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Inside Llewyn Davisuserpic=moviesThose who know me know that I love folk music of the 1960s. I started out as a Peter, Paul, and Mary afficianado, and then moved to the Kingston Trio, the Limeliters, the Weavers, Joan Baez, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and of course Tom Paxton. So when Tom, at his last concert, mentioned that one of his songs was being used in an upcoming movie… and recommended that movie.. suddenly “Inside Llewyn Davis” was on my radar.  So today saw me at my second movie in a week, together with my uncle Tom (who knows folk music well), learning about Llewyn Davis.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is the Coen Brother’s touching tribute to the pre-Dylan scene in Greenwich Village in New York, when venues such as the Gaslight introduced (or reintroduced) new and upcoming folk music acts such as those I named above, along with folk like Pete Seeger, the Clancy Brothers, Jean Ritchie, Mississippi John Hurt. It was a time of artistic creation, a time when folk music — and places like the Gaslight and the Hungry i in San Francisco, were shaping music. The story of Llewyn Davis is based roughly on the story of Dave Van Ronk, a folk musician of that time, although many things were changed. There are hints in the various acts of other folk groups, but none are explicitly names.

So let’s talk about the movie and what works… and what doesn’t. What works is the music… mostly. The selection of folk music on the soundtrack is great to listen to. Nice performances, nice voices, and some good selections. There are a few problems. The one I noticed was anachronistic — they included songs such as Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing On My Mind” that were written in 1962-1963… on performances that were supposedly in 1961 by someone other than the author. My uncle noted that it gave a very somber and downbeat image of folk music — much of the music was much more energetic and bluegrassy than what was portrayed. Again, look at the initial albums of Peter Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, the Weavers, or Tom Paxton for an idea of that energy. That energy wasn’t in the soundtrack song selection.

Another thing that works well are the performances. Oscar Davis is very strong as Llewyn — both performance-wise and singing-wise. The supporting actors are all very strong, in particular Max Casella, Ethan Phillips, and surprisingly, Justin Timberlake. John Goodman has an interesting role, although I think he is both literally and figuratively wasted in the movie. Yes, his performance is great… but if he wasn’t there, how would it change Llewyn’s trajectory through the story?

What doesn’t work is the story. To be blunt: it is boring and there is no character growth. We start with a scene where Llewyn is beat up for criticizing another performer at the Gaslight. We then move back in time to the week before, and observe a week in the life of Llewyn. We see him trying to get work in the folk music field… and failing. We see him homeless and sponging off of peoples couches. We see him interacting unsuccessfully with people. We see him carrying a cat around. What we never see is Llewyn learning anything about himself, or how to be successful in his field. We see others passing him by, moving onward and upward while he sabotages himself. At the end, we even see Dylan at the Gaslight, again upstaging Llewyn (as Dylan did to Van Ronk in real life). Llewyn never wins, and this makes the audience walk out wondering why they sat through this story. As someone somewhere else said about this movie: The journey of the cat is more interesting than Llewyn’s journey.

I’ve read other reviews praising this film and its artistry. That artistry is there: it is shot beautifully, it evokes great images, it establishes a mood. But… but… it’s ultimately all shadows and mood. You get to watch someone fail. You get to see someone ping-pong through life, never quite making the hole. Playwrights have long learned that the story is critical, and they have dramaturgs there to hone the story and make sure it tells what it is supposed to tell. What we were supposed to see from this story — well, I couldn’t figure it out. It was a beautiful movie, but it also didn’t touch my soul or affect me as it could have done had it been honed a little better. I wanted so much more here — to see why folk music succeeded, to see perhaps how Llewyn might not have been successful, but he might have been that catalyst for others. But it wasn’t there. Llewyn was a true anti-hero, and he just couldn’t succeed.

The artists behind this movie did a wonderful job of getting the atmosphere of the Gaslight and Greenwich Village correct; of establishing the feel of New York; of establishing what the early folk scene was like. What they didn’t capture was the energy. Tom Paxton talks in his concerts about playing the Gaslight, and then keeping the music going with folks like the Clancy Brothers at the local bars until the wee hours of the ‘morn. That energy is missing here.

If you like folk music, and have an interest in how the 1960s folk revival began, “Inside Llewyn Davis” may be worth seeing. If you are looking for an engaging story line that has characters you care about, then think twice. If you like the music, I suggest just getting the sound track… or even better, getting the excellent Smithsonian Archive’s album of Dave Van Ronk.

Previews: Of course, what is a movie without previews. Here’s what was previewed and my thoughts:

  • Cesar Chavez: An American Hero. A bio-pic on Cesar Chavez and his movement. Could be interesting, but I’m more likely to watch it on Shotime than in the theatres.
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel. The comic adventures of a hotel concierge in a famous European hotel. Didn’t draw me in, but looks cute.
  • American HustleThe story of a 1970s con-man. Not interested in this at all.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained critic; I am, however, a regular audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

And with that, the 2013 year of entertainment comes to a close. We probably saw one live theatre performance a week, on average, plus two to three movies. There were also some concerts along the way. It was a fun year, and you can read about it all by just following the review-2013 tag. Hopefully, 2014 will be just as fun. Entertainment — preferably live, but even filmed — enriches the soul and doesn’t clutter the house. Go to the theatre, or the theater, if you must, today.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Our first ticketed performance in January 2014 is a concert performance of MooNie and Broon (FB) at The Colony Theatre (FB) on January 11. The first scheduled theatre is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 1 may also bring “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike” at the Mark Taper Forum, depending on Hottix availability (alternate dates are 2/2 and 2/9). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Saving Mr. Banksuserpic=moviesMarket research firms for movies hate me. They call regularly, and ask what movies I’ve seen. I tell them I don’t go to the movies; I go to live theatre. They usually hang up at that point. But I do go to the movies — I always go on Christmas Day, and perhaps one or two other times  during the year. Yesterday was Christmas. Guess where I was, and what I had for dinner :-).

The movie we chose for yesterday was “Saving Mr. Banks“, from Walt Disney Pictures, directed by . I chose this movie for a number of reasons: first, it was getting good buzz from people I respect on that side of the story, such as Floyd Norman, who worked with Walt himself (his blog, if you’re into animation, is a must read). It was also getting excellent reviews. Most importantly: it was an interesting story: How did Walk Disney get the reclusive P. L. Travers to give permission to make the musical “Mary Poppins” (which in many ways was a groundbreaking film achievement, especially in the mixing of live action and animation). I have read some of the original Mary Poppins books, and have (of course) seen both the movie and the musical (which was impacted by the movie — and this story — in many ways).

Saving Mr. Banks” stars  as Walt Disney and as P. L. Travers.  It tells the story of the negotiation between Disney and Travers for the rights to make the movie “Mary Poppins“, as well as the story of how Travers was involved with the shaping of the final product. It also tells, through flashbacks, Travers’ childhood story and how that influenced the Mary Poppins story. Ferrett Steinmetz over on Livejournal had an insightful observation on this conflict: What made it interesting was that it wasn’t the expected conflict between corporate behemoth and artist fighting for the rights. Instead, it was a conflict between two artists who wanted to tell and protect the story that they loved, but each was seeing the story differently. They could move ahead only once they agreed on what the story was.

Discovering this agreement is where the flashbacks came in. These demonstrated how the characters in the story mapped to people in P.L. Travers (Helen Goff)’s life — in particular, how Mr. Banks was a mirror for Travers Goff, her father. Understanding that relationship — and the similar relationship between Disney and his father — was the key to the story.

Is the story presented true? From my understanding, it mostly is. I have no idea the truth of the flashback sequences and the extent to which Goff’s childhood influenced her writing as P. L. Travers. Given how she reacted to children (she never had any of her own, although she adopted), she may have been aiming the story more as an allegory for adults than amusement for children. I do know that certain elements of the portrayal of Disney were whitewashed a little — in particular, the Disney organization specifically requested that Walt never be shown inhaling cigarettes.

More importantly, the movie whitewashed Travers reaction at the end. One walked out feeling that she accepted Walt’s final product. In the end, she really didn’t — she tolerated what was done to the story, but completely rejected the combination of animation and live action. She wanted no cutesy animation in the story. As a result of this, she refused additional rights to Disney for movie adaption; further, when she permitted Cameron Mackintosh to make the stage version, she stipulated that no Americans were to be involved with the creative side (and this is why the Sherman Brothers, who were both still alive at the time, had no involvement with the development of the new songs in the stage “Mary Poppins”).

The movie didn’t touch on one thing I have always heard about the movie “Mary Poppins” and its music: that Walt Disney considered the song “Feed the Birds” to be the heart and soul of the movie. “Saving Mr. Banks” makes it appear as if that soul was found in “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”, a redemption song for Mr. Banks. It’s an interesting question about which is more the heart of the movie.

When I go see movies, I note the things that make the movie special. I think this was a story that wouldn’t work as well on stage (but I could be wrong). This was something that benefited from its period. It also had some excellent cinematography and special effects — I particularly noticed this in the transactions between “present day” and the flashbacks. I also noted the attention to detail in the historical Southern California sequences: the sequences on Laurel Canyon, the sequences at Disneyland, the sequences at the Chinese. I understand they did redressing of the current sites, which makes this even more remarkable. I also appreciated the historical LAX, which was in the period when the “new” LAX had just opened.

I’m not going to list all the credits for the movie — you can find them on IMDB. I will say that both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompsen gave excellent and believable performances, as did all the other leads. With film, you find that the actors focus on the performance; the joy of performing that one sees in a stage performer just does not come across.

Previews: Of course, what is a movie without previews. Here’s what was previewed and my thoughts:

  • Muppets Most Wanted. Another in the new Muppet series of movies, this time pitting a bad Kermit vs. a good Kermit. A possibility because my wife loves the Muppets, but I want to see the reviews first.
  • Million Dollar Arm. Another Disney movie — this time about recruiting Indian baseball players. Innocuous, but not something that would draw me to the theatre.
  • Divergent. A science fiction movie based on a young adult novel. It didn’t particularly grab me.
  • Son of God. A movie version of the life of Jesus. I don’t think I’m the audience they are going for, but I’m sure it will play well in the heartland.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained critic; I am, however, a regular audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  All that remains in 2014 is one more movie: I’m seeing “Inside Llewyn Davis”  on Sunday, December 29. Looking into January: Our first ticketed performance is a concert performance of MooNie and Broon (FB) at The Colony Theatre (FB) on January 11. The first scheduled theatre is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 1 may also bring “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike” at the Mark Taper Forum, depending on Hottix availability (alternate dates are 2/2 and 2/9). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Peter and the Starcatcher (Ahmanson)userpic=ahmansonEach year when I watch the Tony Awards, I make mental notes of which shows to see and which to avoid. A few years ago, “Peter and the Starcatcher” was on the show, and Christian Borle’s performance convinced me this was a show I had to see. So when it was announced that the tour would hit the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, plans were made to acquire Hottix. Last night was the culmination, when we went to the Ahmanson to see Peter.

How should I describe this story (which was adapted from the original Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson book by Rick Elice (FB))? I could just point you to the Wikipedia page, which has a full description of the plot.   I could just say this Peter and the Starcatcher is to Peter Pan as Wicked is to The Wizard of Oz: A prequel that explains the origins of the base story’s characters in a clever and interesting way. But this is a story, and all stories must begin with “Once upon a Time.”

Once upon a time there were three orphans in London – Boy, Prentiss, and Ted. They were sold to Fighting Prawn, an island chief on Mollusk Island, and were to be transported to their doom aboard the Never Land. There was also once a British Lord, Lord Aster, and his daughter Molly. They were also on their way to Mollusk Island to transport a trunk from Queen Victoria to the chief of the Island, abort the fastest frigate in the land, the Wasp, captained by Captain Robert Scott. But the Lord secretly wanted to destroy the trunk. There was also the captain of the Never Land, Slank, who wanted the valuable contents of the trunk and so arranged for the trunk to be swapped with an identical trunk filled with sand before they left port. Slank was also transporting Molly and her caretaker, Mrs. Bumbrake, as his was the slower and safe ship. While on the way to the island, a pirate crew, led by the cruel and anachronistic and crazy Black Stache, assisted by his right hand man Smee, take over the Wasp. They discover the sand filled trunk, and turn around to capture the slower Never Land. Meanwhile, Molly has befriended the orphan boys and rescued them.  When Stache arrives, a battle ensuses. Boy is charged to protect the trunk, and floats with it to the island, while the others follow. While floating, some of the contents of the real trunk (star stuff) leaks out.

The second act presents the effect of that star stuff, and we learn how each of their characters became who they were intended to be. Boy becomes Peter Pan, Molly the woman who would be Wendy’s mother, and Stache becomes Hook. Along the way, there are singing mermaids, fights, crocodiles, and all sorts of sillyness. There is also heroism — it is this heroism that transforms both Peter and Stasche into the eternal opponents they are.

This is a silly story, presented with loads of imagination. In some ways similar to staging of the earlier Scottsboro Boys (there’s a comparison I bet you never thought you would see): the sets are not realistic, and through simple props, some ropes, and lots of excellent sound effects, you are transformed in your imagination. For whatever reason, the sillyness of this story combined with the staging approach offended quite a few people: we had two couples sitting near us leave by the second scene, and a number of the older crowd in the Orchestra left at intermission. Their loss.

As for me, I loved it. First, I love backstories (which is why I’ve read all of Gregory Maguire‘s books), and Peter/Starcatcher is an imaginative and clever way of explaining how Pan and the other characters came to be. More importantly, I loved the message and lines such as this nugget: “Things are only worth what you’re willing to give up for them.” Profound insight. The play demonstrated the meaning of heroism through that message: what transforms Peter into a leader is what he gives up; what transforms Molly is what she gives up; and in a sense, what transforms Stache is what he gives up (and let’s all give him a hand). I loved the clever staging; I loved the anachronisms and word play; I loved when the fourth wall was occasionally broken; I loved the fun the actors were clearly having with this piece; and I loved the inventive, clever, and even more amazingly live sound effects. This was, simply, a fun play that carried one message that spoke to children, and a different but equally important message that spoke to the adults — and so was doubly impactful for childish adults like me.

I’ll also note that it was quite interesting seeing this play the same year that I saw Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers” at the Blank. That was a version of Pan that wasn’t the cuteified Disney version nor the musical Broadway version. That was a gritty version. It noted the importance of the mother figure to Peter, and in that play, Hook notes that the mother is Peter’s weakness. Starcatcher shows the relationship between Peter and Molly (Wendy’s mother), and how the transformation of the star stuff led Peter to give up Molly.  Now think again about the line: “Things are only worth what you’re willing to give up for them.” Peter gives up Molly because he is forced to; he’s not willing to give her up, but gives her up to find home. The two productions do interconnect nicely. So in the end, does Peter hate mothers? Peter is a boy — he doesn’t know what true love or hate is — he only knows childish love and hate. Peter hates grownups, doesn’t understand their motivations, and doesn’t think what his actions do. Peter loves his mother / Molly, and doesn’t even realize the hurt he creates — and how his mothers actually love the hurt because they love Peter.

This is one production where one must acknowledge the director’s vision. Roger Rees (FB) and Alex Timbers (FB), the directors, brought a unique creative vision to this production. It is not the typical realistic set that one sees; it is not the typical realistic characters. It is imagination on stage in a way that forces the audience to join in the imagination and the fun. They create, with an obvious wink, a clear impression that these are actors telling a story, but a story that they love. Is it true? Does it matter?

The performances are also top notch, led by John Sanders (FB) as Black Stache. Although I would loved to have seen Borle play this, Sanders was comic perfection. I will never think about the words “Oh My God” the same after the scene where Stache loses his hand. The man was manic, and I couldn’t tell where the script stopped and direction began, where direction ended and improvisation began, and where improvisation ended. He was just fun to watch whenever he was onstage chewing the scenery (such as it was), interacting with his Smee, Pan, and the others. The production is worth seeing for him alone.

Equally strong were Megan Stern (FB) as Molly and Joey DeBettencourt (FB) as Boy/Peter. Stern’s Molly projects spunk and self-confidence — this is one girl who knows who she is, what she is, and what she wants to be — and won’t let any boy stand in the way of that goal. She had strong comic timing, and projected a joy and power that shone through the theatre. DeBettencourt’s Boy transforms during the show. At the beginning he is timid and beaten down, lagging behind his friends Prentiss and Ted. By the end he can stand up and crow about the things that he has done. Theatre is at its best when characters transform and change as a result of what happens on stage, and this is something that clearly happens to DeBettencourt’s Boy/Pan, and this growth (in turn) leads other characters to grow. DeBettencourt portrays this growth well, and clearly projects the fun he is having with the role.

The supporting characters are also quite strong. As Smee, Luke Smith (FB) is the man behind the hook, the almost brains-of-the-bunch. He is delightful to watch as he corrects Black Stache, and his performance as a mermaid is an image you’ll never get out of your brain. Again, this young man seems to just be having fun with this character. Also having fun is Benjamin Schrader (FB) as Mrs. Bumbrake. Following in the English Music Hall tradition of a man playing a woman for comic effect, Schrader’s Bumbrake is hilarious, both as she attempts to protect Molly, as well as when she is being wooed by Alf (Harter Clingman (FB)), one of Slank’s crew.

Rounding out the cast (and clearly having a lot of fun) were the aformentioned Harter Clingman (FB) (Alf), Jimonn Cole (FB) (Capt. Slank), Nathan Hosner (FB) (Lord Aster), Carl Howell (FB) (Prentiss), Ian Michael Stuart (FB) (Capt. Scott), Edward Tournier (FB) (Ted), and Lee Zarrett (FB) (Fighting Prawn). The understudies, who we did not see, were Ben Beckley (FB) (u/s Smee / Slank / Alf / Fighting Prawn / Mrs. Bumbrake), Robert Franklin Neill (FB) (u/s Lord Aster / Slank / Alf / Black Stache / Capt. Scott), Rachel Prather (FB) (u/s Molly / Ted / Prentiss / Mrs. Bumbrake), and Nick Vidal (FB) (u/s Boy / Prentiss / Ted / Fighting Prawn / Capt Scott).

This is an intensely choreographed production, without ever calling it choreography because there is no formal dance. Similarly, although there is music this is not a musical, because the music does not propel the story. Credit for this aspect of the creativity goes to Steven Hoggett (FB) (Movement) and Wayne Barker (FB) (Composer). Supporting these two were Rachel Prather (FB) as the movement captain, and Benjamin Schrader (FB) as the fight captain. Andy Grobengieser (FB) was the musical director, and coordinated the three musicians, who were suspended on boxes on the side of the stage. Additional related credits are: Marco Paguia (FB) (Musical Supervisor), Lillian King (FB) (Associate Director), Patrick McCollum (FB) (Movement Associate), and Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum (FB) (Fight Director).

The creative team for this show won a number of Tony awards, and deservedly so. I’ve already mentioned the creative set design of Donyale Werle (FB). Also notable was the sound design of Darron L. West (FB), who created numerous amazing sound effects, seemingly live. The costumes of Paloma Young (FB) were creative and adaptable, as could be seen in the inventive costumes for Stache, Bumbrake, and the crocodile. Jeff Croiter‘s (FB) lighting design was effective in creating and establishing moods, and was particularly notable during the fight scenes where the lights were rising and falling in the background.  Additional related credits are: Michael Carnahan (Associate Scenic Designer), Katherine Wallace (Production Supervisor), Shawn Pennington (FB) Production Stage Manager), McKenzie Murphy (FB) (Assistant Stage Manager), and Phoenix Entertainment (Production and Technical Supervision).

Peter and the Starcatcher” continues at the Ahmanson Theatre until January 12. Tickets are available through the Ahmanson Box Office, and perhaps through Goldstar.  It is well worth seeing.

I’ll note this is my last theatre writeup of 2013. It’s been an interesting theatre year, with loads of great shows. Los Angeles is a great theatre town, and I’m sure (if you’re not in Los Angeles) you can find great theatre in your city. You can see a movie anytime. Treat yourself to the gift of theatre for 2014!

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Remaining in 2014 is the traditional movie and Asian Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. I’m also interested in “Inside Llewyn Davisfor both its soundtrack and its story (based off the live of Dave Van Ronk). None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January: Our first ticketed performance is a concert performance of MooNie and Broon (FB) at The Colony Theatre (FB) on January 11. The first scheduled theatre is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 1 may also bring “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike” at the Mark Taper Forum, depending on Hottix availability (alternate dates are 2/2 and 2/9). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Sherlock Through The Looking Glass (Porters of Hellgate)userpic=yorickA few weeks ago, I was looking at listings of upcoming theatre in Los Angeles when I saw a mention of a show with an interesting premise: What if you took Sherlock Holmes, whose world is based in logic, and place him in a world where logic doesn’t work? This premise sounded so interesting that I went and book tickets for the show, the Porters of Hellgate (FB) presentation of “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass” by Gus Krieger (FB). The show wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was very good in its own way.

First, let me get my expectations out of the way. What I expected was a mystery that took place in an Alice-In-Wonderland world, where Sherlock Holmes would have to figure out how to use non-logic to solve the crime. Although that was present a little in this story, it wasn’t the whole story… and in that I was disappointed. A full story like that could be quite interesting.

So what was the story we got? Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are bored — their last case was a while ago, and there hasn’t been anything interesting happening. In comes Lillian Childress, who paints a story about an incident that took place at a London marketplace. She was there with her sister, Josephine, looking at the wares. She was looking at books, while her sister was looking at fruit and other wares. After purchasing a copy of the Alice books and showing them to her sister, her sister exhibits signs of madness… and the police take her away to Bedlam. This is the third such case of madness in the last month, and the police suspect Lillian to be culprit. She goes to Holmes to prove her innocence. Tracking down the case leads to the prime suspect, Charles Dogson (better known as  Lewis Carroll, the author of the Alice books). While he goes off to jail, Holmes continues to investigate beliving Dogson to be innocent as well. The continued investigation result in Holmes falling into the madness as well. Can Holmes work his way out of the Alice-In-Wonderland based delusions and find the real culprit? This is the heart of the play.

This play, essentially, mashes the world of Holmes with the world of Alice, with a little of the historical world of Charles Dogson thrown in. I’m not an expert on Holmes, but the characterizations here seemed to fit with the characterizations I’ve seen in other stage and screen portrayal of both Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. There wasn’t an overindulgence on stereotypes, but sufficient logic and deduction to establish the characters quite well. In the second act, there was descent into the madness of Alice’s world, with Holmes roughly in the position of Alice. Again, this worked reasonably well — quoting some of the best known portions of the Carroll books and presenting the best known characters, but not falling into the Disney stereotypes of the characters. Lastly, the other characters surrounding Holmes in London worked reasonably well to establish their characters and purposes.

In short, the story was a fun one, if not a bit wordy at times (making it initially a bit hard to follow). Of course, one expects a little wordiness with Holmes. I liked the story and its resolution, and the way the story work seemed consistent overall with Sherlock Holmes. In truth, given Holmes’ addictions and OCD, he wasn’t that far from madness to begin with.

The performances were very strong. In the lead position was Kevin Stidham (FB) as Sherlock Holmes. Stidham was able to draw from his UK background to get the accent right, and looked a bit like you expect Holmes to look (or perhaps a little young). He did well with the voluminous dialog, only having one or two line hesitations. He worked well with his Dr. Watson, Timothy Portnoy (FB). Portnoy’s Watson handled the supporting role well, and was surprisingly physical in the fight scenes (although the pulling of punches was a bit obvious). The two together were fun to watch. Lastly, as the lead protagonist Lillian Childress (as well as the Red Queen), Jennifer Bronstein (FB) worked well to move the story along, and was believable as the concerned sister.

Most of the other roles were supporting and blended more in. A few specific performances deserve some highlighting. Ulka Mohanty (FB) (Street Singer/Cheshire Cat) had a lovely singing voice in addition to her nice performance skills. Also strong was Hap Lawrence (FB) (Charles Dogson/Humpty Dumpty), who we’ve seen before at the Pasadena Playhouse. Lawrence’s Dogson just seemed right for the character, which is a nice thing to see. Rounding out the ensemble were: Dana DeRuyck (FB) (Josephine Childress / White Queen), Andrew Graves (FB) (Bookseller Bart / Mad Hatter), Amelia Gotham (FB) (Thimblerigger / Dormouse), Sean Faye (FB) (Lestrade / Tweedledee), Michael Hoag (FB) (Gregson / Tweedledum), Michael Bigley (FB) (Wal / Constable Altamont / Red Knight), Dylan Vigus (FB) (Carp / Constable Foley / White Knight), Robert Beddall (FB) (Fruiterer / March Hare), and Kate O’Toole (FB) (Mrs. Morris / Knave of Hearts). All of the actors seemed to be having fun and enjoying their roles.

The play was directed by Gus Krieger (FB), who used a very simple set design for the production (no set designer is credited). The sound design, which disappeared as a good sound design should do, was by Nick Neidorf (FB). The lighting design was by Sterling Hall (FB), and worked reasonably well (although more modern LED lights or movers would have made the color changes during the madness sequences stronger, but budgets are budgets). More impressive was the costume design by Jessica Pasternak (FB), who created effective costumes that evoked the era. Even more impressive were the Alice-themed masks created by Amelia Gotham (FB) that were used during the madness scenes. Choreography was by Louise Gassman (FB), and the fighting sequences were choreographed by Charles Pasternak (FB). Stage management was by Sarah Buto (FB), and Jessica Pasternak (FB) was the house manager. The production was produced by the Porters of Hellgate (FB) and the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB).

This was our first Porters of Hellgate (FB) production. They look to be a company that focuses on the classics, and have as a company goal the production of every one of Shakespeare’s plays. They’ve done 17; they have 18 to go (counting all the parts of the Henry n as a single play). It will be interesting to watch them for the future.

Sherlock Through The Looking Glass” continues at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB) through December 22. Tickets are available through the Porters of Hellgate website and Vendini,  and may be available through Goldstar and LA Stage Tix. If you like Sherlock Holmes or Alice in Wonderland, it is worth seeing.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  December, as currently scheduled for theatre, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Of course, there will be the traditional movie and Chinese Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. I’m also interested in “Inside Llewyn Davisfor both its soundtrack and its story (based off the live of Dave Van Ronk). None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January: The first scheduled show is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Little Mermaid (Nobel MS)userpic=theatre_musicalsBy now, you’ve figured out we go to a lot of theatre, of all shapes and sizes. Our range runs from intimate shows to Broadway houses, and from middle-school to professional productions. We’ve seen professional groups do amateur jobs, and we’ve seen amateurs do top-notch works. One of the groups we’ve seen grow over time is the Theatre Arts Department at Nobel Charter Middle School (FB) here in Northridge. We were there when they started back up — our daughter was in their inaugural production back in 2006. Back then, they were a group with lots of energy but little resources — sound was three stand up microphones; lights were on a tree on the side with a shared extension cord, and costumes were rummaged from here and there. Eight years later, they have full professional lighting and a lighting board, a full sound board and wireless mics, professional quality sets and costumes (made by parents, not rented), and still lots and lots of energy. This is all paid for by voluntary contributions, not LAUSD. At its heart are the two same great teachers:  Fanny Araña and Jean Martellaro.

All this means is that when Nobel announces a production, we do our best to stop on by and see it. So last night, we were in a standing-room-only middle school auditorium (700+ people were in attendance) watching a large group of kids perform their hearts out doing “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” musical (technically, the Jr. version, best as I can figure out). You know what? They did pretty good.

I could attempt to summarize the story of “The Little Mermaid” to you, but it’s long and complex, and I’m dealing with the TL;DR generation. Suffice it to say that the musical version is slightly different from the animated cartoon, and you can find a good summary of the musical version on Wikipedia. Differences include changes in sequences, addition of a number of new songs by Alan Menkin and Glenn Slater (in addition to the original songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin), and some simplification for the stage. Most of the book by Doug Wright remains. The Jr. version shortens the production a bit more, and cuts a number of songs (both from the original movie, such as “I Want The Good Times Back”, as well as new songs such as “Positoovity”); the song cuts are how I identified this as the Jr. version. I’ll note that I’ve never actually seen the animated movie in its entirety, although I’ve heard the score.  By the time my daughter was the age she was watching Disney animated movies, this had just gone back into the vault. So I’m really only familiar with the property from the stage musical.

With a production this large, it is hard to single out everyone from the cast. Further, understanding this is middle-school production, there are the expected flaws — these are neither trained singers nor actors, just kids putting on a show.  The occasional flats, changing voices, and inaudible lines are more than made up by the enthusiasm and joy on the faces of these children as they learn skills and confidence that will serve them well all their life. But there are a few performances I want to single out in various ways, before I list everyone. Note that I’m not going to try to link to all the kids.

As I just said, there were a few performances deserving special note: Leanne Langston (Ariel) had a remarkably strong voice, and was a spectacular dancer (demonstrated in the “One Step Closer” number, with her equally strong partner, Ryan Wynott, as Prince Eric). Another strong singer and performer was Alishia Maghreiva as Ursula, who did a great job of projecting malevolence. On the comic side, Harry Harutyunyun was strong as Sebastian — although he kept having microphone problems, you could tell this young man could sing and move well. Also strong comically were Jasmine Moore as Scuttle and Andrzej Krassner-Cybulski as Flounder. Also extremely strong as a choral group in the “Daughters of Triton” number were the mersisters: Alana Gardette-Dupre (Aquata), Rebecca Radvinsky (Andrina), Claire Frankland (Arista), Emily Alexander (Atina), Morgan Knight (Adella), and Allana (Lexi Gardner). I was also impressed with Janelle Miller as Chef Louis in the “Les Poissons” number, and the comic antics of Frency Wane as Dim-Sum. Lastly, I want to highlight Rachel Khoury as the seagull Gullible — not as much for her performance on stage, but watching her entertain pre-show and during intermission, staying in character and just having fun with the audience.

Rounding out the large cast were: Grimsby – Brett Jariabek; Ship’s Pilots – Matthew Bacon, Jason Foster; Sailors – Janelle Miller, Nancy Turmell, Rose Meyers, Charlotte Doolittle, Marie Verdin, Leila Musleh, Jacob Lipman, Jennifer Sarkisian, Gigi Mkchyan, Fernanda Lopez; King Triton – Braden Harness; Seahorses – Eli Leyberman (Seabiscuit), Emily Borses (Flicka); Seagulls – Jake Dalton (Awkward), David Gomez (Gulliver), Max Chester (Awkdorable), Rachel Khoury (Gullible), Sammy Wane (Awksome); Eels – Justin Tuell (Flotsam), Aaminah Babatunde-Bey (Jetsam), Anthony Sottile (Gruesome), Michelle Villalobos (Ransom), Frenchy Wane (Dim-Sum); Carlotta – Gigi Mkchyan, Babette – Jennifer Sarkisian; Yvette – Fernanda Lopez; Chefs – Nancy Turmell, Rose Meyers, Charlotte Doolittle, Leila Musleh, Jacob Lipman, Taylor Carlson; Princesses – Claire Frankland, Emily Alexander, Rebecca Radvinsky, Alana Gardette DuPre, Lexi Gardner, Morgan Knight; Lagoon Leads – Matthew Bacon, Jason Foster; Water Wizards – Emilio “Bongo” Godinez, Shawn Wadhwani; Water Faries – Fernanda Lopez, Taylor “Cookie” Carlson, Kennaya Ndu, Talia Ballew; Water Reeds – Willow Islas, Kamryn Siler, Hannah Protiva; Sea Creatures/Lagoon Animals – Jesse Pacheco, Devina Moore, Brendon Harrington, Spencer Goldman, Brandon Moser, Robert Cerda, Emma Casella, Troy Richman, Juliana Barba, Marena Wisa-Wasef, Kennaya Ndu, Marie Verdin, Leila Musleh, Jennifer Sarkisian, Janelle Miller, Nancy Turmell, Gigi Mkchyan, Talia Ballew, and Renee Rubanowitz. Whew! Large cast!

Technically, every NCMS production is a step beyond the last. We’ve seen this program go from few resources to lots, and along the way, these younguns’ are gaining technical training — and they come back and help the program. In particular, the lighting for this program (designed by Noelle Sammour, assisted by Artur Cybulski as lighting consultant) was very good (and the technical team had no missed lighting cues that I saw). The sound, designed by sound consultant Isaijah Johnson (9th grade) had a good design and cues were executed well, but it was sabotaged by the sound-swallowing characteristics of the Nobel Auditorium (alas, not much can be done about that), and the fact that the actors were not used to microphones (causing them to sometimes work, and sometimes have static) (and that takes time and experience to address). The set was remarkable, especially when you consider it was built by students. The set design was by Benjamin Tiber (9th grade), and was constructed under Huan “Papa” Chu and Barry Borses. The costumes, designed by Larissa Kazantsev, were clever and worked well.

Rounding out this team was the tech crew: Stage Manager – Gio Roberto, Set Manager – Dana Rubanowitz, Set Crew – Ranveer Dhillon, Luca Goldenberg, Brandon Huetter, Eunice Kim, Alexandra Kopatsis, Tam Le, Aaron Nguyen, Estrella Palacios, Isabelle Saligumba, Andrienne Santiago, Tal Sisso, and Karla Vasquez; Prop Crew – Justin Borses, Casey Donchez, Kara Glaser, Jacqueline Harris; Costume Crew – Adi Ankori, Tal Ankori, Sarah Khorsandi, Hailey Matthew, David Manolo, Lilly Eaves, Christopher Sarkissian; Sound Crew – Jacob Zonis, Alyssa Crocker, Michael McNabb, Stephen Rabin; Light Crew – Aaron Nguyen, Andrew Petrak, Zarah Shahinian, Skyler Won, Nicolaus Carlson (9th grade); Spot Operator – Neema Zahedi.

Direction was provided by Jean Martellaro, assisted by Harry Harutyunyun (8th grade). Choreography (which was very good for a middle-school production) was developed by Jenna Beth Stockman and Madison Tilner (9th grade). Daniel Bellusci (12th grade) and Iona Della Torre were the music directors, and Dennis Kull was the technical director.

There are two more performances of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” (Jr.), both today: 2pm and 630pm. If you live in the area, go on out and support these kids and this great program. Noble Charter Middle School is at 9950 Tampa Avenue in Northridge, at the intersection of Tampa and Lassen. The auditorium is 1 block N, off Merridy Street.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Tomorrow I leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When I return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled for theatre, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Of course, there will be the traditional movie and Chinese Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. I’m also interested in “Inside Llewyn Davisfor both its soundtrack and its story (based off the live of Dave Van Ronk). None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January: The first scheduled show is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Sound Of Music Live!userpic=televisionWe tend to look back on the past through rose colored glasses. We think travelling by plane in the 1950s and 1960s was so much more elegant and refined than today’s cattle cars, but it really wasn’t. Similarly, we look back on the “Golden Age” of Television — live TV from the 1950s and 1960s — as something special, but it really wasn’t. Sets weren’t fancy, performances were hit or miss, and there were numerous imperfections (anyone who has watched rebroadcasts of the live Peter Pan will remember it). But through the rose-colored glasses of time it seems better, and so NBC tried to capture that magic last night with a live production of “The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood, Stephen Moyer, Audra McDonald, Christian Borle, and Laura Benanti. Although I only meant to watch 20 minutes, I ended up watching the whole thing. In short, I thought it was a reasonable effort — it was imperfect, but it wasn’t unwatchable. Here are some short comments regarding the production — certainly not a full review as I don’t have the time (further, I don’t think you need the full review treatment).

First and foremost, this was a remake of the stage production, so all you Julie Andrews-loving, Carrie Underwood-hating people out there… shut up. It is wrong to compare this to the movie, which used a rejiggered script with songs in different places, and had the money and time to get perfect scenery and to retake and retake until it was just right. This production, although rehearsed, was a single live take that could not be redone. Comparing it to a full movie is apples and oranges. Compare it to other stage productions or equivalent live stage musicals on TV. [I'll note that most of the "hating" reviews I'm seeing are upset that this wasn't their benighted movie, believing that the movie is the musical. The stage production existed for years before the movie.]

That said, the production had a very 1950-ish feel to it. Although this was a remake of the stage production, it didn’t feel like a stage production — it felt like an odd hybrid with much more elaborate sets that were obviously on sound stages, but that lacked the framing limitations of the proscenium arch. Stage productions often use simple sets that permit you to use your imagination. Here, the realism of the sets made you wish for the movie and its larger scenery, but the limitations of the sound stage and the live nature of the performance (which limited camera angles and cutting) amplified the artificial nature. This was common for 1950s and early 1960s TV, but is completely uncommon to today’s audience.

The larger problem with this production was the casting and direction. Each of the lead’s casting was wrong in various ways…

Audra McDonald had the perfect voice for the Mother Superior, and she played the role with class and style. Of course, historically, the casting was incorrect and thus felt off, but her performance more than made up for it.

Carrie Underwood wasn’t the train wreck many made her out to be. Her singing was strong, and I had no problem with her voice or accent. I certainly (and perhaps this is heresy) preferred her to the lilt Mary Martin always had. People forget that Julie Andrews did Maria with an English accent (as did Sally Ann Howes), Mary Martin had some Texas twang in her voice, and other brought vaguely American accents. There’s no correct accent for Maria (unless someone does Austrian). However, she wasn’t the best Maria that I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few — most recently Shannon Warne in the 2011 Cabrillo Music Theatre production (who was excellent), but also the earlier Cabrillo production with Christina Saffran Ashford, the 1978 Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (LACLO) production with Sally Ann Howes, and the 1972 LACLO production with Florence Henderson), but she certainly wasn’t bad in the role. She had a youthful enthusiasm that was fun to see, and I’m sure she would have improved in the role if she was performing it 8-shows a day for a few months. But this was her first major acting performance after just a little rehearsal, and so there were a more than a few wooden moments. But she remembered all of her lines, and never expressed contrary emotions. How much the wooden-ness was due to the director, as opposed to the actress or a lack of chemistry with her other main lead, I’m unsure. Certainly the director could have helped her more during rehearsals. But still, not that bad. My major complaint was more that she was the same size as some of the children, which was jarring.

As an aside: Could the director have chosen someone better for the role? Most assuredly. Would that choice have been the same draw, and pulled in the same audience to see if she could pull it off? Quite likely not. From the point of view of the network, which was more important: Having quality actors that those “in the know” would tune in to watch, or having actors with a greater risk of failure and thus getting a larger audience to see them fail? Do I really need to answer that question? This is television, where ratings trump quality every day. If you want quality entertainment, television is not your first choice. It exists, yes, but it rare and doesn’t get the ratings, and is more likely found on specialty channels than legacy broadcast networks. This production did exactly what the network wanted: it drew ratings, and probably sufficient ratings for them to attempt a stunt like this again. Given the dearth of theatrical musicals and variety on the major networks, this is not a bad thing. At least NBC is demonstrating itself as a network that at least thinks about theatre.

Stephen Moyer was more of a problem. The Captain required more seasoning given the character’s history, and Moyer did not convey that seasoning, nor did he have the strength of voice of a Theodore Bikel or others I have seen in the role, such as Edward Mulhare. Another problem was that he had little chemistry with Underwood’s Maria. Underwood-haters are quick to blame this on Carrie Underwood and her acting. However, I’m more inclined to blame in on Moyer — Underwood had spunk and was appealing, if not perhaps too upbeat. Moyer just didn’t seem to click with her.

Christian Borle, although a great actor, was just off (to me) as Max. He played it much more comically, and came off much more gay than I’ve seen in other portrayals (especially when compared to someone like Werner Klemperer). He seemed unrealistic. This, I believe was a directoral problem, as his singing was great. I’ll note that most reviews I’ve read praised Borle in the role. He performed well, but had notes in his performance that seemed untrue to that character at that time. As an aside, I saw a recent article on Kveller about things you never think about during this musical, and one was Max. He was obviously both gay and Jewish, and just let a war hero escape the country. He didn’t have a happy future in the 3rd Reich.

Laura Benanti was perhaps the best casting in a role that always comes off as wooden and stiff. She did attempt to bring life to the role and interacted well with the rest of the cast. She had more chemistry with Moyer, and perhaps might have been better as Maria (after all, IIRC, she has done Cinderella on Broadway… and has done Maria in one of her first Broadway shows). But she wouldn’t have drawn the eyeballs — outside of the theatre community, few have heard of her. Remember: Her presence didn’t save the one series she was in.

Most of the children worked reasonably well — I still remember the lovely interplay of Maria and Leisl in the final reprise of “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” — but poor little Gretl was just miscast. She was cute, but she really couldn’t sing.

One last problem: Live performances… and even more so live stage performers… feed off the response of the audience and their reactions. The audience and the performers are a symbiotic whole, and this is what makes live theatre unique. This performance moved from soundstage to soundstage with no audience. This contributed to the stiffness of the production. It is also one reason why movies are different beasts, and 100% faithful adaptations rarely work: the stage production is paced for the stage, with scenes and timings designed for audience reaction and scene changes. Without the live stage and those constraints, the artifice becomes visible and hinders the production. If you want to film a stage production, treat it as a stage production and film a real live performance (even if you invite an audience).

In any case, those are my quick thoughts on the production. I went in planning to only watch 20 minutes, and then catch up on Big Bang Theory, but I ended up watching the entire production. It wasn’t unwatchable, but it wasn’t perfect. In short, it was a great example of what the “Golden Age of Television” was really like, and if NBC tried this again with a different musical, I’d likely watch.

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Falling (Rogue Machine)userpic=theatre2Raising a family is hard, even under the best of circumstances. There’s dealing with the teen years, there’s the interplay between siblings, and there’s the effect that the children have on the relationship between the parents. Now imagine one of the children is severely autistic, and you have the premise of the play we saw last night at Rogue Machine Theatre (FB) in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles: “Falling“, by Deanna Jent (FB, Interview).

Falling” tells the story of the Martin family: parents Tami and Bill, their older son Josh, their teen daughter Lisa, and Bill’s mother, Sue. The complication in this family is that 18 year-old Josh has autism, and he is on the more severe side of the spectrum. He is able to go to school, but does not interact with people well and is increasingly prone to violence. This violence is such that finding aides to work with him in the home is nearly impossible — if Josh doesn’t scare him off, then he won’t interact with them because he doesn’t know them. Thus, it increasingly falls on his parents to manage him every day. This takes a continual toll on the family — both in the dynamics between the parents, the interaction with Josh, and the effect on Josh’s sister, Lisa, who seems to be forgotten in the struggle.

Everything comes to a head when Bill’s mother, Sue, comes for a visit and stays with the family. Sue is someone who believes in the power of prayer, and believes that God will give the family the answer to the pain of autism, if they just pray hard enough. Her visit upsets Josh’s routines, and Josh acts out.

This play explores how having an autistic son affects the family and its dynamics (although the mirror it holds up isn’t limited to autism — it applies to any family dealing with a member with a developmental disability). In particular, it shows how much this situation affects the mother, who has to put on a smile and be “up” to keep Josh calm… but the situation is increasingly stressing her to the point where she is falling apart. She’s torn between seeing what she wanted her son to be, and what she realizes he will really be. She’s torn between trying to manage her son in the arms of the family and the family home, or sending him to a group home (if she can find one) where his care might be uncertain, but will be there. She’s torn by how her focus on Josh has destroyed her relationship with her daughter, and the impact it is having on her marriage.

This show also explores, to a lesser extent, how having an autistic member of the family affects the rest of the family as well. We see how it makes parenting a tag-team exercise to trade off managing the increasing risk of Josh. We see how this pushes the parents apart; how the focus on the son risks destroying the intimacy between the adults. We see how it affects the daughter, who is secondary in the minds of her parents and whose life is forced to revolve around her brother and his outbursts. We also see how this looks to someone from the outside — in this case, Bill’s mother — who had no idea the extent of danger the family faces everyday. We see how living with the unpredictability of autism ratchets up the stress on the family.

I came into this play knowing only that it was a comedy/drama about a family living with autism. I came out seeing people I love in these actors. The family on stage mirrored, to varying extents, relatives of mine. They mirrored children my wife works with in her reading group at Van Nuys High. I gained understanding about what their parents are dealing with — understanding of the strength, determination, and love that such families have, and the day to day struggles they face. This play did just want good theatre is supposed to do — it made me think and reflect, to contemplate about my life and the life of those around me. This wasn’t a brainless tap-dancing extravaganza; it wasn’t an escapist musical or comedy that takes me away from my troubles. This was a mirror of real life, expertly performed, that exposes the drama that goes on around us without us seeing it. Everyone should see this play.

One of the things that makes this play work is the performing ensemble — the five actors that made up this family. Under the directoral hand of Elina de Santos (FB)  (assisted by Julia Doolittle (FB, TW)), this family seemed… real.   I can’t seem to think of a higher complement. As the mother, Tami Martin, Anna Khaja (FB) projected the inner strength required to continually deal with her son — you could see this strength in the humor she projected to keep him up, and you could see it in her fear when he became violent. Khaja also, however, portrayed the vulnerability behind that strength — demonstrated when she broke down after her son acted out, or when she considered what life would be without her son. As the father, Bill Martin, Matthew Elkins portrayed a different sort of inner strength and vulnerability. You could see his strength when dealing with his son and taking over for his wife, but you could also see in his performance how dealing with his son was destroying the relationship with his wife and daughter (in fact, rather telling, there was little father-daughter interaction in the show). These actors just seemed to inhabit their characters — you could see the love they had for each other, you could see the love they had for their children … you could see them as a family.

The children were also realistic. As you left the show, you really believed that Josh was autistic — showing the believability and attention to detail that Matt Little put into his performance. He had the looks, inattention, mannerisms, inappropriate focus, and behavior that just convinced you he was truly dealing with austism. In real life, he was also dealing with pain — according to the director, he had sprained his ankle a few days before and was performing in a boot, without crutches. This makes his performance and his focus even more remarkable (I’m continually amazed by the strength of actors to perform through the pain — something we saw also saw in DOMA’s production of Nine and the Patio Playhouse production of “Young Frankenstein). Also believable was Tara Windley (FB) as the teen daughter, Lisa.  As the father of a teen daughter, I can confirm that she portrayed a realistic teen — focused on herself and the wrongs done to her by her parents. But she also portrayed those moments of maturity that one increasingly sees as their daughter matures into a young woman. Again, believable and realistic.

Rounding out the cast/family was Karen Landry (FB) as Sue Martin, Josh’s grandmother and Bill’s father. She provided the outsider’s point of view — the point of view of someone who hadn’t been living with the autism perturbations on a daily basis. Again, her character seemed real — the concerned outsider who meant well, but in disturbing the routine and missing the signs, actually exacerbated the situation.

As I said — all in all, these were great performances that made you believe this was a real family. You saw the love and concern between the characters, but also saw the stress that having an autistic family member brings. Well, well played.

Supporting these performances was an excellent technical and artistic team. When I walked into the performance space (this was our first time at Rogue Machine), I was impressed by how realistic the set looked, with an intense attention to detail that made the set look like a real home. Credit for this goes to the team of Stephanie Kerley Schwartz (FB), who did the scenic design, and Sharron Shayne (FB), who did the property design.  Also contributing to the realism were the background sounds — the music, the dogs, the ambient noise provided by the sound design of Christopher Moscatiello (FB). The lighting design of Leigh Allen (FB) was subtle but effective in both setting the mood and conveying the passage of time (particularly the background lighting). The costumes by Elizabeth A. Cox again seemed realistic, but also seemed to take a lot of abuse (especially Tami’s costume). Joe Sofranko (FB) was the fight director, and made the acting-out interactions of Josh and Tami so believable that you really thought she was in danger. Rounding out the artistic team was Ramon Valdez (FB) (Stage Manager), Stephanie Kerley Schwartz (FB) (Resident Designer), John Perrin Flynn (FB) (Artistic Director), Elina de Santos (FB) (Co-Artistic Director), Amanda Mauer (FB) (Production Manager), David Mauer (FB) (Technical Director), Laura Hill (Managing Director), and Matthew Elkins (Producing Director).

Falling” continues at the Rogue Machine Theatre (FB) through December 22. Tickets are available through Rogue Machine Theatre; they may also be available through Goldstar Events. Sunday matinees have special wrap-around programs before and after the show dealing with Autism, presented in conjunction with the show’s community partner, The Miracle Project. This was our first time at Rogue Machine Theatre, and we were impressed with the quality of their project and their mission to produce new works. We plan to watch what they do, and we hope to be back.

Dining Notes: Originally, we thought about getting dinner at Versailles Cuban down the street, but we changed our mind and opted to eat instead at The Brownstone Bistro next door to the theatre. We were glad we did: we split a delightful salad and an expertly prepared salmon filet, with loads of fresh veggies. Much healthier than Versailles would have been (or some of the other choices in the area, such as Lucy’s Drive In or Roscoe’s Chicken and Wings). Although we didn’t know it when we ate there, if you stop at the theatre first and pick up your program, you can enjoy a 3-course pre-show prix fixe dinner for $20/person, or get a complementary glass of house wine or dessert with purchase of a full priced entree.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Next weekend brings a quick local show before ACSAC:  The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School on Friday, December 6. We then leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When we return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled for theatre, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Of course, there will be the traditional movie and Chinese Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January: The first scheduled show is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, brings the first show of the REP East (FB) 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“ (which we last saw at REP in 2006). February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB) on March 29. It may also bring “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 22. The end of the month (actually April 5) bring “In The Heights” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Miracle on S Division Street (Colony)userpic=colonyCatholic shrines and iconography. This is something I’ve never understood, being Jewish. The reference given to statues and miracles is just something beyond my ken. Yet such a shrine is at the heart of the last play of this weekend, “Miracle on South Division Street” by Tom Dudzick (FB), which we saw this afternoon at The Colony Theatre (FB) in Burbank.

Tom Dudzick describes his play as follows: “Miracle on South Division Street” is the story of the Nowak family, living amidst the urban rubble of Buffalo, NY’s East Side. Maybe the neighborhood is depressed, but not Clara, the family matriarch. She happily runs her soup kitchen and tends to the family heirloom – a twenty-foot shrine to the Blessed Mother which adjoins the house. This neighborhood beacon of faith commemorates the day in 1942 when the Blessed Virgin Mary materialized in her father’s barber shop! When the play opens, a family meeting is in progress. Daughter Ruth divulges her plan to finally “go public” with the family miracle by creating a one-woman play about the sacred event. But during the course of the meeting, the entire family’s faith is shaken to the very core when a deathbed confession causes the family legend to unravel. The results are heartfelt and hilarious.

Based on a true “shrine” in Buffalo on Senaca Street, the summary above is essentially correct. The main characters are Clara (Ellen Crawford (FB)), the family matriarch, and her three children: Ruth (Karianne Flaathen (FB)), an actress who has written a one-woman play based on the true story of the shrine; Jimmy (Brian Ibsen (FB)), who is about to propose to his girlfriend (whom the family has never met); and Beverly (Meghan Andrews (FB)), who is involved with a near-priest and whose sense of self comes from the shrine. I won’t spoil the secret of the shrine; let’s just say that it was quite unexpected and leads to quite hilarious results.

As always at the Colony, the play was very well performed. All of the cast was exceptionally talented and believable — I especially appreciated the little facial gestures and movements that made it look as if they were inhabiting their characters. Credit, as always, goes to a mix of the acting team and the director, Brian Shnipper (FB).

Technically, the set by Jeff McLaughlin (FB) did a wonderful job of creating a 1940s-era bungalow in Buffalo, down to the linoleum on the floor. This was supported by the appropriate props (including a load of food) from MacAndMe (FB). The costumes by Dianne K. Graebner (FB) worked well to convey the sense of place.  The sound effects by Drew Dalzell (FB) blended in well, and the lighting by Jared A. Sayeg (FB) was simple but effective. Leesa Freed (FB) was the production stage manager.

Miracle on South Division Street” continues at the Colony Theatre through December 15. It is well worth seeing. Tickets are available through the Colony Theatre, as well as through outlets such as Goldstar.

Dining Notes: Well, this really isn’t a dining note — more of a gaming note. Game Haus Cafe (FB), a project we helped Kickstart, has opened its doors in Glendale. Game Haus is a board game cafe — there are hundreds of board games as well as a small menu. For $5 you can game all day. An interesting concept, marred only by slightly difficult parking (which is beyond their control). Still, I intend to go back there, because I can play without having to wait for a scheduled game day. I’m thinking of going the day after Thanksgiving, assuming my head cooperates. Anyone want to join me? There is a summary of the games they have on Boardgamegeek.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  This afternoon brings the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB). Thanksgiving weekend brings Falling at Rogue Machine on Sat November 30, and may also bring the concert “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” at REP East (FB) on Sunday December 1 [I'm unsure about this -- on the one hand, it supports REP East... but on the other hand, it's Christmas music]. December will start with The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School on Friday, December 6. We then leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When we return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled for theatre, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Of course, there will be the traditional movie and Chinese Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January: The first scheduled show is on January 18: “Mom’s Gift” at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood. The following weekend, January 25, is on hold for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season. February 8 will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). The following weekend, February 15, is being held for Lysistrata Jones at The Chance Theatre (FB) in Anaheim. The last weekend of February, February 22, is currently being held for Sutton Foster at the Broad Stage (FB) in Santa Monica (if I can find discount tickets). March brings “Sex and Education” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on March 8, and March 22 is being held for “Biloxi Blues” at REP East (FB). Lastly, we may go see “Harmony” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB) on March 29. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Play It Again Sam (Rep East)userpic=repeastThis has been a busy live entertainment weekend: a folksinging legend Friday night, the Virgin Mary and a miracle this afternoon, and sandwiched between them: a nebbish New Yorker trying to find a relationship. Specifically, last night we were in Newhall for the final show in Repertory East’s 9th season: “Woody Allen’s ”Play It Again, Sam” “.

Play It Again, Sam“, before it was the 1972 film, was a 1969 Broadway comedy by Woody Allen. The story is basically the same, although it takes place in New York. Allan Felix, a nervous nebbish New Yorker who watches and writes about film for a living, has just been dumped by his wife, Nancy. Linda, the wife of Allan’s best friend Dick, keeps trying to fix Allan up with various friends. Nothing works, because Allan is so scared of women that the persona he adopts overdoes it and scares them away. It doesn’t help that he still hasn’t let go of the memory of his ex-wife (who keeps belittling him in his mind), and imagines romances as if life was Casablanca — to the point of taking relationship advice from an imaginary Bogart. In the process of trying to find the right girl, Allan keeps spending time with Linda. Linda, in turn, becomes charmed with Allan’s real persona; this is helped by the fact that Dick is too focused on business (a running joke is that he is constantly calling his office to leave the number he is at — ah, pre-cell-phone days). Eventually, Linda and Allan fall for each other. Will she have an affair and leave Dick? C’mon, this is Woody Allen, so you likely can guess the answer. At the end of the play, a neighbor comes over, and she and Allan seem to hit it off.

There are some comedy styles that you either love or are just lukewarm towards. Jerry Lewis is one of them. Woody Allen is another. Some love Allen’s nebbish New Yorker persona (very often, New Yorkers themselves). Others don’t see the appeal in the style. Alas, I’m in the latter camp — the only Allen movie I’ve liked at all was Annie Hall, and that was a bit more Los Angeles based. I’m just not into the self-deprecating, down-on-yourself annoying persona that Allen adopts. So the story here did not grab me as others might. This is not a fault of REP, for there are many that love Woody Allen. It also doesn’t help that I’m not a big movie fan — in particular, I’m not a big Bogart fan, and have never seen Casablanca. There were likely numerous movie references to films from that ever that went completely past me. Still, there were humorous points in the play and the acting kept me entertained. More on that in a minute.

One major problem with the play is that it reflects a very warped attitude towards women — one that is uncomfortable today, but was all too prevalent when the play was written. This can be seen in the continual advice from Bogart to slap women around. It can be seen in Allan’s focus on finding a women primarily for the sex. Where it is most troubling is in the scene where Allan and Linda discuss the possibility of rape, and Allen (the author) puts words in Linda’s mouth about potentially wanting rape, if it was with the right man. This is absolutely the wrong message to be sending (and it may be a subconscious reflection of Woody Allen’s attitude towards women, as seen in his subsequent relationships).

When you get past the Woody Allen character, there are a number of things to like about this play. It does send a good message about the façades we put up scaring away people: often, we put on a persona about the people we think we want, and this scares away the people we need. That’s a good message to be sending. It also sends a message about what an over-focus on business and being connected can do to a relationship. We see this in the relationship between Dick and Linda, who are growing apart because of Dick’s over-focus on work and under-focus on his wife. By the end of the play, Dick has been reminded of the importance of Linda in his life, and that his sole attention cannot be work, work, work.

Then there is the “movie message.” Allan Felix is a man who lives and breathes old movies: he writes about them, he watches them, he memorizes them. They are his obsession, and in many ways they drive his perception of what a man should be and how a man should behave. This is seen through the focus on Bogart, through the movie posters, through the melodramatic ways Allan fantasizes that situations will play out. This is ultimately exposed as being unhealthy — what is healthy is to just be yourself and to attract people through you.

Patrick Rogers (FB), as Allan Felix, does a good job of channeling Woody Allen — he captures the neurotic behavior, the voice, and the mannerisms quite well. Performance-wise, he nails it. In fact, he captures it so well that — if you’re like me and not a fan of the Allen persona — you can’t see what women would like about this man. However, if you can get past the Woody Allen schtick, he does have a number of funny lines. Allen (the author) does know how to write good jokes, and you’ll find yourself laughing at them even if the persona annoys you.

Another wonderful performance — perhaps even stronger performance — was given by Jessica Kaye Temple (FB) as Linda Christie.  She was sweet, she was cute, she was playful, she was sexy in a 1960s-repressed way, … she was just a delight to watch.  Your eye was drawn to her whenever she was one the stage. We’ve seen her before on the REP stage, and it is just a joy to see her again. Playing her husband, Dick, was Gregor Manns (FB). Manns gave a good performance as the man more focused on business; however, the attempt at modern casting was a bit jarring in the historical period of the show. It ended up working because of Manns’ skills.

Rounding out the cast were Bonnie He (FB) [Dream Sharon, Barbara], Lara Hughes (FB) [Nancy, Gina], Jason J. Lewis (FB) [Humphrey Bogart], and Kaitie Ty Warren (FB) [Sharon, Vanessa, Go-Go, Intell'l Girl]. A few notes here. Lewis channeled Bogart very well — or to be more accurate — he presented the expected caricature of Bogart, as the actor was probably not always his Casablanca persona. He, although not on stage much, is always fun to watch. I have to wonder if the ending of the play involving her was tacked on — according to Wikipedia it was not in the movie version, and it just felt too conveniently “feel good”. Ah well, it was early Woody Allen.

For the most part, the direction by Marlowe Weisman (FB) (assisted by Janice Crow-Christensen/FB) was good. There were a few pronunciations that weren’t New York (I caught chiropodist, which is not pronounced like chiro-practor, and our friends caught another)… but in general the movement, positioning, and mannerisms worked well.

The technical team was a little bit different this time. Sets were designed by Madison Orgill (FB), with properties by Danielle Honeyman/FB. These worked very well at establishing the place — I appreciated the period magazines, as well as the period Lays potato chip bag. Additional props were by Amy Ganyo. Costumes were designed by Janet McAnany/FB, and (at least to my eye) seemed appropriately period. As always, the lighting design was by Tim Christianson/FB, and the sound design was by Steven “Nanook” Burkholder/FBTaylor Kozlowski/FB was the stage manager, and Marie-Claire Erdynast/FB was the production stage manager. The show was produced by Mikee Schwinn/FB and Ovington Michael Owston/FB.

Woody Allen’s ”Play It Again, Sam” ” continues at Repertory East Playhouse through December 14. Tickets are available through the REP Online Box Office. They are also available through Goldstar Events, as well as other discount venues. REP has also announced their 10th season: “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (January 17-February 15, 2014); “Biloxi Blues” (March 7-April 5, 2014); “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (May 16-June 14, 2014); “Return to the Forbidden Planet (A Jukebox Musical)” (July 11-August 16, 2014); “The Great Gatsby” (September 12-October 18, 2014), and “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club” (November 14-December 13, 2014). Season tickets are also available starting at $120 for all six shows (adult; senior/students $110).

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  This afternoon brings the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB). Thanksgiving weekend brings Falling at Rogue Machine on Sat November 30, and may also bring the concert “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” at REP East (FB) on Sunday December 1 [I'm unsure about this -- on the one hand, it supports REP East... but on the other hand, it's Christmas music]. December will start with The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School on Friday, December 6. We then leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When we return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled for theatre, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Of course, there will be the traditional movie and Chinese Food on Christmas Day — right now, the two movie possibilities are “Saving Mr. Banks” opening December 13 (meaning we can use group discount tickets), or “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” opening December 25. None of the other December releases look worth the money (I’d rather see “August: Osage County” on the stage, thankyouverymuch). Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014… and the end of the month will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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We see Tom Paxton whenever comes to town. I’d say last night was his annual visit, but it’s actually been about 18 months since he was last here (April 2012). The venue, of course, was the same: McCabes in Santa Monica. It wasn’t completely sold out, but was close (tonight’s show is sold out). The show itself was great, although looking back, it was roughly the same program as in April 2012 (about 80% of the songs, although the order was slightly different), and was also similar to January 2011.Tom was accompanied last night by Fred Sokolow, another talented performer, on slide dobro, mandolin, and banjo. The show consisted of the following songs (* indicates new for this year; † indicates songs not yet on a Tom Paxton album; ‡ performed by Fred Sokolow):.

Act I Act II
How Beautiful Upon The Mountain
Battle of the Sexes*†
Your Shoes, My Shoes
There Goes the Mountain*
Whose Garden Was This?*
My Pony Knows The Way
And If It’s Not True
Central Square†
Getting Up Early
Virginia Morning*†
Anytime
Over The Hill*†‡
Redemption Road*†
Buffalo Dreams*†
Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound*
Did You Hear John Hurt?*
Bottle of Wine
Ireland*†
Last Thing on My Mind (Parody)
Last Thing on My Mind
Ramblin’ Boy
The Bravest
Comedians and Angels
Parting Glass*† (poem)

Tom indicated that he is working on a new CD, which is perhaps about 6 to 18 months from completion. Looking at the last 3 shows, songs that are likely for this CD are: Battle of the Sexes, Central Square, Virginia Morning, Redemption Road, Buffalo Dream, Ireland, and (from two years ago) He Couldn’t Lay His Hands On A Gun. It might also have Fred’s songs, Over The Hill and 10 Years (from 2011).

For you oldsters… Fred’s song was great. Here’s a video of Fred singing it. Give it a listen.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Tonight bring “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend brings Falling at Rogue Machine on Sat November 30, and may also bring the concert “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” at REP East (FB) on Sunday December 1 [I'm unsure about this -- on the one hand, it supports REP East... but on the other hand, it's Christmas music]. December will start with The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School on Friday, December 6. We then leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When we return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014… and the end of the month will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Children of Eden (Trollplayers)userpic=theatre_musicalsReligion often portrays God as a loving parent, benevolent, always striving to see the good in his children, infinitely patient with their faults. But being a parent is never easy. Further, if we are created in God’s image, then God is as human as we are, and subject to human faults and foibles… and similar problems with his children. This appears to be the point of the musical we saw last night at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Northridge (FB), where the Theatrical Repertory of Our Lady of Lourdes (TROLL) (FB) presented the musical “Children of Eden” (music and lyrics by Steven Schwartz (FB), book by John Caird, based on a concept by Charles Lisanby, which in turn, although uncredited, was based on a concept by, umm, God (or whomever wrote the book of Genesis)).

TROLL Players is a new production group to us. We learned about this production when Meggan Taylor/FB, who is active in our former synagogue Temple Beth Torah, posted on Facebook about two members of the Temple choir (John and Tina Scott, who are also members of the co-located Episcopal Church choir) being in this production.  “Children of Eden” is a title of interest to me; it is one of those shows I’ve heard but never seen. So I was pleased to learn of this group (even thought it is an amateur group) and secured tickets to the production. I’m glad I did, and will look for future productions of other shows I’ve never seen.

Back to “Children of Eden” (COE). As I noted above, COE is a musical by Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of Godspell, Pippin, and the current juggernaut, Wicked. It has never been produced on or off-Broadway. It was originally written for a high-school theatre camp. Schwartz subsequently adapted it for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it never transferred to the US. It was revived by Papermill Playhouse in NJ, and has been popular with non-Broadway companies. However, I haven’t seen it produced in Los Angeles before.

COE tells the story of the creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah from the Book of Genesis. In doing so, it falls into the small number of biblical musicals (others being The Apple Tree, Two by TwoJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,  and, umm, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar… surprisingly, I couldn’t think of any Abrahamatic or post-Joseph through pre-Jesus musicals). The first act focuses on Adam and Eve; the second on Noah. I’m not sure a synopsis of that story is really necessary — however, if you want a synopsis of how the show presents the story, I refer you to  either the MTI show page or the Wikipedia page. The basic message of the show focuses on the nature of the relationship between fathers and their children. Specifically, the message appears to be that despite the best efforts of fathers to protect their children, children will discover their own life and eventually separate. They will disobey, and they will learn to pay the consequences.

A problematic aspect of COE is how it portrays the characters (which was especially jarring seeing how the performance venue was the church’s parish hall). God comes off rather badly — he’s a parent who holds grudges, who tars an entire family branch based on the sins of the parent, who doesn’t always have unconditional love for his children, and who has problems communicating with his children. I’m aware this is in the source material as well :-) , but the show seems to highlight it as well. It also seems to highlight — at least in the first act — a problematic portrayal of Eve as the reason for the downfall. Again, this is a common liturgical theme (especially in Christianity), but I wonder if these thematic aspects are one reason the show was problematic for critics. Personally, I found these aspects interesting: the show not only refreshed my knowledge of the book of Genesis, but made me think and question about the material and what it says. This is something theatre does very well. It would be interesting to see this show paired with a church-led discussion of this subject and the portrayal — good theatre can stimulate great discussion of themes.

The music of the show is wonderful. The show is mostly sung through, and some songs are particular favorites — “In Pursuit of Excellence” and “Ain’t It Good” being two I particularly like. Although I was familiar with the story and the music, I found it interesting to hear the songs in the context of the book. Many of the songs are choral; this show was designed for a large group. As always, when I hear this show in the future, I’ll think of this production.

Speaking of this production: For an amateur production, this was very good. I don’t expect an amateur production to have perfect singing or execution — the cast and crew just haven’t always had the training. Amateur productions are the first in a series up the ladder to fully professional productions. As such, any comments below should be understood in the context of helping the performers to improve, not to denigrate their hard work.

First and foremost, the performance (i.e., straight acting) in this show was wonderful. Although a few of the younger folks looked a little confused, most of the actors on stage were having fun with this show. I particularly enjoyed watching the faces of the storytellers during the show and how they reacted on the various numbers. Also strong was the expressiveness of the leads in the various segments. I’m never sure how much of this is what the actor brings, and how much of this is what the director brings out; I do believe that in a good production you can’t distinguish between the two as the performance is that natural and organic. In any case, this show had strong performances; in particular, I still remember the performances of Kassandra Lee Scott/FB as Eve/Mama Noah, Joy Walker/FB as Yonah, Greg Walker/FB as “Father” (God), Philippe Martinez/FB as Adam/Noah, Trevor Alkazian/FB as Cain/Japheth, and Roger Ritenour (FB) in numerous small roles. I’m sure some measure of the credit for the performances goes to the director, Deb Owen (FB). One final performance note: an interesting addition to this show was the sign language performance of Darlene Wittman.

Also strong in this production was the dance. This was particularly noticeable during the return of the animals — the movement and the characterizations of the animals made any particular costumes unnecessary (I particularly enjoyed the apes and elephants). In general, the movement and dance throughout the show was great. Credit here goes to the choreographers — the aforementioned Kassandra Lee Scott/FB and Roger Ritenour (FB). Kayley Norman/FB was the dance captain.

What makes a musical, however, is the singing and the music. A few of the performers were very strong and blew me away with the quality of their performances — especially considering that the program identified no vocal training. In this tier I particularly want to note Kassandra Lee Scott/FB as Eve/Mama Noah and Joy Walker/FB as Yonah. Both were just wonderful. Also strong was Roger Ritenour (FB) as the head of the snake, Christy Nevarez/FB as one of the storytellers on “Generations”, and whomever was the second segment of the snake (I’m guessing Emily Sawdey/FB). However, this was an amateur production, and most of the voices were more at the 85%-90% level — still very good, but with the occasional problem. These voices could be outstanding with a little more work. In this tier were the other leads: Greg Walker/FB as “Father” (God), Philippe Martinez/FB as Adam/Noah, Trevor Alkazian/FB as Cain/Japheth. All had moments when you could hear that the quality in the voice was there, and all were strong when combined with their acting performances. I’ll also note that the ensemble as a whole was wonderful in the choral numbers.

Overall, the cast for the show was as follows: Trevor Alkazian/FB (Storyteller, Cain/Japeth), Amy Brophy (Storyteller), Joshua Celaya/FB (Storyteller, Seth/Shem), Jim Cordi (Storyteller), Giovanni Di Nova-Daly (Storyteller), Jo Di Nova-Daly/FB (Storyteller, Snake), Olivia Di Nova-Daly (Storyteller), Jonathan Engstrom/FB (Storyteller, Abel/Ham), Kim Flamma (Dove), Noah Gulbransen (Storyteller, Young Cain), Nicki Heyd/FB (Storyteller), Ferra Kochanek (Storyteller), Matthew Krzewinski (Storyteller), Philippe Martinez/FB (Storyteller, Adam/Noah), Dan Meehan (Storyteller, Snake), Patty Miller (Storyteller), Christy Nevarez/FB (Storyteller), Kayley Norman/FB (Storyteller), Mark Pasano/FB (Storyteller), Roger Ritenour (FB), Shaina Sarmiento (Storyteller, Young Abel), Emily Sawdey/FB (Storyteller, Snake, Aphra), John Scott (Storyteller), Kassandra Lee Scott/FB (Storyteller, Eve/Mama Noah), Tina Scott (Storyteller), Graciela Tiu (Storyteller), Cassie Walker (Storyteller, Snake), Greg Walker/FB (Father), Joy Walker/FB (Storyteller, Yonah), Darlene Wittman (Storyteller, Intercessor), Holly Lynn Wolcott/FB (Storyteller), Kiyoko Ana “Kiki” Zushi (Baby Eve), and Stephanie Alkazian Zushi/FB (Storyteller, Seth’s wife, Aysha).

The small on-site orchestra was under the musical direction of Marcella Carmona (FB), and was generally very good. It consisted of a keyboard, accordion, flute/piccolo, drums/percussion, harp, bass, and clarinet/saxophone/french horn. The only problematic instrument was the accordion, which was either too loud or slightly out of tune … for in a couple of numbers it overpowered.

Turning to the technical side of things: Some things here worked quite well. The scenic design of Hugh Fitch/FB was very simple: some risers, a plain backdrop, a few props. This worked will with the strong performances to establish the mood. I’m curious how this would be staged in a venue with more to spend on sets and such — would an attempt to have more realistic sets overpower the show? The costumes by Mary Engstrom were similarly simple: gowns or tan outfits with the occasional colorful sash or overshirt. They served to identify but not be overly realistic, allowing the performances to create the character. However, the costumes came together in the final scene with the rainbow. As for the more technical aspects: lighting and sound, which were under the design of Stephanie Alkazian Zushi/FB… the lighting worked reasonably well (and I was impressed by the number of lights the parish had). There were some good background projections, and the colors were OK. The follow spots were occasionally a little off. Sound was much more problematic, with the occasional static and more significant muddiness that impacted the quality of the performers voices. Hopefully, they can get a local sound engineer to come in and tune their setup. Stephanie Alkazian Zushi/FB also served as combat choreographer and technical director — a busy young women. Dolores Bator was the house manager, Brittany Cahill was the stage manager, and Katie Soukup/FB was in charge of the box office (and got us our tickets, and my wife a hard candy when she really needed it).

Two last things I noticed about the Parish Hall, which struck me as oddly funny. First, both Jesus and the Virgin Mary are chained to the building (well, their statues are). Are they afraid they are going to leave in the middle of the night? (Actually, they are chained so they don’t fall in an earthquake, but it was just an odd juxtaposition, when you think about it). Secondly, there was a payphone in the hall with a little yellow sticker above it noting some free calls that could be made. The first two made me laugh: Press *3 to receive God’s blessing, press *4 if you need cash now :-) .

There is one more performance of “Children of Eden” at Our Lady Of Lourdes: today at 2pm. Tickets are available at the door. Our Lady of Lourdes is located at 18420 Kinzie St, Northridge, 1 block south of Lassen just off Reseda. Tickets are $15 donations.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  This evening is a a release party for a Kickstarted-CD by Big Daddy. Next weekend is very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend brings Falling at Rogue Machine on Sat November 30, and may also bring the concert “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” at REP East (FB) on Sunday December 1 [I'm unsure about this -- on the one hand, it supports REP East... but on the other hand, it's Christmas music]. December will start with The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School on Friday, December 6. We then leave for New Orleans and the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC). When we return we have an interesting play, “Sherlock Through the Looking Glass“, at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (FB). December, as currently scheduled, concludes with “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014… and the end of the month will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (ARTS)userpic=theatre_musicalsThere are a number of shows where I purchase the cast album, and am lukewarm towards the show until I actually see it and can put the songs in context. There are other shows where I fall in love with the music the first time I hear it, and I’m eager to see a production.  One show in this latter category is “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. I bought the cast album back in October of 2005 and fell in love with the music and the extremely clever lyrics (I always thought a particular song in the first act was an allegory for a previous occupant of the White House). Alas, I was unable to see the show when the tour hit the Pantages or when it visited Orange County. I finally caught the show in 2010 when it was performed at the NoHo Arts Center by Interact Theatre Company. That show was good but had some problems. When I learned it was being done by Actors Repertory Theatre of Simi Valley (FB) at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center (FB), I put it on my calendar to get tickets. We saw the show last night. It was a very good production — a few technical problems, but the performances were excellent and it was a delight to watch.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is based on the 1988 movie with Steve Martin and Michael Caine (written by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning). Adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Lane, and with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, the story centers on two competing con men living on the French Riviera. At first, the suave and experienced Lawrence Jameson takes the rookie con man, Freddy, under his wing. But soon, Freddy tries to compete directly with Lawrence. The competition comes to a peak when they agree that the first con man to extract $50,000 from the female heiress, Christine Colgate, wins and the other must leave town forever. Going into further details might spoil the story for those who haven’t seen it, so I’ll note there is a more detailed synopsis on Wikipedia.

The original Broadway production had stellar performances by John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, and Sheri Rene Scott in a full size house with massive scene changes. Smaller theatres have to get more creative with their spaces to pull this off; further, given their funding limitations, their casting presents more of a challenge. Actors Repertory Theatre of Simi Valley (FB) (henceforth, ARTS) has a few more challenges in this area, as they are an all volunteer organization that uses a mix of seasoned actors from the community and local amateurs. I’m pleased to say that ARTS’ casting worked: the combination of stellar leads, a strong ensemble, and good direction from Sean P. Harrington (FB). The strength of the performance overcame the few technical and musical glitches to provide a very strong show that was fun to watch. As I commonly say, I can never tell where the contributions of the director from the contributions of the actor, and so I tend to credit the actor believing the best directoral hand is an invisible one.  So to the extent my good words below belong to the director, consider them allocated.

One of the primary reasons for the success of this production are the leads: Kristopher Kyer (FB) as Lawrence Jamison, Stephen Weston (FB) as Freddy Benson, and Christanna Rowader (blog) (FB) as Christine Colgate. I know Kyer from the Forgotten Musicals group on FB, and we’ve seen him before as the lead in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at ARTS. He was spectacular as Jamison, pulling him off as suave with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. The strong performance combined with strong vocal and movement worked very well. You can tell he was having fun with this role — and I’ve noted before that when the actors are having fun, the audience feeds off of that. Unlike the performance at NoHo Arts, his Jamison did not hold back — you could see pieces of the stick flying when he was whipping the legs of Freddy during “Rüffhausen’ Mit Shüffhausen” . The maniacal energy was great. Also exhibiting maniacal energy was Weston as Benson. This young man (who we haven’t seen before) was spectacular at physical comedy, including some that appeared to be seemingly improvised. This was demonstrated strongly in the “All About Reprecht” number, as well as many others. Again, this comedy talent was combined with strong singing and talent for a great performance that amplified that of the other leads. In the last lead position was Rowader, who we’ve seen before at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) and is yet another performer with strong singing and performance abilities. I felt that she could have amped up the physical comedy a pinch more in her introductory number (“Here I Am”) and her bedroom scene with Buzz; the physical clumisness of the schlmiel that is Christine needs to appear more painful for the poor schlemazel. But in the scheme of things (hmmm, and this is a musical about the scheme of things) that’s minor — Rowader is playful and works well with both Kyer and Weston, so much so that you can see them as a realistic team. This is the heart of the show, and this is what makes it work.   [Note: For some reason, Kyer is listed as Kristopher Antekeier in the first cast list in the program.]

In the second tier we have Elizabeth Stockton (FB) as Muriel (of Omaha) and Kevin Ellis/FB (filling in for Jeff Wallach (FB)) as Andre Thibault. Stockton’s Muriel was a very strong singer and performer (although she needs to fix the timing on “I’m Muriel, of Omaha”, although the audience that remembers Marlin Perkins is probably small now), and she seemed to really enjoy the witty lines the scripts give her. We’ve seen Ellis before — most notably, his excellent performance in CSUN’s Hair back in 2006, and he continues to be a strong performer. The combination of strong singing, good timing, and comic expressions from these two just made them fun to watch. Also fun to watch was Sharon Gibson/FB‘s Jolene Oakes. Her singing could have been a little stronger in the “Oklahoma” number, but her comic reactions during “All About Ruprecht” were great.

Rounding out the cast in smaller roles and ensemble positions were: Jamie Whittington Studer (FB) (Lenore), Cynthia Caldwell/FB (Sophia / Ensemble), Tabitha Ellis (FB) (Renée / Ensemble), Julio Arroyo (FB) (Ensemble), David Bañuelos/FB (Ensemble), Chris Carnicelli (FB) (Train Conductor / Tourist / Nikos / Ensemble), Tori Cusack (FB) (Ensemble / Dance Captain), Morgan Difonzo/FB (Ensemble), Kyle Harrington/FB (Ensemble), Ryan Huebner/FB (Ensemble), Allison Lobel (FB) (Ensemble), Andy Mattick (FB) (Ensemble), and Julie Snyder (FB) (Ensemble).

The choreography was by Becky Castells (FB), and it worked reasonably well given the performer mix. What was most important about the choreography was that the performers  appeared to be having fun executing it, as opposed to focusing on getting their feet in the right places. This permitted them to enjoy the show, and pass the enjoyment to the audience. This is a good thing — I’ve seen some shows where you can see the dancers counting, and it isn’t fun.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” featured an onstage orchestra under the Musical Direction of Matthew Park. This volunteer orchestra was sizable (Cello, Reed I + II + III, Trumpet I + II, Horn, Trombone, Violin, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer I + II, Percussion, and Drums — sometimes with multiple people for a given position) and was, for the most part, good. I say “for the most part”, because one horn (likely one of the Trumpet Is) was both too loud and out of tune, which distorted the sound of the whole. Other than that, the orchestra performed well and my only quibble was the portion of the back wall and lift controls behind the percussionist in the middle.

Turning to the technical side of things: The set was relatively simple (even simpler than the NoHo Arts set), with a stairwell/podium in the center and a number of props that moved on and off stage. This design, by the director Sean P. Harrington (FB) worked reasonably well (although it could have used a touch more elegance). No credit was provided in the program for the sound design, but the sound was clear and reasonable crisp. Lighting was by Alex Choate (FB) and was reasonable good, although at times the follow spot was a bit glaring and should have been blended better. The costumes were designed by Cynthia Caldwell/FB and were (for the most part) good. Some of the ensemble’s gowns could be fitted better, and my wife felt that Muriel’s costume in the second act needed some correction in the pants (whereas I noticed the odd bare midriff). Again, minor problems. Rounding out the production team were Megan Tisler (FB) (Production Stage Manager), Lacey Stewart/FB (Tech Director), Brenda Miller/FB (Prop Mistress), Jamie Whittington Studer (FB) (Asst. Prop Mistress), DeeAnna Caldwell/FB (Asst. Costumer), Hedy Lu Bares/FB (Asst. Costumer), Chris Slack (Set Construction), Corey Slack (Set Construction), Lynn Hubbard (Set Construction), and Jan Glasband (FB) (Flyer and Program). “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” was produced by Jan Glasband (FB).

The Actors Repertory Theatre of Simi Valley (FB) production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundels” continues at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center (FB) through December 1, is and well worth seeing if you are looking for a good production of DRS at an affordable price. Tickets are available through ARTS, and discount tickets should be available through Goldstar. ARTS is also behind the upcoming Nottingham Village (FB) on November 16/17, which returns the Renaissance Festival to where it all began — eastern Ventura County! Upcoming ARTS productions at the SVCAC include “Shrek: The Musical” (March 30-April 6, 2014) — a birdie told me George Chavez/FB who we know from REP might be in this; “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (June 7-July 13, 2014), and “Godspell” (July 26-August 31, 2014). Other upcoming productions at SVCAC (non-ARTS) include “Plaid Tidings” (December 7-22, 2013) and “bare – A Rock Opera” (January 11-February 15, 2014).

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Next week is a rare theatre-free weekend, for we are visiting our buddy Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The following week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale), as well as seeing the Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. That weekend will also bring a release party for a Kickstarted-CD by Big Daddy. The weekend before Thanksgiving is also very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend is currently open, as is much of December (December is due to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans, which has me out of two the first two weekends in December… but has me wondering about New Orleans theatre), but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014… and the end of the month will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Wunderbar!

Oct. 27th, 2013 11:50 am
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Kiss Me Kate (Cabrillo)Cabrillo UserpicI’ve written before about how I love to finally see musicals I’ve only heard. That’s what led to me seeing a number of new musicals such as “bare“, “Ordinary Days“, and Burnt Part Boys” earlier this year. But sometimes it applies to older musicals as well. I’ve loved the music to “Kiss Me Kate” for years, but had never gotten around to seeing a production (part of this is because good revival productions of the musical are surprisingly rare in Southern California). That was remedied last night, at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) where I saw a truly outstanding production of Kiss Me Kate. In fact, it is one of the best Cabrillo productions I’ve seen in all our years of going to Cabrillo.

If you hadn’t figured it out from the title, Kiss Me Kate is a musical retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Before I relate a little history of the musical, let me gush a bit about Taming, which is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays (the other is Two Gentleman of Verona, which I know best from the 1970s musical). I’ve seen a number of incarnations of Taming — from the perfect version of Taming done as an episode of Moonlighting back in the 1980s to Shakespeare in the Park to another version this summer at Theatricum Botanticum. The retelling in this musical — while not capturing all the elements of the original — captures many of the key elements and language, and is a hoot to watch.

As for the musical itself: Kiss Me Kate has music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and a book by Sam and Bella Spewack.  Cole Porter was one of the most prolific and popular composers of his day. However, he had had a major horse riding accident in 1937 that resulted in the amputation of left leg. This affected his creative output generally, and by the mid-1940s he was dealing with depression. He was talked into writing Kiss Me Kate, and it went on to be one of the most successful musicals of the day. In fact, Kiss Me Kate won the first Tony award for best musical in 1949.

The conceit that makes this musical successful is that it is not just a musical version of Taming. It combines a musical Taming with a backstage story of the actors putting on a production of Taming in Baltimore. The backstage story mirrors the on-stage story: The leads of Taming: Katharine and Petruchio, are played by Lilli Vanessi and Fred Graham. Lilli and Fred have an equally tempestuous relationship and are currently both in love with each other and divorced from each other. Similarly, there is in offstage relationship between the secondary couple, Bianca (Lois Lane) and Lucentio (Bill Calhoun). The secondary relationship (played, as many secondary relationships were in shows of that day, for comic effect) is complicated by the fact that Lois sleeps around, but loves Bill… and Bill can’t stop gambling. In fact, Bill has recently incurred a $10,000 gambling debt from some local gangsters and signed the IOU… as Fred. Complicating all this is that Fred is trying to woo Lois and sends her flowers and a card before the show. However, these flowers and card are delivered to Lilli, who interprets the flowers as anniversary flowers and doesn’t read the card… until during the show. At this point the real shrew comes out, and the fur flies! In some ways, Lilli’s reaction during shrew brings in a some elements of a farce, and the reaction to her ad-libbed fighting makes the Taming scenes all the more fun.

Are there book problems? A few minor ones that show up only in retrospect — that is, when you compare Kate to modern musicals. A number of the songs are more like 1930s musicals in that they have no connection to advancing the plot. This was the pre-Oklahoma style that Porter grew up with. A number of scenes take place infront of a dropped curtain solely to allow scenery changes. These two combine in this show with the number “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”, which is clearly a killing time novelty number. But it’s fun… so no one cares. Similarly, the wonderful number “Too Darn Hot” adds absolutely nothing to the story other than a wonderful dance number… but this was common for musicals of the day (you’ve got similar numbers in Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game).  Again: so much fun, and no one cares with that dancing and that music.

So you’ve already got a winning basic story, and a winning conceit and wraparound story. Now add to this all the glorious Porter songs from this show that have become standards — I can’t think of a single one that hasn’t had strong popular play, except perhaps “From This Moment On”. This is what Cabrillo started with — great story, great music. What turned the Cabrillo production into something spectacular was the execution, which was perfect.

In discussing the execution, I’m going to start someplace I normally don’t start — with the musical side. A credit is not provided for the orchestrations here (I’m guessing they are based on the 1999 Broadway Revival), but they were wonderful — clear, crisp, energetic, bright, sparkingly. If you only knew this show from the cast album of the 1948 shows, you’ll be blown out of your seats. Credit here should likely therefore go to the 1999 musical team: orchestrations by Don Sebesky; dance arrangements by David Chase; under the 1999 musical direction of Paul Gemignani. However, I think more credit here goes to the Cabrillo team that executed that design: Darryl Archibald (FB) as musical director and Lloyd Cooper (FB) as associate conductor and assistant musical director.  The orchestra assembled by Darryl Tanikawa (FB) was also excellent and a delight to hear in these days of small efforts. It featured Darryl Archibald (FB) as conductor, and consisted of Gary Rautenberg (FB) [Flute I, Piccolo, Clarinet, Alto Sax I], Darryl Tanikawa (FB) [Clarinet I, Alto Sax II], Ian Dahlberg (FB) [Oboe, English-Horn, Tenor Sax, Flute, Clarinet], Darrin Smith [Bassoon, Bariton Sax, Clarinet, Flute], Bill Barrett [Trumpet I, Flugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet], Chris Maurer/FB [Trumpet II, Flugelhorn, Piccolo Trumpet], June Satton [Trombone, Bass Trombone], Melissa Hendrickson [Horn], Sharon Cooper [Violin I - Concertmaster, Mandolin], Sally Berman [Violin II, Mandolin], Marisa Mcleod [Viola], Rachel Coosaia (FB) [Cello], Lloyd Cooper (FB) [Piano, Keyboard Synth I], Bill Fulton [Keyboard Synth II], Shane Harry [Electric & Acoustic Double String Bass], Michael Deutsch [Percussion] and Alan Peck [Set Drums].  Particularly noteworthy was the trumpet performance of Bill Barrett (at least I’m guessing it was Barrett) onstage during “Too Darn Hot”. But during a number of songs the quality of the orchestral team was apparent — they were just great.

Of course, the on-stage team was no slouch either. Under the perfect direction of Richard Israel (FB), and dancing their feet off with the choreography of John Todd (FB), the acting team also blows you away. Again, I’m particularly noting the directing and choreography team here, because I kept noticing all the small things going on in the background during performances that made this special. This was particularly noteworthy during “Too Darn Hot”, but was in other numbers as well. There was so much going on you need to see this show multiple times to catch it all — but today is the last performance. The team of Israel and Todd brought out the fun in these actors and they just had fun with their characters — and this came across wonderfully on stage. This is what I absolutely love to see — and it is something you don’t get in the movies — performers infused with the joy of performing and their characters, and this joy just infecting and reflecting to the audience.

OK, OK, but what about the actors. In the lead positions were Davis Gaines (FB) as Fred/Petruchio and Victoria Strong (FB) as Lilli/Kate. We’ve seen both many times – Gaines most recently in Silence! , and Strong many years ago in Light in the Piazza. Both were perfect in these roles and brought a dynamism and energy that was spectacular. Both also brought wonderful voices. I particularly enjoyed pulling out the binoculars and watching the faces of these two — they were having such delight and fun with their roles. Just a joy to watch. They had so many strong numbers it is hard to single them out, but I particularly remember Strong taking no prisoners in “I Hate Men” and Gaines in “Where Is The Life that Late I Led”, although they were also great in their joint numbers.

As the secondary couple, Scott Reardon (FB) (Bill/Lucento) and Reba Buhr (FB-Actor, FB) (Lois /Bianca) were no slouches either.  We’ve seen both before as well — Reardon as Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress and Buhr as Sally in You‘re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (one of the best things about that show). Both sang well and performed well, especially in numbers such as “Bianca” (Reardon) and “Always True to You in My Fashion” (Buhr).

Also noteworthy were the two gangsters (a common comedy theme in musicals, which was spoofed in The Drowsy Chaperone): Tom McMahon (FB) and Steve Greene (FB). These two had their main number in “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”, but performed their comic relief role well throughout the production.

In terms of smaller roles, there was the lovely black lady who played Lilli’s dresser (I’m guessing this was Raquel Jeté (FB) as Hattie) and Lamont Whitaker (FB) (Paul), who just shone throughout “Too Darn Hot” and in other small roles. The remainder of the cast is harder to single out primarily because their roles aren’t as strongly identified to the audience in the script. However, a number stand out in my memory even if I don’t know what to call their characters. There was one member of the ensemble who was doing cartwheels in one number and in general bouncing and bounding around — she was just a joy to watch. There were also two larger members of the ensemble who had such joy of movement and stage presence that they just drew your eye (and kudos to the casting director for casting an ensemble of all shapes and sizes, as opposed to the model size of the day).  I also remember the dancers during the grape stomping number in Act II — again, these young women were just exuding such fun. The athletic energy and joy of the ensemble was just great. The remaining performers were: Steve Perren (General Howell), Ronald Rezac (Harry/Baptista), Orlando Agawin (FB) (Ensemble), Francesca Barletta (FB) (Ensemble), John Paul Batista (FB) (Riley/Hortensio), Michael Byrne/FB (Flynt/Gremio), Danielle Campbell (FB) (Ensemble), Allen Darby/FB (Ensemble), Martin Feldman/FB (Pops/Ensemble), Jay Gamboa (FB) (Ensemble), Lexi Greene (FB) (Ensemble), Abigail Herman (FB) (Ensemble), Natalie Rose Iscovich/FB (Ensemble) [and the daughter of someone I went to camp with], Kurt Kemper (FB) (Ensemble), Anna Lamonica/FB (Ensemble), Tellina Lee (FB) (Ensemble), Derek A. Lewis/FB (Ensemble), Timothy Reese/FB (Ensemble), Shelly Regner (FB) (Ensemble), Tracy Ray Reynolds (FB) (Ensemble), Harry Schantz (FB) (Ensemble), Joey Sponseller (FB) (Ensemble), and Megan Stronger/FB (Ensemble).

Turning to the technical side of things. The sets were provided by Gateway Playhouse (FB) in Bellport NY and worked quite well. I was particularly taken by the sets for the Taming side of things, which reminded me of the other productions of Taming that I have seen. Costumes were provided by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg (FB) and were quite well done. I particularly appreciated the homage to the original 1948 costumes on the Taming side of things (as opposed to realistic costumes), and period costumes used in the backstage scenes. I also applauded the costumes during Act II, Scene 8 — in particular the use of hosiery for the grape stompers (Christine Gibson was the wardrobe supervisor).  The hair and makeup design of Cassie Russek (FB) was strong, especially considering the abuse that it took. Sound was by regular Cabrillo sound designer Jonathan Burke (FB) and was excellent as usual; the lighting by Rand Ryan worked well to establish the mood and didn’t have an obvious overuse of spots (a Cabrillo problem many years ago). Gary Mintz was the technical director. There was a new face as production stage manager: Brooke Baldwin/FB, assisted by Susie Castillo/FB. Another changing of the guard in that position? (First Lindsay, then Allie, now…). Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) is under the artistic direction of Lewis Wilkenfeld (FB).

The last performance of “Kiss Me Kate” is today at 2pm. Given when I’m finishing this writeup, you have about an hour or so to get there and get tickets. So get moving — what are you waiting for?  You can purchase tickets online. Cabrillo’s next show is “Forever Plaid” at the end of January (this will be our third visit with the Plaids — fourth if you count Plaid Tidings).

Dining Note: We discovered a new Japanese restaurant — Nori Japanese Grill (menu), which is in the same center with Lassens Natural Foods. Nothing fancy in terms of the restaurant itself — you order at a counter and they bring it to the table. However, the food itself was excellent both in terms of quality and presentation. Quite a surprise, and I think we’ll be back there.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale), as well as seeing the Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. That weekend will also bring a release party for a Kickstarted-CD by Big Daddy. The weekend before Thanksgiving is also very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend is currently open, as is much of December (December is due to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans, which has me out of two the first two weekends in December… but has me wondering about New Orleans theatre), but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014… and the end of the month will bring “Forever Plaid” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB). Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Awake and Sing (Group Rep)userpic=dramamasksI had set aside this weekend for Carrie – The Musical. Alas, Transfer Theatre Group, the folks putting on the revival, moved it to 2014. Further, my wife was out of town at a quilt show. This left me alone on a weekend with no scheduled theatre — a situation that could not remain. I looked on Goldstar to see what looked interesting, and found four shows: an all-female version of “Hamlet” at the Odyssey, the classic “Waiting for Godot” at the Stella Adler, the depression-era drama Awake and Sing” at the Group Rep, and a new drama Strange Disappearance of Bees” at the Raven Playhouse. I asked on Facebook, and received recommendations only for Godot and Awake and Sing. As Godot is around regularly, I decided on Awake and Sing at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) in North Hollywood.

Awake and Sing” was written by Clifford Odets in 1932, and first produced professionally in 1935. It is generally regarded as his masterpiece, although he had his hand in a number of other stories for the screen and stage. It tells the story of the multigenerational Berger family in the Bronx during the depression: grandfather Jacob, mother and father Bessie and Myron, and children Ralph and Hennie. The times are hard, and the family is scraping by on the combined incomes of Bessie, Myron, and Ralph. The play primarily tells the story of Ralph and Hennie (at least these are the characters that achieve transformations over the course of the story), although the central character and driving force is Bessie, the mother.

Bessie is the embodiment of a child of immigrants and a child of the American dream: she demands that her children marry well and better than her, and by well, she means “to someone with means”. Love has no place in the equation. When Hennie discovers she is pregnant from a one-night stand with an unknown man, Bessie “arranges” a marriage with a recent immigrant who has a steady job and prospects, Sam Feinschreiber. Never mind that Hennie doesn’t love him or want him. This marriage particularly annoys the family friend, Moe Axelrod. Axelrod has prospects, drive, and style, but was injured in WWI (losing his leg) and his money comes from his veteran’s pension. He loves Hennie, but she wants nothing to do with him due to his injury. Ralph is also being directed in life by Bessie — he works part-time for his uncle, Morty, in the rag trade. He has a girl, Blanche, who is an orphan and has no income, and the family (read Bessie) wants him to have nothing to do with her — he should find someone who has income and a family that can support them. Observing all of these proceedings is Jacob, the grandfather. Jacob, like Odets at the time, is very left leaning and is constantly citing pro-union and Marxist philosphy. His passion is Caruso. He is constantly pushing Ralph to be a success and make something of his life while he’s young  — something he was never able to to do; he interacts less with Hennie. In fact, he has taken out  a life insurance policy naming Ralph as his beneficiary — $3,000 — that Bessie does not know about.

The play takes place in three acts. In the first act, we meet the family and the main characters, and learn of both Hennie and Ralph’s situations. We can see how they are chafing under Bessie’s role in the family, but they are powerless to override her. In the second act the problems of their situations become more acute. We see how Hennie is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t want — she’s married to a man who loves her, but whom she detests. As for Ralph, he’s in love with a girl that Bessie is pushing away, and stuck in a life that is focused on scraping the family by, not improving his lot. As the second act ends, Jacob rails against this situation and its futility, and Bessie reacts by yelling at him, belittling him, and destroying his beloved records. Jacob takes the family dog for a walk on the roof, and a little while later, is reported to have slipped and fallen off the roof and died. The final act deals with the aftermath of this death. Morty and Bessie have “arranged” for the insurance man to come over to pay them the money, but Ralph believes it was a suicide. Moe informs Ralph that the policy was in Ralph’s name, and claims to have a note showing it was suicide (which stops Morty and Bessie from going after the insurance man). Moe — and the memory of Jacob’s ranting — convince both Ralph and Hennie to “awake and sing”. Hennie decides to leave her husband and run off with Moe (the man she really loved), and Ralph decides that he is going to make of his life what he wants it to be, and that he will find success on his own terms.

The performances in this production were very strong — owing both to the skills of the actors and the strength of the directoral hand of Larry Eisenberg (FB) [assisted by Lloyd Pedersen]. As I’ve written before, I have a hard time telling where the actor stops and the director begins (or is it vice-verse?). That was certainly true here — the little nuances of the performances and way the characters behave make this family come alive and you really can’t see the directoral effect. This a good thing and makes the performances appear realistic [the same thing is true for film, by the way... if you find yourself watching the direction and cinematography, someone did something wrong].

Speaking of the performances… and the performers themselves. As Bessie Berger, Michele Bernath (FB) is a little dynamo driving the show. I’ve known women like the character she portrayed (my mother was one), pulling the strings for her family so they succeed, and attacking those who get in her way. Bernath portrayed this well, and exuded power and control. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t like her character (hitting too close to home), and that shows the excellence of her performance. Her husband, Myron Berger, was played by Patrick Burke/FB. Burke captured the milquetoast nature of Myron well — someone who has been bullied by his spouse but still strives to see the good in everything and everyone.

I was more taken by the actors playing the children: Christine Joëlle (FB) as Hennie Berger and Troy Whitaker (FB) as Ralph Berger. Joëlle’s take on Hennie was great: reserved, strong, and portraying an attitude that she just didn’t want to be in that house, but also didn’t want to be stuck in a marriage on anyone’s terms other than her own. Alas, the unexpected pregnancy allowed Bessie to bully her into marriage, and she just wanted out. She conveyed this in a wonderful and compelling way and was just fund to watch. Whitaker’s Ralph was also very strong — especially when you consider that he’s just a senior at CSUN — capturing the anger and potential of youth very well. You believed that he was in love; you believed that he wanted more from life; you believed that he cared about these people.

Also in strong main positions were Stan Mazin (FB) as Jacob Berger and Daniel Kaemon as Moe Axelrod. Mazin’s Berger could have used perhaps a little more accent to show his background, but portrayed the passion of his character for his ideals well (and also the defeat of the character for his failures in life). Mazin portrayed Jacob in a way that you could see he desperately wanted his grandchildren to have the success that he never had — but on their terms — and that he wasn’t too happy with how his children Bessie and Morty turned out. Kaemon’s Axelrod was perfect — he had a strong façade of confidence and bravado, but you could see that underneath he was just smitten with Hennie. He captured the pain of the bad leg well and grabbed your focus through his performance.

Rounding out the cast were Robert Gallo (FB) as Uncle Morty, Marcos Cohen (FB) as Sam Feinschreiber, Edgar Mastin as Schlosser, and Amanda as Tootsie.  Gallo’s Morty was strong and captured the man focused on his business and money well, although there were a few line problems. Cohen captured the immigrant well, and did a great job of portraying the pain of his relationship with Hennie. Mastin’s character, Schlosser, was the building concierge and only had a small role. Even smaller was the role of Amanda as Tootsie, the dog, although she had the best biography of all in the program. I’m glad she got past her problems with alcohol dependence and Kibbles ‘n’ Bits abuse.

Turning to the technical. Chris Winfield (FB)’s set design captured the depression era well — the single main room, the few rooms on the side, with enough attention to detail that what one saw through the doors was part of the set as well. This was supported by the excellent props of Kellie B. Malone/FB, assisted by Xander Bennett. I particularly noted the attention to detail on the props, making sure that the papers and other artifacts appeared to be from the correct era. The sound design was by Steve Shaw/FB, and was very effective. I particularly noted the quality of the sound effects as well as their directionality — they sounded like where they should be spatially. That’s a nice attention to detail. The lighting was designed by Kim Smith (FB) and did a great job of establishing mood without being noticeable. Jazmin Lopez/FB was the stage manager and light board operator, and Zachary Norman McKnight/FB operated the sound board. Brian Danner (FB) was listed as the fight choreographer, although I didn’t particularly notice any swords on stage :-). Awake and Sing was produced by Drina Durazo (FB) for The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB).

Awake and Sing” continues at The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB) through November 3, 2013, and is well worth watching. Tickets are available through OvationTix, and discount tickets may be available on Goldstar. It is currently in repertory with “Stories About Old Days” by Bill Harris, which runs through October 27, 2013. The next production at The Group Rep is the world premier of “Mom’s Gift“, running December 6, 2013 through January 19, 2014.

One other word on The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre (FB). Looking at their season brochure and looking at the quality of the set and production, this seems to be another theatre like REP East (FB). This means that this is a theatre we’ll definately watch — although our subscription book is currently full, it looks like a theatre that could be fun to subscribe to. Those in the NoHo area should definitely look into this company — they are priced well and appear to do a great job.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale), as well as seeing the Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. That weekend will also bring a release party for a Kickstarted-CD by Big Daddy. The weekend before Thanksgiving is also very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend is currently open, as is much of December (December is due to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans, which has me out of two the first two weekends in December… but has me wondering about New Orleans theatre), but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. Looking into January…. nothing is currently scheduled, but it will likely bring “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, which is the first show of the REP East (FB) season, running 1/17 through 2/15/2014. Of course, we look forward to seeing you at ACSAC for the wonderful training opportunities there. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Burnt Part Boys (Third Street Theatre)userpic=theatre_ticketsJourneys and hills. That’s a good characterization of yesterday. We journeyed  over a hill yesterday afternoon to celebrate the life journey of a friend that passed away. We then journeyed to West Los Angeles so that I could see another journey — this time, the journey of five friends up a mountain in West Virginia to the place where their fathers died. The latter, a newish Off-Broadway musical called “The Burnt Part Boys“, was making its West Coast premier at the Third Street Theatre (FB).

I had ordered the tickets to Burnt Part Boys about a month ago, having heard about the musical on one of the blogs I monitor, seen the music highly rated on Amazon, and based on my knowledge that the musical was bluegrass (one of the genres I like). I had only heard the music about a week ago, and liked what I heard.  It was the last in a series of new musicals I had seen over the last two months (bare, Carrie That Tune, and Ordinary Days being the others). But yesterday I wasn’t in the best shape for a musical — a migraine had started during the funeral and it crested about an hour before the show. Luckily the meds kicked in and it cleared about 10 minutes before the show started. I’m glad they did. This was a wonderful show that grabbed my attention and my heart, and the performances and story were the emotional journey that I needed.

The Burnt Part Boys (book by Mariana Elder, music by Chris Miller, and lyrics by Nathan Tysen) tells the story of two brothers — Jake and Pete — a coal mining family in in Pickaway WV in 1962. Their father, along with a number of other fathers from the community, had been working in the local coal mine when it collapsed and caught fire ten years prior (“the burnt part”). Since then, the older brother Jake had gone to work for the mining company, which is about to reopen the Burnt Part. When Pete discovers this news, he decides he can’t let this happen — the Burnt Part must remain closed in order to serve as a sanctuary to the men lost. Drawing inspiration from his heroes at The Alamo, he takes his brother’s mining equipment (i.e., dynamite) and goes off with his best friend, Dusty, to blow up the Burnt Part. Along their journey, they join up with a young women they knew from their school who had also lost her father on the Burnt Part. Meanwhile, Jake discovers the missing dynamite, and heads off with his best friend, Chet, to intercept his brother. Eventually these two groups meet, and decide to continue to the Burnt Part. Once there, Pete sneaks off and detonates the explosives, collapsing the mine and trapping them.

The focus of this story is the journey — or should I say journeys — that each of five young people take. Each is on a different journey of challenges and discovery, and both the journey to the mine, as well as the journey they take after the explosion, changes each in profound ways. It is a fascinating journey to watch, and the performances are such that you are just drawn into these characters. Using a relatively simple set and props, these actors make you believe they are in the West Virginia hills climbing up the mountain. The music serves as a nice augmentation to the book by showing the inner facets of the characters and the emotional journeys they take. Thankfully, this was not another sung-through musical (both bare and Ordinary Days were sung-through, and that trend is tiresome); the music works well here to establish the mood and address aspects of the character that normal dialogue cannot. The characters also seem well established and differentiated — each has different aspects and personality quirks that make them appear real and human, and not the cardboard caricatures you often see in shows. The musical does have its dark aspects — both literally and figuratively, given that a portion takes place in a completely dark coal mine. It ends up finding the light, and the self-discovery journey is one that turns out to be well worth watching.

Director Richard Israel (FB) is one of those local directors who you can  trust to do consistently good work, and he doesn’t let the audience down here. The performances he draws out of these actors are spectacular, and serve to demonstrate how acting alone can transport an audience — extensive realistic sets and locations are not required.  He makes great use of the minimal set to create the illusion of of multiple journeys in the hills, and he uses the actors skill to do the rest. This work combines with the great performances to make this show succeed.

The lead performers are a strong ensemble, which means it is difficult to separate the specific moments and strengths of particular characters. The three younger travelers — Pete, Dusty, and Frances — are brought to life by Daniel David Stewart (FB-Actor, FB-Personal), Adam Dingeman (FB), and Lauren Patten (FB), respectively. The older travelers — Jake and Chet — are brought to life by Aaron Scheff/FB and Joe Donahoe (FB). All gave remarkable performances and sang well. Some special kudos go to Adam Dingeman for his saw-playing (which I hadn’t seen before), and to Lauren Patten for the intensity of her performance. But all of them were spectacular and did a great job of drawing you into their characters, and making you feel that they were real people in that place and time.  They also gave off the feeling of enjoying these roles and these people — and when that happens, the audience shares in that joy.

Supporting these five were the four men who played the fathers lost in the mine, as well as few other supporting roles: Matt Musgrove (FB), Philip Dean Lightstone (FB), Richard Hellstern (FB), and Rich Brunner (FB). All projected the required strength and served the story well. Understudies, who we didn’t see, were Shane Orser/FB and Jessica Evans (FB).

The on-stage (but hidden) band was under the musical direction of Gregory Nabours (FB), and consisted of Nabours (FB) on keyboards, David Lee (FB) on guitars, Eden Livingood/FB on violin, and Nikolaus Keelaghan (FB) on viola and percussion.

The set was designed by Will Pelligrini (FB), and consisted of multiple levels of worn boards and wooden pieces, with a silhouette of mountains in the distance. The supporting props were provided by Nicholas Acciani (FB) and were suitably realistic and period. Supporting this illusion well was the lighting of Johnny Ryman (FB), who created the mood using solely yellows and blues, combined with a few LED lights. Cricket S. Myers (FB) sound was, as it always is, excellent — with particular kudos due for the amazing sound effects. The costumes by Vicki Conrad were also effective in  establishing place and time. Suzanne Doss/FB was the assistant director, and Lindsay Capacio/FB was the stage manager. “The Burnt Part Boys” was presented by Third Street Theatre (FB) and West Coast Ensemble (FB), and was supported by a Kickstarter (which, alas, I didn’t know about).

The Burnt Part Boys” continues at the Third Street Theatre (FB) through October 20. Tickets are available online and through Goldstar.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Next weekend is currently unbooked — I have no idea what I’m doing. October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will be very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend is currently open, as is much of December (December is due to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans, which has me out of two the first two weekends in December… but has me wondering about New Orleans theatre), but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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Breath and Imagination (Colony Theatre)userpic=colonyExploring a life on stage. This is a common theme in the theatre, especially if the life is an interesting one. It was the theme of Friday’s show, “Humor Abuse; it is the theme of the two musicals whose cast albums I recently purchased (“Chaplin” and “Scandalous“); and it was the theme of the show we saw last night at The Colony Theatre (FB) — “Breath and Imagination: The Story of Roland Hayes” by Daniel Beaty (FB). The exploration of a life can be magical on stage — it can draw the audience into an experience they never knew, and it can both show and share that spark that propelled the protagonist along their journey. If the story is told right, the audience can walk out of the theatre with a little of that spark inside them, excited to learn more about the protagonist, and with an urge to incorporate that spark into their being.  For me, although I found “Breath and Imagination” an interesting and beautiful journey, I didn’t walk out with that spark.

Breath and Imagination” tells the life story of Roland Hayes (1887-1977), an American Lyric Tenor who was the first African-American artist to receive wide acclaim. The facts in the story agree pretty much with the truth, at least as described by Wikipedia and some other biographies of Roland Hayes, so I’m not going to attempt to re-summarize Hayes’ life story. There were some liberties taken with the timeline (such as who introduced Hayes to Caruso), some facts glossed over (such as the fact he married his cousin, or the fact that he had a brother), and the framing device (the creation of a mixed-race music school at the plantation in George where he grew up) does not appear supported by the facts. The latter is the most problematic, for it leaves the audience with the impression that Hayes created the school to stand up to the racial problems in Georgia. Hayes did attempt to combat racism — both by setting an example of what an African American artist can do, and by pushing for integrated seating in the halls where he performed. Yet neither of those aspects was stressed in the production; rather, it was the fictional creation of a music school where blacks and whites studied together. Perhaps this is where the spark was dimmed.

Daniel Beaty (FB) attempts to tell this story by focusing on the relationship between Hayes and his mother, Fanny Hayes, who he called Angel ‘Mo. Interspersed and told through Negro Spirituals and operatic songs that Hayes sung throughout his life, this relationship and the significant incidents in Hayes’ life are told through vignettes involve Roland, his mother, and occasionally a third character (provided by the accompanist). The story generally moves forward from his young life on the plantation to his success on the stage; it is framed by the opening of the school, and occasionally flashbacks to the incident where his wife and daughter were arrested and physically assaulted for sitting down to purchase shoes in the whites-only section of a shoe store in Rome GA. Through the vignettes, we see how Angel ‘Mo encouraged Roland to pursue singing and spirituals, yet was less enthused when he moved his focus from the church to the stage. We also see some of the various obstacles that Roland overcame in his life, from a life as a sharecropper to the life in the city with limited finances, to the different types of racism he faced in both the south and the north, to his acceptance in Europe (although the story does not show the problems he faced in Germany), to the problems he faced in the “new South” in the mid-1940s.

This is not a musical, although it is filled with music. The music in the show serves to showcase and frame Hayes’ talent (and the musicality he inherited from his parents), but the words of the music do not propel or illuminate the story. The music in the story primarily illuminates Hayes’ talent and the musical environment he grew up in. The music was beautiful, primarily slower spirituals and operatic arias (you can find a full list here). The problem — to me — is that the music needs to be the kindling against which the spark of the story works; when successful, the two combine to create a blaze that excites and warms the soul. My musical tastes are not excited by either operatic arias or spirituals presented operatically (folk-style is a different matter). As a result, I didn’t walk out of the show with the combination making me to “Wow!”; I walked out going “Nice.”. The music flew, but didn’t soar.

Where does the fault lie for this problem? I’m not sure. Some is probably me, as this is a style of music that does not excite me. Part of it belongs to Daniel Beaty (FB)’s story, which does not completely bring out the excitement and energy. Part of it belongs to the director, Saundra McClain (FB), who does not bring out the excitement and joy of these characters in the actors — the performed Hayes appears very controlled and restrained, just like the music that he sings. It is just that somewhere, something — or more like, some energy — is missing.  This is not to say the story is bad or uninteresting, or that it was performed poorly. I just contrast this with Friday’s “Humor Abuse“, and if the words describing “HA” were “energy” and “excitement”, the words that describe “B&I” were “control” and “beauty”.

The problem was certainly not in the performances. As Roland Hayes, Elijah Rock (FB) became the author’s vision of Hayes — a controlled powerful man who grew up with music, with a beautiful tenor voice that floated musically, battling the discrimination of his time to become a musical artist. He was paired with Karen Kendrick (FB) as Angel Mo. Kendrick’s performance was remarkable — not only did she have a lovely voice, but she demonstrated a number of acting nuances that caught my eye and made her character real (such as her motion tic when she was playing the elderly Angel Mo, especially when contrasted with the youthful Angel Mo). Rounding out the cast was Kevin Ashworth (FB)  as the accompanist as well as a number of other small roles (from Roland’s father to a Georgia police officer to a voice teacher to Miss Robinson at Fisk to King George V). Ashworth played the piano beautifully, and disappeared into the various short roles inbetween. All were great performances; the show was worth seeing for the strength of the performances alone.

The scenic design by Shaun L. Motley (FB) was simple — a piano, a multilevel wooden stage that was elegant but unadorned. The feeling was that of a concert hall, but when combined by the props and set dressing of MacAndMe (FB) and the performances of the actors, portions of the stage were transformed into various other locations, including a sharecroppers farms. Also assisting in these transformations were the simple but effective costumes of Dianne K. Graebner (FB). The lighting design by Jared A. Sayeg (FB) worked well to establish the mood — I particularly noted the use of the projections against the back of the stage and striplights on the side and top of the stage.  Some special credit should also be given to Orlando de la Paz, who was the scenic artist and painted the faux wooden floor.  The sound design by Dave Mickey (FB) was a little more problematic. It was excellent in the clarity of the sounds, and particularly in the quality and directionality of the sound effects in a number of different scenes. It was overly noticeable, however, in the reverb during the concert scenes.  Musical arrangements were by Mike Ruckles (FB), with additional arrangements and musical direction by Rahn Coleman. Mary K. Gabrysiak (FB) was the production stage manager. “Breath and Imagination” was staged and directed by Saundra McClain (FB).

A comment or two about the audience at this performance. First, it was nice to see a contingent of students from Burbank High School — it is so important to expose students to the arts. Second, I noticed what I’ll call the “Pasadena Playhouse Effect” at this show. This refers to the fact that whenever Sheldon Epps would produce a show with an African American theme at the Pasadena Playhouse, suddenly the audience would change… hue. In other words, more African-Americans attend shows about African-Americans, with the white audience for those shows seemingly shrinking. This has always bothered me — I believe good theatre is good theatre, and you can find something in every story and life portrayed that will resonate, even if it is from a different culture and experience than your own. I wish everyone would attend theatre — being a theatre audience is my passion and my joy. Perhaps one day we’ll reach the point where there won’t be obvious hue shifts in an audience depending on the subject of the show. That, perhaps, might make Roland Hayes happy — he wanted people of all colors to attend his shows, and wanted to be seen as an artist, and not just a black artist.

Breath and Imagination: The Story of Roland Hayes” has one more week at The Colony Theatre (FB), closing on October 13.  Tickets are available through the Colony website, and they have been available through Goldstar in the past (although as I write this, there are no current offers). The next production at the Colony is “Miracle on South Division Street” by Tom Dudzick, running November 9 through December 15, 2013 (alas, there are no performances Thanksgiving weekend, which screwed up shifting my tickets back one week). Colony is also doing a special production on October 19, 2013, focused on Gene Kelly called “Gene Kelly – The Legacy” (FB). Ticket prices range from $29 to $59.

Dining Notes: Some sad news here. Our normal go-to place before the Colony has been Cafe Columbia on Glenoaks. Alas, they seem to have closed sometime in the last 30 days — their website is wiped, and their phone has a closed message.  I’ll miss their excellent food, and I wonder what happened. Luckily, we recently found another good Columbian restaurant, La Maria, in Burbank. However, we didn’t have time to get there, so Fuddruckers it was.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Next week sees me at the West Coast Premier of “Burnt Street Boys at the Third Street Theatre (FB).  The third week of October had been held for the production of “Carrie – The Musical (FB) by Transfer Theatre, but this production will now be in 2014. I may go to ”Gene Kelly – The Legacy” (FB) at the Colony; I may find something else on Goldstar.  October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will be very busy with three shows: Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) on Friday; “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB) on Saturday, and the rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB) on Sunday. Thanksgiving weekend is currently open, as is much of December (December is due to the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in New Orleans, which has me out of two the first two weekends in December… but has me wondering about New Orleans theatre), but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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humor_abuseuserpic=ahmansonYesterday, when I got to work, I was confronted with the news that my employer was on shutdown status due to the government shutdown, and as of today, I was furloughed, charging either vacation or no-pay (luckily, I have lots of saved vacation). When I got home — pretty bummed — and told my wife, she said, “Great! Now you can help me chaperone a class from Van Nuys HS to the Mark Taper Forum tomorrow”. Thus, today saw me riding a big yellow schoolbus to the Music Center to see the current Taper production, Humor Abuse. Modulo my headache due to the Santa Ana winds, it was just what I needed.

Humor Abuse” tells the true story of Lorenzo Pisoni (FB)… and it is told by Lorenzo Pisoni (FB). Lorenzo Pisoni’s father was Larry Pisoni, and Lorenzo Pisoni’s family growing up was the Pickle Family Circus. “Humor Abuse” tells the story of the life of a clown. It tells the story of growing up with a father who was a clown, and who wanted his son to be a clown. In fact, it explores the question of which role was more important to Larry Pisoni — father, or clown. It also explores the clown routines of the Pickle Family Circus — both Larry and Lorenzo. It is funny, it is entertaining, and it is sad. The sadness comes from how the clown life affected Lorenzo — both for good and for bad. It raises the question of whether one can act like a child if one never had a childhood… or perhaps that is why clowns are childish… they never grow up.

After the show, I was thinking more about the distinction between a clown and a comedian. Comedians depend on verbal humor and jokes — puns, stories, misunderstanding, situational humor. You want comedians, go to the production at the Ahmanson — Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys“. This show is about a clown — physical humor, slapsticks, visual puns. This clowning begins with the stage announcements, when Pisoni comes up to make an announcement, and the follow spot keeps avoiding him. He eventually needs to staple it to the floor to keep it in place. Visual puns. Physical humor. This humor continues throughout the show, from clowns in a trunk, to pratfalls, to juggling, to falling down stairs, to falling through the floor. Clowns can create their humor without words, independent of language. We have lots of comedians these days, but few true clowns. If anything, this show is worth seeing just to be reminded about what true clowns are. Lorenzo Pisoni, although he claims to be a straight-man, is a clown. He will make you laugh, and you won’t be scared at all. The humor in this show will help your soul.

That said, this seemed an odd show for the Taper — I can’t imagine it is drawing in the crowds. In some ways, it seems a great show for a shorter run venue — a VPAC, a Broad. This doesn’t mean it isn’t worth seeing — for it is — but the Taper needs to do more to make people aware of what a gem this is. I would never have thought about attending this show — I wasn’t even aware it was in Los Angeles — until my wife made the chaperone offer. I had never seen the LA Times review. I had never heard of Jon Hamm’s Kickstarter effort to make a movie of Lorenzo’s story. It was a last minute replacement for “What the Butler Saw“. So I’m thankful for the furlough — well, at least for taking today as a vacation day — in that it was the kick from the universe to go see this show.

As I mentioned at the start of this write-up, this was a special performance for high school students. At the opening of the show, the representative from CTG talked about what makes theatre so special. One thing was the interaction between the performers and the audience — something that does not exist with a film. The performers feed off the energy of the audience, and every performance was different. This was made clear this afternoon with two different routines. In one, Lorenzo was clowning with giving a balloon to an audience member. In this case, the balloon floated up into the fly space… and popped. That won’t happen everytime, and Lorenzo’s reaction was priceless. In another routine — one where sandbags kept dropping on the stage narrowly missing Lorenzo — we learned in the talk-back afterwards that a number of the drops weren’t when they were supposed to be. That doesn’t happen in the movies, and resulted in additional improvisation. This is why I’m unsure about Hamm’s Kickstarter effort. Clowing on the screen — be it the small screen antics of a Lucille Ball or Jonathan Winters — or the big screen antics of a Jerry Lewis or Roberto Bignigni — just doesn’t have the same humor as a live performer. Live performance brings the timing risk that doesn’t exist elsewhere. You want to see a clown. Go to this show (or go to your local renfaire and seen Moonie).

As you might have surmised by now, this was a one man show; the only performer was Lorenzo Pisoni (FB). The show was created by Lorenzo Pisoni (FB) and Erica Schmidt. It was directed by Erica Schmidt.

Turning to the technical… the set construction credit is buried in the credits, but goes to Seattle Repertory Theatre. It should be larger — Seattle Rep did a truly creative job in the props used, both the original drops and the creative trunks, ladders, stairs, and ballons. The lighting design credit goes to Ben Stanton and was seemingly unnoticeable… except for the beginning and the end of the show. The beginning of the show was noticeable for the clever use of the follow spot; the end was exceptional for the use of the blue light in relationship to the balloon. Sound design and original music was by Bart Fasbender. The sound was clear and crisp, but I noticed the effectiveness of the music even more. Prerecorded, it worked well to support both the mood and the performance. David S. Franklin was the production stage manager, and T.J. Kearney (FB) was the stage manager.

Complements should also go to the students (and their teachers) who attended today. This was a very well behaved and attentive audience — one that was thoroughly entranced with the show. I didn’t see a single text or hear a single phone go off during the show — trying doing that with today’s adults! I was surprised by the large portion that had seen live theatre before, and was also pleased at the number for whom this was their first introduction to theatre. Kudos to CTG for supporting a program such as this.

Humor Abuse” continues at the Mark Taper Forum through November 3, 2013. Tickets are available online; hottix should also be available. A show guide is available. Go see this show, especially if you need a pick-me-up.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Theatre in October continues tomorrow night with “Breath and Imagination” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  The second week of October sees me at the West Coast Premier of “Burnt Street Boys at the Third Street Theatre (FB).  The third week of October is being held for the production of “Carrie – The Musical (FB) by Transfer Theatre, but tickets are not yet on sale (and it is increasingly looking like this production will now be in 2014). October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will bring Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) as well as “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB). The last weekend of November brings a rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  December is mostly open, but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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God of Carnage (Rep East)userpic=repeastBack in Spring 2011, we missed seeing the New York cast of “God of Carnage” at the Ahmanson. We finally saw God of Carnage” at ICT in February 2012. At that time, I thought it would be a great production for REP East (FB). Luckily, the artistic director must have read my mind, because it was selected for the 2013 season. Last night we were up at REP to see their production, and I’m pleased to say they’ve done their usual excellent job with it.

God of Carnage” tells the story of two parental couples who are brought together because their pre-teen children had a schoolyard brawl–specifically, Benjamin Raleigh had used a stick to hit Henry Novak and knock out two of his teeth (injuring the nerve of one of them) [later we learn this occurred because  Henry refused to let Benjamin join his "gang" and called him names]. That evening, the parents of Henry (Veronica and Michael Novak) invite Benjamin’s parents (Annette and Alan Raleigh) over to discuss the matter, and to get their son to apologize personally to Henry. As the evening goes on, the parents civil discussion becomes significantly less civilized (especially after Annette vomits over the coffee table), and the veneer that the parents wear becomes ripped off. I could probably describe more, but is really best to watch and see the gory details as these to parents become children and brawl in the fancy living room.

As I was thinking about the show afterwards (as I’m familiar with the book), I was trying to think about what set the REP production apart from the ICT production a year ago. I think the answer is the direction. One thing I noticed — much more than at ICT — was the use of pauses, timing, and facial expressions. You learned so much more about the reactions of these parents from their responses and their body language on top of the written script. Watching Annette’s roiling stomach convulsing you believed in the visceral reaction she was having; Veronica’s reaction was written all over her face. The men’s body language showed their indifference to the whole mess… until it didn’t. Very very well performed and well directed.

With a small cast like this it is hard to single out any particular performance as all were excellent. The hosting parents — Veronica and Michael — were portrayed by Heidi Appe (FB) and Dennis Hadley (FB). The hosted parents — Annette and Alan — were portrayed by Leslie Connelly (FB) and Mark Kaplan (FB). All four were believable, funny, had strong stage presence, and were inhabiting their roles. So much so, in fact, that you believed Connelly was really sick when she vomited, that Kaplan was really more interested in the phone, that Hadley really was a Neanderthal under the surface, and that Appe truly could not stand the artificiality of the other couple. The acting team was directed by Ovington Michael Owston (FB), assisted by Kimbyrly M. Valis (FB).

God of Carnage” was written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton.

Turning to the technical. The elegant set was designed by Ovington Michael Owston (FB), and was expertly lit by Tim Christianson/FB. Sound design was by the REP resident sound designer Steven “Nanook” Burkholder/FB and was generally good. Two minor sound comments — the volume of the Pandora radio that plays before the show was a little high, making conversation difficult, and the directionality of the cell phone sound effect was a little disconcerting sitting in the front (although the only way around that would be a small speaker — or second cellphone — in the actor’s pocket). Print design was by the sleep-deprived Mikee Schwinn/FB, and J. T. Centonze (FB) (in his utilikilt) was the stage manager.

God of Carnage” continues at REP East (FB) in Newhall until October 18, 2013. Tickets are available through the REP Online Box office; discount tickets are available through Goldstar, as well as special discounts for readers of Bitter Lemons (and speaking of Bitter Lemons, they have a Kickstarter that needs support). Next up at REP East is “Play It Again, Sam“, running from November 15, 2013 through December 14, 2013. REP has announced their 2014 season (their 10th), which consists of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change“, Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues“, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof“, “Return to Forbidden Planet“, “The Great Gatsby“, and “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club“. Dates for these productions have not been announced.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I've been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I've been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I'm a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Theatre in October starts on the 5th with “Breath and Imagination” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  The second week of October sees me at the West Coast Premier of “Burnt Street Boys at the Third Street Theatre (FB).  The third week of October is being held for the production of “Carrie – The Musical (FB) by Transfer Theatre, but tickets are not yet on sale (and it is increasingly looking like this production will now be in 2014). October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November starts with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will bring Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) as well as “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB). The last weekend of November brings a rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  December is mostly open, but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Carrie That Tune (Avery Schreiber)userpic=theatre_musicalsThere once was a song that went “There’s just no tune / as exciting / as a show tune / in two-four”.  That song was written by Jerry Herman for the musical revue “Parade” in 1960. The musical went nowhere; the melody, however, was recycled into “It’s Today” from the musical Mame. It is an example of how many songs from failed or unknown musicals later went on to become hits… or at least were surprisingly good. I could give you many more examples, such as the Bobby Darin hit “Artificial Flowers”, which came from the musical Tenderloin. This notion — of spectacular songs from less-than-spectacular musicals — was the driving notion from the musical revue “Carrie That Tune” was saw last night at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse (FB) in North Hollywood.

Carrie That Tune” was conceived, directed, and produced by Trace Oakley (FB), who was driven to develop the revue after reading Ken Mandelbaum’s excellent book “Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Musical Flops“. This book looks at a large number of musicals, and attempts to ascertain precisely why they failed. [For those interested in failed musicals, other books that are good are "Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs" by Steve Suskin; "Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre" by Steve Suskin; and "More Opening Nights on Broadway: A Critical Quote Book of the Musical Theatre, 1965-1981", also by Steve Suskin]. Oakley went through the book and picked what he thought were a representative sample of good songs from bad musicals and assembled them into a few with a little connecting material. As this is a revue, there is no plot — no synopsis — just a collection of songs.

The show begins with the infamous story of David Merrick and the publicity for “Subways are for Sleeping“, and continues through a large number of shows from the infamous flops to shows recognized for their scores, but which died due to problematic books. So what songs made it in? Here’s my list of the songs from each act. Alas, there was no official song list provided (nor was there a list of who sang which songs in the program — which is a disservice to the performers who are showcasing their talents — so I’ll edit in that information if I can get it. Right now, the performer information is base on my memory and best guesses).

Song Show Performer
Act I
Comes Once in a Lifetime Subways Are For Sleeping Company
Subway Directions Subways Are For Sleeping Unspecified
I Just Can’t Wait Subways Are For Sleeping Shelley Scovin (FB),
Daniel Floren (FB)
I’ll Never Go There Anymore† Kelly Joshua Kerr/FB
You’ve Got Possibilities It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman Shelley Scovin (FB),
Daniel Floren (FB)
You Can Be A New Yorker Too! Mayor Company
Meadowlark The Bakers Wife Keri Green/FB
We’re Gonna Be Alright† Do I Hear a Waltz Unspecified
Not a Day Goes By† Merrily We Roll Along Unspecified
Good Thing Going Merrily We Roll Along Unspecified
A Kid Inside Is There Life after High School? Unspecified
Carrie Carrie Ety Terry (FB)
Act II
Someone Else’s Story Chess Unspecified
Bangkok/A Night in Bangkok Chess Company
Who Can I Turn To?† Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd Joshua Kerr/FB
Joker† Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd Joshua Kerr/FB
Feeling Good Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd Unspecified
Nobody Steps on Kafritz† Henry, Sweet Henry Averi Yorek (FB)
Come Back to Me On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever Daniel Floren (FB)
What Did I Have?† On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever Unspecified
A Quiet Thing† Flora, The Red Menace Unspecified
Time Heals Everything† Mack and Mabel Rosanne Limeres (FB)
I Won’t Send Roses /† Mack and Mabel Len Smith (FB)
I Won’t Send Roses (Reprise)† Mack and Mabel Averi Yorek (FB)
She Touched Me Drat! The Cat! Joshua Kerr/FB
Times Like This Lucky Stiff Unspecified
Glitter and Be Gay† Candide Alenda Bernardi/FB
On the Twentieth Century On the Twentieth Century Company

Are these the songs that I would have chosen? Some of them are. Others less so. There are certainly songs that I would have included that are not here, such as “Artificial Flowers” (Tenderloin), “Hey Look Me Over” (Wildcat), “Change in Me” (Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public), “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” or “Boom Ditty Boom” (70 Girls 70), “The Gentleman is a Dope” (Allegro), “That’s the Way It Happens” (Me and Juliet), or “Hey, Jimmy, Joe, John, Jim, Jack” (Let It Ride). I might also include some songs from modern “flops”, such as Leap of Faith, Scandalous, or Chaplin. But the choice of song is the director’s choice, and overall this was a pretty good list.

How were the performances? Most of them were in the good to very good range, and a few were spectacular. I say “Most” because there was the very-occasional off note, which I wrote off to the fact that most of the cast are new to musicals and the West Coast theatre scene, and I presume that they improve each performance. But those were in the “very few” range — as I said, the great majority of the show had strong singing, and certain performers were just exceptional. Specifically, I really enjoyed Averi Yorek (FB) and Joshua Kerr/FB who had exceptionally strong voices and shone in whatever song they were singing; and Alenda Bernardi/FB, who blew the audience away with a spectacular performance of “Glitter and Be Gay”. Performances I thought were particularly strong are indicated with † in the table above. About the only performance I wasn’t crazy about was “Meadowlark”, where I think they needed a stronger voice on the song (c’mon, Patti LuPone did it originally). In general, the actors had good stage presence and seemed to be having fun with the songs.

The cast consisted of: Mirie Ben-Tzur (FB), Daniel Floren (FB), Keri Green/FB, Rosanne Limeres (FB), Shelley Scovin (FB), Len Smith (FB), Ety Terry (FB), and Averi Yorek (FB). Also in the cast, but seemingly left out of the program, were Joshua Kerr/FB and Alenda Bernardi/FB.

Most of the music was provided by Eunyoung Koh/FB on a keyboard on the side; a few tracks had recorded music when sheet music was unavailable. Koh was very focused on her music, but it was fun to see her face light up when she tossed a performer a hat during one number.

As noted before, the production was directed by Trace Oakley (FB), who did a good job of providing connection between the individual songs and making the songs more than just a “stand up and sing”. A few of the choices were a bit baffling, such as the stuffed chipmunks during “Meadowlark”, or the profusion of women during “Come Back To Me” (which has nothing to do with the point of that song). Other songs were particularly well executed, including the “Don’t Send Me Roses” pairing, the “We’re Gonna Be Alright” pairing, “Nobody Steps on Kafritz”, and “What Did I Have?”. Choreography was by Averi Yorek (FB) and was very good. I particularly enjoyed the dancing during the Bangkok number from Chess and the dancing during “What Did I Have?”. Musical direction was by Alenda Bernardi/FB. Kelly Stevenson/FB was the assistant director, and Tony Candelaria served as stage manager.

Turning to the technical… sigh. This is the one problem area for this show — as evidenced by the fact that there were no technical credits in the program (tsk, tsk). We can set aside sound design, as there were no microphones or special effects. Lighting? Having had a daughter who went through the technical theatre program at Van Nuys HS, as soon as I entered the theatre I noted lighting problems — there was a mix of odd lights (parabolics, leikos, bare bulbs), with few gels, and a number of potential safety issues (none of lights had safeties, which might be due to their mounting approach of being actually bolted to the mounting rack vs. the typical C-clamp; there also appeared to be loose strings and use of gaffers tape for something other than taping down cords). In execution, this was one of the few shows where the lighting actually hurt the show. At times the lights flickered oddly, at times performers were not lit, and most importantly, the lighting was just too harsh, highlighting costuming flaws and not serving to subtly establish the mood or the scene.  With respect to costuming (and I’ll note this input is more from my wife)…. there were a number of costuming problems. In a small venue such as this, hosiery can do a wonderful job of smoothing out imperfections on legs. My wife also noted some, umm, foundational problems, and there were a few costumes that could use a little repair. These imperfections would not be noticeable in a large venue, or a venue that was using less-harsh lighting (pink spots can be your friend), but the combination just distracted (when it was easily correctable).  The set itself was very simple — a few boxes, a door, a few props — and was sufficient given the budget limitations of a small venue.

[As an aside thought -- it would be interesting to see this musical reworked to add in a few more popular numbers and proposed to a venue such as the Colony Theatre (FB). With an even stronger cast, fuller orchestrations, better lighting and costumes, and strong publicity, this could be a strong revue that is popular with audiences. Oh, Barbara Beckley (FB)... you should talk to Trace  (FB)!]

Carrie That Tune” continues at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse (FB) through September 29, 2013. Tickets should be available through the Avery Schreiber Playhouse (FB) or The Mirror Theatre Company, and may be available on Goldstar.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Next weekend see us returning to Santa Clarita and REP East (FB) for “God of Carnage” (September 28). Theatre in October starts on the 5th with “Breath and Imagination” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  The second week of October sees me at the West Coast Premier of “Burnt Street Boys at the Third Street Theatre (FB).  The third week of October is being held for the production of “Carrie – The Musical (FB) by Transfer Theatre, but tickets are not yet on sale (and it is increasingly looking like this production will now be in 2014). October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November will start (hopefully) with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will bring Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) as well as “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB). The last weekend of November brings a rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  December is mostly open, but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

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bare - A Rock Musical (Hayworth)userpic=theatre_ticketsRecently, the theatre press in Los Angeles has been a-buzzin’ around the return of the musical “bare” to Los Angeles. Given all the buzz, I gave into the pressure and booked two shows this weekend (I normally only book one show per weekend, and I had already booked Carrie That Tune for Sunday). As a result, this afternoon saw us rushing to mid-Wilshire (and barely making it) for  bare” at the Hayworth Theatre.

Bare (book by Jon Hartmere, Jr. and Damon Intrabartolo, lyrics by Hartmere and music by Intrabartolo) tells the story of two gay Catholic high-schoolers in love. Just with that summary, you might be expecting “Zanna Don’t“, but the story here is much darker. Zanna Don’t ends happy. This doesn’t. In that way, it is very Catholic.

bare takes place at a co-ed Catholic boarding school. Peter, a senior, is rooming with Jason, another senior and his secret lover. The basic focus of the show is the outing of this relationship, with various machinations along the way. These include interactions with Peter’s twin sister, Nadia (who is supposed to be fat, but wasn’t cast that way — more on that later). It also includes another girl, Ivy, who falls in love with Jason, complicating the relationship. Figuring all this out takes a while, because the show is 99% sung through, and hearing the lyrics clearly over the band was a little difficult. There’s a detailed synopsis over at the Wikipedia page — note that this production was doing the original version.  I’m not going to try to repeat it because (a) it is too complicated, and (b) I don’t want this post to be exceedingly long.

Reading the synopsis details one of the main problems with this show: the book needs some work and streamlining. Part of the problem is that it is a lot like Rent (its contemporary) — it is sung — or perhaps screamed — through.  The story is attempted to be told through the music and lyrics, with very little non-musical dialogue. Although this can work, it (umm) takes work to get it right. First and foremost, one must be able to clearly hear and understand the lyrics, and that wasn’t always the case here. Given that a number of the musical numbers seem to be generic rock supporting sung-through exposition, they could probably be reworked to help tell the story better while providing focus on the truly good numbers (of which there are many). The other problem with the book is the complicated nature and how it keeps coming at you: not only is the story dealing with a gay relationship, it is dealing with problematic parental relationships, teen pregnancy, sexual promiscuity, and heavy drug use (ending with an overdose). It’s a downer, man. The sole bright point in the story is Sister Chantelle and her humor.  If I had to choose between a musical to push the agenda of gay rights, I’d go for Zanna Don’t over this. Still, as evidenced by the audience, this show does have its following, and that’s likely due to the recent death of its young and talented composer, Damon Intrabartolo.

A few other observations on the story. It was very interesting watching this story in light of the recent statements by Pope Francis about how the Catholic church should focus on mercy and people before harsh and condemning dogma. That has a directly relationship to this story: Sister Chantelle demonstrate mercy; the priest demonstrates dogma. In the end, it is Chantelle who leads Peter to acceptance; and it is the dogma that drives Jason to his tragic end. How would this story be different in the Pope Francis era?  As it is, this story is pretty negative on dogma, and presents a sardonic picture of Catholic boarding schools — rampant sex, drugs, and disbelief  (which may be close to reality).

More importantly, bare shows how there is an overall lack of acceptance in Catholicism and their schools, and how this disconnection can have strongly negative results. Those who have seen the show previously argue that this picture is precisely why this show is an argument for acceptance. I can see that, but I think Zanna Don’t did a much better job of demonstrating gay acceptance through its postulating of a world where gay is normal and hetero is queer.

This story has quite a few parallels to Rent. I’ve previously noted the rock opera sung through aspects to the story. It also has a lot of characters with loads of intertwining stories and relationships. It doesn’t end happy. Its composer died far too early. Rent borrowed a number of themes from La Boeheme. My wife noted that bare borrowed some themes from Aaron Copeland. Is bare the Rent for the gay community? Hard to say.

What is the conclusion with respect to the book for bare? Overall, I think the story it tries to tell is a good one and an important one. I think it could have been told better. However, given the history of this musical, we’re likely stuck with the story structure and presentation — flawed as it is. It’s a good story — not great — that gets its message across but ends in a downer.

What’s not a downer are the performances. The cast is uniformly strong, even when I didn’t agree with the casting choices. They all seemed to be living their roles, enjoying their roles, enthusiastically loving their roles, and this was contagious. I’d like to single out a few performances that I found worthy of highlight.

First and foremost: Stephanie Andersen (FB; FB-Fan) as Sister Chantelle. Andersen originated this role in the original 2000 production, and she just owns it. Hell, she runs with it, plays with it, loves it, and spreads the love. She also has what I think is the absolute best number in the show, “God Don’t Make No Trash”, although her other number “911! Emergency” comes a close second.

Also remarkable was Katie Stevens (FB) as Nadia, Jason’s sister. Although I don’t like the casting (according to the songs and the synopsis, Nadia should be large-size and the director didn’t follow through with that), Stevens was spectacular in the role. She had the right level of cynicism and standoffishness for the role, as was both fun and touching to watch. She also took no prisoners in her numbers “Plain Jane Fat Ass”  and “Birthday Bitch”.

The two male leads — Payson Lewis (FB) as Peter and Jonah Platt (FB) as Jason — were both strong. Lewis, in particular, did a great job of showing the emotional struggles his character was facing. Both had strong singing voices and carried the story well.

The last performer I would like to single out is Lindsay Pearce (FB) as Ivy. Again, this is someone who caught your eye through her performance, strong acting, and strong singing ability. She was particularly strong in her second act songs.

As for the rest of the company, they stood out strong as an ensemble in their singing and dancing, and a few of them (notably Caitlin Ary (FB) and Katherine Washington/FB) grabbed my eye whenever they were on stage due to their enthusiasm, stage presence, and general look. The rest of the company consisted of  Caitlin Ary (FB) [Tanya], John Griffin (FB) [Priest], Kelsey Hainlen (FB) [Rory], Casey Hayden (FB) [Lucas], Christopher Higgins (FB) [Zack], Reesa Ishiyama (FB) [Diane], Alissa-Nicole Koblentz (FB) [Claire], Harrison Meloeny (FB) [Alan], Nathan Parrett (FB) [Matt], Katherine Washington/FB [Kyra].

Elmo Zapp (FB) served as music director, and played bass on-stage. Alex Sellar/FB (lead guitar) and Andrew Orbison (FB) (piano, keys) served as associate music directors. Rounding out the excellent, if not a bit loud, on-stage band were Steve Riley (FB) (drums), Derek Tea (FB) (cello), and Morgan Paros (FB) (violin).

The production was directed by Calvin Remsberg (FB) (assisted by Jevin Andrews (at least according to the program — based on FB, I think the credit is really Andrew Jevin/FB), and choreographed by Jen Oundjian (FB) (assisted by Erik Hall/FB). The direction of the show was strong and effective, given the limitations of the space and the set. Choreography was especially strong and worked well for the rock score.

Turning to the technical. Sigh. The scenic design by Josh Clabaugh was very limited — some movable screens, some dressers, some pews, a set of lockers. This was understandable given the short run of the productions and limited budgets, but the show would have been helped with scenery that better established the various locales. The sound design by Drew Dalzell (FB), assisted by Rebecca Kessin and mixed by Sean Kozma (FB), was more problematic. As has been noted by other reviewers, the sound was often muddled (and it was worse in the back of the theatre, where I stood for one song). This could be a facility problem, and I think this show would have been better served in a venue such as the Colony Theatre or the Pasadena Playhouse — both for their larger size and better acoustics. Still, given the importance of hearing the lyrics in this show, having clear sound was vital, and at many times, it was lacking. The lighting by Brandon Baruch (FB) was effective and served to set the mood quite well. The costumes by Alex Merrell were both strong and weak. Strong, in that the women’s costumes were exceptionally sexy in that Catholic High School Girls in Trouble way; weak in that they didn’t have the uniformity that boarding school uniforms should have (especially in the boy’s ties), and that although they tried to dress Nadia to look fat, they failed miserably. Juliana Scott/FB was the production stage manager. bare was produced by Topher Rhys (FB), Jamie Lee Barnard/FB, and Glory|Struck Productions (FB); Stephanie Lazard/FB was co-producer. Bare was also funded by a successful kickstarter.

bare – A Rock Musical has one more performance, Sunday, at 7:30pm. Tickets are available through Plays411. Allocate plenty of time to get to the theatre — driving in that area is a bitch!

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:  Tomorrow brings our second show of the weekend: “Carrie That Tune” (great songs from flop musicals) at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse (FB) in North Hollywood on Sunday.  We close September by returning to Santa Clarita and REP East (FB) for “God of Carnage” (September 28). Theatre in October starts on the 5th with “Breath and Imagination” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  The second week of October sees me at the West Coast Premier of “Burnt Street Boys at the Third Street Theatre (FB).  The third week of October is being held for the production of “Carrie – The Musical (FB) by Transfer Theatre, but tickets are not yet on sale (and it is increasingly looking like this production will now be in 2014). October ends with the Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) production of “Kiss Me Kate” (October 26). November will start (hopefully) with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at Actors Rep of Simi (FB). That will be followed by a visit with Thomas the Tank Engine when we volunteer at OERM over Veterans Day.  The third week will be theatre-ish, as we attend ARTS’s Nottingham Village (FB) (a one-weekend ren-faire-ish market — tickets are now on sale). One of those weekends we’re also likely to see a Trollplayers (FB) production of Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden” (which runs November 8-17) [Trollplayers is the community theatre group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge]. The weekend before Thanksgiving will bring Tom Paxton (FB) in concert at McCabes Santa Monica (FB) as well as “Play It Again Sam” at REP East (FB). The last weekend of November brings a rescheduled “Miracle on S. Division Street” at the Colony Theatre (FB).  December is mostly open, but should bring “The Little Mermaid” at Nobel Middle School, and “Peter and the Starcatcher” at The Ahmanson Theatre. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

 

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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