Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web
First Stage
11/9/2008
A giant metal spider web all across the back of the stage. It was green, silver and purple. That was the first thing that I noticed when we entered the theatre.
There were also the usual farm setting things - and a rope dangling from the ceiling. Where I was sitting, there was a post directly in my line of sight. That was sort of annoying.
For anyone not in the know, Charlotte's Web takes place on a farm. A young pig named Wilber makes friends with a spider named Charlotte. She uses her spinning abilities to write words in her web that astonishes the farmers and distracts them from killing Wilber and eating him. I'm very familiar with this book - and I saw a play of this story once before, a long time ago.
The cast was pretty strong - a lot of familiar names so that was cool. Sometimes I feel like a First Stage show doesn't count unless certain people are in it. Whenever this one actor gives the spiel about shutting off things that beep he always growls about watches that beep, reminding you that your life is one hour shorter. I've heard that three times, it's kinda old now. But anyway...
I was a little unsure at first because the play started out kind of strange. A woman walked out wearing a Native American blanket, which she danced around with a bit before laying it out on the stage. I do think that Native American dances are usually pretty spiffy to watch, but I was wondering what on Earth this had to do with Charlotte's Web. She turned to face the audience and she had very cool hair - two braids with red ribbons wound around them.
However, then the show shifted more into the standard storyline. The way it was structured, the adults: Charlotte, Mr and Mrs Zuckerman, Mrs Arable and the announcer all took turns narrating the story when their characters weren't occupied. I thought that was sort of neat.
Costume-wise, the show was pretty cool. The humans just had more or less normal clothing, but the animals were much more fun.
Templeton the rat had my favorite costume - in addition to the gray furry outfit, he had gloves with long pointy nails and a very, very long tail.
I also liked the costume of the goose - she had a very fluffy skirt with loops that she stuck her hands through, making her look more round and goose-like. She also wore an orange bonnet, for the beak. Her goslings were dressed similar, in yellow with orange hats for the beaks.
I thought that Wilber's costume wasn't that exciting really - he was in pink with a curly tail. It worked though.
The sheep were just cute - especially the little lamb with her curly hair.
Charlotte's costume was interesting. It was kind of hard to get a full proper look at it because she was always up on her web, crawling round. People asked about her costume during the talk back so rather than try to describe it, I'm just going to summarize what she said. It was a gray unitard with black stripes running down her legs and arms - two stripes on each leg and two stripes on each arm to give the illusion of eight legs.
I mentioned the hair (Yes, she was the woman with the blanket), and she also had red and black face paint, that had a distinctly Native American look to them. On her chest she had a stylized spider image - again, with a very Native American feel to it.
Since she is the title character, I'll start with talking about Charlotte, played by Thirza Defoe. I was very impressed by her performance, given that the majority of it took place on the metal spider web above the stage.
During intermission, my mom and I were discussing if she was attached to the web. I thought she was not, and it turned out I was right. She had special rock climbing shoes, and gloves with traction on them, but otherwise, she really was clinging to the metal bars of the web.
She also sang a lullaby to Wilber when he couldn't sleep, and she had a nice voice. I was a little uncertain at first when she came out and greeted Wilber, but her manner definitely grew on me. I shouldn't really expect a spider to be all that warm and fuzzy to talk to anyway. She definitely had a bit of a predatory nature about her when she was telling Wilber about how she hunts and eats bugs.
Part of the story is that Charlotte is getting older, and watching Defoe's movement around the web really reflected that. She moved slower and more carefully and really, a lot less, as the show progressed. Her final scene definitely made me tear up. I really cared about Charlotte.
She also was the one that got to say one of my favorite lines of the show: "It's not often that someone who comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both"
Templeton was played by Todd Denning who is in everything. I already mentioned his costume. He was very rat-like through the whole show, and I thought his performance as the mostly self-centered, selfish rat was very good. He never really got "nice" at any point during the show. That wasn't a bad thing though. He's always being sent off to fetch things, because as a rat, he can get around. He was also the center of most of the comedy of the show. He'd always be popping in and out of places with some sarcastic comment, and scaring the other animals. They had a sort of running joke with his overly long tail. The old sheep stepped on it once to stop him from running off, and Wilber would tug on his tail when he wanted something.
As I said about him never becoming nice, Charlotte is dying and Wilber wants to collect her egg sack, but Templeton is the only one that can get it. He doesn't want to until Wilber finally bribes him, and then he climbs up to fetch the eggs. While he's up there, Charlotte sets a hand on his arm. He sort of jumps and then just stares at her for a moment. All she says is "Thank you" and he climbs down. Wilber says that he'll never forget this, and Templeton set a hand on his arm, where Charlotte touched him. He looks up at the spider and says "Neither will I." Definite "Aww" moment.
Todd Denning also played John Arable, Fern's father. I have to say I was very impressed by the quick changes. There were many occasions when John would leave the stage and Templeton would run on moments later. And Templeton's costume was elaborate too, so that was quite impressive.
Continuing with the animals... The goose and Mrs Arable was played by Alison Mary Forbes. I liked the goose very much, the way she bobbed around the stage. My favorite part was when she came out with her goslings. They were all cute, peeping around the stage. She got all protective of them around Templeton - she doesn't trust them around her children. Well, he is a rat after all.
We also had the Old Sheep who walked around with a cane, although he carried it tucked under his arm, sort of military style. He was played by Bo Johnson who really is in everything. There was also a lamb, who was played by Natalie Alteri. She was one of the highlights in the cast for me. I thought she was adorable the way she walked around the stage. She was pretty funny when she'd bother Wilber.
I mentioned the goslings - three girls. Those same girls, Josie Trettin, Madalyn Mainwood, Lauren Simmons also played Charlotte's children, and they were adorable as goslings and as spiders. They came out during the bows dressed as the spiders, but bobbing around like the goslings. There was also the large pig - Uncle played by Allen Edge. He was pretty funny.
Finally, Wilber was played by John Filmanowicz. I was very impressed with him - he's only in eighth grade. His costume was designed for him to spend most of the show crawling around on all fours, but he had a lot of padding in his knees. He had the most fantastic expressions during the play. He also had a wonderful pig snort.
The scene where Charlotte was asking him to move around to demonstrate how radiant he was, was very funny. He made a great pig.
Onto the human cast. Most of them doubled as the animals - the old sheep also played Homer Zuckerman, the goose was Mrs Arable, Uncle the pig played the reporter and the announcer.
But I think that my favorite out of the humans was Lurvy, the hired hand. He was played by Nevin Langhus and he was wonderful. He is meant to be a little slow on the uptake, but to comedic effect. He was great as he stumbled around the stage and forgot the words to songs. He got stuck in a lawn chair and does not like rats.
But he was a great shot with a baseball, as he played carnival games and won many kewpie dolls. This unnerved Homer a bit, but it was so very funny.
The highly dramatic part of the show - Charlotte's death, was very well done. She sat there in the center of the web, and Mrs Zuckerman (Elaine Wyler) and Mrs Arable walked out onto the stage and spoke in a half-singing, half-spoken voice, in nice harmony with each other. They said the lines from the book of Charlotte's final scene, about how the fair grounds emptied, everyone left, and Charlotte was alone. "No one was with her when she died."
Of course that's not the final scene in the show, but it stood out as being very powerful.
The final scene of the show, just like the book, is of Wilber meeting the three of Charlotte's children that decide to stay. Charlotte comes out, dressed more human, with her make up off, and finished off the tale, about how Wilber lived a long time taking care of Charlotte's children and grand children.
During the talk back, they had the usual sort of questions - and two about how the spiders walked around on the web, but the final question was very important - how did Charlotte get the ribbons in her hair. Simply braid your hair and then wrap the ribbons around in a crisscrossing manner.