September 2019 – Observations Along the Road

🎭 Speechless | “Blue Man Group” @ Hollywood Pantages

Posted onSunday, September 29, 2019Sunday, September 29, 2019Authorcahwyguy

Blue Man Group (Pantages) Last night, we the Blue Man Group at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). We last saw the Blue Man Group in 2014 at the Monte Carlo is Las Vegas, before the Monte Carlo became Park MGM, and before BMG was purchased by Cirque Du Soleil.

I’m not sure either change was for the better, but we’ll talk about the Monte Carlo later 🙂

In general, the Blue Man Group was, well, the Blue Man Group. Strange. Silly. Wordless. Playful and curious. Childlike and childish. There were sequences that were great (such as the paint marshmallows). Audience participation was fun. But there was something off. The energy and madness was toned down a notch. It wasn’t the craziness I remembered from Vegas.

I can’t quite pinpoint the problem. Was it the significantly larger house? Was it a seeming over reliance on technology, including a massive technological set? Was it the safety for the audience a tour provides? I’m not sure. I just know the show didn’t “wow” me as it did the first time I saw them on stage.

I do not mean to imply they were bad. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. But Blue Man Group brings a certain imprimatur, a certain cachet, a certain expectation. They didn’t quite live up to that expectation; they hit the 85-90% mark.

The cast consisted of Blue Man, Blue Man, and Blue Man, with a Blue Man in reserve. They were played by Meridian, Mike Brown, Steven Wendt, and Adam Zuick. Pick any three of four, because we have no idea who was whom. The show was written by Jonathan Knight, Michael Dahlen, and the Blue Man Group.

They are supported on stage by musicians Corky Gainsford (FB) Drums, Robert Gomez Resident Music Director, Band Captain; and Jerry Kops Musician/Strings, playing music composed by Andrew Schneider and Jeff Turlik.

Turning to the production and creatives: Jason Ardizzone-West Set Designer; Jen Schriever Lighting Designer; Emilio Sosa Costume Designer; Patricia Murphy Blue Man Character Costumes; Crest Factor Sound Design; Lucy Mackinnon Video Designer; Bill Swartz SFX Designer; Johnathan Knight Creative Director; Richard Herrick Production Stage Manager; Byron Estep Music Director; Stacy Myers Company Manager; Anna K. Rains Production Stage Manager; Zachary Feivou Head Carpenter; Gentry & Associates General Management; Bond Theatrical Group Tour booking, Marketing, and Publicity Direction; and Networks Presentations Production Management. The production was directed by Jenny Koons. The original creators of Blue Man Group were Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink.

The Blue Man Group Speechless Tour continues at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) through October 6. Tickets are available through the Pantages web page, as well as numerous other places.

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I like to say that I’m a professional audience, and that’s why I like theatre. I don’t have the creativity in me to inhabit other characters, and in general, the writing I do is limited to non-fiction — government documents and policies, highway pages, and reviews like these. I don’t have the ability to take an idea and turn it into characters and stories that might be compelling to an audience. I’m also a long time cybersecurity professional, and attending years of the Hollywood Fringe Festival has convinced me that the medium of the stage could be used to teach about cybersecurity in a way that audiences could learn, without being overwhelmed with technology. The notion I have is to take some broad cybersecurity themes and concepts and translate them into stories that could teach in a compelling way. But I don’t have the expertise to build a story out of the idea. If this is something that might interest you, please let me know. I don’t have funds for a commission or anything like that, but it might be something we could turn into a property beneficial for all.

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Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre (or music) critic; I am, however, a regular theatre and music audience member. I’ve been attending live theatre and concerts in Los Angeles since 1972; I’ve been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I’m a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted (or I’ll make a donation to the theatre, in lieu of payment). I am not compensated by anyone for doing these writeups in any way, shape, or form. I currently subscribe at 5 Star Theatricals (FB), the Hollywood Pantages (FB), Actors Co-op (FB), the Soraya/VPAC (FB), and the Musical Theatre Guild (FB). Through my theatre attendance I have made friends with cast, crew, and producers, but I do strive to not let those relationships color my writing (with one exception: when writing up children’s production, I focus on the positive — one gains nothing except bad karma by raking a child over the coals). I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.

Upcoming Shows:

Saturday night brings Blue Man Group at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). We start getting really busy in October, starting with The Mystery of Irma Vep at Actors Co-op (FB) and Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville at Canyon Theatre Guild. The next weekend brings Anastasia – The Musical at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). The third weekend brings us back to the Kavli for The Music Man at 5 Star Theatricals (FB), followed by In Trousers at the Lounge Theatre from Knot Free Productions. October concludes with Mandy Gonzalez at the Soraya/VPAC (FB) and the MoTAS Poker Tournament.

Looking to November, it starts with A Miracle on 34th Street – The Radio Play at Actors Co-op (FB), followed by Big Daddy the Band of 1959 at McCabes (FB) in Santa Monica.. The second weekend brings Summer at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) and The Goodbye Girl at Musical Theatre Guild (FB). The third weekend is open, but may bring an outing of our new live theatre group at our synagogue to Eight Nights at the Anteaus Theatre Company (FB). November concludes with Bandstand at Broadway in Thousand Oaks.

December is relatively open right now, given that we lose two weekends to ACSAC, and the small theatres are often darker around the holidays. I do have a hold for December 17 for Elf at Canyon Theatre Guild. I also have a hold for January 4 for What The Constitution Means To Me at the Mark Taper Forum, but I’m waiting for the presale to start to confirm that date.

As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Better-Lemons, Musicals in LA, @ This Stage, Footlights, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411 or that are sent to me by publicists or the venues themselves. Want to know how to attend lots of live stuff affordably? Take a look at my post on How to attend Live Theatre on a Budget. Want to learn about all the great theatre in Southern California? Read my post on how Los Angeles (and its environs) is the best area for theatre in the Country!

🎭 Humbug, I Say | “Barnum” @ MTG

Posted onFriday, September 27, 2019Saturday, September 28, 2019Authorcahwyguy

Barnum (MTG) There’s one major problem with seeing shows on Sunday evening: When to do the writeup? That’s made even worse when you are trying to walk 10K steps a day, have a full-time job, have evening meetings, and it is the first week of the new television season. Please accept that as my excuse for why this writeup of the musical Barnum, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and book by Mark Bramble, is so late. We saw the show last Sunday night (its only performance); and I haven’t had time to write it up until now.

Barnum is the show that really introduced me to Cy Coleman’s music. When I got the cast album, I also picked up an album of the Cy Coleman trio doing songs from that show, and almost wore it out. I first saw the show in January 1982 at the Pantages Theatre with most of the original cast: Jim Dale, Glenn Close, Catherine Gaines, Ray Roderic, Terri White, Terrence V. Mann, and others. In the recent past, I saw the show back in 2006 at the NoHo Arts Center with James Mellon and Janet Fontaine.

This time, I was seeing Barnum as the first show of our subscription to Musical Theatre Guild (FB), a local company that specializes in doing staged readings of rarely done “gems”. The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) season was a bust in terms of musicals we wanted, and MTG had moved to Sunday night and was doing three shows we hadn’t seen: The Goodbye Girl, It Shoulda Been You, and Kismet — so we subscribed and Barnum was part of the deal. “Staged reading” means you get the entire libretto and book. However, there are no formal sets; the actors (by AEA rules) have their scripts in hand, there is truly limited rehearsal (25 hours); and any ensemble is minimal. It is a great way to “see” a show and imagine what it could be, but not have the expense of a full production. However, as there is only one performance, there are likely to be all sorts of technical problems and rough edges.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it tells the story of P.T. Barnum, from his first “humbug” with Joyce Heth (after he met his wife Charity Barnum) until the creation of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. It has a very Dixie-land score, and features rope tricks, juggling, tightrope walking, marching bands, the world’s smallest man, the world’s oldest woman, the world’s biggest elephant, magic tricks, and more… in this case, with a cast of 9.

So I’ve seen Barnum in the big, and I’ve seen Barnum in the small. How did this production do? The answer is: reasonably well. Overall, the performances were good, and the character performers were extremely creative in presenting Big Top acts on a teeny-tiny budget. Some of the voices were remarkable. The show, however, was marred by sound problems (especially on some of my favorite songs), some of the actors lost their places in the scripts, and the lead just couldn’t keep up with some of the strong patter songs (and I believe dropped some lyrics, and perhaps even cut an entire reprise of the verse).

Credit goes to the director, Alan Bailey (FB), and the choreographer, Cheryl Baxter (FB), for the creative way they brought the show to life with their limited budget and limited rehearsal time. Some of the creative decisions such as how they did the tightrope, the acrobats, the execution of the Tom Thumb and Jumbo sequences, and the implementation of the circus acts were great. Given the limited rehearsal, the movement was in general quite good and conveyed a sense of what the show could be with more time and rehearsal. The incorporation during one sequence of a sign indicating the AEA required them to hold scripts at all times was a hoot.

In the lead position was Kirby Ward (FB) as PT Barnum. Ward had a good voice, and captured the character and the playfulness of Barnum well. Where he had problems was keeping up with the script: there were one or two places where he seemingly lost his place. A greater problem for me was that, in the “Museum Song” (a song I have memorized), he seemed to misplace a line, and skip the fastest reprise. He had some similar problems in “Join the Circus”, IIRC. I understand the limited rehearsal time and being “on book”, but …

Working with him as Charity Barnum was Tracy Lore, who we’ve seen in numerous productions at Cabrillo/5-Star and appears to be an MTG regular. Lore’s Charity had a lovely voice, and she did a great job of bringing the character to life and playing off of Ward’s Barnum. A flawless performance.

As we move to the remainder of the cast (who all handled multiple roles), there are a few I would like to particularly highlight. Regina LeVert (⭐FB, FB) Joyce Heth / Blues Singer / Ensemble had a remarkable voice and gave a great performance, but was hindered by a malfunctioning microphone that hurt her powerful vocals. What made matters worse is that they didn’t fix the problem after the first failure, but let it fail again in her second song in the second act. The stage manager had the presence to hand her a mic near the end of her first song; they could have done that at the first hint of trouble in the second. Another strong singer was Kelley Dorney (FB) Jenny Lind / Ensemble. For Lind, Dorney has to capture an operatic soprano voice, and she just nailed it with both beauty and grace. The third performance I would like to highlight is Matthew Patrick Davis (FB) Chester Lyman / Tom Thumb / Wilton / Ensemble. Davis brought a strong voice to his performance in “Bigger Isn’t Better”, but more importantly brought loads of humor to Tom Thumb, as the tallest ensemble member recruited to play the world’s smallest man. He made it work, and then he reappeared at the end on stilts! Rounding out the ensemble were: Jasmine Ejan (⭐FB, FB) Mrs Stratton / Ensemble; Glenn Shiroma (FB) Ringmaster / James Bailey / Ensemble; Matt Braver (FB) Amos Scudder / Goldschmidt / Morrissey / Ensemble; and Jeffrey Scott Parsons (FB) Sherwood Stratton / Concertmaster / Templeton / Ensemble.

Also “performing” on stage were two ASL Interpreters from Pierce College, Angelina Giudice (FB) and Heaven Ringle (FB). I cannot attest to the quality of their signing, or whether they were able to keep up with the show and the songs, but they were fun to watch and had their own interplay during the show.

Lastly, augmenting the performers during the Act II opening number “Come Follow the Band” was the Verdugo Hills High School Marching Band. They were a hit with the audience; they only way the reaction could have been better had been if they marched down the aisles.

Speaking of music: the on-stage band was under the musical direction of Jan Roper (FB), who was also tickling the ivories (and not the ivories of Jumbo). Rounding out the on-stage musicians were Chris Tedesco (FB) Trumpet; Dave Ryan Trombone; John Yoakum (FB) Woodwinds; Steve Wilkinson Bass; and Alan Peck Drums / Percussion. I did appreciate the red noses at the start.

Finally, turning to the production and creative side. There were no credits for scenic design, although there was a production coordinator (Barbara Carlton Heart), video technical assistance (Ernest McDaniel), and a video board operator (Megan Salisbury). There were no credits for sound or lighting, even though they really needed a sound person on site, given the mic problems. They did, however, have costumes by Jeffrey Schoenberg / AJS Costumes, which served to define the characters and provide a limited sense of who and when. Rounding out the production team was Leesa Freed Production Stage Manager / Production Manager, Stacey Cortez Asst Stage Manager; and Debra Miller Asst Stage Manager.

Musical Theatre Guild (FB) productions are one performance only. Their next performance is The Goodbye Girl on November 10, 2019.

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Upcoming Shows:

🍏🍯🍎🍯 L’Shanah Tovah – Happy New Year – 5780

Posted onThursday, September 26, 2019Authorcahwyguy

Apple in Honey userpic=tallit Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts at sundown Sunday night, September 29^th. Thus, it’s time for my annual New Years message for my family, my real-life, Blog, Dreamwidth, Google+, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook friends (including all the new ones I have made this year), and all other readers of my journal:

L’Shana Tovah. Happy New Year 5780. May you be written and inscribed for a very happy, sweet, and healthy new year.

For those curious about Jewish customs at this time: There are a number of things you will see. The first is an abundance of sweet foods. Apples dipped in honey. Honey cakes. The sweet foods remind us of the sweet year to come. Apples in honey, specifically, express our hopes for a sweet and fruitful year. Apples were selected because in ancient times they became a symbol of the Jewish people in relationship to God. In Song of Songs, we read, “As the apple is rare and unique among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved [Israel] amongst the maidens [nations] of the world.” In medieval times, writes Patti Shosteck in A Lexicon of Jewish Cooking, apples were considered so special that individuals would use a sharp utensil or their nails to hand-carve their personal hopes and prayers into the apple skins before they were eaten. And the Zohar, a 13th-century Jewish mystical text, states that beauty – represented by God – “diffuses itself in the world as an apple.” With respect to the honey: honey – whether from dates, figs, or apiaries – was the most prevalent sweetener in the Jewish world and was the most available “sweet” for dipping purposes. And as for the biblical description of Israel as a land flowing with “milk and honey,” the Torah is alluding to a paste made from overripe dates, not honey from beehives. Still, enjoying honey at Rosh HaShanah reminds us of our historic connection with the Holy Land. Although the tradition is not in the Torah or Talmud, even as early as the 7th century, it was customary to wish someone, “Shana Tova Umetukah” (A Good and Sweet Year).
(Source: Reform Judaism Website)

Rosh Hashanah Images Another traditional food is a round challah. Some say they it represents a crown that reflects our coronating God as the Ruler of the world. Others suggest that the circular shape points to the cyclical nature of the year. The Hebrew word for year is “shana,” which comes from the Hebrew word “repeat.” Perhaps the circle illustrates how the years just go round and round. But Rosh Hashana challahs are not really circles; they are spirals… The word “shana” has a double meaning as well. In addition to “repeat,” it also means “change”. As the year goes go round and round, repeating the same seasons and holidays as the year before, we are presented with a choice: Do we want this shana (year) to be a repetition, or do we want to make a change (shinui)? Hopefully, each year we make choices for change that are positive, and each year we will climb higher and higher, creating a spiritual spiral. The shape of the Rosh Hashana challah reminds us that this is the time of year to make those decisions. This is the time to engage in the creative spiritual process that lifts us out of the repetitive cycle, and directs our energies toward a higher end.
(Source: Aish Ha’Torah)

There are also apologies, for during the ten days starting Sunday evening, Jews examine their lives and see how they can do better. On Yom Kippur (starting the evening of October 8^th), Jews apologize to G-d for their misdeeds during the past year. However, for an action against another person, one must apologize to that person.

So, in that spirit:

If I have offended any of you, in any way, shape, manner, or form, real or imagined, then I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done anything to hurt, demean, or otherwise injure you, I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done or said over the past year that has upset, or otherwise bothered you, I sincerely apologize, and will do my best to ensure it won’t happen again.

If you have done something in the above categories, don’t worry. I know it wasn’t intentional, and I would accept any apology you would make.

May all my blog readers and all my friends have a very happy, healthy, and meaningful new year. May you find in this year what you need to find in life.

💃 Cryptography and Apples | “Invertigo Dance Theatre” @ The Broad Stage

Posted onSunday, September 15, 2019Authorcahwyguy

Invertigo Dance Theatre (Broad Stage) Our summer performance hiatus is over. As a side effect of Fringe burnout and the surfeit of performances that come out in July, we tend to have a lighter attendance schedule at the end of August and in early September. But that hiatus is over, and it is weekly live performance from now until December, when the conference creates another hiatus. First up: Alan Turing.

Back in early August, I received an email from The Broad Stage (FB) about an upcoming production that caught my eye. It talked about a performance that “invites us into the life of mathematical genius Alan Turing as cast into the mythologized ideas of his favorite film, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Now I’ve been doing computer science since the mid 1970s, and computer security since the mid 1980s, so any story about Turing intrigued me. I went to the Broad web page for the event, and read the following:

Invertigo Dance Theatre (FB)’s Formulae & Fairy Tales places the worlds of mathematics, artificial intelligence and cryptography into a vivid, twisted fairy-tale palette. The multi-dimensional story casts the life of Alan Turing, mathematical genius and World War II codebreaker, into the Technicolor and mythologized ideas of his favorite film, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Step into a world of lush dance, dynamic theatre, math, sex, fairy tales, humor and death.

Now, I’m not much of a dance person, other than in the context of a musical. I didn’t quite understand the Martha Graham company when I saw it, and I never saw what others saw in Matthew Bourne’s work. But this sounded fascinating. One does not often see pioneers of computer science on the stage, nor does one often see cryptography on stage. Computer Security, in general, gets little attention from live theatre artists. And so, with curiosity peaking, I went out to Goldstar and grabbed some tickets.

Now that I’ve seen the performance, I’m still working on processing it. Much of this is a vocabulary problem. Theatre, in many ways, is easy. We have words, we have stories. We have performance that is either realistic or mock-realism. We can typically relate what we see on the stage to what we know in real life, and can thus assess it.

Dance is much more abstract, especially in a piece where you don’t know the story ahead of time. This piece had some explanatory text, but the story was mostly told in dance and movement. The dance world has its own conventions, and if you are not fluent in them (which I am not), both understanding and describing them are difficult.

That said, the dance here was beautiful. There were feelings that were raised; feelings and images. There was the sense of cogs in a wheel; cogs in a machine; cogs in a rotor. That’s appropriate, given the nature of the Enigma. There were elements of the Snow White story, and there were clearly mathematical elements. There were notions of relationships, both conventional and non-conventional. All of these were from the movement, aided at times from the projections.

There was clearly metaphor: in particular, in the sequence using the Turing quote about how “one day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, ‘My little computer said such a funny thing this morning”, all the computers that were taking to the park were … apples. Could this a reference to Apples and the iPhone?

The dance also involved spoken elements, sometimes cryptic, relating the story of Turing. A repeated motif was the invocation of the Turing Test, which had slightly different construction each time it was invoked — and none of the times fit precisely what Computer Scientists understand as a Turning test (interacting with an unknown entity you cannot see, and through questions along, you make the determination of human or not).

Overall, the production was beautiful to watch. I can’t say it was what I expected, but I’m not sure what I was expecting.

Performers: Cody Brunelle-Potter (FB), Hyosun Choi (FB), Jessica Dunn (FB), Spencer Jensen (FB), Corina Kinnear (💃FB), Dominique McDougal (💃FB, FB), and Luke Dakota Zender (FB). The performances were very strong; I was particularly taken with the dance of Brunelle-Potter and Choi.

Choreography by: Laura Karlin (FB), Cody Brunelle-Potter (FB), Hyosun Choi (FB), William Clayton (FB), Jessica Dunn (FB), Adrian Hoffman (FB), Isaac Huerta, Spencer Jensen (FB), Corina Kinnear (💃FB), Dominique McDougal (💃FB, FB), Shane Raiford, and Luke Dakota Zender (FB).

Original music composed by: Toby Karlin (FB), Julia Kent, and Eric Mason (FB). Additional music by Afriara Quartet (FB), A Winged Victory for the Sullen, and Nebulo (FB). Text was primarily written by Laura Karlin (FB), with other text by Janna Levin and Alan Turing.

Created and directed by Laura Karlin (FB).

Production credits: R. S. Buck (FB) Production Stage Manager, Lighting Design, Technical Direction; Celestial Zenith (FB) Stage Manager; Rosalida Medina (FB) Costume Design; NightLight Labs Scenic and video design; Veronica Mullins (FB) Sound Engineer; Mallory Fabian (FB) Rehearsal Director. Laura Karlin (FB) is the artistic director of Invertigo Dance Theatre (FB); David Mack (FB) Executive Director.

We caught the last performance of Intvertigo at the Broad, although I have heard rumors that this production may be touring.

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Upcoming Shows:

Next weekend brings Barnum at Musical Theatre Guild (FB), and the the last weekend of September brings Blue Man Group at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). We start getting really busy in October, starting with The Mystery of Irma Vep at Actors Co-op (FB) and Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville at Canyon Theatre Guild. The next weekend brings Anastasia – The Musical at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). The third weekend brings us back to the Kavli for The Music Man at 5 Star Theatricals (FB), followed by In Trousers at the Lounge Theatre from Knot Free Productions. October concludes with Mandy Gonzalez at the Soraya/VPAC (FB) and the MoTAS Poker Tournament.

Looking to November, it starts with A Miracle on 34th Street – The Radio Play at Actors Co-op (FB), followed by Big Daddy the Band of 1959 at McCabes (FB) in Santa Monica.. The second weekend brings Summer at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) and The Goodbye Girl at Musical Theatre Guild (FB). The third weekend is open, but I’m looking at a number of shows. November concludes with Bandstand at Broadway in Thousand Oaks.

December is relatively open right now, given that we lose two weekends to ACSAC, and the small theatres are often darker around the holidays.