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.
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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!
-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
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!”
-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
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.
-30-
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
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.”
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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!
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-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: 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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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."
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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!
-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
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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!
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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!
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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!
-30-
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
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!
-30-
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!
-30-
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.
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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!
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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?
-30-
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!
-30-
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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.)
-30-
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
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.
-30–
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?"
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
-30-
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
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.
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.”
-30-
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.
***
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.”
-30-
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!
-30-
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
“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
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
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.
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.
The owners of a down-on-its-luck family winery panic while awaiting the appearance of a feared critic in “The Tasting Room,” at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through August 12.
Taylor Bartolucci and Danielle DeBow star as sisters Rebecca and Emily Lusch (“loosh”), proprietors of the Lusch Family Winery, a fictional establishment in the Napa Valley. Their lackadaisical morning routine is interrupted by the appearance of Sid Taylor (Michael Scott Wells), a scout for a publication called “The Wine Fanatic,” home of dreaded curmudgeon Elbert Fleeman (Michael TRoss), a critic who has consistently underrated Lusch products and may have some secret knowledge about the winery’s history.
Playwright and director Barry Martin is confidently understated as cynical salesman and “wine educator” Tony Spicolli, and Tim Setzer has a brilliant cameo as a wine-country tourist trying to cover the entire valley in a few short days. Drawing on plot elements from sources as diverse as “Rattatouie,” “Waiting for Guffman,” and “Bottle Shock,” the show is a quick-paced farce in which almost everything that can go wrong does go wrong. All the action plays out in a simply-conceived natural wood tasting room (set design also by Martin), with little need for set or prop changes.
‘The Tasting Room’ … works perfectly as a stand-alone show.
Bartolucci has the lion’s share of funny lines, most delivered with inebriated weariness—as in her dismissal of the tourist as “a guy who probably does a podcast out of his cellar.” DeBow plays it mostly straight as her strictly-business sibling, as does Ross, who comes in late in the second act to taste randomized samples. Martin has a lot of fun exploiting his character’s dislike for customers, punctuated by frequent trips to the bathroom, a result of gastronomic indiscretion. Michael Scott Wells portrays Sid Taylor as a cringing nebbish who lives in his boss’s shadow, and has surprisingly little interest in wine. He is, however, very interested in Emily, and this secondary plot helps lift the production in spots where the primary plot sags. There isn’t much of that, and this show largely sails along brilliantly.
“The Tasting Room” has room for refinement and the addition of other characters and plot elements—it’s very much like an energetic pilot episode for a promising sitcom, but works perfectly as a stand-alone show. With frequent moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, it’s a wine country insider production with appeal broad enough for everyone.
ASR Theater Section Editor and Senior Contributor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle.
Production
The Tasting Room
Written by
Barry Martin
Directed by
Barry Martin
Producing Company
Lucky Penny Productions
Production Dates
Through August 12th
Production Address
Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
1969 was a pivotal year in the United States. The Vietnam War was approaching its peak, as was opposition to it at home. The civil rights and women’s movements grew more intense by the week. In late July, the first astronaut walked on the moon, and shortly thereafter a half-million music fans showed up at a farm near Woodstock, NY, for what would be the defining cultural moment of the decade.
All of this figures into “A Walk on the Moon,” at ACT through July 1. It’s a beguiling tale of a Jewish housewife’s late-in-life coming of age through an accidental encounter with a hippie peddler. Katie Brayben stars as Pearl Kantrowitz, a young mother from Flatbush, whose family traditionally spends a few idyllic summer weeks at a resort in the Catskills with friends and neighbors, all of whom, save Pearl’s rebellious adolescent daughter Alison (Brigid O’Brien), are still very much in the 1950s.
Marty and Pearl – Jonah Platt and Katie Brayben in “A Walk on the Moon” at ACT
Pearl’s TV-repairman husband Marty (Jonah Platt) can’t stay with them as much as he would prefer because business is booming at the repair shop where he works , in anticipation of the moon landing. Pearl spends idle moments hanging out with Walker (Zak Resnick), a local free spirit who sells blouses out of his camper van. Their friendship blossoms and culminates in a psychedelic adventure during the music festival, mirroring a less-intense affair that Alison has with a charming guitar-playing boy named Ross (Nick Sacks).
The story covers a short period in social history but a huge episode in Pearl’s life. She was, as she describes it, almost a child bride—one who went from high school to motherhood with no developmental period in between. Walker, and the ideas he shares with her, are Pearl’s forbidden fruit, and like Eve in Genesis Chapter 3, her eyes are opened.
Pearl and Walker – Katie Brayben and Zak Resnick at ACT
The verdant setting of the “bungalow colony” feels almost like Eden as realized by scenic designer Donyale Werle, and Tal Yarden’s astoundingly immersive projections go a long way toward encompassing the heady events of the late 1960s. Stagecraft at ACT is almost always beyond reproach, but this production is among the company’s most spectacular. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
“A Walk on the Moon’ is a flawless, must-see production.
Developed by Pamela Gray from the 1990s movie of the same name, “A Walk on the Moon” beautifully evokes a period whose effects still resonate almost fifty years later. The music by Paul Scott Goodman, with additional lyrics by Gray, gets the ‘60s feel just right while sounding totally contemporary. The entire cast is superb but Brayben takes her performance completely over the moon (sorry) with all-consuming dramatic conviction, fantastic dancing, and stunning vocals. It’s one of the most complete and fully engaged performances you’re likely to see this year.
“A Walk on the Moon” is a flawless, must-see production. Its only drawback is that it isn’t running all summer.
ASR Theater Section Editor and Senior Writer: Barry Willis
Barry Willis is ASR’s Theater Section Editor and a Sr. Contributor at Aisle Seat Review. He is also 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
“A Walk on the Moon” by Pamela Gray; Music by Paul Scott Goodman; Directed by Sheryl Kaller
Through July 1: Tuesday– Saturday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 2 p.m.
American Conservatory Theater Geary Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA
“Good. Better. Best. Bested.” at Custom Made Theater
It’s a normal night of gambling and drunken debauchery on the Las Vegas strip until a catastrophic event half a world away sends shockwaves rippling through the crowded streets of Nevada’s most infamous and alluring destination.
Jonathan Spector’s elaborately-woven satire – at Custom Made Theatre through July 7th – crashes the party and bears witness to the aftermath in a series of revealing vignettes. Making its world premiere at this intimate San Francisco venue, “Good. Better. Best. Bested.” is co-produced by Custom Made Theatre Co. and Spector’s own Berkeley-based company, Just Theater.
From magicians, prostitutes, gamblers, and bachelorette parties to costume-clad street performers and obnoxious, selfie-snapping tourists, this 90-minute, nonstop show darts back and forth between characters and storylines offering glimpses into the lives of recognizable Las Vegas fixtures. We watch their night unfold in the wake of devastating news, following along as they struggle to process and react to an unexpected buzz-kill of epic proportions. Can the party continue amid the chaos and confusion, or will doom and gloom prevail?
Jessica Lea Risco delivers a strong and nuanced performance as hired escort Simone, holed up uncomfortably in a hotel room with nervous would-be customer Alan (Gabriel Montoya) when the bad news hits.
Gabriel Montoya and Jessica Lea Risco at Custom Made.
Lauren Andrei Garcia shines as ditzy drama-queen Sue, determined to salvage her bachelorette festivities by any means possible. Tim Garcia nails an impressive, lightning-paced monologue riddled with more casino-friendly terminology than a copy of Gambling for Dummies. He is excellent as frenetic 17-year-old Sheldon, keeping his broke father Walter (David Sinaiko) afloat with handouts from his winnings.
Mick Mize is equally capable in dual roles as disenchanted stage magician Jordan and an inebriated, skirt-chasing tourist (“The Bro”) evoking blurry memories of frat-house parties past. Millie Brooks provides comic relief as Sue’s beleaguered best friend Marla, along for the wild ride whether she likes it or not.
Millie Brooks and Mick Mize at Custom Made.
Director Lauren English succeeds beautifully in bringing the humor and humanity of Spector’s script to life. A less talented group of actors may have made it difficult to see the same faces assuming so many roles, but the cast switches gears seamlessly and convincingly, making it surprisingly easy to forget that the drunken playboy hitting on our hapless bride-to-be was a magician only moments earlier. Noteworthy sound design by Jaren Feeley adds much to the overall production quality, with the well-timed entrances of voices swelling in the background and cellphone sound effects so realistic that members of the audience were seen reaching to check their own devices.
It’s an entertaining, fast-moving, emotional roller coaster of a production, shifting effectively between episodes eliciting side-splitting laughter, serious reflection, shock, and horror, all punctuated by an uneasy sense of sadness and despair that looms over even some of the most awkward and laugh-out-loud moments in this multi-dimensional comedy.
Spector has crafted his characters with empathy and depth, exploiting their flaws when it suits his purpose, but not at the expense of making them both relatable and compelling. “Good. Better. Best. Bested.” is a thought-provoking journey into the heart of Sin City and humankind at large, underlining the fragility of the ever-fleeting here and now.
Nicole Singley is a Contributor to Aisle Seat Review.
“Good. Better. Best. Bested.” by Jonathan Spector
Custom Made Theatre Co., 533 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Adapted from the stories of popular 20th-century humorist P.G. Wodehouse, “Jeeves Intervenes” brings lovable playboy Bertie Wooster and his ever-sensible manservant to the stage for new adventures in London’s 1920s haut monde. Paying homage to Wodehouse’s keen ability for satire, Margaret Raether’s script takes comedic aim at England’s strait-laced elite, weaving an entertaining web of elaborate scheming, pretense, and old-fashioned farce. The Sonoma Arts Live production, playing now through May 27th, is good for a few big laughs and an evening of light-hearted fare.
Bertie (Delaney Brummé) enjoys a life of leisurely bachelorhood, relying on his aunt’s financial support and loyal valet Jeeves (the excellent Randy St. Jean) to keep him out of constant trouble. When domineering Aunt Agatha (Jennie Brick) comes to town with plans to pressure Bertie into marriage, it’s up to quick-thinking Jeeves to rescue his charge from the unwanted union with up-and-coming socialite Gertie (Libby Oberlin).
Meanwhile, Bertie’s old school mate Eustace, aka “Bassy” (Nick Moore), is dreading the arrival of a disapproving uncle who intends to ship him off to a job in India. Having never worked a day in his life – and desperately hoping to change his overbearing benefactor’s mind – Bassy must convince Sir Rupert (Larry Williams) that he’s built a suitable life for himself in London. (Spoiler alert: he hasn’t.)
Can blundering Bassy escape a life of labor abroad without lifting a finger or losing his allowance? Is our steadfast bachelor doomed to go through life as the unpalatable “Bertie and Gertie?” Cue the shenanigans and enter Jeeves to save the day. Deception multiplies, new love blossoms, sparks fly, and old flames reignite as our clever hero works his magic behind the scenes.
St. Jean carries the show with his levelheaded demeanor, reserved sarcasm, and efficacious intonation. He is the picture of a proper gentleman’s gentleman, charming the audience with his dry wit and subtle, all-knowing expressions. Moore’s Bassy is marked by an appropriate air of highfalutin laziness and clumsy tomfoolery, which earns some laughs and helps to sell his character. Oberlin is a good fit for debutante Gertie, with a winning smile and youthful exuberance well suited to the task of whipping wayward young men into matrimonial shape.
“Jeeves Intervenes”
Brick and Williams are competent in their roles, though more believable as meddling relatives than former paramours. A lack of chemistry lessens the excitement we want to feel for their romance. Brummé’s otherwise able performance is regrettably overshadowed by a jarring vocal gimmick, which oversteps the boundary between funny and obnoxious and, at times, obscures the actor’s lines. Cracking into a shrill pitch with awkward regularity, his delivery feels more appropriate for a pubescent schoolboy than a suave womanizer in high society. It’s an unfortunate distraction from Raether’s witty dialogue, but the physicality of the comedy is often enough to overcome any confusion about what’s happening on-stage.
The production is enhanced by Carl Jordan’s colorful set and Moira McGovern’s period-appropriate musical selections. Eric Jackson’s costumes are mostly a hit, though Gertie’s outfits often (and perhaps deliberately) upstage the other characters’.
Despite its faults, the show evokes a pleasant nostalgia for eras past with its slapstick humor and whimsical characters. The mischief concludes with the satisfaction of a happy ending, all thanks, of course, to the intervention of our hero.
Nicole Singley is a Contributor to Aisle Seat Review.
“Jeeves Intervenes” by Margaret Raether, adapted from the works of P.G. Wodehouse
Sonoma Arts Live
Rotary Stage in Andrews Hall at the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E Napa St, Sonoma, CA 95476
“Neoteny” is a scientific term for the persistence of immature characteristics in mature organisms: adult dogs with the look and behavior of puppies, for example. By extension, it could be applied to a large swath of the thirty-something population, many of whom seem to have reached their limit of social development in middle school.
It’s also a strong sub-theme in “An Entomologist’s Love Story,” at San Francisco Playhouse through June 23. Expertly directed by Giovanna Sardelli, Melissa Ross’s tight, insightful script examines the relationship of Betty and Jeff (Lori Prince and Lucas Verbrugghe), two doctoral candidates who work together in the entomology department of the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
SF Playhouse: Lucas Verbrugghe and Lori Prince
Briefly lovers during their undergrad days, the two now enjoy a playful relationship like teenage brother and sister. Their nerdy banter is the source of much of Ross’s comedy—much of it true-to-life proof that “thirty is the new thirteen.” Betty is an expert on the mating behaviors of insects—the play is bracketed by her lectures on the subject—but is obsessed with the mating behaviors of humans, an activity with which she has had much experience but no longterm success. She clings to Jeff, who clearly wants to move on, but doesn’t know how.
Lindsay (Jessica Lynn Carroll, right) shows an insect specimen to Jeff (Lucas Verbrugghe).
Then one day he meets Lindsay (Jessica Lynn Carroll), a young woman geekier by far than he and Betty combined, and soon he knows she’s the girl for him. How to break away from Betty is his challenge, and dealing with that is hers. Then life throws her a curve ball in the form of an intellectual janitor named Andy (Will Springhorn, Jr.), who’s attended her lectures and has read “War and Peace” in its entirety.
It’s a spare, beautifully structured plot without a hint of fluff. Every line and every action propel the story toward its lovely uplifting conclusion, all of it conveyed on a spectacular set—both interior and exterior of the museum—by Nina Ball, one of the Bay Area’s most gifted and adventurous set designers. This show’s scientific setting and dissection of the personal lives of realistic scientists make it an excellent follow-up to “The Effect,” with its theme of love and research. And love-among-the-nerds makes it a superb companion piece to “Tinderella,” running through May 26 at Custom Made Theatre, in SF Playhouse’s former home on Sutter Street. Hilarious and hopeful, “An Entomologist’s Love Story” is a sweet antidote for what ails 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.
Humanoid artificial intelligence is a long-running popular theme in science fiction, comic books, movies and TV shows—and a burgeoning reality. Major technology companies have already demonstrated believable prototypes. Cyborgs, androids, replicants—call them what you will—they are an inevitability, but theater pieces about them have been glaringly absent from the live performance stage.
That all changes with “Marjorie Prime,” Jordan Harrison’s incisive one-act, in which cyborgs (called “primes”) are therapeutic tools to help people deal with loss—of loved ones, or with memory. At Marin Theatre Company through May 27, the play is set in the near future—lead character Marjorie is an 86-year-old born in 1977—and imagines helpful, realistic androids that take on the appearance, personalities, and mannerisms of the departed. Marjorie (the fantastic Joy Carlin) is a faltering widow whose “prime” is a replica of her husband Walter as a thirty-something young man, portrayed with grace and stealth by Tommy Gorrebeck. Walter Prime provides companionship and fills in the blanks for Marjorie as she reminisces about the past. In doing so, he helps to make the past better for her than it actually may have been. When not engaged, he becomes silent and motionless, very much the way Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri reside in the background, waiting to be summoned.
Marjorie is a burden for her daughter Tess (Julie Eccles) and son-in-law Jon (Anthony Fusco), who provide her care. Their sometimes contentious relationship is also wrought with a problematic past and as the story progresses each of them gains or is replaced by his or her own prime, whose personalities evolve as they gain information. The spare dialog runs the gamut from nonsequitor to profound insight and spans the emotional spectrum from despair to hilarity. Marjorie confounds Tess and Jon with archaic references to a rock band called “ZZ Topp,” which they have never heard of, and quotes a Beyoncé song to their bafflement.
It’s a brilliant concept, and a brilliant script—a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist—superbly delivered by four supremely talented actors under the direction of Ken Rus Schmoll, on a simple modernistic set by Kimie Nishikawa, the passage of time conveyed by a few prop changes and some beautiful projections of summer sky and falling snow. “Marjorie Prime” is a stunning, thought-provoking bit of theater that deserves a sold-out house for each performance. It’s that good.
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
“Marjorie Prime”
Marin Theatre Company 397 Miller Ave. Mill Valley CA 94941
What if Cinderella were alive today, resigned to searching for her kale-munching, kombucha-swilling, flannel shirt-donning prince on an Internet dating app, adrift in a sea of creepy stalkers and unsolicited ‘dick pics?’
Running through May 26th at San Francisco’s Custom Made Theatre Co., modern musical “Tinderella” puts a wildly entertaining spin on an age-old classic, thrusting our beloved Disney princess into the harsh realities of 21st-century online dating. FaultLine Theater has partnered with Custom Made for the world premiere of a brilliant show three years in the making, attracting a remarkably young, enthusiastic audience with a story acutely relevant to millennials and Bay Area living, and poking plenty of fun at our newfound reliance on all things digital. (Boomers, be warned – some generational references may be lost in translation.)
Tinderella: Dylan & Meg
Once upon a time, (shortly after the release of the iPhone 5, but before the release of the iPhone 5C, we’re told), our princess Meg (Juliana Lustenader) naively yearns for the fairy-tale romance she grew up believing she was destined for. Her ordinary life feels inadequate when measured against the glamorous Facebook facades of her social media-savvy stepsisters, whose virtual personas exude the confidence and fulfillment Meg aspires to. But when gay fairy-god-roommate Dylan (the magnificent Branden Noel Thomas) introduces her to popular dating app Tinder, it seems as though her luck may be about to change. “If you’re straight, hot, and white,” he tells her, “Tinder is like magic, (more or less).”
Tinderella: Julie & Marcus
Meanwhile, in couples’ land, Julie (the exquisite Sarah Jiang) and Marcus (Jackson Thea) are at a crossroads. Marcus wants to settle down with Julie, move to Texas, buy a dog, and crank out a couple of kids. Julie, on the other hand, wants… well, she doesn’t exactly know yet, but she’s pretty sure it isn’t that. She urges him to take a step back and explore other options. Marcus does just that, inviting his new Tinder match Meg to a “super cool party” at his San Francisco apartment. Full of hope, Meg sets out to meet her prince, win his heart, and catch the last BART train back to Oakland before midnight. But in a world where success is measured in “likes” and love is found by “swiping right,” all bets for a happy ending are off.
The cellphone-toting ensemble is well balanced and superbly gifted, and vocal talent abounds. Thomas is dynamic, empathetic, and often hilarious as quesadilla-making, tough-loving Dylan, with a powerful voice and a flair for delivery. In lead roles, Thea and Lustenader are both convincing and cute and remain lovable despite lapses of self-centered blindness.
Tinderella: Selfies with Stepsisters
Adielyn Mendoza and Alex Akin are well cast as New York fashionista Allie and world-traveling, do-gooder Tanya (Meg’s not-so-evil stepsisters). Their excellent voices, though regrettably underutilized, are put to good use in “Picture Perfect” and “Reality Check,” calling out our obsession with ‘selfies’ and the false images of perfection we project online.
Jiang shines in a standout performance as undecided Julie, questioning whether she’s in the best place she can be (“The Best Place”) and ultimately helping lead us to one of the night’s most insightful revelations – that we are all sometimes guilty of forcing others to play a role in our own stories. It takes courage to shed our misguided fairy-tale notions and break free from the pressure to conform. “I’m not giving up on my dreams,” Julie explains to Marcus, “but I’m giving up on yours.” Jiang’s beautiful voice only accentuates her knack for acting and reacting to the other cast members throughout the show.
The production is punctuated by riotous, foot-tapping musical numbers like “Old School Chivalry,” “Slow Grind Love Song,” and “(You’re Gonna) F***ing Rock It.” Weston Scott’s lyrics are funny and sharp, pairing perfectly with Christian B. Schmidt’s hip, vibrant score. Meredith Joelle Charlson’s choreography adds much to the tear-inducing hilarity of lighter-hearted acts. The more solemn, introspective pieces are lovely, too, spotlighting some of the incredible voices on stage.
“Tinderella” is the sexy, hilarious, and highly enjoyable triumph of an immensely talented cast and creative team. You, too, may fall in love at first swipe.
Nicole Singley is a Contributor to Aisle Seat Review.
“Tinderella: The Modern Musical” by Rose Oser, Christian B. Schmidt, and Weston Scott, in partnership with FaultLine Theater
Custom Made Theatre Co., 533 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102
NOTE: The following commentary is focused primarily on the production, direction, and technical aspects of the performing arts.
Tartuffe at B8
A perennial of the comedic stage to this day, Tartuffe (or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite) was first performed in 1664 as a five act play. It is one of the most famous comedies by Molière, who is widely recognized as the ‘father’ of comedic farce. Or at least French farce.
The original version of the play was first staged on May 12, 1664 as part of festivities known as Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée held at a modest venue known as the Palace of Versailles. In more modern times, Gérard Depardieu directed and starred in the title role of Le Tartuffe, the 1984 French film based on this play. And for those with a more musical orientation, composer Kirke Mechem based his opera Tartuffe on the play as well.
In short — it’s a well-travelled piece of theater that unfolds thusly: Devious Monsieur Tartuffe charms his way into Monsieur Orgon’s household. Monsieur Tartuffe schemes to marry Monsieur Orgon’s lovely daughter, seduce Monsieur Orgon’s lovely wife, and run off with all of Monsieur Orgon’s lovely money.
Sacre bleu!
Despite urgent protests about Monsier’s Tartuffe’s evil intents from the all knowing family maid, Monsieur Orgon remains entranced with Monsieur Tartuffe — despite the appalling (and obvious!) evidence of Tartuffe’s behavior(s).
Will Monsieur Orgon see through Monsieur Tartuffe the con man before it’s too late?
Molière spins religious piety and hypocrisy into high comedy in this hilarious and biting satire.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
B8 Theater is to be commended for taking an unlikely physical location (a building which once housed a bank, complete with walk-in vault) and adapting the interiors to the purposes of live theater. That said, their thrust stage configuration does, by necessity, limit their set design options. The set for this show was simple, complimentary, and well rendered by Peet Cocke.
Furniture was basic and complimentary. (Score: 6/10)
Set Construction:
Decent quality given constraints. See “Scenic Design”, above. (Score: 6/10)
Stage Management:
Kourtney Branum’s stage direction ensured timely entrances, light changes, and sound cues. Proficient; especially considering the stage manager is still in college at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA. She has a future ahead of her in stage management. (Score: 5/10)
Sound:
Spare but well rendered. Decent quality effects/music. (Score: 5/10)
Props:
As presented, this show does not require a lot of props. Adequate, uncluttered. (Score: 5/10)
Costumes:
Very nicely done. Other theater companies could (and should) take note of Jeremy Cole’s work. Impressive. (Score: 8/10)
Direction:
Rhyming dialog is always difficult to work with. Particularly when the source material is a couple of centuries old. Cadences differ from one age to another. In this show, the actors sometimes got caught-up in the rhythm to the detriment of the storyline.
On another note, one of the actors was given an accent to use with her character. This was a mistake (a) at this level of theater and (b) given the complex nature of the rhyming dialog. Directors would serve their audience better by being very selective in the use of accents at local or regional theater levels, unless the accent is native (first language) of the actor in question and then only if the actor enunciates and projects properly.
Directing in a ¾ thrust stage has challenges. This director kept the actors moving yet clearly advised them not to be too concerned about, of necessity, having their backs facing one part of the audience or another. We often see actors who are self-conscious in this situation which detracts from the overall performance.
General/overall direction by Jeremy Cole was proficient for this level of theater. (Score: 5.5/10)
Lights:
Functional, basic. Andrea Schwarz took care to see that the ¾ thrust stage was well lit from all perspectives. (Score: 5/10)
Casting:
Better than average casting for a theater at this level. Excellent performance by David Ghilardi as Orgon and Janelle Aguirre as Dorine. Ms. Aguirre’s performance was hampered by the accent selected for her character. This is lamentable especially considering the obvious natural acting talent demonstrated by this actor. (See “Directing”, above.) Michael Craigen as Damis also complimented the cast and show. (Score: 7.5/10)
Overall Production:
A challenging script written (originally in French) in rhyme. A ¾ thrust stage in what used to be a bank. A new theater company. These are usually cues which point ominously to a long night of theater ahead. In the case of B8, this was not the case. Bravo for trying such a challenging piece. Above average casting and costumes helped. (Score: 7/10)
Overall Score: 60/100. See this show.
TARTUFFE presented by B8 Theatre Company
written by Molière, translated by Ranjit Bolt, and directed by Jeremy Cole
CAST
Janelle Aguirre
Michael Craigen
April Culver
Kim Donovan
David Ghilardi
Ryan John
Tavis Kammet
Ann Kendrick
Sam Logan
Emanuel Morales
RUN DATES
April 5 – 21, 2018
RUN LOCATION
B8 Theatre — 2292 Concord Blvd (@ Colfax), Concord, CA
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse has revived the ever-popular classic musical comedy “La Cage aux Folles,” at the G.K. Hardt Theatre through May 20.
A Harvey Fierstein/Jerry Herman collaboration, this engaging piece about a nontraditional French Riviera family confronting a hyper-traditional one was a long-running Broadway hit, and has made the rounds of regional theater companies ever since. The story of a gay male couple—one a drag performer, the other the owner of the drag club—and their straight son, it was made into two hit movies, and was the basis for the more recent “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” set in Florida’s Gulf Coast, known to Southerners as “the Redneck Riviera.”
In the original, the couple must pretend to be straight in order to please their son’s future father-in-law, an ultraconservative reformist politician. Potential disaster for this politician ensues if he is found cavorting with “degenerates;” comedy issues forth as it often does when characters must unwillingly pretend to be other than what they are.
The show feels in some ways as quaintly innocent as the French romantic comedy “Boeing Boeing.” It’s no longer as outrageous as it was when it debuted, but its core issues make it still current. 6th Street’s production features Michael Conte as drag star “Zaza” and Anthony Martinez as nightclub owner Georges—both of them excellent, with Conte the standout as the petulant gender-bent performer. Lorenzo Alviso does a nice turn as their son Jean-Michel, and choreographer Joseph Favalora is a scream as their houseboy/housemaid Jacob. Michael Fontaine is very good as the reformist politician Dindon, whose election campaign is based on sweeping the Riviera clean of people like Zaza and Georges. Mo McElroy is solid in a cameo as restaurant owner Jacqueline, whose scheming could be Dindon’s undoing.
The show is anchored by a great band “in the pit” helmed by music director Ginger Beavers, and a team of flamboyant showgirls—not all of them organic—called “Les Cagelles.” Most forbidding among them is “Hanna from Hamburg” a whip-cracking redhead with the muscularity of an Olympic wrestler. A show that usually benefits from a lush set design, “La Cage” moves along briskly with an unusual minimalist set by Sam Transleau. It’s a fun outing that should be on the must-see list for North Bay theater fans.
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.
A great old joke has it that “a camel is a horse designed by committee.” The same might be said about Civil War epic “Father Comes Home from the Wars,” directed by Liz Diamond, at American Conservatory Theater through May 20.
The committee in question is playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, an artist so deeply in love with her own voice that she can’t figure out what material fits and what needs to be jettisoned. She includes it all, like William Faulkner delivering to his editor his magnum opus in a wheelbarrow.
Unlike Faulkner, Parks didn’t have a ruthless editor to shape her material into something compelling. She instead offers a sprawling amalgam of history and personal quest that attempts to be both drama and comedy but ultimately succeeds as neither. The story at its core is quite simple: a slave named Hero (James Udom, superb) elects to serve as valet to his “boss master,” a Confederate colonel (Dan Hiatt) who has answered the call of duty and is headed to the war. Hero wonders if he should go or not, to the point of almost cutting off his own foot to render himself unfit, a fate that has already befallen his friend Homer (Julian Elijah Martinez). He’s also reluctant to say goodbye to his love Penny (Eboni Flowers) and other members of his community, but the lure of adventure, the intoxication of wearing a uniform, and the promise of freedom at the end of his servitude overwhelm his better judgment and off he goes. There are mentions of Hero’s dog Odyssey, who has run off, but we never see him.
James Udom
“Father Comes Home” follows a traditional three-act structure, with enough characters and plot devices to fill a two-season PBS series. In the first act, we meet Hero and other members of his community, their shabby housing represented by the rusty façade of a corrugated metal shack. (Scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez.) This introduction, itself introduced by a mellifluous guitar-playing musician (Martin Luther McCoy, excellent), consumes the better part of an hour and segues directly into Act II, which finds Hero, the Colonel, and a wounded-and-captured Union soldier (Tom Pecinka) camped out in a forest within earshot of battle but safely away from it, the damage of war and the forest where they’re hiding represented by huge upended I-beams, more 1945 Berlin than 1865 Appomattox.
The Colonel preens, drinks, and rants, and during lulls in encroaching cannon fire, the three of them engage in a free-wheeling discussion of personal and social freedom, identity, status, value, ownership, man, god, law, and destiny. This act is exceptionally well done by three skilled actors and were it fully fleshed out might prove to be a satisfying resolution to the questions raised in Act I. Or not—the playwright might have her characters ask these questions and leave them for the audience to ponder.
Act III opens with the rusty shack superimposed on the remnants of war, with three runaway slaves cowering on its porch. Over the hill comes what appears to be a crazy homeless person in a wooly bathrobe, flitting about, flipping his hair and gushing about the fates of Hero and the Colonel. A new character introduced in the last act—Parks clearly disregards the laws of drama here—and one who had many in the opening night audience mumbling “WTF?” This crazy homeless person proves to be Odyssey, Hero’s missing dog, who has followed his master, at a distance, to the war and back and has come home to tell the tale. He’s comic relief, like the gravedigger in “Hamlet.”
Greg Wallace
A talking dog. We are now solidly in Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit territory.
Odyssey (ACT veteran Gregory Wallace) spins an elaborate tale, provoking many laughs, and informs the community that Hero isn’t dead as they believed, but in fact survived and is coming home. And Hero does just that, arriving with gifts for Homer and Penny, and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation that he has copied by hand but never reads aloud. Their reunion is warm and reassuring until Hero lashes out wildly with his knife, slashing at the runaways, his friend Homer, and everyone near him. There is neither justification nor explanation for this outburst. Then he calms down to tell Penny that he has a wife on the way, and it isn’t her. The end, more or less.
Its stagecraft is very good, but “Father Comes Home” is lengthy (three hours), ponderous, and baffling. Parks has worked historical facts into fantasies that never fully take flight. Hero’s journey is an arduous one, especially for the audience, some of whom left at intermission. That may have made for a more fulfilling evening at the theater.
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.
“Father Comes Home from the Wars” by Suzan-Lori Parks
Playing through May 13th at Healdsburg’s Raven Performing Arts Theater, Pulitzer Prize-winning “Water by the Spoonful” is a complex and heartfelt exploration of poor choices and personal trauma, the difficult road to recovery, and the unlikely lifelines that help keep us afloat.
Elliot (Bill Garcia) is an Iraq War veteran and aspiring actor, reduced to making Subway sandwiches while caring for the ailing aunt who raised him. Carrying the scars of a troubled childhood and his time in Iraq, he is haunted by agonizing guilt, devastating loss, and the grudge he harbors against his mother. We gather shocking pieces of his past throughout the show. Garcia is believable as Elliot, and his energy is complemented by the talented Serena Elize Flores as cousin Yazmin.
Elliot’s mother Odessa (played effectively by Athena Gundlach) is a recovering crack addict who runs an Internet chat room for others battling addiction. “Haikumom,” as she’s known online, devotes the majority of her time to helping chat-room regulars “Orangutan” (Hande Gokbas) and “Chutes&Ladders” (Nicholas James Augusta) in their daily struggles to stay clean. Though largely isolated from her family and the outside world, Odessa finds redeeming purpose and connection in her virtual haven. But when Elliot comes home to confront the skeletons in his family’s closet, her fragile peace is threatened.
The performers are capable and well cast, and a few scenes into opening night, began to really find their groove. Matt Farrell feels natural in the role of self-centered chat-room newcomer “Fountainhead,” slowly coming to terms with the truth of his addiction. Gokbas is endearing as “Orangutan,” her passion and determination to move forward a much-needed boon to “Chutes&Ladders” as he wrestles with the fear of shaking up his safe routine. The evolution of their relationship from virtual to actual is both moving and uplifting.
A minimalistic set puts our focus on the actors and leaves much to the imagination. Clever projections illuminate to indicate when chat room members are online. The venue adds a fitting element of openness and vulnerability, enhancing the show’s emotional impact without keeping the audience at too great a distance.
Quiara Alegría Hudes has written a story about broken people, and the humanity with which she’s brought each character to life is evident under Steven David Martin’s compassionate direction. While the ending she has given us is not exactly happy, it is hopeful.
“Water by the Spoonful” challenges us to find the courage to face our own demons and the strength to do better. Redemption and atonement, it suggests, are made possible by the powers of forgiveness and human connection.
Nicole Singley is a Contributor to Aisle Seat Review.
“Water by the Spoonful” by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Raven Performing Arts Theater, 15 North St, Healdsburg, CA 95448
The Realistic Joneses, at Left Edge Theatre through March 25th, offers a hilarious and heart-wrenching glimpse into the lives of two couples who share an ordinary last name and an extraordinary fate.
The show opens on Bob (Chris Schloemp) and Jennifer (played ably by the talented Melissa Claire) sitting together in their back yard. Jennifer is struggling to make conversation with her reticent husband when neighborhood newcomers John and Pony barge in with a bottle of wine, eager to make an introduction. The exchange becomes only more strained as awkward small talk strays into the gravely personal.
As the couples’ lives begin to intertwine, unlikely connections form between the characters as they seek solace in each other’s spouses. What unfolds is a darkly comic exploration of the bonds between those who are unable or unwilling to confront life’s biggest hurdles, and those who are left alone to face them.
Chris Ginesi delivers a compelling and nuanced performance as John, eliciting plenty of laughter along the way and a few surprising tears in a heartbreaking revelation to Jennifer. Paige Picard shines as ditzy Pony, who we are not sure whether to pity, adore or detest. And we cannot decide whether to laugh or cringe at Bob’s giddy and bumbling advances toward his new neighbor’s wife. Jennifer acts as the story’s anchor, evoking as much compassion as she offers to her cohorts. At every turn, the cast excels and their chemistry is palpable.
Food for thought about marriage, mortality, coping mechanisms, and human connection, this cleverly written show makes for a highly entertaining and uncomfortable 90 minutes – rife with laughter – that will stay with theatergoers long after the curtain closes.
Nicole Singley is a Contributor to Aisle Seat Review.
“The Realistic Joneses” by Will Eno
Through March 25, 2018
Left Edge Theatre, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
A high-performing athletic team is very much a family, with all the closeness, cohesion, and dysfunctionality that “family” implies.
“The Wolves,” at Marin Theatre Company through April 8, is about one such family—a girls’ soccer team angling for a national championship. We never see them compete. Instead, all the action plays out before each game, on an indoor practice field where they train and rib each other about everything from typical teenage interests—parents, boyfriends, school—to issues they only partly understand, such as world geography and historical events.
Playwright Sarah Delappe has an expert’s ear for teen patois—her girls stammer and stall for time by inserting “like” in every other phrase, in near-universal rising intonation. She also has an intimate knowledge of athletes’ rough-and-tumble camaraderie—there are plenty of “f-bombs” hurled, none intended to harm, and the players, identified only by the numbers on their jerseys, often call each other “dude.” There’s a surplus of this stuff in the opening scene, which almost comes off as an overlong Saturday Night Live sketch, but the storyline takes a somber turn with the appearance of a talented new teammate claiming never to have played organized “football,” followed by a potentially career-ending knee injury to the Wolves’ star striker.
It gets more serious still with a tragedy that befalls the team, threatening to derail all their hard work, but they quite believably close ranks, more united than ever. It’s a beautiful moment about the empowering potential of loyalty and friendship.
Director Morgan Green coaxes excellent performances out of her ten-woman cast, all of them stage veterans and for the most part young enough to pass as high-schoolers. Of particular note are Portland Thomas as #11, with an amazingly relaxed and natural performance, and the energetic Sango Tajima as team captain #25, who pushes her comrades with a drill instructor’s grit and the shouting of almost comical slogans like “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Liz Sklar is outstanding in a cameo as the distraught Soccer Mom.
Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission, “The Wolves” is a captivating production and an unusual undertaking for Marin Theatre Company, which will host a final-day performance by the troupe’s understudies, most of them real high-school girls from Marin County. Their nickname: the “Wolf Pups.”
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.
You can’t escape your past. In David Harrower’s “Blackbird,” an industrial production manager named Ray (John Shillington) discovers this late one day when a young woman named Una (Sharia Pierce) shows up unannounced at his workplace.
In their awkward protracted reunion we learn that she was his lover at the tender age of twelve, when he was approximately forty. A scandal consumed him and the town he lived in, to the extent that he vanished, changed his name, and tried to put it all behind him.
But perhaps by accident, now-adult Una has discovered his new identity and location and has driven hundreds of miles to try to resolve all that was left dangling—a massive shared bundle of guilt, shame, obsession, and still-smoldering attraction that bursts into flames at least once in their brief meeting. No resolution is possible, but the script and the two talented actors cover huge emotional territory in the eighty minutes they spend together in the grimy confines of a disheveled break room (set design by David Lear, who also directed).
Intentionally stilted exposition makes the plot a bit slow to roll out, but once it does, it gains unstoppable momentum. Pierce and Shillington give a fiercely passionate performance of two people linked by irresistible but doomed attraction, frightening in its depth but illuminated by moments of levity. “Blackbird’s” dark realism will startle you and give you plenty to think about when you’ve left the theater.
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.
“Blackbird” by David Harrower
Through April 7th
Main Stage West 104 North Main Street Sebastopol, CA 95472
At San Rafael’s Belrose Theatre through March 31 and directed by Patrick Nims, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is an exuberant romp of a musical. Based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, the show features eleven performers, all but two of them women, and approximately two dozen clever songs, all written by Rupert Holmes (of “The Pina Colada Song” fame), who also authored the book, lyrics, and musical arrangements.
Set in England in 1870, the complicated story—really too complicated to follow closely—involves the disappearance of Drood (Madison Scarborough), a dastardly act perhaps attributable to his romantic rival John Jasper (Andre Amarotico, excellent). The culprit may just as easily be any one of multiple characters who mingle with the audience before the show officially begins. That’s the mystery, and as the show progresses plenty of hints get dropped about which one may be the guilty party, so that the audience can vote near the end.
There are supposedly multiple endings written and rehearsed for each potential outcome, but it’s also possible that time constraints dictate a fixed outcome. In either case, the show sails along quickly and the audience has a jolly time participating. It’s very much “murder mystery dinner theater” without the dinner.
The women playing most of the characters are members of the fictional Music Hall Royale, “a ladies’ theatrical society,” we are frequently reminded by the Royale’s Chairman, played brilliantly but understatedly by Jill Wagoner. Their characters are mostly men—hence the onstage prevalence of 19th century male drag—but not all: one of the most feminine is also one of the most untrustworthy, Princess Puffer (Paula Gianetti at her over-the-top best), an opium dealer and on opening night, winner of the most votes as the likely murderess. The approximately two dozen songs that propel the show are energetically and engagingly performed (music direction by Daniel Savio, choreography by Kate Kenyon) even if they aren’t very memorable.
Set designer Gary Gonser worked his tail off to create a versatile quick-change environment and a batch of sight gags that function perfectly in the small space of the Belrose. Wagoner, as mentioned, is brilliant, and her castmates aren’t far behind. A young talent worth watching is Jack Covert as Master Nick Cricker, Jr., who introduces the show and here and there helps kick it along. Covert is an eighth grader with already formidable theatrical skills and one who will go far in the business if he sticks with it.
“Drood,” as it is usually called in theatrical circles, is a ludicrous lighthearted romp with much to recommend it. Put your serious business on hold and have fun at the theater.
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 Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Marin Onstage
The Belrose Theatre, 1415 5th Avenue, San Rafael, through March 31.
Pop singer and sometimes actress Rosemary Clooney was among an endless procession of performers and celebrities with a complex of personal and professional problems (depression, marital discord, drug addiction) exacerbated by changing public tastes, waning popularity, and financial distress. Her career spanned the post-WWII era into the late 1960s, and resumed in the late 1970s when she reinvented herself as a jazz vocalist and nostalgia act.
Directed by Dyan McBride, “Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical,” at Lucky Penny Productions in Napa through March 11, picks up her story at the moment in 1968 when after a breakdown she reluctantly goes under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Victor Monke (Barry Martin). How she got there—from her origin in a small Kentucky town to international fame as a Hollywood icon with a series of unreliable high-profile husbands—is told in flashback, punctuated with very good performances of her most popular songs, such as “Hey There,” “I Remember You,” “Mambo Italiano,” “Sway,” and the show’s title song, backed by a solid instrumental trio led by Music Director Craig Burdette.
Lucky Penny Artistic Director Taylor Bartolucci gives a spirited portrayal of Clooney, masking her character’s ambition with a disarming amount of small-town self-disparagement. Bartolucci the actress nails the accent, attitude, and mannerisms while Bartolucci the singer does likewise with the songs’ melodies and phrasing, even though her irrepressible and totally enjoyable vibrato makes her singing only an approximation of Clooney’s.
The company’s Managing Director Barry Martin is excellent as the understanding but gently persistent Dr. Monke. Martin takes on multiple roles with only small changes in prop or costume, including Clooney’s mother, sister, and brother; her twice-husband Jose Ferrer, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. His mellifluous baritone is especially suited to the Crosby bit, and he employs it beautifully in a duet with Bartolucci.
The elegant compact set serves as medical office/hospital, the Clooney home, and several performance venues, with changes mostly provided by April George’s lighting. This combined with Martin’s instant morphing from one character to another keeps “Tenderly” moving along briskly. The show is especially appealing for fans from Clooney’s era but should also prove entertaining for younger ones eager to learn more about her. Best of all, it ends on an uplifting note with the late-career Clooney in full command of her life both onstage and off. Be thankful she didn’t take a desperate early exit the way so many have.
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.
“Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical”
Through March 11, 2018
Lucky Penny Productions
Community Arts Center, 1758 Industrial Way, Napa, CA 94558
A celebratory dinner party goes horribly awry in Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced,” at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa, through February 18. In it, ostensibly upscale intelligent people provoke each other just enough to reveal ancient ethnic hatreds lurking just beneath the veneer of civility.
The controversial script won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Tightly directed by Phoebe Moyer, who in her director’s notes mentions having felt “uncomfortable, frightened, and ultimately moved,” when she first read it, the play explores interconnected contemporary issues of, as Moyer puts it, “religion, capitalism, tribalism, race, tradition, infidelity, loyalty, politics, and the role of the artist” with amazing efficiency thanks to Akhtar’s authorial elegance and the cast’s tremendous ensemble work.
Ilana Niernberger stars as Emily, an artist whose work has begun to appropriate Islamic imagery. Her partner Amir (Jared N. Wright) is a hard-working lawyer seeking to make partner in his law firm, but held back by the Indian/Pakistani ethnicity he has long tried to minimize. Amir’s nephew (Adrian Causor) has gone so far in rejecting his Islamic roots that he’s legally changed his name to “Abe Jensen,” explaining to his uncle that by doing so he has almost completely eliminated feeling any sort of discrimination. Mike Shaeffer plays a self-important art curator named Isaac, planning a big exhibit of artists exploring various spiritual traditions. Jory (Jazmine Pierce), his young wife or girlfriend—it’s not clear which—is a lawyer in Amir’s firm, a fact that late in the play drives home the final nail in the coffin of Amir’s professional aspirations.
A bubbling cauldron of complex relationships and thorny issues, “Disgraced” is one of the most dynamic and relevant plays to appear in the North Bay in many months. There is not a moment or gesture wasted in its quick-moving ninety minutes. The acting is as stunning as the script is provocative. The whole affair will leave you gasping for breath at its sheer intellectual and artistic intensity.
“Disgraced” is one of the most compelling scripts to come along in a very long time. The Left Edge production is its perfect realization. Don’t be surprised, if days later, you’re still pondering what it plants in you. That’s the intent of the playwright, director, and cast, and they all succeed beautifully.
Barry Willis is a Senior Editor/Writer for Aisle Seat Review, and a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC).
Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced”
Through February 18, 2018
Left Edge Theatre, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
Cops and Robbersis an important piece of theater. As presented at The Marsh in Berkeley, CA, it is also raw, honest, and powerful, demanding more than just passive viewing. This is theater that challenges the audience, regardless of ethnicity, to honestly assess their perceptions—and assumptions—on race in America.
In Cops and Robbers, Mr. Jinho Ferreira plays 17 wildly different roles including a self-centered news reporter, a black activist, an amazingly comic white conservative talk show host, a judge, and a hyped-up police department sergeant. The plot of this 90-minute, one-man theater piece turns on the now all-too-familiar topic of an officer-involved shooting, with the host of characters morphing in and out of the show to tell the story from each person’s perspective.
To be fair, the production needs some minor editing/tightening, more consistent lighting, better microphone management, and a re-designed opening video montage that better engages the audience.
Yet, it is a damned important piece of theater, well rendered by an actor/playwright focused on asking essential questions through his writing, storytelling, and acting.
This reviewer left The Marsh not just liking, not merely appreciating, but actively respecting Mr. Ferreira and his work as a playwright and as an actor.
Each character in Cops and Robbers is the personification of an ethical viewpoint the playwright encountered growing up in West Oakland, CA. Mr. Ferreira’s insightful writing and bravura performance, goes where few American theater productions go by asking the audience a single, powerful, pervasive question: what will you do with your new knowledge, awareness, and insider view of topics many of us prefer to hear about in sanitized sound bites—if we want to hear about them at all.
This play takes on difficult topics—black-on-black crime, police officers’ use of force, American politics, the power of social media—and shows the audience how the people in these societal factions often do not speak the same language, value the same things, or make much of an effort to understand one another. Mr. Ferreira is trying to drill down to the essence—not the stereotypes or popular perceptions—of those who live on these cultural islands, which are informed by ideology, pride, power (real and imagined), tradition, money, influence, and pain.
Typically, a play review discusses what the production is about. I believe in this case it is equally important to discuss what this play and performance is not.
It is not:
a politically-driven rant
a Black Power endorsement wrapped in the lights, costumes, and imagery of the stage.
an indictment of the power structure (whatever you deem that to be)
anti-white or anti-black
pro-black or pro-white
a classically-trained actor exploiting the onslaught of shooting and police-in-the-news stories
dumbed-down
Mr. Ferreira endeavors to go beyond right/wrong, white/black, yes/no and stereotypes to lead the audience beyond themselves to a new level of understanding; to see reality as it is and not as we think it is, or would like it to be.
This reviewer places lots of value on craft. As an actor, I applaud his work. As a writer, I’m amazed at the subtlety of his script. As a director, it would be an honor to work with a talent as powerful and singular as Jinho Ferreira. As an audience member who has experienced Mr. Ferreira’s craft and heard the messages of his play, my take-away—my responsibility—is to spread the word of this singular achievement.
If you like theater that supplies pat answers, this is not your show. If you like theater that asks you to think, that asks you to examine your perceptions, that urges and inspires you to act and be part of the solution then this is your show.
Cops and Robbers is that rarest of experiences: essential and important theater.
Cops and Robbers:
Directed by Ami Zins and Lew Levinson.
Written by Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira. A graduate of San Francisco State University, Ferreira, who describes himself as a self-taught actor and playwright, is also a musician, singer, father of three, and Alameda County Sherriff’s Deputy.
Mature content: appropriate for ages 15+.
Runs SATURDAY AFTERNOONS ONLY at 5:00 p.m. through October 3, 2015; dark on 9/19/15 at The Marsh Theater, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA.
Tickets available online at www.themarsh.org or by phone at 415.282.3055 1:00-4:00 p.m. Mon-Fri
Run time: 90 minutes with one intermission.
Rating: Four-and-a-Half out of Five Stars
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
Note: These commentaries are primarily focused on the production, direction, and technical aspects of theater and performing arts.
Cops and Robbers is an important piece of theater. As presented at The Marsh in Berkeley, CA, it is also raw, honest, and powerful, demanding more than just passive viewing. This is theater that challenges the audience, regardless of ethnicity, to honestly assess their perceptions—and assumptions—on race in America.
In Cops and Robbers, Mr. Jinho Ferreira plays 17 wildly different roles including a self-centered news reporter, a black activist, an amazingly comic white conservative talk show host, a judge, and a hyped-up police department sergeant. The plot of this 90-minute, one-man theater piece turns on the now all-too-familiar topic of an officer-involved shooting, with the host of characters morphing in and out of the show to tell the story from each person’s perspective, a modern twist on Kurasawa’s classic Rashomon.
This reviewer left The Marsh not just liking, not merely appreciating, but actively respecting Mr. Ferreira and his work as a playwright and as an actor.
Each character in Cops and Robbers is the personification of an ethical viewpoint the playwright encountered growing up in West Oakland, CA. Mr. Ferreira’s insightful writing and bravura performance, goes where few American theater productions go by asking the audience a single, powerful, pervasive question: what will you do with your new knowledge, awareness, and insider view of topics many of us prefer to hear about in sanitized sound bites—if we want to hear about them at all.
This play takes on difficult topics—black-on-black crime, police officers’ use of force, American politics, the power of social media—and shows the audience how the people in these societal factions often do not speak the same language, value the same things, or make much of an effort to understand one another. Mr. Ferreira is trying to drill down to the essence—not the stereotypes or popular perceptions—of those who live on these cultural islands, which are informed by ideology, pride, power (real and imagined), tradition, money, influence, and pain.
If you like theater that supplies pat answers, this is not your show. If you like theater that asks you to think, that asks you to examine your perceptions, that urges and inspires you to act and be part of the solution then this is your show.
Cops and Robbers is that rarest of experiences: essential and important theater.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
The set for this show is a black stage and black curtain backdrop, and the lone prop a hard-backed chair positioned center stage right. The program begins with an opening montage of video clips.
The content of this script and the acting combined with effective sound effects, conveyed what a more over-thought set design would have obscured. That said, I’m giving this design a 7 out of 10 because it didn’t try to do more. (Score: 7/10)
Set Construction:
(Score: N/A)
Stage Management:
To the Stage Manager’s credit, the action behind the scenes was mostly smooth. A bit less time in blackout would have been better. Sound cues were on their mark. (Score: 8/10)
Sound:
Watch out for Mr. Ferreira’s microphone; it was over-driven, causing distortion at a couple points. Sound effects were very well chosen—unobtrusive and well delivered—supporting the action. (Score: 7.5/10)
Props:
In a one-person show with a blank stage, a wooden chair, sound effects, and one actor, the props department gets a well-deserved bye. (Score: N/A.)
Costumes:
Mr. Ferreira’s costume was a basic black T-shirt and black, military-style cargo pants with black police boots. The simplicity of the costume worked well as the principal actor morphed from character to character. Again, not over-thinking these choices aided and supported the production. (Score: 7/10)
Direction:
Tightly directed for the most part. Pacing was good, a demanding task in a one-person show which makes the kinds of physical demands on an actor that this play does. A couple character transitions showed flashes of questionable acting choices. (Score: 7/10)
Lights:
The lights were uneven. On more than one occasion Mr. Ferreira was performing between lights in a dim zone. There was no indication that this was required by the script. This is not good anytime but especially for a one person show. (Score: 4/10)
Casting:
N/A as the playwright is the principal actor. (Score: N/A.)
Overall Production
A little more attention to sound management and light placement would add value. The video montage at the top of the program could be cut tighter to build towards the play opening rather than feeling a bit like a bolted-on attraction. A tiny bit of polish on the direction/acting choices in a couple character changes would add even more luster. (Score: 8/10)
Reviewer Score:
This is an important piece of theater that is effectively rendered. People talk about how this-or-that theater production made them think. This program does that very, very well. Go see this show, and bring every friend and neighbor you can find. (Score: 8.5/10)
Overall Theater Tech Score: (57/80) Good work.
Cops and Robbers
Directed by Ami Zins and Lew Levinson.
Written by Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira. A graduate of San Francisco State University, Ferreira, who describes himself as a self-taught actor and playwright, is also a musician, singer, father of three, and Alameda County Sherriff’s Deputy.
Mature content: appropriate for ages 15+.
Runs SATURDAY AFTERNOONS ONLY at 5:00 p.m. through October 3, 2015; dark on 9/19/15. at The Marsh Theater, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA.
Tickets available online at http://www.themarsh.org or by phone at 415.282.3055 1:00-4:00 p.m. Mon-Fri
Run time: 90 minutes with one intermission.
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians,
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
Clifford Odets was one of the most skilled playwrights of 1930s American social protest. For those who can leave their political leanings at the coat check when entering the theater, his writing is spare, almost terse, and highly instructive of the period. His characters are powerful and symbolic without stooping to sentimentality or cliché. And his staging devices are imaginative yet simple without being simplistic. His works have a timelessness so they can be staged in many settings and styles without losing their impact. Mr. Odets’ plays are dramatic representations of blue collar life in the 1930 that are socially, historically, and dramatically authentic and important.
Born in Philadelphia in 1906, Odets grew-up in the Bronx, New York, the very definition of working-class America. Attracted to the theater, Mr. Odets joined the Group Theatre in 1931 where he wrote his six best and most famous plays: Golden Boy, Rocket to the Moon, Paradise Lost, Awake and Sing!, Till the Day I Die, and the first play of Odets to be produced, Waiting for Lefty, arguably one of the most celebrated and significant plays of twentieth century American theatre. Mr. Odets’ dramatizations of the common workingman’s struggle in his time paved the way for the works of Arthur Miller, William Inge, and Tennessee Williams.
If you like your theater understated and enjoy teasing the significance, meaning, or connotation out of this-or-that character’s lines, then Odets is not your playwright, and Waiting for Lefty is not your play. This is politically left, workingman theater delivered with the sweet subtlety of brass knuckles driven by a large muscular man descending from his well-worn, roughly hewn soapbox.
The essence of Waiting for Lefty is that unions and collective bargaining are the only ways for the American workingman to gain any kind of footing against big business. Absent those tools, owners and their cronies can—and will—continually drive down wages and suppress the means necessary for these same workers to do a decent day’s work. As a result, the working classes need to fight like junkyard dogs for their rights, particularly to unionize.
* * *
This production of Waiting for Lefty by the Ubuntu Theater Project (UTP), converts an actual Berkeley, CA, automobile body-and-fender repair shop into a theatre space. Directors Emile Whelan and Michael S. Moran stayed true to Odets stage direction by having actors mixed-in among the audience, seated on crates around the make-shift stage—an open circle of stained concrete floor. The staging— grounded in the rigid industrial sights, unexpected smells, and hard-edged sonic envelope of the environment—raised the sensory impact of this production a notch or two.
The lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson was as unflinching as the grey concrete stage: hard, almost industrial lighting illuminated the actors clearly while adding stark shadows and sharply-defined profiles, which were not lost on the acting talent.
Costuming, by Luther Spratt, was pretty close to period for the most part. Costuming also represents the aspect of the production with which this reviewer was least satisfied. Working men’s clothes should look like working men’s clothes: wrinkled, sweat stained, maybe soiled. Also, when the cast is singing about not having visibility to their next hot meal, their clothes should map to that message. This material requires that the audience be able to see, simply by looking at the costumes, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. That message was muddled in this production.
The casting was uniformly good. The production felt the slightest bit under-rehearsed and some of the acting choices could have been better considered. Hopefully these rough edges will smooth out as the run progresses. Also, the actors felt a little unsure about using pauses to let the text/plot breathe a little. The result, while accompanied by solid skill to be sure, was a tad too rushed and lacked the tentativeness and hesitancy with which people approach real conversation, especially when tough, unsparing topics are on the table.
Stage management was tight with snappy entrances, cues, and exits. The acoustics of the garage setting paid a premium to those actors who enunciated well.
Props were appropriate to the message and the set design, as it were, was spare, solid, and simple: a single wooden chair, a large wooden cable spool, and a wrench for a gavel. The effect, like the play itself, was industrial and hard-edged.
* * *
Overall, I liked UTP’s version of Waiting for Lefty, and recommended it as an SFBATCC “Go See” production. Looking at the production as a whole—the text of the play, the messages within it, the energy and craft of the acting team, and the care taken by the creative team—Waiting for Lefty is a solid production of an important period piece of American history.
Go see it!
Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets, directed by Emile Whelan and Michael S. Moran runs through September 12, 2015 at Classic Cars West, 411 26th St. Oakland CA 94612.
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
Note: These commentaries are primarily focused on the production, direction, and technical aspects of theater and performing arts.
Clifford Odets was arguably one of the most skilled playwrights of 1930s American social protest. His writing is spare, almost terse, and highly instructive of the period. His characters are powerful and symbolic without stooping to sentimentality or cliché. And his staging devices are imaginative yet simple without being simplistic. His works have a timelessness so they can be staged in many settings and styles without losing their impact. This production of Waiting for Lefty by the Ubuntu Theater Project (UTP), converts an actual Berkeley, CA, automobile body-and-fender repair shop into a theatre space where directors Emile Whelan and Michael S. Moran present the drama as a series of seven vignettes, separated by blackouts.
If you like your theater understated and enjoy teasing the significance, meaning, or connotation out of this-or-that character’s lines, then Odets is not your playwright, and Waiting for Lefty is not your play. This is politically left, workingman theater delivered with the sweet subtlety of brass knuckles driven by a large muscular man descending from his well-worn, roughly hewn soapbox.
The essence of Waiting for Lefty is that unions and collective bargaining are the only ways for the American workingman to gain any kind of footing against big business. Absent those tools, owners and their cronies can—and will—continually drive down wages and suppress the means necessary for these same workers to do a decent day’s work. As a result, the working classes need to fight like junkyard dogs for their rights, particularly to unionize.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
The choice of the automobile repair shop as a theater was an inspired choice. The hard, stained gray concrete floors; the roughhewn lumber ceiling and supports; parked cars from a variety of decades; garage acoustics; and the smells of rubber, oil, and grease made for a potent backdrop to this production. The setting made the audience feel as if they’d been invited to observe a secret meeting of workingmen to discuss unionization. The set design within the garage was also spare, solid, and simple: a single wooden chair, a large wooden cable spool, and wooden crates. (Score: 9/10)
Set Construction:
The playing area was a rough circle of concrete surrounded by wooden benches and crates for audience seating. In essence the play was presented in the round, with entrances and exits through aisles between the audiences’ seating. No score for this category. (Score: N/A)
Stage Management:
Tight, timely, and effective. JJ Hersh’s efforts were well executed. (Score: 8/10)
Sound:
Acoustics were interesting given that cavernous space, and the number of cars parked just outside the playing area. No score for this category. (Score: N/A)
Props:
Props were appropriate to the message and the set design: spare and simple—a wrench for a gavel; a straight-back, wooden chair; an empty, rough-hewn cable spool acting as a desk; a table; and a podium. The effect, like the play itself, was industrial and hard-edged.
The actors mimed using a camera to take some pictures. We know cameras of that period not by their click but by their flash; even something a subtle as that can cause the audience to lose engagement.
On another note, when an actor hands another actor money, especially when audience members are three or four feet away from the action, real money should be used and the denomination should represent the action. So if an actor is handing someone sixty-five cents, they should hand the actor sixty-five cents and not just a random selection of coins. The same hold true for folding money. While the folding money may not necessarily be period to the production, it detracts from the truth of the show for both audience and actors when obviously fake money is used in a production. Worst of all are those productions that skip the money prop all together and just have the actor mime they are handing another actor money. These are the details that elevate a production above the pedestrian level and crown superior productions. (Score: 7/10).
Costumes:
While the costuming, by Luther Spratt, was close to period for the most part, it was the aspect of the production that was least satisfactory.
Workingmen’s clothes should look like workingmen’s clothes: wrinkled, sweat stained, maybe soiled.
One of the male actors was wearing a contemporary watch.
Shoes on workingmen should not be shined but should show their labor heritage.
In the SF Bay Area, gaining access to either Goodwill coats for purchase—or even for loan—or access to the costume departments of other theater companies should preclude coats whose sleeves are too short, as occurred on one actor in this production.
The dress of a working-class housewife whose furniture has just been repossessed should look the part. This actresses’ dress was too upmarket, too fancy. Images like this cause the audience to disengage to one degree or another while they think: That dress isn’t right. Again, with reference to accessibility of costume resources in the Bay Area, no production should trade those audience reality points if at all possible.
No executive of this period would be caught dead without a tie.
Also, when the cast is singing about not having visibility to their next hot meal, their clothes should map to that message. This material requires that the audience be able to see, simply by looking at the costumes, which are the good guys and which are the bad guys. That message was muddled in this production. (Score: 5.5/10)
Direction:
UTP’s Waiting for Lefty is on the whole competently directed by Emile Whelan and Michael S. Moran.
That said, the acting has a bit of a rushed call-and-response feel—they aren’t talking to each other, just trading lines. The connection between the characters needs work. Also, overall delivery from almost all actors felt to linear and unmodulated.
In addition, the overall timing/pacing of the show felt a bit rushed, which was especially unnecessary given the play’s 45-minute run time. The characters in this play are thinking deep thoughts about complex and potentially dangerous, even life threatening, topics, and their dialog should have the hesitations and pauses such situations command. Even if the playwright didn’t indicate pauses, the material and situation(s) of this play command them.
On another note, when someone writes a brief message to someone, an actor should be directed to make the appropriate amount of effort to actually write the message. (Score: 6.5/10)
Lights:
Stephanie Anne Johnson’s lighting design was simple yet effective: hard, industrial lighting that illuminated the actors clearly if unflinchingly and added stark shadows and sharply-defined profiles, which were not lost on the acting talent. (Score: 7/10)
Casting:
The casting was uniformly good. (Score: 8/10)
Overall Production:
Overall, I liked UTP’s version of Waiting for Lefty, and recommended it as an SFBATCC Go See production. True, as noted here, there are some areas that need fine-tuning. But this is quality material from a playwright who knows his craft, delivered with a level of commitment to quality not always apparent.
Reviewer Score:
Looking at the production as a whole—the text of the play, the messages within it, the energy and craft of the acting team, and the care taken by the creative team—tells the tale: Waiting for Lefty by the Ubuntu Theater Project is a solid production of an important period piece of American history.
Go see it! (Score: 8/10)
Overall Theater Tech Score: (66/90) Good work.
Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets
Directed by Emile Whelan and Michael S. Moran at Ubuntu Theater Project. Runs through September 12, 2015 at Classic Cars West, 411 26th St. Oakland CA 94612.
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians,
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
These days you can’t swing a secret decoding book without hitting a play, biopic, or documentary about Alan Turing. There is no question that Mr. Turing (1912-1954) was a mathematical prodigy whose genius left a legacy that remains scientifically relevant to this day. But it is the circumstances of his too-short life that continues to intrigue, inform, and inspire.
The hit revival of Hugh Whitemore’s 1986 Breaking the Code by Theater Rhinoceros at the Eureka Theater masterfully captures Turing’s professional assent, first for his contributions in developing computer science as we know it then later for his pivotal part in breaking the Nazi’s Enigma code that helped the Allies win World War II to his subsequent tragic fall from public grace for being gay.
Whether by nature or necessity, Turing was a complex man who tried—and ultimately failed—to compartmentalize his life, leading to his apparent suicide in 1954. In a series of well-executed scenes, the play guides us through Mr. Turing’s life from stumbling adolescent to resigned victim of repressive laws as an adult. Directed by and starring Theater Rhinoceros Artistic Director John Fisher, this show is must-see drama.
This production is not “gay theater” nor is it a fringe work designed to incite people with too much anger for the world to scream Oppression! on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, typed furiously on their Taco Bell-stained laptop keyboard. This production of Breaking the Code is quality theater of the first rank that could be picked-up and dropped unchanged into a venue like the SF Playhouse, Marin Theater Company or Aurora Theater.
Clearly a well-rehearsed production, the direction was solid, professional, and well executed with twice the much-deserved applause because the director is also the lead actor. It is much more difficult to direct yourself than others but John Fisher did it seamlessly. Pacing was nice—brisk but not breathless. The show also used pauses well—a rare dramatic art these days.
The set by Jon Wai-keung Lowe is ingeniously simple and forms a perfect backdrop for the events of Mr. Turing’s life. Inserting doors into the blackboards stage left and right was a clever staging choice.
John Fisher’s props are spare but period proper and well rendered.
Lara Rempel’s costume choices were first-rate, period proper, and well rendered. Period hose on the ladies was a nice detail.
Jon Wai-keung Lowe and Sean Keehan’s lighting design was subtle and largely unobtrusive.
Colin Johnson’s sound effects were generally good.
From an acting perspective, Mr. Fisher was simply outstanding. New or seasoned students acting students should buy tickets to study a true professional at work. Frank Wang played hustler Ron Miller obliquely as a man made of angles and edges, each sharper than the last. Val Henrickson, as Turing co-worker Dillwyn Knox, provided a witty performance as the professional oracle of bad things to come. Particularly enjoyable was Patrick Ross as empathetic detective Mike Ross, who seems genuinely hurt that Mr. Turing has blurted out a story revealing his own homosexuality, leaving the lawman no choice but to investigate Mr. Turing and charge him with gross indecency. The scene is hard to watch and the audience was silent save for the collective sign of 60 souls seeing a man put himself squarely in the crosshairs of the law. Heren Patel assumes two roles in the show: an awkward school boy and a Grecian guy-for-rent whose stream of Greek-speech is both impressive and quite funny.
As produced by Theatre Rhinoceros and expertly directed by John Fisher, Breaking theCode is thoughtful, taut, often funny, touching, heartfelt, and skillfully rendered. From lights-up to lights-down, this fast-paced production is how quality theater is done. This is not a hard code to break: run, don’t walk, to see this show—and bring your friends.
Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, directed by John Fisher.
Run time: 2:10 with one intermission.
Theatre Rhinoceros, Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco, CA 94111.
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
NOTE: The following commentary is focused primarily on the production, direction, and technical aspects of theater and performing arts.
SF Playhouse has learned a secret uncovered by few community and regional theaters: big musicals in the June 1 to Sept. 1 timeframe can make serious money. Especially in tourist destination cities or areas.
Raising a vodka gimlet to toast their own obvious success with this secret (as witnessed by the near sell-out audience last Saturday night), SF Playhouse’s production of Company, by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, went down as smooth as a cocktail and left many patrons with a satisfied glow as a result.
Company is not your typical all-singing-all-dancing musical. In fact, there’s little enough dancing in the show—this is a musical with the emphasis on the music and the singing.Company is not a sort of A-to-Z straight-line plot, either. The show is composed of a variety of scenes that taken as a whole tell our tale.
The scenes/music/singing all revolve around the dating/marriage/commitment/relationships of one newly 35-year-old man named Bobby, played with almost detached studied aplomb by Keith Pinto. A perpetual bachelor and bon vivant, Bobby, and his married friends, are celebrating his birthday; that, in essence, is the storyline.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
The set design by Bill English and Jacquelyn Scott is elegant on many levels because the set is built on, you guessed it, many levels. The scenic rear projections as designed by Micah Stieglitz add a powerful theatrical touch to the proceedings. (Score: 8/10)
Set Construction:
In a word: quality. A well constructed, well thought-out set. No extraneous architecture—nothing that didn’t need to be there was there. (Score: 8/10)
Stage Management:
As rendered by Tatjana Genser, the stage management was tight with sound and light cues snappily in place. (Score: 8/10)
Sound:
The sound design by Anton Hedman works well. (Score: 7/10)
Props:
The props design is fine—what props need to be in place are in place, work well, and underscore scenes nicely. (Score: 7/10)
Costumes:
Costume design by Shannon Sigman takes full marks—elegant, well designed, and nicely rendered. All the actors looked darn good in Sigman’s work. (Score: 8/10)
Direction:
As directed by SF Playhouse co-founder Susi Damilano, Company is well blocked with excellent stage pictures rendered on the multiple layers of the stage. This adds complexity to the directorial process because it’s easier to watch/direct actors at the same time on a single level plane versus actors scattered liberally from stage left to stage right and upstage to downstage.
Blocking takes on aspects of choreography in many plays (both musical and non-musical), and Damilano handled movement well. My only nudge would be that cue pick-ups could be quicker, brisker, and the same nudge for scene transitions—a bit faster might have added even more audience energy to the proceedings. (Score: 8/10)
Musical Direction:
Company eschews the full orchestration and electric guitars of most productions, relying instead on two pianos, located stage left and stage right. Music Director Dave Dobrusky hosts one of these pianos and surely conducts his musical charges. The effect of this two-piano strategy is more personal, less grandiose than a full or even partial orchestra. That said, at times it felt a bit like the cast was fighting the sound envelope of the pianos. (Score: 6/10)
Lights:
The lighting design by Michael Oesch in and of itself works well. (Score: 8/10)
NOTE:But I have significant reservation about a couple of architectural lighting issues. The house right and house left tormentor lights spill too much light into the audience area. The same is true of the lights high, upstage center. The light spillage was very distracting and detracted from the quality of what was happening onstage.
Casting:
The casting was a bit uneven. Disappointing, as the majority of the cast ranged from good to superb.(Score: 7/10)
Overall Production:
As presented by SF Playhouse, Company gives general audiences and those of us inside theater a solid example of taking a musical from some years back and making it modern, energetic, and appealing to a contemporary audience.
The acting of Monique Hafen made this show for me. Her stellar history with SF Playhouse is now the stuff of regional theater legend. Soon, I have little doubt, it will be the stuff of Broadway legend as well. (Score: 8.5/10)
Reviewer Score:
SF Playhouse has demonstrated to everyone that they know how to rock musical theater. From awards won to sell-out nights, SF Playhouse knows musicals. Company continues that proud heritage.
The quality of SF Playhouse musical productions should be a beacon to technical theater artists as well as actors across the US, and, indeed, globally. (Score: 8.5/10)
Overall Score: (92/120) Extremely good work.
All in all, SF Playhouse’s Company is a fine night on the town.
Company continues through Sept. 12 at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco.
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
NOTE: The following commentary is focused primarily on the production, direction, and technical aspects of Theater and Performing Arts.
Ron Campbell has pulled off the near-impossible— he convinced the large opening-night crowd at Marin Shakespeare’s debut of their witty adaptation of Don Quixote (by Peter Anderson and Colin Heath) that he was both a man and a horse. Truly no mean feat, that.
Then again, Mr. Campbell is no mean actor. A man, a wooden broom and a watering can? Gesticulating arms and pumping legs? An energetic and comedic recitation of a classic text invigorated with new life? He’s certainly all of that, to be sure. But to stop there would be to damn with faint praise.
Instead, one simple phrase comes to mind: theatrical magic.
Mr. Campbell’s physical comedy gifts are so sublime that one could not help but believe that he was in fact Quixote himself. And Rocinante, the horse. Or both at once, in action on the stage. Mr. Campbell’s unquenchable dedication to seeing, feeling and embodying the evolving demands of each succeeding microsecond of the script and character represents a master’s thesis in acting.
Ably supporting Mr. Campbell was John R. Lewis as everyone’s favorite squire Sancho Panza. Panza translates literally in English to “belly” or “paunch”, and while Mr. Lewis was indeed suitably paunchy, he brought a world-weariness combined with a rich sense of humor and formidable physical comedy chops to a role too often played to its lowest common denominator. Solid marks for Mr. Lewis.
The play, making its U.S. debut, is ably directed by Ms. Lesley Schisgall Currier in a production that appears to a take on elements of the Commedia dell’arte style: spare sets, masked actors (thanks to the artistry of Mr. David Poznanter), and standardize costumes. Paired with hand-selected segments of the text by Miguel de Cervantes, the show unfortunately succeeds in feeling a bit like the books upon which the play is based— a bit tedious as the end draws neigh. The show starts out grandly and the first act moves quite briskly. The second act? Not so much. By the end of the show it felt somewhat like a long visit by a good friend: you’re at once delighted to have been so entertained but wish the evening’s festivities would wrap-up.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
Ms. Currier kept the set design simple and even spare, via the able design of Mr. Jackson Currier. Again, this may be intentional on her part vis-à-vis Commedia dell’arte. The back wall of the set is painted to appear as a library, featuring shelves upon shelves of books. This effect works well in Act 1, Scene 1, but once our hero had left his house in search of adventure, the library wall felt incongruous. (Score: 6/10)
Set Construction:
Set construction was solid, as the ramped “mountain” in center stage played host to a small army of people. (Score: 8/10)
Stage Management:
Stage management (from Gillian Confair) on opening night can sometimes be tricky as actors and technicians all work through opening night jitters. Such appeared to be the case here, with a few tardy scene transitions and actor entrances. Light and sound cues, however, were prompt and unobtrusive. (Score: 6/10)
Sound:
Sound levels suffered from some of the natural vagaries of outdoor theater: the actors’ voice levels dipping when they spoke off-axis to the audience, etc. The sound system speakers need bolstering, perhaps something along the lines of a couple of folded 18-inch speakers or a subwoofer to add bottom-end power to the mix. Body microphones would also have added additional presence. (Score: 5/10)
Props:
Props (from Joel Eis) were used only as needed and expertly rendered. (Score: 8/10)
Costumes:
Costumes (from Maria Chenut) tended toward a universal tan/brown in color, but were well-crafted. Care was obviously taken to bespoke the actors professionally. (Score: 8/10)
Direction:
The physical comedy scenes were well-rendered, if in need of a touch more rehearsal to make them appear a bit less, well, rehearsed. Comedic impact of the text would have benefited from tighter cue pick-ups and brisker tempo. No one knows the physical limitations of this stage better than Mr. and Mrs. Currier, so blocking was universally good throughout. (Score: 6/10)
Lights:
Lighting, like sound, can be a tricky beast outside, even in an amphitheater set below local ground level. A slightly more consistent, balanced lighting plot would have made the visual aspects of the work come off more seamlessly. (Score: 6/10)
Casting:
Full marks to Mr’s. Campbell and Lewis, as previously mentioned. The rest of the cast was competent and delivered reliable performances. (Score: 8/10)
Overall Production:
A solid, well directed new adaptation of a classic work which benefits from the efforts of one of the best physical comedians in the Bay Area. Outdoor theater comes with built-in technical challenges which were, to a large degree, successfully navigated. (Score: 7/10)
Reviewer Score:
A good outdoor effort of a version of Don Quixote which this reviewer hopes will benefit from a bit of a duration trim on its way to becoming a theatrical staple, and a tad of tempo tightening during its current run. The play was very, very well-served by the addition of Mr. Campbell and Mr. Lewis. (Score: 7/10)
Overall Score: (75/110) Good work.
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back reporting that there were more Tennessee Williams theater festivals and events sliding in between similar Shakespeare happenings than ever before. That’s a good thing, to be sure. Yet there is no doubt Mr. August Wilson will be joining those illustrious ranks soon.
Mr. Wilson exploded onto the American theater scene with critically acclaimed plays such as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, as well as Fences (1987 Tony Award, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize) and The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize).
Mr. Wilson’s command of the black experience in twentieth-century America is second-to-none. His talent for shaping dialog is unquestioned. His characters are realistic, genuine, and thoughtfully rendered while his choice of language is exacting and considered. His plays, including this one, often deal with themes of community loyalty and commitment, to fair play and justice.
Two Trains Running is Mr. Wilson’s seventh effort in his ten-part series of plays entitled The Pittsburgh Cycle. The play was first produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and later opened on Broadway in the spring of 1992 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
The play gives us a complex story based on the lives of ordinary people, a volatile turning point in American history. The location is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the racially charged world of 1969. Mr. Memphis Lee’s threadbare cafe is a regular stop for neighborhood folks all trying to understand the cultural maelstrom of the late 1960s. The regulars do their best to come to an accommodation with the swirling tides of change, but not always with the results they intended.
As the play begins, the city block on which Mr. Memphis’s diner is located is due to be torn down in a city renovation project. One of Mr. Memphis’ regular customers is the rich undertaker whose business is located across the street from the diner. The undertaker urges Mr. Memphis to accept his offer to buy the cafe, but his price is unacceptable to the stoic Mr. Memphis. He’s been swindled out of property before and he’s determined to stand his ground this time and get what he thinks his property is worth.
Another regular to the café is Sterling, a petty ex-con just out of the penitentiary with big dreams for his future. Then there’s Wolf, a bookie, a hustler (in the survival sense of the word) and a man-about-town. He dresses to the nine’s and is equally focused on the details of his own success.
Risa is the only female in the cast. A waitress of quiet dignity occupying the still point in this play, she has self-inflicted cuts on her legs, self-mutilation as a barrier between herself and men. Hambone is a mentally disturbed man who seeks comfort in the friendship shown him by Risa. He speaks infrequently but when he does, it’s one variation or another of the phrase, “He gonna give me my ham. I want my ham!”
The senior character in the play is Holloway. He has seen it all and his role is steady anchor, neighborhood philosopher, and ardent proponent of a legendary 322-year-old woman prophet down the street. Although never seen, she radiates a strong influence over the actions of many of the characters in the play, and serves as a reminder of the heritage of Black Americans.
With these strong roots, Mr. Wilson grows a powerful theatrical experience and a strong history lesson for those of us not witness to Black life in 1969.
As directed by Lewis Campbell with Esperanza Catubig assisting, and rendered by the Multi Ethnic Theater Company and presented in the Gough Street Playhouse in San Francisco, Two Trains Running ran 3 hours including one intermission. The running time is important, as slowness of pacing was an issue on opening night. This play requires pacing more like everyday life, with the dynamics of neighbors talking with neighbors they’ve known for years; that is to say briskly, sometimes obliquely, with awareness of personal quirks and hot buttons, and with every intent to find or deliver a message, a joke, a jab, or a cut. The actors cast in this production are certainly more than capable of doing this sort of work, but on opening night the presentation was too muted. (Note: It was extremely hot in the theater this night and I’m sure that had an impact on the actors. I know it did on the audience.)
Fabian Herd was superb as Wolf, Vernon Medearis a study in subtlety and nuance as West (the undertaker), and Stuart Elwyn Hall every bit the oracle of Black life as Holloway. All three actors demonstrated a keen ability to do what so many actors fail at: to listen to what is being said by other actors, instead of simply waiting for their turn to speak. These gentlemen delivered acting in considered gradations, rendering layered performances which would hold them in good stead with notable theaters across this country.
The set design, that of a scruffy café so much a part of neighborhoods everywhere, was nicely done. The turquoise booths were period perfect. Unpainted plywood here-and-there emphasized a business managed with small dollars and ‘just enough’ repairs. Set construction showed care. Making a set look down-on-its-luck without making it look slapdash is harder than one might imagine. The set designer/builders (Lewis Campbell and David Hampton) pulled it off nicely.
Props were period and detailed. Even though no one in the play ate anything which required catsup, the always ubiquitous red plastic catsup dispenser appeared one-third full. The bowl of beans eaten by Hambone were appealing, as was the coffee dispensed by Risa.
Costumes were period and nicely selected (especially those for Wolf.) A bit more attention to fit would render some costumes perfect.
There is little doubt August Wilson has a ‘reserved seat’ in the pantheon of Greatest American Playwrights. Seeing Multi Ethnic Theater’s production of Two Trains Running shows why.
Two Trains Running continues through August 30th at the Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough St, San Francisco, CA 94109.
Rating: Three-and-a-Half out of Five Stars
Industry Commentary…
“Vivid and uplifting… pure poetry… remarkable!”—Time
“A symphonic composition with a rich lode of humanity running through it.”—Los Angeles Times
Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Best Play Award
“Vivid and uplifting… pure poetry… remarkable!”—Time
“A symphonic composition with a rich lode of humanity running through it.”—Los Angeles Times
“His language is golden: rich in humor and poetry and redolent of a colorful vernacular.”—Wall Street Journal
“Has an unassailable authenticity… a lot of life and a lot of humor… By the end, a small world has been utterly transformed.”—Variety
“These characters are fully imagined—they live… reeling out stories about their past, their angers, their dreams.”—Washington Post
“Wilson’s most adventurous and honest attempt to reveal the intimate nature of history… glorious storytelling… touching and often funny… a penetrating revelation of a world hidden from view.”—Frank Rich, The New York Times
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
Ron Campbell has pulled off the near-impossible— he convinced the large opening-night crowd at Marin Shakespeare’s debut of their witty adaptation of Don Quixote (by Peter Anderson and Colin Heath) that he was both a man and a horse. Truly no mean feat, that.
Then again, Mr. Campbell is no mean actor. A man, a wooden broom and a watering can? Gesticulating arms and pumping legs? An energetic and comedic recitation of a classic text invigorated with new life? He’s certainly all of that, to be sure. But to stop there would be to damn with faint praise.
Instead, one simple phrase comes to mind: theatrical magic.
Mr. Campbell’s physical comedy gifts are so sublime that one could not help but believe that he was in fact Quixote himself. And Rocinante, the horse. Or both at once, in action on the stage. Mr. Campbell’s unquenchable dedication to seeing, feeling and embodying the evolving demands of each succeeding microsecond of the script and character represents a master’s thesis in acting.
Ably supporting Mr. Campbell was John R. Lewis as everyone’s favorite squire Sancho Panza. Panza translates literally in English to “belly” or “paunch”, and while Mr. Lewis was indeed suitably paunchy, he brought a world-weariness combined with a rich sense of humor and formidable physical comedy chops to a role too often played to its lowest common denominator. Solid marks for Mr. Lewis.
The play, making its U.S. debut, is ably directed by Ms. Lesley Schisgall Currier in a production that appears to a take on elements of the Commedia dell’arte style: spare sets, masked actors, and standardize costumes. Direction was largely spot-on if a tad slow at times.
Visually, Ms. Currier kept the set design simple and even spare. Lighting and sound designs worked well, if hard as they often do in an outdoor setting. Costumes were well designed and carefully rendered. Pops and set pieces were thoughtful, spare, and effective.
Paired with hand-selected segments of the text by Miguel de Cervantes, the show unfortunately succeeds in feeling a bit like the books upon which the play is based — by the end of the show it felt somewhat like a long visit by a good friend: you’re at once delighted to have been so entertained but wish the evening’s festivities would wrap-up.
In all, a solid, well directed, new adaptation of Don Quixote which this reviewer hopes will benefit from a bit of a duration trim on its way to becoming a theatrical staple, and a tad of tempo tightening during its current run. The play was very, very well-served by the addition of Mr. Campbell and Mr. Lewis.
***
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
NOTE: The following commentary is focused primarily on the production, direction, and technical aspects of Theater and Performing Arts.
Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Glengarry Glen Ross is David Mamet’s sizzling and gritty, claustrophobic play about a quartet of self-loathing real estate salesmen in Chicago during the mid-1980s. The 1992 film featured an all-star cast and was critically acclaimed. While there is much to be said about the art of live theatre, it would be wise to keep any comparisons to the film out of mind.
The title of the play (and the plot, really) is derived from the two real estate properties mentioned: Glengarry Highlands, a real estate development currently being sold, and Glen Ross Farms, a previous crème del le crème real estate development. A sales contest pits the salesmen against each other. Driven to desperation, they resort to manipulation, bribery and even burglary and theft to keep their jobs. The dog-eat-dog action that ensues is intense, laden with F-bombs, and brings with it all the intensity of life in a pressure cooker.
Mamet came to the public’s attention with plays including, American Buffalo, Speed the Plow, Oleanna, and Cryptogram. Considered a classic of 20th century theater, Glengarry Glen Ross shows Mr. Mamet at the top of his game – a key reason this play has become a regional theater staple.
So in a nutshell, how was the Shelton’s version of the show? The actors do a serviceable job with the dynamic script that’s full of rapid-fire dialogue, and the technical aspects largely delivered their intended results.
TECHNICAL SCORECARD
Scenic Design:
The set in the small footprint Shelton Theater were quite effective. A Chinese restaurant, the focus of the first few scenes of the production, boasted beautiful red upholstery and was accented with maple-stained wood trim. With clean lines, the restaurant set was complemented by a simple black lacquer table and white curtains. The real estate office’s white walls included a well-painted marble effect that transported the audience right into the twisted business. Both sets leveraged the Shelton Theater’s size and geometry to good effect. The sets were designed, built, and painted by Matt Shelton and Adam Stowers. (Score: 8/10)
Set Construction:
The set was carefully built to capture the essence of the environments displayed. The resulting effect was more than your run-of-the-mill set—simple yet effective. The brown stair step leading from the street into the office struck a somewhat incongruous note. (Score: 7/10)
Stage Management:
To the credit of Stage Manager, Muriel Shattack, the action behind the scenes was smooth. The backstage crew controlled the on-stage chaos with near perfect set changes and actors made entrances promptly. Lighting and sound crews were on their mark and associated cues were tight. (Score: 8/10)
Sound:
Sound design was by Alex Boyd. At the outset, Mr. Boyd’s music and mood effects inside the Chinese restaurant worked well. In contrast, the sound effects and music underscoring the key set change were overwrought, taking the audience away from the moment. (Score: 5/10)
Props:
An important facet of a strong production is the use of effective props. Shelton’s prop designer invoked realism with matching turquoise office chairs, harmonious dishes and tea set accessories, as well as a file cabinet full of…files. By-and-large, everything was in its proper place and presented a well thought-out design. One inconsistent note was a tea bag, seen floating in the bottom of a glass coffee pot. When an actor says something to the effect that he hasn’t had a cup of coffee all day and pours same from a glass coffee pot containing a floating tea bag clearly visible to the audience, the result is unimpressive. (Score: 7/10)
Costumes:
Costumes were realistic, pressed/ironed as appropriate and well presented. Each slimy salesman wore immaculate, pressed suits fitting for the 1980s. Shoes were stylish and polished. Style/design elements were well considered and selected. (Score: 8/10)
Direction:
Mamet challenges directors of every experience level. Director Sasha Litovchenko succeeds for the most part. Pacing was a tad uneven in spots. It also felt like a bit more work needed to be done on the acting choices made in some of the scenes, particularly in Act 1 Scene 1. Blocking and movement were satisfactory. (Score: 5/10)
Lights:
One of the greatest challenges of the space at Shelton Theater is its low hanging ceiling. Still, the lighting design by Colin Pope captured the essence of the script for the most part. The lights were hung evenly, but on more than one occasion actors were performing between lights, in a bit of a dim zone. (Score 6/10)
Casting:
Good casting, nice mix. The seasoned actors did a good job with the material. Mr. Shelton’s work in particular was outstanding. The Eastern European accent of one of the other actors was a bit thick at times. Philip Estrin avoids clichés and nails the role of down-but-not-quite-out Shelley Levene. Matt Crawford as Moss, looks straight out of Central Casting as the schemer who launches the idea of the salesmen robbing their own office. (Score: 8/10)
Overall Production:
The Shelton Theater’s production of Mamet is a solid presentation of a great American classic. Overall, Shelton paid better-than-average attention to the technical aspects of the theater. (Score: 7/10)
Reviewer Score:
Shelton Theater’s iteration of Glengarry Glen Ross works incredibly hard to sell the intent and intensity of Mr. Mamet’s work. For the small audience on Friday night, Shelton largely delivered the goods. If you like drama, go see this solid take on an American classic. (Score: 7/10)
Overall Score: (75/110) Good work.
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet plays through August 29th.
Tickets are $25-$50 (with discounts available) and are available online at http://www.sheltontheater.org or by calling 415.882.9100.
Show times and Place: Thursday – Saturday 8:00 pm. Box Office and Bar open at 7:00 pm. The Shelton Theater is located at 533 Sutter St. between Powell and Mason, in San Francisco.
Team ASR is composed of a selection of writers, directors, actor, musicians, dancers, technicians, stage managers, and a host of other arts folks.
We don’t name names for obvious reasons — and Team ASR often buys their own tickets and do not announce their presence as such at a performance — but it is important to note that each Team ASR review is screened by one or more ASR Editors to insure a ‘fair’ review, warts and all, when appropriate.
The goal of Team ASR Reviews is to communicate directly with the technical staffs who are largely ignored by most reviewers. These behind the scenes folks work their collective butt’s off to mount a show, and they deserve well-intentioned constructive criticism from fellow artists as appropriate — and ditto for well-earned praise.
Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Glengarry Glen Ross is David Mamet’s sizzling and gritty, claustrophobic play about a quartet of self-loathing real estate salesmen in Chicago during the mid-1980s. The 1992 film featured an all-star cast and was critically acclaimed. While there is much to be said about the art of live theatre, it would be wise to keep any comparisons to the film out of mind.
The title (and for that matter the plot) of the play is derived from the two real estate properties mentioned: Glengarry Highlands, a real estate development currently being sold, and Glen Ross Farms, a previous crème del le crème real estate development. A sales contest pits the salesmen against each other. Driven to desperation, they resort to manipulation, bribery and even burglary and theft to keep their jobs. The dog-eat-dog action that ensues is intense, laden with F-bombs, and brings with it all the intensity of life in a pressure cooker.
Mamet came to the public’s attention with plays including, American Buffalo, Speed the Plow, Oleanna, and Cryptogram.Considered a classic of 20th century theater, Glengarry Glen Ross shows Mr. Mamet at the top of his game – a key reason this play has become a regional theater staple.
As rendered by Shelton Theater, the scenic aspects of the show were solid. A Chinese restaurant, the focus of the first few scenes of the production, boasted beautiful red upholstery and was accented with maple-stained wood trim. With clean lines, the restaurant set was complemented by a simple black lacquer table and white curtains. The real estate office’s white walls included a well-painted marble effect that transported the audience right into the twisted business. Both sets leveraged the Shelton Theater’s size and geometry to good effect.
Shelton’s prop designer invoked realism with everything in its proper place and a well thought-out design. Costumes were realistic, pressed/ironed as appropriate and well presented. Costuming style/design elements were well considered and selected, showing us the best of dress for the mid-1980s. Actor traffic on and off the sets worked well.
To the credit of Stage Manager, the action behind the scenes was smooth. Lighting and sound crews were on their mark and associated cues were tight. One note: sound effects and music underscoring the key set change were a bit overdone. The lighting plot was serviceable.
From a directing perspective, Mamet challenges directors of every experience level. Director Sasha Litovchenko’s casting was solid and the seasoned actors did a good job with the material. Mr. Shelton’s work in particular was outstanding. Philip Estrin avoids clichés and nails the role of down-but-not-quite-out Shelley Levene. Matt Crawford as Moss, looks straight out of Central Casting as the schemer who launches the idea of the salesmen robbing their own office.
Overall, the Shelton Theater’s production of Mamet is a solid presentation of a great American classic. For the small audience on Friday night, Shelton largely delivered the goods. If you like drama, go see this solid take on an American classic.
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet plays through August 29th.
Tickets are $25-$50 (with discounts available) and are available online athttp://www.sheltontheater.org or by calling 415.882.9100.
Show times and Place: Thursday – Saturday 8:00pm. Box Office and Bar open at 7:00pm
The Shelton Theater is located at 533 Sutter St. between Powell and Mason, in San Francisco.
***
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
A 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Detroit is as humorous as it is sharp. With tight writing by Lisa D’Amour (Airline Highway), the critically acclaimed play skillfully tangles the lives of a seemingly responsible older couple and a younger, more careless pair. Josh Costello ably directs Aurora Theater’s production in Berkeley, which leaves some in the audience diffident at best.
A friendly BBQ serves as a façade to the wreckage ahead in this well-structured expose’ on American life that shows just how distrusting people should be of others during oppressive economic times. At the outset, Ben (Jeff Garrett) and Mary (Amy Resnick) are a sharply drawn lower-middle class couple who fire up the grill for an All-American BBQ to welcome Sharon (Luisa Frasconi) and Kenny (Patrick Jones), a couple of drifters who move into the house next door — sans furniture.
As the neighborhood foursome bonds over backyard barbecues, remembered dreams and helping hands, their neighborly connection gets personal and accelerates into unanticipated directions, which threatens to ignite more than just their friendship.
Jeff Garrett is a Dick Van Dyke clone—with loose limbs, a rubbery face, and impeccable comedic timing. Even when the play’s focus is elsewhere, his impressive and adept listening and reactionary skills command attention. While most actors simply wait for their turn to speak, Mr. Garrett has truly mastered the art of active listening. Luisa Frasconi is, well, simply an amazing talent in bloom. It takes no stretch of the imagination to say that, one day, in the not-too-distant-future, we will all be paying large sums to see this funny, gifted lady work. Patrick Jones and Amy Resnick are solid performers.
Mr. Costello’s direction takes full advantage of the intimate space that is Aurora Theater’s main stage. His stage pictures are well-chosen, and his blocking, which can be tricky in a thrust environment like Aurora’s, almost always works smoothly.
The lighting design by Kurt Landisman is precise and skillful, at times even approaching ingenious. While most of the production is set outside the house, his clever lighting effects, used to light the interior during the tumultuous conclusion, are simple but very powerful. Using light to emphasize the denouement of Detroit is a bold choice that pays off in huge dividends.
Mikiko Uesugi’s set design masterfully takes advantage of the postage stamp stage. The attractive, solid and spare set could be a lesson in space economization for other designers. Uesui’s set construction — a wholly underappreciated aspect of live theater– was professional and well done. Theater carpenters, set construction staff, and set designers: this production is a shining example of design and handiwork.
The modern-day costumes by Christine Crook are perfect for the urban setting and complement the actors and the script.
The work backstage is deftly navigated. Set changes are flawless. Special marks go to the small backstage crew who not only maneuver what must be a chaotic backstage, but also who help the actors effect costume changes in the blink-of-an-eye, and under enormous performance pressure.
Daniel Banato resists the urge, too common in contemporary theater, to present the audience with a prop-laden set. Mr. Banato’s choices are largely complementary. His top-shelf props for the iterative grilling action are creative.
As pivotal to the plot as food and drink are, the clear sight of plastic props in lieu of legitimate consumables is an eye sore. While some productions get away with fabricated food and beverage, this piece demands the consumption of real, genuine food and ditto for the beverages which figure so prominently in the story.
Cliff Caruthers deserves special note for his very personal sound design. From subtle sound effects to music he specially produced for Detroit, Caruthers gives audiences something they rarely get today in a dramatic comedy, a well thought-out, carefully-considered and crisply rendered sound design—four stars for Mr. Caruthers.
Wesley Apfel’s stage management was tight, effective, and well executed. With as many moving parts as this production has, it’s clear Apfel’s presence and skill are in demand backstage.
Detroit’s greatest strengths lie in its technical aspects. From direction and stage management to lighting and sound, and from costumes and props to set design and construction, Aurora Theater’s production is a winner. It’s a real master class in technical artistry of contemporary theater.
Detroit ends its extended run on Sunday July 26, 2015. Tickets are available by phone on (510) 843-4822, online at http://www.auroratheater.org, or in person at the Aurora Theater Box Office, 2081 Addison St., in Berkeley.
***
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
The Pirates of Penzance, that stalwart classic penned by messieurs Gilbert and Sullivan, as rendered in Ross Valley Players’ last show of the season, is pretty much the model of what a modern community theater musical should be.
For those unfamiliar with the comic opera staple, here is the plot in a nutshell: set on the rocky coast of Cornwall, England, the play, which sends up Victorian-era values, begins with a group of not-too-nice pirates who are celebrating the birthday of one of their own, Frederic, who has reached his twenty-first year. Finally having served the full length of his required time with the pirates, he decides to strike off on his own and become an upstanding citizen – which may even mean bringing the pirates to justice. This turns out to be a tricky prospect indeed, especially when Frederic’s freedom is called into question! It seems Frederic was born on February 29th, a birth date that only appears every four years — and even pirates can do that math. Insert singing matrons, dancing pirates, eyelash-batting lasses, clueless cops and a snappy major-general (more on him later), and in the end all winds up peachy-keen with the world, with all the he’s and she’s ending up with the right he’s and she’s.
Singing propels the story: fourteen songs in Act One and a matching number in Act Two. All that and an intermission in two hours. The result is, as always with Gilbert & Sullivan, a rousing good tale of duty done right.
Few stage directors know how to put actors into stage pictures as well as James Dunn. Mr. Dunn positions actors with such precision, sureness and balance that one could pluck a B&W Polaroid snapshot (if such a thing still existed) out of a stack of 500 directors’ scenes and know immediately it belonged to Mr. Dunn.
Mr. Dunn’s stagings to date have been Master’s theses in scene tableau. He earns full marks here as his hand and eye retain their touch in Pirates. Given the obvious spatial restrictions, lighting limitations and distinctive visual quirks of The Barn, that’s saying a lot.
Speaking of a master’s touch, the same meticulousness and seasoned expertise were apparent in Michael Berg’s costumes. It’s fair to say that Mr. Berg’s costumes were, with all respect to Mr. Dunn’s stage pictures, a hefty percentage of what made the production colorful and powerful. By the time the intermission rolled around, seven peacocks had gotten out of the business.
While we’re on the subject of hues, Ron Krempetz’s imaginatively simple set, adroitly executed by Michael Walraven, enjoyed the benefits of lighting designer Dhyanis’ (yep – one name) equally developed sense and appreciation for tint. Avoiding the cartoonish effects and crayon coloring that sadly so often accompany regional renditions of musicals of this stripe, Dhyanis showed restraint, and a keen eye, which permitted the set to support the show in style. Delightful work.
Then there was Norman A. Hall.
Holding the audience’s heart in the palm of his hand, Mr. Hall delivered a performance that alone was worth the price of admission. Aspiring actor Major-Generals, take note of Mr. Hall as The Very Model.
Pirates premiered in the Big Apple in 1879. In 1980, Joe Papp and the trusty New York City Public Theater revived the show and gave it a modern tonal makeover, driving a broader musical comedy style with the play as well, and as a result the show’s popularity has swelled for new generations. At Ross Valley Players, opening night 2015 served this tradition.
Some minor areas need smoothing-out, but there’s more than enough technical artistry and acting/singing/dancing pizazz to charm its audience.
Show dates are:
Thursdays 7:30 pm on July 23, 30 & Aug. 6 & 13
Fridays 8:00 pm on July 24, 31 & Aug. 7 & 14
Saturdays 8:00 pm on July 25 and Aug. 1, 8 & 15
Sundays 2:00 pm on July 26 and Aug. 2, 9 & 16
For tickets and other information, consult the Ross Valley Players website atwww.rossvalleyplayers.com or call their Box Office on (415) 456-9555.
Rating: Three-and-a-Half out of Five Stars
***
Kris Neely is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and a Theater Bay Area (TBA) Adjudicator.
Mr. Neely’s blogs on theater and performing arts are found on Aisle Seat Review at www.AisleSeatReview.com and also on For All Events at www.ForAllEvents.com.
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
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.
