «Read the rest of this article»

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Roxy to celebrate 25th year with blockbuster season of plays, musicals

By Christine Anne Piesyk | August 22, 2007 |

The Roxy Regional Theater in downtown Clarksville celebrates its 25th year as it launches the 2007-08 season with a new production of the rock and roll musical, Grease, the movie-turned Broadway musical, on September 21.

Many of us remember Grease as a movie with John Travolta as the bad boy Danny Zucko and Olivia Newton John as the sweet young Sandy, a classic case of opposites attracting in the hallowed halls of Rydell High, complete with a jazzed up car, the leather jacketed T-birds and the Pink Ladies living on the edge. This rollicking musical which opens Sept. 21 and runs through October 6, featuring such hits as We Go Together, Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee, Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin’, and more.

The season continues with a staging of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oct. 12-27), drawn from the classic novel. Dorian Gray is obsessed with a belief that beauty and youth are at the center of life, and makes a bargain that keep his outward appearance young while his portrait continues to age.

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (Nov. 9-24) introduces us to Nora, pampered, cared for, sheltered from life, a doll-like plaything to the world and her husband. She puts her life and her honor on the line to save her husband, only to find that he is unwilling to sacrifice anything for her. At this crossroad in her life, Nora is faced with a choice that will affect her very survival. «Read the rest of this article»

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Mountain Meadow Massacre tragedy unfolds on stage and screen

By Christine Anne Piesyk | August 15, 2007 |

In a lesser known part of American history, in the southwestern Utah landscape of 150 years ago, tragedy unfolded supposedly at the hands of a Mormon militia. The Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 occurred when a group of at least 130 Arkansas pioneers — men, women and children — were slaughtered by raiders supposedly with ties to the Mormon Church, a link still debated to this day. The raiders were laboring under the misconception that these new settlers were somehow linked to the persecution of Latter Day Saints in the Midwest years before.

While On The Road In America this summer, I was gifted with the opportunity to see a new Berkshire Theater Festival production, Two-Headed, which has its roots in this historical tragedy. Then I stumbled upon an upcoming film, September Dawn, a Hollywood version that specifically chronicles the massacre with the usual fantasized story lines that will attempt to make the characters real when it hits the silver screen in about a month.

In the movie version of this tragedy, John Voight stars as a Mormon elder with two sons on opposite sides of the issues of faith and free will: follow doctrine, or follow one’s own spiritual beliefs. To kill or not to kill. And to love, even if one’s love stands on the other side of your theology. Terrence Stamp is featured as Mormon leader Brigham Young in this retelling of murders with religious ties. «Read the rest of this article»

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