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September 8 - October 1, 2005
Valhalla intertwines two stories: the life of Ludwig of
Bavaria, the 1880s Mad King responsible for building a series of
storybook castles inspired by Wagnerian operas, and the fictional
adventures of James Avery, a wild Texas teenager of the 1940s.
These two iconoclasts are tracked from childhood through their
deaths, and while they embody separate eras, they are ultimately
revealed as time-traveling soul mates. The play explores questions
of beauty and madness, as both Ludwig and James pursue lives of
operatic passion, bringing them in contact with such diverse figures
as a high-school quarterback, the prettiest girl in Dainsville,
Texas, most of the characters of Lohengrin , and princess
Sophie, who declares herself "the loneliest humpback in Europe." Valhalla is
a comic epic, confronting the price to be paid for wanting - and
getting - everything you dream of.
"...full of funny moments." - NY Daily News
"...a dizzy, brisk diptych that connects 19th-century Bavaria
to 1940s Texas in a unified field theory of gayness." - Time
Out
"...a juggling act skillful enough to revive vaudeville." -
Village Voice
"If, as Paul Rudnick contends, 'opera is music gone mad,' what's
it called when a giddy profusion of one-liners achieves the lunatic
rhythm of music?" - NY Newsday
"Quips fall with the regularity of autumn leaves." - Associated
Press
CAST:
Kim Furlow - Queen
Blaine Smith* - Henry-Lee
Rory Lipede - Sally
Andrew Michael Nieman - James Avery
Terry Meddows - Ludwig
Gary Wayne-Barker* - Pfeiffer
*Member of Actor's Equity association, the professional union
of actors and stage managers in the United States. |
