By PR Levey

“Bye Bye Birdie” is practically a rite of passage in the world of high school musicals. It’s hard to believe, but there are people in their 70's now who were in their high school productions of “Birdie,” and today, teens all over the world are still putting on their poodle skirts or slicking back their hair to take the trip to Sweet Apple, Ohio.  Now it’s Irvington Conservatory Theatre’s turn to bring this beloved, iconic musical to the stage, performing at Valhalla Theatre in Fremont, March 7-23.

This smartly-designed production is both an homage to, and a comment on the mythical idyllic life of teens in small town America in the 1950s. Blending distinctly 21^st-century technology, like robotic lighting and big-screen video, with the familiar ‘50s look gives the production a fresh, modern feel. The open sets are modular, multi-level, and a sleek silver, with delightful vintage furniture and props popping in and out to create a typical 50s kitchen,  a small-town Tiki bar, or a perfect “Mad Men” New York office. Irvington’s production is sophisticated and cheeky.  Video clips, which intermingle historic footage with additional material from the cast, occasionally throw jarring images at us to remind us that the nostalgic 1950s were, in retrospect, a pretty scary time.

Nothing is scary in Sweet Apple, though, and the beloved story of fifteen year old Kim MacAfee (winsome and perfectly-cast senior Katie Kelly, most recently seen at Irvington in The Diviners), who just got “pinned” to the wonderfully dorky Hugo Peabody (freshman Tim Sanders, who audiences may remember as Huck Finn in StarStruck Theatre’s Tom Sawyer last year) learning that she’s just been chosen at random to be kissed on national television by teen heartthrob Conrad Birdie.  Conrad’s been drafted into the army, and his songwriter, Albert Peterson, at the insistence of his longtime, long-suffering secretary/girlfriend Rosie Alvarez, has written a farewell song for Conrad. The song is intended to be the ticket out of show business and into normal married life for Rosie and Albert.  However, nothing goes as planned: Hugo’s jealous, Rosie is frustrated with Albert’s undying devotion to his overbearing mother, and Conrad and Kim long for a fling before settling down.

Robert Ritchie is engaging as Albert Peterson, a pleasant-voiced dreamer who’s painfully henpecked by two women—he’s a man with a good heart and no spine to hold it up. As Rosie, Jennica  Christman is an inspired choice. She represents everything that women were fighting for at the time – and to this day --  in a single character. She’s a scorned woman, a career woman, an ethnic minority, and a single woman in a man’s world, and she deals with every one of these issues in the space of two hours. Without a hint of the abrasiveness or desperation seen in other Rosies, Jennica Christman shines, even through material which modern audiences may find politically incorrect.

Director Scott Di Lorenzo found a dream of a Conrad Birdie in Gabriel Block. Block does not list a great deal of theatre experience in his bio, but you’d never know it from his performance. His presence is electrifying, and his smile works its magic all the way to the back row. His intensity will cause some sweaty palms in the audience.

Other standouts include Savannah Riddle as Ursula, the over-the-top fangirl friend of Kim’s, Kaeo Tiwanek-Finkes, who plays Mr. MacAfee without trying to do a Paul Lynde impression and still makes him funny,  14-year-old Molly O’Donnell, who doesn’t look a day over 28, camping her way through the role of Gloria Rasputin, and Lauren D’Ambrosio as Mrs. Mae Peterson, Albert’s mother, who brings down the house in the second act with her number (which was added to the show for the Broadway revival a few years ago) “A Mother Doesn’t Matter Anymore.”

Irvington’s production boasts a strong ensemble, and they have an unusual plethora of talented boys to round out the cast. The girls hold their own, too, with lovely harmonies one moment and wild screams the next.  Director Di Lorenzo has wisely kept the screaming to the bare minimum.

The young directing team of Di Lorenzo, and husband and wife team of Jennifer and Chris Olson as vocal director and choreographer, respectively, have a lot to be proud of. They’ve breathed some freshness into a chestnut of a show that could easily become a parody of itself.  Along with musical director Charlie Rodda and his enormous, 30+ piece onstage orchestra (an innovative feat in itself) it’s possible to get excited about “Bye Bye Birdie” again. 

Bye Bye Birdie performs at Irvington High School’s Valhalla Theatre March 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, and 23. Thursday-Saturday curtain is at 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2:00. Ticket prices range from $12-$20; all seats on Thursday evenings are $10. For more information, see www.irvingtondrama.com.

By Pamela Rosen

Staff Writer

Washington High School’s production of My Three Angels has a lot of heart—both in the story, and in the cast. This offbeat Christmas story takes place in 1910 in French Guiana, where the Ducotels, a family of French ex-pats, try to eke out a living as merchants on the steamy colony. They share their tropical paradise with transported French convicts, and the prison system permits the convicts to serve as manual laborers for the citizens. It’s a society where citizens mingle freely and without much fear with convicted felons. My Three Angels makes the audience consider (and reconsider) their own interpretation of morality and justice.  If that doesn’t sound like lovely holiday fare, think again.

At the beginning of the play, we meet the Ducotels—Felix, an incompetent businessman with more heart than business sense. He’s running the family’s store into the ground by offering too much credit, losing inventory, and shoddy bookkeeping. His wife, Emilie, puts on a brave face.  Finally, there’s Marie Louise, the Ducotel’s young daughter, a romantic in love with the timid and naïve Paul, a man above her station but below her quality. Paul is about to visit Marie Louise to break the news to her he’s going to marry someone else.

On Christmas Eve, all the Ducotels stand on the verge of ruin. Coming ashore with Paul is Felix’s wealthy and unpleasant cousin, Henri Trochard, who’s bringing more bad news: he’s been financing the Ducotel’s business, and he’s about to pull the plug and send the family back to France, penniless.

That’s when three convict workers, who’ve been working on the Ducotel’s roof, get involved. Felix has kindly invited the convict laborers to spend Christmas with the Ducotels, and the prisoners-- Joseph, Jules, and Alfred— decide to repay their host’s kindness by solving all their problems for them. The Ducotels find their Angels charming and magical, as one by one, their problems disappear. What they choose not to see is the method to their magic—after all, these are convicted felons with no chance of reprieve, nothing to lose, and a sense of island prison justice all their own, where they serve as judge, jury, and executioner.

As the Ducotels, Nick Inman is adorable as Felix in his spats and frock coat. Director Matt Ballin skillfully took Inman’s inherent cuteness and added it to Felix’s bumbling charm. Even when he’s succumbing to the temptation of creative accounting and allowing the thief Joseph to cook his books, you can’t help rooting for him. Jordyn Morgan displays a stiff-upper-lip maturity as Emilie, and Jessica Watson is a storybook fresh-faced ingénue as Marie Louise (though in the small Husky Theatre, where every detail is visible, she should check some decidedly 2012 accessories, like neon blue nail polish, before stepping into 1910.)

The real highlights of the show are the performances of the three young actors playing the Angels. Andrew Del Fierro gives a surprisingly mature performance as the philosophical murderer Jules, a man who has accepted his fate and deeds with grace and serenity. Andrew’s dreamy-eyed expression draws the audience into Jules’ longing for romance and into the calm bubble he’s created for himself to survive his real-life hellish existence. Jace Michael’s smooth-talking Joseph is a mathematical genius who misses the finer things in life; the enjoyment he gets from the smallest pleasures radiates to the back row. Most complicated of all is the role of Alfred, and Christopher LaBarbera brings out Alfred’s outrage and feelings of injustice in a more subtle, subdued performance. He’s the most physically violent of the three, and still learning how to manage his anger. Joseph and Jules look after him with almost the same affection with which they care for their pet snake, Adolph. He’s just as vulnerable, and every bit as lethal. Christopher plays these levels well.

Henri Trochard, the villain of the show, is played with evil relish by Vincent Steger. He would be at home in any old-fashioned melodrama, his performance giving a nod to the acting styles in vogue in the early years of Washington High’s 100+ year old drama department. Vendat Bhatt and Kim Harp give nice performances in the supporting roles of the milquetoast Paul and the manipulative customer Madame Parole. Grant Beall as the Lieutenant, tall and handsome and athletic in his white military uniform, is an unexpected Deus ex Machina who brings the only Christmas miracle that the Angels can’t manipulate. He gives the show the punctuation of holiday spirit, a welcome ending after the audience comes to realize they’ve just spent two hours hoping for heinous mischief at Christmas.

The new Husky Theatre

Kudos to the cast and director of My Three Angels. The production itself is a bit of a Christmas miracle. It’s performed in a theatre that was never meant to be a theatre, with some actors who never dreamed they’d get a shot on stage. Against all odds, Washington High School’s small but mighty drama club is bringing a bit of magic to the holiday season.

My Three Angels continues through December 21 at 7 PM at Washington High School’s new Husky Theatre. Tickets are available at www.whstheater.com

Be sure to look at the WHS Performing Arts Center wish list! Click here to see what you can do to help, even if it is small!