Encore Stage & Studio Sleeping Beauty

Michael & Laura Clark — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:49:40 +0000

Sleeping Beauty
Encore Stage & Studio: (Info) (Web)
Thomas Jefferson Theater, Arlington, VA
Through June 16th
1:30 with intermission
$12/$10 Children, Students, Seniors
Reviewed June 7th, 2013

Encore Stage & Studio has created a remarkable production of Sleeping Beauty by Vera Morris and directed by Meghan Smith. It is the classic telling of the long-awaited birth of Princess Briar Rose who is cursed by the evil Witch Evilina, who feels especially betrayed by not receiving an invitation to attend the celebration of the birth of the child. After crashing the party, she announces that on Briar Rose’s 16th birthday she will prick her finger and die. The king and queen then get rid of every spindle in the land in hopes of keeping the witch’s curse from happening. The wise fairies manage to change the curse so that Princess Briar Rose will merely fall asleep until a kiss of true love by a handsome prince occurs. And as with all fairy tales, everyone lives happily ever after.

Such was the case of the opening night performance of Sleeping Beauty. All the kids really seemed to enjoy performing for a fairly packed house. The audience was great and caught on to the audience participation requests quickly.

Brandi Moore as Evilina gave a remarkable performance. Her emotions were real and her lines delivered with ease and great timing. On the comedic side was the Chef played by Alex Weinstein. He was over emotional, but with great humor so that you felt his pain during his gold plate quandary while at the same time laughing at him over said plate mishap. He was meticulous and high-strung, but lovable at the same time. Maggie Keane as Briar Rose, the sleeping beauty, played the part with just a touch of ditziness or whimsy, such as when she was mystified about the odd little room appearing in the garden. Thomas Schindler was excellent as Spider, a cunning little henchman. (Is Thomas getting typecast as a “bad guy?” He recently played Gollum in The Hobbit, now Spider!)

Kristin Jepperson’s set was well done. The crew changed the scenes quickly, although a bit less noise would be nice, especially the stairs to Evilina’s room. Perhaps pads on the bottom of the stair box may help deaden the noise, or hand holds so the stairs don’t have to be dropped into place? The set brought on for Evilina was creative, with flashing lights, giant spiders and bubbling potions. Debra Leonard’s costumes were pretty and matched each character. The Queen’s dress may have needed an iron touch-up, but was still lovely. So were the six colorful fairy princesses who arrived at Briar Rose’ s christening and her 16th birthday party. Evilina was true to her character in basic black.

All in all, Encore’s Sleeping Beauty was an enjoyable performance with laughter and love. And, of course, the happy ending.

Photo Gallery

Evilina (Brandi Moore) tricks Princess Briar Rose (Maggie Keane) with the curse of the spinning wheel

Cursed under Evilina’s spell, Princess Briar Rose (Maggie Keane) falls into deep sleep as she waits for true love’s kiss to wake her

Prince Alexander (Topher Wagner) arrives to save Princess Briar Rose (Maggie Keane)

Photos by Larry McClemons

Disclaimer: Encore Stage & Studio provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Encore Stage & Studio Honk, Jr.

Michael & Laura Clark — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 04:52:14 +0000

Honk, Jr.
Encore Stage & Studio
Thomas Jefferson Theater, Arlington, VA
Through January 19th
1:45 with one intermission
$12/$10 Children, Students, and Seniors
Reviewed January 11th, 2013

Encore Stage and Studio opened the musical Honk, Jr. Friday evening. Honk, Jr. is a musical based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling, with book by Anthony Drewe, music by George Stiles, and lyrics by Anthony Drewe. Ugly, a huge “duckling” is teased by his siblings, father and others at their pond. So Ugly goes with his new friend, Cat, for a meal. Ugly escapes from Cat, but gets lost while returning to his pond. He has many adventures while away from home. And at the end returns home discovering who he really is.

The actors and technicians of Encore’s shows are students aged 9 to 18. Many are having their first on-stage experiences through Encore Stage and Studio. The opening night performance had its amusing moments, with a few technical problems that should be worked out over the show’s two-week performance run.

Notable moments include Ida (Emily Richter) and Drake (Gus Hebner), parents of Ugly (Tyler Lazzari), talking with other animals about their lives, a bullfrog (Rosie Coolidge) with a few very punny lines and the wonderful song “Warts and All” and a cat (Arami McCloskey) desperately trying to find her supper. Pay close attention to the lines throughout the show, as there are many puns sprinkled throughout.

The music was quite loud, especially over many of the singers’ unmiked voices. Group numbers were fine, but the words of most of the solos were difficult to hear. Debra Leonard’s costumes were wonderful, from the many birds to the fish and frogs. The sound cue and effect sequence at the end of the first act still needed a bit of work. When done correctly, the act will end with both a flash of laughter and shock at the outcome of the Geese family’s decision to trust the Cat.

Encore is also sponsoring a food drive, by collecting canned goods in the lobby before and after each performance. Their next show is Big Bad, a trial of the Big Bad Wolf, opening on February 22nd.

Photo Gallery

Arami McCloskey as ‘Cat’ and Tyler Lazzari as ‘Ugly’

The Duck family

Tyler Lazzari as ‘Ugly’ and Emily Richter as ‘Ida’

All the critters

Photos by Larry McClemons

Disclaimer: Encore Stage provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Encore Stage & Studio – ShowBizRadio

Encore Stage & Studio Sleeping Beauty

Photo Gallery

Encore Stage & Studio Honk, Jr.

Photo Gallery