The most impressive aspect of this weekend’s production of Heaven Can Wait at Morristown High School may be that it’s happening at all.
A week-and-a-half of crucial rehearsal time was lost to Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.
“I’m amazed at how well they pulled it together. They really came together like a team,” Director Joe Wohlgemuth said of his student cast and crew.
“I called extra rehearsals, and they all came. It’s amazing, considering how packed their schedules are. They showed this is really important to them.”
Those intense catch-up rehearsals–some of them held in an eerily silent school before it officially reopened after the storm–paid off. A matinee for senior citizens on Thursday included mostly pleasant surprises, including junior John Grilli in the lead role as Joe Pendleton, an aspiring boxer prematurely plucked into the hereafter by a bungling angel (played by MHS theater veteran Dane Glynn).
Photos by Brian Kievning. Please click icon for captions.
For the rest of the play, the angel and his boss (Jordan Rabinowitz) try to make amends by injecting the boxer into another body back on earth, a body belonging to a despicable rich guy with a murderous wife, played with gusto by Estefanio Giraldo.
This production hews more closely to Harry Segall’s 1938 script than to the 1978 film starring Warren Beatty. There still are plenty of twists and turns, and John Grilli, a cross-country runner until his buddy Jordan convinced him to audition, navigates them remarkably well.
“He’s a very natural actor,” said Joe Wohlgemuth. “He nailed the part at the audition.”
The other surprise is Sean Mowry, a senior who steals the show as Max Levene, the boxer’s manager. Sean had small roles last year in Fame and Sweet Charity. The last time we saw him, he was on the script-writing side of the equation, collaborating on an acclaimed documentary honoring civic leader Steve Wiley.
In Heaven Can Wait, Sean provides the comic relief, as invisible angels make him punch-drunk.
Rachel Clinton portrays the boxer’s love interest and Michael Chase rounds out the lead characters as a scheming toady. Musical interludes are sung by Sara Dalpe and Rebecca McClain, with Music Director Skip Yingling handling the accompaniment.
This cast has learned not only that the show must go on–but that it must be entertaining, too. No excuses. Not even a hurricane!
See for yourself. Performances are at 7:30 pm on Friday, Nov. 16, and Saturday, Nov. 17, and at 2 pm on Sunday, Nov. 18. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
Photos by Kevin Coughlin. Please click icon below for captions.
