cahwyguy | Recent Entries

And with the flipping of the page, the Lusty Month of May is over. What lusty thing did you do in May? Me, I went to St. Louis. But more on that later. We’re also near the end of the primary political season here in California. If you want to see my deep-dive ballot analysis and recommendations, you can find the posts here. Feel free to disagree with me and to comment on the posts, but note I’ve already cast my ballot. You might convince someone else, tho…

Going back to St. Louis. During the election season, I’ve seen loads of folks (especially on Nextdoor) complaining about the conditions of our city streets here in Los Angeles. Having driven in St. Louis for a week, we have it great in Los Angeles. Trotting down Gravois or Market or Grand or other streets within the city, we were rattling so much I thought I would lose a filling. No city is perfect, but LA streets are great compared to places that have freeze cycles.

Turning to the California Highways: Route by Route podcast: Tom and I are finishing up recording Season 4 (we have 2 episodes yet to record), and are planning the inter-season bonus episodes. I particularly like ep 4.12, which covers the unbuilt freeways of the San Fernando Valley, using the first segment of Route 14 as the starting point. I’m continuing the research for Season 5, which in may has meant looking into US 91, US 95, Sign Route 195, and some digressions into US 399 and US 466. Zencaster is working well for recording the podcast, although Tom had some microphone trouble in the last episode. As a reminder: You can help our listening audience grow. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Share the podcast on Facebook groups, and in your Bluesky and Mastodon communities. For those that hear the early episodes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. If you know sound editing, feel free to give me advice (I use Audacity to edit). As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Creators, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Creators) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

May | CA RxR 4.11: Route 13: Oakland and Berkeley. With Episode 4.11, our attention turns to Route 13. In this episode, we look at LRN 13, Sign Route 13, and Route 13. LRN 13 was the Sonora and Mono Wagon Road, which became today’s Route 219 and Route 108. Sign Route 13 was short-lived, quickly being renumbered as Sign Route 17 and Route 17, and is today’s Route 17, I-880, and I-580 N of the Bay Bridge. The post-1964 Route 13 of today runs from Route 61 to Route 61 through Oakland and Berkeley, and is best known as the Warren Freeway and Ashby Blvd. As for Route 61, you’ll just have to listen to the episode. Next time: In Ep 4.12, we’ll look at Route 14 and the unbuilt freeways of the San Fernando Valley. Lastly, note that in this episode Tom was having microphone trouble, so his sound is a bit off (and I don’t know Audacity well enough to fix it). (Spotify for Creators)

As a reminder: One of the sources for the highway page updates (and the raison d’etre for for this post) are headlines about California Highways that I’ve seen over the last month. I collect them in this post, which serves as fodder for the updates to my California Highways site, and so there are also other pages and things I’ve seen that I wanted to remember for the site updates. Lastly, the post also includes some things that I think would be of peripheral interest to my ~~highway-obsessed~~ highway-interested readers.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for May 2026, which was a pretty light much for highway headlines of interest.

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor. See this article for more tips on bypassing paywalls. ＄＄ paywalls require the use of archive.ph. ☊ indicates an primarily audio article. 🎥 indicates a primarily video article. 🎩 indicates hat/tip to someone for finding this article. ]

Highway Headlines

State Route 41 Expressway Project (FB/Caltrans District 6). Caltrans was honored to be part of Madera County’s official groundbreaking ceremony today on their new State Route 41 Expressway Project! The project will widen State Route 41, in both directions, from a two-lane highway to a four-lane expressway. The project is scheduled to be completed in May of 2028
＄ Highway 101 offramp closure planned in San Rafael (Marin I-J). The northbound Highway 101 offramp onto Manuel T. Freitas Parkway in San Rafael will be closed from 11 p.m. Monday through 5 a.m. Friday. The closure will allow Caltrans to perform drainage improvements related to the construction of an $11.5 million traffic roundabout at the intersection of Freitas Parkway at Civic Center Drive and Redwood Highway on the east side of the highway. The intersection, which closed in February, will remain closed through June for construction. The project is expected to be completed this fall.
Embarcadero road improvements in Palo Alto scheduled for summer (San José Spotlight). Amid concerns about traffic congestion and emergency response times, one glaring issue that could arise if Palo Alto leaders decide to close the Churchill Avenue train crossing is the lack of an adequate detour for cyclists and pedestrians. For Palo Alto High School students trying to get to class, their most likely route would follow Embarcadero Road to get on the other side of the Caltrain tracks. But as students and residents have testified, walking or biking along the street feels dangerous due to the lack of pedestrian infrastructure and the speed of passing vehicles. Some residents have suggested that closing Churchill in an attempt to prevent youth suicides could have the unintended effect of causing injury or death to rerouted high schoolers attempting to traverse Embarcadero on the way to school.
Half Moon Bay to host workshops on Highway 1 traffic, safety (Local News Matters). Half Moon Bay city officials are inviting residents to share feedback on traffic and safety concerns along Highway 1 during a series of community workshops this week. The city will host a public “Discovery Workshop” and multiple open studio sessions to gather input on daily travel experiences and potential improvements to the highway corridor, according to city officials. An in-person workshop is scheduled for May 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Half Moon Bay Library, along with a drop-in session earlier that day from 3 to 7 p.m. at the same location. Additional open studio sessions will be held May 7 and May 8 at the city’s Emergency Operations Center.
$3M secured for ‘deck park’ over Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento. How much more is needed? (Fox 40 Sacramento). More than $3 million in federal funding has been secured to help kickstart a long-discussed project aimed at reconnecting downtown Sacramento with the riverfront. But is it enough? The $3.15 million in funding would support planning for a proposed “deck park” over Interstate 5 between Capitol Mall and O Street, near the Crocker Art Museum. City leaders said the project would help address the divide created when Interstate 5 was built through Sacramento, separating downtown from the riverfront and displacing what was once part of the city’s Japantown.
How this new ‘crisscross’ interchange will improve Vallejo traffic (KTVU FOX 2). More than $3 million in federal funding has been secured to help kickstart a long-discussed project aimed at reconnecting downtown Sacramento with the riverfront. But is it enough? The $3.15 million in funding would support planning for a proposed “deck park” over Interstate 5 between Capitol Mall and O Street, near the Crocker Art Museum. City leaders said the project would help address the divide created when Interstate 5 was built through Sacramento, separating downtown from the riverfront and displacing what was once part of the city’s Japantown.

( Read more... )

Hell's Kitchen (Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages) As of the time I’m writing this, I have 57,778 songs in my music library. However, until the musical Hell’s Kitchen popped onto the scene, I don’t think I had ever knowingly listened to a song by Alicia Keys. That’s actually not a surprise: Most of my music listening is music on my iPod Classic; I discover new music through the Tony Awards, the Woodsongs Radio Hour, the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast, and (until it stopped its podcast) the Mostly Folk podcast. I’m into folk and bluegrass and cast albums. Although I enjoy rhythm and I enjoy the blues, I’m not that much into the slower R&B music. I generally don’t watch the Grammys as I’m not really into modern hip-hop and rap, and so I don’t discover the new and upcoming artists unless they are on something else I watch. To put it succinctly, Keyes was new to me.

Shortly before the 2024 Tony awards, I downloaded the cast album of Hell’s Kitchen into my library and onto my iPod. It was interesting and had some good songs, although I couldn’t really discern the story. After all, this was a jukebox musical, where the songs are selected from an artists catalog to fit a story and set the mood, and they don’t always serve, advance, and illuminate the plot.

Last night, we saw the Hell’s Kitchen tour at the Pantages.

I’m not sure what to say, which is something different from being speechless. The show had remarkable dancing, and the story was somewhat like Keys’ biography. Well, a little. The music was beautiful, and the performances were very good. And yet, I was left unmoved.

As I noted, the story was somewhat like Keys’ own. It does take place in Manhattan Plaza in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen community, where Keys did grow up. The lead character, Ali, was the child of a bi-racial family where the father left early, and she was raised by a single-mom who was a former actress. Her wikipedia bio notes that Keys “credits her “tough” mother for anchoring her on a right path as opposed to many people she knew who ended up on the wrong path and in jail. Keys attributed her unusual maturity as a young girl to her mother, who depended on her to be responsible while she worked…” But from there it diverges. Whereas Keys was raised on Jazz music, sang and started playing piano at the age of six, and started classical piano training at age seven, the lead character in Hell’s Kitchen took a different path. Ali wants to go out with the dangerous boys, including and especially Nuk, a pickle-drum drummer and house painter. She had no other interest in music until she goes to the music room at her apartment, where she meet Miss Liza Jane who starts teaching her piano. This is at age 16-17, and seemingly in a year or less she has it mastered. The story in the musical concerts Ali’s relationship with Nuk, how that impacts her relationship with her mother, and how she discovered music through Miss Liza Jane. It deals with Ali maturing into a more adult relationship with her mother and her mostly-absent father.

Talking about the story, I should explain the title of this writeup. One of the key plot lines in the story is about music, and how Ali’s discovery of the piano provides her a refuge from the turmoil and leads her to a path forward and out. The other key plot line of the story is the love of family: Although Ali fights with her mother Jersey, they ultimately work through it and grow to depend upon and support each other. Jersey provides the investment into Ali’s safety that moves her forward.

My wife really enjoyed the story. I found it interesting, but could see how it had been assembled to use the music catalog. It is hard to do an effective jukebox musical. There are lots of them, and we’re seeing perhaps the first and best example of them next week, Ain’t Misbehavin’ . Others are hit and miss. Some, like Jersey Boys, work well. Some, like Mamma Mia, are fluff that exists to highlight a great musical catalog. Here, the story was a reasonable one, but it would have been better if I had been able to understand the lyrics that were supposedly supporting the story. The problem was that the sound design for the tour left the side orchestra seats with muddy sound, and the fast nature of the lyrics made it hard to understand the words. This isn’t a problem for those familiar with an artists catalog before the show: they already know the songs and the words. Those who are unfamiliar with the artist are dependent on the sound designer to make the show legibly audible in all the seats. The tour missed its mark in that area (and I know it is the tour: we’ve had no other problems recently with sound design in the Pantages).

This brings us to the music. I’m torn on how to express this. The music was good, but it just wasn’t the style or musical genre that hooked me. I enjoyed it; I was tapping my foot throughout the faster songs. But it didn’t have the underlying melodic lines I tend to like; I can’t really say that the music would make me go out and buy albums from Alicia Keys catalog. This is unlike, say, American Idiot, which I enjoyed so much I started buying albums from Green Day. Listening to the music while writing this up, it has a very R&B feel to it. Slow R&B at times. But not being my style doesn’t make it bad; it just makes it not my style. My wife thoroughly enjoyed the music. I believe that if you like modern pop or R&B music and especially Alicia Keys, you’ll enjoy this music.

The dance was spectacular, but again: it was modern. I don’t know how to describe it. Hip-hop? Street? Break? All I know is that it wasn’t traditional theatre dancing and that it was really fun to watch. The dance performances were very strong. When compared to the last show we saw in Southern California, Brigadoon, the dancing was 180° different. Brigadoon was traditional and spoke the language of ballet and ballroom, with a little celtic thrown in. HK was street and angles and bounce and rapid angular movement. Each beautiful in their own way.

The performances were outstanding. Alas, we didn’t get to see the tour lead, Maya Drake, as Ali. Instead, we got Marley Soleil who normally plays Jessica. Soleil was spectacular as Ali, bringing a great energy and a wonderful voice to the role. But the actor who moved me the most was Roz White as Miss Liza Jane. She brought a gravitas to the role that shone from the stage, and was just a delight to watch. Also strong was Kennedy Caughell as Jersey, Ali’s mom. She had an incredibly strong duet in the second act that just blew everyone away. I also was blown away by the musical performances of the actors. I don’t mean singing—I mean playing instruments. I was closely watching those who were supposedly playing piano: Soleil as Ali, White as Liza Jane, Desmond Ellington as Davis. All seemed to be really playing the instruments, including the pedal work. The actors who were playing the pickle tub drums were also really playing. It is nice to see the talent on stage.

Will this show have a long life post-tour? That’s harder to say. There’s no confetti cannon, which is a plus. The music is accessible to the “youngers”, which will bring in the audience. But the scenic design depends heavily on projections to create the “New York” feel, and to establish locale. Will regional or smaller theatres be able to duplicate the staging? That’s really hard to say.

Speaking of New York: The closing song is “Empire State of Mind”, essentially a tribute to New York as the greatest city in the world. This hit very strange in Los Angeles. Theatre is so very centered in New York and in Broadway, that the writers often forget that theatre exists in other cities, and that other cities can also be great.

So, overall, what is my assessment of the show. It certainly wasn’t a bad show; that’s reserved for things like Girl from the North Country or I, Caligula. It wasn’t a favorite show: one that I might go out of my way to see multiple times, or feel compelled to see regional productions of. Well, maybe on the latter, just to see if a different take on the show uncovers something or works without the original staging.

As for the assessment. For those that know of and appreciate Keys’ music, this was a very good jukebox musical with a compelling story and remarkable performances. For those unfamiliar with Keys’ music: This is a good exposure to her music. You’ll really enjoy the performances and the dance and the compelling storyline.

Hell’s Kitchen continues at the Hollywood Pantages through June 21, 2026. Tickets are available through the Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages website.

Credits

Hell’s Kitchen. Music and lyrics by Alicia Keys. Book by Kristoffer Dias. Directed by Michael Greif. Choreography by Camille A. Brown.

Cast [underscores indicate “at our performance”; ~~strikeouts~~ indicate “not at our performance”; ↑ indicates “swung up”]: ~~Maya Drake~~ Marley Soleil Ali; Kennedy Caughell Jersey; Roz White Miss Liza Jane; Desmond Sean Ellington Davis; Jonavery Worrell Knuck; Rashada Dawan Crystal; ‘Zaiah Ellis Q, Ensemble; Mae-Lynn Flores Ensemble; ~~Marques Furr~~ Asten Stewart Dance Ensemble, “Hallelujah” Dancer, Ensemble; Destini Hendricks Dance Ensemble, “Unthinkable” Dancer, “Work on It” Dancer, Ensemble; Sean Holland II ‘Riq; Gigi Lewis Tiny, Ensemble; Christopher Miller Dance Ensemble, “Unthinkable” Dancer, Ensemble; Usman Ali Mughal Dance Ensemble, “Work on It” Dancer, Ensemble, Police Officer; Chikezie “Chike” Nwankwo Ray; Sangeetha “Sang” Santhebennur Dance Ensemble; ~~Marley Soleil~~ Sydney Townsend Jessica; Beda Spindola Millie, Ensemble; Ethan Zundell Dance Ensemble; Stemarciae Bain Ensemble; TeeTee Ensemble. Swings: ↑ Stemarciae Bain Asst. Dance Captain; Miya Bass; Jaylen T. Bryant; Sherée Marcelle Dunwell; Alfred Jackson Fight Captain; ↑ Asten Stewart; ↑ TeeTee, ↑ Sydney Townsend, Timothy Wilson Dance Captain.

Music Department ( indicates local): Adam Blackstone Music Supervisor, Co-Orchestrator, Co-Arranger; Tom Kitt Music Consultant, Co-Orchestrator; Lily Ling Assoc Music Supervisor; Kristy Norter Music Coordinator; Emily Orr Music Director, Keyboard 1; Enrico de Trizio Ableton and Electronic Drum Programmer; Joy Brown Asst. Conductor, Keyboard 2; Darrick Brown Music Assoc, Keyboard Swing; Azana Hightower Guitar 1; Jamick A. Johnson-Hector Bass; Adam Bailey Percussion; Brandon Brooks Drums; Dan Lutz Bass (5-String Electric, Acoustic Stick Bass, Synth Bass); Eric Heinly Music Contractor; Randy Cohen/Randy Cohen Keyboards LLC Synthesizer Programming; Chris Sutherland Drum Programming; Jared “Choclatt” Crawford Bucket Drum Consultant; Jason Berlanger Music Asst.; Emily Grishman Music Copying; Timothy Hanson Music Preparation.

Production and Creative: Alicia Keys Book Music, and Lyrics; Kristoffer Diaz Book; Michael Greif Director; Camille A. Brown Choreographer; Robert Brill Scenic Designer; Dede Ayite Costume Designer; Natasha Katz Lighting Designer; Gareth Owen Sound Designer; Peter Nigrini Projection Designer; Mia Neal Hair and Wig Designer; Michael Clifton Makeup Designer; Monet Assoc. Director; Rickey Tripp Assoc. Choreographer; Tom Schall Fight Director; Rocio Mendez Intimacy Coordinator; Bond Theatrical Tour Booking, Marketing, and Publicity; Doug Rodgers Company Manager; Veronica Aglow Production Stage Manager; Hollace Jeffords Stage Manager; Jasmin Holton Asst Stage Manager; Amber Dickerson Sub Asst Stage Manager; Caroline Inches Sub Asst Stage Manager; Kate Murray, CSA & Heidi Griffiths, CSA Casting; Juniper Street Productions Production Manager; Foresight Theatrical General Manager; Aaron Lustbader Executive Producer; The Public Theatre Originating Theatre.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

As the Tonys approach, shows left and right have been announcing that they will be going on tour (even shows that are closing). So, even though we haven’t started the 2026-2027 seasons for Broadway in Hollywood (BIH) and the Center Theatre Group (CTG), here are my predictions for the 2027-2028 seasons in Los Angeles.

^* indicates shows for which tours are not yet announce, but I’m guessing they will tour.

Sources: Playbill as indicated, Tours to You, Broadway League Tours.

Show	Where It Will End Up
The Lost Boys	BIH/Pantages
Ragtime	BIH/Pantages
Every Brilliant Thing	CTG/Taper, but note there will be a local production at The Main in Sept. 2026
Beaches	BIH/Pantages
Titanique	BIH/Pantages
Just In Time	BIH/Pantages
Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York	CTG/Ahmanson
Schmigadoon!	BIH/Pantages
Cats: The Jellicle Ball^*	CTG/Taper, but poss. BIH/Pantages
Giant^*	CTG/Ahmanson (but possibly as a local production)
Rocky Horror – New Broadway Production^*	BIH/Pantages
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella	BIH/Pantages (Add-On)
Heathers – The Musical	CTG/Ahmanson
Liberation^*	In 2027 at the Geffen Playhouse
The Ballusters^*	Local production at the Geffen or Pasadena Playhouse.

Additionally, May saw the opening of ticket sales for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. There are over 2,150 performances over the month of June; there are 439 shows listed in the show catalog. These all occur during the month of June, with multiple shows throughout the day. 20 minutes to move in; then the show; 20 minutes to move out. Ticket prices are low. The shows run the gamut, from totally strange to one person shows to full on short plays to musical reviews. You’re sure to find something you’ll like.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

June: ♦ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson.

July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.

August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;

September: ♦ Water for Elephants at BIH/Pantages; ♦⊕ The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Turning at Taper/CTG; ♣⊕ Sutton Foster at The Soraya; ♦⊕ Catch Me If You Can at The Colony Theatre; ♦⊕Every Brilliant Thing at The Main;

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Music Saves, Family Invests | "Hells Kitchen" @ BIH/Pantages by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Fat Ham (Black Rep - STL) Just because we’re out of town doesn’t mean that the desire to see live performance goes away. While we were visiting our daughter in St. Louis, we were able to squeeze in two show. I’ll talk about them out of order, becauwe these writeups tend to focus more on theatre than concerts.

Roasted Ham

While in St. Louis, we had the opportunity to see the Black Repertory Theatre production of Fat Ham, which we last saw a little over two years ago at the Geffen, in a production starring The Neighborhood‘s Marcel Spears as Juicy. Here’s the synopsis of the play as I wrote it then:

Fat Ham transposes the story [of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet] to one about a black family, somewhere in the south, sometime in the near past. The program states that is is North Carolina or Virginia or Maryland or Tennessee, but not Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida. The time is sometime in the 1970s or 1980s, based on dress and hairstyles and such. It is a blue-collar level (but not poor) house, in a rural area, where the family business is a barbeque restaurant run by Pap and Rev, two brothers. Pap went to prison for gutting a customer like a pig, and while in prison, was shafted. It turns out that Rev, Pap’s brother, had arranged the shafting … and not a week after the funeral, Rev married Pap’s widow, Tedra. The play takes place in the backyard of Tedra’s house, where there is to be a celebration of the wedding.

The focus of the story is Juicy, Tedra’s son. After Juicy’s friend Tio sees Pap’s ghost, the ghost comes to Juicy and asks him to avenge his death. Juicy is conflicted. Story beats of the traditional Hamlet story play out in the backyard, as Rev’s friend, Rabby comes to visit with her two children, Larry (who is in the Marines) and Opal. There are both rough and obvious correspondences: Juicy/Hamlet, Rev/Claudius, Tedra/Gertrude, Tio/Horatio, Rabby/Polonius, Larry/Laertes, Opal/Ophelia. But not all of the character beats are the same, especially as the story goes on and the relationships get … shall we say more contemporary.

There are also some key changes in the characters, beyond the obvious transposition from the Court of Denmark to the rural south, with the “Kings” becoming owners of a BBQ Joint. Juicy is a bit of a schlubsy student, attending the University of Phoenix. His friend, Tio, is a stoner addicted to porn. Rabby is a high church lady, her son Larry is on leave from the Marines, and her daughter Opal wants to go to the Marines, although her mom wants her to be a debutant. Relationships are not traditional.

The production in Los Angeles was (essentially) the Broadway cast. The production of Black Rep was a regional production; essentially at the level of a Colony Theatre production: a 644 seat thrust stage, with three Equity actor positions and the rest cast regionally from the local non-Equity pool. The Geffen Playhouse production was in a 512 seat proscenium stage with a mostly Equity cast. How did the two productions compare?

Let’s start with the performances. The lead, Marshall W. Mabry IV Juicy brought a much darker energy to the role; this isn’t a surprise as he wasn’t carrying the sitcom baggage of Marcel Spears. Mabry was a truly believable pseudo-Hamlet: brooding and angry. Enoch King was strong as Rev/Pap, bringing out two distinctly characterizations. Angela Wildflower was good as Tedra, although at times she spoke so fast it was hard to make out her words. To, ummm, amplify that last point: This production was not amplified (unlike most mid-sized productions in Los Angeles), and it was a bit harder to hear folks. Amplification isn’t required (witness our recent outing to Falstaff); however a bit more projection or volume would be good.

In the smaller roles: Brian McKinley was good as Larry, although on his initial entrance he was missing one button, which a Marine would never do. Raevyn Ferguson was strong as Opal—an interesting character who is almost as conflicted as Juicy. Margery Handy brought the right church-lady vibes to Rabby, and Olajuwon Davis captured Tio’s personality (although he also was hard to hear at times).

One additional note on the characters… and the audience. It was interesting to watch the interactions of the performers and the audience, and contrasting that with what I recall of the audience reaction at the Geffen. Here in St. Louis, we’re much closer to the Southern-style churchgoers than in Los Angeles. As such, there was more audience reaction as the tropes referenced in the play were recognized. The audience also didn’t have the complexion problem I see in Los Angeles: one of my major complaints with black-themed plays in Los Angeles is that the non-white audience often seems to stay away. When the Pasadena Playhouse does a black-themed production (common when Sheldon Epps was the artistic director), the audience seems to be 80% black; the pendulum would swing the other way for less diverse stagings. This would bother me quite a bit as I believe theatre is for all, and that theatre provides us the opportunity to learn about and gain insights into milieus different than our own. Alas in Los Angeles, despite its progressivism, audiences seem to self-segregate based on the show. That’s bad. The Edison audience, although far too small, was much more mixed. That’s a good thing. I just wish it was larger. We had, perhaps, only a quarter of the theatre filled. This was an excellent show with excellent performances. Why wasn’t the audience there? Memorial day weekend? Publicity problems? St. Louisians (if that’s a word): This is an excellent show. You should be going out to see it!

The set was remarkably similar to the one at the Geffen. The major difference was the treatment of Pap. At the Geffen, I remember him rising out of the smoker and rising out of the cooler. Here he generally came in from the side. Thankfully, the Black Rep production didn’t use a glitter cannon or balloon drop like the Geffen for the last scenes. I abhor such things for the waste of plastic that goes straight into the waste stream, and they have become far too common in theatre today. Black Rep found a way to bring the fun without the plastic.

There were a few minor production problems: at times, characters walked to the edge of the stage or came in from the edge of the stage and didn’t have the lighting they needed. There were also problems with the amplification of the Karaoke machine.

One other last complaint: Black Rep handed out a postcard Playbill, with a QR code linking to the actual playbill. I recognize this saves the production money, but at what costs. Most folks won’t go to the code and learn about the actors and production team. It won’t serve the advertisers that support the theatre. It won’t provide a physical record that lasts. Digital link rot is real. Websites get reorganized. Try to go to this link 10 years down the road, and there is a 95% chance the link won’t work anymore. Yet with a printed playbill it lasts. Last weekend, I filed playbills from about the last 20 or so years of theatre. I saw playbills in my files from the 1980s and 1990s. I couldn’t do that with the digital QR code playbills; I don’t get a memory that lasts. Digital playbills are a false economy. Give your playgoers a physical playbill, or at least have them available at the show. Print at a level of 50%, but print them. Color isn’t required.

Fat Ham continues at The Black Rep at the Edison Theatre on the grounds of Washington University, St. Louis, until June 7, 2026. Tickets are available through OvationTix. The Black Rep has announced their upcoming season, and it is a good one. Were they closer to Los Angeles, I might even subscribe. The 2026-2027 season is: The Color Purple—The Musical (Sep 9-27, 2026); The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe (Jan 6-24 2027); Purpose by Braden Jacob-Jenkens (Feb 3-21 2027); For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange (Mar 3-28 2027); and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean May 12-30 2027. I’ve always heard about For Colored Girls; I can’t recall a recent production in Los Angeles. I wonder if anyone will ever remount a production of Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God?

Hasenpfeffer

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony (St Louis Symphony Orchestra) “Hasenpfeffer” refers to the live concert we saw: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, which is a touring production nearing the end of its 35^th Anniversary tour, celebrating Bugs Bunny’s 85^th birthday. We saw the production at Powell Hall, which is just coming off a multi-year renovation, accompanied by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Surprisingly, although the production has been a regular at the Hollywood Bowl, we’ve never seen it there. My wife loves the WB cartoon library, so this was a perfect fit. The music was outstanding, and the production presented five “new” cartoons (with live music) as part of the production:

“Skyscraper Scrap“, a new Bugs Bunny cartoon, with score adapted by Carl Johnson from La gazza ladra by Gioachino Rossini. This was a Sylvester and Tweety Bird cartoon set of the ledge of a skyscraper.
The “Coyote Suite”, a set of three new Road-Runner cartoons (3D animation):
- “Rabid Rider“, a 2010 short involving the Coyote on an Acme Segway-equivalent, with predictable results.
- “Coyote Falls“, another 2010 short using an Acme bungee cord
- “Fur of Flying“, another 2010 short with an Acme flying helmet
“Dynamite Dance“, a 2019 Elmer/Bugs romp with lots of dynamite to Dance of the Hours.

The Coyote/Road Runner cartoons made me think of the supposed rules for Road Runner/Coyote cartoons.

The music was very enjoyable, and the cartoons were delightful. A lovely evening.

Credits

Fat Ham. Written by James Ijames. Directed by Geovanday Jones.

Cast (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Marshall W Mabry IV^æ Juicy; Angela Wildflower^æ Tedra; Enoch King^æ Rev/Pap; Brian McKinley Larry; Raevyn Ferguson Opal; Margery Handy Rabby; Olajuwon Davis Tio.

Production and Creative (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Geovonday Jones Director; Heather Beal Choreographer; Patrick Huber Scenic and Lighting Design; Andre Harrington Costume Design; Tre’von Griffith (TreG) Sound Design; Courtnee Rouse^æ Stage Manager; Joyous Celestine 1^st Asst Stage Manager; Stanley Powell 2^nd Asst Stage Manager; Marissa Perry Costume Shop Supervisor; Taina Bantu Wardrobe Head; Mikhail Lynn Props Designer; Alan Phillips Sound Board Operator; Trenton Ames Light Board Operator; Mikhail Lynn Shop Foreman; Victor Malmgren Scenic Charge; Mondis Doyle, Alan Phillips, Mikhail Lynn, Stanley Powell Carpenters.

🐇🐤

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony. Starring Bugs Bunny. Conducted by George Daugherty. Created and produced by George Daugherty & David Ka Lik Wong.

Orchestra: Too large to type, but they should be available through the program notes on the SLSO website.

Production and Creative: See the production website.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; BIH/Pantages; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

There were some interesting theatre and theatre-related announcements recently. First, the Pasadena Playhouse announced their 2026-2027 season. It’s pretty spectacular. The season begins with a new production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s tragicomedy The Visit, directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak and starring Jefferson Mays. The Visit was later turned into a musical by Fred Kander and John Ebb; but this is the play version. Next up is the long-awaited L.A. premiere of Passing Strange, the Tony-winning musical based on the life of L.A.-born musician Stew, directed by Tony nominee Zhailon Levingston. Passing Strange never toured after winning the 2009 Tony, so this is its LA debut. There is then a TBA winter production (hopefully better than last year’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, which was horrible). That is followed by Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, the musical version of the play we saw two weeks ago. This was on Broadway but did poorly and thus never toured; it is its LA premiere. Lastly, a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Alfred Molina. We’ve already renewed our membership.

Also announcing recently was the Soraya, previously known as the Valley Performing Arts Center on the campus of Cal State Northridge. Can’t you just hear Vin Sculley saying “Isn’t it beautiful”. They have announced their 2026-2027 season. There is loads of good stuff this season. Notable for theatre folks is the opening show, Sutton Foster; in April, Audra McDonald will grace the stage. Along the way, there are shows such as Snarky Puppy with the CSUN “A” Jazz Band, Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves celebrating John Coltraine; a tribute to Gershwin and the Golden Age with the LA Jewish Symphony; the Dance Theatre of Harlem; Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltraine; A tribute to Frank Sinatra with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra; the Emmet Cohen Trio; and much more. Music of all varieties, jazz, dance, pop, classical, and loads more. Those are just the shows we’re interested in. Memberships are also on sale.

Lastly, May saw the opening of ticket sales for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. There are over 2,150 performances; there are 439 shows listed in the show catalog. These all occur during the month of June, with multiple shows throughout the day. 20 minutes to move in; then the show; 20 minutes to move out. Ticket prices are low. The shows run the gamut, from totally strange to one person shows to full on short plays to musical reviews. You’re sure to find something you’ll like.

Watch This Space. We’ve had more and more shows announcing their 2027 tours; enough so that I can pretty well guess that 2027-2028 seasons for Broadway in Hollywood, and for some of the CTG slots (they also do some local productions, not tours). I’ll share those guesses after our next show.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

May: ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;
September: ♦ Water for Elephants at BIH/Pantages; ♦⊕ The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Turning at Taper/CTG; ♣⊕ Sutton Foster at The Soraya; ♦⊕ Catch Me If You Can at The Colony Theatre; ♦⊕ Every Brilliant Thing at The Main

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Roasted Ham and Hasenpfeffer | "Fat Ham" @ Black Rep ... and Bugs Bunny by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Brigadoon (Pasadena Playhouse) This has been the spring for classic musicals in Los Angeles. First, we had the wonderful revisical version of Flower Drum Song from East West Players, which premiered on Broadway in 1958 (and whose source book author, CY Lee, is actually remembered on the walls of the Pasadena Playhouse). Then we had the excellent touring production of The Sound Of Music, which was brought to the heights by the performances of its leads, Cayleigh Capaldi as Maria and Kevin Earley as Captain Von Trapp. The Sound of Music premiered on Broadway in 1959. The trio concluded this week with the lightly revised revival of Brigadoon at the Pasadena Playhouse, which we saw last night. Brigadoon premiered on Broadway way back in 1947. I had forgotten what a joy Brigadoon is; I truly believe the Pasadena Playhouse version is worthy of a Broadway transfer. Brigadoon hasn’t been on Broadway since 1980, and this updated version brings and updated energy and sensibility to the show, combined with the luscious score. In this era of continuous revivals of seemingly the same recent shows, this could be a breath of fresh Scottish air.

In seeing this show, I was trying to remember the last time I saw Brigadoon. I thought it might have been at the old LA Civic Light Opera, but they last did the show in 1954 (which was before I was born). Perhaps it was in the Cabrillo Music Theatre days (now 5-Star), but then I would have a program. Perhaps I only thought I had seen it, and was conflating it with the movie version with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson, which I’ve seen many times. That’s a distinct possibility, as I didn’t remember some of the songs (and those are the songs that were cut in the movie). But it turns out I have seen Brigadoon before on the stage: a December 1981 production of the Al Malaikah Shrine at the Shrine Theatre, with Genevieve Marie Sordetto as Fiona and Brad M. Arrington as Tommy Albright. I must have gone with my parents (who were avid theatregoers), as I was still a college undergrad at the time, and my dad was a member of that Shrine club. I also, surprisingly, only had one version of Brigadoon in my music library: the 1991 Studio Cast. A good version, but one is not enough. That was remedied this morning (I added the 2017 NY City Center revival).

The reason for the above reminiscing is to demonstrate that, like many I’m sure, I knew of Brigadoon, but I didn’t remember it well. I think we all remember the outlines of the story: Two NYC hunters (Tommy and Jeff) on vacation in Scotland discover an enchanted village that reappears for one day every one hundred years. One of the hunters falls in love with a local lass (Fiona). There’s a wedding, and the suitor that wasn’t selected (Harry) attempts to leave the village, which would destroy it. He is stopped and dies in the process. The hunter in love wants to stay with the village, but his friend convinces him to leave. Back in NYC, he’s unhappy, so he returns to Scotland and loves the girl so much that the village reappears and takes him in. Along the way, there’s lot of dancing and singing, including the standard “Almost Like Being In Love”.

Those are the main story notes. But (unsurprisingly, as the original was written in the late 1940s), the original story had dated elements. It reflected an American stereotypical view of Scotland. It showed Scottish women with no agency (a very 1940s view), which was not the reality. The presentation of the two American friends was dated. The show wasn’t as problematic as Flower Drum Song, but it needed updating. If you’re not familiar with the original details of the show, Wikipedia has a good summary of the plot. If you’re only familiar with the movie, you can see the movie excised even more story, notably the sub-story of Meg Brockie. They also changed how Jeff killed Harry Beaton. The movie was clearly not the basis for a good revival: the movie was more a piece to show off its stars, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse.

For the Pasadena Playhouse version, Alexandra Silber adapted and updated the story. Here are the changes I could detect. She changed Meg Brockie from a simple milkmaid to an independent woman who operated a pub (which became the center for much of the action in the story). She might have been a widow, which would explain the ownership. They also made Meg much more sexually forward and lusty than would have been acceptable in the 1940s or 1950s. She changed the town leader, Mr. Lundie, into the Widow Lundie. This might have been done to fit the casting of Tyne Daly, but it also fits with the power of Widows in Scottish society. She changed the manner of death of Harry. In the 1940s original, as Wikipedia notes “Jeff also reveals that he tripped Harry and accidentally killed him.”. In the movie, again according to Wikipedia, “With men closing in on him, Harry climbs up a tree to hide but is accidentally gunned down by Jeff, who skipped the wedding to go hunting. Harry falls dead to the ground and is soon found by the men.” In this version, however, Jeff is not responsible for Harry’s death. As Harry nears the edge of town, they lock eyes. Harry seems to decide he can’t cause the town’s destruction, and so throws himself off the bridge instead.

There are also significant changes made in the penultimate scenes. In the original, according to Wikipedia, “Four months later, Jeff is drinking heavily at a hotel bar in New York. Tommy, who has been living on a farm in New Hampshire, enters and greets Jeff, but is still in love with Fiona and cannot stop thinking about her. His fiancée Jane Ashton, a beautiful socialite, talks to him about their impending wedding, but everything she says causes him to hear Fiona’s voice and dream of Brigadoon (“Come to Me, Bend to Me” (reprise) and “Heather on the Hill” (reprise)). Tommy tells Jane that he cannot marry her, and she argues with him, but he continues to daydream about his true love (“Go Home With Bonnie Jean” (reprise) and “From This Day On” (reprise)). Jane leaves, and Tommy tells Jeff that he wants to return to Scotland, although he knows the village will not be there.”

In this updated version, Silber turns it around: Tommy is so much in love he can’t get over it and has turned to drinking. Recent promotions mean nothing to him, and there is no fiancée. Everything the barkeep says (played by the same actor that played Widow Lundie) makes him think of Fiona and Brigadoon. Jeff, now sober, returns and convinces Tommy he was wrong. There can be such a love, and he had it with his wife who died (presumably of cancer). It is Jeff who tells Tommy he must go back to Scotland, and provides him with the tickets.

I found that the updated story worked well, and fit the beats I remembered. The revisions were suitably gentle and nudged the story into something that worked better for modern audiences. There are still some aspects that feel dated—in particular, the heavier emphasis on dance and ballet that one doesn’t see in modern shows—but they are tolerable. It is quite possible that the Agnes DeMille dances are contractually required (similar to the dream sequences in Oklahoma or The King and I).

The performances were top-notch. In the leading positions were Betsy Morgan as Fiona Mac Laren, Max Von Essen as Tommy Albright, and Happy Anderson as Jeff Douglas. Morgan brought a wonderful life and vivaciousness to Fiona; one could easily see why Tommy fell in love with her. She also had a spectacular singing voice. Von Essen was a great leading man, with a relatable stage presence, a great singing voice, and most notably, spectacular chemistry with Morgan. Anderson transformed Jeff from a handsome friends to a more lovable doofus. Anderson provided some wonderful comic relief through the show.

As the couple getting married, Kylie Victoria Edwards (Jean Mac Laren) and Daniel Yearwood (Charlie Dalrymple) were great. I particularly enjoyed Yearwood: he had a wonderful voice and was fun to watch on stage.

The simple milkmaid, Meg Brockie, was transformed in this version to a tavern owner, vivacious and fully of life and happiness. She was played by Donna Vivino with a strength of voice and personality that was great. Although it wasn’t listed in her credits, I could swear that Vivino is a local. I think I’ve seen her (and her daughters) playing multiple roles out at Cabrillo/5-Star.

The matriarch of the town, Widow Lundie, was played by Tyne Daly. This was a coup getting her for this role, as she brought a wonderful gravitas to the character. Alas, you could see by how she was moving on stage that she is getting frailer than she once was. Still, she is a theatrical powerhouse and it is always a delight to see her on stage. I particularly liked her turn as Frankie, the barkeep.

Also notable was Jessica Lee Keller as Maggie Anderson. She was hidden during much of the production, but had a spectacular dance turn during the funeral scene.

Lastly, I’d like to call out the ensemble and cast members who were playing instruments on stage. They aren’t explicitly identified in the program, unless they had some of the musicians don costumes and come on stage. So to the unspecified fiddle, bodhran, bass, piccolo, and bagpipe players: your presence in the tavern scenes added a wonderful authenticity to those scenes, and brought back memories of shows such as Once or Come From Away, both of which have elements like that.

I am delighted to note that the scenic aspects of the show were achieved without the use of a single glitter cannon or a single projection. There was wonderful traditional scenery: bridges, taverns, villages; the Pasadena Playhouse provides sufficient fly space that they were able to use a lot of “fly in” scenery. Costumes were suitably Scottish; Jeff and Tommy had their costumes updated to modern times (including modern backpacks and water bottles, and I think I even spotted a cell phone).

Were there any negatives? Perhaps one minor one: There were four stage lights at the top of the proscenium that were very bluish-white (distractingly so). They were fine when they were tuned to other colors, so they just need to be toned down a bit.

Other than the horrid (to us) Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha earlier this year, the Pasadena Playhouse has been hitting it out of the park this season. Their next season looks to be equally strong. We’ve already renewed our membership, and we look forward to scheduling our shows for the next season. This production of Brigadoon is yet another example of the quality work from the Playhouse. Folks should get over to the Playhouse to see it and be reminded how the classic musicals still hold up. It runs until June 14, 2026. Tickets are available through the Playhouse Website.

Credits

Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon. A new adaptation by Alexandra Silber, inspired by the original book by Alan Jay Lerner. Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe. Original dances created by Agnes DeMille. Directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman.

Cast (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Happy Anderson^æ Jeff Douglas; Brian Calì^æ Ensemble / Angus; Amanda Clement^æ Ensemble, Dance Captain; Tyne Daly^æ Widow Lundie; Sophie Liu David^æ Ensemble; Kylie Victoria Edwards^æ Jean MacLaren; Michael Scott Harris^æ Archie Beaton; Jessica Lee Kellar^æ Maggie Anderson; Evan Kinnane^æ Ensemble; Julia Wheeler Lennon^æ Ensemble; Brian Kim McCormick^æ Ensemble / Stuart; Spencer Davis Milford^æ Harry Beaton; Betsy Morgan^æ Fiona MacLaren; Gabriel Navarro^æ Ensemble; Chuck Saculla^æ Ensemble / Sandy Dean; Amy Smith^æ Ensemble; Gil Sweeney Ensemble / Swing; Donna Vivino^æ Meg Brockie; Max Von Essen^æ Tommy Albright; Daniel Yearwood^æ Charlie Dalrymple; Geoffrey Wade^æ Andrew MacLaren.

Music Department: Darryl Archibald Music Supervisor; Brad Gardner Music Director / Conductor; Gennie Cheng Assoc Music Director / Piano; Bethany Mennemeyer Concertmaster, Rhea Fowler, Nichole Garcia, and Nolan Livesay Violin; Rodney Wirtz and Bryan Gonzalez Viola; Ginger Murphy and Chris Ahn Cello; David Hughes Bass; Rachel Mellis Flute, Piccolo; Victoria Sabonjohn Oboe; Laura Stoutenborough and Adrienne Murray Clarinet; Lieza Kallin Bassoon; Jared Haworth and Elizabeth Donahue Bagpipes; Lisa McCormick French Horn; Tim Rubottom, Barbara Laronga, and Justin Drisdelle Trumpet; Devon Taylor Trombone; Nick Stone Percussion; Eric Heinly Orchestra Contractor.

Production and Creative (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Alan Jay Lerner Lyrics, Book; Frederick Loewe Music; Alexandra Silber Playwright; Katie Spelman Director, Choreographer; Jason Sherwood Scenic Designer; Raquel Adorno Costume Designer; Jaymi Smith Lighting Designer; Danny Erdberg Sound Designer; Ursula Kwong-Brown Sound Designer; Alberto “Albee” Alvarado Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design; Ryan Bernard-Tymensky Casting; Jill Gold^æ Production Stage Manager; Lauren Buangan^æ Asst Stage Manager; Miriam Mendoza^æ Asst Stage Manager; Gaby Ostrove^æ Asst Stage Manager.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; BIH/Pantages; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Also announcing last week was the Soraya, previously known as the Valley Performing Arts Center on the campus of Cal State Northridge. Can’t you just hear Vin Sculley saying “Isn’t it beautiful”. They have announced their 2026-2027 season. There is loads of good stuff this season. Notable for theatre folks is the opening show, Sutton Foster; in April, Audra McDonald will grace the stage. Along the way, there are shows such as Snarky Puppy with the CSUN “A” Jazz Band, Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves celebrating John Coltraine; a tribute to Gershwin and the Golden Age with the LA Jewish Symphony; the Dance Theatre of Harlem; Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltraine; A tribute to Frank Sinatra with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra; the Emmet Cohen Trio; and much more. Music of all varieties, jazz, dance, pop, classical, and loads more. Those are just the shows we’re interested in. Memberships are also on sale.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

May: ♣ Bugs Bunny at the Symphony at St. Louis Symphony; ♦ Fat Ham at Black Reperatory Theatre (St. Louis); ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;
September: ♦ Water for Elephants at BIH/Pantages; ♦⊕ The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Turning at Taper/CTG; ♣⊕ Sutton Foster at The Soraya; ♦⊕ Catch Me If You Can at The Colony Theatre; ♦⊕Every Brilliant Thing at The Main

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Perfection on the Heather | "Brigadoon" @ Pasadena Playhouse by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

The Sound of Music (Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages) Last night, we saw the touring production of The Sound of Music at the Pantages as part of the Broadway in Hollywood season. When the show was announced, my thought was “Not again. We’ve seen this old chestnut enough.” This is a show that we had recently seen (2024) in an excellent regional production at 5-Star Theatrical. Enough! But this production was so well performed, and the show itself is so well constructed, that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was also interesting that quite a few audience members had never seen the show, or only knew the show from the movie musical. So perhaps the time was right for the new tour.

I’m going to assume, at this point, that everyone knows the story. If you don’t, you can read the details on Wikipedia. Note that the original musical has some songs in a different place from the movie. The really short synopsis is young nun in Austria doesn’t fit in at the convent, is sent to be the governess of 7 children of an Austrian naval officer. She teaches them to sing and charms the britches off the Captain. He was set to marry a rich baroness, but a dispute about supporting the Germans as they advance into Austria, combined with the Captain’s growing love for the nun, sabotages that. The Germans take over Austria, and the Captain has to leave. They figure out a way to exploit a music festival to all escape over the mountains, thanks to the music festival promoter.

A few thoughts on the show itself, some of which are echoes from what I wrote back in 2024.

First, if I had to ask you to name a perfect musical, what would it be? I mean a musical where you don’t really need to change anything for modern audiences? A musical where the construction and staging and design has no flaws? A musical that is eternal with absolutely no way to “revisical” it. Only a few come to mind: Gypsy, Guys and Dolls, and Sound of Music. There’s precious little that can be changed about the presentation of the story.

The story is also timely. The LA Times recently had a story about how there are three revivals currently in LA of “old chestnuts” that are surprisingly relevant: Flower Drum Song, at East West Players, which we saw a few weeks ago; The Sound of Music, which we saw last night; and Brigadoon, which we’re seeing at the Pasadena Playhouse next week. Both Flower Drum Song and Brigadoon have been updated to address dated or problematic plot elements. The Sound of Music requires no changes.

All three are also relevant to the times. But I noted that regarding Sound of Music back in 2024:

This begs the question: Is The Sound of Music relevant today? Listening closely, it is. The situation presented in the show of the rise of Hitler and Germany in the backdrop of people that want to ignore it—of people who think they can just go with the flow and ride it out—has an eerie echo to the rise of Trumpian politics today. At one point in the second act, as the song “No Way to Stop It” is starting, the Captain questions whether there is any way to stop the Germans, whom he hate, from taking over his country? Austria may not have had that ability, but here in America we do have the one tool they didn’t have: The Ballot Box. This show is a reminder of what might happen if we don’t use the tools we have. We will have brainwashed legions enforcing their view of what we can think, of what we can say. It is clear from the messages in their shows—a hatred of racism, a hatred of indoctrination, a hatred of violence against women—that Rodgers and Hammerstein would have stood against Trump and his Project 2025 agenda. Could a timely revival of Sound of Music reinforce that message? It is an interesting thought.

The Sound of Music tells the story of a family that refuses to accept that facists are taking over their country. They decide to escape the problem by running away to America, because America was a place where facism could never take hold. Alas, in 2026, we’re seeing the facism and racism are taking hold, and we really don’t have a safe place to easily run away to… nor should we. We do have a way to fight, by voting in the upcoming election. I have done a ballot deep dive for the upcoming primary, and you can see it here.

Here’s a sad thought regarding The Sound of Music: There were a large number of children and young adults in the audience, and this was probably their first time seeing the show. For how many of them was there a need to explain what the Anschluss was, and why it was such a watershed? Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote this in the 1960s, when the horrors of Nazi Germany was still fresh in the minds of American; the war had ended just 15 years before. Today WWII is 80 years in the past. The last of those alive during the war are dying. The sight of a Nazi flag in a theatre was shocking in 1959. Today, similar ideas to those held by the Nazis are broadly promoted by the current administration, although targeting different groups. Do our young folks today remember and abhor what the Nazis did? Have they forgotten, and perhaps that explains the rise of Trumpism? The Sound of Music is a poor vehicle to teach about Nazi horrors; it only hints at the problem as the author’s assumed that the audience at the time knew it well. The Producers doesn’t teach it at all. There are plays that do (The Diary of Anne Frank), but plays don’t have the reach; however, musicals about the subject are doomed to failure (well, unless you’re The Producers).

Lastly, why does The Sound of Music keep coming back? You see it a lot more than you do R&H’s other perennial successes, Oklahoma and South Pacific, both of which also have relevance. I also answered this in 2024:

The Sound of Music is a great stepping stone for actors. The characters are known, people know the story, and because of this the performance can shine. Cabrillo/5-Star is well known for its ability to find and promote talent (I think that’s why it is so heavily supported by donors). I still remember seeing a young Katherine McPhee in a 2005 CMT production of Annie Get Your Gun; many other actors have gotten their start in Cabillo/5-Star productions. So, even though this is such a well-known show, I urge you to go see it. The performances are what make this production special.

That’s just a true for this Broadway tour. Let’s talk about some of the standout performances.

Let’s start with Cayleigh Capaldi as Maria, in her tour debut. She brought a load of personality and happiness to the role (although I think in that area the 5-Star Maria, Shannon O’Boyle, could have given her a run for her money). What struck me most about Capaldi was her voice. She kept making me think of Sutton Foster; if you closed your eyes, you might think it was Foster singing (and, speaking of Foster, she’s going to be the opening concert of the Soraya season. More on that in a minute). She had the voice; she had the humor. She was perfection in the role.

Then there was Kevin Earley as Captain Von Trapp. We’ve known Kevin for years: he was very active in the Southern California theatre community. I think we first saw and met him back in February 2006 when he was in It Came From Beyond; our friend Sheri was doing his website at the time. We saw him again in 2006 when he was in Johnny Guitar at La Mirada. We saw him in Empire: The Musical back in 2016. Most recently, we saw him in Old Friends at the Ahmanson in 2025. I swear, that man must have a mirror in his closet, because he hasn’t aged a day. He has one of the loveliest singing voices around, and he brought a personality and a playfulness to the Captain that I haven’t seen before. He also had astonishing acting and characterization—watch how he is checking the curtain during the concert numbers, and watch his facial expressions during his interactions with Max and Elsa.

Christiane Noll was spectacular as the Mother Abbess. Normally this is a role given to an older soprano who plays it very wooden. Noll brought play to the role—just watch her during “My Favorite Things” and some of her other scenes. She also has on of the best singing voices around.

Ariana Ferch was very strong as Liesl. In her tour debut, she brought a wonderful voice to the character; in later scenes, watch her playfulness and joy with the character on stage.

Nicholas Rodriguez was a strong Max; he has evidently played the Captain in other productions. He also had a wonderful voice and was having a lot of fun with the sardonic nature of Max. Watch him especially during his interactions with Elsa and during the Concert scene.

If there was a weak point (and it was a very minor one), it might have bene Kate Loprest as Elsa. She had the characterization down; but her voice seemed a bit wrong for the character: a bit too shrill, perhaps. But that is a very very very minor quibble.

Overall, the production was a delight (and there was no glitter cannon—a common complaint of mine). I also applaud the use of traditional scenic design: I could detect no use of projection, and there were no credits in the program for a projection designer. Far too often these days, stage productions overuse projection design, and this makes it a problem for shows to have a life past the Broadway production or subsequent Broadway tour. (Although, of course, for The Sound of Music, there is no question about there being post-Broadway productions. I don’t think it has ever been off the stage since 1959).

Yes, it is an old chestnut. But this is a well done production of The Sound of Music with spectacular performances, and is well worth seeing (if only to see Kevin and Cayleigh as the Captain and Maria). It continues at the Hollywood Pantages until May 24. Tickets are available through the BIH Ticketing Partner, and discount tickets might be available through TodayTix.

Credits

The Sound of Music. Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. Directed by Jack O’Brien. Choreographed by Danny Mefford.

Cast: Cayleigh Capaldi Maria Rainer; Kevin Earley Captain Georg von Trapp; Christiane Noll Mother Abbess; Nicholas Rodriguez Max Detweiler; Kate Loprest Elsa Schraeder; Anriana Ferch Liesl; Ian Coursey Rolf Gruber; Torben Mularski Friedrich; Skylar Matthews Louisa; Reece Boyle Kurt; Haddie Mac Brigitta; Berkeley Waluk Marta; Everly Beeson Gretl; John Adkison Franz, Ensemble; Corey Greenan Admiral von Schreiber, Ensemble; Jennifer Malenke Frau Schmidt, Ensemble; Daniel Robert Sullivan Herr Zeller, Ensemble; Blaire Eilene Baker Ensemble; Sydney K. Borchers Ursula, A New Postulant, Ensemble; Dylan Bradford Ensemble; Alli Echelmeyer Ensemble, Dance Captain; Hugh Entrekin Ensemble; Charlotte Jenkins Ensemble; Meredith Lustic Sister Sophia, Ensemble; Mark Bradley Miller Baron Eberfeld, Ensemble; Tess Primack Sister Margaretta, Ensemble; Lisa Rosetta Strum Baroness Elberfeld, Sister Berthe, Ensemble. Non-Ensemble Understudies: Brady Carville u/s Kurt, u/s Friedrich; Rory L. Prichard u/s Marta, u/s Brigitta; Tessa Mae Pundsack u/s Louisa, u/s Brigitta. Swings: Steven Grant Douglass, Ruthie Sangster.

Music Department (🌴 indicates local): Andy Einhorn Music Supervision and Additional Orchestrator; Robert Russell Bennett Orchestrations; Jonathan Marro Music Director, Conductor; John Miller Music Coordinator; Anne Van Steenwinkel Assoc Conductor, Keyboards; Griffin Strout Keyboards; Kyle Knepper Trumpet; Sarah Fazendin Violin, Concertmaster; 🌴 Jen Choi Fischer Violin; 🌴 Ira Glansbeek Cello ; 🌴 Ian Walker Bass; 🌴 Jeff Driskill Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet; 🌴 Michele Forrest Oboe, English Horn; 🌴 William May Bassoon; 🌴 Emily Pesavento French Horn; 🌴 Aaron Smith Trumpet; 🌴 Charlie Morillas Trombone; 🌴 Danny Taylor Percussion; 🌴 Ryan Whyman Keyboard Sub; 🌴 Eric Heinly Orchestra Contractor; Hiro Iida and Ethan Deppe for Strange Cranium Electronic Music Design.

Production and Creative: Richard Rodgers Music; Oscar Hammerstein II Lyrics; Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse Book; Jack O’Brien Director; Matt Lenz Assoc Director; Danny Mefford Choreographer; Mark Myars Assoc Choreographer; Douglas W. Schmidt Scenic Designer; Jane Greenwood Costume Designer; Natasha Katz Lighting Design; Kai Harada Sound Design; Tom Watson Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design; Trude Rittmann Dance and Vocal Arrangements; Leigh Zimmerman Intimacy Director; The Telsey Office Casting; The Road Company Tour Booking; Gentry & Associates General Manager; Kent McIngvale & Company Tour Press & Marketing; Jamey Jennings Company Manager; Elle Aghabala Assoc Company Manager; Brigham Johnson Production Stage Manager; Kali Ashurst Stage Manager; Megan Belgam Asst Stage Manager; Christine Tureta Tutor, Child Wrangler. “Something Good”: Lyrics by Richard Rodgers, Additional Lyrics by Jack O’Brien.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; BIH/Pantages; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

There were some interesting theatre and theatre-related announcements this week. First, the Pasadena Playhouse announced their 2026-2027 season. It’s pretty spectacular. The season begins with a new production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s tragicomedy The Visit, directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak and starring Jefferson Mays. The Visit was later turned into a musical by Fred Kander and John Ebb; but this is the play version. Next up is the long-awaited L.A. premiere of Passing Strange, the Tony-winning musical based on the life of L.A.-born musician Stew, directed by Tony nominee Zhailon Levingston. Passing Strange never toured after winning the 2009 Tony, so this is its LA debut. There is then a TBA winter production (hopefully better than last year’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, which was horrible). That is followed by Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, the musical version of the play we saw two weeks ago. This was on Broadway but did poorly and thus never toured; it is its LA premiere. Lastly, a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Alfred Molina. We’ve already renewed our membership.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

May: ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Fat Ham at Black Reperatory Theatre (St. Louis) ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;
September: ♦ Water for Elephants at BIH/Pantages; ♦⊕ The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Turning at Taper/CTG; ♣⊕ Sutton Foster at The Soraya; ♦⊕ Catch Me If You Can at The Colony Theatre; ♦⊕Every Brilliant Thingat The Main;

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as The Sound of Perfection | "The Sound of Music" @ BIH/Pantages by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Here in California (and in Los Angeles in particular), we have an election coming up. You know what that means: Every election, I do a detailed ballot analysis of my sample ballot. This is where I examine each candidate and share my conclusions, and invite you to convince me to vote for the other jerk. Because this is a long ballot, I’m splitting this analysis into a few chunks (note: links may not be available until all segments are posted):

Governor of California
Other State and National Offices(excluding judges)
County and City (Los Angeles) Local Offices(excluding judges)
Measures (nee Propositions)
Judicial Offices (County and State)
Summary

This part provides a summary of my ballot analysis results. Please read the full explanation of why I chose who I chose in the links above. Note: This summary is presented in the order of my Sample Ballot.

( Read more... )

Governor of California
Other State and National Offices(excluding judges)
County and City (Los Angeles) Local Offices(excluding judges)
Measures (nee Propositions)
Judicial Offices (County and State)
Summary

Note: This analysis is NOT presented in the same order as the Sample Ballot (the ballot order makes no sense). I’ve attempted instead to present things in more logical order.

This part covers all the judgeships on the ballot:

Judge of the Superior Court: Office № 2 ❦ № 14 ❦ № 39 ❦ № 60 ❦ № 64 ❦ № 65 ❦ № 66 ❦ № 81 ❦ № 87 ❦ № 116 ❦ № 131 ❦ № 141 ❦ № 176 ❦ № 181 ❦ № 196

( Read more... )

Governor of California
Other State and National Offices(excluding judges)
County and City (Los Angeles) Local Offices(excluding judges)
Measures (nee Propositions)
Judicial Offices (County and State)
Summary

Note: This analysis is NOT presented in the same order as the Sample Ballot (the ballot order makes no sense). I’ve attempted instead to present things in more logical order.

This part covers the State and Local Measures

Los Angeles County Measures: Measure ER
Los Angeles City Measures: Measure CB ❦ Measure TC ❦ Measure TT ❦ Streetlight Maintenance Assessment (separate ballot)

( Read more... )

Governor of California
Other State and National Offices(excluding judges)
County and City (Los Angeles) Local Offices(excluding judges)
Measures (nee Propositions)
Judicial Offices (County and State)
Summary

Note: This analysis is NOT presented in the same order as the Sample Ballot (the ballot order makes no sense). I’ve attempted instead to present things in more logical order.

This part covers the non-Governor Federal and State races:

Federal (Legislative): US Representative, 32^nd District
State (Legislative): State Assembly 40^th District
Statewide Offices: Lt. Governor ❦ Secretary of State ❦ Attorney General ❦ Insurance Commissioner ❦ Controller ❦ Board of Equalization, 3rd District ❦ Supt. of Public Instruction ❦ Treasurer

( Read more... )

Governor of California
Other State and National Offices(excluding judges)
County and City (Los Angeles) Local Offices(excluding judges)
Measures (nee Propositions)
Judicial Offices (County and State)
Summary

Note: This analysis is NOT presented in the same order as the Sample Ballot (the ballot order makes no sense). I’ve attempted instead to present things in more logical order.

This part covers the Governor’s race, which has so many candidates it is getting it own post. We’re going to divide this into three tiers:

Realistic “Past The Gate” Candidates: These are the folks that are polling sufficiently high enough that they have a change of getting into the “top two” general election. Realistically, if you want your vote to have impact, you’ll pick one from this tier.
Valid Candidate, But No Chance, Candidates. These are the folks that are actually reasonable and sane candidate, perhaps with decent positions. However, they are polling so low that, given the jungle primary, a vote for one of these is wasted (and could, in fact, result in a problematic general election).
Hopefuls, Kooks and Nuts. Any election brings out a large number of folks who are running for reasons they only understand. Given the nature of the California Primary system, they have no chance. A vote for them is wasted, essentially. But, as I promise in these reviews to give consideration to everyone, they will at least get a paragraph, even if it is a paragraph of “hell no”. You’ll see why I’m saying that.

Bottom Line Up Front: Here’s the bottom line for the Governor’s Race, as the Republican Candidates are unacceptable, and all of the top tier Democratic candidates are: Vote for the top polling Democratic candidate as of May 15 or later, to ensure a Democratic candidate gets into the General election. You can’t go wrong with any of the top tier Democratic candidates. And remember: Perfect is the enemy of “Good Enough”. We can’t get a perfect candidate; good enough will do.

Now, if you push me to select a favorite candidate, it is Katie Porter. I liked her when she announced, and I still like her. Alas, she is not polling that well, and she’ll likely land below the cutoff where I’ll be able to vote for her. My second choice is Tom Steyer. I don’t like the fact that he is a billionaire or his lack of experience. But I still think he’ll be better for California than Becerra.

Conclusion: This is a bit complicated:

(What I’ll do) Vote for the top polling Democratic candidate as of May 15 or later.
(My favorite of Tier 1) ⚫ Katie Porter (D)
(My likely vote from Tier 1) ⚫ Thomas Steyer (D)

( Read more... )

Falstaff (LA Opera) Back in the early 2000s, I picked up the original cast recording of what was then an off-Broadway musical, Lone Star Love. Subtitled, “The Merry Wives of Windsor TX”, this was a musicalized version of the Shakespeare story transplanted to the West in Post-Civil War times. Alas, it never made it to Broadway thanks to the antics of Randy Quaid, one of the few folks to receive a permanent ban from Actors Equity. There was a concert performance of the show in 2025, but otherwise it hasn’t seen an attempt at revival. As for me, I loved the music from the show and have always wanted to see it.

I mention this because of an interesting set of circumstances. We had tickets for Sat 5/2 to see Anyone Can Whistle, a rarely done Sondheim show, at the El Portal from a new theatre company, but it ended up getting canceled. While hunting around for a replacement show, we thought about Reefer Madness: The Musical at the Wisteria Theatre, but their seating was strange and overpriced. Then I saw LA Opera advertising Verdi’s opera, Falstaff.

Many many years before the folks behind Lone Star Love attempted to musicalize Shakespeare, the noted opera composer Verdi did the same thing. It was Verdi’s second comedy (and the only successful one), written in his late 1970s. It was also one of the last shows to be conducted by James Conlon. So, we thought…. why not? We normally go to traditional theatre and musicals, but it’s worthwhile to go out of our comfort zone occasionally. Why not a real opera, with a known fun story. So we dressed up (because you dress up for the opera), trotted down to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and went to the Opera. We went early enough so we could attend a pre-show lecture by James Conlon about the show and its history. That helped quite a bit.

Here’s the summary of the story as described by LA Opera: “Sir John Falstaff finds himself a bit short on cash, so he hatches a scheme: seduce two merry (and wealthy) wives of Windsor and live out his days in luxury. Too bad this bumbling knight happened to send both his targets the same love letter! Now Alice Ford and Meg Page are set on teaching Falstaff a lesson, and it’s not long before a long list of his adversaries join in. Audiences are in for a whirlwind of disguises and deceptions, and maybe even an unexpected dip in the River Thames.”

First, some thoughts of the opera itself, and then this specific show.

There are some key differences between opera and musical theatre, beyond being “sung through”. After all, Sweeney Todd is sung through, and Evita is sung through, but they aren’t opera. First and foremost, opera isn’t amplified. At least we couldn’t see or detect any, and yet we could hear the performers clearly from the topmost balcony. Second, it typically isn’t in English, so you need to follow projected super-titles that provide translation (unless you know Italian). Last, there’s emphasis on the orchestra, which is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than the smallish orchestras one sees in musical theatre these days.

Now some thoughts on this show itself:

First, the music wasn’t something you could “hum”. It was pretty and all that, but I didn’t walk out of the show humming any of the arias. That might be different if I was a big opera person, but I’ m not. I didn’t have the urge to go out and get a recording of the opera (instead, I’m listening to Lone Star Love as I’m writing this).

Even with the language difference, the story was easy to follow. The roles were played with fun and joy, and I particularly enjoyed the playfulness of Hyona Kim’s Mistress Quickly and Craig Coiciough’s Sir John Falstaff. The voices were lovely, and as I noted before, were quite clear without amplification in the top balcony of the Dorothy Chandler. It was clear that they were having fun with this (and it was great watching the littles in the final scene of the third act).

The scenery was much more traditional / Shakespearean than one finds in modern theatre. There were no projects. Nothing flew in from the fly space. Nothing was carried in by the actors or stage crew. There were just traditional flats and structures and such. They were pretty, but a different style. If I had a sound complaint, it was more that the scenery changes were quite noisy.

It might be interesting to see operas such as this stage in the modern theatrical style: that is, modern scenery, amplification, quasi-realistic performances. Would that improve the audiences?

Speaking of the audiences: It was a delight to see folks all dressed up. Folks used to dress up for theatre in LA (I remember it from the days of the LA Civic Light Opera), but you don’t see that anymore.

The large orchestra was wonderful to listen to.

Falstaff continues at LA Opera through May 10, 2025, which will be Conlon’s last conducting performance, IIRC. Tickets are available through the LA Opera website.

Credits

Falstaff. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Liberetto by Arrigo Boito after William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, Parts I and II. Directed by Shawna Lucey. Conducted by James Conlon.

Cast:

Principals: Nathan Bowles Dr. Caius; Craig Coiciough Sir John Falstaff; Yuntong Han Bardolph; Vinicius Costa Pistol; Sarah Saturnino Meg Page; Nicole Heaston Alice Ford; Hyona Kim Mistress Quickly; Deanna Brelwick Nannetta; Anthony Leon Fenton; Ernesto Petti Ford.
LA Opera Chorus: Sopranos Christina Borgioli, Alannah Garnier, Karen Hogle-Brown, Stephanie Jones, Elizabeth Lee, Lori Stinson, Courtney Taylor, Janet Todd, Sunjoo Yeo, Ella Yewon Yoon; Altos Elizabeth Anderson, Natalie Beck, Danielle Marcello Bond, Molly Burnside, Sara Campbell, Veronica Christenson, Kelly Krantz, Andriana Manfredi, Jessie Schulman, Bonnie Snell Schindler; Tenors James Callon, Christopher Craig, Omar Crook, Adam Faruqi, Sung Bong Kim, Charles Lane, JJ Lopez, Francis Lucaric, Sal Malaki, Todd Strange, Daniel Suk; Bass Tim Campbell, Abdiel Gonzalez, James Hayden, Mark Kelley, David Kress, E. Scott Levin, Connor Licharz, Gabriel Manro, Steve Pence, James Martin Schaefer.
Supernumeraries (* indicates children): Ryan Benson, Jeff Cook, Tony Cronin Innkeeper, Tucker Futnell, Dane Halvorson, Slim Khezri, Howard Morales, Sean Wrinkle, Enzo Ma*, Anastasia Michel*, Violette Michel*, Osgood Shelby-Szyzsko, Schroeder Shelby-Syzsko Robin, Falstaff’s Page, Bellami Smith*, Koa Spiegel-Shaw*, Ean Sun*.

LA Opera Orchestra: First Violin: Alyssa Park Stuart Canin Concertmaster; Armen Anassian Assoc Concertmaster; Lisa Sutton Asst Concertmaster; Cheryl Norma; Olivia Tsu; Beau Henson; Katie Sloan; Heather Powell; Radu Pieptia; Adam Millstein; Erica UzCa; Myroslava Khomik. Second Violin: Ana Laudauer Principal; Grace Oh Assoc Principal; Florence Titmus; Leslie Katz; Michele Kikuchi; Cynthia Moussas; Lorand Lokuszta; Haesol Lee; Ina Veli; Irina Voloshina; Viola: Erik Rynearson Principal; Even Antes Assoc Principal; Peng Jing; Kate Vincent; Aaron Oltman; Diana Wade; Linnea Powell; Carrie Holzman-Little. Cello: Rowena Hammill Principal; Michael Kaufman Assoc Principal; Dane Little; Helen Altenbach; Nadine Hall; Trevor Handy. Bass: Nathan Farrington Principal; Evan Hillis Assoc Principal; Frances Liu Wu; Zach Histop; Timothy Eckert. Flute: Heather Clark Principal; Angela Wiegand; Sarah Weisz Piccolo. Oboe: Leslie Reed Principal; Jennifer Cullinan English Horn. Clarinet: Stuart Clark Principal; Donald Foster Bass Clarinet. Bassoon: William May Principal; William Wood. Horn: Steven Becknell Principal; Daniel Kelley, Jenny Kim Assoc Principal; Aija Mattson-Jovel. Trumpet: Ryan Darke Principal; David Washburn Assoc Principal; Bryce Schmidt. Trombone: William Booth Principal; Alvin Veeh; Terry Cravens; Todd Eames Bass Trombone. Guitar: Paul Viapiano Principal. Harp: JoAnn Turovsky Principal. Timpani: Gregory Goodall Principal. Percussion: Theresa Dimond Principal; John Wakefield. Others: Melisandra Dunker Music Librarian; Brady Steel Orchestra Personnel Manager; Julian Garvue, Bryndon Hassman, and Bin Yu Sanford Musical Preparation.

Production and Creative: James Conlon Conductor; Lee Blakeley Original Production; Shawna Lucey Director; Adrian Linford Scenic and Costume Designer; Pable Santiago Lighting Designer; Jeremy Frank Chorus Director and Asst. Conductor; Andrew Kenneth Moss Fight Director; Sara E. Widzer Intimacy Director; Ky Chassells Asst Director; Whitney McAnally Stage Manager; Peter Walsh Prompter; Randall Behr Supertitles; CBS Scenic Studios Scenery Construction; Studio Sereno Additional Props; Los Angeles Opera Costume Shop Costumes; Los Angels Opera Wig Department Wigs.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; BIH/Pantages; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

May: ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Fat Ham at Black Reperatory Theatre (St. Louis) ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Never Piss Off Smart Women | "Falstaff" @ LA Opera by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Where does the time go? As we enter into May, we’re approaching the half-way mark for the year. It seems to be going by so fast. Here in California, we’re in the middle of the political silly season. I should be receiving my ballot any day now (it has been mailed), and that means folks should be on the lookout for my series of ballot deep dive posts. To keep this highway related, I will remind folks that the whole gas tax debate is a red herring, as the gas tax is a fixed amount per gallon and hasn’t changed recently. It isn’t the reason for the high gas prices — those are to be blamed on the War in Iran (which 47 chose to initiate), on California’s special blend, and the dearth of refineries for the blend which leads to higher prices. I remember the days of heavy smog in Los Angeles and days when it hurt to breathe, so I’m happy to pay a little more for clean air.

Of course, if you want to learn what the Gas Tax pays for, the best place is the Building California website. They have an interactive map that shows all the projects. Many of the projects are also discussed on the California Highways website (which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year). April saw the posting of the January-March updates to the California Highways website.

Turning to the California Highways: Route by Route podcast: Tom and I are finishing up recording Season 4 (we have 3 episodes yet to record), and are planning the inter-season bonus episodes. I particularly like ep 4.12, which covers the unbuilt freeways of the San Fernando Valley, using the first segment of Route 14 as the starting point. I’ve started the research for Season 5, looking into the history of I-15, which means deep dives into routes such as US 395, Route 103, Route 163, Route 71, I-215, Route 24, Route 70, and others. Season 5 covers Routes 15 through 23, which should keep me busy. Good thing I’m retired! Zencaster is working well for recording the podcast. I think it sounds better, but I would love to hear from the listeners. Let us know what you think. It looks like the regular audience is between 60-80 folks, and I’d love to get that number up, although the numbers don’t included those who listen directly from the CARouteByRoute website (as I don’t know how to get those stats). You can help our listening audience grow. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Share the podcast on Facebook groups, and in your Bluesky and Mastodon communities. For those that hear the early episodes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. If you know sound editing, feel free to give me advice (I use Audacity to edit). As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Creators, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Creators) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

April | CA RxR 4.10: Route 12: Into the Sierras. Episode 4.10 concludes our exploration of Route 12 with an exploration of the final section of the route: From Route 99 in Lodi to Route 49 near San Andreas. This is a segment that travels through the foothills of the Sierras, running through Lodi, Lockeford, Clements, Valley Springs, and San Andreas along what was originally LRN 24. We also review LRN 12, which we visited before in our episodes on Route 8, for LRN 12 became I-8 between San Diego and El Centro. In our next episode, our attention turns to Route 13, and includes a discussion of LRN 13, the original Sign Route 13 which was quickly renumbered as Sign Route 17, and today’s Route 13 which runs through Oakland and Berkeley, although the route is unconstructed between the Oakland Airport and I-880. (Spotify for Creators)

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for April 2026.

Key

Highway Headlines

Bridge to reopen after nearly year-long closure, $11.3M replacement project (Fox 40 News). A bridge in southern Sacramento County that has been closed since May of last year is set to reopen later this month. Franklin Bridge over Lost Slough will reopen on April 10, coinciding with the closure of the New Hope Road Bridge, which is undergoing its own replacement project. The 86-year-old bridge on Franklin Boulevard was replaced after maintenance and other necessary repairs forced several temporary closures, the Sacramento County Department of Transportation announced in a press release.
Calpella Creek Two-Bridges Replacement Project Wins Award (FB/Caltrans District 1). Caltrans District 1 is pleased to share that the Calpella Creek Two-Bridges Replacement Project has received the Caltrans Excellence in Transportation award in the Highway Rural category. This annual awards program highlights and recognizes some of the best work from Caltrans and its partners for outstanding achievements in transportation design, construction, traffic operations, maintenance, planning, and improvements across California.
I-15 Corridor (FB/Rebuild CA). The I-15 corridor is California’s deadliest highway, with over 1000 crashes documented between 2018 and 2024. The I-15 expansion project will reduce congestion, allowing for safer and more efficient travel on the route.
Pasadena Moves Closer to Adopting 710 Stub Vision Plan (Streetsblog Los Angeles). On Monday, the city of Pasadena held the first of two public workshops on the 710 Stub’s vision plan called “Reconnecting Pasadena.” This document outlines an idealized redevelopment of the land where the northern terminus was built for the cancelled 710 Freeway, and acknowledges the painful history behind it.
Construction Begins on Final Segment of Highway 101 Widening in Santa Barbara (edhat Santa Barbara). Construction will officially begin Monday, April 6, on the final segment of the Highway 101 widening project, marking a major milestone toward completing the Highway 101: Carpinteria to Santa Barbara project. Highway 101: Santa Barbara North represents the last segment of the signature Measure A project and will complete 10.9 miles of continuous peak-period carpool lanes, delivering long-awaited congestion relief and updated infrastructure for the South Coast.
＄ Gas is $10 a gallon at a Big Sur station. The owner explains why his prices can’t go higher (Los Angeles Times). The owner of Gorda by the Sea, the lone gas station for several miles in any direction from this remote, scenic hamlet in Big Sur, is charging $9.99 for a gallon of gas because, well, that’s as high as the digital numbers on the gas pumps allow. “The software only goes to $10,” said Leo Flores, owner of the gas station and mini-market. “I know, sometimes someone wants to make a good story because of it, but we have to tell you why.” As the lone gas station for at least 12 miles along Highway 1, the service station often prompts drivers to gasp or clutch their wallets at the sight of a $9.99 price tag for a gallon, but Flores insists he’s not trying to price-gouge his customers. In fact, he’s worried that if gas prices go much higher, it might put him out of business.

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Real Women Have Curves (Casa 0101) Back in July 2025, there was a very interesting episode of Planet Money about garment works, and the costs of making a garment in America. You can read the transcript here. Garment work is piece work (although legally they should be making up the difference between that and minimum wage), with workers being paid perhaps 30¢ a piece for the various parts, for a bra that might retail for $62. To earn a living, they often bring work home. Many of these workers are immigrants, and many are undocumented. When we buy a cheap T-shirt that was made overseas, we never think about the working conditions of the people that made it. When we buy a “Made in the USA” garment, we don’t think about the people who make that garment for us: who assemble and sew it, who manufacture the fabric. People who get paid pennies for a garment we pay hundreds for.

All of this went through my mind last night when we went to see the play Real Women Have Curves, at the theatre founded by its author, Josefina López many many years ago. Although this property has been around for a while, I’ve never seen it: I haven’t been to a production of the play, nor have I watched the subsequent movie version. I have listened to the cast album to the recent Broadway musical version, and I hope someday to see that. Perhaps more on that later.

Real Women Have Curves tells the story of five women working in a small garment factory operation, seemingly in East Los Angeles. A mother (Carmen), her older daughter (Estela), her younger daughter (Ana), and two friends (Pancha and Rosali). They live their lives in fear of the immigration authorities (although all but Estela are now here legally). They have little money, as their operation hasn’t been paid for the last order as they delivered late, and that payment won’t come until they finish the next large order. The owner of the shop, Estela, is being on the payments for the machine and the courts are coming after her (which is why she hasn’t started the immigration paperwork). Despite all these problems, they are happy and hopeful that they will be able to move forward. The protagonist of the story even hopes to be a writer some day, if she can afford to go to NYU. As all workers do, they gossip about their love lives, their opens and fears. They are realistic about their size and joke about it. They are also tired from the heat, but cannot open the door because of the immigration fears. When one worker collapses, they worry if they will get the order finished.

Although written in the late 1980s, the play makes many comments that are relevant today. Certainly, the issue of garment workers being underpaid and exploited is as relevant today as it was in the 1980s. In the play, they comment about how they might make $30 for a dress that sells for $200; the Planet Money article shows those ratios are still holding. They also comment that most of the folks buying garments don’t understand the work that goes into the making of the garment, while those who do the work can see the evidence of the sweat and labor that goes into it. The play also comments on how society views women and their bodies, and the chase for women to be young and beautiful and thing. It makes explicit comments about seeing the beauty in real bodies, with realistic sizes, and all the scrapes, bumps, scars, and cellulite that comes from a life well lived. It that, the play presaged the monologues that resonated so much in the movie Barbie about society’s unrealistic expectations about women. Lastly, an overriding theme of the play is the fear of la migra — immigration authorities — taking people and disappearing them with little notice. This hasn’t changed; under the Trump administration it has gotten worse. I’ve listened to someone recent podcasts that detail the horrors that ICE is inflicting on people and the fear it creates, as well as the damage that the tear gas they use inflicts. The fear was real then, and the fear is real now, and those pushing the agenda forget that these are just real people, doing the low paid jobs that most folks don’t want to do but need to be done. Politics builds up the fear and hides the people; this play makes us see the people and the impacts. In that, this is a vitally important play today, just as it was when it first came out.

The performances were outstanding. Stefany Arroyo, a recent graduate, was wonderful as Ana, brining a joy and delight (as well as realism) to the role. In a small theatre like this, you could see the real emotions in her face, and it was wonderful. Blanca Araceli was strong as her mother Carmen, and Yasha Alaniz brought an interesting joy to Estela. Rounding out the ensemble was Amy Melendrez as Rosali and Laura Vega as Pancha. These two made you really believe that they were friends. The direction by Corky Dominguez demonstrated he was familiar with the play, and knew how to bring out the characters as real.

The set (designed by César Retana-Holguín) was realistic; my wife noted that they were using real industrial sewing machines (powered by imagination), set up properly. Costumes also appeared realistic and appropriate for the time. I appreciated the makeup work that deemphasized existing skin art, which was less prevalent in the time of the play.

Overall, this was a wonderful play: it now makes me want to watch the movie, and I increasingly hope someone mounts the recent musical (which, alas, didn’t do well in a crowded Broadway season and thus didn’t mount a tour). Hopefully, a local theatre company will choose to produce the musical (I’ve heard rumors this might be happening, which makes me happy). But until that happens, we’ll have to be satisfied with this excellent production of the original play.

Go see this show. Casa 0101 needs your support, and seeing this production is a great way of doing it. This is our fourth show at Casa: We saw a bilingual production of Aladdin ages ago, as well as Remembering Boyle Heights and Sister Act. They bring talent and heart to all their shows, and we need to remember to go there more often (and a hint — go down a few blocks and have dinner at Casa Fina beforehand, which was started by Josefina López as well). Real Women Have Curves is yet another example of the excellent productions at Casa 0101, and the story it tells is perhaps more important today as when it was first written in 1988. The show continues through May 3, 2026, and there are both English and Spanish versions. More information is available through the Casa 0101 website, although I seem to recall it may be sold out through the rest of the run.

Next up at Casa 0101 is Soul Sacrifice, running May 29 – June 21, 2026. The synopsis is: “Nine-year-old Connie doesn’t know what to do about her world falling apart. Her older brother, Luie, has been drafted into the Vietnam War, her father is drinking, her mother spends hours praying, and her siblings, Ben and Rachel, respond differently. Ben is protesting while Rachel’s focus is on Victor, who’s also been drafted, filling their home with tense silences and raised voices. Set against the backdrop of Vietnam and the Chicano Movement, Connie watches her family unravel under the weight of war, activism, grief, and ultimately witnesses the resilience of family.” More information here.

Credits

Real Women Have Curves. Written by Josefina López. Directed by Corky Dominguez. Produced by Emmanuel Deleage.

Cast (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Stefany Arroya Ana; Yasha Alaniz^æ Estela; Blanca Araceli^æ Carmen; Amy Melendrez Rosali; Laura Vega^æ Pancha; Mariana Montes Sandoval u/s Estela / Carmen / Pancha ; Gabriela Machuca u/s Ana / Rosali.

Production and Creative: Josefina López Casa 0101 Artistic Director / Playwright; Emmanuel Deleage Producer / Executive Director; Corky Dominguez Director; Angelica Ornelas Stage Manager; Joy V. Diaz Asst Stage Manager; Doreen Sanchez Asst Stage Manager; Andy James Garcia Prop Manager; Alejandro Parra Lighting Designer; Miguel Angel Delgado Sound Designer / Technical Director; César Retana-Holguín Scenic Designer; Jeremiah Ocañas Set Construction; Tony Iniguez Costume Designer; Abel Alvarado Asst Costume Designer; Itzel Ocampo Graphic Designer / Marketing & Operations Manager; Edward Padilla Casting Director; Steve Moyer Public Relations Press Representative; Mark Kraus Development Director; Karla “Ojeda” Melendez Program Administrator; Jorge Villanueva Facilities Manager; Oscar Basulto Box Office Manager.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; BIH/Pantages; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Fat Ham at Black Reperatory Theatre (St. Louis) ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.
August: ♦ Beauty and the Beast at BIH/Pantages;

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Worth and Beauty in All Things | "Real Women Have Curves" @ Casa 0101 by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Flower Drum Song (East West Players) Revisals. The process where the book of a musical (and occasionally a play) is reworked to update the story, potentially remove problematic or outdated material, and to fix things that really didn’t work. Sometimes these reworks are light, such as the rework of Sweeney Todd to have the actors play their own instruments or dramatically downsize the set of players, or the rework of West Side Story to include more lyrics in Spanish. Sometimes they are more significant, such as the rework of Cats that is currently on Broadway: Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Sometimes they are successful, and sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes they change very little, and yet are very controversial. An example of this is the recent revival of Oklahoma, which was a stripped down version of the musical that retained all the words, but made the presentation much darker. There were those who got what was being done and loved it. There were those that hated it.

Oklahoma brings us to the second relevant aspect of this little discourse: Rogers and Hammerstein. The main stage shows of this dynamic duo fall into three groups (I’m excluding the two shows done primarily for the large and small screen: State Fair and Cinderella). There are the shows that became clear classics: Oklahoma, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music. There are the shows in the middle that are problematic today for various reasons: The King and I, Carousel, and Flower Drum Song. Lastly, there are the shows that are rarely performed today, and that were generally not all that successful: Allegro, Me and Juliet, and Pipe Dream.

The first tier of shows seem frozen. With the exception of the aforementioned Oklahoma, there haven’t been attempts to radically revisit these shows to expose unseen aspects. The Sound of Music is currently on tour; I don’t expect the staging to be any different from the regional production I saw last year at 5-Star Theatrical, or the versions one sees in a community theatre. What can you do with The Sound of Music? How do you improve on that show? South Pacific is similar: there are a few more stereotypes in that show, but those are accurate for the time, and the point made by that show remains applicable.

The last tier of shows are begging for rework and revival. Allegro was the most successful of the bunch, but really hasn’t been revived except for one Encores version. Similarly with Pipe Dream. All need rework to fix the problems that doomed them in the first place.

This brings us to the middle tier. The King and I suffers from a major stereotype problem: Although the music is beautiful, the portrayal of the Siamese kingdom is offensive today both in the style of speech and how the people are viewed. It also is deeply entrenched in the “white savior” problem, and that may be incurable. Carousel has a major problem with domestic violence against women. Although the story is strong, it would likely require rework to be acceptable today. That leaves Flower Drum Song. FDS was successful when first released, but over time has become a problem. The penultimate show by the duo, it suffered from a very stereotypical view of the Asian-American community (not surprising, as it was written by two white guys), and has not aged well. The movie version wasn’t a classic, and the show has seen few revivals due to the portrayal problem. Read the summary of the 1958 plot on Wikipedia, and the problems become clear.

According to Wikipedia, after seeing the mid-1990s revival of The King and I, playwright David Henry Hwang got the idea to rework and revise FDS with proper representation. It took a few years, but a revised version hit Los Angeles and then Broadway in 2002. There was a complete rework of the plot, retaining only character names, most of the music, and the ultimate points of the musical about the clash of old and new cultures. It had mix reviews and wasn’t successful (although I liked the album, but didn’t see the show). You can read the summary of the 2002 plot on Wikipedia. I think the new story generally works well.

This brings us to 2025. East West Players chose to include Flower Drum Song as the last show in their 2025-2026 season (which immediately caught my eye, and I grabbed tickets as soon as I could). This version would be yet another rework by David Henry Hwang of the 2002 rework. It finally hit the stage this week, and after two cancelled preview performances due to technical issues, it opened for preview performances Saturday. We saw the second preview performance Sunday evening. It officially opens Thursday. So note: Some of my observations may be overtaken by events, and some things we saw may have been adjusted by opening.

In terms of story, about 85 to 90% of the 2002 story remains.

The ending coda has completely changed, but luckily they retained having the cast state where they are from (something I loved on the cast album). I did notice a number of lyric changes from the original show, and even a few from the 2002 revival. I like the new ending quite a bit.

Skip this paragraph if you want to avoid a spoiler: According to Wikipedia, the ending in 2002 was “Ta leaves Club Chop Suey and the two become street performers as Chao departs for Hong Kong. Harvard announces his intention to return home and attempt a reconciliation with his disappointed parents. Despite his irritation at Ta, Wang allows him to marry Mei-li at the club (which now features Ta’s Chinese opera one day a week), as the company celebrates how Chinese and American cultures have converged to create this happy moment.” The updated show has the double wedding as the ending still. However, most of the main characters move to Los Angeles — and in fact, it is implied that Ta and Mei-li start a theatre company in Los Angeles that eventually becomes East West Players. Harvard remains in San Francisco, and turns the club into a successful gay Asian nightclub to provide visibility for yet another segment of the Asian community.

As this was a preview, there were a few problems but no stopping of the show. In the first act, as the headdress was being removed from Linda Low’s head, it caught on her hair pulling off her wig. As she tried to recover it flew in the face of the actor next to her. The actors handled the problem quite well, and the humor played well with the audience. I wouldn’t be surprised if that problem doesn’t become part of the show. In the second act during “Don’t Marry Me”, the problem of using real food arose: one actor was still chewing when it was time for his song cue. Again, this was handled professionally (with a little humor) and worked well. Such is the fun of a preview, and actually added to the enjoyment of the show.

Overall, the reworked version of the show did a great job of illustrating the problems of the Asian immigrant experience in the 1950s and 1960s, where white culture saw them as a stereotype created by movies (e.g., Mickey Rooney playing Japanese) and media. It was characterized in the show as the impossibility of being 100% Asian or 100% American. The updated epilogue does a better job of showing the transition of the Asian-American community.

Performances were strong throughout. My wife loved the performance of Scott Keiji Takeda as Ta (the son), in particular his voice. I loved Grace Yoo’s Mei-Li, especially watching her facial expressions. Krista Marie Yu was strong as Linda Low, and Kenton Chen seemed to be having great fun playing it up as Harvard. Emily Kuroda captured the humor of Madame Liang well; similarly, Marc Oca did a great job as the father, Wang, capturing the change from the traditional to the nightclub performer. Lastly, it is always a joy to see Gedde Watanabe on stage.

The ensemble was strong, playing multiple role and singing and dancing up a storm. I can’t speak to the authenticity of the dance moves, but they were fun to watch.

Staging was simple. Thankfully, there were no projections, and no confetti gun. There were a few tables and such as props, and appropriate background signs and such. They established location quite well. The costumes were effective and beautiful. There were a few sound problems, but that’s not a surprise in a preview performance where the sound is still being tuned and the performers are still adapting to the microphones.

About my only complaint with the show was the program: For all the credits included, there was no credit and bio for Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Although older audiences know who these folks are, the “kids” today likely have little idea — and especially, they may not know anything more about them than Oklahoma or The Sound of Music.

My wife summed it up best as we were leaving, and talking to Emily Kuroda who played Madame Liang as we walked to our cars: This was one of the best productions we’ve seen in a long time, both in terms of story and performance. It continues at the Aratani Theatre next to the JACCC through May 31. Tickets are available through the EWP website. Go see this show.

Credits

Flower Drum Song. Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Book by David Henry Hwang, based on the original book by Hascar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields, which was based on the novel by C. Y. Lee. Directed by Lily Tung Crystal^*. Choreographed by Lainie Sakakura^* and Janelle Dote Portman.

Cast: (^æ indicates members of Actors Equity): Cooper Lee Bennett Chao; Kenton Chen^æ Harvard; Emily Kuroda^æ Madame Liang; Marc Oka^æ Wang; Scott Teiji Takeda^æ Ta; Gedde Watanabe^æ Chin; Grace Yoo^æ Mei-Li; Krista Marie Yu^æ Linda Low; Joven Calloway^æ Ensemble, u/s Harvard; Ethan Yaheen-Moy Chan Ensemble, u/s Ta, u/s Chao; Ijay Espinoza Ensemble; Sierra Goria Ensemble Swing; Sally Hong^æ Ensemble, Dance Captain, Ms. Lee; Tony Jin Ensemble Swing; Brian Shimasaki Liebson^æ Ensemble; Esther Lee^æ Ensemble, u/s Linda Low; Emma Park Ensemble; Gemma Pedersen Ensemble, u/s Mei-Li, u/s Linda Low; Hillary Tang^æ Ensemble; Ai Toyoshima^æ Ensemble; Haoyi Wen Ensemble; Paul Wong^æ Ensemble, u/s Chin, u/s Wang. Gedde Watanabe^æ performs Chin from Apr 16-May 10 and May 17-31. Paul Wong^æ performs Chin and Ethan Yaheen-Moy Chan performs Ensemble from May 11-17. Joven Calloway^æ performs Harvard and Tony Jin performs Ensemble on May 23.

Music Department; Marc Macalinta Music Directior, Conductor, Keyboards; Don Sebesky Orchestrations; David Chase Musical Adaptation; Richard Berent Asst Music Director, Keyboard; Robert Elhai Additional Arrangements; Ian Dahlberg Reed 2; Vincent Reyes Guitars; Casey Lipka Bass; Phil Moore Reed 1; Rebecah Yeh Cello; Christopher Spilsbury Drums / Percussion; Avery Robinson Trombone; Peter Marcos Violin; Richie Francisco Trumpet.

Production and Creative (^* Member of Stage Directors and Chroeographers Society; ^¤ Member of United Scenic Artists 829): David Henry Hwang Book; Richard Rodgers Music; Oscar Hammerstein II Lyrics; Lily Tung Crystal^* Director; Lainie Sakakura^* Choreographer; Janelle Dote Portman Choreographer; Jamie Guan Beijing Opera Choreographer; Chen-Wei Liao^¤ Scenic Designer; Jiyoun Chang^¤ Lighting Design; Ruoxuan Li Costume Design; Brian Hsieh Sound Design; Naomi Kasahara Properties Design; Y. Sharon Peng Hair and Makeup Design; Darlene Miyakawa^* Production Stage Manager; Annie Jin Wang Dramaturg; Shinshin Yuder Tsai Intimacy Director; Mara Palma Asst. Director / Directing Fellow; Patrick Chew Cultural and Language Consultant; Katie Adams Asst Scenic Designer; Ruth Araujo Asst Costume Designer; Antonia Yang Asst Lighting Designer; Maddi Deckard Asst. Sound Designer; Kevin Dajay Asst Props Designer; Sarah Albee Asst Choreographer; Nora Degreen Asst Choreographer; Grace Mori Asst Beijing Opera Choreographer; Brandon Hong Cheng^æ, Jaclyn Gehringer, and Bonifacia-Erlinda Montaño Asst Stage Manager; Sally Hong^æ Dance Captain; Ai Toyoshima^æ Asst. Dance Captain. Robert Longbottom Original Direction and Choreography.

Small Print: FLOWER DRUM SONG is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, www.concordtheatricals.org. Produced on Broadway by Benjamin Mordecai, Michael A. Jenkins, Waxman Williams Entertainment, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum/Gordon Davidson/Charles Dillingham, with Robert G. Bartner, Dragotta/Gill/Roberts, Kelpie Arts/Dramatic Forces, and by arrangement with The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.

Administrivia

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

Some interesting shows that have caught my eye. Wisteria Theatre is doing Reefer Madness: The Musical (in April), as is Long Beach Playhouse (in October/November). Wisteria was overpriced for a black-box; I might look into Long Beach’s production (but have to factor in the drive). Ebony Rep is doing Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the end of May into June. I love the show, but the prices are a bit high and I’m still trying to decide. I have a hold on the calendar. Casa 0101 is doing the play version of Real Women Have Curves from the end of March into May. Conundrum Theatre is doing a bunch of shows, but notably Big Fish in December 2026. And, as noted earlier, the Colony Theatre is doing Catch Me If You Can in the September/October 2026 timeframe. I’ll look into ticketing the fall shows once I know the CTG Season, to prevent conflicts. Lastly, I’ll note Group Rep in NoHo has announced their season, which includes a mounting of Applause in the July-August timeframe. That’s useful if you missed the MTG one-nighter; I haven’t yet decided if I want to see it again (although Group Rep does a great job with older and rarely done musical re-visits).

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

Key: ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

April: ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101.
May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 The Clash of the Old and New | "Flower Drum Song" @ East West by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Ride The Cyclone (The Main) If your life ended suddenly tomorrow, what would be remembered? What would you remember? Would you be remembered? What impact would you have made?

These are the questions posted by the musical Ride The Cyclone, which we saw yesterday at The Main in Santa Clarita (Newhall), and which continues for one more weekend. The story, narrated by the mechanical fortune teller Karnak (who has the ability to predict a person’s time and means of death, which who has been set to family friendly fun mode) tells the story of the St. Cassian High School chamber choir of Uranium City, Saskatchewan. When the choir visited Karnak, even though he knew it would cause their death, his “family friendly mode” instead told them their lucky number, and that they should “Ride the Cyclone”. Their mistake. A part failed, the ride failed, and they all died. They entered into a limbo, along with a headless”Jane Doe” who was found in a choir uniform. Karnak informs them they are all to have a little contest, where one will win the prize: Being brought back to life. The show then proceeds to have each tell their life, with a bit of narration by Karnak, until the winner is chosen.

I never realized it before, but this show is a variation on Cats. This show has less dancing, but has a better plot, better music, and much darker humor.

I won’t spoil the details of the character’s stories, but if you want you can read the Wikipedia summary. I discovered the show through the cast album, which is great. When I subsequently found a production, I made arrangements to see the show and it was well worth it.

This show was mounted at The Main, an 81-seat black box operated by the City of Santa Clarita, in the space that was formerly Rep East Playhouse. A moment of silence for The Rep. We still miss that place.

Being at this small of a theatre with a community based, non-Equity cast and a small budget means the scenery was simple. But for the small budget, the talent was generally strong. Sadie Kate Gibson was outstanding as Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg, with a strong singing voice and a great humor that came across well. Jonah Deocariza was equally strong as Constance Blackwood. Also notable was Ty Pierson’s Noel Gruber, who was spectacular in their song. The choreography worked well in the small space. I also enjoyed Jeff Frame’s Karnak and the sardonic way he brought across the humor.

As I just came from the science fair, some places for improvement: Some of the characters spoke a little too fast, making it hard to figure out what they were saying. Sanya Arnold had a lovely voice as Jane Doe, but at point it didn’t seem to blend as well as it could (a clash between a more operative voice and musical theatre style). However, that could have been intentional.

This was a really fun show, and I liked the dark humor. It makes some interesting statements about what we do with our life, both in our dreams and what we do. It raises good questions: What makes a life lived one that was worth living? What impacts do we leave? It is probably not appropriate for small children.

Ride the Cyclone continues at The Main though April 19, 2026. Tickets are available through Eventbrite. I’ll note the team behind this show is doing a production of Every Brilliant Thing in September. Every Brilliant Thing is currently on Broadway with Daniel Radcliff, to be followed by Mariska Hargitay. So if you don’t mind seeing it with a local performer, that’ll be your chance.

Credits

Ride The Cyclone: The Musical. Book, music, and lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Booke Maxwell. Originally produced by Kevin McCollum and Morris Berchard. Directed by Jeff Frame. Choreographed by Jonah Deocariza.

Cast: Sanya Arnold Jane Doe; Danny Barrios Ricky Potts; Jonah Deocariza Constance Blackwood; Sadie Kate Gibson Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg; Liam Johnson Mischa Backinski; Ty Peirson Noel Gruber; Jeff Frame Karnak.

Music Department: No credits. Presumably prerecorded.

Production and Creative: Jeff Frame Director; Jonah Deocariza Choreographer; Sadie Kate Gibson Vocal Director; Kyndal Zakarian Stage Manager; Kasey Smith Asst Stage Manager; Kristi Frame Costumes; Haileigh Frame Props; Billy Davis Set Design; Phil Lantis Lighting Design; Aidan Frame Light Tech; Lindsay Gibson, Walker Gibson, & Jeremy Thompson Sound Techs; Shannon Bouknight Scenic Artist; Haileigh Frame Promotional Material Design. Presented by Outpost Media.

Administrivia

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

April: ♦ Flower Drum Song at East/West Players; ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101.
May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Life, Examined | "Ride the Cyclone" @ The Main by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Kim's Convenience (CTG/Ahmanson Theatre) Let me start out by saying that we don’t have Netflix. We’ve long used DirecTV Satellite, and have so much backed up on the DVR to watch we’re not switching. We’ve dabbled in the streaming (Paramount+, for Star Trek), but that’s about it. Given all the price increases we’re reading that Netflix is doing, we’re likely not to be subscribing for a while either.

Why do I mention this? Because Kim’s Convenience is evidently a Canadian sitcom on Netflix, and unlike much of the world, we’ve never seen it. It was evidently based on an original play by Ins Choi, which we hadn’t seen either. Well, until this afternoon at the Ahmanson.

Let’s just say that seeing the play makes me want to see the series. However, it doesn’t make me want to see it enough to pay Netflix prices. Eventually, these Netflix “exclusives” will show up elsewhere, I’m sure, as companies attempt to monetize their catalogs. So, for those folks (like us) who are not Netflix folks: Seeing this show is one way to get a taste of Netflix without that continual monthly charge.

Kim’s Convenience is a touching and warm story about a Korean family running a small family store in Toronto. Along its journey, it touches upon the issue of families and all their disagreements, on the generational passing of a family business when the next generation has other plans, on Black-Korean relations, and how family can bring things together. It wasn’t what I expected: When I saw an old man running a convenience store, I was expecting something darker with crime and theft and violence, but that just wasn’t there. Perhaps if the story had been set in America; this was a Canadian story after all.

The cast was very strong; this isn’t surprising as most of the cast is the original cast of the original play. Alas, at our performance we didn’t get playwright Ins Choi in the lead, but his alternate James Yi was wonderful in the role. Brandon McKnight did a great job of portraying a large number of different characters, and I really enjoyed the facial expressions of Kelly Seo’s Janet.

The staging was simple: A single-set well-stocked convenience store (I wonder what they are going to do with all the products afterwards?). Industrial lighting, except for a few scenes. Other than stocking the story, this is likely something that can be done at the regional or school level, if it is ever released for licensing.

I really don’t have much more to say, other than this was a delightful show that we really enjoyed. Go see it.

Kim’s Convenience continues at The Ahmanson Theatre through April 19, 2026. Visit the show page to get tickets.

Lastly, the Ahmanson Theatre announced their 2026-2027 season last week. Not quite the touring blockbuster of the Broadway in Hollywood season, but still quite good. I also predicted right, guessing that both Oh, Mary and Boop! The Musical would end up at CTG. The One CTG subscription package is (1) The Turning (Taper, 9/2-10/11/25); Oh Mary! (Ahmanson, 11/10-12/10/26); Destiny of Desire (Taper, 11/11-12/20/25); Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (Ahmanson, 12/12/25-1/10/26); Fiddler on the Roof (Yiddish) (Ahmanson, 2/13-3/14/26); John Proctor is the Villain (Taper, 3/17-4/25/26); August Wilson’s Fences (Taper, 5/26-7/3/26); and Boop! The Musical (Ahmanson, 7/6-8/1/26). The CTG:FWD add-ons are The Music Man, Riverdance 30-The New Generation, Dogman: The Musical, and Clue. When I initially blocked dates on the calendar (in the current season, we were the 1st Saturday at the Ahmanson, and the 6th Saturday at the Taper), there were some bad conflicts: Two shows were on the same day, and one show would have had us running from at DTLA matinee to a 730p show in Thousand Oaks. Luckily, CTG learned: According to the subscriber line, subscribers in our group are now the 1st Saturday at the Ahmanson, and the 3rd Saturday at the Taper. Much better. There is currently only one bad conflict, and that involves moving the Pantages show to accommodate a show at the Soraya. We’ll have a couple of runs from DTLA to either the Soraya or the Pantages, but those are doable. We’re on auto-renewal, so I shouldn’t have much to do other than add Riverdance to the mix.

One other season comment: Could the theatres please stagger their season subscriptions. Broadway in Hollywood hit last month. CTG this month. I just got emails from the Pasadena Playhouse and the Soraya about renewing our memberships there. When these all hit at the same time, especially if there are not payment plans, it can overload the pocketbook.

Credits

Kim’s Convenience. Written by Ins Choi. Directed by Weyni Mengesha.

Cast [underscores indicate “at our performance”; ~~strikeouts~~ indicate “not at our performance”; ↑ indicates “swung up”]: ~~Ins Choi~~ James Yi Appa; Kelly Seo Janet; Esther Chung Umma; Ryan Jinn Jung; Brandon McKnight Rich, Alex, Mr. Lee, Mike. Alternates and Understudies: ↑ James Yi Appa Alternate; Frank Chung Jung u/s; Ngabo Nabea Rich, Alex, Mr. Lee, Mike u/s; Rosie Simon Janet/Umma u/s.

Production and Creative: Weyni Megesha Director; Ins Choi Author; Joanna Yu Set Design; Ming Wong Costume Design; Wen-Ling Liao Lighting Design; Fan Zhang Sound Design; Nicole Eun-Ju Bell Projection Design; David S. Franklin Production Stage Manager; Angela Mae Bago Asst Stage Manager; Michelle Blair Asst Stage Manager; Aaron Jan Asst Director; Becca Trimbur Company Manager; Pemberly Productions Tour General Manager. The set, props, paint, and costumes for this production were built by the Soulpepper Theatre Company artists in Toronto, ON, CANADA.

Administrivia

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

April: ♦ ♦ Ride the Cyclone at The Main; ♣ Jeremy Jordan at The Soraya; California Science and Engineering Fair at CLU; ♦ Flower Drum Song at East/West Players; ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101. NOTE: We need judges for the California Science and Engineering Fair. If you have a degree in the sciences and are available to judge April 12 at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, sign up to judge here.
May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 A Family Business | "Kim's Convenience" @ CTG/Ahmanson by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

No fooling! It’s time for another headline post. Although I’m posting this on April Fool’s Day, there are no “fool” headlines buried herein — after all, these headlines cover March 2026, not April. Then again…

2026 marks the 30^th Anniversary of the California Highways website. The changelog for 1996 shows the first “official” changes in October 1996, although it notes that “Changes before early 1996 were not specifically noted, although this site, in various forms, dates back at least as far as 1992, and possibly as early as 1986. Searching on Google Groups uncovers an early posting of the state highway list in December of 1992 to the Usenet Group ca.driving. In 1995, there was a posting of the highway list in response to a question, showing a last modified date of 1994. By October 1996, postings were being made showing the existence of the California Highways page off of Pacificnet. The earliest capture of the site on the Wayback Machine is in December 1998.” So welcome to the 30^th Anniversary year, or perhaps the 40^th Anniversary year, of California Highways! Speaking of the website, I’m pleased to announce that the January-March updates to the California Highways website have been posted.

With respect to the podcast: Season 4 is written and recording is proceeding apace. We’re planning a few bonus episodes that don’t take as much research and writing; after which I’ll turn my attention to Season 5, covering Routes 15 through 23. I particularly like ep 4.12, which covers the unbuilt freeways of the San Fernando Valley, using the first segment of Route 14 as the starting point. Zencaster is working well for recording the podcast. I think it sounds better, but I would love to hear from the listeners. Let us know what you think. It looks like the regular audience is between 60-80 folks, and I’d love to get that number up, although the numbers don’t included those who listen directly from the CARouteByRoute website (as I don’t know how to get those stats). You can help our listening audience grow. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Share the podcast on Facebook groups, and in your Bluesky and Mastodon communities. For those that hear the early episodes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. If you know sound editing, feel free to give me advice (I use Audacity to edit). As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Creators, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Creators) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

March | CA RxR 4.08: Route 12: Sonoma and Napa. Episode 4.08 is the first of three episodes focusing on Route 12. We start by exploring LRN 12, which we visited before in our episodes on Route 8, for LRN 12 became I-8 between San Diego and El Centro. We then look at Sign Route 12 and Route 12, which are mostly the same route… except, of course, in the first segment where they differ in routing between Route 1 and US 101. Episode 4.08 focuses on the first two segments of Route 12, which covers the portions between Route 1 near Valley Ford or Jenner through Sebastapol, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Napa, and into Cordelia. Episode 4.09 will cover Route 12 from I-80 near Suisan City through the Sacramento Wetlands to Lodi and Route 99. Lastly, Episode 4.10 will cover Route 12 from Route 99 to the Sierra Foothill and San Andreas, where it meets Route 49. As usual, we’ll cover historical routings, projects, and names along the route. (Spotify for Creators)
March | CA RxR 4.09: Route 12: Crossing the Wetlands. Episode 4.09 continues our exploration of Route 12 through an exploration of the middle section of the route: From Fairfield/Cordelia through the “Drive to Stay Alive” corridor, on through the wetlands of Rio Vista, and into the central valley and Lodi. We explore the big change in routing that happened in Rio Vista. We also look at some major projects within this segment, as well as some of the interesting names. We also review LRN 12, which we visited before in our episodes on Route 8, for LRN 12 became I-8 between San Diego and El Centro. Our exploration of Route 12 will conclude in Episode 4.10, which will cover Route 12 from Route 99 to the Sierra Foothill and San Andreas, where it meets Route 49. (Spotify for Creators)

One last point of personal interest: For over 20 years, I’ve been a judge at the California Science and Engineering Fair. This is the state level fair for all those Middle and High School science fairs, that bubble up to their county fairs, than then make it post those fairs to the state level. This year, the CSEF is on Sunday April 12 at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. We always need judges in a wide variety of scientific and engineering categories. So if you are working the in the field of science or engineering, consider volunteering to be a judge. I’ll be there, probably running the Jr. Mathematical Sciences panel. We do get highway related projects: Last year’s winner in our category was a kid that used cellular automata to model traffic on I-405.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for March 2026.

Key

Highway Headlines

Metro Committee Approves Additional Early Construction Funding for Union Station Run-Through Tracks (Streetsblog Los Angeles). This week the Metro Construction Committee approved an additional $210 million for early construction work on the long planned Union Station run-through tracks project, called Link US. Metro already had allocated about $300 million for early Link US construction already underway; this ups the “pre-construction” phase to a half-billion dollars. If you’re completely unfamiliar with LinkUS, watch SBLA’s short explainer video. Since opening in 1939, Union Station has operated with inefficient stub-end tracks. Essentially trains nose into the station, then have to reverse to get out. Metro estimates that fixing this will increase Union Station capacity from 180 to 278 trains daily and reduce train dwell times from ~20 minutes to ~5 minutes – greatly benefitting riders on Metrolink, Amtrak, and future CA High-Speed Rail. Link US is a huge undertaking which includes building a new bridge over and along the 101 Freeway. The initial phase is anticipated to cost roughly $2.3 billion.
☊ Untangling the 101/92 interchange and what it means for the Peninsula (WheelTalk). The Highway 101 and 92 interchange is one of the busiest and most complex transportation hubs in the Bay Area — and it’s also the focus of several major projects that often get confused with one another. In this episode of Wheel Talk, we break down three distinct transportation efforts connected to the interchange and surrounding communities, each with its own purpose and timeline. First, we look at a safety and bottleneck improvement project already underway, designed to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow through known trouble spots. Caltrans Public Information Officer Jeneane Crawford explains what drivers can expect during construction and how success will be measured. Next, we examine a proposed direct connectors project that could link Highway 92 with the 101 express lanes. Still under review, this proposal has raised important community questions. San Mateo County Transportation Authority Director of Project Delivery Jess Manzi responds to public concerns and clarifies where the project stands today.
Steel-weld inspection and plate repairs continue on Carquinez Bridge (The Bay Link Blog). Caltrans continues to perform essential steel weld inspection project weld inspections and repairs on the Carquinez Bridge. The work is critical to maintaining the ongoing structural integrity of the bridge. Carquinez Bridge closures are expected to continue through March.
＄ New Highway 101 carpool lane hours take effect in Sonoma, Marin counties after unpopular September shift (Press Democrat). If commuters on Highway 101 in Sonoma and Marin counties are feeling a bit whipsawed these days, that’s understandable. For the second time in six months, crews for California’s transportation department recently finished updating signs displaying a new set of carpool lane hours for that 52-mile corridor. As of Monday, revised signs announced that the latest high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane hours are 6 to 9 a.m. in the morning and 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the evening, in both counties, in both directions, Monday through Friday. This latest iteration represents a retreat from the HOV lane hours unveiled by Caltrans – to widespread condemnation – on Sept. 8.
＄＄ SANDAG outsources troubled highway toll collection [🎩 andy3175] (San Diego Union Tribune). San Diego’s regional planning agency is largely walking away — for now — from its controversial management of local toll roads, after years of billing-software problems that led to scathing audits and millions in legal costs. The San Diego Association of Governments is set to ink a contract with two Orange County transit agencies that will hand them control of the billing and financial systems for the tolled section of state Route 125 in the South Bay and toll lanes on Interstate 15 in North County. The move could save the agency more than $2 million a year, its staff said. On Friday, SANDAG’s board unanimously backed the new contract with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, or TCA, which consists of two different agencies that oversee four Orange County toll roads, as well as handle the billing system for tolled lanes on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County.
State Route 168 Shaver Lake Viaduct Project (FB/Caltrans Central Valley District 6). The Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in cooperation with Viking Construction, announces the State Route 168 Shaver Lake Viaduct Project in Fresno County to begin April 2026. This project would construct a two-lane viaduct structure on a new alignment on State Route 168 along a section of Shaver Lake shoreline, in Fresno County, from Post Mile (PM) 49.1 to PM 49.5.

( Read more... )

Spamalot (Pantages/BIH) Just as with movies, there are some theatre shows that are worth seeing again and again, and there are some that are one and done, unless there’s some extenuating circumstances. The “Bridges of Madison County”? It never caught my attention that much, and I’m not sure I’d see it again unless it was part of a season. Most Sondheim shows? I’ll see those again and again, because there are often new interpretations. Things like “Hamilton” or “Wicked”? Possibly, if there is sufficient time between the last time I saw the show or something different. Often, what prompts seeing a show again is a reimagining or a unique venue: For example, the recent “A Color Purple” at Chromolume was interesting to see again because the company was taking a show that was intended for a large theatre and doing it in a 74 seat black box. Similarly, “The Play That Goes Wrong” at 5-Star was interesting as it was a regional theatre production, vs. a community theatre (Canyon Theatre Guild) or a tour (Ahmanson). On the other hand, I’m not all that interested in “The Sound of Music” tour coming to the Pantages: I’ve seen it innumerable times, at all level of theatres, and there are really no new reinterpretations of the productions. You turn your brain off to the story, and just watch the performances. It is a showcase for up and coming talent, and not much more.

This brings us to Spamalot, which was saw last night at the Pantages/Broadway in Hollywood. We last saw this in 2009 at the Ahmanson, when I wrote:

I should also note that I don’t believe this is a show that will have a long future of revivals. I’m not sure the Python-bits are that timeless, and the parodies of other shows will become less funny as time goes on. Rarely do you see the topical humorous reviews such as “New Faces of 1952” or “Parade: A Musical Review” (the one by Jerry Herman) revived, no matter how good the material. Combine that with some of the unique technical projection requirements of this show (which cuts out the high school half life)… and my conclusion is that you should see this tour now. I’m not sure we’ll be seeing it in 2020 (whereas we might see “The Producers”).

So why did we see it again? Well, primarily because it was part of the season. But as it got closer, we were looking forward to it. It was a reliable source of laughter, and that’s something we all need these days. This production was the tour-mounting of the 2023 Broadway revival. It’s been a long time since we last saw it, and there haven’t been all that many local, community, or regional productions. What did I think of it? All things in good time.

If you’re not familiar with Spamalot, here’s how I described it back in 2009:

One group that was popular [in my high school days, i.e., the 1970s] in my circles was a comedy troupe known as Monty Python. Their BBC program (or should that be programme), Monty Python’s Flying Circus, was just hitting PBS in the US at that time, as was their movie, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“Monty Python’s Life of Brian” hit while I was in college). We watched those shows and those movies again and again. And again. And again. And again. Eventually we got so we could recite the jokes and scenes in our sleep. You could just say, “the dead parrot sketch”, and folks would know what you meant.

I note this all as background, because today we went to go see “Monty Python’s Spamalot” at the Ahmanson Theatre. As the cover states, Spamalot is “lovingly ripped off” from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” with the nibbly bits of “Life of Brian” tossed in. The show features book and lyrics by Eric Idle, and music by Eric Idle and John DuPrez, based on a screenplay by Monty Python. The story is roughly that of “Holy Grail”: Arthur gathers his knights together and goes looking for the Grail. You can find a full synopsis in the Wikipedia entry, but suffice it to say that all the favorite and expected Python bits are there: killer bunnies, cow catapults, farting French, gay jokes, cocoanuts, arguments about swallows, the Black Knight, etc. There are also other bits thrown in that are various parodies of the musical theatre biz, from the ethnicity of successful show producers, to parodies of numerous shows and composers. In the end, everyone finds their grails, and the show ends with a group sing-along.

Therein lies the success of the show, and theirin lies the problems. If one is a neophyte to Monty Python, the recycled bits are likely uproareously funny. If one is a rabid Python fanboy or fangirl, the bits are mandatory… and uproareously funny. If you are someone familiar with Python and to whom repeated humor become less laugh-out-loud the more often you hear the joke, the Python bits become checkmarks on a page. However, this is not to say the show isn’t funny: what saves the show is the new material. Although some is weak (the whole notion of Laker Girls as the cheering squad for the Lady of the Lake, the eventual Queen Gueneviere), some of it is spot-on, in particular, “The Song That Goes Like This” (which is a Phantom of the Opera parody), “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway” (which is a parody of “Fiddler”, and arguably a parody of every Mel Brooks musical), and “I’m All Alone”. Other songs, although drawn from the Python canon, are very well executed and enjoyable, in particular “I Am Not Dead Yet” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. Our production had an extremely cute topical number inserted about Sarah Palin to the tune of Frère Jacques. I also enjoyed Patsy’s line near the end, but I won’t give it away. So overall the show is enjoyable, and you walk away humming tunes. I guess that’s the meaning of success… even without Jews.

Watching the production in 2026, the recycled bits for one familiar with the show are less funny, but they were still interesting with respect to the audience reaction. The audience was anticipating them, and interacting with them: an it was that interaction that was funny. There was the extra applause that the favorite bits were reached. There was the audience calling out to the actors. Spamalot has become a participation show, and that adds to the fun. I can imagine that something similar will happen in the new Broadway revival of Rocky Horror.

The other thing that makes this show worthy of repeat is that it isn’t the same show as in 2009. Whereas, as noted above, there were jokes about Sarah Palin in 2009, those jokes were gone in this production. There were a few Trump jokes, and many more topical references inserted into the show. A recent interview with Eric Idle in the LA Times noted that he is constantly tinkering with the show to improve it. The show also has places where the fourth wall is broken, and places where improvisation is explicitly encouraged (for example, I’m sure the renaming of the Knights that say “Ni” is improvised each night to befuddle the actor that plays King Arthur). This improvisation keeps the show fresh and keeps the actors on their toes (and is something you never see in a static movie).

So this show was thoroughly enjoyable, made even better by the excellent tour cast. Major Attaway, as King Arthur, honed his skill doing the Genie in Aladdin. You could clearly tell he was having fun with this performance, especially with his facial expressions and reactions. He felt comfortable enough in the role to play with it, and this is the type of show that encourages that play (contrast this, for example, with Hamilton, which is very tightly scripted and choreographed with no changes possible). Attaway was having fun playing off his compatriots in crime, Sean Bell as Sir Robin, Steven Telsey as the Historian, Blake Segal as Patsy, and Leo Roberts as Galahad. Adding to this insanity was Amanda Robles as the Lady of the Lake, who was having fun with her diva role. She’s a bit more constrained, as she can’t adlib the music, which requires orchestral coordination, but she was still able to keep up with the fun (especially in the closing sequences).

On the whole, the combination of this cast and the improvisation and the updating of the bits made this a really enjoyable remounting.

There were, however, some complaints. My primary complaint is the overdependence on projections. I understand that projections reduce the cost of Broadway productions, and make possible some scenes that can’t be done otherwise (the travel scenes in Anastasia come to mind). But overdependence on projections can make shows impossible to mount outside of the original tours and Broadway productions as local and regional theatres don’t have the means to duplicate the projections, nor the budgets to implement real sets to replace them. In the case of this production of Spamalot, the castle sets and projections were spectacular, but overdone. I understand the need for the projection of God, as that was done in the Python animation style. But much of the other projections were clearly cost saving, such as the torches during the “Dennis” scene, or the storms or sunlight or backgrounds and such. The tendancy seems to be to use projections to replace stage-craft magic. It does save cost; the environmental savings are unclear dependent on how much the LCD sets are reused. But something is lost, and it does make some jokes fall flat. A good example of this is the opening joke at the start of Act II about being lost in a very expensive forest set. Well, that doesn’t work when your forest is primarily a projection on a screen used throughout the show.

I must also insert my usual note about the confetti cannon. I think Spamalot deserves the blame for introducing this in 2009. Nowadays, every show seems to think they need a confetti cannon to show non-recyclable shit into the audience. Whereas it made a nice conclusion at the end of the sing-along originally, it has become overdone.

The confetti cannon is an example of what I call the sustainability problem in both theatre and movies. Think about all the sets that get constructed for the movies, that then get tossed out (at least sitcom sets are often reused). Stage sets last longer, but tend to see less reuse other than flats (which are repainted). Projections, for all my hate, at least are somewhat sustainable. But confetti cannons are often an example of needless waste: they don’t advance the plot, and they make a mess of typically plasticized bits that are then just tossed into a landfill. If you’re going to shoot something into the audience, shoot popcorn. At least it is biodegradable.

But those are minor complaints. This was a really fun show, with great performances. Sound and lighting was strong. Folks should really go see it — the touring cast is just awesome.

Our performance was also during the twice-a-year fundraising periods for Broadway Cares – Equity Fights AIDS. Again, the cast had quite a bit of fund with the fundraising call, inserting their own humor and playfulness in the appeal for what is a serious organization. They even auctioned off a pair of cocoanut shells autographed by Eric Idle. We go to such much theatre that we typically get the “red buckets” at least twice a year (I think they fundraise around Easter and Thanksgiving). The organization is good and we always donate. You should too. This time, they even had the credit card readers working; this is much better than the QR code as you don’t have to fill out the forms.

Spamalot continues at the Hollywood Pantages (Broadway in Hollywood) until April 12, 2026. Go see it. Tickets are available through the BIH website.

P.S.: Broadway in Hollywood has announced their 2026-2027 season, and it is strong. The season is WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (Sep. 8 – 27, 2026); THE OUTSIDERS (Sep. 30 – Oct 18, 2026); THE WHO’S TOMMY (Oct. 27 – Nov. 15, 2026); BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (March 9 – 28, 2027); OPERATION MINCEMEAT (March 30 – April 18, 2027); MAYBE HAPPY ENDING (May 4 – 23, 2027); THE GREAT GATSBY (June 1 – 20, 2027); and DEATH BECOMES HER (July 6 – 25, 2027). The add-ons are HAMILTON and THE LION KING. Only one retread in the bunch (Tommy). I do fear that this means the 2027-2028 season will be weak. I expect that Oh Mary will go to the Ahmanson, and possibly Boop as well. That just leaves Just In Time and possibly Boop for 2027-2028. Many of the other shows from the season closed early and aren’t likely to tour (Dead Outlaw, Smash, Redwood, Queen of Versailles), and other recent shows just haven’t announced tours (in particular, Real Women Have Curves - The Musical, Illinoise and How to Dance in Ohio). Some of these might show up at the Ahmanson, which does actually mount local productions, but not at the Pantages which only books tours. As for other stuff on tour (see here and here): there’s not much else, other than possibly Heathers or Hamnet (which would go to the Ahmanson). There’s also not a lot of new stuff coming to the current Broadway season to feed the tour market. So 2027-2028 may be a weak season. Expect Wicked and Chicago to return :-). Perhaps some local theatre will decide to mount Real Women Have Curves – The Musical or Dead Outlaw. One can hope.

Credits

Monty Python’s Spamalot. Book and lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle^*. A musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail from the original screenplay by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.
^*: According to the fine print, although most music and lyrics are © 2005 by Eric Idle d/b/a Rutsongs Music and John Du Prez d/b/a Ocean Music, there are some exceptions. Notably, songs from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “Finland”, with music and tyrics by Michael Palin, “Knights of the Round Table” with music by Neil Innes and lyrics by Graham Chapman and John Cleese; “Brave Sir Robin” with music by Neil Innes and lyrics by Eric Idle, and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, with music and lyrics by Eric Idle from Life of Brian.

Cast [underscores indicate “at our performance”; ~~strikeouts~~ indicate “not at our performance”; ↑ indicates “swung up”]: Major Attaway King Arthur; Sean Bell Sir Robin, Guard 1, Brother Maynard; Chris Collins-Pisano Sir Lancelot, The French Taunter, Knight of Ni, Tim the Enchanter; Ellis C. Dawson III Dennis’ Mother, Sir Bedevere, Concorde; Leo Roberts Sir Galahad, The Black Knight, Prince Herbert;’s Father; Amanda Robles The Lady of the Lake; Blake Segal Mayor, Patsy, Guard 2; Steven Telsey Historian, Not Dead Fred, Baby, Nun, Mime, Minstrel, Prince Herbert, Bunny; Lindsay Lee Alhady Ensemble; Delany Benson Ensemble; Connor Coughlan Ensemble; L’ogan J’ones Ensemble; Graham Keen Ensemble; Claire Kennard Ensemble; Ben Lanham Ensemble; Nathaniel Mahone Ensemble; Meridien Terrell Ensemble. Swings: Jack Brewer, Maddie Mossner, Emilie Renier, Mark Tran Russ

Music Department (♯ indicates local): Jonathan W. Gorst Music Director, Conductor, Keys 1; John Bell Music Supervision and Additional Arrangements; David Lai Music Coordinator; Glen Kelly Music Arranger; Larry Hochman Orchestrator; Shan Ffrench Assoc. Music Director, Keys 2; Brandon Wong Drums; ♯ Jen Choi Fischer Violin; ♯ Jeff Driskill Alto Sax, Flute, Piccolo, Clarinet; ♯ Aaron Smith Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Piccolo; ♯ Nick Daley Trombone; ♯ Michael Abraham Guitar (Electric/Nylon String Acoustic), Banjo, Ukulele; ♯ Michael Valerio Bass (Acoustic/5-String Electric); ♯ Alby Potts Keyboard Sub; ♯ Eric Heinly Orchestra Contractor; Randy Cohen Keyboards LLC Synthesizer Programming; Josh Clayton Music Preparation.

Production and Creative: Eric Idle Book, Music, Lyrics; John Du Prez Music; John Rhodes Director, Choreographer; Paul Tate Depoo III Scenic and Projection Design; Jen Caprio Costume Design; Cory Pattak Lighting Design; Kai Harada Sound Design; Haley Parcher Sound Design; Tom Watson Hair and Wig Design; Derek Kolluri Assoc Director; Michael Fatica Assoc Choreographer; Emilie Renier Dance Captain, Fight Captain; Jack Brewer Asst Dance Captain; Ray Wetmore & JR Goodman Production Props Supervisors; Patrick Mulryan Dialect Coach; Geoff Josselson Casting Casting Director; Sightline Productions Production Management; Matthew Brooks Production Stage Manager; Anna K. Rains Stage Manager; Dani Berman Asst Stage Manager; Elaina Z. Kaehler Asst Stage Manager; James Neal Company Manager; RCI Theatricals General Manager; Bond Theatrical Tour Booking, Marketing, & Publicity; The Social Team Social Media.

Fine print credit items: For some reason, the credits include a shoutout to Ohio, The Heart of It All, even though there is no obvious connection to Ohio. Spam is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods LLC.

Administrivia

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

April: ♦ Kim’s Convenience Store at CTG/Ahmanson; ♦ Ride the Cyclone at The Main; ♣ Jeremy Jordan at The Soraya; California Science and Engineering Fair at CLU; ♦ Flower Drum Song at East/West Players; ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101. NOTE: We need judges for the California Science and Engineering Fair. If you have a degree in the sciences and are available to judge April 12 at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, sign up to judge here.
May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
July: ♦ Mexodus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ The Wizard of Oz at 5-Star Theatricals; ♦ If/Then at Chromolume Theatre.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 The Ministry of Silly Theatre | "Spamalot" @ Pantages/BIH by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

Before we start on the update: 2026 marks the 30^th Anniversary of this website. The changelog for 1996 shows the first “official” changes in October 1996, although it notes that “Changes before early 1996 were not specifically noted, although this site, in various forms, dates back at least as far as 1992, and possibly as early as 1986. Searching on Google Groups uncovers an early posting of the state highway list in December of 1992 to the Usenet Group ca.driving. In 1995, there was a posting of the highway list in response to a question, showing a last modified date of 1994. By October 1996, postings were being made showing the existence of the California Highways page off of Pacificnet.The earliest capture of the site on the Wayback Machine is in December 1998.” So welcome to the start of the 30^th Anniversary year, or perhaps the 40^th Anniversary year, of California Highways!

This update covers January, February, and March 2026. Before we dive into the updates to the California Highways site, an update on the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters). The following episodes have been posted since the last update at the end of 2025:

March | CA RxR 4.08: Route 12: Sonoma and Napa. Episode 4.08 is the first of three episodes focusing on Route 12. We start by exploring LRN 12, which we visited before in our episodes on Route 8, for LRN 12 became I-8 between San Diego and El Centro. We then look at Sign Route 12 and Route 12, which are mostly the same route… except, of course, in the first segment where they differ in routing between Route 1 and US 101. Episode 4.08 focuses on the first two segments of Route 12, which covers the portions between Route 1 near Valley Ford or Jenner through Sebastapol, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Napa, and into Cordelia. Episode 4.09 will cover Route 12 from I-80 near Suisan City through the Sacramento Wetlands to Lodi and Route 99. Lastly, Episode 4.10 will cover Route 12 from Route 99 to the Sierra Foothill and San Andreas, where it meets Route 49. As usual, we’ll cover historical routings, projects, and names along the route. (Spotify for Creators)
February | CA RxR 4.07: Route 11: From Pasadena to the Border. In Episode 4.07, we examine Route 11. We’ll start by exploring LRN 11, which was essentially the first state highway, running from Sacramento to Placerville, later extended to run from Antioch to the Nevada State Line near Lake Tahoe. Today, it is primarily US 50 with a bit of Route 160. We then explore the original Sign Route 11, which was LRN 165 and LRN 205, and is today’s Route 110. It was also US 60, and is perhaps better known as the Harbor Freeway and the Pasadena Freeway / Arroyo Seco Parkway. We explore the history and various routings of Sign Route 11, including the history of the Figueroa Tunnels. Lastly, we explore the current Route 11, which is a short route near the Mexico border that connects the San Diego Freeway System (Route 905/Route 125) to the Otay Mesa East port of entry. (Spotify for Creators)
January | CA RxR 4.06: I-10: San Bernardino Freeway. Episode 4.06 continues our exploration of Route 10. Episode 4.05 covered the first segment of Route 10: The Santa Monica Freeway between Route 1 and the I-5/US 101 junction. This episode, 4.06, covers the second segment of Route 10, from US 101 to the Arizona Border. Along the way, we explore the former I-110 segment, Route 10S, and do a deep dive into the US highways that shaped this segment of I-10: US 60, US 70, and US 99. We explore the historical routing of those highways across this segment. We also look at some of the names on the highway, and current projects along the highway. (Spotify for Creators)
January | CA RxR 4.05: I-10: Santa Monica Freeway. With Episode 4.05, we turn our attention to Route 10. This first episode on Route 10 starts with an exploration of the 10^th route (the last ordinal route we’ll do), which was the Emigrant Gap Highway, and became the basis for LRN 37. This became part of the Lincoln Highway, then US 40, and is now part of I-80 from Sacramento to Nevada. We look at LRN 10, which became Route 198 from US 101 near San Lucas to Sequoia National Park. We then explore Sign Route 10 (which we discussed in our episode on I-5 in Los Angeles county), which ran from US 101A to US 101, later becoming Route 42 and US 101 Bypass, and eventually I-105 and I-5. Lastly, we turn to post-1964 Route 10, which is today’s I-10. In this episode, we focus on the first segment: “From Route 1 in Santa Monica to Route 5 near Seventh Street in Los Angeles”, which is today’s Santa Monica Freeway. We look at its origins as Sign Route 6, which became Sign Route 26 along LRN 173, LRN 166, and LRN 171. We focus on LRN 173 (LRN 166 and LRN 171 were discussed in our episode on I-5 in Los Angeles county, as well as our episode on Route 6), which was Olympic Blvd. We explore the history of the Santa Monica Freeway segment, the experiments tried along this highway, some significant projects along this segment, and some significant names on this segment. (Spotify for Creators)

Turning to the updates to the California Highways pages: Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers and my research for the fourth and fifth seasons of the podcast in January, February, and March 2026 (which are posted to the roadgeeking category at the “Observations Along The Road” and to the California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum (Ꜳ). This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research^(ℱ), contributions of information or leads (via direct mail or ꜲRoads) from andy3175⁽²⁾, ClassicsHasClass⁽³⁾, Tom Fearer [Max Rockatansky]⁽⁴⁾, Mike Palmer⁽⁵⁾, Will Poundstone⁽⁶⁾]: Route 1^(ℱ), Route 2^(ℱ), Route 4^(ℱ,4), I-5^(ℱ), Sign Route 7^(ℱ), Route 9⁽⁴⁾, I-10^(ℱ), Route 12^(ℱ), Route 14^(ℱ,6), Route 16^(ℱ), Route 24^(ℱ), Route 26^(ℱ), Route 28^(ℱ), Route 34^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ), Route 47^(ℱ,5), Route 49^(ℱ), US 50^(ℱ), Route 57^(ℱ), Campus Parkway/Route 59⁽⁴⁾, Route 60^(ℱ), Route 71^(ℱ), Route 74^(ℱ), I-80^(ℱ), Route 82^(ℱ), Route 84^(ℱ), Route 90^(ℱ), Route 91^(ℱ), Route 92^(ℱ), Route 93^(ℱ), Route 99^(ℱ), US 101^(ℱ), I-105^(ℱ), Route 118^(ℱ), Route 125⁽²⁾, Route 134^(ℱ), Route 138^(ℱ), Route 140^(ℱ), Route 168^(ℱ), Route 180⁽⁴⁾, I-210^(ℱ), I-215^(ℱ), Route 211^(ℱ), I-215^(ℱ), Route 217^(ℱ), Route 241^(ℱ), Route 255^(ℱ), Route 260^(ℱ), US 395⁽³⁾, I-405^(ℱ,6), I-580^(ℱ), I-680^(ℱ), I-710^(ℱ), I-880^(ℱ), LRN 7^(ℱ), LRN 77^(ℱ), LRN 221^(ℱ), County Sign Route E15^(ℱ), El Camino Real^(ℱ).
(Source: private email through 3/19/2026, Highway headline posts through and including the March 2026 Headline post (up to “Fifth Street” (HL) and “Douglas Flat” (GN)), AARoads through 3/27/2026)

Completed work on Season 4, and started work on Season 5, of the Route by Route podcast. Research for and preparation of the episodes posted or written during this period resulted in changes and updates to the following routes: I-10, Route 12, Route 13, Route 14, Route 49, Route 110, Route 112, Route 123, Route 260, I-980, LRN 8, LRN 9, LRN 10, LRN 11, LRN 12, LRN 13, LRN 14, LRN 24, County Sign Route J5.

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page, based on the California Legislature site, for bills through 2026-03-20. As usual, I recommend to every Californian that they visit the legislative website regularly and see what their legis-critters are doing. As many people are unfamiliar with how the legislature operates (and why there are so many “non-substantive changes” and “gut and amend” bills), I’ve added the legislative calendar (updated for 2026) to the end of the Pending Legislation page. This is early in the even-numbered year session, so there’s a lot of introduction of placeholder bills, and a lot of amending of those placeholder bills (and bills that remained active from the previous year). Noted the passage of the following bills / resolutions (I also identified a number of errors in bills and resolutions, and submitted comments as indicated):

ACR 71 (Kalra) Little Saigon Freeway.
Designates the portion of US 101 in the County of Santa Clara from Story Road (SCL 34.224) to the junction with Route 280 and Route 680 (SCL 34.873) as the “Little Saigon Freeway”. In August 2025, it was noted that Santa Clara leaders had shown support for the proposal; see here.02/20/26 Chaptered by Secretary of State – Res. Chapter 4, Statutes of 2026.

Reviewed the online agenda of the California Coastal Commission for the January through March meetings. The following items were of interest:

February: Agenda Item W12a. February 2026 Appeal No. A-1-MEN-25-0050 (Caltrans Gualala Downtown Streetscape Project, Mendocino County). Appeals by (1) Save Gualala, and (2) Bower Limited Partnership from decision of County of Mendocino granting permit with conditions to the California Department of Transportation District 1 for the Gualala Downtown Streetscape Enhancement project that proposes to reconfigure approximately 0.5 mi. segment of Route 1, removing on-highway parking and installing two-way left turn lanes, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian refuge islands, crosswalks, activated flashing beacons, drainage, landscaping, and other improvements from post mile 0.6 to 1.0 in unincorporated Gualala, Mendocino County. (AS-A)
February: Agenda Item W13a. February 2026 Application No. 1-25-0828 (Caltrans Albion River Bridge Repair and Maintenance, Mendocino County). Application by the California Department of Transportation District 1 to repair and maintain the Albion River Bridge through replacement in-kind of 53 deteriorated timber scabs and inspection and potential replacement of at least three split ring connectors and one mole claw connector located at the base of the timber towers, all located above the Albion River within the Caltrans right of way on Route 1, Mendocino County. (MP-SF)

I checked California Transportation Commission page for the agenda and results of the January and March 2026 meetings of the California Transportation Commission. As always, note that I tend not to track items that do not impact these pages — i.e., pavement rehabilitation or replacement, landscaping, drainage, culverts, roadside facilities, charging stations, or other things that do not impact the routing or history, unless they are really significant. As such, the following items were of interest:

( Read more... )

Here Lies Love (CTG/Taper) Many years ago, I got the off-Broadway cast album for Here Lies Love, a musical about Imelda Marcos by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. I fell in love with the last song on the album, “God Draws Straight”. In my mind, I thought it was about LGBTQ stuff, similar to “God Don’t Make No Trash” from bare. Well, yesterday afternoon we saw Here Lies Love at CTG/Mark Taper Forum, and I came to realize the song means something different—something more timely. It means that building a more just and democratic society can be done, but it isn’t a straight path. There are fits and starts, and sometimes you go the wrong direction, but if you persevere and keep protesting and fighting, you will reach your goal.

This musical was written in 2010, and didn’t open Off-Broadway until 2013. This was long before the rise of Donald Trump. Yet the musical hits today as something very timely: the behavior of Ferdinand Marcos in office is very similar to the behavior of Trump. Abusing democracy, grabbing power, using the military against citizens, disappearing people. The key difference is that Melania shows no interesting in personally taking power (thankfully). “God Draws Straight” concludes on a hopeful note, but alas recent history hasn’t borne that out, with Duterte‘s rise to power, and then the election of BongBong Marcos, Imelda and Ferdinand’s son. But the parallels remain.

This is the first regional production of Here Lies Love in Los Angeles, after an initial Broadway run in 2023. This production reimagines the story from a disco to a noontime Philippine TV show hosted by a drag-queen, still telling Marcos’ story. It also retains a controversial aspect from the original production: recorded music. I became suspicious of this in the program, where in an interview with Byrne, he talks about «”track acts” in dicos, live disco sets with backing tracks where artists would perform karaoke version of their hits». I also noted that there were no credits for the musicians in the program: only a music director and a music producer. I agree with the Broadway Unions somewhat here: Theatre requires live performance, and if at all possible, live music (I make some exceptions for intimate theatres that have neither space nor budget). If you are going to do recorded music, at least have the courtesy to record and acknowledge the musicians that performed the music for the recording.

The concept of the musical is entertaining, and does a great job of educating people about the history of the Marcos regime in the Philippines (similar to the way Evita educates about the rise of the Peron Family in Argentina). The fear is that the upbeat and pop nature of the musical masks the actual terror and fear of those that had to live under the regime, and potentially makes Marcos appear to be a better person than she was. This is a form of historical whitewashing (or, to use a less charged term, gaslighting), similar to the whitewashing that has taken place about the People Power Revolution. Luckily, the program for the show helps one to see through the glitz to the reality. As I write this, I realize the parallel to the change that CTG made in this production: the drag queen narrator provides a similar façade: a face of glitz and glamour, with something different underneath. In a world of those who would be authoritarian and who would grab and take power, the truth and the reality doesn’t matter. What is important is the façade, the image, the story created by the media. As noted before, this musical speaks well today.

The performances were top-notch, with an incredibly large cast for the small Taper space. We had an understudy in the narrator position of Imeldific, Steven-Adam Agdeppa. Steven-Adam was wonderful, showing the transition from the glitz to the man under the glitz. Reanne Acasio was a very strong Imelda, and Josua Dela Cruz was a great Ninoy Aquino. Carol Angeli stood out as Estrelia Cumpas, Imelda’s nanny and childhood friend. Also notable, although I can’t tell from the program which ensemble member she was, was the ensemble member who played Cory Aquino, Ninoy’s wife. She just had a look that drew my eye to her. The ensemble members were interesting to watch, especially the facial expressions and their interactions with the audience. I’ll note that this show is very audience-interactive; it is not a proscenium-stage show that plays to a passive audience.

I should also note: There is no mention of Imelda Marcos’ shoe obsession; the only hint is at the beginning when she is given her first set of heels to replace her flats. I’ll also note that the term “Imeldific”, which is used as the name of the drag-queen in the show and is a Philippine adjective meaning «”anything exaggeratedly ostentatious or in bad taste”, referring to clothing, architecture, décor, etc.» is something that could equally be well-applied to Trump’s taste and decorating style. Parallels upon parallels indeed. Perhaps the media needs to start using the term Imeldific to describe Trump.

The story of Marcos is told in Here Lies Love generally in a sung-through fashion. Although there are small snips of dialogue, most of the story comes through the dance numbers and the projections on the upper screen. We brought our binoculars, but sometimes focusing on watching the faces and the dancers meant that we missed some of the story on the projections.

The show also contains my current pet peeve: Confetti that drops from the ceiling. There is no real story need for this other than the glitz. It creates plastic that just gets thrown away, which is horrid for the environment. We need to push back against this trend (and I know I’ll see it next week at Spamalot).

Overall, we really enjoyed this show. We learned a lot of history, realized a lot of (scary) parallels, and were entertained through the performances. Yes, I did tear up when “God Draws Straight” started; it just hits that way. If you can get tickets, I recommend the show. Tickets should be available through the CTG website.

Credits

Here Lies Love. Concept, music and lyrics by David Byrne. Music by Fatboy Slim. Choreography by William Carlos Angulo. Directed by Snehal Desai.

Cast [underscores indicate “at our performance”; ~~strikeouts~~ indicate “not at our performance”; ↑ indicates “swung up”]: Reanne Acasio Imelda Marcos; Joan Almedilla Aurora Aquino; Carol Angeli Estrella Cumpas; Joshua Dela Cruz Ninoy Aquino; Sarah Kay Maria Luisa; ~~Aura Mayari~~ Steven-Adam Agdeppa Imeldific; Chris Renfro Ferdinand Marcos. Ensemble: ~~Steven-Adam Agdeppa~~, Kayla Amistad, Kelvin Co, Joanne Javien Coudriet, Audrey Lyn Crabiño, Jefflorenz Garrido Garrick; Goce Macatangay, Danielle Louise Mendoza, Justine Rafael, ↑ Hayden Rivas, Ryan Salazar. Swings: ↑ Hayden Rivas, Johnisa Almariya Breault, Zandi de Jesus.

Music Department: Joe Cruz Music Director. Jennifer Lin Music Director; Justin Levine Music Producer, Vocal Arrangements; Matt Stine Music Production, Additional Arrangements. No credit is provided for the actual musicians.

Production and Creative: David Byrne Concept, Music, Lyrics; Fatboy Slim Music; Snehal Desai Director, CTG Artistic Director; William Carlos Angulo Choreographer; Hayden Rivas Dance Captain; Arnel Sanciaco Scenic Designer; Jaymee Ngerwichit Costume Designer; Marcella Barbeau Lighting Designer; Brian Hsieh Sound Designer; Yee Eun Nam Projection Design; Kaleena Jordan Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design; Ely Sonny Orquiza Dramaturg; Janelle Dote Portman Assoc. Director; U. J. Mangune Assoc. Choreographer; Jill Gold Production Stage Manager; Miriam E. Mendoza Stage Manager; Jihee Jenny Park Stage Manager; Kimberly Grigsby Vocal Arrangements; Justin Levine Vocal Arrangements; Michael Donovan CSA Casting; Richie Ferris CSA Casting; Joseph Pinzon Casting Consultant; Jimmy Elinski Drag Queen Costume Specialist.

Administrivia

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania.

Some interesting shows that have caught my eye. Wisteria Theatre is doing Reefer Madness: The Musical (in April), as is Long Beach Playhouse (in October/November). Wisteria was overpriced for a black-box; I might look into Long Beach’s production (but have to factor in the drive). Ebony Rep is doing Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the end of May into June. I love the show, but the prices are a bit high and I’m still trying to decide. I have a hold on the calendar. Casa 0101 is doing the play version of Real Women Have Curves from the end of March into May. Conundrum Theatre is doing a bunch of shows, but notably Big Fish in December 2026. And, as noted earlier, the Colony Theatre is doing Catch Me If You Can in the September/October 2026 timeframe. I’ll look into ticketing the fall shows once I know the CTG Season, to prevent conflicts. Broadway in Hollywood has announced its 2026-2027 season, and it is spectacular. The only major shows missing are Oh Mary, Boop: The Musical, and Just In Time. I expect Oh Mary to show up at the Ahmanson, and possibly Boop; Just In Time might be in the following Broadway in Hollywood season as I haven’t seen it announce any tour dates. Perhaps some local theatre will decide to mount Real Women Have Curves – The Musical or Dead Outlaw. One can hope. Lastly, I’ll note Group Rep in NoHo has announced their season, which includes a mounting of Applause in the July-August timeframe. That’s useful if you missed the MTG one-nighter; I haven’t yet decided if I want to see it again (although Group Rep does a great job with older and rarely done musical re-visits).

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

March: MoTAS Poker Tournament; ♦ Spamlot at BIH/Pantages.
April: ♦ Kim’s Convenience Store at CTG/Ahmanson; ♦ Ride the Cyclone at The Main; ♣ Jeremy Jordan at The Soraya; California Science and Engineering Fair at CLU; ♦ Flower Drum Song at East/West Players; ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101. NOTE: We need judges for the California Science and Engineering Fair. If you have a degree in the sciences and are available to judge April 12 at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, sign up to judge here.
May: ♦ Falstaff at LA Opera; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.
June: ♦⊕ Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ebony Rep; ♦ Elegies at Chromolume; ♦ Primary Trust at CTG/Taper; ♦ Mamma Mia at CTG/Ahmanson; plus whatever I schedule from the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as 🎭 Finding Hope in Straight Crooked Lines | "Here Lies Love" @ CTG/Taper by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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