Kitsap Sun Review by Michael C. Moore, July 27, 2014 BREMERTON — Little Orphan Annie is a city girl at heart, and her story — at least that part of it related in the musical “Annie” — is set at Christmas time. So I didn’t know how she’d fare in the tree-framed confines of the Kitsap Forest Theatre, in mid-summer.

Turns out I needn’t have worried. “Annie” is such a sturdy, dependable crowd-pleaser, and the Mountaineers Players (helmed by Craig Schieber) are giving it such an affectionate and thoughtful treatment that I can’t imagine anyone climbing out afterward being any less than satisfied.

It’s obvious that Schieber knows his way around the venue, the seeming ease with which he’s able to tell what is an interior-dominated story in such an exterior setting. He makes canny blocking choices throughout and pretty much bans the scene change altogether, keeping the episodic story churning along at a breakneck pace that doesn’t allow the attentions of even the youngest patrons (and there were many little ones in the July 26 opening-day performance I attended) to stray. The cast double as stage hands, and all the scene changes are done on the fly, a scene beginning even as the previous one is cleared off.

I had noticed that some of the musical numbers were performed at a more deliberate pace than what I was used to (and this is about the umpteenth time I’ve seen “Annie”). But the continuity allowed by the spare set (including the most versatile wood crates known to man, doubling as everything from orphans’ bunks and the meeting table for FDR’s cabinet to skyscrapers) and Schieber’s quick-change strategy allowed the Mountaineers to bring the performance — the opening-day performance, remember — in at a relatively crisp two and a half hours, including intermission.

Another big plus for the production is the keyboard accompaniment of Greg Smith, whose voices run the gamut from honky-tonk piano to synthesizer, and give the folks onstage orchestral-sounding backing throughout.

The acting isn’t uniformly good, but the leads all are solid, starting with 10-year-old Sophie Walters, who makes a spunky, full-throated Annie, acing both of her big ballads, “Maybe” and “Tomorrow,” and getting some good mileage out of the plentiful comedy in her line load. (Jasmine Harrick, also 10, alternates in the role, and I’ve seen her enough in KFT shows to feel certain that she’ll be every bit as effective.)

Chris Shea makes an impressive Kitsap debut as Warbucks. The character doesn’t appear until well into the first act, but is probably the busiest in both line and lyric from that point on, and he handles it all ably. Another KFT first-timer, Marine Madesclaire, is an appropriately authoritative Grace, and she and Shea provide possibly the show’s two best voices.

I thought early on that Cheryl Phillips was going to opt for scary over silly as Miss Hannigan, but she settled nicely into a combination of the two — a must for the show’s ersatz “villain” — and was particularly effective at finding the comedy in her big musical number, “Little Girls.” I also liked Bob Stahley, a fine, deadpan Drake; Tiffany Rousseau, who made the most of her brief solo as the Star to Be in the “N.Y.C.” production number; Schieber’s entire raft of orphans (14 in all, ranging from pint-sized to prep school); Jason Gingold (Rooster) who was a constant source of eye-catching movement; and the well-trained, fully engaged Panda, who played Annie’s pooch pal, Sandy.

Without much in the way of set pieces, and no lighting bells and whistles, Schieber could fall back on his own effective blocking, the stage-filling choreography of Guy Caridi and the (as usual) spectacular costumes by Barbara Klingberg. You just have to appreciate the kind of attention to detail that had the orphans’ dresses color-coded to their gift packages for the joyous “New Deal for Christmas” finale.

It’s true that “Annie” is set on the days leading up to Christmas, 1933. And the most recent productions I’ve seen of it have been seasonal.

But as it turns out, there’s really no bad time to see “Annie.” So sunny is its disposition, so welcome its songs and one-liners, so universal and relevant are its messages, that it truly is a show for all seasons, Christmas tree or no.

The Mountaineers’ show is further proof of that. Pack some sunscreen and bug spray, make a picnic and hike down to see it.

REVIEW

‘ANNIE’

Who: Mountaineers Players

What: Musical by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comics

Where: Kitsap Forest Theatre, 3000 Seabeck Highway, Bremerton

When: Through August 17; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Tickets: $16-$14 advance, $18-$16 gate

Information: 206-542-7815, foresttheater.com

Kitsap Sun Review

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Honk! opened to rave reviews from audiences members this weekend. A long time audience member said that this was her second favorite show she has seen at KFT (after Sound of Music), and she has seen a lot of shows. She absolutely loved the show, and is planning to bring friends back to see it.

Here is an excerpt from Michael C. Moore's review in the Kitsap Sun, May 25, 2014:

"Much like its main character, the musical “Honk!” is sort of a strange duck . . . and yet . . . there, at the end, was a swan. Director Adam Othman, at the KFT helm for the first time, plays to the show’s strengths (it’s awfully, awfully cute, with some effective songs from Anthony Drewe and George Stiles) . . . much of its humor is quite clever . . .  [You will enjoy] listening to Othman’s and musical director Amy Beth Nolte’s collection of splendid singers and immaculate accompaniment by Greg Smith and Victoria Casteel, watching the lovely bits of business and physical comedy contrived by Othman and choreographer Heather Dawson, and enjoying Barbara Klingberg’s simple but colorful and evocative costumes.

. . . there are plenty of genuine laughs to go with the emotion of Andersen’s original messages; you know, “beauty is only skin deep,” and “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

The cast is stocked with great voices — Beaven Walters [as Ida, Ugly’s mom], Meagan Castillo (as Ida’s intolerant friend Maureen), Kelly Goode (as the goose squadron’s aide de camp), Jenny Dreessen and Molly Hall (as a pair of overly domesticated house pets) and 13-year-old Katie Dreessen (as a swan) chief among them. Jason Gingold also sings well and carries a lot of the show’s comic responsibility as a cat who’s planning to have young Ugly over for dinner, hold the “over.”

The show also features a whole barnyard full of cute kids — many of them the progeny of older cast members, playing various chicks and ducklings and even fish.

But man-of-the-match honors have to go to Nick McCarthy, who plays Ugly with the perfect combination of pluck and pathos, getting laughs one minute and setting lower lips a’quiver the next. He bolsters his strong, unaffected acting with a good singing voice and some impressive dance moves."

Three more weekends to come see it – don't miss out on this funny and touching story.

Kitsap Sun, by Michael C. Moore, BREMERTON — There was a time when “Honk!”, a musical-theater version of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling,” seemed poised to become the toast of Broadway.

But no one, at the time, was in the mood.

“I think it would’ve been a big success,” said Adam Othman, who’s directing the Mountaineers Players’ production of the show that opens May 25 at the Kitsap Forest Theater. “It was testing out in the U.S., and looked like it was going to be a big hit, but then the whole 9/11 thing happened.”

A success in its birthplace of London, where it won the Olivier Award (the Brits’ equivalent of the Tonys) for Best Musical in 2000, “Honk!” seemed like a sure bet for a similar reception across the pond. After the events of 9/11, however, no one was in much of a play-going mood, and the show moved onto a virtual back burner.

“It’s a shame,” said Othman, who’s a veteran of decades of shows around the Seattle area (including KFT, where he first appeared in 1987, and most recently in 2011’s “Into the Woods”). “This show is one of those undiscovered classics. It was bad timing that it didn’t get on Broadway, but a lot of people knew about it, and it developed a following.

“It has a lot of heart, and the music is very rich and deep,” he added of the show that will mark his KFT directing debut.

The musical — with music by George Stiles and book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe — might not be familiar to a lot of people as other entries in its genre, but the story certainly is: The “ugly duckling” endures the ridicule and ostracism of his peers, only to mature into a beautiful swan.

“It’s a good show for this place, and the audience they get here,” Othman said. “It’s a family show, and it’s got a good message about tolerance, and that beauty is only skin deep.”

As usual for the Mountaineers — who conducted auditions for its 2014 season in both Seattle and Kitsap — the show is a family affair on stage as well as in the galleries.

“We knew we would get the people out (to audition),” Othman said. “For this show, it was a matter of getting the right mix of people, both adults and kids. One of the great things about this theater is that you can have kids and their parents in the same show.”

There are several family connections in the cast of “Honk!”, including Beavan Walters and her daughter, Sophie, who play matriarch Ida and one of her ducklings. The two have been paired previously at KFT, most notably as Maria Rainer and the youngest Von Trapp child in “The Sound of Music.” (Her son, Scooter, is also in his very first KFT show!).

Several others who’ve done memorable turns in past KFT productions are in Othman’s cast, including Jenny Dreessen and Megan Castillo. But there are some newcomers who will make an impression as well, including Nick McCarthy, who plays Ugly, and Jason Gingold as a conniving cat who pretends to befriend Ugly when all he’s really interested in is eating him.

“There’s a lot of wonderful song-and-dance in the show,” Othman said. “A lot of it is slightly vaudeville-esque. But there’s also a lot of sincerity, in the ballads that Ugly and his mom sing, and as he goes through this whole process of finding out who he is.”

Musical direction is by Amy Beth Nolte, a veteran of several KFT shows both in that capacity and as a performer. Costumer Barbara Klingberg might well find herself up to her elbows in feathers for this show, and choreographer Heather Dawson’s dance steps will be performed at the waddle. Keyboard accompaniment will come from Greg Smith And Victoria Casteel.

“I’ve worked with Amy Beth here before,” Othman said. “As soon as I got this (assignment), I knew I wanted her for musical director. Heather’s new here, but she’s worked with me (with the student program at Seattle Prep, which he directs).

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2014/may/19/theater-ugly-duckling-tale-told-with-song-and/#ixzz32EdufUEh