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<p>Lawson Taite, Dallas Morning News, reveiws our new show, <strong>The Violet Hour</strong>. You can find out more about the play, see performance dates, and purchase tickets on our site <a title="Upstart Productions: The Violet Hour" href="http://www.upstarttheater.com/violet_hour">Upstart Productions: The Violet Hour</a></p>
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<div class="ssImageCreditSingle">Rex C. Curry/Special Contributor</div>
<div class="ssImageCaptionSingle">Marcus Stimac, front left, (playing John Pace Seavering) Candy Williams, front right, (Jessie Brewster) and Linus Craig, rear, (Gidger) perform a scene from "The Violet Hour" presented by the Upstart Theater on March 30, 2011.</div>
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<p><a title="Lawson Taite Reviews The Violet Hour" href="http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/columnists/lawson-taitte/20110401-upstarts-the-violet-hour-mixes-literary-virtuosity-and-big-laughs.ece?action=reregister"><strong>Upstart’s ‘The Violet Hour’ mixes literary virtuosity and big laughs</strong> </a></p>
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<p class="authorName">By Lawson Taitte</p>
<p class="authorCredit">Theater</p>
<p class="authorEmail"><a href="mailto:ltaitte@dallasnews.com">ltaitte@dallasnews.com</a></p>
<p class="authorDateline"><span class="label">Published</span> 01 April 2011 11:43 AM</p>
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<p>Dallas has now had two productions of Richard Greenberg’s extraordinary comedy <em>The Violet Hour</em>, at Dallas Theater Center six years ago and currently at Upstart Productions — both far more satisfying than the 2003 Broadway version.</p>
<p>Susan Sargeant directed the one at Upstart, which opened Wednesday. Her interpretation emphasizes the play’s literary virtuosity — entirely appropriate for a play about a fledgling publisher, John Pace Seavering (Marcus Stimac), who can’t decide which book to launch first with his seed capital. Should it be the novel by his friend Denis (Austin Tindle), whose prolixity is modeled on Thomas Wolfe’s and whose love life is reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s? Or the memoirs of his secret paramour, Jessie (Candy Williams), whose charms combine those of <a class="DL-topic-highlighted DL-analyze" href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Josephine_Baker">Josephine Baker</a>and Billie Holliday?</p>
<p>Stimac sets the pace and tone of the show with his manly, measured delivery of Seavering’s formal rhetoric. You believe him as the spoiled rich kid whose outlook on life changed irreversibly in the Great War. The impulsive Denis is a good fit for Tindle, and Williams projects Jessie’s sexual mystique and tragic undercurrents. Unfortunately, Tindle and Williams suffer most from the often ill-fitting costumes. They also don’t quite make us believe in their doomed genius.</p>
<p>Barrett Nash plays Rosamund Plinth, the beautiful but troubled heiress Denis wants to marry. We know that the character, like <a class="DL-topic-highlighted DL-analyze" href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Zelda_Fitzgerald">Zelda Fitzgerald</a>, is not going to end well. Nash shows us Rosamund’s instability in subtle ways that get downright creepy. She’s the most darling, and most fatal, of femmes fatales.</p>
<p>The reason we can be sure of the characters’ future is that Greenberg’s zany plot enables us to see into it. The burden of all this foresight falls on Seavering’s complaining assistant, Gidger. Linus Craig plays him to perfection, not overdoing his prissy side but nailing every big laugh.</p>
<p>Cindy Ernst’s set puts us into the inner office with all these folks and cleverly turns the theater’s entrance area into the publisher’s waiting room. The intimacy of the surroundings makes it all the easier to imbibe the playwright’s baroquely inventive language.</p>
<p>Plan your life</p>
<p>Through April 23 at the Green Zone, 161 Riveredge Drive. Runs 135 mins. $15. 214-769-1926. <a title="Upstart Theater" href="http://www.upstarttheater.com">www.upstarttheater.com</a></p>
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Body: <p>Lawson Taite, Dallas Morning News, reveiws our new show, <strong>The Violet Hour</strong>. You can find out more about the play, see performance dates, and purchase tickets on our site <a title="Upstart Productions: The Violet Hour" href="http://www.upstarttheater.com/violet_hour">Upstart Productions: The Violet Hour</a></p> <div id="ssImageSingle"><img src="http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20110401-violet1.jpg.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/violet1.jpg" alt="" /></div> <div id="ssImageFooterSingle"> <div class="ssImageCreditSingle">Rex C. Curry/Special Contributor</div> <div class="ssImageCaptionSingle">Marcus Stimac, front left, (playing John Pace Seavering) Candy Williams, front right, (Jessie Brewster) and Linus Craig, rear, (Gidger) perform a scene from "The Violet Hour" presented by the Upstart Theater on March 30, 2011.</div> </div> <p><a title="Lawson Taite Reviews The Violet Hour" href="http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/columnists/lawson-taitte/20110401-upstarts-the-violet-hour-mixes-literary-virtuosity-and-big-laughs.ece?action=reregister"><strong>Upstart’s ‘The Violet Hour’ mixes literary virtuosity and big laughs</strong> </a></p> <div style="width: 60px; padding-right: 20px; float: left;"><img src="http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/article91444.ece/ALTERNATES/h75/ltaitte.jpg" alt="" width="60" height="75" /></div> <div style="width: 225px; float: left;"> <p class="authorName">By Lawson Taitte</p> <p class="authorCredit">Theater</p> <p class="authorEmail"><a href="mailto:ltaitte@dallasnews.com">ltaitte@dallasnews.com</a></p> <p class="authorDateline"><span class="label">Published</span> 01 April 2011 11:43 AM</p> </div> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Dallas has now had two productions of Richard Greenberg’s extraordinary comedy <em>The Violet Hour</em>, at Dallas Theater Center six years ago and currently at Upstart Productions — both far more satisfying than the 2003 Broadway version.</p> <p>Susan Sargeant directed the one at Upstart, which opened Wednesday. Her interpretation emphasizes the play’s literary virtuosity — entirely appropriate for a play about a fledgling publisher, John Pace Seavering (Marcus Stimac), who can’t decide which book to launch first with his seed capital. Should it be the novel by his friend Denis (Austin Tindle), whose prolixity is modeled on Thomas Wolfe’s and whose love life is reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s? Or the memoirs of his secret paramour, Jessie (Candy Williams), whose charms combine those of <a class="DL-topic-highlighted DL-analyze" href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Josephine_Baker">Josephine Baker</a>and Billie Holliday?</p> <p>Stimac sets the pace and tone of the show with his manly, measured delivery of Seavering’s formal rhetoric. You believe him as the spoiled rich kid whose outlook on life changed irreversibly in the Great War. The impulsive Denis is a good fit for Tindle, and Williams projects Jessie’s sexual mystique and tragic undercurrents. Unfortunately, Tindle and Williams suffer most from the often ill-fitting costumes. They also don’t quite make us believe in their doomed genius.</p> <p>Barrett Nash plays Rosamund Plinth, the beautiful but troubled heiress Denis wants to marry. We know that the character, like <a class="DL-topic-highlighted DL-analyze" href="http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Zelda_Fitzgerald">Zelda Fitzgerald</a>, is not going to end well. Nash shows us Rosamund’s instability in subtle ways that get downright creepy. She’s the most darling, and most fatal, of femmes fatales.</p> <p>The reason we can be sure of the characters’ future is that Greenberg’s zany plot enables us to see into it. The burden of all this foresight falls on Seavering’s complaining assistant, Gidger. Linus Craig plays him to perfection, not overdoing his prissy side but nailing every big laugh.</p> <p>Cindy Ernst’s set puts us into the inner office with all these folks and cleverly turns the theater’s entrance area into the publisher’s waiting room. The intimacy of the surroundings makes it all the easier to imbibe the playwright’s baroquely inventive language.</p> <p>Plan your life</p> <p>Through April 23 at the Green Zone, 161 Riveredge Drive. Runs 135 mins. $15. 214-769-1926. <a title="Upstart Theater" href="http://www.upstarttheater.com">www.upstarttheater.com</a></p>
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