Category Archives: theater

First a disclaimer. As I write this, I have taken a rather powerful decongestant. My nose and sinuses feel as if they’ve been sand blasted. My limbs feel a bit macaroni-ish (shouldn’t effect my typing), and my brain is foggy (effects about to be seen).

My plan was to continue my rave about Ilion Little Theatre’s Arsenic and Old Lace with mention of the cast members I haven’t mentioned yet. Hmm, look at that cast list. May turn into a three parter. We’ll see how the word count goes.

For those of you just tuning in, I attended Ilion Little Theatre’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace Friday, and in spite of a bad cold, I loved it. Also in spite of a bad cold, I wrote a blog post about it, but because of the bad cold, I did not say all I intended to. Did I mention I have a bad cold? Makes me a little punchy. Anyways, on with the rave.

As the two murderous old ladies, Eva Jaunzems and Sara Militello are wonderful. Both are new to Ilion Little Theatre, and Sara is new to any stage anywhere. They are funny separately and together.

Dave Dellecese as Mortimer is marvelous. The part calls for some extreme reactions, and Dave rises to the occasion without ever going too far over the top. As his sweetheart, Megan McCoy Dellecese (so cute when real life sweeties play sweeties on stage) is, well, sweet.

George Lyon as Teddy livens up the stage, charging up San Juan Hill, blowing his bugle and generally Roosevelting it up. Norm Turner and Charlene Girmonde as the beat cops help set up the action and come to the rescue at the end.

I identify with Elisa Welch’s Officer O’Hara, the frustrated playwright, when she leaves Mortimer bound and gagged while she recounts her opus. I have never physically restrained my husband to read my my blog posts, but I understand the motivation.

Jim Mills plays both the Rev. Dr. Harper and Lieutenant Rooney, so he’s in at the beginning and end. He manages to make both characters distinct and enjoyable.

Art Wilks points out in the program what a small part he has. I don’t know why he even brings it up considering his cameo as a dead husband in Clue the Musical. But Art is always welcome on the Little Theatre stage.

Another cameo type role is played by director George Malavasic, proving once again that George will do whatever it takes to get his play on the stage. He got some good laughs as a would be tenant who does not realize his own luck.

A smaller part, and very fun, is Rick Vroman in the prologue. I saw Rick’s picture with the rest of the cast in the lobby and was delighted to think he was expanding his theatrical horizons. Rick played a very small role in And Then There Were None, as a guy that doesn’t get killed. Here he is onstage for about twenty memorable seconds, in a part I believe is not in the original script.

The smallest part of all is played by Julianne Allen, proving the adage there are no small parts only petite actresses. She plays the body in the window seat, a part I had wanted to play, but alas I did not audition. In the theatre as in life, you snooze you lose.

The other two cast members, Raphael DiLorenzo and Ron Creighton, are mentioned in yesterday’s post. If you missed it, I think you can click on it from here quite easily. Now I see my word count is approaching 600, a lengthy post for me. I will reiterate: go to http://www.ilionlittletheatre.org for more information on one of my favorite places in the Mohawk Valley.

I’ve been promising a real Mohawk Valley adventure, and here it is. An authentic gem, unique to the Mohawk Valley: Ilion Little Theatre, where Steven and I went last night to attend a production of Arsenic and Old Lace.

My only regret is that this post will be published on the afternoon of closing night, so any local readers whose theatre appetite is whetted by my words may have to scramble or miss out. Then again, I know a couple of my local readers (you know who you are) are actually in the show. There may not even be any other local readers. How many readers do you suppose I have, anyways? I sometimes make these self-deprecating jokes about having few or no readers. It could be true.

Be that as it may, on to the play (hey, that rhymes).

Many people are familiar with the movie Arsenic and Old Lace starring Cary Grant, which as based on the play. I have never seen the movie from beginning to end, but I understand there are some similarities and some differences. One difference is that in the movie the guy that’s supposed to look like Boris Karloff is actually played by Boris Karloff. So the “you look like Frankenstein” jokes maybe worked better in the movie. However, Raphael DiLorenzo, who plays the part in the play, looks sufficiently threatening that the jokes are not off-base, and he is hilariously offended by the comparison. Ron Creighton, who plays the role Peter Lorre played in the movie, the Karloff character’s henchman, is also very funny. The two play off each other comically to the delight of the audience.

I had written this much on my first break at work (remember the Overtime Blues?). When I got on my second break, my cold symptoms had kicked back in, causing my brain to flee from my body to parts unknown. I thought, “I can’t mention only two members of the cast; they were all wonderful!” But I looked down the cast list and I just couldn’t do it. Oh dear.

In my defense, I’d like to mention that I felt AWFUL yesterday. I came home from work and slept for an hour an a half, got up, showered, and stoked myself with coffee, because I was DETERMINED not to miss this play. I was really glad I went, because it is laugh out loud funny, a real quality production. However, it did not get over till after 11 p.m. I got up at 3:30 a.m. to work. I’m afraid this is as much as I’m going to be able to write today.

Still, I can publish this much on closing night. At least I’ve given my beloved Ilion Little Theatre this much of a plug. And what’s to stop me from writing a continuation of this post tomorrow and mentioning every last cast member. It can’t entice anybody to see the show, but it might be worth a read. For more information on Ilion Little Theatre, visit their website at http://www.ilionlittletheatre.org. You can also like them on Facebook.