VIOLET presented by NKU School of the Arts through Oct. 2. I attended the closing Wednesday night performance.
Let’s cut to the chase: NKU School of the Arts is currently presenting an impressive production of VIOLET.
Vocally the show is excellent with powerful solos from Jeremiah Savon Jackson (Flick), Yolee Louis (Almeta), Chloe Hedrick (Music Hall Singer), and Chloe Esmeier (the Violet understudy in the title role for this performance). The harmonies were beautiful.
I also enjoyed the excellent character work by Hailey Watson (Young Vi), Rachel Gardner (Old Lady), Sylas Craven (Preacher), and Tre Taylor (Virgil).
Hailey Watson as Young Vi & Trey Finkenstead as Father.
Both Chris Monell (Monty) and Trey Finkenstead (Father) created solid, believable characters and handled their songs very well.
The orchestra, under the leadership of Scot Buzza, sounded great and were hot miked. Thankfully, so were the actors so I could hear well when there were one or two vocalists. In the group numbers, there were times when the combination caused the lyrics to get muddy.
Director Jamey Strawn keeps the action clear and easy to follow as the story takes us to various locations and back and forth in time. The set design worked well and set changes were made with efficiency and never drew my focus.
Overall, an impressive, smartly presented, not often produced musical that my guest and I thoroughly enjoyed.
My rating: 4.75 out of 5.
Click here for more information on the production.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 