Author: Michael Witthaus

The gods must be funny

Lend Me A Tenor playwright’s latest hits Concord

The old adage “Be careful what you wish for” guides The Gods of Comedy, the latest production from Community Players of Concord. The 2019 Ken Ludwig play makes its New Hampshire debut on Feb. 14 at Concord City Auditorium. It looks at what happens when a pair of deities are beseeched from the heavens and actually arrive.

The story begins when two professors, Ralph and Daphne, find a rare manuscript while on a holiday in Greece, only to see it inadvertently destroyed when they return to their Ivy League university. This prompts a cry for on-high assistance that miraculously produces Dionysus, the god of misrule and partying, and Thalia, who’s the muse of comedy.

It’s classics weekend at the college, so the gods are sidetracked by costumed students and campus partying, while the frazzled professors try to solve the problem of the lost work, a Euripides play. Meanwhile, additional gods of varying demeanor manage to make things more complicated.

“It’s part fantasy and classic literature — there’s a lot of Shakespeare references, which I really appreciate,” Elizabeth Lent, the play’s director, said by phone recently. “There are ancient Greek references as well, but also a lot of silliness, as they get into a lot of interesting antics and situations.”

This is the Players’ fifth play by Ludwig, well-known for his 1986 Tony winner, Lend Me a Tenor. Lent has directed two of them, 2004’s Shakespeare In Hollywood and Ludwig’s 2017 revival of Murder on the Orient Express. She’s pleased to present a relatively fresh work with up to date elements.

“I really do like the fact that it’s contemporary,” Lent, who’s been with Concord Community Players since the early 1980s, said. “I’ve been directing for a very long time and have directed lots of old stuff. I was really interested in trying something new, and Ludwig appeals to me.”

The cast includes Emily Thompson playing Daphne, John Julian, Alex Hutton, Kal Hachi and Suzanne Watts as Dionysus and Thalia, along with Heather Carmichael, Dana Sackos, Griffin Stuart, Seth Bunke and, making her Players debut, Jeri Lynn Owen. Set designer is Craig Walker, costumes are by Suzanne Potoma and Gay Bean, and lighting by Steven Meier.

Lent had the play cast the night auditions were finished.

“The chemistry is so good with these folks,” she said. “They’re all very talented and dedicated. Everyone comes to every rehearsal, even the tiniest little roles. They all like each other, which is really kind of wonderful, and they’re having such a good time. It’s so joyful to watch them work.”

Among the hijinks occurring is one of the gods inhabiting two of the other characters.

“They get possessed, and these two actresses that are making the transformation are hilariously funny doing it,” Lent said. More importantly, everything ends on a happy note. “For me, it’s exciting to watch these folks just having such a blast with it.”

Lots of laughs, a cast enjoying themselves and an upbeat finale is just what’s needed at this particular moment in time, and The Gods of Comedy is poised to provide all that.

“When the gods come down, they’re given a mission; this woman, Daphne Ring, needs an adventure and a happy ending, and they deliver,” Lent said, who described the play as “a clever mashup of the best kinds of knockabout comedy across the ages” in a press release. “We’d love to see everybody in the audience. Because it’s so new, it’s very exciting for us to be performing it.”

The Gods of Comedy
When: Friday, Feb. 14, and Saturday, Feb 15, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 16, 2 p.m.
Where: Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord
Tickets: $20 ($18 under 18 and 65+) at communityplayersofconcord.org

Featured photo: L to R – Kal Hachi, Emily Thompson and Suzanne Watts. Photo by Michael Von Redlich.

Double Rush

Lotus Land plays twice at Tupelo

By Michael Witthaus

[email protected]

A good tribute act walks a tightrope, capturing a sound without trying to fully reproduce it. It’s something that bassist Chris Nelson thinks about frequently. His band Lotus Land plays the challenging catalog of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame trio Rush, and Nelson knows that convincing proximity, not perfection, is a sane performer’s best target.

“It’s not like we’re trying to repaint the Mona Lisa, that’s almost a thankless task,” he said by phone recently. “We’ve gelled into performing this stuff with a certain degree of our personalities. Tone comes from the hands of the musician; you can’t help but sound a bit like yourself … you’re not trying to just be a robot.”

Fortunately, Nelson’s voice has a natural pitch that’s similar to that of Rush’s lead singer. Comments about the vocal resemblance have followed him for years. “I’d sing a Zeppelin tune and without fail people would say, ‘You sound so much like Geddy Lee,’” he said. “Here I thought I was doing a pretty good Robert Plant! But anyway, I’m a crazy Rush fan.”

His bandmates, guitarist Bob Chartrand and drummer Mark Dalton, started Lotus Land as a four-piece, parting ways with the original bass and keyboard players when they met Nelson and became a trio. Before playing out, they watched videos and practiced hard, aware that Rush’s fans would “be as understandably critical of us as they are loyal to the real thing.”

They approached their first gig fretting about the formula, prepared to bail if it failed. “I’m not going to put myself and my bandmates through the embarrassment — if it doesn’t work, that’s going to be it, because I know it’s a tall order,” Nelson recalled thinking at the time. “But it was well-received … and it kept snowballing.”

The band took its name from a line in “Freewill,” a song from Rush’s breakthrough 1980 album Permanent Waves. The late Neal Peart was inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey when he wrote it, according to interpretations. In the book Merely Players, Peart said the “Lotus-land” was “a metaphor for an idealized background, a land of milk and honey.”

Their website describes “an obsessive approach … that inevitably compels us to incorporate every authentic Rush nuance into whatever amazing tune of theirs we may be playing,” and on songs like “Spirit of the Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” they deliver on the promise with masterful musicianship that honors the original songs.

Nelson’s bonafides as a fan are undeniable — he’s seen them live almost 20 times, and Lotus Land performed at the 2012 RushCon in Toronto. The latter was a life-changing event for him — he met his future wife there. She was there from L.A., along with thousands of others who’d traveled there.

The meeting only sparked a friendship; both were with other partners at the time. “Two years later, our situations changed, and here we are married; so I can credit the band for that,” he said. “What’s cool is I got to tell Geddy Lee that, very briefly at a book signing, I had my 60 seconds like everybody else, and I got to tell him that.”

Asked to name his most enjoyable moments during Lotus Land’s set, Nelson responded, “I love that question. People have their favorite areas of the band and mine happens to be from Permanent Waves through Grace Under Pressure, so that’s also Moving Pictures and Signals. For my natural register as a vocalist, that feels right in my pocket, so that’s the kind of stuff I love to do.”

That said, there’s another song he loves not on any of those albums.

“I love playing ‘The Path,’” he said, adding a side note. “I never try to change my voice to sound like him at all. I hear some other tribute acts do, but I’ve got a higher, and similar register as Geddy, so I’m just going to sing in my natural voice. If it sounds like him at the end of the day, great. If not, it shouldn’t be too painful on people’s ears because I’m going for the right pitch … it should be close.”

Lotus Land

When: Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $42 and up at tupelohall.com

Featured Photo: Courtesy Photo.

The Music Roundup 25/02/06

By Michael Witthaus

[email protected]

• Reflective: A tribute to touring life, “The Road” from Rebecca Turmel is a fine depiction of the creative impulse that drives many performers. “I had no choice, the music chose me; and once it did, no going back,” she sings. Recorded in Nashville and released in the summer of 2023, the song includes guitar from longtime Jackson Browne Band member Val McCallum. Thursday, Feb. 6, 6 p.m., DOX on Winnisquam, 927 Laconia Road, Tilton; see rebeccaturmel.com.

• Inclusive: The musical nom de plume of singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Roz Raskin, Nova One performs with a band of identically dressed members — bob blond wigs, black dresses, tights and heels. The group is described as “lush, dreamy music that celebrates and centers vulnerability, self-love, self-expression, and queer futurity.” Their latest album is create myself. Friday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., UNH Strafford Room, 83 Main St. (second floor), Durham, $10 non-students.

• Unscripted: After 25 years in the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Brad Sherwood comes to town for a night of one-man improv comedy. He creates an experience that’s akin to jam bands like Phish, only funnier; no two shows are ever the same. Saturday, Feb. 8, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $43 and up at palacetheatre.org.

• Escapist: Steer clear of big game hype by having an early brunch with music from Marc Apostolides. There’s nothing like eggs Benedict washed down with mimosas to help forget that the closest New England is getting to the Super Bowl this year is Tom Brady’s commentary. Apostolides is a veteran singer/songwriter who’s also known for producing the Sacred Sessions livestream. Sunday, Feb. 9, 11 a.m., Copper Door, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford; theapostolidesproject.com.

• Camaraderie: In 1994, a brilliant collection of folk music was released, On A Winter’s Night. Organized by Christine Lavin, it was a showcase of the genre’s finest performers. Among the featured artists were Patty Larkin, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky. The four are back by popular demand for an in the round song pull and collaborations. Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $29 and up at etix.com.

Counting blessings

Colby-Sawyer showcases Italian program

By Michael Witthaus

[email protected]

Having a community conversation was Theatre Kapow’s goal when its season began last fall. This continues with Every Brilliant Thing, a play that will spend a weekend at BNH Stage in Concord, then move to Winnipesaukee Playhouse two weeks later for three final performances.

About a child trying to encourage their mother, hospitalized after a failed suicide attempt, with a list of “brilliant things” that are worth living for, it’s technically a one-person play. However, an in-the-round crowd plays a big role, even for a theater company that’s always strived to bring it close to the action.

“Throughout … the audience is relied on quite heavily to make the story actually happen, to get the character through each scene to the next point,” Director Emma Cahoon said by phone recently. This begins when attendees enter the venue; each gets a card with a numbered “thing” written on it to call out when prompted. Bolder souls can choose bigger roles.

Playwright Duncan McMillan, she continued, tells a story about how depression can be contagious without tools to take it on. His message: People can’t go it alone, they need help. To that end, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, Capital Art Therapy and the Jason R. Flood Memorial Fund are all community partners for the production.

“He tells a story about a person discovering how important it is to talk to other people, in a way that requires the audience to be in conversation with the piece the whole time,” she said. “So the function of the storytelling is proving the narrator’s point [that] I could not get through this on my own … I had to turn to other people.”

Though the material can be dark, it radiates hope with happy thoughts of “ice cream, water fights, and knowing someone well enough to get them to check your teeth for broccoli.” There’s also an improv comedy mood; an exchange between the main actor and a volunteer co-star could go anywhere, after all.

In a Jan. 28 blog post, Eric Gutterson, a longtime patron who’s served as test audience for rehearsals, said the play evokes “laughter, sadness, joy, longing, and a sense of togetherness,” adding that it “doesn’t shy away from being real. There are dark tones, but you come up for air early and often with frequent moments of comic relief.”

Matt Cahoon co-founded Theatre Kapow with his wife Carey; Emma is their daughter and this is her second directing role. Matt, who’s also Academic Dean and Theatre Director at the New Hampton School, has taught Every Brilliant Thing to his students. He called the feelings Gutterson described in line with his company’s mission.

“Sometimes contemporary theater can feel like you’re taking your medicine, because you’re having to have these difficult thoughts,” he said by phone. “But there’s also a lot of sugar that goes with that medicine.”

The decision to make conversation a focus of their season was deliberate, in anticipation of a contentious election and its aftermath. Matt thinks Every Brilliant Thing transcends that.

“In a polarized and often isolating world, the play’s format… emphasizes shared vulnerability and collective healing,” he wrote on their website.

“There’s a stripped down, base human aspect to all of us,” he continued in conversation. “With the audience for this show, we’re not Republicans and Democrats, we’re not even men and women or old and young. We’re just humans in the space together … here’s an entry point for every single person who lives and breathes on this planet into this play.”

Though she was 6 when her parents founded the company, Emma Cahoon wasn’t always certain that it was her destiny. During her rebellious middle school years she even planned on being a nurse. Last May, however, she graduated from BU with a BFA in Theatre Arts. She’s in it for the long haul now, and comfortable with that knowledge.

“Everything I said I was going to do that wasn’t theater was, in some ways, theatrical,” she said. “I never imagined myself not in a caretaking or community-based position, and when I got over that period of time, I was like, ‘Yeah, actually, this is what I wanted to do.’ Then I went to school for it, and here we are.”

Every Brilliant Thing

At BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Friday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9, 2 p.m.

At Winnipesaukee Playhouse, 33 Footlight Circle, Meredith
Friday, Feb. 21, and Saturday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 23, 2 p.m.

Tickets: $25 and up at tkapow.com

Starring Peter Josephson on Feb. 7, Feb. 9, Feb. 22, Carey Cahoon on Feb. 8, Feb. 21, Feb. 23.

Content Transparency:
Verbal descriptions of depression, self-harm, suicide and suicidal ideations.
There will be some warm and inclusive audience participation.

Featured photo: Emma Cahoon. Photo by Sarah Coleman.

Stones’ fab four

Paying tribute to a hot streak of albums

By Michael Witthaus

[email protected]

Beginning with Beggars Banquet in 1968, the Rolling Stones made four records in a row that are all among the greatest to come from the classic rock era — and the last one, 1972’s Exile on Main Street, was a double album. The other two were, of course, 1969’s Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers, released in 1971.

Here’s the thing, though. It was an iconic streak, but the band’s true achievement was surviving it. Most of them, anyway; co-founder Brian Jones barely made it through the first two LPs before his death. Arrests, bad business deals, a disastrous free concert and a midnight run from England to France all happened, while the music just got better.

A show on Feb. 1 at Pembroke City Limits will feature four songs from each album, along with a look at the times that produced them. A house band led by John Zevos of Lichen will recreate “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Dead Flowers,” “Tumbling Dice” and a dozen others.

“I was peeling through some of the Stones’ essential works of the late ’60s and ’70s and I just could not get past these four records,” PCL owner Rob Azevedo, who organized the show, said recently. “Mick’s potent lyrics, Keith’s blazing riffs and the magnitude of these incredible creations…. I thought, we need to pay tribute to these songs, and soon!”

Hosting and providing historical context for the event will be me, Michael Witthaus. I watched a lot of it unfold as a teenager in Northern California, like the horrific Altamont show that summarily ended the ’60s idealism once rising at Woodstock. When the Stones returned to San Francisco in 1972 and played Winterland, I was there.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot more from books and podcasts about the decade’s music. I’ll talk about living in that era, and tell stories about the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World, like the one about how the organ player on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” later joined The Stones and helped shape the opening bars of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

A seasoned group of Stones-loving musicians is promised, which will include a horn section for a few songs consisting of sax players Brian Booth, Dani Sven and Jason Reichelson, along with John Spring on trumpet. Zevos wrote the horn charts, something he’s done for Azevedo-organized tribute shows in the past. The band, he said in an email interview, consists of “people I’ve played with a lot over the years that I knew would be great playing Stones tunes.”

On keyboards and singing is his wife Diane Zevos. She’s also a member of Lichen, a band nearly as durable as the Stones, having marked 43 years together last August. “Di loves rock ’n’ roll, and adds so much to any band she plays in,” Zevos said. “We love playing together.”

Playing guitar and vocals is Wayne Hughes, a longtime collaborator of Zevos’. “We play together all the time in various situations, and he knows more about the Stones than anyone I know,” he explained. “As soon as Rob asked me to do this I said to myself, ‘I have to get Wayne,’ and he was eager to jump in.

Steve Forgione, though best known for his guitar work in local band Who Knows What, will move to drums for the show. “He grew up drumming in drum corps, and he is also a fantastic drummer,” Zevos said, adding, “Steve knows this material really well and I think because he is a guitar player he is a very musical drummer.”

On bass and vocals is a newer friend of Zevos, Peter Borden. “I met Peter while playing with him in another band and we found that we have the same taste in music,” he said. ‘Even more than that, we hit it off musically. When I found out he was into the Stones, he seemed like the logical choice, and it is working out really well.”

Zevos will handle the “Keef” parts on guitar. “A lot of them are in the open tunings that Keith Richards uses,” he said. “You can play all of the songs in standard tuning, but to get the same sound as Keith, on some songs you need to use the tunings. I like it, it’s really fun. I’ll need to bring four guitars.”

Rolling Stones Tribute Show

When: Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m.
Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Suncook
More: pembrokecitylimits.com

Featured Photo: Rolling Stones, 1969 (Courtesy Photo).

The Music Roundup 25/01/30

By Michael Witthaus

[email protected]

• New Yorkers: Nosaj and Haight Keech’s new duo Wave Generators hit town in support of their latest LP, After the End. Released last year, the 11-track effort has elements of the rap rock that fueled New Kingdom, Nosaj’s former group, with the growling “New North” harkening back to ’90s era Iggy Pop. Also appearing are area favorites Cody Pope and Byron G., along with Nahreally. Thursday, Jan. 30, 8 p.m., Zo’s Place, 235 Main St., Nashua, wavegenerators.bandcamp.com.

• Family sound: Offering gorgeous close harmonies and delicate instrumentation, Golden Oak is fronted by the sibling duo of Zak and Lena Kendall. One writer described the mood of their unique music as “energetic intimacy.” Their most recent album, Room to Grow, explores the physical and spiritual effects of the climate crisis. Liz Simmons, known for her work with trio Low Lily, opens the show. Friday, Jan. 31, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $31 at ccanh.com.

• Just ducky: After enough customers told her she was the best thing about Boston’s Duck Boat Tours, Jody Sloane went from delivering sit-down jokes while driving an amphibious vehicle to standup comedy. A regular favorite at the Doubletree Hotel showcase room, she’ll headline a weekend show. Saturday, Feb. 1, 8 p.m., Headliners Comedy Club, 700 Elm St., Manchester, $20 at eventbrite.com

• New romantic: Enjoy a Sunday afternoon sans football with highbrow melodies from Anthony Nunziata. In his Bocelli and Beyond show, the singer mixes operatic gems such as “O Sole Mio” and “Ave Maria” with pop hits like “When I Fall In Love” and originals one critic wrote have the “songwriting passion of a young Billy Joel combined with the soulfulness of Ed Sheeran.” Sunday, Feb. 2, 2 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $39 and up at palacetheatre.org.

• Helping hands: The Woodman Winter Warm-Up event has music from Gnarly Darling, a rootsy band playing originals and covers of bands like Wilco, Black Pumas and John Prine. There will be drinks, food and a raffle with custom guitars from Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan, all to benefit the Woodman Museum’s mission “to advance and develop passion for history, nature, and the arts.” Tuesday, Feb. 4, 5 p.m., Chapel + Main, 83 Main St., Dover, $75 at simpletix.com.

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