Syracuse Talent Company, Inc.

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TheTalent Company, a Syracuse-based
professional theatre company, prides itself with presenting top quality shows at affordable prices. It has presented almost 200 productions at numerous venues including The Civic Center, Landmark Theatre, Springside Inn, Three Rivers Inn, and NewTimes Empire Theatre, and has toured numerous dinner theatre shows to major hotels and restaurants throughout central and northern New York. Celebrating 25 years in 2005, The Talent Company has presented the CNY premieres of such Broadway hits as A Chorus Line, Grease, Nunsense, Chicago, Footloose, The Full Monty,  and Copacabana, just to name a few. For the past 13 years, it has produced at least three Broadway musicals a season at the NewTimes Empire Theatre located in the Art & Home Centre at the N.Y.S. Fairgrounds, as well as several shows at The Turning Stone Casino Resort.


Playing July 3 - August 3

Disney's
High School Musical

(Pics)


THE SALT AWARDS

      The SALT (Syracuse Area Live Theatre) Awards were established in 2003 by Art Zimmer, publisher of The Syracuse New Times, to “bestow a high level of recognition and appreciation upon persons involved in Syracuse Area Live Theatre, thus creating a wider appreciation and awareness of live theatre among the general public.” Syracuse’s answer to Broadway’s Tony Awards was first presented on the evening of May 3, 2004, to a SRO audience. It was a very magical night as so many in the theatre community came together under one roof. This spirit and support has continued to be evident during the subsequent ceremonies.

     To have been nominated by The SALT Academy is truly special, and congratulations go out to all the nominees and winners of the past four years.

     The Talent Company was honored at the inaugural SALT Awards to have two of its musicals, Copacabana and West Side Story, among the five shows nominated by the SALT Academy for Best Musical of the Year, and was very proud of its actors and staff who received seven SALT nominations. In addition, a Lifetime Achievement nomination went to Christine Lightcap, Talent Company founder and executive producer. We are very pleased that Copacabana won the 2003 SALT Award for Best Musical of the Year and Christine Lightcap was further honored with the very special Lifetime Achievement Award.

     At the second SALT Awards, held on the evening of May 9, 2005, The Talent Company was once again honored when its production of Funny Girl was nominated by the SALT Academy for Best Musical of the Year, No, No, Nanette was nominated by the Academy for Best Musical of the Summer Season, and its productions of Pageant and Funny Girl were nominated for the People’s Choice Show of the Year. In addition, 14 of Talent Company’s actors and staff received individual nominations. Once again, we are very pleased and proud that Funny Girl won the 2004 SALT Award for Best Musical of the Year, and cast and staff took home SALT Awards for Actress of the Year, Actor of the Year, Music Director of the Year, Non-Performer of the Year, and People’s Choice Actress of the Year. Again, congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

     At the third SALT Awards, three Talent Company productions received multiple nominations with A Chorus Line and The Full Monty garnering Best Musical of the Year nods and Noises Off garnering Best Play of the Year and Best Production of the Summer Season. Additionally, all three shows were nominated for People’s Choice Best Production of the Year honors. It was most exciting for The Talent Company as The Full Monty won Best Musical of the Year and Noises Off won both Best Play of the Year and Best Production of the Summer Season. Furthermore thirty-three Talent Company actors and staff received individual recognition…..with nine named winners..

     At the last SALT Awards in April, Talent Company’s Hello, Dolly! received multiple nominations including Best Musical of the Year and People’s Choice Best Musical of the Year. Talent Company founder and executive producer Christine Lightcap won the SALT Award for Best Actress of the Year in a Musical for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! and SALT Awards also went to Hello, Dolly for Director of the Year (Musical), and in a newly added category, Supporting Actress of the Year (Musical) and Supporting Actor of the Year (Musical). Congratulations to all the talented nominees and winners.

                                 

 
Copacabana
















 

 

Fine cast energizes 'Footloose'

Sunday, November 11, 2007

By Neil Novelli

Contributing writer The Post Standard

 There are a few basic story patterns so humanly satisfying that they've been repeated in everything from Greek and Shakespearean theater to sitcoms. The musical "Footloose," which opened Friday in a sparkling, heart-warming production by the Talent Co., follows a popular pattern that goes like this: The first phase shows us a locked-in culture that squashes things like freedom, love and - in the case of "Footloose" - even dancing. In the second phase, the repressed folk break loose, thumb their noses at authority and follow their instincts. (Think 1960s. Think Berlin Wall.) In the final phase, all parts of the culture come together in harmony, transformed by the forces of freedom. Happy ending!

"Footloose" is immensely popular, but its script is simplistic. It depends heavily on performers to supply verve, energy and a feeling of reality.

Happily, all these are jubilantly provided by a wonderful cast, with director/choreographer Bob Durkin at the helm. Mark Bell Jr. does commanding work in the lead role of Ren, the Chicago kid who winds up in an Oklahoma town where dancing is outlawed. Katherine Bilofsky matches him as Ariel, the preacher's rebellious teenage daughter who - wearing what Ren calls her "bad-ass red cowboy boots" - is trying to find out if she has an inner tramp. Bell and Bilofsky create a strong center for the action, and their duet, "Almost Paradise," is one of the high points of the show.

Powerful acting comes from Kate Huddleston (Ren's mom), David Walker (the Coach), Alex Allport (low-life Chuck who has Ariel in his sights), and the show's producer, Christine Lightcap (the roller-skating boss of a hamburger joint).

David Baker finds warmth and depth in the role of Rev. Moore, the naysaying preacher; and Tamaralee Shutt gives a strong sense of realism to Moore's long-suffering wife. Her "Can You Find It in Your Heart" captures the show's main themes.

Shawn Forster brings out all the robust comedy in the role of Ren's rough-cut pal Willard.

Kara Tripoli (Rusty), Lynne Walker (Urleen) and Jodie Baum (Wendi Jo) provide a lot of the show's exuberance, commenting rowdily on the action like a teen Greek chorus. Tripoli's "Let's Hear It for the Boy" is the center of a spirited production number.

And there are big, exciting numbers in abundance, including the opening "Footloose" and Ariel's "Holding Out for a Hero."

The sets (Durkin and Stephen Beebe) are attractive, functional and change with breath-taking speed.

The band, under the musical direction of Anna Lysiuk and Tom Witkowski, launches "Footloose" with the primal rock rhythm of "shave-and-a-haircut" and keeps driving throughout.

Footloose  Nov. 21, 2007

James MacKillop Syracuse New Times

Of all the new stage musicals from the last ten years, Footloose has the best legs.  In more than one way. Mel Brooks’ The Producers had a bigger opening, but we’ve probably seen the last of it. Footloose, on the other hand, enjoys growing popularity with regional and college companies, is sustaining a huge revival in London right now, and will soon be a major motion picture (again). The central theme of rock ‘n roll joy vs. Puritan gloom never wears out. More important, though, for all its contemporary hipness, Footloose employs all the strengths of the thought-to-be-dead golden age musical.

Reduced to its fundamentals, the story line could have been borrowed from ancient myth or at least the Arthurian legends. A handsome youth who loves music, Ren (Mark Bell, Jr.), comes to a repressive small town where be meets beautiful princess, Ariel (Katherine Bilofsky), and drives away a bully, Chuck (Alex Allport), to win her. Ren is befriended by a clumsy and reliably comic sidekick, Willard (Shawn Forster). In a subplot, Willard wants to make time with a cute chick, Rusty (Kara Tripoli). And Rusty is part of trio singers, along with Urleen (Lynne Walker) and Wendy Jo (Jodie Baum), a small-town white version of the Supremes. Meanwhile, Ren must confront Ariel’s music and dance-hating father, Rev. Shaw Moore (David Baker), without losing the object of his affection. To do this he must lose at a town council meeting, but still stating a case that prompts the Reverend’s later change of heart. Everybody wins in the end.

In the musical, as in the 1984 film upon which it was expanded, author Dean Pitchford hedges his bets so everyone can be in the finale.  Rev. Moore is not at all a harsh spokesman for the Christian Right, whose real crusade against the devil’s music peaked around 1958. Instead, he’s only thinking of public safety, after dance-loving youths smashed their car around a tree following a night of boozing and rocking some years back. This means that both of Ariel’s parents are seen as sympathetic. Thus the thematic center of the show comes in the solo from Vi Moore (Tamaralee Shutt) “Can’t You Find It in Your Heart?” We know the Reverend is not a villain from his first act “Heaven Help Me” and two numbers toward the end of the second act, the talking blues “I Confess” and the reprise of “Can’t You Find It in Your Heart?” Early reports from the forthcoming film of the musical are that mother the Reverend and Vi will be diminished in it.

Despite the continuing interest in the 1984 film, which made stars of Kevin Bacon as Ren and Sarah Jessica Parker as Rusty, the story is not what drives the musical. Borrowed from the film are a handful of hit songs, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” sung by Rusty and company. More important are new songs by Tom Snow, augmented by other from people like Eric Carman, Sammy Hager, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman. David Pitchford wrote the original film and all the lyrics, old and new, as well as putting together the final package. The results, a mix of genres and moods, with love songs and novelty songs leading to big production numbers would have pleased Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe in their respective heydays, at least structurally.

The golden age model also calls for a large caste with second leads and supporting players sharing some of the heavy lifting. Talent Company Executive Producer Christine Lightcap performed some of her biggest contributions before rehearsal began.  Famed for her ability to find the right person for the right role, as well as her powers of persuasion, she has assembled what could be called (with a small stretch) an all-star cast, not only lining up strong people for all the leads put getting the leads from other companies’ shows to take walk-ons, like David Walker and Alan Stillman. Lightcap herself appears in a series of small parts, as a choir member and a country singer, but brings down thunderous laughter in one small speaking part as Betty Blast, the burger palace owner, on rollerskates.

Relative newcomer Mark Bell, Jr, nominated for a SALT award last year, comes tailor-made for Ren. Light-footed and athletic, like the young Kevin Bacon, he not only can dance but can leap like a gymnast or tumbler.  With his open face that suggests innocence and a rather slight build, Bell’s the perfect hero send against a bully.  Further, he can approach authority without threatening it. Better yet, he retains a masculine allure while mocking himself in the atrocious cow-patterned uniform as the burger palace. His two big solos, the first act “I Can’t Stand Still” and the second act “Dancing Is Not A Crime,” reveal considerable vocal powers.

The reverend’s daughter might be a princess, but she had begun her rebellion before Ren arrives. Free-spirited Ariel (the name is from Shakespeare’s The Tempest) favors “kick-ass” red cowboy boots that are made for dancing instead of walking. Katherine Bilofsky brings an unusual mix of youthful vitality and mature experience to role. Ten years ago when she was actually in high school, Bilofsky was playing heavy dramatic leads for Syracuse Civic Theatre, women twice her age. Now that she’s in her mid-twenties she’s become more convincing as a high schooler. Her voice is as wonderful as ever, but her body is leaner and tighter, with a washboard tummy that’s often on display.

The comic second leads, Shawn Forster and Kara Tripoli steal scenes, as they’re supposed to. All the parents are rounded characters who can sing, starting with Ren’s mother Ethel (Kate Huddleston). David Baker, one of the area’s top band singers, makes the Reverend human while retaining his straight edge integrity. As the Reverend’s wife Vi, Tamaralee Shutt brings a lovely lyricism to her important solo, “Can; You Find It in Your Heart?” The one comic adult, Principal Harry Clark (Dane Pulver), gets his laughs on cue.

News York-based director/choreographer Bob Durkin has an excellent sense of blocking and staging, bringing out the thunder in big production numbers like Ariel and Rusty’s “Holding Out for a Hero.” The four musicians, led by Tom Witkowski and Anna Lysiuk deliver supportive vibrancy without overpowering the leads. Stephen Beebe’s mobile sets allow a church to quickly turn into a courtroom. Jeanette Reyner’s many costumes help shape moods in every scene. Cindy Shippers’ lighting creates intimacy in open spaces.

Footloose still has lots of legs, and a lot of those legs are dancin’.

'Footloose' production is pure gold

Wednesday, November 28, 2007, Syracuse Post Standard

JOAN E. VADEBONCOEUR

ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

"Footloose" bursts on the theater scene with a high energy and close to dazzling dance, which signals that director-choreographer Bob Durkin intends to deliver terrific entertainment. And he does.

Based on the hit movie, the musical unfolds as the story of repression, boredom, love and forgiveness, all told with a mixture of abandon, humor and often downright glee by the Talent Co. cast.

The opening dance finds teenage Ren savoring the night life of Chicago, but quickly switches to what he considers the sleepy hick town of rural Bomont. Yet, beneath the surface, Bomont simmers with rebellion. The town's popular minister, the Rev. Shaw Moore, has successfully clamped down to prohibit dancing, along with alcohol and drugs, following a post-party crash that took the lives of four teens, including his son. The law also has forced his daughter, Ariel, to sneak around with her motorcycle-driving boyfriend. More importantly, it has alienated her from her father. Ren's arrival may be her entry into a new, exciting world and a chance to share her artistic ambitions.

The restrictive ordinance has cast a spell over all of the residents, be it Ariel's mother, Vi, who has lost touch with her hardened husband, or Willard, a burly guy who speaks in monosyllables if at all and responds violently to any minimum threat. As fans of the film know, the story will end with love triumphing as life moves on.

Durkin could not have better leads in Mark Bell Jr. as Ren and Katherine Bilofsky as Ariel. Both sing and dance extremely well. Their duet "Almost Paradise" is a musical standout. The scene stealer is Shawn Forster's Willard, a bumpkin who stops the show when he learns to dance in the second act. Impressive, too, are David Baker's Rev. Moore, although he could dig deeper emotionally in the latter act, and Tamaralee Shutt, boasting a mature voice and empathy personified as his wife. Another solid comedy turn comes from Kara Tripoli as the gabby Rusty, who becomes Willard's girlfriend.

Durkin's work for the Talent Co. has never been less sterling. This one is pure gold.

Feb.22-March 22

Fly to Las Vegas with The Little Sisters of Hoboken. You don't need a plane ticket - just a ticket to see The Talent Company's great production of "NUNSENSATIONS! The Nunsense Vegas Revue."

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