Reader Recommended — Smoke is Excellent! May 18, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentI went last night with my wfie and parents to see Smoke on the Mountain, the latest offering from Provision Theater and it is a rip-roaring funny musical! Go check it out Thursday to Sun at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 N Western Ave.
Smoke on the Mountain is the story of the 1938 North Carolina Mount Pleasant Church’s first Saturday night ”sing.” Reverend Mervin Ogethorpe (Alex Goodrich, a traffic banjo player) has invited the “Singing Sanders’ family to lead the church’s first ‘sing.’ Burl Sanders (Richard Marlatt) and wife Vera Sanders (Susan Moniz) together with Burl’s brother Stanley (Jeff Harms) and their children June (Amber Burgess), Denise (Christine Barnes) and her twin Dennis (Shaun Whitley) form a gospel bluegrass band. The Sanders’ family play guitar, fiddle, bass, mandolin and piano and all have excellent voices. They mix their wide range of white gospel tunes with down-home personal antidotes and religious ‘testimonies.’ These sentimentally sweet stories are humorous adding a spiritual revival element to the show. The musicianship here is first class.
The cast have a blend of fine voices (Susan Moniz and Richard Marlatt are terrific), offering truthful performances, especially from Shaun Whitley and Christine Barnes as the teen twins smitten with the spirit of the Lord. There were rich harmonies and a nice mixture of bluegrass and gospel tunes. These rural folks’ lives are centered on their religion in small town North Carolina in 1938 and their faith explodes through their music and their general store and auto garage in rural North Carlonia.
RECOMMENDED BY THE CHICAGO READER
Here is what the Chicago Reader says “SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, Provision Theater’s gospel musical can be an awfully sweet treat–but every time my teeth started to itch, one of writer Connie Ray’s hairpin turns to comedy saved the day. Set in 1938, the show transforms the audience into the congregation of a Baptist church at its first-ever Saturday night sing, hosted by the annoyingly earnest Reverend Oglethorpe. His invited guests, the musical Sanders family, play and sing a range of traditional numbers, from the familiar (”Rock of Ages”) to the oddball (”The Filling Station”), the touching (”Blood Medley”) to the rousing (”Angel Band”). In between, family members relate their generally hilarious inspirational stories. Director Tim Gregory keeps things precise but light, and all the performers are chock-full of the musical and comic spirit. –Laura Molzahn Through 6/8: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western, 773-506-4429, $20-$25, industry shows Thu,
Provision Theater Presents: SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN April 17, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City, Provision Theater, Culture and Faith , add a commentIt is that time again!
Provision Theater, who is dedicated to performing works of hope, reconciliation and redemption and has received accolades for its last six shows, is getting set to mount its last production of the year, SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a foot-stompin’ musical, featuring Susan Moniz, !
In this musical, Provision’s artistic director, Tim Gregory, takes you back to a simpler time, where you become the congregation of Mount Pleasant Church. You have been invited to their “first ever Saturday Night Sing”. Pastor Oglethorpe is determined to move his flock into the “modern world”, by inviting the Singing Sanders Family to join him. They will delight you with some of the best old gospel tunes ever written, like “Church in the Wildwood”, “Wonderful Time Up There”, and “I’ll Fly Away”. A mixture of song, stories, hilarity and honest emotion, this audience favorite will have you tapping your toes and lifting your spirit.
WHAT: SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN
WHERE: VIADUCT THEATER 3111 N Western Avenues (MAP)
WHEN: May 8 - June 8 — Thur, Fri and Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 3pm
To purchase tickets: Call 773.506.4429
