Ann Arvia

Actress, Voice Teacher

The Nativity Variations Milwaukee Repertory Theater

But the audience favorites in this colorful crew have to be Peggy (Ann Arvia) and Hank (Adam LeFevre), a pair of retirees who joined the PCP to get out of the house. Arvia and LeFevre are hysterical in their own right and a real hoot together. With these two at the helm, the characters of Peggy and Hank feel familiar and instantly lovable. Arvia earns loads of laughs with Peggy's comedic over-eagerness, then turns around and surprises with an operatic "Hey Nonny Nonny," proving how dynamic she is as a performer.

Kelsey Lawler for Broadway World

Alabama Shakespeare Festival

Macbeth

Both special effects and excellent performances make the scenes featuring the three witches (Ann Arvia, Greta Lambert and April Armstrong), pun intended, spellbinding.

Romeo & Juliet

Arvia’s wonderful performance all but elevates the Nurse role to major character status.

Our Town

Everyone of these actors gives an outstanding performance, as do many of the supporting characters…and Ann Arvia as the gossipy Louella Soames.

Cinderella

Ann Arvia is superb as Marie, the bag lady with more than a few surprises in her bag.

Rick Harmon for The Montgomery Advertiser

Fiddler on the Roof  Arena Stage

 

"Ann Arvia effortlessly gets the flinty warmth of Golde, Tevye’s wife, and the balanced cast is well anchored by the daughters."

Nelson Pressley for the Washington Post

 

"This winning, ultimately affecting portrayal — Hadary is wonderful in the cathartic closing scenes — finds a perfect match in Ann Arvia's performance as Tevye's wife, Golde. Her nuanced acting includes terrific comic timing, and she brings to her vocal numbers a rich tone and spot-on phrasing.

Arvia and Hadary have a field day in the Act 1 dream sequence (this is the most amusing staging I have encountered of that usually tiresome scene), and they also strike just the right wistful-hopeful note in the Act 2 duet Do You Love Me?"

Tim Smith for the Baltimore Sun

 

 "And there are some stunning performances: Ann Arvia is pitch-perfect as Tevye’s wife, Golde."

 Leslie Milk for The Washingtonian

 

"In a touching musical moment, midway through the second act, Tevye reaches out to Golde—the arranged match who has been his loyal if officious wife for twenty-five years—and asks, rather poignantly, “Do You Love Me?”

The duet conversation that follows between Tevye and Golde (Ann Arvia, in a quietly moving performance) approaches the question in an amusingly roundabout way that reminds us of a circa-2014 Washington press conference in which a press secretary uses every language trick in the book to evade a definitive response to a reporter’s pointed question.

Both the lyrics and the vocals are amusing and poignant, as Golde finally answers vaguely yet somehow definitively. It’s a hint that sometimes love can even happen if neither party were in love at the outset of an arranged match."

Terry Ponick for CDN

 

"As Teyve’s wife Golde, Ann Arvia is another clear choice of subtleness. She possesses a vibrant, physical presence. She is no push-over for her husband. She respects him, but she will  not be dominated by him for very long. When Hadary and Arvia sing “Do You Love Me?” well your reviewer saw many a couple in the audience touch or cuddle just a bit closer."

David Siegel for DC Metro Theater Arts

 

"Golde (Ann Arvia) is hearty character from whom springs a sharp tongue, clever wit, and a gorgeous operatic voice. Her solos in numbers like “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Sabbath Prayer” are of a strikingly clear quality, showcasing her range and vocal technique. “Do You Love Me?” a duet performed with Hadary, is the epitome of how to infuse comic timing into a sentimental song, never once compromising her vocal clarity for a laugh-line delivery. Her emotional responses to everyone, though particularly to Yente (Valerie Leonard) are both engaging and amusing."

Amanda N. Gunther for Theater Bloom

 

"The chemistry between Hadary and Ann Arvia, who plays his wife Golde, is such that one might forget that the two are actors on a stage but are in fact, an aging, married couple who realize that the beliefs they and their parents once embraced are being challenged on all fronts.

Hadary and Arvia are particularly moving when they sing "Sabbath Prayer" and "Do You Love Me?" In the latter song, Tevye seeks an answer as to whether Golde has grown to love him since they were married not by choice but because of a matchmaker's recommendation to their parents years ago.

Arvia, a veteran actor, gives Hadary a run for his money, with a resonance and vocal range that makes listening to her as she moves up and down the scale a real treat."

D. Kevin McNeir for The Washington Informer


Damn Yankees  Goodspeed Opera House

 

"But happily, Meg, in Mr. Woolard’s crisp, summery shirtwaist dresses, is not a cartoon. Ann Arvia, who was so sour last year as the jealous sister in Goodspeed’s production of “The Most Happy Fella,” this time is all sweetness and warmth as Meg. This is important, because despite all its baseball shenanigans and Faustian bargains, “Damn Yankees” is essentially a story of middle-aged love and longing, movingly embodied by Ms. Arvia, Mr. Judy and Mr. Lukas."

Sylviane Gold for the New York Times

 

"But what about heart?: Gotta have it and it does with a lovely performance by Ann Arvia as Meg, the wife Joe leaves behind, James Judy as the lug husband who learns that love trumps the home team and a splendid-voiced Stephen Mark Lukas as Hardy, who has the body of a slugger but the soul of faithful husband. The songs "Goodbye Old Girl," "A Man Doesn't Know" and "Near to You" give emotional weight to counter the comic schtick."

Frank Rizzo for the Hartford Courant

 

"Otherwise, this "Damn Yankees" is just about ideal. Ms. Reda is as hot as fresh horseradish in "Whatever Lola Wants," and the supporting players are all extra-good, especially Ann Arvia, whose unpretentiously winning performance as Meg, Joe's mystified wife, adds a touch of truth to a show that errs on the side of silliness."

Terry Teachout for the Wall Street Journal

 

"With all that said, much like Joe Boyd himself, the production directed by Daniel Goldstein does at times come dangerously close to selling its soul to the musical theater gods. It almost forgets what matters behind all the spectacle and adrenaline, and it takes Ann Arvia as Meg Boyd to remind us.

In the number, "A Man Doesn't Know," Boyd beautifully bunts her way into our hearts with tender and truthful moments. Her consistently honest portrayal of a woman who is hurt but patient, a little lost, and ultimately faithful, is what keeps me listening and in the game when some of the other numbers blow by like fastballs. She’s the pine tar that makes the Goodspeed production stick. Together with Stephen Mark Lukas as the young Joe Hardy, their work makes for a natural, double-play combination."

Ed Wierzbicki for WNPR

 

"The superb Ann Arvia exhibits a warmth and humanity as Meg that makes all of this believable, aided by Stephen Mark Lukas’s ability to connect with her in his role as the virile young Joe Hardy."

Andrew Beck for The Examiner

 

"Ann Arvia provides the heart of this "Yankees" as Meg Boyd, the spouse Joe has left behind. She makes every note of the Richard Adler-Jerry Ross songs "A Man Doesn't Know" and "Near to You" bittersweet beauty.  Arvia shares a sweet rapport with Stephen Mark Lukas, who's the young version of Meg's hubby."

Kristina Dorsey for The Day

 

The Most Happy Fella  Goodspeed Opera House

 

"As Tony’s too-devoted sister, Marie, Ann Arvia conveys the show’s darker, more melodramatic elements."

Sylviane Gold for the New York Times

 

"Ann Arvia skillfully makes Tony's jealous sister if not sympathetic at least understandable (and the addition of the song "Eyes of Stranger" gives her more dimension)."

Frank Rizzo for the Hartford Courant

 

"The late-first-act addition of that song, just before the injured Tony marries Rosabella, makes dramatic sense. Without it, Marie’s presence in the famous “How Beautiful the Days” quartet in Act Two seems odd. We now have a better sense of her role in life: caregiver, supporter, critic, mother figure. Without “Eyes Like a Stranger,” her desperate act of grabbing the cane away from the disabled Tony at the end of the show — he is her crutch, get it? — makes her merely a monster. Loesser knew what he was doing, and the show is lucky to have Jo Loesser as its protector and torchbearer. To say nothing of Arvia, who conveys pain and fear with every pinched, sideways glance. The actress plays Marie with spectacles, underlining Marie’s extreme nearsightedness in life. She removes the glasses tellingly, rubbing her eyes. The changing world has strained her vision."

Kenneth Jones at By Kenneth Jones (blog)