Stuff For My Daughter

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userpic=nsshere_2007A collection of items my daughter will find interesting… I think…

  • Some People Aren’t Very Good at Ikea. She just got an apartment in Berkeley. She just got furniture from Ikea. She assembled it in one evening. Nuff said.
  •  Sara Bareilles to pen score for ‘Waitress’ musical. One of the artists my daughter introduced me to was Sara Bareilles. It appears she’s going to follow in the footsteps of Cyndi Lauper, and do the music and lyrics for a stage version of the movie “Waitress”. “Pippin” director Diane Paulus, who also won a Tony, is helming the show, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel is writing the script.
  • Danny Burstein, Eisa Davis, Raúl Esparza, Judy Kuhn, Anika Noni Rose Cast in City Center Cradle Will Rock. City Center in New York City is doing a revival of “The Cradle Will Rock” with one of Erin’s favorite artists, Raul Esparza. I’m not crazy with their double casting roles, but I guess it reflects economics. I forget whether she saw the musical with us when Blank revived it in 2011.
  • Time Warner Cable increases L.A. Wi-Fi hot spots. Time Warner Cable’s Wi-Fi network in Los Angeles and surrounding areas has increased to 12,000 hot spots as the proliferation of smartphones and tablets drives demand for wireless Internet access everywhere. Time Warner Cable’s Wi-Fi growth is part of a larger effort by an alliance of cable companies to expand mobile wireless Internet access. On Monday, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks said they have a combined 150,000 hot spots in the U.S. The combined network lets customers from one company access the Web through other service providers, which is helpful for people traveling outside their home networks, the companies said. How does this relate? We’re using Time Warner for Internet access at home, therefore we should be able to figure out how to use their hot-spot network.

 

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Citizen Journalism: What do Journalists Bring, and Will You Read It Anyway?

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userpic=lougrantYesterday afternoon, while driving home, I was listening to the NPR Technology podcast. They had an interesting piece on the death of high-school newspapers, including a discussion of the primary suspect: citizen journalism. Basically, the news reporting that high-school newspapers used to do has been replaced by students reporting in real-time via twitter and other social media sites. At least I think that’s what the article says; I didn’t read it all. More on that later.

What caught my ear at the time was the following statement from Scott Simon, who did the piece:

Hearing that school newspapers are in decline because students now “find out what happened” in social media bites is a little discouraging because it confirms that for millions of Americans, journalism is becoming a do-it-yourself enterprise.

When a tornado strikes or a bomb goes off, we look for social media messages as soon as they flash, too. Facebook posts and Tweets have become the means by which politicians, celebrities, citizens — and reporters, for that matter — can confirm, deny, pass on stories and register opinion without the press challenging, probing, pre-supposing, slowing or straining the message. That’s just how we talk to each other in these times.

Matt Drudge, who runs his own controversial website, says, “We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter.”

But truly good journalism is a craft, not just a blog post. It requires not only seeing something close-up, but also reporting it with perspective. It uses an eye for detail to help illuminate a larger view. And even journalism that conveys an opinion strives to be fair. If school newspapers begin to disappear, I hope there are other ways for students to learn that.

This isn’t just high school newspapers. Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times laid off all of their professional photographers, preferring instead to go with freelance citizen photos. Indeed, some papers have had to advertise for citizen photographers because they no longer have the staff. As for the laid-off photographers? That’s a different story.

When I heard this article, it resonated with me. So I decided to take a few minutes over lunch to write up my thoughts. In particular, it resonated with a response I had back in March to an article complaining about amateur vs professional theatre critics. Colin Mitchell of the theatre review aggregation site Bitter Lemons, in turn, wrote a wonderful response to my response. I see the issue as being similar to the issue of citizen journalists vs. real journalists. Both bring something valuable to the picture: citizen journalists (and citizen reviewers) bring timely information and personal reactions. Professional journalists (and professional reviewers) bring a longer-term view. They can put the issue in perspective, provide the needed filtering and context. Regular bloggers fill a middle position — they start as amateurs, but hopefully are learning more and stepping up their game (such as following this advice, if you are a theatre reviewer) as time goes on. (By the way, if you read the commentary on the NPR article, it devolved into exactly the same discussion that was had regarding theatre reviews: are those writing in the blog-o-sphere just hacks, or aspiring independent journalists?)

Of course, the entire issue may be moot. After all, both journalists and bloggers are a dying breed, as we are in the TL;DR generation. Slate magazine provides good proof of that, with an article that examines how people don’t actually read most articles on the Internet to the very end. Given that I’m a long-form writer, I’m sure you haven’t even read this far (or if you have, I doubt that you will comment on this, because nobody comments on what I write anymore — and if you think that is a challenge or is wrong, share your thoughts). Further, those who comment often get shouted out by those louts who take over forums (of course, I didn’t fully read that article). On the other hand, there are those who say long form journalism is coming back. Who is right? Slate and their contention that people don’t read to the end of long articles? USA Today, Politico, and BuzzFeed in their contention on the rebirth of long form journalism?

Personally, I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t think “short form”. I don’t believe one can have a meaningful exploration of a subject in 144 characters or less, or as a Facebook status update.  I think this even applies to the “lists of links” people post. I don’t believe it is sufficient to just post lists of links — there needs to be some unifying theme — there needs to be something the link collector brings to the discussion that ties the links together, or otherwise signifies why this link is worth seeing, why it is time to read that link to the end. That’s why just posting a link to people using cats as afros just isn’t enough.

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The Million Dollar Bus

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Priscilla - Queen of the Desert (Pantages)userpic=broadwaylaIf you were to ask me a week ago, I probably would have thought this review would be comparing the flash and glam story of Priscilla – Queen of the Desert (which we saw last night at the Pantages) with the deep and serious story at the heart of Scottsboro Boys. Although that comparison is still apt, the real parallel for Priscilla is  Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano which we saw in early May. The stars in Elton’s show were the music and the million dollar piano; in Priscilla, it is the music and the million dollar bus.

If you are not familiar with the story, Priscilla – Queen of the Desert is a musical version of the 1994 movie. The surface story is a slight one: three Australian drag queens leave Sidney to travel across the Australian desert in an old bus to Alice Springs, where they have been hired to work in a casino. Along the way, they hit a number of small Australian towns, which don’t know what to make of the three drag queens — and so they get to win them over with the dual powers of drag and disco music. The slightly deeper story concerns the road trip of each of the three main queens: Tick/Mitzi (the leader) instigates the trip at the behest of his wife (Marion), who wants him to go to Alice Springs to meet his son, Benji. Bernadette just lost the man of her dreams in Sidney, and is questing to find the right person. Adam/Bernadette is questing to, as he put it, to climb a rock in a frock with a cock. Along the way they pick up a mechanic, Bob; wear fabulous outfits; travel in a beat of RV that they transform into Priscilla; and dance numerous popular numbers.

As I indicated earlier, I initially thought I would be contrasting the serious story at the heart of Scottsboro Boys to the fluff that is Priscilla. But that’s not the best comparison. Priscilla is really a musical version of The Million Dollar Piano. First and foremost, the star is Priscilla, a bus that is covered with an LED lighting system that, once it is activated, provides visual imagery just like the piano did in Elton’s show. It is also a show that doesn’t focus on new music, but delights in bringing back the favorites that please the audience. Lastly, and most importantly I believe, is that Tick’s journey mirrors that of Elton John. He starts out a performer who is best known for his flash and outrageous costumes, and goes on a journey that bring him to fatherhood and family. It is a similar journey that is the real heart of Priscilla: Tick’s journey from being a drag performer in Sidney to being (albeit still a drag performer) a father with a son in Alice Springs. This transformation — this heart — is what turns this from a campy jukebox musical into a touching theatre piece.

Just like drag queens… and much of Elton’s act… the focus is on flash. The show opens with three diva being lowered from the ceiling belting out disco tunes. These diva return throughout the evening to set the stage with appropriate disco music. There are costumes and sequins and dresses and heels galore (and not just on the ladies, but the men as well, and even on Priscilla (the bus)). There is even audience participation (as some audience members go on stage for a hoedown) and a dancer who pops corks into the audience (seemingly) from her vagina (something I never thought would be on the stage of the Pantages). This is all played with a sense of fun and joy; the goal is to make the evening a party — a faaaaaabulous celebration. This is not an issue of getting the drag queens to accept who they are; the acceptance here is that of the world, who is going to accept the drag queens for what they are. This played well with the Los Angeles audience, and especially with a group of gays who were sitting near us and having the time of their life with this show.  It also plays well with the end of the show, and the question of whether Tick’s son will address Tick as who he is — a very non-traditional father. Perhaps this is the ultimate theme of Priscilla — have fun with life, embrace who you are, find and embrace your family (however it is constituted), and look fabulous along the way.

The story of Priscilla was adapted for the stage by Stephan Elliott, the author of the original screenplay, and Allan Scott. The transformation was relatively faithful to the film, from what I hear. It was brought to life under the directorial hand of Simon Philips (assisted by Associate Director David Hyslop) with choreography by Ross Coleman (assisted by Joshua Buscher, Associate Choreographer, and Andrew Hallsworth, the original Assistant Choreographer). This transformation worked relatively well — you believed that these were real people as much as you could (c’mon, an LED encrusted bus in the middle of the Australian desert requires a large amount of suspension of belief). I think the real effect of the direction was to bring out the inner queen in all of the performers; to encourage them to go up a notch or two (or three or four) in bringing out their inner fabulousity and beauty. The dancing and movement was then added to amp things up even more to bring unbridled joy to the show. Priscilla is a show you walk out of feeling good. It makes you happy; it lifts your mood on 8″ pumps.

The performances in Priscilla were spectacular. The leads in particular turn the performance from what could have been a stereotypical drag queen performance into something much deeper (similar to the way we see the depths of the characters in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything…). As Tick, Wade McCollum moves along a path from Diva to Father. At the beginning, Tick is a man unsure about embracing the fact he is a father (from a marriage dating to before his transformation) to a man who accepts it as part of who he is. McCollum portrays this wonderfully, along the way singing and dancing up a storm. Scott Willis, as Bernadette, undergoes a similar transformation. Starting out as an old-style lip-synching drag queen who has just buried her boyfriend, Bernadette goes on this journey to find something new… and along the way, finds something she didn’t expect in a place she didn’t expect. Willis’s Bernadette was a remarkable performance, reminding me a lot of Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year — tall, statuesque, and strong, with surprising singing and dancing chops. Lastly, Bryan West‘s Adam/Felicia is the most impulsive of the three, living the drag life for all the fun she can squeeze out of it. The real motivation of her character never comes out (a story flaw), and at the end you are left wondering if she is the same girl that started on the trip. Still, West’s performance was spectacular and a joy to watch.

In the second tier, we have performers who were less out there singing and dancing as their characters, and more for the non-singing characters they portray. This includes Joe Hart as Bob, the mechanic who joins  Priscilla midway and discovers a new life (but not in drag). Hart’s performance is realistic and fun to watch. I’m also impressed that Hart admits, in his bio, that he was in the original casts of both Bonnie & Clyde and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. It also includes the characters that bookend the story: Christy Faber as Marion and Will B. / Shane Davis as Benji (not sure which performer we had). These are the wife and son that instigate and ground Tick’s journey. These three characters together provide the normalcy of the piece — they are realistic people that you would like to meet (and note that these really aren’t singing roles). This “grounding” is what makes the entire drag side acceptable; these three show that the drag queens are real people under the glam. In particular, the portrayal by these three actors just makes this all real.

Rounding out the cast is a large ensemble of singers and dancers, including the aforementioned three divas. They do not particularly establish characters that stick with you, although they are remarkable dancers, singers, and are a hoot to watch. These performers are Emily Afton (Diva, Ensemble), Bre Jackson (Diva, Ensemble), Brit West (Diva, Ensemble), Taurean Everett (Jimmy, Ensemble), Nik Alexzander (Miss Understanding, Ensemble), Chelsea Zeno (Cynthia, Ensemble), David Koch (Frank, Ensemble), Travis Taber (Farrah / Young Bernadette, Ensemble), Babs Rubenstein (Shirley, Ensemble), John Capes (Ensemble), Andrew Chappelle (Ensemble), Alex Deleo (Ensemble), Amy Hillner Larsen (Swing), Chris Klink (Ensemble), Ralph Meitzler (Swing), and Alex Ringler (Ensemble). Of these, the most memorable were the divas, singing wonderfully and moving the best they could on their hanging platforms, and Babs Rubenstein, who for some reason kept drawing my eye with her comic performances.

Musically, the show is a delight. This is a jukebox show, with songs primarily drawn from the disco era: “It’s Raining Men”, “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Go West”, “I Love the Nightlife”, “Colour My World”, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “Boogie Wonderland”… you get the idea. The actors and dancers had fun with the music, and so did the audience. Orchestrations were by Stephen “Spud” Murphy and Charlie Hull. Murphy was also the overall music supervisor, with Jeff Marder having that responsibility in North America.  Brent Frederick was music director, and Talitha Fehr of TL Music International serving as music coordinator. Frederick also conducted the 11 person orchestra.

Technically, a lot of credit goes to Brian Thompson, the scenic designer. He created the bus that is Priscilla; he created the remarkable sets and transformations that are on stage (and that make this a production that may never be done on a high-school stage). A few words about Priscilla: this is a bus that can rotate to show all sides, with turning wheels, covered in LEDs. It is quite amazing. Also setting the scene was the wonderful lighting of Nick Schlieper and Jonathan Spencer — the lighting designed by these two not only establishes the mood, but becomes part of the music through the movement and the images on Priscilla. The third part of the scene setting was done by the wonderful costumes of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner. These were spectacular and creative, especially in the “Shake Your Groove Thing” number, and the imaginative approach to costumes in Alice Springs. I also loved the interaction between the costumes, the lighting, and Priscilla in “MacArthur Park”. Technical supervision was by MB Productions. You may have noticed I’ve saved sound design for last — that’s because the sound design (by Jonathan Deans and Peter Fitzgerald) was the most problematic. On one hand, the show had great sound effects and there were no micing problems. On the other hand… this is the Pantages. Sound — especially accents — is very muddied when you are sitting in the back of the theatre. Either the lead sound designers — or more likely, the Pantages master sound engineer Shane Cook, did not retune to the sound design for the Pantages’ peculiar acoustic signature. We had to strain to hear and understand that actors. That shouldn’t happen.

Lastly, Tom Bartlett was the production stage manager, Chad Lewis was the stage manager, Ryan J. Bell was the assistant stage manager, and Roberta Roberts was the general stage manager.

“Priscilla – Queen of the Desert“ continues through June 16 at the Pantages. Tickets are available from the Pantages online, although they are cheaper in person at the box office. You can also get them through Goldstar. If you want to have a fun couple of hours, Priscilla is worth seeing.

The Pantages has announced their 2013-2014 season (which starts after Sister Act (7/09 – 7/28/13)), and (for me) it is mostly “ehhh”. It consists of the following shows (shows I’m planning to see are in bold): Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of The Wizard of Oz (9/17-10/06/13); War Horse (10/08-10/13/13);  Evita (10/23-11/10/13); Disney’s The Lion King (11/20/13-1/12/14); The Book of Mormon (1/21/14-2/09/14); Green Day’s American Idiot (5/13-5/18/13); The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (6/03-6/22/2014); Ghost – The Musical (6/27-7/13/14); Once – A New Musical (7/15-8/10/14).

Dining Notes: Once again we opted to take the Red Line from North Hollywood to the Pantages at Hollywood/Vine. I recommend this as it saves on parking hassles and $$. It also allowed us to discover a great Puerto Rican restaurant in North Hollywood: Mofongos Comida Caribeña. This is on Lankershim between Oxnard and Burbank (a few blocks from the No. Hollywood Red Line station) and was just wonderful. We’ll be back.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:   Next weekend, so far, has no theatre: Saturday will be So Cal Games Day 54, and Sunday (Fathers Day) will likely be a trip to the ScienceCenter and the newly renovated Museum of Natural History. The third weekend of June brings “Next to Normal” at La Mirada, with Nick DeGruccio directing and starring Bets Malone and Tessa Grady. The last weekend of June brings a Maria Muldaur concert at McCabes, as well as “Man of No Importance“ (Hollywood Fringe) at the Lillian.   July starts with a musical we had originally planned for Fathers Day weekend: “Ionescapade” at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. That will be followed by “9 to 5 – The Musical” at REP East in the middle of the month, and “Legally Blonde – The Musical” at Cabrillo at the end of the month. July will also (hopefully) see us as OperaWorks at CSUN. August is currently completely open due to vacation planning, although we may see a show at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido at the end of the month (depending on price), or at another venue in San Diego.

Continuing the look ahead: September may bring Sarah Ruhl’s “In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play“ at the Production Company/Secret Rose and “Blue Man Group” at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as “God of Carnage” at REP East. October is open, but should the Cabrillo production of “Kiss Me Kate” somewhere, as well as “Dirty Rotten Soundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi. November will bring “Play It Again Sam” at REP East as well as ARTS’s Nottingham Village (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market). The fall should also bring a production of “Carrie – The Musical” by Transfer Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open as the various theatres start making their 2013/2014 season announcements. Lastly, what few dates we do have open may be filled by productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411, or discussed in the various LA Stage Blogs I read (I particularly recommend Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times).

Music: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (Sinéad O’Connor): “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance”

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Saturday Clearing O’ The Links

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userpic=observationsIt’s Saturday, and you know what that means — time to clear out those links that couldn’t form into a coherent theme over the week. That doesn’t mean this are incoherent links, but … umm … perhaps we should just get to the links:

  • Theatre Stuff. This has been a busy week theatre-wise — based on some good reviews in the times and some timely discoveries, I’ve now filled out my June theatre dance card. You’ll see that in tomorrow’s review of Priscilla, but I do have a few theatre items. First is a very interesting review of Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson… written by a resident of Scottsboro AR. His take is very different than some. Second, I’ve become a tag at Bitter Lemons! Perhaps I should explain: Bitter Lemons is a theatre site here in Los Angeles that aggregates reviews and writeups of local shows, and then uses them to ascribe an overall “lemon” score — from sweet to bitter — on each show. They evidently like my writeups enough to include them in the meter, and I’m honored by that inclusion. I’ve even more honored that Colin, who runs the site, wrote a wonderful response to a post I did a while back regarding critics and their place. I also really liked their advice to the aspiring critic; I’ll take a number of those items to heart. A PS to the good folks at REP East: You should pay attention to this post about getting your shows in the Lemon Meter.
  • Your Net Worth. Two different posts looks at the question of what you are worth to different groups. Yes, you. First, have you ever thought about who was the most valuable patron to a casino: a pennyslot player or a blackjack player. The answer may surprise you – the pennyslot player. What about on Facebook? How much are you worth if you “like” something? Read this post, and you’ll be very hesitant about “like”-ing in the future.
  • The State of Affairs. A couple of state things. First, an interesting map that shows if you are in “dog” or a “cat” state. This is based on the percentage of pet ownership of each type. I’m in a neutral state, it seems. What I’d love to find is a map that categorized cities as “east coast” or “west coast” — and this isn’t a geographical distinction. Perhaps one day I’ll explain it, but I’ll give my two favorite examples: LA and KC are “west coast”, San Francisco and St. Louis are “east coast”.  Second, the city hall in St. Louis is slowly deteriorating, and no one is doing anything about it. It’s not that St. Louis doesn’t have city pride; it’s that they don’t associate it with their city hall.
  • Conference Concerns. I’ve been involved with the ACSAC conference for many years (in fact, training submissions are still open — you have until Monday to get something in). Thus, I’m worried whenever incidents such as the recent IRS boondoggle hit the news — it makes people start seeing conferences as frivolous. It also leads to bills such as those mentioned in this article, that would ban travel to “fun” places. Conferences can be useful and cost effective, if GSA guidelines are followed and the organizers focus on technical content and quality. As always, perception is everything. The important thing to remember is electronic interaction cannot replace face-to-face interaction, just like recommendations from Amazon cannot replace browsing at the bookstore.
  • An Interesting Kickstarter. The SCGD mailing list alerted me to an interesting Kickstarter: A group of gamers is attempting to start a Board Game Cafe in Glendale CA. I love the idea, but I’m less sure about the location — I think it would do better in Westwood (near UCLA) or Northridge (near CSUN). Still I may decide to support them. Basically, the idea is as follows: customers visit the café and for a small cover charge they get access to an extensive board game library (which often runs into hundreds of titles) as well as food and drink options from the café. There is no establishment like this in Los Angeles. There are game shops, but that’s a different atmosphere. The question is: Will it be a destination? It might — after all, they have pie. (All I know is the pie sold me — I’m a supporter. Please help them make their stretch goal so I get pie!)

Music: Folk Era Mini CD (The Kingston Trio): “Tom Dooley”

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Life as a Theme Park

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userpic=eticketToday’s news chum brings together a collection of stories related by… well, they all struck me as having some connection with a theme park or similar attraction:

Lastly, to continue yesterday’s post about the joke’s just writing themselves… Yesterday, I cited an article with the headline “Why Did The Chicken Lose Its Penis?” because the responses that came from the headline just seemed to write themselves. If you went to the link, the comments gave a lot of them (such as “Because its pecker is on the other end”). Here are three more headlines that caught my eye:

I expect to see most of these showing up on “Wait Wait” in the coming weeks.

 

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Recurrent Themes

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userpic=mood-swingsIf you’ve been reading my journal for a while, you know there are a number of recurrent themes that catch my interest. Theatre, of course, is just one of them (just booked the rest of June, for example). Words is another. Food. Los Angeles. Politics. … and of course, History. The last one is the unifying theme for this collection of links:

 

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Nood Fews: Sim Dum, Meastbrilk Pollilops, Dacon for Bad, and More

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userpic=levysToday brings yet another installment of news chum related to food, or should that be chews num felated to rood?

Music: Blast: An Explosive Musical Celebration (2000 Original Broadway Cast): “Split Complimentaries”

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