“Throughout My Fair Lady, Henry Higgins is an emotionally void, grammatically snotty, upper-class gent who uses Eliza Doolittle as a project on a dare. What he does not expect is to find himself caring about her and missing her when she’s finally gone. We all know that this is the path that this character takes throughout the show. This is no surprise. The surprise is in Brian Lyons-Burke‘s final reaction to Eliza’s absence and sudden return.
Lyons-Burke carries Higgins throughout the entire production like a befuddled and ignorant man who never has nor ever will understand women. He has no idea why Eliza is so upset that this dare is over and that they have won. It never occurs to him that she cares for him and doesn’t want it to be over. In the final scene when he realizes that she is not coming back, we could feel the emptiness inside of him as if it was inside of us. When Eliza returns and he asks her for his slippers, the roles finally reverse as she has taught him what it means to love. Lyons-Burke’s genuine emotional reaction, filled with tears and emotional exhaustion, brought Higgins to this audience in a new way. This wonderful actor made this a most satisfying final moment for the audience.”-Mara Bayewitz
Maggie Erwin as Maggie Butchers “Summertime” in Bad Jews at The Studio Theatre.
“In a play packed with over-the-top-hilarious scenes, one stands out above them all, and it’s purely Maggie Erwin‘s moment. Erwin plays Melody, a pretty blonde WASP who finds herself in a religious hornet’s nest when her Jewish boyfriend thrusts her into a fierce family feud. Melody seems a bit dim at first, a typical airhead ingenue, but in Erwin’s spitfire performance, Melody’s surprising character arc becomes a dazzling stroke of brilliance. And just when the intrafamilial fray could not be more fraught with anger, the sweet-tempered Melody, an opera singer manqué, offers to sing a song to calm things down. Her ensuing off-key rendition of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess aptly captures what the script calls “the whitest white girl rendition of the song ever sung.” Shriek-singing each phrase funnier than the one before, Erwin has the audience is in stitches. She not only steals the scene; she nearly stops the show.”-John Stoltenberg
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Tiler Peck as the Young Marie Dancing the ‘Dream Ballet’ in Little Dancer at The Kennedy Center.
“New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck, who plays Degas’ model Marie van Goethem, is gorgeous, charismatic, and downright charming in the title role. In a role that is both physical and emotionally demanding, Peck shows her star power, more than holding her own in a cast glittering with Tony nominees and award winners. Her dancing, of course, is spectacular, but Peck is a triple threat performer who has created a wonderfully human and rebellious character who literally steals the stage (and everything on it) each time she dons her pointe shoes, and steals the show during ‘The Little Dancer Ballet.”-Diane Jackson Schnoor.
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Jeffrey Springer and Emily Risley as Sam and Susannah Polk Singing “Jaybird sitting on a hickory limb” in Susannah at Catholic University.
“Jeffrey Springer and Emily Risley star as siblings Sam and Susannah Polk in Catholic University’s production of the American class opera Susannah.They steal the show in their first scene together singing “Jaybird sitting on a hickory limb.” The opera is set in Appalachia and this little song is a beautiful mixing of genres, especially sung by two such promising voices in opera.”-Jessica Vaughan
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Paata Tsikurishvili as Dr. Moreau Attacks His Creations in The Island of Dr. Moreau at Synetic Theater
“In Synectic Theater’s high-joltage staging of The Island of Dr. Moreau, there are such startling feats of fight choreography and mock gore that I literally jumped in my seat about a dozen times. (I don’t consider myself particularly faint of heart; it was just bloody well done). But nothing had me so transfixed as when Paata Tsikurishvili as the eponymous mad scientist mimes serial assaults on the deformed creatures he has created. There is no body contact whatever; there is only Tsikurishvili’s exquisitely skilled mimed bludgeoning and skewering and the creature-dancers’ propulsive recoil from the impact of his cruel attacks. But it is Tsikurishvili’s awesome mime that owns the scene. That it all takes place by suggestion, as if in mid-air, makes the feigned macabre violence all the more disturbing–because by imagining it we participate in it. —John Stoltenberg.“-John Stoltenberg
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LINKS
Meet the Cast of ‘My Fair Lady’ at Damascus Theatre Company–Part 1: Brian Lyons-Burke.
Meet the Cast of ‘My Fair Lady’ at Damascus Theatre Company–Part 2: Director Stephanie Bonte-Lebair.
Meet the Cast of ‘My Fair Lady’ at Damascus Theatre Company–Part 3: Cara Bachman.
Meet the Cast of ‘My Fair Lady’ at Damascus Theatre Company–Part 4: William T. Fleming.
A Chat With Rebecca Luker About ‘Little Dancer’ at The Kennedy Center.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week Ending 11/7/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week Ending 10/24/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week Ending 10/12/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 9/28/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 9/18/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 9/11/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 9/1/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 8/24/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 8/17/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 8/9/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 8/2/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 7/5/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week- Week Ending 6/28/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 6/21/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 6/13/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 6/06/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 5/29/14.
Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 5/22/14.
Capital Fringe Scene Stealers Part 1 and Part 2.
