'The Moonlight Room'
Boston Center for the Arts
Running through Dec. 19
Tickets: 617-933-8600SpeakEasy Stage Company, a resident theater company at the Boston Center for the Arts, held its premiere of The Moonlight Room by Tristine Skyler last Friday. The play focuses on a day in the lives of two New York City teenagers, their friendship and their dysfunctional family, but ultimately fails to connect with the audience.

The entire two-and-a-half hour play is set in a hospital waiting room. High-schoolers Sal and Josh (Tracee Chimo and Ian Michaels, respectively) wait for a diagnosis for their friend who has passed out from a drug overdose.

The set was very realistic, from the soda machines to the pay phone, to the wide orange chairs and linoleum floor, to the magazines and toys on the wooden tables. Their costumes were accurate and interesting, down to Sal's bracelet-covered wrist. Her faded Rainbow Bright T-shirt, hip-hugging jeans, Doc Martin-esque boots and straightened pigtailed hair were all indicative of her New York high school personality.

Unfortunately, when the lights came up, Chimo's performance was immediately awkward. Her movements were too sudden and overemphasized, too choreographed and unnatural.

Josh is a former drug dealer who is accused by Sal's mom (Cheryl McMahon) of having "trouble written all over [his] face." Fortunately, Michaels' acting fared somewhat better than Chimo's. He tells us the story of his hospitalized friend Lightfield through a telephone conversation. Somehow, the phone scene allowed Michaels to express his emotions more subtly.

Unfortunately, the play's dialogue was weighed down with stories irrelevant to the plot; too many loose ends dragged the plot down. The characters were awkward in conversation, and this problem was most apparent when the actors addressed the audience at inappropriate times.

Ideally, an audience should become invested in the lives of a play's characters. But these actors failed to have that effect. I was watching a play, but I simply could not get pulled into the lives of these all-too-imaginary people.
-Stacy Horowitz



'Disney's The Lion King'
Boston Opera House
Running through Feb. 20
Tickets: 617-880-2400

For the last several years. Disney's award-winning The Lion King has reigned as one of Broadway's best musicals. Its expert adaptation of the Oscar-winning animated classic brings the color and sounds of the savannah to the stage. After triumphing at the Tonys, a touring version of the musical is enjoying a brief engagement through Feb. 20 at Boston's Opera House.

Combining classic songs from Elton John and Tim Rice with a moving tale of self-discovery, the theatrical version of The Lion King already has the makings of a rip-roaring stage success.

The production has astounded audiences with its use of lush, fertile sceneries that perfectly capture the animals' home and vivacious, colorful costumes that bring the beloved, animated characters of The Lion King to life.

From the opening scene of the Pride Rock gathering that celebrated the birth of Simba-complete with actors costumed as exotic birds, roaming cheetahs, a baby elephant and life-size giraffes-the show perfectly adapts the beautiful African imagery of the animated movie to the stage.

The show ambitiously captures the physical and emotional settings of each scene such as when high-wire dancers move among the floral scenery during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."

The production even captures the movements and motions of the film, such as the young lions' hurried escape from an elephant graveyard and their brave mounting of Pride Rock.

The actors embodied their animal characters completely, stretching forward like fearsome lions or rolling on their backs like laughing hyenas. Wearing artistic animal masks, the actors playing the principle lions (Thomas Corey Robinson as Mufasa, Wallace Smith as adult Simba and Adrienne Muller as adult Nala) appeared as feline as possible without having to crawl on their hands and knees for the entire production.

Other principal actors portrayed their animal roles with equal aplomb. Ben Lipitz played the flatulent Pumbaa with bravado, wearing a giant warthog costume around his waist. John Plumpis masterfully captured the personality of the wisecracking Timon. A muskrat puppet was attached to the front of his torso while the actor wore a green body suit indicating grass.

In addition, Dan Donohue, who played Zuzu, was particularly entertaining as he walked around with a bird puppet on his arm; the actor frequently had schizophrenic conversations with the dodo. While the other creatures' costumes looked more like real animals, it was refreshing to see the beloved faces of Timon, Pumbaa and Zazu inventively reimagined on stage.

Of course, the production included now-classic Disney tunes like "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" The theatrical version's new songs, also written by John and Rice, enhanced the plot tremendously. The emotive "He Lives in You" was particularly well-suited, capturing Simba's close relationship with his father.

With classic music, complex costumes and creative scenery, it's clear that The Lion King still reigns supreme, even while in foreign territory.
-Jenn Rubin