Date: Fri 20-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A13

Quick Words:

CGMC-Clark-Halston-Stewart

Full Text:

(rev CGMC "Connecticut Nutcracker" holiday presentation, 12/20/96)

Review-

Cracking Smiles With The CGMC

(with photo)

BY SHANNON HICKS

FAIRFIELD - Any person who strives for perfection, who accepts nothing less

than perfection, is bound to be mocked, mimicked or made fun of by those who

cannot or choose not to measure up to such standards.

For this reason, Westport resident Martha Stewart - a multi-million dollar

arts and craft maven with tips on every household chore and projects large and

small to impress guests, with a self-named monthly magazine, a weekly

television show on Lifetime and books published, it seems, for every season -

is the ideal target. Stewart has been discussed on radio shows, satired in

magazines, joked about on talk shows and targeted by comedians.

The latest incarnation of Stewart has her as the subject of this year's

holiday show by the New Haven-based Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus, with A

Connecticut Nutcracker presented in four locations across the state over the

past two weekends, including Fairfield University's Quick Center last Friday.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote the music for The Nutcracker in 1891-92, and in the

century since, the ballet has been interpreted in at least 100 different ways,

but certainly never with the campy humor CGMC gave it. While the group

certainly gave the ballet a new twist, the fact remains the CGMC is a group of

very talented men who danced, sang and delightfully entertained their way

through its latest project.

A Connecticut Nutcracker is divided into two distinct acts, the first of which

opens with a performance of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" performed by the

chorus. The 55 members of CGMC are a talented lot. An open mind is required to

attend any CGMC performance, as shows are laced with innuendos, but wrapped in

talent and humor.

The talent is the important part, because that is what an audience is going to

remember of any show, and the CGMC has talent to spare, from each of its

members to its music director, Winston Clark.

Ceremoniously brought onstage in a gift-wrapped wheelbarrow, comedienne Julie

Halston was given the spotlight for the first act of Nutcracker . A vision of

contemporary festivity - black tank top over floor length, bouffant red skirt

- Halston presented thoughts on life topics, covering everything from

marriage, family, couples and relationships, to plastic surgery and

centrifugal force, The Bible, motherhood and, of course, "The Menace of

Martha."

The tuxedo-clad members of CGMC sang a few songs during the course of

Halston's monologue, providing a glimpse of the humor and savvy yet to come.

Halston, who is married to 1010 WINS radio personality Ralph Howard ("I gave

him 20 minutes, and he gave me the world!"), has been nominated for the Outer

Critics Circle Award for Best Comedy for her successful show Julie Halston's

Lifetime of Comedy , which she wrote and starred in for six months

off-Broadway. She has won the MAC Award for Outstanding Comedy Performance

(1992), and two subsequent MAC Awards for Outstanding Comedy Characterization.

She is a steady guest on screen and stage, but A Connecticut Christmas was her

singing debut.

Starring as "The Priestess of Perfection" - Martha Stewart - Halston helped

the chorus members transform the stage for the show's second half into

Christmas Eve at Martha Stewart's, as the CGMC, playing Stewart's employees,

set the stage with a musical introduction. As party guests bearing presents

begin to arrive, Halston, as Stewart, accepts their gifts, ranging from a

priceless antique Nutcracker figure to a gaudy painting of a Spanish

bullfight.

The night at Stewart's turns terrifying for party guest Troy (Ed Coutu) when

he inadvertently breaks the arm off Stewart's prized Nutcracker. Stewart gives

him an impossible task to complete before dawn, then leaves to prepare her

holiday meal, while everything from the hors d'oeuvre shrimp to the post-meal

nuts come to life, as does The Nutcracker (Peter Roche, who dances much of the

second act wearing a sling), who protects Troy from assorted villains.

Whether it was the gingerbread cookies, the assorted nuts (the Brazil nut came

out wearing a Chiquita-style hat, while castmates declared "He's a nut!") who

were eventually glued into a wreath, the dancing bull and toreador (who

stopped fighting and fell in love) or the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (by a

suspiciously named "k.d. navratilova," garbed in pink tights, Birkenstocks and

a flannel shirt), musical director Clark's wonderfully witty sense of humor

shines.

One of the funniest things seen in a long time was the scene involving

Martha's shrimp, who arrive in their pink splendor all plump and perfectly

happy, until they hear they are to be deveined.

"Deveined? What's that?" sing the shrimp. When Halston's Stewart re-emerges

and plucks the veins off the unsuspecting shrimp, the sight of the half-dozen

shrimp squirming around the stage floor, completely baffled as to what has

just happened to any previous muscle control, was enough to make even Martha

Stewart herself laugh had she returned the good faith invitation extended by

the CGMC.

Gaining popularity since its start 11 years ago, CGMC performances are

beginning to play to full houses regularly; the December 13 performance was so

well attended, ushers ran out of programs before the show began. The CGMG has

watched as audiences grew from an initial average of 300 in attendance per

show to last season's 2,500 for each performance.

The costumes (Joe O'Brien, Greg McMahan and Joseph Mennick) and choreography

(Mme Ila Popovataduya) of the second act were spectacular. From the men who

were Martha Stewart's shrimp to the simplicity of the "Waltz of the Flowers" -

50 men dressed in black, wearing tutus around their head - the costumes were

brilliant, and the dancing was fun.

Even the Priestess of Perfection would have cracked a smile or two.