The Palm Beach Post | 8.5.15
Review of Side by Side by Sondheim at The Crest Theatre, by Hap Erstein
Most musical revues are designed to be evenings of pleasant, familiar tunes, easy listening without much to engage the mind or emotions. And then there is “Side by Side by Sondheim,” a musical theater graduate course in the early output of Broadway’s reigning composer-lyricist.
That is not to suggest that this retrospective song cycle lacks entertainment value. On the contrary, as delivered by the quartet of performer assembled by director Bruce Linser for MNM Productions, this is a well-sung, effectively acted, sophisticated evening of musical treasures. But you will need to lean in and listen carefully, particularly if you are not well versed in the Sondheim song library.
Because of his detailed, character-based approach to songwriting, Sondheim rarely produced numbers which became independently popular outside of their musicals. (The overexposed “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music” is the prime exception.)
Although this revue’s original intent was to illustrate how well his songs work divorced from their dramatic context as individual plays, Linser has staged them instead as scenes from their shows. The result is added impact for those familiar with his groundbreaking, unconventional musicals.
Rendering the material with impressive clarity and emotional power is a quartet of popular South Florida performers. Each gets solo opportunities, but Alix Paige is a standout demonstrating a chameleon-like delivery, with a French accent (“Ah, Paree!”), Hispanic (“A Boy Like That”) and Brooklynese (“You Gotta Get a Gimmick”).
There are other retrospective revues of Sondheim’s later work and, if we’re lucky, MNM will persuade Linser and these performers to present one of them in the future. “Side by Side by Sondheim” continues at the Delray Center for the Arts through Sunday, before moving to the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse, Aug. 13 through Aug. 16.
The Palm Beach Post | 3.6.15
Review of Man of La Mancha at The Wick Theater, by Hap Erstein
The musical theater is, almost by definition, romantic and upbeat. Even so, few shows are fueled by unalloyed idealism like 1965’s “Man of La Mancha.”
Half a century later is a vastly different time, but if you doubt that this musical adaptation of the classic Spanish novel “Don Quixote” and the fate of its author, Miguel de Cervantes, can still captivate an audience, just head to The Wick Theatre during the next few weeks.
Director Dom Ruggiero understands that the show retains its potency as long as we accept its unabashed optimism and heart-on-its-sleeve belief in the power of delusion. Oh, and it really helps to cast it with such full-voiced, vigorous performers as the Boca Raton company has.
From Broadway, Ruggiero pulls in George Dvorsky (“The Scarlet Pimpernel”) to play Cervantes, imprisoned in the late 16th century and awaiting his fate before the Inquisition, forced to defend himself to his fellow prisoners by acting out his tale of windmill-tilting, courtly knight Quixote. Despite his rich baritone voice, Dvorsky is more of an actor than a singer, an emphasis that pays dividends on his Big Song – “The Impossible Dream.” With unconventional phrasing, he brings a welcome new approach to the anthem of striving for the stars.
He is well paired with roly-poly Robert Anthony Jones as Quixote’s pragmatic manservant Sancho Panza, who earns the laughs built into the role without having to resort to Borscht Belt cadences. Those who saw Alix Paige as kitchen scullion Aldonza two summers ago in the Palm Beach Dramaworks concert staging of “La Mancha” will be impressed by her deepened approach to the abused wretch who becomes elevated by Quixote’s insistence of her high-born status. Paige illuminates the character’s inner conflicts through near-operatic arias and saves enough for her angry 11th-hour solo, spitting out her lowly lineage.
The Sun-Sentinel | 3.16.15
Jewish Actress Plays Inspiring Role at The Wick Theatre, by Randall Lieberman
"My name is Dulcinea."
Jewish actress/singer Alix Paige, of Delray Beach, gets to utter what may be the most important phrase in musical theater when she says this powerful line toward the end of "Man of La Mancha," currently playing at the Wick Theatre and Costume Museum in Boca Raton through March 28.
This is the third time Paige has played Aldonza/Dulcinea in "Man of La Mancha" (she performed it in 2012 with the Connecticut Repertory Theatre and at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach in 2013), and her mastery of the role shows in her wonderfully nuanced performance.
"This show is one of the classics," said Paige, 28. "It's a really powerful piece. I love doing this show. The story takes place in such a dark time in history. But, it's a show about survival and never losing hope —I think it's something modern-day audiences can really relate to."
Paige's character of Aldonza, a kitchen wench of questionable morals, initially ignores/can't believe the knight-errant Don Quixote de la Mancha (played brilliantly by Broadway veteran George Dvorsky), who sees Aldonza as his Dulcinea — his inspirational virginal princess.
Aldonza sings that Quixote is the cruelest of all creatures because "blows and abuse she can take and give back again, but his tenderness and gentle insanities she cannot bear."
But, by play's end, Aldonza accepts her new name/outlook as Dulcinea, perhaps transforming herself more than any other character in musical theater history. This transformation brings to life and reinforces the vision of writer Dale Wasserman, composer Mitch Leigh and lyricist Joe Darion that beauty and goodness are as simple as how you choose to look at the world.
This message definitely is still needed 50 years after the original 1965 Broadway production of "Man of La Mancha," and perhaps is a message that Jews, as much as any other people in the world, need to be reminded of as they make their way these days in apparently increasingly bitter and difficult times.
Paige said: "At this run at the Wick Theatre, we've had numerous people involved with the original production come to see the show, including an original producer and an original orchestra member, and they've been very pleased by what we've done with the show. It still has a strong effect on audiences and we usually get standing ovations at the end of every show."
As for how she is able to take a character through such a wide range of emotions, Paige said: "You use your acting training to make each line part of the long-range goal. Aldonza truly transforms into Dulcinea by play's end. Aldonza is so strong and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. She is extremely aggressive and confrontational, very hard on the outside. But, though she is beaten down and abused by men, she makes it through and ultimately reveals her soft side."
Paige is a native of West Palm Beach who got her start singing in the choir at four years old at Temple Beth El, a Conservative temple in West Palm Beach.
"My family's been involved in Temple Beth El since my grandparents, Ed and Helen Lefkowitz, moved down here in 1967. Just like so many Christian performers got their start singing in church, I got my start singing in temple. I always had an admiration for the many Jewish people in musical theater and the entertainment business. I particularly love Barbra Streisand."
Paige, who attended The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, moved to New York in 2008 to pursue her professional career. She moved back to the area in December, buying a permanent home in Delray Beach — as with her track record of doing so much regional theater in South Florida, she figures she will do at least a show or two a year here for the foreseeable future.
Last May, Paige married theater director Dodd Loomis, 35, whom she met in New York. And although Loomis is not Jewish, Paige said he is very spiritual and supportive of her being as observant of her Jewish religion as she can. Loomis has also agreed to raise any children the couple plan to have as Jewish.
Paige said: "It is hard to stay observant in the theater, as we usually perform on Friday nights and often on holidays. But, we do what we can. Like on Hanukkah, we will come home and light our Hanukkah candles at night after the show."
There aren't many seats left for this run of "Man of La Mancha" at the Wick Theatre (7901 North Federal Highway in Boca Raton), but Paige says this family-run theater does great work and should be supported by the community.
Florida Theatre On Stage | 10.26.14
Review of Swing! at The Wick Theater, by Bill Hirschman
Although they dance a bit, much of the singing is carried by the solid baritone of Michael Ursua, a frequent musical director at The Wick, and Alix Paige, a Florida native who has returned for shows at Arts Garage and Palm Beach Dramaworks, and who hits stratospheric notes here.
Both caress with these songs assurance, but they deliver a stunning extended showcase of impossibly nimble scat singing while portraying prickly lovers in Duke Ellington’s bebop “Bli-Blip.”
The Palm Beach Post | 7.12.13
The Spitfire of ‘La Mancha’
By Janis Fontaine - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
“I’m the artist of the family,” Alix Paige Hyman says.
Born 27 years ago today into a family of lawyers, Hyman, who performs under the name Alix Paige, is a singer who can belt out Broadway tunes and capture the emotional turmoil of a tragic heroine.
Paige plays Don Quixote’s beloved Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha” at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach through July 21.
Paige’s own story is more fairy tale than tragedy.
A 2004 graduate of the Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens, she lives in a fifth floor walk-up in New York City, but remains close to her parents, Sherry and Michael Hyman of West Palm Beach, who still live in the house she grew up in.
In New York, Paige has been filling her resume with accomplishments: She starred in “My Fair Lady,” opposite Broadway veteran Terrance Mann, and in the Connecticut Repertory Theatre production of “Guys and Dolls” and as the understudy for Sally Bowles in a national tour of “Cabaret.”
Paige earned a degree in musical theater from the University of Miami, where, “I got a lot of personal attention, a lot of time on stage,” Paige said during her break from rehearsals. Of course, Paige said, it matters how talented you are, but who you know helps, too. Faculty members and other contacts can give a boost to a young performer when the right part comes along.
But sometimes it’s the director who gets lucky.
“Aldonza is a brutally difficult role to cast,” director Clive Cholerton said. He says more than 50 women auditioned before Paige came in. It’s a coveted role: Aldonza is a prostitute who is elevated to a lady by Don Quixote’s madness. She faces, and accepts, beatings, rape and abuse as a matter of course. Quixote calls her “Dulcinea,” meaning overly sweet, and admires her strength and beauty. He treats her kindly, something she’s not prepared for.
“Very few women can sing the part,” Cholerton said. “It takes a ton of internal strength, and it’s an extremely physical role. Alix was a gift that dropped into our lap, just dumb luck.”
Cholerton also praised Paige for her professionalism: “A lot of actors say they’ve done their homework, but she actually does it. And having her in rehearsal, I see how fearless she is. She can reach down and pull out that emotion.”
Paige said to play the role she drew on the experiences of her grandparents, the late Ed and Helen Lefkowitz, who were Holocaust survivors. She spent a lot of time with them – they lived on Singer Island when she was growing up – listening to their stories of hardship and loss.
“I used the part of me that hurt for them,” Paige said, to express Aldonza’s suffering.
“Part of the reason I’m drawn to her is because she’s suffered so much,” Paige said. “It’s about self-worth, about valuing yourself. Aldonza has been so abused, but Don Quixote sees her a precious jewel.”
At one point Aldonza sings:
Of all the cruel bastards
Who’ve badgered and battered me,
You are the cruelest of all!
Can’t you see what your gentle
Insanities do to me?
Rob me of anger and give me despair! Blows and abuse
I can take and give back again,
Tenderness I cannot bear!
So please torture me now
With your “Sweet Dulcineas” no more!
I am no one! I’m nothing!
I’m only Aldonza the whore!
That lush passion is the same thing that draws her to torch songs, Paige says. “Heartbreak, sadness, loneliness. Why I am drawn to these dark songs?” she laughs.
Paige is also drawn to the camaraderie of the cast, one of the best parts of being an actor. “You’re telling a story together, and the show is only as good as its weakest part. When you’re in a show, it’s so intimate. You’re committed. You become very close with your castmates, especially on tour when the accommodations are bad. You’re like soldiers in a war together. Friends for life.”
Now, Hyman is preparing to make another commitment: She’s engaged to be married next May. Her fiancé, Dodd Loomis, is an award-winning director and producer, which means “he understands the industry,” Paige said. “He’s such a positive person. He sees the brightness in the world.”
And in her.
“He calls me his delicate flower,” she says, blushing. He even designed a flower-shaped engagement ring using diamonds and sapphires that are his family’s heirlooms.
But Paige isn’t ready to settle down yet.
“I love singing in front of a Big Band. I love to sing jazz and cabaret. I love being in the studio, recording. I’d like to do a concert with a 30-piece orchestra.
“And I still dream of Broadway.
Talkin' Broadway | 5.1.14
Review of "The Trouble With Doug" at The Arts Garage, FL by Jeffrey Bruce
Along for the ride is Doug's girlfriend Vanessa, and actress Alix Paige has the toughest going in the musical, artfully fleshing out an underwritten role, which reaches its nadir when she attempts to have intimate relations with her boyfriend, who is now a full-fledged slug.
Palm Beach Arts Paper | 11.9.13 Review for
"The Longing and the Short of It" at The Arts Garage by Hap Erstein
Also above par are Broadway veteran John Herrera and bespectacled Alix Paige who, among other things, takes the leads on a hip throwaway number about Facebook.
CABARET SCENES MAGAZINE | 11.29.12
by Peter Leavy
"Born Too Late: Old Songs for a New Songstress"
The Metropolitan Room- NY, NY
Twenty-five-year-old Alix Paige, like most of her enthusiastic audience at the Metropolitan Room, may have been born too late to enjoy, first hand, the exhilarating performances of the female jazz icons of the ’thirties, ’forties and ’fifties. But with an ardor for the songs of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, Paige and her band turned the room into a virtual time machine, transporting her listeners and herself to the heyday of the icons she venerates.
A trim and poised entertainer in an off-the-shoulder black gown and with a magnetic style, Paige’s own jazz chops left little to be desired in her renditions of “Angel Eyes,” “ Say It Isn’t So” and “Lush Life.” In one respect, Paige was a cabaret step ahead of many of her peers. Shunning the eyes-closed, lost-in-a-reverie stance of many jazz vocalists, Paige maintained a visual and tangible connection to those in the room from beginning to end, with eyes open and sweeping the room as she presented songs that her idols immortalized.
Some numbers not frequently heard in a jazz program were borrowed from Broadway musicals, notably “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from My Fair Lady, and “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls. Paige, who appears in USO shows, brought up two of her sister “Liberty Belles”—Joanna Howard and Lydia Pusateri—to acknowledge the Andrews Sisters with a rousing “Bei Mir Bist du Schön (Means That You’re Grand).” Paige also included a bow to a more contemporary icon, Barbra Streisand, with “The Man I Love.”
The Bennett Paster Trio—with Paster on piano and as arranger, Gregory Ryan on bass and Joe Strasser on drums—was a fine complement to this young and talented songstress, neatly supporting Paige and providing some delightful instrumental breaks.
BROADWAYWORLD.COM
Review of "Man of La Mancha" at Connecticut Repertory Theatre
"Alix Paige makes for a fiery and fierce Aldonza. Paige commands the stage and more than holds her own against Terrence Mann and the hoard of bare-chested men who abuse her."
"Alix Paige has a terrific sense of comic timing and holds her own with her experienced co-stars. Her voice is beautiful and her range is broad."
-Edmond Chibeau (Theatre critic)
"Alix Paige. Very talented. Really good." -Terrence Mann
BROADWAYWORLD.COM
Review of "Guys and Dolls" at Connecticut Repertory Theatre
"Alix Paige makes the uptight General Cartwright a fun fussbudget."
BLOG CRITICS by Jon Sobel
Review of "Parade" at the Secret Theatre in NY, NY
"Led by Keith Collins, who brings a pure tenor to the role of Leo Frank, and the sweet-voiced Alix Paige, who has a number of laser-lovely moments as his devoted wife Lucille, the big cast brings nearly every facet of the iconic story to life"
CABARET SCENES MAGAZINE | 7.26.10
"A Paige on Men: Songs of Love, Lust, and Loss" The Metropolitan Room by Peter Leavy
It isn’t an easy task, but Alix Paige pulled it off: creating an enjoyable cabaret show that’s totally autobiographical, at least nominally. The song selections revolved about Alix and her life, from fourteen years old when her mother gave her a motherly guide to finding the right mate: “date as many different men as physically possible,” and the show took it from there.
Admittedly, it all wasn’t nearly as narcissistic as it sounds, because “love, lust and loss” are as universal a leitmotif as one could get, and Alix’s segues between numbers made it clear that these were songs from the heart, sometimes beating with the love and lust part of her show’s title, but too often broken. Still, she was no Edith Piaf. She gave highly charged renditions of “Them There Eyes,” delivered with an energy that the 1930 songwriters of the piece (Picker, Tracey and Tauber) would have relished and, following her tale of a blind date with a man who had it all, but only on paper, an equally spirited “Find Me a Primitive Man” (Cole Porter).
One didn’t need to see Alix Paige’s bio to determine that she was an accomplished actress as well as an engaging singer. With her mobile face, befitting body language and a clear “I’ve been there” understanding of the lyrics, she rates an “A” in communicating the full force of her songs to the audience.
That audience was carried along on an emotional roller coaster, up and then down, and up then down again. Perhaps because perceiving the vocalist’s current state of acceptance that it’s all a road headed in the right direction, just as her mother told her, her songs of remorse – “Say It Isn’t So,” “Time Heals Everything” and others – were greeted by her mostly young adult audience with much appreciation rather than despair.
Paige’s accompaniment, the Bennett Paster trio: Paster on piano, Gregory Ryan on bass and Joe Strasser on drums, were choice companions. After an easy-listening instrumental opener, they provided Paige with cogent backing without ever forgetting it was her show. David Colbert was the capable hand on lights and sound.
This was Alix Paige’s New York cabaret debut. She’s good. Hopefully, cabaret lovers will have the opportunity to see more of her.