The Great Gilly Hopkins': Rebel With a Cause

By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Rewards in abundance await audiences fortunate enough to make their way to the New Victory Theater in Times Square before the all-too-brief run of "The Great Gilly Hopkins" ends on Sunday.

These include an excellent, bittersweet play with music and a splendid set of performances led by a standout portrayal by Katie Blackerby as the difficult teen-ager in the title role.

Bright, tough and troublesome, Gilly has bounced from foster home to foster home for years, making herself unpleasant to her foster families and difficult in school and dreaming of one day being reunited with her mother, who lives on the other side of the country in San Francisco, sends an occasional postcard and professes to love her, although she never visits.

"The Great Gilly Hopkins," written by David Paterson and Steve Liebman and based on a novel by Mr. Paterson's Newbery award-winning mother, Katherine Paterson, is a production of Stage One, Louisville's professional theater for young audiences. And at the New Victory, which is also dedicated to theater for young audiences, this work has found an ideal home in New York.

Gilly, as the play opens, finds an ideal home with Maime Trotter (Debra Macut), the firm, big-hearted foster mother who has already opened her home to the sweet, slightly retarded William Ernest (Jack Wallen Jr.) and to Mr. Randolph (Omar Morris), the blind black neighbor who comes for dinner. But Gilly doesn't know how lucky she is, at least not until too late, and that is the wrenching story acted out on the stage of the New Victory under the skilled direction of J. Daniel Herring.

Ms. Blackerby, who gives a subtle performance in a taxing role and has a winning way with a song, manages to make a vexing character understandable and lovable. Gilly is, at times, knowingly rotten. She begins by terrorizing William Ernest, displays racial antipathy toward Mr. Randolph, beats up six boys on her first day in school and sends a provocative card to Mrs.

Harris (Shammen McCune), her teacher, who knows a thing or two about angry young women. Before Gilly is finished, she will steal a good deal of money in an effort to finance a bus trip to see her mother, but she will also learn some powerful lessons about true love.

"The Great Gilly Hopkins" is heartwarming, but it is far from sentimental -- a rare piece of children's theater that doesn't wear a sugar coat. The songs, though few, are clear and lilting; and besides Ms.Blackerby in an all-round expert cast, Ms. Macut as Maime Trotter, Mr. Wallen as William Ernest and Mr. Morris as the poetry-loving Mr. Randolph deserve special mention.

Running 85 minutes without an intermission, "The Great Gilly Hopkins" is intended as theater for audiences 8 and older. Adults who have had some experience of life, love and child rearing may appreciate it best of all.

The Village Voice, NYC April 26, 1998

PIECES OF THE SKY
Reviewed by Francine Russo

" David L. Paterson, Author of two other plays on the NY stage this season, The Great Gilly Hopkins and Fingerpainting In A Murphy Bed, has created a story bristling with character, texture, and wit. The performances are near perfect."

The Mystic River Press,
Groton CT, November 5, 1998

STONE THE CROWS
Reviewed by C.G. Varno

" First impressions are important. As I took my seat at the first dress rehearsal of Groton regional theatre's premiere production of NY playwright David L. Paterson's drama Stone The Crows, director Gary A. Baillargeon, adeptly polished a scene with two of the actors before curtain. I felt I would be in good hands for the next two hours. My instincts proved correct. The actors grew with their characters as the story unfolded. A young, stylish New York couple, grappeled with the desire for home and family in contrast for the need to succede in individual careers and achieve elusive self-fulfillment. Their lives are changed forever by a visit from an errant older brother who holds a secret and a need to put a degree of closure on the past. It is this secret that liberates them all as this genuinely moving story nears its end, the characters become their most eloquent and emotionally powerfull."

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