The last time Cincinnati saw this show, it was one of the hits of the 2014 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. It was appropriately oddball, a musical that examined a 75-year-old urban folk tale about a human-sized amphibian.
Movers & Makers invited the leaders of Cincinnati’s “Big Four” professional theaters to join arts writer David Lyman for a chat. The conversation – nearly all of it on the record – rambled easily from subject to subject. For the most part, they all want the same things…
We start in a dimly lit room at the outset of photographic history, beginning with the earliest photos, where simply preserving a photographic image on a piece of paper was regarded as something of a miracle. Along the way, we witness the discoveries of various visionaries who see new possibilities through the lens …
“It’s such an accessible piece,” Milligan said. “It deals with big themes, but it explores it in very intimate, very specific ways. It seems to say that things can be grim and disorienting, that bad things happen. And that sometimes they heal. Sometimes they don’t. But we get through life by helping one another and holding one another up.”
No offense to other arts organizations, but there are art museums everywhere. And theaters. And baseball teams. But a large former warehouse filled with every type of sign imaginable . . . well, there is nothing else quite like it.
Matzke’s hand trembles as she applies mascara. There is no wild, out-of-control flailing. But there is enough movement that she has to stop in an effort to calm her hand. A moment later, we watch her pour a cup of coffee. The pour is uneventful, but as she picks up the mug, we can clearly see that the surface of the coffee is constantly rippling.
The new Clifton Cultural Arts Center is full of light. Even on the grayest day, the towering front wall of glass illuminates the white-on-white interior with a breathtaking glow. As important as the building itself, though, is the location …
“I was raised by psychic hippies in Colorado and was taught that magic is real and that utopia is possible…my productions are full of mythic possibilities and hope…”
As a result, “Hot Chocolate” includes some Tchaikovsky. But there is just as much music by composer Jeremy Griffin. And some by Choate himself, including “Dancing in the Snow,” a work that features the Cincinnati Boychoir.
A musical about Fiona the hippo? Why not? When that chunky little critter was born in 2017, she quickly turned into a marketer’s juggernaut.
