Playwright Bernard Pomerance received the 1979 Tony and Drama Desk awards for his riveting, compelling depiction of the final years in the pitiful life of horribly disfigured John Merrick, known simply as the “Elephant Man.”

In it, Dr. Frederick Treves rescues Merrick, who is in his 20s, from life that is nothing more than a freak show existence. Treves brings Merrick to the London Hospital where he is clothed, fed and given, essentially, his first home since the age of three. While there, Merrick forges his first real friendship with a woman — an actress named Mrs. Kendal. It is the tenderness of their friendship that is the most revelatory of Merrick’s true sensitivity and intellectual nature.

While the play deals with the basic plot and characters forming Merrick’s life, it also rises into lofty poetic pursuits. Although he is badly made, Merrick is our lump of clay given breath and voice to question love, human compassion and divine grace.

The real man beneath the monstrous mantel emerges and captivates London society. He is still put on display, albeit in more genteel surroundings. Leaders of culture, medicine, religion and politics find order in his abstract form and each see in him the best of who they are…or, want to be.

Directed by Peg Girard, the high concept production moves like a waltz. All its elements, from sound design and projections of titles, to blocking and lighting cues, move in a tightly choreographed manner.

Adrian Cahill brings an intense dignity to Treves and shows him to be a deeply compassionate individual.

As Merrick, Anthony DeTrano has his best turn yet on stage. He brings tenderness and a true love for his character, which shows in his heartfelt portrayal.

Tracey Thompson carves out an appealing, multi-layered portrayal of Mrs. Kendall. The scenes between Mrs. Kendall and Merrick are rich ones which resonate long after the final curtain. Unfortunately, her final scene with him is a bit rushed. It’s so delectable and human that we want to savor it and Merrick’s reaction. Here is a good spot to slow down that waltz and let the moment really sink in.

Chandler McRee hits the theatrical bullseye as Ross, the freak show barker who employed Merrick. In his final scene, McRee takes his time and reveals the sad, miserable existence Ross has endured. His acting is so vivid you can almost smell the rot gut whiskey Ross drinks. It’s a good dramatic scene that enlivens the production and engages DeTrano in his best work as well.

Scenic designer Gary Postlethwait does a good job with this highly presentational production. His minimal design employs a low wall that curves along the upstage, forming a circus like setting. After the opening, Girard described it as an operating theater. Regardless of the visual metaphor, it serves well the over-arching theme of dissecting Merrick and his keeper, Treves.

Alan Selby’s lighting design is juicily delicious. Warm colors, nice, low lighting, tight spots and rear title projections overall create a very theatrical production. If this is what all those raffles have gone to, then this is money very well spent indeed.

Such a good play to choose for a season closer. It’s taut drama, well told and compelling. The artists involved here all work together to reveal the truths about which Pomerance wrote: That underneath our suave exteriors, we are as misshapen as the monster next door; and that hope and grace can still live beneath the horrors that trap us Certainly good ideas to ponder given the headlines and times we live.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “The Elephant Man” runs through June 17 at Melbourne Civic Theatre, 817 E. Strawbridge Ave., Melbourne. Tickets are $20 general and $18 seniors, military and students. Call 321-723-6935 or visit www.mymct.org.

"Rent" at Surfside Playhouse

Although it opened on Broadway just 16 years ago (where it ran for an astounding 5123 performances), “Rent” has a strong foothold in theater legend. Its creator, Jonathan Larson, reportedly worked seven years on his rock opera. He lived an impoverished life and died of an aortic aneurysm the night before his ground-breaking show previewed at the Off-Broadway New York Theater Workshop. He was almost 36 years old when he died. The Off-Broadway production sold out within 24 hours of opening night (source: pbs.org).

In it, Larson took the theme to Puccini’s “La Boheme” and updated it to reflect the lives of young artists living in New York City’s down and out “Alphabet City.” But Larson layered into this the existentialism embraced by Generation X. Theirs is the reality of HIV and AIDS, drug abuse, poverty, anger and general hopelessness in the face of a nation more prone to point a finger than lend a hand and which did nothing to avert a plague.

Directed by Steven Heron, Surfside’s “Rent” resonates with talent. In fact, you’ll wonder where so many of these fine singers and performers have been hiding.

Here are just some who have been hiding in choruses and ensembles for far too long: TJ Cravens delivers a fine and emotional “One Song Glory,” in which Roger expresses his desire to create at least one wonderful song before he dies. The wonderful Michael Bradley shows an amazing vocal and emotional range as Collins in “I’ll Cover for You,” which he sings in concert with Angel. As the landlord, Benny, Angel Martinez shows some sweet vocal strength.

Cameron Jiminez (oh my heavens, what a find!) takes his third turn in the role of Angel, the flirtatious drag queen who seduces the audience as easily as he seduces Collins. Although this is his first time on stage at Surfside, we’re not putting Jiminez into the category of those who “have been hiding in choruses…” because there’s no way this baby would ever fit into a corner.

Jesse Huffman (Hysterium in “Forum” at Titusville), as Mark, brings humor and a lovable nerdy quality to Mark, the young man who yearns to become a filmmaker. As Maureen, Leyla Erdogan (Molly Malloy in CVP’s “Windy City”) takes a big, savage, wonderful step into theater as art. She is funny and smart and creates unique and memorable stage moments in “Over the Moon.”

And as lawyer Joanne, Evita Clowney stands out, big time in this featured role. As Mimi, Yvana Clowney (Sarah in CVP’s “Ragtime”) dazzles in the quieter numbers like “Goodbye Love,” where you can hear the richness of her voice. Particularly chilling is “Light My Candle,” in which she asks Roger to, literally, light her candle so she can see in the dark. What’s chilling about this is that the lighting of a candle, being passed on, is metaphor for the AIDS epidemic, which has in its grip, the young characters of this story.

Under Heron’s direction, there is a sense of urgency to this musical. It drives with frenzied rock and roll spirit from the first downbeat of its terrific on-stage combo (Leslie Mitchell, Spener Croswell, Jacob Fjeldheim, Scott Herzog, Claudia Thomas and Forrest Mitchell).

The entire cast delivers its iconic number, “Seasons of Love,” with heartfelt emotion as they plea to us to measure our own 525,600 minutes as opportunities for love.

Despite some missed lighting cues and amplification that frequently goes on and off, this show and its performers reveal the true heart of community theater. They do this by making themselves vulnerable, putting it all out there and finding the heart and soul of this powerful musical. Warning: Bring a hanky. There is no way you can watch this production without being sincerely moved.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “Rent” through May 6 at Surfside Playhouse, 301 Ramp Road, Cocoa Beach. It performs 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and active military, $15 for students. Be advised that there is strong language and sexual content. Call 321-783-3127 or visit www.surfsideplayers.com.

" Bridge & Tunnel" with Karen Stephens

Written by Sarah Jones, “Bridge & Tunnel” is a pastiche of the rich multiculturalism living and breathing in New York City. In it, one woman (here, an oh-so-wonderful Karen Stephens) brings to the stage the voices of 14 distinctly different but all acutely articulate people. They have met under a sign that reads: “I.A.M.A.P.O.E.T.T.O.O” — Immigrant and Multiculturalist American Poets or Enthusiasts Traveling Toward Optimistic Openness.

The location is a subterranean spot in South Queens, near JFK airport. Each character comes to the stage and reveals truths about their lives that make you giggle, nod in understanding or even cry in empathy for their human plight.

When looking at the form and content of the play, having one woman become all these characters speaks to the shared realities — the many voices in one humanity. Moreover, director/designer Allen Cornell uses the motif of “foundation” in this show. Bricks, columns and substructure form the background and sides. The unmistakable metaphor here speaks to the immigrant as laying America’s foundation.

But it is the inhabitants of the stage which resonate. And Stephens does that with terrific talent and ability. She adroitly takes the audience into the lives of a wide range of American immigrants. In each brief portrait (the show runs, uninterrupted for 85 minutes), she brings deep, well rounded respect. We get to know each character intimately.

It begins with Muhammad Ali, the thumbs-up optimistic Pakistani host who, we quickly learn, will probably be deported after having been a solid American citizen for more than 20 years. He understands the Homeland Security worry, he says, but do not worry, he tells his wife, America is good and just. But we fear bad news awaits him the next day.

He introduces the first poet, Lorraine Levine, a Jewish woman who immigrated from Lithuania in the ’30s. She recounts times when she dealt with bigotry and then reads her sardonic poem, “No, really, please don’t get up.” Stephens then turns into an angry young Vietnamese man, then a sweet Jamaican woman whose hysterical poem recounts the frigid day she moved to New York. Then there is Juan Marin, a union organizer who now uses a wheelchair. “The scaffold wasn’t strong enough to hold up all that immigrant hope,” he says.

There are more, including a little 11 year-old girl who delights in her poem about growing up, a Chinese American woman who learns to accept her daughter’s lesbianism and a Haitian woman whose poem “God Bless America,” praises America for its big heart.

Indeed, all this introspection on the part of these characters evokes the same in the audience. It makes you wonder how many more poems we might all hear that speak to our shared deeper longings, fears, frustrations, hopes.

Riverside’s audiences responded enthusiastically to the show’s opening night. That should be a good, positive cue to Cornell that they want more. Moving an audience is always the mark of good drama, well written and well done.

Photo by Dusty Terrell

SIDE O’ GRITS: “Bridge & Tunnel” runs through April 29 at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Drive, Vero Beach. Curtain is 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $40. Call 772-231-6990 or visit www.riversidetheatre.com.

Riverside Theatre's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"

This is led by director James Brennan, whose credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed and more. Inspired by the show’s name, Brennan embroiders Riverside’s production with rich vaudeville schtick delivered by one of the best casts you will ever see assembled on stage at one time — whether it’s in these latitudes or on Broadway.

Set one day in ancient Rome, the storyline revolves around the conniving slave Pseudolus. In order to win his freedom, Pseudolus plots to bring together Hero, his master’s son, and the virgin next door, Philia. However, the house next door is a brothel and Philia has been promised to victorious Roman soldier, Miles Gloriosus.

Giving birth to this face-paced musical comedy was the great team of librettists Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. After its 1962 Broadway debut, the show has had two Broadway revivals — 1972 and 1996.

Riverside’s cast lives up well to the storied history of comic actors who have brought this show to life, including Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Dick Shawn, Jack Gilford and Nathan Lane.

Here, it is led by Dana Snyder, who was Max Bialystock in Riverside’s production of “The Producers” earlier this season. Although Snyder has his own understated, droll style (and, oh my what a rim-shot funny fake death scene), you can’t help but think Phil Silvers when watching his Pseudolus. In a way, his is a delicious homage to theater legend which has that Silvers turned down the role of Pseudolus for the original Broadway production because of his glasses. (Later, Silvers was Pseudolus for the 1972 production but was replaced after suffering a stroke.)

While Snyder has the lead, there is no one star in this production. Each member of this professional cast, many with Broadway and off-Broadway credits, shines brilliantly.

Stephen Berger breathes fun and exquisite timing into hen-pecked husband Senex. Riverside veteran Ron Wisniski brings his trademark double-take high energy and comic know-how to his portrayal of brothel owner Marcus Lycus. And what a find in Patrick Richwood, who, as head slave Hysterium, reveals uncommon talent and skill in physical comedy. This threesome, along with Snyder, serve up a great treat in the number “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.”

Skyler Adams and Kimberly Doreen Burns as Hero and Philia score big in their duet, “Lovely,” in which Philia sings how she can do nothing but be lovely.

Director Brennan adds to broad comedy with his three Proteans — Nikko Kimzin, Xander Chauney and Ryan Dietz. They are the comic trio backing up the action. At one point, they are squealing Eunuchs and another, bumbling Roman Soldiers. They also support the prologue in the funniest opening number this reviewer has ever seen.

As Senex’s overbearing wife, Domina, you’ll see stage power in Karen Murphy (the understudy for Angela Lansbury in Broadway’s “A Little Night Music”).

Jarid Faubel hits the right pompous notes as Miles Gloriosus and veteran actor Chet Carlin is probably the goofiest Eronius you’ll ever see. Carlin’s walk-ons are the stuff that others will want to imitate.

The sexy courtesans fleshing out the comedy include Purdie Baumann, Jessica Bircann, Judy Cornell, Bethany Flora, Caitlin McGinty and Kelly Sheerins.

With both large gesture and smart attention to detail, scenic designer Ray Klausen, provides a perfect setting for all the fun. Klausen has impressive credits including Broadway, television, and even designing for the Tony Awards show.

Lighting designer Eric Haugen is known primarily by Central Florida theater goers as the artist behind Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s gorgeous lighting designs. Here, his lighting design breathes and works in smart concert with Klausen’s scenic design.

Musical director Ken Clifton leads a flawless orchestra. He leads both his players and the cast in music that lingers with you days later.

Woah. Wait a minute. This is Vero Beach? I thought I was just getting a slice at Times Square. There are so many pros in this show you’ll feel transported. This is, simply, one of the funniest and best-produced musical comedies this reviewer has ever seen. It’s designed and served up by pros with extensive experience and know-how. These guys have been around the block, more than once. And it shows. Big time.

Photo by Rob Downey. Left to right, Dana Snyder, Chet Carlin and Patrick Richwood.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” runs through May 6 at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. Curtain times vary. Call 772-231-6990 or visit www.riversidetheatre.com.

THEATER CRITICS HONOR YUSSEF EL GUINDI WITH $25,000 STEINBERG/ATCA NEW PLAY AWARD FOR 2012

Additional $7,500 Citations to Ken LaZebnik and A. Rey Pamatmat

The American Theatre Critics Association has named Yussef El Guindi’s “Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World,” a play about immigration and assimilation, winner of the $25,000 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for 2012. The Steinberg/ATCA recognizes the best American scripts that premiered professionally the previous year outside New York City.

Ken LaZebnik’s “On the Spectrum” and A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” received Steinberg/ATCA citations and $7,500 each. Both LaZebnik and Pamatmat are first-time new play award winners, while El Guindi won ATCA’s 2009 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for an emerging playwright.

Checks and commemorative plaques were presented to all three at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, March 31.

The award was created by ATCA in 1977 to recognize excellence in playwriting by honoring the best new plays not yet produced in New York City. Since 2000, it has been generously funded by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, making the $40,000 Steinberg/ATCA the largest national new play award of its kind.

The Steinberg Charitable Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of himself and his late wife. Pursuing its primary mission to support the American theater, it has provided millions of dollars to encourage new productions of American plays and educational programs for those who may not ordinarily experience live theater.

“The long-standing partnership between the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the American Theatre Critics Association has recognized some of today’s greatest writers, and helped identify the great playwrights of tomorrow,” said trustee Jim Steinberg. “We’re delighted to help support the unique telling of tales on the American stage.”

El Guindi’s “Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World” is a gentle romantic comedy wrapped around a serious examination of issues facing immigrants today, much as they did in the past. An Egyptian immigrant who drives a cab strikes up a romance with a quirky American-born waitress, but the clash of cultures is only the hook El Guindi uses to explore the diversity of opinions even within ethnic groups in the struggle for assimilation and belief in the American Dream. It premiered June 17 at ACT Repertory in Seattle.

Born in Egypt, raised in London and now based in Seattle, El Guindi received a B.A. from American University in Cairo and a 1985 MFA in playwriting from Carnegie-Mellon University. He frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures and politics that face Arab-Americans. He has had at least 16 plays produced since 2001 in regional theaters from Durham to Anchorage. At the same time, he has worked as resident playwright at Silk Road Theatre Project; literary manager for Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco; playwright in residence, dramaturg and lecturer at Duke University; and dramaturg for Eureka Theatre and reader for The Magic Theatre, both in San Francisco.

LaZebnik’s “On the Spectrum” depicts a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome passing as “typical” after years of mainstreaming and therapy. He connects with a woman who proudly champions her autism as a difference, not a disorder. Their love story reveals the contradictions between the desire for acceptance and for achievement. Among the choices: live in a fantastic world of the mind or join the more mundane society that typecasts you as your illness. The work premiered November 12 at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” was first produced in a Rolling World Premiere by Actor’s Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival of New Plays, New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, and Actor’s Express in Atlanta. This moving, bittersweet play portrays a very untraditional family of three young misfits: a brilliant 16-year-old and his precocious 12-year-old sister, abandoned by their widowed father, and the brother’s lover who runs from a family denying his nascent homosexuality. Their fanciful bonding against the challenges of the real world, their resilience and their realization of their limitations result in a meaningful comic drama infused with empathy and wry humor.

The 2012 Steinberg/ATCA award recipients were selected from 27 eligible scripts, submitted by ATCA members, by a committee of 12 theater critics led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com. Other committee members are Misha Berson, Seattle Times; Bruce Burgun, Bloomington Herald Times and Back Stage; Michael Elkin, Jewish Exponent (Pa.); Pam Harbaugh, Florida Today (Melbourne); Elizabeth Keill, Independent Press (Morristown, N.J.); Jerry Kraft, aislesay.com (Port Angeles, Wash.) ; Julius “Jay” Novick, freelancer (New York City); Wendy Parker, The Village Mill (Midlothian, Va.); David Sheward, Back Stage (New York); Herb Simpson, totaltheater.com and capitalcriticscircle.com (Geneseo, NY); and Tim Treanor, DC Theater Scene (Washington, D.C.).

“Despite vanishing government support and faltering donations, America’s regional theaters have persevered and prevailed as this country’s preeminent crucible for vibrant and important new works,” said Hirschman. “This year’s submitted plays encompass a dizzying range of styles and themes, produced by a cadre of experienced and novice playwrights who are inarguable proof that theater remains a vital and relevant art form in the 21st century.”

Honorees since 1977 have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Horton Foote, Craig Lucas and Bill Cain. Each year’s winning plays are chronicled in The Best Plays Theater Yearbook, edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, alongside the 10 best plays produced that year in New York City. For a complete list of Steinberg/ATCA plays, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org , under Awards.

ATCA was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities and to recognize excellence in the American theater. The only national association of professional theater critics, with several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations and websites, ATCA is the U.S. national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

ATCA also sponsors the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for an emerging playwright and administers the $10,000 Francesca Primus Prize, funded by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, honoring outstanding contributions to the American theater by a female artist who has not yet achieved national prominence. Annually ATCA makes a recommendation for the Regional Theater Tony Award presented by the American Theatre Wing/Broadway League, and its members vote on inductions into the Theater Hall of Fame. For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

"The Gin Game"

The Pulitzer Prize winning 1976 drama by D.L. Coburn holds a position of prestige in American drama. It was famously acted by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy and directed by Mike Nichols.

It uses both humor and pathos to explore the lives of curmudgeonly Weller Martin and prim and proper Fonsia Dorsey, who are living out their years in a welfare home for senior citizens.

In it, this unlikely pair meet on the porch of the ramshackle home and begin to play a card game of gin rummy. It becomes quickly clear that the two struggle with loneliness and loss. They shun the choirs and singalongs going on inside the home. Instead, they prefer the outside.

But this is not a nice porch. It’s rather like the area where discards are placed before they find their final resting place in the garbage pile. We see rusting outdoor furniture, some crutches, an old wheelchair and even a portable potty.

And, like all the other expendables, we see Weller and Fonsia.

Starring Ross Bickell and Margery Shaw, and directed by Riverside’s Allen D. Cornell, this moving production is as good as it gets. Together, Bickell and Shaw have that comfortable, confident stage ease which is earned only through years on the professional stage.

Ms. Shaw, who portrayed Fonsia in Riverside’s 1994 production of “The Gin Game,” brings her signature light, almost poetic touches to her character’s many layers. Her Fonsia is a complicated woman who has led a life filled with despair.

Mr. Bickell, who has a long list of credits including both Broadway and Off-Broadway, brings an intense urgency to Weller, a successful businessman who has lost everything. He disappears into the role of Weller, moving casually about the stage then suddenly bursting into fits of anger.

Both actors stay well away from the trap of allowing characters to feel sorry for themselves. Indeed, they rail against their plights and almost flirt with one another, as if in some senior citizen version of a cotillion.

Make no mistake, there are plenty of funny moments in this play, especially when uptight Fonsia, having given up on trying to stop Weller from swearing, lets out with a few savory curses herself. But truly, these portrayals are so well crafted, from their characters’ comic banter, to some rather cruel observations and finally into the final moments of pathos.

The drama is deceptive in its simplicity. When it is well produced, like it is here, “The Gin Game” overflows with complex human issues. As any good drama does, it prompts us to examine our own lives and values.

Indeed, Riverside Theatre proves once again that when you look for good, taught drama well told, you need go no further than Vero Beach.

Photo by Rob Downey.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “The Gin Game” runs through March 25 at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Dr., Vero Beach. Tickets are $40. Call 772-231-6990 or visit www.riversidetheatre.com.

With book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a Tony Award winning, uplifting musical wrapped in a poignant story told through the eyes of a character known as Man in Chair. Sitting in his lonely apartment, he plays a recording of the fictional musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

It soon becomes obvious that he is someone all but discarded by society. The album is a valued possession and he shares this — his love — with the audience. As it plays, his bleak, impoverished world recedes, replaced by the romantic shenanigans of colorful characters from old Hollywood.

Director Peg Girard really does the impossible here. With the help of scenic designer Caroline Osborne, lighting designer Alan Selby and Sound designer Wendy Reader, she brings the entire show, tap dancing, roller skating, airplane and all into that 93-seat theater.

From cavalier quips to deep emotion, Terrence Girard brings such love to his role of Man in Chair. We see how this is the Man’s escape from a real world that has left him behind. His portrayal is of a man who gravitates toward antiques and shuns cell phones and even intermissions, because they break the mood. Ultimately, his portrayal is endearing and moving.

Rita Moreno nearly steals the show as she vamps up the role of Drowsy Chaperone and squeezes every comic drop out of it. She brings high style and abundant flair to this role. In fact, you’ve never seen her so grand on stage. John Kurowski, who does such a splendid job as music director, has his best turn yet in the role of the Drowsy Chaperone’s Latin lover, Adolpho.

Holly McFarland delivers a one-two punch as choreographer (such fun and lively numbers) and in the role of Janet Van De Graaff, the woman who’s about to give up her Hollywood career to marry the man she loves. McFarland is very funny in “Show Off,” when she sings (oh, so very well) how she’s happy to remain in the background…NOT. Opposite her is newcomer Michael Biggs as tap dancing, roller skating sophisticate Robert. Biggs is a great addition to Brevard’s theater scene. Here’s hoping we see him in many more shows here.

Steven Wolf is always such fun in comedic roles. Here, he is Hollywood mogul, Feldzieg, who is beleaguered by his dumb as a fox assistant Kitty, played with delicious over-the-top pizazz by Brenda Sheets. What a treat to see Nellie Brannan back in the literal spotlight after a 21-year hiatus. She and Chandler McRee, as Mrs. Tottendale and Underling, deliver a raucous vaudeville spit-take routine.

Other standouts include Dana Blanchard who shows previously hidden tap dancing skill and Shelle Waller who lets loose a huge voice that easily sails above the rest of the cast.

The only itch with this production is the scenic design’s sterile concept. In this show, a two-dimensional world of color and gaiety invades a three-dimensional bleak world bereft of hope. We need that visual contrast to lend greater weight to the show’s last few, very touching, moments.

But truly, this is such an uplifting production. It’s tender and raucous, poignant and funny. And does it ever entertain. But you better get your tickets now…if they are still available.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “The Drowsy Chaperone” runs through April 22 at Melbourne Civic Theatre, 817 E. Strawbridge Ave., Melbourne. Tickets are $22 general and $20 seniors, military, students. Call 321-723-6935 or visit www.mymct.org.

"Fiddler on the Roof"

This 1964 musical, with book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, was based on stories written by 19th century writer Shalom Aleichem. But given today’s headlines, its themes resonate.

“Fiddler” is set in 1905 in the Russian village of Anatevka, during the pogroms, a heartless time of ethnic cleansing when Jews were forced from their homes. Here, we see Tevye, a poor man with a wife, Golda, and five daughters. He struggles with the seismic changes tearing his world apart and his desire for tradition, the glue that binds the community.

In the story, Tevye arranges a rich marriage for his oldest daughter. But she has fallen in love with a poor tailor. That strikes the first dissonant chord against the harmonic refrain, “Tradition!” Another daughter falls in love with someone he does not approve, then another. He looks to God for help in coping with the change.

It doesn’t take much of a leap to put yourself in his shoes. Daily, we deal with a quickly changing world where communication across oceans takes but an instant, where unexpected revolution takes center stage on Twitter, where human relationships break societal precepts. Throughout it all, like in “Fiddler on the Roof,” what endures is love.

Directed by Joan Taddie, the Henegar production explodes with talent and emotion. Be sure to read her director’s notes in the program. They concern, in part, the late theater technician Peter Feller, who donated to the Henegar two of the drops used in the show. Those drops come from the original Broadway production directed by Jerome Robbins.

Leading the cast is professional actor Bruce Goldman, who is as good as it gets. He brings such warmth to Tevye. He charms in “If I Were a Rich Man,” makes us laugh in “To Life” and wins the audience’s love in the “Chava sequence.”

Deborah Rappa-Crisafulli not only choreographs splendidly here — the Chava sequence is very beautiful and moving indeed — but she also brings passion to the stage in the role of Golda, Tevye’s wife. She’s particularly funny in the wonderful “The Dream” sequence.

What a find in violinist Jennifer Wills, who dons a beard to portray the Fiddler. Priscilla Blyseth is very funny as the gossipy matchmaker.

Kat Hopper is a delightful Tzeitel opposite Daniel Matteson, a most likeable Motel. Amy Pastoor takes wing as Hodel, opposite Hunter Curry, who is just terrific as the intellectual, Perchik. Curry shows a wonderful, rich voice in “Now I Have Everything.” Danielle Horak as Chava and David McQuillen Robertson as Fyedka charm.

Truly, this is a terrific cast. At every moment, whether they are in leading roles or in the ensemble, they act! Nothing better than crowd scenes filled with actors who really act.

So, too, are the musicians, who are led by conductor Robin Ryon. The pit orchestra sounds full, in tune and just right.

More kudos: Lighting designer Bryce Niehaus, scenic designer Davad Dionne and costume desiginer Louis Dall’Ava.

This show has all the right ingredients to become very demanding on the cast an crew. The word will spread quickly, tickets will start to disappear and Ms. Taddie will probably entreat her cast and crew to do some extra performances…after all, it couldn’t hurt.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “Fiddler on the Roof” runs through April 1 at the Henegar Center for the Arts. Curtain is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. (The March 11 show begins 1 p.m.) Tickets cost $15 to $22, handling charges may apply. The Henegar is at 625 E. New Haven Ave. Melbourne. Call 321-723-8698 or visit www.henegar.org.

The American Theatre Critics Association has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2011.

The top award of $25,000 and two citations of $7,500 each, plus commemorative plaques, will be presented March 31 at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. At $40,000, Steinberg/ATCA is the largest national new play award of its kind.

The finalists:

“Annapurna,” by Sharr White, is a visceral and profound meditation on loss and the longevity of love. It reunites a mortally ill cantankerous poet who has moved to the Colorado mountains and the ex-wife he has not seen in 20 years who wants a reckoning if not a reconciliation. The play premiered in November at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

“Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them,” by A. Rey Pamatmat, bowed last spring at the Humana Festival. This moving, bittersweet play portrays an especially untraditional family made up of three young misfits: a brilliant 16-year-old and his precocious 12-year-old sister abandoned by their widowed father to raise themselves, and the brother’s lover who runs from a family unaccepting of his nascent homosexuality. Their fanciful bonding, resilience and realization of their limitations results in an uplifting and meaningful comic drama infused with empathy and wry humor.

“On The Spectrum,” by Ken LaZebnik, depicts a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome passing as “typical” after years of mainstreaming and therapy. He connects with a woman who proudly champions her autism as a difference, not a disorder. This love story reveals the contradictions between finding success as oneself and finding success on the world’s terms, and the conflict between the desire for acceptance and the desire for achievement. Among the choices: live in a fantastic world of the mind or join the more mundane society that typecasts you as your illness. The work premiered in November at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

“Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World,” by Yussef El Guindi, is a gentle romantic comedy wrapped around a serious examination of issues facing today’s new immigrants, dilemmas that resonate for every generation’s newcomers. An Egyptian immigrant who drives a cab strikes up a romance with a quirky American-born waitress, but the clash of cultures is only the hook El Guindi uses to explore the diversity of opinions even within one ethnic group as they struggle with assimilation and a newly-minted belief in the promise of the American Dream. It premiered in June at ACT Repertory in Seattle.

“A Twist of Water,” by Caitlin Montanye Parrish, is a sensitive drama of domestic relationships seamlessly fused with an examination of social issues. A single white father tries to come to terms with his black, adopted teenage daughter after the death of his longtime husband, the man whom the daughter considers her real Dad. When the girl seeks out her birth mother, the father’s relationship with her is pressed to the breaking point. This play speaks about forgiveness, about knowing our parents as human beings, about failing our children in spite of our every effort, about loss and love and the triumph of courage that allows us to go on with our lives. The play premiered in February at the Route 66 Theatre in Chicago.

“Water By The Spoonful” by Quiara Alegria Hudes, was first produced in October by Hartford Stage. A soldier returns from the Iraqi war and struggles to put aside the demons that haunt him. His mother, a recovering heroin addict, battles her own demons with other recovering addicts in an Internet chat room. The boundaries of love, family and community are stretched across time, generations and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide.

These six finalists were selected from 27 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA members. They were evaluated by a committee of 12 theater critics, led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com. Other committee members are Misha Berson, Seattle Times; Bruce Burgun, Bloomington Herald Times and Back Stage (Ind.); Michael Elkin, Jewish Exponent (Pa.); Pam Harbaugh, Florida Today (Melbourne); Elizabeth Keill, Independent Press (Morristown, N.J.); Jerry Kraft, aislesay.com (Port Angeles, Wash.); Julius Novick, freelancer (New York City); Wendy Parker, The Village Mill (Midlothian, Va.); David Sheward, Back Stage (New York); Herb Simpson, totaltheater.com and capitalcriticscircle.com (Geneseo, N.Y.) and Tim Treanor, DC Theater Scene (Washington, D.C.)

“Despite vanishing government support and faltering donations, America’s regional theaters have persevered and prevailed as this country’s preeminent crucible for vibrant and important new works,” said Hirschman. “The recommended plays encompass a dizzyingly wide range of styles and themes, produced by a cadre of experienced and novice playwrights who are inarguable proof that theater remains a vital and relevant art form in the 21st century.”

Since the inception of ATCA’s New Play Award, honorees have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Moises Kaufman and Craig Lucas. Last year’s honoree was Bill Cain for “9 Circles.” For a full list of 35 years of winners and runners-up, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org and click on Steinberg-ATCA under Awards.

For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

"Forum"

That wish is closer to becoming reality with shows like “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
TPI’s production, which opened Friday, is, bottom line, hysterical and oh-so-very well done.

For those who have led a culturally impoverished life — “Forum” is a 1962 musical comedy set in ancient Rome and performed in unabashed presentational style, in which performers speak and play to the audience. With brilliant music and lyrics by then 32 year old Stephen Sondheim and book by comedy masters Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, the story takes us through a day in the harried life of a Roman slave named Pseudolus. A Roman conqueror, young lovers, a beleaguered husband, courtesans and their procurer weave their way through this day as well.

That’s a lot of comedic potential, and TPI delivers thanks to the show’s tight direction, an appealing scenic design and a very funny cast led by three professional actors: Steven J. Heron, Stephan J. Jones and Patrick Ryan Sullivan, who also directs.

As Pseudolus, Mr. Heron is nothing less than drop-dead hysterical. He commands the stage as if it were his own boudoir, gesturing here and flitting there, addressing the audience. His timing is delicious, with double and triple takes wrought with big comic flair.

Mr. Jones is a popular and critically acclaimed Orlando actor who was so compelling as Sweeny Todd in the Mad Cow production. Here, as conqueror Miles Gloriosus, Mr. Jones churns up a sinfully funny performance which reveals his comic mettle, a rarity for most dramatic actors.

Mr. Sullivan, he of Broadway acclaim, is typically cast into heroic leads, romantic men with towering ambition. Here, though, he is the henpecked husband, Senex. Mr. Sullivan paints him with such nebbishy delight that you have to laugh just looking at him. As the production’s director, Mr. Sullivan finds broad strokes for each cast member and turns in a quick-paced production that is as strong on teamwork as it is on individual spotlights.

What’s particularly sweet with this show is that the pros here have obviously inspired the rest of the cast to greater heights.

And they are so funny. A few of the standouts include: Jesse Huffman as the head slave, Hysterium; J.D. Hunt as starry-eyed Hero; Tiffani LeBlanc as daffy Philia; Amiee Supp as sadistic Gymnasia; and Josh Brown Rich Jones and Doug Lebo as the Proteans.

Kudos to scenic designer Jim Ball, costume designer Katy Ball, lighting designer Philip Lupo and follow-spot operators Gabi Brantley and Danielle Bruce.

This is such a winning production, you might want to go twice. But methinks word is already spreading. No matter where you live in this long county, a trip to Titusville Playhouse to see “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” is so very worth your time and money.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” runs through March 11 at Titusville Playhouse, which performs at Emma Parrish Theatre, 301 Julia St., Titusville. Tickets are $18 to $20 plus $2 discounts for seniors, students and active military. Handling charges may apply. Call 321-268-1125 or visit www.titusvilleplayhouse.com.