theatre-2014 – Page 3 – Observations Along the Road

A Face We Rarely See

Posted onSunday, August 31, 2014Sunday, August 31, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=repeast Underneath my outside face
There’s a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,
But a whole lot more like me.
(Shel Silverstein, “Everything Thing On It“)

My first introduction to Shel Silverstein was through music when I was a teenager, and I didn’t even know it. Songs like “A Boy Named Sue”, “Boa Constrictor”, “Unicorn” and others were all written by Shel Silverstein, and I didn’t know it. Of course, we all knew one Shel Silverstein song, thanks to Dr. Demento. How many of you can recite a few lines, if not the entirety, of “Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”? As I got older, I was introduced to Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” (despite its mixed messages) and his poetry books. I also discovered the Shel Silverstein wasn’t only a children’s author — he drew numerous cartoons for Playboy (which every teen boy, umm, reads), and if you’ve ever read “The ABZ Book” or looked at “Different Dances“, you know Shel worked at many different levels. So I knew the adult side of Shel, but what I didn’t know was that in addition to being an artist, author, poet, and songwriter, Shel was also a playwright. He wrote loads and loads (from what I’ve read, over 100) of short one-act plays and scenes. In 2001 (after Shel’s death), New York’s Atlantic Theatre Company collected ten of Shel’s more adult one-acts into a two-act production called “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein“. The resulting production has been very popular with small theatres around the country; for the last two weekends, Repertory East Playhouse (REP East) (FB) has been presenting it as part of the short-run, more adult fare that they run during late summer.

Other Images for An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein Before I start describing the ten scenes and the performances therein, a few notes from the research I did to write this write-up. As I noted, a lot of theatres have presented this play, and it is interesting to see how they have adapted Shel’s child-oriented artwork to attract the adult market. I’ve captured a few examples to the right. These show that the licensing doesn’t provide an image for the show. The most common image seems to be an adaptation of “The Giving Tree” (his best known work); most seem to imply a heavily sexual nature to the show. Most seem to be designed to discourage children, demonstrating that Shel’s current association is with his children’s books. I’ll note the Playbill in the center is from the original Atlantic production. So how “adult” is this show? Will it scare the horses? There’s a fair amount of adult language in the show, but no actual nudity (there was more nudity on stage in Frankie and Johnny or The Graduate). Although in one scene the language may be a bit raunchy, most of the language is stuff that kids over 12 these days know from the playground or pay-TV. What is adult in this show are the concepts. There are notions and ideas in this show that will fly right past a child; they won’t see the humor and they won’t get the point. Those familiar with Shel’s adult work know that he used shock and strong images to make significant points about society. It is those ideas that make this show wrong for kids.

So let’s look at the scenes and performances in the show. REP East only listed the scene names, but luckily Dramatists Play Service and Wikipedia provide more information:

One Tennis Shoe. Harvey (Jeff Johnson/FB) needs to broach a delicate subject with his wife. He claims Sylvia (Bridget Pugliese (FB)) is becoming a bag lady, but she protests that her Bloomingdales’ shopping bag doesn’t make her a bag lady. No, says Harvey, but the picture frame, couch cushion and single tennis shoe retrieved from the garbage do. Not to mention the cold cooked oatmeal in her purse. The leads in this scene created a believable couple, but what I found more interesting was the reactions to the argument from the unnamed actors and the waiter in the background.
Bus Stop.Irwin (George D. Cummings (FB)) stands on a street corner with a sign reading “bust stop.” When Celia (Erin Rivlin (FB)) passes, he stops her and proceeds to run through the entire list of slang for her breasts, but Celia turns the tables on him with a lengthy and demeaning list of her own. This is perhaps the most NSFW scene, at least in terms of language. It is almost guaranteed that you will hear slang terms for either breasts or the penis that you have never heard before. It is a classic turnabout, and Erin and George have lots of fun with it.
Going Once. In a simultaneously comic and chilling monologue an auctioneer (George D. Cummings (FB)) shows off a woman (apparently Annie (Erin Rivlin (FB))), who is putting herself up for auction to the highest bidder. This scene is a commentary on how women were often viewed in the 1960s and 1970s (I certainly hope that isn’t today’s view), and could be viewed by some as misogynistic (although if you read through Different Dances, you’ll come away with the impression that Shel Silverstein thought that way at one time). How much would you pay for a women who would do anything? Good performances by both leads, but even thought the body is sold, not much is revealed. You have to pay to see more 🙁 .
The Best Daddy. Lisa (Fiona Perry (FB))’s got the best daddy (Randy Aronson (FB)) in the world. After all, he bought her a pony for her birthday. Too bad he shot it dead. Or did he? Maybe it was Lisa’s older sister.Very strong performances from both; I really enjoyed Perry’s reactions to her father as he worked the expectations.
The Lifeboat is Sinking. Jen (Hannah L. Endicott/G+) and Sherwin (Jason Endicott (FB)) sit safely on their bed, but Jen forces her husband to imagine they are on a sinking boat in the middle of a terrible storm. Waves fill the boat with water; there are no life jackets; and Sherwin must decide whether he should throw his mother overboard or condemn them all to die. The scene raises great questions about your priority in life, and who do you value more: your spouse or your parent, your spouse or your child? Given the great performances by newlyweds Hannah and Jason Endicott, one wonders if this triggered such a discussion in real life.
Smile. Bender (Brent Christensen (FB)) and his henchmen (Jeff Hyde/FB, Nanook/FB) drag Gibby (Michael Keane/FB) into a room and throw him to the ground. Gibby protests that he hasn’t done anything wrong, but Bender and the others know better. They have found the man responsible for the ’70s smiley face and the phrase “Have a nice day,” and they’re going to make him pay. Loads of simulated physical violence by Christensen, Hyde, and Nanook (which they do so well), and Keane cowers quite well. A good commentary on how trite phrases can drive people crazy.
Wash and Dry. Marianne (Beth Ann Sweezer (FB)) stops by the laundromat, but she’s horrified to discover that her laundry hasn’t been cleaned. George (Ben Marcus/FB – Week 2; J. T. Centonze (FB) – Week 1) counters he never agreed to wash it. “George’s Watch and Dry,” he says. “You gotta pay attention.” A very good commentary on the prevalence of fine print these days; one wonders what Silverstein would make of shrinkwrap agreements. Good performances by Marcus as George and Beth Ann as Marianne.
Thinking Up a New Name for the Act. Pete (Mikee Schwinn (FB) hits on the phrase “Meat and Potatoes” as the perfect name for their vaudeville act, but Lucy (Amber Schwinn (FB)) doesn’t like it. They get into a terrible fight, and Lucy kills Pete. A police investigation, trial and execution quickly follow. The only words in this farcical sketch are “Meat and Potatoes.” A very well performed scene, especially as the actors could not depend on the dialogue (“meat and potatoes”) to convey the message–it had to be entirely through their performances. I believed they conveyed the message well; additionally, the fact that the leads were husband and wife permitted them to take certain, umm, liberties in action that other actors might not be afforded. Supporting the leads in the smaller roles were Barry Agin (FB) [Judge]; George D. Cummings (FB) [Priest]; Hannah L. Endicott/G+ [Prosecutor], Jason Endicott (FB) [Sergeant], Jeff Johnson/FB [Executioner] and Michael Keane/FB [Inspector].
Buy One Get One Free. Merrilee (Alexis Crane (FB)) and Sherilee (Kelly Bader (FB)) are offering the deal of the century. “Buy one, get one free,” the hookers sing to a tempted Lee (Barry Agin (FB)). It’s a golden opportunity. And it all rhymes. This is perhaps the most traditional Shel Silverstein piece with the nature of the rhymes, but the subject matter is clearly not for children. Good performances by both Alexis and Kelly, given the large amount of dialogue.
Blind Willie and the Talking Dog. Blind Willie (George Chavez/FB) – Week 2; Billy Davis/FB – Week 1) sings the blues and asks passersby if they can spare a nickel or dime to help him and his hungry dog (Jeff Johnson/FB). But his dog can’t understand why Willie refuses to use the fact that he owns a talking dog to make some real money. A wonderful performance by George (who can sing quite well), and Johnson played the dog quite well (although I hear his costume is a bitch).

Overall, this was a large cast (many of whom are local performers at REP or CTG, as opposed to heavy regulars elsewhere in the LA theatre scene) who were having fun with a short run production. They clearly enjoyed the production, and the direction of Jeff Johnson/FB kept everything running smoothly (it did make more work for me, as I try to find links for every actor, and many took quite a bit of hunting to find anything other than Facebook).

Technically, this was very simple. There was no real set; there were a number of prop pieces used to establish the scenes. Sound design was by Steven “Nanook” Burkholder/FB, who found the few Shel Silverstein CDs out there for interstitial music (I know he used “Freakers at the Freakers Ball”, and I think I heard a few songs from “Inside Folk Songs”). There was no credit for lighting, but I’m guessing REP regular Tim Christianson/FB was involved. “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” was produced by Jeff Johnson/FB, Mikee Schwinn (FB) and Ovington Michael Owston (FB).

Alas, I saw the last performance of “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein“. You could get tickets for “The Great Gatsby“, the next production at Repertory East Playhouse (REP East) (FB) [ETA: Which just went up on Goldstar].

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I’ve been attending live theatre 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. 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 Theatre and Concerts: August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27, and “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/29. October currently has two shows (three if you count Yom Kippur on 10/4): “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) on Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF), and “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25. November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. I’d love to get down to San Diego to see either (or both) of “Bright Star“, the new Steve Martin/Edie Brikell musical, at The Old Globe Theatre (FB) (September 13-November 2), or “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (based on the Disney film) at The La Jolla Playhouse (FB) (October 25-December 2), but I’m not sure either would work in the schedule. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Putting It Out There For All To See

Posted onThursday, August 28, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_tickets All summer, I’ve been reading about the off-Broadway musical “Pageant“, which has been getting strong reviews. When I started planning our vacation (which, of course, includes investigating the theatre in the area), I discovered that “Pageant” wasn’t only running off-Broadway, it was running off-Los Angeles. Translation: the Cygnet Theatre (FB) in Old Town San Diego was presenting “Pageant“, and it was running during our vacation window. Furthermore, discount tickets were available through San Diego Arts Tix. I booked it, and last night saw us in Old Town watching a bunch of beauty queens on stage… and when I say “queens”… you’ll see…

“Pageant” is a musical about a beauty pageant. Now there aren’t too many musicals focused on that narrow subject; the only other one that comes to mind is Ashman and Hamlisch’s 1986 flop “Smile“, a musicalization of the 1975 Michael Ritchie comedy movie starring Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon. “Pageant” is much less story driven — there is no overall arc to the characters, there is no character growth, there is no conflict, there is no backstage drama. “Pageant” is simply what it appears to be — a beauty pageant on stage sponsored by a cheezy beauty product company, with the requisite pageant components (opening walk, evening gown competition, swimsuit competition, talent competition, spokes-model competition) all presided over by a swarmy host. So what makes “Pageant” special? First, the winner is not pre-selected but is chosen by audience members. More importantly, all of the female beauty contestants… are played by men. It is this latter aspect that drives much of the humor of the show. It creates the double entendres, it adds to the cheesy talent portions, it makes the spokes-model portions hilarious. But it is, at its heart, a gimmick. It’s funny, but in a “if you find that sort of thing funny” kind-of way.

If one was to look at “Pageant” without the gender-bending aspect, what would remain? There would still be a fair amount of skewering of the beauty pageant conventions, from the production numbers that make no sense to the warped notions of beauty that beauty product companies promote. There would be the talent competitions that, often, contain little to no talent. There would be the inside jokes that only those familiar with the pageant word (or those that have watched a lot of pageants) would understand. There would also be the music. What there wouldn’t be was… story. As noted earlier, the book by Bill Russell (of “Side Show” fame) and Frank Kelly (of “The Texas Chainsaw Musical“, umm, fame) (conceived by Robert Longbottom) creates very one dimensional characters — really caricatures — of some broad types and leaves it at that. The evangelical bible belt girl. The kooky California girl. The Southern belle. The musicalization (lyrics by the book writers; music by Albert Evans (of “The Texas Chainsaw Musical” and “Nite Club Confidential” fame)) provides cute production numbers, but nothing that sticks with you as you walk out, or that even provides a modicum of character development. In short, I think the skewering of beauty pageant conventions was handled much better in “Smile” — this is really a gimmicky farce, and it is best to go into the show understanding and expecting that farce is what you are going to get.

As for the gimmick itself, I question its use in this day and age. Contrast the two shows we saw this week in San Diego. In “Two Gentlemen of Verona“, we have a women dressing up as a man to pass as a man, not for humor. In Pageant, we have men dressing as women because it is ostensibly funny. After all, it was funny when Alban did it in La Cage, and it was funny when the two leads did it in Sugar, so we’ll just go with the trend. But Sugar (the musicalization of Some Like It Hot) was done in the 1970s; La Cage in the 1980s. This is 2014; it is the era of RuPaul, drag-queen chic, and acceptance of transgendered and gender-changing people. So is this show a relic of when it was written (1991)? Do our contestants need to be as close as possible to real women, or is the joke that they think they look beautiful? Then again, the point could just be that we’re judging too much — as pageants often do — on the superficial features.

When viewed as a flat farce, the show does much better. Perhaps the best judge of the farcical nature of the show was the audience at our show, where the entire front row consisted of contestants/winners from the Royal World Beauty Pageant (FB). These gals were cracking up and laughing throughout the show. Their handlers, however, appeared less amused. Sitting across from us were two women in purple — one who was really enjoying the show, and the other (who may have been the president of the RWI organization) who seemed to go back and forth from enjoyment to a “grumpy cat” look. As for us, there were portions that were laugh out loud funny, and there were portions that made you feel like the audience at “Springtime for Hitler” (i.e., did they really do “that”). In short, I believe this is humor aimed at a particular audience.

After all of this, I guess I should describe the show. As the show opens, we meet our master of ceremonies, Frankie Cavalier, and the Glamouresse Pageant Girls: Miss Industrial Northeast, Miss Bible Belt, Miss West Coast, Miss Deep South, Miss Texas, and Miss Great Plains. Frankie selects 5 audience members as judges. The competition then starts in earnest, with evening gowns (pictured below in the image I grabbed from the Cygnet Press Site). We then go through the talent competition for each of the girls, interspersed (every 2 girls) with a spokes-model pitch of some ridiculous Glamouresse product. After all the talent segments are done, there is another production number done by Frankie Cavalier about the pageant in the future (which has him in a very odd costume with a very large codpiece). This number ends with the girls in their white, one-piece swimsuits for the swimsuit competition, which also provides the opportunity to hear their inner thoughts. Once this is done, the “Miss Congeniality” prize is given and the six girls are down selected to five. There is then a tribute to the outgoing queen (the downselected girl, redressed), and a final competition. This last competition consists of the girls answering questions from the “Glamour Help Line”. At this point, the audience judges are polled to determine 2nd runner up, 1st runner up, and the winner. There is the winner presentation and the closing song, and the show is done.

The picture to the right shows the cast of the show: Miss Deep South (David McBean (FB)), Miss Bible Belt (Ryan Fahey (FB)), Miss Texas (Charles Osborne (TW, FB)), Frankie Cavalier (Phil Johnson (FB)), Miss Industrial Northeast (Max Cadillac (FB)), Miss West Coast (Luke Jacobs Harvey/FB), and Miss Great Plains (Conor Tibbs (FB)) [photo by Daren Scott from the the Cygnet Press Site]. Let’s look at each of the girls closely, and what I remember the morning after the show.

Miss Deep South (David McBean (FB)) had, for me, one of the funniest talent portions with a great ventriloquism routine. At our performance, she didn’t win, and she had a wonderful display of bad sportsmanship (which was fun to watch). IIRC, she was our second runner up.
Miss Bible Belt (Ryan Fahey (FB)) came off as a little too preachy (sorry, I couldn’t resist). I particularly liked her Glamouresse spokes-model segment with the beauty spackle (and the cross drawn into it), and her response on the help line. She also had a good gospel number for her talent routine. She was our first runner-up
Miss Texas (Charles Osborne (TW, FB)) was the winner at our show, although when she first came out, I thought she had a mustache (it turned out to be lighting and bad upper lip makeup). Her tap dancing talent segment was wonderful.
Miss Industrial Northeast (Max Cadillac (FB)) was my least favorite girl of the piece, with a strong overdone Spanish accent. Her spokes-model segment was quite funny, as was her phone response. Warning: In her talent segment, she plays the accordion.
Miss West Coast (Luke Jacobs Harvey/FB) had a hilarious talent segment (I need some brain bleach for that birth scene), followed by a great spokes-model segment.
Miss Great Plains (Conor Tibbs (FB)) had a really strange poem about the land for her talent segment.

As the swarmy host, Frankie Cavalier, Phil Johnson (FB) did an excellent job, and was hilarious in the Venus 3000 number.

The production was directed and choreographed by James Vasquez (FB), who turned these men into somewhat believable beauty contestants (although my wife felt that RuPaul was needed to get the female mannerisms down right for all but Miss Deep South). Don Lemaster (FB) was the musical director.

Turning to the technical side: The set design by Sean Fanning (FB) was a suitably glamorous pageant stage with the appropriate amount of shimmer and steps. The lighting design by Michelle Caron (FB) demonstrated very clever use of moving mirror lights — they were used in a manner equivalent to normal movers, which I’ve never seen before. The other lighting worked well to focus attention. General properties were designed by Angelica Ynfante (FB), with the special Glamouress properties designed by Michael McKeon (FB). These were extremely clever — both the talent show props such as the “target” for Miss Texas, to all the wonderful Glamouress products that were demonstrated — the lip gloss food, the double ended aerosol can, the facial powder vacuum, the snap odor eliminators. Costumes were by Shirley Pierson (FB) assisted by Kate Stallons (FB) and Kristine Kerr (FB); makeup and hair was by Peter Herman (FB). The costumes, in general, were cute and clever and served to conceal that which must be concealed if one is a man playing a woman (especially in a swimsuit). Some, such as Cavalier’s Venus 3000 getup, were just inspired (especially the codpiece). Makeup was a little less inspired, simply because these faces were not done up in a manner that preserved the female illusion. Perhaps that was intentional, but sometimes it was over or under done to distraction. The wigs, in general, worked well (at least I couldn’t tell they were obviously wigs). Taylor Wycoff (FB) was the Dramaturg, although I have absolutely no idea what a dramaturg does on an established show like this. Heather M. Brose (FB) was the stage manager, assisted by Marguerite Sugden/FB. Sean Murray (FB) is the Artistic Director of Cygnet.

“Pageant” only has a few more shows left; it closes on August 31. Tickets are available through the Cygnet Theatre Box Office; they may also be available through San Diego ArtsTix or through Goldstar.

Dining Notes: You’re in Old Town. There’s tons of reasonable Mexican places at which to eat.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. I’d love to get down to San Diego to see either (or both) of “Bright Star“, the new Steve Martin/Edie Brikell musical, at The Old Globe Theatre (FB) (September 13-November 2), or “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (based on the Disney film) at The La Jolla Playhouse (FB) (October 25-December 2), but I’m not sure either would work in the schedule. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Love is in the Summer Air

Posted onMonday, August 25, 2014Monday, August 25, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=twogentlemen My favorite musical of all time is “Two Gentlemen of Verona“, which I saw at the Ahmanson Theatre back in 1973. It never fails to cheer me up. So when I learned that the author of the piece, a guy named Bill Shakespeare, had also written a non-musical version, I was curious. I then learned that The Old Globe Theatre (FB) in San Diego would be presenting a production of the show… while we were in the area on vacation. As we don’t stop going to theatre while on vacation… well, guess where we were last night :-). That’s right … we were seeing one of Bill’s earliest comedies, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona“.

Shakespeare has two types of plays: tragedies, where everyone dies at the end, and comedies, where everyone falls in love at the end. TGOV is one of Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, with no deep meetings, just light fun. TGOV tells the story of two best friends: Proteus and Valentine. As they graduate from their academy, the choose different directions for their lives: Valentine goes off to find fame and fortune working for the Duke of Milan in Milan, while Proteus remains in Verona to woo the women he has fallen in love with: Julia. Although Julia initially sees nothing in him, her woman-servant Lucetta convinces her to give him a chance. They pledge their undying love for each other, and give each other rings as tokens. But Proteus’ father wants him to have more experience, so he chooses to send him to Milan to join his friend, Valentine. Meanwhile, Valentine has arrived in Milan and fallen in love with the Duke’s daughter, Sylvia… who the Duke has promised to Turio, a foppish, foolish, and rich suitor. Sylvia, however, has fallen for Valentine and secretly bethrothed herself to him. When Proteus arrives in Milan, Valentine tells Proteus of his love and his plans to elope. All changes when Proteus sees Sylvia, for he then falls in love with her as well. Proteus plots to win her affections, discredit Valentine, and discredit Turio. He informs the Duke of the plans to elope, and gets Valentine banished. He then proposes to win Sylvia for Turio, all the while trash-talking Turio and up-talking himself. Sylvia will have none of it, for Valentine has told her of Proteus’ love for Julia, and she wants Proteus to love Julia, not Sylvia. Meanwhile, Julia has decided she cannot live without Proteus, and so she dresses as a man to go to Milan. Proteus hires Julia, who he knows as Sebastian, to carry his messages to Sylvia. In doing so, Julia sees that Sylvia will have nothing to do with Proteus. Meanwhile, after Valentine is banished, he takes up with a band of ruffians in the forest, becoming their general. Meanwhile (there are lots of meanwhiles), Sylvia has made plans with a former suitor, Sir Eglamore, to rescue her and take her to Valentine. When they are in the forest, the ruffians attack them. Eglamore runs off and the ruffians take Sylvia to their general (Valentine), but on the way, Proteus rescues her. She still refuses him, and Proteaus starts to physically take her. Valentine then breaks them up, and Proteus repents. Valentine then gives Sylvia to Proteus, which forces Sebastian (Julia) to reveal herself, which brings Proteus to Julia and Valentine to Sylvia. Turio then shows up and proves himself to be a coward, so the Duke goes along with the pairings. Add to this the two man servants — Speed, assistant to Valentine, and Launce (who is more in love with his dog, Crab). These three (two men and the dog) provide comic relief throughout the piece.

This was my first time seeing the original. As I watched the story, I kept comparing it with the NYSF 1973 production storyline. Many things were different: Proteus did not get Julia pregnant; Julia didn’t travel with Lucetta; there appeared to be no strong pre-relationship between Sylvia and Eglamore; and the Duke had a much smaller role. The timeline was also changed. I’m guessing these changes were in the original, although it is possible that The Old Globe made slight changes in the story to condense it down to a 90 minute, one-act production (although, reading the Wikipedia summary, it looks more like the NYSF added to and reworked the story slightly). I also found that my familiarity with the story made the initial language hurdle smaller — I was able to follow the story because I knew the basic outlines. I find this is useful for Shakespeare — seeing Kiss Me Kate or Atomic Shakespeare helps with Taming of the Shrew, and I’m sure familiarity with The Lion King helps with Hamlet. Many things in the show were the same, and I discovered that many of the songs were literal from Shakespeare. The show itself was fun and well performed, and very accessible. This was the kind of show that made me want to see more Shakespeare. For all that, however, this show is rarely produced and many consider it to be one of Shakespeare’s weakest plays (they feel it may have been his first and shows his immaturity as a playwright). The best answer is to decide for yourself. This well-performed production would be a good place to start.

The leads were very strong (note: the photos to the right are from the Old Globe publicity site, and were taken by Jim Cox). As Proteus, Adam Kantor (TW, FB) projected an engaging personality that gave himself whole-heartedly to love; as his compatriot Valentine, Hubert Pont-Du Jour was even more engaging and warm with just a wonderful air of likeability. Of course, I was more taken with their loves. Both Kristin Villanueva (FB) as Julia and Britney Coleman (TW, FB) as Sylvia had smiles that could just melt your heart, and both did a great job of projecting the personalities of these women as more than just characters on a page. These four were just a joy to watch — they had the chemistry to make them believable as couples, and they seemed to just enjoy inhabiting these characters. I also found it interesting that Old Globe continued in the NYSF colorblind casting tradition — in particular with a black Valentine and Sylvia, just as in the musical I love.

Supporting Proteus and Valentine as their aides/servants were Rusty Ross (FB) as Speed, Richard Ruiz (FB) as Launce, and Khloe Jezbera as Crab. Both of the men gave appropriately comic performances — Ross was suitably manic; Ruiz was more old-school comic; and both were delightful in the scene reading about Launce’s milkmaid love. Khloe was a scene-stealer as Crab, behaving perfectly and playfully on stage. The female servants had smaller roles: As Lucetta, Erin Elizabeth Adams (About the Artists, FB) had a much smaller role than in the musical, but played quite well off of Villanueva’s Julia. Lindsay Brill (TW, FB) was Sylvia’s page (as well as an outlaw and a student).

The main supporting characters were Mark Pinter (TW, FB) as the Duke of Milan, and Lowell Byers (FB) as Turio (which should have been Thurio), Sylvia’s foolish intended. Pinter captured the authority of the Duke well, but I expected a bit more pomposity as well. Perhaps that’s a difference in the character between the musical and the original. Byers’s Turio came off a little too serious — again, I was expecting a bit more silliness or foppishness. Still, the portrayal worked.

Rounding out the remainder of the cast were: Meaghan Boeing (FB) (Lady-in-Waiting, Music Assistant); Charlotte Bydwell (FB) (Lady-in-Waiting, Dance Captain); Jamal Douglas (FB) (Servant to Antonio, Musician, Outlaw 3, Student); Adam Gerber (FB) (Sir Eglamour, Student); Arthur Hanket (FB) (Antonio, Dancing Master, Outlaw 2); Kushtrim Hoxha (Panthino, Outlaw, Student); Stephen Hu (FB) (Outlaw, Student); Tyler Kent (FB) (Host, Outlaw, Student); Robbie Simpson (TW, FB)( (Dancing Instructor to Sylvia, Musician, Outlaw, Student); Megan M. Storti (FB) (Lady-in-Waiting); and Patrick Zeller (FB) (Outlaw 1, Student).

The production was directed by Mark Lamos, who did a great job of bringing the story to life in the simple, old-style stage that is the festival theatre. There was little scenery to set the stage, so to have the different locales come out so well is a testament to good staging.

Turning to the technical side… as I just noted, the scenic design of John Arnone was simple — a number of well-done flats and trees meant to evoke Verona or Milan, but otherwise not interacting with the actors (although the multilevel thrust stage was useful). Linda Cho‘s costumes were beautiful, rich, and well-done, and evoked the appropriate echos of the period (or at least what we think the period to be) while still having touches that grounded them in today. I particularly liked the ruffled collar on the dog. Stephen Strawbridge (FB)’s lighting design illuminated the stage well and set the scene appropriately. Acme Sound Partner‘s sound design did the best that it could to make the actors be heard clearly and to provide appropriate sound effects; alas, it was hampered by the Old Globe’s location near the flight path for San Diego International Airport. Would that the theatre had the clout to stop all flights in and out of the airport during performances. Don’t they know that theatre matters? The original music was by Fitz Patton (FB) and worked well; it would have been nice to interpolate “Who Is Sylvia?” from the NYSF version. Movement was by Jeff Michael Rubudal (FB) and worked well on the stage, particularly in the dance scenes. Michael Rossmy (FB) was the fight director. David Huber was the voice and text coach. Bret Torbeck (FB) was the stage manager, assisted by Amanda Salmons (FB).

“Two Gentlemen of Verona” continues at The Old Globe Theatre (FB) through Sunday, September 14. Tickets are available through the Old Globe production page. Note that the page does not render correctly under Firefox — you need to scroll down to the bottom to find the information. I was unable to find any discounts for this show on Goldstar or the San Diego Arts Tix.

Dining Notes: For dinner before the show, we crossed the bridge over to Cucina Urbana. We got there early enough that we didn’t need a reservation — this is a good thing as reservations are supposedly hard to get. A foodie place, but not outrageously priced. Karen had a polenta with a ragu that she just loved; I had a wonderful lamb sausage pizza with fontina cheese. Well worth considering before the show.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: Our next show is on Wednesday: “Pageant” at the Cygnet Theatre (FB) in Old Town. August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. I’d love to get down to San Diego to see either (or both) of “Bright Star“, the new Steve Martin/Edie Brikell musical, at The Old Globe Theatre (FB) (September 13-November 2), or “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (based on the Disney film) at The La Jolla Playhouse (FB) (October 25-December 2), but I’m not sure either would work in the schedule. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Love Between The Strangest of Strangers

Posted onMonday, August 18, 2014Tuesday, August 19, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_musicals How do you celebrate your anniversary? Dinner? Flowers? Expensive trinkets? This year, we celebrated by going to the theatre, and what we saw turned out to be the perfect anniversary love story to see. It was a story about a quest to find true love, even when the government is after you. Perhaps I should explain…

Two weeks ago, when we were at The Colony Theatre (FB), we saw a postcard for a limited run (8 performances) of a new musical being workshopped by New Musical Inc. This musical won the 2014 Search for New Musicals, as well as the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2008, and the Festival of New Musicals in 2007. Further, it looked like one of those “outer space alien attack” musicals we’ve grown to love, in the genre of “Brain from Planet X“, “It Came From Beyond“, “Zombies from the Beyond“, or even “Return to the Forbidden Planet“. It was playing on our 29th wedding anniversary, and so we thought it might be a kick to go to the show. So last night, after a wonderful dinner of Puerto Rican food, and even though I was recovering from a migraine, we were at the NoHo Arts Center to see the developmental workshop production of “It Happened in Roswell: An Intergalactic Musical“.

Going in, I expected this musical to be similar to the others we’ve seen — loosely based on a pre-existing cheesy movie, with songs that were more in the novelty vein than moving the story forward. The plots tend to be similar: in act I the alien comes to earth with the intent to attack and enslave the humans, in act II the humans triumph over the aliens. That wasn’t Roswell; at least to me, Roswell was a new and clever twist on the alien visit approach. Here’s the story of It Happened In Roswell, which has book, music, and lyrics by Terrence Atkins (FB) and Jeffery Lyle Segal (FB):

Down on his luck Weird World News reporter Joe “Scoop” O’Reilly and his photographer, Frank, break down outside Roswell, NM. His latest story having been a bust and hearing a report about a flying saucer on the radio, they decide to fabricate a story by taking a picture of a hubcap in the air and pretending there was a saucer. This they do, and they head into town to transmit the picture to their editor. When they arrive they go to Mabel’s Diner, where Mabel Brown and her daughter, Betsy, work. Betsy has been fending off the advances of the Deputy Sheriff Rusty Dobbs with a story of another man (when she really lusts after the flat-footed mechanic, Floyd Dimwitty). When Scoop and Frank arrive, they convince Floyd and Betsy to go to the outskirts of town and tow in their car, while Rusty and another women customer, Edna, go off to find the aliens. When Floyd and Betsy arrive at the car, they discover the actual flying saucer, and the female alien, Nine-O. Nine-O explains that she has come to the planet to find out about love. After making some advances on Floyd, Betsy convinces her to come back to the diner where they will pass her off as her distant cousin, Aileen. This starts a number of sequences in motion including the hunt for the alien, including Frank inventing a hideous-looking alien with tenticles. Scoop wants to get a picture of someone being attacked by the fake alien, so he romances Aileen… with predictable results. Yes, they fall in love with each other. The remainder of the story addresses how they resolve that love, how the various other romances resolve, and how they survive while being changed by Major Nails.

As I stated above, this was a developmental workshop. Every expense was spared in developing the set and props — and it worked to the advantage of the show. The production was presented on the existing set of the NMI musical “Max Factor”, and so the only “scenery” was a “Welcome to Roswell” sign and a few 2x4s that formed a little table. Additionally, there was a table in the back where the actor who played Major Nails set with the script, making all the sound effects. The only props were a flying saucer on a stick, the alien tenticle costume, and loads and loads and loads of loads of little white signs on sticks. These signs had pictures of ray guns, real guns, food, and anything else they needed as a prop… including words and instructions to the audience. We understand the necessity of this due to the workshop nature of the show… but guess what… it worked great. If this show moves on, we recommend they keep this approach for the props — realism might hurt the show (well, unless it really makes it to Broadway, but then it would need the Little Shop of Horrors treatment with full orchestrations and five part harmonies and circles and arrows and paragraphs on the back… oh, wrong song).

So far, we have a unique story and a unique staging. There also was a top-notch cast. In the lead positions (which you know from the opening number) were Julie Tolivar (FB) as Nine-O/Aileen and Rory Dunn (FB) as Scoop. Tolivar’s alien was a delight — she had a lovely naivete combined with an underlying seriousness of purpose that was fun to watch, combined with a very cute and slghtly-sexy costume. She sang very well and had a lovely voice on numbers such as “Nothing Is Stopping Me”, although she would benefit from a bit of amplification. She also danced very well. Equally strong (and according to my wife, sexy) was Dunn’s Scoop. He, too, had an excellent voice and a personality that shone through the character; the two actor’s voices blended beautifully in “Shooting Star” — you could believe these two as a couple. Just fun to watch.

However, I must admit that Tolivar wasn’t my favorite actress in the piece. That honor goes to Amy Bloom (FB) as Betsy, who had a look and a voice and movement that just melted me. It was just a delightful innocence that she portrayed. Of course, it didn’t hurt that she sang wonderfully — especially in combination with the other female voices — Carrie Madsen (FB) as her mother Mabel, and Emma Sperka (FB) as the oversexed Edna. When the three of them sang together in the early number “When Will the Ice Man Come?” — the blending of the voices was just spectacular. Bloom used her delightful innocence quite well, but especially in her scenes with Nathan Ondracek (FB) as Floyd. Ondracek had a light voice that my wife also liked (I’m not a great judge of men’s voices), and it too worked very well in his numbers with Bloom such as “As Free as the Stars”.

Rounding out the cast, as I mentioned before, were Carrie Madsen (FB) as Mabel Brown, and Emma Sperka (FB) as Edna. Both sang and acted well; Madsen had a particularly nice number in “Every Day”. Emerson Boatwright (FB) was a wonderful comic sidekick as Frank, especially in his scenes as the tentacled alien. Matthew Herrmann (FB) played the deputy sheriff with the hots for Betsy very well. Lastly, John McCool Bowers (FB) (who we’ve seen before at both Simi Valley ARTs and Cabrillo), was a hoot #1 as Major Nails, but even more of a hoot (#2) as the sound effects guy in the background during the first act.

Lastly, I want to applaud the actors for having fun with this musical… and for letting the audience share in their joy of performing it. When the actors enjoy the show and the work, it is broadcast to the audience and everyone wins (and an additional thank you to those actors who gave their websites in their bios!)

I’ve said before that It Happened in Roswell, was a musical… so how was the music? I should note that, as a workshop, the sole musical accompaniment was a single piano off to the side. I’m guessing it was Ron Barnett, the Music Director, tickling the ivories. The songs in the show ranged from nice character songs to lovely ballads. There was only one number that was really a novelty number (“The United Forces of Dancing”), but it proved later to be integral to the plot (although not, as you might think, through dancing). It would be interesting to hear the numbers with full orchestration; still, I love rinky-tinky piano and piano only scores (the piano-only version of “I Do! I Do!” is much nicer than the full orchestration).

The choreography was by Susanna Young (FB), who created some lovely dance moves for a workshop production.

Turning to the remaining creatives… as noted before, there was no set and thus no credited scenic designer. There were master carpenters, however, consisting of the co-author, Terrence Atkins (FB); the Marketing Manager, Gavin Atkins/FB; and Wade Clegg. The inventive props were by Scott Guy, who also co-directed the production (together with Terrence Atkins (FB)). The costumes were by Abel Alvarado (FB) and were quite good for a simple workshop (although, if this were a real production, the Major needed proper boots). The alien tentacled costume was particularly inventive. Jules Bronola was the wardrobe head. Lindsey Mixon (FB) was the casting director (and has the cutest baby, who was visiting at intermission). Pat Loeb was the stage manager.

As this is a developmental workshop, I tried to figure out what requires improvement before it is produced. In fact, it was one of the topics of discussion between my wife and I on the ride home. The answer really depends on where the musical wants to go. In its present form, it is about perfect for an intimate to small-midsize house (e.g., something the size of the Mark Taper Forum, Colony Theatre, or Kirk Douglas). Work might be required were it to go into a larger house, but this would be more fleshing out the movement, choreography, and orchestrations. The larger problem would be one of depth, as this is not a “serious” musical or play. Houses — even intimate venues — that go for the more established and deep stories might be less inclined to produce this. I’m not sure how to fix this, as I feel what makes this musical so fun is the tongue-in-cheek nature. If I had to compare it with something, it might be the “39 Steps” quasi-parody that was on Broadway. It had a sense of manic silly earnestness that helped it succeed, and the approach with the signs created that here. I hope this musical does well; we certainly enjoyed it.

The developmental workshop production of “It Happened in Roswell” has (looks at watch) 3 more performances: tonight at 8pm (better hurry), Sunday August 24, and Monday August 25. Purchase tickets through nmi.org, or visit the show website.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: Next weekend we’ll be on vacation in Escondido, where there are a number of potential productions… and out of the many available, we have picked “Two Gentlemen of Verona” at the Old Globe on Sunday, 8/24, and “Pageant” at the Cygnet in Old Town on Wednesday, 8/27. I’ll note that what they have at the Welk (“Oklahoma“), Patio Theatre (“Fiddler on the Roof“), and Moonlight Stage (“My Fair Lady“) are all retreads and underwhelming. August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Shifting Views of Home

Posted onSunday, August 17, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_tickets Back in the last century — especially in the period between the 50s and the 80s — if you wanted comedy you went to a Neil Simon play or musical. Productions like the “The Odd Couple“, “Hot L Baltimore“, “Plaza Suite“, “Little Me”, “Sweet Charity” and many others were reliable comedy vehicles. Today, however, Simon seems to be forgotten. His plays — which were laugh-a-minute joke fests — are produced far less often. But I’ve always liked Neil Simon, and try to see his plays when I can. I have memories (which I believe to be true) of seeing Simon’s Eugene trilogy when it was first performed in Los Angeles in the 1980s at the Ahmanson (the last show was in 1989, but I think I was getting selected Ahmanson tickets then). More recently, REP East (FB) Playhouse has produced the middle show in the trilogy (I thought they did the first show as well, but can’t find the writeup). When I read that Jason Alexander (who we had recently seen in Las Vegas) was directing a production of the third show in the trilogy, “Broadway Bound“, I started looking for tickets. Luckily, the Odyssey put them up on Goldstar… and so last night saw us in West LA at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB), watching the final chapter in the story of Eugene Jerome.

Let me start by giving some background on the Eugene Trilogy itself. The trilogy is a very slightly veiled autobiographical series of plays, with the Eugene Jerome character serving as Simon’s stand-in; Eugene’s brother, Stanley, corresponds to Simon’s brother, Danny. The first chapter explored Eugene’s early days in Brighton Beach; the second chapter explored his growth into writing while in the Army. The third chapter (“Broadway Bound“) obstensibly explores Neil and Danny Simon’s (Eugene and Stanley Jerome’s) first foray into the comedy writing world as they become writers for television. As such, you would expect the focus of “Broadway Bound” to be Eugene — and that’s what I remembered about the play from when I saw it in my 20s.

I’m no longer in my 20s — instead, I’m much closer to the age of Eugene’s parents in the story. Further, I’ve been married just about as long as Eugene’s parents have been married (today is the start of year 30; Eugene’s parents have been married 33 years). Seeing “Broadway Bound” again with an additional 30 years of experience under my belt, I’ve come to realize that this third chapter isn’t a story about Eugene. It really is a story about Kate and Jack, Eugene’s parents. The disintegration of their marriage and the strength of the mother is the focus of this story; Eugene and Stanley propel it along, but their story is a secondary one. Many critics have harped on this as making this story weaker — they’ve cited it as evidence that Simon just tried to pile too much into the story. I think that is more a reaction to the bait-and-switch: you go in expecting another joke-a-minute comedy like “Bixoli“, and discover you are in more of a dramedy exploring the impacts of aging on a family.

When you look at “Broadway Bound” as a comedy — especially if you are expecting the constant jokes of the early Neil Simon — you’ll be disappointed. Although the play is quite funny (although not as funny as last week’s “Buyer and Cellar“), you don’t walk out feeling the humor. In the play, the humor comes from Eugene’s observations about life. However, when you look at “Broadway Bound” as that dramedy, it fares quite well. For example, in Ben Epstein (Kate’s father), I clearly see the aging of my mother-in-law — the stubbornness, the forgetfulness, and the unexpected behavior. It reminds me not to get upset at these things, but to find the humor in them. I see elements of long-term relationships I’ve seen in Kate and Jack: how raising children can distance parents; how not talking about problems can push people away from each other; and how the key elements in a relationship is not fidelity, but trust. These are useful lessons, presented with gentle humor. Lastly, the play presents how different parties in a relationship see things in different ways. Kate always see Jack as the young man that he was — the man who noticed her because she danced with George Raft. Jack, on the other hand, sees Kate as she is: a woman who no longer hears him, can discuss things with him, and who is just focused on serving. It shows the growing apart with gentle humor.

As for Eugene and Stanley’s story, it is just the backdrop upon which this relationship story is told. It provides the impetus for the movement of time; it allows Eugene to opine on what is happening. But through the story the characters of Eugene and Stanley never really change. They were comedy writers at the start, and they are comedy writers at the end. The comedy allows them to detach and observe life, but they never learn from it. They can see the humor in what is happening, but can they see the pathos? They also shift in their view of home: it is in this play that Eugene and Stanley (Neal and Danny) move out of the house and being their adult lives, no longer tied to the family drama.

Jason Alexander (FB) adds a number of directoral touches that shows his familiarity with that era from his childhood. Directors can’t influence the written words of the script, but they can influence how they are presented, how the set is decorated and arranged, and the unspoken nuances of the character action. From the absent-minded actions of the mother to the lilts in the movement, Alexander made these people realistic. It was joy to watch.

The presentation was also helped by the talent of the acting ensemble. The youngest generation was portrayed by Ian Alda (FB) as Eugene Jerome and Noah James as Stanley Jerome. Alda demonstrated the talent in his familial lineage — at times he had the winning smile and charm of his famous uncle, and he handled the drama and movement as well as his grandfather. His Eugene was not overly annoying, nor did it channel Matthew Broderick or others that have portrayed the character. James’ Stanley was appropriate boyant, energetic, and crazy. He kept reminding me of someone — I want to say a young Bronson Pinochot. This is a good thing, for he brought the correct intensity to the character.

The parents generation was represented by Gina Hecht (FB) as Kate Jerome, Michael Mantell as Jack Jerome, and Betsy Zajko (FB) as Blanche Morton (Kate’s sister). Hecht has worked with Alexander before, and their familiarity comes through in the easy and realistic way she inhabits Eugene’s mother. She makes the mother believable, with both realistic pain and joy. She brings Kate to life. We see less of Mantell’s Jack, but Mantell’s portrayal makes him come across as … tired. He’s not tired in a depressed way, but its obvious his character is craving more out of life than the same-old same-old, and Kate just doesn’t see that, driving him away. Mantell does a great job of bringing him to life. Lastly, Zajko’s Blanche has a much smaller role (one scene), but she handles that well and believably.

The grandparent’s generation was represented by Allan Miller (FB) as Ben Epstein. He captured the befuddled old man well, but had some wonderful glimpses of his old self in his interactions with Jack.

Turning to the technical side of the presentation: The set design by Bruce Goodrich, combined with the prop design of Katherine S. Hunt (FB), created a wonderful two-level house that appeared to be correctly dressed for the late 1940s. This was augmented with the costume design of Kate Bergh (FB) and the wig design of Marylin Philips to create a realistic place and characters for the story. The sound design by Martin Carrillo (FB) was impressive — particularly the directionality of the subway trains which far too easily could have come from the same speakers as everything else. Leigh Allen (FB)’s lighting also worked well to focus attention when required. Donna Hosseinzadeh (FB) and Amandla Jahava were the assistant directors; Lee Martino (FB) provided the choreography; and Jennifer Palumbo/FB was the stage manager.

“Broadway Bound” has been extended, and continues at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB) until September 28. I’d get your tickets through the Odyssey box office; it is sold out on Goldstar.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: Tonight brings a new musical, “It Happened in Roswell: An Intergalactic Musical” at the No Ho Arts Center. Next weekend we’ll be on vacation in Escondido, where there are a number of potential productions… out of the many available, we have picked “Two Gentlemen of Verona” at the Old Globe on Sunday, 8/24, and “Pageant” at the Cygnet in Old Town on Wednesday, 8/27. I’ll note that what they have at the Welk (“Oklahoma“), Patio Theatre (“Fiddler on the Roof“), and Moonlight Stage (“My Fair Lady“) are all retreads and underwhelming. August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Shop Locally

Posted onSunday, August 10, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=ahmanson One of the most popular movements these days is the locavore movement. The notion is to promote sustainability by eating food that grown or raised locally. An offshoot program encourages people to shop from local merchants and support the local community, as opposed to buying products from no-name large corporations. This is a project that progressives love — in fact, one progressive went so far as to install a shopping mall in her basement, and she does all her shopping there. Well, that’s sort-of the premise of the comedy “Buyer and Cellar” by Jonathan Tolins, starring Michael Urie and directed by Stephen Brackett, now at the Mark Taper Forum.

“Buyer and Cellar” is a comedy that takes a “What If?” to its absurdist conclusion. In a book she published about home design, Barbra Streisand indicated she had collected so many items over her years that she arranged them into a collection of shops in the basement of her Malibu barn. What if, Tolins hypothesized, she actually formed them into a mall, and actually hired someone to staff the mall. That’s the basis of B&C — Urie’s character is an out-of-work gay actor hired by Streisand to staff the mall. When the Barbra finally shows up to shop, Urie’s character (Alex) makes a connection with the woman which grows and grows… until he ultimately figures out her ultimate purpose.

The show itself was hilarious. The premise is wonderfully abusrdist, and the stories told truly hit home for Los Angeles natives (who actually understand the amount of time the Santa Monica City Council spends debating parking at a Panera). When combined with Urie’s willing and warm (and natural) performance, it is a delight. I’ve noted in the past how I rarely laugh at shows. This one was truly laugh-out-loud funny.

I’m not sure how much else I can say about this one. The scenic design by Andrew Boyce was overly simple: A white room, with a chair, table and bench, augmented by video projections by Alex Koch that really added very little. I’d go so far to say that there was no scenic design, as it was the actor that created the sense of place, not the scenery, projection, or props (other than Streisand’s book). The sound design by Stowe Nelson was only visible in the wireless microphone stuffed down the back of Urie’s pants. The lighting by Eric Southern was similarly simple.

Drew Blau was the company manager, Michael T. Clarkson was the production stage manager, and Hannah Woodward was the stage manager.

“Buyer and Cellar” continues until August 17 at the Mark Taper Forum. Tickets are available here.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: This evening brings a Queen-emulation band at the Valley Cultural Center’s concert in the park. Next weekend brings “Broadway Bound” at the Odyssey on 8/16 (directed by Jason Alexander). I’m also thinking about a new musical, “It Happened in Roswell: An Intergalactic Musical” at the No Ho Arts Center on Sunday, 8/17. The following weekend we’ll be on vacation in Escondido, where there are a number of potential productions… out of the many available, we have picked “Two Gentlemen of Verona” at the Old Globe on Sunday, 8/24, and “Pageant” at the Cygnet in Old Town on Wednesday, 8/27. I’ll note that what they have at the Welk (“Oklahoma“), Patio Theatre (“Fiddler on the Roof“), and Moonlight Stage (“My Fair Lady“) are all retreads and underwhelming. August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Your Worst Nightmare

Posted onSunday, August 3, 2014Sunday, August 3, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=colony What’s a young adult family’s worst nightmare? Losing your job? No, you can start over. How about your parents moving back in with you, to live, for an unspecified period of time? That’s truly scary. That’s also the basic premises of the comedy “Family Planning” by Michelle Kholos Brooks (FB) in its last weeks at The Colony Theatre (FB) in Burbank, which we saw last night.

“Family Planning” tells the story of Sidney (Dee Ann Newkirk (FB)) and Michael (Jack Sundmacher (FB)). Sidney is an artist who is working from home; Michael is an unspecified businessman who has recently quit his regular job to start a new Internet business. They have the freedom to do this because, after Sidney’s parent’s divorced, they didn’t sell the family house in Westchester County, NY. Instead, after renting it for a bit, they offered it to Sidney and Michael to live in. However, there appear to be strings. After some setbacks (which I won’t disclose because they are part of the humor), Sidney’s father, Larry (Bruce Weitz) has moved back in with them. After years of being a hard-driving businessman, Larry has gotten into yoga and all that goes with it. As the story begins, Sidney and Michael are attempting to have a little, ummm, adult fun in the living room while the “visitor” in the back of the house is asleep. They are interrupted (because, as Teenagers from Outer Space notes, sex isn’t funny, but frustration is) by a knock at the door. It is Diane (Christina Pickles (FB)), Sidney’s mother, who has suddenly come back home leaving her 2nd husband behind in Birmingham AL. At this point, Larry comes out, and the two of them start going at it tooth and nail.

That’s the setup, and there are loads and loads of humorous details as the story swiftly (90 minutes, no intermission) moves towards its resolution. I won’t spoil the story with the details, but suffice it to say that the situation rang true. We’re currently dealing with a parent in assisted living, and we could just imagine the horror if she had to move in with us. I know others in the same situation… so much so that I truly appreciated the line “You’re truly sexy when you’re thinking homicidal thoughts about your parents.”.

Normally, I don’t laugh out loud at shows — even comedies. Often the comedy is predictable, or the jokes are mundane or obvious. This show was different: there were numerous laugh-out-loud moments with unexpected twists and turns. The ending, of course, is predictable: the situation must be reconciled. The journey to get there is a hoot. Cameron Watson (FB), the director, did an excellent job at keeping the story moving forward, and making the characters behave and interact in a realistic fashion. There wasn’t a minute where I felt the show was dragging.

As I noted, the performances were quite believable — and you could tell the actors were having fun with this. Dee Ann Newkirk (FB) and Jack Sundmacher (FB) were a believable couple with good chemistry; the nuances of their behavior made this very believable. Bruce Weitz and Christina Pickles (FB) were also believable as the parents. For the most part, their behavior was also belivable; alas, there were a few line hesitations that shouldn’t have been there the penultimate week of the run. They weren’t enough to be a problem, but they were like the occasional “pop” in a vinyl LP — just a little distracting.

The scenic design was spectacular. David Potts outdid himself in creating a believable suburban house (with supporting scenic art by Orlando de la Paz. John McElveney (FB), as usual, did the set dressing and properties design, and I felt bad at the quantities of props this show must go through (and the clean up afterwards). The costume design was by Kate Bergh, and seemed to reflect that age and disposition of the people wearing them. The sound design was by Steven Cahill (FB), who outdid himself with the wonderful scene-interstitial music. Lighting was by the resident Colony lighting designer, Jared A. Sayeg (FB), and established the mood quite well. Dale Alan Cooke (FB) was the Production Stage Manager.

“Family Business” continues at the Colony for one more week, until August 10th. Tickets are available from the Colony Box Office online.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: August continues with “Family Planning” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on 8/2. This is followed by “Buyer and Cellar” at the Mark Taper Forum on 8/9, and “Broadway Bound” at the Odyssey on 8/16 (directed by Jason Alexander). I’m also thinking about a new musical, “It Happened in Roswell: An Intergalactic Musical” at the No Ho Arts Center on Sunday, 8/17. The following weekend we’ll be on vacation in Escondido, where there are a number of potential productions… out of the many available, we have picked “Two Gentlemen of Verona” at the Old Globe on Sunday, 8/24, and “Pageant” at the Cygnet in Old Town on Wednesday, 8/27. I’ll note that what they have at the Welk (“Oklahoma“), Patio Theatre (“Fiddler on the Roof“), and Moonlight Stage (“My Fair Lady“) are all retreads and underwhelming. August will end with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein” at REP East (FB). September is filling out. So far, the plans include “Earth/Quaked starring Savion Glover” as part of Muse/ique in Pasadena on Sun 9/7, “Moon Over Buffalo” (Goldstar) at the GTC in Burbank on Sat 9/13, “Bat Boy: The Musical” at CSUN for the Friday night before Slichot (9/19), “The Great Gatsby” at Repertory East (FB) on Sun 9/21, “What I Learned in Paris” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 9/27. October, so far, only has one show: “Pippin” at the Pantages (FB) on 10/25, although I’m looking at “Don’t Hug Me, We’re Married” at the Group Rep (FB) for either Sat 10/11 or Sat 10/18 (when Karen is at PIQF). November is back to busy, with dates held or ticketed for “Big Fish” at Musical Theatre West (FB) on Sat 11/1, “Handle with Care” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on Sat 11/8 (shifting to avoid ACSAC), a trip out to Orange Empire Railway Museum to see my buddy Thomas on 11/11, “Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club” at REP East (FB) on Sat 11/15, the Nottingham Festival on Sun 11/16, and “Kinky Boots” at the Pantages (FB) on Sat 11/29. As for December, right now I’m just holding one date: “She Loves Me” at Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim on 12/20. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

An Outdoor Love Fest

Posted onSaturday, August 2, 2014Monday, August 4, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=theatre_tickets Full frontal nudity, on stage, at the Hollywood Bowl. Who would’ve thunk it? But it was there, and even more amazingly, tweets of the momentous occasion aren’t easy to find. Perhaps I should backup and explain.

Last night, we went to see the musical “Hair” at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl does one musical every summer — sometimes we go (“Guys and Dolls” in 2009); usually we don’t. The 18,000 seat Bowl isn’t the best venue for musicals done with primarily Hollywood actors — the stage is too far away from the affordable seats, and you often end up watching the big screens instead of the stage. But “Hair” is one of my favorite musicals — we saw the Reprise production at the Wadsworth back in 2001; and the excellent CSUN production back in 2006. Further, with “Hair”, every production is a little different — in the original days, the show was constantly shifting, with songs moving between characters, and songs coming in and out. Whether that is still happening I don’t know; I do know there were songs in the show last night that I don’t recall hearing before, and plot nuances I hadn’t noticed. In any case, I had been thinking about getting tickets to “Hair” at the Bowl but hadn’t made it to the box office. Then they showed up on Goldstar. Sold.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room — my opening line. There was, for the first time ever, nudity at the Hollywood Bowl. Unlike the earlier productions I’ve seen (especially the one at the Reprise), none of the leading performers joined in the nude scene. The reason why is interesting, and it demonstrates how much times have changed since the 1960s. The leads — Kristen Bell, Hunter Parrish, and the folks from Glee — didn’t join in thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones and the fact that had they joined in, the pictures would be all over the Internet the next morning (and hence my comment about Twitter above — I was curious if the predicted phenomenon had indeed materialized… but I could find no evidence). One wonders if stage nudity by name actors will be killed by the cell phone and people quick to post the photos. In any case, most of the ensemble did participate in the nude scene (which occurs at the end of Act I — when the parachute comes out, be ready), and I applaud them for their courage to keep it in and stay true to the story.

So what is the story of “Hair”? If you try to figure it out from the cast albums, you’ll have trouble — the songs express emotion much more than telling the story. From the movie? Excuse me while I laugh, for my recollection is that the movie butchered the plot and the order of things. Here was how I wrote things back in 2006:

Hair is a rough musical. The basic plot is the story of Claude, who just had his induction physical for the Vietnam draft, and is about to go into the Army. The first half, however, is more getting to know the tribe and their relationships; the second half (which was extremely powerful) is a hallucination about the war. Along the way there is love, some nudity (although quite tastefully done), more love, war protests, drugs, more love, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, more love, some starshine, and a wild trip. For those unfamiliar with the 1960s (alas, I was the next generation), this recreates it.

Last night there seemed to be more to the story. Looking at the Wikipedia synopsis, however, it appears the details of the story have always been there and I just didn’t remember. As that synopsis is long and detailed, I think I’ll just let you read it yourself. I’ll wait while you do. Of course, it doesn’t matter much. “Hair”, at this point, is such an established musical that the story is what the story is. I’ll just note that book and lyrics are by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, and the music is by Galt MacDermot, and that Galt MacDermot did the music for my favorite show of all time — the New York Shakespeare Festival version of “Two Gentlemen of Verona“. I’ll also note that some of the numbers described in the synopsis (such as “The Bed”, which I happen to like, and “Hippie Life”, an addition from the movie for the revival) appear to have been cut, and there were other numbers present that don’t appear in any listing of songs of which I’m aware.

With restagings such as this production, the real question is how well did the director (in this case, Adam Shankman, who also served as choreographer) interpret the work, and how well did the cast do. Let’s start with the director, for the Hollywood Bowl is an odd beast when it comes to staging Broadway musicals. There’s no fly space; the orchestra is on the stage; the stage is gigantic; most people cannot see the stage; and there are all these ramps that can be used. I’m pleased to say that Shankman used the space well. His Hollywood background permitted him to use the big screens to his advantage to showcase the cast to the people in the back; the ramps allowed the tribe to go out into the audience area and make it a love in. There were scaffolds and such on the side of the set with various places that the ensemble seemed to go to at points, but that didn’t seem too connected with the show. Most importantly, he took advantage of his large ensemble to cover the space well; and when he wanted to narrow the focus, he used lighting very effectively to close the apeture to just what he wanted the audience to see. I was pleased.

As for the cast, I was very very very surprised and pleased. The Bowl often does stunt casting for these shows, and initially the casting of Kristen Bell as Sheila seemed to be just that. I mean, we knew she could sing from her work on Frozen, but she’s not known for her Broadway work. I’m pleased to say that Bell nailed it. Watching her during “Easy to be Hard” — her voice, her face, her emotion — was just amazing. She was also equally strong in “Good Morning, Starshine”. I did notice, however, that she seemed to disappear from the stage quite often.

Also strong were the other female leads — Sarah Hyland as Crissy and Jenna Ushkowitz as Jeanie. Both were wonderful in one of my favorite numbers, “Air”. Hyland did a great job with her solo in “Frank Mills”. As with Bell, Shankman used the big screens at the Bowl to his advantage with these two — even though you were far away, you were able to watch the great facial expressions and acting. I was impressed.

Lastly, attention must be paid to Amber Riley as Dionne. Although her character isn’t really established in the story, she gets some of the choicest solos — such as the opening number (“Aquarius”) and the solos in a few others. This gal has some great pipes, and did just wonderfully on her songs.

Turning to the male leads. The man around whom the story of Hair is centered is Claude, played by Hunter Parrish. Most folks know Parrish from Weeds, but he did a great stage turn in the recent revival of “Godspell” in New York and he continued with that power here. He had good chemistry with all the actors and a great singing voice. A lot of fun to watch, although I do wish they had tossed in a throwaway line about Agrestic. As Berger, Benjamin Walker exhibited the same power and charisma that he had ages ago when we saw him in “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” back in 2008. Again, strong singing, strong acting, and loads of charisma and fun. Rounding out the lead male characters were Jonah Platt as Woof and Mario as Hud. Both gave great performances; Mario especially so in numbers such as “I’m Black”.

The two adults in the show, Kevin Chamberlin as Claude’s Dad (and Margaret Mead) and Beverly D’Angelo as Claude’s Mom, handled their roles well. Chamberlin was particularly good in “My Conviction”.

As for the rest of the tribe — we never learn their names, so it hard to cite who did what. There were a few that had solos in Act II (during “Three-Five-Zero-Zero”) or in the hallucination sequence that were just spectacular. Others had looks and moved so well you couldn’t keep your eyes off of them (there was one slightly larger actress in overalls who was just great). As noted earlier, I applaud those who chose to do the nude scene — that takes courage (and I especially applaud the women who did the scene who didn’t follow the current trends). Most importantly about the tribe — they were just having fun, and that fun was radiating out from them. They had an inner joy at doing this show and doing this music and carrying this message, and it spread out to the back of the bowl. The remainder of the tribe consisted of Amanda Balen (FB), Carly Bracco (FB), Jennifer Foster (FB), Taylor Frey, Courtney Galiano (FB), Nkrumah Gatling (FB), Rhett George (FB), Kyle Hill, Jeremy Hudson (FB), Joanna Alexis Jones/FB, Adrianna Rose Lyons (FB, FB), Yani Marin (FB), Kimberly Moore, Maurice Murphy (FB), Jane Papageorge (FB), Louis Pardo (FB), Matthew Peacock, Corbin Reid (FB), Johnny Rice/FB, Haylee Roderick (FB), Cailan Rose (FB), Constantine Rousouli (FB), Rustin Cole Sailors (FB), Hanna-Lee Sakakibara, and Isaac Tualaulelei (FB).

As for the musical side of things: The on-stage orchestra, which was in appropriate period dress, was conducted by Lon Hoyt, who served as musical director. It consisted of Dick Mitchell (baritone sax, clarinet, flute, piccolo), Wayne Bergeron (trumpet), John Fumo (trumpet), Larry Hall (trumpet), Alan Kaplan (trombone), Paul Viapiano (guitar), Justin Lees-Smith (guitar), Tery Henry (bass), Pete Maloney (drums), and Brian Kilgore (percussion). They had a great sound.

Turning to the technical and support side. The sound design by Philip G. Allen was, for the most part, excellent; there were, however, a few microphone glitches that were quite noticeable in Act II. The lighting design of Tom Ruzika, which presumably includes the projections as well, was spectacular in creating the mood, focusing attention, and setting the stage with the projections around the perimeter of the bowl. The scenic design of Joe Celli, combined with the props of Kirk Graves, did a reasonable job of establishing place and times, given the constraints of the Hollywood Bowl. The hair, wigs, and makeup of Byron J. Batista (FB), combined with the costume design of Rita Ryack, did an even better job of establishing the time (plus he did a great job of camouflaging Kristen Bell’s baby bump). Michael Donovan was in charge of casting. Zach Woodlee was the associate director and choreographer. Meredith J. Greenburg was the production stage manager, and Michael Scarola and Michael Vitale were assistant stage managers.

“Hair” has two more performances at the Hollywood Bowl: tonight at 8pm, and tomorrow at 7:30pm. Visit the Hollywood Bowl for more information.