This season’s shows combine solid classics with bold new choices.
By Paul Bibeau
As the weather warms, a broad mix of performances will pop up in Hampton Roads. Audiences will come home to a pair of tried-and-true productions, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Lion King. They can catch Mrs. Doubtfire, a quirky musical adaptation of the 1993 film. Also on its way is a unique profile of a major American figure.
All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Showing:
March 29, Attucks Theatre, Norfolk
Tickets:
vafest.org/tickets/2526/all-things-equal
Rupert Holmes, a British-American author-playwright-songwriter who won multiple Tony awards for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and created songs for stars such as Britney Spears and Barbra Streisand, started crafting the play All Things Equal in the immediate aftermath of Justice Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.
At the height of the pandemic, according to producer Scott Stander, theaters were looking for a production that could appear on a variety of stages using a single actor.
“But it would have to be about some rare person whose life and language were fascinating enough to hold the audience’s interest for over 90 minutes,” Stander said in a previous interview. “Someone whom we’d have loved to meet one-on-one for one memorable evening of our lives.”
The Notorious RBG fit the bill.
Michelle Azar, who plays the justice, said preparing for the role helped her see Ginsburg’s human side.
“She was so joyful,” Azar said, talking about the woman’s warm relationship with her husband, Marty, and her struggle to balance her family life with a career that was truly remarkable.
Also inspiring, Azar added, were the challenges RBG faced. Her mother died of cancer when she was a teenager, and she struggled with multiple outbreaks of cancer herself over more than two decades.
Director Laley Lippard hopes the show moves audiences to see their potential. “Women have so much to give and so much power,” she said. Lippard thinks RBG can stir people to get involved in their community and make change. Even in a world of screens, Lippard added, live theater still has a vital role.
“The theater reminds people of their infinite complexity,” Lippard said. “We are not just our minds, we are not just our likes, we are not just our status….We are an infinitely complex system of memory and legacy. And when we get together for the ritual of storytelling, we were reminded of our connection…to each other. And that is the greatest part of what it means to be human.”
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Showings:
March 11-29, Wells Theatre, Norfolk
Tickets:
tickets.vastage.org/6931
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice created this play more than 50 years ago, basing it on the account of Joseph from the biblical book of Genesis. Billy Bustamante, the director and choreographer of this showing, says the tale is powerful.
“This is a story about a misfit, an outsider who didn’t fit in…because there was something unique and special about him,” Bustamante said. “And because of that, the thing that made him feel different, the thing that made him feel other…that allowed him to change the world.”
Bustamante saw his first performance of Joseph at a small dinner theater in Maryland when he was 13, and it hooked him immediately.
“I just remembered,” Bustamante said, “even at that young age, you know, truly being floored by the talent and by the magic of the storytelling.”
Bustamante said he’s trying to tap into that feeling with “a beautifully simple yet magical production.”
Mrs. Doubtfire
Showings:
March 31-April 5, Chrysler Hall, Norfolk
Tickets:
sevenvenues.com/events/detail/mrs-doubtfire
Mrs. Doubtfire was a cinema hit when it first appeared. The top-grossing film during its opening weekend, it went on to garner more than $400 million worldwide, backed by the star power of Robin Williams and Sally Field.
Turning this popular film into a stage production took quite some time. A Variety article highlighted the challenge it faced: “Can any performer go toe-to-toe with the memory of Robin Williams’s 1993 movie turn as a desperate divorced father whose female alter ego is a wise and twinkly nanny?”
The show persevered, opening in 2019 and picking up audiences across the country.
With music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, the production is led by tour director Steve Edlund and tour choreographer Michaeljon Slinger, with choreography based on Lorin Latarro’s work. The production promises to be a fun and heartfelt story about how far a person will go to keep his family together.
The Lion King
Showings:
April 30-May 17, Chrysler Hall, Norfolk
Tickets:
sevenvenues.com/events/detail/disneys-the-lion-king-1
By the numbers alone, this production has a strong claim to be, well, king. Since its 1997 Broadway premiere, more than 120 million people have seen it in 28 countries on every continent except Antarctica. With a plot that has been called “Shakespearean” by critics, it has won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and features work by the legendary creative team of Elton John and Tim Rice, who won an Academy Award for one of the show’s songs, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, and netted Oscar nominations for two other songs in the show: Circle of Life and Hakuna Matata.
For David D’Lancy Wilson, who plays Mufasa, it’s personal. His second child was born during the show’s production in Toronto. The role helped him celebrate this new chapter in his family’s life, “embracing what my life has become and what this journey represents for me as a dad.” He added that playing the same character made famous by James Earl Jones in the movie and Samuel E. Wright in the original stage play is intensely moving.
“We stand on the shoulders of greats that have come before us,” Wilson said. The story of a young lion growing up, facing down his enemies, and taking his rightful place in the world has resonated with people across the world, and it features the work of choreographer Garth Fagan and the striking visuals of director Julie Taymor. So, if you have somehow managed to avoid seeing it (How?), now is your chance.
