Star City Blog / Theatre & Film

Grassroots Theatre The Colonel Mustard Presents 'Dr. Quinn: the Musical!' August 7th

By Jessica Heerten
Photos Courtesy of Lindsay Kerns

Expect unexpected, and perhaps unnecessary, violence.  Expect banjo.  Expect fake blood.  Most of all, expect spectacle, because the Colonel Mustard has scheduled its sixth biannual performance for August 7th.
   
Dr. Quinn: the Musical! is the brainchild of Phillip Malcom and Lindsay Kerns, birthed from a series of texts and three weeks of late-night writing at the Hi-Way Diner in Lincoln.

The musical spoofs the 90s hit show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” about a liberal doctor who leaves Boston in 1867 to travel west.  As in past musicals and plays by the creative collective, Kerns and Malcom largely draw on pop culture references for song and character inspiration.

'Hairspray' Auditions at the Lincoln Community Playhouse August 4-5

Lincoln Community Playhouse will have auditions for HAIRSPRAY on August 4 and 5 with callbacks on August 6 at the Playhouse. Auditions are one-hour slots beginning at 6:00 pm. Roles are available for 11 women and 13 men (ages 15 and up). There are 9 roles written for African-American actors, including one 12 year-old girl.
 
For auditions, prepare 16 bars of an upbeat song from a Broadway musical (not HAIRSPRAY). Bring sheet music in your key. An accompanist and cd player will be provided.

Be prepared to dance.  Please bring a non-returnable photo and be prepared to list ALL conflicts from August 6 through October 10. You may sign up for an audition time online at www.lincolnplayhouse.com or by calling 489-7529.

Review of The Nebraska Repertory Theatre's 'Act a Lady'

By Ladd Wendelin

She blew into the small Midwestern town on a forceful breeze, as the steam from the locomotive caught her purple velvet cape. Fresh from the Continent, she appeared a starry-eyed dreamer with a copy of a dusty old manuscript in hand – a seldom-performed melodrama of the French Revolution – a tale of love, murder, and gender confusion.

No one knew who she was, or what she was doing in town, but one thing was certain: She ain’t from around these here parts!

So begins Act A Lady, the third helping of the theatrical smorgasbord offered by the Nebraska Repertory Theatre for its current summer season, which opened Wednesday evening to a generously packed house. With a script by Jordan Harrison, Act A Lady begins with the aforementioned arrival of Zina (Virginia Smith), a peacockish theatrical virtuoso who’s hired by the local Elks Club to stage a play as a fundraiser for the children of the town in time for Christmas.

Comedian Lisa Lampanelli in Concert at the Pershing September 24th

Lisa Lampanelli, Comedy's Lovable Queen of Mean, will be making a stop in Lincoln at the Pershing Center Friday, September 24th at 8 p.m.

Heralded as "more than a standup -- a standout,” by comedy legend Jim Carrey, Lampanelli is a cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker, and a vial of estrogen. She even won accolades from The King of All Media, Howard Stern, who called her "a true original and a brilliant comedy mind who'll steal the show every time."

Nebraska Wesleyan Alums Return to Direct Season Opener 'The Last Five Years'

The last time Alan Brincks and Faith Fossett were on Nebraska Wesleyan University’s theatre stage, he was proposing to his fellow theatre guru.

Now the 2009 alums have returned to that stage and have gone from being stars of the show to the orchestrators behind the scenes as they direct Nebraska Wesleyan’s first production of the season, The Last Five Years.

The Last Five Years opens Thursday, July 29 and continues through Saturday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m with a 2 p.m. matinee show on Sunday, August 1. All shows will be held in Miller Theatre, located at 51st Street and Huntington Ave.

Review of The Nebraska Repertory Theatre's 'Mauritius'

By Ladd Wendelin

While a severe thunderstorm raged outside the walls of the Temple Building Wednesday evening, a storm of a different sort furiously pounded the boards on the Howell Theatre stage. Only the cause of this particular tempest wasn’t positively and negatively charged ions in the upper atmosphere, but stamps. And not just any old canceled postage stamps at that!

Written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck, whose Ominium Gatherum was staged by the Nebraska Repertory in 2006, Mauritius is the second show of the current Rep season with performances on July 15th, 24-25th, 29-30th before ending its run August 7th at the Howell Theatre on the UNL Campus.

Review of Pinewood Bowl's 'White Christmas'

By Ladd Wendelin

“Look at that audience out there,” Sam Hartley says jokingly as Phil Davis during the opening scene of White Christmas. “Looks like they’ve been through a war!”

“They have been through a war,” retorts Robert Wamsley as Phil’s comedic sidekick and singing partner Bob Wallace.

The sad, bittersweet irony of this statement wasn’t lost on the several hundred patrons in attendance of the Thursday opening night of White Christmas, Pinewood Bowl’s annual summer offering. In the midst of two simultaneous wars, an inexhaustible recession, and a “leak” in the Gulf, it’s hard to imagine that a 1954 holiday classic turned Broadway musical in 2004 would have much to say to audiences in 2010 - and in July no less!

But perhaps this is why shows like White Christmas exist in abundance – to help us laugh, forget, and remember a simpler time - at least for a little while.

Review of The Nebraska Repertory Theatre's 'Humble Boy'

By Sarah F. Sullivan

Humble Boy opened the Nebraska Repertory Theatre 2010 season on a high note Wednesday night, upholding NRT’s standard of providing unique and well-crafted theatre to Lincoln.

Aspiring theoretical astrophysicist Felix Humble (Ryan Kathman) returns home to the Cotswalds following the death of his father, only to discover that his overwhelmingly self-centered mother, Flora (Virginia Smith), has disposed of all of her husbands belongings. This includes the hive full of bees he cared for, which is too much for the neurotic Felix to handle.

The action, coupled with Felix’s inability to give the eulogy at his father’s funeral, reignites a bitter hostility between the mother and son which had been buried by distance and time. Despite previous plans and upon the urging of the kind gardener, Jim, Felix decides to stay home for the rest of the summer, much to his mother’s dismay.

Nebraska Repertory Theatre Announces 2010 Season

The Nebraska Repertory Theatre, the professional theatre at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, presents three plays, Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones, Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, and Act a Lady by Jordan Harrison, in rotating repertory and two one-night-only performances as part of its Destinations series.

Individual tickets for performances are $20, $18 faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $10 students with ID. Season Passes are $50, $45 faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $30 students and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) members. Tickets and passes are available at www.unl.edu/rep or from the Lied Center Ticket Office, 301 N. 12 Monday through Friday 11 AM to 5:30 PM and one hour prior to the performance in the Temple Theatres Lobby, or by telephone at 472-4747 or 800-432-3231. Reservations for performances are strongly recommended.

New Play to be Staged at The 815 Gallery

inferno terra firma, an original play written by Lincoln-based playwright Robert Stewart, will be performed at The 815 art gallery (815 O St.) Friday, July 23rd and Saturday, July 24th with performances at 8 p.m. both nights.

Directed by Ladd Wendelin and featuring live music and sounds by Lincoln musicians Seeded Plain, the cast includes Noelle Bohaty, Joshua Miller and Matthew Gee as a group of interplanetary explorers who become unexpectedly stranded on an uninhabited planet.