Akron and Kent - Theater Season - February 2011

Winter time is no less entertaining than summer when it comes to theater and concerts in the Akron area. Sometimes they cost a bit more since the venues are inside rather than in the great outdoors, but trust me, there are no end to the options to keep me running hither and yon over the snow covered roads.

Sixth floor theater at Greystone - new
home to the Actor's Summit Theater

Last week I took in my first play at the new home of the Actor’s Summit Theater on the sixth floor of Greystone in downtown Akron. Friends and I went for a ride in “Becky’s New Car”. This new play, commissioned just two years ago, takes place in Seattle where Becky lives and works for a local auto dealer. Although happily married, Becky accidentally becomes entangled with a recently widowed, well-to-do gentleman who gets the mistaken impression that Becky is also widowed. The confusion goes from there and Becky takes us on a sometimes amusing, but still thought-provoking journey as she finds her way through this dilemma, at times with a little help from the audience. Telling you more would be giving away the plotline and frankly I think you should see this yourself.

As always, Actor’s Summit puts on a nice show and the new location adds a touch of ambiance to the performance compared to their last location.  

After our matinee performance on Sunday, dinner was served in the third floor Garden Room. I’m used to eating lunch here on Tuesdays, so having an opportunity to try out their prix fixe menu for dinner was too good to pass up. For $25 (all inclusive, except alcohol) we had our choice of four entrées. Between the six of us we tried them all and declared all main courses delicious. Although the vegetable sides seemed under seasoned and most likely directly from a can, the rest of the meals were quite good.

GREASE is the Word!

SLIDING ON OVER TO KENT STATE THEATER

Wednesday evening completed my third in a ticket series for the season at Kent State Theater with a performance of Grease. The Kent State Theater department does a terrific job and this was no exception.  The students were energetic and most carried off the singing and dancing terrifically.  My toes tapped along to songs like "Greased Lightning", "Summer Love" and "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and I could hardly keep my hands still during the rendition of "We GoTogether" when they started with Ramala Ding Dong, Boogity Boogity, Boogity.  What fun!

Hand jive baby!

Although the live band was a bit loud and at times we had difficulties hearing the lead singers over the music, in general it was a very delightful performance.  Only having ever seen Grease in its big screen version, the stage production was an adjustment.  With limited scenery and no fancy gimmicks like car races in the waterways, the stage crew still did very well and after a while I stopped drawing comparisons to the movie version. 

I'm already looking forward to seeing some of these kids in the summer productions out at Porthouse.