ARTS & LEISUREPAGE 20 — THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE
'Everything Goes' during Broadway remix in RoselleBy Bea SmithStaff Writer
Cole Porter's "Anything Goes"may reportedly be the "hottest"ticket on Broadway these days, butLinden's Mystic Vision Playerswas hot in its own right Thursdayevening when it staged "EverythingGoes," a variety of Broadwaymusical numbers in which the gen-ders are hilariously dipped.
In fact, the theatrical group, ledby Rita Greco, with her singingteacher actress daughter, HollyAstore who serves as the new pub-lic relations chairperson, reallywent out of its way to offer thisexciting, hilarious piece of enter-tainment in real style — as a dinnertheater presentation: It was in thebanquet lounge at the CavalierRegency in Roselle, with managerAngelo Vagas, politely offering amenu of delicious food to thisreviewer and her guest.
Provided with the cooperationof the Linden Cultural and I leritageCommittee, "Everything Goes" isthe group's fifth installment in itsOne Night Only series, and its suc-cess Thursday night was phenome-nal.
With a background of a barestage and a winding staircase aspart of the scenery, 18 talentedyoung people exerted such an enor-mous amount of energy in their par-odies that it affected the wildlyappreciative audience, who sat atlarge round tables and ate anddrank to its heart's content;applauding noisily during the entireperformance.
Following the introductionadvising the audience of reversal ingender roles and to expect "a lot of
From left: Duane Cosby, Andrew Young, Alistair Williams, Patrick Starega, Lyle Dungee and Steve Leshchankamake up part of the cast of 'Anything Goes.'
Need Is The Girl."There were more
swishing." the full company, boysas girls and girls as boys, came outsinging "Everything Goes, Any-thing Goes."
Duane Cosby and Jessica Mur-ray did a good rendition of "SueMe" from "Guys and Dolls;" LauraFraenkel, "Purpose," from "AvenueQ" and there was a bouncy versionof "Let's Hear It For The Boy,"from "Footloose."
Perhaps the Vision Players wenta little too far with MaleesaLamatina attempting to enact "MyUnfortunate Erection" from"Spelling Bee," but a number ortwo after, Aiistair Williams, Lyle
actually thrilled the audience withdance and song as they performed"Dreamgirls," from the same title.
For further shock value, duringwhich the audience appeared toturn itself inside out, Lamatina, Ali-cia Coredero, Fraenkel, AshleighMyers, Astore and Ali Gleason per-formed "The Bitch of Living,"from "Spring Awakening." An out-standing version of "I Can't SayNo," from "Oklahoma!," wasinspiringly offered by AndrewYoung.
One of this reviewer's favoritetunes, "Gee, Officer Krupke," from"West Side Story" was energetical-
Amanda Dunyak, Melissa Kahanand Allisa Valiante. And all of theabove took place during Act One.
For Act Two, "Cell BlockTango" from "Chicago" tore theaudience into a frenzy with Cosby,Steve Leschanka, Dungee, PatrickStarega, Alistair Williams andYoung contributing to the musicalblast. Gleason did a dramaticallyfine job singing "Where Do I Go?"from "Hair." Brian Murray didplenty of swishing as he prancedaround warbling "I Enjoy Being AGirl," from "Flower Drum Song."And with roles being thoroughlyreversed, Dungee, who has a great
enjoyabletunes from "Guys and Dolls," andJessica Murray, Leschanka andStarega offered their comical ver-sion of "Getting Married Today"from "Company."
And when the full company,eight males and 10 females, withsome deceptive audience participa-tion, bombarded everyone with"We Are What We Are," from "LaCage Aux Folles," even Jerry Her-man, who was responsible for thisgreat musical, would have beenimpressed.
Bea Smith can be reached (it
Dungee and Howard Whitmore ly enacted by Astore, Gleason, face, and Melissa Kaban sang "All 908-686-7700, ext. 118.
Roselle Park names Seufert the town's Poet LaureateRoselle Park resident and poet Leona M.
Seufert was designated the 2011 town PoetLaureate by the mayor and council. Seufertis Roselle Park's first person to be honoredby this title.
Seufert, a 25-year resident of RosellePark, is active in the arts in town. Over thelast 4 years, she has read her poems at theannual Sept. 11, 2001 memorial service,and has given writing workshops and read-ings at the Roselle Park Library and CasanoCommunity Center.
"I feel honored to receive this title. Iwrite poems that deal with the world aroundme, about loss and about the journey tohealing from tragic events. During mytenure this year I plan to not only share mypoetry with the residents of Roselle Park,but to also conduct workshops and holdevents in order to build a communitythrough poetry. 1 would like to show people
of all ages how easy it is to write and enjoypoetry and to use poetry to enhance theirlives."
Seufert has published two poetry chap-books. Her most recent, The Memory Keep-er's Promise — Reflecting on Loss andRemembrance, will be a vehicle to raisefunds to find a cure for cancer. It is not justa fundraising piece but a written memorialto those who passed away in her life.Included are also the poems that she read ateach of the Roselle Park Sept. 11, 2001memorial services.
Her first chapbook, From Here To ThereAnd Back Again, A Commuter's Journey,was published in 2007 and is a witty,insightful collection of poems she wroteabout her daily commute into New YorkCity over a 12 month period.
In 2004, she self published The 9-11Year, a signed, limited edition, hand bound
book of poems and essays about the after-math of Sept. 11, 2001 that came from ajournal she kept during the year followingthe World Trade Center attacks.
She has also had her works published inA Professional's Resource and Our SundayVisitor, Inc. Her essay, Determination, wasa winner in the 7th New Jersey WordsmithCompetition. Her poems have alsoappeared on numerous websites and inonline e-zines. Seufert graduated from NewYork City's prestigious high school for art,The High School of Art & Design and holdsa bachelor's degree in theater arts from theState University College of Arts and Sci-ence in Potsdam, N.Y. She is a board mem-ber of the Les Malamut Art Gallery inUnion and their webmaster. Seufert is thefounder and curates shows for the CasanoCommunity Center Art Gallery in RosellePark.
Her writing practice, Beyond WordsCommunications, helps businesses generatebuzz about their product or service, andcommunicate effectively with their cus-tomers, through well-written marketingmaterials.
Seufert, aside from being a poet, alsoenjoys painting and works in a variety ofmedia. Originally trained as a theatrical setdesigner, she spent many years workingwith professional and community theatres.In recent years, after using photoshop at oneof her full-time jobs, she started using it toexplore the possibilities to create digitalworks that could express her unique visionof the world around her.
Seufert's artwork has appeared innumerous group and solo shows in the NewYork City metropolitan area and upstateNew York. She can be contacted at [email protected].
