Of Grapes and Nuts

Related Content

• 8 Craft Beer Bars in the San Fernando Valley Happy Hour Specials
  May 25, 2012
• Otto Jensen, Legendary 101-Year-Old Burbank Photographer, Killed While Crossing Street
  May 23, 2012
• Stephen Ivans, FBI Agent, Goes Missing With Gun in Verdugo Mountains
  May 14, 2012
• Valentine Comes Early for Wife Who Gets $1 Million Winning Scratchers Lottery Ticket From Burbank Hubby
  January 31, 2012
• Gun-Wielding 10-Year-Old Arrested After Scaring Wits Out of Burbank Grandma, Telling Her 'You Suck' -- Police
  January 30, 2012

More About

• David Reynolds
• David Ghilardi
• John Steinbeck
• Burbank
• Tom Willmorth

Like this Story?

Get the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Make sign up easy with:

Humor à la Joad comes to Burbank in this revival of a parodic hybrid between two of John Steinbeck's best-known novels, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Written by Doug Armstrong, Keith Cooper and Tom Willmorth, the plotline is loosely that of The Grapes of Wrath, following Tom Joad (Ian Vogt) and the Joad family on their trek from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression. The primary additions from Of Mice and Men are the characters of Lenny (David Reynolds), Candy (David Ghilardi) and Curly (Kimberly Van Luin). Director Paul Stroili, part of the original 1990 Chicago cast, lets his actors go full bore into an over-the-top campiness that winks heavily at the gritty realism of the source material. The self-made frontier ethos is particularly lampooned in a production that gets mileage from both the sly anachronistic jokes in the script and the gusto with which the cast tackles them. Casey Kramer, as Ma Joad, has some particularly hilarious rants, as does Lauren McCormack, who plays the womanizing preacher Jim Casy. Reynolds portrays dim-witted Lenny with such earnestness that we can't help but like him, and Ghilardi (who plays four roles) and Jen Ray (playing both a bulldozer driver and a waitress) showcase their versatility. Even David George's wooden grape crate of a set is comical, providing an appropriate backdrop to a show that puts the "funny" in the "bone" dry Dust Bowl. Little Vic Theatre at Victory Theatre Center, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 4 p.m.; through October 24. (818) 623-6666. seaglasstheatre.org. A Sea Glass Theatre production.
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 4 p.m. Starts: Sept. 18. Continues through Oct. 24, 2010