theatre review - SCAPIN - Grand Canyon University - October 18, 2015

Ryan Usher, Taylor Kortman, and Kayana Hudson
Photo by Darryl Webb / Grand Canyon University

"Grand Canyon University just concluded their two week run of Scapin, Bill Irwin and Mark O'Donnell's adaptation of Molière's classic 17th-century farce. This fast paced and very funny production proved perfect fodder to display the fine comedic abilities of the young GCU cast...Director Michael Kary elicited fine comical performances from his entire cast, led by Ryan Usher as Scapin. Usher had no problem in portraying the scheming, confident, and wily sides of his character with glee... there were a few actors whose characters had more comical moments or who elevated their parts with sheer lunacy. As Sylvester, servant to the other parent, Kayana Hudson was skillfully adept in playing the silly and very funny character...Jeremiah Byrne proved a perfect foil as the father of one of the boys whose increasingly growing rotund figure was used for great comic effect...While Taylor Kortman played the son Octave as a grown-up cry baby, with a pinwheel hat, his over the top delivery made the sniveling, complaining man-child into a hilarious character. Cole Brackney as the non-speaking, on-stage sound effects man Gary, was able to share in the fun, not only with his continual, well-timed, and well executed and very humorous musical effects (even including a cowbell at one point) but also with his expressive facial expressions and reactions to the comic events happening in front of him. ...GCU's energetic production was full of funny sequences with several laugh out loud moments and the end result was a simply delightful Scapin, full of scams, disguises, wisecracks, and characters played with relish by the well-directed GCU student cast."  -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)