When Stephen Hollis got the call from Playhouse chief Ed Stern inviting him to again direct “Dracula” (the last time was 12 years ago) “I was intrigued and initially concerned,” Hollis reports. “I’d been very happy with the previous production.”

“Dracula,” which opens the Playhouse season Tuesday, will be the same – but different. 

Hollis didn’t want to “simply reproduce what I did before” but then again, “it was 12 years ago, I couldn’t remember how I did everything.”

Of course there’s a new cast but “there are a couple of things I was fond of, and couldn’t let go of” like the script. “I looked at many of them but they’re campy and meolodramatic and don’t take the story seriously.”

So Hollis returns to the spooky and suspenseful first stage adaptation of Bran Stoker’s novel. “It gets to the essential dramatic conflict – good versus evil. It lets us know what it must have felt like for this father and daughter” under siege from a vampire.

Hollis isn’t bothered by the fact that everybody knows the story. “You could say the same thing about “HamIet.” I believe in doing the play for the one person who doesn’t know it. That’s how I approach everything, really. That’s a director’s job.”

What is different – many fire codes have been passed in the last decade. “There are lots of safety restrictions,” Hollis sighs. “No pyrotechnics, or explosions that can ignite. The technical challenges have been daunting.” Not least because the show is doing a super-quick turn-around for St. Louis, not terribly accommodating of setting up elaborate special effects.

OK – here’s my favorite Drac story, not told by anyone at Playhouse, who are being hush-hush, and I have no idea if it’s true. The whisper I heard was that many hours were spent with Dracula’s cape, deciding how to rig a certain trick, or even if it could be rigged with actor Kurt Rhoads inside. All I’ll say is that it will be swell if they’ve managed to make it work.

I still remember Hollis’ “Dracula” from 1995, it was a humdinger of an adventure. Call the Playhouse box office for reservations and information, 513-421-3888 and www.cincyplay.com.

Don’t forget to write your own review here at CinStages.com.

Jackie Demaline

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 11:05 AM 0 Comments

Terry Bea, founder of the Streets of Gold Theatrical Gospel Arts Ministry, has been doing one-woman shows at area churches, creating characters who represented different parts of her personality.

In “Grandma’s Hands,” getting a performance at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the 12-character, lessons-learned Gospel play “has all my personalities on one stage!” Bea laughs. 

After the Freedom Center performance, Bea is rarin’ to go on a world tour, “giving God glory globally.” The only booking so far is Toldeo, but Bea, whose hyphenate is minister-speaker-comedienne-songwriter-singer, has faith. God will find a way, she says, noting, “If there’s a crack, I’m coming through it. I’m like a cockroach.”

Tickets $30, information online at www.streetsofgoldministries.com.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 4:43 PM 0 Comments

The International Mystery Writers’ Festival “Discovering New Mysteries” returns in 2008 – and is accepting play and screenplay submissions.

FIRST-TIME playwright Elizabeth Orndorff won the 2007 prize for Best New Work (a cool $10,000) and Most Promising Writer ($5,000) – so don’t go thinking it can’t happen to you. Kentuckian Orndorff’s “Death by Darkness”  was set in the Star Chamber of the Mammoth Cave in 1841, where the unlikeliest set of people (including Charles Dickens) have come down river from Cincinnati for a tour. Fun stuff.

If you have a mystrey that has never been professionally presented – the festival is waiting for you. New categories include short plays, short stories and works for young adults and children. (Cash prizes are smaller.)

Finalists in every category receive full performances during the festival, June 12-22 in Owensboro, Ky.

No entry fee for submission, deadline is Nov. 30. Send your submission to: “Discovering New Mysteries,” c/o RiverPark Center, 101 Daviess St., Owensboro, Ky. 42303.

For more information go online to www.newmysteries.org or call 1-877-639-6978. WKET filmed a “making of” festival documentary, scheduled to air in September. Watch your TV listings.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 5:43 PM 0 Comments

Applause to all the nominees! Next up – what looks like a great Cincy theater season beginning next week.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 11:14 AM 0 Comments

Damiam Baldet (last seen touring through town last year in “The Lion King”) is among theater artists profiled in Sunday’s New York Times. Fun to check in and  -- holy cow, he made $140,000 a year when he was touring! Now he’s back to $400 a week (after taxes) in “Gone Missing” Off-Broadway.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 12:33 PM 0 Comments

Kate Rockwell (you better have voted for her on NBC’s “Grease: You’re the One That I Want”) starts a two-performance local appearance in New Stage Collective’s concert performance of “The Last Five Years.”  Find info elsewhere at CinStages.com or call the box office at 513-621-3700.

Next up for Rockwell: New York Musical Theatre Festival entry “Tully (In No Particular Order)” running Sept. 20-28. Among Rockwell’s co-stars is another alum of the “Grease” reality show, Austin Miller.

And for something completely different:

Monty Python fans can get spammed tonight at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton – or at least they can buy tickets to the “Spamalot” tour before they go on sale to the general public tomorrow.

Just make Friday date night the Michelob Ultra Cool Film Series at the Victoria. This week’s flick – “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which inspired the musical (and which provided much material for ripping off.)

Doors open at 5:30, the first 100 patrons to purchase “Spamalot” tickets get free coconut shells for clippity-clopping. The evening will include costume and trivia contests, dashing knights and taunting Frenchmen, free food (rabbit, one can only hope) and a concert on the Mighty Wurlitzer. And of course the movie, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $4.75 – to the movie. “Spamalot” tickets start at $28.50. The tour plays Dayton’s Schuster Center April 22-27, 2008.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 11:31 AM 0 Comments

The indefatigable Jhon Marshall, a mainstay of Cincinnati’s educational and community theater scenes for 40 years, is retiring!

Jhon taught at New Richmond and Princeton for three decades and has been with Educational Theatre Association since 1998. Over the years he has never stopped acting and directing on local stages including (but not limited to) Showboat Majestic, Covedale Center, Lebanon Theatre Company and College-Conservatory of Music.

EdTA (2343 Auburn Ave.) throws a farewell reception today from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. If you have a favorite story about Jhon – please share!

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 10:17 AM 0 Comments

NKU grad Denise Devlin wraps a run in “Grease” with Jersey Productions today (3 p.m. at the Carnegie), then tomorrow she starts rehearsals for the regional premiere of Stephen (“Wicked”) Schwartz’ new musical “Snapshots” at Human Race.

The “play with music” incorporates songs from past Schwartz hits,  including “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Children of Eden.” “Snapshots” is “in development” which means Schwartz is coming in.When Devlin heard that, “I wanted to scream, but I wanted to be professional.”

And – gas up the car, musical fans – Schwartz will conduct a musical theater Master Class at the Human Race’ Loft Theatre (126 N. Main St.) from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20. “Snapshots” opens that evening.

Schwartz will take questions from the audience and everyone who’d like to sing for the three-time Oscar winner can put their names in a hat for a chance to perform. Tickets $20, call Human Race exec director Kevin Moore at 937-461-3823, ext. 3115.

Back to Devlin, who will be singing for Schwartz. She reports, “it’s a six person show, and we play the same two people in different parts of their lives.” Devlin is the youngest of three female roles.

Human Race isn’t fooling around – four of the cast members are coming in from New York, including terrific CCM grad, and “Wicked” veteran, Kristy Cates. “When I heard that I wanted to scream, too,” Devlin laughed.

Devlin will know more Monday, but says she will sing “Popular” – “he’s changing some lyrics” – and “Lion Tamer” from “The Magic Show.” It’s beautiful.”

“Snapshots” will have a song dropped from “Wicked,” lyrics dropped from “Baker’s Wife” and new lyrics for songs from shows including “Rags.” (Yup, Schwartz is a prolific guy.)

“Snapshots” continues through Oct. 7. For tickets and more information – find Human Race in the theater index elsewhere at CinStages.com.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 11:08 AM 0 Comments

Janet Vogt reports in with “interesting” and even good news about the children’s musicals she writes with Mark Friedman. “Green Gables” had a “terrific” run at the Barter Theatre in Virginia earlier this year and earned an enthusiastic letter of recommendation from the artistic director.

First Stages Theatre in Milwaukee produced the one-act “junior” version of “Green Gables” and were so thrilled the theater commissioned Vogt/Friedman to create two more musicals for them, “one based on “The Little Princess, and the other based on the “How I Became a Pirate” books.

Vogt is happily leaving the details of acquiring rights to the theater; she’s hoping for a March 2008 reading in Milwaukee. “My favorite lyric so far is Mark’s – “You can find us at Pirates…dot – ARGHHHHH.”” Johnny Depp would love it.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 10:48 AM 0 Comments

Playhouse in the Park’s pre-season sale ends today. That’s the sale which allows us to buy half-price tickets to the opening week of productions (except “Dracula”), with tickets as little as $20.

Playhouse attendance numbers were down last year; like just about every performing arts company across the U.S. Playhouse was whacked by the economy, and it’s 2006-2007 line-up, with a steep drop in attendance of eight percent.

Truth be told, no one was expecting to match the numbers of one year earlier, when the schedule included “Company,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and an extended run of “Love, Janis” – but nobody expected last season’s “Reckless” to completely tank, either.

Playhouse is packed with presumable hits for the coming year including season opener “Dracula,” closer “Ella” (is in jazz legend Fitzgerald) and Pulitzer Prize winner “Doubt” and off-Broadway hit “Altar Boyz” in between. 

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 10:44 AM 0 Comments

Broadway baby Bernadette Peters hosted a love-in at the Aronoff Saturday night with a little Rodgers and Hammerstein, a lot of Stephen Sondheim and a way of demonstrating that the best show tunes are art songs, even when those glorious pipes of hers were showing a little strain.

You’ve got to love a woman who says the first time she heard R&H’s “Carousel Waltz” “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven” and who calls Sondheim a national treasure.

A good number of the audience were in love with Peters before she ever stepped on stage. If you love Broadway musicals, chances are you’ve seen Bernadette Peters.

She’s certainly been part of my show-going life for almost 40 years. I first saw her when I was still in my teens, in her big break Off-Browadway show “Dames at Sea.” Nobody could sing “It’s Raining in My Heart” like Bernadette.

What followed has been a great career of Sondheim (“Into the Woods,” “Sunday in the Park with George”), not-so-great shows like “The Goodbye Girl,” great performances in not-so-geat shows (“Song & Dance”) revivals of great roles in “On the Town” and “Annie Get Your Gun” and bringing Broadway to a new generation on television.

Peters has fans of all ages – I shared an elevator on the way in with a very young lady, eyes big with excitement, who discovered Peters in the television adaptation of “Cinderella.” I shared another elevator on the way out with a dozen or so seasoned, white-haired ushers who raved.

Peters opened and closed the show with songs from “Gypsy,” welcoming her audience with “Let Me Entertain You” and wrapping with a powerhouse “Rose’s Turn.” (The final, final closer was Irving Berlin.)

More than one person remarked about the elements of Peters’ star power – not just the huge vocal range coming out of that tiny body, but her substance (Peters’ singular song interpretation) and the confidence to choose songs and take them where she will. You’ve never heard “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” like this before.

Peters remarked on the recent revival of “Company” on Broadway, and I’m sure she heard several times before the post-concert reception was over that that was our “Company,” thank you. And even if she didn’t deliver “Being Alive” like Raul Esparza, well, nobody ever played Mabel Normand like Bernadette.

Peters’ musical director Melvin Laird (composer of “Ruthless!” currently playing not so far away aboard Showboat Majestic) came along to conduct the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, which couldn’t have dreamed of a better showcase. Big thanks to Caracole for making the evening possible. Let’s do it again!

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 1:20 PM 0 Comments

“Thrill Me,” the Leopold & Loeb musical at Know Theatre is braving Labor Day weekend and adding performances at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

And –

Local playwright Alan Jozwiak reports that his newest play, “Crazy Quilt,” will debut at Indianapolis Fringe Festival this week. “It deals with the lives of two female college freshmen as they make life-altering decisions about men, family lyalties and their future.” Jozwiak says “Quilt” “is a summary statement of all the writing projects I’ve worked on for the last two years and I think it contains some of my best writing.”

If you’re in Indy, look for “Crazy Quilt” at Theatre on the Square beginning Friday and continuing through Sept. 2. (Jozwiak also calls the play “a 40^th birthday present to myself”, with the Big Day occurring Sept. 3.)

More information about Indy Fringe at www.indyfringe.org and Jozwiak invites everyone to come to Indy and make a day of it.

If you can’t make it to Indy, “Crazy Quilt” will be reprised as part of this year’s 20/20 Fest on Oct. 9 and Oct. 16 at the Weaver’s Guild of Greater Cincinnati (4870 Gray Rd.)

If you can’t wait that long, “Crazy Quilt” opens its final Indy dress rehearsal at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rohs Street Café (245 W. McMillan St., across from Hughes High School.) The café closes at 7 p.m., so get there a few minutes early.

Prolific Jozwiak also promises to debut a children’s play, “Dora, Why can’t You Sit Still?” locally in October.

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 12:38 PM 0 Comments

New this year at Cincinnati Shakespeare – bar service! (fingers crossed.) But not until the licensed plumber installs the three-chambered sink (by health department standards) to wash the theater’s two coffee pots to serve the coffee that’s required by the state Division of Liquor Control in order to get a license.

CSC managing director Rebecca Bowman is also overseeing the installation of a commercial fridge to hold the pre-packaged sandwiches also required by the liquor control and stocking up on just-add-hot-water instant soup cups, all to make sure that if theater productions drive people to drink, there’s the means to get them sober before they leave.

The original hope was to have full bar service on Sept. 7’s opening of “Romeo and Juliet,” but as the permit application doesn’t pass through City Council until Sept. 6 en route to Columbus, there will be no popping of corks opening night. If all’s well that ends well “we’ll be pouring by the middle of the run,” Bowman promises. She expects to start with wine and beer and move on to full bar service before much time has passed.  

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 8:35 AM 0 Comments

You’ll want to catch magician Anthony Reed in performances today and tomorrow at annual Playhouse in the Park fundraiser Abracadabra! His double levitation is gorgeous, we get an eagle-eye view of his sleight-of-hand via a big screen and his show-closing water tank escape/grand illusion is a jaw dropper.

Last night’s gala was faboo. Best dressed – well, it’s always hands-down when Vic Morgan in the room. The Cincinnati Ballet artistic director was looking totally Ginger Rogers in a white satin number with a drop-dead bare back. Where’s Astaire when you need him? Ms. Morgan cut a rug with gala chairwoman Moe Rouse, who even got on stage with the band. Once a rocker, always a rocker.

New Contemporary Arts Center director and chief curator Raphaela Platow also flashed her footwork while – can I possibly have witnessed a small food fight between Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern and wife Anne? (I’m sure he deserved it.)

Nearby, Gary Sandy was doing some serious jitter-bugging, dapper in a bowling shirt. Could he have been subtly advertising upcoming Ensemble entry “More Fun Than Bowling”? Sandy’s a frequent onstage visitor and accompanied Ensemble artistic director D. Lynn Meyers to the Playhouse bash.

The last time I say Sandy, he was committing murder (in June, onstage at the first annual “Discovering New Mysteries” International Mystery Writers’ Festival in Owensboro, Ky.) He was starring in the late Ed McBain’s only play, “Final Curtain.” At the time noted the difficulties of working on a new script by a dead author (hard to discuss desired script changes via Ouija board) and we both discovered the Moonlite Bar-B-Que. (See “Road Food” for in-depth details.) Talk about to die for.

Sandy happily reports he’ll pend autumn in Kansas City starring in the American premiere of a farce by so-prolific Brit playwright Ray Cooney. Maybe he’ll bump into Playhouse associate artistic director Michael Haney, who’s opening the Kansas City Rep season with Theresa Rebeck’s “Bad Dates.” Haney directed the one-woman show at Playhouse a couple of seasons back and scored a box office hit.

On to an evening with Bernadette Peters.

Jackie Demaline 

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 12:57 PM 0 Comments

Meghan Carolina Kalagayan, future producing artistic director of Know Theatre, entered the world at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday to the sound of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Meggie weighed in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces, has dark hair and dimples in both cheeks.

Congrats to mom Jan and dad Jay (Know founder and exec producer.) And we hear there will be good news about current show “Thrill Me” come Sunday.

Jackie Demaline