COLD SNAPS, the One-Act presentation of WorkShop Theatre Company was my introduction to this high-level company. The nine plays, all written and directed by company members, and the performances by the very professional cast were up there with the work of the best New York has to offer. Produced with style and taste, filled with humor and dramatic depth, the plays engaged, entertained, moved the audience. It’s a pleasure for a reviewer to attend work of this caliber. Long may they wave!

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

LOVE, LOSS and WHAT I WORE, adapted by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron from the book by Ilene Beckerman, is a narrative, read and acted by five women about the foibles and interactions between girls and their mothers, their romances and passages in life, all tied to clothing. The stories are universal, the actresses are accomplished and charming. They have a rotating cast, and my night had Carol Kane Lucy DeVito, Katie Finneran, Capathia Jenkins and Natasha Lyonne-- all filled with sparks of life, all ringing true. Clearly directed by Karen Carpenter, it is observational humor at a high level, with special resonance for a father of four daughters. People laugh at two things: recognition and incongruity, and I recognized an awful lot.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Director Trevor Nunn’s very special A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is a magical show, a dream on stage, with the smartest, cleverest lyrics in town and some of the most memorable melodies (like “Send In the Clowns”) all by Stephen Sondheim, and an elegant book by Hugh Wheeler based on Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film “Smiles of a Summer Night.” With a super cast topped by Catherine Zeta-Jones as an actress/courtesan and Angela Lansbury as her mother, and the very beautiful, magnetic, Romona Mallory, who has a clear, lovely, lyrical voice, as a prime flibbity-jibbit ingénue. Alexander Hanson as the distracted husband, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka as the frustrated juvenile, Leigh Ann Larkin as the flirtatious maid, and all the rest of the cast of first-rate singers are merely superb in this story of love, infidelity, and moofky foofky in about 1900. Jones is a powerful stage personality- we knew she is beautiful, now we know she can really sing and can fill a song with powerful, subtle, moving subtext. Lansbury is a treasure, and I smiled at her every word, every song as her magnetic presence filled the theatre. Lynne Page’s choreography puts an exquisite ensemble parenthesis around the show, David Farley’s set is active and flexible, and his stylish costuming enhances everything. A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is a rare treat— a wonderful theatrical experience.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Micaela Leon and Adrienne Haan at The Metropolitan Room are billed as “Diabolical Weimar Wunderkinder” in NARCISSA & GOLDMUN, a lively Tuetonic musical review about 1920’s Berlin with two tall, beautiful blonde singers with well-matched voices, enchanting us in songs with whimsical charm, blatant feminism and costumes (by Julia Jentzsch) that are provocative, glamorous. These are two commanding heroic female personas dressed to the nines, filling the room with their glamorous presences. This is classy cabaret— entertaining beyond the ordinary. Micaela Leon is possibly the most beautiful woman on the stage in New York at this time. Her “Falling in Love Again” will break your heart, and Adrienne Haan mesmerized me throughout. Pianist/musical director Richard Danley and his ensemble are first rate, and Jeff Howard has directed with panache. This is brilliance in a small club in a big city— a stirring, spirited cabaret experience.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

THE UNDERSTUDY by Theresa Reback, zippily directed by Scott Ellis, is a concoction about theatrical foibles. An actor Mark-Paul Cosselaar), his understudy (Justin Kirk), and a stage manager (the great farceur Julie White) in an overacted, overdone, farce that is all great fun as the vanities and silliness of thespians is magnified into a ridiculous reality. It’s a roast of the Acting profession in a mixture of narration and performance, given an almost believability by these talented, tru-pro actors. The set by Alexander Dodge takes the play into a higher dimension, and costumes by Tom Broecker and lighting by the master Kenneth Posner lift the whole proceedings. It’s all very broad, very funny, acted with complete conviction, and all totally entertaining.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

The show is called THE BIG BUPKIS!—A Complete Gentile’s Guide to Yiddish Vaudeville. Although some of the songs and patter are in Yiddish (with supertitle translation), it’s all just good old fun variety show Vaudeville performed by Shane Bertram Baker, who looks something like a younger, bald Johnny Carson, in a brash tongue-in-cheek style. The bits include some classic magic: rope trick, goldfish appearing in a bowl, the chalk slate, the guillotine, and other old time schtick like hypnotizing a chicken, and a bullfight with a moral. He even makes a paper tree and has a trained(?) dog, does a ventriloquist piece with a dummy, and finally a transvestite bit as a sexy chorus girl. Imaginative costumes are by Gail Cooper-Hecht. A variety of Variety with piano and drum accompaniment, well directed by co-author Allen Lewis Rickman. The good-natured Baker has a great time, the audience has a great time-- it’s a flashback to a form of light entertainment that we don’t see anymore.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

FINIAN’S RAINBOW: simple plot, simplistic romance, great songs, terrific dancing and costumes. So this Irishman (the pixie Jim Norton) steals a pot of gold from a leprechaun (the lively, charming Christopher Fitzgerald), and takes his daughter (the beautiful, silver-throated Kate Baldwin) to rural America where she meets a big handsome guy (Cheyenne Jackson). Director/choreographer Warren Carlyle starts us off with an Agnes DeMille Oklahoma-ish hoedown by the first-rate chorus, and introduces the lovely, spectacular ballet dancer Alina Faye as a local girl who dances her thoughts without speaking. In Act Two, they kind of run out of plot, and put in a couple of numbers that are just great show pieces, including a gospel quartet and Faye dancing to the harmonica of Guy Davis— this duo alone is worth the trip to this very entertaining show (book by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg and music by Burton Lane). FINIAN’S RAINBOW is filled with folksy fol-de-rol, with song after song that is memorable. You walk out humming “That Old Devil Moon,” “How are Things in Gloccamora,” “Look to the Rainbow,” “Necessity” (performed by a powerful Teri White) and the little dessert near the end, “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love.” This show was a ground-breaker in race relations in America in 1947, and was probably the first integrated musical on Broadway. Its message of equality is still a kick for me. With a simple set by John Lee Beatty, terrific imaginative costumes by Toni-Leslie James and lively lighting by Ken Billington, it’s a light, feel-good musical with a touch of magic.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

AFTER MISS JULIE, Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” directed by Mark Brokaw, is a strong exploration of morality and possibilities in a country with a strict caste system. Moving the action from 1888 Sweden to 1945 England doesn’t seem to make much difference— the possible climb up the economic and social ladder is impossible in the situation that exists between mistress and serf. The acting in this production is all first rate, with Sienna Miller giving us a combination of strength, neurotic vulnerability and temperament. Jonny Lee Miller is powerful as the servant, and he clearly defines his inner conflicts as the play goes on, although at the very beginning he is incomprehensible in his regional accent. Marin Ireland is perfect as the chauffeur’s girl who “gets it.” There is a lot of excitement in this production, and the fervor of the battle between two people, each trapped, to get out, is passionate and engrossing. Brokaw inserts pauses fraught with intensity that dramatize the inner conflicts of the two characters. Allen Moyer’s open rural set is just right for the emotional tennis match that takes place, and Michael Krass’s costumes and Mark McCullum’s lighting are just right. I found AFTER MISS JULIE to be both a fascinating glimpse of another era, and a strong Theatre experience with hot-blooded performances.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.