Theater Review "Xanadu"

THEATER REVIEW

“Xanadu”

Produced by: The SoLuna Studio - Hauppauge 

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Katie Murano plays the Muse, Kira, in SoLuna’s “Xanadu” 

By rights, “Xanadu” should never have made it to the Great White Way. After all, how many Broadway musicals can you name that have been patterned after a 1980 movie flop which ‘won’ (if that term can be used) no fewer than seven dreaded ‘Hollywood Razzie Worst Awards’ (another euphemistic misnomer if ever there was one) … for Worst Director … Picture … Screenplay … Musical … Actor … Actress … and just to rub it in – Worst Original Song?

Geez! Sounds like the producers should have paid the audience to come to New York’s Helen Hayes Theater seven years ago … if only to express sympathy for the cast and ‘tsk-tsk’ the principals responsible for the inevitable carnage to come … right?

Well … not so fast.

Against all odds, the spoofy 2007 stage show not only garnered a couple of Tony nominations, it flat-out won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards … ran for a highly respectable 561 performances … and a successful national tour ensued. Thus, with a nod to Samuel Taylor Coleridge it wouldn’t be too great a stretch to paraphrase his famed opium-induced poem as follows: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a … pleasure-dome decree.” Or to use the twenty-first century vernacular: “Guess what: this show’s pretty good!”

That is not to say the SoLuna Studio on Old Willets Path in Hauppauge (next to Butterfield’s Restaurant) has re-invented theatrical sliced bread. Indeed, few members of the energetic young cast seem able to carry a tune much farther than the nearby Long Island Expressway. But this is a satire, bear in mind. Like most parodies, it depends on sarcastic comedy, not the fine arts, for its success … and “Xanadu” delivers what it promises: a rollicking, sardonic caricature!

Led by Katie Murano and Bobby Peterson, the show tells of a Greek goddess who descends to Earth (Venice Beach, California, no less) there to help a down-and-out entrepreneur produce the world’s greatest-ever artistic creation … get the digitalis … a disco on roller skates! And if that concept isn’t funky enough, the spiritual muse actually falls for the struggling artist.

To add to the outrage, the besotted goddess takes it on the chin from her jealous sister muses and … well, you get the idea … muddles and mix-ups equal mayhem, as Nicole Gebler, Melanie Mednick, and Nick Caron, are flawlessly executing Karen Braun’s clever choreography.

Not long into this chaotic undertaking, you might be inclined to give up on absorbing the ridiculous plot and less-than-memorable music, and simply permit the ambitious cast to do their feverish thing while you just watch. And watch you will, unless I miss my guess. One reason for that, oddly, has to do with the off-key vocals. Whether the singing ineptitude is contrived or genuine, the perceived incompetence actually facilitates our tongue-in-cheek acceptance of the free-wheeling absurdity taking place on stage. At one point, a grimacing Nicole Gebler appears to have smelled something sour and asks, “Is this that awful 80’s movie?” Yep. But as the record indicates, the stage show’s much better.

SoLuna Studio is a vest pocket theater which has a sort of speakeasy feel. It’s almost as if viewing the performance in a venue that limits the audience to a relative handful of patrons, is somehow illicit. Indeed one might be forgiven if their initial impression is that they’ve dropped in on a cleaned-up stag party. “Xanadu” runs through May 25^th.

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Award-winning Smithtown writer Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eight novels, and his theater reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “Harvest” due in late summer, an American doctor is forced to perform illegal surgeries for a gang of vital organ traffickers in The Balkans.

Editorial - A Line In The Sand For Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick

NYS Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick**Has a line been drawn in the sand for Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick 8th AD?  Some people seem to think so. Assemblyman Fitzpatrick is affable, approachable and one of Smithtown’s longest serving elected officials. Michael Fitzpatrick served on the Town Council for fifteen years (1988 - 2002) before becoming NYS Assemblyman in 2002 where he continues to serve.  He is up for reelection in November 2014.  Fitzpatrick’s father served six years as Supervisor of the Town of Smithtown (1970 -76) - the town’s Paul J. Fitzpatrick public golf course is named after him. Mike Fitzpatrick knows politics well.

Assemblyman Fitzpatrick has built his public reputation on being a fiscal conservative and a supporter of business. 

Long Island is undeniably dealing with a youth opiate heroin epidemic. Abuse of prescription drugs in NYS is declining due to I-Stop legislation which has made prescription drugs less available. Addicts losing access to prescription drugs have turned to illegal street drugs. Cheap and highly addictive heroin has become the substitute for prescription drugs. Inseparable from the addiction problem is the increase in crime that results when addicts need money to feed their addiction.  

According to police statistics over two thousand people have died in the past decade due to drug overdoses. In Suffolk County Police have been effective (700 lives have been saved) with the use of Narcan which counteracts the effects of an overdose. The Suffolk County Narcan trial program has now become the model for police programs across the state. 

It is imperative that we use all the tools available to fight the battle against drug abuse. One of those tools is residential treatment for addicts. Currently insurance companies hold the key to gaining access to residential treatment. Not all addicts will enter into residential rehab programs, some are served as outpatients in programs, or by specialists. It is imperative that the determination of best treatment for the patient be made by a person qualified with a background in substance abuse and or medicine who has evaluated the patient and will make a decision in the best interest of the patient. Treatment decisions must not be made based on bottom line.

Before the NYS Legislature is a piece of legislation that is opposed by insurance companies and supported by many with first hand knowledge of addiction. The legislation, S4623A in the Senate and A7003A in the Assembly, will take the treatment options out of the purview of the for profit insurance industry and put it in the hands of medical professionals. 

S4623A/ A7003A - “To ensure that patients suffering from drug and alcohol dependency receive appropriate care, by directing insurers to provide authorization and payment to appropriately licensed healthcare providers for detoxification, rehabilitation and intensive residential rehabilitation based on the examining physician’s recommendation.”

According to Maureen Rossi of Kings Park In The kNOw, every NYS elected official from Long Island irrespective of political affiliation has signed-on to the legislation except for one, Smithtown Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick. To those who lobbied in Albany last week this is a slap in the face. To parents of deceased children who died from overdoses it is unthinkable that despite empirical data indicating the need and benefits of doctors as the deciders, Assemblyman Fitzpatrick has not signed on to the legislation. To outsiders looking in it seems these families  despite their incredible grief are fighting the battle that is Fitzpatrick’s responsibility to fight.

Assemblyman Fitzpatrick needs to support A7003 and he needs to become an advocate for the legislation. Children are dying and some of the children are from our town. The legislation puts children before insurance profits and allows medical professionals to make health care decisions. Assemblyman Fitzpatrick sign on to A7003.

Yes, the line in the sand has been drawn. 

Pat

**ASSEMBLYMAN FITZPATRICK IS SUPPORTING THE LEGISLATION. 100 percent support from LI. !!! 

Op-ED Long Island Is A War Zone - Fitzpatrick And Graf Need To Sign Onto Insurance Bill

Long Island is A War Zone Fitzpatrick and Graf Need To Sign Onto Insurance Bill

Maureen Ledden Rossi

In the last decade, Long Island has lost well over two thousand young people in the prime of their lives to the opiate and heroin epidemic.  It’s a war zone on Long Island and the epidemic is by far the greatest societal issue facing Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

Unless a critical piece of Insurance legislation is passed in the House and Senate before session ends in mid-June, dozens and dozens more will succumb this summer.  Dozens and dozens of families will come to know the worst pain imaginable and dozens and dozens of parents will join the club no parent ever wants to join.

Over and over again young addicts are being denied the proper medical treatment for their addiction by the Insurance companies even though parents or employers have paid premiums for years, sometimes decades.  They are told, you don’t use enough Heroin for a Detox, you must fail at outpatient treatment before we provide you with inpatient treatment.   The big Insurance Company Executives, the profiteers, who actually make more money when they deny claims, are calling the shots.  They are making life and death decisions for the young people of Long Island – they are playing Russian Roulette daily with lives.  These decisions must be made by medical professionals who are trained in the field of addiction.    Time and time again, we have watched young people be denied treatment even after they have overdosed.  Far too often, they have gone on to overdose again and succumb.

This Legislation calls for medical professionals to make the decision as to whether a patient needs a medical detoxification, inpatient or outpatient treatment.  Right now forty-seven members of the House have signed on and seventeen members of the Senate have followed suit.  Senator Kemp Hannon (R, LI) is the architect of the Senate Bill.  Assemblyman Mike Cusick (D, Staten Island) is the creator of the Assembly Bill.  Staten Island made the cover the New York Times last week as they are now grappling with a heroin epidemic that rivals Long Islands.

Presently only two lawmakers on Long Island, which many experts feel is the epicenter of the nation’s youth heroin epidemic,  have yet to sign on.  They are Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick and Assemblyman Al Graf.  We, in the Movement, implore these law makers and their peers to sign onto this vital piece of legislation.

True fiscal conservatives would get on the bus; they would sign the legislation because there is an enormous cost shift to the tax payer when Insurance Companies deny treatment.   Over and over again addicts are advised to get off their parents policy and get on Medicaid so they can be treated for their life-threatening disease.   There is a very small window of opportunity to act on when an addict finally gives up and wants to get better.  Families suffer for years, they exhaust their funds, and there is often an incarceration and trips to the hospital.   The physical and mental suffering accompanying a Heroin withdrawal is unbearable and an addict will do anything for their next fix.    They do commit crimes, they do rob pharmacies and homes and even their own families.    Fiscal conservatives can probably tell you off the top of their head what it costs to incarcerate someone – it’s an astronomical cost; about fifty-thousand dollars a year per inmate.  This is the largest and least thought about cost shift from the Insurance companies to the tax-payer.  There is another societal cost no one ever mentions, addicts are driving high on our roads claiming lives in vehicular accidents.

On Tuesday May 6^th over fifty Long Island residents from the Movement headed to Albany to lobby and fight for the passage of a critical Insurance Bill.   The Movement is comprised of family members of those addicted to Heroin or Opioids,  parents who have lost their children and members of coalitions like the ones we have in Smithtown; The Commack Coalition for Caring and Kings Park in the kNOw.  Experts from the Prevention and Addiction field led the contingent with Smithtown’s Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds from L.I.C.AD.D. as our unofficial leader.

We split into small groups and met as many elected officials as possible throughout the day.  There was Mark’s Dad, a reserved man who is a retired NYPD Captain.  Mark was twenty seven, a striking young man who was a professional fisherman out east, he died only six months ago.  There was Lori whose bravery was not lost on anyone that day.  Her beautiful son Nick was twenty-two and died just nine weeks prior, he was denied treatment by her Insurance Company.  There was Linda Ventura of Kings Park, also known as Thomas’ mom.  Thomas was a popular athlete who won MVP for his Varsity Lacrosse team while only a freshman.  Thomas died two years back right before his 22^nd birthday, he was denied proper medical treatment many times by his mother’s Insurance carrier.   There was Tom Goris, 31, an articulate college graduate who was denied treatment over and over again for the policy he paid for through his corporate job.  Tom is one of the lucky ones, he is clean and sober for over fourth months.  Tom said during a moment of desperation he dropped to his knees and asked God why it was easier for him to get the drugs than to get treatment.   There was Avi, a well-dressed attorney at law.  His took a shotgun to his head and committed suicide two years back because he could not get the help he needed, he was denied treatment by his father’s Insurance Company. 

All of us in the Movement want to know why Insurance Companies are allowed to pursue this discriminatory practice.  A Columbia University Professor joined us in Albany, he specializies in Insurance Company appeals.  He said fifty-two percent of the time Insurance companies reverse their decisions after an appeal.   Fifty-two percent of the time, the Insurance Companies admit they were wrong.  That has proven far too late for too many Long Island families.

Ventura brought her son’s ashes in a small non-descript container.  During the late-day press conference she held up Thomas’s ashes and said ‘is this what they meant by failing at out-patient first’?   It was a powerful moment that was not lost on anyone, an eerie silence gripped the room for a brief moment and then the mothers of those lost sobbed quietly.   So we wait for other lawmakers to sign those bills.  We all wait while beautiful young lives are lost quietly in every community on tree-lined streets in the backdrop of their well-performing school districts and award-winning beaches.  The casualties continue to mount and there is no end in sight for this war.

What's Cookin'? Smithtown - Kings Park Farmer's Market

What’s Cookin’? – Smithtown

By Nancy Vallarella

Where’s the (New York State Grass Fed) Beef?

You can find it at the 4th season opening of the Kings Park Farmer’s Market this Sunday, May 18th.

Coach Farms artisanal goat cheesesBernadette Martin of Long Island Green Markets has confirmed that many popular vendors will be returning along with some new additions. This Sunday expects to see Kalypso Greek Yogurt back with their fruity flavors tucked into those fabulous reusable terra cotta containers. Garden Fusion will be there with organic vegetables and herb plants. Coach Farms is returning with a variety of artisanal goat cheeses. One of the newest offerings is olive oil.  Entertainment, this Sunday, will be live music and Abracadoodle face painting for the kiddies.

Farmer and popular market  returnee Teddy Bolkas the “Tomato Whisperer” from Tomato Whisperer - Teddy BolkasThera Farms, Ronkonkoma, will be there with his hydroponic green goodness and something new; New York State Grass Fed Beef. According to Teddy, a variety of cuts will be available (steaks, ground meat, roasts) and bones for stock or furry four legged friends.  FYI ladies - for those of you that have been asking…Yes, Teddy is single.  You will find him on Sunday at the Kings Park Farmer’s Market and at the Nesconset Farmer’s Market on Saturdays starting June 7th.  Throughout the season, he will be bringing the greens, beef, beefsteaks and beefcake!

“It’s an early start this season.” Notes Alyson Elish-Swartz market co-founder, King’s Park Civic Association liaison and resident.  “The growth of the business has been remarkable. The Kings Park community has truly embraced this event and has volunteered their talents to help make it a success.” Alyson gets numerous calls from volunteers offering to provide entertainment and fundraising undertakings at the market for causes within the community. “We have come to the aid of our local food pantry (St. Vincent DePaul Society’s Food Pantry at St. Joseph’s Church) and provided a scholarship to King’s Park High School students over the past several years.

Social media has also been a major contributor to the growth. Kings Park Farmer’s Market has a facebook page and an e-mail newsletter subscription can be requested by sending a message to lbfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Last fall Newsday documented a shopping trip at the market with local restaurant Café Red. It can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaKSSNRhBNw

Stop by this Sunday. Walk around, meet your neighbors and support regional food and craft producers. Remember my farmer’s market motto, “Arrive early for the best selection. Arrive late for the best conversation.”

The Kings Park Farmer’s Market is open from 9am – 2pm. It is located in the municipal parking lot on Rt. 25A across from the Kings Park Fire Department.

Nissequogue River State Park Foundation Completes Community Quilt 2014

Kids from the Commack and Kings Park school districts participated in the Nissequogue River State Park Foundation’s (NRSPF) 3rd annual Community Quilt Contest.  Students were given blank quilt squares and asked to use their creativity to decorate the square. Once completed the squares became part of the 2014 community quilt. Participants were asked to decorate a square with the theme What inspires me. 

The quilting event is the brainchild of NRSPF board member Karin Vanderveer. “Each year it has gotten bigger attracting more participants and more sponsorships. “This year we received 570 completed quilt squares. An overwhelming positive response.” said Ms. Vanderveer.  Sponsorships for the event included The Reichert Family - IGA in Fort Salonga and Larkfield, Smithtown Matters, The Hessel Family, The Hale Family and Signarama in Huntington. 

Awards were given out at the Administration Building at the Nissequogue River State Park on Saturday, May 10th.  Many of the awardees were present to receive their certificates and T- shirt. Families applauded and the kids beamed with well deserved pride.

2014 Commuinty Quilt awardees were:

Olivia Wolf -1st place, Alyssa Jacino - 2nd place, Sofia Cassara - 3rd place. 

Five people were awarded certificates for Special Recognition - Gianna Adduci, Riley Anelli, Eric Baldwin, Luc Deraney,  Lili Rath and Serafin Rohrer.