PicksInSix Review: Avenue Q - Dunes Summer Theatre

Dunes’ ‘Avenue Q’ Finds Its Purpose!
PicksInSix® Gold Review | Ed Tracy

There is no denying that you can do anything with a puppet in your hand and no better example on stage right now than the terrific revival of the 2004 Tony Award–winning musical “Avenue Q” playing at the Dunes Summer Theatre. The hilarious send up of the adult-themed Sesame Street is the inspiration of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx who wrote the lyrics and music. The book by Jeff Whitty is set on a block in lower Manhattan where neighbors Princeton, Kate Monster, Rod, Nicky, Trekkie Monster, Lucy, Mrs. T, Brian, Christmas Eve and the superintendent, Gary Coleman, all deal with life’s challenges from jobs, relationships, and racism, and sex to love, responsibility and the importance of helping others.

The show, directed by Danny Kapinos, a Chicago-based director and co-Artistic Director of Blank Theatre Company, has assembled one of the finest ensemble casts seen here in recent years, led by Quinn Kelch (Princeton) and Mika Wurf (Kate), playing two twentysomething loners who find friendship, love and their own purpose together. Kelch, a rising talent who is well-known to Chicago audiences, is terrific here, playing both Princeton, the newly-minted college graduate and Rod, the closeted gay neighbor. Wurf, a senior at the Boston Conservatory of Music with an extraordinary voice, is perfect as the shy, demure Kate who breaks away from her quiet existence to find that there is more to life when you share it with someone you love. The two are wonderfully matched together, displaying wide-ranging versatility in a challenging show that demands precision in movement, timing and comic delivery.

The young lovers are influenced by everyone who live on Avenue Q. There’s Rod (Kelch) and Nicky (Josh Bernaski and Maya Moreau) who are sorting out Rod’s conflicted lifestyle; Trekkie Monster (Bernaski) whose passion is internet porn; Lucy (Moreau), the vixen who seduces all in her path; and, the humans: the aspiring comedian Brian (Clay W. Muir) and his partner Christmas Eve (Aubrey Malito), an Asian phycologist and Gary Coleman (Micah Hughs) the super with a bit of an attitude about his rocky road after TV stardom. It is all for laughs with a dash of clever technology that pays homage to the Sesame Street educational themes along the way.

The delightful score overflows with musical gems from Wurf’s sweet and beautifully sung ballad “There’s A Fine, Fine Line” and Malito’s stellar “The More You Ruv Someone” and “I Wish I Could Go Back To College” by the trio of Kelch, Wurf and Bernaski, to the rollicking “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist,” “The Internet Is For Porn,” and “There is Life Outside Your Apartment.” Music director Aaron Kaplan with Associate Music Director/Conductor Sachio Nang and seven musicians knock Steven Oremus’s full-bodied arrangements out of the park. Credit goes to Jake Tillman for an outstanding sound design, balancing the superb vocals of this enormously talented ensemble with the musicians effortlessly.

Scenically, Michael Lasswell has again designed and constructed an impressive, multi-story Lower East Side street scene with textured brick facades and a cityscape in the distance. With Arturo Pozos’s evocative lighting design and Emily Chidalek’s colorful costumes, “Avenue Q” is visually bright, festive and fun.

Combining live action with music and puppets in not an easy task for actors and the special puppet training by Andrew Lund is expertly evidenced throughout and in particular with some subtle—and some not so subtle—activities that give “Avenue Q” its’ R-rated guidance, spurred on by a couple of devious Bad Idea Bears.

Each of the ensemble members assume multiple roles throughout, but the performance of the night belongs to the enormously talented and versatile Kelch who, on more than one occasion, is required to exit as one puppet character and return immediately as another. I was confounded by an especially clever sequence where Kelch is literally in two places at the same time. A phenomenal sleight of hand in a production that is sure to be a colossal hit for Artistic Director Steve Scott, Managing Director Elise Kermani and everyone on board for the Dunes Summer Theatre’s 75th Anniversary Season.

PHOTO|Tony Martin

Dunes Summer Theatre
presents
Avenue Q
288 Shady Oak Drive
Michigan City, IN
through August 9

WEBSITE

TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review - Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune - Dunes Summer Theatre

‘Frankie and Johnny’: After The Lovin!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Dunes Summer Theatre’s 75th Anniversary Season continues through July 12 with a fine production of Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.” It’s a two-hander, of sorts, where all four hands—and a lot more—are working overtime at the top in a small 1980s New York City tenement. The two lovers, Frankie (Kat Evans) and Johnny (Mark Mendelson) are in Frankie’s bed consummating their passionate and rigorous lovemaking. All we know at first is what we hear and while there is some shadowy thrashing about in the dark, it’s obvious where these two have been and where they are going.

It may make you wonder, then, if this is how things begin, where do we go from here? That is, of course, precisely the point of McNally’s work. It’s not the passion of the moment—although there are several of those—but rather, what could possibly come next. In truth, these two know very little about each other. She is a waitress and he a short-order cook. They both talk around their idiosyncrasies and, for that matter, points of fact. The first big one is age, which even as they both admit to a middle age number, you are never quite sure.

Then there are the simple things that trouble and excite us: loneliness, depression, obsession, food, humor, uncertainty and guilt. It seems that McNally would like us to believe that even if we are doing something that brings us pleasure, we should carry a healthy amount of guilt along so that we can remain grounded in our regular world.

Frankie is tightly wound in this regard. She wants to resist Johnny’s advances, waffling between asking him to leave and to cook her a western omelet since instead of a smoke, Frankie craves food after sex. Johnny is the more free-spirited of the two, although he has a bit of an ominous streak in him that hits Frankie hard more than once. He wears his heart on his sleeve and alternates between pressure for more of the same from Frankie and humor as a tool to pacify her insecurity and mood swings.

The play originally debuted at the height of the AIDS crisis and much has been written about McNally’s intention to explore what happens when a couple is faced with navigating the next level of a relationship after a one-night stand. The dialogue is non-stop through two-acts and director Morgan McCabe draws solid performances from both Evans and Mendelson who find the subtle nuances in the script and capitalize on much of the humor McNally intended, even though you might not consider this a comedy. How this all plays out is really at the core of the show. It is a big lift and fine work by these two actors (and the radio announcer played by Michael Nowak) in building a relationship that may well have a chance of surviving the night.

Frankie’s urban apartment is another splendid set design by Michael Lasswell with a working stovetop and a true nod to late 80s New York with a city skyline in the distance. With adult themes and language throughout, this may be more of a date night than a family outing, but McCabe and intimacy director Cheis Morgan balance the subject matter and provocative elements with discretion. It is an ambitious production for the Dunes that plays well in the cozy confines of the theater on Shady Oak Drive in Michigan City.

PHOTO|Tony Martin

Dunes Summer Theatre
presents
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
288 Shady Oak Drive
Michigan City, IN
through July 12

WEBSITE

TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review: DEATHTRAP - Dunes Summer Theatre

Dunes Lands with Comically Macabre ‘DEATHTRAP’
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Dunes Summer Theatre, northwest Indiana’s longest-running summer theater program, kicked off the 75th season this weekend in high style with Ira Levin’s “DEATHTRAP” directed by Michael Lasswell and starring Kevin Lee Giese as Sidney Bruhl, the washed-up playwright who will do anything to get back to Broadway with a hit.

The 1978 play ran for four years on Broadway and still stands as the longest running comedy-thriller in Broadway history. At the Dunes, you can certainly see why the show has made such a mark over the years. It is a fast-paced series of surprising plot-twists and chilling turns that take place a few hours north of Manhattan in the study of the Bruhl’s carriage house in Westport, Connecticut that has been meticulously designed by Lasswell including an impressive array of weapons and a fair amount of surprises all its own. It is here that Bruhl and his wife Myra (Jann Iaco) discuss the play that Bruhl’s former student Clifford Anderson (Michael Bond) has sent to him for review and comment. That all leads to Anderson coming later in the evening and the wrapping—and unravelling—of the story.

Early on, Helga ten Dorp (Janet Davies), the Bruhls’ eccentric Dutch neighbor, arrives and quickly reveals her psychic abilities, sensing the present and hinting at what lies ahead. From there, the play within the play seems to unfold in a familiar way—or does it?

At the center of the story is Giese’s Bruhl who is consumed by the brilliant work that Bond’s Anderson has created, urging him to join forces to insure a successful Broadway production. Levin uses Bruhl’s desperation and excessive actions as a mirror mixed with satire of the toxic, competitive atmosphere at the time where wealth and greed challenged creativity at every level. Bond is terrific in the role of the talented newcomer, affable and engaging at the outset, a perfect counter to the brooding and manipulative Griese whose tightly wound Bruhl threatens to explode at any minute.

The play hinges on Iaco’s Myra and the Bruhl’s attorney, Porter Milgrim played by Steven Kozelka, but the sparkling performance of the night goes to the effervescent Davies who plays Helga with unbridled passion and a comic sheen that is truly captivating.

Lasswell’s superb set design is enhanced by Arturo Pozos’s unmatched lighting, a brilliant soundscape by Jake Tillman and a warehouse of interesting properties by Sarah Brown that make this show another stunning visual feast for the Dunes Summer Theatre.

PHOTO|Tony V. Martin

Dunes Summer Theatre
presents
DEATHTRAP
288 Shady Oak Dr
Michigan City, IN
through June 14, 2026

WEBSITE

TICKETS

BOX OFFICE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review: She Loves Me - Dunes Arts Summer Theatre

At the Dunes, Love Conquers All!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Chicago-based Artistic Director Steve Scott has been creating a unique and highly developed string of productions, youth programs and cabarets in recent years at the Dunes Arts Summer Theatre in Michigan City. Scott, with the able leadership of Managing Director Elise Kermani, has attracted and developed talent during the summer season at the theater in the woods on Shady Oak Drive that now guarantees a level of entertainment unmatched in the region. It is all translating into higher visibility, a growing subscriber base and a long range plan that has been enhancing the nearly 75 year-old venue just in time for next season’s Diamond Anniversary.

The facility has gone through a steady transformation that is immediately apparent when you settle into the comfortable and cool theater that is now featuring the Scott-directed musical “She Loves Me” which is running on select dates through August 10. Based on the 1937 Miklos Laszio play “Parfumerie,” it is a familiar story for those romantics among us, adapted and starring James Stewart in the 1941 film “The Shop Around the Corner” and in 1998 was the basis for the hit film “You’ve Got Mail.”  

And it was in 1963 that the story of star-crossed lovers who meet through the Lonely Hearts Club and end up coworkers in Maraczek's Parfumerie became the Broadway musical “She Loves Me,” with a book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. The show was revived in 2016 and has been widely produced in recent years—a mid-sized musical that fits perfectly in the Dunes on a wonderfully functional set by longtime designer Michael Lasswell, whose investment in the quality of the Dunes stagecraft is one of the theater’s signature elements, along with stunning period costumes by Emily Chidalek and Arturo Pozos lighting design.

At the heart of the story is the budding relationship between Mr. Maraczek’s right hand, Georg Nowack (Tristan Haberland) and a new, strong-willed salesperson, Amalia Balash (Kate Turner), each yearning to meet the mysterious special friend they know only from the letters that they write to each other. We quickly learn that something is troubling Mr. Maraczek (Khyel Roberson) and with no one to turn to except the ambitious delivery boy Arpad Laszio (Jackson Mikkelsen), he looks elsewhere for the answer. Along the way, there is another on again, off again relationship between two other coworkers: the womanizer Steven Kodaly (Tommy O’Brien) and the steamy Illona Ritter (Emmie Reigel). Of course, nothing happens in the shop or gets by Ladislav Sipos (Jake Busse) who has a keen eye for the young lovers especially as the truth about another relationship emerges.

Director Scott has brought together two fine performers in Haberland and Turner. Haberland’s charming demeanor and superb vocal range is perfectly, right-sized for the Dunes stage. He is a terrific singer/actor, light on his feet with a sincerity that effortlessly alarms, then charms, Turner’s Amalia. Turner, who has matured into an amazing vocalist and actor of considerable talent, matches Haberland at every turn, glowing with innocence and displaying a magnetic stage presence. The chemistry between these two is something to see.

Mikkelsen, Reige, Busse and O’Brien each have strong featured numbers. Music Director Katelyn Leonard-White leads the talented ensemble and musicians expertly through the score to the heartwarming Christmas Eve revelation that confirms love conquers all.

PHOTO|Tony Martin

Dunes Arts Foundation
Summer Theatre
She Loves Me
288 Shady Oak Drive
Michigan City, Indiana
through August 10, 2025
(219) 879-7509

WEBSITE

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review: Misery - Dunes Arts Summer Theatre

Gripping ‘Misery’ Opens Dunes Summer Season!
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The Dunes Arts Summer Theatre opened their 74th season Friday with a chilling production of William Goldman’s “Misery,” based on Stephen King’s 1987 bestselling thriller about a well-known romance novelist who awakens from a near-fatal car crash in a blizzard to find himself in the remote Colorado home of Annie Wilkes, his self-proclaimed number one fan.

The book, and 1990 film version starring Kathy Bates and James Caan, ranks high among psychological thrillers and the nefarious Annie Wilkes is considered one of the wickedest characters ever imagined, earning Bates the Academy Award for Best Actress. Laurie Metcalf played the role in the 2015 Broadway production opposite Bruce Willis.

Veteran director John Hancock’s tightly wound show stars Janet Davies, the multi-talented Chicago entertainment television reporter and program host and Dunes veteran Kevin Lee Giese as the incapacitated writer Paul Sheldon whose dire predicament goes from bad to worse with no end in sight. Davie’s Annie crackles with intensity as she shifts effortlessly from dutiful caretaker to ruthless despot. Hancock is able to draw out the macabre comic sensibility in the text and Davies makes the most of every opportunity.

Things start to heat up when it comes to light that Sheldon has put an end to Misery Chastain (Emmie Reigel) in his ninth and final book of the series. Annie’s intentions are revealed as she spirals into a rage and demands that they bring her back for another book. Giese expertly navigates the shock and uncertainty of his situation with a desperation and fear that you can feel. As weeks turn quickly into months, it’s clear that he is a prisoner, that Annie has no plans to let him go and is taking steps along the way to prolong his agony and inflict more pain.

Dunes veteran Jim Lampl plays the inquisitive local sheriff Buster who comes around in the spring when the snow cover reveals Sheldon’s car wreck. But when Annie learns that the news of Sheldon’s disappearance has piqued the interest of the FBI, the story takes yet another dark and sinister turn.

The drama plays out on Michael Lasswell’s stunning, and amazingly versatile, set with surprises all its own. When combined with an exceptional atmospheric lighting design by Arturo Pozos, the captivating sound by Jake Tillman and music by composer Christopher Ussery, the Dunes “Misery,” running through June 15, is one of the most visually compelling and suspenseful productions in recent years.  The 2025 season continues with “Outside Mullingar” from June 27 through July 13 and the musical “She Loves Me” July 25 through August 10.

PHOTO | Tony V. Martin

Dunes Arts Summer Theatre
presents
Misery
268 Shady Oak Drive
Michigan City, Indiana
through June 15, 2025

WEBSITE

TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review: Talley's Folly - Dunes Arts Summer Theatre

Lovers Reunite in Dune’s “Talley’s Folly”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

The second production of the 2024 Dunes Arts Summer Theatre season is Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Talley’s Folly,” the second installment of Wilson’s Talley Trilogy that includes “Fifth of July” and “Talley and Son.” Released as a prequel to the critically acclaimed “Fifth of July” set in Wilson’s hometown of Lebanon, Missouri and chronicling the Talley family in 1977, the two other installments are set thirty three years earlier on the same day: July 4, 1944.

While “Talley and Son” plays out in the Talley homestead as a confrontation between generations about the future of the Talley family and is chronologically first in the trilogy, Wilson wrote and set “Talley’s Folly” in an isolated and decaying folly on the estate where Sally Talley (Amanda Tomczak), a young nurse, reunites with Matt Friedman (Rob Morris), a middle-aged Jewish accountant who returns to rekindle the romance of the previous summer and to propose marriage.

Directed at Dunes by Morgan McCabe, the two-hander unfolds over the course of ninety-seven minutes on an elaborate and impressive dockside set designed by Michael Lasswell with evocative lighting by Arturo Pozos. In the early evening, Matt awaits the arrival of Sally who has vigorously avoided him over the past year since their passionate liaison yet seeks him out. One might expect a more heartfelt reunion, but Sally’s abrupt and immediate admonishment comes as a shock to Matt. There are reasons for Sally’s behavior, we learn, as things progress. At the same time, Matt discloses the stunningly severe, inhumane treatment his family has endured as they fled Nazi oppression.

Early on, “Talley’s Folly” feels like an ill-fated love story, particularly as we discover the clash of Sally’s southern roots and Matt’s Jewish heritage. When the couple first met in the summer of 1943, the tide of the war had not yet turned so we are left to imagine the two lovers finding their emotional escape together within the fear of the time and isolation of the folly. That hopefulness, dashed by the family’s wholesale rejection of the affair, leaves only Matt’s dogged persistence to bring them back together.

Morris and Tomczak dive into these two challenging roles with gusto and there is a sense that their destiny is to escape together when all is done. Tomczak’s Sally is a strong, southern survivor whose life, shaped by fate, now offers few hopeful alternatives. In playing to the uneasy pressure and remorse to abide by her family’s wishes, Tomczak often overshadows the genuine love and affection that lies just beneath the surface and is desperate to reveal itself. Morris, whose lively character sets the tone of the piece, is effective in breaking through those emotional barriers to find common ground. And while satisfying, the production would benefit from the hint of playfulness that lovers have in such a secluded rendezvous to help elevate the humor in Wilson’s text while sustaining the moments of confrontation and drama in the piece as the two face the prospect of a challenging, post-war future together.

“Talley’s Folly” runs through July 14 at the Dunes theatre and is followed by “The Bridges of Madison County” with book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Dunes artistic director Steve Scott opening July 26. 

PHOTO|Dunes Summer Theatre
Dunes Arts Summer Theatre
presents
Talley’s Folly
Michiana Shores, Indiana
through July 14

WEBSITE
TICKETS

For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC

PicksInSix Review: Blithe Spirit - Dunes Summer Theatre

“I’ll Be Loving You…Always”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy

Is there a better way to introduce an audience to a superb regional theatre production of Noël Coward’s classic farce “Blithe Spirit” at the Dunes Summer Theatre than a hauntingly beautiful performance of Irving Berlin’s immortal love song “Always” by the enchanting spirit of the play herself? It’s one of many nuanced enhancements by director Michael Lasswell who has crafted a briskly-paced comic offering for the acclaimed summer theatre that opened its 73rd season on Friday night.

The word “crafted” is not used lightly here since in addition to directing an exuberant cast in a smart, spry and entertaining production of one of Coward’s most well-known and challenging works, Lasswell also contributed a stunning 1940s era scenic design. The creative elements of this show—Emily Chidaleck’s stylish costumes accented by Arturo Pozos’s flawless lighting design and the gentle but mystical touch of Jake Tillman’s sound design—and that exquisite performance at the top by Danielle Kerr, set the tone perfectly for all the enjoyable mayhem that follows.

The “Blithe Spirit” of Coward’s title is actually Elvira Condomine (Kerr), the long-deceased first wife of British novelist Charles Condomine (Sean Kelly) who is ‘materialized’ from the otherworld by Madame Arcati (Madeline Pell), an appealingly eccentric psychic who is invited for cocktails, dinner and a séance at the Condomine manor house in southeast London. It’s all a bit of a ruse by Charles who is working on a new project and hopes to gather research into the mixed up, mystic world in which Arcati resides. What starts out as after-dinner entertainment evolves into comic chaos as Elvira answers Arcati’s call and begins to wield her own special havoc first on Charles and then on his current wife Ruth (Danielle Bilderback) for her own ends.

While Ruth tries to rationalize the erratic actions of her husband, things start to fly about and Ruth senses the very real threat that Elvira’s spirit may be settling in to stay. So, it’s up to the spiritual prowess of Madame Arcati to bring things back to normal with a spell or two of her own.

Lasswell draws fine performances from Kelly and Bilderback who have to cope with the haunting presence of Kerr’s captivating Elivira. Pell’s brilliant comic turn as Madame Arcati is a laugh-out-loud riot. Rounding out the cast is Mary Jane Britton as the Condomine’s unwavering maid, Edith, Dean Johanson as Dr. Bradman and Stacy Nelson as Mrs. Bradman.

The Dunes Summer Theatre, the oldest continually produced company in Northwest Indiana, is under the artistic direction of Chicago-based theatre artist and director Steve Scott and managing director Elise Kermani. “Blithe Spirit plays through June 16 and the summer season continues with productions of Talley’s Folly (June 28-July 14) directed by Morgan McCabe and The Bridges of Madison County (July 26-August 11) directed by Scott – exciting and promising nights of theatre for the months ahead in Michiana Shores.

PHOTO|Dunes Summer Theatre
Dunes Arts Summer Theatre
presents
BLITHE SPIRIT
Michiana Shores, Indiana
through June 16

WEBSITE
TICKETS
For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago

ARCHIVE

PicksInSix® is a registered trademark of Roxbury Road Creative, LLC