BY SETH KUBERSKY
I hope we can still support the pandemic’s artistic silver lining: making space for original work and experimental formats SCREENGRAB FROM ‘LIZ ESTRADA’ | BY SETH KUBERSKY
Daily character parades and
nighttime spectaculars are returning to Orlando’s theme parks; Broadway’s theaters are preparing to reopen; and the ninth Fast & Furious film had the biggest box office debut of any movie since 2019’s Rise of Skywalker. Everywhere you look, there are signs of a post-pandemic rebound for the entertainment industry. But amid the resurgence of big-budget productions based on established intellectual properties, I hope we can still support the one artistic silver lining of the pandemic and continue making space for original work and experimental formats. Fortunately, last weekend, in between the fireworks and flying cars, I managed to find several signs that the COVID-era creative spirit is carrying on. First up was the welcome return of Winter Park
Playhouse’s Festival of New Musicals,
which featured four days of staged readings of the first act of six brand-new works, June 24-27. Better yet, many of the shows’ authors — who hail from across the country — were able to attend the readings and receive valuable audience feedback. I attended two performances on opening night, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of these works-in-progress someday follow previous Festival participants onto the Playhouse’s mainstage season. What Have They Done With Lolana Lamour?, written by Bryan Leys and Mary
Feinsinger, finds a failed scream queen turned Hollywood realtor (Laurel Hatfield) mixed up in a madcap mishegas with a cross-dressing personal assistant (David A. McElroy) and an ethnically ambiguous maid (Holli Trisler) to a reclusive diva. The wacky plot — which involves a clumsy cat burglar (Ellie Roddy), a pair of New Joisey wiseguys (Chase Williams, Dustin Cunningham) and one corpsicle — is part Weekend at Bernie’s, part Clue and completely absurd; yet the swinging
midcentury pop-pastiche songs help this credulity-straining farce feel comfortingly familiar. “We’ve worked on this for about five years, which is like no time at all for a musical — that’s like baby time,” Leys revealed during the post-premiere talkback. “I knew this guy sold real estate in L.A. and he said it’s mostly older actresses who are out there selling real estate, so I thought that might be interesting to write about. And I read this book about Lana Turner by this guy named Taylor Pero. … I got fascinated with him, I thought there’s a guy you could really write a show about.” “I’d like to get over to my typewriter and start fixing things,” Leys said after the first performance, which he admitted to watching “mostly with my eyes shut” so he could focus on the voices. “I just have to wait, because I know these guys are going to get more laughs out if it. So if I changed anything right now, it would be premature, but eventually I’ll go through it to get rid of the clunkers.” Also part of the Festival of New Musicals, The Golden Door, by Michelle Van Doeren, Andrew Swensen and Scott Anderson, follows a diverse crew of turn-of-the-century immigrants (Laurel Hatfield, Johnathan Iverson, Wesley Evan Slade, Leigh Green, Chase Williams) on their transatlantic voyage to Ellis Island. A modern-day framing story involving a bullied Arab-American girl (Anastasia Remoundos) feels inessential, and some of the self-aware humor seems out of place in this otherwise sincere story. But the score’s fusion of Tin Pan Alley traditions and contemporary operetta often soars, especially when sung by Cesar De La Rosa as Jeremiah, the ship’s social conscience, and Caila Carter as his balletobsessed love interest. The show’s origins lie in an educational project that Van Doeren conceived of 20 years ago, for a narrative play represent-
ing several different cultures. Her husband Swensen recruited Anderson, his childhood friend who is an Emmy-winning “rock star,” and told him “We’ve got this idea, and we think it will take six months.” That was seven years ago. “It started off as this relatively modest idea, and we started digging deeper into it,” explains Swensen. Key to the process was the input of Lamont Walker, a student at Pittsburgh’s Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University, where the trio all teach. “Lamont was really like the inhabiting spirits in Jeremiah, and it’s a powerful spirit,” praises Swensen, calling Walker a name to remember. Finally, California-based director Miles Berman — whom Orlando audiences may remember from his work with my Empty Spaces Theater Co. — is currently following up his 2020 online adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with the also-online Liz Estrada (through July 2, beyondthestage.net). Advertised as an “interactive burlesque rally,” as a theater major I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me a few minutes to figure out Liz Estrada is actually Euripides’ Lysistrata updated for the social media age, with a pacifist activist (Devyn Glenn) and her sisters-in-arms organizing a sex strike against the meninist Magistrate (John Gormley) and his chauvinist minions. Steven Vlasak’s script hews close to the classic plot — so it remains heteronormative and oblivious to onanism — but his rhyming verse cleverly modernizes the ancient poetry with contemporary references. Most intriguingly, the actors interact with the audience in real time via text chat messages that are integrated onscreen to make a passive experience participatory (Pro tip: StreamYard easily outdoes Zoom for live performances.) Even if you’re burnt out on online theater, Liz Estrada shows there’s life in YouTube yet. skubersky@orlandoweekly.com orlandoweekly.com
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JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2021 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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