Saturday, March 9, 2013
David Linday-Abaire’s play captures the drama of the 2009 economic recession.
ANN ARBOR — Performance Network Theatre continues its season with another new play: David Linday-Abaire’s Good People. The cast features Suzi Regan, Alex Leydenfrost, and Qamara “Peaches” Black, supported by an entertaining ensemble. Featuring a variety of character types that are both new and familiar, the story is set in the midst of the economic crisis of 2009, when single middle-aged mother Margie (Regan) is fired from her job at a local dollar store. On the hook for rent money as well as the means to care for her grown but mentally handicapped daughter, she seeks whatever means she can find, even going so far as to track down a former boyfriend (Leydenfrost) who has since become a successful physician. She initially approaches him in …
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
"Brill" runs Thursdays through Sundays until Feb. 10 at the Ann Arbor Theater.
ANN ARBOR — Performance Network Theatre brings a fully staged production of a new work by playwright David Wells to its stage. Set in 1959 in the Brill Building in New York City, the center of musical creativity in the 1960s, the show focuses on a cast of two: fading middle aged songwriter Jimmy Wise (Phil Powers) and his protégé, 19-year-old Margie Lesser (Sarah Ann Leahy). Like John Logan’s Red, presented by the theater last season, Brill deals with very different artists who, despite their unique perspectives, form a close and unbreakable bond. And while Brill is not quite so flawlessly written, it still manages to touch a similar emotional nerve. Anyone who has ever experienced a mentor/protégé relationship will likely relate to the …
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Friday, November 30, 2012
The classic Stephen Sondheim musical will run at the Performance Network through Dec. 30.
The name Stephen Sondheim is a big draw in theater circles, recognized for the creation of a number of hits, including Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Sunday in the Park with George. Performance Network presents one of Sondheim's best known shows, A Little Night Music, based on an Ingmar Bergman film from the 1950s. The action itself is set near the turn of the 20th century in Sweden, and focuses on the romantic entanglements of several couples spending the weekend together at a country estate. The Broadway production first premiered in 1973, starring Glynis Johns (best known as Mrs. Banks in Disney's Mary Poppins) and introducing the popular ballad "Send in the Clowns." A revivial featuring Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones …
