And good actors don’t hurt
Today’s Monday Miracle actually happened yesterday when I went to see the last performance of The 5 & Dime’s production of Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts.
Now, I’d seen Next Fall previously, in New York, in its Off-Broadway incarnation, produced by Naked Angels. That production moved to Broadway–with the help of some perceptive commercial producers who recognized a good thing when they saw it. Clearly, they were not the only ones, because it was nominated for two Tonys: Best Play and Best Direction of a Play.
I’m on a mission to see what kind of theatre is being produced in and around my new home in the Jacksonville, FL area. Google led me to The 5 & Dime, among other theatres, and they were the first one with a show currently running.
I’ll be honest and say that my expectations were not high. (They weren’t especially low, either. I suppose they were non-committal.)
The 5 & Dime is a nomadic company. They don’t have a space of their own, and they mount their productions in various spaces in and around Jacksonville. At best, that says to me that they are a young company. At worst, it conjures up memories of the seediest of black box theatre off-off-off-off-broadway. (I’ve worked in some of those off-off-off. . .offs. The quality of the work can be very high. Or not. The spaces, though, are almost uniformly in a state of what we might describe as “run-down.”)
Their name. . .well, I loved Woolworth’s and the other five-and-dime stores. . .but you have to admit calling a theatre company The 5 & Dime doesn’t give it the same aura as calling it, say, the Nederlander or the Schubert or the National. A rose by any other name. . .,** however.
In addition, it didn’t appear from their marketing material that the cast is made up of Equity actors. Again, this does not mean it can’t be good. There are some very fine non-union actors.
So, I went–hoping for good theatre but prepared for the possibility of something somewhat less. I knew it wasn’t going to be bad. After all, the script is terrific. But was it going to measure up to the version I saw in New York?
How wonderful to find a little gem of a show in a great space with high production values and a very strong cast! Deserving of special mention: Antoinette D’Amico was really terrific as the mother, and Kevin Roberts and Joe Walz turned in excellent performances as Adam and Luke.
And I can’t remember her name, but the president of their Board gave what is possibly the best curtain speech before a show that I’ve ever heard.
It was a lovely afternoon at the theatre — funny and moving and thought-provoking — and I am definitely going back to see their next show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
In fact, I’m looking forward to it!
* Shakespeare again! It’s always a good day when I get to quote Shakespeare. This one’s from Hamlet, Act 2, Sc. 2.
** And again. Another Act 2, sc. 2. This time it’s Romeo & Juliet.
