New Haven, CT

New Haven Advocate Article - February 25, 2005

New Haven Register - March 3, 2005

Los Angeles, CA

L.A. Times - Jan. 14, 2005

Hollywood Reporter - Jan. 14,2005

Daily News - Jan. 14, 2005

Daily Variety - Jan. 13, 2005

Cleveland, OH

Article on Michael McElroy - Nov. 27, 2004

Akron Beacon Journal - Nov. 25, 2004

Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia Inquirer- November 26, 2004

Philadelphia City Paper

Boston, MA

Metro West Daily - Dec. 19, 2004

Boston Herald - Nov. 19, 2004

Boston Globe- Nov. 18, 2004

Boston Herald - Nov. 11, 2004

 

Green Bay, WI

Green Bay Press-Gazette - March 17, 2005

Green Bay Press-Gazette - November 11, 2004

Eagle Herald - November 3, 2004 (interview article)

Tokyo, Japan

Daily Yomiuri - October 7, 2004 (article)

Daily Yomiuri - October 7, 2004 (review)

Japan Times - October 6, 2004

 

Houston

Houston Chronicle- July 14, 2004

Houston Chronicle- July 9, 2004

Dallas

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - July 22, 2004

Dallas Morning Star - July 21, 2004

San Francisco

Morgan Hill Times - July 2, 2004

The Mercury News - June 15, 2004

San Francisco Chronicle - June 16, 2004

Contra Costa Times - June 16, 2004

 

 

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New Haven Advocate

The tour of the Huck Finn musical is spoken, signed and much more; you cant mistake A Comedy of Errors at the Yale Rep; Animal Farm takes the breath away, literally, in Branford.

by Christopher Arnott
February 24, 2005

At Ramones concerts in the late 1970s, the band would play nonstop at top decibels for 45 minutes. Dee Dee Ramone's screeches of "1-2-3-4!" would kick off a new rapid-fire punk tune as the feedback from the last one was still ringing.

Then, near the end of the set, the Ramones would unleash a long pause during their cover of the Trashmen's "Surfing Bird." The wall of silence would hit you like a ton of bricks. Your head imploded. You noticed your ears like never before.

Big River has a moment like that.

In a sense, it has several. This transmuted musical, now at the Shubert on College Street in New Haven, comes at you so creatively and confidently that you feel exhiliratingly enlightened, thoroughly entertained. Yes, it's undeniably noble and touching and "good for you," but it's also staggeringly impressive and a hell of a lot of fun.

This Big River is that much-talked-about, much-signed-about Tony-winning show which mingles deaf and hearing actors in a revival of a straightforward musical based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . But the see-me/hear-me dichotomy is just one of the many soul-stirring challenges this show faces and overcomes. Big River marries small-theater wiles and Broadway resources. It revives a widely praised musical from 1985, replacing its original splashy stage design with a simple set of screens and platforms. It subdues the score, making it homespun and human, not bombastic.

As if it didn't haven't enough to bother with, this mesmerizing musical takes chances when it doesn't even have to. It sets out to solve a theater problem--how to translate a full-length musical into a different sort of performance language. Then, having demonstrated in its first few scenes how splendidly that "problem" can be solved, this big-deal Big River proceeds to show you many other ways it can be tackled. You get speaking actors providing voice-overs for deaf actors' physicalizings. You get a pair of actors, identically dressed, playing the same role at the same time. You get deaf jokes drawn straight from the plot. You get lot of sight gags, but also some inspired sound gags.

Big River 's original script and score do not just hold up well--they're improved by this eclectic staging. William Hauptman's script is true to Twain's sharp-tongued satire, pubescent adventurousness and social consciousness. Country legend Roger ("Dang Me") Miller's songs prove infinitely adaptable for this wide-ranging cast, who bend the tunes into folk-meek, gospel-grand or pop-smart.

Connecticut is better prepared than most regions for a show like this. Our state has been home to the National Theatre of the Deaf for nearly 40 years, so the concept of adapting plays for a combination of American Sign Language and spoken dialogue is nothing new. And Connecticut is where Twain's alter ego, Samuel Clemens, lived from 1870-91 and wrote Huckleberry Finn ; Clemens' Hartford home is now a museum.

But even Connecticut, which has hosted many a Twain musical ( Tom Sawyer 's pre-Broadway try-out at the Shubert, a megaflop Russian-rooted Twain pageant in Hartford, one-third of The Apple Tree at the Goodspeed), can't be fully prepared for the jaw-dropping wonders of Big River .

I caught the Big River tour in November, when it stopped at Boston's Wang Center. As it happened, I saw the understudy, Adam Monley, go on in the central role of Mark Twain; the same actor also does the spoken voice for Huck (who's physically embodied by the appropriately dazed and wild-haired Tyrone Giordano). Monley has now permanently taken over the Twain/Huck parts and performs them at the Shubert this week.

Monley's a youthful, energetic Twain. He's wry and twinkle-eyed in the classic mold set by Hal Holbrook and other Twain impersonators. But he's also spry and wiry--jumping around, even playing along with the band on guitar, banjo, harmonica, ukulele--"and I'm still working on the mandolin," he said in a phone interview last week. Another skill Monley picked up expressly for this show? Sign language.

"I was one of only three or four actors who started with this tour," he said. "Everyone else had been in the show on Broadway or in California," where the production began at Deaf West Theatre in Northern Hollywood. "It was daunting at first, but the deaf actors really helped us. The reception has been wonderful--from the deaf communities, from everyone. I've never been so proud to be part of a show."

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'Big River's a high-water mark for Shubert

By E. Kyle Minor
March 3, 2005

Mark Twain's classic novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is perhaps most appreciated for its simple, unpretentious truth. Deaf West's touring production of "Big River, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, is equally unaffected in its storytelling and just as refreshing.

"Big River," which opened Tuesday and continues through Sunday at the Shubert Theater, is special in many ways - all happily so. It's most distinctive aspect is that the entire musical is communicated in both spoken (and sung) words and American Sign Language, creating a unique eloquence rarely witnessed by musical theater audiences.

Ray Klausen's fanciful scenic design, far from realistic, is another delight. Finally, Calhoun's seamless weaving of words, sign language, music and movement make Twain's social satire and compassion a genuine example of prose in motion.

The show, which initially ran on Broadway in 1985 for a 1,005-performance run as a strictly spoken-sung performance, is the handiwork of composer-lyricist Roger Miller and bookwriter William Hauptman.

Miller's score is authentic in voice, period and style to the characters, time and setting of Twain's novel. The music is composed mostly in the traditional - some call it "roots" - acoustic style of rural, 19th-century America (there are three strong gospel songs as well), all performed exquisitely by musical director-pianist Steven Landau and his six-person band.

Unless you are a fan of the relatively obscure Eudora Welty-inspired musical, "The Robber Bridegroom," you've not heard such music from the Broadway stage. The music perfectly frames the story of runaways Huck and his slave companion Jim in the novel's context, as does Klausen's set, comprised entirely of larger-than-life pages and illustrations from an early edition of the book, hanging over and popping out of a multi-level stage.

Hauptman's book includes all the memorable scenes of the source material as Huck and Jim flow in and out of trouble as they roll down the Mississippi. Such colorful and menacing characters as Huck's Pap, Miss Watson, Duke and King keep Huck and Jim on the run, each seeking his own, different freedom.

The performers, who all sign their performances regardless of whether they are deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing, all capture the vernacular of the book and look their parts in David R. Zyla's period-perfect costumes.

Garrett Matthew Zuercher is an engaging, puckish Huck Finn, whose mute performance transcends mere articulacy. He is superbly complemented by Adam Monley, who doubles the voice of Huck Finn and narrator Mark Twain. As if this dual responsibility isn't enough to keep Monley's hands busy, he also plays guitar, banjo, harmonica and mandolin.

Jerold E. Solomon is an equally expressive Jim, especially when his rich baritone cuts loose on "Muddy Water" with Huck and in his rousing eleven o'clock solo, "Free at Last." Together, Solomon and Zuercher create a genuine spark of friendship.

Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine are as deliciously villainous a pair as you could hope to find in a musical comedy. Together they play Pap (Devine is the "voice" part) and, through Calhoun's spiffy staging, the actors mirror each other so impeccably that Chico and Groucho Marx would applaud from their graves. As King (Devine) and Duke (Kotsur - with James Judy lending his rich voice), they portray the sort of nefarious charlatans that audiences love to hiss.

The rest of the ensemble is outstanding, including Benjamin Schrader's Tom Sawyer, Cathy Newman's Widow Douglas, Phyllis Frelich's Miss Watson, Ryan Schlecht's Young Fool, Gwen Stewart's Alice, Christina Dunams' Alice's Daughter and Melissa Van Der Schyff's Mary Jane Wilkes. A personal favorite bit is their spirited depiction of a pack of ravenous dogs, all of them ferociously barking and slathering in both voice and gesture.

Everything about Deaf West's production of "Big River" is inspired, accessible, expertly performed and visually arresting. Since anything quite like it may be years away, fans of Mark Twain, musical theater and multi-faceted storytelling won't want to miss it.

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'Big River' combines music, sign language

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Think about how much you rely on your hearing every day: talking to friends, listening to music, watching TV or going to the theater. Now, imagine what life would be like if you couldn't hear.

Around the world, millions of people are deaf or hearingimpaired.

Luckily, Deaf West Theatre company produces plays that all audience members can enjoy. Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the second Broadway musical the company has adapted. In addition to speaking and singing their parts, all of the actors use American Sign Language to tell the story.

Some of the actors are deaf, including Tyrone Giordano, who plays the title character, Huck Finn. While he is onstage signing, another actor is offstage speaking and singing his parts. Other actors, such as Michael McElroy (he plays Jim), do both speaking/singing and sign language.

Big River first appeared on Broadway in 1985, but it wasn's the Deaf West production. At the time, it was a musical adaptation of the classic American book by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It won seven Tony awards and ran for more than 1,000 performances in New York.

Much of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is based on experiences that Twain had when he was a boy growing up by the Mississippi River. The Twain character narrates the Big River story. The production follows runaway Huck Finn as he escapes down the Mississippi with Jim, a fugitive slave. Huck Finn was first introduced in another Twain story, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Both books can be found at the public library or a bookstore, and the stories are a lot of fun. There aren't many shows that use both speech and sign to tell a story. It's a great way to share a great tale! Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be performed Feb. 11-13 at the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St., Downtown. Tickets, $27 to $47, are available at the Ohio Theatre ticket office, 614-469-0939, or Ticketmaster outlets, 614-431-3600.

Sources: Information for Culture Creature was provided by the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, in cooperation with the Columbus Arts Marketing Association.

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Waterbury Republican American

Mark Twain "Signed," Sealed, and Beautifully Delivered

Joanne Greco Rochman

Finally! A great big beautiful musical has arrived, and it's one that you're not likely to ever forget. "Big River" currently at the Shubert in New Haven is one show where stamping your feet and clapping your hands is "deaf-initely" not enough. You have to do something else to show your appreciation for this superb performance.

Based on Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" this musical is actually co-developed by Deaf West Theatre. It features deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing actors in a synchronized performance, which is rather incredulous for such a huge musical and large cast. Yet, no one on stage misses a beat, and no one in the audience misses a beat either.

At one of the most powerful moments in this extraordinary musical, the orchestra stops playing, the vocalists stop singing, and though silence fills the theater, the fluid signing continues on stage and the audience feels the music. It's simply a stunning moment that anyone within driving distance should hurry to experience.

The hearing actors sing and sign while the non-hearing actors perform brilliantly through sign and movement. Two actors take on the role of each character - with one actor speaking and singing, and one actor performing and signing. It's like watching mirror images. The title role is brilliantly and boyishly portrayed by Garrett Matthew Zuercher with Adam Monley as the Voice of Huck Finn. Monley also plays Mark Twain with just the right amount of wit and wisdom.

There are so many outstanding performances in this show that it's not possible to acknowledge them all individually. However, Jerold E. Solomon as Jim must have his due. His solos are so outstanding that he nearly brought the house down every time he sang. When Jim and Huck sing and sign a duet together, they do bring down the house.

So clever and complex is the staging that experienced theatergoers will immediately recognize how daunting the director's task must be. Yet, Jeff Calhoun, who co-developed the show directs and choreographs with an eye for precision and an ear for sheer pleasure.

Expect dancing, singing, gorgeous costumes, thunder and lighting and wickedly expansive special effects. Expect, too, a set that features bigger than life pages from Twain's book. The characters literally step out of the pages. See this show and you will be begging your friends and family to see it, too. You'll want to share the experience with anyone who will listen, or sign.

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A raft of possibilities - Deaf West Theatre floats 'Big River' production

By Dixie Reid -- Bee Staff Writer
January 23, 2005

Mark Twain's 19th century saga of a mischievous orphan named Huck and a runaway slave named Jim, floating together down the Mississippi River on a raft, is about an unlikely friendship.

So the musical "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" seemed perfect for the unlikely stage pairing of deaf and hearing actors. The Deaf West Theatre Company's production of "Big River" opens Wednesday at the Community Center Theater as part of the Broadway Series.

"The central theme of the story is two people, worlds apart, being black and white in pre-Civil War America," said Bill O'Brien, managing director and producer of Deaf West, the first professional resident sign-language theater company in the country. "And so reaching across cultural boundaries, which is really what the play is about, is enhanced by the fact that there are now two languages reaching across to each other."

The Deaf West production includes American Sign Language, the spoken word, song and dance.

"Basically, if you close you eyes, you wouldn't know you weren't at a standard revival of 'Big River,' " O'Brien said from the company's offices in North Hollywood. "And then when you open your eyes, you realize that some characters are deaf, and their dialogue is being voiced by someone else in the ensemble."

For instance, Adam Monley, who plays writer Mark Twain, also provides the audible voice of Huck Finn, played by deaf actor Tyrone Giordano (who originated the role for Deaf West in 2001). Tony-nominated actor Michael McElroy plays Jim.

The cast comprises eight deaf actors, who communicate with sign language, and 14 hearing actors, who provide their speaking and singing voices.

Four years ago, Deaf West received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and a condition of the grant requires the company to take a production on the road to communities without this type of theater.

O'Brien and others at Deaf West believed the best way to create a market for their show, whatever it might be, was to land a residency in New York. They had Broadway in their sights even before settling on "Big River."

Soon, O'Brien called on director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun, whom he'd met four years earlier in Sacramento while starring in the Music Circus production of "The Will Rogers Follies." He asked if Calhoun would be interested in directing a deaf musical.

"It wasn't on his list of things to do in 2001, but when he became friendly to the idea, he started to get his creative juices going to apply a new kind of storytelling technique," O'Brien said. "The next challenge was convincing the best singers and actors in Los Angeles that they should be a part of something like this. It's hard to get your mind around what it is.

"Obviously, we needed to figure out some way for the deaf characters to have someone else applying a voice for them," O'Brien said, "so Jeff created the concept where the entire production seems to explode out of the original manuscript."

Monley, as Twain, opens the show by introducing himself and the book "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to the audience. Then he introduces Huck, who steps out of one of the pages. And when Huck addresses the audience, Twain speaks for him.

The original production of "Big River" opened on Broadway in 1985, winning seven Tony Awards, including best musical, book (by William Hauptman) and score (by Roger Miller).

In October 2001, Deaf West debuted its version of Twain's tale to sell-out crowds in its 99-seat North Hollywood theater. A year later, "Big River" relocated to the larger Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. By 2003, the cast had moved into New York City's Roundabout Theatre and became the first sign-language musical on Broadway.

Along with McElroy's Tony nomination for best performance by a featured actor in a musical, the Deaf West production was nominated for best revival of a musical.

The national tour that brings "Big River" to Sacramento this week was launched last summer in San Francisco. In March, Deaf West will have two companies of "Big River" - one performing at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and the other continuing the tour.

Scott Eckern, artistic director of California Musical Theatre (which includes the Music Circus and the Broadway Series), is thrilled to bring "Big River" to Sacramento.

He has seen it twice, at the Taper and on Broadway.

"I walked away feeling so exhilarated," Eckern said. "They have taken a production and reinvented it, not just revived it. I don't understand sign language, but I understand the passion and emotion. You are so fully engaged that you aren't even aware they're doing sign language, and it doesn't matter, because you start to believe you can understand it."

"Big River," he said, "transcends words and gets to the heart and soul of what people are feeling."

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'River's' appeal keeps flowing along

Deaf West Theatre's 'Big River' is not only bigger but also better as it returns to L.A. at the Ahmanson

By Rob Kendt , Special to The Times
Friday, January 14, 2005

Miracles don't come along often in the theater, and when they do, they seldom keep their supernatural glow for long. Deaf West Theatre's production of "Big River," which has wended its way back to Los Angeles from an acclaimed Broadway run, is an exception. For this ebullient adaptation of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," lightning has struck more than twice.

The miracles began with its creation, when Broadway producer Rocco Landesman tracked down one of his idols, country tunesmith Roger Miller, and essentially forced him to write his first and only musical. Though it won 1985 Tonys for best musical and for Miller's score and William Hauptman's book, it seemed unlikely to join the pantheon of essential American musicals.

Then in the fall of 2001, in a 65-seat black-box theater in North Hollywood, director Jeff Calhoun and the artists of Deaf West Theatre dusted off "Big River" and pulled a hat trick that had to be seen — and heard — to be believed: a "deaf" musical (Deaf West had done it only once before, with "Oliver!" the previous year). This unlikely hybrid of American Sign Language, spoken dialogue and song turned out to be a natural fit for the tall-tale fabulism of Twain's story, and the intimate space was a natural for Miller's homespun score.

Mark Taper Forum artistic director Gordon Davidson snapped it up and put it on his stage a year later, with few changes. While this L.A. "River" was still special, it looked like it might have gotten too big too soon.

Somehow the touring version now at the 1,600 -seat Ahmanson Theatre, though inarguably bigger than its previous incarnations, is also better. Calhoun has shaped and sharpened the material without losing the modular simplicity of Ray Klausen's storybook-page set, across which the shaggy-dog story sprawls under the watchful eyes of narrator Mark Twain (Daniel Jenkins, who starred as Huck in the original 1985 Broadway production). Jenkins also voices Huck and accompanies Steven Landau's small, expert band with nearly every stringed instrument available.

The cast features a number of deaf actors from the original Deaf West production — Tyrone Giordano as Huck Finn, Troy Kotsur as his dissipated Pap, and Phyllis Frelich and Ryan Schlecht in a number of smaller roles (also the irresistible Rod Keller, a hearing performer who executes a variety of quick-change turns).

But what's most striking about this Broadway ensemble is how thoroughly it has intermingled sign-language with the lexicon of musical theater, to the point that we're soon convinced that this singular lingua franca — physical, expressively theatrical, somehow clarifying, even to a hearing audience — is the only way this story of friendship without borders can be told.

That's a good thing, because not everything about the material is so persuasive: A pair of con men who hitch a ride on Huck and Jim's raft and stick around the story for a long while are never as funny or as threatening as they should be.

And while Miller's authentically country-fried score has the un-Broadway-like virtues of bubbling tunefulness and lyrical economy, those relentlessly sunny major keys can get pretty syrupy. Luckily singers such as Jenkins, Melissa Van Der Schyff (from the Broadway cast), and Gwen Stewart have just the right country and gospel sounds to put it across.

It is curl-topped Tyrone Giordano, who has played a deaf Huck since the first Deaf West production, and Tony nominee Michael McElroy as the escaped slave Jim, who carry this delicate craft across its waves of "considerable trouble and considerable joy" and see it safely home. The lovely duet "Worlds Apart," in which they strengthen their bond while acknowledging the gaping gulf between them, has been the show's telltale heart since the original Deaf West production, as well as its most moving picture of how the deaf/hearing divide overlays the racial one.

The crowning miracle here is that the almost unbearable intimacy of this simple exchange has somehow seeped into and colored every moment of this big, but not too big "River."

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Big River: Huck Finn

By Ed Kaufman

With music and lyrics by Roger Miller and book by William Hauptman (based on Mark Twain's quintessential American novel), "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is ambitious, daring, captivating and outright terrific.

Ray Klausen has designed a set that takes its cues from Twain's landmark novel on which the show is based. The stage is graced with oversized pages from the book -- some bound, others free -- and a world of other surprises hidden in the floor, the steps and even the walls that bring the book to life. When Twain (the fine Daniel Jenkins) appears to narrate the show and "speak" for Huck, it's as if he's revealing all the secrets of the work for us to consider.

What makes "Big River" so special is its ability, intricacies and messages to everyone -- regardless of their ability to hear Miller's music and lyrics or Hauptman's dialogue. As first devised by Deaf West Theatre in North Hollywood in 2001, "Big River" wonderfully brings together the worlds of those who hear and those who do not and sign in American Sign Language.

With an 18-person cast (a number of whom have some hearing loss), savvy director and choreographer Jeff Calhoun has devised a series of onstage solutions to bridge both worlds. The most obvious is the double casting of Huck's father, Pap, with Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine -- dressing them identically (in the colorful costumes of David R. Zyla) and creatively layering the interaction between them. Kotsur and Devine also are effective as Mississippi River con men the Duke and the King.

Other "doubling" is more adventurous: Jenkins -- in his Twain guise -- speaks and sings for the signing Huck (an ingratiating performance by Tyrone Giordano), and the first-rate Phyllis Frelich plays Miss Watson, while Melissa Van Der Schyff provides the character's "voice." Benjamin Schrader is an effective Tom Sawyer, and Michael McElroy's runaway slave Jim is acted, sung and signed with great poetic conviction. Stanley Bahorek stands out in an assortment of voice actors.

Miller's score, a blend of country and gospel, captures the mood and tone of things. "River in the Rain," "Worlds Apart," "Free at Last," "Muddy Water" and "Waitin' for the Light to Shine" are memorable in this remarkable onstage production.

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'Big River' continues to be a high-water mark

By Evan Henerson, Theater Critic
Friday, January 14, 2005

Now that Deaf West Theatre's powerhouse production of "Big River' has played three Los Angeles engagements, at increasingly bigger venues each time, a couple of things have become clear.

First, if the sign-language musical is going to develop and proliferate in the way Deaf West hopes it will, the company needs to get to work on something new. Soon. Second, and this is vital: Jeff Calhoun needs to direct it.

The "Big River' ensemble -- many of whose members have been with the show since it started in 2001 in the company's tiny North Hollywood space -- remains splendid, vibrant and full of zest. Some actors sing and speak in character; others serve as "voices' for performers who cannot hear. Everybody uses sign language. A narrating, guitar-playing Mark Twain (played by Daniel Jenkins) "voices' the lead character, Huck Finn (Tyrone Giordano). After about five minutes to acclimate, audiences shouldn't have a problem with split focus. You'll likely forget which actors are deaf and which are not.

Calhoun deserves the lion's share of credit for this seamless blend of voice, sign and song. The director's staging of musical numbers and the inventiveness with which he uses pieces of Ray Clausen's stage is as spectacular as the accomplishment of any individual cast member. Not that the ensemble is in any way lacking. Original cast member Giordano, ever boyish with a face that tells 100 stories, remains a very winning Huck. Of the three actors we've seen playing runaway slave Jim, Michael McElroy (a Tony Award nominee) is by far the strongest, both vocally and as an actor.

But heaven knows how they'd fare outside this production. With Klausen's huge, multicompartmented book pages placed strategically around the stage, the musical story of Twain's resourceful scamp literally pours out of the storybook. Pages can be doors, trees, walls or secret forts. Resourceful and economical, yes. Also a kick to watch.

There are so many unanticipated "wow' moments in "Big River' that singling out just a few seems unfair. Among the highlights is the opening of a back panel to reveal a huge blue wall, the Mississippi River, as Huck and Jim launch their raft to the strains of "Old Muddy Water.' And, of course, the second-act reprise of "Waitin' for the Light to Shine,' during which music director Steven Landau's seven-piece orchestra stops playing and the ensemble continues signing the words in stunning pin-drop silence.

Quietly or otherwise, "Big River' is a thing of beauty. The L.A. stop of this tour is brief; it has other cities to edify and delight. Meanwhile, Deaf West owes Los Angeles a new production. It's been too long.

-Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651, evan.henerson@dailynews.com

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Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Joel Hirschhorn
Thursday, January 13, 2005

Broadway in 2003 and is still relevant, thrilling theater at the Ahmanson. Lighthearted as the production's general tone is, its dramatic moments are unflinching. Composer Roger Miller and librettist William Hauptman powerfully convey the horror of slavery, and memorably illustrate that ingrained prejudice can be transformed into mutually fulfilling friendship.

Director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun stages opening song "Do You Wanna Go to Heaven?" with zest. Tyrone Giordano, as Huck Finn, retains the leaping physical flair and mischievously rebellious attitude that originally won over crowds and critics. Daniel Jenkins (who played Huck in the 1985 Broadway original and now is narrator Mark Twain) embodies the writer with idiosyncratic authority, and he superbly handles the singing and speaking for Giordano. In their scenes together, the two merge seamlessly as one character.

Necessary exposition about Huck's resentment of the Widow Douglas (Cathy Newman) and her attempts to civilize him is presented with appropriate speed, and there's a lively episode centering on impulsive, adventure-seeking Tom Sawyer (Benjamin Schrader) that culminates in the joyous "We Are the Boys." These setup sequences are entertaining, if occasionally too broad and exaggerated. But they fade into the background when Michael McElroy enters the scene as Jim, the runaway slave who tests Huck's conscience and values.

McElroy's imposing portrayal works on multiple levels. His singing has a magnificence that evokes comparisons with such legendary figures as Paul Robeson and William Warfield, and his emotional impact is doubled by a calm, subtle intensity that illuminates bottomless pain. He's particularly poignant when talking about a desire to move north and get work so he can buy his enslaved wife and two children.

The Giordano-McElroy duets -- "Muddy River," the mournfully truthful "Worlds Apart" and the irresistibly melodic "River in the Rain" -- provide reminders that musicals at their best can lift us to a special, euphoric plateau unmatched by any other medium.

Roger Miller's banjo- and fiddle-flavored score remains notable for its variety. "I, Huckleberry Me," rollickingly rendered by Giordano, is an ode to happiness and freedom, while "You Oughta Be Here With Me" is pure Dolly Parton-style country. "How Blest We Are" demonstrates Miller's keen comprehension of gospel, and it's brilliantly sung by Gwen Stewart. The irrelevant "Hand for the Hog" has been deleted, a wise idea that Miller himself considered when first developing the show.

Comedy is capably put over by Troy Kotsur and Erick Devine as con men, who also manage brutally believable transitions to villainy when their scams lead them to sell slaves: The agonized howl from one victim (Stewart) when torn from her daughter, is haunting in its raw reality.

Director Calhoun also stages a tentative, tender interlude of attraction between Huck and Mary Jane Wilkes (Melissa Van Der Schyff), the young woman he protects when her inheritance is temporarily stolen.

Calhoun's combination of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing actors is impressively coordinated, a tribute to instinct and professionalism. Michael Gilliam's faultlessly placed lighting and Peter Fitzgerald's sound contribute mightily toward the constant clarity between speaker-singers and cast members utilizing sign language.

Holding everything tightly together is musical director-conductor-pianist-arranger Steven Landau, who does full justice to Miller's lively tunes and tempos.

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Hearing and deaf actors perform musical

By Kathleen Allen, ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Growing up as the only deaf person in his family, Ed Waterstreet didn't get the big deal about music.

"When we went to the church and plays, I saw my family enjoyed being involved in the singing," Waterstreet, speaking through interpreter Bill O'Brien, said in a phone interview.

"They would try to interpret for me, but I just didn't feel I was experiencing it."

Curiosity about music settled into his mind. He'd often ask hearing friends to interpret songs for him in sign language. When they did, something clicked for him.

"I saw that you can get visually into the music."

This little seed stayed with Waterstreet, the founder of Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles.

Finally, he decided to nourish the seed: His company put on the musical "Oliver!" with speaking and signing actors.

It was a hit on the West Coast.

So he nurtured the seed more. His company produced "Big River, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The updated version of the 1985 musical by Roger Miller uses hearing and deaf actors to tell the story and sing the music. It, too, was a hit on the West Coast and moved to Broadway, where it won over audiences and critics and snagged a Tony. UApresents brings the show to Centennial Hall next week, with most of the Broadway cast intact.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the musical has signers off to the side interpreting.

The production integrates the hearing and the deaf actors, with all of them using American Sign Language.

When a deaf actor is signing, a hearing actor is speaking. The result is a synchronized show that adds new layers of depth and beauty to the musical based on Mark Twain's book.

It sounds like a crazy idea: a musical performed by deaf people.

Waterstreet knows that. But he became convinced it was a good idea, too.

"Maybe after 10 years of creating plays, I started to feel it was time to add sign music to a musical. . . . The idea was to create a new theatrical language."

It worked for Deaf West's production of "Oliver!" What's more, it reached beyond the deaf community.

"I noticed the hearing people got an extra lift from the play as well. . . . I didn't expect it to have quite the impact on the hearing that it did."

He started looking for another vehicle to expand the concept and settled on "Big River."

He turned to Jeff Calhoun, who had directed "Oliver!" and offered him "Big River."

"I told them 'no,' " recalled Calhoun, speaking by phone from a train somewhere between New York City and Philadelphia the week before Christmas.

"We got away with it in 'Oliver!' and I didn't think we could pull it off again."

But once the genie has been let loose, said Calhoun, "you can't put it back in the bottle."

Deaf West's "Oliver!" showed what was possible when deaf and hearing actors take the stage. It could be done again.

"Big River" wasn't an easy play to direct, admitted Calhoun.

"I was like a babe in the woods; I went into this innocently, not realizing it would be so difficult," he said.

"I soon realized that every basic move you learned about directing has to be thrown out the window."

Props can't be used by the signing actors; they need their hands to speak. Deaf actors can't hear music cues, so a system had to be worked out. In one scene, there's a knock on the door; how to develop a signal to the deaf actor that wouldn't be obvious to the audience.

"You have to do visual cues. . . . It's one big magic act."

This is a production in which the deaf and the hearing actors are on equal footing.

"I was trying not to treat one culture any differently from the other," said Calhoun. "Every moment of the show is even-handed for the deaf and hearing. I didn't want hearing people putting on a show for the deaf; I didn't want to patronize the deaf. The deafness is never commented on."

The experience for the choreographer and director renewed his faith in theater.

"Going to Deaf West reinvigorated my whole spirit for the theater," he said. "I was having a career on Broadway, but it didn't feel inspired or important or that it was touching people. 'Big River' saved my creative soul. It was a godsend."

This new form of theater broadens the experience and the audience, said O'Brien, who produced "Big River."

"The sign language translation makes the experience equal for the deaf," he said. "We also tried to make it something that would be very clear to the hearing as well. The audience starts out ignorant about the culture. They see and hear what Huck is saying, and as time goes on they completely forget (that one character speaks while another signs). It's sort of like a magical little world; another experience."

Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@aszstarnet.com or 573-4128.

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Words, signing flow together in `Big River'

Kerry Clawson, Beacon Journal

November 25, 2004

Being a part of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a life-changing experience for Shaker Heights native Michael McElroy.

His mind has been opened to a whole new language -- American Sign Language -- in this Broadway revival, which includes deaf and hard-of-hearing actors.

The musical, based on the American classic by Mark Twain, has been described as a synchronized ballet of speaking, signing, gesturing, singing and dancing. Big River had a limited run on Broadway from July through September 2003 and is now on tour, stopping at Cleveland's Playhouse Square on Tuesday.

McElroy, who originated the role of escaped slave Jim on Broadway, has returned to the tour, along with Broadway principals Tyrone Giordano (Huck) and Daniel Jenkins (Mark Twain and voice of Huck). The Broadway cast received a 2004 Tony Honor ensemble award for what was the first deaf musical on Broadway.

``This show has been such an incredible life-changing experience for all of us who have been involved in it,'' McElroy said.

The actor, a 1985 Shaker Heights High School graduate, signs all of his dialogue and lyrics throughout the show. He appears with nine deaf actors as well as hearing cast members. Each deaf actor signs and a different cast member provides his character's voice. That way deaf and hearing audiences can follow along.

Huck's evil father, Pap, is played by deaf and hearing actors working side by side. This method symbolizes the duality of Pap's nature.

By acting in Big River, McElroy, who is black, has learned what it's like to be part of the deaf minority.

``I understand the feeling of feeling on the outside,'' he said. ``But you forget that sometimes, and you forgot how that can be manifested in different ways.''

After becoming immersed in the deaf culture and fluent in deaf communication, the actor believes all Americans should be required to take American Sign Language as a foreign language. ``It's such a beautiful language and such a powerful language.''

McElroy had just six days of ``sign language boot camp'' before starting rehearsal with the other actors on Broadway. At first, he simply learned the signing as choreography: ``I really didn't know what my hands were saying,'' he said. ``I'm trying to speak two languages at the same time, and the syntax isn't the same.''

Eventually, he learned that the language was more about the meaning than the act of signing. Audiences also get to the point where they may not know every word signed, but they understand its overall meaning.

In this production, when hearing actors speak for deaf actors, their voices can come from above, in front or in back of the action, or from within a group of actors.

``For hearing audiences, I think it takes about five minutes to adjust to the fact that the person who's talking isn't the one you're supposed to pay attention to,'' McElroy said.

McElroy praised director Jeff Calhoun for his clever and creative staging, which weaves deaf and hearing storytelling into a third language.

After being nominated for a Tony for the role of Jim, McElroy said he has achieved greater recognition with casting directors and producers. That has come after years of playing principal roles on Broadway.

``The amount of accolades that I have received from within the theater community for this production has changed my life,'' he said.

McElroy almost didn't take the role because he was worried about perpetuating stereotypes. His previous roles, including Professor Tom Collins in Rent, had helped break stereotypes about black men.

``The last thing I wanted to do was play a slave, because I felt it trapped me in a place and I would be forced to live in that,'' he said.

But a wise college friend encouraged him to give voice to the slave experience and to instill his own dignity in the role.

Nevertheless, ``I was terrified being in chains and being called the `N-word' '' onstage, McElroy said.

The show, which chronicles Huck's moral awakening, does not shy away from Twain's purposefully ironic use of the ``N-word.'' That can be difficult for some audience members to stomach, the actor said.

The musical features a score of Cajun, gospel, folk, country and blues music, written by Roger Miller.

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Broadway star is excited to perform in hometown

By Tony Brown, Plain Dealer Theatre Critic

November 27, 2004

Michael McElroy made it all the way from Shaker Heights to a Tony Award nomination on Broadway.

Now he's finally getting a chance to come back to where it all started and sing in a Broadway musical for his hometown.

"Growing up in Cleveland, my initial love of theater came from going with my family to see Broadway tours at the Hanna Theatre and the Palace Theatre," McElroy said.

"Those places are now special places in my heart. And those people I saw up on the stage then are now my friends, people I work with. I just want to come back and share all the joy I feel."

Now the Hanna, Palace and three other grand, historic theaters are part of downtown Cleveland's Playhouse Square, the nation's second-largest performing arts center after New York's Lincoln Center.

McElroy, a veteran of six Broadway shows, will perform there for family and friends when "Big River" opens Tuesday for two weeks at the Palace. McElroy stars as runaway slave Jim in the 2003 revival of Roger Miller's adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The Deaf West Theatre production, in which hearing and hearing-impaired actors perform in spoken English and American Sign Language, earned rave reviews when it moved from Los Angeles to New York, but it played Broadway for only three months.

All the same, "Big River" generated two Tony nominations -- including a best-featured actor in a musical nod for McElroy -- and became a bona-fide hit on the road.

The tour keeps getting extended as more cities sign up to see it. McElroy was ready to get off the road when he discovered the next leg of the tour included his hometown.

"We've been to Tokyo and back, and I was signed up through Philadelphia," McElroy said in a phone interview from Green Bay, Wis., a tour stop. "But then I found out we were going to Cleveland, and I had to re-up."

The idea of singing in Playhouse Square touched off a series of happy memories.

"I remember the most incredible things about those theaters," McElroy said. "I remember seeing West Side Story' with Leslie Uggams -- and she's my friend now, we performed together. The night I saw The Wiz' in Cleveland, Stephanie Mills was out, and [Tony Award winner] Lilias White stepped in for her, and she was incredible. She's a good friend now.

"It goes on and on, the people I saw then and work with now, even our director for Big River,' Jeff Calhoun. It has that connection that I can never forget. It makes this special show even more special for me to bring it back to Cleveland."

McElroy, now 37, started out as a singer at the Original Harvest Baptist Church, founded by his grandfather, the Rev. M.C. Chatman. He had dabbled in theater, appearing in "The Wiz" at Karamu Performing Arts Theatre, for instance.

But his theater training didn't begin until he got to Shaker High and discovered the theater program run by James Thornton.

"I had already signed up for the music program but wanted to do theater, too," McElroy said. "Mr. Thornton said I would have to audition for the theater program, and I was fortunate enough to get in.

"We did everything in the Shaker Acting Ensemble, everything -- pieces by [poets Rainer Maria] Rilke and e.e. cummings. I was exposed to Pilobolus dance company and all these other incredible things."

As his graduation in 1985 neared, McElroy once more found himself faced with a decision between going on in music or theater. After a representative from Carnegie-Mellon University's musical-theater program visited Shaker, McElroy discovered he could choose both.

Again he auditioned; again he got in.

After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon in 1990, McElroy immediately got work, appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Richard III" starring Denzel Washington.

McElroy has built a career, appearing in Broadway and off-Broadway shows as well as many of the country's major regional theaters. His Broadway credits include:

1992's "High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club" with Deborah Burrell-Cleveland, whom McElroy saw when he was a kid in "One Mo' Time" in Cleveland.

"The Who's Tommy" in 1993, with fellow former Clevelander Tracy Nicole Chapman.

"Rent," in a replacement cast.

1997's "Street Corner Symphony," not as a performer but as the vocal arranger.

"The Wild Party," with Eartha Kitt, Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette.

When he isn't working (and he has worked almost nonstop since moving to New York 14 years ago), McElroy leads a 50-member choir he founded in 1994, Broadway Inspirational Voices.

The group has sung backup on records by Clay Aiken and Vanessa Williams and will appear with Williams in her Christmas show this year at Broadway's Palace Theatre. It performs largely in New York but also tours the country. The choir played Severance Hall last November as a benefit for Original Harvest Baptist Church.

McElroy's family and friends will see "Big River" en masse, thanks to advance planning by his mother.

"Mom has already planned a Saturday matinee for 100 people," McElroy said. "A hundred people!"

And she plans to have the entire cast, including her son, over for dinner.

"When friends of mine are in town on a tour at Playhouse Square or doing a play at the [Cleveland] Play House, she has them all for dinner at our house, even when I'm not there," McElroy said.

"So I am definitely looking forward to getting to eat at home myself."

© 2004 The Plain Dealer.

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Deaf West's production of 'Big River' adds another dimension to musical

By NEAL ZOREN, Special to the Daily Times

November 19, 2004

Reviving "Big River" was not such an unusual idea. This musical version of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" received a Tony as Best Musical in 1985 and features a catchy, if sometimes silly, score by "King of the Road" composer Roger Miller.

Its quality and entertainment value speak for itself. The production coming to the Academy of Music on Tuesday has another wonderful dimension.

It didn't originate in the office of a producer who figured a 20th anniversary tour of "Big River" would find an audience. It started at Deaf West, a Los Angeles theater company that creates opportunities for deaf artists, but doesn't confine itself to plays created for deaf performers. A musical the size of "Big River," with its many characters and plot lines, posed many challenges, but Deaf West's staging met them so well, its production moved from L.A. to Broadway, where it had another brush with Tony as a 2004 nominee in the Best Revival of a Musical category, and is now on the road.

Its Academy run, part of the Kimmel Center's Broadway at the Academy series, lasts a week. "Big River" returns to the area in January for a 12-performance run at Wilmington's DuPont Theatre.

To mount its vision of "Big River," Deaf West combines hearing and non-hearing actors, all using American Sign Language while playing their roles (as opposed to having a signer to one side of the stage.)

While a deaf actor is doing his part, a hearing actor is voicing it. Staging this production took a lot of care and coordination. Among the people responsible for "Big River's" success is one of the most remarkable people in contemporary American theater, Linda Bove.

For 32 years, Bove, born deaf to deaf parents, has worked continually as an actress. In 1970, she came to Philadelphia as a fledgling actress and charter member of the National Theater of the Deaf. In 1981, she returned to give a riveting performance in "Children of a Lesser God," a role she also played on Broadway.

The public knows her best for her 28 years on television's "Sesame Street" as Linda the Librarian, who communicated in ASL and brought understanding about life without hearing to millions of children worldwide.

Bove is "Big River's" ASL master, a new position created by Deaf West, to insure that ASL is performed with the same depth and texture as spoken language. Bove says being ASL master is a major challenge.

"Certainly it is unusual for someone like me who is deaf to have the opportunities I've had in the theater," Bove says in a phone interview during which Deaf West's Bill O'Brien translated. "I am fortunate to have worked continuously for 32 years, to have opened doors for others, and for the long run on 'Sesame Street.'

As ASL master, it's Bove's job to make sure "Big River" translates to the audience in many different ways, the same way a stage director would while working with speaking actors in any language.

"The signing has to be as expressive, dramatic, and rich as spoken communication," she said. "If there are jokes, they have to be funny and played comically, not just related with no expression or emphasis in ASL. Since 'Big River' is a musical, it's important that the rhythm of the signing match the rhythm of the music."

"I want the same spirit of communication in ASL as is found in any language," Bove says. ASL is a different language from spoken English, so the first decisions were about translation. It doesn't have to be literal. It has to be in synch and say the same thing in ASL."

"Big River" is performed in two languages simultaneously, and they both have to give the audience the total experience of the piece, Bove said.

Growing up, Bove says she did not think of a theater as a career.

"I came from a deaf family, and I had no interest in theater. I didn't even relate to it. It never occurred to me the theater would be a place I would find work and make a living."

Bove came to theater by accident.

"I attended Gallaudet University in Washington, and it offered a theater program. I took part out of curiosity and became more and more active. I loved it. It was a rich experience that added to my life as a college student and gave me the chance to be expressive. By my junior year, my interest in theater grew way beyond curiosity.

"Then my first stroke of good fortune came. The National Theater of the Deaf was being formed, and it needed deaf actors. Look at that. I could leave college, work in the theater, earn a salary as an actress, and tour the country playing before audiences who were open and appreciative. We did classics and new plays. It was a great, expanding experience."

Today, Bove is active with Deaf West and works with the theater as it charts its next paths. "We are looking at doing an original musical," Bove says.

Meanwhile, she and another deaf actress will be bringing a new play, "Open Window" by Stephen Sachs to the Pasadena Playhouse this winter.

"It's a play about two women, both deaf, who have a conflicted relationship," Bove says.

"It's a wonderful piece because while both characters are deaf, their deafness does not figure into the plot. The audience sees two strong women trying to resolve an intense situation. They just happen to be deaf. By the time the play had been on for a few minutes, the deafness will be inconsequential. It's great that a theater like Pasadena Playhouse chose 'Open Window' and that the production is underway.

"Deaf West has other plays in development and other adaptations of known plays that do not have deaf characters. It's an exciting time." If You Go

* "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" runs from Tuesday to next Sunday, Nov. 28, at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets, Philadelphia. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday. There is no performance on Thursday, Thanksgiving. Tickets range from $85 to $37.50 and can be ordered by calling (215) 893-1999.

©The Daily Times 2004

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A broader, deeper 'Big River'

Deaf West Theatre production is more, not less.
By Desmond Ryan<