Randal Myler gives good Country, and the new show he directed, GOOD OL’ GIRLS, starts as a lively, jumpin’ Country-Western romp with five dynamic women singers: Lauren Kennedy, Teri Ralston, Gina Stewart, Liza Vann, the sparkling Sally Mayes, and a zippy four member backup band. They’re all full of spirit, and the clever, flavorful songs by Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman are an entertaining glance at Southern life. It’s a feel-good show performed by a terrific ensemble of professionals. Love, childbirth, old age— glimpses of Southern life in the mix of the show’s separate monologues, all from stories by Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle. Paul Ferguson adapted the stories into this show, and as the songs lift us, some of the monologues, rather than suggest, blatantly declare emotional states. The attempt at wider range, like an old folks home scene, while trying to be touching, just holds up the show as a long leadup to the next song, which brings us back to the backbone of the show: the music. It then sinks into sentimentality as we see a tearful description of the death of a mother. For me, this needed to be expressed primarily in song, not monologue. The strength is in the songs, which have a familiar authenticity, and these women really put them over. The set by Timothy R. Mackabee is a map of the Carolinas and part of Georgia on a stage-wide scrim, behind which the band is revealed playing. It works. So does the show as an entirety. If you like this kind of music (I do), you’ll have a great time (I did).

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Program B of PARSONS DANCE at The Joyce has a wide range of inventive performance from it’s start, a lovely surprise: “Wolfgang,” a classically patterned piece to Mozart’s music that captures moments of beauty in exciting variations, to its innovative use of hands only in ”Hand Dance,” to its signature piece “Caught,” in which a dancer flies. The six pieces in the evening, each with a different flavor, each brilliantly lighted by Howell Binkley, adds up to a very satisfying concert of movement that you can marvel at and be absorbed in. This is Modern Dance choreography and performance at top level. Through February 21.

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FELA, the Broadway musical about the Nigerian singer and political activist Fela Kuti, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, is based on American classic Big Band music, infused with African and other beats from an eclectic world wide exploration that Fela did in the 70’s. There are scantily-clad women dancers, and although I do love to see pretty women wriggle and jiggle, I wasn’t engaged. Most of the choreography seemed general and repetitious instead of specific and innovative, and the dancers were all exactly on the beat-- sexual but not sensual. The African drummers added to the ensemble were terrific, and had me bouncing in my seat. Fela’s politics, influenced by the Black Power movement in the United States, did make anti-corruption and anti-suppression statements in Lagos, but seemed preachy and simplistic in this show, and Kevin Mambo, who played Fela, spoke very quickly in a sometimes not understandable dialect. There are two Broadway-level singers in the show: Lillias White as Fela’s dead mother fills the theatre with her beautiful clear voice and presence, and Saycon Sengbloh captured me with her singing and acting. The set by Marina Draghici seemed a confused mishmash, and helped compound the lighting aberrations by Robert Wierzel, which at times blasted into the eyes of the audience. Draghici’s costumes worked well. All in all, an unusual, lively, enthusiastic rhythmic musical show with high spirits, and the audience had a good time.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

REMEMBER ME, program A of PARSONS DANCE at the Joyce, utilizes the lovely singing of Annmarie Milazzo and Tyler Ross from the East Village Opera Company as an integral part of the performance, and stars my two favorites from last year’s program, Abby Silva Gavezolli and the amazing Miguel Quinones whose mixture of Dance and Mime body communication is thrilling, and who reprises his stroboscopic feat of flying without wires- never touching the ground as an intro to the evening. Modern Dance can go anywhere, and David Parsons does in this mixture of classic ballet-based Modern, acrobatics, Adagio, ballroom, Latinish, and abstract designs by parts of the body including an original, inventive use of arms as patterns. The music is a classical pastiche, the dancers are all strong, lithe, fluid, and the evening is quite engaging, all perfectly lighted by Howell Binkley. PARSONS DANCE three part series continues until February 21st.

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DUET FOR SOLO VOICE by David Scott Milton gives us a splash of Absurdist Theatre from 1970 in which a schizophrenic night manager of a hotel deals with imaginary dangers while the hotel residents, moan, howl and screw in the background while he dances to their rhythms. There is quite a bit of humor in this display of paranoia, all well directed and staged by Stanley Allan Sherman. It’s a zany voyage down the river of paranoia— short psychotic episodes in which the actor, Jonathan Slaff, splits into two exaggerated characters- an American clerk and a Russian spy. Back then the Soviets were mockable, and we get double paranoia as Slaff, in a vigorous performance, pursues himself, quickly changing costume and nose. He is excellent in both roles, and finally ends up in a fight with himself playing both combatants that is a fun climax to the show. Set by Mark Marcante, lighting by Alexander Bartenieff and costumes by Susan Lasanta Gittens are all fine contributions to the proceedings. At Theatre for the New City on 1st Ave. and 10th St.

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NEXT TO NORMAL, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, music by Tom Kitt, strongly directed by Michael Greif, is a compelling, very contemporary psychological musical drama performed by a top-level Broadway cast of first rate singer/actors led by the dazzling Alice Ripley as a schizophrenic haunted by the ghost of her son who died at the age of two and has grown and matured in her imagination. The music that most of the dialogue is sung to has lovely lyrical melodic flavor, and the show is totally engaging in Act one as J. Robert Spencer as the long-suffering husband, Jennifer Damiano as the confused daughter, and the rest of the fine cast play out the intricate interaction of psychological aberrations. Half an hour into Act Two I found myself emotionally removed from the problems, watching rather than empathizing-- too much anguish and angst had slightly numbed me, and I found the conclusion to be unclear, and somewhat unrealistic. The intricate three level set by Mark Wendland is marvelous in its complexity and simplicity, costumes by Jeff Mahshie work perfectly and lighting by Kevin Adams blends with and enhances everything. It’s a really good, really strong show, and I’m glad I saw it, heard it, experienced it. Would I see it a second time? No.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Jim Brochu’s one man show ZERO HOUR, which he wrote and performs, brings to startlingly vivid life one of America’s greatest comedians, Zero Mostel. He captures the essence, the moves, the voice, the persona of the first Tevya, the first “producer,” and other spectacular performances by this unforgettable character. Years ago I saw Zero himself turn into a Rhinoceros in Ianesco’s play, and Brochu gives us a taste of that. Most of the play is about what Zero considered to be his métier: painting, and about the oppression by the House Unamerican Activities Committee in the ‘50’s and its suppression of the arts and artists which affected Zero and many of his friends, and destroyed some of them. Brochu powerfully tells the stories, and since it remains in the larger-than-life, but totally believable, character, we are unceasingly held by the performance. Piper Laurie has directed the show with a deep understanding of the rhythms, the bursts of energy and the plateaus necessary for live Theatre to hold and excite its audience. Lighting by Jason Arnold is probably the worst I’ve seen in a very long time. Mostly, the full stage is brightly lighted, and then when Mr. Brochu is communicating a special bit on the side of the stage, it is so dim it strains the eyes. Then, suddenly the whole stage is bright again. When stage lighting calls attention to itself, it is failing. Lighting for his testimony to The HUAC, is fine. Hopefully when the show moves to the DR2 on 15th St. in the near future, the lighting will be corrected. This is a great, award-level performer in a powerful vehicle-- don’t miss it!

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

RACE: David Mamet is a writer with snap and bite (and sometimes crackle and pop), and this time his fangs grab the legal process by the throat as a rich white man (Richard Thomas) is accused of raping a black woman. With a powerful microscope, Mamet lays arguments out there blatantly, magnifying everything as an experienced, cynical lawyer team, white James Spader and black David Alan Grier, aided by the young, beautiful new lawyer Kerry Washington, figure out whether or not and how they might defend Thomas. It makes for gripping Theatre as it proposes black or white (metaphorically as well as literally) arguments with no grays: black basically hates white and vv. Mamet knows his tempos, and chose himself to direct the production. He did well. There are gaping holes in the story whose existence is covered up by pace, action, and a big surprise. All design aspects of the production are just right: set by Santo Loquasto, clothing by Tom Broeker, lighting by Brian MacDevitt. Once again Mamet is his own man: controversial, theatrical, flawed, and terrific. As in “Oleana,” people were arguing with each other as they left the theatre. Fun.

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VENUS IN FUR by David Ives at CSC on E. 13th St. gives us an interesting theatrical contrapuntal duel between an actress and a writer which requires a suspension of disbelief from the start, but works dramatically. As one who has auditioned thousands, I can tell you that in reality, if an extravagantly flummoxed actress came in late for an audition, and insisted on being seen, in the interest of getting rid of such a neurotic personality, I’d let her do her two minute monologue, or read two pages of my script, say “Thank you very much,” and usher her out. But then there would be no play, and we wouldn’t see the extraordinary actress Nina Arianda transform herself into a cool, self-contained semi-dominatrix with a British accent who can subjugate the man in charge, and then flip back into a flibbity-gibbet. The capricious Ives has fun with us in this psychological battle with a surreal, “Theatre of the Absurd” flavor. Wes Bentley is fine as the weaker adversary; sexy costumes by Anita Yavich are exciting, flamboyant; John Lee Beatty’s set and Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting work perfectly on this stage with the audience on three sides, and Walter Bobbie had directed it with flair. VENUS IN FUR is totally engaging as the conflict and theatricality escalate. It’s a fun evening of sharp thrusts and parries performed with vigor and style.

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IL MONDO DELLA LUNA, the opera by Joseph Haydn, is being performed at The Planetarium with the fine singers of the Gotham Chamber Opera, their 27 piece orchestra neatly conducted by Artistic Director Neal Goren, projections from NASA and from Philip Bussmann which take us into space and far beyond in a psychedelic Light-Show, and wacky costumes by Anka Lupes, all imaginatively directed by Diane Paulus. It’s a great idea: wonderful music, a fine musical ensemble, terrific singers, cute staging, projections on the dome, gimmicks galore. Early on, I found it all a constant distraction from the lovely music— relegating Haydn to background music. The lighting in part one is brutal, often shining directly into the eyes of the audience. I had to hold up my program as a shield. They have supertitles projected on the dome, sometimes readable, sometimes washed out. Eventually, I just closed my eyes and listened. The romantic plot is silly anyway: daughters drug their father, tell him he is on the moon, and now they can choose their own husbands. While the voices resonated well, and the singing (particularly Hanan Alattar) and acting are on a high level, the orchestra is just slightly dulled in the dome-- it calls for a crisper acoustic quality. Part two, on the moon, there is a major shift into zany visual entertainment with lighted twirling hoops, absurd Moon costumes and wonderful projections (but basically unrelated to the music). Ultimately, it’s an original operatic tangent, with great music, that is a lot of fun.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.

Saw the lively jazz ensemble IN THE LIGHT. Fronted by singers Rona Allen and Kiminey Thomas and guitarist Mike Torres, it’s filled with affirmation— a jumpin’ bunch with great precision and musical artistry as they explore the intricacy of tunes, both original and cover, with Gene Ghee on sax, Lewis Landon on piano, Buster Hemphill on bass and Andrew Atkinson on drums. This band cooks and sparkles with flair.

Richmond Shepard-- Performing Arts INSIDER and lively-arts.com.