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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Victoria audiences to be foiled
How do you follow an act like “Wicked”?
The long-awaited musical that turned out to be well worth the wait closes March 7 after three booming box office weeks at the Schuster Performing Arts Center.
Much as a feast often leads to wrapping up the leftovers, the Victoria Theatre Association is breaking out the aluminum foil.
But “The Aluminum Show,” a quirky, shiny, strange, fascinating and funny exhibition of metallic machinations, is no leftover. Created in 2003 in Israel, it’s touring North America for the first time.
It opens Tuesday, March 9, at the Victoria Theatre as the next offering in the Miami Valley Hospital Good Samaritan Hospital Broadway Series.
The offbeat production is no musical, although music is part of it. It’s a combination of dance, design, optical illusion, visual gag, sculpture, puppeteering and pantomime.
The six cast members and four stage assistants manipulate or wear various-sized Slinky-like ducts, tubes and other metallic objects and shapes.
The show began to take shape in the mind of Israeli dancer Ilan Azriel during a visit to a hardware store. It’s considerably larger than the 10-minute puppet show he created and produced previously.
Consisting of 20 segments in about 80 minutes, “The Aluminum Show” was first presented in Jerusalem and has toured other countries for several years.
It has been compared to “Stomp” and “Blue Man Group.” The production’s Dayton visit will be used to promote recycling. Audience members will be invited to contributed used aluminum foil that will be fashioned into a ball. Proceeds from turning that in will be split between Habitat for Humanity and the Victoria Theatre Association’s Education and Outreach programs.
Adults and kids tend to like “The Aluminum Show.” A few excerpts from recent reviews follow.
Thumbs Up:
“In this fast-paced show, aluminum is inflated into pillows, shredded into streamers, shot out of cannons, stretched out into a mammoth blanket, floated in mid-air, turned into hand and stick puppets, and repeatedly transformed into the agile Israeli troupe’s costumes.” — Theatermania.com.
“There’s a fine line between zany and goofy, between uniquely inventive and just plain silly. ‘The Aluminum Show’ zigzags back and forth across that line.” — Schenectady Times Union.
“The show’s whimsical use of metal offers unalloyed pleasure.” — theindependent.co.uk.
“ ‘The Aluminum Show’ has lots of audience participation. Many people say it creates a party atmosphere.” — Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.
Thumb Down:
“It is a mediocre and repetitive display of performers meandering inside metal air conditioning ducts. Audiences should also beware that they will be subjected to very (VERY) loud music and more than once-is-enough ‘mosh pit’ interactions with inflated aluminum pillows, tubing and confetti of all sizes.” — Charlotte Creative Arts Examiner.
What: “The Aluminum Show.”
When: March 9-21.
Where: Victoria Theatre, First and Main streets.
Tickets: $38-$83.
More Info: Call (937) 228-3630 or go to www.ticketcenterstage.com.
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Wizard of “Wicked” has Kenley Players past
The original Wizard of Oz may not have been able to find his way back to Kansas, but the man who plays the Wizard in the musical “Wicked” has found himself back in Dayton.
Don Amendolia made it a point early in the run at the Schuster Performing Arts Center to drive past Memorial Hall on First Street and sit outside for a while “to get back in touch with my past.”
Now 65, he cut his performing teeth as an apprentice with the Kenley Players in the same building more than 40 years ago. “I built props, painted sets and did whatever needed to be done,” he said.
Director John Kenley said they “would have to find a way to get me on stage. They did. I came through Dayton for several years.”
The Wizard in “Wicked” is a dictator of sorts, presiding over the dissolution of animal rights in Oz.
Amendolia doesn’t believe his character is really “a bad guy. He’s a guy who ended up in circumstances that caused him to behave a certain way,” he said.
“The people of Oz believed he was a messiah. He became seduced by being adulated in that way. He did his best to make them happy.”
Anyone in the any cast of “Wicked” can probably relate.
“I’ve been in hit shows. This is a phenomenon. It seems to resonate with virtually everyone,” Amendolia said.
“When people leap to their feet for you every single night, it’s like landing in a world where everyone thinks you are terrific.”
The Wizard sings an Act 1 solo called “A Sentimental Man” “that describes who he truly is,” Amendolia said.
“He’s a traveling snake oil salesman who always wanted to be a father and have a family.”
When he finds out at the end of the play that he’s actually Elphaba’s father, due to a one-night tryst, “it’s devastating for him. He has screwed up his life chasing a dream he already had.”
That revelation comes as he’s being deposed by Glinda as ruler of Oz.
What will become of him?
“I can’t think about that. I don’t imagine he will survive. I doubt he will find his way home. I would like to think he will fly into a rainbow somewhere.”
Amendolia, who grew up in southern New Jersey, has been able to go home again. After living in Los Angeles for many years while working in television and film, he moved back into the house he built with his father.
Dayton was only his fourth stop since joining the “Wicked” tour. It felt like home a little.
“Wicked”, which opened Feb. 17 in Dayton, will be presented again through Sunday, March 7, at the Schuster Performing Arts Center, Second and Main streets. More information is available at (937) 228-3630 or www.ticketcenterstage.com.
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