Tag: cabrillo-music-theatre

Most people know that the phrase “Jumping the Shark” refers the point in a television program’s history where the plot spins off into absurd storylines or unlikely characterizations, and usually signals the start of a show’s decline. Some of those folks may even know that the term arose due to an episode of “Happy Days”, although the episode’s author disputes that’s where it happened. I mention this all because last night we went out to Thousand Oaks to see “Happy Days: The Musical” at Cabrillo Music Theatre. Although Cabrillo made a valient attempt to do the best they could with the material they had, they were hampered by book problems, music problems, and technical problems (but, I should say, no acting problems, for the cast itself was pretty good).

“Happy Days: The Musical” tells an episode in the list of one of America’s favorite TV families: The Cunninghams of the sitcom “Happy Days”. The plot, in TV Guide style:

The local hangout, Arnold’s, is threatened with closure and demolition unless the gang helps Arnold raise enough money to buy the land from the developer.

Oh, you want more details. Arnold’s is threatened with destruction when the land under Arnold’s is sold to a developer to build a mall. So that entire gang from the TV show (more on that later) comes up with ways to make money to save the drive-in: a dance contest, a pie contest, and a televised wrestling match. Pinky Tuscadero comes into town to judge the dance contest, dredging up the past relationship with Fonzie, and the Howard Cunningham comes up with idea for a TV wrestling match where the Malachi Brothers challenge Fonzie. But Fonzie runs away, thus providing us with an act break, as well as the opportunity for Fonzie to admit you have to face your weaknesses. Arnold’s is saved, although (at least in how Cabrillo presented it) not by raising the money, but by being declared a historic landmark by the Leopard Lodge members, who just happened to be the city council.

Yeah, it does read better as the TV Guide plot summary.

Let’s start with the show’s problems, and then go on to what worked. Foremost among this show’s problem is the book by Garry Marshall, author of the original series. Books have done in many a show, so this isn’t a surprise. What’s wrong with the book? Too much and too little. Let’s take these in reverse order.

The “too little” was that there was too little in terms of context. The musical takes place in 1959, perhaps the fourth year of the TV series, although some of the characters make that wrong. It opens with the assumption that you know all the characters (well, to be truthful, it doesn’t, but the opening song doesn’t provide enough characterization or information, despite all its exposition, to provide an adquate introduction). And by “all the characters”, I mean all, for the author brings in almost every named character over the life of the series including Roger Phillips: the entire Cunningham family, Potsie, Ralph, Arnold (who wasn’t Japanese), Fonzie, Pinky, Chachi, the Malachi brothers, Lori-Beth, among others. With all these characters, none receives adequate characterization in the storyline to become more than stereotypes of their TV characters. This means that the main characters are stereotypes of 30-year old TV characters who many people do not remember well, and this means you never grow to care about these characters. Compare this with a well-crafted musical such as “South Pacific”, where the opening numbers truely educate you about the loves, characteristics, and wants of the much smaller set of major characters.

This brings us to the “too much”. There is just too much in the story. There are too many different ways to save Arnolds: a dance contest, a pie contest, the wrestling match. There are too many characters. There’s also too much of a requirement that the audience remember the minutae of the TV series, such as Fonzie injuring his knee in a demolition derby, or that he jumped a shark (yes, it is referenced, as is Chuck, the missing brother). There are also numerous additional plots added: will Joanie fall for Chachi, will Howard get a plaque, will Marion ever be fulfilled as a 1950s housewife, will Pinky and Fonzie get together, and will the Dial-Tones ever perform? This is just too, too much. Further, the main plot line is simply discarded at the end: after raising money, it is discovered that it isn’t enough. But (he said, pulling the rabbit out of the hat), Ritchie discovered that a historic property designation will save the drive-in (yeah, like in 1959 a drive-in was historic)… and that can be done by a majority of the council… and all the Leopards are all the council and constitute a majority. And so they vote, and the plot becomes unnecessary and the story, so to speak, jumps the shark.

The best musicals have simple plots, usually whether the boy will get the girl, and have all the extraneous crap tossed out on the road. That never happened here: this show only got to off-Broadway, and was hampered by the book author being the concept creator. The book needs characters pruned and characterizations improved, and to treat the audience like the TV series never happened. It needs to pick a single plot that exhibits character growth—and that character shouldn’t be Fonzie, whose growth wasn’t the point of the series. If this show had taken the same basic plot description but simplified, and instead of Fonzie saving the day had Ritchie finding his inner strength and saving the day, it would have been much better. That’s the character that needs to grow, for the sitcom “Happy Days” was ultimately the story of Ritchie Cunningham becoming an adult.

But the book isn’t all the problem with this show. Let’s turn to the music next. Here the problems were a mix of the musical team and Cabrillo. The show features music and lyrics by Paul Williams, whose music, historically, has been relatively bland. The most energetic song was the original show’s theme song by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. The music for this show needs a much stronger 1950s flavor; perhaps Gimbel and Fox should have been consulted. Cabrillo’s execution also hurt the music, for they used a very small orchestra (under the musical direction of Cabrillo regular Lloyd Cooper, with Darryl Tanikawa as Orchestra Contractor): two electric guitars, a keyboard, perhaps two horns, and drums. This left the music with a small feel for a big show, and subtracted significantly from the energy. Although I understand the economics of the decision, two more horns and perhaps an additional keyboard would have been much better and the cost could be covered by cutting some extraneous plot.

There were also technical problems. Although the choreography by John Charron was mostly adequate, some things were inexplicable, such as why the dance contest used swing moves from the 1940s. Microphones kept cutting in and out, which distracted from the otherwise adequate sound design by Cabrillo regular Jonathan Burke. Lastly, the lighting was weird. Here I’m not referring to Cabrillo’s known problem of overuse of the follow-spot. Rather, there were on-stage moving lights that seemed to serve no purpose other than to blink on and off. Christina L. Munch, the Lighting Designer, needs to rethink that aspect of the lighting design.

So with all of the above, you might think this was a bad show. It wasn’t. As I said before, Cabrillo did a reasonable job with the material they were given, and what saved the show was the excellent cast. So let’s turn to talking about the good stuff.

In the lead positions were Derek Keeling^æ as Fonzie (who we last saw in “Life Could Be A Dream”) and Misty Cotton^æ as Pinky (who we last saw in “The Marvelous Wonderettes” and “The Last 5 Years”). Both were wonderful in their roles and brought the weak written characterizations of their characters to life. Misty in particular was excellent: when she was on-stage, she grabbed your attention and just shone. Also strong was Tracy Lore^æ as Marion Cunningham. In her main numbers, “What I Dreamed Last Night” and its reprise, you could see through her characterization that there was much more than Marion Cunningham than a 1950s housewife. I was also impressed with Derek Klena as Ritchie Cunningham. Although his hair was the wrong color (hint: there’s a reason his nickname was “Red”), he combined youthful enthusiasm with a good singing voice, albeit one that was overshadowed at times. I was also very impressed with Tessa Grady, a senior at Santa Susana High School, as Joanie Cunningham. Again: youthful enthusiasm, great singing and dancing, combined with strong acting and characterization made her a standout, and I look forward to seeing her as she grows in a professional career.

The remainder of the cast was good, but without particular standouts. In the first tier were John Richard Petersen (Howard Cunningham), Benjamin Goldsmith (Potsie Weber), Dane Biren (Ralph Malph), and Estevan Valdes (Charles “Chachi” Arcola). These folks were strong, but needed a stronger resemblance (either physically, or even more so, in characterization) to the original characters. The remainder of the cast consisted of: Nicholas Leinbach (Myron “Count” Malachi), Will Harris (Jumpy Malachi), Jay Weber (Arnold), Holly Long (Lori Beth), Valentine Bezar (Marsha Simms), Simone Denise Burch (Cindy Moon), Callie Carson (Pinkette Tina), Ryyn Chua (Johnny Oliver), Jessie Lee Coffman (Joyce James), Aubrey Elson (Paula Petralunga), Sarah Girard (Pinkette Lola), Keenon Hooks (Gil Crawford), Natasha Hugger (Susan Prescott), Tyler Muhlenkamp (Freddy Bascomb), Joe Roth (Roger Phillips), and Zane Gerson (Elvis).
[^æ denotes members of  Actors Equity ]

Although I picked apart the writing in the large earlier, there were a number of good lines in the show, often as throwaway laughs (such as the reference about college dorm rooms in the 1960s being safe places, or the question about whatever happened to the older brother Chuck). The show was directed by Susan Morgenstern, who gave a valient try to overcome the material, and did a pretty good job of making the sitcom characters somewhat three-dimensional. The choreography by John Charron (assisted by Kai Chubb), except as noted above, was reasonably good, enhanced by a strong dancing ensemble. The Production Stage Manager was William Coiner assisted by Anne Mureau; this is a new stage management team.

Turning to the technical: I’ve already discussed the problems with the sound and the lighting. Other technical aspects were good: I liked the set design (scenery designed by Walt Spanger, and provided by McCoy Rigby Entertainment) and the costumes (designed by David C. Wallard, and again provided by McCoy Rigby Entertainment). Hair and makeup was designed by Mark Travis Hoyer. Gina Farina was Technical Director.

Tonight is the last performance of “Happy Days: The Musical” at Cabrillo. Tickets are available through the online box office or by calling the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza box office at (805) 449-2787, and two-for-one Mezzanine tickets are available (just mention the code “Sunday”). The remainder of the Cabrillo season is: “The Marvelous Wondettes (February 4 – 13, 2011); “The Producers” (April 8 – 17, 2011); “The Sound of Music (July 22 – 31, 2011), and “The Cabrillo 2010 Holiday Spectacular starring Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy” (December 21-24, 2010). Cabrillo has dedicated all their performances of “Happy Days” to the memory of Tom Bosley.

Dining Notes: One success of last night was that we found a new restaurant: Los Agaves Mexican Grill on T.O. Blvd just E of the theatre. I had an excellent grilled salmon with steamed veggies and rice, and the rest of the party enjoyed the various stuff they ordered. I think we’ll try this one again.

Upcoming Theatre and Dance. Next week brings “Varney the Vampire” at Van Nuys High School on November 4, 5, and 6 (contact us for tickets; Erin has a leading role). The following week will see “Bell, Book, and Candle” at The Colony Theatre on November 13; “Amadeus” at REP East (ticketed for November 21), and “Randy Newman’s Harps and Angels” at the Mark Taper Forum (ticketed for November 27). December will bring “Uptown, Downtown” starring Leslie Uggams at the Pasadena Playhouse on December 11, and “Next to Normal” at the Ahmanson (November 23–January 2; Hottix on November 2; planned date December 18 or 19). It should also take Erin to “West Side Story” at the Pantages Theatre, which is pending ticketing (sigh).

Looking briefly into 2011: January will bring Tom Paxton at McCabes on my birthday, January 21 (pending ticketing), and perhaps the first REP show of the season. February will bring “The Marvellous Wonderettes” at Cabrillo Music Theatre on February 12; “Rock of Ages” at the Pantages on February 19 or 20 (pending ticketing), and “Moonlight and Magnolias at the Colony Theatre on February 26. Of course, I learn of interesting shows all the time, so expect additions to this schedule.

As always: live theatre is a gift and a unique experience, unlike a movie. It is vitally important in these times that you support your local arts institutions. If you can afford to go to the movies, you can afford to go to theatre. If you need help finding ways, just drop me a note and I’ll teach you some tricks. Lastly, I’ll note that nobody paid me anything to write this review, and that I purchase my own tickets to the shows. In fact, I receive no remuneration for any reviews I write.

Cinderella has always bothered me.

I mean, I can suspend disbelief about the whole fairy godmother thing. I’m cool with the pumpkin turning into the coach, the mice into coachmen, some birds into valets, and rags into a beautiful outfit. But why, oh why, don’t the shoes change back at midnight like everything else. And to make it worse, the shoe being used as a form of unique identification? C’mon now. I only need 57 people to have a 99% probability of them having the same birthday, and there are 365 possible birthdays in a year. But shoe sizes? Going to woman’s shoes, and there are what… if I’m generous and include ½ sizes, women’s shoe sizes go from 2 to 16, there are perhaps 29 sizes. Hmmm, like a month. As for widths, there are perhaps 10: A, B, C, D, E, EE, EEE, EEEE, F, and G (like shoemakers in Cinderella’s day made all the widths). So we’re looking at around 300 permutations of shoes. If you’re birthday won’t uniquely identify you, then shoes certainly wouldn’t. Not to mention, of course, if it’s larger than your foot, you’ll just claim it fits. Thus Cinderella’s foot must have been on the tiny size, because we know the stepsister’s had to cut their feet to get them to fit. So the shoes, which didn’t transform, as a form of unique ID? No. The prince just had a foot fetish, and planted that shoe to distract his parent’s from that fact.

Then there’s the whole message thing in Cinderella. Sure, I can suspend my disbelief about the magic, but now you’re trying to convince me that it is only inner beauty that matters; that outward appearance means nothing? Sure that’s what the Fairy Godmother says, but she must be smoking something. If that was the case, then the Prince would have seen the beauty in the stepsisters. But (as Steve Martin would say) noooooo… He goes for the beautiful Cinderella. C’mon, even supermodels look good in rags. So here we now have a prince, who expressed no interest in girls until his parents held a fancy dance, who claims to find a girl he likes at the dance and that she left a shoe, who then goes around the city touching the feet of every girl until he finds a beautiful girl of the lowest social standing, and then he tells his parents he wants to marry this beard girl. He was just distracting his parents from the reality. Even the US Military would see through this one.

So why am I riffing on Cinderella? If you hadn’t guessed it by now, we went to Cabrillo Music Theatre last night to see their production of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”. Cinderella is one of R&H’s later productions, coming on the heels of two of of their few flops, Me and Juliet and Pipe Dream, and just before Flower Drum Song. It is the only R&H musical done directly for TV (it was first broadcast in 1957), and was later adapted for the stage. As such, it actually has few complete new songs, but lots of reprises and musical underscoring. The songs aren’t distributed evenly across acts (the first act has 13 and the second has just 4); and many of them are evocative (or some might argue duplicative) of other R&H songs. And everything, and I mean everything, seems to be a waltz.

What Cinderella should have going for it is the family friendly aspects. It should draw whole families into the theatre and sell the tickets, getting the kiddies into the seats and introducing them to theatre. This is what the Cabrillo summer production always does: “Cats”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Music Man”, “The Wizard of Oz”. That this production did, although not to the extent of past summers: we still had a mostly empty balcony, with almost daily exhortation about cheap mezzanine seats.

So let’s suspend our disbelief about the weakness of the book and of the artistic selection of the show. That’s something we can’t change. How did Cabrillo do with the show? There, the statistics are born out: even with a weak show, Cabrillo does a great job. The performances and production win you over.

Let’s start with the stunt casting first, although this appeared to be more for the parents than the kids. In this show, the name players were Marcia Wallace^æ (famous from The Bob Newhart Show and The Simpsons) and Sally Struthers^æ (famous from All In The Family, Gilmore Girls, and numerous other shows). I’ll note that Struthers got a nice writeup in the LA Stage Blog. Wallace played the wicked Stepmother (are there any other kinds?), and Struthers the Fairy Godmother. Both did good with these small roles, putting their comic timing and expressions to good use. Struthers was particularly funny in the second act as Harold the Herald, but you could see her repeating some of the Gloria mannerisms. I enjoyed her bit with Portia’s creeky knee—especially the “Oklahoma” reference. Both were tolerable on the singing, but these aren’t the major singing roles.

The true leads of the show were a pair of lesser-knowns: Melissa Mitchell as Cinderella and Derek Klena as the Prince. Klena has perhaps the best claim to notariety, having been on American Idol. Both were excellent singers, and Mitchell in particular was a strong actress. Klena had moments where he broke out of the wooden straightjacket that is the prince’s role. They were fun to watch.

Of course, this being Rodgers and Hammerstein and in the traditional musical model, there had to be comic secondary couples. In this case, the first couple was Norman Large^æ as the King and Christina Saffran Ashford^æ. They had great chemistry together, which doesn’t come as a surprise as they appear to regularly tour together. Large, in particular, was quite good as the harried King, and Ashford was fun as the dominating wife. The second couple were the “ugly” stepsisters: Ann Myers as Portia and Dana Shaw as Joy. Both were great comic actresses (although admittedly I kept imagining Rain Pryor from Sisterella). Again, not large singing roles, but that’s due to the weak book.

Rounding out the cast were Chris Caron (the Herald); Justin Jones (the Chef); Ryan Ruge (the Steward), and David Gilchrist (the Minister). The ensemble consisted of Andrew Allen, Jebbel Arce, Kayla Bailey, Michael Brown, Tyler Matthew Burk, Chris Caron, Drew Foronda, Jennifer Foster, Gari Geiselman, David Gilchrist, Tessa Grady, Justin Jones, Nathan Large, Jessie Lee, Noelle Marion, Tyler Olshansky, Madison Parks, Melissa Danielle Riner, Daniel Rosales, Christanne Rowader, Ryan Ruge, Natalie Sardonia, Karen Staitman, Matthew Stewart, Kurt Tocci, and Estavan Valdes. The children’s ensemble was Alexandria Collins, Gabi Ditto, Joah Ditto, Natalie Esposito, Griffin Giboney, Max Kennedy, Lyrissa Leininger, Quinn Martin, Reno Selmser, Erin Ticktin, and Anthony Valdez.
[^æ denotes members of  Actors Equity ]

Turning to the technical side: The sets were provided by Theatre Under The Stars in Houston TX (I’m guessing the economy has Cabrillo renting as opposed to building sets) and were… and were… they did the job well. Not spectacular, but not shabby either. Lighting was by Jean-Yves Tessier and had some pretty gobos and effects, but suffered from the usual Cabrillo follow-spot problem. The sound, by resident sound designer Jonathan Burke was clear and crisp with no glitches. The wardrobe was supervised by Christine Gibson using costumes from the Musical Theatre of Wichita, with hair and makeup by Paul Hadobas. Both are Cabrillo regulars. The prop designer was Anna Grulva.

[ETA: I also must mentioned the splended technical transformation special effects of Adam J. Bezark, who used black lighting quite effectively to handle the transformation of Cinderella’s pumpkin and mice, as well as the return transformation. Quite stunning.]

The production was directed by Lewis Wilkenfeld, and choreographed by Heather Castillo. Steven Smith was Musical Director, and the orchestra was conducted by Lloyd Cooper. I should note the Orchestra was quite large—17 players. This was refreshing in these days of single-digit bands. John W. Calder III was Production Stage Manager (alas, dear youarebonfante is off working a cruise), with Allie Roy and Taylor Ruge as assistant stage managers.

“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” continues at Cabrillo for one more weekend, until August 1. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or the Civic Arts Plaza Box Office. I’m sure they are also available through Goldstar or LA Stage Tix.

Dining Notes: Last night, we tried Pacific Fresh Grill at 2060 E Avenida de Los Arboles. I think we’ll do it again, although my MIL didn’t like her spinach salad. My grilled Salmon was excellent, and the other dishes looked quite good. You can see their menu at Sporq.

Upcoming Theatre and Dance. Today it is time for blood and gore with a touch of comedy, as we see “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at the Mark Taper Forum. August starts with “Young Frankenstein” at the Pantages on August 1. The next weekend brings “[title of show]” at the Celebration Theatre on August 6. August 15 brings the August “Meeting of Minds”, and August 21 “Side Man” at REP East. Looking into September, there is “Free Man of Color” at the Colony on September 4, and “Leap of Faith” at the Ahmanson Theatre (September 5-October 17, to be ticketed), and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” at REP East (9/17-10/16). It is unknown if there will be a September “Meeting of Minds”, and if so, when and where. October will bring “Happy Days: The Musical” at Cabrillo Music Theatre, and possibly “The Glass Menagerie” at the Mark Taper Forum.

As always: live theatre is a gift and a unique experience, unlike a movie. It is vitally important in these times that you support your local arts institutions. If you can afford to go to the movies, you can afford to go to theatre. If you need help finding ways, just drop me a note and I’ll teach you some tricks. Lastly, I’ll note that nobody paid me anything to write this review. In fact, I receive no remuneration for any reviews I write.

Just over a year ago we were sitting in the auditorium at Van Nuys HS watching their production of “Little Shop of Horrors”. It’s a year later, and guess what… we’re in the auditorium of another large theatre also watching “Little Shop of Horrors”. This time the theatre was the Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks and the producer was Cabrillo Music Theatre… and the production was anything but a horror—in fact, it was one of the best productions we’ve ever seen at Cabrillo.

Hopefully, after last year, everyone is familiar with the story, but just incase… Little Shop is a retelling of the “classic” 1960 Roger Corwin film, with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and book by Howard Ashman. It tells the story of Seymour Krelborn, who works in Mushnik’s Flower Shop, a failing store on Skid Row. The shop is run by Mr. Mushnik, Seymour, and Audrey. Business is off, well, OK, there is no business, and Seymour suggest displaying his new exotic plant, which he has named Audrey II. Of course the strange plant draws customers and business is soon booming. In celebration Mushnik invites Seymour and Audrey out on the town, but Audrey has a date with her boyfriend, the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello. Seymour also declines and stays behind to tend to the suddenly ailing Audrey II. That night, alone in the shop, he discovers the shocking secret to the plant’s health and phenomenal growth: human blood. Seymour encourages the plant’s growth by pricking his fingertips and feeding Audrey II his own blood. This only lasts for a few days, however, and the meager drops of blood aren’t enough for the quickly growing plant. Finally, late one night the plant grows bold and speaks: “feed me.” Eventually, after the nitrous-addicted dentist laughs himself to death, Seymour does. This permits Seymour to confess his love to Audrey. However, Mushnik witnessed Seymour’s crime and threatens to turn him… and so the plant gets fed again. But the ethics of the situation gets to him and he decides to flee. Before Seymour can complete his plan, however, the plant mortally wounds Audrey. Dying, she requests that she be fed to the plant, so she can become a part of it and always be near Seymour. As the music swells, Seymour feeds her to Audrey II, which at last reveals its ultimate plans–nothing less than world domination. Seymour makes one last attempt to kill the plant but fails. In the end, he too is devoured. The singers, joined now by the faces of the dead characters, warn that Audrey II and other alien plants have begun to devour the world one city at a time–starting with Cleveland… (note that the movie wimps out, and Seymour lives).

As I said at the top, the Cabrillo production was excellent, and this excellence came from a combination of excellent ingredients that built upon the already wonderful story and music just described. Let’s start with the direction and the casting, which was great. Leading the ensemble were Jim Holdridge^æ as Seymour and Callie Carson as Audrey. We’ve seen Holdridge before in “Life Could Be A Dream”, where he honed his nerdish nebbish to perfection. Carson is new to us. Both were exceptionally strong singers and actors (dance doesn’t particularly play into this production), and were a joy to watch. It is hard to pick particular numbers to highlight for these folks, as all were great. Commenting on the action were the Ronnettes: Nicole Tillman (Ronnette), Robyn Michelle Jackson (Chiffon), and Domonique Paton (Crystal)—again, strong singers and movers, with movement that enhanced the story. Rounding out the face cast were Damon Kirsche^æ (Orin Scrivello D.D.S. and others), Gibby Brand^æ (Mushnik), Michael Conoscenti (Derelict) and Nick Newkirk (Dental Patient). Under the direction of Lewis Wilkenfeld (choreography by John Charron), these talented actors became their characters while still having fun with their roles. It was just a delight to watch them.
[^æ denotes members of  Actors Equity ]

Of course, what makes LSOH is Audrey II. The physical plants were constructed by Musical Theatre West, and I’m guessing there were 5-6 sizes (the original small plant; the one held by Seymour, the one sitting on the table, the medium Audrey II from the latter part of Act I, and the big and BIGGER Audrey IIs from Act II). But going beyond the physical plant were the actors inside and outside: Kameren Chase Neal^æ as the voice of Audrey II, and James W. Gruessing as the person manipulating the puppets. These two brought the plant to life and gave it personality; they made you wonder “how the hell did they do that?”. They were just great.

Building upon this acting base was an excellent technical team, which started from the excellent Musical Theatre West base (which provided both costumes and sets) and built upon the skills of technical director Dan Healey (who came from the Pasadena Playhouse). The sound design by Cabrillo regular Jonathan Burke was clear and had nary a glitch. The lighting by Michael Tachco was a step above the Cabrillo norm. Aside from some odd lighting on Audrey II during “Feed Me”, it was spectacular. I particular remember the lighting on “Dentist” and “Somewhere That’s Green”—the former has one of the best uses of moving lights I’ve seen, and the latter used the spots and color particularly well. I also appreciated the lighting during the end number. Christine Gibson served as Wardrobe Supervisor, and Paul Hadobas did hair and makeup design.

The excellent orchestra just added to the production. Under the direction of Matthew Smedal, the five-piece ensemble (Smedal on Keyboard, Lloyd Cooper on Keyboard Synthesizer, Dave Winstone on Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Steve Bringelson on Electric Bass, and Dave Lotfi on Set Drums) filled the auditorium with wonderful sounds, seeming to be much larger than it was.

Holding everything together and keeping things running smooth were the “ever capable” Lindsay Martens (Production Stage Manager) and Allie Roy (Assistant Stage Manager). I had hoped to be able to stop by at the stage door afterwards and say “hi” to Lindsay (who we last saw at “The Story of My Life”), but the rest of our party wanted to get home. Ah, the perils of Saturday night, especially the week before the AP Stats exam :-).

The last performance of “Little Shop of Horrors” at Cabrillo is this evening. You can purchase tickets through their website.

Season Announcement: As I mentioned a few days ago, Cabrillo has announced their 2010-2011 season, which my daughter characterized as “The 1950s and Nazis”: “Happy Days: The Musical” (October 22-31, 2010); “The Marvelous Wonderettes” (February 4-13, 2011); “The Producers” (April 8-17, 2011); and “The Sound of Music” (July 22-31, 2011), with an optional holiday show running December 26-30, 2010. Happy Days really isn’t as bad as it might appear: I’ve heard the music and it is quite good (which is unexpected for a sitcom transfer). I’m unsure how they are going to do Wonderettes: I’m just imagining the prom voting in a 3,000 seat theatre! I’m also surprised they aren’t doing Winter Wonderettes, but perhaps that will be their holiday show. The production of the The Producers should be good: they are using the sets, costumes, and props from the National tour, which combined with Cabrillo’s powerful casting and dance should be great. As for Sound of Music, this is always a crowd pleaser, and they can build upon their last performance in the 2000-2001 season. Season pricing is quite good, from $263/season for premium orchestra to $54/season for balcony seats (actually, that’s $108/season with a “Buy 1 Get 1” deal—something that cannot be beat!).

Upcoming Theatre. This afternoon, Karen and Erin are off to Newhall for “12 Angry Men” at Reperatory East Playhouse, while I get ready for a Games Night at Temple that I’m running. The weekend of May 8 sees Karen and me at the So Cal Ren Faire on Saturday. The weekend of May 15 sees the CDF Conference for Karen and Erin, followed by “The 39 Steps” at the Ahmanson at 8pm. The next weekend takes Erin to the Ren Faire, while we see the May installment of “Meeting of Minds” at the Steve Allen Theatre (May 16). The casting for that was just announced: Joe Bologna as St. Augustine of Hippo, Hayley DuMond as Empress Theodora, Keith Carradine as Thomas Jefferson, T. B. Announced as Bertrand Russell, and Gary Cole as Steve Allen). The fourth weekend in May brings the Spring Dance Show at Van Nuys HS (May 20-22). The last weekend in May brings the Bat Mitzvah of a family friend, as well as “The Wedding Singer” at Repertory East Playhouse in Newhall (May 30 @ 2pm). June so far is mostly open, although I’m expecting that we’ll see “South Pacific” at the Ahmanson on June 13, and the June “Meeting of Minds” on June 20. As for July, the month starts with “In The Heights” at the Pantages on July 3. The next weekend (July 10 @ 8pm) is the first show of the 2010-2011 Colony season, “Grace & Glorie”. That weekend may also bring “It’s Top Secret”, a musical that is part of the Festival of New American Musicals, running Jun 19-July 18 at the NoHo Arts Center (likely July 11). July will also bring ; “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” at REP East on July 17 (pending ticketing); a possible July “Meeting of Minds, and “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” at Cabrillo Music Theatre on July 24. Plus July will also likely bring some ventures out to the Hollywood Bowl.

As always: live theatre is a gift and a unique experience, unlike a movie. It is vitally important in these times that you support your local arts institutions. If you can afford to go to the movies, you can afford to go to theatre. If you need help finding ways, just drop me a note and I’ll teach you some tricks. Lastly, I’ll note that nobody paid me anything to write this review. In fact, I receive no remuneration for any reviews I write.

This afternoon we went to the the last production in the Cabrillo Music Theatre 2008-2009 season, “Cats”. Now, before you start harping on Andrew Lloyd Webber or Cats, let me remind you that your bias is likely based on all the ALW parodies you have seen of either “Cats”, “Phantom”, “Evita”, or “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Those are parodies — not the original productions, and in many cases there are reasons those productions were successful. I should also note that I have seen “Cats” before — many years ago when the original production played the no-longer-existant Shubert Theatre in Century City.

Anyway, back to today’s show… Today we saw “Cats”, but don’t go thinking of “Cats” as a musical. “Cats” is a collection of modern dances set to musicalized poems by T. S. Eliot (“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”) [with a few additional lyrics by Sir Trevor Nunn, Richard Stilgoe, and music by Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber], which have been arranged to provide a very weak thread of connection about selecting a cat to ascend to heaven. This thread is as weak as the connection between songs in musical revues such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’” or “Smokey Joes Cafe”, so if you come looking for plot, as Bob Fosse said at the introduction of his musical “Dancin’” (paraphrased from memory): “Don’t go looking for the plot; this is about the dancing”. If you go into “Cats” viewing it as a dance production set to pleasant music, you’ll be quite happy.

Cabrillo’s production was about the dance. The director/choreographer Dana Solimando, assisted by Billy Johnstone, assembled a remarkable clowder of actors (“clowder” is the group noun for cats) who were strong singers and dancers, and their performances made the show. They were delightful to watch, especially when you would take time to watch the ones in the background, who would have very catlike movements. By the way, it is difficult to tell the cats apart, even with a program. The wiki-page helps. I’ll also note, with respect to the dancing, that one gets a very different perspective depending on where you sit. We sit in the top balcony with binoculars, and thus our focus is much more on the overall image of the ensemble dance, with occasional focus on faces — a very different view than one in the orchestra. Perhaps this is why folks attend multiple times: so you can watch different cat characters from different positions.

As I noted, Cabrillo’s production had remarkably strong dancers, and with one exception, remarkably strong singers. Let me single out a few of our favorites before enumerating the rest of the clowder (boy, I like that word). My personal favorite was Catherine Ricafort as Rumpleteazer, the female half of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. She was a delight to watch in her dance and cat movements, and a strong singer with a really expressive face. Now, add to that the fact she is an Industrial and Systems Engineering grad from USC (minor in Musical Theatre), and, well, color me impressed. All the family was impressed with Jo Patrick^æ as Mr. Mistoffelees (“The Conjuring Cat”): he was an incredible dancer, doing continual piroettes with leg extensions without travelling. Other notable dancers/singers were Angela Jean as Victoria (the all-white cat who begins the Jellical Ball with her solo dance; Michael Hunter as Rum Tum Tugger, Daniel Smith as Munkustrap (the second-in-command to Old Deuteronomy). In terms of operatic voices, Will North^æ was wonderful as Growltiger in the opera, in addition to his performance as Gus (the Theatre cat) and Bustopher Jones. Jimmer Bolden was a strong Old Deuteronomy (which is more of a singing than dancing role), and Melissa Lyons^æ (the singing voice of Barbie) was remarkable as Grizabella, who gets the hit number “Memory”. About the only weakness was the other singer of that song, Bety Le as Sillabub: her dancing was good, but her voice was a bit too light for the song.

The remainder of the clowder were all great dancers and singers, as well as capturing the cat personas, but they didn’t quite stand out as much. These included Jessica Bernard (Jellylorum/Griddlebone), Ashley Cowl (Demeter), Jamie Joseph (Alonzo), Jupinko (Cassandra), Patrick Loyd (Bill Bailey), Andrew Pearson (Pouncival), Bebby Perino (Plato/Macavity), Colette Peters (Jennyanydots), Anna Schnaitter (Bombalurina), Matthew Dean Stewart (Skimbleshanks), Kelly Tatro (Coricopat), Andrea Taylor (Tantomile), and Estevan Valdes (Mungojerrie/Genghis). Not on stage, but singing in the pit were Chris Dane, Erin Fagundes, John Gaston, Mona King, James W. Lynch, Daniel Rosales, Jessica Stoll, and Katie Young.
[^æ denotes members of  Actors Equity ]

Normally with “Cats” one thing that hits you when you walk into the auditorium is the set. I still have memories of walking into the Century City Shubert and seeing this junkyard set surrounding all of the orchestra seats. The set designer (formally uncredited, but the scenery was provided by the Fullerton CLO and designed by Peter Barbieri, Jr.) didn’t quite have that freedom in the Kavli, but did a remarkable job of creating a functional junkyard set in the space available. Even more remarkable was the work of the Jean-Yves Tessier as the lighting designer. Normally, the lighting design is reasonably conventional, with overuse of spots. But this time Tessier did a remarkable jobs, combining LED lighting in the junk, lights on the stage itself, moving lights with gobos, moving spots on stage… and when the conventional spots were used they were more tightly focused than usual and had softer edges. This lighting design truly contributed to the excellent quality of this production. The sound, by Cabrillo regular Jonathan Burke, was good and clear (there was only one pop) all the way up in the balcony. The costumes (wardrobe design by Christine Gibson, costumes from Stage West Costumes based on the London and Broadway versions) were suitably catlike, and the makeup by Rachel Samuels with wigs by Jacqueline Ruge was excellent. The production manager/prop designer was T. Theresa Scarano, and Darrell J. Clark was technical director. The ever capable and ever delightful Lindsay Martens (youarebonfante) was the Production Stage Manager (and we thank her for visiting with us after the show), assisted by Allie Roy and Emilee Wamble.

The orchestra for “Cats” was excellent, and was under the musical direction of Ilana Eden. It consisted of 16 players, and included flute, tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet, baritone sax, english horn, oboe, trumpets, piccolo trumpets, flugelhorn, trombone, cello, guitars, electric bass, drums, and multiple keyboards. Kudos go to Darryl Tanikawa and Tanikawa Artists for producing such a great orchestra.

The last performance of “Cats” at Cabrillo Music Theatre is Sunday, August 2. Tickets should be available at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza box office or via Ticketmaster. They may be on Goldstar; I haven’t checked.

I should note that Cabrillo did an interesting partnership this production: profits from the sale of merchandise went to a local animal rescue program, and there was an active pet adoption program going on before the show.

At the performance, Lewis Wilkenfeld, artistic director of Cabrillo, announced the 2009-2010 season of productions (which are all locally produced productions, not tours): “Guys and Dolls”, “The Andrews Brothers”, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”, and “Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” (and an option for the Christmas show, “White Christmas”). I should note that their prices are very good, including two-for-one balcony tickets: $100 for two tickets to four shows on a Saturday night. You can’t beat that.

Upcoming Theatre: We still have one more show this weekend: “Guys and Dolls” in concert at 8:30pm tomorrow night at the Hollywood Bowl. The cast is steller, featuring Jessica Biel (Sarah Brown), Scott Bakula (Nathan Detroit), Beau Bridges (Arvide Abernathy), Ellen Greene (Miss Adelaide), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Sky Masterson), Ken Page (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Jason Graae (Benny Southstreet), and Danny Stiles (Rusty Charlie). August 8 brings us back to the Pasadena Playhouse for the musical “Crowns”. We go on vacation shortly after that, but while on vacation we’re seeing “Tinyard Hill” at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto on Sun 8/16 @ 7:30 (Goldstar). Sat 8/22 sees us back at the REP for “Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang. August closes with the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday 8/29, where we are seeing Liza Minnelli. September brings the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashana is the evening of 9/18 and the morning of 9/19; Yom Kippur is the evening of 9/27 and the day of 9/28). The only theatre ticketed so far in September is “The Hound of the Baskervilles” at the REP on 9/25 @ 8pm. Concertwise, September brings Tom Paxton at McCabes on 9/13. October brings “The Night is a Child” at The Pasadena Playhouse on 10/3 @ 8pm and “Guys and Dolls” at Cabrillo Music Theatre on 10/24 @ 8pm, and should also bring “Parade” at the Mark Taper Forum (HotTix go on sale 9/3; the show runs 9/24 through 11/15). As a reminder, I’m also always looking for interesting productions on Goldstar and LA Stage Tix, so if you have a production to recommend, please do so.

Lastly, remember that a recent study showed that it isn’t possessions that are important — it is shared experiences. So go have one of the best shared experiences there is: go support your local live theatre, and help keep all the people who work at the theatre (from the cast to the technical staff) employed.

I’m always a sucker for a good tap dance. I’m even more a sucker for a tap dance when you have a stage full of girls and guys doing the tapping. Combine that with great music, and I’m happy. I mention this because… I was happy last night.

Perhaps I should clarify. Last night we saw “42^nd Street” at Cabrillo Music Theatre. “42^nd Street” is part of that subgenre of musicals I would call “Theatre” musicals: that is, they are an homage to the lore and legend of the theatre. Others in this category include “Curtains”, “Minksys”, “Me and Juliet”, and “Follies”. “42^nd Street” is an adaptation of the 1933 Busby Berkeley movie musical of the same name. The story takes place during the depression, when famed director Julian Marsh (played in the first Broadway production by Jerry Ohrbach) returns to the theatre to mount a big musical called “Pretty Lady”. The musical follows the process from first audition to opening night, and features the large cast of tappers, the newcomer from Allentown PA who can dance and sing a storm, gets into the chorus, trips the lead star (breaking the star’s ankle), and then goes on to replace her and save the show.

Oh, you want a more detailed summary? Here’s the one adapted from Wikipedia: Read More …