Press Release

Cleveland’s Classic Theater Company Concludes 48th Season with an Outrageous Off-Broadway Musical and a Magical Masterpiece

March 2, 2010

BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM headline Great Lakes Theater Festival’s scintillating Spring Repertory.
25% of the seats at every performance are priced at $25 or less.

CLEVELAND, OH – Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will conclude its 2009-10 season in the company’s revolutionary home at the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, with a Spring Repertory that features Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O’Keefe’s outrageous Off-Broadway Musical of the Year, Bat Boy: The Musical and William Shakespeare’s magical masterpiece, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The productions will be performed in rotating repertory April 8 – May 16, 2010. The Spring Repertory features GLTF’s resident artistic company of actors performing two alternating plays on the same stage over six weeks. Veteran Festival artist Victoria Bussert will direct Bat Boy: The Musical and GLTF’s Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee will direct A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Great Lakes Theater Festival’s 2010 Spring Repertory is sponsored by PNC with support from the Festival’s Business Alliance. GLTF’s second season at the Hanna Theatre is presented with support from The Cleveland Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council. In addition, Great Lakes Theater Festival is generously funded by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. Media sponsors for the Festival’s 48th season are Cleveland Scene, The Plain Dealer, WCLV 104.9 FM, WCPN 90.3 FM ideastream, WKSU 89.7 FM and The Weekly World News.

"We are thrilled to be back on the Hanna Theatre’s revolutionary Parker Hannifin Stage where the finale of our second season in our amazing home promises to be extraordinary,” said GLTF Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee.  “Our Spring Repertory productions and our Hanna Theatre performance space work together to provide an intimate theatrical experience for audiences that is unlike any other in the region.”

GLTF’s Spring Repertory commences with Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O’Keefe’s outrageous Off-Broadway musical, Bat Boy: The Musical. Ripped from the hilarious headlines of the supermarket tabloid The Weekly World News, Bat Boy is a classic love story with serious bite. This delightfully delicious twist on the modern day musical comedy tells the amazing story of a strange boy with pointy ears, his struggle to find a place in a world that shuns him, and the love that creates both miracles and madness. Armed with an exuberant score that integrates the best of rock, Broadway, gospel, and country music, this Off-Broadway Musical of the Year award-winner is a witty comical confection that keeps both tongue and fang firmly in cheek.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream completes the Festival’s Spring Repertory pairing. An exhilarating night of midsummer madness, this magical comedy brims with mistaken identity, mismatched lovers and mischief-making fairies. Boldly inspired by the marvelously mod influences of a rock ‘n’ roll infused 1960s London, this production of Shakespeare’s comic masterpiece ensnares two pairs of lovers and a rustic troupe of would-be actors in a magical-mystery tour de force. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a joyful celebration of love lost, transformed and restored that casts a powerfully pleasing spell on audiences of all ages.

GLTF’s 2010 Spring Repertory directing corps is comprised of familiar Festival faces. Victoria Bussert will stage Bat Boy: The Musical. Bussert celebrates her 23rd year at Great Lakes Theater Festival this season. Her work was last seen by Festival audiences this past fall when she directed The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Over the past two decades, she has directed a host of memorable productions including Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Private Lives, Anything Goes, Gypsy, A Little Night Music, She Loves Me, The Most Happy Fella, Rough Crossing, Blithe Spirit, La Ronde, The School For Wives, Noel and Gertie, The Threepenny Opera, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.  Charles Fee, GLTF’s Producing Artistic Director, will complete the Festival’s Spring Repertory directing duo when he helms William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Fee’s acclaimed productions of Twelfth Night (2009), The Comedy of Errors (2009), Macbeth (2008), Hay Fever (2007), The Importance of Being Earnest (2005), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2004), and Hamlet (2003)have led to an artistic and financial renaissance for Great Lakes Theater Festival.

Great Lakes Theater Festival will maintain its new pricing structure this spring - designed to increase accessibility for its audiences. As part of the program, 25% of the seats at every GLTF Hanna Theatre performance are priced at $25 or less.  Furthermore, adult tickets for every performance always begin at $15 and all student tickets are $11 - making the Great Lakes Theater Festival experience one of the most affordable entertainment options in the region. “It is absolutely vital to the mission and long-term health of our organization that we create affordable opportunities for every person in our region to experience live theater,” said GLTF Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee.

Great Lakes Theater Festival’s award-winning home at the Hanna Theatre features a visionary “Great Room” inspired design concept that integrates the artist and audience experience into a single unified environment. Hanna patrons select from a variety of seating opportunities including traditional theater seats, club chairs, lounge/bar seats, banquette couches and private box seating. Boasting a fully flexible hydraulic thrust stage, a complete array of state-of-the-art theatrical systems and an intimate 550-seat house arranged in a thrust configuration, the Hanna is one of the most innovative theaters in the country.

Great Lakes Theater Festival will continue to afford patrons extraordinary access to the artistic process this spring. The Hanna always opens its doors ninety minutes before each performance allowing patrons to observe the complete pre-show preparation process of GLTF’s actors and technical staff. Elements traditionally hidden from audiences such as stage combat rehearsals, dance calls, prop/scenic pre-sets, technical cue rehearsals and actor warm-ups will be conducted in full view of patrons, offering GLTF audiences an amazing glimpse into the theatrical process.

The Festival will also continue its unique series of social enhancement programming at the Hanna. The programming, organized by day of week, is designed to augment the patron experience and highlight the Hanna’s new amenities.

“Salon Thursdays” will feature an engaging pre-show discussion/presentation beginning one hour before curtain with a Festival artist or local scholar. (Offered: Apr. 29 & May 6, 13)

“Happy Hour Fridays” afford patrons the ability to avoid the commute home from work and back to the theater in time for the show. On “Happy Hour Fridays,” audience members are invited to meet at the Hanna’s bar and lounge immediately after work to enjoy a fine assortment of savory hors d’ oeuvres and a complete range of beverages for sale beginning ninety minutes before every performance. (Offered: Apr. 16, 30 & May 7, 14)

“Night Cap Night Saturdays” are designed to encourage audience members to stay after the performance and mingle with friends and family in the Hanna’s bar and lounge.  The Hanna’s bar and lounge is open until ninety minutes after the performance on “Night Cap Saturdays.”  (Offered:  Apr. 17 & May 1, 8, 15)

“Ice Cream Social Sundays” offer patrons the opportunity to enjoy a London theatre tradition brought state-side with family and friends. Audience members are invited to purchase a cool personal ice cream treat before the show or at intermission. Ice cream will be offered at every performance in GLTF’s Spring Repertory, but on “Ice Cream Social Sundays,” the treat is half price. (Offered: Apr. 18, 25 & May 2, 9, 16)

Opening Night performances of Bat Boy: The Musical (April 10th) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (April 24th) have been scheduled for Saturday evenings with preview performances of both productions scheduled for the preceding Thursday and Friday nights. The Friday previews of Bat Boy: The Musical (April 9th) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (April 23rd) have been designated as “Press Previews” – public performances that will also accommodate theater critics and other media representatives. These nights also feature a half-hour pre-show discussion with the director beginning at 6:30 p.m. Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees. Both productions in GLTF’s Spring Repertory will continue to offer sign-interpreted and audio-described performances as well as the popular Playnotes pre-show discussion series.(Consult enclosed performance calendars for complete date and time information.)

Single performance tickets for Great Lakes Theater Festival productions range in price from $15-$69 (Student tickets are $11 – any performance / any seat) and are available by calling (216) 241-6000, by ordering online or by visiting the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office. Groups of ten or more receive discounts of up to 38% by calling the Great Lakes Theater Festival Group Sales Department at (216) 241-5490 x302. (Additional handling fees may apply and may vary depending on point of purchase.)

Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience since 1962.The first resident company of PlayhouseSquare, GLTF celebrates its 28th year in downtown Cleveland this season. Festival programming reaches 85,000 adults and students annually.

At A Glance: Bat Boy: The Musical

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association

At A Glance: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Reviews: A Midsummer Night's Dream

News Herald
Friday, May 7, 2010
GLTF's 'Midsummer' a nice dreamy production
By Bob Abelman

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of Shakespeare’s earliest works and one of his most fanciful comedies. It is an absolutely delightful diversion about two young couples in love with the wrong partners, who venture into woods populated by mischievous fairies and fall prey to their manipulations of the human heart.

The playwright’s pretense is that all this is but a dream — a carefree charade that allows for mortals to mingle with pixies and for all sorts of absurdities to seem commonplace. In fact, the play closes with a crafty reminder of this (as if the play’s title were not enough) by Puck, the most impish of the fairies, who states: “If we shadows have offended/Think but this and all is mended/That you have but slumber’d here/While these visions did appear.“

This pretense is fully embraced and re-envisioned by director Charlie Fee in his Great Lakes Theater Festival production of this play, which is a reprisal of his 2003 presentation. Fee transports this 1590s reverie to the 1960s, where the dream is more hallucination, complete with surreal landscapes by Gage Williams, period costuming by Star Moxley and an interweaving of Beatle’s music to facilitate the storytelling.

This year’s version has not lost the charm or unabashed playfulness of the 2003 adaptation, despite changes in its venue and casting.

Gone is the cavernous Ohio Theatre staging, replaced and enhanced by the intimacy that the Hanna Theatre affords — including the use of aisles to extend the play’s action into the audience.

Gone, and missed, are actors Andrew May and Sara Bruner, who so understood and mastered Shakespeare’s words that the classic roles they embodied seemed to have been written specifically for them.

Fortunately, this year’s rendering brings back many superb, well-seasoned performers and introduces some very talented members to complete the repertory company.

Newcomers Gisela Chipe and Kevin Crouch bring a subtle silliness that plays perfectly in this production and are wonderful as the lovers Hermia and Lysander. Dane Agostinis as Demetrius, who also loves Hermia, and Lina Chambers as Helena, who adores Demetrius, are also quite good.

Aled Davies once again takes on the duo roles of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and does so with perfection. Lynn Allison nicely complements Davies as both Hippolyta, who is betrothed to Theseus, and Titania, the Queen of the Fairies.

Introduced early and reappearing intermittently throughout the play is an incompetent and outrageously funny troupe of artisans who are preparing for a performance at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. Their lead player is Bottom, played by the outlandish David Anthony Smith. Smith never misses an opportunity to milk a moment for comedic effect and, as he has done in so many past productions, always hits his mark with remarkable precision.

Rounding out the rest of the troupe, and also doubling as fairies, are veteran GLTF performers Dudley Swetland, M.A. Taylor, and Lynn Robert Berg, who are joined by Erin Childs and Mitch McCarrell. Collectively, they raise the level of absurdity in this production and, in their enactment of the wedding play in the final scene, are brilliant.

Eduardo Placer is a charmer in the pivotal role of Puck, the “shrewd and knavish sprite” whose pranks and misdeeds set this play’s insanity in motion.

His physicality captures all that is playful and marvelously mischievous in this character.

Some theater purists may balk at the GLTF’s reconstruction of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (and, at least with regard to the insertion of some contemporary phrases into Shakespeare’s sacrosanct prose and poetry, are justified).

Some GLTF faithful may find it necessary to make comparisons with the 2003 version.

This is a shame, for the current production certainly stands on its own merits and is a thoroughly delightful and enjoyable mid-Spring night’s diversion.

Reviews: Batboy: The Musical

BAT OUT OF HEAVEN Great Lakes' production takes flight
by Keith A. Joseph

WHILE THE NATIONAL focus has been on transitory issues like health care and unemployment, the local buzz has centered on something far more significant: accusations that Great Lakes Theater Festival has betrayed the muses by abandoning its classical mandate.

This controversy has arisen over the company's production of Bat Boy: The Musical, which uses an infamous piece of yellow journalism about the discovery of half-man/half-bat creature. To paraphrase the great Groucho Marx, "We retaliate with horse feathers."

What this work amply demonstrates is that an evening of showbiz snap-crackle-pop will engender far more contented theater devotees than a pound of soggy Macbeths. Persistent rumor has it that this wink-laden spoof of B-movies, tabloids and other musicals is the intoxicated lark of boozing creators Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming and Laurence O'Keefe.

It is the archetype of a species of theater pieces that refuse to face life head on — a world filtered through satire. When the bat boy, in true My Fair Lady fashion, is transformed from squeaking part-rodent to Oxford scholar, the show reaches the smart-ass sheen of top-of-the-line Saturday Night Live.

O'Keefe's score has the pleasing bravado of good commercial jingles. The songs, which range from samba to rap, work well in the fractured context of the musical, but they would die of malnutrition removed from the glib buffoonery. The evening makes one yearn for spoofs of yore, like L'il Abner and Little Me, in which zaniness gives way to indelible melody.

If there's anything classic about Great Lakes' Bat Boy, it is the production values, which make splendid use of the renovated Hanna Theatre. Set designer Jeff Herrmann's pixilated view of a West Virginia full of prostrate cows wouldn't be inappropriate in an exhibition of Dali paintings. Diane Ferry Williams' rambunctious lighting effects are an art show unto themselves.

Director Victoria Bussert's penchant for playful theatrical raunch is perfectly mated to material that lives and dies by the chuckle. However, the element that truly underlines Great Lakes' devotion to past glories is the quicksilver choreography of Martin Cespedes. In the manner of the late American Dance Theatre, his work is a textbook of 20th-century dance styles. Cespedes uses everything from Fosse-style tangos to Pilobolus-like animal imagery. As always, his greatest talent is for taking a troupe of Shakespearean actors and transforming them into hoofers.

The cast takes antics that could easily grace the pages of Mad magazine and imbues them with Noel Coward-like élan. In the title role, Mitch McCarrell pulls off the feat of not only looking great in leather pants, but also bringing humanity and warmth to a cardboard joke.

If Great Lakes can render meringue with such flair, the company's revitalization will go well beyond the splendor of its new home at the restored Hanna.

The News Herald
Friday, April 16, 2010
Review: 'Bat Boy' an unusual, fun bite from GLTF
By Bob Abelman

"Bat Boy: The Musical," playing in repertory rotation with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is an odd choice for the Great Lakes Theater Festival.

Cleveland's classic theater company has built a reputation on delivering classic theater. Yet "Bat Boy" is a modern-day gothic story set to rock-gospel music. It tells the tale of a half-boy/half-bat struggling to find a place in a world that shuns him and the love of a family that takes him in.

In his opening night pre-show chat, artistic director Charlie Fee attempted to persuade patrons that this show does, indeed, fit the GLTF mold. While Shakespeare's classic "A Midsummer Night's Dream" draws from Greek mythology, English fairy lore and medieval romance, Fee explained that "Bat Boy" also contains well established classical elements and literary themes.

Director Victoria Bussert's program note reinforces that by recognizing something Sophocles, "Oedipus Rex"-ian and even biblical in this play. "Yes, it's loud," she explains, "but that doesn't obscure the deeper message."

"Classical elements"? "Literary themes"? "Deeper meaning"?

No explanation can hide the fact that playwrights Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming ripped "Bat Boy's" story line from a supermarket tabloid headline.

No explanation can sidestep "Bat Boy's" unabashedly campy presentation, where the pretense of taking itself seriously gives way to its over-the-top presentation. Everything about this play, from its outlandish characters to the quirky lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, is fully intended for laughs.

In fact, no explanation is necessary, for the most significant similarities between "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Bat Boy" are blatantly obvious. Both plays are silly, surreal comedies in their own right. Both plays were written to bring unadulterated joy to their respective audiences. And both plays lose their charm when audiences lose their sense of humor by looking too closely for classicism, literary themes and deeper meaning rather than simply buying into the fun and frivolity occurring on stage.

Those prepared to buy into "Bat Boy" will thoroughly enjoy themselves, for Bussert's clever direction, Jeff Herrmann's comically macabre scenic design, Nicole Frachiseur's creative costuming and Martín Cespedes' brazen choreography have constructed a production that goes for the jugular. No opportunity to play for the laugh under the guise of earnestness is missed.

The title role is handled brilliantly by Mitch McCarrell, a New York actor born and raised locally. Behind his bat ears, pointy teeth, sonic screeches and cave-dweller physique resides incredible athleticism, stage presence and a true song-and-dance man.

McCarrell's energy, charisma and his own buy-in to this production carries this show and the audience along with it.

He is accompanied by a talented troupe of performers. Most are returning members of the GLTF company and, therefore, are brilliant actors.

They include Lynn Allison, Lynn Robert Berg and Erin Childs as The Parkers, the family that takes Bat Boy into their home.

In the true spirit of this play, members of the ensemble take on several roles regardless of gender or the fact that their multiple characters are required to be on stage at the same time. Standout performances are delivered by Eduardo Placer, Gisela Chipe, Alana Simone and Dane Agostinis.

Unfortunately, several GLTF regulars are quite obviously built for non-musical theater. Their par singing and clear discomfort with some of Cespedes' more creative movement are distractions in an otherwise wonderful production.

Yes, "Bat Boy" is an odd choice for the Great Lakes Theater Festival. Forego the literary analysis and deep thinking, and go have fun.

Regional Reviews
Bat Boy: The Musical
Great Lakes Theatre Festival
by David Ritchey

Sometimes things just couldn't get any better. Bat Boy: The Musical plays in an almost perfect production in the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Hannah Theater, Cleveland. WOW! What a production.

Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming (book and story) and Laurence O'Keefe (music and lyrics) have lifted a story from Weekly World News and turned it into a good time for all.

The story deals with a teenaged boy who is half bat, half human. He's discovered in a cave (no, not the bat cave) by three teenagers in Hope Falls, West Virginia. He's captured and caged in the home of the local veterinarian, Dr. Thomas Parker (Lynn Robert Berg). Mrs. Parker (Lynn Allison) takes an interest in the Bat Boy (Mitch McCarrell) and teaches him to speak with good grammar, sing and dance (the latter two are especially important since this is a musical).

Bat Boy has those great fangs (think of vampires on TV) and occasionally takes a bite of someone. But, the real problem is that cows are dying. And, by the end of the play, the audience knows that Bat Boy does have a taste for beef.

The Reverend Billy Hightower (Fabio Polanco) brings his revival to Hope Falls, population 500, and attempts to heal and/or convert Bat Boy, who is now called Edgar.

The playwrights have studied theater history and dramatic literature. They create a story that owes much to Greek tragedy, including a section from Oedipus Rex. The references to Shakespeare are so frequent that I lost count (of course I was laughing most of the time). For example, the couple opens a sofa-bed and finds a covering of flowers, which would look great in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The closing scene in Bat Boy makes Shakespeare's tragedies seem tame. The stage is littered with bodies. However, not all has ended; one character has to sum up what has happened and what we may expect in the future. This device is directly from Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and others, I'm sure.

Victoria Bussert (director) makes this musical sing and dance. She and her cast are working from the same script, the same style and same attitude. Proof of her success is simple—everyone in the audience was smiling at the end of the show. In fact, some went out singing songs from the show.

Martín Céspedes (choreographer) has created vigorous, exciting dances for the show.

Jeff Hermann (scenic designer) has created a set that includes the mountains of West Virginia, with cows on the hills, a bat cave and a home. In addition, he makes a space for the orchestra on top of one of the mountains.

Nicole Frachiseur (costume designer) has designed costumes that occasionally bring well-deserved laughs. Pan (Eduardo Placer) wears a cowboy hat covered with flowers, black shirt and jeans, and white cowboy boots that go up to his knees, with platform soles and high heels.

The five-piece orchestra, conducted by Matthew Webb, keeps the show moving at a brisk pace. The orchestra supports the singers and dancers, provides appropriate background music and functions as a major character in the show.

This production has much to recommend it. Bussert's direction, McCarrell's performance of the Bat Boy, Polanco's portrayal of at least three different characters (one of them female), and a fine orchestra that plays during most of the show.

Insights
April 28, 2010
‘Bat Boy: The Musical’ flys at Great Lakes Theater Festival
By Art Thomas

Probably the most famous of the sensational headlines and stories in the “Weekly World News” is the photo and story about the strange “Bat Boy.” The image of the gaunt, pointy-eared teen with vampire-like incisors has continued to haunt us 18 years later.

At the Great Lakes Theater Festival, you can see the musical based on this icon from American pop culture history. The production does justice to the material, but sadly, there isn’t much here to start with.

“Weekly World News” stories were always set in rural locations that are impossible to locate. So, in Hope Falls, W.Va. (population 500), the world is turned upside down, figuratively speaking, when the amazing Bat Boy is discovered. There’s romance, conflict, revival-type religion intervention and, finally, resolution and understanding.

Bat Boy (actor Mitch McCarrell) asks for acceptance from the residents of his hometown when he sings “Let Me Walk Among You” in Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of the outrageous off- Broadway hit “Bat Boy: The Musical.”

Mitch McCarrell is the nimble Bat Boy who just seeks to be accepted in a world where cows are treated better than he is. Erin Childs gives support as Shelley Parker. Lynn Allison and Lynn Robert Berg are Dr. Thomas and Merideth Parker.

“Bat Boy” tries to elevate itself with shadowy structures of classic theater and themes of prejudice and racism. This production is best in the broader strokes. Dr. Parker’s fix for any situation is a baseball bat-sized hypodermic needle. So The Three Stooges triumph over Oedipus Rex. You’ll enjoy Aled Davies’ portly Sheriff Reynolds and Fabio Polance’s over-the-top Reverend Billy.

The performers in “Bat Boy: The Musical” are primarily actors rather than singers. Fortunately, the songs are not masterpieces, and the ensemble performs them with gusto. Matthew Webb’s musical direction and Martin Cespedes choreography are first rate. Victoria Bussert makes the most of the music and the performers.

Best of all, the renovated Hanna Theatre, which has been problematic for musicals, absorbs this production quite well. There may not be much substance to the book and music, but the audience can hear and comprehend every note clearly — an improvement over last season.