{"id":2880,"date":"2008-06-15T21:33:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-16T04:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2008-06-15T21:33:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-16T04:33:00","slug":"just-make-sure-you-get-the-right-exterminator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2880","title":{"rendered":"Just Make Sure You Get The Right Exterminator"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>This afternoon we joined ixixlix<\/a> and crew at the final performance of \u201cPest Control: The Musical<\/a>\u201d at the NoHo Arts Center<\/a>. \u201cPest Control\u201d tells the story of Bob Dillon (yes, that\u2019s his name), the mild mannered head of Pest Control, an extermination service, whose passion is killing…. bugs. We first meet Bob in a dream sequence when the roaches of his nightmares are crawling out and threatening him. We also meet Marcella, who also runs an extermination service… of a (shall we say) different kind. Her top \u201cexterminator\u201d (her borther Klaus) is retiring, and she is in worried about finding an equally capable replacement. When Bob stumbles into Klaus\u2019 retirement party, two things happen: first, his type of extermination is misunderstood by the clientele there, and Bob falls in love with the waitress (who is in reality, CIA Agent Parker). Marcella hires Bob to rub out Mr. Roach. When Mr. Roach dies of a bee sting, Bob is considered responsible… and is suddenly believed to be legendary \u201cVanished Killer\u201d. Soon the CIA is hiring him to rub out the leader of a small South American company, which will permit them to embrace capitalize, and open up a chain of high-priced coffee stores with a green and white logo to sell their coffee. Will Bob takes the job? Will he succeed? What happens afterwards? Was Bob really a normal pest control exterminator to begin with, or was he really the legend just pulling off an act?<\/p>\n

In many ways, this was a perfect show. There was strong singing and dancing. The actors were spot on, enjoying their roles and being a delight to watch. The rock\/rap score worked perfectly. The lighting was effective. The sets were strong and made great use of the space. The micing (sound) was perfect. The costumes were spot on (include one song where the lead actress changed costume about 10 times during the song). It was just great. I\u2019m sorry we caught the last show so more folks couldn\u2019t be recommended to see it.<\/p>\n

So, who was responsible for making this work? In the lead role of Bob, the seemingly nieve nerdish exterminator, was Darren Ritchie<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>. This young man exuded charism and charm, could dance and sing strongly, and even accompanied himself on guitar. Opposite him as CIA Agent Parker was Beth Malone<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>, who we last saw in Sister Act. Another strong singer, actor, and dancer, Malone was a delight to watch. Assisting Bob at the Pest Control service were Alex Robert Holmes<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Jon and Karesa McElheny<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Jean. Of course, every CIA agent needs a boss: Agent Parker\u2019s was Agent Wolfe, played by Cleavant Derricks<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>. As for the other extermination agency, it was headed by Joanna Glushak<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Marcella, Jay Willick<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Klaus, Dana Meller<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Chantelle, and Paul Denniston<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as Mr. Maxwell. In the role as the lead menacing bug (who did a great job of it) was John Allsopp<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>. Rounding out the ensemble were Suzanne Carlton<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>, Megan S. Densmore<\/a>, Janet Fontaine\u00e6<\/sup>, J. R. Mangels, Sabrina Miller<\/a>, Billie Puyear, Erik Sorensen\u00e6<\/sup>, and Jonathan Zenz<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>. All of these actors were extremely talented and amazing.
\n[\u00e6<\/sup> denotes members of \"\u00e6\" Actors Equity<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Technically, the set design was by Eugene Caine-Epstein (assisted by Dana Moran Williams<\/a>), with costumes by Scott A. Lane, hair by Diane Martinous, lighting by Luke Moyer, and sound by Jonathan Burke. This show was a technical marvel, with a multilevel stage, fabulous lights that did wonderful mood establishment, great visuals, and stunning costumes (especially the roaches).<\/p>\n

Turning to the basics of the production: This is a new musical, with book by John Jay Moores Jr.<\/a>, music by Vladimir Shainskiy<\/a>, and lyrics by Scott DeTurk<\/a>, who also supervised the music. Additional music was by Joseph Church<\/a> and tea & tonik<\/a>. It is inspired by the novel<\/a> by L.A. crime writer Bill Fitzhugh<\/a>. The production was directed by James J. Mellon\u00e6<\/sup> (who also did the choreography), assisted by Christopher Brown\u00e6<\/sup> (who also was production stage manager). Amy Oh was executive producer.<\/p>\n

This was the last performance of \u201cPest Control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up on our theatre calendar (in two weeks) is \u201cA Chorus Line<\/a><\/i>\u201d @ Ahmanson Theatre<\/a> (Sat, 6\/28 @ 2pm), and \u201cThe Taming of the Shew\u201d<\/a> (Shakespeare in the Park) on Sun, 6\/29 @ 6pm in Hart Park<\/a> in Santa Clarita. July brings \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone<\/a><\/i>\u201d at Ahmanson Theatre<\/a> (Sun 7\/13 @ 1pm), \u201cParade<\/a><\/i>\u201d at Neighborhood Playhouse, Palos Verdes<\/a> (Sat 7\/19 @ 8pm), \u201cLooped<\/i>\u201d at Pasadena Playhouse<\/a> (Sat 7\/26 @ 8pm), and \u201cSinging in the Rain<\/a><\/i>\u201d at Cabrillo Music Theatre<\/a> (Sat 8\/2 @ 2pm). I\u2019m still exploring tickets for \u201cSongs From an Unmade Bed<\/a><\/i>\u201d at Celebration Theatre<\/a> (perhaps 7\/5), as well as the Cal Phil<\/a> production of the music of Rogers and Hammerstein<\/a> featuring Suzanna Guzman<\/a> as mezzo soprano and Kevin Earley<\/a> as tenor on Sunday July 27 at 2:00p at the Disney Concert Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This afternoon we joined ixixlix and crew at the final performance of \u201cPest Control: The Musical\u201d at the NoHo Arts Center. \u201cPest Control\u201d tells the story of Bob Dillon (yes, that\u2019s his name), the mild mannered head of Pest Control, an extermination service, whose passion is killing…. bugs. We first meet Bob in a dream Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,28,1],"tags":[212,299,284],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-theatre","category-lj-xfer","tag-noho-arts-center","tag-reviews-2008","tag-theatre-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}