(:)(:)(:)(:) 4 snouts up out of a possible 5 snouts (click here to understand my snout-based rating system) for Between Riverside and Crazy up at Capital Stage in Sacramento midtown through Sunday September 29th.
Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, who wrote Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train' perhaps the best play I ever saw produced at Capital Stage, this play toggles between hilarious dialogue and performances and genuine pathos. Guirgis's writing and Judith Moreland's direction are superb. The performances are very strong, with notes below.
There are more characters and actors on stage then one usually sees on the Capital Stage--that's great fun. They're all strong. Darn it I recycled my program and can't find the cast list online. Particularly strong performances by the actor who plays Oswaldo the sober (or not) ex-con friend of the son and the manipulative self-serving Lieutenant.
My only note would be that while the lead actor, James Wheatley, who I believe is also the artistic director of the wonderful Celebration Arts theater in Sacramento, gives a physically and emotionally strong performance, he doesn't seem to have fully inhabited the words of the script--he stumbled over some of what he was saying and it didn't feel as if his character embodied those wonderful lines.
The music is also fabulous. Please catch a performance this weekend or next and tell your friends.
Below is everything I could cut and paste from the website about the play
Between Riverside And Crazy
Between Riverside And Crazy
by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Judith Moreland
August 28 – September 29, 2019
2015 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Sacramento Premiere
2015 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Sacramento Premiere
Ex-cop and recent widower Walter “Pops” Washington and his newly paroled son Junior have spent a lifetime living between Riverside Drive and crazy. But now, the NYPD is demanding his signature to close an outstanding lawsuit, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed—and the church won’t leave him alone. When the struggle to keep one of New York City’s last great rent-stabilized apartments collides with old wounds, sketchy new houseguests, and a final ultimatum, it seems that the old days may be dead and gone.
“Capital Stage launches its 15th anniversary season with one of its best productions ever.” —SN&R
“New Capital Stage Play is ‘Crazy’ Good.” —Sacramento Press
“…It’s chock-full of entertaining surprises.” —Sacramento Bee
“If you only have time for one play in Sacramento this month, ‘Between Riverside And Crazy’ at Capital Stage is the one see…This darkly funny drama [is] a must-see theatrical event.” —Outword Magazine
Act I: 60 minutes. Act II: 50 minutes. One 15 minute intermission.
Viktoria Luna, Kelley Ogden, Aaron Wilton*, Dena Martinez*.
*Member Actors’ Equity Association. Photos by Charr Crail.
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