Theater Reviews

Oct 8, 2000 - Nevada Rep's "Wind in the Willows" Has Charm and More

By Jack Neal

In adapting Kenneth Grahame's popular tale about the odyssey of Toad, Mole, Rat, Badger and those pesky Weasels, script writer, lyricist and composer Douglas Post, through his delightful words and music, has kept the original feel of Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" charmingly intact.

So has director Sue Klemp who makes her debut for the Nevada Repertory Company's main season with this upbeat spin on this wonderful old children's story. Klemp's debut is an auspicious one. Her take on "WITW" is light as a souffle and as droll as it can be. She has also had the good sense to know how to direct a musical, something few in Reno in recent memory have managed to do. With Klemp the show's music isn't an afterthought, it's a basic ingredient and she makes terrific use of it.

The young voices (children play important roles in "WITW") and the almost-as-light voices of the more mature members of the cast have been unerringly groomed for the musical stage by the show's music director Brach Thomson. Equally as important, Thomson and his band of two others (Daniel Rostrup and Adam Van Broklin) have so beautifully integrated the accompanying music (inlcuding just the right subdued volume) with the play's action nothing on the main stage needs amplification and everything flows as smoothly as the wind sails breezily through the willows of this wonderfully paced show.

Also great assists in "Wind's" success are the rambunctious choreography of Janine Burgener, the magical hints of animal costuming of Chamaea Tausch, Sara Fisk's witty makeup designs, Larry Walter's airy free-flow sets and Michael Fernbach's radiant lighting. Kudos to all for such a buoyant set-up for this send-up of wit, humor and whimsical philosophy.

The cast is as right-on as the production is on target. Everyone delivers with oodles of finesse, and charm enough to woo even the most cynical.

While Bradford Ka 'ai 'ai dominates the proceedings with his marvelously outsize Toad, Tyler Dean's Rat is the adroit picture of understated refinement. Kris Walleck projects a bumbling ineffectual brand of reticence that makes her Mole the perfect side-kick for Dean's Rat. As Badger, Chadaeos Clarno conveys a shrewdly smooth, if somewhat ruffled, authority. Kevin Ford is ferociously entertaining as "Wind's" Chief Weasal, a role Ford plays with relish and pizzazz. But then, all the show's roles, large and not quite as large, are played with relish and pizzazz.

The remainder of the cast who play a myriad of delicious (as in delightful not edible) animal types all deserve praise. Brandon Lewis (Otter), Nicole Luchetti (Mrs. Otter), Sunny Corrao (Policeman), Tiffany Parkes (Innkeeper), Jessica McKenna (Margaret), Eric Pearson (Portly), Brandy Barna (Field Mouse), Lauren Jackson (Randi Hedgehog), and last but certainly not least Juliana Bledsoe (Billy Hedgehog) were all spiffy and right and everything nice and wonderful role models for their species, whatever they were.

These critters and creatures and a wholly whimsical production make Nevada Rep's "The Wind in the Willows" an unequivocal delight for both children and adults.

"The Wind in the Willows" opened Friday, October 6, and plays October 7, 11, 12, 13, 14 at 7:30 p.m. and October 14 and 15 at 1:30 p.m. All performancves are at the Redfield Proscenium Theatre on the University of Nevada, Reno campus. For ticket information call 775-784-6847.