Stage

Triple Play

The District’s second festival offers something for everyone, as James MacKillop explores the charms of each musical production

Each of the three community theater companies in the District Festival is going to retain its own identity and mission, but for this year’s second edition they got serious about sharing resources. All of the action takes place at the snug Redhouse Arts Center, 201 S. West St., where host artistic director Stephen Svoboda has become a master at managing space. Each show presented in repertory — the ultra-urbane Company from Rarely Done Productions, the epic musical The Civil War from Appleseed Productions, and the whimsical A Year with Frog and Toad from the Redhouse — is staged on the same set designed by Tim Brown. At rear is a plain white raised platform, with railings and approaching steps. Projected on the white back walls are all the atmospherics we need: skyscrapers for Company, bleak landscapes for Civil War, and drawn images of changing seasons for Frog and Toad. Tightening up each production is virtuoso sound designer Anthony Vadala, who smoothly integrates the musicians from the open art gallery upstairs and cuts back on necessary miking. Stephen Sondheim’s Company, the first-ever musical about not falling in love, redefined what the form itself is about. That puts it in a class with Oklahoma! and A Chorus Line. Despite being graced with biting wit and some of the master’s best numbers, this welcome staging by Rarely Done is the first local one in more than 25 years. Sondheim and collaborator George Furth tinkered frequently with the script after the 1970 opening. This is the version in which the flight attendant Andy (Liam Fitzpatrick) is a guy, changing some of the dynamics about why the protagonist Bobby (Michael Riecke) can’t seem to find the right girl.
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