Gracie and the Atom, Artist Repertory Theatre (Grade C-)

Written by McKinley
Directed by Allen Nause
World Premiere
Cast:
Gracie  .....  Beth Soto
Angela  .....  Brooke Markham
Beth  .....  Marissa Neitling
Gabriella  .....  Melissa Murry
CHrista  .....  Kylie Clarke Johnson
SIster Lidwina  .....  Emily Beleele
Sister Francis  .....  Mary Baird

sez says:  first off Mary Baird was perfect! What a great performance.  And this I say in the face of strong performances all around.  To a person all the woman in this play did a fine job creating their characters --but no question about it Baird's Physics teacher, Sister Francis was an outstanding delight. That makes it sad that the show was not worthy of their work. It is a musical -- and a couple of the song are clever -- but none are  particularly good.   The idea of the story is o.k.-- not a grand achievement -- but a structure to hang the songs on (my dad id dead and who is my mother). But again, the songs just didn't have what it takes to pull the story up out of ho-hum.  But good for ART to give this a whirl--and how nice it is to see anything at all that tries to depict honestly the lives of adolescent females.  We really do need to find some good material to begin exploring that strange land -- Grease and its progeny really are not what the average girl's life is about.  But we will have to keep waiting becasue that mystery is not really explored here either.  (Grade C-)