Review of Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch at Lifeline Theatre

"Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch was a great experience for me.  It was a great experience for me because it was really fun, and you got to do stuff you don't usually get to do in plays--like sit on the stage (and I will talk more about that later).  And you got to yell out answers to one of the actors.  You get to get  love notes from the actors.  They are not actually like love love notes, but they are notes that are like for Valentine's Day. The show was really funny at some parts, really sad at some parts, and sometimes it was really hilarious, and sometimes it was really mellow.

The set was very surprising.  They said you can go have those seats right there, and I said "What? We're sitting on the stage?!" Sitting on the stage was kind of scary because the actors are really close. I liked sitting on the stage, too.  Even if it was kind of scary I liked it.  It was really fun how we got to sit on the stage.  The actors were up on the stage and not up on the stage.  They were in the other audience.  It was more like a famous theater that was after Shakespeare but before us.  If you don't know about Shakespeare you can learn it from me--ADA GREY!  Shakespeare is a Elizabethan playwright that was really great and he wrote Romeo and Juliet, but he didn't write Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch.  I thought the person who wrote Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch was not as good as Shakespeare, but she was really good.  Her name was Frances Limoncelli.  She just wrote the play based on the book, but she didn't write the book.  Eileen Spinelli is the person who did the book.  They were both really good.

There were only four actors in the play.  And they all played different parts except for the person who played Mr. Hatch (Michael T. Downey).  He only played one part because he had such a big part, and since he got the biggest part he didn't need to play another character.  His performance I thought was really funny and sad.  And mostly he was funny, not mostly he was sad, but sometimes he was a little melancholy.  When he was happy I felt a little more happy, and when he was sad I felt a little more sad.  I think the actor was kind of trying to make the audience feel the way the character felt, and I thought that was good.  And it made me feel good that I was one of the people that was feeling good with him. Mr. Hatch's performance was great.

Sara Sevigny played Mrs. Weed, Co-worker #1 and Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody.  Mr. and Mrs, Dunwoody you didn't actually see all of their body; you could only see their head and arms because maybe Sara was dressed like her main character, Mrs. Weed, and they didn't want you to see that when she was playing Mr. Dunwoody because she was in a dress!  Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody were really funny because like the things they said like "What do you think Mrs, Dunwoody?" and she would come out in a bonnet.  And I thought that was really funny. So funny.  The co-workers were kind of nice to Mr. Hatch when they realized he wanted to give them a chocolate and then they realized that he was really nice.  Mrs. Weed had a little dog named Ruffy. It was a puppet.  She made the voice, and she had her hand inside.  And  it must have been animatronical marionette because it was like running when she was actually not moving.  Mrs. Weed was pretty funny at some parts like when she made Ruffy chase the mailman.  I've seen Sara before and she was in The League of Awesome.  I thought she did a good job, and she had a good part, and she had to wear a funny dress in The League of Awesome.

Tuckie White was really fun, and she had to go on a see-saw that was almost too small for her.  It was really small so it would look like a kid's see-saw.  Her different parts were named Tina Finn, and she also played Melanie Todd, and she also played Ms. Smith.  Melanie Todd was younger than Tina Finn.  She did a good job playing different ages, and she did a good job pretending to sneeze because it sounded like she was actually sneezing. She did a great job doing everything she had to do in the play.

Micah J. L. Kronlokken, he played three different parts.  He played Mr. Goober and that character was a mailman.  And he also played Co-worker #2 and a person who sells meat, Mr. Todd.  When he did his parts I thought he did a really good job because then when he heard what Mr. Hatch said ("I'll go pick up your daughter which is Melanie Todd") he seemed really surprised.  And when he asked Mr. Hatch to give him the gift he sounded really sad and then he had an idea that he would make him happier.  We said something that made him feel better because Mr. Goober told us to, and you usually have to listen to the actor if he says something.

The "Good Neighbors" scene was also a song, and it was a fun song, and I have heard it before in the car on my disc of different kinds of plays.  The show was kind of better when you actually got to see it and not just hear it.  My favorite part of the song is the confusingest part when they are all singing all together.  They are singing about all the things they were singing about before like gardening, and good neighbors, and cooking for their neighbors, and lots of good things about neighbors.

The scene where Mr. Hatch gets the package he was sitting down, and then he heard the doorbell ring, and he looked at the doorbell and was like "Huh?" because he didn't know who it was and he didn't even know the sound of his doorbell because he didn't get any packages that much and people almost never came to visit him.  Then it ding-donged it again, and he was like "What? Again?"  And then he realized it was his doorbell. So funny.

People that would like this play are people that like books, funny things, sad things, and Valentine's Day.  I recommend that people see it a few times because I loved it.  I think this play should be for ages three and up because it doesn't have any scary parts.  It does have some sad parts, but I think it would be ok for three year olds because it is very happy at the end.  It tells you about people--that just because they are stubborn it doesn't mean they are bad.  When you do good things to people if they have treated you badly they will start to do nice things to you like give you presents, and get you tickets for shows, and get you ice cream. The end.



Photos: Suzanne Plunkett