Limited Perspective

Something happened.  It was transcendent. Lorenzo Pugliese as Frankie Valli was singing the big number, Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You. “I love you baby!” he sang. The crowd – and it was a crowd at that point, not a theatrical audience – was in a frenzy.  Time and space were bending. Individual identities became fluid. This was not Mr. Pugliese in front of me. It was the real Frankie Valli. This was not the Village Theater in Everett. This was, like, the Sands Casino in Las Vegas in nineteen-sixty-whatever.  Pugliese/Valli came down the stairs at stage left and worked his way along the front row. I’m not kidding. It was like he was someone else. It was like the crowd were all someone else. I was someone else, somewhere else. We all floated there. Together.  Later in the show, when The Four Seasons are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Tommy DeVito, one of the group, says,  “Listen, fellas. I wanna tell you something. This is the greatest award you...

In the director’s notes in the program for Same Time Next Year , produced by Heart Repertory Theatre and now playing at the Sammamish Valley Grange Hall in Woodinville, Jane Ryan writes,    “I didn’t think I would want to direct it because it is about an extramarital affair and I’m happily married to my true love for 45 years. But many of my friends told me how much they love this play, and folks I would meet recounted their fond memories of seeing the play or the movie.” This is perfect. It’s the same attitude of the characters, George and Doris. They wouldn’t have said ahead of time (would they?) that they wanted to have an affair, but when it presented itself — there it was and it looked so good they couldn’t resist. They live with that tension through the ups and downs of their lives for 25 years and we get to see it play out in two hours on the stage.  BJ Smyth (George) and Erin Michele Gabbard (Doris) do a beautiful job with these characters and their relationship. ...