My notes on a wildly uneven show, that ultimately found its footing after a literal amateur hour opening …
Let’s hope next year, we see some return to normalcy, whatever that once was. And we won’t have to play whack-a-mole trying to figure out where and how to watch the various movies and shows being honored.
“at least borat won the night! i call that justice! otherwise, i kept forgetting what exactly i was watching or why….and maya rudolph did remind me of past mavens of the entertainment industry whom i would list here but i ain’t gonna! tina and amy got pretty feisty, did they not? in that opener? i guffawed in spite of myself as i feel feisty as well…they captured the essence of this nonsensically bizarro world.”
Roy Sexton, director of marketing for Clark Hill, has been named treasurer-elect for the International Board of the Legal Marketing Association. He assumed his new duties January 1 and will be working to support the continued growth of LMA.
Founded in 1985, LMA is the universal voice of the legal marketing profession, a forum that brings together CMOs and entry-level specialists from firms of all sizes, consultants and vendors, lawyers, marketers from other professions and marketing students to share their collective knowledge. More than 90 percent of the largest 200 U.S. law firms employ an LMA member. Members at every stage in their career development benefit from LMA participation because the association’s broad array of programs and services can be tailored to their specific needs. Visit http://www.legalmarketing.org to read more about LMA.
Sexton joined Clark Hill in October 2018. In his role there, he oversees the firm’s communication professionals, guides its communication efforts, and works to enhance brand awareness. Clark Hill has 25 offices, including one in Dublin and one in Mexico City.
“I’ve been a member of LMA since 2011 when I made the transition from healthcare to legal. It may sound clichéd, but this organization has become a professional family to me. I have benefited exponentially from my involvement and the opportunities to write, present, lead that LMA has afforded me. I’m beyond thrilled at this opportunity to contribute to the future of this great association, and I look forward to serving our members well,” Sexton noted. Sexton has served as a board member, presenter, and content expert for the Legal Marketing Association. Most recently, he served as treasurer for the association’s Midwest Regional Board of Directors.
Before joining Clark Hill, Sexton served as marketing director at Kerr Russell, another Detroit-based law firm. He has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning, previously holding leadership positions at Deloitte Consulting, Oakwood Healthcare (now Beaumont Health), Trott Law, and St. Joseph Mercy Health System.
Sexton holds a bachelor’s degree from Wabash College in Indiana, a master’s degree in theater from The Ohio State University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Leadership Detroit and Leadership A2Y, was a governor-appointed member of the Michigan Council of Labor and Economic Growth, and was appointed to the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association Board of Governors in 2012. He chairs the marketing committee as a board member of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ann Arbor and chairs the governance committee as a board member of Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit. He is a published author with two books to his credit, culled from his blog of the same name ReelRoyReviews.com. He is an active speaker, emcee, and regional actor. He received a BroadwayWorld “best actor” award for his turn as John Jasper in Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
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From LMA Weekly:
Hey, hey, LMA! “Welcome Our 2020 Leaders and Volunteers … Every year, Legal Marketing Association – LMA International is honored by the commitment and dedication of hundreds of volunteers across LMA, and we couldn’t be more thrilled by the high caliber of legal marketing professionals supporting LMA in 2020. Take a moment to get to know our 2020 leaders, including the 2020 officers and directors of the LMA Board of Directors and Regional Governing Boards as well as the co-chairs for our committees, SIGs and task forces. All leaders began their terms on January 1. Thank you for sharing your time, heart and passion with LMA!” More: https://lnkd.in/eSnf4dN
“ICYMI: The Strategies+ Blogs You Read Most In 2019, Strategies+ covered a wide range of topics, from ways to advance diversity and inclusion initiatives, to considerations for improving legal marketing technology deployment, better website design and more. Missed out or just want a refresh? Here are some of the top blog posts you dove into this past year …” More: https://lnkd.in/erU3Kqg
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From Canton Chamber of Commerce:
Thank you, Thomas Paden, Canton Chamber, and Canton Community Television, for this fabulous episode of “Business Success,” covering our upcoming cabaret February 5. Denise Isenberg Staffeld, Megan Schaper, Kevin Robert Ryan, Jim Paglino, Bugs Beddow, and yours truly are all featured here: https://youtu.be/uwVBziALMlM
Do you love Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole? Journey into a night club where every musical era is represented – swing, jazz, big band, lounge, Rat Pack, pop … and maybe even a few present day surprises.
Join us at the Village Theater on Wednesday, February 5th at 7 p.m. for our 3rd Annual Music Cabaret Fundraiser: “Live From the Star Light Lounge,” an event that educates, entertains, saves.
This show, under the musical direction of Kevin Ryan, director of music and liturgy at St. Thomas a’Becket, will include a live band with special guest trombonist Bugs Beddow as well as a cast of amazingly talented individuals and special appearances from some local celebs. DanceBeat will add to the fun with their unique and vibrant dance stylings. Local personality Roy Sexton, director of marketing for the law firm Clark Hill, will emcee the evening.
“We are thrilled to be returning for year three. The support from the community has been overwhelming. It’s a fantastic cause, and I’m so grateful for the incredible talent volunteering their time for this important mission. Ring a ding ding! Take a step back in time to the Rat Pack era for a fabulous evening of entertainment and compassion. Last year we raised over $20,000, so I can’t wait to see what happens this year,” noted Producer/Director Denise Staffeld, a mortgage loan officer at DFCU Financial.
Enjoy a delicious dessert and sweet treats bar, featuring Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, while trying your luck at our Prize Pull, 50/50 and more. A cash bar will be available.
All proceeds and donations from the event will benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Canton and Plymouth. Pre-show reception at 6 p.m.
And last, but CERTAINLY NOT least … You know you’ve made it (?!)) when your #goldenglobes #jasonmomoa #tanktop tweet is quoted by Cosmopolitan. Even funnier that high school classmate Danny Grabner was the one to point it out to me! 😂 HERE: https://lnkd.in/eGKTDec – Cosmopolitan Magazine?!
We live in fraught, absurdist political times. Kurt Vonnegut couldn’t even have anticipated how off-the-charts bonkers our reality show polarization has become. So, there is a timely, refreshing, and essential concept at the heart of Planet Ant’s latest original work Who Run the World – taking its title from the pop-feminist anthem “Run the World (Girls)” by that ubiquitous purveyor of hard lemonade Beyoncé.
The show – written from what appears to be a series of free-wheeling improv exercises by director Lauren Bickers and her unrestrained cast Dyan Bailey, Suzan Jacokes, Esther Nevarez, Scott Sanford, Caitlyn Shea, and Sarah Wilder – is an interesting conceit. What will be the logical (and comically tragic) progression of our society by 2040 if we continue down this Red State/Blue State, feminist/antifeminist, extreme left/alt-right striated path?
Cast of Who Run the World (Photo by Scott Myers)
In the evening’s most effective and crispest moments, a series of video montages (created by Bailey, who used a similar technique in The Ringwald’s concurrently running production Merrily We Roll Along) bring the audience up-to-speed on world events from 2018 to 2040. America is rocked by a series of increasingly extreme political swings – President Oprah Winfrey succeeds President Donald Trump; she is, in turn, defeated by President Donald Trump, Jr.; he is ousted by President Ellen DeGeneres who is overtaken by Prezident Kid Rock (who didn’t even know he was running). A full out gender war erupts, centered around a network of Target stores, and eventually the women prove victorious driving unenlightened men into a series of, yes, “man caves.”
The gynocentric society, on the surface, seems practically perfect in every way: work/life balance, a presidential cabinet made up of bureaucrats dedicated to peace and culture and comfort, and omnipresent “dance breaks” set to the strains of Black Box’s “Everybody, Everybody.”
I admit my other favorite aspect of the show was the pre-show music/scene interludes, which all seemed to be emanating from my own personal iTunes collection. Any time I hear Madonna’s “Human Nature” during a performance (which has been … never … up-until-now), I’m a happy boy. “I’m not your b*tch. Don’t hang your sh*t on me.”
It’s unfortunate, then, that the actual show doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its surreal high concept. The performers–playing both the aforementioned cabinet members as well as a series of mulleted, flannel-wearing male denizens of the underground–should be commended for the ferocity and BIG energy with which they attack the material, but many scenes seem unrehearsed, perhaps even improvised on the spot, which clashes with the slick and professional nature of the video narrative. Further, the production seems to exist at three decibel levels: loud, louder, and loudest. For such an intimate space, this flattens the proceedings, giving the show an extended “skit-like” quality. When the cast is all present onstage, there is such a cacophony of voices and movement, it is at times difficult to discern exactly what is transpiring.
Dyan Bailey, Scott Sanford (Photo by Scott Myers)
There are many funny lines but they are lost as the actors’ articulation isn’t always up to snuff. Or clever quips are delivered with the blunt force of an anvil striking the audience on its collective head, losing the wry, satirical touch that would make them really zing. For example, one particular “man cave” is described as smelling like “Marlboros and farts.” The line made me chuckle, not from its actual delivery, but from its potential.
That is not to say that everyone involved doesn’t have their moments. Dyan Bailey has great fun channeling Kathleen Turner- meets-Donald Trump-meets-Ernst-Blofeld as societal matriarch Kameela Toriana (Department of Appearance and Diplomacy). There isn’t a piece of Jennifer Maiseloff’s underdeveloped scenery she won’t chew (her use of an exercise ball as her throne was particularly effective and amusing), and Bailey’s sheer force-of-hurricane-gale-will keeps the show moving apace.
Caitlyn Shea offers the closest thing to character progression in her shrinking violet-turned-Norma Rae Tracee McAllister (Director of Unpacking), who brings some nuance to the cartoon-like proceedings and revels in her character’s whiplash-inducing turns of personality.
The remaining cast members have some zippy moments, particularly when each goes to the “man cave” of Scott Sanford’s Addison Houser to explore their respective vices. There is an interesting narrative sequence to explore in these scenes if Planet Ant continues to develop the piece. These “vice visits” form a kind of Faustian compact – not dissimilar to Jack Nicholson’s increasingly menacing trips to commiserate with the spectral barkeep in The Shining – wherein the characters discover their true selves and the balance they’ve lost amidst political extremes. If the Who Run the World team works on refining those scenes, that sequence could provide much-needed narrative spark and character development to the play.
I may not be the right audience for what Planet Ant does. The full-house on opening night roared with laughter and approval, particularly as the show escalated further into Saturday Night Live territory or when actors riffed off-script due to a missed light cue or misplaced prop.
As an aside, when I bring my friend Lauren to a show, there seems to be an ironic bit of foreshadowing in our pre-show dinner conversation. I held forth at Green Space Café about how I just didn’t get “improv” and often found the humor therein a bit of a “stretch” for my linear sensibilities. As we watched Who Run the World, which I hadn’t realized was improv-based until I read the program immediately prior (shame on me), it reminded me that, at least for this viewer, I prefer a tightly rehearsed show with clear and nuanced character delineation, levels, and timing. I offer this to say that if you are a fan of improv, you might really dig Who Run the World … and I’m just a crabby fuddy duddy.
That said, I suspect there is a really sharp 45-minute piece buried somewhere in Who Run the World’s two-hour run time. With some Draconian editing, the show could be just the tonic our troubled times need. I, for one, crave a new Crucible, Children’s Hour, or, hell, Book of Mormon for this MAGA vs. #MeToo cultural dumpster fire in which we are currently living. Who Run the World ain’t it yet … but with some work, it might be.
Reel Roy Reviews 