Village pulls out all the stops on "Funny Girl"

Sarah Rose Davis as Fanny Brice (photo Mark Kitaoka)

Funny Girl

Village Theatre

Issaquah: through July 6

Everett: July 11-August 3

The final show of Village Theatre’s season is Funny Girl, the classic musical turned movie by Jule Stein, Bob Merrill and Isobel Lenhart. Village pulls out all the stops on the technical elements, flying in stage drops and pushing and pulling set pieces just about every 30 seconds! It’s a dizzying technical feat. Some of those stage pictures (like the “wedding” song tableau) are absolutely gorgeous. (Set designer is Bill Forrester.)

It’s a “big” show with a large ensemble cast filling the stage, enchanting bits of choreography by Kristin Holland, and a lot of brass in the orchestra (music directed by Tim Symons and Bruce Monroe). Outstanding smaller roles include a star turn for John David Scott and his terrific tapping, along with his charmingly poignant friendship with Fanny that endures while he clearly is in love with her. Also, great fun is had with Fanny’s mom, Bobbi Kotula, and busybody neighbor Mrs. Strakosh, Jayne Muirhead.

But the focus of the evening, indeed the person who is barely off-stage for even a moment, is Sarah Rose Davis as Fanny. Davis has everything she needs to bring this role to life: a terrific voice, ability to lapse adorably into funny-awkward comedic moments, and the knowledge of how to put a song over the transom and deliver. This show taxes all her abilities to their limit and she rises to the occasion beautifully.

Review: Well done The Foreigner at Village is a familiar farce

Erik Gratton, Angela DiMarco, Jonathan Crimeni in The Foreigner (Tracy Martin)

The Foreigner

Village Theatre

Issaquah through March 2

Everett: March 7-30

The Foreigner by Larry Shue is a tight, almost perfectly written farce: every little detail introduced into the plot is used later and is a clue to the unfolding mystery. Case in point, at the beginning of the play, we find out that a young man who is developmentally disabled is said to take one bite out of an apple and then leave the apple behind, and deny that he’s even done it. The audience thinks it’s quirky character development, until we later find out who has been leaving the apples and why.

There are half a dozen tiny moments like that in the script and as you begin to see them unfold, your interest in what you already saw and what it might mean later deepens. An old bromide, attributed to Anton Chekhov the playwright, is that if you put a gun in your play, it better get shot later on. In The Foreigner, all the “guns” get shot. You can see for yourself at the Village Theatre with their well done production.

Celebrated musical writer, Brian Yorkey, returns to his old home at Village Theatre to direct this play, their annual non-musical production. He directs a solid cast of seven who sometimes make their numbers look larger (through adept costuming).

The basic ingredients start with a despondent Brit (Erik Gratton) being dragged to rural Georgia by his army buddy, Froggy (Patrick Phillips), to get cheered up while his buddy does some military drills there. But he is so shy and afraid of people that Froggy, spur of the moment, tells the proprietess, Betty (Sharva Maynard), that Charlie doesn’t speak a word of English, hoping to ensure that everyone will leave Charlie alone. Once Charlie is thought not to understand, secrets start pouring out around him and he finds a facility inside himself to begin to enjoy life.

The plot developments are a bit absurd, and Charlie is supposed to find a way to rescue everyone, but it’s a romp with great fun moments. There is a wonderful bit where Charlie is “taught” English by the young disabled boy Ellard (Anthony Lee Phillips) that is a crowd-pleaser. Ellard’s sister, Catherine (Angela DiMarco), is being duped by her fiancée (Jonathan Crimeni) and a nasty side-kick (Eric Ray Anderson who starts off nibbling the furniture and ends up biting big chunks of it in a hysterical bad-guy turn).

Technical support here is luscious, as usual, with a great thunderstorm on a unit set depicting an old lodge (by Matthew Smucker), essential sound work from Brent Warwick to create the outdoor noises, intricate lighting from Tom Sturge, and fun costuming from Melanie Burgess. Charlie’s get up, in particular, helps set a complete tone for his character.

For more information, go to www.villagetheatre.org or call 425-392-2202. Comments welcome on this blog.