Tag: Los Altos Stage Company

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PICK ASR! ~~ Worth Waiting for is LASC’s “Waiting for Godot”

By Joanne Engelhardt

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

 

ProductionWaiting for Godot
Written bySamuel Beckett
Directed byGary Landis
Producing CompanyLos Altos Stage Co.
Production DatesThru Sept. 29th
Production Address97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA
Websitelosaltosstage.org
Telephone650.941.0551
Tickets$28-$51
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4.75/5
Performance4.75/5
Script4.75/5
Stagecraft4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?YES!
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PICK ASR Theater! ~~ LASC’s Fabulous “Young Frankenstein” is Monstrous Laughs!

By Joanne Engelhardt

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

 

ProductionYoung Frankenstein
Written byMel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Music-Lyrics by M. brooks.
Directed byMorgan Dayley
Producing CompanyLos Altos Stage Co.
Production DatesThru June 23rd
Production Address97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA
Websitelosaltosstage.org
Telephone650.941.0551
Tickets$22-$45
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4.75/5
Performance4.75/5
Script4.75/5
Stagecraft4.5/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?YES!
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ASR Theater ~~ LASC’s “Heroes” a Difficult Play

By Joanne Engelhardt

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

 

ProductionHeros of the Fourth Turning
Written byWill Arbery
Directed byGary Landis
Music byMatthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin
Producing CompanyLos Altos Stage Co.
Production DatesThru Feb 18th
Production Address97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA
Websitelosaltosstage.org
Telephone650.941.0551
Tickets$25-$48
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4.25/5
Performance4.50/5
Script4.50/5
Stagecraft4.25/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?-------
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ASR Theater ~~ A 6’2” Elf Captures Hearts In LASC’s “Elf The Musical”

By Joanne Engelhardt

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

 

ProductionElf, The Musical
Written byBob Martin and Thomas Meehan
Directed bySara K. Dean
Music byMatthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin
Producing CompanyLos Altos Stage Co.
Production DatesThru Dec. 23rd
Production Address97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA
Websitelosaltosstage.org
Telephone650.941.0551
Tickets$22-$45
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall3.75/5
Performance4.25/5
Script3.5/5
Stagecraft3.25/5
Aisle Seat Review PICK?----
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ASR Theater ~~ Pointillism on Point in LASC’s “Sunday in the Park with George”

By Joanne Engelhardt

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 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

 

ProductionSunday in the Park with George
Music & Lyrics byStephen Sondheim
Book byJames LaPine
Directed byAlex Perez
Producing CompanyLos Altos Stage Company
Production DatesThru June 25th
Production AddressBus Barn 97 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos
Websitewww.losaltosstage.org
Telephone(650) 941-0551
Tickets$20 - $40
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall3.5/5
Performance3/5
Script3/5
Stagecraft3.5/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?----