Say the name Boca to young people and they probably won’t know what you’re talking about. However, most seniors recognize it as the shortened version of Boca Raton, a city in South Florida where many go, first for a winter getaway, and later, to retire in active adult communities. The play, “Boca,” by Jessica Provenz, provides us with a glimpse of what life is like for such a group behind the gates of the “idyllic” Boca Oasis Retirement Community.

            Five actors portray the 11 characters in a series of 12 quick-paced vignettes. The weather is always a perfect 75 degrees. They are safe within the gates of the community, where they have many friends though the men do gripe about the missing packets of Stevia and about a valet who takes too long to deliver the cars. And while they are kept busy with Zoom meetings, pickle ball, and dating, they also grapple with hardships- loss of friends and partners, failed marriage, poor health, erectile dysfunction, missed opportunities, and impending death.

            They have gone through the challenges of life. They’ve taken jobs they didn’t like. They’ve married spouses they also didn’t like. One was left by her husband for a woman who worked at Cheesecake Factory. But in spite of what can sound like a depressing play, it is not. They talk about the 45-year itch. They dismiss the medical advice of one of them because they say he is not a doctor- he is a podiatrist. It is smart play, and it is funny- very funny.

            Most of the discussions are between the women about the men. Can they drive at night? Do they wipe the toilet seat? But they are also dealing with the fact that the women outnumber men by 3 to 1and that they must keep an eye out for any woman who is dying so they can grab the man, as soon as he becomes available.  At one point, there is a daring attempt to escape the monotony of their lives with a “Thelma and Louise”- like car ride.

I can go on and on with the dozens of little stories that kept me laughing all through the 80-minute piece presented expertly by director Tony Braithewaite with five talented veteran Philadelphia actors. There is one reflective monologue by one of the men that lacked the humor and the texture of the rest of the show, but it was only a few minutes long. With all the very serious theater around today, it was a pleasure to watch such a joyous play.  I don’t know if young people will enjoy it as much as I did, but I am telling all my friends about it. It’s a must-see piece for everyone over 65!

“Boca” by Jessica Provenz at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue., Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200,   act2.org    Extended thru September 3, 2023

Lettie is a young woman in her early 30’s who has recently been released from prison after serving seven years for using and dealing drugs. She lives in a halfway house and plans to find work as a welder after she completes an internship. She is also hoping to reunite with her children who are teenagers.

River, now 17, and Layla, now 14, have been raised by Lettie’s half-sister, Carla and Carla’s husband, Frank. They have raised the children as their own in a very structured, traditional Christian household.

            The play, written by Boo Killebrew quickly escalates into a series of conflicts between the different characters and within the characters themselves. Will Lettie stay clean or backslide into the addiction that plagued her since childhood? Will she succeed in completing the internship that can eventually provide her with work and a steady income? Will she be welcomed into Carla and Frank’s life with her children as she seeks to regain custody? And will the children even want a relationship with their mother?

            Added to the mix is Minny, a “sister” parolee and intern who was incarcerated for twenty years after murdering her husband. Her repeated attempts to mentor Lettie often lead to frustration and dissension. But eventually they bond and play a meaningful role in each other’s lives.  

            Lettie’s dream of reclaiming her children and building a life quickly dissolves as reality sets in. River is angry and rejects the possibility of having any kind of relationship with his mother. He is old enough to remember being abandoned by a mother whose addiction superseded attending to his basic needs.

            At first, Layla is more forgiving and open to a connection with Lettie. She visits her secretly and shares her dreams with her mother. However, in time, her eagerness subsides as she witnesses her mother’s lack of coping skills as she struggles and greets failure with bitterness and rage. One minute we are on her side- the next, we are not so sure.

            There is a fragility in each character as they wrestle with their own demons and the curveballs thrown at them by the others. Killebrew has woven a complex tapestry that draws us in and keeps us engaged as the play flows seamlessly from one scene to the next. The perfectly designed set helps facilitate that flow.

            Will there be a happy ending? Will they find their dreams? That will be for you to decide.

“Lettie” by Boo Killebrew at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org   Thru July 13, 2023

In my junior year in college, I took a class in Shakespeare. I was a history major and only familiar with the few plays I read in high school, with a Cliff’s Notes by my side to help me understand what was going on. Fast forward a half century later and I find that Shakespearian English is once again, a foreign language.

Four centuries after his death, Shakespeare’s plays are still regularly performed around the world. This month, there are three productions of “Twelfth Night” on Philadelphia stages.  I saw an innovative production at the Wilma Theater.

            This is not your average Shakespeare. To begin with, though still called Ilyria, the setting is a dock by the ocean that could easily be New Jersey. The actors wear contemporary clothes-  T-shirts and shorts. Furthermore, the play is neither one of the historical or tragic plays, but rather a romantic comedy, turned into a bit of a farce by the Wilma, with the grief aspects of the play toned down.

            It begins when Viola survives a shipwreck off the coast of Ilyria, where she believes her twin brother, Sebastian has gone down with the ship.  She disguises herself as a young man, to get employment with Duke Orsino. He is trying to court Olivia, who has recently lost her brother, and she is not interested in the Duke. She is, however, interested in Viola because she thinks Viola is a man. Everyone is trying to find romance. And then, there is the music. After all, as the great bard says through his character, Orsino, “if music be the food of love, play on.”

            Eventually, Viola’s twin appears (he didn’t drown) and the confusion and the love triangles expand. There are so many supporting characters who try to encourage and discourage the possible romantic entanglements. In one subplot, they ridicule and embarrass Malvolio, the ill-tempered steward of Olivia, who thinks he has a chance to win her.

            It is easy to lose track of what is happening.  At the intermission, I talked with others in the audience. I learned that they too were having difficulty following the plot and the dialogue.

That said, there were many visual treats for us to enjoy. One was the fascinating way MK Tuomanen portrays both twins at the start of the play, with an amazing costume by designer Ivania Stack. And while there is an overabundance of physical comedy, the staging of an orgy in the kiddie pool, was hysterical!

            In the program, director Yury Urnov asks of the play “How do we explore its depths without drowning in it?” He has opted to make it a broad comedy that is often silly without giving us those depths of the yearning for love. While it works at times, it is not enough to sustain the 2 ½ hour play on the Wilma stage.

            Theaters are trying to make Shakespeare accessible to modern audiences, reminding us that his themes are still relevant today. In that vein I would love to see a production done in contemporary English.

“Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St.,  Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-546-7824  wilmatheater.org    Thru June 25, 2023

Six rather quirky kids are competing for the title of spelling bee champion in the gymnasium of a Putnam County school.  These young adolescents are joined in the competition by four invited audience members. It is hosted by two “moderators” who are rather quirky themselves. Billed as a musical comedy, “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” while filled with humor, is far more complex as it explores the issues of childhood in a most insightful manner.

            I knew nothing of the play before I went to the Arden Theatre. To be honest, I didn’t expect much from a musical with that title. Even the first song, though sung beautifully by Miss Peretti (Patricia Noonan), didn’t prepare me for the complexity of the struggles of the kids. As for the kids, they are wonderfully played by adult professional actors.

            One girl struggles to measure up to the competitive goals of her two fathers. Another is so smart, she has no life away from intellect, wishing for more. She feels like she must always win… or else. Still another is dealing with the abandonment of her father. One kid has so many hang-ups, it would be impossible to begin listing them. He denies his own struggles.

            Watching these fine actors portraying kids with the growing pains of adolescence is surprisingly realistic and we are thoroughly engaged. Then, there are the host and hostess of the spelling bee. He is a loser and a bit of a jerk, but he is also a riot when he gives the definitions of the words that the kids are asked to spell. She, a former winner of the bee, makes strange comments as each speller is summoned to take their turn.

            I wouldn’t say that the William Finn’s music was memorable, though his lyrics were powerful. The book, originally conceived by Rebecca Feldman and written by Rachel Sheinkin, was mesmerizing, as it waved the serious material with so much comedy.  Developed by writers from the world of improv, modern productions are encouraged to create contemporary material to include. While the kids had challenging words to spell, one of the audience participants in the bee is asked to spell SEPTA.

There were so many profound moments of childhood that are still relevant today.  The exploration of ambition and competition played out in a spelling bee is just the surface- we feel their angst. But we also cannot help but laugh at the riotous goings on. Director Amina Robinson has done a wonderful job bringing this show to life!

“The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. 2^nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. 215-922-11222   ardentheatre.org   extended thru June 25, 2023.  

            In 1954, “The Matchmaker,” by Thornton Wilder debuted in London. About a widow who brokers marriages in Yonkers, New York at the turn of century, the play came to Broadway a year later with Ruth Gordon. A 1958 film adaptation starred Shirley Booth and included Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Perkins, and Robert Morse, before David Merrick and Jerry Herman created the musical, “Hello Dolly” in 1964. That’s a lot of history and few people know more than the film, starring Barbra Streisand which came out five years later, unless they were fortunate enough to see this funny, energetic, touching musical in its many Broadway revivals. The current production on the smaller, more intimate stage at Act II Playhouse, is outstanding!

            Dolly Gallagher Levi is the matchmaker. She is a widow herself as she tries to find partners for young and old. Beautifully adorned, she hides from everyone the fact that she has little money. In fact, she has business cards for dozens of different jobs, though basically, she is a meddler. There are so many engrossing stories that unfold on stage.

 I’d seen the movie some 50 years ago but remembered little of the details, which themselves, are most interesting. And while I knew the song “Hello Dolly,” I didn’t realize how many of the other songs I knew- (“It Takes a Woman” and “Before the Parade Passes By” to name two). Jerry Herman’s lyrics fit seamlessly into the musical and move the story effortlessly. There is so much to see.

From the start, we see the wonderful costumes by Millie Hiibel. They adorn the cast of 14 assembled by Director and Choreographer Stephen Casey, who brings us right into the lives of these people while entertaining us with their songs and dance. And unlike a larger theater where we listen to the voices through miking, we don’t need them because we are so close to the action.

I wondered how such a grand musical would work on a small stage. It is superb. We can see the expression on each performer’s face. While we listen to the songs and watch them dance, we can feel their enthusiasm because we so close. It is a visual treat. And the ensemble and the supporting actors outstanding. That leads me to Jennie Eisenhower who plays Dolly.

I read in the program of her extensive experience on the stage and of her six Barrymore nominations and two Barrymore awards. In portraying this larger-than-life character, she was spectacular. Her moves, her glances, her talk, her voice- it was hard to take my eyes off her. She didn’t play Dolly, she WAS Dolly. I can’t envision anyone playing the role better than she.

I can’t imagine a finer production of a musical this season.

“Hello Dolly” at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, PA 19002,  215-654-0200, www.act2.org.  Thru June 18, 2023

How many of you have ever heard of Phillis Wheatley? Sadly, I knew nothing of this 18^th century enslaved Black American poet’s existence until Quintessence Theatre brought her to my attention with the world premier of Paul Oakley Stovall’s play, “Written by Phillis.” What a fascinating and brilliant young woman!

            The play begins with a grad student in an elective class, struggling as she tries to do her research on some unknown poet called Phillis Wheatley. “Who the hell is she?” she mutters to herself. She is soon to learn as Wheatley’s story unfolds to her and to us.

            The name Phillis Wheatley is actually a composite of Phillis, the name of the slave ship that brought the girl to Boston at the age of 7 in 1761 and of Wheatley, the name of the family that bought her.

            While the young girl was working at all the household chores assigned to her, the family took a special liking to her. She was taught to read. She was educated like the Wheatley’s own children. She soon started to write and had written many poems by the time she was a young teenager. We get to hear many of them as the story evolves and she recites them to us. Learned in classical literature and the Bible, she will eventually write of the immorality of slavery. But they are also about life and death. The depth of her poetry is remarkable for someone so young.

            The Wheatleys love her work and want to get Phillis published but unable to find a place in America, they send her to England with their son. Before what almost seems like a tribunal, she must convince the older white men that she really did write the poetry. Though it is humiliating, she rises to the event. Asia Rogers gives a powerful and poignant performance as the young poet.

            But the play is more complicated than her poetry. It is about her relationship with her owners, which she also considers her family. She interacts with free Blacks and when she is in England, she will have a choice to make as to whether or not to return as a slave.

            I loved the story that playwright Paul Oakley Stovall has written, full of fascinating history. He clearly did a ton of research. But I had some problems with the production. The supporting actors were portrayed in a rather two-dimensional style. A favorite of mine on the Philadelphia stage, Phillip Brown, even played two significant characters the same way. As a former director myself, I usually blame the director for such gaffes.

            In directing on the theater-in-the-round space at Quintessence, Cheryl Lynn Bruce allowed actors to plant themselves in one place too long and often, while they talked with their backs to us, it was hard to hear. It was even challenging to hear Phillis reciting her poems when she was turned away from me. We older folks in the theater (and today, there are plenty of us) need not to work hard to hear what is going on in front of us, if there is no action accompanying the words.

            The play was 1:40 minutes without an intermission. The last 15 minutes dealt with Phillis Wheatley’s life after she was given her freedom and with her life with her husband. It felt like an afterthought. I would have preferred either a two-act play with more about her or a shortened play with information about those last ten years in an epilogue, projected on a screen.

            Nevertheless, I enjoyed and loved learning so much about Phillis Wheatley. And if you like poetry, you’ll love it even more.

“Written By Phillis” by Paul Oakley Stovall & Marilyn Campbell-Lowe at Quintessence Theatre, 7137 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119, 215-987-4450, quintessencetheatre.org   Thru June 4, 2023

            “The Play That Goes Wrong”, written in 2012, is probably one of the most successful comedies of the past ten years. It’s been on the London stage most of that time and ran on Broadway for two years before going to off-Broadway.  It’s toured across the U.S. and Australia. The story is a spoof of the British murder mystery play. It is now on the Philadelphia stage thanks to 1812 Productions.

            An amateur theater company is mounting a play, “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” Before the lights go down, we in the audience watch as the crew is trying to do final adjustments to the set, particularly, securing the broken mantelpiece. For a moment, we’re not even sure the play has begun.

            Then, when the play within the play does begin, we see a man, Charles Haversham, sprawled out on the sofa, dead. Soon, he is surrounded by his fiancé, his butler, his best friend, and then, the inspector, called to investigate the case. While the story gets more and more complicated, this play written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields is  not a drama but an absurd comedy. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

            People don’t enter on cue. Lines are forgotten or mispronounced and are often recited after the action they are meant to describe. Props are misplaced. The actors try to make do with other props that don’t fit the purpose. Set pieces collapse. The body of the dead man’s hand gets stepped on and he reacts. The fiancé gets knocked out. The stage manager replaces her, script-in hand. And when the fiancé recovers, they battle over who should continue the role. They lose their place in the script and wind up repeating a sequence several times. It is a mess!

            Describing all the chaos does not do full justice to what is happening on stage. You have to see it, to experience it. In the hands of actors less than the ensemble Director Jen Childs has put together, the play might not work. These professionals are spectacular as they portray less than competent actors. So much happens so fast and they never miss a beat as the characters they portray miss many.

            The set and the props are also an integral part of the comedy. As things fall apart and fall down, as things get misplaced, there must be a huge crew working behind the set. It’s silly and it’s smart. Yet a woman who left at the intermission told me, “it’s just not my cup of tea.”

            Comedy is such a personal thing. What’s funny to one person may not appeal to another.  Usually, I prefer more subtle humor.  But this over-the-top comedy is so well done, I was mesmerized by 1812’s outstanding production. The timing alone is staggering. You can’t stop yourself from laughing.

            P.S. Inside the program is a second program, the one of the play within the play that is being mounted. It’s a fun read.

“The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer by 1812 Productions, at Players and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey, Philadelphia, PA 19103, 215-592-9560, info@1812 productions.org   Thru May 21, 2023

A young man, alone on the streets is cold and hungry. He’s been tossed out of his home by his brother and tries seeks refuge by breaking into an elderly woman’s home. Joshua is lonely, he is scared, he has been abandoned.

            James Ijames’ newest play, “Abandon,” is making its world premiere at Theatre Exile. This complex play, which seems straight-forward at first, is actually many stories. The woman in the home broken into is dealing with her own guilt for abandoning her son some years before. Though the son, Gabriel (Brenson Thomas), is with her on stage and even provides occasional comic relief, we soon realize that he is not actually there- he is just a ghost of himself. He has died. Did she kill him?

The play opens with Louella, in the kitchen, preparing a shopping list. She talks with her son about what she is getting. They talk about the soap operas she’s watched. We have no idea yet, that he is not really present. She is trying to figure out how to atone for the injustice she had done to him.

Melanye Finister does an incredible job in portraying Luella, the old woman, a most complex person. On the one hand, she is intensely religious. On the other, she smokes weed and even gives some to Joshua at one point after she gets to know him.

But there is a mystery on the other half of the stage. It is from that darker side that Joshua (Jared Chichester) is beaten, then tossed out by his brother Chris (Carlo Campbell), who remains sprawled out in a drunken stupor for much of the play.

            Luella’s son, Gabriel, is flamboyantly gay. He is bold. He paid a price for not hiding his sexuality from his mother. Returning as a ghost, it is no longer an issue as he interjects his thoughts when they are alone as well as when she is with Joshua.

            In a way, Joshua is the core of the play. He is a lost soul, but he is gentle and kind despite his difficult life. Most of all, he is timid. He grew up in a home where he got no attention and didn’t know the date of his birth. Will he ever get the strength he needs to survive?

            Just as Luella couldn’t deal with her son’s homosexuality, Chris had the same issue with his brother, who he discovered having sex with another man. Chris is a brutal man who tyrannizes Joshua. These are parallel stories on a kind of parallel stage, with radically different outcomes.

Joshua is sheltered by Luella, though she is prepared to use a baseball bat at first to fight him if necessary. But he is not a threat to her, and they connect on many levels.

It is the one-dimensional brutishness of Chris that doesn’t measure up to the complexity of the themes. I felt it was the weakest part of the play.  Perhaps it was just me, rooting for the connection between Chris and Joshua.

Still, the 85 minute play was riveting as Director Brett Ashley Robinson brings to life Ijames’s  fine play as it explores the depths of loneliness, acceptance, and redemption with four outstanding performances.

“Abandon” by James Ijames at Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13^th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, 215-218-4022,  boxoffice@theatreexile.org   Thru May 21, 2023

Every now and then, you walk out of a theater so blown away by the show, you can’t imagine anything better. Such was the case at People’s Light where I saw “Songs for Nobodies.” I had known that one woman was to portray Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billy Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Maria Callas, singing some of their songs, but I wasn’t prepared for the brilliant script by Joanna Murray-Smith or the commanding performance by Bethany Thomas.

            The show is much more than song. It begins with a toilet attendant reflecting on the nature of happiness. Is it real? Do you only realize it in retrospect? She is bemoaning the desertion of her husband when Judy Garland enters, after taking a break from her concert. They connect and soon, she is on the stage with Garland. And as we hear Garland sing “Come Rain or Come Shine,” we are reminded that life is “just one of those things” and that “days may be cloudy or sunny.”

            The second sequence is also about destiny. We meet Patsy Cline who sings “Stand by Your Man” even though “you’ll have bad times,” even though “you don’t understand.” But playwright Murray-Smith gives us so much more than the song. We learn that the last concert Cline sang was a benefit concert for an esteemed disc jockey who’d just died. Sadly, in her haste to leave Kansas City to get back to her young children, Cline died in a plane crash. She was 30 years old.

            We learn about Billie Holiday by a writer who wants to escape from the fashion pages to write seriously. After pleading with her editor at The New York Times, she is given the opportunity to write an 800 word essay interviewing Holiday. The great jazz singer, Holiday who at one point, after not responding to questions, asks the writer “what do happy people sing about?” She then sings the song that made her famous, “Strange Fruit,” a song banned in many places as it talks of “Black bodies swinging… from poplar trees.”

            There are stories about French singer Edith Piaf before we hear her sing “Non, je ne regrette rien.” (No, I regret nothing). Despite remaining in France during the Nazi occupation, she managed to help others escape. At 4’8”, her powerful voice was legendary.

            Maria Callas is the last of the divas in this 1:40 play. A great operatis soprano, Americans know her better as the woman left by Aristotle Onassis to court and marry Jacqueline Kennedy.  Callas too has a story as we learn of her shortened career. Here, she sings an aria from Verdi’s Tosca about a woman whose beloved, faces torture and execution.

            From the five “nobodies” that tell most of the story, to the five extraordinary vocalists, Bethany Thomas does it all. Close your eyes and you hear the operatic voice of one, the power of another, and softness of another. Her range is breath-taking. You would swear that you are hearing the original artists. She is amazing and is worth the price of admission alone.

            I never enjoyed learning so much as Thomas portrays the nobodies while they interact with the singers and inform us of their lives. Who’d have thought that five vignettes could do so much!

            After playing in Chicago at the Northlight Theatre where it got rave reviews early in 2020, the play was scheduled to be on the People’s Light stage that summer, but covid changed everything. Now, with Thomas and director Rob Lindley, they are presenting the show that was in Chicago, on the Malvern stage.

“Songs for Nobodies” by Joanna Murray-Smith at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500,  peopleslight.org   Thru May 21, 2023

            When you see the silly poster outside the show that is currently running at the Wilma Theater, it is easy to think that this new play by Nathan Alan Davis is little more than fluff. Nothing could be farther from the truth. “Eternal Life Part 1” has many funny moments, but it is so much than that. It is a profound story, centering on a family, but dealing with many of the existential questions of life.

            The play begins simply. An affluent couple are debating whether or not to keep the new home they’ve just bought and whether to settle there or in one of their other homes.  We see the conflict between the perfectionist husband and the wife who wants to be more rooted, lest she be forgotten. She says she wants to be immortal. It is the beginning of a discussion on what the point of life is and of one’s destiny.

            If it sounds too intellectual, it’s not- it’s very real… except when the other major character is present, which is most of the time. That character is a goose! Yes, a goose who wanders about, first watching the action, but then, interacting with the people. She was there when the couple arrived and remains through the years. First, wandering about the yard, then taken in as a pet, she becomes part of the family. Sarah Gliko brilliantly portrays this feathered bird as it moves about the scenes and into the audience. She is mesmerizing.

            The nameless couple (played by Jenn Kidwell and Steven Rishard) agrees early on to have a child. We observe them at different stages as the difficult child (Brandon J. Pierce) becomes an obnoxious adolescent, then a more mature college student. Whiny as he is, the scenes are very funny but realistically honest. The goose is observing with us.

            Then they are the snowflakes- the father snowflake, the mother snowflake, and the child snowflake. They represent the family. Or are they the family? Sounds confusing? It’s actually very simple, very basic and we can decide for ourselves.  The snowflake can land anywhere… or can it.  It has so its own destiny, a metaphor for what can happen to any of the characters, to any of us.  

            Feelings, yearnings, fears, love, frustration- they are all packed  into this most non-linear, almost surrealistic play. I will not begin to say I understood all that was going on, what with the goose and the snowflakes, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I was watching, and didn’t care. It worked in a way I’ve not experienced before in the theater. Oh yes, the cast was outstanding and the direction by Morgan Green was superb! It’s a chance to go to the theater and let go.

“Eternal Life Part 1” by Nathan Alan Davis at The Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-546-7824  www.wilmatheater.org   thru April 30, 2023