When I startedAisle Seat Review almost a decade ago, I wasn’t at all sure how long our run would be. But I was damned determined that we would give it our absolute best. And now, after all this time and over five hundred posts, it’s time to “Turn off the ghost light” and wrap the show.
Across the years, the content we produced is, in my humble opinion of course, as good as almost any on the web. I am particularly proud of the content we produced during COVID. When 99% of theaters in the greater San Francisco Bay Area were closed, we pivoted to interviewing the people who make the Bay Area one of the top five theater destinations in America.
As for me, I left the Bay Area and moved to Spokane, Washington, over four years ago. And yet we continued to produce ASR until this very day. And if I may in a point of personal privilege, that’s because I genuinely love The City by The Bay – and the theater.
I won’t burden you with why we’ve retired from publication.
I will say that ASR had dedicated writers and readers, and I valued almost every one. We had the occasional misfire, as any publication does, but our content stood the test of time.
So, here’s a special “Thank you and Farewell” to all the ASR editorial staff.
A hot day in Harlem is the setting for Jocelyn Bioh’s Tony-nominated Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre. The incisive ensemble comedy runs through December 15.
Delightfully written and beautifully performed, this Whitney White-directed one-act is both a lovingly hilarious depiction of a small slice of life in an African immigrant community and a cautionary tale about their plight. Performed by an almost entirely female cast, the show is both an examination of relationships among an assertive group of mostly West Africans and a handful of New York City natives.
A deservedly standing-ovation performance, its story is both unique and universal. People always come together around a common interest, an occurrence that almost always results in disagreements and in-fighting. So it is for the workers and clients at Jaja’s – they bicker and snipe at each other, hijack each other’s customers, and complain tremendously about nearly everything, but we never doubt for an instant that they are united. It’s a simply gorgeous and stunningly well-paced show.
And it’s one that, having been covered in detail elsewhere, probably doesn’t need further analysis from us other than to give it our highest recommendation. Do not miss this great production!
Ticket information: berkeleyrep.org
AND IN CLOSING…..
This is almost certainly one of the final posts to Aisle Seat Review.
We have worked long and hard to cover the performing arts in the Bay Area and we thank all our loyal readers, and the entire theater community that has been so supportive over the past 9-plus years ASR has been in publication. We hope that we have been supportive in return.
We wish to thank all our contributors – Sue Morgan, Cari Lynn Pace, Woody Weingarten, Susan Dunn, Jeff Dunn, Mitchell Field, George Maguire, and Nicole Singley.
Above all, we wish to thank ASR owner and publisher Kris Neely for his tireless work and devotion to this site over its long lifespan. Thank you, Kris!
The jarring election news earlier this month seems to reflect the Russian influence erupting in Palo Alto Players’ fine production of Fiddler on the Roof in the 1905 village of Anatevka. It runs through Nov. 24 at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theater and is already nearly sold out.
Based on stories by Sholem Aleihem, Fiddler was made into a stage play (book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) and was first produced on Broadway in 1964 where it ran for more than 3,000 performances.
Finely etched performances here by Joey McDaniel as Tevye, Brittney Mignano as his tart-tongued wife Golde, and several actors as his five daughters bring Aleihem’s story of the poor milkman come to life. The show is rife with many wonderful songs like “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”
Photo by Christian Pizzirani – (Center, L-R) Tevye (Joey McDaniel), Lazar Wolf (Doug Brook) and the company celebrate Lazar’s engagement to Tevye’s eldest daughter Tzeitel in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.
For PAP’s production, musical director/conductor Amanda Ku and her 10-piece orchestra are strewn across the entire back of the Lucie Stern stage. Soft lighting and strategic scenery make them almost invisible as the story unfolds.
And what a story it is! It centers on Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, who has to resort to pulling his own cart to deliver milk when his old horse becomes lame. As he arrives home, Golde chastises him to wash up while yelling at her daughters to get everything ready for the Sabbath meal.
In those days, the village matchmaker was a powerful person. Here, Marsha van Broek as Yente, the matchmaker, adroitly shows her sway over families as she tells Golde that she has found a perfect match for Tzeidel (Gabrielle Goodman): Lasar Wolfe (Doug Brook), the village’s butcher who is older than Tzeidel’s father but has a lot of money.
Both Golde and Tevye are excited about the butcher’s intentions because they know their eldest daughter will be well cared for – and the entire family will benefit when Lasar says he’ll throw in some extra money for Tzeidel’s family.
Photo by Christian Pizzirani — Tevye (Joey McDaniel) and his wife Golde (Brittney Mignano) in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, the classic Tony Award-winning musical that features a timeless score and a universal story of family, love, loss, and resilience.
The hitch? Tzeidel and her childhood friend, Motel (an earnest Joe Steely), made a “pact” a year earlier that they would marry when they got older.
Tevye and Golde are strongly opposed to their union both because Motel is practically penniless (he’s a tailor who sews clothes by hand) and because “tradition” says the head of a household makes the decision of who his daughters marry.
. . . eventually Tevye grudgingly gives his blessing to … marriage . . .
Act 1 ends with the song “Wedding Dance” where the happy bride and groom have a traditional wedding officiated by the village rabbi (a rather bland Richard Brandi). But as Tevye’s family and friends all join in the celebration, a constable (Matt Regan) shows up with his soldiers to break up the happy event.
Director/choreographer Jennifer Copaken has her hands full with the large cast (30+), but she and the efficient stage crew keep things moving smoothly. Counting a 15-minute intermission, the whole production runs just over 2 ½ hours.
In Act 2, daughters two and three (Madelyn Davis Haddad as Hodel and Teagan Murphy as Chava) get their moments in the sun. Hodel follows her heart and falls in love with itinerant scholar Perchik (Sam Kruger) who has been giving school lessons to Tevye’s two youngest daughters. They want to marry – again not what her parents want for her – but Tevye gives in when he sees their love for each other.
Ditto with daughter No. 3: Chava (Teagan Murphy). By this time, Tevye is coming around to the idea that “Love – it’s the new style.”
Photo by Christian Pizzirani – Tevye (Joey McDaniel) and the villagers of Anatevka in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at PAP.
While PAP’s Fiddler is charming in so many ways, this reviewer found one character, Fiddler Eliya played by Chava Roy, a tiny bit tiresome as she repeatedly climbs up the stairway to a small balcony and then pretends to play on her “fiddle.”
But that’s just a trifle. Saturday night’s audience gave the production a standing ovation. PAP has just announced it’s added an extra performance to accommodate all the people hoping to get tickets.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
For some people, the title Wait Until Dark conjures up memories of the scary 1967 movie starring Audrey Hepburn. But it was a play before it was a hit movie – written in 1966 by Frederick Knott.
The theatrical version opened at Hillbarn Theatre on Oct. 18 and runs through Nov. 3 at the Foster City theater, the second of Hillbarn’s 84th season. Sadly, though several of the actors make valiant efforts to keep things suspenseful, this reviewer found the presentation to be a tad more confusing than it needs to be.
” … Ed Hunter’s lighting is almost flawless …
Many in the audience likely never saw the film (it came out 57 years ago!), so they must decipher the storyline from what happens on the Hillbarn stage. With so many characters walking into the apartment occupied by Sam (Sahil Singh) and his blind wife, Susan (Sarah Jiang), it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out who is who, what they want – and why.
Scott Coopwood* as Roat and Sarah Jiang as Susan in the thriller “Wait Until Dark” at Hillbarn Theatre. Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
Knott’s play, which takes place in 1944, is a bit long-winded IMHO providing exposition (background information). Here’s the gist:
Before returning from a business trip to Canada to his home in New York, Sam is asked by a woman to take a doll with him to give to someone. What he doesn’t know is that the doll is actually filled with heroin.
This prompts three bad guys including the treacherous Roat (Scott Coopwood) to track down the doll with the intent of selling the heroin and getting rich. Roat’s plans to eliminate his two partners once he gets his hands on the drugs.
As Susan, Sarah Jiang makes a valiant effort to play a blind person. That she succeeds some of the time is to her credit, but to this reviewer’s eyes she seems to play Susan like a bit of a breakable doll, moving stiffly and jerking her body around a bit. Jiang gets a real workout in Dark as she walks up and down a short flight of stairs at the back of the stage at least 20 times.
This is a production that needs the lighting to work impeccably, and fortunately Ed Hunter’s lighting is almost flawless. Jeff Mockus’ sound also works well. Courtney Middleditch-Morgan’s costumes – especially for the bad guys – strike an appropriate note. And “props” to the properties designer, Stephanie Dittbern. Watching Susan frantically flip each switch in the authentic-looking light box added authenticity.
Mike (Ryan Tasker) and Susan (Sarah Jiang) in the thriller “Wait Until Dark” at Hillbarn Theatre on stage Oct. 17 – Nov. 3, 2024. Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
An actor who deserves special note for making his good guy/bad guy credible. As Mike, Ryan Tasker brought a good deal of warmth to his portrayal. His story of knowing Susan’s husband in the war rang true, and it was easy to tell that Mike wavered in his efforts to find out where the doll is hidden. He came close to admitting he didn’t want Susan to get hurt.
But finally, in this reviewer’s opinion, director Vickie Rozell might have let this mystery get away from her a bit. I think she needed to step back and concentrate on making her characters more dimensional.
Then perhaps, Hillbarn’s Wait Until Dark might have been more menacing.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
It doesn’t matter whether you know nothing about basketball – or are a rabid fan. It does help if you know that “King James” refers to LeBron James and not the King James Bible.
Playwright Rajiv Joseph has created a jewel of a play that is far more about relationships, growth, and friendship between two young men as it ebbs and flows over 12 years. Christopher Fitzer’s thoroughly researched and exquisitely detailed sets add an essential layer to this production, as does Giovanna Sardelli’s steady, level-headed direction.
” … the talents of (the) actors …make this production of James …”
But because there are just two characters in King James and both are on stage almost 100% of the time, the talents of actors Kenny Scott as Shawn and Jordan Lane Shappell as Matt make this production of James. Did they succeed? How about a standing ovation at the play’s end – not on opening night but at a 2 p.m. matinee on a Sunday?!
Shawn (Kenny Scott) and Matt (Jordan Lane Shappell) pantomime a basketball game in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “King James,” performing thru Nov 3rd at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
One of the clever concepts Joseph came up with in James is to give his play four scenes – representing the four quarters of a basketball game. Scene 1 occurs in 2004 in a small, handsomely furnished bar in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where Matt works. A diehard Cavaliers fan, Matt has to sell his coveted tickets to the remainder of the Cavalier games because he’s short on money.
That’s when Shawn shows up, literally drooling to buy the tickets, though the amount he can afford to pay is far below what Matt expects to sell them for. Matt tells Shawn that another person is coming in shortly to buy the tickets for face value –- but when a phone call reveals the other buyer has dropped out, Shawn wheedles Matt down and eventually gets the tickets.
Then Matt asks Shawn who he’s taking with him to see the games, something Shawn hadn’t considered. He realizes no one would appreciate going to them more than Matt – thus, a basketball friendship develops between the two men.
Scene 2 of this intriguing dramedy is six years later. Matt’s still working at the same bar when Shawn, a writer intent on going to Hollywood to “make it big,” walks in wearing a red Cleveland Cavalier shirt – of course with “23” emblazoned on it.
Once more, the two men chat about their lives, hopes, and plans. Both seem to anticipate each other’s move, much like a basketball player. At times, they effortlessly weave and duck across the theatre’s wide stage.
Shawn (Kenny Scott) shares a drink with Matt (Jordan Lane Shappell) in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “King James.” Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Joseph cleverly gives his play the same cadence as a basketball game. Intermission takes the place of the half-time break. Before the play begins –- and at the start of each scene — Steven Mannshardt’s lighting bounces around the large theatre, coupled with stadium sounds during scene changes.
Several years pass between scenes, so each time Matt and Shawn meet up again, they have changed — sometimes for the better. They also appear to mature somewhat, although their maturity and fortunes ebb and flow.
In Act 2, Shawn has moved to Hollywood and is a writer on a sitcom. But, he admits to Matt, it sometimes feels like he’s the token Black person who doesn’t get much chance to contribute.
Whether this is true or a skewed perception, Shawn ends up back in Cleveland Heights and becomes closer to Matt’s parents than Matt. The “antique/junk” store they own is the setting for Act 2. Theatergoers could spend hours looking at all the cute/bizarre/valuable/useless items on the set.
Symbolic of the store is a leather armadillo that has been in the store forever. The store itself is called “Armaads,” so there’s that. Another unique antique is the giant globe that, when the top half is lifted off, houses a classy array of alcoholic bottles.
Fitzer does double duty, designing both the sets and costumes. Though there aren’t many costumes, each one here seems matched with what’s happening to the character wearing it.
In short, like a smooth basketball player at his peak, King James moves along effortlessly until the play comes to a logical, if perhaps expected, end.
In this reviewer’s opinion, it’s too bad the play doesn’t cover James’ decision to get out of his second stint in Cleveland to accept a big, fat contract with the LA Lakers (where King James still resides).
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
I couldn’t getmy fill of the regiment in Donizetti’s opera La fille du régiment. Why? Because Livermore Valley Opera’s regimental chorus was such a scene-stealer. Whenever the outstanding cast of principals had gloriously sung one bel canto aria too many, this eight-man posse of protectors would pop in and provide welcome comic relief. Kudos to chorusmaster Bruce Olstad and stage director Marc Jacobs!
Who is the octet protecting? The Daughter (Marie) is a foundling raised by the regiment she addresses as her “fathers.” We are in the Tyrol of 1809, and the French are battling Austrian sympathizers in an area then under Napoleonic control. The French occupiers are the good guys since Donizetti penned his tuneful theater piece for the Paris Opéra-Comique. No surprise that local boy Tonio changes sides and enlists in the regiment to go after his squeeze Marie. But it turns out she’s the child of the Marquise of Berkenfield, who wants her to marry into nobility.
” … highly recommended …”
Véronique Filloux warmed quickly into her demanding role as Marie, hitting her high notes with power and accuracy, but more importantly, conveying an impish sense of fun as a soldiers’ pal in Act 1 and as a would-be trainee in aristocracy in Act 2. Chris Mosz brought a uniquely sugary voice to the character of Tonio, effortlessly hitting all eight high Cs in Tonio’s famous Act 1 Ah! mes ami … aria, and even adding a higher-than-high C to the unwritten (by Donizetti) ninth one.
Marie and her Protectors. Photo Livermore Opera.
Eugene Brancoveanu’s rich and venue-filling voice and acting were perfect for his role as Sulpice, the sergeant in charge of the octo-posse. Finally, mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez’ lovely voice was a joy to hear as she negotiated her Marquise’s character change from a snobby fussbudget to a woman who begins to display caring for her once-abandoned child at the cost of her reputation.
Jean-François Revon’s sets and projection designs were a marvel–simple, colorful, effective, and surprising when cannon-blast lighting effects popped out in distant background hills. Linda Pisano’s beautiful costumes, initially designed for the Utah Opera, were a pleasure to examine in detail during the more extended arias.
Music director Alexander Katsman’s tempos and dynamics were managed with aplomb in Francis Griffin’s reduced-orchestra score displaying little emaciation. This reviewer thought the horn section had a bit of difficulty handling the highly exposed overture opening in the September 28th performance, but the cello section was wonderful for the lead-in to the Par le rang et par l’opulence aria in Act 2.
Tonio and Marie at work at the Livermore Opera. Photo Livermore Opera.
The many laughs, endless melodies, outstanding voices, costumes, and sets make Livermore Opera’s version of La fille a highly recommended and inexpensive way to experience great opera. If you go before it closes on Sunday, October 6th, see if you can hear the clever reference to Rossini’s William Tell overture in Donizetti’s overture. Both operas take place in the Alps.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.Contact:jdunn@mmalameda.com
Production
Daughter of the Regiment
Music by
Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges &
Jean-François Bayard
Director
Marc Jacobs
Producing Company
Livermore Valley Opera
Production Dates
Thru Oct 6th
Production Address
Bankhead Theater
2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
No, No, Nanettewas first produced on Broadway in 1925, so it’s somewhat surprising that South Bay Musical Theatre chose this “Roaring 20s”-era show to open its 2024-25 season. Turns out it was a good choice.
What makes it so surprising that No, No Nanette was such a hit on Broadway is the fact that its storyline (written by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel) is, in this reviewer’s opinion, so just plain silly.
Cast members of “No No Nanette!” at work. Photo: South Bay Musical Theatre
And to that SBMT added some strong acting performances, fine set designs by Brett Carlson, and gorgeous costumes by Amanda Seguin. Plus, music director George Yefchak conducts a large, melodious orchestra that makes audiences remember the Roaring 20s with songs like “I Want to be Happy,” “Tea for Two,” “Take a Little One-Step” and –- naturally: “No, No Nanette.”
The standout number is “I Want to be Happy,” which is not only sung but tapped by several of the main characters, plus the hard-working ensemble members. Here, Christina Bolognini as Sue Smith stands out with her fine tap performance. It goes to show that, as a truism, whenever there’s a tap number, the whole show gets better.
Judith Miller as Pauline in “No No Nanette!” Photo: SBMT
Nanette opens in the large living room of Jimmy Smith (a fine characterization by Michael Paul Hirsch). The scene-stealing maid Pauline (a hilarious Judith Miller) clomps around angrily as she declares she’s quitting soon (she never does).
What makes life unbearable for Pauline is that a vacuum cleaner follows her around and spooks her when she least expects it to show up. The mysterious moving vacuum cleaner is almost a character in itself!
“…just don’t try to make sense of the plot! …”
Smith is a millionaire Bible publisher who enjoys throwing his money around – for a lot of worthy causes. But his wife Sue (Christina Bolognini) is an entrenched penny-pincher. Her best friend Lucille Early (a standout performance by Jessica Whittemore) is just the opposite. She loves spending money on herself – and her wardrobe shows it. Lucille is married to Jimmy’s lawyer Billy Early (a nice turn by Michael Rhone) who enjoys making his wife happy.
So where does the “Nanette” in the title fit in? Jimmy and Sue are Nanette’s guardians, and they’ve tried their best to shield her from anyone who might be after her for her money. Melissa Momboisse, as Nanette, certainly appears a tad spoiled and a lot sheltered. She mostly does what her guardians tell her to do—up to a point.
They’ve found a fine young man for her: Tom Trainer (Ryan Liu), but Nanette stubbornly declares that she needs to live it up a little before settling down. Her bestie Lucille agrees, so she and Nanette plot a trip – supposedly to visit Nanette’s grandmother but, actually, to big, bustling Atlantic City.
To try to fathom the subterfuge and shenanigans that take place from there on is too difficult to describe. Best to just enjoy the performances, the singing and dancing and the nostalgia that wafts out everywhere.
The Three Ladies (and a Bible Salesman!) from “No No Nanette!”. Photo: SBMT
Mention must be made of the three charming but eccentric ladies referred to as Betty from Boston (Heather Mae Steffan), Flora from Frisco (Lauren Jiang) and Winnie from Washington (Beth McClelland). Who they are and why they’re such a big part of the plot is left to the audience to decide – but they are a delightful diversion.
As charming and winsome as she is, Momboisse, as Nanette, seems to have been given a rather… interesting …stage direction: to hold both her arms in an “L” shape—sometimes when she’s talking and at times when she’s singing. Well, OK. And on with the show…
There’s also the rather unbelievable plot twist of Jim, the Bible-publishing billionaire, “keeping” the aforesaid feminine trio—not for the usual reason of extramarital fun but because he’s altruistically helping each of them further their chosen career pursuits. (And if you believe that, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn that’s available for sale at a great price!)
Nevertheless, all’s well that ends well. No, No Nanette is full of silly, infectious fun with some fine performances, songs, dances and costumes.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
San Francisco Playhouse brings the house down — literally and figuratively — with the hilarious comedy The Play That Goes Wrong.
Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer wrote this award-winning farce for the London stage before transferring to Broadway. Kudos to Director Susi Damilano for lending her sharp talents for comedy to this fast-paced farce.
Actors (l to r: Joe Ayers, Phil Wong, Renee Rogoff, Patrick Russell) try to keep the show on track in “The Play That Goes Wrong.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The Play That Goes Wrong cleverly starts even before the lights go up with pre-show hijinks of an usher handing out incorrect programs to the audience. Offstage, the sound and tech guy (Tasi Alabastro) forgets to turn off his mike, and the stage manager (Renee Rogoff) tries to remedy faulty scenery before the curtain goes up. No such luck.
“ … Don’t miss this three-ring circus of comedic chaos …”
When the show-within-a-show actually begins, it’s an impressive setting for The Murder at the Haversham Manor, produced by a dedicated theatre troupe. The laughs tumble over one another when doors don’t open, props are misplaced, something falls off a wall, and a corpse can’t lie still when his hand is accidentally stepped on. Still, the amateur actors bravely soldier on, hoping to fulfill their roles and pull off a successful performance.
Jonathan (Adam Griffith) watches as Robert (Patrick Russell) and Chris (Phil Wong) lose footing in “The Play That Goes Wrong,” presented by SF Playhouse thru Nov 9th. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
This troupe’s “Who done it?” mystery has the requisite characters: a murdered fiancé (Adam Griffith), his grandstanding brother (Joe Ayers), a drama queen fiancée (Erin Rose Solorio), her take-charge brother (Patrick Russell) and of course, the obsequious butler (Greg Ayers.) The final arrival is the hapless inspector (Phil Wong), who tries to put it all together. Each actor is so good at their roles that they make it easy to appear inept amidst the frantic antics.
The cast (l to r: Greg Ayers, Erin Rose Solorio, Adam Griffith, Renee Rogoff) devolves into chaos in “The Play That Goes Wrong,” in The City thru Nov. 9th. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Comedy is a highly skilled talent, and in The Play That Goes Wrong, everything goes absolutely right for the laughs. Don’t miss this three-ring circus of chaos, playing Tuesdays through Sundays through November 9, 2024. If this production has a credo, it should be “The show must go on!”
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
How many times do you go to a symphony concert where at least one of the pieces is boring or has issues of execution or interpretation, no matter how good the rest of it is?
If you’re an old, feisty music critic like me, it’s almost always. But last weekend’s SF Symphony concert, masterfully assembled by music director Essa-Pekka Salonen, was perfect in every respect, with enthralling, varied, and integrated repertoire giving all orchestra sections a chance to shine.
And shine, they did! To top it off, Salonen’s superb conducting maximized the selections’ inherent drama and dynamic ranges, leading to one standing ovation after another.
” … perfect in every respect … “
What integrated the four pieces performed was their consistent references to baroque composers set in the respective styles of the Romantic, Modernist, and 21st-Century composers Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, and Nico Muhly. The result was a splendid survey of many glories of the last 300 years of music history.
Muhly’s work was an SF symphony-commissioned premiere of his 2024 piano concerto. This was the most impressive of his works I’ve heard so far, one immediately pleasurable and worth many future listenings when recordings become available. Its three movements were played without pause over 25 minutes.
The first showed orchestrational evidence of Muhly’s eight years as an assistant to Philip Glass, along with tads of John Adams’ postminimalism. But the second conjured unique sounds, including eerie glissandi and a shattering central climax. The third is a brisk toccata. All movements successfully exuded touches of the baroque composers Rameau and Couperin in a thoroughly contemporary and dazzling orchestral setting.
Muhly, admittedly obsessed by soloist Alexandre Tharaud, designed the concerto around his unique pianistic skills: lightning-fast fingers, ultra-high energy, and masterful control (except for his left foot, which periodically shot out to the side as if kicking away a cuff-chewing dog–but this added to, not subtracted from the excitement).
The first piece after intermission was Elgar’s orchestration of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, a superlative example of what became a fad with Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions later in the 1920s. Elgar’s over-the-top conclusion to the end of the Fugue goes beyond anything Stokowski attempted. Even Richard Strauss, Mr. Excess himself, thought it went too far, but it’s a thrilling example of the Romantic spirit emanating from Berlioz.
The first and last works were Hindemith’s. When he died in 1963, he was considered one of the greatest 20th-century composers, along with Stravinsky, Bartok, and Schoenberg. That’s no longer true today, and in this reviewer’s opinion, it’s a shame.
Hindemith ~1936
His four-minute Ragtime (Well-Tempered) (1920) is full of robust good humor, immersing the theme of Bach’s C-minor Well Tempered Clavier tune in a sea of obstreperous fox trots, rags, and brass raspberries. And the concluding work, his masterpiece, Symphony, Mathis Der Maler, brought the audience to their feet for three long curtain calls. It’s incredible to this reviewer that symphony programmers have neglected this tremendous staple of music history for more than 36 years. How many lesser works have we heard countless times in that interval?
Compared to Mahler even, Hindemith’s symphony surpasses when you consider greatness per minute. The whole program, less than an hour of music, makes it a champion by that measure. Perfect!
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
SF Symphony cornucopia
Producing Company
San Francisco Symphony
Production Dates
Thru Sept 28th
Production Address
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness Ave, SF CA 94012
Attraction and repulsion are equal opposites in Noel Coward’s classic Private Lives at American Conservatory Theater through October 6.
On a veranda at a seaside villa, newlyweds Elyot and Sibyl prepare to enjoy the first night of their honeymoon when Elyot spies his previous wife Amanda just over the hedge separating their rooms. It’s hate at first sight, soon yielding to a passionate, guilt-ridden reunion that they must hide from their new spouses — Amanda’s being an innocent fellow named Victor.
” … Private Lives is a riotous, enormously satisfying season opener …”
Have Elyot and Amanda made a serious mistake in getting divorced? So it appears to them as they get reacquainted, but as soon as they do, their irresolvable differences come roaring back. They flirt and frolic, then fight like two rabid cats in a sack while trying to keep the whole distasteful business hidden from Sybil and Victor.
Sarita Ocón, Hugo E Carbajal, Gianna DiGregorio Rivera, and Brady Morales-Woolery in Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” performing at A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater now through October 6, 2024. Photo by Kevin Berne.
It’s a fantastic setup for one of the greatest romantic comedies ever written. Private Lives has lost no relevance in the approximately 100 years since it first appeared. Human nature and obsessive relationships are permanent conditions, as ACT makes abundantly clear in a gorgeously presented and beautifully paced production directed by KJ Sanchez.
Gianna DiGregorio Rivera & Hugo E Carbajal in “Private Lives,” at ACT in The City. Photo: Kevin Berne.
Hugo E. Carbajal stars as the urbane, self-indulgent Elyot, with Sarita Ocon opposite him as his volatile ex-wife and potential new lover, Amanda. The pair have extraordinary energy together—and extraordinary comedic skills, pushing their characters against each other and apart again in a spectacular pas de deux, one that includes a pitched battle using palm fronds as cudgels.
Brady Morales-Woolery appears as the upright, gentlemanly Victor, with Gianna DiGregorio Rivera as the bright-eyed, eager, innocent Sibyl. It would be hard to imagine four more compatible actors in this show.
It’s a brilliant bit of casting by director Sanchez, who mentions in the playbill having worked with the quartet in previous productions.
Sarita Ocón & Brady Morales-Woolery in Noël Coward’s “Private Lives.” Photo: Kevin Berne.
Their combined history is a tremendous asset for ticket buyers. Pacing, elocution, projection, character interaction, and choreography flow seamlessly in a delightful production hampered only by a too-short run.
Private Lives is further enhanced by spectacular set design from Tanya Orellana, whose two sets are glorious homages to the Art Deco era, right down to the Erté sculptures gracing the second one. Orellana’s sets are so ingeniously conceived that they blend perfectly with the Toni Rembe Theater’s ornate interior, to such an extent that the entire theater seems to be an extension of the stage.
(L-R) Hugo E Carbajal, Gianna DiGregorio Rivera, & Brady Morales-Woolery at work at ACT in The City. Photo: Kevin Berne.
The sound design from Jake Rodiguez couldn’t be better. He knows exactly the sound of an old Victola and emulates it perfectly. Sanchez took the liberty of resetting Coward’s seaside villa from the south of France to Argentina and Amanda’s apartment from Paris to Montevideo, Uruguay—choosing the Argentine angle for its sense of “forced gaiety,” reinforced by a tango choreographed by Lisette Perelle.
This Private Lives is a riotous and enormously satisfying season opener for ACT. Executive Director Jennifer Bielstein acknowledged the show’s universality in a brief post-show chat. “We’ve all lived through that,” she nodded.
Anyone who’s endured an obsessive, contentious relationship will find Private Lives a welcome comedic catharsis.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is an American Theatre Critics Association member and SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle president. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
(September, 2024) San Francisco’s PlayGround has announced the 6th annual Innovators Showcase, a three-week festival of new works by the 2024 Innovator Incubator cohort.
The Innovators Showcase runs November 4-24, 2024, and all performances are free to attend or can be viewed via simulcast or on-demand.
Launched in 2019, PlayGround’s Innovator Incubator fosters new innovative theatre companies and productions that present a commitment to historically marginalized or excluded communities.
According to media dispatches, the 6th annual Innovators Showcase will include the following:
UNPLANNED — an anthology of shorts about reproductive health. Network Effects Theater Company, Nov 4 at 7 pm, Nov 5 at & 7 pm. This event will explore reproductive health through the lens of four short plays written by four writers and expressed through an ensemble local cast. The anthology will raise money for organizations serving family planning across the country.
ABBY NORMAL — a world premiere musical. House Theater, Nov 9 at 7 pm, Nov 10 at 2 pm & 7 pm. Abby Normal is a musical about epilepsy. With 70 million people worldwide suffering from epilepsy, it is one of the least researched or understood brain disorders in this country. “This musical plans to change that. In the play, Abigail battles it out with Seizure to find her community with a brain disorder that at present has no Cure. It will uplift and enlighten you, and the songs will stay with you long after you leave the theater.”
FOUR SEASONS IN THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE — readings of four plays focusing on politics, civil rights, and governance. Oakland Public Theater, Nov 15 at 7 pm, Nov 16 at 2 pm.Four Seasons in the Political Landscape is a collection of staged readings of short plays from local writers, including:
Judicial Process by Reg Clay — a Kafkaesque look at ICE officers and judicial tampering.
Cinquo de Mayo Compared to What by Richard Talavera — a city council debates ethnic holidays.
The Stick and the Ballby Neil Harkins — global warming, extreme polarization, and the so-called “Overton window.”
And Untitled by Kristi Lin Billun.
DESERT WIND— the story of a Yemenite Jewish couple caught in the violence of the Houthi uprising in Yemen. The American Jewish Theatre, Nov 23 at 7 pm, Nov 24 at 2 pm & 7 pm. In this Houthi takeover, a husband is thrown into prison, while his wife is forced to flee through the desert on foot because they are Jews. In the delirium of his torture, the husband reaches out to his wife, and — with her soul — she connects with him.
About the Innovator Incubator
PlayGround’s multi-year intensive incubation program provides access and opportunity for emerging theatre companies by offering financial support, fiscal sponsorship, free space, and mentorship to bolster the diverse voices of participating organizations.
To date, more than 14 companies have been launched through the Innovator Incubator, helping to employ more than 400 local theatre artists and fostering the development of over 30 new works for the stage. Last year’s initiative supported nine production companies and provided more than $50,000 in tools and resources, including fiscal sponsorship, one-on-one mentoring, support for free and discounted performances, rehearsal space, and co-marketing.
Past participants of the Innovator Incubator include Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project, Theatre Cultura, Native Writers’ Theater, Epic Party Theatre, The Forum Collective, Kunoichi Productions, The Moonrisers, and Queer Cat Productions.
About PlayGround
Founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, PlayGround has grown into one of this nation’s leading playwright incubators and theatre community hubs, with a core commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, helping to uplift and center artists from historically underrepresented communities.
Over three decades, PlayGround has supported more than 300 early-career playwrights, developing and staging over 1,500 of their original short plays through PlayGround’s signature programs, Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival of New Works. PlayGround has also commissioned 100 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and has directly facilitated the premiere of 36 of those works through its innovative New Play Production Fund.
Additionally, PlayGround has developed a unique model for identifying and nurturing some of this country’s best new writers, while helping them to build a significant body of original work and lasting connections with the artistic collaborators they need to know to ensure their success. PlayGround expanded to Los Angeles in 2012, NYC in 2021, and Chicago in 2022.
PlayGround’s alums have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards (including 6 of the last 10), Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, and others. PlayGround received the 2009 Paine Knickerbocker Award for outstanding contributions to Bay Area theatre, 3 BATCC Awards for Best Original Script for PlayGround commissions, a 2014 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (founder of the Tony Awards®) and a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.
For more information about PlayGround, visit https://playground-sf.org.
(September 2024) AGMA Choristers of the San Francisco Symphony have officially gone on strike, effective September 19th, 2024.
On September 16, AGMA leadership and the AGMA members of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The Choristers voted 100% in favor of the authorization. 98.1% of eligible members participated in the vote, and 81.1% of the unpaid singers from the Verdi Requiem chorus have pledged to honor an AGMA picket line.
” … I cannot recall the last time AGMA went on strike.” — AGMA President Ned Hanlon …
“The AGMA Board of Governors and Artists around the country stand firmly behind all the Choristers of the San Francisco Symphony,” said AGMA President Ned Hanlon. “I cannot recall the last time AGMA went on strike. We urge (both parties) to … work toward a real solution that honors the work of these dedicated artists and gets everyone back to creating beautiful music.”
The AGMA Negotiating Committee also issued a statement: “We did not take the decision to strike lightly. We would much rather be opening the season. Our goal has always been to protect the rights of the AGMA Choristers and secure a contract that allows us to continue to thrive artistically and financially.”
The AGMA Choristers of the SF Symphony invite interested parties to join them on the picket line Friday (tonight, 9/20) and Saturday night (9/21) at 6:00 p.m. PT along Grove Street in front of Davies Symphony Hall.
If you’re in the mood for a well-done dose of despondency, Poul Ruder’s The Handmaid’s Tale, now playing at the San Francisco Opera, is just the ticket. Prepare with a quick re-read of 1984 and Animal Farm. Then, you’ll be ready to show up and experience an impressive array of artists doing their very best to show you some of the very worst that could happen to this country.
Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel posits a future (2014 in the book, 2030 in the current opera production) where a worldwide infertility disease, environmental degradations, and nuclear disasters have created enough social instability to allow a puritanical cult to mastermind a coup of the U.S. government. As a result, a “Republic of Gilead” is created and put under martial law.
Lindsay Ammann as Serena Joy (at left and projection) and Irene Roberts as Offred in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Photo: Cory Weaver.
Next, claiming that infertility is God’s punishment for women’s sinfulness, women are progressively deprived of most of their rights, including reading and writing, and forcibly separated into classes depending on their ability to procreate and other factors. Fertile women are designated as “Handmaids,” forced to have intercourse with upper-class men whose wives have been unable to produce children — and then forced to surrender their babies.
Irene Roberts at work in “The Handmaid’s Tale” at SF opera. Photo: Cory Weaver.
Ruder’s music is utterly appropriate to this dismal situation. Written from 1996 to 1998 in a late Modernist orchestral style, with drone bass lines, accretionary tone clusters, and periodic fusillades from the brass. Vocal lines are relatively simple in comparison, but nothing you’d want to sing in the shower.
A cultural icon of melody (“Indian’s Farewell,” now known as “Amazing Grace”) can be detected in several instances, where it adds a bitter irony to the cult’s pseudoreligion. For some, the music may become as hard to bear as the gross indignities and devasting losses suffered by the opera’s characters.
Irene Roberts as Offred and John Relyea as The Commander in Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Photo: Cory Weaver.
Mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts portrays the central Handmaid sufferer “Offred.” In such a production I cannot imagine a better performance than the way she passes on her anguish, travails, failing hopes, and powerlessness to listeners. Bass John Relyea adds a rich sound and complexity to the bad-guy role of Offred’s Commander and would-be impregnator.
Mezzo-soprano Lindsay Ammann adds a special poignancy to her portrayal of the Commander’s jealous wife. Soprano Rhoslyn Jones’ sweetness is a welcome contribution to her part as Offred’s shopping partner Ofglen. And soprano Sarah Cambidge’s fearful stridency is perfect in her projection of how, given a little power, oppressed women are happy to subjugate other women.
Conductor Karen Kamensek carefully handled the score’s complexities and did not stint at providing a full dynamic range of occasionally terrifying sounds. Chloe Lamford’s sets were spare and utilitarian in foreground, but massive where needed in portraying the huge “Hanging Wall” where traitors’ bodies remind viewers of the cost of cult disobedience. Will Duke’s large projections were especially apt in personalizing the loss of Offred’s pre-coup daughter.
Sarah Cambidge as Aunt Lydia, Irene Roberts as Offred (bottom row, right) and members of the SF Opera Chorus at work. Photo: Cory Weaver.
The Handmaid’s Tale serves as a very unpleasant object lesson on the perversion of authority and psychology. San Francisco Opera’s production is true to Atwood’s vision. Fortunately, since the United States is still a free country, attendance is optional.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
If magic is the art of making the impossible possible, the libretto for The Magic Flute opera is the Mission Impossible of believability.
Librettist Emanuel Schikaneder left posterity an impossible scenario: A Japanese prince in a deep forest in Egypt, thinking he’s been saved from a giant serpent by a rustic dressed as a giant bird, finds himself in a war between a screaming queen and a basso pharaoh running a Masonic cult. That artist-magicians strive to overcome this hodgepodge is a testament to one of the greatest of all musicians, Mozart.
” … Many in the cast contributed their … sorcery to the occasion …”
Thanks to Opera San Jose’s fine set of magicians, the hand they received from last Saturday’s audience was not at all slight–a standing ovation. Foremost among the magicians was Ricardo José Rivera as bird-man Papageno, whose rich baritone and superb comic acting thrilled the crowd.
But even more magical was conductor Alma Deutscher, fresh out of the Hogwarts of conservatories, the University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna. She’s 19 and has already written two lengthy concertos and three operas. Her bare-armed conducting was fluid and passionate and a joy to witness.
Many in the cast contributed their own bits of sorcery to the occasion. Tenor Sergio González was outstanding as the what’s-he-doing-in-Egypt prince Tamino. Emily Misch as the Queen of the Night pulled out high-F rabbits from her hat with aplomb in her famous aria. Her henchwomen Maria Brea, Melissa Bonetti Luna and Mariya Kaganskaya cast a delicious spell in their trios.
Melissa Sondhi paired expressively with Gonzáles as his love interest Pamina. Nicole Koh distributed a lot of delightful fairy dust as Papageno’s squeeze Papagena. The redoubtable Philip Skinner was imposing as the Speaker of the Temple. As Monostatos, tenor Nicolas Vasquez-Gerst was a master of the black arts and flip-flopping loyalties. Was there kryptonite in the large lollypop sun-staff that he had to keep holding that diminished Youngwang Park’s magic and vocal penetration as the pharaoh Sarastro?
Stage magic was most effective at the outset, when an elaborate serpent-dragon was carried about Chinese-style, replete with smoke from its jaws. Ryan McGettigan’s pyramid and palm stage-design motifs provided consistency, but this reviewer felt the neon-looking palms smacked more of 20th-century Las Vegas than 18th-century Vienna. Alyssa Oania’s costumes, however, were fascinating, and David Lee Cuthbert’s lighting interacted very effectively with stage structures.
A special bit of prestidigitation was accomplished by stage director Brad Dalton. The overture began with lots of action on stage as Tamino, dressed as an 18th-century aristocrat, is placed by servants and playful children in front of a proscenium to see a play in his honor. Tamino gets sucked into the action, and eventually the proscenium disappears, realizing the alternative reality of the opera. Strangely, while I admired the concept, I felt all the action interfered with the pleasure of listening to the overture. Is this yet another example of today’s fashion of elevating dramaturgy above music in opera?
Mozart and The Magic Flute represents the best kind of magic, the kind that lasts, so that generation after generation of artists can ride on its dragon’s back, and see if new tricks can woo the human heart.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Innocence
Libretto by
Emanuel Schikaneder
Stage Direction
Brad Dalton
Conducted by
Alma Deutscher
Producing Company
Opera San Jose
Production Dates
Thru Sept 29th
Production Address
California Theater -
345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
Sometimes we need a simple story with archetypal and eccentric characters to raise our spirits and whisk us from pesky daily issues.
Crossing Delancey by Susan Sandler is just such a vehicle. Eminently so! It surrounds us with a New York Jewish world where home cooking, kugel and tagelach, and occasional bottled spirits put better faces on loneliness and bonding.
Its mission is to solve Grandma Bubbie’s dilemma. How can she lead her reluctant granddaughter Isabel (Lisa Morse), who has left the Lower East Side for the more upscale and cosmopolitan atmosphere of Uptown, into a normal Jewish marriage? Bubbie and her henchwoman, Hannah, the matchmaker (Jennifer S. McGeorge), and Sam, the pickle-vendor (Mark P. Robinson), are up to the job.
” … a marvelously oiled feel-good machine …”
As stage lights come up, Isabel is performing a comedic hair-plucking surgery on her grousing Bubbie. With a theatrical vanity that emerges and re-emerges through the play, Bubbie – thanks to the raucous and inspired acting of Tamar Cohn – continues to entertain us, initially to the detriment of her subdued, intellectual, and prosaically attired granddaughter.
Bubbie’s wiles and maneuvers are well-intended but romantically cool — Isabelle has visions of a different and more culturally independent life, which we quickly learn is based only on fantasy. Well played and embodied by Lisa Morse, Isabelle lives alone and works in an uptown bookstore where her daydreams can explode on desirable-looking local authors who have a stake in visiting the bookstore. The more Bubbie and Hannah scheme and push, the more Isabelle becomes entrenched in her author du jour.
(L-R) Mark Robinson as Sam, Tamar Cohn as Bubbie, Lisa Morse as Izzy in “Crossing Delancy”.
In a stand-out scene, Isabelle finds such entrenchment in Tyler, a pseudo-British-accented Steve Price, who is stopping by the bookstore. He finds she has read his latest book three times and is immensely flattered. The narrative morphs from their casual banter into a lights-dimmed fantasy world of Isabelle’s imaginings, where she is dancing with and is suddenly the object of Tyler’s affections. As the scene returns to normalcy, Isabelle is inspired to pursue Tyler with her own schemes for winning this impressive man.
Meanwhile matchmaker Hannah is pushing a very different romantic candidate, Sam, who has inherited his father’s pickle-vending business. In a first meeting, Sam is ignored or outright put down by Isabelle despite his attempts to soften her resistance. The pickles are a downer in Isabelle’s hierarchical world, but Sam has outstanding charm, patience and attractiveness that win everyone over. He also gives her advice on changing her perspective, and despite being rejected, he gifts her with an impressive purchase and ultimately the ability to see her world from a broader perspective.
This reviewer worried that the program’s extensive glossary of Jewish words and phrases meant the dialogue was going to leave me in an ethnic lurch, but the story unfolds seamlessly through impeccable acting, gestures, props, songs and the occasional breaking of the 4th wall. The Jewishness of the characters comes across with a real authenticity leavened with humor.
The set is ingeniously used for swapping scenes between Bubbie’s house, the bookstore and side scenes of engagement, with choreography that keeps the action fluid and cogent. Costuming changes are continuous and keep the visual action lively with each character defined by clothes, especially Isabelle, who wears the same rather dowdy outfit into Act 2 and verges on tempting us to run up and rip it off her.
(L-R) Jennifer McGeorge as Hannah, Mark Robinson as Sam, Tamar Cohn as Bubbie at RVP.
Kudos go to Hannah’s mod-Jewish matchmaker ensembles which echo her brassy voice and in-your-face personality. Lighting by Jim Cave helps change scene moods, and spontaneous Jewish songs and other background standards (sound design by Billie Cox) help pave the way for love to flower.
With superb acting all around, and exceptional range, force and truth in lead-character Bubbie, this is a comedy to treasure. From start to end, director Adrian Elfenbaum has crafted a marvelously oiled feel-good machine in Crossing Delancey.
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ASR Senior Contributor Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Crossing Delancy
Written by
Susan Sandler
Directed by
Adrian Elfenbaum
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru Oct 13th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Five zany nuns concoct an urgent plan to hold a fundraiser in Nunsense, the latest production of the Novato Theater Company. Dan Goggin’s musical comedy began as a line of greeting cards featuring nuns with a wicked slant. It grew into an off-Broadway production that ran for ten years, the second-longest-running show to date.
“ … Whether or not you enjoyed a Catholic school experience, these nuns will make you laugh out loud …”
Do you have any experience with Catholic school nuns? It matters not for this laugh-out-loud comedy. The Little Sisters of Hoboken are indeed a motley crew. The cadre of Nunsense actors is talented and well-cast, though somewhat difficult to recognize beneath their full black-and-white habits.
L-R: Lauren Sutton-Beattie, Tina Smith, Nicole Thordsen, Kristine Ann Lowry.
Reverend Mother (Jane Harrington) is in charge, ever vigilant to keep order in the order. Sister Mary Hubert (Kristine Ann Lowry) awaits her chance to take over while supervising the fundraiser’s progress. Sister Leo (Lauren Sutton-Beattie) practices her long-lost ballet skills. Sister Mary Amnesia (Nicole Thordsen) brings her operatic voice and a faulty memory to the stage. Sister Robert Anne (Tina Smith) is quick with the jokes as she seeks more of the limelight.
These nuns are praying toraise money, and soon, despite a conflict with the school’s current stage set of Grease. What they lack in skills they make up for in heaven-sent enthusiasm, and the show must go on.
L-R: Tina Smith, Lauren Sutton-Beattie, Kristine Ann Lowry, Nicole Thordsen.
Director Lisa Morse brings the laughter out of this cast of characters, while Marilyn Izdebski crafted choreography to match Nick Brown’s musical direction. That said, this reviewer felt that the band at times overpowered the humorous lyrics and voices onstage. Two dozen songs range from serene (“Veni Creator Spiritus,”) to witty (“The Biggest Ain’t the Best”,) to silly (“Clean Out the Freezer”) all in great fun.
Nunsense offers a collection plate full of high jinks, something you don’t usually see in a habit. Don’t miss it!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Nunsense
Written by
Dan Goggin
Directed by
Lisa Morse
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Thru Oct 6th, 2024
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
In a dark theatre, figures in hooded cloaks file past the audience and up the stairs to the stage. There’s a black-and-white video of a gloomy-looking village – could this be Transylvania, the town terrorized by Frankenstein’s monster?
Surprise! The cloaks are abruptly shed revealing gaily dressed townspeople who sing happily of the end of the monster’s reign. Thus begins the sharply crafted musical Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks’ hilarious take-off on the classic horror story. The casting is perfect, a continuing hallmark of productions at Sonoma Arts Live. No wonder this show sells out!
” … The large cast has a terrific time onstage …”
Michael Bauer plays the young Dr. Frankenstein as a normal physician reluctant to admit his macabre family connections. His role contrasts the other zany characters, all parodies of the original horror film.
The young doctor’s fiancée, gorgeous Joanna Lynn Bert, is outrageous with her preening and socialite affectations. Frau Bucher, the mysterious and intimidating housekeeper, is a delightfully deadpan Kim Williams. Igor, the smarmy hunchback, is helpfully acted out by Pat Barr. Inga, the sexpot assistant, couldn’t be funnier than the role done by Emma Sutherland.
In a surprise cameo, Director Larry Williams, an award-winning veteran of successful comedies, pops onstage singing “Join the Family Business” to the young doctor.
Todd Krish delights the audience when he awakens on the operating table as the Monster. Krish, at 6’2”, wore clodhopper boots that brought him to a height of 7’ with makeup so unbelievably green it would make Kermit the Frog envious. His “Deep Love” duet with (spoiler alert) his new love was worth the price of admission to this laugh-out-loud show.
The large cast has a terrific time onstage, with zippy songs under musical direction by Justin Pyne. The choreography by Liz Andrews and amusing costumes by Allison Sutherland created this monstrously good production., Producer Jamie Love enthuses about veterans and newbies too: “I’m thrilled that many of my young students had a chance to work on the lights and sound, and did such a great job!”
Director Williams had the last word: “We had so much fun bringing Young Frankenstein back to life!”
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Young Frankenstein -- The Musical
Book by
Thomas Meehan and Mel Brooks
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru Sept 22nd
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Four college friends gather for an alcohol-fueled reunion in Will Arbery’s 2019 drama Heroes of the Fourth Turning at Left Edge Theatre in downtown Santa Rosa through September 21.
Directed by Skylar Evans on a simple thrust stage, the setup includes four graduates of a little Catholic college in Wyoming. They have returned for the inauguration of the school’s new president, Gina (Lisa Flato), who mentored one of the group’s most conservative members and is the mother of another. All the action takes place in the backyard of Justin (Brandon Kraus), a former Marine sharpshooter who introduces himself to the audience by dispatching a deer and field-dressing it outside his back door, which looks very much as if it belongs on a mobile home (set designer, Argo Thompson).
Justin’s friends include Teresa (Jessica Headington), a hard-core Trumper steeped in Catholic theory; Emily (Allie Nordby), a less-conservative classmate with some undefined ailment; and Kevin (Logan Witthaus), a blackout drunk with deep personal issues. An impending full moon and a noisy generator work their way into the plot, with supernatural implications but no consequences.
“ . . . well-performed . . . “
At nearly three hours, Heroes has a lengthy introduction where we get schooled on Catholic theory, education, and the current political climate. The friends also get amicably reacquainted and have some polite disagreements about what policies best serve the people of the United States. Headington is quite convincing as the uber-conservative Teresa, and Kraus brings some serious gravitas to the role of Justin, who proves to be an increasingly substantial character as the play rolls out. Norby gives her Emily just the right amount of self-doubt and self-pity, with an inexplicable outburst in the final act. Witthauss’ Kevin is an insufferable loudmouth drunk of the type we all recognize and do our best to avoid.
Gina, the new school president, appears in the last act and holds forth on conservative theory, in the process revealing that she gave birth to eight children—each of them by life-threatening C-section. She abruptly announces that she’s hiring Kevin as the school’s new Dean of Admissions. He hasn’t shown any redeeming qualities but somehow she thinks he can rise to the challenge, assuming he can get up off the floor and wipe the vomit off his shirt. It’s not a flattering portrait of college administration.
This reviewer found that plot point is just about as nonsensical as most of the rest of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, but the show is well-performed even if the story is confounding. At nearly three hours, it’s badly in need of an edit—especially the inexplicable closing act—but it probes plenty of issues that bedevil us today. Imagine that The Big Chill and Agnes of God had a love child and you’ll have some idea what you’re in for.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Palo Alto Players loves to produce technicolor musicals full of dancing, cute little actors, and a happy ending. That’s a good description of its current show, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, running through Sept. 22 at Lucy Stern Theater in Palo Alto.
Director Patrick Klein’s best move was to select the absolutely spellbinding Brandon Savage as his Willy Wonka. And though he’s supported by a winning cast of old and young performers and a live orchestra, this reviewer thought the production ran a bit too long with a few too many over-the-top projections.
But along the way, audiences – both children and adults alike – get to enjoy a gobstopper full of little treats like the short burst of breakdancing performed by tiny mite Ryan Segal or the diminutive and neon-wigged Oompa Loompas, who dance and sing delightfully.
Photo by Scott Lasky The Oompa Loompas teach the golden ticket winners a lesson after Violet Beauregard behaves badly in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
Based on the 1964 book by British author Roald Dahl, Charlie has had many iterations since that time. In 1971, it became a motion picture called Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and 33 years later, a highly successful film version (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
But it wasn’t until 2013 that a musical version premiered in London and ran for more than three years. It was reworked in 2017 and opened on Broadway that year. That’s the version PAP is offering Peninsula theatregoers.
Opening night started off promisingly enough when PAP Managing Director Elizabeth Santana told the audience it was sitting on brand-new seats. While the seats are visually an improvement, they’re so hard that sitting on them for a couple of hours isn’t an entirely pleasant experience.
“…the Candy Man can….”
The overture began with the conductor enthusiastically waving his arms – but suddenly he left the pit and climbed up onto the stage! Surprise! It’s Willy Wonka himself who begins singing “The Candy Man” to start the show. That certainly got the audience’s attention!
But when Charlie Bucket (an appealing Russell Nakagawa) shows up and starts singing “Willy Wonka! Willy Wonka!” with the ensemble, his words were a bit overtaken by the orchestration. Happily, music director Richard Hall quickly got all into better form as the show progressed.
Photo by Scott Lasky — Willy Wonka (Brandon Savage) disguised as a candy shop owner alongside the ensemble in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY in production at Palo Alto Players.
Nakagawa, who played Winthrop in PAP’s production of The Music Man last season, shares the role with Falcon Franco. (For the purposes of this review, Nakagawa is the Charlie being reviewed.)
As Charlie’s Grandpa Joe, Steven Guire Knight was the perfect foil for Charlie. It was a joy to watch him get out of bed – for the first time in 40 years!! – stretch his legs and join his grandson on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
When five “lucky” children find a “Golden Ticket” in their Wonka bar one real standout was Joshua Parecki as Mike Teevee. He and his “mother” Mrs. Teevee (an over-the-top Kristina Nakagawa) found small ways to scene steal themselves from the other parent-child couples.
Photo by Scott Lasky — Willy Wonka (Brandon Savage) disguised as a candy shop owner meets Charlie Bucket (Falcon Franco) in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, in Palo Alto.
This reviewer found that some of the rooms in Willy Wonka’s factory were fun to explore while others were a bit lukewarm. But the machine that ended up making Mike Teevee into a teeny-tiny person got a hearty laugh!
Savage does his best to keep a lot of balls afloat with his charisma and adroit actions. (He also makes a few quick costume changes offstage to play the owner of the local candy store where Charlie goes to lust after candy and where he eventually buys the special Wonka bar.)
One of the things that PAP does really well is create technicolor magic – and this production is no exception. Last Saturday’s audience – youngsters and adults alike – gave it a hearty standing “O.”
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Who knew that Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot – ostensibly a play about almost nothing – could be a play about everything when put into the hands of two fine actors like Evan Winet and David Scott?
Los Altos Stage Company’s extraordinary production, directed by LASC’s executive artistic director Gary Landis, runs through Sept. 29 at Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos.
There are two opposing camps about Beckett: Those who think he’s a genius and those who find him, well, a bit of a bore. While the latter can, at times, be true, when left in the hands of Winet, Scott, and Landis, it most certainly is not.
” … Los Altos Stage Company’s extraordinary production …”
The play as presented has a rather unique format: it seems to start as the two key actors walk onstage and, 2 ½ hours later (including a 15-minute intermission), it ends when they meander offstage.
The actor’s catchphrase is “Nothing to be done,” which describes their attitude toward much during the play. Scott’s facial machinations are always in play – and meant to definitely steal focus from whatever else is happening. He’s by far the most interesting character to watch in Act 1. But Winet gets his chance to shine in Act 2.
Actors Evan Winet and David Scott at work in “Waiting for Godot.”
By the play’s end, the two are both equally praiseworthy and equally charismatic.
Along the way the audience learns that the two wanderers have known each other for about 50 years. And one wonders if maybe they’ve been meandering and probably making the same tired statements for that long as well.
Act 1’s basic premise centers around the fact that Estragon (Scott) is wearing shoes that are too tight for him and they’re making his feet hurt. He sits on a rock (kind of his own special resting place), then pulls and tugs to get the too-small shoes off his sweaty, smelly feet.
For his part, Vladimir (Winet) is more interested in making sure that the nearby tree is the one where they are supposed to meet Godot. But it’s made very clear that he doesn’t know if this is the day they’re supposed to meet up with him – or even whether they’re supposed to meet with him at all.
Two other secondary characters are introduced into Act 1 (they make a shorter appearance in Act 2): Pozzo and Lucky. Pozzo (John Stephen King) is a wealthy, noticeably unfeeling man, who has his servant, Lucky (a stoic Marc Berman) tethered to him by a rope. Poor Lucky is carrying so many things for Pozzo that he has to carry a few forward, then go back, pick up more of Pozzo’s possessions, and then carry them forward.
Pozzo tells the two men that he’s on his way to market to sell the hapless Lucky for a profit. For his part, Lucky is mute the entire time until he suddenly comes to life by doing a rather fanciful dance and then unleashing a torrent of words that are a combination of nonsense, Biblical references, and educated reality.
“Waiting for Godot” is an absurdist play that takes place while waiting for a mysterious man named Godot — who never arrives. The play was written in 1953 by Samuel Beckett.
At play’s end, appreciate the nuanced acting, the fine scenic designs (especially when daylight is gone and a big, beautiful moon lights up the outside world) and the fact that 2 ½ hours have passed by rather quickly.
As for meaning?
Perhaps the best way to think about Beckett’s play is to realize that “…when everything is important, nothing is important.”
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Why do we keep going to see Waiting for Godot? Why is it a classic? Is it a comedy or tragedy?
Irish playwright Samuel Beckett himself called it a “tragicomedy.” First written in French in 1948 after the tragedy of WWII, he rewrote it in English, and the new version premiered in 1953 in Paris. In 1998-99, it was voted “most significant English-language play of the 20th century.” (See Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot)
How can a classic play begin with the ordeal of taking off a tight boot? Thus do our two protagonists, Estragon and Vladimir, affectionately known to each other as Gogo and Didi—with subtle resonances to Ego and ID—welcome us to their world. Immediately, we see how this inseparable pair weaves their totally disparate personalities into a fragile whole.
“… we sit in rapt wonder …”
Estragon (David Scott) is a man of few words but full of grimaces, contortions, moods and physical needs. He beckons help from Vladimir (ably performed by Evan Winet) with the boot, only to be met with his partner’s distractions, dissertations, memories, mental musings, and questions.
David Scott and Evan Winet in “Waiting for Godot”.
The pair’s interactions are conversational banalities, passing time until they can achieve their main objective. They must meet with a man called Godot, whom they may have met before, or not, whose persona is never fully described. What Godot will do for them when they meet is a mystery. Their lives are circumscribed by their poor physical conditions. Vladimir has urinary distress issues which can be triggered by mentions of a French brothel, and Estragon is always looking for a good sleep to make up for being beaten in his bed in a ditch.
The pair meet up with a slave driver, Pozzo, driving his luckless vassal Lucky with a long rope and whip. They are off to the market where capitalist Pozzo wants to sell his menial for profit. Lucky remains mute until Pozzo commands him to think. This command unleashes a stream of strange movements and phrases which sound impressive but devolve into nonsense. As they depart, Vladimir and Estragon continue their time-killing repartees until a messager boy appears and reveals that Godot is not coming that day. Thus ends Act I and sets us up for a near repeat of this drama in Act II.
The cast of “Waiting for Godot” at work at Los Altos Stage theater.
Productions of Waiting for Godot are variously treated on a continuum between comedy and tragedy. Los Altos Stage has an irrepressive comic in David Scott, who simply cannot stop his various mannerisms and moods, removing clothes, eating vegetables with panache and reaching out to the bemused Vladimir with impish delight and affection.
His physicality is matched by the continual stream of mental outlay of trivia from his more subdued partner, Vladimir, ably performed by Evan Winet. There is a Keystone Cops charm about this duo that masks some of the angst of the unknowing and disappointment that Godot hasn’t seen them that is at the heart of the play. Vladimir yearns to know and be known by Godot so that his existence can be validated and understood, so that life is not totally random and meaningless.
The iconic set of a bare tree and a rock—one of the barest stage sets in theater—is also a revelation at Los Altos Stage. Ringed with stark geometric structural frames, it pulls us into a tight barren place that could be a desert, but lit behind by the moon and clouds, its charm is a huge world of beauty and space.
There is often a moment, or perhaps many moments, when we wonder “Why are we here? Nothing is going on.” This play is a shrine to the human condition of wanting to know the elusive meaning of existence and who controls it. And like the moth who is about to be consumed by the flame, we sit in rapt wonder, waiting for that meaning, that we think only Godot can reveal, all the time knowing that it is the waiting itself that is meaningful.
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ASR Sr. Contributor Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Oakland, CA (Aug 2024) – Oakland Theater Project is thrilled to continue its 2024 Season with Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America, Parts I & II, directed by OTP Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran at Marin Shakespeare Co’s new indoor
theater in San Rafael from Sep 27—Oct 27.
Set in New York City in 1985, amid the AIDS crisis, two couples
struggle to navigate their relationships, families, careers, illness,
dreams, and visions. As the journeys of Prior, Louis, Joe, and Harper
unfold, so do questions of cosmic justice.
In Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning American epic, each person
is confronted with truths they have struggled to face—about
themselves, about one another, and about the world at large—and
the painful, transformative power of those realities.
Tickets & Performance Information
Angels in America, Parts I & II
by Tony Kushner and directed by Michael Socrates Moran
September 27—October 27
Tickets: $10—$60 . Tickets at: oaklandtheaterproject.org/angels — or by calling 510.646.1126.
August 2024– SANTA CRUZ, CA—Santa Cruz Shakespeare (SCS), celebrating 12 years as a nationally recognized non-profit professional repertory theater company with history in Santa Cruz County going back more than 40 years, has announced its lineup of four productions for its 2025 season.
Performances will take place from July 13 to September 27 in the Audrey Stanley Grove (The Grove) in Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park.
” … this season looks to bring our incredible community closer …”
The productions of the 2025 season include:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Pericles by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins
Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard
Into the Woods, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, licensed by Music Theatre International
“This season’s unifying theme is No One is Alone, as the four masterpieces we’re producing all examine the threads that tie us together, from love, marriage or lust to adventure, catastrophe or redemption,” said Charles Pasternak, SCS artistic director.
“Whether it be threads woven by gods or giants or threads woven by the discovery of our shared humanity, in each of these plays the world is torn apart, sometimes quite literally. But it is knitted anew by recognition – recognition of ourselves in each other, in our need for each other. None of us is an island.
We hope the 2025 season helps us consider ourselves in a larger context than that of the individual. We need each other – now more than ever – and through both laughter and heartbreak, this season looks to bring our incredible community closer together.”
SAN FRANCISCO (August 2024) – An Evening Celebrating Lily Samii: A Tribute to a Fashion Icon, honoring the illustrious career of haute couture designer Lily Samii, will be presented at an exclusive reception with the artist Thursday, September 12, Piazzoni Murals Room at the renowned de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park.
The event will be co-chaired by Sherene Melania and Mary Poland, two prominent figures in the San Francisco fashion and arts community. Their dedication and passion for celebrating artistic excellence make them the perfect hosts for this glamorous evening.
” … Each gown reflects Samii’s unique artistic vision, blending classic haute couture techniques with contemporary flair …”
The distinguished Honorary Event Co-chairs are former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Gretchen B. Kimball, and David H. Spencer. Honorary Committee members include The Honorable Wille L. Brown, Jr.; David Gockley and Linda Kemper; Denise Hale; The Honorable Barbro Osher; Matthew and Kate Shilvock; and Roselyne Chroman Swig.
The soiree will begin at 6 p.m. with an elegant cocktail reception, where guests will have the exclusive opportunity to view original gowns from Lily Samii’s private collection spanning her remarkable career. Each gown reflects Samii’s unique artistic vision, blending classic haute couture techniques with contemporary flair.
These creations showcase her exceptional talent and dedication to the art of fashion design. In addition to her personal collection, the pieces displayed will include an array of gowns worn at prestigious national and international events, ranging from The White House and global red carpets, to Nobel Prize Ceremonies and the acclaimed 100th Anniversary celebration of Perrier-Jouët, in Éparnay, France.
The event will mark a significant moment in fashion history as Samii will donate her resplendent creations to the impressive costume collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This generous donation will ensure that her legacy of masterfully executed designs, her choice of colors and textiles, will continue to inspire future generations of designers and fashion enthusiasts.
Lily Samii commented “As a young designer, I always dreamt of having my work displayed at the de Young. This event is truly a dream come true and I am so delighted that my creations will be shared for generations to come at the museum. Thank you to everyone who has shared in my artistic vision and provided me with such inspiration. I am forever grateful.”
Exhibit highlights will also include pieces from Lily Samii’s iconic first collection, which was unveiled at the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball, in 2001. This inaugural collection received rave reviews, solidifying Samii’s position as the Bay Area’s preeminent haute couture designer.
Born into a family of nobility in Isfahan, Iran, Lily Samii’s early training began with legendary Hollywood designer Edith Head on several films, and later with renowned designer James Galanos. She has been a cornerstone of the San Francisco Bay Area fashion scene for over four decades. Highly praised for her exquisite designs and impeccable craftsmanship, Samii has dressed countless women in the Bay Area and nationwide, earning a reputation for chic elegance and sophistication. Lily Samii has also lent her impeccable design support to the internationally recognized and often awarded Presidio Dance Theatre as Artistic Advisor, earning her an induction as a member of UNESCO’s International Dance Council.
“Lily is the jewel in the crown to our fair city and community. We are honored to host this important evening, celebrating Lily’s tremendous legacy and the numerous ways in which she has enriched our lives with her vibrant spirit and magnificent creations,” said event co-chairs Sherene Melania and Mary Poland.
Sherene Melania, internationally acclaimed, Executive & Artistic Director of the Presidio Performing Arts Foundation and former Vice-President of the San Francisco Arts Commission, has been a longtime global advocate for arts and culture. Her commitment to preserving and promoting artistic heritage aligns perfectly with the spirit of the event.
Mary Poland, a well-known philanthropist and former President of the San Francisco Opera Guild, brings her deep appreciation for the arts to the evening’s celebration. Her involvement with Lily Samii spans decades, underscoring the synergy between fashion and multiple artistic disciplines.
Guests attending An Evening Celebrating Lily Samii can look forward to an enchanting night filled with elegance, style, and cultural enrichment. With curated culinary delights by McCall’s Catering & Events, this special occasion will provide a sophisticated backdrop for guests to mingle with fellow fashion aficionados, industry professionals, and notable personalities.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are renowned for their commitment to presenting the work of extraordinary and diverse artists and designers. Lily Samii’s creations will join an extensive collection that includes works by some of the most influential designers in history, solidifying her place among the greats.
Hosted by the Presidio Performing Arts Foundation, tickets for An Evening Celebrating Lily Samii begin at $250 and may be purchased online at www.presidiodance.org.
Whether or not you’re a country western fan – and I’m not – Hillbarn Theater in Foster City and director Dyan McBride have created an outstanding evening of theatre thanks especially to an uninhibited performance by Kimberly Donovan (who only sings a little) and a controlled — almost doll-like — performance by Melissa WolfKlain as country singer Patsy Cline (who sings a lot).
Spread across the entire back of Hillbarn’s expansive stage is a rousing six-person band directed by Rick Reynolds, who also plays the piano. The band plays a big role in this show, which features at least portions of 25 songs during the two-hour show.
” … But Donovan is a force of nature unto herself …”
Hillbarn really opened up its stage for Always…Patsy Cline, though to this reviewer, one entire wall of bric-a-brac on stage right doesn’t seem to serve much of a useful purpose other than a door for entrances and exits.
Though the plotline is sparse, it really happened – or at least most of it. The program says the show was “created and originally directed by Tim Swindley” and is “based on a true story.”
Kimberly Donovan* as Louise Seger in “Always… Patsy Cline” — Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
Donovan’s character Louise is so totally enamored of Cline’s lilting country voice that when she hears her singing on television’s Arthur Godfrey Show, she tells her kids to move over so she can sit up close to the TV to watch her.
She then calls the morning host of her local radio station to request that he play Patsy’s song “Walking After Midnight” for her – which he does. Louise is nothing if not persistent because she then calls him every morning to play it for her (and he always does).
Both actors here seem exactly right playing the parts they do. Yet Donovan’s Louise is so over-the-top that she actually steals the show. Except when WolfKlain is singing.
Wearing at least 10 or more outfits, some of which are made of glittery sequins, WolfKlain’s clear vocals are simple country tunes, yet sung with a bushel of heartfelt emotion.
Melissa WolfKlain* as Patsy and Kimberly Donovan* as Louise Seger in Always… Patsy Cline to kick of the 84th season at Hillbarn Theatre Aug. 22 – Sept. 15, 2024. *Appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Photo Credit: Mark Kitaoka
But Donovan is a force of nature unto herself. Decked out in what she considers country high fashion, Louis wears knee-high boots, jeans, a yellow cowgirl shirt with red roses, large red hoop earrings, a smile as big as Texas – and quite often a cigarette dangling out of one side of her mouth.
One day, she hears that her idol will be coming to perform at a gigantic venue about an hour’s drive from her home in Houston, Texas.Louise rounds up a couple of buddies and gets to the show 90 minutes before it’s supposed to start.
As she’s sitting at a table, smoking and drinking a beer, she sees a woman in a big white coat slip in a side door. The woman sits on a chair next to an authentic-looking juke box. Then she puts a coin in and a song starts to play.
Melissa WolfKlain* as Patsy in Always… Patsy Cline to kick of the 84th season at Hillbarn Theatre Aug. 22 – Sept. 15, 2024. *Appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
Naturally, it’s a Patsy Cline record with Patsy singing one of her big hits.
Louise immediately recognizes Patsy, and from that accidental meeting, the two women end up forging a friendship – both in person and through letters – until Patsy died in a plane crash in March of 1963.
But that’s just a footnote in this musical. And because it’s a musical, audiences get to hear WolfKlain sing “You Belong to Me,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray,” “Seven Lonely Days” – even “Shake, Rattle and Roll!”
After the two women get a standing ovation on opening night, they offer up one more song, a duet: “Bill Bailey” with the audience happily joining in.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Perhaps San Francisco’s oldest theater company is still rocking the free world. Directed by Velina Brown, Michael Gene Sullivan’s raucous satire American Dreams plays assorted outdoor venues throughout the Bay Area, closing the summer season on September 8 at the London Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz.
Founded in 1959, the itinerant Mime Troupe has been a Bay Area favorite for decades, spoofing cultural and political trends while adhering to the Commedia del Arte tradition of performing outdoors for donations.
” … Don’t miss it! …”
The troupe’s recent show at the Mill Valley Community Center—against a backdrop of dozens of middle-school athletes at football practice—was proof of both its loyal following and its commitment to poking fun at all that should be poked—in this case, a mixture of election-time politics, personal identity issues, student protests, vegan cuisine, artificial intelligence, and “Silicon Valley billionaire communists.”
(L-R) Mikki Johnson, Lizzie Calogero, Michael Gene Sullivan, Andre Amarotico
There are plenty of other worthy targets in Sullivan’s fast-paced, madcap assessment of where we are in mid-2024, performed on a portable stage by four superb actors playing almost a dozen characters.
Sullivan is tremendous as a self-doubting MAGA cap-wearing Trumper named Gabriel Pearse, while Mikki Johnson embodies the role of his patient granddaughter Paine, a university instructor at risk of losing her job, who moonlights as a driver for an ominous service called Uber-Alles. Lizzie Calogero is amazing as Emma, a well-intentioned but basically clueless student protestor. In a heartbeat she transforms into a cop, a TV reporter, and an overbearing British tech executive named Maliae Higgins, who delivers haughty recommendations to make the world a better place through an all-encompassing app called Taalos, voiced by Sullivan.
(L-R) Michael Gene Sullivan, Mikki Johnson, Andre Amarotico
The frenetic Andre Amarotico rounds out the cast as Gabriel’s goofy friend and fellow Trumper Harold, as a vegan chef named Oliver, and as a club-wielding cop. His antics on the compact but versatile stage by Carlos-Antonio Aceves are laugh-out-loud funny, matching those of his cast-mates and fully honoring Sullivan’s wide-ranging script. Brooke Jennings’ quick-change costumes go a long way toward propelling the wild plot, and Daniel Savio leads a great three-piece band.
The SF Mime Troupe absolutely puts the “fun” in “funky.” American Dreams plays in San Francisco and San Jose before closing in Santa Cruz. Don’t miss it!
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Ahhhh! Late summer has arrived in Mill Valley’s fairy-tale forest of majestic redwoods in Old Mill Park. While children play in the creek below the grove, picnics are spread on nearby tables, and renaissance music wafts through the stage area.
This is the Curtain Theatre, showcasing award-winning plays complete with music, dancing, and many lovely costumes. The final weekend of this year’s stunning production is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing weekend afternoons and closing Labor Day Monday.
The large cast dances and dashes in and out of the forest-in-a-forest set, designed by Steve Coleman, in lovely period costumes designed by Jody Branham. The grove fills with the sounds of flute, concertina, mandolin, and more under the direction of Don Clark. Even the band is in costume!
“… Life is a dream…Love flutters like a butterfly …”
Director Michele Delattre, ably assisted by Kim Bromley, has molded Shakespeare’s classic tale of love and lust into a fun-to-follow story. Rebellious couples want different mates than the ones chosen by their elders. The fairies – always mischievous and led by Puck – are keen to demonstrate their powers to induce love. But something goes seriously amiss. The Queen of the Fairies (a marvelous Heather Cherry) gets the worst of the bargain when she awakes in the enchanted forest in love with an ass.
Fear not, for it all ends well.
A remarkable aspect of this production of Midsummer is that the performances are … free! Donations, of course, are welcome. The shows are well-cast and polished, with talented locals giving their all to a delightful afternoon of Shakespeare. Donations are critically needed if the Curtain Theatre is to continue, given the costs of each presentation.
All ages are welcome to attend these open-air and open-seating shows. Parents bring young ones for their first exposure to Shakespeare; the pageantry enthralls most. Picnics abound, with a few tables not far from the stage area. A small snack bar is available. The company sets up plastic chairs on a first-come basis. Bring your own for lounging behind the Mill Valley Library. Dogs on leash are encouraged to watch the show.
Playing at 2:00 PM on Saturdays, Sundays, and Labor Day (Monday, September 1st). The hottest summer afternoons can become cool in the grove, so bring layers.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Michele Delattre
Producing Company
Curtain Theatre
Production Dates
Saturdays/Sundays and Labor Day Monday at 2 PM through September 1st
Production Address
Old Mill Park Amphitheater.
375 Throckmorton Avenue (behind the library), Mill Valley
It’s all in the news now: couples with fertility issues working through our latest technologies to create or enhance a family. But what happens when those cutting-edge IVF solutions are meted out by doctors who make mistakes?
Written by Eric Pfeffinger, Human Error thrusts us into an unthinkable situation when Madelyn and Keenan learn that their embryo has been implanted into the wrong person.
Left to right: John Charles Quimpo (Dr. Hoskins), Flannery Mays (Madelyn), and Mark Anthony (Keenan). Photo Jay Yamada.
Their doctor, weaselly and wackily played by John Charles Quimpo, doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, call his lawyer, flee the country, or try to counsel the semi-hysterical couple into some sane action plan. Feelings are at a boil, and he can’t stop grinning. He advises Madelyn and Keenan to meet with the other couple carrying their prospective child and try to work it out but offers no clues on how to do that.
Next, we find the bereft couple sitting in their car. Madelyn is a strong but confused and socially inept blue-voting liberal, and her African American husband, Kenan, is analytical and sane, always trying to find the tactful and low-key way out of confrontations.
They are parked in front of Heather and Jim’s upscale house, where they have arranged to meet and talk out the unthinkable situation. But Heather and Jim have opposite values, lifestyles, preferences, politics, and predilections.
Left to right: Kyle Goldman (Jim) and Melody Payne (Heather). Photo: Jay Yamada.
Each attempt at outreach – Jim to Keenan and Heather to Madelyn – strikes discordant notes, like ping-pong with a cracked ball. When Jim (a jaw-droppingly funny Kyle Goldman) pitches his interests to Keenan, the volleys challenge and skewer Keenan, (perfectly underplayed by Mark Anthony).
These exchanges climax when the overpoweringly aggressive Jim insists that mild-mannered Keenan see his gun collection. The other halves, Heather and Madelyn (Melody Payne and Flannery Mays) verbally dance in circles around all the ways they need to know and like each other. Heather reveals that they will bear the child and turn it over to the rightful parents, Madelyn and Keenan.
“ . . . Will these fiercely opposite couples finally resolve their botched IVF implant? . . .”
Scenes bounce ahead with minimal set changes. Marimba music resonates with the simplicity of a child’s Lego set. The couples’ opposite natures are reflected in the scenic design of their two different apartments. Jim and Heather live with sleek red furnishings, and aggressive details. Madelyn and Keenan’s bluish apartment is modest but artistic with art on the walls and comfort cushions on the sofa. Their clothes also mimic their life-styles, with contrasts of style and sophistication, and body reveal vs. body cover.
As they journey through Heather’s growing pregnancy, the ladies try bonding over yoga, and the men through hunting. Both Madelyn and Keenan find themselves amazingly more open to the privileged upscale and highly conservative styles of their unexpected benefactors.
Left to right: Flannery Mays (Madelyn) and Melody Payne (Heather). Photo: Jay Yamada.
Madelyn practically confesses she is not ready to experience and fully embrace motherhood, and Keenan finds he actually enjoys the hunting trip in orange jumpsuits with Jim.
Human Error takes us on a wild ride exploring their differences, with humor but with insight into our own social and relationship challenges to bridge deep and conflicting beliefs. Don’t miss the spot-on acting excellence of the two couples and their excuse for a doctor, who steals all of his scenes.
The play is a rollercoaster of laughs and groans that will leave you with plenty of carnival food for thought.
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ASR Senior Contributor Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
The treasured company has avoided a potential shutdown due to financial issues, according to an August 14 press release from the company’s media contact Robin Dolan:
BERKELEY, CA (August 2024) Berkeley’s acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company (Artistic Director Josh Costello) announced today that the 32-year-old organization will stay open to start its 2024/2025 Season after a successful emergency fundraising campaign, support from the City of Berkeley, and a restructure of its administrative staff.
Since the pandemic, theaters across the country and in the Bay Area have faced a delay in audiences returning and a consequent loss of income, even as expenses have skyrocketed due to inflation and other factors. In the first four years of the pandemic, Aurora survived on large deficit budgets thanks to one-time windfalls (such as the Shuttered Venues Operating Grants) and a substantial amount of pre-pandemic savings.
“We figured the only way to survive in the long run was to rebuild our audience,” said Josh Costello, Aurora’s Artistic Director since 2019. “And we wouldn’t be able to bring back our lapsed subscribers or welcome new theatregoers if we weren’t presenting plays.”
Over the past four years, Aurora has presented a heady mix of highly-acclaimed productions, including Liz Duffy Adams’ BORN WITH TEETH, Dominique Morriseau’s PARADISE BLUE, and the world premiere of Dustin Chinn’s COLONIALISM IS TERRIBLE, BUT PHO IS DELICIOUS. Single ticket sales have been inconsistent, but subscription numbers have been increasing over the last two seasons and 2023/2024 season closer THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT sold well in July. Meanwhile, Jonathan Spector’s EUREKA DAY, which Aurora commissioned, developed, and premiered in 2018, had a star-studded run at the Old Vic in London and will open on Broadway this December.
In spring 2024, Aurora’s savings dropped to a level that prompted an emergency fundraising campaign. “First we needed to raise extra money to be able to finish out our 2023/2024 Season,” said Managing Director Robin Dolan. “And then we needed to raise more money and make a new plan for a 2024/2025 Season that does not depend on audiences suddenly returning to pre-pandemic numbers. The new budget is still very tight and depends on continued support from our community.”
Aurora raised over $200,000 from a group of major donors, and as much again from a public emergency fundraising campaign, attracting donations from hundreds of supporters. Aurora’s Board of Directors offered a $57,000 match as part of the campaign, and a longtime supporter offered an additional $25,000 match, which took the total over $250,000. Separately, a group of former board members also convened and contributed over $40,000.
At the same time, Aurora petitioned the Berkeley City Council for emergency funding, with a change.org petition attracting over 1,800 signatures. Councilmember Sophie Hahn introduced a budget referral for $150,000 for Aurora, which she described as “a vital addition to Berkeley’s arts and culture scene for 32 years.” Her referral continued, “Berkeley cannot lose another vibrant cultural asset. A thriving arts district is essential to downtown Berkeley’s continued recovery and revitalization.” The council unanimously passed the budget with the funding for Aurora on June 25.
“This has been a difficult time, to say the least,” said Rebecca Parlette, the company’s interim Board President. “But this is such a beloved organization. We are so pleased to see the community come together to save Aurora.”
These successes were one-time windfalls. To create a sustainable future, Aurora is going through a major restructuring of its administrative staff in order to address the structural deficit it has faced since the pandemic. Layoffs include the Marketing and Development departments as well as one of the two Co-Managing Directors. The remaining Managing Director and the Artistic Director will be taking significantly reduced salaries, and the remaining staff will be taking small furloughs. In a cost-saving measure, Aurora is contracting out large portions of the work formerly done by staff members.
The production department remains intact, and Aurora’s 2024/2025 Season will proceed mostly as planned. Costello will not be directing in 2024/2025, in order to spend more time on administrative duties. He was previously announced as the director of Noël Coward’s FALLEN ANGELS, opening in October 2024; a production that will now be directed by former Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross. Jennifer King (HURRICANE DIANE) will direct THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, previously announced with Tom Ross directing. Lloyd Suh’s THE HEART SELLERS (a coproduction with Capital Stage and TheaterWorks Silicon Valley) and Lynn Nottage’s CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY will continue as planned, under the direction of Jennifer Chang and Elizabeth Carter, respectively. The season also includes a workshop performance of a new hip-hop musical commissioned by Aurora from Bay Area troupe Felonious.
Aurora also announced a staged reading of the Broadway draft of EUREKA DAY, featuring the cast of Aurora’s world premiere production, as a fundraising event (with special guests to be announced) on September 23.
“I am so moved by the way this community has stepped up,” said Costello. “Artists, patrons, donors, and even city officials have all gone out of their way to let us know how much this organization means, and how much they want us to continue. We’ve had to make some very difficult choices to create a path forward, and we’re all very sad to say goodbye to staff members who have done years of tremendous work with Aurora. I am optimistic about our future and I can’t wait to share more inspiring plays with this beautiful community.”
Aurora’s new season begins October 19 with Noel Coward’s FALLEN ANGELS, directed by former Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (12 August 2024)— San Francisco Playhouse kicks off its 2024-25 season with the Olivier Award-winning comedy The Play That Goes Wrong.
This fast-paced farce packed with inventive theatricality finds the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society on the opening night of its newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor.
As the incompetent theatre troupe attempts to stage this 1920s murder mystery, their production devolves into madcap mayhem. Lost props, forgotten lines, and poorly constructed scenery conspire against the clumsy cast, who fight for the show to make it to the final curtain call.
” … The New York Times deemed it a “gut-busting hit …”
Entertainment Weekly said, “The Play That Goes Wrong is just right: a ridiculously entertaining disaster.” The New York Times deemed it a “gut-busting hit. One of those breakneck exercises in idiocy that make you laugh till you cry. It starts off punch-drunk and just keeps getting drunker.”
San Francisco Playhouse Producing Director and co-founder Susi Damilano, who has staged sidesplitting spoofs at the Playhouse, including Noises Off, Clue, and most recently, The 39 Steps, helms this hilarious whodunit.
The Play That Goes Wrong will perform at San Francisco Playhouse 450, Post Street. For tickets ($35-$135) and more information:
Sometimes, we just can’t get a play out of our heads. Marin Shakespeare Company’s The Untime bristles with scenes that I relish, question, deny, and finally succumb to, riding out on a wave of acceptance of the drama.
Promoted as an echo of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it opens in today’s world with five characters grappling with issues of power, both military and domestic, reality versus fantasy, and the workings and underminings of hierarchical succession. Director and co-author Jon Tracy deploys short videos to introduce or deepen our understanding of the two leads—Michael Torres as “The One” and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as “The Spouse” whom we learn was a war booty prize wife twenty years earlier.
” … Don’t miss The Untime! …”
In their austere kitchen (great set design by Randy Wong-Westbrooke), The One, a general who is 3rd in line of succession to a throne, balks at the insistence of a media consultant, “The Artist” (co-writer Nick Musleh), who has arrived to make a promotional video of him. In a confusing and portentous stroke, The King has ordered the video to embellish The One’s public profile. His wife stands by warily and defensively, but The One suspects this intrusive Artist knows his fate and pressures him to reveal what’s going on.
“The Heir” (Calla Hollinsworth), in “The Untime” at Marin Shakes. Photo by Jay Yamada.
Then we meet “The King” (Steve Price) and his daughter, “The Heir” (Calla Hollinsworth), who arrive to complete the project. The King appears overly jaunty, unhinged, and evasive as to why he’s promoting The One, 3rd in line, over rival Gen. Caldor, 2nd in line, who we never meet.
His teenage daughter sports a headset and bops to her digital music. In the next scene The One has moved up to 2nd in line — by a convienent political assassination. The King says they have Caldor’s head, which, thankfully, is not dragged onstage.
(L (behind camer stand)-to-R) Nick Musleh as “The Artist” and Michael Torres as “The One” at work. Photo by Jay Yamada.
Although there are constant echos of Macbeth, The Untime focuses on “the space between awareness and action” as Tracy puts it in his director’s note, where constant mulling and evaluating and assessing of the political situation take place. As for action, there are two murders onstage, but for this reviewer the salient feature of The Untime is the larger-than-life acting of The King, The Spouse and The One which left me agape through much of the play. Videos of The Spouse and The One fill in their backstories: A woman won in war … a booty bride to the General … told by his mother that he will be a king. He’s lived his life in search of that title.
Stephen Price as The King takes his role to a new level of mercurial expression: from one moment to the next, mundane, maniacal and murderous. His performance is a tour-de-force.
(L-R) Leontyne Mbele Mbong and Michael Torres at work for Marin Shakes. Photo by Jay Yamada.
All that said — The Untime is a work in progress with a great start on a fascinating script once completed. For a play with little real action, the addition of sound and videos by Ben Euphrat and lighting effects by David Leonard take us mentally to places other than the kitchen set. And they help to warp time periods for narrative effect and also to show us that The Spouse and The One are concerned about their baby son, and mourning their dead-by-suicide teenage son — strong echoes of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”.
And it’s probably fair to posit that these references might be confusing to playgoers not steeped in modern theater. And Shakespeare. Yet another level of resonance is the confusing politics, power struggles and ruthlessness of our own times, also mirrored here.
That said, do yourself a favor: don’t miss The Untime for depth-of-theater experience and the horror of power play(s). And don’t fret about the time needed to put the mental jigsaw pieces together. Real art — is often that way.
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ASR Senior Contributor Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
The Untime
Written by
Jon Tracy and Nick Musleh
Directed by
Jon Tracy
Producing Company
Marin Shakespeare Company
Production Dates
Thru Aug 25th
Production Address
Forest Meadows Amphitheater (outdoors),
Dominican University of California 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael, CA
Theater audiences can’t resist something naughty. And we know from our youth that pirates are the swashbuckling baddies, the colorful villains, the fairytale scoundrels whom we fear and revere. Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic Pirates of Penzance plays on us with two gotchas: the bold and brazen dark thieves of the seas, led by a colorful Pirate King, juxtaposed with these same pirates’ compassionate hearts for orphans. So all of their marks mysteriously turn out to be… you got it. Orphans! It’s a premise just too silly and delicious, and we surrender.
” … this wild ride of a musical is stuffed with delights …”
Mountain View’s Lamplighters troupe has perfected an itinerant model for their musical performances. Each new show opens with a customized proscenium framing the theater curtain as we hear the live orchestra, ably conducted by Brett Strader.
The Pirate King, wonderfully portrayed by Edu Gonzalez-Maldonado (center).
As the curtains part, the pirates emerge over a set of rocks and crannies, introducing our esteemed Pirate King, wonderfully portrayed by Edu Gonzalez-Maldonado, and introducing our Apprentice Pirate Frederic, sung by the versatile and romantic lead, Max Ary. Frederic’s story unfolds that he was apprenticed to the Pirates due to a mistake in hearing correctly the difference between the words “pilot” and “pirate.”
From that error, a whole life ensued! This tale of mistakes is detailed by a third lead, Ruth, the Maid of all Work. Sarah Szeibel masters this challenging role as the only female in Frederic’s life—at first. Abandoned by him in Act 1—after he discovers younger and more beauteous damsels—Szeibel continues to excel in Act 2 as a sidekick to the Pirate King.
“”Piratess of Penzance” is perfect entertainment for all ages.”
Two other standouts are alone worth the price of admission: Major-General Stanley (Joshua Hughes) and his ward Mabel (Syona Ayyankeril). Hughes executes with dash, verve and aplomb the dizzying musical number and showstopper: “I Am The Very Model Of a Modern Major General.” And just as we are wrung out by the non-stop flood of words, he expands the hilarity. He seems to forget his lines and is prompted by his wards—a refresh that leads us to higher levels of laughter. Ayyankeril is the young beauty who steps up to be the future wife of Frederic, and sings with relish to a high E-flat.
The cast at work in “The Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan.
This wild ride of a musical is stuffed with delights such as the men’s chorus playing the pirates and the constables, along with the women’s chorus of young beauties who are all wards of the Major-General and are all ready for a wedding match – be the mate pirate or constable.
Choreography and scenic details are woven together into a sure-fire delight by director Michael Mohammed. You won’t want to miss your nostalgic chance to imagine a world of soft-hearted pirates and bumbling, reluctant but dutiful constables. Piratess of Penzance is perfect entertainment for all ages.
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ASR Senior Contributor Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Pirates of Penzance
Operetta by
Gilbert and Sullivan
Directed by
Michael Mohammed
Producing Company
Lamplighters Music Theatre Co.
Production Dates
Aug 3rd-4th
1st Venue
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
2nd Production Dates
Aug 10-11
2nd Venue
Lesher Center for the Arts, Hoffman Theatre, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, 94596
3rd Production Dates
Aug 17-18
3rd Venue
Blue Shield Theater, YBCA, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, 94103
There are many reasons to attend opera: resplendent spectacle, vocal pyrotechnics, unforgettable tunes, lavish costumes, and many other aspects of compelling theater. In the case of West Edge Opera’s Bulrusher, the reason is its depth and sensitivity of character development.
The lead character in Bulrusher (soprano Shawnette Sulker) is a former foundling, a young black woman who imports oranges for resale to the small Mendocino town of Boonville in 1955. She comes of age as she experiences her first love, develops racial consciousness, and encounters the truth of her parentage. But it is not just her journey that is impressively developed by the team of composer-librettist Nathaniel Stookey and playwright-librettist Eisa Davis. All of the major characters’ strengths and shortcomings become palpable as viewers become immersed in the story.
Shawnette Sulker (second from left) as Bulrusher
Bass Matt Boehler plays Schoolch, the local schoolteacher who found the baby Bulrusher in a basket stuck in a marsh along the Navarro River and raised her. Taciturn to a fault, he has taught her proper English (the locals have developed a special language known as “Boontling”) but little about life, which she seems yet to handle fairly well on her own. He and Logger (bass Kenneth Kellogg) are both permanently hung up on Madame (mezzo Briana Hunter), who has been running the town brothel for years and refuses to marry them.
” … the vocal performances are all outstanding. …”
Into this brew are injected two more characters. Logger’s niece Vera (mezzo Briana Hunter), walking the 30-mile road from the nearest train station in the rain, is picked up by Bulrusher in her truck. Vera has left Alabama and becomes the only other black person, aside from Logger, that Bulrusher has known. “Boy” (tenor Chad Somers) is a white teenager with a persistent, unreciprocated crush on Bulrusher. Carefully modulated in the libretto and music, these two interlopers transform everyone and themselves. Such care takes time, but it provides dividends in Act 2, where existing and developing conflicts flare and are finally ameliorated.
Rebecca Cuddy as Madame and Shawnette Sulker as Bulrusher in “Bulrusher” now running in Oakland.
Stookey’s music is appropriate to the tonal and pastoral setting,. The orchestration is for the most part delicate, subdued, and never monotonous, with sparky piano accents and ominous bass-drum rolls. It is most effective in accompanying Bulrusher’s mystic side, her spirituality with the Navarro River, and her emerging love for Vera. Rarely is the orchestra in the forefront, but it did elicit audience laughter when a snare drum was used to imitate the sound of an 1950s dial phone that Madame was using.
Kenneth Kellogg as Logger in “Bulrusher”
The libretto itself has some lovely poetic moments, such as when Bulrusher inexplicably recollects her experiences as an infant floating in her Moses basket. At other times, the poetry’s meaning may not be immediately decipherable to the average listener. Perhaps these poetic sections should be printed in future programs?
The vocal performances are all outstanding. There is also a chorus of five mysterious individuals who echo or accompany Bulrusher’s spiritual moments and soliloquys. Their voices were a great plus to the proceedings aurally, however obscure their function. Sulker’s portrayal of Bulrusher deserves special mention. Her voice is crystal clear, ethereal, innocent, yet somehow knowing—perfect for the role. Unfortunately, unlike those of her fellows, it did not project well toward the more distant seats, making the Scottish Rite Temple sound all the more cavernous.
I regret to conclude that for me, many excellence featuress of this production were undercut by the scenic and projection design of Yuki Izumihara. Bulrusher is a uniquely California story about a unique California community. Where were the golden hills and redwoods? Izumihara instead flooded the stage with watery projections that may have been evocative for Navarro scenes, but they almost never left the stage.
Furthermore there were a few other details this reviewer thought distracted from the piece. First there was an unattractive upside-down handsaw of a staircase that made sense for the brothel, however unrealistic, but nowhere else–especially the Rock scene at the beach. And why was the chorus carrying around glowing balls of different colors and sizes? Were these Bullrusher’s mood oranges? Finally, there were numerous benches that were noisily moved around at almost every scene transition. If there is a reason for this distracting exercise, Stookey should consider writing music to underscore it, for it breaks the flow, throwing a boulder into the Navarro, so to speak.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Bulrusher
Based on the play by
Eisa Davis
Directed by
NJ Agwuna
Producing Company
West Edge Opera
Production Dates
Thru August 15th
Production Address
Scottish Rite Temple
1547 Lakeside Dr, Oakland, CA 94612
AASC has announced its separation from the visionary actor/director who guided many productions during his 15 years at the helm. A press release from Liam Passmore follows:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA July 29, 2024 – The African-American Shakespeare Company (AASC) today announced that the Board of Directors and Artistic Director L. Peter Callender have mutually agreed to part ways after more than 15 years of consistent artistic excellence.
A Celebrated Tenure
L. Peter Callender’s tenure with AASC has been marked by a rich legacy of innovative productions and artistic achievements. Under his direction, the company has explored a diverse range of plays, bringing classical works to life through the lens of the African-American experience. His contributions have been instrumental in establishing AASC as a prominent cultural institution within the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
“It’s been a very long and fruitful collaboration,” says Executive Director Sherri Young. “Peter’s understanding of Shakespeare and how to shape it for our audiences is something that is an enduring part of the company’s DNA. Our intention is to take all the time necessary to find a worthy successor, one who will lead the company into the future.”
” … It’s been a very long and fruitful collaboration …”
A Time for New Opportunities
“While we have enjoyed over 15 years of artistic excellence with L. Peter Callender, we both have come to the conclusion that it is time to explore other opportunities,” said Everett “Alx” Alexander, Board Chair of AASC. “We are deeply grateful for his dedication and contributions to our organization and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”
Looking Ahead
Moving forward, the African-American Shakespeare Company will undertake a comprehensive and careful process to identify a new Artistic Director. This process will involve a committee of industry professionals who will explore new opportunities for plays, directors, and artists to collaborate with the organization.
“Our goal is to continue building on the strong foundation that L. Peter Callender has established,” says the board. “We are excited about the future and the potential for new artistic partnerships that will further our mission of bringing classical theater to diverse audiences.”
“During his more than 15-years tenure as Artistic Director, Mr. Callender’s contributions, including numerous roles as actor and director, have been instrumental in establishing the company as a prominent cultural institution both within San Francisco and beyond. The Board of African American Shakespeare Company as well as founder and Executive Director Sherri Young express their deepest appreciation and gratitude for his brilliant and inspiring efforts to always elevate the work that our theater presented. We wish him great success in his future ventures.”
Due to these relatively late changes in organization and direction, the 2024-2025 season will be shorter than in years past with Cinderella being the first in December followed by a Shakespeare play in the Spring.
In addition the company will be hosting an international Shakespeare Theatre Association conference in January with attendees from Europe, South America, Canada and the Caribbean. More information at stahome.org
About African-American Shakespeare Company Founded in 1994, the African-American Shakespeare Company creates opportunities for actors of color in classical theater.
By offering unique interpretations and innovative performances, the company seeks to educate, enrich, and entertain diverse audiences while addressing social issues and promoting cultural equity in the arts.
Transcendence Theatre Company, searching for an outdoor venue to replace their initial home at Jack London State Historic Park, built a stage under the stars at a ballfield a few blocks north of the famed Sonoma Historic Square. It’s a first-class stage and sound system for their dazzling performers.
The bonus to this location is the ability to dine at restaurants in and around the Plaza before joining the evening show. Picnics and dinner boxes are welcomed to the shows, but no alcohol is permitted unless purchased on the premises.
“ .. Shows (are) in time for a beautiful sunset over the hills …”
Transcendence has already had hit productions this summer, including July’s Don’t Stop Us Now. Three good-looking guys delivered the moves against three gorgeous gals in a “Can you top this?” friendly competition — all outstanding songs and fun. The audience was unquestionably the winner.
Transcendence Theater Company cast at work in Sonoma!
Two unique song-and-dance shows remain: Dancing in the Street, August 15 through 18, and A Sentimental Journey, September 19 through 22. Those special evenings will be filled with live music, spotlights, and singers and dancers belting their Broadway best.
The company is a non-profit and supports many community programs. Their “Transcendence for All” initiative offers tickets priced as low as $25, including $5 youth tickets on Sundays. Shows are Thursday through Sunday evenings at 7:30, just in time for a beautiful sunset over the hills.
Transcendence Theater Company’s audience are unquestionably the winner.
There’s ample free parking (with reservations) in nearby parking lots, all well-organized, and a short walk or golf cart ride to the stage area. Wear sensible shoes and take a cover-up. The warm Sonoma temperature typically drops a bit in the evening.
For tickets for Thursday through Sunday evenings, email boxoffice@ttcsonoma.org or call 877.424.1414, ext.1.
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ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews. She is also the author of the real estate reference book “Don’t Shoot Me…I’m Just the Real Estate Agent!” Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
No tears for Mimi’s death at the end of Puccini’s La Bohème Sunday afternoon? Because everyone in the cast of Pocket Opera was having such a raucous good time on the small stage of the Hillside Club in Berkeley!
And, doing such a great job of it, I felt it was time to celebrate—rush up and congratulate Pocket’s enthusiastic artists in the family-like atmosphere they generated.
” … This is a joyous, ideal family and opera lover fare … “
In that spirit, I wish to begin by congratulating William Young for the shortest and most heart-warming “aria” in the opera, his asking for a toy drum from the charming Caleb Alexander’s Parpignol in Act 2. It was Young’s operatic debut at age 8, and his voice was loud, clear, and on pitch, as were his six accompanying street urchins.
Nicolas Huff and Diana Skavronskaya as Mimi at work for Pocket Opera. Photo courtesy of Pocket Opera.
As for the rest of the cast, there were many standouts. Soprano Diana Skavronskaya was a gorgeously riveting and dramatic presence on stage as Mimi, excelling in her arias in Acts 1 and 3, but especially in the ensemble scene in Act 2. I only felt that in Act 4, despite her fine acting, her powerful voice seemed, well, a bit out of line for a person dying of consumption.
As her lover Rudolfo, Tenor Nicolas Huff contributed an arresting passion to the proceedings, especially in Acts 2-4. Daniel Yoder brought his rich baritone to Rodolfo’s fellow bohemian Marcello, and was fun to watch cavorting across the stage in the exuberant mock battles of Acts 1 and 4.
Melissa Sondhi portrayed the temperamental Musetta with verve and swagger. Bass-baritone Don Hoffman and baritone Michael Kuo rounded out the bohemian quartet engagingly. Hoffman was especially effective in his “Farewell Dear Coat” aria in Act 4. Gene Wright as Alcindoro and Michael Mendelsohn were hilarious as comic victims in Acts 1 and 2.
The cast of Pocket Opera’s production at work. Photo courtesy Brittany Law
For smaller theaters (like this one), Act 2 presents a bit of a problem of scale with street scenes, crowds, and a marching band. Stage Director Elly Lichenstein sent the urchins up and down the aisles to take full advantage of the venue and had the cast convey the imaginary sight of the band with joyful expression. Conductor Mary Chun’s reduction of the score for a 12-piece orchestra was just right for the intimate surroundings.
Pocket Opera will move to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco for its final performance of Boheme. This is a joyous, ideal family and opera lover fare. Don’t let it slip your schedule.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor, Jeff Dunn, is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Chicago’s Second City is the nation’s foremost incubator of comic talent. With a history going all the way back to the late 1950s, the comedic institution has graduated dozens of exceptional performers, many of whom have gone on to illustrious careers in film and sketch comedy shows such as MadTV and Saturday Night Live. Too long to post here, the list is a “who’s who” of American comedy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Through July 28, Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre hosts The Best of the Second City, a touring production of six Second City performers and one musician/music director. With only a few empty chairs on a bare stage, it doesn’t look promising when you enter the theater, but proves to be a howlingly funny 90-minute romp through scripted sketches and improvisation.
(L-R) The Second City GreenCo Ensemble— Cat Savage, Annie Sullivan, Chas Lilly, George Elrod, Max Thomas, and Phylicia McLeod in The Best of The Second City, performing at Berkeley Rep through Sunday, July 28, 2024. Credit: Timothy M. Schmidt
Anyone who’s been around comedians will tell you that “improv” can be brilliant or excruciating — especially when it involves dragging audience members into the act. A brilliant one is a tour of the UC campus led by cast member Phylician McCleod, who patiently explains the symbolism of the school’s blue-and-gold colors, the campus statue of a bear, and the history of the campanile tower. An excruciating one comes later when Annie Sullivan riffs like a writer of pulp detective novels and recruits a hapless and quite clueless fellow from the front row to play the part of Detective Smith, who can’t even raise a finger as a fake gun to shoot at suspects.
Embarrassment and absurdity are two primary reasons that people laugh. Gentle embarrassment falls to the few who get pulled onstage, but it’s absurdity that carries the show, as in Max Thomas as a drug-dealing Driver’s Ed instructor who gets his students to help him make deliveries, or the entire ensemble as summer camp kids performing interpretive dance to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Chas Lilly is brilliant as a “PrimeTech” CEO giving a rah-rah keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, as a reluctant tattoo artist working on a new client, and as a redneck country singer enumerating all the things important to men.
(L-R) The Second City GreenCo Ensemble — Annie Sullivan, Chas Lilly, Cat Savage, George Elrod, Phylicia McLeod, and Max Thomas in “The Best of The Second City”, at Berkeley Rep. Credit: Timothy M. Schmidt
George Elrod brings the show an intentionally swishy LGTBQ element—his riff on an injured volleyball player is fantastic—and the powerful, outspoken Cat Savage lives up to her name in nearly every sketch. The whole production moves along at breakneck pace—there’s barely time to catch a breath for either actors or audience.
Second City is a national treasure. The Bay Area is lucky to have this troupe visit us. In an extremely contentious season, we need all the laughs we can get.
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P.S. ASR’s founder, Kris Neely is an alum of The Second City’s Training Center Conservatory — and is darn proud of it.
ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Love a good mystery/spoof? Playwright Patricia Milton has now delivered Accused!, the third, and according to her, the final episode of the Victorian Ladies Detective Collective – an ongoing and entertaining dive into the murder mysteries and the clever ladies who solve them in roles marvelously reprised from their previous episodes.
All scenes take place at a London boarding house run by two rather fierce and self-willed sisters. One is Valeria (Jan Zvaifler), the owner of the house, who is constantly gardening and then baking the pickings into breakfast treats that never get eaten – presumably for a good reason. Next is Loveday (Lauren Dunagan), a younger and attractive dedicated detective who is always correct but tires all around her with her logic and harangues. The opposite of her sister, she is always wearing gloves and cannot imagine digging into the moist and filthy soil of the garden.
” … London is terrorized by a murderer …”
Boarding with the sisters is the ex-pat American actress Katie Smalls (Chelsea Bearce), who helps to resolve the first murder but finds herself framed as the prime suspect for the deadly deed.
Katie Smalls (Chelsea Bearce) is looking for a new detecting job, but ends up a murder suspect. Credit: Jim Norrena
She choreographs a defensive and offensive weapons ballet with umbrellas, various fans, and other handy household weapons enhanced by sound effects. As London is terrorized by a murderer, the three work their different wiles to solve the mystery, as other featured characters help build the case.
Filling out the scenes are the gumby-like actor Alan Coyne, portraying three different roles in succession: the plummy Lord Albert, a political authoritarian; Deacon Manley, a preacher with a pugilistic view of religion; and M. Blancmange, the French Perfumier who is smitten with Loveday. Each of these characters has a potential involvement with the murder victim, and is suspected by Allison Tingleberry, the victim’s good associate and the target of a second murder. Sindu Singh switches accents and costumes to portray Tingleberry and also the eye-patched Inspector Perkins, a bruiser of a woman with a heavy Cockney accent.
Director Kimberly Ridgeway keeps the action going in the small and spare set at the Berkeley City Club. A fireplace mantel features a few clues to the proceedings: an oar hung as an art object or keepsake item, a small upholstered Ewe, and a few books. Other production effects such as sound and lighting are used very judiciously. This play relies on quick scenes, costume changes and entrances and exits by the small but nimble cast who keep us engaged with their fast pace, multiple accents and ever-revealing clues.
The most difficult challenge in watching Accused!, agreed to by many, is the desire to munch on scones or cookies or other baked goods at intermission, given the many treat props that are featured in this play. So be sure to get your sugar high before you arrive. Don’t miss the fun at Central Works’ latest world premiere.
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Aisle Seat Review Senior Writer Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Accused!
Written by
Patricia Minton
Directed by
Kimberley Ridgeway
Producing Company
Central Works
Production Dates
Thru Aug 11th
Production Address
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Sonoma Arts Live has another hit on its hands. Opening night was sold out with regular season patrons and an impressive number of young people eager to see a show centered on a teen rite of passage.
Artistic Director Jaime Love happily noted, “We’re attracting a younger crowd, which is so important in live theatre. It’s great to see them here.”
Act I begins as a troupe of aging, out-of-work Broadway actors derided for their narcissism, and their show has closed. They decide to prove the critics wrong. They must create a cause that’s easy, quick, and good for publicity. Social media reveals a teen gal excluded from her senior prom because she wants to bring her BFF as her date. Based on a 2010 lawsuit in Mississippi, the re-imagined story now takes place in Indiana.
Sonoma Arts Live production of ‘The Prom’ includes cast members from left: Chelsea Smith, Daniela Innocenti Beam, Jeremy Berrick, and Tim Setzer. (Photos by Katie Kelley Photography)
The cosmopolitan NY actors descend unbidden into a small rural town. They take barbs at the local lack of culture. Daniela Innocenti Beem and Tim Setzer go over the top with eye-rolling sarcasm and soaring voices. These two are natural comedians and are ably assisted in mirth by the supporting cast, including a tipsy Chelsea Smith and a pontificating Jeremy Berrick.
“…over the top with … eye-rolling sarcasm.”
Emma, the lesbian teen solidly played by Hanna Passanisi, is not enthused with the hubbub the uninvited NY actors have created. She’d like to just dance at the prom with Alyssa, a role done with lovely charm by Pilar Gonzales, but the school and town cannot allow it.
Cast of ‘The Prom’ at work at SAL. Cast members including (from left) Emma Sutherland, Lydia Louviere, and Pilar Gonzales. (Photos by Katie Kelley Photography)
Of note is that director and choreographer Jonathen Blue did an outstanding job behind the scenes and stepped in at the last minute to fill the principal role.
The Prom is peppered with actors’ inside jokes. This reviewer’s jaw hurt from laughing so much. Song lyrics are clever and often witty, sweet, or sarcastic, adding to the fun. This show concerns inclusion and exclusion and the wisdom we gain from knowing both. With a large cast of 22 energetic actors, both veterans and newbies, you may want to see it twice.
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ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews. She is also the author of the real estate reference book “Don’t Shoot Me…I’m Just the Real Estate Agent!” Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
The Prom
Music/Lyrics by
Chad Beguelin
Directed by
Jonathen Blue
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru July 28th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
The two leading women in Festival Opera’s latest double bill have anguish in common — they both lose their lovers. Yet their stories couldn’t be further in style and emphasis. The 1958 La Voix Humaine (The Human Voice) by Francis Poulenc is an expressionistic tour de force for solo soprano, while the 1688 Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell is a Baroque, group-effort mosaic featuring 20 captivating chorus members, two dancers and eight soloists.
Nevertheless, the extreme contrast between the two operas works, thanks to some fine individual performances combined with superb direction, choreography, production design, and projections.
Festival Opera with Conductor-Pianist Robert Mollicone in Poulenc’s “La Voix Humaine,” with Carrie Hennessey as Céline Ricci. Photos: Stefan Cohen.
La Voix details the morning a Parisian woman, “Elle” (“She”), has telephone calls with her lover, who is about to marry someone else. Elle tried to kill herself with pills the night before but was rescued by a friend. The calls don’t go well, as Elle, impressively portrayed by soprano Carrie Hennessey, wanders about her littered room in various states of dress and undress and displays every emotion imaginable.
” … Whether you prefer a dive-in-the-brain character study, or a fly-with-the-mob ensemble extravaganza, you can get both thrills at Festival Opera …”
Peter Crompton’s projections reflect her moods, from a Pink-Panther cheeriness of bright pinks and greens of decor and in giant cell phones to darker hues as Elle eventually chokes herself in telephone cables. With his on-stage piano instead of an orchestra, conductor Robert Mollicone sensitively rolled with Elle’s emotions from moment to moment.
Utilizing the recently authorized piano-only version certainly makes economic sense today. Yet, for this reviewer, the lack of Poulenc’s lavish orchestration considerably reduces the musical, if not dramatic pleasures to be found in this work. One main melody does come through near the end, a fateful reference to Chopin’s “Winter Wind” Etude, op. 25, no. 11.
Dido is the title character in Nahum Tate’s adaptation of the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, but in Festival Opera’s spectacular concept of Purcell’s setting, the chorus is no stand-and-deliver entity. It is a murmuration, ever swarming around Dido as courtiers, or around the Sorceress as witches and demons, or carousing as sailors.
There is a lot of work for a lot of people besides singing, and director Céline Ricci and choreographer Fiona Hutchens deserve a Trojan boatload of credit for their contributions here. Mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich handled the role of Dido well, but the strongest impression was made by contralto-profundo Sara Couden as the Sorceress. Tenor Taylor Thompson also contributed a lovely voice to his role as the Sailor, and the rest of the cast, for the most part, performed with distinction. Again a wide range of projections, some of which appear AI-generated, periodically absorbs viewer interest.
Festival Opera with Zachary Gordin, Conductor and Harpsichord, in Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” with Kindra Scharich, Dido, Lila Khazoum, Belinda, Lily Bogas, Attendant, Matthew Lovell, Aeneas, Sara Couden, Sorceress, Courtney Miller, First Witch, Reuben Zellman, Second Witch/Spirit, Taylor Thompson, Sailor, and Céline Ricci, Director. Photo: Stefan Cohen.
Special credit needs to go to conductor, General Director, and harpsichordist Zachary Gordin, who assembled a Baroque orchestra of only seven players that filled the hall and perfectly balanced the voices on the Purcell stage. I could not miss the playing of Richard Savino, whose huge theorbo (brontosaur lute) lofted lovely bass notes to my attention.
Whether you prefer a dive-in-the-brain character study, or a fly-with-the-mob ensemble extravaganza, you can get both thrills at Festival Opera.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor, Jeff Dunn, is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
La Voix Humaine* / Dido & Aeneas
Based on the play by
Jean Cocteau
Directed by
Céline Ricci
Producing Company
Festival Opera
Production Dates
Thru July 14th
Production Address
Hoffman Theatre, Lesher Center for the Arts,
1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Luckily for Peninsula theatergoers, six theatre companies have announced upcoming seasons full of exciting productions – some musicals, some dramas, a little Shakespeare, and some new plays. In other words, lots of choices.
This month, Foothill College’s TheatreArts Department presents a four-show-only production of “The World Goes Round” July 25 – 28.
Directed by Milissa Carey, the musical revenue includes 30 songs from a variety of Kander and Ebb musicals ranging from Cabaret to Chicago to Kiss of the Spider Woman.
More information: Tickets are $15 for students/youth and $20 for adults. Call (650) 949-7360 or go to: www.theatreboxoffice@foothill.edu
” … In other words, lots of choices. …”
Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay also gets a jump on the upcoming theatrical season by offering 9 to 5, The Musical, based on the 1980 film. 9 to 5 opens July 26 and runs through Aug. 18. Tickets are $29 – $42 and can be purchased at www.coastalrep.com or by calling (650) 204-5046.
Two more productions are planned by CRT for the fall, Dial M for Murder, which runs Sept. 13 – 29, and Annie, Dec. 6 – 22.
Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City opens its 84th season on Aug. 23 with the musical Always, Patsy Cline, about the life of the legendary country singer. It runs through Sept. 15. Hillbarn’s five other 2024-25 productions are: Wait Until Dark, Oct. 17 – Nov. 3; Anastasia, Dec. 5 – 29; Daisy, Jan. 23 – Feb. 9; Fly by Night, March 6 – 23; and the world premiere of Writing Fragments Home, written by Jeffrey Lo, April 17 – May 4.
Palo Alto Players’ upcoming season includes three musicals, a beloved farce and a serious play about Pennsylvania factory workers. This will be PAP’s 94th season with all performances expected to be in Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. The family favorite Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens the season on Saturday, Sept. 7, and runs through Sept. 22.
PAP’s four remaining shows are; Fiddler on the Roof, Nov. 8 – 24; Noises Off, Jan. 17 – Feb. 2; Jersey Boys, April 18 – May 4; and Sweat, June 13 – 29. Season tickets run $150 for youth between three and 18 years old; $215 for seniors 65 and up, and $225 for adults. They’re available now by calling (650) 329-0891 or online at www.paplayers.org The cost of individual tickets will be announced later this year.
TheatreWorks Artistic Producer of the New Works Festival Jeffrey Lo directs “Liébling” in TheatreWorks’ 2024 New Works Festival, offering staged readings of new plays and musicals August 9-18 at Lucie Stern Theatre. Photo Credit: Jeffrey Lo
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has a rather complex schedule, with its 21st New Works Festival coming to Lucie Stern Theater from Aug. 9 – 18. The festival is made up of new plays and musicals. Passes for the entire festival are $65, while single-event tickets (available soon) will cost $25. For its 54th season, TheatreWorks will present two world premiere musicals, the premiere of three regional plays as well as Lauren Gunderson’s adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, as its holiday production.
The 2024-25 TheatreWorks productions are: King James by Rajiv Joseph, running Oct. 9 – Nov. 3, Miss Bennet, Dec. 4 – 29; Hershey Felder: Rachmaninoff and the Tsar Jan. 10 – Feb. 9; Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical by Min Kahng, March 5 – 30; The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh, April 2 – 27 and 5 & Dime by Ashley Robinson, June 18 – 13.
Four of these will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and two will be at Lucie Stern Theater.
The Pear Theater in Mountain View is rolling out an impressive lineup of theatre productions for the 2024-25 season. Two will be performed in repertory with another play, while others will be mounted alone. But before anything else, The Pear is planning a standalone three-week program called the Black Experience Festival co-sponsored by the Breath Project and The Pear. It runs from Aug. 9 – 25 and includes two plays: Crawfish by Gamal Abdel Chasten and Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu.
The Pear’s theme for its 23rd season is “Be Transported.” The season’s offerings include Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens running Sept. 13 – Oct. 13; The Agitators by Mat Smart, Nov. 28 – Dec. 22; two plays in repertory, Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy and Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ Every Body, Feb. 21 – March 16; Henry V by William Shakespeare and She Who Dared in repertory from April 18 – May 18; and Constellations (An Immersive Experience) by Nick Payne, June 27 – July 20.
Among many other events planned by The Pear for the coming season are The Pear Playwrights Guild’s production of Fresh Produce, Nov. 8 – 10, 2024, and Pear Slices Festival, May 23 – June 8, 2025. Ticket information about all of these events and more is available at www.thepear.org or by calling (650) 254-1148.
Los Altos Stage Company has also announced its upcoming season of five widely divergent productions. Offering up a variety of adult and children’s productions year-round, LASC (formerly the Bus Barn Stage Company) was founded in June 1995. For the 2024-25 season, LASC will present Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Sept. 5 – 29, A Christmas Story (The Musical) by Joseph Robinette, Nov. 29 – Dec. 22, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Jan. 23 – Feb. 16; a new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano by Jeffrey Lo and Max Tachis; and William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, conceived by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub.
Season and single play information and tickets are available at www.losaltosstage.org or by calling (650) 941-0551. Subscriptions run $142 – $180 while single tickets are $13 – $41 for previews and $28 – $51 for other performances.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
San Francisco Playhouse has a tradition of selecting and producing one classic musical blockbuster and running it all summer long. It’s a great gambit that takes advantage of tourist traffic in the Union Square neighborhood — and is a strategy other theaters might follow to their advantage.
This year’s offering is the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice phenomenon Evita, running at 450 Post Street through September 7th. Several ASR contributors were at the July 3 opener. We’ve collected their comments here to offer diverse viewpoints rather than running a singular review. Enjoy!
“… It should enjoy a successful run …”
The production overall: Cari Lynn Pace: Evita begins with her funeral and ends with her casket surrounded by wailing mourners. In between, an homage to an ambitious woman driven by her unquenching thirst for power and adoration.
Susan Dunn: A difficult musical to fully embrace, but delivered with style, talent, and pizzazz for an exciting and compelling evening.
Barry Willis: First things first: the show is beautifully produced, no question about that. And its historical aspect is really intriguing.
But, the music (well performed by Dave Dobrusky’s backstage orchestra) is bombastic, repetitive, and atonal. Evita was the precursor to other atonal musicals, such as Next to Normal. Other than “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” one has, in this reviewer’s opinion, to search for another memorable song in the entire show. It didn’t make me want to rush out and buy the soundtrack recording.
Jeff Dunn: It’s very engaging, especially because of the pacing, artistic commitment, and Nicole Helfer’s choreography.
Staging and set design: SD: Clever use of lights, movable sets, rotating floor, and projections transform a black box into the saga of an iconic figure. A critical moment occurs with all lights down when we just hear the roar and surge of the crowds reacting to their icon.
BW: SF Playhouse has long leveraged its big turntable stage for dramatic effects, especially with huge imposing sets by Nina Ball or Bill English. In this one, set designer Heather Kenyon opts for a more austere presentation, with roll-around scaffolds serving as set pieces, backed by black-and-white projections that give the show an early-1950s feel. It works very well with the mid-century costumes.
JD: Minimalist staging goes with the abstract nature of much of the show, and allows for quick changes.
CLP: Clever use of minimal stage settings allows the narrator Che to pop in and out, propelling the story line. The onstage news photographer lends credibility to the action, especially as Evita’s casket begins its mysterious 17-year disappearance.
Sophia Alawai as “Evita” at SF playhouse. Photo: Jessica Palopoli
Performance: SD: Alex Rodriguez as Che and Sophia Alawai as Evita deliver non-stop power, superb vocals and sympathetic portrayals. The ensemble mutates appropriately from peasantry to Argentinean high society. Nicole Helfer’s choreography shows variety and polish.
JD: Alex Rodriguez is outstanding as narrator Che. Sophia Alawi, a superbly sweet Maria in Hillbarn’s Sound of Music last year, seemed to this reviewer to perhaps be a bit light for Evita. She’s wonderfully expressive, but has trouble with many of the high notes that Mr. Webber forces on the character. Ensemble is excellent. The orchestra is energetic but, perhaps, a bit unsubtle.
CLP: Voices are clear and enable most of the complex lyrics to be understandable, always a challenge in a Lloyd Webber musical. Sophia Alawi as Evita channels her calculating and controversial figure. Alex Rodriguez pours explosive energy into his role as Che. Chanel Tilghman has a haunting role and voice as Peron’s cast-off mistress.
The cast of San Francisco Playhouse’s “Evita,” performing June 27 – September 7, 2024. Photo: Jessica Palopoli
BW: The show is well performed, even to the point of this reviewer believing that some of the leads were somewhat outclassed by some of the supporting cast. Malia Abayon and Jura Davis are especially compelling. Peter Gregus as Juan Peron embodies the style and look of an autocrat but his recitativo vocalizing left this reviewer wishing for a bit more… Helfer’s athletic choreography is superb — as always.
Script and storyline: BW:Evita is a tale of celebrity worship driven to the realm of religiosity. Many of Eva’s fans called her “Santa Evita” and even asked for her blessings. But — it’s also a cautionary tale about grift on a massive scale. Argentina once had one of the world’s strongest economies. In the post-Peron era, the nation has regularly been on shaky financial ground. This is depicted effectively in a scene where soldiers are passing packets of cash hand-to-hand across the stage, symbolic of the Peron policy of taking national assets private.
SD: In this reviewer’s opinion, one weakness in Evita is the essentially narrated storyline which often prevents events from fully coming to life. The complex and fascinating historical details come to us through Che, whose narration is a bit like getting historical postcards instead of really being there. The ensemble does help to fill out social divisions, which become stepping stones for the ascension of Eva Peron.
The crowd cheers for Eva & Juan Perón in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Evita,” performing June 27 – September 7, 2024. Photo: Jessica Palopoli
JD: This reviewer found this production to be a bit hard to follow if you’re not familiar with the narrative. Almost all the words are sung, making this really a rock opera. The sound design seems perhaps to obscure some of the text. Tip: for newcomers, it would improve the play going experience to gain some familiarity with the show in advance.
CLP: Evita Duarte Peron will always remain a controversial figure. Beloved for her selective charities and adored by the shirtless as a glamorous leader, “Santa Evita” started Argentina on the path towards bankruptcy, a politically muzzled press, and chronic food shortages. In this production, she expresses love for all her people, proclaiming “Every word that I say is true.”
Aisle Seat Takeaway:
Evita might be considered an atypical undertaking for SF Playhouse, but this production — wins our recommendation. It should enjoy a successful run!
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For this review,Team ASR’s members consists of: Cari Lynn Pace, Susan Dunn, Jeff Dunn, and Barry Willis — all voting members of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Care for a quick visit to Key West, Florida? That’s the lively and colorful setting that director Dominique Lozano chose to present Marin Shakespeare Company’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing. This stage setting is a treat: a tiki bar, dive shop, and two-story bungalow designed by Nina Ball. It’s as cool and colorful as three scoops of ice cream.
For those who may be intimidated by Shakespeare’s complex character mix-ups, you can relax. In this production characters do not change sexes or wear disguises. All are amusing, and the Prince wears what appears to be a Navy or Coast Guard uniform. Some of the characters’ ulterior motives are hidden, but that’s the play. The dialog is spoken in the Bard’s patois and is easy to follow, thanks to the characters being so good at their roles.
” … This bright comedy would make Shakespeare proud …”
It’s summertime, and the island’s governor Leonato (Victor Talmadge) and his wife (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro) await the return of soldiers from their duty away. They chat comfortably with their daughter Hero (Diyar Banna) and her cousin Beatrice (Bridgette Loriaux.) When the conversation turns to love and Beatrice’s marital prospects, she assures them she enjoys being single, citing many amusing reasons.
At last, the Prince (Edward Neville) arrives with his soldiers in camouflage garb, and are warmly welcomed. Travelling with the Prince are Benedick (Johnny Moreno) and Claudio, a corpsmen. Young Claudio locks eyes with the governor’s daughter Hero and is instantly smitten. She is likewise smitten, making them the focus of one part of the play.
Claudio confides he’s in love too, so confirmed bachelor Benedick gives a lengthy discourse about the pitfalls of marriage and why he would never be so foolish. Reluctantly, Benedick agrees to help Claudio win permission to wed Hero. Will a dance do it? The cast certainly shows off their steps, thanks to double-duty actor and choreographer Loriaux.
The Cast of Marin Shakespeare Company’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Photo: Jay Yamada.
Much Ado about Nothing becomes “something” when Benedick’s buddies secretly plot to manipulate him into attraction for Beatrice. Similarly, Beatrice’s bosom buddies observe that Benedick would make a good match for the fiery Beatrice. Each cadre of conspirators stage gossip, intentionally allowing either Beatrice or Benedick to overhear that one is attracted to the other. These scenes have to be the funniest parts ever written by Shakespeare or performed on the Forest Meadows stage.
The plot returns to the two young lovers, Hero and Claudio. Their betrothal is approved and they prepare for the wedding day. Mysteriously, evil intent lurks in the minds of the Prince’s sister and her BFF. They prepare a fake video showing Hero to be untrue, and show it to Claudio. Claudio flies into a rage, swears to forsake Hero at the altar and condemn her for her disloyalty. When he does so, Hero collapses.
Soon after this debacle, a pair of bumbling detectives are approached by one of the fake video creators, who has had remorse and confesses. The detectives show the evidence to Claudio. His punishment is set by Hero’s parents.
L to R: Don Pedro (Edward Neville), Claudio (Tai White), and Don Joan (Stevie DeMott) in Marin Shakespeare Company’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Photo: Jay Yamada.
Some would have predicted the end, where Benedick and Beatrice realize they indeed are well matched. Fewer may predict the end when Claudio professes chagrin at his jealous rage and asks Hero to forgive him. Shakespeare’s Hero replies “Not so fast!” It’s a satisfying end to a play with age-old themes and updated modern accessories.
So — get thee to Marin Shakespeare for this show! And remember, nights can get very cold if the fog rolls in. Picnics are welcome; snacks and wine available for purchase.
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ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews. She is also the author of the real estate reference book “Don’t Shoot Me…I’m Just the Real Estate Agent!” Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
Much Ado About Nothing
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Domenique Lozano
Producing Company
Marin Shakespeare Company
Production Dates
Thru July 28th
Production Address
Forest Meadows Amphitheater (outdoors),
Dominican University of California 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael, CA
Although the glory days of comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are mostly distant memories, the charming little play called Chaplin & Keaton on the Set of Limelight is a fun way to remember that era. It runs through July 21 at The Pear Theatre in Mountain View.
Playwright Greg Lam cleverly weaves fact and conjecture into the story of how these two singular comics – who had never worked together before – get a chance to share a few fond memories. Chaplin invites Keaton to have a bit part in his film, Limelight, the last one he made in the United States for many years.
” … an absorbing evening of theatre …”
Lam, who is the administrator of The Pear Theatre’s Playwright Guild, has written full-length plays before, as well as shorter ones that he calls “comic romps.” In writing this play he took advantage of the close proximity of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum located across the Bay in Fremont. (It’s a fountain of authentic information about the Silent Screen era.)
Even people now in their 60s may have a challenging time recalling the travails that are depicted in this theatre production. That’s because Chaplin’s life spanned from 1889 to 1977. During the Silent Screen era, many movie fans didn’t even realize Chaplin was British because….well, films were silent!
It’s also likely that The Tramp – which Chaplin made in 1915 – was the peak of his popularity because from that point on, he and his depiction of that character were forever intertwined.
Lam’s play is set in 1951 after Chaplin has spent more than three years writing the script of Limelight. He heard that Buster Keaton (whom he had never worked with) was down-on-his luck, so Chaplin offered him a small role in his new film.
This production gets its authenticity in several ways. First, there are bits of “old-timey” grainy film that play occasionally on a screen at one side of the set. The set itself, created by Louis Stone-Collonge, is primarily Chaplin’s expansive dressing room, which he graciously shares with Keaton during the time his scene will be shot.
Left to Right: David Scott (Charles Chaplin), Lorie Goulart (Beverly) and David Boyll (Buster Keaton). In this scene, Chaplin and Keaton are about to perform their gag in “Limelight.” This is the only film that brought the famous silent-film era stars together. Photo by Argun Tekant.
As Chaplin, David Scott is a marvel to watch. His performance is at times coquettish, demanding, effete, gracious, debonair, devious—and always in complete command.
David Boyll plays Keaton, and although he’s a credible foil to Scott, there’s no mistaking that this play belongs to Scott. Boyll’s Keaton quickly realizes he needs to pander to Chaplin’s ego, though he occasionally finds ways to deftly insert his own opinions here and there.
It’s interesting to sit in on the banter between these two long-time actors as they remember the Silent Screen era and the role each played in its popularity. At times, Keaton attempts to make a point about the value of movies, with Chaplin declaring that they’re primarily made to entertain the masses. He points out that the films he’s made that had more serious themes were mostly box office failures.
Two other fine performances deserve mention: Lorie Goulart as Beverly, Chaplin’s beleaguered, faithful secretary, and Selin Sahbazoglu, who plays the dual roles of actress Claire Bloom as well as Chaplin’s wife, Oona Chaplin.
As Claire, Sahbazoglu tells Chaplin how disappointed she is that she’s not allowed to ‘act.’ “You show me what to do and then I do it,” she pouts. Chaplin turns on his charm and tells her: “I can’t change after five decades!”
Johnny Villar’s take on The Tramp is spot on, though one could wish he wandered through the set twirling his umbrella and tipping his top hat more often.
Director Sinohui Hinojosa has a lot of balls to keep in the air here, but it’s obvious he directs his actors with intent – ensuring that Lam’s script is funny when it’s meant to be and poignant at other times.
Kudos go to costume designer Melissa Wilson for coming up with both men’s and women’s clothing that reflect the styles of the ‘50s. Sinjin Jones’ sound and lighting design work well in The Pear’s elongated seating structure.
Altogether it’s an absorbing evening of theatre, especially for movie buffs both young and old who hope to witness a bit of the magic of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
The play runs two hours with one 15-minute intermission. Due to mature themes, The Pear advises that this production is not recommended for anyone under 13.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
One would think everyone over the age of 16 has either read, watched, or maybe even performed in some version of Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie’s novel that has seen numerous iterations in both plays and films. That’s because in 2017, playwright Ken Ludwig (whose Broadway hits include Lend Me a Tenor and Crazy for You) was invited by the Agatha Christie estate to write a stage adaptation of Christie’s novel.
From the reaction to the production of Murder on the Orient Express by Palo Alto Players that this reviewer attended, there’s much amusement to be found in watching Ludwig’s version of Christie’s “whodunnit.”
” …Best to head to this fine production…”
A good deal of the credit goes to the wife-husband team of director Katie O’Bryon Champlin and actor Michael Champlin, playing the part of the intrepid Belgium detective, Hercule Poirot. Champlin gets high marks for speaking impeccable French yet making his words understandable – something that even some of the great Poirots have had trouble doing!
Photo by Christian Pizzirani. Detective Hercule Poirot (Michael Champlin) explains what he has discovered to the passengers aboard the Orient Express in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, the comedic stage adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie’s celebrated murder-mystery novel at PAP.
PAP weathered a lot of difficulties mounting Murder due to the fact that its home, Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, is in the process of seat replacements. Fortunately, PAP was able to secure the modern auditorium at Woodside High School, but had to shorten its run to just seven performances. (It closes June 30.) Some of the planned production had to be revised because the exceptionally wide Woodside stage requires a lot of maneuvers of the clever-but-elongated two-sided sets.
So a big shout-out goes to the hard-working deck crew that moves them around efficiently: Hanna Lubinsky, Anton Popowitz, Neil Sahami and Amiah ‘Fern’ Woertink.
It’s natural that a great train like the Orient Express would have attractive sleeping compartments as well as a well-appointed dining room. Kevin Davies wears at least three hats here: scenic designer, technical director and master carpenter. He’s assisted by scenic painter Greet Jaspaert and carpenters Rebecca Lui and Dave Seiter.
Of course, Champlin isn’t the only fine actor in the cast of 11. Zachary Vaughn-Munck stands out as the pompous Monsieur Bouc, who runs the train line, as well as Patrick Rivera who doubles as Michel, the train conductor and as the head waiter.
Photo by Christian Pizzirani. (L-R) Hector MacQueen (Brandon Silberstein), Samuel Rachett (Kyle Dayrit), and Detective Hercule Poirot (Michael Champlin) meet on the platform of the Orient Express while being checked in by conductor Michel (Patrick Rivera) in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, the comedic stage adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie’s murder mystery.
Diverse characters show up to take the train trip from Istanbul to London – a few couples and a number of single passengers as well. Patty Reinhart is the comic relief as the chatty Helen Hubbard who’s always trying to get people to pay more attention to her. Another fine performance is put in by Brigitte Losey as the pious Greta Ohlsson, who seemingly only wants to get to Africa to take care of starving babies.
Linda Piccone, wearing what this reviewer thought was a somewhat ill-fitting wig, contributes laughs with her frowny faced doubletakes, especially in the final scene when Poirot relates that she’s now apparently gone to the “Great Beyond.”
April Culver makes a strong impression as Countess Andrenyi, whose nursing skills are needed when another passenger (Michelle Skinner) is slightly injured. Will Livingston plays Colonel Arbuthnot, who shows little emotion about anything — until his character is called into question in the final scene.
Photo by Christian Pizzirani. Samuel Rachett (Kyle Dayrit) is found murdered by Hector MacQueen (Brandon Silberstein), Princess Dragomiroff (Linda Piccone), Greta Ohlsson (Brigitte Losey), Detective Hercule Poirot (Michael Champlin) and Monsieur Bouc (Zachary Vaughn-Munck) in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS now at PAP.
Additional production team members who deserve credit for Murder are Brennah Kemmerly as dialect coach and Lisa Claybaugh as costume and hair designer.
The full Christie/Ludwig storyline won’t be revealed here because it is 1) convoluted, 2) clever, and 3) way too difficult to explain. Best to head to this fine production to see for yourself. The production runs about two hours including one 15-minute intermission.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic who started out her journalism career as a news reporter. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Noises Off is a door-slamming winner in Novato Theater Company’s jewel box of a theater. Director Carl Jordan gathered nine thoroughbred comedic actors and then coerced stage set magician Michael Walraven to design and build a magnificent two-story set. It actually rotates.
If you’ve wondered what goes on backstage during a production, here’s a crazy glimpse. A troupe of marginally skilled actors rehearse a vapid British play, preparing for a tour in the U.S. Their ineptitude is amusing; their lust for the spotlight hilarious. Offstage, the frustrated director Lloyd (Mike Pavone) rolls his eyes as he repeats directions again and again. The housekeeper, Dotty (Heather Shepardson), switches her English accent on and off as she tries to remember her lines and where to put a plateful of sardines.
“…what goes on during a production? Here’s a crazy glimpse…”
Two unannounced arrivals interrupt the housekeeper’s solitude. A tax estate agent (Diego Hardy) is a riot as he speaks in unfinished phrases: “ I mean . . . you know.” He has brought his sexy bimbo co-worker (Melody Payne) for a tryst. She’s all for it and preens in her stage spotlight, but she has trouble finding the right door to the bedroom. It’s a riot watching her try to figure it out.
Meanwhile, absentee tax-dodging owners (Jeffrey Biddle and Jane Harrington) return from their foreign hideout to sneak in a private celebratory night at their home. They admonish the housekeeper to deny she has seen them. “We were never here!” The Mrs. heads for the bedroom and the Mr. checks his mail in the study.
Marin County theater vet Wood Lockhart (left) plays Seldon in “Noises Off!” at NTC.
Neither door onstage is working properly, so the director calls for the stage handyman Tim (Sky Collins) to fix them. By the way, where is the actor playing the aging burglar? Wood Lockhart plays the perennially tipsy Selsdon, basking in faded memories of his Shakespearian roles. He requires his lines to be read to him by the director’s beleaguered assistant Poppy (Rachel Ka’iulani-Kennealy.) He mis-hears whatever he’s told, even when the entire cast shouts the line at him. The fun is just beginning!
In Act II, the stage rotates to reveal the backstage area behind the set. The ooohs and applause of the audience were well deserved. Designer/builder Walraven laughed “I wouldn’t have done this for anyone except Carl (Jordan.) He said he wouldn’t do this show unless I built a rotating stage for it. Carl told me he never expected that I would agree to do it.” How fortunate for NTC that he did!
“Noises Off!” cast at NTC.
Noises Off shows off the finely-timed chaos of comedy, with crazy personalities and wild action. Comedy can be the most demanding type of acting, and this cast nailed it. NTC’s President Marilyn Izdebski noted “The actors were encouraged to bring their own individualities to their roles, and they went over-the-top with fun.”
Noises Off is full of hilarious comic performances and more than a few surprising pratfalls. One friend commented “I laughed so much my jaw hurts.” From flying axes to slippery sardines, this is a show not to be missed.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
Noises Off!
Written by
Michael Frayn
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Thru July 14th, 2024
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
Transcendence Theatre Company, searching for an outdoor venue, has risen like the Phoenix from the ashes since losing its home base at Jack London State Historic Park. Using energy, persistence, and hard work, they’ve created a temporary weekend showcase of dazzling entertainers on a grassy field in Sonoma. On a ball field just a few blocks north of the famed Sonoma Historic Square, TTC set up a first-class stage and sound system with hundreds of comfortable chairs.
Through Sunday, June 23, Summertime is the lead-off production of four unique song-and-dance shows this summer. On these special evenings, you’ll find a live 7-piece band, spotlights, and singers and dancers twirling and leaping underneath the stars above.
” … the packed audience was jumpin’ …”
Opening night, the packed audience was jumpin’ for a mélange of sweet and sassy songs directed by Tony Gonsalez. The pace of the performances balanced sentimental solos with rock-out dance numbers. Many TTC performers are taking a break from Broadway shows to summer in Sonoma. The amazing talent of these versatile stars shone all night long.
“Summertime” cast at work in Sonoma.
Choreographer Monica Kapoor filled in beautifully for an injured performer despite confiding, “I’m a dancer, not a singer…” Amidst the heavyweight credentials of nine performing veterans of stage and film was TTC newcomer Andy Saehan Shin, lending his superb baritone voice to many luscious harmonies. When tall and lanky Aaron Lavigne grabbed a guitar to belt out songs, more than a few gals sighed. Indeed…
The new venue on the field is a park during the week. This gives TTC a ton of work setting up and tearing down for each weekend’s show. They don’t seem to mind — this is a very happy cadre of professionals. Patrons are also happy, many having dined in one of the eateries surrounding nearby Sonoma Square before the performance. Picnics and dinner boxes are welcomed to the shows, but no alcohol unless purchased on the premises.
Transcendence Theatre Company sets toes tappin’ with “Summertime” in Sonoma.
Free parking is ample with reservations in nearby parking lots, all well-organized and a short walk to the stage area. When you go, wear sensible shoes and plan a cover-up. The warm Sonoma temperature usually drops a bit each evening.
If you missed opening weekend, catch one of TTC’s summer shows: Don’t Stop Us Now, July 25-28, Dancing in the Street, August 15-18, or the Gala A Sentimental Journey, September 19-22.
For tickets for Thursday through Sunday evenings: boxoffice@ttcsonoma.org or call 877.424.1414, ext.1.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
With a few bumps along the way, Octavio Solis’ latest oeuvre, Mother Road at Berkeley Rep, takes on epic qualities as a 21st-century tale inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Before the Greek-like chorus of supporting characters appears, a massive weathered barn with a missing roof and side slats stands as a lone metaphor for the surviving but missing family members that patriarch William of the Joad family has set out to find. Aided on his quest by his lawyer Roger (a stalwart Michael Moreland Milligan), William is determined to deed his vast 2,000-acre Oklahoma farm to a Joad descendant to keep it out of the hands of developers who would subdivide it for profit. James Carpenter completely embodies his urgency.
(L-R): Michael Moreland Milligan (Roger), Benny Wayne Sully (Curtis), Emilio Garcia-Sanchez (Martín Jodes), Courtney Walsh (Ivy), and Branden Davon Lindsay (James) in “Mother Road,” Octavio Solis’ 21st-century tale inspired by John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre through July 21, 2024. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
William is close to succumbing to liver cancer when he finds Martin Joad (a hot-tempered Emilio Garcia-Sanchez), the young Mexican-American migrant worker descended from Steinbeck’s Tom Joad.
“… Mother Road is a richly peopled saga …”
Once identified as suitable to the task and willing to return to the Oklahoma homestead, Martin makes known his unwillingness to fly. The barn splits and reveals the vehicle he intends to drive, a convertible green pick-up truck that transforms into several set pieces along the mother road. Raise the hood and out slides a formica table in a roadside diner where “the food looks better on the menu than it does on the plate.” Drop the back’s sides down, add pillows and a bedspread, and it becomes a king-size motel bed.
The cast of “Mother Road” at work at Berkeley Rep. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
William agrees to go by car. He searches Martin’s belongings at a rest stop and finds a family Bible. Infuriated by William’s action and breach of trust, Martin is ready to call the whole thing off until William reassures him that the Bible is further proof of his identity and might even offer information about where William’s grandfather was buried on his way to California from Oklahoma.
As the journey moves forward, characters are revealed to be as multi-layered and interconnected as the forces of nature that drove their ancestors to leave — abandoning children, land, and lovers — but still seeking connection to their mothers and the mother earth that once supported them. Even James (a hopeful Branden Davon Lindsay), a traveler along the way deemed a madman, shows his Bible with the Book of Revelations ripped out, explaining that each of us has secrets to be revealed. “I see angels in the trees…We all got reasons for the things we do.”
(L-R): Emilio Garcia-Sanchez (Martín Jodes), Lindsay Rico (Mo), James Carpenter (William Joad), and Courtney Walsh (Ivy) in “Mother Road” at Berkeley Rep. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Tribal and racial prejudices know no bounds and come to a head more than once, as in a brush with the law when tensions mount high. We can only hold our breath as Martin has a highway patrolman in a stranglehold.
A master craftsman, playwright Solis’s scenes swiftly shift from present to past and back to the present, moving seamlessly from realistic dialogue to soaring poetry. Details dropped in early bear fruit in later scenes.
Deftly directed by BRT’s Associate Artistic Director David Mendizábal, Mother Road is a richly peopled saga encompassing an entire movement in American history brought into focus through the personal quest of one dying man.
The production could benefit from multiple viewing. As entertaining as the visual aspects of the truck with visible tailpipe exhaust and revolving set provide (thanks to scenic designer Tanya Orellana), this reviewer found that the horizontal lighting on both sides of the stage simply distracted focus from the main action. And while comic relief from Mo (a standout Lindsay Rico) and multiple roles notably performed by Courtney Walsh, Cher Alvarez Daniel Duque-Estrada, and Benny Wayne Sully add variety, Mother Road’s chorus could maybe use a bit more coaching to stay on key in the final sung number. Stronger consonants would make quick-paced ensemble numbers easier to understand, too.
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ASR’s Executive Editor, Linda Ayres-Frederick, is the Artistic Director of San Francisco’s Phoenix Theatre. Since 1985, she has enjoyed a rewarding career as an actor, director, producer, critic, and playwright, twice granted the Shubert Playwriting Fellowship. Linda’s plays have received over 20 productions in NYC, the SF Bay Area, and Alaska, where she has performed in addition to France and Edinburgh. A 3Girls Theatre playwright in residence, member of the Dramatists Guild, American Theatre Critics Association, AEA, AFTRA/SAG, she is a Sarah Lawrence College graduate (Bronxville, N.Y.) and has written for the Yale University Graduate Professional, SF Bay Times, Forallevents.com and the Westside Observer. She is a published poet and playwright and proudly serves as Vice President of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: lbaf23@aol.com
I’ve observed a troubling trend in the pricing of tickets for many local, regional, and touring theater productions.
Despite the magic of live theater, the rising cost of admission raises questions about accessibility and sustainability for the average American – long the backbone of local and regional theater in this country.
Rising Ticket Prices
Over the past two decades, ticket prices for regional and touring theater productions have increased significantly. In the early 2000s, one could expect to pay around $25-$35 for a regional theater ticket.
Today, it’s common to see prices ranging from $45 to $60 and up, even, sad to say, at the local level. On the other hand, and not to be unexpected (but still!), tickets for popular touring shows like “Hamilton” can range from $138.26 to over $1,600, depending on the seating and venue (TicketSmarter).
” … People remember ‘events’ such as going to the theater … “
At the San Francisco Opera, the price for a most favored seat exceeds $440 for some productions. Now, I get that Opera is a horse of a different theatrical color, but you see my point relative to the cost of a single seat.
American Theatre magazine adds these notes: “Nearly all (theater) artistic and managing directors polled saw their company’s price increases as “marginal.”
But, for many Americans, an increase of a few dollars per ticket can be significant, especially when piled on top of every other rising cost for goods and services. The New York Times raised an alarm about similar trends when it recently asked its readers if a $5 entrance fee increase for the city’s art museums meant that these museums were only “for the wealthy.”
Even more affordable balcony seats in many theaters are priced at $35-$55, reflecting a substantial increase over the years (TicketSmarter).
Declining Audience Numbers
Parallel to the rising ticket prices, theater attendance has declined. According to data from the Theater Communications Group, annual productions in regional theaters dropped from 14,000-25,000 in the early 2000s to significantly fewer in recent years, with indisputable evidence that audience numbers are dwindling.
American Theatre magazine again, “Piling onto … the economic reality is the difficulty that theatres have had in getting paying audiences to return at pre-pandemic levels. Survey respondents’ companies mirrored national trends that have shown up in other reports: 47% said their overall attendance was down between 10% and 30%, while an additional 27% reported seeing an even more drastic decrease.
(To be fair…) not all companies are doing poorly: The survey found that 13% of respondents said their attendance numbers have stayed put, and another 13% said overall numbers have increased by 10% or more.”
Fair enough — but that still leaves the other 70+% of theaters. So, it doesn’t take an AI tool to see fewer people willing – or able- to pay higher prices for live theater experiences.
Economic Factors
Several economic factors contribute to this issue. The production costs, including set design, costumes, rights, and talent (for those theaters that pay their actors), have all increased. Additionally, theaters have faced higher operational costs, such as rent and utilities, which they often pass on to consumers through higher ticket prices.
While these increased costs are understandable, they add to the unaffordability of live theater and, by extension, are additive to a barrier for many potential audience members, particularly those from lower-middle-income households.
The Impact on Accessibility
The steep prices discussed here limit accessibility, making theater an elitist experience rather than a communal one. This exclusion not only reduces the diversity of theater audiences but significantly, also impacts the cultural enrichment of the community.
Live theater should be an inclusive art form accessible to people from all levels of society. Fine idea. Except, current ticket pricing suggests other truths.
The Cost of a Theater Outing
Let’s sit down at the kitchen table and do some back-of-the-envelope math.
We’ll break down, as an imaginary example, the “real” cost for a family of five (2 adults, two children (and a no-charge toddler, to save the cost of a babysitter) attending a regional theater production. Again, we’ll assume the toddler’s cost is negligible in this example:
Tickets:
Average price per adult ticket: $50
Average price per child ticket: $30
Total for four tickets: (2 x $50) + (2 x $30) = $160
Parking:
Average cost for parking near a theater: $15
Dinner (Burger King):
Average cost for a modestmeal for the family: $50
Snacks at the Theater:
Average cost for a drink: $5
Average cost for popcorn: $6
Total for snacks (4 drinks and four popcorn): (4 x $5) + (4 x $6) = $44
Total cost for a night out at the theater: $160 (tickets) + $15 (parking) + $30 (dinner) + $44 (snacks) = $249.
One night, one show. Two hundred and forty-nine dollars.
Read that price again — if you can take it. And soon this family will have to add that fifth mouth and ticket to this calculus.
Possible Solutions
To address this issue, theaters, and production companies must explore alternative funding models. Increased sponsorship, government grants, and community partnerships can subsidize ticket prices, making them more affordable.
On the other hand, theaters, especially community and regional, may have to hold back on bringing the latest, for example, Disney-inspired fare to the stage. The rights to these offerings can, and often are, pejorative to that end of the theater marketplace.
I get the allure of bringing the latest word in the playwright’s art to the stage, especially for the children and teens who get to enjoy the rush of producing and acting in the same. But not at the expense of pushing a theatrical company into reducing the number of shows it wants to deliver in a season. America needs more cost-effective theater experiences, not less.
Finally, theaters could offer more discounted performances, pay-what-you-can nights, and targeted outreach to underrepresented communities. I also get the argument that these approaches may bring in fewer dollars per performance. But I contend that once people see quality theater — at affordable prices – and enjoy a pleasant theatrical experience at the same time, they will at least consider getting out of the house to create another family memory.
People remember ‘events’ such as going to the theater. Many folks are hard-pressed to remember what they watched on TV a month ago. A week ago. Last night?
“There’s trouble in River City, Folks.”
Net-net, while the allure of live theater remains strong, the rising cost of tickets threatens its accessibility and sustainability at many levels, especially at the community and regional levels.
To preserve our art’s cultural and communal benefits, every theater must find ways to make attendance more affordable for the average American.
Otherwise, we risk further alienating a sizable portion of potential audiences and diminishing the rich, diverse tapestry, history, education, memory-making, and enjoyment that theater offers.
Thank you for your attention.
Lights up!
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Kris Neely
Mr. Kris Neely is the owner, founder, and Editor-in-Chief of Aisle Seat Review.
Decades beyond its debut, Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret continues to pack regional theater houses. An enthusiastic, full-capacity crowd fills Walnut Creek’s Margaret Lesher Theatre for every performance. The portentous, irony-drenched musical runs through June 23.
There are many good reasons for the enduring popularity of Cabaret: not merely its supremely catchy tunes and in-your-face choreography, but also its message—a warning about what may lie over the horizon if a delusional would-be dictator backed by ignorant malcontents finds a way to return to power.
” … the real star of this show is theater veteran Kelly Ground …”
Background: a sugar-coated cautionary tale, the 1972 film version firmly established the show in pop culture. Many people know its songs without understanding that the show itself is far more than a lightweight romp through the decadent underworld of Weimar Republic Berlin. The story’s late 1930s time frame isn’t specific but encompasses the rise of Germany’s Nazi party and its increasingly virulent anti-Semitism. It’s often forgotten that the Nazi party was democratically elected. By 1933, it was the most powerful political organization in Germany.
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) is taken in by landlady Fräulein Schneider (Kelly Ground). Photos by Kevin Berne.
The story’s simple plot is the sojourn of an American novelist, Cliff Bradshaw (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) who travels into Germany to Berlin, where he hopes to find inspiration for his writing. On the train he meets a friendly German, Ernst Ludwig (director Markus Potter, filling in for Charlie Levy in the June 13 performance). Ernst promises to show Cliff the inner Berlin, including the notorious Kit Kat Club, a dingy dive that’s a mainstay of Berlin’s entertainment underground. He also introduces Cliff to Fraulein Schneider (Kelly Ground), owner of a rooming house that’s home to nefarious folks such as Fraulein Kost (Michelle Drexler), who earns her living entertaining sailors by the hour.
Sally (Monique Hafen Adams). Photos by Kevin Berne.
At the club he meets a self-centered British songbird named Sally Bowles (Monique Hafen Adams). The two are soon deeply but contentiously involved. A prolific Bay Area performer, Adams is tremendous, with stunning vocal ability. She portrays Sally Bowles as a ditzy airhead with neither interest in nor knowledge of the forces swirling just outside her limited frame of reference. Henrie-Naffaa is likewise more than competent as Cliff Bradshaw.
(L-R) Rotimi Agbabiaka, Elizabeth Curtis, Elizabeth Cowperthwaite. Photos by Kevin Berne.
In this reviewer’s opinion, the real star of this show is theater veteran Kelly Ground, perhaps the best Fraulien Schneider this critic has ever seen. Relaxed, confident, and perfectly in character, Ground sings and acts her way into the hearts of the audience as a planned marriage to fruit seller Herr Schultz (Richard Farrell) gets scuttled due to growing anti-Semitism and Nazi influence. Amplified by wonderful song and dance, the late-in-life romance of Schneider and Schultz is the most arresting and heartbreaking subplot in Cabaret. We don’t really care about the fates of young lovers Cliff and Sally. Cliff escapes Germany before it’s too late, while Sally digs her own self-referential grave. Herr Schultz similarly ignores the obvious to his eventual detriment.
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) with Ernst (Charlie Levy) and Sally (Monique Hafen Adams) as the Emcee (Rotimi Agbabiaka) watches in the background. Photos by Kevin Berne.
Another standout in this production is Rotimi Agbabiaka as the Emcee. A gifted singer, dancer, and very funny comedic actor, he propels the show through many high-energy production numbers, leading and provoking the Kit Kat girls and boys in a dozen or more demanding dance sequences.
On an imposing two-level set by David Goldstein (and the scenic construction folks at California Shakespeare Theater), Jessica Chen’s choreography is accessible and competent. Among the dancers, Sydney Chow as Texas is truly compelling. The band led by Eryn Allen is terrific.
The June 13 absence of Charlie Levy in the pivotal role of Ernst Ludwig was an unlucky occurrence. Director Markus Potter took the part, but not having memorized the character’s lines, had to read from a script during his time on stage. His delivery was excellent and the script in hand made sense in early scenes where he is getting English lessons from Cliff, but was otherwise an unfortunate distraction.
This Cabaret will likely not be the only such local or national production leading up to the 2024 election in November. It’s going to be long hot summer.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Caberet
Written by
Book by Joe Masteroff.
(Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood)
Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by
Markus Potter
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru June 23rd, 2024
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
About his 2000 opera Dead Man Walking, composer Jake Heggie wrote that his librettist Terrence McNally “recognized that an opera is about the music and that he would do whatever he could to serve that.” 24 years later, on the same San Francisco Opera stage, composer Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence, just like Heggie’s Dead Man, grips audiences in a story about a horrific crime and its relation to participants, victims, and society.
But Saariaho’s work is so less about the music, that I doubt it would fit McNally’s characterization of opera. Instead, the score, brilliant in mood-setting, character delineation, and orchestration, remains a handmaiden to staging and acting. With the notable exception of the music for Marketa, a slain student, it avoids song, that mainstay of the operatic past. It’s more of a film soundtrack with voices as instruments.
” … Performances by the 21 principals are excellent … “
Nevertheless, opera or not, Innocence is a powerful experience. Sofi Oksanen’s libretto begins with Tuomas’s wedding to his Romanian bride, Stela, in Helsinki. She doesn’t know that her groom is the younger brother of a school shooter who killed 10 of his fellow students and a teacher a decade earlier. Things unravel as she learns the facts from the mother of Marketa, one of the murdered students.
Chloe Lamford’s mesmerizing set for “Innocence.”
Chloe Lamford’s mesmerizing set is a variably rotating, two-story collection of chambers doing double duty as hotel facilities of the wedding’s present and school rooms of the shooting’s past. Survivors, along with the murdered, wander through the set like rats in a maze, telling or singing their heartbreaking stories. The shooter himself never appears. While one side of the massive set faces the audience, 29 stage crew members quickly and silently refurbish the back rooms to match the setting of upcoming scenes.
It is a tribute to Oksanen’s genius that the progressive introduction of 11 vocalists and eight actors rarely makes one wonder who’s who in the story. As more and more is revealed about the tragedy, one is dragged deeper into the pain of the participant’s despair, aptly underlined by Saariaho’s underscore. At the same time, one discovers that hardly anyone can be deemed innocent of wrongdoing.
“Innocence” at SF Opera.
The drama forces us to contemplate that from the point of view of today’s society, innocence is not only an ironic misnomer but an impossibility for adolescents and anyone older. There are tiny glimmers at the end that a few survivors are moving on with their lives, but Saariaho provides no obvious indication of it in her dour music, despite what the text indicates—a blow to optimists.
Performances by the 21 principals are excellent, especially those by the shooter’s father, Henrik, sung by baritone Rod Gilfry, and Marketa, sung in an unforgettable folk-song-like manner by soprano Vilma Jää. Conductor Clément Mao-Takacs does a fine job of sensitively guiding the 64 orchestra and 40 offstage chorus members.
Cast of “Innocence” at work at SF Opera.
Innocence is meticulously engineered to put its audience in an empathetic thrall with the precursors and consequences of school massacres. Even traditional opera lovers should attend — once. Even if it isn’t about the music.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor, Jeff Dunn, is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Sonoma Arts Live’s production of Lend Me a Tenor is guaranteed hilarity for theater fans. The grand-daddy of slamming-door farces runs through Sunday, June 16.
Opening week was closed due to a Covid outbreak, and unfortunately, the show couldn’t be extended because of contractual obligations, but the company has added a Saturday matinee to make up for the shortfall, according to SAL Artistic Director Jaime Love.
” … guaranteed hilarity for theater fans …”
The setup is that it’s 1934, and legendary Italian tenor Tito Merelli (Michael Coury Murdock) is coming to the Cleveland Grand Opera Company for the 10th anniversary performance of Pagliacci. Merelli is a heartthrob who makes fans go weak in the knees, but he’s also a notorious philandering drunk.
Cast of SAL’s “lend Me a Tenor.” Photos by Miller Oberlin
He lands at a Cleveland hotel (set by Carl Jordan), where he promptly passes out and can’t perform. This causes no end of problems for impresario Saunders (John Browning), who must make a bold decision whether or not to send in his assistant Max (Robert Nelson) as a replacement. The character’s clown costume and face paint may make the deception easier.
Cast at work in Ken Ludwig’s famous farce “Lend Me a tenor.” Photos by Miller Oberlin
The issue is further complicated by the fact that Saunders’ daughter Maggie (Katie Kelley) is smitten with Tito and attempts a seduction—more than once. So does Tito’s co-star Diana (Tara Roberts). All of this is par for the course for Tito’s aggrieved wife Maria (Tika Moon) who’s an absolute terror for the other women. Even the starry-eyed bellhop (Kevin Allen) can’t stay away, hoping to catch a glimpse of the superstar. Allen takes the bellhop character over the top.
Cast at work in Sonoma Arts Live’s “Lend Me a Tenor.” Photos by Miller Oberlin
Directed by Larry Williams, John Browning is superb as the exasperated Saunders, at his wit’s end trying to manage all the confusion. Keeping pace with him is a tremendous cast dashing in and out of doors just as their skullduggery is about to be exposed.
Lend Me a Tenor is a delightful quick-moving exercise in silliness and a welcome respite from the current trend of beating audiences over the head with social justice issues. Laughter is always the best medicine.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Lend Me a Tenor
Written by
Ken Ludwig
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru June 16th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Combine a half-dozen versatile actors, a maestro of the keyboard (Bill Liberatore) and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s long-time artistic director Robert Kelley (now retired), and the result is Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration — a concoction that makes for a pleasurable two hours of theatre.
Both Kelley and Liberatore say they’ve been so influenced by Sondheim over the years that they felt he deserved his own production chockful of his incredibly long list of songs – some so familiar it’s hard not to start singing along.
The women (Melissa WolfKlain, Solona Husband, and Anne Tolpegin) butt heads with the men (Sleiman Alahmadieh, Nick Nakashima, and Noel Anthony Escobar) in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration,” performing June 5-30. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Many, like “Putting it Together,” “Send in the Clowns,” “Pretty Women” and “Love is in the Air,” not to mention the sensitive, soulful “Children Will Listen,” are as familiar to theatregoers as old friends. Others such as “Loving You,” “Love’s a Bond” and “There is No Other Way” introduce audiences to lesser-known Sondheim songs. Yet, by the time the audience heads home, the actors have sung a whopping 35 songs — 36 in fact,because “Send in the Clowns” is sung twice.
” … a pleasurable two hours of theatre …”
During Kelley’s 50-year tenure at TheatreWorks, he actually mounted 18 Sondheim productions. Upon learning that it’s now “legal” to create a musical review of Sondheim’s works, Kelley said the first thing he did was ask Liberatore to collaborate with him as they have many times before.
The cast (l to r: Melissa WolfKlain, Nick Nakashima, Solona Husband, Noel Anthony Escobar, Anne Tolpegin, and Sleiman Alahmadieh) put a show together in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
And, while not every song or performance zings, it’s likely audiences will recognize once again Sondheim’s musical genius through most of the songs sung, danced and acted here. What’s so surprising is that all of the music – which sounds both fulsome and lyrical — comes from Liberatore’s melodious piano playing and Artie Storch’s occasional drumming accompaniment.
No small credit, of course, goes to the cadre of fine performers, most particularly the diminutive Solona Husband as Sally, who acts, dances, jumps and belts out her songs with joyfulness. Nick Nakashina as Gene and Melissa WolfKlain are solid additions who know how to charm an audience with a sassy wink or nod. Rounding out the cast with equally fine performances are Anne Tolpegin as Lena, Sleiman Alahmadieh as George, and Noel Anthony as Ben.
The cast (l to r: Anne Tolpegin, Sleiman Alahmadieh, Solona Husband, Noel Anthony Escobar, Nick Nakashima, and Melissa WolfKlain) embraces new possibilities in “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration.” Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Sondheim, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91, wrote an astonishing 334 songs in his lifetime. That’s why Kelley and Liberatore decided to concentrate on songs that are primarily focused on love – in all its iterations: first love, love lost, broken hearts, redemptive love and more. Audiences happily responded to the upbeat “Love is in the Air, ”Everybody Says Don’t,” “Can That Boy Foxtrot” and “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” WolfKlain’s rendition of “The Wedding is Off” is another crowd pleaser.
Then comes the poignant “Send in the Clowns,” sung with heartfelt sincerity by Tolpegin, and the equally touching “We Do Not Belong Together” sung by Husband and Alahmadieh. Husband also stands out in “Our Time” with Nakashima and Alahmadieh as well. The same trio joins up in “Old Friends” and does a terrific switching hats routine.
Kelley sandwiches in touching songs like “Children Will Listen,” sung by WolfKlain and Tolpegin. with comedic ones like “Agony” sung by Nakashima and Anthony, as well as “Any Moment/Moments in the Woods,” sung by Anthony and WolfKlain, to balance out the program.
But it’s the song “Being Alive,” sung by all six performers, that ends the show on a high note. It’s a reminder of just how astounding Sondheim’s music really is.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Kinky Boots is this year’s offering in Mill Valley’s Mountain Play 111-year run of award-winning shows. The musical, directed by Gary Stanford, Jr. normally fills Cushing Amphitheatre, an outdoor venue of carved granite seats with spectacular views of San Francisco and beyond. This annual event for families and friends who come to picnic and party has been tagged “a great outdoor theatre adventure.”
Although Kinky Boots won several awards when it was originally presented on Broadway, This year’s show failed to attract the crowds on opening day, even when all youth to age 25 were given free tickets.
“Kinky Boots” at The Mountaiun Play.
Kinky Boots unfolds with the plot of a British shoe factory nearing closure which reinvents itself making boots for drag queens. Based on actual events, Harvey Fierstein wrote the book with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. It’s a heartfelt unfolding of how Lola, a gay diva sashaying onstage and portrayed by an outrageous Miss Jay, and Charlie (Cody Craven), a straight businessman, learn that mutual respect can do wonders for the soul and for business.
“…mutual respect can do wonders for the soul and for business.”
Charlie wonders if his failing factory should re-tool to make high-heeled boots for drag queens. Lola’s “Angels” take to the stage giving a risqué bump and grind dose of convincing to the shoe factory workers.
Although this show is not rated, one audience member commented “This is not a family show” as she left during the first act with her children. Others said “Let’s go” at intermission.
“Kinky Boots” cast at work.
Executive Director and Artistic Producer Eileen Grady noted that Kinky Boots was presented in an attempt to foster “authenticity, compassion, acceptance of self and others, and to see each other in person.” The program contains a half-page instruction of “How to be an Ally” to actively support LGBTQ+ people.
Opening day suffered setbacks including a lack of shuttles to parking areas, microphones which malfunctioned, and no food vendors on site. The orchestra under the capable direction of Daniel Savio often overwhelmed the ensemble musical numbers. This was likely due to the technical sound problems.
The Mountain Play presents “Kinky Boots”.
Despite any difficulties, many fine actors gave solid performances in Kinky Boots. In addition to knockout vocals by Jaye and Craven, outstanding voices that carried through the amphitheater included Imri M. Tate, Gillian Eichenberger, David Schiller, Anna Joham, and local favorite Sean O’Brien. They perform on a fantastic stage set, done by Andrea Bechert, which revolves as the scenes require.
“Kinky Boots” cast at work.
If you go: Picnics including alcohol are invited. Seat cushions are okay, but chairs are not. Dress in layers, and bring sunscreen and hat. Blankets are good, too, in case the fog rolls in. Opening day was a balmy affair, but weather on the mountain can be fickle—from freezing to frying.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
Kinky Boots
Written by
Book: James Lapine
Music/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Nicole Helfer
Music & Lyrics
Cyndi Lauper. Book by Harvey Fierstein.
Producing Company
The Mountain Play Association
Production Dates
June 8, 9 and 16 at 2 PM
Production Address
Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mt. Tamalpais State Park, 801 Panoramic Highway, Mill Valley CA
Whenever you go to a Mel Brooks production, you know you’re in for a barrel of laughs, sight gags, and a quirky plot. But when it’s also a musical with sensational actors, singers, and dancers, it’s a given that it’s going to be good.
The Los Altos Stage Company’s current production of Young Frankenstein isn’t just good.
It’s GREAT!
(L-R) Bryan Moriarty as The Monster, and Joey Dippel as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein at work.
Director/choreographer Morgan Dayley has pushed her cast of 13 actors to the highest levels of absurdity to make this production zing. There’s hardly a false note anywhere, although this reviewer thought there were a few times when the onstage band conducted by Benjamin Belew played a tad too loudly to hear the zany lyrics being sung. But that’s a trifle because sold-out audiences like the one at last Sunday’s matinee couldn’t stop laughing, cheering and happily enjoying the whacky show.
Young Frankenstein is based on the 1974 comedy film written by Gene Wilder and Brooks. Brooks and Thomas Meehan began working on the musical version in 2006; it opened on Broadway the following year.
“… sold-out audiences … couldn’t stop laughing …”
In LASC’s production, it took just a little lime-colored headpiece and platform shoes to turn Bryan Moriarty into The Monster, but he was a perfect one. Other standout performers — in a cast that is uniformly excellent — are Dave Leon as Igor, Caitlin Gjerdrum as the rubber-faced Frau Blucher, an over-the-top Gwyneth Price Panos as Elizabeth and Keith Larson as the hapless one-eyed Inspector Kemp.
(L-R) Dave Leon as Igor, Joey Dippel as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, & Gwenaveire Garlick as Inga.
Who’s left to mention? Why, Frankenstein’s heir, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (fast-talking Joey Dippel), who is the dean of anatomy at a respected New York City medical school. This Frankenstein has spent his lifetime insisting he’s not a madman, but a scientist –- he even tries to distance himself by saying that his last name is pronounced “Fronk-en-steen.”
But when he finds out he has inherited his grandfather’s castle in Transylvania, he is forced to head there to resolve the issue of what to do with the property.
Eventually he meets all the people who work in the castle as well as a yodeling (and beautiful) lab assistant named Inga (a delightful Gwenaveire Garlick).
Joey Dippel as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in “Young Frankenstein.”
Perhaps it’s best to let theatregoers discover all the charm and joys of LASC’s Young Frankenstein on their own because it’s got it all: Fine dance numbers, strong vocals, fun costumes (thanks to Lance Muller), a versatile set by Bryan Hornbeck, good sound (Chris Beer and Brian Foley) and lighting (Carol Fischer).
“Young Frankenstein” cast stepping it out!
And that rarity: A couple of tap numbers including Irving Berlin’s “Putting on the Ritz.” It’s worth the price of admission just to watch The Monster try to keep his top hat and lime headpiece on while tapping!
This show is 2 ½ hours of unadulterated fun including one 15-minute intermission. Go see it!
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Young Frankenstein
Written by
Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Music-Lyrics by M. brooks.
A family saga may never be better depicted than in The Lehman Trilogy, at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through June 23.
The three-actor, three-hour+ production encompasses the birth, rise, expansion, and ultimate fall of the Lehman Brothers financial empire—from the moment the first hopeful brother arrives in New York from Bavaria with nothing but a suitcase and ambition to the firm’s collapse in late 2008 during the mortgage meltdown crisis, an event that doomed many big banks and institutions. The crisis had a worldwide impact.
(L-R): Actors John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn, and Howard W. Overshown in “The Lehman Trilogy”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
A touring version of the multiple award-winning National Theatre production directed by Sam Mendes and starring John Heffernan, Aaron Krohn, and Howard W. Overshown as brothers Henry, Mayer, and Emanuel Lehman, respectively, the huge immersive production is a recreation of the first West End show, complete down to its amazing set, overwhelming video effects, and the astounding abilities of its three actors, all in multiple roles—toddlers to codgers, and many incidental characters with a wide range of backgrounds and accents.
… “The Lehman Trilogy” is a master class in character acting …
It’s also a master class in storytelling. Originally written in Italian by Stefano Massini and first produced onstage in 2013, the tale spans approximately 160 years in the family’s history—and massive upheavals in the American economy, in particular the stock market crash of 1929, which Lehman Brothers survived, and the Second World War.
(L-R) Aaron Krohn (Mayer Lehman), John Heffernan (Henry Lehman), Howard W. Overshown (Emanuel Lehman), John Heffernan (Henry Lehman) in the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions’ critically acclaimed, fivetime Tony Award® winning production, “The Lehman Trilogy”, performing at A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater now through Sunday, June 23, 2024. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Partly narrated in the third person, and partly delivered as straight dialog, the show’s incredibly effective verbosity is leavened by precise editing. We are given enough information to follow the story, but not so much that we get bogged down. The show sails along briskly and never feels overlong despite its more than three-hour run time.
All three performers are superb with characterizations, vocal inflections, and adroit movements on a set that itself is a master class in design—a rotating large open cubicle that serves variously as the brothers’ first cotton brokerage in Montgomery, Alabama; the state governor’s office during Reconstruction; and the New York high-rise headquarters of Lehman Brothers Holdings, where the company’s last rites took place during the mortgage meltdown crisis in 2008. Immersive video projections by Luke Halls surround the faux office, adding a palpable sense of urgency to everything taking place on stage. Rebekah Bruce’s piano accompaniment adds the perfect touch of melodrama.
(L-R): Howard W. Overshown (Emanuel Lehman), John Heffernan (Henry Lehman), & Aaron Krohn (Mayer Lehman) at work in San Francisco. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
The Lehman Trilogy is much more than a tale of three immigrant brothers—and their offspring, who helmed the company until the death of Bobbie Lehman, last of the clan to lead the enterprise. It’s also a spectacularly compelling history of American industry, ingenuity, and ultimately, hubris. “Too big to fail,” was a catch-phrase uttered during the crisis that crushed many global financial powerhouses.
To that, Henry Lehman might have responded, “Baruch Hashem.”
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
What happens when an older couple with a properly manicured flower garden shares a backyard fence with young new neighbors who prefer wild native plants? Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse presents Native Gardens, Karen Sacarias’ amusing play digging into more than just dirt.
The mostly painted setting in the 99-seat Monroe Stage is of the backyards of two homes. Frank and Virginia Butley (Ron Smith and Sheila Lichirie) welcome the new young homeowners, Pablo and Tania De Valle (Lorenzo Alviso and Lexus Fletcher), and proudly show off their garden.
“… digs deeper to unearth prejudices about class, age, and race …”
The Butleys soon suggest the De Valles cut down their huge oak tree which has acorns and messy branches threatening their roof. Tania takes umbrage at this suggestion, unleashing her own criticism about the Butley’s choice of non-native plants. Tania wants her yard to attract bugs, which feed the birds, and so on with the circle of ecology. The Butleys are aghast at her idea of planting “weeds,” and the acrimony begins.
“Native Gardens” cast at work.
Further hostilities ensue when the backyard mutual fence line is found to be in error. A survey shows correcting the property line will wipe out the flower garden Frank Butley has been tending for decades, dashing his hopes of winning a neighborhood garden award.
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse presents “Native Gardens”, by Karen Sacaria.
The Butleys stop construction of the De Valle’s fence with something akin to a food fight, done with acorns and a shredded stop-work order. Some fences do not make good neighbors.
Native Gardens digs deeper to unearth prejudices about class, age, and race. Director Beaulah Vega notes “perhaps we can choose…to be good neighbors and appreciate the beauty in this hybrid garden of a country.”
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
Native Gardens
Written by
Karen Zacarias
Directed by
Beaulah Vega
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru June 16th, 2024
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
The set is a simple rotating turntable under an arched, red-curtained proscenium. A ghost light illuminates the bare stage, a stand-in for the story’s ghost, Gary, a disgraced Artistic Director and theater founder whom no one is allowed to speak about but does anyway. This well-known non-profit theater has fired him under a cloud of scandal. The remaining company members must pick up the pieces, find a replacement, and hold the rest of the season together.
It’s fitting that the play opens with the box-office staff taking calls to quiet the scandal, reassuring patrons, and putting a gloss and smile on their every cover-up word. We begin to get the idea BS will be the name of the game.
” … Best Available hits the sweet spot …”
Jonathan Spector’s Best Available pulls the curtain back, reveals, and satirizes the many interested parties that posture, opine, and expound on the importance of this key position of Artistic Director (AD). And how the theater organization can be made whole again now that ‘SHHHH, Gary’ is gone. We meet these stakeholders for two and a half hours, their varied perspectives and final choice to run the show in individual scenes rotating on the turntable.
linda maria girón as Veronica & Dave Maier as Dave in “Best Available”.
First, the Managing Director, Helen, deftly played by Sarah Mitchell, tries to grasp control of the staff hiatus by persuading the former Assistant Artistic Director, Maya, to assume the position of Interim Artistic Director. Regina Morones, as Maya, is a convincing aspirant for the top staff position and wants to move to the key AD slot. She needs assurance that she can wrangle her way into the permanent position. As a Latina, she has an advantage that raises the stakes for DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and so critical to winning grants and other financial opportunities.
These two women scheme their different agendas together – and at cross purposes behind each other’s backs – to drive their power. Helen wants to book a new Musical based on the themes of old TV Movies – a direct appeal to the moneyed donor age group since she is in charge of finances. The new Interim Director, Maya wants to mount an early work of an unknown playwright with no financial resources — a forward-looking play choice, but one which might result in low box-office receipts.
From left, Denise Tyrell, Steve Price, Dave Maier, linda maria girón and Regina Morones in a scene from Jonathan Spector’s crazy comedy about theater companies “Best Available” performing at Shotgun Players in Berkeley through June 16.
The Theater Board of Directors, hilariously set up in numerous scenes to reveal how very little they understand how a theater is successfully run, want to outsource the decision of a new AD to a consulting firm helmed by the Tweedledum and Tweedledee duo of Dave Maier and Steve Price. Their board pitch is an extended circum-fabulation, guaranteed to confuse and insomnia a clown-car board. Finally, there is the ex-Board Member and mega-donor, Dolores, who still wields power and ultimately gets her way through her legacy donation and its requirements and restrictions.
Austine De Los Santos as Bex at Shotgun Players.
Best Available hits the sweet spot for anyone who has worked in theater or on a board of directors. There is much humor bordering on farce, and the multiple short scenes well describe the various stakeholders. But this reviewer felt that some passages and video projections could use … trimming. There is much potential here for a tighter comedy about that world that we love so well—the world of theater.
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ASR Senior Writer Susan Dunn arrived in California from New York in 1991, and has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
A new art form graced San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre one night before moving on to Chicago.
For lack of a better word, I would call it an conversalonera—a collaborative work that interweaves related themes via three “acts”—a 30-minute semi-scripted “conversation,” a 25-minute salon, and a 35-minute opera. In less expert hands, such a concept might result in merely a time-filling hodgepodge.
” … Before It All Goes Dark is worthy of many more performances …”
Not so in this case! Five brilliant collaborators have created a structure that allows for a compelling theme—art deprivation as the result of the Holocaust—to resonate to the maximum.
Joined by many others on the production end, the chief collaborators on the creation side were Mina Miller, founder of Music of Remembrance; Jake Heggie, composer; Howard Reich, former arts critic with the Chicago Tribune; and Gene Scheer, librettist.
The “interview” act began with Miller prompting first Heggie and then Reich to tell their stories: Heggie about receiving an open-ended commission from Miller, searching for a subject, and finally contacting Reich; Reich informing Heggie of a series of articles he had written 20 years previously about The Jewish Museum in Prague trying to find relatives of Holocaust victim Emil Freund. Freund’s valuable art collection had been seized by the Nazis and sequestered by the Czech Communist government.
Only some time after democracy was restored in the Czech Republic was restitution to descendants of original owners being considered. The Jewish Museum asked Reich to see if Freund’s two sisters had established family lines in the U.S. They had indeed. Reich found one, Gerald “Mac” McDonald, an ailing PTSD vet who had no idea that he had a grand uncle who was Jewish or an art collector. Reich traveled with McDonald to Prague to see and obtain Freund’s legacy. McDonald’s story became the substance of Scheer’s libretto.
It was Miller’s idea to make the second “act” a salon-style performance of instrumental works written by composers murdered in the Holocaust. The “salon” was a projected intimation of Freund’s pre-war apartment with its impressive display of art. The music was instrumental—one duet each by David Beigelman and Robert Dauber; and two duets, a piano solo, and a trio by Erwin Schulhoff. The Beigelman piece, the song Mak tsu di eygelekh (“Close your little eyes”), a Schindler’s List-like lament played by clarinet and piano, was the most moving of the fine set.
The salon morphed seamlessly into McDonald’s apartment for the beginning of the opera, accompanied by a small but effective ensemble (flute, clarinet, string quartet, piano) conducted by Joseph Mechavich. Bass-baritone Ryan McKinny did a superb job of characterizing the tattooed, burly, angry, and dying vet sparring with his neighbor Sally (effective mezzo Megan Marino) about why he must head off to Europe despite his condition. Heggie wrote a great riff-leitmotiv for McDonald, inspired, as he told me, by the imagined bass line of a heavy-metal band.
Later, in the Jewish Museum, the short opera climaxes when curator Misha (also Marino) opens a figurative door to a gallery where the Freund collection has been assembled for McDonald’s examination. The first sight of Freund’s collection blows McDonald away—and the music and lighting do the same to the audience. The sound is suffused with Heggie’s version of a lament tune passed around the chamber orchestra. Masterpieces of the Freund collection zoom out in projection one after the other. Finally, an array of searing gold spotlights rotates slowly from the stage into the auditorium, flooding the audience.
McDonald empathizes with Freund’s tragedy: “Emil, Uncle Emil, these are the last things you saw … before it all went dark.” Scheer then wonderfully conflates McDonald’s parents’ neglect, where he acted up to try to be “visible” to them, with Freund’s need for his collection to be “chosen, seen, and loved.”
Unfortunately for McDonald, the Czech government ruled that the best of the Freund collection could not leave the country. He returns home to Chicago at the end, with a cheap painting he bought at a Prague art fair. He’s not a millionaire, but he has been touched by beauty and the revelation of his ancestry.
This was the second of four performances sponsored by Music of Remembrance, an organization dedicated to “honoring the resilience of all people excluded or persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.” The first was in Seattle May 19th; the third and fourth will be in Chicago May 25th and 26th.
I believe Before It All Goes Dark is worthy of many more performances, and would be effective even if actors play the roles of Heggie and Reich. I only wish that the program notes would include more about the ultimate fate of the Freund collection. The current notes give the impression that McDonald was Freund’s sole heir, but two children and two cousins survive and should have some claim to compensation.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Mountain View’s Pear Theatre is unique in the mid-Peninsula area in that it supports its own playwrights guild. This year’s compilation of eight short plays – all written by members of The Pear Playwright’s Guild – can justifiably be called an entertaining evening of theatre.
Half of the eight are directed by Troy Johnson, and half by Arcadia Conrad. Johnson, a member of The Pear’s board of directors, has co-directed Pear Slices 16 times, while Conrad is co-directing at the Pear for the first time.
” … ‘Pear Slices 2024′ is worth seeing …”
A mere half-dozen versatile actors make up the cast for all eight short plays, which means sometimes an actor must rush off stage in one costume and walk out in about a minute in a totally different outfit and persona. That usually means there’s a trained off-stage crew helping the actors handle their quick changes.
Several of the short plays are both engrossing and comical – something not always easy to achieve. Two of the best are whimsical or whacky – or both! That certainly describes Brick House, written by Paul Braverman, who not only is a member of Pear’s board but is also an actor and playwright.
It brought down the house watching three actors walk on with pink pig snorts and ears, earnestly discussing the pros and cons of whether to build their homes out of straw, sticks or brick. Pig 1 (Bezachin Jifar) lords it over the other two pigs (Lizzie Izyumin and Arohan Deshpande) because his house is made of brick and he knows the Fox (Vanessa Alvarez) won’t be able to blow his house down. The humorous dialog has Pigs 2 and 3 mixing up the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood with the fox. Silly? Yes. Funny: Absolutely.
Bezachin Jifar in “Brick House” by Paul Braverman.
Greg Lam’s clever take on all things Shakespearean is another fine short play. Called Juliet’s Post Credits Scene, Lam manages to include the names of a dozen or more Shakespeare plays (with one actor almost saying the dreaded word MacBeth inside the theater!)
Cleaning Up, written by Christine C. Hsu, is another interesting short. Actors Jifar and Vivian Truong expertly unfold the odd but interesting storyline. Truong plays Ruby, who was previously married to Jifar’s Donny. His second wife recently passed away, and Ruby attended her funeral, bringing food for the reception afterward. It’s just a simple plot, but the two actors make it come alive and retain our attention.
Jenna Ruby Marvet at work in “Pear Slices 2024.”
While the short called I’m Not Her by Teresa Veramendi is somewhat difficult to watch, it’s nevertheless riveting thanks to the performance of its lone actor, Jenna Ruby Marvet playing the character Passion Monster. It’s not easy to keep an audience’s attention for 10+ minutes when you’re on stage all alone, but Marvet manages to do just that.
L-R: Bezachin Jifar and Vivienne Truong in CLEANING UP by Christine C. Hsu.
Although Truong is never seen (only heard), she nevertheless is the most interesting person in Cherielyn Ferguson’s Backyard. The setting is the backyard of Dana (Vanessa Alvarez) who is sitting with her friend Jill (Izyumin). They’re discussing plans for a school book fair and Truong (as Robin) is supposed to join them. Instead, Dana and Jill hear Robin constantly berating her children, screaming at them to do what she says. Disparate reactions of Jill and Dana are the heart of this play.
(L-R): Bezachin Jifar and Jenna Ruby Marvet in “Juliet’s Post Credits Scene” by Greg Lam.
Three other short plays complete this year’s Pear Slices. One, Accidental Immortal by Sophie Naylor left this reviewer a tad confused, with actor Arohan Deshpande (Charlie) rushing his lines a bit, and Marvet showing up in a mask as Death.
This reviewer also thought the two remaining short plays could benefit from a bit more polish. The first is Bridgette Dutta Portman’s Fertile Soil featuring Marvet and Truong as two women planting a garden. The storyline has promise, but seems to run out of gas by play’s end. Ditto the second and last play of the night, The Tarot Reading by Sophie Naylor. (Suggestion to The Pear: Make sure the last show is a crowd pleaser because the audience needs to leave the theater with a good feeling about the plays.)
Overall, Pear Slices 2024 is worth seeing, both to admire the work of The Pear’s Playwright’s Guild as well as the production of short plays by those same playwrights.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Your mental, visual, and even olfactory senses will be challenged from the opening scenes as new-hire Montrellous (subtly played by Fred Pitts) offers his chef’s token of competency to boss Clyde (smartly and adeptly delivered by Kimberly Ridgeway)–his first grilled cheese sandwich. In her cutting, tight-ass managerial style, Clyde turns the sandwich down and dumps his ex-con backstory, sweetly delivered by Montrellous, into her trivia box.
“… Clyde’s gives us characters unique…humane…worth caring about…”
Written by the prolific Lynn Nottage, Clyde’s is set in a truck stop’s back kitchen, where four ex-cons are lucky enough to work there laboring to produce sandwiches for truckers. Clyde has her own prison backstory, but we never hear it. She is all business in the here and now. Reprehensively, she takes advantage of newly released convicts with no normal life to return to and provides them with a small wage to sustain themselves. She’s been there, done that, and now makes it work for her own gains.
It takes the right touch to create the perfect sandwich, and in the “Clyde’s” restaurant kitchen these three have big dreams. From left: Letitia (Damaris Divito), Montrellous (Fred Pitts) and Rafael (Ricardo Cortés). Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
As Clyde and Montrellous exit, we meet Raphael, Letitia, and Jason, the rest of the line chefs. As they banter, they either assemble a sandwich or ruminate on the “ultimate sandwich,” their current inspiration and life goal…
“Maine lobster, potato roll gently toasted and buttered with roasted garlic, paprika, and cracked pepper with truffle mayo, caramelized fennel and a sprinkle of… of… dill.”
In a series of one-upmanship, each chef dreams up the most obscure ingredients. Raphael waxes poetic on his gustatory concoction of fabulous spices and add-ins which will prove irresistible and take you spiritually to a new level.
Rafael (Ricardo Cortés, right) and Jason (Nick Mandracchia) swoon after tasting a fine, fine sandwich. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
Admirably acted by Ricardo Cortes, Raphael is a Latino recovering addict, looking to reach out into a new life off the streets. He uses body language and gestures like a new-found drug. Letitia (Damaris Divito, outstanding) is both foil and enticement to Raphael. While he can’t stop his body, she can’t stop her mouth. With a child disabled from her drug use during pregnancy, and an unreliable ex-husband, she is swamped with trying to be the wage-earner and mother, and has served time for stealing drugs from a pharmacy for her daughter.
Newcomer Jason, sporting facial and body gang tattoos, gets the putdown from the others for wearing his lifestyle on his person. He is finally accepted when he breaks down to share his pre-prison story of his uncontrollable rage, assault and beating which almost turns to murder. Movingly portrayed by Nick Mandracchia, he gains acceptance with his co-workers if not with the standoffish Clyde.
Rafael (Ricardo Cortés, right) has his eye on co-worker Letitia (Damaris Divito) in “Clyde’s.” Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
Clyde’s is about starting over when your odds for success in life are few and seem to be working against you. The ex-cons seek redemption for past misadventures and crimes, for lack of life vision and personal self-control. Playwright Nottage shows us life’s human underbelly, struggling to make it with so few advantages. Clyde’s gives us characters unique and humane and worth caring about.
This production is admirably directed by Aldo Billingslea to create a tight ensemble that both bonds and breaks against itself in scene after scene. And it sparkles with lighting and sound that flesh out the truck-stop world. Eat your sandwich first and then head on over to Clyde’s for this compelling tragicomic story that sadly reflects many aspects of our world.
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ASR Senior Writer Susan Dunn arrived in California from New York in 1991, and has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Clyde's
Written by
Lynn Nottage
Directed by
Aldo Billingslea
Producing Company
City Lights Theater Company
Production Dates
Thru June 9th, 2024
Production Address
529 S. Second St., San Jose
Website
www.cltc.org
Telephone
(408) 295-4200
Tickets
$28 – $67
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4/5
Performance
4/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
YES!
Other Voices ...
"With its tasty repartee and redemptive mouthfeel, "Clyde’s" may not be Nottage’s most profound play, but you see why.... like (a) grilled cheese, (it) lifts into the sublime...."
TheGuardian.com
“Clyde’s” is a fugal symphony of repeated motifs: the ding of the bell; a sandwich tossed in the trash; Montrellous’ mystic insights; Clyde’s vitriolic bile. It’s a sharply defined structure. But Nottage breaks it up with real-world chaos. It never feels like artifice."
YourObserver.com
"...(the play) ... transmits joy and deeply felt emotion across an audience visibly thrilled to be in its presence."
The centuries-old battle between reason and faith may never be better staged than in Galileo: A Rock Musical, at Berkeley Rep through June 23.
Perhaps historically accurate and certainly plausible, Danny Strong’s three-hour world premiere ushers its audience into the huge Roda Theatre with giant immersive projections of ancient cosmological charts (Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras, projection designers), which soon segue into a horrific depiction of the execution of unrepentant atheist Bruno Giordano.
“… It’s a work of collaborative genius. …”
The sympathies of the playwright and director Michael Mayer are immediately clear. Welcome to the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Four-time Tony Award nominee Raul Esparza stars as Galileo Galilei, the 17th-century mathematician/inventor/astronomer whose refinement of the telescope made possible his detailed observations of planetary and stellar movements, verifying earlier work by Copernicus and upending the Church’s long-held belief in the Ptolemaic (or geocentric) model of the universe, with the Earth at the center and all other heavenly bodies revolving around it.
Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei, center) and the cast of “Galileo: A Rock Musical”, making its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Galileo did his work with the encouragement of his friend, Bishop Maffeo Barberini (Jeremy Kushnier), a liberal, forward-thinking clergyman who later rose through the clerical ranks to become Pope Urban VIII, head of the church and the nation of Italy. Galileo’s promotion of a heliocentric model of the known universe was a threat to the hegemony of the church, then suffering a rebellion by Protestants in Germany and elsewhere. He was accused of heresy and only his long relationship with the pope and his forced recantation saved him from a death sentence. He spent the remainder of his life under house arrest and published other treatises but never again ventured into astronomy.
That’s the synopsis of the core story of this spectacular musical, certainly one of the most original and audacious large-scale productions to come along in years. It’s magnificent in every respect. Rachel Hauck’s enormous, elegant set couldn’t be better or more appropriate, nor could Anita Yavich’s costumes or the adroit, athletic large-cast choreography by David Neumann.
Ticket buyers are encouraged to engage in as much research as they can to fill in potential blanks, but even those going in cold and knowing little about the historical facts will be astounded. Music director Roberto Sihha gets the utmost from Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak’s hard-rock music thanks to a terrific eight-piece band and superb sound design by John Shivers.
Christian Magby (Alessandro Tarantola) and Madalynn Mathews (Virginia Galilei) in the world premiere of “Galileo” at Berkeley Rep. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Esparza is a tremendous singer and convincing actor, as is Madalynn Mattews as Galileo’s daughter Virginia. She’s a powerful and evocative pop-rock singer. The show’s secondary plot about her life is compelling on its own. Kushnier’s high tenor—venturing here and there into falsetto—is very effective too.
In recent years, the use of high-brightness/high-definition projections has been a revolution in live theater. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Galileo. We first see the night sky as if through the unaided eye, then thousands more stars as if through the telescope—a phenomenon dismissed as a trick by some of Galileo’s inquisitors. One of them mocks the effect, saying “He has crystals in his device to make it look that way.“ Others refuse to look through it at all, deeming it a devilish invention. The band of red-robed cardinals and bishops stand high on a parapet during his trial, chanting “faith, faith, faith” like an evangelical mantra.
Jeremy Kushnier (Bishop Maffeo Barberini) and Raúl Esparza (Galileo Galilei) in “Galileo: A Rock Musical”, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre now through June 23, 2024. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
The creators and cast of Galileo are clearly against blind adherence to religious doctrine. That’s all to the good; the show falters only in not better mining some emotional nuances, such as Galileo’s personal struggle with renouncing his discoveries vs. saving his life. It also skims the thorny issue of his former friend abandoning rationality and personal loyalty in favor of political expediency.
But these are minor quibbles. Galileo is one of the greatest productions that any of us may ever see. It’s destined for Broadway, where it will likely run forever, and justifiably so. It’s a work of collaborative genius.
Not to give anything away, but the closing moment when the cast comes onstage is a poignant reminder that issues of reason vs. faith are still very much with us today. We have legislators, policymakers, and many others with strong influence, who are adamant science deniers. Even today, in an age of space exploration, organ transplants, and ultra-high technology, true believers will say “Science is Satan’s way of deceiving you.” Keep that in mind when you enter the world of Galileo.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Wikipedia defines a torch song as “a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, has moved on, or a romantic affair has affected the relationship.”
Harvey Fierstein adapted Torch Song from his original 1982 trilogy to sensitively expose what one gay man endures in his quest for love and belonging. Heavily infused with Fierstein’s wit and wisdom, it’s a thought-provoking glimpse into an alternative lifestyle, presented at Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre and directed by Evren Odcikin.
“…(a) thought-provoking glimpse into the universal urge for love …”
From above a dark stage, an invisible announcer intones, “Presenting Miss Virginia Ham.” A tall diva in drag (Dean Linnard as Arnold Beckoff) sashays into a spotlight and mimes a forgotten lovelorn song, milking it for laughs with exaggerated mannerisms.
Backstage, Arnold disrobes from his costume to share a rapid-fire soliloquy of his journey as a lovelorn drag queen. It’s been a rocky road, with Arnold’s mantle of hope always wrapped around him.
From L to R: Ed (Patrick Andrew Jones) and Laurel (Kina Kantor), Arnold (Dean Linnard) and Alan (Edric Young) in the “Fugue in a Nursery” portion of “Torch Song” at Marin Theatre, performing now through June 2, 2024. Photo credit: David Allen
Arnold is infatuated with a teacher, Ed, whose conflicting sexual preferences are convincingly channeled by Patrick Andrew Jones. Spurned by Ed, Arnold tries the seedy back rooms of anonymous sex. Dispirited, Arnold finds a handsome boy toy Alan (Edric Young). Arnold’s love fling ignites jealous sparks in Ed, without a satisfying result for either.
Ed and his new wife Laurel (Kina Kantor) have a hilarious repartee in a giant bed, sequentially populated by Arnold and Alan, then all four in every combination. The clever stage set is simple and superb at hiding the simulated sex acts.
From L to R: Ed (Patrick Andrew Jones) and Laurel (Kina Kantor), Arnold (Dean Linnard) and Alan (Edric Young) in the “Fugue “Torch Song” at Marin Theatre. Photo credit: David Allen
This reviewer found the scenes in Act I’s a tad long but the pacing was reinvigorated by Act II with its knockout stage set by Sarah Phykitt. Arnold’s apartment is now a haven for Ed, separated from his wife and still sorting out his life’s direction. They are joined by David (Joe Ayers) a rebellious young man adopted from the streets and now part of Arnold’s triad of family.
When Arnold’s mom Mrs. Beckoff (Nancy Carlin) shows up, the fur begins to fly. Mom thinks her gay son is not the best influence for a teenage boy. She lectures Arnold “David’s only been here six months and he’s already gay!” Arnold drolly replies “He came that way.”
From L to R: David (Joe Ayers) shows off his new look to Arnold (Dean Linnard) and Ed (Patrick Andrew Jones) in Marin Theatre’s “Torch Song.” Photo credit: David Allen
Mrs. Beckoff and Arnold are wary of one another, circling like two cats with claws. Mrs. Beckoff tries to accept Arnold’s unconventional lifestyle, urging “A conflict is never as permanent as a solution.” Despite a well-intended start, Arnold and Mrs. Beckoff have a knock-down battle. She spits out “You cheated me out of your life, and then you blame me for not being there.”
Fierstein’s acerbic witticisms continue to come fast and furiously in Act II. When Ed desperately seeks approval from Arnold, his reply is “Never fish for compliments in polluted waters.”
“Torch Song” is an eye-opening journey intended for adult audiences.
Kudos to Fierstein for this honest and thought-provoking glimpse into the universal urge for love.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
Torch Song
Written By
Harvey Fierstein
Directed by
Evren Odcikin
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Thru June 2nd, 2024
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
Website
www.marintheatre.org
Telephone
(415) 388-5200
Tickets
$39.50-$65.50
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.0/5.0
Performance
4.0/5.0
Script
4.0/5.0
Stagecraft
4.0/5.0
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES! - for ADULTS ONLY
Other Voices ...
"... the semi-autobiographical story of Harvey Fierstein’s TORCH SONG has you laughing, crying, and laughing to keep from crying. If it doesn’t reflect your own experience, it surely reflects the experiences of someone you know. It’s emotional, revelatory, cathartic, and honest."
RVArt Review
"... Fierstein really knows how to shape a scene and end it on a button ..."
TalkinBroadway.com
“Torch Song” has its moments of pure sitcom — there’s a protracted scene about the awfulness of Ed’s cooking — which you can only grin and bear. But it also incorporates shadows of tragedy, including a plot turn involving a brutal hate crime, that feel sadly topical."
This timely and fact-based story of a Jewish village in 1905 Imperialist Russia is heartbreaking and hopeful. It’s a tale of young love that transcends bias and ignites sparks of idealism to challenge traditional thinking.
Fiddler on the Roof won awards with beloved songs like “Sunrise, Sunset” and “If I Were a Rich Man” when it debuted on Broadway 60 years ago. It became the longest-running musical for ten years. The superb production at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley is a must-see for many reasons.
“The superb production at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley is a must see…”
The massive cast of actors – an astonishing 50 biographies are in the program –acts, sings, and dances with precision and high spirits. There is so much talent that eleven leading roles are double-cast, so you might have to see the show twice.
The impressive stage work belies their youthful ages from grade school through high school. There are even a couple of veteran actors in the show. Perhaps it is the beards that fooled me? More likely, it is the eight weeks of rehearsal under director, producer and co-choreographer Rebecca Gilbert. Kudos also to co-choreographer Erin Gentry for the cast’s high-stepping energy.
“Fiddler on the Roof” plays at the Throckmorton Theatre.
It’s impressive how all this talent can fit on the Throckmorton stage. Set designers Steve Coleman and Jean-Paul LaRosee are wizards at their craft. When costume designer Lyre Allston adds her skills, the audience is immersed in the village of Anatevka with its determined residents.
Another highlight of this production is the nine-piece band under the alternating musical direction of Desiree Goyette and Noah Bossert. Taking place front and center, the music fills the house yet never overwhelms the songs, adding haunting melodies with the violins, clarinet, mandolin, accordion, and more.
As the classic story unfolds, Tevye, a poor milkman eking out a living, has five daughters and the responsibility of finding suitable husbands for them. Tradition commands the father must choose, giving his approval and blessing. Along with his wife Golde they face the village’s limited prospects of suitable mates, urged by the matchmaker Yente. The eldest daughters have their ideas of spouses, chafing at the tight rope of tradition until it snaps.
The cast at work in “Fiddler” on now at the Throckmorton.
The Russians are also tightening their territorial ropes, causing mayhem and upheaval against the settlement. The culmination of the harassment forces a resigned exodus from the village. This reviewer’s own father-in-law, born in the Ukraine during this period, supports the story’s sad basis in truth. The imagined Anatevka is like many other villages under duress today.
Don’t miss Fiddler on the Roof, an energetic show with belief in a hopeful future for all who are displaced.
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ASR Senior Writer & EditorCari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
No sacred cows were spared for this bestseller! What a pleasure to see a clever new show brimming with witty dialogue and spot-on casting! Ross Valley Players has a winner with this comedy, ably directed by Mary Ann Rodgers, on a comfy living room set designed by Ron Krempetz and built by Michael Walraven.
“…a hilarious … slice of Americana.”
The Book Club Play is Karen Zacarias’ hilarious expose of another American staple: the book club. The author of multiple award-winning plays, Zacarias accurately and humorously captures social dis-harmony with blatantly biting truth.
Mark Vashro as Robert, Elena Wright as Ana in “The Book Club Play”.
Laughter is a hallmark of many of her plays’ continuing successes, and this one is no exception. The set-up of The Book Club Play reveals egocentric tensions and ridiculous banter when five friends gather to discuss their impressions of a recently read book. The kicker is that the entire evening meeting, a social connection, is filmed remotely by a camera. The participants have signed waivers acknowledging that their meeting is destined to be edited for a forthcoming documentary on book clubs. The documentary director is famous, so they are excited that their images might become an award-winning movie. Or maybe a play. Go figure!
No spoilers here, but one can guess that there are conversations and interactions that the participants reluctantly realize are taped by the all-seeing eye. Can these sections be expunged? And why does the famous unseen director refer to the filming as “juicy?”
The dialog is sharp and fast-paced. Many sacred cows are spared.
Elena Wright as Ana, Chiyako Nelson as Lily in RVP’s “The Book Club Play”
Nothing is safe from the camera’s eye…sex, idiocy, religion, gender, color, superiority, or class. It’s a cornucopia of hot topics on display as only a witty comedy writer can present. Laugh out loud, and enjoy the interaction tremendously. This reviewer certainly did!
RVP gathered the perfect mix of great actors for this show, starting with Elena Wright as Ana, the uptight, in-control organizer, and her husband Rob (Mark Vashro) as the one who would rather see the movie than read the book. Matthew Travisano, Jannely Calmell, and Chiyako Delores are the regulars who join them. Their facial expressions are worth the price of admission. Gabriel A. Ross joins in Act II as Alex, an interloper who provokes questions while being vetted for club admission.
Scene changes bring Marsha van Broek to the wing of the stage. She poses as various spoof characters, extrapolating topics the club members discuss. With a video screen and much laughter, it’s a clever way to darken the stage while keeping the audience entertained.
Make The Book Club Play your required reading—err, viewing—at the Barn Theater.
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ASR Senior Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Book Club Play
Written by
Karen Zacarias
Directed by
Mary Ann Rodgers
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru June 9th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
In San Francisco’s black-box Marsh Stage, two chairs and a table provide all the set needed for a fierce story about two performers who live mainly in their bodies and explore the heights and depths of audience risk-taking together. I was immediately struck by the almost wildcat energy and defiance of Sophia (Arwen Anderson), who plays Sophia, a woman supporting herself solely through performance art with audience engagement.
We begin peacefully enough. She has just come off one of her museum gigs, where the audience pays to sit across from her and gaze directly into her eyes for an hour. She describes how the experience transports and inspires both her and the other sitter. From there, her performance routines escalate rapidly into aggressive activity and physical danger.
” … Try Extreme Acts and be entertained by its acting and invention …”
The Table Challenge alters Sophia’s life. In this performance, a table is set with various items of pleasure, like a rose or perfume, and items of pain, like a thorn or pin or a gun. The audience is invited to interact with Sophia using any of the items on the table. She experiences sensations of both kinds depending on the audience member. She is physically pricked by one of them. Another takes and loads the gun. Her lover-to-be, Jasper (Johnny Moreno), rushes in from the audience, removes the gun, and saves Sophia from harm. Their subsequent love affair is extravagant, both physically and mentally, framing two people who obsess on the present through a filter of their individual childhood experiences.
From L to R: Arwen Anderson and Johnny Moreno star in the world premiere of “Extreme Acts,” written by Lynne Kaufman at The Marsh San Francisco May 11 – June 2, 2024. Photo credit: David Allen
Extreme Acts is about taking risks, testing your ability to manage possible jeopardy, and succeeding in defying danger, isolation and pain of all kinds. It’s not for the faint of heart. Sophia is shaped by a mother who puts her in harm’s way and abandons her, while Jasper is driven by his desire to fly, to escape the security of the ground and to dare to defy gravity. As these two partner into a joint challenge of performance acts, it is clear that Sophia is physically more capable of withstanding some of her daredevil schemes. This culminates in an act of sitting across from each other, looking into each other’s eyes for 8 hours at a stretch, for 8 days. On the last day Jasper gets up from the chair, with his body is in physical rebellion, and abandons the performance, leaving her to her paying public.
Will these two lovers survive their acts and each other’s worlds? Hers, the physical mutilations and his, the flying escapes? Will their thoughts on family and normalcy ever mesh? This play succeeds on the great strength of the acting. It continually engages us in a fantastic narrative, in a barebones surrounding, with minimal costumes and props. As the battle of the sexes is so often fought in the minds of the players, the shift to the physical battleground is a refreshing slant. A final note has Sophia challenge the audience directly. It’s up for grabs whether this strategy works in the play but take the risk and see.
Try Extreme Acts and be entertained by its acting and invention. The authenticity of the actors demands kudos.
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Senior Reviewer Susan Dunn arrived in California from New York in 1991. Since then she’s been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
San Francisco Playhouse has launched an ambitious new production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, which will run through June 15.
Set in a shabby apartment in St. Louis in the spring of 1939, on the verge of World War II, the classic mid-century family drama gets an unusual treatment by director Jeffrey Lo. Instead of an intimate or nearly claustrophobic setting, the Wingfield family residence is on a high open platform atop SFP’s famous turntable stage, a feature that worked supremely well in Guys and Dolls and Nollywood Dreams.
“… Susi Damilano … anchors this Glass Menagerie …”
Whether a rotating stage is appropriate for this production is a matter of personal opinion. Lo also has his actors sit stage-left and stage-right when they are not in a scene, like basketball players on the sidelines waiting to return to the game.
Tom (Jomar Tagatac), Jim (William Thomas Hodgson) and Amanda (Susi Damilano) toast to their meal in San Francisco Playhouse’s “The Glass Menagerie,” performing May 2 – June 15. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The Wingfields—matriarch Amanda (Susi Damilano), asocial daughter Laura (Nicole Javier), and disaffected son Tom (Jomar Tagatac)—struggle to survive in the wake of a long-ago departure by an unnamed father and husband, whose vandalized portrait presides over everything in the household. Behind it is a huge neon sign for the Paradise, a music club across the alley from the Wingfield apartment. The sign is beautiful, beckoning, and aspirational but we hear little music from the club.
Amanda is an aging Southern belle who has never let go of her glory days attending cotillions in the Mississippi delta, where she was courted by—in her memory—a seemingly endless procession of “gentlemen callers.” Laura is a high-school dropout with a limp, who pretends to be attending secretarial school while doing little more than wandering around town, playing old records on the family’s Victrola, or managing her collection of glass animal figurines—the “glass menagerie” of the show’s title.
Tom is a would-be writer toiling away in a shoe warehouse, and the tale’s narrator in Williams’ gorgeous prose. He and Laura both chafe under pressure from their mother, but Tom alone displays open rebellion, much of it self-defeating, such as spending money for the household’s monthly expenses on personal frivolities—including making his first payment for merchant mariners’ union dues.
Lo introduces Laura’s only gentleman caller, Tom’s co-worker Jim O’Connor (William Thomas Hodgson), immediately in the first scene, although he doesn’t appear in the drama until much later, when his tentative introduction to Laura appears promising but goes awry when he recognizes that the Wingfield family dysfunction isn’t to his liking.
Javier brings a weary lack of confidence to her character, but director Lo doesn’t give her much opportunity to mine Laura’s nuances. In the entire production, we don’t see her at the Victrola or playing with her glass collection until her encounter with Jim. Javier is underutilized in this production—she could contribute much more with directorial encouragement.
The set, in fact, doesn’t include a Victrola at all, but stage-right there’s an oddly-positioned 1980s-style record player—clearly not part of the Wingfield residence—to which Tom returns several times to cue up a 12” vinyl record, which also didn’t exist in 1939. The Glass Menagerie is what Williams called “a memory play,” so it’s possible that this gambit is a visual reference to a time in the future when Tom is recalling his past.
Amanda (Susi Damilano) is concerned for her children in San Francisco Playhouse’s “The Glass Menagerie.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Even so, it’s one of several anachronisms in the show. Another is the ultra-long cigarette that Tom habitually smokes, a product that didn’t hit the market until the 1980s. Jomar Tagatac is a fabulous actor with wonderful delivery. He appears frequently at most major SF and Bay Area theaters, but it’s a big leap of faith to accept him as a 20-something aspiring writer. He’s more like an uncle to Laura than a brother and former high-school classmate. Hodgson is also a talented prolific actor and nails the subtlety of the Jim O’Connor role, without bringing anything new.
But it’s Susi Damilano who anchors this Glass Menagerie. She absolutely shines in the role of Amanda, a character often portrayed as bitter, delusional, and manipulative—a fearsome harridan. Damilano turns this tradition on its head—yes, her Amanda exudes worry, frustration, annoyance, insistence, and pathos, but is also infused with love, whimsy, good humor, and self-awareness. Damilano mines hidden comedy in the Amanda role. She has always done great work, but she finds new depth is a character that other performers have been prodding for eighty-some years. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission. Brava!
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ASR Senior Writer & EditorCari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
In one of Lisa Kleypas’ bestselling romance novels, the leading character Lillian, gives advice to her younger sister about the act of love: “You wouldn’t want to swoon, or you might miss something.” In Daniel Catán’s 1996 opera, resplendently on stage in San Jose on May 3rd, a long-unfashionable surge of romanticism floods out of mouths and instruments with the force of a firehose. A lot is missed in the process, but does it matter?
“… (this opera) …will flow far into the 21st century….”
Soaring Pucciniesque vocal lines, shimmering woodwinds out of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé augmented by marimbas, swashbuckling brass pronouncements recalling Wolfgang Korngold’s opera and film scores–all of these inundate the audience at considerable volume throughout Act 1 like the Amazon itself in flood. Only a few quieter moments allow much time for breathers until Act 2. But by that time, in spite of the over-intensity, I was beginning to realize I was experiencing a new masterpiece performed in a forgotten style: an opera where melody takes precedence over system, where music takes precedence over libretto, and, with thanks to Stage Director Crystal Manich, where librettos are respected and not mauled (i.e., regietheater).
Passengers (from left to right: Efraín Solís, Aléxa Anderson, Guadalupe Paz, and César Delgado) on the El Dorado riverboat play a rousing game of cards in the Bay Area premiere of Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas,” presented by Opera San José. Photo credit: David Allen
Manich neatly summarizes the river-journey plot as the evolution of three kinds of love in three couples: “blossoming” (Arcadio & Rosalba), “rotting” (Alvaro and Paula) and “lost” (Florencia and the deceased Cristobal). The journey is mediated in the physical realm by the ship’s Captain (sympathetic bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian) and in the spiritual by deckhand Riolobo (warm baritone Ricardo José Rivera). Tenor César Delgado was a fine, youthful Alvaro; soprano Alexa Anderson a standout as Rosalba—I want to hear more from her ASAP. Baritone Efrain Solis and mezzo Guadalupe Paz were emotionally and musically on the money as the sniping couple Alvaro and Paula. And Elizabeth Caballero’s uplifting Florencia seemed like a gift from soprano heaven—her concluding aria melted all the plastic in the house.
Paula (Guadalupe Paz, left) and Alvaro (Efraín Solís, right) board the El Dorado riverboat to the Amazon and join Riolobo (Ricardo José Rivera, center) and the Captain (Vartan Gabrielian, upper right) in the Bay Area premiere of Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas”. Photo credit: David Allen
This reviewer felt Liliana Duque-Piñeiro’s stage design was far superior to the recent Metropolitan opera’s overly abstract and distancing version. Its dangling jungle, like the music, was embracing rather than pictorial. The performance I attended was led by Assistant Conductor Johannes Löhner, who did passionate justice to the 30-pound score. As he put it in a subsequent interview:
“I will die on any hill for this score … The orchestration, it’s massive. … It’s like Puccini meets [Richard] Strauss, but it never feels plagiarized. It always feels genuine. It comes from the heart.”
I blame Catán, not him, for the music that made an iguana in an early scene sound like a brontosaurus.
I predict that Florencia en el Amazonas, with its voluptuous river of sound, will flow far into the 21st century.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs
Production
Florencia en el Amazonas
Libretto by
Marcela Fuentes-Berain
Stage Direction
Crystal Manich
Producing Company
Opera San Jose
Production Dates
Thru May 5th
Production Address
California Theater -
345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
The B.D.E.S. Hall at 140 West J Street in Benicia may seem an unlikely place for a play involving a séance, but under Clinton Vidal’s skillful direction, the Benicia Theatre Group’s production of Noël Coward’s 1941 Blithe Spirit is a fun romp about the perils of long-term commitment, perfectly suiting the historic hall’s stage.
Coward’s hero, Charles Condomine, performed with adroit comic skill by Matt Cardigan-Smith, is a popular novelist who feels spooked by his past. Married to his second wife, the super-rational Ruth, played by Jenny Rastegar, who lends Ruth an air of steely ferocity, Charles holds a seance to research a thriller he’s writing about a homicidal medium.
“… a truly enjoyable production! …”
He invites a couple to the affair: Mrs. Bradman (Paige Whitney-White) and her husband, Dr. Bradman (Patrick Kenney). Whitney-White gracefully embodies her role of a properly skeptical British wife, while Kenney brings an air of medical professionalism to his character, although to this reviewer’s ear his British accent seemed a bit absent during the second act. The séance is led by a local medium, the bicycle-riding, cucumber sandwich-eating Madame Arcati (Donna Turner).
The jokey experiment causes marital mayhem when Charles finds his first wife, Elvira, portrayed by the alluringly beautiful Kelsey Bye, has suddenly materialized. Madame Arcati takes her trade seriously, and is delighted at her unexpected success at raising a spirit, even if only Charles can see her. What follows is a ghostly variation on the eternal triangle, with Charles torn between two equally demanding women, Elvira and Ruth.
Donna Turner as Madame Arcati does a lovely job of displaying hearty enthusiasm and finally genuine dismay when she learns she was summoned under false pretenses. Brittany Kamerschen rounds out the cast as Edith, the excitable maid.
Brian Hough’s handsome living room set becomes a character in itself, imploding impressively as the unquiet spirits settle in. Altogether, a truly enjoyable production!
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Senior Reviewer Denise Armistead of St. Helena, has long enjoyed live theatre. Denise began writing reviews of local productions, and eventually made her way into the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, where she is delighted to find a home. Her goal to see as many productions as she possibly can. Contact: denise@armistead.com
The best way to enjoy Lamplighters’ production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood is not to be embarrassed by making a fool of yourself.
Why? Because 19 actors will be wandering around in the audience from time to time. Sooner or later, they will be in your face begging you to boo and hiss at them, clap and cheer for them, and even … think this coming November … vote for them. Do this, and you’ll help recreate the heady atmosphere that reigned for generations in British music halls—until alcohol was banned in them starting in 1914.
“…Brett Strader’s first-rate music direction is a pleasure …”
Edwin Drood disappears in Charles Dickens’ last novel, confounding the book’s other characters and readers as well. The novel was published in installments, but Dickens died suddenly after only half of them were written. Only Dickens knew how it was to end, though some hints were given to a friend of his.
Rupert Holmes wrote the book, lyrics, and music for this musical version, which premiered on Broadway in December 1985. To add levity to the rather dismal original, Holmes placed the mystery as a play about Drood presented in a Victorian/Edwardian music hall with actors who love to interact with the audience.
Jill Wagoner does a great job as the lead actor (“Chairwoman”) explaining to the audience that they are to vote for possible conclusions to Dickens’ work, and even choose Drood’s murderer (if he indeed was murdered). The actors immediately fly into the audience, vying for attention and audience-members’ votes, to be collected in Act 2.
The Cast at work for “The Lamplighters”. Photo by by Joe Giammarco.
The play then proceeds, but with the actors periodically breaking the fourth wall as livelier Victorian actor personalities with their own hopes and dreams, vs. their more dour Dickens roles. The three levels—21st-century actor, Victorian/Edwardian music-hall actor, and Dickensian character can get a tad confusing at times. (I found myself going back and forth between my 21st-century program and the Victorian/Edwardian “Dramatis Personae” handout to keep a handle on who’s who.)
Among the many cast members, Nathanael Fleming does a great job as the unstable and unseemly Jekyll/Hyde Jasper. Natalia Hulse exploits her lovely light, child-like soprano as Rosa, Jasper’s ward and music student. The song he forces her to learn, “Moonfall,” is the best in the show, with creepy lyrics oozing harmonies worthy of 1986’s Phantom of the Opera. Wayne Wong’s comic talents grab the audience as he portrays the “slosh”buckling alcoholic, Durdles. And Noah Evans delightfully overacts as the minor character Bazzard, who hopes for a better role by upstaging fellow cast members. Peter Crompton’s attractive set design provides the right milieu, and Brett Strader’s first-rate music direction is a pleasure.
Peter Crompton’s set designs set the right milieu. Photo by by Joe Giammarco.
The entire ensemble under M. Jane Erwin’s direction does its best to entertain over the nearly three-hour duration of the show. If you attend, make the most of it by challenging them to stay in character when they approach you and demand your vote. Later, they will line up for you in the lobby, where you can ask them what they think really happened to Edwin Drood.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Want to watch a friendly rat give a boat ride to a timid mole? In this charming tale of forest creatures and friendship, Spreckels Theatre assembled a talented cast of nineteen. Many are well-known veterans of Bay Area stages. Director Sheri Lee Miller wisely lets these pros have a blast with their roles, and the show is a winner for it.
“…these pros have a blast with their roles, and the show is a winner for it.”
It’s spring, and the woods are jumping with singing animals in colorful costumes designed by Donnie Frank. It’s not entirely clear which animal is which, but they’re having a joyful party in the leafy glade.
Sean O’Brien takes the central role of Mole, befriended by Nelson Brown as Rat. They strike up a friendship and are entreated to help Mrs. Otter (Molly Larsen-Shine) track down her headstrong daughter Portia (Nicole Stanley).
Into their midst zooms Toad (Tim Setzer), as green as a toad should be, on a low-riding tricycle or some such vehicle. The youthful audience screams their delight. The always-delightful Setzer is over-the-top and steals every scene, which any respectable toad will do. Toad is addicted to fast motorcars, his or anyone else’s. He nabs a sports car, and that lands him in court.
“Wind In The Willows” cast at work.
Meanwhile, in the dark wild woods, a jumping Weasel – kudos to the athleticism of Keene Hudson – hungers to take over Toad’s castle, Toad Hall. Weasel and his minions can only be thwarted by Badger, a commanding role by Mary Gannon Graham. Rat and Mole seek her out and beg her to chase out Weasel and the squatters and help stop Toad’s need for speed. Will she do it for her friends?
The Wind in the Willows delivers songs with clever lyrics, although this reviewer found some of the lyrics a bit difficult to hear clearly, due to the twelve-piece orchestra directed by Lucas Sherman. Scene changes happen smoothly with superb visuals using the rear-screen projection so beloved by the Spreckels audience. Karen Miles choreographed dances that the animals, err, actors happily perform. The entire cast seem to have as much fun in this adventure as the audience does.
All singing, all dancing when the wind is “In The Willows” at Spreckels Theatre.
The Wind in the Willows overflows with fantasy and energy. Perfect for young and old, it’s a giant-scale school musical by adults pretending to be animals. As the audience exited, one mom said to her child “You did very well—you sat through your first live show.” The child answered simply “I liked it.” Spreckels offers special $10 tickets for patrons 18 and under.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Wind in the Willows
Written by
Julian Fellowes, based on the book by Kenneth Grahame
Music and Lyrics by
George Stiles and Anthony Drewe
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Theatre Co.
Production Dates
Through May 19th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
If you’re at least 50, it’s likely you’ve seen The Music Man several times over the years. Meredith Willson both wrote and produced it the 1957 Broadway hit, a portrait of the fictional town of River City, Iowa. It won five Tony Awards that year.
Five years later, it was made into a wildly popular film adaptation starring Robert Preston, Buddy Hackett, Ron Howard, and Shirley Jones. Of course, it’s been a mainstay of community theatre companies everywhere since then. Many theater fans consider The Music Man the greatest piece of Americana ever written.
“… sure to resonate with audiences of all ages …”
Because of its wholesomeness and down-home characters, the musical still draws in adults who remember the movie, as well as young people seeing it for the very first time.
Photo by Scott Lasky — Harold Hill (Alex Perez) convinces the citizens of River City, Iowa that the presence of a pool table in town is trouble in THE MUSIC MAN at Palo Alto Players.
Palo Alto Players’ current rendition of the predictably sweet story doesn’t disappoint. That said, on opening night, this reviewer believed that “Professor” Harold Hill (a charming Alex Perez) spoke and sang perhaps a tad softly (maybe because he has a lot of songs to sing and words to speak).
The Music Man’s first scene is a classic – and PAP’s version is a winner. Aboard a train heading to River City, a number of traveling salesmen are debating whether they are becoming a dying breed thanks to modern technology. One has to posit that it’s a difficult scene to do well, because all the men on the train have to sway and bounce in precise harmony! (They performed flawlessly on opening night.)
The last man to get off the train in River City turns out to be Hill himself, who’s decided it’s the perfect town for him to do his special kind of “sales” (Spoiler Alert: he’s a con man.) And so he promises to form a children’s marching band and gets parents to pony up for musical instruments as well as band uniforms. Then, after collecting the money, Hill plans to skip town and head to another to sell his spiel. Of course, he always likes to woo a lady or two wherever he goes, but things in River City don’t exactly turn out the way the professor expects.
There are several excellent performances in PAP’s production, not least of which is Gabrielle McColgan as Mrs. Paroo, whose daughter Marian (Alicia Teeter), is the town’s librarian and the object of Harold Hill’s affection. Both McColgan and Teeter have two of the loveliest voices in this show.
Photo by Scott Lasky — Pictured: Winthrop Paroo (Russell Nakagawa, who alternates the role with Henry Champlin) sees the Wells Fargo Wagon coming down the road in THE MUSIC MAN, Meredith Willson’s six-time, Tony Award-winning musical comedy.
Other standouts include Sheridan Stewart, who plays the town mayor’s oldest daughter, Zaneeta, with Andrew Mo as bad boy Tommy Djilas, and Russell Nakagawa playing Winthrop Paroo. (Nakagawa shares his role with Henry Champlin.) On opening night Nakagawa was wildly applauded as he proudly sang his second-act song, “Gary, Indiana.”
One of the “inside jokes” in The Music Man is that the four men who serve on the school board can’t stand each other. Yet they suddenly turn into a barbershop quartet thanks to Prof. Hill recognizing that their voices blend perfectly as parts of the quartet. Together with Hill they sing “Ice Cream” and “Sincere.” Later they again join up with Hill (and Marian) to sing “Lida Rose” and “Will I Ever Tell You,” in beautiful harmony.
Director Lee Ann Payne has her hands full trying to corral this large cast of more than 30. She also choreographed the large dance numbers, among the best parts of Music Man.
The show has at least seven full-cast dance numbers for which costume designer Katie Strawn dressed the young girls in an adorable rainbow of pastel dresses. Strawn had much-needed assistance by a crew of seamstresses for all the outfits needed for the production’s big cast. Live music emanated from the pit in front of the stage, thanks to a skilled group of musicians led by music director/conductor Tony Gaitan.
Photo by Scott Lasky — The Pick-a-Little ladies of River City practice their dance presentation for the town’s Ice Cream Sociable in THE MUSIC MAN at PAP.
No review of The Music Man is complete without mention of the “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little” ladies lead by the rubber-faced Linda Piccone as the mayor’s wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn. It’s fun to watch as she herds her ladies into Grecian urn poses in their oversized black-and-white bathing suits.
This reviewer wondered why Drew Benjamin Jones (as anvil salesman Charlie Cowell) rushes his lines, and constantly wears a mean, vindictive scowl? As Harold Hill’s old sidekick, Marcellus, Dane Lentz at first seems ill at ease, although he does a credible job when he joins Perez singing and dancing “The Sadder by Wiser Girl.”
PAP’s artistic director Patrick Klein (and scenic designer for the show) created several set pieces that have the original look-and-feel of a little midwestern town. Angela Young is spot-on as sound designer; Chris Beer’s lighting works well.
Overall, PAP’s The Music Man is sure to resonate with audiences of all ages.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
There is unequivocally nothing rotten in Hillbarn Theatre’s enchanting rendition of Something Rotten, running through May 12 at the Foster City theater. The sold-out crowd on opening night showed the hard-working cast their love by standing up and awarding them a prolonged round of applause.
For this musical, it helps to have seen many other Broadway musicals, because references to hit songs from Annie,Beauty and the Beast, A Chorus Line, Phantom of the Opera, and more are sprinkled throughout the production.
Playwrights John O’Farrell, Karey, and Wayne Kirkpatrick obviously used their theatrical backgrounds in writing Rotten and bringing it to Broadway in 2015. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including “Best Musical,” and earned one.
For the Hillbarn production, director Randy O’Hara rounded up a talented cast of 21 performers who all act, sing, and dance—and here’s a plus: there are even a few tap numbers!
Jill Jacobs and Nigel Bottom in “Something Rotten” at the Hillbarn. Photo courtesy Tracy Martin.
In his pre-show speech, artistic director Stephen Muterspaugh joked that it took three Hillbarn artistic directors to bring Rotten to Penninsula/South Bay audiences: himself, O’Hara, who was his predecessor, and Dan Demers, the company’s artistic director from 2011 to 2021. Demers has returned to play Brother Jeremiah in Rotten, with the audience applauding loudly when he made his first entrance.
As the lights dim and pixyish Jon Gary Harris enters, wearing a flashy costume and big pink hat as The Minstrel, singing and playing a tune. The magic begins. Quickly the entire cast walks onstage to sing the opening number “Welcome to the Renaissance.”
The crux of the story is that the two Bottom brothers, Nick (a sensational Brandon Savage) and Nigel (a sweetly charming Andrew Cope) are trying to come up with an idea for a play to counterprogram anything Will Shakespeare might be writing. They are desperate for an idea, a backer and some good actors.
Because the Bard has just produced Richard III, the Bottoms decide to write a play about Richard II. Then someone tells them that Shakespeare is now working on a Richard II. “What?” screams Nick: “Who goes backwards??” That results in the play’s second song: “God, I Hate Shakespeare” sung by Nick.
Nick is desperate to put on a money-making play—especially when his wife, Bea (Melissa Wolfklain) tells him he’s going to be a father. He enlists the help of the famous soothsayer, Nostradamus (an electrifying Caitlin Beanan). She agrees to help him come up with a great topic for a play–of course, extracting money from him for that little favor.
(L-R) Melissa W., Brandon S., Julio C., Jill J., and Andrew C. from “Something Rotten” at Hillbarn Theater. Photo courtesy: Tracy Martin.
Beanan practically steals the show as she gestures/cogitates/imagines what Nick’s play will be about. Using her magic powers, she tells him that he should make a musical. Up until that time apparently, plays were either comedies or tragedies. No one had ever included music in a play, let alone have actors sing words rather than speak them.
She then uses her magical powers to conjure up what the musical should be about. “It’s something about an egg—and maybe ham—Danish ham” she says, before finally blurting out “Omelet!” Nick doesn’t think it’s a good play topic but he follows her lead because the first idea he had, a musical about the Black Death, was a total flop. Later, when Shakespeare announces he’s written a play about a melancholy Dane named Hamlet, Nostradamus snaps her fingers and says, “Oh! So close!” (“Omelet,” “Hamlet” – get it?)
There are so many terrific performances in Rotten that it’s difficult to single out all of them. Julio Chavez is a delightfully over-the-top Shakespeare who with the swagger and costumes of Elvis, immodestly sings “Will Power” and “It’s Hard to Be the Bard” with a roguish smile.
Demers plays the firebrand preacher Brother Jeremiah who refuses to let his daughter, Portia, get near heathens such as the two Bottom brothers. But Nigel and Portia fall in love nonetheless, brought together by the fact that he writes beautiful sonnets (poems) and she loves reading poetry.
Nick Bolton and Nigel Bottom at work at Hillbarn. Courtesy Tracy Martin.
Then there’s the Jew, Shylock, well played by Jason Nunan. At the time, laws didn’t allow people to employ Jews, so Nick refuses his money. Later, after having no money left of his own, he relents and accepts the Jew’s backing.
Hunter B. Jameson gets credit for creating the flexible, quick-change scenic design. Long-time Hillbarn costume designer Pamela Lampkin must have had a mighty crew to help her create the many costumes needed for the 29-member cast, with several actors playing three or four roles.
Somehow the audience knows that by the end of Rotten, all’s well that ends well” as the Bard himself famously wrote! Muterspaugh said he and the play’s production staff decided against a live orchestra for this show. “Given the amount of dancing in the show, this gave the creative team and cast access to the musical tracks during the entire rehearsal process and allowed them to work out exact timing.”
That was obviously the right choice because Hillbarn’s Something Rotten is something irresistible. The show has even garnered a “Go See” recommendation from the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle! Get tickets soon before they sell out.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The very first thing that strikes the eye when sitting down in your seat for The Pear Theatre’s The Chinese Lady is the lush gold satin curtain that encircles the small circular stage.
Written by Lloyd Suh, the son of South Korean immigrants who grew up near Indianapolis, this 90-minute play tells the story of Afong, who has been treated all her life as a beautiful, delicate toy, something to admire from afar. The other character, Atung, is basically “irrelevant”—at least if you believe Afong’s opinion of him.
” … It’s definitely worth 90 minutes of anyone’s time …”
This production, running through May 12 in Mountain View, is playing in repertory with Love Letters by A. R. Gurney. Both productions are directed by Wynne Chan, who does a credible job of attempting to help audiences understand the plight of women like Afong, who was sent to New York in 1934 to appear on stage—more as a novelty or curiosity than anything else.
Each of the roles is shared by two actors, but for the purpose of this review, Eiko Moon-Yamamoto plays Afong and Joseph Alvarado plays Atung. Both are excellent. Sharing the two roles for other performances are Joann Wu and Daniel Cai.
This reviewer found that the play itself at times is rather a challenge to understand, despite the fact that every time the satin curtain is drawn and then opened again, Afong tells the audience how old she is and what year it is. Afong’s poignant storyline begins in 1894 when she explains that she’s the first Asian woman to ever arrive from the “Orient.”
Eiko Moon-Yamamoto in “The Chinese Lady” at The Pear. Courtesy of The Pear Theater.
“Everyone’s curious about the Chinese lady,” she remembers. It cost 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children to see her. “The first thing they look at are my feet. I have to be coy and charming and show the way of eating with chopsticks.” Then she adds: “Forks are violent! Chopsticks are elegant.”
After the curtain twirls around, Afong is now 16 years old. This continues, but as the years go by, Afong realizes that on the social pecking order she is considered a carnival act or freak show. Eventually the entrepreneur who sponsors her raises ticket prices to 75 cents. “I demand more!” she says.
By the time she’s 29 years old, Afong feels she is losing the “ring of the Cantonese language.” Eventually she’s sold off to P.T. Barnum where she once again becomes a sideshow act.
Afong grows so tired of the whole “entertainment” business that she makes up her mind to retire. Yet, does she have any skills or abilities to help her earn a living? She has read newspapers and realizes that “the Chinese were perfect for doing the hard work for building a railroad. But once it was built, they are told: ‘You are irrelevant.’ ”
The cast of “The Chinese Lady” at work. Courtesy of The Pear Theater.
The poignant play ends in the year 2024. Obviously Afong isn’t still alive, but perhaps one of her descendants tells the audience to “take the time to really look at each other. Then we’ll be understood.”
Though this review doesn’t make much mention of the Atung role, he is nevertheless more than just a curtain turner. He, too, is caught in the same predicament as Afong. He has never learned how to earn a living, nor does he have any skills. He’s just one of many Chinese who worked hard all his life but earned little.
“… Suh wrote ‘The Chinese Lady’ six years ago, yet it’s perhaps more relevant today than ever …”
Sharon Peng’s costumes are authentic to the period, and the rounded two-step stage created by Louis Stone-Collonge feels just right. Sonya Wong’s lighting is excellent, and original compositions by Howard Ho are appropriate. It seems logical that a play such as this would have a history and cultural consultant, a role filled by Patrick Chew.
One projects that what Suh hoped to do by writing this play is to help today’s audiences reexamine their own feelings about Asian-American and Pacific Island people. It’s definitely worth 90 minutes of anyone’s time to relive Afong’s life and consider it in the context of 2024.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
A would-be creator of musical theater named Usher wrestles with his demons in Michael R. Jackson’s one-act musical fantasy A Strange Loop. The West Coast premiere of the seven-actor, no-intermission, nearly two-hour production runs at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater through May 12.
A poorly paid young theater usher (Malachi McCaskill) is the only character with a name in Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning script. The others are called “Thought 1,” “Thought 2,” etc., because they exist only in the protagonist’s mind.
(front) Malachi McCaskill (Usher) with (L-R) Jordan Barbour (Thought 5), Avionce Hoyles (Thought 3), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), and J. Cameron Barnett (Thought 2) in “A Strange Loop”, performing at A.C.T. Photo credit: Alessandra Mello
His demons include profoundly obsessive issues about family, culture, identity, body image, loneliness, sexuality, and ambition. In various combinations, they’re all eating away at him. It’s a wonder he can function.
… Strange Loop is certainly challenging and transgressive …
Sharply directed by Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop opens with an explanation by Usher of the significance of the show’s title: a concept of the self, put forth by cognitive researcher Douglas Hofstadter about the human ability to perceive ourselves. We begin at one point, wander about in a miasma of fantasies, remembrances, and hall-of-mirrors self-concepts, then ultimately return to where we started—an interpretation of life as an exhaustive exercise on a closed-loop obstacle course.
Usher spends his work hours escorting theater fans to their seats at the perpetual Broadway show The Lion King, and his remaining time dreaming about writing his own musical theater blockbuster. Owner of both keyboard and computer, Usher carries with him a little notepad on which he jots down ideas, but when he sits at his desk he accomplishes little more than self-pity. He has many concepts—most of which play out very effectively on ACT’s stage—but no all-encompassing scheme to put them together.
(L-R): Avionce Hoyles (Thought 3), Jordan Barbour (Thought 5), J. Cameron Barnett (Thought 2), Tarra Conner Jones (Thought 1), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), and Jamari Johnson Williams (Thought 6) in “A Strange Loop” Photo credit: Alessandra Mello
What we get, rather than a traditional beginning-middle-ending storyline, is a hodgepodge of Usher’s imaginings, from hilarious to horrific, all of them brilliantly delivered in rapid-fire succession on Arnulfo Maldonado’s astounding set. We get the show’s amazingly talented actors/singers/dancers as multiple and widely divergent characters, including not only garden-variety and exotic theater people, but promoters, advisors, gay men cruising for momentary hookups, and a huge array of black stereotypes, such as Usher’s aloof, beer-drinking father (Jordan Barbour) or his Bible-clutching mother (John-Andrew Morrison), who begs him to abandon his sinful lifestyle and return to the church.
There’s plenty of sly self-deprecating humor in Jackson’s tale, but the outstanding moment of confrontational comedy comes with a depiction of Usher’s slacker brother, clad in giant oversize basketball shorts, who lives rent-free with his ditzy girlfriend in the parents’ basement. It’s a moment out of The Jerry Springer Show.
(front) Malachi McCaskill (Usher) with Tarra Conner Jones (Thought 1), Jordan Barbour (Thought 5), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), Avionce Hoyles (Thought 3), J. Cameron Barnett (Thought 2), and Jamari Johnson Williams (Thought 6) in A Strange Loop, performing at A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater now through May 12, 2024. Photo credit: Alessandra Mello.
At the other end of the emotional spectrum is a scene where Usher reluctantly submits to an encounter with an overbearing older man, an encounter as painful and grim as a prison rape. When it’s over, Usher shuffles away in shame. He’s already mentioned that he’s not a particularly prolific gay man. If this is an example of his once-yearly erotic adventures, he’s a miserable soul indeed.
By far the highlight of A Strange Loop is the big-production gospel sendoff for departed cousin Darnell, a victim of HIV. The funeral is a conflation of Usher’s guilt, his experience growing up in the church, and the urgings of friends and theater promoters for him to create “a Tyler Perry musical.” Set designer Maldonado is at the top of his game with this creation, alone almost worth the price of admission. Clad in glittering choir robes, the supremely talented performers make it shimmer and shine.
(L-R): J. Cameron Barnett (Thought 2), Tarra Conner Jones (Thought 1), Jamari Johnson Williams (Thought 6), John-Andrew Morrison (Thought 4), Malachi McCaskill (Usher), Jordan Barbour (Thought 5), and Avionce Hoyles (Thought 3). Photo credit: Alessandra Mello
Some observers have opined that McCaskill’s voice is inadequate for the demands of the music, but his apparent vocal shortcomings actually reinforce the verity of Usher’s deep self-doubt. His less-than-assertive singing style is likely intentional.
In all his interactions with other characters, there’s only one positive note. Toward the end, Usher has a friendly chat with a rabid theater fan, a lady standing near the aisle with a souvenir poster of The Lion King. Among the many parts she plays in this show, the gifted Tarra Conner Jones provokes a warm response when she gives him heartfelt encouragement to pursue his dreams.
Does he follow her advice? That’s not made clear. In keeping with the show’s introductory remarks, we return to where we began. There’s no character arc in A Strange Loop.
After a long wild ride through the tormented mind of an insecure artist, we find that he’s exactly as he was when the tale began. It’s a ride that’s by turns audacious, confounding, annoying, offensive, beautiful, pointless, uplifting, depressing, poignant, amazing, and celebratory. Most importantly, it’s thought-provoking—and absolutely not recommended for children.
Among the most enduring clichés about contemporary art is the assertion that really effective pieces should be “challenging, transgressive, and transformative.” A Strange Loop is certainly challenging and transgressive. Is it transformative? That’s a purely personal assessment.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Writers Cara Reichel and Peter Mills dug deep to unearth this historically factual story from World War I. Mills added music and clever lyrics to propel The Hello Girls from the back offices of Bell Telephone to the battlefields of France. Sonoma Arts Live marshaled thirteen talented actors and musicians who recreate our forgotten heritage in a splendid show.
“…SAL…recreates forgotten heritage in a splendid show …”
Artistic Director Jaime Love notes “I had a stack of scripts from which to choose. “ The Hello Girls just fell out of the stack. I asked Maeve Smith if she thought we could do it. She said yes! Maeve then spent an entire year researching and meeting with descendants of these women and the Doughboy Foundation to perfect her gift of storytelling.”
And what a remarkable story it is!
From L to R) – Caroline Shen, Tina Traboulsi, Emily Evans, Sarah Lundstrom, Jenny Veilleux at work. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
During WWI, communication in the field of battle was the lifeblood of the Army, but their skilled soldiers could not handle plug-and-cord switchboards fast and efficiently. General John J. Pershing put out the call to recruit telephone switchboard operators, all of whom were female one hundred years ago and lacked the right to vote. Hundreds of women volunteered to serve, learning French to enable them to work with our allies.
(From L to R) – Emily Evans, Sarah Lundstrom, Tina Traboulsi, Jenny Veilleux at SAL. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
Jenny Veilleux commands The Hello Girls as Grace Banker. Her strong vocals and rapidly delivered lyrics are impressive, earning spontaneous applause. She’s joined by Tina Traboulsi, Sarah Lundstrom, Emily Owens Evans and Caroline Shen, who lend their fine voices in close harmonies that soar on wings. They could have led the way for the Andrews Sisters who followed years later.
Drew Bolander shares his powerful tenor voice bolstering his character Lt. Riser. He is ably joined by servicemen Skyler King, Phi Tran, Jonathen Blue, with Mike Pavone as General Pershing.
Jenny Veilleux in “The Hello Girls”. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
The Sonoma Arts Live cast of The Hello Girls has a healthy dose of perseverance along with their talent. Traboulsi learned French from scratch, with a convincing accent, for her part as Louise. Shen broke her foot ten days before opening. Insisting she could carry on, scenes were adjusted to allow for Shen’s crutches and limited dance moves, as she continued to play the piano. Kudos to this show that goes on!
The voices, the music, the clever lyrics, the costumes and the acting chops…this is a superb show to salute.
March to it!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews. Contact: pacereports100@gmail.com
Production
The Hello Girls
Written by
Cara Reichel and Peter Mills
Music/Lyrics by
Peter Mills
Directed by
Maeve Smith
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru May 5th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Such a simple set, yet by the time the Pear Theatre’s production of Love Letters ends, the show’s various actors (all but one couple are real-life partners) bring a tear or two to audience members. In the play, characters Andrew and Melissa love each other – but never at quite the same time. That’s what makes it so poignant.
The Pear’s Artistic Director, Sinjin Jones, came up with the novel idea of selecting different actors who are real-life couples to appear at each performance. Each duo is asked not to read the script ahead of time or do any research for their roles.
… The Pear definitely has a hit…
Playwright A.R. Gurney conceived Love Letters as a short novel in 1988 but later realized it made a better play. (He’s also written such well-known plays as Sylvia, The Dining Room, and The Cocktail Hour.)
Director Wynne Chan explained to each couple there would be no rehearsals. The actors don’t even see the set until they walk out to perform. The two enter from separate parts of the stage and each sits down at a desk, facing away from each other, with a white curtain serving as a barrier between them.
The first letter, written by Melissa, is sent to Andrew (Andy) when both are in the same second-grade classroom. “My parents are sending me to dancing school. Do you go to dancing school, too?” Andy scoffs at that, writing back that he’s supposed to take up sports – even though he doesn’t want to.
As they grow up together, they also recognize what different worlds they come from even though both are born into wealthy WASP families. They are trained from childhood to follow the customs of their class structure, but while Andy conforms, Melissa is something of a rebel. She sees her family as dysfunctional, which, she says, is like having no family. Andy’s family is more stable and he’s more conventional, so it’s likely Melissa’s rebellion is why he’s attracted to her.
Photo credit: Liz Edlund. From left: Robyn Ginsburg Braverman and Paul Braverman
Eventually, Andy goes to an all-boys school, and the two keep up their friendship by sending each other letters. He then gets into a prestigious men’s college. Melissa chides him by writing: “Going off with the boys again…” Later, the two begin calling each other rather than sending letters, but it’s not the same – and they both recognize the value of the written word.
One of the delights of doing this play without rehearsals is that occasionally, even the actors laugh at something they are saying – or laugh at what the other says in response.
If all of the actor couples who appear in Love Letters are as charming and enthralling as the Bravermans, The Pear definitely has a hit on its hands. Check out the schedule of which couple appears on which date on the theatre company’s website: www.thepear.org
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
A mostly unacknowledged contribution to victory in the First World War gets a nice up-close-and-personal examination in The Hello Girls, at Sonoma Arts Live through May 5.
Adroitly directed by Maeve Smith, the musical tale by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel explores the US Army’s recruitment of bilingual female switchboard operators for service near the front lines in France in the final years of the war. The Army had reached the quite reasonable conclusion that women were far more competent at the task than were the men who were trying to do the job.
Caroline Shen, Jenny Veilleux, Skyler King, Tina Traboulsi, Jonathen Blue, Emily Evans, Phi Tran, Sarah Lundstrom at Sonoma Arts Live. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
The result was an all-female unit of the Army’s Signal Corps, or “America’s First Women Soldiers,” as the cover of the playbill has it. Jenny Veilleux stars as Grace Banker, a real historical figure, the first recruit, and the ultimate leader of a team of five operators. Banker’s teammates Suzanne Prevot, Helen Hill, Bertha Hunt, and Louise Le Breton, are endearingly portrayed by Sarah Lundstrom, Emily Owens Evans, Caroline Shen, and Tina Traboulsi, respectively. Traboulsi is especially entertaining as the only native French woman in the group. She also performs on guitar and clarinet. Evans doubles on violin.
… The Hello Girls is a wonderful production on many levels …
Drew Bolander is compelling as Lt. Joseph Riser, tasked with recruiting and training the new operators. Skyler King, Jonathen Blue, and Phi Tran appear as assorted officers, enlisted men, and other characters, with veteran actor Mike Pavone in a convincing role as General John J. Pershing, who originated the initiative. Blue is the show’s choreographer and also performs on snare drum and keyboard, backed by a all-women band—Erica Dori and Elizbeth Dreyer Robertson on percussion, with Elaine Herrick on bass and cello.
There’s a whole lot of talent on the sparsely-decorated SAL stage, evocatively illuminated by lighting designer Frank Sarubbi. Without any hint of parody, Peter Mills’ songs are reminiscent of the WWI era while sounding quite contemporary, and are delivered with gusto by the cast. The larger story is simply and effectively conveyed, while sub-plots are also made clear, such as Le Breton’s being underage, or Lt. Riser’s challenges in attempting something new.
From L to R) – Caroline Shen, Tina Traboulsi, Emily Evans, Sarah Lundstrom, Jenny Veilleux at work. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
The Hello Girls was produced with expert advisors. It’s a great example of both plausible historical fiction and onstage story-telling, with enough detail to make it realistic, such as the mention of the hellishness of sustained trench warfare. A brief but particularly poignant scene features Phi Tran as a German prisoner of war, spared when captured only because he spoke English. He states flatly that his comrades were killed as they tried to surrender—a reminder that in armed conflict, good guys and bad guys alike are capable of atrocities and war crimes.
Jenny Veilleux in “The Hello Girls”. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
The larger historical context isn’t included in the story, but it’s one that might prove enlightening for potential ticket buyers. American public knowledge about World War I is shockingly scant. At its outbreak, most of the crown heads of Europe were cousins. They were incredibly suspicious and jealous of each other, leading to an arms race that ultimately consumed 20 million lives. The armistice that ended the war established conditions that led to WWII twenty years later, which in turn gave us the world we now inhabit.
The US Army’s 2,300 female telephone operators made an enormous contribution to the victory, but as we are reminded late in the play, the Veterans Administration refused to recognize them as anything other than “civilian contractors” although none of them had ever signed contracts. This insult was corrected decades later, when only 63 of them were still alive to receive benefits.
(From L to R) – Emily Evans, Sarah Lundstrom, Tina Traboulsi, Jenny Veilleux at SAL. Photo credit Oberlin Photography.
The Hello Girls is a wonderful production on many levels. Especially fitting is a post-show celebration of veterans in the audience, asked to stand and be recognized while the cast performs theme songs from all six branches of the US military. Both the show’s cast and these veterans deserve every bit of approval. Like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, it’s something that works for everyone regardless of where you land on the political spectrum.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Hello Girls
Written by
Cara Reichel and Peter Mills
Music/Lyrics by
Peter Mills
Directed by
Maeve Smith
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru May 5th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
In a way, Los Altos Stage Company’s production of The Skin of Our Teeth is somewhat like a Ringling Brothers three-ring circus: It’s got woolly mammoths, it’s got an Atlantic City seductress, and it has an ice wall pushing down from Canada into New Jersey.
Thornton Wilder’s 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play is about as close to an allegory of the entire history of the world ever attempted on stage. It gets a decent, if “mammoth-sized”, production, thanks to the efforts of director Chris Reber, five strong actors, and an interesting scenic design enhanced by Reber’s creative projection touches.
… “An antic ode to human resilience…”
It’s difficult to describe Skin in a few words because just when it seems to be veering toward sheer fantasy, something akin to pathos pops up. And though attempts are made to modernize it (like adding a few visual sound bites from TMZ), some might think it shows its age.
In any case, as the play opens, a beleaguered Mr. Antrobus is making his way home during a full-blown blizzard, exhausted but exhilarated after a hard day at the office doing such things as dividing M and N as he invents the alphabet. (He’s also inventing the lever and the wheel … …)
Michael Hirsch plays Mr. Antrobus with authority and a bit of wonder, especially when it comes to his family. As Mrs. Antrobus, Mary Hill is a neurotic marvel. She pops and twirls around with motherly authority in period dresses that float around her thanks to lots of crinoline petticoats.
(L-R) Kristin Walter and Olga Molona at work.
But first it’s the ditzy maid Sabina (a delightful Kristin Walters) who commands the audience’s attention. Using her little feather duster, she flits around the stage dusting this, that and whatever suits her fancy, including other people. She tells anyone who will listen that she can no longer stand being the Antrobus family’s maid and she gives Mrs. A her two-weeks’ notice. “That’s the law!” she smirks. Sabina’s also the character who breaks the fourth wall, talking directly to the audience and suggesting several times that a scene should be skipped. Irascible to the end, she guides us through the willful anachronisms of the play. At one point, Mrs. A yells at Sabina because she (Sabina) apparently let the fire go out in the fireplace. Now, Mrs. A says, her family will freeze to death, so she sends Sabina out in the blizzard to gather more twigs.
Mary Hill and Michael Hirsch in “The Skin of Our Teeth”.
When Act 2 opens, the Antrobus family is now in Atlantic City on vacation and celebrating their 5,000th wedding anniversary. Mrs. A, carrying a purse large enough to hold a good-sized dog, says she’s delighted that her husband can enjoy a few days with the family and relax. He’s also there to give a speech and to announce the winner of the “Miss Atlantic City” beauty contest.
Turns out Kristin Walters (Sabina), now wearing a sexy bathing suit and cover-up, is the contest winner, and Mr. A is ready for a little extra-marital fling. Spoiler Alert: Mrs. A makes sure he doesn’t get the chance.
Four actors (LASC’s artistic director Gary Landis, Olga Molina, Patty Reinhart and Sam Kruger) play a number of ensemble roles. Molina stands out as the gypsy fortuneteller, and Landis is deadpan funny wearing a UPS uniform in short pants.
The Antrobus children, Henry (Max Mahle) and Gladys (a pert Emily Krayn) have very little stage time and only a few lines, so it’s difficult to judge their performances.
It’s likely most theatergoers will recognize that many of the things happening in the lives of the Antrobus family are still relevant today: Hoards of homeless people have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat; a large poster states “Make Mammals Great Again,” and there’s a sequence where Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus attempt to herd various animals (some long extinct) into a ship (aka Noah’s Ark).
(L-R) Kristin Walter, Mary Hill, costumed Sam Kruger and Patty Reinhardt, and Gary Landis.
Kudos to Jonathan Covey for excellent sound, to Aya Matsutomo for comprehensive lighting, Yusuke Soi for good scenic design, and Miranda Whipple’ for zany props (a gargantuan “A” is part of the Antrobus’ living room décor.)
However, the production team ‘s decision to combine Acts 2 and 3 into one “Act 2” (with only “one brief pause”), the play’s overall length (~2 hours and 45 minutes), and the play’s period dialog and sexual politics–might be a stretch for some modern audience members.
In the end, Skin is a rallying cry for a world that could use some reassurance that it will, despite everything, carry on — even if by “The Skin of Our Teeth.”
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
A spunky teenager brings social justice to 1962 Baltimore in the uproarious comic musical Hairspray, at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theater through April 21.
Directed by Matt Lenz, with choreography by Robbie Roby, the national touring production is the most recent incarnation of John Waters’ iconic 1988 film starring Ricki Lake as the irrepressible Tracy Turnblad, a chunky girl auditioning for a spot on The Corny Collins Show, a Baltimore teen music-and-dance show.
… the huge cast are all simply tremendous. …
Her ambition grows from merely personal to societal when she pushes for inclusion of the black community, much to the dismay of her rival Amber Von Tussle and Amber’s manipulative mother Velma. In her efforts to do the right thing, Tracy runs afoul of local police and even the governor of Maryland, but emerges victorious.
“Hairspray” at the Orpheum in The City.
Social justice issues are often served best by comedy and humor. Likewise, bigots and oppressors are often best skewered the same way. Hairspray spares none of them in a two-and-a-half-hour kitsch extravaganza spoofing all that was both serious and ridiculous in the early 1960s.
The Orpheum production is swollen to bursting with world-class talent, starring Caroline Eiseman as Tracy, Andrew Scoggin as Corny Collins, Caroline Portner as Amber, Sarah Hayes as Velma, Skyler Sheilds as heartthrob crooner Link Larkin, Greg Kalafatas as Tracy’s mother Edna, Ralph Prentice Daniel as Tracy’s goofy dad Wilbur, Scarlett Jacques as Tracy’s best friend Penny Pingleton, and Josiah Rogers as Seaweed J. Stubbs. Diedre Lang astounds as Motormouth Maybelle, especially in her breakout solo song, and Micah Sauvageau is a comedic delight in multiple roles. Let’s not overlook soul-sister song-and-dance trio “The Dynamites” – Ashia Collins, Leiah Lewis, and Kynnedi Moryae Porter.
“Hairspray” cast at work.
The huge cast are all simply tremendous. So are sumptuous quick-change set designs, immersive projections, dazzling costumes, and the rock-solid band (music director Lizzie Webb) in the orchestra pit. The show couldn’t be more appropriate for San Francisco, whose eager fans on opening night loudly applauded every scene and gave the whole affair an extended standing ovation.
Deservedly so. Hairspray is an absolute joy.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Hairspray
Written By
John Waters
Directed by
Matt Lenz
Choreographed by
Robbie Roby
Producing Company
BroadwaySF
Production Dates
Through April 21st
Production Address
The Orpheum
1192 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Sports spectators usually take sides. So can opera composers—say, Puccini in that heavyweight match, Scarpia vs. Tosca. But what do composers do when an opera is a spectator sport taking place on stage?
On April 5th, Opera Parallèle provided two fascinating examples of sports opera and the “sides” promoted by two composers, David T. Little and Laura Karpman. Little took on an obscure Belgian bird-call competition called Vinkensport, and Karpman had a swing at exhibition tennis with the King/Riggs “Battle of the Sexes” match of 1973. Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel brilliantly collaborated with the composers to subsume Little’s opera into the 1973 ABC Wide World of Sports broadcast moderated by immoderate Howard Cosell. Parallèle publicized the combination cleverly as Birds and Balls.
… I was happy to be a spectator …
The upshot was that Karpman’s sympathies (and librettist Gail Collins’) were with Billy Jean King, but the music was rooting for Riggs. In contrast, Little’s music and Royce Vavrek’s libretto were rooting for all the competition participants, especially the birds.
The evening began with Little’s 45-minute Vinkensport, or the Finch Opera, which premiered in 2010 and was revised in 2018. In it, six contestants with sticks sit in a line with their trained chaffinches in boxes and count each series of chirps their birds emit. (You can hear the sound at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COllwlh-jXo.)
Each count is supposed to be marked with chalk on the sticks; the trainer with the most counts at the time limit wins. Although sticks were present, no chalk marks were made, nor were calls heard, so audience members not reading up on the details of this bizarre activity were probably confused about the rules. The six contestants did sing a chorus depicting the calls and marks: “Susk-e-wiet, Susk-e-wiet, Susk-e-wiet, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tally.”
Courtesy of SF Chronicle.
Not that the contest itself mattered. Like the musical A Chorus Line, Vinkensport is really about the hearts and souls of the contestants. Each has a backstory and an attitude. These are absorbing, utterly human, and superbly conveyed by the libretto, projected videos, and especially, the rhythmic and orchestral variety found in Little’s music. A testament to the effectiveness of characterization is that the audience cares for the two cheaters of the six as much as for the four others: a sex-starved yet religious wife, a dutiful son who hates the sport, an alcoholic trophy wife, and a principled yet lonely man who ends the opera with a moving farewell to his bird, “Atticus Finch,” whom he releases to the skies after a decade of service.
In contrast to the depth of Vinkensport was the glitz and bang of the second opera Balls, a premiere which I suspect needs a bit more polish. In it, honoring of women’s political progress by the victory of Billie Jean King is undercut by the extended satire of Seventies styles and fashions, “Laugh-in” funny as they are. The over-the-top self-promotion by the Bobby Riggs character is accompanied by music with a disjointedness that seems undistinguishable from King’s music, which should convey a more steady and subdued determination. Rather than highlighting a Seventies moment in time, the opera contrarily includes the appearance of Susan B. Anthony in 19th-century dress. Perhaps this underlines women’s striving for progress and the continuing failure of the ERA to cap it today.
However these two operas fare in the future, either together or separately, I must vouch for the incredible job the entire Opera Parallèle team did in mounting them under Nicole Paiement’s and Brian Staufenbiel’s supervision and creative input.
All performers were outstanding, most especially Nathan Granner as both Hans Sachs’ cocaine-hypered trainer in Vinkensport and Bobby Riggs in Balls. David Murakami’s projections and Lawrence Dillon’s videos greatly enhanced the proceedings. The impressive Nikola Printz sang Billie Jean King. Jamie Chamberlin, Daniel Cilli, Chelsea Hollow, Shawnette Sulker, and Chung-Wai Soong wonderfully embodied their distinct Vinkensport characters.
Finally, Mark Hernandes did a fine job sporting Howard Cosell’s unique approach to English. And I was happy to be a spectator to the whole operation.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
"Birds" (Vinkensport) and Balls
Directed by
Brian Staufenbiel
Producing Company
Opera Parallèle
Production Dates
Thru April 7th
Production Address
SF Jazz Miner Auditorium 201 Franklin St, SF, CA 94102
Some have forgotten the horrors of 2020—the sudden onslaught of a deadly new airborne disease called COVID-19, the fear and hate it provoked, the many thousands of victims it claimed, and the governmental incompetence that failed to save them.
Performance artist Kristina Wong has forgotten none of it.
Her career abruptly cut short by the pandemic, the San Francisco native found herself isolated in LA’s Korea Town, dismayed by the daily news and baffled about what—if anything—she could do to help. The national Centers for Disease Control repeatedly issued edicts that the best way to prevent transmission of COVID was through the simple act of wearing masks, which were in short supply during the first months of the pandemic.
Photo – Kevin Berne/American Conservatory Theater
Wong was stunned by the lack of facemasks, not just for ordinary people but for frontline healthcare workers, many of whom succumbed to the disease as a result of their work. She sprung into action with her trusty sewing machine, making masks from any available fabric and mailing them off in small batches where she thought they might be most needed. She gradually recruited other women sheltering-in-place, most of them Asians, who cranked out homemade masks from anything they could find, including old clothing. Soon she was head of a loosely-organized but very determined network of “Aunties” who busied themselves with the laudable work of saving lives—a group she called “The Auntie Sewing Squad,” or “ASS” for short. Ultimately, ASS made more than 350,000 masks.
… the best solo performance we’ll see this season …
Part standup comedy, part performance art, part concise and incisive recent history, and all heart, Wong’s self-titled Sweatshop Overlord is by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and horrific. She spares no one in her retelling of that hideous year and the months that followed, with special vitriol directed at both the anti-mask/anti-vax/anti-science faction and at the incomprehensible nostalgia for the 45th president—one who was himself infected, got world-class medical treatment at taxpayers’ expense, then refused to endorse mask-wearing while hosting super-spreader events at the White House. And of course, no revisiting of that period would be complete without mention of the Jan. 6 insurrection—another astounding act of idiocy.
Photo – Kevin Berne/American Conservatory Theater
Wong covers all this and more with wry, self-deprecating humor and frenetic energy as she roams the stage at ACT’s Strand Theater, designed by Junghyun Georgia Lee to evoke a sewing room out of “Gulliver’s Travels,” with bolts of fabric the size of rolled carpets, and pincushions large enough to serve as chairs.
Projections by Caite Hevner provide much-needed visual background as Wong relates her tale, never hesitating to lay blame where it most belongs, which is not to imply that her approximately 95-minute nonstop performance is wholly a political rant. Some of her cutaways are drop-dead hilarious, such as an extended bit about a genital cyst she suffered during the shutdown, evoked by an inflated balloon bobbling between her legs. In a throwaway bit about organizing groups of children to stitch masks, she crows about having one-upped Nike and Apple by “getting kids to work for free.” Sweatshop overlord!
Her script is brilliant, and under the direction of Chay Yew, brilliantly delivered—truly standing-ovation stuff.
On the way out, I commented to a speechwriter friend,
“Now that was a speech!”
“No,” he countered, “That was a sermon.”
Indeed it was—a much-needed one. Monday April 8 was total eclipse day, one that followed a rare earthquake in the Northeast USA. Those two events will be followed by the confluent emergence of both 13-year and 17-year cicadas. All of these, for some believers, are proof of God’s wrath against sinful humans.
Ignorance may still abound, but heroic figures like Kristina Wong send it scampering into the darkness. Quite possibly the best solo performance we’ll see this season, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord runs through May 5. Don’t miss it.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord
Written by
Kristina Wong
Directed by
Chay Yew
Producing Company
American Conservatory Theater
Production Dates
Through May 5th
Production Address
ACT’s Strand Theater
1127 Market Street
San Francisco
Can there ever be too much of something wonderful? The Kite Runner might just test those boundaries.
The first novel by Afghan refugee-turned-physician-and-novelist Khaled Hossieni, The Kite Runner, became a runaway success with 101 weeks on the best seller list and 3 weeks at #1. Published in 2003, it was expanded into an acclaimed Academy Award-nominated movie in 2007 and then adapted into a stripped down theater version by Matthew Spangler. Other lives include a graphic novel created in 2021.
Now The Kite Runner, the play, is back to a packed audience at the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose, where it first launched over fifteen years ago in 2009.
… a classic story of sin and redemption …
It’s a story that helped educate the American public on the culture of a distant country with which we happened to be at war for 20 years. It is a classic story of sin and redemption based on the lives of two young men raised in different social classes and physical abodes but within the same household and ultimately by the same father.
The author of ‘The Kite Runner’ says what his characters choose “is not interesting to me, but why they choose it and the consequences are interesting.” Photo EnActe Arts
Amir, the first son and our lead and narrator is passionately and convincingly portrayed by Ramzi Khalaf as a man coping with his own failings to do the right thing by Hassan, the son of a servant. Amir’s father is in the diplomatic corps, houses his immediate family in a privileged Kabul home, and is able to escape Afghanistan with Amir as refugees to California.
Hassan, however, ultimately becomes a victim of terrorists who overrun his home in Kabul. Amir’s sin is to take advantage of the lower-class Hassan, lord his superiority over him and to let jealously of his father’s affection for Hassan infect him. A local crime of shame separates the two young men, who were so close in their early years, and leaves a lasting scar on Amir as he refuses to help Hassan and ultimately rejects him.
Years later, when Amir returns to Kabul he faces the truth of his past, makes the requisite sacrifices for the future and asks for forgiveness and redemption.
The “Tabla” drum instrument in “The Kite Runner”.
Does The Kite Runner work as a play? The adaptation by Spangler is essentially a narrative told to us directly by Amir who remains the center of every scene. It is a compelling story told mostly in first person and staged with minimal sets, lighting and music, very much like Word for Word productions.
What keeps this play from stasis? It’s the multiple levels of time – youth and maturity; country – Afghanistan and the US; culture – Islamic and Democratic; fortune – wealth and poverty; class — multi-ethnic upper and lower classes; and finally family – the father’s and son’s stories. It wasn’t until his second novel that Hosseini writes in depth about women.
Accompanying these various stories, woven together for us by Amir, and semi-staged and acted, is the music of this Afghan culture: the tabla, a set of drums played with the hands that create different rhythms and tonal sounds. The tabla opens and closes this multi-cultural epic, which continues to entertain and move us with its staying power.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
I rocked my way through the 1960s and ‘70s, blithely unaware that the music that made me dance had its roots in ‘50s-era Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. They had a mutual connection in their early discovery by Sam Phillips, a music producer at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
One incredible night in 1956, these four legends showed up at Sun Records. Each had a different agenda. Million Dollar Quartet is the ostensibly true story of what may have happened that unforgettable night.
… Million Dollar Quartet is a freewheeling frenzied ride …
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse presented Million Dollar Quartet in 2019 to great acclaim. Their GK Hardt stage is once again rockin’ the house with this hit Broadway musical.
The cast of “Million Dollar Quartet” at work, 6th Street Theater, Santa Rosa. Pictures courtesy 6th Street.
Director (and music director) Steve Lasiter doubles his formidable talents playing Johnny Cash. Lasiter has channeled “The Man in Black” in national tours. He’s joined onstage by Elvis, a movin’ and shakin’ Nathan Roberts. Roberts gets the audience roaring when he encourages the audience to beg for more.
Nathan Roberts as Elvis in “Million Dollar Quartet” at 6th Street Theater, Santa Rosa. Pictures courtesy 6th Street.
Wyatt Andrew Brownell harnesses the wild energy of Jerry Lee Lewis, complete with his foot bangin’ piano. Jake Turner portrays songwriter/guitarist Carl Perkins as the oft-disregarded rockabilly star chasing his next hit. These actors are musicians who take glee in trying to “one-up” each other when they hog the mike.
The backstory gradually exposes why these four have come to meet up with Phillips, “The Father of Rock and Roll,” a part perfectly cast with veteran Dwayne Stincelli. Phillips is credited with discovering and nurturing many musicians to the top of the charts. When his artists’ agent contracts renew, surprises occur.
Steve Lasiter (right) in “Million Dollar Quartet” at 6th Street Theater. Pictures courtesy 6th Street.
Joining the on-and-off recording session are George Smeltz on drums, with Michael Leal Price on the upright bass. Elvis brings his current girlfriend (sultry Jennifer Barnaba) to the gathering. She lends silky singing and style to soften the macho-but-friendly aggression between the guys.
Million Dollar Quartet is a freewheeling frenzied ride, playing “Can you top this?” to the audience. One drawback is that the comfortable seats at the GK Hardt Theatre leave no room for dancing in the aisles. If you never heard these legends in person—or even if you did—come rock with this show. There’s a whole lot of shaking goin’ on!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Million Dollar Quartet
Written by
Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux
Directed by
Steve Lasiter
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru May 4th, 2024
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Website
http://www.6thstreetplayhouse.com
Telephone
(707) 523-4185
Tickets
$35 to $58
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.5/5
Performance
4.5/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES!
Other Voices: “Million Dollar Quartet”
'Lovers of old school rock ‘n' roll will get a big bang out of 'Million Dollar Quartet,' a mighty slick jukebox musical powered by a dynamite song stack and dynamic portrayals of the four legends singing ‘em..."
New Jersey Newsroom
"What exactly is it that makes the new musical 'Million Dollar Quartet' so damn enjoyable and invigorating? Is it the pure simplicity and rapid-fire energy of four rock 'n' roll legends performing their signature tunes for 100 blissful minutes? Is it the charisma and talent of the actors who portray these legendary figures Whatever the case, it's one hell of a winner..."
On Off Broadway
"The musicianship sells this entertainment. If the rockabilly rhythms of Perkins or the proto-rocker antics of Lewis don't set your heart to palpitating, then 'Million Dollar Quartet' will be lost on you. The calculation is that fans of early rock-and-roll and idolaters of Presley and Cash are of an age and economic level to fill the Nederlander's pews. And for them, the musical will feel at times like a throbbing worship service..."
A pivotal year, 1989 saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, and widespread anti-government protests in China, culminating in the months-long protest occupation of Beijng’s Tiananmen Square, and the ultimate declaration of martial law that resulted in countless deaths and injuries.
It was also the year of an important basketball game between the University of San Francisco and Peking University (as it was known then)—at least, in Lauren Yee’s fictional retelling in The Great Leap, the CenterREP production at the Lesher Center for the Arts through April 7.
… All four performers are wonderful. …
In Yee’s dramatic comedy, the game coincides with the final days of the Tiananmen Square protest—an event that figures prominently as a secondary plot element. (The actual USF vs. PU game took place in 1981, one in which Yee’s father played.)
Taking its title from “The Great Leap Forward” as the Chinese Cultural Revolution was called, the play involves only four actors—Cassidy Brown as a USF coach named Saul, his Peking University counterpart Wen Chang (Edward Chen), a Chinatown high-school basketball prodigy named Manford (James Aaron Oh), and Manford’s “cousin” Connie (Nicole Tung).
Manford (center -James Aaron Oh) makes a shot as Saul (left – Cassidy Brown) and Wen (right – Edward Chen) watch in Center Repertory Company’s “The Great Leap,” presented March 16 – April 7 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
Saul is sweating bullets about the upcoming game, where he will be reunited with his friendly rival Wen, when Manford approaches him about joining the USF team despite being only 17 years old, not having graduated from high school, and not being nearly as tall as other players.
Manford’s ability on the court is well-depicted even if we never see him make a free throw or sink a fadeaway jump shot. He makes much of the importance of basketball in Chinatown—his mother was a star player in her native China—while Saul dismisses him with salty language very much reminiscent of standup comic Rodney Dangerfield.
Saul (Cassidy Brown) coaches Manford (James Aaron Oh) in Center Repertory Company’s “The Great Leap,” thru 4/7/2024. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
Manford’s persistence pays off and he joins the team despite Saul’s misgivings and Wen’s warnings that his presence may not be officially approved. As the play’s anchor character, Nicole Tung gives both Manford and the audience much-needed schooling in practical reality. All four performers are wonderful.
Directed by Nicholas C. Avila, who also directed CenterREP’s tremendous In the Heights, Yee’s tightly-woven script combines issues about international politics, high-level sport, cultural identity, and the nature of parentage, friendship, rivalry, and commitment to a code of personal conduct. All of this is beautifully depicted on the Margaret Lesher stage, doing multiple duties as basketball court, coaches’ offices, hotel rooms, apartments, and more—an elegant bit of set design by Yi-Chien Lee, whose projections add resonance to this emotionally engaging production.
Connie (Nicole Tung) gives her cousin Manford (James Aaron Oh) advice in Center Rep’s “The Great Leap.” Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
As with many current comedies, The Great Leap takes a serious turn toward the closing of the second act. That’s perhaps as it should be—eventually, life has a way of making everyone reconsider the frivolous importance of even our most cherished pursuits.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
**Special thanks to Portland Center Stage for graphics.
Production
The Great Leap
Written by
Lauren Yee
Directed by
Nicholas C. Avila
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru April 7th, 2024
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
Website
centerrep.org
Telephone
(925) 943-7469
Tickets
$42-$70
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4/5
Performance
4/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
YES!
Other Voices on: “The Great Leap”
"...Lauren Yee’s "The Great Leap", ... reconfigure(s) Chinese history into a story between parents and children, mapping painful histories of nations onto the painful histories of family. In this so-called “socio-political fable,” allegory and memory are intertwined to both delightful and calamitous effect."
Theatrely.com
"...Renowned for deftly combining her San Francisco roots, Chinese culture and global politics, (Lauren) Yee puts it all together in this often humorous, yet emotionally stirring piece of theatre..."
Broadwayworld.com
"..."The Great Leap" opens with hearty humor and carries its audience along in an absorbing story until a profound poignancy begins to permeate the senses..."
A simple set-up has profound consequences in Once—a guy from Dublin, Ireland, a busker or street performer, meets a girl from Czechoslovakia. She recognizes his talent and encourages him to go to New York to pursue a musical career. That’s just one of many pieces in this musical at Foster City’s Hillbarn Theater through April 7.
For Once, the Hillbarn stage has a working saloon on one side where theatre patrons can purchase beer at intermission. The floor also revolves, so that during some songs, everyone on stage eventually gets around to the front to sing or play their instruments.
… It’ll keep your toes tapping– for Once! …
Written in 2007 as a film by John Carney, the musical premiered on Broadway in 2012 and won seven Tony Awards that year. Like the Broadway production, Hillbarn’s version has a minimalistic set with chairs on three sides. Cast members, who also serve as the orchestra when sitting in their chairs, simply step forward for their lines and sit down when others are the focus.
Kaylee Miltersen in “Once” at Hillbarn Theater. Photo: Tracy Martin.
What gives this production its authenticity are several fine actors, none better than Kaylee Miltersen playing Girl, a little scrap of a thing with an authentic-sounding Czech accent and a way of whipping out lines that cause the audience to laugh. She’s so delightful! Why wouldn’t the Irish musician Guy (Jake Gale) fall for her?
Gale has a wonderfully lilting voice that brings life to many of his songs, such as “Say It to Me Now,” “Leave,” and even “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy.” They all sound incredibly sincere. Miltersen and Gale team up on piano and guitar, respectively, and sing “Falling Slowly” and “If You Want Me”—simultaneously melting the audience’s hearts.
Musical instruments and connections abound (more on this in a minute), in fact, the accordion player is Girl’s mother, Baruska (a spirited Sarah Jebian, in an indelible performance). Another fine actor, Paul Henry, plays Billy—who owns a music store, is somewhat shy and thinks he’s in love with Girl. He attempts to show he’s a judo expert until his back gives out. Meanwhile, Guy and his father own a vacuum cleaner repair shop where Guy works. It happens, as Girl reminds Guy, that she has a Hoover vacuum that “doesn’t suck” so he needs to take it to his father’s shop for repair.
Cast of “Once” (L-R, Jake Gale, Jesse Cortez, Nicholas Conrad, and Chloe Angst) at work at the Hillbarn Theater. Photo by Mark Kitaoka.
Hillbarn’s artistic director Steve Muterspauch lyrically directs Once, with assistance from choreographer Francesca Cipponeri to include modern dance and ballet moves as the musical progresses. For a few songs, timing must be perfect, and on opening night, it was.
As mentioned, nearly every minute of the two-act, roughly two-hour play is filled with music. There’s a cello playing in one corner (cellist, Kit Robberson), a guitar or two a minute later (Brad Satterwhite, Nicholas Conrad, Jesse Cortez), two violins (Nina Han and Karen Law) or Chloe Angst with their tattoos, attitude and angst (pun intended) up to the end of their spiked red hair. (And don’t forget the accordion!)
Nick Kenbrandt does a fine job as the bank manager who decides to take a chance on Guy when he needs a loan so he can get into a sound studio and make a complete recording of his songs to send to New York.
One small curiosity for this reviewer was why Hillbarn hired Equity actor Colin Thomson in the relatively insignificant role of Da? Thomson is a fine actor but has not much to do here except add his strong voice to group songs and play Girl’s father in one short scene.
“It’ll keep your toes tappin’! “Once” at the Hillbarn Theater. Photo by Mark Kitaoka.
Musical director Amie Jan and vocal director Joseph Murphy did a masterful job of selecting actors who could also play musical instruments and sing, a necessity in this musical.
To set the right tone, costumer Lisa Claybaugh found outfits that nicely complimented each performer’s character. Lighting by Pamila Gray and sound by Jeff Mockus were first-rate. Two young sisters, Stella and Sybil Wyatt, play the small role as Girl’s daughter.
Although Once may not be everyone’s cup of tea, this reviewer believes that it certainly deserves bigger audiences than it had for opening night. Could be because Hillbarn patrons aren’t familiar with it as it hasn’t been performed on the Peninsula in years, if ever.
But seven Tony Awards (including Best Musical) say “Go see it!” It’ll keep your toes tapping– for Once!
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Once
Written by
Enda Walsh
Directed by
Steve Muterspaugh
Producing Company
Hillbarn Theatre
Production Dates
Thru April 7th, 2024
Production Address
1285 E Hillsdale Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404
Website
www.hillbarntheatre.org
Telephone
(659) 349-6411
Tickets
$32-$60
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.75/5
Performance
4.75/5
Script
4.50/5
Stagecraft
4.75/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES!
Other Voices on: “Once”
"...The script is ... steeped in wise and folksy observations about committing to love and taking chances..."
The New York Times
"...captures the loveliness of the music, the likability of the characters, the fluidity of the staging, the sweetness of the ending..."
The Chicago Sun Times
" ...Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! This is one of those shows that remind you: magic is real..."
Xenophobia—the fear of foreigners—has infected human societies since the dawn of time. A particularly American variety gets an insightful treatment in The Far Country at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre through April 14.
In the early-to-mid 19th century, Chinese immigrants were welcomed into the United States as a source of cheap labor. They built the railroads that enabled America’s great industrial expansion, but by the 1880s, that work was mostly completed, and fear of foreigners prompted the Chinese Exclusion Act, intended to keep more of them from entering the country.
… “insightful” (and) “adroitly directed” …
Toward the end of the century, there were reportedly fifty Chinese men in the US for every Chinese female. Most of these men sent a substantial portion of their earnings to their families back in China. That sort of ‘family-support-via-long-distance’ is still common among immigrants to this country.
Tess Lina (Low/Two) in Lloyd Suh’s breathtaking, “The Far Country”, performing at Berkeley Rep through Sunday, April 14, 2024. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Playwright Lloyd Suh’s The Far Country examines the phenomenon from the individual perspectives of two generations of Chinese immigrants. Act One opens with a grueling interrogation of a San Francisco resident named Gee (Feodor Chin), a laundryman claiming that all his identification papers were destroyed in the fire that consumed the city after the 1906 earthquake. Aaron Wilton is effectively annoying as an aggressive, condescending interrogator, assisted by a perfectly bilingual interpreter despite Gee’s apparent ability with English.
Gee seeks permission to travel to China to visit his family and bring back his son, but he lacks proof of legal residency and isn’t sure he’ll be able to return. Repeated questions and more-than-implied doubts about Gee’s honesty intentionally rankle him—and the audience.
(L-R) Tommy Bo (Moon Gyet), Sharon Shao (Yuen/Four), Whit K. Lee (Yip/One), Tess Lina (Low/Two), and Feodor Chin (Gee/Three) at work at Berkeley Rep. Credit: Kevin Berne
The San Francisco Bay’s Angel Island served as a sort of counterpart to New York’s Ellis Island, where for many decades, European immigrants were processed for admission to the US, often without difficulty. Angel Island was different, a sort of choke-point for incoming Asians who could be kept in detention for as long as two years. In keeping with the Chinese Exclusion Act, the government’s work on Angel Island was to reject as many of them as possible.
Much subterfuge was involved in trying to overcome bureaucratic obstacles to admission—the theme of Act Two, where we meet Moon Gyet (Tommy Bo), Gee’s “son” who endures 17 months of detention on Angel Island, where he was allowed only one hour per day outside, and where he was subjected to intense interrogations including nonsense questions about how many steps led to the door of his childhood home.
Tommy Bo (Moon Gyet) and John Keabler (Dean/Inspector), in Lloyd Suh’s “The Far Country” at Berkeley Rep through 4/14/2024. Credit: Kevin Berne
The somewhat intricate story goes back and forth from California to China, where Moon Gyet meets Yuen (Sharon Shao), a bright, sassy prospective wife. There’s also an emotional flashback of Gee reuniting with his mother, Low (Tess Chin), as he hunts for an appropriate son. The whole affair of ‘admission-or-rejection’ is depicted as a complicated, high-stakes game of deception and manipulation, both by immigration authorities and people hoping to become US residents—a situation still playing out every day almost 100 years after the era of The Far Country.
Adroitly directed by Jennifer Chang and dinged only by a couple of overlong bits of dialog, The Far Country is an insightful and effective examination of gut-wrenchingly difficult circumstances. Its abrupt ending on a beautiful, upbeat note gives hope where there might have been only despair. That is the power of great art.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is an American Theatre Critics Association member and SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle president. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
As a child, when I was being overly whiney or dramatic, asking my mom for some permission, she would sometimes ask, “Who are you, Sarah Bernhardt?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I know it had something to do with my pleading going over the top.
Ross Valley Players exalted and explained my mom’s response, going over the top with their new work, The Divine Sarah, directed by award-winning Jay Manley. Prior to the opening, Manley noted, “It’s always a challenge to present a new show.”
… a well-crafted story …
In this reviewer’s eyes, the challenge has been met and exceeded admirably. Manley’s assemblage of talented actors and singers, with an original script and songs by June Richards and Elaine Lang, gave RVP a full house on opening night and a standing ovation.
Merrill Grant as Sarah Bernhardt at RVP. Photos by Robin Jackson
So—who was this Sarah Bernhardt, beautifully channeled by Merrill Grant, and why was she so famous? The house lights dim …
The play begins in 1844 with narration punctuated by musical numbers. A large and well-rehearsed cast clad in fabulous period costumes by Michael A. Berg enters the stage flanked by musicians Jon Gallo on keyboards and Diana Lee on cello.
Sarah’s life as an unwanted child is delightfully sung by Alexandra Fry. Fry’s doppelgänger has to be Amanda Seyfried, that charmingly lovely songbird. RVP is fortunate to have such talent to cast in these local productions. Sarah pleads for love and acceptance from her dismissive mother, imperiously played by Anna L. Joham. No luck there, so Sarah is sent to a convent.
(L-R) The cast at work, including Julia Ludwig, Merrill Grant, Brad Parks, & Keith Jefferds. Photos by Robin Jackson
The balance of Act I recounts Sarah’s early washout as a dancer, actor, and singer. Rejected as talentless by school and theatre company alike, Sarah is kept moving on only by her mother’s wealthy and influential lover, a relative of the French Emperor, perfectly portrayed by RVP favorite Keith Jefferds.
By intermission at the end of Act I, one wonders when the star of the show will actually become a star.
Act II details Sarah’s path of flamboyance as she beings to conquer a war-weary Paris. She’s a notorious rebel, a single unmarried mother, a femme fatale with multiple lovers. She’s exotic, and hailed as the “Goddess of the Left Bank.” Beautiful Sarah flaunts convention and is expert at self-promotion.
She acts with overt drama onstage, dismisses lovers when it suits her career path, writes and publishes a book with her own illustrations, and styles herself as the high fashion influencer of her time. She spends more than she makes, tempting seizure of her assets. Sarah is a diva, a celebrity famous for being famous. All this without social media of the sort we have today!
(L-R) The cast of “The Divine Sarah” at work at The Barn. Photos by Robin Jackson
Throughout The Divine Sarah the cast stays impressively true to their characters. Kudos to Director Manley for drawing out gestures and facial expressions to pull in the audience. The plot at times reads like a soap opera, and one wonders if perhaps it might benefit from a bit of trimming, but the actors are all a pleasure to watch.
Love or dismiss the woman at the center of the story, but you’ll remember RVP’s The Divine Sarah as a well-crafted story of a woman who shattered conventions — and raised a glass of champagne while doing it. Go see it!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
The Divine Sarah
Written by
June Richards and Elaine Lang
Directed by
Jay Manley
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru April 7th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Even before the story from the famous film begins, missteps, gags, mockery, parody, double-takes, and more abound in The 39 Steps at San Francisco Playhouse.
Our leading man appears, apparently ready to begin the show, then is blacked out by the lighting, comes back into view, then falls asleep in a chair while SFP Artistic Director Bill English gives the welcoming speech. What’s happening? Are they confused? Are they ready for opening night?
You bet!
It’s the audience that should be ready to exhilarate in two hours plus of clowning and buffoonery animating Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of a Hitchcock classic.
… Highly recommended to recharge your funny bone…
The 39 Steps is a classic noir narrative which started with a 1915 novel, was adapted in 1935 by Alfred Hitchcock, and from there morphed into new films, TV series, a radio play, and a stage comedy. It’s a popular and easily adapted story that has proven its popularity time after time. Its secret is a mystery thriller base that has been freely adapted with new or excised material in subsequent renditions.
Richard Hannay (Phil Wong) is captivated by the mysterious Anabella (Maggie Mason) in “The 39 Steps,” presented by San Francisco Playhouse March 7 – April 20. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The story revolves around the stylish character Richard Hannay, marvelously played by Phil Wong, as he falls into one unlikely scenario after another. The action follows his path from falsely accused murderer to international spy-ring exposer and hero. It snakes from London to Scotland and back again with a cast of 150 characters, according to SF Playhouse. (I confess I lost count.)These roles are hilariously and frantically embodied by three superb actors.
Lithe and intense Maggie Mason shows us the women in Hannay’s life: Annabella, the spy whom Hannay is accused of murdering; Pamela, the girl on the train whom he first meets by attacking her with kisses; and Margaret, the collier’s wife who helps him escape from murderous thugs. Greg Ayers showcases a multitude of male and female roles with comic physical and facial wit that continually inspires laughter, as do his double takes for additional laughs. He both opens and closes the show with an important character, Mister Memory, and his shenanigans expand this role with his stage antics.
Richard Hannay (center – Phil Wong) is apprehended by two policemen (l to r: Renee Rogoff and Greg Ayers) as Pamela (Maggie Mason) denies association in “The 39 Steps,” presented by SF Playhouse. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Covering another bevy of parts, including a squadron of police and thugs, a ruthless power-hungry professor, and a dour innkeeper, Renee Rogoff seems to appear in every other scene in new costume or aspect. One of the funniest moments occurs when Mason, Ayers and Rogoff miraculously turn into six marching bagpipers immersing Wong in one of his many escape moves – a showcase for the inspired direction by Susi Damilano.
Like icing on a delicious cake, the lighting design, sound effects, costumes, projections and puppetry mesh together with the clowning to create a play that is a many-layered spoof. The 39 Steps is a farce that skims ever so lightly over themes of fate, chance, romance and ultimately human empathy. This production is a delight for all the senses. Highly recommended to recharge your funny bone.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
San Jose-based playwright/filmmaker Madhuri Shekar tackles the real-life dilemma of saving bees in Queen, running through March 31 at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. The “queen” here is the queen bee in a bee colony, voraciously devoured by worker bees.
Is this enough to absorb an audience for 90+ minutes? In this reviewer’s opinion: yes and no.
That said, four fine actors are nearly first-rate; Shekar incorporates a lot of humor into her dialogue to counter the heaviness of scientific research and supposition. Just when it gets a bit too much on the statistics side, Shekar slips in a joke about bees or science to loosen things up.
… Her grandfather keeps setting up blind dates for her, most of whom she finds loathsome…
Queen’s premise is unquestionably true: There’s been a disheartening drop in the number of bees over the past decade. As research assistant Sanam Srinivasan (Uma Paranjpe) points out, “The human race depends on bees.”
L-R, Kjerstine Anderson, Mike Ryan and Uma Paranjpe play researchers in “Queen,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. (Courtesy Kevin Berne)
That’s why she and her Ph.D. research partner, Ariel Spiegel (Kjerstine Rose Anderson), have been doggedly trying for years to figure out how to address the issue. They’ve concluded that a pesticide used by Monsanto has killed more than one billion bees. (That’s billion–with a “B.”)
They’ve meticulously done their research and, after eight years, are about to present their case at a conference scheduled a few days hence, then publish their research results in the prestigious scientific journal “Nature.” But the night before the conference they meet with their mentor and supervising professor, Dr. Philip Hayes (Mike Ryan). Sanam says she has discovered an error in coding which is causing the results to be off by a few percentage points.
That’s when a riff appears between Dr. Hayes and Sanam, with the professor telling her that the error is small and can be adjusted later, while Sanam emphatically declaring that she can’t present inaccurate data.
(L-R) Uma Paranjpe, left, and Kjerstine Anderson star as researchers exploring declining bee populations in “Queen” for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Photo: Kevin Berne
There are also a couple of side stories: One involves Ariel’s decision to take six months off from her research to have a child (a daughter often heard crying but never seen). Another involves Sanam whose Indian parents are concerned that she may not marry and give them grandchildren. Her grandfather keeps setting up blind dates for her, most of whom she finds loathsome until she meets Arvind, an Indian American financier who thinks her devotion to her bee research is charming and admirable.
Deven Kolluri plays Arvind as a confident, handsome rogue who eventually wins over Sanam for a romantic night – but she has no intention of following him to New York where he lives.
Playwright Shekar has set her play in a nearby location (UC Santa Cruz), which helps theatregoers relate to the story. But it might not be a winner for everyone–because while it has humor, this reviewer found it a tad heavy on the scientific side. Director Miriam A. Laube ensures that the play moves along quickly, especially when the methodical discourse gets a bit… murky.
All four actors bring unique personalities to their roles– with a couple personal asides: IMHO, Paranjpe speaks a shade too fast and not quite loud enough. Also, Ryan tends to become a bit too…well, bombastic when he’s telling his research assistants to present their data –-inconsistent or not.
Among the clever subtleties of Queen is scenic designer Nina Ball’s proscenium and panels, pockmarked with cut-out circles that give the appearance of a beehive. The panels are quickly moved in and out as lead deck crew Megan Hall and her team soundlessly move set pieces for different scenes. Kent Dorsey’s lighting design is excellent, as is James Ard’s sound.
As with the flawed data, this reviewer is of the mind that this play needs a bit of work to make it as good as it could be. That said, for those more scientifically inclined, the play will give them food for thought.
A joint collaboration between TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and EnActe, located in Sunnyvale and Texas. the entire production runs a scant 100 minutes without intermission.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Heading to a show titled Cost of Living, I anticipated an evening of economists discussing the GNP. Given our current rampant politics, that would have seemed a fit.
Mercifully, Martyna Majok’s play is a more personal view of costs—economic, physical, and emotional. Four characters—two disabled and two caregivers—play out the feelings and the passions of their respective situations, juxtaposed against their class and educational backgrounds.
… Cost of Living is a “must see”…
In the opening scene, a feisty, loquacious Eddie (masterfully played all over the stage by high-energy Daniel Duque-Estrada), regales us from his bar stool about how the “shit in life is not to be understood.” We learn he’s lost his truck-driver’s license due to a DUI. Moreover, his estranged wife and texting mate has died, and in his loneliness and desperation, he continues to send text messages to her cell phone to comfort himself. When he gets text replies, he is confounded but also mysteriously buoyed.
The play is framed by two capable and well-cast disabled actors: Matty Placencia, who has met the emotional and physical challenges of cerebral palsy all his life, and Christine Bruno, whose accomplished acting resume has focused on a range of acting roles and disability-inclusion consulting.
In Majok’s play, Placencia embodies John, a young upper-class professor at Princeton, who partially manages with one functioning hand, a wheelchair, and a wealthy family, but requires a part-time caregiver for his daily personal hygiene. He is supercilious, defensive, and insensitive to needs other than his own. Christine Bruno plays Eddie’s paraplegic wife Ani, crippled by a traffic accident following her estrangement. Eddie has come back to care for her, hoping to share in her insurance proceeds. Bruno’s wide range of facial expressions and sharp and ironic tongue reveal her frustrations with her ex-husband. But she warms up to Eddie as her caregiver over time.
Finally, there is Carla Gallardo’s Jess, a 20-year-old Latina struggling to sustain herself with bar jobs and living in her car. In desperation she applies to be John’s caregiver, attracted by his higher-class aura and his financial means. Gallardo gains our sympathy through her wide range of expressivity while meeting the physical challenge of showering, shaving, and dressing John on stage before us. Prompted by John, her own challenged history ekes out as they get used to his routine.
The cast at work. Photos by Ben Kranz Studio
Cost of Living is two plays with one set representing two apartments that occupy their own respective mini-set areas and finally merge together in the final scene. The mini-sets create difficulty for the arena staging, but are mostly well-handled by set designer Emilie Whelan. Blocking for disabled actors is also tricky, but necessary to play well to the three audience sections. Some scenes were partly obstructed by the five or more floating mini-sets.
For this reviewer, occasionally, actors’ words were lost when delivering lines away from parts of the audience, but in general the utilization of space clarifies the action and imaginatively creates an atmosphere with a single rear window. Projections keep us emotionally in the right plane with grey weather, rain or pelting snow.
With a complex story and characters that ring true as individuals in straits that could be our fate as well if we were not so fortunate, Cost of Living is a “must see.” The authenticity of the actors in this play demands kudos to the production.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Cost of Living
Written by
Martyna Majok
Directed by
Emilie Whelan
Producing Company
Oakland Theater Project
Production Dates
Thru Mar 24th, 2024
Production Address
Flax Art and Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94612
Over-the-top enthusiasm of the sisters of Delta Nu sorority, coupled with terrific musical numbers. keep Foothill Music Theatre’s production of Legally Blonde zooming along at Lohman Theatre in Los Altos Hills. Although some of the college sorority sisters seem past their college years, Blonde is nevertheless a pleasant way to spend 2 ½ hours.
Directed by Milissa Carey, Legally Blonde is filled with Stacy Reed’s enthusiastic choreography, Y. Sharon Peng’s pinkalicious costumes, and a lively score played backstage by music director Michael Horsley and his pocket orchestra of six musicians.
… it’s a good idea to get tickets now for this (fun) production…
Most attendees likely remember the 2001 movie with Reese Witherspoon as the lead character, Elle Woods. Later, it was turned into a stage musical that opened on Broadway in 2007.
Carey, whose style of directing might be described as “exuberant,” found some young actors who were able to bring some nuance and likeability to characters that might otherwise present as one-dimensional. And then there were the two sweet dogs who, unfortunately, didn’t spend very much time on stage but always invoked a chorus of “Ahhhhhs….” from the audience.
Selfie! (L-2-R) – Pilar, Elle, Margot & Serena. Photo credit David Allen
Act 1 begins with the UCLA sorority sisters of Delta Nu jumping up and down with excitement as they gather to celebrate the expected engagement of their president, Elle (sweet, sincere Rachelle Schaum) to her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (good-looking Jason Mooney).
But apparently Warner believes Elle doesn’t have enough smarts, nor does she come from the “right” background, so he dumps her. What’s a perky cheerleader to do??
That’s when she decides to get serious about her life and, like Warner, she applies to Harvard Law School to become a lawyer. Obviously, that’s a bit more difficult than just applying, but one of her Delta Nu sisters, Kate (versatile Lauren Berling), helps her study for her LSATS.
In its light-and-frothy-musical way, Elle goes to the Harvard Admissions office, backed by her cheerleading squad, does a cheerleading routine and then sings a song that gets her in because she’s “motivated by love.”
She also decides that because she’s a blonde, she isn’t taken seriously. That’s when she meets a woman who becomes a good friend: Paulette (an excellent Sarah Bylsma), who owns the local hair salon and who convinces her that changing her hair color won’t change her life. Bylsma has arguably the best voice in the cast, which she demonstrates with the song “Ireland.” She also shows her comedic side in the song “Bend and Snap.”
The Girls at work, in “Legally Blonde” at Foothill. Photo credit David Allen
All this happens in Act 1 . And there are more unexpected twists in Act 2.
After intermission, likely the best choreographed musical number, “Whipped into Shape” starts the continuation of our story with a bang. It features fitness instructor Brooke (Melissa Momboisse) and her fitness students doing a sensational number with jump ropes.
Almost overnight Elle becomes a crackerjack lawyer… saves a young woman wrongly sentenced to death for murder… and ends up with the “her” guy (Andrew Cope as Emmett) who has been right there all along.
Rachelle Schaum as Elle & Andrew Cope as Emmett. Photo by by David Allen.
Foothill’s Lohman Theatre is relatively small, so even though an additional performance has just been added on Wed., March 13 at 7:30 p.m., it’s a good idea to get tickets now for this frothy-but-fun production.
If you don’t, it’s likely you’ll be singing what the Delta Nu sorority sisters enthusiastically sing in Act 1: “Omigod You Guys!”—because you’ll be out of luck.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
In 1832, Victor Hugo had a play produced in Paris about a serial rapist and murderer, a brother-sister pair of cutthroats, a gang of kidnappers, and a hunchbacked provocateur who berates everyone and imprisons his daughter. All of these characters escape the law. Is this politically correct? It wasn’t in 1832 when it was banned in France as an insult to the monarchy, nor was it in 1851 when Verdi and his librettist Piave retold the same story.
Hugo’s rapist was the King of France, who hung the Mona Lisa in his bathroom, and the play was called The King Has Fun. Verdi and Piave squeaked by Austrian censors in Venice by making all the characters Mantuan instead of French, and naming their opera Rigoletto. Far from being banned, the opera has spread throughout the world like Covid, its many jaunty tunes inoculating audiences into enjoying themselves while at the same time being reminded of how abuse of power is the chief ill of civilization.
… Conductor Jorge Parodi did a fine job of pacing the proceedings …
Among the range of interpretations for this constantly reproduced staple of the repertoire, San Jose Opera’s take is somberly traditional. Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s dark and musty costumes evoke the 16th century. Steven C. Kemp’s sets are nondescript black and dingy, except Rigoletto’s brilliant white-and-red home or, instead, keep, that is supposed to protect his innocent daughter from the Duke of Mantua and his court. Director Dan Wallace Miller adds two gruesome deviations from the norm: Rigoletto’s congenital hunchback is instead a hideous red scar branding his bald pate, and the Duke has syphilis.
Count Ceprano (Glenn Healy, back center) and courtiers have no pity for the jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, front center) in Opera San José’s production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto”. Photo credit: David Allen
Performances fit well into Wallace’s gloomy vision. Eugene Brancoveanu’s obnoxious grizzly bear of a Rigoletto makes the courtiers and the audience wince, but his notes are spot on. At the conclusion, his grief is a Niagran force of nature. Edward Graves, a newcomer to the role of the Duke, also fits the director’s tone with his accurate voice, despondent more than joyfully playing the field. Melissa Sondhi, as Gilda, conveys innocence as puzzlement while negotiating her complex music.
The Duke of Mantua (Edward Graves, left) and his jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, right) at work. Photo credit: David Allen
Standout performances were contributed by Philip Skinner as the wronged Count Monterone and Ashraf Sewailam as the principled murderer-for-hire Sparafucile. Melisa Bonetti Luna’s expressive acting was a great plus, though, in this reviewer’s opinion, her voice was occasionally overshadowed by others. Conductor Jorge Parodi did a fine job of pacing the proceedings. Most impressive was the Opera Chorus of courtiers and kidnappers, meticulously prepared by Johannes Löhner.
The jester Rigoletto (Eugene Brancoveanu, center) entertains the Duke of Mantua’s courtiers in Opera San José’s production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” playing thru March 3, 2024 at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose. Photo credit: David Allen
While Miller’s approach is undoubtedly defensible, I wonder if Verdi’s message would be better conveyed by even greater present-day incorrectness. If a director pretended to endorse the duke’s and courtier’s predations with cheery carryings-on and bright colors, if women happily allowed men to have their way, that murder was a trip to the nearest 7-11 in a Death of Stalin milieu, maybe some in the audience might question power structures more strongly.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor, Jeff Dunn, is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle member and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won photography prizes and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Rigoletto
Based on a play by
Victor Hugo
Libretto by
Francesco Maria Piave
Stage Direction
Dan Wallace Miller
Producing Company
San Jose Opera
Production Dates
Thru Mar 3rd
Production Address
California Theater -
345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
American Conservatory Theater had the prescience to open Big Data the same week that chipmaker Nvidia’s stock rose by a factor of seven, prompting a market-wide surge. Nvidia makes microprocessors essential to artificial intelligence (AI), the subject of daily news and consternation for at least the past two years.
A world premiere, Big Data launches with an old-fashioned console TV with a big “play” button onscreen, beckoning someone—anyone—to come up from the audience and press it. A long wait ensues until someone can’t stand it any longer and climbs onstage to start the show.
… Big Data launches with an old-fashioned console TV …
We are then treated to a grainy 1950s-style black-and-white film clip about trained pigeons that peck at various levers, piano keys, and other devices to get rewards of food pellets—and an overlong diatribe by a character named “M” (B.D. Wong), a very self-amused expert who equates humans to trained birds. (In the playbill is a “conversation” between playwright Kate Attwell and ChatGPT on this very subject. Somewhat disturbingly, the AI program mentions psychologist B.F. Skinner and his concept of “operant conditioning” but ignores Pavlov and his proverbial dog.)
The cast of ACT’s “Big Data” at work. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
We get the message within the first thirty seconds. Perhaps to test our patience, this introduction runs for what seems like 15 or 20 minutes, then fades as M visits a depressed writer named Max (Jomar Tagatac). M arrives unbidden at Max’s sparsely furnished apartment. “How did you get in?” Max asks. “You invited me,” M replies.
The meaning of this mysterious statement is elucidated a bit later when M visits quarrelling but very-much-in-love couple Sam and Timmy (Gabriel Brown and Michael Phillis, respectively). During an interminable exchange, one of the pair says, “How do you know my name?” “You told me,” comes the reply.
On a stage whose backdrop is a giant computer screen, with empty living quarters depicted in the stark-white Apple Computer aesthetic, M obviously represents intrusive technology—not merely computers, but all the interactive spinoffs that now seem essential to contemporary life: mobile phones, “smart” TVs, bio-feedback wristwatches that monitor bodily functions and daily caloric expenditures, and presumably even our emotional states. All this is conveyed with aggressive humor and plenty of gratuitous sexual teasing—symbolizing, of course, the seductive lure of life online.
The first act is loud, long, and obnoxious, a sort of survivalist boot camp to see if the audience is willing to hang in there for the second act. We didn’t notice defectors leaving at intermission, but if there were some, their dismay would be somewhat understandable to this reviewer.
The first act of Big Data may be an egregious act of beating the audience over the head, but it’s redeemed by the gorgeously performed second act, which opens on a warm, richly furnished traditional home—all natural wood, with lots of books and art objects (scenic design by Tanya Orellana). This home is inhabited by a very likeable and very comfortable couple in late middle age, Joe and Didi (Harold Surratt and Julia McNeal, respectively) who’ve been puttering in the garden and kitchen in anticipation of hosting a Sunday brunch for their children Sam and Lucy (Rosie Hallett), Max’s wife, and their partners.
(L – R) Gabriel Brown, Rosie Hallett, and Michael Phillis. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
The visitors arrive, and the disconnect between the younger generation and their predecessors begins in earnest—first, with Sam asking what happened to the Nest-style thermostat he had given them. Joe responds with self-deprecating humor “I buried it. Under concrete.”—also the fate of their Wi-Fi router, a situation that throws Max into a frenzy. Having abandoned his journalistic career, he’s now engaged in public relations for some high-pressure enterprise, and comes to brunch fretting about being past deadline. He absolutely flips out when he realizes he’s in the countryside with no internet connection. Whatever project of world-shaking importance that he’s working on simply has to wait.
Then Joe and Didi drop the bomb, telling their visitors that they’re withdrawing in protest from the world of interactive technology. Like 19th-century Amish, they’ve decided that further advancement is not for them. This second act unfolds beautifully. Surratt and McNeal are supremely confident and relaxed actors. Their characters’ message—reached after prolonged private discussion—is delivered appallingly to their offspring but convincingly to ACT’s audience.
The second act is almost a one-act play in itself, and well worth sitting through the first. Its impact is weakened by a silly coda in which M reappears and walks among the other six characters frozen in place, making snarky comments as if the preceding drama were of no consequence, as if Joe and Didi’s decisions were pointlessly frivolous. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jomar Tagatac and BD Wong at work. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
To its detriment, Big Data hedges its bets. In her playbill notes, director Pam MacKinnon mentions “surveillance capitalism,” a wonderfully apt description of contemporary life. The show’s closing scene would leave viewers with much more to ponder if Joe and Didi were to simply slump to the floor. Fade to black—no cutesy commentary needed.
The audience departing the Toni Rembe Theater perhaps didn’t grasp the enormity of what they had just seen. Many had their phones out before the applause died, and were seen walking up the aisles with faces illuminated. Clearly, the word “irony” is not in fashion.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Obsessive sexual attraction proves inadequate to sustain a marriage in Guadalis Del Carmen’s Bees & Honey, at Marin Theatre Company through March 10.
Strongly directed by Karina Gutierrez, Del Carmen’s two-actor, no-intermission script covers a wide territory: mating behaviors, racial and cultural identities, class distinctions, family and professional obligations, the nature and seriousness of commitments, and many other issues.
… It’s laudable that any playwright would attempt all of this in a single play …
Del Carmen does so adroitly and mostly succeeds, provoking questions without providing answers. Her somewhat disjointed story involves two ethnic Dominicans from the Washington Heights district in Manhattan: Manuel (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), owner of an auto repair shop, and Johaira (Katherine George), a recent Columbia law school graduate on track to become an assistant district attorney.
Katherine George as Johaira and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. in “Bees & Honey” at Marin Theatre Company now through March 10, 2024. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
The two meet in a neighborhood bar and are immediately drawn to each other, propelled partly by their shared love of Caribbean and Latin American music (Michael Kelly, sound designer). They flirt, dance, and make love to exhaustion and soon are co-habiting in a nice apartment (Carlos Antonio Aceves, set designer), but trouble looms as their differences emerge. Johaira is college-educated and worldly, while Manuel is working class and suffering from a bit of arrested development, as many men do—his favorite hobby is playing video games, which he tackles with the enthusiasm and demeanor of an adolescent boy.
But Manuel’s no mere immature wrench jockey—he’s planning to expand his business by opening a new location, and ultimately hopes to have one in each of New York City’s five boroughs. Johaira admires his ambition and offers encouragement while pursuing her legal career, including a gut-wrenching case that consumes her. She admonishes Manuel about his misogynistic tendencies, giving him feminist books to read, which he dutifully does and learns from—a palpable character arc. Johaira’s arc is less pronounced until she suffers a miscarriage and concludes that she needs far more from life than she will ever find with Manuel.
There are also secondary plots about how to care for Manuel’s mother, suffering the early stages of dementia, hopeful plans about caring for a baby that never arrives, and issues about personal identity. In one assertive outburst, Manuel shouts “I’m not black! I’m not white! I’m Dominican!” to which Johaira responds that maybe he should dial back his indiscriminate use of the “N” word.
Katherine George and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. at work on the MTC stage. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Lendeborg and George are both passionate and convincing in this demanding performance. Their characters’ irresistible attraction and ultimately dividing differences are all made abundantly clear. While the time-line isn’t as obvious, we guess that it covers probably two intense years in the lives of a vibrant couple—wisely or not, Del Carmen deletes all time-wasting connective tissue from the script. The two get married, but we never know about it until the end, when Johaira says “I’ll draw up the papers.”
Repeated distractions about Manuel’s mother and his brother Mario never reach resolution the way Johaira’s failed court case does. Not that we care. Both celebration and tragedy, Bees & Honey is a beautifully flawed long-exposure portrait of the intersecting lives of two very likeable young lovers.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Bees & Honey
Written By
Guadalis Del Carmen
Directed by
Karina Gutierrez
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Thru Mar 10th, 2024
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
As you enter the capacious Hoffman Theatre in Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, a rock band is already in position in a large alcove at the back of the stage, gorgeously arranged to look like the inside of a Mystic, Connecticut pizza shop. The B-52s’ enduring hit “Love Shack” blares from the house PA.
Then the fun begins—all of it performed to upbeat pop tunes from the 1980s, all of it instantly recognizable to anyone who lived through that decade, by superstars such as The Go-Go’s, Cyndi Lauper, Rick Astley, The Bangles, Huey Lewis & the News, and many others. The six-piece band absolutely roars as each song propels the story, an amusing and ultimately heart-warming one about three waitresses recently graduated from high school and making plans for what comes next, while their employer Leona (Rayanne Gonzalez) worries about her failing business.
The cast of the new musical “Mystic Pizza,” presented by Center Repertory Company February 15-25 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo credit: Jason Niedle.
Based on the 1988 film of the same name, CenterREP’s Mystic Pizza is a big exuberant musical of Broadway proportions and aspirations. It leverages a huge dollop of nostalgia and mines the sweet innocence of the period while ignoring all that was malevolent and unpleasant. Why remind audiences about the threat of nuclear annihilation when you can get them to sing along with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun?”
It opens with a comical production number of a reluctant bride falling flat on her face and calling off the wedding. The bride Jojo (Gianna Yanelli) clearly loves her would-be heavy-metal guitarist and fisherman fiancé Bill (Jordan Friend) but simply isn’t ready to tie the knot, a running theme throughout the show. Her coworkers Daisy (Krystina Alabado) and Kat (Kyra Kennedy) are sisters with ambitions—Daisy hopes to go to law school, while Kat wants to major in astronomy and eventually become a NASA engineer. All three are simply tremendous—individually and as a high-energy song-and-dance trio.
The cast of the new musical “Mystic Pizza,” presented by Center Repertory Company February 15-25 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo credit: Jason Niedle
All three have romantic interests, of course—a musical rom-com wouldn’t be possible without them. Michael Thomas Grant is wonderful as wealthy slacker Charles Windsor, Jr., Daisy’s catch of the day. Grant’s loose, lanky physique, mannerisms, and voice are remarkably similar to the Steve Buscemi character from the film The Wedding Singer, also set in the ‘80s, with some similar themes. Kat’s object of affection is a young architect named Tim (Chris Cardoza) who’s overseeing the renovation of a classic home. Cardoza is a powerful actor and singer. Jeff Skowron is a scream in multiple roles, as rich dad Chuck Windsor, as the presiding priest at Jojo’s botched wedding, and especially as food critic the “Fireside Gourmet.”
The Hoffman’s large stage is ideal for this production. Nate Bertone’s imaginative set pieces glide on and offstage almost unnoticed, the set changes carefully choreographed by Conor Gallagher and effortlessly performed by the large cast during song breaks. Gallagher’s dance moves are all lifted from the era, as are costumer Jen Caprio’s authentic period apparel. Ryan J. O’Gara’s lighting and Josh Bessom’s sound design make enormous contributions. Top-to-bottom, side-to-side, and front-to-back, Mystic Pizza is a fantastically professional production.
The cast (Krystina Alabado, Michael Thomas Grant, Jordan Friend, Gianna Yanelli, Chris Cardozo and Kyra Kennedy) prepares for date night in the new musical “Mystic Pizza,” presented by Center Repertory Company February 15-25 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo credit: Jason Niedle.
Which leads to this question: Why does a show this big, this good, and clearly very expensive to produce, run only ten days? Such a short run is inexplicable, because CenterREP could easily give it six weeks of full houses.
But scheduling decisions aren’t up to critics. This gorgeous show runs only through February 25, with not a bad seat in the house. While only two of the three girls ultimately land the men of their dreams, Mystic Pizza is as happy and upbeat an experience as you’re likely to have in a theater this year. Don’t miss it!
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Mystic Pizza
Written by
Book by Sandy Rustin
Story and characters by Amy Holden Jones
(Based on the MGM motion picture)
Musical arrangements by Carmel Dean
Directed by
Casey Hushion
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru Feb 25th
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
One-time events can be difficult for reviewers because repeat performances may or may not come again. That’s the case with 1970s pop star Freda Payne and her February 16 A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald at the Marin Showcase Theatre.
Famed primarily for her hit song “Band of Gold,” one that seemed to be in continuous play throughout the years leading up to the disco era, Payne is still youthful and beautiful, with a shimmering alto voice and confident stage presence. Her approximately two-hour performance in the nearly-sold-out Showcase was delightful.
Freda Payne. Photos supplied by Jon Finck
Backed by a superb three-piece band (Larry Dunlap, piano; Leon Joyce, Jr., drums; and Gary Brown, bass), Payne recited Fitzgerald’s history as between-songs patter while plowing through her many iconic recordings, such as “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” “How High the Moon,” and the crowd-pleasing “Mack the Knife.” The American Songbook figured prominently during the evening, with compositions by Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Hoagy Carmichael, and many others.
Fitzgerald’s oeuvre included jazz standards covered by many other artists, not merely during her decades as a musical force, but right up to the present day. Payne’s showbiz history includes working with such legends as Duke Ellington, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones, Omar Sharif, Liza Minelli, Pearl Bailey, Johnny Mathis, Leslie Uggams, the Four Tops, Gregory and Maurice Hines, Della Reese, and actor/pianist Jeff Goldblum.
… Payne is still youthful and beautiful, with a shimmering alto voice and confident stage presence …
While Payne’s timbre doesn’t match Fitzgerald’s seductive contralto, she gets the phrasing and tempo just right, especially while riffing a la Ella. During the first set she shared the stage with New Orleans native and Oakland-based jazz singer Kenny Washington, called by the SF Chronicle “the superman of the Bay Area jazz scene.”
Kenny Washington. Photos supplied by Jon Finck.
Washington is a tremendous performer with gifts for both music and comedic self-deprecation. He appears nationally and internationally with The Joe Locke Group, while pursuing a busy solo schedule. Pairing him with Payne was a special treat for the very enthusiastic audience, who enjoyed a post-show meet-and-greet with the headliner and an opportunity to get signed copies of Payne’s autobiography.
With decades of Broadway performances, TV shows, and a collection of 21 albums to her credit, Payne portrayed Ella Fitzgerald in Ella: The First Lady of Song, written by Lee Summers and conceived/directed by Maurice Hines, Jr. in acclaimed performances nationwide. She will reprise that role this summer at Michigan’s Meadow Brook Theatre. Payne’s new single, “Just to Be with You” is scheduled for release this year.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
American playwright Sarah Ruhl’s plays are frequently fascinating and often almost psychological studies of families. Many of her plays have appeared on Broadway, and two were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. She received a Tony Award for Best Play for In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play). She’s also an acclaimed professor, poet, and essayist.
In other words, she’s the real deal.
Yet the Ruhl play now running at The Pear Theatre in Mountain View, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, has not reached those levels of acclaim. (Well, to be fair — a person has a shot at the MLB Hall of Fame by only hitting the ball four times in ten!) Anyway, the play is partially autobiographical, having molded the main character, Peter Pan, after her mother, who once played Peter Pan when she was a young girl.
… (the play) has its own charm and offers…a ..reminder … growing old doesn’t necessarily mean growing up …
Moving on. In this reviewer’s opinion, director Austin Edginton made an … interesting … choice in casting Monica Cappuccini as Ann, who is turning 70 but is spending that day with her siblings in a hospital room where her father lies dying. Make no mistake: Cappuccini is a fine actress, and she’s got just the right combination of spunk, caring, and droll humor to carry off wearing a Peter Pan costume and giving a charming speech directly to the audience before the curtain opens.
But — Ms. Cappuccini is British, and her accent is unmistakably British. So how does she manage to have four siblings, none of whom are or speak the Queen’s language? Non-traditional casting, perhaps?
L-R: John Mannion (Jim), Tannis Hanson (Wendy), Bill Davidovich (John), Ronald Feichtmeir (Michael), and Monica Cappuccini (Ann). Photo credit: Sinjin Jones.
There’s also a bit of exciting casting in this situation as well: white-haired Ray Renati plays the father of Ann as well as of her sister Wendy (a credible Tannis Hanson) and three sons: Jim (John Mannion), John (Bill Davidovich) and Michael (Ronald Feichtmeir). Yet Mannion and Davidovich look about the same age as Renati – who’s supposed to be their father! Mannion even mentions being the third child, which seems odd. Que sera sera!
Casting aside, Pear’s production is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. The sword-fighting scenes are fun to watch (thanks to fight choreographer Dexter Fidler), and Greet Jaspaert’s Peter Pan costume for Cappuccini is charming, as is the Captain Hook costume worn by Mannion late in the play.
Once the large green curtain opens, the setting is a hospital room where Renati (as the father) lies hooked up to tubes and machines, apparently ready to take his last breath at any moment.
All five “children” are at his bedside, torn between hoping he will improve and wondering which breath will be his last. There’s talk about sending someone out to pick up Chinese food to bring back to Dad’s hospital room because they have been there for many hours. But then Dad finally kicks the bucket, and the action moves to a dining room where the siblings talk about politics and reminisce about their childhood. But good old dad is wandering around the room, although they can’t see him!
One child mentions the hereafter and wonders whether Dad is there now. Then Davidovich says, “Dad if you’re here with us, give us a sign.” With a twinkle in his eye, Dad decides to drop a plate of nibbles he’s eating. That generates the biggest laugh in the play.
Then, one of the other kids drags out an old trunk where Ann finds — her long-ago Peter Pan costume.
All the grown-up children put on costumes from the play and begin jumping around saying “I’m flying” and “Cock-a-doodle-doo…” There are even a couple of brief appearances by Tinkerbell! After that bit of fantasy, they all leave the family home and return to their spouses and children.
L-R: Tannis Hanson (Wendy), John Mannion (Captain Hook/Jim), Bill Davidovich (John), Ronald Feichtmeir (Michael), and Monica Cappuccini (Ann). Photo credit: Sinjin Jones.
Although your experience might vary, this reporter did not find For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday as focused as other Ruhl plays. Yet — it has its own charm and offers audience members a soothing reminder: growing old doesn’t necessarily mean growing up.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
For a long time, I was wondering if Corpus Evita was the correct title for West Bay’s latest offering in Palo Alto. It’s a sequence of scenes—roughly connected, suffused with contradictory elements—that swirl in the past, present, and future about the troubled 1974-76 presidency of Argentina’s Isabel Perón and the legacy of Juan Perón’s previous wife, Eva.
It was Isabel’s mistakes and ouster that began the murderous military dictatorship of 1976-83, El Proceso. In the opera’s strongest scene, Isabel begs for forgiveness, an act the now 93-year-old has never performed publicly. The opera’s librettist claims that were she to do so, it “would be cathartic for a society that’s still divided about what happened back then.” Yet the opera is not named Isabel, not Eva, but Corpus Evita, the embalmed corpse of Eva. Why?
Scene 5. (L-R): Isabel, Ministro, Ghosts of Eva and Perón. Background, members of WBO chorus. Photo credit Otak Jump.
The answer gradually dawned on me: There are two Eva Peróns. There is the myth of Evita as “patron saint of public spending, labor pampering, and largesse to the underprivileged” (The Atlantic, October 1952). Then there is her literal, trundled-about corpse representing a past that can never be recreated. The opera depicts both with two singers, respectively, lovely soprano Jessica Sandridge and the imposing Laure de Marcellus. But the title betrays the creators’ preference. In the words of the librettist, “People keep returning to the myth and they keep voting for it. And politicians keep handing out benefits that the country’s economy can ill afford, in a never-ending downward spiral.”
… When hope is suffused with nostalgia, as in the Evita myth, the result can be dangerous, unfinished business …
And who are the creators? Lorenz Russo–concept, Carlos Franzetti–music, and Jose Luis Moscovich, West Bay Opera General Director, Music Director, Stage Director–Librettist. All were present at the performance, and there was no question it was a labor of love, resplendently executed by a terrific set of soloists and chorus.
Scene 6. (L-R): Isabel and Ministro’s ghost. Photo credit Otak Jump.
White-suited tenor Patrick Bessenbacher was particularly impressive as sinister “Ministro” Lopez Rega, the Svengali with mystic influence over Isabel. Sara LeMesh was outstanding as Isabel, along with Casey Germain as Perón and Anders Froehlich as the Doctor.
Of all the wonderful aspects of the evening, the most stunning was the set and projection design by Peter Crompton, with gorgeous overlapping projections on three screens. Example: the final scene culminates in an apotheosis of Evita glowing with light with Statue of Liberty rays that suddenly morph to blood red as armed guerillas march out by Sandridge’s side.
Projections showing their magic in “Corpus Evita”. Photo credit Otak Jump.
When hope is suffused with nostalgia, as in the Evita myth, the result can be dangerous, unfinished business. When I heard Fanzetti’s gorgeous orchestrations in a 100-year-old Ravel-like milieu, I was at first confused until I realized they could apply to the Evita and not the Corpus. A bit more modernism in the Corpus music might have been helpful in emphasizing the temporal distinction.
Scene 4. (L-R) Isabel, Ministro, WBO Orchestra, Maestro José Luis Moscovich. Photo credit Otak Jump.
I could not justify in my mind a different, unfinished structural aspect: the abrupt breaks between scene changes, and the intermission break after, not before, a so-called Entr’Acte, a pantomimed scene in a torture chamber.
And finally, I feel a deeper impression would be made on audiences if additional transition music were composed and this compelling opera were performed without a break.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
I have now seen every film and performance nominated for an Academy Award. I’ve let them germinate in my mind and with the SAG awards coming and the Golden Globes already history, it’s time to ruminate.
Let it first be said that even with the global success of Barbieheimer, the year was finally a testament to what can be achieved during and after the COVID pandemic.
… will win … should win … and some potential dark horses…
So, I am splitting my predictions into what I think will win, what should win, and some potential dark horses. Enjoy!
Best Picture:
Oppenheimer
Barbie
Anatomy of a Fall
American Fiction
Zone of Interest
` Past Lives
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Holdovers
Poor Things
Maestro
Will Win: Oppenheimer
Should Win: American Fiction
Best Actress:
Annette Benning (Nyad)
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Sandra Hueller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Emma Stone (Poor Things)
Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
Will Win: probably Lily Gladstone
Should Win: Anyone else
I found Lily Gladstone (who spent most of the film in bed) monochromatic. Emma Stone may pull a surprise here in a film I loathed—a rarity for me. My hope is that Annette Benning can pull an upset and finally win an Oscar.
Best Actor:
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
Coleman Domingo (Rustin)
Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
Will Win: Jeffrey Wright – I sincerely hope this is so. Cillian Murphy has a leg up though as Oppenheimer is a frontrunner.
Should Win: Jeffrey Wright
And bravo to local hero Colman Domingo for his beautiful work in Rustin (and in Color Purple)
Best Supporting Actress:
Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Holdovers)
Danielle Brooks (Color Purple)
America Ferrera (Barbie)
Jodie Foster (Nyad)
Will Win: Da’Vine
Should Win: Da’Vine This is assured!!!
Best Supporting Actor:
Sterling Brown (American Fiction)
Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Robert DeNiro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
Will Win: Robert Downey Jr.
Should Win: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer). A side of him we have never seen before. Stunning!!!
Best Director:
Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Jonathan Glazer (Zone of Interest)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Will Win: Christopher Nolan
Should Win: Christopher Nolan. No competition here!
Best Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall (won the Golden Globe, will win here)
The Holdovers
Maestro
Past Lives
May/December
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Zone of Interest
Poor Things
Oppenheimer (will win this!!)
Barbie
American Fiction
Best International Film:
Io Capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan) – a perfect film!! Should win here!
The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany)
The Society of the Snow (Spain)—done before as Alive.
Zone of Interest (UK)
Best Animated Film:
The Boy and the Heron (The absolute best!)
Spiderman across the Universe (excellent, but no Heron!)
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams (No one saw this!)
So there we are my friends.
As I said I found Poor Things just awful (as did Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle). Half way through the film, two girls next to me stood up and stormed out. As a SAG voter, I never leave a film.
I found Zone of Interest terrific and horrid, telling the story of the family who lived next to Auschwitz, without getting into “documentary commenting.” Either way you perceive it, it is a must see!
Oscars are March 10th at 4 p.m. Pacific with host Jimmy Kimmel.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the Screen Actors Guild, and of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
If you’ve never seen Rent, Hillbarn Theatre’s rendering of what happened in the lower East Side of New York City in 1989 will give you goosebumps. It’s an authentic look at what young people had to deal with during that era. Not only is the cast filled with marvelous singers, but the entire set makes the audience feel as if they are living there, too.
As the audience walks into the theater, replicas of big 1989-era posters greet them, advertising the New York City Ballet, the Ramones, and several NYC theatre productions. After taking their seats, audience members discover they are entirely surrounded by the multilevel set designed by Hillbarn’s Artistic Director, Stephen Muterspaugh. It enables the cast to suddenly appear two feet away from you as they descend down one of the stairways or walk out onto the catwalks.
… “RENT” … will give you goosebumps!”
Director Reed Flores finds multiple ways to ramp up the agony and the ecstasy of the Rent storyline. First, he cast the excellent Brandon Leland as Roger, a songwriter/musician who is HIV positive. Roger lives with Mark (Edward Im), who gives a finely etched performance as a man whose big dream is to be a filmmaker one day.
It’s Mark who is determined to document the lives of his friends, to show how hopeless they feel – unemployed and uncertain about how they’ll find food, heat and a roof over their heads tomorrow. It’s a stark, realistic look at New York City’s struggling artists.
Though it takes place 35 years ago, it has some similarities with what’s happening today in San Francisco, Los Angeles and most large cities that have large numbers of people who can’t find jobs, a place to live and health care when they need it.
Arguably the most memorable character in Rent is Angel, a drag queen and the partner of Tom Collins (stalwart Dedrick Weathersby), an anarchist with AIDS. Tom has AIDS but still manages to teach philosophy part-time at New York University.
Jesse Cortez plays Angel in such a sweet, caring way, it’s hard not to be concerned for her. As written, Angel is a young drag queen who’s addressed as female when in drag and as male when out of drag.
It’s the grit and determination to try to hang on to much of their lives as best they can that makes Rent such a gut-wrenching experience. The story opens on Christmas Eve, with Mark and Roger attempting to keep warm in their apartment. Their heat has been shut off because they haven’t paid their rent. This is New York in December, so having no heat is a big deal.
Their landlord Benny (Jamari McGee), is their former friend, who has reneged on his promise to not require them to pay their back rent. Angel finds Tom Collins wounded in an alley and tends to him. They share the fact that they both have AIDS and discover they are instantly attracted to each other. Amazingly, all of this happens in the first half hour of the musical!
Director Flores selected at least half-a-dozen actors with big voices – voices that carry throughout the theater. Danielle Mendoza’s voice (as Maureen) is one. Both she and Solona Husband as her on-again/off-again lover, Joanne, have two of the best voices in Rent. Each also has one solo (“We’re Okay” for Joanne and “Over the Moon” for Maureen) in Act 1. Then they duke it out in a duet in Act 2’s “Take Me or Leave Me.”
Musical director Diana Lee conducts and plays keyboard with three other musicians (Mike Smith on guitar, John Doing on drums and Paul Eastburn on bass) from a tiny black pit at the back of the stage.
Though they are few and far between, there are some comic bits in Rent. One that got laughs at Hillbarn was persistent phone calls from anxious mothers calling to find out if their grown-up “children” are all right. Some of the calls are made by ensemble member Kristy Aquino who starts by begging them, as their mother, to call her back. Later, she calls to wish them “Merry Christmas.” Finally, out of frustration, she yells into the phone: “Pick up the phone, damn it!!”
The show’s wondrous musical score includes many songs that are part of our collective musical playbook. Who can forget “Another Day,” “La Vie Bohème,” “Take Me or Leave Me” — and the ubiquitous “Seasons of Love” with the wonderful line: “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes?”
All of this – music, lyrics, book – came from the incredible mind of Jonathan Larson, who passed away before it ever opened on Broadway. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical.
Clearly, any production of Rent has historically big boots to fill. Hillbarn’s thrilling production does so quite comfortably.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Resentments and accusations derail a family Christmas in Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through March 3.
As in Tracy Letts’ August:Osage County and Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage—but nowhere near as savagely—the veneer of nicety slowly peels away as the Dahl family reunites for an annual holiday celebration. And as in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance, venality displaces civility as the alcohol flows. Headland’s brilliant script adroitly acknowledges its predecessors without blatant imitation.
With snow falling continually outside the windows, Christmas cheer looks likely in the Dahl family’s upper-middle-class home, decorated to the max by scenic designer Arnulfo Maldonado. Its underlying elegant comfort is apparent even though every part of it is covered with lights and seasonal décor. Maldonado’s rococo visual treatment extends throughout the wide stage of Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, a dazzling background for an excursion into familial conflict decades in development—not in the playwright’s case, but in the lives of her characters.
… Hilarious as it is insightful …
The Dahl home is also festooned with musical instruments—piano, guitars, violin, ukulele, flute, drums, and more—that the clan employs to perform Christmas songs throughout the show. Even though the ten performers don’t appear to be organically related, they do a marvelous job of emulating family harmonies as they sing and play classic holiday songs. This happens early in the first act, seducing the audience into expecting a potentially happy event. Nothing could be further from the truth.
(L–R): Cass Buggé (Pippa Ferguson), Kerstin Anderson (Diana Dahl Bennett), Virginia Kull (Evie Dahl, kneeling), Luisa Sermol (Virginia “Ginny” Dahl), and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe (Mark Dahl) in Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love, performing at Berkeley Rep through March 3, 2024. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Dan Hiatt stars as Bill Dahl, the piano-playing patriarch beginning to have memory problems. Fully cognizant and conversational, he’s nowhere near suffering from dementia, but his occasional lapses provoke questions from his adult children about his fitness, and suggestions that soon it will be time to consign him to full-time professional care.
Such discussions are merely smokescreens for the real issues eating away at all of them. Innuendoes and minor sniping soon morph into barely-contained guerilla warfare, most of it disturbingly funny. Comedy depends on provoking the audience through accidents, embarrassments, and absurdities. Cult of Love mines them all.
Luisa Sermol appears opposite Hiatt as his loyal and very religious wife Ginny, while Lucas Near-Verbrugghe embodies the role of eldest son Mark, a former Supreme Court clerk and would-be Lutheran minister who’s disappointed his family and himself by not living up to his potential. Mark’s wife Rachel, skillfully played last week by understudy Emily Ota, is the audience’s disaffected point-of-view observer who launches barbs almost at random during the Dahls’ escalating and unresolvable disputes.
Their many issues include angry lesbian daughter Evie (Virginia Kull), who’s had the audacity to bring home her new, recently-pregnant wife Pippa (Cass Buggé). In a paroxysm of liberality, the Dahls welcome them to the party. Much more problematic is Dahl daughter Diana (Kerstin Anderson) a true-believer fundamentalist whose penchant for channeling spirits and talking in tongues has cost her husband James (Christopher Lowell) his tenure as an Episcopalian minister. With nowhere else to go, Diana and James have been staying with her parents for the past month. Far more deadly than Dad’s memory problems is Diana’s failure to take her psychosis medications, her potential mishandling of an infant that we hear upstairs but never see, and her rejection of another developing infant in her womb.
Kerstin Anderson (Diana Dahl Bennett), Lucas Near-Verbrugghe (Mark Dahl), and Virginia Kull (Evie Dahl) in Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love, performing at Berkeley Repertory Theatre now through March 3, 2024. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Rounding out this mélange-a-dix is rambunctious younger son Johnny (Christopher Sears), a former child chess prodigy and adult drug addict, who arrives late with an unexpected guest Loren (Vero Maynez), a smart-mouthed lapsed addict (“Nothing is more powerful than drugs”) that Johnny is sponsoring for his 12-step program. As current jargon has it, there’s a whole lot to unpack on Christmas Eve at the Dahl residence. That playwright Headland, director Trip Cullman, and this superb Berkeley Rep cast manage to do it all so seamlessly is truly a Christmas miracle.
Cult of Love is no lightweight comedy. It adheres to popular trends in playwriting that clad serious issues in humor and detour toward weighty ambiguity in the final act. Hilarious as it is insightful, it will leave you with plenty to ponder long after you’ve left the theater.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Spamalot is the wacky stage musical written by Eric Idle of “Monty Python” fame. Veteran North Bay actor Larry Williams puts his comedic credentials to skillful use in directing the cast of nineteen in this hilarious send-up by Novato Theater Company. It’s part goofy, part camp, and all irreverent, with enough local references to make a real winner.
Four offstage musicians under Daniel Savio quickly open the fun onstage with John DuPrez’s “Fish Slap Dance.” NTC Artistic Director Marilyn Izdebski choreographed this screwball start (and other dances) while Tracy Bell Redig costumed the dancers in bright kinda-classic outfits and dead fish. Redig noted, “Wait ‘til you see the other outfits in this show. There are over 500 pieces of costuming and props. We’re amazed we can keep it all straight backstage.”
. . . full of outstanding comic performances and knockout voices . . .
This is the first production in Novato Theater Company’s lineup for 2024, and it’s full of outstanding comic performances and knockout voices. The castle stage, designed and built by Michael Walraven, is a real treat, lit up to the nines by Frank Sarubbi and the irrepressible Izdebski.
Spamalot spoofs Camelot, of course—the legend of King Arthur in Medieval England. The King, a royally regal and handsome Bruce Vieira, seeks Knights for his round table. He clops into ye olde towne accompanied by his hardworking horse clopper Patsy, (Michael Hunter). Townsperson Nicole Thordsen has a feisty exchange with the King as victims of the Black Plague victims are carted out. Athletic Kevin Allen insists he is “Not Dead Yet” as he rises from the pile of corpses and dances, singing and smiling.
(L to R) Top Row: Nicole Thordsen (Sir Robin), Izaak Heath (Sir Lancelot), John Griffin (Sir Bedevere), Michael Coury Murdock (Sir Galahad). Bottom Row: Michael Hunter (Patsy), Bruce Vieira (King Arthur) Dani Innocenti Beem (Lady of the Lake). Photo by Jere Torkesen and HariettePearl Fuggit.
The spotlights shine on multiple dance numbers, delightfully performed by a cadre of four local chorines: Hannah Passanisi, Olivia Ekoue Totou, Shino Yamagami Cline, and Abigail Burton, frequently backed up by the guys. The talented cast are clearly having a blast onstage with infectious moves and star-quality smiles.
Star quality: when Dani Innocenti-Beem materializes as the stunning “Lady of the Lake,” there’s no doubt she will knock ‘em dead, plague or not. Her powerhouse voice fills the theatre; her comedic expressions and mannerisms are over-the-top.
(L-R) Top Row: Nicole Thordsen (Sir Robin), Izaak Heath (Sir Lancelot), John Griffin, (Sir Bedevere), Michael Coury Murdock (Sir Galahad). Photo by Jere Torkesen, HariettePearl Fuggit.
Monty Python’s Spamalot has no real plot, with loosely connected scenes and goofy sight gags. Nonsensical characters are amusingly costumed and often disjointed, including one particular Black Knight. Even God himself makes an appearance. One hesitates to laugh too long for fear of missing what comes next. The show winds up with the familiar song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” to encourage the audience to whistle along.
Truly a marvelous madcap romp, it’s shaping up to be a sold-out start to the year for Novato Theater Company. Don’t miss it!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Spamalot
Written by
Book & Lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Thru Mar 3rd
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
What happens when the electricity and amplification go off in the middle of a performance? If you’re the cast and crew of Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay, you just go with the flow and continue the performance!
That’s what happened last Sunday afternoon when this reviewer saw CRT’s pleasantly charming (if a tad dated) production of Boeing, Boeing. Clearly, the Coastal Rep bunch believes in the old theater adage: “The show must go on.”
“… terrific performances by Deborah Joves…Mark Selle…Danny Martin and Maddie Rea…”
Go on, it did, thanks to opening large doors to let in some light. Even a few audience members contributed by using their phone lights or getting a car flashlight to shine on the stage.
“Boeing, Boeing” cast at Coastal Rep!
Boeing, Boeing was written by French playwright Marc Camoletti and later translated into English by Beverley Cross and Francis Evan. It was first staged in London in 1962, where it ran for seven years. When it opened on Broadway in 1965, it was a flop, running for only 23 performances. That same year it was made into a movie starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. The film was considered somewhat dated but mildly amusing. That about sums up Coastal Rep’s production as well.
And so it is that in this reviewer’s opinion, if it weren’t for the terrific performances by Deborah Joves as the housekeeper Berthe, Mark Selle as Robert, an American who comes to visit his old college friend Bernard (Danny Martin) in Paris, and Maddie Rea as the Lufthansa flight attendant, Gretchen, this production would be, well, a challenge at attracting viewers.
Danny Martin and Emily Krayn at work in “Boeing, Boeing”
Joves, in particular, carries the brunt of the storyline and performs her role in the deadpan manner of Thelma Ritter (who was in the 1965 film). Watching her attempt to keep her boss’ love life straight is priceless.
When Gretchen arrives, Berthe has to be sure that her photo is sitting in the frame in the living room. But if Gabriella (Emily Krayn), the Air France stewardess, is coming, her picture has to be visible. Ditto for Gloria (Erica Racz), the American air hostess who strangely loves catsup on her breakfast waffles!
(L-R) Danny Martin, Deborah Joves, & Erica Racz.
Director Mark Drumm is a pro and does a good job of trying to keep this menage a trois x2 up in the air! But, the play, so much a product of its time, is itself the source of its own … turbulence. That said, kudos and all credit to the production crew, too.
The spectacular set and the oh-so-authentic 1960s furniture and paintings are both the work of Doug McCurdy. Imagine creating a set with six single doors and then double doors at the center rear of the stage! The authentic-looking costumes of the flight attendants, and of the housekeeper, are the creative work of Michele Parry and add so much as well. Jaap Tuinman’s sound design is fine as is Blake Dardenelle’s lighting design.
And please be aware: Coastal Rep’s website advises that this play has “mature themes. Parental guidance suggested for persons under 13.”
Many of the paintings on the walls of the set are actually for sale, although they’re not available until the play closes on Feb. 18. Check out the Coastal Rep website at www.coastalrep.com for photos of the paintings and how to place a bid.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
A rambunctious dog drives a wedge between a couple of empty-nesters in Sylvia at Sonoma Arts Live through February 18.
Melody Payne delights and astounds as the lovable stray dog whose name gives the title to A.R. Gurney’s sweet story. David Shirk is perfectly cast as Greg, a middle-aged middle-manager who’s grown dissatisfied with his job and has begun taking unauthorized leave from work to bask in the sun in New York’s Central Park.
… Sylvia … It’s simply brilliant…
That’s where he meets Sylvia. It’s love at first sight for both of them. It’s also where he meets Tom (Mike Pavone), a gruff-voiced and opinionated dog lover whose big bruiser “Bowser” is Sylvia’s object of affection. As they watch their dogs cavort, Tom dispenses advice to Greg, much of it applicable to Greg’s marriage to Kate (Jill Zimmerman), an English teacher who hopes to enlighten inner-city students with Shakespeare by comparing his work to rap. Kate’s reached a breakthrough in her career. With kids grown and out of the house, she’s ready for the next stage in life—one that does not include the encumbrance of caring for a dog.
Jill Zimmerman, Melody Payne in Sonoma Arts Live’s “Sylvia”, February 2-18. Photos credit Miller Oberlin
Greg campaigns mightily for Sylvia—whom Kate dismissively calls “Saliva”—and ponders his future while Kate considers hers. Sylvia slowly but inevitably wins her over through sheer enthusiasm—repeated with outrageous comic energy by Payne as she sniffs, romps, growls, humps, and gives voice to everything we imagine that a dog might say if gifted with speech.
Payne’s ultra-high-energy performance absolutely carries this uproarious comedy. She’s simultaneously perfectly on the mark, on time, and precise in her movements while conveying a delightful lack of inhibition. Shirk wisely plays Greg as understated and hopeful if a bit morose—a masterful encompassing of character. Zimmerman, winner of a Critics Circle award for her performance in August: Osage County, is tremendous as the self-centered wife who resents an intrusion into what she had imagined as her personal renaissance.
Pavone is superb in multiple roles—not merely as a NYC tough guy, but as Phyllis, a kleptomaniac socialite, and as Leslie, an androgynous psychotherapist. Costume designer Kate Leland makes a serious contribution, not merely with humans—Phyllis is a scream—but especially with her depictions of Sylvia as both scruffy stray and pampered house pet.
Mike Pavone, David Shirk at SAL. Photos credit Miller Oberlin
Following last summer’s tour-de-force Dinner with Friends, director Carl Jordan has another hit. He takes this one in unexpected directions with musical interludes that other productions have never explored. Over the years, this reviewer has seen several iterations of Sylvia. SAL’s is orders of magnitude better than all of them — combined. It’s a riotous, wonderfully uplifting story and an absolute must-see for dog lovers—or for anyone who’s ever made an impetuous decision that proved enormously rewarding.
Don’t let Sylvia get away. It’s simply brilliant.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Sylvia
Written by
A.R. Gurney
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru Feb 18th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
COVID kept me from attending the opening night of Our Town on Friday, January 26th, at Ross Valley Players. By the time I was well a week later, the theatre was sold out. With good reason, indeed.
This endearing Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton Wilder harks back to a simpler time in the early 1900s. Horses outnumbered cars, and a first date might have been a shared strawberry phosphate at the soda counter. Mothers in aprons kept busy from sun-up; fathers home from work guided their children.
“Narrator Lisa Morse takes us on an imaginary and vivid exploration of the town…”
The play opens with a large and delightfully costumed cast (kudos to designer Michael A. Berg) bustling about onstage in the quaint hamlet of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Narrator Lisa Morse takes us on an imaginary and vivid exploration of the town.
Lisa Morse as “The Stage Manager”. Photos by Robin Jackson
Morse is remarkably skilled at describing what we cannot see; we can almost smell the heliotrope she points to, wafting up from a garden. All this is evoked in the imaginations of the audience, as the play’s staging is quite austere—not “black box theater,” but close.
Spot-on acting abounds under the capable and sensitive direction of Chloe Bronzan. Fast-moving scenes include Jennifer McGeorge as Mrs. Webb, Steve Price as local newspaper editor Mr. Webb, Tina Traboulsi as their daughter Emily Webb, Jaedan Sanchez as George Gibbs, Michael-Paul Thomsett as Dr. Gibbs, Lauri Smith as Mrs. Gibbs, Peter Warden as Simon Stimsom, Justin Hernandez as Sam Craig/Howie Newsom, Ann Fairlie as Mrs. Soammes, Alexandra Fry as Rebecca Gibbs/Si Crowell, and Dalton Ortiz as Wally Webb/Joe Crowell Jr. Tom Reilly rounds out the cast as Professor Willard/Constable Warren/Mr. Carter. Quite a list of characters for such a small town!
Dalton Ortiz as Wally Webb, Jennifer S. McGeorge as Mrs. Webb, Tina Traboulsi as Emily Webb. Photos by Robin Jackson
Poignant emotions flow freely from energetic and idealistic youth to elder acceptance of regrets now past. Our Town is more than a slice of life as it may have been. It’s a meal of a nearly full life, a lovely homage to a time long gone. This popular play is well-attended; plan accordingly.
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ASR Writer & EditorCari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Our Town
Written by
Thornton Wilder
Directed by
Chloe Bronzan
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru Feb 25th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
If a musical set in a 1937 Hungarian perfume shop seems like a stretch for a good evening out, you might want to think again.
She Loves Me has all the elements of compelling characters, charming scenes, sonorous music that stays with you, and three storylines that meld together into a hit show and a staple in our musical repertoire. 6th Street Playhouse puts on a visually and musically compelling production that is receiving enthusiastic response in the GK Hardt Theatre.
… humor in almost every scene …
Three couples working in the Parfumerie spin the story, including shy and hardworking George (Lorenzo Alviso) and Amalia, a combative new hire (Molly Larson-Shine). The two bicker through their professional lives but are secretly lonely-hearts pen pals. 30ish and flirtatious Ilona (Julianne Bretan) is having an affair with the male attraction in the shop, suave and mellifluous Stephen Koday, (Drew Bolander). Finally, there is the unlikely couple of elderly and humorous Mr. Marachezek (Garet Waterhouse) and his young delivery boy Arpad, played with amazing finesse by 15-year-old Tyer Ono). Arpad turns our enthusiasm up to boil with his big moment in the show, singing “Try Me.”
“She Loves Me” cast at work. Photo credit: Eric Chazankin
The cast is augmented by an ensemble of ubiquitous shoppers who amuse us scene after scene with their various cosmetic issues and gift needs. They double as patrons and staff for the nightclub scene in which the pen pals, known to each other only as “Dear Friend,” will finally meet.
…see it, for the charm, music, captivating story & production values…
Gracing this production is an appealing set that takes us into the shop, and is flexible enough to transport us to a hospital room and a darkly mysterious nightclub. Director Emily Lynn Cornelius makes use of every opportunity to tweak our sense of humor using pratfalls, original and sometimes noisy props, exaggerated expressions, and actions which resound in laughter through the audience. She deftly varies the shoppers’ scenes which run the gamut of Christmas shopping madness at the play’s end, and feature one-off surprise moments.
“She Loves Me” shows thru Feb 25th at 6th St Playhouse. Photo: Eric Chazankin
The audience-rousing approach emphasizing humor in almost every scene, however, seems to come at the cost of a lack of subtle character development found in other productions.
To this reviewer, some actors were more physically expressive than others, notably Tyler Ono, who seems made to fall through the door when he is revealed as eavesdropping, and Julianne Bretan, who winningly commands all parts of the stage as she details her adventure with new beau Paul, an optometrist she met at the library. Sound design was OK in the miking of the singers, but this reviewer found the orchestra was occasionally too loud for a proper balance and support to the vocals.
Will you love She Loves Me? The plusses outweigh the few minuses in this production. Go see it for the charm, music, captivating story and production values. My prediction: you will love it.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
She Loves Me
Book by
Joe Masteroff
Directed by
Emily Lynn Cornelius
Music by
Jerry Bock
Lyrics by
Sheldon Harnick
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru Feb 25th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Here’s a play that will teach us how to make the Vietnamese soup specialty: Pho. Not quite! My Home on the Moon quickly takes us from our ordinary lives to other realities in the cyber world.
Act One opens on an average-looking Asian soup shop, adorned with pictures of the homeland and featuring a much-revered shrine to the shop owner’s sister, and former joint owner. The discouraged proprietress Lan (versatile and winning Sharon Omi) reveals the desperate straits her business is experiencing with the neighborhood takeover by mega-corporations and the fall to the wrecker’s ball of small businesses like hers.
…”My Home on the Moon” is a humorous take on a Matrix-like reality…
Lan is joined by her grouchy assistant Mai (hilariously played by Jenny Nguyen Nelson), who breaks the 4th wall to great effect. Soon enough, we hear the doom of a building being crushed to rubble off-stage. The corporate enemy is closing in.
Lan (Sharon Omi) reminisces about her childhood with a giant noodle (background: puppeteered by Erin Mei-Ling Stuart) on the moon in San Francisco Playhouse’s World Premiere Play “My Home on the Moon,” performing January 25 – February 24. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
But Lan has applied for a financial aid grant for her shop, and her winnings come in to save it from default. First, a huge basket of delectable Vietnamese goodies appears, and the consumables seem to anesthetize Lan and Mai, whose binge puts them prone on the floor.
Next, they are greeted by marketeer Vera, who represents Novus Corporation, the company taking over local real estate. She promises the shop will be transformed, dripping with cachét and busy with customers now that Lan has won the grant. And Vera, smartly and charmingly played by Rinabeth Apostal, can make it all happen: the blank white shop turns to orange ambience, NFTs (Non-fungible tokens in cyber-talk) grace the walls, and the backyard becomes a Vietnamese jungle.
(L-R) A food critic (Will Dao) samples cuisine, watched by Lan (Sharon Omi), Mai (Jenny Nguyen Nelson) and a camera person (Erin Mei-Ling Stuart) in SF Playhouse’s “My Home on the Moon.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Miraculously, both Lan and Mai are smartly re-uniformed to enhance the look of the café. But who is Vera really? And why doesn’t she eat the fabulous Pho?
Understanding who is real and who is a robot or ‘simulation’ challenges us as the story and timeline proceed, and actors take on multiple roles. A standout is Will Dao, playing four very different personas, all to amazing effect. He grabs our attention immediately with every unexpected appearance. This is truly an eye-popping show, replete with suggestive dancers, sinuous and menacing cyber light cords, and alternate states of consciousness or digital manipulation depending on which of the corporate robots or managers are controlling the scene.
Mai (Jenny Nguyen Nelson) and Vera (Rinabeth Apostol) share a moment at San Francisco Playhouse. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The challenge and ultimate success of scene changes and manipulations are handsomely done by the creative team under the direction of Mei Ann Teo. Projections are used to great effect in many scenes and in many parts of the stage by Hao Bai, and the scene swivels to reveal three different sets, times/places and states of consciousness.
Finally we are left to ponder what reality we live in. Is it the actual world, or is it the digital river of games, memes, virtual reality, NFTs and other predations on our consciousness?
My Home on the Moon is a humorous take on a Matrix-like reality where people are trapped in a simulated digital world. Warning: the constant food themes may spark your hunger for an immediate bowl of Pho.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
A tall man walks out of a Wyoming cabin in the woods, hears the rustle of leaves and a tell-tale sound. He grabs his shotgun and – POW! He’s shot a deer. The man gets it, lays it on the cement in front of his cabin, and … well, let’s just say he makes sure it’s dead.
Does this have anything to do with the rest of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, playing through Feb. 18 at Los Altos Stage Company? Difficult to say. It does establish place: an old cabin in the woods, far out in the Wyoming countryside.
The crux of the storyline is that four former students of the extremely conservative Transfiguration College of Wyoming return to the school to celebrate the inauguration of one of their favorite professors as president of the college. She’s also the mother of one of the four.
From left: Will Livingston, Tim Garcia, April Culver
Reuniting at the inauguration, the friends accept an invitation from Justin (Will Livingston) to stay at his mountain cabin for a few days to catch up with each other and to see an upcoming full eclipse of the moon.
. . . each of the quartet suffers from either a gigantic bucketful of animosity, angst, feminist beliefs, booze or alt-right dogma…
This is not an easy play to watch, and it’s wise that LASC advises that it may be unsuitable for younger audiences.
LASC Executive Artistic Director Gary Landis directs this production with a steady hand, allowing each of the actors to have his or her own moment in the sun. In fact, all five of the actors seem to fit into the characters they play as easily as putting on a favorite set of clothes. They are:
Tim Garcia as Kevin, a booze-swilling, neuroses-filled hot mess who whines, cries, throws up and basically flops down on the hard dirt while asking pointed questions he has about his Catholic upbringing and why they must love the Virgin Mary. It’s difficult to watch his thin, almost-frail body suffer so horribly.
April Culver as Emily, daughter of the new college president. She suffers terribly from an unnamed disease, frequently crying out in pain and needing help to walk even with the cane she uses. She has become far more liberal since leaving college, having seen the anguish of a woman who went to Planned Parenthood after an unwanted pregnancy. Basically, she says she’s come to have empathy with even those with whom she fundamentally disagrees.
From left: Tim Garcia, Sarah Thurmond at work.
Sarah Thermond as Teresa, who has clearly drunk the Kool-Aid of Trumpian America and calls Steve Bannon her “personal hero.” Teresa believes that by out-shouting and out-talking her three friends, she will succeed in winning them over to her beliefs. Mesmerizing as she is, Teresa is easily the least likeable character, at least by liberal standards.
Will Livingston (Justin) owns the cabin where everyone is congregating. He has chosen to withdraw somewhat from the world, although he makes it abundantly clear that he believes that by focusing on Christianity, he can block out liberals “trying to wipe us out.”
The fifth character is the newly anointed school headmistress, Gina (Lee Ann Payne). She doesn’t show up until the last 45 minutes of the show, but she plays forceful, decisive and dynamic. With a slight Southern drawl, she describes herself as a “Goldwater gal” but admits to being appalled by Theresa’s ultra-far-right rhetoric.
Will Arbery’s 2019 play is nothing if not unsettling. The single-set production is creatively designed by Seafus Chatmon. Sound is crucial for such a wordy play, and Ken Kilen’s sound makes almost every intelligible. Kudos, too, for Mykal Philbin’s moody outdoor lighting design.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Almost Maine is an offbeat title perfectly suited to an offbeat show at Lucky Penny Productions in Napa.
Four actors deftly switch identities in ten loosely connected vignettes to portray characters who reside in Almost, a chilly little hamlet 183 miles from Bangor, Maine.
Cast of “Almost Maine” at work. Photo courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions
The resilient residents are variously in love, out of love, falling for each other, and so on against a postcard background designed by Barry Martin, Lucky Penny’s Managing Director and Co-Founder with Taylor Bartolucci.
… It’s a testament to the skill of the actors that they disappear so completely into their roles …
It’s a testament to the skill of the actors that they disappear so completely into their roles; my companion was sure there were more than just four actors in the show. Kudos to Julianne Bradbury, Mark Bradbury, Max Geide and Jenny Vielleux for making their nearly 20 total roles so convincing.
Cast of “Almost Maine” at work. Photo courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions
John Cariani wrote the ten scenes of Almost, Maine with poignant bits of humor, humanity, and wackiness. The connecting thread is one’s desire to connect, to perhaps find that special love.
Each blackout invites a new set of characters to meet, another emotion to evoke. It’s all a charming glimpse of the vast spectrum of the heart, ably directed in a debut by Alexander Gomez.
Cast of “Almost Maine” at work. Photo courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions
Playing Thursdays through Sundays until February 11, 2024 at Lucky Penny Productions, 1758 Industrial Way, Napa CA. Tickets at www.luckypennynapa.com or call 707-266-6305.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Almost, Maine
Written by
John Cariani
Directed by
Alexander Gomez
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru Feb 11th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Miracles and madness are on full display with Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza at San Francisco’s PacBell Park through March 17.
The Montreal-based contemporary circus troupe’s first visit to the Bay Area since 2019 is a revelation in a huge tent outside PacBell Park. The Cirque complex actually occupies one large square block (“Lot 1”) on the edge of the bay, immediately across the street from Atwater’s.
Fans who arrive early can enjoy entertainment by wandering clowns, a pair of very well-balanced stilt-walking girls, and a wonderful four-piece band playing extended riffs on familiar jazz standards—“Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Caravan” among them. Another benefit to early arrival is ease of parking.
… There’s something for everyone in Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza …
The real show, of course, happens in the big tent. Formed decades ago with the intent of modernizing the circus, Cirque du Soleil has proven to be a worldwide success, with multiple touring shows, and two or three in constant production in Las Vegas. Many of the troupe’s acts have roots in traditional circus acts, but there are no animals. That was one of the founders’ intentions. Those with qualms about abused animals can set their misgivings aside. The only potential damage is to Cirque du Soleil performers.
“Silk” is a fierce character with the ability to fly, spin, and swing in all directions in “Zooza”. Picture copyright & courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.
All Cirque shows have a theme or through-line to tie diverse acts together. In Kooza, we meet a lackluster clown called “the Innocent” with an uncooperative kite, and another who’s a rowdy clown king with a missing crown and a couple of riotous sidekicks who continually prod the audience.
The search for the crown and its ultimate acquisition by the Innocent is all that connects this huge show’s opening and closing moments, but a through-line isn’t really needed. Every act is a mind-blower, from aerialists and contortionists to hand-balancers and high-flying acrobats. Even while watching in astonishment, viewers must ask themselves how anyone learns to do any of this. Where does one go to school to learn how to do a “five-man high” ???
Twin highwires crisscross diagonally at 15 and 25 feet above the stage in “Kooza”. Picture copyright & courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.
Ukrainian unicycle performers Dmytro Dudnyk and Anastasiia Shkandybina blow minds early in the show. Dudnyk rides about the circular stage, picking up his partner and putting her on his head—where she performs several balancing stunts as he continues peddling. She mounts and dismounts, he picks her up and sets her down, all without stopping or losing stability. It all looks so easy—and so impossible.
“Impossible” is the perfect description for just about everything that happens in Kooza. A Spanish/Columbian highwire act appears to have fatal potential, as does a solo performance with aerial silks by Japan’s Mizuki Shinagawa. A trio of ultra-lithe Mongolian girls contort themselves into positions that would send ordinary people to the emergency room. Solo artist Aruna Bataa, also Mongolian, takes the hula hoop into the stratosphere, spinning several of them at once—sometimes in opposite directions. Her closing bit makes a stack of silver hoops look like an oversize Slinky that completely encompasses her.
The “Wheel of Death”—a huge contraption with a spinning wheel at each end, in which actors walk, run, dance, and fly, both inside and out. Picture copyright & courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.
Perhaps the most astounding act of all is the “Wheel of Death”—a huge contraption with a spinning wheel at each end, in which Columbians Jimmy Ibarra Zapata and Angelo Lyezkysky Rodriguez walk, run, dance, and fly, both inside and out. Then there’s Russian Victor Levoshuk’s handbalancing act, a riff on one of the most ancient circus acts, in which he positions chairs ever higher until he’s nearly at the top of the big tent and balancing motionless on the whole stack. The crowd-pleasing finale is a multi-national teeterboard act that sends acrobats end-over-end high in the air to safe landings back on earth.
Between all of these acts are comic interludes, audience participation bits, ensemble dances, and fantastic performances by an onstage band, whose drummer Eden Bahar from Israel enjoys a tremendous solo.
There’s something for everyone in Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza. An astounding blend of art and athleticism, it’s also an enlightening metaphor about the potential of multi-national cooperation.
Kooza runs at PacBell Park through March 17, then moves to San Jose’s Santa Clara Fairgrounds for a one-month run April 18 – May 26. It’s by far the most amazing thing you will see this year.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Kooza
Written by
Cirque du Soleil
Directed by
Cirque du Soleil
Producing Company
Cirque du Soleil
Production Dates
SF: Through March 17
San Jose: April 18 – May 19
Production Address
Lot 1, PacBell Park, San Francisco (through March 17)
Not many actors can stand on stage for 90+ minutes and talk with just a few sips of water – all the while keeping an audience mesmerized. Yet that’s exactly what Steven Anthony Jones does in August Wilson’s theatrical memoir How I Learned What I Learned.
As directed by former TheatreWorks Silicon Valley artistic director Tim Bond, an acclaimed interpreter of Wilson’s works, How I Learned is as mesmerizing as anything you’ll see on a Broadway stage. It runs through Feb. 3 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
..shares the stage with a table, a chair & a gigantic wall of red bricks…
Co-conceived by Todd Kreidler, the show is a wondrous gift to Peninsula theatregoers who have the opportunity to see it. That’s because it forcefully relates so many difficult, lonely and unfair experiences that people like poor, black, uneducated Wilson experienced growing up after his family came to the United States.
Steven Anthony Jones at work in Palo Alto.
“My mom came to Pittsburg in 1937,” Jones recalls, in Wilson’s voice. August, the fourth of six children, was born in 1945, and was immediately saddled with the “unfortunate circumstance” of being born black. “I was supposed to be white! I got that from Clarence Thomas,” he jests.
Wilson’s works examine the American condition, which is why he’s been referred to as theater’s poet of Black America. All the pain and suffering that both he and his family before him bore is clearly visible in his series of 10 plays collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle. They include such award-winning plays as Fences, The Piano Lesson, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Jones is a short, somewhat pudgy man who, as Wilson, hobbles around a bit on stage. As he meanders here and there, he doffs a beret, perches on a desk, sometimes turning his back on the audience for a second or two before winking and then continuing on an autobiographical journey.
This is his fourth time performing in Wilson’s one-man show since 2019. Over the years it’s obvious that what he says and does on stage has become more nuanced, more human, more real.
Jones shares the stage with a table, a chair and a gigantic wall of red bricks reaching high into the rafters. That wall is where a word or three appear up high – propelling him to segue into another story, another vignette, another unfairness.
Growing up, August had a few good friends he’d hang around with – friends that he’d stay close to all his life. But he clearly emphasizes that he’s his “mother’s son,” and she told him he had to get a job after school to help out with the family’s expenses. He endured many experiences of prejudice and unfairness, to the point where he’d finally quit a job rather than be treated that way. “Something is not always better than nothing,” he declares, once again quitting a job rather than being accused of something he didn’t do.
The takeaways are many in this 95+ minute presentation of Wilson’s life and literary evolution into becoming one of American’s most celebrated and influential playwrights. Equally telling are his observations on what it means to be a black writer and artist in the 20th century.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Expect to spend more than 1 ½ hours being mesmerized by the Palo Alto Players’ production of Misery, running through Feb. 4 at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. It’s so scary you might even consider taking a Valium before heading to the theater!
Because of all the suspense, violence, and downright nastiness in Misery, it’s no wonder that PAP has made it abundantly clear that this play is recommended for ages 17 and older.
Kimberly Ridgeway’s direction is so carefully executed that even the most violent scenes provoke fascination and horror. That’s also due to the two fine actors she chose to perform onstage nearly nonstop for the entire production.
Photo by Scott Lasky. Paul Sheldon (Chris Mahle) is being nursed back to health after a car crash by Annie Wilkes (Maria Marquis), in MISERY, one of Stephen King’s best novels come to life onstage.
As the quirky, isolated-from-society Annie Wilkes, Maria Marquis is both exquisitely frightening and authentic. Marquis’ Annie has a childlike vibe about her that makes her even more bizarre and creepy.
…When she says to Paul: “I’m your Number One fan!” it’s not a compliment …
As well-known author Paul Sheldon, Christopher Mahle is the object of all of Annie’s affection and attention after she pulls him out of his car when he has an accident not far from her home. She takes on the role of nursing him back to health in her spare bedroom, a task she relishes because she’s read all of his “Misery Chastain” novels and can’t wait to read the next one.
Although Annie is somewhat experienced in nursing, she also decides that she wants Paul all to herself for as long as possible. She takes away his car keys and cell phone, hiding them where he’ll never find them.
Annie’s delighted when Paul finally wakes up after being unconscious for four days. During that time, she discovers he has a new manuscript in his briefcase and asks him whether she might be allowed to read it as his “Number One fan.” Grateful for her care, Paul begrudgingly agrees. But when she discovers that the book isn’t about Misery Chastain, she is enraged.
She tells him he must continue writing about her favorite character, Misery. Paul tells her he wanted to write something somewhat autobiographical. Helplessly he watches as she sets fire to the book he’s spent months writing.
Even this much of the storyline doesn’t reveal a lot about the play’s plot because it has more twists and turns than a maze.
Photo by Scott Lasky. Annie Wilkes (Maria Marquis) discusses the mysterious disappearance of author Paul Sheldon with the local Sheriff Buster (Zachary Vaughn-Munck) who is on the case in MISERY at Palo Alto.
Written by playwright William Goldman, based on the Stephen King novel, the cast of Misery includes just one other character: the local sheriff, Buster (Zachary Vaughn-Munck). The sheriff makes several trips to Annie’s home to talk to her about the missing author.
Gillian Ortega’s rotating three-room set (plus a front door at the far right) is an integral part of Misery. The bedroom, living room and kitchen are the three rooms that slowly move in a circle as the actors sometimes rush through them to be in place when the pre-recorded music stops and lights go up on the next scene. Edward Hunter’s lighting is appropriately scary. Dave Maier also deserves a shoutout for making the fight scenes authentic (and again: scary).
With Misery, Palo Alto Players provides an absorbing evening of theatre. Just leave the kiddies at home.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Misery
Written by
William Goldman. Based on the novel by Stephen King.
Kicking off 2024, Tri-Valley Repertory Theatre Company, formerly based in Pleasanton, has come out touting its new name (they’ve dropped the “Repertory”) and moved their venue to the capacious 400-seat Bankhead Theater, which was sold out for the opening night of a rocking Legally Blonde.
The launch for this re-start is a high-energy musical based on the 2001 film and a positive way to show off a 40-plus cast, 19 scenes, an expansive set, and show-stopping choreography and costumes. The two doggie stars Bruiser and Rufus are an audience delight and success capper!
… a show that will wipe away the winter weather and all serious issues!
Some musicals are just for fun, with no apologies. Legally Blonde infects us from the opening number, “Omigod You Guys,” with a repeating anthem to high-energy vocals and sorority-girl buzzy action. The song title personifies Elle Woods, the forceful star who exudes the ubiquitous smile, “out-there” stance, and drop-dead costume changes of a showoff who knows she’s terrific and revels in it.
Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde”.
Elle has it all: the man of her dreams, a secured future, and a validation that she’s a sorority star and adored princess—until she doesn’t have her man. When Warner Huntington III drops her as not being serious enough to be mate to his legal and political ambitions, she spends most of the rest of the musical plotting to get him back.
Deftly acted and sung by Gwynevere Cristobal, she faces the challenge of Harvard Law School and finds her own style and maneuvers to succeed at law. Along the way, she finds new capabilities and some depth in her relationships. But it’s her “Omigod You Guys” prevailing positivity, energy, and in-your-face attitude that move the show to its raucously happy ending.
Themes in this show teeter-totter between being 2001 out-of-date and 2024 Barbie with-it: dumb blondes, popularity queens, gay putdowns, corporate corruption, and sexual predation. But what really matters are the fine direction by Misty Megia, expert, and varied choreography—particularly with jump-ropes—by Cat Delos Santos Reyes, costume eye-candy and surprise reveals by Andrea Gorham-Browne, and continual set manipulations designed and executed by Tom Curtin. With a few standouts, the cast works together to execute an almost flawless high-pitch musical.
In this reviewer’s opinion, the orchestra was a bit of a low point of the evening, but the huge cast just danced and sang their brains out and put orchestra shortcomings in the shade. Time to pull out your own pink wardrobe and accessories and head to the Bankhead for a show that will wipe away the winter weather and all serious issues!
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Legally Blonde
Written by
Lawrence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin, and Heather Hatch
Directed by
Misty Megia
Producing Company
Tri-Valley Theatre Company
Production Dates
Thru January 28, 2024
Production Address
Bankhead Theater
2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
The Monroe Stage is small and dark, an arena with its three sides packed with audience. The simple but evocative set by Aissa Simbulan is a small frame house and yard with a view through a window into the kitchen interior. Surrounding the arena stage is the fence – a work in progress – which marks the passage of time and is finally finished at the play’s end.
Keene Hudson stars as Troy Maxson, with Val Sinckler as Rose in “Fences”. Photos by Eric Chazankin
August Wilson’s Fences is about the life of Troy Maxson (Keene Hudson) and how he keeps family and friends close and how he lets them go. It’s everyman’s story. As Troy’s friend Bono (Nicolas James Augusta) warns in act two: “Some people build fences to keep people out, and other people build fences to keep people in.”
… Fences is one of our greatest American masterpieces …
In Wilson’s most intense play about family, Troy can’t seem to finish his fence just as he can’t step outside himself and share the musical world of his son Lyons (De’Sean Moore) or the sports world of his son Cory (Mark Anthony). We learn Troy’s own life in detail through his many stories, colorful swagger, sexiness, and bonhomie.
His tales mask a man disappointed in himself and angry at his life’s chances and challenges. He’s burdened by the drudgery of his work as a Pittsburgh garbage collector and by the responsibility of caring for his brain-damaged brother Gabriel (Jim Frankie Banks). His is a story of oppression and homelessness at age 14 and eventual seeming stability in the loving support of his wife Rose (Val Sinckler), a powerhouse of tolerance who finds in herself a way to pardon his many outbursts.
Each family member and friend is memorably etched by Wilson, and the acting in this production never disappoints. Principals Hudson and Sinckler, and supporting cast Anthony, Augusta, and Banks are all simply outstanding. They bring home an empathy that provoked tears and audible gasps and cries from the audience.
What gives this production such a high level of excellence are the many elements that immerse the audience in the scene: blues music from the 1950s, actors’ use of the small stage creating a whole world inside Troy’s fence, a baseball hanging on a string from a tree branch, clothes on a wash line, crates serving as chairs, and the unfinished fence that lines the stage edge. And outside that fence are the forces of unpredictability, menace, constriction, and banishment.
Photos by Eric Chazankin. L-R: Mark Anthony, Val Sinckler, Keene Hudson.
Direction by Jordan Oliver-Verde is spot on: his use of sound and light effects when Troy is wrestling with death, Troy’s meandering as he tells his stories, and the fight scenes, which are brief but unforgettable. In the end, Rose emerges as a woman saved from the loss of her husband’s love by the raising of a daughter, not her own—a lovely stunning performance by Sinckler.
August Wilson’s Fences is one of our greatest American masterpieces. 6th Street’s production does it full justice.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Fences
Written by
August Wilson
Directed by
Jordan Oliver-Verde
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
January 12 – February 4, 2024
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
William Thomas Hogsdon delivers a wonderful presentation of Every Brilliant Thing at the Lesher Center for the Arts’ Vukasin Theatre through January 28.
The approximately 90-minute/no intermission show features prolific actor/director/teacher Hogsdon as the unnamed narrator of a coming-of-age story spanning three decades—from the time he was seven years old and began compiling his list of “every brilliant thing,” to his divorce from his college sweetheart in his mid-thirties.
The Narrator (William Thomas Hodgson) takes the audience on a journey through life’s most remarkable moments in “Every Brilliant Thing,” performing January 6-18 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
Co-written by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, the tale launches with the first attempted suicide by the narrator’s mother—am event that recurred over the years until she finally succeeded, when the list of brilliant things had grown to thousands of entries. All of them are numbered, and stage assistants give notes to the audience so that they can shout out words when Hogsdon mentions a number—for example, 316: “Jerry Rice,” or 123,321: “palindromes.”
… Every Brilliant Thing is a wonderful exercise in audience participation …
He also recruits willing attendees to play various roles as the story unfolds. On opening night, one woman agreed to play a veterinarian euthanizing a treasured dog named “Charles Barkley.” Another stepped up from the front row to take the role of the narrator’s first love, a woman he met in college and ultimately married. A tall man in the third row volunteered to play his father delivering a heartfelt speech at the wedding—an astoundingly convincing bit that Hogsdon described post-performance as completely improvisational.
The Narrator (William Thomas Hodgson) includes an audience member in the celebration of life’s most remarkable moments in “Every Brilliant Thing.” Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
Personal triumph and family tragedy are expertly and delicately woven throughout this engaging tale, made more engaging by Hogsdon’s ability to manage the crowd. A mostly-solo effort, Every Brilliant Thing is a wonderful exercise in audience participation. It’s a near-perfect balance of drama, humor, observation, and poignant personal narrative, with two performances per day on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Every Brilliant Thing
Written by
Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe
Directed by
Jeffrey Lo
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru January 28, 2024
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
2023 was a wonderful year for live theater in the Bay Area. Although many companies are still struggling financially, it’s clear that artistically most have bounced back from the pandemic. Rather than a “best of” list, here are ten of the past year’s favorites submitted by ASRians.
Dinner with Friends: In June, Sonoma Arts Live served up a Pulitzer Prize-winning treat. Director Carl Jordan had the perfect recipe for casting Ilana Niernberger, John Browning, Katie Kelley, and Jimmy Gagarin. Recipe?
The play’s friends are foodies, couples who uncouple and all but food fight on a multi-stage set by Jordan and Gary Gonser. The play had just the right amount of both relationships’ spice to flavor any postprandial discussion. — Cari Lynn Pace
Dragon Lady: Spanning most of the life of Maria Senora Porkalob, the playwright/performer’s grandmother and a first-generation Filipina immigrant, Marin Theatre Company’s Dragon Lady was an inspiring, entertaining survival yarn and a master class in solo storytelling. Part biography, part autobiography, part cabaret musical, and part comedy, Dragon Lady was a tour-de-force written and performed by Sara Porkalob, with wonderful instrumental backing by three members of the Washington-based band Hot Damn Scandal.— Barry Willis
… 2023 was a wonderful year for live theater in the Bay Area …
Stones in His Pockets: Spreckels’ production of this whip-smart Irish comedy was touching, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny. It demanded the utmost from only two actors, playing no fewer than fifteen characters of varying ages, cultures, social classes, and genders.
All that and no costume changes, no props beyond two simple wooden crates, and a bare-bones stage with only a small stone wall and a projection screen to serve as a backdrop. A brilliant exercise in theater done right. — Nicole Singley
Crowns: Walnut Creek’s CenterREP presented an exhilarating, uplifting celebration of life with this serio-comedic musical. A coming-of-age story about a hip-hop girl from Brooklyn on a journey of discovery in a small South Carolina town, the revival-meeting production starred Juanita Harris as the town’s no-nonsense matriarch and queen bee of a bevy of church ladies, each with a collection of elaborate fancy hats mostly reserved for Sundays, when they want to look their best “to meet the king.” — Barry Willis
Silent Sky:Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions gave us a lovely rendering of Lauren Gunderson’s biographical tale about pioneering mathematician/astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, who toiled at Harvard University Observatory for approximately twenty years until she was finally allowed to look through the telescope. She faced opposition from the scientific establishment of the era, but Leavitt’s insights led to major breakthroughs in human understanding of the universe. — Barry Willis
The People vs. Mona: Pt. Richmond’s cozy Masquers Playhouse delivered a delightfully interactive comedic musical about a trumped-up murder case in the tiny south Georgia town of Tippo. The engaging Nelson Brown served as both MC and inept defense counsel Jim Summerford, who comes to the trial having never won a case. Shay Oglesby-Smith was tremendous as the town’s prosecutor and manipulative mayoral candidate Mavis Frye, matched by Michele Sanner Vargas as the accused Mona May Katt. — Susan Dunn
Clyde’s:Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre was the scene for this scathing comedy by Lynn Nottage, in which four parolees try their best to thrive under an oppressive boss.
April Nixon was brilliant as the voluptuous, wise-cracking owner of the roadside diner named for her character—a deliciously malicious force of nature. An uplifting, uproarious, and realistic tale about hope, Clyde’s was among the best comedies of the year. — Barry Willis
Hippest Trip—Soul Train, the Musical: The stage of ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater was transformed into both a giant 1970s television set and the production studio for Soul Train, reportedly the longest-running music-and-dance show ever made. Dominique Morisseau’s dazzling retrospective of the groundbreaking television show was wonderfully directed by Kamilah Forbes. Played by confident Quentin Earl Darrington, Soul Train founder Don Cornelius was a former Chicago crime reporter who envisioned a TV show that would uplift his community. Through sheer willpower, he made it a reality, and so did ACT. — Barry Willis
The Wizard of Oz: The Emerald City met Beach Blanket Babylon in ACT’s spectacularly goofy psychedelic The Wizard of Oz. The wild production adhered closely to the beloved original, including story and songs, but was as far removed from a 1940s Saturday afternoon movie matinee as you can imagine—a hilariously gender-bending extravaganza just perfect for Pride Month in San Francisco. — Barry Willis
The Glass Menagerie: Ross Valley Players returned to the essence of mid-century theater with a sobering production of Tennessee Williams’ classic family drama. Directed by David Abrams, who also played the role of disaffected son Tom Wingfield, the show starred Tamar Cohn as his delusional, manipulative mother Amanda, Tina Traboulsi as his asocial sister Laura, and Jesse Lumb as the good-natured gentleman caller Jim O’Connor, who arrives late in the tale and quickly discovers what a dysfunctional morass he’s stepped into. Tom O’Brien’s austere set, period-perfect costumes by Michael Berg, evocative lighting design by Michele Samuels, and music collected by sound designer Billie Cox all made significant contributions to one of the year’s most compelling dramas. — George Maguire
The greatest redemption story in the English language is still going strong at the American Conservatory Theater in The City, through December 24.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has riveted readers, film fans, and theatergoers for many decades. ACT’s annual extravaganza is hugely satisfying, as it has been in its current configuration for 17 years. The sumptuous Carey Perloff/Paul Walsh production is scheduled for retirement after this season, to be replaced by a new one next year, according to ACT Executive Director Jennifer Bielstein.
… hugely satisfying …
Details about the new version aren’t available, but those who wish to see the classic that has inspired many imitators have the remaining week to get a full helping of Christmas uplift.
The company of ACT’s “A CHRISTMAS CAROL” at work. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
James Carpenter alternates with Anthony Fusco in the lead role of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge—a role that both actors were born to play. (Ditto for Patrick Stewart in one of many film versions. Stewart may be the best Scrooge ever to sully the silver screen.) Sharon Lockwood is delightfully astounding as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge’s housekeeper. She also has a cameo as the energetic Mrs. Fezziwig, wife of young Scrooge’s first employer.
The cast is universally excellent—we’d expect nothing less from ACT—with Jomar Tagatac as Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s oppressed clerk, B Noel Thomas as the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Catherine Castellanos as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Brian Herndon shines as Fezziwig, and Dan Hiatt is a malevolent reminder of accumulated karma as the ghost of Scrooge’s departed partner Jacob Marley.
Dan Hiatt (L) and Anthony Fusco (R). Photo credit: Kevin Berne
There’s a gaggle of charming children, and enough Londoners to fill the wide stage of the Toni Rembe theater—all of them in plausibly authentic 19th century costumes by Beaver Bauer.
Music by Karl Lundeberg (directed by Daniel Feyer) is wonderfully dynamic, and Val Caniparoli’s choreography is dazzling. John Arnone’s set design has been scaled back from previous elaborate productions but is still effectively versatile and immersive.
Anthony Fusco (L) and Piera Tamer (r) in “A Christmas Carol” at ACT in The City. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Those who have seen multiple productions of ACT’s A Christmas Carol may be slightly disappointed that this year’s offering doesn’t reach the astronomical heights of last year’s, but it’s nonetheless an immensely satisfying show.
This show is pretty much a requirement for those in need of high-quality holiday cheer, which is to say, all of us. Tickets for the final few performances are disappearing fast. Grab them while you can!
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
A Christmas Carol
Written by
Charles Dickens - adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Wals
Screwball comedies satirizing traditional love stories peaked in the early 1940s — after having begun to gain popularity during the Great Depression.
New examples of that romantic comedy sub-genre would manage to pop up every few years thereafter, but they’d usually fail to be as funny or polished as those of yesteryear.
But now comes The Crime Is Mine, a French-language satire (with subtitles, of course) that stands up with the best of them. The one-hour, 42-minute film time-warps back to 1930s Paris and provides a Duisenberg-speed storyline that repeatedly twists and turns as it focuses on a sexy, penniless actress who figures she can become famous by confessing to a murder she didn’t commit.
… “The Crime Is Mine” ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is …
Scheduled for release on Christmas Day by Music Box Films, the flick lays onto the marvelous comedy, an equally marvelous carving up of feminism, the class system, show biz antics, and courtroom machinations.
In the final analysis, though, within weeks after watching the movie, you’re likely not only to have forgotten slices of the plotline but exactly who is who, especially when it comes to lesser characters such as the judge, the prosecutor, the police inspector, and a boyfriend (even though all are amusing) and exactly what who said to whom.
Madeleine, played by Nadia Tereskiewicz, is tried for murder in “The Crime Is Mine, a screwball comedy.
Nadia Tereskiewicz merrily plays blonde bombshell Madeleine Verdier, a talent-less wannabe who desperately craves stardom and her close-up. She’s aided in her quest for fame by her brunette BFF and starving garret roomie, Pauline Mauléon (played by Rebecca Marder), a young lawyer with no other clients who launches a campaign based on the notion of self-defense against sexual assault.
Supporting their skillful acting chops is Isabelle Huppert, a French icon who, while chomping on the scenery, portrays silent film star Odette Chaumette, the real killer turned blackmailer.
All the main characters, each of whom is self-serving, mug a lot (except the murdered producer) — and every now and then, Madeleine’s combined flightiness and earthiness may remind a filmgoer of Renee Zellweger playing Roxie Hart in Chicago.
… Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating …
François Ozon’s direction of this adaptation of a 1934 stage play is almost as perfect. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating with 22 credits so far.
Best buddies and roomies — Madeleine (Nadia Tereskiewicz) and Pauline (Rebecca Marder) — hatch a scheme to beat the system in “The Crime Is Mine.”
With humor ranging from dry to frivolously farce-like, it’s virtually impossible not to like the film—whether or not you can relate to kooky but intelligent women who easily outmaneuver the men in their lives.
The Crime Is Mine ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is — a cinematic soufflé that never falls.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Do mellifluous words set you atwitter? Do powdered wigs and Converse sneakers make you jitter? Would missing a night of hilarious hijinks, deftly performed by Sonoma County’s own Spreckels Theatre Company make you bitter?
Then, by all means, do yourself a favor and drive the short distance to Rohnert Park to see The Metromaniacs, playing now through Sunday, December 17th in the Spreckels Performing Arts Center studio theatre.
… plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout the performance …
The Metromaniacs is a translation and adaptation by David Ives of a little-known French play written in 1738, entitled La Métromanie (also called The Poetry Craze). Ives became intrigued with the play due to its comedic underpinnings based on a real-life scandal in which none other than the great Voltaire professed his love for and desire to marry a highly esteemed yet unknown poetess, only to find out that the “Mademoiselle” was in fact a Monsieur, writing under a pseudonym to exact revenge on poetry-mad society that had ignored works published under his own name.
The play was written in verse, was hilarious, and its author had also written a “lengthy poetic Ode to the Penis.” Those facts clinched the deal for Ives, who had adapted two French comedies for the Shakespeare Theatre Company and had enjoyed the process so much, he sought out a third. [Editor’s note: David Ives is not only a brilliant translator, especially of Moliere, but is a wonderful comedic playwright himself. “All in the Timing”, his collection of one-acts, includes a hilarious piece called “The Universal Language.”]
Spreckels director Kevin Bordi’s spare suggestion of a set-within-a-set exists sans the 4th wall, which allows the audience to engage (albeit silently) with cast members as we serve as guests invited to the grand estate of Francalou (Edward McCloud), who’s hosting a play intended to draw suitors for his unmarried, poetry-loving daughter Lucille (Mercedes Murphy).
Brady Voss plays the delightfully obsessive poet and would-be playwright Damis in Spreckels Theatre Company’s “Metromaniacs,” a farce about poetry fans by David Ives. Photo by Jeff Thomas.
Talented yet penniless poet Damis (the fabulously over-the-top Brady Voss) believes that the mysterious Mlle. Meridec de Peaudoncqville is also in attendance, and Francalou—the actual composer of the poems ascribed to the non-existent Mlle. Meridec—leads Damis to believe that Lucille is the real Mlle. Meridec.
Tajai Britten plays the opportunistic Mondor in “The Metromaniacs,” now at Spreckels. Photo by Jeff Thomas.
With hidden and mistaken identities, pseudonyms, outrageous plot lines (Ives described The Metromaniacs as “a comedy with five plots, none of them important”) and outlandish dialogue delivered in rhyming couplets, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout the performance.
Edward McCloud (right) as the wealthy poet Francalou, with Sarah Dunnavant as the scheming servant Lisette, in “The Metromaniacs.” Photo by Jeff Thomas.
Voss, Murphy and Sarah Dunnavant (as Lisette, a servant disguised as mistress Lucille) all deliver their lines with aplomb, but this reviewer thought that some other players seem more focused on correctly reciting the trippingly tricky rhymes, rather than allowing their characters to carry on actual conversations with one another.
The dialogue in The Metromaniacs is some of the most challenging I’ve encountered outside of Shakespeare. Despite that bit of difficulty, the audience—myself included—laughed heartily and often and thoroughly enjoyed this engaging and entertaining performance.
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ASR Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
The Metromaniacs
Translated & Adapted by
David Ives
Directed by
Kevin Bordi
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through Dec 17th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Welcome back to Armadillo Acres, North Florida’s premiere residential destination. Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions ushers in the holiday season with The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, through December 17.
Familiar characters return from last summer’s kitsch extravaganza: trailer park trash-ettes Pickles, Linoleum, and Bad Ass Betty (Kristin Pieschke, Shannon Rider, and Sara Lundstrom, respectively).
“The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical” cast are rockin’ it, y’all! Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.
Two other cast members from that show return in new roles: Taylor Bartolucci as Darlene Seward, a Christmas-hating curmudgeon, and Skyler King as Rufus, the trailer park’s well-intentioned but goofy handyman, who’s annoyed Darlene by installing a community Christmas tree too close to her abode.
… There’s a whole lot of trouble brewing in the trailer park as Christmas approaches …
We also get to enjoy some authentic redneck antics from Jackie Boudreaux (director Barry Martin), the cowboy-hatted owner of a pancake house called “Stax” pandering to lustful locals. The eatery employs Armadillo Acres girls as waitresses, who call it “IHOP meets Hooters.” They also delight in tormenting Darlene by pronouncing her family name as “C-word.”
The play’s director, Barry Martin as cowboy-hatted Jackie Boudreaux, at work. Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.
Darlene is contentious with her trailer-mates from the beginning, but an electric shock prompts a twelve-day case of amnesia, during which time she forgets that she hates the holidays. And Linoleum has almost forgotten her husband Earl, a convicted killer executed by the state of Florida (he was on death row when we last checked in). She now wears dangling from her neck an amulet containing some of his ashes, but she’s clearly ready to move on.
There’s a whole lot of trouble brewing in the trailer park as Christmas approaches, most of it propelled by a hard-rocking band led by Debra Chambliss in an alcove above the stage. David Nehls’ infectious music spans rock and country genres—the cast are all superb singers—with many tunes echoing classic bad-taste musical comedies such as Little Shop of Horrors. Bartolucci’s tacky costumes are outrageous fun, as is the frenetic choreography by Alex Gomez.
Good times and great music in Napa! Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.
No Christmas-theme production would be complete without references to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and Betsy Kelso’s script doesn’t disappoint. Trailer Park includes ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future; an aggressive nay-sayer, and a mean-spirited capitalist oppressor (Boudreaux) who threatens to bulldoze the entire complex on Christmas Eve so he can build a megastore in its place.
Will disaster be averted?
Will Armadillo Acres survive?
Will its residents return to more-or-less peaceful coexistence?
The outcome won’t be revealed here! For that you’ll have to get one of the few remaining tickets. The December 17 closing performance of The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical is “100% sold out” according to Barry Martin, so hurry up and grab what’s left.
You’ll be glad you did.
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NorCal Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical
Written by
Betsy Kelso
Music & Lyrics
David Nehls
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru June 24th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
A funny thing happened on the way to creating Silicon Valley TheatreWorks’ top-notch production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. When auditions were held, Broadway actor (and TheatreWorks alum) James Monroe Iglehart was Spelling Bee’s director. He cast the fine actors who are now performing at Lucie Stern Theater.
But then Broadway called, and Iglehart left the production in the capable hands of Meredith McDonough and the Genie returned to the Great White Way for the plum role of King Arthur in Spamalot.
“…get yourself to Lucie Stern Theatre!” …
But somehow Iglehart magically reappeared for opening night to watch the cast he chose spell themselves into a frenzy or two! All six of the “youthful” performers as well as their moderator (and fellow Putnam County Spelling Bee champion) Ronna Lisa Peretti (a dynamic, animated performance by Molly Bell) are first-rate.
Logainne (Jenni Chapman), Leaf (Blake Kevin Dwyer), Olive (Maia Campbell), William Barfée (Beau Bradshaw), Marcy (Mai Abe), and Chip (Dave J. Abrams) are eager to compete in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
What’s fun about this show is that at each performance, several audience members are invited to join the spellers onstage. The four non-actors may or may not be good spellers, and when it’s their turn to spell a word, they sometimes are given one as easy to spell as “cow” – or their word might sound as if it has ten syllables and has a very obscure definition.
The cardinal rule of the spelling bee is that to continue, contestants must spell each word correctly. Spellers can ask the judges for pronunciation, a word’s etymological origin, and to say it in a sentence. After that, the spellers must take a swing at spelling it correctly or be eliminated. Which is how many real spelling bees work.
What makes this small-cast musical work is how well-balanced the storyline is. Each of the six Bee spellers has his or her own backstory, which come out one way or another along the way to achieving the epitome of spelling mastery: Being the last surviving contestant.
Mitch (center – Anthone Jackson) comforts a guest speller (Romelo Urbi) as he’s eliminated as the cast (background l to r: Mai Abe, Jenni Chapman, Christopher Reber, Blake Kevin Dwyer, Molly Bell, Maia Chapman) celebrate him in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” performing November 29 – December 24. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
First produced on Broadway in 2005, the musical comedy was conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with book by Rachel Sheinkin and music and lyrics by William Finn. It ran for more than 1,100 performances and won two Tony Awards (Best Book and Best Featured Actor).
At TheatreWorks, Beau Bradshaw is affecting as William Barfee, a student who has found spelling success only by spelling out words using his right foot. He gears himself up for attempting the spelling by doing a little hop or two and then twisting his foot this way and that to spell out the word.
Though all the adult actors are playing middle school students, probably Mai Abe as Marcy Park truly comes closest to looking the part because of her diminutive size. The two other female contestants, Maia Campbell as Olive Ostrovsky and Jenni Chapman as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, have unusual family backgrounds that make them both sympathetic characters.
As Leaf Coneybear, Blake Kevin Dwyer is endearing as he attempts to spell the word “capybara” as if in a trance. Dave J. Abrams plays Chip Tolentino, a speller who finds himself in a difficult physical predicament and ends up being the first one eliminated when he misspells his word.
Mitch Mahoney, played by the strong Anthone Jackson, is the “enforcer” for the contest. When someone is eliminated from the competition, it’s Mahoney who physically escorts that person off the stage.
Chip (Dave J. Abrams), Leaf (Blake Kevin Dwyer), and Logainne (Jenni Chapman) gawk as Marcy (Mai Abe) introduces herself to Rona (Molly Bell) in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Bee has about twenty songs (and several reprises), so Bill Liberatore’s small orchestra of three (Liberatore on piano, Artie Storch on percussion and Steve Park on woodwinds) is kept mighty busy.
A shoutout, too, to Courtney Flores-Kerrigan for her costume design and the amazing holiday scenic design of Andrea Bechert.
There’s so much more to this production of Spelling Bee that it’s best to just get yourself to Lucie Stern Theatre between now and Dec. 24 to enjoy a holiday treat.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Ridiculous, implausible, irresistible: Elf, the Musical will worm its way into the hearts of young and old alike in Los Altos Stage Company’s holiday production running through Dec. 23 at Bus Barn Theater.
Before the start of the actual play, Santa (Michael Johnson), in a dignified-looking dressing gown, sat down in a proper Santa chair on stage and began chatting with the audience.
… Elf, the Musical has … heart!
He asked whether any child wanted to share Christmas wishes with him. At last Sunday’s matinee, several children responded quickly, including a young girl who said “a Barbie!” Santa, who likely saw the recent big-screen adaptation, asked her: “Do you want a little Barbie or a big Barbie?” Without hesitation she responded, “A little one!”
Santa open “Elf, The Musical”
A young boy’s voice yelled “Can I tell you what I want?” Santa chuckled and said, “Go ahead,” but apparently at that point the child was overcome with shyness and refused to say another word. Then Santa asked the children if he should read them a story. That received a big round of “Yes’s!” and he picked up a storybook about Buddy the Elf.
For purists, the Bob Martin–Thomas Meehan musical might fall short in the annals of Broadway musicals — but with a winsome cast, some terrific tap dancers and the charming, child-like Andrew Cope as Buddy the Elf, it also has much to recommend.
Andrew Cope as Buddy the Elf at work in Los Altos.
Cope, who likely inches past six feet, is simply terrific as the awestruck newcomer to New York City who arrives in search of his real dad. He’s been one of Santa’s helpers for many years, but now Santa decides it’s time that he depart the North Pole to search for his father.
Eventually he finds him: Walter Hobbs (Lysander Abadia), a workaholic who neglects his son Michael (Jackson Janssen) and his loyal wife Emily (Annmarie Macry). When Buddy shows up in his bright green elf outfit claiming to be his long-lost son, Walter thinks he’s a lunatic and calls the police to haul him away.
An Elf in The Big Apple.
Once Emily and Michael learn that Buddy is really Walter’s son , they take him home with them. When Walter gets home and finds Buddy there, he wants to throw him out, but his family stands firm. Eventually dad agrees to take him shopping for some more suitable business attire and then reluctantly takes him to the office.
Once there, Buddy keeps pestering other workers but one woman, Deb (an effervescent Alison Starr), takes pity on him and tries to find him something to do. That “something” turns out to be feeding unwanted paper into the office shredder. Buddy says the chopped-up paper particles reminds him of snow at the North Pole, so he’s happy just shredding paper.
Dancing, Singing, Acting, and an Elf!
Another office worker, Jovie (Corinna Laskin) catches Buddy’s eye, and she eventually agrees to go out on a date with him. At times, the storyline zigs and zags so it might be hard to keep up, but — what Elf, the Musical has in spades is heart! It also has tap dancing! And some fine musical voices (Macry, in particular, with an extensive background in musical theatre).
It even has ice skating, a small live orchestra lead by Catherine Snider, strong direction from Sara K. Dean, colorful costumes by Lisa Rozman, a jolly good Santa Claus….and snow!
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Merriment is always appropriate at holiday time. It doesn’t get any merrier than Nuncrackers – The Nunsense Christmas Musical at Sonoma Arts Live through December 17.
Welcome to the basement of the Mt. Saint Helen’s convent in Hoboken, New Jersey, where four nuns and one priest do their best to put on a Christmas-theme extravaganza for a local public-access TV channel. Among many iterations of Dan Goggins’ immensely popular “Nunsense” comedies—a franchise now nearly forty years old—this one takes many potshots at church traditions, most of them landing with resounding hilarity as five adults (and four charming students) dance, sing, and goof endlessly with each other and the audience.
… a holiday crack-up …
Izaak Heath is a standout as Father Virgil, given the unenviable task of managing an outrageously amateurish church-basement production featuring Goggin’s recurring sisterhood—Sister Robert Anne (Dani Innocenti-Beem), Sister Mary Amnesia (Maeve Smith), Mother Superior (Libby Oberlin) and sister Hubert (Emma Sutherland). Propelled by onstage keyboardist/music director John Partridge, the quintet hams it up in plausibly authentic attire—if you overlook baseball caps worn sideways over habits and brightly-colored Converse high-tops under them, which make Lissa Ferreira’s outlandish choreography all the goofier.
The cast of “Nuncrackers” at Sonoma Arts Live. Photo credit Miller Oberlin.
Father Virgil displays infinite patience riding herd on his sisterly soul-mates, and even tackles a Julia Child-style holiday cooking show, complete with a few too many nips from the brandy bottle. With impeccable comic timing and complete lack of inhibition, the sisters run rampant over the modestly-scaled stage in Andrews Hall, making each scene a riot unto itself while paving the way for the next one. Imagine clever but sometimes hokey comedy sketches strung end-to-end over approximately two hours and you have some idea of the treats this show offers.
Directed by theater veteran Andrew Smith, it’s a delightfully well-paced rib-tickling production. Queen bee of North Bay musical comedy and a reliable fountain of throwaway improv, Innocenti-Beem is perfectly in her element as Sister Robert Anne, a role she’s taken on several times. Maeve Smith displays a previously unnoticed—at least, locally—penchant for comedy, giving Sister Amnesia a beguiling impishness. She also looks a bit like B52s chanteuse Kate Pierson in her prime, minus the giant beehive hairdo. Libby Oberlin brings faux-seriousness to the part of Mother Superior, while Emma Sutherland anchors the entire production.
The kids are alright in “Nuncrackers” at Sonoma Arts Live. Photo credit Miller Oberlin.
The show’s ultra-competent performers are more than aided by four sweetly innocent student actors—Vivian Haraszthy, Autumn Terradista, Raina Gibbs, and Fiona Smith, who happens to be the daughter of Andrew and Maeve. In their several appearances onstage—especially their spoof ballet—they manage to charm the socks off the audience. Who can say “no” to a gaggle of cute kids?
What can go awry will go awry: that’s an essential tenet of comedy, one that Sonoma Arts Live consistently brings to life on the Rotary Stage. Much more than a family act, Nuncrackers is a holiday crack-up and a great way to ease into a season of too much eggnog, too many glad tidings, and too many fruitcakes destined to become petrified artifacts of good intentions. Happy Holidays!
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NorCal Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Nuncrackers
Written by
Dan Goggin
Directed by
Andrew Smith
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru Dec 17th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Rogers and Hammerstein’s iconic musical The Sound of Music is so ingrained in the annals of Broadway, Hollywood, and the community theatre world that one wonders what a new production can offer.
Quite a lot, to judge by the standing ovation given it on opening night (Dec. 1) at Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City.
Despite the fact that The Sound of Music is not a Christmas musical, director Dennis Lickteig creates holiday magic with an ethnically diverse cast that brings tears to the eyes by play’s end. There’s even a small live orchestra led by music conductor Debra Lambert to add to the production’s excellence.
Two professional actors play the two key roles of Maria and Captain von Trapp: an affecting Sophia Alawi and a commanding Jared Lee. Both possess strong voices and a naturalness that adds credibility. A slew of other cast members also enrich the production.
There’s even a tiny mite named Kaylee Lopez who plays the youngest von Trapp, Gretl, who generated many “awwws” from the audience. (On opening night she tried mightily to stifle a yawn toward the end of the 2 ½-hour production!)
All seven of the youngsters playing the von Trapp children are fine, with strong singing chops and the ability to provide texture and nuance to their scenes. Chloe Fong as Liesl stands out as does McKenna Rose as Brigitta. Nicki Weppner appears as Liesl’s love interest, Rolf, who brings a lot of telegrams to the von Trapp family home so he can chat with her.
Arguably the best voice in this Sound of Music belongs to Sarah Jebian who plays the Mother Abbess. Her lead vocal on “Climb Every Mountain” ends Act 1 on a high note. Another strong performance came from Brad Satterwhite as Max, the music festival promoter who helps the von Trapps escape the Germans as they take over Austria.
“The Sound of Music” at Hillbarn Theater.
It’s important to applaud Hillbarn for choosing live music for this production – expensive, yes, but so much better than canned. Music director Debra Lambert, who both conducts and plays one of two keyboards and the organ, also has two violins, a cello, and a reed player doubling on clarinet and cello in her orchestra.
Jayne Zaban’s choreography also adds a lot, especially in the musical numbers featuring the Von Trapp children. Stephanie Dittbern had her hands full designing costumes for the large cast – she actually created outfits for the children (supposedly made from Maria’s bedspread) that they wear for only about 15 seconds on stage!
Sound is so important in a musical, and Joshua Price’s sound design is spot-on throughout the show. Ditto Sarina Renteria’s lighting, but this writer felt Hunter Jameson’s scenic design was just a bit too static and artificial. A slight flaw, but easily forgiven with all the other reasons to see the show. Obviously it takes a village to create a show like The Sound of Music. Kudos to all whose work brings this classic to life.
Though not a traditional Christmas offering, The Sound of Music is well worth a trip to Foster City before it closes on Dec. 17.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Sara Porkalob’s tribute to her grandmother is an exceptional theatrical adventure at Marin Theatre Company through December 17.
Part biography, part autobiography, part cabaret musical, and part comedy, Dragon Lady is a solo tour-de-force. Written and performed by Porkalob, with wonderful instrumental backing by three members of state of Washington-based band Hot Damn Scandal, the tale spans most of the life of Maria Senora Porkalob, the playwright/performer’s matrilineal predecessor and a first-generation Filipina immigrant.
… Dragon Lady is … a superb evening spent in the theater! …
An astounding actor and voice talent, the hyperkenetic Porkabob recites the two-hour tale almost entirely in the first person, embodying characters as diverse as a Manila gangster, a heartless proprietress of a nightclub catering to hordes of drunken American sailors, her own mother (also named Maria), several children, and some residents of a trailer park where the Porkalob clan lived.
Sara Porkalob in “Dragon Lady”, written and performed by Sara Porkalob, at Marin Theatre Company in association with Center REP. Photo: MTC/Kevin Berne.
She achieves all of this with seemingly no effort, moving from one character to the next with only a shift in intonation and body posture. She also manages to occupy the entirety of MTC’s abundant stage, transformed by set designer Randy Wong-Westbrooke into an extravagance of bordello-like red velveteen. Brilliantly directed by Andrew Russell, it’s a dazzling magic show.
The first act provides all the background: grandmother Maria as a young woman doing janitorial work in a Manila nightclub, who gets boosted onto the stage after being heard singing at work. The cabaret aspect comes on strong as Porkalob sings a mashup of “Sway” and “A City Where it Never Rains.” She’s a wonderfully evocative singer, gliding easily from contralto to alto. She engages the audience at every turn, including a couple of comedic forays into the audience. The minimal three-piece band (Pete Irving, guitar and vocals; Mickey Stylin, bass; and Jimmy Austin, trombone) are the perfect complement.
Set for “Dragon Lady” at MTC.
The horrendous part of grandma Maria’s story: she witnessed the torture and murder of her own father at the hands of Manila gangsters, one of whom fathered her daughter in a forced mating. She later came to the States as the wife of a smitten US sailor. That relationship didn’t last long, but somehow she managed to keep her family afloat even when it required days or weeks away from home, leaving her namesake daughter to care for herself and five kids. Other than the mention of Maria Jr.’s biological father and grandma’s unfaithful bridegroom, there’s no explanation of the parentage of kids Sara, Charlie, Junior, AnneMarie, and infant Lilly. It’s as if they all popped out of the womb of their own accord. This reviewer thought this a huge omission in an otherwise compelling family story.
The second act is mostly a retelling of life in the trailer park, including a somewhat overly-long bit about siblings Charlie and Junior in pilfered Boy Scout uniforms, going door-to-door with a wagon, collecting food for “the needy.” Porkalob’s channeling of the kids and their “donors” is priceless. She closes the performance as strongly as she opens, with a brilliant mashup of “Love for Sale” and “Holding out for a Hero,” and ending with the most-appropriate “Trouble is a Family Trait.”
Jazz ensemble members of Hot Damn Scandal in “Dragon Lady” at MTC. Photo: MTC/Kevin Berne.
One-third of a trilogy about her immigrant family’s struggles, Dragon Lady is an inspiring, vastly entertaining survival yarn and a master class in solo storytelling. It’s a superb evening spent in the theater.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Dragon Lady
Written By
Sara Porkalob
Directed by
Andrew Russell
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Dec. 17, 2023
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
In my early days in New York city, I was part of the Off-Off Broadway movement, where new works were presented on a small stage with no budget, both as a vehicle for emerging playwrights and for actors hoping to be seen and picked up by an agent.
Writers like Christopher Durang, Albert Innuarato, Lanford Wilson and even Tennessee Williams were showcasing experimental works in theatres like The Direct Theatre, Caffé Cino, La Mama, The Cubiculo, The Impossible Ragtime Theatre and Joe Papp’s Public Theatre.
… Ms. Frederick … is truly a Bay Area Theatre treasure …
Viewing The Umbrella Play by Linda Ayres-Frederick at the Phoenix Theatre on Mason Street, I was reminded of the power and the joy of presenting the premiers of new works in a workshop setting with no budget and minimal props, lights and sound. Ms. Frederick has a long and remarkable career as a playwright (over 50 plays), an actress and at the Phoenix Theatre as a producer. She is truly a Bay Area Theatre treasure.
Linda Ayres-Frederick at work.
Ms. Frederick uses an umbrella (played by Ms. Frederick herself) as a possession to be passed around, passed down and always remembered. These elements are filled with special memories as we touch them, recall them, and indeed cherish their memory.
The umbrella sees, comments and indeed feels emotions as it watches a family going through a series of confrontations of inheritance after the death of the mother (Adrienne Krug). The feud as such is fueled by a brother, sister and sister in law as they gather to hear the reading of Mama’s will.
Cast members of “The Umbrella Play” at work with the Phoenix Theater.
Among the cast are Michael Sommers (terrific) as the brother, AJ Davenport (strong and willful), Juliet Tanner (excellent) as the sister-in-law, and John Hurst as the bumbling husband.
Adrienne Villalon, Shailesh Sivanantham at work in “the Umbrella Play”
Ms. Frederick sets this play in Russia with allusions to Chekhov in character names and situations. For me, this led to confusion of both time and place. The family, the umbrella, and the challenges could easily have been in Pittsburgh. Were we supposed to glean a Chekhovian air? Probably…but for me, not at all necessary, thank you.
The production is billed as a “workshop” sponsored by the Multi-Ethnic Theatre. My hope is that Ms. Frederick utilizes this experience to craft a truly magical play of an umbrella’s observations.
The potential is all there.
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ASR Contributing writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
The Umbrella Play
Written by
Linda Ayres-Frederick
Directed by
Julie Dimas Lockfeld
Producing Company
Phoenix Arts Association
Production Dates
Thru Dec 2nd
Production Address
The Phoenix Theatre
414 Mason Street, 6th floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
Cancel culture wasn’t a concept in the 1980s, but slinky sexologist Shere Hite became victimized by something exactly like it.
The feminist author of a 600-page 1976 blockbuster, The Hite Report on Female Sexuality, was not only lambasted as a man-hater because of her writings but partially because, being broke, she’d posed nude for Playboy and modeled for paperback covers and ads that objectified women. She was slut-shamed even though that phrase hadn’t been coined either.
Hite became so distraught at her treatment, mostly at the hands of male critics who felt threatened, she ultimately fled from the states to Europe, mainly Britain and Germany, and relinquished her American citizenship.
… “The Disappearance of Shere Hite” is fascinating throughout …
Now, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, an R-rated biopic by Nicole Newnham, resurrects the researcher’s life by cobbling together frequent rolling texts of her basic material (and a voice-over by actor Dakota Johnson) with sometimes fuzzy newscasts and archival footage, next to interviews with the Missouri-born writer, her ex-lovers, her detractors, and her friends and supporters, including Kate Millett, author of the groundbreaking Sexual Politics, who bemoans Hite’s public erasure and self-exile and points out that the academic social scientist could no longer earn a living in the United States.
Shere Hite as she appears in new documentary. Courtesy of Mike Wilson. An IFC Films release.
The nearly two-hour documentary strikingly shows Hite being ambushed by tabloid-type television journalist Maury Povich, causing her to leave the interview almost as soon as it started (with the interviewer’s aide forcibly trying to stop her), as well as her haughtily blowing smoke in talk show host Mike Douglas’s face, and trying to cope with a rude, all-male Oprah audience that couldn’t wait to take pot-shots at her research.
It further connects disparate items such as Anita Bryant attacking gay rights, a conference of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Anita Hill testifying at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her, Hite’s neighbor and KISS co-lead singer Gene Simmons reflecting on her New York parties that collected endless celebrities, and a James Bond poster for the movie Diamonds Are Forever with two sexy women flanking Sean Connery (Hite had posed for both, one featuring her signature strawberry blonde hair, the other with tousling pure blonde tresses).
Disappearance, which is being distributed by IFC Films, also builds a sense of a whole woman by stitching scenes of raw but lovely sexuality with staged images of women with tots, women cooking dinner, women strolling.
The film was written by director Nicole Newnham, who’d co-directed the Oscar-nominated Crip Camp, an amazing, feel-good 2020 doc that had a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating after 99 reviews. That flick managed to link a summer camp for the crippled to both the American disability rights and civil rights movements, making sure to note along the way that the disabled are also sexual beings.
The Hite Report on Female Sexuality — which had started as a post-grad thesis at Columbia University — was based on questionnaires filled out anonymously by 3,000 women. Hite, an admitted bisexual, defended the anonymity of her interviewees by insisting the women wouldn’t have been honest had they been required to list their names because they feared negative reactions from their male mates and other men.
That approach, however, gave major ammunition to vilifiers who claimed her methodology was flawed.
The tome drew as much public attention as those by Kinsey and Masters & Johnson and earned a ranking as the 30th best-selling book of all time. It became a key element of feminist history by stressing that most women felt unsatisfied sexually with their male partners, that women achieved orgasm through clitoral stimulation and masturbated often, that rampant infidelity existed, that 95% of women faked orgasm, that sexual equality was possible, and that few people (men and women) knew much about the female genitalia.
Despite her instant best-seller and subsequent titles (including her first follow-up, The Hite Report on Men and Male Sexuality) that were believed to have advanced the so-called Second Wave of feminism, Hite, because of the extended backlash, never reached her goal of overcoming both gender and class bias — even after having sold 20 million books overall.
Shere Hite. Courtesy of Mike Wilson. An IFC Films release.
The sex educator was criticized heavily for virtually everything she peddled, especially such statistics as 84% of women being unsatisfied emotionally and only 13% of women still loving their husbands after two years of marriage.
Whether you think Hite an innovator or fraud, The Disappearance of Shere Hite is fascinating throughout — and offers viewers an opportunity to see how she flaunted her body and flamboyant costumes at the same time as it provides dramatic insight into her original, creative mind.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
It’s virtually impossible to rate the new San Francisco Playhouse production of Guys and Dolls as anything but almost perfect, not quite as good as God’s long-running comic-tragedy, Mankind.
Sanitized, slang-spouting characters lifted from two 1920s and ‘30s Damon Runyon short stories remain extremely likeable 73 years after the Tony Award-winning musical comedy debuted on Broadway — New Yawk gamblers and gangsters mostly, but also a couple of inept Chicago crooks/crapshooters. And then, of course, there’s Sarah Brown, the Save-A-Soul missionary heroine who proves that love can conquer all.
… it’s the cast of the superb show …
Frank Loesser’s music (and lyrics) for this rendition — accompanied by a sprightly, hidden-onstage band under the direction of Dave Dobrusky — reaches the epitome of peppy, ideal for the holiday season.
Sky Masterson (David Toshiro Crane, center) and gamblers roll the dice.
Choreography by Nicole Helfer, even if somewhat derivative, hits an exciting high (with each dancer sublimely connected to all the others). Costumes designed by Kathleen Qiu appear both authentic to the era and playful (especially numbers in the Hot Box burlesque hall where Adelaide comically struts her stuff), augmented by sundry wigs concocted by Laundra Tyme—some straightforward, some whimsical.
Adelaide (Melissa WolfKlain, center) performs with the Hot Box Girls (from left, Malia Abayon, Alison Ewing, Jill Slyter, and Brigitte Losey) in “Guys and Dolls.”
The frequently revolving sets by scenic designer Heater Kenyon come across as exceptionally imaginative, a proverbial wonder to behold. Yet it’s the cast of the superb show — which is labeled a fable, but which adroitly delves into how one segment of society has trouble understanding another — that shines brightest.
Audience faces light right up, for example, each time Melissa WolfKlain, who delightfully and deliberately squeaks as Adelaide steps onto the stage, a stripper-star who’s been engaged for well over a decade to Nathan Detroit a guy whose livelihood stems from running a long-haul floating crap game. She’s particularly marvelous rendering “Adelaide’s Lament” (“In other words, just from worrying if the wedding is on or off, A person can develop a cough”), “Take Back Your Mink,” and “Marry the Man Today” (a duet with Abigail Esfira Campbell, as puritanical but seducible Sgt. Sarah Brown).
Campbell sings with a purity that can make most other vocalists jealous. She’s top-drawer on “I’ll Know” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” with her acting chops becoming an ideal accompaniment to her vocals (her slinky drunk scene in Cuba is most noteworthy). Both melodies are performed, by the way, in duet with David Toshiro Crane as charismatic, cocky, sexy gambler Sky Masterson.
Crane gives the Masterson character a sturdiness that makes you believe he can change from a high-roller to a guy high on life and love. His voice, too, soothes while delivering whatever emotion is required.
Joel Roster acts appropriately oblivious to his doll as Nathan Detroit, the guy who can’t bring himself to commit to her but who’s committed to finding a gambling site somewhere.
Kay Loren, who uses the pronouns they/them, rounds out the frontline performers as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, a part usually filled by a man. Director Bill English and casting director Kieran Beccia, in fact, carefully gender-bent other actor-singers (such as having Kay Loren and Jessica Coker play Nicely-Nickely Johnson and Big Jule, respectively). They ethnic-bent, too, with Asian Alex Hsu assuming the slick role of Irish cop Lt. Brannigan.
But it takes only a minute or two for a theatergoer to fully suspended his or her disbelief and enjoy the binary and racial tampering.
Underscoring what unison truly means — musically and with a racial mix — is the praiseworthy chorus.
Sgt. Sarah Brown (Abigail Esfira Campbell, center) tries to enlist sinners for the Save-A-Soul Mission.
The major plot device is about finding a location for that dice game. The subplot feels terribly familiar: Guy meets and courts girl (because he bets the then huge sum of $1,000 that he can); girl is attracted to and then turned off by guy; guy gets girl.
Other don’t-miss tunes include the title tune, “Luck Be a Lady,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” — and two exhilarating all-dance numbers, “Havana” and “The Crapshooter’s Dance.”
The only thing absent from this two hour-plus version is the thick, unpolished Lower East Side of New Yawk accents — along with the “deses” and “doses” — that instantly tell visitors from Boise, Idaho, that they’re in the Big Apple.
Guys and Dolls has been considered by many as the ultimate musical comedy. The SF Playhouse production shouldn’t disavow that opinion.
Dancers Chachi Delgado and Malia Abayon move fast but sensually in a Havana nightclub.
A Footnote: I’ve told the tale of my wife’s obsession with the show for about 20 years — ever since the last time we saw it.
Before watching a touring company at another San Francisco theater, she’d played the entire score for me on our piano at home. She’d followed by humming most of its tunes during our trip into the city from San Anselmo. And, as I did, she loved the show itself.
But then she inserted a CD of the score on the way back from that performance. I knew she’d adored the show penned by famed theatrical storyline fixer Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling ever since as a pre-teen she’d seen the original with Robert Alda, Alan’s dad, playing Sky Masterson — that final over-the-top fangirl action was much too much for me to handle.
Ergo, I had some trepidation about leading her to the SF Playhouse, even as a MysteryDate, something we’ve been doing for all 36 years we’ve been wed. A MysteryDate, FYI, is an almost-certain way to help keep the sizzle in a relationship — an activity you arrange without your partner knowing where she or he is going until you get there. Or vice versa — that is, one arranged with you in the dark.
After five years of working on it, not incidentally, I’ve just finished writing a book about MysteryDates, one that can double as a travel guidebook while clobbering the myth that long-term relationships are inevitably doomed to become unexciting, monotonous, or drab. The book should be available in January. Check out https://woodyweingarten.com to be sure.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
John Heimbuch’s William Shakespeare’s The Land of the Dead is a pairing that almost works at The Pear Theater in Mountain View. That it keeps the audience’s attention as much as it does is due in large part to some fine acting performances and the steady direction of Sinjin Jones, The Pear’s artistic director.
Welcoming the audience at the first performance of Dead, Jones described it as a “Shakespeare-adjacent play.”
Photo (“LoTD_3”): L-R – Helena G. Clarkson (Queen Elizabeth), Adam C. Torrian (Soldier 1), Marc Berman (Sir Francis Bacon).
Though there’s no scientific data to back up this reviewer’s opinion, it’s likely there are more Shakespeare-inclined people in the “50-and-older” category, while the majority of Zombie lovers skew younger. Some audience members will be thrilled to hear Marc Berman as Sir Francis Bacon make the Bard proud. He has an extensive background in Shakespearean roles.
Other cast standouts include:
— Helena G. Clarkson as the white-faced (and white accordion-collared) Queen Elizabeth. Her heavily British-accented lines make her a force to be reckoned with.
–Arturo Dirzo as Richard Burbage, also uses a fine British accent. He’s also credited as the fight choreographer for Dead.
–William J. Brown III as Shakespeare himself. Perhaps Brown could have been a bit more forceful in his portrayal, but his commanding physical presence is impressive.
It’s best not to read too much ahead of time about this play….
As Kate, Nique Eagen is another forceful character. She and Burbage are lovers, and he wants to marry her as soon as possible. They both show real passion in their romantic scenes, although Eagen can talk so fast that this reviewer found it difficult to catch what she said, on occasion.
L-R – Adam C. Torrian (Sinklo) and Nique Eagen (Kate Braithwaite).
One of the fun parts of Heimbuch’s script is how many references to Shakespeare’s real plays are slipped it here and there by different cast members. Dirzo can barely keep a laugh from escaping when he mentions “To be….” And then mumbles “…or not to be.”
When Zombies show up –- and they show up many times –- there’s more than one insinuation that they represent the famous London plague of 1592-93. Whatever they represent, be prepared to be horrified as they seem to bite into the flesh of other actors on stage. Stage blood also appears which horrified one young girl at the Nov. 18 matinee. Nevertheless, holding tightly to her mother, she stayed to watch the entire production.
Surprisingly, it’s a tiny wisp of a character, Olga Molina (as Rice) who is the glue that holds this production together. Molina plays a boy who must wear a young maid’s dress in Shakespeare’s play, so when he gets offstage, he wants to take it off, but other characters are always commanding him to keep the dress on and go fetch something for them.
L-R – William J. Brown III (William Shakespeare), Marc Berman (Sir Francis Bacon) and Nique Eagen (Kate Braithwaite)
Molina also delivers a moving speech toward play’s end that almost made all that Zombie gore acceptable!
So: Is it true what one character says (“Only the dead shall reign”)? Best to see for yourself. Dead plays in repertoire with District Merchants by Aaron Posner through Dec. 10 in case you’d like a dash of the dead for your holiday merriment.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
I may not believe in angels, especially bumbling ones, but I do believe in redemption. It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show fits snugly with that concept.
With at least two major wars raging at the moment, the charming 95-minute throwback is, because it’s mostly cornball, a major relief — and totally delightful.
Yes, this buoyant production by the Ross Valley Players — just like its classic Frank Capra holiday film predecessor starring Jimmy Stewart — toys with a viewer’s emotions. And because I welcome a good cry, I give the trip into Nostalgia Land four-and-a-half handkerchiefs.
The heart-warming, intermission-less play still focuses on George Bailey’s tale of love and loss (and, yes, of course, redemption). But this version also emphasizes wacky sound effects that might have been used by a snowbound 1940s radio station.
That makes the whole enchilada a lot funnier.
For a good chunk of Joe Landry’s play, Clarence Oddbody, George’s 292-year-old apprentice guardian angel, is more likeable than the guy he’s supposed to help. As anyone who’s ever turned on a TV set anywhere near the winter holidays knows, he’s sent to Earth to rescue George, whose father had willed him the family’s moribund savings-and-loan business.
For the three people on our planet who don’t yet know the storyline, heed this spoiler alert: Clarence accomplishes his mission by showing George, who’d been champing at the bit to get out of Bedford Falls where he grew up, what the town and his loved ones would have been like had he not been born. And by convincing the suicidal guy to do the right thing, the angel second class also manages to earn his wings because his actions also wrest control of the town from Mr. Potter (a purely evil dude who aims to deconstruct the savings-and-loan).
If for some demonic reason you’re looking to fault Adrian Elfenbaum’s direction, don’t waste your time — it’s almost impeccable. Rarely can a theatergoer be confused by rapid switches from one character to another to another all mouthed by a single actor.
Loren Nordlund takes a break from tinkering with the piano to voice one of 15 characters he plays. Photo by Robin Jackson.
Outstanding in the five-member ensemble are Evan Held, who flawlessly captures George and each of his changing emotions, and Loren Nordlund, who adeptly plays 15 parts and the piano. But the other three thespians — Molly Rebekka Benson, Elenor Irene Paul, and Malcolm Rodgers — are at most a quarter step behind in excellence.
Malcolm Rodgers reads from script of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Showwhile Elenor Irene Paul ponders with some sound effects gadgets. Photo by Robin Jackson.
Each actor grabs items from two large tables to concoct sound effects that range from a big tin sheet that becomes a thunderous gong to sundry women’s and men’s shoes that are used to simulate footsteps. The cast’s dexterity not only eliminates the usual need for a Foley artist onstage but adds to the fun of the production by having everybody move hither and yon with fluidity.
In unison, the quintet twice breaks into the storyline to jointly present comic singing commercials — for a Brylcreem-like hair product and a soap that can clean bugs off your windshield.
Forming a chorus in “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show” are (from left) Molly Rebekka Benson, Elenor Irene Paul, Malcolm Rodgers, Loren Nordlund, and Evan Held. Photo by Robin Jackson.
Viewers are entertained, from before the radio show begins (via a recording of a vintage Jack Benny radio program) to a post-show sing-along (with audience participation) with the words of poet Robert Burns’ New Year’s Eve standard, “Auld Lang Syne.” Between those two events, sentimental moments are enhanced by lighting designer Jim Cave dimming the environment while costume designer Michael A. Berg ups audience pleasure with his ‘40s outfits that include vests, a bow tie, and silk stockings with seams in the back.
What also works perfectly is the conceit of the actors’ alternate personas, radio performers holding scripts, a device that helps them cover any lines they may have truly forgotten and could flub. This spin-off from the 1946 film was first performed in 1996 and has had more than 1,000 productions since then.
Ross Valley Players’ It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show at the Barn Theatre in the Marin Art and Garden Center is clearly a holiday presentation, but its upbeat message transcends any calendar dates and should be fully absorbed by all local theatergoers (and, in fact, everyone else in our divided society).
With apologies to DC Comics and those who hate parallels, I think this Radio Play is a Superplay — dazzling as a speeding moonshot. See it!
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Production
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Book by
Joe Landry
Directed by
Adrian Elfenbaum
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru Dec 17th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
In 2009, blogger Eric Lanke reported after his sixth full reading of Moby Dick that “the novel is clearly a White Whale in and of itself, denying in its aloofness our attempts to define and understand it.”
This year, yet another Ahab is trying to figure out the monster: filmmaker Wu Tsang. She and her collective have created a 75-minute film that requires a live-orchestra accompaniment. Released early this year, it has graced many venues from Zurich to Sydney.
Her interpretations of 20 or so chapters of the book’s 136 are beautiful, challenging, and complex. The work has already moved on to L.A. after a single performance at Stanford on November 8th—I will not provide an overall review. (An excellent one by Duncan Stuart is here: https://exitonly.substack.com/p/on-not-reading-herman-melville-or.)
… beautiful, challenging, and complex …
Instead, the question: Is a movie with live music better than one with a soundtrack? In the case of Wu Tsang’s Moby Dick, or The Whale at Stanford’s Bing Auditorium, both were a part of the production, and can be compared. Live music by the New Century Chamber Orchestra was the winner.
Reasons were many:
Number one was the natural string-section acoustics that no electronic version could match. Talkies were the death knell of pianos, organs and orchestras that used to accompany films in the 1920s. Lip synching and the removal of intertitles increased realism and audience engagement, trumping any concerns about the degradation of acoustic quality. On November 3, 1987 however, musical immediacy was restored when Andre Previn and the L.A. Philharmonic accompanied Eisenstein’s subtitled film Alexander Nevsky with Prokofiev’s original music for it. Since then, particularly in the last 15 years “live to projection” concerts have become an audience hit. Improved technologies have made the process considerably easier to produce.
Number two was the quality of the string music itself, composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee. Never did it distract from the action on screen, but often its subtleties enhanced the emotionality of the moment. I was particularly impressed by the hymn-like effect of the music for Tsang’s interpretation of the “Cabin-table” chapter, where Ahab presided over dinner with his officers “like a mute, maned sea lion.” Also, in the “Queequeg in his coffin” chapter, glissandi in the basses and cellos struck me with eerie effect. My only disappointment in the music was when it had to accompany nearly 10 minutes of credits at the end. That was the time when the banality of the proceedings on screen demanded something more alluring to the ear.
Number three was the superb conducting by Christopher Rountree and faultless intonation of the 18 members of the chamber ensemble. Number four was the acoustics of the Bing, enhanced by the giant whale shape gracing its ceiling.
Number five was one of the worst defects of the film: the soundtrack itself. Acoustically, like so many tracks in theaters today, it was loud and woofer-heavy. This was okay for some of the mysterious electronica added by Asma Maroof, but it undercut the frequent voice-overs and lips-synchs by collective member Fred Moten, who plays a somewhat audience-confusing, non-Melvillian character called the Sub-Sub-Librarian. According to Tsang, this person magically “tackles the novel’s subterranean currents” while living in a library inside the whale.
From time to time, Moten recites Melville or Moten’s own poetry. Unfortunately, his words are not subtitled; this reviewer found about half of them unintelligible and not favored by the recording. The result is inadequately justified confusion that can distract from the work’s many other strengths — including, of course, the on-stage music.
When Tsang produces a commercial video of her mostly wonderful and stimulating film, some of the lovely live-music qualities will no doubt be lost, but at least, I hope, more sense will be made of the “subterranean” mariner.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Down on his luck, a scrappy Elvis impersonator reinvents himself as a drag queen at a Gulf Coast dive bar in The Legend of Georgia McBride, CenterREP’s November production.
A recurring Bay Area favorite, Georgia McBride pops up locally a couple times per year. The current production in Walnut Creek’s Margaret Lesher Theatre is as good as most such efforts, without reaching the uproarious heights of absurdity achieved by some.
… “The Legend of Georgia McBride” is a good bet for a fun night out …
Set in Cleo’s, a sleazy joint in Panama City Beach, Florida, the show stars Joe Ayers as Casey, a good-natured part-time roofer by day and a not-so-successful Elvis impersonator by night. He’s just bounced the monthly rent check in favor of buying a new Las Vegas-style jumpsuit, an expenditure that dismays his wife Jo (Sundiata Ayinde), who can’t deal with a potential eviction on top of her newly discovered pregnancy.
Casey reassures her that he’s made a smart investment, one that will bring more customers into Cleo’s. It’s a pipe dream at best. As it sits, Casey isn’t earning enough at the bar to cover his 80-mile round-trip commute, and his high school pal Jason (Jed Parsario) — who’s also his landlord and sometimes employer — leans on him persistently to pay his bills. Furthermore, Cleo’s owner Eddie (Alan Coyne) has threatened to cancel his performances because they simply aren’t attracting paying customers.
Georgia (Joe Ayers), Tracy (J.A. Valentine), and Rexy (Jed Parsario) put on a show in Center Rep’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride”. Photo: Kevin Berne
Casey’s in a multi-pronged pinch, but to his rescue come two itinerant drag queens — Miss Tracy Mills (J.A. Valentine) and her bedraggled friend Rexy Nervosa (also Parsario). An equal opportunities employer for inebriants of all kinds, Rexy is too hammered to perform, but Tracy has enough practicality and good business sense to leverage an opportunity.
Against his will, and with Eddie’s grudging agreement, she converts Casey to “Georgia McBride.” Casey has an aw-shucks sort of embarrassment his first time onstage in a wig and dress, but slowly warms to the new role—especially when Cleo’s becomes the hottest nightspot on the beach. He’s then faced with hiding the new source of much-needed income from Jo, who harbors many doubts about what he’s doing, and when she discovers what it is, believes that he’s gone gay.
Eddie (Alan Coyne) and Tracy (J.A. Valentine) are disappointed as Rexy (Jed Parsario) stumbles in late and Casey (Joe Ayers) watches in Center Rep’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” thru Nov 26th at Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek. Photo: Kevin Berne
Trading one set of problems for another is always a great comedic setup, and this Georgia McBride doesn’t disappoint. Performances are very good in the sumptuous Lesher Theatre—especially the confident Valentine, the subtle Ayinde, and the outrageous Coyne. Ayers has a sort of innocent schoolboy charm, while Valentine is a take-charge veteran. The only Equity actor in the cast, Parsario encompasses everything from a beer-swilling redneck to a completely plastered flat-on-her-face drag queen. Stagecraft is more than adequate but not dazzling.
Tracy (J.A. Valentine), Georgia (Joe Ayers), and Rexy (Jed Parsario) put on a show at Center Rep. Photo: Kevin Berne
Interestingly, the music played in the many lip-synching scenes has been different in all the productions this reviewer has seen. Apparently, playwright Lopez didn’t instruct directors about that. Musical variations contribute much to keeping the show feeling fresh. On opening night, pacing and timing issues interfered with landing some of the humor, with which the script is deeply endowed. That’s an issue easily solved with a couple more performances. Sweet and endearing, The Legend of Georgia McBride is a good bet for a fun night out.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
The Legend of Georgia McBride
Written by
Matthew Lopez
Directed by
Elizabeth Carter
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru Nov 26th
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
There she is, her hair in short pigtails, wearing a starched blue-and-white pinafore over her plain white dress. If that doesn’t take you back to your own childhood, nothing will.
It’s Dorothy Gale (a delightful Libby Einav) and her little dog Toto (played by a stuffed replica named Beanie) who decides to hide from her Aunt Em (a rather stiff Kayvon Kordestani) and ends up being blown away when a hurricane pummels their little Kansas farm.
…So, what are you waiting for? Best get off to see the The Wizard of Oz!…
After an overly-long video of swirling clouds (and cows!), Dorothy finds herself and Toto somewhere new – and entrancing.
So begins this nostalgic story that just about everyone from eight years old to 80+ likely remembers fondly. There are a few new technological twists in this version, as well as delightful casting choices that make the Palo Alto Players’ production of The Wizard of Oz a must-see for all ages (over three).
Naturally there’s a mean-spirited (and green-faced) Wicked Witch of the West, played with devilish delight by Barbara Heninger.
Barbara Heninger as The Wicked Witch and Penelope DaSilva as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”. Photo Credit: Scott Lasky.
The role of Dorothy is shared by two young girls: Einav and Penelope DaSilva, but for the purpose of this review, all comments are about Einav, who played Dorothy on opening night. As young as she is, Einav has already performed in a number of roles and obviously taken singing lessons because her vocals are strong, clear and sung with real meaning.
Credit PAP with making casting diversity a priority. Here, it’s the delightfully acrobatic Noelle Wilder as the Scarecrow, along with Lauren D’Ambrosio as their voice. Wilder identifies as Deaf. They actually look as if they are stuffed with straw the way they slither and maneuver their body!
Diminutive dynamo Stacey Reed serves as director and choreographer –- excelling at both. She smartly cast her husband, Michael D. Reed, as the Cowardly Lion who hesitates but finally agrees to join Dorothy to see if the Wizard can give him some courage. (His rendition of Act 2’s “If I Were King of the Forest” is a production highlight.)
Several other actors deserve a shout out as well:
~~Andrew Mo is the perfectly (and greenly) dressed Guard who determines who does – and doesn’t – get to see the Wizard;
~~Ian Catindig plays the Tinman who joins Dorothy’s merry troop to see the Wizard and plaintively sings “If I Only Had a Heart;”
~~Jessica Ellithorpe brings sparkly white sprinkles with her every time she enters and leaves as Glinda the Good Witch. It’s distracting, however, that Ellithorpe’s lovely gown seems too big for her, so she kind-of floats around inside it.
Naturally, The Wizard of Oz would be incomplete without disarmingly cute little Munchkins — who turn into equally cute-but-dangerous Winkies in Act 2.
There are numerous other surprises awaiting PAP audiences who see Oz. Other than Glinda’s dress, costume designer Jenny Garcia and her crew did an A+ job of creating the dozens of costumes for the 23-person cast.
Kevin Davies wears several hats – and excels with all of them. He’s the technical director, scenic and properties designer and master carpenter. The audience burst out in applause in the number “If I Only Had a Heart” as the Tinman blew smoke and whistling sounds from under his hat!
Mr. Reed (the Cowardly Lion) also found time to create the projections of the tornado footage that throws Dorothy out of Kansas and back again.
Lighting and sound are so important in a musical production and both are first class here thanks to Edward Hunter on lighting and Sheraj Ragoobeer on sound. Finally, Greet Jaspaert and her large crew deserve credit for the beautiful scenic backdrops.
So – what are you waiting for? Best get off to see the The Wizard of Oz before PAP’s production closes Nov. 19!
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
The Wizard of Oz
Written by
L. Frank Baum with Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg
This musical comedy at Point Richmond’s cozy venue is all about involvement: our involvement. As we await the opening, actors drift into The Frog Pad bar, engaging audience members as they proceed to the stage. The MC and lead actor, the likeable, energetic Nelson Brown, opens the show for those in the seats: “Take out your provided fans and wave in unison.” First joke of the night, and a heads-up: “Listen up! You’re in this show too!”
It’s present day in the tiny south Georgia town of Tippo, where a murder has divided the populace into two factions, one represented by town prosecutor, suave manipulator, and would-be mayor Mavis Frye (Shay Oglesby-Smith). Their opponents are fronted by defense counsel Jim Summerford (Brown) who cannot get a truthful statement from the accused Mona May Katt (the stagey Michele Sanner Vargas). Frye’s fiancé of more than eight years, Summerford has never won a case—quite a defense attorney!
…This production sports a fine cast …
Early on, the odds are stacked against a not-guilty verdict. The town converges on The Frog Pad where an opening number pays froggy tribute with amusing choruses of “Ribbet, Ribbet.” A podium appears center stage and we are now in the courtroom, with an unpredictably opinionated Judge Jordan (Jeffrie Givens), who leads us through the trial. Givens swaps her judicial robe for a choir robe as Rev. Purify, guiding cast and audience alike through a rousing revival. Judge Jordan repeatedly reminds her court that she won’t tolerate any “hootchie” or “koochie.”
Musical comedy depends on outsized characters, hummable or memorable music and action paced at various speeds to bring us to a satisfactory conclusion. I enjoyed many of the songs, in various styles from hoedown blues, gospel, rock, and Cajun, to a winsome ballad by defendant Mona. The composers are the married duo Jim Wann and Patricia Miller, who keep us rapt with special surprises such as Officer Bell (Steve Alesch) trumpeting an operatic note whenever appropriate or not.
The town’s coroner Dr. Bloodweather (Arup Chakrabarti) turns out to be a dentist who, for clarity, insists on adding an extra letter to his professional title. Two key witnesses—including the town’s legendary litigator Eubal R. Pugh (Harrison Alter)—expire during the trial and their ghosts hilariously waft out the stage. Street-performing soul singer Blind Willy (Kamaria McKinney) does an outstanding number with cane and dark glasses. McKinney is also delightful in the role of local heartbreaker Tish Thomas. The show’s director Enrico Banson appears as bartender, court reporter, and does triple duty as onstage keyboardist.
Just when we thought we had seen all the play had to offer, Mona suddenly appears, in jail, in a sly side stage area where she performs the show’s only heart-rending ballad. Through all the fast-paced musical numbers, audience engagement is palpable.
This production sports a fine cast with outstanding leads and a “laugh a minute” script that whets our appetite for more. The numbers are long enough to engage us but short enough to keep the action going. The production is pulled together by Katherine Cooper’s choreography, perfectly scaled for a small stage. Marla Plankers Norleen supplied the characters’ amusing costumes; Vicki Kagawan did the props. This production makes for a fun evening!
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com.
Approximately forty years after its first release, Stop Making Sense is back, to near-universal acclaim. Jonathan Demme’s ultimate concert film chronicles art-rock band Talking Heads at the height of their frenetic creativity.
Pieced together from several performances at the same venue, the film famously opens with lead singer/band founder David Byrne solo on stage, accompanying himself on guitar with rhythm supplied by a boom box. Various band members appear one-by-one—bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Frantz, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison, guitarist Alex Weir, and singers/dancers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.
…Stop Making Sense is a must-see…
As they appear, black-clad stage hands carefully assemble the set. It’s one of many moments of cinematic brilliance—matched by the musical and performance brilliance of one of the quirkiest and most talented bands of the late 20th century.
The amazing Talking Heads in their “Must See” movie! — Barry Willis
Talking Heads were unlike any group before or since. In an era of poseurs and pretentions, they delivered powerful commentary on everything in contemporary life, drawing from sources as diverse as snake-handling Pentecostal religious practices, black gospel traditions, and ongoing social problems such as the worldwide fear of nuclear annihilation that permeated the Reagan-Thatcher-Gorbachev period. Talking Heads’ music was—and is—both celebratory and cautionary.
The film has been re-released several times since its debut, but the latest stands far above its predecessors. Newly remastered, its visual impact features superior color saturation, focus, and detail. Supervised by Talking Heads original member Jerry Harrison, the discrete 7.1-channel 24 Bit/48Khz Dolby Atmos soundtrack is crisp, punchy, and completely engaging without any of the annoying artifacts often inserted into remasterings by engineers eager to put their personal stamp on iconic recordings.
Director Jonathan Demme passed away in April, 2017. He did not live to see his magnum opus lovingly honored as it is in this new release, essential viewing for film fans and rock music aficionados alike.
Now playing at a cinema near you, Stop Making Sense is a must-see.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Magical realism, a small-town soap opera, and the need for identity all combine in Eisa Davis’ Pulitzer Prize-finalist Bulrusher, at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre through Dec. 3. Davis also composed the show’s original music.
Directed by Nicole A. Watson, Jordan Tyson stars as the show’s eponymous “Bulrusher,” a mixed-race foundling so named because she was discovered as an infant floating in the bulrushes of the Navarro River near the Northern California town of Boonville. Raised by a single male schoolteacher named Schoolch (Jamie LaVerdiere), she’s been gifted with magical clairvoyant powers. Bulrusher can see images of the future through the medium of water.
…There’s enough material in Davis’ story to supply a year’s worth of Lifetime TV episodes…
Most of the tale plays out on an elaborate two-level set by Lawrence E. Moten III, elaborated by superb projections by Katherine Freer and lighting by Sherrice Mojgani. The central locale is a brothel operated by hard-to-the-core Madame (Shyla Lefner) and patronized by Schoolch and a local handyman named Logger (Jeorge Bennett Watson).
Jeorge Bennett Watson (Logger), Shyla Lefner (Madame), Jamie LaVerdiere (Schoolch), and Rob Kellogg (Boy) in Eisa Davis’ lyrical coming-of-age story, “Bulrusher”, performing at Berkeley Rep October 27 – December 3, 2023. Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson
Another frequent visitor is a guitar-playing young man called Boy (Rob Kellogg) who relentlessly pursues Bulrusher despite her aggressive disinterest. Out front of the stage is a small but convincingly realistic stream that serves as the river, visited often by Bulrusher as a source of solace.
The playbill states the era as 1955—those who haven’t read it would more likely have pegged the time as twenty years earlier. The residents sometimes default to a local dialect called “Boontling,” developed in the 1880s and now almost extinct. It sounds like English but doesn’t register with non-speakers: “harping the ling” means “speaking the language” in Boontling. The only clue to the timeframe is an offhand comment by Boy to Logger that he “missed the Korean draft.” Otherwise we wouldn’t know.
Cyndii Johnson (Vera), Jeorge Bennett Watson (Logger), and Jordan Tyson (Bulrusher) at work in “Bulrusher”. Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson
The home-schooled Bulrusher earns a decent living buying and selling fruit. One rainy night she encounters a lone woman on the road, gives her a ride, and a place to stay. The woman is Vera (Cyndii Johnson), broke and far from her home in Birmingham, Alabama. On orders from her mother, she’s on her way to visit her uncle Logger. Vera is the first black woman Bulrusher has ever encountered, and the two become fast friends. The development of their friendship is among the play’s many endearing subplots. Another less endearing is Madame’s constant threat to sell her property and move away. A third that continually runs in the background is the mysterious identity of Bulrusher’s parents.
Rob Kellogg (Boy) and Jordan Tyson (Bulrusher) in Eisa Davis’ “Bulrusher”, at Berkeley Rep Oct 27 – Dec 3, 2023. Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson
It’s a complicated task for the show’s all-Equity cast, but they rise to the challenge most compellingly. Tyson is especially astounding, with several long monologs that are gorgeous sustained poems. Her interactions with Johnson, LaVerdierre, and Watson are all tremendous. Her closing confrontation with Lefner as Madame unveils the unspoken secret propelling the whole story.
There’s enough material in Davis’ story to supply a year’s worth of Lifetime TV episodes. At nearly three hours, the script at times feels over-long and in need of an edit, but who would know where to start on a project of that scale? Even so, it’s a tremendous night at the theater—a heartfelt celebration of one spunky girl who finds home at last.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
There’s good reason folks affectionately tagged Marin Symphony “the freeway philharmonic.” Many of its award-winning musicians have travelled to play with the symphonies in San Jose, Oakland, and Santa Rosa. As of now, the entire Marin Symphony can be found scooting up and down 101.
Without a permanent concert hall to call their own, this beloved orchestra has used the Marin Center as their venue for over 50 years. Last year seismic updating caused the facility to shut down. “These challenges have given us the opportunity to build our muscles and flexibility…our resourcefulness in the face of adversity,” explained Executive Director Tod Brody.
And resourceful they are!
Marin Symphony took their talented musicians on the road and landed their instruments right in the audiences’ laps, so to speak. Downsizing the orchestra and creating chamber quartets gave the group new freedom of venues. Their current schedule of nineteen classical performances is spread throughout Marin, in country clubs, churches, and schools from Tiburon to Novato.
“Audiences can be up close and personal to really feel the music vibrating just a few feet from them…”
Audiences can be up close and personal to really feel the music vibrating just a few feet from them. The first performance at the Marin Country Club held the audience spellbound as an intimate chamber quartet of flute, cello, and piano performed Farrenc’s “Trio in E Minor”. The awe continued as a sextet of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano took their places to reveal a lyrical composition by Poulenc.
To cap off Act II, eight musicians doubled up in pairs to raise the bar with Mozart’s “Serenade for Winds in E flat”. It was fascinating to watch the precision and concentration of each musician just a few feet away. Fingers zipped on the clarinets, the burnished bassoon gave forth deep toots, and an oboe musician puffed out her cheeks, reminding us of the breath control required to play such an instrument. The horn players intermittently turned their instruments to ease out the moisture which always collects. These entrancing details are typically overlooked on a large stage, and the audience loved every minute.
The Marin Symphony alternates these small intimate performances with larger yet close-in gatherings. Their upcoming chamber orchestra performance will be guest-conducted by Edwin Outwater, and will feature flutist MyungJu Yeo. The program of Stravinsky, Mozart, and Beethoven takes place at the College of Marin, James Dunn Theatre, on Nov 11 & 12, 2023.
In December, the Marin Symphony Chamber Chorus and the Marin Girls Chorus join the Symphony’s brass and percussion musicians for their annual Holiday Choral Concert at St. Raphael Church in San Rafael. It’s sure to be a sellout on December 2 and 3, 2023.
For a full schedule of Marin Symphony performances into May of 2024, go to MarinSymphony.org or call 415-479-8100. Single tickets and subscriptions are available.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Love, loss, and acceptance all figure into Anthony Rapp’s solo musical Without You at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre.
Rapp’s show encompasses his first professional audition—a performance of REM’s “Losing My Religion,” reprised as the opener in this moving retrospective. The audition landed him a role in the off-Broadway debut of Jonathan Larson’s Rent, the AIDS-era reworking of Puccinni’s La Boheme, and in the larger long-running production.
…Without You is a wonderful show…
Larson died of an aneurism the night before his show opened. Rapp works that tragedy into his narrative and song selections, plus his loving relationship with his mother, who slowly came around to accepting his gay identity. His relationships with other members of his family are also depicted with fondness.
There’s no bitterness or rancor in anything he conveys. Backed by a superb onstage band, Rapp proves to be a compelling raconteur and singer. His penultimate song is a howl of anguish, but his closing number is one of universal love.
At 95 minutes—with no intermission—Without You is a wonderful show with an inexplicably short four-day run, closing Sunday October 22. Opening night was a near sellout—ticket buyers should jump on the remaining opportunity.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
Without You
Written by
Anthony Rapp
Directed by
Steven Maler
Producing Company
Curran Theater Co.
Production Dates
Thru Oct 28th
Production Address
Curran Theater
445 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Competing doomsday scenarios form the basis of Aaron Loeb’s incisive and hilarious Ideation, at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre through October 28.
One part Dr. Strangelove and one part No Exit, the tale features a group of high-level consultants struggling to work up proposals to dispose of millions of people while arousing as little attention as possible. Three of them—Brock (Mike Pavone), Ted (Justin Thompson), and Dr. Min Le (Phi Tran) arrive at company headquarters, jet-lagged from a month-long scam in Crete.
… they realize that they have stepped into some extremely deep doo-doo from which there may be no escape…
They meet their supervisor Hannah (Gina Alvarado) in a conference room, where they learn that they have exactly ninety minutes to produce a plan for their CEO, a disembodied voice called J.D. Annoyed by the presence of a young intern named “Scooter” (Lauren DePass), they’re slow to get to work until the interloper leaves the room.
Phi Tran (Min), Gina Alvarado (Hannah), and Mike Pavone (Brock) in “Ideation.”
Adroitly directed by David L. Yen, the tale is slow to launch for the same reason: the Scooter distraction wastes a good ten minutes until the core group feels comfortable enough to start “ideating”—generating concepts that may or may not work in a world theoretically threatened with a virus that could wipe out the entire human species.
Choking back their fundamental revulsion, the consultants come up with concepts such as “liquidation centers,” “disposal sites,” “self-service mass graves,” “acid pits that can melt bone,” and problems dispersing large quantities of “biosludge” once the victims are dead.
Phi Tran (Min) and Gina Alvarado (Hannah) in “Ideation” by Aaron Loeb
They willingly accept the conceptual challenge as a more-or-less academic exercise, assigning the nuts-and-bolts design to Dr. Le, owner of both a Harvard MBA and an engineering degree from Georgia Tech. A subplot involves an office romance between him and Hannah that could scuttle her comfortable upper-middleclass life, but the bulk of the comedy is the escalation of absurdly horrific proposals and rising personal tensions as deadline approaches. Ted and Brock even engage in a quite realistic shoving match as their frustrations build.
Justin Thompson (Ted), and Mike Pavone (Brock) at work.
It’s all quite funny until the consultants figure out that they themselves may be disposable, or that they are competing against other groups, all of whom may be at risk for extermination. At that point they realize that they have stepped into some extremely deep doo-doo from which there may be no escape. From a slow launch, the play rises like fireworks exploding on the Fourth of July.
Written pre-pandemic in 2013, Ideation was originally produced at SF Playhouse to rave reviews. That show’s cast went to New York with it, where it ran for a month. Among the best contemporary comedies, it’s a prescient piece of theater.
The current show at the cavernous California benefits from new raked seating near the stage, but is marred by an adjacent music club whose thumping bass and drums force the actors to shout over the noise. For that reason, ticket-buyers are encouraged to attend a Saturday matinee. Left Edge is producing the show on Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:30 and on Saturdays at 1 p.m.—no Saturday evening or Sunday performances.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Dare to admit that you’ve never read “Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Horton Hears a Who,” and….duh: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” OK, if you didn’t read them, then it’s likely someone read them to you when you were a little tike.
Woodside Musical Theatre’s playful production of the 2000 musical comedy Seussical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty takes you back to the entire world of Dr. Seuss even before the curtain opens. That’s when the pert, wily Olivia Swanson Hass as that famous Cat in the Hat (you know: the one with the tall red-and-white striped hat) hustles onstage to retrieve said hat.
The Cat in the Hat (Olivia Haas) takes Jojo (Tyler Kawata) on a ride! Photo credit Nancy Fitzgerald.
Sadly, in its initial Broadway appearance, the Great White Way apparently felt Seussical (a portmanteau of the words “Seuss” and the word “musical”), was a dud. Later it was revived and had several national tours and now is a frequent production at regional theatres and schools.
It’s easy to see that WMT’s production has a heart as big as the one of Horton – performed here with plenty of down-home sincerity by Jay Steele. His gentle, caring vocals help the audience understand how really compassionate Horton is.
…Bright primary colors make “Seussical” a visual delight…
Horton and a young boy named JoJo – who is doing poorly in school and is teased by his classmates – are at the core of the story. JoJo’s the only child of the mayor of Whoville and his wife, who are trying to decide how to discipline him. They tell him to take a bath, go to bed and have some normal “thinks.”
Two young actors alternate playing JoJo: Nadia Moehler and Tyler Kawata. On opening night Moehler was JoJo and she did a remarkable job. Her strong voice and commanding stage presence is rare in such a young person.
Jeffrey Ramos has his hands full directing the incredibly large cast – and he succeeds beautifully.
Standouts in the cast include: Leslie Chicano as Mayzie LaBird, who longs to have more than one tail feather – then comes to regret it when she gets more than she bargains for; Sarah Szeibel as Gertrude McFuzz; Angela Harrington as Sour Kangaroo, and Lauren Biglow as Yertl the Turtle. Biglow also plays a wacky judge in Act 2.
John Tondino makes a solid Vlad Vladikoff as does Mark Bowles as General Genghis Kahn Schmitz.
Of course, a musical with about 30 songs obviously needs strong singers – and a large orchestra to keep them all on key. Musical director Justin Pyne and his 13-piece orchestra are at the back of the stage mostly hidden from the audience by what looks like an ornate metal barrier.
Mayzie LeBird (Sarah Szeibel) and her Bird Girls (Samantha Ayoob, Samantha Ayoob, Ayanna Brewer, Erica Waxer, Jennifer Yuan) teach Gertrude (Leslie Chocano) how to be amayzing too. Photo credit Nancy Fitzgerald.
Greet Jaespert’s delightful costumes are an essential part of Seussical. She cleverly finds a way to help audience members remember who’s who by adding a feather here, a tiny kangaroo there, and a military-looking uniform that stops at the geneal’s knees to show off his silly socks.
All-around handyman Don Colussi deserves heaps of applause for not only creating the set, but doing lighting design and serving as technical director. Another crucial position for any musical is the choreography, and Richard Nguyen and his assistant choreographer Samantha Ayoob handle that chore gracefully.
It’s clear that for WMT’s actors and production staff, it’s a labor of love for their annual show.
It’s unfortunate that Seusical plays for only one more weekend because the effort put into it by the cast and crew deserves a longer run. Discounts are available for tickets outside the center orchestra premium section.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The documentary filmJoan Baez: I Am a Noise appears to check all the right boxes, revealing three lives of the iconic singer/protester and civil rights activist.
The Public:
• Becoming world-famous overnight as a barefoot thrush at age 18 and having Time magazine plaster her face on its cover.
• Being immersed in a relationship with then unknown songwriter/singer Bob Dylan and helping catapult his career, only to have him break her heart (“It was horrible.”)
• Being married for five years to David Harris — an icon in the anti-Vietnam War movement whose outcries led him to be jailed for more than a year — and having a son with him.
• Relishing the marches where she accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. (“Nonviolent action is what I was born for”).
The Private:
• Having at least two mental breakdowns and dealing with decades of almost constant sensations of panic, depression, inadequacy, insecurity, and loneliness (she describes herself as “a personalized time bomb” and her inner life as “dark, dark, dark”).
• Experiencing midlife torment when her “career plunged into the abyss.”
• Agonizing because her two sisters, Mimi (Farina) and Pauline, distanced themselves from her, unable to live in the shadow of a star.
• Enduring racial slurs as a child because her physicist/inventor dad was Mexican and she, therefore, was “half-Mexican” and “thought I was inferior to the white kids, the rich kids.”
• Savoring a two-year lesbian relationship (“She was more feral than I”).
• Accepting the fact that her son, Gabe, still bemoans her frequent absences because she was “too busy saving the world.”
The Secret:
• Finding her father’s alleged sexual abuse (which she unearthed during hypnotherapy) “bone-shattering.”
The film stitches all that together, nearly seamlessly, yet might still leave a viewer with the sense that something’s missing, that some of the in-depth excursions into her psyche dig down only about 85 percent and that the most difficult truths are still covered. It’s not unlike checking out the headlines of a story rather than reading it all the way through.
Truly vulnerable moments are few in Joan Baez: I Am a Noise — the title, not incidentally, stems from a journal entry from her 13-year-old incarnation in reaction to being likened to the Virgin Mary, “I am not a saint, I am a noise.” Two stand out. Most moving is when she lovingly caresses her mother’s face on her death bed. Another is when she’s photographed taking off all her makeup.
But oddly absent from the film — which is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and deftly inserts Baez’s home movies, artwork (her originals as well as someone else’s animations), journal entries, and, surprisingly, therapy tapes — are:
• Her multi-tune appearance at Woodstock.
• Her two-year relationship with Steve Jobs.
• Full-song performances (the doc does contain many, many fragments).
• Humor (one rare inclusion is her imitating Dylan imitating her).
Baez, who’s followed around — almost reality TV-like — during her final tour at age 79 (she’s now 82), admits she likes being the center of attention. Even now, although she says her once pure voice has turned “raggedy.” That craving, the doc demonstrates, is evident when she dances to street drummers when no one else is dancing.
As to fame, she says, “I was the right voice at the right time.”
The singer, who attended Palo Alto High School and now lives in Woodside in San Mateo County, also enjoyed making tons of money when she was young, despite her father dissing her because he’d always had to work harder for it. She particularly enjoyed literally tossing $100 bills at him and the rest of her family.
Regarding her dad, who denied inflicting any abuse, she tells the filmmakers — Miri Navasky, Karen O’Connor, and Maeve O’Boyle (who also deserves major accolades for her editing skills) — that if only 20% of what she remembers about the abuse is true, that’s damning enough.
Baez doesn’t only point fingers at her father. She, who says she’s been diagnosed as having multiple personalities, confesses that she’s simply “not great at the one-on-one relationships — I’m great at one-on-2,000.”
When all’s said and done, Joan Baez: I Am a Noise is a fascinating portrait of somebody we thought we knew but didn’t. Though it’s possibly 20 minutes too long, it’s definitely like having a backstage pass into all three of her lives.
The film’s ending is clearly intended to show her finally at peace, but it feels too posed, too contrived, as she dances — eyes closed — with her dog as she recites lines from a Robert Frost poem that indicates she’s not done yet (“…miles to go before I sleep”).
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ASR Senior Writer Woody Weingarten is a voting member of the S.F. Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net
Joan Baez: I am a Noise
Opens October 13
Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco
AMC Metreon 16 in San Francisco
AMC Bay Street 16 in Emeryville
Landmark Piedmont Theatre in Oakland
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley
Summerfield Cinemas in Santa Rosa
Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol in Sabastopol
3Below Theaters in San Jose
Landmark Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz
Opens October 16
Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael ***** Q&A with Joan Baez following the November 3rd, 7:00pm screening!
An online bio of the animator notes that “Plymptoons Studios started in 1987 with the creation of the Bill Plympton’s Oscar-nominated short film ‘Your Face.’”
It neglects to mention that many fans regard Plympton as an animation and graphic design genius.
As if to prove them right, the 77-year-old’s credited with animating, writing, producing, and directing Slide, a new, dark, musical Western that acerbically spoofs Hollywood while feeling like an animated graphic novel.
…the flick’s worth looking for…
The 1 hour, 20-minute flick spotlights a slide-guitar player, the title character, who assumes multiple roles but always keeps his cowboy hat on.
Action begins quickly, when Slide faces off with two obese, evil twin brothers, Mayor Jeb Carver, who kills people without blinking, and Zeke, the town’s sheriff, whose niece Delilah is a plaintive Lucky Buck Saloon and Bordello hooker who craves a singing career. The brothers aim to cut down the forest, pave over Sourdough Creek, their 1940s Oregon logging town, and build a casino.
To make all that happen, the twins enlist the aid of an army of assassins, one at a time. One of Plympton’s most creative inventions, tangentially, is a contest for most evil laugh among the hired killers.
Slide, a combo hero/anti-hero who at one point runs a bulldozer, seemingly can do anything. He slips through a tornado, fights off a humongous Hellbug, saves Delilah from a torrent of bullets, stops a cadre of protesters who want to burn down the Lucky Buck, and, naturally, joins two other musicians onstage.
Plympton’s signature hand-drawn animation is stylistically sketchy and primitive but highly artistic. The result is either a viewer’s delight (along with multiple laugh-out-loud moments) or repulsion.
The multi-talented artiste, who funded Slide in part via an $85,000 Kickstarter campaign, is often considered the King of Indie animation. His skill set has resulted in his winning a second Oscar nomination, and collaborating with Madonna, Kanya West, and Weird Al (on videos and book projects),
Plympton has compared the music in Slide — in the style of Hank Williams and Patsy Cline — to the outrageousness of Blazing Saddles, one of his favorite movies.
He’s written that the flick “looks beautiful” and is “different from any other animated film I’ve ever seen.” Accurate, but spoof or no spoof, this feature film contains so much amusing but hardline sexual content that parents should keep their kids away.
According to the IndieWire website, Plympton noted last year at the Mendocino Film Festival that he likes “to try to break the rules as much as possible.” Clearly, Slide, succeeds in doing just that.
Slide has had difficulty finding a distributor, so it currently has no opening dates, and it was pulled from the Mill Valley Film Festival, where it was supposed to be screened in two movie houses this week.
The flick’s worth looking for, though — whenever animator / writer / producer / director Bill Plympton pins down what he needs to pin down.
ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Suffocated puppies, broken necked strumpets, agitated posse flashlights blinding the audience—people could easily fault Of Mice and Men for being too melodramatic.
But do they know they are also disparaging the meat and potatoes of opera? Carlisle Floyd’s gripping adaptation of Steinbeck’s famous novella offers a heavy dish of steak-and-spuds emotion, and a crew of uneasy ranch hands as a bonus. Moreover, the opera is couched in a near-perfect set of production values from the creative teams at Livermore Valley Opera.
To begin my multi-course menu of praise, try the superlative performance of tenor Matthew Pearce as the mentally challenged Lennie. He has mastered the character’s physical behaviors and childlike mental condition, but best of all, unlike some of the others who have faced the part’s musical difficulties, he hits his several high notes like hot butter melting into the toast of Floyd’s phrases. Baritone Robert Mellon, as George, Lennie’s companion and minder, clears the air with vocal authority–all suffused with a nervous anxiety appropriate to knowing the potential damage Lennie can cause with his inhuman strength.
Overseer Curley’s nasty disposition and cock-of-the-walk power parades are strikingly portrayed by tenor Chad Somers’ spot-on reedy voice and balletic body movements. Curley’s unhappy and lustful wife is not treated kindly by Floyd’s music, yet coloratura Véronique Filloux deftly negotiated her often see-saw extremes of lyricism.
Baritone Matthew Worth offered his sympathetic voice to the role of Slim; bass Kirk Eichelberger excelled as a maimed farm worker trapped in a box-canyon life; and the rest of the ranch hands under chorus master Bruce Olstad added societal weight to the proceedings. Superb acting in all quarters was directed by Marc Jacobs. Conductor Alexander Katzman deftly handled Floyd’s constant metric changes in the score, a reduced but mostly effective orchestration by Jim Meduitz.
…a near-perfect set of production values…
Rather than refer specifically to the Depression-era’s mass migrations, Jean-François Revon’s set, video, and tech team were absolutely top-notch in creating a rural California ambiance of summer oaky hills, rivers, barns, and woods. Not only were there large collections of background projections, but also animation effects of moving stars, suns and moons. The moon in the last scene was scaringly reminiscent of the last scene of Berg’s Wozzeck.
Steinbeck’s drama and pathos might be hard to take for some, but the story about the human need for companionship and something to call one’s own is a verity worth everyone’s revisiting. The issue of what right we have over others’ lives is also paramount in this work. Floyd’s music is up to the task in mirroring the explosive emotions and events in his unflaggingly concise libretto.
In a 2011 interview, he opined that a libretto is 60% or more of what makes an opera successful. I certainly agree in the case of Of Mice and Men: its music does not have the melodic or harmonic immediacy that will bring audiences back for many repeat visits. Artists who must live with an opera to bring it to life find ways to make sense of lyric lines, and end up praising the effectiveness of melodies that even sophisticated audience members will never hear on first, second, or even third hearings.
Floyd’s music is more like a film score that enhances emotive moments. These moments are so compelling in this opera–especially in this superbly crafted and executed production–that attendees should treasure their exposure to Floyd’s aesthetic, even if the meat and potatoes are mostly in the libretto, and the score is an impossible burger.
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ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor Jeff Dunn is a retired educator and project manager who’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera, Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Of Mice and Men
Story by
John Steinbeck
Director
Marc Jacobs
Producing Company
Livermore Opera
Production Dates
Thru Oct 15th
Production Address
The Bankhead Theater
2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
Whether or not you’re an ardent devotee’ of all things Agatha Christie, you likely will find much to appreciate in Mrs. Christie, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s current production at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
In this reviewer’s opinion, high praise should be showered on the incredibly beautiful scenic design by Christopher Fitzer. The stage itself features the interior of the lovely Devon estate (called Greenway) of the renowned author Agatha Christie.
The expansive set includes three handsome bookcases, a warm fireplace, a very high ceiling, an elegant chandelier, four doorways and some tables with chairs. Below the stage – right across from patrons sitting front row center – are the table and chair where Agatha writes. That little spot is her sanctuary, one she escapes to frequently in the play.
Impressive set design for “Mrs. Christie.”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Author Heidi Armbruster has taken a tiny swatch of Agatha’s life and created this play. The incident that Armbruster choose to highlight: eleven days in 1926 when Agatha mysteriously disappeared.
… high praise should be showered on the incredibly beautiful scenic design…
The story opens as a car comes to a halt offstage and Agatha (stalwart Jennifer LeBlanc) runs onstage and screams “Peter is dead!” – a line which certainly perks up the audience. She continues to scream that Peter has bit the dust while yelling to her maid Charlotte (a role marvelously deadpanned by actress Elissa Beth Stebbins): “I must call the doctor!”
Charlotte asks Agatha whether she is hurt, but Agatha stumbles over some books sitting in the middle of the stage and simply insists: “Call Dr. Hancock!” The level-headed maid reminds Agatha that if Peter is, indeed, dead, then a doctor will be of no use.
Thus begins the rather convoluted, occasionally humorous and sometimes riveting storyline of Mrs. Christie. (Incidentally, Peter — “Petey” in the program– is a loveable big black dog played by Murphy and, in other performances, by Anubis).
“Mrs. Christie” cast at work. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
One of the primary flaws of Mrs. Christie is that it’s set both in 1926 and in the current day. Some of the actors perform in dual roles while others, like the enigmatic Jane (charmingly played by Lucinda Hitchcock Cone) and Lucy (Nicole Javier) are only in modern scenes.
Javier has a pivotal role, yet , in my opinion, she speaks much too softly and hurriedly to be understood in the carnivorous theater.
Lucy has been a huge Christie fan for many years, so she seizes the opportunity to attend a celebration of the author’s 125th birthday at her Davon estate, but she isn’t content staying outside Agatha’s home at the celebration – she finds a door open to let in air and ends up in her living room. She instantly turns into a kleptomaniac and starts grabbing anything that Agatha owned, small enough to fit in her large purse!
That’s when Stebbins becomes the present-day maid, Mary, who quickly removes everything Lucy has taken – then stands guard to make sure she leaves the house. (Oddly, she doesn’t shut and lock the doors, because Lucy returns to pilfer again.)
There are a few scenes with Agatha’s husband, Colonel Archie Christie (a somewhat strident Aldo Billingslea) and his lover Nancy Neele (Kina Kantor) who, while attractive, is directed to show zero emotion in her role.
The playwright adds more characters to compound the confusion. When Agatha is sitting in a bathtub trying to forget all her marital problems, who shows up to keep her company but her own creation Hercule Poirot – called Le Detective in the program and appealingly played by William Thomas Hodgson.
Agatha Christie and Monsieur Poirot chatting. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Watching Stebbins as the maid Mary get down on her hands and knees and spend several minutes drying the floor in semi-darkness after the bathtub scene was, for this reviewer, a lighthearted highlight! The stalwart Max Tachis appears in both 1926 and today as William and Collins – adding a down-to-earth quality in both parts.
TheatreWorks’ new artistic director Giovanna Sardelli directs this, the company’s first production of the 2023-24 season. Though she likely found ways to make the script more meaningful to 2023 theatregoers, Armbruster might want to consider a rethink of what she has written – so that audiences will perhaps better understand the Agatha Christie she obviously adores.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Spreckels Theatre Company lit up the 500-seat Nellie W. Codding Theatre at Friday night’s brilliant opening of the beloved classic Hello, Dolly.
With music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Michael Stewart, director Elly Lichenstein’s production is refreshingly true to the original. Set in 1890s Yonkers and New York City, the play follows the machinations of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a former socialite forced to use her prodigious wiles as matchmaker and “arranger of all things” to earn a living after the death of her beloved husband Ephraim. Exhausted by the effort required to keep herself afloat, Dolly sets her sights on snaring the “well-known half-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder, while ostensibly trying to match him with comely milliner and widow Mrs. Irene Molloy.
The choice to stage Dolly in the wake of the complex (and also outstanding) contemporary Irish comedy Stones in His Pockets was a bit of showbiz genius by Spreckels’ Artistic Director Sheri Lee Miller. While at first glance the plays appear wildly disparate, in fact, they both explore the theme of the effects of living in wealth versus poverty, a topic of vital relevancy today as “haves” continue to displace “have nots,” housing prices soar, and wages stagnate.
While some might view Dolly as a gold digger, she is not at all interested in hoarding wealth, as evidenced by her assertion that she adheres to her former husband’s belief that, “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.”
(Pictured: Daniela Innocenti Beem as Dolly Levi and Chris Schloemp as Horace Vandergelder).
Perfectly cast in the title role, Daniela Innocenti-Beem radiantly guides the action, charming the audience from her first appearance walking down the center aisle, handing out business cards for every conceivable need before taking the stage to introduce herself in song in the delightful “I Put my Hand In.” The spotlight always appears to shine brighter in her direction.
She’s a solid performer, whether enlivening the many comic scenes, conveying tender wistfulness as she beseeches her deceased husband to send her a sign, dancing, or showcasing her superb voice. Innocenti-Beem is absolutely the star of this show!
Chris Schloemp is spot on as gruff, miserly and calculating Horace Vandergelder. Zane Walters’ combination of earnestness and humor in his portrayal of Chief Clerk Cornelius Hackl hits just the right notes. Both men shine in their respective roles. Fun-loving widow Irene Molloy is deftly played by Madison Scarbrough, whose clear and rich tones during the gorgeous “Ribbons Down My Back” made the song a show-stopper. Kaela Mariano as Ermengarde is also a standout in her perfectly over-the-top depiction of Horace’s spoiled niece. There’s not a lackluster performance in this show!
“Hello Dolly” cast at work.
Set design by Eddy Hansen and Elizabeth Bazzano is beautifully augmented by Nick Lovato’s skillful projections. Lighting and sound design by Eddy Hansen and Jessica Johnson are straightforward and effective. Choreography by Karen Miles, superb throughout the show, reaches its crescendo during the madcap performance of the “Waiter’s Gallop” preceding dinner service at the Harmonia Gardens. Music Direction by Debra Chambliss is impeccable. Many guests made their way to the orchestra pit as the performers left the stage to enjoy seeing the musicians play the final notes of the evening. Oh, and you just have to see the wonderful costuming by Donnie Frank.
Spreckels Theatre Company’s production of Hello, Dolly is musical theatre at its best and kept this reviewer smiling throughout the performance and happily humming all the way home.
With an abbreviated schedule due to an unforeseen issue which caused the play to open a week late, Spreckels has added a special-price performance on Thursday, October 12 at 7:30 P.M. during which all tickets will be $20 for adults and $10 for youth 18 and under. Grab your tickets right away—the show ends its too-brief run October 15th.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Hello, Dolly
Music & Lyrics by
Book by
Jerry Herman
Michael Stewart
Directed by
Elly Lichenstein
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through Sept 10th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
You can count on one hand theatrical productions where the supporting cast is by far the best part of the play. Add Hillbarn Theatre’s current production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery to that short list.
Ludwig is known for his comedic work including Lend Me a Tenor (which won two Tony Awards), Crazy for You, Moon Over Buffalo and Shakespeare in Hollywood.
…several production team members deserve a shout-out..
At under two hours with one intermission, this efficient production meticulously directed by Leslie Martinson, moves so quickly that it’s sometimes all an audience can do to watch the three versatile supporting actors — playing 40+ different characters — rush out and then return in slightly altered costumes as other characters. There must be several dressers backstage to assist with so many quick changes!
A mysterious stranger on the moors (George Psarras*) *Actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Photo Credit: Mark Kitaoka
Ted Zoltan (Actor 1), Darrien Cabreana (Actor 2) and especially Alicia M.P. Nelson (Actor 3) are the warp-and-woof of Baskerville, despite the rather annoying tagline which says it’s a “Sherlock Holmes mystery.” Nelson uses a dozen or so different accents (both upper and lower-class British), Scottish, Irish and who knows what else, to steal the show from George Psarras (Sherlock Holmes) and John Watson (Michael Champlin).
Champlin, at least, has more to do (and far more stage time than Psarras). He deservedly garnered a huge sympathetic reaction from Friday’s opening night audience when he intentionally fell flat on his back with a resounding thud!
It’s useless to attempt to describe the storyline, although perhaps anyone who’s read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles might have an easier time of it. If not, it’s best to just go with the flow and not worry when something doesn’t make sense or when an actor changes from a landowner to a pauper in a few seconds by dashing out one of the four archways, switching into a different hat or scarf, and walking back in as a different person.
(L to R) Watson (Michael Champlin) and Holmes (George Psarras*) learn never to question a cabbie (Alicia M.P. Nelson) — *Actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
The first hint that something has gone awry is the introduction of a troupe of traveling artists who are touring England in a production of the original tale. Alas! All but five of the actors have missed the train – and only a few trunks of costumes and props have made it on the train as well. Their next stop: Barnhill-on-Foster (wink wink) in Hampshire, England, circa 1892
Despite a performance by Psarras which this reviewer found a bit wanting, the other four players made sure Hillbarn audiences got to chuckle a lot and go home feeling that they’ve had a jolly good time.
(L to R) Holmes (George Psarras*) and Watson (Michael Champlin) are hot on the case, interviewing Actor 1 (Ted Zoldan) and Actor 2 (Darrien Cabreana). *Actors courtesy Actors’ Equity Assoc. Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
Several production team members deserve a shout-out for superior effort: costume designer Nolan Miranda is one; ditto scenic designer Kevin Davies and sound designer Jeff Mockus.
Steve Muterspauch, Hillbarn’s new executive artistic director, can justifiably be proud of Hillbarn’s first production of the season. Discounts are available for anyone under 18 as well as seniors and groups of 10 or more.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
An aspiring actress gets her chance in Jocelyn Bioh’s uproarious Nollywood Dreams, at San Francisco Playhouse through November 4.
Ayamma Okafor (Angel Adedokun) works at her family’s travel agency in Lagos, Nigeria, where the entire story takes place. Probably not a well-known fact among Americans, Nigeria’s thriving film industry is one of the world’s most prolific.
Ayamma (Angel Adedokun) is starstruck as she meets Wale (Jordan Covington) and Gbenga (Tre’Vonne Bell) in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams,” performing thru Nov 4, 2023. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Ayamma hopes to lift herself out of the tedium of her daily work and venture into the glitzy world of film—and fame. Her lackadaisical sister and workmate Dede (Brittany Nicole Sims) has no such aspirations, but does worship film stars, especially the handsome charmer Wale Owuso (Jordan Covington).
…Nollywood Dreams is exactly the feel-good antidote we need today…
The Playhouse is lit with neon and splashy patterns, accompanied by throbbing rhythms of Africa. Your heartbeat is up even before the actors appear. The production is significantly interactive: we are invited to let the actors know how we feel about them and their story by joining in with our own reactions. Breaking the “4th wall,” one scene includes an actor sitting with the audience.
On a huge revolving set by Bill English, Nollywood Dreams features continual scenes across three different locales: the travel agency, a TV studio, and the office of film director Gbenga Ezie (Tre’Vonne Bell). Initially we meet our protagonist, wannabe actress Ayamma—slim, intense, and sincere—who pours her heart out to older sister Dede, an outrageous, outspoken, but unmotivated couch-potato. Their dynamic is loving and hilarious at each turn.
The stage turns and a TV interview is in progress. Now we (the play’s audience) become the vocal audience of a daytime TV show hosted by the queen bee of Nigerian celebrity gossip, the brightly-swathed and head-dressed Adenikeh (Tanika Baptiste), a character partly modeled on America’s own Oprah. Baptiste is totally engaging and effusive as she prods interviewee Gbenga about auditions for his next film, a romantic comedy called The Comfort Zone.
Adenikeh (Tanika Baptiste), the Oprah of Lagos, dishes on her talk show in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Her outsized female persona foils his suave, understated but sweeping masculinity. Our verbal reactions to his story of marital and extramarital love up the ante of our emotional engagement. Through some Nigerian film history projections we meet the final two characters in this play: Wale the endearing lover-boy actor already well-known to Nigerian audiences, and Fayola (Anna Marie Sharpe), an established actress whose career has hit an impasse. Sharp’s wise-cracking subtlety must be seen to be believed.
Who will be cast in this next movie? How will previous dating relationships, careers (or lack thereof) and political machinations solve the casting choices? The set revolves to reveal the director’s office, where auditions of a kind, amid spats and jealousies, play out evoking old loves and new emotional blooming. A favorite scene involves Dede’s curse on the rival actress to aid sister Ayamma’s chances for snagging a role.
Nigerian film director Gbenga (Tre’Vonne Bell) dishes on a talk show in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Nollywood Dreams” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Nollywood Dreams is a terrifically paced production of a laugh-out-loud script, filled with characters who pop with iconic familiarity. The show is blessed with performing excellence, directorial finesse and assurance and production values that excel in every scene. As fabulous or ordinary costumes (Jasmine Milan Williams, designer) change from one quick scene to another we wonder how they can top the previous look.
Theater veteran and director Margo Hall has coaxed the utmost from her richly talented cast. The eye-candy set and projections, and especially the unexpected finale, deliver a luscious dessert of a play that on opening night provoked a sustained standing ovation. Nollywood Dreams is exactly the feel-good antidote we need today.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager. An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com.
ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Ross Valley Players has at last been able to re-mount Tennessee Williams’ classic play The Glass Menagerie.
First seen for a very short time in 2020 pre-pandemic, the estimable company has brought back this production and the rewards are ours to behold. Anchored with a stunning performance by Tamar Cohn as Amanda Wingfield, the mother of iron, this production draws on the finest of both technical and actor/director support making it a must-see for the final two weeks of its run.
…Ross Valley Players has given us a gift not to be missed….
Written in 1944, The Glass Menagerie catapulted an obscure Thomas Lanier Williams to the heights of fame. His promise continued with Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana, Sweet Bird Of Youth, Suddenly Last Summer and many more plays indelibly etched in the American Theatre psyche. A playwright/poet of astonishing language skills, Williams (who adopted the name “Tennessee”), weaves together memories, idiosyncratic characters and pain in this first of his great works.
The play is set in 1937 in a small St. Louis flat inhabited by Amanda Wingfield, her son Tom (David Abams) and her emotionally and physically fragile daughter Laura (Tina Traboulsi). Looking down on them is a portrait of the father, who left for parts unknown years earlier, sending only a postcard with the words “Hello” and “Goodbye.” Laura spends her time tending to a collection of glass figurines which her mother calls “Laura’s glass menagerie.” Tom keeps the family afloat working at a shoe warehouse and dreaming of joining the merchant marines.
Tamar Cohn as Amanda. David Abrams as Tom. Photos by Robin Jackson.
Wanting Laura to break through her intense shyness and hopefully meet and marry, Amanda coerces Tom to bring home a “gentleman caller” for Laura to meet. Tom invites his work colleague Jim O’Conner (Jesse Lumb) without knowing that Laura has had a crush on him since high school.
The RVP production has a simple but almost gauze-like set by Tom O’Brien complete with pastel walls and a see-through curtain separating the dining space from the living room. Outside is the landing with a fire escape where Tom smokes and narrates the memory tale. Spot on costumes by Michael Berg, an imaginative and evocative lighting design by Michele Samuels and period victrola music collected by resident sound designer Billie Cox, complete the fragile memories that Tom illuminates.
Jesse Lumb as Jim. Tina Traboulsi as Laura. Photos by Robin Jackson.
This is indeed a memory play as Tom tells us directly guiding us into his world of painful guilt as he looks back on the family he left behind when, like his father before him, he leaves and never returns.
The RVP cast is exemplary. Tom is played with deep sincerity, beautiful vocal assuredness and pained recollection by Abrams, also the director of the production. Tina Traboulsi brings all right qualities of awkward shyness and yet an underlying strength to Laura. She eschews a leg brace which is often used in productions, and instead adopts a slight limp, which she of course sees as a monumental obstruction. Jesse Lumb’s warm, comforting and caring gentleman caller is pitch-perfect. His scene lit by candlelight with Laura is a particular highlight of emotional excellence.
Tamar Cohn as Amanda. David Abrams as Tom. Photos by Robin Jackson in Tennessee William’s “The Glass Menagerie” Photos by Robin Jackson.
The production however belongs to Tamar Cohn and her astonishing portrayal of Amanda. Wielding wiles of ever imaginative possibilities, this force-of-nature mother cajoles, primps, screams in frustration and anger, and utilizes every tool in her arsenal to help her children. Underlying it all in this beautiful performance is love – a love that shines through the gauze like a beacon of hope. Stunning!
Memory plays such as The Glass Menagerie and Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa necessitate such simplicity of distance bringing us into the narrator’s world, so we feel the pain, anguish and the love of our own lives long past and yet long remembered.
Ross Valley Players has given us a gift not to be missed.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Glass Menagerie
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Directed by
David Abrams
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru Oct 14th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Steve Jobs rode the crests of waves of computer technology that have transformed society.
In The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs we experience his growth, wipeout, and spiritual arrival on a farther shore. The opera is a triumphal result of Mason Bates’ continually engaging, effervescent score; Mark Campbell’s tersely masterful 18-scene libretto; the design teams’ fabulous blending of set, lighting, sound, and projections; and flawless orchestral and vocal performances under the direction of Michael Christie. It is not to be missed.
Bille Bruley as Steve Wozniak and John Moore as Steve Jobs. Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Most significant to me was Bates’ mastery of orchestration, and deepening range of emotive expression. Rather than use melodic leitmotivs as Wagner did to distinguish characters, he uses groups of instruments: guitar and percussion for Jobs (superb baritone Joseph Lattanzi), strings for his wife (luscious mezzo Sasha Cooke), flutes for his earlier girlfriend (plaintive soprano Olivia Smith), saxophones for his Apple 1 partner (powerful tenor Bille Bruley), and Asian gongs and other flavorings for his Zen mentor (rich bass Wei Wu).
…Most significant to me was Bates’ mastery of orchestration…
In Bates’ earlier orchestral music, I heard an heir to John Adams’ post-minimalist aesthetic leavened by experimentation with added electronica. But in Jobs, Bates has matured beyond Adams with the use of tonal and triadic effects to inject warm-heartedness into the mix via the string section, much as the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara did in his ground-breaking Cantus Arcticus and later symphonies.
Members of the SF Opera Chorus in “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.” Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Campbell’s dramatic and often ironic instincts are ever present. Jobs is worth its price in gold for Scene 12 alone. In it, Jobs browbeats his Apple 1 co-creator into quitting, denies siring his live-in girlfriend’s child, rejects seven proposals from seven different designers, refuses to support the girlfriend financially, even after DNA proof, and gets kicked to tech “Siberia” by his company’s board. Jobs tries to explain it all in the next scene to his post-mortem spiritual advisor, “I was only seeking perfection.” All of this is peppered with Bates’ most frenetic accompaniments.
The staging by Victoria Tzykun is simplistic, with giant monoliths silently wheeled around by (mostly) unseen “mover” stage staff. On these are projected a dazzling array of computer-board circuits, lighting effects, and contemplative outdoor scenes. This eye candy has many calories, appropriate to the vast fortunes swirling about Silicon Valley.
Sasha Cooke as Laurene Powell Jobs and John Moore as Steve Jobs in Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.” Photo: Cory Weaver/SF Opera
Finally, near the close of the opera, Campbell has Job’s wife deliver a moral to a communication-obsessed society: “Glance at the smile of the person sitting right there next to you. Look up, look out, look around. Be here now.” I did so and wondered, will technology take us safely to a New World beach, or will we too wipe out, even more permanently? I think Surfer Steve tells us in this opera that we will make it.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA.
His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
The door-slamming farce is alive and well at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre. A likely sold-out show, Selina Fillinger’s outrageous comedy POTUS runs through October 22.
In the grand tradition of Lend Me a Tenor and Noises Off, the show stars seven Equity women as various figures in the White House, doing their best to contain potentially disastrous effects from an erratic president, whom we never meet—and truthfully, hope we won’t.
Stephanie Pope Lofgren (Margaret), Deirdre Lovejoy (Harriet) , and Stephanie Styles (Dusty) at work. Credit: Kevin Berne
Diedre Lovejoy and Kim Blanck are perfectly balanced as Chief of Staff Harriet and Press Secretary Jean, respectively. Their worrisome back-and-forth bickering is hilarious on its own, but the remaining five cast members take the whole affair into the comedic stratosphere.
…Raunchy, rambunctious, and bursting with savagely cynical energy…
First Lady Margaret (Stephanie Pope Lofgren) is the cynical, long-suffering eye of the storm. White House correspondent Chris (Dominique Toney) shares much of the exasperation expressed by FLOTUS (“First Lady of the United States”) while having embarrassing personal issues as a new mother with leaky swollen breasts. The two are superb with both deadpan delivery and physical comedy.
Stephanie Pope Lofgren (Margaret) and Susan Lynskey (Stephanie) in Selina Fillinger’s gleefully feminist satire POTUS through Sunday, October 22, 2023. All Photos Credit: Kevin Berne
Then there’s addled secretary Stephanie (Susan Lynskey), whose accidental acid trip pushes the tale in marvelously unexpected directions, and Bernadette (Allison Guinn), the president’s tough-talking, drug-dealing sister, recently released on parole and hoping to get a pardon from her brother.
Dominique Toney (Chris) and Stephanie Pope Lofgren (Margaret) at work in “POTUS” at Berkeley Rep. All Photos Credit: Kevin Berne
Topping it off is Dusty (Stephanie Styles), the president’s barely-pregnant “dalliance.” She’s a ditzy former cheerleader with wild commentary on everything taking place, and even wilder antics so funny that you’ll do well to catch your breath.
Embracing the fantastic performers in POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is the quick-change set by Andrew Boyce. The frenetic pace of the performance is perfectly matched by the timing of set changes—and by Palmer Herreran’s great sound design and Yi Zhao’s lighting. Annie Tippe’s expert direction couldn’t be better.
Raunchy, rambunctious, and bursting with savagely cynical energy, POTUS is a cathartic exploration of presidential insanity—and the insanity induced in those who’ve signed on as members of his team. Painful as it is to remember the extreme dysfunctionality we experienced during the reign of “the former guy,” POTUS delightfully informs us how much worse it could be.
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ASR ExecutiveEditor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Palo Alto Players’ current production of the musical version of the beloved Roald Dahl book, Matilda is a bit of a mixed bag.
While there are odd bits to enjoy – most especially Doug Santana’s uproarious acting and buxom look as the school’s old bag principal, Miss Agatha Trunchbull – there are also times when the sounds of screeching little voices and painfully outdated sound system at the Lucie Stern Theatre make one wonder whether to leave at intermission. And why did someone run the air conditioning during the show, making people try to bundle up in their sweaters or jackets for a matinee production?
…Costume designer Greet Jaspaert also deserves a shout-out…
Two young girls play the title role of Matilda Wormwood: Sofia Zamora and Araceli Grace. This reviewer saw Grace as Matilda, so comments made here are about her. Grace is a charmer, though I also found it frequently difficult to hear her words clearly. Good news: when she sings, her words are crystal clear.
For those who are not familiar with Dahl’s book, it can be quite confusing to watch the PAP production. Matilda’s parents, Mrs. Wormwood (a campy take on the role by Brigitte Losey) and her husband, Mr. Wormwood (Randy Lee) are more interested in money and trying to con other people out of theirs than they are in Matilda.
But the young girl has two people who watch out for her: Mrs. Phelps (Kayvon Kordestani) and her kindly teacher Miss Honey (Madelyn Davis). Davis likely has the best voice in the 29-member cast, and she uses it in several numbers: “Pathetic,” “This Little Girl,” “When I Grow Up” and “My House.”
One of the best group musical numbers in Act 2 is “When I Grow Up” featuring the children, Matilda and Miss Honey. Four long swings are lowered from the rafters, and some of the youthful ensemble jump on them and swing away. Then four older boys take over and swing far out into the audience. That causes an audible “Oh!” from the audience, and applause. Credit choreographer Whitney Janssen for that bit of excitement.
Costume designer Greet Jaspaert also deserves a shout-out for coming up with appropriate clothes for the large cast – and for creating the comical clothing of Santana as the dreaded Miss Trunchbull.
As the Escapologist, Steve Roma plays a large part in Matilda, although to anyone not familiar with the book, it might be a mystery what he does.
For some reason, PAP seems to be focused on children’s stories this year.
Matilda runs for just four more performances this weekend, ending on Sunday, Sept. 24. If you go, prepare by bringing along a warm jacket. PAP’s next production in November is The Wizard of Oz, then there’s more adult fare in 2024.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The redoubtable, inventive Shotgun Players troupe continues its journey into the the realm of high-value, thought-provoking and theatrically-bold selections with Korean playwright Hansol Jung’s masterful and multi-layered Wolf Play.
Directed with whip-smart precision by Elizabeth Carter, the show takes the audience on a discovery trip as we define and then redefine what the words “home” and “family” mean.
Wolf Play tells the story of Jeenu (Wolf) a six- year-old child first adopted by Peter and Kate. When Kate becomes pregnant with her own child, Jeenu is “rehomed” by Peter on the internet to Robin – half of a lesbian couple. Robin’s wife Ash is an aspiring boxer whose life and immediate goals are compromised by the unexpected arrival of the child.
…In a world of its own is James Ard’s glorious soundscape…
Played as a puppet manipulated with insouciant and inquisitive spirit by Mikee Loria, Jeenu is seeking a home and a pack and refers to himself as Wolf. He howls, bays, snarls, and growls with anger as his life is uprooted.
Mikee Loria as Wolf. All Photography by Ben Krantz.
Complications ensue when Peter (played with angst and determination by Sam Bertken) discovers that he has sold the boy to an LGBTQIA+ couple, and wants him back. By this time, having discovered his new “pack,” Jeenu has acclimated himself into the home life of his “moms.” Despite Robin’s motherly warmth, clear love of this child, and simultaneous steel (portrayal by the talented Laura Domingo) it is Gobby Momah’s Ash that the boy eventually identifies with.
Laura Domingo as Robin, Caleb Cabrera as Ryan.
One of the joys of the play is watching them communicate. All others look at the puppet when talking to the boy, Ash looks directly at Jeenu. She talks to him, not just about him. Ash is being trained for the big fight by Robin’s brother Ryan (a focused and determined Caleb Cabrero). The characters of Kate the wife and also Ryan and Robin’s Mom are not seen, but are spoken to by the actors in what the reviewer found to be a rather confusing mélange of conversation.
We watch the puppet/boy react with pain, confusion, and tears as his search for family, a pack, is ripped once again away from him. All this culminates in a final courtroom custody battle deciding the fate of the child. The results of that trial won’t be given away here.
Technical elements are good. Stephanie Johnson (whose gorgeous work illuminated Marin Shakespeare Company this summer) brings similar creativity to Shotgun Players. Celeste Martone’s set and Ashley Renee’s costumes serve the play well. The combination of David Maier and boxing consultant Emmanuel Blackwell bring the big match and Gabby Momah’s remarkable reactive punch/foot work to life.
Caleb Cabrera as Ryan, Gabby Momah as Ash.
In a world of its own is James Ard’s glorious soundscape. The opening moments with clangs and bells of the ring, are brilliant. The play’s running time is 1 hour and 50 minutes with no intermission.
Shotgun delivers a play dealing with many current issues of queer identity, broken lives, the vulnerability of children being bartered like animals, and above all, the need for roots, family, a pack.
Caleb Cabrera as Ryan, Sam Bertken as Peter, Laura Domingo as Robin, Gabby Momah as Ash in “Wolf Play” at Shotgun Players.
On Facebook, we see actors referring to casts as “my chosen family.” How long will that last past the closing? We chose family as such for a lifetime of eternal, ethereal connection. Wolf Play helps us clear the air and get to the root of this journey.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Characters from the 1964 television series come alive, along with many ghosts, in this hilarious fun-filled musical. Novato Theatre Company under the direction of Marilyn Izdebski pulled out all the stops, including thunder and lightning, to rival any Broadway stage. The derelict Gothic mansion, designed and built by Michael Walraven, is just the start of this journey with a dark and bizarre family.
Morticia (Alison Peltz) at work on the NTC stage.
The casting is hilariously perfect. Bruce Vieira commands the role of Gomez with an authoritative touch and comedic timing. Veteran Alison Peltz slinks and sizzles as Morticia, a perfectly gorgeous foil to amorous Gomez. Their children yank on one another, as siblings do, Pugsley with his chains (alternating roles Robin Kraft and Milo Ward) and Wednesday (Harriette Pearl Fugitt) with her crossbow.
…Novato Theater Company has a graveyard smash…
Fugitt has the central role in the plot: she’s the daughter with a serious boyfriend who is “normal.” She fears bringing him and his ordinary family into her own bizarre home. Fugitt seems made for this part, breathing life into her deadpan delivery and big brassy voice.
Uncle Fester (Pat Barr) and Grandma (Kayla Gold) at work on the NTC stage.
Wednesday’s boyfriend Lucas (John Diaz) is a sweetie who somehow finds love in her peculiar antics. His conservative midwestern parents, Alice (Jane Harrington) and Mal (David Shirk) are taken aback at the oddities of the Addams family when they come for dinner. They struggle to retain their cheery composure for their son’s sake.
“The Addams mansion overflows with outlandish occupants…”
The Addams mansion overflows with outlandish occupants. Pat Barr channels Fester, the genial uncle who charms the audience. Lurch, the monosyllabic Frankenstein-like butler, is brought to life by Todd Krish, green skin tone and all. When asked post-show how long it took to get into their makeup, these actors laughed and answered “We’re both bald anyway, so it was an easy half hour to complete the job.”
Grandma, played with a wink and a sly grin by Kayla Gold, draws laughs just showing up onstage. She has a cart full of potions and poisons. Pugsley doesn’t want Wednesday to marry Lucas and leave home, so he sneaks a snootful to dose Wednesday. Intended to turn loose her inhibitions and offend Lucas, it mistakenly is swallowed by Alice, who goes wild in a showstopper number on the Adams’ dinner table.
The principal actors at work in “The Addams Family Musical” at NTC
As if all this outlandish talent wasn’t enough, eleven graveyard “ancestors” dance around in cadaverous make-up and ghostly costumes designed by Tracy Redig. Their beat goes on with the help of a live band offstage directed by Judy Wiesen.
Be warned: the line for tickets went out the door on opening night, and preview night was also sold out. Novato Theater Company has a graveyard smash in The Addams Family Musical so snap your fingers and get there soon.
Playing now through October 8th at the 99-seat Novato Playhouse, 5420 Nave Drive, Novato CA. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets@NovatoTheaterCompany.Org or email Tickets@NovatoTheaterCompany.Org.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
The Addams Family Musical
Written by
Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice
Directed by
Marilyn Izdebski
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through Oct 8th
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
It’s a miracle that Mountain View’s tiny Pear Theatre pulls off the complex staging required for the insanely wacky Michael Frayn comedy Noises Off.
Some may recall that Frayn’s 1982 play was made into a film a decade later with Carol Burnett playing the role of the housekeeper Mrs. Clackett/Dotty who keeps losing her plates of sardines. Here, the exceptional Judith Miller takes on that role and excellently conveys her incredulity and amazement as plates of sardines appear and disappear at will.
Kristin Walter (Belinda), Judith Miller (Dotty), Natalie To (Brooke), Kyle Dayrit (Lloyd), Michael Rhone (Frederick). Photo credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge.
Though the entire cast is fine, Chris Mahle as the lecherous Garry and Natalie To as the dim-witted Brooke skillfully find their characters’ charm and nuanced characteristics.
What’s most amazing about the Pear’s production is that at the end of Act 1, the audience is directed to leave by a side entrance, then, once in the front of the theatre, the Pear’s education director Meaghan Anderson commands their attention as she charmingly gives a history of sardines to the crowd. Next, she takes everyone on a tour of the theatre’s green room as well as the dressing room where various actors are sitting, standing or reading lines.
“Noises Off’ cast working hard at the Pear theater. Photo credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge.
When they emerge, the audience is now invited to take a seat in the Pear’s somewhat small backstage area. It’s from this vantage point that Act 2 begins.
It’s quite obvious that Champlin, the actors and crew all had to work with the same goal in mind to make Noises Off work so well in this theatre.
…Frayn’s entire set of characters are just that: characters!…
There are two casts in this Pear show: the “Sardines Cast” and the “Doors Cast” although all but three actors perform in both casts. (The “Sardines” cast is the one reviewed here.)
Other standouts in the Sardines cast include:
–Brandon Silberstein as Tim, the put-upon set-builder, carpenter and general jack-of-all-trades who suddenly discovers he enjoys being in front of the curtain as well as behind the scenes.
–Kristin Walter as Belinda, wife of the couple who own the house where everything takes place. For tax purposes she and her husband (Michael Rhone) have to stay in Spain for a year, but they sneak back to their home for a romantic one-night getaway for their anniversary.
–Ken Boswell as Selsdon, who is always hunting for his bottle of booze which is frequently snatched away from him by other cast members for fear he’ll get drunk and not remember his entrances or his lines.
–Kyle Dayvit as Lloyd, the long-suffering director of the play-within-a-play, who constantly yells at his actors when they forget lines, their blocking, and their entrances and exits. He’s constantly marching down to the set to scream, yell and generally seethe at how the rehearsal is going.
Walter and Dayrit do not appear when the “Doors” cast is performing.
Judith Miller (Dotty), Ken Boswell (Selsdon), Kristin Walter (Belinda), Brandon Silberstein (Tim), Vivienne Truong (Poppy), Kyle Dayrit (Lloyd), Natalie To (Brooke), Chris Mahle (Garry). Photo credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge.
The show is a riotous testament to the ingenuity of director Katie O’Bryon Champlin and a top-notch cast capable of juggling pratfalls and senseless lines – all while looking as if it’s an everyday occurrence!
The Pear Theatre’s website (www.thepear.org) lists which cast performs on which dates.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Noises Off
Written by
Michael Frayn
Directed by
Katie O’Bryon Champlin
Producing Company
The Pear Theater
Production Dates
Thru Oct 1st
Production Address
1110 La Avenida, Suite A, Mountain View
Website
www.thepear.org
Telephone
(650) 254 - 1148
Tickets
SOLD OUT. Contact Box Office for additional performances
The annual Eugene O’Neill Festival is dedicated this year to the voices of women, and Anna Christie is the play that delivers that goal. To get there, we took a Festival Bus to an old barn on a remote hill in Danville to be entertained, time-warped, and enveloped by three compelling characters.
It’s the story of a former prostitute who must reveal her past to her father and fiancé. The denouement is a nut to crack enveloped in fog. Is this a drama, a tragedy, or a melodrama? Anna Christie has occasional aspects of all of these elements. But the engaging characters, their stories, and ultimately their charm work their magic.
Look up and see the stars through the holes in the barn ceiling. Pray that rain won’t come during the performance. Crickets crawl across the stage, and flies waft by. Where is this superb venue? At the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, managed with cooperation and support from the Eugene O’Neill Foundation.
…a triumph for one of O’Neill’s best plays to our delight…
Before showtime, one can tour O’Neill’s former residence, Tao House, now a complete museum and gift shop, just a short walk from the barn. At the end of September, the whole cast and production will perform again at The Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre in New Ross, Ireland. It’s an annual cultural and civic celebration of the strong ties between Ireland and the United States exemplified by O’Neill’s Irish heritage.
Anna Christie opens with a glimpse of Anna, now a refugee from a hard-knock life, scurrying through the scene with her belongings in hand. Adriene Deane’s every expression reveals a 20-year-old who is oppressed but aching to recover from her past. It’s a subtle and primarily low-key role that is an excellent foil to her two loves. Her father, Chris Christopherson, hasn’t tried to see her in 15 years. He’s a crusty, boisterous, hard-drinking womanizing scamp ably captured by Charles Woodson Parker. He packs a hidden, vulnerable heart of filial love and a penchant for cursing “Ye old devil sea!” on whom he blames all life’s challenges.
Into this unlikely duo charges Matt Burke, a lowly Irish sailor whose profession is stoking coal on ships and living the itinerant life of the sea. Expertly played by Kyle Goldman, Matt makes up for his ignominious status with an explosive personality. His body writhes, his limbs contort or strut, his eyes bug and pinch, his eyebrows arch, and his chatter is non-stop, with an appeal that makes us want to take him home. This reviewer couldn’t wait for his next entrance.
Anna re-enters her father’s life, playing her last and lost family card, and hopes for help to recover from the abuse of her former professions: farm worker-slave, nurse, governess, and finally prostitute, a past she must hide. She moves onto the barge with her father and Matt. She ultimately is restored by the sea and the fog, which hides her past life from her consciousness, and the attentions and affections of Matt, who takes her for a well-bred young woman.
By Act III, this restorative happiness is challenged by Matt’s proposing marriage and her father’s attempts to control her – to steer her back to the land, to stability, to permanence, and away from the sea and the life of a sailor’s wife. She finally finds her voice and declares her love for both of them–and her right to personal responsibility and determinism.
Assisted by minimal but appropriate production elements, three featured roles, and the embrace of being set next to O’Neill’s former residence, the play delivers a triumph for one of O’Neill’s best plays to our delight and the Festival’s excellence.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Anna Christie
Written by
Eugene O’Neill
Directed by
Eric Fraisher Hayes
Producing Company
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House
Production Dates
Through Sept 24th
Production Address
The Old Barn, Tao House, 1000 Kuss Rd
Danville, CA 94526
A hip-hop girl from Brooklyn goes on a journey of discovery in CenterREP’s Crowns, at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek through October 6.
Yolanda (Antonia Reed), Mabel (Phaedra Tillery-Boughton), and Velma (Constance Jewell Lopez) listen as Jeanette (Janelle LaSalle) extolls the flirtatious power of hats in Center Repertory Company’s “Crowns.” Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
After the murder of her brother, Yolanda (Antonia Reed) is sent by her mother to live with her grandmother in a small South Carolina town. Juanita Harris stars as Mother Shaw, the town’s no-nonsense matriarch and queen bee of a bevy of church ladies, each of whom owns a collection of elaborate fancy hats mostly reserved for Sundays, when, as is repeated throughout the serio-comedic musical, they want to look their best when they “go to meet the king.”
..an exhilarating, uplifting celebration of life …
Jeanette’s dad (Darryl V. Jones) does a softshoe in a memory shared by the women (l to r: Phaedra Tillery-Boughton, Constance Jewell Lopez, Yaadi Erica Richardson, and Juanita Harris) in “Crowns,” performing Sep 9 – Oct 6, 2023 at Lesher Center for the Arts. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Veteran actor/director Darryl V. Jones is wonderful as the town’s pastor, and in multiple roles as various males—father, brother, bridegroom—in a show that’s an outrageously infectious celebration of the feminine side of African-American culture. He’s surrounded by members of his congregation, each with flamboyant headgear and tales to tell about every one of them. Yolanda wanders in bafflement among these congregants—Harris, Constance Jewell Lopez, Phaedra Tillery-Broughton, Yaadi Erica Richardson, and Janelle LaSalle—slowly making her own discoveries about ancient African traditions that persist in modern communities.
Sassy, self-assertive, and self-deprecating as only black women can be, these church ladies enlighten the audience with anecdotes that encompass everything from the basics of flirtation to coming of age in the Civil Rights era. Much of it is very funny, and some of it quite sad, such as a dance scene in which a wedding transitions into a funeral, then into a remembrance of the community’s departed males, symbolized by simple hats laid side-by-side on a set piece that’s both church pew and casket.
JT (Darryl V. Jones) and Mother Shaw (Juanita Harris) share a moment as Mabel (Phaedra Tillery-Boughton), Velma (Constance Jewell Lopez), and Jeanette (Janelle LaSalle) look on in Center Repertory Company’s “Crowns.” Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Scenic designer Nina Ball’s austere gothic arches serve as the sole set throughout the show, an adaptation by Regina Taylor from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Crowns is elegantly and powerfully directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.
Yolanda, and the audience, get schooled about a phenomenon that they may not have understood, but the dramatic theme that ties the story together is little more than a framework on which to hang plenty of great old Gospel hymns, all delivered with overpowering conviction: “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” to name just a few. The intermission-free performance is a riveting old-time revival, propelled by pianist Andrew Barnes Jamieson and percussionist Ken Bergmann.
It’s bedrock stuff.
Yolanda (Antonia Reed – left) shares her story with the cast (right – Darryl V. Jones, background: Yaadi Erica Richardson, Phaedra Tillery-Boughton, Janelle LaSalle) in Center Repertory Company’s “Crowns,” performing September 9 – October 6, 2023 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
“Take me to church,” sang pop star Hozier—a song that exemplifies the universal human need for spiritual redemption. That imperative is exactly what Crowns delivers—an exhilarating, uplifting celebration of life that will force even curmudgeonly nonbelievers to leap from their seats in praise.
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ASR ExecutiveEditor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Crowns
Written by
Regina Taylor
Directed by
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru Oct 6th
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
Transcendence Theatre Company has another winner on its hands with An Enchanted Evening at the sprawling Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen. The song-and-dance extravagance runs through September 17.
Directed by TTC co-founder Brad Surosky, the two-hour show features eleven supremely talented singers/dancers/actors and a supremely talented on-stage band—choreography by Michael Callahan, music direction by Matt Smart.
TTC’s “An Enchanted Evening” and Taylor Noll, Whitney Cooper, Alloria Frayser, Alyson Snyder, Emma Grimsley, Michael Callahan
Collectively they take their large outdoor audience on a hike down the memory lane of decades of pop music—some of it from classic stage musicals and some of it, Top 40 radio hits including at least one country song and one from the Motown catalog.
…There’s something for everyone in this diverse, marvelously engaging production—even an aria by Puccini…
Opening with “Pure Imagination” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the show then kicks into high gear with a mash-up of “I Put a Spell on You” and “Love Potion Number Nine.” An extended “Moon Medley” includes several songs with “moon” in the title or featured prominently in the lyrics. There’s a long, fun moment of audience participation, some bits of goofy comedic improvisation, but mostly two hours of tremendous singing and dancing from a deeply talented cast. Their playbill bios are especially impressive given their apparent youthfulness.
Emma Grimsley, Alloria Frayser, Alyson Snyder, Michael Schimmele, Whitney Cooper, Joey Khoury, Michael Callahan in “An Enchanted Evening.”
TTC has managed to correct a couple of minor problems that marred the opener of The Full Monty—the too-low stage and seats that had the audience staring directly into the backs of those sitting in front of them. It’s all good now—clear views for everyone, and now that it’s late summer, no squinting into the sun during the first act.
Colin Campbell Mcadoo, Joey Khoury, Michael Schimmele, Nathan Andrew Riley at work.
The show is a glorious way to spend a late summer evening. Early arrivals can enjoy a variety of vittles from several food trucks parked onsite, and wines from several Sonoma County vintners.
Whitney Cooper and Kyle White in “An Enchanted Evening by TTC.
TTC isn’t exaggerating in describing An Enchanted Evening as “a magical night of Broadway and beyond”—as truthful a tagline as one can imagine. It’s all that and more.
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ASR ExecutiveEditor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
A party atmosphere greeted the arrival of Hippest Trip – the Soul Train Musical last week at American Conservatory Theater. Brightly-attired fans spilled out into the street in front of the theater and filled it to capacity for the world premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s dazzling retrospective of the long-running television show and its founder Don Cornelius, wonderfully directed by Kamilah Forbes.
The cast of “HIPPEST TRIP – The Soul Train Musical”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne & Alessandra Mello
San Francisco mayor London Breed further amped up the crowd with a high-energy pre-show pep talk delivered from one of the most imaginative sets ever created for a big-production musical: a giant old-school TV set surrounded by extravagant neon in the rich brown and orange of early 1970s psychedelia, running up the walls and onto the ceiling of ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater—a brilliant effort by scenic designer Jason Sherwood.
…one of the most engaging musicals to land in San Francisco this year…
The incredibly confident Quentin Earl Darrington stars as Don Cornelius, a former Chicago journalist who grew tired of producing stories about crime and misery. He envisioned an upbeat dance-and-music show that would uplift his community. Through sheer willpower he made it a reality—first in his home town, then in Los Angeles, and then nationwide. New episodes aired every Saturday, and as Soul Train gained popularity, older episodes were available as re-runs.
Pam Brown (Amber Iman) and Don Cornelius (Quentin Earl Darrington). Photo credit: Kevin Berne & Alessandra Mello
Thanks to Cornelius’ tireless campaigning, the show featured top talents from the Stax and Motown labels—acts such as Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Four Tops—and superstars such as James Brown. Soul Train was hugely popular not only with its target market, but with music fans of all varieties. His tireless efforts yielded tremendous results, at the expense of alienating him from his family and ultimately provoking a divorce from his loyal wife Delores, evocatively portrayed by Angela Birchett.
In a resonant baritone, Darrington recites the Cornelius tale in the first person, directly to the audience, while other essential parts of the story are conveyed through what we can only assume are historically accurate sketches—and by lots of spectacular dancing propelled by an equally spectacular band. Kudos to choreographer Camille A. Brown and music supervisor Kenny Seymour.
The musical context is very much linear. The early days of Soul Train were a showcase for 1960s soul music, the favorite genre of the show’s founder and host.
Kayla Davion (Jody Watley) and the cast of “HIPPEST TRIP – The Soul Train Musical”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne & Alessandra Mello
Like swing era bandleader Glenn Miller, Cornelius imagined that his preferred music would endure forever, and was dismayed—if not blind-sided—by the rise of disco in the mid-to-late 1970s. Disco was a market disrupter for all kinds of pop music, and Cornelius ultimately relented, promoting disco acts such as the trio Shalamar, whose female singer Jody Watley (Kayla Davion) went on to have a solo career. He was further annoyed by the rise of hip-hop, a genre that originated at the same time as disco but proved to have much more staying power. Disco faded—1979 was reportedly the peak year for sales of vinyl records—but hip-hop and its offshoots remain dominant musical forces today.
Cornelius was further irked by the emergence of New Jack Swing, exemplified by Bobby Brown’s hard-rocking 1980s hit “My Prerogative”—in this show, a music-and-dance performance so stunning that it provoked a spontaneous standing ovation in the second act. This reviewer has attended thousands of productions, but until September 6 had never seen such an outpouring of enthusiasm and appreciation. Opening night was truly astounding.
An obsessed, well-intentioned visionary, Cornelius was nonetheless no angel. One of his sons was estranged, but Tony Cornelius (Sidney Dupont) signed on as his overbearing dad’s apprentice, and gradually worked his way into management of the Soul Train empire, a position he holds today. (A very informative interview between Tony and the playwright is included in the playbill. The real Tony Cornelius was at ACT on opening night, as was Morisseau, who delivered a heartfelt speech at closing.)
Perhaps the worst shortcoming of the elder Cornelius was his refusal to pay Soul Train dancers, even after the show was an undeniable big-ticket hit. He found his initial cadre at a Los Angeles recreation center, where they were being mentored by a kind-hearted woman named Pam Brown (Amber Iman), who became Cornelius’ loyal production assistant. Iman is a wonderfully compelling performer with a glorious singing voice. As with “My Prerogative,” she provoked sustained applause in almost every scene.
Roukijah “NutellaK” Rooks and the cast of “HIPPEST TRIP – The Soul Train Musical”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne & Alessandra Mello
There’s a tertiary thread in the show’s narrative where some dancers discuss going on strike until they realize they can’t demand higher wages if they aren’t being paid at all. Spunky dancer Rosie Perez (Mayte Natalio) repeatedly demands a contract, but only with lawyers present, a demand that her boss consistently rebuffs. The tight-fisted Cornelius may have harbored a fear that his eminently seaworthy ship might spring a leak at any moment.
All of this—personal and professional alike—is woven into one of the most engaging musicals to land in San Francisco this year. Both deeply informative and wildly entertaining, Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical is a hugely important piece of American cultural history. There aren’t enough stars in our ratings system to shower all the praise it deserves. It is without question the most important show now running in San Francisco.
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ASR ExecutiveEditor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical
Written by
Dominique Morisseau
Directed by
Kamilah Forbes
Producing Company
American Conservatory Theater
Production Dates
Through Oct 8th
Production Address
Toni Rembe Theater
415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA
This summer, we’ve had hot and muggy days. But overnight, a front can move through quickly and by sunrise we’re treated to clear, cool air with gentle breezes. Such was the refreshing joy of Solo Opera’s production of The Three Feathers. With delightful music by Lori Laitman and a well-crafted libretto by Dana Gioia, this 85-minute fairy tale opera was loaded with eye candy and star-powered performances.
The story is from the Brothers Grimm collection of 1812 about an aging king (the resonant baritone Eugene Brancovenanu) who wants to pass on his kingdom to one of his three offspring who best fulfills a series of challenges. In the Laitman/Gioia adaptation, these descendants are princesses rather than princes. The youngest, shiest, most naïve yet loving daughter Dora (the sweet soprano Shawnette Sulker) ends up the victor thanks to an underground frog king (the stentorian bass Kirk Eichelberger) that she finds via her magic feather, along with families of rats, bats and snakes.
…The pleasures are many…
Laitman’s music was charming and superbly orchestrated. I particularly admired her use of percussion and brass. While the music was rich in melodic evanescence, I must admit to wishing for at least one substantial aria. Gioia’s text added considerable depth to every one of the cardboard characters from the Grimm tale, and it did so such that it reads like music itself.
The Frog King’s Court with the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
And three of these characters really stood out, doubly boosted by the talents of coloratura Chelsea Hollow as the frivolous shopaholic princess Gilda, mezzo-soprano Hope Nelson as the she-woman princess Tilda, and Sam Faustine as the Frog Prince. Hollow’s voice was thrilling in its scamper. Nelson’s no-nonsense athleticism and vocal clarity would easily land her an executive position in a Silicon Valley startup. Finally, though a late arrival on the scene, Faustine’s frog brought down the house. His transformation from an idiotic frog to a loving and still idiotic prince still brings me tears of laughter.
Sam Faustine as the Frog Prince
All of the above excellence was couched in the transformative projections and most of the stage design by Peter Crompton. (I, for one, do wish the trap door to an underworld from the Grimm tale and the 2014 Virginia Tech production could have been retained somehow. Instead Gilda goes through a vertical panel behind her father’s throne. C’est la vie!) Callie Floor’s costume designs were resplendent, and the respective stage and music direction by Sylvia Amorino and Alexander Katsman left nothing to be desired.
The Three Feathers is not just a zoo of princesses, frogs, rats and bats, As Amorino pointed out in her program notes. “The opera invites us to be more inclusive, open our hearts and minds, and work to connect with those who are different than us.”
Sadly, the last performance of this rare treat occurred on September 10th, and with this show’s departure, mugginess returned to the Bay Area. That said, if you ever hear of a company producing this show, “hop to it” and see The Three Feathers.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA.
His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
The Three Feathers
Stage Direction
Sylvia Amorino
Musical Direction
Alexander Katsman
Producing Company
Solo Opera
Production Dates
Sep 8th, Sep 10th
Production Address
Hofmann Theatre, Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek 94596
Aisle Seat Review’s (ASR) management team of Kris Neely (Owner, Editor-in-Chief) and Barry Willis (Senior Executive Editor and Writer) want to address an issue that some have found confusing or contentious: ASR’s theater review scoring system ranges from 0.00 to 5.00 but disallows either 0.00 or 5.00 ratings for any theatrical production or for any performance aspect (performance, stagecraft, etc.) Clarifying why such an approach is valid and important for maintaining the integrity of ASR’s theater criticism and respecting the art it speaks to.
We understand that the notion of imperfection is not always comfortable, especially regarding the painstakingly complex task of creating and evaluating any art.
The Diverse Voices Behind Our Reviews
ASR’s critics are not just writers—they represent a tapestry of experience across theater arts. Our team encapsulates a wide range of expertise, including seasoned journalists, former theater professors, theater board members, and veterans of stage and screen.
Every one of our nine Nor Cal critics is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC), assuring that our reviews emanate not merely from knowledge but also from a profound passion and a solid history of and reverence for, the theater and theater arts and artists.
Furthermore, ASR’s coverage model also demonstrated our dedication to the diversity of Bay Area theater. Even a simple analysis of San Francisco to Antioch and Santa Rosa to San Jose reveals that ASR’s coverage model exceeds 4,500 square miles.
The Dual Objectives of Criticism
It is essential to differentiate the expectations of theater professionals and a critique website like ours, each with contrasting objectives. Theater companies, actors, and production artists naturally seek validation for their labor-intensive, experienced-based, and painstakingly-educated artistic endeavors.
This quest goes beyond artistic appreciation; high ratings translate to broader acclaim and increased ticket sales and funding opportunities. For artists aspiring to carve a niche in theater, ratings can contribute to following their passion—or enduring mundane jobs. Any theater’s desire for a favorable review and its artistic professionals’ individual aspirations are intrinsically linked to quests for financial stability, peer recognition, and reputational growth.
Conversely, a critique website operates from a more distant standpoint, though its responsibility is no less significant. Our primary commitment is with our readers, the expansive theater community, and, importantly, the ticket-buying public, all asking ASR to deliver precise and unbiased performance and value evaluations of productions.
That is why at ASR, we aim to “call balls-and-strikes” and to demonstrate a neutral adjudication of each show. We aim to delineate any show’s strengths and weaknesses without, we hope, our judgment being clouded by bias, preconceptions, or inclinations.
This perspective does not diminish our subjective experience of a production. It focuses on appraising a show’s substance, delivery, technical consistency, and resonance with and for an audience. This nuanced approach does not reflect a lack of esteem or admiration for theatrical craft; instead, it emanates from our unique vantage point within the sprawling theater landscape.
Decoding the ‘Broadway’ Shorthand in ASR’s Scoring System
ASR’s discussions about theater and its intricate evaluations tap into a rich well of critical experiences and understandings. Like any community with a history of intense debates and discussions, we have developed our own internal language—a convenient shorthand. This language allows us to concisely encapsulate complex ideas, past experiences, or general sentiments, enabling more efficient and pointed conversations.
And so, over the years, we have invoked references to past shows or industry standards to make a point. For example, mentioning “Another Antioch The Foreigner” (a made-up example) is not just about recalling a particular show but is also an embodiment of a specific sentiment or quality we felt about a production that might not have met our expectations.
Similarly, saying, “Is their Christmas Carol as good as CenterRep’s?” encapsulates the shared experiences and judgments of a recurring version of the Dickens classic that has few peers in all of the Bay Area.
Perhaps the most nuanced shorthand we use revolves around the term “Broadway.” In the universe of American theater, “Broadway” is not merely a location or a production level; it is emblematic of the zenith of theatrical arts achievements. Saying something is “Broadway” taps into the collective consciousness of theater enthusiasts, critics, and artists, evoking images of unparalleled quality, the crème de la crème of actors, directors, producers, facilities, top-tier technical expertise, and budgets.
However, when we say a play under critique at ASR is “Not Broadway,” we are not deriding its quality, dismissing its value, or judging its talent base. Instead, it is our internal-only discussion/shorthand way of appreciating the production’s hard work and dedication while noting that it might not have reached the pinnacle of theatrical excellence one might associate with a mainline Broadway production.
On the flip side, an internal discussion at ASR that a 4.75-rated show is “Almost Broadway” is not a literal stamp of its “Broadway-worthiness.” It is conceptual, marrying the notion that a ‘perfect’ 5.00 in art is elusive (and, as we say, not possible) concerning the production quality presented. Our “Almost Broadway” idea is that the show, as commendable as it is, might soar even higher with the resources, talent pool, and budget typically associated with a Broadway smash.
To be clear: Inside ASR, this shorthand does not devalue (or overvalue) any production. It is not meant as praise or an insult. It is a conceptual sightline. An abstract mile marker. A convenience for communication inside ASR. Along with other shorthand terms ASR has developed over the past eight years, it offers a shared lexicon to convey complex sentiments, ensuring our discussions remain relative, vibrant, and efficient.
Zero to Five: The Myth of Zero Value
Theater is a collaborative endeavor that requires the confluence of various art forms—acting, direction, writing, music, set design, lighting, and costume design, among others. Even if a production falls dramatically short in one or multiple areas, it is almost impossible for it to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
A 0.00 rating would imply a nullification of effort, a denial of even the attempt to create something meaningful. It would be disrespectful to the labor, however flawed, that has gone into creating a piece of art. It would not only be devastating to the morale of those involved in the production but would also inhibit constructive criticism. The lowest scores in our range should indicate a severe need for improvement, not oblivion.
The Elusiveness of Perfection: Why We Do Not Have a “5-Star” Rating System
On the flip side, a score of 5.00 suggests perfection—again, a feat unattainable in the art world — which is inherently subjective and ever-evolving. What might be considered a perfect performance today could be seen as dated or flawed in the context of future artistic innovations, new theater technologies, and social shifts.
Moreover, even the most revered productions have quirks or elements that divide opinion.
Art’s beauty and value often lie in its juxtaposition of blindingly brilliant efforts, debatable imperfections, and its ability to provoke thought, incite debate, and leave room for interpretation. Giving any production a ‘perfect’ score risks stifling that discourse and undermines the essence of what makes art so compelling and richly complex in the first place.
Thus, if one cannot conceive of a production that would merit a 0.00 score, it should be equally impossible to imagine a “perfect” 5.00 score across any or every aspect of its production. (That is a huge reason why ASR stopped using a so-called “Five Star” rating system back in 2018. We do not have a “5 Star” rating system now but a 0.00-to-5.00 rating system.
That said, astute readers will note that, in the past, we have given 5.00 points in selected reviews, such as for the national touring production of The Band’s Visit a couple of years ago, a show that many thought was Broadway quality. Today, even a show this good would rate a 4.90 at ASR.
One exception: Even amidst an internal swirl of controversy, ASR has been known to award 5.00 ratings for selected scripts and scores, for example, the score from West Side Story, or the script from To Kill a Mockingbird, or most Shakespeare scripts. This practice will end shortly. More on that later.
Reputation and Credibility
ASR’s long-term plan is to be a viable commercial venture supported by advertising. And to labor to maintain a reputation for being fair and even-handed — even if that means occasionally dispensing some “tough love” in a review.
If critics who write for our website were to hand out 5.00 scores freely, it would seriously jeopardize our credibility. Any grading system loses meaning and utility if its upper limit is frequently touched. Readers rely on critics to be discerning to help them navigate the vast and varied landscape of theatrical productions. A 5.00 score, if doled out indiscriminately, would dilute the weight and significance of all our reviews.
Imagine overhearing a conversation between two theater folks:
SHE: “Hey, ASR gave us a 5.0!”
HE: “So what? They give everyone and everything a 5.0.”
This reflects not just a casual dismissal but a severe undermining of the role that critics play in the theater ecosystem. It would indicate that our evaluations are meaningless, serving more as empty applause than as considered analyses.
The answer lies in the use of the ratings score as a guidepost—not as an ultimate judgment. A 4.75 score would indicate an exceptional, perhaps groundbreaking, production but would also implicitly acknowledge room for debate, interpretation, and, yes, improvement.
Similarly, a score at or above 0.10 would recognize the absence of complete worthlessness, emphasizing that every production has at least some redeemable quality or lesson to offer, even if it is a lesson in how not to do things.
At ASR, we aim to recognize the multi-dimensional aspects of theater while maintaining a grading system that reflects both highs and lows without resorting to absolutes. We believe such a nuanced approach encourages improvement, invites dialogue, and, most importantly, respects art’s ever-changing, ever-subjective nature.
Not Change For Change’s Sake
We hope this helps clear the air on our current scoring model, our use of shorthand in internal discussions, and our efforts to maintain our neutrality and credibility as a critical organization.
However, it is essential to add this in closing: for almost a year, ASR’s management has been discussing eliminating our 5.00-based rating system soon, the same way we did our 5-star rating system years ago. Our new, non-numerical rating system has been selected and will appear in ASR reviews starting in October 2023.
Thank you for your understanding and for your invaluable contributions to the theater world.
Thank you for those of you who have raised concerns about the reference to “Broadway” as a benchmark in ASR’s current scoring system. We deeply value all feedback and the opportunity here to clarify our intent.
We wholeheartedly agree that some of the most impactful, innovative, and profound theatrical experiences can be found in local and regional theaters across the USA. The Bay Area boasts an amazingly rich tapestry of theatrical talent and has been the birthplace of numerous groundbreaking productions. We never intend to diminish or shade that. In 98% of the shows ASR reviews, the subject or measure of “Broadway” is absent.
At ASR, our primary focus is on celebrating, critiquing, and promoting local Bay Area theater. We are deeply committed to recognizing the brilliance, diversity, and innovation that our local and regional theaters bring to the table, year after year, as our reviews clearly demonstrate. Our reviews and ratings aim to provide constructive feedback to these productions.
We deeply respect and cherish the myriad forms of theater we are honored to review and we understand and appreciate that each brings its unique flavor, essence, and invaluable contributions to the world Bay Area performing arts.
ASR wishes to acknowledge and to thank Ms. Sheri Lee Miller, Artistic Director of the Spreckels Theatre, for the following communication we received today. She writes…
“Yesterday, I posted ( anonymously on Facebook) an email I received containing a policy for reviews at Aisle Seat Review (ASR), which many of us found disturbing. I believed I had received the official policy written by the site’s owner, Mr. Kris Neely.
I was wrong. I have since learned it was a paraphrased version of the policy written by one of his staffers for internal use, not by Mr. Neely, nor did he approve it.
I apologize to Mr. Neely for incorrectly ascribing the words to him. I deeply regret the error, the rush to post, and any negative repercussions it may have caused for Kris Neely or Aisle Seat Review.
If anyone wishes to know about any policies or procedures at ASR, they should email their questions to staff@aisleseatreview.com.”
Aisle Seat Review wishes to apologize for any unintended offense that may have come about due to our recent opinion piece about the troublesome cluster of North Bay theater openings scheduled for the weekend of September 8th.
We did not and do not wish to alienate anyone in the hard-working theater community.
Our purpose then and now is not to glorify ourselves or any other critics. What we really hope to do is to encourage theater companies to cooperate and communicate with each other so that all can enjoy full houses, lots of ticket sales, and lots of sales at the concession stand.
…ASR has the Bay Area’s biggest team of expert reviewers…
Optimum revenue for all would be the result of staggered openings—or barring that, press openers held on weekday evenings as is commonplace elsewhere in the Bay Area. Admittedly many such openings are at Equity houses, but not all.
More opportunity for all can’t possibly be a bad thing, can it? Staggered openings would allow theater fans to see everything they’d like to see rather than having to choose among them—plenty of exposure for performers, directors, choreographers, musicians, etc., and a bonanza for fans. A real win-win.
Some detractors mentioned that with so many shows, we should simply recruit more reviewers—a hilarious suggestion in view of the fact that there are precious few people with any knowledge of theater and even fewer with the ability to write a coherent sentence. The literary talent pool is a tiny fraction of the size of the North Bay’s acting pool.
It’s actually frightening how many Americans are functional semi-literates. Even many highly educated people are mediocre writers. Writing ability is simply not a huge value in our culture, except where and when it’s desperately needed.
Aisle Seat Review has the Bay Area’s biggest team of expert reviewers, most of whom have decades of journalistic experience with theater and other special interests. All but one of us are voting members of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC), now the only awards-granting theater organization in the region. ASR is also the only theater-centric website covering the entire Bay Area, a geographic entity the size of Switzerland.
SFBATCC nominations and awards may be of minimal importance to company directors, but they are hugely important to theatrical talents onstage and off, as any perusal of playbill bios will reveal.
ASR’s reviewers don’t attend theater simply to take advantage of free tickets, snacks, drinks, and the opportunity to chat with colleagues. Thoughtful, informative, and entertaining reviews are hard specialized work, something that may not be apparent to casual readers. Everything expertly done looks easy from the outside, but there is enormous knowledge, energy, and skill behind every review that appears on ASR.
We wish to avoid insulting theater companies by not coming to opening nights. How many times have we fielded complaints from company directors that they simply can’t get reviewers to their shows? Or that a review appears three days before closing weekend? The fault is not ours. It’s the failure of theater companies to communicate with each other. If the NBA can schedule hundreds of basketball games each season, without conflict, a handful of North Bay theater companies can certainly do something similar.
Aisle Seat Review’s utmost duty is to inform potential ticket buyers as to whether any production is a good use of time and money. By fulfilling this duty, we hope to elevate the theatrical experience for all.
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ASR ExecutiveEditor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Something special is gracing the stage at Spreckels’ intimate Condiotti Theatre, and it’s worth every penny of the price of admission. Playing now through September 10, Stones in His Pockets is, simply put, a master class in theater done right. And it’s no easy feat, at that.
As touching and insightful as it is laugh-out-loud funny, this whip-smart Irish comedy demands an awful lot of its only two actors, who are tasked with filling the shoes of no fewer than fifteen characters of varying ages, cultures, social classes, and genders. This would be challenging enough were it not compounded by zero costume changes, no props beyond two simple wooden crates, and a bare-bones stage with only a small stone wall and a projection screen to serve as its backdrop.
…”Stones in His Pockets” is simply a must-see masterpiece of local theater…
In less talented hands, this might add up to a confusing mess of mistaken identities and muddied transitions. But thanks to the careful stewardship of director Sheri Lee Miller, stellar casting and skillful staging combine to wring every last drop of humor and heart from playwright Marie Jones’s exacting script. And boy, is there a lot of it.
Irishmen Charlie and Jake (Jimmy Gagarin and Sam Coughlin, both phenomenal) become fast friends during their stint as extras on the set of a Hollywood epic that’s taken over their small rural town. But their starstruck excitement quickly fades. Behind the scenes is an industry that doesn’t care who it hurts, dehumanizes, or exploits in the name of wealth and fame. The show must go on, after all, at any cost – even when tragedy strikes. Jones manages to touch on some heavier subject matter and launch some incisive criticisms while never losing sight of the play’s comedic billing.
Sam Coughlin and Jimmy Gagarin. Photo courtesy The Sonoma Index-Tribune.
Gagarin and Coughlin are masters of their craft, moving seamlessly between characters (often multiple in the same scene) with apparent though undoubtedly hard-earned ease. Changes in posture, inflection, and dialect – some subtle, others dramatically overt – enable audiences to easily distinguish between characters. Each is impressively distinctive and fully formed. So much so, in fact, that on opening night, it was easy for this reviewer to forget there were only two actors on stage, so wholly convincing they were in each capacity. Hats off to dialect coach John Rustan for a job well done.
Among the colorful cast of side characters are glamorous leading lady Caroline Giovanni (Gagarin, whose affectations are hilarious), persnickety director’s assistant Aisling (Coughlin, also hilarious), spirited local elder Mickey Riordan (Coughlin), no-nonsense assistant director Simon (Gagarin), and a host of others who are all brought to life with sensitivity and self-possession. The actors’ chemistry shines through in every scene.
Though there’s little on stage, the stagecraft doesn’t disappoint. Gagarin and Coughlin are aided greatly by Chris Cota’s nuanced lighting and Jessica Johnson’s simple but effective sound design, subtly transforming the stage into a local pub with aptly-chosen background music and creating the illusion of a morning shower with perfectly timed sound effects. Allison Rae Baker deserves a mention here, too, for choreographing a charming Irish dance it’s clear the actors were having fun with on opening night.
Seldom does a production come along that checks all the boxes, but Miller has hit this one out of the park. Stones in His Pockets is simply a must-see masterpiece of local theater. It’s moving, it’s smart, and it’s wildly funny, to boot. Though the show must go on, this one’s only here for two short weeks. Don’t miss your chance to see Gagarin and Coughlin at the height of their powers.
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Stones in His Pockets
Written by
Marie Jones
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through Sept 10th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
September 7-8th is shaping up to be problematic for the North Bay theatre community.
At least five new productions are scheduled to open over those days: The Sound of Music at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, Dames at Sea at Sonoma Art Live, Fiddler on the Roof at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, An Enchanted Evening at Transcendence Theater Company, and The Addams Family Musical at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions.
This last one will overlap with a production of the same show opening the following week at Novato Theater Company.
This cluster of openings presents a plethora of choices for theater fans, and possibly a substantial problem for both theater companies and reviewers. Even with a big team of reviewers, it will probably be a tough chore for us to cover all these shows on opening weekend.
That means that some shows will get reviewed late—or not at all, a real injustice to hard-working performers, tech crews, and theater lovers alike.
….Our purpose at Aisle Seat Review is to provide expert guidance for potential ticket buyers…
Clustered openings make this difficult.
Bay Area theater critics have long complained that problems like this could be minimized if theater companies would just communicate with each other to the extent that they could stagger opening weekends. That would guarantee more review coverage and better ticket sales for all companies, but every time we have suggested this to company directors, the response has been “That’s a great idea, but it’s impossible.”
At Aisle Seat Review, we don’t think it is “impossible”.
Hard, yes, to be sure. But “impossible”, no.
Theater companies seem to think that they exist in independent bubbles, but the fact is that they are all drawing from the same talent pool and all selling into the same market. We know this is true because we see many of the same faces at the many diverse theaters that we visit.
For theater companies, failure or refusal to communicate with each other is a self-defeating lack of practicality. ASR apologizes in advance for what may be incomplete coverage in early-to-mid September.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Shakespeare in Mill Valley’s Old Mill Park means late summer has truly arrived.
Hidden in this majestic redwood grove is The Curtain Theatre, showcasing award-winning plays complete with renaissance music, dancing, and lots of swordfights. You won’t want to let another weekend go by without seeing Romeo and Juliet, this year’s stunning production.
Actors surround the audience, dashing on and off the impressive set by Steve Coleman, in dazzling period costumes by Jody Branham. The grove fills with the sounds of flute, concertina, mandolin, and more under the direction of Don Clark. Even the band is in costume!
“Verona, a city on the verge of anarchy…”
Director Steve Beecroft, the talented impresario of The Curtain Theatre, has been at the company’s helm since 2009. In addition to doing the choreography and swordfight scenes, and lending his acting chops, Beecroft spent nine months dissecting and reconnecting Shakespeare’s classic. He was intrigued by the interrelationships between the characters in Verona, a city he portrays as on the verge of anarchy.
“Hatred and violence between the two houses of Montague and Capulet created a toxic cloud that overshadowed all good,” Beecroft noted.
Into this pressure cooker step the lovely Juliet, brought to life by Dale Leonheart, and handsome Romeo, portrayed by Nic Moore. Their passion is real. Juliet’s balcony is real. The swords are also real.
In his day, Shakespeare was required to cast males in female roles. In an ironic twist, this Romeo and Juliet has several females in male roles. Heather Cherry, a versatile actor and company member, is royally powerful as Prince Escalus. Alexandra Fry plays sidekick Balthasar, with Grace Kent as Benvolio/Benvolia.
Also well-cast is popular local Kim Bromley in the demanding role of Juliet’s nurse, played with just the right touch of humor. Nelson Brown, another local favorite, gives Mercutio, one of Romeo’s closest friends and a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris, a lovable, albeit brief, appearance.
Romeo’s parents portrayed by Marianne Shine and Tom Reilly fill their roles well. Amy Dietz, a true talent, brought tears to my eyes as a distraught Lady Capulet mourning her nephew Tybalt (Ramon Villa). Many other actors admirably fill out this full-stage production.
Grace Kent (Benvolia); Nelson Brown (Mercutio); Nic Moore (Romeo). Photo by Russell Johnson.
The remarkable aspect to this professional production is the performances are FREE of charge. Donations, of course, are welcome. And — to be perfectly candid — necessary, if The Curtain Theatre is to continue despite the costs of each presentation.
All ages are welcome to attend these open-air and open-seating shows. Parents bring young ones for their first exposure to Shakespeare, and most are enthralled by the pageantry and swordfights. Picnics abound, with a few tables not far from the stage area. A small snack bar is available. Plastic chairs are set up by the company on a first-come basis. Bring your own for lounging behind the Mill Valley Library. Dogs on leash are encouraged to watch the show.
Romeo and Juliet plays at 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and on Labor Day, Monday September 4th, 2023. The hottest summer afternoons can become quite cool in the grove, so bring layers.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Romeo and Juliet
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Steve Beecroft
Producing Company
Curtain Theatre
Production Dates
Saturdays/Sundays and Labor Day Monday at 2 PM through September 4th
Production Address
Old Mill Park Amphitheater.
375 Throckmorton Avenue (behind the library), Mill Valley
All of us at Aisle Seat Review are saddened by the loss of Dottie Lester-White, an icon in Bay Area musical theater. Dottie passed away on August 17th in Mesa, Arizona, where she was choreographing a new production of Hello Dolly!
…A beloved and treasured choreographer, teacher, stage manager, and tapper extraordinaire…
Dottie played on Broadway in the ensemble of No No Nanette, and worked with national touring companies of Nanette and Hello Dolly! Her numerous choreography credits include award-winning productions at AMTSJ, San Jose Stage, Woodminster Summer Theatre, Foothill Musical Theatre, TheatreWorks and the Hillbarn Theater.
A beloved and treasured choreographer, teacher, stage manager, and tapper extraordinaire—she actually taught a renowned tap class at Burning Man—Dottie leaves an unparalleled legacy of excellence. She will be missed by the entire SF Bay Area theater community.
Vaya Con Dios, Dottie. Your spirit lives on.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Love and linguistics get a joint workout in Julia Cho’s The Language Archive, at Masquers Playhouse in Pt. Richmond, through September 3.
One of the Bay Area’s oldest community theater venues, Masquers has been home to many compelling productions, notable among them last fall’s suberb Amelie, the Musical. An examination of the love life of an academic named George (Austine De Los Santos), The Language Archive takes its title from the laboratory where George works with his assistant Emma (Samantha Topacio), researching extinct and near-extinct languages. Tape recordings of the utterances of native speakers are kept in file boxes stacked to the ceiling in set designer John Hull’s austere interpretation of what such an archive might look like.
George has a problematic relationship with his wife Mary (Sarah Catherine Chan) who abruptly leaves him to start her own little bakery. The reasons for their difficulties are not quite clear in Cho’s script, nor in director Wynne Chan’s production. Emma is smitten with George, but not sufficiently for them to engage in any sort of meaningful long-term commitment. It’s all a maddening muddle for George, like his partial knowledge of disappearing languages or the fact that he never learned how to speak with his grandmother, the last practitioner of her own native tongue.
A “constructed” language invented by Polish ophthalmologistL. L. Zamenhof in 1887, Esperanto figures prominently into the story line. With its primary vocabulary and grammar derived mostly from Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese), Esperanto was envisioned as an international or universal language to make communications easier among diverse nationalities. The language today has approximately 100,000 speakers worldwide.
Joseph Alvarado does a couple of nicely convincing turns in this show as Zamenhof, and is amazing as Resten, one of two remaining speakers of a disappearing tongue (“eloway”), along with his partner Alta (Pauli N. Amornkul). Like a botanist gathering seeds, George makes recordings of their speech in the hope of somehow preserving it—not that it will be anything other than an academic curiosity in a file box once Resten and Alta are gone. Armornkul is also very convincing as a no-nonsense Esperanto instructor, with Emma as her only student.
The story obliquely recalls David Ives’ The Universal Language (from his All in the Timing series) as well as Melissa Ross’s tightly-scripted An Entomologist’s Love Story that played to sold-out houses at San Francisco Playhouse in 2018, another tale about love among academic researchers. This reviewer found Cho’s contribution to the genre lacks the comedic brilliance of Ives and the poignancy of Ross, but with revisions has potential to be a truly compelling piece.
Alvarado and Amornkul are superb actors in multiple roles. Their younger castmates are still finding their sea legs onstage, but they give a solid effort. The sound designer isn’t credited in the playbill but deserves accolades for making the small stage at Masquers a believable railroad depot. Masquers too deserves accolades for taking risks with little-known plays, some of which, like tiny acorns, can grow into mighty oaks.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
“Queen of Rock’n’Roll” is a title that’s been bestowed on several performers—Stevie Nicks and Joan Jett among them. None are more deserving than Tina Turner, who passed away in May 2023. She was a major force during several decades as a pop music icon.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical gloriously brings her music and life to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theater through August 27. The production moves to Broadway San Jose August 29 – Sept. 3.
…One of this year’s most important national touring productions…
Both a staged equivalent of a “biopic” (a filmed biography) and a “jukebox musical,” The Tina Turner Musical tells the tale of her origin in the small town of Nutbush, TN, to her eventual marriage to musician Ike Turner, and her re-emergence as a solo superstar after their breakup.
At nearly three high-intensity hours, the production is so demanding that it requires two performers in the lead role, alternating performances so that each can have a full rest day before the next one. Zurin Villanueva starred in the Wednesday Aug. 2 opener, with Naomi Rodgers taking the lead on alternate dates. Rodgers is presumably Villanueva’s equal in a huge, sumptuous production directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Zurin Villanueva.
With the lanky physique and endurance of a distance runner, Villanueva tears into the drama and music with power and conviction. Just when you think she can’t possibly top herself as the eponymous lead, she opens her throat and brings Tina Turner straight to the heart. The Golden Gate’s near-capacity crowd couldn’t get enough.
Naomi Rodgers
The show is all about Tina, of course, but it’s marvelously fleshed out by many other superb talents. High praise to Roderick Lawrence who manages to find humanity in the troubled life of Ike Turner, a talented, charming manipulator who abused Tina so hard and so often that she ultimately made a desperate dash across a busy freeway to throw herself on the mercy of a motel clerk who provided her a room, food, medical care, and an armed guard at her door. That true event is a pivotal scene in the film What’s Love Got to Do with It? and the closing scene in the musical’s first act.
A compelling musician, Lawrence’s vocals are pretty damned good too, but he doesn’t quite measure up to Gerard M. Williams as Tina’s lovelorn bandmate Raymond, whose gorgeous rendition of “Let’s Stay Together” exceeds by many degrees the original by Al Green. Roz White stars as Zelma, Tina’s disdainful mother who sends her daughter away to live with her grandma. There’s no evidence of a father figure in the depiction of Tina’s early life, a circumstance all too prevalent among adult women who subjugate themselves to abusive men. White has only one moment to sing in this show, but her contralto is wonderful.
Ayvah Johnson.
The real emerging superstar in this production is child performer Ayvah Johnson, who captivates the audience as young Anna-Mae (Tina’s birth name), first as a very enthusiastic member of her gospel-singing church, and appearing intermittently throughout the show to remind us where Tina Turner came from. Johnson is clearly a crowd favorite. The Ikettes, the big backstage band, and the show’s stagecraft are all superb. While engaging, we found that the new music by Nicholas Skilbeck just doesn’t compare favorably with the Turner songbook.
Jeff Sugg’s projection design is a force of its own. Act Two is like a psychedelic trip accentuating and building each song with magic, greatly enhanced by Bruno Poet’s lighting design.
Although the adequate book glosses over details, it provides highlights of her life, reminding us that her biggest personal and professional successes happened well after she turned 40. More than a juke-box musical, this is a superbly conveyed story of triumph and tragedy, blazing the life of icon Tina Turner to the back of the capacious Golden Gate. This inspiring, uplifting tale is beautifully rendered.
One of this year’s most important national touring productions, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is an absolute must-see.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical
Written by
Katori Hall, Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins
Directed by
Phyllida Lloyd
Producing Company
Golden Gate Theatre
Production Dates
SF: Thru Aug. 27, SJ: Aug. 29 – Sept. 3
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA
...
Broadway San Jose (Aug 29 – Sept. 3)
Center for the Performing Arts
255 S. Almaden Blvd.
San Jose, CA
94102
Transcendence Theatre Company is Sonoma County’s award-winning home of song and dance stars under the moonlight. Twelve years ago TTC presented their first stunning summer revue to help fund Jack London State Historic Park, which had been targeted for closure. Their goal of the “Best Night Ever!” succeeded, and to date TTC has donated nearly $700,000 and attracted audiences totaling over 325,000 people to keep this beloved landmark open to all.
Unfortunately TTC’s success with audience attendance has led the California State Park Rangers Association to file a lawsuit against California State Parks. They question the appropriate use of a public resource, noble fundraising notwithstanding. The lawsuit has caused cancellation of all shows this summer, resulting in a major loss for the non-profit that operates Jack London State Historic Park and a blow for TTC, a casualty caught in the lawsuit’s crossfire.
Forced to relocate, TTC presented this year’s first summer shows at Belos Cavalos ranch and their second (and soon to be third) “Broadway Under the Stars” at the Beltane Ranch in Glen Ellen. TTC charged ahead with astounding enthusiasm and energy, building a stage, parking area, hiring electric carts, setting up picnic tables and hundreds of chairs, installing lighting and sound, and even building an entire bridge over a stone wall to reach the picnic area.
“It was an unbelievable and difficult undertaking. Expensive too.”
Relocation not once, but twice, was an unbelievable and difficult undertaking. Expensive too. One obstacle TTC could not overcome was the Sonoma County building code. Artistic Director Amy Miller was dismayed to learn they could not build a stage any higher than 30” – not nearly enough for everyone to have a clear view. The stage location also had to be to the west, where the setting sun was problematic for a short while for those without brimmed headgear.
Despite the multiple stumbling blocks, TTC rose to the challenge to present the hit Broadway musical comedy The Full Monty. With a huge cast of 20 talents from the stages of NYC, LA, Texas, and more, this hilarious Tony-award winning musical shows off non-stop fun, and a lot more. Dancers, singers, and young and veteran actors delightfully expose the amusing plot.
Five down-on-their-luck buddies share beers in Buffalo, New York and compare jobs. They’re stunned when their ladies flock to buy pricey tickets to the male striptease show that’s come to town.
(L to R) Nicolas Garza (Ethan Girard), Jason Simon (Dave Bukatinsky), Michael Burrell (Jerry Lukowski), Lee Palmer (Noah “Horse” T. Simmons), Justin Anthony Long (Malcolm MacGregor), and Jesse Swimm (Harold Nichols) in Transcendence Theatre Company’s The Full Monty. Photo credit: Mimi Carroll
One of the buddies comes up with a brilliant idea to raise money quickly, as he wants to retain custody of his son. Why don’t they do the professional strippers one better? They could take it all off and dance their way into much-desired cash. All they need is one show, another brave recruit, a sexy dance routine, and the guts to go through with it to give their audience the “Full Monty,” a striptease down to bare essentials .
It’s hilarious when the guys are coached by one of the professional strippers, who has a bodacious body and the moves women pay to see. It’s endearing how these out-of-shape dudes hang together out of camaraderie and desperation. When their wives and ex-wives get wind of the scheme, their mighty fine female voices add to the merry mayhem—made all the better by a great band seated stage left.
TTC cleverly but briefly exposes the guys in The Full Monty to keep the rating slightly under “X”. It’s an adult show nonetheless. Strict enforcement of the “no photos” rule is done by roving spotters.
The show plays on weekend nights through August 20th. Come early with your picnic to enjoy the pre-show entertainment and sample the wines. When the sun goes down and the spotlights come on, the air can get cool so dress in layers. You can always take off whatever you want.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Combine designer Nina Ball’s lush sylvan setting bedecked with flowers, curtains, and marbled painted stairs, with sumptuous lighting by Stephanie Anne Johnson for warm evenings bringing us a perfect illustration of joy in a production rounding out Marin Shakespeare Company’s nascent season under the helm of artistic producer JonTracy.
One of the most popular plays in the Shakespeare canon, 12th Night is rife with music and gloriously rich poetry, making it one of the bard’s most popular adaptations for musicals. Broadway productions include Your Own Thing (1968), Music Is (1977), Play On (1997 and All Shook Up (2005). The original’s name derives from the fact that it was usually performed on the 12th night of midwinter holidays.
One of the major challenges of any production of 12th Night is deciding whether it’s a comedy, a romance, a tragedy, or all three. Whatever the director stresses, it must be cohesive and indeed always supported by the text and not layered with extraneous effluvia.
…One of the major challenges of any production of 12th Night is deciding whether it’s a comedy, a romance, a tragedy, or all three…
The MSC production directed by Bridgette Loriaux opens Act 1 and later Act 2 with a voice-over contemporary conversation between a parent and a child talking about what love is—a cute idea which doesn’t fulfill the inspiration of the idea itself. This is followed by a rather clumsy depiction of the squall that sunk the boat separating look-alike brother and sister and beginning the play itself as they find themselves in Illyria.
(L to R) Salim Razawi (Sebastian) and Justin P. Lopez (Antonio) in Marin Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night. Photo by Jay Yamada
Once the play itself begins, we are on more firm footing as rich poetic words are proffered by the cast.
Stevie DeMott’s Viola (in disguise as the lad Cesario) grounds this production in such glorious verbal/physical joy that we are transported. Her scenes with Charisse Loriaux (Olivia) bring us the wonders of sexual attraction and wonderment without, of course, Olivia knowing the object of her affection is her same sex. In fact, this machination of same-sex desire makes 12th Night the perfect play for today’s awakening and yes, political discussion dominating our landscape. There’s a lovely moment when Johnny Moreno’s Orsino looks at Stevie LaMott thinking it’s a boy. His pause of simplicity is actor magic.
Of course, no Shakespeare play is complete without the requisite clowns. Robert Parsons is Sir Toby Belch (with a ready flask in hand) commenting, planning and of course drinking and Steve Price is his cohort Sir Andrew Aguecheek who bounces around the stage at times like a manic overzealous kangaroo.
(Front) Michael Gene Sullivan (Malvolio), (Behind, L to R) Robert Parsons (Sir Toby Belch), Adrian Deane (Feste), and Steve Price (Sir Andrew Aguecheek) in Marin Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night. Photo by Jay Yamada
Adrian Deane’s androgynous Feste is always on the periphery with comments, or simply observing and singing composer David Warner’s many songs is. Her “Come Away Death” is a particular highlight. Michael Gene Sullivan’s prim and proper Malvolio is the perfect foil for his downfall in yellow and cross-gartered stockings orchestrated by Sir Toby, Aguecheek and Mariah (Nancy Carlin). The sight of him alone is enough to make the audience laugh, but then a song with sexual physical groveling is added, which unfortunately takes the point way over the top.
There are moments in the production (Olivia’s pas de deux with others) which although lovely, are only confusing in execution, but again the situation and the talents of actors involved are enough.
Lastly, it is crucial to the play that Sebastian and Viola look alike and wear (unknowingly) the same outfits. How else could the others be confused by them? The costuming of the look-alike twins and the physiques of the actors are incongruent and dissimilar, making both confusion and acceptance laughably impossible.
The end of the play is lovely, where lovers are united and brother and sister find one another in the Illyrian mayhem. The uniting of Sebastian (Salim Razawi) and Antonio (Justin P. Lopez), the love of Johnny Moreno’s Orsino with the now woman revealed Viola, and the aloneness of Olivia are deeply moving.
But wait . . . there’s a coda at the end with Olivia and Malvolio at the edge of the stage which almost sets us up for a sequel.
12th Night Part 2? Someone write it!!!
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
12th Night
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Bridgette Loriaux
Producing Company
Marin Shakespeare Company
Production Dates
Thru Sept 3rd
Production Address
Forest Meadows Amphitheater (outdoors),
Dominican University of California 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael, CA
Seeing Kinky Boots at City Lights Theater in San Jose is a little like witnessing a 2 ½-hour earthquake: It’s guaranteed to shake you right down to your boots, shoes, slippers or whatever else you’re currently wearing on your feet.
The much-acclaimed musical starts out rather innocently, with a young white boy befriending a young black boy – a very brief prologue. Face it: with book by Harvey Fierstein and music/lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, it would require some pretty poor directing decisions to make Boots a disappointment.
That doesn’t happen here., although it starts out slowly with a grown-up, Milquetoast-like Charlie Price (Matt Locke) torn between taking over his father’s faltering shoe company in Northampton and moving to London where Nicola (Amber Smith), his demanding fianceé, wants to live.
The team at the factory celebrates the new boots. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
That would mean laying off all of the long-time employees of Price & Son. Charlie is torn between going broke making shoes nobody wants to buy or shutting down the business altogether.
. . . A scuffle in a dark alley changes his life – and that of a transvestite named Lola . . .
It’s almost as if Barton “Bart” Perry is made to play the part of Lola (Simon when he’s not in drag.). He’s equally at ease playing both roles, although in San Jose he’s definitely kickin’ it as Lola.
What City Lights also has going for it is a secondary tier of actors who do a credible job of both singing and acting. AJ Jaffari as Harry, one of Charlie’s drinking buddies, is one and Dane Lentz as George is another. Both Karen DeHart and Molly Thornton as female factory workers have strong voices and show good acting skills.
Lauren Berling as Lauren is a somewhat happy surprise. She’s just part of the Price & Son work team until Charlie asks her to do some administrative work in his office. She’s dumbfounded that he even notices her, and it’s then that she blossoms, both in her role and as a singer.
Scenic designer Ron Gasparinetti’s versatile set works perfectly on the City Lights stage. Initially the audience sits outside the tall walls of the shoe factory, which seamlessly fade away to reveal a two-story set with rolling benches where shoes are measured, cut and sewn. Lysander Abadia’s choreography is lively and fun, and Samuel Cisneros provides fine vocal direction.
Lola (Barton “Bart” Perry) and her Angels sparkle in their nightclub drag act. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
Costume designer Kailyn Erb, assisted by Gloria Garcia Stanley, must have had her hands full creating costumes for the 20+ cast members. The best ones, of course, fit on Lola and her four tall, leggy “Angels.”
Here’s a tip: Just sit back and enjoy an evening of fun, entertainment and song. Some of the best: “”Take What You’ve Got,” “Sex is in the Heel,” “Everybody Say Yeah,” “The Soul of a Man” and the uplifting “Raise You Up.”
Ticket sales have been so strong that Artistic Director Mallette decided to extend the show through Aug. 27th. Grab a seat while you can!
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Game shows are the American Dream. “It could be me on that stage; Imagine winning all that money!” you might think. Well imagine attending San Jose Playhouse’s revival of their Thanks for Playing! The Game Show Show—you might think, “I love musicals! This one might be fun!” Not only might it be fun–in this one, you too might be contestant! And win an ironic box of Ramen.
The show is the brainchild of Scott Evan Guggenheim, with book and lyrics by his wife Shannon Guggenheim, and music by Shannon, her brother-in-law Stephen Guggenheim and Thomas Tomasello. It is billed as the “final revision” of the musical that premiered in 2010 and was reexamined by its creators in 2012 and 2020. I did not see the first version, although a few excerpts on YouTube indicate that while some songs have been dropped/replaced, the sets and props remain fairly much the same.
…Historical Note: 390 backers pledged $51,648 on Kickstarter to help bring this project to life, back in 2012-14…
And the best part of the show does seem to be the same: the high energy and accurate singing of its eight on-stage performers, the feeling they project of having a jolly good time together and wanting to carry the audience happily along with them in a slurry of upbeat tempos. And Julie Engelbrecht’s sets intensify the atmosphere with its palette of colors borrowed the from late 60’s show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, not to mention her inventive costumes, one collection of which turned the cast into a giant slot machine.
Photo credit to Dave Lepori. — The cast at work as a collective slot machine!
The more problematic part of the show is the first act. Shannon herself plays Frankie Marks, a Game-show-history buff. We are told she’s attending the 70th anniversary of the first TV game show at Studio 84 in NYC (this would be in 2008). Very quickly, she is given the offer to play a mysterious “game” by an unseen godlike Announcer. She accepts, and is magically sent back into the beginning of a game show called “Secret Square” starting in the early 1950s.
As the show evolves, the Announcer periodically offers options to change history or even revise game-show personalities. I don’t know if this Meta-Announcer business is new to this revised version, but this reviewer found it confusing at first, and didn’t feel that changing history or personalities added much to the humor. (Suggestion to the Playwright: a straight-line “How to Succeed…” plot starting in the 1950s might be easier to grasp. Just sayin’.)
By the second act, after the show runs into trouble with revelations of cued contestants a la the $64,000 Question, the story becomes easier to follow and more enjoyable.
Photo credit to Dave Lepori. — Schannon and Scott Guggenheim as Frankie Marks and Bill Todson.
A love interest emerges between Frankie and Secret Square’s producer Bill Todson (Stephen Guggenheim), making me wish a bit more had been done in Act One to generate empathy with the protagonists. Such empathy might have required a ballad which might have the salutary effect of adding additional variety to the musical style. (As it was, only the last song, “Thanks For Playing,” really stuck in my memory.)
Hopefully, future attendees will not experience the sound issues that had the prerecorded orchestral track outbalance the singers, and younger gamer-attendees, used to computer role-playing scenarios, will have less trouble Meta-time-traveling.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA.
His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Thanks For Playing: The Game Show Show
Stage Direction by
Scott Evan Guggenheim
Producing Company
Guggenheim Entertainment, Inc.
Production Dates
Thru Aug 20th
Production Address
3Below Theaters, 288 S Second St, San Jose, CA 95113
Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Iolanthe is about two groups hidebound by rules who battle it out on stage. One group has power over the other because they’re magic, but both groups have definitely lost their marbles–just read what they sing!
CHORUS OF FAIRIES
Tripping hither, tripping thither,
Nobody knows why or whither;
We must dance and we must sing
Round about our fairy ring!
CHORUS OF PEERS (LORDS)
Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses!
Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses!
Tantantara! Tzing! Boom!
Imagine the silliness of it all–female fairies having power over men, forcing their favored half-fairy male candidate to run parliament houses. Fortunately, all the men and women marry each other at the end, and 19th-century normality is restored. There are other reasons than plot to enjoy Iolanthe, mainly Gilbert’s barb-aplenty text coated by the pill of Sullivan’s inoffensive music.
Lyric Opera has put many of their marbles into their chorus, and the result is a major strength in Music Director Michael Taylor’s department. Kathleen O’Brien’s colorful fairy costumes along with Shirley Benson’s stunted light-saber wands are another plus. Larry Tom’s set designs are spare, but not inappropriate. The single forest projection in Act 1 was so gorgeous, however, it made this reviewer wish there were more of them to follow—a hope unrealized.
…”Iolanthe”, or “The Peer and the Peri”, opened at the Savoy Theatre on November 25, 1882…
I was also hopeful that the soloists’ best efforts would match the consistent delights of the chorus, but no luck. However, voices improved as the operetta progressed opening night.
Bobby Singer was a standout as Private Willis, as was Katie Francis as Queen of the Fairies. Minju Jeong’s light but lovely voice was always on pitch as Phyllis. Tenor Eric Mellum grew well into his role of Lord Tollroller. Jeffrey Lampert’s Lord Chancellor was fun to watch in his famous “headache” patter song (where his jet pace even outpaced the orchestra for a moment!)
For a title character, G&S surprisingly gave Iolanthe only one aria, but Kaelyn Howard carried it off well, with the enthusiasm characteristic of the rest of the cast.
Iolanthe is ranked highly in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon by many commentators. To me, it was a good reminder of why our American Experiment did away with titled nobility. As to the current value of what replaced it, that’s a matter for later discussion.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA.
His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Iolanthe
Stage Direction by
Doreen Finkelstein
Musical Direction by
Michael Taylor
Producing Company
Lyric Theatre
Production Dates
Thru Aug 6th
Production Address
Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose, C 95113
A diehard fan creates her own romantic production in My (Unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical, at San Francisco’s Top of the Shelton through July 30, with a possible extension to August 20.
A solo show developed and composed by playwright/actress/lyricist Eloise Coopersmith, the production stars the writer as an inveterate viewer of feel-good films on the Hallmark Channel—a pandemic burnout who sustains herself on dark chocolate, red wine, and an insatiable appetite for upbeat escapism. Her character is so immersed in it that she’s become her own writer/director/producer. The concept is brilliant. So is the execution.
…an incredibly clever and charming production…
Flanked by two large video screens, with a larger projection screen behind her, Coopersmith interacts with an ongoing romantic comedy musical performed by a sizable cast of professional L.A. actors including Nina Herzog, Benny Perez, Andrew Joseph Perez, Jim Blanchette, Tess Adams, Monika Pena, Maggie Howell, and Samantha Labrecque.
She talks to them, and they respond—to her and each other—and they sing some really infectious tunes (music by Roxanna Ward, lyrics by Coopersmith). The recorded video is presumably always the same but with the aid of her technical wizard, Coopersmith can pause it whenever she likes to interject commentary and jokes, some of them laugh-out-loud funny.
A unique multimedia production, it’s also a solo show in that Coopersmith is the only live performer onstage. She gears her performance to each audience regardless of number—she says she has done My (Unauthorized)Hallmark Movie Musical for single viewers and for large houses, including a 900-seat theater in West Virginia.
Performances in mid-July at the Shelton (former longtime home of SF Playhouse, before that company moved to Post Street) were not sold out, and that’s a shame because My (Unauthorized)Hallmark Movie Musical is an incredibly clever and charming production—both a spoof of and an homage to an enduring genre. Most spoofs tend toward vicious satire but this one is a love letter from a real devotee. As the Hallmark tag line puts it, “Love always wins.” Coopersmith delivers that sentiment with aplomb.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
My (Unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical
Written by
Eloise Coopersmith
Music by Roxanna Ward
Directed by
Anne Runolfsson
Producing Company
Top of the Shelton
Production Dates
Thru July 30, with possible extension to Aug. 20
Production Address
Top of the Shelton
533 Sutter Street
2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA
As an opera lover, I’m lucky to live in the Bay Area. Already, I’ve seen Tosca produced by four different opera companies this year: Livermore Opera’s in March, San Jose Opera’s in April, Cinnabar Theater’s in June, and Pocket Opera’s in July. What did I learn from the experience?
Lesson One: To my surprise, “lotsa Tosca” never wore me out. This was due to each company’s success in generating a Quartet of Joys from Bernard Shaw’s definition of opera: “… the story of a soprano and tenor who want to sleep together, and a baritone who tries to stop them.”
The joys were namely: 1-3, feeling the infusion of life into one or more of the three principal singing roles (Tosca, Cavaradossi, and Scarpia) and 4, relishing inspired stage-direction. Sure, there are other things that could have gone right or wrong in these performances, but:
Musical direction was excellent across the board.
Costume design was uniformly fine.
And the sets, though ranging from magnificent to bare-boned, seemed to matter so much less compared to the force of the Joy Quartet.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these masters of their art could all be together someday in a future production?
Lesson Two: You can’t beat powerful intimacy when it comes to Tosca. Yes, Act 1’s Te Deum is designed for Grand Opera, and San Jose’s full-sized orchestra was magnificent, but Tosca is about outsized personalities, not crowds or elephants.
The joint productions of Cinnabar and Pocket Opera were a revelation in terms of intimacy, with first-class actors and vocalists almost within spitting distance. Seeing the same casts at Cinnabar’s opening in Petaluma and at Pocket’s first venue in Mountain View after five more performances at Cinnabar was a chance to witness how the principals had perfected their artistry. Michelle Drever had evolved her exceptionally passionate Tosca into a uniquely buttery sound reminding me of Placido Domingo. Spencer Dodd’s well-voiced Scarpia had become more self-assured and less cartoonish. And Alex Boyer, who was also Cavaradossi in the Livermore production, had somehow grown from superb to stupendous.
Alex Boyer.
Oh, and you must read about critic Eddy Reynolds’ goosebumps at https://theatreeddys.com/2023/07/tosca-2.html.
Lesson Three: Creative stage direction is a hit or miss proposition. Cinnabar/Pocket director Elly Lichenstein had three hits with having Tosca accidently find her knife to kill Scarpia inside a cross, having two young sisters sing the shepherd’s role on stage to open Act 3, and having kids on stage to open Act 1.
Elly Lichenstein.
Bruce Donnell for Livermore did a great job of fight direction between Tosca and Scarpia in Act 2.
Tara Branham for San Jose had an interesting idea to put a bed in Scarpia’s Act 2 apartment where the fight with Tosca took place, but in this critic’s opinion it was too far upstage. In perhaps another miscue, she had the churchgoers in Act 1 walk in front of Scarpia during his Te Deum aria. And her worst idea, in my opinion, was having Cavaradossi have a tryst with a woman (Attavanti?) to open Act 1. While intellectually justifiable, I feel the cost of diminishing Cavaradossi’s stature in the hearts of the audience is not worth the innovation.
Lesson Four: Hearing three world-class singers is unforgettable. Maria Natale’s debut as Tosca in San Jose, with her physical and aural beauty, acting chops and clarity, put all other Toscas aside for me.
Maria Natale.
The same went for Livermore’s Scarpia, Aleksey Bogdanov.
Aleksey Bogdanov.
And Alex Boyer, among all his other excellences, brought forth the rarely conveyed fact in the story that he is a noble, not just a handsome hunk.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these masters of their art could all be together someday in a future production?
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Tosca
Stage Direction
Tara Branham
Producing Company
Opera San Jose
Production Dates
Thru Apr 30th
Production Address
California Theater -
345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
Ready to be swept away on a whirlwind of roguish charm, romance, and toe-tapping tunes? Treat yourself to Sonoma Arts Live’s production of Guys and Dolls.
This jubilant musical masterpiece, brought to life by a sensational cast and spot-on production, is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser that will leave you grinning from ear to ear.
Set in the bustling streets of 1930s-era New York City, Guys and Dolls follows the antics of a motley crew of high-rolling gamblers and vivacious showgirls and the earnest temperance workers intent on saving their souls.
“1930s-era New York City in “Guys and Dolls” at Sonoma Arts Live.
Enter the world of Nathan Detroit (played with a combination of panache and haplessness by SAL newbie, but seasoned performer Skyler King) charismatic mastermind behind the oldest permanent floating craps game in town.
…Grab your lucky charm, roll the dice, and immerse yourself in this wonderful play…
Desperately trying to find a safe spot for his next nefarious gathering, Detroit tries to acquire $1,000 (needed to hold the game at a local garage) from slick and suave Sky Masterson (given unexpected depth of character by Andrew Smith), a high-stakes gambler with an insatiable appetite for unconventional wagers. Detroit bets Sky that he won’t be able to persuade prim and prudish temperance worker Sergeant Sarah Brown (pitch perfect Maeve Smith) to have dinner with him in Havana.
The Hot Box Girls in Sonoma Arts Live’s “Guys & Dolls” See ’em while they’re hot! Opening July 14th!
Love, however, finds its way into the hearts of these streetwise hustlers when Nathan’s long-suffering fiancée, Miss Adelaide (beautifully executed by gifted Jenny Veilleux) decides it’s time for him to ditch the shady lifestyle and settle down. With her irresistible charm, hilarious accent, and fervent belief in Nathan’s 14-year-long promise to marry, Adelaide uses every ounce of guile she possesses in a desperate bid to secure a wedding date. But the true test of love and faith falls upon Sky, whose high stakes wager to woo Sarah and prove that love can conquer even the most unlikely of pairings turns out to be much more than a dare.
Standout performers such as Jonathen Blue as Nicely Nicely—whose rousing rendition of “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” was a crowd favorite—as well as Rick Love’s cigar-chomping menace as Chicago gangster Big Jule, help to round out this outstanding ensemble.
Gamblers in Sonoma Arts Live’s “Guys & Dolls”, running July 14th-30th.
With a legendary score by Frank Loesser, the irresistible melodies will have you tapping your feet and humming along in no time. From the iconic “Luck Be a Lady” to the comical ode to psychosomatic distress “Adelaide’s Lament” (a side-splitting show-stopper as performed by Veilleux), the music seamlessly weaves its way into the fabric of the story, leaving you longing for more.
Under the expert direction of the brilliant creative team (Larry Williams, director: Liz Andrews, choreographer; Frank Sarubbi, lighting design; Laurynn Malilay, sound design, and all their cohort, the simple set manages to capture the essence of 1930s New York, the costumes add a vibrant splash of color, and the understated choreography elevates the music. Best of all is the convincing chemistry between the romantic leads, not surprising as the Smiths (Sarah and Sky) are husband and wife in real life, but also holds true for Veilleux and King, as Detroit and Miss Adelaide.
Cast of “Guys & Dolls” at work.
Guys and Dolls is a jubilant celebration of love, misadventure and the power of redemption. With its infectious spirit, catchy tunes, and effervescent performances, this exuberant musical is a must-see for theatre enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Grab your lucky charm, roll the dice, and immerse yourself in this wonderful play that will leave you grinning, clapping, and begging for an encore!
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Sue Morgan is a Senior Contributing Writer at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.co
Production
Guys and Dolls
Written by
Music and Lyrics by: Frank Loesser
Book by: Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
July 14th - 30th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
A strange musical production with an equally strange history is currently on stage at The Pear Theatre in Mountain View.
Falsettos is an impressive undertaking for a small theatre which seldom offers musicals in its season. First, there’s a four-piece band, led by conductor Val Zvinyatskovsky, playing in a tiny second-story balcony. That’s a good thing, except that for some of the songs, the musicians played so loud so that singers’ voices could not be heard.
The unique shape of The Pear means that viewers sometimes all sit on the north side of the building, sometimes all on the south side and sometimes on three sides. Director Janie Scott apparently decided to have three rows of seats on the north and two on the south.
…Most everything is conveyed by song…
Bad choice. For some parts of Falsettos a performer is singing only to those on the north side, while for other songs, most of the song gets sung to people on the south side. Why would anyone want to see the back side of a singer?
There are numerous other issues with this production, but the core cast of actors makes it marginally enjoyable. Key among them is young Russell Nakagawa, as Jason, who “ages” from 10 to 13 by play’s end. Nakagawa’s clear, clean voice is fine, but it’s his earnest, complex acting that is a wonder to see in someone so young.
(L-R): Russell Nakagawa (Jason), Brad Satterwhite (Whizzer) and Tyler Savin (Marvin). Photography credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge..
Tyler Savin is almost always believable as Marvin, Jason’s father, who loves his son but who has realized that he also loves a man, even when some of the things he does makes him difficult to like. Savin possesses the best voice in the cast, which helps tremendously as Marvin is deeply conflicted and must convey that in many songs and duets.
Most of the time Jen Wheatonfox (as Jason’s mother and Marvin’s wife Trina) doesn’t quite pull off the gravitas needed in this role. Instead, Wheatonfox seems to simply go with the flow, whatever it is. She ends up with Marvin’s psychiatrist Mendel (a bland Kyle Herrera) and mostly smiles for the remainder of the show.
Jen Wheatonfox (Trina), Russell Nakagawa (Jason) and Tyler Savin (Marvin). Photography credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge.
As Whizzer, Brad Satterwhite seems perfectly suited as Marvin’s lover, although it’s not really clear how he ends up becoming the one Jason confides in. But his slight body built makes him physically right to play a man who contracts AIDS and goes through the agonies of that disease.
Only theatregoers who are familiar with how Falsettos came to be a two-act play may accept the two characters who come in after intermission. Both are superfluous, although Angie Alvarez, as Whizzer’s doctor, gets the chance to show off her lovely voice in several songs.
Kyle Herrera (Marvin), Jen Wheatonfox (Trina), Russell Nakagawa (Jason), Brad Satterwhite (Whizzer), Angie Alvarez (Charlotte), Leah Kennedy (Cordelia), and Tyler Savin (Marvin). Photography credit: Caitlin Stone-Collonge.
There are actually approximately twenty songs in Act 1 and seventeen in Act 2. As a play designed as a sung-thru musical (that is, a production in which songs entirely or almost entirely replace any spoken dialogue) most everything is conveyed by song. “Everyone Hates His Parents,” “Something Bad is Happening,” “You Gotta Die Sometime,” “Thrill of First Love,” “I Never Wanted to Love You” and the comical Act 1 opener, “Four Jews in a Room Bitching,” are all excellent.
Overall, Falsettos clearly could have been better directed and improved by toning down the musicians, but its exploration of both Jewish culture and 1980s’ gay culture just might make it worth seeing.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Early each summer, San Franciso Playhouse launches a classic musical that runs well into September—a genius strategy leveraging Union Square tourist traffic. This year’s offering is a brilliant production of A Chorus Line, directed by Bill English and choreographed by Nicole Helfer.
Background: In 1975, word on the street in New York City was “get to the Public Theatre and see the workshop of a new musical called A Chorus Line!” The show opened to standing-room-only on April 14, closed on July 13, and opened 12 days later on Broadway at the Shubert Theater, becoming (until Cats) the longest-running musical in Broadway history. It’s hard to imagine that A Chorus Line appeared the same year as Fosse’s Chicago and Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures. A Chorus Line swept the Tony Awards, leaving Chicago empty-handed until the revival put together by Ann Reinking.
Dancers pin their hopes on winning a role in “A Chorus Line,” presented by San Francisco Playhouse June 22 – September 9th.
Based on Michael Bennett’s conversations with Broadway dancers, the story centers on their careers, hopes, dreams, frustrations, and possible longevity during a wildly vacillating time for Broadway musicals. At these initial meetings, Bennet knew he had something remarkable to tell. The team of writers Nicholas Dante and James Kirkwood, lyricist Ed Kleban, composer Marvin Hamlisch, and co-choreographer Bob Avian yielded one of the most revolutionary musicals of all time, a conceptual breakthrough when it first appeared.
Dancers strut their stuff in SF Playhouse’s “A Chorus Line,” performing June 22 – September 9th in The City.
A Chorus Line conveys multiple stories about a corps of dancers seeking spots in a touring production. A couple of them are so young that they have yet to land their first serious gigs. At the other end of the spectrum are veterans feeling the inevitable pressures of age. In between are those with personal issues that could affect their careers — the responsibilities of parenthood, for example, or long-running guilt over being gay (this was the early ‘70s), or a drug habit, or a tone-deaf singing voice. Anything that might derail the touring production for which they are auditioning is cause for anxiety for them and the show’s director. There are ongoing and sometimes overly broad hints about fleeting friendships and petty jealousies among the dancers.
. . . A Chorus Line is every actor’s story, whether professional or community theater. “I Hope I Get It” . . .
Overseeing them all is a stern but not unsympathetic taskmaster named Zach (Keith Pinto), choreographer of the show-to-be. Zach talks to them in turn as he puts them through their paces, sometimes barking like a Marine Corps drill instructor and at other times almost whispering like a trusted friend.
Zach (center – Keith Pinto) instructs dancers auditioning in San Francisco Playhouse’s “A Chorus Line”.
Zach came up through the ranks and understands their plight, but he also has a high-pressure job to do. Pinto manages this conflict like a high-wire artist, in a riveting performance.
GM: Wasn’t it great to see the SF Playhouse stage filled with some of the finest musical theater talent in SF?
BW: Absolutely. We are lucky to live in such a talent-rich part of the world—talent across all the arts, not merely theater. This production features some of the Bay Area’s best.
GM: Bill English’s direction really highlights the uniqueness in each role as their stories unfold, and Nicole Helfer’s choreography hits a balance of distinction for each. Her ensemble numbers are remarkable.
BW:Nicole is a wonderful choreographer and an excellent director. She filled both duties exceptionally well with her fine production of She Loves Me at RVP recently. This Chorus Line is the first time I can recall seeing her onstage.
I thought she brought a superb blend of self-doubt, vulnerability, determination, and mastery of the craft to the role of Cassie, the show-to-be’s potential lead dancer, Zach’s former girlfriend, and an almost-over-the-hill veteran who hopes to land just one more glorious role before resigning herself to the post-career Siberia of teaching. Nicole’s solo “The Music and the Mirror” is marvelous.
GM: I loved the surprises of newer emerging talents like Chachi Delgado’s as Richie in “Gimme The Ball” and Tony Conaty as Mike in “I Can Do That.”
BW: They’re both great performers. Conaty is amazingly dynamic, but Delgado is in a league of his own in this production—the epitome of innate athleticism, effortless grace, and deep confidence.
GM: Great to see the husband and wife team of Keith Pinto and Alison Ewing perform so well as Zach and Sheila.
BW:Absolutely. Their real-world relationship in some ways reflects a couple of the show’s secondary themes.
GM: Chorus Line never needs a set as such—the tall mirrors at the back of the stage evoke the 52nd & Broadway dance studio where the original actually took place. Michael Oesch’s lighting design brought us focus, and his finale lights are stunning!
BW: Michael made incalculable contributions to the success of this production. During the post-show meet-and-greet he mentioned having basically lived at the Playhouse for the last two weeks before opening.
GM: A Chorus Line delves into the personal and professional torment that is the life of all artists. 1975 was my time in NYC, Barry. I stopped auditioning for Broadway choruses when I was at the very end of the final ten for Shenandoah. Choreographer Bob Tucker asked me (like Zach does) in front of everyone “Why aren’t you taking dance classes?”
I had not taken dance classes to sharpen my skills. I mumbled some lame excuse, walked out with my head down—crying on Broadway!—then said to myself, “Well, maybe I can do Shakespeare!” The rest, dear hearts, is history.
A Chorus Line is among the greatest productions ever about the lives of desperate artists, willing to make almost any sacrifice for their moment under the bright lights. It’s simultaneously personal, painful, and exhilarating—and Dave Dobrusky’s backstage band is terrific! This SF Playhouse production is a must-see event.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
A Chorus Line
Written by
James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante/music by Marvin Hamlisch/lyrics by Edward Kleban
If you’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies based on the books, then how will you understand Puffs, a play written in 2015 by New York-based playwright Mike Cox?
One suggestion: Bring along a 13-year-old to enlighten you.
In any event, the full title of Cox’s play is: Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic.
…much to appreciate here…
Running through July 2 at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto, Puffs definitely draws in a youthful demographic, most of whom were likely Potter devotees in their younger years. Frankly, if you haven’t seen the films or read the books, you’ll miss out on most of what’s going on. (A few groups of older patrons were conspicuously absent after intermission.)
Still, there is much to appreciate here. For example: The set is full of spectacular lights, sounds and moving parts, the characters are so darn silly (but likeable), the musical score is amazingly diverse, and the costumes so colorfully imaginative, that there’s plenty to occupy your eyes, ears, and other facial appendages.
Photo by Scott Lasky Pictured: The Puffs learn of a troll in the dungeons on Halloween in “PUFFS Or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic”
Apparently Puffs has no connection whatsoever with J. K. Rowling, so that means it can’t show Harry, Hermione or Ron and can’t mention Hogwarts. How Cox’s play does this is rather ingenious, at least as represented by director Kristin Walter and the PAP production.
Director Walter, a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fan, tackles this somewhat unwieldy script as if it were one triple ice cream sundae. Smart choice to choose Tiffany Nwogu as the narrator because she brings some semblance of normalcy every time she opens one of the doorways and walks onstage to speak. Her colorful dress, created by costume designer Jenny Garcia, helps her stand out from everyone else in the cast.
Photo by Scott Lasky Pictured: The narrator (Tiffany Nwogu) keeps the story moving in PUFFS at PA Players.
At the center of Cox’s play are three young men who ,mainly because they are new to the school and don’t know anyone, become fast friends. They discover that the “Sorting Hat” (of course! What’s a play without a hat with magical powers?) puts all three of them into the “Puffs” house. None of them want to be a Puff – they were hoping to be “Braves,” “Smarts” or “Snakes – but they eventually accept their fate.
Photo by Scott Lasky Pictured: Megan Jones (Michelle Skinner) threatens Wanye Hopkins (Will Livingston) and Oliver Rivers (Nicholas Athari) in PUFFS.
In fact, it’s a tale meant for those who rarely get any recognition. None of these characters are a Harry Potter – and never expect to be. But they learn during their seven years at a certain school of magic that friendship is just about the best thing anyone can hope for.
Though none of the cast members are in their teens, the actors do a fine approximation of acting the age of college students. Will Livingston (Wayne), Nicholas Athari (Oliver) and Michelle Skinner as Megan are all excellent in their roles, as is Katie O’Bryon Champlin as Susie Bones and other parts.
The diminutive Champlin brings down the house whenever she walks out on stage wearing a familiar-looking maroon and gold scarf around her neck and carrying two mops – one bright red (representing Ron) and one brown (Hermione).
Photo by Scott Lasky. Pictured: The Puffs pay their respects when their headmaster dies in PUFFS Or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, the hilarious Off-Broadway hit.
Unfortunately, there is much in this show that will not be familiar without an understanding of the Harry Potter books or movies. Still, there’s both heart and humor for those who do “get” it.
Scenic designer Kevin Davies, assisted by scenic painter Greet Jaspaert, adds a lot of visual interest onstage, most especially the tall faux-stone staircase that gets moved around seamlessly just before someone walks out of a second-story door to walk down to the stage. That requires precision timing – bravo!
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic
Heads up parents and children, millennials and Shakespeare fans of all ages; Get thee to Marin Shakespeare’s Hamlet! It’s a production for now. Director Jon Tracy wants the relevance and resonance of the many themes of this play to hit us in our solar plexus. Action versus inaction, appearance versus reality, the uncertainty of life, the role of women – just to name a few concepts – are marvelously transparent in this abridged and common English version. And modern dress, laptops, cell phones, songs, dance and recreational drugs bring us into the moment.
A cast of eight actors ably bring home the key elements of Hamlet’s journey from grief and despair at his father’s death, his mother’s remarriage, the oppression of a new stepfather, to his own final moments. Unexpectedly, the play both begins and ends in a pit, with the gravedigger, a sonorous Lady Zen, digging and singing the cycle of life.
…a roller-coaster ride through Hamlet’s brain…
Hamlet’s father as Ghost, and Uncle Claudius as opportunist usurper are smartly played by Michael Torres as two sides of a single personality. The Ghost instills Hamlet with the required outrage to revenge the father’s unfaithful wife and murderous brother. But will Hamlet have the will to act against the uncle?
From left, Rosencrantz (Rinabeth Apostol), Hamlet (Nick Musleh) and Stevie DeMott (Guildenstern) star in Marin Shakespeare Company’s “Hamlet.” Photo by Jay Yamada courtesy Marin IJ.
Nick Musleh’s Hamlet emerges from a shell-shocked and immobilized prince to a thinking man’s demonic theater producer – both in the play within the play and later in his associations with family and court. He is particularly effective in the pseudo-insanity scenes. His sit-down with Polonius, chief counselor and sycophant to Claudius, admirably played by Richard Pallaziol, is a tour-de-force of the wit and speed of youth trampling an aging courtier.
The curved masonry set by Nina Ball is ringed with arches and lights, evoking a palace, royalty and privilege, at least in its heyday. But the edges are visibly deteriorating and we know something is rotten in this state. The furnishings feature a rotating dining-room table on a circular marble floor. Actors moving this table from place to place signal scene changes and heighten various confrontations, both civil and violent. Particularly moving is Hamlet’s struggle against an enraged and smothering Claudius who graphically pins and chokes him on the table top.
Michael Torres is a low-key, fretful and shifty King Claudius. Photo by Jay Yamada, courtesy of Marin IJ.
Women in this production have less to do, reflecting their subservience in the family and in the court. Ophelia is never without her pills that initially sustain and ultimately kill her. And Gertrude exhibits the feminine beauty worth killing for. But she has no powers to help her son, and enables and encourages Ophelia’s ultimate suicide. She is the star in costuming, appearing in a new devastating gown for every scene, showing us the ultimate narcissism a self-indulgent woman can achieve.
This production is a roller-coaster ride through Hamlet’s brain, as he searches for something and someone to value in a corrupt cultural and familial landscape. As one of Shakespeare’s longest and most complex plays, this production helps us to put the many pieces together and rings out a warning for our own times.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Hamlet
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Jon Tracy
Producing Company
Marin Shakespeare Company
Production Dates
Thru July 16th
Production Address
Forest Meadows Amphitheater (outdoors),
Dominican University of California 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael, CA
The show must go on for Transcendence Theatre Company, Sonoma County’s award-winning outdoor music-and-dance extravaganza. Conceived twelve years ago as a modest fundraiser to help fund Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, Transcendence has been successful in donating over $685,000 to the cause.
It’s a shame that the state’s bureaucracy suddenly determined that it needs a review of how the crowds are impacting the park, leaving TTC without their reliable venue for the first show of the summer season. Fortunately, Transcendence has won many friends in Sonoma County and was able to find a last-minute alternate venue at Belos Cavalos, a sprawling non-profit equine facility in Kenwood.
With the swiftness and splendid energy characteristic of Transcendence, a stage was built, lights were raised, padded seats were brought in, picnic tables and umbrellas set up, wine was poured, and the show went on!
And-what-a-show-it-is!!
This musical journey through three decades begins with the ’60s and smoothly segues from Sinatra to Beatniks to Ed Sullivan. How far back has music been influencing us, making us laugh or nearly cry?
The Beat Goes On samples three decades of emotions, and the audience loves it all.
Transcendence’s astoundingly talented cadre dances spectacularly, belting out hit after hit from the ’70s and ’80s. How music reflected the mood of those years is clear as the songs move through the Vietnam War to Woodstock. Motown and disco follow with a solid showing.
“This rockin’ remembrance of songs starts with the 60’s and just keeps blasting through the decades…”
The performers are stars shining from Broadway and LA venues. They love the outdoor venue in Sonoma – no matter where it is. Transcendence always gives a rockin’ remembrance of songs and dance, blasting through the decades.
The stage bursts with brilliant costume changes (supervised by Jenny Foldenauer) as only a Broadway revue can deliver. Transcendence’s musical director Susan Draus conceived and directed this amazing journey, revealing her dedication to music of all genres. Joining music wizard Draus on the creative team were choreographers for each decade of music headed by Sierra Lai Barnett, with Cory Lingner tracking the moves of the ’70s, and Alex Hartman leading the ’80s.
Enjoy what many call “The Best Night Ever!” by bringing a picnic starting at 5 p.m. and share the summer with pre-show entertainment, gourmet food trucks, and premium Sonoma County wines. As the sun starts to drift low in the sky, check out the majestic mountains in this lovely wine country valley. Dress in layers, for when the moon rises, the temperature falls.
The Beat Goes On is the first outdoor show in TTC’s three-part summer series and runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings through July 2nd at the Belos Cavalos location. Transcendence hopes that their next two shows will find them back at Sonoma County’s Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Stay tuned.
Next up is The Full Monty opening July 28, followed by An Enchanted Evening opening September 8th.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Ansel Adams’ environmental images are so distinctive you can pick them out from a room away despite their being intermingled with works from photographers his work inspired.
That’s the quickest takeaway from a new exhibit, Ansel Adams in Our Time, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The display, partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, provides the expected: It’s striking eye candy.
But it also provides what may be the unexpected: It triggers your emotions. No matter how many times you’ve witnessed Adams’ gelatin silver prints, regardless of whether you’ve ever seen the actual pristine landscapes he’s photographed, you may find your skin filled with goosebumps.
You are guaranteed to find the familiar and the not-so-familiar.
The multi-section exhibit, which features more than 100 of Adams’ iconic black-and-whites, also showcases works by 23 contemporary artists, some of whom, like Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, have created collages that offer a colorful time-capsule of Yosemite. Others’ shots were taken from spots that Adams had previously photographed. Also included are prints by 19th century landscape photographers who influenced him (Carleton E. Watkins, John K. Hiller, and Frank Jay Haynes, for example).
Installation view of “Ansel Adams in Our Time”. Photo: Randy Dodson.
In addition to Adams’ images from Yosemite, San Francisco, and the American Southwest that everyone’s most likely seen reproduced dozens of times (including that weird 1937 shot of his friend, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and Orville Cox on the edge of an Arizona canyon) are an unforeseen photo shot through window bars, a marvelous still life of a decrepit fence and thistles, and the Marin headlands before the Golden Gate Bridge was erected.
In a press release, Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, of which the de Young is a component, gives the exhibit some perspective. It is “exceptional,” he says, “in underscoring [Adams’] brilliant legacy and the critical role that his works and others’ before him have played in safeguarding our national parks and other public lands.”
Installation view of “Ansel Adams in Our Time”. Photo: Randy Dodson.
Adams, who was born in San Francisco in 1902 and grew up in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, made his first trip to Yosemite at age 14; despite being a school dropout, he became one of the most prominent advocates of environmental protection and conservation from his bully pulpit within the Sierra Club, which he’d joined at 17.
His first photos were published in 1921, and his prints of Yosemite became popular the following year. In an attempt to promote so-called “pure” photography (which encouraged a full tonal range coupled with a sharp focus), he founded Group f/64, an association of 11 photographers, at the de Young.
Recent fires from Canada that pushed clouds of pollution into the Eastern U.S. have reminded us that existential environmental disasters are possible every day; Adams photos clearly show the beauty and majesty of landscapes that have long been threatened.
Yes, his shots are available virtually everywhere, on postcards to send back to Peoria, on calendars to give you a different kick each month, on prints and posters that can be framed inexpensively. But the originals installed at the de Young, which distinctly show not only the photographer’s technical skill but his futuristic vision, should put this San Francisco exhibit on everyone’s don’t-fail-to-see list.
ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
The Emerald City meets Beach Blanket Babylon in ACT’s gloriously goofy The Wizard of Oz, running through June 25.
The wild production adheres closely to the beloved original, including story and songs, but it’s as far removed from a 1940s Saturday afternoon movie matinee as you can imagine—a hilariously gender-bending extravaganza just perfect for Pride Month in San Francisco.
…ACT’s Wizard of Oz is an amazing and marvelous spectacle…
With her brilliantly-conceived puppet dog Toto never far away, Chanel Tilghman stars as the lonely, spunky Dorothy, swept away by a tornado from her prairie home to the magical Land of Oz. Gifted with an innocent look, a relaxed stage presence, and a lovely singing voice, Tilghman delights as the naïve but adventurous Kansas schoolgirl.
Cathleen Riddley (Zeke) and Chanel Tilghman (Dorothy) in “The Wizard of Oz”, at ACT in The City. Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
Also wonderful are the three friends she meets on her way to visit the Great Oz: the Straw Man, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (loose-limbed Danny Scheie, self-contained Darryl V. Jones, and pugnacious Cathleen Ridley, respectively.)
Add to this list of huge talents Ada Westfall as the pontificating Professor Marvel/Wizard, Courtney Walsh as the Wicked Witch of the West and Katrina Lauren McGraw as Glinda the Good. Walsh oozes evil from several spots in the theater, much to the delight of the audience, and McGraw absolutely shines as Glinda. Ebullient and comical, McGraw was outstanding as Maria in last year’s production of The Sound of Music at Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theatre. Not to be overlooked are the supremely talented cello-playing El Beh in multiple roles, and Travis Santell Rowland as a glittery whirling dervish wreaking havoc in both Kansas and Oz.
(Top) Katrina Lauren McGraw (Glinda), (Bottom) Chanel Tilghman (Dorothy), and (Background) Beth Wilmurt in “The Wizard of Oz”, now through Sunday, June 25, 2023. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
This Wizard benefits greatly from solid direction and inventive choreography by Sam Pinkleton, but what takes it into the stratosphere of comedy and campy nostalgia are costumes and set design by David Zinn. The set is a psychedelic riot of every imaginable tacky thing, as if the entire contents of a Party City store were expanded to gigantic proportions and scattered at random across the stage. The closing scene is a bit baffling, wherein all the characters appear on stage dressed as Dorothy in prairie garb but it doesn’t detract from the show’s joyous impact.
ACT’s Wizard of Oz is an amazing and marvelous spectacle, very much in keeping with San Francisco’s long tradition of outrageous theatricality—The Cockettes, The Thrillpeddlers, The Tubes, and as mentioned, Beach Blanket Babylon. It’s also a production that would probably be illegal in Florida, Texas, and other less-enlightened parts of the world. Be glad we live where we do.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Before there wasHamilton, there was In the Heights, the first hugely successful musical with lyrics and music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, with book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. The song-and-dance extravaganza runs at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts through June 24.
Essentially a celebration of life in the barrio of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, the simple drama centers around Nina Rosario (Cristina Hernandez ) a young woman who’s returned to the neighborhood after her first year at Stanford University, an experience not entirely to her liking.
Nina (Cristina Hernandez) reflects on her struggles to make her dreams come true in Center Repertory Company’s “In the Heights,” performing May 27 – June 24 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne.
Her family runs Rosario’s taxi and car service, the neighborhood’s largest employer; her would-be boyfriend Benny (Dave J. Abrams) hopes to become both the company’s chief dispatcher and perhaps, a member of the Rosario family, a doubtful possibility in the eyes of her parents Camila and Kevin (Natalie Amaya and Noel Anthony, respectively). The Rosarios also wrestle with the implications of selling the business to fund more Stanford for Nina, an eventuality that could disrupt the social structure of the neighborhood.
…a dazzling spectacle and a really satisfying performance…
The show’s large cast makes great use of the Margaret Lesher Theatre’s wide stage, dressed to the two-level max by scenic designer Leah Ramillano with very effective aid by lighting designer Wen-Ling Liao.
The residents of Washington Heights hit the club in Center Repertory Company’s “In the Heights,” performing May 27 – June 24 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne.
Choreographer Sara Templeton puts her dancers through one exhaustive exercise after another, propelled by a tremendous backstage band led by Nicolas Perez. The band’s unnamed drummer works his tail off throughout the show with an unbelievably dynamic performance that sustains both performers and audience alike.
The first act is especially bombastic. And there’s the rub. Miranda throws in some rap, and some Spanish rap, but in keeping with the popular trend in musical theater, his songs lack melody. Most of the cast shouts at the audience, and many lyrics are somewhat masked by the band and/or sound effects. Spoken dialog is all clear and convincingly delivered, including several scenes that comically exploit differences in regional and national dialects among native speakers of Spanish.
Usnavi (Míchel Alejandro Castillo), Benny (Dave Abrams), and the citizens of Washington Heights dance in the streets in Center Repertory Company’s “In the Heights,” performing May 27 – June 24 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne.
The show is rampant with talent—not only the leads but many of the minor characters too. Alex Alvarez is superb and hilarious as “Piragua Guy,” who pushes his icy-drink cart all over the neighborhood. Michelle Navarrete is especially charming as Abuela Claudia, the barrio’s all-purpose grandmother and source of reassurance.
After its success on Broadway, In the Heights went into syndication among regional theater troupes. The sumptuous Lesher Center and CenterREP’s aspirational production are as close as you’re likely to come to the original. It’s a dazzling spectacle and a really satisfying performance.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Into the Heights
Written by
Quiara Alegria Hudes
Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Directed by
Nicholas C. Avila
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru June 24th
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
Make no mistake: The women of Chinquapin parish are as delicate as magnolias – but as tough as steel. That’s why Robert Harling’s play, Steel Magnolias has endured since it first premiered in New York in 1987. Two years later, it was made into a movie featuring a whole lineup of Academy Award-winning women.
Since that time, Harling’s comedy-drama has been a favorite at regional and community theatres all over the country. One reason it has endured so long is because it’s the simple story of a group of women friends who overcome difficulties by supporting each other through thick and thin.
…Director Elizabeth Carter did a commendable job of assembling a companionable multi-cultural cast…
In this case, the setting is Truvy’s home-based hair salon – in fact, according to its owner, Truvy (a somewhat subdued Lisa Strum), it’s the best hair salon in town. That’s why most of the women in town go there weekly to get their hair washed, dried and teased to make it ‘poofy.’
This day is particularly special because both M’Lynn (a marvelously warm Dawn L. Troupe) and her daughter Shelby (a youthfully delightful Jasmine Milan Williams) are coming in to get their hair done for Shelby’s wedding that very afternoon.
Interestingly, Harling based the play on the death of his sister, who had diabetes but decided she wanted to have a baby anyway – despite the risks. She had a child, but then her kidneys failed, and even though Harling’s mother donated one of her own, it failed too and his sister passed away. That’s the sad part, but there’s so much joy, laughter and camaraderie in Steel along the way.
Director Elizabeth Carter did a commendable job of assembling a companionable multi-cultural cast. (Some folks might question her decision to have some of the actors stand facing toward the audience while talking to people behind them. Nancy Carlin as Ouiser does this several times.)
Arguably the real “star” of this Steel production is the wondrous set created by scenic designer Andrea Bechert. That’s one of the advantages of offering a play on the extraordinarily wide stage of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. A lot of plays wouldn’t work here, but “Steel” is made for such a stage. The hair salon takes up nearly all of the stage, with just two steps leading up to a second level, going into a room where coffee is brewed—and hot dogs are occasionally cooked! It helps, too, if you like turquoise—because that’s the color du jour!
Cast of “Steel Magnolias” at work. Photo by Kevin Berne.
There’s so much heart here that it’s likely to have some theatregoers shedding a tear or two. Alexandra Lee hits the mark with her portrayal of the newcomer Annelle, who “may or may not be married” and is desperately in need of a job. The rest of the women at Truvy’s all contribute clothes, food and even a place to stay.
The final cast member (Marcia Pizzo as Clairee) is a bit too brisk, but she comes through in the final scene when she grabs her nemesis Ouiser and tells M’Lynn to take out her aggressions on her. Now that’s friendship for sure!
(Note: Several performances will offer open captioning and others will include audio descriptions to assist anyone who is visually impaired. American Sign Language will be available at the 7:30 p.m. June 20 performance. Check the website for more information.)
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of nurses? The Empress doesn’t know, because she doesn’t have a shadow. But in the course of Richard Strauss’s opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, she develops empathy for other human beings while seeing her nurse shamelessly manipulate one of them, and gets a shadow as a reward.
Start with this basic plot, but then add 20+ more characters, 10 scene changes, nearly 100 musicians, 78 choristers, 7 dancers, and an elusive concoction of spirit world, symbolism, allegory, and late romantic melancholy, and you might be headed for trouble.
…Top honors are richly deserved for Sir Donald Runnicles’ conducting of the Opera Orchestra …
Fortunately, astute casting, terrific orchestral playing, and occasionally gorgeous sets by David Hockney allow Strauss’s nearly 3 hours of often inspired music to shine. Reactions may vary, however, with respect to Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s libretto, with its interpretive challenges for puzzle-solvers and bewilderment for realists.
Linda Watson as the Nurse, Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, and Camilla Nylund as the Empress in Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera.
Top honors are richly deserved for Sir Donald Runnicles’ conducting of the Opera Orchestra through thundering climaxes and deftly coordinating his army on and offstage. Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s wife powerfully matched the model proposed by Hofmannstahl himself. That is, Strauss’s wife Pauline: “Earthborn, impetuous yet unselfconfident and beautiful.” Linda Watson’s Nurse, purportedly a servant and aide to the Empress, revealed well her character’s true nature as a Mephistophelean Nurse Semi-Ratched trying to wheedle Stemme out of her shadow.
Linda Watson as the Nurse and Stefan Egerstrom as the Spirit Messenger in Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera.
The hapless Dyer Barak was resonantly characterized by bass-baritone Johan Reuter. Camilla Nylund as the Empress aptly evolved her character and voice from a transparent gazelle to a caring human being. David Butt Philip as the Emperor, Stefan Egerstrom as the Spirit Messenger, and the rest of the cast did fine work handling the virtuoso lines Strauss gave to large and small parts alike.
Hockney’s backdrops ranged from an exquisitely beautiful color-changing evocation of hills, rivers and flowers of the opening scene on the Emperor’s roof to Barak’s home and dye shop with a wide range of vertical paint-can-like streaks of earth tones. Another striking set was the door to Keikobad’s temple in Act 3. At the end of Act 2, a Götterdämmerung-like event in the score was weakly characterized on stage. An earthquake is supposed to break the walls and a flood roar through them while Barak and his wife sink into the earth. No flood, just some hangings lifted.
Johan Reuter as Barak and Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife in Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera.
The beginning of Act 3 had the couple separated in large tear-drop holes in a backdrop rather than the “subterranean vault divided by a thick wall” called for in the libretto. Some dramatic orchestral interludes where characters hang about on stage with little or nothing to do would have benefitted by projections, but Hockney’s design dates from 1992, when projection technologies were primitive by today’s standards.
Google the symbolism of shadows, and you’ll get a number of meanings as large as the forces bringing Die Frau back to life here. Hofmannstahl meant it to mean the ability to bear children, which prompted one recent critic to declare that Die Frau “is an opera that ultimately condemns its womenfolk to lives of obeisant child-bearing.” While the conclusion of this massive undertaking must be taken in historical context of a Europe depopulated by World War One and the flu in a strongly patriarchal society, who knows for sure what will lurk in the hearts of viewers who experience this opera today?
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
The Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma is small enough to be somebody’s living room, a lucky thing. Author Alexandra Adornetto reminds us that for kids, imagination and invention go hand in hand there. “Shift a few pieces or furniture around,” she says, “and you have yourself a fort.”
Or an opera.
Intimacy was a laudable goal for Cinnabar’s production of Puccini’s Tosca. Vocal artists could maximize beauty by not having to strain to reach distant back walls. The audience could be moved by facial-expression details without a need for TV monitors. Surtitles would not distract from the action since the opera was sung in English. But to capitalize on intimacy, voices had to be great, singers had to act, and pronunciation had to be clear. Furthermore, the small chamber orchestra had to consist of musicians of soloistic quality.
Fortunately the Elly Lichenstein’s and Mary Chun’s respective stage and music direction helped to bring the advantages of intimacy home in almost all respects.
Michelle Drever as Tosca in Puccini’s “Tosca,” (Courtesy of Cinnabar Theater/Pocket Opera).
Michelle Allie Drever was an exceptionally passionate, fiery, and expressive Tosca, with a gorgeous and accurate voice to boot. Alex Boyer’s Cavaradossi was superb in all respects. I was particularly impressed how he included an often neglected aspect to his character–the slight aloofness of his aristocratic origins combined with a yet heated passion for Tosca and republicanism.
…Elly Lichenstein’s and Mary Chun’s respective stage and music direction helped to bring the advantages of intimacy home..
Spencer Dodd’s Scarpia was on the money vocally. His strikingly evil expressions were melodramatically boo-worthy, but detracted from subtlety of character that could have been mined from his backstory as a man under pressure in a complex political environment.
Michelle Dever (right) as Tosca and Spencer Dodd (left) as Scarpia in Cinnabar’s “Tosca.” (Courtesy of Cinnabar Theater)
Jordan Eldredge as Angelotti and Gene Wright as the Sacristan fulfilled their roles admirably, as did the rest of the cast.
The Cinnabar theatre program neglected to credit the Italian librettists Illica and Giacosa and the English translation by co-producer Pocket Opera’s Donald Pippin. In English, the beauty of the Italian is largely lost, but the immediacy of the story is enhanced, for the most part (though I quibble with “muori, muori” being said as “damn you, damn you” instead of “die, die” as Tosca faces the writhing Scarpia). Boyer was a champion in that all his English was utterly understandable. (He confessed that it was hard to unlearn the Italian, which he has sung five times previously.) Occasionally, however, this reviewer found the other vocalists were difficult to understand in their higher ranges at dramatic moments.
Lichenstein’s non-verbal additions to the stage directions were some of the joys of this production. The opera opened with children in the church before Angelotti’s usual arrival. Act 2 added two women amusing Scarpia at his meal, and a secret hiding place for the killer knife Tosca surprisingly discovers. Act 3 begins with two girls instead of a shepherd boy.
Another joy opening the act, BTW, was Susanne Chasalow’s perfect horn solo (full productions use 4 horns, one or more of which always see to make a boo-boo).
Michelle Dever (right) as Tosca in Cinnabar’s “Tosca.” (Courtesy of Cinnabar Theater)
A final advantage of Tosca in Cinnabar’s living room is you can chat with the artists afterward. Pretend that their characters were relatives who had misbehaved at a family dinner, and suggest a name of a good therapist they could see, and bring a smile to their lips!
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
The vast underbelly of American culture gets hilariously gutted in The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through June 24.
Welcome to Armadillo Acres, a mobile home community in the town of Starke, Florida, a place where cheap beer, flimsy housing, and low-budget/low IQ entertainment combine in a toxic froth, where all things inconceivably tacky are a way of life.
…another Lucky Penny winner that could easily play to sold-out houses all summer long…
Lucky Penny’s10th anniversary of a production first staged in 2012 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, this Trailer Park features five original cast members. Comic genius Daniela Innocenti-Beem shines as “Bad Ass Betty,” mother hen to a brood of spunky but unlucky residents, including the agoraphobic Jeannie (Julianne Bradbury) who struggles mightily to step outside her door; Jeannie’s toll-taker husband Norbert (Mark Bradbury, an astounding theatrical chameleon); Pickles (Kirstin Pieschke), suffering from “hysterical pregnancy;” and the lusty Linoleum (Shannon Rider), whose husband is on death row in a Florida penitentiary.
His ultimate fate hasn’t diminished her enthusiasm for life’s fundamental pleasures—she coos with delight when retrieving her latest copy of “North Florida Prison Wife Digest” with a feature story about spicing up conjugal visits.
“The Great American Trailer Park” Musical ensemble at work.
Into their midst comes a fetching stripper named Pippi (Taylor Bartolucci) who immediately arouses the attention of Norbert—and the suspicions of female neighbors. Later we meet the gun-waving, Magic Marker-sniffing redneck Duke (Skyler King), Pippi’s volatile estranged husband who’s tracked her down with the intention of reclaiming what he thinks is his. A marvelous plot twist involving Jeannie and Norbert won’t be revealed here!
Backed by Justin Pyle’s hard-driving four-piece band high above stage right, the show is a wild celebration of life on the other side of the tracks—the subject of the first song-and-dance production. Composer David Nehls’ songs are upbeat, engaging, and unlike in many contemporary musicals, have actual melodies that propel really clever lyrics right into the hearts of a very receptive audience. Most songs—not all—are delivered by the trio of Betty, Linoleum, and Pickles in a pastiche that recalls the doo-wop girls of Little Shop of Horrors. Staci Arriaga’s intentionally goofy choreography is the perfect reinforcement.
Act One closes with Jeannie’s dream sequence—a spoof of Jerry Springer-type televised fare to which she’s addicted. Innocenti-Beem is ideal as the host of the show-within-a-show. The song “The Great American TV Show” manages in short order to skewer everything not otherwise included in the all-encompassing script by Betsy Kelso.
Act Two opens with “Flushed Down the Pipes,” a fatalistic anthem that segues into “Storm’s A-Brewin’ “—an acknowledgement of Florida reality, where there’s a massive electrical storm nearly every afternoon. True fact (a Midwestern phrase also spoken in Florida): the state has the nation’s highest rate of lightning deaths, most of which take place on golf courses—proof that residents of America’s dangling appendage are too dim to come in out of the rain…
(L-to-R) Innocenti-Beem, Pieschke, Rider, J. Bradbury at work at Lucky Penny Productions.
Director/set designer Barry Martin has concocted both a perfectly wince-inducing neighborhood and a lively bunch of twisted residents to fill it, with antics that will have you laughing for days. Martin confessed post-show that having grown up in the Ozarks, he’s on especially intimate terms with the show’s characters.
For those who can’t get enough home-grown lowbrow culture, some of the show’s essential themes also figure into The Legend of Georgia McBride and the regrettably too-short TBS series Claws.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical is scheduled for a Christmas season revival this year, and tickets are disappearing quickly. They’re also selling briskly for the current production—we can only hope that it enjoys an extended run. It’s another Lucky Penny winner that could easily play to sold-out houses all summer long.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Written by
Betsy Kelso
Music & Lyrics
David Nehls
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru June 24th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
From the first sounds of the four-piece ensemble, we are transported to a Hungarian Rhapsody of music in 42nd Street Moon’s She Loves Me.
Under music director Daniel Thomas’ astute piano accompaniment along with three San Francisco musical stalwarts—Emily Chiet (violin), Nick DiScala (winds) and Lynden James (keyboard), we know we are in for the musical delights of this delicious score.
Based on Miklos Laszlo’s enchanting play Parfumerie, the story has been the basis for many adaptations including The Shop Around the Corner (with Jimmy Stewart), The Good Old Summertime (with Judy Garland), and You’ve Got Mail (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) reinventing letters into e-mails as “Dear Friends” find one another.
Will Giammona as Kodaly, Riley McFarland as Georg, Marah Sotelo as Amalia, and Nick Nakashima as Sipos. Photo: 42nd St Moon
In 1963, the estimable team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiorello and Fiddler on the Roof) along with libretto writer Joe Masteroff (Cabaret) brought the story to musical life. Listen to this score and try to find similarities with Fiddler – impossible, and that is masters at their best. Recipient of five Tony nominations (losing to that little-known musical Hello Dolly), She Loves Me has had a fortunate and constant revival afterlife. The vocal demands alone make presenting it challenging for any company.
The leads in this season-closing 42nd Street Moon production are excellent. Georg Nowak (an exceptional and physically adroit Riley Mcfarland) writes letters of love to his “dear friend” Amalia Balash (Marah Sotelo). Watch and listen to Mcfarland’s ever shifting choices making every word whether sung (superbly) or spoken, a journey into the heart. Sotelo has a sweet lyric soprano as she sings the musical’s classic songs “Dear Friend,” “Will He Like Me,” and the tour-de-force “Ice Cream.” If she cannot quite keep up with McFarland’s roller coaster of smug, defiant, loving and pained choices, who could?
Marah Sotelo as Amalia. Photo: 42 St Moon
Supporting them are solid and vocally rich Will Giammona as the perfume shop’s Snidely Whiplash, Kodaly. Spot-on Sophia Alawi is his occasional paramour Ilona, with Lee Strawn making his long awaited Moon debut as shop owner Mr. Maraczek, Nick Nakashima (hysterical) as Sipos, another shop clerk, Roeen Nooran as the bicycle-riding delivery boy, and Ted Zoldan as the most pompous head waiter in musical lore. Add a lovely ensemble of six actor/singers and the well-cast musical sings with gusto and heart.
Deborah Rosengaus, Ben Chau-Chiu, Meredith Fox, Daniel Gilmer, Milo Boland, and Monica Rose Slater. Photo: 42nd St Moon
The challenge of this musical for any theater company, but especially Moon, with its very limited budgets and resources, is the set. How to present seven distinct locations which repeat themselves throughout the musical?
Designer Kuo-Hao Lo, with assist from Stewart Lyle and Dennis Licktieg, gives us an almost jewelry box design, which at times unfortunately is shakier than a bowl of Jello. Great set design ideas don’t always work as imagined. It was clear during opening that the production needed more secure grounding.
High praise though, to costume designer Adriana Gutierrez for a glorious array of colorful and perfect work. She Loves Me is a treasure trove of musical gifts and so is 42nd Street Moon.
Support our local theaters!
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Weathervane Productions is a collaborative collective created in 2014 by Wendy vanden Heuvel. At Z-Below, the company is presenting a deeply enriching telling of South African writer Athol Fugard’s The Road To Mecca.
Fugard (Master Harold and the Boys, Sizwe Bonzi is Dead, A Lesson From Aloes) based this work on the real life of Helen Martins, an aging woman of the Karoo township, facing late life decisions which will disrupt her path of creating her Mecca garden of statuary.
…the play is riveting…
Whether Mecca, Canterbury or Lourdes, we are all on a journey towards fulfillment. Helen sees her greatest joy in creating a massive statuary of owls, camels, peacocks and indeed people, as a visionary celebration of what the mind can conceive and the art that hands can fashion. These huge and disturbing abstract reliefs are anathema to neighbors convinced that Helen is losing her faculties and needs to be moved to an assisted living facility.
Fugard’s play is a miasma of words rather than action with racism, art activism, and trust above all, shadowing over the proceedings. He brings into Act 1 a much younger friend, Elsa Barlow, who has driven all night from Cape Town to check in on Helen.
Miss Helen (Wendy vanden Heuvel) and Elsa (Kodi Jackman) share a laugh in Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca,”. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Their long conversatio motivates the first act and circumnavigates commonplace issues until it finally settles on whether Helen should sign a paper brought to her by the Dominee of the church allowing herself to have her house sold and for her to be moved to a “small but comfortable” room in the assisted living home. It is a listening journey we the audience are required to join and at times, I must admit I wanted it say “Get to the point!”
When that happens, and we enter Act 2, the play is riveting.
The play is directed with delicate precision and grace by Timothy Near. Eric Flamo’s set with wonderful assistance by properties master and set decorator Leah Hammond gives us a peak at what we cannot see but only can conjure in our own imagination – the Mecca that Helen has created.
With glimmering shards of glass and tiles, specific and perfect set pieces in a room illuminated by Maxx Kurzunski’s candle designs and gloriously lit by Kurt Landismann’s lambent lighting, we enter the world of imagination. Seeing what Helen has created in her living space, we can only imagine what she has created in her back acreage.
The cast of three is led by Wendy vanden Heuvel as Miss Helen, giving a performance of depth, pain, and always surprising choices as she brings us into Helen’s world. We can actually see in our minds the garden of Mecca that Helen has created – each statue oriented toward the east, toward Mecca. Ms. Vanden Heuvel gives a magnificent performance of grace and power. Kodi Jackman plays Helen’s young guest with variety and warmth – yielding the ground to Miss Helen’s fluctuating eccentricities.
Marius (Victor Talmadge) and Miss Helen (Wendy vanden Heuvel) share a memory in Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca,” performing June 4-30 at San Francisco’s Z Below. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Act 2 brings us Victor Talmage’s Reverend Marius Byleveld. In a role which some might see as a controlling and indeed heartless person of the cloth, Talmage brings sympathy and true caring even as he attempts to assuage Helen’s fears of signing the document.
The real Helen Martin’s work stands still today: “The Owl House” is a National Heritage Site in Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa.
If words and mind manipulations can conjure your joy, this is a play for you. Fugard is still with us, making our hearts sing in uplifted joy.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
For its current production of Sunday in the Park with George, Los Altos Stage Company turned its proscenium into a gold frame – a very large gold frame, thanks to the efforts of scenic designer Skip Epperson.
The James Lapine-Steven Sondheim musical gets a credible showing at LASC, despite the relatively small stage available to the actors and set pieces. The musicians are hidden behind a wall that includes several screens representing some of the artwork created by French artist Georges Seurat, who almost singlehandedly established the technique of Pointillism in 1886. Lapine apparently preferred to use the Americanized version of his name in his play.
Director Alex Perez chose his 14 actors with precision, not so much in their physical appearance as for their strong characterizations. It’s certainly not easy for each of the actors to portray two distinct characters, yet most came through with flying colors.
…JoAnn Birdsall’s costumes add another rich layer to this production. The sound, light, and props are equally important parts…
Act 1 takes place in 1884 when Georges is attempting to hone his painting style by separating out different aspects of his art: “White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony.”
Alycia Adame as Dot and Rob Cadwallader as George Seurat. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
As the play begins, Seurat’s model and live-in girlfriend Dot (Alycia Adame) is standing at the park wearing a tight corset and gown, complaining how hot it is to be out in the sun and begging Seurat to let her stand in the shade.
His response: “Don’t move. Look out at the sea!” She begrudgingly complies until finally surprising the audience by stepping away from the dress (which stands up all by itself!) and telling him she won’t pose any longer.
Alycia Adame as Dot, Rob Cadwallader as George Seurat and Linda Piccone as Old Lady. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
This give-and-take is pretty indicative of their relationship, which eventually ends because Seurat clearly values working on his art far more than he does spending time with her. She begins dating the baker, Louis (played by Bryan Moriarty, in four roles), whom she later marries and has a child – something she’s always wanted.
There are a number of other fine performances here including Penelope DaSilva as a very spoiled child, Louise, who ignores her mother and annoys people who are trying to enjoy a Sunday in the park. Other standouts: Andrew Kracht as the “live” Toy Soldier; Linda Piccone as both Georges’ mother and as Blair Daniels in Act 2, and Kate Matheson as Celeste.
Sunday’s score has at least 15 songs, so an orchestra is as essential as the actors. Brian Allan Hobbs leads a small, five-person orchestra from behind the scenery with just a small opening that allows the actors to begin singing at the right moment. Some of Sondheim’s best here are “”Sunday” (of course!), “We Do Not Belong Together,” “Putting it Together,” “It’s Hot Up Here” and “Move On.”
JoAnn Birdsall’s costumes add another rich layer to this production. The sound, light, and props are equally important parts.
Cast of Sunday in the Park with George. Photo by Christian Pizzirani.
The clear highlight is what’s known as the “tableau” that ends Act 1. This is when all the actors in Act 1 line up precisely where Georges wants them in order to recreate his most famous painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
(NOTE: Some performances have been cancelled due to a cast member contracting COVID. Check LASC website for available dates.)
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
After years of watching installations become increasingly architectural and less floral, this week’s “Bouquets to Art” exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco gets back to basics — bouquets.
I’ll posit there must be a bouquet somewhere in the 113-piece exhibit to please even the biggest sceptic, so long as he or she can revel in intricate floral arrangements and classic pieces of art.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t any whimsical creations, any weird designs, or any befuddling fabrications. There are. Just not as profuse as in pre-pandemic years.
Your delight may well begin in the main lobby, Wilsey Court, where — below an overhanging series of bouquets that’s sweet but hardly as overpowering as past displays — a group of five manikins are gaily decorated with colorful flora and leaves that have been transformed into gowns (and, in one case, a veil of flowers).
Staring is mandatory.
Midweek visitor appreciates large bouquet in de Young Museum exhibit. Photo by Woody Weingarten.
So is smiling.
…Those installations, it’s reported, were concocted by students from the City College of San Francisco…
It’s also impossible not to appreciate an installation that stands in front of a painting of a repugnant man, piano, and house — no matter which angle you look at it. The slightly scary yet whimsical floral creation of a critter from some black lagoon, in fact, is a perfect example of what the event started out being almost four decades ago: An exhibition of bouquets inspired by the art pieces before or next to which they stood, artworks that have been part of the museum’s permanent collection.
Photo — the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
During the decades, however, florists and designers veered from that concept, using more metal, wood, and other non-floral materials in their living statuary. More interesting sometimes. Occasionally more fun. But they never smelled better than old-fashioned bouquets.
This year is fascinating, too, in that more than a few bouquets feature a variety of painted or, well, gilded lilies. It’s hard to think of a better place to spend a few hours. It’s hard to think of a better place to spend a few hours. It can truly take your mind off the week’s headlines!
Photo — the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
A caveat: You need to hurry to see this year’s fund-raising exhibit, the 39th: It runs only through June 11. If possible, it’s suggested that you go early in the day — foot traffic is skimpier then. Traffic into the museum’s underground garage, however, may be a different story. Midweek, there were serious backups getting in, with docents warning drivers to expect lengthy delays.
Enjoy!
** Featured picture courtesy SF deYoung Museum. Photo taken by Gabriela Salazar.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
If you are a dedicated fan of musicals and a good sport about Shakespeare, you will be cheering and laughing at Something Rotten! at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa.
Brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick worked on and off for 15 years on their idea for a spoof of Shakespeare as an egomaniacal Renaissance rock star. John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick turned the idea into a book, and the musical premiered as a hit on Broadway in 2015.
…Something Rotten! goes way over the top!…
6th Street brings this hilarious show to their stage with David Lear directing, Lucas Sherman conducting the orchestra, with fresh choreography by Joseph Favalora. It’s a winning team heading up a cast of 18 outrageously costumed singers and dancers.
(L to R) Garet Waterhouse, Lorenzo Alviso and Julianne Bretan in “Something Rotten!”. Photo by Eric Chazankin.
The story setup is a pair of brothers, Nick (Nelson Brown) and Nigel (Lorenzo Alviso) Bottom, who write plays but cannot compete with the magic of the Bard’s popularity. The financial pressure is on to find an idea for a hit play, so Nick consults a daffy oracle Nostradamus (Ted Smith) for leads. Big mistake.
Nostradamus foretells that in the future, actors will sing their lines, making something called a “mu-si-cal.” He further predicts that Shakespeare’s greatest play will be Omelet. Skeptical but desperate, Nick creates song after song for a new show. Act I’s showstopper “A Musical” shows off the dancing and singing energy of the huge cast, followed by another hilarious tune dedicated to the Black Plague.
Something Rotten! goes way over the top when Will Shakespeare himself (Garet Waterhouse) appears onstage, clad in skin-tight breeches and an oversize codpiece encrusted with pearls. Screaming peasant women toss their cloths at the Bard as he writhes and sings “Will Power” backed by four gyrating hunks. Does it get any funnier?
Several side stories in Something Rotten! give the laughing audience a brief chance to recover their breath. Nick’s wife (Megan Bartlett), aware the only men are allowed to do manual jobs, assumes disguises to earn money for their poor playwright household. It’s a nod to women’s lib in the 90s—the 1590s, that is.
The Poet, Nigel Bottom, and Portia, a Puritan. Played by Lorenzo Alviso and Julianne Bretan. Photo by Eric Chazankin.
Out in the courtyard, Nigel and a puritan pilgrim Portia (Julianne Bretan) are smitten with one another, under the nose of her stern father (John Griffin.) Someone gets “banish-ed.”
This comedic respite doesn’t last long, however. As Act II begins, the Minstrel (Jonathen Blue) welcomes us back to the Renaissance and more mayhem. A tremendous showstopper in Act II is “Make an Omelet,” with magical costume changes as the cast dances away. Kudos to Costume Designer Mae Heagerty-Matos for the splendid visual treats.
The cleverness of the show’s double-entendres is another treat. One must listen closely to catch dozens of references to Broadway musicals, including many sight gags. Something Rotten! is the type of show you’ll want to see twice.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Something Rotten!
Book by
John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick
Music/Lyrics by
Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick
Directed by
David Lear
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Thru June 25th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends is a must-see for fans of serious theater. The four-actor drama at Sonoma Arts Live runs through June 18.
An examination of the nature and limits of friendship, trust, love, and commitment, the play opens on a dinner party with three friends—married couple Karen and Gabe (Illana Niernberger and John Browning, respectively) and Beth (Katie Kelley), who tearfully and quite unexpectedly confesses an impending divorce from her lawyer husband Tom (Jimmy Gagarin), Gabe’s best friend since college.
… proof of the extremely high quality of theater in the North Bay…
Act One is told in real time—the two couples are in their late 30s, with two kids each, who are away in another part of the house watching a movie. We hear the kids in the distance but never meet them. The four adults have a long history together, including weekends and summer vacations spent together.
Act Two opens with a flashback to post-college days, at a summer vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, where Beth meets Tom, in a reasonably short scene that establishes the background, followed by some fast-forward scenes that take us beyond the divorce, to Beth’s new relationship with a man named David, and Tom’s new relationship with a travel agent named Nancy. Like the children, David and Nancy never appear other than by mention. The total time scale of Dinner with Friends may encompass 25 years or more, a long period in the history of four close friends.
This performance by some of the North Bay’s top talents is a tour-de-force of dramatic acting. Pacing under the astute direction of Carl Jordan couldn’t be better. Katie Kelley is especially astounding, with a vulnerability and emotional range that may shock some viewers. She hasn’t cut loose this passionately since her appearance as the reticent Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at 6th Street Playhouse, directed by Craig Miller some years ago. Niernberger’s character doesn’t have such volatile emotions, but provides a perfect anchor as the more grounded of the two friends.
Marguiles knows his characters intimately, depicting them with equal parts social charm and pretentiousness. They’re all seriously effusive foodies and oenophiles who can’t stop gushing about what they’ve cooked, eaten, and drunk—Gabe works as a food writer—and they all share a propensity for over-analyzing everything they discuss.
Marguiles has drawn his characters expertly: basically, as overly-educated specimens of the pampered class, not entirely likeable but not so self-involved as to be totally annoying. Years ago they might have been derisively called “yuppies.”Kate Leland’s costumes couldn’t be more appropriate.
Director Jordan manages to maintain a somewhat unsteady equilibrium throughout the production. It’s an exquisite balancing act. He and fellow designer Gary Gonser have worked up a most compelling set, using the high stage at Rotary Hall as the home of Karen and Gabe, and as the Martha’s Vineyard site, while below it, at floor level, is a bed that’s the scene of a confrontation between Beth and Tom whose volatility becomes an exercise in rage-induced lovemaking. This very realistic depiction happens within arms’ length of the audience in the front row.
There are some echoes of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in Marguiles’ script–the four characters are enormously self-involved and they drink continuously throughout the drama, although unlike in Virginia Woolf?, not to the point of incoherency or vomiting.
The second act includes two lengthy heart-to-heart conversations, one between Karen and Beth, followed immediately by a mirroring conversation between Tom and Gabe. Both of these scenes go on far longer than needed, and might work better as point/counterpoint than the way the author intended, but that’s a minor quibble.
Dinner with Friends is an important production. It’s a superbly well-crafted drama, and glorious proof of the extremely high quality of theater in the North Bay–actors, directors, and technical talents included. With this production, as with The Drowsy Chaperone, Sonoma Art Live has established itself as one of the Bay Area’s premier theater companies.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Dinner With Friends
Written by
Donald Margulies
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
June 2-18, 2023
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Most of us attend opera hoping for a transformative experience. No matter what happens, in the end, we are left only with its memories flitting in our being, like ghosts. Opera Parallèle’s production of The Shining features a dozen or so hotel-haunting ghosts that lodge in short-term memory, but I suspect the long-term ghosts in my memory of the opera will be only three: its engaging staging, its cinematic score, and wishing it had possessed more than the ghost of a good old-fashioned aria.
The most compelling reason to experience The Shining is the respective projection, lighting, and sound effects by David Murakami, Jim French and Andrew Mayer. The ESP of young Danny Torrance (Tenzin Forder) manifests as peripatetic static flashes. A projection on the entire set characterizes the Overlook Hotel as a malevolent system of throbbing internal organs. Choral eeriness emerges from various locations, etc., etc., making the audience beg for more.
Opera Parallele’s production of “The Shining” in San Francisco.
Stephen King’s story of the descent into madness of Danny’s father Jack while caretaking the Overlook in the dead of winter with his wife and son is inventively orchestrated in Paul Moravec’s music. A reduction from the original full orchestra to 21 musicians sounded more than sufficiently weighty, thanks to Nicole Paiement’s precise yet dramatic music direction. Lush outdoor music underscores their happy fall arrival, but stranger sounds emerge with the hotel’s ghosts of former murderers. Action sequences are punctuated by catchy rhythms. I’m surprised that Moravec’s descriptive mastery has not yet led to film scores.
Brian Staufenbiel’s stage direction left nothing to be desired. Jack’s transformation from daddy to baddy was superbly and humanely characterized by Robert Wesley Mason. His wife Wendy was lovingly portrayed by Kearstin Piper Brown. Kevin Deas was a vocal and acting standout as cook Dick Halloran. Among the many minor roles, David Walton’s clear and insinuating tenor as the tempting ghost Delbert was especially riveting. Daniel Cilli was a looming presence as Jack’s abusive dead father Mark, aided by shoulder pads from the versatile costume designer Alina Bokovikova.
Stephen King’s story of the descent into madness…is inventively orchestrated in Paul Moravec’s music.
Will this opera last? A superficial horror story with effects would have been supplanted by yet another in time. To Moravec’s and librettist Mark Campbell’s credit, their mining of the novel rather than the movie added some gravitas to family relationships. What I fervently wished for on first hearing, however, was more emphasis on what has been said to be what opera is all about: the singing voice, not just the acting voice.
On stage is Robert Wesley Mason (Jack Torrance), Kearstin Piper Brown (Wendy Torrance) and company members.
Only two vocal segments might be called proper arias, Wendy’s “I never stopped loving you” in Act 1, and Dick’s “These woeful days will be over” at the end of the opera. It seemed that only the music for the latter flattered the voice with the grace of potentially memorable melody. It seems so rare these days that new operas can give us stronger music to take home in our hearts. The last one I can remember is John Adams’ “Batter my heart” from Dr. Atomic.
And may it remain there, even more than a ghost!
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
The Shining
Based on novel by
Steven King
Directed by
Brian Staufenbiel
Producing Company
Opera Parallèle
Production Dates
Thru June 4th
Production Address
Blue Shield of CA Theater at YBCA
700 Howard St, SF, CA 94103
Dinner with Friends dishes out one couple’s surprise uncoupling and its effect on another couple, their best friends. The Pulitzer-prize-winning dialog, written by Donald Margulies, has just the right amount of pepper and salt to make this Sonoma Arts Live drama quite tasty.
Kudos to the four actors, under the capable direction of veteran Carl Jordan. They are all superb on a multi-stage set designed by Jordan and Gary Gonser for the Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center.
Don’t come hungry to this performance as your stomach may growl. Foodie couple Karen and Gabe (Ilana Niernberger and John Browning, respectively) serve a luscious Italian meal learned on their recent vacation. They are entertaining their best friend Beth, (Katie Kelley) while her husband is away and the couples’ kids are busy in the TV room.
Spoiler alert: The sweet taste of dessert is still on their lips when Beth breaks the news that her husband Tom is leaving her for another woman. Karen and Gabe rally around her, with generous doses of disbelief, support and wine.
…Kudos to the actors, under the direction of veteran Carl Jordan…
When Beth leaves, Karen and Gabe examine their own relationship strengths in the light of Beth’s revelation. Their cautionary and insightful banter gives all couples food for thought. Later that night, Tom (skillfully enacted by Jimmy Gagarin) shows up to confront Beth. He’s enraged that she spilled the beans to their friends. Their physical and emotional energies are portrayed with astounding power, a testament to the acting chops of these two talents.
Act II is a flashback to when Karen and Gabe eagerly introduced Beth to Tom. Tom is unsure about a commitment to marriage, yet listens to Gabe’s input. Tom marries Beth. Is it all to be as it was in Act I? The playwright has another twist in mind.
Time shifts to the present when Karen catches up to a reserved Beth. Beth admits she has found another love to replace Tom. Karen’s advice is unwelcome, as Beth now has her own cooking to do.
Dinner with Friends is a full-course production, one that SAL Artistic Director Jamie Love hopes “Will lead to some great post-show conversations with friends coupled, uncoupled, and otherwise.”
Bon Appetit!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Dinner With Friends
Written by
Donald Margulies
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
June 2-18, 2023
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Sir Ben Kingsley, as Salvador Dalí, portrays crazy rather well.
Kingsley also alternates Dalí’s comic and tormented turns rather well. In fact, the actor plays all the famed Spanish surrealist artist’s extreme aspects rather well in the new movie Dalíland. Without making a caricature of him.
Ben Kingsley, as Salvador Dali, is clearly ready for his close-up. Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures.
Yet, arguably, a smidgeon over the top.
The film’s focus is on Dalí’s final years, when his octogenarian relationship with his older, tyrannical wife and muse, Gala, is disintegrating because, as one character contends, they no longer like being with one another since it reminds them “that they’re old.”
Gala, in fact, is constantly chasing her youth by bedding down with one of her boy toys, the latest being the actor then starring in the lead role of Broadway’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
Dalí, meanwhile, is relegated to voyeurism, which he apparently prefers anyway.
Salvatore Dali in his studio is portrayed by Ben Kingsley. Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures.
The movie’s point of view stems from neither Dalí nor Gala, though — we see the one-of-a-kind genius through the eyes of James, a Dalí acolyte-sycophant then fighting to un-immerse himself from the artist’s destructive lifestyle filled with ostentatious fame, bizarre parties, and erotica.
Canadian director Mary Harron starts Dalíland with an astute bit of character self-assassination, a clip of Dalí’s hysterically funny appearance on the TV game show What’s My Line? in which he answers every question with a “yes” even if it’s totally inappropriate and must be corrected by emcee John Daly. When Dalí answers affirmatively about being a leading man, panelist-columnist Dorothy Kilgallen smoothly chastises him with the comment, “He’s a misleading man.”
That stands as a touch of foreshadowing to a deep dive into the artist’s darker aspects — to wit, the scene quickly shifts to a party in which Dalí focuses on Amanda Lear, a trans, and Alice Cooper, a friend.
Harron may have been a superb choice for the biopic. Her work-life began as a punk music journalist, immediately integrating oddball characters into her sphere of influence. In 1996, her first feature film, I Shot Andy Warhol, depicted a wannabe assassin as a feminist hero. She also directed The Notorious Bettie Page, about the famous nude pinup subject.
Kingsley, of course, won a best actor Oscar for his title role in 1982’s Gandhi.
In Dalíland, the artist doesn’t come off as the least bit likeable. Rather, he’s annoyingly egocentric (“I do not compare myself to God,” he pontificates. “Dalí is almost God”) and self-indulgent (he rents space at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City at $20,000 a month).
And he doesn’t blink at the knowledge that endless prints of his works are criminally being peddled at extraordinary prices as lithographs.
The main weakness of the low-budget, 1 hour, 43-minute film is the absence of the artist’s paintings (the producers clearly couldn’t afford reproduction rights). A second flaw is an overall lack of tension. And although the costumes are effective (especially Dali’s long, ornate dressing gowns and vests that look as if they’d been replicated from an 18th century operetta), and despite a hand-held camera frantically scooting here and there during frenzied party scenes, Kingsley’s man-of-many-faces performance is so melodramatic everything else fades into near-nothingness.
Still, considering the impossibility of accurately depicting a mad, alluring, repulsive womanizer in a story that’s not unlike watching a train about to derail, screenplay writer John C. Walsh, director Harron, and Kingsley do admirably well.
A pair of flashbacks, intended to lay the groundwork for the artist’s later behavior patterns, ironically feature Ezra Miller, who identifies as non-binary and who’s faced a series of disorderly conduct and assault charges and been treated for “complex mental health issues.”
Chris Briney as James, a gallery assistant, dresses Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dali in the film “Daliland.” Photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures.
But perhaps the strongest image in the Magnolia Pictures-distributed film — which is set in Spain and New York during the mid-1970s — is when Dalí talks of a mountain peak that “appears in my painting The Great Masturbator” and remembers that “this is where [Gala] asked me to kill her, you know.”
A second memorable cinematic moment shows the artist asking James to bring him “many beautiful asses,” followed by his having the girls dip their rumps into paint and press them onto paper so he can instantly convert the images into saleable “art.”
Everything in Dali’s mind, in fact, becomes art — even his dyed, waxed handlebar mustache, which is treated as if it’s a priceless sculpture.
My own favorite moment is the chunk of a flashback where Dali wildly waves his cane as if conducting a distorted symphony of life, seemingly a summation of what his essence really is.
A personal note: Because I greatly admired Dali’s imagination and groundbreaking work when I was young, I paid $1,200 for an early lithograph — despite my being unsure at the time that lithos were truly art, and despite my being only 93.7 percent certain that the “certificate of authenticity” was actually authentic. Dalíland not only brought back a vision of that transaction but of the artist’s most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, and my own memory-regret that my ex-wife ended up with the extremely valuable litho.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Title
Daliland
Directed by
Mary Harron
Screenplay by
John Walsh
Distributing Company
Magnolia
Production Date
Opens June 9th
Runtime
1 hr 56 min
Showing
Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco;
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, 2966 College Ave, Berkeley;
Century Regency, 280 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael.
Shotgun Players continues its “Season of Love” with a beautiful adaptation of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma, adapted and translated by Melissa Lopez, and directed with graceful gusto and imagination by Katja Rivera.
Lorca, one of the 20th century’s great Spanish playwright/poets, penned in quick succession, three masterpieces: Yerma, Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba, before he was executed in 1936 by a Nationalist firing squad. Lorca’s socialist political leanings and his homosexuality were antithetical to Franco’s right-wing militants.
Set in the grape vineyards of California’s San Fernando Valley in the 1930s, we enter into the lives of a Mexican-American rural family struggling to work, feed themselves and indeed procreate, hoping to keep their legacy alive as they try to climb the ladder of the American dream.
The play opens with a vivid scene of copulation between Yerma and her husband Juan. Played with brutal depth and passion by Regina Morones, Yerma is childless after ten years of marriage to Juan. Soon she announces to him that she is five weeks pregnant, only to learn that once again her “body is dry,” as she tells her friends.
Regina Morones as Yerma, Caleb Cabrera as Juan. Photography by Ben Krantz.
Juan (played with swaggering intensity by Caleb Cabrera) has inherited a pig farm which he is desperate to turn into a fertile vineyard. The play itself is infused with scenes of what later became known as “magical realism” under such writers as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende and playwright Jose Rivera, whose realistic views of the world are altered by scenes with magical elements of dreams, hallucinations and hauntings.
This is a play about desire and what we are willing to do to manifest what we want, and indeed what we think we need for connection.
In this eight-person cast are Yerma’s four friends, who bring Yerma to a shamaka (Linda Amayo-Hassan giving a textured mystical performance of grandeur as Incarnacion) known for creating fertility in a seemingly barren woman.
Mylo Cardona as Veronica, Aisha Aurora Rivera as Dolores, Linda Amayo-Hassan as Incarnación. Photography by Ben Krantz.
Alejandra Wahl plays Maria who seems, as she says, to pass by a man and immediately become pregnant. It is a performance of strength and simultaneous fragility both aspects beautifully bifurcated in Ms. Wahl.
Regal Aisha Aurora Rivera, and ultra-chatty gossip Mylo Cardona add nuance and strength to the circle of women. In the midst of the muddle is Victor, Yerma’s childhood friend and now a sheep owner very much in love with her. The yin and yang roller coaster of emotions Yerma lives through on a day-by-day basis come to a brutal conclusion as she makes a horrifying choice at the play’s end.
April Ballesteros (Assistant Stage Manager), Mylo Cardona as Veronica, Alejandra Wahl as Maria, Regina Morones as Yerma, Linda Amayo-Hassan as Incarnación, Linda Maria Girón as Marta. Photo by Ben Krantz.
Director Rivera and her movement/intimacy choreographer Raisa Donato bring all of this to the forefront in a stunning scene of sexual awakening by Yerma as she conjures a horned bare-chested beast (played with god-pan abandon by Samuel Prince) surrounded by scarf-draped women dancing and ululating in wild abandon.
Composer/sound designer Sebastian Gutierrez heightens the stage with an original score of arias, duets and quartets bringing emotional weight and beautifully choreographed movement to the play. When the emotion is too ripe for simple words, we sing and the heart explodes.
The designers have supplemented the work with Nina Ball’s set of dirt piles, ramps and steps, and a beautiful painting in the center illuminated in a lush pallette of ever-changing colors by Sara Miel Saavadra. Valarie Coble has costumed the play with specific lived-in looks of the 1930s farm life.
It’s a beautiful and haunting play given a superb production at Berkeley’s renowned Shotgun Players. Lorca’s gifts of poetry and farce work together to create tears and laughter, hallmarks of his legacy. One can only imagine what else he could have written had he not come to such a tragic end at age 38.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Take a bullied 12 year old boy, a bizarre female (or not) new neighbor, and tense and bloody serial killings in the town and you have the ingredients for a biting new play from the National Theatre of Scotland being presented at Berkeley Repertory Theater in its American cast premier.
Based on the novel and film by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and stage adapted by Jack Thorne, this new twist on vampire lore and teen coming of age angst is a must-see.
(clockwise from left) Jon Demegillo (Micke), Michael Johnston (Jonny), and Diego Lucano (Oskar) in the West Coast premiere of the National Theatre of Scotland production of “Let the Right One In.” Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
12-year-old Oskar (an astonishingly gifted Diego Lucano) is a bullied, sad and lonely child living revenge fantasies among the towering birch trees looming over the town. A jungle gym on the site, which will morph in Act 2 into an astonishing school swimming pool, dominates the right of the imaginative set created by Christine Jones.
Entering with gymnastic flair is Eli, a new neighbor with an older guardian and an interest in connection. They meet, they play, they tease one another and Oskar falls in love. Eli, played with remarkable physical agility and other-worldly acumen by Noah Lamanna, presents a perfect blend of female/male he/she characteristics which both intrigue and excite Oskar.
Eli asks “Would you like me if I turned out not to be a girl?” Oskar freezes and thinks this through responding, ‘Yes…..I guess so.”
Noah Lamanna (Eli) and Richard Topol (Hakan) at work in “Let The Right One In.” Photo by Kevin Berne.
Add another element of suspense and possibility as we watch Diego Lucano’s brilliant work as he listens, thinks a thought through, and reacts. This is a great young actor giving a master class in honest actor reaction.
…John Tiffany directs with minute precision for details…
As we settle into our seats, we watch the small cast trundle through the falling snow and then moments before the play itself begins they exhibit a sense of danger nearby and rush off. Simple set pieces are brought on representing a bed, a candy shop, a locker room or a living room, and then a large trunk which will dominate the play as a home for our vampire heroine.
The seven-member ensemble of supporting actors populates the town as parents, police, shop owners, and of course the three bullies who taunt Oskar constantly with “Here Piggy, Piggy!” shoving him into a locker. We know his revenge will occur.
Julius Thomas III (Halmberg) and Richard Topol (Hakan) at Berkeley Rep. Photo by Kevin Berne.
Director Tiffany and his movement associate Steven Hoggett were the inspiration behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Blackwatch and the Tony award winning musical Once. Their combined sensitivity can work wonders as we watch Hoggett’s balletic movement enrich each scene with atmosphere behind and accenting the very terse script.
Olafur Arnalds and Arnor Dan Arnarson have composed a richly textured symphonic score enhanced by sound designer Gareth Fry and special effects designer Jeremy Chernick’s jolting, boo-creating shocks.
Act 2 turns the Rubik’s cube gym around and we are presented with the school swimming pool, one of the most shocking stage moments I can recall as the bullies bet that Oskar cannot hold his breath for three minutes in a pool clearly deeper than the actor’s height.
(l to r) Jon Demegillo, Nicole Shalhoub, Erik Hellman, and Jack DiFalco in the West Coast premiere of the National Theatre of Scotland production of “Let the Right One In” at Berk Rep. Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Rep.
Vampire lore has been a fascination for centuries. Since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we have seen True Blood, Anne Rice’s Chronicles of a Vampire, the teen Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers, Becoming Human and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to name a few.
Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot is the hallmark of modern vampire books, combining young children with old vampire lore. As these damaged people find one another, we in the audience reflect on our own pasts, seeking revenge for wrong doings on us, anger at parental controls beyond our capability to understand, and of course trying with not much effort to hide our first hickey on the neck.
The blood and the gore of this production may not be to everyone’s taste but its relevance cannot be ignored.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Visitors pay thousands of dollars to visit Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, drawn by our remarkable attractions and lifestyles. Do we locals ever visit? Here’s something to consider:
Flying has lost its appeal at these prices
Hotel rates have soared
Gasoline prices will never be the same.
Therefore, consider some special places you can reach and return home on the same day. Or Two.
This latest addition to Aisle Seat Review will spotlight many of the adventures at hand for daytime or weekend activities. When you aren’t going to the theatre, that is. Or the gallery. Or…well, you get the idea.
Thank you for your attention.
— The Editors
Destination: Filoli the Garden of Greenery
by Cari Lynn Pace
Actually, that’s not the correct description, as Filoli always has something blooming in living colors.
This 654-acre estate encircles a private mansion built for the Bourn family in 1917. William Bourn created the name for his new Shangri-la getaway by combining the first two letters of his three core mantras:
Fight for a just cause.
Love your fellow man.
Live a good life.
Located in Woodside, 30 miles south of San Francisco, Filoli is now part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and open for tours daily.
It’s a double dose of impressive attractions, with gardens to tour outdoors and a 54,000-square foot Georgian-style mansion when the weather brings you inside.
The Bourn home boggles the brain to see the opulence it contained. The lifestyle and entertaining of the family who owned a gold mine was anything but casual.
Photo by Michael Price.
At the imposing entryway, a butler would direct female guests to the powder room on the right and gentlemen to the cloak room on the left. The reception room with walls of silk and soaring windows overlooking the gardens would have been a lovely place to await the host and hostess.
If you were fortunate to be invited to a party in the ballroom, you could warm yourself by the 8-foot fireplace or waltz under crystal chandeliers high above.
…The Bourn home boggles the brain to see the opulence it contained…
The kitchen, with its separate bakery and walk-in pantry room, is spacious enough for seven servants to work at once. And they did. Don’t miss the overlarge dumb waiter or the massive walk-in bank vault where silver serving pieces were locked at night.
When they serve tea at Filoli, you want to be here.
A Tiffany-designed set of flatware for 18 guests is also on display in the opulent dining room. When the 16 acres of lush gardens outside begin to beckon, choose a path and wander at will.
In mid-May the camelias were abundant as were fragrant trees of dogwood and lilac. Paths meander around reflection pools beside towering Japanese maple and sweet magnolia. The rose garden, with over 500 rosebushes, was just starting to burst with color and perfume. Summer is the best time to visit for rose lovers, with many color-laden bushes labelled and ready for their close-ups.
No matter the season, there is always something blooming or budding at Filoli. Also of note, Filoli’s natural attractions will soon be augmented by a music program. Go to www.filoio.org for dates and guest artists.
Contact: Filoli Historic House & Garden | 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, CA 94062 | (650) 364-8300 | info@filoli.org
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Opening day for the 2023 Mountain Play Into the Woods dawned cold and overcast.
Fortunately, the fog was low-lying, and above the clouds rose the clear sunny slopes of Marin County’s Mt. Tamalpais. Well-bundled crowds dressed in layers filed onto school busses in downtown Mill Valley to shuttle them up the windy road to the mountaintop. Many hardy and fit souls drove to parking lots at Pan Toll or Bootjack and hiked up. The pilgrimage to the festive outdoor party, shining in the sun, had begun.
Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre holds 3,700 folks in its outdoor venue, with rough granite seats surrounded by abundant forest. On clear days you can see San Francisco and the East Bay from the 2579’ elevation. The ever-present challenge in attending the Mountain Play is to prepare for changes in weather. Some years it’s chilly, or rainy. Other years can bring withering heat, with water sprayers and fans going full blast to keep patrons cool.
…This musical by Stephen Sondheim, with the book by James Lapine, is a mash-up of classic fairy tales….
No matter, the crowds are always friendly and multi-generational. Blankets are spread, coolers opened, paper plates passed around. Popping corks punctuate the laughter and squeals of children. Dedicated foodies have been known to set up tables with cheese fondue and forks. The vibe is always good at the Mountain Play.
Warm-up entertainment begins at 12:30 with local singers, musicians, and food vendors. At 2 p.m., executive director Ellen Grady welcomes the crowd, the orchestra tunes up, and the crowd cheers with enthusiasm as Into the Woods begins.
This musical by Stephen Sondheim, with the book by James Lapine, is a mash-up of classic fairy tales. Characters appear from Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. A wicked witch puts a curse on the baker and his wife. Prize cow Milky White enjoys a day in the sun.
Samantha Cardenas as Cinderella in “Into The Woods”
Each character is delightfully costumed by Amie Schow. Everyone goes off into the woods – represented by a wooden scaffold designed by Andrea Bechert – to seek their wishes. The plot won’t make much sense, and it won’t be a happy ending – true to the stories written by the Brothers Grimm – but it is entertaining as any fairy tale might be.
Shayla Lawler as Rapunzel.
Director/choreographer Nicole Helfer brings out amusing portrayals from all performers. Their powerhouse singing voices are superb, with not a weak link to be heard. Sondheim fans will hear many unfamiliar songs from this Tony Award-winning score. The better songs are in the long first act, which brought pleasing resolution to the fate of characters that ventured into the woods.
L to R – Christopher Sotelo (Rapunzel’s Prince) and Phillip Harris (Cinderella’s Prince). Photo credit: Ed Smith Photography
Act II begins a dark epilogue. There’s a mean giant, and killings, and infidelity. The second half drags with unhappy outcomes. There are many ballads accompanied by the 15-piece orchestra skillfully conducted by Daniel Alley, the musicians tucked into a lean-to structure onstage.
The first act of Into the Woods is a lightweight show without unhappy outcomes, recommended for all ages. In fact, the first act is often performed as a stand-alone children’s show. The second act’s mean-spirited malevolence may be a matter of concern for parents with sensitive kids.
Remaining performances of Into the Woods are May 28, June 4, 10, and 11, and 18. ASL-interpreted performances are June 10 and 11. All Mountain Play performances are 2 p.m. but it’s best to get there at least an hour before.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Into The Woods
Written by
Book: James Lapine
Music/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Nicole Helfer
Producing Company
The Mountain Play Association / Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru June 18, 2023
Production Address
Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mt. Tamalpais State Park, 801 Panoramic Highway, Mill Valley CA
The Novato Theatre Company has chosen to thrust us into a time machine.
At the turn of the 21st Century, now disgraced Harvey Weinstein — who almost single-handedly was responsible for a major spurt in #metoo movement affiliations protesting sexual abuse — bullied Academy Award voters enough so the film he’d produced, Shakespeare in Love, won 12 Oscars.
Through June 11 of this year, a play that was based on the film and had opened in London’s West End in 2014 is likely to impress and amuse NTC audiences.
Shakespeare in Love is an ambitious, rib-tickling show (with a few serious soliloquies) that yanks us back to the 1590s (with plenteous references to Verona and Stratford) when women were forbidden by law to be actors. That detail, of course, doesn’t stop Viola De Lesseps (adroitly portrayed by Rachel Kaiulani Kennealy with a gamut of emotions) as she falls for a struggling young playwright, Will Shakespeare, and sidesteps the edict by dressing like a man.
In the process she becomes his muse and lover, leading him to turn an unwritten comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, into a polished tragedy titled Romeo and Juliet.
Welcome to comedic Gender-Bending 101 — 2023 style, with the 20-member cast featuring not only women clad as men but men in drag as well. It would be remiss at this juncture, not incidentally, to not laud time-appropriate costuming by Jody Branham, who scoured the Bay Area to borrow the necessary garb.
Shakespeare in Love toys not only with identify but with the inner mis-workings of theatrical productions (riddled with a running gag about playwriting that “It’s a mystery”). The community players manage to perfectly ham up almost everything.
Marilyn Izdebski, a tireless retiree, has produced a show that has almost too many praiseworthy participants for a reviewer to handle, beginning with co-directors Nic Moore and Gillian Eichenberger, who jointly ensure that the two-hour presentation feels shorter than that.
Chemistry between Rachel Kaiulani Kennealy’s frisky Viola and Michael Girts’ boyish, rubbery visaged Will is a marvel to witness.
Also deserving plaudits for their farcical work are Kim Bromley, whose squeaky-voiced flightiness is ideal as Viola’s nurse confidant; Michel Benton Harris, whose macho bravado is exquisite as Christopher (Kit) Marlowe, Will’s friend and rival; Michele Sanner, who turns the first Queen Elizabeth into a haughty, pasty-faced, occasionally enlightened ruler; Tomás Fierro, who embodies Richard Burbage as a selfish, volatile, bombastic benefactor; and the definitive audience favorite, fifth-grader Alexa Heftye, wildly woofing away as Spot the Dog.
The production, unfortunately, is hampered by players not being mic’d and some unable to project sufficiently to be heard easily. Also, the music (even when soft) sometimes drowns out dialogue.
In contrast, check out the marvelous mock aristocratic dancing (and joyous stomping) choreographed by Stephen Beecroft, the copious and rapid costume changes, and a bit of swashbuckling swordplay — not to mention the out-of-context and out-of-the-box references to other plays by the Bard (highlighted by “Out, out, damned spot,” an order directed at the pooch).
Although some main characters have a real place in British history, this comedy by Lee Hall (an adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s screenplay) injects a playful wink hither and a mischievous wink yon.
As a result, the NTC’s Shakespeare in Love production deserves at least four winks, er, stars.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Production
Shakespeare in Love
Written by
Lee Hall
Directed by
Nic Moore and Gillian Eichenberger
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through June 11th
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
Euripides was proved right at Davies Hall Thursday night, May 18: that silence is the best response to true wisdom. For 90 minutes, the nearly filled auditorium was as quiet as I’ve ever heard it. A clapping of one hand. And after the last chord, another 35 seconds of utter noiselessness. Shock, prayer, mourning for our human condition? Then, three long curtain calls amid a somber standing ovation. How could it be else, in the face of a magnificent performance of a 20th-century milestone in music that is utterly relevant today?
Benjamin Britten
The enormous work calls for three soloists, two choruses, two orchestras, and an organ, each of which are associated with different aspects of the causes and meanings of death and war. The mixed San Francisco Symphony chorus, soprano solo and full orchestra and proclaimed the Requiem texts of the Latin Mass, with sin as the cause of the Day of Wrath and salvation as the antidote.
…I urge readers to experience the immeasurable empathy of the War Requiem…
Baritone and tenor soloists, accompanied by a chamber orchestra and singing the poetry of Wilfred Owen, portrayed warring soldiers on opposite sides, yet on the same side with regard to ironic and often bitter critiques of war and its abnegation of pacifistic Christianity. From a distant balcony at the rear, the Ragazzi Boys Chorus, accompanied almost solely by organ, occasionally chanted the more innocently hopeful verses from the liturgy.
All of eight intertwined elements above were meshed in near-perfect combination by conductor Philippe Jordan. The originally scheduled baritone, Iain Paterson, had to withdraw due to unexplained visa issues, but his replacement, the equally experienced Brian Mulligan, added a gorgeous Wotan-like gravitas to his superior performance. Tenor Ian Bostridge filled the hall with his perfectly attuned instrument, but even more thrilling, to patrons in nearer rows, were his exquisite, masterfully varied, and often wrenching facial expressions.
I will never forget his stabbing rendition of the following Owen lines at the end of the Dies Irae movement:
Was it for this [war and death] that the clay grew tall? O what made fatuous, fatuous sunbeams toil. To break earth’s sleep at all?
Soprano Jennifer Holloway did a fine job in an angelically silvery dress from the chorus benches in the rear. Conceptually, her position makes sense, considering the far remove the Sixth Commandment has from the battlefields, but Britten’s wonderful music for her needs to be heard at equal volume as the other two soloists, especially in the Lacrymosa section.
In terms of Jordan’s tempo choices, all were acceptable to my taste, if slightly on the slow side. Also, I wish he had given more weight to the snare drum crescendo in the media-prescient setting of the words “The scribes on all the people shove/And bawl allegiance to the state.”
Silence is not the best response to false wisdom, so I must report Harold Schonberg’s uncompassionate NY Times review of the War Requiem at its U.S. premiere in 1963:
“It may turn out that “A War Requiem” will not, in the long run, have staying power because of a certain obviousness. The effects are a little too heart-on-sleeve, the sorrow is a little too sorrowful, the melodic content a little calculated.”
I urge readers to experience the immeasurable empathy of the War Requiem and consider, in thoughtful silence, where we are headed as a species.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Britten's "War Requiem"
Producing Company
San Francisco Symphony
Production Dates
Through May 20th
Production Address
Davies Symphony Hall 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
Where Did We Sit on the Bus?is an autobiographical one-person show written and originally performed by Brian Quijada. The outstanding production currently being performed at Marin Theatre seamlessly shifts the perspective from straight male to gay female with multi-talented Satya Chavez taking on the role of “Bee Quijada.”
The piece explores themes of identity, race, and belonging, through the lens of Quijada’s personal experiences growing up as the offspring of Central American immigrants in the United States.
…Do yourself a favor and treat yourself…
The title Where Did We Sit on the Bus? refers to the historical context of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, specifically the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956. The boycott was a response to the practice of forcing African Americans to sit at the back of public buses. The title alludes to the question of where people of different backgrounds and ethnicities “fit” in society and the struggles they face in navigating issues of race and identity.
Quijada’s story is not unlike that of many first- and second-generation immigrants who arrive in the United States with little but a dream of forging a safe and prosperous life. With a passion to perform and talent to fuel the fire, young Bee, a straight A student who works hard to make her parents proud, broaches the subject of wanting to dedicate her life to the stage, only to be met with fierce resistance by both parents who encourage her to pursue a “real” career, such as becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
Regardless of their disapproval, Bee tries out and wins a part in a school production only to be saddened that her parents do not attend the performance. This pattern continues throughout her school years, as Bee continues to hone her craft, culminating in a performance for fellow college drama students that wins a standing ovation.
What brings this familiar story to life is the mind-blowing talent of Satya Chavez, who in real life had full parental support for many artistic ambitions. At an early age, Satya was given lessons in voice and piano. Chavez believes that learning the fundamentals of music theory enabled achieving high levels as a multi-instrumentalist.
During the course of Where Did We Sit, Satya skillfully incorporates various forms of artistic expression, including rap, beatboxing, and live looping–creating a vibrant and captivating theatrical experience.
While narrating the story, Satya moves about the stage, playing various musical instruments including a guitar, a guitaron (the large and bulbous guitar used by mariachi players), a wooden flute, keyboards, various percussion instruments, and vocalizations, live looped to create a sometimes gorgeous auditory backdrop that masterfully propels the narrative forward.
Couple this with Chavez’ apparently genuine sense of ease as a performer and the entire production is mesmerizing. It is this talent that makes this performance a must see. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to the gift of witnessing the birth of a star. Where Did We Sit on the Bus? is an astounding performance.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Where Did We Sit on the Bus?
Written By
Brian Quijada with additional compositions by Satya Chavez
Directed by
Matt Dickson
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through May 28th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
I hate myself for enjoying Air, the longish film journey of how 21-year-old future basketball superstar Michael Jordan signed a zillion-dollar contract with Nike for his own line of basketball shoes.
Why? Well, because my delight, and that of millions of others presumably, stems from the feel-goodness, underdog-winningness, and Black fairytale-ness of the star-studded Amazon original — despite the movie I’m helping pay for is little more than a 112-minute, 100% unabashed commercial for the footwear company.
Matt Damon in “Air”. Photo, IMDB.
Watching the Matt Damon-headliner, I feel, is almost as bad as if I were 17 and constantly wearing Nike’s shoes, clothing, and accessories (all of which make sure no one can miss the name and/or Swoosh logo in deep red or ebony).
I gave up counting how many times the brand or shoe popped up in the fluffy comedy-drama, which also stars Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother, Deloris, and in secondary roles Damon’s longtime buddy Ben Affleck (who directed the movie) as Nike’s co-founder and chief exec, John Bateman as the corporation’s marketing director, and Chris Tucker as a mediating former player.
Ben Affleck in “Air”. Photo IMDB.
Rarely can I forget that Damon is Damon, but as usual he’s easy to watch — this time with protruding gut as Sonny Vaccaro, Nike’s consummate player-recruiter — because it never feels like he’s acting. In contrast, I always know Davis is acting, but her chops are normally so much fun to see, I don’t mind (here, she’s even better since she’s not doing her typical chewing up of the scenery).
In truth, all the acting’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom…
My guilty pleasure in liking Affleck’s kiss-kiss ode to Jordan, not incidentally, is based mostly on its high energy and high-polished entertainment. I also found it effortless to enjoy the soundtrack, which features tunes by Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, and Chaka Khan. And pure joy can spring from a comedy scene accentuating an eardrum-busting, obscene phone conversation.
But those looking for Jordan, or his iconic ball-handling and scoring, will walk away unhappy. He’s only in a few short clips and mentioned in headlines at the end. The actor playing him in Air is hidden from sight most of the time (you do get occasional glimpses of an ear or the back of his head).
Viewers who desire ethics lessons will likewise be disappointed. The aim here seems to be to ignore philosophy and instead pay tribute to business wheeling-and-dealing, winning, and, especially, to money-making.
Viola Davis and Julius Tennon in “Air”. Photo IMDB.
Still, Air didn’t lose one bit of my enthusiasm by veering from the truth. I didn’t mind at all, for instance, that the real Sonny never traveled to the Jordan home in North Carolina, that Jordan hadn’t been the first athlete to get a piece of the merch pie (tennis players had been there, done that), or that he ultimately signed for half a million dollars a year, not $250,000.
I also didn’t care that Air deemphasized or altogether skipped over Jordan’s many controversies and difficulties, which are, to say the least, legion.
It’s probable that I’ll never be mega-rich like Jordan, who’s already netted more than $1 billion from his Nike endorsements, or like a corporate powerhouse such as Nike, whose logo symbolizes not only the winged goddess of victory but the sound of speed, movement, power and motivation.
“So what?” I say — their film was fun to watch.!
Air is still playing in a handful of movie houses around the Bay Area but it has also start streaming on Amazon Prime.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Other Voices…
"...these exceptional actors who, with heart and talent, ever so briefly turn a story about capitalism into a referendum on the soul of a nation..."
The New York Times
"Air"...is effortlessly entertaining..."
NPR
“Air”...it’s old-fashioned in the best sense: solid, confident, simple, straightforward and entirely entertaining. It’s the work of an intelligent classicist..."
San Francisco Chronicle
"...Air is a light, well-paced film that makes two hours fly by. It will leave you thinking, ‘wow, I can’t believe I got so invested in a pair of shoes’..."
The Film Magazine
"["Air" is]...an underdog story with the greatest basketball player of all time at its heart...."
While on a visit to China, Chinese-American dramatist David Henry Hwang saw a sign in a men’s room: “Deformed Man’s Toilet”. Wildly mistranslated from “Handicapped Restroom,” this misnomer was the inspiration for the multi-award winning writer (Gold Child, M Butterfly, FOB, the Disney cartoon Tarzan etc,) to dig deeper into the cultural phenomenon of mistranslation, both grammatically and culturally, between American and Chinese people. The phenomenon is examined with great hilarity in Chinglish at San Francisco Playhouse.
We have come a long way from the Hollywood casting of white actors as Asian stereotypes: Marlon Brando and Mickey Rooney in Tea House of the August Moon, John Wayne as Genghis Kahn, Katharine Hepburn in Dragon Seed, and many others.
…Stunningly directed by Jeffrey Lo, SF Playhouse’s wonderful production (of Chinglish) is a winner…
What sets Chinglish apart is that it not only lampoons the language divide, with merry misfiring mirth, but also reaches deeply into the geo-political realities of what such misfires can and indeed do create.
The political economic power of the current Chinese economy is a frightening reminder to America of where we now stand in the world and how far the Chinese have come. Hwang’s script has been updated since the play’s 2011 opening. to reflect both the Sino-American political landscape and modern conveniences like cellphones.
American businessman Daniel Cavanaugh (Michael Barrett Austin) has an encounter with vice minister Xi Yan (Nicole Tung) in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Chinglish,” performing May 4 – June 10. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Chinglish tells the story of David Cavanaugh (Michael Barret Austin), the owner of a family sign making firm in Cleveland. Newly arrived in China, he’s prepared to make a proposal for signage at a new cultural arts center in the town of Guiyang. He is richly seen by Chinese officials as the genius who was responsible for Enron when the topic is introduced.
Peter Timms (Matthew Bohrer) and minister Cai Guoliang (Alex Hsu) discuss Guānxi and the complications of business in San Francisco Playhouse’s “Chinglish.” Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The Minister of Culture (a very funny and ultimately deeply poignant Alex Hsu) is accompanied by his associate Xi Yan (a stately and multi-faceted Nicole Tung). Ms. Yan has her own agendas playing out as a relationship develops between herself and Cavanaugh.
In one hilarious post-coital scene, Cavanaugh attempts to say “I love you,” but the tonal resonance of Mandarin Chinese translates it first as “my fifth aunt” and then “my frog needs to pee!”
Vice minister Xi Yan (Nicole Tung) makes a confession to Peter Timms (Matthew Bohrer) in SF Playhouse’s “Chinglish.” — Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The ever-changing conversational mishaps presented by the worst possible, most inept Chinese translations are projected onto set designer Andrea Bechert’s imaginative sliding screens, and beautifully realized under Wen-Ling Liao’s luminous lights, and projection designer Spense Matubang’s glowing translations.
Stunningly directed by Jeffrey Lo, SF Playhouse’s wonderful production is a winner. One major translation not misinterpreted is “All persons get screwed!” Therein lies the premise of this wonderful and prescient Chinglish.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Chinglish
Written by
David Henry Hwang
Directed by
Jeffrey Lo
Producing Company
San Francisco Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru June 10th
Production Address
SF Playhouse
450 Post Street
San Francisco, CA
Website
www.sfplayhouse.org
Telephone
(415) 677-9596
Tickets
$30 - $100
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
3.5/5
Performance
3.5/5
Script
3.0/5
Stagecraft
3.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
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Other Voices….
"...achieves the sort of momentum that sends audiences into the ether."
The New York Times
"...great frisky fun, with savory chemistry between its leads and a refreshingly grown-up undercoating of well-earned melancholy."
Pride & Prejudice — the Musical, the Ross Valley Players’ last show, may have set too high a bar for Native Gardens, the theater’s current offering at The Barn in Ross, to equal.
Although this comedy of errors tackles class, identity, race, the American dream, and (both metaphorically and literally) boundaries, it’s funny and thereby compelling only sporadically — except for the final 20 of the 90-minute show when the slapstick becomes consistently hilarious.
…outstanding, and in effect becoming a character, is the marvelous, flower-filled set design…
Karen Zacarías’ play is all about a garden in an upscale Washington, DC neighborhood that’s blooming with colorful, non-native flora, and a property line argument that quickly blossoms between two next-door couples: an older, white, entitled Republic pair and an upwardly mobile millennial duo of color.
Steve Price is Frank Butley, who’s been meticulously cultivating his backyard garden forever and who desperately covets the Potomac Horticultural Society’s first prize (he’s previously had to settle for honorable mentions). His physical comedy consistently draws laughs, as do his squeaks, squeals, grunts, groans, and ultra-loud outbursts.
Steve Price as Frank Butley; Eric Esquivel-Gutierrez as Pablo Del Valle; Jannely Calmell as Tania Del Valle at RVP. Photos by Robin Jackson
Also outstanding, and in effect becoming a character, is the marvelous, flower-filled set design by Malcolm Rodgers, who just happens to be married to the play’s director, Mary Ann Rodgers. In the program’s notes, she explains that Zacarías stages “our defensive urge to categorize others” while ensuring that no one in the play “comes out smelling like a rose.”
Each of the other principals squeeze whatever they can from their roles — Jannely Calmell as Tania Del Valle, a pregnant, PhD-seeking Mexican-American who tries to keep her cool but works herself into a full-fledged rage cursing in Spanish; Ellen Brooks as Virginia Butley, an elitist engineer who ties herself to a chair with a chain as a desperation protest; and Eric Esquivel-Gutierrez as Pablo Del Valle, a rising attorney born in Chile with a proverbial silver spoon, who gets caught up in monetizing the disputed strip of land at $38,000. The actors’ joint problem is that the 2016 script, which often feels like a dozen sitcoms everyone’s seen recently, is light-hearted but heavy-handed.
As for the contrived storyline, the Del Valles are pressed into fixing up their yard because Pablo has impulsively invited his entire law firm to a barbecue while the inside of the house is unusable because the Georgetown students who’d rented it had let it go to seed, so to speak. Instant crisis! Instant squabble!
Eric Esquivel-Gutierrez as Pablo Del Valle; Jannely Calmell as Tania Del Valle in “Native Gardens”
Frank — who bemoans what he’s already lost (“Oh, God, I do miss smoking…and white rice…and Cat Stevens”) — is outraged about the entire situation, particularly because it means major changes the day before the horticultural judges are slated to be there to start judging.
Much of the discussion revolves around plants native to the D.C. region and helpful to the ecosystem vs. those that aren’t “natural” but look pretty (as well as whether an oak is beneficial or a bother). Now and then, the neighbors’ fight substitutes flowers for something slightly more odious, such as whether Frank’s non-native flora are “immigrants” or “colonists.”
Meanwhile, all the protagonists are put off by the possibility of the verbal fight becoming a legal one involving the principal of “adverse possession” — more commonly known as “squatter’s rights.”
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Production
Native Gardens
Written by
Karen Zacarías
Directed by
Mary Ann Rodgers
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru June 11th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
The Scottsboro Boys retells the story of nine young black men who on March 25, 1931 while on a freight train in Alabama were accused by two white women of rape and were subsequently arrested. These innocent men would serve collectively over 100 years of imprisonment with numerous retrials and continued electric chair verdicts.
The ACLU (cofounded by Helen Keller) and the American Communist Party fought valiantly for their acquittal.
The Scottsboro Boys is a minstrel musical masterpiece by 42nd Street Moon Theater Company that should be applauded for presenting this challenging and visionary musical. Receiving a rousing opening- night standing ovation, the play is beautifully cast with thirteen actors/singers – twelve of them African American, and one white interlocutor (wonderfully played by gifted Michael Patrick Gaffney) who introduces us into the minstrel show theatricality demanded by the material.
…42nd Street Moon has found a niche of excellence in their presentation…
The remarkable musical, the last full collaboration of John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose work always seemed to push the boundaries of ingenious theatricality (Chicago, Cabaret, etc.) was first presented off-Broadway in 2010, six years after Fred Ebb’s death. Each actor in the Moon production brings an indelible font of the past to the proceedings.
The minstrel show presentation enlivened by Anthony Rollins-Mullens as Mr. Tambo and Albert Hodge as Mr. Bones brings us pointedly into the world of black entertainers as they were perceived by a white audience at the time.
The Ensemble
(On a personal note, I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and my father was a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic service organization. I remember vividly being introduced to minstrel shows presented with the knights in blackface as they entertained white family audiences. Frightening and painful to recall now in light of a five year old’s perspective.)
The constant back and forth jabs at slightly off-color humor that the wonderful actors bring with their rich singing voices and movement/dance infuse the evening with history and pain.
A deeply moving Marcus J. Paige as Heywood, one of the prisoners, gives one of the great performances of the evening, singing with sorrow, pathos and simplicity a beautiful ballad called “Nothin”. A great actor doing great work!
Director Brandon Jackson allows each sterling moment to shine. Choreographer Kimberly Valmore stages the work with amazing versatility and imagination. Musical director Diana Lee conducts the lovely backstage three-piece ensemble.
Jon-David Randle and Alejandro Eustaquio at 42nd St Moon.
42nd Street Moon has found a niche of excellence in their presentation. The pain, the guilt, and the cry to the future for change and understanding are paramount. See this musical and you will laugh and weep!
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Lots of Black folks are trying to reclaim the N-word. Musician Marc Anthony Thompson intends to do much more in his first play — reclaim Black history.
He and co-director Sean San José, the Magic Theatre in San Francisco’s artistic director, use that stage to jumpstart the revolutionary notion by inverting some racial stereotypes while taking a hard look in the rear mirror at plantation slavery.
Together, in a world premiere of The Ni¿¿er Lovers (alternately dubbed “a new Ameriikkkan musical”), they in only 90 minutes cleverly strip away almost all the facades of taken-for-granted, anti-Black racism within the White population.
Their weapons? Sketch comedy, slapstick, and laugh-out-loud set pieces that allow the five Black actors to ham it up as adroitly as any vaudeville, minstrel, or silent film stars of yesteryear might have done.
Tanika Baptiste acts as emcee/narrator in “The Ni¿¿er Lovers” in The City. Photo: Jay Yamada.
They’re aided by amusing costumes that range from a ringmaster-like female emcee’s tailcoat and glitzy shorts to a loincloth for a rotund, bare-chested Neanderthal type with a bone in his nose. And by wonderful lighting effects and booming sound waves that attack you from all sides as if wild beasts are in the wings.
…sketch comedy, slapstick, and laugh-out-loud set pieces…
The storyline focuses on a real couple who flee from a Georgia plantation in 1848 to freedom in Boston, with the light-skinned Black wife masquerading as a White boy and her husband pretending to be her servant.
Along the way, the audience is treated to a variety of vocal and background melodies and, more importantly, insightful looks at hateful sexualizing of young females, apparent contradictions within the Christian church, and the mythologizing of Black male genitalia.
All are footlighted with sharp injections of humor (some of it totally cerebral, some as lowbrow as could possibly be imagined).
Familiar lines bring grins — or grimaces — when used in unfamiliar ways. Like when one Black character says with mock sincerity, “There were some fine people on both sides.” Or when another Black man proclaims with earnestness, “Some of my best friends are Jews.”
AeJay Marquis Mitchell, “White” sign dangling from his neck, is outstanding in “The Ni¿¿er Lovers” at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Photo: Jay Yamada.
Black wisdom occasionally is handed down unvarnished, succinctly illustrating the difference between races: “Do you think the White man thinks all day about being White?”
Violence is not overlooked, be it the rape of Black girls on the plantation or the vicious, unthinking slaying of White oppressors (though this voiced thought clearly cuts both ways: “You can’t kill them all.”)
Polemics and fire-and-brimstone speechifying are kept to a minimum while gags are injected to the max.
Gimmickry is also an ingredient — Blacks portraying Caucasians, for instance, carry “White” signs around their necks, not for actual identification but to heighten the satire.
To say the all-Black cast is outstanding is to both state the obvious and understate that reality.
Best of the best is AeJay Marquis Mitchell, who seems at many times to be channeling the masterful comic chops of the late Godfrey Cambridge. Right on his comic heels is Donald E. Lacy Jr., whose rubbery facial expressions can remind theatergoers of Woody Harrelson at the top of his game.
Donald E. Lacy Jr.’s rubbery facial expressions help make his comic points at The Magic Theatre. Photo: Jay Yamada.
The other three performers aren’t slouches, either — Rotimi Agbabiaka, Tanika Baptiste, and Aidaa Peerzada.
Thompson — who’s described by San José, co-founder of the new-performance group Campo Santo, as “the rare creative who knows no bounds artistically, stylistically, politically, and emotionally” — was quoted in a press release as saying that “the current climate of gender fluidity, fascination with antebellum times, stagnant civil rights progress, and my tendency to lean into farce made this the time for me to corral my thoughts and humor into an evening of musical/theatre/visual infotainment.”
He succeeded on all levels, of course.
Thompson, known for creating the musical collective Chocolate Genius Inc., has also said that he felt compelled “to look at the future, or at least the now. My kids live in a different world, and in a different way. What identity is, what sexuality is, and…what Blackness is.”
He does that — while asking the question “How can we still love through all this?”
(Additional content from the Magic Theatre, below.)
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
From The Magic Theatre:
CONTENT WARNING
Check your (whyte) fragility at the door!
This show contains strong language (have you seen the title?) depictions of violence, rape, references to slavery, loud noises, singing, loud music, loud laughs, pregnancy, dildos, masturbation, gunshots, the use of every word you’re not supposed to say and more; all the things you see on TV everyday.
The Magic Theatre invites you to think before using the word in the title of the show, especially if you are of a whiter complexion. It’s a word that means different things to different people and can elicit feelings of trauma, anxiety, violence, and oppression, as well as camaraderie, identity and intimacy. Wait, which word are you thinking of?
By the way, no, the primarily non black staff at the Magic do not call the play by its full title.
Proof of full vaccination required for all in-person events.
Production
The Ni¿¿er Lovers
Written by
Marc Anthony Thompson
Directed by
Marc Anthony Thompson & Sean San José
Producing Company
Magic Theatre
Production Dates
Thru May 21st, 2023
Production Address
Magic Theatre Ft. Mason Center, Bldg D 2 Marina Blvd. San Francisco, CA.
If you had the option of living forever, would you?
Tuck Everlasting at Spreckels’ Codding Theatre brings just such a question to the stage, wrapping it in songs, dance and glorious costumes.
The story begins with Winnie Foster, an 11-year old (enchantingly enacted and sung by Molly Belle Hart) chafing at the restrictions her widowed mother (Erin Henninger) imposes. When Winnie runs away from home into the surrounding forest, she encounters Jesse Tuck, a young man of 17 (good-looking and great voiced Nico Alva.) He can live forever but she cannot, unless she drinks from the forest’s magic spring.
…a fun-filled show filled with energy…
Many interesting scenarios are raised in this production, admirably handled by the creative team of director Emily Cornelius, music director Janis Dunson Wilson, and choreographer Karen Miles.
There were “ooohs” and “aaahs” as the audience took their seats in the Codding Theatre – the stage a lush forest with twittering birds and leafy trees climbing the walls. Kudos to Eddy Hansen and Elizabeth Bazzano for designing an amazing tree that grows before our eyes. Further visual treats were the rear projection scenes, designed by Chris Schloemp, who enables the audience to climb above the forest canopy with Winne and Jesse. Schloemp also has a solid supporting role onstage as Constable Joe.
Petaluma’s Molly Belle Hart as Winnie Foster and Nico Alva as Jesse Tuck sing “Top of the World” in “Tuck Everlasting: The Musical,” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. (Photos by Jeff Thomas/Courtesy of Spreckels Theatre Company)
Tuck Everlasting is a treat for eyes and ears, with more than a dozen dancing nymphs in flowing costumes (thanks to Donnie Frank) and an onstage orchestra led by Wilson. The scenery and over-the-top activity during the brightly colorful fair sequence is a three-ring circus indeed.
Local casting is spot-on, with favorite Tim Setzer as “The Man in the Yellow Suit,” a would-be exploiter of the eternal spring, and veteran actor Larry Williams as the laid-back Tuck patriarch Angus. What a pleasure to see and hear Kimberly Kalember as Nana and young Chase Thompson as Hugo. Mother Tuck is in superbly fine voice as played by Tika Moon, and Samuel J. Gleason as Miles Tuck brings a poignancy to the plot as he relates the story of his wife and son – no spoiler here.
Molly Belle Hart as Winnie Foster, with ensemble, in “Tuck Everlasting: The Musical,” now playing at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. (Photos by Jeff Thomas/Courtesy of Spreckels Theatre Company)
A big shout-out to young dancer Tyler Ono, whose athletic moves onstage are a delight to watch. He’s part of a shining cadre of teens who not only dance with supple grace but sing as well. Their Act I ensemble song “Partner in Crime” was a real crowd pleaser. Too bad there weren’t any more memorable songs delivered by songwriters Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen.
Tuck Everlasting is a fun-filled show filled with energy – perfect for teens and older. The philosophical thought it provokes isn’t over at the end of two hours…it’s everlasting.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Tuck Everlasting
Book by
From the novel by
Claudia Shear & Tim Federie
Natalie Babbitt
Directed by
Emily Cornelius
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through May 21st
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
When you’ve never watched one single cartoon episode of Spongebob Squarepants, you’re at a bit of a disadvantage seeing the latest Palo Alto Players production, The Spongebob Musical.
No matter.
The set is so full of spectacular lights, sounds and moving parts, the characters are so darn silly (but likeable), the musical score amazingly diverse, and the costumes so colorfully imaginative that there’s plenty to occupy your eyes, ears and other facial appendages.
A colorfully designed set including neon lights…
Now at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto through Sunday, May 14, the show starts way before the show starts when several gigantic beach balls get tossed back and forth, over and around the audience. Then Patchy the Pirate (Dane Lentz) comes out to tell the audience that he really wants to join the fun, but no one has invited him. Patchy seems a bit superfluous, but at least he’s not around long.
PAP’s executive director, Elizabeth Santana, admits she’s a bit baffled by the 30-to-40-year-olds turning out nightly to see the show. That was certainly the case on opening night last Friday – and very few children were in the audience.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Joe Galang) greets the day with his pet snail Gary in THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL, Broadway’s award-winning bold, fresh, and hilarious deep-sea adventure that will make a splash with audiences of all ages. Photo by Scott Lasky
Yet, it’s easy to get caught up in the experience, thanks to artistic director Patrick Klein’s fast-paced direction and colorfully designed set including neon lights and imaginatively shifting sets.
A diminutive Joe Galang is Spongebob who sports a wide-eyed wonderment about everything in the world around him. His best friend Patrick Star (a jovial Rocky James Conception) stops to chat with him as he awakens and walks to the Krusty Krab restaurant, where he works. Mr. Krabs (a bigger-than-life Zachary Vaughn-Munck) wears gigantic red boxing gloves and reminds his young daughter, Pearl (a delightful Gillian Ortega) that someday she’ll own the restaurant.
Pearl Krabs (Gillian Ortega) and the other citizens of Bikini Bottom get ready to rock out at a benefit concert in hopes that the funds raised can save their town in THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL. Photo by Scott Lasky
Pearl, of course, has other ideas and when Spongebob tells Krusty that he’d like one day to be the manager, Krusty laughs him off, telling him he’s just a simple sponge.
Suddenly a violent tremor rocks the entire town. After the tremor, a news report says the gigantic volcano, Mount Humongous, will soon erupt and likely will disgorge hot lava all over the area, destroying Bikini Bottom.
Many townspeople want to leave, but SpongeBob enlists his friends Patrick and Sandy Cheeks (a sensational Solana Husband) to join him, climb up the volcano to stop it from erupting.
And that’s only Act 1!
Of course, there’s always an evil villain – here it’s Sheldon Plankton (played by Michael Jackson-lookalike Nico Jaochico) and his tiny wife Karen the Computer (Kristy Aquino). But they’ll get their comeuppance, right?
One more actor deserves mention: Andrew Cope as Squidward Q. Tenacles. It certainly can’t be easy to walk around -– and even dance –- when you have four legs!
Squidward Q. Tentacles (Andrew Cope) dreams of stardom on the stage in THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL. Photo by Scott Lasky
Music director Richard Hall and his keyboard are onstage while his 11-piece orchestra is hidden under a small opening at the center front of the stage, an opening that frequently becomes part of the set.
There’s a lot of enjoy here: Klein’s set is terrific, Stacey Reed’s choreography is fun, Edward Hunter’s lighting is spot on, Raissa Marchetti-Kozlov’s costumes, wigs and makeup are creatively outlandish . So: Even if you know nothing about SpongeBob, you’ll still find much to enjoy.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The astonishing thing about The Producers is that no matter how many times you’ve seen it, its inane characters, its music and its heart still catch you by surprise. Mel Brooks, writer of the book, music, and lyrics, is a legendary master of this kind of comedy.
Running at Foster City’s Hillbarn Theatre through May 14, this version has it all except for a live orchestra. Tall, leggy dancers? Check. A quivering, mousy Leo Bloom (James M. Jones)? Check. Over-the-top histrionics by John Mannion as Roger DeBris and his minion Carmen Ghia (a lively Jesse Cortez)? Double check.
…YES!! This show has it all…
That’s not even before the tall, beauteous Renee DeWeese Moran walks in and does her thing as the astoundingly efficient Ulla. Announcing her entrance with a tiny curtsy, Ulla tells Max (a somewhat subdued Edward Hightower) that she came to “audition.” Watching her sing, dance and sashay around the office, flinging a leg straight up (and ending with the splits), Max and Leo hire her on the spot.
Ulla (center, Renee DeWeese Moran), while Max (left, Edward Hightower*) and Leo (right, James M. Jones) watch on with glee. *Denotes member of Actors Equity Association Photo by Tracy Martin
And that’s only a few of the many reasons not to miss this production. Keith Pinto is flawless as Franz Liebkind, the “playwright” who writes a Nazi musical called “Springtime for Hitler” and submits it to Max and Leo.
Max wants to produce a sure-fire flop and decides that “Springtime” is the ticket. He and Leo visit the would-be Nazi at his home, and Franz insists on taking them to see his pigeons.
He prances around cooing and oohing at his prized pigeons – a scene that’s funny in itself but even funnier thanks to the fact that the pigeons are actually puppets operated by Beth A. Wells and Andrew Victoria. They actually move! And coo! This reviewer can’t recall another production of The Producers that includes pigeon puppets!
Leo ( James M. Jones) dreams of being a producer on Broadway. Photo by Mark Kitaoka
There are oodles more memorable scenes including: –Watching a trembling Leo pull out what’s left of his little blue baby blanket, covering his face with it, patting off excess sweat with it, and clutching tightly so no one can take it away from him.
–Roger DeBris all dressed up for a big party event, in a gorgeous long shimmering gown of purple and silver. He’s so sure he’ll be the belle of the party until Max walks in and says he looks just like the Chrysler Building. Mannion, as DeBris is the picture of devastation.
–Who can forget the conga line of dancing grandmas? Max’s benefactors all get together to parade across the stage with their walkers. There’s “Kiss Me, Bite Me,” “Hold Me, Touch Me,” “Kiss Me, Feel Me” – and so many more!
(Lto R) Carmen Ghia (Jesse Cortez) and Roger DeBris (John Mannion) keep it gay. Photo by Tracy Martin
Director Erica Wyman-Abrahamson does a masterful job of keeping all this madness moving along quickly. Y. Sharon Peng deserves high marks for all the gorgeous costumes she’s created – the outfits worn by Ulla are terrific, as is the Nazi one Pinto wears. And then there’s the Ziegfeld Follies -type costumes some of the ensemble wear in the “Springtime for Hitler” parade.
There’s far more to admire in the Hillbarn’s production – including Kevin Davies’ scenic design. Not to be forgotten is Christopher Childers’ clever choreography, with dancers flying off one side of the stage, then suddenly walking down the steps in the audience to return to the stage. Did we mention tap? YES!! This show has it all.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Tons of us have seen the 1990 movie: Julia Roberts, a hooker, charms plutocrat Richard Gere. Its feel-good offspring, Pretty Woman — The Musical, provides a fun experience, too, though not quite as charming.
The two leads (Jessie Davidson as Vivian Ward and Tony Award nominee Adam Pascal as Edward Lewis) have such terrific pipes that their singing might move you either to wild applause or tears. Or both.
…a fun experience…
And Travis Ward-Osborne as the show’s comic linchpin — playing both the cuddly manager of the Beverly-Wilshire hotel and the singing narrator — is a slapstick marvel who can move you to laughing out loud. Ditto Trent Soyster, who playfully plays his bellhop sidekick, Giulio. Both are particularly smile-inducing via exaggerated clown-like schtick. Their over-the-top tango during a dance lesson alone is worth the price of admission.
Jessie Davidson as Vivian Ward. Photo: Matthew Murphy.
Another major positive is the show’s book, penned by the late Garry Marshall, who directed the original movie version and seventeen other films, and J.F. Lawton, who’s written screenplays for every major Hollywood studio. The musical, now at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco through April 30, provides gags galore , with some lines repeated verbatim from the film.
Praiseworthy, too, is Jessica Crouch as Kit. She’s a singer with an extraordinary ability to hold a high note forever and a day.
A poignant, ultra-romantic scene that many are likely to label the musical’s best involves Verdi’s La Traviata, with our focus couple sitting in a box-seat ringed by plush curtains while decked-out devotees spin around them as operatic tones ripple all the way to the last rows.
The storyline, of course, has Vivian agreeing to stay with Edward for a week at the Beverly-Wilshire hotel in 1960s Hollywood and do whatever he wants, sexually and otherwise — for $3,000. She then evolves from a foul-mouthed, blonde-wigged sex worker into a Rodeo Drive clothing-clad, ladylike, brunette beauty. Shades of both Pygmalion, which itself was turned into a delightful musical, My Fair Lady, and Cinderella.
She also tries to dissuade him from leading a hostile takeover and firing scores of employees.
And yes, the whole thing’s a shallow dive into the unspeakable lives of most streetwalkers. Without becoming Chicago.
Choreography by the film’s Tony Award-winning director, Jerry Mitchell, never reaches the passion that could push this show beyond three-and-a-half stars, however. The audience is treated mostly to a chorus of dancers that frequently thrust their arms into the air, with whatever hoofing skills they may have kept in check.
The two-hour musical (plus intermission) features twenty-one numbers by Grammy winner Bryan Adams and Jim Valiance. Most are —forgettable.
Memorable, in contrast, is the show’s upbeat attitude — and, in fact, colorful costumes designed by Gregg Barnes.
The company of “Pretty Woman: The Musical”. Photo by Matthew Murphy for Murphymade.
Toward the end, there’s a moment where Edward gives Vivian a glitzy necklace as an accessory to a striking strapless red gown after saying, “Something is missing.” Taking nothing away from Jessie Davidson’s stellar performance as Vivian, what may be missing in Pretty Woman — The Musical is…Julia Roberts.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Production
Pretty Woman: The Musical
Music by
Bryan Adams and Jim Valiance
Directed & Choreography by
Jerry Mitchell
Book by
Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton
Production Dates
Thru April 30th
Production Address
Orpheum Theater 1192 Market St. at Hyde. San Francisco.
For a few magical hours during the opening night of Sonoma Arts Live Theatre Company’s performance of Side by Side by Sondheim, the problems of the world fell away, leaving only delight. A musical revue of some of the best of Stephen Sondheim’s vast cannon of songs, with music by Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers, and Jule Styne, this is a production not to be missed.
This enchanting performance begins as four guests arrive for an evening of “song and festivities” at a swanky Manhattan apartment—beautifully designed by Carl Jordon. Cityscape glittering outside the window, the callers enjoy sparkling libations, including vodka stingers, while singing together, individually, and in various combinations. Two grand pianos, one on either side of the picture window, allow for a richer and fuller sound than a single piano could provide. Often played in harmony, they create a lush and complex musical texture that highlights the intricacy and sophistication of Sondheim’s compositions. As the full company begins to sing the enlivening “Comedy Tonight” and “Love is in the Air,” it is immediately apparent that this will be a very special evening.
…a production not to be missed!
The cast are, without exception, outstanding. That said, if consigned to live out my life on a desert island with only one performer for company, I would choose Danielle “Dani” Innocenti-Beem. With an artistic virtuosity so practiced that it seems effortless, Ms. Beem’s voice has a rare and indescribable quality that sets it apart from any other.
Danielle “Dani” Innocenti-Beem at work in “Side By Side By Sondheim”
Add to that her ability to convey the entire spectrum of emotion with no more than facial expressions, and we are witnessing a world-class performer. With songs ranging from the achingly gorgeous, “Send in the Clowns” to the hilariously tongue-twisting “The Boy From”—’Tall and tender, like an Apollo, he goes walking by and I have to follow, him, the boy from Tacarembo La Tumbe Del Fuego Santa Malipas Zatatecas La Junta Del Sol Y Cruz’—Beem delivers seamless performances.
Maeve Smith at work at Sonoma Arts Live.
Maeve Smith’s vocal range is a wonder to behold! From breathless whisper to full out belting voice, she is up for the task. With acting chops to match, she’s a formidable performer. In “Another Hundred People” Smith’s sense of disconnection feels palpable as she laments being surrounded by people but sharing intimacy with none. In “Getting Married Today,” Smith displays her ability to articulate perfectly while singing at break-neck pace, to wonderful comic effect.
Jonathen Blue’s beautiful tenor is both rich and wistful as he sings about the possibility of love in the stunning “Being Alive.” Blue’s deft use of tone and timing made this a standout among many such performances of the night. His solo comic tune, “Buddy’s Blues,” showcased a disarming charm as he elicited sympathy despite the dubious character he portrayed.
Jonathen Blue in “Side By Side By Sondheim”
From tenor to bass, Alexei Ryan, has a unique and compelling voice. His rendition of “I Remember”—typically sung by a woman—was simply gorgeous. His ability to sustain perfect pitch at the lowest register was astonishing! His duet with Innocenti-Beem in “You Must Meet my Wife,” was one of the funniest performances of the evening as his earnestness hilariously contrasted with Beem’s eye-rolling “give-me-a-break” disingenuousness.
Rick Love did his best as the narrator to infuse the outdated and frequently tone-deaf jokes with humor via his delivery, but it might be a mercy to simply drop the jokes. Love shined when acting as our guide, introducing and contextualizing the songs performed, providing background information on the composers and the stories behind the songs.
Director Andrew Smith is a master at drawing out natural-seeming performances from his actors. The performers mix drinks, mingle with one another and lounge comfortably around the set, which somehow has the effect of making the audience feel like guests at the party.
The cast of “Side By Side By Sondheim” at work.
Musical Direction by Ellen Patterson was spot on. The choices she made regarding who would perform each song were inspired, as was her direction of the superbly talented pianists.
The combination of Beem, Smith, Blue and Ryan and their ability to effectively convey the humor, heart and complexity of Sondheim’s music, the simple, yet ingenuous set design, and stellar musical accompaniment all work together to make this an awards-worthy production. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Sonoma Arts Live theater company!
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Side By Side By Sondheim
Music by
Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne
Directed by
Andrew Smith
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thursdays thru Sundays through May 7, 2023
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
The Pear Playwrights Guild is made up of about fifteen playwrights, although five more are currently listed as “on leave.” Of the fifteen active playwrights, seven wrote short plays for this year’s PearSlices, at Mountain View’s Pear theater. (Two wrote two each, making a total of nine short plays. The plays average about 10-15 minutes each.)
With such a focused pool of playwrights to draw from, it’s not surprising that the quality of the Slices varies. Sometimes widely. Perhaps this is due to each member of a small pool of playwrights having to churn out a short play every year or two.
That said, several of the nine actors and some of the shorts are attention grabbers. Leah Halper’s Way Home is one, with fine acting by Nique Eagen as Fannie Lou Hamer and Bezachin Jifar as her husband, Pap Hamer.
Halper’s A Lift is another. This short has Lisa, nicely played by Sarah Benjamin, picking up her father, Will (a solid Arturo Dirzo) as she drives to school. The two actors have good chemistry, discussing past problems and misunderstandings — although this reviewer sometimes found Benjamin difficult to hear.
Sarah Benjamin and Arturo Dirzo in “A Lift” by Leah Halper.
But the first short, Sophie Naylor’s The Witching Hour needs a bit of work. It has great lighting and special effects, but the four witches making random comments (most of which make no sense to this reviewer) is challenging.
I also found Ross Peter Nelson’s Sweet Dreams Are Made of This confusing – something about AI controlling and stealing dreams. Next up is Robin Booth’s Fantasy Island where a woman named “IT” seemingly crawls out of the water after being kicked out of a canoe. At times Sandy Sodos as IT is amusing as she talks to a coconut (voiced by Eagen), but this short seems to be in search of an ending.
Sandy Sodos as IT at work in this year’s “Pear Slices”.
Aileen by Barbara Anderson takes place when police detectives arrest a black man (Jifar). If nothing else, this short gets the honor of presenting the toughest acting challenges of the night to Sarah Kishler as Detective Murphy.
Nirvandraw also by Sophie Naylor features Sandy Sodos using high-tech speak, and the piece has great wall projections. Yet: the point of this play eluded this reviewer.
After intermission, the aforementioned Way Home and A Lift were presented. The Street Has I’s by Greg Lam could stand some polish, but featured good acting by Tiffany Nwogu and Jifar.
Nique Eagen and Bezachin Jifar in “Way Home” by Leah Halper.
Finally, a short that has promise (but didn’t seem to deliver same that night) is called Literary Mediation Services by Bridgette Dutta Portman which includes an actor appearing in a Moby Dick shark costume.
Behind the scenes, Carsten Koester deserves credit for good lighting and projections, and several of Pati Bristow’s costumes for Literary Mediation Services are exceptional.
(L-R): Bezachin Jifar, Tiffany Nwogu, Sandy Sodos and Nique Eagen in Literary Mediation Services by Bridgette Dutta Portman.
Rated “PG” for mild adult themes including discussion of drugs and violence, this year’s Pear Slices runs approximately two hours, with one intermission.
Like a real crop of pears, the quality of writing, acting, and directing in Pear Slices varies from year to year. Here’s hoping next years crop is exceptional.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Imagine toiling away for years squinting at black-and-white photographic plates of the night sky and trying to track changes that might provide clues to the nature of the universe. That’s what pioneering mathematician/astronomer Henrietta Leavitt did at Harvard University Observatory for approximately twenty years until she was finally allowed to look through the telescope.
Her obsession with astronomy led to a major breakthrough in human understanding of the universe, lovingly depicted in Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky at Lucky Penny Productions through May 7.
… a lovely heart-warming production…
Taking place primarily at Harvard University Observatory in the early 1900s, the story portrays Henrietta Leavitt’s success in astronomy through sheer enthusiasm and determination, despite having hearing impairment, assorted medical issues, family strife, and at least one romantic disaster. She faced opposition by the scientific establishment of the era — men who refused to accept that a young woman hired to analyze photographic plates of the night sky could be so insightful.
While this may sound like a polemical piece with appeal only to ardent feminists or students of the history of science, it’s actually a fantastically compelling story based very much on real people and real events, with appeal to a broad audience.
Gunderson wrote Silent Sky on commission for Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory company. It debuted at the 2011 Pacific Playwrights Festival and has been performed often since. Lucky Penny’s production is among the best of several that this critic has seen.
Heather Buck at work.
Heather Buck brings an engaging blend of insistence and vulnerability to the character of Henrietta, only the third woman to be hired by the Harvard Observatory to do computational tasks. Even though she insisted from the beginning that her profession was “astronomer,” Leavitt labored for many years until she was permitted to look through the observatory’s telescope, after her contributions to the field had become incontrovertible.
Wearing a bulky all-acoustic hearing aid, Buck delivers Henrietta’s lines emphatically in keeping with her character’s hearing impairment. It’s a nicely consistent bit of verisimilitude, unlike Gunderson’s use of contemporary idioms, which may lend the drama immediacy for modern audiences but sound badly inauthentic to those with an ear for such things. For example, early in the play, Henrietta’s research associate Annie Cannon instructs Henrietta to “input data” into a paper log book. Later, trying to explain to her sister Margaret (Andrea Dennison-Laufer) her relationship with her supervisor Peter Shaw (Dennis O’Brien), Henrietta says “It’s complicated.” Both of these phrases, and some others scattered throughout the script, are recent and not something that anyone would have said one hundred years ago.
Williamina Fleming and Annie Cannon in “Silent Sky” as depicted by Titian Lish and LC Arisman respectively.
Henrietta’s feisty, opinionated colleagues and mentors Williamina Fleming and Annie Cannon are brought to roaring life by Titian Lish and LC Arisman, respectively. A secondary but important plot has Annie campaigning for women’s right to vote. Late in the show she shocks her colleagues not only by sporting her suffragette sash, but by actually wearing pants.
Dennison-Laufer brings an understated complexity to the role of Margaret Leavitt, Henrietta’s long-suffering and somewhat manipulative sister who’s been left to care for their ailing preacher father back in Wisconsin. Dennis O’Brien, known for outrageous antics in other shows, is fantastically subtle as Shaw, a research administrator who vacillates between disdainful distance and emotional neediness in his relationship with Henrietta. The budding but blunted love affair between the two awkward scientists is enacted with elegant sensitivity.
Dennis O’Brien as Shaw dancing with Heather Buck in “Silent Sky”.
Barry Martin’s simple evocative set creates ample impressions of the interior of the observatory, a Wisconsin farmhouse, a ship at sea and other locations, with minimal prop changes. The backdrop of the night sky is especially effective. Barbara McFadden’s costumes are period-appropriate and somewhat frumpy, as might be expected of academics toiling away a century ago.
Some information about the play describes it as being about “the first female astronomers.” It’s clearly about the first female American astronomers, but certainly not the absolute first. Curious stargazers may wish to check out the 2009 film Agora, starring Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria, the Egyptian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who discovered elliptical orbits 2,000 years before Johannes Kepler.
Adroitly directed by Dyan McBride, Lucky Penny’s Silent Sky is a lovely heart-warming production. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll never regard the stars the same way again.
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Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Silent Sky
Written by
Lauren Gunderson
Directed by
Dyan McBride
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru May 7th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Website
www.luckypennynapa.com
Telephone
(707) 266-6305
Tickets
$26-$36
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4/5
Performance
4/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
3.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
YES!
Other Voices…
"Overall, "Silent Sky" is a fast-moving two hours of theater that anyone who loves astronomy or the history of science will enjoy."
"Physics Today" website
"...Lauren Gunderson’s touching, poignant “Silent Sky”...is deeply affecting, important and relevant for many reasons..."
Our Quad Cities
"...Although "Silent Sky" deals with matters of science and math, which may sound off-putting to some, it’s nevertheless instantly accessible..."
Sarasota Magazine
"...In Lauren Gunderson's "Silent Sky," Leavitt's story unfolds with a beauty and complexity worthy of the skies she mapped..."
Chicago Sun Times -- (they rated the play "Highly Recommended.")
How can you make your production of Tosca memorable to experienced audience members when it’s performed worldwide more than 500 times every year? Certainly a must: Employ one or more unforgettable singers. After that, you must either (a) try for a big-bucks, blow-them-away, gargantuan scenic design (Robert Dornhelm 2015, here: https://vimeo.com/171417034 ), or, more usually, (b) come up with creative turns here and there that leave a lasting impression.
Creative turns are what Stage Director Tara Branham and her team have attempted with Opera San Jose’s Tosca. All are memorable, and many succeed. But, as Nancy Pelosi remarked three years ago, the devil, as well as the angels, are in the details.
…Joseph Marcheso’s conducting and his excellent and substantial orchestra…
Maria Natale, in a fabulous first appearance in the title role, is the unforgettable singer, along with a fine-voiced, ominous Kidon Choi (Scarpia), and Adrian Kramer (Cavaradossi), who really blossomed in Act 3 opening night.
Floria Tosca (Maria Natale) is eyed by the predatory Scarpia (Kidon Choi – left) in Opera San José’s vivid production of Puccini’s thriller “Tosca,” April 15-30 at the California Theatre. Photo Credit: David Allen
Natale fills the auditorium with her voice, never shrieking even in the highest range. It amazed me the way her voice wafted into the onstage action when she sings as part of an offstage cantata–it’s usually unintelligible in other productions. Furthermore, she’s a consummate, expressive actor–you must witness, for example, her masterly shudder as Scarpia barrages her with predatory demands.
The list of creative turns is long; Audience effectiveness may vary. On the positive side:
Great direction, with emotional intensity
Tosca’s many, enthusiastic knife stabs into Scarpia–and an earlier slap in his face.
A large anachronistic head-shot portrait of the girl Cavaradossi was painting—for once, you could see her blue eyes!
Christina Martin’s irresistibly passionate wig for Tosca. It went everywhere while staying in place.
Adrian Kramer as Cavaradossi in Opera San José’s “Tosca”. Photo Credit: David Allen
Plusses that are also minuses:
Lots of stage action just prior to the Te Deum in Act 1. Probably interesting to some, distracting to other audience members.
Cavaradossi making out with another woman in the church at the beginning of Act 1. Indicates he’s a hot-blooded Italian and justifies Tosca’s intuitive jealousy, but decreases his customary heroic stature.
Scarpia’s Farnese Palace chamber in Act 2 has an upstage bed in it, an understandable if uncommon furnishing among productions. This emphasizes Scarpia’s goal regarding Tosca, but when Tosca sings her famous “Vissi d’arte” aria on it, which should begin quietly, she still has to reach the audience. From my position in the third row, its beginning seemed too loud.
Kidon Choi as Scarpia in Puccini’s thriller “Tosca”. Photo Credit: David Allen
Some minor minuses:
Too often, it seemed characters were having intimate conversations from opposite ends of the stage. Disconcerting.
Congregants in the Te Deum marching in front of Scarpia, obscuring him while he’s singing his “Va, Tosca!” aria.
Baron Scarpia’s anachronistic horseshoe mustache, rare for the 1800 date, and more suitable for a spaghetti western. Fortunately, Elizabeth Poindexter’s terrific costume gave him appropriate class.
Supertitles were out of synch much of the time on opening night.
Finally, some lasting impressions that were not necessarily unusual, but simply top-notch:
Joseph Marcheso’s conducting and his excellent and substantial orchestra. I was especially pleased with how the horn section handled the opening to Act 3.
Igor Vieira taking on a deformed foot to add to the bumbling character of his well-voiced Sacristan.
Robert Balonek’s strong voiced and desperate Angelotti.
Choreography by the Napoleon of fight direction, Dave Maier.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Tosca
Stage Direction
Tara Branham
Producing Company
Opera San Jose
Production Dates
Thru Apr 30th
Production Address
California Theater -
345 S First St, San Jose, CA 95113
A wonderfully inviting library located exactly on the border between a small town in northern Vermont and a Quebecoise town is the setting for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s production of A Distinct Society.
There’s a cozy children’s nook filled not only with children’s books but also pint-sized furniture, an abacas and a couple of stuffed animals. But the real attention-getter in Jo Winiarski’s impressive set design is the two-foot-wide bookcase full of (what else?) books that runs up one side over the top and down the other side of the proscenium in the Mountain View Center of the Performing Arts.
Yet there’s one uninviting thing about the library: the wide strip of tape that runs straight down the middle of the library. Why? Because the left half is in the United States and the right half is in Canada.
Daughter Shirin (Vaneh Assadourian) and father Peyman (James Rana) reunite in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s World Premiere of “A Distinct Society”. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
There are just five characters in Society, so each plays an important part in telling Kareem Fahmy’s fictionalized story of what happened at the Haskell Free Library & Opera House in 2017 when families separated by what was called the “Muslim ban” used the space to connect with each other. The ban didn’t allow citizens of seven Muslim countries to enter the U.S.
As the play opens, an Iranian father, Peyman (a serious, caring James Rana) enters the library with his passport and food he has prepared for his medical-student daughter, Shirin (Vaneh Assadourian), who lives in the U.S.
Because he arrived early, he just wants to sit in the library and wait to give Shirin food from home. But the big, burly U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Bruce (Kenny Scott) says he can’t stay. Shirin tries to give the food to Manon, the librarian (Carrie Paff), but she’s not willing to accept it because she says no food is allowed in the library.
Enter young, tousle-haired Declan (an appealing Daniel Allitt), who practically considers the library his home because his parents are divorced and he has no friends to chum around with. Declan has found ways to sneak into the library any time of the day or night, and he sometimes sleeps there as well. He also keeps a stash of soda and snack food that he consumes when no one’s around.
Smiling mischievously, Declan says, “Technically I don’t eat meat. But I do.”
In a rather strange turn of events, Manon reveals that she’ll be performing in the upstairs opera house, playing the title character in Bizet’s Carmen. Bruce invites her to have dinner with him before the opera, and she accepts. Later they return to the library where he convinces her to dance on a library table just as Carmen does in the opera. Bruce and Manon kiss a few times when suddenly she hears a noise.
Bruce (Kenny Scott) flirts with Manon (Carrie Paff) in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s World Premiere of “A Distinct Society,” performing April 5-30. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Guess who’s the unintended witness to all of this? Of course: It’s Declan who’s been spending hours in the library reading what he calls “graphic novels” (actually fantasy comic books) and chowing down on his never-ending supply of junk food.
Though the actors’ performances are nuanced and well done, it’s the play itself that lets down their abilities. One example: too many topics are mentioned in passing such as the 1995 referendum asking Quebec citizens if they want to secede from Canada to form a “distinct society.” It’s touched on so quickly that many in the audience won’t understand or, more likely won’t even remember that time.
The play runs approximately 95 minutes without an intermission.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
A Distinct Society
Written by
Kareem Fahmy
Directed by
Giovanna Sardelli
Producing Company
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in collaboration with Pioneer Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah
Los Altos Stage Company’s executive artistic director Gary Landis came up with a winning formula for their production of Harold and Maude, which opened April 14 and runs through May 7.
Landis relates that he decided to include Harold and Maude in the 2022-23 season because it was the 50th anniversary of the beloved movie of the same name. LASC produced the same show (with the same actor playing Maude) eight years ago.
It’s easy to see why. That actor, Lillian Bogovich. personifies the “almost 80-year-old Maude” in look, sound and manner. Her own long, gray-streaked hair looks exactly how an aging hippie would style her hair, and her low, gravelly voice is precisely right for the role. That she is able to appear guileless and even childlike makes her characterization complete.
As Harold, the boyish Max Mahle is every bit Bogovich’s acting equal – though his innocent-looking face conceals a troubled youth who acts out in the most perverse, devilish ways possible. Those diabolical pranks are sometimes the works of Landis’ clever scenic projections, while other times are simply a matter of good-old-fashioned magic tricks.
Max Mahle and Lillian Bogovich. Photo credit: Christian Pizzirani
As the play begins, Harold’s haughty upper-class mother, Mrs. Chasen (a marvelous characterization by Katelyn Miller), is showing her new maid (Erika Racz) around the house, explaining to her what her household duties will be. They enter the Chasen living room and the maid looks out the large backyard window to discover a body hanging from a branch of a tree.
It’s Harold, yet Mrs. Chasen pays her son no mind. She revives the poor maid and tells her that her son has “staged his own suicide at least fifteen times.” She arranges for psychiatrist Dr. Matthews (an earnest Steve Althoff) to come to the house to chat with Harold. After a few uncomfortable minutes together, Dr. Matthews tells Mrs. Chasen that Harold will soon grow out of it, and decides to leave.
Next up is the sweet, pious priest (a perfectly cast Jonathan Covey). He first meets Harold at his parish where the young man is attending a funeral. When the priest asks Harold how he knows the deceased, Harold looks at him innocently and says he doesn’t. “I just like to attend funerals,” he says matter-of-factly.
Fifteen times he’s staged his own suicide….
Asked what he likes to do for fun, Harold says in all sincerity: “I go to funerals.” But Mrs. Chasen has other plans for her son: She finds a dating app and arranges for three young women to come to the house to meet Harold. She’s so anxious for Harold to find a young woman he likes and wants to spend time with.
That’s when Michelle Skinner gets her moment in the spotlight. She plays all three young ladies (Sylvie, Nancy and the hippie Sunshine Dore), but Harold makes a resolute effort to scare each one out of their wits. The result: All three get out of the Chasen house in short order.
Max Mahle (standing), Lillian Bogovich (upside down). Photo credit: Christian Pizzirani
To his mother’s amazement, Harold suddenly starts dressing nicer and talking about someone he met who has the same interests he does. He even met her at a funeral!
He’s talking about the sweet, kind, totally artless Maude. One of the best scenes in an already fabulous production is when Mrs. Chasen goes to Maude’s house to meet the “young girl” who has so smitten her son. The look on her face when she discovers that the older-than-she Maude is the “girl” Harold loves is simply priceless.
If you want an absolutely terrific evening of theatre, call LASC or go online to get tickets before this show is completely sold out.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Five years ago, playwright Qui Nguyen dazzled us with the pyrotechnics of his autobiographical deep-dive into his family with Vietgone at American Conservatory Theatre’s Strand Theater.
He has returned with Part 2 – Poor Yella Rednecks which takes us deeper into the family’s upheaval from Vietnam in the 1970s to 1981 El Dorado, Arkansas, as the playwright now interviews his mother. The play fixates on the trials of cultural change, language barriers and of course the challenges and truths held-back by his parents.
…The show’s production values alone though are worth a visit…
Similar to Part 1, Nguyen peppers his play with hip-hop, rap, comic book heroes, profanity, martial arts, puppetry, cowboys, and an enormous well of humor and bold ideas. Once again Jaime Castaneda directs the vivid production with imagination and verve.
The parents Tong (gloriously played with depth and passion by Jenny Nguyen Nelson) and Quang (a deeply moving Hyunmin Rhee) are assimilating into American “cheeseburger” culture. They live with Grandma Huong (obscenity-spewing and knife-wielding Christine Jamlig) and their young son Little Man (portrayed as a wooden puppet movingly brought to life and voice by gifted Will Dao). Little Man will of course grow up to become the playwright himself.
Hyunmin Rhee (left) and Jenny Nguyen Nelson in Qui Nguyen’s “Poor Yella Rednecks,” a sequel to “Vietgone,” at American Conservatory Theater. Photo: Kevin Berne, ACT.
There is a bold attempt by the playwright to utilize language as a key to the challenges faced by assimilating immigrants. All Vietnamese speak in colloquial English and the Anglos (Jomar Tagatac’s hysterical Bobby, for example) speak in broken Vietnamese as we might hear them. It’s a clever idea that is interesting but not well defined.
Too often this play is interrupted by a “rap” song defining the inner feelings of the character. When the gambit works (as with Tong) it can support the text, but for this reviewer it too often stops the momentum. When the playwright settles into simple and moving narrative, as he does in a gorgeously acted barroom seduction scene between Ms. Jamlig and Mr. Rhee, he reveals enormous talent, and one wants to say “Trust your instincts and give us your words.”
Jenny Nguyen Nelson (left) and Christine Jamlig in “Poor Yella Rednecks.” Photo: Kevin Berne.
The show’s production values alone though are worth a visit. Tanya Orellana’s massive and eclectic set, with the apartment elevated above the stage floor, is a character in itself. Interestingly, this is the second play I have seen designed by Ms. Orellana, and the second time I have seen a set elevated in vision above the main floor. Part of her set for Fefu and Her Friends (also at ACT,) had a similar kitchen set piece. Yi Zhao’s lighting design is a wonder of neon, roving spot lights, and illuminated glory. Jessie Amoroso has done lovely and character-driven costume designs. Jake Rodriguez’s sound, Shammy Dee’s original music and Yee Eun Nam’s projections add other sterling elements to the production.
Like Vietgone 1, there are so many ideas emanating from the mind and heart of the writer. As this is the second part of a trilogy, we eagerly await Mr. Nguyen’s next step.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Poor Yella Rednecks
Written by
Qui Nguyen
Original Music
Shammy Dee
Directed by
Jaime Castaneda
Producing Company
American Conservatory Theater (ACT) - The Strand Theater
Production Dates
Thru May 7th
Production Address
1127 Market Street
San Francisco, CA
Website
www.act-sf.org
Telephone
(415) 749-2228
Tickets
$25 – $60
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
2.5/5
Performance
2.5/5
Script
3/5
Stagecraft
3/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK!
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Other voices…
"Oh boy! The second installment of Qui Nguyen's autobiographical "Vietgone" trilogy is just as exciting, creative, and rewarding as the original produced by ACT five years ago."
Broadway World
"Two things lift this poignant tale far out of the ordinary. It’s based on the playwright’s actual life story—these are his parents, his grandmother, he himself as a child—and it’s an imaginative and wonderfully comical retelling of that story. "
Local News Matters
In “Vietgone,” playwright Qui Nguyen tells the story of how his parents met after escaping the Vietnam War and landing in the same resettlement camp in Arkansas. It’s a tale of traumatic displacement written and performed with unstoppable comic verve that sneakily brings the reality of the refugee experience vividly to life."
It could have been difficult to keep Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet phrases, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” from echoing in your brain while exiting Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.
Your love would been aimed not at one human being but the entire Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which had just bookended its new Cal Performances show with two old pieces that perfectly merged modern dance with classical movements, “Night Creature” (the opener) and “Revelations” (the closer).
…impossible to leave the hall without a smile on your face…
The former was a tour de force initially choreographed by Ailey in 1974 to a complex but marvelous big-band jazz composition by Duke Ellington. Its music ranged from the brassiest of brass to violins as sweet as Godiva chocolate, with dancers’ skills shining via high-steppin’ moves that might have been lifted from a hot Harlem nightspot and spirited twirling across the stage from here to perpetuity.
Sarah Daley-Perdomo, a substitute soloist, was flawless in all three movements of Masazumi Chaya’s restaging, coupled with Michael Jackson Jr. in two of them.
“Revelations” is, of course, Ailey’s signature work. It appears as the finale of many of the troupe’s programs and remains as striking today as when first presented in 1960.
Loud applause and shrieks of approval greeted the dancers as the curtain rose for its 10-tune, Gospel-loaded production, before the company’s first barefooted movements, revealing that much of the audience had seen the piece multiple times before. Each recognizable segment then drew additional hand clapping.
Especially outstanding were the grace inherent in “Fix Me Jesus”, a duet, and the coupled-off joy of the entire company in “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.”
Sandwiched between the first and last dance-concert segments were “Cry,” a masterful solo performance by Jacquelin Harris, and “For Four,” the only piece on the program not choreographed by Ailey.
“Cry,” a 1971 creation dedicated to “Black women everywhere — especially our mothers,” had originally been a birthday present to the choreographer’s mother. The three-parter includes jarring music by Alice Coltrane as well as Laura Nyro’s “Been on a Train,” which details, mournfully, the anguish of drug addiction. “Cry,” too, was restaged by Chaya.
“For Four,” named because it showcases two couples, was the weakest of all the entries — and it wasn’t weak at all. Still, its choreography by Robert Battle and staging by Elisa Clark paled compared to Ailey’s work, despite it providing pleasure through music by Wynton Marsalis and eye-catching costuming of removable tux jackets, black suspenders and white shirts.
Overall, dance enthusiasts were treated to sequences that evoked bliss and sadness, sensuality and sexuality, nonchalance and eloquence, passion and coolness, simplicity and razzle-dazzle — plus fantastic lighting effects, useful projections onto a rear screen, and a dancer’s ponytail hair extensions playfully bouncing with every twist of her head and body.
Everything, of course, came with splashes of virtuosity, which made it almost impossible to leave the hall without a smile on your face.
Earlier Zellerbach Hall performances of the troupe this month introduced two new dances, “Are You in Your Feelings?” — choreographed by Kyle Abraham to a soul, hip-hop, and rhythm ‘n’ blues mixtape, and “In a Sentimental Mood,” an intimate duet by Jamar Roberts (and revisited Twyla Tharp’s “Roy’s Joys,” Paul Taylor’s “Duet,” and a 1986 Ailey tribute to Nelson Mandela, “Survivors”).
Final 2022-23 Cal Performances events at Zellerbach Hall include George Hinchliffe’s Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on April 26; Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” a “congregational opera” May 5 and 6; and a recital by soprano Nina Stemme on May 7. Information: 510-642-9988 or https://calperformances.org
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Production
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Producing Company
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Production Dates
Through Apr 16th
Production Address
101 Zellerbach Hall Spc 4800, at UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-4800
High-achieving siblings confront their parents and embark on an ill-fated adventure to connect with their Chinese heritage in Mike Lew’s Tiger Style. The comedy runs at Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theatre through April 23.
Bryon Guo stars as computer expert Albert Chen; Carissa Ratanaphany appears opposite him as Albert’s sister Jennifer, an oncologist who plowed through Harvard University’s undergrad program in only three years. Having been driven hard by their parents their entire lives–including relentless practice on the cello for him and the piano for her–the pair hatch a plan to air their grievances at a family dinner with mom and dad (Regielen Padua, and Thomas Nguyen, respectively). Their parents are also high achievers–the father’s an engineer and the mother, a faculty member at UCLA.
…The performers in this show are tremendous, and tremendously funny…
Albert does the work of three or four programmers at his tech job, while getting scant credit for it. Jennifer is on staff at a major hospital but her personal life is a mess. She lives with a perpetually broke slacker boyfriend named Reggie (Kyle Goldman) whose sole interest seems to be installing car stereo systems. Goldman also appears as “Rus the Bus,” Albert’s goofy office colleague who gets promoted over Albert on the basis of his assertive personality alone. He also appears late in the production as an obnoxiously overbearing US Customs agent.
The siblings plan to confront mom and dad over their oppressive childhood doesn’t go well, and is the main thrust of the comedy’s first act, in which they also realize how detached they are from their Chinese roots.
Carissa Ratanaphanyarat (left), Thomas Nguyen (center), Byron Guo (right) in “Tiger Style”.
To correct this, they decide to abandon their lives in America and journey to mainland China, where their only contact is their somewhat remote relative “Cousin Chen” (also Padua), who does her best to guide them in the strange, overcrowded country. A series of mishaps gets them arrested and thrown into an interrogation center overseen by the malevolent Gen. Tso (also Nguyen). They don’t speak a word of Chinese but somehow are seen as spies or foreign agents. All of this transpires on a simple set by Jeffrey Cook that’s little more than flat panels that slide back and forth into place, enabling rapid set changes.
Thomas Nguyen (left), Regielyn Padua (right) at Cinnabar Theater.
Will Albert and Jennifer be able to escape? Will they ever return to America? The performers in this show are tremendous, and tremendously funny. Well-directed by M. Graham Smith, Tiger Style deftly manages to compress immigrants’ history, the Asian work ethic, childhood deprivations, personal aspirations, private misgivings, and cultural misunderstandings into a quick-moving comedy of errors.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
A 2008 Iranian class in English as a foreign language is the setting for a comedic examination of individual and cultural identity, at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, through May 7.
In the West Coast premiere of Sanaz Toossi’s English, four adult students of varying ages try the patience of teacher Marjan (Sahar Bibiyan) as they attempt to reach some degree of conversational competence and hope to sort out personal problems in the process.
…a delightful, emotionally engaging production…
The youngest one, Goli (Christine Mirzayan), never states her reasons for wanting to pass the national test for competence in English, but she has a jolly time working toward it. Elham (Mehry Eslaminia) hopes to go to medical school in Australia. Omid (Amir Malaklou), the sole male in the class, proves to be far more adept than he initially appears to be, for reasons that won’t be revealed here. Roya (Sarah Nina Hayon) the oldest of the bunch, is tackling the language so she can speak with her Canadian granddaughter.
Mehry Eslaminia (Elham) and Christine Mirzayan (Goli) in the West Coast premiere of Sanaz Toossi’s “English”, performing now through May 7, 2023 at Berkeley Rep. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
Language barriers are among the richest tropes in comedy, and director Mina Morita mines many of them, from inept halting grammar and limited vocabularies to beginners’ blunders. Despite their teacher’s insistence that they speak only English in class, reinforced by a huge “ENGLISH ONLY” statement on the classroom’s dry-erasable board, in frustration they resort to their native Farsi, translated into perfectly articulate English. Thickly accented pidgin English conveys what they are trying to say in the new language. This bit of stagecraft may confuse some viewers.
The performance is lovely, if a bit slow in places. The cast is convincing throughout and laugh-out-loud funny at moments that segue into real angst. Like many current comedies, English transitions from hilarity to poignancy, such as in a scene late in the play when Omid and Marjan share a connection that won’t go anywhere beyond the classroom, but it’s one felt by the entire audience. Roya’s character arc is left dangling—a pity, because we would like to learn more about her. That’s also true to a certain extent about Elham.
Amir Malaklou (Omid) and Sahar Bibiyan (Marjan) in the West Coast premiere of Sanaz Toossi’s “English”. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello
English is a delightful, emotionally engaging production that may have special appeal to those interested in linguistics and cultural identity. Those who delight in the comedic potential of mangled language may also enjoy David Ives’ short play The Universal Language (part of his All in the Timing collection) and David Sedaris’ wonderful novel Me Talk Pretty One Day.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
English
Written by
Sanaz Toossi
Directed by
Mina Morita
Producing Company
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Production Dates
Through May 7th
Production Address
2025 Addison Street, Berkeley CA 94704
Website
www.berkeleyrep.org
Telephone
(510) 647-2900
Tickets
$43 - $119
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
3.5/5
Performance
4/5
Script
3.5/5
Stagecraft
3/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
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Other Voices…
"...Both contemplative and comic, it nails every opportunity for big laughs as its English-learning characters struggle with accents and idioms. But the laughter provides cover for the deeper idea that their struggle is not just linguistic..."
The New York Times
"...Personalities will emerge, relationships will form, secrets will be revealed. Some of the students will succeed and others will fall by the wayside.
All of this happens but, at the same time, the play is not predictable, thanks to Toossi’s subtle writing and profound observations about the ways in which language shapes identity, experience and a sense of belonging in the world..."
Toronto Star
"...Language in “English” becomes the scapegoat for everything that’s wrong with us, the true reason for all our best qualities. If we’re rude or loud or dumb, soft or smart or charming, it might all just be the language we’re speaking, along with all its attendant norms and foibles..."
Currently at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, Always, Patsy Cline incites smiles, belly laughs, and deep appreciation of the music of the late, great Patsy Cline while telling the story of how Patsy became friends and pen pals with one of her most ardent fans. The show runs through April 30th.
In 1961, Patsy Cline played a concert at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston, Texas. Alerted to the performance by a local DJ, superfan Louise Seger was the first to arrive at the venue and struck up a conversation with the star, who was doing pre-performance reconnaissance in the hall. Louise and Patsy sparked an instant connection, and before the show, Patsy joined Louise and her friends at their table and asked Louise if during the performance she would keep an eye on the drummer to ensure he didn’t rush her. Louise did so and after the show invited Patsy to her home for a late night/early morning breakfast of bacon and eggs.
…It’s a touching story…
Louise narrates the story, performed by the hilarious Liz Jahren, thoroughly enjoying her role as comic relief. Portrayed as an outspoken, outlandish character, who through gumption fueled by her long adoration of Patsy’s music—she called her local DJ Hal Harris multiple times daily to request that he play her favorite Patsy Cline songs—manages to get Patsy an early morning in-person interview with him. Mr. Harris thinks Louise is drunk and delusional when she calls his home in the early morning hours to inform him that Patsy Cline is at her house and will be at his studio in the morning for an interview. Hal responds, “And I’ve got Marilyn Monroe in bed. Now, honey, you sleep it off and I’ll play ‘I Fall to Pieces’ for you in the morning.”
Shannon Rider as Patsy Cline at 6th Street.
Louise goes on to describe—to appreciative laughter—the expression on Hal’s face later that morning as he sees Louise arrive in the studio, arm in arm with Patsy Cline. Louise elicits more laughter as she paints a picture of Hal, who “…looked like death, wearing Bermuda shorts, a sweater that looked like it had been in the dryer a week and tennis shoes with holes cut out so his toes could breathe.”
Patsy Cline (honey-voiced and beautifully self-possessed Shannon Rider) tells her story in snippets between the 27 songs she sings throughout the performance. A self-taught singer, Patsy was unable to read music and had no idea what key she sang in. Growing up in poverty, she proudly admits that her mother sewed the cowgirl outfits she favored early in her career. Envisioning herself a star, she was the first woman singer to headline her own tour and worked tirelessly, often performing multiple shows per day, even after giving birth to her second child.
Director Jared Saken empowers Jahren and Rider to share a natural-seeming rapport and the two appear to genuinely enjoy performing together. Both women first played their respective characters 15 years earlier when 6th Street Playhouse put on its first production of Always. Jahren played Louise throughout the production and Rider filled in for a weekend—after being given one day’s notice—when the lead actress playing Cline became ill. Jahren has a wonderful sense of comic timing and Rider, who has enjoyed a successful singing career as leader of her own bands, is perfectly at home whether singing or acting.
Shannon Rider and Liz Jahren in “Always, Patsy Cline”.
Music Director Nate Riebli does a fine job with “The Bodacious Bobcats Band,” whose accompaniment never overwhelms Rider’s vocals, as well as with “The Jordanaires” whose “How Great Thou Art” lends appropriate gravity to the scene in which we learn that Patsy has been killed—at age 30!—in a plane crash. Costume Designer Pamela Johnson does a phenomenal job with Cline’s wardrobe, capturing the elegance and glamour Cline was known for using many vintage pieces to very good effect.
There is a reason this play is performed—often in multiple venues—around San Francisco and the North Bay almost every year. Always…Patsy Cline delivers music beloved by country as well as pop fans. It’s a touching story about an unlikely friendship and an affirming message about one woman’s ability, through grit, determination and hard work, to make the most of her natural talent.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Always... Patsy Cline
Written by
Ted Swindley
Directed by
Jared Sakren / Nate Riebli
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Thru Apr 30th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Shotgun Players continues their “Season of Love” with a spirited and gloriously designed production of Pierre de Marivoux’s 1732 comedy-drama The Triumph of Love.
Marivoux was a worthy 18th Century successor to Moliere and Racine, twisting vulnerability and amour de coeur with deception, cross dressing, and hysterical commedia del arte improvisational aplomb. This production is adapted and translated by renowned Stephen Wadsworth.
…Triumph of Love is a triumph…
The play brings us into the Age of Enlightenment, when discoveries of reason and intellect were heralded. Galileo’s treatise on the planets, Isaac Newton’s theories, the Declaration of Independence and the founding of America, and the French Revolution were some of the historical highlights of the time. Women were celebrated as independent thinkers and men often were parodied as buffoons in their quest to conquer the opposite sex.
Veronica Renner & Edward Im at work at SHotgun Players.
The Triumph of Love tells the story of Leonide (a stunning performance by Veronica Renner) who cross-dresses as a man called Phocion to enter the household of her enemy Hermocrates (regal David Boyll). Her initial aim is to meet her rival for the throne Agis (Edward Im), the usurped son of the king of Sparta now living under the protection of Hermacrates.
As both a man and a woman, Leonide seduces the servants and the aristocrats alike, making marriage proposals and wielding her wiles into a spider web of conniving. Only a playwright as astute as Marivoux could concoct the intricate confusions involved.
The Shotgun cast is exceptional. Ms. Renner establishes herself as a new voice in the Bay Area with each choice she makes. Logical and rich in depth, she and director Patrick Dooley find not just the humor but also an imperious streak of meanness in her revenge. Brava!
Jamin Jollo in “The Triumph of Love”.
The clowns are played with rich detail and fun by a commedia masked Jamin Jollo, whose body always finds a new way of movement and agility, and our spirit guide Wayne Wong – always on the periphery waiting to be summoned and knowing just a bit more than anyone else on stage.
Edward Im is a sweet and gentle Agis bringing himself and us to tears as he realizes his love for first Leonide’s boy and then Leonide’s girl. The two other women (Corine – Leonide’s companion) and Leontine (Hermacrate’s sister) are beautifully delineated and defined by renowned actor/directors Susannah Martin and Mary Ann Rodgers.
Malcolm Rodgers has designed a magnificent estate garden (beautifully lit by Spense Matubang) complete with a lily pond and hanging greenery offering the cast places to hide, peek and dash. Costumer Ashley Renee has arrayed the cast in lush, character specific attire.
Patrick Dooley’s spot-on direction is a pure celebration of this ”season of love.” Triumph of Love is a triumph for the inventive and redoubtable Shotgun Players.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
The Triumph of Love
Written by
Pierre de Marivaux, adapted and translated by Stephen Wadsworth.
Myth-like choreography — including a sharp-elbow crowd sequence at a bare-knuckle boxing match — embellishes Carmen, a new movie.
Carmen is a singular, non-linear, dramatic film that exquisitely blends disparate elements: classical and flamenco dance, mournful and wistful singing, suspense and southern border violence, mother-daughter love and a couple’s intimacy while employing an undocumented workers’ underground railway of sorts, and more than a little religious symbolism.
Highlighted are striking close-ups that etch the joys and pains of life into individual faces, and far-distant camera shots that in both silhouette and color display the beauties of the natural world (including mountains, meadows, foliage, and birds on wires). Plus Ferris wheels, highways, and taut action in near-total blackness. Featured, too, are recurring images of fire and gunfire, feet and hands, all augmented by pounding music with notes of edgy, ominous violins.
…Carmen is a singular, non-linear, dramatic film that exquisitely blends disparate elements…
It’s a flick delivered in English and Spanish that will be enjoyed by artsy movie house regulars but will undoubtedly be skipped by those who’d prefer to see the latest Avengers fly-athon.
The title role of Carmen is played by 32-year-old Mexican actress Melissa Barrera.
The title role is poignantly filled by 32-year-old Mexican actress Melissa Barrera, a breakout star of In the Heights who here, after her mom is shot to death, survives an illegal crossing with the help of Aiden, a Border Patrol deserter who grapples with more than a touch of disassociation or PTSD or God-knows-what — something that makes it difficult for him to relate to anybody but Carmen.
Barrera portrays the “tough but fragile” Carmen by alternately exuding fear, sadness, joy, glam and sexiness, and by dancing and singing up proverbial storms.
Aidan, an ex-Marine with stripes tattooed on his arm, is effectively played by 27-year-old Paul Mescal, an Irish actor who earned a 2023 Best Actor Oscar nomination for Aftersun, a coming-of-age tale.
Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera star in “Carmen”.
Not incidentally, the fight-to-the-death boxing scene in which “people like to bet against a white boy,” is unique because it showcases krumpers, dancers who’ve used the form of krumping to escape gang life and non-violently show emotions while stressing energetic, sharp movements of their arms and chests.
Carmen’s goal is to reach her godmother Masilda (Rossy de Palma, who’s been in more than a couple Almodóvar films) and, thereby, sanctuary of sorts in the La Sombra Pederosa nightclub in Los Angeles.
When all’s said, it’s probably best to let loose of the 1 hour, 56-minute film’s storyline and dialogue and just lie back, relax, and enjoy the direction of French-born Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed Black Swan. Otherwise, you could be bothered by the likes of a cutaway to a dance sequence in the middle of a love-making scene — or hard-to-digest lines that indicate it’s important to know who you are, the things you’re running from often turn out to be the things you’re running toward, or “I will live inside you forever.”
“…Barrera and Mescal’s performances arouse the desperation of strangers turned lovers on the run…” — The Hollywood Reporter
Though this beautiful, sometimes poetic tragedy was very loosely inspired by Bizet’s opera about a Roma (gypsy) woman, it contains no hint of bullfights or matadors or multiple seductions. Like the opera, which in turn was based on an 1845 novella, it does spotlight power struggles involving social class, race, and gender.
Carmen will open April 28 at the Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco; at the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, 2966 College Ave, Berkeley; and at the Century Regency, 280 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Title
Carmen
Directed by
Benjamin Millepied
Screenplay by
Alexander Dinelaris Jr.
Cinematography by
Jörg Widmer
Distributing Company
Magnolia
Release Date
April 28, 2023
Runtime
1 hr 56 min
Showing
Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco;
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, 2966 College Ave, Berkeley;
Century Regency, 280 Smith Ranch Road, San Rafael.
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4/5
Performance
4/5
Script
4/5
Cinematography
4/5
Direction
4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES!
Other Voices…
"...undeniably exhilarating to watch one of the world’s most accomplished choreographers team up with one of its most virtuosic composers for the kind of aggressively unclassifiable movie that would never exist if not for these two artists reaching beyond their disciplines to create it themselves."
Indie Wire
"...“Carmen” was the best movie this critic saw at the Toronto International Film Festival."
Sarah Manvel, Critics Notebook
"...Luck was on the side of Carmen director Benjamin Millepied. His two leads, Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera, are both riding hot streaks at the same time. Mescal for his roles in "God’s Creatures" and "Aftersun"; Barrera for "In the Heights" and a pair of "Scream" movies. They...make for a scorching pair in Millepied’s gritty, contemporary take on Georges Bizet‘s opera..."
The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place.—Alexander Solzhenitzyn.
In Prospero’s Island, an evil Nazi biologist has escaped retribution for his Dr.-Moreau-like experiments on human subjects. One day, after surviving by circumstance for 15 years on a deserted Falkland island, with his daughter along with two of his cross-species creations, the scientist executes an elaborate plan to turn himself in to authorities. Has his line dividing good and evil changed place?
… Prospero’s Island offer(s) many pleasures…
Such is the nut of the new opera by librettist Claudia Stevens and composer Alan Shearer, presented in a single performance at the Herbst Theater on March 25. Its shell is Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the many parallel details of which may delight, amuse, distract, and annoy aficionados of the Bard.
Those unacquainted with the play may be confused at times, but are perhaps better off. On its own terms, the new work offers us a qualified redemption for humanity’s past evils. As we meet him on the day of his plan, the Nazi Prospero is loved by his daughter, respected by his human/starling Ariel, worshipped as Leader by modified, speaking penguins (one of whom has had fingers grafted on so it can play a violin), and reviled by Caliban, a sport that is half sea squirt.
Prospero (Andrew Dwan) and his short-wave radio/TV-remote-like device. Photos courtesy Herbst Theater.
Prospero exercises unlikely but supreme power via psychology, a short-wave radio, and a TV-remote-like device that can incapacitate from a distance. Using the remote, he downs an aircraft carrying four special agents he already knew were coming to arrest him (kudos to Jeremy Knight’s video projections here). Prospero then hopes that one of the agents will fall in love with and marry his daughter Miranda.
His plan works out to perfection, except that Miranda, learning of her father’s crimes, cannot “bestow quality of mercy” on him, saying “It is not mine to bestow.” And Ariel reminds him, “There must be truth for all to hear, … all to bear.”
In this production by InTandem and Ninth Planet, Prospero’s Island offered many pleasures. Shearer’s music diligently followed the plot twists in semi-modernist style, occasionally bursting into references to Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Cole Porter, folk dance, bebop, and Elvis. While his own melodies might elude first-time listeners, Shearer’s highly varied and transparent chamber orchestration, superbly realized by Nathaniel Berman and his players, was a treasure chest of invention.
Members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus were irresistible as chirping penguins. Rubber-limbed Bradley Kynard was a delight as a grumpy Caliban in a fabulous sea-squirt costume by Joy Graham Korst.
Members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus at work at Herbst Theater. Photos courtesy Herbst Theater.
Shawnette Sulker (Ariel) and Amy Foote (Miranda) were in excellent voice. The four special agents, Sergio Gonzalez, Julia Hathaway, Angela Jarosz, and Michael Mendelsohn, all in fine form, rounded out the cast, all under the wise direction of Philip Lowery.
Andrew Dwan’s rich bass-baritone would have well served the god-like Prospero of Shakespeare. In Stevens’ and Shearer’s reimagining, however, he is having his last day as a free man, and is reverting to the nerdy nobody that he would have been without Hitler’s help—as symbolized by the dingy khakis and sweater vest he wears and his relatively static stage actions.
This concept matches Hanna Arendt’s conclusion regarding Adolf Eichmann, about the “banality” of evil. But does banality belong in opera to a towering character, Shakespeare’s Prospero, one that has impressed itself on the history of the arts for 400 years?
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Gary Graves new play sends up both theater and politics where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Niccolo Machiavelli is commonly known as the cynical and amoral philosopher of politics from his signature work, “The Prince” (Il Principe). Who would guess that Machiavelli, living the good life as Secretary in the Medici government for many years, would be exiled and forced into writing saucy comedies to eke out his living?
… taps every production’s nightmare…
Mondragola (Mandrake) takes its name from a farce Machiavelli wrote in exile, along with “The Prince”, while hoping to return to the Medicis’ good graces and the sustenance of government life. On opening, Machiavelli, handsomely played by Rudy Guerrero, describes how critical this play performance is to his future career. He hopes that the Cardinal who will be in attendance and loves comedies, will be so impressed that he will commission him to write a history of Florence, but his actors have fled with the production money, and it’s eight hours to showtime!
(l to r): Battista (Edwin Jacobs) and Zenobia (Monique Crawford) agree to perform in Niccolo Machiavelli’s silly comedy. –At TheaterWorks
In desperation, he cajoles his gangster producers, Battista and Luigi, into covering as actors, along with the revolutionary Zenobia, girlfriend to Battista. This works as the joke of “taking actors off the street” almost literally. As the drama “to pull the drama off” continues, another drama—of revolution and murder—is organized behind Machiavelli’s back. As he tries frantically to get the actors to learn their lines and rehearse, we discover the printed scripts have only each separate actor’s lines. Without cues, they must memorize without context. And since they are non-actors, they make up their own words, to the fury of the playwright.
Mondragola taps every production’s nightmare, and giving more of the story would be a spoiler. But a fine cast of individuals brings out individual personalities. Edwin Jacobs as Battista is a slick hoodlum and secret revolutionary who pulls off his many faces of bravado and bewilderment with finesse. Monique Crawford is imperious as a committed political rebel and activist, while Steve Ortiz, as Luigi, the crazed, crazy and hilarious thug/sidekick can talk his way out of anything.
Florence, 1522. Fifty years before Shakespeare: Niccolo Machiavelli, author of “The Prince” – the infamous “handbook for tyrants”- has returned to perform his silly comedy “Mondragola” for the Cardinal de’ Medici.
The four actors address all three wings of the “in the round” arena stage with great skill and breathless pace thanks to Jan Zvaifler’s direction. It all made sense and played to every part of the house. A special treat of this production is Gregory Sharpen’s sound design, which expands this trim conceit of four backstage actors to Machiavelli’s actual play going on outside.
The feast in Mondragola is historical, theatrical, political and comedic. There is also a large dose of irony at the play’s end, with each actor finding a new end or a new beginning, depending on the circumstances. Recommended for those who like a big meal served in a short space of 65 minutes.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Mondragola
Written by
Gary Graves
Directed by
Jan Zvaifler
Producing Company
Central Works
Production Dates
Thru Apr 16th
Production Address
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Website
CentralWorks.org
Telephone
(510) 558 -1381
Tickets
$35 - $40
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.5/5
Performance
5/5
Script
5/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
YES!
Other Voices…
"Playwright Gary Graves has taken facts about Machiavelli and added his own creative twist in a fascinating play..."
East Bay Times
"...history’s most famous political strategist...finds himself a pawn in someone else’s gambit. But some tricksters don’t know about Machiavelli’s past life..."
David and Goliath. Good versus evil. The haves and the have-nots. There’s an age-old battle being waged behind closed doors in patent leather-adorned offices across America, and it’s a war the working class has been losing for decades. Left Edge Theatre’s production of Dry Powder grants audiences an insider’s view of the greedy backroom deals chiseling away at the American Dream. Experience the dramedy and allure of high finance up close at The California through March 26th.
The show opens on suit-clad Rick (Mike Schaeffer), president of a private equity firm in peril, furiously flipping through his phone to the soundtrack of angry protestors crying out in the distance. It’s not a great day at the office. As luck would have it, throwing a lavish engagement party on the same day you’ve announced massive layoffs at a business you’ve bought out is not the most popular move. In fact, it’s an outright PR nightmare, threatening to scare away all the firm’s key investors. (Was the elephant too much?)
Photos by Eric Chazankin
Enter Seth (Michael Girts) to the rescue. He’s been in conversations with Jeff (Mark Bradbury), the affable CEO of a struggling family-owned luggage manufacturer willing to sell at a price Rick can’t resist, so long as the company’s values and employees are protected. What’s more, Seth asserts, is it’s the perfect opportunity to redeem the firm’s image by investing in the growth of an all-American company. They can do the right thing, he argues, and still turn a sizable profit.
But Seth’s unscrupulous colleague Jenny (Gillian Eichenberger) is not impressed. Her analysts have crunched the numbers, and a slightly higher profit can be made if they strip and liquidate the company or lay workers off and move production overseas.
Cast of “Dry Powder” at work. Photos by Eric Chazankin
She’s not concerned with betraying Jeff’s trust or earning more bad press, insisting the backlash will soon blow over. “Of course they’re protesting. That’s what unemployed people do,” she sneers. The bottom line is all that matters in this game.
…High-stakes ethical and strategic dilemmas loom large as risks are assessed and negotiations begin…
Under Jenny Hollingworth’s direction, Dry Powder is more drama than comedy, though Eichenberg’s Jenny earns a good amount of laughs with her wide-eyed indignation and ice-cold, quick-fire jabs. She’s the perfect caricature of sociopathic greed, counterbalanced effectively by Girts’s Seth, who appears to be the only member of the firm who may possess a conscience. Their near-constant sniping provides much of the entertainment, and helps redeem a rather dense script that’s heavily steeped in mind-numbing business speak.
Schaeffer’s slick, quick-tempered Rick is – pun intended – right on the money, equal parts fire and serpentine charm. His presence on stage is commanding and his energy unwavering. It’s easy to forget that he is, indeed, acting. On the other side of the coin, Bradbury’s Jeff is endearingly earnest and likable, the seeming proverbial lamb being fed to the wolves on Wall Street.
Photos by Eric Chazankin.
It’s a commendable ensemble effort from a well-balanced cast, who are each as solid in their scenes together as they are in their individual roles. Despite a few quickly-recovered stumblings over lines and minor audio level mishaps, it’s a well polished production, with effective lighting (April George) and smartly chosen wardrobe (Tracy Hinman). A small but readily visible tattoo on a cast-member’s foot felt out of keeping with the character, and might have been easily covered.
As prior patrons may know, Left Edge Theatre relocated last fall from their humble, 72-seat space at the Luther Burbank Center to a larger downtown venue. Though The California is an upgrade in manifold ways – among them more space, a full bar, and food available for purchase from trendy local restaurants – it comes at the expense of the intimacy afforded by the smaller, better insulated venue. Opening night’s performance was disturbed by booming bass from a neighboring business. Fortunately, the actors were all miked and audible, and the distraction became easier to ignore as the show went on.
Hollingworth’s decision to stage this production in the round restores some of the intimacy lost in the larger space by bringing audiences closer to the action. Unfortunately, this often comes at the expense of visibility, with uncomfortably long periods of time spent staring at some of the actors’ backs and missing out on their facial expressions. It’s still largely effective, but the staging didn’t entirely work for this reviewer.
Dry Powder is a cleverly written and scathing exposé of truths already known, but it’s a journey worth taking all the same. This is especially so at Left Edge, thanks to a production that is crisply paced, impeccably cast, and superbly acted all around.
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
When I returned home from the SF Playhouse and their energetic, almost frenetic production of Clue, I immediately ransacked my closet and found (ta da!) my own Parker Brothers original version of the game.
I doubt there is anyone who has not played this fun and inventive game sometime in their life. With over 350 scenarios, it’s been translated into numerous other languages.
Among the suspects, we all had favorites—for me, usually Miss Scarlet or Professor Plum. Its popularity engendered a 1985 film starring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan and Christopher Lloyd. A Broadway musical followed in 1997, then a Broadway play in 2018, revised in 2022 with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price
All six of our suspects are here: Miss Scarlet (a ravishing Courtney Walsh), Colonel Mustard (a perfectly befuddled Michael Ray Wisely), Professor Plum (a leering Michael Gene Sullivan), Mr. Green (a primly proper Greg Ayers), Mrs. White (a diabolical Rene Rogoff) and finally Mrs. Peacock (an inspired piece of casting with the versatile Stacy Ross).
Boddy Manor’s guests share their suspicions about the murders that keep happening in SF Playhouse’s “Clue,” performing March 9 – April 22. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Add a butler (Dorian Lockett), a French maid (Margherita Ventura), a Mr. Body, a tapping messenger girl, and a police captain (Will Springhorn Jr.) with more accents than all the others put together, plus his cohorts, and you have hilarity in the making.
All six suspects are being blackmailed for their secrets and have received invitations to a very private dinner party without knowing one another. The banquet begins, and as in Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, the bodies pile up.
There’s one more big star: designer Heather Kenyon’s amazing set. This masterpiece of invention is in itself a suspect, and a hiding place that brings to us every room and hallway from the game. Suddenly we are in the numerous rooms and lounges where the action enfolds. Bravo Ms. Kenyon!
Director Susi Damilano has a blast putting this cast of characters into gyrating and tip-toeing terpsichorean romps of entrances and exits across the stage in beams and bars from Derek Duarte’s lights.
The occupants of Boddy Manor reveal a shocking twist! Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The last fifteen minutes are a roundelay of imagined possibilities as the suspects argue which was the real way the story and murders progressed.
Once you have seen the play, I urge you to see the film, available on Netflix. You’ll recognize the conceit drummed exhaustingly at us. By the end a galloping “Whew!” is sparked in the audience.
Go and have a laughingly good time at the Playhouse. After ninety minutes you’re on your way home—maybe to play the game yourself!
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Clue
Written by
Sandy Rustin.
With additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price,
"... the show is absolutely fun; light and silly and full of entertaining moments."
www.broadwayworld.com/
"At S.F. Playhouse’s ‘Clue,’ everyone’s guilty — of having a good time"
San Francisco Chronicle
"...this is a drop-dead, bonafide beauty of a black comedy. It’s guaranteed to produce thrills, chills, goosebumps and uncontrollable laughter for the entire 90 minutes of its uninterrupted mayhem."
Chicago Theatre Review
"...the show is a very fun, very silly 1950s-set whodunit..."
Fans of Jane Austen flocked to opening weekend of Pride and Prejudice, The Musical at Ross Valley Players’ Barn Theatre atop the Marin Art and Garden Center. Some may have entered skeptical that music could add to the beloved story of the Bennet family, but they departed beaming with delight. The show runs through April 16.
Award-winning composer/lyricist Rita Abrams created seventeen songs, adding shine and mirth to the tale of five eligible daughters, their suitors, and one manipulative mama. Abrams worked with Josie Brown’s book adaptation. Together they brought out subtle comedy—and fun—without altering the underlying plot of societal caste and bias.
The entire cast opens singing the sunny “Welcome to Our Neighborhood” with gusto. Harmonies with nimble lyrics abound; the songs appropriately appear between spoken dialog. The four-part “Changing World” is so poignantly melodic it makes one want to hold one’s breath.
Amy Dietz as Jane Bennet; Justin Hernandez as Charles Bingley in “Pride & Prejudice: The Musical”
Abrams took years to create the music, and it was worth the wait. Love songs, How-Dare-He! songs, frustration songs, happiness songs – it’s all here. And so very clever! When Mrs. Bennet sings “I have five daughters who are Venuses, in search of …” the audience erupts with laughter at the unspoken word.
Veteran director Phoebe Moyer worked with a large cast of nineteen actors, originally auditioned prior to the pandemic. Three years later, Moyer notes “It has been a long journey with many adjustments…we have become quite a family.”
“The entire cast moves as a well-oiled machine in this nearly three-hour production.”
The entire cast moves as a well-oiled machine in this nearly three-hour production. They sing, they dance, and many standouts shine with comedic talents, including Jill Wagoner commanding the stage as Mrs. Bennett and Geoffrey Colton as her beleaguered husband. Charles Evans also steals laughs as Mr. Collins, who unsuccessfully tries to woo a bride.
Evan Held as Mr. Darcy at RVP.
Handsome and lean Evan Held is perfectly cast as the taciturn and reserved Mr. Darcy, a magnet drawn to lovely and prideful Elizabeth Bennet (Lily Jackson, perfectly cast). Other actors superbly portray proper high-born characters, including Elenor Irene Paul as Caroline Bingley, with an extended cameo by Alexis Lane Jensen as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Pride and Prejudice, The Musical can be proud of the backstage production team bringing success to this ambitious show. Stage hands drew applause even in the semi-darkness with choreographed moves during set changes. Musical directors Abrams and Jack Prendergast tapped Wayne Green for orchestrations and Bruce Vieira for sound design. Rick Banghart sat on the side, watching carefully to deliver music tracks precisely when the actors began singing. He didn’t miss a cue!
Since the story’s setting is Hertfordshire, England in the early 1800’s, appropriate period garb was needed. Adriana Gutierrez ably delivered lovely dresses and costumes, assisted by Michael A. Berg who designed the complicated wigs. Their contributions transported the show back to that aristocratic decade. One odd aspect was the stage set: several ionic columns and a Greek-inspired pediment, an unusual backdrop for an English location.
More than six years in development, this new production of Pride and Prejudice, the Musical is filled with period costumes, talented actors, and excellent music. It’s a feel-good delight, and with RVP’s accessible pricing policy, an entertainment bargain.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Pride & Prejudice: The Musical
Written by
Jane Austen adapted by Josie Brown
Directed by
Phoebe Moyer
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru April 16th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Website
www.rossvalleyplayers.com
Telephone
415-456-9555 ext. 1
Tickets
$15-$35
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.5/5
Performance
4.5/5
Script
4.5/5
Stagecraft
4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES!
Other Voices…
"...what could be better for a concert production than to leave its audience craving more?"
www.stagebuddy.com
"...The story is well-known and irresistible, somewhat similar to 'Downton Abbey'..."
www.theaterpizzazz.com
"Emmy award winning songwriter Rita Abrams has managed to bring her considerable powers to Austen's Pride and Prejudice in a way that brings that classic work alive, and keeps us thoroughly engaged... The songs are a triumph of inventiveness and skill."
Topher Payne’s 2014 production Perfect Arrangement seems horribly out of date even though written a scant nine years ago. That’s why it’s surprising that Foster City’s Hillbarn Theatre and director Tyler Christie decided to make it part of the 2022-23 season.
Although it’s played mostly for laughs – as in I Love Lucy laughs – it’s really about a very difficult time in U.S. history.
It’s set in the 1950s at a time when Joe McCarthy was holding congressional hearings to root out communists holding government positions, and later expanded to uncover homosexuals who might also work for the government.
…D’Angelo Reyes’ scenic design is a highlight…
Two of the four lead characters (Brad Satterwhite as Bob Martingale and Leslie Waggoner as Norma Baxter) both work for a government department that will soon be assigned to go after such security risks. The irony is that Bob and his real-life partner, mild-mannered Jim Baxter (Alex Rodriguez) as well as Norma’s flighty real-life partner Millie Martindale (Amanda Farbstein) reached an interesting agreement four years earlier: The foursome live “next door” to each other so that it appears as if they are all good friends and neighbors.
Left to right: Norma (Leslie Waggoner), Millie (Amanda Farbstein), Jim (Alex Rodriguez), and Bob (Brad Satterwhite). Photo by Tracy Martin.
In reality, they go into an obviously symbolic closet full of clothes at night so that they can spend their evenings with their same-sex partners.
Much of the humor comes from people constantly showing up at Millie and Norma’s apartment when one of the men is there – and one of the women isn’t. Then it’s up to the remaining woman to explain where her husband is – or why her female friend is there instead.
(L-R) Millie (Amanda Rose Farbstein) chats on the phone while Norma (Leslie Waggoner) listens in. Photo credit: Tracy Martin.
The play starts out during a cocktail party, supposedly put on by Millie and Bob, attended by Bob’s boss, Ted Sunderson (John Mannion) and his ultra-rich, ultra-snobbish wife Kitty (Erica Wyman).
Time-out right here: Does anyone notice that Millie brings in gigantic cocktails festooned with little umbrellas, hands them out to the partygoers, and then, after taking one sip of their drinks, the Sundersons leave?
Faux paux 2: Millie collects everyone’s drinks and takes them back into her kitchen. What kind of party is this???
Christie’s direction is anything but subtle. Wyman’s wealthy Kitty seems to enjoy lording it over the other women. She invites Norma to go to the opera with her, which gives costume designer Bethany Deal an opportunity to come up with some lovely long gowns and mink stoles.
Photo: Tracy Martin.
D’Angelo Reyes’ scenic design is a highlight. The expansive stage looks exactly what you’d expect of a large living room/dining room from the 1950s complete with a stone fireplace, a wall-mounted clock and comfy couch.
Another rather weird stage direction happens at the play’s end. One at a time, all four of the main characters decide to stop hiding their true identities, even though it means leaving their loving partners. One by one they walk to the center front of the stage, stare off into space a moment, walk two steps down to audience level, look left and walk off, leaving the audience wondering exactly what that means and what happens to them after that.
FINAL NOTE: ALERT! For the remainder of the run of Perfect Arrangement, the role of Bob will be played by Alex Kirschner due to the fact that Brad Satterwhite broke his leg! and is unable to continue performing. Get better soon Brad!
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
RENT
Written by
Jonathan Larson
Directed by
Reed Flores
Producing Company
Hillbarn Theatre
Production Dates
Thru Feb 25th
Production Address
1285 E Hillsdale Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404
Website
www.hillbarntheatre.org
Telephone
(659) 349-6411
Tickets
$32-$60
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.75/5
Performance
4.75/5
Script
4.5/5
Stagecraft
4.75/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
YES!
Other voices…
"[A] clever canapé of a comedy... Mr. Payne is a deft and witty writer."
The New York Times
“As hiding gets harder, pitch-perfect comedy ensues: slamming doors, strange disguises, preposterous excuses [….] Eventually, the four must decide whether face-saving domestic lies are worth it, or whether ostracism beats living in fear. In our own era of surveillance and paranoia, their mid-century problems don’t feel so far away.”
The New Yorker
"This is truly what a play should be. Thought-provoking, but with loads of laughs, this terrific show strikes the perfect balance between harsh social criticism and comedy."
Triangle Arts & Entertainment
"The best thing about Topher Payne’s fabulous "Perfect Arrangement" is its pitch-perfect capture of the 1950s comic voice, and its application to the dreadfully serious drama."
DC Theatre Scene
"Introduces audiences to a piece of theatre where tragedy and farce wrap around each other like strands of DNA. It's two distinct plays telling the same hilarious and heartbreaking story... "Perfect Arrangement" drags history out of the closet."
Memphis Flyer
"At a time when discrimination and witch hunts are increasingly becoming the norm again, Theatrical Outfit’s new Perfect Arrangement feels like a lot more than just snappy entertainment — it’s mandatory, topical viewing, as well as a glimpse back at a sad moment in history."
You know you’re in for a story about the plight of Southern Black people when you take your seat in the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto for Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer and see signs all over the theater walls with slogans like “Folks died so you could vote,” “We demand the right to vote,” and “Pass the Civil Rights Bill.”
Then a stubby woman strides down one of the theater’s aisles, gallops up the steps pronouncing her presence and begins a 66-minute dialogue – interrupted only a few times by a line or two from one of the men in the three-person musical orchestra – and by the glorious 1960s gospel songs she sings.
…“To hope is to vote!” — activist/civil rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer…
The magnificent Greta Oglesby immerses herself in the role of civil rights advocate Fannie Lou Hamer who was a simple 44-year-old sharecropper in Louisville, Mississippi when she took on that mantel after learning that President Lyndon B. Johnson was trying to get Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act.
One day Fannie and seventeen others went to the county courthouse to register to vote, but just about everyone else in her town had different ideas. The would-be registrants never even got in the door. Thinking back on it, Fannie declares “We were only trying to register! Imagine if we were actually trying to vote!!”
TheatreWorks artistic director Tim Bond gives Oglesby all the space she needs to exhibit the emotions – from joy to pain and agony – that created the firebrand Fannie became.
One of the most difficult scenes to watch is Fannie telling what happened to her when she was thrown into jail – first alone, but then put in with four male prisoners, both black and white. Listening as she describes being sodomized by one, then another, and another and another, can make your blood boil. Such experiences only made Fannie more resolved than ever that she and “her kind” deserved to both be equal and to have the right to vote.
When Oglesby belts out her gospel songs, she makes the audience feel they are in her church, complete with a sporadic “hallelujah” from the men who add so much, both with their voices and their fine instrumentation—music director Morgan E, Stevenson on keyboards and harmonica, Spencer Guitar on guitars, and Leonard Maddox Jr. on drums.
At one point Fannie urges the audience to join her in a rousing rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.” The audience sings first altogether, then she divides the crowd and has half sing, then the other half. By then she has everyone in her pocket, stomping their feet and singing out as if in a Southern church gospel service.
Photo Credit: Kevin Berne
Aided by Miko S. Simmons’ projections, scenic designer Andrea Bechert does a masterful job of creating a set that switches from scenes of marches and demonstrations to intimate times in Fannie’s living room. Ronnie Rafael Alcaraz’s lighting adds another dimension to many scenes as does Gregory Robinson’s sound.
Yet this reviewer found something wanting in playwright Cheryl L. West’s scant (one hour, six minutes) script. At one point Oglesby marched off the stage and a slide came up telling the audience that Fannie Lou died of heart failure in 1977, a few months shy of her 60th birthday. Then Oglesby came out to take a bow. The ending is so abrupt – and the play itself so short! – that this reviewer assumed it was an intermission.
Clearly, this is a production with a lot of heart. What it lacks is a clear view of when it needs to stop ticking.
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Aisle Seat ExecutiveReviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Written by
Cheryl L. West
Directed by
Tim Bond
Producing Company
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Production Dates
Thru Apr 2nd, 2023
Production Address
Lucie Stern Theater
1305 Middlefield Road Palo Alto, CA
Website
www.theatreworks.org
Telephone
(877) 662-8978
Tickets
$30- $90
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4/5
Performance
4/5
Script
3/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
YES!
Other Voices…
"Inspired by her life story and filled with her music, FANNIE is a hopeful rallying cry that honors the spirit of a true revolutionary."
Actors Theatre of Louisville
[the play is] "...welcoming to all people and highly entertaining. For those who know little about Hamer’s life, there is a willingness to inform. For those that do, there’s an impulse to celebrate the achievements of what turned out to be an extraordinary American life..."
Chicago Tribune
..."rich in memorable vignettes, just as the song-laden show abounds in energy, wit and aspiration."
Chicago On the Aisle
"...As Hamer ruminates on the problems of the 1960s — police brutality, victim blaming, gentrification, the education gap and voter suppression, among them — the unsettling parallels to life in 2020's deepen. Even before the play evokes Harriet Tubman and John Lewis, the message crystallizes: If these heroes fought for what’s right in the face of unspeakable turmoil and trauma, what’s your excuse for apathy?"
America’s theater community is blessed to have some of the USA’s best critics and writers in the business. For example, our ASR critics have written for local, regional, and national theater publications!
The writing, critiques, and opinions of theater pros outside of the Bay Area are what I believe constitute “Other Voices” in the theater. With that in mind, I’ve decided that from now on, ASR will add some of those voices to a table at the end of as many reviews as practicable, much like this table of “Other Voices” for the play Fannie:
"Inspired by her life story and filled with her music, FANNIE is a hopeful rallying cry that honors the spirit of a true revolutionary."
Actors Theatre of Louisville
[the play is] "...welcoming to all people and highly entertaining. For those who know little about Hamer’s life, there is a willingness to inform. For those that do, there’s an impulse to celebrate the achievements of what turned out to be an extraordinary American life..."
Chicago Tribune
..."rich in memorable vignettes, just as the song-laden show abounds in energy, wit and aspiration."
Chicago On the Aisle
"...As Hamer ruminates on the problems of the 1960s — police brutality, victim blaming, gentrification, the education gap and voter suppression, among them — the unsettling parallels to life in 2020's deepen. Even before the play evokes Harriet Tubman and John Lewis, the message crystallizes: If these heroes fought for what’s right in the face of unspeakable turmoil and trauma, what’s your excuse for apathy?"
Washington Post
I’m doing this for a few reasons:
First, now more than ever before, there is much competition for the mind of American entertainment-minded citizens: network television, cable television, Netflix, Disney, HBO, Apple TV, and on and on.
Even movie houses are changing their pricing model to one that, in certain metro areas, might charitably be described as predatory.
And then there’s the cost of theater tickets (more on that in a moment.)
Net-net: it can be challenging to sort out what’s (quite literally) worth watching and what should be passed on.
And returning to the issue of the cost of theater tickets, this point proves itself. Eventually, theater owners will realize there are limits to what folks will pay to see a play at a “Big Theater” or the community theater down the street. (In 2023, the average price of a ticket to a Broadway show is $189!)
Therefore, I believe adding additional reference material in the form of comments/extracts from critics outside the Bay Area has value to ASR’s readers.
Now some folks might ask if a version of, The Lion in Winter might be “different” at, say, Pittsburg Community Theater vs. the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and the answer is “Yes, to be sure. Lights, props, type of stage, quality of actors, Equity vs. local actors, director’s interpretation of the play, even the quality of the audience seats — all these things and more mean two productions of the same show will be different. No question.”
But — generally speaking — the script is 99% the same.
Does this mean that if our “Other Voices” table authors say a given play is “amazing,” you will find it similar? No, to be honest, you may well hate it. Or love it. (The theater is a worthy home for the phrase, “Your mileage may vary.”)
But Mom and Dad can sleep better knowing that thumbs up or down, they went to see a play (and too often spending over $100 for the honor) knowing what our critics and other theater professionals think about the script.
Now all this additional writing, opinions, criticism, and input should not significantly impact your experience watching a play. What makes me say that?
Because I believe an informed audience is a better audience. Better at understanding a play’s plot(s), motivations, and themes. Better able to appreciate an actor’s interpretation of a role. Even better able to enjoy the technical skills at work in the theater.
Therefore I hope you’ll find value in these additional “Other Voices.” Thanks for your time and attention and for reading Aisle Seat Review.
San Francisco’s gorgeous Legion of Honor Museum is hosting a stunning exhibition of American painter John Singer Sargent ((1856-1925).
Sargent is recognized as the great portrait painter of his generation. His work exemplifies the lap of luxury elite of the Edwardian era. His vast portraiture work includes Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Claude Monet, actress Ellen Terry, and John D. Rockefeller.
John Singer Sargent. Photo: Wikipedia.
Sargent’s admiration for the great Spanish painters Goya, Velazquez and El Greco is evident in his ever changing early styles as he came into his own as an artist. Sargent’s oeuvre consisted of over 900 oils, some 2,000 exquisite watercolors and numerous sketches and studies and never before presented photographs, many seen here at this exhibit.
John Singer Sargent, “Majorcan Fisherman,” 1908, oil on canvas.
Although born of American parents, he spent the majority of his life in Europe. His travels took him to Venice, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, Florida, and Spain, the concentration of this exhibition. Sargent visited Spain seven times from 1879-1912. His detailed breadth of work brings to life these excursions and his fascination with Spanish culture.
“Prepare to be flabbergasted!” — The Washington Post
Organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the rare exhibition is showcased in this sole West Coast stop.
John Singer Sargent, La Carmencita, ca. 1890
To view Sargent’s brush strokes of the grand dancer Carmencita (1890) is in itself reason enough to arrange a trip. It is as if the dresses swirl into our eyes with delicate precision. One can feel her dancing for us. His vast collection of male nudes and sailors sealed his reputation as a provocateur and simultaneously, a not-so-open homosexual.
What fascinates the viewer are the eyes of his subjects and our own imagination as they look directly at us – alluring, inviting…questioning?
This exhibition at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum runs through May 14, 2023, offering a vast look at one of America’s most prodigious artists. While there, visit Gallery 7 and view the recent acquisition of the painting by Canaletto, Venice, the Grand Canal looking east with Santa Maria della Salute. This beautiful work hung in Gordon and Ann Getty’s house before the vast Getty collection was auctioned off, and was gifted to the museum by Diane “Dede” Wilsey.
Venice, the Grand Canal Looking East towards the Bacino. By Canaletto.
I was speaking recently with renowned sculptor Roger Arvid Anderson about the museums here in San Francisco. He said that we in San Francisco are fortunate to have such varieties of touring shows and exhibitions which give us access to the finest, whether it is Tut or Ansel Adams.
Or John Singer Sargent. Don’t miss it!
Event: John Singer Sargent at the Legion of Honor Museum
Address: 100 34th Street (at Clement) San Francisco, 94121.
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9:30-5:15 (Dark Monday.)
Tickets: Adults $15.00, Seniors (65+) $12.00, Students $6.00, Members free.
Website: Web@famsf.org
Information: (415) 750-3600
Extras: On-site Café open until 3:30.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Robert Caro is a powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. He’s 87.
Robert Gottlieb is a powerful book editor. He’s 91.
Put ‘em together and they’ll fight with fervor over semi-colons (and, of course, much larger issues.)
Put ‘em together and they’ll work in tandem for half a century and produce Caro’s multi-book bio about Lyndon B. Johnson’s power (and desperation.)
Biographer Robert Caro (left) and editor Robert Gottlieb have become friends after squabbling over Caro’s books for 50 years. Photo by Claudia Raschke, courtesy Wild Surmise Productions, LLC, and Sony Pictures
Now the two bespectacled Bobs are featured in a new Sony Pictures documentary, Turn Every Page, directed by Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie. It, too, is powerful. The film starts with a close-up of the dual titans of literature poring over a manuscript; it ends with them walking down hallways in search of “real” pencils, the yellow kind with erasers at their ends.
…if you’re…interested in literature, books, writing, or editing, this doc must be on your “must see” list…
In between, Gottlieb says he knew after reading merely 15 pages of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, the first Caro book he edited, that the bio was “going to be a masterpiece.” He notes, too, that Caro “is now working on Volume 5 of the three-volume biography” of Johnson. Caro, who takes about seven years to research and write a book, says he doesn’t “think anything was harder” than his first LBJ volume, and recalls the original million words of the Moses bio and the 350,000-word cuts necessary for the spine to carry the book’s weight.
Both admit to long-standing difficulty with the other. Says Gottlieb, “It’s not that I was trying to tear his bleeding heart out of his chest.”
The years have softened them, though. And although they don’t hang like buddies, the documentary tells of multiple Caro and Gottlieb intersections: Both are New York City Jews. Both had troubled childhoods. Both are workaholics.
And both clearly want to get everything right (and complete.)
Both are also quirky.
Caro, who was an investigative reporter for Newsweek before he turned to writing books, takes the carbon copies from his Smith Corona electric typewriter and squeezes them into a small space over his refrigerator; Gottlieb, who was editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and The New Yorker, collects what he calls “love objects,” hundreds of plastic women’s pocketbooks.
Caro (left) and Gottlieb promote Caro’s first book. Photo by Martha Kaplan, courtesy Wild Surmise Productions, LLC, and Sony Pictures
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb isn’t, however, just talking heads of the two. It features, in addition to several clips of LBJ (emphasizing civil rights and “equal opportunity”), a slightly bedraggled Colin Farrell reading from a Caro book; an interview with Bill Clinton; and lots of flashing covers of books Gottlieb edited (Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 as well as volumes by Clinton, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Nora Ephron, and John le Carré.)
Though she emphasizes the literary collaboration, Lizzie also focuses on the personal. Her father, for example, talks about his mom making him “stand outside for an hour every day” just to get some air, because he preferred staying inside buried in books; Caro opens up about walking along the street, finding every other person holding some sort of device, and feeling “out of touch” with modern life.
Caro’s series portrays LBJ’s duality — the visionary reformer and the conniving opportunist (who was elected to the U.S. Senate by fewer than 90 votes “cast a week after the election”.) Using the technique of a novelist, he humanized him. And showed how power affects the powerless.
Absent from the documentary are the pair’s working conversations; Caro insisted the sound be turned off because “it’s kind of a private thing.”
Lizzie Gottlieb and Robert Caro enjoy the outdoors together. Photo by Mott Hupfel, courtesy Wild Surmise Productions, LLC, and Sony Pictures
Lizzie says the two are “in a tortoise-like race against time to finish their life’s work.” Gottlieb says he feels bad about being old because it means you’re heading “faster and faster toward not being at all.”
Before the doc ends, Gottlieb praises his friend for being “a word painter — he paints with words.”
There are numerous take-aways from Turn Every Page, many more than Caro likes semi-colons, Gottlieb doesn’t. So, if you’re the least bit interested in literature, books, writing, or editing, this doc must be on your “must see” list.
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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/
Title
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry’s play A Raisin n the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. At the age of 29, she became the youngest American playwright to win the The New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play. It was nominated for four Tony awards. Five years later, Hansberry died of cancer.
Her subject was life in oppressive circumstances. The current production of Raisin at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. On designer Jared Sorenson’s intentionally claustrophobic set, the living-room of a cockroach-infested 1950s Southside Chicago apartment, three generations of an African-American family deal with racism, housing-discrimination and assimilation, while awaiting a $10,000 insurance settlement from the death of the family patriarch.
…family, love and forgiveness are more important than money…
For Mama, (KT Masala) it’s money to escape crushing poverty and move to a suburban home of their own–the American Dream. For her married son Walter (Terrance Smith) a discontented chauffeur, it’s a business of his own. For her daughter, bright high-schooler Beneatha (Amara Lawson-Chavanu) it’s to finance college and medical school, while she playfully holds-off suitors including a “fully-assimilated” black man named George (Mark Anthony) and Yoruban-Nigerian immigrant Joseph (Rodney Fierce).
Amra-LawsonChavanu (Beneatha Younger,) Terrance Smith (Walter Lee Younger) and Ash’Lee P. Lackey (Ruth Younger.) Photo by Eric Chazankin.
Walter’s long-suffering wife Ruth (Ash’Lee P. Lackey) and young son Travis (Bless Johnson) do their best to keep the peace.
Mama puts some of the money down on a new house, choosing an all-white neighborhood over a black one because it is cheaper, while Karl Lindner (Jeff Cote) a white representative of their intended neighborhood, makes an offer to buy them out, despite the family’s insistence that they are proud of who they are and will try to be good neighbors.
With the proviso that he bank $3,000 for Beneatha’s education, Mama gives the rest of the money, $6,500, to Walter, to buy a stake in a liquor store with his two streetwise pals, Willy and Bobo, What could possibly go wrong?
Terrance Smith (Walter Lee Younger,) Kai Nguyen (Travis Younger #2) and KT Masala (Lena Younger “Mama”). Photo by Eric Chazankin.
The New York Times called Raisin “the play that changed American theatre forever” and in recent years, publications such as The Independent and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.
The lesson learned from first-time director Leontyne Mbele-Mbong’s excellent 6th Street Playhouse production is that family, love and forgiveness are more important than money.
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Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
Production
Raisin in the Sun
Written by
Lorraine Hansberr
Directed by
Leontyne Mbele-Mbong
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru Mar 26th, 2023
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
There’s nothing like a relatively small theater to enable audiences to appreciate the wonder, the magic and the magnificence of Stephen Sondheim’s way with words.
That’s what’s in store for anyone lucky enough to get a ticket to the current Foothill Theatre Arts production of Into the Woods, running through March 19 under the capable direction of Milissa Carey.
Several powerful voices in this version of Woods greatly add to the overall experience. Caitlin Gjerdrum, in the pivotal role of the Witch, excels in both acting and singing.
(L-R) Alicia Teeter, James Schott, and Caitlin Gjerdrum in “Into The Woods”. Photo by David Allen.
Equally strong in the vocal department is James Schott as the Baker, Alicia Teeter as the Baker’s Wife and, as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, Michael Paul Hirsch brings those characters to life in new, interesting ways.
”…the magnificence of Stephen Sondheim’s way with words.”
Into the Woods first opened on Broadway in 1987 with Sondheim providing the music and lyrics and James Lapine, the book. It won three Tony Awards that year – for best score, best book and best actress.
The story primarily involves fairy tale characters from Jack and the Bean Stock, Little Red Ridinghood, Cinderella, and Rapunzel, with several others having lesser roles.
Characters galore! Jack’s Mother, Cinderella, Witch, Baker, Cinderella’s Prince, Florinda, Lucinda, Rapunzel’s Prince, Stepmother, Mysterious Man, Little Red, and Baker’s Wife at work in Foothill’s “Into The Woods”. Photo by David Allen.
Music and lyrics, of course, are key and here’s where Sondheim shines. The song “Into the Woods” is interwoven throughout the show, but there’s also the haunting “Last Midnight,” “Children Will Listen” and “No One is Alone.”
There are many lighter musical moments as well, including “Hello, Little Girl,” sung by the Wolf to Little Red Riding Hood,” “A Very Nice Prince,” “Agony,” and “It Takes Two.”
Carey’s production team is top-notch as well. Scenic designer Yusuke Soi had his work cut out for him, trying to fit this big musical onto the Lohman Theater stage. But he came through with flying colors, making a tree-filled woods, several homes, a bakery, Grandma’s house and a special giant tree all fit.
He even made the orchestra part of the woods. By putting them at the rear center of the stage, audience members get to watch Horsley conduct a top-notch seven-person orchestra play the score.
Soi also is responsible for the remarkable design and construction of the hapless cow, Milky White. Some productions have two people wear a cow costume to play this character, but Soi’s design is remarkably fluid. Kudos, too, to Mateo Urquidez, who easily manipulated the cow character.
In many ways, the story line involving the Baker and his wife very much wanting to have a baby is just an excuse for stringing together beautiful Sondheim songs. Just to cite two examples, read carefully and “listen” to his words, first in “Prologue Into the Woods”…
“Into the woods without regret, The choice is made, the task is set. Into the woods, but not forgetting why I’m on the journey.”
And then in the song “Children Will Listen”…
“Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen”
Both, amazing and classically Sondheim.
Costume designer Sharon Peng’s amazing talent at work. Photo by David Allen.
Costume designer Sharon Peng did an outstanding job of creating the colorful outfits that seemed right for each storybook character as well as the ordinary people in the town. Lighting is a key part of the show as well, and Pamila Grey didn’t disappoint.
Two other production staff deserve mention: What good are song lyrics if they can’t be heard? Sound designer Andy Heller makes sure that doesn’t happen. Finally, Kayson Kordestani’s choreography works beautifully on the small stage.
To sum up: A beautifully presented production that shouldn’t be missed.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Into The Woods
Book by / Music & Lyrics by
James Lapine / Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Milissa Carey
Producing Company
Foothill Music Theatre
Production Dates
Through March 19th
Production Address
Foothill College
12345 El Monte Rd.
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Never have I been so disappointed at Scarpia’s dying as I did during Livermore Opera’s production of Tosca in Act 2. Why? Because Aleksey Bogdanov’s portrayal of the lecherous 1800 Police Chief of Rome was so world class, I wanted to scream for a new version of the plot where he avoids the knife of Tosca (lovely-voiced Ann Toomey), and goes on in person to further evil deeds in Act 3.
(L-R) Ann Toomey and Aleskey Bogdanov in “Tosca”.
The Odesa-born Bogdanov immigrated to San Francisco in 1992, and has received many accolades since his debut with the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 2008. His Scarpia has been honed, not only in accuracy, clarity, and beauty of voice, but also in dramatic facial expression and gesture. Lesser Scarpias growl out their notes so much that many listeners don’t realize that Puccini gave the role real arias to sing. All of them were there for us to revel in, thanks to Mr. Bogdanov and Bruce Donnell’s stage direction. Facially, I must point out Bogdanov’s mastery of Scarpia-mouth, a fishy circle somehow combining both sneer and command. Hypnotic.
…an unforgettable evening reviving an operatic standard…
And there were blessings beyond the must see/hear Bogdanov. Alex Boyer’s always outstanding tenor graced the role of Tosca’s lover Cavaradossi. Bojan Knežević elicited vocal resonance, physicality and audience chuckles in his characterization of the Sacristan. Kirk Eichelberger conveyed forceful desperation as the escaped prisoner Angelotti. Lily MacDonald contributed a plaintive tinge to her offstage shepherd to open Act 3. Susan Memmott Allred’s costume designs were historically appropriate, and especially lavish for Tosca and Scarpia.
(L-R) Alex Boyer and Ann Toomey in “Tosca”.
Jean-François Revon’s set designs for the first two acts were another highlight, with video mapping and effects by Frédéric Boulay. There was an almost subterranean take on the dark arches of the Church of Sant’Andreadella Valle veering off at an odd angle in Act 1, and a surprise computer manipulation of projected curtains to shut off Tosca’s offstage cantata in Act 2. The set for Act 3 seemed a bit too Spartan, with no cell for Cavaradossi. That, coupled with a lack of action on the part of the guards, made the opening of the act seem too long.
Finally, there was conductor Alex Katsman’s careful handling of the chamber orchestra and chorus, including the excellent Cantabella Children’s Chorus. I only wish he had added a little more oomph to accents in the ominous, chaconne-like accompaniment at the end of Act 2 while Tosca ponders her future and discovers the murder weapon.
“Tosca” cast at work.
Otherwise, he and all the Livermore Opera artists put together an unforgettable evening reviving an operatic standard. Even if Scarpia had to die, Bogdanov, receiving a vociferous standing ovation at the end of his act, did get to go home early to prepare more evil juice for his Sunday matinee.
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Jeff Dunn is ASR’s Classical Music Section Editor. A retired educator and project manager, he’s been writing music and theater reviews for Bay Area and national journals since 1995. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the National Association of Composers, USA. His musical Castle Happy (co-author John Freed), about Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst, received a festival production at the Altarena Theater in 2017. His opera Finding Medusa, with librettist Madeline Puccioni, was completed in January 2023. Jeff has won prizes for his photography, and is also a judge for the Northern California Council of Camera Clubs.
Production
Tosca
Composer
Giacomo Puccini
Librettist
Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica
Director
Bruce Donnell
Producing Company
Livermore Opera
Production Dates
March 4, 5, 11, 12, 2023
Production Address
The Bankhead Theater
2400 First St, Livermore, CA 94551
On the Burbank Studio Theatre stage through March 12th, Santa Rosa Junior College kicks off their spring season with a show that is equal parts funny, heartbreaking, and horrific. A 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, Gloria is both a scathing satire of cutthroat corporate culture and a chilling meditation on the human cost of the all-American rat race. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins holds a magnifying glass to contemporary capitalism and unfeeling ambition with an incisive script both worrying and witty.
Braskamp and Bies. Photo by Thomas Chown Photography.
Set in the pre-Covid corporate offices of a major big-city magazine, Gloria is, at face value, a comic exploration of toxic workplace dynamics. But something darker lurks beneath the surface. It opens with office gossip about a coworker’s poorly-attended housewarming party, while wads of cash are repeatedly shoved at the office intern to facilitate arbitrary trips to the vending machine. But when another ordinary day at the office turns out to be anything but, who will get the story, and will they tell it responsibly?
Musser as Lorin. Photo by Thomas Chown Photography.
Nate Musser delivers a stand-out performance as jaded fact-checker Lorin, argyle sweater-clad and stuck in a dead-end role, on the verge of an early mid-life crisis. Earning big laughs in Act 1 and evoking great compassion in Act 2, Musser brings humor and pathos to the role, acting as empathetic ballast against the self-serving, soulless attitudes of others in the office. He is excellent and impeccably cast.
Bies and Lubin. Photo by Thomas Chown Photography.
Juliya Lubin is impressively versatile in diametrically opposed roles, acting first as the play’s title character, Gloria, a shy and socially awkward office worker, and later as Nan, a high-powered executive who struggles to remember the names and faces of her subordinates. Both are difficult roles and central to the show’s core conflicts, and Lubin moves between them convincingly and with ease.
Braskamp and Philidor. Photo by Thomas Chown Photography.
McDieun Philidor, Trevor Braskamp, and Lizzy Bies are also strong in multiple roles. Philidor and Braskamp play particularly well together in Act 1 as budding office intern (Philidor) and former intern/aspiring writer turned languishing editorial assistant (Braskamp), highlighting the tension that often exists between colleagues balancing on different rungs of the corporate ladder and climbing (or not climbing) at very different speeds.
…the cast and crew at SRJC are serving up a worthwhile production…
Nina Nguyen is tasked with some of the play’s longer monologues and much of the comic relief. Given this, it’s unfortunate that on opening night Nguyen struggled with delivery and pacing, resulting in speech that felt stilted and contrived. Emotional reactions to the other characters felt forced and unnatural, too, though opening-night nerves may have contributed. Despite these miscues, Nguyen brings great energy to a demanding role and sustains that energy throughout. She’s enjoyable to watch in the process.
Nina Nguyen. Photo by Thomas Chown Photography.
Lighting (Chris Cota) and sound (Alex Clark) are aptly designed and mostly spot-on, though some of the sound effects could perhaps be louder. This may have been a deliberate decision on Clark’s or director Leslie McCauley’s part, for reasons I can’t divulge without giving too much away. An opening night snag led to a lengthier scene change in Act 2, but transitions were otherwise well executed. A simple but skillfully constructed set and complementary props create an atmosphere that really feels like an office, and transforms easily into a coffee shop and back again.
Gloria contemplates the cost of living in a culture that asks only how we can capitalize on our tragedies instead of learn from them and ultimately, prevent them. It’s challenging and timely material that offers much food for thought, and despite a few rough edges on opening night, the cast and crew at SRJC are serving up a worthwhile production. This reviewer recommends it, though younger audiences and those in search of lighter fare are cautioned to steer clear of this one.
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Gloria
Written by
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by
Leslie McCauley
Producing Company
SRJC Theatre Arts
Production Dates
Thru Mar 12th, 2023
Production Address
Burbank Studio Theatre
SRJC Santa Rosa Campus
1501 Mendocino Ave
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Human history is an appalling parade of atrocities. Warfare is among the worst recurring nightmares, but perhaps even worse are purges within one nationality or ethnicity when large swaths of the population are swept up in an insane movement to create a new society.
That’s exactly what happened in Cambodia in the mid-to-late 1970s, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country, hell-bent on eliminating the past, to such an extent that they called the date of their takeover “Year Zero.” And as always happens when zealots gain control, they rounded up Cambodian intellectuals, academics, trained professionals, artists, and musicians with the intent of eliminating them.
Inspired by the communist takeover of Indonesia in 1965 and the Chinese cultural revolution—the “Great Leap Forward”—the zealotry of the Khmer Rouge was so extreme that anyone with knowledge of a foreign language, or even wearing eyeglasses, was suspected of being a subversive and a class enemy. Approximately 25% of Cambodian’s population perished in what was called the “Super Great Leap Forward”—a genocide perpetuated by their own countrymen.
…superb actors, dancers, and musicians—a stunning assortment of stage talents…
That’s the background of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through April 2. The interlocking core stories include a musician named Chum (Joseph Ngo) held in the notorious S-21 prison—really an extermination center where of approximately 20,000 prisoners, only seven or eight survived—and his return in 2008 to see his American daughter Neary (Geena Quintos), there working with a multi-national investigative group. There are also tangential references to ethnic animosities among Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Thai people.
The depiction of life in S-21 is lengthy and grim (set by Takeshi Kata) but book-ended by upbeat rock music, much of it derived from L.A. band Dengue Fever. The show opens in the mid 1970s with Chum’s band finishing their first album in a studio in the capital city of Phnom Penh, an effort that runs so late that they can’t escape approaching Khmer Rouge troops.
The band at work in “Cambodian Rock Band” at Berkeley Rep. Photo: Berkeley Rep.
It closes with a rousing performance in the present by the same band—Ngo on guitar, Moses Villarama on bass, Jane Lui on keyboard and backing vocals, Geena Quintos on lead vocals, and Abraham Kim on drums.
They’re all superb actors, dancers, and musicians—a stunning assortment of stage talents. Prolific actor Francis Jue is outstanding as the MC, narrator, hyper-kinetic lead performer, and as the despicable head of S-21.
Francis Jue at work at Berkeley Rep. Photo: Berkeley Rep
The net effect for an audience is that Cambodian Rock Band is a sugar-coated historical horror story—the sugar coating being the opening and closing rock performances that help viewers forget their immersion in misery. Yee’s beautifully conceived and realized message is that art and music have power to transcend savagery.
We can only hope.
There’s widespread belief that Cambodian Rock Band originated at Berkeley Rep. In fact, the show has been performed many times over the past four years. Ngo and Villarama have performed in several productions. The set at the Roda Theatre was built at Berkeley Rep and will travel when the show goes on tour. However that plays out, Cambodian Rock Band is a fantastic spectacle and one of the most compelling productions so far this year.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Tea Party opens on a black box stage with political interrogation. No set distracts us from the fireworks to come. A government agent (Cassidy Brown) rips into a political prisoner, exposing her liberal, left-wing persuasions. A right-wing prisoner joins the cross-examination, and is physically brutalized and bloodied by the agent.
(L-R): Livia Gomes Demarchi and Cassidy Brown. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs
Many such scenes ensue, transitioned by music of competing voices ranging from choral to hard rock. The first scenes are from the present, then revert to the past, and finally address the future, playing out in that sequence. One is left hoping the scenes come together into a sensible tableau by the end of the play. More on that later.
Dahlquist’s play posits that the Tea Party movement–which began during the presidency of Barack Obama and effectively over time changed our politics to a zero-sum game–has created this nation’s current divisions.
From “Tea Party” Photo by Jeff Rumans.
I think there is a real misunderstanding about what the Tea Party movement is. The Tea Party movement is a sentiment that government is broken, free market principles have been abandoned, with both parties to blame, and if we don’t do something soon, this exceptional country will be lost.
…a strong cast of featured actors…
So agrees director Erin Merritt, in her director’s notes. She exhorts us to recognize this nationwide divide and governmental failure and get involved to bridge it, or civil war will be our future.
Characters represent left-wing, right-wing, and government. All sides are shown with their problems and power struggles exposed. Cassidy Brown, first as a government agent, then as a Dutch journalist, leads us through key scenes, with a strong cast of featured actors assuming different roles. Special mention goes to Anthony Cistaro and Bob Greene who cover their parts with diverse movement and vocal projection.
(L-R) Cassidy Brown and Livia Gomes Demarchi at work in “Tea Party”. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs
Other performers sometimes suffer from static blocking and muffled delivery to an audience surrounding a thrust stage. The many violent scenes are carried out with finesse through the guidance of Dave Maier.
Although delving into the Tea Party is most timely, and delivered to a mainly liberal and politically receptive part of the country, this reviewer believes that Dahlquist’s message could use more dramatic tools to help the audience lock in and see a path to activism. I was also left with the feeling the playwright missed the boat on addressing the impact negative social media has had on our national discourse: enabling the spread of disinformation, distrust, and animosity.
And as mentioned earlier, I felt that better identification of various scenes would have also gone a long way to sustain this viewer’s interest in this otherwise engaging production. This play, and its message, deserve it.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Tea Party
Written by
Gordon Dahlquist
Directed by
Erin Merritt
Producing Company
One Of Our Own Theater
Production Dates
Thru Mar 19th, 2023
Production Address
The Rueff at ACT’s Strand Theater, 1127 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
No one dominated the Broadway scene in the 1930s and 1940s more than the prolific Cole Porter. With 24 musicals beginning with Paris in 1928, Porter’s wit, elegance and astonishing gift of music enriched both the mind and the heart. Cole Porter captivated the zeitgeist and bonhomie of the upper class like no other composer. Richard Rogers took musical theater in a whole other direction with the breakthrough of Oklahoma! in 1943.
What fascinates is that with the exceptions of Anything Goes and Kiss Me Kate no other Cole Porter musical has met the test of time despite often prestigious and memorable songs. Anything Goes opened in 1934 and decades later became one of the most beloved and revived musicals in the Broadway canon—1987 with Patti Lupone and 2011 with Sutton Foster. With original songs “I Get A Kick Out Of You,” “All Through The Night,” “Blow Gabriel Blow,” and “Friendship,” it stormed Broadway with a then record setting run of 420 performances.
…Lisa Danz’s elegant and imaginative costumes pop out with color and taste…
The ridiculously inane and goofy plot (if you can begin to follow it) takes place on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic from NYC to England. With toe tapping sailors, mistaken identities, crooks and gangsters and ever-changing love affairs, the latest version of the musical is held together with a luscious score filled with interpolated musical numbers (“You’re The Top,” “It’s Delovely”) from the Porter canon. You just sit back and let the memorable, constantly hummable score wrap you in the greatness of an American musical.
Now to the problems and the challenges of this production. The set (by Kuo-Hao Lo) is a monochromatic white boat deck that is desperately in need of some filigree. Like a large roll of paper towels, it is just there and unfortunately feels unfinished. This is not enhanced by the weak lighting design of Sean Keenan.
Only Lisa Danz’s elegant and imaginative costumes pop out with color and taste. Kudos to Ms.Danz’s choice to give the sailors the colors of Ukraine with yellow and blue tops.
All of this is richly enhanced by Robyn Tribuzi’s stunning tap choreography of the title song. It keeps building and building until it bursts with Broadway glory and we are finally at home with Anything Goes.
(L-R) Heather Orth, Jillian A. Smith, Paul Hovannes
The 18-member cast is led by Ashley Cowl as Reno Sweeney (The Ethel Merman role), and Ms. Cowl can do it all. The score is perfectly situated in her head-belt range and she sings it with flair and gusto. In a glorious role reversal casting choice, the role of the inept con-man Moonface Martin, is played with expert comic timing and gorgeous vocals by Heather Orth as a gun toting hilarious gal in a nun’s outfit.
Is there anything Ms. Orth cannot do? Matt Skinner is the stowaway Billy Crocker in love with the already engaged Hope Harcourt (Jas Cook). Mr. Skinner’s sweet tenor and love on his shirt sleeves ardor make for a boyish leading man. His “You’re the Top” duet with Ms. Cowl’s Reno is a particular highlight.
The rest of the cast for me was either inadequate or pushed so hard, I wanted to say “Dial it back.” This is a tough show in which to find a balance, and I kept forgetting who and why some roles were even on stage under Nick Ishimaru’s direction.
The opening night audience was loud and appreciative, but there were empty seat post-intermission. Still, there is that score and delight in the music (led by music director Dave Dubrusky’s four-piece ensemble), as the song goes – takes us back to Manhattan.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Anything Goes
Written by --- Revised by --- Music by
Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse --- Lindsay and Crouse --- Cole Porter
Kicking off Women’s History Month a few weeks early, Broadway San Francisco couldn’t have made a better choice than with the much awarded Six the Musical, at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco through March 19th.
With a supremely talented all-woman cast, Six takes the audience on an exuberantly wild ride through the trials, tribulations and jubilation of the lives of the six wives of Henry the VIII, reimagined as contemporary pop stars.
Photo: Joan Marcus. “SIX: The Musical” in The City.
Awards, including a Tony for Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical of the 2021-22 Broadway season, are only part of the story. With its celebration of feminism and up-to-the-minute Millennial and Gen Z-speak, Six appeals to young (and not-so-young) adults in the same way today’s arena megastars do. In fact, the six Queens’ personas, appearance and vocal stylings are literally borrowed from those very same megastars. Opening night, highly amped attendees cheered after every song and responded enthusiastically to the performers’ prompts.
…the energy at times ratcheted to near fever pitch…
With no pretense of historical accuracy, the premise is secondary to the energy, passion, and powerhouse vocals on display as our Queens engage in a competition to determine who will be awarded the coveted title “Leader of the Band.” The women play off one another beautifully, whether bantering, baiting or backing each other, as one by one they take center stage to make their case.
Choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille is brilliant, blending technical jazz, hip-hop and house dance with a smattering of vogueish posing. In combination with the hard rock-driven intensity and volume of the excellent backing band—the “Ladies in Waiting,” the energy at times ratcheted to near fever pitch.
Photo: Joan Marcus. Gabriela Carrillo as Catherine Parr (center) in The North American “SIX The Musical” Tour
Lighting design by Tim Deiling transformed a very basic set into a phantasmagorical Queendom, while costume design by Gabriella Slade gave the Queens an edgy, almost steampunk vibe.
The Queens, without exception, gave outstanding performances. Power ballad “Heart of Stone,” gave Jane Seymour (soon-to-be megastar in her own right, Jasmine Forsberg) the opportunity to display her remarkable range, tremendous vocal power, and technical virtuosity. Anne Boleyn (Broadway performer Storm Lever) displayed perfect comic timing and garnered the lion’s share of laughs during the performance, riffing on, of all things, the fact that she’d been beheaded! “Haus of Holbein,” featured the Queens wearing demented sunglasses, and with frantic circus-like music propelling their exaggerated Berlin-esque accents, added an element of campy fun to an already enormously entertaining show.
Near the end of the performance, the energy shifted into low gear as Catherine Parr (Gabriela Carrillo in one of the most poignant and vulnerable performances of the production) suffered an existential crisis which momentarily brought the action to a halt. After rallying, Catherine pointed out that the Queens had fallen into the trap of comparing themselves in relation to their experiences as wives of Henry VIII. The previously vacuous Anne Boleyn, garnered more laughs with the revelation that doing so “…necessarily elevates a historical approach ingrained in patriarchal structures.” Then, aside to the audience, with a smug look, “I read.”
After pondering how to turn that structure on its head, the group reclaims their personal narratives and rewrites history, allowing each of them to become their own leading lady. To the delight of the audience, the production closes with an electrifying and empowering remix of the song “I Don’t Need Your Love,” followed by “Six.”
Photo: Joan Marcus. The cast of “Six: The Musical” at work.
A rousing and protracted well-deserved standing ovation was accentuated by glittering confetti raining down on the Queens, ala the “golden buzzer” award given to the very best contestants on Simon Cowell’s well-known talent show.
Random audience members—nearly all grinning and exclaiming animatedly to their friends about the performance—were polled as they filed out of the theatre. Many described the production as “Amazing!”, “Fantastic!” or “Unbelievable!” Several gushed, “OMG, it was SO good!” and “I loved it!” while another insisted it was the “Best musical I’ve ever seen!” How many had she seen? “Too many!”
Need I say more?
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Six: The Musical
Written By
Lucy Moss/Toby Marlow
Directed by
Lucy Moss/Jamie Armitage
Producing Company
BroadwaySF
Production Dates
Through Mar 19th
Production Address
The Orpheum
1192 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Website
https://www.broadwaysf.com
Telephone
(888) 746-1799
Tickets
Variable. Up to $263.50, subject to change (rush tickets/discounts available)
Power outages caused by high winds threatened to scuttle the press opener of Justice: A New Musical at Marin Theatre Company this past Tuesday Feb. 21. MTC officials were almost ready to reschedule when the power returned after the opening scene. It was stressful for cast, crew, and audience alike but good luck prevailed.
Ably directed by Ashley Rodbro, the production is the latest from prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson, author of the wonderful Silent Sky among many other works, and MTC’s playwright-in-residence.
…Gunderson’s tale is an engaging one…
Justice tells the tale of the first three female Supreme Court justices. A musical without choreography (book by Gunderson, lyrics by Kait Kerrigan, music by Bree Lowdermilk), it begins with Sandra Day O’Connor’s ascension to the high court in 1981, followed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and later, Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice.
Stephanie Prentice nails the role of Sotomayor and narrates much of the story, primarily conveyed in operetta fashion through song. Karen Murphy embodies O’Connor’s reticent Republican/Episcopalian personality, and Lynda DiVito is perfectly cast as the diminutive intellectual powerhouse Ginsburg. All three are in fine voice with Lowdermilk’s difficult music. DiVito and Prentice are especially strong singers.
Gunderson’s tale is an engaging one, particularly in its depiction of the gracious mentorship shown by O’Connor to Ginsburg despite their political and philosophical differences. They are united in their womanhood, the bond made stronger by mutual understanding of their responsibilities as wives. Some of this is conveyed by tangential material about their private lives, including, as time moves on, their husbands’ medical issues and ultimately, their own. Supreme Court justices enjoy lifetime appointments and have no mandatory retirement age. Many have left the court only when medical conditions dictated that they do so.
(L-R) Lynda DiVito (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), Stephanie Prentice (Sonia Sotomayor), and Karen Murphy (Sandra Day O’Connor) in “Justice: A New Musical” performing now through March 12, 2023 at Marin Theatre Co. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
Lowdermilk’s music adheres strongly to current fashion in musical theater: bombastic and almost atonal. It will sound familiar to anyone who’s seen Next to Normal or Mean Girls – but there’s not a memorable melody in the show. Most of the songs are insistent forthright feminist anthems shouted at the audience, a receptive one at the press opener. Ticket-buyers expecting melodious uplift of the West Side Story or My Fair Lady variety will be hugely disappointed.
Ostensibly about the first three women on the Supreme Court, the story extends into the present with a veiled reference to an unnamed woman appointed to the court by the 45th president, and a cheerleading mention of Ketanji Brown Jackson that drew an enthusiastic response from the MTC crowd. The unnamed woman was Amy Coney Barrett, intentionally left out of the narrative because of her ultra-conservative politics. Also ignored is Elena Kagan. A story about the rise of female judicial superstars should certainly include them, regardless of how the play’s authors feel about them.
Justice: A New Musical is thus a skewed, incomplete history. If Gunderson and company had contained the narrative to O’Connor, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor—three sisters in judicial robes—that would have been acceptable, but bringing it into the present while ignoring two significant female justices is problematic.
Karen Murphy (Sandra Day O’Connor) and Lynda DiVito (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) at work in “Justice: A New Musical”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne
An outstanding feature of this show is the justices’ civility—and even mutual affection—regardless of differing philosophies and legal interpretations, and the deep friendship shared by Ginsburg and her high court opponent Antonin Scalia.
Ginsburg and Scalia were on opposite sides of almost every issue that came before the court, but they had abiding love and respect for each other despite their differences. That is a lesson for all of us.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
An unsolved murder, a family mystery, and a personal existential crisis all combine in Christopher Chen’s The Headlands at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through March 5.
Phil Wong stars as Henry, a self-described “thirty-something San Francisco native who works in tech.” Wong is confident and convincing, serving as the show’s narrator and principal character.
Sam Jackson (Jess) and Phil Wong (Henry) in the West Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s “The Headlands”. Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
He comes onstage under full house lights, with the relaxed demeanor of a standup comedian, and introduces himself and the play’s primary backstory: the unsolved murder of Henry’s father George (Johnny M. Wu) some 20 years earlier, a deeply traumatic event in Henry’s young life.
…worthy of a full thumbs-up recommendation…
Part memory play, part who-done-it, Henry’s tale moves back and forth in time, from his parents’ first meeting, to his pre-teen years when he and his dad would go hiking in the Marin Headlands, to the present, where he deals with his aging mother Leena (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro), his girlfriend Jess (Sam Jackson), and his estranged older brother Tom (Jomar Tagatac), given up for adoption before Henry was born.
Other superb cast members include Erin Mei-Ling Stuart as the younger Leena, and Bay Area theater veteran Charles Shaw Robinson in dual roles as Walter, George’s business partner, and as a San Francisco police detective. A brilliant bit of direction by ACT artistic director Pam MacKinnon and a brilliant bit of acting is George’s accent—early in the show, when he is a teenage immigrant and his future wife’s suitor, his pronunciation is thick, but later, as an adult, he’s become fully fluent and speaks a natural American dialect.
Keiko Shimosato Carreiro (Pat) and Phil Wong (Henry) in “The Headlands” performing at A.C.T. Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
The Headlands is a compelling story, made more compelling by Alexander V. Nichols’ combined set and projection designs. Nichols is the offstage superstar of this production. His elegant rotating set is a translucent lath-and-plaster construction that when illuminated with projections gives a ghostly appearance to everything from a Sunset district family home to a headlands hiking trail to San Rafael’s Canal district to the apartment shared by Henry and Jess.
Toward the tale’s conclusion, a slow, over-long scene between these two is the only dramatic road bump in an otherwise very good production. A judicious edit there, and in a couple other spots in the dialog would lift this show from “very good” to “great.” It’s worthy of a full thumbs-up recommendation, regardless.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Luis Alfaro exposes our strengths and weaknesses in a climate-changing world with The Travelers at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco’s Fort Mason arts complex.
Five ordinary men appear on a candle-lit stage and start to strip down. Provocative, right? But soon they are covered by cassocks of the Carthusian Order of Catholic brothers. Before we can get to know these individuals, a stranger staggers into their monastery and collapses in a mound of dirt, bleeding from a chest wound.
Excellence abounds in Catherine Castellanos’s direction…
Luckily, the wound did not pierce his heart, but Alfaro’s play is all about heart and the ways we find to mend so many that are broken by circumstance.
But where are we?
We are in Grangeville, CA, a semi-abandoned town of now only 49 in the Central Valley. Drought has forced people from their occupations, many from working the fields. They either leave town or find places of succor such as the old monastery, which is still supported by the Archdiocese.
Important back-wall projections herald each change of scene, such as “Transformation,” helping us understand why the men shed their clothes and enter the seminary. They are desperate and leaving their former lives behind. The captivating set is mostly dirt floor, candles, and ceiling candelabras. The lights create a hierarchy: memorial candles set in the small dirt piles on the floor are for the commoners who worship there, and the multitude of brass candelabras overhead, to which the brothers often visually appeal, sway and flicker as the support from the Archdiocese gives hope and then peters out.
Brian River, Juan Amador, & Ogie Zulueta, at work. Photo by Jay Yamada.
In Alfaro’s inimitable style, we learn the stories and personalities of these brothers, and their new recruit, Juan, who has so dramatically joined the order with a bullet wound and street-trash vocabulary – a most unlikely student for this seminary run by Brother Brian. And Juan in turn unmasks the mystery of the man who lives in the bathtub without a cassock, brother Ogie. Each brother has a backstory of loss: of family, of nurture, of education. They profess a bond with church and God just as long as the tenuous support of the church sustains. When that door closes on them, they become again travelers to parts unknown.
And in “Seminary,” only one heart is lifted.
Kinan Valdez, Ogie Zulueta in “The Travelers.” Photo by Jay Yamada.
This play is a full meal with much to absorb and digest later. Excellence abounds in Catherine Castellanos’s direction of so many quirky characters and scenes, casting of spot-on actors and clear rendering of script. Although some disjointed elements of this play may leave viewers scratching their heads, I dare you not to marvel at its humanity and scope.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
The Travelers
Written by
Luis Alfaro
Directed by
Catherine Castellanos
Producing Company
Magic Theatre
Production Dates
Thru March 5th, 2023
Production Address
Magic Theatre Ft. Mason Center, Bldg D 2 Marina Blvd. San Francisco, CA.
With amusing and sometimes moving lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, a charming book by Hugh Wheeler and an outstanding cast of Bay Area actors, A Little Night Music at Spreckels Performing Arts Center is regional theatre is at its best. The play is a rarity in that it’s a musical stage adaptation of a film, Ingmar Bergmann’s Smiles of a Summer Night.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Fredrik Egerman (Larry Williams) a previously widowed middle-aged attorney, has married lovely virginal 18-year-old Anne, (Brenna Sammon). Anne loves to tease Egerman’s earnest 20-year-old son, Henrik, (Samuel J. Gleason) a seminary student who wrestles with a secret passion for Anne, who has, eleven months after her nuptials, still not consummated her marriage to Henrik’s father.
Sexually frustrated, Fredrik seeks relief in the arms of old flame Desiree Armfeldt, (Daniela Innocenti-Beem) a once-renowned actress, who by chance is performing in Fredrik and Anne’s Swedish town, and has carried a torch for Fredrik for years. The lovers are interrupted by Desiree’s married lover, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Michael Coury Murdock) whose wife, Countess Charlotte Malcolm (Taylor Bartolucci) knows of the affair and is desperate to regain her husband’s affections. Such are the tropes of multi-layered unrequited love, catalyst for both hilarity and poignancy in this effervescent production.
…spirited, professional and upbeat performances…
With the exception of Murdock’s full-throated Count Malcolm, whose “In Praise of Women” was wonderfully rendered, the ladies of the cast outshine the men in terms of vocal talent. Molly Belle Hart was perfectly cast as young Fredrika Armfeldt, daughter of Desiree and granddaughter of Madame Armfeldt (Eileen Morris). Hart’s rendition of “The Glamorous Life” was sung with the poise and professionalism of a much older performer. Morris’s solo “Liasons” managed to be both enchanting and amusing, conveying yearning for what had been and a sense of satisfaction in a life well-lived. Brenna Sammon’s “Soon” was plaintive and lovely.
Brenna Sammon as Anne and Samuel Gleason as Henrik.
There were two showstoppers during the opening night performance. The first was “Send in the Clowns,” which held the audience rapt throughout, performed with perfectly understated virtuosity by the stunningly talented Daniela Innocenti-Beem, who also gave the best performance overall throughout the production. Her Desiree offered a master class in theatrical expression and nuance. The second was “The Miller’s Son,” performed with power and a sense of unbridled joy by Kaela Mariano, who played Petra, Anne’s delightfully libidinous maid.
The Quintet Brandy Noveh, Stacy Rutz , Michael Arbitter, Ariana Arbitter, Sean O’Brien.
There were some sound issues during the beginning of the play, with the orchestra overwhelming the vocals as some of the performer’s mics appeared to be working only sporadically. The performers soldiered on professionally, however, and the problems were soon rectified.
Costumes by Donnie Frank were delightful, beautifully depicting the height of elegance in the early 1900s. The set was not such a delight, changing only in terms of props and lighting. Having the same backdrop throughout, despite whether the action was inside or out, with the same paintings hanging on every character’s wall. This seemed a bit too laissez faire.
Overall, Director Sheri Lee Miller elicited spirited, professional and upbeat performances from her talented and well-chosen cast, gifting her audience with an immensely enjoyable evening of entertainment.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
A Little Night Music
Music/Lyrics by -- Book by
Stephen Sondheim --Hugh Wheeler
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through Feb 26th, 2023
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Lucy Kirkwood’s 2016 play The Children, was Tony-nominated for Best Play of 2018. Writers for The Guardian placed it third on a list of the greatest theatrical works since 2000.
In the Left Edge Theatre production, a married couple, Hazel (Priscilla Locke) and Robin (John Craven) both retired nuclear scientists, are living in a drab cottage near the English seaside, after a disaster at the local nuclear power station where they were formerly employed.
…theater stalwarts Locke, Craven, and Cain provide absolutely superb, quite touching performances…
Despite problems with rationed electricity and water, and the threat of airborne radiation, the couple are trying, in a stiff-upper-lip British way, to live a normal existence. Robin farms so that Hazel, the mother of four adult children, may eat organic greens to maintain her healthiest life possible.
Their post-apocalyptic tranquility is interrupted when former colleague Rose (Danielle Cain) shows up at their door after almost four decades. The childless Rose has a secret but is she there with sinister intentions or merely to rekindle her prior affair with Robin?
The cast of “The Children” at work at Left Edge Theatre.
Under Sandra Ish’s insightful direction, North Bay theater stalwarts Locke, Craven, and Cain provide absolutely superb, quite touching performances, in a story in which reparation, redemption and whether having children of one’s own should make one more socially responsible. Combined, those are the point of this darkly comical play.
This reviewer enthusiastically recommends this show.
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Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
In a reverse metaphor from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, in Exodus to Eden, a company of wanderers travels from California, which climate change has rendered a dust-bowl, to Oklahoma, which offers the possibility of affordable housing and hope for new life.
The always-unique Oakland Theater Project goes to the mat in this sprawling three-hour new production which seeks to save us from our current gods of capitalism and power. In a promo video, Arielle Powell, who plays the lead role Miriam, shares that this new play, written and directed by Michael Socrates Moran, is about this theater company coming together to try to right our seriously-wronged community.
According to The Man: “Exodus isn’t about ‘The People.’ It’s about gods. Gods fighting over a nation’s economy.”
What is wrong? That’s not always clear in the mix of character groups, historical and theatrical allusions, fuzzy transitions between dream sequences and reality, and above all, the difficulties with everyday communications across our own community. What’s wrong is conveyed to us from harangues, from bodily reactions, from mysteries, from the weather, and from technology. These elements arrive helter-skelter. Sorting this out through the play is the audience’s challenge.
The prologue announces the end of history, the end of the Cold War, and the takeover by capitalism and power. Embodied by “The Man,” we are lectured that the world is now ruled by contracts, by transactions to individuals. The social covenant is the glue which binds our communities across all different peoples. And that covenant is now dissipated by drugs.
The Man and a prisoner at work for Oakland Theater Project.
As technology advances our lives, it also destroys our planet. In a brilliant touch, a guardian angel shadows and protects The Man with a ray gun which zaps our cares for the planet by shooting off constant TV announcements of trouble. Readily available drugs help the rest of us chill out, like soma in 1984.
For the wanderers, life is a prison boxing them in. Their journey, the search for home, for house, for safety and sustenance, is to find out how to get out of that prison. As they face enormous odds, most will not survive.
Does technology “zap” our lives? See “Exodus to Eden” and find out.
This panorama of issues is fitted out with fascinating costumes, projections, sound effects and props which help to punctuate and sort out the many themes and characters. However, the road forward through the central character of Miriam, is not easily understood. She has dodged a deal with the devil throughout the play.
What she carries forward with her new child is up to our imaginations. See this play for the scope, the passion and occasional magic of the work, and decide which world you need to live in.
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Since arriving in California from New York in 1991, Susan Dunn has been on the executive boards of Hillbarn Theatre, Altarena Playhouse, Berkeley Playhouse, Virago Theatre and Island City Opera, where she is a development director and stage manager.
An enthusiastic advocate for new productions and local playwrights, she is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and a recipient of a 2015 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award. Contact: susanmdunn@yahoo.com
Production
Exodus to Eden
Written by
Michael Socrates Moran
Directed by
Michael Socrates Moran
Producing Company
Oakland Theater Project
Production Dates
Thru Feb 26th, 2023
Production Address
Flax Art and Design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94612
Playing perpetual “second banana” to a superstar is a theatrical version of purgatory. In the tale of Vivian Vance, co-star of the long-running 1950s TV series I Love Lucy and its sequel, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, it’s also a recurring personal reminder that she’s gone as far as she will ever go in the shadow of comedic legend Lucille Ball.
Vance was a comedic genius in her own right—and an early advocate for people suffering from mental problems, in an era when even acknowledging such problems was a grave social error. Libby Oberlin delivers all this and more in her solo show Sidekicked written by Kim Powers, and directed by Michael Ross at Sonoma Arts Live through February 19.
Sidekicked moves along at a surprising clip…
Last seen at SAL as opera diva Maria Callas in Master Class, Oberlin is a confident performer who brings Vance to life with gusto and a palpable dose of self-deprecation.
She relates her subject’s frequent confusion—she wrote her name and address on a slip of paper and tucked it into her handbag each morning before she went out, in case she forgot who she was or where she lived. Vance endured several disastrous marriages, and chafed at the role for which she is fondly remembered, as Lucy’s neighbor Ethyl Mertz, Lucy’s frequent co-conspirator in the absurd hijinks that propelled each episode of the original series.
Vance also endured the continual bickering between Lucille Ball and her husband, director/producer/actor/band leader Desi Arnaz, and suffered mightily being cast as the wife of a man “at least 25 years older,” Fred Mertz, played by William Frawley. Powers’ script is clearly intended for an audience familiar with all the characters—and their backstories too—as Oberlin digresses into revisiting many of the show’s often hilarious setups and backstage battles.
Sidekicked moves along at a surprising clip given the constraints put on a solo performer, and provides plenty of amusement not only for a generation that saw it all unfold the first time. It’s also a show with appeal for theater and entertainment geeks who relish digging the dirt about some of Hollywood’s famous names—first, second, and third tier alike
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Sidekicked
Written by
Kim Powers
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru Feb. 19th, 2023
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Amateur magician Kristin’s real magic is her ability to conjure characters out of thin air, writing them into life. Jenny’s magic is her ability to walk through the world authentically and unapologetically, living her truth in every interaction. Taylor Diffenderfer, who plays both women in this one-woman production of Open, by Crystal Skillman, magically embodies both Kristen and Jenny, holding the audience rapt using only words and gestures throughout her masterful performance.
As the audience enters the theatre of Main Stage West, we see Kristen (Diffenderfer) dressed as the Magician in top hat, bowtie, vest and jacket sitting on the edge of the empty stage, eyes closed. She remains this way until everyone is seated, the housekeeping messages video has played, screen retracted, and the lights focus on her. Opening her eyes, a look of amazement crosses her face as she looks out at the audience and crows, “I’m here. I’m here. I am here. Your magician.”
Open is a magic act without magic.
Kristen explains, “We are here for Jenny. Jenny evoked me,” and “. . . every person who has ever loved, has a magician… and Jenny has me. So we imagine.” Pantomiming catching imaginary juggling balls falling one by one from above and beginning to juggle the balls, Kristen, as the magician, expounds: “Secrets are the balls we keep in the air. Ours will come crashing down this evening.” She tells us this will happen in three short acts: First Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice, and that there will also be an extra act: A Promise.
With masterful direction by Lauren Heney, Diffenderfer is astonishing as she brings to life the romance between the two women, who meet for the first time in the Occult section of a New York City bookstore when Kristen accidentally pushes a book about magic off a freestanding shelf onto the floor of the next aisle. As she peers through the opening she sees Jenny, who asks what the book is for and returns it to Kristen with her name and phone number written on a piece of paper, sticking up out of the pages.
We follow the women through their five-year partnership as they navigate the challenges of cultivating a relationship despite the fact that Kristen, fearing reprisal, is not entirely comfortable being forthright about their courtship, while Jenny insists on transparency. Eliciting the promise alluded to early in the play, Jenny beseeches Kristen: “Promise me we will always be open with who we are.” Kristen agrees, but finds it a difficult promise to keep.
Sound design by Ken Sonkin is outstanding, perfectly choreographed to enhance audience members’ experience of pantomime and sense of place. Melissa Weaver nails the lighting design, especially during the levitation sequence when Diffenderfer truly seemed to soar.
Open shines a light on the prejudices in our culture, and even within families who genuinely love, but struggle to accept in their entirety, their “unconventional” family members. It reminds us that empathy is essential, and that ignorance and the perception of “otherness” can be lethal. This is not an easy play to experience, but, like many illuminating artforms, it offers us an opportunity to look within and ignites our determination to recommit to taking actions that allow all humans to be safe to simply live their lives.
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Postscript:As I finished this review, the Press Democrat announced the closing of Main Stage West, due to the “rising costs and lost income caused by the coronavirus pandemic and other calamities.” I am deeply saddened by this news and want to thank the founding members, PACT (Performing Artists Coalition for Theater) and everyone who worked so diligently for over twelve years to provide such impactful and professional productions for West County theatre-goers.
You will be profoundly missed.
“Open” will be the final play at MSW, with a concert by Misner and Smith on February 15th and a “Close Up Magic Extravaganza ” by Ken Sonkin on February 22nd. Please attend and express your gratitude to this wonderful group of artists.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Open
Written by
Crystal Stillman
Directed by
Lauren Heney
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Feb 26th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Many of life’s tragedies involve addiction. Theatre stages have presented poignant stories – dramas drawn from fantasy or reality – in the hopes that audiences will be both thoughtfully entertained and well warned. Cashed Out checks both boxes, admirably.
San Francisco Playhouse first presented a dramatic “zoomlet” – a 10-minute reading of a potential new play by Claude Jackson, Jr., during the pandemic. Patrons praised the reading touching upon gambling addiction, casinos, and the Native America community. Artistic Director Bill English recognized it as a story not often heard, and commissioned the playwright to expand it into a full script.
“Artistic Director Bill English recognized it as a story not often heard…”
SF Playhouse took great pains to assemble a cadre of Native American actors to ensure the authenticity of their world premiere. It’s a risk that pays off handsomely in Cashed Out. Director Tara Moses coaxed astounding performances from these largely Actors’ Equity members. They bring a glimpse of their culture, both proud and at times humbling, to the stage.
Cashed Out opens on an adobe duplex complete with terra cotta roof tiles on a reservation in Arizona, strikingly imagined by scenic designer Tanya Orellana. It’s dusty and dry, with a branch shelter and woven baskets in various stages of completion.
Rocky (Rainbow Dickerson) is a pretty young woman full of high spirits and bright expectations. She’s about to enter a local beauty contest and ignores Levi, her eager would-be boyfriend (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan). Rocky argues about native garb with her weary mother (Lisa Ramirez.) while her aunt Nan (Sheila Tousey) sagely serves as mediator. It is soon apparent that Nan is the solid rock in this turbulent family drama.
Rocky (Rainbow Dickerson) reaches out to Levi (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan) for a lifeline in “Cashed Out” at SF Playhouse
Flashbacks and fast-forward scenes intertwine as the stage rotates to show Rocky’s challenging journey with her gambling addiction. She’s hooked on a machine’s payout in a dark casino, dismissive with her young daughter Maya (Louisa Kizer) and desperately manipulative when she cajoles Levi to provide her with a character reference. Her family recognizes she needs help, but is powerless against Rocky’s stubborn and highly volatile character. Nan observes Rocky’s turmoil and shakes her head, sadly intoning “Imagine the eagle not trusting her own wings.”
Act I closes as Rocky continues to explode in an over-the-top performance, re-visiting her mother’s words “You’re not worthy” as mother weaves priceless Pima baskets. Thankfully, Act II opens on a brighter day. Rocky intones the Gamblers Anonymous mantra “I’m powerless over gambling” and appears to have cleaned up her act.
Maya (Louisa Kizer), Buddy (Matt Kizer), Levi (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan), and Nan (Sheila Tousey) receive news about Rocky in San Francisco Playhouse’s World Premiere of “Cashed Out.”
But addictions are not easily conquered, and never completely erased from an addict’s soul. When Rocky’s long-gone father (Matt Kizer) reappears, family tensions completely erupt. It’s quiet only when Rocky is absent, leaving her family tapped out and resigned.
Cashed Out is a hard-hitting and sadly true-to-life depiction of a gambler’s behavior. Rocky’s increasingly manic fantasy is thrown against irrefutable reality. In the sudden stark ending, neither side wins.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Yet when Hillbarn Theatre’s production of Assassins opened last weekend, it was, in a word, spellbinding. Imagine watching the incredibly talented Andre Amarotico kill President Abraham Lincoln a few days after the news of the seven farm workers shot in Half Moon Bay.
Amarotico’s acting skills are so good that the Foster City theater’s audience couldn’t help getting drawn in. The almost-sold-out opening night audience found a way to put aside recent events for two hours and lay witness to watching a fine cast of actors portray characters who kill – or shoot — several presidents and others they have grudges against.
Assassins first opened on Broadway in 2009. The incomparable Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, and handpicked John Weidman to write the book. The show got mixed reviews and closed after 73 performances. Over the years it’s had numerous revivals both off- and on Broadway, and is now frequently performed by theatre companies around the world.
Curiously, Assassins is a musical – nearly the entire cast sings about their plans to kill, or how they killed or tried to kill. Not exactly fodder for a musical, though it works here.
There’s a nimble “balladeer” (beautifully acted by Keith Plato) who wanders in and out of the multi-tiered set, and into the audience, swinging around poles – all while singing “Everybody Has a Right to be Happy.”
That’s what makes Assassins so strangely seductive. The actors smile, sing upbeat songs – all while plotting to kill someone.
..Curiously, Assassins is a musical…
One of the best scenes is between Sara Jane Moore (a devastating, yet drop-dead funny portrayal by Hayley Lovgren) and Squeaky Fromme (equally well acted by Brigitte Losey). These two sit on the steps and discuss killing famous people while smoking weed and chomping on KFC, potato chips and sodas.
Moore is distraught because she can’t find her dog – and she can’t remember where her children are. But that doesn’t keep her from having a good ol’ time with Fromme while stuffing her mouth with fast food.
Fromme tells her that she’s a follower of Charles Manson who is the Son of God. Sara Jane looks at her as if she’s insane and asks: “Did he tell you he was the Son of God?” “Absolutely!” Squeaky answers, “….and I’ve slept with him!”
Nick Kendrick, so good as Jerry Lee Lewis in productions of Million Dollar Quartet, wears his hair long and flat in front here as he plays John Hinkley, whose obsession with Jodie Foster caused him to attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
He and Losey sing the duet “Unworthy of Your Love,” as their characters cry out for their obsessions (Foster and Manson).
Nearly everyone in the cast does a fine job with their roles. Kudos to Benjamin Ball as Leon Czolgosz, an American laborer and anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley in 1901 (and was later electrocuted for his crime); and Ted Zoldan as Charles Guiteau, who assassinated President James Garfield and was later hanged. But Julio Chavez doesn’t seem quite up to playing Lee Harvey Oswald, which is unfortunate because the murder of President John Kennedy is likely the one that some audience members still vividly remember.
Director Joshua Marx deserves high marks for keeping the musical moving at a fast pace, assisted by Leslie Waggoner who not only helped with directing but was also the production’s choreographer. Scenic designer Christopher Fitzer did an amazing job with creating the versatile wooden set. It had American flags, bunting and very old, tattered flags everywhere. The multi-level set enables cast members to dart in and out and, at times, all stand in their own spaces.
A fine orchestra of six musicians, lead by music director and keyboardist Jad Bernardo made sure their music didn’t masque the voices and kept a solid tempo.
Marx says in the program that it’s his hope Assassins will help audiences think about the threads that connect all of the play’s events – and how these characters got to the point of doing what they did.
Well said.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The comic musicalLittle Shop of Horrors is both a cult favorite for its fans and a recurring production among community theater troupes here in the Bay Area. We can count on five or six such shows each year. The latest one is running at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa — and has been EXTENDED through Feb. 26th!
A down-on-its luck skid row flower shop needs a boost, and that’s what it gets when amateur botanist Seymour Krelborn (Noah Sternhill) breeds a carnivorous plant that thrives on human blood and tissue.
Little Shop of Horrors—Seymour and Audrey at work.
Named after his shopmate Audrey (Gillian Eichenberger), the plant grows bigger and more voracious daily, attracting a tremendous amount of media attention, and lots of paying customers into Mushnik’s Flower Shop (proprietor played by Dan Schwager).
This Little Shop of Horrors is an ambitious, amusing show…
It’s a mixed blessing for Mushnik, Audrey, and Seymour as they are soon overwhelmed with orders, including supplying all the flowers for the annual Rose Bowl parade. Audrey also wriggles out of a creepy relationship with a sadistic dentist named Orin Scrivello, played by Robert Nelson as a sort of Halloween Elvis impersonator.
Much of the story is propelled by the song-and-dance trio “the doo-wop girls” Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon (Aja Gianola-Norris, Serena Elize, and Chiyako Delores, respectively). Gianola-Norris directed the show, and Elize handled the choreography. The show’s singers are delightful, especially Audrey in the breakout hit “Somewhere That’s Green.”
“The Trio” in “Little Shop of Horrors” at 6th St.
This Little Shop of Horrors is an ambitious, amusing show with an impressive set by Luca Catanzaro, and a great band led by Lucas Sherman, but it’s hampered by awkward timing and a surplus of dead air—issues likely to be ironed out as the production rolls toward its final date of February 26. So grab your significant other and go see this campy classic.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Little Shop of Horrors
Written by / Book by
Alan Menken / Howard Ashman
Directed by / Music Direction by
Aja Gianola-Norris / Lucas Sherman
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru Feb 19th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Ross Alternative Works, referred to as RAW, is Ross Valley Players’ selection of an original play by a local playwright. One play is chosen by committee each season, adding a fresh infusion to the company’s four traditional – and typically familiar – productions. Reservations, written by Joe Barison, has a theme capturing what director Michael R. Cohen calls “the absurdity of artistic aspirations.”
The plot line opens with two New York City visitors arriving at the same hotel to find their reservations double-booked. The bellhop (Kara S. Poon) shows Mr. Segal (Evan Held) to a sumptuous room, complete with cool blue walls, lovely antiques, and a balcony. The luxurious set – designed by Venee Call-Ferrer – is a marvel considering the low ceiling limitations of the Ross Valley Players Barn stage.
(L) Michael-Paul Thomsett as Eddie D’Angelo, (R) Maxine Sattizahn as Louis Robinson, (C) Kara S. Poon as Melissa French.
Mr. Segal makes himself at home, and is surprised when Gail Hartman (Tina Traboulsi) is also shown to the same room, lugging her painting and easel. The hotel manager (Michael-Paul Thomsett) arrives, apologizes, and offers a discount coupon for another hotel stay, yet can offer no alternative lodging. With no available hotel rooms in the city, the two strangers size each other up and reluctantly agree to share the room, at least for one night.
“They explore their insecurities about pursuing their creative paths in life…”
Held does an excellent turn as an aspiring writer and frustrated government worker. He is a perfect foil in contrast to Traboulsi in her role as a marginally successful artist who cherishes the view from this overbooked room. These actors master their roles, although the dialog in Act I moves slowly. They explore their insecurities about pursuing their creative paths in life.
Helen Kim as Allison Burnside, Evan Held as Alan Segal at RVP.
Their serious conversations are truncated when Allison (Helen Kim) arrives to surprise her boyfriend. The action picks up in Act II when more characters crowd the room, or rather the balcony. The zaniness provides a pleasant end to this largely philosophical play.
The supporting cast is not quite as convincing as Held and Traboulsi, giving Reservations an uneven feel throughout. Still, it’s a thought-provoking exploration of the paths chosen by creative souls, and worth enjoying.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Reservations
Written by
Joe Barison
Directed by
Michael R. Cohen
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 2 PM through February 12, 2023
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Four parolees do their best to thrive under an oppressive boss in Clyde’s, at Berkeley Rep through February 26.
Or at least, we believe they’re parolees—that bit of info is never made clear in Lynn Nottage’s brilliant scathing comedy. They’ve all done time behind bars, and they’re determined not to go back. They’re also determined to keep their low-wage jobs in the kitchen of a roadside diner, knowing how limited are employment opportunities for ex-cons.
Their boss knows that too.
A former convict herself, Clyde (April Nixon) lords it over her workers, making sure at every turn that they understand how tenuous their situation is. A voluptuous, wise-cracking beauty, Clyde appears at random at the kitchen’s pickup window or waltzes in unannounced to strike fear in the hearts of her underlings, in each scene sporting a wig more glamorous than the last and strutting her stuff in dazzling apparel. (Wigs by Megan Ellis, costumes by Karen Perry.)
…an incredibly uplifting and uproarious tale about hope…
Clyde is a malicious force of nature, the perfect blend of wicked witch and evil stepmother. Nixon clearly relishes her astounding role, one hugely appreciated by a full house at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre during the Wednesday Jan. 25 press opener.
Louis Reyes McWilliams as Jason and April Nixon as Clyde in Lynn Nottage’s Tony Award-nominated play Clyde’s at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
But Nixon’s not the only astounding member of this well-balanced cast. Three of them are thirty-somethings whose characters are serious about improving their lives and staying out of trouble. We don’t learn what Raphael (Wesley Guimaraes) or Letticia (Cyndii Johnson) did to land in jail, but new worker Jason confesses that he was convicted of assault after losing a union manufacturing job to “scabs.” To Letticia’s inquiry about the gang tattoos on his arms, face, and neck, he replies “I was trying to survive.”
The fourth member of Clyde’s kitchen crew is line cook Montrellous (Harold Surratt) an older gentleman with a sadhu’s demeanor. The anchor character in this quick-moving story, he’s very much the embodiment of an Old Testament prophet, bringing wisdom and enlightenment to a younger generation, the focus being his quest to create the perfect sandwich.
April Nixon as Clyde and Harold Surratt as Montrellous in Lynn Nottage’s Tony Award-nominated play Clyde’s at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
The quest for the perfect sandwich, in fact, becomes both a metaphor for the kitchen workers to improve their lives and their self-esteem, and a competitive sport they undertake to impress each other and perhaps, their mean-to-the-core boss.
A subplot involves Raphael’s infatuation with Letticia, one that goes nowhere, despite his offers of flowers and chocolates and date invitations. It would be unfair to give away much of the bright (and dark) comedy in this lovely production, but a heartbreaking moment occurs when Montrellous confesses that he went to prison not for a crime he committed but for a moment of altruism. The embodiment of gravitas, Surratt is brilliant in the role.
Louis Reyes McWilliams as Jason and Cyndii Johnson as Letitia in Lynn Nottage’s Tony Award-nominated play Clyde’s at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Director Taylor Reynolds gets fabulous performances from her entire cast on designer Wilson Chin’s hyper-real set.
Lynn Nottage is on her way to becoming a national treasure. She has a wonderful ear and eye for the woes of the underclass, and a fantastic ability to mine deep emotional conflicts in her characters. In her poignant Intimate Apparel, set a century ago, a young black seamstress falls in love with a Jewish fabric merchant, an attraction he feels equally but which they both know is hopeless.
There’s deep truth in this production too, but no doom in Clyde’s. In fact, it’s an incredibly uplifting and uproarious tale about hope in the face of hopelessness. As Julie Andrews put it so succinctly in Mary Poppins — a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
“We are worms.” — Winston Churchill “We are glowworms.” — Robert Lowell
Gifted writer Lynne Kaufman’s structured one-act plays bring us the beauty of language in the pairing of You Must Change Your Life and Divine Madness, at the Marsh San Francisco, starring two of the Bay Area’s top actors, Charles Shaw Robinson and Julia McNeal.
Movingly directed by Lauren English, the 65-minute evening opens first with You Must Change Your Life, where we meet German poet Rainer Maria Rilke answering queries on poetry from Franz Krappus, a 19-year-old soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Krappus sends Rilke a poem and asks for feedback. The resulting ten-letter correspondence forms Rilke’s postmortem masterpiece Briefe an einen Jungen Dichter (Letters to a Young Poet), compiled and published by Krappus himself. These letters were a vital part of my own Bachelor’s Degree German education.
I wish both these plays were broadened into full-length.
Rilke (beautifully portrayed by Shaw with a slight German accent) encourages Krappus to avoid reading all criticism as it “Fails to touch a work of art.” Be true to yourself and ‘Go into yourself’, to find answers and create art. Wearing her own father’s Army jacket, Ms. McNeal plays Krappus with emotions ranging from pained insecurity to the resolve of a gifted artist.
The evening is as much about the performing range of Shaw and McNeal as it is about the poets. (A side note: the letters from Krappus to Rilke were found in Krappus’ estate and published separately in 2020.)
The second play, Divine Madness, dives into the fractured and storied relationship between renowned poet Robert Lowell and writer Elizabeth Hardwick. It is a relationship of intellectual verbal bantering and rage, as Lowell tries to ingratiate himself back into the life of his ex-wife. He left the intellectual Hardwick for Lady Caroline Blackwood, heiress of the Guinness Brewery company.
Two of the Bay Area’s top actors, Charles Shaw Robinson (R) and Julia McNeal (L). Photo Credit: David Allen
Lowell described his erudite and quite beautiful wife Caroline as “a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers.” Kaufman’s play brings out all of this in compiling the evidence, the results of the divorce, and the children involved. Lowell himself documented this relationship in his Pulitzer Prize winning book of poetry, The Dolphin.
Lowell was a manic-depressive artist who was often hospitalized with a bi-polar disorder. The sudden bursts of anger and rage are depicted in Shaw’s range of emotional insecurity as are McNeal’s strong firm grip on Hardwick’s own post-Lowell life with their daughter Harriet. What pervades through pain, frustration and anger are love, passion, and respect.
I wish both these plays were broadened into full-length. They give us a taste, an amuse bouche, and the Rilke piece, good as it is, feels tacked on to make this a longer evening that could be worthy of “Poetic Justice.”
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
'You Must Change Your Life' and 'Divine Madness'
Written by
Lynne Kaufman
Directed by
Lauren English
Producing Company
The Marsh, San Francisco
Production Dates
Through January 29, 2023. Saturday at 8:30, Sunday at 5pm
A century-old Cinderella story comes to life at Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater through January 22.
Sixteen years after its initial development in Ventura County, John Caird and Paul Gordon’s musical version of Jean Webster’s novel Daddy Long Legs has proven to be enduringly popular, especially among community theater troupes.
Daddy Long Legs is a production with appeal for fans of musical theater and of spunky-girl romances…
Cinnabar’s production features real-life husband-and-wife team Zachary Hasbany as young philanthropist Jervis Pendleton, and Brittany Law Hasbany as Jerusha Abbott, the oldest resident of an orphanage called the John Grier Home. The early-20th-century setup is that Jerusha has attracted his interest via her amusing descriptions of life at the orphanage. He offers to support her through college on the condition that she send monthly letters describing her progress, without expecting any replies.
Jerusha doesn’t know his identity—her letters go to an unknown benefactor called “Mr. Smith,” whom she nicknames “Daddy Long Legs” from having seen a fleeting shadow. The story spans Jerusha’s years in college, and her summers, told mostly in song—both performers are accomplished actors with fine voices—with some monologues to fill in the blanks for the audience.
Daddy Long Legs – Hasbany pair at work
As she matures, Jerusha develops a stronger sense of self, and hones her literary skills. In the course of her one-way communications with Jervis, he becomes enamored with her and arranges a meeting without revealing that he is Mr. Smith/Daddy Long Legs. They go hiking together, discover that they have acquaintances in common, and generally hit it off. He wrestles with his growing infatuation while she grows more independent. There’s a moment of truth ahead, one visible miles away.
And that’s the problem with Daddy Long Legs. Playwriting gurus say that for the sake of entertainment, audiences will make one or two huge leaps of faith to stick with the story, but this one was a leap too far for this reviewer. Jerusha becomes a successful novelist and ultimately lands her Prince Charming, but it’s not at all believable that after spending so much time with him, she doesn’t know his identity.
It’s like one of those masquerade ball scenes where the guests can see almost all of the other guests’ faces and converse in their normal voices but still pretend that they are strangers.
Director Elly Lichenstein gets lovely performances from the Hasbanys, and music director Mary Chun does likewise with the score—piano by Brett Strader—even though most of the songs sound very much alike.
Daddy Long Legs is a production with appeal for fans of musical theater and of spunky-girl romances, but potential ticket buyers are encouraged to read the Wikipedia plot synopsis before coming to the theater.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Daddy Long Legs
Written by
Jean Webster - adapted by John Caird and Paul Gordon
Spring has come early to Sonoma County as 6th Street Playhouse shines on theatre-goers young and old with a radiant production of A Year with Frog and Toad.
Luca Catanzaro’s beautifully spare setting has just the right amount of sumptuous color to enhance the vibrant performances of Frog (Jonathen Blue); Toad (Ted Smith); Bird, Turtle, Squirrel, Mole (Katie Foster); Bird, Mouse, Squirrel, Mole (Molly Larsen-Shine); and Bird, Snail, Lizard, Mole (Emma LeFever).
The vast majority of attendees could not stop smiling!
Donnie Frank’s costuming is also pitch perfect. Frog and Toad are dressed in keeping with their literary counterparts while the delightful birds sport multi-colored hair to match their plumage and billowy skirts; even without opening their mouths, their appearance alone incites glee!
Prior to the performance, young audience members were invited to color flowers and leaves provided at tables set up in the lobby. The children carried their art into the theatre and became part of the background as they waved their creations when characters sang.
As the story begins, three birds return north in spring after wintering in the South. Foster, Larsen-Shine and LeFever all give star performances as the birds that interact and harmonize beautifully with one another. Director Anne Warren Clark’s amusing and whimsical choreography perfectly expresses their joy as music director Daniel Savio’s upbeat ragtime ensures that not a toe remains untapped throughout their opening number. The vast majority of attendees could not stop smiling!
Jonathen Blue and Ted Smith are wholly believable as amphibian besties who organically teach lessons about kindness, loyalty and sharing, among other things, as they engage in activities in keeping with the seasons. Clark’s skillful direction empowered both performers to create characters that are charming, fun and fanciful – without devolving into childishness or slapstick.
Blue and Smith also have singing chops equal to their considerable facility for acting. The mail carrier snail – the living embodiment of “snail mail” – is flawlessly enacted by LeFever, whose artfully drawn-out journeys across the stage were an unexpected highlight among many in this abbreviated production (55 minutes with a 10-minute break).
Bring children, bring your friends, bring anyone who loves theatre and can use a bit of sunshine to see this heartwarming and exceptional presentation of A Year with Frog and Toad.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
A Year with Frog and Toad
Book and Lyrics by
Willie Reale
Directed by
Anne Warren Clark
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Weekends at 10 AM, 1 PM, and 4 PM through January 29th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Laughter and ragtime music open this colorful production in the small Monroe Stage at 6th Street Playhouse. Oversize storybooks line the stage with flowerpots and garlands brightening the aisles. Small children sit or bounce in their chairs – many with dress-up skirts or cowboy boots. This is one performance where watching the audience is as much fun as watching the actors’ antics onstage.
Three members of the cast (Katie Foster, Molly Larsen-Shine, and Emma LeFever) variously play feathered birds and other small critters. Kudos to Donnie Frank who designed the costumes of these woodland creatures. The gals sing a sweet harmony, dance the Charleston, and tap to keep the attention of squirming little ones – not an easy task.
L-to-R, Emma LeFever, Molly Larse Shine, and Katie Foster. Photos Credit: Eric Chazankin.
Frog (Jonathen Blue) and Toad (Ted Smith) pop up to build their friendship as the seasons change. These two are delightful with their dancing moves and duets. The simple story line underscores taking care of each other, and the kids seem to get it.
It’s a short show, just about one hour, and the songs flow quickly throughout the plot. The one exception is the snail, whose slow-motion entrances and exits are met with constant giggles.
During intermission, kids were welcome to work off their pent-up energy by dancing and twirling on the colorful painted floor. “Look at me, Daddy!” was the joyful cry heard over the music.
“…a great way to introduce youngsters to live theatre.”
A Year with Frog and Toad is a great way to introduce youngsters to live theatre. It’s interactive, with a pre-show art project hosted by the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County. Creating wands and pictures adds to the overall excitement of being at a show, particularly when some of the pictures are tacked up to the stage props and recognized by the little artists.
L-to-R, Ted Smith and Jonathen Blue. Photos Credit: Eric Chazankin.
The popularity of this musical based on the stories of Arnold Lobel has sold out many shows, leading 6th Street to extend the run to January 29th. Ticket prices are $15-$25 with children under 2 free.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
A Year with Frog and Toad
Book and Lyrics by
Willie Reale
Directed by
Anne Warren Clark
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Weekends at 10 AM, 1 PM, and 4 PM through January 29th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
If the measure of theatrical success is audience appreciation, Beetlejuice The Musical – at Golden Gate Theatre, San Francisco, through December 31st – is a runaway hit.
Eddie Perfect, who wrote the music and lyrics for the show, clues us in from the get-go that this is not your parents’ Beetlejuice. The play opens on the funeral for Emily Deetz, who has left behind her husband and 16ish-year-old daughter Lydia, (flawlessly played by Nevada Riley, understudy for Isabella Esler) who plaintively sings, “You’re invisible when you’re sad.”
Justin Collette as Beetlejuice and cast at work in ‘Beetlejuice’.
Before Riley’s final note has dissipated, Beetlejuice himself, an exquisitely unsavory Justin Collette, jumps in to bark, “Holy crap! A ballad already? And such a bold departure from the original source material!” before launching into his bravura opening number “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing,” which left the audience roaring with applause. He also warns us that, as with Tim Burton’s original late ‘80s film starring Michael Keaton, much of the humor is based around Beetlejuice, a lecherously loathsome character, and his vile, wholly inappropriate attention to basically anyone who comes within groping distance.
…a night of madcap fun…
Collette makes it clear that this is not a politically correct production as he jeers, “I know you’re woke–but you can take a joke…?” Apparently, most of the audience at the opening night performance were able to do just that.
In addition to Lydia and Beetlejuice, the story line follows newly deceased young couple Barbara and Adam (astutely cast Britney Coleman and Will Burton, respectively) as they try to terrorize Lydia, her father Charles (appropriately simpering Jesse Sharp), and Lydia’s “life coach,” Delia (the excellently flaky gold-digging Kate Marilley), who have moved into the home where Barbara and Adam intend to spend eternity. Unable to frighten them into leaving the home, Barbara seeks help from self-proclaimed “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice.
Isabella Eisler and Justin Collette, with Britney Coleman and Will Burton in ‘Beetlejuice’ (photo: Adina Hsu)
Where Burton’s original Lydia was an angsty and morbidly inquisitive teen, authors Scott Brown and Anthony King have reimagined her as maudlin and depressed. Riley is a talented actor and exceptional singer who performs both song and dialog with passion, flair and bravado that often transcend the often-insipid material she has to work with. Brown and King appear to be attempting to evoke genuine compassion and empathy from the audience, a misstep for a story never intended to be anything other than a quirky, campy romp.
Collette is a believably reprehensible Beetlejuice and manages to repel us even after we learn the backstory about his loveless childhood. Again, this reviewer felt that the attempts to add poignancy to the production fell flat. Collette’s performance, however, is fantastic and his manic antics, as well as the stunning visuals – Beetlejuice multiplied exponentially; the perfectly recreated sandworm; multiple ensemble numbers; stunning costuming – combine to provide a night of madcap fun.
For those looking for a night of off-beat (and off-base) humor and a fantastic cast of outstanding performers, Beetlejuice The Musical will not disappoint.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Beetlejuice: The Musical
Written by
Scott Brown & Anthony King
Directed by
Musical direction by
Alex Timbers
Producing Company
BroadwaySF
Production Dates
Thru December 31, 2022
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor St. San Francisco, CA
As You Like It, the Musical at SF Playhouse is delightful. Originally presented by The Public Theater, The New York Times named it among “The Best Theater of 2017.”
The performances are terrific, all the actors clearly having a great time onstage, totally invested in giving their absolute best to drive the show along and to entertain. This modern adaptation of a Shakespearean classic is well-directed by Bill English, who on opening night graciously thanked members of the press for attending.
The show is just plain fun!
Entrances and exits are head-spinningly perfect, the rollicking energy spectacular. The spare sets by English and Heather Kenyon are great, the lighting superb, (David Robertson), the choreography marvelous (Nicole Helfer), the costuming charming (Kathleen Qiu), and the live band terrific (Dave Dobrusky + 4). The show is just plain fun! They even threw in a Kanye West joke.
Oliver (front left: Ryan Torres) is summoned into court by Duke Frederick (Will Springhorn Jr. – center back), viewed by (l to r: Renee Rogoff, Jillian A. Smith, Johann Santiago Santos) in SF Playhouse’s musical version of “As You Like It”. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
The production has many elements of an English pantomime, a Christmas-season tradition in the UK. This reviewer would have enjoyed seeing even more of this. Slapstick components include topical humor, call-and-response lines with the audience, a “drag” character (in addition to Rosalind, the Bard’s original), and some lame “badda-bing” jokes such as:
“Did you know that I own a pencil used by William Shakespeare? He chewed on it a lot though, so I can’t tell if it’s 2B or not 2B.”
“Did you know that Shakespeare was able to write with either his left or right hand equally well? Yes, he was iambidextrous.”
“Over-the-top” is a perfect description of this show. My guest loved it and so did the entire audience. The 17 players received a well-deserved standing-O at the end.
Orlando (Nikita Burshteyn) invades the forest community of Arden (l to r: Ezra Reaves, Emily Dwyer, Jillian A. Smith) in the forest of Arden in San Francisco Playhouse’s musical version of “As You Like It,” performing now through January 14, 2023. Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli
Even though the songs in this show are written by Shaina Taub, currently working with Sir Elton John on a musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, I didn’t leave the auditorium singing or even humming the songs, My Fair Lady it ain’t, but how many musical shows are? Even so, as a fun, entertaining theater experience, it was “as I like it.”
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Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
Production
As You Like It, the Musical
Written by
William Shakespeare - adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery Music and Lyrics by Shaina Taub
A fabulous San Francisco tradition has returned after a three-year absence.
Perhaps the greatest redemption story in the English language, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is back at the American Conservatory Theatre, and what a welcome it’s receiving. The show runs through December 24 at the Toni Rembe Theatre on Geary Street (formerly the Geary Theatre).
The sumptuous, big-scale production stars James Carpenter as the dour miser Ebenezer Scrooge.
James Carpenter (Scrooge).
Without question one of the Bay Area’s top acting talents, Carpenter is at his peak in his signature role, one he shares with Anthony Fusco in alternating performances. Fusco is also a supremely talented actor who should bring an unusual interpretation to one of the most hated, most amusing, and ultimately most loved characters in the theatrical repertoire.
Directed by Peter J. Kuo, riffing somewhat on Carey Perloff’s original concept, this Christmas Carol is a joy to behold, with a huge cast of 40 performers including many children, but also many veteran actors (most in multiple roles) such as Sharon Lockwood, Jomar Tagatac, Howard Swain, and Brian Herndon. Lockwood absolutely shines as Mrs. Dilbert, Scrooge’s bitter housekeeper, and also as the lighthearted Mrs. Fezziwig, wife of Scrooge’s first employer.
…A theatrical and spiritual uplift unlike any other…
Dan Hiatt is fantastic as the ghost of Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley, who appears early in the tale to warn Scrooge that it’s not too late to change his evil ways.
Dan Hiatt (Ghost of Jacob Marley) in A.C.T.’s celebrated production of the Charles Dickens’ classic tale.
Burdened with the accumulated heavy karma of his earthly misdeeds, he rattles his fetters and intones “I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link and yard by yard . . . ” — one of the most potent warnings ever issued by a character on stage, and one that establishes the high-stakes drama to come.
The production sails along with astounding effects. The Ghost of Christmas Past (the glamorous B Noel Thomas) appears to Scrooge floating above him on a celestial swing (scenic designer John Arnone). Scrooge’s office is up a flight of stairs that he climbs repeatedly to lord it over his underpaid and oppressed clerk Bob Cratchit (Jomar Tagatac). Emily Newsome brings a charming sensitivity to the role of Belle, Scrooge’s first love, cast aside by his single-minded pursuit of money.
The cast of A.C.T.’s celebrated production of the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol”, playing at the Toni Rembe Theater (formerly the Geary Theater) in The City.
This Christmas Carol revives much of the tremendous theatricality that has long been part of ACT’s annual holiday offering. The stagecraft is spectacular and the music and dancing totally delightful. Composer Karl Lundeberg and choreographer Val Caniparoli deserve accolades for their contributions, as do lighting designer Nancy Schertler and sound designer Jake Rodriguez. The show is a brilliant team effort by a huge array of inspired experts.
A theatrical and spiritual uplift unlike any other, ACT’s A Christmas Carol is a wonderful holiday tradition suitable for all ages.
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Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
A Christmas Carol
Written by
Charles Dickens - adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Wals
As I sat watching this remarkable production at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre, I was filled with my own vivid memories of living in Germany for my junior year in college, and a trip I took to Dachau.
This was in 1966, only 20 years after the end of the war, and the camp was still structured as it had been when the Allies liberated it. I was 19 and have rarely spoken of my reactions to being in the Konzentrationslagers, sitting one of the remaining bed frames where hundreds were kept in the bitter cold awaiting their impending death, and then peering into the still remaining ovens where thousands were incinerated.
Dachau is a suburban town of Munich with a single railway leading to disembarkation center for the prisoners. The idea that no one knew was impossible to grasp. If I could smell the scents of the city in the cold alpine air, how could the citizens NOT smell the death of humanity? They did and they chose to ignore it, pushing it aside in an “It has nothing to do with me!” or “We just did not know!” firm attitude.
…Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn portrays the Polish World War II hero and Holocaust witness Jan Karski…
For 35 years, Polish Catholic Jan Karski was silent. He was a courier sent by the Polish government in exile to view what was happening to the millions of Jews who were disappearing from the ghettos. The great Elie Weisel invited Karski (a professor at Georgetown University) to speak at a conference on the liberation of the camps, and Karski finally opened up, retelling in harrowing detail what he witnessed.
The recounting, put together by writer/professor Derek Goldman and his then student Clark Young began as a class project and then with the divine casting of Goldman’s friend and Oscar nominee David Strathairn, the play took root. With a gorgeous and very specific lighting design by Zach Lane and subtle music of Roc Lee, we enter the world of the play in our minds and hearts.
David Strathairn at work at Berkeley Rep. Photo: Manaf Azzam
As Strathairn morphs in performance into the numerous voices of those Karski encountered, including FDR, Britain’s Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill, and various Dutch, Polish, German, and French people with whom he spoke and, of course Karski himself, we are both astounded by 73-year-old Strathairn’s versatility, physicality and ease, but also left in tears by what he conveys.
With the current rise of nationalism, antisemitism, and racial injustice in the world today and of course in the USA, The Lesson of Jan Karski arrives at the most opportune time. It is time not just to reflect, but more importantly to speak out. For 35 long years, Jan Karski did not, and then in a torrent of pain revealed his anguish.
David Strathairn as Jan Karski. Photo: Rich Hein
The play and David Strathairn’s vivid portrayal give us a doorway to our souls of necessity allowing us not just to view what we see, but to activate with words and deeds our own battle for truth.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor and director. and a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. He is a Professor Emeritus of Solano College. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
When you have as versatile an actor as Dave J. Abrams playing Buddy the Elf, it’s impossible to go wrong. Director Randy Ohara can justifiably be pleased with his new hit Elf, the Musical, running through Dec. 18 at the Foster City theater.
This young man – locally educated at UC Berkeley – is the real deal. He jumps high, he squeals like a kid, he dances around gracefully and he literally commands the stage whenever he’s on it – which is almost all the time.
”….he’s on the ‘naughty’ list!!”
As director O’Hara says in his director’s notes: “My hope is that you share some laughs and live in the moment with your loved ones, creating holiday memories.” Once he found his Buddy, choosing the rest of his 23-member cast likely came together easily. Several standouts include Jessica Coker as Emily Hobbs, the dynamo mom to impressive young MIchael Hobbs (Josh Parecki). Both Coker and Parecki possess strong voices that are used to good advantage in this fun show.
Walter Hobbs (Brandon Savage) leads the office in a chorus of “Christmas Always Gets in the Way”. Photo Appears Courtesy of Actors Equity Association — Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
Nadiyah Hollis’ clear vocals are another fine addition to “Elf.” As Macy’s top boss, she’s both commanding and demanding! Russ Bohard’s Santa displays just the right amount of “ho-ho-ho-ness” without becoming cloyingly sweet. But he would have seemed a tad more Santa-like if he looked as if he more enjoyed being around children.
As for Brandon Savage, playing the all-work-and-no-play Macy’s manager Walter Hobbs, he is truly on Santa’s “naughty” list when he tells his employees they’ll have to work late on Christmas Eve – maybe even on Christmas! – because they’re behind in their work. He’s even all-business at home but Buddy teaches him some solid lessons on lovingly taking care of both his business and his family.
Deb (Lindsay Schulz) shows Buddy (Dave J. Abrams*) how to make snow using the shredder. Photo Appears Courtesy of Actors Equity Association — Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
The sense of child-like wonder Abrams brings to his role is mesmerizing. When his father (Savage) tells him to go get a cup of cocoa and sit quietly in a chair, Buddy squeals with childish delight: “You know what’s even yummier? Hot chocolate with a chocolate bar on top!”
A number of supporting roles deserve mention as well: Lindsay Schulz as Deb is always smiling, dancing, singing – it made this reviewer hope she becomes Buddy’s girlfriend! But that role belongs to Allison J. Parker as Jovie. At first, Parker seems aloof and not at all interested in the persistent Buddy who instantly falls for her and tells her he wants to make all her dreams come true.
But Parker grows on you, and once she relaxes and smiles more, she seems a perfect foil for the mercurial elf. Her powerful vocals are also first-rate.
Meanwhile, high up to one side of the Hillbarn theatre sits musical director Joe Murphy playing drums and conducting a fine-sounding orchestra of about eight musicians.
Jeanne Batacan-Harper does a good job of choreographing her dancers in the somewhat small stage space at Hillbarn. Pam Lampkin and her costumers made cute little elf slippers for all of Santa’s elves – and created their outfits, including a colorful one for Buddy.
Buddy (Dave J. Abrams*) and New York’s out of work Santa’s declare that nobody cares about Santa Claus. Photo Appears Courtesy of Actors Equity Association — Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
Although the set design is fairly minimal, it works well for quick scene changes with most furniture sliding in and out as the background moves from Santaland, to Macy’s to the Hobbs home, to Central Park in New York.
So, pack up the whole family – kids especially, but aunts, grandparents, friends – and spend a few hours enjoying the wonderfulness of Hillbarn’s Elf, the Musical.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Elf, the Musical
Songs by
Book by
Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar & Chad Beguelin.
In small-town depression-era Georgia, due to a wholly unexpected blizzard, Orson Welles is unable to fulfill a much-heralded Christmas holiday performance at local radio station WHAM.
The package containing the script Welles was supposed to perform is inadvertently confused with another, containing fruitcake. Station owner Cab Hoxton (Dodds Delzell) was counting on Welles’ special holiday performance to save his flailing station and insists that the show must go on. Such is the premise of Ham for the Holidays, a seasonal farce by Shad Willingham at Main Stage West in Sebastopol.
…Ham for the Holidays is lighthearted, funny holiday theatre.
Local radio personality Dexter Armstrong (Garet Waterhouse) volunteers a script he has written and intended to pass to Welles, hoping that Welles would recognize his genius and help take his career to the next level. Under duress, Cab agrees to use the script, dubiously titled “Attack of the Space Robots from Outer Space,” but insists it be modified to fit the wintry Christmas season.
Needing all hands on deck to stage the play and perform the roles of the 20 characters in the script, Hoxton enlists Violet Bicks (Maureen O’Neil), a method-acting stage veteran; Timmy Wilkens (Zane Walters), young assistant to an absent sound effects technician and all-around station gofer; Uncle Dick (John Craven), Hoxton’s narcoleptic brother and former Shakespearean thespian; and Honey Hoxton (Dale Leonheart), Hoxton’s negligibly talented and supremely clumsy daughter. Mayhem ensues.
Wilkens accidentally breaks the handle off the boiler, causing the station to get hotter and hotter, leading everyone to gradually disrobe as the evening progresses. Uncle Dick falls asleep when he’s supposed to be on air; Violet insists on changing costumes for every character, even when she is playing multiple characters speaking to one another; Honey doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of “On Air,” but is thrilled to assist Wilkens with sound effects, at one point inserting a monkey sound into a barnyard scene; and everyone does their best to insert words into the script that make it seem as if the action is happening in a cool winter environment, even though it is set on a blazing hot summer day.
The set design with engineering booth, drop mic, desk, wall covered in sound effect props, door to hallway, door to office, etc., is well-done, but the limitations of the small stage take a toll. As multiple characters are performing separate – and often intentionally disparate – actions simultaneously, the desired sense of chaos is achieved, but the overall effect was chaotic and disjointed, making it difficult to home in on any particular scene.
While the individual players do well, eliciting many laughs, both because of the dialogue and their own talent at comedic acting – the Ham jingles alone were worth the price of admission – overall, the ensemble sometimes felt clumsy and out of sync. This may be resolved with further performances.
Despite the shortcomings, Ham for the Holidays is lighthearted, funny holiday theatre.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Ham for the Holidays
Written by
Shad Willingham
Directed by
Emily Cornelius
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Dec 30th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Director Michael Ross’ self-proclaimed “love letter to the theater community,” Always…Patsy Cline is based on the true story of Patsy Cline’s relationship with Louise Seger, a fan who became Patsy’s friend and with whom Patsy maintained a close correspondence until Cline’s untimely passing, at age 30, in a plane crash. The show runs at Sonoma Arts Live through December 18.
ASR contributors Sue Morgan and Cari Lynn Pace comment below:
CLP: SAL captures the spirit and voice of Patsy Cline by casting Danielle DeBow as the young American star of country music. DeBow has the stunning looks and the honeyed earthy voice that vaulted Cline to the top of the charts in the late 50s and early 60s. DeBow even captures the famous sad catch in Cline’s voice, so wonderfully evocaive in her hits “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
Danielle DeBow as Patsy Cline.
SM: Reprising their roles in SAL’s second production of the play, both Danielle DeBow (Patsy) and Karen Pinomaki (Louise) create the magic necessary to bring the audience back to mid-century America when Cline’s astonishingly numerous hits were pervasive on radio and TV, not merely for country music fans but for many others across the nation. You’ll find most of those hits faithful to the originals and beautifully performed by DeBow in this production.
… It’s an enjoyable – and laughable – tribute…
CLP: Who knows how far Cline might have gone had she not tragically died in that airplane crash before she was even 30 years old?
SM: DeBow is not only a world-class singer but also drop-dead gorgeous. Michael Ross has an impeccable eye for costuming and uses her beauty to great advantage. DeBow first appears as Patsy onstage at the Grand Ole Opry, wearing an accurate recreation of Cline’s iconic red-fringed cowgirl dress. Ross then adorns DeBow in an array of period-perfect and stunning confections which enhance and contribute to the overall appeal of the production.
CLP: The thin plot is based on the true story of Louise, Cline’s enthusiastic fan, and the friendship that developed between them. It‘s an amusing and heartfelt retelling, narrated by Pinomaki and based on letters the two women shared over several years. Pinomaki is an outrageous force of energy on stage, delightfully down-to-earth as she cavorts around the entire theater. She’s the perfect fearless foil against the cool smooth presence of DeBow.
SM: Pinomaki’s high-octane performance is both energizing and engaging, frequently eliciting appreciative laughter. Use of a thrust stage (the audience on three sides) works well to create a sense of intimacy as we observe Louise puttering in her kitchen, calling her local radio DJ to request her favorite Cline songs, or narrating and enacting the story of how she came to befriend her musical idol.
DeBow’s magnificent voice and stage presence, as well as the warmth and easy authenticity in her interactions with superfan Louise make her a wholly believable Patsy.
CLP: The six-piece band onstage is pure country, complete with pedal steel guitar and fiddle. At some moments the piano overwhelmed the vocals. Those unfamiliar with the songs may not grasp some of the poignant stories told in the lyrics. This reviewer, who has excellent hearing and sat in the second row, just went with the flow of the music.
Many of DeBow’s vocals are backed up by the harmony quartet of Sean O’Brien, Jonathen Blue, Steve Cairns, and Alexi Ryan, as the Jordanaires. They lend an authenticity to Cline’s original songs that is country-fine fun.
SM: The Jordanaires do a fine job as backup singers for Patsy, including a somber lament after her passing. The band was tight and on point and drummer Elizabeth Robertson collaborated well with Louise during a staged bit on tempo.
SM: Despite the tragedy of Cline’s early demise, Always… Patsy Cline does not devolve into melodrama, but maintains its focus on the friendship of two women of vastly different circumstances, brought together serendipitously and steadfastly connected through mutual affection and appreciation.
Danielle DeBow (Patsy) and Karen Pinomaki (Louise) create the magic at Sonoma Arts Live.
CLP: It’s no mere jukebox musical. It’s an enjoyable – and laughable – tribute from an energetic housewife to a budding superstar. Two down-home gals who once bonded and became friends … always.
SM: This production will make believers of those unfamiliar with Ms. Cline’s music and will renew the enthusiasm of long-term fans through its outstanding combination of theatricality, virtuoso musical performances, gorgeous costuming and heart-warming true-life subject matter. An exhilarating, riveting, joyful piece of musical theatre!
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Always, Patsy Cline
Written by
Ted Swindley
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thursdays thru Sundays until Dec. 18, 2022
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Anyone reluctant to revisit old Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghosts should prepare to be delighted by this musical follow-up to Dickens’s original story. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse once again shines with this perfectly polished performance of stunning characters – yes, including the ghosts, following Scrooge a year after Tiny Tim intoned “God bless us, every one.”
Director Jared Sakren was the ideal choice to lead this full-blown musical, having previously directed and played Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. He notes “I’m delighted to bring Scrooge in Love to 6th Street with its festive, heartwarming, and magical story.”
…The songs are delightful, and move the plot along quickly, just in time for more ghosts…
The curtain opens with an annoyed Scrooge (superbly characterized by Jeff Cote’) awakened by his former partner – now hairy ghost – Marley (Peter Downey). Kudos to sound designer Ben Roots for the spooky echo when Downey speaks, in contrast to Cote’s dialog. Scrooge thought his visitation by ghosts was over and points out his forward progress, singing “In Just One Year.” Alas, ghosts have other plans.
The Ghost of Christmas Past (beautiful Alanna Weatherby) floats in to convince Scrooge of her mission. Her hilarious song “I Love Love” may not be hummable for mere mortals, but this soaring soprano nails the highest notes to earn the audience’s spontaneous applause.
Transported to a long past Christmas celebration, Scrooge is urged to have a little party fun when his buddy Dick (Skyler King) leads the company in singing “A Regular Day.” Choreographer Joseph Favarola must have worked tirelessly with this large ensemble of adults and children to produce one of several joyous dance scenes.
Scrooge sees himself as a timid young man, well cast in Noah Sternhill. It’s love at first sight for young Scrooge and lovely Belle (superbly acted by Erin Rose Solorio.) Belle is eager, but shy Scrooge is painfully unsure of himself and lets the relationship slip from his grasp.
Cote’ is a formidable actor and comedic talent, and carries Scrooge in Love with energy and perfect characterizations. Singing is not his strong suit, yet his down-to-earth voice harmonizes well when he does a duet with Sternhill singing “The Things You Should Have Done.” Ginger Beavers directs the show’s live music written by Larry Grossman with lyrics by Kellen Blair. The songs are delightful, and move the plot along quickly, just in time for more ghosts.
The big Ghost of Christmas Present (Ezra Hernandez) arrives with an even bigger baritone voice. When he gets into the party action, Scrooge begins to get the picture. A cadre of kids and the cast sing “Do It Now” but Scrooge is unsure.
Finally, the silent and scary Ghost of Christmas Future (King doubles up for this role) shows a dismal ending. Scrooge sings “Sad I’m Dead” to great laughter. This reviewer found the many funny lines peppering this show added to the wit and enjoyment of the total production.
Scrooge at last is spurred to action. Scrooge, Marley, and the Three Ghosts sing “You Can’t Put a Price on Love” that brought the house down. A huge shout-out goes to the behind-the-scenes work of costume designer Mae Heagerty-Matos, and wig/hair/makeup designer Rosanne Johnson. The pair’s wizardry transforms actors into outrageous ghosts and classic Dickens characters.
So in summary, grab the family and go see Scrooge In Love — it’s a winter wonderland winner!
-30-
ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Scrooge in Love
Written by
Duane Poole
Directed by
Jared Sakren
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through Dec 18th. (Some dates have both afternoon and evening shows)
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Recognized as one of the greatest voices in American theater, Pittsburgh native August Wilson set out with the task of chronicling a century of the African American experience with ten plays reflecting each decade of the 20th century.
Two Trains Running is his 1960s play, bringing to life the assassination of Martin Luther King, inner city re-development and subsequent brewing discontent.
Set in Home Style, a restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Hill District, we meet owner Memphis (Lamont Thompson – an actor of endless vocal variety and passion), as he prepares for the inevitable selling of his property to the city, which will tear it down eliminating both history and the convivial meeting place for the few remaining patrons.
Sam Jackson (Risa) and Lamont Thompson (Memphis ) at work at Marin Theatre Company. Photo: Kevin Berne
Memphis has property in Jackson, Mississippi and he is eager to take one of the daily two trains running from Pittsburgh to Jackson to set claim with the papers he owns on his entitled land.
I love this play…
This play always resonates home for me, as I am from Pittsburgh and can recall when a vast swath of the Hill District was torn down to build the huge City Arena where I would begin my own career as a professional actor. The inhabitants were simply given notice and moved. Eminent domain! No choice! Literally hundreds of families and the history of a vital and thriving section of Pittsburgh ended in the 1960s.
What makes Two Trains Running so remarkable is that as we are introduced to seven characters whose threatened lives bring the play to life, there is no bombast as their idiosyncratic personalities express pain, humor and a searching for some continuity. We meet Wolf, a dynamic and always plotting numbers-runner played to slithering perfection by Kenny Scott. There is Holloway (a remarkable Michael Asberry), the moral compass of the café, always there, always at the down front table ready for a coffee and a chess game and a tete-a-tete conversation with Memphis.
Michael J. Asberry (Holloway) in Marin Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” — Photo: Kevin Berne
The stage is then energized by Eddie Ewell as Sterling. Fresh out of the state pen, he is glib and suave. Mr. Ewell fills the room with effortless radiance with a smile and guile that can melt the heart of Risa the waitress (Sam Jackson) whose life, it seems, is to refill the always emptying coffee cups and dish out the cornbread and chicken, which seem to be the only foodstuffs served at the Home Style. Risa has a secret which has protected her from any assault. Jackson hides the daily grind and the pain with a quiet resolve.
Eddie Ewell (Sterling) in MTC’s production of “Two Trains Running”. Photo: Kevin Berne.
Home Style is across the street from West’s Funeral Home. Khary L. Moye’s West, wearing his black suit and black gloves at all times, proudly announces his many Cadillacs, the dream cars of the black experience, are always in tip-top shape readying for the next death. Lastly and most movingly there is Hambone, whose two reiterated lines “I wants my ham. He gonna give me my ham!” brings us to tears in Michael Wayne Rice’s simple rendering of this sad complicated man.
Wilson’s play is filled with lengthy but distinctive monologues as Memphis and Holloway especially bring us Wilson’s prescient, proud profundities with shooting arrow precision. “No wonder Justice is wearing a blindfold” . . . “We are all a part of everything that came before.” The play is directed with infinite care and precision by Dawn Monique Williams. Even the scene changes under sound designer Gregory Robinson’s haunting work bringing the shifting passage of time are a part of Ms. Williams’ clarity.
I love this play and its bold attempt not to be bold, but just be! It is never boring. All we have to do is listen. Listen to the beating hearts of the black men and women impatiently and patiently knowing that change is coming.
Sometimes it’s the quiet ones who scream the loudest in our hearts,
-30-
ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is San Francisco based actor-director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Production
Two Trains Running
Written by
August Wilson
Directed by
Dawn Monique Williams
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Dec. 18th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
Anyone reluctant to revisit old Ebenezer Scrooge and his ghosts should prepare to be delighted by this musical follow-up to Dickens’s original story. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse once again shines with this perfectly polished performance of stunning characters – yes, including the ghosts, following Scrooge a year after Tiny Tim intoned “God bless us, every one.”
Director Jared Sakren was the ideal choice to lead this full-blown musical, having previously directed and played Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. He notes “I’m delighted to bring Scrooge in Love to 6th Street with its festive, heartwarming, and magical story.”
…outrageous ghosts and classic Dickens characters…
The curtain opens with an annoyed Scrooge (superbly characterized by Jeff Cote’) awakened by his former partner – now hairy ghost – Marley (Peter Downey). Kudos to sound designer Ben Roots for the spooky echo when Downey speaks, in contrast to Cote’s dialog. Scrooge thought his visitation by ghosts was over and points out his forward progress, singing “In Just One Year.” Alas, ghosts have other plans.
The Ghost of Christmas Past (beautiful Alanna Weatherby) floats in to convince Scrooge of her mission. Her hilarious song “I Love Love” may not be hummable for mere mortals, but this soaring soprano nails the highest notes to earn the audience’s spontaneous applause.
Transported to a long past Christmas celebration, Scrooge is urged to have a little party fun when his buddy Dick (Skyler King) leads the company in singing “A Regular Day.” Choreographer Joseph Favarola must have worked tirelessly with this large ensemble of adults and children to produce one of several joyous dance scenes.
Scrooge sees himself as a timid young man, well cast in Noah Sternhill. It’s love at first sight for young Scrooge and lovely Belle (superbly acted by Erin Rose Solorio.) Belle is eager, but shy Scrooge is painfully unsure of himself and lets the relationship slip from his grasp.
Cote’ is a formidable actor and comedic talent, and carries Scrooge in Love with energy and perfect characterizations. Singing is not his strong suit, yet his down-to-earth voice harmonizes well when he does a duet with Sternhill singing “The Things You Should Have Done.” Ginger Beavers directs the show’s live music written by Larry Grossman with lyrics by Kellen Blair. The songs are delightful, and move the plot along quickly, just in time for more ghosts.
Scrooge In Love: the cast at work at 6th St.
The big Ghost of Christmas Present (Ezra Hernandez) arrives with an even bigger baritone voice. When he gets into the party action, Scrooge begins to get the picture. A cadre of kids and the cast sing “Do It Now” but Scrooge is unsure.
Finally, the silent and scary Ghost of Christmas Future (King doubles up for this role) shows a dismal ending. Scrooge sings “Sad I’m Dead” to great laughter. This reviewer found the many funny lines peppering this show added to the wit and enjoyment of the total production.
Scrooge at last is spurred to action. Scrooge, Marley, and the Three Ghosts sing “You Can’t Put a Price on Love” that brought the house down. A huge shout-out goes to the behind-the-scenes work of costume designer Mae Heagerty-Matos, and wig/hair/makeup designer Rosanne Johnson. The pair’s wizardry transforms actors into outrageous ghosts and classic Dickens characters.
-30-
ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a voting member of SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County. Contact: pace-koch@comcast.net
Production
Scrooge in Love
Written by
Duane Poole
Directed by
Jared Sakren
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through Dec 18th. (Some dates have both afternoon and evening shows)
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Writer/director Emma Rice has deconstructed one of the most beloved English novels of the 19th century and has remade it into a pop-rock extravaganza, delighting some critics and outraging others. Her Wuthering Heights runs at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through January 1, 2023.
Traditionalists expecting a stage production of the dark 1939 film starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier are likely to be disappointed. This frenetic, high-energy show is geared to a younger generation with a different aesthetic, but it can work equally well for those not necessarily tethered to the past. Innumerable classic stories have been reinvented for the sake of stage and screen entertainment. There’s certainly no reason why Wuthering Heights shouldn’t suffer the same fate, just as Hamlet can be reinterpreted as a modern business drama, or Romeo and Juliet reconfigured as a rock opera.
…The movement work in this show is inspiring. So is (the) mining of humor…
Controversy swirled at Berkeley Rep’s November 22 press opener. Some critics raved to their colleagues about Rice’s stunning production while others dismissed it as an abomination. ASR’s George Maguire and Barry Willis comment here:
BW: This is an amazing, dynamic production with multi-threat performers who can act, dance, do gymnastics, and in some cases, play instruments. Especially impressive are Jordan Laviniere, who plays the leader of the Yorkshire Moors, and Leah Brotherhead as Catherine. She’s also a great rock singer. TJ Holmes, who plays Dr. Kenneth, performs on cello and accordion when he’s not stage center. He’s a delightful comic actor, one of a cast of eleven, most of whom tackle multiple roles. Theatrical talent is everywhere in this show but the multi-casting can cause confusion among viewers because most of the characters are cousins with similar names.
GM: Yeah, Barry! It is a fairly faithful adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel, and if you can stop conflating the story with her sister Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, you’re a winner. The story itself is weighted down with so many generations of relationships, and births and deaths, with eleven actors playing all the roles. It’s often highly confusing.
Leah Brotherhead as Catherine and Liam Tamne as Heathcliff in the West Coast premiere of Wise Children’s “Wuthering Heights” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Photo by Kevin Berne.
BW: I’m no Bronte expert, but it looks to me like Emma Rice has adhered to the original plot, but uses story elements and characters to create something entirely new. I’m generally approving of prequels, sequels, and reinterpretations of classic stories — with the exception of Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma!, a real horror show.
Rice’s Wuthering Heights isn’t really the Bronte classic. I attended with my friend Marcia Tanner, an art curator with a degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley. She quipped: “It’s misleading to title this show Wuthering Heights . . . it should be Something Based on Wuthering Heights.” That’s a fair assessment.
GM: My biggest challenge was not hearing the play (technically, a musical), but frankly, it was not understanding what the cast was saying and singing.
BW: That was a problem for many in the audience, I believe. Thick Yorkshire accents were tough enough to understand during dialog, and impossible to decipher during the show’s many songs. I loved the music but couldn’t tell you what any of the songs are about. Marcia astutely observed, “They need superscripts.” The only words that appear on the large backdrop are a few lines from the novel.
GM: Etta Murfitt’s choreography is wonderful and eclectic, ranging from almost hoe-down, to Irish jig, to nonspecific elegance. A lovely and diverse musical score by Ian Ross keeps the play moving. The casting of eleven very accomplished members of the Wise Children’s troupe was a joy, as was watching them effortlessly morph into the manifold characters in the novel. Heathcliff (Liam Tamne, of multi-national background) is particularly inspired casting, making the orphan Heathcliff the dark, brooding, and very sexy creature he was — unlike anyone else in the Yorkshire moors.
BW: I was knocked out by the performers and the quick-moving stagecraft, especially the rolling doors-and-windows pieces that transformed into beds and other devices. The books-on-sticks-as-fluttering-birds bit is brilliant low-cost theatricality. So are the chalkboards that serve as erasable tombstones.
GM: The movement work in this show is inspiring. So is Rice’s mining of humor — she finds comedic potential in many of Bronte’s situations, something that to my knowledge has never been done. But this Wuthering Heights is no spoof — it’s an inspired reinterpretation.
BW: Was the love affair between Heathcliff and his adoptive sister Catherine considered scandalous when the novel was published? It might be seen as close to incest today even though the two were not biologically related. Save Dr. Kenneth and the narrator Mr. Lockwood, almost all the other characters in the production are cousins, nothing unusual in an isolated community.
Jordan Laviniere as the Leader of the Yorkshire Moors; Eleanor Sutton, Katy Ellis, Tama Phethean, Stephanie Elstob, and Ricardo Castro as The Moors in the West Coast premiere of Wise Children’s “Wuthering Heights” now showing at Berkeley Rep. Photo by Kevin Berne.
GM: A community that’s cold, damp, and dark! Rice and set designer Vicki Mortimer went over the top portraying that.
BW: I had no expectations about this show, and was delighted — especially by the incredibly dynamic first act.
My only prior exposure was reading the novel in ninth grade — required reading — and having watched the movie at some point not long after that on late-night TV. The subject matter wasn’t something that resonated for me and wasn’t anything I cared to revisit.
I have difficulty relating to the social structure and morality of the time, which makes playwrights like Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov, and their contemporaries something of a slog for me. I never liked G. B. Shaw until I saw Major Barbara, but I hope to live a thousand years without enduring another Mrs. Warren’s Profession.
But I understand the appeal of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, especially for women. In their time, the only path to a better life was through choosing the right marriage partner. Mothers often bled to death after childbirth. Infant and childhood mortality were rampant, from conditions easily treated today. This whole pathetic milieu is background for Wuthering Heights, but Emma Rice makes it entertaining and enjoyable..
GM: In all, this Wuthering Heights is a truly nifty addition to the repertoire of Wise Children, a new theatre company founded by Ms. Rice, whose group brought The Wild Bride to life at Berkeley Rep a few years ago. Imaginative, enthralling and chillingly-thrillingly theater.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor-director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Wuthering Heights
Written by
Emily Bronte
Adapted by Emma Rice
Directed by Emma Rice
Choreographed by Etta Murfitt
Happenstance, a lost notebook, a garden gnome, and Zeno’s Paradox all converge as a quirky Parisian girl finds love in Amélie the Musical, at Masquers Playhouse in Pt. Richmond through December 10.
Written by Craig Lucas, with music by Daniel Messé, and lyrics by Messé and Nathan Tysen, the production helmed by Enrico Banson is based on the popular 2001 film. Structured more as an operetta than a traditional musical, Amélie features almost no spoken dialog.
Everything—32 songs in all—is beautifully sung by a surprisingly large cast for a small theater. Most of the performers also play instruments and handle multiple roles with aplomb. This show may be the only one where a violist (Hayley Kennen) plays and sings at the same time.
…This production sails joyously all the way to theatrical satisfaction.
Solona Husband shines in the lead role. Cute as she can be, Husband innocently seduces audience and cast mates alike with her confident acting and superb vocal abilities, nearly matched by Sleiman Alamadieh as guitar-playing Nino, the boy Amélie hopes to meet. A musical theater performer since childhood, Husband has enormous talent with plenty of potential for further development. Should she stick with it—that’s her stated goal—she’s destined for stardom. She’s that good.
Solona Husband at work.
Her performance alone recommends this production, one that exceeds expectations at every turn. The supporting cast is tremendous, especially Anand Joseph as the Blind Beggar, who entertains the pre-show audience with his accordion, and double bassist Douglass Mandell, who tackles two roles in addition to playing throughout the show. North Bay theater veteran Nelson Brown, also one of this show’s guitarists, and fresh from Marin Musical Theatre Company’s production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, does a fine job in dual roles, including a convincing turn as Amélie’s stiff, socially awkward father.
Set design by John Hull is delightful, including Le Café des Deux Moulins (Two Windmills Café), a photo booth, and a sex shop where Nino works. Aaron Tan’s music direction is unassailably great, as is Katherine Cooper’s choreography.
“Amélie the Musical”, cast at work, Masquers Playhouse in Pt. Richmond
How does Zeno’s Paradox fit in? The Greek philosopher’s most famous conundrum involves an examination of the concept of “half,” as in the question “If you cut the distance to your goal by half at each step, how many steps will it take to get there?” The answer: An infinite number, because each half-step leaves some distance remaining.
The theme recurs throughout the show—half measures, half asleep, halfway there, but its philosophical implications should have little bearing on Amélie’s audience. This production sails joyously all the way to theatrical satisfaction. Amélie the Musical is a totally charming and terrific diversion.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
The Temptations were one of Motown’s most successful and enduring vocal groups, one that in many ways shaped and defined American pop music in the 1960s and ’70s. Four years after it debuted at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations has come roaring back to San Francisco after becoming a major attraction on Broadway.
The national touring production has reportedly sold out the capacious Golden Gate Theatre for its entire run into early December–and deservedly so. It’s a dazzling spectacle covering the entire arc of the Temps’ storied career, from their origins as a street-corner doo-wop act in the late 1950s to long-term superstardom.
…the #1 R&B group of all time”…
Beautifully structured by playwright Dominique Morisseau (Detroit ’67 and Skeleton Crew) and narrated by Marcus Paul James as the group’s founder Otis Williams, the story encompasses not only the group’s enviable success, but many of the personal tragedies incurred along the way: Williams’ estrangement from his wife Josephine (Najah Hetsberger) and their son; the dismissal from the lineup of Paul Williams (James T. Lane) due to his alcoholism; and the unreliability of top talents such as Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin (Jalen Harris and Elijah Ahmad Lewis, respectively), both of whom had great solo careers despite their personal issues. Ruffin was dismissed from the group due to drug problems — he died of an overdose — and the erratic Kendricks succumbed to lung cancer.
PHOTO CREDIT: EMILIO MADRID National Touring Company of AIN’T TOO PROUD
These tragedies provide real-world counterbalance to the upbeat feel of the whole show, as do projections that put many Temptations hit songs into historical context, including the 1967 riots in Detroit and the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis the following year. All of that is valuable information, especially for younger members of the audience who weren’t here at the time, but it’s the music that sustains this amazing production, performed by a stellar cast backed by an equally stellar band behind the stage’s backdrop.
The nearly three-hour show sails along thanks to expert flawless stagecraft, amazing dance (Sergio Trujillo, choreographer) and absolutely stunning vocal performances. Songs include all the Temps’s greatest hits — “My Girl,” “Cloud Nine,” “Get Ready,” “Since I Lost My Baby,” “War,” “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” “Shout,” and many many others too numerous to list here.
The Temptations were listed by Billboard magazine as “The #1 R&B Group of All Time.” For those who weren’t around during their peak, Ain’t Too Proud is a vastly entertaining immersion in cultural history. For those who were, it’s an equally valuable reminder of how much Motown contributed to our lives. It’s a night in the theater that no one will forget.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Ain't Too Proud
Written by
Dominique Morissea
Directed & Choreographed by
Directed by Des McAnuff; Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo
Marin County’s venerated 110 year-old Mountain Play, which bills itself as a “Great Outdoor Theatre Adventure” is currently producing the 63-year-old Broadway smash musical Gypsy indoors. Neither is showing its age.
Nor is the venue, The Barn Theater at the Marin Art and Garden Center. Normally the home of the 92-year-old Ross Valley Players, the theater has undergone a recent face-lift, including brand new seats and a remodeled concession area.
With book by Arthur Laurents, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by the then 30-year-old Stephen Sondheim, 1959’s Gypsy is a much-beloved American musical about a fame-obsessed stage-mother during the waning days of vaudeville, with her itinerant troupe of ‘kids’– including her own two daughters, one of whom grows up to become the world-famous burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoir the show is loosely based.
Director/choreographer Zoe Swenson-Graham’s well-cast group of thirteen exuberant performers, including two Equity actors, play thirty-seven different roles in this three-hour extravaganza, on choreographer/scenic artist Zachary Isen’s clever yet spare set, with musical-direction by Jon Gallo.
…Is Gypsy a superb black comedy or an American tragedy? Decide for yourself at this smashing production.
Even those who are not musical-theater aficionados will probably be familiar with the show’s hits: “Some People,” “‘Together, (Wherever We Go),” the classic strip-tease number “Let Me Entertain You” and Broadway belter favorite “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”
“Gypsy” guys: L to R – Anthony Maglio as Yonkers, Alex Alvarez as Tulsa, Lucas Michael Chandler as L.A., and Michaela Marymor as Broadway Boy. Photos: Robin Jackson
This over-the-top musical, which American essayist Frank Rich described as, ” . . . nothing if not Broadway’s own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear . . .” demands that performers give their all to pull it off successfully. Swenson-Graham’s troupe does just that, led by Dyan McBride as the ultimate likeable-but-nightmarish stage mother.
Jill Jacobs as Gypsy Rose Lee. Photos: Robin Jackson
McBride’s Mama Rose drives ahead constantly, no matter the difficulties, financial setbacks, slap-downs, fleabag accommodations and poverty. She’s ready, able and willing to digest even canned dog food to achieve her ambition of propelling her daughter June to stardom. It’s hard not to despise the ego-driven Rose, whom theater critic Clive Barnes described as “one of the few truly complex characters in the American musical’ and yet not admire her at the same time for her grit and spirit, as she harangues and uses her own children and everyone else around her, including her long-suffering boyfriend/manager Herbie, played charmingly by Bay Area stage veteran DC Scarpelli.
Her awkward, yearning-to-be-loved daughter Louise’s ultimate transformation into the glamorous, sexy Gypsy Rose Lee is quite extraordinary. The talented Jill Jacobs absolutely kills it. While the primary plot is Mama Rose’s struggle to keep her act afloat in a changing market, the secondary plot is a wonderful ugly duckling story.
Alexandra Fry as ‘Baby June’ in “Gypsy” at The Barn.
Alexandra Fry and Julia Ludwig, as daughter June at different ages, also shine. Swenson-Graham’s supporting cast is terrific. In the show’s most hilarious burlesque scene, showgirls Michaela Marymor and Libby Oberlin and the outstanding Tanika Baptiste, as stripper Tessie Tura, dance and prance in Adriana Gutierrez’s fabulously ridiculous outfits, one of which even lights up! Kudos to Marymor who cutely ad-libbed when one piece failed to fire up on opening night.
The lighting of a stage show is critical to its ambiance and drama. Ellen Brooks and Frank Sarubbi handle the Barn’s lighting design with aplomb. Bruce Vieira’s sound design follows suit.
There’s no live orchestra for this production, unlike regular Mountain Play performances, but the recorded tracks directed by Sean Paxton work well, although sometimes the music seemed to overwhelm the vocals. Perhaps the volume might be lowered for the music or the lead performers should be miked.
Is Gypsy a superb black comedy or an American tragedy? Decide for yourself at this smashing production.
-30-
Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
Production
Gypsy
Written by
Book: Arthur Laurents.
Music: Jule Styne
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Zoe Swenson-Graham
Producing Company
The Mountain Play Association / Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Through Dec 18, 2022
Production Address
The Barn Theater @ Marin Art & Garden Center 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Ross, CA.
An enchanting Belle, a handsome, muscular Gaston and snappy choreography. What could go wrong?
A few things, actually, although the large opening night audience at the Palo Alto Players’ production of Beauty and the Beast probably didn’t notice. In fact, after the big Act 1 production number “Belle” — featuring the entire ensemble clicking metal drink cups — the audience whistled, applauded and stomped their feet so long, you’d have thought it was the finale!
Sam Mills is close to perfection as Belle, who is shunned by the townspeople for being a little strange (she loves to read books!). Her plain blue pinafore makes her look a bit like Judy Garland in….you know: THAT movie.
Sam Mills as Belle in Palo Alto Players’ production of Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the enchanting Broadway musical based on the animated film. Photo by Scott Lasky.
But she’s got gumption galore, and she does her best to take care of her somewhat eccentric father (Michael Johnson) who loves to fiddle with all things electronic. He’s especially proud of the automobile-type contraption he’s invented which has a habit of breaking down every few feet or so.
In addition to Belle, director Patrick Klein made several fine casting choices here: Frankie Mulcahy as Gaston is one. Mulcahy has played Gaston before, and he’s likely only grown better in the role. Such biceps! Such conceit! Such a devilish grin as he boasts to one and all that he — and only the magnificent he — will sweep Belle off her feet and she’ll melt like honey in his arms. Ha! Belle has absolutely no interest in the self-absorbed Gaston, and the more she resists, the more he’s sure she’s all his.
It’s difficult to go wrong when you’re watching a musical that has an enchanting musical score by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.
… Such biceps! Such conceit!
Lucky for Mulcahy that he has someone as versatile and pliable as John Ramirez-Ortiz who, as Lefou, gets batted around and mightily bruised whenever Gaston needs something to punch.
The hard-working cast of 24 brings choreographer Stacy Reed’s sprightly dance numbers to life, helping recreate the magic of the Broadway musical. Yet there are a few strange choices which, to this reviewer make it slightly less than it could be.
Sam Mills as Belle and Frankie Mulcahy as Gaston. Photo by Scott Lasky.
Michael Reed is strong as the Beast. His large structure, gnarled face, ugly horns (thanks to Shilbourne Thill and the Children’s Musical Theatre of San Jose, from whom all the costumes were borrowed), and thoroughly obnoxious disposition make him a Beast to cower before and obey.
But underlying that blustery front is a lonely man who has never known love. Reed’s vocals are clear and filled with longing. So, though he snarls and barks commands to his household servants (who are gradually turning into inanimate objects), he becomes subservient to Belle when she becomes the first person to defy him.
It’s simply delicious to watch him suddenly become a tongue-tied male in love with the dainty Belle.
“…I’m not going to dinner!”
Yet at play’s end, as the Beast finally explodes in a mighty whirl of smoke and lightning, why did director Klein decide to remove Reed from the scene and put in a different actor? It felt wrong because actor Justin Kerekes, as the Prince, looks nothing like Reed.
(To this reviewer, it actually looked as if Kerekes was embarrassed to be standing on stage in Reed’s place.) There’s no logical reason for this switch. Other productions have easily removed the Beast’s facial makeup and hair during the 10 – 15 seconds when he isn’t visible.
Several other supporting characters deserve mention, most especially Arjun Sheth as Lumiere, who was once the Beast’s servant but is now gradually turning into a chandelier. Sheth is so subtle that at one point he goes from a standing position to slithering across the stage like a snake!
Juliet Green is a charming, sweet Mrs. Potts, who, instead of serving tea, is gradually turning into a teapot, and Ben Chau-Chiu is a deservedly disgruntled Cogsworth.
But PAP choose not to have a live orchestra in the pit, so musical conductor Daniel Hughes is there, all alone, giving the actors musical direction.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
In an era when so many live entertainment venues have closed down, how encouraging it is that a new one has opened: The California Theatre of Santa Rosa, California.
Before the end of 2022, the cabaret-style venue will host blues music, comedy nights, cabaret, a solo show, soul music and a “Mardi-Gras Style” New Year’s Eve party on Dec. 31. Unlike many other Bay Area theaters, The California offers beer, wine, cocktails and a menu of snacks, plus pizza and salads.
The California is also the new home of Left Edge Theatre, featuring through November 20, the hilarious farce, The One Act Play That Goes Wrong. It’s a condensed version of the comedy-collective Mischiefs’ world-famous The Play That Goes Wrong that originally premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London in 2012 and went on to win the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.
… the terrific eight-person cast all manage to find the foolishness in every turn…
This production is a classic 1920s murder mystery, involving the totally inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, attempting to stage a production of The Murder at Haversham Manor. A police inspector has been sent to a country manor to investigate a mysterious death. It might be murder and everyone is a suspect in this Monty Python-style riot.
With falling props, missed cues, forgotten lines, hilariously mispronounced dialog, slapstick antics and a secret romance, the whole sidesplitting debacle ends with a total collapse of the set. Giving away the ending is of no consequence in this case because everyone (except of course the play’s characters) can clearly see what’s coming . . . and it does.
The secret to success for this type of show is in the actors not playing it for laughs but being absolutely serious and in the moment, no matter what happens, allowing the audience to split their sides with laughter. That’s exactly what they did on opening night. Well directed by North Bay theater veteran, actor/director David L. Yen, the terrific eight-person cast all manage to find the foolishness in every turn.
A big welcome to The California! This theatergoer hopes that it finds its audiences and that it thrives in the Bay Area.
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Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
North Bay residents don’t often appreciate how unusual is the fact that Marin and Sonoma counties have so much open space so close to one of the world’s major cities.
Marin County has approximately 10% of the population as envisioned by real estate developers in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, who seriously imagined flattening the hills and crisscrossing the county with freeways feeding numberless housing tracts. They saw Marin as the potential Orange County of the north.
That avaricious program was stopped in its tracks by environmental activists like Ellen Straus, co-founder of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust.(MALT). The Amsterdam native came to the US in her teens, escaping the Holocaust. She married German-Jewish immigrant Bill Straus, and joined him on his dairy farm in Marshall, a small West Marin community near Tomales Bay.
…one of the best celebrations of life imaginable…
Through November 27, her daughter Vivien Straus gives a wonderfully poignant and at times laugh-out-loud funny tribute to her mom in a solo show called After I’m Dead, You’ll Have to Feed Everyone: The Rollicking Tale of Ellen Straus, Dairy Godmother.
Vivien Straus.
Ellen Straus passed away some 20 years ago but her legacy lives on. Part history, part reminiscence, part catharsis, part standup comedy, and all heart, After I’m Dead is a concise (slightly over one hour) tale of life on the very ranch where the show takes place. Vivien explores her relationship with her mother and family, and takes us through a grueling but heartwarming end-of-life ordeal. That may not sound like a recipe for a fulfilling theatrical experience, but Vivien has achieved sufficient distance to mine all the pathos and abundant humor, supplied with love that only a daughter can convey. It’s one of the best celebrations of life imaginable.
A career writer/actor/performer, Vivien conceived and polished this show with expert guidance from longtime North Bay actor/director/artistic director Elly Lichenstein, recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and the director of After I’m Dead. Straus’s timing and delivery are spot-on. She’s a confident performer delivering a deeply personal story, one that’s beyond effective.
Vivien Straus, daughter of Ellen Straus of Straus Family Creamery fame, stands among grazing dairy cows at her family ranch home in Marshall, Ca.
The venue is the beautifully restored old barn on the Straus Home Ranch, with room for—a guesstimate here—maybe 150 visitors. Early arrivals can enjoy a picnic from a food truck parked nearby and may enjoy tossing scraps to some of the lovely free-ranging chickens wandering from table to table.
It’s chilly this time of year—visitors should bring ample clothing and leave in plenty of time to get out to Marshall. There are no freeways in that direction, thanks mostly to unsung heroes like Ellen Straus, West Marin is served almost entirely by two-lane roads. It’s a sweet drive and destination. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
It takes years to get a new musical up and ready to be seen.
The rockabilly sound-and-light fest Red Shades is no exception. A cast of mostly trans, binary, and renowned queer artists of the Bay Area take us on a phantasmagorical journey in wild comic book style with a heart as big as Golden Gate Park. Started at the El Rio with follow-up work at PianoFight, Starlight and other workshop homes, Red Shades finally opened as a completed musical at the Z Space Steindler Theater.
…For a seemingly simple story of a boy/girl arriving in SF, this one has more twists and turns than Lombard Street…
Three years before the Stonewall riots in NYC, the Gene Compton Cafeteria trans, drag queens and queers riots in San Francisco’s Tenderloin began it all only to be lost in gay “herstory.” It has been re-discovered by playwright Adrienne Price, forging a union with composers Matt Fukui Grandy and Jeanine Adkisson creating this world premier.
Pictured (L to R): Chris Steele, May Ramos, Romelo Urbi. Photo by Jay Yamada
Red Shades tells the story of Ida Diamond, who as a boy in rural Nevada, dons a dress and is accosted by his father. The music and lyrics (which in a genuine and glorious surprise for a rock musical, are at least 80% crystal clear), take us on Ida’s journey. Dad sends him/her off to a hospital. The songs “Daddy Eggshells” and the wonderful “For Your Protection” are sung with panache and total drag-nurse commitment by the estimable Chris Steele.
Adam KuveNiemann gets to flex a host of scumbag sensibilities (and a terrific voice) as the abusive father, the sadistic doctor, and the sheriff. Ida finally escapes and arrives in San Francisco, finding a room with three of the wildest trans superheroes one can imagine (“Welcome to Flip House”). Chris Steele (Genevieve), Ezra Reeves (Tommy) and B Noel Thomas (Sherry) embody these three with amazing style and powerful vocals.
Pictured (L to R): Ezra Reaves, Chris Steele, Carmen Castillo, B Noel Thomas. Photo by Jay Yamada
It takes Act Two to finally give us what the title is about—a hopefully fixable part in the development of this musical. When the hostility and threats of beatings arise, you put on the red shades and presto – you become a superpower and kickass with superhero strength. The shades bring rage into focus, and we can survive another day. Ida gets the glasses, and gets her life together despite the desperate attempts of her father and the Sheriff to arrest her. The shades win on all accounts. For a seemingly simple story of a boy/girl arriving in SF, this one has more twists and turns than Lombard Street.
Pictured, Foreground (L to R): Julio Chavez, Ezra Reaves. Photo by Jay Yamada
Sarah Phykitt has designed the terrific set and video projection work, Lyre Alston does spot on costume designing, and special mention must go to sound mixers Michael Creason and Daniel Hall who (except when the singer feels she has to screech and scream) give us the lyrics and thus the story. Bravo to co-directors Rotimi Agbabiaka and Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe for guiding Red Shades to the stage and to stage manager Marie Shell for wrangling this complicated, multi-cued production. She alone deserves a pair of red shades.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco base actor-director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
Stephen Sondheim wrote this dark and diabolical opera of an obsessed barber’s revenge gone amuck. It won multiple Tony awards including best musical, despite having only a few memorable songs such as “Pretty Women” and “(Nothing’s Going to Harm You) Not While I’m Around.”
Director/choreographer Staci Arriaga teamed up with costume designer Barbara McFadden to handle the dark tale with a minimal set but a talented cast. They make admirable use of the intimate 99-seat theatre with solo musicians set here and there, both onstage and off.
Sondheim’s dark tale takes center state at Lucky Penny.
Throughout the performance, actors appear from the back, sides and front, all the while singing in cockney patois. Makeup designer Brette Bartolucci worked overtime to fashion the faces of actors who sweep through the fog reciting the malevolent background story.
Lucky Penny Productions considers itself lucky indeed to mount this show after a forced two-year break due to Covid.
It’s decaying and corrupt 19th century London. Haughty politicians and desperate vagrants line the streets. A brooding sailor looms over the crowd, calling himself Sweeney Todd (Ian Elliott). His friend and shipmate Anthony (Ethan Thomas) does his best to include Todd in the activities, but Todd has other ideas in mind. He’s escaped a prison colony, sent there to pave the way for the seduction of Todd’s innocent wife. He is informed that she took poison rather than succumb.
Todd is a talented barber who captures the admiration of the street scene by challenging the local barber and swaggering mountebank Aldolfo (Jeremy Kreamer) to a shave-off. The young assistant Tobias (charmingly done by Tuolumne Bunter) adroitly aligns himself with Todd when Todd wins the match.
Todd is swept into the entreating clutches of Mrs. Lovett (a brash role well handled by Taylor Bartolucci), the widow pie-maker. She sets him up with a shop above her pie store, giving him the set of knives he once owned. Todd’s rival barber visits and makes the mistake of challenging Todd. Big mistake. He becomes a body for disposal. Since meat is in short supply, crafty Mrs. Lovett spots the opportunity to grind some fresh for her pies. Mrs. Lovett earns customers while Todd bides his time for revenge on the lecherous Judge (David Murphy) and his cohort Beedle Bramford (splendidly done by Sean O’Brien.)
Heaping more darkness on the bleak plot, Todd finds that his baby Johanna (Kirstin Pieschke) is now grown and a ward of the very judge who lusted after Todd’s wife. The libidinous judge is now focused on pursuing the daughter. Todd isn’t happy. He bides his time in fury waiting for the judge to come for a shave.
Sweeny Todd cast at work. Photo by Lucky Penny.
If it isn’t obvious, note that Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has social elements which make it inappropriate for children. A young boy about age 12 who sat next to me laughed at some of the body dumping, as did many in the audience. The only gasps came when Todd had his own wife in the chair. No spoilers here, but this show doesn’t have a happy ending.
The show possesses sufficient twists and turns in the plot to keep the audience engaged. Sondheim’s songs and rapid-fire lyrics are a real challenge; a few audience members commented that they couldn’t follow all of the story. It’s classic Sondheim, with what some describe as “too many words.”
The show is well-cast and meticulously timed with many entrances and exits. It is a perfectly macabre show for the season.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Written by
Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Staci Arriaga
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru Nov 6th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Like Alanis Morissette’s raw 1995 alt-rock/grunge album, which sold over 33 million copies, Jagged Little Pill can resonate long after the performance is over. The production shines unrelenting light on the often hidden or denied reality of human life. A week later, Morisette’s songs and images from the performance continue to play in my mind.
Diablo Cody (winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Juno) won the 2021 Tony award for Best Book of a Musical for Jagged Little Pill. Cody could have safely chosen to simply showcase Morissette’s music and lyrics in a standard jukebox musical, but instead elevated them with brilliant subtlety by creating a story using the dramatic archetype of the outwardly perfect family’s inward unraveling. She set the action in provincial whitebread Connecticut reinforcing the universality of the experience, rather than perpetuating the stereotype that life’s baser experiences occur only in impoverished places.
(L to R) Heidi Blickenstaff, Allison Sheppard and Jena VanElslander in the North American Tour of JAGGED LITTLE PILL. Photo by Matthew Murphy.
The story line focuses on the Healy family, a privileged group comprised of mom, Mary Jane, “MJ,” (Heidi Blickenstaff) a perfectionista, universally envied for her seemingly charmed life; dad, Steve (Chris Hoch), a corporate attorney who works 60 hours per week; son, Nick (Dillon Klena), who succeeds at every endeavor and has just been accepted to Harvard; and adopted daughter, Frankie (Lauren Chanel), who feels unseen within her family and is in a romantic relationship with her best friend, Jo (Jade McLeod).
…The women of JLP have the most powerful roles…
Some have criticized the playwright for piling too many “hot button” topics into one show. Cody pulls off the magic trick of invoking addiction, sexuality, alienation, rape (and the culture of disbelieving/blaming/shaming the victim), perfectionism, workaholism, and betrayal—issues that are all too commonplace—all while eliciting empathy, compassion, and ultimately, a sense of redemption, rather than judgment, ennui or despair.
Set pieces – living room, kitchen, classroom, hospital room, etc. – glide on and off stage, while a few elements are assisted by actors, but the pieces de resistance are the gorgeous screen projections that instantly, and to excellent effect, turn each setting into its intended location or accentuate a mood or aesthetic.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s astonishing choreography melds seamlessly with Tom Kitt’s musical arrangements which, together, nearly capture the intensity of Morissette’s album. The feral, seemingly unselfconscious, yet clearly precise, hip-hop movements recalled the cathartic vitality of early moshpit melees.
Two of the most astonishing numbers were expressionistic compositions performed by Jena VanElslander who mirrored both Mary Jane’s and Bella’s sexual assualts. VanElslander’s portrayal of the intoxicated victims of “date rape” was stunning in its technical virtuosity but also in its ability to make us viscerally feel the confusion, fear, disbelief and despair of the characters. I literally stopped breathing during the performances.
The women of JLP have the most powerful roles. Heidi Blickenstaff was perfection as Mary Jane, looking every bit the preppy soccer mom, even as she sidled into back alleys to await her drug dealer, whom she tried, unsuccessfully, to engage in small talk. Blickenstaff’s gorgeous and powerful voice was able to capture Morisette’s intensity, if not entirely her rawness. Her head-to-head battle with Lauren Chanel’s Frankie during “All I Really Want” was a fiercely poignant way to highlight the mutual sense of alienation felt by this mother and daughter.
Allison Sheppard and the North American Touring Company of JAGGED LITTLE PILL. Photo by Matthew Murphy.
Allison Sheppard as Bella was riveting in her performance of “Predator,” and did an outstanding job portraying Bella’s initial sense of self-loathing, gradually transforming into righteous indignation. The night’s show-stopper was “You Oughta Know,” performed by Jade McLeod, as Jo, who had half the audience on their feet as she belted out Morissette’s anthem to romantic betrayal. Both McLeod and Chanel more than held their own with the dancers in the troupe.
Jagged Little Pill may be the beginning of a trend in which jukebox musicals deal capably with grittier aspects of life. I salute Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard, Diablo Cody, Diane Paulus, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Tom Kitt and the rest of the creative team for making it beautiful, powerful and moving, while also making it real. Given the opportunity, I would gladly see it again.
Performance is 2 1/2 hours with one 15 minute intermission. Masks are not required, but strongly recommended.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Jagged Little Pill
Written by
Diablo Cody
Directed by
Diane Paulus
Producing Company
Golden Gate Theatre
Production Dates
Through November 6th
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
A delightfully unexpectedupdate to Stephen King’s novel—and the 1990 movie of the same name, starring Kathy Bates and James Caan—Cinnabar’s production mines the humor that’s long lain fallow in William Goldman’s adaptation.
As Annie Wilkes, North Bay theater veteran Mary Gannon Graham proves she’s lost nothing in the four-plus years she’s been away from the stage. Her last appearance was in Cinderella at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, and she brings plenty of pent-up energy to the part of an obsessed literary fan who rescues her favorite novelist from an auto accident that’s broken both his legs and done some serious damage to one shoulder.
… “Misery” is perfectly creepy, and abundantly appropriate for the Halloween season…
Edward McCloud has the difficult role of the mostly-bedridden Paul Sheldon, who regains consciousness in a bedroom in Annie’s isolated farm house. He’s thankful to be alive but soon learns that his rescuer has an agenda for him that he probably can’t fulfill. The author of many “Misery” books depicting the life of a fictional 19th-century heroine named Misery Chastain, Sheldon’s reached the end of the series, and carries the manuscript for the final installment with him.
Mary Gannon Graham as Annie Wilkes. Photography by Victoria Von Thal
It’s a discovery of enormous excitement for Annie, and also a cause of enormous dismay when she reads ahead and discovers that Misery will meet her ultimate end. This cannot do—she’s the self-proclaimed #1 fan of both the author and his most famous character—and to thwart it, she embarks on a program of limited physical rehabilitation and enforced rewriting for Paul, who’s cut off from all communication with the outside world.
It’s mid-winter, the surrounding countryside is buried in snow, and no one knows where he is. The good-natured local sheriff (Kellie Donnelly) comes around a couple of times, asking Annie some basic questions, and goes away believing that she knows nothing. McCloud effectively conveys Sheldon’s pain and anxiety. It’s actually excruciating to see him fall out of bed and try his best to find an escape.
Paul Sheldon (Edward McCloud) recovers in bed. Photo by Victoria Von Thal
Graham rides an emotional roller-coaster as the obsessed Annie, overjoyed to have rescued her favorite author, and honored to be caring for him, but interpreting the literary rescue of Misery as a mandate from heaven. She’ll do whatever it takes to get Paul to do her bidding. Her obsessions run in multiple directions, as do her emotional reactions and haphazard-but-somehow-logical manipulations of Paul. Her scenes are comedic riots.
Director Tim Kniffin has found new treasures in this timeless tale, and gets the absolute most from his three-actor cast. Set designer Brian Watson’s farmhouse works perfectly as the hidden locale where truly horrific and hilarious shenanigans take place, enhanced by Wayne Hovey’s moody lighting.
Misery is perfectly creepy, and abundantly appropriate for the Halloween season.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Theatergoers with an appetite for the unusual have until October 16 to see David Grieg’s Dunsinane at Marin Theatre Company.
A sequel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth that extends the original story without further illumination, MTC’s nearly three-hour production takes the bold approach of combining top-tier Equity actors with high school drama students from Mill Valley’s nearby Tamalpais High School. The student actors mostly appear as English and Scottish soldiers identifiable by red (English) or blue (Scottish) emblems on their vests—interchangeable as scenes demand, and perfectly in keeping with the old adage that wars are fought by the young, poor, and disenfranchised for the benefit of the old, rich, and powerful.
Aldo Billingslea in MTC’s “Dunsinane.” Photo by Kevin Berne.
None of Grieg’s poor young soldiers seem to have any idea what they are fighting for, nor why they are hiking around in some of the most inhospitable country imaginable. On the other hand, their respective leaders—Siward (Aldo Billingslea), an easy-going, rational English general, and Scottish queen Gruach (Lisa Anne Porter)—have some solid motivations. Gruach, known in the original as the avaricious Lady Macbeth, has a son by her deceased husband that she would like to see installed on the Scottish throne. Siward would like to put an end to the pointless bloodshed and initiate a lasting peace, even if doing so requires more bloodshed. That’s how the human animal behaves.
…inexplicability can…be quite entertaining…
It’s a good dramatic setup, and MTC’s superb cast goes at it with enthusiasm and plenty of wooden poles that serve as spears, swords, and knives. The modern-language script owes much to Shakespeare’s orgies of ruling-class bloodletting—King Lear and Hamlet, but especially, of course, to Macbeth.
The reasons for the struggle for the Scottish throne aren’t clear, but neither are most of reasons for most of the real wars that have plagued humankind since the beginning of time. They’re all about slaughtering infidels for the glory of an imagined deity, defeating this monarch and installing another one, pushing a border this way or that, or claiming some resource at the cost of thousands of lives to benefit an unborn generation, or in the case of Dunsinane, control of a castle. It’s inexplicable.
Aldo Billingslea (left) and Lisa Anne Porter in Marin Theatre Company’s “Dunsinane.” Phone by Kevin Berne.
But inexplicability can also be quite entertaining. In that, MTC’s Dunsinane succeeds well if not wildly. Billingslea and Porter are excellent, as are theater veteran Michael Ray Wisely as Macduff, and Tam High student Jack Hochschild as The Boy Soldier, who delivers a quite moving closing monolog as snow falls around him and the lights slowly fade (lights and projections by Mike Post).
The show benefits from a single austere set by director Jasson Minidakis and Jeff Klein, and gorgeous music by Chris Houston and Penina Goddessmen. Shakespeare enthusiasts may be especially intrigued by Dunisnane, a rare Shakespearean follow-up that’s not a spoof.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Dunsinane
Written by
David Greig
Directed by
Jasson Minadakis and Rob Lufty
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Oct. 16th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been an audience favorite since it first premiered in London 49 years ago. The production made its US debut in Los Angeles in 1974.
Rocky pays sexually lurid and comical homage to science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s-60s. After a film version was released in 1975, some independent and art-house theatres began a tradition of showing the film on a weekly basis, usually at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Audience members came dressed as their favorite characters and stood in front of the screen, performing in tandem with the film’s characters, while other members of the audience threw rice and toilet paper and sprayed one another with squirt guns (among other antics) inspired by the action onscreen. Both the film and theatrical versions are often resurrected – pun intended – around Halloween.
…a high energy romp…
The plot follows virginal and naïve newly engaged couple Brad and Janet who, after a flat tire on a stereotypically dark and stormy night, seek assistance at the nearest location, a creepy and foreboding mansion. Arriving drenched and more than a little afraid, they’re greeted at the door by butler-cum-ghoul Riff Raff who lures them into the dwelling with the promise of using the phone.
Mayhem ensues as the master of the house Dr. Frank-N-Furter, mad scientist and self-proclaimed “transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania,” replete in corset, fishnet stockings and outlandishly high heels, appears and invites Brad and Janet to his lab where, he sings, “I’ve been making a man with blond hair and a tan, and he’s good for relieving my tension.” The Frankensteinian man in question is the titular Rocky Horror.
The Marin Musical Theatre Company’s production – performed at Novato Theatre Company – is a high energy romp with exuberantly exaggerated simulated sex acts not at all appropriate for children, but very entertaining for mature audiences, especially those who appreciate camp with a capital C.
Photos by Jere Torkelsen
The show begins with a costume contest (winners get a brief cameo in the production) after which cast members give the audience a dance lesson to induct those new to Rocky into the fine art of performing the “Time Warp,” a raucous number involving expansive gesticulations and pelvic thrusts. The audience is also apprised of the tradition of spectators to heckle the actors during the production by shouting out prescribed and extemporaneous responses prompted by names of characters and other trigger words spoken by members of the cast. These proceedings successfully elevated the energy level in the house, ensuring the audience was excited for what was to come.
The cast was cohesive and mostly convincing in their respective roles. Stephen Kanaski did an outstanding job as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, combining seething sexual panache with the ability to strut like a runway model in ridiculously high heels. Added bonus: he can sing like there’s no tomorrow.
Sleiman El-Ahmadieh nailed his character, Brad, whose awakening from naivety to carnal rapture – and also his transformation from nerdy wimp to insatiable stud – were a pleasure to watch, and among the highlights of the show. Jenny Boynton’s voice and mannerisms were just right for Janet. Standouts characters include the Narrator (sultry Shayla Lawlor), Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s servant Columbia (Harriet Pearl Fugitt), and Magenta (Anna Vorperian), incestuous sibling of Riff Raff (Nelson Brown ). They all did fine work anchoring each scene with their sexy antics and wonderful vocal abilities.
Brown was appropriately creepy as Frank-N-Furter’s handyman/henchman, especially when fondling his sibling, Magenta. Ken Adams showed his wonderful versatility as wheelchair-bound Dr. Scott and biker/rocker/undead lover of Columbia, Eddie. Had I not anticipated having Rocky portrayed as a muscle-bound blond god in gold lame briefs, I would have loved Anne Clark’s female version, with her vacuous physicality and almost innocent sexuality. Ensemble members added a wonderful energy and vitality to the overall production. The addition of their voices helped each song reach an almost fever pitch of intensity.
“Rocky Horror” cast at work! Photos by Jere Torkelsen
Jenny Boynton’s spot-on choice of actors and direction made the production sizzle, as did Katie Wickes’ choreography. The spare setting worked within the parameters of the production. Daniel Savio’s musical direction was on point and all members of the band performed well. Krista Lee’s costuming was wonderfully true to the original show and film. Sound mixing by Simon Eves and lighting design by Michael Kessell lent a wonderful sinister ambience to the production.
Audience members are encouraged to dress in costume, to contribute to heckling the cast, and are given a list of suggested items to bring to the show in order to fully immerse themselves in the Rocky Horror Show experience. If you love over-the-top, sexually explicit, profanity-laced, hard-rocking theatre this show is for you!
Masks and proof of vaccination are required. Remember, no children allowed!
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Who doesn’t love a “whodunit?” Audiences revel in the idea of trying to figure out which one of a number of suspects is the culprit. And who is the Queen of that genre? Agatha Christie, of course.
Director Brad Friedman and Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay figured it was a safe bet that audiences would find Murder on the Nile a fine way to spend three hours.
It most definitely is.
Though that pillar of Christie books Hercule Poirot appears in this one as well, Agatha herself decided that he had no place in the stage play. But one of the play’s characters, Canon Pennefather (played to perfection by Louis Schilling), is the closest thing to a Poirot surrogate as possible – and it’s much easier to understand him!
…there’s plenty of murder, mayhem and mystery…
A week or so before opening night, this production caught a bad break when Carolyn Ford Compton, set to play the part of Miss Foliot-Foulkes, spent several days in the hospital and had to bow out. Her role was taken over by Nancy Martin, a seasoned actress who taught high school drama for 19 years and has performed in many area productions.
Martin was commendable as Miss F-F, but a shade too severe and wore a stern frown in nearly every scene. Still, on quick notice, her effort is admirable.
Amy Stringer brings the exact amount of agita to her role as the jilted woman, Jacqueline De Severac, whose fiancé, Simon Mostyn (a somewhat miscast Rob Hedges) breaks off their engagement when he falls for Jackie’s best friend, the rich beauty Kay Mostyn (Allison Gamlen).
Though she’s only in a few scenes, Gamlen makes an indelible impression with her savoir faire, attractiveness, permed hair wig and gorgeous costumes (the work of Michele Parry and her assistant, Sue Joswiak).
The cast overall is strong, including Janelle Aguirre as Louise Bourget, who works for the story’s small river cruise company and attempts to keep her small cadre of guests happy while onboard the S.S. Lotus. Alex Bloom is youthfully perfect as Christina Grant, the niece of the hyper-critical Miss F-F, always trying to please her – a task too Herculean for anyone.
Johnny Villar as William Smith, seemingly the only guest who doesn’t come from money, starts out as a milquetoast – or even a gold-digger when he starts flirting with Christina – but he, too, isn’t really who he appears to be.
As the German doctor, Dr. Bessner, Amnon Levy provides a very-authentic sounding accent and a seriousness about all the murder attempts in the play. Greet Jaspaert as Mrs. McNaught, Kay’s maid, seems somewhat miscast, though she tries hard to fit in.
R. Dutch Fritz uses the wide CRT stage to good advantage, giving it the appearance of one end of a river boat with six large windows at the back of the set, doors to cabins on each side of the set and a few accoutrements of Egypt like a wall hanging and period sconces. The wicker furniture at the front of the stage looks right at home in Egypt’s heat and humidity. Opposite is a long bar, a period radio and some kind of Egyptian bird on the wall. Persian rugs are scattered around the two-level set with long white curtains tied back on the windows so the blue sky is visible to all.
Lighting by Carson Duper is fine, and Kristin Pearson’s sound design is pitch perfect. Nearly every word was easily understandable from the first- to the top- row of seats.
Interestingly, CRT’s Murder has two intermissions and is presented in three acts, although some are much shorter than others. Overall, there’s plenty of murder, mayhem and mystery to keep the audience’s attention. Many walk away asking each other: “Did you figure out who the real murderer was?”
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
Murder on the Nile
Written by
Agatha Christie
Directed by
Brad Friedman
Producing Company
Coastal Repertory Co.
Production Dates
Through Oct. 23. No performances Pumpkin Festival Weekend (Oct. 14 - 16)
If the Bronte sisters and Alfred Hitchcock had a love child, they would produce The Moors, currently playing through October 23rd at Main Stage West in Sebastopol.
An absurdist gothic romance/surrealistic existential dreamscape/satiric black comedy by playwright Jen Silverman, the story is set in an eerie mansion on the desolate and windswept English moors, ̀a la the Brontes and involves gaslighting, madness and mayhem ̀a la Hitchcock.
…Intentionally lugubrious in tone, the plot is best left undescribed…
Silverman manages to elicit amusement, horror, compassion, revulsion, revelation, tension and relief from her audience and does so using characters as disparate as a scullery maid/parlor maid (Marjory/Mallory), a dominating house Mistress (Agatha), and her flibbertigibbet younger sister (Huldey), a hapless governess (Emilie), a bullied and lonely mastiff, and a wounded Moorhen. Branwell, the purportedly physically and sexually violent brother of Agatha and Huldey, is locked in the attic and never seen, nor heard. “Branwell” is the middle name of the Bronte sisters’ real-life brother.
Taylor Diffenderfer and Madison Scarborough in “The Moors” — Photo/Main Stage West
Intentionally lugubrious in tone, the plot is best left undescribed, as watching it unfold is a wonder to behold. Silverman is a master of imagination and one of the things I love most about her plays is being unable to anticipate what lies ahead.
The entire ensemble is excellent in their respective roles, and I can’t say any one performance outshone the others. Director James Pelican did an outstanding job of accentuating the outlandish with subtlety, which somehow increased the merriment while deepening the sense of foreboding.
The Moors is not for everyone, but those who enjoy a dark satirical farce (as I do) will have plenty to talk about with their friends after the show.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
The Moors
Written by
Jen Silverman
Directed by
James Pelican
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Oct. 23, 2022
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse is the latest theater company to tackle Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, a musical now in its 56th year. Having missed one weekend due to a Covid outbreak, the 6th Street production runs through October 16th.
A sugar-coated cautionary tale, the 1972 film version firmly established the show in pop culture. Many people know its songs without understanding that the show itself is far more than a lightweight romp through the decadent underworld of Weimar Republic Berlin. The story’s late 1930s time frame isn’t specific, but encompasses the rise of the Germany’s Nazi party and its increasingly virulent anti-Semitism. It’s often forgotten that the Nazi party was democratically elected. By 1933 it was the most powerful political organization in Germany.
Directed by Jared Sakren, this Cabaret is a compelling musical drama with moments of great hilarity as the wraith-like Emcee (the superb Michael Strelo-Smith) welcomes us into the Kit Kat Club, a dingy dive that’s a mainstay of Berlin’s entertainment underground.
The cast of 6th Street’s “Cabaret” at work. Photo by Eric Chazankin.
The primary plot revolves around an itinerant American novelist, Cliff Bradshaw (Damion Matthews)) befriended by German businessman Ernst Ludwig (Izaak Heath) on a train ride into Berlin. Ludwig knows the city intimately, and introduces Bradshaw to the club and to Fraulein Schneider (Ginger Beavers), proprietor of a rooming house where he takes up residence.
At the club he meets a self-centered British songbird named Sally Bowles (Erin Rose Solorio). The two of them are soon deeply but contentiously involved. Solorio plays Bowles as she is usually depicted—a ditzy performer whose only concern is occupying the spotlight, who cares nothing for politics or for the great upheaval ahead, provoking Bradshaw’s enormous frustration.
A secondary love story involves Fraulein Schneider and fruit seller Herr Schultz (Dwayne Stincelli), both of them in late middle age and deeply in love. The relationship between Bradshaw and Bowles is increasingly rocky and ultimately doomed, but it’s the fate of Schneider and Schultz that fascinates an audience.
One of only three characters in the play who comprehend the inevitability and threat of the approaching storm—the other two are Bradshaw and Ludwig—Schneider backs out of a late-in-life wedding, hoping to survive by keeping her head down and avoiding the ire of Nazis. Beavers is heart-breaking as Schneider, with a soaring voice capable of rattling the walls.
Photo by Eric Chazankin.
Amid the merriment, the Nazi movement rises from potential menace to full tsunami, symbolized by a moment when the charming Herr Ludwig comes out of the political closet sporting a Nazi armband. Heath is very good as the villainous but totally likeable true believer.
Fraulein Schneider vows that maintaining a low profile will insure her survival; while Bradshaw tries desperately to get Bowles to leave Berlin with him—before it’s too late. Too addicted to minor league stardom to consider going elsewhere, she stays behind when he escapes to Paris. Herr Schultz is similarly clueless, believing that as a native-born German Jew he will be considered a German first.
…a compelling musical drama with moments of great hilarity…
What hooks many first-time visitors to Cabaret isn’t necessarily the morality play but the show-within-a-show at the Kit Kat Klub. Stelo-Smith is spectacular throughout, as are the dancers and the live music from a strong eight-piece band led by Nate Riebli. Tara Roberts is solid as Fraulein Kost, a resident of Fraulein Schneider’s rooming house, who makes her living entertaining sailors by the hour. She’s also one of the standout Kit Kat dancers. Devin Parker Sullivan, also a Kit Kat dancer, concocted some difficult but stunning choreography for the troupe of nine Kit Kat girls and boys.
A half-century after its debut, not much about this show will seem shocking other than its enduring message. The parallels with Trump’s MAGA movement, the January 6 insurrection—and our distraction by ephemeral entertainment—are, sadly, all too clear.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Cabaret
Written by
Music by John Kander and Fred Ebb
Book by Joe Masteroff
Directed by
Jared Sakren
Music Direction by Nate Riebli
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through October16th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
When attractive young Emilie (Katherine Rupers), arrives to take a governess position and perhaps find love at a manor house on the foggy Brontean English moors, instead of encountering any children (nor indeed her possible suitor, a Mr. Branwell, who has apparently been writing her increasingly romantic recruitment letters), she finds instead his two odd sisters, the older starched-and-strict Agatha (Brenda Reed) and Huldey (Madison Scarbrough), the younger lonely scattered diary-scribbler.
The sisters are served by a grumpy, typhus-ridden and perhaps pregnant scullery-maid named Margory (Taylor Diffenderfer), mysteriously named Mallory when she acts as the parlor-maid in the house where little is as it appears.
Cast of “the Moors” at work.
Indeed, during the ponderous first act of The Moors, Jen Silverman’s beautifully crafted, pitch-black absurdist romance, even the home’s rooms take on different names and functions, while Emilie wanders about the house in her own foggy haze, trying to figure out what’s going on and whatever happened to Mr. Branwell, who’s purportedly “unavailable” in the attic. While Agatha has her own reason for wanting Emilie around, her woman-child sister Huldey appears willing to consider murder to get the attention she craves.
…Silverman’s delightfully quirky play about love and loneliness…
There are two other characters in the play, the home’s desolate, browbeaten dog “The Mastiff” (Kevin Bordi) who conducts a love-affair with an injured Moorhen (Nora Summers) although precisely what this charming and heartbreaking story-line has to do with the play’s plot is also murky. But no matter.
Kevin Biordi as the Mastiff in “The Moors” at Main Stage West
The second act of The Moors figuratively burns down the house as all hell breaks loose in director James Pelican’s cleverly-staged production on David Lear’s sumptuous set, featuring Tracy Hinman’s period-perfect costuming.
In Silverman’s delightfully quirky play about love and loneliness, every one of Main Stage West’s perfectly-balanced cast-members turns in a tremendous performance. When was the last time you were brought to tears by a lonely dog’s inner feelings or charmed by a skittish Moorhen with a game leg due to a poor sense of direction?
Reed’s Agnes is as frosty as ice and more brittle, even while talking love. Rupers is sexy yet sweetly naive as Emilie, until she isn’t, while negotiating her future real-estate, Diffenderfer’s Margery/Mallory is deliciously sly and as dry as the dust she sweeps, while Scarborough’s Huldey absolutely kills it with a hilarious yet completely unexpected cabaret-style song.
The New York Times called The Moors — “Truly clever and intelligent, You really ought to see this.” This reviewer agrees completely.
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Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
Production
The Moors
Written by
Jen Silverman
Directed by
James Pelican
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Oct. 23, 2022
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird played a pivotal role in awakening the social consciousness of countless Americans as they studied the story in middle school and high school English classrooms across the nation. It holds a secure place, among others, at the very top of the Western literary pedestal as it tackled, with clear-eyed accuracy, the issue of racial injustice in this country.
Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, among many others) said he knew when he was asked to adapt Mockingbird for the stage, that “…there was no way I could get out alive.” Despite his early trepidation, Sorkin’s adaptation was a Broadway hit and has gone on to tour the country. It’s playing through October 9th at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco.
…the national touring production in San Francisco felt tone deaf and oddly flat…
Sorkin did not have free rein in reimagining the story. His earliest attempt raised the ire of the Lee estate, which launched a lawsuit contending that the playwright had gone too far in modifying both the character and behavior of beloved Atticus Finch, the story’s kind-hearted, principled lawyer, played in the national touring production by Richard Thomas.
Richard Thomas (“Atticus Finch”) and The Company of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Photo: Julieta Cervantes.
To move forward with the adaptation, Sorkin had to tone down his initial vision to meet the conditions set out in the suit. Given those constraints and believing that the original story, first published in 1960, did not stand the test of time, Sorkin made Atticus the primary protagonist, and dispersed the duty of narrator among Scout (Melanie Moore), her brother Jem (Justin Mark) and their friend Dill (Steven Lee Johnson).
He also gave additional voice to Calpurnia (Jacqueline Williams), the Finch family maid, and to Tom Robinson (Yaegel T. Welch), a black man unjustly accused of rape by a white woman.
While this sounds reasonable in theory, to this reviewer the national touring production in San Francisco felt tone deaf and oddly flat, despite its fraught content and the beautiful careening of Scout about the stage.
Melanie Moore (“Scout Finch”). Photo by: J. Cervantes.
Sorkin stated in an interview that, “Using black characters simply as atmosphere in 2022, it’s not only noticeable, but more importantly, it’s a waste because these two characters’ voices should be heard.” Sorkin therefore gave Calpurnia a few lines in which she was able to vent her feelings about Atticus’ philosophy of treating everyone (including rabid bigots) with respect, and her resentment of being expected to be sufficiently grateful to Atticus for agreeing to represent Tom Robinson in the first place.
These sentiments were no doubt in play in the minds of subjugated peoples at the time the novel was written, but Harper Lee understood that a black servant in 1936 Alabama would not have risked speaking them aloud to any white person, no matter how kindly they appeared to be. She was not using her black characters as “atmosphere,” but was accurately portraying their inability to give voice to their own inner fury for fear of risking their lives.
Melanie Moore (“Scout Finch”) and Jacqueline Williams (“Calpurnia”). Photo: J. Cervantes.
A lot a mansplaining took place, particularly around every potentially poignant moment. When Tom Robinson explained that he helped his accuser with her chores because he felt sorry for her, Sorkin had Atticus explain to the jury that Tom Robinson knew that it wasn’t appropriate for a black man to express feeling sorry for (and therefore, superior to) a white woman, but did so anyway as a means of reclaiming his own sense of dignity. These sorts of heavy-handed explanations felt unnecessary and contrived.
In terms of direction, there was also a strange sense of disconnect when the character Boo Radley was played by the same actor (Travis Johns) who earlier played Mr. Cunningham (to very good effect). Because no attempt was made to alter his appearance from that of the previous character, it felt somewhat confusing to see him appear from behind a door when those who were familiar with the novel were expecting Radley. Had there been obvious previous instances of someone playing multiple characters, it may have worked but, as that was not the case, it just seemed odd.
Sorkin added humor to the production. While there were many humorous scenes in the novel, they were primarily centered on the antics of the children and felt organic and in context. Sorkin’s humor involved jokes (Dill explaining that he won Jem’s pants playing strip poker, “but only with the men”) and exaggerated facial expressions by Calpurnia, meant to evoke laughs, which felt not only inappropriate, but almost obscene to this viewer as they appeared meant to convey her exasperation (rather than anger) with what the white folk were saying now.
It was as if Sorkin forgot that the piece is a drama. Or perhaps he couldn’t imagine a contemporary audience having the fortitude to hold space for the unrelenting injustice unfolding before them. Whatever his motivation, it undermined what should have been a roiling sense of outrage at the conclusion of the play. Instead we are left with a mild and wholly bearable sadness.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
To Kill a Mockingbird
Written by
Adapted by Aaron Sorkin from the Harper Lee original
Directed by
Bartlett Sher
Producing Company
National Touring Production / Broadway SF
Production Dates
Through Oct 9th
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
San Francisco Playhouse’s play-about-a-play is both an historical recounting and a peek into theatre of today. Nominated for three Tony Awards, “Indecent” marks the Bay Area premier of this critically acclaimed work by Paula Vogel.
Director Susi Damilano staged this production with a skillful hand and an eye toward authenticity, expertly aided by the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble. The changes in place and time come together swiftly in this two-hour production, spanning the first half of the 20th century. Many stop-action tableaux are used to stunning effect, moving the scenes forward as the actors shift years. Three musicians led by Dmitri Gaskin lend joyful klezmer-infused songs onstage as actors intermittently dance and sing.
The set by Richard Olmsted is an open frame where props, costumes, lights, and actors wait on the sides until needed. “Indecent” action centers inside the frame as the narrator, the Yiddish theater company stage manager Lemml (Dean Linnard) begins telling the story to the audience. He’s backed by a solid wall punctuating the actors’ dialog as it flips from Yiddish to German to English and back again.
“…it became the first Yiddish play to be translated into multiple languages and staged across Europe”
“Indecent” follows the true 1906 saga of a young Jewish playwright, Sholem Asch (Billy Cohen), who vainly attempted to have the Polish literati support his new play “The God of Vengeance.” Soundly rejected by rivals in Warsaw for the “immoral and indecent” themes contained, Asch took the play to various international cities, starting with Berlin, to great acclaim.
Set in a Jewish community in Poland, it became the first Yiddish play to be translated into multiple languages and staged across Europe. It was controversial with its themes of sex, lesbianism, a brothel side business, hypocrisy, and the desecration of a Torah scroll. “God of Vengeance” was highly acclaimed and mightily condemned for 17 years. It enjoyed a successful international run until it reached New York City.
Lemml (Dean Linnard*, center) introduces the troupe (L-R): Mayer Balsam (Matthew Stein), on violin , Nelly Friedman (Audrey Jackson), on clarinet, Halina (Rivka Borek*), Mendel (Ted Zoldan), Chana (Malka Wallick*), Avram (Billy Cohen*), Moriz Godowsky (Dmitri Gaskin), on accordion, Otto (Victor Talmadge*), and Vera (Rachel Botchan*). Production photography by Jessica Palopoli for ‘Indecent’ by Paula Vogel at SF Playhouse.
In 1922 “God of Vengeance” was translated to English and premiered in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The controversial buzz—and the police—were waiting when the play opened in NYC the following year. The producer and entire cast were busted for “unlawfully advertising, giving, presenting and participating in an obscene, indecent, immoral and impure drama or play.” Their arrest and the fallout through 1953 form the basis for “Indecent,” which playwright Vogel has captured with astounding sadness, madness, and hope.
Interestingly, “Indecent” reveals it was the local NY rabbi who lodged the obscenity charges against the solidly Jewish playwright. Although overturned two years later, the charges altered the lives of all concerned. Eugene O’Neill(also Billy Cohen), a defender of the play, shares a cameo part onstage with an older Asch (Victor Talmadge) when he commiserates that “Every religion, even Jews, sells God for a price.”
The troupe makes its long journey to America. Photo by Jessica Palopoli for ‘Indecent’ by Paula Vogel at San Francisco Playhouse.
“Indecent” is a time capsule bursting with the best and worst of history and hope. Playing now through November 5th, it’s a welcome opener for San Francisco Playhouse’s 20th anniversary season. They couldn’t have made a more solid choice.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Indecent
Written by
Paula Vogel
Directed by
Susi Damilano
Producing Company
San Francisco Playhouse and
Yiddish Theatre Ensemble
The 50th anniversary season of Petaluma’s beloved Cinnabar Theater is off to a rowdy, rollicking start with “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, “Spelling Bee” delivers an evening of light-hearted musical comedy.
In the auditorium of Putnam Valley Middle School, we meet six adolescent contestants: returning champ Charlito “Chip” Tolentino (Alejandro Eustaquio); Leaf Coneybear (Zane Walters), who designs his own clothing and spells while in a trance-like state; Marcy Park (Gabi Chun), a high-achiever who speaks six languages and for whom failure is not an option; William Morris Barfée (Trevor Hoffmann), who spells using a unique “magic foot” technique in which he writes the letters out with his foot as he recites them; Logainne “Schwartzy” Schwartzandgrubenierre (Tina Traboulsi), who spells words out on her arm before reciting them; and Olive Ostrovsky (Krista Joy Serpa), whose absent mother is on a nine-month-long spiritual retreat in India. Olive anxiously awaits the arrival of her father as she has not yet paid the entrance fee.
…”Spelling Bee” is not to be missed. Get tickets now! We mean it!
Each child – excepting Leaf – has won an individual school’s bee. The pressure is on-they’re vying for the chance to go to the national competition in Washington, DC.
“Spelling Bee” cast at work. Photo courtesy Cinnabar Theater.
The Putnam County event is hosted by a former Spelling Bee champion, and now the county’s top realtor, Rona Lisa Peretti (Karen Miles) and a dour school vice principal, Douglas Panch (John Browning). Peretti is a perky, all-smiles dynamo, while Panch is a no-nonsense adminstrator. They ride herd on a group of very smart, gregarious, and nerdy kids—and a few audience members pulled onstage, we hope not against their will.
It’s a quick-moving hilarious show backed by a great band (music directed by Bill Keck) with many intriguing subplots, lots of goofy action, and some stunning choreography by Bridget Condoni. Sam Minnifield puts in charming performance as Mitch Mahoney, a local bad boy doing his community service by helping out with the Bee. Donnie Frank’s costumes go a long way toward establishing each of the characters, all delightfully portrayed by some hugely skilled and enormously uninhibited actors. They’re all tremendous, but Trevor Hoffman, Gabi Chun, and Krista Joy Serpa are standouts. Wow!
Photo courtesy Cinnabar Theater.
Director Zachary Hasbany has coaxed the absolute maximum from a brilliant cast. The show by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn is a recurring favorite among community theater troupes, and for good reason. It’s clean, harmless, happy, and uplifting—an absolute joy from beginning to end. Did we mention incredibly clever? “Spelling Bee” is not to be missed. Get tickets now! We mean it!
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Although the Pear Theatre in Mountain View is currently offering two 90-minute plays in repertoire through Oct. 2, one far outshines the other, most likely because one of them was written by a more experienced playwright.
Jen Silverman’s “Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties” is practically a laugh-a-minute as the lives of five women all named Betty intersect with one another in the most surprising ways.
Though audience members are warned that there is some foul language and nudity in “Betty,” it’s done discreetly and is certainly appropriate for adults. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why this one-act play is so funny.
… Clearly, you can never have too many Betties in a play…
Although all five Betties are good actresses, there are two who stand out for the absurdities that come out of their mouths and their ridiculously comic actions.
Crystal Liu is Betty 2, a quiet, unassuming woman who says she has no friends and is apparently afraid to look at her own privates. She always feels left out, and in fact she is the only one left whenever the other four Betties pair up. Liu’s Betty turns to her hand to talk to her—a clever ploy that enables her to have discussions with herself. Eventually, she decides to throw a dinner party for all the Betties, and she decorates by putting out a little wading pool, blow-up float toys, and beach balls.
(L-R): Skylar Rose Adams as Betty 4, Regina Kohl as Betty 1 and Marjan Safa as Betty 5 in Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties
The other standout Betty is No. 3: Vanessa Veve Melendrez. This Betty, with an itsy-bitsy size 1 figure, decides that she’ll become a playwright, then a director, as well as the lead actor in her own play. She bosses the other Betties around with varying success, but she does it all with such a cute, dimpled smile and shimmering little gold dress, that it’s difficult not to root for her whatever she decides to do.
Skyla Rose Adams (Betty 4), Carla Dejesus (Betty 1 but subbing for an actress who was not available one weekend) and Marjan Safa (Betty 5) are all fine, though Safa’s voice was sometimes too soft to hear clearly.
Clearly, you can never have too many Betties in a play, so make plans to see it before it closes on Oct. 2
The other Pear play, “Bull in a China Shop,” written by Bryna Turner, is a hodge-podge of short scenes that sometimes didn’t track. It attempts to cover a wide swatch of history—about 30 years, not always successfully. Dejusus (again subbing for a different actress) sometimes stumbled through her lines, but since she was just appearing in a few performances, it’s hard to fault her.
(L-R): Regina Kohl as Woolley and Tannis Hanson as Marks in Bull in a China Shop
”Bull’s” other main actress, Tannis Hanson, as Jeannette Marks, was exceptional. But even with her skilled acting, it’s a difficult play to follow. Chase Kupperberg’s first-rate costume design, especially for “Bull,” adds a lot, and Tanika Baptiste does her best to direct both short plays.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
"Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties" *and* "Bull in a China Shop"
Written by
Jen Silverman / Bryna Turner
Directed &
Choreographed by
Tanika Baptiste
Producing Company
Pear Theater
Production Dates
Thru Oct 2nd
Production Address
Pear Theater
1110 La Avenida St.
Suite A
Mountain View, CA 94043
There are theater pieces which resonate in such a profound place deep within the psyche that you are dwelling in your life’s past, contemplating the present, and hoping for the future.
Christina Anderson’s “The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home” is just that for this writer. In it, segregated swimming pools become a touchstone for black families not allowed to swim in “whites only” pools. This memory play of a black woman spans the years 1956 in Kansas, to 1992 Ohio, and again Kansas, as Christina Clark’s Janice wrestles with a decision to return to Kansas to speak at a community center ceremony honoring her activist father.
…See this play and then look inside yourselves.
I’m an east coast boy, born and raised in the 1950s in Wilmington, Delaware and later Pittsburgh, PA. As a child and as a teenager, I knew no black families, and indeed at the Catholic grade school and high school I attended, there were no black students at all. Only when we moved to Pittsburgh for my final 12th grade, did I meet any black students, and even those were mostly bused to school from another area of town. Four years later, post university (where again I recall only one black student), I returned to my high school to teach. Much had changed. Black and Latino families were moving into the community, and their children became active participants in the school curriculum. Penn Hills, PA became a melting pot.
Memories of missed connections in retrospect created a post-show train of thought as I went home after the Berkeley Rep production, directed with precision and grand compassion by Jackson Gay.
This remarkable play opens with Janice (our narrator Christiana Clark) drinking a glass of water. She does so every day, reminding herself of the water of the pools which transformed her life. Her mother (a richly multi-faceted performance by Aneisa J. Hicks) taught swimming to black children at the black swimming pool in Brookside Center. Janice’s father (a swaggering and charm-filled Ronald L. Conner) eventually goes on trial for activism in promoting change.
(l to r) Aneisa J. Hicks (Helen), Brianna Buckley (Gayle), and Christiana Clark (Janice) in the world premiere production of Christina Anderson’s the ripple, the wave that carried me home. Directed by Jackson Gay. In association with Goodman Theatre. Photo by Kevin Berne.
The “young chipper ambitious black woman,” played to absolute perfection by Brianna Buckley, wants Janice to speak at the dedication to her father of the new swim center’s pool. Circling all of this is the simultaneous Rodney King uprising and the death by drowning of three boys.
So many colossal matters of change in the lives of all Americans surround this period with pain, guilt—and eventual breath—making Tony nominee Christina Anderson’s play harrowing and heart wrenching. Change can happen, change MUST happen, and indeed, change has happened. The question is always: Is it enough, or is it never enough? No, it is not!
See this play and then look inside yourselves. The answers are always there waiting to be revealed.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco base actor-director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com
As you enter the Orpheum Theatre, gorgeously transformed by designer Derek Lane into the Moulin Rouge, the hottest of hot spots in all of Paris, you are taken into a past of song, dance (the infamous Can-Can of course) and musical revues which had no equal.
The Moulin Rouge (“red windmill”) created itself—there was nothing like it, with its huge iconic windmill of lights, the elephant which contained rooms for the performers, and above all, the stage itself, capable of whatever the director/presenter had in mind. It was the Las Vegas of its time.
The cast of the North American Tour of Moulin Rouge! Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade.
“Moulin Rouge” has a story as such, based on the exquisite Baz Lurhmann juke-box musical film with its echoes of Puccini’s “La Boheme” and the bohemian life that the characters embodied. Satine (Courtney Reed), is the star of the show, the silver goddess of song. Impresario Harold Zidler (a marvelous moustache-twirling Austin Durant) introduces each act and preps us for Satine, who enters flown in on a swing. Into the fray comes a sweet and innocent songwriter (golden voiced Conor Ryan) who falls for Satine. He has one desire: to compose a love song celebrating their mutual attraction and affair.
As in all tragedies, complications ensue. The Moulin Rouge is in deep debt, and to make ends meet, Zidler coerces Satine into an affair with the very wealthy Duke of Monroth (David Harris) who promises financing as long as he “owns” not just the club but also Satine. Add to this her impending death from consumption, and we can see that the end will not be a happy one. Andre Ward does a marvelous creation of Toulouse-Lautrec.
… This is just the beginning of theater at its absolute grandest.
Then there’s the music, with non-stop modern sources including U2, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Patsy Cline, Whitney Houston’s “And I Will Always Love You” (written by Dolly Parton), the Police, Adele and scores of others. One can only imagine the performance rights being paid to composers for even snippets of their work.
Courtney Reed and Conor Ryan. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade.
Special mention must be made to sound designer Peter Hylenski who manages to make everything crystal clear in the barn of the Orpheum Theater, a challenge for any sound designer. Multiple Tony Award-winner Catherine Zuber has designed an array of glitzy spangled and feathered costumes which outdo themselves at every moment. Justin Townsend’s Tony-winning lighting enhances every scene with new color and jaw-dropping splendor.
With moving direction by Alex Timbers, lush choreography by Sonya Tayeh (both Tony winners for their work), this ten-time Tony Award-winning musical is simply a “Must See” for a Bay Area audience.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor-director and is Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
In many ways, singer Patsy Cline defined a substantial swath of mid-century popular music. She was known primarily as a country artist but plenty of her recordings crossed over into other genres. Her soaring, pitch-perfect voice and heart-rending emotion brought her to the forefront of American culture, in a high arc from her debut in 1957 until her 1963 death in an airplane crash on the way back to Nashville.
Cline’s short career encompassed many firsts: first woman to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, first woman to tour as a lead act, first to headline in Las Vegas, and first female country singer to perform at Carnegie Hall. Her glorious honey-toned voice and prodigious output of classic country and popular songs earned her a permanent place in the pantheon of American music.
Center Repertory Company has launched a lovely production of Ted Swindley’s “Always, Patsy Cline,” at the Margaret Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek. The truest of true stories, based on letters shared between Cline and her friend Louise Seger, the show combines music, comedy, and drama in a way equaled by few other theatrical productions. The big stage and capacious seating in the Lesher provide the perfect venue.
…”Always, Patsy Cline” is a fantastically entertaining tour of musical Americana…
Equity actress Cayman Ilika stars as Patsy, with Kate Jaeger as Louise. Ilika’s appearance is convincingly similar to Cline’s, helped of course by Brynne McKeen’s period-perfect costumes. Her voice is remarkably similar to Cline’s, although in a slightly lower register, with a dazzling capacity to sail from contralto to upper alto. Her ability to hold notes is astounding. She’s a powerful performer.
Cayman Ilika as Patsy Cline and Kate Jaeger as Louise Seger. Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello.
Supported by a superb six-piece band (“The Bodacious Bobcat Band”) arrayed across the stage behind her, Ilika covers memorable million-sellers like “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy” (written by Willie Nelson, by the way), “Walkin’ After Midnight,” and “Sweet Dreams” with aplomb, but also does great justice to rock icons such as “Shake Rattle and Roll,” plus old pop favorites like “Bill Bailey” and gospel classics such as “Just a Closer Walk” and “How Great Thou Art.”
But the show’s namesake is only part of the attraction. As Patsy’s friend Louise, the immensely talented and outrageously funny Kate Jaeger provides the perfect balancing act. A wry, self-deprecating Texan, Louise was a fan before she ever met Patsy. Her first-person narrative about their meeting and enduring friendship is both hilarious and heart-warming. Sharing a few songs with Illika, Jaeger is also quite a compelling vocalist. The pair’s harmonies are glorious; their interactions, natural and effortless.
(l to r) Ilika and Jaeger in Center Rep’s “Always…Patsy Cline.” Photo Credit: Alessandra Mello.
Director Karen Lund and her cast and crew have delivered a real gift to Bay Area theater-and-music fans. It’s a pity that this show has such a short run, closing on September 25. It could easily run for many weeks.
“Always, Patsy Cline” is a fantastically entertaining tour of musical Americana and a lovely, emotional portrait of a transcendent friendship. It’s a show that should be on everyone’s must-see list.
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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Always Patsy Cline
Written by
Ted Swindley
Directed by
Karen Lund
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Thru Sept. 25th
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
Rose– as in Mama Rose, the ball-busting lead character of the much-performed and universally loved musical “Gypsy,” is obviously a force to be reckoned with. But when that role is played by the phenomenally talented Stephanie Prentice, whose full-throated vocals can likely be heard at least several blocks away, it’s definitely worth seeing. The role fits Prentice like a glove.
Luckily for San Francisco Peninsula theatergoers, it’s just a short trek to Foster City’s Hillbarn Theatre to witness not only Prentice but also several other fine performers.
The hackneyed story of an overbearing stage mother (Rose) whose determination to make her younger daughter June (Melissa Momboisse) a star first saw light when the esteemed talents of David Merrick, Leland Hayward and Jerome Robbins combined to turn the Arthur Laurents’ book (suggested by Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoirs) into a Broadway show. Throw in music by Jule Styne, lyrics by the great Stephen Sondheim, then contract Ethel Merman to play Mama Rose, and what do you get? A sure-fire hit, that’s what!
Prentice has that Merman kind of chutzpa: badgering, bullying and generally making a nuisance of herself to make sure her Baby June gets the attention of everybody in the audience as well as backstage. Momboisse plays June with a wide smile, a blonde, curly wig and lots of sparkly pink tulle. She has talent – she can do cartwheels and summersaults, all while twirling not one but two batons.
Momma Rose (Stephanie Prentice*), June (Melissa Momboisse), Luoise (Makena Reynolds), and Herbie ( Chris Reber*) sit in Mrs. Crachitt’s (Lisa Appleyard) office waiting for a big meeting. * Denotes member of Actors Equity Association. Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
When June was 10 or 12, the family troupe had a cute vaudeville act. But eventually vaudeville faded away and June grew up and developed a fetching figure, something her mother refused to accept. Vaudeville falls out of style, but Mama Rose keeps hauling her daughters around the country with her – to smaller and smaller venues – even as June can no longer pretend to be a little girl.
…A sure-fire hit that’s what!
Louise, the bookish mousy older sister, is perfectly content to let June have the spotlight. Instead, she lugs the suitcases around, acts as a gofer and buys chop suey for the three to eat morning, noon and night. “It’s cheap! And filling!” Mama Rose shouts.
Louise (Makena Reynolds) Attempts her first strip routine. Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
As Louise, Makena Reynolds is a tad too attractive to be considered ‘mousy,’ but she does her best to stay in the shadows – even playing the front end of a cow when Mama Rose decides to make Baby June become a sweet farmgirl with six fine farmhands and a cow to dance with her. But when Baby June and one of her backup dancers elope and move away without a forwarding address, Mama Rose decides she’ll make Louise the star of the show.
Louise can’t really sing, and her dancing is mediocre, but she tries her best because that’s what mama wants. The turning point is when the act inadvertently gets booked into a burlesque theatre. When Mama discovers what it is, she tells Louise they need to leave immediately, but the practical Louise, as well as Mama’s long-suffering boyfriend Herbie (a rather subdued Chris Reber) – tell her they have no more money and nowhere to go.
The rest, as they say, is history. Louise’s shyness becomes her “thing” – that little something different that sets her apart from other burlesque queens. Soon she’s performing her burlesque routine at bigger and bigger burlesque emporiums –and earning much more money.
Hillbarn’s opening night audience last Friday night gave the entire cast a standing ovation – mostly deserved, although the large musical orchestra lead by Rick Reynolds sometimes played as if they were at a summer family concert.
Herbie ( Chris Reber*), Rose (Stephanie. Prentice*), and Louise (Makena Reynolds) Sing “Together Wherever We Go.” * Denotes member of Actors Equity Association. Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography
Standout songs include “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Some People,” “Rose’s Turn,” all sung by Prentice, “Small World,” sung by Prentice and Reber, and “Wherever We Go,” sung by Prentice, Reber and Reynolds. Y. Sharon Peng’s costumes also are a highlight – from the plain “housewifey” dresses Prentice wears throughout the play to the clever outfits for the young June and Louise and their cadre of boys, who all morph almost onstage into young people in similar costumes.
Whether familiar with the legend of Gypsy Rose Lee or not, audiences will appreciate Prentice’s fine vocals, the singing and dancing of the large cast, and an opportunity to look behind the curtain to see how struggling actors survive.
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
The setting sun illuminated dramatic, pink-tinged clouds as the audience took their seats beneath the open sky in Transcendence Theatre Company’s outdoor performance venue at Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen. The air was balmy and redwoods, silhouetted against the twilit firmament, perfectly framed the vineyard below. So began a magical evening as the performers took the stage for TTC’s final performance of the summer season: “The Gala.”
Hard to believe that director and choreographer Chip Abbot, associate director Billy Bustamonte, musical director Matt Smart and the rest of the creative team could surpass the excellence of Transcendence’s earlier productions “Let’s Dance” and “Hooray for Hollywood,” but “The Gala” is nothing short of a stunner! The talent and artistry on display were Broadway quality throughout .
…Choreography throughout the evening was tight, expressive and polished…
It would be too difficult to comment on the highlights of every outstanding performance during Sunday night’s show. Suffice it to say that nearly every number was a show-stopper! The opener, “on Broadway,” performed by the entire ensemble, was energetic, precise and joyful, promising wonderful things to come.
#317: (l to r) Kathleen Laituri, Ben Lanham, Colin Campbell McAdoo, & Ruby Lewis. Photo Credit: Ray Mabry Photography
“Beautiful City” from “Godspell” seemed written to showcase frequent Broadway performer Jesse Nager’s gorgeously smooth tenor. Resonating with gentle power and a palpable sense of yearning, Nager held the audience in thrall throughout the performance. Without the impediment of a ceiling, Nager’s vocals were remarkably crisp and soared unencumbered into the night sky. As the final notes slowly faded, twilight gave way to night, as if scripted. A truly transcendent experience!
Jesse delivered again, along with veteran Transcendence performers Colin Campbell McAdoo and Kyle Kemph, with an extraordinarily moving performance of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Other standout vocal performances (again, among dozens!) were Ruby Lewis in “It All Fades Away” and Colin Campbell McAdoo and Ruby Lewis in “Shallow.” Upbeat songs were frequently followed by ballads, which lent a nice balance to both sets in the show.
The Gala Company. Photo Credit: Rob Martel
Choreography throughout the evening was tight, expressive and polished, with the dancers making even the most intricate moves seem almost effortless! Again, there were too many memorable numbers to enumerate, but I must mention the exquisite interpretive dances performed by Kathleen Laituri and Ben Lanham as well as the wonderful moves (and vocals) performed by Cecil Washington Jr., Colin Campbell McAdoo, Jesse Nager, and Kyle Kemph in the wonderful Four Seasons medley.
Lighting and sound were solid, with nary a hiccup to interrupt the flow. This production was outstanding in every respect and every member of the audience I spoke with said they were delighted and surprised by the enormity of talent on display throughout the evening. This was indeed “the best night ever!”
(l to r) Cecil Washington Jr., Colin Campbell McAdoo, Jesse Nager, & Kyle Kemph. Photo Credit: Ray Mabry Photography
In its 11th year, Transcendence Theatre continues to raise the bar as they bring ever greater talent and vitality to Sonoma County Wine Country. The non-profit company, founded by Artistic Director Amy Miller, and husband, Executive Director Brad Surosky, has been instrumental in supporting Jack London State Park by providing over $675,000 in much-needed donations to sustain the beloved historical landmark. The duo informed the audience of a matching grant that would provide $500k in additional funding if the company is able to raise commitments of $500k in donations by the end of October and have donations in-hand by the end of the year—a deeply worthy cause.
“The Gala” begins at 7:30 but come early to enjoy a picnic supper (food vendors are on site for those who prefer not to bring their own) and wine and beer provided by Transcendence sponsors while listening to acoustic music in the lawn area. Remember to bring a sweater or lap blanket, as the temperature can drop after the sun goes down.
Tickets range from $25 to $165 for VIP seating (which includes wine tickets, premium seating, and priority parking). Masks are recommended but not required.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Have you ever had all-consuming revenge fantasies for acts of bullying, abuse, or sexual come-ons—whether real or perceived? Actions that hurt or damaged you emotionally, not just then, but into the future? Let’s face it: we all have!
Thoughts of “if only I had done this to the perpetrator” live on with us.
Such feelings of revenge surround four teen-aged Korean-American girls on a Christian New Seoul Church mission trip with their pastor to Thailand, a land of iniquity. As the girls acclimate themselves to their hotel room, one of them discovers a hidden camera tucked away in their bathroom.
…we laugh throughout as their Kpop-infused dialogue…
Who put it there? When the girls discover, to their horror, that it is the property of the church. They assume it was placed there by their pastor to watch them as they perform intimate functions in the expected privacy of their own bathroom.
Sharon Shao as Kyung-Hwa, Alexandra Lee as Samantha. Photos by Ben Krantz
“Man of God” presents the girls’ conundrum in flights of fancy, a dizzying array of wildly imaginative revenge scenarios from mafia-driven execution to machete kung-fu action to comedy blood-lust to ice bath disembowelment of vital organs. As they free-flight fantasize about their vengeance, we laugh throughout as their Kpop-infused dialogue brilliantly captures the patois of teenage girls while their imaginations fuel decisions they never make.
Boys are excused because it’s in their nature to “act out.” Girls, however are not doormats! “If we continue allowing ourselves this kind of abuse, it is actually on us!”
The girls understand the reality they live in, and they turn on a dime from spouting quick bursts of vital truisms of women in a patriarchal society to discussions of make-up and moisturizers.
Five very gifted Asian American actors embody the girls and the pastor. Each girl is distinctly depicted by playwright Anna Ouyang Moench and expertly guided by director Michelle Talgarow’s spot-on staging on Randy Wong-Westbrooke’s marvel of a set.
Sharon Shao as Kyung-Hwa, Lauren Andrei Garcia as Mimi, Alexandra Lee as Samantha, Joyce Domanico-Huh as Jen. Photos by Ben Krantz.
Joyce Domanico-Huh, Lauren Andrei Garcia, Alexandra Lee, and Sharon Shao are pure delights, bringing the language of their world alive. Did Pastor, played by Chuck Lacson, place the camera in the bathroom? That is not resolved until the final moments of this 90-minute one-act. To find out, you must see the play, as this reviewer certainly isn’t going to give it away.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco based actor-director and Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre.
Welcome back to Harlem’s Golden Age of Jazz, with Prohibition booze and uninhibited dance clubs swinging circles around each other.
Fats Waller composed and played rockin’ songs in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s for folks who were “dance crazy.” Sonoma Arts Live brings back these fun-loving times with five talented singer/dancers, one superb slide piano player, and five backup band members on stage. The musical tribute showcases the breadth of Waller’s influence on jitterbug, Charleston, tap, and just plain foolin’ around to the sultry lyrics of sensual waltzes and slow favorites like “Honeysuckle Rose.”
“The musical tribute showcases the breadth of Waller’s influence on jitterbug, Charleston, tap, and just plain foolin’ around…”
Waller, a posthumous Grammy award winner, was one of the most prolific composers and entertainers of the era, writing over 400 songs. He had huge hands, wide enough to master the slide piano technique. With slide piano, the left hand plays the bass rhythm of a piece, typically when there is no actual bass musician to cover the beat. Some musicians of that era had surgery to cut the thumb-first finger tendon in their left hand in order to make the necessary ten-key reach from bass note to chord. Waller was born with that ability, a blessing the “King of the Stride” used to wrote songs that were equally successful with audiences of all colors in those highly segregated times.
Back in the 20’s Harlem, if the rent was due and there was nothing coming in, folks would gather at the apartment for a dance-and-booze “rent party” to chip in for their friends. There was always a gun check at the door, and a password to avoid the cops. They called these gathering “joints” to avoid tipping off the cops.
Photos in this review — Miller Oberlin
No Fats Waller revue would be complete without the raucous “This Joint is Jumpin’” as Serena Elize Flores, D’Artagnan Riviera, Jonathen Blue, and Bay Area favorite Phillip Percy Williams are joined by Director Aja Gianola-Norris in a slap and swirl romp. Costumes, designed by Jaya Grace, range from flirty to fancy as the exuberant cadre belts out “Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own” and the signature song Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Waller gave us songs to make us smile, like “You Feet’s Too Big” or sigh, in “I’m Gonna’ Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.”
Sonoma Arts Live is to be commended for gathering this group of talents to showcase a master entertainer of a bygone era. Williams is a seasoned standout with his smooth jazz voice, and Blue and Flores lead the others in clever tap dancing. It’s worth the price of admission just to watch Neil Angelo Fontano play jazz piano at the apron of the stage. The fun the performers have onstage is contagious, whether shouting out lyrics or kicking high. Harlem’s legendary “Clown Prince of Jazz” is rockin’ indeed.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Ain’t Misbehavin’
Written by
Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr.
Directed by
Aja Gianola Norris
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
September 25th, 2022
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Ross Valley Players takes a brave jump from their usual lighthearted productions to bring the mid-century classic “Picnic” to the stage.
William Inge situated his 1953 Pulitzer-prize winning drama in a dusty Kansas town not far from the train tracks. “Picnic” is a period piece, a slow-moving unfolding of womenfolk who share a backyard and reveal their varied emotional shackles. Widow Helen Potts (veteran Tamar Cohn) has hired Hal, a hunky young drifter, to help her with chores. Hal possesses both animal magnetism and a body budding with muscles. Whenever Hal appears, perfectly portrayed by Max Carpenter, the febrile women bite their lips and sigh.
Helen’s next-door neighbor Flo is a controlling mother (superbly channeled by Tori Truss) who urges her pretty eldest daughter Madge to ensnare Alan (Evan Held), the town’s eligible bachelor. Madge acts compliant but is conflicted by her own perceived limitations. Dale Leonheart enacts her delicate role, balancing eagerness and wistfulness, all the while listening for the whistles of distant trains.
…“Picnic” is a period piece, a slow-moving unfolding of womenfolk who share a backyard and reveal their varied emotional shackles.
Flo pays scant attention to her studious tomboy daughter Millie, a role captured with youthful impatience by Lizzy Bies. Flo’s two daughters have a rivalry common to close-age siblings. Bies admirably remains in character throughout her performance, even when she has no lines onstage.
Lizzie Bies is terrific as Milly Owens. Dale Leonheart as Madge Owens.
Into the backyard enters Rosemary (Valerie Weak), Flo’s house boarder, a prim and proper schoolteacher with buttoned up suit and perfectly aligned seamed stockings. Weak skillfully enacts this role, emphasizing Rosemary’s aloofness. From Act I to Act IV, Rosemary morphs from a self-proclaimed independent female to one desperate to get married. Her reasons for becoming so aren’t clear, but her need to get married propels the play’s secondary plot.
…Inge’s dramatic script is an edgy slice of life, and no picnic for the characters.
Madge’s boyfriend Alan appears—handsome, respectful and reserved, played understatedly by Held. Alan recognizes the drifter Hal as his former college buddy, and their joyful reunion provides a laugh-out-loud highlight.
It’s not the only amusing scene in this drama, thanks to Steve Price in the role of Howard, Rosemary’s sweetheart. Price has the capacity to be a larger-than-life comedic presence, but he keeps it mostly real in this production. Howard cajoles the staid Rosemary to take a swig of his illegal booze. He shares his booty with eager Hal, and young Millie sneaks in a few swigs too. The combustion begins when one buzzed and desperate spinster wants to dance with a virile hunk.
Tory Truss as Flo Owens with Dale Leonheart.
RVP made a good choice choosing director Adrian Elfenbaum and adding two Equity actors to their cadre of talented local actors. RVP’s masterful casting choices secure the believability and success of this production. Elfenbaum’s direction keeps each character’s performance in balance with the ensemble.
Opening night had bits of hesitation with the actors’ lines, perhaps due to opening-night jitters, but that will surely dissipate. This period piece moves at a slow pace, and at two and a half hours might benefit by trimming a few scenes, but overall it’s a tremendous production.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Picnic
Written by
William Inge
Directed by
Adrian Elfenbaum
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru October 9, 2022
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Reversing the Covid-related nationwide loss of theater venues, a brand new one has opened its doors in the North Bay: the “California” in Santa Rosa, CA.
Last week the 200-seat venue hosted a partisan opening-night crowd for Left Edge Theatre’s “Fun Home,” one of Broadway’s most controversial and ground-breaking productions, a musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s rich and complex 2006 tragicomic graphic memoir of the same name, with music by Jeanine Tesori, and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron.
A multiple Tony Awards winner, “Fun Home” was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It’s a deeply personal yet refreshingly honest show, about family, gender identity and seeing one’s parents through one’s grown-up eyes.
The non-linear story follows Alison through her early life, as she recounts her fraught relationship with her long-suffering mother and her late father, a closeted gay man, who may or may not have committed suicide shortly after Alison’s confession of her lesbianism to her family. Despite having some pre-adult cast members, this show is intended for mature audiences and includes adult language and discussion of sexuality and suicide. At the same time it’s funny, sad, poignant, charming, endearing and surprisingly fun!
“Fun Home” is enjoying a number of local productions since its performance rights were recently released. Left Edge Theater has assembled an excellent cast, including Elizabeth Henry, Bethany Cox and North Bay stage veteran Anthony Martinez. Lucas Sherman (keyboard) and Grant Bramham (percussion) provide the music and Maureen O’Neill ably directs a troubling, charming, touching and entertaining evening of theater. Hurrah for this new venue!
Review by Ms. Morgan…
What joy to attend the Grand Opening of Left Edge Theatre’s new California Theatre in downtown Santa Rosa for the opening night performance of “Fun Home.“ Based on an autobiographical graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, “Fun Home” garnered five Tony Awards in 2015, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
The September 3 sold-out performance at the California Theatre was packed with friends and family of performers and production company, and many fans of local theatre. Abuzz with excitement before the performance began, the audience generated appreciative, electric energy which remained throughout the night.
…there are…moments of poignant introspection, fun, and joyful revelation.
“Fun Home” is an exploration of Alison Bechdel’s memories of her family, her sense of alienation from her once-beloved father, and her awakening to her sexual identity as a lesbian, her first love, and the impossible cost of hiding her innermost self. “Fun Home” (short for “funeral home”) was the ironic nickname given by the Bechdel family to their family business, a mortuary run by Alison’s father Bruce, who was also a high school teacher, restorer of historic homes and a closeted gay.
The play begins as contemporary Alison, a graphic novelist, (capably played by Emily Jansen-Adan) stands at her sketch board trying to remember the details of her childhood as they unfold on the stage in front of her. Alison is also played as a young child and as a college student by Addison Sandoval and Rae Lipman, respectively.
While the subject matter is deeply fraught and sometimes tragic, there are also moments of poignant introspection, fun, and joyful revelation. The outstanding music elevates the production, contributing to a sense of intimacy as the audience listens in on the otherwise secret thoughts of the characters. The actors were clearly chosen for their singing, as well as acting chops, and all songs were deservedly met with enthusiastic applause.
Two performances stand out among many. In “Ring of Keys,” Addison Sandoval, (one of three child actors) playing “small Alison,” brilliantly conveys the dawning of her understanding of herself as “different” than other girls when she first encounters a very butch delivery woman and, with wide-eyed wonder and a foreign sense of yearning, sings, “. . . with your swagger and your bearing and the just right clothes you’re wearing, your short hair and your dungarees and your lace up boots, and your keys, oh, your ring of keys . . . I know you . . . ” Whether speaking or singing, young Addison does an excellent job throughout “Fun Home,” with a self-possessed sense of confidence and ease that make her a pleasure to watch. Addison, surprisingly, is a self-taught vocalist and has never had professional instruction.
Bethany Cox (Joan) & Rae Lipman (Medium Alison). Photo by Eric Chazankin
The second standout was Rae Lipman’s rendition of “Changing My Major.” Waking beside her new lover the morning after their first sexual encounter, Lipman’s Alison emanates a sense of passion, wonder and gratitude at the miracle of the liaison. As she sings, “I’ve never lost control due to overwhelming lust, but I must say that I’m changing my major to Joan. I’m changing my major to sex with Joan, with a minor in kissing Joan . . . ” she brings the audience along with her as she circles the bed staring with a mix of ardor and tenderness at her sleeping beloved.
In his sixth performance with Left Edge Theatre, Bay Area theater veteran Anthony Marinez manages to portray Alison’s father Bruce with nuance despite the fact that the character is an egotistical, tyrannical husband and often overbearing father. Evoking enthusiasm, passion, righteousness, explosiveness, violence, sadness, and overwhelming desperation, Martinez is deeply compelling, and his exceptional voice lends itself beautifully to the production.
Elizabeth Henry plays Alison’s mother Helen with determined self-control. We can feel her inwardly seething, even when smiling politely as Bruce talks to members of the Historical Society about his restoration of the family’s museum-like home, which she is expected to maintain to gleaming perfection. Her rendition of “The Hours” brought me to tears.
Every member of the cast performed their roles admirably, both in terms of acting and vocals. In a few songs the performers sang different lines simultaneously in an attempt to express the chaos in the home despite the placid exterior. Unfortunately, the ensuing cacophony was too much for this viewer.
There were a few minor technical difficulties, not a surprise given that it was the first outing for Left Edge in their new performance space. There were problems with microphones, the live orchestra was at moments too loud, and the seating to the far left of the stage sometimes left us looking at the backs of the actors.
Minor issues aside, Left Edge Theatre’s production of “Fun Home,” with wonderful acting and superb vocals and music behind an exceptionally well-executed script is one not to miss!
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Mitchell Field is a Sr. Contributing Writer for Aisle Seat Review. Based in Marin County, Mr. Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
With a bushel of fresh-faced, multi-talented kids, Palo Alto Players has a hit on its hand with the broad comedy “School of Rock,” playing through Sept. 11 at Lucie Stern Theater.
Sure, there are tons of hackneyed caricatures in “Rock,” the kind that Julian Fellows creates here. In fact, almost all the production’s adults are caricatures, the better to contrast with their earnest, brook-no-prisoners reactions to the show’s fifteen kids.
…A special shoutout to the four youngsters who played their own instruments in solo numbers….
What’s even more amazing about these pint-sized stars is that the four youngsters who ultimately become members of the kids’ band are actually playing their instruments live. They do so despite the fact that a number of adult musicians are also playing in the orchestra pit during the show.
Photo by Kate Hart Photography Pictured: Dewey Finn (Jomar Martinez) and the kids of Horace Green rock out to “You’re in the Band” in Palo Alto Players’ SCHOOL OF ROCK!
Yet one adult actor – the crazy-good Jomar Martinez, playing out-of-work musician/faux substitute teacher Dewey Finn – stands out simply because Dewey is a kid at heart whose two loves are playing music and sleeping. Dewey is living in the bedroom of an apartment owned by his old bandmate, Ned Schneebly (the bland but affable Zack Goller) and his fiancée Patty Di Marco. Amanda Le Nguyen plays Patty with waaaay too much veracity—her Patty is so demanding that it’s hard to imagine she and the affable Ned would ever have connected.
It’s obvious director Doug Santana put a lot of love into this production—his own daughter Maddie plays one of the precocious kids! While he let the kids shine as much as they are comfortable, it might have made the show a little more reasonable if not every adult except Dewey was unpleasant or bland.
As Rosalie Mullins, the headmistress of the posh Horace Green School, Amy Kohmescher comes close to playing another caricature. But she loosens up when she agrees to have a cup of coffee with the ersatz substitute teacher. Turns out the coffee date is in a bar and with each sip of beer, Rosalie loses her inhibitions and becomes more fun. She and the disheveled Dewey even share a quick kiss as they part.
But the kids are really the heart and soul of “School of Rock.” From reading their biographies, most are middle school or high school students, although at least two are fifth graders. Nearly all have had drama experience either at their schools or with local theatre productions.
Photo by Scott Lasky Pictured (L to R): Hailey Matta as Summer, Adeline Anderson as Katie, Jomar Martinez as Dewey Finn, Rafael ‘Rafi’ Frans as Zack, and Alex Pease as Freddy in Palo Alto Players’ SCHOOL OF ROCK, the electrifying Broadway musical based on the hit movie.
A special shoutout to the four youngsters who played their own instruments in solo numbers: Adeline Anderson who, as Katie, played bass; Alex Pease playing drums as Freddy; CJ Fernando as Lawrence with his socko piano playing; and the blow-it-out guitar playing of Rafael “Rafi’ Frans as Zack.
Choreographer Joey Dippel smartly allows youngsters with previous dancing experience to lead the musical numbers, yet gives every one of the kids a chance to at least “doo wop,” dance, and sway to the beat.
Andrew Lloyd Webber composed “Rock’s” musical score, and Glen Slater provided lyrics. It has several memorable numbers, most notably: “You’re in the Band,” “Where Did the Rock Go?,” “School of Rock” and “Stick It to the Man.”
Photo by Scott Lasky. The teachers of Horace Green sing the “Faculty Quadrille” in Palo Alto Players’ SCHOOL OF ROCK!
Costume designer Noreen Styliadis really hit the mark here with cute maroon-white-and black plaid school uniforms worn by almost all the kids. She pulls off a coup when she dresses Martinez in – well, you’ll just have to see “Rock” to find out.
All in all, definitely worth the 2 ½ hours (with one 15-minute intermission) for young and old alike to revel in the clever joyfulness of “School of Rock.”
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Aisle Seat Executive Reviewer Joanne Engelhardt is a Peninsula theatre writer and critic. She is a voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Contact: joanneengelhardt@comcast.net
Production
School of Rock
Book by / Lyrics By / New Music By
Julian Fellowes / Glenn Slater / Andrew Lloyd Webber
Directed by
Doug Santana
Producing Company
Palo Alto Players
Production Dates
Through October 11, 2022
Production Address
Lucie Stern Theater 1305 Middlefield Road Palo Alto, CA 94301
Hershey Felder swings wide the French door opening onto an opulent salon, replete with gilded framed mirrors, crystal chandelier and candelabras, luxuriously draped brocade curtains, elegant chaise longue and Victorian side tables. In the center of the room, mirrored surfaces gleaming in purple-gold “candle light,” stands a magnificent Steinway grand piano. Elegantly dressed in white starched shirt, narrow trousers, waistcoat, impeccably tailored frock-coat and cravat, he steps across the threshold. The spell is cast: Chopin has arrived.
The date is March 4th, 1848, mere days after the violent February Revolution in Paris and we, the audience, are among the privileged piano students (here for a lesson) from whose wealthy and illustrious families Chopin makes his living. Making a light-hearted joke about having just had “tea” in the rooms of a lady, Chopin – who had a reputation as a ladies’ man – proceeds to mesmerize his audience with detailed accounts which bring vividly alive the intimate details of his too-brief existence.
…Hershey Felder is simply a genius….
Over the following ninety minutes—no intermission—his students experience the full spectrum of human emotions. Using nothing but words and gorgeous renditions of many of his most famous pieces—gloriously executed on that spectacular Steinway—Chopin conjures those who inspired his genius and walks us through his musical passions and processes.
Several times breaking into his own narrative, Chopin invites his “students” to ask questions, responding to queries including, in part, the type and quality of sound of a piano typically played during that era, his greatest musical influence (Bach, from whom, he asserts, “we all just steal bits and pieces of his music”), and his feelings about his rival, Liszt.
Chopin played only thirty public concerts but made a reputation for himself in Paris playing in private salons at the homes of the city’s elite. While describing his distaste for pandering to some of his wealthy patrons, Chopin encourages his students who might find themselves playing under similar circumstances to ignore their surroundings and, “Play as if you are playing for God.” When he himself begins to play, one can only imagine the good favor with which God looks upon him.
Felder’s Chopin seems to have been resurrected, rather than contrived. Felder embodies the master with such seemingly effortless confidence that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that he has had to memorize almost everything Chopin is known to have uttered or written. That dedication to authenticity is, in part, what makes this performance so riveting. I do not enjoy the banal and often mistakenly applied term, “tour de force,” but even that phrase seems too mild to express the brilliance and artistry of Felder’s performance.
Hershey Felder is simply a genius. He is a conceptualist, playwright, virtuoso pianist, actor, and set designer. Did I mention that he also sings like an angel? In addition to the numerous solo shows Felder has created and starred in, including George Gershwin Alone, Beethoven, Monsieur Chopin and many others, he created his own arts broadcasting company during the Covid crisis, which allows him to reach a larger audience for his theatrical films.
Director Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) uses a light hand, allowing Felder’s deep understanding of his character full expression in both movement and mannerism. The scenic design by Felder is perfect in its authenticity, truly bringing to life the luxurious and rarefied setting of a salon for the highest echelons of Parisian society in the mid-1800s. The pink porcelain swan, on the Victorian side table, is an artful touch. Lighting design by Erik S. Barry enhances the elegance of the setting with its rich purple tones and rose/gold effect. Dimming the overhead stage lights brightens the candlelight whenever Chopin plays.
Video projections using flame effects and renderings of buildings or participants in the salon are good effects, but the overly large and bright image of a female disembodied head (George Sand? Chopin’s sister Emilia?) is a bit disconcerting.
Felder gives his audience the gift of being transported to 19th century Paris to sit at the feet of one of the world’s most renown musical geniuses – with none of the discomfort or inconveniences of that time – and plays music of such beauty it elicits tears. If you love theatre, classical music, sublime acting, or all of the preceding, do everything in your power to see Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris. And bring your friends.
They’ll thank you for the experience.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Chopin in Paris
Written by
Hershey Felder
Directed by
Joel Zwick
Producing Company
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Production Dates
Through Sept. 11th
Production Address
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
Berkeley Rep’s “Goddess” opens with electrifying, high-energy afro-centric dance and music that encompass skat, jazz, and R & B, and introduces us to Moto Moto, a bar in Mombasa, Kenya. A loquacious and slitheringly sexy emcee Ahmed (Rodrick Covington) and company welcome us, the visitors, to an evening of high entertainment. “Moto Moto” means hot and fiery. Indeed it is.
Through a trio of always-present all-knowing spirits, we meet the bar’s owner Madongo (Lawrence Stallings), the snap-crackle-and-pop bar gal, Rashida (Abena), and the boy just back from Columbia University with a Poli-sci degree, Omari (the multi-talented quadruple-threat Philip Johnson Richardson). Suddenly the mood shifts from exuberant joy to a sense of fear and awe as we meet Nadira (the golden voiced Amber Iman). Nadira is the Goddess reaching into mortal elements trying to find that most human of virtues: love. Omari is smitten as she sings “That Love.” They meet and a bond of the heart begins.
…With some tweaking, this wonderful new musical should find its place on the Broadway roster of hits….
A weave of myth and legend, Nadira’s world is the African tale of Marimba, the Goddess of Music and Mother of Song. Nadira’s desire to understand the love possessed by mortals is hampered by a curse placed on her by her vengeful Mother, the Goddess of Evil—a curse that will be fulfilled should Nadira relinquish her power and attempt to come alive as human. The budding mutual passion she and Omari feel—and his own love of music (Mr. Richardson also plays a mean sax)—can only bring heartbreak.
(center) Isio-Maya Nuwere (Moto Moto Ensemble – Safiyah) (l to r) Teshomech (Grio Trio – Tisa), Wade Watson (Moto Moto Ensemble – Musa), Awa Sal Secka (Grio Trio – Zawadi), Quiantae Thomas (Moto Moto Ensemble – Amina), Zachary Downer (Moto Moto Ensemble – Sameer), Aaron Nicholas Patterson (Moto Moto Ensemble – Yusef), and (stairs) Rodrick Covington (Ahmed) in the world premiere musical production of Goddess. Directed by Saheem Ali, book by Jocelyn Bioh, music and lyrics by Michael Thurber. Photo by Kevin Berne and Alessandra Mello/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Complications ensue as Omari’s parents and fiancée have other plans for him. He is tied to the roots of family and must marry and become the Mayor of Mombasa. The talented Kecia Lewis and Kingsley Leggs as the parents, and officious Destinee Rha as the fiancée, offer Omari no alternative but to get out of his situation and back to Moto Moto and Nadira.
In the sixteen-year development of this musical, this area still needs work. We need to see and understand how Omari is torn between wanting to honor the commitment he made to them before he left for NYC and his nascent love for Nadira.
(front) Phillip Johnson Richardson (Omari) (back, l to r) Wade Watson (Moto Moto Enemble – Musa), Melessie Clark (Grio Trio – Mosi), Quiantae Thomas (Moto Moto Ensemble – Amina), and Awa Sal Secka (Grio Trio – Zawadi) in the world premiere musical production of Goddess. Directed by Saheem Ali, book by Jocelyn Bioh, music and lyrics by Michael Thurber. Photo by Kevin Berne and Alessandra Mello/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
A magnificent production surrounds the world of Moto Moto with a detailed Afro-Arabic set by Arnulfo Maldonado, luminous lighting by Tony Winner Bradley King, magnificent costuming by Dede Ayite and special mention to the sound design of Nevin Steinberg. Literally every word spoken or sung is clearly understood. Music director Marco Paguia honors Michael Thurber’s original score with joy and specificity.
With some tweaking, this wonderful new musical should find its place on the Broadway roster of hits.
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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor and director and Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre.
Production
Goddess
Written by / Music & Lyrics by /
Choreography by
Jocelyn Bioh /
Michael Thurber /
Darrell Grand Moultrie
A technological house of horrors is both a comedic trap and an existential crisis for a young married couple in Deborah Yarchun’s “Atlas, the Lonely Gibbon” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center through August 28.
Directed by Sheri Lee Miller, Yarchun’s world premiere script leverages an uncooperative “smart home” and digital-era social isolation as the basis for an acerbic comedy.
Taylor Diffenderfer (l) and Keith Baker (r). Photo by Jeff Thomas
Taylor Diffenderfer shines as Irene, a journalist reduced to doing copy-edit work on stories generated by computer, and one so spooked by and hooked on technology that she frequently dons a virtual reality (VR) headset to escape.
…an amusing and well-done cautionary tale….
All the devices in her fully-integrated home refuse to follow orders that she barks at “Atona,” the unseen interface and controller in her sci-fi residence. The refrigerator coughs and sputters and dances madly. The lights flicker and fade at random. Even the house plants seem to have minds of their own. Both unbidden and in response, the home’s devices talk to her, often with incisive comments. Kevin Biordi and Julianne Bradbury animate and voice the machines.
Irene doesn’t get much help from husband David (Keith Baker), also a journalist who despite the prevalence of every imaginable connectivity at home, has to keep dashing out “to the office.” The revolt of the machines at home launches his system-wide upgrade, a cure that proves worse than the disease. Irene’s also got some sort of fixation on a large mate-seeking gibbon named “Atlas,” enacted by Baker. Bradbury does a nice bit late in the show as the probable mate.
Diffenderfer and Baker at work. Photo by Jeff Thomas
It’s all very funny until, as John Craven described “The House of Yes” at Main Stage West, it’s not funny anymore. The story morphs into a showdown between husband and wife, with quite unfavorable implications for the future of their relationship.
It’s a circumstance that should prove immediately recognizable for anyone overwhelmed by the intrusion of technology into every aspect of daily life. “Atlas, the Lonely Gibbon” is an amusing and well-done cautionary tale about where all of this may lead.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Atlas, the Lonely Gibbon
Written by
Deborah Yarchun
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through August 28th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” must have been a deeply traumatic event in the young life of director Daniel Fish.
There’s no other explanation for his nasty, disjointed interpretation of the beloved 1950s musical. A small part celebration, a larger part attack, but mostly a personal exorcism, Fish’s national touring production opened Wednesday August 17 to a nearly full house in San Francisco’s capacious Golden Gate Theatre.
Entering the theater, the audience squinted into a broad bank of harsh bright lights from high above the stage, perhaps a forewarning that they were about to undergo psychological torment of the type dished out to political prisoners. Below these lights lay the set for the entire production: a huge open room filled with rows of picnic tables and walls festooned with mounted guns—dozens of rifles and shotguns, implying that the space is possibly a hunting club, but also perhaps the rec room of a church, or a school cafeteria. It’s community meeting space with lots and lots of guns.
Gun culture is established early in the show—this is Oklahoma, of course—and despite the story’s lack of gunplay, it provides thematic background throughout a nearly three hour performance. Russian novelist/playwright Anton Chekhov famously commented “If there’s a gun hanging on the wall in act one . . . you must fire the gun by act three,” advice clearly followed by Fish in his rewriting of the show’s closing moments.
In the opening scene we meet most of the pertinent characters near the town of Claremore, Oklahoma Territory, all presided over by matriarch Aunt Eller (Barbara Walsh). This introduction closely adheres to Hammerstein’s original, with cowboy Curly (Sean Grandillo) accompanying himself on guitar while singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” We meet Laurey (Sasha Hutchings), the girl of his dreams, and Jud Fry (Christopher Bannon), village idiot and Curly’s rival for Laurey, goofy adventurer Will (Hennesey Winkler) and pivotal comic-relief character Ado Annie (Sis), the “girl who cain’t say no.” They’re mostly in fine voice, especially Sis, blessed with superb comic timing and a powerful contralto. The Laurey/Curly duet “People Will Say We’re in Love” is delightful.
The company of the National Tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! —- Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
But our short stay in traditional romantic musical territory is abruptly ended by a lengthy blackout scene in which Curly and Jud have a man-to-man discussion. The blackout is as annoying and unjustifiable as the airfield landing lights that illuminate the theater on entering, and is inexplicably repeated in the second act. If one long blackout wasn’t enough, how about two or three?
The original production featured a “dream ballet” in which Laurey tries to sort out her feelings for Curly and Jud. That’s been jettisoned for a solo modern dance routine done to a high-intensity heavy-metal medley of “Oklahoma!” tunes, in the midst of more stage smoke than ever obscured a 1980s rock concert.
Clad in an oversized T–shirt emblazoned with the words “Dream Baby Dream,” dancer Jordan Wynn performs well even if John Heginbotham’s choreography bears no relationship to 1906 Oklahoma, or to the rest of the show. It’s also Wynn’s only appearance. Benj Mirman does a nice turn as Ali Hakim, the “Persian” peddler, as does Mitch Tebo as local jurist Andrew Carnes. The production’s dozen or so musicians are excellent, and the show’s actors overall are very good.
…Director Fish’s conceptual conceits sink this show.
As done originally, both stage and film, “Oklahoma!” is a lightweight musical hampered by a weak story—its weakness forgivable because great music carries the show. Fish makes the too-obvious mistake of trying to push “Oklahoma!” into dramatic territory that would have appalled both its authors and previous generations of musical theater fans.
In the original, Jud appears in the penultimate scene at the wedding of Laurey and Curly. He’s drunk and belligerent, provokes a fistfight with Curly, then dies after falling on his own knife—an accidental death. In Fish’s version, he arrives stone cold sober, with a wedding gift for Curly: a revolver whose grip he puts in Curly’s hands. He provokes the inevitable single shot that kills him, and the blood-spattered newlyweds then sing the “Oklahoma!” anthem as off-key and ironically as possible. It’s an intentional abomination.
Fish may have many good reasons for hating the musical, for hating gun culture, for hating the state of Oklahoma and its history. He may even have some good reasons for sympathizing with a character as repellent as Jud Fry, but there’s no justification for turning what’s basically an upbeat romantic fantasy into a screed about evil.
This “Oklahoma!” is little more than a protracted, self-indulgent exercise in millennial irony. Professional tastemakers in New York and elsewhere may have gushed about its brilliance, but bear in mind that they also considered “Guards at the Taj” a delightful little comedy, “The Humans,” an insightful depiction of family dynamics, “Dance Nation” a revelation about adolescent girls, and “Next to Normal” a fun romp through the minefield of drug addiction and delusional behavior. God save us.
There are certain theatrical icons that should be off-limits to reinterpretation. Fish’s “Oklahoma!” neither honors the original nor does it provide any degree of satisfaction for an audience eager to leave the theater with songs in their hearts. Instead they go home sorry that they paid to be insulted.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Oklahoma!
Written by
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II /alterations by Daniel Fish
Directed by
Daniel Fish
Producing Company
National Touring Production / Broadway SF
Production Dates
Through Sept. 11th
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
If Shakespeare’s plays have sometimes seemed confusing, with multiple characters speaking patois poetry and cross dressing, fear not. “Two Gentlemen of Verona” is one of the Bard’s early plays and has a believable plot, with only one actor disguising herself as a male.
Director Steve Beecroft worked for over a year on the play, writing in lines to bolster the motivation and beef up the characters’ actions. He did a solid job, as this play is both emotional and amusing, dark and light, with jealousy and forgiveness. And swordplay. Lots of swordplay.
The outdoor Curtain Theatre has returned post-pandemic, with a large talented cast creating splendid afternoon performances. They cleverly merge a smoothly flowing story to original Elizabethan-era music (thanks to Don Clark), proper dancing, the aforementioned swordplay (impressively done by Beecroft), and exquisite costumes by Jody Branham. The final result does Shakespeare proud.
“Two Gentlemen of Verona” opens as two friends joke and joust as young men in 1593 were wont to do. Proteus (handsome and confident Nelson Brown) has a lady, Julia (expertly acted by Isabelle Grimm), to whom he has sworn his love, and she to him. His buddy Valentine has no girlfriend, so he bids them “ciao” and sets out to neighboring Milan. It doesn’t take long for Valentine, enacted by a dashing and charming Nic Moore, to hook up with lovely Sylvia, an aristocratic and clever young lady regally played by Gillian Eichenberger. They plight (pledge) their troth, which is to say they really dig each other.
“They plight their troth, which is to say they really dig each other.”
Back in Verona, Proteus’s exasperated dad (channeled by Mark Shepard) boots Proteus off the couch and out of the family villa and shuttles him off to Milan. He meets up with Valentine, spots Sylvia, and suddenly he’s in love and forgets about Julia. Dramaturg Peter Bradbury succinctly points out “Proteus is named after the shape-shifting god of change.”
Sylvia will have none of Proteus, as she is true to Valentine. After all, she plighted her troth with Valentine. Spurned Proteus learns about his buddy’s plan to elope with Sylvia. He rats on Valentine to Sylvia’s daddy the Duke (a regal Glenn Havlan). Valentine is banished. Sylvia is mightily peeved, particularly when Proteus keeps pestering her, professing his love. Julia, smelling a rat, heads to Milan and disguises herself to watch her paramour’s antics in the forest. She gets the drift. The rest, as they say, shall be revealed in Act II.
No review of “Two Gentlemen” would be complete without commenting on the scene-stealing antics of Grey Wolf as Launce, a forest wanderer, and his dog. This particular dog is the hilarious Jamin Jollo; he plays the part on all fours and scratches and slobbers at will. The giggling of the children in the audience when he appears is the true testimonial of this actor’s over-the-top performance.
It is another scene-stealing surprise when Jollo shows up as Sir Thurio, one of Sylvia’s swishy suitors and a definite swipe left on Tinder. They are backed up by a talented cast of servants and outlaws, in a grove of stately redwoods reaching high above the fun.
…backed up by a talented cast of servants and outlaws, in a grove of stately redwoods reaching high above the fun.
The Curtain Theatre has no curtain, and their theatre is the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre, behind the Mill Valley Library on Throckmorton. Their productions are open to all at no charge, donations are most welcome, and chairs are set out in the glen, first come first served. The audience is filled with families, blankets, chairs, and picnics. It’s endearing to see the children enraptured by Shakespeare’s legacy. They get it!
Playing at 2 PM Saturdays and Sundays and through Labor Day Monday September 5th. Admission is FREE and donations are happily appreciated. Open seating, picnics welcome, cookies and coffee available for purchase, and chairs are provided on a first-come basis, or bring your own. Dress in layers as this redwood grove is always much cooler than the street level.
And, psssst..…If you’d like a sneak peek at this amazing work, try this video on You Tube: https://youtu.be/JBCCpfpd368
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Steve Beecroft
Producing Company
Curtain Theatre
Production Dates
Saturdays/Sundays and Labor Day Monday at 2 p.m. through September 5th
Production Address
Old Mill Park Amphitheater.
375 Throckmorton Avenue (behind the library), Mill Valley
The playbill for “The Four Gifts” notes that Joe Bradley was coaxed into letting his well-regarded autobiography be adapted for the stage.
Pity. This story of faith, loss of faith, drug and alcohol addiction, hitting bottom, becoming a priest, overcoming life-threatening obstacles, and Bradley’s heart-felt life of service to others, is evidently much more effectively expressed in prose.
As scripted and performed at Hillbarn Theatre, “The Four Gifts” fails to create a genuinely human character that the audience can connect with. The poorly executed script is further hampered by stilted language—I didn’t notice a single contraction—overly short scenes, and confusing casting. When asked before the play what role he played (the program didn’t delineate cast members’ roles), Randy Allen stated that he played several roles, including Father Joe, noting, “We’re all Father Joe.”
…the play’s acting…was strangely devoid of emotion.
It quickly became apparent that his meaning was literal as well as figurative as each of the ten actors in turn transformed into Joe by donning a gold cross on a chain, passing it along to the next player when it was his or her turn. It’s an interesting concept to express the universality of every human’s struggle but, in practice, disconcerting and awkward.
The Cast listen to a sermon given by Johnny Villar (R). *Photo Appears Courtesy of Actor Equity Association. Photo by Mark and Tracy Photography.
In contrast to the intensity of the subject matter, the play’s acting itself was strangely devoid of emotion. Perhaps because the players switched scenes and characters so often and quickly, they never had time to settle into a role before rushing off to the next scene.
The three screens onto which background scenes were projected at times worked beautifully but were otherwise ill-fitted to the images on display, adding a sense of vertigo, such as when a seminary wall tilted precariously to one side.
Joseph Steely (L) give Johnny Villar (R) council. Photos by Mark and Tracy Photography.
The screens were also sometimes illuminated to very good effect, exposing shadow play, such as the goings-on in a hospital room, or a patient in a hospital chapel, fervently praying while attached to an IV pole.
Costuming was appropriate, the lighting fine, and sound design spot on, but given the show’s conceptual and performances shortcomings, you might want to give “The Four Gifts” a pass.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Step inside the 99-seat Monroe Stage black box theatre you’ve entered the drawing room of a 19th century English country manor. There’s a lovely scene behind the columns, reminiscent of a Maxfield Parrish painting. The floor has been transformed into a colorful faux-carpet, and there are touches of lace and lush drapery in the corners of the theatre.
The stage is set for “Pride and Prejudice,” an inventive adaptation by Kate Hamill of Jane Austen’s classic 1813 novel—an avant-garde production with contemporary costume touches mixed with period dresses and proper gentlemen’s coattails.
6th Street Playhouse chose to bring this nationally-recognized version to the Santa Rosa stage under the direction of Laura Downing-Lee. Opening night was sold out.
…the actors’ virtuosity and skill at their craft are apparent throughout this production.
The plot is driven by Mrs. Bennet, the rapacious mother of five daughters who must be married off to bring the family future prosperity. Enacted by stage veteran Kristine Ann Lowry, Mrs. Bennet brings laughter with her overbearing entreaties and dramatic entries and exits. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, has sworn off love and marriage, secure in her denial of the existence of a perfect man. Neither her mother nor her sisters Jane (Lauren DePass) and Lydia (Sierra Dawn Downey) can persuade her otherwise.
Miranda Jane Williams infuses the pivotal role of Elizabeth with a precise accent, clearly enunciated for all to hear in this small ¾ round theatre. Some of her castmates could use better projection and accents, as their backs are frequently turned.
Pride and Prejudice’s Matthew Cadigan and Miranda Jane Williams.
Those familiar with “Pride and Prejudice” know that when Mr. Darcy, portrayed by Matthew Cadigan as a wealthy aristocrat with proud class distinction, is introduced to Elizabeth, their conversation provokes an instant dislike between them. That is not the end of the story, but rather the spark which eventually ignites the beloved “happy ending.”
The cast has a blast with some over-the-top characterizations. Shifting roles, costumes, and genders in amusing combinations, the actors’ virtuosity and skill at their craft are apparent throughout this production.
Lowry and Downey at work.
Skyler King draws the first laughs as the oversized and beleaguered sister Mary, only to reappear in the next scene as amiable and handsome suitor Mr. Bingley. Lauren DePass plays quiet Jane and loopy Miss De Bourgh. Sierra Dawn Downey convincingly channels a bubbly and impetuous 14-year-old, then transforms into an imperious dowager in a later scene. Tim Hayes, the elder in the cast, swiftly changes from Mr. Bennet to re-emerge as a spinster cousin. It’s all very well done and great fun to watch.
The scene-stealer role in this “Pride and Prejudice” undoubtedly belongs to Elijah Pinkham, an actor with such skill at his craft that he is alternately the unctuous and hilarious reverend Mr. Collins, the sharp Lieutenant Wickham, and the haughty and disdainful Miss Bingley. He immerses himself into each role so deeply that he is unrecognizable.
The actors do this character switching repeatedly and seamlessly from all corners of the theatre, all the while moving stage furniture for the next scene. Bravo to all!
DePass (top/L), Sierra Dawn Downey, & King.
The book “Pride and Prejudice” has spawned many films, television programs, and stage adaptations, even including one with Zombies.
This 6th Street Playhouse production is fun, while retaining Austen’s moral of the story: prejudice defended merely by pride will lose out. It’s a lesson for today’s bellicose bias and attitudes. Shakespeare was correct: “All the world’s a stage.”
Note: When you go, Artistic Director Jared Sakren is protective of everyone at 6th Street. All patrons must show proof of vaccination at the door and wear masks inside. While theatres have been caught short by Covid illness of cast members, Sakren discloses that every actor in “Pride and Prejudice” has an understudy ready to assist.
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Pride and Prejudice
Written by
Kate Hamill, based on Jane Austen’s novel
Directed by
Laura Downing-Lee
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM through August 28th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
San Francisco has a long strong history of audacious theatricality.
Home-grown dazzlers include The Cockettes, The Tubes, Beach Blanket Babylon, and Teatro ZinZanni. Add to this list two or three annual performances of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” periodic revivals of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” an occasional over-the-top production of “Cabaret” (SF Playhouse, summer 2019) and hilarious touring shows such as “Head Over Heels” that rocked the Curran in spring 2018.
R2D2 and dancer. Photo by Kevin Berne.
At Chinatown’s Great Star Theater through October 2, “The Empire Strips Back” is very much in this tradition. The show originated in 2011 for a three-evening run in Sydney, Australia and became a national hit, touring Down Under for years before it went global.
“ . . . some of the most fun you’ll have in a SF theater all summer long.”
Billed as “a parody of Star Wars,” the show is more a Star Wars-themed spoof, with dancers assuming the guises of many Star Wars characters and the stage filled with props from the long-running film franchise. The lack of a through-line doesn’t tarnish the production, a music-and-dance revue that in classic burlesque style features a comic emcee who keeps the audience laughing while stagehands scramble behind the curtain, prepping for the next act.
Old-time burlesque featured not only a comic emcee, but jugglers, clowns, and assorted other diversions between the real attractions: scantily clad female dancers, with which the Great Star is abundantly supplied. Jugglers and clowns are notably absent, unless you count a twerking Chewbacca late in the second act.
In a pale blue “Lando Calrissian” cape, Oakland comedian Kevin Newton serves amiably as emcee, with perfectly paced commentary on everything happening onstage and in the audience—a full house on opening night, and a rowdy one too. Who knew that San Francisco still had so many heterosexuals?
The show’s dancers are talented, gorgeous, and aggressive, with moves that encompass every dance genre from the early ‘60s to the hip-hop present. Erin Vander Haar is a standout, a superb performer with a compelling ability to flirt with her audience. The show’s pop music also encompasses the past 60-some years, going as far back as the Spencer Davis Group and into the contemporary era with pieces like “Seven Nation Army.”
Musically, and choreographically, there’s something for everyone in this show, but it’s geared for a young, contemporary crowd—especially those steeped in Star Wars lore, pretty much a definition of everyone born after 1965. Newton generates plenty of laughs with cult-insider humor.
The Empire Strips dancers. Photo by Kevin Berne.
Dance segments are outrageously delightful, such as one that liberally quotes the famous hair-slinging scene in the film “Flashdance,” done here atop Luke Skywalker’s hovercraft. As big as a dump truck, Jabba the Hutt appears onstage with dancers cavorting around and on him. Whether solo, duets, trios, or ensemble, the dance troupe is phenomenal. Stagecraft varies from amateurish to astounding.
Takeaway: “The Empire Strips Back” is as far from serious theater as we can get, and what a welcome departure it is. We have to go back to “Head Over Heels,” more than four years ago, to remember a show where the audience sang along and afterward lingered on the sidewalk out front as if they didn’t want to leave. It’s probably some of the most fun you’ll have in a SF theater all summer long.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Empire Strips Back
Production Dates
Through October 2. 2022
Production Address
Great Star Theater
686 Jackson St.
San Francisco, CA
Lights, Camera, Action! Hollywood’s movies inspire and propel the latest Transcendence Theatre Company’s production, now showing live onstage at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, CA. If you grew up watching movies, and rocked along with the music, you’ve got to see this energy-packed show.
Over five dozen songs from movies then and now delight the senses in this fast-paced and multi-level production. Fifteen singers and dancers show off their vocal power and athletic moves as the klieg lights pierce the night. The stage bursts with costume changes from “The Greatest Showman” to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
Hooray for Hollywood cast working.
There’s a lovely pas de deux from “An American in Paris” and a clever “Jailhouse Rock” medley interspersed with “West Side Story.” The audience gave a standing cheer to “The Show Must Go On” in the second act, and many joined in when the “Time Warp” and “Footloose” let loose.
“…star talents with tight yet fluid moves. The silver screen never looked this good!”
Transcendence’s Musical Director Susan Draus conceived this amazing evening, revealing her lifelong love of movie music. Director/choreographer Alaina Mills, highlights the dancers’ star talents with tight yet fluid moves. The silver screen never looked this good!
Transcendence has but a few weeks to rehearse their superb talent in their short summer season. On opening weekend of “Hooray for Hollywood,” one of the TTC veterans had been injured in rehearsal and unable to dance. She sat alongside the orchestra and sang her part beautifully, smiling along with her fellow dancers. What a brilliant way to build company camaraderie!
Transcendence began ten years ago with a handful of singing and dancing performers who escaped their summer gigs on Broadway and LA stages. From their humble start as a nonprofit established to support the Jack London State Historic Park, they’ve grown to be a beloved part of the Bay Area performing arts family in Sonoma. Transcendence now has Kids Camps and Outreach Programs to bring joyful theatre and workshops to all ages.
To have what many call “The Best Night Ever!” bring a picnic starting at 5 PM and share the summer with pre-show entertainment, gourmet food trucks, and premium Sonoma County wines. After the party, settle into your seat surrounded by the stone ruins of the park. Dress in layers, for when the moon rises the temperature falls.
Transcendence Theater Company – 2022 Hooray for Hollywood cast at work
“Hooray for Hollywood” is the second outdoor show in their three-part summer series and runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings through August 14th at the Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen in Sonoma. Next up will be the outdoor “Gala” set for September 9-18, and their indoor Holiday Show this winter.
New this year is a “Transcendence For All” program that shares the joy of musical theatre with the community. Affordable tickets are available for $25, with closer-in seats starting at $49 to $165 for VIP at www.ttcsonoma.org or call the box office at 877-424-1414.
And finally, if you’d like just a brief peek at the energy and excitement of “Hooray for Hollywood”, check out this video clip: https://youtu.be/b1ct15tnk_w
“Hooray for Hollywood” — it’s a fun-filled spectacular!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Two rival artists get what they need, if not what they want, in Kevin Rolston’s compelling solo show “Deal with the Dragon” at Magic Theatre through August 13.
On a bare stage with a straight-back wooden chair as his only prop, Rolston brings to life Brenn, a mysterious and potentially malevolent spectre “from the Black Forest” who’s been intervening in human affairs “for centuries.”
Kevin Rolston (pictured) stars in Deal With The Dragon at Magic Theatre.
The tale begins with his hovering over the life of a tormented artist named Hunter, who’s competing against a rival named Gandy for what will be, for one of them, the first-ever exhibition of their works at a major museum.
Rolston’s neurotic but hugely entertaining characters succeed beautifully…
The story’s a good one, made better by Rolston’s superb embodiment of its three primary characters, each clearly delineated from the others. Along the way, he also performs several minor characters, including a museum director, a counselor at a twelve-step meeting, and an annoying teenage girl in a coffee shop.
Rolston is a confident performer with superb timing and an excellent sense of plying his audience, and earned a rousing ovation from the theater’s nearly full house on opening night. Directed by M. Graham Smith, he delves deeply into his characters’ quirks—especially Hunter’s—and closes the approximately one-hour performance on a hopeful note, not something that most theatergoers would expect from what’s essentially a darkly comic recital, its darkness amplified by Sara Huddleston’s sound effects. The bare stage is beautifully enhanced by Wolfgang Lancelot Wachalovsky’s subtle lighting.
Kevin Rolston at work at Magic Theater.
The title “Deal with the Dragon,” of course, is an imperative to conquer one’s demons—psychological, chemical, what have you. Rolston’s neurotic but hugely entertaining characters succeed beautifully in doing so.
Faustian tales are almost always tragic—this one is an unusually upbeat redemption story. And “Magic Theatre” couldn’t be a more appropriate venue, because what Rolston does in little over an hour is sheer magic. As Brenn puts it on first meeting Gandy, “It’s not so much who I am as what I can provide.”
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Deal With The Dragon
Written by
Kevin Rolston
Directed by
M. Graham Smith
Producing Company
Magic Theatre
Production Dates
Thru August 13, 2022
Production Address
Magic Theatre Ft. Mason Center, Bldg D 2 Marina Blvd. San Francisco, CA.
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical “Follies” first opened April 4, 1971. It was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, won seven, and has enjoyed many revivals.
During her 1987 West End performance, Eartha Kitt sparked a comeback and went on to perform her own one-woman show to sold-out houses after “Follies” closed. Several songs from the show—“Broadway Baby,” “I’m Still Here,” “Losing My Mind”—have become standards.
…an awesome, great, and exhausting show, done with San Francisco Playhouse panache!
The latest version of “Follies” arrived at the San Francisco Playhouse July 20, after five years in development and delays due to Covid. The show had never been performed in its entirety by a professional troupe in The City, according to director Bill English, also co-designer of the show’s imposing set and projections with Heather Kenyon.
Phyllis Rogers Stone (Maureen McVerry*, center) reckons with life’s choices through ‘The Story of Lucy and Jessie,’ accompanied by (L-R) Jill Slyter, Chachi Delgado, Anthony Maglio, M. Javi Harnly, Cameron La Brie, and Ann Warque. Photo courtesy SF Playhouse. (*Equity Actor)
Set as a reunion of past performers of the “Weismann’s Follies,” (a musical revue based on the Ziegfeld Follies, that played in that theater between the world wars) in a soon-to-be-demolished Broadway theater, the show focuses on two mature married couples at the reunion: Buddy and Sally (Anthony Rollins-Mullens and Natascia Diaz, respectively) and Ben and Phyllis (Chris Vettel and Maureen McVerry, respectively).
Sally and Phyllis were once showgirls in the Follies; both marriages are in trouble. Ghosts of former showgirls as youngsters glide through the crumbling theater without being seen by the revelers. Thus begins a series of musical numbers performed by the Follies’ many veterans, exploring their lives and desires, while “invisible” younger performers mirror them in counterpoint. Other ghosts from former shows appear and the characters try to recapture their youth in re-creations of past performances.
The ghosts of Follies past (L-R: Catrina Manahan, Samantha Rose Cárdenas, Ann Warque, Danielle Cheiken, and Emily Corbo) welcome you to Dimitri Weismann’s theater. Photo courtesy SF Playhouse.
Broadway producer/director Hal Prince said of the show: ” ‘Follies’ examines obsessive behavior, neurosis and self-indulgence.”
Spirited, emotional and touching musical numbers performed by a perfectly-cast blend of seasoned professionals and talened newcomers fill this production with energy and verve, as do many lively and dynamic dance routines.
While the book by James Goldman is thin on plot, as one of the show’s characters opines: “Facts never interest me, what matters is the song!” Originally a one-act show, “Follies” was later expanded into two acts. Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote: “It wasn’t until the second act that I fell in love all over again with ‘Follies’.” This reviewer concurs.
As with several Sondheim shows, the second act is often “where the beef is.” The second act of “Follies” is wildly divergent from the first, as in “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into the Woods.” In “Follies,” the first act is primarily the introduction of characters and their back-stories. It’s a lot of exposition in the midst of glittering showgirls and assorted middle-aged matrons at the reunion party. Either by design or possibly due to opening-night nerves, act one got off to a stilted start, making the second act all the more spectacular.
Benjamin Stone (Chris Vettel*, center) reevaluates his priorities during ‘Live, Laugh, Love,’ accompanied by the Follies company (L-R: Emily Corbo, Anthony Maglio, Samantha Rose Cárdenas*, M. Javi Harnly, Catrina Manahan, Chachi Delgado, and Danielle Cheiken). Photo courtesy SF Playhouse. (*Equity Actor)
In the ‘Loveland’ scene, (“the place where lovers are always young and beautiful, and everyone lives only for love”), Sally, Phyllis, Ben and Buddy, perform in a dream-like pastiche of vaudeville-style numbers in which each acts out their own particular folly.
The scene culminates in total hysteria, as the characters reveal their true emotions for all to see, before returning to the theater, the end of the reunion and the rest of their lives.
A long odyssey for SF Playhouse, “Follies” is an enormous undertaking for any theater company, requiring a large cast of triple-threat performers. The late critic Martin Gottfried wrote: “Follies is truly awesome and, if it is not consistently good, it is always great.”
This production lives up Gottfired’s description. Expertly directed by Bill English, with gorgeous costumes by Alba Berman and choreography by Nicole Helfer, it’s an awesome, great, and exhausting show, done with San Francisco Playhouse panache!
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Contributing Writer Mitchell Field is an actor and voting member of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle based in Marin County, California. Contact: mitchfield@aol.com
Production
Follies
Written / Music by
Book by James Goldman. Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
The two-hour drive from the Russian River to the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto proved to be more than worth the time to attend TheatreWorks’ world premier of Jessica Dickey’s remarkable “Nan and the Lower Body,” directed by Giovanna Sardelli.
Via a poignantly serendipitous series of circumstance, the production, which on the surface deals with women’s reproductive health, but at heart deals with every woman’s worth and right to be recognized as a human being, was originally scheduled to premier in 2020 but, due to the worldwide pandemic, was rescheduled for release a mere three weeks after what Dicky terms “this travesty; the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
…a timely catalyst for deep reflection about the journey of women…
Dickey performs somewhat of a magic trick, successfully using both pathos and humor to express the urgency and maddening frustration of a midcentury medical system that ignored the number one cause of death in women (cervical cancer) due in large part to the discomfort of doctors and scientists in separating female anatomy from female sexuality.
Nan (Elissa Beth Stebbins) examines a slide as Dr. Papanicolaou (Christopher Daftsios), inventor of the Pap smear, watches in the World Premiere of “Nan and the Lower Body,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley July 13 – August 7.
Arriving in the US in 1913, Greek immigrant Dr. George Papanicolaou (skillfully played by Christopher Daftsios) toiled tirelessly for decades to develop and promulgate the use of the Pap Smear, allowing detection of cancers via analysis of cells found in women’s vaginal secretions.
Here, conceived as a jocular over-sharer and passionate champion of women’s rights, he exhorts all he meets to “call me Dr. Pap,” and enjoys frequent use of the word “vagina” to create discomfort in and shorten interactions with those who have interrupted his work. By contrast, in a deeply powerful scene, Pap’s face and gestures transform from angry frustration to compassionate tenderness as he gently places a series of unusable slides into the bottom of a garbage can, as if to honor the sacredness of the contents.
Nan’s character is based on Dickey’s maternal grandmother who became a cytologist. According to family lore, in 1952 she worked with Dr. Papanicolaou as a researcher, examining slides to ascertain the presence or absence of abnormal cells. Elissa Beth Stebbins’ Nan is a stolid woman determined to “do good” in the world both through the vehicle of her career and as a mother. Hired by Dr. Papanicolaou because of her insightful cover letter, outstanding academic performance and because she was “the only woman to apply,” Nan is secretly battling the baffling early stages of what will later prove to be multiple sclerosis.
Mache (Lisa Ramirez) meets Dr. Papanicolaou’s new assistant Nan (Elissa Beth Stebbins) in the World Premiere of “Nan and the Lower Body,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley July 13 – August 7.
In her first mainstage performance with TheatreWorks, Lisa Ramirez is compelling as Mache, Dr. Pap’s spouse, partner, former colleague, and test subject. Responding to her husband’s assertion that he knew she would be up to the task of being a doctor’s wife after seeing her bear an injury silently and without complaint, Mache momentarily cracks wide open as she admits that she remained silent because if she’d allowed herself to speak, she “would have sobbed.”
Jeffrey Brian Adams does a fine job as Nan’s husband, the minister Ted. In a riveting feminist discussion in which Dr. Pap asserts that women are superior to men because of the complexity and capabilities inherent in their anatomy, Ted insists that it is, paradoxically, essential for women to be seen simply as human beings if they are ever to be afforded the same rights and privileges as men. Ted points out that if women are seen to be “different,” they will continue to be subjected to separate rules.
Nan (Elissa Beth Stebbins) embraces her husband Ted (Jeffrey Brian Adams) after he visits her at work in the World Premiere of “Nan and the Lower Body,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley July 13 – August 7.
The various settings of the play—a university lecture hall, research lab, living room, night-time exterior—are depicted in keeping with the period with no outstanding features other than the lab’s examining table with stirrups. This adherence to the expected affords a lack of distraction so we can focus on dialogue and interactions between characters. Stagecraft by Nina Ball is superb, with one set literally splitting open in the center – half gliding off stage right and the other half stage left, after which the next set glides forward in a seamless motion that set off a chorus of appreciative gasps from the audience.
The Lucie Stern Theatre is itself a treasure. Set within a lovely neighborhood, it’s warm and inviting, spacious and well laid-out, with not a bad seat in the house. The outer courtyard with benches offered a lovely setting for the after-show reception.
“Nan and the Lower Body” acts as a timely catalyst for deep reflection about the journey of women (and the men who try to truly see them). When viewed through the lens of contemporary events, it also reminds us that progress is not always linear and must never be taken for granted.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Nan and the Lower Body
Written by
Jessica Dickey
Directed by
Giovanna Sardelli
Producing Company
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Production Dates
Through Aug 7th
Production Address
Lucie Stern Theatre 1305 Middlefield Road Palo Alto CA 94301
What do a tipsy wedding chaperone, a blundering Italian lothario, a pair of mobsters disguised as pastry chefs, and a musical theater-obsessed divorcé in an armchair have in common? They’re the unlikely ingredients for a night full of toe-tapping music, fun, and laughter in Sonoma Arts Live’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” on the Rotary Stage in Andrews Hall through July 31st.
With a delightful script that both celebrates and pokes fun at roaring 20s era musicals and vaudevillian hijinks, the show opens on North Bay stage veteran Tim Setzer – billed only as “Man in Chair” – regaling the audience with his love of classic musicals and ironically, his hatred of theater that breaks the fourth wall.
Tim Setzer as “Man in Chair” (Photo by Eric Chazankin)
But lucky for us, Setzer’s character continues to shatter that fourth wall to smithereens, with his frequently hilarious, oftentimes snarky, and occasionally sweetly reflective commentary. From the comfort of his armchair, he puts on a record and invites us to listen along to his all-time favorite musical as it comes to life before us on the stage.
With a quirky cast of characters, a bevy of silly song and dance numbers, and a classic will-they/won’t-they-tie-the-knot set-up, “The Drowsy Chaperone” – a fictitious musical from the late 1920s – is fantastic light-hearted fun, punctuated by catchy tunes and comical mishaps aplenty.
Daniela Innocenti-Beem in the title role (Photo by Eric Chazankin)
The production features some excellent ensemble work and a host of talented performers, though Daniela Innocenti-Beem steals the show with her powerhouse vocals. She’s an absolute hoot in the title role, too, stumbling in and out of scenes in a semi-drunken stupor.
. . . the perfect happy escape for anyone seeking a bit of refuge and good-natured fun.”
Andrew J. Smith is equally uproarious as Adolpho, the cape-clad caricature of an Italian ladies’ man, on a mission to break up the wedding. Maeve Smith takes an endearing turn as bride-to-be Janet Van De Graff, boasting a beautiful voice and a (deliberately) terrible French accent. Setzer is the show’s anchor, and phenomenally good in the role of “Man in Chair,” chaperoning us through the action on stage.
The cast of “The Drowsy Chaperone” at work!
Supporting cast members are marvelously entertaining, too. Jonathen Blue shines as George, the tap-dancing best man, joined by Stephen Kanaski, who makes a charming groom-to-be and earns laughs with his blindfolded roller-skating. Emily Owens Evans perfects the ditzy aspiring starlet trope as Kitty, and Sean O’Brien deserves kudos for enduring a series of preposterous spit takes in the role of “Underling.”
Liz Andrews has done an admirable job with style and period-appropriate choreography for this show. Rebecca Ann Valentino’s costumes deserve a nod, too, thanks to an array of fabulous, flapper-inspired frocks and a host of other elaborate get-ups that add immensely to the fun.
Stephen Kanaski and Maeve Smith as the bride and groom to-be (Photo by Eric Chazankin)
Brindle Brundage and Ryan Severt have designed and built a simple but charming set, with a clever layout enabling it to serve as both Setzer’s apartment and the stage for a full-ensemble musical. From ringing phones to record players, sound effects by Tom Luekens are perfectly timed. The accompaniment of a live band under Sherrill Peterson’s direction makes the music loud and lively, though at times it drowns out the singers on stage, due in part to the hall’s challenging acoustics. But any bumps in the road are easily forgiven amid the merriment.
As the “Man in Chair” reminds us, music and theater have the power to transport us away from our daily stress and struggles when we’re feeling blue. “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a celebration of this power, and the perfect happy escape for anyone seeking a bit of refuge and good-natured fun.
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
The Drowsy Chaperone
Written by
Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar; Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Through July 31st
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Political differences have shattered families and friendships since the dawn of history. Cristina Garcia’s “Dreaming in Cuban,” by Berkeley’s Central Works through July 31, examines the impact of the Cuban revolution on a family irreconcilably divided by the event and its ideology.
The time is 1979-80. Mary Ann Rodgers stars as Celia del Pino, a true-believer revolutionary whose two adult daughters have gone in vastly different directions. One, Lourdes (Anna Maria Luera) left Cuba to open a successful bakery in Brooklyn, NY, while her rudderless sister Felicia (Natalia Delgado) chose to remain on the island. Among the many “gusanos” (worms) allowed to depart in the wake of the revolution, Lourdes is adamantly pro-capitalist and anti-communist. Her mother is the opposite, with a near-religious faith in Fidel Castro and his cause.
Central Works has a tradition of performing new plays…
Living far apart, they’ve had little communication until the sudden death of Felicia brings Lourdes and her artistic teenage daughter Pilar (Thea Rodgers) back to the island for the funeral. The story of the two sides of the family unfolds in parallel, going back and forth between Lourdes/Pilar and Celia/Felicia.
Pilar proves to be one of the script’s most interesting and most malleable characters, with the biggest character arc. As a teenage lefty, she has doubts about the benefits of capitalism and some sympathy for the social experiment taking place in her ancestral homeland, somewhere she’s never visited until late in the tale.
Mary Ann Rodgers as Celia, Anna Maria Luera as Lourdes
In significant ways “Dreaming in Cuban” is told almost passively from Pilar’s point of view, and more assertively from the perspectives of Celia and Lourdes. Familial love runs deep, but not deep enough to fill the divide between those on opposite sides.
Pilar’s starry-eyed fascination with the revolution is tempered by a few days in Cuba. She’s the delicate suspension bridge between two previous generations. No longer enamored with communism, she comments near the end of her visit: “Utopias have a terrible track record.”
Working in a small space in the Berkeley City Club, Julia Morgan’s beautiful old building on Durant Avenue, Central Works has a tradition of performing new plays with almost no set, relying instead on a few essential props, some projected images, and great sound design by Gregory Scharpen, almost compensating for the emptiness and constraints of the space.
The cast at work in Central Work’s “Dreaming in Cuban”
The performers in this production are generally quite good, especially Rodgers, Rodgers, and Luera. Eric Esquivel-Guiterrez does a nice turn as Max, Pilar’s Brooklyn-based musician boyfriend, and as Ivanito, Felicia’s son. Steve Ortiz appears in two minor roles, and voices a couple of announcers.
Developed from her novel of the same name, and directed by Gary Graves, Garcia’s play has enormous potential, not fully mined in this production. The near-total lack of set requires the audience to do an unusual amount of filling-in-the-blanks that isn’t counterbalanced by impassioned performances and excellent sound design.
Theater goers may find a lot to like in “Dreaming in Cuban,” especially should it be undertaken in a larger venue. The City Club production won a “Go See” recommendation from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Dreaming in Cuban
Written by
Cristina Garcia
Directed by
Gary Graves
Producing Company
Central Works
Production Dates
Thru July 31, 2022
Production Address
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Summers at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen have been parched and dusty ever since Transcendence Theatre Company abandoned their outdoor stage for two years due to the pandemic.
TTC’s award-winning assemblage of talented singers and dancers from Broadway and LA shows have finally burst back onto the stage for their summer season opener “Let’s Dance.” They’ve returned with smiles, boundless energy, and rhythm from top to toe.
When the orchestra sounds the opening note, and the bright lights go up onstage, prepare to be blown away!
Transcendence has presented productions under the stars at Jack London State Park for ten summer seasons. Their successful “Best Night Ever!” formula has traditionally been a potpourri of popular song-and-dance numbers from hit musicals. “Let’s Dance” is their first summer offering for 2022, to be followed by two later productions: “Hooray for Hollywood” in late July and early August, and “The Gala” in September.
“Let’s Dance” displays the influence of guest director and choreographer Luis Salgado, whose Puerto Rican roots give the entire production a Latin flair. Salgado enthuses “I wanted to showcase the cultural heritage of dance to include salsa, Peruvian tap, and drum solos. We blended these with contemporary moves. It was a challenge rehearsing new movement styles outdoors in the heat of the sun, waiting for it to cool off a little. But we did it! I love this community and its spirit, its soul!”
L to R: Catherine Wreford, Anna Aliau I. Guerra, CorBen Williams, Sophie Lee Morris, Kyle Kemph Photo Credit: Rob Martel
Salgado brings out the best from TTC’s troupe of skilled dancers. Their exhaustive efforts—strenuous, athletic, and precise—give a rousing start to the opening number in “Primer Acto” (Act I.) Twenty singers and dancers, including many new faces among beloved Transcendence regulars, keep the energy charged up.
Segundo Acto (Act II) starts with a Peruvian drum solo improvisation by guest artist Luis Antonio Vilchez Vargas in baggy white pants and a big smile. The audience claps as instructed, to amusing pantomime. The feel-good atmosphere rises as does the moon above the stone ruins of the park.
“Let’s Dance” is mostly dance, yet plenty of singing numbers also shine. Spanish speakers may enjoy “Dos Oruguitas” while all can follow the many musical medleys packed with Broadway hits. The production is splendidly accompanied by the 10-piece Transcendence Band conducted by Matt Smart.
Jack London State Historic Park starts admitting picnickers to TTC performances as early as 5 p.m. Patrons bring hampers, food trucks ply their wares, premium wine and beer vendors offer tastes and sell glasses and bottles—to be enjoyed outside the amphitheater, as no alcohol may be brought in.
CorBen Williams & Brianna-Marie Bell Photo Credit: Ray Mabry
Live music encourages the fun and friendly banter in the dry open field, amusingly mislabeled the “great lawn.” Outdoor seating, all assigned, begins in the stone ruins as the sun drops low beyond the mountains. New this season are chairs with padded seats and backs, a welcome addition to the winery ruins.
Just before the show starts at 7:30, take time to breathe deeply of the clear air in the summer night. As the nearby vineyards glow in the setting sun, get out a jacket and lap blanket, and enjoy the quiet beauty of this Valley of the Moon. When the orchestra sounds the opening note, and the bright lights go up onstage, prepare to be blown away!
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ASR Writer & Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
An inept small-scale rebellion leads to major improvements in a corporate office in “9 to 5, the Musical” at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through June 26.
Based on the proto-feminist comedy film from 1980 starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dabney Coleman, “9 to 5, the Musical” expands on the original with more music and lyrics by irrepressible singer/songwriter Parton, who introduces and closes the stage show via video clips. Between these bookends lie two hours of hilarity and silliness, tremendous song and dance, and plenty of barbed commentary about gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and managerial incompetence—problems as rampant today as they were forty-two years ago.
“9 to 5, the Musical’ is a feel-good reminder of what’s possible…
Fans of the film—and those who’ve never seen it—will find much to enjoy about this high-energy musical comedy. In fact, with its larger repertoire of musical numbers and its huge cast of talented performers, they may find that they enjoy this Carl Jordan-helmed production more.
Mark Bradbury as Franklin Hart
Mark Bradbury appears as Franklin Hart, a slimeball boss whose idea of humor is “How does a woman lose 95% of her intelligence? She gets divorced.” Hart’s a character easy to hate, but one so goofy that he actually evokes some sympathy. He’s clueless, and clueless about being so. He clearly doesn’t know that his 1950s attitudes and behaviors are no longer acceptable. He also doesn’t understand the threat lurking in his female underlings—ditzy Doralee Rhodes (Anne Warren Clark), workplace-hardened Violet Newstead (Daniela Innocenti-Beem), and new recruit Judy Bernly (Julianne Bradbury), whose office skills are so limited that she doesn’t know how to feed paper into a typewriter. Hart’s only trusted ally at work is his assistant Roz (Jenny Boynton), who almost foils the plot against him.
The cast at work at 6th Street
It’s a great comedic setup—one that plays out beautifully across the big stage in the G.K. Hardt Theatre. With impeccable comic timing and strong vocal abilities, Innocenti-Beem and Clark are perfectly cast and riveting to watch. Julianne Bradbury does a solid job as the less-assertive Judy, as does Noah Sternhill as junior accountant Joe, the rebels’ co-conspirator. Strong cameos include Cindy Brillhart-True as Franklin’s wife Missy Hart, and theater veteran Norman Hall as chief investor Russel Tinsworthy. It’s a well-chosen cast.
Suprise!
But “9 to 5” isn’t simply a great performance. Parton’s music is consistently upbeat and enlivening, as is choreographer Devin Parker Sullivan’s work, which alludes to an earlier era with a nod to the present. Monochrome slowly evolving to multicolor, the set by Eric Broadwater and costumes by Tracy Hinman also propel the story.
But the unspoken star of the show is Chris Schloempf, whose big bright projections fill the back of the stage. At intermission, theater director Marty Pistone, who worked with Schloempf on last year’s marvelous “Galatea,” commented “Chris’s work simply gets better and better. The guy is astounding.”
That’s the kind of upbeat feeling this show engenders, driving home its point with pervasive humor instead of angry admonitions. Franklin Hart gets his comeuppance—and with it, a promotion—while our conspirators create a workplace friendly to all, the kind of environment where most of us would be glad to spend our days. “9 to 5, the Musical’ is a feel-good reminder of what’s possible, even if by accident.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
9-to-5 The Musical
Written by
Patricia Resnick / Music and lyrics by Dolly Parton
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through June 26, 2022
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Despite having read a synopsis of Jen Silverman’s “Wink” before attending the opening night performance at Main Stage West in Sebastopol, I was utterly unprepared for the existential poignancy and laugh-out-loud dark absurdist farce that awaited me.
The titular character, a cat named Wink, has gone missing. Wink’s human, Sophie (masterfully played by Ilana Niernberger, among the North Bay’s most versatile actors) is distraught but can’t prompt any concern from husband Gregor (John Browning). He’s long resented the affection Sophie expressed toward the animal, while maintaining a physical and emotional distance between herself and Gregor.
…a truly enjoyable evening’s diversion…
The simple set by David Lear—predominately a loveseat and wingback chair—alternates as a therapist’s office and the protagonists’ living room. Early in the story, Sofie destroys the room in a moment of grief, rage and roiling impotence. The mess remains throughout ensuing scenes, allowing the audience to perceive an appropriate façade and inviting us into the magical realism pervading this astonishingly original, brilliantly executed story.
Sam Coughlin may well have been a cat in a previous life, proved by his seamless embodiment of Wink. During his first appearance, the undead feline, driven by hunger, has risen from the grave. Coughlin, in flesh-toned briefs, moves about the set with grace, unbridled confidence and nearly-naked sexuality. He leaps effortlessly from floor to sofa back to window, sometimes draping himself languorously over furniture or an open lap, or rubbing seductively against a piece of furniture or the nearest human body part.
Michael Fontaine (L) as therapist Dr. Franz. Ilana Niernberger (R).
John Browning is utterly convincing as repressed, gaslighting husband and probable cat killer Gregor. While posturing as dismissive and unconcerned, Browning’s Gregor briefly allows us to glimpse an underlying thoughtfulness and vulnerability that allow us a few moments of compassion for his otherwise reprehensible character. The best villains always have redeeming qualities. The ensemble is rounded out by an adroit Michael Fontaine as therapist Dr. Franz, who sees both Sophie and Gregor professionally, but individually, reminding them that depression and dissatisfaction are synonymous with the human condition and that the proper course of action is to accept and steadfastly maintain both conditions.
Playwright Jen Silverman’s use of sophisticated language adds to the humor as Sophie attempts to explain the wrecked living room to Gregor. She invents a terrorist named Roland who, she says, came into their home, tore it up and pushed her menacingly (and, judging by her reenactment of the imaginary scene, quite seductively) against a wall. When Gregor asks how Sophie knows the assailant’s name and occupation, she explains that he told her “In a letter” which he communicated via “semaphore” from the roof of a nearby home.
John Browning (L) as Gregor.
Absurdities pile one on the other as the play progresses. Bent on revenge against Gregor, Wink moves in with Dr. Franz. The two begin sharing nightcaps and flirtations. While at first frightened and somewhat repelled by Wink, Dr. Franz is soon smitten with the cat and begins to let go of his dictum that life is nothing but responsibility and drudgery.
In a playfully sexual scene, Wink encourages Franz to loosen up by showing him how to walk and stand like a cat, placing his paws on Franz’ hips, reminding him that he has hips and shoulders. In one of the most poignant scenes, Wink announces that he’s leaving because he refuses to allow himself to be “skinned twice.” Franz implores Wink to tell him, before he leaves, if he has any feelings at all for him. Wink responds by rubbing himself lovingly against Franz, clearly moved by the gesture.
Ilana Niernberger at work in “Wink” at MSW.
As Dr. Franz begins to open up, Gregor is being swept down a maelstrom of rage and self-directed violence while, simultaneously, Sophie sheds her own persona, trading khakis and sneakers for black leather and combat boots, as she transforms herself into Roland in his over-the-top destructiveness and freedom from the constraints of civilized society. All three characters have taken unpredictable vectors thanks to Wink, who’s still out there somewhere, perhaps wreaking vengeance on another cat-hating egotist.
We might assume that one cat couldn’t have the power to upend the lives of three people, but that misgiving is put to rest in this 75-minute one-act directed by James Pelican. “Wink” sails along without a hitch toward a marvelously ambiguous conclusion—a truly enjoyable evening’s diversion.
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Contributing Writer Sue Morgan is a literature-and-theater enthusiast in Sonoma County’s Russian River region. Contact: sstrongmorgan@gmail.com
Production
Wink
Written by
Jen Silverman
Directed by
James Pelican
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Thru June 25th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
A stately 1879-era living room, complete with divan and chandelier, sets the stage for this four-person drama at the intimate 99-seat Novato Theatre Company: “A Doll’s House Part 2” written by Lucas Hnath as a continuation of Henrik Ibsen’s original. It’s a winner.
Hnath has created this sequel adroitly using four original characters. It is not necessary to have seen Ibsen’s original play to follow the plot of “Part 2.” This story, like the original, vacillates between uplifting and troubling in its examination of gender and society’s rules.
The die is cast when Torvald tells Nora “There’s the door. I know you know how to use it.”
This story, like the original, vacillates between uplifting and troubling in its examination of gender and society’s rules.
Director Gillian Eichenberger has pulled astounding performances from her well-experienced acting ensemble, lending depth and validity to their roles.
Nora, a determined and now successful woman of substance, returns after 15 years to her former home. She had walked out on her husband and young children in a quest to find a life that had purpose and passion. When award-winning Alison Peltz takes the stage as Nora, she imbues her with near-manic confidence, sure in her conviction of emotional decisions made so long ago.
Peltz and Hall at work. Photos by NTC.
As Nora initially shares her past with aging Anne Marie, the nanny beautifully portrayed by veteran Shirley Nilsen Hall, the question explodes: Why has Nora returned?
Nora’s husband Torvald unexpectedly shows up, and the biting recriminations begin. Torvald’s anger at Nora’s past behavior bubbles to the surface in a solidly convincing performance by Mark Clark. Nora wants something and displays herself to be self-centered and manipulating. Torvald says no.
Can Nora’s daughter Emmy, now grown, help convince Torvald to give Nora what she wants? The role is convincingly enacted by young Jannely Calmell, who stands up to Nora’s sly suggestions.
How will this remarkably written drama end? The die is cast when Torvald tells Nora “There’s the door. I know you know how to use it.”
Covid checks and masks required as of this writing.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
A Doll’s House Part 2
Written by
Lucas Hnath
Directed by
Gillian Eichenberger
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through June 12th, 2022
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
The lives of two talented writers intersect in unimaginable ways in Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside” at Marin Theatre Company through June 19.
The SF Bay Area’s multiple award-winning Denmo Ibrahim stars as Bella, a middle-aged professor of creative writing at Yale University. New York-based actor Tyler Miclean appears opposite her as Christopher, a belligerent but talented freshman in one of her classes. In a lengthy self-deprecating prelude, Bella relates her history as a writer and lover of literature, her relationship status (single) and a diagnosis of a potentially terminal medical condition. She’s published only one novel in her career, but is sanguine and accepting of her entire situation, including the fact that at 53, she still lives in faculty housing.
Denmo Ibrahim as Bella in MTC’s “The Sound Inside.” Photo by Kevin Berne
Into her comfortable but under-achieving life marches Christopher, a rebel to the core. He comes to her office repeatedly without seeking permission, rants impressively and knowledgeably about all things literary, refuses to use email, and even pounds out his own work on a manual typewriter—“a Corona, recently restored,” he brags. He basically intrudes into her life through sheer intellectual force, an intrusion that mystifies, annoys, and beguiles her. He’s clearly her psychic equal, perhaps the first she’s ever encountered.
Brilliantly written, brilliantly directed, and brilliantly performed…
Their uneven friendship grows as they parry and thrust with every sort of literary reference—biographical tidbits about legendary writers, arguments about interpretations of plots and characters. Whatever erotic tension exists between them is subsumed in a mutual intellectual frenzy. She can’t resist nurturing their friendship even when it might be seen as inappropriate. Partly guiding and partly following, she’s compelled to stay with it wherever it may go, without any lingering sense of guilt. A truly free woman.
Tyler Miclean as Christopher and Denmo Ibrahim as Bella at work. Photo by Kevin Berne
Early on he tells her that he grew up in Vermont in a house filled with books, where his reclusive mother lives. Bella jokingly asks if his mother might be Joyce Carol Oates, the prolific novelist and career academic famous for writing in longhand, as did Kurt Vonnegut, another writer who gets more than passing mention in Rapp’s fascinating, tightly-woven tale.
Christopher proves to be Bella’s biggest fan when he not only quotes verbatim from her novel, but presents a copy as his proudest possession, a book she was certain had long gone out of print.
Smitten with her troubled and troubling angel, she helps him with his manuscript, a first-person account of horrific events that may or may not be fiction. Bella’s interpretations of her own events may or may not be fiction, too, as in a hilarious regret-free retelling of a one-night stand she initiated with a contractor in a New Haven bar.
Together, Bella and Christopher are like two strangers bobbing about in a rowboat on an unfamiliar and turbulent sea. But what a sea it is! It would be unfair to performers and audience alike to reveal where their little boat ultimately goes, but it’s a journey recommended with the utmost sincerity.
Denmo Ibrahim as Bella. Photo by Kevin Berne
Generously directed by Jasson Minidakis on a simple set by Edward E. Haynes, Jr., with gorgeous immersive projections by Mike Post, Ibrahim and Miclean take us on a fantastical exploration of little-examined territory. Their characters are far deeper than the self-absorbed literary types that we might expect on first meeting.
In some ways, “The Sound Inside” is a simple portrait of two people clinging to each other from sheer need, but in much larger ways it’s a sweeping celebration of the life-affirming potential that lies in every seemingly insignificant—even annoying—encounter.
Brilliantly written, brilliantly directed, and brilliantly performed, “The Sound Inside” is a paean to human connectedness—a stunning, lovely piece of magical realism. Marin Theatre Company could not have chosen a more poignant tale to close its 2021-22 season.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Sound Inside
Written by
Adam Rapp
Directed by
Jasson Minidakis
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Thru June 19th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
On rare occasions, a local production exceeds a national touring show by a wide margin. Such is the case with “Bright Star” at Napa’s Lucky Penny Community Arts Center through June 12.
The national touring production of the Tony-nominated musical, by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, debuted some years ago in San Francisco at the American Conservatory Theater—a well-performed but underwhelming theatrical event. By contrast, Lucky Penny’s is a sustained joyful celebration undertaken on a small stage by the most enthusiastic and talented ensemble we have seen in the North Bay in a long time.
It’s a case of everything being so right—casting, performance, set, costumes, music—that it’s hard to imagine how any of it could be improved….
Based on real events, “Bright Star” is a redemption story set in North Carolina in the 1920s and 1940s, and tells the tale of literary editor Alice Murphy (Taylor Bartolucci) and aspiring writer Billy Cane (Tommy Lassiter), a young soldier who’s just come home from World War II. Lucky Penny Artistic Director Bartolucci is astounding in encompassing both the young Alice and her more mature counterpart; Lassiter is equally compelling as the sweet-natured Billy, a fledgling writer who refuses to be told “no.”
Among many standouts in the cast are Sean O’Brien as Billy’s backwoods father, Daddy Cane; Kirstin Pieschke as Billy’s potential girlfriend Margo; Ian Elliot as Jimmy Ray Dobbs; and Lucky Penny Managing Director Barry Martin as the despicable, manipulative Mayor of Zebulon, NC, Josiah Dobbs—the sort of character that audiences love to hate. Jenny Veilleux is excellent as Lucy Grant, as is Dennis O’Brien as Stanford, Mayor Dobbs’ attorney and advisor.
All of the eighteen-member cast are great performers and superb singers, backed by a five-piece band led by Craig Burdette (including Peter Domenici on banjo). Burdette’s crew propels the Lucky Penny ensemble through almost two-dozen rousing heartfelt tunes, performed with some of the most athletic and authentic choreography imaginable, created by Jacqui Muratori and Alex Gomez.
Directed by Martin, the show moves along quickly through two beautifully-paced acts thanks to minimal set changes. There are enough set pieces to establish each scene, but nothing more. Martin said post-show that in rehearsals, he and Bartolucci kept deleting set pieces until they reached the bare minimum.
The gambit works perfectly, as does every other risk that Lucky Penny took in putting on this gorgeous production. It’s a case of everything being so right—casting, performance, set, costumes, music—that it’s hard to imagine how any of it could be improved.
This “Bright Star” is truly stellar—and a welcome rejuvenation in an era of soul-crushing news. We need all the uplift we can get. Lucky Penny delivers.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Bright Star
Written by
Steve Martin and Edie Brckell
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru June 12th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
In its century-long history, the Mountain Play been cancelled only twice. Its return this past Sunday May 22 was a welcome return to normal, more or less. One of the great pieces of musical Americana, “Hello, Dolly” (directed by Jay Manley) opened to a less-than-capacity crowd at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater in Mt. Tamalpais State Park—a crowd that made up with enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers.
The warm but not sweltering weather was just about perfect for the audience, although probably a bit much for the performers, who nonetheless gave their all in a compelling and totally enjoyable production of the Michael Stewart/Jerry Herman classic about Dolly Gallagher Levi, matchmaker and all-purpose huckster with a heart of gold. With superb comic timing and a soaring voice, Dyan McBride shines in the lead role. As Dolly’s marriage target Horace Vandergelder, Mt. Play veteran Randy Nazarian is McBride’s equal in stage presence and chutzpah, if not in vocal talent.
…”first-rate ensemble dancing and the musicianship of a fifteen-member orchestra…”
Primary and secondary characters are all fully engaged and expert at “going big”—including Chachi Delgado and Zachary Frangos as Vandergelder’s loyal undercompensated employees Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, respectively. Jen Brooks is delightful as Irene Malloy, as is Jill Jacobs as Ermengarde.
5238 – L to R: Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi (Dyan McBride), Barnaby Tucker (Zachary Frangos), Minnie Fay (Julia Ludwig ). Photo by: Robin Jackson.
Jesse Lumb turns in a great performance as Ermengarde’s boyfriend Ambrose Kemper, but the real standout in the cast’s second rank is Gary Stanford, Jr., whose comedic take on maitre d’ Rudolph Reisenweber is an absolute scream. Stanford pulls out all the stops in spoofing a pompous German, a highlight of the show’s second act.
Ensemble cast dancing. Photo by: Robin Jackson.
The real standouts in this production are first-rate ensemble dancing (choreography by Zoe Swenson-Graham / Lucas Michael Chandler, dance captain) and the musicianship of a fifteen-member orchestra under the direction of David Moschler.
Andrea Bechert’s set was incomplete on opening day, reportedly because of high winds and a labor shortage in the week before opening, but whatever was missing from the set didn’t hinder the show’s total charm.
“Hello, Dolly” marks a welcome return to some semblance of normalcy. Showgoers should be aware that once they begin the uphill trek from Mill Valley, signage is nearly non-existent, and the entrance to the park is much farther than they might imagine. Best to be prepared rather than to get lost along the way—cell phone reception isn’t great up there.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
"Hello, Dolly"
Written by
Michael Stewart – Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Directed by
Jay Manley
Producing Company
The Mountain Play Association
Production Dates
Through June 19th, 2022
Production Address
Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mount Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley
A precocious girl struggles valiantly against ignorant parents and a cruel headmistress in “Matilda – The Musical” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, through May 22.
One of the most popular children’s stories since the 1988 publication of Roald Dahl’s novel, the stage adaptation “Matilda – The Musical” (written by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin) launched to great acclaim in 2010 and enjoyed long runs in London, New York, and throughout the world, garnering many prestigious awards.
In the past five years, the play has been available to regional theater companies eager to produce their own. North Bay theatergoers are lucky in several respects. Against who-knows-how-many competitors, Spreckels landed the rights to put on the show in the most spacious and well-funded physical theater in Sonoma County, also home to a huge talent pool. The show is an absolute spectacular, expertly helmed by Spreckels Artistic Director Sheri Lee Miller.
The cast at work: Rudopho, Wormwoods, & Matilda.
As per Dahl’s original, Matilda is a hyper-bright five-year-old who loves books, reading, science, math, and every variety of imaginative intellectual pursuit. She’s also blessed with telekinesis—she can move objects with her mind—an ability that proves useful late in the story. Her parents Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood (Garet Waterhouse and Shannon Rider, respectfully) are self-righteous dolts with no appreciation for the life of the mind.
Altogether, “Matilda – The Musical” is a fantastic show for adults and kids….
Her parents refuse to acknowledge Matilda’s uniqueness. In fact, they dismiss her special talents as if they somehow bring shame on the family. Mr. Wormwood, a disreputable used-car salesman, is especially proud of his disdain for reading and brags that everything he knows he learned from watching television. Mrs. Wormwood is much more interested in dance lessons with Rudolpho (Damion Matthews) than she is in her husband or daughter. Waterhouse and Rider throw themselves into these repugnantly juicy roles with a delicious degree of abandonment.
Matilda also contends with her school’s mean-as-hell headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Tim Setzer), whose pervasive dislike of children is often expressed by sending them to “the Chokey”—a small-scale torture chamber—for minor infractions. The versatile Setzer perfectly fits a character described by its creator as “a former world champion hammer thrower” who’s not above throwing misbehaving children across the schoolyard. (Onstage villains who get booed during curtain calls know they’ve done their jobs well.)
But Matilda has adult champions too—local librarian Mrs. Phelps (Gina Alvarado) and teacher Miss Honey (Madison Scarbrough), who makes Matilda’s welfare her personal quest. Alvarado and Scarbrough are both deservedly frequent performers on North Bay stages. Both sing beautifully in group scenes; Scarbrough shines in her solos. Jamin Jollo and Bridget Codoni are tremendous in a running subplot of one of Matilda’s own stories—scenes from “The Escapologist and the Acrobat.”
Matilda and Trunchbull at work.
The cast is huge—almost thirty performers, most of them youngsters—and to list them all would turn a review into something resembling a phone book. Suffice it to say that all are good and some are excellent.
Also excellent are the towering set pieces—huge oversize bookcases as seen from a small child’s perspective. The use of giant letter blocks as props is brilliant—props put to especially effective use in “Revolting Children,” one of the final musical pieces as the closing act winds down. Michella Moerbeek’s choreography is dynamic and delightful, but not too complex for young dancers. Lead by Lucas Sherman, a ten-piece band “in the pit” provides gorgeous accompaniment, but on opening night sometimes dulled singers’ vocal details. We have been told that sound imbalances are being addressed for future performances.
Altogether, “Matilda – The Musical” is a fantastic show for adults and kids, of whom there were a couple hundred in attendance on opening night. Finding a five-year-old who can act, sing, and dance at Broadway level is just about impossible, so the lead has always been multi-cast with adolescents to reduce the strain on them and give them time to study. Spreckels has two young talents alternating as Matilda—Gigi Bruce Low and Anja Kao Nielsen. Low appeared in the May 6 opener and put in a marvelous performance. Theater insiders report that Nielsen is Low’s equal. For ticket buyers, any production should be a worthy one.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Matilda - The Musical
Written by
Dennis Kelly – Music and Lyrics by Tim Minchin
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through May 22, 2022
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Those who are appalled at the travesties between Russia and Ukraine which dominate our headlines may enjoy a respite with this Ross Valley Players comedy, at the Barn at the Ross Art and Garden Center through June 5.
This farce lampooning government officials was written by Nikolai Gogol, a Russian playwright who exiled himself after this play was presented to the Tzar in 1836. Gogol was subjected to intense official disdain after he parodied government unscrupulousness.
Act II is truly a laugh out loud absurdity….
Although the location is not specific, the play takes place in a Russian town filled with corrupt officials and workers who continually (and successfully) defraud the system. Their deceits are profitable and mutually accepted among themselves, resulting in uninhabitable hospitals, sub-standard schools, courtroom graft, fake employment, and the like. One is reminded of the phrase repeatedly heard from a Russian friend: “We pretend to work, and the government pretends to pay us.”
Steve Price as The Mayor; Benjamin Vasquez as Dobchinsky; Raysheina de Leon-Ruhs as Bobchinsky. Photo Robin Jackson.
The trouble begins when the Mayor belatedly discovers that a “Government Inspector” has arrived unannounced from St. Petersburg and is residing undercover. Those in charge fear that the inspector will report their misdeeds to the Tsar, with distressing consequences. The Mayor and his minions go into hyperdrive concocting schemes to cover up the extent of the town’s corruption. Steve Price is hilarious playing the blustering and panicked Mayor, a role he pushes over the top with present pandemonium. He’s in charge of the mayhem, and it is truly madness.
Hlestekov, an indolent and lowly clerk from St. Peterburg happens to be passing through the town and has lost his funds gambling. He’s holed up in the inn awaiting funds from his family when the town mistakes him for the dreaded inspector. Suddenly, a stream of rubles get thrust into his hands, labelled “welcome gifts.” Michel B. Harris plays this role perfectly, from an initially confused clerk to the role of a now-corrupt official commanding further bribes from the guilty.
It’s not only rubles that get this clerk’s attention. He takes the opportunity of this sudden power to seduce the Mayor’s daughter Marya (Hunter Candrian-Velez), all the while deflecting passionate advances from the Mayor’s lustful wife Anna (hilarious Pamela Ciochetti.)
Wood Lockhart. Photo Robin Jackson.
Harris revels in his new identity, upstaged only by the snide comments of his servant, enacted by veteran Wood Lockhart in an elf’s garb. Act II is truly a laugh out loud absurdity.
The large cast of fourteen, directed by Lisa Morse, jumps into their madcap roles with full tilt energy. Some frantic bits bring to mind the antics of the Three Stooges, other moments are clearly inspired by Groucho Marx. One might expect the cast to emulate Russian accents, although most do not. “The Government Inspector” misadventure could easily be transported to any corrupt city these days, which makes Gogol’s plot from the early 1800’s a timeless possibility.
“The Government Inspector” is an ambitious production and an audience pleaser with the RVP crowd. Costume and wig changes are supported by an offstage production team more numerable than the cast. “The Government Inspector” is a wild ride and a frivolous breath of fresh air in these sober times.
Note: Ross Valley Players requires proof of vaccination in keeping with public health protocols. Actors, stage crew and volunteers are fully vaccinated. To attend performances, attendees must show proof of being fully vaccinated and masks always must be worn. There are no food and drink concessions open as of this writing. Parking is free at the lot at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Government Inspector
Written by
Nikolai Gogol
Directed by
Lisa Morse
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thursdays through Sundays until June 5, 2022
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Despite at least one very dark plot element and an abrupt tragic ending, 42nd Street Moon’s musical “Fun Home” fills its 95 minutes with uplifting and delightful song-and-dance. At the Gateway Theatre on Jackson Street in the city’s financial district, the show closes its three-week run this Sunday, May 8.
A lesbian coming-of-age story derived from cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel, the show features the adult Alison (Rinobeth Apostol) in her studio, overseeing her past unfolding before her as she scribbles and scrawls—a theatrical replay of her creation of the novel. Scenic designer Mark Mendelson cleverly places her in a sort of god-like position where she can observe all that’s transpired to make her what she is. Apostol is a confident and compelling actor, onstage throughout the show, sometimes fully engaged with her castmates and sometimes merely a somewhat detached observer.
Central to the story is Alison’s sexual awakening, and her relationship with her father Bruce (Jason Vesely), an English teacher, home renovator, and funeral home director—quite an imposing set of skills—and a closeted gay man given to frequent flings that distress his wife Helen (Jennifer Boesing).
Grown Alison watches as her younger self, “Small Alison” (McKenna Rose) cavorts with her brothers John and Christian (Keenan Moran and Royal Mickens, respectively), and is especially attentive to “Medium Alison” (Teresa Attridge), the college-age version of herself who wonders about lesbianism before finally giving it a go with classmate Joan (Sophia Alawi).
The cast, stagecraft, lighting and sound are all very good….
New for this reviewer, Attridge is an astounding performer whose rendition of “Changing My Major” celebrates Alison’s embrace of her sexuality and her deep love affair with Joan. It’s the high point of the first act and quite possibly the high point of the entire production—a simply off-the-chart performance, among many that almost reach that level. Musical theater veteran Dave Dubrusky leads a small ensemble that perfectly backs the show’s many great songs, reinforced by Natalie Greene’s high-energy au courant choreography.
The cast, stagecraft, lighting and sound are all very good—a rare production with no glitches to grumble about. Directed by Tracy Ward, “Fun Home” is a solid bet for those seeking entertainment with a plausible modern through-line.
42nd Street Moon’s publicity hypes it as “a Bay Area regional premiere” but the show has played at least twice in the Bay Area, first at the Curran in January 2017 then again in October 2018 at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. It’s a popular show. This one runs 95 minutes, no intermission. Expect a couple of other local productions within the coming year.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
The Catskills mountain region in upstate New York made substantial contributions to American culture throughout most of the 20th century. Many legendary comedians and musicians worked “Borsht Belt” resorts such as the one brought to life by Sonoma Arts Live with its new production of the Stephen Cole musical “Saturday Night at Grossinger’s.” Cole is the show’s librettist/lyricist; the music is by Claibe Richardson with additional lyrics by Ronny Graham.
Dani Innocenti-Beem (r) wowing her scene partner!
Dani Innocenti-Beem solidly anchors the show as the entrepreneurial singer/comedienne Jennie Grossinger, who almost single-handedly converted what had been a rundown farmhouse into one of the most recognized and desirable vacation destinations in the eastern U.S. In a short silver-gray wig, she commands the stage whether singing, dancing, or riffing on the circumstances around her.
Larry Williams, the show’s co-director with Jaime Love, is also formidable as Sheldon Seltzer, the resort’s announcer/master of ceremonies/fallback comedian. He’s heavy on Henny Youngman-style wisecracks such as “Take my wife. She runs after the garbage truck shouting ‘Am I late for the trash?’ The driver shouts back, ‘No, jump in.’”
…a delightful morsel of musical theater….
Innocenti-Beem and Williams are both gifted and confident comedic performers. Their appearance together on the same stage guarantees a good time for the audience—whether the comedy is intentional or not, as happened on opening night with a balky curtain. The pair covered so well that most folks in the nearly sold-out house believed the curtain glitch was built into the script. It wasn’t, but perhaps Stephen Cole should consider making it so. The perfectly-timed incident certainly seemed like something that might have happened infrequently at Grossinger’s, and it provoked plenty of laughter.
The substantially-constructed first act is a decade-by-decade revisiting of the history of Grossinger’s, from its 1904 origins through the 1960s. Musical director Sherrill Peterson and her band provide excellent backing for the all-singing/all-dancing Grossinger clan: Dan Schwager as patriarch “Papa,” David Shirk as Jennie’s mate Harry, and HarriettePearl Fugit and Tommy Lassiter as Grossinger offspring Elaine and Paul, respectively.
HarriettePearl Fugit (r) at Sonoma Arts Live.
With its compelling and perfectly paced scene-by-scene through-line, the show’s opening act induces strong anticipation in the audience, who come back from intermission expecting a big payoff. The second act doesn’t fulfill this expectation. It feels under-developed, as if some story elements were left dangling or cut without consideration for how this might affect the entire production.
The result is that the show seems to end abruptly, frustratingly so for the audience, as our very entertaining history tour of Grossinger’s doesn’t reach into the 21st century. Act One has a strong dramatic arc sorely missing in the second one. Maybe that will be corrected in the sequel: “Saturday Night at Grossinger’s, Part Two,” but even incomplete, SAL’s show is a delightful morsel of musical theater.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Saturday Night at Grossinger’s
Written by
Stephen Cole
Directed by
Jaime Love and Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
May 8, 2022
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center 276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Novelist Kurt Vonnegut sometimes joked about his “vector analysis” approach to understanding stories, in particular the trajectories of primary characters.
For example, Cinderella’s personal vector moves like a rollercoaster through peaks of hope and valleys of despair, ultimately ending on a high note. Her arrow repeatedly goes across the “zero axis” between darkness and light. Many other stories take place entirely in the dark, without ever entering the light. Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” is one, in which a young man named Gregor Samsa, despised and reviled by his entire family, wakes up one morning to discover that he’s been transformed into a giant cockroach. The murderous rampage that is Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” similarly takes place entirely in the dark. There’s nothing uplifting in the script, and no possibility of a happy outcome. The fact that the whole affair is miserably depressing hasn’t hampered the play’s enduring popularity. Nor has it impaired “Sweeney Todd,” a show that’s performed with inexplicable regularity.
“One Flea Spare” is a deep probe into the dark side of human existence….
Naomi Wallace’s “One Flea Spare” is in this tradition. A depiction of four people forced to quarantine in an upscale London home during the Bubonic Plague of the 17th century, it begins morosely and gets darker from there. Director David Lear and his excellent group of performers at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West don’t try to gussy up Wallace’s dim view of humanity but bore into the historical and emotional darkness like coal miners eager for work. Allusions to the COVID pandemic weren’t intended by the playwright, but are more than appropriate today.
The setup is simple: people are dying in droves and the city has commissioned some enforcers to keep those still symptom-free indoors at home until officials deem it safe for them to come out. Kevin Bordi plays one such enforcer, a good-natured oaf called Kabe, who visits the Snelgrave home to nail closed the shutters so that no one can escape.
Matthew Cadigan, left, rehearses with director David Lear for “One Flea Spare” at Main Stage West. (Photo by Main Stage West)
He converses amicably with the homeowners—superbly played by North Bay theater veterans John Craven and Elly Lichenstein—who are harboring two fugitives, a sailor named Bunce (Matthew Cadigan) and a young servant woman named Morse (Miranda Jean Williams), who have taken unapproved refuge in the Snelgrave home.
The four spend the next 28 days together in the dank house (set design also by Lear) getting to know more than they ever wanted to learn about each other, confessing things that might best be kept unspoken, and violating all kinds of social norms. Familiarity leads to contempt, as the old adage has it, and contempt leads to malicious violence, details of which won’t be shared here.
“One Flea Spare” is a deep probe into the dark side of human existence, offset somewhat by moments when the characters connect and seem to share some humanity with one another, usually in the context of revealing past hurts and painful secrets, such as Mrs. Snelgrave’s sad story about a fire that killed her horses and left her scarred and in a lonely marriage. Morse and Bunce have their own unhappy tales, but there’s palpable erotic tension and longing between Bunce and Mrs. Snelgrave.
Such scenes add dimension to the overwhelming darkness. Some viewers may feel compassion for all but the house’s master, and may enjoy a strange sense of delight when the others band together to strip him of his power.
It’s a beautiful bit of symbolism. All three had suffered greatly under men such as Snelgrave—the sailor’s forced military service destroyed his personal life, the servant girl literally lived under the control of her masters, and the wealthy lady of the house spent her life trapped in a dead and hostile marriage. The bizarre quarantine situation throws these three unlikely people together and enables them to challenge the power structure that has ruled their lives. Their joy, of course, is terribly short lived.
“One Flea Spare” is not a fairytale, but there is a bit of light peeking through the darkness. The production doesn’t feel like a month in quarantine, but theatrical magic does its work to convey an overriding sense of fear and claustrophobia, stretched out long enough to give the audience a taste of house arrest and an appreciation for the freedom of simply walking outside into the open air.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
One Flea Spare
Written by
Naomi Wallace
Directed by
David Lear
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Thru April 30th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Anyone who’s dealt with elderly-parent issues will find much to enjoy in “Three Tall Women” at Cinnabar Theater through April 24.
Laura Jorgensen astounds in Edward Albee’s oddly-constructed two-act play. In the first act, she appears as a resident of an upscale retirement complex, nicely rendered by set designer Brian Watson. She’s engaged in what’s almost a monologue with a caretaker played by Amanda Vitiello, and a law firm representative played by Tiffani Lisieux, who’s there to prompt her to pay attention to mail and messages.
None of the characters have names but are instead designated simply A, B, and C, respectively, by playwright Edward Albee. Best known for skewering American upper-middle-class intelligencia (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “A Delicate Balance” among his many creations), Albee continued the tradition with 1994’s “Three Tall Women,” minus the blackout drinking common to his earlier works.
Director Michael Fontaine has gotten an excellent performance from this three-woman cast; in other hands, the script might have proven too difficult…
Albee reportedly said that he derived most of his characters’ dialog from listening to his parents’ cocktail parties. It’s as authentic as it can be in this show. Jorgensen riffs continually and brilliantly, confusing past and present, bouncing back and forth between lucidity and incoherence, hilarity and despair. It’s a stunning act of theatrical mastery. She manages her heavy line load adroitly, with only a bit of help from Vitiello and Lisieux.
If there are glitches in her recital, they’ll be obvious only to those who know the script word-for-word—Albee included plenty of intentional glitches in her speech, as might be expected from a ninety-something woman talking to a captive audience. As delivered, it’s all quite realistic old-person stream-of-consciousness. Vitiello and Liseux basically function to get her back on track when she goes off the rails, which is often, and often hilarious.
All three reappear in the second act, as the same woman (“A”) at differing ages—92, 52, 26—in a postmortem discussion of her life as they hover over her bed, as insightful in its own way as the long meandering riff that occupies the first act.
Left to right – Amanda Vitiello (B), Tiffani Lisieux (C), Laura Jorgensen (A)
Director Michael Fontaine has gotten an excellent performance from this three-woman cast; in other hands, the script might have proven too difficult. Lisieux was a welcome newcomer for this reviewer, one eager to see what she does next. Vitiello demonstrated a delightful flexibility—playing essentially two characters, neither of them resembling each other or the ditzy Long Island neighbor that she played in “Cry It Out.” And Jorgensen may be the North Bay equivalent of a national treasure. The veteran actress (“House of Yes,” “Ripcord,” many more) is amazing and wonderful in “Three Tall Women.” Her performance alone puts it over the top.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Two research biologists have an unexpected encounter in the run-up to a scientific conference in “The How and the Why,” at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through April 24.
Lucky Penny Associate Artist Karen Pinamaki stars as Zelda, a career evolutionary biologist involved in hosting the annual meeting of the National Organization of Research Biologists (NORB). A late applicant named Rachel (Heather Kellogg Baumann) comes to Zelda’s office to plead for a speaking slot at the conference, to defend her hypothesis that human females menstruate as form of protection against sperm cells, which she characterizes as “antigens.”
Her hypothesis has gotten plenty of pushback from the biology establishment, especially from men. She begs Zelda for a speaking slot, despite having reservations about some of her own conclusions and many misgivings about drawing the ire of conference attendees, some of whom have already bashed her for what they perceive as outlandish assumptions.
Lucky Penny deserves praise for producing such a thought-provoking play….
Rachel enjoys some sympathy from Zelda, whose own hypothesis met a similar reception nearly thirty years earlier—in Zelda’s case, the “grandmother hypothesis” speculating that women’s longer lifespans compared to men serve an evolutionary purpose: they are needed to help younger women with child-rearing duties.
The two biologists argue their convictions passionately, but the story isn’t really about science, despite the seeming plausibility of both concepts, and despite the realistically-depicted rampant nitpicking, back-stabbing, petty bickering, and professional jealously that infect the scientific community.
Their real issue is that Rachel is Zelda’s biological daughter, given up for adoption when she was only six days old. She’s now 28, the same age Zelda was when she got pregnant. The moment when she enters Zelda’s office is the first time they’ve met as adults. They are both professional scientists, the epitome of rationality, and they try their best to remain above emotional outbursts, but the emotion comes through despite their efforts to contain it—resentment, betrayal, guilt, feelings of abandonment and diminished self-worth, the whole panoply of negativity that can affect both those given away by their birth parents and those who gave them away.
Karen Pinamaki and HeatherKellogg Baumann at work.
Pinamaki and Baumann tread this emotional minefield with great care and a growing sense of carelessness, which becomes more pronounced as their mutual familiarity improves. Written by TV writer Sarah Treem (“House of Cards” among many other credits) and directed by Dana Nelson Isaacs, it’s an impressive pas de deux performed mostly in Zelda’s office (set design by Taylor Bartolucci and Barry Martin) and later in a Boston dive bar.
The two performers are very well balanced and amazingly dynamic with material that here and there may veer too far in the technical direction for some viewers. But strip out the scientific stuff, expertly woven into Treem’s story, and you have a universal tale of long-estranged mother and daughter reuniting in adulthood and trying to make a go of it from there.
An old adage about science is that it’s very good about explaining how events occur, but not so good about why. This fundamental observation applies not only to hard-core objective reality but also to a whole range of human behaviors. “The How and the Why” is a fascinating examination of two people trying to make sense of something that may not ever be fully understood either by them or by professional therapists. Lucky Penny deserves praise for producing such a thought-provoking play.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The How and the Why
Written by
Sarah Treem
Directed by
Dana Nelson Isaacs
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through April 24
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
The North Bay has been blessed recently with a spate of jukebox musicals, none better than “Hank Williams – Lost Highway” which opened at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse April 1 and has been EXTENDED to May 1st!
Authored by Randal Myler and Mark Harelik, and expertly directed by Michael Butler, the show is a big production in every sense of the word—a cast of ten superb performers on the wide stage of the G.K. Hardt theater, with a spectacular set by Butler, Zach Bowlen, and Kristina Dorman, who painted the wonderful giant picture postcard that serves as backdrop.
Steven Lasiter stars as Williams, the doomed country star whose short career put an indelible stamp on American culture. Born with spina bifida, Williams was plagued by pain his entire life, something he tried to ameliorate with prodigious amounts of alcohol and prescription drugs—substances that proved his undoing as a performer and that ultimately ended his life. He died in the back seat of his Cadillac en route to a gig in Ohio—the official medical report cited “heart failure” while noting an alarming level of painkillers and alcohol in his blood. He was only 29 years old.
…an uplifting, life-affirming experience…
The show opens with a somber radio announcement of Williams’ passing, then flashes back to his adolescence in Alabama, where he was mentored by a bluesman named Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne, played by real bluesman Levi Lloyd. Payne coached him on guitar, taught him melody and chord progression, and the fundamentals of songwriting, which Williams did entirely by ear. Despite creating dozens of hit songs that became American standards, he never learned to read or write music.
He said often that Payne was his only teacher. Butler emphasizes Payne’s importance by keeping him onstage throughout the show, sometimes in the shadows and sometimes in the spotlight to perform at key moments in the story. His presence also reinforces the fact that black music is both foundation and backbone of 20th-century pop music. Williams blended the blues form with traditional country instrumentation in a way that hooked millions of music fans—heartfelt melodies and simple lyrics evoking universal human desires and problems.
Photography by: Eric Chazankin
His band—the Drifting Cowboys—consists of excellent musicians who have stepped out of their comfort zones to double as actors. Michael Capella appears as Shag, the pedal steel player; guitarist Derek Brooker is Jimmy “Burrhead;” Michael Price is Hoss, the bass player; and Paul Shelansky is Leon, performing on mandolin, fiddle, and slide whistle. They rock the joint through dozens of Williams’ greatest songs, aided by tremendous sound design from Ben Roots.
Peter T. Downey does a fine job as “Pap” Rose, the recording engineer who became Williams’ manager. Jennifer Barnaba is solid as Audrey Williams, and Ellen Rawley is delightful as the unnamed waitress who runs off with Williams. Stage veteran Jill Wagoner is perfectly cast as Mama Lilly, Williams’ mother and his band’s sometimes manager and driver. She absolutely nails every nuance of a hard-working tough-as-nails Depression-era Southern woman.
Photography by: Eric Chazankin
The show encompasses every aspect of Williams’ short life, from country-music boy wonder to Grand Ole Opry superstar to rejected drunk to venerated saint. It’s beautifully paced, even if Butler did confess post-show that he hoped it would move along faster.
“Hank Williams – Lost Highway” is a stunning, essential piece of Americana. Despite the tragedy at its core, it proves to be an uplifting, life-affirming experience. 6th Street deserves accolades not merely for producing it, but for producing it so well.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Little Shop of Horrors
Written by / Book by
Alan Menken / Howard Ashman
Directed by / Music Direction by
Aja Gianola-Norris / Lucas Sherman
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Thru Feb 19th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Fans of Cirque du Soleil will be delighted to learn that “the circus has come to town.”
Seven performers and friends left the Montreal Cirque Du Soleil productions to form a troupe of high-flying acrobats calling themselves “The Seven Fingers”. They moved to San Francisco and now thrill audiences at the historic Club Fugazi on Green Street, a block of which was renamed Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard in honor of the beloved show that ran for a record 45 years until 2019.
The history of Club Fugazi, as introduced by Executive Director David Dower, is astonishing. Built in 1914, it has hosted an historic parade of entertainment, from jazz legends like Thelonious Monk, beat poets of the 50’s like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and even the Grateful Dead. Then came the irrepressible Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running show in history with 45 years of outrageous songs, satire, and headdresses.
When the Queen of England requested a BBB viewing, a special box was built for her on the second floor rear of the theatre. Although she never attended, her son Prince Charles and Camilla did in her stead. “The Queen’s Box” is available for private parties and has its own elevator, anteroom and WC, otherwise known as a bathroom.
‘“Dear San Francisco” pays homage to the city’s history through video clips and acrobatics both onstage and in the audience.”
“Dear San Francisco” pays homage to the city’s history through video clips and acrobatics both onstage and in the audience. It’s a circus sans elephants or lions, with plenty of high hoop jumping and flying aerials to make you hold your breath. The performers don’t have glittery costumes, but they shine at their astounding feats. They’ll run into the audience to play catch over your head or unicycle on the counter in front of your drinks. They show off, and clearly love what they do.
Co-creators Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider are true circus brats. At age 4, Gypsy’s parents founded the Pickle Family Circus, which Shana joined as a trapeze artist for 20 years. Together they have assembled a fine troupe of jugglers, aerialists, cyclists, and musicians to astound the audience. It’s 90 nonstop minutes of over-the-top energy. The audience can’t stop applauding.
“Dear San Francisco” offers a limited selection of beer, wine, and nibbles. Guests are seated at comfortable backed swivel chairs of varying heights to allow for full viewing. The acoustics are difficult, but non-essential for the surrounding action of this show. Some seats are located onstage, behind and close to the performers. The kids seem to love the action there, almost as much as the adults.
There is no printed program, so you must bring a smart phone to scan the QR code. Who wants to read anyway, when there is so much going on around you? It’s a circus after all!
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Dear San Francisco
Written by
Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider
Directed by
Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider
Producing Company
Club Fugazi Experiences
Production Dates
Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM through Summer, 2022
Spreckels has something sublimely sweet in store for those in need of a little magic. On a snowy night in the remote outskirts of eastern Maine, nine couples confront questions about love, loss, hope, and healing under the spell of the northern lights. Gracing the intimate Condiotti Studio Theatre stage through April 10th, “Almost, Maine” is equal parts funny and moving, and a heartwarming night at the theater well spent.
John Cariani’s clever script features nine vignettes that play out across eleven short scenes, each brimming with witty wordplay and plentiful humor, a hearty sprinkling of magical – and sometimes absurdly literal – realism, and characters who are endearingly forthright and sincere. Cariani gives viewers a sampling of love stories in various stages of growth and decline, including missed connections, new beginnings, unexpected reunions, and sweet misunderstandings. While most of the endings are happy or hopeful, there are plenty of poignant moments, too, offering audiences a beautifully balanced exploration of human relationships and folly.
Director Anderson Templeton leans into the play’s comic absurdity just enough to earn laughs in all the right places without devaluing the more tender and genuine moments. He gets strong performances from a capable ensemble of six, who together take on the roles of nineteen different characters throughout the show, moving smoothly between parts and pairings. It is a testament to their talent that it’s not a struggle to adjust to the same faces reappearing in each new capacity. Instead, it imbues the show with a sense of intimacy and familiarity that feels becoming of the tiny, would-be town of Almost, Maine.
. . . refreshingly honest, tremendously funny, and full of love and wisdom, with a little bit of magic awaiting those who are willing to find it.”
Serena Elize Flores and Brandon Wilson (Photo by Jeff Thomas)
Serena Elize Flores and Brandon Wilson shine together as distraught Glory and earnest repairman, East, whose chance encounter under the aurora offers hope that a broken heart can possibly be fixed. John Browning and Molly Larsen-Shine are at once hilarious and charming as Lendall and Gayle, a couple on the verge of breaking up when a surprising revelation changes everything. Allie Nordby delivers a haunting performance in a touching scene with Skylar Evans, in which a woman named Hope comes home to find out if the man she once loved still holds out hope for her return. These are only a few of the most memorable scenes, but all are well-executed and highly enjoyable.
Combined with Chris Schloemp’s stunning astral projections, Andrew Patton’s simple, snow-covered set creates a lovely backdrop, and is complemented by Donnie Frank’s humble, cold-weather costumery. Elizabeth Bazzano assists with a whimsical array of props, including big red bags purportedly full of love, an ironing board that doubles as an accidental weapon, and a shoe that drops mysteriously from the ceiling with impeccable timing. Thanks to resident designers Eddy Hansen and Jessica Johnson, lighting and sound work together seamlessly to set the scene, transitioning the small stage from romantic star-lit night to local watering hole with ease.
There isn’t much more I can divulge without risk of ruining some of the delicious surprises that await first-time viewers, but suffice it to say that from start to finish, this production is an absolute delight. This reviewer laughed and cried in equal measure. “Almost, Maine” is the kind of world I want to live in – refreshingly honest, tremendously funny, and full of love and wisdom, with a little bit of magic awaiting those who are willing to find it. If you’ve been waiting to get back to the theater, this show is the perfect opportunity. Don’t let it pass you by.
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Almost, Maine
Written by
John Cariani
Directed by
Anderson Templeton
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through April 10th, 2021
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
In 1996 Jonathan Larson debuted “Rent,” his musical about rebellious and irresponsible youth leading a lifestyle of hedonism and drug use in the rough streets of NYC. Their dismal lives are pointless and the ending isn’t pretty, but they sing and dance about it anyway. The musical won both Pulitzer and Tony awards and spotlighted the AIDS epidemic of that time.
Although this synopsis of “Rent” sounds cheerless, this show’s over-the-top energy and talent provide much to cheer about. The production by Marin Musical Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Novato Theatre Company, is really spirited. It took MMTC many years attempting to gain the rights to perform the show. It was worth the wait.
“It took MMTC many years attempting to gain the rights to perform the show. It was worth the wait.”
Accompanied by four onstage musicians, eighteen actors explode with powerful voices, tight choreography, and stunning staging. The dancing is particularly energetic, using table tops and platforms between high scaffolding. NTC’s small 99-seat theatre is an intimate venue which allows the audience to feel up close and personal with the performers. “I’ve seen this show on Broadway and it wasn’t nearly as exciting as this one,” one audience member noted.
Director Jenny Boynton confided, “We’ve been rehearsing only six weeks, but this cast really gelled together right from the start and amazed me with their talent. It made my job a lot easier.”
Local theatre fans will be delighted to see many new faces onstage. An NTC board member commented, “This is the next generation of actors to keep performance tradition alive. They’re young, and they’re our future stars.”
Vocal standouts abound, including Nelson Brown in perfect harmony with Jake Gale. Gary Stanford Jr.’s voice fills the theatre to the rafters. Stephen Kanaski twirls across the stage and croons to great applause. Trixie Aballa beautifully belts out her songs while dancing, topped only by Shayla Lawler’s sensual solo in Act II. Kudos to choreographer Katie Wickes for such spirited dances—from Anna Vorperian’s tango to the explosive rock-out of the entire company.
“Rent” is a remarkable tour de force, a tight production far beyond one’s expectations. With the adult themes of the show, consider the appropriate age to bring youngsters. Tickets are selling briskly, so take possession of this show before the lease runs out April 10th.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
RENT
Written by
Jonathan Larson
Directed by
Jenny Boynton
Producing Company
Marin Musical Theatre Co. in collab. w/ Novato Theater Co.
It’s a common dilemma as years go by. Who can get rid of the pile-up of possessions, especially those linked to precious memories? “The Packrat Gene” explores this timeless agony with a true-to-heart script by the Bay Area’s Margy Kahn at the Ross Valley Players.
This new play was selected by the Ross Alternative Works Committee (RAW) for its original, provocative, and exciting aspects, an addition to RVP’s regular subscriber season. The familiar theme resonates with audiences young and old.
Marcia van Broek as Esther; Julie Ann Sarabia as Rachel. Phots by Robina Jackson.
In New Jersey, three generations of grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter gather with a goal to clear out grandma’s apartment. Their conversations are acerbic and amusing as the women cajole, collide, concede, and console one another.
Marsha van Broek is marvelous as widowed grandma Esther with the accent of a holocaust escapee from Paris. She’s just fine where she is, thank you, surrounded by her books, broken bowls, 30-year-old pay stubs and Edith Piaf records.
Maya Rath as Leigh. Photos by Robina Jackson
Maya Rath masters her role as the practical and frustrated daughter Leigh, flying cross country to take control of the situation. Concerned about her mother’s age and mental state, Leigh tries to convince her to consider a retirement community. She’s on a deadline to return back to work in LA. Her obstinate mother dismisses Leigh with harshness dredged up from the past, while the dutiful daughter patiently reminds her to live in the present.
Spunky granddaughter Rachel, superbly played by Julie Ann Sarabia, flies in to give affection and allegiance to her grandmother and a snippy attitude to her mother. It seems Leigh can’t do anything right by these two. Three divergent generations, three authentic portrayals, and three riveting backstories anchor this solidly satisfying production.
“Three divergent generations, three authentic portrayals, and three riveting backstories anchor this solidly satisfying production.”
Director Michael R. Cohen notes “This play succeeds because of the casting. I am fortunate to have three superb actors who worked well together and made my job easy.”
“The Packrat Gene” is an addition to RVP’s season of regular subscriber shows. It’s a new and fully staged production selected by the Ross Alternative Works Committee, running only through April 3rd. Pack this performance into your plans and make a move to see it.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Packrat Gene
Written by
Margy Kahn
Directed by
Michael R. Cohen
Producing Company
Ross Alternative Works Committee via RVP
Production Dates
Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 2 PM through April 3rd
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Through March 13, Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions has a feel-good treat in store for everyone repulsed by war ravaging Ukraine. “The Marvelous Wonderettes” is Roger Bean’s hit jukebox musical featuring 38 pop songs of the 1950s and ‘60s, performed by the cutest—and goofiest—foursome that ever hopped on stage.
The scene is the 1958 Springfield High School prom, where we meet Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy, and Suzy (Andrea Dennison-Laufer, Vida Mae Fernandez, Jenny Veilleux, and Kirstin Pieschke, respectively)—a vocal quartet in the poofiest skirts imaginable, on a kitschy set by Brian Watson, who also did the recent “Amy and the Orphans” at Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater. Each of the four performers is a standout in her own way. Together they are delightful!
The The Marvelous Wonderettes at work. Photo courtesy Lucky Penny Productions.
Act One covers many of the best-known songs of the mid-to-late 1950s. Backed by a three-piece band, the girls have a bit of a rough start with The Chordettes’ deathless 1954 pop classic “Mr. Sandman.” Their timing and choreography are off just enough to provoke laughs but not cringes, and they gradually refine their act, dutifully plowing through many other anthems of teenage angst.
“The Marvelous Wonderettes” is a couple of hours of good clean lightweight fun and a welcome escape…
Comical petty jealousies infect both their performance and their between-songs interactions but never to the point where we’re afraid the group might break up. The Wonderettes are catty but loyal: all-for-one and one-for-all despite plenty of sniping. Writer Roger Bean uses the show’s playlist as a framework on which to hang the story of the Wonderettes’ drama with each other—both onstage and off.
The Wonderettes go mod. Photo courtesy Lucky Penny Productions.
Act Two finds the group reunited ten years later, this time in 60’s Mod attire (costumes by Barbara McFadden) and with an updated song list (music direction by Ellen Patterson). Several months pregnant, Suzy is wobbly but manages to be a real trooper even if she has to perform barefoot.
We learn a whole lot about what’s been going on with the girls during their decade after high school, none of it alarming and most of it amusing, such as flirting with “Ritchie,” the technician in the lighting booth. Stage manager Jeff Bristow is the good-natured recipient of such attentions. The girls’ relationships with the men in their lives can be a bit confusing, but don’t let the confusion interfere with your enjoyment of the show. It’s huge fun whether or not you can quote chapter and verse about the back story later.
Directed and choreographed by Scottie Woodard, “The Marvelous Wonderettes” is a couple of hours of good clean lightweight fun and a welcome escape from the larger world’s insanity.
As Jeff Bristow put it, the show is “a big hug”—exactly what we need now!
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Marvelous Wonderettes
Written by
Roger Bean
Directed by
Scottie Woodard
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru March 13th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
A two-year hiatus hasn’t diminished “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which reopened at San Francisco’s Curran Theater February 24, after a two-week delay due to COVID—after a two-year delay due to COVID.
If anything, the production is more polished and more spectacular than during its aborted run late in December 2019. The new show combines the original’s separate Part One and Part Two in one mind-blowing three-hours-plus production.
Harry Potter (John Skelley) from the San Francisco production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy.
The February 24 opening night included a huge rowdy street party before the show with a presentation by San Francisco Mayor London Breed. There is clearly a pent-up desire for live theater among performers and audience alike. Nowhere was this clearer than this show’s opener, from the street party to the entire production. The new production is slated to run through August 31, and is certain to satisfy Potterites of every variety, who may have to horde their shekels to get tickets, ranging from $69 to $229. Discounts are available.
It’s the most spectacular and well-produced show that many of us will ever see…
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” is pretty much a theatrical miracle. Prior to COVID, the large-capacity Curran (nearly 1,700 seats) was closed for a couple of years for massive renovations, only to have some of the new seating and carpeting removed to create a realistic refugee camp for “The Jungle.” Then it was redecorated again, with carpeting and fabric wall coverings embellished with the Hogwarts logo, only to be abruptly closed by the pandemic.
From the San Francisco production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy.
The new production is incredible, even for those not steeped in Potter lore. It packs in more theatrical illusions than any dozen blockbuster shows in Las Vegas, including characters that step out of seemingly solid walls, or seemingly solid walls that absorb characters the way a sponge draws water, characters that instantly morph into other characters, characters that vanish only to reappear swimming in the sky, characters that emerge and exit through a burning fireplace, ghostly spirits that hover above the audience, and graffiti that somehow appears throughout the theater’s huge ceiling, like a celestial pattern in an observatory.
(L-R) Ginny Potter (Angela Reed), Harry Potter (John Skelley), Professor McGonagall (Shannon Cochran), and Draco Malfoy (Lucas Hall) from the San Francisco production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy.
Then there’s the amazing choreography of swirling capes and their disappearing owners (Steven Hoggett, movement director). Performers are all first-rate, from the primary characters all the way down to the chorus. There appear to be approximately thirty members in the cast, plus many dozens of specialists in the technical crew.
It’s one whale of a group effort, an amazingly well-polished production on an enormous scale. The imposing set by Christine Jones is amazing both in its audacity and its versatility, subject to instant change despite its size.
Pictured (L–R): Ron Weasley (Steve O’Connell), Hermione Granger (Lily Mojekwu), Rose Granger-Weasley (Folami Williams), James Potter Jr. (William Bednar-Carter), Harry Potter (John Skelley), Ginny Potter (Angela Reed), and Albus Potter (Benjamin Papac) from the San Francisco production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. — Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.
The story by J.K.Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany (director of the show) has the now-adult Harry Potter (John Skelley) toiling away as a wizard in the Ministry of Magic, and about to send his son Albus (Benjamin Papac) off to school at his alma mater, where Albus meets Scorpius Malfoy (Jon Steiger), a boy his age who’s the son of dark lord Draco Malfoy (Lucas Hall).
The two of them form an uneasy but solid friendship and are soon continuing the struggle against the evil Lord Voldemort (Geoffrey Wade) and his offspring. Pivotal roles of Ginny Potter, Hermione Grainger, and Rose Grainger-Weasley are adroitly covered by Angela Reed, Lily Mojekwu, and Folami Williams, respectively. Mojekwu and Williams are especially convincing as mother and daughter.
It’s a wild adventure, but may be too much for very young children. There were no frightened cries from the audience on opening night, even though some of the malevolent spirits haunting the Curran are (youngster) pants-wetting scary.
Casual theatergoers not in the Potter camp would do well to read up on the mythology before the show—a brief synopsis of which is included in the playbill, as well as some fascinating background information that will appeal to hardcore fans.
As we stated when “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” first landed in San Francisco, even those who don’t know Harry Potter from Harry Houdini will be astounded by this production. For true believers, it’s a religious experience. For everyone else, it’s simply the most spectacular and well-produced show that many of us will ever see.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Written by
J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
Music and Lyrics by Benj Pakek and Justin Paul
Directed by
John Tiffany
Producing Company
Curran Theater Co.
Production Dates
Thru August 31st
Production Address
Curran Theater
445 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse transforms their 99-seat Monroe Stage into Cleo’s Bar, a down-and-out dive in Panama City, Florida—a Gulf Coast town at the eastern end of the state’s panhandle, an area southerners refer to with disparaging affection as “the redneck Riviera.”
“The Legend of Georgia McBride” is a comedic and heartfelt unfolding of how female impersonators are made, not born. Directed by Carl Jordan, it’s a totally charming, well-acted and danced production. It blends the story of friendship and support with more than a few bawdy and ribald scenes. Leave the kids at home.
Photo courtesy 6th St. Playhouse.
Cleo’s Bar manager Eddie (Peter Downey) introduces an earnest but untalented Casey (Alexander Howard) to an underwhelming cluster of patrons. Casey is a down-on-his-luck wannabe Elvis impersonator who makes less money in tips than his gas bill to drive to work each night.
After the show, Casey arrives home to find his hardworking wife Jo (Jamella Cross) distraught as their rent check has bounced again. These two have a strong bond, now sorely tested by their desperate finances. When Casey shows Jo a sequined Elvis suit he purchased to enhance his act, Jo erupts in dismay and reveals she is pregnant. Casey promises he will do better for their future together. It’s a great setup.
“The Legend of Georgia McBride” is a comedic and heartfelt unfolding of how female impersonators are made, not born.”
The next night at Cleo’s Bar, two female impersonators arrive and size up their backstage digs. Miss Tracy Mills (an astounding performance by Joseph Abrego) is optimistic and determined to make their new gig work. She reminds her inebriated co-star Anorexia Nervosa (a hilarious turn by Tyler Bertolone) that this is their last chance; they’ve run out of options.
Casey knows nothing of this change of plans and prepares to drive to work as usual. In a remarkable double role, Bertolone appears as Casey and Jo’s butch neighbor and landlord. Friendly but determined, he lumbers over to collect the back rent or evict them. It seems Casey and Jo aren’t the only ones who’ve run out of options.
Casey arrives at work and is dismissed as entertainment by the manager. Elvis has left the building, and a new duo of divas is waiting to show off their assets. When Nervosa passes out drunk for the first show, Tracy plops an Edith Piaf wig on to a very reluctant Casey and shoves him onstage to lip sync. A star is born, sort of.
Photo courtesy 6th St. Playhouse.
The drag show money lures Casey to do it again, so Tracy coaches and grooms him for more female impersonator roles. She creates a “Georgia McBride” stage name as Casey starts to enjoy himself. Cleo’s Bar becomes the hottest and hippest joint in town.
When Anorexia sobers up enough to re-join the cast, the team’s sexy shiny costume changes and clever choreography propel the bar’s fame over the top. The first row of seats in this ¾ round theatre gets the action up close, and these outrageous gals really work the crowd.
Tracy’s generous guidance and stage smarts bring months of success to Cleo’s. But there’s a problem: Casey is uncomfortable in his new onstage “skin” and has not told his pregnant wife he has dropped performing as Elvis in favor of “Georgia McBride.” When she finds out, their reckoning is both painful and eventually productive. Love and community support conquer all.
Photo courtesy 6th St. Playhouse.
“Georgia McBride” delivers nonstop entertainment, filling this stage to the brim with pizzazz. Act II has the choreography talents of Devin Parker Sullivan and Jacob Gutierrez-Montoya. Add dazzlingly quick costume changes designed by Amaris Blagborne to the wig and make-up skills of Rosanne Johnson, and the audience goes wild.
Director Carl Jordan noted that “Georgia McBride” was ready to roll when the Omicron surge hit, and he had to replace three cast members who were no longer available. Fortunately, Jordan has the stunning talents of Joseph Abrego, a top drag queen across LA. Jordan also recruited Peter Downey to step into the role of the bar manager with a mere ten days’ rehearsal. You’d never know it, as Downey seamlessly fits into this talented crew as part of “The Legend of Georgia McBride.”
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Legend of Georgia McBride
Written by
Matthew Lopez
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through March 20th, 2022
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Sonoma’s Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall transforms into a classroom for opera legend Maria Callas, where she instructs aspiring opera stars. A creation based on actual events, Terrence McNally’s story stars Libby Oberlin as Madame Callas. Under the direction of veteran Carl Jordan, Oberlin becomes a tour-de-force in this poignant look back at the Diva’s life.
The audience is welcomed as if we are all students by a commanding Madame Callas. She sharply addresses us “There will be no applause, we are here to work!” We meekly obey. She is at once mercurial, charming and aloof.
Libby Oberlin at work. Photos courtesy Sonoma Arts Live.
Reduced to teaching master classes at Julliard in 1971-72, Madame Callas shares recorded snatches of her past triumphs and once-incredible voice. Although she does not sing, she reminisces about past triumphs and loves. And losses. Callas was the world’s American-born Greek goddess whose voice, like her pedestal, crumbled away far too soon.
Madame Callas as channeled by the talented Oberlin is a firestorm onstage. She mocks her pianist (John Partridge) for his clothing choices. She barks orders to stagehand Dan Monez. When her first student, a soprano beautifully played by Emily Evans, appears in a short dress, the Diva is not amused.
“Helpful” criticism overflows to the audience, some of whom are berated for their obvious lack of style. Evans does a fine turn as the terrorized young singer who does her best to comply with Madame Callas’ instructions. When the soprano finally does get to sing, the audience erupts in a burst of encouraging – and supportive – applause.
“When the soprano finally does get to sing, the audience erupts in a burst of encouraging – and supportive – applause.”
The Diva’s next “victim” (as she calls them) is another soprano, played by regal redhead Morgan Harrington. Although dressed resplendently, Madame cuttingly dismisses her to re-do her stage entrance. She does not reappear; Madame Callas suspects this student is gone for good.
An attractive tenor is next (Robert Dornaus) and his confidence and style impress the Diva. When his fine tenor voice fills the auditorium, Madame shifts her criticism. This class is not as much about his voice; she zeros in to correct his pronunciation and his presentation of the role.
Robert Dornaus as the tenor whose confidence and style impress the Diva. Photo courtesy Sonoma Arts Live.
The dismissed soprano (Harrington) reappears, Madame insists she fully master the emotion of what she sings. This is the reputation and legacy of Maria Callas as she performed at all the greatest opera houses around the world.
Throughout “Master Class,” Callas draws from the well of emotional pains of her upbringing and dramatic life onstage and off. Her end-of career reminiscences interrupt the lessons, with clips of her past projected behind her. The saddest line Madame Callas speaks is in Act II, when she admits to the re-appearing soprano “I would never tell anyone not to applaud. Sometimes applause is the only thing we have to live on.”
COVID Update: Sonoma Arts Live has a policy of COVID protections. They require evidence of vaccination or similar safety precautions and masks are worn throughout the performance. See the website for full information.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Master Class
Written by
Terrence McNally
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
February 27, 2022
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
On rare occasions, an obscure play with an unknown star rocks the theater world.
At Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater through February 20, Lindsey Ferrentino’s “Amy and the Orphans” is exactly that kind of production. In it, a couple of adult siblings named Maggie and Jacob (Mary DeLorenzo and Michael Fontaine, respectively) return to New York for their father’s funeral. They also have a half-baked plan to get their sister Amy (Julie Yeager) to move out of the state-supported home where she has lived for many years and to come reside with one of them.
It’s not clear why Maggie and Jacob wish to do this—they’ve had little contact with Amy for a long time, and no experience caring for her. Perhaps a lingering sense of guilt propels them, and while bickering with each other, they press their case with both Amy and Kathy (Jannely Calmell), her caretaker. The results are heartrending and comical.
“Amy and the Orphans” is one of the freshest things to land at local theaters in years…
A Down’s Syndrome person, Amy has a strong attachment to where she lives, a residence full of her friends. She’s a movie fanatic, watching them constantly on her iPad, and has a job working in a movie theater—a perfect occupation, in that she has memorized every classic line from every iconic film reaching back decades.
Left to right_ Mary DeLorenzo as Maggie, Julie Yeager as Amy. Photography by Victoria Von Thal
It’s a very fulfilling life for her. She doesn’t want to disrupt any of it, but her sister and brother insist that they know what’s best. Blessed with an innocent passion for fairness, Amy argues with impeccable logic about why she should remain where she is, and when rationality fails to convince them, she resorts to small-scale guerrilla tactics, coming close to risking her life in her fight for autonomy.
With a great sense of comic timing and tremendous confidence, Julie Yeager astounds in the lead role. Her wise replies come off with an improvisational immediacy that one might expect from a theatrical veteran of many years. So do her many movie-quoting bits, all done with perfect timing and the original characters’ diction. She’s a wonder to behold, provoking a spontaneous standing ovation from a nearly full house on opening weekend.
DeLorenzo and Fontaine are very good as middle-aged siblings whose differences have never been resolved. Calmell, a young veteran of many North Bay productions, is excellent as Kathy. Gina Alvarado and Justin P. Lopez are enjoyable diversions in a couple of flashback scenes of Sarah and Bobby, the parents of Maggie, Jacob, and Amy.
L-to-R_ Michael Fontaine as Jacob, Mary DeLorenzo as Maggie, Julie Yeager as Amy, Janelly Calmell as Kathy. Photo by V. Von Thal
Director Nathan Cummings has gotten a world-class performance from his cast of six, but most especially from Yeager, an absolute joy. Cinnabar’s whimsical set (by Brian Watson) and goofy props only add to the fun and satisfaction.
“Amy and the Orphans” is one of the freshest things to land at local theaters in years. Continually engaging, uplifting, and at moments downright hilarious, it’s a show that will instill hope and bring you to your feet in celebration.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa took a brilliant risk in staging the rock musical “Hair.” From the moment one enters the theatre, one is surrounded by the exuberance of the hippie “Tribe” of actors cavorting onstage to drums. It’s clear this joyful “be-in” will be a performance like no other.
When “Hair” opened on Broadway 50 years ago, it broke every rule in the theatrical book. How did it become such a timeless musical? And how does it still capture audiences?
It has no real story line, plenty of four-letter words, a batch of rock ‘n’ roll songs strung together, and an in-your-face confrontation of the issues of race, the Vietnam War draft, sex, drugs, pollution, and clothing. It’s a brash bold and ballsy exploration of issues, many which still confront us today.
Photo courtesy 6th St Playhouse.
Whatever the magic formula, Director Aja Gianola-Norris brings this production of “Hair” over the top with a talented cast in fine frenzy, feathers, and fringe. Rachel Wynne’s choreography is vigorous and uninhibited, the onstage band under Lucas Sherman’s direction is spot on (although a bit loud for some of the solos), and the actors abound with strong voices.
Photo courtesy 6th St Playhouse.
Their physical performances are so impressive it would be no surprise if they lost weight after each performance.
“Hair” is a festival of fun, not to be missed…
Act I begins with a celebration of the extraordinary 1962 alignment of seven heavenly bodies (planets and the moon) in the constellation Aquarius. Time-tested favorites open with “Age of Aquarius” belted out by Serena Elize Flores. It’s followed by a dozen more, including “Hair,” “Hare Krishna,” and “Easy to Be Hard,” a solo soulfully sung by Gillian Eichenberger. The Tribe’s conflicts about the Vietnam War come to a head as some burn their draft cards. Others burn bras. Claude (an extremely acrobatic Jamin Jollo) and Berger (hilarious Ezra Hernandez) must decide their future paths in “Where Do I Go?”
Act II consists mainly of the Tribes LSD trip. It’s a free-flowing dream sequence, a circus with bizarre bits and beads. Famous characters come and go. The Tribe freely partners up, uncouples, and mixes again against the backdrop of “Good Morning Starshine.”
When the finale “Let the Sunshine In” is sung, audience hands wave in a reflection of peace, love, and difficult choices. “Hair” is a festival of fun, not to be missed.
*** Covid restrictions at the 6th Street Playhouse require proof of vaccination and masks to be worn throughout the production. Some material may not be suitable for people under 16 years of age. Please see website for further advisories about this performance.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Hair
Written by
Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Directed by
Aja Gianola-Norris
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through March 6th, 2022
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Main Stage West has rebounded from the confounding “Late, A Cowboy Song” with an exceptional production of the Tennessee Williams classic “The Glass Menagerie.” Expertly directed by Elizabeth Craven, it may be the only production ever done featuring real-life mother-and-daughter as their fictional counterparts.
Williams’ “memory play” takes place in St. Louis, in the late 1930s. A three-member family struggles to survive in the wake of a long-ago departure by an unnamed father and husband, whose portrait and influence loom over everything in the household.
Sheri Lee Miller, Theatre Manager at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, stars as family matriarch Amanda Wingfield, a manipulative and delusional faded Southern belle who smothers her adult children with a seemingly endless recital of recollections and demands. Miller’s daughter Ivy Rose Miller, MSW’s Managing Artistic Director, is understatedly amazing as Amanda’s weepy wallflower daughter Laura. MSW’s Producing Artistic Director Keith Baker turns in a solid performance as Tom Wingfield, Laura’s brother, a would-be poet and adventurer who also serves as the show’s narrator. Newcomer (for this reviewer, at least) Damion Lee Matthews does a more-than-convincing job as Jim, Tom’s associate from the shoe warehouse where they both work.
MSW’s production of “The Glass Menagerie” is among the finest this reviewer has ever seen…
The four-member cast is beautifully balanced. MSW’s compact stage is the perfect venue for the Wingfield family’s shabby St. Louis apartment—set design by David Lear and Elizabeth Craven. Missy Weaver’s moody lighting contributes to the Wingfields’ unhappy ambience, and carefully-curated selections of ‘30s-era music help put the story in its proper historical perspective—sound designer not credited in the playbill.
Glass Menagerie – Keith Baker and Damion Lee Matthews
This “Menagerie” is a stunning example of superb ensemble work that sails along at just the right pace, neither too briskly nor too slowly. Matthews exhibits palpable sensitivity as his Jim gets to know Laura, and Ivy Rose plumbs the depths of Laura’s rudderless existence. Baker confidently anchors the whole production, serving as a morose counterbalance to Sheri Lee Miller’s flamboyant and hysterical Amanda.
MSW’s production of “The Glass Menagerie” is among the finest this reviewer has ever seen—an exquisite piece of theatrical art that should be on every theatergoer’s must-see list.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Glass Menagerie
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Directed by
Elizabeth Craven
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through March 5th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
A Sherlock Holmes fan, I was a bit hesitant when Ross Valley Players presented “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily.” Would it hold up to the reputation so solidly laid by the clever detective’s reputation? Would there be mental challenges to determine how Holmes knew a visitor’s occupation, history, or personal habits just by scientific observation?
No worries here. Playwright Katie Forgette has written enough clever observations for Holmes to satisfy classic fans. Veteran Director Phoebe Moyer has expertly cast a full complement of victims, villains, and simpletons to play several famous touchstone characters. The lead character could not be better cast than David L. Yen, a Bay Area favorite and an incredible personification of the famed detective. His voice and his cultivated manner channel savvy Sherlock, pipe and all.
“Playwright Katie Forgette has written enough clever observations for Holmes to satisfy classic fans.”
“Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily” opens with a quick side glimpse of a robbery. The real plot starts in Holmes’ study, handsomely designed by Tom O’Brien, where Holmes and the affable Dr. Watson, solidly enacted by Alex Ross, receive an odd visitor.
Sherlock Holmes is in residence at RVP! — Photo by Robin Jackson
At first the proposed crime adventure appears straightforward: Holmes’ client, now revealed, seeks to avoid blackmail by recovering a cache of stolen love letters. The client is famous actress Lillie Langtree (beautifully played by Ellen Brooks) who’s had an affair with her royal lover, Britain’s Crown Prince “Bertie” Edward. Lillie’s own moniker “The Jersey Lily” stems from her birth on Jersey Island in the UK.
“As details of the crime are discussed, there are twists and turns uncovered. The plot thickens, and the game’s afoot!”
Lillie’s friend and devotee, Oscar Wilde, tags along, languidly played by Isaak Heath. He adds comic relief to the repartee between Holmes, Lillie, and Dr. Watson. As details of the crime are discussed, there are twists and turns uncovered. The plot thickens, and “the game’s afoot!”
The stage setting changes to Lillie’s sitting room, a charming transformation done by two stage hands dressed as proper maids, an example of Michael A. Berg’s cleverness as costume designer.
Holmes and Langtry at RVP — Photo by Robin Jackson
Act II takes place in a warehouse where the nefarious Professor Moriarty (Michel B. Harris) outlines his plans to mastermind another theft from Lillie. It’s this act that gives Tamar Cohn a chance to shine as Lillie’s supposed maidservant. Cohn’s acting chops are superb. Professor Moriarty’s hired thug (Joseph Alvarado) also turns in a terrific performance as a fumbling dumbbell. Alvarado doubles up his roles in a cameo as the regal emissary to the Queen, a convincing switch of characters.
“Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily” runs 2 hours and 20 minutes. The second act could be tightened up, as several of the scenes were prolonged. The playwright delivers an ending, actually several endings, which seem less than believable, but then it’s a fictional work after all.
The show delivers pure escape entertainment, mingling fictional with actual people of history. It’s an enjoyable night out, especially filled with surprises and a real sword fight.
Covid Protocols: In keeping with public health protocols, Ross Valley Players note that all actors, stage crew, and volunteers are fully vaccinated. Audience attendees are required to show ID and proof of full vaccinations at the door. Masks must be worn at all times inside the theatre.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily
Written by
Katie Forgette
Directed by
Phoebe Moyer
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru February 20th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
A mistaken destination leads to a night of small-scale magic for some Egyptian musicians and their accidental Israeli hosts in “The Band’s Visit,” at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre through February 6.
It also leads to a night of big-time magic for theatergoers willing to brave the pandemic. Like every other socially responsible venue, the Golden Gate is adamant about checking vax status for all attendees and requiring masks during the show’s no-intermission 105 minutes.
This production is a risk worth taking: a simple story about ordinary people that rises far above the ordinary through a seamless blend of great writing, great music, great acting, and great stagecraft—among the many reasons why the show ran seemingly forever on Broadway and garnered 10 Tony awards.
You’ll leave the theater overjoyed for having been there but longing for more.
The time is 1996, forty-eight years after the Arab-Israeli War, a conflict not forgotten by either side. The setup is the arrival in a small Israeli desert town of the eight-member Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra. Resplendent in pale blue uniforms, they’ve come to the wrong town due to misunderstanding its name—Bet Hatikva, not Petah Tikva, where they’re scheduled to perform at the Arab Cultural Center. There’s no bus to take them to their proper destination until the next day, and there’s no hotel in Bet Hatikva either, so they must rely on friendly locals for the night. In the process, potential adversaries get to know each other and discover that the same problems bedevil everyone regardless of religion or nationality.
Janet Dacal (left) and Sasson Gabay in “The Band’s Visit,” which tours to BroadwaySF’s Golden Gate Theatre.
Apart from the original mistake that launches the story, writer Itamar Moses doesn’t mine the obvious comedic ore of language barrier. Instead the Egyptians speak Arabic with each other, the Israeli speak Hebrew, and the two rely on heavily-accented and sometimes clumsy English as their lingua franca—all of it perfectly understandable to an American audience.
Set designer Scott Pask and lighting designer Tyler Micoleeau do their utmost to convey life in a dead-end town—both the heat and the hopelessness. (Cue the song “Welcome to Nowhere.”) The designers’ work, like the overall production itself, has rough-around-the-edges qualities that reinforce an abiding sense of realism. We may never visit the Negev Desert, but we certainly get a lingering taste.
The production’s realism is leavened with intervals of sheer magic—the band itself has moments of rehearsal that have the audience clamoring for more, and some of the songs are genius. Café owner Dina (Janet Dacal) befriends bandleader Twefiq (Sasson Gabay)—derisively called “the General” by a couple of Bet Hatikva locals—and sitting at a small table, she confesses how much she loved watching Egyptian movies on TV when she was young, a prelude to “Omar Sharif,” one of the show’s breakout hits. Twefiq in turn confesses his everlasting sorrow at losing his son and wife. Sweetness counterbalanced with regret tinged with hope—“The Band’s Visit” may have some of the most complex emotional undercurrents of any contemporary musical.
Janet Dacal and Sasson Gabay 2 — Photo by Evan Zimmerman, Broadway SF
But it has moments of levity, too—Joe Joseph is outstanding as the seductive trumpeter Haled, who knows everything about his hero Chet Baker, right down to playing his riffs and singing in his voice. Joshua Grosso has the pitiable role of “Telephone Guy,” a Bet Hatikva resident who stands vigil all night at a pay phone hoping his former girlfriend will call. The Israelis and Egyptians discover commonality in their love of many kinds of music—Arabic, Klezmer, American jazz, while the seductive lure of the oud, cello, and clarinet continually remind us of the band’s reason for being.
Morning comes as it inevitably must, and the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra must say farewell to new friends. That we don’t get to enjoy their full concert is the show’s only disappointment. You’ll leave the theater overjoyed for having been there but longing for more.
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Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
The Band’s Visit
Written by
Itamar Moses Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek
Directed & Choreographed by
Directed by David Cromer Choreographed by Patrick McCollum
As the new year dawns, Aisle Seat Review thanks all of our loyal readers—and all of the many theater companies that invite us to their productions month after month despite the fact that we don’t always praise their work.
Our intention is always to deliver honest appraisals with a goal of improving the theatrical experience for everyone involved—performers, technical crews, and audiences alike.
Like the year before it, 2021 was a rough period for the theater community, but we have emerged from months of lockdown stronger and more energetic than ever. ASR looks forward to a healthier, happier season with expanded coverage, including an enticing potential rollout of new regional editions.
If it’s theatrically significant, you’ll see it here–and we’ll see you at the show!
Happy New Year!
Editorial Team ASR:
Kris Neely, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Barry Willis, ASR NorCal Executive Editor
Nicole Singley, ASR NorCal Senior Contributing Writer/Editor
Cari Lynn Pace, ASR NorCal Contributing Writer
Victor Cordell, ASR NorCal Contributing Writer/Editor
Kerri Shawn and Michael Ray Wisely (Photo courtesy of Center Rep)
The holiday spirit can’t get any brighter or more uplifting than the one inhabiting Center Repertory Company’s “A Christmas Carol,” at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek through December 23.
A sumptuous large-scale production on one of the biggest stages in the Bay Area, this almost-a-musical update to the Charles Dickens classic is Broadway-quality, with a huge and hugely talented cast of approximately thirty actors/singers/dancers, and with spectacular scenic effects in what is arguably one of the premier physical theaters in Northern California. Center Rep is deeply endowed.
Why almost-a-musical? Productions of this enduring story always feature traditional Christmas carols—in fact, they’re among the many holiday irritants that provoke the wrath of miserable old miser Ebenezer Scrooge—but in this one, director Scott Denison and music director Michael Patrick Wiles have chosen to include a vocal quartet whose harmonies serve to underscore the drama, not to comment on it as in a Greek tragedy, but to deepen the emotional impact of key scenes.
Jeff Draper as Marley
It’s a wonderfully effective gambit, as wonderful in its own way as is the towering set by Kelly James Tighe that serves as Scrooge’s office and home, as London streets, and as the netherworld from which emerge the ghost of Scrooge’s partner Jacob Marley (Jeff Draper), and the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future (Kerri Shawn, Jerry Lee, and Scott Maraj, respectively). Shawn and Lee are especially delightful—Shawn with gorgeous voice and glittering gown, flitting about as she leads Scrooge through a return to his youth, Lee with boisterous good humor and infectious dynamics as he shows the cranky old bachelor how his relatives and employees celebrate the holiday. Maraj is silently malevolent as the giant specter of Christmas Future—“wardrobe engineering” by Thomas Judd.
The Cratchit family is portrayed with great sensitivity—Michael Patrick Wiles as Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s loyal and long-suffering clerk; Addison Au as his wife Belinda; William Foon as Tiny Tim; and a passel of sisters and brothers too numerous to name. Michael Barrett Austin does a convincing turn as Fred, Scrooge’s well-meaning nephew.
. . . as near-perfect a production of “A Christmas Carol” as you may ever hope to see . . . “
Michael Patrick Wiles and William Foon (Photo courtesy of Center Rep)
As in other productions, Scrooge’s viewing of the Fezziwigs’ annual party is a highlight of the first act, with wild dancing (choreography by Jennifer Perry) and frenetic comic acting by Michael McCarty and Jeanine Perasso as Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig. It’s a beautifully portrayed pivotal moment in which Scrooge (Michael Ray Wisely, brilliant) begins to comprehend all that he’s lost in his single-minded pursuit of profits, but it takes much more than that to provoke an epiphany that converts him from despised capitalist oppressor to beatific benefactor. Visions of his own demise, the plundering of his possessions, dismissive sentiments among those who knew him, and ultimately, the loss of Tiny Tim, all combine to overwhelm him to change.
All these plot points are stunningly conveyed in a production that’s both heartfelt traditional drama and techno-spectacular.
Opening night was marred by a couple of minor glitches—voices inaudible during the opening scene (quickly corrected), and onstage voices competing with the unseen narrator. The populous streets of London aren’t as bustling as they might be, and some of the spectacle may be too much for very young children, of whom there were many on opening night, but no hysterical crying was heard from the audience in the capacious Hoffman Theatre.
Apart from these quibbles, this is as near-perfect a production of “A Christmas Carol” as you may ever hope to see. With a ground-floor art gallery open before the show, and a delectable assortment of restaurants nearby, the Lesher Center for the Arts is a tremendous destination, reachable by BART or an easy jaunt on Highway 24. However you get there, you’ll be glad you did.
Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
A Christmas Carol
Written by
Charles Dickens, adapted by Cynthia Caywood and Richard L. James
Directed & Choreographed by
Directed by Scott Denison; Choreographed by Jennifer Perry
Producing Company
Center Repertory Company
Production Dates
Through December 23rd, 2021
Production Address
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek CA 94596
L to R: Edward Juvier, David R. Gordon, Maria Bilbao, Arielle Crosby, and Lori Haley Fox (Photo by Rob Martel)
It’s that time of the year again, and Transcendence Theatre Company has cooked up something special sure to put you in the spirit. Their Broadway Holiday Spectacular is back, and this season, it’s better than ever. Featuring a talented troupe of artists from all over the country – including many familiar faces, and some exciting new additions to the Transcendence family, too – it’s a high-energy night full of festive, foot-tapping fun for folks of all ages. Be sure to catch it while you can, before the show’s two-week run ends on December 12th.
Returning audiences will recognize all the traditional elements of a night spent with Transcendence – fresh and funny renditions of favorite tunes and classic carols, a live band and dazzling choreography, and of course, a pre-show party complete with food and wine from local vendors. But this year, the fun has moved under the big tent at Belos Cavalos, a charming equestrian estate tucked away in the hills of Kenwood, where guests will enjoy the chance to mingle with horses and goats during intermission, and gather around tables in lieu of standard theater seating.
On the program are a number of fan-favorites from previous years, including a clever play on Madonna’s “Vogue” paying homage to Rudolph of reindeer fame, and a silly song about making fruitcake set to the tune of Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” performed capably by Transcendence newcomer Edward Juvier. There are some fun surprises, too, including two four-legged guest-stars, and a creative take on “12 Days of Christmas” inviting audience members to help with the countdown.
If you’ve never experienced a Transcendence show, make this the first of many.”
Top row: Bebe Browning, Marissa Barragán, Edward Juvier, Kyle Kemph; Bottom row: Luther Brooks IV, Preston Truman Boyd, Drew Elhamalawy (Photo by Rob Martel)
Lori Haley Fox is quirky and endearing as Mrs. Claus, who serves as our narrator throughout the evening, and Preston Truman Boyd is our flannel-clad Santa, loosely framing the musical acts within an uplifting story about family, friendship, and love. Behind them onstage, the live band really rocks, and bassist Lynn Keller even joins performer David Morgan for a cute number about Chanukah, together lamenting the limited greeting card options available at the local drugstore.
There are, of course, some slower heartfelt pieces in the mix, including a haunting rendition of “O Holy Night” performed by Kyle Kemph, whose voice is so clear and bright it gave me chills, and Arielle Crosby, whose talent alone is worth the price of admission. The pair team up again for an equally moving performance of beloved Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston duet “When You Believe.” Maria Bilbao nearly steals the show with a spine-tingling version of “Please Come Home for Christmas.” She makes it sound effortless, and the high notes brought actual tears to my eyes.
Top row: Bebe Browning, Drew Elhamalawy; Bottom row: Maria Bilbao, David R. Gordon, Kristin Piro; Front: Arielle Crosby (Photo by Rob Martel)
The entire cast is immensely talented, so much so that it almost feels unfair to single anyone out. But I’d be remiss not to also mention Transcendence newcomer Luther Brooks IV, who charms with his sparkling smile and evident dance skills. Be sure to keep an eye on him during some of the big ensemble numbers. Choreographers Matthew Steffens and Marissa Barragán have worked some magic on stage, making the show as fun to watch as it is to hear and sing along to. (Did I mention there are tiny goats in diapers?)
If you’ve never experienced a Transcendence show, make this the first of many. And if you’re a repeat visitor, you’ll be happy you didn’t miss out on this one. Plan to get there early and meet the horses, take selfies with goats, and wine and dine with friends before the show. Bring layers, too – the heated tent felt a bit chilly as the night cooled down. Even so, you’re sure to leave feeling full of warmth and holiday cheer.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is a winter holiday evergreen, one that appears onstage and onscreen everywhere in the English-speaking world this time of year.
There have been innumerable spinoffs and interpretations of the classic tale. Now in its inaugural run, “A Napa Valley Christmas Carol” is a rare musical leveraging Dickens’ basic plot, updated to the present with delightfully quirky characters, and many memorable pop tunes, playing now at Lucky Penny Productions in Napa, through December 19.
Writer/director Barry Martin and composer Rob Broadhurst are the creative team behind this fast-moving show, a brash and funny take on Dickens’s enduring tale of misery, remorse, and redemption, set in the wine country with contemporary dialog and local references.
Setup: Late on Christmas Eve in the Yuge Winery’s sparse boardroom, three employees struggle to create names for a dozen new labels. Casting by Lucky Penny’s Artistic Director Taylor Bartolucci is spot-on: the dynamic Dennis O’Brien as Buddy Wise, the worldly-wise Daniela Innocenti Beem as Sally Angell, and the surprisingly subtle Matt Davis as Joe Patchett. The three are Yuge Winery’s marketing team, brainstorming daft ideas before settling on the implausible label “Llama for Your Mama.” The absurd but catchy name launches the first of Broadhurst’s many fantastically goofy songs—“Llama for Your Mama/Drink it in pajamas/Serve it to Obama/Maybe add a comma.”
“It’s a brash and funny take on Dickens’s classic tale, set in the wine country with contemporary dialog and local references.”
Tired and punchy with more labels to design, they’re ready to quit for the night when the boss shows up. What a treat to see Tim Setzer enter as the cranky Alexander Yuge, the winery’s co-founder and owner. He sings and sneers about the Christmas spirit as “Sentimental Schlock” then orders his employees to discard gifts from clients he dismisses as “idiots” begging for his business. He has little patience for inept employees, pandering associates, or frivolous holidays. Like the character that inspired him, he has little patience for anything other than profits.
“Dakota Dwyer plays their little son Frankie, so adorable he unintentionally upstages every scene.”
Joe Patchett happens to be Yuge’s loyal undercompensated nephew. At the Patchett home, the Christmas spirit is in full swing, on a bright and colorful set by Brian Watson. Joe’s wife Mary, played by Kirstin Pieschke with a spirit of resignation belied by a lovely soprano voice, is depressed about their son’s unknown and worsening ailment, and the lack of money to care for him. Eight-year-old Dakota Dwyer plays their little son Frankie, so adorable he unintentionally upstages every scene.
Photos courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions.
While Mom dutifully sets out snacks, Sally and Buddy arrive to join the celebration. Teenage daughter Goldie (perfectly cast Cecilia Brenner) joins the group in conversation and song. Brenner gets a real chance to shine in Act II, when she appears as the Ghost of Christmas Future in full Goth regalia—a superb directorial choice with its symbolism of youth vs. advancing age.
In his office, Yuge goes on a bender with a bottle of scotch. His ex-wife and former business partner Vivian (beautifully portrayed by Karen Pinomaki) visits to admonish him that it’s not too late to change his miserly manner. She admits she has cancer, but Yuge thinks it’s a ploy for more alimony. She insists she just wants him to change for his own good. Yuge chases her away.
His phone announces three unscheduled appointments before morning, closely tracking Dickens’ original story. Lights and fog whirl around as a righteous 1990s grunge rocker, in requisite torn flannel shirt, appears as the Ghost of Christmas Past (Dennis O’Brien). Yuge is deeply skeptical as Vivian reappears in a scene from their happy past. He argues that there was no love from her, only a quest for power and wealth..
The fog swirls again, revealing the Ghost of Christmas Present in the form of svelte wise-cracking Daniela Innocenti-Beem. Beem’s performance is hilarious, a true highlight of Act II. In a show-stopping song, she urges Yuge and the others to “Live it up!” She admonishes him to remember that “Each day is a gift—that’s why it’s called the present.” Her parting shot delivered over-the-shoulder: “Every choice has a consequence”—advice that Yuge ignores.
Photo courtesy Luck Penny Productions.
The Ghost of Christmas Future (Cecilia Brenner) arrives, and shows Yuge a vision of Joe’s family a few years hence, mourning the loss of their little son, again tracking Dickens’ original. She reminds him that it’s his grandnephew who has gone. A gravestone mysteriously appears, bringing Yuge to his knees when he realizes that once he is dead, there will be no legacy by which he might be remembered. It’s his life-changing epiphany, an entirely predictable but dramatically essential moment that propels the story toward its uplifting conclusion.
Setzer is incredibly dynamic and convincing as the sour miser turned benefactor—for family, employees, and community alike. His castmates equal him in their total commitment to bringing this wonderful production to life. Ignore any “bah humbug” bias about yet another “Christmas Carol.” Even the most jaded theater sophisticates will be delighted with this new show.
Note: Seats in this small theater surround the stage on three sides. Audience must prove vaccination and wear masks during the show. Wine available.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
A Napa Valley Christmas Carol
Written by
Barry Martin, Music and Lyrics by Rob Broadhurst
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Thru December 19th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
This time of year, theater companies can be counted on to offer up plenty of predictable Christmas classics.
Sonoma Arts Live has taken a contrarian tact with two similarly-themed shows directed by Michael Ross: “Plaid Tidings” and “Winter Wonderettes.” Performed on alternating dates, they’re both delightful tributes to the ubiquitous four-member vocal troupes of the 1950s and ‘60s.
The first, developed by Stuart Ross from the original “Forever Plaid” by James Raitt, features a male quartet that suffered an abrupt departure in an auto accident but who have been reincarnated for the holidays.
Photo by James Carr
Named for their trademark plaid jackets, the four crooners may enjoy an extension of their reincarnation if they perform well enough—quite a motivation, one that propels them through two high-energy hours of comedic antics, impressive dancing, and tremendous vocalizing. Trevor Hoffman, Andrew Smith, Scottie Woodard, and Brian Watson appear respectively as Jinx, Frankie, Sparky, and Smudge.
…Best bet: See both productions back-to-back.
The second show features a girl group in matching swirly skirts performing at the 1968 Harper’s Hardware holiday bash in Springfield, Ohio. Created by Roger Bean, “Winter Wonderettes” is a more tightly focused production compared to the somewhat improvisational feel of “Forever Plaid.”
Photo by James Carr
Julianne Bradbury, Sarah Lundstrom, Maeve Smith, and Jenny Veilleux are all convincing and very funny in the roles of Cindy Lou, Betty Jean, Suzy, and Missy, respectively, all of them with lovely voices and great comic timing. Both casts are very well balanced—as actors, dancers, and singers—backed by a solid band under the direction of Sherrill Peterson.
Scottie Woodard served as choreographer for both shows—“Plaid Tidings” being the more reckless of the two, in keeping with the male tradition of risk-taking for its own sake. “Wonderettes,” by contrast, offers a more demure presentation but one that’s more satisfying musically.
Both shows make the most of a simple set on the Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall. While “Wonderettes” is more structurally complete and better rehearsed, “Plaid Tidings” has an untamed quality that makes it equally compelling.
Best bet: See both productions back-to-back. An ideal performance would feature both groups onstage together. That’s not likely to happen, but we can dream, can’t we?
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
“Plaid Tidings” and “Winter Wonderettes”
Written by
Stuart Ross/James Raitt and Roger Bean
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
thru December 19th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Main Stage West has an enviable record of expertly-selected and beautifully-performed productions. In recent memory are astounding, gorgeously-rendered shows such as “The House of Yes,” “Lungs,” “Blackbird,” “After Miss Julie,” and “Heathen Valley,” all of them given glowing reviews here.
Against this impressive background, there’s little to explain the oddity that is “Late, A Cowboy Song,” in the cozy theater on Sebastopol’s Main Street through December 18. Reputedly one of playwright Sarah Ruhl’s early efforts, “Late” features three North Bay talents, under the direction of Missy Weaver, trying to make something significant from what’s not much more than a collection of semi-related sketches from Ruhl’s notebook.
…there’s nothing funny about it, other than the fact that an MSW play-reading committee decided it was worth developing.
A description lifted from the MSW site: Mary, always late and always married, meets a lady cowboy outside the city limits of Pittsburgh who teaches her how to ride a horse. Mary’s husband, Crick, buys a painting with the last of their savings. Mary and Crick have a baby, but they can’t decide on the baby’s name, or the baby’s gender. A story of one woman’s education and her search to find true love outside the box.
More: Crick (Jeff Coté) is an unemployed stay-at-home husband who cooks for Mary (Sharia Pierce)—even though she seldom comes home for dinner on time—flirts and bickers with her, and finally caves into her demands that he get a job. Their relationship is pointless, their finances are thin, and their living conditions are rough. Mary finds solace with a friend named Red (Nancy Prebilich), a self-styled guitar-playing, horse-riding “lady cowboy.” Having a baby only compounds the problems in her marriage, and Mary ultimately rides off into the western Pennsylvania sunset with Red. The end.
I am not giving too much away by revealing this. Not a single problem In the Crick-and-Mary household gets solved and there’s not enough in Mary’s pleasant encounters with Red to justify abandoning her marriage, but that’s the tale as delivered. Somewhere I saw a promotional blurb hyping the show as “a comedy” but there’s nothing funny about it, other than the fact that an MSW play-reading committee decided it was worth developing. Mostly it’s a lot of bickering, confusion, and alienation punctuated by a few tender moments until it all comes to a merciful halt.
The dramatic arc of “Late” is shallow at best, and Mary has the only discernible character arc. Sarah Ruhl can be a tremendously engaging playwright who favors throwing in bits of magical realism—see for example, “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage,” that played recently to full houses at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre. “Late” attempts magical realism too—set designer David Lear’s horse being the best example.
Coté, Pierce, and Preblich try mightily with what they’ve been given, but saturation irony simply isn’t a strong enough foundation on which to build a play that will sustain an audience through ninety non-stop minutes. Ruhl has penned many compelling plays. Regrettably, “Late, A Cowboy Song” isn’t one of them.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
One Flea Spare
Written by
Naomi Wallace
Directed by
David Lear
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Thru April 30th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Those in search of some heartwarming fare this holiday season will find it at Spreckels, where “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley” is scheduled to grace the intimate Condiotti Studio Theatre stage through December 12th. Second in a three-part series, “The Wickhams” is a sequel to Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice, though theatergoers need not have seen part one – nor have read the original novel – to understand and enjoy the show. Acclaimed duo Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon have penned a delightful and clever continuation to one of the literary world’s most famous love stories, brimming with enough wisdom, wit, and charm to have been written by Austen herself.
…I can’t think of a better way to start the holiday season.
As those who attended may fondly recall, Spreckels staged a memorably top-notch production of part one in the series, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,” in November of 2019. “Miss Bennet” takes place on the ground floor of the Darcys’ estate, where the newlyweds are hosting the entire Bennet clan for Christmas festivities. In part two, however, we venture downstairs to see what’s happening in the servants’ quarters while the family gathering unfolds above. Amid the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations, the late-night arrival of an uninvited guest threatens to throw the household into chaos. Cue the comedic mishaps, delicious drama, and sweet romance in this uplifting tale of family and love, forgiveness and redemption.
Sheila Lichirie delivers a stellar performance as head housekeeper, Mrs. Reynolds, who is equal parts sharp-tongued censure and quick-witted wisdom, with just enough warmth peeking through the cracks in her all-business exterior. Sam Coughlin is equally exceptional as notorious scoundrel George Wickham, whose drunken stumbling and slick overtures to the new maid would be enough to make one’s skin crawl if he weren’t so hilarious and strangely charming. Coughlin has mastered the appropriate body language and facial expressions to really sell his character.
Cohan and Coughlin at work in “The Wickhams”
Though Lichirie and Coughlin are the standouts, their companions are excellent, too. Kimberley Cohan makes a wonderfully lively and sympathetic Lydia Wickham, whose naivety is more endearing than annoying. Dale Leonhart’s Cassie, the ambitious new housemaid, is deliciously sassy, spirited, whip-smart, and self-assured. Silas Vaughn is eager and earnest as love-struck footman Brian, and delivers an enjoyably energetic performance. Allie Nordby – who was phenomenal as eldest Bennet sister, Jane, in the 2019 production – brings an irresistible sweetness and sincerity to her character that makes her impossible not to love, though lacking in some of the headstrong passion and playfulness I secretly crave in an Elizabeth Darcy. Perhaps what’s missing is convincing chemistry with her beau.
Coughlin, Nordby, and Guo work at scene of “The Wickhams” at Spreckle’s Performing Arts Center.
Byron Guo’s Fitzwilliam Darcy is appropriately stately and reserved, but perhaps just a touch too stiff, with his arms often glued to his sides. He does some effective things with his intonation and facial expressions, but his scenes with Nordby feel somewhat forced, and I kept hoping to see him loosen up a bit. Mr. Darcy isn’t supposed to be overly effusive or unrestrained, of course, but part of his charm is the way he softens in Elizabeth’s presence. Guo is more convincing as a charitable host and consummate gentleman than a newlywed man in love, though a few more performances may help him ease into the role. Despite these minor criticisms, it’s clear this is a very talented ensemble, and the show is entirely diverting.
Director Emily Cornelius has paced the production beautifully. Laughs land where they should, there are no lulls in the action, and the sweeter, softer moments don’t feel rushed. The impact is greatly enhanced by Elizabeth Bazzano’s handsome set, tempting us to gather around the kitchen table to help with holiday preparations, or cozy up by the glowing fire. The build quality and attention to detail are impressive, with doors that open to a realistic looking room and hallway, and an abundance of props that make the space feel like a real home. Costume designer Donnie Frank deserves recognition, too, for aptly chosen attire and some seriously stunning pieces. (Where can I find Lydia’s fabulous evening dress and nightgown?)
Whether you’re an Austen fan or just a fan of good theater, be sure to catch “The Wickhams.” With a hearty dose of warmth and wit that’s sure to leave you in a brighter mood, I can’t think of a better way to start the holiday season.
Two talented actors do their best to breathe life into the world premier of Kait Kerrigan’s “Father/Daughter,” at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre, through Sunday December 12.
Recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, “Father/Daughter” opens with a divorced chemistry teacher named Baldwin (William Thomas Hodgson) meeting a young woman named Risa (Sam Jackson) in a pickup bar. It’s a tentative and prickly introduction for both, one that doesn’t seem to have much potential, especially for Risa, but a relationship emerges. Nearly two hours later, we are 20 years into the future, with Baldwin having a heart-to-heart discussion about marriage with his adult daughter Miranda, also played by Jackson.
Between these two bookends is a lengthy meandering slog through thorny modern family relationships. Hodgson also plays the part of Louis, who is either Baldwin’s father or Risa’s father. It’s not clear which—a confusion amplified by Kerrigan’s clumsy attempt at blending characters and shifting time.
The…well-performed dance break, about twenty minutes in, is a welcome relief….
Many plays employ actors in multiple roles, but for this to work their characters must be clearly differentiated—not the case in “Father/Daughter.” Risa and Miranda look and sound identical, as do Baldwin and Louis. Plus there are scant dramatic shifts to indicate which characters Hodgson and Jackson are playing. This may be intentional on the part of the playwright, to show how human behavior doesn’t really change from one generation to the next, or it may be the fault of director M. Graham Smith in not encouraging more differentiation from his cast.
The net effect on the audience is something like bobbing about in a rudderless boat: we don’t know where we are other than knowing we’re going nowhere.
Sam Jackson and William Thomas Hodgson in Kait Kerrigan’s Father/Daughter, directed by M. Graham Smith. Photo by Kevin Berne.
There’s no serious goal for either Risa or Baldwin, other than trying to make some sort of sense of their lives individually and together. There’s nothing illuminating about any of their interactions, but somehow they muddle through, which seems to be the only point of the tale. The production comes off like a condensed version of years of family counseling—lots and lots of talk, not much action, and ongoing personal and interpersonal problems that will never be resolved. The dramatically pointless but well-performed dance break, about twenty minutes in, is a welcome relief from interminable self-absorbed conversation.
Kerrigan’s script is a moribund low-stakes/low-amplitude exercise in art for art’s sake. We can see what she’s trying and failing to achieve, but she could do it better by revising the script, perhaps under the tutelage of Mark St. Germain, whose “Dancing Lessons” is a master class in two-actor romances.
Photo by Kevin Berne.
“Father/Daughter” has implied potential but even actors at the expert level of Hodgson and Jackson can’t make it fly. Kate Boyd’s elegant set offsets the dramatic boredom to some extent, as does Cliff Caruthers’ evocative sound design. Takeaway: potential ticket buyers should be wary of obscure new plays with no intermission. There’s a reason why they’re presented that way.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Father/Daughter
Written by
Kate Kerrigan
Directed by
M. Graham Smith
Producing Company
Aurora Theater Co.
Production Dates
Thru Dec 12th
Production Address
Aurora Theater Co.
2081 Addison St.
Berkeley, CA 94704
When a show plans to open in NYC, it is often given a test run in an off-off-Broadway location. The production and cast can be tweaked and polished to shine when they hit the bright lights on opening night.
The Barn at the Ross Art and Garden Center inadvertently served as an off-off-location on November 12th when it opened “Camelot” for only one night in what was calendared as a 5 ½ week run.
Days before opening, one of the leads was suddenly unable to perform.
The Mountain Play in partnership with the Ross Valley Players made a bold last-minute decision to present Phillip Harris in the lead role of King Arthur. Mr. Harris is the Musical Director of this production, and has multiple acting chops in addition to his vast musical talents. He stepped in to perform the lead role with superb ability and a fine voice, yet he had scant time to learn all the acting lines.
Come to the most congenial spot called “Camelot” and be charmed….
With a sold-out house for opening night, the show did indeed go on, admirably. Kudos to not only Mr. Harris, but to all the actors in the cast who maneuvered their way around the stage to make certain the legendary story had flow and timing, despite a new member joining them. What a triumph!
Krista Joy Serpa and Phillip Harris at work. Photo credit: Robin Jackson.
This production is set for a small stage and cast, making it remarkably avant-garde and creative.
“Camelot” is typically presented with lavish costumes and pageantry, a backdrop to the classic songs of Lerner and Loewe. This production is set for a small stage and cast, making it remarkably avant-garde and creative. Director Zoe Swenson-Graham uses simplified settings to provoke the audience’s imagination. Actors perform dual roles, costumes are minimal, and props are simple and multi-use. The cast uses long sticks as pounding drums, a wedding chapel, and a burning at the stake. The various transformations on stage provoke admiring laughter from the audience.
Anna Vorperian & Rachel Menendez & Krista Joy Serpa & David Schiller in CAMELOT. Photo credit: Robin Jackson.
Lerner and Lowe gave us clever lyrics and memorable melodies in this legend of Arthur and his knights of the round table. The beloved songs from the musical are all here and performed with excellent voices by Krista Joy Serpa (Guenevere), Izaak Heath (Lancelot), and Harris (Arthur). Harris sings the opening “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight?” (“He’s wishing he were in Scotland, fishing tonight.”) Serpa’s lovely soprano voice fills the stage with her pleas to “St. Genevieve.” They meet, and Arthur sings an unusual sales song to convince Guenevere to stay and discover the pleasures of “Camelot.”
It works. Enter Lancelot, with his humble bravado – and good looks, and skills, and youth. His brash ego (“C’est Moi”) rankles Guenevere. When she sings “Then You May Take Me to the Fair” to her knights, the amusing lyrics show her resolve to rid herself of Lancelot. It doesn’t work out. They fall in love, and Lancelot sings her the romantic “If Ever I Would Leave You.” It’s game over for her.
A surprisingly powerful Matt Skinner was a huge hit sneering as Mordred in Act II. He cajoles the knights (David Schiller, Anna Vorperian, and Rachel Menendez) into shouting out the song “Fie on Goodness, Fie!” with great gusto. In a reversal of traditional casting in Shakespeare’s era, females (except for Guenevere) play male roles in this production, allowing Alexandra Fry to be young Arthur who pulls the sword out of the stone.
On stage with Matt Skinner. Photo credit: Robin Jackson.
At various points the pre-recorded music track was slightly out of sync with the actors. This has to be an opening night twerk. Note that the 99-seat theatre is comfortable yet not acoustic, so sit close to the front if you are hard of hearing as the music can overwhelm the clever lyrics.
Considering the last-minute alterations, this opening night should shine brightly when the schedule resumes November 26th. It’s regrettable that due to conflicts with Mr. Harris’s professional calendar, RVP must cancel eleven performances.
As of this writing, there are only ten performances still available. Come to the most congenial spot called “Camelot” and be charmed.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Camelot
Written by
Lerner & Lowe
Directed by
Zoe Swenson-Graham
Producing Company
Mountain Play Association and Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru December 19th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
A hashish-infused New Year’s Eve party yields unintended consequences in Sarah Ruhl’s “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage,” at Left Edge Theatre through November 21.
A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award nominee, the prolific Ruhl mines the comical friction between middle-class morality and libertine lifestyles when two married New Jersey couples decide to invite a “polyamorous” young woman and her two male lovers to their annual fete. Act One is a lengthy bit of exposition in which we get familiar with the two couples—Jane and Michael (Angela Squire and Anthony Martinez, respectively) and Georgie and Paul (Gina Alvarado and Corey Jackson, respectively), sitting around drinking and bemoaning their highly-educated but not entirely satisfying existence.
Paul is an architect who’s grown bored doing “bathroom remodels” and has moved instead toward writing and lecturing about architecture. Michael is an unsuccessful musician who’s found subsistence writing jingles. Jane works in a law office where she’s become intrigued with Pip (Abbey Lee), an intern whose unconventional lifestyle has prompted her to suggest including Pip and her lovers as party guests—a slightly naughty shared joke that ultimately forces the four friends to confront their conceptual limitations about love, eroticism, and commitment.
Director Sandra Ish has worked up a gorgeous presentation of this piece…
Self-confrontation is most pronounced in Georgie, who befriends Pip to the point of going hunting with her, a bumbling attempt at making spiritual connections to the natural world that ultimately lands them in jail. Georgie’s personal dramatic arc is the strong thread in this tightly-woven but loose-around-the-edges story—in fact, late in the play she steps out of the story and addresses the audience directly, a somewhat jarring departure from what might otherwise be expected given what has transpired beforehand. There’s also a pivotal subplot involving Jenna (Jewel Ramos), the mostly-absent teenage daughter of Jane and Michael, and god-daughter of Georgie, who seems to have a better relationship with her than do her own parents.
Jenna’s surprise return home is the laugh-out-loud high point of this prescient comedy/drama, a plot device as delightful in its small way as is Pip’s extended improvisational dance interpretation of the old country song “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain.” The uninhibited Abbey Lee is fantastically exaggerated in the part, a diametrical opposite from the emotionless android she played recently in “Galatea” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center.
Anderson Templeton is Freddie, the soft-spoken, sensitive-to-the-point-of-annoyance member of Pip’s coven; Nathaniel Mercier is the more intellectually aggressive David, a mathematician given to lecturing about Pythagoras and theories of the triangle—in his words, the strongest form in nature. His fascination with numbers resonates with architect Paul and musician Michael, but his riff on the strength of the three-cornered form is clearly meant as a challenge to the two married couples and perhaps to the audience. Cue David Crosby’s song “Triad.”
Director Sandra Ish has worked up a gorgeous presentation of this piece, in which can be seen roots as deep as Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and Ang Lee’s film “The Ice Storm.” Argo Thompson’s set works seamlessly as Jane and Michael’s home, a forest where Georgie and Pip go hunting, and the jail where they ponder their fate. Patrick Nims contributes substantially with gorgeously immersive three-channel video projections, as does April George with lovely lighting design.
The show’s female cast members—in particular, Lee, Squire, and Alvarado—are very strong in this production, but it’s well performed by the entire cast. No weak links! There’s a lingering sense that playwright Ruhl may not have wrapped up every loose thread in this well-paced tale—perfectly appropriate in that very little in real life ever has clearly defined starts and stops. Takeaway: in matters of love, live in the moment and consider all possibilities.
Whether you are single, married, polyamorous, or undefined, “How to Transcend a Happy Marriage” is funny, engaging, and provocative for all the right reasons.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
A brave high school student learns life lessons from one of history’s most famous conquerors in “The Great Khan” at San Francisco Playhouse, through November 13.
Leon Jones stars as Jayden, a student whose bravery in defending a classmate from a gang attack has caused his mother to move them to a new home and enroll him in a new school to save him from harassment and possible retaliation. Laudable precautions on her part don’t prevent nightly visits from “Ant,” the girl he saved, who climbs through his bedroom window each night to give him trouble about his gallant deed. Ant (Jamella Cross) seems genuinely confused as to whether she should be thankful or resentful, as if the rescue somehow demeaned her independence. Jayden, in turn, is genuinely confused about what she’s doing in his room.
Two people thrown together by accident: it’s a potent setup for Michael Gene Sullivan’s ambitious and mostly successful meditation on teenage identity. Jayden’s a smart kid but is a worry for his hard-working single mom Crystal, played with some emotional detachment by Velina Brown. He has tough time connecting to school, especially a history class about the European Middle Ages, a field of study that he dismisses as being mostly about “dead white people.” Then his well-meaning but mostly clueless teacher Mr. Adams (Adam KuveNiemann) suggests that he research Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongolian conqueror whose empire encompassed most of Asia and a large part of Europe. Mr. Adams ups the ante by assigning Jayden a project partner, a nerdy girl named Gao-Ming (Kina Kantor) whose encyclopedic knowledge almost compensates for her social awkwardness.
…a good solid effort…
As Gao-Ming and Jayden study, he develops a near-obsession about the conqueror whose given name was Temujin (Brian Rivera). In a delightful bit of magical realism, Temujin begins to appear in his room, telling Jayden all about his life, from growing up and selecting a bride, to ultimately creating one of the biggest empires the world has ever known.
Temujin (Brian Rivera*) gets acquainted with Jayden (Leon Jones) in ‘The Great Khan’ by Michael Gene Sullivan at SF Playhouse.
It’s a life-changing event for Jayden, and for the audience too—Rivera simply commands the stage as the legendary Khan, striding about in full Mongol warrior gear (costumes by Kathleen Qiu), singing lustily in Mongolian, and telling Jayden how he succeeded: by offering the conquered the opportunity to join his horde, and by instructing his soldiers to leave some of their enemies alive that “they might tell the tale”—an early exercise in what we now call “brand building.”
Relaxed and confident, Rivera clearly relishes the role. His performance is so mesmerizing that it has the unfortunate effect of putting his castmates in his shadow—probably not director Darryl V. Jones’ intention, but perhaps an inevitability when an actor is so perfectly suited for his part.
Sullivan’s script, while very good, could use a bit of editing. The early part suffers from too much exposition—Ant makes multiple appearances in Jayden’s room, in an effort to resolve her own feelings about the incident which launched the story, but she might be able to do so in three visits instead of five.
The scriptwriter’s “rule of three”—applied to setups for jokes as well as dramatic buildups—has proven accurate over centuries. And Gao-Ming seems under-utilized, mostly as comic relief. She, Crystal, and Mr. Adams have the shallowest character arcs in the play, while Jayden and Ant have the largest. Temujin doesn’t need a character arc—his presence alone is sufficient to drive the drama.
Ant (Jamella Cross*) confides in Jayden (Leon Jones) in ‘The Great Khan’ by Michael Gene Sullivan .
“The Great Khan” is the first big-cast post-pandemic production put on by SF Playhouse. It’s a good solid effort that showgoers will find both rewarding and provocative. A streaming version is available for those still reluctant to venture into indoor gatherings.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
North Bay stage veteran Jill Wagoner brings legendary humorist Erma Bombeck to life in “At Wit’s End,” at Napa’s Lucky Penny through October 31.
One of America’s most prolific and celebrated writers, Bombeck practiced her craft persistently from an early age with a series of poorly-paying small-scale gigs until she finally broke through in 1964 with Ohio newspaper the Kettering-Oakwood Times, which paid her three dollars for each weekly column. A year later she began writing twice-weekly columns for the Dayton Journal Herald. Shortly after starting with that publication, Newsday Newspaper Syndicate put her in 36 major U.S. newspapers—a stunning achievement for a new talent. By the 1980s her work was appearing regularly in 900 American and Canadian newspapers, totaling millions of readers.
She also appeared frequently as a radio and television personality and at her peak was earning as much as a million dollars annually. Despite hitting the financial jackpot, she continued in her tried-and-proven format of homespun humor from a suburban housewife’s perspective. In this, she was very much part of lineage of self-deprecating American humorists going back to Will Rogers, a lineage that includes masters of minor domestic absurdity such as Jean Shepherd and Garrison Keillor. (Terry Ryan’s “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” is very much in this tradition.)
…a delightful and fascinating piece of Americana…
Bombeck’s rise from working-class origins to media superstar was a quintessential American story, but she alienated some of her more conservative fans with her support of 1978’s still-languishing Equal Rights Amendment. All of this is conveyed casually and conversationally by Wagoner on a simple set by Brian Watson that serves as various parts of a Midwestern home. As easily as a neighbor chatting over coffee, she tells Bombeck’s first-person story (script by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel) without gloating about her ultimate success.
Jill Wagoner at work as Erma Bombeck
In a loose-fitting period-perfect dress (costumes by Barbara McFadden) Wagoner moves easily about the set, encompassing Bombeck’s career arc with a deferential, off-handed delivery that’s plausible and pleasant without an excess of irony.
The performance is well-paced—neither too slow nor too hurried—and at approximately 70 minutes, is the perfect length for both audience and performer. “At Wit’s End”—the name of Bombeck’s long-running column, a best-of compilation, and this show—is a delightful and fascinating piece of Americana.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End
Written by
Allison Engel and Margaret Engel
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through October 31 (no performance Oct. 28-29)
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
An autistic scientist and an injured dancer find solace and hope in Cinnabar Theater’s “Dancing Lessons,” through October 31.
Jessica Headington stars as Senga, a dancer who has suffered a devastating and potentially career-ending knee injury. Trevor Hoffmann is Ever, her pesky upstairs neighbor who badgers her to give him dancing lessons so that he can fulfill his function as emcee of an upcoming awards gala. Their initial meetings couldn’t be more contentious or less promising – she’s in an enormous amount of pain and anxiety, and he has little emotional empathy and limited social skill.
Cast of “Dancing Lessons” at work.
Mutual impairment, distrust, and animosity at the start: a fantastically potent setup that scriptwriter Mark St. Germain spins into one of the loveliest romantic comedies ever conceived. A career writer for television and film, St. Germain has an unerring eye and ear for what works in telling a story. His script is absolutely pitch-perfect: every word uttered by the actors and every action they make propel this tale of an unlikely but totally plausible relationship. His characters’ conversations are sometimes terse but never artificially truncated, and sound perfectly natural as Senga and Ever grow more familiar with each other. “Dancing Lessons” is a theatrical rarity in that it contains neither fluff nor filler.
…“Dancing Lessons” is the kind of show that makes a critic’s life rewarding…
The ebb-and-flow of this production is a master class in onstage storytelling, with rhythm and musicality like a minor-key symphony. Director John Browning has coaxed a stunning performance from his cast of two superbly talented actors, aided by Wayne Hovey’s elegant set that serves as Senga’s apartment, Ever’s office and classroom, and an auditorium where Ever speaks to the National Autism Coalition. Hovey also served as lighting designer; his work adds much to the show’s evolving mood.
“Dancing Lessons” -Trevor Hoffmann and Jessica Headington.
Not enough praise can be showered on Headington and Hoffmann, both of them fully invested in their characters and both of them totally comfortable with and trusting of each other. It’s an amazing balancing act in that the dynamic differences between Senga and Ever ultimately blend together so well in a heartwarming pas de deux—both literal and metaphorical.
“Dancing Lessons” is the kind of show that makes a critic’s life rewarding. With just a pinch of magical realism, it’s certainly the most satisfying romantic comedy this reviewer has ever seen—just absolutely right from beginning to end, and more than worthy of multiple viewings, a wish this writer intends to fulfill.
Headington & Hoffmann at work in “Dancing Lessons”
Kudos to Cinnabar for bringing this wonderful production to life in the wake of the marvelous “Cry It Out.” The Petaluma company has a perfect track record so far as theater companies emerge from
COVID-induced hibernation. Proof of vaccination is required of attendees, as is the wearing of masks during performances. For those still unwilling to venture out, “Dancing Lessons” will be available online October 29-31.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Sibling rivalry and resentment take a horrific turn in Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” at Main Stage West in Sebastopol, through October 30.
Directed by North Bay theater veteran (and cookie magnate) Bronwen Shears, Keene Hudson and D’Artagnan Riviera star as brothers Lincoln and Booth, respectively, residing in a shabby room with a communal bathroom down the hall. A reformed street hustler, Lincoln has taken a job in a local arcade, acting the part of his namesake president in a game in which players take potshots at him. Booth is doing his best to master the art of Three Card Monte so that he might improve his personal cash flow by preying on gullible “marks”—a pursuit Lincoln has already renounced, to the point where he’s reluctant to coach Booth on the finer points of the game.
…The potential to take this production from good to great is certainly there…
The two brothers vacillate between reminiscing about their mostly dysfunctional childhoods and arguing with each other. The more animated and aggressive of the two, Lincoln is frequently unkind to Booth, who has long chafed in his older brother’s shadow. There’s also palpable love between the two, but much disagreement about their shared past as well as the future. Their interactions—all taking place in one room—are an emotional rollercoaster skillfully crafted by playwright, director and the two actors.
Keene Hudson at work in Topdog/Underdog.
Hudson and Riviera play off each other well—Hudson’s character the more dynamic of the two. Riviera plays Booth as brooding and introspective, without a hint of the malevolence that ultimately brings down the curtain. He has a solid grasp of his character and his character’s motivation, but stumbled with some lines late on opening weekend, a shortcoming certain to be corrected as the production moves into its second, third, and fourth weeks.
The potential to take this production from good to great is certainly there. Parks’ theme, of course, is one of the oldest, going back to ancient mythologies—the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, for example. Other inspirations may include the viciously backstabbing sisters in Shakespeare’s “King Lear” or the contentious brothers Austin and Lee in Sam Shepard’s “True West.” There are certainly striking parallels between that play and this one. It’s not a jolly ride, but it’s one that will open your eyes and perhaps prompt discussion. “Topdog/Underdog” is a compelling examination of a permanently recurring and tragic human condition.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Ham for the Holidays
Written by
Shad Willingham
Directed by
Emily Cornelius
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Dec 30th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
A day in the life of a harried scheduling manager makes for some uproarious comedy in “Fully Committed,” at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in downtown Healdsburg, through October 17.
The telephone equivalent of a slamming-door farce, the production requires its lone onstage talent to dash from one telephone to the next—three internal lines at opposite ends of the wide stage, and two or three on his desk. Plus his personal cell phone. It’s a lot to keep track of, especially when they ring in rapid succession or in unison.
…a delightful show…
Troy Thomas Evans plays the roles of everyone working in a trendy New York restaurant—chef, maitre d’, front-of-house staff, and an absent co-worker, plus his own father, and dozens of pesky would-be patrons who refuse to take “I’m sorry—we’re fully committed” as an answer when they try to make reservations. Evans is energetic and convincing as Sam, a hopeful young actor trying to land a gig at Lincoln Center, and to arrange time off to spend the Christmas holiday with his family.
Troy Thomas Evans at work as Sam – photo by Ray Mabry
He conveys all of this effectively; some of his characters (Bunny VanDerveer, Bryce from Gwyneth Paltrow’s office, the dreaded Ned Finley) are outrageous while others are merely amusing. His performance is hampered by the need to scramble from one side of the stage to the other, because director Tika Moon insisted on using the entirety of the wide stage as the restaurant’s basement office, a space that in the real world would be almost unbearably cramped, the way other productions’ set designs usually have it.
Net result: this “Fully Committed” runs more than two hours —no intermission— vs. a typical production’s 90 minutes. It’s still a delightful show earning Evans a big thumbs-up as a comedic performer. Plus it’s great that live theater has returned to downtown Healdsburg, which was bustling on opening night. The October 16 production will also be livestreamed.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
If you’re in need of a good, hearty laugh (and who isn’t, these days?) Spreckels Theatre Company has you covered. Don’t miss their top-notch production of “Noises Off,” running now through October 24th on the big stage in Rohnert Park.
In Michael Frayn’s classic, door-slamming farce within a farce, a traveling theater company descends into utter chaos while attempting to stage a play called “Nothing On.” It’s a pants-dropping, riotous affair replete with perfectly timed entrances and exits, tangled phone cords, plates of sardines that vanish and reappear without explanation, and a seemingly endless series of mishaps and misunderstandings that fuel the frenzy. It becomes quickly apparent, however, that the chaos onstage can’t hold a candle to what’s unfolding among the actors behind the scenes.
This is the kind of show that requires impeccable comedic timing and painstaking coordination, and Spreckels doesn’t disappoint. Veteran director Sheri Lee Miller helms this tightly paced and carefully choreographed production with evident precision; her talented ensemble proves up to the challenge. Those familiar with “Noises Off” will be pleased to find this old favorite has been handled with care. Only the location has been changed, and though it’s a change that feels unnecessary, it in no way detracts from the overall effect.
“Noises Off” at work. Kevin Bordi, Eileen Morris, & Zane Walters.
MacKenzie Cahill is a hoot as ditzy Brooke, lovably oblivious and always losing her contacts, and Zane Walters shines as leading man Garry LeJeune, swinging axes and stumbling down stairs in his jealous rage. John Craven is delightful as Selsdon, the hard-of-hearing actor who’s a little too fond of the bottle and keeps missing his cues. And who couldn’t love Eileen Morris as Dotty Otley, even if she’ll never remember where she left those damned sardines? Kevin Bordi, Matthew Cadigan, Taylor Diffenderfer, Maureen O’Neill, and Brandon Wilson round out the bunch, and there isn’t a weak link among them.
…Those familiar with “Noises Off” will be pleased to find this old favorite has been handled with care…
The stagecraft is excellent, too, thanks to resident designer Eddy Hansen’s elaborate, two-story set piece that rotates to reveal the goings-on backstage. Scenic artist and prop master Elizabeth Bazzano has her hands full with this one. From interchangeable bags and boxes, bottles of booze and bouquets of flowers, and countless sardines, to questionably repurposed sheets and a very prickly cactus, Bazzano has covered all the bases.
“Noises Off” — full cast, set by Eddy Hansen
With three acts and two intermissions – the first of which was slated at 15 minutes but felt much shorter, and the second of which was billed at 5 but stretched on for closer to 15, it’s a long night out at the theater. But the third act is even funnier than the second, and you won’t be looking at your watch. Even the program will give you a chuckle – be sure to flip it over, where you’ll find a second program for “Nothing On,” complete with hilarious cast bios.
“Noises Off” is the perfect remedy for anyone in need of some lighthearted fun or a happy distraction, and this production is an absolute delight. Be sure to catch it while you can.
Sonoma Arts Live has emerged from eighteen months of hibernation with a stunning production of “Sunset Boulevard.” The first large-scale musical to appear on a Sonoma County stage since the long pandemic shutdown, the show runs on the Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center through October 10.
North Bay musical theater favorite Dani Innocenti-Beem shines in the role of Norma Desmond, a reclusive and delusional former film star who’s befriended, seduced, and rejected by down-on-his-luck scriptwriter Joe Gillis (Michael Scott Wells) in this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical adaptation of the classic Billy Wilder film, perhaps the ultimate depiction of a Hollywood love affair gone sour.
…stage veteran Norman Hall has a nice cameo as legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille…
Backed by a solid five-piece band, Innocenti-Beem and Wells sing their hearts out. Seasoned show-goers may not initially recognize Wells, his signature shaved head hidden by a stylish wig, while Innocenti-Beem is considerably slimmer than in her last stage appearance in “Sweeney Todd” at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse. Wells convincingly nails his character’s hopes, cynicism, and failures while Innocenti-Beem moves heaven and earth with her emotive high-volume vocals. Also a skilled comedienne, she gives the audience a full examination of Norma’s delusions, exaggerated just enough to let us know how far off the rails she’s gone. It’s a terrific performance.
Dani Innocenti-Beem
Secondary characters are excellent too, especially Tim Setzer as Max Von Mayerling, Norma’s loyal-to-a-fault butler. Setzer is in fine voice, giving Max a properly guttural Teutonic baritone both speaking and singing, amazing in that Setzer’s natural speaking voice is softer and higher. Maeve Smith is superb as Betty Schaefer, Gillis’ young collaborator and potential lover once he tires of Norma. Stage veteran Norman Hall has a nice cameo as legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille. The large ensemble—sixteen in all—are very good in multiple roles. The music isn’t memorable, lacking Lloyd Webber’s characteristic melodic hooks—think “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “Jesus Christ, Superstar”—but it works to propel the story.
Michael Scott Wells and Maeve Smith work a scene.
Critical quibbles: an overly-long bit of exposition mirroring the film’s early scenes, and a sometimes rickety set, but the show itself is exemplary, with just-right pacing, a welcome surprise in light of how long it was on hold. Director Carl Jordan has pulled a fantastically compelling production from a diverse cast.
“Sunset Boulevard” is a delight—and an entertainment bargain.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
'Sunset Boulevard'
Written by
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black
Story based on the Billy Wilder film
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thursdays thru Sundays thru Oct.10th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Two young mothers with newborns form a friendship that soon encompasses distinctions in class, education, income, and aspirations in “Cry It Out” at Cinnabar Theatre through September 26.
Elegantly conceived by playwright Molly Smith Metzger, the production centers around two Long Island neighbors, Jessie (Ilana Niernberger) and Lina (Amanda Vitiello), both on maternity leave with babies at home, a similarity that enables a quickly-formed deep bond. They share afternoon coffee, tidbits on baby care—the show’s title is derived from a popular theory that babies put to bed should be allowed to cry until they go back to sleep—and many personal misgivings and misadventures, some of them laugh-out-loud funny.
“Cry It Out” – Ilana Niernberger and Amanda Vitiello at work.
A working-class girl with attitude as strong as her New Jersey accent, Lina is a comic riot as she describes her travails not only with her baby but with her underachieving husband and his alcoholic mother, who serves as nanny when Lina goes out. Jessie is the more contained of the two—contemplative and methodical, an attorney considering leaving her profession to be a stay-at-home mom. Both women have problems with their husbands, whom we never meet.
…director Molly Noble extracts delicious performances from four exquisitely talented but hugely differing actors…
Into their midst comes a nerdy neighbor, Mitchell (Andrew Patton), awkwardly inquiring if his wife, also a recent mom, might join them. Once they get over the creepiness of the fact that he’s been watching them, they agree to welcome Adrienne (Kellie Donnelly), a haughty disdainful designer with little interest in raising children or socializing with others who are. Mitchell’s well-intentioned intervention is a desperate nudge in the wrong direction, fireworks to follow.
It’s a fantastically potent setup, with increasingly satisfying payoffs as the story progresses. The quick-moving one-act segues seamlessly from comedy to drama as director Molly Noble extracts delicious performances from four exquisitely talented but hugely differing actors. Their differences as performers and the differences between their characters expand the dynamic possibilities of this show far beyond what an audience might expect when first viewing the simple set of a suburban backyard patio.
“Cry It Out” is a master class in elegant modest-budget theater. North Bay residents are privileged to have such sterling performances so close to home. As with most Bay Area theater companies, Cinnabar requires proof of vaccination at the door, and the wearing of masks during the performance. Attendees also get a sticker that says “Welcome Back!” to which we can only reply “Welcome Back, Cinnabar!” Those who can’t get to the theater may also view a streaming production.
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ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Pamela Hollings as Marilyn; Tori Truss as Abby; Peter Warden as Derek
Ross Valley Players has reopened their stage at the Barn with their first live production since the start of the pandemic, and it’s a delightful welcome indeed.
“Ripcord” is a female odd couple pairing with a sharper edge. David Lindsay-Abaire’s comedy showcases the talents of Tori Truss (Abby) and Pamela Hollings (Marilyn) as two seniors who share a room in a retirement community. The yin and yang between these two characters is a delight to watch, with snide facial gestures of Truss pitted against fluttery friendliness of Hollings.
Director Chloe Bronzan notes “The pandemic forced many into quarantine with a roommate we would have preferred to spend less time with…we are left pondering our basic need for human interaction.”
“The yin and yang between these two characters is a delight to watch.”
The main characters’ interaction in “Ripcord” is hilarious. Cranky Abby wants the room to herself, and does her darndest to get cheerful Marilyn to request a room transfer. Marilyn is undaunted, and considers Abby’s nastiness a challenge to win over. Besides, Marilyn loves the view and light from the room they share. She’s not about to move.
Peter Warden as Derek; Rebekah Kouy-Ghadosh as Colleen; Pamela Hollings as Marilyn
The women make a bet to settle their differences to decide who moves out. Enthusiastic and positive-thinking Marilyn believes she can find a way to make the stony and stoic Abby fearful. Abby is confident she’ll find something to make the effervescent Marilyn angry.
Abby and Marilyn try practical jokes – funny at first – which elevate to vicious one-upmanship. “Ripcord” reveals their schemes through amusing scene changes, including a haunted house and a sky-diving snatch, lending the parachute’s release to the play’s name. What on earth, or in the air, will these gals do next?
RVP Newcomer Bau Tran (Scotty) brings the perfect dash of spice and sensibility to the mix as the retirement home’s staff member struggling mightily to bring reasonableness to the women’s battle. He loses this one, but it’s an amusing effort.
Nate Currier as Clown
A batch of sometimes silly supporting bits by Peter Warden, Rebekah Kouy-Ghadosh, and Nate Currier pepper the plot. Michael A. Berg adds the costumes to lend an over-the-top chaos to the madcap schemes.
Act II is more emotional, and less chaotic, as a hidden past helps put Abby’s negativity into perspective. This sideways subplot, with Currier in a serious role as Abby’s son, brings “Ripcord’s” free-falling comedy to an abrupt landing. But the bet’s still on between Abby and Marilyn.
The play’s resolution is likewise less than comedic, yet apparently satisfying to the opening night audience. Many commented “That was fun!” as they departed.
Rebekah Ghadosh as Colleen; Pamela Hollings as Marilyn; Nate Currier as Lewis; Tori Truss as Abby; Peter Warden as Derek
RVP is determined to make a safe place for their theatre’s reopening. Covid vaccinations are required for entry, and they sell only half of the theatre’s capacity so patrons can be seated far from one another. Sadly this spacing makes it more awkward to laugh aloud at a comedy.
When you go, enjoy Tom O’Brien’s colorful stage set of the senior’s apartment and the lobby which has been redone in red carpet grandeur. Allow time to marvel at the decades of framed show posters celebrating RVP’s 90 years of productions, many of which were hand-painted.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
"Ripcord"
Written by
David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by
Chloe Bronzan
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thursdays through Sundays until October 10th, 2021
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
If you’re looking for a “field of dreams”, Transcendence Theatre Company brings it to Sonoma’s Jack London Historic State Park. Stars from stage and screen blend their talents amongst the classic stone ruins of the winery to perform hits from best-loved musicals for one more weekend this September. The audience was delighted to be able to return to this showcase under the sky of singers, dancers, and knock-your-socks-off musicians.
Where did this astounding talent come from? Many of these performers are taking a break from starring in a Broadway musical or touring company. They may have tasted the Sonoma lifestyle and given up their world tours to teach the joys of theatre year-round to youth in the Bay Area. Transcendence Theatre Company performers may be far from the neon lights, but their dedication to community keeps them close to their adoring public.
The Gala cast performs “Friend Like Me” — Photo credit Rob Martel
The professionals who are part of this non-profit company love being here; the company helps arrange local housing and sightseeing. No wonder they make each show the “Best Night Ever!” as Artistic Director Amy Miller enthusiastically exhorts. The audience heartily agrees.
“Transcendence Theatre Company performers may be far from the neon lights, but their dedication to community keeps them close to their adoring public.”
“The Gala” is the closing production of 2021’s summer season of “Broadway Under the Stars.” The performances start at sunset, but some show-goers make a day of it, tasting wines at local Sonoma estates. Others arrive early at Jack London Park, spreading out their picnics on tables set on the great dry lawn. Hikers explore, romantics relax, and food trucks arrive with an assortment of delicious choices. Nightly wine and beer sponsors set up counters to offer their vintages by the glass, while local pre-show musicians turn the crowd into a festive party.
Kyle Kemph performs “Waving Through the Window” — Photo credit Brennan Chin
By the time folks start filing into the winery ruins to find their assigned seats for the 7:30 show, they’ve made friends and shared laughter, and probably some food and wine as well.
“The Gala” begins with the full company in blazing white performing “The Spark of Creation” against the setting sun. This stunning opener is quickly followed by ten more song-and-dance hits from musicals, including Hamilton, Funny Girl, West Side Story, On Your Feet, In the Heights, Next to Normal, and more.
Act II begins with another full company number “Brand New Day,” but on this Saturday evening no microphones were working. The song came to a halt as Executive Director Brad Surosky took the stage to announce a restart once the sound was fixed. The audience and cast took it all in good humor. The entertainment soon buzzed back into action with selections from The Wiz, Aladdin, Dear Evan Hansen, Movin’ Out, Man of La Mancha, A New World, and more.
L to R – Emilio Ramos, Rosharra Francis, and Meggie Cansler Ness. Photo credit Rob Martel.
Many performers danced through the audience; one sang “Lost in the Wilderness” spotlighted high up on the winery wall. Transcendence has a reputation for winners, and “The Gala” delivered boundless energy as usual. What a way to close out the summer! Let’s hope they can capture a generous matching grant to continue their award-winning shows and community work.
“The Gala” will fill the night with music on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings September 17, 18 and 19th. Shows are presented at Jack London State Historic Park at 2400 London Ranch Road Glen Ellen, CA. Pre-show picnics begin at 5:00 pm; show starts at 7:30 pm.
L to R – Anna Guerra, Michael Sylvester, Rosharra Francis, and Drew Fountain. Photo credit Rob Martel.
Tickets range from $49 reserved seating to $129 for VIP (which includes wine, close-in seats and priority parking.) Dress in layers for the cooler evenings. Masks are currently highly recommended. Performances tend to fill quickly.
Heads up: Transcendence’s annual “Broadway Holiday Spectacular” is planned for December 3rd-12th outdoors at Belos Cavalos in Kenwood. Cast and details will be announced at a later date.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
"The Gala"
Written by
Transcendence Theater Co.
Directed & Choreographed by
Luis Salgado
Producing Company
Transcendence Theatre Company
Production Dates
Friday through Sunday September 17-19, 2021
Production Address
Jack London State Historic Park, 2400 London Ranch Rd. Glen Ellen, CA 95442
A mysterious survivor of a deep-space disaster is brought out of stasis more than nine decades later in the prolific David Templeton’s “Galatea,” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park through September 19.
Aboard a space station orbiting the earth, two researchers—Dr. Mailer and Dr. Hughes (Sindu Singh and Chris Schloemp, respectively)—delve into the origins of “71” (Abbey Lee) an apparently authentic member of the maintenance crew of the starship Galatea, which suffered an unexplained total destruction. Prior to the discovery of humanoid 71, and fellow crew member 29 (David L. Yen), shards of the wreckage were all that had been found, none of them substantial enough to support a working hypothesis of what might have happened.
Abbey Lee in Spreckels Theatre Company’s “Galatea.”
71’s uniform, stilted robotic speech, and lack of familiarity with basic human social interactions all support her contention that she had been a crew member aboard the Galatea. Psychotherapist Dr. Mailer hopes to reintegrate 71 into society, by coaching her through fundamentals such as greetings, conversations, gestures, and reactions to humor.
…Into the mix steps her colleague Dr. Hughes, a geeky, gregarious researcher with a bottomless collection of corny jokes…
An “EPS” (Energy Processing Synthetic) series humanoid, 71 undertakes the tutorials with a beguiling mix of robotic reluctance and enthusiasm. Versatile, uninhibited, and perfectly in control, Abbey Lee is amazing as the subject slowly transforming under Dr. Mailer’s gentle persistent guidance. Many of 71’s early attempts to mimic human behavior are both laugh-out-loud funny and almost tearfully poignant. The gambit of a humanoid attempting to become more human is clearly derived from the emotionless android character Data of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” in turn derived from the character of Pinocchio, the wooden marionette who wants to become a real boy, from the 19th-century Italian children’s story.
Sindu Singh, Abbey Lee & David L Yen at work.
Singh is outstanding as the psychotherapist Dr. Mailer—patient, methodical, and loving but pushy when necessary, with a few personal quirks (“Okey dokey, pokey”) that make her utterly charming. Into the mix steps her colleague Dr. Hughes, a geeky, gregarious researcher with a bottomless collection of corny jokes. As always, Chris Schloemp is relaxed, confident, and completely convincing as his character probes for more information about the Galatea. He consults with Dr. Mailer about 71’s progress, in the process sometimes interfering as much as he’s helping.
The denouement launches in the second act with the appearance of 29 (David L.Yen), another recently discovered Galatea veteran and revived EPS unit. Still visibly damaged and uncommunicative, 29 perks up, within his limits, at questioning about 71 and ultimately reveals all—or as much as he can remember and convey—about what went wrong with the ship and how he and 71 survived. Normally a dynamic actor, Yen here displays a previously unseen aspect of his astounding ability, portraying 29 as deeply as possible while retaining the character’s essential uni-dimensionality.
It would be hard to imagine a better cast for this lovely, heartwarming production, one that Templeton described after the opening performance as “turning the usual sci-fi trope on its head”—i.e, no marauding monsters (“Alien,” “Jurassic Park”), nefarious corporate overlords (“Blade Runner”) or armies of rebellious androids (“I, Robot”).
David L Yen and Abbey Lee in Galatea
Beautifully helmed by director Marty Pistone (assisted by Andy Templeton), the show itself emerged September 3 from 18 months of COVID-induced stasis, with Eddy Hansen and Elizabeth Bazzano’s elegant set still intact—you’ve never seen a lovelier Palladian window—since the postponement of “Galatea” in early 2020, a time that now seems long ago. Chris Schloemp’s gorgeous, sometimes ephemeral projections add just the right touch for what is to date the best production to appear in the North Bay as the theater world slowly emerges from the pandemic.
“Galatea” is a rarity—a brilliant script brilliantly executed. Potential ticket buyers couldn’t ask for more.
ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
"Galatea"
Written by
David Templeton
Directed by
Marty Pistone, assisted by Andy Templeton
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through September 19. 2021
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
‘Patty from HR: Mo Patty Mo Problems,’ the sequel to writer/performer Michael Phillis’s “Patty from HR Would Like a Word” is coming to Oasis Jan. 30-Feb 1.
Corporate training sessions and their inevitable Power Point presentations are among the most dreaded rituals of modern life. Drag performer Michael Phillis must have endured dozens of them to come up with Patty from HR: A Zoom with a View, at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West through September 11.
Written, directed, and performed by Phillis, A Zoom with a View skewers the idiocy of technological culture—including, thank you very much, the irksome speech patterns of millennials. In a quick-moving one-act, Phillis’s self-deprecating Human Resources manager Patty covers everything from the early days of Netscape and dial-up modems to the present day of full-time social media as she stumbles through an inept introduction to Zoom video meetings, the bane and the salvation of many home-bound office workers during the Covid crisis.
It’s a lot to cover in only 70 frenetic minutes but Phillis does it with a delightful, goofy grace…
Her tattered Dress Barn business suit and frazzled 80s hairstyle serving as visual testament to decades spent toiling in the corporate trenches, Patty dances around the idea of Zoom, and Power Point too, and the longer she goes on, the clearer it becomes how little she actually knows about either. Imagine Dana Carvey’s “church lady” jacked up on caffeine, adrenaline, and perhaps just a tidbit of stage fright. Patty’s a corporate train wreck and you simply can’t look away.
When she stumbles (often) she gets plenty of coaching from an unseen tech assistant, whose annoyed comments act as punctuation for Patty’s non-stop blather, directed scattershot at herself, her audience, and her corporate overlords. It’s a lot to cover in only 70 frenetic minutes but Phillis does it with a delightful, goofy grace that earned plenty of laughs and sustained applause on opening night.
Main Stage West co-artistic director Keith Baker enjoys a cameo as “Kevin,” an underling who supplies her with props. Patty is never quite sure about names, a running gag throughout the show, and of course, a detriment for any human resource professional. That’s one of many repeated themes tightly woven into the fabric of this expertly conceived and executed production, its three-week run an injustice to its comedic brilliance.
A Zoom with a View runs Thursday-Friday-Saturday at 8 pm through September 11, with a 5 pm matinee Sunday September 5.
ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Patty from HR: A Zoom with a View
Written by
Michael Phillis
Directed by
Michael Phillis
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Sept 11th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
“Love, Loss, and What I Wore” is a promising first post-pandemic live offering by Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse in its studio theater. Five seasoned actors take turns retelling an emotional assemblage of snippets, each chronicling her memorable outfits. Not all the event memories are happy, yet all make up the fabric of life.
Written by Nora Ephron, the American essayist and humorist who penned such comedies as “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and more, the show’s pedigree promises to be heartfelt. The late author’s sister Delia Ephron is co-author, doubling down on the anticipated warmth.
“Five seasoned actors take turns retelling an assemblage of emotional snippets, each chronicling her memorable outfit.”
Sadly, the show is hampered by continuing Covid restrictions, and the actors wear clear plastic masks throughout their soliloquies. This impediment no doubt curtails their abilities to get into character. It also hampers their diction, causing them to over-project their volume and lose the finer emotional points. They’re close, but still far away.
The stage is spartan, backed by two projection screens, and naked except for a few bits of feminine accessories and a dressed sewing dummy.
Dressed all in black, five actors read their scripts from music stands in front of them. Only occasionally does an actor come forward, sans script. Most of the monologues have a projected sketch of the outfit illustrating the actor’s subject story. There’s even a music snippet of Madonna when the actors recall their outfits worn in homage to the fashion icon. And who can forget Nancy Sinatra’s boots?
“It’s a humorous essay about the female bond to clothes, boots, and purses. What’s not to like?”
“Love, Loss, and What I Wore” has heartfelt talk but no action; internal humor laced with poignant moments. The stories move slowly, linked only by blackouts between scenes. The timelines of the individual characters—spanning an era from the 1950s to the 2000s—stand alone without connection or plot. Some scenes garnered applause; others drew sparks of laughter.
“Love, Loss, and What I Wore” — 6th Street’s Season Opener
Anyone who has ever lamented “I have nothing to wear” may relate to this humorous essay about the female bond to clothes, boots, and purses. “What’s not to like?” asked one patron.
The Saturday night performance in this 99-seat theatre was sold out. After the first act of 1 ¼ hours, and intermission, there were at least 40 empty seats. Director Libby Oberlin might take note and make some edits.
“Audiences must prove Covid vaccination or negative test results before entering.”
6th Street Theatre takes their Covid restrictions seriously. Audiences must prove vaccination or negative test results before entering the lobby. Several without proof were denied entrance. All attendees must wear masks over nose and mouth throughout the production and in the lobby; roving ushers remind patrons to cover up or leave the premises.
Playing Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and Sunday matinees at 2:00 (one Saturday matinee August 21) at the Monroe Stage (the smaller theatre) through August 29th at 52 West Sixth Street, Santa Rosa, CA. Free parking in their lot.
For tickets go to www.6thstreetplayhouse.com or email boxoffice@6thstreetplayhouse.com or call 707-523-4185.
Seating note: On this hot evening, some overhead equipment hummed and buzzed intermittently, a distraction for those seated in the top rows.
Production
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
Written by
Nora and Delia Ephron
Directed by
Libby Oberlin
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through August 29th, 2021
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Website
http://www.6thstreetplayhouse.com
Telephone
(707) 523-4185
Tickets
$18 – $29
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
3/5
Performance
3/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
3/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Shakespeare named this play after the 12th night of Christmas holiday celebrations in 1601. Four-plus centuries later, Mill Valley’s Curtain Theatre opens “Twelfth Night,” celebrating their 21st year of award-winning shows. It’s outdoors, the actors are 100% vaccinated, the park offers social distancing, and performances are free to all.
That’s worth celebrating!
Much like the Bard’s open air venue at London’s Globe Theatre, the Curtain Theatre performs in an historic and open amphitheater in downtown Mill Valley. The ancient redwoods in the grove sway over a hundred feet high, and the acoustics on stage are interrupted only by a bird’s caw or the drone of a passing plane. Volunteers set up and diligently sanitize nearly 70 plastic chairs, leaving ample empty space in front of the stage. Many patrons bring their own chairs, kids, and (quiet) dogs. Blankets are spread out on the gentle slope behind the library, with abundant picnicking.
This “Twelfth Night” transports the audience to the late 1800’s Canadian Maritimes, beginning with live music from four musicians in period garb. Music Director Don Clark and Hal Hughes collaborated to create original songs inspired by this Celtic period. The air fills with sounds of a fiddle, flute, concertina and guitar above the laughter of children and the chatter of adults.
Promptly at 2 p.m., the show begins. The Curtain Theatre has no curtain, so Choreographer and Production Coordinator Steve Beecroft happily welcomes all from the stage, encouraging masks for all who cannot maintain social distancing in the great outdoors. Beecroft’s talent is not limited to behind the scenes: he soon does an amusing turn as the foolish and foppish Sir Andrew.
As to the characters, it takes a while to catch on to all the characters and their relationships. “Twelfth Night” is a typical Shakespeare comedy of gender-switched identities, oddly-placed affection, and swordfights.
Fans of Shakespeare will delight in the familiar opening “If music be the food of love, play on!” spoken by Duke Orsino, a handsome Nelson Brown. He’s lonely in his kingdom, and pines for his counterpart Countess Olivia played by lovely Faryn Thomure. The pair should be bonded, a perfect match, but that’s not going to happen.
“…a typical Shakespeare comedy of gender-switched identities and oddly-placed affection. And swordfights.”
Good jobs must have been hard to find in 1890. Duke Orsino hires a new servant, Viola. She’s female but poses as male to get the position. Played by a polished and perfect Isabelle Grimm, Viola falls for her boss, the Duke. But he wants the Countess, and the Countess wants Viola, the servant who presents as male. This is the definition of a love triangle, and it’s timeless fun.
There’s a side story to “Twelfth Night”, one of many diversions. Viola is unaware that her twin brother Sebastian (Nic Moore) has survived a shipwreck and is not dead. He likewise thinks his sister perished in the storm. When he appears, late in Act II, the Countess again pursues him, thinking he is the same servant Viola, a young man. Sebastian is confused but flattered and accepts the marriage proposal from the attractive Countess. Apparently twins are interchangeable, regardless of gender. [Editor’s note: This comedic gambit probably won’t fly in the current cultural climate. – BW]
This leaves Viola free to disclose that she is really a young lady of noble birth, and would happily marry the Duke. He accepts and all turns out just hunky-dory. Did I mention this is a comedy?
Director Michele Delattre manages to keep the story lines entertaining, despite the large cast of characters who bounce in and out using antiquated language. Several standout spots add up to make “Twelfth Night” a worthwhile afternoon:
Faryn Thomure sings “Thorns Among the Roses” with her maidservants (energetic Lindsey Abbott and Clara Desmond) in a lovely trio of harmony. Abbott is amusing with her spot-on characterizations as a scheming lady’s maid.
Local veteran Grey Wolf came out of retirement to add mirth to his outlandish role as Malvolio, he of the yellow socks and garters.
Kim Bromley, a veteran director and actor, commanded the stage as Countess Olivia’s housekeeper. Perfect casting!
And what is Shakespeare without a swordfight? Steve Beecroft expertly choreographs not one but two rapier clashes in Act II. Bloody wounds show up later, but nothing to faint about.
Feste, the Fool, enacted by a wickedly talented Heather Cherry, carries the plot and the humor throughout. She wryly observes “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” So it is with “Twelfth Night.”
The show plays at 2 PM through September 6th on Saturdays and Sundays and Labor Day Monday. Admission is FREE.
For more information to www.curtaintheatre.org. Open seating, picnics welcome, cookies, snacks and coffee available for purchase, and chairs are provided on a first-come basis, or bring your own. Dress in layers as the redwood grove in southern Marin can be much cooler than expected with the fog.
Donations are accepted with gratitude.
Production
Twelfth Night
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Michele Delattre
Producing Company
Curtain Theatre
Production Dates
Through Sept. 6th
Production Address
Old Mill Park Amphitheater.
375 Throckmorton Avenue (behind the library), Mill Valley
Website
www.curtaintheatre.org
Telephone
Tickets
Free!
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
4.5/5
Performance
4.5/5
Script
4/5
Stagecraft
4/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?
Yea!
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Want to take a cross-country road trip, without the car or the outrageous price of gas? Freedom to travel may still be restricted, but Transcendence Theatre Company’s (TTC) new show offers a fast-moving ride. As the sun sets over the vineyards and the band strikes up “This is My Country” a cast of ten extraordinarily talented singers, dancers, and several musicians fills the stage to spotlight cities and locations from California to New York, and lots in between.
“Road Trip!” performers are escapees from Broadway, off-Broadway, international stages, and national tours who accepted the invitation to share their talents with TTC in Sonoma. Their amazing voices and stage antics in over two dozen production numbers cleverly brought out the fun in our country’s diversity.
“Road Trip” making magic. — photo by Ray Mabry
Award-winning TTC is celebrating their tenth year of presenting “Broadway Under the Stars.” After a shut-out year due to Covid, this show explodes with energy. TTC limited the audience to 60% of capacity, but applause was 100%, echoing over the stone ruins of the Jack London State Historic Park.
“Travel may still be restricted, but Transcendence Theatre Company’s opening show delivers a fast-moving ride.”
The incoming crowd was welcomed by cast members, including TTC newcomer Billy Cohen. When asked what he would perform in the show, he admitted “I’m singing ‘Gaston’ (from “Beauty and the Beast”) even though I’m not quite his body type.” What Cohen modestly didn’t mention was his “Rocky Mountain High” guitar solo performed way atop the stone walls.
“Wow, it’s so great to see they’re back” gushed one patron, and the performers matched that enthusiasm. TTC newcomer Belinda Allyn, from New Jersey, said “We’re nervous and yet thrilled to be back on stage.”
TTC’s familiar cast member Meggie Cansler Ness added “I told my parents not to expect to see much of me when our rehearsals began. It’s so much work but it feels terrific to get going again.”
Veteran TTC star Colin Campbell McAdoo was also back, adding his hilarious stage presence and musical talent while driving onstage in a chair, complete with a California license plate.
“Performers are stars who escaped Broadway, off-Broadway, international stages, and national tours to accept TTC’s invitation to Sonoma.”
Circulating everywhere were TTC Executive Director Brad Surosky and Artistic Director Amy Miller. These founding members of the non-profit were beaming – behind their face masks – to see the joy and smiles of the audience on this beautiful evening. Kudos go to Musical Director Susan Draus as “Road Trip” was her concept, so brilliantly appropriate for our difficult times.
“Road Trip” singing — photo by Ray Mabry
“Road Trip!” is an evening of picnic and food truck festivities, beginning at 5 p.m. Folks bring food and snag a hay bale or table in the lawn area for pre-show entertainment. There’s plenty of wine and beer available for purchase, including premium varietals from sponsors Benziger and Viansa Wineries. At sunset, the audience is seated in the ancient winery grounds for the 7:30 show. Dress in layers as nights in Sonoma can get cool.
Tickets are $49 to $129 VIP. VIP tickets include two glasses of premium wine, a special socializing area, and priority seats. Performances are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings until August 29th at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. For more details, drive your fingers straight to www.TTCSonoma.org.
“Road Trip” in action — photo by Ray Mabry
You won’t go wrong! Come feel the breeze in your face while this superb outdoor showcase of song and dance takes you from coast to coast.
Extra Special Tip: If you’re heading up early to “Road Trip!” you may enjoy a pit stop at Eric Ross Winery for a dose of Americana, classy wines, and striking photographs. It’s on the left at 14300 Arnold Drive.
Production
"Road Trip"
Written by
Transcendence Theater Co.
Directed & Choreographed by
Jessica Lee Coffman
Producing Company
Transcendence Theatre Company
Production Dates
Through August 29th, 2021
Production Address
Jack London State Historic Park, 2400 London Ranch Rd. Glen Ellen, CA 95442
Website
bestnightever.org
or
ttcsonoma.org
Telephone
(877) 424-1414
Tickets
$49-$129
Reviewer Score
Max in each category is 5/5
Overall
5/5
Performance
5/5
Script
N/A
Stagecraft
N/A
Aisle Seat Review Pick?
Yes!
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
The sun presses down into the mountains, casting its colors across the ancient oaks and sprawling vineyards, as cars pull into the dirt lot at Sonoma County’s scenic B.R. Cohn Winery. Outside their cars, new arrivals are unloading blankets and picnic baskets, sitting down at bistro tables and lining up to order wine and cookies. At the lot’s edge sits an unassuming small black stage, and beside it a gigantic projection screen, staring out across the growing lines of cars. It’s as beautiful an evening as any in Sonoma Valley, but the magic has only just begun.
L to R: Meggie Cansler Ness, Arielle Crosby, Catherine Wreford, and Amanda Lopez.
In their first live production since pre-pandemic times, Transcendence Theatre Company kicks off their 10th anniversary season with “My Hero,” offering theatergoers a unique experience at their socially-distanced drive-in performances in Glen Ellen through June 20th.
In keeping with Transcendence tradition, the show is a musical mash-up of beloved Broadway tunes and other favorite chart-toppers cleverly compiled and choreographed around a common theme – this time, a tribute to our frontline healthcare workers and everyday heroes. Featuring recognizable songs traversing countless genres and decades, it’s a show that will appeal to every member of the family, with plenty of opportunities to sing along.
…a rewarding experience you won’t want to miss.
Under the capable guidance of veteran director/choreographer Matthew Rossoff – and accompanied by live music under the direction of Matt Smart – a cast of only seven fills the stage with enough energy and enthusiasm for twenty. Among them are a few familiar faces, including Transcendence veterans Meggie Cansler Ness, Colin Campbell McAdoo, Arielle Crosby, and Catherine Wreford. But there are newcomers, too, and they don’t disappoint. Amanda Lopez, Kevin Schuering, and Bernard Dotson add some refreshing new voices to TTC’s already impressive pool of talent, and boast some serious pipes, to boot.
“Arielle Crosby steals the show.” Photo by Brian Janks.
It’s a spectacular group, not a weak link in the bunch, but Arielle Crosby steals the show. (If her take on Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” doesn’t make you want to dance, I’d wager nothing will.) Other memorable numbers include a funny parody of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” with clever lyrics celebrating all things quarantine from Zoom to Tiger King, a powerful performance of Mariah Carey’s “Hero” by Lopez, and a cute golden oldies medley featuring The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.” The show also includes some really moving pre-recorded interviews with frontline workers and other local voices, thoughtfully interspersed with the cast’s rendition of Bill Withers’s “Lean on Me.”
Despite the distraction of some lighting issues – often par for the course with outdoor shows – the technical aspects of the production are fairly impressive. The oversized projection screen, combined with large speakers spaced throughout the parking lot, make it easy to hear and see all that’s happening on stage, even at a distance.
L to R: Bernard Dotson, Amanda Lopez, Kevin Schuering, Catherine Wreford, Colin Campbell McAdoo, and Arielle Crosby
Though lacking in some of the flash and polish typical of most Transcendence productions, it’s clear a lot of hard work, heart, and creativity have been poured into “My Hero,” and the result is a rewarding experience you won’t want to miss. With only three performances left and tickets starting at $54 per car, parking spots are sure to go quickly.
***
Production
My Hero
Written by
Transcendence Theater Co.
Directed & Choreographed by
Matthew Rossoff
Producing Company
Transcendence Theatre Company
Production Dates
Thru June 20th, 2021
Production Address
B.R. Cohn Winery, 15000 Sonoma Hwy, Glen Ellen, CA 95442
Racism is an eternal condition of the human species. Xenophobia, tribalism, call it what you will, it continues to plague us today despite our self-congratulatory image as a modern, rational society.
In “Hold These Truths,” at San Francisco Playhouse through July 3, playwright Jeanne Sakata makes the universal personal with a tale of one Japanese-American’s effort to deal with an unjust sentence leveled against him for ignoring a curfew applied only to him and his fellow “Nisei,” (second-generation Japanese immigrants), all of them US citizens by virtue of having been born in this country. In Gordon Hirabayashi’s story, we also get a history lesson about how detention camps to house them were set up in western US states, the result of widespread fear following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was (and still is) considered one of the most socially conscious presidents of the 20th century, but his signing of Executive Order 9066 that established the camps was one of his most reprehensible acts, one that was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld its legality in a split decision. The order was clearly motivated by racism, but Italian-Americans and German-Americans, two of the largest immigrant groups in the US, were also herded into camps and deprived of their fundamental rights.
Director Jeffrey Lo has coaxed a lovely recital from Tagatac…
In a ninety-minute-plus solo performance, Jomar Tagatac embodies both the young and mature Hirabayashi, encompassing his journey from college student to college professor, and celebrating his ultimate success in getting his conviction overturned, the result of an accidental discovery of his legal records by an academic colleague.
A veteran of many productions at SF Playhouse, Tagatac also acts the parts of members of Hirabayashi’s family, his friends, officials, police officers, judges, and many other characters in quick seamless character shifts, under a modestly-scaled but beautiful projected montage (design by Teddy Hulsker) of slowly varying flag motifs, old photographs, and historical documents, including the US Constitution, whose slogan “we hold these truths to be self-evident . . . that all men are created equal” remains an article of faith held by Hirabayashi throughout his life, despite many reasons to doubt it.
Tagatac expertly distinguishes all his characters from each other, and especially from the primary one, sometimes simply by changing his jacket or moving from one spot to another on the mostly-bare stage (set by Christopher Fitzer).
While “Hold These Truths” is a cautionary tale about how the law can be subverted, it’s not a horror story of oppression and violence, especially not in the context of the horrors that consumed much of the “civilized” world in the 1940s. Some of it is actually funny—having negotiated a 90-day sentence for his curfew violation, Hirabayashi has to report to a road crew in Arizona, and gets there by hitchhiking from Seattle, apparently without any trouble. When he arrives, the local sheriff doesn’t know what to do with him other than to suggest that he go to a movie in town, to a theater equipped with air conditioning. In addition, he succeeds in winning conscientious objector status thanks to having joined the Quakers.
Director Jeffrey Lo has coaxed a lovely recital from Tagatac, who breezed through the press opener without a glitch. SF Playhouse was extremely cautious with this soft opener—all attendees had to present proof of vaccination, have their temperatures checked, agree to an affidavit stating their good health, and mop their hands with sanitizer before being admitted to the theater upstairs, where they were seated far apart but still asked to wear masks.
As of today (June 15) it’s unclear whether that policy will continue with the statewide lifting of pandemic precautions. In any case, “Hold These Truths” is a lovely performance and a welcome return to live, in-person theater. For those still reluctant to venture out, the show will also be available as an online streaming production.
ASR Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Saturday Night at Grossinger’s
Written by
Stephen Cole
Directed by
Jaime Love and Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
May 8, 2022
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center 276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
A late Sunday dinner at a Greek restaurant in Palm Springs becomes a comedic ordeal for a pair of vacationing middle-aged New Yorkers in Wendy Macleod’s “Slow Food” at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa.
The show closed this past Sunday, June 13, after only a two-week run. Ordinarily, Aisle Seat Review wouldn’t cover such a limited engagement. But Left Edge deserves enormous credit for anticipating the June 15 statewide lifting of pandemic-related restrictions—and more for putting on such a lovely comedy, sorely needed after sixteen months of shutdown.
“Slow Food” featured Left Edge artistic director Argo Thompson in a rare acting appearance as Man, the male half of the vacationing couple, with Denise Elia-Yen as “Woman,” Man’s wife. David L. Yen stole the show as the curmudgeonly and uncooperative waiter, Stephen—“with an ffffffffff . . .,” he reminds his guests repeatedly.
“Slow Food” cast at work on stage.
The setup is simple: Man and Woman enter a restaurant near closing time, and rather than consuming the food and drink they desperately seek, they instead receive a load of guff from an opinionated server. The production plays out as an extended comedy sketch—small dramatic and character arcs counterbalanced by plenty of tension and shifting loyalties among the three performers, all stage veterans with decades of experience. Comfort in their roles was palpable for the limited-capacity audience, in what was clearly a testing-the-waters effort to emerge from the cocoon of COVID.
“Slow Food.” It’s that good…
Macleod is a brilliant playwright—her outrageous funny, and unforgettably disturbing “The House of Yes” enjoyed a fantastic production at Main Stage West in December 2018. “Slow Food” doesn’t rise to such a pinnacle but is hilarious without the need for deep psychological nuance and unsavory revelations. Imagine a Saturday Night Live sketch stretched from six minutes to ninety, and you’ve got a pretty solid grasp of what “Slow Food” is all about—a lightweight, feel-good comedy without malevolent repercussions or imagery that might haunt you after the fact.
Left Edge Theatre’s published schedule for the coming year includes a slot for an undetermined production “To Be Announced.” Consider this a vote for reprising “Slow Food.” It’s that good, and with a few more performances could be even better.
ASR: Nor Cal Edition Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Photo by Brian Janks. 3 – L to R: Director Matthew Rossoff, Meggie Cansler Ness, Colin Campbell McAdoo, Bernard Dotson, and Musical Director, Matt Smart.
Remember hot summer nights at the local drive-in movie?
Brad Surosky, Executive Director of Transcendence Theatre Company, was just a kid in the back seat when he went to the drive-in movies with his family. Last December, he revived his fond memories of the drive-in by screening a movie taken of TTC’s 2019 holiday show. It was such fun that he thought he could pump it up with a live performance, and a live band, onstage.
TTC’s Artistic Director Amy Miller, Brad’s wife, caught drive-in fever too. She says, “After stumbling through such a difficult 2020, what a fabulous way to celebrate the start of Transcendence Theatre Company’s 10th anniversary season! We can thank the workers and volunteers who helped keep us safe, and our singers, dancers, and musicians will be thrilled to finally shine live on stage.”
I asked Amy what the Transcendence performers have been doing since their theatres on Broadway and LA have been shuttered. These singers and dancers spend their entire lives studying, auditioning, rehearsing, and performing hard-earned roles in neon-lit theatres. Prior to the pandemic, they would have been invited to California to wow audiences at Jack London State Historic Park for the 2020 summer season. That all fell apart.
Photo by Brian Janks.
“With theatres closed, they’ve mostly moved back in with their families in their hometowns,” Amy admits. “Many of our friends are teaching Zoom classes in acting, singing, dance, fitness, or exercise. Some do private coaching, including with children. A few of our friends started online businesses to help other actors with networking, budgeting, and of course maintaining their mental health. Most now have other jobs, in real estate and the wine industry, and one has even been selling cars. He’s sold over 100 cars already!”
This drive-in show will be TTC’s first live performance since the pandemic…
Brad notes, “This drive-in show will be TTC’s first live performance since the pandemic. We have seven talents singing and dancing out front plus five support staff backstage, technical, and front of house. Twenty of us make this show happen, including the band. It’s a perfect warm-up for the big production shows we’ve set for later this summer in Glen Ellen.”
“My Hero,” the theme of this performance, pays tribute to front line health care workers and volunteers, including many from Kaiser, Sutter, Providence and Sonoma Valley Hospitals. Amy notes, “It’s an uplifting night to celebrate and give thanks to those who have helped us come through this together.”
“My Hero” includes Broadway hits and popular favorites performed on a raised stage, with a 40’ screen simulcast for viewing from the entire field. Performers have wireless mikes, broadcast to be heard through each car’s radio. The audience can relax in their cars, or sit outside on chairs.
There will be additional speakers throughout the fairgrounds in Petaluma and the B. R. Cohn Winery in Sonoma. Picnics are welcome and food trucks will be set up. Gates open at 6:30. Dress in layers as the show starts at 8:30 and runs nonstop until 10 PM due to sound ordinances.
Since Transcendence Theatre Company is a non-profit, operation supporting educational outreach and Jack London State Historic Park, I asked Brad what was planned for the profits from these shows. “Profits? There likely won’t be any!” he laughed. “This is Transcendence’s investment back into the community. We’ve donated tickets to frontline healthcare workers in thanks for their dedication to our survival.”
“My Hero” tickets are at www.bestnightever.org or call the box office at 877-424-1414 for weekend shows from June 4th through June 20th. Each car entry is $49 ($129 for VIP) for a car full. No need to hide in the trunk! All COVID-19 protocols will be followed as required by Sonoma County Health Department.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Rosamund Pike, 40, has to be one of the busiest actors appearing in movies, streaming, and otherwise. The British actor has the ability to be completely absorbed in her roles, yet is eminently recognizable despite the variety of her appearance and characters.
Like a young Meryl Streep, Pike is 100% present in whatever role she tackles. She’s nabbed many screen awards recognizing her formidable talent.
You may remember Pike as the cool blonde double agent seducing James Bond, 007, in “Die Another Day” (2002). From there, Pike morphed into a proper and restrained British sister in “Pride and Prejudice” (2005). Pike then continued to show her versatility as a scheming spouse in “Gone Girl” (2014) earning her an Academy Award nomination.
Pike also co-starring with the iconic Tom Cruise in “Jack Reacher” (2013). Speaking of working with Cruise, she told Vanity Fair magazine, “It’s not only exciting to meet the person that you’ve watched since you were a child but then to work with him. I know he’s a great actor, but there’s a difference between being a great actor and being a great actor to work with, and he’s both.” She is delighted with the results. “The chemistry is buzzing. It’s brain matching brain. You want to go on the ride with them, because it’s sexy.”
Ready to strike any reference as “just another pretty face”, Pike transformed herself into down-and-dirty Syrian war correspondent Marie Colvin in “A Private War” (2018). When I met Pike at the premiere of that film at the Mill Valley Film Festival, she was dressed in a lacy white dress and looked perfectly lovely. When I told her I didn’t recognize her, she laughed “For this role, I had to wear false teeth, an eye patch, darken my skin tone, and learn to speak American.”
Pike played another famous figure in “Radioactive” (2019) a biographical film portraying Madame Marie Curie. The lush production, filmed in Hungary, recreates 1893 Paris when Curie was a proud and determined Polish scientist pushing her way into French male-dominated laboratories.
Her mercurial character endeared her to no one, yet attracted the admiration of notable scientist Pierre Curie. He offered her his lab space to continue her experiments, and romance soon bubbled out of their chemical beakers. They soon married.
Together they discovered the elements radium and polonium, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. Curie was the first woman to receive such an honor. After her husband’s death, Marie Curie persisted with her work and in 1911 received a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry. No one has ever received two such awards.
…one of the busiest actors appearing in movies, streaming and otherwise…
If you prefer historical biopics to flow chronologically, change the channel on “Radioactive.” Director Marjane Satrapi repeatedly jumps from then to now and back again. The film moves from various medical advances of radiation to its war-bound applications. One minute we are swept from a tender love scene…to atomic testing in Nevada, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the meltdown at Chernobyl.
The personal flashbacks about Madame Curie can also get a bit confusing, but this may be as much a casting issue as anything else. As cast, the two men in her life look very similar. Without a time reference, it’s difficult to sort out husband Pierre (Sam Riley) and married scientist Paul (Aneurin Barnard).
Despite the jumbling, this beautifully filmed period piece applauds what a woman with a brilliant mind and a laser-focused determination accomplished, particularly when partnered with a supportive and equally talented spouse.
In her latest film, Pike traded her period high-necked and floor-length dresses for stilettos and smartly tailored suits in “I Care A Lot” (2021). It’s a chilling portrayal of an administrator who convinces the courts that elderly patients need her guardianship. Pike takes control, swiftly liquidating the assets of her wards to pay off the nursing home staff and judges and pocket the rest.
Pike’s disarming manner and razor-sharp haircut can throw caution into any senior citizen watching her scheme in action. All goes smoothly until she takes charge of a woman (perfectly cast Diane Weist) who turns out to be the mother of a powerful underworld figure. The mayhem begins, and it’s a fight to the finish with many plot twists-and-turns.
“I Care A Lot” won Pike a Golden Globe award — which Pike amusingly said she buried in her garden along with her other trophies.
Fans of Rosamund Pike will find “Radioactive” on Amazon Prime, “I Care A Lot” on Netflix and her many other films on multiple streaming services.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
It’s been virtually a year since the pandemic darkened the live performance stage. All theatergoers lament the absence of our favorite intellectual stimulation and fear that many theatrical organizations may lack the wherewithal to rebound from financial catastrophe.
Many companies now offer electronic alternatives – from the filming of previous stage performances to original productions using Zoom technology. Although electronic media don’t offer the same urgency and reward as live performances, these endeavors do provide a way for companies to reach their audience and for audiences to support companies.
Enter drive-in theater productions which, unlike viewing at home, offer the advantage of bringing theater lovers together at the venue to recreate some sense of community and allow some possibility of live elements. So it goes with Oakland Theater Project’s (OTP – formerly Ubuntu) entire 2021 season. In keeping with OTP’s origins as a peripatetic, site-specific theater company, its season opener Binding Ties: The 16th StreetStation takes place away from its current home base. Even more poignant, the visuals are cast upon the outside walls of the titular station in Oakland.
This presentation of Binding Ties is the 30th anniversary of the documentary created by the esteemed Bay Area theatrical lighting designer, Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson, with Michael Copeland Sydnor. It focuses on the African-American, and to a small extent, on the Asian and Mexican immigrant minority’s experience working in service capacities on long-distance trains in the first half of the 20th century.
The stately Beaux-Arts-styled 16th Street Station plays a major character in the stories that unfold. The station itself was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and was subsequently condemned, and former rail lines have been rerouted to other stations. Nonetheless, attempts to revive and repurpose this beautiful grande dame continue to this day.
…The concept and message of Binding Ties: The 16th Street Station appeal and deserve our patronage…
In addition to contextual narration, recorded interviews comprise the substance of Binding Ties The subjects are Oakland-based, Southern Pacific Railroad workers, primarily sleeping car porters, who recount vignettes of their lives and work. This worthy look into history reveals maltreatment of minorities in this country, even those with relatively esteemed employment. Despite their dignified hard work, their tales reveal many layers of indignity directed toward them. The pay was poor. Treatment by passengers and supervisors was often demeaning. Unfounded claims that black employees were stealing from passengers and the company were common. And even though female employees served as stewardesses, they were classified and referred to as maids.
The viewer also catches glimpses into the sometimes very luxurious aspects of train travel that also serve to emphasize the social and economic gulf between the passengers and those who served them. Although the interesting storytelling yields a kaleidoscopic view of working on the trains, there is no dramatic arc or trend line leading to a dénouement.
One bright spot reported in the documentary was the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, which protected and advanced its members. This noteworthy accomplishment in the labor and civil rights movements was the first-ever union founded and led by African-Americans to be chartered by the American Federation of Labor.
As a result of inconsistent audio quality in the soundtrack (delivered by FM through car radios), some speakers sound loud and clear, but others are faint or scratchy, suggesting the need for audio engineering. Sound designer Kevin Myrick has incorporated musical numbers, beginning with the appropriate “Hear That Train Whistle Blow,” that add life and dimensionality to the piece.
The visual component of the work is represented by a slide show of relevant black and white period photos projected on two screens. The parking spot assigned this reviewer was extremely oblique to the screens so that most text and smaller image details in the nearer screen could not be deciphered, and nothing could be discerned on the far screen.
In order to add a live element to the production, a “Conductor” played by William Oliver III introduces and closes the show. From my vantage point, I heard him clearly but caught only a glimpse of him. The concept makes sense, but more content and spark for the role would be welcomed.
The concept and message of Binding Ties: The 16th Street Station appeal and deserve our patronage. However, the dramatic elements could be strengthened as could the technical side of delivering performance with this technique. Nonetheless, credit is due Oakland Theater Project for taking on important topics and providing some intellectual stimulation for its supporters.
Oakland Theater Project’s Binding Ties: The 16th Street Station
Created by Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson with Michael Copeland Sydnor
Performances in the parking lot of Oakland’s 16th Street Train Station
Through February 28, 2021
Tickets: Per car price, $25 for one person, $30 for two, with some pay-what-you-can. No sales at the door.
Ticket info: https://oaklandtheaterproject.org/
Reviewer ratings
Overall: 3 of 5 stars
Performance: 3 of 5
Script: 4 of 5
Stagecraft: 3 of 5
ASR reviewer Victor Cordell is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, and a Theatre Bay Area adjudicator.
San Francisco Opera’s stage at the War Memorial Opera House has remained dark for nearly a year.
Happily, the company keeps touch with its patrons by initiating informative programs and delivering streaming performances of previous productions online. It has now embarked on events to rouse its community out of their chairs and sofas. Last weekend, SF Opera offered four screenings in the drive-in movie format at Fort Mason. The filming was the company’s 2009 fine production of Puccini’s brilliant “Tosca.” A review of the film of a 12-year-old stage production that has completed its drive-in run may seem fatuous. However, it could be of interest to those who might consider viewing a future streaming of the production or buying an electronic copy.
Although not without its detractors, who consider it melodramatic and musically harsh, audience and most music critics’ love of “Tosca” have not wavered since overcoming its hostile debut in 1900. In contrast with the lyrical beauty of the other two of Puccini’s top three operas, “La Boheme” and “Madama Butterfly,” “Tosca’s” music and drama are bombastic and conflictual almost throughout. But this opera is also exceptionally artful in many dimensions and includes several masterful arias and love duets.
As specified by the score, the SF Opera’s Marco Armiliato-conducted orchestra roars and often punctuates with the deliciously ominous and powerful Scarpia leitmotif. As one of the most demanding roles in the repertoire, the title character demands a soprano with the dramatic vocal power of a Wagnerian, who is able to caress poignant Pucciniesque melody. Oh, and she must possess a full palette of acting colors with an array of emotions. Two male leads must also be of top-caliber.
San Francisco Opera appeals to opera singers as a company, and it possesses one of the great singer development systems, thus performers in support roles are generally excellent.
Since aficionados value seeing multiple productions of the same opera, the notion of a plot spoiler doesn’t really exist in this realm. So here’s a synopsis of the central plot. In 1800, painter Cavaradossi is a partisan sympathizer opposed to Napoleon’s domination of Rome. When caught harboring a political enemy of the state, he is tortured by the police. The scheming chief of police, Scarpia, courts sexual favors from Tosca with the promise of freeing her lover, Cavaradossi. All goes awry. All three die – violently, of course.
Adrienne Pieczonka plays Tosca, and she possesses the vocal and dramatic chops required. She retains pitch control while singing at full power for extended periods, especially during the high tension train wreck of Act 2, full of intrigue, interrogation, intimidation, betrayal, torture, and more. But amidst this melee comes Tosca’s beautiful signature aria “Vissi d’Arte” (I lived for art). It emerges after a significant pause which renders an almost dreamlike quality as Tosca seems to imagine herself removed to another place. Pieczonka delivers the aria with confident assertiveness, but the style of a plaintive lament might better fit her ethereal escape.
Photo courtesy SF Opera.
Antagonist Scarpia is deftly performed and solidly sung by Lado Antoneli, though his “Te Deum” would have benefited from a stronger lower register. The artist’s patrician gray wig and unthreatening visage belie his character’s nihilistic sadism. Though falsely pious, polite, and proper when necessary, Scarpia’s singing “I savor violent conquest more than surrender” reveals his inner rage. Antoneli mines these contradictions well as he punishes Cavaradossi and manipulates Tosca into a compromising position.
Spinto tenor Carlo Ventre is Cavaradossi. Blessed with a warm vibrato, he sings in a manner associated with some Italian singers which is the opera corollary to country music twang. Some listeners may not care for this style which is most evident in his beautiful Act 1 number “Recondita Armonia” (Concealed harmony). But in his Act 3 lament, “E Lucevan Le Stelle” (And the stars were shining), the whine is less discernable, and he excels in this famed aria as he reflects on love and contemplates his imminent execution.
San Francisco Opera appeals to opera singers as a company, and it possesses one of the great singer development systems, thus performers in support roles are generally excellent. This is true of “Tosca,” led by Dale Travis as the nervous sacristan. Stage Director Jose Maria Condemi marshals top-ranked creative designers. The opera plays on a world-class set designed by Thierry Bosquet.
Photo courtesy SF Opera.
Of course, this is a filming of a stage performance, not a movie, and some shortfalls should be expected. A great fear in filming a staged opera is that it will seem static, like a video archival record. In this case, multiple cameras are used, but they shoot from fixed positions — meaning they can zoom and pan, but not dolly. Editing cuts are sharp, so while there is reasonable variety in camerawork, the outcome is somewhat jerky and stilted. In addition, lighting and sound production are designed for the live audience, not for filming, so some deficiencies exist. That said, this is a fine production with a great cast performing one of the great operas in history. It is a worthwhile watch.
“Tosca” composed by Giacomo Puccini with a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa was produced by San Francisco Opera in 2009 and played on-screen outdoors at Fort Mason on February 12-14, 2021. SF Opera has also announced newly-coined “live at the drive-in”—including productions of “Barber of Seville” and a concert of the Adler Fellows.
Reviewer ratings:
Overall: 5 of 5
Performance: 4 of 5
Script: 5 of 5
Stagecraft: 5 of 5
ASR reviewer Victor Cordell is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, and a Theatre Bay Area adjudicator.
ASR’s “Stuff Worth Seeing” brings you news and reviews of exciting programming our critics and writers believe is worthy of your time and attention. Check them out! Thanks!— Editor
Some years ago, a friend and his sister decided that they would care for their elderly mother at home rather than handing her over to professional care. They fed her and bathed her and made sure that she consumed dozens of prescription medications several times per day, a self-imposed task that they originally imagined would last at most a year or two, given that their mother was well into her 80s and suffering from multiple ailments.
Instead, their home health-care regimen stretched into several years. Despite her general weakness, their mother proved an amazingly durable physical specimen, but mentally she was almost completely gone. She had come to the US as an immigrant at the age of eight and spoke English her entire life. Near the end, she lost all her English and spoke only rudimentary Greek. She no longer recognized her son and daughter.
Dementia is a widespread and growing problem. There are more than five million dementia patients in the United States. Approximately twice that number work full-time caring for them, to a large extent dispensing sedatives and other drugs that make them more manageable. There is a much more effective treatment available for those with dementia and other forms of mental impairment, treatment with very low cost and no negative side effects, compellingly demonstrated in a documentary by Michael Rossato-Bennet.
Alive Inside opens with an informal interview with a 90-year-old resident of a nursing home. She speaks in cogent sentences, but when asked about her life, can’t remember much. Then she dons a pair of headphones and hears a recording of Louis Armstrong playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The recording triggers a rush of memories and she pours forth all kinds of information about her life, from childhood on, information that was hidden from her prior to hearing the music. It’s one of the film’s many examples of the therapeutic value of music for people suffering from dementia.
The Director of ALIVE INSIDE
Winner of multiple awards at several international film festivals, Rossato-Bennet’s 2014 documentary follows social worker Dan Cohen through three years of introducing the benefits of music to people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other devastating forms of mental deterioration. Equipped with headphones, iPods, and a laptop computer from which he can program each player for each patient, Cohen visits nursing homes and works apparent miracles through the simple act of sharing music.
…she not only has a positive emotional breakthrough but begins to regain her vocabulary…
Many of the patients he visits are in vegetative or near-vegetative states and haven’t responded to other forms of therapy, yet they all respond to music—in particular, music that was very meaningful for them in their youth. The reason, according to neurologist Oliver Sacks (author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, among many other titles) is that “music is not just a physiological stimulus . . . it engages the whole brain—memories, and emotions—in a way that no other stimulus can. “ Sacks goes on to explain that music connects to parts of the brain that are the last to be affected by dementia. It can awaken dormant parts of the brain that can’t be reached otherwise.
We are treated to an irrefutable example of this healing power late in the film when we meet a woman named Mary Lou Thompson, in late middle age and apparently good physical health but whose mind has begun to disintegrate. She’s lost words for common objects such as “fork” and “spoon” and can’t remember which button does what in her building’s elevator. Cohen fits her with headphones and an iPod loaded with music from her youth—Beatles and Beach Boys—and in an astounding transformation, she not only has a positive emotional breakthrough but begins to regain her vocabulary. Her personal music system and soundtrack are foundational to her new level of independence.
The film strongly implies that for music therapy to be effective, it must be music that is deeply significant for listeners. Advocates of classical/jazz/New Age/you-name-it music will be disappointed to learn that their favorite genres don’t have innate healing potential, nor do once-weekly concerts by well-meaning visiting musicians. The music played has to be deeply meaningful for each listener. For Henry, a ten-year nursing home resident who spends most of his time dozing, it’s Cab Calloway that wakes him up. A paranoid schizophrenic named Denise is emotionally out of control, but comes to center hearing Schubert’s “Ave Maria.” In another scene, she discards her walker and dances to salsa music. She hadn’t been without her walker in her two years at the institution, according to Rossato-Bennet.
Unlike drugs intended to keep elderly patients sedated, there doesn’t appear to be a downside to music therapy. Yet it’s near impossible to get it approved for widespread use, according to gerontologist Bill Thomas, MD, who states “The amount spent on drugs dwarfs what we could be spending on music therapy for every nursing home patient in America.” Thomas encounters no obstacles writing prescriptions costing $1000/month but has no way to get a $40 personal music system approved. Drugs make patients more manageable for nursing home workers, but, Thomas says, “We haven’t done anything, medically speaking, to touch the heart and soul of the patient.”
My own father lasted well into his 80s without paying any particular attention to diet, exercise, or other health concerns. Other than being a cranky old guy, he wasn’t mentally impaired. What sustained him throughout his life was his abiding love of music—especially Swing Era and Dixieland jazz, the music of his youth. He remained deeply involved with his music library right to the end, without relying on massive amounts of prescription drugs. Music carried him along. As the old saying goes, it added life to his years and quite probably, years to his life. Alive Inside makes a strong case that the same outcome might be possible for millions of elders.
Alive Inside
A documentary by Michael Rossato-Bennet
Date of production: 2014
Runtime 78 minutes
Available on Netflix
Reviewer’s Score
Overall: 4 of 5 stars
Script: 4 of 5
Production value: 3.5 of 5
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
When Netflix made a movie about the life of Selena Quintanilla, the Grammy award-winning Mexican-American singer who died over 25 years ago, they broke it up into a series.
And stretched it out.
At the time of this writing, Netflix has released only nine episodes of Selena: The Series, each about 40 minutes long. The series showcases how the family worked together, without much complaint, performing their way amidst financial devastation and hole-in-the-wall venues. The goal of the filmmakers was to capitalize on the brilliant singing talents of the youngest daughter, Selena, who was only nine when she first performed.
Through sheer will and creative maneuvering, the family struggled to the top of the music charts.
Serena, played as an adult by Christian Serratos, was the family’s talent front and center, bolstered by the songwriting skills of her brother AB (enacted by Gabriel Chavarria.) Their musical father Abraham Quintanilla II (Ricardo Chavira) is portrayed as the controlling force behind the success of this iconic singer.
Describing their dad as driven…is akin to calling the Pope semi-religious…
Selena found no early success singing in English, and had to learn Spanish in order to capture the “Queen of Tejana Music” moniker. It is curious that this second-generation American family born in Texas had deep Mexican roots yet no one spoke Spanish.
Her desire to record in English remains an unfulfilled dream she rekindles at the end of Series 1. Future episodes of Selena becoming a crossover artist have been filmed but not yet released by Netflix.
Actors Madison Taylor Baez as the child Serena has a knock-your-socks-off voice with a most endearing face. Christian Serratos portrays the luminous grown-up star. She lip-syncs Serena’s stage performances, to the delight of fans who appreciate the dubbed yet authentic voice.
Not to be overlooked is Noemi Gonzalez, who doesn’t sing but delivers an earthy and earnest performance as Serena’s sister. With the exception of Twilight’s Serratos, supporting characters are all believably and solidly portrayed by lesser-known Latinx actors. Kudos on the acting and directing.
“Many episodes can be hard to believe, as teenagers actually listen to their all-wise dad and do as they are told.”
Serena Series 1 has a multitude of the songs that made Serena famous. It also has filler, undoubtedly to make this a two-series program. Serena and her sister do a lot of fabric shopping, creating outfits with an abundance of rhinestones and glitter. Episodes flash back and forward, with the viewer expected to fill in the blanks of the storyline.
Many episodes can be hard to believe, as teenagers actually listen to their all-wise dad — and do as they are told! No one seems even slightly jealous of the family’s entire focus on Selena. Is this really how it was?
Seidy Lopez as Marcella Quintanilla and Ricardo Chavira as Abraham Quintanilla in a scene from “Selena the Series” / Netflix
The Quintanilla family reportedly worked with Netflix and the producers to protect Serena’s legacy. It’s their story; they decide how to tell it.
If you can’t get enough Selena with these first nine episodes, check out the 1997 biopic Selena starring Jennifer Lopez. Netflix has not yet announced a release date of the continuing episodes in this series, although confirming they have been filmed.
Netflix touts Selena: The Series as their #1 in current popularity, but it’s not clear how the votes are collected. Regardless, it’s an enjoyable recounting of one family’s sacrifices made for fame, with bright sparkles and bedazzling rhinestones aplenty.
Nice change of pace. Worth watching.
………………………………………..
“Selena: The Series” Part 1
Streaming on: Netflix. Available also on iPhone, and Android
Availability: Now for some episodes. More to be released.
Directed by: Hiromi Kamata and Katina Medina Mora
Created/Produced by: Moises Zamora
Starring:
Christian Serratos
Madison Taylor Baez
Ricardo Chavira
Seidy Lopez
Gabriel Chavarria
Noemi Gonzalez
Jesse Posey
Run Time: Each of 9 episodes is approximately 40 minutes
………………………………………..
Ratings:
Overall: 3 of 5 stars
Performance: 4 of 5
Script: 3 of 5
TOTAL = 10/15
-30-
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Glenn Close and Amy Adams – photo by Lacey Terrell – Netflix
Director Ron Howard has delivered a Thanksgiving gift to America’s most-forgotten and most-maligned people—poor whites—with his solid cinematic treatment of Hillbilly Elegy, based on the best-selling memoir by J.D. Vance. The film enjoyed its Netflix debut on November 24.
While Howard and screenwriter Vanessa Taylor have taken some liberties with Vance’s material—and of necessity, left out his observations and speculations about what ails the heartland—the book’s essential survival story remains intact: a poor kid with roots deep in the Kentucky hill country manages to overcome the soul-deadening effects of continually moving from place to place with his drug-abusing mother, and a childhood without a father or father figure—unless you count his mother’s nonstop parade of drunks, addicts, abusers, whackos, and losers.
The kid—J.D. Vance, played as an adult by Gabriel Basso, and as an adolescent by Owen Asztalos, both of them excellent—survives mostly by his wits, inspired by his mean-as-hell no-nonsense chain-smoking grandmother Mamaw (Glenn Close), the counterbalance to his mother’s reliably erratic behavior. Unlike in similar stories, there are no kind-hearted coaches or teachers to intervene and help him along. Mamaw, in fact, seems to be his only guide, an unsteady one at best.
Haley Bennet, Gabriel Basso, and Amy Adams – photo by Lacey Terrell – Netflix
By sheer determination, young J.D. manages to overcome his family’s collective madness and the unhappy cycle of alcoholism/drug addiction/crime/jail that seems to be the fate of many of his high school classmates. He joins the Marines straight out of high school, does a stint in Iraq, completes four years of work at Ohio State University in only two, and wins admission to Yale Law School. It’s a story that would have critics leaping for new superlatives were it about a poor kid from a different background—one from a clearly oppressed minority, for example, whose against-all-odds triumphs are standard fare in film and television.
The fact that Hillbilly Elegy is about poor white people rather than poor people of color has apparently given some critics permission to be unfairly dismissive of this film. Poor white people are the last ethnic group that can be attacked with impunity, whose plight can be ignored without paroxysms of guilt. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton sealed her fate with her characterization of such people as “a basket of deplorables.” Trump won the election the moment those words came out of her mouth. There’s nothing working-class people hate more than condescension from Ivy League elitists.
Those who disparage this film are doing so largely from Ms. Clinton’s perspective, a perspective shared by a trolling lawyer at J.D.’s first interview for a summer law internship: “rednecks,” he says without irony, categorizing an entire family and subculture.
J.D. Vance became a Yale lawyer without forgetting where he came from. Many commentators apparently have little experience of life in the rural South or in the towns of the Rust Belt, whose populations in the 1950s swelled with Southern immigrants who went north seeking opportunity.
…Poor white people are the last ethnic group that can be attacked with impunity, whose plight can be ignored without paroxysms of guilt…
The decline of such towns caused by sending industrial production offshore, compounded by the opioid crisis, is a theme examined in depth in Vance’s book, but merely implied in Howard’s film—actually all the better, as the film remains tightly focused on the personal story. In many ways, Hillbilly Elegy is a great companion piece to 2017’s The Glass Castle, with Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.|
For those who understand its premise and background, Hillbilly Elegy is a compelling triumph-of-the-underdog story, shot mostly in Georgia, with only a few exterior scenes actually shot in Middletown, Ohio, an appropriately-named generic town built in the shadow of an ARMCO steel plant. Taylor’s screenplay honors Vance’s book without mirroring it, and Howard’s direction is solid if a bit heavy on flashbacks and parallel flashbacks.
Haley Bennet, Glenn Close and Owen Asztalos – photo by Lacey Terrell – Netflix
Haley Bennett is understatedly consistent as J.D.’s long-suffering sister Lindsay. Amy Adams is a totally believable wonder as his way-out-of-control mother Bev. Veteran actress Glenn Close disappears so far into her character that she’s initially unrecognizable. Her astounding performance alone recommends this production—one that, like the book that inspired it, is good, not great, but nonetheless important.
“Hillbilly Elegy”
Streaming now on Netflix
Directed by Ron Howard.
Screenplay by Vanessa Taylor, based on the book by J.D. Vance
Starring: Gabriel Basso, Glenn Close, Amy Adams, Haley Bennett, Owen Asztalos, Bo Hopkins
Run Time: 1 hr 56 min
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Ratings:
Overall: 3.5 of 5 stars
Performance: 4 of 5
Script: 4 of 5
Cinematography: 3.5 of 5
Score: 15/20
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis was born in Ashland, Kentucky, his family’s ancestral home in the coal-mining region near West Virginia. His maternal grandfather was a coal miner and worked at an ARMCO steel plant across the river in Ohio. Barry grew up mostly in small towns in Indiana and Ohio and spent fourteen years as a so-called adult in the Deep South. He is president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and a member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Ms. Innocenti-Beem
Among the North Bay’s most prominent and prolific theater artists is Dani Innocenti-Beem, a phenomenal singer and delightful comic actress known for her ability to melt hearts, rattle walls, and provoke uncontrollable laughter with her improvisations. Recipient of innumerable nominations and winner of multiple awards—SFBATCC, TBA, MTJA, and Artys included—Innocenti-Beem in normal times is booked eighteen months out and often performs in one show while rehearsing the next one. The entire North Bay theater community looks forward to a return to normal so that we can enjoy her onstage again.
***
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
DIB: I was ten years old. My mom and dad took me and my brother Marco to the Belrose Theatre in San Rafael where they had a show called Kids in Vaudeville, a showcase featuring kids 8-18 doing skits, songs, dances etc.
There was a young girl, I’ll never forget her name, Hathaway Pogue, who came out on the stage in her blue Gunne Sax dress, sat on a stool, and sang “Rainbow Connection.” In Act Two she came out in a brown Gunne Sax and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I tugged on my mom’s arm and said, “I want to do that.” She signed me up for classes the next day.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in for a paying audience?
DIB: It was The Miracle Worker at the Belrose. I played a little blind girl. I remember getting my first note from Margie Belrose. It was a compliment and such a high. I very rarely do plays. Funnily enough, I did this play twice. In a high school production, I played Annie Sullivan.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
DIB: In my adult life, probably 15.
ASR: Did you anticipate that you would become as successful as you have?
DIB: Am I successful? Certainly not in terms of money. In the North Bay, you don’t do this for the money. I have a 9-5 to pay the bills. I never thought about being successful. It’s just become who I am—it’s what brings me joy, what makes me me.
ASR: Do you have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
DIB: Musical theater, of course! Give me a big broad musical comedy any day!
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in theater?
DIB: Three people have really had a true impact on my journey. My father Ugo—I get my voice from him. He was in the boys’ choir in Italy growing up. He and my mother insisted on classical training, which gave me the voice I have today.
Second is my singing partner and friend Julie Ekoue-Totu. I am never more myself than when I am on stage singing with her.
The third is Carl Jordan, who was the first director to have faith in me and pushed me out of my comfort zone of comedy when he cast me as Shelby in The Spitfire Grille.
ASR: With the ongoing pandemic, it will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How are you coping with the shutdown?
DIB: In all honesty, it has been a struggle. My joy is gone. Postponed, or canceled. My other family, gone. That intimacy that only those in the theater understand, gone. Those moments that give you life on a daily basis, be it in rehearsal, or memorizing a line, or hitting that note right in the pocket, gone. I would have closed three shows since Covid started. I am struggling.
ASR: How do you envision the future for the theater community overall?
DIB: I would like to say I have an optimistic outlook but some days are harder than others. I have hope that one of these days we’ll get back to what we had, more or less. How many theaters survive will depend on just how long that takes.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
DIB: I spent most of my life being in shows rather than attending them, and those were 99.9% musicals. It is just in these last few years that I have been able to attend more theater and have started to broaden my knowledge.
So, from what little I have seen, my favorite dramas tend more toward the classics, such as Streetcar and Death of A Salesman, although I did very much enjoy the 6th Street Playhouse productions Faceless and The Revolutionists.
Comedies must really make me laugh out loud for me to truly enjoy them. A little chuckle won’t cut it. The Mystery of Irma Vep,Noises Off, and one that teetered between them both, Drumming with Annubis.
Musicals? Oh boy! The list is long for different reasons, from performing in them, to the score only, to being an audience member. Lumping them in the same list, a few would be: Gypsy, Into The Woods, Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Hello Dolly!, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Man of La Mancha, Urinetown, Mame, Falsettos. I could keep going but this Q&A has to have an end sometime!
ASR: Name some all-time favorites that you have worked in.
DIB:Man of La Mancha—to be able to tell such a wonderful story, with a cast that was brilliantly talented, was tops for me for sure. Hands on a Hardbody—It felt like an honor to bring these real people to life. It spoke to our hearts as a cast.
Great American Trailer Park Musical—We had lightning in a bottle with that show. Everything clicked and it was the most fun I have ever had on a stage. Merman’s Apprentice—stepping into the shoes of Ethel Merman. Need I say more? Nunsense, in 1996—my castmates Julie Ekoue-Totu, Kayla Gold, Diana Bergala, and Gail Gongall, truly became my sisters and lifelong friends. I would not be who am I am in the theater without that show and those women.
…Great American Trailer Park Musical—We had lightning in a bottle with that show…
ASR: What are some of your least favorite productions? Care to share titles of those you would never do or never do again?
DIB:Expiring Minds Want to Know, a horrible little musical. Annie. I love the role of Miss Hannigan and loved my cast when I did it, but the show itself is not a favorite.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
DIB:Triumph of Love is such a gem. The Drowsy Chaperone is another one that is just pure fun and so rarely done.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
DIB:Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yes, you shadows have offended, too many times!
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
DIB: I would love to do props and set dressing. Creating the world the actors are playing in. Bringing a vision to life and making sure it keeps with the time period, aesthetic, etc. That would super fun and creative.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
DIB: I sing the show through in my car on the way to the theater. Warm up the voice in the shower of course. But other than that, I just try to relax and remember my lines. I like to get into the theater at least two hours before showtime. Just to be there and settle in. After the show, I enjoy a milkshake at Shari’s or Chinese food at Yet Wah or just hanging out in the lobby with the cast and some friends enjoying each other.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
DIB: Hmmm…
1. Be on time.
2. Be humble.
3. Be a team player.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
DIB: Julie Ekoue-Totu, my singing sister. I have known her since 1989. She’s been my performing partner and my giggle gal all this time. She taught me how to take chances vocally and helped me tremendously in developing my style. She’s one of the most honest people I know. I trust her more than anyone else on that stage. She has had my back in so many ways over these years and I am forever grateful and will love her and sing her praises until my last note!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
DIB: I was in the audience at Lucky Penny’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest when three women got up and walked across the stage—actually through the scene, explaining to the audience why they were leaving (one of them wasn’t feeling well).
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
DIB: Of course I do. I have to pay the bills and I am extremely lucky to have mine during this horrible time. I am an escrow officer.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from the theater?
DIB: No, not really. I appreciate art and enjoy listening to music but I am not a follower per se. When I am not performing I enjoy being with my family and my fur babies.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
DIB: Ahhh, here:
1. No cigarettes or cilantro.
2. Kindness is key.
3. Popular vote wins.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
DIB: A home enema kit.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
DIB:If All the World’s a Stage, I Want My Own Damn Dressing Room, a show about the lives and times of a regional theater group of course!
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
DIB: Beaten up someone who was being cruel to animals.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
DIB: Soundtrack? That is tough. I have certain artists or songs from my childhood that will always be on repeat in my heart. Those tunes you go to when you need a lift. Does that count? Narrowing them down to three? Hmmm?
Luciano Pavarotti singing anything. He was my background music as a child.
Helen Reddy—“Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)”—As a kid, I never knew what it meant but it made me smile (especially the horns) and I would sing it at the top of my lungs.
John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain Christmas.” It just isn’t Christmas without it.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
DIB: I love boots. Nice comfortable boots. Combat, Ugg, Booties, Go-Go, Cowboy, Dress, Rain, All the boots!
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
DIB: I love turtles. I would like to see a turtle the size of a horse! Prehistoric and beautiful. I could ride it!
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
DIB: When I was younger, I liked to climb everything—trees, towers, you name it. The only thing I could climb right now is the walls.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Seafus Smith
Seafus Chatmon-Smith is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, music director, sound designer, and scenic designer. He is a recipient of a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle “Excellence in Theatre” award for his 2019 scenic design of Admissions for Los Altos Stage Company.
A California native who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Central Valley, his career in entertainment spans from onstage to behind-the-scenes. In the mid-to-late 2000s, he played in various bands before going on to front his own band, Vasco Skys, formed by him and drummer Richard Messenger III. In 2010 he joined the band Dallas, (now known as Bryan Dallas) as keyboardist and background vocalist. After playing FM 107.7’s Bone Bash X concert, he decided to take a break from the music stage.
Seafus’ first work in theatre was as a student, in Las Positas College’s 2006 production of Macbeth, as a sound designer. He began working in entertainment staging and lighting in 2012, which ultimately led him back into the theatre, first as a sound engineer/designer, then into music directing and scenic design.
After sound designing Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas in 2016, he began music directing with James and the Giant Peach JR, 2017, Junie B Jones JR, 2018. Dragon Theatre’s 2018 production of Equivocation would bring him to his first scenic design. His next design was Lohman Theatre’s 2018 production of She Kills Monsters, followed by Los Positas College’s 2019 production of Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Odd Stupid Tales.
Seafus is currently designing the Steel Magnolias set for Los Altos Stage Company, originally slated for the spring season of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been pushed to the spring of 2021.
***
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
SS: Though I have worn many different hats in theatre, and still do, my introduction into the inner workings of the theatre was in college where I took acting and technical theatre classes. I fell in love with the process.
ASR: What was the first play you worked in for a paying audience?
SS: The first show I did was a production of My Son Pinocchio, as a sound engineer.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
SS: I’ve been involved with five different theatre companies—from children’s theatre to high school, to college and community theatre. I’ve been working in theatre in various capacities since 2013.
ASR: Did you anticipate that you would become as successful as you have?
SS: Truthfully I don’t know what I’m doing, other than trying to do my best. Not sure what kind of success I’ve achieved just yet, but having received an award from SFBATCC, I have hope that I’m headed in the right direction.
ASR: Do you have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
SS: I’ve worked for companies that have a specific focus, but I myself strived to work on any and all projects that tell great stories. Hopefully inspiring new dreamers like myself, to create new worlds we’ve yet to experience.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
SS: It’s two people really: Michael Rinaldi and the late Jeremy Hamm, educators that have done amazing things in their lives to enrich the lives of others as well as my own.
ASR: With the pandemic, it will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How are you coping with the shutdown?
SS: As an independent artist, this time has and continues to be difficult for me, as I’m sure it has for our entire community both on the small and large scale. Right now it’s hard as shows have been postponed with the uncertainty that they will ever go up, though I remain positive and hopeful that in time things will get better.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for the coming seasons? How do you envision the future for the theater community overall?
SS: Well to the first question.. . All of my shows that were in progress that aren’t canceled, have been postponed until the 2021 spring season. And to the second.. . I’m hopeful that in the future things will pick back up, though I know it’s going to take some time.
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. Has AB5 affected your theater company’s plans?
SS: AB5 was passed just before the COVID-19 crisis, so I have yet to really experience its impact, though I’m sure it will bring about many changes to the contractual agreement side of things. I’m sure we will work out a way for art to continue as it should.
…I’m also a sucker for amusement parks…
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
SS: From the first time I heard the original cast recording, my favorite musical of all time is Phantom of the Opera. From the score and story to the dancing and technical theatrical gymnastics, to me it is all that you could ask for.
My favorite comedy is Noises Off. As someone who has spent so much time backstage as both a performer and crew member, I can give first-hand accounts of the hilarity that inevitably comes from behind the curtain. As for dramas… Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail is one of my absolute faves, though I really like most all of his shows.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
SS:Romeo and Juliet would be the most over-performed and yes, it could be put in the vault.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
SS: It would have to be sets. One of my favorite things to do is to imagine the world in which the story takes place and bring what’s in my mind to life. It can be a powerful thing giving a visible voice to a story. Look at Hollywood!
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
SS: Given the current climate this may be an unpopular opinion but . . . Tom Hanks. The talent he poses in emoting is something striking, both on the surface as well as in the depths of the characters he chooses to portray.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
SS: As a performer, I try to practice my craft as much as possible, then I do a full body and vocal warmup. All dependent on what part I’m playing of course. And to relax after. . . I love a good gathering with friends. I don’t really sleep much, maybe go to a movie or chill on the couch with a nice bottle of wine.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
SS: Really it takes more than this, but if you don’t have these three things, you won’t be able to get very far with me. So…
1. Focus
2. An understanding of conscious learning.
3. Flexibility.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
SS: The relationship between myself and the story, as well as everyone involved. My belief is, if you have a great story and a wonderful team, then anything is truly possible.
ASR: What’s the most excruciating screw-up you see onstage?
SS: When someone has cast an actor that can’t sing in a musical. Nobody wants to hear a cat being tortured for two hours, and we all know it happens.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
SS: Due to COVID-19, I am currently out of work. Normally when not working on a specific show I work for an entertainment lighting and staging company, as well as in various personal music endeavors.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
SS: As a singer-songwriter and record producer I’m usually making music when not working. However, now with so much more time on my hands, I’m learning the craft of screenplays. I’m also a sucker for amusement parks, beaches, and hiking.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from the theater?
SS: Music-making would be number one on the list. I love to dance and have been a choreographer for multiple projects. Cinema is one of my all-time great loves, I would love to direct and be in a film one day. In my late teens, I was a magician. From painting to building, sculpting, and most things in between. I have either done it, do it, or enjoy watching it being done.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
SS: I’d say…
1. No making noise before 10 a.m.
2. Bring your own bottle of sauterne.
3. No acts of hate or violence!
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
SS: A circumcision.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
SS: Been caught sneaking into a concert.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
SS: 1. Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” because I love the choreography in that video and love to dance to it.
2. Prince’s “Partyman,” because as a kid I wanted to be Batman, and still do!
3. “Stuck,” a song I wrote about how I feel during this COVID-19 pandemic.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
SS: Sunglasses are a must at all times. As long as I have a pair we’re ok.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
SS: I have a healthy respect for human life so the only thing for me in this category would be rock climbing! You have to take risks in life to move forward. I believe you take risks whether you choose to or not. Daring to live is risky, and sitting on the sidelines is to risk never having lived at all.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
SS: “It’s working, it’s working”—Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Anthony Martinez is an actor and musician based in Santa Rosa. He most recently appeared in David Templeton’s critically acclaimed Drumming With Anubis, a production that won a 2019 “Ensemble” award from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Film credits: Donovan Reid, The Last Hit, Quick, Ghettoblaster, The Animal, Cheaper by the Dozen, Bottle Shock. Television: Love Kills (Investigation Discovery), World’s Astonishing Stories (Nippon TV), World’s Crime Mysteries (Nippon TV), 13 Reasons Why, numerous commercials and industrials for clients such as Polaroid, Apple, Save Energy, Food Network, AARP, and many more. Theater: Left Edge Theater (Zombietown- TBA nomination, This Random World, Drumming with Anubis, Sweat), Spreckels Theater Company (Guys & Dolls, Forever Plaid, 1776– TBA/SFBATCC nomination), 6th Street Playhouse (La Cage Aux Folles, Kiss Me Kate), Lucky Penny Productions (Funny Girl), Novato Theater Company (Next to Normal, Into the Woods– TBA and SFBATCC nominations), Cinnabar Theater (Forever Plaid, Fiddler on the Roof, Man of La Mancha), 42nd Street Moon (Girl Crazy, On a Clear Day, Dear World).
In addition to his stage and film work, Anthony is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who performs with his own band “The Core,” tours nationally as keyboardist for Cash & King, a Tribute to Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, and Petty Rocks, a Tribute to Tom Petty, and is the founder and tenor vocalist with “Comfort & Joy,” the Bay Area’s premiere a cappella holiday vocal quartet.
Anthony Martinez
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
AM: I was actually a musician before becoming an actor. As a kid, I took piano and guitar lessons and played in rock bands. I never did theater as a kid. Right after high school, I got into a car accident and, while I was recuperating, most of what was on TV in the middle of the day were soap operas. I remember watching them thinking “I can do that.”
My sister had a co-worker who was a part-time commercial actor in the Bay Area, and said “OK, prove it.”
Through her co-worker, I got hooked up with SF on-camera training classes and casting agents. From there, I got my first agent and first acting jobs (a national commercial and a small part in a movie in LA) without ever having set foot onstage. I then met a theater artist from LA with a theater company and fell in love with live theater.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
AM: That would be Holy Ghosts by Romulus Linney. Good play. I wish more companies would produce it. I have never seen another production other than the one I was in. I think the reason it’s seldom produced is because it calls for live snake handling!
It’s about a religious snake-handling congregation in the south and, yes, for my first play I had to take up live snakes onstage every night. What an introduction to live theater!
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
AM: Wow. Let’s see… I think 17 different theater companies in the Bay Area.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
AM: That’s a great question. I have to say Marvin Klebe, the founder of Cinnabar Theater. He not only gave me my first professional job, the moment I met him he was so kind, so knowlegable, so supportive… he really inspired me be the best I could be.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
AM: For drama, I love Angels in America, The Compleat Female Stage Beauty, and A Steady Rain. Comedies I love are Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, and Vanya, Sasha, Masha and Spike. Musicals… Next to Normal, Falsettos, and everything and anything by Sondheim.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
AM: I’m currently an Associate Artist at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa, so I’d have to say Drumming with Anubis, Hand to God, and A Steady Rain.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
AM:The Music Man.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
AM: A musical called Triumph of Love. It had a very short life on Broadway in the 90s, but it is so wonderful. My old theater company in Marin did it and it was so charming. The audience loved it. I am always astounded that more companies don’t do it.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play?
AM: I would say Titus Andronicus, but I am a horror movie fan, so I’m biased!
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
AM:A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, for sure.
The dog took center stage and… followed its natural instincts… …
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
AM: Sound design. I am a musician so I really vibe with the impact sound and music can have in evoking mood.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
AM: Wow. That is so, so hard. I personally know so many astounding actors, but I will pick someone I know only from their work. I am a big fan of Craig Marker. He is always amazing.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
AM: For musicals, I do vocal exercises and light physical warmup. For plays, I do a physical warmup and go over my lines! After a performance, I like to unwind with an adult beverage, but if I have a performance the next day, never tequila. It shreds my voice.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
AM: Hmmmm…
1. Be on time.
2. Be off book ASAP.
3. Always be helpful and cooperative to everyone involved in the production, even if you’ve had a bad day.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
AM: I have to say the one with my sister, Vicki. She is a stage manager at Left Edge Theatre and it’s nice to be able to work together and share that common interest.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
AM: It wasn’t technically a screw-up, but during a production of Camelot I was in, the dog playing Pellinore’s dog proceeded to completely steal a scene doing… something dogs do. The dog took center stage and… followed its natural instincts, looking right out at the audience. The audience was roaring with laughter and the stunned cast onstage was just frozen. I wasn’t onstage at the time (thank God), just watching from the wings, but I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
AM: Probably when I split my pants completely onstage during a performance… in a theater in the round! No wings to dash off into!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
AM: I was in the audience of a local musical when a drunk person climbed onstage, waving at the audience and then at her friend in the cast on stage (who was mortified), and trying to conduct the orchestra. It seemed like she was up there for an eternity and I kept wondering “When is someone gonna do something?” Finally, an ASM came out and got her offstage. So awkward.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
AM: I worked as an administrator at a community college for many years. Now I am lucky enough to be able to work for myself as a consultant and teacher.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
AM: I am an avid martial artist and instructor, as well as a musician. I also sing, play keyboards and guitar, and work as a sideman for many local and touring artists.
ASR: Do you actively do any other arts apart from the theater? Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture?
AM: I do lots of music (live and recording) and on-camera work (industrial films, commercials, and movies). I also practice martial arts. Does that count?
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
AM: Ahh…
1. No talking in the audience during a performance.
2. No nuts in brownies or cookies.
3. Kindness to all animals.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
AM: A colonoscopy.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
AM: I’m still working on that. ;)
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
AM: Protesting or used martial arts in self-defense (maybe at the same time).
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
AM: I have many, many pairs of shoes.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
AM: A French Bulldog.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
AM: Nope. I am not a daredevil. I have had enough life-threatening excitement in my life already and lived to tell the tales—those are stories for another time—so I now crave calmness. But I do love rollercoasters!
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
AM: “Just because they could, they never stopped to think if they should.”- Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. Good life advice.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Winner of a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle award for Transcendence Theatre Company’s 2019 production of A Chorus Line, Daniel Weidlein is a music producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and music director based in Los Angeles.
Originally from Boulder, Colorado, Daniel has enjoyed a diverse career spanning many parts of the entertainment industry, from acting in Academy Award-winner Whiplash, to performing and music directing on season 3 of NBC’s The Sing Off, to writing and producing Billboard charting music for artists like Blake McGrath, Stan Taylor, and Miss Peppermint. He owns and operates BioSoul Music, a boutique recording studio in LA. In addition to his work as music director and orchestrator for Sonoma County-based Transcendence Theater Company, Daniel has been integral in the development of new musicals such as The Mollyhouse by Richard Hanson and Divya Maus, and Bottleshock by James Sasser and Charles Burwell.
***
Daniel Weidlein. Photo by Taryn Dudley.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
DW: From a very young age I acted in musicals, and always loved film musicals in particular, so it’s in my bones. But as I grew older, I felt the call to avenues of performing music.
Professionally, I have worked as a music producer, arranger, music director, instrumentalist, and singer. In almost every single one of those capacities I eventually was brought to the intersection point of the Venn diagram of music and theater.
A major turning point in that regard was the work I did with Morgan Karr in the pop music realm, but ultimately it led me to the work I do in the Bay Area with Transcendence Theatre Company.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
DW:The Grifters—a musical theatre adaptation of the book-turned-film with book and lyrics by Joe Giuffre, with music (and musical direction) by yours truly in 2013. Imagine—a theatrical concert of original music from various shows with Transcendence Theatre Company in 2015.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
DW: Ahh…Transcendence Theatre Company (Sonoma County), Fogg Theatre Company (San Francisco), NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts (New York City).
ASR: When was your present company formed?
DW: TTC set down roots in Sonoma in 2011 and has been growing ever since!
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
DW: Bringing the Broadway experience to the Sonoma Valley!
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
DW: My fiancé! Divya Maus is an incredible composer and lyricist (wrote The Mollyhouse with Richard Hanson and is in development on a new show, Elijah, that she has written herself).
I serve as the music director, orchestrator, and general editor for her shows. Being able to build her vision from the ground up has helped me grow faster in this business than any “gig.”
….Les Miserables had its place, but we don’t need to keep beating it over our own heads.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
DW: Transcendence has been putting on a wonderful online season of shows comprised of highlights from the past ten summers of shows in Jack London State park. There’s one more online show this coming weekend, Sep. 11-13, to commemorate their annual Gala fundraiser!
ASR: How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
DW: Phew…where to begin? Let’s just hope we can all be back in person in the theater next year…
ASR: How do you envision the future the theater community overall?
DW: I truly believe that theater is going to come back stronger than ever. Nothing replaces an in-person theatrical experience, and the kindling that’s keeping the drive and passion of idle performers all across this country is going to ignite into a brilliant blaze once those hearts and voices and feet are unleashed on the stage again.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
DW:West Side Story is a no-brainer. I love Parade. I love Angels in America (I so wish I could have seen the recent revival). I love Hadestown!
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
DW: Transcendence has only done one full musical so far (the rest are handcrafted reviews and concerts from the Broadway lineage)—A Chorus Line—but it was a blast! Chicago was slated for 2020…
ASR: What are some of your least favorite plays? Care to share titles of those you would never produce—or never produce again?
DW:Les Miserables had its place, but we don’t need to keep beating it over our own heads.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
DW: I love Rent, but it’s become that song that’s been played one too many times. I think it may actually age really well if we just hit pause.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
DW: I’m a huge fan of Cole Porter’s music, and yet I will bashfully admit that I’ve only seen Kiss Me Kate. The rest of my experience of his music is through the jazz world.
But I think this is the perfect answer to your question…because his musicals don’t get staged enough!
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
DW: Seems hard to call any of them underrated…but I’d say Much Ado About Nothing. The tragedies get the credit they deserve, and have deep themes that still very much resonate today, but I think what stands out about Much Ado is that it feels so current, and so modern.
Not just thematically, but in the actual writing. Update the language and the writing and humor feel like they’re part of the canon of indie comedic film writing that I love so much.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
DW:Hamlet. It’s great…I often feel like I just want to read it though. If you’re going to put it on, please give me a fresh reason to do so!
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
DW: Light and projections. I’m fascinated with how much you can influence the audience experience with lighting.
I remember seeing Fun Home and being so captivated by how powerful the lighting and projections were. Super simple, yet so powerful.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
DW: I can’t say her name enough—Lexy Fridell. One of the most brilliant comedic actresses I’ve ever seen in any context, and you Bay Area folks have her all to yourself now in Sonoma after her return from stints in LA and NY.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
DW: It’s all about building adrenaline so it doesn’t slam into you when the performance starts. So I like to have a little coffee, move my body around a lot, and do a few mental run-throughs of exciting moments of the show.
Afterward, I eat. A lot. All that adrenaline burns calories!
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
DW: Great question.
1. It’s all about relationships. Great work is meaningless if you don’t do it in conjunction with all the other people and moving parts that make a show possible.
2. Learn what makes your work unique, and do everything to exploit and celebrate it, rather than try to adapt it to the “norm.”
3. Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Make bold choices—make interesting choices—and let the work and/or the people around you (but not the critics!) inform whether those choices are working or need to be altered.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
DW: There are so many valuable friendships that I have developed through theater. I think the beauty of the theater world is the work requires you to go deep on a personal level with the material—and you’re spending exorbitant amounts of time with one another—so inevitably you end up going deep with your peers during the process.
Compared to most other spheres of my life, I’ve definitely developed more deeply consistent relationships in theater than in any other.
I’ll highlight one great friendship with Tony Gonzalez, a frequent director and choreographer at Transcendence. Tony and I were both new to the creative team in 2016 and were tasked with co-designing and leading the high octane dance show of that year.
The entire process was a masterclass in “yes, and” from the creation side and still to this day is one of my favorite shows I’ve ever put on a stage. With that foundation, Tony has become someone I can share any thought, any concern, any emotion with freely, and he’s always the most supportive and caring friend anyone could ask for!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
DW: I’ve seen audience members try to get hand-on with actors coming through the aisles on numerous occasions…please don’t…
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
DW: I do not! I write and produce music (mostly for other artists…so it’s KINDA a day job…) all day every day when I’m not music directing or playing saxophone and piano.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
DW: Hiking, cooking, basketball, my dog Puri Bhaji.
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
DW: “John Boy” by Brad Mehldau — it feels like the perfect expression of the curiosity I was talking about earlier.
“Bad Religion” by Frank Ocean — this is the song that can freeze me in my tracks anywhere at anytime. It explores life in a raw, painful way that is so relatable. And Frank’s voice is the ultimate vehicle for expressing that quest.
“Fire in the Sky” by Daniel Weidlein — thought it would be fun to include one of my own. This is the title track off of one of my jazz albums and is really accurate example of how I sometimes can articulate my thoughts and emotions better musically than verbally.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
DW: I’m a big jewelry fan in general. Earrings, rings, necklaces. I love making them all work within my wardrobe.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
DW: An ant. Sounds scary, but it’s insane how much they can carry at their current size. Just imagine…
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, sky diving?
DW: I’ve done a bit of rock climbing. I’m not great with heights, so I feel like I need to conquer that at some point and go sky diving.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
DW: “I’m curious what makes you so curious,” from Django Unchained. I’m notoriously curious, and one of the things that captivates me most is what drives other people!
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Among the Bay Area’s few married couples who are equally immersed in theater, Michael Scott Wells and Danielle DeBow frequently appear together onstage. Both are Associate Artists with Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions, but their art frequently takes them to other venues. They also work together away from the theater, and have a toddler—the very definition of togetherness.
Michael Scott Wells: Born in Southern California and raised in the Bay Area, Michael has been a part of the theater community for the past fifteen years as an actor, director, fight choreographer, sound designer, casting associate, and musician.
He has appeared on stage recently for CCCT (Bright Star), Sonoma Arts Live (Gypsy, Always Patsy Cline, Hello Dolly). Performances with Lucky Penny Productions, where he is an Associate Artist, include I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (TBA Award – Featured Actor), Clue: the Musical, Hands on a Hardbody, Annie, The Tasting Room, and Forever Plaid.
Outside of the Bay Area, he was fortunate enough to be a part of the first national tour as Big Anthony in Strega Nona the Musical!, and worked for that production as Associate Technical Director.
Danielle DeBow: Danielle grew up on the stage and studied Theatre and Dance at UC Davis. Dancer turned film actress, turned musical theatre enthusiast, she fell in love with the immediacy and fellowship of the theatre.
She was most recently seen as Alice in Bright Star at CCCT and Rebecca in The Tasting Room at Lucky Penny. You may have seen her at Sonoma Arts Live as Irene Malloy in Hello Dolly, Patsy Cline in Always, Patsy Cline (TBA and Marquee Theatre Award), and Louise in Gypsy.
Danielle is proud to be an Associate Artist at Lucky Penny, her home away from home. When she’s not on stage, you’ll likely find her outdoors chasing her one-year-old and fur babies or finding new ways to turn 90s pops song into folk with her hubby.
Michael Scott WellsDanielle DeBow
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
MW: I’ve always loved to tell stories. My family can regale you with the multitude of puppet shows and make-believe plays I made them sit through as a child. I participated in a number of church plays as well. Then I took a hiatus to focus on sports. All the sports. In high school, a friend asked if I could help stage manage a show he was working on. The bug re-bit me and I never looked back.
DD: I spent much of my childhood on stage dancing. In fourth grade I moved to a new elementary school that focused on learning through musical performance and that is where I fell in love with the art and immediacy of theatre.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
MW:Miss Saigon in 2005 at Diablo Light Opera Company
DD:The Nutcracker, 1992, Bolshoi West
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
MW: I don’t think I can say just one person or company. Every member of the theater community I’ve had the opportunity to work with has helped shape my life in ways I can truly never thank them enough for.
DD: Many amazing, talented, and compassionate teachers, directors, and crew members have impacted me in ways I’ll be eternally grateful, but I must thank my parents for believing in me and encouraging me to do what I love. They instilled confidence in me that allowed me to pursue opportunities and take risks leading me to where I am today.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
DD: The shutdown has been a great challenge. The theatre is where we go to escape, to fill back up when the world drains us. While we miss our theatre family more than words could ever properly describe, we’ve been able to fill at least some of the void jamming in our living room with our one-year-old.
ASR: How do you envision the future for the theater community?
MW: The arts by nature are innovative and revolutionary, so I have no doubt that while this current situation is extremely disheartening for the community, we will all come out of this stronger, more passionate, and more in-tune with who we are as artists and performers.
This time away from the stage, and more importantly, my theatre family has reaffirmed my true love for it. It’s not something that can be created over a zoom call—it’s the tangible aspects I’m craving: the energy exuding from the audience, the jitters in your stomach pre-show, the rush of joy as the overture starts, the sweaty hugs post-show, and the unforgettable conversations in the wings with cast and crew. I know we will get back to it, and I’m proud of the community and companies that are finding ways to bring opportunities for us to share our craft and stories in new ways while we’re restricted from gathering during the pandemic.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
DD : While many shows stand out for me, the three shows that top my list are Godspell, Always Patsy Cline, and Bright Star.
MW:Godspell, Big River, and Evil Dead, the Musical.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
DD: Costumes, without a doubt. I’m in constant awe of the men and women who pour their hearts and souls into the costumes we wear on stage. They’re tasked with near-impossible requests and somehow end up making us look beautiful (or hideous depending on the requirements), period-appropriate, and tailored, all while ensuring our frocks can handle our quick changing, jumping, falling, dancing, and sweating through them.
MW: That’s a tough choice. It’s a toss-up between lighting and sound for me. There’s something about creating the atmosphere of a moment to make not only the audience but the storytellers feel that moment deep in their gut. That’s what excites me.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
DD: Dyan McBride is one of my favorite people to watch on stage. Not to mention, one of the most supportive, humble, and passionate actors to work beside. She’s reliable, devoted, and brings out the best in those around her. Her attention to detail, poise, and comedic timing are impeccable. I aspire to captivate an audience as she can.
MW: It’s been a while since I’ve seen in him in anything, but Joel Roster is truly one of the finest actors I have ever witnessed on stage. I could watch him read the phone book. He is never anything but 100% genuine in everything that he does. I have never laughed harder or felt so deeply than when Joel tells a story.
……. asking a stranger to borrow their popcorn bucket to throw up in.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
DD: My warm-up varies drastically by the show, but once I get a routine, it must not be broken (kidding/not kidding). I always do a few push-ups right before I hit the stage to shake the jitters and get my blood going. Sometimes my opening costume makes this a challenge, but I’ve yet to find one that’s thwarted me. My last two performances were unique in that my pre-show routine also included breastfeeding my newborn backstage. The two companies I had the privilege to work with made it possible for me to continue to pursue my dreams and share the experience with my baby. I will be eternally grateful to Lucky Penny and CCCT for those unforgettable and cherished memories.
MW: Most people will say you’ll catch me cracking jokes right up to the curtain. This is part ploy to hide my nerves and part enjoying the heck out of my job and the people I’m with. I am always nervous before any show, no matter if it’s opening night or closing night. I try to take a moment or two to stretch and get my mind centered. But when it comes down to it, frivolity is truly the best medicine for preparing myself to go on a nightly journey. After a show—that really depends on the show, but it all generally ends with a late-night snack and binging something on Netflix.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
DD: The cast and crew of Cowgirls at Lucky Penny will forever mean the world to me. The relationships I built during that show continue to enrich my personal and stage life. The theatre became our home. Michael proposed to me there, Barry married us on stage and in real life, and Taylor, Dani, Staci, Dyan, and Heather are some of the most important confidants in my life.
MW: There are many individuals I truly cherish in the theater universe. And while I may not see some of them as often as I’d like right now, the cast/crew of Godspell from a 2014 production will always be in my heart. You’ll never see a group who sweated more, loved harder and supported one another through every trial and tribulation. I can never thank that group of humans enough for the joy and love they brought into my life.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
MW: During a production of Into the Woods, Little Red missed her entrance for a scene with Jack. In this production, they used a live chicken for Jack to carry around in this scene. This turned into a hilarious 3-4 minute improvised scene between the actor playing Jack and this live chicken. When Little Red finally showed up, out of breath having clearly run from the dressing room, the audience gave Jack a rousing round of applause for his show-stopping improvisation skills.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
DD: Performing in the wine country comes with its perks, and one of them is often a well-oiled audience. This can make for some wonderful laughs and energetic claps, as well as wine glasses shattering in front of you while singing a tender ballad, or a drunken audience member turning on the house lights while bickering with her partner across the theatre. Yes, that all happened during a single performance.
MW: It’s safe to assume that when you perform in the heart of wine country, most audience members will typically, and hopefully in a responsible fashion, enjoy an adult beverage before coming to the theater. But in some cases, “responsible” can be taken many ways. In one example, it wasn’t just one person but a party bus that decided to over-serve themselves before a show. This resulted in several hilarious moments of call and response, clumsily attempting to leave the theater in the middle of a heartbreaking ballad, and topping off the evening with asking a stranger to borrow their popcorn bucket to throw up in.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
DD/MW: We work as the sales and marketing team for a digital workspace consultancy in Davis, CA.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
MW: I’ve been a musician since I was old enough to hold an instrument. The guitar is my main muse but I can play just about anything if you give me twenty minutes to figure it out.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
DD: Hmmm….OK…
Chew with your mouth closed.
Be nice.
Chew with your mouth closed. (Yes, I repeated #1; Misophonia made me do it.)
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
DD: Attacked someone for chewing too loudly.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
MW: I am a total thrill-seeker. Who wants to go skydiving?
ASR: Favorite quotes from movies or stage plays?
DD: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
MW: “May the force be with you.” – Star Wars
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Hailing from the Creole/Cajun bayous of Louisiana, Clay David has enjoyed a wide-ranging professional career in theatre arts. Spanning London, Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theatre, national tours and educational theatre, his work has embraced advocacy, acting, directing, and design. His achievements in the theater have been recognized with five San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. David has also earned an AMCO Kennedy Center National Award, the Victor Borge Legacy Award, a TITAN Award for Theatre Excellence (Theatre Bay Area), the Dean Goodman Choice Award for Best Director in San Francisco Bay, the Lee Hartgrave Fame Best Play Award, and the Bravo Award for Outstanding Innovation and Excellence in Arts.
Notable directing highlights: L’ours et la Lune, and Birth of the Son (Off-Broadway, Blue Heron, NYC), Wives as They Were/Maids as They Are (London Theatre Royal, St. Edmunds, Regency Rep), Romeo et Julieta, (Campamento Lomas Pinar, Cuernavaca, Mexico), York 24: The Capmaker’s Play, (Poculi Ludique Societas, Toronto), Trojan Women and Phedre, (Jerry Rojo Environmental Theatre, CT), Learned Ladies, and School for Scandal (Connecticut Repertory Theatre.)
His joy of collaboration is a true passion, directing premiere productions of Ernest Gaines, Luis Alfaro, Gloria Stingily, Savion Glover, Jared Choclat, Chuck Prophet, Felice Picano, Michael Golamco, and Kathyrn McCarty.
On stage, he has performed the title roles in Hamlet, Amadeus, and The Dresser (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), The Elephant Man and Uncle Vanya (Jerry Rojo Environmental Theatre, CT). Regional Shakespeare roles include: Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (Marin Shakespeare), and Troilus in Troilus and Cressida (Riverside Shakespeare, NY). In musical theatre, he has performed Georges in La Cage aux Folles, Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Preacher in Violet (Bay Area Musicals), Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, and Tobias in Sweeney Todd (Connecticut Repertory Company).
(Editor’s note: His A Cajun Midsummer Night’s Dream at Novato Theater Company was unique, brilliant, amazing, and delightful.)
In educational theater, Clay David has served as professor and lecturer of theater at Loyola Marymount University, The University of Connecticut, Diablo Valley College, and was Chairman of Drama at Contra Costa College.
Clay David
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
CD: I sang in church. In the Southern Gothic Cajun South, High Mass was about as close as you could get to the papacy. I was on the debate team in ninth grade and won a few national titles in dramatic interpretation and poetry reading. I was cast as Cornelius Hackle in Hello Dolly in tenth grade. That opened the door and connected the dots.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
CD: Performance: Sparger in Kennedy’s Children, Robert Patrick; directing: Welcome to Andromeda, Ronald Melville Whyte
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
CD: I feel like I have been doing this since the earth cooled, so well over a 150.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
CD: My brother was severely disabled, and I always carry his spirit with me. I always say hello to him in the wings. I know he is an angel looking over me.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas?
CD:The Dutchman, Amiri Baraka; The Dresser, Ronald Harwood; The Blacks, Jean Genet; The Maids, Jean Genet; America Hurrah, Jean-Claude van Itallie; The Visit, Friedrich Dürrenmatt; Suddenly Last Summer, Tennessee Williams; Woysek, Georg Büchner.
ASR: Musicals?
CD:Sweeney Todd, Blood Brothers, Jerry Springer the Opera, Cabaret.Kinky Boots.
ASR: Comedies?
CD:The Bald Soprano, Eugene Ionesco; Tartuffe, Moliere; The Importance of Being Ernest, Oscar Wilde; Private Lives, Noël Coward.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
CD: Hamilton.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
CD: The works of Enrico Cavacchioli, Rosso di San Secondo, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco. Theatre of the Grotesque and Theatre of the Absurd speak to our times, as we navigate the national discord, the bafflement, and bewilderment of the truth of our times.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
CD: His plays have dimensions that are not explored or are diluted. Many times these works will be misdirected, or will politely just dance around the ideas of Hamlet asking his mother about the semen-stained sheets, or Ophelia singing pornographic songs when she is mad (who taught her the tunes?) or Richard ll’s historical and factual accuracy of his homosexuality.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
CD:Hamlet. I wish more companies would produce Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
CD: I was a theatre professor for 20 years and loved teaching design. I adore making properties. But most importantly, I love working with the actors who use each prop I design, ensuring that it is perfect for them and helps the character that they are creating.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance?
CD: I drink a Red Bull, rock catatonically in my chair and suck on a cough drop.
ASR: How do you relax after?
CD: A large bowl of cereal and milk.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
CD: Always think outside the box. Always take risks. The audience is the most important element of theatre.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
CD: In that sacred moment when we come together on production we are all soulmates and family. I will always be present for my fellow actors and technicians on stage and backstage, a faithful steward. Whether it is cleaning the dressing rooms, fanning sweating dancers running offstage, picking up costumes after quick changes, or mending shoes in between scene changes, I feel that we are a family, a community with a mighty purpose, and I am there to serve.
CD: Maintaining serenity during these troubling times.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from the theater?
CD: I am a designer and work closely with hospice and COVID patients, creating art that speaks to their needs and the needs of their families.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
CD: Our island is built on the doctrine of egalitarianism. Believe in reciprocity. Your mood should not dictate your manners.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
CD: Title: Sugarcane Burning. It would be about my disabled brother, raised by a fragile mother and a queer little brother in the mystic land of the bayou, Cajun South Louisiana.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
CD: Been there and done that, darling. They’d think, “Hey, y’all, what is it this time?”
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
CD: “J’ai Passé Devant Ta Porte,” the Cajun song we sang as children. “I Believe,” because I love and resonate with a good hymn. “Beautiful Dreamer,” because I played it on the organ and sang it for my mother and brother when times were hard.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
CD: Cufflinks.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
CD: “ Most people’s lives, what are they but trails of debris—each day more debris, more debris . . . long, long trails of debris, with nothing to clean it all up but death.”—Suddenly Last Summer
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
For over 25 years, Marin’s Museum of Contemporary Art has been the nexus for exhibitions, artist workspace, and art classes for adults and more than 1,000 children. Prominently located at 500 Palm Drive in the Hamilton area of Novato, Marin MOCA encourages its 160 artist members to participate in 15 annual contemporary art exhibitions.
Marin MOCA main gallery.
This August, MOCA again presents its whimsical and thought-provoking exhibition: the 11th Annual Altered Book Exhibition and Silent Auction.
“What is an altered book?” you ask.
“Good question!” answers Nancy Rehkopf, MarinMOCA’s Executive Director. “It is a form of contemporary art, in a category called the book arts. It is a fast-growing category of great interest in the Bay Area.”
…“The pieces are innovative, clever, and fun…”
There are two kinds of altered books in this year’s display of 130 objects:
The first is an “altered book” which incorporates a component of an actual book: a book spine, a cover, inside pages, illustrations, words, and so on. The artist then combines one or more of these with paint, sculpture, metalwork, etc., to create a unique original artwork. These pieces become anything: clothing, mobiles, set pieces, wall candy, even furniture.
The second category is an “artist book,” where the artist does everything to create the artwork as a book: the artist might write the words, or do the illustrations, or create the paper, or even bind the book. These pieces are typically more personal, more reflective, and always supremely creative.
“A Fisherman’s Tale” by Jay O’Neil
The art pieces are judged for awards by two local jurors: Donna Seager, owner of the Seager Grey Gallery in Mill Valley, and Mary Austin, co-founder of the San Francisco Center for the Book.
Seager notes, “The quality of the work has grown tremendously over the eleven years that MOCA has been presenting this competitive exhibition.” Austin adds, “The pieces are innovative, clever, and fun. There were cultural tones reflecting everything from the pandemic to whimsy and escapism.”
These expert jurors raved over the quality of the works, and gave awards as follows:
First Place: “Kintsugi Stitches” by Lisa Rodondi
Second Place: “Ocean of Tears” by Paulette Traverso
Third Place: “The Divide States of America” by Monica Lee
Honorable mentions: “A Fisherman’s Tale” by Jay O’Neil, “Kindling Spirit” by Jeff Downing, “Inner Thoughts 2020” by Regina Bode, “Upon Reflection” by Laura DeAnna, “A Bird in the Hand” by Gale Kiniry, “Flyaways and Dedications” by Deborah Sullivan, and “Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer” by Linda Mueller.
Also, the jurors gave a Special Recognition Award to “Cindy’s Life” by Cindy Johnson, and the Glue Award went to “Stories of Place” by Julia Arndt.
The artists have donated most of MOCA’s 130 art objects toward this huge fundraising event. The works will be sold on August 21st when an online auction takes place at 7:00 PM. Go to www.marinmoca.org and click on “Get ready to bid” to open an account to bid at bidsquare.com. All pieces are displayed on the site, with details about size, media, and the artist.
“Ode to Orpheus” by Esther Seigel
MOCA hopes to raise $50,000 from the Altered Book Exhibition to support its programs. They have a head start with a $10,000 challenge grant from Donald O. and Ronald R. Collins Fund — a loyal supporter for many years — and presenting sponsor Carson Wealth, a nationwide wealth investment management firm located in San Rafael.
Due to the museum’s closure to the general public, folks are welcome to see these pieces in person through August 29th by requesting a time and day they wish to visit at www.MarinMoca.org.
Believe me: it is a pleasure to linger over these amusing works of art without a crowd standing in the way.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Give a child a hammer, and the child will find his or her expression in everything needs pounding.
Give an artist a plain wooden box, and the artist will find expression through its painting, deconstruction, carving, etching, repositioning, reconstruction, or through attachments.
The results turn out as wild, wacky, stunningly beautiful, inspiring, or just plain whimsical wall or display artworks.
Which begs the question, “Was that even a box, to begin with?”
“Love in the Time of Corona Virus” by Barry Willis
Check out what started as 150 identical shoe-size wood boxes at Gallery Route One in Pt. Reyes Station. Bay Area artists and local community members seized upon their vivid imaginations to create three-dimensional eye candy for the 21st Annual Box Show. This fundraiser (all the pieces are up for auction) has become a highly competitive Bay Area tradition and is on view now through September 12th.
…every year, the submissions increase in variety and technical skill…
Naturally, due to the pandemic, visitors must make an appointment to ensure social distancing, and everyone must wear a mask. Here is the good news: admission is free. Viewing times, color photos of all entries, and docent comments are available at www.galleryrouteone.org.
“Japanese House” by Dan Williams.
This sheer size of this show makes for an exhausting — yet undeniably entertaining — exhibit. To this reviewer, it seems like every year, the submissions increase in variety and technical skill, with many bursting forth in scope and content from a “shadow box” presentation. However, look in another direction, and other pieces are re-creations or re-imaginings of the box itself.
“Homage to Kelp” by Jaine Kopp
Artists worked for two months to make a statement, tell a story, or both. If the artwork presents viewers with a challenge to spot the original pine box, find clues in the artist’s comments and color photos at https://secure.qgiv.com/event/theboxshow2020/.
Homebase for the Box Show is at Gallery Route One, a non-profit arts organization — and regional landmark since 1983 — adjacent to the entry for Marin County’s Point Reyes National Seashore in Point Reyes Station.
“Pine Box in Altered State” by Will Thoms
Sales from the Box Show fund a variety of worthy outreach programs addressing art education, environmental, immigration, and social justice issues. Bidding for art pieces in the 2020 Box Show starts at $30 and culminates in the final live auction in the gallery’s parking lot (if allowed by regulations) on Saturday, September 12th, from 3 to 5 PM.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Maureen McVerry
Few performers have backgrounds as deep as Maureen McVerry’s. In 1993 she created Verry McVerry, her ever-evolving cabaret show, one she has performed for 25 years. In San Francisco, she has performed at Oasis, Feinstein’s, the New Conservatory Theatre, the Herbst Theatre, the Plush Room, the Venetian Room, the Gateway Theatre, and the Alcazar. Verry McVerry has also been performed at 88s in NYC and the Gardenia Room in LA and at other venues nationally. The show earned a 2012 SFBATCC nomination for Best Solo Show.
As a stage actress, McVerry has celebrated 39 years in theatre, like the legendary Jack Benny. At ACT she played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (SFBATCC award), Kitty Packard in Dinner at Eight (SFBATCC award), the Gypsy in Scapin, Carrie in House of Mirth, Mrs. Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol and Sister Gabriella in The Pope and the Witch.
At ACT she also played Mrs. Schlemiel in Schlemiel the First and went on with the show to the ART in Cambridge and the Geffen Playhouse in LA. McVerry was featured as Kay in the SF Shakespeare Festival production of Oh Kay! (SFBATCC award) and in two long-running SF shows, Noises Off (SFBATCC and Dramalogue awards) and Curse of the Werewolf (SFBATCC award). At Marin Theatre Company she has appeared in Side by Side by Sondheim, You’re Going to Love Tomorrow (SFBATCC award), Born Yesterday (SFBATCC award), Room Service, and Me and My Girl.
McVerry has appeared in four different productions of Noises Off and would gladly do that show once or twice weekly to stay in shape. At 42nd St Moon she has appeared in several shows: Pardon My English (SFBATCC award), High Spirits, Wildcat, Very Warm for May, and Student Gypsy. She directed the successful 2011 revival of Oh Kay! and appeared at TheatreWorks as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Ernest, Sylvia in Learned Ladies of Park Avenue, and Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods.
She played Clara in Sex at the Aurora Theatre, and at Center Rep performed in the hit musicals Bingo and Xanadu – her first Shelly nomination as Calliope. In 2014 at SF Playhouse, she reprised her role as Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, which she plays 24/7 (her son’s name is Jack).
In October of 2014 Maureen’s husband of 32 years, Rick Alber (Dr. Rom on KGO radio) died unexpectedly from an unsuccessful heart operation. After a break, she slowly went back to work.
She did her new solo show Love Will Kick Your Ass at Oasis and at Feinstein’s. She made her drag king debut as Mr. Roper in Three’s Company Live at Oasis. She returned to Center Rep and played Georgette in It Shoulda Been You (Shelly nomination) and to 42nd St Moon, where she played Pauline in No No Nanette. At TheatreWorks she played Marge in The Bridges of Madison County, and at SF Playhouse played the Old Lady in Sunday in the Park With George.
In 2018 she played Linda Porter in the one-woman show, Love Linda at Cinnabar Theatre in Petaluma. She is the winner of seven SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and two Dramalogue Awards. McVerry’s film credits include Nine Months, The Dead Pool, Big Business, True Believer, Howard the Duck, The Ox and the Eye, and Crackers. On TV: Full House and Divorce Court.
For the last 10 summers, McVerry has hosted the “very” successful Maureen McVerry’s Musical Theatre Camp for children and teens. The camp’s motto is “Where children learn to play on and off the stage.”
Since 2001, she has directed 27 student theatre productions at public schools on the Peninsula. Since Rick’s passing, she directs one middle school musical a year at North Star Academy in Redwood City.
__________________
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
MM: Halfway through my junior year of college, I was a little lost, so I dropped out and lived in Europe and the San Juan Islands and had a lot of fun. Not finishing what I had started bugged me though so in 1980 I returned to Cal to graduate (I recommend taking a few gap years to anyone else who might be lost).
Since I had completed almost all of my requirements, I knew I could really explore what the school offered. Amazingly, my father suggested that I “try drama” (What parent suggests that??). I enrolled in Drama 10, my first acting class, and was completely swept away. For the final five quarters at Cal, I appeared in several shows and completed my degree in history.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
MM: The summer before I graduated from Cal, in 1980, I was in The Three Penny Opera at the Goodman Building on Geary with the incredible Jayne Dornacker as Jenny Diver. It ran for the whole summer! I even got paid a small stipend and was in heaven. In the ensemble, I played a beggar and a whore. My mother was thrilled. A few years later I played Polly Peachum at the Eureka Theatre with the late fabulous Sigrid Wurschmidt as Jenny Diver.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
MM: Too many to count, but maybe 50+? In one show in the 80s, I performed in the parking garage of the Oakland Museum. Maureen McVerry, LLC—still going strong since 19-*cough cough.*
ASR: Did you anticipate that you would become as successful as you have?
MM: That’s hilarious since I always tell people that by choosing theatre over film as my favorite pursuit, I took a “vow of poverty.”
However, I joined Equity and SAG back in the 80s and due to my longevity in the business, I can count on a pension from both of my unions. Fight for the union!
I should add that I married someone who was not in the business, which gave me the opportunity to have two children and own a house—really tough for a theatre actor.
ASR: Do you have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
MM: Happily, I have worked in films (feature and industrial), commercials, bad TV (Divorce Court), a sitcom filmed in front of a live audience (Full House), big expensive shows with fabulous costumes and tiny little shows where you wear your own clothes, weird experimental theatre, comedies, dramas, musicals and most recently, a “clown opera.”
Every few years I also put together a solo cabaret show and that is always a blast. Being in the same room as the audience is without a doubt my favorite way to work.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
MM: My late husband Rick Alber, (who never appeared on stage) had the greatest impact on my life as an actor. In 1982 I met him and he was my opening night date for 32 wonderful years. Rick loved theatre and during the rehearsal and performance process, he was my special advisor and gave me tons of tips to polish my performances.
After he died in 2014, one of my biggest fears was actually that my performances would fall apart without his second set of eyes to notice things and ask questions. However, 32 years of his advice was deeply rooted so even without his presence, I’ve managed to get the job done.
Luckily I have also worked with directors who create great work.
ASR: With the ongoing coronavirus crisis, it will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How are you coping with the shutdown?
MM: I’m heartbroken. Before COVID, my 2020 was really filled with upcoming work. Pajama Game at 42nd St Moon was canceled almost immediately as it was set to go into rehearsal in late March. Following Pajama Game, I was supposed to have three weeks off and then start rehearsals at SF Playhouse for Follies by Stephen Sondheim, scheduled to run all summer.
Last fall and winter I thought that my summer 2020 would be filled with an exhausting eight-shows-a-week schedule. Hopefully, next spring 42nd St Moon will mount Pajama Game (I’m cast as Mabel) and if I’m lucky, SF Playhouse will mount Follies in 2021. In that show, I am cast as Phyllis. Fingers crossed.
…the audience almost vomited with laughter.
ASR: So the crisis has really affected your planning for the coming seasons?
MM: What coming seasons? The theatre world is devastated as the floor just fell out. Everyone is just trying to figure out what is next. And not only what, but when? As a singer, I am especially crushed. It was devastating to read that singing with other people is the worst possible activity to pursue. Wow. My favorite thing to do is the last thing I should be doing— that hurts.
ASR: How do you envision the future for the theater community overall?
MM: Gosh, I wish I had a crystal ball for that question. My vision for everything is filled with hope because I believe hope is contagious. I hope and pray that someone smarter than me can create a vaccine soon and we can return to a world that is different, but hopefully closer to what we had than what we have now. During “normal” times, I am not really sure if anyone noticed their activities. We just called it “life.”
More than anything I miss sitting in the dark and laughing like a hyena and/or crying like a baby, surrounded by strangers having a similar experience. Who’da thunk that would be taken away? Back before this—especially with that guy in the White House—we were worried about a missile from North Korea or Russia invading some country but instead what we got was far worse. 150,000 Americans have died. That fact makes me weep.
Financial problems are already wreaking havoc on theatre companies everywhere and I worry that some won’t make it to the new post-COVID world. Trying to save money as people readjust, shows will probably be scaled back. Elaborate sets and costumes will be gone.
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. Has AB5 affected you?
MM: Luckily, as a member of an acting union, I am always paid.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
MM: Favorite dramas: Oslo, Uncle Vanya, Angels in America, great productions of plays by Arthur Miller and Tennesee Williams. Center Rep did The Diary of Anne Frank last season and it was brilliant. I saw the filmed version of The Lehman Trilogy—amazing. Sunday in the Park with George makes me cry all the time. I have so many good plays filling my brain now I have to stop listing shows.
Comedies: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Noises Off is my favorite comedy from the 20th century. So far, in four different productions, I have played two of the three roles I am eligible for. Hopefully, another production is in my future.
ASR: What are some of your least favorite plays? Care to share titles of those you would never produce—or never produce again?
MM: Anything by Dario Fo.
ASR: Which rare gem would you like to see revived?
MM: Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
MM: It would have to be costumes. Twenty-some years ago I was recruited to re-mount the middle school musical at my children’s elementary school.
Twenty-two shows later I’m still at it and am still amazed at the joy I experience at costume time. As the director, I have to teach children and parents about how to create a show. I tell my parent volunteers that a costume should do half of the work for the actor. As soon as an actor enters the stage, the audience should have a good idea of who that character is.
Coming up with the perfect costume is so rewarding. Plus, if you do costumes, once the show opens, you can sit out front and watch.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
MM: Dan Hiatt.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
MM: In a musical, I love it when the music director runs a group warm-up. I never miss one. It gives the actors a chance to connect in their street clothes and also share some air together.
Being super superstitious, I have a personal pre-show ritual that I never miss as well.
Afterward, I go home to walk my beloved dogs. Being in a show can be quite exhausting so afterward, I try to take care of myself. To handle the stress of tech weeks and openings which made my eyeballs twitch, I started meditating again (I hadn’t for 25+ years), and ba-bam! my twitch went away.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
MM: For the last twenty years I have taught my hundreds of student actors the three rules my college director Louise Mason taught me:
1. Be on time, ready to work at the start of rehearsal—not running in the door with a cup of coffee, but ready to work.
2. Do not talk when the director is talking.
3. When the director gives you a note, write it down, review the note before the next rehearsal. And never, I repeat, never make a director give you the same note twice.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
MM: Three people in my life fit this category:
In 2005 I was in my first production of Into the Woods at TheatreWorks as Jack’s Mother. The actor playing the Baker was Jackson Davis. During rehearsals, we discovered that we were born on the exact same day (but luckily for me, he’s two hours older). In 2010, we commuted from the Peninsula to SF Playhouse together to do a groovy musical, Coraline. That’s when we truly bonded.
2. The “Arbiter of Taste and Fashion,” my friend Lawrence Helman, is a man about town, publicist, writer, and the most opinionated person I know. Also smart and funny with a razor-sharp memory. If you need to get the word out, call Lawrence.
3. In 1990 I met a director named Rick Simas. He found songs for me, directed my solo shows, and has made think and laugh for 30 years. Way back, after getting a Ph.D. at Cal, he left the Bay Area and taught at SD State for years but hopefully he will move back here soon. Great ideas, plus an encyclopedic memory on shows, songs, and theatre. He directed my solo shows in 2017 and 2019. They were quite entertaining thanks to Rick.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
MM: There were a million screw-ups in runs of Noises Off but one of the best involved me and Dan Hiatt. His character was tugging a phone cord—the bit was the cord would come back without the mouthpiece. One night the cord returned like normal but zinged all over the stage and ended up caught in my hair. So I was actually attached to the phone offstage.
The audience almost vomited with laughter. I could have lost an eye but it was hilarious.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
MM: Once an actor missed an entrance in Noises Off and we stopped the show for the amount of time it took another cast member to run offstage and through the dressing rooms to get the actor off the pot and then into her costume to finally make her entrance and move on with the story.
Luckily I didn’t have to attempt bad improv since my character was “meditating.” Shockingly, my friends at the show didn’t notice the four-minute pause in act two!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
MM: After a matinee of Two Gentlemen of Verona at San Jose Rep, the cast went back out for a post-show discussion. While asking a question, an audience member said the title of the “Scottish Play” out loud. We all reacted with horror since it is supposed to bring such bad luck upon the theatre.
That night during the evening show, an enormous sandbag fell thirty feet to the stage with a huge boom.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
MM: My career as a children’s theatre director could be considered my day job.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
MM: Politics, baseball, reading, gardening, tap dancing, boogie boarding, and making the world more fabulous.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from the theater?
MM: I belong to all the museums and try to see as much as possible. For a time I painted portraits of dogs and landscapes but my passion pooped out. Guess I just need to get my paints out.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
MM: Say yes. Be kind. No whining.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
MM: Another Trump?
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
MM:Soup, a show set in a soup kitchen: the banter and dynamics of the volunteers with an opportunity to share the stories of guests so people learn more about the daily life of people experiencing homelessness. Comedy plus drama—a dramedy!
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
MM: Before this gosh darn pandemic I was looking forward to flying to DC and getting arrested with Jane Fonda and others to protest the lack of attention paid to climate change. It would be an honor to wear handcuffs for that. Wish me luck. In March, my son was evacuated from Lesotho after serving in the Peace Corps. He’s been with me but soon he plans to return to DC to live and work. Therefore soon I have another excuse to go to DC besides getting arrested.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
MM: First I’d say, “If I Loved You,” from Carousel. Makes me cry
Then, “All Kinds Of Time, by Fountains of Wayne. It’s a perfect story song. Our family sang it at Rick’s memorial in 2014.
Finally, “Danny Boy.” It also makes me cry. And more importantly, it reminds me of my childhood and how much my parents loved that song.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
MM: Scarves.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
MM: Terrifying thought to have anything that big around. Yikes! A cockapoo the size of a horse? I don’t want anything that big— not even horses!
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
MM: I go river rafting once a summer and that fulfills my need for thrills.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
MM: “Never give up. Never surrender.” —Galaxy Quest
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
M. Graham Smith is a San Francisco-based Director, Educator, and Producer. He is an O’Neill/NNPN National Directing Fellow, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Fellow, and a proud Resident Artist at SF’s Crowded Fire.
He grew up outside of New York City and has been based in San Francisco for the last fourteen years. He’s directed in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, Washington DC, and venues in San Francisco.
Graham directed the West Coast Premiere of JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA in SF and TRUFFALDINO SAYS NO at Shotgun Players, winning Best Director for the Bay Area Critics Circle.
Recent credits include the World Premiere of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s HOME INVASION in SF, DEAL WITH THE DRAGON at ACT’s Costume Shop & Edinburgh Fringe & NCTC, Mia Chung’s YOU FOR ME FOR YOU at Crowded Fire, and James Ijames’ WHITE at Shotgun.
His two upcoming projects include the world premiere of BONE ON BONE at NJ Rep, and the first workshop production of HOMOSEXUAL CONDUCT at Occidental College in LA, a play he co-created with playwright Sarah Kozinn about the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision.
He spent five years as Producer of Aurora Theater’s new play development program and festival The Global Age Project. He teaches at A.C.T.’s actor-training programs, Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and at Barcelona’s premiere Meisner Technique program in Spain.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
GS: In general I believe that theater is a space where weirdness and every variety of behavior should be allowed without judgment. I hate the weirdness of audience members shushing other audience members for laughing and responding to the play.
That feels like a very weird behavior to me. After all, we came to the space to meet the play with our whole selves.
ASR: Which person has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
GS: There have been a lot of folks who’ve helped me developed my professional career, almost all of them my peers, like the extraordinary Mina Morita at Crowded Fire, who is a trusted advisor. Like Marissa Wolf, now the AD at Portland Center Stage. The Actor/Creator Kevin Rolston whom I’ve spent several years developing work with.
It’s funny that I have been unsuccessful for most of my career in finding a mentor.
Tommy Kail, the director of Hamilton, whom I went to college with, jokes with me about this phenomenon: “Are you my mentor, are you my mentor?” – Perhaps because I’m inherently not a joiner, I’ve never enjoyed that kind of relationship.
To indicate that I was too “cool”… I wore sunglasses. It was a revelation...
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance of a play?
GS: I happened to be on stage at the time, and an actor was supposed to enter the scene through the door of the set, but the door was stuck, so the actor had to open a window and enter the scene that way, which was bizarre and hilarious.
It was an early lesson for me about playing the moment!
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what are three things you would tell them are essential to know?
GS: Let me think…
The best ideas don’t have to be yours; encourage a space where everyone feels excited to contribute.
Art is about experimentation, so do things you don’t know what the outcome will be.
Don’t attempt something that doesn’t scare you a little bit. Otherwise, you’re not stretching yourself.
ASR: What would be the worst “Buy One, Get One Free” sale of all time?
GS: A suicide kit.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make The Rules. What are the first three rules you put into place?
GS: Hmmm…. ok here goes…
No shoes!
Good food ONLY!
Happy hour is at 5 pm every day of the year!
ASR: How do you relax before a performance?
GS: A great meal with good friends.
ASR: You have been given the opportunity to create the 30-minute TV show of your own design. What is it called and what’s the premise?
GS: I really like shows about food.
And dogs.
So maybe something about food and dogs.
But not dogfood.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
GS: Somewhere between civil disobedience and jaywalking. I’m a snooze.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
GS: It’s hard to narrow it down to one person. I think we are blessed in the Bay Area with a strong community that really looks out for each other.
I can always call Dawn Monique Williams to have a long serious talk about a play we’ve just seen. Or Chris Herold about educational pedagogy. Or Lisa Marie Rollins who has always been there for me in ways big and small. Ely Sonny Orquiza has been such an incredible co-pilot with me on some of my favorite projects.
We have a strong community here that I’m so grateful to call home.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
GS: The People Have The Power sung by Patti Smith. Because we do. Sam Cooke, the entire album of Night Beat because it’s just the best music ever made. The Book of Love by the Magnetic Fields – we played it at our wedding.
ASR: Which one fashion accessory do you like better than others?
GS: I love a really good pair of shoes.
ASR: Which play would you like to see put into the deep freeze for 20 years?
GS: To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe more than 20 years.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, name an actor on a Bay Area stage who you think is doing amazing work?
GS: Jomar Tagatac. Every one of his performances is a revelation. He’s a shapeshifter with a dedication to being present and making the moment live.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
GS: I love Winter’s Tale. The first half is like Othello, the second half is like As You Like It. It’s a story of cruelty and healing, and the problems you need to solve in directing it are very exciting to think about.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing one of the following technical theater roles: Light, Props or Costumes which would it be and why?
GS: Light. I love telling stories with light. The transformation that you can create with that department is so rich. I spent a long time when I was younger doing light design and light board op. I love the technical attention to detail.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
GS: A snail!
ASR: Shark diving, bungee jumping, or skydiving?
GS: Bungee all the way!
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
GS: At Church, we did this church musical called It’s Cool in the Furnace about King Nebuchadnezzar attempting to murder political enemies in a furnace. You know, really great children’s musical theater material.
I played Daniel, who performs some sort of miracle. To indicate that I was too “cool” for the furnace, I wore sunglasses.
It was a revelation.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
GS: Two lines. Same movie…
Actor 1: “Inconceivable!”
Actor 2: “You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.”
— The Princess Bride
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Kris Neely
Kris Neely launched Aisle Seat Review in 2015. He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ASR. Mr. Neely is an SFBATCC Best Director Award Winner (2013). He is also the founder and publisher of Cresting Wave Publishing, LLC at www.gocwpub.com
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
When describing the role of a dramaturg, Dr. Philippa Kelly says this: “Whatever can make a production deeper and richer and more ambiguous and interpretively challenging – that is the goal of my activities as a dramaturg.”
Since encountering Shakespeare at age fourteen, she’s become the first woman in history to prepare a public edition of King Lear and has published eleven books, including three on King Lear, one of the most recent being The King and I, which is a meditation on dispossession through the twin lenses of King Lear and Australian culture. In April 2020, with Amrita Ramanan as Associate Editor, Kelly published Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field (Routledge).
She’s also educated students and audiences about Shakespeare in schools, prisons, and at the California Shakespeare Theater. As an Australian-American she has a unique perspective on how identity, social justice, and dramaturgy can be woven together throughout the creative process of theatre-making.
Philippa Kelly
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
PK: I came to America as a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley. Then I came back as a Rockefeller Scholar some years later. So I had trained to be, and was practicing as, a scholar/teacher.
Discovering dramaturgy made it all make sense – I would never go back to academe full-time. Dramaturgy makes knowledge live. Being Dramaturg for the California Shakespeare Theater has been the greatest professional joy of my life.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
PK: Quite a lot: Cal Shakes, of course; and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; the Play On festival; the Aurora; Word for Word; the Berkeley Repertory Theater; A UC production of Midsummer, and another UC production, totally student-led, in which the theme was “Glitter Macbeth” in honor of the director’s fascination with Mariah Carey. The student playing Macbeth was an athlete who had never acted before, and I taught him to walk like a soldier by putting sandbags on his feet.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
PK: The California Shakespeare Theater of course has Shakespeare as its core, with Shakespeare’s incredible capacity to lay bare, and make us stare into the heart of human paradox. But under Jon Moscone’s vision, we began doing two Shakespeares and two other classics (Shaw, Wilde, Chekhov) per season; and under the leadership of Eric Ting, the company has moved more into New Classics – with the idea that while Shakespeare is a touchstone, the two (Shakespeare and the creation of New Works) can feed each other.
I’d say there is not a single artist I’ve met from whom I didn’t learn something, even if I didn’t see it at the time.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
PK: The greatest influence in my professional life has really been Professor Stephen Greenblatt. Way before I became a dramaturg, it was his work that taught me to think dramaturgically – how we live, with all of our paradox, in this human world. Another great influence has been Curt Tofteland of Shakespeare Behind Bars – the way in which Curt brings the words of Shakespeare to reach places for which there has been so much hurt but may have been little language.
And one of my dearest inspirations is set designer Annie Smart. She has the eye of a designer and the mind of a dramaturg. When I prepare my actor packets (I write a fresh, 20-page actor packet for every show), I send them to Annie, and she grades the draft from A+ to B-!!! I’ve also been inspired by Eric Ting (we have already adapted four plays together into one – that takes some trust!) and Joel Sass, an amazingly original director, who is so thorough that there is almost nothing for me to do!
There are so many artists who have inspired me – actress/director Joy Carlin (her famous comment: “Don’t worry darling – it’s only theater”), playwright Marcus Gardley, director Ian Belknap, musician/performer/writer Rinde Eckert, writer/actress Ellen McLaughlan, dramaturg Lue Douthit (she says “Theater is a journey from emotion to emotion.”).
I’d say there is not a single artist I’ve met from whom I didn’t learn something, even if I didn’t see it at the time. And theater historian Liz Schafer – we have known and worked together on and off for 20 years. If you are looking for a fascinating book of interviews with women directing Shakespeare, look for her 1997 book, MsDirecting Shakespeare.
I think my dearest, deepest, most combative artistic relationship is with my husband Paul Dresher. He is a composer, presenter, and producer. Sometimes in response to his critiques I want to throw him down the toilet – but I know that when I cool down I’ll be so grateful for the light he shines into my work with his brilliant mind.
ASR: Have the coronavirus crisis and ongoing social upheaval affected your company and your work?
PK: The virus has decimated theaters everywhere. Cal Shakes has been doing a huge amount of work with Black Lives Matter and anti-racist activism. As for myself, every week I record a 12-minute video in a series we call “Run the Canon.” (https://calshakes.org/cal-shakes-online/run-the-canon/)
By the end of the year, we will have recorded videos for every play in Shakespeare’s canon. And this coming Tuesday (July 28th) I’m interviewing supreme Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the World, The Swerve, and Tyrant. This will be followed by a ten-week course on five Shakespeare plays, which I’ll run every week. (https://calshakes.org/learn/shakespeare-in-depth-with-philippa-kelly/)
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
PK: Whenever I sit down with a box of tissues to watch The Sound of Music, my husband Paul says, “Oh, OK. I’ll sit upstairs and start filling out the divorce papers.”
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most under-rated play? Why?
PK: I think The Comedy of Errors. I was about to work on it with the wonderful director Jessica Holt for Cal Shakes this season when Covid struck. It’s under-rated because people often see it as just a light comedy, but it is also a deep meditation on the mysteries of identity. Who are we? There’s so little time to find out. When we look at, or listen to, another person, we very often see what is inside our own heads rather than what is there in front of us. Look at how people saw Hilary Clinton – or didn’t see her. And so we got stuck with the orange nightmare. Misrecognition, mis-seeing, misunderstanding—these are key to the lightness and darkness of The Comedy of Errors.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
PK:Midsummer – I’ve dramaturged it four times.
ASR: Who do you think is the most amazing Bay Area actor?
PK: Honestly there are so many. I revere them. But if I had to name one who did something I’ve never seen before, it would be Patty Gallagher. We had had Marcia Mason cast as Winnie in our 2009 production of Beckett’s Happy Days. Marcia left after ten days, Patty came in, and she played the most beautiful Winnie I could ever imagine. She had only ten days to prepare, and that role comprises almost the whole play, and it is full of non-sequiturs. Still today when I think of Patty’s Winnie, tears come to my eyes. I love that play so much. Her performance was pitch-perfect.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
PK: Hmm. Quite a question…
1: Ask “Why are we performing this play, at this time, for this audience, in this place?” You need to feel the pulse of the present moment and be incredibly specific in that feeling.
2: Be prepared to draw from a deep well of knowledge, but do not expect to share, or volunteer, the whole of that well unless you want the director to hit you over the head with a chair. [Editor’s Note: Oh, sooo very true! — KN]
3: Don’t feel that you have to know everything – you can look it up. It’s the thirst for knowledge that makes a great dramaturg.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen onstage in a live performance?
PK: I saw a Romeo and Juliet at OSF where Romeo sent the knife flying and poor Juliet had to stab herself without it.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
PK: I am a writer and an educator. I run a community Shakespeare group; I run a theater appreciation group (you can contact me about either class –they run in separate terms all year long – on philippakellydresher@gmail.com); and I am proud to be Chair and Professor of English at the California Jazz Conservatory under the directorship of Susan Muscarella.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
PK: I love to swim, read, walk my chihuahuas, and to sit in the Australian morning sun with my family or friends, drinking “flat whites.”
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
PK: I follow music, of course – The Paul Dresher Ensemble! John Adams.
I love photographer Richard Misrach’s work.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
PK: A colonoscopy prep kit.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
PK: An amoeba.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
PK: My beloved brother died rock climbing, so I’m not too much into risky sports. But I do love looking at the works of friends of mine who are photographers (Richard Misrach, Debbie O’Grady), painters (Naomie Kremer), authors (Richard Zimler), musicians (Paul Dresher, John Adams) and being awed in the presence of this fact: that when artists make their work, the act is as risk-taking as that of any explorer who has forged ahead even though they might fall off the edge of the world.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
PK: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” – NOT!!! Love means being ABLE to say you’re sorry!
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Aldo Billingslea is the Father William J. Rewak S. J., Professor of Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University. A member of Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild, Billingslea has appeared in numerous theatrical productions in the Bay Area and across the country.
With Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company he gave an astounding powerful performance in Dry Powder, a production that won near-unanimous critical acclaim.
Billingslea resides in Santa Clara with Renee Billingslea, his visual-artist wife who also teaches at Santa Clara University, and Trinity, their daughter, who is captain of the Santa Clara Bronco rowing team.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
AB: I thought it would help me get kissed by women. I was in 7th grade.
I did not get my first stage kiss until I was a sophomore in college. And then it was on the cheek.
ASR: How many theaters have you been involved with?
AB: Not including the theaters where I have acted, I’m currently on the board of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and the Marin Theatre Company. I’m an associate producer and ambassador for PlayGround. I’ve served on the board of Renegade Theatre and Playground and on the advisory board for Gritty City Youth Repertory Theatre. I have participated in the Artistic Director searches for Marin Theatre Company, the Aurora Theatre, and TheatreWorks. I’m over-involved.
ASR: What was your first paying theatrical gig?
AB: It was the Jones and Schmidt musical Celebration! I played Potemkin. It was summer of 1984 in a converted barn theater in the hill country of Texas, at a place called Mo Ranch.
ASR: Who has had the biggest influence on your career?
AB: There are a ton of people who contributed to the development of my professional career! Apart from my wife Renee, one of the most significant would be my college professor Dr. Barbara Means Fraser. She directed me a few times in college, encouraged me to audition for graduate school, and after I graduated with those degrees, encouraged me to go to Ashland. She then helped me work my way to Santa Clara University where I’ve been teaching for the last 22 years.
……theatrical Zoom work is new and creative!
ASR: How has the coronavirus shutdown affected you?
AB: I may actually be busier since the shutdown. Not commuting to theaters means the opportunity to work with more of them. Our Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project was created in collaboration with PlayGround, the Lorraine Hansberry, and Planet Earth Arts, and forty other Bay Area theatres, plus twenty more theatres across the country to read Vincent Terrell Durham’s Polar Bears, Black Boys, and the Prairie Fringed Orchid.
It was thrilling and led us to launch the Black Theater fundraiser, an initiative to fund black theaters around the country. They are hurting partly because of COVID-19 and because black theater isn’t properly funded.
COVID-19 canceled several gigs for me, the most painful of which was Lauren Gunderson’s Book of Will at TheatreWorks, which would’ve allowed me to appear in the last play directed by Robert Kelley as artistic director and be on the stage again with Jim Carpenter, Jennifer Le Blanc, Francis Jue, Rebecca Dines, Mark Anderson Phillips, Jackson Davis and a host of other fabulous actors.
Jennifer Le Blanc and I were supposed to do another Othello at Pacific Repertory Theatre—we had done it at Marin Shakespeare in 2004—so after 16 years later I should be better. Jennifer and I were also supposed to do Death and the Maiden together, also at Pacific Rep. However, had I been engaged in those productions, I wouldn’t have been able to participate in the great collaboration for Polar Bears, Black Boys, and the Prairie Fringed Orchid, or participated in the black theater fund. So the Lord does work in mysterious ways!
ASR: What’s the worst aspect of the shutdown for you?
AB: Losing the immediacy of being in a theater, and relating to human beings without the separation of a screen. It is invaluable and sorely missed! However, this theatrical Zoom work is new and creative. It’s going to send us into a new realm and a new burst of exploration as people try to find ways to harvest the potential.
ASR: What are some of your favorite plays?
AB:Othello and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Give me August Wilson and William Shakespeare and I’d be good for a while. Also, I love Marcus Gardley’s Black Odyssey and Sarah Burgess’ Dry Powder, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, and Lauren Gunderson’s Book of Will and I am so very very taken by Polar Bears, Black Boys, and the Prairie Fringed Orchid that I’m directing it at Santa Clara University this fall!
ASR: A favorite quote?
AB: “I believe in the American theatre. I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, and its power to heal.” – August Wilson
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
We caught up with Amy Miller, Artistic Director of the Transcendence Theatre Company (TTC) with headquarters in Sonoma. TTC is a close-knit extended family of dozens of song-and-dance stars invited from around the U.S.
Every summer (except this year) these stage and screen talents perform outdoor among the stone ruins of Jack London State Historic Park. When the nights cool down in autumn, TTC moves inside to North Bay stages performing energetic scenes from Broadway musicals.
USA Today readers discovered TTC years ago when TTC was voted #2 in the “Best Outdoor Concert Venues.”
Amy Miller
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
AM: I started dancing at age five and never stopped. As a tot, I looked up to the older dancers. When they shifted to the theatre in high school, it inspired me to join the theatre as well.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
AM: I was The Jester in Once Upon A Mattress at McAuley High in Cincinnati, Ohio.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
AM: Oh wow! At least 10 regional theatres as well as Broadway and national tours, not counting television and film.
…Our team works hard and believes “The obstacle is the way.”
ASR: When was your present company formed?
AM: In 2009 six of us gathered in Punta Banda, Mexico for a unique and incredible theatrical experiment. Brad Surosky, Stephan Stubbins, Randi Kaye, Robert Petrarca, Leah Sprecher, and I joined with other performers to assess challenges facing the health and wellness of the theatre community. “Project Knowledge” researched a holistic approach.
Later we learned California was planning to close Jack London State Historic Park in budget-cutting. We put on a fundraiser there in 2011 which began the Transcendence model of outdoor shows under the stars. We hoped to do one performance of our favorite Broadway numbers and sell fifty tickets to our friends. Imagine our surprise when we filled the place! Our first season of multiple summer shows began the next year. Since then we’ve raised over $515,000 to keep the park open and deliver arts education to schools.
ASR: Did you anticipate that TTC would become as successful as it has?
AM: Absolutely, I always knew this would serve the world and be very important.
ASR: Does TTC have a special focus?
AM: Transcendence has a focus on musical theatre, inspiring songs, and powerful dance. Our intention is to uplift and empower our audiences to live the best life ever. We hope that when you enjoy a Transcendence performance, you’ll be inspired to spread love and joy well after leaving the theatre. Transcendence has a mission to share the arts as a service to everyone.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
AM: Planning for the future is always one step at a time. At this moment we are dedicated to our staff, artists, and community more than ever. Our team works hard and believes “The obstacle is the way.”
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
AM: In addition to our well-loved summer season outdoors, we’re building a network online to share education and performances with the world. We continue to develop new works and encourage artists to grow and excel.
ASR: Assembly Bill 5 presently requires most workers be paid California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. How has AB5 affected your theater company?
AM: We are complying with AB5 and have turned all of our people into employees. It definitely has added more to our expenses which is difficult during this unprecedented time.
ASR: Life in the theater: What are some of your favorite shows?
AM:A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics, and Chicago, of course. I love musicals!
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into the deep freeze for 20 years?
AM:The Secret Garden.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
AM:Tick, Tick, Boom.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
AM: Stage Management. Stage managers are absolute heroes. What an incredible task they have each day and night!
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
AM: I meditate, stretch, breathe, and I have a secret ritual with all the ladies in the dressing room which empowers us to give our best every night!
After a performance, like many artists, I relax by spending time with friends and family.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
AM:
1. Take care of yourself and your health and wellness.
2. Have a clear vision.
3. Be a strong leader with kind and compassionate communication.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
AM: Lily Tomlin forgot her monologue in her one-woman show on Broadway, The Search for Signs of The Intelligent Life in the Universe. She told everyone she had to leave the stage and returned after a drink of water.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
AM: At The Barn Theatre in Michigan, I was dancing the tango in Evita with my lifelong friend and Transcendence Artistic Associate, Tony Gonzalez. We were to do a major lift at the climax of the number and he dropped me! We ran offstage both mortified! No grudges held here, as Tony choreographs and directs for TTC today.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
AM: An audience member once ran backstage during the show. It happened during the musical number “The Time Warp” which made it even weirder!
ASR: Life outside the theater: Do you have a “day job?” What are your interests outside of theater?
AM: Transcendence is my day job, and I am beyond grateful to enjoy it as much as I do. My interests are definitely family and friends, my son and husband. I also like photography, as well as watching the sky at sunrise and sunset.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
AM:The Broadway Artist Wine Chat, a weekly Q & A with all artists in the industry sharing stories and life connections with each other and the audience. Think James Lipton’s Inside the Actors Studio but at a winery!
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking?
AM: I have been surfing and I even stood up one time!
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
AM: “A vision’s just a vision if it’s only in your head if no one gets to see it, it’s as good as dead, it has to come to life…” from Sondheim’s Sunday In the Park with George.
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
David Templeton is a Bay Area arts journalist and playwright best known locally for his work with the Petaluma Argus-Courier, and for 16 years as a writer and theater critic for the North Bay Bohemian. He also contributes to Strings magazine and others.
As a playwright, he’s won awards for his solo show Wretch Like Me, which has had runs at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in Scotland. His other plays include Pinky, Polar Bears, Drumming with Anubis, and Mary Shelley’s Body – the latter adapted from David’s novella of the same name, published in the 2016 anthology Eternal Frankenstein.
His supernatural short story, Questions and Answers, appears in the recent anthology Tales From a Talking Board. His next play is the science-fiction mystery Galatea, which will make its world premiere in 2021 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park.
David Templeton
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
DT: In second grade, in Southern California, I wrote a short play called Grumpy, which was Snow White and the 7 Dwarves told from the perspective of the crankiest dwarf.
I asked my teacher if I could stage it, and we made some attempts at making that happen, but I have no memory of actually performing it, beyond my working hard to learn my lines for weeks. It’s weird because I don’t think I’d previously seen a theater production of any kind beyond my Episcopal church’s annual nativity pageant, in which I appeared as the one-and-only black sheep in the flock of white-costumed kindergarten sheep.
But for some reason, I had that idea for a play, and from Grumpy on, I knew I wanted a life in the theater. I did tons of plays in school, wrote and staged plays and puppet shows at the local library, and then started my own company in high school. It was originally a puppet theater, but we eventually added live action plays, which of course, I wrote and directed.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
DT: That’s a hard one. A lot of those early plays I wrote and directed were done on a pass-the-hat basis but were enough to pay my bills for a year or so after I graduated from high school. If you mean, what was the first play I appeared in for a company that was not: A. a school, B. my own company or C. a troupe performing at the Renaissance Faire (where I did do some performing while operating game booths in the early 1980s), I suppose it would have to be Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) for Santa Rosa Players.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
DT: Another hard one. By the time I did that show with the Santa Rosa Players, I’d long ago moved to Northern California, started working for newspapers on the swing shift, and started a family.
During all that time, I pretty much thought I’d given up on my earlier theatrical ambitions. Instead, I wrote poems and short stories, the occasional bad screenplay, and of course the journalistic writing I was doing more and more of.
In fact, I got the part in Complete Works of William Shakespeare “because” of journalism. I was writing for the North Bay Bohemian (not yet doing theater criticism), and I was assigned a story on local community theater. The idea my editor and I came up with was for me to go to an audition “undercover” as someone auditioning, and then write about all the wacky folks spending their evenings doing local shows.
To my surprise, I was offered one of the three roles, at which point I had to admit that I had not actually been auditioning, but was writing a newspaper story.
As I remember it, the director Carl Hamilton said, “Write what you want, we want you in this show.” I got a scathing review from the Press Democrat but was suddenly being offered parts again.
After a few shows with the Players, I segued back into writing my own plays, beginning with my one-man-show Wretch Like Me, which I wrote with the intention of performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I ended up performing it nearly a hundred times including runs all over the North Bay. I went on to write several more plays as you’ve already noted — thank you.
On occasion, over the years, I’ve continued to be occasionally cast in other shows, including playing Judas in Godspell and the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (both with Santa Rosa Players), The Large and Terrible Frog in A Year With Frog and Toad (6th Street Playhouse), Rick Masters in Circus Acts (Actors’ Basement), Bill Sikes in Oliver (Lucky Penny Productions) and Commander Harbison in South Pacific (Spreckels Theatre Company).
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
DT: This one’s easy. Though I would arguably never have stepped back into writing plays were it not for Dan Zastrow and Julia Lander, two friends who “strongly” encouraged me to stop “talking” about writing my one-man show and actually write and perform the thing – and went on to produce the first several productions of it (originally directed by David Yen) – it’s been Sheri Lee Miller who has had the largest impact on me professionally – as a playwright, certainly.
She encouraged me to write my follow-up, Pinky, which she directed in its world premiere and also in its encore production. Since then, she’s been a stalwart friend, a constant supporter, champion, and exemplar of generosity, an artistically vibrant source of inspiration, a tireless feedback giver and promoter, and a frequent and ever-valuable collaborator. Every minute spent on a stage with Sheri is a directorial master class. She’s the best.
…I’ve seen two or three bad productions of ‘Macbeth’ for every good one.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. What are you doing till then?
DT: I’ve been mostly reading other people’s works, memorizing huge chunks of text just to keep my memorization skills intact. Having Galatea be canceled less than a week before its opening was hard because it was really looking good. It’s a script I’m incredibly proud of, and not getting to share it with the world was hard, but since Spreckels is still planning on producing the play once it is possible to do so, I’ve got that to look forward to.
That said, it kind of took the wind out of my sails, so I haven’t had much desire to write anything new just yet. But in the meanwhile, I’ve learned that a theater school in New York will be doing a Zoom-based production of my play Drumming with Anubis in July, and there’s talk of a production, either live or streaming, of my one-person-show Polar Bears this winter in Idaho.
And I “do” have some ideas for new plays (I’m suddenly having crazy new ideas all the time), and I imagine I will get the bug to start writing one of them sometime fairly soon.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas?
DT:Gem of the Ocean, by August Wilson (I’ve seen three productions, and would love to see more). Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel because the story, the language and the poetry of the plotting are breathtaking. The Jungle, by Joe Murphy and Joe Robinson, who collected stories from a real refugee camp in France, and spun them into an interactive, immersive experience that entirely rearranged the way I think about theater.
ASR: Musicals?
DT: Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, not normally performed “as” a stage production (usually as an orchestra piece with choruses), but I saw it done as a theatrical piece once, and I’ve never gotten over it. Come From Away, because it’s so uplifting and delightful and deeply moving. Fiddler on the Roof, because every song is gorgeous and memorable and because it’s about surviving prejudice and bigotry and hate.
ASR: Comedies?
DT:On the Razzle, by Tom Stoppard, The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde and Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley. These are plays that are weird, funny, and deeply insightful, and are consistently effective, every time I see them or reread them.
ASR: What are some of your least favorite plays?
DT: I really dislike Bye Bye Birdie, a play that – despite introducing a rare instance of interracial love in which no one ends up dead at the end – is so of its time that it just doesn’t work anymore. In fact, it’s kind of embarrassing.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
DT:Bye Bye Birdie, obviously. Can we make it 30 years?
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play?
DT: Got to be Cymbeline.
ASR: Why?
DT: People just don’t seem to understand it, but to me, it’s actually a flat-out blast of a play, with a little of everything in it. It’s got a great female central character (Cymbeline, the king, is barely a presence in it; this show is “all” about Imogen), some fantastic plotting, huge twists and turns and really dark comedy, a fantastically icky villain (several of them actually), an evil stepmother, a headless body, and a fantastic battle with huge emotional impact for everyone involved. I’d love to direct it sometime. I have ideas.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
DT: As opposed to “most performed?” Those would obviously be A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet, but they are solidly entertaining plays and good introductions to the Shakespeare canon.
I’d say the most “over-performed” is Macbeth, because it’s actually really hard to pull off, and yet people can’t resist it because it’s spooky and fun and bloody and theater producers think it’s a good one for Halloween. But I’ve seen two or three bad productions of Macbeth for every good one.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
DT: Props. I love making props. It’s like arts-and-crafts but with a bit of costuming and magic involved. When I was in Oliver! I ended up taking the broom-handle I was given as Bill Sikes’ murder stick, and I beat it up and stained it and turned it into a really scary-looking billy club. I still have it, actually.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
DT: Well, I’ve already talked about Sheri Lee Miller as a director, but I do believe it’s a shame she hasn’t been on stage since she played Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Body, a role I really hope she picks up again sometime in the near future.
She’s been awesome in everything I’ve see her in, but beyond that, I’d say that, Bay Area-wide, my other favorites include Margo Hall (exacting and meticulous performer, with a blinding presence and one of the most dazzling stage smiles of all time) and James Carpenter (a chameleon in every way, best death scene I’ve ever witnessed, and not a bad smile himself).
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance?
DT: It depends. There was a time I went through a list of about 20 stretches and vocal things, made a ceremony of transforming into my costume/character, but after Edinburgh, when I literally had ten minutes or less to get into costume and get ready for places, I learned to do all of that in a few intense minutes.
That said, when I’m doing a normal non-fringe solo show, where I’ll be reciting 75 minutes of text but have plenty of time in the theater beforehand, it really takes the fear-factor down if I run every word of the show, with blocking (sped up, or course), an hour or two before the house opens.
ASR: How do you relax after?
DT: I really enjoy talking with people in the lobby after a show. It’s a nice transition back to the world.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
DT: Well, as a playwright mentor, I’d hope anyone I instructed or coached would take away that
1. Failure, while awful to experience, is as important a teacher as is success, and maybe more so, if you are up to staying in the discomfort space long enough to hear the lessons failure has to teach.
2. To get a good idea for a play, or a solution to a problem encountered in writing that play, you generally have to generate hundreds of less good ideas, so we should never fall too much in love with our first thoughts. Use the brainstorming to get a lot of material and then choose the one you think is the juiciest.
3. Listen to actors. You don’t have to take every suggestion they throw at you, but you should definitely avoid “never” listening to them. After several weeks of stepping into a character, they often get to know that person at least as well as you do, and sometimes more so.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
DT: I once watched a production of Camelot, in which a sword escaped one of the knights of the round table, flew across the stage toward the audience, launched into the air and finally landed in the one unoccupied seat in the front row. It was, under the circumstances, hilarious, precisely because it was very nearly … not.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
DT: I don’t know how weird this is, but during one performance of my play Pinky, in which I performed along with Liz Jahren, there was a climactic kiss scene, in which my character takes an excruciating amount of time “getting” that Pinky wants him to kiss her.
At one point, a woman in the back row suddenly yelled, “Just KISS HER … FOOL!” It was hard completing the kiss while both Liz and I were trying not to laugh, and even harder when Pinky, having been kissed by my character, thinking about whether she liked it or not, suddenly grabs him and kisses him back, really energetically.
At that point, another person in the audience, probably loosened up by the first patron’s exclamation, shouted, quite loudly, “Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!!”
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
DT: Fortunately, yes. Currently, I’m the Community Editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier newspaper in Petaluma.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
DT: Movies have always been a major enthusiasm for me. A perfect day is one where I see at least three movies in actual theaters, which of course, hasn’t happened in a while. I’ve also recently learned to tie balloon animals. So I’ve been doing a lot of that. I especially like making balloon dogs. They are classic.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
DT: Honestly, I’ve often thought it would be cool to turn my Wretch Like Me play into a television series. Set in the ‘70s, in the beach communities and suburbs of LA, with a nerdy puppet-loving kid who gets ”adopted” by the Jesus Club at his school, and goes to wacky extremes trying to fit in. I see it as being like That 70s Show, but with a slightly cult vibe. And darker. And possibly funnier.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
DT: “Amazing Grace,” because it was once very important to me on numerous levels, and because I learned how to sing it forwards and backward (literally backward). Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Street,” because I once danced to it in a mayonnaise factory during a moment of profound emotional release and freedom.
And the theme song to Rockford Files, which I long ago recognized as an excellent song to which my coffin might one day be carried away from the funeral service, an idea my family is well aware of and which I continue to stick to, at least for the moment.
DT: If randomly given the opportunity to go into space, specifically to the moon, I would go in a heartbeat. I’ve been dreaming of going to the moon since before I was dreaming of writing plays.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
DT: Currently, I’d say one quote I’ve been thinking about a lot happens to be from my own play, Galatea, which I look forward to sharing with the world soon, or soon enough: “Humans. Not a bad species really … just badly programmed.”
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Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Marvin Greene
Marvin Greene is an amazing human being: actor, musician, teacher, voice over artist, New York cab driver — even a coal miner.
Legend has it he arrived in San Francisco in the cast of a road show of Biloxi Blues starring Woody Harrelson, and that he (Mr. Greene) loved the Bay Area so much … he put down roots and stayed here.
Marvin has been teaching acting, directing, and improvising around the Bay Area. Just the briefest glance at his resume shows some illustrious names, including: A.C.T, San Jose Repertory Theater, Marin Shakespeare Company, Marina Theatre Company, Aurora Theater, and a host of others. He has taught acting at A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, the Academy of Art University and Voice One in San Francisco, among others. He has performed in regional theater, voice-over, television and film, and appeared in the feature film Fruitvale.
Marvin came to the theatre by way of his and other people’s music, starting his career playing guitar and cello in the pit orchestra for musicals. This is also a man who proffers damn good advice for people going into an audition, “Remember the word “show” in show business. Be charming!”
In addition to his “night job” as an actor/musician, Marvin has worked with the firm “Stand & Deliver Group” since 2012, at organizations like Black Rock, Deloitte, and Cisco, focusing on helping individuals and teams find relevance in their messages; communicate honestly and without pretense; elevate their confidence; learn to read others; and communicate with brevity.
A graduate of Brown University in English literature, Marvin received his M.F.A. in Theater from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
As busy as ever, Aisle Seat Review’s publisher Kris Neely managed to lasso Mr. Green long enough to get some answers to some of our favorite Not So Random Questions!
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
MG: First real play I performed in was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I played Lysander.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
MG: Have a heart attack and die instantly. The weird part is that right before we went on I said to the leading lady, “you look so hot you’re going to give some old man a heart attack.”
She did. But I suppose it was almost okay in the end. His wife told us that he loved the Theater and if he had chosen a way to go that would be it.
ASR: Which person has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
MG: James Barnhill. My first acting teacher at Brown University. He was one of the few professors I ever met who seemed to enjoy his job. He made me fall in love with acting.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance of a play?
MG: That was at the Longwharf Theater in 1984. I and another Equity Membership Candidate (EMC) had something like four or five lines each.
Before one show he said: “Watch me out there.” He went out and started ad-libbing the play.
His desire to be a star was so huge that he wrote himself a part and recited it for the audience. One of the actors improved him off the stage. Needless to say he never worked in that town again.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what are three things you would tell them are essential to know?
Know who you are.
Know who you are.
Know who you are.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
MG: Ex-Lax.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make The Rules. What are the first three rules you put into place?
MG: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The rest… is commentary.
ASR: How do you relax before a performance?
MG: I play the guitar. Music is great because it’s a language beyond words. Doesn’t mess with the text.
…Shoes. I’m really fascinated by how they change you…
ASR: You have been given the opportunity to create the 30-minute TV show of your own design. What is it called and what’s the premise?
MG: Okay I’m really winging it here. It’s called PICK ME.
A guy is on-line dating and meets a girl who he’s so attracted that he can’t give up on her. After the first date she rejects him. So he keeps re-inventing himself through costume and behavior. She keeps rejecting him and picking the new version of him.
Eventually the end up together.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
MG: I have many. They generally form when the problems in the play are the problems in our lives and we’re all working out our lives together as we work out the play together.
That creates a bond that is like family.
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
MG: Dark Was the Night by Blind Willie Johnson. Ry Cooder called it the “single most transcendent piece of American music.” It’s haunting, beautiful and deep beyond words.
Stardust by Louis Armstrong Louis has freedom and restraint in his playing at the same time. Total imagination and playfulness. Soul beyond description.
Something is New by Santana. It reminds me of being 16 with the world ahead of me. His playing is lyrical and the band is great.
ASR: Which one fashion accessory do you like better than others?
MG: Shoes. I’m really fascinated by how they change you
ASR: Which play would you like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
MG: Well, anything topical, really. Cultures, like people, need breathing and healing time before their reflections become art.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing one of the following technical theater roles: Light, Props or Costumes which would it be and why?
MG: Costumes hands down. The pressure work is before the performance. Once the show is up you’re mostly planning for a new show, doing minor repairs on costumes and you’re way backstage where you can do or say what you want. Besides very few people can really do what you do so nobody gets in the way too much.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
MG: A squirrel. Can you imagine how far they could leap?
ASR: Shark diving, bungee jumping, or skydiving?
MG: Shark diving.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
MG: It’s from The Godfather. They’ve just murdered this guy in a car.
One of the assassins says: “Leave the gun. Take the Cannoli.” (There was a pastry on the seat of the car.)
Legend has it that the actor made up the line on set.
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Kris Neely
Kris Neely launched Aisle Seat Review in 2015. He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ASR. Mr. Neely is an SFBATCC Best Director Award Winner (2013). He is also the founder and publisher of Cresting Wave Publishing, LLC at www.gocwpub.com
It’s important in the life of an arts website to check in from time-to-time about what makes the website (and its staff) tick. Basic principles. And so this particular post.
Let’s face it, most people do not read the “About” (or equivalent) page on most websites. So, I’m going to post the content of ours here. It’s worth a read if I do say so myself. We started with these basic ideas 5 years ago and have held to them pretty well to this day.
[start]
Aisle Seat Review (ASR) is created by people devoted to theater, opera, ballet, music performance, movies, writing, and the arts in all its forms.
While our primary focus is on the production of art in the greater San Francisco Bay area, our reviewers have been known to cross California and even go beyond.
If it’s well done — we’d like to see it, read it, or experience it.
Editorially, we hope to add our voices and experience to those helping to keep the arts vigorously alive and growing. We will tell you what we really think, not what we know the venue’s or person’s management would like us to say. If it’s bad, we’ll tell you how and why. If it’s good, we’ll tell you how and why.
We’ll strive to make our reviews interesting, original, well written, and well-edited. We may drop a page or two from the AP Manual of Style or Chicago Manual of Style, but know our hearts are in the right place (as in, at the beck-and-call of our editors…)
If you have an event, a book, a play, music, or a show you’d like us to cover, a comment, suggestion, or even a complaint please don’t hesitate to let us know at editors@aisleseatreview.com.
We’ll read every email and reply as necessary ASAP.
In the hard-fought trenches of contemporary art, being able to post a review in this manner conveys valuable information and opinion to our readers,..
Review Bylines
Our reviews have two types of bylines — an individual byline (i.e. “by Michael Brown”) and a team byline (i.e. “by Team ASR”.)
The TEAM ASR approach allows contributors to this site to remain anonymous when posting a review.
In the hard-fought trenches of contemporary art, being able to post a review in this manner conveys valuable information and opinion to our readers, while retaining/maintaining professional relationships.
While Team ASR contributors may do so anonymously, please understand that they take personal responsibility for creating their reviews and that all reviews are subject to editorial review without exception.
Now, here is where the rubber meets the road:
All content on Aisle Seat Review is subject to editorial review prior to publication.
All content accepted for publication on ASR is subject to editorial review, editing for space, approval of and by the Editorial staff.
Final approval or rejection of any and all content, language, “message”, or imagery (of any kind and in any form) is always reserved by and for ASR founder Mr. Neely.
Editorial Questions
Q: Can submitted content be flat-out rejected by Aisle Seat Review?
A: In a word, yes. It is mainly a reflection of the majority vote from the editorial board who are the governing body that makes up this site. And, as before, final approval or rejection of any and all content, pictures, and language is always reserved by and for ASR founder Kris Neely.
Q: Are all the editors on Aisle Seat Review paid for their work?
A: With the exception of Mr. Neely ASR’s Editor-in-Chief and Publisher who does not take any compensation, yes indeed, everyone else on this site is paid, monthly. We’re inordinately proud of that fact, too.
Lots of folks write about the arts and lots of people have people writing for their arts-oriented website. But goddamn few have the resolve and the commitment to pay their people. Our editors aren’t going to retire on what they make here, but that’s finally not the point. Respect for the craft of writing is.
Review Forms
Our reviews also come in a few basic forms, including:
An “Aisle Seat THEATER Review”
These focus primarily on the overall theatrical presentation with less emphasis on the underlying text.
An “Aisle Seat DRAMA Review”
These focus primarily on the playwright and his/her/their work and message(s).
An “Aisle Seat PLAY or SCRIPT Review”
These focus primarily on the words on the page of plays and scripts.
An “Aisle Seat TECHNICAL Review”
These focus primarily on the technical aspects of the performance, such as direction, lights, set design, costumes, make-up and wig design, sound design, stage management, and so on.
An “Aisle Seat PERFORMANCE (Music, Opera, Ballet, etc.) Review”
These are (non-theater) genre-specific event performance reviews.
“Thoughts from the Playwright’s Desk “
Without playwrights, the theater would be pretty dull. This column presents a forum for a playwright to voice his or her thoughts. If you’re a playwright and have something on your mind that you’d like to share with our readers, drop us a note at editors@aisleseatreview.com.
“A Few Words from The Management “
Performance Arts management and editorial staff often have thankless jobs. That said, the work these dedicated professionals do gives them a unique perspective on our world. We should hear more from them! So, if you’re in Performance Arts management or editorial and have something on your mind that you’d like to share with our readers, drop us a note at editors@aisleseatreview.com.
” Lesson Notes: Performance Arts Teachers Speak Out”
Almost all of us started our performance journey in a classroom of one stripe or another. Often, performance teachers and/or teaching artists are cited as some of the most influential contributors of successful performing professionals. So, if you’re a teaching artist or teach in a more traditional school, college, or university setting (or are a retired teacher!) and have something on your mind that you’d like to share with our readers, drop us a note at editors@aisleseatreview.com.
An “Aisle Seat GEAR Profile”
These entries focus primarily on the hardware, software, and equipment used in the performing arts.
[end]
Thanks for reading this far. Much appreciated. Suggestions? ideas? Complaints? Drop us a note at editors@aisleseatreview.com.
I appreciate your time and attention. Hang in there and stay healthy!
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
George Maguire
Among a handful of Bay Area theater people with astoundingly deep credentials, George Maguire has enjoyed a 52-year professional career spanning Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, the National company of Nicholas Nickelby and more than thirty feature films.
He was Artistic Director of Solano College Theater for eighteen years, directing fifty main stage plays and musicals and helming the school’s renown Actor Training Program.
A couple of years ago, Maguire joined the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle as an adjunct member and voraciously continues to see and critique as many theater and film productions as possible.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
GM: I began in high school, first in Wilmington, Delaware in the chorus of both Brigadoon and Carousel where I had my first line: “Hey Nettie, ya burnin’ the lemonade?” Then we moved to Pittsburgh PA and it all ramped up quickly.
In one month, I played Freddy Eynesford Hill in My Fair Lady, graduated, went to prom, and got my AEA card at seventeen in Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’s Top Banana with Phil Silvers, Mr. President with Vivian Blaine and the rest of the originals, Tovarich with Ginger Rogers, South Pacific with Georgio Tozzi and Elizabeth Allen (I met Richard Rogers when he came to see her in that show and then cast her in Do I Hear a Waltz?), and My Fair Lady in the ensemble. Quite a feat for a seventeen-year-old who couldn’t read a lick of music and knew only one audition song — yep, one — “On the Street Where You Live.”
The choreographer of our high-school My Fair Lady was a major pro who worked with John Kenley and suggested that I and two others should audition for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. We all got in! I did the next five seasons, going from second tenor to baritone-bass. I returned twice to Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera—in 1979 as Asst. Director and actor, and in 1981 as Max in The Sound of Music opposite John Shuck and Maureen McGovern.
ASR: What was the first play you directed for a paying audience?
GM: The first play as a director was Matchmaker at my old high school where I returned for four years as a teacher.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
GM: Hundreds. Literally.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
GM: I formed Solano College Theater (SCT) in 1990 with Managing Director Dave Leonard. I retired from it seven years ago.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
GM: I took the advice of one of my great mentors when I founded SCT — Hire people who do what they do better than you can and then do what you do superbly. I hired actors and teachers like Nancy and Joy Carlin, Ken Sonkin, Bob Parsons, Julian Lopez Morillos, Carla Spindt, L. Peter Callender, and Sacramento’s Christine and Luther Hanson. Jon Tracy was a student then along with Johnny Moreno.
I brought in friends like Tom Hanks to do a major fundraiser. Writer José Rivera and Dave Leonard produced José ‘s first big hit House of Ramon Iglesia ( I had its initial readings at Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City.) I brought in guest lecturers like Meryl Shaw from ACT. It was a magical time.
I have an aversion to any play that must ask and answer at the first production meeting “What is your concept?”
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
GM: I’d have to say Vincent Dowling who was Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. (He also mentored both Rivera and Hanks.) His testament to enormous insight is that all of us are still dear friends since 1978.
Then I would say Olympia Dukakis in the brief semester I had with her at NYU. She was brutally tough and honest and I had no clue until years later how influential she was. Whatever moments of truth I have had both on film and on stage, I owe to her.
ASR: What are some of your favorite plays? Musicals?
GM: Plays: Cherry Orchard, The Visit, Richard II, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Long Day’s Journey into Night, All My Sons, Angels in America. Musicals: Sweeney Todd, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Cabaret (I’ve directed all three versions), and, well, so many more.
Faves that I produced and directed at Solano College Theater: Equus, The Elephant Man, Distracted, Eurydice, among others. They are my children.
ASR: And your least favorites?
GM: Least fave? Long ago I recognized I had no real interest in directing Shakespeare and indeed have directed only Calarco’s Romeo and Juliet for New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC.)
Let others do it! I have an aversion to any play that must ask and answer at the first production meeting “What is your concept?”
I have done conceptual work: Sweeney Todd I set in Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors for example; and Equus, in the ruins of the Parthenon, but direct Shakespeare? Not me. Although to be completely open, I have done maybe twenty-some Shakespeare roles as an actor.
I’m often challenged as a director by musicals that flopped. Seussical I resurrected and completely re-thought. I had a blast!!
ASR: Can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
GM: Has to be Jim Carpenter. So honest and real and kind!
ASR: Which theater friendships mean the most to you?
GM: Our friendships are vital but they do not always continue post-production. Those from the Great Lakes era have lasted more than forty years, with two Oscars for one, and an Oscar nomination for the other.
What is true about this is that for all of us the person we met way back when is the treasure we love and success is measured by compassion, not by a resumé.
ASR: What advice would you give to someone who wanted to be your apprentice and learn all that you know?
GM: Hmm. Tricky. OK, here goes…
1. Be true to yourself, and enter the workspace always with an idea.
2. Always breathe before you answer a question.
3. Research! Research! Research!
ASR: What are your interests outside the theater?
GM: I am a major museum freak. I love them, having studied art when I spent a year in Germany at nineteen. Also, opera and symphony. In Germany, I heard Schwartzkopf sing Der Rosenkavalier, for example. I am not a big contemporary music person, probably due to my hearing impairment.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” deal?
GM: A ticket to Dude, the Musical! I was there on opening night. Oy!
ASR: If you could create a 30-minute TV series what would it be?
GM: It would definitely be about Great Lakes days in a format like Schitz Creek.
ASR: Care to mention a favorite song?
GM: Having had health issues all my life — hearing impairment, Meniere’s Syndrome, etc, I resonate to “Being Alive.”
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk-taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
GM: I would never parachute, climb a mountain, etc. Fuck, I’m 73! Walking on stage while having a vertigo attack is risk enough for me.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Aisle Seat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Jeffrey Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the 2014 Leigh Weimers Emerging Arist award, the 2012 Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award.
Selected directing credits include The Language Archive and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Vietgone at Capital Stage, A Doll’s House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction), Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible and Yellow Face at Los Altos Stage Company and Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC award for Best Production).
As a playwright, his plays have been produced and workshopped at The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Custom Made Theatre Company. His play Writing Fragments Home was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwright’s Conference and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference.
Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory, Aurora Theater, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and SF Playground.
In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Casting Director at the Tony Award Winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a graduate of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department.
Amidst all that activity he sat down with ASR’s Publisher Kris Neely for a chat.
Jeffrey Lo
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
JL – In high school I acted in this production of a play called Addict which was a series of pseudo-monologues about what could happen if one falls into drug abuse. First play I directed for a paying artist was later that year. It was a play I wrote and directed called “With Love, Jaysson.”
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
JL– I wouldn’t say this is the weirdest but it sticks out in my mind. I was house managing a production of Theresa Rebeck’s play Bad Dates at the Dragon Theatre and they were having a “ladies night” special where every audience member received free champagne or wine at the beginning of the performance.
There was a bachelorette party that showed up and this very excited bride to be came up to me asking how much to buy a bottle for her bridesmaids. I let her know that because of the ladies night special they all got champagne for free. She told me it was a special night and she wanted to buy a bottle for her ladies. I repeated that it was all free. After going in circles for a bit, I just made up a price and handed the group a bottle of champagne.
ASR: Which person has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
JL – I think we all stand on the shoulders of giants so it’s hard to pick one. I’ll go with Julia Cho because through her work and our limited interactions she has reminded me how an artist can lead with heart, kindness and immense talent.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance of a play?
JL – When I was an apprentice at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, I worked on their production of Julia Cho’s The Language Archive and towards the end of the play, a letter is supposed to fall magically from the sky and the character of Emma is supposed to exclaim, “A letter!’
On our final preview, the letter fell from the sky alright … but immediately slipped through one of the scenic tracks and fell beneath the stage.
The actress stared at the empty spot where the letter should have been and had no choice but to go on with exclaiming, “A letter!”
The whole audience erupted with laughter because they saw the letter slip under the stage. Little did we know, there was a crew member beneath the stage and after Emma said her line, we slowly saw the letter rise up from the crevice which got even more laughter and more applause from the audience. It was a magical moment and our playwright asked, “could it happen that way every night?”
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what are three things you would tell them are essential to know?
JL – Let me break this down a bit for you:
– For playwrights – remember that your first draft is not your final draft. Your first draft isn’t even the second draft. No one has to read the first draft. Don’t edit yourself before you have to. Don’t get in your own way of finishing your draft. Finish the first draft and take it from there.
– For directors – the lighting designer will know more about lighting design that you. The actor will know more about acting than you. Your job as director is not to know more than everyone else in the room. Your job as director is to know enough to be able to identify when your talented collaborators have better ideas than you.
– For humans – ask yourself how you can help people. I know it’s impossible to spend every second and every choice of your life towards helping people, but if you make it a practice in your life to take the time to think it through whenever you can – I think it will lead you towards a good path.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
JL – Buy one gun get one free. We don’t need guns.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make The Rules. What are the first three rules you put into place?
JL – Hmmm….OK, here goes…
1 – Be kind.
2 – Be chill.
3 – Have fun.
(In order of importance and in order of which rule overtakes the others.)
ASR: How do you relax before a performance?
JL – If it’s an opening night, I tend to spend my mornings of openings drinking coffee, listening to music and writing thank you cards.
ASR: You have been given the opportunity to create the 30-minute TV show of your own design. What is it called and what’s the premise?
JL – Some sort of variety show with amazing under-represented and under-appreciated artists doing what they do best. I’d call it HIRE THESE PEOPLE.
…The actress stared at the empty spot where the letter should have been and had no choice but to go on with exclaiming, “A letter!”
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
JL – I think they’d assume I was wrongfully arrested.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
JL – Easily Leslie Martinson. To be fair, she started as a theater-related friendship, evolved into a mentor-ship and evolved further into just full everyday friendship. When I was right out of undergrad, Leslie and I had an informational interview of sorts over a coffee and she hired me to be her assistant director for her production of Superior Donuts at TheatreWorks.
She’s given me so many opportunities, provided advice at every turn and was really the first person to see me as an artist and essentially say, “You are someone special. You can do this.”
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
JL – Just My Imagination by The Temptations for the way they are able to perfectly encapsulate and blur the lines of happiness and melancholy in such a smooth and beautiful tune.
– Dahil Sa lyo – it’s the quintessential Filipino love song. If you know, you know. I recommend the cover by Bay Area singing quintet Pinay. There’s also an excellent version that Nat King Cole sang live at his concert in the Philippines.
– Kendrick Lamar – Alright. It’s a song of protest. A song of celebration. A song of anger. A song of hope. It’s pretty perfect.
ASR: Which one fashion accessory do you like better than others?
JL – The right tie can do a lot for your day.
ASR: Which play would you like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
JL – Easy, Miss Saigon.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
JL – I think the history plays are almost all underrated. My favorite is Henry V.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing one of the following technical theater roles: Light, Props or Costumes which would it be and why?
JL – Assuming I knew how to do it well, lighting. I’m always astounded by the ways lights can enhance, shift and inform everything that we do in theatre.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
JL – I’d prefer to scale down animals to the size of a baby corgi. A horse the size of a baby corgi? Adorable. But if I HAD to scale an animal up. Probably a sea turtle.
ASR: Shark diving, bungee jumping, or skydiving?
JL – None. I’m good feeling safe on land.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
JL – “We’re all freaks, depending on the backdrop.” – Passing Strange
Publisher’s Note: ASR Publisher Kris Neely wants it firmly on the record that he first predicted we’d all one day pay Big Money to see Mr. Lo’s directorial finesse on Broadway. So let’s keep the record straight on that one, because it’s going to happen. — KN
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Kris Neely
Kris Neely launched Aisle Seat Review in 2015. He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ASR. Mr. Neely is an SFBATCC Best Director Award Winner (2013). He is also the founder and publisher of Cresting Wave Publishing, LLC at www.gocwpub.com
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
A native of Cleveland, Ohio — she was a high school classmate of KQED’s Michael Krasny — Rita Abrams launched her career in 1970 when her novelty song “Mill Valley” stormed its way up the charts.
At a time of great social and political upheaval—not unlike today—the song was a breath of fresh air among nonstop sermons about war, racism, poverty, and environmental destruction. With its success, Abrams went from being a local grade-school teacher to instant fame, guest-starring on “Hollywood Squares” and dating prominent entertainers.
50 years later she is still going strong, continuing to pen some of the cleverest tunes ever created.
Recipient of two Emmy’s and multiple SFBATCC nominations and awards, Abrams is perhaps best known for her long-running Marin County spoof For Whom the Bridge Tolls (a collaboration with Stan Sinberg) and many musicals, including Pride and Prejudice, scheduled for May 2021 at Ross Valley Players. Among friends, she’s known as the quickest wit in the west.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
RA: I wrote poems and songs all my life, starting with family musical sagas.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
RA: My first paid performance was singing “Bell Bottom trousers, coat a navy blue” when I was three. The neighbors paid me ten cents apiece. As an adult, I made a musical out of a quirky little love triangle play written by a TV comedy writer friend which ran in a little SF theatre.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
RA: My stage musicals have been produced by fifteen theatre companies. I’ve also composed for various children’s media and educational companies . . . maybe twenty-five companies altogether.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
RA: My mother, who introduced me to the work of all the great musical theatre composers and lyricists, and many lesser known ones as well. The Cleveland public schools took us regularly to great theatre and concerts, and my parents took me to New York to see Broadway shows.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas?
RA: Intimidating question but I’ll try: Raisin in the Sun, Private Lives, Our Town, Fences, Bad Jews . . . and then there’s Shakespeare and too many more to mention.
ASR: Musicals? Comedies?
RA: All of Rogers & Hammerstein, Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man, The Fantasticks, And the World Goes Round (Kander & Ebb Revue), Hamilton, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Lost in Yonkers, The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
RA: George Maguire.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
RA: Regarding songwriting:
1. Write lyrics you can easily speak, as in conversation.
2. Build as the song progresses—Save the biggest, funniest, or most moving for last, and don’t be too repetitive or derivative. Keep introducing new ideas or twists.
3. With comedy songs—never give away the punchline, especially in the title, and when possible, end with a surprise.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
RA: Very tough question, as I love so many of the actors and musicians (and even a few collaborators) I’ve worked with. But when I asked a great bass player friend—Jack Prendergast—if he knew any conductor/synthesizer players for Just My TYPE, a 2018 Ross Valley Players musical, he surprised me by saying he could do the job. He worked so hard on all aspects of the music that he won my heart. We’re still together, and still working together on music.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
RA: The wacky satirical musical revue about Marin County, For Whom the Bridge Tolls, that I co-created and produced with Stan Sinberg, from 1994 to 2005, was filled with unscripted goofs and gaffes. One night during the sketch, The Overpasses of Marin County (a parody of The Bridges of Madison County), Frank Brown, as photographer for “Dangerous Exits Magazine,” while passionately embracing Sharon Boucher as “Francesca,” caught her long black wig in his belt buckle, where it hung amid gales of laughter from the audience. For two actors who knew how to ham it up, this was their moment. The hilarity went on and on.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
RA: When an actress in one of my shows forgot the lyrics to her solo, and sang the same verse twice in a row, she, a tough one, dismissed it as no big deal—but I was mortified, fearing the audience would think that was how I wrote the song!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
RA: I was playing piano for a show at San Francisco’s Improv Comedy Club, when in the middle of a scene, a disheveled figure ambled up to the stage and started riffing. A rumble arose from the audience, turning to a roar as they realized who it was—Robin Williams!
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
RA: Not one day job, but revolving freelance gigs—like B.C. (Before Covid) writing scripts for Gregangelo’s Velocity Entertainment shows, and I’m a longtime writer of greeting cards, which is fortunately pandemic-proof.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
RA: All forms of entertainment: Scrabble, Zoom Fictionary, watching the horror unfolding on MSNBC, and now trying to plan some kind of virtual commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of our Miss Abrams & the Strawberry Point School Third Grade Class “Mill Valley” record release. And keeping in touch with family, like my daughter in LA.
When an actress in one of my shows forgot the lyrics to her solo, and sang the same verse twice in a row
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture?
RA: Truthfully, while I’m interested in everything, I’m usually focused on my original music and theatre creations.
ASR: Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
RA: Just the artifice of pretending not to age.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
RA: 1. Enforced Social Distancing between Democrats and Republicans. 2. Twenty minutes of daily laugh therapy before rising. 3. No fitbits.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
RA: Canned tripe, or dinner with the current president. Not necessarily in that order.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
RA:“Where Have I Been All My Life?” features real senior citizens confessing their one big regret, and then, through the magic of technology, being able to reverse and redo it, for all the world to see.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
RA: Been mistaken for someone more interesting.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
RA: Sequined mask.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
RA: A butterfly.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
RA: Just reading the names gives me heart palpitations.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
RA:
1. From Just My TYPE (book by Charlotte Jacobs & Michael Sally): “I can change him AFTER we get married.”
2. From For Whom the Bridge Tolls: “Between my mani-pedi, my Shiatsu massage, my Bickram Yoga, and my Zumba class…I have NO time for ME!!”
ASR: Theatrical event you are most looking forward to?
RA: The Ross Valley Players production of Josie Brown’s and my Pride and PrejudiceMusical from May 13th to June 13th, 2021. Phoebe Moyer will direct the great lineup of talent already we’ve already cast.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Ron Severdia
Actor, magician, and tech entrepreneur Ron Severdia may be the most diverse theatrical talent in the North Bay. His solo performance of A Christmas Carol is a must-see. Last year he won critical acclaim for his performance in Every Brilliant Thing at Left Edge Theatre. He found time in his busy schedule to chat with ASR.
ASR: Your background?
RS: I was born and raised (mostly) in Marin County. I started as a magician when I was around seven and got into theatre shortly after. I’ve been performing on stage and in film ever since.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
RS: I started doing magic when I was young and I was a voracious reader. I read everything about Houdini I could get my hands on. Houdini told a story of where he got his name—a magician he admired named Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, who famously said “A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician.” This fascinated my young mind and began my jump into the world of acting.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
RS: My first acting gig was a film, not a play. My fifth grade teacher was teaching about the Revolutionary War and working with our class to product a film. The story was an old man and his wife who’d lived through the war telling their grandchildren about it through flashbacks. I was the old man with old makeup and all. There was a big night where the whole school, including parents and teachers, came to watch the film. This was my big debut, but I was sick that day and my parents wouldn’t let me go. To this day, I’ve never seen that film, but when I went back to school I heard how “amazing” my performance was.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
RS: Dozens. In the Bay Area, London, Prague, and various other places.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
RS: I started the Modern Shakespeare Company (https://www.modernshakespeare.com) maybe 20 years ago, but it’s just my thing and there’s only been one so-called performance.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
RS: Um, no.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
RS: Making Shakespeare and the classics accessible. I really took an interest in director Buzz Goodbody. I was intrigued by her approach at the RSC. She took over their costume shed (“The Other Place”) and made it into a successful experimental theatre.
The seminal Macbeth with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench premiered there and so did Ben Kingsley’s Hamlet, during which she committed suicide at the age of 28—a metaphor of Haley’s Comet.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
RS: No one single person, rather a variety of really smart people—many of whom were teachers during my time at ACT (Rod Gnapp, Ken Ruta, Larry Hecht) or RADA (Andrew). I always hope to learn something from the directors I work with and my fellow actors.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
RS: I’ve done some musicals in the past (the last one was Cabaret at CenterRep a few years back), but I’m kinda done with those.
Some of the dramas I like and would like to do someday are Cyrano, Of Mice & Men (Lenny, of course), and Nick Dear’s adaptation of Frankenstein.
As for comedies, I really enjoyed Hangmen (McDonough’s brilliant black comedy), The Play That Goes Wrong, or Ayckbourn’s trilogy The Norman Conquests—all of which I’d love to do.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
RS: My last show at Left Edge Theatre was a solo show called Every Brilliant Thing, which tells the story of a young boy as he grows up trying to cope with his mother’s depression and suicide attempts. It’s funny, sad, and presents a difficult subject in a really moving way.
I performed as Miles in Left Edge Theatre’s world premiere of Sideways in 2017, which had an awesome cast and collaborated with author Rex Pickett. It was great to share this story that has had an indelible impact on the wine industry.
ASR: What are some of your least favorite plays? Care to share titles of those you would never produce—or never produce again?
RS: Neil Simon. I’ve felt this way for many years, which actually led to me taking a role in the world premiere of Dale Wasserman’s play Premiere. It’s the story of a playwright so successful he gets bored with writing one Broadway hit after another so he decides to write a play in verse and pass it off as a long lost play by William Shakespeare. When Dale’s widow flew out to see the play, she told me how Dale and Neil Simon were great friends and, ironically, the character I was playing (the playwright) was really based on Neil Simon.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
RS: Oooooh. There’s a long list. Let’s start with Our Town and the entire Andrew Lloyd Webber canon.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
RS: Definitely The Norman Conquests or even a solid production of Deathtrap (which is really rare).
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
RS: Hands down, King John. It’s a great play that can be done with a small cast in a small theatre. The text can veer off course a little, but nothing a director/dramaturg couldn’t sort out. There are some great verbal exchanges in there.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
RS:AMidsummer Night’s Dream. It’s easy to do, especially for kids and newbies to Shakespeare.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
RS: Probably sound design. Maybe set design. To me, both are a little more conceptual and appeal to me more than the other aspects.
I think I’d be scared of any animal smaller than a horse being scaled up…
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
RS: Very hard. Jarion Monroe, Julian Lopez-Morillas, Stacy Ross. There are so many talented people in the Bay Area.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
RS: First, the typical vocal and physical warm-ups to get things going. Then I have show-specific warm-ups depending on the show. It might be songs that evoke for me the spirit of the play or it might be speeding through the lines of a particularly challenging part. Followed by an espresso.
After the show, it’s all about trying to wind down. That takes me longer when I have smaller parts in the show. For larger parts, winding down is easier due to the vocal/physical demand.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
RS:
1. Work constantly on your instrument, mentally and physically.
2. Study the classics. Mine them for gems. They’re classics for a reason.
3. Become self-aware by learning the connection between how you think you’re perceived and how you actually are.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
RS: Yes, I’m the head of product design for a Silicon Valley technology company.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
RS: I created a few theatre related apps that I work on outside of theatre:
Shakespeare Pro: An app containing the complete works, glossary, search and a variety of other features to help students, teachers, actors, directors and other theatre professionals. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-pro/id341392367
Soliloquy Pro: An app to manage your monologues and help you memorize them. Search from over a thousand classic pieces and share them with others. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/soliloquy-pro/id1029313343
Scriptigo Pro: An app to manage file/theatre scripts, take notes, and share with others. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scriptigo-pro/id1444743519
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
RS: A simple black cotton t-shirt.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
RS: I think I’d be scared of any animal smaller than a horse being scaled up that big! Good premise for a horror flick though.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
RS: Meh. I’ve done some of those things, but I’m not an “adrenaline junkie” by any stretch.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
RS: Movie: “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” — Indiana Jones (gets more and more relevant as I get older)
Stage Play: “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” —Charles Condomine (Blithe Spirit)
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Michael Ray Wisely
Michael Ray Wisely is one busy guy: actor, director, teacher, and more. He has long been one of the Bay Area theater scene’s most prolific members. Most recently he played the despicable manipulator Iago in African American Shakespeare Company’s production of Othello, and was a core member of the SF Playhouse production of Aaron Loeb’s Ideation, a stunningly apocalyptic dark comedy that went from San Francisco to an extended run in New York. MRW kindly took time from his hectic schedule to chat with Aisle Seat Review.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
MRW: Mrs. Stuart’s 6th grade class and, later, I literally knocked on a door!
My first experience was playing Huck Finn in an adaptation of Tom Sawyer. My 6th grade teacher, (Nancy Stuart, now deceased) told me that I had potential, but, growing up poor, the idea of being a theatre artist was as remote as being an Apollo astronaut. After high school I went to college for broadcast journalism, had a summer internship working as an on-air DJ at a radio station, but couldn’t afford to return to school fall semester. With few prospects, I joined the Air Force with the idea of eventually getting a degree in electronics engineering.
Here’s where “the door” opened. I was exploring the neighborhood near McChord Air Force Base one day and saw the Lakewood Playhouse. I knocked on the door to get some information and just as I was leaving, the AD asked me if I could read for a part that evening because some-one had just quit. I said yes, and two years later, I chose to go to a conservatory training program rather than re-signing with the Air Force. I started my professional career the month after college and never looked back.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
MRW: Amateur: Tom Sawyer, in the 6th grade. Directing: A touring theatre company Children’s Theatre Workshop. As an AEA actor: San Jose Stage Company.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
MRW: 25 to 50. I really don’t know.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
MRW: It’s a village. I learned my craft in the traditional way: classical training followed by apprenticeship, followed by work. So many actors and directors that I have worked with have left their mark and I still meet new teachers, sometimes in the youngest members of a company who remind me what open-eyed awe and reverence look like.
As to the stalwarts, I would probably have to say my wife Wendy (a director/actor/professor herself) , the late, great Sydney Walker (a mentor, and in the original acting company of Bill Ball at ACT), casting director Annie Stuart (Playground), who was a big champion of my work, and the many AD’s/directors who have hired me over the years. So many people are a part of who I am as an actor/director. It’s humbling to think about. I could list 100 + and still wouldn’t be giving someone their due.
I think that’s one of the great lessons in this business. The next person you meet, the next move you make, could change your career, your acting, your life, your world, forever. Understanding that is the key to a sustained career in anything I think. I believe in the power of the arts to change the world in the same way. I try to pass it on by being a mentor any time I am fortunate enough to be given the chance.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How are you coping with the shutdown?
MRW: It changes week to week. Some weeks, I’ve been really productive. I’ve done online readings with other actors working on dream projects. I’ve made some short films and put together some online film auditions.
Mostly, I’ve been trying to organize, plan, file and take care of the minutia of life so I can be more focused when we get back to some kind of normal. Some days are better than others, but I cannot complain as I have a great life, generous talented friends, a roof, food, and my wife and daughter. I live in gratitude even more than usual.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
MRW: Tough one … As an actor/director, my planning is dependent on the theaters I collaborate with. I usually know what I’m doing for six months to a year in advance, and I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen now. Both of the shows I had have been postponed. One has been moved to next summer and the other’s fate is in the hands of the gods.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community over-all?
MRW: I think in the short term our community is already deeply affected by the economic situation. We may lose several companies and the ones that survive will be in difficulty for quite some time. I’ve always believed in the theatre as a survivor and no doubt it will. Some great art is going to come out of this, but we’re all going to be changed. It is my hope that our communities will rally in support of artists and companies, that theatre companies will have more appreciation for their local artists, and that we will all understand how fortunate we are to make art on a deeper level than before.
One thing is for sure: when people feel safe to be in the dark with strangers again, it will be electric, life affirming, and I’m looking forward to the pathos of those moments.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
MRW: I’m often so in love with what I’ve just done or what I’m about to do that it’s a difficult question. Playing Robert in Pinter’s Betrayal was a favorite, as was Iago in Othello. I’ve played some of Shakespeare’s greatest clowns as well as the Scottish King. I love challenging language and that has drawn me to playwrights like G.B. Shaw, Pinter, O’Neill, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Wilde, Williams, and more recent playwrights like Mamet, Rebecca Gilman, Tracy Letts, and Theresa Rebeck.
A favorite is Ideation, by Aaron Loeb, a local playwright and friend. I worked on the play with Aaron and the rest of the company, put together by SF Playhouse, and ended up going with it for an off-Broadway run with the original cast intact. It’s hard to top that kind of experience. Aaron’s language is specific, smart, fast, and a thrill for the audience and the actor.
We’ve got some insanely gifted writers here in the Bay Area: Jonathon Spector, Lauren Yee, Michael Gene Sullivan, Geetha Reddy, and Lauren Gunderson (ok, she’s not a native but we claim her) to name a few. As a matter of fact, local playwright Anthony Clarvoe wrote an incredible drama called The Living that I performed in at San Jose Stage Company in the mid-90s. Written as an AIDS parable, it was about the bubonic plague in 1666. It’s a beautiful play and I’ve been revisiting it during this pandemic. So many things it chronicles are happening right now—the fear, the misinformation, the avarice, the stupidity. That’s what good art does—it stays relevant because it speaks universal truths in inventive ways. That’s why art and artists are important.
Favorite Musicals: Sweeney Todd was the first musical that really made me sit up and take notice. I’m a sucker for classics like Guys and Dolls. Of the ones I’ve been in, On the 20th Century is a favorite, and I loved playing Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and the Sheriff in Whorehouse. I rarely do musicals, but really enjoy them when I’m given the opportunity.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
MRW: I’ve got several. Some I’d like to see put away forever, but, I won’t say because I wouldn’t want to denigrate any artist’s work just because I don’t like it or don’t find it interesting. The act of theatre is brave in any of its many disciplines and it should be celebrated. With that, I will say that there are things I’ve despised, mocked and laughed at that I’m sure have been important to or changed the lives of others.
I’ve got an example for that I’ll share over a cocktail sometime.
I learned my craft in the traditional way: classical training followed by apprenticeship, followed by work.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
MRW: Big, giant plays with large casts, fire and water and spectacle. More Shaw and Chekhov and sweeping dramas 3+ hours long. When I go to the National Theatre in London sometimes and see these epic straight plays with a cast of 25 and more, it is thrilling and heartbreaking to me because American audiences will rarely ever get that experience with the exception of musicals.
Societies are known by the art they create. Look at how we revere art of the past. The support of the arts by our government should be an order of national pride, not a wedge used by career politicians to hold on to power and separate the people that art is serving. It’s a travesty and should be seen as a national shame, but, alas, there’s plenty more of that to go around.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
MRW: I think Love’s Labours Lost. It is such a simple love story on the surface and yet it is filled with characters whose very human actions expose love and its many sides with a sophistication not seen in later plays. It’s singular and original in that it doesn’t seem to be taken from other plays and stories of the time. It also has an ending that’s surprisingly melancholy, as love is postponed.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
MRW: Sound and projections/video. I love creating with sound and am a photographer and filmmaker. Sound can move people subconsciously and I am a sucker for those who are brilliant with it. As an actor, it can raise the stakes of a scene or the reality of a play in every way.
One story that I remember is sitting in the audience of Superior Donuts at Theatre Works several seasons back and when the “furnace” came on in the donut shop, it had a visceral bass WHOOMP to it that I could feel in the middle of the theatre. We were inside that donut shop. It was wonderfully surprising and I thanked Bay Area sound designer Jeff Mokus for bringing me the reality of what an old oil furnace feels/sounds like when it starts up.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
MRW: Many could fit that description, but I’d like to hold up a couple of up-and-coming artists you may not be familiar with: Patrick Kelly Jones and Tristan Cunningham. They knock me out. Both of them have great skill and are inventive and make surprising choices.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
MRW: My warm-ups are all about ritual. I have a routine vocally a few hours before a show then physically in the space and then I get very particular, even superstitious, about the order and timing up to curtain. I’ve heard professional athletes talk about this as well. It changes a little from show to show, but it’s always been that way for me. I’m not alone in pre-curtain idiosyncrasies. We’re a ritualistic tribe.
After a show, you can be so wound up and tired at the same time that you have to have some kind of cool down. Sometimes it’s drinks with friends, but I try to keep that in check for obvious reasons. No matter how I chose to do it, it always takes a few hours.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
MRW: These three…
1) Show up! (on time, prepared, ready to throw down. That’s the entry fee for a career.)
2) Integrity! Professional and personal (Do your work in the service of others and the project and know why you do it. If it’s only about you, you’re not going to make it.)
3) TCB! (taking care of the business of your career, treating people well, caring, following up. How you go about your business is as important as everything else you do.)
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
MRW: I have a few people that I can talk to in any way about anything! That’s important as an artist. You need to have a few people in your life, a posse even, who you can let it hang out with. Who you can be ridiculous with, risk with, and be wrong with. People who know your heart and your artist and will not judge you by your worst day and will hold up your best days as the true measure of who you are. Greatness can come out of those relationships.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
MRW: A couple made out and fondled each other in the front row of a 250-seat house.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
MRW: Film/television and radio acting. I had my own show in the early days of DIY television. I have freelanced directing corporate films and live shows. I’ve coached people on public speaking and have taught acting and been a guest lecturer at several colleges. Acting and directing in the theatre have been my focus for over thirty years now. I’ve been a fortunate man.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
MRW: Travel, sailing, film making, photography, building, weightlifting, tennis, motorcycles, cooking, surfing and I’ve dabbled in hang gliding, and autocross racing.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
MRW: I do when I can. If you’re lucky enough to be working show to show (and that is what you need to do if you want to make a living) it can be difficult. When I’m not working, I’m at the theatre. I love seeing new talent and having my colleagues surprise me. As far as the other arts, I love photography and making films. I’m often in pursuit of one or the other and a lot of it just for me and my friends.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
MRW: Root canal or colonoscopy.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
MRW: Got into a fist-fight defending someone who needed help.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
MRW: I’ve done most of the ones listed and have also been hang-gliding. But shark diving? Absolutely not. Two ways I’d rather not die—one is as a predator’s dinner and the other is in a plane full of screaming people. Now, I do surf and fly, so I guess it’s up to fate. I’d really like a long life and, other than dying surrounded by loved ones, I think it would be great to die on stage or at rehearsal, maybe in an actual death scene.
Coda:I also don’t want to die stepping out into the street and being hit by a bus because you’d have to be thinking to yourself: “Ohhhh, F#*k, this is such a stupid way to die.”
ASR: If you had to play one role you’ve already done for a year, what would it be?
MRW: I’ve played both Bluntchli and Petkoff in Arms and the Man and Petkoff is one of those perfect comic characters. The world of the play acts on him instead of the other way around. He’s lovable, bombastic, and has some of the greatest comic bits where everyone knows what’s happening but him. It’s great fun and there’s great possibility for rolling laughs. He also carries no real weight, so it’s all the fun with very little responsibility. I love carrying a play, and getting the girl sometimes, but, it’s also nice to just be the guy who gets the laughs.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
MRW: I get a new favorite every play. Like most actors, I also often find lines that are problematic from first rehearsal to the final curtain. That’s the joy and the curse of being in the theatre. There are a thousand that I wish I could say again in front of an audience. Recently, I remember taking joy in a line of Iago’s: “And what’s he then that says I play the villain?” after which the audience would often burst out in laughter. When it first happened, it surprised me.
They were laughing at the horrible way I had just manipulated Cassio. There were others that jeered and hissed. It’s magic and you and the audience both know it and feel it. As I finished the speech, they unwittingly became accomplices in the undoing of Othello and the eventual murder of Desdemona. That’s the power of words and language. It should never be underestimated
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Sheri Lee Miller
Sheri Lee Miller has enjoyed a lifelong career as a professional stage director, actor and theater administrator, working with some of the leading theaters on the West Coast, including Seattle Rep, A Contemporary Theater, Tacoma Actors Guild, Gaslamp Quarter Theater, and Seattle Children’s Theater. Locally, she has been privileged to direct and act at Cinnabar Theater, Sonoma County Rep, 6th Street Playhouse, Actors Theater, Spreckels Theatre Company, and Main Stage West, where she is a founding member.
She holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from San Diego State University, with a double emphasis on acting and directing.
She has appeared in dozens of television commercials, voice-overs, industrial films and print ads, and is a member of Actors Equity and AFTRA. Sheri is Artistic Director at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park, a position she’s held since July 2017. The center’s Codding Theater, with more than 500 seats, is Sonoma County’s largest. The center also operates the adjacent Condiotti Theater, a smaller venue. It is not unusual for two productions to be running simultaneously.
Sheri strongly believes that exposure to the arts in general and theater in particular leads to a more thoughtful, balanced and empathetic society. “I truly believe that art and artistry must be nurtured at home, at school and in the community if we as a society are to achieve the highest levels of empathy and humanity.”
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
SLM: We are probably most known for our big musicals in the Codding Theater, which are pretty fantastic, I must say. But we also do excellent smaller shows in our Condiotti studio space. We are committed to supporting new works, especially by local playwrights if possible. We are trying to keep one slot open for a new play each season, but we won’t put up just anything because it is new. It has to be a great script. We also have a very strong youth program, the Spreckels Education Program. Those young actors are very committed and it’s a pleasure to watch them develop. They do great work!
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
SLM: Probably my instructor at Santa Rosa JC, Joan Lee LaSalle (Woehler). She was my friend and mentor. Powerful, kind and brilliant. I think of her often and hope she is proud.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
SLM: We are working on an enormous restructuring of our various storage areas and a box office remodel. We are moving tens of thousands of costume items and will photograph and catalog them for ease of use and rental. We’ve also finished our props storage rooms. Sadly, our wonderful part-timers are currently laid off. So this is a lot of work for only three of us—Eddy Hansen, Gail Shelton and myself—to accomplish. And we are having a ball with it! I love this kind of work. Sooooo satisfying. And it’s great to be doing something physical.
…One night, I managed to enter at the wrong time and effectively cut an entire scene…
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
SLM: Well, it’s pretty impossible to plan. We do know we intend to go ahead with Matilda and Galatea in the coming season, as they were cancelled this year. Galatea was only a week from opening, and as for Matilda…those actors had been cast many months ago. And we already have the set, costumes, props ,etc. for it. We will also be doing Once Upon a Mattress, Jr. for the Education Program. We are not certain when those shows will actually go up.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
SLM: Theater has been around for thousands of years. There is a reason for that. People crave community and storytelling. Experiencing a story, through a live performance, with other audience members, satisfies something very primal in our souls. I think it will come back strong, but may need to ramp up gradually as we make our way through this crisis. As long as there is a space, a performer, and someone to observe the performance…theater is happening and it is alive and well.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
SLM: This is a terribly difficult question! Hamlet, of course. And King Lear.Arcadia. Angels in America. The two greatest comedies in my mind are Noises Off and You Can’t Take it With You. Musicals? I love them all.
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
SLM: Gee, aren’t they all pretty highly rated? I have only read Coriolanus, never seen it. But at first read, it read to me as a dark comedy. I’d love to see a production. It seems especially appropriate right now. I would like to produce it, but I suspect the audiences would be slim.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
SLM:A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But I do love it, and will probably produce it at some point.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
SLM: Oh, I really love doing tech! I think I would choose props. Very crafty, little sewing (I’ve sewn enough for a lifetime), and doesn’t require a lot of space. Yeah…props are fun.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
SLM: 1: Push through fear. Let it energize you rather than block you. And let your inner mantra be: “The universe loves artists.” 2: Learn to listen, both onstage and off, in your theater work and your “civilian” life. Quiet and focused observation and active listening help develop an understanding of the people and world around us and is imperative to the work we do. 3: Respect and understand every artist’s contribution to the work. If you truly respect everyone, you will be on time, arrive ready to work, care for your costumes, set and props, know your lines solidly, let others speak, work with your director and care about the playwright’s intentions.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up you’ve seen onstage?
SLM: Well, my most excruciating screw-up was during Eat the Runt at Actors Theater. It was a very difficult play where we all learned all the parts and each night the audience would cast us. So you never knew which role you were going to play when you entered the theater that night. One night, I managed to enter at the wrong time and effectively cut an entire scene. I didn’t even realize it until I got off stage and Joe Winkler pointed out what I had done, thus cutting his role in half. I had never messed up an entrance before or since, and I still feel terrible about it. Sorry again, Joe!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
SLM: When I was 25 and performing Madge in Picnic in Seattle, when it was time for Madge and Hal to run off to the “do it” bushes, a young woman stood up and yelled, “Go for it!”
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
SLM: 1: The planet is our source of life and must be regarded as the Supreme Ruler. 2: We are all equal and deserve equal opportunity, protection and sustenance. 3: Be nice.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
SLM:The Real Housewives of Sonoma County. Everyone just smokes pot while discussing wine, trendy food and their kids.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
SLM: A potato bug.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
SLM: “What’s done cannot be undone.” Lady Macbeth.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
Lesley: My grandmother was a professional actress and my mother a drama teacher. Even with that heritage, I’m the only one of my siblings who went into theatre. In first grade, I was Gretel in a school production of Hansel and Gretel.
Bob: I started in second grade, as the Narrator of Little Toot. In high school, I did a lot of sports, but rediscovered the allure of theatre when at UC Irvine. I was studying Political Science, but the theatre building was always lit up at night and that’s where all the cute girls were. So it was back into theatre for me! My first role there was in Oh What A Lovely War. I went on to the get the first MFA in Directing that UCI ever granted.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
Lesley: I was cast as a Lady in Waiting to Queen Gertrude in a professional production of Hamlet while an undergraduate at Princeton University. Harry Hamlin starred as the prince. I invited him for a meal at one of Princeton’s famous Dining Clubs, and in return he took me out for a really good dinner at a local restaurant. That was a rare treat in college. Bill Ball, Harry’s mentor at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), saw the production and thrilled me by telling me he understood the whole tragedy of the play through my reaction to Gertrude’s death.
Bob: I was paid to direct The Little Prince in 1972 at the Woodstock Opera House. It was the artistic home of a young Orson Welles.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
Lesley: I joined ACT one summer during college where I fell in love with the Bay Area. After college, I stumbled upon the Ukiah Players Theatre, where I met Bob. He took me to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which I’d never heard of. I auditioned there and was cast as a Fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Back at UFI, while working towards my MFA in theatre, I appeared in Hard Times at South Coast Repertory Theatre. It was a very long show which we performed 8 times a week, made more intense because I was nursing my first-born son.
Bob: I’ve co-founded four theatre companies, three of which are still going: Encounter With the Theatre at the Woodstock Opera House (now defunct), the Ukiah Players Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, and Baja Shakespeare. I’ve also directed and/or acted at Berkeley Rep, Seattle Shakespeare, Cinnabar, Spreckles, Ross Valley Players, and a few more.
ASR: Marin Shakespeare Company is your present company. What’s the history on that?
Bob and Lesley: In 1989 we got a call out of the blue asking if we would like to come to Marin to revive Shakespeare at Forest Meadows. The Forest Meadows Amphitheater was purpose built for the original Marin Shakespeare Festival in 1967, after it moved from its original home at the Marin Art and Garden Center, where it had begun five years earlier. The Festival’s last year at this Dominican location was 1972, due to a fire and some other questionable activities by art-loving hippies running around in the forest.
ASR: Did you anticipate Marin Shakespeare Company would become as successful as it has?
Bob and Lesley: Back in 1989, we hoped we’d be able to build a theatre company that would last for generations. We never dreamed that 30 years later we’d be pioneering Shakespeare in Prisons, or working with formerly incarcerated actors, or building an indoor Center for Performing Arts, Education, and Social Justice.
…Tequila.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus?
Bob and Lesley: Obviously, our focus is Shakespeare. But we’ve produced lots of other shows that are in some sense “classical” or appropriate for outdoor summer theatre. Since 2003, we’ve grown to become the largest provider of Shakespeare in Prison programs in the world. We’ve created an online video archive of over 50 performances in prisons, despite the massive logistics to do so. We can share these inspiring videos without violating any Actors Equity rules which do restrict our main stage performance videos.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown? What does the future look like?
Bob and Lesley: Sadly, we just announced that we are postponing our 2020 season to 2021. We don’t think it will be truly safe for actors or audience members to share theatre this summer.
During the shutdown, we stay busy, very busy, with many projects. Earlier this year we began renovations of the Forest Meadows Amphitheater, which were delayed due to Sheltering in Place. We’ll use the summer of 2020 to complete the renovations before welcoming audiences into a beautifully face-lifted venue next year.
We provide on-line MSC Education Programs and summer camps, and Alternative Programming for each of the prisons where we work. We’re continuing our plans for the Center for Performing Arts, Education, and Social Justice at 514 Fourth Street in San Rafael. We’re working to provide income opportunities for artists, and our staff is completing a number of “house-cleaning” and back-office tasks to make us stronger than ever when we’re able to return to full capacity.
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. How has AB5 affected your theater company’s plans?
Bob and Lesley: Several years ago, we started transitioning independent contractors to employee status. With AB5, we plan to make the last group of former independent contractors – non-Equity actors – employees for the first time. We estimate that this will incur an increase to our budget of approximately $60,000. We know it’s the right thing to do.
ASR: Which rare theatre gem plays would you like to see revived?
Bob and Lesley: The three parts of Henry VI. But we know we wouldn’t sell many tickets!
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
Bob and Lesley: King John – if you saw our production, you’d realize how much great comedy there is in it, in addition to superb characters and great themes.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
Bob and Lesley: Sets – (we’ve) always loved building things together.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
Bob and Lesley: Scott Coopwood just keeps getting better and better. We were honored to give him his first Bay Area acting contracts.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
Bob and Lesley: Tequila.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
Bob and Lesley: Honesty and integrity. Passion for the work. Persistence and Diligence – be ready to put in a lot of hours!
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up you’ve seen on stage?
Bob and Lesley: The actor who showed up covered in poison oak and still had to put on his make-up and do his part. We always tell the actors to stay out of the poison oak!
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
Bob and Lesley: A female audience member flashed an actor once during one of those “audience participation” moments when the actors ask an audience member to respond – it stimulated audience hooting and hollering for several minutes. It was a lot of fun.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?” What are your interests outside of theater?
Lesley: I work about 80 hours a week for Marin Shakespeare Company. My “day job” is being a mom and grandmother. My hobbies include tile mosaic and free-form dance.
Bob: I’ve done a lot of building and guest directing for other theatres over the years. I love to build things around the house, travel, and be Bopo to my two adorable granddaughters who live in San Rafael.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
Bob and Lesley: “Jeers” with a bunch of characters hanging out in a theatre bar.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
Lesley: I’m a coward, but I do spend a lot of time in prisons, and I hang-glided once and didn’t throw up.
Bob: I enjoy snorkeling and driving my ancient Alpha-Romeo, and I just hiked for two weeks in Japan with my youngest son.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
Bob:Some Like It Hot — “Well nobody’s perfect.”
Lesley: Hamlet — “The rest is silence.”
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Robert Kelley
Robert Kelley is founder and Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, one of the oldest and most esteemed theater companies in the Bay Area. Both Kelley and his company have been honored multiple times by Theatre Bay Area (TBA) and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC). Kelley kindly took time to respond to ASR’s not-so-random and not-too-serious questionnaire…
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
RK: At age 8 I walked past our local children’s theatre and saw a sign that read “Auditions.” In I went, and got cast! My talent: being loud.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
RK:Goldilocks and the Three Bears—a fourteen-year-old played my mother and told the cautionary tale to me as it was acted out onstage. I may have had a few lines, but I can’t remember them at the moment. Maybe “Yes, Mama.”
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
RK: Less than ten: TheatreWorks, Cal Shakes, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, St. Louis Rep, and a few smaller companies.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
RK: 1970. I’m the founder.
ASR: Did you anticipate it would become as successful as it has?
RK: No. Our long-range plan was to produce a second production. Then a third. We’re at 450 shows today.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
RK: Plays and musicals, world premieres (70 to date), recent on- and off-Broadway, re-imagined classics.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
RK: Stephen Sondheim.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
RK: We’ve cancelled three shows (of an eight show season), and restructured the 2020-21 season to seven shows, beginning in October, with most of the smaller shows going first. We’ve moved our 19th New Works Festival six months, from August to January.
We’ve begun an active program offering streams of previously produced shows, and interviews with staff and artists from around the country. Soon to come: readings of new works in development. So far, we’ve been able to keep our full-time employees.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
RK: We’ve moved our World Premiere drama Nan and the Lower Body from March to July, where it will become the first show of our 2021-22 season. For this coming December, we’ve added an inspiring and funny hope-in-the-face-of-despair holiday production of It’s a Wonderful Life: a Live Radio Play.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
RK: For everyone: very tight budgets, smaller shows, fewer actors and designers from out of the area, expanded online presence, ultimately smaller staffs. I think we are all worried that some companies may not make it through this intact, as was the case in the recession of 2008.
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts world by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. Has AB5 affected your theater company’s plans?
RK: We have been paying at least minimum wage to everyone for some time. We believe we are in compliance with all aspects of AB5.
(most over-performed)…Titus Andronicus. Even one production is too many.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
RK: Dramas: M Butterfly, The Elephant Man, Arcadia, and Romeo and Juliet. Musicals: Ragtime, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Once on This Island, Pacific Overtures. Comedies: The 39 Steps, As You Like It, and Once in a Lifetime.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
RK:Emma, Daddy Long Legs, and Pride and Prejudice.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
RK:Titus Andronicus. Even one production is too many.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
RK: Props. I love finding the perfect period piece that defines an era—and I wish I knew how to make a period newspaper.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
RK: Francis Jue. He’s from here, now in New York, but frequently returns here.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
RK: I pace.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
RK: Patience, preparation, laughter, listening. Was that more than three? Did I mention patience?
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
RK: I met Ev Shiro, my life partner of 38 years, at TheatreWorks and have loved her ever since. We’re also friends.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
RK: We had a frequently confused actor forget to wear his pants for an entrance in Gypsy.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
RK: Do you have an hour?
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do in a theater?
RK: A very young boy attending our holiday musical Oliver! re-set in Victorian London in December, very loudly: “Mommy, why’s it snowing inside?
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
RK: Collecting beach glass, mushroom hunting.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
RK: Patience, laughter, listening.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
RK:Titus Andronicus.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
RK: Forgot to stage a scene.
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life?
RK: “The Water is Wide” by James Taylor; “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell; “Fields of Gold” by Eva Cassidy.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
RK: Reading the paper the day after opening.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
RK: “Children will listen.”
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Tom Ross
Tom Ross inaugurated Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company with Barbara Oliver in 1992 and served 12 years as Managing Director. In 2004, he became Artistic Director, holding that position 15 years. He stepped down last August.
Tom oversaw both Aurora’s move into the Addison Street space and the expansion into the Dashow Wing. He created the new play initiatives, “The Global Age Project” and “Originate+Generate” as well as the second performance space, Harry’s Upstage.
He directed 30 productions for the company.
Additionally, Tom wrote and directed the long running A Karen Carpenter Christmas, and for 8 years was a producer of SF’s Solo Mio Festival.
Before moving to the Bay Area, Tom worked 8 years at NYC’s Public Theater as Executive Assistant to Joseph Papp and then as co-director of Play and Musical Development.
Getting any time on Mr. Ross’ calendar is a tough ask, so we at ASR were grateful for his time, his humor, and his candor. Ladies and Gents… Mr. Tom Ross…
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
TR: A married couple stopped a performance of Neil LaBute’s “This is How It Goes”, shouting at the actors and audience that this is not a play that should be presented in Berkeley.
It is a purposely provocative play that uses the N-word and is about a smiling secret racist character. The play was going to be over within three minutes. The couple walked across the stage and told the actors that they didn’t have to debase themselves this way. The audience thought it was a part of the play.
Luckily, the incident was written about in the Chronicle and the play became a must-see. The Chronicle called it one of the 10 best plays of the year. Still I’d never seen anything like the reaction it caused. I was the director and in the house.
ASR: Which person has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
TR: Unquestionably, the great producer Joseph Papp who I worked for at the Public Theatre in NY for 8 years. First as his Executive Assistant and then as Co-Director of Play and Musical Development.
He told me that I should be a director.
He supported me in producing my first show and in writing my first show at the Public Theatre. I told him he gave me a spine and he liked that.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what are three things you would tell them are essential to know?
TR: Well… I’ve worn a significant number of theatrical hats. In general, I’d say understand the business as well as the art.
Only get involved in projects you truly believe in.
And it’s a collaborate art. Treat your collaborators with respect.
ASR: How do you relax before a performance?
TR: Thai food and a glass of pinot grigio.
…I told him he gave me a spine and he liked that.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
TR: Lied about my age.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
TR: That is a (tough) question to answer (specifically.) I am a part of an incredible community here in the Bay Area. I know they have my back – as do so many theater friends from the NYC days.
I keep wanting to jump off Facebook, but would miss keeping up with them. I respect and love my friends.
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
TR: Wow! I am a music person. I have hundreds of CDs here in my place. I listen to music all of the time – even at Aurora Theatre I’d be constantly DJ’ing in the office.
The other day, during this shelter in place, I was listening to “The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon and Garfunkel – “Tom, get your plane ride on time…” – and it really touched me deeply.
ASR: Which one fashion accessory do you like better than others?
TR: The beautiful Hawaiian shirts I have bought in Hawaii over the years.
ASR: Which play would you like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
TR: I don’t know about 20 years, but the programming of Broadway producers seems extremely repetitive.
A few years ago, I was in Times Square looking at all of the marquees and billboards and I thought I was in a time machine. Hello 70’s and 80’s!
ASR: Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
TR: Although I think that “King Lear” is the greatest play ever written, I don’t do Shakespeare.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing one of the following technical theater roles: Light, Props or Costumes which would it be and why?
TR: I’d be a Light Designer. Like Sound, it’s so ephemeral and can be devastatingly effective.
I like the subliminal. Lights and sound for me.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
TR: I’d be terrified of scaling up any animal! If my cat was that big, we couldn’t share the bed and she’d be extremely annoyed. I’d be sleeping on the floor!
ASR: Shark diving, bungee jumping, or skydiving?
TR: Skydiving.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
TR: “Indecent Materials” by Larry Kramer. I’d brought it to the Public Theatre who produced it and then did it here in SF with my producing partner Jayne Wenger when I first moved here.
It featured my first leading lady (and still dear friend) Anne Darragh as Jesse Helms.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
TR: “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
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Kris Neely
Kris Neely launched Aisle Seat Review in 2015. He is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ASR. Mr. Neely is also an SFBATCC Best Director Award Winner (2013). He is also the founder and publisher of Cresting Wave Publishing, LLC at www.gocwpub.com
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Gregory CraneAmber Collins Crane
In the past several years, Gregory Crane and his wife Amber Collins Crane have appeared individually and together in many North Bay productions, including “Deathtrap” with Ross Valley Players, and “A Streetcar Named Desire” at Novato Theater Company. The two were the best Blanche and Stanley that many critics had ever seen. Gregory was tremendous as the dance master in “A Chorus Line” and Amber gave an astounding lead performance in RVP’s “Incidents in the Wicked Life of Moll Flanders,” for which she won an “outstanding actress” nomination from the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Gregory studied at NYU/Tisch and is the author of a solo play about the life of Tennessee Williams titled “Love, 10.” Favorite performances include “A Streetcar Named Desire” (SFBATCC nomination), “A Chorus Line” (SFBATCC nomination), “Two Gentleman of Verona” (South Coast Rep), “The Glass Menagerie” (RVP), “Deathtrap” (RVP), “Private Lives” (RVP), and “The Diary of Anne Frank” (Hangar Theatre).
Amber worked in theatre, television and film in NYC, LA, and in regional theatres including Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Berkshire Theatre Festival before making Marin her home. In addition to Moll Flanders in “Incidents in the Wicked Life of Moll Flanders,” favorite Bay Area roles include Blanche in “Streetcar Named Desire,” Becca in “Rabbit Hole,” May in “Fool for Love”, and Birdie in “Little Foxes.”
ASR: How did you get started in theatre?
GC: My older brother is an actor so I started young in musical summer camps in LA.
ACC: My first role was playing baby Jesus in the church nativity play when I was four months old. Pure nepotism. My Mom and Dad were Mary and Joseph. Those other babies didn’t have a chance! I will forever be searching for the chance to play a character bigger than the divine prophet and son of God. Blanche in “Streetcar” came close.
…1. Be kind to everyone 2. Know your lines 3. Maintain proper dental hygiene.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
GC: When I was 19, I was in “The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Hangar Theatre in NY. That was my first professional production. It was a transformative experience being onstage for two hours and telling such an important story for me personally.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
GC: The company we are currently working with is called Zoom Theatre. In March, when shelter-in-place began, Patrick Nims decided to produce and direct plays for a web audience. Zoom Theatre debuted in early April with two early David Mamet one-acts. Next week, Amber and I open the play “Lungs” by Duncan Macmillan, a beautiful play about a couple starting a family as the world is starting to fall apart. We’re hoping it will really resonate in today’s world.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theatre?
ACC: I would have to say my college theatre professor, David Dvorscak. He saw me as an artist before I saw myself that way, and helped me understand what a profound strength vulnerability can be on and off the stage. He also pushed my very perfectionistic self to take risks in my work. He would say that theatre is a wonderful place to fail—as long as you fail big and with all your heart.
GC: I had a great mentor in high school, Ted Walch, and another in college at NYU, Michael Krass, who believed in me, encouraged me, and treated me like an equal. They are still my friends and confidantes today.
ASR: How do you envision the future for the theatre community overall?
ACC: We hear it over and over right now: “these are uncertain times.” But I am certain that the theatre community will recover. Theatre artists are the most stubborn, resourceful people I know. They can make magic with a $50 budget and a handful of paperclips. When the apocalypse has come and it is all just miles of dust and rubble, I can guarantee that if you listen hard enough, you will hear a stage manager somewhere shouting “Places!,” and a troupe of actors responding, “Thank you, Places!”
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
GC: “Zoo Story,” “Hair,” “The Bomb-itty of Errors,” a hip-hop Shakespeare play written by good friends from NYU. It was an off-Broadway hit in the early 2000s and paved the way for “Hamilton.”
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
ACC: My “warm up” includes manically throwing together dinner for the kids, singing loudly in the car on the way to the theatre, some stretching and movement on the stage, and a prayer in the wings. I wind down with red wine and a racy period drama. I like my sexy with corsets and without penicillin!
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
GC: 1. Be kind to everyone 2. Know your lines 3. Maintain proper dental hygiene.
ASR: If you had to spend a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
GC: Projections. It’s the only one I’d be any good at. I have a love for photography, Photoshop and animation, so I think that would be fun. The projections in RVP’s recent production of “Silent Sky” were really beautiful.
ACC: I would have to say set decorating and props. I am forever creating little installations in my own home with loved objects and books, things I have collected from nature, art work from my children. It would great fun to layer a production with meaning and depth by thoughtfully choosing each prop a character touches, uses, and loves.
ASR: What theatre-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
ACC: This question makes me emotional! I am so deeply grateful for the friendships that I have established in the bay area theatre community. Attending an opening night often feels like what the best family reunion ever should feel like. I love it! But I have to say that my friendship with Gregory is the theatre-related friendship that means the most to me. And not just because he is sitting right here! Having the chance to work on stage with him is part of what has helped move our relationship from husband-and-wife/partners in the business of running a family to a true and evolving friendship. I am able to see him through new eyes when we are performing together and that is such a gift when you have known each other as long as we have!
GC: My wife. Hands down. I love being on stage with her, and even more than that, I love talking about plays with her and getting her insight into my work.
ASR: What the weirdest thing you have seen a guest do at the theater?
ACC: When I was working the front of house for a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in SF an audience member started hurling loud, expletive filled insults at Big Daddy, letting him know very passionately about what she felt about his parenting skills and his value system. I had to escort/drag her out into the lobby where we proceeded to have a full therapy session about her own family history. The theatre served its purpose as a place of catharsis that night for sure!
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
GC: It wasn’t really a screw-up, but I saw John Leguizamo’s “Freak” in NY. Some guy was being loud and belligerent in the audience behind us. John yelled at him to shut the *bleep* up, then just said to all of us: “This is why I love live theatre, man.” That was exhilarating.
ASR: Do you have a day job?
GC: I am a project manager in Apple’s marketing department
ACC: I am a psychologist by day. I find my role as an actor and my role as a therapist to be very complementary. I think that the best theatre and the best therapy demonstrate that relationships can heal and they honor the darkest moments in our lives, in our stories, as opportunities for the most beautiful transformation.
ASR: What are your interests outside the theatre?
GC: DJ’ing, stand-up paddleboarding, cooking, biking, my kids.
ACC: My children. They are endlessly fascinating to me. Bizarre little magical creatures. I am so lucky to have a front row seat to their adventures.
ASR: Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
GC: I DJ and take photos. I love the opportunity to create a good time for people and get them to dance. I’ve been throwing Zoom dance parties during quarantine and it has been a great release for me and for my guests.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”—have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
GC: I race stand-up paddleboards. I did a nine-mile race around Angel Island and the water was so choppy I had to do most of the race kneeling. I’m always thinking when I’m out there how easily a shark could pop up out of nowhere and take a bite out of me. But it’s a great sport, especially in the Bay Area.
ACC: Answering questions for publication seems risky to me. I tend to keep a low profile! But beyond that, I am risky in love. I fall in love a hundred times a day with people, coffee drinks, a particular squirrel outside my window, the smell of the jasmine growing on my fence. My heart gets broken a lot. And, just like the adrenaline rush of rock climbing, each time I can’t wait for the next time!
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or play?
ACC: I love a good quote so my favorite changes daily, but one that resonates now is from “Marisol” by José Rivera. “What a time to be alive, huh? On one hand, we’re nothing. We’re dirt. On the other hand, we’re the reason the universe was made.”
GC: “Get busy living, or get busy dying” – from “The Shawshank Redemption.”
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Kim Taylor
For many years, Kim Taylor was the most prolific and hardest-working publicist in Bay Area theater. The former newspaper scribe went out on her own in 1999 and was soon representing companies all over the North Bay—including the Mountain Play, Marin Shakespeare Company, Novato Theater Company, Ross Valley Players, Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 6th Street Playhouse, Hoochi-Doo Productions, Porchlight Theatre Company, and Transcendence Theatre Company, many of them with productions opening simultaneously—a sometimes grueling schedule that she managed almost alone.
A lifelong theater enthusiast, Taylor is renowned for her professionalism and attention to detail. Her pre-show feasts and meet-and-greet affairs were among reviewers’ most enjoyable events. She retired from public relations work this past December, capping an unsurpassed twenty-year career. We miss you, Kim!
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
KT: In grammar school and participating in summer recreation theater programs.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
KT: In high school I played Mama Rose in “Gypsy.”
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
KT: As a publicist, I have represented more than twenty companies including college, university and community, semi-professional and professional theater companies. During my career I represented over 450 theater productions.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
KT: After working more than twelve years in the newsroom of the Marin Independent Journal, I launched a career as a freelance publicist in 1999. I retired in December 2019.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it did?
KT: Most of my career I had to juggle several clients including musical groups, theater companies and entertainment events. I ended my career working exclusively as publicist for Transcendence Theatre Company.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc.?
KT: As a publicist I represented every genre including Shakespeare, Broadway musicals, opera, American classics, comedy, new works and experimental theater.
ASR: Who had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
KT: Harvey Susser and James Dunn, College of Marin Drama Department.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
KT: Drama: “Dodsworth.” Broadway musical: “Guys and Dolls,” “Cabaret,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Evita.” Comedy: “An Ideal Husband,” “The 39 Steps” and “Bullshot Crummond.”
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
KT: My favorite client productions include the Spreckels Theatre Company 2013 production of “Mel Brooks New Musical Young Frankenstein,” the Porchlight Theatre Company 2008 outdoor production of “Under Milk Wood,” and the 6th Street Playhouse 2011 production of “Cabaret.”
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
KT: “Death of a Salesman” – I find it too depressing.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
KT: I would love to see “Dodsworth” revived with the story re-set in the 21st Century.
…”When did Ma get a cat?”
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play? Why?
KT: “King John.” I enjoy the play’s wickedly witty comedy.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
KT: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
KT: Costumes. I have always been interested in styles of period and historic garments.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
KT: Actress Mary Gannon Graham. Also actor Tim Kniffin.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
KT: As a publicist, I could relax only after reviews were published.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
KT: Plan well in advance and meet your deadlines. Check and double-check press release details to avoid errors. Always thank the media for coverage.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
KT: Dan Taylor, editor/reporter for Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat. We have newsroom experience in common and both of us enjoy and appreciate theater and performing arts.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
KT: In 2004, a wayward tabby got lost in the Ross Valley Players’ Barn Theatre and made an unexpected appearance during a performance of the company’s production of Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers,” stealing the scene from three actors as it delighted a packed audience.
Set in the Yonkers apartment of the stern Grandma Kurnitz, actors Bruce Vieira (as Uncle Louie Kurnitz), David Abrams and Kyle Lemle (as his nephews, Jay and Arty Kurnitz) were half way through a significant scene when the cat made its cameo appearance striding across the living room set.
The audiences’ uproarious reaction startled the cat to exit stage left. After a comic beat, veteran actor Vieira restored order with a brilliant improvisation.
“When did Ma get a cat?” asked Vieira of his fellow actors, before he continued the scene. Vieira’s quick wit was hilarious and restored order allowing the scene to continue.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
KT: I’ve seen several productions of the musical “Annie” where Sandy the dog would not cooperate.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
KT: At a studio theater performance of “The 39 Steps” an audience member commented loudly throughout Act I about the quick changes.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
KT: My grandson, old movies, vintage music, family genealogy and photography.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
KT: My husband and I enjoyed vintage dancing for many years. The bands we followed played popular music of the 1920s and 1930s. We learned vintage dances, dressed in period clothing, and attended dance events presented in spectacular venues, including the Avalon Ballroom on Catalina Island.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
KT: “For Immediate Release” – Endless dramatic and comedic material and an array of characters (actors, producers, directors, reviewers, etc.) would fuel this episodic series following the adventures of a freelance publicist representing theater companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
KT: “Don’t Say Goodbye,” 1932 – featuring vocals by Al Bowlly with Ray Noble and his New Mayfair Orchestra. The song is from “Wild Violets,” a musical comedy operetta written by Robert Stolz. I love the clever arrangement by Ray Noble. “Pick Yourself Up,” 1936 – music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Dorothy Fields. “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” 1936 – music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
KT: Jewelry.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks”— have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
KT: I have no interest in “true” risk taking, but I took a lot of risks in my work as a publicist.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
KT: “Love has got to stop some place short of suicide.” ~ Sam Dodsworth, from the “Dodsworth” book, play and film.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Marilyn Izdebski
Marilyn Izdebski is a Bay Area dancing dynamo. A Los Angeles native who graduated from UCLA in 1970 with a degree in theatre arts, she has fulfilled her life’s passion with over six decades of dancing, choreography, singing, acting, backstage tech, and directing front and center. She inspires and educates, having founded a dance theatre school in 1978 which brought over 230 children’s and adult productions to the stage. Marilyn claims to have retired in 2018, but today she heads up the volunteer boards of Novato Theatre Company and The Playhouse in San Anselmo.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
MI: When I was three years old, my mother took me to see the film The Red Shoes. I begged her for dance lessons. From then on, I studied ballet, jazz, tap and every other kind of dance. Ice skating too.
Fast forward to my sophomore year of high school. A friend asked me to go to two auditions with her. She got a part in one show, and I got the other show. I was cast as a dancer in Guys and Dolls at the Bluth Brothers Theatre in LA. Pretty heady stuff for a fourteen-year-old. After a few rehearsals I knew dance was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I went on to earn my theatre arts degree from UCLA and my teaching credential, and then taught for many years.
I had a tumultuous youth, and became orphaned at age sixteen. During my three years with that first theatre company, my joy of dancing helped form a dream to create a company where young people (like me) would have a real place to shine, a place to belong.
ASR: And you realized your dream?
MI: Yes, twelve years later I started Marin Studio of Theatre and Dance in Corte Madera with a partner. She wanted to move on after seven years, so I changed the name and continued as Marilyn Izdebski Productions. We produced musicals, dance recitals and had classes in dance and theatre.
ASR: What was the first play you directed for a paying audience?
MI:The Lottery, at a Junior High where I taught.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
MI: Lots: Ross Valley Players, Marin Theatre Company, the Mountain Play Association, Rhythms Performing Arts, Stapleton School of the Performing Arts, Mayflower Chorus, and Katia & Company. Currently I throw all my energies into the Novato Theater Company.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
MI: The Novato Theater Company originated in 1909 as a community theatre. It’s grown and survived multiple challenges and moves, including being booted out of their home mid-production when their Novato Community House stage was suddenly declared an earthquake risk.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
MI: I first starting attending NTC shows way back in 1980, following its growth since then. NTC has always had an abundance of talented directors, actors, and designers in addition to superbly dedicated volunteers.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, or the like?
MI: NTC’s major focus is on their audiences and what they would enjoy seeing. We want to expand their theatre experience. Our play selection committee and board combine classic plays, new works and musicals.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
MI: I had a wonderful mentor at UCLA, John Cauble, who taught me all the basics of theatre and gave me opportunities at a young age for which I will be forever grateful. David Issac, my partner who left us way too soon, helped me have the confidence to achieve what I wanted and to always “take the high road.”
Hal Prince’s book Contradictions influenced me greatly as a young director. His book motivated me to be deeply involved in all aspects of a production. When I prep for a show, I always think of the elements of the set, lights, costumes, props, etc. to keep everything in my mind as I create a show.
ASR: With the coronavirus pandemic, it’s likely going to be many months until theater companies get back to regular productions. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
MI: During this difficult time, we are keeping ourselves open to this “new normal.” All of our meetings are online and our upcoming fundraiser will be a virtual online experience.
Our play selection committee and board combine classic plays, new works and musicals…
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
MI: Making decisions is almost impossible. We have the season we selected before the pandemic hit, but are not sure when the season can even start.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company?
MI: All we can do is one day at a time. Or even one month at a time is good. We cannot produce a show until the quarantine is over and people feel safe going to the theatre. I am very concerned for the theatre community everywhere. Society has looked to theatre for 2,500 years to provide insight and joy. Now, more than ever, we need these gifts.
ASR: Assembly Bill 5, the new state regulation, requires theater performers and technical talents to be treated as employees. Has it affected your theater company’s plans?
MI: AB5 has absolutely affected NTC. We are an all-volunteer theatre company that also gives small stipends to our designers and support staff. We’re a non-profit; we survive on a very limited budget. If we have to put independent contractors on payroll, will suffer a large blow to our financial status. We hope that non-profit theatre companies become exempt from AB5. For the moment, we are waiting to see what happens in the State Legislature and hoping for the best.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas? Musicals? Comedies?
MI:Les Miserables is my favorite musical. The level of artistry in the show takes my breath away. I have so many comedies that I love but I think my favorite comedy is one I saw in New York that had all of the insane things that have happened in my life in theatre in one show—The Play That Goes Wrong. There are also many dramas that have affected me in my life, especially those of Tennessee Williams.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
MI: I have seen so many shows at NTC since 1980 that it is hard to choose. In recent years, truly exceptional shows were Into The Woods, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Chicago. Notable additions are Urinetown and August Osage County.
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
MI: There is a little musical called Archie and Mehitabel that I fell in love with in college and always hoped someone would produce it, so I could see it!
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
MI: I would definitely do lights. Lighting is like painting and can create the exact mood or feeling needed on stage.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
MI: Be a sponge. Don’t be afraid of criticism. Think outside of the box.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
MI: The very best friends I have were made in my theatre and dance world. These friendships are so close because of the intensity and intimacy of the process making a show. You lay yourself bare to others while creating and it takes a lot of trust during this time. A cast ends up feeling like a true family by the end of a run.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
MI: In West Side Story the gun wouldn’t go off, so the actor punched the intended victim. Another amusing episode was during a big production number with multiple dancers, actors and singers on a turntable…it abruptly stopped working. Everyone went on with the show and moved around themselves. A few minutes later, the turntable suddenly started turning again. The lead singer stopped mid-song to exclaim “Look, it’s working!” Great audience applause!
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
MI: I just “retired” almost two years ago from my studio and production company. Now I work ten hours a day on NTC and help out at other theatre companies. Until the pandemic hit, I was directing, choreographing and doing the lighting for many groups. Guess I like to work on theatre whether it’s a “day job” or not!
ASR: What do you do in your “off time?”
MI: I avidly watch sports – all kinds – at the end of a high-energy day. After decades of dancing, there are too many things wrong with my body to participate in sports, but I love to watch football, basketball, baseball, tennis. I always use the sports analogy in teaching or directing theatre. I say “Give your body up to this. Our team goal is not winning, it is to put on a great show!”
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, painting/sculpture? Do you actively do any other arts apart from theater?
MI: I love all the arts! My mom and several great teachers opened me up to ballet, opera, painting and film. I often bring what I have seen or heard into my approach to a show.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
MI: Earrings!
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
MI: From Les Miserables: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Phillip Percy Williams
An eleven year veteran of San Francisco’s legendary Beach Blanket Babylon, Phillip Percy Williams grew up singing in the church in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. His theatrical background includes performing Broadway shows with Carnival Cruise Lines and performing a solo tribute to Nat King Cole with an eleven-piece orchestra. He is a 2015 recipient of a “Principal Actor in a Musical” award from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Williams has performed in dozens of roles with many Bay Area troupes, including Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions, Berkeley Playhouse, Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theatre, Ross Valley Players, Marin OnStage, Curtain Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, and Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse. He has also performed with the Long Beach Civic Light Opera and at many fundraiser events for charitable non-profit organizations. His contemporary jazz/R&B trio the Phillip Percy Pack can be seen at various venues throughout the Bay Area.
Website: www.phillippercywilliams.com
ASR: Your background?
PPW: A true southerner: African American with traces of Europe.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
PPW: I was a cabaret performer in Los Angeles. A director saw me perform, introduced himself, and offered me a role in his production of “Working.” I played the newspaper boy. That was my first play.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
PPW: Approximately fifteen.
ASR: Did you anticipate that you would become as successful as you have?
PPW: No, I did not. I was never really formally trained and I kind of fell into it by happenstance. I have been so blessed to have been given the opportunities to perform and grateful to learn of my true passion—performing.
ASR: What are some of your favorite musicals?
PPW: “Big River,” “ Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Scarlett Pimpernel,” “City of Angels,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “The Fantastiks,” “Kinky Boots,” and “La Cage Aux Folles,” to name a few.
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work — sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes — which would it be and why?
PPW: Sound. Sound is one of those technical aspects that most theatres, clubs, and restaurants don’t understand. It’s essential to a successful production and show. And the funny thing is, all it takes is fine tuning (sometimes literally) or adding elements that if implemented would make the experience more memorable for audiences, performers and musicians.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance?
PPW: Vocally, I sing old school gospel. Physically, it’s light stretches, pushups and situps. Mentally, prayer.
ASR: How do you relax after?
PPW: A “lil dirty” Stoli vodka martini—two olives, an onion, and shaken. I’m an old school Stoli guy.
Sound is one of those technical aspects that most theatres, clubs, and restaurants don’t understand…
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
PPW: My #1 interest is my husband Mike. I like to garden and cook. I’m getting back into piano, and love love love to sing, especially old school gospel (Mighty Clouds of Joy, Andre Crouch) and jazz standards (Gershwin, Porter, Berlin and Mercer). My favorite influences are Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and Chet Baker.
ASR: Do you pursue any other arts apart from theater?
PPW: Yes, I have a Jazz/R&B group called the Phillip Percy Pack. I am also lead vocalist in two other bands.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
PPW: Any clothing made of polyester—sweaters, socks, pants, etc.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
PPW: “You Don’t Sound Black,” about a Marin County interracial gay couple, Allen and Percy, and their experiences with people in the Bay Area. Allen is midwestern white and Percy is southern black.
Pilot: Allen and Percy are at a black-tie gala where one of them is being recognized for his amazing contributions to the community. Allen introduces Percy to board member Robert and his wife Lilly.
Allen: “Robert, this is my partner Percy.”
Robert: “Nice to meet you, Percy. So what kind of business do you run?”
Lilly (whispering to husband). “No . . . they are partners . . .”
Robert: “Oh, okay.” (sincerely spoken) “Lee, we are so lucky to have you and really value and appreciate your commitment.” (followed by firm handshake)
Lilly (to Percy): “Good for you guys . . . you’re attractive and speak so well . . . good for you.”
And scene . . .
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
PPW: Cuff links. I have a substantial collection.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie, stage play, song or book?
PPW: “I was never in the chorus,” from “Mame.”
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Jaime Love
Jaime Love is Executive Artistic Director of Sonoma Arts Live (SAL), based in the town of Sonoma. SAL performs primarily on the Rotary Stage in Andrews Hall at the Sonoma Community Center. Love has been involved in theater and radio for over 35 years as an actor, producer, singer, director, writer and voice-over artist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. She is a founding member of the Sonoma Theater Alliance and Sonoma Arts Live, and for six years was Co-Artistic Director and Producer of the Nicholson Ranch Players’ musical revues and Christmas shows at Nicholson Winery.
A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Love left the big city and worked in summer theatre in Montana (“Damn Yankees”), did post-production film work in L.A., and then fell in love with voice-over work and headed east again to attend Connecticut School of Broadcasting. She then went on to Boston, where she worked as the Arts & Entertainment Director and Promotions Director at WMJX and WMEX, focused on producing voice-overs for “Today’s Executive Women” and “That’s Entertainment.” Radio brought Jaime and her husband Rick back to the west, this time to San Francisco and ultimately to Sonoma, where he owns Creative Audience Research. Jaime and Rick have lived in Sonoma for twenty years.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
JL: The minute I saw my first movie, “Mary Poppins.” I’ll never forget the theater, or Julie Andrews’ face filling up the screen. It was like a magic wand tapped me on my head and said “You’ve found your people.” I was the classic put-on-a-show-in-the-backyard kind of kid.
Regarding theater here in Sonoma, I had spent two years in San Francisco from 1993-95 and had loved the thriving scene there. I did a play with Jean Shelton at the Marsh, did an original play at this tiny awesome theater in North Beach called Bannam Place Theater. When we moved to Sonoma for Rick’s job there was just nada happening. Then I wandered into the Sonoma Community Center and discovered a wonderful woman who was starting Theater at the Center. From 1995-2001 we had a thriving community theater. In 2001 under a new administration they decided to use the theater as a rental, and that’s where it stood until 2010 when Todd Evans and I approached the Community Center about renting to us.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
JL: My first real role was freshman year in high school: “This Property Is Condemned.” First time I was paid was at Park Royale Night Club in New York. I sang a half hour set and was given a tiny stipend and a cut of the door, so of course I asked all my fellow American Academy of Dramatic Arts pals to come! I remember my “hits” were “Because the Night,” and “Your Nobody Called Today,” a popular country-western thing. First show I directed was a music revue I co-wrote called “Wine, Women and Song – Love Unleashed” at Nicholson Ranch winery. I went on to write and produce shows there for about five years.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
JL: 2015. Before then we were a theater cooperative, Sonoma Theater Alliance, for five years.
ASR: Did you anticipate that SAL would become as successful as it has?
JL: I’m really thrilled and encouraged by the response from the community and the critics. Once we honed in on our demographic and what they wanted, things really came together, and I feel we have found our sweet spot. We have a mature well-educated audience and I try to envision them, what they’ve been through in their lives, and choose plays that speak to them nostalgically or emotionally. I am in their age group and I rely a lot on thinking about my generation’s collective experience and how a play may or may not fit in.
I’m not ashamed to say that our company feels no shame in producing feel-good theater. There is a place for everything, and I love edgy theater and new works but that’s just not us—not to say we do “fluff”—maybe “tried and true” is a better way of looking at it. Sonoma is so small that I truly do know most of our 250 season ticket subscribers and we talk constantly about what brings them through our doors. We do a few new works as staged readings each year, and I’ve been proud and pleased with the response from our patrons.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
JL: I’ve got at least three different scenarios ready to go. It’s been so sad to have to move shows like chess pieces, strategizing and trying to stay one step ahead without having a crystal ball. We were set with a full season ready to announce April 11 with a now cancelled reception. And as so many of us in the North Bay share the same talent pool it will create even more stress. You can’t just move a show three months ahead and not run into conflicts. My hope is to take the three remaining shows in our season and add them to the new one.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
JL: My guess is it will come back slowly. I’ve been rethinking the big cast/big shows for the short term. If audiences are not allowed to gather in large groups—necessary for us to be financially stable—I’ll need to produce shows that will at least cover expenses for actors, crews and rent. And we are going to have to deal with the very real fear of “gathering” and what that will mean for our actors and our audience. If I think about it too much I go down the rabbit hole.
I’m not ashamed to say that our company feels no shame in producing feel-good theater.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
JL: “My Fair Lady,” “Always, Patsy Cline,” and “Becky’s New Car.”
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work — sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes — which would it be and why?
JL: Definitely props and set decoration. I’ve been a thrift shop and antique hunter since I was about eight years old! A week does not go by when I do not pop into all the great thrift stores in Sonoma. I’m an “Antiques Road Show” junkie! When I was little I would go “antiquing” with my mom and her best friend. I learned so much from them.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
JL: Well, Dani Innocenti-Beem of course! She has that star power. You can feel the energy when she walks on stage. She truly helped put Sonoma Arts Live on the map. Also Chris Ginesi. I’ve known him since he was about twelve—we did “Our Town” together. He’s truly exciting to watch on the stage. It’s been wonderful to watch him develop his craft over the years.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
JL: I was playing Rita Boyle in “Prelude to a Kiss” in upstate New York. Cell phones had only just come out—this was before it was added to curtain speeches to turn them off—I’m in the middle of this intimate scene, and not wearing much, and this guy’s phone goes off. He answers as if he’s at home in this very normal voice: “I can’t talk now. I’m watching a play.” Then a few seconds of silence. “Yeah, it’s OK…” meaning “Yeah, the play’s OK.” It was very hard to stay in character after that!
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
JL: I am so blessed and lucky and honored to say for the first time in my life, theater is my paying full time job. We have an amazing Board and a fundraising team
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
JL: Writing, being with my kids, exercising, enjoying new restaurants and hiking with my amazing husband. After 31 years together, I still really like him—and I am writing this after three weeks of seeing basically only him!)
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you pursue any other arts apart from theater?
JL: For about ten years I wrote wrote wrote, and had a few things published.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
JL: “Whine Country”—I was a wine country tour guide for six years, creating private trips: lots of bridesmaids, rich rich people, anniversaries. The company I worked for had a division of drivers who picked up people at different hotels for group tours … I have always wanted to do a series based on the TV show “Taxi,” where each episode starts with all of us at the station, picking up our vehicles, and then each individual episode would follow a different charter driver and guests. There are so many stories I could tell!
ASR: What three songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
JL: “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from “Oklahoma,” “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, and “When You See a Chance,” by Steve Winwood.
My first musical was Oklahoma in ninth grade and I had a huge crush on the guy who played Curly and I can still get butterflies in my stomach picturing him walking out on our stage singing the first few notes.
“Walking on Sunshine”—I lived in Helena, Montana for a few years after NYC, and I had this fun little moped that I would ride to the Grand Street Theater, listening to my Sony Walkman and playing that song full blast riding up and down hills!!
“When You See a Chance”—I first heard it by going through my roomie’s records and throwing it on the turntable. When that song came on it just leapt out at me, I never forgot that moment when lyrics grabbed me like that. It was my grab-a-hairbrush-as-a-microphone-and-stand-on-the-bed song!
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks” — have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
JL: Absolutely not.
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
AisleSeat Review and our readers are enjoying a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people.
Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor, this is Aisle Seat Review’s Not So Random Question Time.
***
Susi Damilano
Actor/director/producer Susi Damilano is Producing Director of the San Francisco Playhouse, co-founded with husband Bill English, the company’s Artistic Director. In its seventeen years SF Playhouse has grown from relatively obscurity to one of the city’s preeminent theater companies. Damilano is a five-time recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) ‘Excellence in Theatre Award for Principal Actress in a Play’ for Playhouse productions “Abigail’s Party,” “Harper Regan,” “Bug,” “Six Degrees of Separation,” and “Reckless.”
She has also performed in many other leading roles, in addition to directing Playhouse productions of “Groundhog Day the Musical,” “Cabaret,” “Mary Poppins,” “Noises Off,” “She Loves Me,” “Stage Kiss,” “Company,” “Stupid Fucking Bird,” “Into the Woods,” “A Behanding in Spokane,” “Den of Thieves,” “Wirehead” (SFBATCC nomination).
Damilano also directed the West Coast premieres of “Honey Brown Eyes” (SFBATCC nomination), “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” “Coronado,” “The Mystery Plays,” and “Roulette,” and the world premieres of “On Clover Road” by Steven Dietz, “From Red to Black” by Rhett Rossi, and “Seven Days” by Daniel Heath. As will attest anyone who’s been to one of the Playhouse’s legendary opening nights, she is also a world-class caterer.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
SD: When I was 27 I visited a friend in London. She told me that while she was at work during the day, to go to Leicester Square and get a half price ticket to anything. I did, and saw my first professional play, “Les Miserables.” I was hooked. The next day I saw “42nd Street.” Wow! That began my love for theater—the magic of seeing someone jump off a bridge to their suicide, and ‘knowing’ he must have landed on the floor, and believing he landed in water. Beautiful.
Our focus is on how plays impact the audience…
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
SD: The first play I performed was called “Coming Attractions” at City Lights Theater. I got to play tons of different parts, sang and danced and had so much fun. Wendy Wisely took a chance on me and because of her, I was accepted into the Bay Area acting world.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
SD: As I was learning my craft I took jobs anywhere around the Bay: City Lights, Town Hall, CenterRep, Actors Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Bus Barn.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
SD: We had our first show in 2003.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
SD: We dreamed of what we could be and decided from the first moment to work as if we were on par with Steppenwolf or Royal Court or Donmar or Almeida … all theaters we admired, and the ones in London that we loved to visit.
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc?
SD: Our focus is on how plays impact the audience, not on any particular topic, niche or type. The goal is to bring people together, to touch and be touched. To share an experience and create compassion.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
SD: My husband, Bill English, who is a walking library of dramatic works and knowledge. I learned to direct by sitting next to him for years and observing. My acting work was most influenced by Jean Shelton and Richard Seyd, and my courage has most been influenced by our patrons, who keep coming back and who are in the lobby crying or laughing afterward, confirming that what we are doing makes a difference.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the shutdown?
SD: We have the most incredible staff and board and patrons. The shutdown happened the week we were supposed to start previews for “Real Women Have Curves.” Everyone took the news so bravely. Actors lost the opportunity to share a beautiful story, our staff went to work calling ticket holders; ticket holders became donors and supporters. We’ve had to furlough many of our dear staff and are grateful that California unemployment will provide that extra $600 to them. On the other hand, we continued with announcing our season. We did a virtual announcement that has received more views and positive feedback than any event in the past.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
SD: When we announced the season we did not include dates or actual order of the shows. That certainty is simply not available to us right now.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
SD: My vision (hope) is that we will come out of this ‘big pause’ stronger than ever. Our love and need for the arts have been solidified through its absence. The theatre has always been a place where people gather. Spacing, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer will be likely be the norm in the short term.
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts underway in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. Has AB5 affected your theater company’s plans?
SD: It hasn’t impacted our plans other than inducing confusion as to how an artist or designer could be an employee.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
SD: I left my ‘day job’ to run the Playhouse in our 12th season. Besides acting and directing, managing the Playhouse is my day job.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
SD: I love spending time with friends and family, and of course, my dog Emi.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you pursue any other arts apart from theater?
SD: I love the arts, and have dabbled with drawing, and film — wish I was a trained dancer and pianist … maybe soon, if we keep staying home.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
SD: The words “no” and “but” are forbidden and to be replaced with “yes,” “and.” Honor the environment and keep it beautiful and strong. Be kind.
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
SD: If I wanted to buy one, wouldn’t getting two be great?
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
SD: Been framed.
ASR: What three songs are Included on the soundtrack to your life? And why each?
SD: My soundtrack is more like the ocean waves, or breeze through the trees.
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
SD: Bracelets.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
SD: None. Too big for my house.
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks” — have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
SD: When I was younger, for sure. Not anymore.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
SD: It’s from “The Sound of Music” — “Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must’ve done something good.”
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Two actors sit down together at a table in a modest apartment, with old photographs lining the walls. For the next forty-five minutes, they’ll be an estranged father and daughter reunited after decades apart. The only catch? The actors are in different states and have never even met in person. The apartment behind them is a green screen. And the audience members are watching from the safety of their living rooms.
“The show must go on!” or so the adage goes. But what does that mean in a world that’s living six feet apart, gloved and masked, attending school, and work through laptop screens?
Desperate times call for creative workarounds, and “Zoom Theatre” offers an inspired solution to the unprecedented challenge of producing live theater in the era of “social distancing.” Utilizing Zoom’s popular web conferencing software, stage director Patrick Nims gives theatergoers the chance to attend exclusive, live performances of plays staged explicitly for online viewing, all from the comfort of home.
Nims is an award-winning stage director whose work has appeared all over the Bay Area. He also co-founded and served as Artistic Director for Marin Summer Theater, and is currently a resident director at Portland’s Stumptown Stages. Zoom Theatre is his latest brainchild.
Its first production – David Mamet’s two short plays, “Reunion” and “Dark Pony,” brought to life beautifully by actors David L. Yen of Sonoma County and Voni Kengla of Portland, OR – aired for only three performances on April 9, 10, and 11. But two more shows are already in the works, the next of which is slated for early May.
ASR’s Nicole Singley asked Nims for a behind-the-screens look at his self-declared “experiment in theatre…
***
Voni Kengla and David L. Yen at work in Zoom Theatre’s first production
ASR: In your own words, what is Zoom Theatre, and what is your vision for it?
PN: Zoom Theatre is an experiment. It is an attempt to see if web conferencing software is up to the demands of live performance, with live feedback from the audience. Like in the early days of television, we know that the technology is in an imperfect state, but for me it is an intriguing and promising notion. So far it has proven successful at delivering a “theatre-like” experience, with a few gotcha’s and a steep learning curve.
ASR: How are plays rehearsed and performed for this medium? What special equipment does your team rely on?
PN: The plays are rehearsed entirely over Zoom. We have a Zoom Rehearsal Room that the actors join from their home. Each actor started with a laptop with a webcam as we did table work and then set the staging. The actors had to look in their own homes for props. As we got closer to performance each actor received an external microphone and HD webcam, a green screen kit and a ring light. While not up to sound stage quality, these items improve the quality of the image and sound greatly.
ASR: What are some of the biggest or most unusual challenges – technological or other – that your team has had to overcome in this process?
PN: There has been nothing yet that caused us to reconsider moving forward. Luckily all of our company has had fast enough and reliable enough internet to make it work. Getting matching props was fun (when the “same” item is used on both screens). Because of the 500ms delay in Zoom, it took a bit to work out the timing when they are supposed to say the same thing at the same time. Handing the live audience sound is the last big issue. We’re slowly figuring out how to dial that in so that the actors can hear the audience, without the audience being too loud. Overall we all had fun working on the project. Saddest thing so far was not being able to give the cast and stage manager Georgia Ortiz a hug after opening night.
ASR: How did you select David Mamet’s “Reunion” and “Dark Pony?”
PN: I knew the plays from my college days and when I looked at my list of possible two-person shows, it jumped to the top as being suitable for Zoom. They are actors’ plays. There are no special stage effects, machinery or blocking required. The actors don’t need to touch, and each only requires a single location. It was a perfect fit.
…we all had fun working on the project.
ASR: What was it like to direct through a screen, and to stage intimate scenes between two actors who’ve never met face-to-face?
PN: It was a great experience for me. When they were working scenes, I would turn off my video (so they could concentrate on each other) and then bring mine back on after to give notes. Within a day or two, it was just normal. Voni and David are real pros and they made it look and sound real from day one.
ASR: What other shows can we look forward to seeing from Zoom Theatre in the coming months?
PN: Next up will be “Lungs” by Duncan Macmillan in early May. It is a beautiful play about love, relationships and our responsibility to the planet. The show will star Amber and Gregory Crane who are two wonderful Marin County actors that are sheltering in place together, so in this case, they will be physically together and I will be directing remotely for a remote audience. After that is “Actually” by Anna Ziegler, May 21 through 24. It is also a two person play that with lyricism and wit, investigates gender and race politics, our crippling desire to fit in, and the three sides to every story.
ASR: Do you think online theater will endure once the pandemic has passed?
PN: Beyond the pandemic, I think Zoom Theatre will remain viable as a way of inexpensively producing small plays with work-from-home actors in unlimited locations. The technology and performance will have to improve before I’d try a musical over Zoom, but I imagine it is only a matter of time.
To learn more about Zoom Theatre and register to see upcoming shows, visit ZoomTheatre.com, or find and follow the Zoom Theatre page on Facebook.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
AisleSeat Review begins a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people. Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor.
***
Steve Beecroft
Steve Beecroft is an actor, dancer, choreographer, director, and producer as well as a pillar of the Curtain Theater in Mill Valley CA. Besides his vocal talent, Beecroft is noted for his extraordinary skill as an athletic fight choreographer. If you’ve ever seen him jumping, leaping, and swinging a sword onstage, be sure to duck.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
SB: It was really by accident. I have always been a singer, and still do concerts for fund-raising today, but I’d never planned to act. In my senior year of high school, I somehow got roped in to play the lead in the musical “The Boyfriend”. I was hooked and never turned back. It was a real switch from athletics for me. I remember that my football coach would avert his eyes when he saw me in the school corridors after that.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
SB: I have never counted them all, but between Canada, England and the USA, quite a few.
… We had a blast mixing Shakespeare, Star Trek and rock ‘n roll!
ASR: When was your present company formed?
SB: The Curtain Theatre was formed twenty years ago to bring Shakespeare to the outdoor stage in Old Mill Park in Mill Valley. I joined the company 10 years ago. We are blessed to have two of the original founders still in the company. Michele Delattre is Artistic Director and will direct this summer’s show “Twelfth Night”, while also playing in the band. Don Clark has been our music director throughout all the years the company has been in existence. They are both brilliant!
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
SB: It was already pretty special with its free performances in our outdoor setting. We have grown the company further over the years and are proud of the awards and loyal audiences we continue to gather.
ASR: What’s Curtain Theatre’s focus?
SB: The Curtain Theatre is primarily a Shakespeare company, adjusted to be fun and family-friendly. Many kids come and sit at the foot of the stage. We’re delighted to see they’re totally into it, which makes it super for us. We keep the plays light with topical music and authentic costumes. We might introduce props that were not available in the Bard’s era, like the chain saw we used in “The Taming of the Shrew.” That got everyone’s attention!
We switch out of Shakespeare too, performing other classic plays such as Moliere’s “The Miser” in 2017. Back in 2013, we went completely off the Bard’s rails when I joined with Carl Jordan and Gary Gonser to put on “Return to the Forbidden Planet.” It was such a hit at Tam High that we staged it the following year at Novato Theatre. We had a blast mixing Shakespeare, Star Trek and rock ‘n roll! It was outrageous and won a batch of SFBATCC awards.
ASR: On a somber note, it will likely be several months until theaters reopen due to COVID-19. How is your company coping?
SB: Our 2020 summer show has been cast and the artistic team are hard at work planning music, choreography, sets, costumes, etc. We start rehearsals after the July 4th weekend and we are hoping to have the go ahead then.
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
SB: Given social distancing rules, we obviously cannot meet for character work and design sessions, so we use ZOOM a lot.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company?
SB: The Curtain Theatre has been an integral part of the cultural life of Mill Valley and Marin for a long time. Shakespeare aficionados and neophytes alike love to come to see our plays. Families come to be entertained with their children getting their first impression of the Bard at our shows. They keep coming back. So will we.
It is worth remembering that Shakespeare and his company often saw the theatres closed by the plague. But creativity continued, plays were written and rehearsed, and when the air cleared, new plays surged into the light to entertain a people much in need of it. We at the Curtain Theatre hope to do the same in these troubled times. We think it vital that we carry on, whatever the difficulties.
ASR: Has Assembly Bill 5, requiring theatre folks to be employees, affected your company’s plans?
SB: If the law were to be enforced, it would kill almost all amateur theatre companies including us.
ASR: Life in the theater: What are some personal favorites?
SB: For dramas: “Equivocation”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Musicals I like include “Les Miserables”, “West Side Story”, “Return to the Forbidden Planet”, “Mamma Mia”, and “Guys & Dolls.”
My favorite comedies include “Noises Off”, “Lend me a Tenor”, and “Much Ado About Nothing”.
ASR: What are three all-time favorites from The Curtain Theatre?
SB: Tough choice. Top of the list is “Return to the Forbidden Planet” of course, plus “Henry IV” part one, and “The Taming of the Shrew.”
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play?
SB: “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” It has great comedy and some excellent poetry and prose. It has a problem at the end but I think that can be worked around effectively. I hope to direct the play in the future.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
SB: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”…though it is still great fun!!
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work—sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes—which would it be and why?
SB: I am afraid I am hopelessly untalented when it comes to tech areas. I could probably manage props.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
SB: Lots of stretching and singing beforehand, and a beer with my cast mates and the Curtain team afterward.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
SB: Hmmm… I guess,
1. Only do plays and roles that you are passionate about.
2. Seek to work with the most creative people you can.
3. Have fun!!
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
SB: When playing Curly in “Oklahoma”, I was supposed to shoot Jud, but the gun cap didn’t go off. I spent about 3 minutes ad-libbing and having lots of fun with the audience.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
SB: I tore my hamstring doing a split-leap on stage. Not fun.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
SB: When I was rehearsing for a John Denver concert, an elderly lady came in to listen and watch. When I finished one particular song, she proceeded to remind me that I had gotten one word wrong and that I really shouldn’t do that again.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
SB: I work for a multi-national investment bank.
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
SB: Hiking, the gym, singing both choral and in concerts, traveling, kayaking, and environmental economics.
ASR: Favorite quote from a movie or stage play?
SB:This one…
“How will it work?”
“I don’t know, it’s a mystery.”
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ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
AisleSeat Review begins a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people. Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor.
***
Eleven years oldand going strong, Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions is a standout North Bay theater company founded by Managing Director Barry Martin and Artistic Director Taylor Bartolucci (pictured below.) The company’s co-founders are great friends and lifelong theater veterans. Both perform multiple roles in every aspect of Lucky Penny’s operations. Recent productions include an exemplary “Cabaret,” plus “Bingo the Musical,” “9 to 5 the Musical,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and “Five Course Love.”
Website: www.luckypennynapa.com
Barry Martin and Taylor Bartolucci of Lucky Penny Productions. Photo credit: Lucky Penny.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
Barry M.: I think I was in theatre from the day I was born.
Taylor: I was four years old when I got my first taste of the theatre. My mom enrolled me in a local community theatre production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” where I flew around on the stage as Woodstock. I was immediately hooked.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
Barry M.: I played Perchik in “Fiddler on the Roof” as a sophomore in high school. The first paying gig for me was doing summer stock after my junior year of college.
Taylor: “Charlie Brown” was followed by my first of many productions of “Annie.” I started off as Molly then throughout the years played every single female role you could play—Annie, all of the Orphans, Star to Be, Hannigan, Lily, Boylan Sisters—all of them, except Grace.
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
Barry M.: Board member for two, co-founder of one.
Taylor: Oh gosh, way too many to count.
ASR: When was your present company formed?
Taylor: Barry and I founded Lucky Penny Productions in the spring of 2009.
ASR: Did you anticipate that it would become as successful as it has?
Barry M.: I expected we would be successful but didn’t expect to become as large as we have become, nor did I expect to have a physical location.
Taylor: I think from the very beginning we were dreamers, always envisioning grand things, but at the same time we were always busy working for the current show or for the future, so there wasn’t a lot of time to focus on future success, just the success of the project at hand.
It seems to me that every now and then at the end of the day, we would sit back and look at where the company was and go “Wow, that’s pretty darn cool. We are so grateful. OK, now let’s get back to work!”
ASR: Does your company have a special focus, i.e., genre/historical period, contemporary, experimental, emerging playwrights, etc.?
Barry M.: Special focus is on giving people a memorable experience but we do not have a niche.
Taylor: I wouldn’t say we have a focus as much as we feel we have a responsibility to our local community, the Napa Valley, to expose them to all genres of theatre. Being one of the only theatre companies in Napa County, we select a season that reflects a little bit of everything to attract and satisfy the needs of all of our community members. This includes musicals, non-musicals, classics and modern pieces.
… Trust your gut. Be tenacious. Focus on the audience experience.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
Barry M.: If I am any better at it than I was in the olden days, it’s due to Taylor’s example. She has made me want to be a better actor and director.
Taylor: I would say our patrons and volunteers. If it wasn’t for their support and belief in us, we wouldn’t be where we are today. And for all of them, we are incredibly grateful.
ASR: It will likely be several months until theaters reopen. How is your company coping with the coronavirus shutdown?
Barry M.: Conserving cash, and making plans for strategic online activities.
Taylor: We are taking it day by day. We had to make the tough decision to postpone “Sweeney Todd,” the show we were about to open, and we have cancelled our April/May production of “The Quality of Life” and our June production of “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.”
ASR: How has the crisis affected your planning for coming seasons?
Barry M.: No overall change to the approach but we expect to be leaner for at least a season.
Taylor: In all honesty, it hasn’t yet. I feel like we are in a bit of a holding pattern right now until we receive more information—which I assume we will be getting within the next few weeks. Once we know how much longer we will be practicing social distancing and bans on events, we can look into any necessary changes to our upcoming season.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
Barry M.: We will be back with no substantial change in how we do things. In the larger view, the world will always need theatre. The forms it takes may continue to change.
Taylor: Like Barry said—we will be back at it as soon as we can!
ASR: Almost forgotten with the pandemic is the crisis caused in the performing arts by the passage of Assembly Bill 5, requiring most workers to be paid the California minimum wage. There are multiple efforts underway in Sacramento to get performing artists exempted from this. Has AB5 affected your theater company’s plans?
Barry M.: AB5 was taking up a lot of my brain until two weeks ago. At some point I will have to focus on it again and resume efforts to get amendments carving out small non-profit theatres like ours. There is no path I can see that has us in compliance with the bill as currently enacted.
ASR: Name three all-time favorites that your company has produced.
Barry M.: “Funny Girl,” “Hands on a Hardbody,” “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Taylor: Oh man…there are so many we have produced that I have been proud of for so many reasons…but if I had to pick three, I’d say:
“Funny Girl” because it was our first large scale musical, a lifelong dream of mine, and the show that really exposed us to a larger audience base.
“Hands on a Hardbody,” because it was such an incredibly beautiful and heart-filled show, and one that brought together different parts of our community to help put together (Soscol Auto Body, Wine Country Crossfit to name a few).
And “Clue: The Musical” because it was a show that was unknown, one that we were able to fully create from scratch, with a team of some of my best friends, and it brought so much joy to our audiences.
ASR: What are some of your least favorite plays? Care to share titles of those you would never produce — or never produce again?
Barry M.: “Grease” is terribly written even though the songs are good. “Urinetown” annoys me.
Taylor: I have to agree with Barry—I have never enjoyed the humor of “Urinetown,” even though lots of people have asked us to produce it. I’m also not a fan of (*gasp*) “In the Heights” or “Cats.” No big shocker there.
ASR: Which play would you most like to see put into deep freeze for 20 years?
Barry M.: “The Iceman Cometh.”
ASR: What is Shakespeare’s most underrated play?
Barry M.: I think there are only three or four worth doing and all the rest suck except as academic exercises. So for me none are underrated.
Taylor: “Titus Andronicus.” Maybe this comes to mind because we were just preparing to do “Sweeney Todd” at Lucky Penny.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
Barry M.: “As You Like It” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” both a yawn.
Taylor: “Midsummer.”
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work — sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes — which would it be and why?
Barry M.: Well, I have done several whole seasons building sets, so there’s that. Other than sets I like doing sound.
Taylor: Props. Definitely props.
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance? How do you relax after?
Barry M.: I hate warm-ups of all kinds and have no routine. Just tell me “places” and I’m ready to go. After a show I need at least 90 minutes and a minimum of two drinks to wind down. Not iced tea, either.
Taylor: Depends on the show. Like Barry, I’m not a huge warm-up person. If it’s a musical I will vocalize and make sure I’m warmed up in that capacity, but with non-musicals I don’t have a set regime. I do like to get to the theatre extra early and take my time getting ready. Plus, there is nothing like an empty theatre. It’s such a soothing place for me.
After a show I tend to have too much adrenaline to just go straight home, so I will typically grab a drink and hang out with cast members. If it’s a matinee I may jet home to see my kiddos before bedtime.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what things would you tell them are essential?
Barry M.: Trust your gut. Be tenacious. Focus on the audience experience.
Taylor: Be kind—the theatre world may seem big, but it ultimately is pretty darn small, and people will remember their experience with you. Be collaborative—your production and company will be so much better off utilizing the talent and ideas of your artists to the fullest. Be willing to step into any shoes—this means working front of house, making props, being on stage, working backstage, sweeping the floor. Not only does it familiarize you with every job that needs to be done so you know what you are asking of others, but you are the example. Be a great example.
ASR: What theater-related friendship means the most to you? Why?
Barry M.: When you build a theatre from the ground up together and keep it going ten years it’s a good friendship, so my friendship with Taylor Bartolucci means the most to me.
Taylor: My relationship with Barry. It’s not every day you have the chance to dream and work alongside your best friend. We complement each other very well in terms of how we make decisions, how we feel in certain situations and how we like to work.
ASR: What is the funniest screw-up you’ve seen on stage in a live performance?
Barry M.: In college, the climactic sword fight on opening night between MacBeth and MacDuff started with MacBeth somehow getting his cape tangled in his crown and the audience laughed. Perfect climax to a truly cursed production of “The Scottish Play.”
Taylor: One that happened recently was a production where a very dramatic scene had two people fighting over a baby. When the person who wanted the baby grabbed it, the head popped off and bounced on the floor, while the other person had to keep crying and pretend that the head was still attached. It was truly a great exercise in acting as one of them grabbed it as quickly as possible and both actors kept going like nothing had happened.
ASR: The most excruciating screw-up?
Taylor: Years ago I was at a show at ACT in San Francisco. One of the actors forgot his line. He stopped, said he was going to rewind and start over. I vaguely remember it was the beginning of a monologue. He started again and got stuck, and started again. This happened four times! The audience got pissed and started booing.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
Barry M.: Exiting through our greenroom trying to find the bathroom, startling some actors… or throwing up into their popcorn (yeah) during a scene… or cutting across the stage to leave in the middle of a scene.
Taylor: Oh my goodness. In our theatre—a 97-seat black box—the audience is VERY up close and personal, so we have seen it all! From people in the audience talking back to cast members on stage mid-show, having panic attacks, sleeping—you name it.
ASR: Do you have a “day job?”
Barry M.: Two or three of them.
Taylor: I work for my family winery, Madonna Estate during the day. And we are currently having a special—20% off all wines! Use the code 20OFF and LOCALS at checkout and I will deliver to your doorstep!
ASR: What are your interests outside of theater?
Barry M.: All the news all the time, soccer, wine
Taylor: Family, friends, working out, country music, cooking.
ASR: Do you follow other arts—music, film, dance, painting/sculpture? Do you pursue any other arts apart from theater?
Barry M.: I enjoy quality films but don’t care for most of the popular ones. I’m a big fan of classic films—Capra, Ford, Welles, etc.
Taylor: There are lots of things I would love to explore—playing musical instruments, creating visual art (painting, wall art, etc) but with a two-year-old, a one-year-old, the theatre and the winery, I am sadly short on time these days.
ASR: You discover a beautiful island on which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What are the first three rules you’d put into place?
Taylor: Hmmm. OK:
1) Everyone clean up after themselves
2) It’s 5’o clock somewhere at all times
3) You don’t have to sleep but you need to stay in bed during naptime…
Oh wait, these are just my current stay at home rules with my kids. Sigh…
ASR: What would be the worst “buy one get one free” sale of all time?
Barry M.: A timeshare.
ASR: You have the opportunity to create a 30-minute TV series. What’s it called and what’s the premise?
Taylor: Barry already created one! It’s called “Good Talks with Taylor.” Sometimes the content is amusing, sometimes he thrusts the camera into my face when I’m annoyed, Other times I may or may not have had a drink or two. It’s always brought us some good laughs.
ASR: If you were arrested with no explanation, your friends and family might assume you had done what?
Barry M.: DUI, most likely. Mass murder would be most satisfying.
Taylor: I better not be arrested! Being married to a cop… should have some benefits!
ASR: A fashion accessory you like better than others?
Taylor: Not sure it’s something I like more than others, but I’ll take a good, useful pair of sunglasses on a sunny day.
ASR: What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
Barry M.: Novel coronavirus. I’d mount up and ride it out of town.
Taylor: Hmmm…can’t say there is anything I’d like to see blown up to a size that could attack me. Call me a wimp!
ASR: Theater people often pride themselves on “taking risks” — have you any interest in true risk taking, such as rock climbing, shark diving, bungee jumping, skydiving?
Barry M.: Nothing involving falling to my death or drowning interests me, for some reason. The risks I have taken in my life were not artificially imposed, they were real-life risks about financial security, family ties, and living the life I wanted to live.
Taylor: No, nothing that could physically harm me has ever been of interest. Give me a good juicy scene where I can cry and scream and be raw and real in front of strangers but ask me to jump out of a plane?! NO WAY!
ASR: Favorite quote?
Taylor: One of my all-time favorite quotes is actually from the song “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5: “It’s not always rainbows and butterflies—it’s compromise that moves us along. My heart is full and my doors always open, you can come anytime you want.”
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
This week, AisleSeat Review begins a new series of question-and-answer interviews with prominent Bay Area theater people.
Our goal is not to subject you the reader to extended portentous sermons of the guest’s views on Russian translations of lesser-known Mamet flash drama (is there such a thing?)
Too often the people who guide and make theater in the Bay Area are behind the scenes — fast-moving denizens of the curtain lines who mumble into microphones while invariably (always excepting Carl Jordan’s beret collection…) dressed head-to-toe in black. These interviews allow you, the reader, to get to know these amazingly talented people a bit more, as…people. Offering some personal and professional insights: with a heavy dash of humor.
***
Our first guest is North Bay director and choreographer Carl Jordan, a theater veteran with three decades of experience. Jordan’s “Clybourne Park,” “By the Water,” and “Death of a Salesman” are among his more recent standout productions.
ASR: How did you get started in theater?
CJ: I was a member of a dance company and started doing choreography there. This led to choreographing musical theater and opera, which led to directing musicals.
ASR: What was the first play you performed in or directed for a paying audience?
CJ: First choreography was a college production of “Babes in Arms.” First solo direction was “Little Shop of Horrors.”
ASR: How many theater companies have you been involved with?
CJ: Lots.
ASR: Who has had the largest impact on your professional development in the theater?
CJ: My first mentor was my college teacher John Weldon. He taught me to be have fun with what you are doing. His teaching is still a big inspiration. I’ve learned from every actor I have worked with—they all taught me something. Some, how not to do things. Working with actors, every moment is a lesson in the art. I watch and learn from other directors. I love watching the work of Sheri Lee Miller, now with Spreckels.
ASR: How is your company coping with the coronavirus shutdown?
CJ: I just had a production cancelled, hopefully rescheduled for next season. It’s difficult to plan when we do not know how long this will last. When will it be safe? Right now we all have to be flexible with a plan B and plans C, D etc.
ASR: How do you envision the future for your company? For the theater community overall?
CJ: It will be changed—how, we do not know. In the short term, generally after a crisis, audiences want escapism: happy musicals. Audiences might be affected financially and therefore be reluctant to part with their dollars. At some point, it will mostly return but art reflects our yearnings and our souls and will change.
ASR: Has Assembly Bill 5 affected your theater company’s plans?
CJ: I don’t know yet.
ASR: What are some of your favorite dramas?
CJ: “Clybourne Park,” “Death of a Salesman,” “The Jungle,” “Angels in America.”
ASR: Musicals?
CJ: “Fun Home,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “A Little Night Music,” “The Spitfire Grill.”
ASR: Comedies?
CJ: “Noises Off,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The 39 Steps.”
ASR: Three all-time favorites that your company has produced?
CJ: “Return to the Forbidden Planet, the Musical,” “Becky’s New Car,” “Taming of the Shrew.”
ASR: Which rare gems would you like to see revived?
CJ: Some of the silly old Rogers and Hart musicals.
ASR: Shakespeare’s most over-performed play?
CJ: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but I still love it
ASR: If you had to do a whole season performing technical work — sets, lights, projections, sound, props, costumes — which would it be and why?
CJ: Lighting design. The art reminds me of creation and joy. Sublime and stark, it adds to and magnifies the story.
ASR: As hard as it may be to pick just one, can you name a Bay Area actor who you think does amazing work?
CJ: L.Peter Calender
ASR: How do you warm up before a performance?
CJ: I do something fun or joyous—frequently I write cards to the cast.
ASR: How do you relax after?
CJ: Libations with friends. And sleep.
ASR: If someone asked to be your apprentice and learn all that you know, what three things would you tell them are essential?
CJ: Read and read and read the script. Then listen to the actors.
ASR: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a guest do at the theater?
CJ: Talking drunkenly to the actors onstage.
ASR: Do you have a day job?
CJ: I’m a licensed general contractor.
ASR: Other artistic interests?
I love the world of dance. I have degrees in dance—I started as a ballet dancer, but mostly choreographed jazz ballets. I love teaching and coaching. I’ve learned and played several instruments, and studied architecture and building design. I frequently attend museums and art shows. I go to garage sales and flea markets looking for quirky items that might be good props or set pieces. I love puppets and puppet shows, and hiking, especially on the coast. I read constantly—mostly scripts, but I love science fiction. It’s my favorite movie idiom.
ASR: Parting comment?
Theater manifests the heart and soul of our lives!
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ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Marin Theater Company presents the world premiere of Kate Cortesi’s riveting drama “Love” with a keen eye on the #MeToo movement. The play is no feminist rant; rather it is a balanced unfolding of a relationship that flashes back in time to romance, power, and inappropriateness.
It’s the present, and Penelope, launched on her own successful career, is contacted by a former co-worker friend who has charged their former boss with crossing the sexual harassment line. It’s been 15 years since Penelope has thought about her love affair and the sexual awakening she shared with her married boss, who remains her friend. Penelope is launched into soul-searching about the roles defining victim and perpetrator. It’s her moral dilemma whether to support the charges, to speak out and add her voice to the others.
This two-hour production will give rise to many conversations…
Clea Alsip does a fine job as the ingenue Penelope and R. Ward Duffy is strong and confident as her boss Otis. The stage is spare; their conversation fills the empty space with tension. They are fencing with one another, parrying and thrusting as the audience perches, watching for the next move.
“Love” is extraordinary for its abundance of nuance and moral confusion. Is any workplace attraction allowable? Is it all black and white, okay and not okay, cut and run? The playwright herself notes, “Inappropriateness could feel wonderful and then turn unsettling, and wrong.”
The sterling cast directed by Mike Donahue includes Penelope’s husband Jaime, played by Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, with Rebecca Schweitzer as the co-worker friend Vanessa. Robert Sicular and Mari Vial-Golden each double up their supporting roles with such skill they seem to be additional characters onstage.
What will Penelope decide to do with her options to testify? Will her stalwart faith in the absolute truth trump her past youthful pleasures? If there was love, was it consensual, and will justice outdo it?
This two-hour production will give rise to many conversations. Audiences may or may not agree with Penelope’s decision, but they will understand the strength behind her reasoning.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Love
Written by
Kate Cortesi
Directed by
Mike Donahu
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Mar 29th [SUSPENDED]
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
In “The Glass Menagerie” Tennessee Williams takes a family’s disparate characters and pumps them up with tight language and shoulder-cringing situations. Although it’s a poignant glimpse into familial tension, Ross Valley Players presents this solid drama with several touches of levity.
It works splendidly. Director David Abrams notes “Williams has the humor in his script, you just have to bring it out.” Abrams pulled extraordinary performances from familiar talents in this production.
Veteran actor Tamar Cohn is astounding as mother Amanda Wingfield, an aging and abandoned Southern belle. Cohn is simply perfect in her role. She’s a steam-roller of drive and determination, yet drifting to her flowery and flirtatious past at the slightest provocation. Cohn pulls up so many spot-on personality changes one senses her character is schizophrenic. This is Cohn at her professional best. She’s a joy to behold.
What a breath of fresh air…
Greg Crane portrays her son Tom, a warehouse worker with no tangible prospects. Tom bottles his frustration, indeed rage, at his cage within the Wingfield family. He desperately longs for escape. He enters and exits the stage from side and rear doors, restless with frustrated energy and ready to shatter. The only tether to his family is the concern he has for his older sister Laura, a slightly disabled and extremely introverted character enacted by Carolyn Arnold. The emotional string connecting sister and brother is a delicate glass filament, as only Williams can write.
When his mother badgers him about finding a suitor for sister Laura, Tom relents and brings home a dinner guest, his co-worker Jim (Jesse Lumb). Mother transforms herself into a flittering and flirtatious belle, all her hopes pinned on this prospective “gentleman caller” for her daughter. Lumb masterfully enlivens this role as the genial and friendly potential suitor, capturing the stage with his outsize confidence. What a breath of fresh air for the stale and stagnant Wingfield family!
The conflict and synergy between Laura’s fragility and Jim’s positivity provide rays of hope that lift this timeless classic far above a simple family drama. “The Glass Menagerie” is one shows you’ll not want to miss.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Glass Menagerie
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Directed by
David Abrams
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru April 5th
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Director Michael Ross persuaded Sonoma Arts Live to shoehorn this charming musical in between their regular season productions. Lucky for them that he did. This show at the Rotary Stage in Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center, scheduled to run until March 8, 2020, has just been extended to March 15, with a few Thursday night performances added as well. There must be a reason!
“Daddy Long Legs” is the story of Jerusha Abbott (enacted by the lovely songbird Madison Genovese), a young orphan woman given an extraordinary gift of college tuition by an anonymous benefactor, Jervis Pendleton. She glimpses the tall donor (a solid role by Mischa Stephens) from a distance as he departs, casting a long shadow she tags to give the show’s name.
Photos courtesy of Sonoma Arts Live
Her only duty to this silent sponsor is to write a monthly letter chronicling her progress. It’s a one-way communication, lending Jerusha to provide both the required information and a healthy dose of imagination and curiosity in her letters.
Count on the plot lines of … Cinderella love stories for (a) satisfying ending…
As the years pass, “Daddy Long Legs” becomes more enthralled with Jerusha’s engaging letters. He concocts a plan to drop into her life to see for himself the shy young lady who spins such enthralling stories. Although he keeps his true identify hidden from Jerusha, Daddy Long Legs is inadvertently captured in her web of words.
Photos courtesy of Sonoma Arts Live
The plot is engaging and the voices seamlessly matched between Genovese and Stephens. The split-level stage designed by Koitney Carson cleverly does double duty as the benefactor’s study and the hand-me-down feel of the orphanage and college dorm.
When a potential suitor emerges in Jerusha’s life, Mr. Pendleton finds himself struggling whether to reveal his identity and his attraction to her. Count on the plot lines of countless Cinderella love stories for an expected and satisfying ending to “Daddy Long Legs.”
The three-piece band of piano, cello, and guitar is located in front of the stage, on the seating level with the audience. The music’s volume made it very difficult to hear the lyrics or fully enjoy the beautifully matched voices of Genovese and Stephens.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Daddy Long Legs
Written by
Music and Lyrics by Paul Gordon
Book by John Caird
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thursdays thru Sundays until March 15th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Ellen Brooks as Prospera in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” at College of Marin
Fans of Shakespeare will delight in this multi-faceted production at the College of Marin’s James Dunn Theatre. This rarely produced play, a long one at 2 ½ hours, is marvelously delivered with costumes, magnificent stagecraft, and top-caliber acting by a mix of professionals and student actors.
The plot, so to speak, is pure Shakespeare; a mix of characters who pop in and out and are difficult to keep straight. Not to worry…there’s a story synopsis in the program. It’s still unclear just who is who, but they’re all together on this really crowded deserted island. Count on multiple royals, a cave creature, a magical mother, a blithe white spirit, and numerous nymphs with seductive songs. Once the ear grows accustomed to the Shakespearean patois, it’s all entertainment indeed.
Shakespeare… would be proud!
The stage is an outstanding oceanside storm, complete with churning waves, rain, and the sound of pounding surf designed by award-winning Ronald Krempetz. The spectacular transformation is credited to a generous contribution from Warren Lefort for a back-screen projector and LED lighting. What a magnificent addition to boost the caliber of COM’s future shows!
The drama students under the Direction of Lisa Morse are fortunate to be on stage with two local professionals. Audiences delight to watch petite Ellen Brooks masterfully command her outsize role as Prospera, with her magical staff and perfect gestures. She is matched in talent and vocal inflections by Steve Price, a much-awarded performer who completely immerses himself in every role he takes on.
Shout-outs also go to Benjamin Vasquez as Caliban the cave monster, and Daniel DeGabriele as Ariel, Prospera’s slave spirit. These two have impressive movements and solid characterizations, not to mention their unique costumes designed by Pamela Johnson.
A lovely surprise of the production is the harmonious singing of “Blessings” by the nymphs in Act II. Billie Cox is the talent behind setting music to Shakespeare’s “Dance of the Harvesters” in addition to handling the rain, surf, and other sounds for the show.
The ensemble of students and professionals acting and singing is spot-on in this show. There are moments when the cast does a stop-action pose, and it pops the eyeballs. Clearly these students have worked very hard to learn the skills they need to put on such fine performance. Shakespeare… would be proud!
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Tempest
Written by
WIlliam Shakespeare
Directed by
Lisa Morse
Producing Company
College of Marin
Production Dates
Fridays through Sundays until March 15, 2020
Production Address
James Dunn Theatre,
Performing Arts Building
835 College Ave, Kentfield CA
Paying to pee is a way of life for the poor and downtrodden in the fictional neighborhood of Urinetown. Managed with mendacity by water-and-waste management firm Urine Good Company, “amenities” dot the urban landscape, with admission fees so high that residents scramble all day to get enough money to relieve themselves—a high-pressure situation that foments rebellion if not resolution.
At Spreckels Performing Arts Center through March 1, “Urinetown, the Musical” celebrates many of the conceits of traditional musical theater while skewering others. The familiar plot elements—oppressive overlords, rebellious poor, star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the conflict, a desperate kidnapping—have all been exploited by playwrights for centuries.
What makes this darkly-themed show unusual is its coupling of these reliable plot elements with upbeat Broadway song-and-dance productions, and its self-conscious stance as a piece of “metatheater” that announces itself and its intentions directly to the audience through UGC’s chief enforcer Officer Lockstock (David L. Yen), whose main connection to the Urinetown residents is through the likable character of Little Sally (Denise Elia-Yen).
“Urinetown, the Musical” is tremendous production…
Theater fans of long experience will note similarities in theme, plot, characters and music with many other productions. “Urinetown” is in solid traditional territory there.
Tim Setzer shines as UGC’s evil chief executive Caldwell B. Cladwell, the “toilet tycoon,” as described by ASR critic Nicole Singley. His toady-laden office includes Senator Fipp (Michael Arbitter), a legislator doing his patriotic best to win congressional approval for a system-wide increase in toilet admission fees. Recently graduated from the world’s most expensive university, Cladwell’s beautiful daughter Hope (Julianne Thompson Bretan) is about to join her father’s management team but is taken hostage by restroom-deprived rebels. In the process, she develops sympathy for their cause—mirroring the real-world fate of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst in a 1974 kidnapping staged by would-be revolutionaries—and falls in love with their charismatic leader Bobby Strong (Joshua Bailey).
“Urinetown” cast shows class dance moves
The stark set by Eddy Hansen and Eliabeth Bazzano is the perfect venue for this musical misadventure, enhanced by projections from Chris Schloemp.
Lucas Sherman’s small orchestra is dazzling. Performances range from good to superb, with especially good efforts by Bailey and Bretan, Yen, Setzer, and Karen Pinomaki as Josephine Strong, Bobby’s devoted mother. ScharyPearl Fugitt is a standout as Urinetown rebel Soupy Sue, and as Cladwell’s secretary. Her dancing is especially enjoyable. A large and exemplary cast fills out the remaining roles.
“Urinetown” has an impressive cast!
“Urinetown, the Musical” is tremendous production—not perfect, but huge fun with a depressing message at its core: sugar-coated theatrical medicine. Yes, resources are shrinking and the population is growing. It’s not a pleasant prospect, but we can all delight in the irony as we head for the abyss.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
Urinetown, the Musical
Written by
Mark Holman and Greg Kotis
Directed by
Jay Manley
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through March 1st
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Here’s the satisfying recipe for “Five Course Love” as served up at Lucky Penny Productions in Napa: Combine three actors and five restaurant scenes. Mix in a generous batch of costume changes. Blend well with three musicians, adding headgear as desired. Toss in two dozen amusing songs using quick lyrics by Gregg Coffin. Stir well with direction by award-wining performer Heather Buck. Cook for two hours on a warm stage until tender. Serve immediately with lots of laughs. Enjoy!
Cast at work in “Five Course Love” at Lucky Penny!
This clever and witty musical debuted off-Broadway in 2005. With no signature songs or ground-breaking drama, “Five Course Love” has stayed in the wings, depending on smaller theatres to bring this frothy bit of fluff to center stage. The costumed characters haven’t changed, nor has their search for connectedness and the holy grail of love.
Delicious!
Five singing sketches feature three actors connected by diverse yet spare cafe locations. These showcase the formidable vocals and acting chops of Sarah Lundstrom, F. James Raasch, and Brian Watson. They switch roles swiftly and seamlessly, from cowboy to nerd to bandit to dominatrix to gangster, sometimes at breakneck speed. Their tried-and-true stereotypes bring laughs and smirks of empathy from the audience.
Kudos to Lucky Penny for using mikes, enabling actors to change accents and move fluidly to Staci Arriaga’s choreography on the small stage. The intimacy of this theatre-in-the-round adds to the fun.
“Five Course Love” is not a filling intellectual meal, by any stretch. It’s familiarity and frivolity, more of a pie-in-your-face kind of show, without the pie. The characters are alternately charming, raunchy, ridiculous, and quite predictable. It’s the clever lyrics that add so much spice to this meal.
The play’s final scene is the most satisfying, where the last tidbit of love is dished out. Delicious!
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Five Course Love
Written by
Gregg Coffin
Directed by
Heather Buck
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through March 1st
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Cast and Crew of ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ at SF Playhouse. Director Bill English is up-center-left in jacket.
An online advice columnist discovers that she is a wellspring of wisdom and empathy in “Tiny Beautiful Things” at SF Playhouse, through March 7.
Before each performance, Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English delivers a curtain speech in which he reiterates that his company envisions their theater as an “empathy gym” where performers and audience alike get to flex their emotional muscles. The speech couldn’t be more appropriate than it is for “Tiny Beautiful Things” developed by Nia Vardalos from the autobiographical book by Cheryl Strayed.
English directs Susi Damilano as “Sugar,” the initially reluctant advice columnist, and Mark Anderson Phillips, Kina Kantor, and Jomar Tagatac as Sugar’s various correspondents, who seek guidance on everything from the intricacies of love to matters of life and death. Sugar’s no Ph.D. psychologist but simply a woman of vast personal experience—far more vast than she first understands—who digs deep to deliver heartfelt consolation and hope to her readers, often delivered with gentle humor.
Kina Kantor, Susi Damilano, Jomar Tagatac, and Mark Anderson Phillips make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches together.
Damilano is confident and sly as Sugar, who goes repeatedly to her refrigerator for refills of white wine and emotional conviction. At first, amused by her work, she soon discovers that she’s dealing with serious issues, and rises to the challenge.
… a well-deserved standing ovation.
The play’s dramatic structure is a recitation of letters, each beginning with “Dear Sugar,” spoken and acted with palpable gravitas by Damilano’s three supporting actors. Part literary fugue and part call-and-response, the recitation continues in a rolling rhythm throughout the play’s 85 minutes, reaching a crescendo when Sugar incites her readers to find love in their hearts for everything that life throws at them.
Letter Writer #3 (Jomar Tagatac) takes in Sugar’s (Susi Damilano) words of wisdom in ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ at San Francisco Playhouse.
It’s a beautiful moment, on a dreamscape of suspended metal poles (set design by Jacquelyn Scott) evocatively illuminated by lighting designer Michael Oesch. Unfortunately, its impact is diminished by an extended continuation of letters and responses, as if Vardalos couldn’t decide what to keep and what to cut. It’s a not-so-unusual theatrical circumstance of less-could-be-more with more careful editing.
Even so, “Tiny Beautiful Things” is a rare undertaking and within its limits, a sparkling gem. Author Cheryl Stayed was in the audience on opening night, and got a well-deserved standing ovation. The world could do well with more empathetic advisors like her and fewer snarky commentators.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Tiny Beautiful Things
Written by
Adapted by Nia Vardalos from the book by Cheryl Strayed.
Co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail and Nia Vardalos.
Two widows battle for control of a room in a residential retirement center in “Ripcord” at Cinnabar Theater through February 16.
Laura Jorgensen and Kate Brickley star as combative roommates Abby and Marilyn, respectively, in David Lindsay-Abaire’s elegantly conceived comedy. Author of “Good People,” “Rabbit Hole,” and many other excellent plays, Lindsay-Abaire is at the top of his game in this “Odd Couple”-inspired story of a cranky loner (Abby) and her attempt to drive out her ceaselessly upbeat roomie.
With momentum like a speeding truck, the script’s inherently compelling pacing is made more so under the brilliant direction of James Pelican, who gets his talented six-member cast to hit every beat at precisely the right moment. It’s one hilarious ride, with moments of melancholy as texture and spice.
…what may prove to be one of the most uproarious comedies this season!
Jorgensen and Brickley are perfectly cast, supported by Kyle Stoner as Scotty, the long-suffering orderly who brings them their meals and medications and tries his best to keep the two from each other’s throats. Sarah McKeregan and Chad Yarish are superb—and superbly funny—as Marilyn’s daughter Colleen and son-in-law Derek, among other roles, while the versatile John Browning appears as each woman’s adult son, a bit of casting that may induce confusion in some viewers. Even so, the cast of “Ripcord” is among the most evenly-balanced to appear onstage so far this year.
Laura Jorgensen and Kate Brickley – Photo courtesy of Eric Chazankin.
Scenic designer Joseph Elwick’s quick-change sets help propel the story, which includes a sky-diving adventure—hence, the title—that’s part of Abby and Marilyn’s continually-escalating series of challenges to each other. Will they go down fighting or learn to live not-so-happily ever after? Closing weekend will reveal all to those quick enough and lucky enough to score tickets for what may prove to be one of the most uproarious comedies this season.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Tony Hale as Guy in “Wakey, Wakey” at American Conservatory Theater’s Geary Theater.
A dying man lectures the audience on the wonders of life in Will Eno’s “Wakey, Wakey” at the American Conservatory Theater, through February 16.
Former TV star Tony Hale (“Arrested Development,” “Veep”) and veteran actress Kathryn Smith-McGlynn bring nuance and conviction to a muddled script directed by Anne Kauffman, its title not a reference to “woke culture” but apparently an admonition to be alert and conscious and rejoice in all that life has to offer including its inherent contradictions and dead-ends.
The piece opens with Hale’s character Guy lying half-clad on the stage and proceeds to having him engage in an addled monologue in his pajamas while sitting in a wheelchair. Some of his ramblings are absurd observations, a few are poignant remembrances, but most are simply non sequiturs strung end-to-end, all accompanied by old home movies and odd bits of eye candy projected on a huge screen behind him, ostensibly controlled by a small remote with which he continually fumbles. The jumble of letters and misspelled words in the projections is a recurring gambit, perhaps symbolic of the loss of cognition suffered by those nearing the end of their tenure on earth—or perhaps not so symbolic, and simply comedic distractions inserted by the playwright to punch up the entertainment value.
This piece has potential…but need(s) much more development to justify putting on such an esteemed stage as ACT’s.
Such confusion is rampant throughout the 80 minutes of “Wakey, Wakey,” a piece of so-called “metatheater” that attempts to confound many of the traditions of live theater. Eno is a trendy playwright whose “The Realistic Joneses” has been performed by many companies and has been generally well-received. His “Middletown” is a pointless exercise in attempting to update Thorton Wilder’s classic “Our Town.” “Wakey, Wakey” continues the pointlessness, right up to and including the moment when Guy expires, launching a deluge of bright balloons and celebratory music.
Eno may have drawn inspiration from Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist who, while dying of pancreatic cancer, delivered motivational talks about achieving childhood dreams. The script’s amateur construction aside, Hale does a marvelous job holding the attention of the audience and conveying his character’s constantly mutating state of energy and awareness.
Kathryn Smith-McGlynn as Lisa (left) and Tony Hale as Guy in “Wakey, Wakey” at American Conservatory Theater’s Geary Theater.
Smith-McGlynn is tremendously confident and sensitive as hospice nurse Lisa, who comes in late to check on him. She also appears as a community college substitute teacher in the opening sketch “The Substitution,” in which Eno conflates a cultural history lesson with driver’s education. This short piece has potential, as does “Wakey, Wakey,” but both of them need much more development to justify putting them on such an esteemed stage as ACT’s.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Wakey, Wakey
Written by
WIll Eno
Directed by
Anne Kauffman
Producing Company
American Conservatory Theater (ACT)
Production Dates
Through Feb 16th
Production Address
American Conservatory Theater, Geary Theater
415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
With its modest set and simple, unassuming premise, “Our Town” aims to celebrate the magic of the mundane, contemplating the ordinary, everyday moments we too often take for granted. Revolutionary when it debuted in 1938, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama has since become an enduring staple of American theater. Under Michael Barr’s direction, this three-act classic takes the stage at Novato Theater Company through February 16th.
We open with a welcome from the Stage Manager (Christine Macomber), who introduces us to the small New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners, and continues to serve as our guide and sometimes-narrator throughout. We meet the town doctor and the milkman, watch as families gather ‘round their kitchen tables, and eavesdrop on schoolkids discussing their homework. Wilder’s script spans over a decade of love, loss, and run-of-the-mill moments in the lives of the townspeople. At the center of it all are George and Emily (Bryan Munar and Nicole Thordsen), the all-American boy and girl next door, who we encounter first as childhood friends, again as awkward teenagers stumbling into the early stages of love, and later as bride and groom, hurdling into adulthood ‘til death do they part.
Beautifully written and subtly profound in its frank depiction of normal people living unremarkable lives, its power lies not in what happens – as very little, in fact, actually does – but in the authenticity of its characters and the relatability of their life experiences. “Our Town” could be any town, anywhere at any time, the residents as familiar as our own friends and neighbors. It’s perhaps the realization of our shared humanity, and the quiet beauty and impermanence of each little moment, that beckons us to appreciate the here-and-now before it slips through our fingers.
. . . an ever-haunting tribute to the small, extraordinary moments that comprise an ordinary life.”
This show has the potential to be powerful and poignant – possibly transcendent – in the hands of the right cast and director. NTC’s production, however, comes up lacking in sincerity, bordering on tedious and boring. Much of the acting is stiff and unnatural, the lines flat and devoid of real emotion, and where nuance and depth of feeling are needed, there is little to be found. Without believable characters and relationships, their interactions become trivial and uncompelling.
Munar and Thordsen (Photo Credit: Fred Deneau)
Arguably the most damaging weak link in this production, the love story between George and Emily is utterly unconvincing. Munar’s George is sweet but overly shy and nervous, possessing little charm and none of the archetypal trappings of a school class president and star baseball player. There is no palpable chemistry between him and Thordsen, and none of the flirtatious tension or playfulness that often accompanies a budding young romance. Their love is at the heart of “Our Town,” and it needs to feel genuine in order to effectively hold our interest, arouse our compassion, and convey the full weight and meaning of Wilder’s message. Instead, it just feels flat and forced.
Janice Deneau and Mary Weinberg have done well with costume choices. Sparse scenic design is at the playwright’s instruction, and it’s reasonably well executed here by local designer and builder Michael Walraven. The production suffers, however, from the nearly constant, distracting boom and echo of heavy footsteps clomping across the hollow stage, often making it terribly difficult to hear and follow the actors’ lines.
On the whole, the ensemble puts forth a good effort. Macomber makes an excellent narrator, and Jennifer Reimer is convincing as wife and mother, Mrs. Gibbs. What’s missing is the sense that some key players are fully at home in their roles. Perhaps a few more performances will help them find their groove. There is great potential here to ramp up the emotional impact. “Our Town” remains deeply relevant despite its age, and an ever-haunting tribute to the small, extraordinary moments that comprise an ordinary life.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Our Town
Written by
Thornton Wilder
Directed by
Michael Barr
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through February 16th
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
An Iraqi immigrant family finds a Christmas holiday gathering and promise of a bright future sullied by the momentum of the past in Heather Raffo’s “Noura,” at Marin Theatre Company through February 9.
Escapees from the destroyed city of Mosul, the family of three—Noura, her husband Tareq, and their young son Yazen—share a spacious New York City apartment, one decorated with an oversized Christmas tree but little else. Their space (set design by Adam Rigg) has the disheveled, semi-organized look of a temporary refugee camp, a reflection of Noura’s sense of disconnectedness despite the fact that her family has been in the US eight years, and has gained American citizenship and Anglicized names so that they might be better assimilated. Easier said than achieved, as this fascinating if uneven production proves over the course of its approximately ninety minutes.
The Christmas season is especially difficult for Noura (Denmo Ibrahim), who longs for the life she knew in her home city—family, friends, neighbors of multiple ethnicities and religions— an extended community that was destroyed in the wake of the US invasion. Tareq (Mattico David) is an emergency room physician who seems pretty much Americanized until confronted by the arrival of a holiday visitor, Maryam (Maya Nazzal), a fellow refugee they’ve been sponsoring who shares complicated ties to their past lives in Mosul. Her impending arrival is a source of anxiety for Noura as she makes preparations. A physics student in California, young Maryam hopes to land a job as a weapons designer with the US Department of Defense.
Ibrahim beautifully portrays her character’s abiding sense of loss and ambiguity . . .”
Maryam’s aspirations don’t seem to have any effect on Noura and Tareq, nor on their doctor friend Rafa’a (Abraham Makany), also an exile from Mosul, but the fact that she is unmarried and pregnant—both by choice—throws Tareq into a tailspin. An independent young woman with no apparent need for a man is a situation he simply can’t cope with: thousands of years of macho Arab culture upended by one modern independent feminist, resounding proof that they’ve left the old world behind. The emotional repercussions from this and other conflicts resonate off the stage and into the audience as the four adults and one boy (Valentino Herrera) struggle to make the holiday a pleasant one.
The Cast of MTC’s “Noura” (Photo Credit: Kevin Berne)
All four adult actors are excellent. Ibrahim and David in particular are able to mine emotional nuances that actors with lesser skills might not manage. Some of their dramatic expertise must certainly be the work of director Kate Bergstrom, but there are holes in the story that detract from its intended effect. Why, for example, do these Iraqi-Americans not raise even one word of dismay over Maryam’s stated career agenda, when their entire country was demolished by high-tech weaponry and the medieval mentality behind it? Tareq must make a decent income from his emergency room work, but they still can’t afford some basic furniture? Then there are Noura’s recurring smoke-filled reveries of the life she once knew, with no counterbalancing embrace of the future’s potential.
Noura lives in limbo between then and now, unable to let go and unwilling to move on. It’s a heartbreaking situation, the immigrant’s plight, one not understood by Americans intent on “reaching closure” as quickly and painlessly as possible. Ibrahim beautifully portrays her character’s abiding sense of loss and ambiguity, repeated several times with minor variations in the extended final scene. Playwright Raffo might better have chosen one powerful statement and let the curtain fall, rather than hammer the audience with what they’ve already learned is Noura’s unhappy truth. Not that the story needs to be tied up in a tidy little bundle of happy-ever-afterness, but a clear ending would enhance the play’s impact.
Barry Willis is the Executive Editor at Aisle Seat Review, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Noura
Written by
Heather Raffo
Directed by
Kate Bergstrom
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through February 9th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
A seemingly chance encounter between a mature London butcher and a younger woman prompts unpredictable developments in Simon Stephens’s “Heisenberg,” at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre through February 2.
Directed by Carla Spindt, the two-actor, six-scene piece takes its name from German physicist Werner Heisenberg, whose famous “uncertainty principle” means, in its largest sense, that we can’t really be sure about what we think we know. It opens with Alex (John Craven) sitting calmly on a park bench when quite unbidden, Georgie (Shannon Rider) approaches and kisses him on the neck—the first time they’ve met. She introduces herself and gushes almost uncontrollably while he looks on befuddled—clearly this is a “red flag” moment but he plays along, listening attentively and politely without offering encouragement.
It’s an extremely odd first encounter. In the second one, having done some minor detective work via Google, she’s tracked him down at his butcher shop, and comes on even stronger, this time with a completely different tale about who she is and why she’s interested in him. Amused and flattered by the unexpected attention, he’s again receptive but does not encourage. Craven maintains his character’s distance throughout, a mix of caution and curiosity, while the energetic Rider pours out ever-more-fanciful tales that culminate in a confession that she hasn’t seen her adult son in years and needs to go to America to find him.
. . . a fascinating dance, a true theatrical pas de deux.”
Craven and Rider (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
As the two become friendlier, her various veils of hyperactive identity fall away but it’s still never clear to Alex or the audience (or possibly to Georgie herself) which part of her is real and which is not—a maddening and very funny scenario. Having accepted that Georgie is off-kilter but probably harmless, Alex makes his peace with the situation’s unpredictability and goes along for what proves to be a lovely ride. It’s a fascinating dance, a true theatrical pas de deux.
Both of them veteran performers, Craven and Rider are fully committed to this delightfully ambiguous yet somehow totally believable piece of magical realism—Craven the embodiment of fascinated reticence, Rider a whirlwind of imaginative insistence. The drama and the comedy are equally enhanced by sound designer Joe Winkler’s lovely tango music and Chris Schloemp’s marvelous projections on an elegant set by Argo Thompson.
Is the May/December relationship between Georgie and Alex believable? Is the ambiguity of their story plausible? Yes. No. Maybe. In a universe of infinite outcomes, everything is possible—perhaps even perfect. That’s the beguiling beauty of “Heisenberg.”
Barry Willis is the Executive Editor at Aisle Seat Review, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Kyle Jurrasic as Buddy Holly (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
1950s musical icon Buddy Holly had a short but prolific career. With 12 top 100 hits within three years, his sweet lyrics and catchy rhythms proved to have enduring influence on many artists that followed, including the Beatles and Rolling Stones.
Now in an extended run through February 16 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, “Buddy—The Buddy Holly Story” follows his meteoric rise from the country music scene in Lubbock, Texas, to New York City and elsewhere—including his final performance in Clearlake, Iowa before a plane crash that took his life and those of fellow performers Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Holly was only 22 and might have gone on to a long illustrious career, but the catalog he left behind is still a source of inspiration and joy.
The show is a “jukebox musical”—one that conveys the biographical facts interspersed with Holly’s many hits. Bay Area newcomer Kyle Jurrasic is excellent as Holly, capturing his signature look, song styling, and guitar playing. That’s to be expected of an actor who’s played the role multiple times. Director D.J. Salisbury also has extensive experience with the show, having directed and/or choreographed seven previous productions.
The show’s infectious energy carries it along beautifully…”
The large cast is generally tremendous, especially Seth Dahlgren as the Big Bopper, Marc Assad as Valens, and Charlie Whitaker as Maria Elena Santiago, Holly’s wife. Husband-and-wife team John and Jennifer Bannister are superb in multiple roles, while music-and-dance numbers are handled adroitly by triple-threat Trevor Hoffman with Selena Elize Flores and Jennifer Barnaba. Nick Ambrosio is comically delightful as Jerry Allison, Holly’s drummer.
Opening night was marred by a few technical glitches—what the heck was a battery-powered transmitter doing attached to a 1950s guitar?—but that didn’t seem to bother the sold-out crowd clearly assembled to revel in the music, delivered with gusto and authenticity over the course of nearly two-and-a-half hours. The show’s infectious energy carries it along beautifully, but as has been true for several recent 6th Street productions, the set is minimal—in this case little more than three pairs of flats decorated with neo-50s graphics, that serve as everything from office walls to elevator doors. Production values are otherwise fairly high—costumes, lighting, and sound. The skimpy set is all that holds this show back from a higher rating, but it may not be a concern for the many Buddy Holly fans likely to buy tickets.
Barry Willis is the Executive Editor at Aisle Seat Review, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Buddy—The Buddy Holly Story
Written by
Alan Janes
Directed by
D. J. Salisbury
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through February 16th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Better late than never, the old adage has it. Here (in no particular order) are some memorable productions from last season, a year full of four- and five-star achievements.
The Jungle (Curran Theatre): San Francisco’s renovated Curran Theatre was re-renovated for an immersive recreation of a 2016 crisis in a refugee camp in Calais, France. A huge and hugely talented multi-ethnic cast made this show last season’s most profound and moving theatrical experience. (BW)
After Miss Julie (Main Stage West): Ilana Niernberger and Sam Coughlin paired up for a thrilling pas de deux in Patrick Marber’s evocative spin on “Miss Julie,” transplanting Strindberg’s classic story to a summer night in 1945. A stunning set, great lighting, and white-hot performances brought class and erotic tensions to a boil, culminating in a seriously steamy tango scene that won’t be soon forgotten. (NS)
Rocky Horror Show (Marin Musical Theatre Company): MMTC took this Halloween favorite far over the top at the San Anselmo Playhouse, thanks to stunning efforts by Jake Gale, Nelson Brown, Dani Innocenti-Beem, Pearl Fugit and many others. (BW)
Barbecue Apocalypse (Spreckels): The laughs were served well-done in this quirky comedy, thanks to a witty script marinated in millennial-centric humor and a talented ensemble. Clever costumes, strong technical work, and excellent casting proved that all it takes to survive the end of days is a little raccoon meat and some serious comic relief. (NS)
Romeo and Juliet (Throckmorton): Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theatre and the streets around it became Verona, Italy, in a sweetly evocative, imaginative, and fully immersive production of Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy. (BW)
Sex with Strangers (Left Edge Theatre): Left Edge Theatre turned up the heat in “Sex with Strangers,” a seductive modern romance that broaches big questions about love, ambition, and the price of success in the digital era. Dean Linnard and Sandra Ish brought the story’s unlikely couple to life with electric chemistry and powerful, nuanced performances. (NS)
Incidents in the Wicked Life of Moll Flanders(Ross Valley Players): RVP gambled and won with Jennifer LeBlanc’s adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s 1722 novel. Amber Collins Crane stole the show as the lead in a compelling tale about a beautiful, quick-witted woman who rose from miserable circumstances to respectability through petty crime, stealth, charm, and unusually good luck. (BW)
Drumming with Anubis (Left Edge Theatre): Left Edge Theatre invited us along to the Neo-Heathen Male Bonding and Drumming Society’s annual campout, where a group of aging death metal fans communes in the desert to beat their bongos. Things got a little dark, a lot hilarious, and surprisingly touching when the Egyptian god of death crashed the party. Local playwright David Templeton’s brilliant new show earned a 5-star reception, featuring a phenomenal cast and beautiful scenic design. (NS)
How I Learned What I Learned (Marin Theatre Company):Director Margo Hall coaxed a tremendous performance from Steven Anthony Jones, who brought grandfatherly wit and wisdom to the role of playwright August Wilson. A master class in story-telling. (BW)
Faceless (6th Street Playhouse): Former artistic director Craig A. Miller returned to helm this riveting courtroom drama about an American teenager caught running away to join her internet boyfriend in ISIS. Razor-sharp dialogue and powerhouse performances made for an intense and memorable experience in 6th Street’s intimate studio theater. (NS)
The Year of Magical Thinking (Aurora Theatre Company): Stacy Ross glowed in a masterly solo recital of Joan Didion’s play from her book of the same name. (BW)
Home (Berkeley Repertory Theatre): In this stunning piece of performance art by Geoff Sobelle, audiences watched a two-story house materialize from the shadows of an empty stage as if by magic. A spectacle of epic proportions, this visual feast reminded theatergoers that a house is just a space in which we come together to make a home. (NS)
Fully Committed (6th Street Playhouse): Patrick Varner channeled 40-some characters in his hilarious one-man depiction of a scheduling manager at his wits’ end in a high-end NYC restaurant, at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse. (BW)
Merman’s Apprentice (Sonoma Arts Live): Daniela Innocenti-Beem brought Broadway legend Ethel Merman back to the stage with a larger-than-life performance in this sparkling world premiere, brimming with catchy tunes and colorful humor. Innocenti-Beem and teenaged costar Emma Sutherland boast some serious pipes, which made this charming new musical all the more fun. (NS)
Mother of the Maid (Marin Theatre Company): A mother’s love and devotion were never so well depicted as in this lovely, heart-rending piece about Joan of Arc’s mother Isabelle (Sherman Fracher). (BW)
Eureka Day (Spreckels): Laughter proved contagious in Jonathan Spector’s whip-smart “Eureka Day,” pitting parents at a Berkeley charter school against each other in the wake of a mumps outbreak. An all-star cast, elaborate set design, and top-notch technical work combined to make this a 5-star production. (NS)
Cabaret (San Francisco Playhouse and Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions): Both of these productions were excellent and amazing versions of this dazzling but starkly disturbing cautionary tale. (BW)
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Spreckels): Theatergoers were dazzled by this cleverly written and superbly acted continuation of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice, containing everything an Austenesque story should: delicious drama, a heartwarming romance, and an abundance of humor and wit. Pitch-perfect direction and exemplary casting made “Miss Bennet” the ultimate holiday treat. (NS)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Curran Theatre):Nonstop high-intensity theatrical magic is the only way to describe this extravagant production, running into next July. (BW)
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Spreckels): Hilarity ensued in this madcap musical about a man clawing his way to the top of the family tree. Tim Setzer stole the show as all nine members of the D’Ysquith family, all of whom meet their ends in some of the most creative and comical ways imaginable. Excellent ensemble work, cute choreography, and clever projections made this one killer production. (NS)
Barry Willis is the Executive Editor at Aisle Seat Review, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Transcendence got the “Spectacular” name right – this show is an amazing celebration. The cadre of 19 good-looking expats from Broadway and LA blockbuster musicals rocked the Sonoma stage and travels to the Napa stage with this annual show. They mix it up with dancing (from ballet to tap), singing (from touching solos to majestic choruses) and 100% joyful energy.
Done in two acts, Transcendence talents perform holiday favorites along with signature pieces from eight classic musicals in the first half. Songs include all faiths, with “O Holy Night” and “Sabbath Prayer” beautifully juxtaposed on a two-level set.
Photo by Mimi Carroll.
Act II flashes back to carols and seasonal songs over the ages, punched up by high-energy creative choreography by Tony Gonzalez, who also directs. The talented 10-piece band under Susan Draus’s baton had a blast strutting their stuff, with a few musicians sharing the limelight with the dancers.
All ages rushed to their feet for a standing ovation…
The show provokes lots of laughter. There’s an amusing role reversal when Micki Weiner and Colin Campbell McAdoo sing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” More hilarity when five handsome guys scruff about, singing “I’m Getting’ Nuttin’ for Christmas.”
Tony Gonzalez, a veteran Transcendence member, deserves a shout out for the impressive flow of the show, so well varied in pace and volume. Ten cast members rocked the house with “Light Sings”, building up a tremendous crescendo of voices to thunderous applause. Just when you think it can’t get any more dynamic, the spotlight hits David R. Gordon with his guitar on center stage. He practically whispers his poignant solo “Let There be Peace on Earth” as the audience holds their breath. Not a pin was dropped.
Photo by Ray Martel.
All ages rushed to their feet for a standing ovation as the finale ended and the performers took their bows. Transcendence Broadway Holiday Spectacular is a power-packed show, exuberant entertainment at its festive best.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
My Hero
Written by
Transcendence Theater Co.
Directed & Choreographed by
Matthew Rossoff
Producing Company
Transcendence Theatre Company
Production Dates
Thru June 20th, 2021
Production Address
B.R. Cohn Winery, 15000 Sonoma Hwy, Glen Ellen, CA 95442
This is the heart-warming story of Ralphie, the 9-year old boy who desperately wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and fantasizes how to convince his parents and Santa to grant his wish.This stage play adds musical pieces to enhance the nostalgic and classic comedy, without losing the original’s momentum or warmth.
Larry Williams directs, or more accurately corrals, nearly a dozen kids and a handful of adults from many Bay Area theatres to present this show. It’s an amazing undertaking that overflows the small Sonoma Arts Live stage with youthful energy and authenticity. It’s a good thing Williams is a veteran actor and director. He knows how to get the best performances out of a large cast of 21 diverse ages who act, sing, and dance.
Worth the effort for this holiday treat!
Ralphie, acted and sung by Tuolumne Bunter, is a standout. This 10-year old’s gestures and facial expressions are far beyond his years. The program notes he cut off 18 inches of his hair to play the part…quite the sacrifice!
Where did these youngsters get their talent? Little brother Randy, played by Joseph Atchley, is so tiny he hides beneath the kitchen sink, to the great amusement of the audience. There’s a bully (perfectly cast in Ty Schoeningh) and his sidekick (Mario Alioto) who terrorize the other kids from their class. Every costumed youth stays solidly in character to deliver authenticity, and pure enjoyment for the audience.
Their teacher Miss Shields (Scharypearl Fugitt) gives an over-the-top performance as a lovesick spinster, including a tap dance with young Mario Alioto. She has the audience chuckling as she sings “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out,” the phrase adults use to thwart Ralphie’s wish.
Ralphie has an adult alter ego who narrates the youngster’s ever-hopeful story in flashback. George Bereschik does an admirable job in his task providing the glue to hold the scenes together. The cast’s adults, including Morgan Harrington and Rick Love (as Mom and “The Old Man”) had their work cut out for them lest they be upstaged by the many talented wunderkinds.
“A Christmas Story” is suitable for all ages, and particularly youngsters who may not be familiar with live theatre. You may have to hustle to get tickets as the show is a winner and the theatre is small. Worth the effort for this holiday treat!
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
A Christmas Story – The Musical
Written by
Joseph Robinette, based on Jean Shepard’s book
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thursdays thru Sundays until December 22, 2019
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Unlimited budgets can yield miracles. Especially in theater. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” at the Curran through July 12, is one of those miracles.
And yes, the July 12 closing date is correct—a six-month run! The large-capacity Curran (nearly 1700 seats) was closed for a couple of years for a massive renovation, only to have some of the new seating and carpeting removed to build out the realistic refugee camp for last spring’s fantastic production of “The Jungle.” It’s been redecorated again—this time with carpeting and fabric wall coverings embellished with the Hogwarts logo.
The unlimited budget is apparent both the moment you step into the theater and the moment the curtain rises for Part One, which manages to pack in more theatrical illusions than any dozen blockbuster shows in Las Vegas, including characters that step out of seemingly solid walls, or seemingly solid walls that absorb characters the way a sponge draws water, characters that instantly morph into other characters, characters that vanish only to reappear swimming in the sky, characters that emerge and exit through a burning fireplace, ghostly spirits that hover above the audience, and graffiti that somehow appears throughout the theater’s huge ceiling, like a celestial pattern in an observatory. Then there’s the amazing choreography of swirling capes and their disappearing owners (Steven Hoggett, movement director). Those are a few highlights.
…It’s a wild adventure.
The story by J.K.Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany has the now-adult Harry Potter (John Skelley) toiling away as a wizard in the Ministry of Magic, and about to send his son Albus (Benjamin Papac) off to school at his alma mater, where Albus meets Scorpius Malfoy (Jon Steiger), a boy his age who’s the son of dark lord Draco Malfoy (Lucas Hall).
The two of them form an uneasy but solid friendship and are soon continuing the struggle against the evil Lord Voldemort (Andrew Long) and his offspring. It’s a wild adventure. The fanciful, quick-moving, and action-packed tale consumes nearly two-and-a-half hours and will keep you riveted to your seat the entire time. It’s a mind-blowing, all-consuming production populated by four or five dozen ace performers.
Among the amazing factoids around this show are stories of the two young actors who so magnificently embody Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is reputedly Papac’s first professional stage acting gig, and Steiger’s prior experience includes a Shakespeare festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They nonetheless meet the world-class challenge of what must be an exhausting, demanding production, including Saturday and Sunday performances that include both Part One and Part Two, where the two boys and their Hogwarts associates meet Voldemort’s daughter for a final showdown.
Should your time or budget restrict you to seeing only Part One or Part Two, note that Part One is the more compelling of the two, and more spectacle-intensive. Real Potterites, of course, will want to see both, but casual visitors will likely enjoy the first one more. Part Two’s extensive exposition and lengthy dialog will be better suited for those who’ve read all the books and seen all the films.
Casual theatergoers not in the Potter camp would do well to read up on the mythology before the show—a brief synopsis of which is included in the playbill. Even those who don’t know Harry Potter from Harry Houdini will be astounded by this production. For true believers—they are legion—it’s a religious experience.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Written by
J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
Music and Lyrics by Benj Pakek and Justin Paul
Directed by
John Tiffany
Producing Company
Curran Theater Co.
Production Dates
Thru August 31st
Production Address
Curran Theater
445 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
One of the most beloved musicals of all time is enjoying a sumptuous revival at Sonoma State University’s capacious Evert B. Person Theatre through December 8.
With its own theater facilities still under renovation, the Santa Rosa Junior College Theater Arts department has teamed up with its counterpart at Sonoma State University to put on a hugely ambitious and mostly successful production of “The Sound of Music,” the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic about the Austrian von Trapp family and their escape from Nazi oppression shortly after the Germans annexed their country. It’s also, of course, the story of Maria Rainer (Arianna LaMark), the perpetually upbeat would-be nun who becomes governess to the seven von Trapp children, and ultimately, the wife of their widowed father, Captain von Trapp (Michael Coury Murdock).
… …a wonderfully engaging performance… …
The show is rampant with tunes that won instant popularity and continue to be favorites today: “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “How Can Love Survive?,” and “Climb Every Mountain,” all of them performed brilliantly by a huge cast on a huge stage, backed by a superb ten-piece orchestra led by music director Janis Dunsun Wilson. Everything about this show is enormous, from the steeply-raked large-capacity Person Theatre to the fantastically oversized stage set and towering backdrop on which is projected an image of the Matterhorn as it looks at various times of day and night—set and projection design by Peter Crompton.
Director Laura Downing-Lee has coaxed a wonderfully engaging performance from her cast of nearly three dozen performers, all of whom deliver without a bobble. Vocal performances are tremendous—LaMark and Murdock excel here—and the acting is almost as good, with the best performances given by Heather Buck as Elsa Schrader and Crystal McDougall as Mother Abbess. LaMark wins hearts with “The Sound of Music,” “My Favorite Things,” and several other songs, while Murdock prompts tears with his treatment of “Edelweiss” in the penultimate scene. Madigan Love is excellent as Liesl, the oldest of the von Trapp brood, although her handling of the guitar makes it appear as if she’s just discovered the instrument.
There are a couple of unfortunate glitches that detract from the pervasive magic, especially the fact that the backdrop isn’t stretched tight enough to avoid billowing. When it does, the Matterhorn appears to be breathing. A bit of a letdown comes at the end, when the von Trapps decide to strike out on foot through the mountains to Switzerland. Downing-Lee wisely has them tackle the steep stairs out of the theater—in the dark, as must have happened in real life—but a bit of subdued lighting on them as they climb would heighten the drama. The same is true when they reach the top and look back at their home. Instead of simply standing there in the dark then leaving through an “Exit” door, they might linger for a moment behind a bit of set indicating that they’ve reached Switzerland and freedom.
But those are small suggestions intended only to take this already tremendous production one notch higher. Even without them, it’s guaranteed to please. “The Sound of Music” is among the greatest feel-good shows of all time; SRJC’s affordable tickets make this version an absolute bargain.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
The Sound of Music
Written by
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Directed by
Laura Downing-Lee
Producing Company
Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Deptment in conjunction with Sonoma State University
Production Dates
Through December 8th
Production Address
Evert B. Person Theater at Sonoma State University
The stereotypical Irish affinity for alcohol, self-delusion, and self-defeat gets fully exercised in Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer,” at Main Stage West through December 21.
It’s Christmas eve, 2007, in a shabby residence (set design by director David Lear) in a small coastal town north of Dublin. Four buddies have gathered for a night of blarney, heavy drinking, and card games, with a fifth guest named Mr. Lockhart (Keith Baker) who may or may not be the devil incarnate. The four friends—Nicky, Richard, Ivan, and Sharky (Anthony Abate, John Craven, Kevin Bordi, and Edward McCloud, respectively)—spend the entire first act getting hammered and regaling each other with long-winded and elaborate tales about very little. It’s a long setup.
…a stunning ensemble effort by five extremely talented actors.
In the second act, they get down to business with a poker game in which they bluff not only about the cards they hold but about their generally miserable existences—bluffing exacerbated by their sharing a treasured bottle of high-octane liquor, as the financial and psychological stakes rise.
The stakes reach a fever pitch during a lull in the game—with the other three out of the room, Mr. Lockhart torments Sharky with a hideously frightening description of eternal damnation. Then they reunite around the table for a few final rounds of cards, in which their true characters are revealed to be as empty as their pockets. None of them are likable—Nicky, for example, admits that he has only thirty-five euros to last until January, and that he ought to be at home with his wife and kids, but he can’t resist gambling more than he has on one last desperate hand. Ivan likewise wrestles with how he’s going to explain his absence from home. Richard, Sharky’s brother and literally a blind drunk, takes great delight in tormenting his friends, as he has throughout the evening.
Altogether, it’s an unpleasant story about unlikeable losers, not one that would normally earn a recommendation, but it’s a stunning ensemble effort by five extremely talented actors. All are 100% committed to their characters and 100% committed to telling McPherson’s tale as well as it can be told. In that sense, “The Seafarer” is an exemplary production—a master class for aspiring actors, but not the sort of production that ordinary theatergoers will gush about to friends. If you’re seeking something to brighten your day or a tune to whistle on the way home, this isn’t it.
Is it possible to beat the devil at his own game? Is it possible to beat the devil that resides in every man’s heart? McPherson, a reformed alcoholic himself, implies that it is, perhaps even accidentally. Brave theatergoers with a tolerance for the dark side of humanity may wish to find out for themselves.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
Seafarer
Written by
Conor McPherson
Directed by
David Lear
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Dec. 21st
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
The Cast of “Escanaba in da Moonlight” (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
Alien encounters, porcupine piss, and a troop of whiskey-swilling women armed with hunting rifles. These are either the makings of a really strange nightmare or a recipe for comic gold. Left Edge Theatre proves the latter with their outrageously funny production of Jeff Daniels’s “Escanaba in da Moonlight,” playing in Santa Rosa through December 15th.
It’s the eve of deer-hunting season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the Soady clan has gathered in the family cabin to continue an annual tradition steeped in generations of folklore and a whole lot of booze. But this year, things are different. For daughter Ruby (Paige Picard), the stakes have never been higher. She’s the only Soady who has yet to bag a buck, and if she can’t pull it off this season, she’ll break an embarrassing family record.
Willing to try anything and determined to succeed, Ruby’s packed some questionable dinner fare in place of the usual “pasties.” It would be wrong to give too much away, but suffice it to say that things only get weirder and wilder. It’s a strange ride full of fun surprises, hell-raising hilarity, and one especially memorable scene that nearly brought the opening-weekend audience to tears.
This one’s guaranteed to leave you smiling . . .”
Director Argo Thompson puts a refreshing spin on this originally male-dominated show with an all-female ensemble, and thanks to excellent casting, it works beautifully. Strong chemistry between the Soady gals and pitch-perfect delivery make the whole thing absurdly enjoyable.
Parrott-Thomas and Picard (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
Sandra Ish is the ideal fit for tough-as-nails matriarch, Alberta, whose no-nonsense narration helps us find our footing in a land where the locals speak their own language and march to a very different drum. Chandler Parrott-Thomas is a riot as hotshot hunter Remy, whose superstition runs so deep she’s been sporting the same sweat-soaked lucky shirt each year since childhood. She and Picard evoke a comfortable familiarity that makes them believable as sisters, striking the right balance between cutthroat rivalry and abiding love.
Kalember as “The Jimmer” (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
The antics ramp up when “The Jimmer” (Kimberly Kalember) joins the party. She hasn’t been quite right, we’re told, since the alien abduction, and has since developed a bizarre speech impediment that makes for heaps of laughter and confusion. Kalember is ridiculously funny and a ton of fun to watch.
Thompson has a gift for designing immersive sets with thoughtful details on the intimate stage at Left Edge, and this one’s no exception. (Kat Motley helps out with a host of peculiar props.) The rustic plank walls and flannel sheets will make you want to pack a suitcase and cozy up at your own cabin in the woods this winter. Ish completes the picture with befitting costume choices that add to the amusement. April George shows off her lighting skills with forest backdrops and paranormal visitations, even bending time with a cleverly-placed stop motion strobe effect.
Whether you’re hungry for something new and unusual or just in need of a good, lighthearted laugh to ward off the holiday blues, “Escanaba” is the perfect tonic. This one’s guaranteed to leave you smiling all the way home.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Isabelle Arc (Sherman Fracher) and her daughter, Joan Arc (Rosie Hallett) Photo: Kevin Berne
A mother’s love has seldom been as brilliantly or movingly depicted as it is in Jane Anderson’s “Mother of the Maid,” at Marin Theatre Company through December 15.
Directed by Jasson Minadakis, it’s a story of a mother’s devotion to one of history’s most famous and most controversial figures. Joan of Arc had a short life: she was only 17 when she led the French army against the English during the last gasp of the Hundred Years War, and was only 19 when she was burned at the stake as a heretic. Her parents endured it all—Joan’s recurring visions, irrepressible spirit, indomitable purpose, and tragic end. Her father Jacques (played by the always rock-solid Scott Coopwood) witnessed her execution and suffered psychosomatic blindness a result, and is said to have died of grief shortly thereafter.
While it’s Joan’s trajectory that propels the piece, it’s really the story of her mother Isabelle (the astounding Sherman Fracher) whose devotion is so strong that she not only bathes and comforts her daughter on the morning of her execution but in the decades after, pursues clearing her name, taking her case all the way to the Pope in Rome. Joan of Arc was ultimately exonerated of heresy and declared a saint, in large part due to Isabelle’s persistence.
Isabelle (Sherman Fracher) sees Joan (Rosie Hallett) for the first time in months. Photo: Kevin Berne.
The Church permeated every aspect of life in the Middle Ages in Europe—business, finance, government, military, and private family affairs. It was an age of superstition and savagery—despite the Biblical commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” with Church approval, governments small and large squandered economic and human resources on one pointless war after another—a tradition that continued right into the modern era. Illiterate sheepherders, the Arc family had seen their friends and neighbors, the Lebecs, hacked to death by the English.
…as near-perfect a production as we may ever see on a Bay Area stage.
From early adolescence, Joan (Rosie Hallett) had visions of visitations from St. Catherine that instilled in her a deep conviction that her purpose was to lead France to liberty—a belief shared by local clergyman Father Gilbert (Robert Sicular), who pleads her case with church officials. Father Gilbert is a kind-hearted go-between, and Isabelle respects him. Jacques is more a hardened realist but knows better than to argue points of theology or to question authority. Joan’s brother Pierre (Brennan Pickman-Thoon) is a teenager enamored with playing soldier—he couldn’t be prouder of his armor and his sword, and is Joan’s companion in battle, which we do not see enacted onstage.
Joan (Rosie Hallett) dictates a letter while her parents, Isabelle (Sherman Fracher) and Jacques Arc (Scott Coopwood), observe. Photo: Kevin Berne.
Except for the opening scene—in the Arc home, implied by a structure of rough open timbers—all of the action takes place on a dauntingly beautiful set by Sean Fanning, a collection of floating Gothic arches that serves as Church, palace, and prison, made ethereal or oppressive by Chris Lundahl’s exquisite lighting. Marin Theatre Company regular Liz Sklar does a fine turn as a lady of the court, who befriends Joan (and subsequently, Isabelle) and wins her favor with the Dauphin, future King Charles VII of France. Isabelle’s visit to court involved walking three hundred miles over rough terrain, a journey she undertook multiple times. Fancher conveys Isabelle’s exhaustion and inexhaustible devotion as if they are simply what any mother would endure for her daughter.
Anderson’s use of modern dialect is an act of genius. The Arc family speaks in a sort of hybrid Irish/Minnesota accent, while the clergy and ‘noble folk’ speak more formally. The dialog might have been delivered in a sort of pseudo-Shakespearean with French accents, but putting it in modern language makes the whole story more immediate, more real, and more applicable to our own time. 600 years after Joan of Arc, superstition and savagery are still the rule.
“Mother of the Maid” is a heartbreaking piece of theater. A mother’s devotion to her children is one of the fundamental forces of human existence. MTC deserves high praise for bringing it to the forefront of our consciousness. It’s simply brilliant—as near-perfect a production as we may ever see on a Bay Area stage.
Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Production
Mother of the Maid
Written by
Jane Anderson
Directed by
Jasson Minadakis
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Dec 15th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
For the next few days, Bay Area theater fans have a rare opportunity to see the UK-based international touring show “Champions of Magic,” with twice-per-day performances through Dec. 1 at San Francisco’s downtown Golden Gate Theatre.
Five world-class illusionists and one aerialist/contortionist prove that classic theatrical magic is alive and well, with acts that include a mind-reader, a sleight-of-hand performer, an escape artist, and illusionists Strange & Young, who make people including themselves disappear and reappear instantly in ways that absolutely baffle and confound the audience.
Champions … is a wonderful departure from traditional theater and is suitable for entire families.
Aided by willing audience members, some little children, the sleight-of-hand artist gets an amazing amount of mileage from a Five of Clubs pulled from her deck, cut-and-torn paper, and various ordinary objects including rubber bands. Audience volunteers also propel the mind-reader, who on opening night correctly guessed names and relationships of random people pulled onstage. He also identified one woman as a Navy veteran and former presidential guard, without any apparent prior knowledge. How this is possible will keep you wondering long after the show is over.
The escape artist revives some of Houdini’s best tricks, including getting out of a straitjacket while submerged in a tank of water locked from the outside, a performance guaranteed to induce anxiety in anyone with a hint of claustrophobia. Strange & Young offer plenty of comedic patter as they leap about with a dynamic, quick-moving illusionist spectacle worthy of Las Vegas.
“Champions of Magic,” in fact, is the nearest thing to Las Vegas currently running in San Francisco, save the Cirque de Soleil production of “Amaluna” that runs into January. “Champions” is a wonderful departure from traditional theater and is suitable for entire families. The show’s run is short and if opening night is a good indicator, tickets may be in short supply. If dazzling spectacles appeal to you, do not miss this show.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Niernberger and Cadigan (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Austen lovers will rejoice at this dazzling continuation of beloved classic Pride and Prejudice, picking up two years after the novel leaves off and making its Sonoma County premiere at Spreckels through December 15th. Penned with finesse by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley” rings true to the canonical author’s style and characters, full of everything an Austenesque story should be – strong, outspoken women who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo, an abundant wealth of razor-sharp wit, and a heartwarming love story for the ages.
L-R: Pugh, Park, Nordby, and Niernberger (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
The show opens on an elegant drawing room in Mr. Darcy’s sprawling estate, in which he (Matt Cadigan) and Elizabeth (Ilana Niernberger) are preparing for her family to descend for the holidays. Thanks to Niernberger’s spirited demeanor and playful charm, matched with Cadigan’s stately ease, the Darcys are credibly reincarnated as though no time has passed at all. If anything, it’s clear two years of marriage have only served to strengthen and solidify their affection. The two are soon joined by Elizabeth’s eldest sister, Jane (Allie Nordby), and Mr. Bingley (Evan Held), who are expecting their first child and seem happier than ever.
All of this would be enough to make any Pride and Prejudice fan ecstatic, but Gunderson and Melcon have another treat in store. This is Mary Bennet’s turn in the spotlight, after all – the dry-humored, pedantic, and oft-overlooked middle sister, presumed doomed to a life of spinsterhood by her preference for books and pianoforte over the company of other people. Mary (Karina Pugh) has grown since we last saw her, and so too her fear that she may never leave her parents’ home. Must she sit forever on the sidelines, watching each of her sisters find the kind of love she’ll never know? Or could this Christmas bring an unexpected gift?
Pugh makes a brilliant first appearance at Spreckels with her captivating frankness and candor, earning laughs with her deadpan quips and well-timed delivery. Her scenes at the piano are equally hilarious, requiring no words to convey what her character is feeling. (She gets some help behind the scenes from pianist Nancy Hayashibara.)
Diffenderfer and Park (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Also excellent are Ella Park as Lydia Wickham, bubbling over with flirtatious energy as she cavorts about the stage, attempting shamelessly to conceal the unhappiness of her marriage, and Taylor Diffenderfer as the spine-chilling, frigid Anne de Bourgh, channeling her deceased mother’s pretentious disdain and willful intimidation tactics. Her very entrance is like a dark cloud rolling over the stage. She’s transfixing. Even though they act in small part as the story’s villains, they too are given room to grow and hope for a happier ending. Because, after all – as “Miss Bennet” suggests – don’t we all deserve a chance at love?
. . . a completely engrossing and highly enjoyable night at the theater.”
Walters and Pugh (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
The playwrights have succeeded in crafting characters who are believable extensions of their predecessors, allowing their stories to develop in a way that feels natural and at home with Austen’s legacy. The addition of Darcy’s socially-awkward cousin, Arthur de Bourgh (Zane Walters), is a welcome surprise. He fits right in as the perfect complement to Mary’s hyper-studious and antisocial tendencies. Walters is simply outstanding – his Arthur is genuine and endearing, and despite his clumsy stumbling, a character you’ll want to root for.
Elizabeth Bazzano’s set is tasteful and inviting, begging us to cozy up beside the fireplace, help decorate a much-discussed spruce tree, or gaze out the beautiful window at snow falling on a frosted landscape. Pamela Johnson has chosen costumes that feel in keeping with the characters’ personalities. (A minor wardrobe malfunction was noticeable but easily forgotten amid the fun.)
Director Sheri Lee Miller helms this tightly-paced production with an evident flair for comedic timing. The unceasingly clever dialogue is well served by all members of this first-rate ensemble, and adeptly paired with physical comedy and priceless facial expressions throughout. Rarely has a show made me laugh so often and wholeheartedly.
While previous knowledge of Pride and Prejudice will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the show, it’s completely unnecessary. Even those new to Austen will find much to love in this easy-to-navigate and utterly uplifting story. Stellar writing, effective direction, and an exceptional cast combine to make “Miss Bennet” a completely engrossing and highly enjoyable night at the theater. Sincerely sweet and unforgettably good, it’s a true delight from start to finish, and over in a flash. You may even wish to catch it twice before it’s gone.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
Written by
Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through December 15th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
London in Charles Dickens’s time must have been close to hell on earth, choked with pollution, poverty, homelessness, and crime. “Oliver Twist,” the author’s second novel, depicts all this quite vividly. So does “Oliver!” the 1960 musical adaptation by Lionel Bart, at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through December 15.
The show’s requirement of many children in the cast prompts theater companies to present it in the hope of generating substantial ticket sales—all those kids have parents, relatives, and friends who must attend. But despite its huge popularity, it’s not a feel-good extravaganza like “Annie.” It’s a grim portrait of a poor orphan boy (Cecilia Brenner and Gus Jordan, in alternating performances) doing his best to survive in unbelievably adverse circumstance.
This includes falling in with a group of scuzzy adolescent hoodlums led by an old hustler named Fagin (David Yen), who fences their stolen goods in exchange for providing them a bit of safety and mentorship, aided by his youthful apprentice The Artful Dodger (Mario Herrera). These small-time criminals are in turn under the thumb of a really serious criminal named Bill Sykes (the imposing Zachary Hasbany), a malevolent force who doesn’t hesitate to kill people who displease him or get in his way.
…the performers are exuberantly entertaining across the whole range of acting, singing, and dancing…
Survival is the primary plot, but there are some compelling secondary plots too, including love affairs among the adults—especially between the doomed, pathetically mistreated Nancy (Brittany Law) and the dastardly Sikes. There’s also a meandering subplot about the hunt for Oliver’s family of origin that’s resolved near the end, as is Fagin’s reconsideration of his disreputable career.
Cecilia Brenner as Oliver-Mario Herrera as Dodger-photo by Eric Chazankin
6th Street’s show has a huge cast—it’s in many ways an all-star gathering of North Bay theatrical talent, who make substantial contributions to its success under director Patrick Nims. The set by Sam Transleau is equally huge, occupying the entirety of the big stage in the G.K. Hardt theater, save the space backstage where Ginger Beavers leads an excellent seven-piece band.
There’s some inexplicable gender-bending in the adult casting, but most of the performers are exuberantly entertaining across the whole range of acting, singing, and dancing (choreography by Joseph Favalora).
Oliver’s personal triumph is uplifting, and Fagin’s repentance satisfying, but the real appeal of the show—and perhaps, the reason for its enduring popularity—is the number of great songs in it. Many of them broke out as pop and jazz standards—especially Nancy’s heartbreaking showcase number, “As Long As He Needs Me.” The music alone recommends this show, while the rest of it works with admirable effort in every direction to sustain that level.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Oliver!
Written by
Lionel Bart
Directed by
Patrick Nims
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through December 15th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Ross Valley Players has collaborated with the Mountain Play Association to present a light-hearted nostalgic musical filled with fine performances.
“She Loves Me” debuted in 1964. It’s based on the 1937 play “Parfumerie” by Miklos Laszlo, which inspired classic films as 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail in 1998. An homage to Cyrano de Bergerac that takes place in a 1930’s Budapest perfume shop—Maraczek’s Parfumerie—the musical won multiple Tony awards for its 1993 and 2016 Broadway revivals.
The Ross Valley Players and the Mountain Play Association are two of the oldest theatre companies in Marin. Why is the Mountain Play collaborating with RVP for this special performance, not a part of the regular RVP season? “We want to become more of a year-round musical company and lend our support to others. We’ve been behind the scenes of the Ross Valley Players since one of their plays in 1935 (“The World We Live In”) was subsequently presented as our Mountain Play for that year,” explained Eileen Grady, Executive Director and Artistic Producer of the Mountain Play.
This charming and cheerful musical … is a great lead-in to the Christmas season.
“She Loves Me” enjoys an unusually lengthy run: five performances per week almost to Christmas Day. A familiar name to Mountain Play devotees is veteran choreographer/actor Nicole Helfer, who has shifted her admirable skills to direct this production. Multi-talented Jake Gale, who just completed a run as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Marin Musical Theatre Company’s “Rocky Horror Show,” serves as vocal director and also supervises the show’s music.
Photos by Robin Jackson.
A large cast of thirteen does a fine job acting, singing, and dancing in period costumes designed by Michael A. Berg. Petite Marah Sotelo is a standout as the store clerk Amalia, both in spot-on acting, gestures and a pleasing soprano voice. Max Kligman is well-matched as Georg, her “Dear Friend” mystery suitor, despite their amusing height difference.
Photos by Robin Jackson.
Another surprising talent (and this show contains many) is Anthony Maglio, who does a fine lothario shop clerk, then later becomes an aggressive waiter plagued by a clumsy busboy (Alex Munoz). Act I’s highlight has to be the hilarious café scene “A Romantic Atmosphere.” Store clerks are played and sung convincingly by Patrick Barr and young Alex Cook. Lovely Chelsey Ristaino balances out the staff and gets to steal a few scenes as she finds amusing library romance in Act II.
Photos by Robin Jackson.
Ron Dritz and Michael Walraven (also the show’s set designer) provide supporting characters. They’re joined by the song-and-dance moves of Dana Cherry, Katie Rose, MacKenzie Cahill, and a tantalizing tango by Sophie de Morelos and that clumsy busboy Alex Munoz.
This charming and cheerful musical is a bit long (2 ½ hours) with a first act of 90 minutes, but it’s a great lead-in to the Christmas season.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
She Loves Me
Written by
Agatha Christie
Directed by
Nicole Helfer
Producing Company
Mountain Play Association and Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru December 22nd
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
Cameron Stuckey is Gene and Anya Cherniss is Doubling Actress in “Bluff.” Photos by: Marc Bussin
Jeffrey Sweet’s newest play is billed as a dark comedy, although it’s more drama than humor. This 90-minute peek at a couple’s relationship breaks theatre’s “fourth wall” repeatedly, interacting with the audience in San Rafael’s Belrose Theatre. This is the perfect cabaret-style venue for this show. Actors access the stage from the wings as well as the back of the house, using the center aisle to surprise the audience.
Bluff begins with two actors on the minimalist set speaking their lines with a recitation of the script’s directions. Just when you’re getting the hang of their unconventional interaction, this artifice is dropped. Someone on the street is being attacked. Neal grabs his baseball bat to the rescue. The victim is patched up. It’s NYC, so the unnamed dude (Alvin Josephs) departs without a “by your leave.”
Emily (Isabelle Grimm) and Neal (Will Livingston) are left to get acquainted, the millennials who helped defend the victim. Emily notes “It’s a good thing you’re not a tennis player, as a racquet wouldn’t make as good a weapon as your bat.”
This 90-minute peek at a couple’s relationship breaks theatre’s “fourth wall” repeatedly…
They couple up and discuss living together. The dialog is ordinary but intriguing to eavesdrop. This is a good thing as the plot isn’t much. Emily has an apartment, and Neal wisely observes “If I move in, it will be “your” place, not “our” place.”
Despite reservations, Emily and Neal cohabitate her apartment. More conversations. Emily phones her hospitalized mother (Tamara Chandler) on the West Coast who laughingly brushes off her daughter’s concerns about drinking and health.
(L to R) Cameron Stuckey is Gene, Isabelle Grimm is Emily, Will Livingston is Neal in “Bluff”. Photos by: Marc Bussin
Emily’s stepdad Gene arrives in town for a convention, and the tension between these two is immediate and unexplained. Gene (Cam Stuckey) seems affable enough, although it’s difficult to catch all his dialog. He’s a salesman and makes the effort to be sociable to Emily and her boyfriend, but Emily won’t move off her aggressive attitude. The guys bond.
A truth-telling moment occurs when Gene admits he’s been philandering. Emily realizes that Gene has been the only stabilizing force in her alcoholic mother’s life. Self-centered Emily isn’t the least bit grateful. She weighs her dismal options if she snitches on Gene. We never really see a likable side to Emily or learn what’s behind her unrelenting bitchiness.
Emily boots out her boyfriend.
Gene goes home.
Neal shrugs.
And the play ends.
In spite of the unfinished feeling to Bluff, making it seem more like a sketch, there are some clever nuggets. The playwright demonstrates his skill with improv to make the lack of props amusing. Gene asks for a real glass in the bar scene, and the waiter crankily responds, “You’ve been using pretend phones, why can’t you use a pretend cocktail?”
The comedic high point of Bluff is the unnamed part played by Anya Cherniss. She appears briefly in the opening scene and reappears much later as a sultry temptress engaging Gene at a bar. When her lines indicate she should exit the stage, she instead begins ranting to the audience about her character’s qualities. She takes center stage to whine that she should have more lines to speak, as she is a very capable actor. Director Joey Hoeber steps up to command that she leave. Breaking that “fourth wall” brings the biggest laugh of the show.
Despite the shortage of character development or motivation, theatre is meant to be entertaining. Bluff certainly fits that description.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Bluff
Written by
Jeffrey Sweet
Directed by
Joey Hoeber & Dianne Harrison
Producing Company
Jolee Productions
Production Dates
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM through November 16th
Alison Peltz as Mrs. Lovett, Bruce Vieira as Sweeney Todd and Fernando Siu as Tobias Ragg Photo Credit: Kristen Schutz
This fiendishly fine performance would make Stephen Sondheim smile with sadistic glee. It’s dark and diabolical, with singing, acting, costumes, and a two-level set as sharp as the shaving razor wielded by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Directors Kim Bromley and Bruce Vieira (masterfully commanding the title role) are skilled veterans at their craft. They handle the darkly humorous story of a vengeful barber with restraint, using a large cadre of actors and an even larger oven. Ragged actors move in from all sections of the theatre to sweep the audience into the malevolent background story.
It’s hard times in desperate 19th century London, and many morals have been suspended. A migrant sailor (handsome Cordell Wesselink) rescues a mysterious castaway who calls himself Sweeney Todd. Bruce Vieira seems chillingly suited for this title role, giving it an imposing figure and dour countenance.
Todd is a talented barber who captures the admiration of the street scene by challenging the local barber and mountebank (mustachioed Dominic Quin-Harken) to a shave-off. His young assistant Tobias (irrepressible Fernando Siu) is flexible when his master becomes not only the loser, but oddly lost to sight as well.
Don’t miss NTC’s Sweeney Todd… It’s deliciously devilish…
Todd sets up shop, and gains the attention of Mrs. Lovett (charming Alison Peltz), the widowed pie-maker, despite his character’s taciturn demeanor. Peltz is the award-winning actor who connives her way into making meat stuffing for her pies from the victims of Todd’s short-tempered vengeance. This unholy alliance brings delicious accolades and business prosperity while Todd bides his time for revenge on the Judge (snidely done by Charles Evans) and the Beedle (a fine role voiced by Mauricio Suarez).
The Judge and Beedle had sent Todd to a prison colony to pave the way for the seduction of Todd’s wife. Unfortunately, she took poison rather than succumb to their lecherous plans.
Todd has escaped and returns to find that his grown daughter (lovely soprano Julianne Bretan) is the ward of the very Judge who lusted after Todd’s wife. The libidinous Judge is now focused on pursuing the daughter. It’s all one can do to resist hissing at these bad boys.
As a child, some may recall the gruesome song “Dunderbeck’s Machine.” We laughed at the invention of his sausage meat machine, and the outcome, when we boisterously sang the lyrics. Let it be noted that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has added social elements that make it inappropriate for children.
Cordell Wesselink as Anthony and Julianne Bretan as Johanna Photo Credit: Mark Clark
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won multiple Tony awards, including best musical. There are a couple of recognizable songs including “(Nothing’s Going to Harm You) Not While I’m Around” and “Pretty Women.” The production possesses sufficient twists and turns in the plot to keep the audience entertained. Sondheim’s songs and lyrics are a real challenge, yet all are impressively handled by the cast who had countless rehearsals to do such an outstanding job.
NTC’s recipe for success is Hugh Wheeler’s book, mixed with Marilyn Izdebski’s choreography, and folding in the meaty music directed by Judy Weisen to bake up this tasty treat. Don’t miss NTC’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It’s deliciously devilish.
Playing now through November 17th at the Novato Playhouse, 5420 Nave Drive, Novato CA. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2 PM. Shows suspended by the North Bay Kincaid fires will transfer to Thursdays, Nov. 7 & 14 at 7:30pm.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Written by
Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Kim Bromley & Bruce Vieira
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through Nov. 17th
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
If you’re looking for a wild and sex-crazed show filled with energy and imaginative characters, go see “The Rocky Horror Show” produced by the Marin Musical Theatre Company.
It’s become a cult tradition to shout key lines at the actors at this outrageous show, based on the 1975 musical horror film. The MMTC program helpfully provides an audience participation script, as well as an etiquette guide with behavior rules, to keep rowdies from ruining the fun for everyone.
This is not a performance for children. Expect a young crowd of Millennials and a raunchy Act II to remind you this isn’t your grandma’s evening at the theatre. And don’t bring Grandpa, especially if he has a heart condition.
It’s eye-popping interaction as audience members show up in costumes and slutty face paint. Lucky ones are selected for the pre-show games, where they might join the cast to sacrifice virgins, imitate animal orgasms, or compete for top honors. Everyone practices the “Time Warp” steps to come later.
Cast members are dressed, or rather undressed, in racy attire. They coach the audience to holler out “Asshole” when Brad (perfectly cast Lorenzo Alviso) appears. Janet (played by Jenny Boynton, who also directed this show) has the shouted moniker “Slut”. The crowd hoots loudly and the partying begins.
Those who have never been to a live performance of “The Rocky Horror Show” might take a while to warm up to the idea of sexual perversion as humor, but that’s the nature of this show. A glass of wine or beer helps!
Those who have never been to a live performance of “The Rocky Horror Show” might take a while to warm up…
As the story of this bizarre journey begins, it follows straight-laced Brad and Janet whose car breaks down near a strange mansion opened by an even stranger ghoul, Riff Raff. Nelson Brown outdoes himself in this smarmy and lecherous role. He’s keen to have elbow sex with Magenta, acted and sung by the powerhouse Dani Innocenti Beem. These two get everyone charged up when they do the “Time Warp” again.
Already bursting with sensual anticipation, the audience explodes when Dr. Frank-N-Furter enters. Jack Gale is the ballsy and brassy “Sweet Transvestite from Transylvania.” He casts his spell in a corset and lustful smile…a trouper with great singing chops.
Out comes Rocky, the golden boy enacted by brawny and beautiful Michael Lamb. Females swoon at sight of him, but the males do, too. What obscene scene will come next?
Amidst this chaotic depravity, Daniel Savio directs five talented musicians who underscore Katie Wickes’ choreography. Several set-ups, like the ensemble performing as Brad and Janet’s car, are quite clever.
“The Rocky Horror Show” does not allow children under 13, as MMTC rates it a “strong R.” Indulge in this riotous and ribald experience through Halloween, October 31st.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Michael Ross directs this hilarious and campy musical at Spreckels Performing Arts Center’s Codding Theatre. The plot is immediately intriguing: impoverished Monty (well-cast in Andrew Smith) discovers he has an aristocratic birthright, making him ninth in line to inherit both title and fortune.
How did that happen? Turns out Monty’s noble-born mum had been rudely disinherited, and kept mum about it. His lady-friend Sibella (Madison Genovese) ignores poor Monty as she prefers a more financially secure suitor. Can Monty move up the inheritance list quickly enough to win her hand? Can he bump eight dismissive and nasty relatives off the queue?
“A Gentleman’s Guide” is morbidly delightful fun that’ll just kill you with laughter…
And what relatives they are! Tim Setzer, a talented veteran actor, clearly has a ball playing every one of the noble-born inheritors…including a female. It’s worth the price of admission just to watch him change personalities and voices as he doffs another costume.
“A Gentleman’s Guide” won four Tonys when it hit Broadway in 2014, including Best Musical. Gilbert and Sullivan might have been proud of the operetta-style music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak (with additional book and lyrics by Robert L. Freeman.) Several songs have a patter-singing character to cleverly move the plot along.
Act II has a particularly engaging number “I’ve Decided to Marry You.” While Monty hides his lover Sabella behind one door, his marriage-manic cousin Phoebe (lovely soprano Maeve Smith) embraces him behind the other. The trio has the comic chops and strong vocals which brought a cheer from the audience.
In further homage to G&S, “A Gentleman’s Guide” has several surprises and an amusing twist at the end. The musical is appropriate for all ages, despite the rather macabre story line. No blood, thank you, except for the blue kind.
The set is a stage on the stage, opulently designed by Elizabeth Bazzano and Eddy Hansen. Codding Theatre takes it a step further, maximizing their rear-projection screen to depict scene changes. Ice skaters cruise back and forth. Bees swarm. Tourists take tours of the mansion. Underneath it all is the 12-piece orchestra conducted by Jim Coleman.
“A Gentleman’s Guide” is morbidly delightful fun that’ll just kill you with laughter.
ASR Editor Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Urinetown, the Musical
Written by
Mark Holman and Greg Kotis
Directed by
Jay Manley
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through March 1st
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
The signing of the Treaty of New Echota (L-R: Elizabeth Frances, Adam Magill, Kholan Studi, Scott Coopwood, Andrew Roa, Robert I. Mesa). Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
The displacement of conquered people is pretty much the history of the human race. So is the disregard of treaties by conquerors. Most historical retellings vary only in the degree of dishonesty and savagery depicted of conquerors toward the conquered—a degree that depends largely on which side the tale comes from. History is told by the victors, as the old adage has it.
At Marin Theatre Company through October 20, Mary Kathryn Nagle’s “Sovereignty” examines in detail the legal and illegal wranglings of 1832 that resulted in the forced migration of the Cherokee people from Georgia to Oklahoma (the infamous “trail of tears”). White settlers supported by President Andrew Jackson were making incursions into the Cherokee Nation, in violation of a treaty that gave the Cherokee jurisdiction over their land and all that took place on it. In Worchester v. Georgia the US Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall upheld native sovereignty, a decision defied by Jackson and his loyal US Congress. (Any resemblances between Jackson’s erratic antics and those of the current occupant of the White House are purely intentional.)
Sarah Bird Northrup (Ella Dershowitz) and John Ridge (Robert I. Mesa) make plans for their future. Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
As told by Nagle, Cherokee legal scholars John Ridge (Robert J. Mesa) and Major Ridge (Andrew Roa) worked within the court system to assert the rights of their people, but were considered traitors by more militant Cherokee leaders, such as John Ross (Jake Waid), who favored armed conflict as the only way to insure their survival—or in Ridge’s view, their total destruction. Mutual distrust between their descendants continues into the present, when a brilliant lawyer named Sarah Ridge Polson (Elizabeth Frances) seeks a position with the office of Cherokee Attorney General Jim Ross. As a member of a rival clan, Polson conceals her family identity until well after she’s landed the job.
Acting and pacing are both first-rate…
The issue of clan identity and inherited guilt is a running theme throughout the play. It’s a common story—people in many cultures are often deemed responsible for the actions of their ancestors—but Nagle doesn’t delve into its illogic. And she acknowledges with barely a nod that the Cherokee were slave owners. Instead she focuses on the outrageously illegal actions of Jackson and his ilk, and on more recent events, such as the 1978 Supreme Court decision Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, which largely voided the benefits of Worchester v. Georgia, including eliminating the rights of native people to prosecute criminal acts by non-natives. In her notes in the playbill, Nagle mentions that attacks against natives by non-natives have risen horrendously since then—especially attacks against native women. Oliphant, in her view, was vindication of Jackson 140 years later.
Polson, her lead character, is a seeker of justice, in particular, one seeking enforcement of the Obama administration’s Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that will restore some protection to native women—an argument she makes forcefully to the US Supreme Court in the play’s closing scene. Elizabeth Frances is at the height of her theatrical powers here. It’s a tremendous bit of theater with a resounding message, strongly directed by MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis.
Flora Ridge (Ella Dershowitz) and Sarah Ridge Polson (Elizabeth Frances) reconnect in the family graveyard. Photo credit: Kevin Berne.
Acting and pacing are both first-rate in this piece, written by a native American and featuring several native actors. The past and present intersect almost seamlessly and sometimes confusingly, the two periods often distinguished only by the position of a long table on stage or by the costumes worn by actors.
The blending of the past and present is a dramatic structure to reinforce the concept of how much the present resembles the past. This sort of blending is also applied to the character of Ben O’Connor (Craig Marker, who also plays Andrew Jackson) a white detective who, early in the first act, leaps to the defense of Polson’s brother Watie (Kholan Studi) when he’s accosted by a drunken redneck (Scott Coopwood, superb in several roles). Ben is incensed by the redneck’s blatant racism, and exhibits admirable bravery in dealing with him. Shortly thereafter he charmingly asks Sarah Polson to marry him, and she agrees, but as soon as he’s downed a couple of drinks he becomes an insufferably small-minded racist jackass himself.
It’s a convenient plot device but doesn’t ring true, and provokes related questions such as why a whip-smart lawyer like Sarah Polson can’t perceive that her fiancée isn’t trustworthy. Such limitations in the script prevent “Sovereignty” from earning unlimited praise. Nonetheless, it’s a very good effort by a talented cast, presented as compellingly as possible—a history lesson well served.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Mother of the Maid
Written by
Jane Anderson
Directed by
Jasson Minadakis
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through Dec 15th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
Sutherland and Innocenti-Beem light up the stage in “Merman’s Apprentice” (Photo Credit: Miller Oberlin)
A young girl with stars in her eyes goes on the trip of a lifetime, and takes the audience with her, in “Merman’s Apprentice,” at Sonoma Arts Live through October 13.
It’s New York, 1970. Broadway legend Ethel Merman (Daniela Innocenti-Beem) is enjoying the zenith of her long career when into her life comes Muriel Plakenstein (Emma Sutherland), a 12-year-old runaway whose big dream is to be a Broadway star like Merman, her idol. Muriel happens to know everything about Ethel Merman, including every song she ever sang and obscure details of shows that ran decades earlier. An obsessive who will find fulfillment only in absorbing everything-Mermanesque, Muriel gets her wish, and in doing so fills a huge gap in Merman’s life.
The cast of Merman’s Apprentice (Photo Credit: Miller Oberlin)
The adult woman and the runaway form an almost-instant bond, reinforced early in the first act by the joyfully infectious song “Chums,” one that sets the emotional tone for the entire production. Innocenti-Beem is amazing as mentor/fairy godmother to a goofy talented girl with single-minded devotion toward becoming the next Ethel, as is 17-year-old Sutherland in conveying the innocence, enthusiasm, and vulnerability of adolescence. Playing younger is difficult for all performers, and Sutherland does it perfectly. As the story progresses, Muriel meets legendary musical theater impresario David Merrick (Patrick Barr), enjoys performances at the St. James Theatre, and dinners-and-drinkfests at Sardi’s. She also becomes Merman’s permanent house guest. Stars in her eyes, indeed.
Part fable, part fairy tale, and all heart, . . . a show that will delight theater fans of all varieties and ages.”
Playwright and lyricist Stephen Cole was a close friend of the real Ethel Merman in her later years and captures her signature snappy repartee perfectly. Innocenti-Beem, a huge-voiced stalwart of North Bay musical theater, has often been compared to Merman, including her penchant for improvisational off-color humor. When Cole met Innocenti-Beem for the weeks-long refinement process that rendered this show, he declared her “more Ethel than Ethel was,” echoing what local critics have been saying for years. She soars in “Listen to the Trumpet Call” late in the first act. One of Innocenti-Beem’s “Apprentice” costumes is the spectacular red dress she wore in a recent production of “Hello, Dolly,” a Merman signature role.
Cole’s musical collaborator David Evans has cooked up a couple dozen tunes that evoke the glory days of big brash Broadway musicals. “Apprentice” is set in 1970 but it references an earlier, more innocent age—there’s no hint of the Vietnam War or the growing protest movement, nor of the era’s incendiary black radicalism. It’s as if 1955 were forever trapped in amber, but the music is tremendous, delivered by an ace seven-piece band under the direction of Sherrill Peterson. The songs all clearly reference blockbuster show tunes from the 1930s into the ‘60s. The finale seems to quote “Comedy Tonight,” the lead song from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Holsworth and O’Brien as Mom and Pop (Photo Credit: Miller Oberlin)
Directors Larry Williams and Jaime Weisen Love have done something magical in bringing a production of this scale to the Rotary Stage. The large ensemble does an admirable job with Lissa Ferreira’s choreography on an impressive set by Gary Gonser, now recovering from a recent medical emergency. (Get healthy, Gary!) Sean O’Brien and Julia Holsworth are outstanding among the ensemble in their roles of Pop and Mom, respectively. Holsworth’s flat-footed shuffle is especially funny. The only real quibble with this world premiere is that the first act may be a bit overlong and the second act too short. It’s as if the second act needs one more song to balance the production. Cole and Evans can certainly supply this before the show goes to Broadway, as seems inevitable.
“Merman’s Apprentice” is a huge unabashed exercise in nostalgia. Part fable, part fairy tale, and all heart, it’s a show that will delight theater fans of all varieties and ages. The show and its stars are destined for much broader horizons, so catch it while you can.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Merman's Apprentice
Written by
Book and Lyrics by Stephen Cole; Music by David Evans
Directed by
Jaime Weiser Love and Larry Williams
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Through October 13th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Time flies when you’re having fun. And it slows to a crawl when you aren’t. “Dance Nation” at San Francisco Playhouse succeeds in proving that an hour and fifty-two minutes can feel like an eternity. It fails at just about everything else it ostensibly sets out to accomplish. With no intermission and thus no chance for a polite escape, this production feels more like an avant-garde experiment in torture than an illuminating night at the theater.
The premise is straightforward enough. An Ohio dance troupe comprised of preteen girls – played by adult women of various ages, at the playwright’s instruction – is vying for a spot at Nationals in Tampa Bay. The competition is fierce, and things get really strange and gory. But there isn’t much more to the story, if it could even be called that. Instead it merely serves as a backdrop for a series of disjointed, drawn-out monologues, ranging from flat and painfully boring to overly-intense and agitating, like a bad slam poetry throwdown at the local café where angry feminists commune to rail against the patriarchy and destigmatize the female body. It plays like a misguided grab at women’s empowerment wrapped up in a hollow coming-of-age story about resilience and self-discovery. But none of it rings true.
Clare Barron has packed a lot into her characters, but little that’s terribly realistic or relatable. We bear witness to one girl’s narcissistic meltdown, reaching fever pitch as she shouts at the audience “I’m going to make you my bitch, you motherfucking cunt-munching piece of shit prick. I am your god. I am your second coming.” In another scene, a girl who’s just gotten her period smears menstrual blood across her face like war paint. In yet another, a familiar childhood pact takes a warped turn when the girls wipe armpit sweat on each other’s upper lips and kiss (what ever happened to the good old pinky promise?). We watch grown women depicting thirteen-year-old girls strip naked together without a hint of modesty or embarrassment. (Does this match your childhood locker room experience? It certainly doesn’t mine.) And yet despite their comfortable bond, the show opens awkwardly on the troupe abandoning an injured teammate on the dance floor. It all feels gratuitous, ill-fitting and off-key.
Are these the inner thoughts and lives of women? Good grief, let’s hope not.”
The cast of “Dance Nation” at work at San Francisco Playhouse (Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli)
The coup de grâce is the show’s conclusion (dare I call it that), which features the entire cast chanting “I wish my soul were as perfect as my pussy!” – louder with each repetition – so many times that I could hear it echoing inside my head the whole drive home. Are these the inner thoughts and lives of women? Good grief, let’s hope not. None of it serves any discernible purpose but to shock and repulse the audience, for shock’s sake alone. Despite being the work of a young female playwright, “Dance Nation” is so deeply out of touch with its subject matter that it fails to be emotionally accessible in any meaningful way. It tries really hard to be controversial and edgy – in keeping with much of contemporary art – but only managed to leave me feeling tired, bored and angry. It certainly didn’t resonate with my experience of puberty and early womanhood, adolescent rivalries and friendships, the inherent camaraderie in competitive sports, or just about anything else it reaches for.
Without more believable and fully-formed characters or a compelling and cohesive narrative arc, it’s hard to feel all that connected to or interested in anything that’s happening on stage. The dancing isn’t very good, either. It’s just a lot of forced, unnatural dialogue broken up by obnoxious monologues and little to no plot, with some pointless nudity and a lot of fake blood thrown into the mix. The actors commit a commendable amount of energy to their roles, but it’s not enough to make us care about what happens to their characters. The set doesn’t help much, either. It’s clunky and underwhelming, offering little to look at but a shelf full of trophies and large pillars that often block the audience’s view.
In light of this experience, it’s difficult to fathom why this play has received such high praise from other critics. (It won the Relentless Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was even a Pulitzer Prize finalist.) Is Becca Wolff’s direction at fault? Did SF Playhouse simply miss the mark with this one? Given their excellent track record, it’s hard to imagine that’s the case, but without any basis for comparison, it’s impossible to know exactly what to think. All I can say with certainty is that from start to finish, I didn’t find a single minute of this show enjoyable. Seldom have I felt so anxious for something to be over. SF Playhouse calls itself an “empathy gym,” but the only thing “Dance Nation” exercised was this reviewer’s patience.
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Pope Joan (Rosie Hallett), Dull Gret (Summer Brown), Marlene (Michelle Beck), Lady Nijo (Monica Lin), and Isabella Bird (Julia McNeal) recount their life stories at a dinner party in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater now through October 13, 2019.
Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls” hasn’t been performed in the Bay Area in a long time. It’s been revived as the season opener at American Conservatory Theater, directed by Tamilla Woodard and running through October 13.
About a hard-charging female executive angling to move up the management ladder, the 37-year- old play has lost none of its relevance in the intervening decades, as is made dismayingly clear in several essays-with-statistics in “Words on Plays,” the fascinating booklet that accompanies the show’s playbill. Women still lag behind men in compensation and positions of authority. There’s nothing revelatory in that, but the piece has nonetheless acquired a bit of tarnish over the years.
Director Woodard pulls wonderfully committed performances from her eight-member cast…
At its core, “Top Girls” is a simple tale of a British career woman named Marlene (Michelle Beck), running from the limited opportunities of her working-class origins and pouring all her considerable energy into the pursuit of corporate power. Set in the early 1980s—the play debuted in ’82—it depicts Marlene maneuvering for an executive position even if it means displacing a male colleague who’s the sole support for his family of four. A Thatcherite, Marlene believes in meritocracy – the idea that the cream of society rises to the top – and dismisses the entitlement mentality of leftists and union workers.
Nell (Summer Brown) and Win (Rosie Hallett) arrive to work at the Top Girls Employment Agency in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls performing at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater now through October 13, 2019.
As a manager in a busy employment agency, Marlene doesn’t gladly suffer fools. Her interviews with job-seekers are brusque, bordering on insulting, and she doesn’t hesitate to dominate her office-mates. They are not friends. But suffer she does, as we learn in the second act—from the slights she has showered on her family and the personal sacrifices she’s made seeking power in a man’s world. She doesn’t really have a life outside work.
The opening scene could be interpreted as evidence of Marlene’s suffering, and by extension, the suffering of all ambitious women. It’s a comically nightmarish dinner party featuring notable women fictional and historical: 19th-century adventurer Isabella Bird (Julia McNeal); Lady Nijo (Monica Lin), an 11th-century exile from the Japanese Imperial Court; the legendary Pope Joan (Rosie Hallett), thought to have reigned during the Middle Ages in the guise of a man; and Dull Gret (Summer Brown), a fearsome warrior immortalized by Brueghel. All bucked the patriarchy; the scene offers each an opportunity to tell her story. Each recitation adds fuel to Marlene’s furious purpose. It also allows all of them to riff simultaneously in multiple accents, an effect that’s literally a fugue of howling madwomen.
We get that they’re angry, even centuries after the fact, but from the audience’s point of view the scene is too long, consuming most of the first act. Here and there in the cacophony we understand a phrase or two, but for the most part, it’s as comprehensible as a long night of Dada poetry.
An esteemed British playwright, Churchill is no respecter of traditional temporal narrative or dramatic structure. The dinner scene—an exercise in art for art’s sake—is followed by an introduction to the employment service where Marlene works, and that, by a scene of two girls at play in a backyard—Kit (Lily D. Harris) and Angie (Gabriella Momah). The first act closes leaving viewers wondering how all this ties together.
Michelle Beck and Monique Hafen at work at ACT.
The second act is both rebuttal to and redemption for the excesses of the first. In a scene of gut-wrenching earnestness, Marlene has a heart-to-heart with her sister Joyce (Nafeesa Monroe) in her kitchen, where we learn the roots of Marlene’s driving ambition and the nature of her relationship to her worshipful, enthusiastic, but dim-witted niece Angie. The final scene takes place a year before the preceding one, but makes solid dramatic sense.
The play’s difficulties and pretensions are offset by superb acting by a cast of eight women, all save Beck and Momah in dual roles. Performances range from good to exemplary, including Hallett as Win and Brown as Nell, two different but dynamically balanced office workers whose arch banter spices their otherwise tedious workdays. Harris is youngest-appearing of the cast—she looks to be in her late teens—and mid-way through the second act she does a fantastically funny turn as a job-seeker named Shona pretending to be much older.
Shona bluffs with enormous chutzpah and an increasingly absurd litany of business buzzwords during her interview with Nell. She doesn’t know much and the more she talks the more it shows, an expertly rendered comedic sketch that provoked spontaneous applause on opening night.
Aided by Barbara Samuels’s elegant lighting, set designer Nina Ball achieves something remarkable with “Top Girls”—an austere set evoking the coldness of the business world, and another one quite warm and cozy as Joyce’s home. The emergence of Joyce’s residence from far back to stage front is a marvelous effect.
Director Woodard pulls wonderfully committed performances from her eight-member cast, but the standout for this reviewer is Gabriella Momah as the lovable, sweet-natured but intellectually limited Shona. She’s an absolute delight, a bright ray of sunshine in this darkly-tinted story.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Top Girls
Written by
Caryl Churchil
Directed by
Tamilla Woodard
Producing Company
American Conservatory Theater (ACT)
Production Dates
Through Oct 13th
Production Address
American Conservatory Theater
415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
In “Gypsy,” the ultimate stage mother from hell comes roaring to life four times per week through October 20 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse.
Broadway veteran Kathy Fitzgerald stars as Mama Rose, a thrice-divorced mother with two daughters, struggling to make a go of it on the waning Vaudeville circuit. With a gaggle of boy dancers, they manage to survive with an incredibly hokey act—so hokey, in fact, that it’s hard to believe that people actually paid good money to see it.
Carmen Mitchell works as Gypsy Rose Lee.
Rose is both the embodiment of never-say-die positive thinking and parental oppression, browbeating daughters June (Melody Payne) and Louise (Carmen Mitchell, excellent) into submission and forcing them to perform beyond their capacity — a syndrome that ultimately leads to June running off to find her own life with her new husband. Theater agent Herbie (Roger Michelson) tries desperately to become Mama Rose’s final husband, to no avail.
Near the end of the Vaudeville period, an inevitability denied to the last by her mother, Louise transforms from caterpillar to butterfly—and ultimately, into pop culture superstar Gypsy Rose Lee—after a life-changing experience with strippers in a Kansas City burlesque house. Her emergence into stardom is the bright light at the end of the story’s dark tunnel, one camouflaged by some of the most upbeat music ever composed.
There are … substantial talents in this show…
A collaboration by theater legends Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, this more-or-less true story of perseverance and survival could make the most curmudgeonly cynic leave the theater whistling a happy tune. The show is jam-packed with gems from the American songbook, among them “Small World,” “Some People,” “Mr. Goldstone,” “Together, Wherever We Go,” “Let Me Entertain You,” and of course the deathless “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”
On leave from a production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Fitzgerald is a big draw—opening weekend was nearly sold-out. She’s an impassioned actor and a good singer with an odd habit of getting into a Sumo wrestler’s half-squat stance to launch big efforts. There are other substantial talents in this show as well, in particular the trio who appear as strippers—Elaine Jennings, Lillian Myers, and Tracy Hinman, all of whom tackle multiple roles. Zach Frangos is confident and appealing as Tulsa, and his dancing is superb. The early scenes feature a gaggle of cute kids, always a reliable strategy for selling tickets.
Gypsy cast at work in finale at 6th Street.
Opening weekend, the band under Paul Smith’s direction hit a dismaying number of sour notes, something that can only be interpreted as intentional in keeping with the low-rent venues where Mama Rose & Company are performing. A tall fellow, Smith tends to stand as he leads the band, and his bobbing head is a real distraction from the upper seats. Joseph Favolora’s choreography is compelling, and Pamela Johnson’s costumes are stunning. There doesn’t appear to have been much left in the production budget for sets, and Jason Jamerson did his best with what he had, resulting in the bare basics. This was the same issue that undermined 6th Street’s production of “La Cage aux Folles.”
This “Gypsy” is certainly enjoyable—how can anyone not love the music?—but, neither over-the-top nor over-the-moon, it’s far from a sumptuous production of this classic.
ASR Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Gypsy
Written by
Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, and Stephen Sondheim
Directed by
Jared Sakren
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through Oct 20th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Body Awareness Week becomes a long hard slog for a psychology professor at a small Vermont college, in Annie Baker’s brilliant, sweet comedy at Main Stage West through September 22.
Lydia Revelos stars as Phyllis, the professor with ultra-orthodox feminist convictions, who first organized the event as “Eating Disorders Week” but expanded it to include dance performances by troupes from across the globe, and seminars on personal and social perceptions about the human body—in particular, the female body. This emphasis includes an exhibition of photos of nude women of all ages, done by a straight male photographer.
The photos, their subjects, and most of all the photographer’s gender, enrage her and cause upheaval with her lesbian partner Joyce (Nancy Prebilich), a high school teacher whose almost-adult son Jared is “on the Asperger’s spectrum” as it’s trendy to say. Jared (Elijah Pinkham) is a self-described “auto didact” obsessed with word origins—he aspires to be a lexicographer—and sex with girls, which he has never experienced. His awkward social skills exasperate his mother and her partner, get him fired from his minimum-wage job at McDonald’s, and nearly land him in jail when he does something incredibly inappropriate with a girl he’s just met.
Main Stage West company principal Elizabeth Craven perfectly captures life in small-town Vermont…
Domestic disruption grows exponentially with the appearance of photographer Frank (Zachary Tendick), a surprise guest in their home for the week. Phyllis can’t stand him nor what he does as an artist—the “male gaze” being the equivalent of an assault, in her view—nor can she understand why women flock to him to be immortalized in photos. She has rigid ideas about how women should present themselves. Joyce, on the other hand, finds him charming, likes his art, and welcomes him as a mentor to Jared.
Pinkham, Revelos, Prebilich, and Tendick at work for MSW.
The four characters form a tight pulsating web that in just under two hours examines self-concept, identity, commitment, family, and personal and artistic freedom. Playwright Baker—known for skewering Vermont’s politically correct culture—treats all of this with a fine blend of disdain, humor, and sympathy.
Prebilich and Revelos at work in “Body Awareness”
Directors John Shillington and Janine Sternlieb get marvelous performances from all four performers. Revelos and Prebilich are exceptional in exploring the breadth of their characters’ emotional lives, while Pinkham does a wonderful job in a role that more-or-less repeats one he did in last year’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” Tendick, in his first appearance on stage, anchors the whole affair with a surprising amount of gravitas.
With her set design and costumes, Main Stage West company principal Elizabeth Craven perfectly captures life in small-town Vermont. She also happens to have directed the astounding “Eureka Day,” running concurrently with “Body Awareness.”
The two shows’ related themes make them an ideal pair for back-to-back viewing. If there were such a thing as a perfectly-matched theatrical double feature they’d be it. Both provide plenty of laughs and plenty to ponder once the laughter fades.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Body Awareness
Written by
Annie Baker
Directed by
John Shillington and Janine Sternlieb
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Sept. 22nd
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
This whodunit? play is so well-loved that Ross Valley Players sold out their opening night and had to bring in extra chairs. For good reason. This character-driven and exciting play keeps the audience guessing – and delightfully entertained.
Agatha Christie, that prolific mystery author, stipulated that film and television rights to The Mousetrap could not be sold until the London production closed. The Mousetrap opened 67 years ago and set the record for the longest-running stage play anywhere.
Director Adrian Elfenbaum skillfully controls the action and pacing of this true murder mystery, with a cast of actors who go over-the-top in their roles and accents.
The action is nonstop, the clues fly everywhere, and the ending has the typical Agatha Christie twist.
Welcome to an English bed-and-breakfast manor as the new and inexperienced owners, charmingly enacted by Heather Buck and Evan Held, anxiously await their very first guests. As they plump the pillows, the wireless (Brit for radio) is reporting a recent murder in London.
Tori Truss as Mrs. Boyle; Maria Mikheyenko as Miss Casewell at Ross Valley Players.
The fun begins with the arrival of an outrageously enthusiastic guest played by Andre Amarotico. He’s followed shortly by a prune-faced spinster, beautifully acted by Tori Truss who captures every disdainfully arched eyebrow imaginable. She’s annoyingly critical and a good balance for Steve Price, the proper Major and helpful gentleman. Maria Mikheyenko poses as the next arrival, an odd and clever young woman with indeterminate plans for the future.
The final guest is one without a reservation, claiming his car was stuck in the snow. Robert Molossi arrives with no luggage and a heavy accent, immediately arousing suspicions by all.
The wireless chirps an update on the recent murder, and a local detective sergeant (Steven Samp) arrives to alert and interview the guests. The connections between the guests, the manor house owners, and the London murder develop in scene after scene. Suddenly, the lights are out and one of the guests is dead. A piercing scream (kudos to Heather Buck), cut telephone lines, and the chase … begins. But whodunit?
Heather Buck as Molly Ralston; Evan Held as Giles Ralston at work in ‘The Mousetrap’
No spoilers will come from this reviewer! The play has been a favorite not only for its puzzling mystery of the real killer, but for the fun to switch finger-pointing as more clues are revealed. The action is nonstop, the clues fly everywhere, and the ending has the typical Agatha Christie twist.
After the final curtain, a cast member announces “Now that we have seen The Mousetrap, you are our partners in crime. Please preserve the tradition to keep the secret of whodunit locked in your hearts.” It’s a worthy custom that will allow future audiences and generations to be caught up in The Mousetrap.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Mousetrap
Written by
Agatha Christie
Directed by
Adrian Elfenbaum
Producing Company
Ross Valley Players
Production Dates
Thru October 13th.
Production Address
Ross Valley Players
"The Barn"
30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae, CA 94904
“The Humans”is a slice-of-life peek into a dysfunctional family’s Thanksgiving dinner. It starts with discord and never lets up. Fine performances by six Novato Theater Company actors rivet sharp-edged characters as they parry and thrust at one another.
Stephen Karam wrote his drama of three generations hiding secrets and resentments in a basement apartment (a great set by Michael Walraven). Add alcohol, irritating neighbors and faulty light bulbs to put this dinner on edge. Anyone want them as relatives?
Director Patrick Nims pulled fine performances from the actors to create cohesion from their criticisms. Brigid (Olivia Brown) is the youngest in this confrontational family. She starts out angry and stays that way, even when her helpful boyfriend (Ron Chapman) tries to be supportive. He doesn’t escape a grilling, of course.
“It was a challenge to memorize the gibberish in the script.”…
Brigid’s older sister Aimee (Alicia Kraft) has serious health and relationship turmoil, which she wisely keeps close to her vest. For sport, the sisters gang up to mock their mother (Laura J. Davies), reducing her to tears. Their father (David Francis Perry) gets shredded by both wife and daughters. It’s not pretty to watch, unless you’re fond of schadenfreude.
Marilyn Hughes, playing the frail and wheelchair-bound Momo, is particularly convincing. Her character doesn’t do or say much to provoke anyone, so her family mostly ignores her. Hughes notes offstage “It was a challenge to memorize the gibberish in the script.”
“The Humans” runs for 90 minutes, with no intermission, and contains adult themes and language.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
The Humans
Written by
Stephen Karam
Directed by
Patrick Nims
Producing Company
Novato Theater Company
Production Dates
Through Sept. 29th
Production Address
Novato Theater Company
5420 Nave Drive, Novato 94949
The Cast of “Eureka Day” (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
When an outbreak of the mumps sends shockwaves through an avant-garde Berkeley charter school, parents with opposing views on vaccination struggle to uphold the school’s core principles of inclusion and government by consensus. The stakes are high and the tensions higher in this first-rate production of Jonathan Spector’s whip-smart “Eureka Day,” an award-winning comedy that first took audiences by storm last year at Berkeley’s own Aurora Theatre Company.
Eureka Day is exactly the kind of ultra-progressive school one would expect to find in Berkeley. Diversity is celebrated, alternative lifestyles and gender-neutral pronouns are embraced, and board meetings conclude with an inspirational reading set to the chime of Tibetan tingsha cymbals. It’s so Berkeley, in fact, that we open on the school’s Executive Committee deliberating whether “transracial adoptee” should be added to the list of ethnic identities on student registration forms. With unanimity required to pass any resolution, this proves only the first of many drawn-out discussions.
Rendered impotent by their quest for consensus, the group’s leaders are paralyzed by political correctness, so worried about saying the wrong thing they often struggle to say anything at all. It’s at once hysterical and exasperating to watch these perfectly-crafted, superbly-acted, and all-too-recognizable modern archetypes turn every molehill on the meeting agenda into a long-winded tightrope walk between mountains. It would play like a brilliant piece of satire if it weren’t so true to life. In either case, it’s wildly funny.
L-R: Yamamoto, Sinckler, Coté, and McKereghan (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
And then the bombshell drops. A case of the mumps has been confirmed, and perhaps unsurprisingly at a school of this sort, a large percentage of the students are unvaccinated. A quarantine is issued and school policies are called into question. When the committee hosts what begins as a cordial “Community Activated Conversation” with school parents via Facebook Live, it’s only a matter of time until the adults begin to act like children, the forum rapidly devolving into utter mayhem as a storm of angry rants, barbed remarks and uproarious emojis are projected on the set’s back wall above the huddled actors.
. . . a top-notch production of a masterfully written piece of theater, as timely and thought-provoking as it is hilarious . . .”
Though vaccination serves as the catalyst here, larger questions loom about how we move forward when agreement becomes impossible, how we manage to separate fact and fiction in our modern world, whether all perspectives are equally valid or deserving of respect, and where the limits of social responsibility exist when weighing community impact against individual risk and personal beliefs. While Spector’s own stance is fairly conspicuous, his script does justice to conflicting viewpoints. There are good intentions, after all, on both sides of the fence – and playground bullies, for that matter, too.
Jeff Coté as Don (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Jeff Coté is excellent as hyper-considerate headmaster Don with his noncommittal list making and new-agey Rumi quotations. Equally superb is Sarah McKereghan as longtime board member and grown-up flower child Suzanne, who proclaims to prize inclusion and respect for all perspectives – until she finds her own perspective challenged. So convinced of her own thoughtfulness and moral superiority, Suzanne fails to recognize the hypocrisy of her assumptions and offensive remarks. McKereghan brings nuance and depth to a challenging role, harnessing the frantic energy of a well-meaning mother in denial.
Val Sinckler as Carina (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
The group is rounded out by wavering mother Meiko (Eiko Yamamoto), stay-at-home father and original Google employee Eli (Rick Eldredge), who holds progressive views on marital monogamy and catches up on his yoga practice during meetings, and newcomer Carina (Val Sinckler), a sharp-witted black lesbian and the mother of a boy with special needs, who we quickly glean has been invited to join the committee in the interest of promoting diversity. All are outstanding in complex roles, though Sinckler shines brightest as the anchor and voice of enduring reason. The interactions between Sinckler and McKereghan are especially compelling, bringing humanity to both sides of a contentious and deeply divisive debate.
Hats off to director Elizabeth Craven for thoughtful staging and pitch-perfect pacing, allowing tension to build and all the laughs to land while leaving space for somber moments and heavier dialogue. Elizabeth Bazzano and Eddy Hansen have designed a beautiful and believable set complete with shelves full of library books, child-sized tables and chairs, and posters that resonate with the school’s core values. Well-paired songs elicit laughter between scenes thanks to Jessica Johnson’s clever sound design.
It’s a top-notch production of a masterfully written piece of theater, as timely and thought-provoking as it is hilarious, with a side-splitting first act that builds into a frenzy and then unfolds into an unexpectedly moving and empathetic second chapter. Guaranteed to keep your wheels turning long after the actors make their exit, “Eureka Day” will leave you questioning whether consensus is worthwhile or even possible in the digital age of relentless misinformation and incompatible opinions. Be sure to catch it (the show, that is) at Spreckels Performing Arts Center through September 22nd.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Eureka Day
Written by
Jonathan Spector
Directed by
Elizabeth Craven
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through September 22nd
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Roger Corman’s 1960 low-budget comedy/horror flick “The Little Shop of Horrors” is a classic of the genre. In the ‘60s and ‘70s it was a staple of late-night TV, inspiring an adaptation as a stage musical by Howard Ashman, with music by Alan Menken.
It’s been in continual production somewhere since it debuted in 1982, for good reasons. The story is cheesy, the characters are as broadly drawn as possible, and the music is absolutely infectious—think “Rocky Horror Show” meets “Grease.” Cinnabar’s current production of “Little Shop” is a tremendously high-energy treatment of this All-American classic, directed by Nathan Cummings and choreographed by Bridget Codoni, running through September 22.
The little shop is Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists, a failing retail business in a decrepit part of the city. Proprietor Mr. Mushnik (played with palpable fatigue and despair by Michael Van Why) prays for a miracle to keep his doors open. His hoped-for miracle appears when needed most— in the form of a carnivorous plant developed by Mushnik’s nerdy assistant Seymour Krelborn (Equity actor Michael McGurk).
Since its intro in 1982, American audiences can’t get enough schlocky story telling entertainment…
The presence of the plant in the shop generates astounding public interest for reasons that no one questions. Seymour names the plant “Audrey II” in honor of his co-worker Audrey (Sidney Raey-Gonzales), a sweetly reticent girl in an abusive relationship with a sadistic dentist, Dr. Orin Scrivello (Keith Baker, superb in multiple roles).
Seymour discovers by accident that the plant thrives on human flesh and blood — and that it speaks, demanding to be fed. Each feeding causes huge spurts in the plant’s aggressiveness and size—it goes from a “strange and interesting” thing in a small pot in the shop’s window to an enormous all-consuming monster that can devour a human in one gulp.
Mushnik’s business enjoys phenomenal growth in direct proportion to the plant’s, from selling a handful of posies each day to supplying all the flowers for the Rose Bowl Parade. Seymour undergoes a similar transition, from perpetually unnoticed back-room nobody to pop star, winning Audrey in the process. Her botanical namesake has solved multiple problems, but as in all monster lore — indeed, as in much of human life — the law of unintended consequences kicks in. Audrey II (voiced by Michelle Pagano, puppetry by Zane Walters — both excellent) becomes a massive problem. Solving it becomes Seymour’s new challenge.
Micheal McGurk as Seymour. Photo by Eric Chazankin.
The show’s patently ridiculous dramatic arc is further exaggerated by plenty of upbeat pop music, beautifully sung by Raey-Gonzales, McGurk, Baker, and the “doo-wop girls”: Ronette, Crystal and Chiffon (Selena Elize Flores, Aja Gianola-Norris, and Olivia Newbold, respectively). The trio’s harmonies are marvelous; the three are equally entertaining whether dolled up as an early ’60s girl group or in grunge mode as street urchins, and they nail the choreography. “Somewhere That’s Green,” a sweet invocation of idealized 1950s’ suburban living, is delivered with shimmering conviction by Raey-Gonzales. It’s the emotional high point of the first act.
The Doo-Wop Girls and Dr Scrivello. Photo by Eric Chazankin.
Baker clearly relishes going over the top as the hyper-caffeinated, charming-but-evil Dr. Scrivello. The ultra-kinetic McGurk is absolutely in his element as Seymour. Raey-Gonzales is commanding as Audrey, with a Brooklyn accent that never falters, even when she’s singing.
Peter Q. Parish has conjured a facile set serving as florist shop and city street, needing only a few brief changes from scene to scene. Their brevity helps propel this quick-moving musical—less than two hours including a fifteen-minute intermission. Hilarious and enthralling from beginning to end, this “Little Shop of Horrors” is an entertainment bargain certain to sell out fast. It’s simply big silly fun, fabulously well done.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Little Shop of Horrors
Written by
Written by Howard Ashman, from the screenplay by Charles Griffith
Each fall, the Marin Symphony showcases light classical music to entice and delight in a program often referred to as a “Pops Concert.”
This latest show promises to blow the roof off the stodgy Marin Center Veterans Memorial Auditorium as they perform the eye-popping “Cirque de la Symphonie” in concert with half-a-dozen Cirque du Soleil-style performers. Aerial flyers, gymnasts, and strongmen take the stage in front of (and high above) the orchestra of black-suited classical musicians. The moment conductor Stuart Chafetz whisks his baton, an amazing fusion of sights and sounds fills the concert hall.
…Leave the starched shirts at home.
Look up above as powerful and lithe bodies dance and fly in sparkling bodysuits and glowing silk streamers. The orchestra ripples their bows across violins, violas, and cellos as gold-painted strongmen balance in muscle-rippling symmetry. Flutes flutter, drums pound out the beat, and the Marin Symphony seems inspired by the fluid movement of these international performers. Or is it the other way around?
The musical program includes favorites from Dvorak’s “Carnival,” Bizet’s “Les Toreadors,” Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” and other familiar classics.
With so many pieces, the musicians have to keep their eyes on their sheet music, and on the conductor. They can only steal glances at the Cirque de la Symphonie’s troupe of awe-inspiring acrobats, founded ten years ago by Alexander Streltzov. We’re fortunate that Marin is one stop on their nationwide pops tour. “I’m thrilled to be part of the Marin Symphony’s family as its first Principal Pops conductor,” Chafetz enthused. It’s a stunning start!
Performances are September 14 and 15 with tickets priced $25-$85 (Youth tickets $20). For more information go to: https://marinsymphony.org/fall-pops-cirque/ or call the Marin Center Box Office at 415-473-6800.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Summer and Shakespeare go together like fudge sauce on ice cream. To put the cherry on top, make it an outdoor presentation reminiscent of the London Globe Theatre’s open-air venue. The Curtain Theatre, performing in the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre in downtown Mill Valley, does exactly that. Now in their 20th year, this award-winning troupe presents Merry Wives of Windsor among towering redwoods through Sunday, September 8th.
The Curtain Theatre experience envelopes their audience in the late 1500’s. Absent the plastic chairs and jet streams visible overhead, the scene in this majestic redwood grove transforms time. A quartet of musicians in period garb quietly plays original songs written by Music Director Don Clark and Hal Hughes. The air fills with sounds of a fiddle, tin whistle, concertina, and other quaint instruments. Children scamper about the soft ground while adults pour their libations and chat. Costumed and bewigged actors, (authentically designed by Kathy Kingman-Solum and Hope Carrillo) beckon patrons to available seats.
…Grey Wolf is ridiculously perfect as Falstaff, charming and powerful and capable of stealing any scene on the stage…
The Curtain Theatre has no curtain, so Producer/Choreographer (and duo-role actor) Steve Beecroft grandly welcomes all from the front of the stage. Merry Wives of Windsor’s multi-layered plot focuses on a young maiden, Mistress Anne Page (lovely Lilly Jackson), who has attracted the eye of several suitors. Each suitor has his personal champion, including Anne’s parents who advocate differing preferences for their daughter’s match. As with much of Shakespeare’s plays, it takes a while to catch on to all the characters and their relationships.
Gray Wolf and friends at work for Curtain Theatre
Enter lustful Sir John Falstaff, who boasts of his intentions to seduce not merely one, but two of his acquaintances’ wives, one of whom is Anne’s mother. Grey Wolf is ridiculously perfect as Falstaff, charming and powerful and capable of stealing any scene on the stage. When the wives get wind of his plans, they team up to plot their amusing revenge. Heather Cherry and Marianne Shine make a formidable duo, outmaneuvering Falstaff and even exacting better behavior from their clueless husbands.
Director Kim Bromley notes “The central theme of this play is power, who wields it, who wants it, and who gets it.” Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor is lengthy and uneven in spots, yet ultimately allows women to gain the upper hand in a period of time when such was certainly not the norm.
The City of Mill Valley was recently under pressure from several nearby neighbors to curtail The Curtain Theatre and other public noise-producing events in Old Mill Park, site of the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival and the Dipsea Race. Happily, Steve Beecroft reports that performances have been adjusted to mollify neighbors yet continue with these free weekend performances. To that end, all may shout “Huzzah!” Not too loudly, please.
Playing at 2 PM through September 8th on Saturdays and Sundays and Labor Day Monday. Admission is FREE. For more information surf the web over to: www.curtaintheatre.org.
Open seating, picnics welcome, cookies and coffee available for purchase, and chairs are provided on a first-come basis, or bring your own. Dress in layers as this redwood grove is always much cooler than the street level.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Merry Wives of Windsor
Written by
William Shakespeare
Directed by
Kim Bromley
Producing Company
Curtain Theatre
Production Dates
Through Sept. 8th
Production Address
Old Mill Park Amphitheater.
375 Throckmorton Avenue (behind the library), Mill Valley
The Kit Kat dancers at SF Playhouse. Photo by Jessica Palopoli
Every summer, San Francisco Playhouse revives a classic musical and runs it all season long. It’s a brilliant marketing ploy leveraging Union Square tourist traffic, one that gives company principals a breather to prepare for an intense fall/winter schedule. The company’s current offering is a splendid take on Kander and Ebbs’s “Cabaret,” through September 14.
It’s one of several iterations of “Cabaret” to pop up recently in the Bay Area, thanks to the Trump presidency and its supporters. SFP’s bawdy effort is both wonderfully entertaining and horrifically startling—a cautionary tale about the rise of pure evil among seemingly nice friendly people, such as Ernst Ludwig (Will Springhorn, Jr.), the charming German businessman who befriends American novelist Cliff Bradshaw (Atticus Shaindlin) on a train ride into Berlin.
Cate Heyman as Sally Bowles works SF Playhouse. Photo by Jessica Palopoli
Ludwig introduces Bradshaw to Fraulein Schneider (Jennie Brick), proprietress of a rooming house where he soon takes up residence, and to the Kit Kat Klub, the cabaret of the show’s title. There he meets many denizens of Berlin’s cultural underworld, including the fetching Sally Bowles (Cate Hayman), a flighty British singer with whom he’s soon head over heels and sharing a room, both to his regret.
…if you haven’t seen it, make it a priority. If you have, it’s worth revisiting.
Many of the songs in this show made it into the pop repertoire, thanks to the commercial success of the 1972 movie: “Wilkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Maybe This Time,” “Cabaret,” “Money,” and “Married,” a lovely duet performed by Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz (Louis Parnell), the fruit seller to whom Schneider gets engaged, both of them in late middle age. It’s a lilting note of hope in a show that’s ultimately and intentionally a very bitter pill buried in a thick coating of sugar. Herr Schultz is in deep denial about the rising tide of anti-Semitism, believing that as a native-born German Jew he will be considered a German first. Schneider knows better, and so does Bradshaw.
Jennie Brick and Louis Parnell as Schneider and Schultz. Photo by Jessica Palopoli
But the sugar is sweet and seductive. The Kit Kat Klub’s Master of Ceremonies is convincingly portrayed by John Paul Gonzalez, whose high-energy genderbending is the motive force behind most of the show’s many song-and-dance numbers (choreography by Nicole Helfer), performed by a tremendous ensemble, with music from an ace band under the direction of Dave Dobrusky.
Susi Damilano’s dynamic stage direction is first-rate, as is Jacquelyn Scott’s set design, but what sets this “Cabaret” apart from other very good productions is Cate Hayman as Sally Bowles. A theater student at Carnegie Mellon University (as is Atticus Shaindlin), Heyman brings a depth to her character that other performers have missed. Sally Bowles is usually portrayed as an annoying self-centered airhead, and Heyman encompasses that, but her Sally has an implied backstory that makes her much more substantial than most. Heyman is the best Sally Bowles this reviewer has ever seen.
Also superb is Abby Haug as Fraulien Kost, a resident at Fraulien Schneider’s who earns her living entertaining sailors by the hour. Haug and Heyman will prove justification for many ticket buyers. “Cabaret” at SF Playhouse runs a couple more weeks—if you haven’t seen it, make it a priority. If you have, it’s worth revisiting.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Transcendence Theatre Company (TTC) has presented productions “under the stars” at Sonoma’s Jack London State Historic Park for eight summer seasons. This award-winning troupe has grown from the dream of its three founders to encompass over 50 singers and dancers taking a break from their Broadway and LA shows.
Their successful “Broadway Under the Stars” formula has traditionally been a potpourri of popular song-and-dance numbers. This year TTC experiments by adding a casual plot line to “Those Dancin’ Feet” to link the dance numbers. It works, splendidly. The show runs through August 25.
The experience at “Broadway Under the Stars” is top notch…
It starts with three couples who move with agile beauty through stages of courtship and commitment. Their ‘alter egos’ sing of passion, longing, joy, sadness, and despair. The program cleverly sprinkles a mix of 29 songs —some from decades past, some today’s Grammy winners — and everything flows and moves in a seamless and splendid reflection of love and life.
The experience at “Broadway Under the Stars” is top notch, with the production enhanced by the Transcendence Band conducted by Matt Smart.
There are so many intricate dance numbers that Director/Choreographer Roy Lightner is joined by choreographers Sara Brians and Chip Abbott. They showcase 20 athletic and fluid dancers, and the result is over the top.
TTC evenings, traditionally touted as the “Best night ever!” start as early as 5 p.m. at Jack London State Historic Park. Patrons bring picnics to enjoy at the umbrella-equipped tables, food trucks ply their wares, premium wine and beer vendors offer tastes, and live music encourages the fun and friendly camaraderie in the open field — known amusingly as “The Great Lawn.”
Outdoor seating (assigned) begins in the stone ruins as the sun drops low beyond the mountains. Just before the show starts at 7:30, put away your sun hat, grab a jacket and lap blanket, and revel in the quiet beauty of the Valley of the Moon. When the lights come up on the dancers onstage, prepare to be blown away!
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Those Dancin' Feet
Written by
Transcendence Theater Co.
Directed by
Roy Lightner
Producing Company
Transcendence Theatre Company
Production Dates
Through August 25th
Production Address
Jack London State Historic Park, Glen Ellen (Sonoma)
In its 30 years, Marin Shakespeare Company has never presented a full-scale musical. Until now.
The second production in Marin Shakespeare Company’s summer trio of shows, “Spamalot” is the musical comedy written by Eric Idle and “lovingly ripped off” from the zany motion picture “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Take Idle’s wit, add John DuPrez’s music, mix in seven musicians, and toss in juicy bits from the madcap screenplay. Sprinkle in new sight gags and you have a riotous musical comedy.
Replete with several outstanding comic performances, “Spamalot” loosely spoofs “Camelot,” the King Arthur legend of Medieval England. Jarion Monroe stars as the would-be “King of the Britons,” who traipses about the countryside with his loyal talking horse Patsy (Bryan Munar), trying to convince hapless peasants to join him in a quest to find the Holy Grail and thereby somehow unite the country.
… a huge production that’s one fast roller-coaster ride of laughter.
The familiarity of several characters fades quickly as the plot takes their character arcs in unpredictable directions. Nonsensical scenes and characters are amusingly disjointed, including one particularly assertive Black Knight (spoiler alert!). The show is full of clever sight gags, hysterical physical comedy, and tons of goofy banter—the Lady of the Lake (Susan Zelinsky), who gives Arthur his mandate and his magic sword Excalibur—is described by one doubtful peasant as “a watery tart.” One hesitates to laugh too long for fear of missing what comes next.
Phillip Percy Williams as Sir Robin with Chorus at Marin Shakes
Michael Berg’s colorful costumes are over the top—reportedly totaling 700 pieces if you count each sock and shoe. Choreography by Rick Wallace is the kinetic equivalent, especially some of the large-scale production numbers. You can’t beat a bevy of chorus girls swinging maces for sheer entertainment. The excellent band led by Mountain Play veteran Paul Smith propels the whole affair from just in front of center stage.
Joseph Patrick O’Malley, a languid and fluid actor who first steals his scene with “I’m Not Dead Yet,” pops up in multiple ridiculous guises. The gorgeous Zelinsky sings with power and prominence in Act I, then disappears only to show up in Act II wearing a Norma Desmond-like caftan and turban, wailing “Whatever Happened to My Part?” while “The Song that Goes Like This” will be all too familiar to audience members who’ve seen their share of modern musicals. The finale tune “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” has the audience whistling along while the chorus line kicks up its boots. Truly a marvelous madcap romp.
Award-winning Marin Shakespeare Company is run by two tireless founders, Robert Currier and Lesley Schisgall Currier, who present an annual trio of outdoor productions at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, on the Dominican College campus in San Rafael. One of the three is classic Shakespeare, one is “Shakespeare light” with alternative settings and language, and the third is a production far removed from the Bard’s influence, such as “Spamalot.” All are professionally and energetically presented by a mix of Equity actors and solid local talent, with interns in minor roles.
Director Robert Currier has a long history of updating Shakespearean comedies with unexpected adornments to plot, character, and setting. With “Spamalot,” he started with an outrageous script, and through superb choices in casting and direction has come up with a huge production that’s one fast roller-coaster ride of laughter. Don’t sit too close to the stage if you want to catch every line.
MSC has established a fine legacy among theatre-lovers from both sides of the curtain. Open seating (wooden benches with backs) can be made more comfortable by renting cushions at the gate. Nights can get cold when the fog rolls in, so dress in layers. Picnics are welcome.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Monty Python’s Spamalot
Written by
Book & Lyrics by Eric Idle.
Music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle
Directed by
Directed by Robert Currier
Producing Company
Marin Shakespeare Company
Production Dates
Through August 25th
Production Address
Forest Meadows Amphitheater (outdoors),
Dominican University of California 890 Belle Avenue, San Rafael, CA
The cast of “My Fair Lady” at work. Photos courtesy of Eric Chazankin.
In a bold move, Sonoma Arts Live removed 12 seats from the floor of their narrow theatre to make space for a London street scene. As the house lights go down, a certain cockney flower girl mingles with other back-alley workers awaiting the evening swells in tuxes and top hats. Scruffy Eliza Doolittle crosses paths with Professor Henry Higgins, and thus begins the delightful story of “My Fair Lady”. This energetic and rousing adaptation of the famed movie and stage musical by Lerner and Loewe is playing on the Rotary Stage at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center through July 28th.
Michael Ross directs an incredibly outsize production in this small and intimate theater. If you sit in the front row, you’d best pull in your legs as the high-stepping dancers rush by. The seven-piece orchestra, directed by F. James Raasch, is completely hidden behind the raised stage, opulently decorated as a two-story English drawing room with gramophone and fireplace.
Impish Sarah Wintermeyer reveals her golden singing voice and sweet face to create an irresistible Eliza. What talent!
When Eliza, a yowling flower girl, comes to call seeking language lessons, the game is on. Larry Williams brings forth arrogant Professor Higgins with a much better voice than Rex Harrison ever didn’t have. He and Colonel Pickering, a well-cast Chad Yarish, make a wager that the dirty, lowly street urchin could be transformed to pass as a real lady in six months if she only learned to speak as one.
And the flower girl? Impish Sarah Wintermeyer reveals her golden singing voice and a sweet face to create an irresistible Eliza. What talent! Before our eyes, she transforms from a sooty guttersnipe into an elegant lady, dressed for the ball. Cinderella could take lessons from her.
Speaking of dressing, Barbara McFadden’s costumes are a real treat, from garbage men and serving maids to elegant grey Ascot tuxes and outsize flowered hats. Simply marvelous!
Alfred P. Doolittle (Tim Setzer) sings “Get Me to the Church on Time” at Sonoma Arts Live. Photos courtesy of Eric Chazankin.
Several of the 12 actors fill multiple roles, and all sing and move in a smooth-flowing ensemble. A big favorite is Tim Setzer, who seems born for his hilarious role as Alfred P. Doolittle. His knockout songs “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” bring the house down. Ryan Hook shows a fine tenor voice when he croons “On the Street Where You Live” at Eliza’s doorway.
Executive Artistic Producer Jaime Love notes “We are thrilled to close our 2019 season with this timeless and iconic classic.” The entire family will enjoy this oversize production on this undersize stage.
ASR Reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
My Fair Lady!
Written by
Book by Alan Jay Lerner. Music and Lyrics by Lerner & Frederick Loewe.
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru July 28th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Stacy Ross at work at the Aurora Theatre. Photo courtesy Aurora Theatre Co
Anyone who’s read Joan Didion’s “The Year of Magical Thinking” might wonder how anyone could turn the book into a play. The answer is that only the author could do it, or at least, do it right. Prolific essayist, novelist, and screenwriter, Didion accomplishes the seemingly impossible in her one-woman/one-act play at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company, through July 28.
On a stage and backdrop of what appear to be huge Travertine slabs (set by Kent Dorsey) Stacy Ross shines as she relates Didion’s horrific, heartbreaking tale of suddenly losing her husband and collaborator, writer John Gregory Dunne, while their adopted daughter was in a coma. Among the very best actors in the Bay Area, Ross fully inhabits the story without attempting to be Didion—an astute decision by her and director Nancy Carlin. Ross and Didion are as physically unlike as possible.
…brilliantly interwoven with sweet reminiscences of family life…
No one is ever prepared for a sudden loss, of course, and the shock of it is the running theme throughout the production’s ninety well-paced minutes. Ross opens with a recitation lifted almost verbatim from the book’s first chapter—about how Dunne collapsed as the author was preparing dinner, the arrival of paramedics, a panicky trip to the emergency room, and the inevitable aftermath. Even in shock and overwhelmed by sorrow, Didion can’t help injecting self-deprecating humor and ironic observation—she stands in line with insurance card in hand, because it seems the proper thing to do, and in the ER, she’s introduced to her husband’s momentary physician, whom she can’t resist describing as “a pre-teen in a white lab coat.”
The social circumstances of death get full vetting, brilliantly interwoven with sweet reminiscences of family life in Malibu and New York. But it’s the interior monolog that’s most compelling—an examination of pretending to go about the daily business of life while knowingly indulging in self-deception and compulsive rituals in the secret hope that all that’s happened can somehow be altered—the “magical thinking” of the title.
This solo production is an understated masterful performance that seamlessly blends lecture, confession, and conversation. In her book and play, Didion eloquently managed to encompass all of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous stages of dying—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—stages that apply not only to the terminally ill but to their survivors. Stacy Ross is brilliant in conveying a narrative whose subject will inevitably touch all of us.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Year of Magical Thinking
Written by
Joan Didion
Directed by
Nancy Carlin
Producing Company
Aurora Theater Co.
Production Dates
Thru July 28th
Production Address
Aurora Theater Co.
2081 Addison St.
Berkeley, CA 94704
“A Chorus Line” cast (Photo courtesy of Transcendence Theatre Company)
Every summer through September, friends flock to one of four different “Broadway Under the Stars” shows: mix-and-mingle evenings full of fresh air, picnics, fine wines, stunning scenery, and professional singers and dancers. These extraordinary escapees from the bright lights of Broadway and LA have a single goal: to give patrons their “best night ever!” And they do!
Eight years ago a small circle of NYC and LA performers took the summer off and held a song-and-dance fundraiser in the open stone ruins of Jack London State Historic Park. Their first “Broadway Under the Stars” was so well attended it raised enough money to keep the park open.
Each year the three original members, Amy Miller, Brad Surosky, and Stephan Stubbins, recruit more high-energy performers and friends to join them. Today, with over 55 stellar performers, Transcendence is a family of talented dancers and singers who love performing on the beautiful open-air stage in Sonoma’s wine country. They’ve raised nearly $500,000 from ticket sales to keep the park open and are proud to bring performances and classes to local schools.
Transcendence delivers a knockout show at Jack London State Park.”
The first show in their summer lineup under the stars is the award-winning “A Chorus Line.” It couldn’t be a more appropriate choice for Transcendence. Based on actual interviews, the story is about a group of dancers anxiously trying out for limited spots in a Broadway show. Every one of the performers on stage no doubt went through countless such auditions. Now here they are, under the setting sun and rising moon, dancing and singing to win a part they’ve already joyously earned. This is life imitating life. It can’t get more real than this!
Kristin Piro and Matthew Rossoff (Photo courtesy of Transcendence Theatre Company)
About the Transcendence summer experience: Cast members exuberantly welcome Bay Area patrons who come early to the park for a pre-show dinner picnic under umbrellas. Local musicians entertain on a small stage while food trucks line the meadow. Beer and wine vendors offer tastes and glasses of their finest.
At 7:30, just before sunset, patrons gather up their picnic items (and extra jackets) to head for seats in the stone ruins. The orchestra’s pounding beat brings forth a stream of high-stepping performers who belt out songs with sleek moves and smiles against the background of Sonoma Mountain. Broadway never had such a stage setting!
Catch the stars in Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon in one of four upcoming summer shows:
“A Chorus Line” runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through June 30th.
“Fantastical Family Night” for the youngest friends begins July 19th for one weekend through July 20th.
“Those Dancin’ Feet” features world-class dancing full of passion, energy, and excitement, backed by a full orchestra. This program runs August 9th through 25th.
The finale of the summer shows is “Gala Celebration” to complete Transcendence’s magic of music and community, for one weekend only September 6th, 7th and 8th.
ASR reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
A Chorus Line
Written by
Book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante; Music by Marvin Hamlisch; Lyrics by Edward Kleban
In the galaxy of theater, the convergence of brilliant concept and brilliant execution occurs all too rarely. When it does, it’s a thing of beauty and wonder and a cause for celebration, like a solar eclipse or a blue moon.
At Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre through June 30, David Templeton’s “Drumming With Anubis” is all this and more. A poignant, hilarious exercise in magical realism, it finds a group of middle-aged geeks camped out on the edge of the desert, there for a weekend of male empowerment, macho drumming, personal confessions, and recollections about the glory days of head-banging heavy metal rock. Founded by a recently departed drummer named Joshua Tree, the Neo-Heathen Male Bonding and Drumming Society has gathered in part to lay Josh’s ashes to rest, and to welcome a new member to its fold—a mysterious and reticent fellow they call simply “New Bitch” (Mark Bradbury).
The similarity to the new recruit’s nickname and the name of the Eqyptian god of death and mummification is no coincidence, of course, and the connection becomes increasingly clear as the story moves on—something it does with panache and superb pacing under the direction of David L. Yen, who somehow managed to balance rehearsals and performances of the excellent “Faceless” at 6th Street Playhouse with rehearsals of “Drumming.”
. . . the most near-perfect production you’re likely to see this summer.”
Pallaziol, Sholley, Martinez, and Schloemp (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
Yen may have gone without sleep for weeks while doing this, but the results are exemplary—a very funny production delicately seasoned with moments of profound personal truth. Chris Schloemp stars as the group’s leader, a kilt-wearing electrical contractor named “Chick” who as a not-quite-successful drummer has lived a large part of his life in Josh’s shadow. Anthony Martinez is his sidekick “Bull,” a gruff-voiced barbeque entrepreneur given to dressing like a Harley rider, but a man with deep insecurities about his masculinity. Then there’s “Stingray” (Richard Pallaziol), a twice-divorced alcoholic struggling to hang onto his third wife and his job as a manager of multiple sporting goods stores. Keeper of the group’s rules is Neil (Equity actor Nick Sholley), a “professor of pop culture” with failing knees, who has never recovered from the loss of his lover Alex. Altogether, they are an incredibly talented and superbly-balanced group of performers.
Miller and Martinez (Photo Credit: Katie Kelley)
The campers poke fun at their own and each other’s foibles, punctuating each heartfelt revelation or silly joke (revealing any would be unfair to playwright and patrons) with drum riffs and chants of “Balls deep!” while mourning the loss of their founder. Into their midst comes Nicky Tree (the feisty Ivy Rose Miller), Josh’s young widow, seeking not only her husband’s pilfered ashes but some substantial psychological restitution from the ragtag assemblage. How she gets it and what they get in return—both as individuals and as a group—is the driving force of the play’s second act, amplified by a continually-more-assertive Anubis. It’s a powerhouse combination of tremendous writing, acting, and direction, all of it on a delightfully plausible set by Argo Thompson, with gorgeous background projections by Schloemp.
Prolific journalist, critic, playwright, and North Bay national treasure, Templeton with this project has ventured out of the autobiographical mode that characterizes most of his prior work. It’s a fantastically successful effort carried out by a troupe of artists who truly understand and embrace his vision. You’ll howl with laughter but moments later may find yourself wiping tears away—an emotional rollercoaster that’s both thrilling ride and rock-solid reward. “Drumming With Anubis” may be the most near-perfect production you’re likely to see this summer.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Ashley Garlick (Photo Courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions)
The current American political climate has had some predictable consequences. Among them: a spate of theatrical revivals of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret,” a musical now in its 53rd year. The latest North Bay version runs at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through June 16th.
The 1972 movie firmly established the show in pop culture—many people know the songs without understanding that the show itself isn’t a lightweight romp through the decadent underworld of Weimar Republic Berlin. The story’s time frame isn’t specific, but encompasses the rise of the Nazi party and increasingly virulent anti-Semitism. We often forget that the Nazi party was democratically elected, having gained popularity slowly but persistently throughout the late 1920s. By 1933 it was the most powerful political party in Germany. The parallels with Trump’s America are all too clear.
Directed by Ken Sonkin, this “Cabaret” is presented in shades of gray—except for the Nazi armbands, costumes by Rebecca Valentino are all black/white/gray. Lighting designer April George bathes the stage in flat yellowish light that gives the whole affair a grainy film-noir look. It’s an evocative effect but one that left this reviewer longing for more dramatic lighting, something that comes only late in the final act.
The core plot revolves around an itinerant American novelist, Cliff Bradshaw (a youngish Ryan Hook) befriended by German businessman Ernst Ludwig (F. James Raasch) on a train ride into Berlin. Ludwig knows the city intimately, and introduces Bradshaw to the Kit Kat Klub (the cabaret of the show’s title) and to Fraulein Schneider (Karen Pinomaki), proprietor of a rooming house where he takes up residence. At the club he meets a self-centered British songbird named Sally Bowles (a spirited Ashley Garlick). The two of them are soon deeply if contentiously involved.
Tim Setzer and Karen Pinomaki (Photo Courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions)
A secondary love story involves Fraulein Schneider and fruit seller Herr Schultz (Tim Setzer), both of them in late middle age and deeply in love. The relationship between Bradshaw and Bowles is interestingly rocky and ultimately sort of pointless, but it’s the fate of Schneider and Schultz that hooks the audience. One of only three characters in the play who comprehend the inevitability of the approaching storm—the other two are Bradshaw and Ludwig—Schneider backs out of a late-in-life wedding, hoping to survive by “flying under the radar,” as we might say today. As stage director Michael Ross pointed out on opening night, Schneider and Shultz are the pair you’re rooting for. Setzer and Pinomaki are at the height of their considerable theatrical powers in conveying the sweetness and hopelessness of their characters’ relationship. The two are absolutely wonderful in this production.
The parallels with Trump’s America are all too clear.”
Denial of the obvious is a strong theme. As the tale progresses, the Nazi movement rises from potential menace to full tsunami, symbolized by a moment when the charming Herr Ludwig comes out of the political closet sporting a Nazi armband. Raasch is superb as the villainous but totally likeable true believer. Fraulein Schneider vows that maintaining a low profile will insure her survival; while Bradshaw tries desperately to get Bowles to leave Berlin with him—before it’s too late. Too hooked on minor league stardom to consider going elsewhere, she stays behind when he escapes to Paris. Herr Schultz is similarly clueless, believing that as a native-born German Jew he will be considered a German first. Setzer is magnificent in his portrayal of a kind-hearted man blinded by delusional hope.
Kirstin Pieschke and Brian Watson (Photo Courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions)
The show-within-a-show is the burlesque in the Kit Kat Klub, stunningly produced and performed by its Emcee (Brian Watson, the cast’s only Equity actor). Watson is spectacular throughout, as is the live music from a strong four-piece band led by Craig Burdette. Barry Martin is excellent in several minor roles—as Max, the club’s owner; as an inspector on the Berlin-Paris train; and as a Nazi officer. Andrea Dennison-Laufer is very good as Fraulein Kost, a resident of Fraulein Schneider’s rooming house, who makes her living entertaining sailors by the hour. Staci Ariaga’s choreography is entertaining without being too difficult for the assorted Kit Kat girls, and boys.
Opening night was marred by too much stage smoke and sound effects that overwhelmed dialog—problems that we were assured would be corrected immediately. Fifty-some years after its debut, not much about this show will seem shocking other than its message. Unique to this production is a final dismissal to Nazi madness: the cast tossing their swastika-emblazoned armbands on the floor like so much trash. It’s a great directorial decision, and a really satisfying gesture—one performed with silent conviction that no words could emulate.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Cabaret
Written by
Music by John Kander and Fred Ebb; Book by Joe Masteroff
Directed by
Ken Sonkin; Music Directed by Craig Burdette
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through June 16th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
The cast of “Faceless” (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Live theatre can bring laughter or tears. You may leave feeling warm and fuzzy or puzzling over moral questions.
You’ll be immersed in all these vibrancies with “Faceless,” playing through June 2nd in the Studio Theatre at the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. This intimate theatre-in-the-round is the perfect cocoon for a courtroom clash. The audience is the jury, and the intense characters are ours to judge.
Susie (a hijab-wearing Isabella Sakkren) is a teen swept into the web of an internet ISIS “friend” and wooed into believing that she can be part of a new “family.” Arrested as she attempted to flee to Syria, she is now jailed and facing trial.
Susie’s dad, a hard-working single father (perfectly cast in Edward McCloud), still grieves the tragic loss of his wife. Was he so bound in his grief that he neglected to see his daughter becoming sullen and marginalized? Dad agonizes between consoling Susie and berating her for her empty extremism. He “mortgages the farm” to hire a top-notch defense attorney for his hostile daughter – a perfect role for Mike Pavone.
You may not want this 90-minute play to end.”
As for the prosecution, the lead attorney’s strategy (in spot-on acting by award-winning David L. Yen) is delightfully devilish. He theorizes that a female Muslim attorney on his staff would be the perfect choice for this touchy trial. He summons Claire (the lovely and spirited Ilana Niernberger) who wears her hijab with devotion, not faux faith.
David L. Yen (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
The dialog between these two attorneys is like watching rams clash. They slice through untouchable issues of religion, race, privilege, and predatory behavior with knife-sharpened repartee in an astonishing feat of writing by playwright Selina Fillinger. You may not want this 90-minute play to end. When it does, you alone will make the judgment call.
Director Craig A. Miller, former Artistic Director of the 6th Street Playhouse, worked two years to gain the rights to present “Faceless.” He has exercised impressive skill in staging the characters, enabling the audience to feel included in the courtroom drama.
ASR reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Faceless
Written by
Selina Fillinger
Directed by
Craig A. Miller
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through June 2nd
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
Studio Theatre
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
An ancient fairy tale gets a modern reworking in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park, through May 26. Classicists will be relieved to learn that the story’s essential elements are still intact: a poor abused girl who dreams of a better life, her domineering stepmother and two nasty stepsisters, a magical fairy godmother, a smitten prince, and the promise of miraculous transformations.
Cinderella’s hope of exchanging her rags for the gowns of a princess is an expression of a persistent human dream, very much like the popular urge to buy lottery tickets week after week despite astronomical odds against winning.
In Cinderella’s case, she actually succeeds—she finds Mr. Right, he finds her, and after much travail they live happily ever after. It’s a timeless story—the basis of almost every piece of “chick lit” ever written. The plain yellow pumpkin still becomes a golden carriage, but Douglas Carter Beane’s version adds a new character and subplot in an attempt to make the story more contemporary: a radical firebrand named Jean-Michel (Michael Coury Murdock), who seeks social justice and economic opportunity for everyone. Instead of having his head lopped off instantly, as would happen in most real threats to ruling class hegemony, he succeeds not only in winning the hand of a mean stepsister (converting her to a decent person in the process) but in getting the prince to agree to sweeping changes to his kingdom. Cinderella wins the man and life of her dreams and her entire society gets to go along for the ride. Participation trophies for all!
Cinderella ensemble (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Director Sheri Lee Miller’s huge cast does a great job conveying the story—one with a 7:00 p.m. evening curtain time in anticipation that hordes of kids will fill the large theater. Brittany Law is marvelous as “Ella” the household maid renamed “Cinderella” by Madame (Daniela Innocenti-Beem) for the dirty work she tirelessly performs. Shawna Eiermann and ScharyPearl Fugitt are excellent as stepsisters Gabrielle and Charlotte, respectively, bringing more nuance to their characters than expected or required. Innocenti-Beem’s Madame takes delight in tormenting poor Cinderella, but has moments of surprising gentility and humor. Musical theater veteran Innocenti-Beem is likely the best singer in the cast but her role limits her to only a few lines of music. Her physical comedy and sense of timing are impeccable.
. . . excellent . . . superb family fare . . .”
Zachary Hasbany is superb as “Prince Topher”—the character’s name another nod to contemporaneity—with a good singing voice and fine sense of movement. The prince—a big guy himself—swings a giant sword in slaying a giant dragon (offstage) but the horse he rides is comically undersized. It’s one of few glitches in the otherwise excellent production. The worst is the huge suspension of disbelief required of the audience when Cinderella goes barefaced to the masked ball where the prince falls for her. Later when scouring the realm for her, he can’t recognize her until her foot fits the shoe she didn’t lose but intentionally gave to him. These twists on the original story aren’t improvements.
Larry Williams is gleefully evil as the conniving Sebastian, the prince’s minister, a sort of fairytale Rasputin, and Sean O’Brien matches him as Lord Pinkleton, another royal court sycophant. A gifted singer, O’Brien has a couple of breakout moments in the show’s many musical numbers. A high point is “Impossible” late in the first act, in which the ragged Marie (Mary Gannon Graham) is transformed into a fairy godmother who in turn transforms mice into liveried footmen, a pumpkin into a carriage, and Cinderella into a potential princess. Graham beautifully channels Billie Burke (Glinda the Good from “The Wizard of Oz”) in this bit, a duet of “Impossible” with Law, and the transformation is one of the show’s great illusions. Many times nominated for critical awards, choreographer Michella Snider is at her best. Group and individual dances and movements are delightful and take full advantage of the theater’s big stage and clear sight lines.
Set design by Elizabeth Bazzano and Eddy Hansen is gorgeous and facile, enabling quick set changes that keep the show moving briskly. Chris Schloemp’s huge colorful projections are stunning. Pamela Johnson’s and Chelsa Lindam’s costumes are gorgeous. Music director Paul Smith’s orchestra—in the pit, stage front—sounds tremendous. What’s not to like? All things considered, this “Cinderella” is excellent. Appropriate for all audiences, of course, it’s superb family fare that won’t require parents to do a lot of explaining when they get home—except for the fact that the “golden carriage” isn’t yellow. For that, you can simply say “It’s white gold.”
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Cinderella
Written by
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
Music by Richard Rodgers
Additional material by Douglas Carter Beane
Directed by
Sheri Lee Miller; Music Directed by Paul Smith
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through May 26th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Timely subject matter, timeless relationship dynamics, and dazzling performances combine to make “Lungs” the latest triumph in a series of impressive productions to grace the intimate stage at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West this season.
A world increasingly impacted by climate change and overpopulation seeds new worries and doubts for a young couple on the fence about having children. The unnamed pair (Sharia Pierce and Jared N. Wright, both phenomenal) struggle with guilt about their contribution to the carbon footprint and fear of an uncertain future for their offspring. Where does their responsibility to the planet – and each other – end? Though their decision and the aftermath serve as the story’s crux, it’s the ebb and flow of their relationship that really hits home. Global warming is just an ominous backdrop.
. . . a tour de force – visceral, raw, and utterly real.”
Pierce and Wright (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Pierce’s performance is a tour de force – visceral, raw, and utterly real. Wright feeds off of her intensity with equal authenticity, delivering nuanced and heartfelt reactions. The mounting tension, crushing heartbreak, and abiding affection between them is powerful and palpable. It’s a deeply personal and emotionally exhausting experience, rife with elements that will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever been in a tumultuous relationship or pondered what it means to be a parent.
David Lear directs with perfect pacing and thoughtful staging on a minimalistic set, with no props, a simple backdrop, and only some introductory audio for context, keeping the focus entirely on Pierce and Wright. Given the caliber of their acting, this works in the production’s favor.
“Lungs” is a beautiful journey full of philosophical quandaries, anxiety and indecision, human error, love, and loss. It’s hard to imagine Duncan Macmillan’s insightful script in better hands than those of this exceptionally talented cast.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Lungs
Written by
Duncan Macmillan
Directed by
David Lear
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through May 26th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Jourdan Olivier-Verdé as Tom Robinson (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
A disabled black man accused of attempting to rape a white girl is defended by small-town Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch in the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” through May 19 at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa.
It’s the midst of a long hot summer in 1935, and Finch’s pursuit of justice puts himself and his family at risk—something he accepts despite inevitable personal and social consequences. Directed by Marty Pistone, Christopher Sergal’s 1990 stage adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel is conveyed as a closely-related collection of reminiscences by Atticus’s adult daughter Jean Louise Finch (Ellen Rawley).
Since its debut in 1960, Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has never gone out of print, and for decades has been required reading in many high schools in the US. Based on incidents that took place in her hometown and elsewhere in the South not only in the 1930’s, but much later, it depicts circumstances unique to the time and place but also regrettably universal. The evidence against the accused man, Tom Robinson (Jourdan Olivier-Verdé) is flimsy at best, but Finch’s unassailable logic and conviction are insufficient to overcome the racist hysteria infecting the townspeople of Maycomb.
Robinson’s fate is disturbing—one that Atticus Finch (Jeff Coté) can see coming but is powerless to prevent. His dismay is shared by the town’s sheriff, Heck Tate (Tom Glynn), with whom he is amicable, even friendly. Finch is a disheveled moralist, whose rumpled suit and fatigued demeanor belie his intelligence and commitment to justice. Tate, on the other hand, is a pragmatist whose sense of justice has been leavened by the necessities of keeping a town running smoothly. His pragmatism is shared by Judge Taylor (Alan Kaplan), the cigar-chomping realist presiding over the Robinson trial. An odd bit of set design has the judge sitting behind a comically small bench, almost a cartoon parody. Surely set designer Alayna Klein could find something more imposing and appropriate.
Jeff Coté as Atticus Finch (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
A secondary plot involves Finch’s children—a boy, Jem (Mario Giani Herrera), his younger sister “Scout” (Cecilia Brenner, confident and spunky), and their friend Dill (the exuberant Liev Bruce-Low)—and their fascination with a scary reclusive neighbor named Boo Radley (Conor Woods, also this production’s technical diretor), and their desire to understand the events taking place around them. They never see Boo outside, but he communicates with the children by leaving mysterious gifts in the hollow of a tree. Late in the story, the fearsome creature lurking in a dark house emerges as an avenging angel.
. . . a gospel choir . . . opens and closes the show . . .”
The whole affair takes place on the front porch and in the yard of the Finch house, transformed with a few props into the Maycomb court house, and at the homes of nearby neighbors—all of it beautifully realized by Klein. In an unusually creative twist, the town’s black residents are also a gospel choir. Their glorious music opens and closes the show, and is used as transition between key scenes. Nicholas Augusta, who plays Reverend Sykes, mentioned after the opening performance that “Hold On” is a venerable spiritual, but that other songs were composed for the show by music director Branise McKenzie, aided by her singers. The addition of these singers to this classic production is a wonderful touch. Lighting by April George contributes greatly to the overall feel of the show.
Ensemble Choir (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Pistone’s cast is generally very good, with standout performances by Val Sinkler as Calpurnia, the Finch housekeeper; Caitlin Strom-Martin as supposed victim Mayella Ewell; and Mike Pavone as the insufferably ignorant redneck drunk Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father. Ella Jones is also excellent as Tom Robinson’s young daughter. Inexplicably, the show’s only Equity actor, Jeff Coté, seems less than fully committed to the lead role.
The language and attitudes in this production are authentic and haven’t been sanitized for the sake of political correctness. Without explicit polemics, “To Kill a Mockingbird” elucidates the eternal conflict between human rationality and ignorance. The production at 6th Street is a good reminder of how important it is to continue promoting knowledge of that conflict.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
To Kill a Mockingbird
Written by
Book by Harper Lee
Adapted by Christopher Sergal
Directed by
Marty Pistone
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through May 19th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
G.K. Hardt Theatre
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Clockwise, left to right: Troy, Tenille, Sullivan, Wright, Hall, Mayes, Lacy (Photo Credit: Kevin Berne)
The dictionary defines “jazz” as American music developed from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre.
It’s an accurate parallel to Nambi Kelley’s latest play “Jazz,” just opened at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley. All the jazz components are here, dissected on stage. Based on the book by Toni Morrison and directed by Awoye Timpo, this production propels story lines, characters, and time frames from 1920s Virginia cotton fields to NYC’s Harlem. It’s not a musical and there are no instruments onstage, although Marcus Shelby’s music adds to the texture of the performance.
“Jazz” opens with a young girl’s funeral, then aggressively explodes into a polyphonic ensemble of an emotional wife and a cuckolded husband, surrounded by busybodies. A colorful talking and singing parrot joins the cacophony in an over-the-top role by multi-talented Paige Mayes.
Just let it waft over and enjoy.”
With jazz music, a bluesy baseline melody can be ephemeral, quickly punctuated then disappearing. It typically returns later, played by another instrument or in a different key. The well-worn story lines in “Jazz” follow this lead.
Wright, Mayes, Sullivan (Photo Credit: Kevin Berne)
Post-funeral, a flashback begins with the blues. It’s a mother’s suicide, and a young girl (C. Kelly Wright) is sent off to work the cotton fields. Boy (Michael Gene Sullivan) meets girl, they enjoy some happy married years, then husband meets younger girl (Dezi Soley), younger girl tempts then taunts husband, husband rages out of control, wife rages at girl’s funeral. And we’re back where we started, almost.
A reappearing melody or theme is a familiar and welcoming ploy in every genre of music, yet difficult to manage on the stage. Threads of several story lines in “Jazz” repeat stage right, then left, with minor changes in pitch and timbre. These flashbacks can be confusing; it’s best not to fret. Just let it waft over and enjoy.
The actors put a lot of energy into their roles, although without mikes many quick spoken lines are lost. Local favorite Margo Hall plays multiple roles with skillful versatility while Lisa Lacy, Dane Troy and Tiffany Tenille complete the talented cast. They dance ragtime, sing snippets of spiritual songs, and make the most of the “devil music” in “Jazz.”
ASR reviewer Cari Lynn Pace is a member of SFBATCC and writes theatre and lifestyle reviews for the Marinscope Community Newspapers throughout Marin County.
Production
Jazz
Written by
Adapted by Nambi E. Kelley
Based on the book by Toni Morrison
Music by Marcus Shelby
Directed by
Directed by Awoye Timpo
Producing Company
Marin Theatre Company (MTC)
Production Dates
Through May 19th
Production Address
Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA
Jonathan Nyati and Ben Turner (Photo Credit: Little Fang, The Curran)
A crisis in a refugee camp comes roaring to life each night in “The Jungle,” at The Curran through May 19. San Francisco is the third stop for this astounding international touring production, which originated in London and then moved to New York.
Conceived and written by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, and directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, “The Jungle” has won universal acclaim. The co-playwrights lived in the sprawling multi-ethnic refugee camp in Calais, France during its peak, 2015-2016, when its approximately 8000 residents lived peaceably if contentiously with each other while enduring continual harassment from French authorities. The production is a full-immersion experience that puts most of the audience in the midst of a large shantytown café — called “Salar’s Restaurant” or the “Afghan Café”— that served as a community center for the camp. The high-intensity story encompasses the final few months of the camp’s existence, before it was destroyed by French police in October 2016.
Arya Rose Lohmor and Ammar Haj Ahmad (Photo Credit: Little Fang, The Curran)
The elegant interior of the recently renovated Curran has been converted to a plywood-and-rough-framing temporary structure where the audience sits on hard wooden benches, sipping fragrant tea while arguments rage among the camp’s residents about what to do in the face of increasing pressure from French authorities. Several British aid workers try their best to help, to intervene, and in some cases, to transport refugees across the channel to Kent — a horrendously frustrating and occasionally comic effort for everyone involved. Two dozen impassioned actors wander among the audience, murmuring and shouting at each other in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Kurdish, and several African languages as the crisis builds, reinforced by real news clips on television sets placed here and there around the café (video design by Duncan McLean and Tristan Shepherd).
…the most intense and profound theatrical event any of us will ever encounter.”
A huge extended table serves as a thrust stage where most of the drama and a few moments of levity and hope take place — including several confrontations with haughty French officials and condescending police — interspersed with tales of unbelievable hardships endured by refugees from throughout the Middle East and Africa in their quest for a better life away from the violence of their homelands. Among these are stories of leaving behind all they owned, knew, and loved, walking thousands of miles, enduring kidnappings, torture, and extortion, and embarking on perilous attempts to cross the Mediterranean in overcrowded inflatable rubber boats or being packed by the hundreds into leaky ships with little chance of reaching their destinations. Such a tale is told in an unwavering voice by a clear-eyed Sudanese boy named Okot (John Pfumojena).
Ammar Haj Ahmad and John Pfumojena (Photo Credit: Little Fang, The Curran)
What these refugees endure in their quest for peace and freedom is horrific, as is their cold reception by Europeans. French duplicity gets deserved exposure as politicians pay lip service to human rights while planning to eliminate the camp. Despite its self-image as a nation of asylum, France does not have a glowing history in support of human rights — Haiti’s crushing poverty, for example, is the result of terms imposed by France when the island nation sought independence.
The show’s denouement is among the most shattering you are likely ever to experience in any theater. Its hyper-realism will shock you to the core and at the very least make you reconsider our own refugee crisis. “The Jungle” may be the most intense and profound theatrical event any of us will ever encounter.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
The Jungle
Written by
Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson
Directed by
Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin
Producing Company
Sonia Friedman Productions with Tom Kirdahy present the Good Chance Theatre, National Theatre and Young Vic production
Production Dates
Through May 19th
Production Address
The Curran
445 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Hershey Felder occupies a unique and enviable position in the world of live entertainment. He has created a series of solo theatrical performances that draw on his powerful strengths of master story telling and piano playing. And if the subjects of the shows aren’t all personal heroes, which they probably are, each is a brilliant star in the constellation of great music composers. He has written and performed music biographies for the stage of Gershwin, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and more at some of the finest performance venues in the country, often breaking box office records.
He now takes on the life and works of Claude Debussy in a world premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. The great turn of the century composer is credited as the originator of the classical music genre of impressionism, though he didn’t care for the term. But his compositional style led to the designation because of its parallel with impressionist painting with its shimmering, ethereal quality like the dizzying, elusive mix of colors on canvas representing tangible items.
As with his previous successes, Felder weaves together a composer’s music with biographical highlights, but the structure of his newest work differs. He avows that Debussy actually is his favorite composer. At the age of 19, Felder visited Paris and haunted the places and followed the footsteps where Debussy trod, including a pilgrimage two hours on foot each way to visit the composer’s apartment. Because of this special connection with Debussy, Felder’s theatrical conceit is to insinuate his own story in with that of the composer. The device works well both because Felder himself has a following and because of his personal passion for the composer and the city. The one jolting aspect of the new production is that in Felder’s catalog of titles written for the stage, Debussy’s name does not appear except in the likely ignored third line of the title.
Felder (Photo Credit: Christopher Ash)
The performance takes place on a darkened stage, with a few props emblematic of Paris. Animated chalk figures festoon a black backdrop to further depict the architecture and the ambiance of the city. Hershey Felder plays with brio at the black Steinway grand and regales, often with great humor. Interspersing his own growth and his travelogue with the compositions and many loves of Debussy, he details many vignettes, including attempted suicides by two of his love interests.
Despite his esteem as a respected composer, Debussy works are perhaps not as broadly popular as Felder’s other honorees. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and La Mer are well known, and opera aficionados will know the important opera Pelléas and Mélisande, though it is seldom performed or excerpted onto recordings. But the musical extracts that Felder plays charm and scintillate, including those less likely to have been heard by audience members before. The jaunty piano solo for children, Golliwog’s Cakewalk, is a fine example that also reflects the composer’s iterative relationship with African-American musical forms.
…clever and enticing… engenders anticipation…”
Felder does note the critical role that Debussy’s innovativeness played in directing classical music away from the weightiness of Wagnerian romanticism. Debussy felt that music should reflect the delightful way people feel when they engage with nature. Influenced by a Javanese gamelan performance he witnessed in 1889, he adopted the whole note scale, which facilitates the dreamy sound that is associated with impressionism. With this change, he not only disrupted the direction of classical music but also developed the musical vocabulary that led to improvisational jazz as best realized by the great pianist Art Tatum.
Felder (Photo Credit: Christopher Ash)
Of course, Debussy’s signature piece which makes him a household name and exemplifies his dream-like musical style is Claire de lune. Felder’s treatment of this piece is clever and enticing. He opens the performance with the story of how he learned the piece, his mother’s favorite, at age six. By playing only a brief but familiar phrase from it, he engenders anticipation for the work throughout the performance. It comes as the finale, and it is played with such grace and delicacy that it quieted the venue and had the audience on the edge of its seats – a worthy finish to a fine confection.
This review must close on a tragic note. As I write on April 15, 2019, one of the world’s great architectural masterpieces and cultural assets for all of civilization, Paris’s Cathédrale de Notre Dame, is engulfed in flame. This is a great loss to humanity. Indeed, this landmark is significant to A Paris Love Story, as the author speaks warmly of Notre Dame and of the magic of point zero, the designated spot in front of the cathedral that represents the symbolic center of Paris. The spot will remain, but can any of the cathedral be saved or reclaimed for posterity?
ASR reviewer Victor Cordell is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, and a Theatre Bay Area adjudicator.
Production
A Paris Love Story
Written by
Hershey Felder
Directed by
Trevor Hay
Producing Company
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Production Dates
Through May 5th
Production Address
Mountain View Center for Performing Arts
500 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Missionary zeal improves life in an isolated mountain community, with unanticipated personal and social consequences in Romulus Linney’s “Heathen Valley,” directed by Elizabeth and John Craven, at Main Stage West in Sebastopol through April 14.
Set in North Carolina in the 1840s, the story’s central character is an illiterate church janitor named Starns (Kevin Bordi, brilliant), recently released from prison after serving ten years on a manslaughter charge. He wants to make something better of his life and begins a program of late-in-life education as an acolyte to the kindly Bishop Ames (John Craven). Adamant about saving souls, the Bishop enlists his help in an expedition into a hidden valley in the mountains, an area so remote it’s called “the land that God forgot.”
…conveyed with stunning conviction…”
Ames, Starns, and an orphan boy named Billy (Jereme Anglin, also the show’s narrator) embark on a trek that lands them in a community so inbred that marriage between siblings is considered normal, and so economically backward that scratching a few potatoes from the ground is considered a good harvest—fertile territory for Christian reformers. Ames installs Starns as his pastor in the valley. The former illiterate rises to his new responsibility, and having become fond of St. Augustine, preaches a gospel of kindness and understanding. He also helps his flock with practical matters such as improving their agricultural yields and teaching them that it’s best not to mate with close relatives.
Starns’s role in lifting up a blighted community is his personal salvation, one that he assumes with great dignity and purpose. The valley’s people—represented by Juba (mollie boice, perfectly cast), a wise old mountain midwife; Harlan (Elijah Pinkham), an ignorant, volatile hick; and Cora (Miranda Jane Williams), his not-quite-so-ignorant mate—prosper under his tutelage. Starns grows proud of what they achieve together even as his exhausting work takes a toll on his health. This story is conveyed with stunning conviction on a simple set that serves as church, village, and field, with backdrops that evoke the Great Smoky Mountains.
The cast of “Heathen Valley” at Main Stage West (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
While over several years Starns has led his flock out of the muck, the visiting Bishop has taken a more orthodox turn. He comes back to the valley not at all pleased with its simple abundance, happiness, and social order. His only concerns are piety and pious behavior. He’s become a religious conservative, insisting that valley residents wear cassocks (black robes such as worn by Greek Orthodox priests) and stop being so happy. They rebel, permitting only their children to wear dour outfits that make them look “like a bunch of damned crows.” Ames’s defeat cuts him to the core; John Craven portrays that defeat as a personal crucifixion.
The characters in “Heathen Valley” have complex intersecting arcs, and all are portrayed exquisitely, accompanied by mountain music almost too perfect (sound design by Doug Faxon). Linney’s deeply nuanced piece could not have had a better presentation than what’s currently running at Main Stage West. The playwright grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and was notoriously dismissive of hillbilly stereotypes, but here he brings them each to life: incest, ignorance, witchcraft, and all. He was also deeply aware of the inherent wisdom in primitive people. Even the moronic Harlan recognizes that religious conversion is simply an exercise in swapping one superstition for another. No amount of preaching will ever convince him that virgins can have babies.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Heathen Valley
Written by
Romulus Linney
Directed by
Elizabeth and John Craven
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through April 14th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Headington and Coughlin (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Do you have what it takes to survive the end of days? Three couples put their skills to the test in Matt Lyle’s tremendously funny “Barbecue Apocalypse,” playing at Rohnert Park’s Spreckels Performing Arts Center through April 20th.
Thirty-somethings Deb (Jessica Headington) and husband Mike (Sam Coughlin) are frantically preparing to host their closest frenemies for a backyard cookout. Bemoaning their half-mowed lawn, mismatched patio furniture and dorm room-esque house decor, Deb fears they can’t possibly impress well-to-do “yupsters” Lulu (Lyndsey Sivalingam) and husband Ash (Trevor Hoffmann), or sleazy penthouse-dwelling Win (J.T. Harper) and his younger girlfriend Glory (Katie Kelley). Mike’s crowning achievement, after all, is the humble deck they’re standing on, and neither he nor Deb can keep a simple garden plant alive.
Clockwise, left to right: Headington, Coughlin, Harper, Sivalingam, Hoffmann (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
When a calamitous event interrupts their awkward party, the group must find their niche in a post-apocalyptic world where once-considered strengths may now be vulnerabilities, and talents formerly perceived as useless could be advantageous. This brave new world offers Mike and Deb a chance to shine, while alpha-male Win shrivels from over-confident womanizer into sobbing, bathrobe-clad mess. Dynamics shift but the grill goes on, until an uninvited guest (Matt T. Witthaus) threatens to end the festivities once and for all.
Don’t miss this witty, laugh-a-minute romp…”
Headington is a riot as neurotic housewife turned spear-wielding survivalist. She makes the jarring transition with remarkable ease, hauling in act two’s blood-spattered dinner – “raccoon, the other red meat!” – with an air of self-possession entirely in contrast to her anxious, pre-apocalyptic stumbling over cocktail umbrellas and fashion accessories. It’s equally satisfying to watch Coughlin’s understated Mike transform from insecure would-be writer to confident grill-master and gardener extraordinaire.
Sivalingam is superb as lovably pretentious Lulu, whose flippant remarks flow faster than the mango margaritas she’s a little too fond of. Hoffmann’s Ash is the painfully familiar portrait of a modern-day screen junkie, forced to settle for library books in a now Google-less world. The apocalypse, as luck would have it, is a boon to their marriage, bringing Lulu back down to earth and pulling Ash away from YouTube. It’s fun to watch their newfound spark ignite.
Clockwise, left to right: Headington, Kelley, Harper, Sivalingam (Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas)
Harper’s Win feels a bit overdone, dripping in stereotypical frat-boy machismo. It’s a hat that doesn’t quite fit, although it serves its comedic purpose all the same. Kelley is endearing in the role of a perky wannabe Rockette, even though she spends much of her time onstage aggressively swapping spit with Harper. Witthaus delivers a truly chilling cameo appearance.
An able cast excels under Larry Williams’s direction, assisted by Marcy Frank’s pitch-perfect costumes and Elizabeth Bazzano’s thoughtful backyard set. Jessica Johnson brings finicky lawn mowers, angry raccoons and propane grills to life with well-timed sound effects.
Marinated in millennial-centric humor, “Barbecue Apocalypse” makes lighthearted fun out of some fairly dark subject matter. Don’t miss this witty, laugh-a-minute romp – or you just might live long enough to regret it.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Barbecue Apocalypse
Written by
Matt Lyle
Directed by
Larry Williams
Producing Company
Spreckels Performing Arts
Production Dates
Through April 20th
Production Address
Spreckels Performing Arts Center
5409 Snyder Lane
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Two upper-middle-class middle-aged women find that a journey through India turns their contentious relationship into something deeper and more rewarding in “A Perfect Ganesh,” directed by Michael Fontaine at Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater through April 14.
Terence McNally’s AIDS-era story has huge potential to be both heart-rending and heart-warming, a potential that’s sadly under-exploited in this flat, lugubrious production. The two women, Margaret Civil (Laura Jorgensen), and Katharine Brynne (Elly Lichenstein), alter their usual holiday plans for an adventure in India, an undertaking that prompts anxiety in both of them, heightened by an opening-scene mishap with their airline tickets that threatens to make them miserable. Watching over them is Ganesha (Heren Patel), god of luck and opportunity, the travelers’ unseen companion. He appears at each critical moment in the story, guiding and helping but never intruding. The title refers to Katharine’s incessant search for a keepsake figurine, one of many behaviors that annoy Margaret.
Civil is cranky and demanding; Brynne forgetful, eagerly curious. They know each from their social circle in an uppercrust part of Connecticut, not really close when first introduced to us, but reasonably comfortable with each other. Their constant bickering belies their friendship, whose evolution is the play’s dramatic arc. It’s an arc that goes far—the two become close after several revelations of private tragedies and sharings of personal truth—but not very high. The dramatic peaks and valleys that might have given this story emotional texture have mostly been leveled and filled. Both actresses are veterans of long experience, so this squashing of emotional dynamics can only be interpreted as a directorial decision.
…as arduous as a train ride through India.”
Heren Patel is competent as the elephant-headed god, with an amiable, sometimes comedic delivery. His movements are elegant and fluid but his elephant headpiece interferes with the clarity of his speech. It’s not clear if some of his funny bits are intentional, such as Ganesha’s appearance to the travelers in the form of a Japanese tourist with an almost Italian accent.
The show’s saving grace is John Browning, who confidently plays all the male characters referred to by Margaret and Katharine—suitor, husband, son, and more. He also appears as many incidental characters—ticket agent, porter, guide—completely changing character with only slight changes in costume.
The music by Christopher and Marni Ris is compelling, but the stagecraft is slow and noisy as large pieces get shoved about and huge curtains pulled back and forth. The playbill lists running time at two and a quarter hours, but on opening weekend it was closer to three, or seemed like it. Like any foreign journey, “A Perfect Ganesh” offers experiences and insights available no other way, but getting to them is likely to feel as arduous as a train ride through India.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
The French Revolution was a bloody mess. That’s putting it in the mildest possible terms. The country’s 18th century bankruptcy and crushing poverty led to an uprising that in turn became the Reign of Terror in which many thousands of real and imaginary enemies of the new state were imprisoned and killed. A civil war was a strong possibility.
At the same time, surrounding countries fearing that anti-royalty sentiment would spread, and seeing many opportunities in a weakened France, sought to conquer the bourgeoning democracy. This set the stage for the rise of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history’s most egomaniacal and brutal dictators.
Almost 17,000 people were executed during the peak year of the Reign of Terror, from summer 1793 to summer 1794—an average of 45 per day, a sustained orgy of head-chopping. Many executions took place in Paris; the guillotine was a popular form of entertainment. All this to establish a new form of government and economy based on the slogan “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (freedom, equality, brotherhood)—high ideals riddled with hypocrisy, as playwright Lauren Gunderson makes clear in “The Revolutionists,” in the studio theater at 6th Street Playhouse through April 7.
Flores and Revelos (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Gunderson places one fictional and three historical figures into her theatrical caldron then applies heat to see what will happen, with mixed results. The primary figure is writer and political activist Olympe de Gourges (Equity actress Tara Howley Hudson), a champion of the rights of women and minorities and an outspoken critic of the Reign of Terror who went to the guillotine on November 3, 1793. Two strong secondary characters are Marie Antoinette (Lydia Revelos, fantastic), whose lavish spending was widely believed to be the cause of France’s massive financial problems, and Charlotte Corday (Chandler Parrott-Thomas), who assassinated revolutionary firebrand Jean-Paul Marat and was beheaded four days later. The fourth figure is Marianne Angelle (Serena Elize Flores), a fictional character who advocates for the rights of women and oppressed minorities. “How about liberté, égalité, sororité?” she asks.
…compellingly rendered and superbly well performed, but… doesn’t overcome the script’s fundamental difficulties.”
Both stagecraft and acting are first-rate under the direction of Lennie Dean, especially by Hudson and Revelos, but this adventure into “metatheater” is seriously overwrought, the kind of play that might be more at home as a graduate effort by an art school drama club. The characters interact with each other—only experts in French history could state whether any of them actually met—and with their audience, smothered with abstruse intellectualisms as only the French can spin them, and arcane (for Americans, anyway) historical references. Ultimately, we learn that the whole convoluted affair is something bubbling in Olympe de Gourges’s soon-to-be-detached head, as she struggles to do something with enduring impact in her last few days—a dramatic structure very much like the film “Jacob’s Ladder,” where the final reveal is that the foregoing story has taken place in a dying soldier’s mind.
“The Revolutionists” is compellingly rendered and superbly well performed, but the excellence of the performance doesn’t overcome the script’s fundamental difficulties. It’s a prickly but rewarding show for those with theatrical fortitude and better-than-average understanding of both history and its presentation as entertainment. The Thursday April 4 performance features a talkback after the show, recommended.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
The Revolutionists
Written by
Lauren Gunderson
Directed by
Lennie Dean
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through April 7th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
Studio Theatre
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Through April 7, the intimate stage at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions is transformed into a VFW bingo hall where three women brave the elements to vie for power, glory—and maybe a handful of petty cash—in a raucous production of “Bingo, the Winning Musical.”
The friends, Vern, Honey and Patsy,dead-serious Bingo fanatics all, converge to compete on the fifteenth anniversary of Vern’s split with her former friend Bernice (Jennifer Brookman), an event so traumatic that the two have never reconciled. It’s an injustice that Bernice’s daughter Alison (Pilar Gonzalez) is determined to make right.
Lundstrom, Innocenti Beem, and Rider (Photo courtesy of Lucky Penny Productions)
Outlandish challenges—“I’m a professional bingo player!” shouts Vern (the irrepressible Daniela Innocenti Beem)—an attempted seduction of the game’s number caller Sam (Tim Setzer) by the flirtatious Honey (Shannon Rider), and the invocation of spirits, talismans, and good-luck charms by the addled Patsy (Sarah Lundstrom) are only part of the fun, all watched over by Minnie (Karen Pinomaki), a mischievous sprite who manages the hall, an authentic recreation of such places found in almost every town in America. Lucky Penny’s set includes a real numbers board, a rotating hopper to randomize the balls, and bingo cards for each member of the audience, encouraged to play along at least three times in the course of the show. Napa just happens to be home base for a major distributor of bingo equipment. Who knew?
Infectiously energetic… great silly lightweight fun…”
Add to this some spectacular singing in ensemble numbers such as “Girls Night Out,” “Anyone Can Play Bingo,” “I Still Believe in You,” “Under My Wing,” and “Ratched’s Lament.” Solo numbers are also superb (music direction by Craig Burdette), including “I’ve Made Up My Mind” (Alison), “Patsy’s Flashback,” “Swell” (Vern), and “Gentleman Caller” (Honey). Where else can you see a “straightjacket ballet” (choreography by Staci Arriaga and Taylor Bartolucci) in which bingo gals go all out like a bunch of lunatics recently released from the asylum? Does bingo make its players crazy or are they a little bit that way from the start?
Infectiously energetic, “Bingo, the Winning Musical” doesn’t offer profound messages or cosmic revelations, but—perhaps more appealing—it does ultimately set aside the petty resentments that infect us all in favor of enduring friendship among charmingly ordinary people. Tickets are money well spent on a couple hours of great silly lightweight fun with the added benefit of a potential sweep of “blackout” or “crazy snakes.” You can’t win if you don’t play.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Bingo, the Winning Musical
Written by
Michael Heitzman, Ilene Reid and David Holcenberg
Directed by
Taylor Bartolucci; Music Directed by Craig Burdette
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through April 7th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Imagine a virtual world in which you are free to live out your darkest fantasies without repercussion – a perfectly rendered, immersive escape from reality, wherein you can look, speak, and act as you please, your identity securely concealed.
But what makes something real? If a virtual experience has the power to make us think and feel, is it truly artificial? Are our choices ever free from consequence?
By turns philosophical and eerily prophetic, “The Nether” – making its Sonoma County premiere at Left Edge Theatre through March 24th –invites us into such a world, raising these and many other timely questions about morality and culpability in the digital era. But before “logging in,” users be warned: unsettling subject matter is in no short supply here.
Schloemp and Rosa (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
We open on a bleak interrogation room at an unspecified time in the future. Detective Morris (Leila Rosa) sits across from a man in old-fashioned clothing with a guarded demeanor. What was once the internet has evolved into the Nether – an immense network of online realms in which students attend virtual schools, employees telecommute to virtual offices, and people like Mr. Sims (Chris Schloemp) log in to indulge their innermost desires.
Sims – or “Papa,” as his avatar is known – is the proprietor of a realm dubbed the Hideaway, an elaborately designed Victorian home conjuring up a hypnotic nostalgia for simpler times past with its ornate furniture and poplar-lined vistas. Visitors can enjoy a stiff drink, dance along to old records on the gramophone, or molest and dismember prepubescent girls.
Morris is determined to shut the Hideaway down and hold Sims accountable for his gruesome crimes – crimes committed, that is, by and against avatars in the Nether. But has anyone really been hurt? Morris presses Hideaway participant Mr. Doyle (David L. Yen) for incriminating details, her own composure slowly crumbling in the process.
Wright and Spring (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
We cut between the interrogation room and scenes inside the Hideaway, where we meet Iris (the stellar Lana Spring) – Papa’s favorite little girl – and Mr. Woodnut (Jared N. Wright), an undercover agent sent to gather evidence for Morris’s investigation. Mr. Woodnut has honorable intentions, but soon discovers the lines between personal and professional – as well as virtual and actual – are hard to draw inside this realm. He is bewitched by the Hideaway and all it has to offer, becoming himself a reluctant participant in Papa’s twisted world.
…haunting, thought-provoking, and disturbingly relevant…”
It is evident Director Argo Thompson has chosen his cast with care. Schloemp brings grace and finesse to a difficult role, making Sims remarkably sympathetic given his deviant inclinations. Wright is compelling as the well-meaning detective, grappling with unexpected temptation and fearful self-reflection. Yen delivers a surprisingly heart-rending performance as the reticent and wounded Mr. Doyle. Spring’s Iris is ethereal and deeply felt, adding much to the story’s emotional impact. (It’s important to note that Spring is an adult, and that the worst of what happens is not depicted on-stage.)
Rosa is arguably the only weak link. She doesn’t seem at home in her role, and the opening scenes are a bit awkward because of this. Her behavior may be intentional, however, given what we learn later in the show.
Yen (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Thompson’s set anchors the interrogation room at its center, flanked on both sides by rooms within the Hideaway, keeping us tethered to reality as we experience the virtual world. His crew has chosen fitting furniture and props for the Hideaway, and the interrogation room feels adequately cold and futuristic. Schloemp’s projections are an effective enhancement, transforming the interrogation room’s table into an interactive portal to the Nether.
Joe Winkler has set the show to an appropriately ominous soundtrack, from floor-shaking electronic overtures to the crackle and pop of old-timey tunes on Papa’s Victrola. There’s a moment of eerie dissonance near the show’s end when the soundtracks from both worlds collide, as the real and virtual begin to meld.
Act one is weighed down by philosophical quandary and is slow to build momentum. When the pieces begin to fall together, however, the pace accelerates into a second act rich with chilling developments and surprising revelations, and an ending that begs as many questions as it answers.
Though not for the faint-hearted, “The Nether” is a haunting, thought-provoking, and disturbingly relevant ride well worth taking if you can stomach the subject matter. Playwright Jennifer Haley pulls us out of our comfort zone and thrusts us into this dark exploration of a not-so-far-off future that could very well become our own.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, the Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
In recent years the jukebox musical has become a staple of American theater, in which a collection of great songs gets tied together with a plausible narrative and dramatic arc. “Million Dollar Quartet” fits snugly into this tradition, at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street playhouse through March 24.
A fictionalized account of a real event—an evening in early December, 1956, when Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley converged and performed at Sun Studios in Memphis—the show is a rousing piece of Americana and a tour de force of iconic early rock ’n’ roll. An amalgam of African-American blues and gospel and white Southern folk music, rock emerged in the postwar period, giving voice to a new generation and shocking the cultural establishment both in the United States and Europe. Its pervasive effects continue to this day.
…a rousing piece of Americana and a tour de force of iconic early rock ’n’ roll… do not miss this show.”
Directed by Bay Area theater veteran Michael Ray Wisely, who has performed in and directed other productions of “Million Dollar Quartet,” the 6th Street show features two performers from the national touring production—Daniel Durston as Elvis and Steve Lasiter as Johnny Cash. Sonoma County actor/musician Jake Turner is superb as Carl Perkins, as is his guitar playing, and music director Nick Kenrick is astounding as the frenetic Jerry Lee Lewis.
(Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Samantha Arden does a lovely turn as Dyanne, Elvis’s girlfriend, while Benjamin Stowe anchors the whole affair as Sam Phillips, the producer/recording engineer widely acknowledged as the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” And let’s not forget drummer Nick Ambrosino and bassist Shovanny Delgado Carillo, who provide infectious drive to the music of the four ersatz superstars. Conor Woods’s adaptation of the original set design is substantial, compelling, and versatile.
The song list includes a couple dozen classics from the early 1950s, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Hound Dog,” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’,“ all of them stunningly rendered. This reviewer saw the national touring production, and 6th Street’s is just as good. If you’re a fan of that era, do not miss this show. Even if you’re only mildly fond of early rock, it’s still a really fun way to spend an evening.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Million Dollar Quartet
Written by
Colin Escott & Floyd Mutrux
Directed by
Michael Ray Wisely; Music Directed by Nick Kenrick
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through March 24th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
At the core of his comic genius, Woody Allen creates fictional lead characters who share his neuroses. He then places them in situations rich with local color based on his own experience and observation.
With Bullets over Broadway, he wrote a highly successful screenplay for a movie that received considerable award recognition. In transitioning the story to the stage and adding music, it was honored with six Tony nominations, but its box office outcome was modest at best. Perhaps its failure to earn a long run is because it entertains but doesn’t wow.
Rejection and crises of confidence plague authors, and in this instance, the Woody Allen proxy is a young playwright, David Shayne, whose break to get financing for his first Broadway-destined play comes with a catch. Borrowing a theme that Allen and many others have used before, the finance depends on giving a role in the play to the girlfriend of the money man.
Oh, and in this case, the money man happens to be a gangster. Needless to say, the girlfriend is as talentless as she is witless, and with a whiny-screechy voice that is the reincarnation of Jean Hagen in the movie Singin’ in the Rain. To make matters worse, rehearsals reveal great inadequacies in David’s manuscript. But an unlikely source will put the project on the right path and dramatically alter the future of David and his collaborators.
Allen resisted the theatrical conversion of this property but having a taste for pop standards, was finally convinced by the suggestion that the musical score be comprised of songs from the period of the action. This strategy works in giving the music an authenticity and a pleasant familiarity with tunes like “Let’s Misbehave,” “Up a Lazy River,” and “There’ll be Some Changes Made.” Many updated lyrics enliven the old chestnuts, fit the plot line, and are quite funny.
…Foothill Music Theatre’s production offers … gusto and … humor … for a fun evening…
At the same time, its period characteristics may be what prevents Bullets from unqualified success, especially with younger audiences. In addition to its ‘20s music, the plotline intersection of Broadway and gangsters evokes Damon Runyon’s stories that were used as the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls and may seem dated.
However, Bullets contains a bevy of stereotyped characters that provide charm – from the fading diva to the actor whose food urges undermine his career – and stock situations like the playwright resisting script changes to maintain his integrity and the younger man being seduced by the lure of an older woman.
Overall, Foothill Music Theatre’s production offers enough gusto and extracts enough humor from the material for a fun evening. Not to say that it meets professional standards, but as a community theater offering, it satisfies. Most performers have peaks and valleys in both singing and acting, but each has high points that are quite worthy. Singing voices tend to have strong sweet spots that diminish outside that narrow range. And while the situational humor is uneven, the many one-line zingers uniformly hit the target.
Early on, Adam Cotungno as David seems caught between channeling Woody Allen and establishing his own role interpretation. By Act 2, both his acting and vocalizations exude confidence, and when he frantically delivers “The Panic is On,” he nails it. His nemesis is Olive, played convincingly by Jocelyn Pinkett, who inhabits the lower-class floozy with flair. Carla Befera hits her stride as the prideful and self-indulgent older actress, Helen, with a fine rendition of the appropriate “I Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle.” Finally, Nick Mandracchia masters the role of Cheech, the man in the shadows.
Milissa Carey directs commendably considering the resource requirements of the production. Bullets contains a huge number of scene changes. Andrew Breithaupt’s basic set is complemented by a revolving platform and a cache of movable props to give simple scenic suggestion, while Lily McLeod’s lighting effectively evokes mood shifts. Dance elements are demanding, and Claire Alexander’s choreography generally works, but execution is often out of kilter. Sharon Peng deserves a nod for the scope of costumery required for the production.
ASR reviewer Victor Cordell is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, and a Theatre Bay Area adjudicator.
A multiple Tony winner and perennial favorite since its 1964 debut, “Hello, Dolly!” was for decades a star vehicle for recently departed Carol Channing, the performer most associated with the lead role of yenta and all-around advice giver Dolly Gallagher Levi.
The legendary Betty Buckley handles the lead with aplomb in the sumptuous national touring show, at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre through mid-March. In other productions, Dolly has been inhabited by Bette Midler and other top talents. Ms. Buckley manages to make the character her own without referencing any of the other stars that have taken it on, a major achievement in its own right.
…an absolute extravaganza… nearly everything about this show is incredibly good.”
Backed by what appears to be an unlimited budget, the show is one of the biggest spectacles to land in San Francisco in several years. The capacious Golden Gate is its ideal venue. The show is an absolute extravaganza, from stunning backdrops, costumes, and sets to the supreme talents of a huge cast, including Lewis J. Stadlen as Horace Vandergelder, the wealthy merchant and target of Dolly’s matrimonial intentions. Among the secondary cast, Nic Rouleau is a standout as the lovelorn Cornelius Hackl, one of Vandergelden’s underpaid and underappreciated employees.
As townspeople, waiters, and other characters, approximately 30 performers do everything from simple walk-on bits to astoundingly athletic dance numbers—all of it appearing nearly effortless, and the show moves along with grace, precision, and enormous energy. There are no weak links in this production—in fact, the only weak link, and it’s a stretch to say this, may be Ms. Buckley herself, because nearly everything about this show is incredibly good. If she’s the weak link, it’s a strong, supple one.
“Hello, Dolly!” is a lightweight musical set around the turn of the 19th century, with some great songs in mid-20th century style—not merely the title song, but others including the heart-rending “Before the Parade Passes By.” Adhering to a time-honored plot device of the matrimonially-minded seeking partners with money, the show has been unfairly criticized for lacking relevance to modern audiences—sold-out performances at the thousand-seat Golden Gate to the contrary. If you have a hankering for a classic Broadway musical the way it was intended to be seen, this is the show for you.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Hello, Dolly!
Written by
Book by Michael Stewart, Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Directed by
Jerry Zaks
Producing Company
National Touring Production
Production Dates
Through March 17th
Production Address
Golden Gate Theatre
1 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Trouble brews as a flighty heiress cavorts with her head servant in “After Miss Julie,” Patrick Marber’s adaptation of the August Strindberg classic, at Main Stage West through March 3.
Reset in an English country manor at the close of World War II, with the Labor Party about to win the national election and disrupt traditional social structures, the play features Jennifer Coté as Christine, a loyal scullery maid; Sam Coughlin as John, her fiancé and the manor’s head servant; and Ilana Niernberger as Miss Julie, the heiress who can’t resist defying class restrictions by seducing him. All the action plays out in the manor’s cramped downstairs kitchen, while a wild celebration swirls about outside.
Jointly directed by Elizabeth Craven and David Lear, who also did the set design, this brilliantly staged and performed piece is the antidote to the poison that is Strindberg’s much-praised “Creditors,” extended to March 3 at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company. Both plays were written in 1888, and both are about the power dynamic inherent in sexual triangles—strong superficial resemblances, but “After Miss Julie” actually has uplifting moments and an ambiguous ending that proves to be far more nuanced and far more satisfying than the abrupt finality of “Creditors.”
…a stunning, perfectly paced pas de deux… that will keep you on edge right to the end…”
Coughlin and Niernberger (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Coté is excellent in her role as the determined, hard-working Christine, while Coughlin and Niernberger are astounding in their portrayal of a pair of hopelessly attracted lovers deep in the throes of an intractable dominant/submissive relationship. Julie relishes lording it over John, issuing orders that as her lover and employee he must obey. She then immediately demands that he issue orders to her in return and he complies, despite knowing how wrong it all is. With class distinctions amplified by differences in dialect, it’s a stunning, perfectly paced pas de deux—quite literally, with white-hot choreography by Dana Seghesio—that will keep you on edge right to the end, and will give you plenty to ponder for days after.
Sound designer Matthew Eben Jones has selected some wonderful music from the WWII era that perfectly establishes the play’s time frame, and Missy Weaver’s moody subdued lighting works marvelously to reinforce every scene. Running time is about 90 minutes. Opening night featured a short intermission; it wasn’t clear if MSW would keep it or not for the duration of the show. In either case it’s a fantastically good production, among the best in a series of superb productions by Sebastopol’s quirky troupe. In its few short years, Main Stage West has become one of the North Bay’s leading theatre companies. “After Miss Julie” proves why.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
After Miss Julie
Written by
Patrick Marber
Directed by
Elizabeth Craven and David Lear
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through March 3rd
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Nothing kills one’s ardor more quickly than hearing this from a partner: “We have to talk.”
That pretty much sums up this reviewer’s take on August Strindberg’s “Creditors,” at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company through February 24. Written in 1888, the then-scandalous play examines the relationships of two men, Adolph and Gustav (Joseph Patrick O’Malley and Jonathan Rhys Williams, respectively) and one woman, Tekla (Rebecca Dines). Adolph is a self-doubting artist with unspecified neurological problems that manifest in spastic mannerisms and ambulatory difficulties. Gustav is a new friend talking him through an artistic identity crisis—should he pursue painting or sculpture?—while fanning the flames of doubt in him about his wife Tekla, who as we discover later, is Gustav’s ex-wife.
The initial exchange between the two men goes on for maybe twenty minutes—it feels like hours of manipulative psychobabble—until at some point Tekla appears, an independent, free-spirited novelist who has published a book with a central character based on Gustav. She’s been gone a week, approximately as long as Gustav has known Adolph, and has come back to flirt with her own husband while her ex lurks unseen to hear everything they say. There is nothing about the two men that is at all appealing—Adolph is a cringing neurotic and Gustav, a master schemer. It’s hard to imagine what attracts Tekla to either of them. It isn’t money, despite the play’s title.
…the actors are excellent playing despicable characters…”
Joseph Patrick O’Malley and Rebecca Dines
Tekla is the prototype of a new kind of woman emerging in Western culture at the time—assertive, confident, uninhibited. She can entertain the concept of loving more than one person while the two men cannot. (Strindberg must have thought his character was unique; he accused Henrik Ibsen of plagiarism in making Hedda Gabler a similar type. Certainly Tekla and Hedda cannot have been the only free-spirited women in fin de siècle Scandinavia.) Tekla flirts and spars with Adolph until he leaves in a huff, whereupon Gustav enters and attempts a seduction. Tekla almost takes the bait then thinks better of it, and to cut to the chase, Adolph comes back in and dies of an epileptic seizure. That’s a wrap.
In the week since it opened, “Creditors” has been gushed about by a score of critics, many of whom, it must be assumed, are classicists. And while it’s always unfair to judge the art of the past through the lens of the present, it’s nearly impossible to see what’s so gush-worthy. The story is horrible, but directed by Barbara Damashek, the actors are excellent playing despicable characters—two men suffering from terminal cases of emotional hemorrhoids, and a woman who can’t be trusted. It’s ninety minutes of late 19th century European navel-gazing, a repellent talkathon in which almost nothing happens other than the malicious destruction of the weakest character.
The fact that something is old doesn’t make it valuable or worth reviving. As David Foster Wallace put it in another context, this play is “a supposedly fun thing I will never do again.”
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Creditors
Written by
August Strindberg
Directed by
Barbara Damashek
Producing Company
Aurora Theatre Co.
Production Dates
Through February 24th
Production Address
Aurora Theatre Co.
2081 Addison St.
Berkeley, CA 94704
Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” is among the most popular recurring productions in regional theater, with a couple of bucket-list roles for ambitious actors: the loutish Stanley Kowalski and his wilting-flower sister-in-law Blanche DuBois. The current revival of this favorite play runs in the studio theater at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa through February 17.
Directed by Phoebe Moyer, Ariel Zuckerman and Juliet Noonan do justice to these difficult parts, aided by superb supporting performances from Melissa Claire as Blanche’s pregnant sister Stella, and Edward McCloud as Mitch, Stanley’s bowling-and-poker pal who falls under Blanche’s spell. With a consistently bland mid-south accent and palpable emotional tenderness, Claire is rock-solid as the long-suffering sister, moving from joy at being reunited with Blanche to despair at having to get her removed from the cramped flat she shares with Stanley. McCloud also has a complicated path to traverse as Stanley’s army buddy who asserts himself enough to pursue Blanche, only to have his hopes dashed by plausible tales about her scandalous behavior back in Laurel, Mississippi.
…compelling heat—just right for a cold February night.”
Zuckerman and Noonan (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
Zuckerman apparently relishes his part as the savage Stanley, and in many scenes seems to be channeling Marlon Brando, whose portrayal of Stanley in the film version has forever affected those who followed. Zuckerman even looks like the young Brando, and some of his postures are eerily like the film actor’s. He’s also in great athletic shape, much more impressive than Brando in his youth.
Juliet Noonan has the unenviable task of carrying the bulk of the drama—like Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Blanche DuBois is among the most demanding roles in 20th century American theater, perhaps the female equivalent of Hamlet, and Noonan gets it about ninety percent right. Her physical gestures are evocative, and her timing excellent, but she falls in and out of her Mississippi plantation accent. With moments of true pathos, she beautifully conveys Blanche’s self-delusion and persistent manipulation of those around her.
Matt Farrell and Laura Downing-Lee are very good as Steve and Eunice, who live upstairs from Stella and Stanley and provide Stella with comfort when Stanley rages. A full-size spiral staircase leads to their unseen apartment, an amazing bit of set design in 6th Street’s compact studio theater. While not the best production this reviewer has seen, this “Streetcar” generates plenty of compelling heat—just right for a cold February night.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
A Streetcar Named Desire
Written by
Tennessee Williams
Directed by
Phoebe Moyer
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse, Studio Theatre
Production Dates
Through February 17th
Production Address
6th Street Playhouse
Studio Theatre
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
How do you define success, and what would you sacrifice to achieve it? Would you be willing to take advantage of others? To trade in your dignity, your privacy, or even your identity? Would you dare to risk a shot at love?
Pondering the price of fame in the digital era, “Sex with Strangers” is the smart, seductive modern romance by Emmy Award-winning House of Cards writer Laura Eason, playing now through February 17th at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre.
Olivia (Sandra Ish) has faded into obscurity following the long-ago release of her modestly successful novel. Badly bruised by mixed reviews and fearing public scrutiny, she continues to write but shares her work with no one. Now in her late thirties, Olivia has settled for a teaching job and relegated writing to a hobby.
Ethan (Dean Linnard) is an up-and-coming writer who, at only 28, has already made a splash on the New York Times Best Seller list and amassed a sizeable following online. Having leveraged his controversial blog about casual sex into two books and an impending movie deal, Ethan’s fame and fortune are on an upward trajectory. Even so, he is restless to escape his reputation as philandering lothario and rebrand himself as a serious author.
Linnard and Ish (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
When a snowstorm leaves these strangers stranded and alone at a remote bed-and-breakfast, sparks fly as flirtatious tension escalates into a passionate affair. But we soon learn their chance encounter wasn’t chance at all, and when Ethan offers to help relaunch Olivia’s career, there is ample room to doubt his motives. Olivia, we learn, has ambitions of her own, and we are left to question who is using whom. Or could this be a genuine connection?
…a steamy, entertaining story full of laugh-out-loud moments…”
Anticipation is half the fun, and the opening scenes are butterfly-inducing as heat and momentum build between Olivia and Ethan. Their banter appears unrehearsed – the pair’s interactions feel alluringly natural, raw, and resultantly real. Eason’s dialogue is sharp and delightfully fast-paced, and these two pros deliver it with ease.
Linnard’s Ethan is irresistibly charming. His coarse manners and frank confidence are at once repulsive and magnetic. There’s a sweet sincerity in his affection for Olivia that helps sustain our hope in the honesty of his intentions, despite the reasons we are given to suspect he can’t be trusted. Ish is equally excellent as voluptuous Olivia, bringing a compelling blend of vulnerability, sass, and surprising strength to the role.
Ish and Linnard (Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin)
The unlikelihood of their pairing makes their romance all the more interesting to watch unfold. What might have been a modest age difference in decades past is now a significant gap made ever broader by the rapid technological advancements we’ve seen in the last twenty years. Ethan’s Wi-Fi dependent world is ruled by an ever-ringing cell phone, overflowing email inbox, and constant public exposure. Olivia’s world – at least when we first meet her – is significantly more quiet. She’s still a fan, after all, of things like privacy and hard copy books.
A subtle power shift occurs as Olivia’s star begins to rise and Ethan’s fades, culminating in a simple, striking moment when the scene is interrupted by a ringing phone. We expect to see Ethan reach into his pocket. But this time, much to our surprise, the call is for Olivia. (Kudos to Sound Designer Joe Winkler for this and other well-timed effects.)
Eason’s ending is powerful and poignant, leaving the door open for us to reflect on what we hope will happen after the curtain falls. We are at once indulged but also wanting more.
Under Diane Bailey’s direction, Linnard and Ish hit it out of the park. Light Designer April George creates a convincing blizzard outside the opening scene’s window, and Argo Thompson’s set provides an attractive and believable backdrop, converting cleanly from a cozy bed-and-breakfast to an urban apartment.
“Sex with Strangers” is a steamy, entertaining story full of laugh-out-loud moments and plenty of food for serious thought. Leave the kids at home, check your inhibitions at the door, and strap in for a night of fun you won’t regret the morning after.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, the Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
For anyone who has been diagnosed with a fatal disease, the period leading to death can be painful and profound. If one can carry out normal activities under the sentence of death, the person often makes a conscious decision whether to live as routinely as possible; whether to surround one’s self with what is most cherished; or whether to splurge on very special and perhaps extravagant experiences.
In any case, philosophical reflection is inevitable. But what if one knows that life will end for all of humanity at a prescribed time? Say, an asteroid large enough to obliterate life hurtles inexorably toward earth.
In Jeffrey Lo’s new comic farce, Spending the End of the World on OK Cupid, a prophet of doom named Alfred Winters had accurately predicted “The Vanishing” in which half of humanity recently disappeared at once without a trace. Now Winters has assured those who have survived that the world will end at midnight on the day that the action of the play takes place. By the way, for those like me who have trouble deciphering the title, you probably don’t know that “OK Cupid” is an online dating site. Now it should make sense.
The narrative centers on two couples and several other characters whose lives intersect. Each couple has just met on the fateful day through OK Cupid, which should suggest that the characters are not exactly Homecoming King and Queen material. These young adults, as couples and with others, go through relationship rituals and the memes of daily life – from hypnotically gazing into cell phones to confronting the condescending barista at the coffee shop over a $20 cuppa.
…in the notable words of Caitlyn, “Before we learn to die, should we learn to live?”
Although some aspects of the play are universal, many themes and characters will speak more effectively to a younger audience. Millennials (and stoners?) may find the comedy-club and sketch-type humor funny throughout, but much of it seems strained, even though the actors animate the dialogue as well as can be expected. Humor in the script needs to be fine-tuned, and strands need to be tightened, as some of the segments never connect well with the overall arc. In fact, the funniest segment, a Scotsman, played by Flip Hofman, who reveals his OK Cupid self-summary and six things he can’t live without, fails to integrate at all.
Tasi Alabastro as the hyperkinetic Ben and Michelle Skinner as the depressive Caitlyn bring energy to the lead roles and are effective overall, while Keith Larson seems at risk of blowing out his carotid artery from his frenzied depiction of Winters. At the other extreme, Michael Weiland seems totally natural as the relaxed Bong, and in a small bit, Tyler Pardini nails it as the low affect open-mic, poetry emcee.
The staging suits the vignette-driven nature of the story. Open staircases, platforms, and catwalks comprise Paulo Deleal’s set, with the occasional addition of cafe tables and chairs. Director Michael Champlin aptly isolates scenes on the stage, and actors who are not performing can comfortably hang out in other locations (and fiddle on their cell phones!). Megan Souther’s lighting complements the overall effect. Generally, low lighting is supported by spots and mobile area highlights. Cell phones are particularly effective for facial illumination.
The driving motives of the play are strong. Although the situations are intimate and farcical, existential matters are broached. What is the point of life and why do things remain important to us once we know the end is imminent? Yet, in the notable words of Caitlyn, “Before we learn to die, should we learn to live?”
Spending the End of the World on OK Cupid by Jeffrey Lo is produced by Pear Theatre and plays at its stage at 1110 La Avenida, Mountain View, CA through February 17, 2019.
ASR reviewer Victor Cordell is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and the American Theatre Critics Association, and a Theatre Bay Area adjudicator.
Production
Spending the End of the World on OK Cupid
Written by
Jeffrey Lo
Directed by
Michael Champlin
Producing Company
Pear Theater
Production Dates
Thru Feb. 17th
Production Address
Pear Theater
1110 La Avenida St.
Suite A
Mountain View, CA 94043
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and national treasure August Wilson was taken from us too soon, in 2005 at 60 years of age. A self-taught high school dropout who authored dozens of plays—among them, “Fences,” “Gem of the Ocean,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Jitney,” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”—the prolific Wilson accumulated many honors and awards. What he might have achieved had he lived longer is the stuff of speculation, but what he accomplished is astounding, the real meaning of “a lasting legacy.”
‘How I Learned What I Learned’ is a couple of the most rewarding hours you’re likely to have in a theater this year…
Through February 3, Marin Theatre Company is presenting Wilson’s autobiographical one-man play “How I Learned What I Learned” starring veteran actor Steven Anthony Jones, directed with great sensitivity by Margo Hall.
Steven Anthony Jones as August Wilson.
Anchored in Wilson’s upbringing in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the performance is a seamless blend of reminiscence, historical fact, observation, and sermon, much of it a mix of personal anecdotes that range from exceedingly tender—a grade-school epiphany when he kisses the girl of his dreams—to absolutely horrific. He was a close-up witness of a murder provoked by an insult.
Jones’s monologue covers an astounding amount of time and material—from Wilson’s childhood in Pittsburgh to his adult years in St. Paul and Seattle—all of it conveyed with insightful wit and the intimate, avuncular wisdom of a wily old preacher.
Steven Anthony Jones working at MTC.
A cooperative production with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and the Ubuntu Theater Project—the show moves sequentially to those two venues when it leaves MTC—“How I Learned What I Learned” is a couple of the most rewarding hours you’re likely to have in a theater this year.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
At Sebastopol’s Main Stage West through January 27th, “Swallow” is a lyrical and haunting reflection on how we put our pieces back together and rebuild – our wounds, our relationships, our sense of purpose and of self – through the healing conduit of shared suffering and human connection.
Rebecca (Michelle Maxson) is alone and angry. Her husband has fallen in love with another woman. She takes the pain out on herself and fears her scars may never heal. Meanwhile, upstairs neighbor Anna (Dana Scott Seghesio) hasn’t left her apartment in months and is tearing it apart piece by piece, living on ice cubes and canned beans in total isolation. When the two begin to talk through Anna’s closed door, their fragile, faceless friendship evolves into an unusual but much-needed lifeline.
Sam (Skyler Cooper) is in the process of becoming the man he feels himself to be, enduring the humiliation of a job at which he is still called Samantha and struggling to gain confidence and acceptance in his new identity. Recognizing his own loneliness in Rebecca when he discovers her sitting by herself at a coffee shop, Sam takes a chance and starts a conversation.
Cast members Cooper, Maxson, and Seghesio at work.
Although she is initially wary, Rebecca begins to let her walls down as she reopens herself to the possibility of finding new love and understanding. But how will she react if Sam comes clean about his past? What unfolds is both dark and uplifting, at moments comical and others crushing.
The chemistry between Sam and Rebecca is real and their relationship utterly compelling. Cooper and Maxson are immensely talented and profoundly well-cast. It is hard to look away from them, even when their interactions pause and the spotlight shifts to Anna in her apartment. In those dark, unmoving moments, the expressions on their faces speak volumes.
…shattered mirrors, broken hearts, fractured bones, and splintered identities…
Scott Seghesio does an admirable job in a difficult role, making Anna about as interesting as she can be given the lack of development her backstory is offered by playwright Stef Smith. It is hard to care as much as we might like to about a cripplingly neurotic person we learn little about beyond her strange obsession with destruction and strained relationship with a brother who pays her rent. The result is that her scenes begin to feel like unwelcome interruptions to the story we’re more emotionally invested in. Anna’s overwrought metaphorical ramblings about an injured bird become at times torturous as we wait to see more of Rebecca and Sam.
With John Craven’s assistance, David Lear has crafted a lean, effective set which succeeds in creating the illusion of a coffee shop, an apartment building, and a city sidewalk without undergoing any major changes. Missy Weaver’s light design helps create a sense of separation between rooms and scenes. The sound effects of shattering glass and hammers pounding are well-timed and appropriately jarring thanks to Matthew E. Jones’s design.
Despite its imperfections, “Swallow” is inarguably moving, and Smith’s compassion for human suffering is evident. She reminds us that we are capable of creating beautiful things from our broken pieces and that no matter how personal or private our battles, we are never really alone in our pain. Main Stage West has handled her material with care, and the result is well worth watching.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, the Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Production
Swallow
Written by
Stef Smith
Directed by
Missy Weaver
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through January 27th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
An erratic sword-swinging scene that opens “Moon Over Buffalo” only hints at the wildness to come in Ken Ludwig’s “Moon Over Buffalo,” at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa through February 3.
A master of the American door-slamming farce, Ludwig’s output includes theater-world classics such as “Crazy for You” and “Lend Me a Tenor.” Filling out the triumvirate is “Moon Over Buffalo,” about an acting family doing repertory performances of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” in Buffalo, NY in 1953.
Patriarch George Hay (Dodds Delzell) is a theater careerist who’s very dismissive of the film industry, despite a phone call from legendary director Frank Capra, saying he’s considering George and his wife Charlotte (Madeleine Ashe) as replacements for Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson in a production of “Twilight of the Scarlet Pimpernel.” It’s possibly a dream come true for Charlotte, who longs for a life more glamorous than that of iterant actors.
‘Moon Over Buffalo’ has more romantic complexities than a Shakespearean comedy…
Helter-skelter antics by their associates, confusion about which play they are performing, and the lure of a career breakthrough, compounded by George’s appetite for prodigious amounts of alcohol make for some riotous comedy. George drinks until he can barely stand—in some instances, he can’t—and mixes and muddles his roles in the two very unlike shows while Charlotte and their daughter Rosalind (Chandler Parrott-Thomas) try to cover for him. Add to this a hearing-impaired grandmother (Shirley Nilsen Hall), a hyperactive TV weatherman (Erik Weiss), a lovesick attorney (Joe Winkler), a company manager desperately trying to keep the Hays on track (Robert Nelson), and a young actress impregnated by George (Victoria Saitz).
L-R: Dodds Delzell, Robert Nelson, Chandler Parrott-Thomas, Shirley Nilsen Hall, Madeleine Ashe in “Moon Over Buffalo”
All of this comes to a frothy head in the second act, on a substantial set by Jason Jamerson—it has to be with all the wrestling, drunken gymnastics, and door-slamming—under the guiding hand of director Carl Jordan.
Despite the sword-swinging, there’s a surfeit of exposition in the first act that makes the whole affair a bit slow to gain altitude, and some anachronisms in the dialog and props, but the second-act payoff is worth the wait. Delzell is perfectly cast as the out-of-control Hay—at one point he perfectly casts himself into the orchestra pit—and Parrott-Thomas is brilliant as the long-suffering daughter who does everything and more to save her family’s careers and the show they’re putting on.
“Moon Over Buffalo” has more romantic complexities than a Shakespearean comedy, and is riddled with theater-insider references (there are hints in the playbill). Astute audience members may recognize entire scenes that have been lifted into television sitcoms, movies, and other plays. The multiple second-chance ending is icing on a cake of simply great silly fun.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Moon Over Buffalo
Written by
Ken Ludwig
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through Feb 3rd
Production Address
Sixth Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
In 2018, Aisle Seat Review critics attended more than 100 productions, most very good and many, excellent. Rather than compile a “Best of” list—always a subjective evaluation open to rancorous discussion—we thought it might be more fun to share some favorites, in no particular order:
“Always, Patsy Cline” Sonoma Arts Live, Sonoma. Danielle DeBow brought the legendary country singer to life—and more—in this wonderful “jukebox musical” about Cline and her friend Louise Seger, emphatically played by Karen Pinomaki. Excellent male backup singers and onstage band sealed the deal for this Michael Ross production, which could have played all summer to packed houses.
“Always Patsy Cline” cast at Sonoma Arts Live.
“Oslo” Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley. Director Jasson Minidakis got amazing performances from a large cast in this West Coast premiere of J.T. Rogers’s Tony Award-winning drama, a fictionalized account of backstage negotiations conducted by unauthorized Norwegian diplomats that resulted in the 1993 peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“An “Entomologist’s Love Story,” San Francisco Playhouse. Directed by Giovanna Sardelli, this funny and sweetly seductive tale of love and rejection between a couple of graduate researchers took several unexpected but delightful detours on its way to providing insight into the mating behaviors of young adult humans. The award-worthy set was among many created by Nina Ball, one of the Bay Area’s most gifted designers.
“Entomologist’s Love Story,” at San Francisco Playhouse.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,” Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park. This North Bay all-star production about an autistic kid searching for his mother was special in many respects, including set design and ensemble work. As Christopher, Elijah Pinkham was tremendous in his first big-venue outing, directed by Elizabeth Craven.
“Head over Heels,” Curran, San Francisco. Perhaps the most fun show of the year—and the most unjustifiably maligned—this pseudo-Shakespearean spoof featured incredible performances, amazing set design/stagecraft, and the best-ever treatment of the music of ‘80s pop group The Go-Go’s.
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” Ray of Light Theatre, San Francisco. The best rock musical ever conceived was given a spectacular treatment in the Mission District’s crusty old Victoria Theatre. Coleton Schmitto slayed as the transgendered rock star, matched in gravitas if not in flamboyance by Maya Michal Sherer as Hedwig’s lover/assistant Yitzhak.
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at Ray of Light Theatre, San Francisco.
“By the Water,” Spreckels Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park. This heart-rending tale of a family and neighborhood trying to cope with the aftermath of a natural disaster had special meaning for North Bay residents following last year’s devastating fires. Mike Pavone and Mary Gannon Graham were superb as husband and wife trying to find their way home, in a sensitive production helmed by Carl Jordan.
“The House of Yes,” Main Stage West, Sebastopol. Director and set designer Elizabeth Craven pulled some dark magic from her bag of tricks in this stunning presentation of Wendy MacLeod’s horrifically funny portrait of an incredibly dysfunctional upper-crust family. Sharia Pierce was astounding as the Pascal family’s whacked-out “Jackie O” while Laura Jorgensen induced chills as her hard-drinking mother.
“The House of Yes” at Main Stage West.
“Death of a Salesman,” Novato Theatre Company, Novato. Arthur Miller’s classic depiction of a salesman put out to pasture could not have been more heartbreaking or more beautiful than as directed by Carl Jordan. Joe Winkler was perfectly cast as down-on-his-luck Willy Loman, as was Richard Kerrigan in the role of Charlie, Willy’s neighbor and best friend.
“Dry Powder,” Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley. Aldo Billingsly starred as a hard-charging buyout artist in this incisive dark comedy about the often impenetrable world of private equity. Emily Jeanne Brown was rock-solid as the unfeeling, number-crunching junior partner Emily. Directed with aplomb by Jennifer King.
“Detroit ’67,” Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley. Dominique Morisseau’s fictional but totally plausible tale of ordinary people struggling to get ahead during Detroit’s riots and fires of 1967 was beautifully conveyed in this five-actor tour-de-force directed by Darryl V. Jones, with standout performances by Halili Knox and Rafael Jordan as sister and brother Chelle and Lank.
“Detroit ’67” at Aurora Theater Co.
“A Walk on the Moon,” ACT, San Francisco. Performances and stagecraft were—pardon us, please—over the moon in this spectacular presentation of a simple story about a young wife’s coming-of-age during the summer when astronauts first landed on the moon.
“Hand to God,” Left Edge Theatre, Santa Rosa. Laughter flowed and doll heads rolled in this no-holds-barred dark comedy about a shy young Christian boy with a hand puppet, “Tyrone,” possessed by the devil. (Set in Texas. Where else?) A series of increasingly outrageous events culminated in the hostile takeover of a church basement, topped off by an absurdly funny and obscene act of puppetry that will haunt us for years to come. Dean Linnard’s impressive turn as Jason-slash-Tyrone and set design by Argo Thompson made for some devilish good fun.
“The Realistic Joneses,” Left Edge Theatre, Santa Rosa. Two couples shared an ordinary last name and an extraordinary fate in Will Eno’s poignant and darkly hilarious exploration of human connection, coping mechanisms, marriage and mortality. Melissa Claire, Chris Ginesi, Paige Picard, and Chris Schloemp brought remarkable talent and palpable chemistry to the stage, making an already interesting story unforgettable.
“Disgraced,” Left Edge Theatre, Santa Rosa. Issues of cultural appropriation, religion, racial tension, and infidelity came to an explosive head at a dinner party-gone-wrong in Ayad Akhtar’s incisive Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Left Edge’s top-notch casting, set design and technical work were—forgive us—anything but disgraceful.
“Tinderella,” Custom Made Theatre, San Francisco. A world premiere, this clever, inventive musical put an inspired spin on an age-old classic, thrusting beloved Disney princess Cinderella into the harsh realities of 21st-century online dating. Replete with hilarious song lyrics and cultural references, the script offers surprisingly heartfelt reflections on fostering love and friendship in a modern-day landscape of social media and smartphone apps. This wildly entertaining show attracted a remarkably young audience with a story acutely relevant to millennials and Bay Area living, poking plenty of fun at our ongoing reliance on all things digital, and helped along by some seriously good singing and outrageously funny choreography.
“Blackbird,” Main Stage West, Sebastopol. An inescapable past came back to haunt an industrial production manager in David Harrower’s “Blackbird.” Sharia Pierce astounded as Una, a young woman who hunts down her former and much older lover Ray (John Shillington). David Lear’s direction and set design were beyond perfect in this chilling piece about irresistible but doomed attraction.
“Marjorie Prime,” at Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley. Humanoid artificial intelligence got a new twist as therapeutic tools in Jordan Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize contender. Set in the near future, the provocative one-act was superbly delivered by four supremely talented actors—particularly Joy Carlin as the faltering widow—directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, on a simple modernistic set by Kimie Nishikawa.
“Marjorie Prime” at Marin Theatre Company.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a member of the Marquee Theatre Journalists Association and the American Theatre Critics Association.
ASR Senior Editor Barry Willis is a member of ATCA and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
This time of year, we are inundated with multiple choices of winter holiday-theme productions. There are at least several presentations of “The Nutcracker” and “A Christmas Carol,” not to mention marathon broadcasts of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story”—all worthy, heartwarming ways to enrich the season.
Add to this list David Templeton’s “Polar Bears,” one man’s tale about how far he was willing to go to extend his children’s belief in Santa Claus in the wake of their mother’s death. Performed by veteran actor Chris Schloemp, this “true story about a very big lie” is a lovely mix of tragedy, comedy, and detached self-deprecating observation that will keep you enthralled throughout its approximately 90 minutes.
Prolific journalist, critic, and playwright Templeton is a North Bay treasure, with several productions to his credit in addition to his annual “Twisted Christmas,” a grab-bag of performances and stories that played recently to a nearly full house at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. Templeton’s style is similar to Jean Shepherd, the great chronicler of Americana whose 1966 book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” included the basis of “A Christmas Story.”
…’Polar Bears’… will keep you enthralled…
Templeton directs Schloemp on a set of stored Christmas paraphernalia, much of it cleverly doing double- or triple-duty to illustrate the piece. Easing your children out of treasured fantasies can be an ordeal for any parent. As told by Templeton and Schloemp, it’s also a sweet expression of love.
“Polar Bears” completes its run at the Belrose Theatre in San Rafael December 15, and will be reprised in a one-night-only performance at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa, Sunday December 23, at 7:00 p.m.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Multiple Tony Award winner “Dear Evan Hansen” has finally landed in San Francisco, after a legal tussle between the Curran’s Carole Shorenstein Hays and her former partners The Nederlander Organization. Much-anticipated, the show lives up to its reputation, with excellent performances and stunning stagecraft that make this first Millennial musical an immersive experience.
At its core a simple story about a withdrawn, socially inept high-school boy (Ben Levi Ross, most performances) whose gift for writing has good and bad repercussions, the show is also about family relations—the lead character lives with his single mom Heidi (Jerssica Phillips), who works tirelessly to improve herself and the life of her son, while having little time to interact with him.
It’s also about the intensity of life lived via social media as experienced by young people. Covering the entire stage for much of the show’s two-and-a-half hours, Peter Nigrini’s astounding projections go a long way toward conveying just how intense, immediate, and all-consuming such life can be. The music—also award-winning—is brash, loud, and louder, with only a couple of tender moments. Most of the songs in the first act are shouted more than sung.
Evan Hansen’s distraught classmate Connor Murphy (Marrick Smith) mentions feeling suicidal and ultimately kills himself. Evan’s fictitious email exchanges with Connor gain notoriety and even provide some comfort for Connor’s parents Larry and Cynthia (Aaron Lazar and Christiane Noll) and sister Zoe (Maggie McKenna), who falls for Evan, if only briefly.
Phoebe Koyabe does a fine job as Alana Beck, one of Evan’s classmates and a self-appointed busybody who both encourages his subterfuge and later exposes it. Jared Goldsmith appears as Jared Kleinman, an obnoxious classmate and possibly Evan’s only friend.
…the extraordinary level of stagecraft supporting it make ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ quite a justifiable ticket purchase…
The show’s production values are exceptional, but in style it bears a striking resemblance to “Next to Normal,” possibly the worst musical ever conceived. The resemblance is no accident; both shows were helmed by Micheal Greif. Stripped of its glitz, the story would make ideal material for a Hallmark or Lifetime made-for-TV movie.
There are two moments that could use a rewrite: one is the scene where Larry, in surrogate father mode, shows Evan how to break in a baseball glove, something that in a film would be conveyed with a couple of soft-focus shots, but here it demands an entire song (“To Break in a Glove”). The other false moment comes when Larry and Cynthia attempt to befriend Evan’s mother, offering to fund his college education with money they have saved for Connor’s. Instead of being appreciative, Heidi gets incensed and insists that he’ll go to community college until she can afford to send him someplace better.
It’s mostly an exercise in psychological torture for poor Evan, but his misguided efforts—aided by Alana and Zoe—have an unpredictable and somewhat upbeat payoff, even if it isn’t happy-ever-after. “Dear Evan Hansen” is an emotionally exhausting production—not necessarily for the audience, but certainly for the performers, with nine shows per week. Their commitment to the show and the extraordinary level of stagecraft supporting it make “Dear Evan Hansen” quite a justifiable ticket purchase.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
“Dear Evan Hansen”
Written by
Written by Steven Levenson,
Music and Lyrics by Benj Pakek and Justin Paul
Directed by
Michael Greif
Producing Company
Curran Theater Co.
Production Dates
December 30th
Production Address
Curran Theater
445 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
An unexpected benefactor saves a spunky orphan girl from a life of drudgery in the classic musical “Annie,” at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, through December 22.
Based on the Depression-era comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” this Michael Fontaine-helmed production features two separate casts of adolescent girls (at least, they appear to be adolescents) and an adult cast of North Bay theater veterans—Larry Williams as Daddy Warbucks, Daniela Innocenti-Beem as orphanage matron Miss Hannnigan, Jeff Coté as schemer Rooster Hannigan, Lydia Revelos as Rooster’s companion Lily St. Regis, Steve Thorpe as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Trevor Hoffman as radio announcer Burt Healy, Morgan Harrington as Grace, assistant to Daddy Warbucks, and Dwayne Stincelli as Drake, head of the Warbucks household.
“Annie” will always be a relevant show…
On a versatile set by Jeff Thomson—with quick changes, it serves variously as orphanage, city streets, the Warbucks mansion, the White House, and a radio station studio—the show features many great and widely beloved songs, including “Hard Knock Life,” “Tomorrow,” “Easy Street,” and “I Don’t Need Anything but You.” Who have hearts so cold that they can’t be moved by a dozen scruffy orphan girls scrubbing the floor and singing away? Or a red-haired kid—Alina Kingwill Peterson on opening night—giving her big voice to a great anthem of hope? Let’s not forget Sandy, her fluffy pooch, who can’t seem to find her marks but prompts gushes from the audience.
Larry Williams brings believable gravitas to the role of Daddy Warbucks, including decent song-and-dance skills. Morgan Harrington is appealing as Warbucks’s assistant, with a soaring soprano voice that dominates every ensemble piece she’s in. Jeff Coté and Lydia Revelos are amusing as a pair of bottom-rung hustlers, and do some marvelous ensemble work with Dani Innocenti-Beem, especially in the crowd-pleasing “Easy Street.” Innocenti-Beem is clearly the audience favorite as the tippling harridan who can’t stand the kids she supervises. Her offhand comedic bits add spice to a deliciously convincing portrayal of the mean bitch you love to hate.
Dale Camden—a talented actor seen not enough recently on North Bay stages—has a hilarious breakout moment of song and dance as a member of Roosevelt’s cabinet. And Trevor Hoffman is delightful as butter-voiced radio personality Burt Healy.
There are many obvious parallels between our own time and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although unemployment today is at an all-time low, we are still plagued with homelessness—homeless encampments were called “Hoovervilles” in the ‘30s, in honor of the president who ushered in the Depression—and disparity between rich and poor is as severe as ever.
“Annie” will always be a relevant show, and with its upbeat message, always a popular salve for our social malaise.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Moon Over Buffalo
Written by
Ken Ludwig
Directed by
Carl Jordan
Producing Company
6th Street Playhouse
Production Dates
Through Feb 3rd
Production Address
Sixth Street Playhouse
52 W. 6th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Received wisdom has it that a plagiarist copies from one; a genius imitates many. By that standard, playwright Wendy Macleod’s genius rating must be off the chart. In her incisive and savagely funny “The House of Yes,” at Main Stage West in Sebatopol through December 16, are echoes of Chekov, Ibsen, Beckett, and Albee, yet the play is wholly original. A depiction of perhaps the ultimate dysfunctional family, it’s one of the most amazing carnival rides ever undertaken though the dark side of familial relations.
In upper-crust McLean, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, DC) all appears normal in the Pascal home, near the Kennedy residence. Presided over by a bejeweled and perpetually plastered matriarch (Laura Jorgensen), the indolent Pascals have little to do other than drink and snipe at each other. We meet younger son Anthony (Elijah Pinkham), an Ivy League dropout with a lackadaisical Jimmy Stewart demeanor, and his older sister “Jackie-O” (Sharia Pierce), so called because of her obsession with the former First Lady, in particular the former First Lady on the day of her husband’s assassination.
Everything about this production is perfection…
Jackie-O’s personal problems—irrational outbursts, mania, depression, and a pharmacy’s worth of prescription drugs—are the primary focus for Anthony and his mother. Hyperactive with no internal filter, Jackie-O can and will say almost anything, much of it stupendously funny.
It’s a long-running family soap opera, but a minor symptom of a much deeper malaise, as we learn when her twin brother Marty (Sam Coughlin) comes home with his fiancée Lesly (Ilana Nierberger), a sweet and seemingly well-balanced girl from Pennsylvania. She soon realizes that she’s in over her head—way over her head—as Jackie-O reveals that she and Marty have enjoyed a special relationship since they were “in the womb,” one that has continued unabated right into adulthood and that nothing will ever break. Lesly also caves into an inept seduction by Anthony, an act she immediately regrets.
As all this unfolds, we learn that the unseen and presumably departed Mr. Pascal contributed only his fortune to the family, and that his wife was so busy bed-hopping that she isn’t sure who fathered her children.
That’s merely a plot outline. What happens in developing it is so wildly unpredictable and outrageously funny that revealing more would do a disservice to potential ticket buyers.
Everything about this production is perfection: Elizabeth Craven’s stunning set design—stark black-and-white hyper-modern art—and Missy Weaver’s moody lighting, are a perfect complement to Macleod’s deeply disturbing comedy—one accurately described by MSW’s John Craven as “funny until it isn’t funny anymore.” Performances range from subdued to over-the-top, but always appropriate and perfectly timed.
“The House of Yes” is easily one of the best productions in the North Bay this year, the sort of rabbit hole that theatergoers venture into all too rarely. It’s exhilarating, shocking, hilarious, and deadly—a ten-star show on a five-star scale. Simply brilliant.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com
Production
Swallow
Written by
Stef Smith
Directed by
Missy Weave
Producing Company
Main Stage West
Production Dates
Through Jan 27th
Production Address
Main Stage West
104 N Main St
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Calling a Cirque du Soleil production “a spectacle” is a bit like calling the Grand Canyon “a big ravine.” Reviewers’ standard superlatives—“tremendous,” “incredible,” “fantastic,” etc—fall far short of describing the scope of talents and risks taken in a typical Cirque show.
“Volta” is the 19th Cirque production to visit San Francisco. At AT&T Park through February 3, the show follows company protocol in avoiding the use and exploitation of animals, but once it gets underway no one in the audience will care that there’s nary a lion or tiger in sight. The dramatic setup is a loosely-organized talent competition—the “Mr. Wow Show”—that somewhat spoofs TV programs such as “America’s Got Talent.”
The talent-show thread gets inexplicably lost somewhere before intermission. No problem: the assorted acts that make up “Volta” are so amazing that there’s no need for dramatic structure. World-class acrobats, tumblers, trampolinists, BMX cyclists, ballet dancers, and more rollout onto the large stage in succession so rapid that at times several acts overlap one another.
“Volta” is a show with appeal for everyone who appreciates the extremes that humans can achieve…
It’s been noted that Cirque du Soleil is where former college gymnasts go to extend their careers. Their abilities and confidence pay homage to long years of training. It’s easy to understand how someone becomes an expert on the unicycle or the trampoline, but there is one act in “Volta” that provokes bafflement: Where does one learn to be a hair suspension aerialist? In “Mirage,” Brazil’s Danila Bim does a riveting aerial dance far above the stage floor, suspended only by her hair, pulled up into a tight braid connected to a cable in the apex of the big top. Her act isn’t the most dynamic—the trampolinists, tumblers, and stunt cyclists have the edge there—but it’s certainly the most beautiful and the most exotic. A perfect blend of intention, strength, and serenity, “Mirage” is ideally positioned as the high point of Act 2.
Traditional circus arts aren’t ignored in “Volta”—there is plenty of clowning, although never a small car unpacking two dozen unseen passengers. The audience also gets to see a scary performance on the “Swiss rings”—a swinging version of the still rings in men’s gymnastics. Also called the “flying rings,” the apparatus was once part of Olympic competition and now has very few adherents outside the circus. Keep an eye on the catwalk from which the rings are suspended. It sways quite a bit when the performers swing out over the edge of the stage.
There are many close calls in “Volta,” particularly in the closing segment with what seems like a dozen bike riders performing tricks simultaneously. The danger is part of the thrill for the audience—and presumably, part of the appeal for the performers—but given its seemingly high potential for disaster, Cirque du Soleil has a low injury rate. “Volta” is a show with appeal for everyone who appreciates the extremes that humans can achieve even if for no higher purpose than sheer exhilaration and the satisfaction of knowing that they can do things that few others can equal.
“Volta” runs through February 3 in San Francisco, then moves to San Jose through March 24. It’s an astounding production. With two shows per day on many dates, there is certainly one that will fit in your busy winter holiday schedule. Don’t miss it.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
Bay Area Musicals has opened its fourth season with a tremendously energetic production of “Crazy for You” at the beautiful Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco, through December 16.
On a stunningly versatile set by Kuo-Hao Lo, the Ken Ludwig/Mike Ockrent reworking of the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney song-and-dance film “Girl Crazy” features music by George and Ira Gershwin, including many tunes that long ago entered the Great American Songbook as pop and jazz standards: “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Embraceable You,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Naughty Baby,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” and “Nice Work if You Can Get It”—all backed by a superb seven-piece backstage band.
It’s all good fun in this quick-paced two-hour musical, with ensemble work that borders on astounding.
The setup is a classic boy-meets-girl scenario in which Bobby, the boy, (Conor DeVoe) avoids his wealthy but overbearing fiancé Irene (Morgan Peters) by leaving New York on his mother’s orders to take over a defunct theater in a small Nevada town. There he meets Polly (Danielle Altizio), the toughest gal in the West, and the daughter of the theater’s owner. Subverting his mother’s wishes, they hatch a plan to revive the theater, leveraging the hitherto untapped talents of the local layabouts as well as a bevy of dancing girls from the Zangler Follies, who miraculously descend on the town in time to put on a spectacular show. The storyline includes more happenstance love affairs than a Shakespearean comedy, at least one protracted bit of mistaken identity, and a happy-ever-after ending.
The cast of “Crazy for You” at work, Alcazar Theater, San Francisco.
It’s all good fun in this quick-paced two-hour musical, with ensemble work that borders on astounding. There’s some fine comic acting and plenty of great dancing, especially an abundance of tap (choreography by Matthew McCoy and Danielle Cheiken, who include much of Susan Stroman’s Broadway original). The performers’ singing isn’t quite up to their high level of dancing, but with the backing of a great band it’s adequate to keep the show rolling along while doing justice to the Gershwins’ marvelous music.
The renovated structure housing the Alcazar is a star in its own right, with an ornate exterior that belies the austerity of a simple white interior festooned with modern and contemporary art. It’s as if the theater resides inside an upscale gallery. Art fans and those with an eye for interior design will be as smitten with the Alcazar as ticketholders will be with “Crazy for You.” It’s a real crowd pleaser.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
Crazy for You
Written by
Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Book by Ken Ludwig
Directed by
Matthew McCoy
Producing Company
Bay Area Musicals
Production Dates
Thru December 16th
Production Address
Alcazar Theatre
650 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
It could be argued that few things in life are more worth having than a hearty laugh. If you’re partial to this school of thought, then “Hand to God,” playing now at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre through November 11th, could easily be the most rewarding thing you do this weekend.
Jason (Dean Linnard) is a nice young Christian boy who obeys his mother and the Bible. But everything goes to Hell – perhaps literally – when his hand puppet, “Tyrone,” takes on a startling personality of his own. Tyrone is the polar opposite of his meek and socially awkward puppeteer: loud and obnoxious, wildly vulgar, and jaw-droppingly crude.
What Jason’s mother Margery (Melissa Claire) at first mistakes as a harmless, albeit bizarre, vaudevillian routine soon proves to be something more sinister. Could her son’s unsettling puppet be possessed by the devil?
Linnard and puppet at work in “Hand to God”
Linnard’s performance is nothing short of brilliant. His uncanny ability to switch so convincingly between two diametrically opposed characters at lightning speed – all while effectively maneuvering his right-hand companion – makes it a little too easy to forget Tyrone is really just a puppet.
Director Chris Ginesi has staged an expertly executed and grossly entertaining experience for theatergoers…”
The caliber of Linnard’s performance would easily make him the standout if he weren’t on stage with such a talented group of actors. There is not a weak link in the bunch; their chemistry is excellent and their timing impeccable. The sheer absurdity of the subject matter is made only more hilarious by the intensity and physicality with which they bring it all to life.
Kraines and Claire at work at Left Edge Theatre
Claire is hysterical as Margery, an unraveling widow struggling to distract herself by teaching puppetry to unenthusiastic children in the local church’s basement. Carl Kraines is superb as Pastor Greg, earning as much pity as laughter for his awkward advances toward Margery.
Neil Thollander is a perfect fit for secretly sensitive, bad-boy Timmy, and Chandler Parrott-Thomas adds a touch of much-needed normalcy as Jessica. She surprises us in the end, however, with a heroic act of puppetry guaranteed to make audience members blush.
Director Chris Ginesi has staged an expertly executed and grossly entertaining experience for theatergoers craving something unconventional. Rife with clever dialogue and R-rated humor, the script explores some darker themes without compromising the explosive laughs, turning even the most shocking moments into serious fun. From puppet sex to pedophilia, playwright Robert Askins dares go where others won’t, and the result is thought-provoking comic gold.
Argo Thompson’s ingenious set transitions with ease from classroom to playground and from bedroom to office. His stage is a living entity all its own, much like the puppet it falls prey to in a memorably elaborate set change featuring decapitated Barbie dolls and bloody handprints. The scene plays like a childhood game of “Spot the Differences in These Two Pictures.” Be sure to take in all the thoughtful touches. If the devil is really in the details, Thompson, too, may be possessed.
ASR reviewer Nicole Singley is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
Charles Addams’s “altogether spooky” Addams Family has been deeply ingrained in American culture since the debut of the 1960s television sitcom—so deeply ingrained and so successful that it spawned an imitator TV series (“The Munsters”), at least two movies, and at least one musical. A tremendous version of this last venture runs through October 28 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park.
In the musical, the family—Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Grandma, Pugsley, and their butler Lurch—are all as we recall them, but daughter Wednesday (Emma LeFever) has become a cranky self-directed teenager. Worse, she has fallen for a straight, normal boy, much to the dismay and disapproval of her family. This classic setup-with-a-twist is rife with conflict, exploited to the max in every scene, song, and dance.
“Addams Family, a New Musical” is a dazzling bit of theater.
Director Carl Jordan gets wonderful performances from the large cast, especially from Peter T. Downey as irrepressible patriarch Gomez, and from Serena Elize Flores as his slinky seductive wife Mortica. The frenetic Erik Weiss is his over-the-top best as Uncle Fester, also serving as the show’s narrator.
Serena Flores and Peter Downey as Mortica and Gomez – Photo by Jeff Thomas
Mario Herrera is a total surprise as Pugsley, Wednesday’s withdrawn younger brother. Herrera stuns when he steps out of the shadows for his big solo song. Cooper Bennet gives a very natural and sympathetic interpretation of the character of Lucas Beineke, Wednesday’s boyfriend. Larry Williams and Morgan Harrington are equally good as his parents Mal and Alice, with a couple of breakout moments of musical comedy.
Emma LeFever at work as Wednesday – Photo by Jeff Thomas
Elizabeth Bazzano’s and Eddy Hansen’s gorgeously ornate set occupies the entirety of the big stage, matched in its aspirations by Pamela J. Johnson’s costumes and Michella Snider’s choreography. In the cast are also a dozen or so “ancestors” (as they are called in the program)—a chorus of extras who embody spirits and other unworldly creatures associated with the Addams. They’re all very effective and mostly delightful to watch.
Lucas Sherman’s superb eleven-piece orchestra drives the show, most of it conveyed by beautifully delivered song.
The core conflict — Will Gomez and Mortica accept Wednesday’s love for a boy from the wrong side of the graveyard? — carries the first act aloft. It’s like watching a magnificent hot-air balloon rise to a great height—imagine the penultimate scene in “The Wizard of Oz”—while the second act is like watching that same balloon settle slowly back to earth, a rise-and-fall written into the script. Even if the ultimate settling doesn’t make you leave the theater with a song in your heart, in total “Addams Family, a New Musical” is a dazzling bit of theater.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
A seemingly innocuous statement made at a celebratory dinner party has unexpected ramifications in Christopher Chen’s “You Mean to Do Me Harm,” at San Francisco Playhouse through Nov. 3.
So does just about everything spoken or thought by the four characters in this baffling one-act workshopped last year as part of the Playhouse’s “Sandbox” series. Now given a full production in the company’s main theater, the piece opens strongly with two interracial couples meeting to celebrate an impending new job for Ben (Cassidy Brown), whose Chinese-American wife Samantha (Charisse Loriaux) was promoted over him at social-good non-profit. His new boss will be a Chinese-American named Daniel (Jomar Tagatac), whose spouse, Lindsay (Katie Rubin) is a corporate lawyer who briefly dated Ben in college.
A comment about a camping trip they took some ten years earlier opens a Pandora’s Box of florid and sometimes paranoid fantasies that impinge on every aspect of professional and interpersonal relationships. Racism—private/personal and historical/institutional—is a strong theme.
… The piece opens strongly …
Played out on an austere but imposing set by Angrette McClosky, the urbane banter of the four exposes character flaws and motivations that threaten the stability of their relationships. The job offer for Ben is inexplicably withdrawn. This launches a series of sketches that examine in detail both the outer and inner realities of all four characters.
Harm-Charisse Loriaux and Cassidy Brown as Samantha and Ben – Photo by Ken Levin
These sketches tend to be vicious—especially a shouting match between Ben and Lindsay—but there is one of the two women with a confessional/conspiratorial tone approaching friendship.
The sketch structure is both too little and too much for this 90-minute show: two little in that there are insufficient dramatic/character arcs and too much in the sense that each sketch could be expanded. It’s as if Chen has opened up his notebook and thrown everything onstage that these four characters could do with each other, without considering the ultimate trajectory of the play. The setup is compelling but dramatic development lacking: plenty of conflict, no resolution.
“You Mean to Do Me Harm” begins and ends abruptly and looks very much like an early-stage Netflix series in which each sketch could be developed into a full episode. Director Bill English and his expert cast try mightily to breathe life into it, but as an evening’s entertainment, it’s an interesting but ultimately unfulfilling bit of theater.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Michael Stewart’s and Jerry Herman’s classic American musical “Hello, Dolly” is enjoying a delightful revival at Sonoma Arts Live in the town of Sonoma, through October 21.
Starring Dani Innocenti-Beem as Dolly Gallagher Levi, the widowed yenta suprema of New York City and environs, the show is a feel-good piece of Americana. In some ways “Dolly” is the companion piece to Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man”—the two are set in the same era and share the sort of gentle humor that pokes fun at characters and circumstances without subjecting them to vicious ridicule.
Dani Innocenti-Beem at work as Dolly.
Dolly is the story’s fairy godmother character—she propels all the action with constant well-intended intervention in the affairs of others, but doesn’t have much of a character arc of her own. The lead role gives Innocenti-Beem many of the show’s best songs—including the heart-rending “Before the Parade Passes By”—and most of its funny lines, at least a few of them ad-libs on the part of the irrepressibly funny actress-singer.
Overall, this “Dolly” is beautifully done, with enormous energy from the cast and spectacular costumes…
The charming Tim Setzer shines in the role of Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy merchant in need of a wife. Dolly’s persuasive powers convince him that his quest will be fulfilled in New York, and when he goes into the city from Yonkers his two inept clerks Cornelius and Barnaby (Michael Scott Wells and Lorenzo Alviso, respectively) follow him. In the city, the penniless fools pretend to be rich in the hope of meeting girls.
Much comic confusion ensues but thanks to Dolly they get their wish—a hat shop owner named Irene Molloy (Danielle DeBow) and her assistant Minnie (ScharyPearl Fugitt). So does Vandergelder, who ultimately lands not the widowed heiress he had anticipated, but the matchmaker herself.
The cast of “Hello Dolly” at work.
With a huge nineteen-member cast, the show is both romantic comedy with multiple couplings and a comedic free-for-all with plenty of big production numbers that may not do much to propel the plot but offer plenty of entertainment value. Late in the show, real-life husband-and-wife Wells and DeBow perform a sweet duet made more meaningful by their obvious love for each other. It’s a moment that will prompt tears from even the most cynical viewers.
Overall, this “Dolly” is beautifully done, with enormous energy from the cast and spectacular costumes by Janis Snyder. Opening night was marred by technical glitches with the sound. We’ve been assured by multiple sources that these problems have been solved, and that the results are exemplary. Why this wasn’t done during technical rehearsals is a mystery, but it’s good to know that for the remainder of its run this show will be delivered at the high level it deserves.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
Production
My Fair Lady!
Written by
Book by Alan Jay Lerner. Music and Lyrics by Lerner & Frederick Loewe.
Directed by
Michael Ross
Producing Company
Sonoma Arts Live
Production Dates
Thru July 28th
Production Address
Rotary Stage: Andrews Hall, Sonoma Community Center
276 E. Napa Street, Sonoma
Marin Theatre Company has extended through October 28 its stunning production of “Oslo,” directed by MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis.
A west coast premiere of J.T. Rogers’s Tony Award winner, MTC’s production is an all-star effort revealing the backstory of 1993’s Oslo Accords that offered hope of lasting peace between Israel and Palestine. In a heartbreaking coda, “Oslo” also brings that portentous development into the present, with a recitation of what became of those involved in the discussions, and of many tragic events that followed, scuttling the promise of the agreement.
It’s a consistently riveting drama despite its nearly three-hour length. Imagine a PBS historical mini-series compressed into one evening. The core story centers on Norwegian husband-and-wife team Terje Rod-Larsen and Mona Juul (Mark Anderson Phillips and Erica Sullivan, both excellent), who work behind the scenes to get Israelis and Palestinians to begin talking. Rod-Larsen is an advocate of “gradualism,” getting representatives of the two sides to recognize their common humanity through personal small talk that later leads to serious negotiation.
Everything about this show is top-rung: script, performance, pacing, set, sound, lighting..
In the historically accurate retelling, Mona Juul is actually a member of the Norwegian foreign service, but Rod-Larsen has no official standing, and what they do has only the most reluctant approval from her top boss, Johan Jorgen Holst (Charles Shaw Robinson), all of it kept secret, especially from meddling Americans. The larger story is the tentative and contentious discussions, first between Palestine Liberation Organization officials Ahmed Qurie (J. Paul Nicholas) and Hassan Asfour (Ashkon Devaran) and two Israeli economics professors, who have no official status.
PLO Finance Minister Ahmed Qurie (J. Paul Nicholas, left) speaks with Israeli Director-General of the Foreign Ministry Uri Savir (Paris Hunter Paul) while Norwegian mediators Terje Rød-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips) and Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan) look on. Photo: Kevin Berne, Marin Theatre Company
This segues into negotiations with real Israeli heavyweights, lawyer Joel Singer (Peter James Myers) and Uri Savir (Paris Hunter Paul), negotiations that range from friendly and familial to near-fistfights. Throughout it all, Rod-Larsen works to keep them all on track, exercising an incredible amount of self-control and diplomatic skill, an astounding job of acting by Phillips.
Erica Sullivan steps out of character at many points in the story to address the audience directly, describing what has happened between scenes or at locations unseen by the audience. She has rock-solid temperament throughout, both in and out of character.
Norwegian mediators Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan, left) and husband Terje Rød-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips) speak with Israel and the PLO. Photo: Kevin Berne, Marin Theatre Company
Veteran actress Marcia Pizzo appears in several roles, including as a member of the Norwegian diplomatic corps and as the sweetly beguiling Toril Grandpal, whose waffles seduce everyone at the negotiating table.
Sean Fanning’s deceptively simple set is perfect as the several locations in which the story plays out—a hotel in Oslo, offices in Tel Aviv and Tunis—with an unexpected reveal as a light snow storm through which Qurie and Savir stroll in a moment approaching friendship. Everything about this show is top-rung: script, performance, pacing, set, sound, lighting. Best of all is that it gives the audience plenty of substance to mull over in the days following a performance. “Oslo” is a show that should be on every serious theatergoer’s must-see list for the month of October.
ASR Theatre Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.
When I started Aisle Seat Review almost a decade ago, I wasn’t at all sure how long our run would be. But I was damned determined that we would give it our absolute best. And now, after all this time and over five hundred posts, it’s time to “Turn off the ghost light” and wrap the show.
Kris Neely
No tears for Mimi’s death at the end of Puccini’s La Bohème Sunday afternoon? Because everyone in the cast of Pocket Opera was having such a raucous good time on the small stage of the Hillside Club in Berkeley!
Nicole Singley is a Senior Contributing Writer and Editor at Aisle Seat Review and a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Association, and the American Theatre Critics Association.
