“Butterflies Are Free” opens this week at Lemon Bay Playhouse
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TO GO
What: "Butterflies Are Free" directed by Michele Strauss
When: 7:30 p.m. June 24-27, July 1-3, 8-11; 2 p.m. June 28, July 5, 12
Where: Lemon Bay Playhouse, 96 W. Dearborn St., Englewood
How: For tickets, call the Box Office, 475-6756, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
[Note: "Butterflies Are Free" is directed by Royal Palm Players Managing Artistic Director Michele Strauss. Michelle Neitzel and Charlie Tyler are also well known to Boca Grande audiences.]
Lemon Bay Playhouse closes out their current season with a strong comedy by playwright and screenwriter Leonard Gershe. "Butterflies Are Free" was a hit when it opened on Broadway in October 1969 and was made into a movie in 1972 starring Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert and Eileen Heckart who won an Oscar as best supporting actor.
The Playhouse production is directed by Michele Strauss who directed the dramatically gripping "Wait Until Dark" earlier this season. Her experience and theatrical sensitivity are apparent in every aspect of this play. Her casting of the acting roles and their character development and the way she utilizes the small stage are masterful.
The Playhouse production brings two new young actors to the roles created by the film stars. Ryan Dowd Urch plays Don Baker, a 20-year-old blind boy who is trying his wings and escaping from his over protective mother by living alone in a one-bedroom apartment. Paper thin walls and a connecting door permit him to meet his next door neighbor Jill Tanner played by Molly Healy.
The minute these two meet you can sense the chemistry doing its work. Mr. Urch has the blind bit down pat. A tall handsome young man with a beautiful stage voice, he speaks with poetic preciousness, at the same time playing the character as crisp and self-reliant.
Miss Healy as Jill, the girl next door, is the free-est of free spirits. A recent 20-year-old divorce (she was married for six whole days), she wrings laughs from the audience with clever one liners and marvelous timing. Her seduction of the blind boy is accomplished with saucy eccentricity and tantalizing sexiness.
Just when it looks like the couple will live happily ever after the boy's mother shows up. Played with steely reserve by veteran Playhouse actress Michelle Neitzel, she meets the young girl who happens to be in a state of delicious undress and immediately hates her. Miss Neitzel's acting experience is on display as she jumps nimbly from shrewish to emotional and understanding, and it's a pleasure to watch this fine actress.
Charlie Tyler appears competently and briefly as the boy's rival.
The production manager of the show is Bob LaSalle who also did the lighting and set decor. Jim Suchomel and his crew built the set from a design by Suchomel and director Strauss.
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