Theater Review - "Jekyll & Hyde"

THEATER REVIEW

“Jekyll & Hyde” - Produced by: John W. Engeman Theater– Northport 

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur 

About twenty years ago, when I first heard that the famed thriller novella (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson) was to be staged as a musical, my initial reaction was, ‘What next?’ I feared the moguls of Broadway might eventually give us a musical comedy version of ‘The Bad Seed,’ for heaven’s sake … just to show that nothing is impossible in the wacky world of show business.

Furthermore, I was convinced that ‘Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical’ would soon find itself on the scrap heap of failed productions that depend solely on the popularity of late 19^th century literary works for their success.

How wrong I was. Four years later, the melodramatic ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ was still packing in enthusiastic audiences at New York’s Plymouth theater (a record for that grand old playhouse at the time) and the show finally closed after an impressive 1,543 regular performances! It had garnered four Tony nominations … won in the ‘Best Costumes’ category … and was even more triumphant in the prestigious Drama Desk, and Outer Circle Awards groupings. 

Sadly, I never saw the Broadway offering.

The story, of course, is a familiar one … it’s a general analysis of how good and evil can co-exist in the same person … and the production on the Engeman boards now thru April 30 has gambits that smack of Sondheim, Wilde, and Shakespeare … specifically: Sweeney Todd, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Othello.

What the current Engeman show has that those other theatrical creations almost assuredly did not, however, is the most versatile, dynamic, energetic performance that this critic has ever seen! Indeed, any theater aficionados who miss the opportunity to observe Nathaniel Hackman in the demanding dual roles of compassionate Dr. Henry Jekyll and vicious Mr. Edward Hyde, will be depriving themselves of the artistic treat of a lifetime.

Producer Richard Dolce will stage ‘Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical’ at Northport’s delightful Engeman Theater thru April 30^th(Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings – with Matinees on Saturday and Sunday). The guess here is that once word gets around about the virtuosity of Mr. Hackman, a majority of those dates will be sold out … just as the matinee was when I attended last Saturday.

In critiques such as this one, it is required that the reviewer support his claims whether they be superlative or disparaging. That said, the critic’s task of reporting on the ‘Jekyll & Hyde’  now under consideration is immediately reduced by half … there is absolutely nothing censorious to say about this polished gem of a show.

Accordingly, we may focus on Mr. Hackman’s considerable skills that made his performance the magical tour de force it became: It goes without saying that this play requires deep insight into the nature good and evil … particularly as they occupy the body of a single individual simultaneously (this, after all, is the plot in a nutshell). In that regard, Nathaniel Hackman immediately makes gasping believers of his audience despite the improbable nature of the proposition.

Then there is the matter of the remarkable lead actor’s singing voice. The man’s appealing baritone is quite simply top-notch. I never heard him miss a single note or beat in two hours. As for his stage presence … Hackman owned the Engeman boards with every step he took, whether as the romantic Dr. Jekyll or the threatening Mr. Hyde.

It would be unfair to reveal much of the detail about the special effects that Director / Choreographer Paul Stancato and Lighting Designer Keith Truax have in store for audiences during the forthcoming month. Suffice it to say that both impresarios combine to take full advantage of Hackman’s energetic skills, and together the trio creates an absolutely unforgettable climactic light show that theatergoers will be talking about for generations.

If that sounds like hyperbole … go see for yourself. Like everyone else in the grand Engeman Theater (including Nathaniel Hackman’s accomplished fellow actors) you’ll stand and cheer this wonderfully gifted artist off the stage.

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s recently completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, is due next month, and will be introduced at the Smithtown Library on Sunday afternoon, May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

THEATER REVIEW - "Death Of A Salesman"

THEATER REVIEW

“Death of a Salesman” - Produced by: Star Playhouse– Commack

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Few, if any occupations are less rewarding than that of traveling salesman. It’s an economic fact of life that legendary playwright Arthur Miller seemed to sense intuitively, and he transferred that insight into breathtaking dialogue with his masterpiece ‘Death of a Salesman.’ The classic is playing now at the luxurious Star Playhouse in Commack.

This drama, centered on over-the-hill Willy Loman (played by Steven Fallis) and his semi-dysfunctional family, is probably one of the most depressing plays ever penned by an American author, though to be fair to the profession that Miller treats as an exercise in loneliness and disappointment, selling can be enormously satisfying. The truth of the old saying that, “…nothing in business ever happens until somebody sells something…” seems to have escaped the otherwise perceptive playwright.

That observation aside, the actors currently undertaking the demanding roles in ‘…Salesman’ are generally faithful in presenting Arthur Miller’s haunting tale of misery and decline in late middle age. Particularly effective is Staci Rosenberg-Simons, who plays Loman’s long-suffering wife, and who defends Willy at every turn, only to be rebuffed by her inconsiderate sons … and even the husband she so fiercely supports.

Ironically, the character whose every word the audience hangs on in this play (which is all about words) is salesman Loman, but it is Willy whose performance is sadly lacking in the articulation necessary to deliver Miller’s masterful lines effectively. At one point, he says to one of his useless sons, “It’s not what you say, it’s the way you say it.” It appears that Director, J. Timothy Conlon failed to pay heed to that admonition, otherwise he would never have permitted Fallis to get away with the mumbling that so detracts us from fully appreciating at least half his vital lines.

One of the greatest mumblers of all time, the late William F. Buckley, was nonetheless in demand as a commentator and debater because he had an uncanny knack for enunciating the essential portions of his speeches with dramatic timing and emphasis. It is precisely this quality of delivery that the role of Willy Loman demands … because he frequently (and appropriately) seems to be talking to himself.

It would appear that playwright Miller had the motion picture genre in mind when he wrote ‘Death of a Salesman’ because filmed close-ups and murmured passages can work on film, but the stage whisper is one of the hardest dramatic devices to pull off in the legitimate theater.

This is not to say that ‘Salesman’ as performed at the Star Playhouse is not a satisfying production … indeed it is … especially when Rosenberg-Simons as Linda Loman relates Willy’s sad story in the middle of Act I. Her heartbreaking narrative (addressed so successfully to her sons) to a large degree overcomes Sound Technician Doug Gilman’s shortcomings … which failing, I have to conclude, adds considerably to Willy’s sounding hollow much of the time.

The bare bones set, costumes, and lighting here are adequate; and they should be unobtrusive in this play that is intended to focus our attention on one man’s decline into the depths of despair and depression. Like Willy Loman’s family and neighbors, we are interested not in furniture, clothing, or spotlights … we’re riveted helplessly on this burned-out Salesman’s inevitable descent into oblivion … where one hopes he will, finally, no longer depend on a shoeshine and a smile for the recognition he craves. 

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s recently completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, is due next month, and will be introduced at the Smithtown Library on Sunday afternoon, May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

People In The News - St. James Writer June Capossela Kempf Published In Kaleidoscope

Writer June Capossela Kempf published in Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts

June Capossela Kempf (photo Amazon.com)March 22, 2017 – The work of writer June Capossela Kempf of Saint James, New York, has been published in the current issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Her personal essay, “Jay’s Pawfect Pal,” appears in issue number 74: The Evolution of Inclusion.  Her work was selected from among more than 350 submissions considered for publication.

Kempf is a writer whose articles have appeared in a variety of news outlets including Huntington Review (May 2015) and Newsday (September 2015). Her memoir titled Yo God! Jay’s Story, based on her son’s life and his relationship with his service dog, was published in June, 2014 by Keith Publishers. Kempf won a second place award from Angel Animal Network for a longer version of the essay that appears here. Jay passed away in 1996. Kempf shares, “…despite the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, I am still shocked to discover the misunderstanding, mistreatment and the public mockery of our disabled community today….”

The award-winning Kaleidoscope magazine is published by United Disability Services in Akron, Ohio.  A pioneer in the publication of disability literature and fine arts, the magazine expresses the experiences of disability from the perspective of individuals, families, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.  The material chosen for Kaleidoscope challenges and overcomes stereotypical, patronizing and sentimental attitudes about disability.  The publication is now available at no cost online by visiting www.KaleidoscopeOnline.org.

United Disability Services has been meeting the social, vocational, community living, low vision, recreational, educational and transportation needs of people with disabilities for nearly 70 years.  For more information visit www.udsakron.org.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Ending Bias And Discrimination In Suffolk County

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The Suffolk County Human Rights Commission is among the most valuable of all Suffolk County agencies. Founded in 1963, its range in battling bias and discrimination has been vastly expanded through the decades while its staff, unfortunately, is now but a fraction of what it once was.

When I first covered the commission in the 1960s, its principal issue was racial discrimination. Through the decades, it has been tasked by successive Suffolk Legislatures and county executives to take on many other areas of bias. Its website states, “The primary objective of the Commission is to work toward the elimination of bias and discrimination in Suffolk County. This is achieved through public education and complaint investigation.” 

And what a list of issues it has been empowered to deal with!

Its website continues: “Call to speak with an investigator” (or people can file a complaint by email) “if you believe you have been treated unfairly because of your: Race, Sex, Gender, Disability, Military Status, Veteran Status, Arrest/Conviction Record, Religion/Creed, Lawful Source of Income, Status as a Victim of Domestic Violence, Age, Color, National Origin, Sexual Orientation, Pregnancy, Familial Status, Marital Status, Alienage or Citizenship Status.” And the agency “also accepts complaints of undue force or discriminatory treatment against the Suffolk County Police Department.”

The website adds: “There is no fee charged for our services! Call for confidential advice and assistance. Our professional staff will assess your allegations and your options will be explained.”

Dawn Lott (photo courtesy of Amistad Black Bar Association)Amazingly, the commission does its important work now with a full-time staff of just three investigators and an executive director, a Suffolk native, Dawn Lott, an attorney. Ms. Lott, a Smithtown resident originally from Wyandanch, is a graduate of Cornell University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. This month marks her one-year anniversary at the commission. Further, there are 15 voluntary, unpaid commissioners, a diverse body chaired since 1992 by Rabbi Dr. Steven A. Moss of the B’nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale.

Its office is in the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge. It will also interview complainants from the East End at the Evans K. Griffing Building in Riverhead and conduct hearings there, too. The hearings are presided over by administrative law judges. They are based on the county’s Human Rights Law and can result in orders that the discrimination be stopped and civil penalties be paid.

This month, the Suffolk Legislature unanimously passed a new “Local Law to Change the Standard for Admission of Evidence at Hearings before the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission.”  Introduced at the request of the County Executive Steve Bellone, it notes the commission’s hearings have been modeled on the “rules of evidence applicable in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.” It says “easing the admission and use of relevant evidence from the type of restrictions applied in court to the more relaxed standard commonly applied at administrative hearings will facilitate the inquiry into whether an unlawful discriminatory practice occurred.”

Ms. Lott was at a Melville law firm (where she met her husband, also an attorney) and specialized in employment and civil rights law. In applying to head the Human Rights Commission, she considered it “a great opportunity. Being an employment and civil rights attorney, I felt I could do more in the area of discrimination.”  Moreover, it would be “nice” to work for the county “I’ve lived in.”

Discrimination is not a rarity in Suffolk County. “It is widespread,” said Ms. Lott, two-term past president of the Amistad Black Bar Association of Long Island. And discrimination in “employment has been ranked Number One” in annual reports of the commission for years. This discrimination often involves race and gender with a person not hired or demoted or fired. “Since 1996, it still is the highest category of complaints,” she said.

The Suffolk commission has also, historically, gotten involved in many burning social issues. Indeed, last month, it held a meeting at which recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, begun under President Obama, spoke along with community and religious leaders. If accepted into DACA, undocumented youth who arrived in the U.S. as children can register with the Department of Homeland Security and receive temporary work authorization and protection from deportation. This “has enabled qualifying students to attend college, work, pursue careers,” said the resolution passed by the commission unanimously. It asked the new national administration “to continue and expand DACA protections as a just and humane action.” The commission also unanimously passed a resolution supporting “the LGBTQ community” urging the administration “to reinstate all bathroom protections for transgender students.” And it unanimously passed, too, a resolution decrying recent acts of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and declaring “that diversity is our strength.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.

Local Boy Scouts Bring Honor to NYS Congressional Youth Award Ceremony at Hunter College

Written by  Michael Hufnagel (Troop 343 (Hauppauge) Boy Scout)

Honor Guard participants at this ceremony were (from left to right) ASM Phyllis Stein, ASM Ken Johansson, Kenny Johansson, James Abruzzo, Robbie Vermillion, Ryan Capece, Congressman Joe Crowley, Aidan Johansson, Rainer Schubert, Griffin Capece, Alex Rodriguez (Alex is also the Bugular), Paul Massa, Jack Catapano, ASM Maureen Massa, Michael Hufnagel, Ian McAlister and ASM Steve Abruzzo. On Saturday March 12^th 2017, the Suffolk County Council (Boy Scouts of America)’s Honor Guard from Boy Scout Troop 343 (Hauppauge) participated in the New York State Congressional Youth Award Ceremony at Hunter College.  The Honor Guard presented the Colors at the start of the ceremony. New York State Congressman Joe Crowley (14^th Congressional District: Queens and Bronx) presented the awards.  The recipients were from all around the State of New York and ranged in age from 14 to 24 years. The young adults who earned these awards worked hard in their communities on projects and spent many hours volunteering in their communities. The goal for the Congressional Youth Award Program is to help guide young people to become caring and model citizens. 

(Troop 343/ Michael Hufnagel Photo)