Reviews and Previews
Published Saturday
November 18, 2006
Omaha World-Herald Online Edition
Today's best bets
Theater
Erika Hall plays Little Voice in "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice."
"The Rise and Fall of Little Voice," stage comedy, SNAP Productions at SNAP/Shelterbelt Theatre, 3225 California St. 8 p.m. Runs through Dec. 10. $15 adults, $12 students and senior citizens. Information: 341-2757.
• This play preceded the 1998 movie version, which tells the story of a painfully shy young woman who escapes from her drunken, abusive mother by shutting herself up in her bedroom, impersonating vocal legends. When a tacky promoter discovers the girl's talent, he tries to exploit it by booking her in a nightclub. The movie starred Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks, Michael Caine and Ewan McGregor. Jim Cartwright's script won a 1993 Olivier Award for best comedy. In SNAP's version, look for Erika Hall as Little Voice, M. Michele Phillips as her mother, Denny Maddux as the promoter and Dustin Hillman as the phone man who falls hard for her. Also cast: Jeff Nelson and Liz Heim. Michal Simpson directs.
Published Saturday
November 18, 2006
Omaha World-Herald Online Edition
Review: 'Voice' good because whole cast is in tune
BY JOHN KEENAN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The most essential task when mounting a production of "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice," currently running at the SNAP/Shelterbelt Theatre, is casting the role of Little Voice herself.
Little Voice, also called LV, is a shy young woman who is able to mimic the vocal styles of great stage and screen sirens such as Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Ethel Merman. A low-rent agent and her overbearing mother conspire to put LV on stage, against the girl's inclinations.
Simply put, if the lead actress can't make you understand why everyone is so excited about LV's talent, the production is in serious trouble. Jim Cartwright's play was written for a specific performer, actress Jane Horrocks, and was designed to showcase Horrocks' ability to mimic widely known divas.
For SNAP's production, director Michal Simpson puts Erika Hall in the pivotal role, and she handles the vocal challenges well, morphing recognizably from Bassey to Garland to Billie Holliday. The talented actress handles her transformation from the mousy LV into a stage siren with grace.
The acting skills of M. Michele Phillips as Mari, LV's boozy mother, match Hall's vocal chops.
Since LV is shy and quiet without song, Phillips has the showiest role when there's not singing, and she sinks her teeth into it. Her British accent seemed to slip a time or two on preview night, but her persona - as an essentially selfish woman willing to trade on her daughter's talents - never slips.
Phillips' performance is a comic gem. She can make you understand Mari's modest dreams and like her without ever admiring her.
The cast as a whole is strong. Denny Maddux is so convincingly manipulative as Ray Say, Mari's boyfriend and LV's would-be manager, that the character at first seems to be a genuinely understanding guy. Dustin Hillman plays Billy, the stammering phone repairman who makes a connection with LV.
And SNAP! veteran Liz Heim does a lot with a little in the role of Mari's dim-bulb but goodhearted friend Sadie. In Mari's usually one-sided conversations with the taciturn Sadie, Heim gets as many laughs as Phillips with almost no lines.
Simpson puts the pieces together expertly, including the set, which is composed of Mari's small kitchen and living room and LV's upstairs bedroom, decorated with album covers featuring Garland, Bassey and Marilyn Monroe.
Hall's ability to mimic those singers is the show's centerpiece. But unlike those stars, Hall has a talented supporting cast.
If the premise of the show rests squarely on Hall's singing talents, the rest of the cast makes sure that everything else is working perfectly. By the time LV is standing on the stage, Phillips and company have already hit all the right notes. So it's no surprise that Hall does, too.
Published Thursday
November 16, 2006
Omaha World-Herald Online Edition
This character sings like a half-dozen divas
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
In "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice," opening Friday at the SNAP/Shelterbelt Theatre, everybody has to talk with a Yorkshire accent.
That's tricky, but not compared with what the title character has to pull off: impersonating the singing voices of a half-dozen recording divas.
"I told myself if we don't find this girl, we're sunk," said SNAP artistic director Michal Simpson, who is directing the show. Before casting, he said, his mantra was "keep the faith."
Simpson needn't have worried.
"We had five really good women come in and audition," Simpson recalled.
They came prepared, belting out tunes by recording stars like Ethel Merman, Cher and Maria Callas, then doing it again at callbacks as the field narrowed.
Simpson cast Erika Hall, widely known to area musical-theater fans for her award-winning performance in the title role of "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Omaha Community Playhouse a couple of years ago.
Erika Hall stars as a shy girl who impersonates famous divas in "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice."
That's tricky, but not compared with what the title character has to pull off: impersonating the singing voices of a half-dozen recording divas.
"I told myself if we don't find this girl, we're sunk," said SNAP artistic director Michal Simpson, who is directing the show. Before casting, he said, his mantra was "keep the faith."
Simpson needn't have worried.
"We had five really good women come in and audition," Simpson recalled.
They came prepared, belting out tunes by recording stars like Ethel Merman, Cher and Maria Callas, then doing it again at callbacks as the field narrowed.
Simpson cast Erika Hall, widely known to area musical-theater fans for her award-winning performance in the title role of "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Omaha Community Playhouse a couple of years ago.
"The hardest thing was preparing for the audition, just seeing if I could do it," Hall said. She used a hand-held recorder to hone the voices of Judy Garland, Billie Holliday, Marilyn Monroe, Peggy Lee, Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark and Lulu.
She hasn't stopped refining them since, but her character is a psychologically complex acting challenge as well.
The painfully shy girl escapes her bullying, alcoholic mother by shutting herself up in the attic, singing to the records her father left behind when he died. Little Voice barely speaks.
The vocal coaching, Simpson said, has made him more aware of listening to all of his cast. While Little Voice barely talks, her mother, Mari, never stops.
"This person is totally antithetical to me," said M. Michele Phillips, who plays Mari. "She's one of those people who says whatever comes into her head, very flamboyant. And she thinks she's totally entitled to things, whether or not she's earned them."
Phillips said Mari is jealous of her daughter, who was close to her dead husband. The script hints he was gay.
"Once you understand what motivates her, you understand her behavior," Phillips said. "She's a pretty tough cookie. But you have to find the good in every character you play."
Phillips, who often directs, has not appeared in an Omaha show in about five years. Having seen the movie, for which Brenda Blethyn earned an Oscar nomination playing Mari, she was "actually scared to death to try out." But the challenge hooked her, she said.
Hall must like challenges as well. After finishing the run in "Little Voice," she has signed on to impersonate another famous song stylist in the Omaha Community Playhouse's "Always . . . Patsy Cline," which opens in January.
Published Wednesday
November 22, 2006
Omaha City Weekly
REVIEW: Little Voice, Big Shivers
BY JULIEN R. FIELDING
Judy Garland. Marilyn Monroe. Shirley Bassey. Billie Holiday. It's a veritable who's who of notable female singers from the 20th century, and in Jim Cartwright's The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, the actress who plays the title role of LV has to effortlessly glide from one to the next. It's a tall order for a local theater company, particularly when you consider that the show was written for the chameleon-like Jane Horrocks (known to American audiences as Bubble in the British comedy Absolutely Fabulous) who reprised the role in 1998 for the film version. If you've seen her performance, it's impossible to imagine that anyone else could accomplish what Horrocks did.
To be honest, when I saw Little Voice on SNAP! Productions lineup, I was perplexed: Whom in the world were they going to find to do this show?
Despite its title, the play, which is set in a northern town in England during the 1980s, gets a whole lot of its voice from Mari Hoff, the brash, alcohol-swilling and bed-hopping mother of the titular character. In SNAP!'s production, theater veteran M. Michele Phillips dons a blonde wig, body-hugging clothes and the demeanor of a middle-aged Yorkshire woman who feels she should have had better in her life.
If you've seen a lot of Mike Leigh's films, this character will seem very familiar. She's crude, obnoxious and mired in poverty. Other than her dialect, Phillips positively nails the character, giving her the requisite blend of tragedy, culpability and pathos. (Brenda Blethyn received an Oscar nod for her take on the character.)
Ray Say (Denny Maddux), a small time manager to strippers and third-rate singers, comes into the play as Mari's boyfriend, but ultimately offers the family a way out of its predicament. One night he hears LV, played by Erika Hall, singing at her window and immediately knows that this could be his ticket to riches.
I always enjoy seeing Maddux onstage, and here he gives one of his best performances. He takes his character on a subtle journey - from a slick ladies' man and "caring" father figure to an absolute bugger who lashes out when things go wrong. The minute his character flips, you feel as if you've been struck across the face.
Minor roles are well played by Liz Heim, Mari's "OK" saying friend (her "Disco Inferno" scene had me laughing until I was crying); Jeff Nelson, the gold-wearing club owner; and Dustin Hillman, who plays Billy, the shy phone repairman who brings LV out of her shell. Reminiscent of a young James Cagney, Hillman, who was last seen in the Playhouse's "Full Monty," shines brightly in this role.
As the song says "the best is yet to come" and that refers to Hall. I've seen most of her performances, everything from "Suddenly Last Summer" to "Annie Get Your Gun," and I always believe I've seen her best work. But I'm always wrong. If there's a career-defining role, for her, Little Voice is it. She's an absolute stunner in this show. I thought for sure they would have her lip synch. But no. She comes center stage and into her mike whispers the baby girl voice of Monroe, belts out Bassey, confidently projects Garland, and then delivers the weathered sadness of Holiday. She sent shivers up and down my arms. And I'm still reeling from her final breakdown scene. If there is any doubt that she's the best actress onstage today, this performance should put that to rest.
I didn't think it could be done, but Michal Simpson has assembled a fantastic cast for his production of Little Voice. It's already the standout of this theater season.
Published Wednesday
November 29, 2006
Omaha Reader
REVIEW: Shy’s New Meaning
By Warren Franke
Until now, shy was defined by Tennessee Williams in Glass Menagerie when his introverted heroine obsessed over her fragile unicorn. The title character in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice gives a whole new meaning to withdrawn shyness in a unique SNAP! Productions comedy at the Shelterbelt.
Her brassy, self-centered mother comes home drunk and horny, pawed by her latest lover (LL), chasing Little Voice (they call her LV) from the scene to hide in her bedroom. There she finds comfort in her record albums and sings out the bedroom window in the voices of Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Petula Clark and others.
When LL, a sleazy promoter named Ray Say, hears LV warbling in the night, he sees dollar signs and pushes the shy one into the spotlight at a cheesy night club operated by his buddy Lou Boo.
So Ray Say and Lou Boo play Sleazy and Cheesy to LV’s Bashful, with Liz Heim adding Dopey, an obliging character called Sadie Mae who quickly replies, “OK,” to almost any imposition. Rounding out director Michal Simpson’s well-chosen cast is Dustin Hillman, a repairman who overcomes his shyness to woo LV via the bedroom window.
All this adds up to an appealing performance, thanks especially to Erika Hall as LV and M. Michele Phillips as her mother. You root for LV, but you don’t quite despise the selfish mother who wears the vulnerability of fading sexuality on her sleeve.
Most important, you believe LV could wow audiences with her diva voices if she could just come out of her bedroom. Ms. Hall does Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” a boop-de-doop “I Want to be Loved by You,” and a throaty “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” among others, all with credible mimicry. You hope she’ll belt “Downtown” like Petula, and she doesn’t disappoint.
Denny Maddux takes his Ray Say from boozy lust for mom to ill-concealed intolerance and then cruel contempt when his hopes are dashed for exploiting the daughter. Maddux and Phillips pair powerfully in roles created by playwright Jim Cartwright but worthy of a Williams or Arthur Miller.
But the sleepers in this cast are Hillman and Heim. The former, recently seen in The Full Monty at the Playhouse, courts the shy heroine in his believable effort to overcome his own timidity. And Heim proves just fascinating as she shuffles about the stage, a neighbor catering to the selfish mother, and winning applause for a crowd-pleasing dance.
It all unfolds in the home of LV and her mother. Simpson designed a set with kitchen (where appliances keep shorting out and the fridge stinks of rotten food) and living room below, LV’s bedroom above with album covers on the walls. Add tinsel curtains up front and it becomes the nightclub of Lou Boo.
We’re told it takes place in Northern England, but the location is of little importance, as reflected in minor consideration given to appropriate accents. Costume designer Nancy Ross dressed mother, Ray Say and Lou Boo (forgive my fondness for repeating these names) in outfits befitting their fringe characters, but accented the innocence of LV in flannel pajamas.
In a weekend when five new shows opened in community theaters, this one shouldn’t be lost in the crowd. The SNAP! treatment is worthy of its award-winning run in London and a worthy successor to Christmas with the Crawfords that sold out the same theater in recent holiday seasons. As its encore number advises, it wins “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” ,
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice runs through Dec. 10 at SNAP!/Shelterbelt Theatre, 3225 California, 8 p.m. Thursdays thru Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sunday, with a final show 2 p.m. Dec. 10. Tickets cost $15, $12 for students and seniors. For more information call 341.2757.
30 Nov 2006
Published Thursday
December 07, 2006
Council Bluffs Nonpareil
'Little Voice' a big must
COURTNEY BRUMMER, Staff Writer
12/07/2006
OMAHA - Don't worry, there is still time to catch "Little Voice" at the Shelterbelt Theater in Omaha. Not much time, however, so I would strongly recommend making reservations as soon as possible.
"Why?" You may ask? For the very simple reason that it is one of the best productions in metro area theater in 2006 and it should not be missed.
The story is interesting: Boisterous, alcoholic mother and very quiet daughter live together. She's so quiet, in fact, she's nicknamed Little Voice. Daughter doesn't say much, but when she sings, it's loud and clear. When mother's slimy talent manager boyfriend gets an earful of Little's Voice's big singing abilities, he hatches a plan. Unfortunately, Little Voice gives new definition to the term "stagefright."
Performing the music of Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Billie Holiday in exact replication is obviously not an easy task. But give that task to local actress Erika Hall in the lead as Little Voice or "LV," and she makes it look like a walk in the park. No lip-synching folks, she sings everything from Bassey's "Goldfinger" to Monroe's "I Wanna Be Loved By You." Add a little Miss Billie and the fabulous Lady Garland to that and you will honestly sit there in awe and admiration of Hall's vocal abilities. She's so good, it's scary. But then again, anyone familiar with Hall's resume of work already knows what great things she is capable of.
Speaking of scary - but scary in a great way - Council Bluffs resident Dennis Maddux gives an absolutely fabulous performance as LV's manager/mother's boyfriend, Ray Say. Say is a comedic Lathario one minute, a compassionate father-figure the next and an angry, sleazy parasite after that. Maddux pulls it off perfectly, with a cockney British accent no less. It's hard not to appreciate how good he really is.
As LV's selfish mother, Mari, M. Michele Phillips also gives a great and comedic performance. She'll never be Mother of the Year, but when Mari wants something, she goes after it, and the way she pursues Ray Say, would be sad if it wasn't so darn funny.
Of the supporting cast, the highlight performance is delivered by Liz Heim as Mari's best friend and neighbor, Sadie. It's hard to explain, but I will give you a hint, it involves bad '70s disco and a stair-rail.
Director Michal Simpson has gone above and beyond with this one. A great script and great cast definitely made it so.
If you don't have plans for the weekend, go see this show. If you do have plans, cancel them and go see this show. It will be totally worth it.
SNAP! Productions will show "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" through Sunday at the Shelterbelt Theater, 3225 California St. in Omaha. The theater opens a half hour before curtain time. Reservations may be made by calling (402) 341-2757 or online at www.snapproductions.com. Tickets are $15 for general admission; $12 for students, senior citizens, and TAG members.
©Daily Nonpareil 2006
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