Fringe alternatives: Opera baseball, comedy, tragedy, musical poetry
If this month’s big Orlando Fringe Festival isn’t your artistic cup of tea, here are some alternatives to consider in the realms of theater and music.
At Winter Park Playhouse, “Desperate Measures” is on the stage as the theater wraps up its 20th season, which featured popular titles from years past.
Set in the Old West, “Desperate Measures” is a musical comedy about a doomed outlaw, an upright sheriff, a bawdy saloon gal turned good, and an authoritarian governor with a wandering eye. I called the Playhouse’s 2019 production “a crackerjack of a show.” The country music-tinged silliness runs through June 11 (winterparkplayhouse.org).
Out in Mount Dora, the Sonnentag Theatre at the IceHouse presents “The Underpants,” while over in Oviedo “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” continues through May 21. Now there are two totally different plays.
Written by actor Steve Martin, “The Underpants” tells of a scandal in turn-of-the-20th-century Germany when a young newlywed gains notoriety after her bloomers become untied in front of the king. Despite her clueless husband’s presence, two suitors arrive to vie for her affections in Martin’s comic musing on the fleeting nature of fame.
The comedy runs through June 4 (icehousetheatre.com).
Meanwhile, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is the drama about an unforgettable night of psychological warfare between bitterly married George and Martha in front of new acquaintances Nick and Honey. You may have caught the famed movie version, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, back in the day. The Ensemble Company production, in residence at Penguin Point in the Oviedo Mall, runs through May 21 (penguinpointproductions.com/tickets).
On the music front, Opera Orlando plays some baseball, Orlando Sings looks at faith and science in its second choral festival, and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park concludes its season with program combining music and poetry.
Opera Orlando’s “Baseball: A Musical Love Letter” will be presented May 19 and 21 at Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre (operaorlando.org). The cabaret-style show tells the history of America’s pastime through song, with a particular emphasis on the old Negro Leagues and their athletes.
Created by Metropolitan Opera stage directors Kathleen Belcher and Dan Rigazzi, the show premiered in Kansas City, Missouri, home of the National Leagues Baseball Museum. Kansas City-based folk and blues guitarist and singer Danny Cox — whose father played ball in the Negro Leagues — is part of the cast.
Cox’s career spans more than 55 years, with national TV appearances and performances at Carnegie Hall, among other major venues.
Orlando Sings’ Choral Festival opens May 18 at First United Methodist Church in downtown Orlando with “I Believe,” featuring a gospel-style Mass by composer André J. Thomas and Margaret Bonds’ “Credo,” a setting of W.E.B. DuBois’s declaration of his philosophy of racial equality, among other works.
The festival offers two more concerts on May 20 — and a special dinner in between. First at 5 p.m., Timothy Takach’s concert-length “Helios” explores the mythology of our galaxy with visual projections by artist Deborah Johnson.
At 8 p.m., a program that draws inspiration from the Renaissance and the Reformation will feature the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. On the bill are Ottorino Respighi’s “Botticelli Triptych,” Jake Runestad’s “Into the Light” and Jocelyn Hagan’s The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,” which includes the great inventor-artist’s own words and drawings in a multimedia experience.
The between-concerts dinner includes presentations by composers Takach and Hagan (orlandosings.org).
Finally, the Bach Festival Society presents “The Marriage of Music and Poetry” on May 18 in Tiedtke Concert Hall at Rollins College in Winter Park. It’s the final concert of the season, which saw the debut of the Bach Vocal Artists. The professionals in that ensemble, which come from around the country, will explore the relationship between the two art forms through choral settings of words by Browning, Shelley and Shakespeare (bachfestivalflorida.org).
Email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com
