A tintype was a type of photograph on metal. It was a step between the daguerreotype and the paper print. Tintypes, the musical revue, is like a pleasant, light-hearted flip through a collective family album from turn-of-the-century America.
In the current production at Rivertown Rep, Lance Spellerberg's attractive set represents a giant ornate frame in which photographic images from the era are projected. These illuminate the major themes of the show: arrival (of immigrants), ingenuity and inventions, the factory, rich and poor, etc.
The five performers represent types or individuals or both. Charlie, played with sad-sack charm by Randy Juneau, is The Immigrant. He is trying not merely to adjust, but to become a Yankee Doodle Dandy with a Yankee Doodle sweetheart of his own. His adventures are shown in pantomime, a nod to silent films and in particular to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. This bittersweet, brave little European Everyman threads his way through a labyrinth of generic disappointments, usually having to do with romance. Sometimes his trials are amusing, sometimes the vaporous sentimentality of the material overcomes our admiration for the efforts involved.
The other archetype is Susannah, who represents the African-American presence -- or rather absence, as a complacent and institutionalized bigotry was a significant tarnish on the Gilded Age. Kiane Davis has a winning manner and sings well, putting across plaintive songs like "Wayfaring Stranger" and "Motherless Child" with a unaffected conviction.
The three remaining actors play individuals, who also represent types. Donald Loupe Jr. is a very bully Teddy Roosevelt, the can-do spirit of the age. Claire Conti gives us a formidable Emma Goldman, the socialist passionaria of the Lower East Side. Lovely Nicole Rolin Teague exudes the poised, mischievous vivacity of Anna Held, a (perhaps) French actress brought over by Florenz Ziegfeld to grace his stage and his bed. Inexplicably, one of the most moving moments of the show is her brief rendition of "Toy Land."
The score is composed of hits culled from the decades between 1890 and 1920, and features famous as well as forgotten classics by such greats as George M. Cohan, Scott Joplin, Victor Herbert, Bert Williams and John Philip Sousa. David Hoover directed this tuneful amble through yesteryear. Julie Winn was responsible for the tasteful costumes. Alton Geno did the apt, if undemanding, choreography.
Although Tintypes is mild and decorous, there has been no problem recently finding shows that are raucous and strident. DramaRama 8 at the Contemporary Arts Center was fairly bursting at the seams with iconoclasm. A trio of failed seminarian rockers wailed satyric sacrilege, while a nun boogied in the wings; a tough-talking dame in a black slip shot the bird as her curtain call; a Vietnam War vet juggler pelted the audience with bits of raw liver -- to cite just a few of the refreshing, insightful artistic innovations that made this annual event such a crowd-pleaser. These sardonic moods were balanced, however, by more uplifting visions -- most strikingly, a bevy of Isadorable nymphs clad in little more than body paint and wings prancing and gyrating beneath a pair of giant scarlet lips.
Of course, there is no way to do justice to DramaRama, because you inevitably miss more than you see. But if I was to pick a stand-out, it would have to be "The Music of Erich Zann" by Theatre Louisiane. Based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, this short piece was fascinating; the staging was imaginative, the acting was good, and -- unlike many other presentations -- it was actually about something.
Amy Woodruff (who also wrote the script) played a young man recounting an incident from his impoverished student days in Paris. Chris Genua, wearing a full mask, played a mysterious, mute old violinist connected somehow to demonic forces.
At this late date in the postmodern world, it has become artistic dogma that the unconscious is released through illogic, incompatible images and absurdity. But Lovecraft's protagonist, with the insistent rationality of his monologue, throws open a sudden door on the dream world.
Theatre Louisiane has been doing plays late in the night at unusual locations. According to their playbill, this is going to change. "The Music of Erich Zann" will be having a revival at the end of March at The Pickery, where the group plans to do a season that includes "Laughing Wild" by Christopher Durang and "Birds" by Aristophanes.
One of the functions of DramaRama is to give new talent a forum. Clearly, amid all the exuberance and excess, the annual festival is still living up to its mission.